#but he is also very bloodthristy

[whumpy-wyrms]

Has Aspen watched Wolfwalkers before? I think he would absolutely love that movie :)

YESSSS YES YES ASPEN FUCKING LOVESSSSSS THAT MOVIEEE

AND SO DO I!!!!!!! like i’ve never seen that movie before but i’ve wanted to watch it for a long time and this ask FINALLY made me watch it and oh my god HOLY SHIT IT’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES NOW. i literally JUST finished it and i don’t even know what to say besides this

i need everyone to watch this clip in particular because holy shit i cried during it /pos. like i can’t even describe how much i love this movie and how much it means to me just wow WOW it’s absolutely fucking amazing and i definitely recommend it to everyone. the animation is stunning i love the main characters and everything is just so EXPRESSIVE and the COLORS ANR AHHHH THE WOLVESSSS

Aspen loves it. it’s one of his favorite movies now too (maybe his favorite idk i’ll have to think of what other movies he likes) but guys i don’t even know what to sayyyy that movie is sooo good

thank you so much for sending this ask because wow i don’t know what it is with me and wolves now but wolves are COOL and i LOVE this movie i’m so happy i finally watched it!!! :D

[marte-14]

Ravio Universe (LU Ravio)

I started to develop this Au after seeing @bowl-of-ravioli

Which inspired me to create my own ideas and designes.

MINUS>

For now the only one that has a more concrete sketch is Astral aka Sky's Ravio.

He the most heroic of the Ravios and is the first in their timeline and "leader" of their groupe.

Unlike Sky, who has a warm presence, he is pretty stone cold.

Sky and Astral don't have a good relationship.

Their idea of heroism is very different, they both get flashbacks at seeing eachothers Master Swords, and they can't operate well together.

One time Astral called Fi a "cold hearted monster" and Sky responded saying the Ghirahim is a "creepy bloodthristy freak", which started a physical fight between the two, which almost took everyone to stop them.

Logically they know that they are talking about two very different versions of their loved ones, still they can't keep their cool when someone insults their companions.

Sky is fine with his brothers having negative opinions about the Master Sword, because they are never really talking about Fi, just the blade she was reduced to become over the centuries.

On the other hand, Astral spits venom while looking at the Master Sword, He clearly do not see her as a sword, but as an actual person.

A few things about the AU:

Let's make one thing clear: the Hero's of Lorule are not without courage. Only a small part of them, which is a product of the absence of the Triforce (this will be explored later)

Things get better after ALBW;

The Ravios went on different Quests compared to the Links, still there are a few common things;

Timeline wise they are the same as the Links;

The Ravios also have many secrets between eachothers;

The scarf is like Link's pointy hat.

[romeave]

the real reason why mcd zane sucks, from purely a writing standpoint, is that the writers really want him to be a pure evil villian. a force of evil that can not be reasoned with or stopped. absolutely nuance free and unsympathetic no matter how you slice and dice it.

which, would normally be fine, but is a weird choice for zane specifically because the writers keep naturally bringing up ways to give him depth, only to bend over backwards to shut it down once they remember zane is supposed to be cardboard flat for their kid audience to remember he's the bad guy.

and by all the time i do mean all the time. here is a list of roads blocked off by the no development tree that fell across the road:

Zane grew up isolated even by the standards of noble children, as heirs to the O'khasis throne start their training rather young, and, according to accounts about his childhood, Zane preferred to spend his free time alone as opposed to with family. At some point, his father contracted some illness that turns people into asshole tyrants, and began to groom a very impressionable Zane into a good and obedient pawn for him to control on his quest for world domination -> Zane was actually always evil from birth, which makes him immune to trauma. Garte's dickheadness actually only affected the "good" Ro'Meaves, and actually it's Zane's influence that turned Garte into a bad person. Even shit that Garte did long after Zane died are Zane's fault by proxy.

Zane's strained relationship with his brothers are also largely attributed to Zane being evil. Honestly there's a lot I could put here but the most damning one is probably the fact that Zane isn't allowed to talk about his upbringing at all after vaguely mentioning having a dead brother on the docks.

Zane's initially introduced as an ambitious young priest who came to power due to his commitment to his studies. He secretly uses taboo ancient magic that people can't exactly come across if they don't have an obsessive drive to learn about the divines beyond the church's teachings. -> Actually Zane stole everything from "real scholars" and never actually cared about his research outside of what power it could bring him. Apparently he can't even read for himself without a "real scholar" in the room.

Zane's most terrible deeds (Kiki's pendant, Alexis, Falconclaw) were committed in service of opening the Irene dimension. Its implied that some, if not all of the specific deeds needed to open the portal were decided long before Zane ever got his hands on the amulets. -> Each portal-opening crime is treated as its own separate crime, motivated purely by sadism. Falconclaw specifically is referred to as a "horrific mass slaughter Zane had a lot of fun committing", even though everyone involved just painlessly fell over dead

Zane only raises a sword to people to have actively betrayed him. Jeffory betrayed him, the Wolf Tribe was plotting to eat him the next time he showed up, and Garroth committed treason two seperate times and shoved his own sword in Zane's face before Zane tried to kill him about it -> Evidence that Zane is just a bloodthristy killer who would kill his comrades unprompted. His victims are not traitors, but martyrs to his unreasonable wrath

Zane possessed the protector's relic for a period of time. Surely he must've had some reason to hold it -> Zane was entirely undeserving of the relic. He only had it because blood relations.

Despite already having a relic, Zane wants to get Irene's relic -> Exclusively to hoard power! No personal reasons or family reasons or nerd reasons. Just an insanely dangerous and high stakes task done solely to have them all. Like its a pokemon with life steal.

Zane gets turned into a Shadow Knight. Zane used to have an absurd amount of knowledge on the Shadow Knights, lots of shadow knights hate his gay ass, becoming a Shadow Knight is usually pretty traumati--> Zane doesn't feel trauma, duh!! He's actually stronger than ever.

And I know I'm aphblr's foremost Zane dick rider but this isn't a Zane did nothing wrong post its just bad writing. Zane's actions affect so much of the plot its fucking bonkers to give him the depth of an evil sheet of printer paper. Aph's usually pretty good at fleshing out her villians I don't know why the one guy who everyone and their mother has a connection to is just a knife roomba of a man. At the bare minimum he should've been as fleshed out as his brothers because then it'd be a tragic tale about a family being torn apart by a system they benefit from instead of a karma-farming AITAH post set in medival times.

[sualne]

HI HELLO I HAVE A QUESTION! Where are the strawhats in your vamp au? Do they know Luffy is with Doffy?

they're looking after him! they suspect it's mingo's fault he disappeared but they're not 100% sure if luffy's with him!

also have a quick timeline because i haven't given one, the au is very much a wip so only the published fic for now is canon but that's the idea for now:

→ luffy gets turned on dressrosa -> regroup on Zou, plan for to take down Kaido postponed for now -> Whole Cake Island goes similar to canon but oh the horrors -> submarine trip (what i'm currently working on EDIT: more art here and here , also the fic)

-> ??? zone, more the hearts & strawhats interactions, luffy's & mingo's brains keeps on melting together every now and then, stuff, they do go to Wano now?

-> during the party after freeing Wano luffy disappears without anyone's notice, plot twist, mingo was around to discuss with his business partner and managed to get away alive (law's plan failed through and through).

plot twist #2 the reason luffy isn't bloodthristy for ppl's blood is because mingo fucked up when ordering/compelling him to drink his blood while turning him, now he only feel actual bloodthirst for his blood. this is also why he never feels satisfied, his body is fine with the blood he drinks but his mind keeps going "we still need more blood" because it isn't the right blood.

this means he finally acts like an actual bloodthirsty newborn vampire when he's around mingo and looses his shit, this also means he's finally perfectly fine and well and sane for real after feeding on him and after months of what he had to go through relief isn't strong enough of a word to describe how he feels, so he goes with him.

mingo can end his command, have luffy be able to drink anyone's else blood and be satisfied, but doesn't.

(there's also mindlink reasons & mingo being a master manipulator ect ect that'll be partly revealed once im done with that damn submarine horror oneshot.)

-> now that they're together it's a lot easier to function, doesn't mean it's easy to coexist tho, mingo decides to go visit Cross Guild and maybe get a new business going on.

again this could all change to smth completely different any time but that's the general idea for now!

[bonefall]

Do you have any plans with Petal? She was so interesting even when she played mom to Misty's kits, taking care of them even when Misty did not do the same for her and Fox, she was dealt a rough hand and I always said she deserved better than to be Clear Sky's Loyal Lackey forever

Petal is still a bit up in the air, but I DO know for certain a few things;

She is now a Tribe cat. BB!DOTC features a language barrier between Park and Tribe cats, so everyone in early SkyClan must come from the Tribe.

Fox Claw and Petal Claw will probably end up being part of the Claw Family.

Fox's death will need to be shuffled, since the set-up is so different. I do like Petal holding a grudge against the person forced to kill him, though.

I know for a fact that Red Claw is going to be part of this family; either a child of Fox or Petal. Acorn Swoop eventually has children with a member of the Claw family-- her canon love interest is Red but I'm not averse to making it someone else in this group.

Petal Claw is rewarded with the orphaned kits of Misty-- now a Park cat. Tensions are going to rise between SkyClan and the River Kingdom as a result of this.

However. Birch and Alder won't keep those names for two reasons;

Reason One, the more important reason, is that Park Cats are born nameless. They don't HAVE names yet-- just physical characteristics.

But also, SkyClan wouldn't allow them to keep the names either. So, Petal Claw will rename them.

