#episode 124

[xx-midnight-candy-goblin-xx]

the parallels are KILLING ME

[wbg-quotes]

“Ugh, you have two sets of handcuffs.” I groaned. “Yep, just in case. I've never had to actually use two sets at the same time, though.” Charlie said I could hear her smiling. “Did you think that you were being sneaky, dipshit?” Marissa asked. “I did think that, actually. Yeah,” I said.

[autistichawlucha]

Anyways, see you all tomorrow

[blueflamemakebraingobrr]

I cannot with how this got translated...

[immortal-tale]

Aren't they just precious? 🥰

[pessimistpress]

Manic Minion's Crazy Craig! Episode 124 - Nature!

[girlwholovesturtles]

Left Hanging

Cable car you say? This one's the Vast, calling it now.

It's kinda fascinating to me now that I'm thinking about how this all works. Mike Crew gets struck by lightening and eventually becomes so obsessed with the vertigo sensation that he becomes an avatar for the Vast. But this old woman has a love for a view that stretches on forever and she's about to be traumatized or even killed over it.

I'm just so curious what compels the entities to target certain people. Is there just some sick pleasure to be gained from stealing away the joy these people once felt?

Oh, so it was Julian's fault then?

An old man you say? Perhaps some old bitch who also likes to go skydiving? Yeah, I know it's you Mr. "Enjoy Deep Blue." I remember you!

Yeah, I can vibe with the whole "feet on the solid ground" sort of thing. I don't like this AT ALL! Don't describe this in detail, I'm feeling it far too much!

Is this old man gonna jump? Yep, there he goes.

Every time I think I've encountered the worst fear, they introduce a new terror!

No! Nononononono! Don't do this thing! Are there sky monsters too?! Why do you even need those?!

Man, this is all kinds of terrible! Yeah, maybe go to the beach instead of mountains.

"I do not think I even wish to meet him." Hon, the fact that you very specifically just said that tells me you are in fact going to meet him and it will almost certainly be bad. I can't help but wonder if he has any opinions about Jon's hand in Mike Crew's death or if the two ever even met.

Martin! Give this man a hug! Oh no, this is so awkward... Jon is finally trying to make connections with the people in his circle and none of them are interested. Can't imagine why...

This love story's gonna be a real slow burn, isn't it? My years of reading one shots have prepared me very poorly for this story, I'm afraid.

[nstaaf-book]

The Journals of Captain Cook

[guiltknight-gaming]

Diablo IV Episode 124: A Moment of Peace

[soft-lilith]

I'M NOT READY FOR THE EPISODE OMG

[delzinrowe]

June of this year... Nobara transfered to a high school in Tokyo.

[wbg-quotes]

“Oh right,” she said. “I'm calling to make sure that you're you, are you, you?” “The one and only,” I replied. “Well, the one and only, asterisk, some exemptions apply. See your local Mike vendor for more details.”

[a-mag-a-day]

I know the common headcanon is that Jon finds one of Martin's old jumpers lying around the Archives and wears it for most of S4, but it's occurred to me in the last few days that, of the two of them, Jon is the one that canonically has spare clothes hanging around the office. Now, his jumpers might not fit Martin, but that doesn't mean there's nothing that would.

With that said, please join me in imagining them during this episode: Jon in one of Martin's jumpers, Martin wearing Jon's old wooly hat. Both carrying this small piece of the other with them, both terribly aware that the other has done the same. Neither daring to bring it up amidst the fragile hope and heartbreak of their conversation, while so much remains unsaid...

(Needless to say, I've been making myself very sad)

[numahachi]

[augentrust]

i always saw essek's relationship with touch being like 'if i'm comfortable with you, you can touch me'. i think he genuinely likes jester, but things like her peer pressuring him into a thank you hug for the xhorhaus makes him being comfortable with her touch take longer.

that, or it was the fact that caleb touched him in a secluded room instead of in front of the whole base, lol

i definitely think essek comes into his interactions with the nein with a very different attitude towards touch (both personally and culturally), but that’s especially true when they reach him at the outpost. forget casual touch -- he can barely even look them in the eyes

prior to their in-person reunion, it’s been weeks of silence following a very tense parting at the peace talks. essek has no idea where they stand beyond a few frantic (and frankly, desperate) sendings over the last few days. there’s a ton of factors that go into his reaction to jester’s hug (see some of the very funny tags from folks on my previous post) but if i had to throw a guess out, i’d say that the poor man panicked. he walked floated out to meet them with a polite smile and an internal monologue of “oh gods, oh gods, oh gods” and got a hug. essek absolutely strikes me as someone who falls back on court appearances and protocol in times of full on blue-screening 

flash forward to leaving his meeting with the nein, when caleb goes in for the face touch: essek's had a chance to talk, an opportunity to gauge where their relationship stands (not great, but not unsalvageable), and has also received enough terrible information such that there is not enough whiskey chocolate in the world to make it better. he's still incredibly stressed, but for larger, external reasons and caleb (after being fairly distant during their chat) reads that on him and offers a quiet word. you're very correct that a few guards is different from an entire outpost, and i think it also helped that liam made a point to acknowledge that there were people around and that that influenced caleb's words and behavior

(on a very meta sidenote, laura announced jester’s hug explicitly, while caleb’s face touch was a quiet gesture on liam’s part -- there might be something there in terms of how obvious the action is and how that influences matt's decision to have essek respond to it)

regardless, i think essek accepting caleb’s touch was extremely important to him -- both because he values caleb’s opinion of him in particular (see: essek struggling to look at any of them but not making eye contact with caleb) but also because in the two hours since they arrived, the nein have complicated his life immensely. they've inadvertently connected him to the murder of an assembly member, asked him to abscond from the outpost that he (arguably very suspiciously) requested, and informed him that, without intervention, the end of the world was imminent. that’s a lot for anyone, let alone essek. and yet, as they’re leaving, he still accepts and even appreciates caleb’s attempt to console him about these new struggles that have been piled on top of everything else that he’s currently processing

even though one touch was gently rebuffed and the other was quietly accepted, i think both jester and caleb’s interactions with him were important during that reunion: jester’s showing essek that the nein still cared about him, and his reaction to caleb’s showing that the same was true in return