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soccerpunching · 2 years ago

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headcanons about tachimukai during ie go? its always good to see your posts on my timeline!!

WAAAHHHH OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH!! And of course, I love him sm and I have a lot!!

I'm also adding this picture here because i really love how soft Shinsuke remembers Tachimukai, makes me emotional. He genuinely wants to help him. (I'll keep using this picture forever, methinks)

(some of these are during the 10-year timeskip; putting it under the cut)

Headcanons:

Almost everybody comments on how is it possible to have one of the most vicious goalkeeper in existence be so polite in interviews. He's so loved by people across Japan and has a really strong fanbase. And it's bcs he looks so focused and vicious in the field that most ppl cant recognized him outside of it (like how Shinsuke didnt).

Much like Kazemaru, Fubuki, Gouenji, and Kabeyama, he's also one of the few from the cast who stayed in Japan soccer leagues. All of the teams he belonged in lost the least goals in the leagues they've joined!! He's a monster goalkeeper in their eyes! (Another reason why Shinsuke didnt recognize him is bcs he doesnt believe someone as legendary as tachimukai would casually teach a goalkeeper-beginner like him.)

I genuinely think he's good at studying and has good grades in IT-related subjects and is above average in most sciences, he just chose to not go to college. He did go to a vocational school as a backup plan. In case he gets severly injured or sumthn since goalkeepers are known to retire for injuries more than the field players.

More than anything, he wants to teach goalkeeping so he has that as a consideration for his future also. He's still thinking abt in what way can he accomplish this but that time with Shinsuke did make him realize that it's something he wants to do. But maybe not right now, he thinks he needs more experience!

He gets tons of modeling offers that he keeps on declining bcs it's never been his interest. He once jokingly told Tsunami that maybe he should try it after his retirement, he didnt realize Tsunami took it seriously and he's very excited for this modeling career (Tsunami is in fact considering modeling too bcs of that joke)

He makes a lot of effort to stay connected with old friends and likes traveling a lot even if it takes time! He likes taking the scenic route too and just takes life slowly.

Some of the things he does when the league season is over are riding sleeper trains and hotel-buses!! (It's so cool that japan has those!!) Sometimes with friends or family, but he also likes going alone and making conversations with people (who most often does not recognize him at all).

He's timid as an adult still but he overcomes this by telling himself that being with people is part of the great experience of life however corny that sounds. It's one of the things he learned from being with the cast who gave him the courage to step out of his comfort zone.

Speaking of his traveling! His inagram is full of traveling pictures!! And all the food he gets to eat! He also travels outside the country and taste as many spicy food as he can. He's famous in inagram actually even if he barely has any pictures with his face in them but he's really cool with it.

He is also demiromantic ace in my heart <3

He casually enjoys surfing too (in the drama cd, he asked if tsunami can teach him how to surf to which i think he enjoyed) and competitively with tsunami (bcs tsunami makes everything a contest)

He goes trekking, mountain climbing, and skydiving with his old pals from Yokato a lot.

He goes to camping trips with the first year gang too (kabeyama, kurimatsu, kogure, haruna and they also invite shourin, shishido!!). Kogure plans these trips.

I have some more that's in my hissatsu techniques hc of him regarding how he is in the field but that's yet to be posted (bcs descriptions are so hard 😣). These are the ones that I can remember outside of that for now!

And really thank you for the ask, they really motivate me to share them!!

#but really i love him sm. i cant believe we've never seen him again aaaaaaa #i know he loves travelling. ik that in my heart #inazuma eleven #inazuma eleven go #ie imagined by lore #tachimukai yuuki #darren lachance #halftime lore #marmolao

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empress-lillith · 1 year ago

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This leads to asking ourself interesting questions such as:

"Would Nem eat Spaghetti with a shitload of pepper (for us, it's not that much for most methinks) in it, naked, with open hair instead of ponytail, at almost 11pm"

[And honestly we would judge "no she wouldn't but she for sure would rather than Monarch and its probably not that big of a deal to indicate an alter"]

But I was mainly finding it funny how questions like that pop up now, it's. Honestly a mix of a very confusing and annoying and really beautiful and. Kinda. Hm. Freeing? thing. Idk

I think it gets bad once I think too much about it, like, is it really Nem fronting right now or is something else going on?

Cuz I am kinds talking about Nem like she's someone else but I also honestly can rn point out very few things that would lead me to believe I am not her? Idk. Is too hard to tell

Am probably Nem. Maybe not. Who knows. Not us yet. Weird experience ngl but. Still good now that I've kinda accepted the "fact", well, more like the possibility with how uncertain I am at times.

Hey that last sentence is such a Nem thing to say btw. Makes me think Nems fronting after all.

Also I'm starting to think Yuna is different from Nem but that's a huuuuuge load of speculation for now with very little stuff to go off of

That aside nightey night if ur reading this now. Luv u all

Not us wondering rn if it's another alter or just Nem being moody

#...im still not sure why im referring to everyone in third person #okay: running theory: thats what we do when we dont know whos fronting #when we do that its never monarch trust us #youll know when its monarch and so will both she and us

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vickyvicarious · 3 years ago

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an interesting thing to me is that

while Dracula is escaping London for Galatz, he's in inactivity and silence, all while occupying Mina's mind. Jonathan has been made to build "a door" between himself and Mina, who told him to never tell her anything about their actions or else the Count will hear. Jonathan is barred from Mina's mind, all the while the Count is claiming it. He's also silent and increasingly inactive and silent, cold and distant to his peers while this is happening.

The Count is going back to 'Hell' on a dark river, Jonathan is on the same river, also returning to his 'Hell'

Oh, I love these! If you don't mind, I think I'll add your first point to the Mina section in my Dracula+Jonathan meta.

As for the second... yeah, definitely. The context of course for Dracula being that he is returning home (hell = home, thus Dracula = demonic) whereas Jonathan is willingly returning to his personal hell where he suffered. This goes along with the Castle being the seat of an old power the likes of which "mere "modernity" cannot kill", as Jonathan says on May 15th (and possibly magical in its own right, as a malevolent 'genius loci', per the awesome meta by @see-arcane). Another really cool detail about the river travel as well, is of course the link to the River Styx. Taking a river to hell - of course you'll think of Styx. But Jonathan and Arthur's boating accident has forced them off the river early, which is actually a good thing in this metaphor, because the further down the river Styx you travel, the worse your punishment will be in the afterlife. So in that sense, them being forced to stop traveling down the river in a boat is akin to saying that though they follow Dracula back to (metaphorical) hell, they aren't going as far in/won't be permanently damned the same way.

[Dracula, September 30] Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when he have his earth-home, his coffin-home, his hell-home, the place unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby; still at other time he can only change when the time come.

[Dracula, October 4] "Because my dear, dear Madam Mina, now more than ever must we find him even if we have to follow him to the jaws of Hell!"

-vs-

[Jonathan, October 30] "Do you know what the place is? Have you seen that awful den of hellish infamy—with the very moonlight alive with grisly shapes, and every speck of dust that whirls in the wind a devouring monster in embryo? Have you felt the Vampire's lips upon your throat?"

(...I'm gonna add these notes too, make it a new section called 'Return To Hell' methinks.)

#dracula daily #count dracula #jonathan harker #anonymous #replies

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isa-ghost · 5 years ago

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Don’t Come To This House Notes

BEFORE I GET INTO THINGS, MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW @isas-theory-wall FOR EVERYTHING JSE FIRE YOU MIGHT MISS! IF THIS MAY IS GOING TO BE FULL OF FIRE, THE TAGS TO LOOK FOR ON THAT BLOG WILL BE #spring time scream time AND #mayhem 2 electric boogaloo

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I hate this thumbnail but I don’t see anything hidden in it. It’s just... fucky and its a screenshot from a moment in the game so the glitchy stuff was not Sean’s doing!

Tags of the video are clean (for now). I feel like we should keep an eye on those as well as the title. This level of chaos feels like a Sean Sneakily Changing Shit kind of fire.

And lets address the elephant in the room-

W H A T T H E F U C K

WHAT WAS OFFERED

BY WHO

WHY

FOR WHAT

HOW

CURRENT THEORY: CHASE OFFERED HIMSELF IN JACK’S PLACE SO JACK COULD WAKE UP AND ANTI ACCEPTED. BUT WHY HE WANT CHASE?? WE KNOW CHASE IS THE PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ANTI IS AFTER HIM. WHY IS HE INTERESTING? WHY TAKE JACK IF HE WANTS CHASE? THIS FEELS LIKE A BIG HINT AT FUTURE PLOT SHIT AND IM TERRIFIED. **NOTE I ADDED A WHILE AFTER WRITING THIS: I SAW SOMEONE SUGGEST MAYBE JACK OFFERED HIS BODY AND ANTI ACCEPTED AND THAT GIVES ME EVEN MORE QUESTIONS SO I DON’T REALLY AGREE WITH THAT THEORY (YET?).

ANYWAY, SHIT IN THE VIDEO:

I am almost POSITIVE that that is Chase’s newer shirt.

I don’t trust that intense eye contact he makes when he says he’s been on a horror kick

I also don’t trust the (please stay away) in the title >_>

Also why is house in “The Open house” lowercase? I think I’m definitely overanalyzing this but hhhhng

I’m just being extra paranoid here but the fact that Chase has (had?) a puppet named Chad and Sean called the dude Chad Chadley,,,, Hm.

ALSO UM,, CHASE GOT EVICTED LAST WE KNEW SO THIS HOME BUYING GAME GIVIN ME BIG SQUINTS AT SEANATHAN RN

6:58 - In-game glitch that isn’t edited in. Don’t panic.

7:05 - “Don’t you be goin glitching on me like this Chad Chadley, okay? I’m the one who glitches, I’m the CEO of glitches around here! Not right now though-” I feel like that “not right now though,” considering the zalgo and such, isn’t actually Sean telling us not to panic like I would believe other times. He says it just a tiny bit too fast to not be suspicious. I think he’s trying to bullshit us this time. OR, this is another confusing game of “did Chase or Anti say it?” considering the gray shirt, Chad name, and theory about Chase offering himself. CURSE POSSIBILITIES! >:U

7:22 - “[I feel like] I’ll walk up here and there’ll be a person being like ‘HEY! How’s it goin!’ . . . . Somebody died in this house, I can tell.” *Gets Dark Silence vibes and screams*

7:41 - Facecam glitch?

Immediately after this, he says “painted with the blood of-” the screen, including facecam, glitches, leading me to believe that this glitch was edited in or the facecam was edited to go along with an in-game glitch, and after the glitch he says “-innocent people!” Methinks of Chase’s family and I hate it

8:40 - In-game glitch again, don’t panic!

14:10 - “Oh I know I’m just gonna turn at some point and somebody’s gonna be standing in that doorway.” *DARK SILENCE VIBES INTENSIFIES*

14:26 - Another glitch. The facecam also glitches, I believe this one is also not in-game. Or again, it is and the facecam has been edited to join the glitch. Suspicious either way. Also at the tail end there’s an audio glitch that sounds like Sean’s voice so uhhhh. >_>

18:11 - “What now Master? What should I do now?” UM BEEP BEEP ALARM ALARM ALARM PUPPET ALERT WHAT THE FUCK IS T H I S??

