#but i guess these three ladies represent so much to me what it means to strive for virtue

[pardi-real]

Tarot of Destiny / Chapter 2 - Tarot Reading

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Hanamaru: "So, what's Maginaria like?

......Any famous local alcohol or something?"

Teddy: "Mr. Hanamaru! We're going there on business, don't forget."

Hanamaru: "I know what you mean, Teddy. I'm just asking."

Berrien: "I'm not sure about the local alcohol, but… as I mentioned earlier, this town thrives on fortune-telling. They value spirituality a lot... Anything disruptive to the ambiance is frowned upon. Particularly during the festival, they prefer more dignified attire and behavior."

Yuhan: "I see… Dignified behavior, huh.... Then, I guess Mr. Hanamaru can't come."

Hanamaru: "Wait, wait, wait, wait. If you leave me here, I'll cry for real, okay?"

Flure: "Speaking of which... What's dignified attire?"

Berrien: "Fufu... Don't worry. I mean the kind of 'proper outfits' that Flure always makes for us."

Lono: "I see... Then I guess I'll be fine in this tailcoat."

Flure: "What– no way! You can't wear your usual clothes for a festival. I'll design something suitable for the festival in the city of fortune-telling!"

Lono: "Oops… Looks like the fire in Flure's soul is burning again."

Haures: "I'm looking forward to your designs, Flure, but... don't push yourself."

Teddy: "Let me know If I can help!"

Flure: "Yes! Thank you very much. Fortune-telling… I wonder what design would fit~…"

Berrien: "Ah, yes, speaking of reference... Lady Elvira gave me these 'envelopes', it might help."

> " 'Envelopes'…?"

Berrien: "Yes. It is addressed to all of us, including the lord. I've checked mine, and if my assumption is correct, the contents might give us clues for the costumes."

Berrien handed out the envelopes one by one to the butlers.

Berrien: "Three left... one for you, my lord."

> "Thank you"

Berrien: "Yes ♪ And this one... 'To Mr. Talking Cat'... It's addressed to Muu, isn't it?"

Muu: "What! There's one for me, too? Ehehe… This might be the first time I've received a letter addressed to me!"

Berrien: "Fufu.  The last one is for Haures."

Haures: "Thank you. Without further ado… let's see what's inside. Hmm... this is…  Some sort of a 'card' is attached to a piece of paper... underneath it, there are sentences.

'This is the tarot card that represents you.' 'I hope this card will guide your actions… Hence, I hope it will be a guidepost for your life.'

This card... represents me? What does that mean?  I know that what is pasted on the paper is probably a tarot card… and appears to be pasted upside down. Is there a meaning to this?

Hmm... I don't know much about fortune-telling…"

Teddy: "Me neither... I only know what my lucky color is today."

Yuhan: "I know a little about Feng Shui… but I'm an outsider to tarot."

Hanamaru: "I see... no tarot hobbyist among us, then. So, Fennesz. Over to you."

Fennesz: "Huh… M-me...?

Hanamaru: "Yeah, you know, the knowledgeable Fennesz. I thought maybe you knew something about tarot readings… My bad. Bit much to ask, wasn't it?"

Fennesz: ".............. Uhm… I can tell you a bit… The card Haures got... is 'Justice' in 'reverse'.

In tarot reading, there are different types of cards and the concept of upright and reversed positions. Even if you draw the same card of 'Justice'... the meaning of the card will change depending on its position.

For example... the meaning of 'the card of Justice in reverse position' is 'to judge others harshly' or 'violence'... also 'excessive harshness' or something like that…"

Hanamaru: ".......Wow.  How do you even know all that stuff...?"

Fennesz: "D-don't set me up and act surprised now… I just happened to have read about it in a book and remembered it…"

Hanamaru: "Hehe, my bad, my bad. Just honestly impressed."

Haures: "But still... It didn't seem to have good meanings.  So, the reversed Justice card represents me…? Err… but I don't understand why."

Fennesz: "Uhm… but tarot cards have multiple interpretations... I don't think what I just said defines you, Haures…"

Haures: "Phew… Thanks, Fennesz."

Fennesz: "No, really... There's more to you, Haures...."

Haures: "Anyway... tarot cards are sent to all of us. If we refer to the pictures on these tarot cards.... It could help design costumes, right, Mr. Berrien?"

Berrien: "Yes… that's the idea."

Flure: "I see… That's right… I keep coming up with new ideas. Alright everyone, if you don't mind... Let me know your cards later!"

Hanamaru: "Yeah, got it.  By the way… I wonder which card is in my envelope~ let's see. ……… Ergh. The heck is this… 'DEATH'... It says 'death'. It's obviously an unlucky card."

Teddy: "Hmm~... It is true that it has an unlucky vibe, but... this card is 'reversed', isn't it? Maybe it doesn't mean what it looks like…"

Fennesz: "Yes, Teddy is right, Mr. Hanamaru. Death in the reverse position means 'rebirth' or 'change'... a reversal of fortune.

You will be able to get out of the pain of not being able to move forward and move on.... I think that's what it means. 

On the other hand, when it is in the upright position, it can mean the end of something, or farewell… and there are also many other meanings…"

Hanamaru: "Hmm~ I see. Well, if anything, I'm glad it's not upright."

Muu: "Fufu, regardless.... It's the same card, but the position changes the meaning... Tarot reading is so interesting, my lord!"

> "Yes, indeed"

Fennesz: "By the way... Which card was in your envelope, my lord?"

Fennesz asked me, and when I opened the envelope addressed to me... there was… the same card I had seen earlier....

> "It's Death in the upright position...."

Fennesz: "What…"

note: at least in English-speaking tarot, reversed Justice card means "dishonesty", "denial", "be careful with your emotions", and "injustice/unfairness/bias".

Reversed Death card means "fear of change", "refusing rebirth", "inability to let go/move on", "decay". While Death in upright position would mean "rebirth", "new beginnings", "transformation".

Well, I can find what Fennesz said in several Japanese websites though.

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[ridedatbull]

Research into those statues I’ve been finding is slow. Mostly because making sure Major(Tauros) is comfortable and taken care of while he heals is my biggest priority right now, but at the very least I have been able to locate that old picture book of the Old Gods of Johto. It’s just a thing for kids, but it’s real history and part of our heritage that usually gets brushed off because Ho-oh, Lugia and Celebi have been much more present much more recently

The gist of it is that, every species of Pokémon has their own deity that represents certain aspects of the world. Yes I do mean one for every Pokémon, so there are literally hundreds of them. Some with some pretty hyper specific domains, and several of which blend together sometimes. While all of these guys are powerful in their way, Ho-oh and Lugia still reign supreme over all of them as Lord and Lady (though the genderedness of those titles is a matter of hot debate these days) and Celebi is pretty much a free agent that does what they like

Of those hundreds of sub deities, twelve (or thirteen depending on who you ask) are the most important of all, and were given special honors by mankind. Shrines, holidays, their own hymns, the whole package. Over time, every single one of these gods just sort of faded away into obscurity. Some due to time, some due to shifting values, but most gods and their shrines were lost and destroyed due to constant war with our neighbors in Kanto. Nowadays, they’re only remembered as children’s fairy tales.

But the staues I’ve been seeing are more than that. And I’ve found more information on those three.

The Arcanine was the first I saw, and was actually being dug up by an archaeology team near the Ruins of Alph. This picture is from my book and I’ll put the passage about it here too:

“Of the old gods of Johto, Arcanine was loved and respected to level that almost rivaled Ho-oh and Lugia. The Arcanine god was very fond of humanity, adoring their works of art, their creative foods, their beautiful music and resilient hearts. Every chance they got, the Arcanine deity, and their child Growlithe would give aid to the growing people of Johto. The love of these gods was so great, that all mortal Growlithe and Arcanine share that same love for humans naturally, even to this day. It is still unknown why these powerful and majestic gods have not been seen in so long, but surely parting from the humans they so loved was deeply painful for Arcanine.”

It’s a bit of a sad story, but seeing the love I get every day from both of my own Growlithe does make me believe that something in the heavens loves us too. Why else would we get to be with these amazing creatures we call Pokémon?

The second statue was in the Ilex Forest all alone. Somehow though, it was perfectly clean, and I can only guess as to why. The god it belongs to is much more unassuming at first.

“Rattata may seem like an odd choice for a high pantheon of gods, but the ancient Johtoans held the humble creature on a surprisingly high pedestal. Small and humble they are, but they are mighty in their way. Just as Johto is in times of hardship and war. Unlike their neighbors, Johto has few natural deposits of iron, at least ones that are not habitats for territorial, burrowing Steel types. Therefore, many weapons of ancient Johto were forged with Rattata teeth to bolster the strength of what little iron they had. This served two purposes: genuinely strengthening forged blades as a primitive form of steel, and to channel the spirits of the persistent and underestimated power of the humble and the common. For this reason, the Rattata god is often portrayed wielding a sword many times its size.”

Maybe because they were more popular during times of war, Rattata’s shrines were targeted much more fiercely. It does explain why traditional smiths here sometimes keep Rattata teeth somewhere on display.

Now the third statue… if you know me even a little bit, you’ll understand why this one is important.

“When one imagines strength, it is difficult not to picture a Tauros. They are famed for it with good reason. Likewise, the Tauros god is one that is turned to when great strength is needed for some task or feat. Unrestrained, determined, and a champion among the Gods of Johto, Tauros represents the celebration of strength and survival. In the dead of winter, they send their blessings to those struggling to make it through the season, promising that if they are steadfast, they will live to see the next spring. Strangely, every depiction of this deity is different from both Kanto and Paldean varieties of Tauros, with longer horns and tails, brighter forehead studs and thicker manes. Some theorize that these depictions are all that drama in of a now extinct breed of Tauros.”

Well we were definitely struggling in the blinding snow trying to get home for the holidays, and Major responded to something about the statue of this god in a hidden cave that inspired him to lead us there to safety. That can’t just be a coincidence. I’m going to try to learn more when I can.