I was thinking it COULD be Red Claw and Snake Claw, but I'm not sure if it's wise to fuse FOUR characters into 2 so hastily. So, I am still unsure.

In any case, eventually one of these kits will defect on learning they have family in the River Kingdom, curious to learn more.

Anyway, back to Petal Claw.

She will be doggedly loyal to SkyClan her whole life, Clear Sky's favorite soldier. She enjoys a lot of privilege within the Clan, and revels in her power and status.

She does eventually die for the cause-- probably in the First Battle, because Sparrow Heart needs room for an opportunity to become the next leader.

Petal Claw is also, unfortunately, a major reason Skystar becomes part of StarClan. She really is loyal to the very end, rallying his other dead supporters to clamor for him when he arrives.

Overall, Petal is an ambitious, scrappy, loyal cat who is a major recurring ally of BB!Clear Sky. She revels in what SkyClan can offer her, and the influence she weilds as a result of her devotion. Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven!

She's got an important role. If I wrote every cat someone likes defecting I wouldn't have anyone in SkyClan at all lmao

I do have to say though-- the little "bonus chapter" trying to frame Petal taking Misty's kits as "aww shes being so noble when misty didnt do it for her" frustrates me immensely. I'm VERY much not a fan of it. This woman was fucking murdered on screen for her land by a bloodthristy tyrant and Petal jumped foward to prevent the maniac from slaughtering babies too. The way it tries to take attention away from CLEAR SKY'S MURDER to make it about Petal "breaking a cycle" is just plain awful.

Even worse is how the books quickly shift to passive voice after First Battle. "After their mother Died." Mentions of Clear Sky murdering this woman dry up for a looong while until Milkweed.

So in BB I honestly have no desire to preserve that in any way. Petal Claw wanted the kits because a bigger family is a point of status, and the mother was dead now anyway. Someone needs to care for them-- and so it should be her, because she deserves it. Clear Sky agrees, happy that she will raise more cats who are loyal to him.

Thunder Storm will be witnessing this while he is training under his father; and I'll probably end up doing something with the fact that this means he has information that will be relevant to River Kingdom.

(Or perhaps the Wind Coalition. I'll figure out which one works better for political tension here.)

BUT at the very least, Petal Claw won't be getting fridged for Clear Sky's man pain like canon. Seriously what the fuck. What an awful way to send her out; dying of illness but having just enough strength to throw herself at Clear Sky's feet going "ouuuugh i knew youd saave me. Ur so strong and brave and amazing and cool and misunderstood and everyone on the internet who says mean things about you is evil."

We support women's wrongs here. She will die in BATTLE like she DESERVES

[lightningonatether]

OKAY

list of C!DREAM BLOB LIKE ANIMAL submissions

the criteria was white, tiny, and blob-looking. LET ME KNOW if you'd want me to run a dranimal poll with all of these afterwards it might be a fun dreblr activity. Thanks everyone who contributed :3

heres all of them with a little bit of propaganda for each:

this tiny bird called the long-tailed tit. its Literally just a blob. very good. approved. imagine its fragile breakable wings

2. white mouse! also very good. very blob. innocent and loves to scurry around. perfect size for handholding.

3. Ermine!! this is a little on the bigger side, but its also so silly and a little bloodthristy. fits cdream pretty well

4. ghost bat! i think this is appropriately tiny, also a predator, and has both a silly face AND a fitting name

5. White sugar glider. look at him. he is so stupid. big beady eyes. tiny and fluffy. this is what sam locked in the prison.

6. a puss moth! i think this is the tiniest guyon the list. c!dream butterfly imagery anyone?

7. white hamster. this is both incredibly blob adjacent and ALSO. have you seen those angry hamster videos? its our guy <3

8. snowy owl. hes a little too big to hold in your hand but hes got the blob spirit. is there a single thought behind those eyes?

9. jerboa! this thing is So miserable and fragile looking. for a tiny blob form its pretty perfect

10. a gerbil! now this ones good because this whole saga started as a part of my plushie au, so I asked for animals a pallas cat might hunt. gerbils are one of them, so i might have a bit of a bias...

[tylermileslockett]

Day 9! 12 days of labors continues! 🤟🏛

Heracles labor 9: "Retrieve the Belt of Hippolyta"

Diodorus gives us a brutal, bloodthirsty version of Heracles as he arrives in the Amazon kingdom of Themiscyra to attain the Queen's belt: 

"The first, for instance, to join battle with him was Aella,17 who had been given this name because of her swiftness, but she found her opponent more agile than herself. The second, Philippis, encountering a mortal blow at the very first conflict, was slain. Then he joined battle with Prothoê, who, they said, had been victorious seven times over the opponents whom she had challenged to battle. When she fell, the fourth whom he overcame was known as Eriboea. She had boasted that because of the manly bravery which she displayed in contests of war she had no need of anyone to help her, but she found her claim was false when she encountered her better. 3 The next, Celaeno, Eurybia, and Phoebê, who were companions of Artemis in the hunt and whose spears found their mark invariably, did not even graze the single target, but in that fight they were one and all cut down as they stood shoulder to shoulder with each other. After them Deïaneira, Asteria and Marpê, and Tecmessa and Alcippê were overcome. The last-named had taken a vow to remain a maiden, and the vow she kept, but her life she could not preserve. The commander of the Amazons, Melanippê, who was also greatly admired for her manly courage, now lost her supremacy. 4 And Heracles, after thus killing the most renowned of the Amazons, and forcing the remaining multitude to turn in flight, cut down the greater number of them, so that the race of them was utterly exterminated."

I find this passage fascinating as I don't recognize most if any of the Amazon warriors names. Curious!

***if you share this image, ill go retrieve any belts of yours that were confiscated by bloodthristy savages! xoxo

[kebriones]

I know nothing about Alcibiades, so as an Alcibiades enthusiast how would you describe his personality 🤔

hmmmm

Okay so he's manipulative (in the charming/always knows the right thing to say way), very vindictive and petty, has an inflated sense of self-importance, he doesn't appear to be needlessly cruel or bloodthristy or distructive except for when he feels slighted, he's super, suuuuper ambitious, he's crazy adaptive.

He likes luxury, spending money and doing grand, impressive or excessive things. I'd say he has a lot of complex little things about him in plato's work, like, he's conflicted about what he should do with himself, or he seems to understand the value of virtue and justice and being good. But he admits that he has trouble controlling himself, or letting go of his ambitions and dealing with his shortcomings. For example, he understands that it's not a good thing that he lets himself get swayed by the need to please the crowds and thus forgets to tend to his soul. So, he also seems to crave love/attention. And when he does good stuff, it's hard to know if he's doing it out of caring for others or primarily for himself.

[emotionallyenigmaticresident]

[MANNGRAM.COM]

Fight people online today! [/LOGIN] [/STORE]

__________________________________

/@SALMONELLACAKE ●

[pinned log]

> Why are eggs so expensive?_

[See below for char info!]

"You never know, how the rules of every universe could be broken"

Real name? : Andy Liu

Alias : Resident

Age : 25

Height : 163 cm

Pronouns : he/him

Origin : Indonesia

A new BLU is in town, seems like Ms.Pauling had recruited an extra pair of helping, medical hands.

Meet your new medic, err, well, things are bound to get confusing if you call them both medic wont you?, he introduces himself as another Emergency Medical Technician, A Resident. His name is Resident now, for the sake of convenience and both your sanities, not like its gonna be easy to pry for his real name anyway.

He seems to be quite self-reserved outside of battles most of the time, yet he is unpredictable, but also forgetfull. He talks to those crows, and to himself, you can faintly here him mumble everytime you pass by his space, behind that door. Sometimes however, hed come out and talk to the others, even leave extra leftovers on the fridge for whoever comes across it.

So very sweet, yet also tired, he gets snappy and bossy in the battlefield. Hes not afraid to brashly berate you, or hed be quiet, or bloodthristy, either way the wheel spins, you can tell he cares.

What a mystery, but do you even take notice?.

Credit to : @wolf--rot for former pfp

Roleplay tag is #Residency

Ask tag is #QuestionWe

In character rambling is #Dailydose

Ooc posts will be tagged #Notmedicine

[psych---ologically-deranged]

Psychfacts & commentary 1x01

The "they spelled it wrong on mine" bloodthirsty tattoo was bc the makeup department accidentally spelled the car-breaker one's tattoo bloodthristy, which is where shawn's "they spelled it wrong on mine" line came from.

"sweet" was an improv.

"But everything funny you hear is what I wrote" (they don't have captions so I can't hear as well & the voices all sound kind of swimmy sometimes, esp with other noises or through a screen, yay deaf+adhd, so I can't tell who is talking.)

Improvises just to entertain the ppl behind the camera XD

Ooh the interview was the audition scene for omundson (& the director said "nah" to half the stuff he liked abt it XD)

Steve franks: writer, director, producer, creator, music, main cast member, yes he plays both lassie & lucinda

I agree, hearing the background. Chris says "psych" too, love that.

That stubble is... James Roday Rodriguez was very intent on having stubble, the network was very intent on Not. & won that battle!

"He has this thing where he gets the makeup lady to stand on set in view of everybody & pretend to shave him, so it's kind of like air shaving" (it's just like wrestling & you realize the razor is 6-8" away from his face)

Sage Brock is great & he was supposed to only be here for this ep or this scene, but when he raised his hand, they said that's the guy & kept him on

Dang it was 3c here!? That's cold!

One of the prisoners should also raise his hand XD

the foot wiggle, which JRr came up with that day! Huh! He came up w a physical thing for every psychic thing!