This part...

Is the offer “Jacksepticeye” as in Jack or is it the channel “Jacksepticeye” (cause that WAS kinda given/taken by Anti)? Or Chase, who’s still masquerading as Jack? He says “I'm the offer... I was a sacrifice.”

Was Jack a sacrifice? Who sacrificed him? Did he sacrifice himself? Judging by the comment from Anti, he’s what whatever or whoever is being sacrificed to. Where in our “plot timeline” can we put this taking place? Is this after Jack is comatose, and this is Chase? Did Chase sacrifice himself? Still highkey believing that theory so far.

Right now I believe that Chase sacrificed himself to Anti for Jack’s freedom, and Anti, being interested in Chase, accepted. Jack DID mention he would make us cry with Chase before he got his happy ending.

If not that, then Jack was a sacrifice to Anti and THAT’S where Anti came from and that gives us some ideas for what Anti might Be.

Whatever happened here, I know Chase, Jack, and Anti are deeply involved in whatever we were supposed to get out of this. It’s messy and there’s a lot of possibilities so while I’m highkey on the This Was Chase wagon rn, I’m also thinking of 3874297 other ways this could be going. Damn you Sean and your open-endedness. XD

#jacksepticeye

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overtrolled · 4 years ago

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In lieu of writing my fic, I researched by rereading Eridan and Feferi’s bits of hivebent and took notes. Here’s what I got on Eridan.

In Hivebent, we see Eridan interact directly with three people, Kanaya, Feferi, and Gamzee. However, his conversation with Gamzee is incidental; he is trying to talk to Karkat. When Feferi breaks up with him, Eridan's first move is to try to reach Karkat for comfort. In his interactions with both Kanaya and Feferi, the fact Karkat and Eridan talk often is brought up.

In his conversation with Kanaya, he says:

yeah it is your real feelins run pretty awwful RUDDY methinks evverybody knowws it / especially that assblood karkat he and me havve you so pegged about that its upright silly

In his first conversation with Feferi, she says:

You know, I'm not sure w)(y we never talk about our romantic aspirations... Probably because you fill your gossip quota wit)( your nubby )(orned bro. / You leave not)(ing left to talk about wit)( your dear sweet moirail! / We are supposed to )(elp eac)( ot)(er wit)( t)(at stuff too, remember.

To which he replies: “maybe / seems kinda / odd though”

Together this is the strongest evidence of a positive relationship that Eridan has, outside of his unhealthy romance with Feferi. It seems like Karkat is Eridan's best friend. It's even pretty easy to read their relationship as being pale; Feferi comments suggest that Eridan may be more intimate with Karkat than with her. Despite this, he still refers to him as an 'assblood' to Kanaya, a really bizarre insult which feels almost half-assed (lol). It feels almost performative, like a lot of Eridan's behavior (put a in that, we'll come back to it later).

Speaking of his conversation with Kanaya, The way he talks with her suggests a certain degree of familiarity. Not that the relationship is necessarily viewed as positive by both parties, but I think it Eridan at least feels friendly toward her. After Kanaya asks why she would help him with his genocidal fantasies, he says:

wwell / im not goin to vvery wwell kill you am i that wwould be fuckin unconscionable / wwhat kind of friend wwould i be

Now, that line has a lot of cruel irony on it given the events of A5A2, but I read it as genuine. Eridan's whole kill all the landdwellers thing is extremely half-assed, and possibly, primarily an extension of the way he constructs a persona of a powerful highblooded military leader. Pretty soon after that line Kanaya says: “And I Agree The Fate Of The Race Is Important But Its In My Hands Now / All Of Ours Really” To which Eridan replies: "huh / wwell ok," and when Kanaya acts surprised that he takes her word for it, he says

ordinarily id call bullshit on terrible stinkin bs like that but i knoww you dont really lie about stuff / unless its to yourself / but thats wwhy i bother evven talking to you i wwouldnt evven be here SAYIN any of this otherwwise

Eridan trusts Kanaya quite a lot, here. Almost every other interaction between trolls in Hivebent expresses more doubt than this. So while Kanaya is probably pretty exasperated by Eridan's shit, Eridan sees her as a friend, possibly more than he does most other trolls. Even that line he drops at the end, the “it’s hard and no one understands” bit, that sort of thing is something I don’t think casual acquaintances usually say to each other.

His conversation with Gamzee is kind of interesting, because he clearly wants to cry to Karkat about his problems, but when he hears that Sollux is dead he acts very civil and only dips into the dramatic self pity a little after he realizes he won't get to talk to Karkat, when Gamzee asks "ArE YoU SuRe i cAn't hElP A bRoThEr Up iNtO HiS MoThErFuCkIn cHiLl?"

i dont knoww / it probably doesnt matter / my feelins seem petty and meaninless noww / she had better things to wworry about than my ovverwwrought bullshit / like the dead guy wwho savved her / so forget it thanks anywway

We don't really have a lot of background on what Eridan is like with the others at this point, and with Gamzee being only one rung down from Eridan it seems a little tenuous to assume he's that civil with everyone, but he can at times recognize when he's being ovverwwrought and dial it back.

The interesting thing about all this is how small Eridan's confirmed circle is. Vriska's his ex-kismesis, Feferi's his ex-moirail, Karkat and Kanaya are his friends, and he doesn't like Sollux. How much does he interact with anyone else?

#my stuff

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beautifulterriblequeen · 5 years ago

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King Runaan of the Moonshadow Elves, pt 5

Viren’s Plan and Runaan’s Shirt

Angst Rating: 9/10

You know the line from Hamlet: “Methinks the lady doth protest too much”? Meaning someone is trying too hard to seem innocent? That is the vibe I always got from this line of Viren’s.

I couldn’t really figure out how he could’ve invited them, and that’s not the full focus of this section of my King Runaan theory. But I do think Viren basically did just that. Here’s how I see it going:

Viren got into the Storm Spire and saw the egg and the magic mirror. We don’t see him pay it any mind, but you know a smart, enterprising, pragmatic guy like that noticed a not-dragon-sized mirror in their lair. The biggest power couple in all the land has something secretive and unique. He wants it, and he wants its power. He just helped his friend kill the King of the Dragons. This mirror, and this egg—as Tiadrin suggests—are powerful, and they’re now free real estate.

So he takes them, as we know. But he wants to know how to use the mirror, not just possess it. And the key to his master plan—which kinda got derailed but still isn’t entirely complete—is written on Lain and Tiadrin’s faces.

They’re Moonshadow assassins, bound to the Dragon Throne. I’m assuming Viren knows this because it’s ancient history and current events rolled into one, even in human lands. The Dragon King or Queen sends out Moonshadow assassins to do their bidding ever since the humans got kicked out of Xadia. Everyone with a stake in a human kingdom knows that.

Viren also likes his research, though. He wants to minimize threats to Harrow’s power, so he’s as familiar as possible with Moonshadow assassins. And in a bright aha moment there in the Spire, Viren hatches his master plan. If he kills the egg simply to protect Harrow and Katolis, he won’t get answers about the mirror. The elves might not avenge a grizzled and warlike king who committed terrible acts of his own. But they will absolutely avenge the death of an innocent egg, with the most powerful assassin they can send.

Just the elf Viren is looking for: the king of the Moonshadow elves will know all about Xadia’s magical history, its relics, its threats, and so on. And he knows just how to get this king to deliver himself to Viren’s doorstep, because that king is also an assassin.

He steals the egg, and he steals the Moonshadow elves to use as a threat against him. He may or may not have any idea that Lain and Tiadrin know Runaan as well as they do. But if they’re Moonshadow elves in the Storm Spire, they’re assassins, bound to service as their king is, and he’ll know them at least a little. It’s good enough.

Yadda yadda yadda, Runaan pops up in Katolis with his assassins.

Why was Marcos patrolling the woods the night before the full moon, anyway? Perhaps Viren ordered extra patrols. If you’re expecting trouble, a dead scout who doesn’t report in means the same thing as a live scout pounding on the door.

Viren was right there at the battle outside Harrow’s chamber door. The High Mage of Katolis, standing there and watching. He was looking for someone he knew would be there, because he’d all but sent him an engraved invitation. And he was studying all the assassins’ markings until he found the elf wearing the brightly glowing painted crownmarks on his shoulders.

Target acquired.

Once he located the king of the Moonshadows, he made sure that Runaan survived, and no one else. After the battle, Runaan lost his royal tunic and his hoodie, but he still had on his armored vest, green shirt, and gloves.

Yet the next time we see him in the dungeon, he’s lost all of those things.

Viren took off his shirt. He took it off to look for the mark of the Moon staff. And he took off his gloves too. Making very sure he’s got the right elf, while also making him colder and more vulnerable as a prisoner of war. We keep hearing mention that Runaan’s shirt mysteriously went missing. That’s because its removal was a plot point.

Viren put the King of the Moonshadows on his knees and kept him there for a week, hungry, injured, cold, and unable to escape his fun little magic-experiment games, in order to soften him up. He knew who Runaan was the whole time, but he was only interested in the information Runaan could provide him. He didn’t care about his name or his title, calling him only “elf.”

If you have a starving king in your dungeon and you want something from him, you go out of your way to acquire rare Xadian fruits, because that’s what Moonshadows eat, and Viren assumes kings eat well even in Xadia. There was a jelly tart on that tray, too, but it was persimmon, not the dark red that looks closer to moonberry. So close, Viren!

But one does not simply bribe the Moonshadow King, and one does not threaten him easily, either. Runaan has lived his life at war and in the shadows. Viren’s fake kindness isn’t even remotely scary, and Runaan is quietly contemptuous. Even the threat that Viren so carefully planned when he kidnapped Lain and Tiadrin only drives Runaan to broody silence, giving him no answers.

Viren says he’s heard of “I am already dead,” but he doesn’t truly understand it. He describes it to Runaan in unfeeling terms, as if he learned it from a book. So when he finally resorts to verbalizing death threats, it feels like his big dramatic finish. But that’s not what makes a dent in Runaan’s stoic exterior. It’s the mirror.

Runaan is probably directly descended from the Moonshadow elf or elves who collaborated on locking Aaravos away. Despite how long they may live naturally, assassin lives may burn through faster, so I won’t guess at how many generations separate him from that time in history. But he’s well schooled in the history and facts as his people see them. He knows quite a lot about the mirror. Enough to actually scare him. Runaan has been dancing with death his whole life. It’s his job and his calling. But this mirror and what it represents is so much worse than falling honorably in battle.

And now a dark mage wants to use it. Runaan’s had a hard week of privation and pain. But he is still at war, and Viren is still the enemy. His first instinct is to protect literally everyone in the world from this horrific event, so he flat refuses to cooperate. And Viren loses his patience entirely.

