#genuinely what on earth is up with su?

[gopher-jade]

i love being into honkai impact, i've been here 3+ years and still understand nothing about the lore. kevin's here and he's friends with su or something, not that i'd now bc i don't even know which manga their intro is in and where to find it. kevin's saying a lot of things. i understand nothing.

that said, his lizard costume is really cool. i also very much enjoy hearing his younger self voiced.

[rizsu]

food for thought, except it’s unwanted jujutsu kaisen : fem-reader.

have you ever wondered about a scenario so much that you must ask? well that’s exactly the last thing they’d wish to answer.

+ love ‘su: gojo, geto, itadori + ‘live, laugh, love’ hater final boss ( sukuna )

gojo satoru ﾉ refuses to answer.

“do you ever think about how it’d be if we never met?”

“ha— no. don’t even go there.”

satoru stops you there. he doesn’t wish to hear another word from you— especially if it extends your former question. he thinks about it— daily, in fact. it's a scenario that crosses his mind whenever he finds himself drunk on the temporary love he receives from you.

you’ve sung the lyric ‘i’ll love you until there’s no more left’ almost every week for him, silently begging that he gets the concept of genuine love through his head.

“why not? imagine if my friends didn’t make that bet where i either hit on you or pay for the night.” you reminisced, remembering the very night you lost the last touch of shame.

he hums, drumming his fingers on your thigh.

“bet or not, we’d still be fated to meet. next question!”

“anddd what makes you so confident?” you threw another question at him. this time, it's lighthearted.

“mind you, i’m the second coming of an angel. i predetermined this since three years ago.”

glances were exchanged, an expression of a grinning fool met the expression of a glaring responsible person who’s the said fool’s other romantic half.

you should've been familiar with satoru’s ways. it’s your fault for expecting a deep-dive conversation with satoru. not quite his cup of tea!

geto suguru ﾉ expects it and tries to escape.

suguru's home was no new, unexplored area to you. you knew his home's blueprint like the back of your hand. if needed, you'd walk through his home blindfolded and still end up in the room you want to be in.

this isn't a good thing to suguru. there are days where the feeling of confusion as to who he is piles up on him, leading him to isolate himself.. until he forgets there's a spare key of his isolation cube in your hold so now the plan goes awry.

that is exactly what’s happening. after he sent the text ‘k bye’ and silenced his notifications, he felt an impending doom. the reason was unknown by then but he should've guessed it was you.

you marched into his home, readying yourself with suguru-loneliness-begone techniques and, of course, the question that's been wandering your mind since you woke up from a dream.

“babe, what if—”

“fuck,” he curses under his breath, too exhausted to put a hand over your mouth.

“what if we were the last persons on earth? would you recreate humanity with me or kill yourself?”

there it is: your special ‘what if’ questions that know no bounds when it comes to absurdity.

“when would that ever happen? please, stop this,” he groans, pleading with his eyes for you to stop.

“that's the thing— you never know! so, what option is it?”

“i'd kill myself a long time ago if possible.”

“so it's the second one?”

“i'm... not cut out to be a good father.”

“i hate an indecisive bitch, my goodness,” it's your turn to complain, a little let down at his grey answers.

suguru's equally offended. you're the one who jumped him with such a question— who even thinks about that?!

“(y/n), baby, has it ever crossed your mind that your thinking skills aren't quite normal?”

“are you calling me stupid?!”

itadori yuuji ﾉ just as stupid.

it's mango season— yuuji's most anticipated season of the year. mangoes are to yuuji what your lipbalm is to you. a necessity, a survival item, a lifesaver, an important part of his lore, something he worships.

peeling mangoes and slicing them to equal pieces has never brought him such satisfaction before. it immediately brightens his mood. this must be how his grandfather felt whenever he took a walk around the neighbourhood.

now you appear, yuuji's second most anticipated person. you to yuuji is what mangoes are to him. this causes yuuji's current happiness level to reach its peak today. such a great level of happiness can defeat any evil being with just being in its area.

“say, yuu,” you begin, stabbing one of the mangoe slices with a fork.

he nods, signalling that he's listening but still focused on his current activity. a true mulit-tasker.

“if one of your limbs happen to detach from your body, do you feel the pain or does the pain go with it?”

he stops, allowing the question to sink in. he's never been asked such a.. divine question before. what's the answer? does the pain go with the limb or does it stay?

“oh... i gotta ask nobara this, she'd know,” he suggests, placing the knife down. a question that'll haunt him if he doesn't act quick for the answer.

“yes, yes!!” you encourage his actions, mindlessly enjoying the mango slices. mangoes are truly a blessing.

sukuna ryomen ﾉ no. nice try, though! A+ for effort.

“ryo, have you ever wondered if—”

“no, i never.”

“you didn't even let—”

“i haven't learnt since two-thousand years ago.”

“you old fuck, let me finish—”

“it's truly been a while since i've wondered.”

“DAMN, BITCH!”

you threw the remote at him, ultimately fed up with him cutting you off before the peak of the sentence. it could've been the question of the year and he'd still dodge it.

sukuna invited himself over since he ran out of entertainment options and you're always there for him. unfortunately, you do not find him as entertainin. he's annoying, arrogant, and attractive so it cancels out the negatives about him.

of course, sukuna caught the remote. his athletic capabilities are its prime despite him being dormant for centuries. it'd be a white lie to say he's not interested in your question, however it is way more benefitting to push your buttons.

he throws the remote back onto your bed, drying his hands with your hand-towel before making his merry way to you.

“your bed's small.”

“well no shit. it's for ME.”

“you mad? you look mad.” his hand holds your chin, turning your head side-to-side to observe your expression.

you rolled your eyes, “i don't get mad that easily.”

“is this how people felt when i told them an obvious lie? i should repent.”

[uninformedartist]

So just finished watching the ep so review. Spoils ahead:

So the episode was ok to me, solid 6/10 one of the better episodes which since this was supposed to be an "extravagant" ep why does it got better quality than the main eps, idk Viv has her moments like this ep and other eps its a train wreck in writing ect.

Mammon worked on my nerves, from design to his movements, personality ALL of him was annoying, which props for an annoying Villian but its Villian I never want to see back again and he's hinted for some sort of return.

Side tangent: Mammon is like the how many-ith Villian to get a return ep/hint at one. It was 1st cherubs, then dorks, then stella/ice twink, striker/crimson now Mammon & according to the leaked storyboards a ghost guy that tries to talk IMP into off-ing themselves... its a flipping lot and cherubs & dorks seem to be forgotten dispite dorks knowing & having hard evidence they exist, flip Viv chill it with your Villian of the week cos its way too many now.

Anyway, Blitz didn't need to be in this ep besides the flashback. Ozzie got him to talk Fizz out of being Mammon's puppet but ultimately Ozzie spoke him out of it & gave him courage to quit/confront Mammon. Even Blitz being a bodyguard/killing people for Fizz could've been any imp. Blitz is starting to feel like Steven from SU, in every ep even tho the ep doesn't need him/ the episode surrounds topics a wee child shouldn't be in (i.e Lapis trauma dumping on Steven & he a child isn't really equipped to handle that situation).