[antebellumite]

(since i sense you may be having an atticus finch moment rn) is go set a watchman "canon" to you? i always liked tkam but i never read gsaw (even though someone gave it to me when it came out) because i got a weird feeling about the circumstances of it being published among other things. never talked to anybody about it so figured i'd ask a certified tkam enjoyer

i am having Such an atticus finch moment that i have three fics in the works for him

ohhh boy so hear me out.

warning: i'm rereading tkam as we speak and its been a while since ive read gsaw

in my own personal head-interpretation of to kill a mockingbird, in which the irl reality of its publication is disregarded, gsaw is canon in the sense that it's the alternate universe of to kill a mockingbird, with the point of divergence being the tom robinson trial.

tom robinson is found guilty: atticus experiences Character Growth and becomes and remains the folk hero Defender of Rights and dilf we know today

tom robinson is not found guilty [or at least, not found guilty via the defense atticus uses in gsaw]: atticus basically remains on the natural course he was in the beginning of tkam to bigotry and Racism TM

tldr: gsaw, on its own, is not a good book, and nor is it fully canon, but it does serve as great contextualization to the person that atticus is in tkam and who atticus could have been.

at the beginning of the book and throughout the trial, atticus finch is clearly a very White Moderate in our Modern Terms, in the sense that he might disapprove of the racism exhibited by the citizens of maycomb, but he also is more than content to not do anything about it. his worldview is essentially: "man it sure sucks that my neighbors are prejudiced and more than willing to sentence an innocent man to death, and but i guess i'll tolerate it and spend time around them because they're good people at heart [to other white people]." you know how one of the most memorable lessons atticus teaches to scout is to have empathy for others? my argument is that atticus's practicing of that is what makes him to give too much leeway to the bigoted members of the community around him.

we see this with ike finch, maycomb's "sole surviving confederate veteran" and stonewall jackson fetishist. he makes his appearance early on in the book, prior to the robinson case even being introduced. according to scout, he comes by at least once a year to "rehash the war" with atticus. while i can assume this means that ike is representing the confederacy and atticus the union in this conversation, considering that in the immediate paragraph after, atticus states "this time we aren't fighting the yankees, we're fighting our friends. but remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home." it implies that in this american civil war replay, either both of them are identifying with the confederacy, or ike is and atticus is more than okay to go along with it. and in addition, atticus's apparent determination to remain on good terms with the people of maycomb no matter how bitter it got adds questions to just what he would have considered bitter enough for the people of maycomb to no longer remain his friends. if the mob at the scene at the jailhouse actually managed to lynch tom robinson, which they were probably going to do, until scout saved the day, would that have been "bitter enough" for atticus to reconsider being friends with murderers?

actually the fact that he adds in 'and this is still our home' makes me think he was planning to leave maycomb entirely if that scenerio actually happened but i digress

and then you get to ms. dubose, who serves as another aspect to how atticus views the racism of his town. when ms. dubose dies, he calls her the most bravest person he'd ever known, for having the courage to die clean of her morphine addiction, and also a "great lady". which, i understand, in part, is because she Just Died and he's talking to Jem and Scout who are children, but the way that atticus talks about it makes you feel as though he's implying that her courage serves as either recompense or excuse for a. the racism and b. the whole thing where she essentially verbally harassed jem and scout whenever they came by for the horrid sin of walking where she could see them.

of course there's also maycomb trial in general. atticus obviously knows that he cant win-- the famous 'just because you're licked doesn't mean you can give up' quote-- because he understands the prejudice of the town. but i believe that behind the quote, atticus still had faith in the judicial process, just not in the people who were in charge of it in maycomb. its part of the reason for his appeal-- to get robinson to a higher court where the people there could be more open-minded.

so in essence, atticus at the turning point of his story [ the trial ], is someone who's

1. overly lenient and sympathetic view of his maycomb neighbors allows him to excuse much of the harmful rhetoric and actions they perpetrate

2. considers racism to be, while Bad, a certain type of bad that is ultimately forgivable/excusable. i think there's also evidence in tkam that he basically also thinks the same thing for other forms of bigotry but i'm not going to look for them.

3. has trust in the judicial system

so from there, we have the tom robinson trial.

i like to think that what acting as tom robinson's defense attorney did for atticus was that it forced him to actually reckon with the racism of maycomb as directed towards an actual human being rather than a Nebulous Construct. when tom robinson got declared guilty despite being innocent, it showed him the actual harmful effects of what the people of maycomb believed, on an actual human being, who was subsequently presumably murdered via 17 gunshot wounds. it showed the failures of a system that allowed for tom robinson to be murdered and sentenced for a crime he didn't commit in the first place.

in gsaw, without tom robinson being convicted, i don't think that lesson would have hit so hard. to gsaw!atticus, robinson being declared not guilty is proof that the racism of maycomb is ultimately Not That Harmful, proof that the system ultimately Works As It Should, and it allows him to sink deeper into interactions with more extreme racist individuals, and eventually become the verison of atticus we see in gsaw.

in addition, gsaw!atticus's defense for tom robinson that gets him acquitted is that the robinson's presumed rape of mayella was consensual, whereas tkam!atticus reveals that the rape didn't happen between robinson and mayella in the first place (although, you know.) which implies a contrast between gsaw!atticus and tkam!atticus where tkam!atticus was focused on exonerating robinson's public image in order to then acquit robinson, but gsaw!atticus was focused on acquitting robinson head on, even if it meant attacking mayella instead.

what this would mean is that gsaw!atticus might not even have had all that much of an interaction with tom robinson, and therefore wasn't able to do that whole tkam-trademark Understanding and Seeing Him As A Person, thereby Removing his past Blinders to Injustice TM TM TM.

and this leads to the changes in atticus from tkam and gsaw. they're still the same person, but with a different turning point.

[magpie-sherlock]

Oh gosh it is the evening and I realize I never told you about High Fantasy Star Wars like I said I was going to

Okay SO

Some exposition: It's January of this year. I'm about halfway through my Clone Wars binge with my brother, rewatching it in its entirety for the first time since I was like, eight. I also happen to be a Heroforge addict, having already made several Legend of Zelda-themed miniature sets. I decide to apply my love of Star Wars to my addiction, and then decide that since Heroforge has way more options for fantasy than science fiction, that I will lean WAY into the whole "Star Wars Is Just A Fairy Tale Set In Space" thing.

Things get WAY out of control, and instead of a simple "Here's all the main characters of The Clone Wars in a miniature set", I wind up with a whole AU.

A lot of the story and stuff can be found under the #hfsw tag on my main blog, or by going to my (somewhat; I'm working on it) dedicated AU sideblog, @high-fantasy-sw, but since those are kind of chaotic at the moment, I'll also have a brief rundown here:

The main body (and by that I mean the fic adaptation that I'm writing) of the AU focuses on the Prequels, The Clone Wars, and the Original Trilogy. However, me being the Star War-crazed nerd that I am, I also do have stuff for Rebels, The Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi/Tales of the Empire, and sometimes the Sequels (the first three are canon to the AU even though they aren't part of the main story; the Sequels are not, but I still like to mess around with them a little).

The plot remains nearly identical to the canon universe, just tweaked to fit the Fantasy worldbuilding.

Because I liked the idea of needing to travel long distances on ships to reach other planets, I decided to not make the setting a single continent with each of the planets being a country on the continent. Instead, the world is set in an archipelago on a great sea, with each of the planets as its own island or chain of islands.

(Side note but one thing I'm very proud of is that each character fights with a distinct weapon, and even each Jedi's individual lightsaber is unique to them.)

I haven't really posted much about this either under the tag or on the main blog, but as I am a sucker for symbolism and motifs and what not, there are several distinct fantasy... "subgenres", I guess you could call them, in the AU that are supposed to symbolise what a character or organization or what-have-you represents. To name a few, the Jedi are heavily influenced by Arthuriana (because holy monk-knights and the ideals of chivalry), the war-like and highly-traditional Mandalorians are inspired by Ancient Rome, Padme specifically has a very classic-fairy-tale motif because of her high ideals and hope for the future, and the Empire (and the island of Coruscant, to an extent) is represented by a very grim version of steampunk, because of its desire to dominate and control through mechanical means.

I do have to put a disclaimer on this work: I never claimed historical accuracy in this AU. My whole thing is, "If I think it's a cool idea, in it goes", and so while several aspects of the story and worldbuilding are drawn from history (especially the Jedi and the Mandalorians), it's more of an inspiration than a strictly accurate thing. If historical accuracy is your thing, I would suggest going and checking out @/an-old-lady's Medieval Star Wars AU, which was a huge inspiration on my own idea, VERY cool, and with much more historical authenticity than my story.

Oh gosh I hope I wasn't overstepping with this infodump, and if I was feel free to ignore. But if you enjoyed this rant, I'm so glad! I hope you have a great day :D

ahsjfkfbbdnfkejnfkekrnd I LOVE THIS

I need to go to bed but i am most definitely looking into this more tmr bc YES I AGREE

and ur so real for the “if i like i add” thing. frfr

the archipelago idea is EXQUISITE. and i love the arthurian addition to the jedi

you did not overstep at all! i love infodumps, and i am currently eeting this one. feel free to infodumo any time friend!

[sapphim]

And who's your top 3 behated ones? >:]

not entirely sure to start with this one tbh. it feels less straightforward than beloved characters. like, what. companions I most dislike? villains that really work for me? villains that I think are just such a bag of wet farts? characters I enjoyed killing most? characters I'm most annoyed I didn't get to kill? characters that do nothing for me to the extent that I've deleted them from my worldstate? old ladies I'd fight in the street? (DA2 is the old ladies I'd fight in the street game of all time)

so I guess! here's what I would consider the one of all time for three different types of character behating

1. while everyone else is pondering whether loghain or meredith is the best villain in the series (we know it's not corypheus) my answer is—elthina, actually. the way in which she wields soft power and deflects blame is compelling to me. we're told that loghain and meredith were both very intelligent and tactical individuals, but then for the sake of hamming it up and going full villain mode—to ensure that the players are all on the same page—they are required to abandon all of that and go off the rails, and that's just not a satisfying villain for me. elthina represents the insidious corruption at the heart of the chantry that allows deep injustices to destroy a community so much more completely for me than anyone else. very cool of her to die in a fiery explosion. <3

2. the character that I would say I have the deepest distaste for on a metatextual level would be cullen. when it was announced that he was returning as not just a major character but as a softboy romantic lead I was filled with such dread lmao. his role in the series really is a perfect encapsulation of everything I find distasteful about how inquisition sacrificed the series' established approach to the setting for the sake of uwu grey morality at the expense of literally everything but the chantry. no thank you, I don't know this man.

3. the only companion I strictly refuse to recruit is oghren. I don't know this man. I don't care about any of his positive qualities. he means nothing to me.

[guzhuangheaven]

Hello! Hope you’re doing well :D! Just wondering what cdramas you’re watching now.

New Life Begins! It's really enjoyable and heart-warming. The plot is kind of non-existent and comes in and out almost like every once in a while the writers remembered they needed to have plot, but it’s got great world-building and characters which make up for it.

I love the concept of the nine regions and how each of those regions represent a different facets/levels to feminism.

You have Xinchuan in the middle being the big patriarchy, and you have Danchuan which is the kind of female-led, female-empowered society that Romance of Tiger and Rose tried to convey but ultimately failed. Danchuan make it very clear the key to empowerment/equality is about respect, and not like actual power or dominance.

But you also have the in-between regions like Jichuan where the FL is from, it isn’t explicitly matriarchal like Danchuan but clearly isn’t the ultra-patriarchal society of Xinchuan either. Here, just the practice of monogamy allows the FL to have different expectations in her marriage compared to her friend, Hao Jia, who comes from a region where polygyny is still the norm.

Hao Jia starts out with awareness that this system sucks but thinks that with that awareness she could play patriarchy to her advantage to benefit from it. Though it makes for a heart-breaking story for Hao Jia, I love the way this drama deconstructs how that ends up being impossible because systematic patriarchy is inherently designed to oppress women and there is no way to benefit from it without losing yourself.

It's also interesting that even though Jinchuan is still clearly male-centred and male-led, the fact that it’s about as close to a capitalist society as this world gets, it also provides women more freedom, at least in terms of being financially-independent. This is a very intriguing very pro-capitalism stance that I kind of hope/wish we can explore more. Are there any dark side of that and what is division of labour in the family like in Jinchuan if both men and women work…Do everyone just pay for childcare or do you just hoist that off to other family members…?