But he doesn’t kill Runaan. That would be a waste of a perfectly good elf king! He stashes him carefully in a coin for later. One never knows when one may need a very expensive bargaining chip, after all. The pragmatic never throw anything away if it might prove useful later.

So he’s been wandering Xadia with a Moonshadow king in his pocket all this time. Just in case.

part 6

#tdp theory #tdp meta #tdp speculation #tdp headcanons #tdp #runaan #viren #moonshadow elves #king runaan #moonshadow assassins #moon druids #viren's master plan #it's a good plan #tdp angst #angst

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normal-thoughts-official · 5 years ago

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ok idk if u like harry potter (either way fuck jkr) but have u thought about sh characters and hp houses? for magnus i’m torn between hufflepuff and ravenclaw, alec hufflepuff ?? maybe?? and idk for anyone else

its a weird thing because i've always hated hp, even when i was a kid, but i'm kinda interested in discussing the whole houses thing? possibly because the choice between traits is so fucking random and absurd like idk it makes for funny character analysis. so in short let's go

but also, i'll warn u that my takes on this are usually considered kinda spicy. mostly because other ppl r wrong and interpret the characters terribly i go by the canon that the house ur sorted into represents what you value the most, not necessarily what you are (which is why hermione is gryffindor and not ravenclaw for example, and if i'm not mistaken so's neville? idk idc her worldbuilding is bad) so yeah

magnus is definitely hufflepuff for me, no argument about that. like yes he is very smart but i don't think that he values knowledge/intelligence above all else. wisdom maybe, but even then, magnus' character core is and has always been kindness and loyalty. he values kindness and mutual support and community and equality. it's indisputable that he's hufflepuff for me, not only in values but in personality and actions

i like slytherin alec, first because it fits his character arc. like big racist family who loves fascism and is very traditional sounds like slytherin, and at a very young age he'd be their golden boy tbh [EDIT: ive already gotten anon hate over this so please read these posts before freaking out over this part please and thank you] so like, makes sense. but even later alec i think fits slytherin, although in a different way. family above all else, tradition, and ambition? sounds like him. he's a political shark, he's very traditional, and he's loyal as fuck to his family. i'm not against hufflepuff alec per se but i wouldnt say, even by the end of the series, that alec values kindness/community/equality above all else, tbh

raphael is hufflepuff. again, loyalty, community, kindness. i could maybe kiiiiiindaaaaa see why ppl think he fits slytherin aesthetics with his power suits and shit but also raphael is the least ambitious person in like, this entire show lmao his happy ending is literally to become a priest (like i hate the whole mundane thing but u cant argue that that's an ambitious man lol). throughout the show his whole motivation was always protecting his people and his family, and he was shown to be kind and caring even to shadowhunters. and yes okay there was the heidi plotline but like a- it made no fucking sense anyway (both for his character and just plot-wise, like, she wasn't a daylighter, why would he be after her and not simon, what the fuck) so i simply ignore it, and b- even then it doesn't define him or his values. if ppl can see hufflepuff alec when he handed meliorn over to be tortured for basically no reason and was never shown to be particularly caring beyond the people closest to him, i can say hufflepuff raphael when he continuously extended his hand to people who literally betrayed, used and tortured him

maia is hufflepuff and look i know that this sounds like "all my faves are hufflepuffs" but really tho. endlessly loyal to her pack, wants to build a family, her whole thing was always about making the downworld better and making sure her family was okay, i don't see how community and equality aren't defining values for her. "oh muh muh muh she was willing to kill ppl" there was a war going on buddy. it doesn't mean that maia isn't kind and caring. also, again, she is fierce on her ideals, which happen to be family, equality, and community (both as in the pack and the downworld as a whole, see how hard she tried to mend vamp/wolf relationships). she's a hufflepuff

meliorn is a hard one. i think gryffindor or slytherin? tbh i don't think any of the houses really super fits them because again jk's worldbuilding makes no sense like the four personality traits are kind, smart, brave, and racist there are no other ones you sjw snowflake. and okay i know that i just called slytherin the racist house but that was a joke and i can see slytherin meliorn because loyalty and tradition. not really ambitious but not not ambitious either. tbh i could make points for meliorn in all houses, i think wisdom is definitely something they seek and care about, as is bravery (they're literally a knight), as is community, as is tradition. but also i could see them being like "hey sorting hat put me in slytherin i'm a 'mudblood' they're gonna be super pissed". and going there just to be defiant. but no actually i changed my mind completely, they're ravenclaw. i think wisdom and temperance are what they seek the most, because they want to be a good leader/asset for their people. which kinda circles back to hufflepuff but still.... wisdom. i think it suits them

simon is another hard one for opposite reasons like i don't think he truly fits any of the houses? like meliorn fits them all simon fits none. i know ppl always go with hufflepuff simon cuz they think hufflepuff is the dork house and simon is an anxious bean but fuck that noise, hufflepuff isn't the dork house, it's the house for those who believe in mutual aid and support and equality and that's literally canon, hufflepuff existed because it was the only hogwarts founder who believed that everyone had equal right to education. hufflepuff is a fierce house of sjws and people who want to change the world for the better and YES i am aware that for someone who thinks harry potter sucks i sure have strong opinions about it. but that's the thing like there are so many interesting places jk rowling could've gone and instead she chose to write the most superficial shit ever. anyway my point is that hufflepuff is not the dork house so i'm not gonna sort simon there just because he's a dork. but anyway i wouldnt say that he particularly values any of the house's traits. maybe ravenclaw for creativity? or gryffindor because clary is there and he's like "please sorting hat do me a solid" lol

which okay i guess leads me to clary. definitely gryffindor. bravery with a side of recklessness is definitely her thing. she is fierce and she is proud of it. no argument about that

j@ce is also gryffindor in the most annoying obnoxious way. he's just like man i sure like violence watch me prove how macho i am and the sorting hat is like oh no it's one of those gryffindors

izzy.... i can see gryffindor cuz again bravery and just again fits her character arc as she would go there specifically as a fuck you to the lightwood's traditional slytherin shit. but really tho, ravenclaw. she values knowledge, she is hungry for it, she wants to see the world and learn and invent and create you know?? so like yeah ravenclaw

cat.... either ravenclaw or hufflepuff? she just cares about people as a whole but also about wisdom and knowledge so could go either way imo

ragnor... man i really have no idea for ragnor. again aesthetic fits slytherin but is he actually proud, ambitious, cunning? i don't think so. fucking ravenclaw maybe? just like "yes i value knowledge very much now put me in the nerd house where people will leave me alone" lol. ok tho ravenclaw it is

madzie... gryffindor? idk she seems like she would want to have adventure. it's so hard to do this for sh minor characters when their personality was basically based on the shape of the writer's poop that day tbh

camille is slytherin because duh and if we really wanna do a h*gwarts au for some reason, it adds some angsty juices as magnus once again falls in love with a slytherin and doesn't know how to open up and trust (once he meets alec, i mean)

luke is ravenclaw methinks. i guess could have been slytherin because character arc as shadowhunter but like... he's just a wise and caring figure. i could see hufflepuff but i think his thing is less equality/community and more family, but post-sh luke doesn't exactly fit "proud, ambitious, cunning" either. so yeah methinks ravenclaw. same for alaric i guess

who else exists lmao. i feel like i'm forgetting somebody but idk who so i guess i'll reblog or edit if i think of someone elsIT WAS DOT okay so i think either hufflepuff or ravenclaw. kinda hard because her whole personality was "cares about clary" so idk but like loyalty and care seem like character traits that suit her? also she was knee deep in trauma and still cared about helping magnus so... yeah hufflepuff

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srbachchan · 5 years ago

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DAY 4425

Jalsa, Mumbai Apr 18, 2020 Sat 10:29 PM

Birthday Ef - Beejal Bhatt .. Arth Vaishnav .. Sunday, April 19 .. happiness on your birthday .. Beejal turns 51 , auspicious year .. keep safe and in precaution ..

Methinks the technologically devised devices, are feeling the silence of lockdowns all over the World .. in their presence of importance known through all factors, they , knowing their importance, have decided to lackadaisical their presence .. at a given point of their time they simply are refusing to function .. and in protest , a sis well known among computer users, that rotund rainbow coloured circuambulating globe keeps doing the rounds as you wait patiently for it to either stop or do what has been asked of it to do .. open something, italic something, delete another, bring up the window desired .. NOTHING .. its not performing its norms at all .. I checked all the routers and frowters or whatever the heck they are called that emanate radio active destructive waves, and noen of them glow with the purple ring - an indicator as advised that it is not working , so to unplug the wire and put It back again for it to function again .. BUT no nothing of the sort has happened and yet it DOES NOT FUNCTION !

SO .. I shall disappear for a while .. get some morsels in the centrum .. and be back with you ..

.. back as promised .. and the device plays well .. it thinks less, operates more, gives attention greatly .. the earlier complaints seem to have worked ..

its the little things in life that bring joy and satisfaction and pleasant countenance .. a small piece of nothing really lying about the hand reached distance on the desk, removed suddenly gives a sense of immense achievement .. a few pen drives that should have been dispatched into a box to be digitised , removed and the mind space created suddenly, gives such relief ..

Motto .. when the think prevails .. do .. wait and it shall be overcome by the million other encumbrances that in today’s time prevail in the blink of a window opening on the ‘top’ .. the lap top .. the screen of the ‘h’ .. the hand phone .. the ‘h’ being the abbreviation when the mobile was just finding its important presence .. the ‘hand’ phone ... the ‘r’ was the residence .. the land line in todays terminology .. which now has achieved almost immediate extinction .. and habits die hard .. look into my contact list .. errr , no you wont get to do that .. look into it and you shall find the ‘h’ and the ‘r’ in regular use .. even though we are familiarise or are familiarised that the 10 digit one is the ‘h’ and nothing else .. now of course due to the immediate commute from one continent to another .. the +91 for us .. the +20 for the Pyramids .. the +44 for the land of the Queen .. the +1 for Donald .. +7 per Ruski .. and on ..

.. but really there is not a thought, an idea, a facility, that remains in the dark .. as far as normal essentials are concerned .. question arise, seek the the Googs .. and the next goes on .. Googs incidentally, I get the impression from the conversations conducted with the higher echelons, is deeply working on the track of every possible thought word deed in the Universe .. in its possession .. they want every information on everything in the World to be with them or available from them .. from they them needs notice .. and the buzz word is DATA ..

‘Data’ shall rule the World .. if it is not already .. who we are , where we came from, where did we go who we met what did we buy how much time we spent at home at work in the gym .. it just goes on .. BECAUSE ..

.. that shall be the source of all future business decisions if it is not already ..

.. and when every 6.45th person in the world is an Indian , we are the privileged ones on whom shall rest a great amount of the decision tables ..

.. 6.45th .. 7.8 billion the Earth human populace .. 1.35 billion in the Mother Land India Indians .. so 7.8 minus 1.35 = 6.45 ..