My fave part of this ep was Ozzie and Fizz. Ya'll I legit prayed Viv wouldn't mess these two up and my prayers were answered. Absolutely a joy these two were. Fizz especially what a darling. Loved that small scenes with him and the deaf imp child, l dont know sign language but it looked genuine animated and was just sweet moments.

From their interactions, Fizz's panic attacks/self doubt felt & were genuine... I felt that as someone that has panic attacks from high stress on my studies/life. It was just handled well. Fizz feeling less than and needing to prove himself from 1. his past 2. his appearance, that accident affected his self image/worth so much (why I felt him forgiving Blitz was too hastily done but I digress) & 3. him doing this Mammon contest still to gain/earn Ozzie's love for him cos Fizz believes Ozzie only sticks around because of this fame Mammon gave Fizz. Ozzie finally saying what he loves about Fizz was lovely, wanted that in the 1st ep but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Their song was... I didn't like it BUT the message in it was beautiful. Lastly Fizz saying fuck you to Mammon from the courage/strength Ozzie gave him was a nice send off... also Ozzie saying he loves Fizz ah ngl that made me smile agh I just love them. I want to see them more than the Stolitz show but thats only a wish. Props Viv, you get 1 brownie point not messing this up.

Last findings, the ep was bloated as hell my soul Viv please stop cramming so much in an ep, this one is 30 mins long & yet still felt bloated. Pacing was a motherfuka damn it was bad & the swearing was jarring (its a Viv written ep I don't expect any less but still gonna point it out) and the comedy wasn't so prominent in this ep, Blitz/Mammon gave some comic relief but in the best and worst ways:

The way the VA delivered this line "to be fucked" made me laugh, the line is cringy but the delivery lol gold

Aand Blitz, my soul shut the fuck up & get out this ep. Last ep & this one he said something so agonizingly cringe I pulled my face

The world of HB is legit American hell or earth just painted red since Fizz named all these places in America just "hellified" where his fans come from.

And very last, congratulations Salem glad you got the cathartic send off you deserve from working under Viv, truly fuck you "Mammon" indeed :) also glad they credited you this time.

[captainjonnitkessler]

George Hull was an atheist in the 1860s, and he was pretty pissed off at biblical literalists. In particular, he was pissed off about the gullibility of those who insisted that giants had once roamed the earth, simply because it said so in the Bible.

Hull, a big fan of science and the still-new theory of evolution, decided to do what any rational, science-minded man would do: He spent today's equivalent of $60,000 buying a bunch of stone from Iowa, sending it to Chicago to have it fashioned into a giant statue of a man in absolute secrecy, shipping it to his cousin's farm in New York, burying it there in the dead of night, waiting a year, and then having his cousin hire two men to dig a well in that spot so they could "discover" the giant. Obviously.

He and his cousin set up a tent and charged people for admission to see the "Cardiff Giant" and made absolute bank from the hundreds of people per day that flocked to it. Experts insisted it was a hoax, but many people were convinced it was proof of the Bible's inerrancy. Eventually Hull sold his part-interest to David Hannum for today's equivalent of over $500,000. PT Barnum, the infamous showman and ringmaster, then tried to buy it and when Hannum refused to sell, he made his own copy. He declared his to be the original and Hannum's version the fake, potentially leading Hannum to coin the famous phrase "there's a sucker born every minute". He also sued Barnum, but according to Wikipedia "the judge told him to get his giant to swear on his own genuineness in court if he wanted a favorable injunction".

Eventually Hull proudly confessed to the hoax, putting an end once and for all to the debates about either giants' genuineness. Hull claimed that his intent had been to reveal the gullibility of Christians and to refute anti-science religious fundamentalism.

Then he moved to Colorado and did the exact same thing again, except this time he added a tail and called it the "missing link" between humans and apes.

(Big shoutout to the podcast The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong, where I first heard about the Cardiff Giant. If you like weird stories from history you need to check out this podcast it is SO fucking good)

[barbwritesstuff]

1/?

Ashdhdhsg ok if you don’t mind my Chris obsession in your inbox, here’s some more!

Some disclaimers:

1) this is going to get. um. pretty granular.

2) I'm code diving for the sake of optimizing my Comparative Chris Studies.

3) My analysis going to be filtered through the lens of my own playthroughs and emotional reactions.

4) I will be asking lots of questions, mostly rhetorical - I am simply enchanted by the possibilities of the text. Please don’t answer any of them unless you really feel like it - I don’t want to bombard you!!

5) This is already pretty lengthy and I'm far from done -_-; I'm numbering these asks to avoid confusion.

Beginning from the beginning: Chris suing for everything is sooo awful I love them. The later reveal that they’re a lawyer is insane context for the first divorcee scene:

“there is no going back once there are lawyers involved. There is no hope for a reunion, or even an amiable end. Lawyers mean two things. Pain and paper. That's the only way this can end now. Pain and fucking paper.”

Jesus Christ mc, tell me how you really feel. The way this frames their perception of the entire relationship as doomed from the beginning, even if it's just subconscious? The way it frames their perception of Chris as a person? ouch.

Early Chris is so interesting from meta perspective. In these early scenes, your reading of their character changes pretty drastically with your assumptions about the relationship and the character/personality of your own mc. You can totally play as an mc who justifies this kind of treatment and is as uncommunicative, unreliable, and unable to let things go as Chris later accuses them of being and has imploded the relationship on the strength of their own bad behaviour, but if you interpret the relationship as ending more from mutually terrible communication skills and regular stressful life stuff? Going scorched earth like this can’t be seen as self protective in the same way - it’s so extreme. It's fun to ponder on Chris containing all of these messy and intricate possibilities regardless of worldstate. This is the kind of thing I love about interactive fiction as a medium, and you handle it so precisely and delicately here, leaving so much room for the player to build their own character while remaining grounded in the story.

The line that’s been stuck in my head since the first time I read it was this one:

“You got Spaghetti before you even met that lying arsehole.”

The mc is either accusing Chris of being a liar in general (which strikes me unlikely from the sense of the character that we get later) or of being a liar within this specific scenario, the divorce. So what did they lie about? Are they not honouring a prenup? or was there no prenup, only a verbal agreement to split things fairly and lovingly in the impossibly unlikely event of a divorce? Is the mc upset specifically about the breaking of marriage vows? Chris clearly has gotten their ducks in order before serving the mc with the divorce papers (another revealing fragment of character that I obsess over. what was up with that). Is it the fact that they must have been planning to break up for a while and instead of navigating it mutually decided instead to blindside the mc? How do you go from wanting to raise a child with someone to coming right out of the gate with a litigious divorce within a few months?

I want to live inside their walls. who said that.

Copy + Paste:

2/?

Side note 1: that waitress seems really sweet cool and genuinely concerned over the mc :(

Side note 2: vampires flush when sated 👀

Side note 3: 911 calls are generally recorded and can often be accessed after the fact with freedom of information requests. Could Chris have unearthed it during their later search for mc? How creepy, if they did. Heavy, panicked breathing, the crunch of broken glass, the call just disconnects. Confirmation of something awful but beyond understanding.

They way you get me immediately into full breakup mode with one line:

"Come back in the morning," Chris says in that slow, specific way, as if speaking to a very young, very stupid child.