I love all the ways this drama subverts your expectation of female relationships in a typical drama. By episode three when they show the way Haitang and the solar ladies bond and team up to deal with the Third Prince, you should know that this drama is all about women supporting each other, but it still manages to surprise me when they continually refuse to take the catty internalised misogyny route. It’s like this drama decided to set up all the ways that women could turn against each other and then just goes, nope, they’re going to be best friends instead.

One of the things that reassured me that this drama is probably going to stay on the right path throughout is that there is no criticism of the path that Hao Jia chooses even when it traps her in an abusive marriage. Instead there is explicit acknowledgement that the fact that her husband is an abusive asshole is very much on him and just because Hao Jia chose to be his concubine doesn’t mean she deserves this. And she deserves everyone to help her get out of this situation.

At the same time, I was so pleasantly surprised with the Third Prince’s arc of realising that he’s the problem and has been treating his wife and concubines like objects, and how this allows him to learn from that. It’s acknowledgement that yes, men are taught by society to undermine/mistreat women, and change is only possible when they realise what they’re doing is wrong and commit to change. Except violent abusive assholes like the Second Prince. He deserves to die.

I guess the slow burn romance between the ML and FL is cute. But I forget they’re married most of the time to be honest. I also enjoy Bai Jingting in the comedy moments more than the serious political ones.

Sisi and the Seventh Prince are just *chef’s kiss* introvert with anxiety representation. I love how Sisi just occasionally shows up to throw money at her friends to deus-ex-machina them out of scrapes and then disappears again because social interaction is just *too much*.

Anyway, this drama: 10/10 would recommend. -h

[winvyre]

[Valerie's Story] Chapter 1: Omie (3/6)

It's the first day of spring: Omie's Festival day. Normally around this time there's still snow deep enough for the watchmen to need to clear the streets since we live in the Northern part of the Forest Region but this year the most we ever got was a few inches that melted a couple days later. And that was in the heart of winter. It’s odd.

Everyone’s festival outfits have furs and thick fabrics so they’re all wearing nice summer clothes instead which means a lot less red is present. It’s nice to see the rainbow in the square from my bedroom window even though the festival day feeling sorta relies on all the red. At least the pennant banners with Omie’s symbol and the hearthbloom wreaths hung all over the village are red.

This dress is my favorite. It’s lavender (my favorite color), off the shoulder like Omie’s though not as deep of a neckline, with long flowy sleeves and small butterfly embroidery all around the cuffs and bottom hem. The skirt hangs just past my knees so I can still run around in it and there is noticeable stitch work in a few places because it gets torn when I’m playing in the woods and Mom has to fix it. The biggest one came from getting caught on a branch when I fell from a tree. That’s why she gave me my vest. It’s brown and laces up in the front and it’s long enough to protect most of the skirt. The belt has a large silver buckle the same shade as my eyes which is why I picked it.

I guess the whole point of the festival is moot now because the winter was so unusual. We’re supposed to be thanking Omie for protecting us through the winter and keeping our houses warm. Oh well. The Believers will find some other reason to celebrate. I’m here for the games and the food!

Before any of the fun stuff happens we have to wait for the special service to be over. Today most people will congregate in the Megachurch in the capital, some of our neighbors will too, but Archfell is pretty isolated so our main temple will be at capacity. It’s got some nice stained glass windows but other than that it’s what Maurin would call “art deficient.” He’d also say “It’s like they think having three thousand candles makes up for how barren the walls are.” He would know, too. He counted. I wish he were here.

The temple isn’t the only place with candles today. Every booth has at least a few candles waiting to be lit. The exceptions are the candle-selling booths for obvious reasons and the booths run by the most devout of Omie’s Believers; they have a lot. They're usually the same booths anyway. According to the religion, the candles represent our hope and faith as a guiding light through dark times. There's a story about Omie arriving in a plagued, famished village and lighting all the candles with her holy energy. That story is the reason why Holywood, also named after the story, is the capital of the Forest Region and why the Megachurch is located there.

Francesca and I loiter outside the temple, listening in. The priest’s voice is muffled but I can still make out most of the words. “Benevolent Omie, uplift the lowest and alleviate their suffering.” Fran’s waiting for the watchman from the docks to exit so she can pretend to run into him. Mom says she's at that age where some kids start thinking about romance and to indulge her a little bit. That's why I'm here. She's too scared to talk to him alone. He's only two years older than her which is how much older she is from Kell. It shouldn't be that hard. Is that what I’m going to be like in three years?

“Gentle Omie,” the priest says, “care for us, show your love to the loveless, put our hearts and our minds at ease so that we may celebrate today.” Francesca's pacing. It's almost the end. “Let us recite ‘Our Lady.’”

The church goers chorus:

“Our Lady, Our Lady

Dressed in all red

The color of Hearth

The sufferers bled

Our Lady, Our Lady

She came from the sky

To help the unfortunate

And mend why they cry

Our Lady, Our Lady

Champion of Home

She takes care of us

We are never alone

Our Lady, Our Lady

We kneel and revere

We dance and we sing

Because you are here.”

I’ve never witnessed any other religious services but the Hearth Immortal’s worship has gotta be one of the most boring. How it became the most widespread is a mystery to me.

The temple doors open. Fran jumps and adjusts the pastel blue hair bow tying off her dark braid. She did it herself and is very proud of it. People pour out, ready to start the festivities. The first teens I see are Fran’s classmates she sometimes hangs out with. They look her up and down with an amused sort of disgust then snicker amongst themselves. She blushes and hides her face. What was that about?

The watchman is one of the last people to leave. “I can’t do it!” Fran whines.

“Just do it already! He’s leaving!”

“No! He’ll hate me! He probably already does!”

“Have you ever spoken to him?”

“Not directly…”

“Then why would he hate you? I’d understand if he’d actually met you-”

“Hey!” Fran’s nose scrunches up and her eyebrows furrow. I watch the watchman finish his conversation with an older couple before he starts walking again. This is stupid.

“Hey, watchman.”

“Yes?”

“Are you single?”

Fran rushes to my side, “I’m so sorry about her, she’s just goofing around.” she smiles nervously, dragging me back to our hiding spot.

“Any particular reason you wanted to know?” the watchman asks good-naturedly.

“My sister likes you.” I say without hesitation. Fran lets go of my arm to cover her face again as she sprints away. “Uh oh.” I think I messed up. “Disregard that. I have to go now.”

I find Francesca crying behind the temple. “Why would you do that?!”

“I was trying to help.”

“You didn’t help me, you just embarrassed me! The other girls are never going to let me hear the end of it. My life is over!”

“Fran-”

“Go away, Valerie!”

I back up, bumping into Mom. “What’s wrong?”

“I told Fran’s crush that she liked him and now she won’t talk to me.” I point to Fran curled in on herself on the ground.

“She just needs some time to calm down. You overstepped her boundaries and upset her. She didn’t ask you to confess for her so it wasn’t your information to tell. I’ll stay with her, you can apologize later.”

Oh. “Okay.”

Mom sits down next to Fran and I go to meet Kell at our rendezvous point: the spinning top stand.

----------

Channeling Ebony in that outfit description lol Half way through... buckle up!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

[tooti-fruiti]

THE GENTLE GIANT [CHAPTER TWO]

The First Challenge

You all were told to stand on top of a cliff in your swimsuits for you first challenge.

"Oh shit..." DJ said.

"Okay!" Chris said. "Today's challenge is three-fold. Your first task is to jump off this one thousand foot high cliff into the lake."

"Piece of cake." Bridgette said.

"If you look down, you will see two target areas. The wider area represents the part of the lake we have stocked with psychotic..." He paused for a second to laugh. "...man eating sharks!"

"Excuse me?" Leshawna said.

"Inside the area is a safe zone, that's your target area. Which we're pretty sure is shark free."

"For each member of your team that jumps and actually... survives will awarded a point. The team with the most points will win a helping hand for the next part of your challenge. Killer Bass, you're up first!"

"Oh...wow...so who wants to go first?" You asked.

Nobody volunteered.

"Hey don't sweat it guys!" Owen said. "I heard that these shows always make the interns do the stunt first to make sure it's survivable."

"So! Who's up?" Eva asked.

"Ladies first." Duncan said.

"Fine." Bridgette said. "I'll go. It's no big deal..."

Then she mumbled something to herself before jumping off.

You ran over to check if she made it and she landed in the safe zone.

"She did it! Yeah! Yeah! I'm up next!" Tyler said.

"COWABUNGA!" Tyler yelled as he ran off the cliff.

You all watched as he went down, before landing on a buoy.

He still made it in the safe zone however.

"Alright! I'm next!" Geoff said.

Then he jumped off too.

Then Eva and Duncan jumped too.

"Nuh uh, no way man. I'm not jumping." DJ said.

"Scared of heights?" Chris asked.

DJ nodded. "Yeah, ever since I was a kid."

"That's okay, big guy." Chris smiled.

"Unfortunately!" He said as he placed a chicken hat on DJ's head. "That also makes you a chicken, which means you'll have to wear this for the rest of the day!"

"Aww man, for real?"

Chris smirked and gestured for DJ to walk back down the hill.

As he did, you waved goodbye to him before turning to the cliff.

You took a deep breath and approached the edge of the cliff.

"You scared too, (Y/n)?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, I'm terrified." You said before pushing yourself to jump off.

You jumped off and screamed as you went down.

Before you knew it, you landed in the water and made it in the safe zone.

A boat came to pick you up and you sighed a breath of relief.

Everyone else who had already jumped, cheered for you.

As you approached the sand, you saw Ezekiel jump off as well.

He landed on a rock and spun into the water.

Everyone cheered for him as well.

Then Harold jumped off and landed on his dick.

"Ouch." Duncan said.

After a while of no one jumping, Katie and Sadie jumped off together.

"Wait, wasn't Katie on the other team?"

Bridgette shrugged.

Once they reached the sand, they ran up to everyone.

"Guys guess what?! Chris let us switch and now Katie's on our team!" Sadie said.

"Who'd she switch with?" Tyler asked.

"Izzy!"

"Wait, where's Courtney?" You asked.

"Oh, she didn't jump." Katie said.

"What about DJ?" Geoff asked.

"He didn't jump either." You said.

"Really? That's lame." Duncan said.

After a few minutes of no one jumping, Heather was suddenly thrown off the cliff.

Then some other people went too.

Until Justin went and he landed out of the safe zone.

Everyone gasped and some of his teammates started to panic.

Some sharks approached him and were about to eat him until they stopped.

Then suddenly, the sharks fell in love with him and helped him onto the shore.

Your teams gave each other looks of confusion.

Then more people went and the last person on top of the cliff was Owen.

You all stared at him in anticipation.

"How much you wanna bet he ends killing himself?" Duncan asked Geoff.

Suddenly, Owen yelled and jumped off the cliff.

When he landed in the water, it created such a huge splash that it knocked everyone over.

You and your team sat up as the Screaming Gophers started cheering.

"The Screaming Gophers win!" Chris cheered as he reached the beach on a four-wheeler.

"For the second part of the challenge, both teams will need to haul back crates full of supplies for the third and final task! And as their reward, the Screaming Gophers will get these carts, to haul back the crates with ease."

"Nice!" Trent said.

"Sucks to suck, Bass!" Chris said before zooming off.

"Well, we better to get to work." Courtney said as she, DJ, and Beth all came down from the cliff.

Everyone glared at her before choosing a crate to push back to the camp grounds.