.. still doing the maths .. err .. math .. as the modern generation now calls it .. in the way taught in Std., 2 .. !! 🤣

... we are every where .. China very close and bigger too .. they 1.39 billion approx., some years back .. now could be different , but approx., .. so between them and us , the share shall rest ..

an interesting scenario exists after the math .. or rather after the aftermath of the ��19′ .. very interesting .. many theories flood the idle discussion each hour .. and they all subsist on theories and postulated speculation, bordering very close to the improbable to the sublime .. of large benefits .. of large disaster ..

.. nothing in between .. its either आर या पार !! and both could be either welcoming or extremely disastrous !!

Fear setting in .. naah .. never let that overcome thee ..

“.. que sera sera .. what ever will be will be .. the futures not ours to see .. que sera sera “

remember that famous 50′s song ..

look it up .. Googs would have it .. told you its the age of ‘look it up’ ..

I did .. its there ..

Amitabh Bachchan

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the-overgrowth · 5 years ago

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Retrospective: “Faybane” #1

This is where it all started, on July 8th, 2016. Although probably a bit earlier than that, but this is the earliest thing I can find that’s actually written down, so that’s what counts. And back in the day I didn’t let ideas marinate the way I do now, I just started writing pretty much as soon as I got the idea.

Anyway, the document was created at this point in time according to Google Docs, and was last modified in October 3rd, 2016. It’s only 3 chapters long, plus one incomplete fourth chapter, and the whole thing is about 17k words.

Which is a lot for 3 chapters. I would say something about how I’m less wordy now, but the latest draft is like 107k words long, so, like, I will always struggle with shutting the fuck up, methinks.

Also, the reason this is called “Faybane” is because that was the working title I used, and the name of this document. I thought it’d be the proper title but like. It’s bad lmao.

Anywhomst, let’s get into it!

Some background info for those who are new or need a refresher: this WIP became a thing after I read and was disappointed by A Court of Thorns and Roses by SJM, as well as The Iron King by Julie Kagawa and some book by Holly Black, was it Tithe?

ACOTAR was the biggest culprit. I feel that this is important to keep in mind as we go through this mess.

We open on Sidra in the forest with a bunch of men she calls a hunting party. It’s clear she doesn’t want to be there, but since she’s the only decent hunter among them and it’s her sister’s wedding today, she has to make the kill to feed the people attending said wedding.

This is, as the kids say, big stupid, and seems like a very ill-prepared celebration? I guess it makes some sense for them to want fresh meat, but this fresh? What if they didn’t find anything? What if they didn’t manage to kill anything? Is the whole thing cancelled? Stupid.

We find out they’ve been hunting a boar and that this dude named Liam, our Gaston replacement, previously wounded the animal but didn’t kill it, causing it to flee and force the hunting party to follow. It’s up to Sidra to make the killing blow, which she does with an arrow straight into its head. This was back when Sidra was still YA Heroine Extraordinaire and the time period was Vaguely Medieval, I guess.

They begin taking their quarry back home and Sidra thinks about how she normally doesn’t hunt this close to the “Faewilds” because animals closer to the border are said to be bigger and more violent. There isn’t an actual border, people just had to rely on intuition and not wander too far into the forest.

She also mentions a girl named Wilda, who disappeared fairly recently and everyone suspects it was the fae. This isn’t relevant now, but Wilda will return in later drafts, I think.

Everybody, especially my family, knew that I was one of the best archers in town, whether I used a bow or a crossbow.

Shut up, Not!Feyre. Nobody likes you.

I should mention that at this point I didn’t bother googling how big wild boars get and just assumed they were the size of like, a thick medium dog. Which is, if you know how big boars are, very incorrect. Four men pulling the animal seems realistic enough, but then Liam just lifts it up on his own? Not buying it.

Sidra laments how much she hates Liam and we find out that he apparently tried to assault her and she stabbed him? And apparently she’s not happy about his marriage to Sinéad but can’t do anything about it because “Father’s word is law” and Sinéad herself laughed it off when Sidra tried to warn her?

Yeah, gonna call bullshit on that one. No idea why this was here or what purpose it serves, the reason Liam doesn’t exist in the latest draft is because I never figured out what his purpose was so I axed him entirely.

Current!Sidra would just kill him the moment he showed an interest in Sinéad, and Current!Sinéad would 100% believe her sister about something like that.

Some bloke named Connor strikes up a conversation with Sidra, seemingly worried about being this far away from human civilization. Liam teases him about it and calls the fae “knife-ears”, because I still had brainrot back then and liked Dragon Age and had zero original ideas in my head.

The men make jokes about having sex with fae women and Sidra seems so disturbed by this that she nocks an arrow. This isn’t the first time she makes references to feeling unsafe around these men, I have no idea why I wrote it this way aside from being edgy, I guess.

My village was mostly populated by men, and even though I wasn’t one of the pretty girls there, I knew these men weren’t picky, even with all their talk about beautiful fae women. I’d heard that fae women would kill their men after sleeping with them. I had no way of know it was true, but a part of me hoped it was and that Liam would some day soon get “lucky” and encounter a female fae, so she could end his misery.

Edgy, dude.

They eventually arrive and Sidra goes inside her house, which is a simple cottage with three rooms. I think her family are all farmers? It’s kind of confusing. She goes into her and Sinéad’s bedroom, where Sinéad is preparing for her wedding. Also, she’s blonde.

“Sid! There you are!” she said cheerily. “Killed a boar, huh? Good on Liam for taking all the credit.”

If you know your man is trash, why are you marrying him?

Apparently Liam seduced Sinéad with sweets and baked goods. I mean ... fair enough. Considering how Sidra complains about being hungry and skinny and going without food if she doesn’t kill the boar because this year’s harvest was minimal, I’m assuming y’all are starving.

We find out Sinéad’s mother doesn’t let her do anything around the house or farm, to preserve her “soft and white” hands and pale complexion so she could be married off easily. This makes zero sense, you’d think these medieval men wouldn’t have the same beauty standards as Victorian England, plus having a mouth to feed that doesn’t even help feeding itself is just nuts.

But remember, this isn’t Sidra, this is Not!Feyre. She needs to be sad and put-upon and a victim. She explains how she was never pretty to begin with and thus nobody considered her to be worthy of marrying off, which then meant she was put to work and became even less attractive because now she was so cool and badass that all the men were intimidated by her.

Yeah, in a village that already doesn’t have a lot of young women? I’m not buying this, lmao. But go off, Not!Feyre.

I’d been the one helping around, instead. Hunting, mostly. Sometimes I’d chop wood or work the farm. Marrying out of the house seemed impossible. Marrying up was practically a dream you forgot upon waking. Had I been pretty from the start there would’ve been a foundation to work from, but I was a lost cause even before my skin became tan and my hands grew veined and calloused. I had freckles which people mistook for mud and dull brown eyes, a long nose that had been broken one time too many and a mouth that made it look like I constantly felt a bad smell no matter what facial expression I made. I’d always been of rather short stature and had brown hair and thick eyebrows, which in combination with everything else made my parents call me their “little goblin”. The scar on my face didn’t help me either: men didn’t like it when their women were more battle-hardened than they were.

Oh god please, don’t go off! We don’t care! Stop going off!

Also what fucking parents call their poor kid a goblin? Yikes.

Sinéad convinces Sidra to get prettied up and Sidra is all “oh I bet all the men will just fall over themselves for my favor now huh” which is just the most annoying fucking thing, prompting Sinéad to respond:

“Well, winter is coming and game is scarce. If they want to survive, marrying the best hunter in the village might be a good bet.”

Yeah! This is correct! I refuse to believe people wouldn’t be into Sidra! Not only does everyone apparently know she’s the best hunter in town, but Sidra herself confirmed the men here outnumber the women and aren’t very picky.

This is fucking stupid. I’m glad I axed it. In my defense, I was very much trying to emulate the YA shit I’d read so far.

Sidra’s grandmother enters the stage. She’s very old in this draft, but otherwise unchanged.

She was a short and wrinkled old lady with extremely bad vision and an even worse grasp on reality. Or maybe an extremely acute grasp on reality, depending on whether you believed her stories or not.

Sidra changes out of the dress again to go out and help her father prepare the boar, all while sulking.

I didn’t envy Sinead, nor any other bride. Despite what most people thought of me, I wasn’t some poor ugly girl longing for the love of a man and the security of marriage. Did I enjoy the idea of having somebody care for me? Sure. But it wasn’t on my list of priorities. I was still trying to figure out what actually was on that list. Not that it mattered. The prospects for a poor village girl were very finite.

Womp womp.

We get some confusing and barely related stuff about Sidra possibly becoming a royal hunter for the king and also about where the village is located in relation to the Faewilds. She speculates that maybe the fae aren’t real, but the way she and everyone else talks about them makes it pretty obvious that they are? This was supposed to build mystery, I guess.

We skip forward to the wedding and Sidra is moping again.

“How are you feeling?” Father asked and squeezed my shoulder.

I wasn’t sure why he was doing that. I assumed it had something to do with the wedding and the fact that despite there being fewer women than men here, I was still not asked to dance. Though this didn’t really bother me, so I just shrugged.

“It doesn’t bother me. Anyway I will continue to mope and feel bitter about this thing that doesn’t bother me.” Hunny ...

At least Current!Sidra has the self-awareness to admit she’s sad and lonely.

[Father’s] marriage to Sinead’s mother was never out of love, more out of necessity. It was easier when you had a big family.

Except for when this “big family” is 3 people who work and 2 people who are just being fed, right? See, I knew back then that having a big family helps when you have a farm, but I also needed to make Sidra Special so Sinéad had to sit on her ass to highlight how pretty and feminine she was or whatnot.

Bleh.

They talk a bit about Sidra’s mother, who passed away five years ago, and Sidra reminisces about how she used to tell amazing stories. It’s all very ... whatever, and serves only to make this point for the hundredth time:

I wasn’t like Mother. I wasn’t full of life and spirit like her. I wasn’t loved and respected by the entire village like her. I was just her disappointing child whose existence they’d rather forget except when they wanted something killed.

Right after this there’s a really abrupt scene transition. Nothing about the wedding coming to an end, nothing about her going to bed, it’s just ... some while later?

Sidra’s father comes back home from ??? and tells Sidra he saw a stag somewhere, but it was hours ago so she better get a move on.

I’m not sure what either of them thinks this will accomplish? Like ... what is she gonna do with it when she kills it ... Carry it home? On her little boney ass? Hmm? I guess I didn’t think of that because I had meta knowledge that she wouldn’t get it home either way, so who cares about logic, right?

Sidra kills two rabbits while stalking the deer, and despite telling us earlier that she doesn’t venture far away from human civilization and the boar hunting being the farthest she’d been and that she wouldn’t go this far alone, she has no issue dwelling very deep into the forest this time.

Like. Henlo? Can we have one logic please and thanks you? Granted, she keeps stopping every now and then to Feel Things Out, but this really goes against how careful she was before and at no point do we get an explanation to her sudden boldness. Plot reasons, I guess.

She nearly stumbles into fae territories and finally decides to head back, except when she starts returning, she sees the stag she’s been tracking. It’s abnormally huge and has a “dark brown” coat that she finds odd, but of course she’s too stupid to connect the dots.