IRL that would be an instant blind rage button for me lmao. How dare you speak to me that way. And again! From Chris’s perspective this is a pretty reasonable boundary! but they way they lay it out is so. IDK. Unbecoming. Unworthy of them. plain mean.

There’s this real sense I get from both sides of the relationship of “I’m not sure I ever even really knew this person” the love WAS there and it was real but in the fog of bitterness and anger they both lose sight of it and each other. There's a through line in this part of the game of the way high emotion can mess with your perception of reality and rational decision making.

“It wasn't all bad, was it? There were times you were happy together. Not that anyone would believe it, reading this.”

I interpret this line as the MC doubting Chris's fundamental intentions and affections. Coupled with Chris's lack of concern over the mc's disappearance (put a pin in it) it's just so INTERESTING to be the way that these two have come to see each other almost as strangers, which is really scary and alienating! Neither can give the other an inch of grace or benefit of the doubt. the cognitive dissonance is so compelling to me.

You've had all of these intimate moments, potentially a CHILD (a grandchild, a whole lifetime), with a person you now cannot recognize, who's actions you cannot understand. Of course Chris isn't going to let mc into their house, they could have been anywhere, doing anything, for two months now! the thought that it might not have been by anything but MC's own volition is anathema.

----------------------------------------------

I'm living for this Chris deep dive that landed in my inbox.

However, I really don't know if i can say anything without spoiling the game... so I'm sharing without comment. 💙

[shelleysmary]

OMg your post about the TROP haters. A lot of people don't seem to remember that several actors SUED New Line because they used the actors' likeness to make merch without compensating them. It's so weird to be acting as if any of these companies were ever ethical to begin with. People are also way too forgiving of PJ&Co for the joke of the Hobbit movies. It's not all WB's fault that those films were trash and to forgive PJ of some of his creative choices (like those CGI wargs that he actually approved of) is ridiculous.

listen..... i feel like i'm removed enough from the pj trilogies at this point to forgive all their foibles. they've been around long enough for me to accept them, and i find even the twilight-looking cgi wargs rather charming at this point. but that's the thing!!! the mere-exposure effect means that familiarity often leads to liking a thing better. the problem arises when certain fans forget that this is how the whole thing started. i genuinely believe that if trop can stick the landing and deliver four good—and i do mean good, not life-changing, i'm talking borderline decent (remember the hobbit)—seasons that improve on the first, in 8-10 years people will change their tune and remember it fondly, much like how we've all decided the hobbit is pretty okay, actually. it's not perfect, but we've accepted it into our headcanons and it has details we fully embrace and have integrated into our little store of tolkien jewels. that's why i contend that tolkien fans will always move on and take umbrage with the new thing. in part, i think it's the nature of the thing: tolkien himself left gaps and made so many changes throughout the years and from one draft to the next, and fans have projected their preferences onto them. that is the beauty of middle-earth!! for all that pj was accused of trying to make the hobbit his cash cow, j.d. and patrick are now getting accused of the same. no doubt there'll be fans who hate the hunt for gollum for that very same reason, but that doesn't change the fact that if any fictional world is made for this kind of expansive worldbuilding, it's tolkien's!

i understand that we're all passionate about middle-earth and we want things done "properly," but guys... your sauron is showing. sometimes we have to sit down and realize that "the way i imagined it" isn't always going to be what we see onscreen. the books will always be there! fanworks that align with our personal idea of what we wanted to see will always be there! that doesn't mean we can't be critical and expect quality from the shows and films we watch, but oftentimes with trop "this is a narrative flaw" and "this goes against my preference" get so confused. and people get triggered because they care about the world so much, but that doesn't excuse rudeness or cruelty or straight-up attacking those who disagree.

forgetting the journey we've all taken with the pj films is a mistake. so much unpleasantness within the tolkien fandom could be fixed with a little more patience, a little more wisdom, a little more grace. which. y'know. if you love these books... it's kind of a central theme. unless what you're really into is the cold hard mechanics of the worldbuilding and the power fantasy of the one ring.

this is just my personal opinion, but if the effect lotr has on you is to make you a worse person on the internet? touch grass. do a reread.

[wilcze-kudly]

Why do I get so attached to minor/side antagonists in tlok, especially Aiwei and Baatar Jr?

Like Aiwei is, from what I know, the first confirmed gay man in the franchise (we all hype Kya up where is Aiwei's gay clout huh), a member of an anarchist syndicate, and spent years undercover. And he has a slay nosering!

Tbh Aiwei gives some autism vibes with how he constantly calls people out for lying and is very blunt with his opinions and feelings, like when he told some random noodle seller that he was a liar bcs the guy claimed to be selling "the best noodles" or when Mako was trying to be polite and Aiwei called him out for lying too.)

But he's also so mysterious. Like he's been in the Red Lotus for years presumably, unless Zaheer could reqruit from a jail cell, and also has been infiltrating Zaofu for years, long enough for Su to consider him family. But like man I need details.

And he seems.... genuinely nice? To some degree. Like he helped Lin out when she was sick from stress and shit, even though it would probably be beneficial to him to have an enemy in a weakened state, and I think he genuinely cared for the Beifongs, at least to some degree.

I need to know more about him, his relationship to the Beifongs, his reasons for being in the Red Lotus.

And Baatar Jr is also so interesting but people only bring him up when they're trying to make Kuvira look better by being like: "oh Baatar did this shit too." Like yeah bitch but he's also a surprisingly interesting character on his own. Like if you're gonna talk about his warcrimes let's talk about his wonderfully crafted inferiority complex.

Like he's if Bumi had an engineering degree and also was evil. He's the firstborn child of TOPH FUCKING BEIFONG the greatest earthbender who ever lived. His other brothers are metalbenders, and especially the twins are clearly carrying on the family legacy. His only fellow nonbender is Opal who is then ripped away by RANDOMLY SPAWNING AIRBENDING. And he's lived in his father's shadow, literally carrying his name and simply engineering his father's projects instead of inventing anything ot his own?

And his love and dedication to Kuvira is genuinely devastating. Like how he prioritised her over everything, his family, the Earth Empire... and the bravery? He stared down at Korra who was in the Avatar state and holding him up with one arm and he laughed. HE LAUGHED IN HER FACE AND HER OTHERWORLDLY GLOWING EYES THE AUDACITY. Thw only think he feared was being seperated from Kuvira agh

He looks so unimpressed wtf [its bcs he's dating Kuvira right they provably do way scarier shit in the bedoom huh]

And the fact that he invented the avatarverse version of nuclear warfare FOR THE LOVE OF A WOMAN. A woman who then tried to kill him with it omg the drama! And also his VA did give a really good performance especially in the moments when he wames up after Kuvira's betrayal (even though he does kinda sound like Nazeem from Skyrim).

I also admire his "Wing and Wei will never forgive me. And Opal." Vs. Kuvira's "I said sorry why are you guys still mad at me". We love a king who takes responsibility for his war crimes and betrayal. Like yeah he still got of wayyy to easy but he's at least clearly not expecting forgiveness. And I do kinda love him just completely swerving Kuvira in the comic she does kinda deserve it lol.