As you were pushing, you noticed you were walking beside DJ and looked up to him.

"Wow you're really strong." You said.

DJ chuckled a little bit. "Thanks."

"Shut up! And pick up your crate!" Eva yelled at Courtney. "Chicken."

"Hey! You guys need me, I'm the only one who's an actual C.I.T."

You and DJ gave each other a look that said you didn't believe her.

Later, Courtney got bit by a bug, Tyler took a pee break, then Katie and Sadie also took a pee break and ended up quitting the challenge because they got poison ivy on their asses.

By the time you all got back to camp, you saw the other team was already half way done with building their bot tub and everyone basically gave up hope.

Geoff got on top of the crates and raised his arms. "'Kay. Dudes. It's not too late, we can do this!"

You looked over and saw Ezekiel picking his nose. "Ew!"

He quickly wiped off his finger on his pants. "What?"

"...that's really gross." Bridgette said.

"Okay look guys." Courtney said, standing up. "We have a hot tub to complete, and we need a project manager. Since I've actually BEEN a C.I.T. before, I'm electing myself."

"Any objections?"

"Where do we begin, Cyclops?" Duncan asked.

"Open the crates! (Y/n), go find those itchy girls, we need all the help we can get!"

You nodded and ran back to the beach to find Katie and Sadie.

You found them sitting in the water with their pants down.

"Has the itch gone?"

They shook their heads.

You sighed. "Look, we need your help to complete the challenge, if you help out I'll see if Chris can get you some anti-itch cream, okay?"

They nodded and pulled up their pants.

Then you three walked back to the campgrounds to see that the hot tubs were finished.

The Gophers' hot tub looked amazing, while yours did not.

Then Chris came out to inspect the hot tubs.

He checked the Gophers hot tub first.

"...This, is an AWESOME hot tub!"

The Gophers started cheering and your team waited nervously as Chris went over to your hot tub.

He poked at it a few times before water sprayed him in the face, then it completely fell apart.

"Well...I think we have a winner here."

He waited for a few seconds.

"The Screaming Gophers!"

They started to cheer and your team grumbled and groaned.

"Gophers! Your team is safe from elimination, AND you get to rock this awesome hot tub for the rest of the summer! Bonus!"

Then he turned to your team as the Screaming Gophers continued to cheer.

"Killer Bass, what can I say? Sucks to be you right now. I'll see your sorry butts at the bonfire tonight."

•

During during, everyone was talking about who the team should vote off.

"So who are we gonna vote off?" Courtney said.

"Well I think it should the "C.I.T." or the Brickhouse here." Duncan said, pointing to Courtney and DJ.

"What?! Why?!"

"Because, if I'm not mistaken, you two are the only ones who didn't jump. And if we ever have to lift a truck, I like our odds with the big guy."

"I'm with Duncan." You said. "I think we should vote off Courtney."

You turned to her. "Not only did you not jump off, but it was under YOUR leadership that we couldn't build the hot tub. Plus, Duncan's right. DJ's useful."

She started to stutter. "Y-You guys need me! I-I'm the only one-"

"WE KNOW." Bridgette said. "You used to be a real C.I.T. So who would you pick?"

Courtney looked around before pointing at Tyler.

"What about him?"

"Hey, at least he jumped off the cliff, Chicken Wing."

"Shut up!"

Geoff got in between Duncan and Courtney.

"Okay everyone, chill out. This is getting way too heavy."

"I've had enough prison food for one day. I'm gonna go have a nap."

"Y-You can't do that! We haven't decided who's going yet!"

"Can and I will." Duncan said as he got up.

"Well, I just don't get why we lost ay? They're the ones that have more girls."

All the girls gasped at his comment.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bridgette asked as you moved beside her.

"Yeah homeschool, enlighten us!" Eva said.

"Well, guys are much stronger and better at sports than girls are!"

"Excuse me?!" You asked.

"Oh snap! He did not just say that!" Geoff snickered.

"My dad told me to look out for the girls here, ay? And help 'em in case they can't keep up."

Eva grabbed his throat and held him in the air.

"Still think we need your help 'keeping up'?"

"N-Not...really." He gasped.

"Okay, guys." Geoff said as Eva dropped him. "Let's give him a break. I mean, at least he doesn't think guys are smarter than girls."

"But, they are?" He said.

Then Eva leaned over and punched Ezekiel in the nose.

"Woah! Girl, you probably just broke his nose!" DJ said.

"He deserved it." She growled.

All the girls nodded in unison.

•

As night began to set, you were sitting outside your cabin when DJ sat down next to you.

"Thanks for what you said back there."

You smiled. "Of course. I meant what I said too."

DJ opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by someone else.

"Hey guys." (Ex/n) said.

"You're on the other team, what do you want?" You glared at them.

"I just want to talk to you, that's all."

"Nope." You immediately stood up and walked inside your cabin.

•

Once everyone was at the bonfire, Chris started the elimination ceremony.

"Killer Bass. At regular camp, marshmallows represent a tasty treat that you enjoy roasting by the fire. At this camp, marshmallows represent life."

"You all cast your votes and made your decisions. There are only eleven marshmallows on this plate. When I call your name, come up and get a marshmallows. Whoever does not receive a marshmallow, will immediately return to the dock of shame, catch the boat of losers, and leave the competition and the island. For good."

Then Chris started handing out the Marshmallows. "Geoff, Tyler, Katie, Sadie, Bridgette, Harold, DJ, (Y/n), Duncan."

The only people left, were Courtney and Ezekiel.

"Courtney, Ezekiel. This is the final marshmallow."

Chris didn't speak for a whole minute as Courtney and Ezekiel watched them in anticipation.

Until he finally help up the marshmallow.

"Courtney."

She sighed a breath of relief and ran over to get her marshmallow.

"Can't say I'm shocked dude, I saw you picking your nose. Not cool."

Ezekiel sighed and walked to the dock of shame.

"Thanks for not voting me guys." Courtney said.

"Uh huh." You said as you ate your marshmallow and walked back to your cabin.

•

Video Diary-Number 2-(Y/n)

"Courtney is lucky. If Ezekiel didn't say anything. I know she would have been voted off."

•

[Hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned for more and have a good day]

<-Chapter One

[sweatandwoe]

Sweaty idk who this Ghost fellow is but color me intrigued,

What’s the most important thing I should know about them?

Okay, there's lore. I'm gonna post a quick video about them cause it explains it, but I'll put my own blurb underneath to explain Ghost a bit.

Blurb for some written info I posted in discord a while ago under here (some of this info may not be accurate, I'm still quite new myself)

OKAY QUICK GHOST LORE: Everybody in the band is playing a character. Think like theatre kinda thing. They're all part of the Satanic Clergy, and are using the band to spread Satan's message. They go through different ERAs with the lead singer playing each character, but they're different characters.

The one white eye is because all the lead singers are part of this one bloodline that's like blessed by Satan to lead his church and it kinda represents that. I think it's called like 'Papa's eye' because the titles are all Papa, instead of Pope for head of the church. Right now we're on Papa Emeritus IV, who was known as Cardinal Copia beforehand, but there was three others before him. They don't need to die but the previous three did get killed off before new guy came and now leads the Ghost project. He's not seen as part of the bloodline (cause he's probably a secret bastard child) but it's more played for laughs because he clearly has the eye and they hint pretty heavily that he's the bastard kid of the dad of the other Papas

So there's like three other versions to simp for based on the album's eras and they all have different make-up/masks that the leader singer uses so they're different characters.

There's more to this, but this is the gist of it. TLDR: Satan reasons for Eye.

I'll post some pics of the Papas. Also, all the instrumentalists / background singers are like demons they summon to help with the show. They're called Ghouls

Just a reminder that the Papas are all different characters, but this is all the same dude under there. Tobias Forge we salute for being so talented

First is Primo, he's the first Papa we see. So he's Papa Emeritus i ,

Primo probably has the least known personality, just cause Ghost wasn't big when he was the lead character for it. I know it's fanon that he's old man who likes to tend to his garden, and is generally seen as more serious than the others

Next we have Secondo, also known as Papa Emeritus ii

Secondo is serious like Primo, but also really likes to party. You can also see him without any of the facepaint on, and he's literally Mr. WorldWide

Next up we have Terzo, who I'm putting up multiple pictures for reasons

Terzo, also Papa Emeritus iii, is far flirtier than the previous two. He would monologue to the audience about how he wants to fuck them and how he celebrates the female orgasm. Falls off the stage too, but he also started the circe thing, which is where he serenades a lady in the audience. Here's a video of it (Fair Warning, Circe is a song about religious trauma)

Next we have Cardinal Copia/(you guessed it) Papa Emeritus iv

Cardinal Copia's first looked like this

and then he went into this:

the in universe reason for the change was plastic surgery, so he got some work done

Copia is my fave, I am insane about him. He's just this sweet, shy goofball of a guy, who the second he gets confident (like being on stage) gains x100 sexual energy. It's amazing. just I mean, come on, look at him

god - i mean satan

anyway yeah that's pretty much it. I wanna smooch Copia's nose, old and new versions

[valleynix]

it took me a second to gather my thoughts and send the evidence forward, BUT... here is my little analysis on some things i've seen in the castle (or have had mentioned to me) that i thought were interesting

(feel free to correct me if i'm mistaken on something)

the first thing i wanted to mention was how many naked/suggestive lady statues there were

this one in particular was just in her room in the beginning (lesbian), but i believe i counted about eleven different statues with those requirements? four of the masked ones, the same four in the Hall of the Four, and i believe three of those statues pictured above, one of which was in the attic

meanwhile, all the statues of men are clothed or look professionally done (some even looking like Greek busts), but any that were not fully clothed were hidden from sight in some way, be it stored in another, less-trafficked room or kept in a corner, like this one:

tell me that's not some homosexuality

ANYWAY, i also wanted to delve deeper into the flowers we see throughout the castle and perhaps any hidden meaning behind them, at least from what i could see

it was kind of hard to tell what flowers were in this one, but from what i could see:

the purple coneflower seems to represent health and healing, or even strength and well-being. when i talk about the other meanings, you'll see why this would be important

the whitish pink flower in the middle appears to be a pink peony, and this flower is known to represent good luck and prosperity, among other things. peonies in general seem to represent love, honor, happiness wealth, romance, and beauty. this does seem to be a light pink peony, which are often included in wedding bouquets

moving on, we have the obvious red rose, something i'm sure we all know the meaning to by now. if not, red roses represent "newlywed bliss and mutual respect and appreciation between the couple." a little simpler, they often stand for love and romance :)

i couldn't quite tell exactly what that white flower was, but my best guess was the gypsophila, which seems to represent eternal love and innocence, often used in weddings. anyone else noticing a pattern, here?

anyway, next we have what appears to be lavenders sticking out toward the top. these often represent things like "purity, silence, devotion, serenity, grace, and calmness." i'm really starting to see a pattern-

this almost seems like it would be a wedding bouquet, or perhaps a flower arrangement meant to commemorate the act. there are several around the castle, and while i believe these flowers were also in Biohazard in the main house, i just found it interesting, considering Lady Dimitrescu's lesbianism :)

moving on!