Oh yeah, look look look, editing is an art!

may 3 the wedding is dule hill's bday XD

MY MAN RAISED HIS HAND FOR 4 MINUTES?

That's acting! Soft cuddly person playing an angry dude? Love it

magic finger was an improv XD. I love how all the good stuff was written, but then the stuff in between is there too.

Pouring rain? If you listen very closely you can hear the rain on the tarp.

Nobody ever mentions she is pregnant & they actually added a line (bc she was pregnant during the audition tape) but then they cut it out because ss "you're.........." kv 'In charge.' was honestly less funny than just not acknowledging it & I think it's great too, people get preggo somtimes. Script was made, & they just decided, they don't need to acknowledge the pregnancy.

"Her improv was being pregnant"

The windowsill?

He decided to eat XD "nobody was bothered by it but me!"

He ate but they just cut around it

Gus just has his bible on the jurassic temperature windowsill XD, occasionally look over & read a psalm.

"But you're not getting your coat." (improv)

The circle XD. Always ended up adding something fantastic

Forensics guys. Gus? Why do you like that? (Lenny face)

They shoot 40% of their beach stuff in whiterock BC.

This whole oceanfront drive, nice, but why so many fish/chip places.

Wow you can see their breath!

Watch the palm trees, you'll see them everywhere bc they are not real. Only had six.

I like how most of the characters share a name with people irl. Lassiter is from a friend of Franks'.

Heck yeah! Stage Swing sets!

He can Never be caught as a psychic. The only way they'll know is if I tell them.

When he pulls him aside, that wasn't written but it was exactly what they needed & saw in their visions. This is a good pilot.

Canada <3

Oh the mccallum girl was trying to be Lucinda but they liked her so they made her katarina too! Steve franks: bring her back bring her back, put her in another episode, she's great we like her (but by the end of it shawn sends her dad to prison) "couples have tough times, we can make this work, your dad WAS guilty it's ok!"

"At a halloween party dressed as a cat"

Whoever drew that sketch <3

This scene was in the pitch

My man is six foot eight! The tallest person I've ever met was a 6'7" woman (altho she did have a tie with another guy I ignore that fact). Teeny drama room, in a couch 4 feet away & this guy is on his feet acting out his mind, what he thought through.

Twin peaks fans <3

Dulé in b/w takes *running to the coats off frame*

The seatbelt was good, they made it WORK.

The sound design <3 <3 <3 as a deaf musician... yeah

"like shawn is in there baking a cake or someting, & he's just making coffee. Though making a cake is smth he;d be doing"

Oof filming at 2 in the morning on thanksgiving.

Blocking <3

Why would shawn be there in the middle of the night? He apparently hooked up with Kat mccallum, spent time in her room, & then went to gus at 4am.

...??? They chose their actors from the pot they received, & then... got JRr & DH together at JRr's house the weekend before filming???

WHERE'S THE PINEAPPLE

Dule, hands on the dashboard while the cop is there in the car wasn't script, "that's just what you do"

Henry doing his thing, henry style. He was laughing at the end but they were able to cut it!

Lunson lake?

Matt <3

the fog XD

sports illustrated binoculars

"Just Auburn?"

Yes you so need to punctuate scenes!

I like how they have sunglasses.

Named after my sister in law & brother in law <3

The same palm tree

Billy Camp! Hay fever! Line cook! Workin the grill! Hold the chicken higher! Higher!

(practicing the surprised face)

There is a 2h version of the pilot? Gimme!

Doolittle?

Swat team on the funny little comedy

"Oh they weren't real?"

"the dog did kind of look vicious cause it kept going for james' face"

'idk who is in charge of dog face blood. Makeup?' (it was like he dipped his head in a bucket of blood)

Dog runs right into the crime scene

Suddenly shock all the children watching

Pardon me. Ladies. Gentlemen. *runs out screaming*

JRr puts his head down. *an eighth of a second later everyone was laughing*

His screams woul turn into michael jackson songs XD

"this police station is in what like to call the Haunted Insane Asylum" Actually a lot of prison scenes are filmed in dementia wards & mental hospitals bc they have similar layout, even occasionally in schools. Institutional buildings, yk? (it is what inspired scary sherry)

Annie built her own ouija board & they went to the basement in the underbelly & no lihts in the wing?

heck yeah pansies

strawberry festival? No cinnamon! They have arguments that last 20 years!

I do give up, all the time, but only when the moment is right

Aw, I love family. He doesn't believe in santa...??? & tell children that???? whwat???? I mean I grew up without santa. The way the commenters say "He doesn't believe in lying, & since he doesn't believe in santa claus (i don't know why) he says that" & they treat him like he's crazy for not believing in santa.

The head turn XD

Fake sky & a fake palm tree & a fake roof, but a real motorcycle. (I can't believe I watched so much of the show without knowing shawn had a motorbike. It was more important in the first season)

Can't front in front of your father

Ok so in s8 he says he paid insurance when he bought his bike eight years ago, but we all thought he had his bike forever, like in the psych teen shorts where he fails the exam & says he'll just drive a motorcycle (you still need to be licensed, in fact, a different licence) but it is a different bike, or at least that is how it looks.

The "I'm not ounting the one in your pocket" was added on set bc henry put on a hat when he left the house & is not wearing it in the restaurant. Yes, all the bloggers WOULD be mad. I'm blogging right now! "It's for the bloggers!" You're so right besties.

The hat scene was not supposed to be seen ,it was just backstory, but they added it to the script & I am happy for that.

Yes, everyone DID love the flashback, it IS fortunate! Thank you!

I can't hear what they are saying! Weasle Sloan & Jackie Dungeoness?

Shawn's apartment is directly below the barbeque place (at least the set)

You brought your newbrn 9w old, to vancouver! Your kid has canadian citizenship? Good for you bro XD

Oh all that graffitti? Yeah that's vancouver.

Yeah it IS so cold.

Kelly Catering, warm turkey cranberry stuffing sandwiches in the freezing cold. Warm thanksgiving dinner on wheat bread.

This is the action aspect of our show *shawn running ditzily, stealing a bag*

(one whose name I forget bc they don't have it in captions): Dule really really attacked james, absolutely linebackered him. Is linebackered a word?

Just... sixty feet away

This man plays The Heavy in Canada???

How psychouts started: they get stuck in the car together, they always just start singing songs, but um. They would sing about what they did the night before to a michael jackson song. Right they would be in the car with their mics on & we'd be fifty yards away under a tarp in the rain & they probably forgot that we could hear them & they'd start chatting & they'd start harmonizing with each other. It's very sweet. Romantic.

XD wanted to buy a 48c jacket but his price threshhold was too low. My man threatened him with a hanger

Jumps into the car thru the window. Stunt guys!

friends selling each other out, as they do

All eight dollars were my money. I;ve heard it IS illegal to have money shown fully onscreen. "If it is then it's fake money I happen ot have"

My man was accidentally sitting on the folder

that's a real gun & she's firing real rounds /j

JRr *not wearing ear gear* (& never flinched)

They went back & re-edited it for her dad who was a gun nut

this guy CAN do these htings, he's just a goof. He had to fight the network to get that.

My man's a good shot.

*looking to the side* marketing moments

Two page episode wrapups flawlessly? Incredible.

We see bodies but not murder

poor stunt actor hitting his head on the table, weather below 0, looks more & more painful every time, & then the table BROKE

SF, taking really dramatic moment & mixing it with comedy

Shawn knows exactly where to go "put on the fan & flush" if you're going to throw up in the murderer's house

SF I've always wanted someone to call the cops on themselves

spet the morning getting the snow off the grass

Tim likes any time you allow him to pull his gun or manhandle a suspect

Holding him up. Like a two year old not wanting to go into his car seat.

Pregnant, 2am, smoking & drinking /j, bungee jumping /j

Hooray editing

"I wish I knew" lassie will never believe him

Ah the palm scenes

Oh no I'd love to see this with the focus group? "Oh god! My dad! I may be out of a job & in jail"

Rest your teamug on your tummy

Does vick believe him? You never sort of know

She's already hiring him again!

Was the scene with dad in the og script?

His dad is thinking about accepting him. He has the newspaper.

The shows are so often about the cool car. night rider? kit? super cool. hill street blues. supernatural. Magnum PI. This one has the blueberry.

PSYCH NOT SIKE FUCKING THANK YOU

Fizadribble? SF: Making up drug names is impossible because no matter what name you make up, it actually exists as a drug & is registered to somebody. (antidepressants or tolkein)

Yayyyyyy

[floodclanblog]

Founding cats of Floodclan

Leader

First off here's the leader, Chestnutstar. She's a young adult, 34 moons, with all 9 of her lives (obv). Her apprentice is Tumblepaw and her descriptors are faithful and very smart

Deputy

Next is our deputy, Galetiger. He's 50 moons old, bloodthirsty, and extremely smart. His apprentice is Rabbitpaw. He was a strong runner up for leader (which is why he's deputy instead) but his bloodthristiness made me a little less confident in him.

Med cat

Our medcat's name is Scratch goose, she is 70 moons old, charismatic, and a fantastic hunter. I kinda just picked her for medcat cause she gave me good vibes n stuff I think she'll do good.

Also for the rest of the clan cats I'm not going to be writing a whole bio, I'm just gonna post the picture of the like cat bio. Maybe I'll make some bio's if things get interesting idk.

Clan cats

very pretty, quite a prettyboy

:( poor baby had a nightmare

Here's Galetiger's (Deputy) apprentice. The fact that he's shameless and the deputies apprentice makes me feel like he brags or shows off quite a bit.