[meg-noel-art]

Queen Lucinda Edevane

Pretends my Discord ramblings make any sense and throws one of my OCs at you. LORE dump below:

Sort of a brief preface but imagine my universe is Avatar the Last Airbender if every Nation had an Avatar of Each Element. And there are no non-benders! Everyone can use some degree of said magic. And that they needed all said Avatars to work together to defeat the ultimate Evil Entity, because doing it alone/without Avatar powers have proved to be impossible for centuries. If anyone has played FFX it's very much the same concept of "there is a recurring darkness that we are stuck in a perpetual cycle trying to defeat bc the main characters haven't arrived yet" ---

So there are Avatars of Five Elements for my universe: Lighting/Storm(kinda broad but imagine like,,airbending/lightning bending combined) Water/Ice/Sea (Any liquid tbh) Earth/Nature (stone/earth/leaves/plants), Lunar (magic moonbeams babyyy), Solar (cast fireball) < -- the missing element is Solar, and it's been gone for hundreds of years, never choosing an 'Avatar' (ive been calling them 'Arbiters') and nobody knows where the source of the Element is to try and 'persuade' it to choose another "Host" (Enter Samantha Sinclair, but that's another part of the story)

SO ALL THAT SAID:

HERE is one of my Deuteragonists MOMS. She's part of the LONG line of magic users whose bloodline has always been chosen by the source of Lunar Magic. RE: There's always been a rich royal Lunar Magic 'Arbiter', for generations. It seems to be 'passed down' the line. Maybe they have a whole 'Choosing Ritual' (even tho that's not how the magic works, rich people be silly and privelaged).

So she is in what is the Royal Family of this world. While all the elemental nations have their own leadership, the Lunar Kingdom/Nation/Etc has the most powerful magic/and the family kind of rules everyone because of that. Targaryens vs other Houses ala Game of Thrones.

When she is young, Lucinda (that's her name) <- is SECOND in line to inherit the throne, should her brother (who is the Arbiter of Lunar magic at that time) die. WELL, turns out he does, meaning the Lunar Kingdom loses both it's Arbiter and it's heir in one fell swoop to a bad battle with the Ambiguous Evil Forces I haven't come up with yet.

So OOPS she's suddenly saddled with responsibility she wasn't supposed to have, which is in this world less of a "ok you're queen now go produce a male heir" and more of a "oh you're queen now, and ALSO you better make sure this Arbiter nonsense stays in our bloodline".

So that kinda sucks for her -- her consolation prize is being allowed to marry the captain of her Kingsgaurd (straight bodygaurd AU ooooOOOoo) the only problem is---he's a weak ass magic user. So her family is a little sus that any kids they have would have a chance to be chosen as the next Arbiter. But she INSISTS, it's the one good choice she gets to make for herself bc oops she happens to genuinely love this guy

Anyway their first kid (Elias) ISSSSSSSSSSS --- not chosen. Firstborn, next in line, not the Arbiter. Very embarrassing for everyone involved. So kid number two, one of my deuteragonists, Lucy -- is more of a 'necessity', rather than a 'want' from her parents. And it shows in the strain in their relationship. Lucinda (Mom) (Lucille, 'Lucy' is literally named to echo her ) regrets her own choice to marry for love because she feels like she fucked up - she also resents having to take on that responsibility in the first place, so her attitude toward Lucy (who luckily WAS chosen as the Lunar Arbiter) is very "I fucked up hard so you better not blow this for us ---"

anyway. Here she is looking grumpy. the end.

[artist-issues]

*peeks in* hiiii, I know I've sent you like 10 asks or something crazy in like twenty minutes but I have one more whoops

what do you think about The Chosen? I know I have very strong grievances against it (y'know, the fact that they are adding things to the Bible is really sus), but also recognize that unbelievers are watching it (especially with their families) and learning about Jesus and Christianity when they would not be otherwise. I still think that the cons outweigh the pros though.

what do you think of it?

Full disclosure. I have only seen maybe the first three or four episodes of the Chosen. I also attended church with and have met and had conversations with Dallas Jenkins. I supported it.

And I hate The Chosen.

If all of reality is a story that God is telling—the timeline is His, we, the characters, are His, the Main Point/Theme is His—and it is—then that means, that when telling His Story, God chose how to tell it.

When a storyteller creates their world and their characters, they know everything about that story and those characters. But they chose not to tell everything. They choose to cut out some details that are irrelevant to how they want their audience to get to know their characters, for the purpose of perfectly communicating their Main Point. Deleting scenes and hand-picking which details get screentime is part of storytelling.

So God saw and ordered the moments where Jesus was probably laughing with His disciples, or playing with children, and God/Jesus chose the tone of voice that He preached in. Those moments, those things, happened.

But He didn’t choose to tell us about all of them.

He, the Original Storyteller, the Perfect storyteller, told the most important story of all time. And He told it perfectly. And He chose to omit some scenes that actually happened and some details about what Jesus and the disciples were like, walking around together.

And those choices were right. They were the best way to tell the story.

But then Dallas Jenkins comes along and says, “No, God, you cut some of the best scenes. People need to see how like us Jesus was. Yeah, I know You told them how much He was like us—but I think they need to see more. You won’t let me see the deleted scenes? That’s okay, I’ll make them up. And then I’ll re-tell Your story—it wasn’t relatable enough the first time when You told it.”

The more someone thinks Dallas Jenkins was trying to reach people by presuming to tell Jesus’ life story better than God Himself has, the worse the implications are. He thinks he can tell the most important story of all time better than God did?

No wonder he makes so many freakin mistakes. No wonder the Jesus-character in Jenkins’ show goes “maybe”—He uses the word “MAYBE?!”—when He, who is supposed to be TRUTH ITSELF, is PREACHING.

That doesn’t make sense, Jenkins. And not only does it not make sense, but you just contradicted the literal Bible, which mentions over and over the authority and exact words Jesus preached with. And you know what else you did? You got the most important living thing in all of existence, the most important man who ever walked this earth, completely wrong. And that’s what you’re “reaching people” with.

It’s awful. So then when the little interviews where he’s partnering up with cults and people of different faiths that believe vastly unbiblical things about the real Jesus to make this show, or when members of the cast are all “sin is awesome,” or when Dallas Jenkins says something outrageously disrespectful to people who are mad at him for mischaracterizing their God on social media…this is my surprised face.

Because I saw what he was doing and it didn’t sit right with me three episodes in. The most important question any human being can genuinely answer in their lifetime is “Who is Jesus?” The most important story you can ever be exposed to is Jesus’ story.

And The Chosen gets both those things so horrifyingly wrong—but the whole time it’s dressed up like this earnest, God-honoring attempt at evangelism and love. When really it’s a cash-grab, a heartstrings-tangler, and a vanity project for Dallas Jenkins.

Thanks for asking.

[theerurishipper]

Still don't know what on earth I'm supposed to do with the information that apparently Marinette just didn't even spare one little hour in the whole EIGHT weeks of summer break in France, as the last scene of S5 shows.

That is... UGLY, after how the s5 finale went. Those are 2 months the show can't take back anymore. That happened now.