i had a bit of a jumpscare with this painting of the man i saw in the wine room, especially when i saw the ring on his finger

but not to worry! after doing a little bit of research, i discovered that the single ring on someone's pinky finger most likely meant they were part of the crime world, and more specifically, the mafia, though that doesn't make much sense here. another source also says that wearing a single ring on your left pinky finger means the person is unmarried, and that made me feel so much better

the man seems to be a hunter of some sort, considering what appears to be bird feet beneath his hand, and for a minute while i was researching and wandering aimlessly around the castle, i wondered if this could be Rednic. it kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Rednic smuggles in people, most likely for the wine business, and this man is in a prime spot in the wine room

alas, i don't believe he's anything more than a Dimitrescu ancestor, at best. he has several more paintings of himself in this exact pose around the castle, usually paired with another, older man, and that alone tells me he's likely no one too important, though i would like to know if his placement is intentional or just for decoration

i know Capcom has a tendency to just reuse assets, but i like to overanalyze things for my own enjoyment </3

onto probably my last point, i did want to talk about the ablution room, too, assuming tumblr allows me these images. the funniest thing (in my opinion) is that when i brought up some other sapphic imagery in Castle Dimitrescu, a lot of people reminded me about the ablution room and the puzzle within:

"women are blind to male advances" is a well-known line when we talk about sapphic imagery, and what's even funnier is the violets right below the sign, which are also well-known to represent sapphics. anyone who claims Lady Dimitrescu is not queer is literally lying

especially with this stature, which has been confirmed to represent her. i mean, even look at the height compared to the other woman, as well as the way she's dressed. why are they staring so intently at each other?? plus the wine, the ragged-looking clothes... the symbolism is everywhere

anyways, while this may be a bit of a stretch, i also wanted to point out a few things i noticed before but never really went into detail about previously

we can see in the first image that this seems to be a lounging area? minus the toilet, but the room is big enough for it to house several people, obviously, and that makes sense; ablution just stands for "the act of washing oneself," though it's typically meant in a religious way, i believe? it makes sense, considering, yknow... the cult...

anyway, so we've got the castle's bathing room, probably for the maids, all things considered. the second picture features what appears to be some sort of menstruation chair? someone actually pointed this out to me because i had no idea what it was, but considering the noblewomen inhabitants' diet... hm. yeah. it's an easy way to sate their thirst, i suppose, if that's what it's used for

next are the sinks, which i believe may be a bit of a stretch with this theory, but hear me out:

see how one of those sinks has lipstick on it? i never really noticed before, but it does have the exact same casing on it as Lady Dimitrescu's, and hers is special made... it makes me wonder if one sink is specifically hers and if the ablution room is also a sort of blood or feeding room, and that's why she has that there. she would probably need to fix herself up after a feeding or even other activities, assuming she even mingled with the help to begin with

at first, i wondered if the other sink was supposed to be specifically someone else's, perhaps the woman we see all over the castle? but i don't think that makes much sense, and maybe they're both just for general use. considering the blood in the bath and the way it's smeared across the floor, i assume someone was bathing in it and couldn't clean it all up before the events of Village

i'm likely just talking out of my ass for most of this, but it was fun to look into things and do some research :3 probably won't do this again because Nerves™️, and also because i know most of this is probably just reused assets, but oh, well. i had fun, and hopefully you had fun reading :D

[shivunin]

Hullo!

Here's some characters for you too!

Sera, Flemeth and Anora :3

Thank you, Arja! 💗Ooh these were interesting ones c:

(Character Ask thing)

Sera

First impression: Alas, at first glance I thought she was a manic pixie dream girl.

Impression now: Soooo much more depth than anyone gives her credit for. So much internal tension and so many contradictions. I think her struggle with her own identity as an elf is so fascinating, especially through the lens of the way she talks to a Lavellan at the beginning of the game vs the things she says in Trespasser. The way she talks about the "little people" is so necessary and at odds with the opinions of the rest of the inner circle, her relationship with Dagna is precious to me, and some of the things she says to a befriended Inquisitor during Trespasser bring me to tears. I don't know that she will ever be one of my favorite characters, but I respect and love her anyways. So glad she is a companion.

Favorite moment: Her monologue after the Winter Palace is soooo good, I love it every time.

Idea for a story: Hmm I've thought about writing some things about her and Elowen, actually, because I think their dynamic is interesting. They love each other, they don't want to be around each other, when they're sad they want to hang out, Sera gets her drunk when she's being mopey...they're a hot mess and at some point I'm going to explore it better. Eventually.

Unpopular opinion: Errr idk. I think Sera fans have big brains and nuanced opinions (from my limited exposure). I'm not sure what the popular opinions are?

Favorite relationship: Sera and Dorian. They have some of the funniest dialogue, and though the companions do not exist solely to entertain me (or, wait, i guess they do) the dynamic between these two is so goddamn funny.

They fascinate me

Favorite headcanon: Idk how much is headcanon and how much is canon, but this is twofold: 1) Sera takes the painted box from you in Origins for the Jennies and 2) when Amethyne (the little girl sitting on the ground in the alienage, whose mom dies in the Cousland origin) talks about Sara going away she is actually talking about Sera and they were besties before Sera was adopted by human woman (whose name escapes me)

Flemeth

First impression: OH MY GOD??? AND SHE TURNS INTO A DRAGON?? WHO THE FUCK IS THIS LADY? SURELY SHE MUST BE A MAIN CHARACTER (and then she wasn't)

Impression now: Terrible mother, but oh my god is she serving cunt

Favorite moment: The scene between her, Morrigan, and Keiran. I just think it's an illuminating aspect of the dynamic between the three of them.

Idea for a story: Hmmmmm so....someday I might go back to the Scourge of Sundermount AU and if I ever do there will be a sort of apprenticeship thing with her and Ilriane. Otherwise, I don't necessarily feel the urge to write her.

Unpopular opinion: I think her weird, cryptic manner of speaking in Origins is hilarious and I wish she kept doing it.

Favorite relationship: I mean, limited options, right? Morrigan by default (we see so little of her and Solas/Fen'Harel). Very fucked up dynamic. Morrigan becoming the mother she never had is *chef's kiss* so good though.

Favorite headcanon: She taught Morrigan to talk Like That on purpose because it reminded her of a more familiar time OR for the lols. Her speech patterns aren't super similar in 2 or Inquisition, so it seems like an intentional affectation to me.

Anora (Arja, if you love Anora, I am so sorry in advance)

First impression: Oh, interesting! I guess maybe she's supposed to represent the conflict between having power, keeping it, and doing what's best for the country. I wonder if she'll act against her dad on the Wardens' behalf. Also, great outfit/nice hair.

Impression now: :/ Unfortunately, I take fictional betrayals very personally, so my opinion is clouded by blind rage at being sold out to Cauthrien and then again at the Landsmeet. I'll leave it at that.

Favorite moment: When Loghain is about to die and he says the thing about her being a little girl with skinned knees and for a moment she is just a daughter watching her father about to die. Extremely effective moment of storytelling.

Idea for a story: Well! If I finish writing the scene where Wen breaks her out, Anora will inevitably be there. So probably that.

Unpopular opinion: Oh geez. Well. Idk what the prevailing opinion on Anora is because most of the people I follow seem to like her in general. It's unpopular with myself that I dislike her so intensely, if that isn't a total cop-out to say? She's all the things I usually find compelling (calculating, kind of heartless, extremely competent) and yet...in my first playthrough she fucked me over so thoroughly that I can't get past it or see her any other way. She cannot girlboss, gatekeep, or gaslight her way out of pissing me off.

Favorite relationship: Her and Loghain. No idea what's going on there, but I want to squish them into a glass slide and look at them under a microscope.

Favorite headcanon: 😬 (Again, I'm sorry if you like her, but in my head Zev kills her post-game to avoid any succession issues and as a gift to Wen, who promised Alistair she wouldn't do anything herself. Not that it was a "won't somebody rid me of this upstart priest" situation; I think he also took Anora getting Wen thrown in prison personally, so it's sort of a win-win for him. So by Awakening she is definitely dead; that's the headcanon. But really she poses an issue to succession if she's not queen or dead, because she refuses to forfeit a right to the crown)

[nedlittle]

as someone who only just finished gideon the ninth last sunday & finally understands the hype & hasn't finished the other books, PLEASE release the 11 pages of notes

your wish is my command, here are my notes verbatim typed from my tiny notebook (typos notwithstanding. i fixed those so i don't look stupid)

ACT I

P. 29 - before the duel, Harrow presents herself “emptied like a quiver” prefiguring the necromancer/cavalier dynamic and the fact that they will grow to need each other. The king & lionheart of it all…

P. 54 - Gideon tells Harrow: “Your heart is a party for ten thousand nails.” and I SCREAMED 

P. 73: [paragraph describing Ianthe and Coronabeth in luxurious detail] “The boy just looked like a bit of a dick.” lesbianism

P. 76 - “He didn’t look healthy; he looked like a collection of lemons in a sack.” Why is this so evocative

SO funny that Harrow is like Griddle. You hog you need to do this correctly. Wear the damn face paint. And then it’s just a weird Ninth House thing. I love space Catholicism these bitches so deranged

Cannot read the “I pray the tomb stays locked forever. I pray the rock is never rolled away” prayer without it being to the tune of ‘No Children’

ACT II

P. 110 - “Coronabeth Tridentarius, Princess of Ida, took her hand and roguishly kissed the backs of Gideon’s knuckles.” I know there’s a whole essay on chivalry and gender on Tor but I guess I just want to say that there’s a really interesting subversion of the medieval lady/champion dynamic going on. Coronabeth kisses Gideon’s knuckles. Dulcinea has Gideon physically show off but Gideon, bound by her promise to Harrow, cannot talk and thus any typical structures for wooing are inverted. By her silence she is rendered as cool and unbreachable as a maiden in a tower

Something something Gideon’s physical body and her personhood always being someone else’s property.

All of Jeannemary’s dialogue with Magnus being parenthesized and in a smaller type is such a fun little touch

P. 125-6 - “[...] but she had fed her entire life into the meat grinder of hope.” Fuck me!

P. 128 - “She had never seen Harrowhark Nonagesimus’s naked face.” Harrow having to perform being Reverend Daughter not only her role but the entire house in the shape of a girl

[Angela Carter voice] a girl who is both death and the maiden

 P. 151 - “You could have died today.” "you could finish me right now, if you liked. You might even win."......hot.

Every single one of Gideon’s silly nicknames for Harrow is perfect.

P. 152 - “She smiled again–slower than before, just as terrible, just as strange.” Okay Galadriel

P. 161 has the first time Gideon calls Harrow by her first name. By the end of the act it will be three times. Harrow has yet to say hers.

“P. 163 - “You can control my body. You can read my thoughts.” I believe this is what the kids call foreshadowing for book 2

Also on that page: “But first, Griddle, I’m afraid I have to pass out.” I love her.

Verbatim annotation from p. 167: ‘SHE’S NEVER HAD A DESERT :(‘ 

I know that they’re not friends but [John Darnielle voice]: people say friends don’t destroy each other what do they know about friends

Ianthe’s “I don’t live alternative histories” god I am so excited for her to be awful

The dynamic kind of reminds me of Sweet Smell of Success (1957) which features a similarly nasty yet reliant dynamic but it ends Far Worse. Very much we need each other to be a cohesive whole but that doesn’t mean we have to be nice

IT WAS THEIR ANNIVERSARY!!! NO

ACT III

I will be surprised if Dulcinea survives and also does not end up being marginally evil.