And here's Chestnutstar's apprentice, who also might be a bit boastful about being the leader's apprentice. Apparently she's childish.

He seems more polite, though it does say he's charismatic. Maybe he'll turn into a flirt when he's older. Or maybe just have lots of friends.

Camp

[merry-mad-fnaf-blog]

Rebuild this family au

William didn’t start out as an evil mad man looking to kill children, even Henry knows deep down he can’t truly paint the Afton’s as monsters, as all they had worked together.

William and Henry originally met in college in America, both had earned a place in this program because of their skills, even willing to fly William from Britain to America. Despite being in this program, Henry and William were leagues above even the head robotic teacher at the college. Henry had an innate ability to design robots for function, being able to make robots to work and not see even a glint of metal in his robots. While William was amazing with programming and designing, he made robots that could think, problem solve, and could nearly make them human-like.

It wasn’t just their smarts in robotics that drew them together, but also their past and fear of death. William told Henry how his parents had died in a violence accident caused by his father and how his aunt shipped him here wanting to get rid of him. Henry confessed to William his fear of dying, that he was afraid the genetic illness that had taken his mother had not been kind and skipped him like the doctors thought. It was through this bonding that they started Freddy’s and their silly side project ‘Become immortal through robots’ aka throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

Soon after they graduated they started a small diner, naming it Fredbear’s family diner, becoming well known in the community as how they found their wives. Henry found a lovely woman named Samantha, and soon they began to date. While William fell head over heels with a ballerina named Clara who had been visiting the area, and as such they began to date as well. Their weddings were pretty close, and each friend was named as the other ‘Best man’. It seemed fate had found ways to tie the Emilys and Aftons together.

Eventually both families had their first born. William and Clara had a little boy they named Michael, while Henry and Samantha had twins, a girl named Charlotte and a boy named Sammy.

Then the cracks formed.

William and Henry had been working on a transforming suit for Freddy’s, as much as William liked making robots and stuff, sometimes there were malfunctions and humans needed to be able to wear suits; but they couldn’t keep using the ugly ones as they just felt so fake. William had made a suit that could push back parts, so it could be worn but also double as an animatronic. However, knowing of the faulty metal of the spring-locks, William was the first springlock failure.

William had to spend about a month in the hospital recovering, mostly bored but thankful to be alive. 

When he got home, he learned more, Samantha had been having an Affair and had skipped town with Sammy in tow, leaving behind a broken Henry and tiny Charlie. William felt anger burn for his friend, kind of happy she had left because he knew he would have killed her if she stayed. William still tried his best to help his best friend, using money from an inheritance to help Henry get a lawyer to try and find his son, to even him and Clara offering up their home to look after Charlie.

Still like they went on, they never found Samantha but Freddy’s along with their inventions continue to grow. Michael had taken to calling Henry, Uncle Henry as he and Charlie were common in the Afton household. Two more children join, a little girl William named Elizabeth 2 years after Michael, then another boy 4 years younger than their oldest, which they name Evan. Each time Henry happily agrees to be their godfather. It was some sense of normality to them, but Samantha disappearance along with Sammy left its mark on both men, as they had made their fair share of animatronic and robotic plushies to look after their kids. 

Then Clara’s death happened, and the spiral began.

Clara had gone to connect with her old ballet group, something about a possible getting together and travel of retired ballerinas together. William adored his wife and had always blamed himself for her having to stop dancing to look after the kids, so when she asked, he immediately agreed and encouraged her to go. She had promised she would be back Tuesday even if she had to drive all through the night, less Henry, William and all the kids turn the kitchen into a project.

She was found dead Tuesday morning, by a cop who had been driving down the back roads looking for abandoned cars.

The police said it was likely a ‘mugging gone wrong’ and that they were looking for the thieves. Though William didn’t believe that, not when he saw the car, and definitely not when he went to identify the body, a mugging didn’t leave behind a beautiful face that was broken. William knew deep down someone had to have targeted his wife, maybe because of him? His family had never been a kind one, had this been someone's plan for him…for his kids?

Henry the saint was offered to look after the children and close Freddy’s down for a few weeks, it was the slow season after all. Clara’s death had broken William even if he didn’t want to admit it, he could hear it in friend’s words, the way his hand’s shook. Henry told William to get some therapy.

But William did what he did best, Build.

William and Henry had worked with robotics and bodies before, in this small town, a small bit of money could get you anywhere. Plus their robots could help so many people with possible ailments, they had made so many prototypes for replacement limbs. While Henry always felt quizzy of the possible idea of working on bodies, William didn’t, he worked, he had gotten so close to making a living robot.

So, William tried to rebuild Clara. Trying to get that spark that one recently dead cadaver, that’s what he poured his soul into. He made her a ballerina, just what she was, how she sings and hums; every kind memory Clara had. It took two sleepless days before he finished.

It was a failure.

She was a full human robot, could think and problem solve. But it wasn’t Clara, even when he asked his question, he knew it wasn’t Clara, she didn’t have the spark, the warmth.

He was even angry, he wanted to know what he was missing.

Then the police found the guy, and William made his first kill.

The man that had taken Clara from him came from money as well, not even hell fire could compare to what he felt when he heard he had been released. William had found him..and he made him pay. He had used him for the experiments he so desperately used to try and bring his wife back.

He called it Remnants, the soul of a person could be grabbed and stored into metal, infecting it. A person living forever through a metal skeleton.

Then Charlie died.

William didn’t mean for it to happen, he talked to Henry and his kids through the phone while he was down trying to rebuild Clara. He knew that Freddy’s had reopened. It had been an accident, he was going to Freddy’s cause he knew Henry and his children would be there, so that he could tell them he was feeling better and the discovery he had made.

The lack of sleep and high emotion lesson his reaction time when the girl ran across the street. William felt the child hit his car, stopping to run out to help only to freeze. Charlie, his little god daughter was choking crying for help, a stay piece of metal had hit her when she fell back. William picked her up, wanting to run inside, to tell someone to call the police. But Charlie was getting paler and colder as a little voice in his head whispered, ‘you can save her’.

Charlie was declared missing, and Henry rang William’s phone not being able to handle the kids, as Michael kept asking for his friend. When Charlie’s soul was stable William went, holding his friend as he cried, wanting so badly to tell him what he had done, that he was saving her, but he didn’t. He secretly worked and gave Charlie a new body, in fact multiple she could switch between, she would never feel like a robot, it would be her.

He went to tell Henry the good news hoping to help his friend’s grief. Only to find his daughter, Elizabeth death by the hands of her protector.

Circus Baby had been crying, explaining to William that she was hit with water before everything went dark, only to wake up and see Elizabeth at her feet. William had set it up to fail safe, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Even Henry's simple code update shouldn’t have changed that.

That night the two long term friends screamed at each other. It ended with William dragging Michael and Evan to the Afton home, leaving Henry all alone with the Funtimes.

‘Charlie’ was soon found, and Henry was overjoyed, while William went back to his family. Baby was holding onto Elizabeth's soul, keeping it safe down in the workshop while William went to look after his kids and work. It was a balance, but nothing was fixed, William had not been speaking to Henry sense Elizabeth’s death.

Children and adults soon went missing, William now heads the project. If Charlie and Elizabeth are robotic, they would live forever, but what about them? What if someone targeted William or his kids? How would his child grow up?

Henry found out; it was eventually to happen. He went to William, the only other person that had the skill to make a robot that looks so human. He tried to yell at William, while William screamed back that he had been able to bring Charlie soul and keep it for him, unlike William who had lost Clara and Elizabeth.

Henry kept his distance. He couldn’t bring himself to go the police, they would believe him. Besides deep down, William was the only family he had left. 

Freddy’s seemed cursed for the Afton Family.

Evan to soon get his head crushed by an animatronic. William blamed himself, he knew of Evan growing paranoia around the animatronic, Michael had even laughed at William about Evan's crazy theory that the suits are haunted by the missing people that had been popping up. Evan had decided to get closer to the animatronic with the encouragement of Michael’s friends.

The boy’s head was crushed, and he was rushed to the hospital. However soon Evan and Cassidy, Evan’s best friend both went missing. Michael went to stay with Henry and Charlie as he didn’t dare be at home. Henry tried to talk to his friend. but William shut him out.

Cassidy’s body was found later, Evan was found to still be alive. He was back in the hospital, stitched up very much like Cassidy.

William was able to take Evan home when he woke up, he had also dragged Michael back from the Emilys as well.

Henry had known something was up, he wished it didn’t take Michael death for it to happen.

The teen had gotten a part time job over the summer’s at Freddys, Evan had been sent away to spend time with some of Clara's relatives. Henry had gone to the house planning to apologize but to also get the full story from William.

A blood curdling scream was heard, and Henry ran inside, William holding a pale and bloody Michael in his arms, a suicide attempt. 

There was another fight, William screamed at Henry, blaming him for giving Michael the job that drove him to this.

William all but disappeared from their small town, and Henry finally got a look at the basement.

Charlie's soul rested in a robot body designed to grow.

Elizabeth was the same, a figure that could grow, currently living with her relatives.

Evan was only kept alive by metal and some spar ‘parts’ from his friend Cassidy, a fail-safe hidden inside for his soul.

Michael soul was bound to metal, his inside scooped out and a metal skeleton in his place.

Notes were very well crafted, explaining all he killed, the test William did to save his family's life. Henry had found function prototypes of something, only for the notes to reveal it was meant for Henry himself, in cause his family illness decided to pop back up.

He should have showed this to police, given the families that went missing some sort of closer, but Mr. Emily didn’t do that.

He lit a match, and later on the news they were reporting about the Afton house being up in flames.