She sneaks up on it and honestly? This chapter ending still slaps.

A scream of pain left the creature and I saw it topple. But though my arrow hit a deer, a man fell to the ground.

DUN DUN DUN.

And yeah, the ACOTAR roots rear their ugly heads again. I liked the idea of the protagonist shooting a fae disguised as an animal, but I decided to cut out the middleman and just have her obliterate Val right in chapter one. Don’t worry, he doesn’t die.

#retrospective #my writing

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hoodoo12 · 5 years ago

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Ménage (8/13ish)

SFW. Still snarky verbal sparring, but it’s lessening.

@beetlewise-and-pennyjuice @thewolfisapartofmysoul @dilfyjuice @janitor-boy @yogsathot

Enjoy!

She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t sit still, continually bouncing up to get something from the kitchen, drifting out of Beetlejuice’s hold even though part of her still ached to be close to him. It all just felt like too much, having gone from zero to a hundred in the attention department. It made her feel jittery, anxious, like an electric current of discomfort was buzzing just beneath her skin. Beej seemed to possessively drag his fingers over her every thirty seconds or so, and the way Dewey looked at her, turning the full force of those dark brown eyes on her, pinning her like a bug under a microscope . . . it made her uncomfortably aware of her physical self.

And then there was the apparent fondness he had for her. She supposed that angels were supposed to be fond of their charges to some degree, but the way he looked at her, the way a flush seemed to creep its way up his neck to his ears when he looked at her too long, suggested his interest was less than professional. Molly wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that. He was cute, and she liked the gentle tone of his voice, and if circumstances were different then maybe she would feel more okay with the concept. But the fact remained that they weren’t different.

She sighed and refilled her coffee cup, adding a splash of cheap whiskey to the bottom before digging out a battered plastic ramekin that would suffice as an ashtray until she could get a proper one. Despite the slight tug to stay in the kitchen and hide, she came back out into the living room, setting the ramekin down on the coffee table and settling back into place on the couch. What on earth had she gotten herself into?

Molly returning interrupted Beetlejuice’s next question--something about whether angels gained wings but lost their balls in exchange, hypothetically, of course; he knew the answer, from blush that hadn’t fully ever faded and the longing looks Dewey had cast at Molly. He also wanted to ask if Molly was his only charge, or the only one he lusted after.

But she settled back against him again, and once more he felt a surge of superiority that she’d pick him over an actual angel. It was nice for a second just to revel in that.

Her heat, where the skin of her arm touched his bare stomach, was intoxicating. He resisted the urge to nuzzle into her the crook of her shoulder and neck, not because he was too shy but because he knew he’d probably moan and pop a boner in these sweatpants, and he wasn’t sure how Molly would react to that. He had a feeling she wouldn’t just be okay with heading back to the bedroom with her guardian angel wringing his hands and tutting his disapproval outside her closed door--or fuck it, open door--while they were getting it on.

Running a finger under the hem of her shirt to touch her side, soaking up the warmth there too, his train of thought jumped the track. She hadn’t seem to care, but had Molly expected him to be warm? His skin was cool . . . so was an angel’s skin warm, then? His amber eyes scanned Dewey; not much of his skin was exposed. Just his hands and neck and face, really.

Beetlejuice had a near overwhelming desire to sit up and grab Dewey’s hand, just to see if there was heat there too. He resisted the urge, of course; he’d dislodge Molly and scare them both, and probably end up with a flaming sword through his gut or something.

He didn’t need a heavenly host raining holy wrath down on him in defense of one of their own.

So instead he went back to his cigarette, looking lazily through the wisps of smoke at him.

“Well. This has been . . . something,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “You checked in on your charge. You gonna float on back up to wherever? I bet there’s a shit ton of paperwork you’ve got to get done, huh? Molly and I had a full day planned, you know. She was going to show me her gardens, we were going to take a nap . . . boring stuff that couldn’t possibly interest an angel.”

Seeing the expression on the angel’s face pinch like maybe what he’d said had hurt, then grow a touch wistful towards the end when he mentioned the most boring plans ever, Beetlejuice narrowed his eyes. He snuffed out his cigarette in the makeshift ashtray Molly had provided, and turned his attention to her.

“Molly, baby . . . do you mind giving us a few more minutes alone?” he asked.

Both the other two looked up at him in surprise. And suspicion. And protests were building up, in both of them.

He continued to address her, but kept half a glance at Dewey.

“Infernal and celestial stuff. You know. Guy talk.”

Those protests were at the backs of their teeth, ready to spill out of their mouths; he could tell. He held up a hand to continue to stall them for the moment.

“I promise no physical altercation. I won’t even raise my voice!” he promised her, before turning to Dewey to sweeten the pot for him too. “And as much as it pains me to cover this fine specimen of ghostly demonhood, I’ll put on clothes.”

He raised his eyebrows and opened his hand in a more passive gesture, glancing between the two.

“Okay? I just want to talk.”

Molly was apprehensive to say the least when Beej all but insisted that he talk alone with the angel. She opened her mouth to advise that maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea, considering she didn't want her house smashed to pieces in some sort of supernatural altercation, but he seemed serious about keeping the peace. She looked back at Dewey, who looked stunned, but nodded, and she shrugged.

"All right. I needed to tend the gardens anyway. I'll be out back if you need me."

She let her fingertips drift over Beetlejuice's cheek, even tossing a reassuring, if brief, smile over her shoulder at the angel, and tossed her hair up as she walked out the back door.

It was cool outside, overcast, the clouds silver and shifting overhead, like a portent of something to come, and she couldn't help a shiver. There was a gnawing in her gut, some sense of foreboding she couldn't put her finger on. As she pulled weeds in her gardens, she tried to push the feeling away, but it persisted. She hoped against hope that their talk went well, and this feeling would cease.

Dewey was taken aback when the demon first scrutinized his face, amber eyes narrowing as if he could see right through the angel; he supposed he was easy to read--if there was no one to see his face, there was no need to hide his expression. He was dumbstruck, however, when a demon of all people asked to talk, offered an olive branch. Even offered to put on clothes.

His first instinct was distrust, wondering what sort of hidden agenda Beetlejuice had. Get the girl out of the room, then go for the throat? As a guardian, he wasn't allowed weapons, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve that could make a demon regret pulling any hasty moves. Even Molly seemed apprehensive, but to his surprise, she stood and left the room, smiling at him over her shoulder. Did she trust them alone together? Trusted the demon not to pull anything?

Dewey sighed, his wings ruffling as he turned to face the demon on the couch. If Molly trusted him, perhaps he could take that leap of faith too. After all, besides some snarky remarks here and there, Beetlejuice had never actually threatened him.

"All right," he said, wishing he had another cigarette. "What is it you wanna talk about?"

“What do you think I want to talk about? Whether or not that Tiger King show on Netflix is worth anyone’s time,” Beetlejuice replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. At the hardening expression on the angel’s face, he amended with, “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I wanna talk about Molly, of course.”

He stood up. “I suppose you’d prefer I not strip in front of you, right?”

Without waiting for a reply, he simply flicked his suit back on. The sweatpants were soft and comfortable, but the stripes were familiar, like stepping into his skin. It gave him a sense of power that was distinctly different than throwing his weight around half dressed because it made an angel uncomfortable.

He sat back down in the same position, leaning back against the arm of the couch, in a calculated manspread. Rolling his fingers together like before, two fresh cigarettes appeared between his fingers, and he offered one to Dewey. He even went as far as to light it for the angel, then dragged on his own.

Brown eyes narrowed at the demon's acerbic commentary; so they were already off to a bad start, it seemed. Even the display of magicking his clothes back in place seemed deliberate, a show of his ability. And, Dewey had to admit, while the stripes were shabby and threadbare, they were more intimidating than a pair of women's sweatpants.

"Are all demons so considerate?" His eyes rolled as well, though he took the offered cigarette.

"Bold of you to assume I'm a full demon," he replied mildly. He let that statement float for a moment. Once Beetlejuice had gathered a lungful of smoke, he used the cigarette to point at the angel. “You’re her guardian, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? You have actual feelings for her.”

Dewey wouldn't go so far as to thank him for the smoke yet, but his expression softened a bit, his posture loosening from its tensed state. However, when Beetlejuice pointed accusingly at him, the tip of his lit cigarette trailing a thread of grey smoke, he bristled.

"I . . . I don't know what you're talking about." He grit his teeth; even he wasn't convinced by his protests, and he hated that the demon could see through him so easily. "It's complicated."

Beetlejuice smirked at the fire he glimpsed in the angel's eyes, blew out the smoke he'd held, and brought the cigarette back to his lips.

"Thou doth protest too much, methinks. You're not very subtle. You looked like you were sunburned, blushing so much when Molly was here."

He tapped the ash off his smoke, and stared down at it in his fingers for a moment.

Dewey quirked an eyebrow at the full demon comment, but the blatant call-out of his rather embarrassing reaction to being near Molly made him, of course, flush to the tips of his ears in indignation. He could explain that he didn't have to hide anything before the demon showed up, so he hadn't ever had to be subtle before, but he took a drag off his cigarette and said nothing. No reason to give him even more ammunition.

"Hey, what do I know about angels? Maybe up there's just one big never ending orgy. In the Netherworld, everybody swings both ways; maybe it's the same up there too." He lifted his gaze to Dewey's again. "All I'm saying is that if you're having non-angelic thoughts about your charge, maybe the whole guardian angel thing isn't for you. Free will is a hell of a thing compared to blind obedience.

"Just something to consider. Something to think about."

He sighed, smoke leaving his mouth in a thin stream.

"That's the thing. Thoughts are fine, they don't hurt anything. But acting on anything . . . it's a risk. A big risk." God, Dewey wished he could be having this conversation with anyone else, or better yet, not having it at all. "I know . . . I know Molly doesn't like me. It isn't a stretch to say she hates me, and I can't exactly blame her. I couldn't be there the way she needed me to be."

His eyes fell to the floor, the hand that brought the cigarette to his lips now shaking slightly.

"If I did . . . what you're suggesting, if I rebelled to be with her, I lose everything. And the likelihood of her wanting to be with me is slim to none. Apparently, I'm not exactly her type." He gave the demon a narrowed glance, but there was no real venom in it. "It's . . . it's too big of a gamble. I'm better off just standing to the side."

Hearing that, the resignation, Beetlejuice cocked his head as if trying to see the angel from a new perspective. He knew that feeling, the feeling of being trapped, no conceivable way to change his circumstances. It was crushing, and he half wondered if angels had the option of a Lost Souls room too, because an eternity of nothingness was sometimes more appealing than an eternity of pining and slog.

As to Molly . . . he didn’t quite have an answer to that. Well, maybe.

“She was fucking lonely,” he said, in faint exasperation. “I know you’ve repeated ad nauseum about rules and restrictions and all that, but it seems like a huge flaw in that system. It taking someone so desperate for someone that they literally open their door to whatever might be strolling by to waltz right in and make itself at home before you can help is really shitty.

“She’s damn lucky there were some typos on that page and she only called up me, and not something else.”