Not to sound like it’s 2014 and I just discovered all-female casts but I’m really into both the 2nd and 9th being the only ones with both necro + cav being women. I know it’s a basic thing and that there isn’t

a ton about the Second House yet but having the representatives of “The Emperor’s Strength” both be girls…nice

Naberius die challenge!

P. 200 - “He wouldn’t have let anything happen to Abigail [...] She hated heights. She never would have risked falling.” I am howling like a shot wolf.

First of all, Gideon being affected by Magnus’s death because he was nice to her without any ulterior motives: OUCH. Second, “we are all the sons and daughters that the House of the Ninth possess.” The Twelfth Night of it all…the performance of it all. (“I am all the daughters of my father’s house and all the brothers too.” 2.4)

The Harrow who lives in my head has a mullet

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL I EVER DESIRE YOUR JUICE

The First time Harrow calls Gideon by her name is p. 228

The choice of ‘spawned’ to refer to Harrow’s birth feels deliberate and I’m sure I’ll find out why later. Also the Scandalous Nudity being her face rather than her body when they’re both bare…it’s about living around and under the foot of someone your whole life but never being allowed to know them

P. 234 - Gideon can’t even say Harrow’s name aloud to anyone else…I wish to die! Swiftly!

P. 246 - Gideon has a hot bath for the first time (yay!) and wonders “whether water could get inside of you and make you sick.” God the Ninth House really is living in Vampire Times. Aristotle, you there?

The way all the different houses approach necromancy and the necro/cav dynamic is SO interesting! Cam’s line on p. 235 about the Eight “breed[ing] batteries” absolutely chilled me. Also the juxtaposition between the Eighth using cavaliers as an energy source vs Ianthe, absolute freak, taking a chunk out of Babs. The physical body vs the energy which propels it. Then contrasting that with pairs like Magnus & Abigail (rip) and Cam & Pal who mentally and emotionally rely on each other instead. It isn’t parasitic. KING AND LIONHEART! GO CRAZY AAH! GO STUPID AAH!

I am using all of my meager brain cells to formulate a thought about Camilla and Marta’s fight that isn’t just. wrow. women. OK. The description is short and brutal like the fight itself. The line about Cam fighting like a grease fire works so well my blood was in my EARS! When she dislocated Marta’s arm my own arm jerked back in shock. Fully almost yeeted the book

Yay for Pal also getting a hot moment. One man <3

“Harrow “rose to the occasion like an evening star”....DEATH FIRST TO VULTURES AND SCAVENGERS…I love her something awful. 

My highlighter ran out on p. 275 because I highlighted basically the whole page. The girls HUG!! Gideon lifts Harrow off the ground! Unsure if I should tag myself as ‘midnight hagette’ or Harrow’s utter lesbian brain death. At “It feels like forever” I genuinely screamed into my hands. God they’re it. THEY’RE IT.

P. 284 - “Gideon wanted her longsword and she wanted Harrow.” yeah me too

P. 285 - Jeannemary: “I hated [Isaac] when we were little, he wasn’t at all what I wanted.” ough the parallels

I know that naming a character ‘Isaac’ in your space opera about traumatized Catholics is sort of like naming a character ‘sacrifice’ and yet it’s still so gut wrenching! I love and I hate when characters fall victim to the prophecies within their names

Speaking of Biblical etymology, I see you Judith Deuteros. Please decapitate a dude

I knew about the Sex Pal joke and still guffawed

CHAPTERS 26-34

The description of Isaac’s body as a “broken sieve” really upset me and also harkens back to Harrow being empty as a quiver. The necromancer’s body as something which exists to be filled by energy and power, but also something so vulnerable as to demand the physical protection and occasional energy of its cavalier

P. 292 - “When [Dulcinea] breathed it sounded like custard sloshing around an air conditioner.” Absolutely Fucking Wretched!!!

P. 294 - “Mostly cancer and just a little bit of women.” each House really is fucked up in new and exciting ways

Gideon’s nightmare of finding Jeannemary’s severed limbs in her bed really kneecaps you. It’s giving Bluebeard. It’s giving Robber Bridegroom. It’s giving cavaliers as expendable physical forms, and that kind of body horror hasn’t quite been present aside from the avulsion room which wasn’t so bad

P. 331 - “What would you do if you discovered Camilla was a murderer?” "Help her bury the body." G O D

This entire page kills me. For some reason the one year difference and the choice to say “I’ve known her as long as she’s lived” like Harrow’s life is contingent on Gideon’s. One flesh one end B I T C H ! !

Also on that page: “She nearly killed me half a dozen times growing up, but I always knew why.” ok cool!

WAS NOT READY FOR THIS REVELATION???

I have run out of insightful commentary but Harrow wanting “prey, rival, and audience all wrapped up in one.” vs Gideon being “hungry for the Reverend Daughter’s preoccupation”. Don’t you think they’re the same thing? Love and attention? They’re both watching and being watched. Portrait of a Lady on Fire shit

I think Harrow and Cam should hold hands if only because they’d both hate it

Tamsyn loves a prophetic name. I thought she’d subverted it with Protisilaus but nope. Dead all along. First to die

Ianthe’s head pun…what is wrong with her

P. 352 - genuinely don’t have anything of substance to say about the pool scene but “I am exactly two hundred sons and daughters of my House, Griddle–I am the whole generation of the Ninth.” All this PLUS Harrow piloting her parents to keep the Ninth functioning. Christ.

P. 355 - “I am tired of being two hundred corpses.” ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch

Incredibly normal that Harrow’s parents were like hello our ten-year-old war crime daughter time for our group suicide! Here, I’ll tie your noose :) normal family!

I haven’t quite the familiarity with Antigone to say there’s an Antigone parallel somewhere but hmm

Cannot talk about the rest of this scene. I can barely look at it. YOU ARE MY ONLY FRIEND! I AM UNDONE WITHOUT YOU!! 

Oh to have your only friend Gideon Nav kiss you on the forehead

I love you 4’11” teenage saint war crime necrophiliac 

Gideon choosing to sleep in the cavalier bed. It’s about devotion as both a contract and an active choice. ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’ shit. I’m sick

P. 371 - “Dead as space, though accurately, that’s been true for a very, very long time.” I know this refers to Teacher but also stars themselves transmit light for millennia after they burn out. The cosmos itself as a haunted house

Why does the Emperor have a cohort anyway? What enemies are there that an army is necessary to grind children through? I need to know more about this

Cannot articulate this but Ianthe having to be a true necromancer and eating Babs to become a lyctor IS feminist not just because it’s such an overcome male power trip moment but also because it seems that In Media we can only have female villains if they’re tormented and redeemed by the end, they aren’t allowed to be deranged little freaks like this. She’s the damn joker!

REST IN PISS BABS. Again, genuinely progressive that Ianthe eats him and absorbs his perfect cavalier training; then, when she cannot keep it up she turns into a SKIN SHIELD?? [John Darnielle voice] come unhinged! Get revenge!

You’re really eased into the body horror and then Act IV is like hey kid you’re going to experience body horrors beyond your comprehension.

CHAPTERS 35-END 

Thinking about 8-year-old Palamedes writing to 15-year-old Dulcinea about how he’s determined to cure her. Also interesting to think that something so mundane as cancer still exists in this world where people are regularly getting bodied by skeletons

Oh, re: Pal, I forgot to highlight this but there’s a line a few (?) chapters back where he surveys his work and sees that it’s good which is directly from god creating the universe

P. 400 - “[Gideon’s] brain was full of sweet fuck all.” yeah girl me too

Every single man in this book has died. Feminism but also Palamedes my friend :(

“Tell Camilla–oh never mind, she knows what to do.” Doctor Who vibes (sorry) “If you see Rose, tell her…tell her…oh, she knows.”

P. 406 - “Camilla Hect off the leash was like light moving across water. She punched her knives into the Lyctor’s guard over and over and over. Cytherea met them ably, but such was Camilla’s speed and perfect hate that she could only hope to block the thunderstorm of blows; she could not even begin to push back against them.” The wording here feels so deliberately Homeric! It’s her aristeia!

It doesn’t mention this in the after matter, but I am choosing to believe Cam was named after Camilla in the Aeneid. She HAS to be!!

I understand why people scream at Marvel movies now but the more apt comparison for Gideon & her two-hander is the re-forging of Anduril. I can hear the score

P. 412 - “I need to be inside you.” NOW IS NOT THE TIME HARROW!!

P. 414 - “Did you behold me, Griddle?” she got yeeted by a vertebrae string because she was too busy beholding you, Harrow!

Rosary-whip made of knuckles. What a great time to be ex-Catholic. This is so hot of her

Camilla Hect aroace icon. Send tweet.

A climactic boss fight where all 5 characters are women…wrow

FUCK YEAH DISMEMBERMENT!!

P. 429 - “All you have to do is live.” Harrow begging Gideon to do the one thing she thought was impossible as a child

Oh these bitches in LOVE

I love “undeserved” forgiveness

[holds Harrowhark Nonagesimus] you do not have to be good you do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves

I’m sorry I have zero thoughts I’m just saying ROMANCE ROMANCE ROMANCE ROMANCE ROMANCE ROMANCE over and over and over again in my head

“First flower of my House” is the most romantic shit I’ve ever heard get it OUT of my face. That is not something you come up with on the spot…

The cruelest thing anyone has ever done to Harrow in her life is willingly die for her…

P. 436 - “They were cheek to cheek: Gideon’s arm and Harrow’s arm entwined, holding the sword aloft, letting the steel catch the light.” No THIS is the most romantic shit

Harrow/Pal lavender marriage of the century lmao

Gideon & Harrow 🤝 Gimli & Legolas

Quoting the verses of the Book of Ruth that’s commonly used at weddings

Hey at least I successfully guessed that Dulcinea would be evil & dead by the end. I love being right

IN SUMMARY: DEATH DYING SUFFERING ROMANCE PAIN

[astralartefact]

i can hear a voice... of cards Divine 063y Analysis Post

This post is a part 2, you can find part 1 here Voice of Cards: Forsaken Maiden spoilers under the cut (including the final boss)

Alternate Title: Mommy, but make it Daddy

But first, the unhinged conspiracy board continues!

(I will keep expanding the original one with each new costume because I think that makes it more fun)

This time our divine costume seems to be based on the Ivory Spirit (who I speculate to be the OG grotesquerie queen)

I have absolutely no concept of how many people have actually played forsaken maiden, so I will include the card of the final boss, which is made up of all the spirits/gods in the game so you have some concept of what's probably coming next

Divine Akeha was likely based on Lac, who became the big monster at the top, Divine 063y is likely the Ivory Spirit (the hanging lady to the upper left). what remains are the red one on the lower left, the black one (with green) on the lower right and the blue kraken

(btw, if you are in any way interested in voice of cards but you don't want to buy all three (bc honestly they're a little pricey for what they are), i recommend forsaken maiden. it's a little bit harder than the other two but it's imo the best one and as far as i know the only 'lore relevant' one (for now))

Anyways. Back to 063y.

The two things I immediately noticed were the hidden eyes (the Ivory Spirit's eyes are hidden behind her hair) and the collar thing which looks very similar to the pin Lac has on his belly but interpreted as some sort of shackle. A lot of the details on the costume seem to be designed like shackles, but I guess that's a given since 063y's title is Prisoner.