But where were the Aftons?

[destiny-smasher]

“But I can't walk on the path of the right, because I'm wrong.”

So, The Last of Us Part 2 is out. It’s about 25 hours long. I’ve played it. I loved it, but it’s got its flaws. I think the hype buildup was overblown, and I think the zealous hate from the leaks was also overblown. This is a beautifully produced game that is trying to do much more than the typical AAA game tries to do, and in so trying, it’s messier, muddier, and more complicated than its predecessor. I love it for that, despite my issues with how the game ultimately resolves things.

I think Naughty Dog was either intentionally misleading audiences (which, given the marketing, is possible) or perhaps Neil himself has a different concept of the game he directed than what was actually delivered. Despite how it was advertised, The Last of Us Part 2 is not inherently about ‘hate’ or ‘revenge.’ It’s not just a revenge story.

It's a story about empathy, about how human beings and their interactions have layers, and how we are better when we extend blind empathy to others instead of blind hatred. I gotta talk about this. SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME to follow.

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Seriously, final warning for SPOILERS.

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This game is simply too big, too complex, and has too much going on for me to write a single piece going over everything there is to talk about, but there are some things I need to say that inherently rely on discussing the entire game in a spoiler-filled way.

Let’s start with the most noticeable thing that has hit me over this game’s reception: people like Joel way more than I would’ve expected. SO much of this game’s negative reception seems to be over Joel’s character and the circumstances around his death. I was not at all surprised that he died - I was a bit surprised at when and how he died, in the moment, but even by the end of the next scene, it had washed over me how much sense it made. He died in the same way everyone else dies in this series. He had it coming in the same way anyone else in this world has it coming. He was never a hero. If you truly look at Joel as a ‘hero’ figure but don’t extend that same logic to Ellie and Abby, you do not make sense to me.

I’ve seen a LOT of hate getting thrown at Abby, and frankly, I do not understand it, and if you hate her but do NOT hate Joel or Ellie similarly, then I inherently don’t respect your opinion? You’re being blatantly biased and unreasonable in exactly the way this game is arguing you should not be. Straight up. Get your transphobic jokes the fuck outta here. Get your homophobic takes on Ellie and Dina the fuck outta here. Get your xenophobic complaints about the MUCH more diverse cast of characters in this sequel the fuck outta here. The ONE case where I could see a reasonable thing to be conflicted about is Lev’s character, because they are a transgender kid who gets deadnamed by some NPCs. As a transgender person, I personally found this to just...make sense and feel organic to the world, and none of the actual characters in the narrative with names or roles in the story ever deadname Lev. Lev is fucking precious and I love him, and I think his inclusion adds inherently more to this game than otherwise, despite the understandable conflict some might feel about his backstory. To ME, the fact that all of what Lev goes through and how Yara and Abby do what they can to look for him, that says to me, “protect trans rights” and I am glad it is there. Trans people have to deal with that shit sometimes, I think it’s fine having it be PART of a wider narrative. It doesn’t define Lev’s story, it doesn’t dictate the plot of the game, it’s a spark that sets some events off and I think that adds more than it could potentially take away, as does the overall representation in the game.

Getting back to this element of bias, though, I get that you “went on a journey” with Joel and Ellie in the first game. I get that. But you spend about as much time with Abby in this game as you did with Joel in the first game. And I see a lot of people are SOMEHOW totally fine and chill and cool with Joel going on a murder rampage in the first game, specifically killing at least one man who was specifically trying to save humanity - they cite that Joel is a morally gray person who has done bad things and is trying to become a better person. Sure, cool, OK. And Ellie, sure, ya’ll will think her going on a bloodthristy revenge quest is cool, fine, A-OK, because Joel was murdered. But somehow they are physically incapable of extending that same empathy to Abby, even after the game bends OVER BACKWARD in every reasonable way it could. Why is this? One person tweeted at me the simplistic, reductive idea, 

“ I know the sensible thing that naughty dog was aiming at was that we'd feel sorry for abby and eventually grow to like her, but for me I just don't. I loved Joel and I love Ellie. They didn't kill anyone who I loved as a character. Abby did. “

At least they’re being honest with themselves in that they literally missed the entire point of the game. You having personal bias you cannot remove yourself from does not make for “A DEEPLY FLAWED STORY” or whatever the fuck people have been tossing around.

I personally don’t buy any of that bullshit until we get into the final hours of the game during the epilogue, but we’ll get to that.

Everything in the first 20-ish hours of this game felt organic and believable and completely in line with the first game to me, and the fact that ALL OF IT happens as a direct after-effect of Joel’s selfish act at the end of the first game really contextualizes how/why it was called ‘Part 2.’ So honestly, all of this nonsense about this sequel being ‘badly written’ is just...bonkers. I will agree it’s not some master class in writing - neither was the original game. But both games are very similar in writing style, tone, and the world presented is consistent, while character motivations are realistically complicated. Naughty Dog has never been great at plot, but the real quality of their work comes through in how much effort they go to in order to present realistic feeling worlds and characters, and from the environments to the actors to the extra animations on top, I think the details and the context they create are where they shine.

To better understand where I am coming from with this game, let me lay this on you.

During the scene in that basement, when Abby shot Joel in the leg, and Ellie shows up...I realized what was about to happen. Ironically, it was exactly what I had originally predicted was the thing going on WAY back when the game’s reveal trailer was dropped -- that Joel was dead, and was motivating Ellie’s revenge quest. If you’ve read what I have written of Arcadian Rhythms, you will have some idea of my feelings on Joel and Ellie’s relationship -- in short, I think it is complicated, and just as damaging as it is good. That’s real life. That’s how reality is for many relationships, especially ones between parents and their kids, especially in my experience. When I realized Joel was about to be murdered, my feelings and thoughts were not jumping to ‘oh fuck what an asshole I wanna kill these people’ or ‘oh no not Joel’ but rather, my immediate gut thoughts were ‘yupppp Joel kinda deserves this, he literally did this to who knows how many other people, but why are THESE people, specifically, out to get him?’ 

When Ellie later cites to Dina that there’s ‘no point’ in speculating as to why these people murdered Joel, because it could be for one of many possible reasons, I found that to be interesting -- Ellie herself acknowledging that Joel had fucked over many other people, while still pursuing revenge herself.

I do think the theme of ‘the cycle of violence’ is very core to this game and arguably is its strongest central theme, specifically because violence in wholly integrated into its gameplay. But narratively and structurally, empathy is, I would argue, even more paramount. This game spends about 12 hours of its runtime (so about half of the entire game) actively trying to encourage you to understand, relate with, and empathize with Abby. The developers COULD have had you swapping back and forth between both characters, which might have resulted in better pacing, but I think it would’v taken away from what they were going for. It’s that long, slow burn that makes Abby’s side of the story work, in much the same way the long, slow burn of the first game does what it does, and the way the long, slow burn of Ellie’s revenge quest helps us see just how far gone she is.

But “arghh I hated Ellie she kept making bad decisions that made no sense” some of you say, “they did her DIRTY” some of you say.

No.

Joel did her dirty.

The Fireflies did her dirty.

And it’s this exact concept -- that our actions and choices have consequences and ripple outward beyond what we can initially imagine - that is at the heart of why I think I love this game so much. Most video games depict a pool of water that is either a constant whirlpool, a raging clash of waves, or stone dropped in the middle and the ripples spreading out. The Last of Us Part 2 is more like a series of ripples all happening simultaneously, and not all of them are as apparent or even important, but it’s just...a bunch of ripples all happening all over the place.

And it breaks my heart, during 2020, a year when human rights, systemic racism, a worldwide pandemic, late capitalism, and entire countries submerged in protests because their government is fucking them over...has people shutting off or refusing to turn on their empathy to anyone outside of their bubble. In 2020, when the world needs empathy more than any other year I’ve experienced in my life thus far, a game like this goes SO FAR above and beyond what most games try to do, in a very risky and controversial way, to actively invite its players to fucking STOP AND CONSIDER for a damn moment that there’s more to the world than JUST YOU and what you care about. That your actions have consequences beyond your singular perspective.

Ellie is fueled by rage for a number of reasons, and we don’t even understand all of them until literally the final moments of the game, which I found to be appropriate as it ends on a note of reminding us that there is ALWAYS something we don’t know, something we don’t understand, motivating someone else’s decisions.

Ellie was robbed of agency, of purpose, by both Joel and the Fireflies. Joel robbed both Ellie and the Fireflies of their purpose. And the Fireflies robbed Ellie and Joel of theirs. In return, Ellie is left without purpose, and all she’s really left with is a broken man who desperately wants to be a dad again, to the point that he will murder and lie to hold on to that. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t necessarily hold it against Joel that he murdered people to save Ellie. I will always defend the idea that it was a fucking selfish decision that would realistically lead to consequences. But in the same way Marlene points out to Abby’s dad, ‘What if it was your kid?’ ie ‘What if it was someone you loved?’ I get that, that’s the beauty of how the first game ended. It presents a zero sum game where there is no ‘correct’ choice that everyone can agree on, but in the back of our heads -- and Part 2 actually states this as a point of fact -- we all know Ellie would have CHOSEN to sacrifice herself, had she been asked.

So it was deliciously realistic to me to see Ellie grappling with the frustration, distrust, and anger of Joel having not only robbed that purpose from her, but having lied to her about it. And in the end, it was also wonderfully realistic that part of why she hated Abby so much was that Abby inadvertently robbed her of her chance to try and rebuild and repair that broken relationship.

But here’s the thing, though - the thing I see fucking NO ONE talking about, and I can’t decide if it’s because no one is picking up on it or what.