He looked at his cigarette again, but decided he was done with it.

“I’m gonna regret this, I just know it,” he sighed, mostly to himself even as he looked up and caught the angel’s eyes again. “But if you just talk to her, if you just tell her that you wanted to do more but you were afraid for the reasons you just told me, maybe that’d convince her how sincere you actually are. Leave off the stuff about ‘saving her soul’ or whatever. As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t have near that kind of pull.”

Suddenly the lit cigarette in his hand was fascinating again.

“You tell her all that, and you won’t have anything else to worry about, Dewey,” he finished quietly. “She’ll understand and realize how much better it’ll be with you, and then she’ll send me away. You’ll win either way: she’ll be safe from me, or you’ll have a reason to stick it to the man and get to be with her.”

Dewey opened his mouth to say something, perhaps to insist that even for knowing her only half a day, he’d already helped Molly more than her own angel had done in fifteen years, but he closed it and stood.

“I’ll go talk to her.”

tbc . . .

#writing #fanfiction #Beetlejuice #Dewey Finn #Beetlejuice x OC #rp #AU #Beetlejuice based on blumjuice

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tarhalindur · 5 years ago

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Running through the solution space for Watadamashi-hen

With Watadamashi-hen in the books and the obvious and traditional remaining question of “whodunnit?” in everyone’s heads, methinks it would be useful to see if there’s anything we can lock down for sure as constraints on possible solutions. (Or, seeing as we’re in Gou’s version of the question arc that focuses the most on the local yakuza clan, perhaps a (forum) Mafia phrasing would be more appropriate: who is still in the PoE/Process of Elimination, and who is out of it?)

Here’s what I’ve got, under the cut:

- I do not believe we have quite enough information to say anything definitive about which sister Sonozaki is which during this arc. There’s two big questions here, and both are mostly related to the backstory: did the tattoo incident happen in the backstory as usual, and why is information about Satoshi so scarce this time around? And both of those in turn boil down to a single issue: the level 0 answer for Watadamashi-hen (or perhaps more accurately level 3 -> level 0) is that Shion is responsible for at least some of the deaths as usual, but if that’s actually Shion during episode 8 then her behavior towards Keiichi here (especially the confession in the last episode) is hard to square with her devotion to Satoshi’s memory in OG. So the obvious questions: 1) did something happen in the backstory to switch which twin has the personality traits likely to drive L5, and 2) is there an easy explanation for why a Shion-born-Mion wouldn’t be as attached to Satoshi this time around?

The one thing I do suspect is that we only see one of the twins in Gou episode 5. (The question is which - present!Shion impersonating her sister for the game tournament, or present!Mion impersonating her sister for the rest of the episode? Leaning the former, but that’s not guaranteed.)

(Note: One of the theories going around is that the ending credits spoil which twin(s) are present in which episode of this arc. I believe this is possible but doesn’t actually tell us much even if so? The only conclusion that would give me that I wouldn‘t have arrived at anyways is that only one sister Sonozaki shows up during Episode 8 - that would rule out worlds where one of Mion/Shion is attending school at the start of the episode and then dies no later than Keiichi meeting kimono!Mion. Other than that, as I just noted I’m leaning towards only one twin being present in episode 5 anyways, and everything else including which twin is in 5 is potentially drowned in “yes, I told you it was Mion, but did I mean Mion now or Mion by birth?” unless the tattoo incident never happened and Mion was born Mion... and in that case Mion is the prohibitive favorite for being a culprit anyways because the reasons Mion never goes L5 in OG would now apply to Shion instead, so once again it would just be confirming things I would have already suspected!)

- For each of Oryou, Kiichirou, and {Shion, Mion}, at some point, somebody had access to both their dead bodies and the Sonozaki disposal well.

This is more restrictive than it looks. There’s really only four groups of people with even potential access to the well: a member of the Sonozaki family, another member of the Club (who could get Mion’s help, wittingly [ala Tsumihoroboshi-hen] or otherwise [Tatarigoroshi-hen]), the Yamainu (courtesy of their raiding the residence), or the police. Of those, the only people who don’t have severe issues wrt opportunity for both the Oryou and Kiichirou murders are the Sonozakis and Rika (who might have been able to use her position as last surviving member of the third gosanke to set up a suitable opportunity to kill both of them if she went L5 or a Bern personality came out to play), and IIRC the sisters Sonozaki are the only Sonozakis with screen time while alive this arc.

The most likely permutation here is that the obvious inference from OG holds: one or both of the twins are responsible for all three of those deaths in some combination. Looking it over... I think the second most likely possibility may actually be that the Mion who was at school during episode 8 was telling the actual truth about Rika? (#FeelTheBern)

- Whoever killed kimono!Shmion and Satoko had access to firearms, given both the death pose and the reported gunshot.

This is actually quite the restriction on possible culprits, as AFAICT there are only three groups in Hinamizawa with even potential access to firearms: the Sonozakis, the Yamainu (technically there’s also other Tokyo groups like the Banken, but only the Yamainu show up on screen this arc), and possibly the police. (Caveat: if kimono!Mion’s gun is real, then it is possible that the culprit here successfully wrested the gun away from her and then shot her with it.) (I wonder: is there any clear indication in the original Japanese about whether the officers who heard the gunshot heard only one shot or more than one? I know Japanese often lacks formal singular/plural distinctions, so quite possibly not.) I am heavily inclined to suspect the Yamainu here - I do not trust Keiichi’s viewpoint wrt Mion’s “revolver”, especially with the mismatch with the gun seen by the dead bodies, and if the shot of Shmion’s and Satoko’s body is to be believed the position of the nominal murder weapon looks really off for a murder-suicide. (Also, they’re still on the short list of people with obvious motive to kill Satoko - if the clinic is once again “renovating” and that’s a cover for shutting down, they could be cleaning up loose ends.)

(Note: The apparent scratches on the neck of kimono!Mion’s dead body are quite interesting, because we get a clear view of that side of her neck during the confession scene and at that point there is *no sign* of said scratches! Now, it’s possible Keiichi was hallucinating the lack of scratches, but that’s rather atypical for late-stage HS hallucinations; otherwise, those scratches must have been infliced during the events leading up to kimono!Mion’s death.)

- Whoever killed Rika was either making a delayed statement and/or did not have immediate access to either the Sonozaki disposal well or the Yamainu’s resources.

This one is pretty simple. The school septic tank is a pretty shitty place to hide Rika’s body (pun intended after the fact) - after all, only {Mion/Shion} calling Keiichi away at the last moment prevents him from finding the body within at most a few hours of Rika being reported missing![1] It’s certainly inferior to either the well (where the police only ever get to look in scenarios where Mion, Shion, and Oryou all die; Teppei’s body is quite secure there every time its gets moved to the well in OG arcs) or where the Yamainu would hide the body (people killed in the GHD coverup as opposed to the main event stay missing - both police officers shot on the road and villagers trying to escape into the hills). Now, it’s possible that just like in certain OG arcs the reason Rika’s body is in such a findable place is because someone is making a statement and never intended for the body to remain hidden forever, especially if they wanted the body to stay hidden just long enough to get clear first - AIUI finding a miko’s body in a tank full of human waste would be a bit of a statement given Shinto ritual cleanliness, even/especially given certain features of local Hinamizawa practice (IIRC you could find some vaguely Western analogues in some of the ways Orthodox priests were executed during the Russian Civil War). (This probably applies at the meta level regardless, especially given that Gou translates as karma.) If it’s not a statement, however, then the only reason to put Rika’s body there instead of a more secure location is because the better locations weren’t an option (which, in turn, could be either because there wasn’t time/opportunity to move the body to one of the better locations or because the killer just didn’t have access to such locations).

[1] - I’m not sure how incriminating that is for whichever of {Mion/Shion} was at school at the time. Coincidence is a very really possibility there, absolutely no reason to think it can’t be when that kind of thing is de riguer for detective story red herrings.

Piecing it together, here’s what I’ve got:

Culprit 1: Responsible for the deaths of Oryou Sonozaki and Kiichirou Kimiyoshi. Likely candidates: birth!Mion, then Rika and birth!Shion in some order (the last probably gates around Oryou crossing one of birth!Shion’s red lines, although something involving fallout from no tattoo incident is also possible). Corner case candidates: the Yamainu, a different club member, the police.

Culprit 2: Responsible for the death of the “Shion” found in the well. Can be the same as Culprit 1. Probably the other Sonozaki twin, assuming that the lack of apparent marks on the body holds and noting that self-defense is a possible motive (or technically suicide + someone else disposing of the body). Corner case candidates are once again the Yamainu and the police (but why throw “Shion’s” body into the well but not “Mion’s”?),

Culprit 3: Responsible for the death of Rika Furude (or at least for moving her body to the septic tank - I suppose it’s technically possible that Rika left the stage on her own ala Meakashi-hen). Likely candidates: Satoko, birth!Mion (iff the septic tank was a temporary solution until she could safely move the body to the well), Miyo Takano/Jirou Tomitake (iff one or both is still in town after all, assumes Takano no longer has Yamainu support). Notable corner cases: Rena, birth!Shion (self-defense? plus birth!Mion caveat). Other corner cases: Keiichi (iff unreliable narrator manifests as him killing Rika offscreen, which is unlikely but possible), someone else around school (Chie-sensei after Rika insulted curry?), the police. Probably not the Yamainu; they might have motive but I find it hard to believe they’d leave Rika’s body where it was.

Culprit 4: Responsible for the death of Satoko Hojo. Not necssarily also Culprit 5, depending on exact events (the notable world here is “kimono!Mion kills Satoko and is then killed by the Yamainu in turn”). Likely candidates: kimono!Mion and the Yamainu, in some order (kimono!Mion has self-defense as a possible motive given those scratches). Less likely: Satoko herself (suicide). Corner cases: the police, Rena (if she somehow dodged the security cams or Keiichi was hallucinating those), Takano/Tomitake (likewise). Alibi’d: Rika (dead), Keiichi (in the cell).

Culprit 5: Responsible for the death of kimono!Mion. Likely candidates: the Yamainu, followed closely by kimono!Mion (suicide) and Satoko in some order. Corner cases: the police, Rena, Takano/Tomitake. Alibi’d: Rika (dead), Keiichi (in the cell).

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lockdownuk · 5 years ago

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Lockdown Diary Part 3

A personal account during the lockdown in the UK due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

23/03/2020 8:30pm Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, gives a live address to the nation to, effectively, put the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus strain, Covid-19.

Many of us have been self-isolating for days but this latest development within the UK in reaction to the pandemic feels very serious and very scary. I decided to keep a simple diary and where better but online.

Day 61: Writing this in the afternoon on day 62. An exercise driven day. Two walks and stair climb as usual plus I popped round Jeff’s early evening. First time I’ve been to his house, 1 Garden Row, Elmington. It’s further than I thought so, with walking there an back, I managed a daily total of 14km. It was good to see him and have a social (but social-distanced) beer. When I got home, @9:45pm, I made thai green chicken curry, watch The Report (a great, if worrying film) and then TikTok-ed until gone 5am!