Marinette just.. didn't check in with Chat Noir for 2 months after the finale, left him without ANY communication if she's pissed at him for having needed to fight alone. No informations on what happened in the fight. Her seemingly not caring what actually happened to him since Plagg's explanation of Chat "merely" having fallen victim to the ring SHOULD raise some serious questions the moment Marinette found out TWO MONTHS AGO that the Miraculized thought LB and CN kidnapped Adrien and Kagami. So either the show now wants to tell me Marinette genuinely thinks Chat accidentally thought he kidnapped 2 people, or she noticed and... doesn't care... Buddy, that is ROUGH. :/

These two months of complete and utterly unnecessary silence from her are haunting me. Ladybug doesn't even verbally respond when they finally met again - of course only with the other holders with them now. RIP Ladynoir... - and he says how glad he is to finally see her again.

Just vaguely acknowledging his presence and kinda nodding her head. They aren't even jumping the same direction. She's goes upwards and he downwards (now if that isn't some forshadowing...)

GOSH, that last scene sets off every red alert in my head. What have they DONE to Ladynoir? Why did she exclude him for 2 whole months? That's fucked up. There was no villain or victims to fight and save, no school to participate, nothing. And she could spare an HOUR to meet him?

Yeah, yeah, rebuilding the miraculous. But she had Alya AND SU-HAN there. AND LUKA! AND KAGAMI AND FÉLIX!

Not even an HOUR??

They can't take that back now. She did that. 2 whole months after THAT finale? And an "innocent" man having died when he had to fill in Chat's place when Ladybug was partnerless?

For TWO MONTHS, she genuinely didn't think Chat Noir might need someone to talk to about that? Anything?? Him feeling guilty? Comfort? Giving a fuck what happened to HIM in the first place??

No???

Bruh...

First off, I'm so sorry for the late response, I've been really busy for the past few days, and I've had no energy to do any more than reblog posts.

But yeah, not a good look. Tbf, Adrien never checked in with her either, because he didn't care either apparently. But at least he kind of has the excuse of just having become an orphan and having had his whole life upended?

Honestly, the Ladynoir dynamic suffered catastrophically after the BS from Kwami's Choice, which all but confirmed that Ladynoir don't care about each other anymore because they're just obsessed with their high school romance, but it's so sad to see that be confirmed in the finale. And yeah, now Chat Noir is once again "just a holder like any other," and not Ladybug's partner anymore. He's once again just one of her pokemon, especially now that we know she doesn't really need him and is just keeping him around cause of nostalgia. Whatever man.

Thank you for your ask!

[beyondthevisiblebackground]

God, created the universe. With His voice He created all that exists: the birds of the sky, the beasts of the earth, the sea creatures, the flowers, the trees, the fruits, the stars and... human beings.

Absolutely everything was made by Him. Being the Creator, He had a specific purpose in everything He made. We can see that everything was created in order, for a certain reason, and in a perfect way, everything is good in a great way.

Dios, creó el universo. Con Su voz creó todo lo que existe: las aves del cielo, las bestias de la tierra, las criaturas marinas, las flores, los árboles, las frutas, las estrellas y... Los seres humanos.

Absolutamente todo fue hecho por Él. Tuvo un propósito específico en cada cosa que hizo. Podemos ver que todo fue creado en orden, por una razón determinada, y de una manera perfecta, todo es bueno en gran manera.

One of the biggest drawbacks in life is that we grow up with the idea of discovering who we are based on the standards society has given us. A society is based on the standards and norms we have created for ourselves to live by. For a long time, society has told us what is acceptable to them and what is not. It has given us standards of beauty, success and perfection, manipulating in this way, the genuine purpose of our life. Trying to take man away from the Creator to invite us to "discover" life as if there was not someone superior who put us in this place.

Society has been a toy that the enemy of our souls has used to confuse and distract us from the Truth.

It's necessary to understand that just like fashion, politics and conflicts in the world, society is changing and adapting, it is in constant movement but has no stability because it is dependent on the human beings that make it up. Under these terms we will never understand our identity.

Society is something created by man but it is not what created man. So why do we give it the power to tell us who we are?

Uno de los mayores inconvenientes en la vida, es que crecemos con la idea de descubrir quiénes somos basados en los estándares que nos ha dado la sociedad. Una sociedad se basa en los estándares y normas que hemos creado para vivir. Durante mucho tiempo, la sociedad nos ha dicho lo que para ellos es aceptable y lo que no. Nos ha dado estándares de belleza, éxito y perfección, manipulando de ésta manera el propósito genuino de nuestra vida. Tratando de alejar al hombre del Creador para invitarnos a "descubrir" la vida tal como si no hubiera alguien superior que nos puso en éste lugar.

La sociedad ha sido un juguete que el enemigo de nuestras almas ha utilizado para confundirnos y distraernos de la Verdad.

Es necesario entender que al igual que la moda, la política y los conflictos en el mundo, la sociedad va cambiando y adaptándose, está en constante movimiento pero no tiene estabilidad porque es dependiente de los seres humanos que la conforman. Bajos esos términos jamás entenderemos nuestra identidad.

La sociedad es algo creado por el hombre pero no es lo que creó al hombre. Entonces, ¿Por qué le damos el poder para decirnos quiénes somos?

[sullina]

With everything that happened in the series, I'm almost a little surprised we've never seen non-sentient-gem jewels, as far as i remember

But do you think older Steven ever sees through the windows of a jewelry store and just has a moment of absolute horror about all those gems being trapped and used as mere decoration, since for his entire childhood, he's come to recognize gems as fully living beings.

But even once he gets over his shock, he can't not feel uncomfortable around any gem-jewelry from earth, especially the stuff with rather big stones, since most sentient gems are rather big gems, because... for the lack of a better word, those non-sentient gems might as well be like corpses to Steven.

But that's assuming that kind of jewelry even exists in SU and I genuinely don't remember ever seen that kind of it. There were the Ruphire wedding rings, but those didn't contain gems, those were just bands made out of metal.

But this opens up a whole new world of horror, because even after establishing peace in the universe, with gems living among humans now... well, i don't know how famous Steven would be on earth, but word is bound to get outside of just Beach City, and well, not all humans are... good... humans can, in fact, be extremely greedy.

and what I'm alluding to is what if there are humans who start hunting gems for sport to put their gems into jewelry and sell it for money. At first glance, you'd think this wasn't much different from killing an animal to sell its pelt or something, but when gems poof, they don't die, they just retreat into their gems to reform at a later point. So putting a sentient gems gem into a piece of jewelry and selling it would be more like selling a whole living animal that's restrained to the point of being completely unable to move.

[gritsandbrits]

So how;s adam and eve reunion gotta be ? it's must be full with drama

"So this is what youve been up to all these centuries?" Adam remarked, taking note of Eve's outfit. 

Gone were the elegant blue, pink and white robes that denoted her as his Other. Now she wore overalls and a plain gray shirt. A leather ultility belt hung around her hips. Her hair, once a luscious river of brown, was cut shorter and braided. 

"If youre here to take back there the answer is no," replied the brunette.

Hm. it seems looks werent the only thing that changed about Eve.

"I'm not here to take you back, Im just wanted to know how youve been," said Adam. Hs lips formed a sly grin. 

"Though if you want to, I can convince Sera to-"

"You will convince nobody, Im through with that place."  Eve's voice sharpened some more. 