Both Ellie and Abby are haunted and driven by broken men making selfish choices. Their selfishness keeps both characters kind of locked in to desperately grasping at violent acts to justify a purpose.

Some will play the flashbacks with Joel and will feel warmth and nostalgia and admiration. Some will play the flashbacks with Owen and feel disinterest or disgust because ‘why should I care about these people?’

For me, I couldn’t help bu draw parallels to how both Owen and Joel were men trying to be good, you know, not being specifically evil people, but men who were a bad influence on the women around them, who were great and good and charming and all that until things didn’t go the way they wanted, pushing and prodding with passive digs and pressure to reaffirm their own hopes that despite their mistakes, they’re ‘good men.’ Owen is admittedly much less well developed in this regard, partly because his arc just isn’t as deep or interesting, partly because he didn’t exist in the previous game. But I still could not quite shake it. I grew up with men like Joel and Owen as my father figures, so there’s personal bias there.

I literally had an actual nightmare that woke me up in the middle of the night partway through playing through this game because Joel was in it and I said or did a thing he did not like, and his reaction spooked me awake, in part because I LIVED that growing up. (not murder, but violence, passive aggressive manipulation) I absolutely adore the depth given to Joel’s character, that he has LAYERS to him, and I loved seeing Tommy similarly expanded upon. (him passively prodding at Ellie to try and make good with Joel felt a little manipulative, given that he KNOWS what Joel did; and even his wife’s prodding at Ellie at the game’s outside to ‘make good’ with some old jerk who seems all expectant about being rewarded for basic apologizing, ech)

Last of Us is a horror game, Part 2 even moreso, but it was the feeling of men like Joel who do bad things and then try to justify them after the fact that actually creeped me out more -- all the more creepy because I KNOW Ellie and Abby will give up on better choices to try and ‘do right by them’. I was relieved when Abby began to break free from these old, poor choices, even shortly after making more fo them during her half of the story. This brings me to another fascinating aspect of this game: how Abby’s story is a combination of both Joel’s and Ellie’s.

Dunkey (of all people!) recently praised this game and compared Ellie’s and Abby’s narratives to TLOU1 and Uncharted 4, and I agree with him in a lot of regards, there, but I think what the team was more going for was for Abby’s story to feel like a combination of Joel’s and Ellie’s while simultaneously being directly impacted by Joel and Ellie’s story.

Abby grew up in a military community, even though she expressed an interest in science -- just like Ellie. The death of her father drives her on a quest for revenge -- just like Ellie. She does some horrible shit to people all in the service of trying to protect a kid as some desperate attempt to feel better about all of the bad shit she’s done -- just like Joel. She starts to let herself be empathetic to other people and tries to become a better person because of the kid she takes under her wing -- just like Joel.

In a way, you could argue Part 2′s overall story is kind of repetitious. Ellie’s quest for revenge is a bit too narrow-minded and blind in her rage, and Abby’s story kind of recycles many components we have already seen up until that point. I think what’s there still generally accomplishes what it set out to do: get us to question and try to understand why people do what they do, and consider our own place in that cycle, in those ripples.

I think many aspects of this game that look circumstantial on the surface are not accidents.

I think the recurring imagery of water is an allegory for how we can let rage, anger, and hate drown us. The game’s title starts with a boat drifting in water, and the title changes after the ending to a boat that is beached. The Seattle arc shows a gradually increasing focus on water flooding the environments, culminating in a big rainstorm with crazy waves. The final fight sequence (which tbh I hated but we’ll get to that) takes place literally IN water, involves Ellie trying to drown Abby, and ends with the two of them going separate ways in their boats.

I think it’s no accident that Abby and Ellie’s desire for vengeance is ultimately caused by the same specific moment, and I think it’s interesting that many people seem to skip RIGHT OVER the idea that Ellie feels such a deep sense of rage at Abby killing Joel only because Joel made the decision that caused Abby to kill him in the first place -- and the good and bad that came from that. It’s just a brilliantly complicated web, I think, and that further highlights that none of these characters are inherently good or evil, which is pretty much the entire point of this world in the first place.

I think it’s interesting that both Ellie and Abby grumble insults all of the time over the people they’re killing, and both try to justify their violence with thoughts like “well we’re better then that, we don’t do THOSE kinds of things,” which is, ya know, literally the kinds of mental hoops actual real human beings jump through to justify doing bad shit to each other.

I liked the idea of the trading cards until fairly early on when I found the ‘Dr. Uckmann’ card, which...made me roll my eyes a little at first, until I read the description, which then made me feel more actively uncomfortable than maybe anything else in the entire game, to be quite honest. Partly because it rang of entitled self-importance, but partly because of the reports of Naughty Dog crunch culture.

And on that note, let’s talk about how this game arguably crunched its employees way more than it needed to while simultaneously making its story more bloated than it needed to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I love indulging in more STUFF than it required. I can totally see the appeal of writing extra stuff to a story like because you can, because it’s interesting, because it’s fun to MAKE shit. But when you are a AAA game development studio who is potentially crunching your employees into burnout, maybe a fairly pointless epilogue on top of a game that is already arguably a bit too long in the tooth is...maybe not the best way to go?

On the upside, I enjoyed playing the Santa Barbara location, I loved getting some more Abby/Lev time, I liked seeing Ellie a bit older, I LOVED the scene at the farm with her, Dina, and JJ. I loved the gameplay challenge that was the Rattler’s base. I loved that this game had noticeably larger environments to explore.

But tbh a LOT of content could’ve been cut from this game to make a smoother, better paced experience while simultaneously putting less strain on the developers. I do think the extended flashback sequences focused on non-violent gameplay is important enough to justify itself, but I think a lot of the more violent or unnecessary parts of the game (like the entire sequence on the Seraphite’s island and the Santa Barbara sequence) all feel like...EXTRA? Which on the one hand is great because hot DAMN more beautifully rendered locations, content, etc. but on the other hand I’m not sure it adds as much to justify the real life pain and misery I’m sure some developers went through to create it all, and in a way, it doesn’t quite justify its own existence if we’re being critical.

I get what they were going for with the Seraphites and the WLF but neither group is developed enough to really accomplish the goals of empathy. I think focusing on specific members OF those groups is better, because that is ultimately how real life people break down their walls of bias, -isms, etc. -- they just interact with and befriend people from these groups and realize organically “oh hey we’re all...people, huh.” The game’s attempts at naming NPCs and dogs don’t do much when the game actively rewards you for killing them (speaking of which, I played on Normal and there were way too many items imo, we’ll see how that is on higher difficulties). We could get into the role of violence and gameplay but that’s a WHOLE other can of worms.

But the Rattlers in the final act are even worse. After this entire game of being actively encouraged to empathize with other people from other groups and let yourself consider they aren’t evil, the game just...shoves an objectively worse group of people at you, asks you to murder them, and then...discards the whole thing without a second thought. I found this to be fun from a gameplay perspective (sorry Neil, playing your game actually IS FUN when you put so much work into making the violence fun to engage with) but I found it weird and frustrating from a storytelling perspective, as if the whole thing was an undercooked, unfinished final act that they cobbled together because they just...wanted enemies with helmets and an environment depicting southern California. Hell, tbh I don’t even get why Ellie had to be there other than the developers didn’t think players would be OK just...letting Ellie live a life in peace on a farm or that players would be OK NOT playing as Ellie at the end and letting her beat the shit out of Abby.

I actually LOVED the farm sequence, it felt so...weird for a while. Like you’re just waiting for the hat to drop. And when it does...it’s just PTSD. And that felt right. That felt good, that even though Ellie was spared, after all the shit she did, because she let go and spared Abby in return, she got to live this peaceful life...except life’s not that simple and old scars can still hurt.

I loved when Tommy showed up and we got to see that darker side to him we KNOW has been there this entire time, but Ellie maybe hasn’t been forced to see it. All the way up until this point, I felt I could understand where the characters were coming from and what motivated their decisions.

And then Ellie decided “no, actually, maybe if I throw all of this away I can maybe get rid of this PTSD I got from throwing everything away before.” And then it got worse when after she breaks into this fucking slave house to free people, after she saves Abby and Lev from dying on posts, she STILL wants to fight. ANd Abby’s where I’m at -- that ‘fucking REALLY?’ feeling. I utterly disliked the fight scene in the water. It was the one time in the whole game that actually felt like misery porn to me. I was honestly going into it expecting that maybe Ellie’s stab wound from the trap would cause her to be too weak to fight, and she’d literally drown from bleeding out because of her own unrelenting pursuit of revenge. But nah, we’re put through a pointless, brutal fist/knife fight that...doesn’t really have purpose imo. WHatever you wanted to accomplish here, you could’ve done back in the theater in Seattle. (on that note I LOVED the Ellie boss fight, what a fun gameplay thing and also just tense all around since you really couldn’t tell what was going to happen, but I LOVE that Lev stopped Abby from killing Dina, even though she had every reason to)

I can imagine different versions of the Santa Barbara sequence that offer a more edifying conclusion while still working in the environmental and gameplay components they seemed insistent on working in. It’s the one major portion of the game that, now that I’ve had time to process, I feel the most conflicted about.

Neither Ellie nor Abby “deserve” a happy ending in much the same way Joel didn’t “deserve” a happy ending. This game has no true protagonists or villains (anyone who is presented as a ‘villain’ is minor, and we don’t find out much about them anyway). I think Joel was lucky to get the time he got to live in community once again, to rediscover his humanity (look at all of those flowers they left at his house, this man who fucked over humanity and murdered countless people had a chance to live a few years of peaceful life again), I think Ellie was lucky she got time to even live what she did on that farm with Dina and JJ, and was lucky to still be alive at the end of the story. I think Abby was lucky to have been able to break free from a life of militaristic bullshit and rediscover some of her own lost humanity.