Another thing is that the outfit is primarily white but it has some black accents mainly on the inside lining (it seems like if you turn the outfit inside out, all of the white fabric would 'turn' black) - which also mirrors the Ivory Spirits design with its black straps contrasting the uniformly white design. Since the Ivory Spirit is likely designed as an extension of Furiae's design from DoD 1 where the black straps kind of resembled some sort of mild bondage-thing to on one hand contrast her mostly pure white facade and on the other to represent her being 'caged' into her role as goddess, I think it's very fitting to take that to 063y's role as "Prisoner" too for example with the straps on his torso.

While he doesn't wear a crown on his head like Akeha (one of the common features all the gods have in VoC) there is one on the handle of his sword. I don't necessarily think it's intentional and/or means anything, but I did realize when spotting the one on the sword that flowers and crowns kind of have similar shapes...

And speaking of his weapon, it also seems to glow (if you look at the lighting of his hand) similar to how Lanca's weapon 'glows' (Lanca is the Ivory Spirit's Maiden and her weapon is bestowed with the spirit's power)

It's a little bit hard to see, but notice the yellow 'halo' lines, which can also be found on some of the other maiden's weapons (especially their ultimate weapons)

Finally - and this is really a stretch, which is why it is a blue string on the board - 063y wears shackles on his wrists (which imo also mimic the straps on the Ivory Spirit's gloves) and it looks to me like the right shackle has a different color from the one on the left. This could very well just be from the weapon's glow effect and it's actually supposed to be the same color, the artist just decided to represent the light in this way.

However. It does line up with the fact that that's the arm the Ivory Spirit uses to move Lac and because of that it's also the arm she loses when she merges into the final boss form.

And if it actually is on purpose, then it's probably also on purpose that that's the arm Zero has a prosthesis with the Ivory Spirit's symbol on which also inhabits something that looks very much like Lac.

(For more info see my post on the Ivory Spirit here)

As for the stories:

Character Story

O, God And our dear son, who now rests at God's side Watch over us in this endless war ────────────────────────────────── WE THROW OURSELVES INTO THIS FIGHT PLACING ALL WE LOVE IN PERIL BUT IS WHAT COMES AFTER WORTH IT? IF ONLY WE COULD BECOME FLOWERS EMPTY OUR MINDS BLOOM TOGETHER FOREVER

Weapon Story

I love you I love you I love you The many years I spent with you keep me ruthless and cruel I love you I love you I love you The whole of your life nourishes my newly blossoming heart I love you I love you I love you Your warmth soothes the grief I carry for the child I lost I love you I love you I love you The trembling of my body instantly stops when you fight by my side

(nierrein.guide you are a gift sent from the heavens i still need to donate to your kofi)

Flowers. *standing ovation*

(i think 063y and FF6x's hidden stories reference the flower religion too, but i haven't looked into it enough to make any meaningful connection between them and the drakengard flower/the ivory spirit. i guess this could potentially be some hint that the god of the flower religion is the ivory spirit too)

I kind of talked about it in my reincarnation theme analysis post (i think it was a mistake to put a tier list as the picture now people ignore it more q.q please read it i was relatively proud of it and don't worry the tierlist barely comes up) but i think it's really interesting just how much 063y is reduced to his son and his wife. it's just to such an extent that i'm kind of wondering if the writers actually realize what they're doing and don't just fuel it on accident...

I guess - as a gay guy who isn't particularly invested in becoming father - it's just fascinating to see this (almost glorified) relationship ideal be depicted this dystopic? like this is "what a father should be", the one true thing society has decided is the most good for a man to be and it results in one of reincarnation's ultimate losses of agency (and this means a lot since as i explored in my other post reincarnation is almost only loss of agency)

is it really agency to choose and fight if you're stuck in an eternal war against flowers is that subtext on masculinity i sense there? that is literally built on abusing your faithful duty to your wife and child to keep fighting forever. there is simply no other option - he has to protect the ones he loves. why? because he's a good father. and if he doesn't do it for his kid he does it for his wife and if his wife wasn't there - then what?

he is literally the perfect husband, the perfect father and yet all of this comes to the conclusion that without his family 063y has no other purpose - and that's why he can be abused into fighting an eternal war with no hope in sight. and that's just sad. and i hope that the writers are aware of that - mostly because if they're not careful it can easily skew into an incel-like "F66y is just an evil wife that exploits 063x's good nature - just like all women" sort of thing

I will end it here since I have way too many thoughts on this and it's already kind of out of place in this post... I might read up on his stories and write a post, but don't count on it.

Edit: I did the bad thing and pulled much more often than I should but hey, I got him. Twice. (don't worry, i don't spend money on gacha games, i just have a lot of free currency saved up)

First of all, as always, the pull screen is far too cool so I'll include it. Totally unrelated I would love to point your attention to "robes of speech."

Because to speak you need a voice. A Voice. of. CAR---

(Same thing with Forsaken)

I was right about the weapon glow, it's much more noticeable in-game. Sadly I was also right about being wrong about the wrist rings, they are the same color so that whole point is moot i guess

The markings on the sword vaguely reminds me of the ivory spirit sigil? But it's not enough that i would say it's on purpose.

He also has this glowy piece of fabric on his back (which I will just delusionally state to look similar to the ivory spirit's long hair)

His character skill is called THREE RINGS (All Caps), but I'm pretty sure that's not particularly voc related.

All in all seeing the design in 3D I will say that I might actually for once have read a little bit too much into it (but hey, it's much more fun this way)

I wouldn't completely rule it out, they might just have interpreted the ivory spirit design more loosely than they did with Akeha, but I'm certainly a bit more shakey about it than I was with her (who I stand by, that one can't be a coincidence). We'll see what happens with upcoming Divine designs and who knows, maybe only some of them are based on the Forsaken Maiden spirits while some of them are not.

[ledenews]

Roxby’s ‘Human Alarm Clock’ Speaks Out: Part 1

(Publisher’s Note: This article is the first of a two-part series composed after extensively interviewing a former Roxby Development employee who stepped forward to tell her story once the president of the company, Jeffrey J. Morris, was charged with wire fraud by the federal government. U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld of the Northern District Court of West Virginia said in a statement more charges against Morris will follow in the future.) There are questions people would like answered. First on the list, of course, is who are these “investors” who handed over to Jeffrey J. Morris of Moundsville nearly $7 million? And why would any of the employees stick around when they weren’t getting paid? And if he had that much cash flow, why weren’t the workers compensated when expected? Oh yeah, and who was that “Human Alarm Clock”? That one Roxby employee said to have been hired to rouse this self-proclaimed savior of the city of Wheeling each weekday morning? Meet Corinne Chamberlin – known on social media simply as “Crin Joy” – a young lady who discovered the Friendly City once choosing Wheeling Jesuit University two decades ago, and “ONE” of the former “Human Alarm Clocks” once employed by the real estate startup founded by Morris and his parents in February 2020. Chamberlin emphasizes “ONE” when she tells her tale because the position wasn’t created for her nor did the job vanish once she was removed from the duty, either. Chamberlin just wanted to be a part of what everyone was talking about, this unexpected Roxby group and its eccentric leader who was professing his intentions to make all of Wheeling’s collective dreams come true. After studying psychology as a college undergrad, she found herself in the social work world and wanted out. Chamberlin then heard about this mid-30s man who had purchased three of the city’s most mysterious yet neglected buildings and wanted to completely restore and preserve the outdated structures using millions of invested dollars. She, and everyone else, were told Morris wished to create hospitality venues unlike the stereotypical banquet halls in a shrinking Rust Belt town. The Mount Carmel Monastery, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, and the Point Museum on Grandview Street – which was renamed “Cliff House West” – would be transformed into the “most magical and magnificent” party places, and those structures would represent the beginning of a building-by-building rebirth. That was the pitch, Chamberlin explained, that was spouted over and over by Jeffrey J. Morris, a Moundsville man who had lived abroad in Germany and Australia before returning to the United States in 2017. He insisted to anyone who would listen that he planned to sculpt a new future for the Friendly City despite his critics and detractors. So, yes, Chamberlin became the “Human Alarm Clock” when she was hired as Morris’s personal assistant in October 2021.   The Scottish Rite Cathedral was returned to the Masonry once foreclosure proceedings were completed this summer. For a short while, anyway. The nickname wasn’t technically in place when she accepted what turned out to be an impossible position to fill, but she was labeled with it just about a year ago after a few former employees first started sharing their stories with local media outlets. “As far as the whole ‘Human Alarm Clock’ thing, I mean, yeah, that was me. At least, yes, I was one of them because I wasn’t the only one,” Chamberlin insisted. “It was weird, it was embarrassing even before the nickname thing, and it was impossible because Jeffrey made it that way. Some people in the company tried to make it out to be a coveted position, but it was stupid. Really stupid. “’Wake up, Jeffrey. Wake up. You have an appointment.’ That’s, I guess, how I did it,” she explained. “And he had to have his Tim Horton’s ice coffee, and his breakfast sandwich, and oh, his cookies from Sarah’s Down in Main. Jesus, you’d better have those cookies, and yeah, they were delicious, but damn. And there were times when it took hours to get him out of bed even if it meant he missed meetings. And he did that all the time. Of course, he made it out to be all my fault.” At the time the media reports hit the local radio airwaves in late August 2022, Morris ordered his attorneys to file a cease-and-desist order against the journalist and his outlet because, he claimed, the information was erroneous and incomplete.  Chamberlin disagreed then and now. “I wasn’t the only one, and even though I was labeled with that, I wasn’t the first person assigned to wake the man up, and I wasn’t the last,” she recalled. “I know he had the legal stuff sent because he said the whole ‘Human Alarm Clock’ situation wasn’t true because it implied he wasn’t able to wake himself up and conduct himself in a professional manner. But it was completely true though because I did it and I wasn’t the only one. “Listen, I’m not a morning person myself and I’ve never been a morning person, but I did the whole alarm clock thing because of everything else,” Chamberlin insisted. “Fine, I had to wake up a grown man, but as weird as that was, I loved the vision and I loved most of the ideas being discussed because everyone was so excited, and it was contagious. Plus, when I told my friends what was going on, they thought it was really cool, too.” The McLure House Hotel was painted by Roxby once the company purchased the lodge in July 2021. Lipstick on The Pig On February 3, 2020, Roxby Development was officially licensed by the Secretary of State’s office in West Virginia, and at the time, only the property known as the “Mount Carmel Monastery” was under renovation to transform the Spanish-style structure into what Morris referred as a boutique hotel. In September the same year, Roxby made a deal with the Scottish Rite Masonry to take possession of the long-silent, five-story Cathedral at 83 14th Street in East Wheeling. The announced plan was to convert the century-old building into a multi-level event center with at least five different venues within its walls, including a completely restored, 300-plus-seat theatre on the top level. Morris also crafted an undefined property management agreement with the owner of the former Point Museum, a large home perched over downtown Wheeling ever since Chip and Sallie West operated the property as a tourist attraction. By the Spring of 2021, there was a company chef, an in-house restoration operation, and a creative/marketing division. Morris then took possession of the historic McLure House Hotel on Market Street in July 2021, a lodge first opened in the mid-1800s that was left to decay by an out-of-state owner who snagged the property off foreclosure auction in the 2010s. Morris agreed to pay more than $6 million for the 170-room hotel and admitted to Chamberlin and other employees that he “took one for the team” by overpaying for the property. “But it all looked legit, too, because work was being done every single day, and a lot of the people Jeffrey had working for him were very respected people in the community,” Chamberlin said. “I remember when events were taking place at the (Scottish) Rite and at the McLure, I started getting interested and started wondering if there was a job for me with Roxby. “Since high school, I’ve been interested in the entertainment industry and helping make events happen, so I thought if I could get a position with Roxby, it was something I could get involved with at those venues,” she explained. “I’ve always believed the people in the Wheeling area just want something different, something that’s new to them and this area, and that’s what I wanted to help bring here for Roxby. It’s too bad that didn’t get to happen.”   The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra performed in the Scottish Rite Cathedral on several occasions. That’s because, according to Chamberlin’s recollections, of the company-wide mayhem that took place frequently following the purchase of the McLure House. She said confusion over liquor licenses for the venues, a hiring frenzy, a division among corporate officers, and more frequent missed paydays produced hard feelings among employees. Once the company’s first round of layoffs took place in late April 2022, others began to walk away, as well. “It was so bizarre because you never knew exactly what was happening and that made no sense because the team assembled was really a super team. You could have really accomplished a whole lot with the people that were hired,” Chamberlin insisted. “It was really a rock star cast of people who were talented and passionate, but it was seldom when you saw anyone accomplishing anything because, sooner than later, something would need to be paid for and there was never money for those things. The money issues stopped everything. “You just knew there had to be big problems when employees had to start paying for some of the entertainment at the hotel’s bar. Jeffrey promised to pay us back, but that rarely happened,” she revealed. “The whole situation made everyone miserable and people just stopped showing up.” Chamberlin witnessed on several occasions when several former employees confronted the company president about their missed compensation, unannounced changes in duties, and owed monies. “That seldom worked out for any of them because Jeffrey would act like people were wrong for holding him accountable,” she reported. “People would hold him accountable and then he would slander them. Literally, every chance he got he would just talk so much shit on them for doing that. It was so wrong. “Most people put up with not getting paid once or twice, but there was a lot of anger and frustration once it started to happen more often,” Chamberlin added. “It really became the most toxic work environment I’d ever seen.” Part Two will be published tomorrow evening after Chamberlin appears as a guest on River Talk – Ohio Valley at 5 p.m. on 100.1 and 100.9 FM and on AM1290 and AM1430. Read the full article