Adam was taken aback. The audacity of this woman he grumbled internally. He didnt know what to think! He was so used to her soft, demure mannerisms. She never raised her voice at anyine not when the kids were acting up, and definitely not at him. 

What changed? 

Adam glanced over at his sweet wittle Abel, who only stood awkwardly at the unexpected family reunion.

Of course, if he played his cards right then Eve would be back by his side by the night's end. She would do anything for their real kids!

But then he remembered Kané. He had told her to hide, that he would not reveal her until he could persuade Eve to hear him out. 

Charlie felt it wasnt her place to interrupt. She didnt know what to say. But she did know Adam had a trick of his sleeve. So she sent him a warning glare, daring him to mess up.

"Ooh this is better than a soap opera," Angel Dust whispered excitedly as he cradeled Phat Nuggets. He was enjoying the mayhem unfolding.

"Normally I wouldnt care about Adam but I'm bored," Veggie replied with equal interest. Even back in her exterminator days it was no secret how Adam treated Eve. He never defended her when other angels scorned & looked down at her, so when news of her disappearance reached her ears, Veggie was not surprised. 

Besides, he had this coming a LONG while. She was glad to have a front row seat at the day of reckoning. 

Husk simply took out his flask. This was going to be a long night. 

All the while Kané stood in her hiding spot behind the cacti. She could see the resemeblance between her mama and Eve, even with obvious differences there was no doubt the First Woman Ever was their grandmother. The way she presented herself caused a wave of comfort for the girl, as if she could trust her with her deepest, darkest secrets. 

Adam was not moved. He didnt expect his wife, his soulmate to reject him like that.

"Now look after everything we've been through, you dont want to be in paradise? We worked hard for it, Evie! You deserve to stay here."

Eve crossed her arms. Adam began to sweat. He really wished he had his mask. 

"I mean, not here in this shitstain or Earth, but up there", he pointed up at the ceiling. "Please Evie, come back to us. We miss you, the rest of the brood miss you."

That part was genuine. He really did miss her. He hated that the one chance at being together again was slipping through his fingers. Lilith was probably cheering somewhere at this update.

Eve shuddered at the pet name. She loathed him for pulling that out, and loathed herself for nearly buying that. Centuries apart and he still managed to makr her weak in the knees.

But she had to keep going! Evelyn Lambert worked too far and too hard to succumb back to that demure helpless trophy everyone expected her to be.

"No. You dont get to call me that! You knew how they treated me and did nothing to stop it! All they did was insult and belittle me, you were my husband and supposed to protect me!" She pointed an accusatory finger at him. 

"Well what did you expect me to do punch every angel who ever looked at us funny? That's not exactly holy behavior," chided Adam. 

"Oh you are a real piece of work my love," Eve snipped. "Like we're all supoosed to ignore that you went off on a mad crusade because you were too spineless to admit all of us are capable of sin? You didnt even think twice that doing so would cause a war!"

Adam winced. He hadn't thought of that. But no matter! There was no war and a mere instance of hell figthing back didn't erase countless years of victories his extermination squad achieved.

"Hey a war wouldn't be possible anyways because look at them! We are much more stronger, they just got lucky," boasted the First Man. 

"And they cheated! That fucking thing stabbed me in the back!" He pointed at Nifty, who could only reply with a satisfied grin. 

"An unnarmed man! And left his kids without both parents!" Adam continued, hoping his put-on was enough to soothe his beloved' heart. 

Abel cupped his face and sighed. Even during a serious moment his fayher loved being a drama king. It was such a common put-on Abel could smell it a mile away. 

Unknown to him, Kané shared the same sentiment. She pinched her nose, wasn't Adam's arrogance the reason why he was in hell in the first place? Why is he regressing all of a sudden? She held her tongue.

Eve gritted her teeth. God, she was so done with her ex's mind games!

As if somebody left the window opened a cold wind blasted through the room. Everyone tensed, Vaggie and Angel ready to move in case things got uglier.

"Talk about hell hath no fury," muttered Kané shrinking hwrself further away. Whisps of curls flew about Eve's face, her eyes glowing even more purple with a protective fury.

Charlie tugged her jacket tightly, her drealocks blowing around her face.  She watched as Eve posed herself straighter. She swore she could see the faint outlines of butterfly wings on the woman.

Before Adam could say anything else (preferably HIDE), Abel finally stepped in and placed comforting hands on his mom's shoulders. He spoke to her in a language Kané couldnt ubdertand. It seemed to calm her down as the wind stopped blowing and the room temp returned to normal. 

"Come on, Let's all sit down and discuss this like real adults." Abel directed that last part at his dad.

"I believe this matter also concerns you Your Highness," he addressed Charlie. 

"Hopefully we can get all this sorted out peacefully," the hell princess spoke. She was ready to intervened one she felt that wind. She wouldnt let anyone get hurt, especially at Adam's hand. 

Shrugging, Adam went over to the table, as Eve Abel and Charlie sat down. The older brunette took a place on the opposite end but still kept her violet eyes on Adam. She had a good mind to throw a wrench at his stupid smexy face. 

Kané still watched as her family began to convers, interspersed with bits of Angel Dust's disappointment at the lackluster resolution. 

For some reason she couldnt muster the courage to step out. Was it fear? Eve would probably hate her if she found out she was Cain's grandkid. 

Suddenly she felt something tugging at the bottom of her jacket. She turned to see a little purple lamb nibbling at her. 

"Hey hey hey shoo shoo!" She spoke as loudly as she could to not give away her position. The lamb was too entranced by the flavor of unwashed polyester. Kané tried to pushed it away but some how she tripped.

"Gah! Fuck!" 

The poor girl fell forward, causing everyone to turn her away. The mischievous scampered off with its prize, a piece of green cloth. 

The four royals got up to see the irritated girl laying on the floor. Eve and Abel could only gape as Charlie rushed over the help her.

Adam froze.

The jig was up.

[chronicallyaunline]

Legolas makes more sense if he’s autistic

I recently re-watched the Lord of the Rings movies and I couldn’t help noticing how strange some of Legolas’s behaviour is. So many of his lines are unconnected to a broader conversation, and when they’re directed at others they often feel at odds with the scene.

Alternative theories for why Legolas is weird:

Bad acting

Bad writing

That’s just how elves are

I’m going to disregard the meta analysis for now, but there is a decent body of evidence that elves do not behave the same way Legolas does. In fact, I think his weirdness is camouflaged by being the only elf in most scenes. The other characters and audience members are more likely to attribute his behaviour to being an elf than to him being whatever the Middle Earth equivalent of autistic is. All the elf characters love being aloof and saying cryptic bullshit, but this is something beyond that.

Some evidence:

Flat affect, issues with empathy

After Gandalf is believed to have died, the Fellowship is in Lothlorien where an elf choir sings a lament to Gandalf. Legolas tells the group that it’s for Gandalf, but then says he can’t tell them what is being said because the grief is too fresh for him. His facial expression and tone are extremely flat. He isn’t malicious and doesn’t seem to lie anywhere else in the series, which suggests that he really does feel so intensely sad that he can’t tell the others what is being said about Gandalf. The fact that he feels that level of emotion with an entirely straight face reads like autism. A few minutes after this scene we see Galadriel experience intense fear, and in some scenes Elrond is visibly angry, which suggests that low emotional affect isn’t a facet of the species. It’s unique to Legolas.