I think a lot of people admire Joel as a hero when it’s clear he was never one.

I think a lot of people admire Ellie and try to idolize her as the smarmy kid she could never permanently exist as.

I think a lot of people hate on Abby for EXISTING (and being a woman -gasp- WITH MUSCLES) and I’m pretty pleased with Laura Bailey getting to play this role (and Ashly Burch getting a supporting role in this game, too, for that matter).

I think The Last of Us is not ‘about Ellie and Joel.’ I think The Last of Us is about humanity, and exploring it through different angle. Sometimes needlessly gritty and dark ones, but Part 2 gave us even more light-hearted, pelasant moments than I could have expected. I think people who look so reductively at this game -- now officially a ‘series’ -- as ‘Joel and Ellie 100x forever’ and literally anything outside of that being bad and a waste of time fundamentally missed the entire purpose of this game, ironically ignoring what it is trying to passionately to convey. I think Naughty Dog’s marketing of the game actively misled people in ways that are rare for the industry, and I do think that is a bit shady - but on the other hand, being misled actively improved my experience with the end product (which is arguably why they did it). I think the way Sony has latched on Joel and Ellie as ‘Playstation Icons’ and encouraged people to buy up TLOU merch depite there not being much TO turn into merchandise says something.

Also? Frankly?

I am SO FUCKING TIRED of “angry sad dad” games.

Like. I loved TLOU 1, I loved the new God of War, etc. etc.

But God of War took basically NO RISKS and had NOTHING TO SAY that countless other pieces of media have said to death. That’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next. But this game actually has challenging thoughts, complicated things, it is trying to get players to consider, and most everyone I see shitting on the game either hasn’t played it or doesn’t seem interested in games that exist for something beyond making them feel good about themselves? I dunno.

I think at the end of the day, TLOU as an entire series, and specifically the sequel, isn’t about Joel and Ellie, that was just the more focused lens the original game had. For its messier, muddier experience, Part 2 strives for nothing more than many pieces of media have but for something that is still rare in the space of AAA video games.

It takes some risks, it makes some missteps in getting where it goes, for sure, and it’s by no means some holy gift to mankid, but it passionately goes to GREAT lengths to explore and express a fairly simple idea: 

empathy is a choice, understanding others is a choice,

and we are all inherently better off when we choose to blindly accept understanding than when we blindly choose hate and violence.

Just because we can’t walk ‘the path of the right,’ and just because ‘we’re wrong’ doesn’t mean we should let the phantoms in our lives continue to keep a hold on our future. Just because someone does some good things doesn’t erase the consequences and ripples of the bad they have done, and just because we do bad things doesn’t mean we can’t do good.

The way to end the cycle of violence is empathy.

It’s simplistic in concept, but if you look around at not just the reception to this game even before people could play it, but just the STATE OF THE WORLD IN 2020, you will see that maybe we still need such basic, simplistic concepts to continue to be explored in big budget media.

[another-mexico-oc]

Mexico Headcanon (10)

Here is my version of Aztec Empire!

Just like Turkey during his Otoman Empire times, his face is obscured, and in this case by his eagle helmet, which gives him a more intimidating appearance.

Many people felt intimidated just with his presence, even Spain the first time they met. 

He was very serious and disciplined. Also, he was a man of few words, if he had to say something he was direct and precise. Due to his religion and beliefs, you could assume he was a bloodthristy. His main god was Huitzilopochtli, god of war.

Aside from war, his hobbies included epic poetry, sculpture and sports.

When he was a child he was the weakest of all his family relatives (who represent the other mexican tribes), but as he grew up he became the most powerful civilization in ancient Mexico. 

Even so, he lived a short life. 200 years approximately. 

He had a xolo dog, which is now under Mexico's wing, along with her cat (Nekotalia) and her chihuahua. 

During her first years of living, Little Mexico was raised in Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire. There, she learnt cooking, handicraft, and other stuff that are still part of her culture, the Day of the Dead for example.

Even if their relation was one of master-apprentice, Aztec Empire acted like a very strict father to her, and he did not approve her carefree attitude. In present times, Mexico is able to speak with him every Day of the Dead, but sometimes she´s afraid of doing so, because she thinks he will not be very proud of some of the things she has done, or hasn´t. (Daddy issues?)

He was not very open with his feelings. Although he never told her, deeply inside he really cared for Mexico. 

[nyanzaya]

@if-that-so inquired · an hour ago: You talk about shizaya astrological signs before, what about zuiza???? Like i know if i dig deeper into this blog i'll found it but we need more content!!! We need you to rant more these thing that you're passionate about!!! And tbh i replied a little bit in the group chat when you about akashiki but tumblr being the stupid mofo like it always did won't let the reply sent.

For the Shizaya astrological signs, I just talked about one part of their compatibility which was just the modality which basically is your basic quality ontop of what your star sign is and never mind your moon, venus, mars, saturn, mercury, neptune uranus and pluto LOL It’s very complicated but it’s more simple than it actually is.

I’ve got some things about them though most of it is about Iza LOL

Iza’s 1 / 2 / 3 / and honestly these aspects and house placements are so important for someone to understand if they want a relationship with Iza because heck, he’ll give his everything after he trusts them and falls for them but oof lol

Then for Zuo and Iza’s charts overlaying each other and what it means: 1 / Believe me, this is all accurate for them when they were together LOL it’s almost scary accruate

so for, Iza and Zuo I’ll also just talk about their similarities and their differences of course.

Positive: Active, self-motivated, insightful, ambitious and independent. Negative: Hasty, Impulsive, Inconsiderate, Domineering, difficulty following through.

As we can see, already they have more in common than they would probably like to admit. They are both active in their own ways. Zuo is more inclined to be active physically during the day, such as being outside, playing sports or even fighting. Iza is more inclined to be active during the night, such as being active with his mind and keeping himself mentally stimulated. Even going outside every once in a while to partake in an activity, whether that means he’s “taking an interest in someone”, sunbathing and “hunting”. With them both being active this in turn means they are self-motivated. Though, they both can have trouble following through with things like promises and various other things. Both of them are more insightful that what some people would give them credit for.

Iza’s very insightful in people; he can read and understand body language so easily that he has come to rely on that resource he has to protect himself. He’s so insightful that he could probably psycho-analyze a person and he has before and whether he was right or wrong about the other person is up for debate. You would think that Zuo isn’t insightful, but he is. He had to handcraft his own weapons. He had this deep wisdom from past lives that he can tap into if he sat down and actually tried. Zuo has some insight into people as well, he can read and understand their expressions, something that Iza can’t do, and even adding onto his understanding of body language. Of course, this could make them impulsive on their judgement of people and maybe even a little inconsiderate. 

For how ambitious they are; I mean. Iza had to be ambitious if he wanted to social climb to get to where he is now. He wanted to gain power and have some control over his life and he did it. He didn’t want to be someone’s pet anymore and I guess you could say that maybe something in him did “snap” because he became so...cruel and cold and bloodthristy but this all can stem from his treatment from his second and even his third. Then we look at Zuo. He didn’t want to be a pitfighter anymore and what did he do? Cause a rebellion and got himself and several others out of that life. He took leadership and his ambition to free himself and others kind of radiated and people are attracted to a confident person. Of course, as a result of this when he finally got out he was so...hyper-aggressive and defensive. He wasn’t as bloodthristy as Iza but if he felt provoked he wouldn’t hesitate in outright killing someone but as he learned to regulate himself his aggression levels dropped (and i mean, honestly he was just scared?) I mean in a way you could say they both felt so protective of themselves that they felt they had no other way to express this but to control and become domineering over other people. Of course, they did eventually learn to not be so aggressive and it did result in them being feral because they weren’t exactly socialized. (Of course this also goes into them being half-cat. If they aren’t properly socialized they kind of tend to be a little aggressive and defensive especially if they are being provoked but that’s something for a different time LOL) 

Then comes the independence. I can’t simply explain why or how independent they are. In fact, they feel so independent that they feel like they don’t need anyone else. Of course, after they figure out “Oh, maybe I do need someone so I don’t feel so lonely.” Because fact is, both Iza and Zuo are actually kind of lonely. Maybe Zuo not so much but Iza especially. Zuo is pretty healthy when it comes to his independence he can set up his boundaries quite easily with other people and even partners. But Iza? Holy shit. He actually makes me cry because he as put himself so high up on a pedastool that he purposely keeps himself out of arm’s reach emotionally because he literally can not comprehend that it’s okay for him to feel vulnerable but his biggest issue is he has so much difficulty setting up boundaries. Iza literally, can’t say no to someone if they are approaching him with the intent to get intimate. The only people he can say no to is women and even then? If something happens and he finds himself in that kind of situation he just-- lets it happen. And he hates feeling powerless and that’s where his difficulty in following through really comes in. Iza can do just about everything but when it comes to emotions and actually being vulnerable in a healthy way he finds it extremely difficult. Like, consider yourself fucking BLESSED if he even tells you how he feels. Of course, this stems from how he was raised and such so of course he felt really helpless about what he can and can’t do in sexual situations but he’s learning. I mean, really learning to say no and say what he likes and dislikes. Like, bruh if I had Iza at 18/19 god. It would be like 100% worse because he just, gets tense and lets it happen even if he doesn’t like it because back then he really felt like he couldn’t say no. But now that he’s 27 he’s more confident in his ability to say “No.” And if that don’t work, hell you’re going to get claws or a kick to the face.