Day 62: Typing this on day 64! Beer round Karen’s. Missed Sam’s quiz.

Day 63: Typing this on day 64! Beer round Karen’s. Again! Well, it is bank holiday Monday! Had dirty pizza for tea and watched The Heat. Again! It is the most piss funny film.

Day 64: Well, I have been feeling guilty about treatung the bank holiday w/e l;ike a bank holiday w/e. It’s dawned on me that that guilt is way too self-disiciplned. I got up about midday, usual two walks and stair climb but that’s it. I need to clean the house from top to bottom, get on top of my online courses, get the garden done, get the car fixed, go shopping…fucking hell - if only I had the time…

Day 65: Today I swapped Amazon prime free trial for about the 5th time in my life. Same card and address - will they get wind of my skullduggery. This is all so I can finish watching Hunters and catch Homecoming S2. I went shopping at Asda near Raunds. I wish I hadn’t, it’s no good for a comprehensive shop. Received an email from RCI inviting me to a Zoom meeting with Pal Mulcahy for a business update. I fear the worst. And it’s at 10:00am, FFS!

Day 66: Logged in an attended zoom forum with Paul Mulcahy and over 250 RCI staff this morning. The message was that there is going to be redundancies. I expected this and expected to fall victim. All staff that are going to be put through cionsultation would be contacted today. I however wasn’t! Very, very surpised. meanwhile, Nick Reilly asked to connect via LinkedIn (including become a LinkedIn staff team member - that’s new to me so I’ll see what it is but I accepted the invitation) Later, I WhatsApp-ed him and asked who has been affected from IT. All he could tell me was no one on Jon Rodger’s team is under threat. Also, Mark C emailed - I’ll respond tomorrow. I got up at 09:00ish and had my mornming walk before the 10:00am meeting. I am now, at 09:30pm, fucking knackered. Dinner and then bed, methinks but not before one more episdoe of Hunters!

Day 67: Typing on Day 68. Got pretty drunk last night. I’ve got blisters from walking (new boots) so I don’t think I’ll walk tomorrow (well, today!).

Day 68: I did fuck all today. Got up after 1pm, no walking. I did manage to clean the bathroom (and smash my little mirror) and do my 26 stair climb. I am typing at 9pm and I feel whacked!

Day 69: I have an abscess. It’s not too painful (today) but I am going to call the dentist tomorrow (Monday). I think antibiotics are in order. I watched a film, which I actually started yesterday, called The Voices starring Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arteton and Anna Kendrick. Fuuuuuuuuuuuucking weird. The closing credits are the most bizarre, in context, I’ve ever seen. But, in general, a very good film. Back to normal exercise regime today plus hovered the hall and stairs. Get me. It’ll be interetingh to see my Google Fit figures for May tomorrow.

Day 70: Contacted the dentist who advised salt water rinsing and ibuprofen. But, tbf, it’s a lot better today and the swelling has gone right down. The dentist I called was the Oundle House (Rodericks) one. I was not hopeful since last time I saw them they referred me to their Northampton clinic for root canal work which was quoted at over £600. However, the dentist was very nice, had my x-ray to hand from that last visit and seemed more interested in making sure I’m OK than gaining a paying customer. He still wants to see me when possible though! I must mention the weather. It has been glorious weather nearly every day throughout May (it’s June 1st today). Seriously sunny and like a holiday every day. The news mentioned it today - the level of sunshine throughout the transition from spring to summer is unprecedented, apparently. My T shirt tan is, quite frankly, ridiculous!

Day 71: Today’s ‘must mention’ is what’s going on in the US and it’s not particularly related to Trump. There was a black man killed while under arrest. George Floyd died Monday 25th May (8 days ago) A policeman, who knelt on his neck for minutes while he complained of not being able to breathe, has been charged with murder. Now there are riots and curfews and military intervention all over the country. It’s similar to the English riots of 2011. It’s worrying, sad, scary and not what the fight against the pandemic needs. Most of all, it’s racism rearing its ugly head yet again. I’ve had a normal-ish day. received an email from Jim checking in, talked to a recruiter about a promising job lead (although the hours are 8-5 which I am not happy about), talked to Barry across the road and sent Barzzy a WhatsApp. And I logged in Shaw Academy and started lesson one of module 2 of web Design. It’s been a while, so long overdue, but I only did about 15 minutes. Must try harder / do better! As I type, late (10:10pm) I have dinner cooking and a strange pain in my left side and am in the middle of No Country for Old Men. Don’t think I’ve seen it since the cinema (13 years!)

Day 72: As soon as (well, within a couple of days) I mention the weather, it turns. It’s rained a little and is a lot cooler (15° rather than mid-20s). Much better for walking, I have to say. I finished Hunters today (Amazon Prime series). While I enjoyed it, it got too surreal at the end. It is loosely based on the real story of Nazi hunters in the US in 1977 but the straying from loosely based to down-right ridiculous fiction annoyed me. If it goes to S2, I will watch it, however. Received some of my rental deposit back today (the law changed so that only 5 weeks rent can be demanded as deposit). Over £600. Nice.

Day 73: I made a short video for Marc and Clare’s 26th wedding anniversary. I ‘dressed up’ for it. I enjoyed doing it and I think it was appreciated.

Day 74: Typing on Day 75 for no other reason than I couldn’t be bothered on day 74! I received a letter either today or the day before (well, yesterday or the previous day!) from Mr Minos at the eye clinic informing me that, while there is some stuff going on in both eyes (garnered from the photo scans done at the last hospital appointment), he wants to see me in three months. Always a refief when that happens. Been getting into two series on Amazon: Alex Rider and Modern Love. One is a male Hanna, the other is soppy affairs of the heart based on real life stories (from essays written in the NY Times). Both enjoyable for totally different reasons.

Day 75: Lazyish day. Well, not really, just that I only went for one walk, alebit 6km andI got pissed on. Wehn the rain hit, it was also fucking freezing! Some of the clouds were stunning today, made for great photos. As I type, it’s 21:12, I’m listening the wonderful Phoebe Bridgiers. Now, I’m gonna make some tea and sup a few ales, I reckon.

Day 76: Done lots of walking today (over 13,000 steps) I made sausage casserole with too much chilli (scotch bonnet and birdeye). I had an online (fb) debate with Sam over whether the George Floyd murder was a racial.

Day 77: Received a new (used) wing mirror for the car. £18 with delivery, I reckon that’s a bargain. I cashed in £20 from Prolific as well, so I’m satisfied at the financial full-circle. Dropped the car off at Barnwell (Nene Valley Body Shop) and walked back - 7km. Just about to dive into tea - finishing the blazing hot sausage casserole from yesterday. Then I’m going to do some more Rubik’s cube practice with my recently acquired GoCube.

Day 78: Lots of daily walking, 26 stair climb, press-up and late nights watching TikTok (gone 3am this morning) are making for a constantly knackered Tim Stubbs. Today I made veg soup and cooked up some meatballs. Both are delish. How did I ever to learn how to conjure up such stuff? The Rubik’s cube learning is coming along except that I need good daylight to distinguish between the yellow and white faces on the flipping thing!

Day 79: Listening to Radio 6 most the day and the news is making for dire listening. Forecast of severe recession, especially if there is a second peak of the virus, which I think there will be. Plus, an offshoot of the George Floyd murder and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, institutions and town councils are being lobbied by campaigners to remove statues of anyone associated with things like slavery (one was toppled in Bristol at the w/e) and rename buildings etc. that were named after historical characters with any links to something that now is deemed wrong or offensive. I agree with it but it’s not pleasant to hear amongst other bleak news. Walked to Barnwell to collect my car - front trim reseated and new wing mirror fitted, £20 - bargain (I source the replacement wing mirror). But, also, forked out £165 on car tax! Cleaned the lounge from top to bottom. Knackering!

Day 80: Chatted with Dad and Rita - he’s pissed off with the slavery backlash but otherwise they are both OK. I saw Baz in the Tesco queue where I mentioned my disgust at the Thursday market being allowed (I found I could not maintain 2m at all times just walking to Tesco’s!) and that I really don’t want to catch Covid19 as I will probably die. Maybe a bit dramatic but he messaged me later today to say he’d been thinking on what I said and offered to shop for me. I replied that I am OK to shop but am scared at how people are taking things so much less seriously than when lockdown started yet the virus is still out there just as it was then! I am very touched at his massage. I thoroughly cleaned the bedroom and changed the bedclothes today. House work really knackers me out!

Day 81: Spare room cleaned today. Not much else to type about. It’s Friday, I making curried mince and I don’t feel like a beer. How I’ve changed!

Day 82: I did have beers last night. Ended up going to bed with daylight and dawn chorus for company. Today, when I woke, gone 1pm, I have been greeted by what can only be described as thoroughly depressing news from every quarter. This includes violence in the capital, further virus outbreak in Beijing. Fog’s political posts on FB make for depressing (but vaild) reading. I’m feeling thoroughly fed up today. Not even music can lift my mood…

…but, I am currently listening to Craig Charles on BBCR6 and, I have to say, he’s putting in quite an exceptional effort - there may be hope that my mood might lift, even at gone 8pm! I might have a beer or two and grab something postivity and enjoyment from the day after all.

Day 83: Another late one last night but up before noon today. Started watching something called Condor on Sky One. It’s OK - there’s stuff I wanna waytch on Amazon Prime but, more often than not, it keeps telling me there’s ‘a problem’ when I try to play anything. Pissing me off. I just checked and I have two weeks of the initial 12 of furlough to go. I shall started asking the questions about what might happen on the Connections website.

Day 84: Typing this on Day 85. On the way back from dropping off some shoes for Sean Davies at his brother’s (martin) I met Karen and she said why not pop round for a beer so I did. Certainly not used to a drink on a Monday so that, and the genral upheaval to my evening, while good fun and a nice change, put pay to my usual diary entry! I sorted Amazon Prime out by leaving the TV turned off for over an hour. Day 85: Tim did the garden today and it looks great. The pipes in the bathroom have been knocking loudly, on and off, for a couple of weeks now. Last night, they were so loud that today I took it upon myself to resolve it or ring Woodfords. So, having turned off the water, run the taps dry to get rid of any trapped air and then turned the water back on slowly, I discoved it’s the cistern and its pipes. Woodfords are arranging Corvee to visit. Meanwhile, leaving the water turned off at least stops the noise which is, otherwise, costant and unbearable! I emailed HR a couple of days ago about what’s happening in a couple of weeks time in terms of furlough when the 12 weeks will be up. Sue Cockimngs got back to me attaching an email Deryn sent on 15th May which I never received. Basically, they’ll extend furlough if need be and an update should be forthcoming late May/early June. Well, that time has passed, so who knows what is going to happen. The furlough scheme (CJRS) has been changed by the govenment, I’ve read, and it looks like any new people would have to have been furloughed by June 10th (it’s the 16th today) so no furlough rotation, which is annoying. The CJRS ends 1st October with employer contributions required from 1st August - that’s D-Day as far as I am concerned….so job hunting will have to step up a notch! Day 86: Pete’s birthday and he bought himself the same speaker as me. When I asked if it lived up to his expectations he mentioned it’s better through WiFi than Bluetooth. That confused me as I haven’t got WiFi available on mine…..long story short, I bought the wrong fucking speaker. I got a AudioPro AddOn T10 instead of C10. To say I am fucked off is an understatement. To think I was so pleased at the cheap price I paid. Now I feel like I have wasted €200. Bollocks.