While it doesn’t make sense for him to be purposefully unkind, telling people that their friend is being eulogized in a language they don’t speak and then refusing to translate is an odd choice. Why tell them at all if he wasn’t going to tell them what was being said? It seems like he struggles to understand what the impact of that would be on others.

Poor interoception (understanding of one’s own emotions and body signals)

During a drinking competition Legolas appears slightly confused when he discovers that he’s experiencing symptoms of drunkenness. Legolas has been alive for centuries. It doesn’t seem plausible that he’s never had a large quantity of alcohol before. We don’t see other drunk elves in this series so intoxication could be highly unusual for them, but it still seems odd that Legolas would be surprised by a bodily experience (tingling fingers) being connected to drinking. He only identifies a “slight tingling” as a symptom, yet his movements and speech are slowed in a way that suggests that he is more affected than he realises. He has just failed to pick up on what is happening.

Unusual social behaviour

Aragorn shares a plan to help Frodo by diverting Sauron’s attention with an army. Legolas unhelpfully summarizes with, “a diversion.” He also smiles slightly after saying this, which makes it come across as genuine rather than sarcastic. Either he has wildly underestimated the intelligence of everyone else in the room, is voicing his interal monologue, or is making an awkward attempt to be part of the conversation. There is no evidence elsewhere of him considering the other characters stupid or of him voicing his thoughts aloud. This looks more like mirroring, trying to be part of the conversation by parroting back what someone else said. This statement adds nothing to the conversation except to get him involved, which may be the true goal.

When Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli first meet Eomer, Gimli says something rude to him and Eomer says that he would cut off Gimili’s head if it were further from the ground. Legolas responds by drawing an arrow and threatening Eomer, which takes a tense but calm interaction and escalates it into a stand off. There was nothing about Eomer’s behaviour to suggest that he was actually going to harm Gimili. It was more about trading aggressive banter than an actual threat to Gimli’s life. It’s Legolas who unnecessarily escalates the situation and causes the Rohirrim to draw their weapons. He isn’t dangerously impulsive elsewhere in the movies, which makes me think he didn’t understand the interaction. He took Eomer’s words as a genuine threat and reacted as though Gimli was already in danger, which doesn’t seem to have been the case.

Conclusion

I’m of the opinion that a neurotypical Legolas is kind of a bad character. It makes it difficult to get a sense of his internal life, what motivates him or why he responds the way he does. So much of what he does and says seems like the writers and actor just didn’t know what to do with him. That may be the case, but if we re-interpret his behaviour as elf autism, he’s a more interesting and sympathetic character. I think we are always meant to interpret him as having a different brain from humans, but even the oldest and wisest elves interact more “correctly” with others. I’m not suggesting that Legolas was written as intentionally autistic, but so much of what makes him an erratically-written neurotypical character makes him a plausibly written autistic character.

[joltyflare]

(Sun and Moon Show Rant #2: Poor Ruin :( )

I just realized how awful it'll be for Ruin if, like, he's innocent and genuinely has nothing to do with Eclipse's return. Moon has been astoundingly terrible to him because of something Ruin might have done...something that there's a 50/50 chance he has done while not having extremely clear evidence. Moon's going for the "guilty until proven innocent" route but I think the way he's going about it is sorta...cruel...and he's not fully taking into account that there's a huge chance Ruin might not be guilty and possibly even be a scapegoat to whoever actually did it.

This is bad because Moon's treating Ruin harshly since, in his eyes, he's the only suspect, and isn't thinking about the ramifications his words will have on Ruin if he isn't. He did say he'd apologize profusely...but would that be enough? He already told him that nothing he ever does will in any way help him ever, ever be trusted. He obviously meant what he said. It's clear those words cut through Ruin like a knife because that's the response he got for asking to be friends. He wants to see himself as family and Moon goes and breaks his heart.

The thing that bothers me the most is that Ruin doesn't have much of a choice but to live there. His dimension and whatever friends he had there are practically destroyed by the virus. He can't go back. These guys, after (as far as we know) curing him just kinda kept him in their dimension to wander the Pizzaplex aimlessly, looking for his purpose. He has to live there because that's just his only place to go. Of course he'd want to befriend and maybe become their family! He seems to look up to them for curing him as well. They decided to just keep him around and I feel like they should take responsibility for it. They sort of just ignored him for a while.

Anyway, I hope this man gets a therapy session with Earth! I dunno how sus he is right now but...still...I gotta admit if he isn't this will just be horrible for him. He sounded like he probably went off to cry after his interrogation. If this isn't all an act on his part...well, Moon owes him a very, very thorough apology but also should probably take back what he said about never seeing him as a friend or family.

[survivalist-anon]

Log 20: Caged

The next morning, at Tulio's place; Moors and Wick were in hiding as the real Las Vegas police was now investigating what had happened the night before.

Moors was enjoying some breakfast as Wick was now worried sick about not only Bilhard and the rest of the Astartes, but also for his sweet Selene.

Tulio's mother had served another large portion of eggs, rice and potatoes. "More Señor?", she asked sweetly.

"Oh thank kindly Miss.", Moors letting her give him another serving.

She walked up to Wick who was slumped over on the coach, "oh everything will be alright Wick, Selene is a strong and smart girl. And you are a smart and strong man! You two will find each other soon.", she leaves him a plate as well.

Tulio's dad was watching the T.V and saw what was currently being reported on the Las Vegas strip. He looked at Wick, "....you do this? Roberta! ¿Sabes que tenemos delincuentes en la casa?", he shouted to his wife with mild concern.

As his wife turned to scold her husband, "¡No seas grosero con Wick y sus amigos, están en problemas y debemos ayudarlos!", she gives Wick a pat on the head.

Her husband, Javi, wasn't too sure about any of this. But if this favor was for a friend of his son, surely it had to be the right thing.

"-alright thanks again Magan," he hangs up, "ah man, Wick I'm sorry man. The cast back at the Paris says she isn't in her hotel suite.... seriously man what happened last night? Magan says the place is crawling with cops."

Wick looked up at Tulio, "Than she must be at Caesar's Palace. Hiding in the back room of the theater."

"I suppose we have to go and find her than?", Moors finished his food, washing his dish. "If she is close to this Sleen, than we can find the others."

Wick was still fuming about what Steen had said. "We need to make sure she's safe....if I cannot leave with her...I want her to leave safely.", he turns to Tulio's parents, "Ugh, gracias Mr and Mrs Armando. You've been very kind to us.", smiling greatfully at them.

"Oh you are very welcome mijo, you and your friend too.", Mrs. Armando shakes his hand.

"You two be careful. Big men fall of they not careful.", Mr. Armando wagging his finger.