But as you can see, they both have the same positive and negative traits and with the fact that they are opposite signs (Aries/Libra) how they express those traits is almost opposite too. Their dynamic is a lot like Balance(libra) and Chaos(Aries) or Love(Libra) and War(Aries). 

Then you bring these two together. Opposite signs can either be a hit or miss/Love and hate. With Zuo and Iza it really was a hit but then Zuo saw Iza in a different light and quickly it turned to hate. I mean:

Iza’s ears twitched. Rejection was a bitter taste. “I’m doing you a favor, Dear. Isn’t the scent wonderful? It tells us that we are survivors. So, why don’t you draw some blood as well?”

A light flickered and suddenly Zuo felt a pain on his cheek. His brows furrowed. Iza flung a blade a him. The smell of iron further increased his rage. He didn’t want to return to being a brawler. Zuo was done being a gladiator for the entertainment of others and he sure as hell was not going to give into what Iza wanted. He brought a hand to his wounded cheek before he looked at his hand. Zuo saw the blood on his fingers. 

“Enough..” He spoke softly, his hand was shaking. 

Iza was quiet, watching Zuo. “Enough? Enough of what? This is the only way.”

“How is this the only way?” Zuo’s closed his blood-tipped hand, as if to show his resolve on the situation. 

The black feline paced, taking a blade out of his pocket and twirled it between his fingers. “How? Haven’t you heard of the saying: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?’ To allow these...humans to continue to use us and further lower our quality of life and longevity would be horrendous, no? We are just as capable as they are.”

“Fuck off with your ‘we’ shit! There is no ‘we’. It’s just you against everyone else.” Zuo growled, flexing his hands before he brought them together to crack his knuckles.

Iza stopped pacing taking in Zuo’s words. No we? He understood now. Even Zuo was an enemy of his now. This feeling in his chest hurt. It hurt to feel how Zuo rejected him. They were together, though Iza supposed that was impossible. There was a sting in his eyes but he wasn’t going to let Zuo see him fall into tears. Without thinking, Iza flung his knife. He almost missed his target, but his blade had impaled itself in Zuo’s shoulder.

“Well, well. If there is no ‘we’ then there can never be an ‘us’.” 

Zuo knew Iza twisted his words. That wasn’t what he meant but if that’s what Iza saw, then all he could do now was to stop them from this senseless killing.

These were innocent people. All Zuo saw in front of him was someone who was crazed, lusting after more bloodshed. Someone who, Zuo was fond of. It hurt to see Iza turn into someone he didn’t know, or perhaps he had known who he was all along but had never seen it from a different perspective. Perhaps, Zuo had tolerated this behavior until it was too much. 

How could he save them? 

The cream-colored feline pulled the knife from his shoulder. “You threw your knife at me. So, I’ll assume you meant to hit a pressure point. That’s what you do, huh? So, that means you wanted to disable me to kill me then, huh?” 

Iza’s ears leaned back. 

Zuo brought his other hand to the other side of the blade, snapping it in half before dropping it to the floor. Another solid resolve. Zuo was going to be the one to stop Iza. He had to be. To let the black feline running wild with power? He understood now that Iza couldn’t handle the power; the rush of the high of being on top of the world. 

Zuo would bring them back to earth. Even if it meant that this was their fate: To fight and oppose each other until the end. 

Iza furrowed his brows when his blade was snapped. He would never be afraid of Zuo. The black feline thought of them as something beautiful, worth praising and keeping. Iza knew Zuo was powerful and he wanted to use that power. Was it shallow of him? Perhaps but he needed it. Iza needed Zuo.

Iza laughed out loud again, raising yet another blade. “That’s exactly what I wanted to do.” He lied. “If you look so determined to stop me, then come after me.” Iza threw his blade before he turned in his heels to dash 

Zuo’s fur stood on end again hearing Iza say that. Feeling the blade bite into his leg, he roared before he chased after him Zuo punched the wall holding his weapon, the pole that he had thrown before. 

Once that was in hand, he chased after his lost love.

You could say this is where they broke up but as you get to know more they still are deeply in love with each other? Like right after this scene, I write this:

“Ah…” His table was broken. Zuo didn’t realize he had snapped it in half. He pulled out his catnip cigarettes, craving for a wave of calm. With the stick between his lips he lit it and inhaled, closing his eyes before he finally exhaled. 

Better. Everything was okay now. 

He looked at the table he had broken. The gift was still intact surprisingly. Zuo picked up it. He may as well open it considering how much trouble it had caused him. 

The feline ripped it open and popped open the box to find a card and a ring and quickly Zuo found he could open it up and turn it into a sphere. There were inscriptions and astrology signs. He then read the card. 

[ I still believe in fate. Do you? This was meant to be, even if it’s...bitter. Happy Birthday, Zuo. ]

Maybe there was still chance. Zuo did believe in fate and past lives. If this was how they ended up, perhaps it was always how it was meant to be. They were fated to be on oppositions. If The Scales and The Ram had anything to do with how clear their oppositions where, Zuo wouldn’t know what would show it off any better than that. 

It’s clear that Iza understands that maybe this was how it was supposed to be but he hates that how it is. Zuo understands that they have their differences but they can still love each other and as much as he says he hates Iza, he honestly really cares for him. He’d say something like “I hate him. But don’t you hurt him, only I can do that.”. Zuo’s always been a little possessive over things he thinks are his after all, and this is the same for Iza. 

I mean: 

However difficult it might be to reconcile these two natures, remember that this is a primal opposition that represents partners by signification. Aries and Libra are the couple of the zodiac, as much as any other opposing signs, for they are each other’s seventh house, house of relationships. Even more so if we acknowledge the fact that Libra is the sign of relationships in general. Any problem they might have with each other is something to be worked on, because it shows what their personal problem with any relationship is. When they are madly attracted to each other and fall in love, there is almost nothing that could separate them, no matter the differences. Wouldn’t we all like to find the middle ground with our loved one? They need to work on their bond, that’s a fact, but their relationship is a promise of a perfect fit of two souls meant to be together.

You each have a distinct role, but you’re a tag team, too. With an opposite sign, you’re challenged to grow as a person and take responsibility for your part of the relationship. It’s like taking a big step back to get a clear perspective of your life. We tend to view things from a close-up, missing the whole picture by hyper-focusing on a detail or two. With an opposite sign, your life appears in full relief, like a finished painting. Suddenly, it all makes sense. This can be a little uncomfortable, but if you’ve manifested an opposite sign partnership, it means you’re ready to grow up.

Kind of makes you wonder if maybe they aren’t ready to grow up yet. Consider they both hadn’t had much of a childhood, huh?

[madamemalot]

So in case anyone was interested...I have this concept for Miss Bitters.

This is not a headcanon per say, it’s more of a reimagining of Miss Bitters. If you read the comics you may have seen the issue where everyone speculates Bitters’ origin and intentions. I happen to have my very own! This concept of mine does actually play into Vix’s main verse; unless we have plotted something the Bitters concept will not be mentioned or used as a plot device.

Anyways, onto the story of Miss Bitters:

The ‘teacher’, as modern Skool students know her, used to be a maleficent old witch with peculiar powers. Her reign of terror dates back many centuries; throughout the course of insufferable history she would trigger extreme amounts of corruption and terror onto whichever town or village she reckoned deserved a punishment. The way she would unravel this was to bribe the citizens to commit acts of treason, felony or general harm for a irresistable sum of money, which would turn out to be plauged with cursed magic. Once the misdeeds had been commited, the culprit would recieve their money and spend it, spreading the curse around - far and wide. Needless to say, the curse spread like a virus, fueling Bitters’ power and draining the moral balance of humanity.

As humans weakened, Bitters strengthened.

Once her dark magic was at its peak, Bitters would summon bloodthristy demons to ambush the places she had infected with hate and violence. Bitters herself helped seize these lands, planning to turn the world into her very own living hell. However, the humans eventually found a way to settle their differences and band together to wipe out the summoned demons. Of course, the very founder of this demon rebellion was none other than George Malot I. From this point onwards, generations of Malots combated Bitters' attacks, as well as other demonic beings (even those that did not appear as a threat). The Malot's fame quite quickly preceeded them. 

Bitters eventually focused more on murdering the Malot family, with many failed attempts. Ironically, she ended up wasting power on trying to put an end to the Malots, making her much more vulnerable in the process. One fateful day, she had come her closest to murdering the Malot family's new born son, but the Malot butler caught her in the act and slashed her back open with an axe. Bitters' dark energy seeped to the ground in the form of a shadow. Out of utter spite, she managed to place a curse onto the butler, Houston, which doomed him to serve the Malot family for the rest of his days; until they died, he would not. However, this took most of her power away, which rendered her unable to place her shadow back into her body. Her dark soul was now left without armour, and would burn in the sunlight - this restricted her even further. 

To present day, 'Miss' Bitters takes the role of a teacher to harvest energy from the children so that she may reel her shadow back into her body. To do this, she constructed her old hideout into a Skool, where half of the staff are unaware human teachers, and the other are demons. Her facade self runs the upper classroom while her shadow runs the underground classroom. She constantly feeds the students' gullible minds with depressing and savage thoughts to prepare them for dark energy harvest in the underground classroom. The headmaster of the skool is a demon working for Bitters, and also helps turning the students sour. Once her shadow receives enough human energy to return to her former glory, she will finally be able to be one with her body and reek havoc onto the world as we know it. Vix Malot is aware of Bitter's secret from Houston and vows to slay the demon witch for good.

I'd love to hear some feedback on this!