Day 87: Finished Alex Rider last night. Another series that started off so well and ended a litte weak but, overall, not bad. I’ve started keeping strange meal times…lunch very late (4pm) and dinner really late (11pm). I need to sort it ‘cos it’s playing havoc with my sugar levels. I had a huge hypo while having my second walk today, second day on the trot that’s happened. My late dinner was Chinese chicked curry with a quarter of a scotch bonnet and two birdeye chillies. Delish.

Day 88: I have managed to be bitten yesterday or the day before on one of my walks. There are strange, itchy lumps on my right inner forearm. And I do mean itchy. I trimmed my sideburns today, I was very pissed off with them. My hair looks just a little less shit. I did a shop at Tesco in Corby today. Mainly booze as follows: 20 cans Sam Miguel £18 18 cans Stella £15 20 bottles Bud £10 8 cans Tyskie £9 3 lrg bottles Warsteiner £5 £57 Bargain.

Day 89: Lazy day. One short walk and usual stair climb. Howard and Sue popped round to give me a pressie - bottle of Monkey Shoulder. I’m building up quite a collection of whisky!

Day 90: Dad called and we chatted for an hour or so. I had to apologise for not sending a father’s day card! Dan messaged me and offered to pay for a pizza delivery which I declined.

Football has started again this past week…Prem and Championship only. L1 and L2 season was cut short and Posh missed out on the play-offs by one place. As I type, Everton v Liverpool is on Sky Sports on a Sunday evening - it’s very strange with no crowd. There’s crowd noise being played thorugh the tannoy.

#Diary #Tumblr diary #lockdown #covid19 #lockdownuk

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langandlitanxiety · 5 years ago

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Zofia Ossowska & Pola Żuk

The theme of sexuality in William Shakespeare’s “Othello”

Introduction

Over the course of Shakespeare’s artwork progress and evolution, his readers can observe his significantly increasing interest in the psychology of sex. Othello is his most widely exploring this topic piece, as the author investigates many varieties of sexuality concerning not only people of the same race and class, but also the ones having different ethnic origins and social statuses. General controversy spread around a black man being the eponymous character inspired Shakespeare to also present stereotypes of interracial sex that affect both family’s of the white, pure girl and the couple itself. Such stereotypes are mostly introduced by the main villain, Iago, who is most frequently using animal imagery to describe them as well as Othello’s and Desdemona’s intimate moments. His language only adds spiciness to the scenes concerning the characters he is speaking about and tension in the reader, as such imagery really evokes one’s imagination and in this case, often disgust.

Imagery used to refer to Othello and his intimate life with Desdemona (and the reaction of Desdemona’s father)

The first scene in which Iago comments on Othello’s and Desdemona’s sex life is when he wants to cause chaos and conflict between Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, and the couple. In order to do that, he puts an image of the dirty, old man shamingly interacting with his pure, young daughter and highlights the possibility of Desdemona getting pregnant with the child of the devil (such metaphor derives from Othello’s dark skin color).

“Zounds, sir, you’re robbed, for shame put on your gown!

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul,

Even now, now, very now, an old black ram

Is tupping your white ewe! Arise, arise,

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you, Arise I say!” (1.1.84-91)

Iago suggests that the fact of Desdemona’s sexual interaction with the Moor is shameful not only towards her herself, but specifically towards his father, who must have not raised her in the right way. He also pays attention to the difference of age between the two - Desdemona seems to be much younger than her lover, which is also not something to be proud of. As Desdemona represents a woman from the upper class, she should also choose someone at least equal to her rank for her husband not to disrespect hers and her family’s position. During the fight between Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio (though Iago speaks to Brabantio as Roderigo), the father of Desdemona accuses the men of being thieves. While responding to this accusation, Iago still tries (and succeeds) to play with Brabantio’s imagination by saying

“ [...] Because we come to

do you service, and you think we are ruffians, you’ll

have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;

you’ll have your nephews neigh to you, you’ll have

courses for cousins and jennets for germans!” (1.1.109-112)

and

“I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.” (1.1.114-115)

Saying all that, Iago successfully upsets Brabantio by bringing his attention to the marriage of his beloveddaughter with the Moor in a very unpleasant way.

Desdemona’s and Othello’s sex life; the symbol of their bridal bed

Another thing concerning the topic of sex that is worth noticing is the amount of trails Othello and Desdemona had to get intimate. Firstly, they had to call off their wedding-night in Venice as Othello was ordered to go to Cyprus:

“ Senator

You must away tonight.

Desdemona

Tonight, my lord?

Duke

This night.

Othello

With all my heart.” (1.3.275-279)

Secondly, due to the brawl between Cassio and Roderigo resulting from Iago’s manipulation, they were interrupted again, only in Cyprus. Othello was mad not only because of the fact of their fight, but also because his alone time with his lover was interrupted.

“Look if my gentle love be not raised up! I’ll make thee an example.” (2.3.246-247)

Such interruptions build the tension between Othello and Desdemona and only add to Othello’s madness developing after he believes that his wife is indeed cheating on him, as he cannot seem to get ahold of her, while he thinks that Cassio does.

Another thing worth mentioning is the bed, which Iago brings a couple of times during the play. It not only reminds the reader or viewer about the off-stage bridal bed, but is also a some kind of a connection between the final scene, during which Desdemona is killed by her beloved husband.

“Well: happiness to their sheets” (2.3.26)

This quotation is especially ironic, as right before her death Desdemona asked Emilia to change the sheets into their wedding ones as a sign of preparing for the big night with her love. This means that these mentioned by Iago bridal bed and sheets may signalize to the reader further course of the plot and highlight the huge juxtaposition: the bed and the sheets that were supposed to bring the couple happiness evolved into a symbol of their tragedy. In fact, the bridal bed is the place on which almost every dead body in this play lands in the end, what portrays the extreme changes that took place in a very short notice.

“I do not know, friends all, but now, even now,

In quarter and in terms like bride and groom

Divesting them for bed [...]” (2.3.175-177)

Is Iago gay?

There have been many discussions about Iago’s sexuality - some say that Iago is in fact homosexual and he wants to destroy Othello and his relationship with Desdemona out of jealousy caused by his unfulfilled love. However, such interpretation of Iago’s character is often made because people feel the need to justify such horrible actions as those presented by Iago. The truth is that this villain is an embodiment of evil, a character taking pleasure from causing chaos, trouble, and pain, as he not once shows any sign of regret, empathy, repentance or change. Humans always seem to seek for motive and need one - in case of Iago, he does not need motive, or more specifically, he’s only motive is to cause harm and enjoy its consequences. Therefore, the theory of Iago’s homosexuality is an overinterpretation that should not be taken under consideration while analyzing Shakespeare’s play.

The theme of womanhood in context of sexuality

The three women characters that are included in the play are supposed to represent women of different class and social status.

Desdemona is representing the highest social status and poses as a female role model, being referred to as a virtuous and loyal wife by several characters during the first few scenes of the play. She’s obedient and kind; even though Brabantio directly expresses his disappointment regarding Desdemona’s choice of husband, she remains respectful and thoughtful enough to not try to bother his father:

“Nor I; I would not there reside,

To put my father in impatient thoughts

By being in his eye.

Most gracious Duke,

To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear

And let me find a charter in your voice,

T' assist my simpleness.” (2.3.239-244)

Desdemona throws away her life in order to be with Othello and until the very end of her life, she remains obedient and in love.

Bianca is Desdemona’s polar opposite. She is Cassio’s lover and a mistress, thus being strongly linked with the theme of sexuality that appears throughout the play.

Despite her profession, Bianca seems to be very emotional about Cassio’s affection, frustrated at the way he disregards their relationship. Her jealousy of Cassio mirrors Othello’s jealousy of Desdemona. The character of a courtesan seems to serve as a way to emphasize Desdemona’s desirable traits of faithfulness and loyalty, and yet Othello is still incapable of telling the difference between the two types of women that Desdemona and Bianca represent.

A lot about how Bianca is presented and perceived by the male characters of the play can be seen in the way she is addressed or described by Cassio:

“Go to, woman!

Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,

From whence you have them.

You are jealous now

That this is from some mistress, some remembrance:

No, in good troth, Bianca.” (3.4.179-183)

“I marry her! what? a customer! Prithee, bear some charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!” (4.1.120-123)

Iago addresses Cassio’s problematic approach towards his lover as well:

“Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,

A housewife that by selling her desires

Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature

That dotes on Cassio; as 'tis the strumpet's plague

To beguile many and be beguiled by one:

He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain

From the excess of laughter.”

What is also very interesting is that not only does Cassio speak of Bianca in a pitiful and disrespectful manner, but he also seems deeply fascinated by Desdemona’s presence.

“Iago

Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' the clock. Our general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona; who let us not therefore blame: he hath not yet made wanton the night with her; and she is sport for Jove.

Cassio

She's a most exquisite lady.

Iago

And, I'll warrant her, fun of game.

Cassio

Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.” (2.3.13-20)

“An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.” (2.3.23)

Referring to Desdemona in such a way and constantly emphasizing how perfect and exquisite she is, Cassio creates even a more vivid contrast between her and Bianca. It is worth noticing that while it is most often the women who are accused of disloyalty, it is the male characters, including Cassio, who continuously make suggestive remarks towards or about the three women.

The third female character is Emilia, who seems to connect numerous traits of both Desdemona and Bianca. She’s a working-class woman and Iago’s husband. She’s obedient and loyal towards her loved one, but at the same time stresses that any woman would cheat on her husband given the right circumstances.

It is interesting that all three of the female characters are accused of infidelity at some point of the play. The entire theme of womanhood is essentially defined by and built upon the virtues and sexuality of the male characters. Each of the female characters represents a woman of different class and status, however,

it is strongly suggested that all of these three women are fulfilling different kinds of men’s fantasies. Iago seems to be the only one to see that since the very beginning, as he is the one to tell Othello how hard it is to distinguish between a truly virtuous woman and one who plays the role she is expected to in a convincing way. The reliance of the representation womanhood on male characters’ vices and virtues directly relates to the important theme of gender that Shakespeare’s Othello touches upon.

Conclusion

The theme of sexuality and deriving from that topic of womanhood is strongly paid attention to in Shakespeare’s Othello. It is brought up in many situations in both literal and metaphorical ways. It is important that the author touches upon such a topic, as it is a big part of one's psyche and relationships, especially romantic ones. As the whole plot revolves around Desdemona’s alleged sexual betrayal of Othello, it is specifically crucial to focus more on the psychology of sex, which Shakespeare did very well.

#portfoliotask #othello

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