[madamescarlette]

[ladydimitrescuspet]

Catch You Later

AO3 link - word challenge: pineapple 

Lady Dimitrescu put two fingers under your chin and lifted your head, slightly straining your neck so you could look up at her. "Do you remember the safe word, my dear?" Lady Dimitrescu.

You frowned slightly. What did you need a safe word for? "Yes, I remember the safe word, My Lady." You replied with a small nod of your head when she removed her fingers.

"Good. You understand that if you say the safe word, fail to escape my maze within the given time frame, or get caught by one of my daughters or myself that you will be my pet, yes?" Lady Dimitrescu asked.

You raised your eyebrow. "I thought I was already your pet, Mistress." Lady Dimitrescu hummed at the already known knowledge but didn't say anything. "And what happens if I do escape?" You asked.

"You are free to leave this castle, this village, Romania, but on the one condition that you never return here under any circumstances. Far be it for me to catch you twice, but if Heisenberg, Moreau, or Beneviento were to get their hands on you, you wouldn't last past a night or two there. You were lucky to survive as long as you did here, sweet one." Lady Dimitrescu replied, but she didn't give you time to comment. "This map will help navigate you through the maze, make sure you pay close attention to it. My daughters and I will keep our abilities to a minimum to give you a fair chance in this little game."

You grimaced at the thought of this being their idea of a game. "When do we start?" You asked as you took the map from her hand. Lady Dimitrescu just motioned for you to turn around and you obeyed, albeit hesitantly. You stiffened a little as you felt a piece of fabric cover your eyes, but relaxed when you realised it was just a blindfold. "I guess this means it starts now." You mumbled to yourself eliciting a small chuckle from Lady Dimitrescu.

You felt the Lady pick you up. "Hold on tightly, dear, wouldn't want you to fall and get hurt before the fun begins." You grimaced again and barely had time to wrap your arms around her neck before it felt like you were flying but you chalked it down to her moving at an unnatural pace. It only lasted a few minutes before you felt her stop, your head was spinning a bit. "You're probably feeling a bit dizzy. I'm going to set you down and I want you to count to ten before removing the blindfold and beginning, understand?" You nodded your head. "Good girl. You'll have a half-hour head start and then you'll want to keep your ears alarmed at any and every sound. You're allowed to hide, but don't stay in one spot too long. And, darling, if you need to use the safe word then don't be afraid to say it. Best of luck to you, pet." Lady Dimitrescu patted the top of your head and then you felt her presence disappear.

You let out a sigh as you counted to ten and removed the blindfold. It was kind of dark outside, but not to the point where you couldn't see. You looked at the map and noticed something, it moved. "Great." You mumbled. You waited until it was finished rearranging, you noticed that only a few spots changed whereas the rest stayed in the same spot. You determined that you'd been brought to the centre of the garden maze. "Okay, so I go left first and then right three times before going straight." You did what you told yourself but came to a dead end. You frowned and looked at the map, it had changed.

You heard something behind you and turned around, but nothing was there. They shouldn't be out here yet, it hadn't been a half hour. You turned around a quickly made various turns, finding different shortcuts throughout the maze until you came to a spot that felt familiar. It was the entrance, but it was blocked off which meant that the entrance had moved to a different spot. You kept going until you came across a puzzle. Did you need to solve the puzzle to escape?

The puzzle wasn't hard you realised as you looked over it. You just needed to put the House's coat of arms in the right places to represent Dimitrescu, Heisenberg, Beneviento, and Moreau. You had seen the different coat of arms before and remembered the tapestry in Lady Dimitrescu's sitting room that had each of the House's on it so you relied on your memory when you put them in their places. You let out a sigh of relief when you heard a click and look to your side to see something open, it held a cloak in it. Put me on if you want to be invisible was on a note that you found in front of it. It had been good timing because you could hear footsteps getting closer to you. You quickly put the coat of arms back in the places you found them and slipped the cloak on and hiding behind a nearby statue as Lady Dimitrescu came into view.

"Hmm, it seems like my little one hasn't cracked this one yet, girls." Lady Dimitrescu said as she walked over to the pieces and inspected them before putting them in their places. She let out a soft gasp when she noticed that the cloak inside the secret space was gone. "So, you did come this way, little one. Girls, spread out, my little darling is somewhere close by. I'll head to the next place and keep a lookout there. You musn't let them escape this maze." Lady Dimitrescu practically growled at her daughters before they headed in three separate directions. You let out a deep breath as Lady Dimitrescu began to walk away only to remember her mentioning the next place you needed to go so you quietly followed her, hiding where you could when you saw her stop and check her surroundings, looking for anything that looked complacent with an invisibility cloak, you realised you had to be even more careful whilst wearing it. "Oh, dearest Y/N, where are you hiding?" You heard Lady Dimitrescu call out, but remained quiet as she came upon another puzzle.

You saw her arrange the puzzle in a way that completed it, but she did it in a position where you could only see part of the puzzle. It looked like a keypad of some sort, more modern than anything you'd seen in the village or the castle. You saw her walk away when she saw that you hadn't gotten there yet and followed where she went with your eyes until she rounded a corner of the maze. You waited a few moments before carefully making your way over to the puzzle but not standing directly in front of it, just close enough where you could see the keypad.

You squinted as you tried to read, it was in Romanian. Great, just great. You knew the language, but you didn't speak it often. "Ai prefera?" You read to yourself. That meant Would you rather? so that was the game this time, okay. You looked up to the corner where Lady Dimitrescu had gone around and noticed a shadow, it was her shadow. Now that wasn't fair. She was waiting on you to solve the puzzle so she could catch you. You grinned as an idea came to your mind. You'd play the game, but you would wait for her to come out. You continued to read the rest of the next question. "Cel mai sălbatic vis sau cel mai rău coșmar al tău?" Why would you need to choose between your wildest dream or your worst nightmare? How would it even know those about you? Shaking off your questions, you made a choice, you obviously wanted your wildest dream so you chose your worst nightmare and the secret space opened up. It was a bottle with a note that said Drink me if you'd like to see the world from a different height, you raised your eyebrow, that could only mean getting taller. You looked up, the shadow hadn't moved yet so you reached into the pocket of your jacket and switched the bottle out with it before allowing the space to close with a slightly loud thud. That caught the attention of the shadow and you saw it began to move so you quickly got the other space opened to find another bottle with a note that said the same thing as the other bottle, switching the bottle out with whatever else you had in your pocket and left it to close as you found a place to hide.

You saw Lady Dimitrescu finally round the corner with a grin on her face. You could tell that she knew that you took both bottles by the fact that she didn't even check each hidden space to see if they were still there. "I'd be careful about getting those two bottles if I were you, Y/N." Lady Dimitrescu said loud enough that you were sure even her daughters heard the warning. You watched her walk back the way she came when you followed her. There goes your plan of following her to all the other puzzles and games. You checked your watched to see how much time you had left, you had one hour left to escape.

You were sure Lady Dimitrescu wasn't going to come back so you made your way over to where she had been hiding and noticed something on the ground. It was a note. "You're very smart, Y/N, following me here, but what you do not know is that it was a trap. I know you've taken both bottles, I gave you a warning, it's best to heed it. As for the trap, well, I'll let you figure it out yourself. Yours truly, Lady D." She wrote all of that while standing here. You heard a laugh and stood still as Daniela, one of her daughters.

"Mother! Your little one has your letter, what shall we do?" You heard her asked.

"My, my, maybe my pet isn't as smart as I thought. You know what to do, Daniela, no need for me to tell you once more." Lady Dimitrescu replied before shooing her daughter away. "Turn around." Lady Dimitrescu said and you realised that she was talking to you so you obeyed. "Cloak off, now." You took the cloak off.

You sighed. "I guess you win. Should I say pineapple or just let you grab me?" You asked.

Lady Dimitrescu shook her head. "Neither, I'm having fun." Lady Dimitrescu smiled wide enough to show her fangs. "Run, Y/N, and don't let me catch you."

You scratched your head. "Can I get the cloak back?" You asked. She handed it to you. "Don't worry, it wouldn't be fair if I wore it the whole game, my love." You replied.

"I see you learned from last time. A tip for you, my dear, Victoria and Elise are hanging around the next stop, so tread lightly and watch the map, it's important." She said. You smiled at her and she smiled back at you. "You may actually win this time, my darling." You rolled your eyes. You weren't going to win, no matter how many times you almost made it out, you always ended in someone's grasp or yelling out pineapples to end the game.

"I'll catch you later, Alci." You replied as you turned around from her. You smiled as you heard her say that that was her line. "It's not your line if I say it first." You heard her chuckle and turned around to find her gone. Probably making her way to the entrance, wherever it may be, to try and hinder you from escaping. Even if you did win you'd never leave Castle Dimitrescu, it was your home and Alcina and her daughters were your family for the rest of time.