"si si, papa, not these strong men. They're capable of a lot more than what you know." Tulio spoke.

~~~~~~~~~

Location: Back Entrance of Caesar's Palace Theater

Tulio, Moors and I had been able to enter through the back of the theater, unfortunately, the theater had been in use for the casino's own show.

As the three of us begin to question the cast members, no one has seen Selene....until we asked the security guard.

At first he was reluctant to comply, but luckily Tulio was persuasive enough to convince him of the severity of our situation.

It is a little extraordinary how 50 dollars worth of Earth currency can do for someone.

"well, I guess she was your last night...", as the guard went through the footage, Selene had done everything that I instructed, including stay secretly within our rendezvous room.

As you fast forwarded to any significant changes in the footage, it was clear what had happened. As the four of us watch as three men break into the room, Selene was captured and was taken by force.

Somehow Sleen had found her....but how.....and how long has he had known.....

"Hey Wick, um....loosen your grip. Save it for the men who took her.", Moors had noticed that I had gripped the table and crushed the wood into splinters and dust.

"...oh... please.... pardon me...I had forgotten my own strength.", I apologized to the guard.

He wasn't too happy to see the damage but I figured he wasn't willing to argue with a man who could do that to the wood of a table. "yeah... don't mention it. You want me to call the cops? I mean this is some serious stuff and I'm pretty certain they would want to know some more information about this.", I could tell he was being genuine with the statement, but I wasn't too sure of how many individuals were deep in Sleen's pockets just yet.

".... From your very honest and professional opinion, what is the likelihood that law enforcement may not do anything for her?", the weight of my statement could not compare to the pointlessness of it.

The man's expression changed from concern to uncertainty, "hmm... Well that depends, was she a dancer or is she just a regular gal? I mean I don't want to be that guy but if she works at some of the strip clubs then I'm sorry but I'm not certain if the cops would care.", I understand as remark and I did not take offense to it.

"she was an actress in one of the performance plays at the Paris Casino.", responsed.

"well I mean that could help but...", I stopped in there, it'll be a lot faster and a lot more efficient if we had taken over from here.

"I think you kindly for your assistance.", as I leave the room, I could here Moors and Tulio thank him as well.

I felt Moors' familiar heavy hand on my shoulder. "Well, it's just the first step. I'll have to figure out where she went though.".

As I started to formulate a new plan, was then I figured the Tulio was not present at the casino last night, "Tulio, I need you to go back to the casino and see if you can find some clues to Selene's whereabouts. Do you still have Sleen's office keys?", I could see his all too familiar mischievous grin.

As he reaches in for the keys in his pocket, he snickers in the light, "oh yes I do man, let's just hope he hasn't changed the locks.".

As the Earth saying goes, "now we're cooking with fire.".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Wick's and Moors' rescue mission has finally begun, a new set of dangers begins.

Hidden five stories underground, just roughly a few miles away from the South Point Casino, a secret literal underground fighting ring occurs.

For as long as the Astartes become more exposed to public awareness over the past decades, it was clear to some parties of their unique profitability.

Specifically, as pitfighters.

With a pounding headache, unintense nausea that had never been experienced before, Bilhard wakes up. He was still muzzled and restrained heavily, as he opened his eyes he could see that there were other maximum security level cages....with 10 other.....entities.

He was alone in his containment unit, but from what he can see, it wasn't just him and the others, he could see that there were also corrupted Astartes, but many of them had been stripped of the majority of their armor, only leaving parts of the armor that identify what chapter they're from.... Thier pauldrons; Word Bearers, Black Legion, Emperor's Children and one member of an unknown chapter with shining teal armor.

"...what...what is this place?", as he forced himself up, his restraints have limited his movement significantly, what worried him the most is that the restraints were made of a material that not even he could break through. "....Sten! Toke! Cahrilo!", he tried calling out for them but is muscle restraint his speech as well.

Growing more frustrated, he had to calculate a way out, if you could not chew through his restraints, breakthrough, or even observe his surroundings farther than where he was restrained, he had only one other option.

He had to make as much of a commotion as possible. With enough virility and energy that he still had left, you screamed moved and wrestled as much as he could. If you could not guard the attention of the guards, he could certainly rile up the rest of the more corrupted Astartes. As a screaming and wrestling echoed, it enticed and aroused the attention of a few of the Astartes.

"would you give it a rest, your friend's already tried that!", a voice that had emanated from above his cage echoed out. "Geez, you free walkers are something. Too much noise and too much whining on the first day.", an arm reach for down and waved at him. "They call me "Big Joe" here. Saw you and your buddies being rolled in here, who's your primarchs? Wait never mind don't bother answering, you got one of those stupid government quality muzzles.", the voice sounded casual yet cynical.

A mild groaning from the left side of the cage echoed, "eeeehhhh....aye? What happened? I haven't felt like this since the pack celebration of Sanguinelia a few decades back.... wait... Bilhard!? Sten?! Cahrilo! Where in bloody hell are you all?", it was Toke.

All Bilhard could do was muffle his name, and move the wall around as much as he could.

"wait, Bilhard is that you? Ironic, I always figured that I would have to be muzzled at some point ha!", it is good to see that Toke was still in good spirits in spite of a situation.

"oh that's great, I see we have a Space Wolf, pleasure to meet you, they call me "Big Joe", this Big Joe reached his arm down to see if Toke was free in comparison to Bilhard, the two were able to shake hands. "I'm finally, I play a good game of rock, paper, scissors for the first time in years.".

Toke was unrestrained as he was able to pick his arm out in front of Bilhard's cage, "Hey! Look I know you lost and got trapped in there, but that doesn't mean you're supposed to be so glum about it.", shockingly, within the casual clothing that Toke had borrowed, there was a reflective shiny item that he could peer into through the reflection, the belt buckle he was wearing. "oh, my bad, I didn't know you were just tied up like some rabid wolf. You look a little worse for wear too, I'd ask what happened but I thought you'd be able to tell me.", he could see through the reflection Bilhard I've been forcibly restrained due to the maximum resistance he had to the tranquilizer.

Much like Bilhard, Toke began to see around him. "Aye, Big Joe, what is this place? And why are there bloody traitors all over the place?".

"Hey! We are just as reluctant to be here as you! Space mutt!", a chaos Marine that can only be deducted as a member of the Emperor's Children hissed at him maliciously, "do you honestly think any of us would be trapped here like animals if we were willing?".

One of the other chaos marines growled at him, "oh shut up you lascivious deviant, you're here on your own terms. After all it seems that you like to take it harder than anyone else here no thanks to that traitor!", would look like to be another member of the Black Legion glared at him knowing which direction his voice was coming from.

The unnerving cackling from the depraved marine echoed uncontrollably through the air, "oh stop it you're here because you'll get free food you greedy bastard! And all the humans that you can beat to a pulp! Hahahahahahahaha!", the hair on Toke's neck went on end and Bilhard's blood ran cold.

With a loud growl, Toke had silenced the Emperor's Children. Feeling as if his fun was ceased, he let out a sickening chittery noise that only members of the Space Wolves could hear due to its low decibels.

By this point, the both of them were making enough noise to cause a stir.

Suddenly what sounded like a low hum to the ears of your average person, rung incessively throughout the facility, reaching everyone's ears and causing them immense pain.

"Ain't technology such as swell thing isn't it boys?", a familiar but currently pained sneering echoed through the intercom system, it was Sleen. "Now quit all of your whining, you all have a very special performance tonight. El Nino is going to choose who he wants to fight, oh sorry Pinkie! He's tired of having to beat you while you're laughing, it says it makes him uncomfortable.", Sleen finished.

The Emperor's Children marine lowered his head, "oh....I thought we had something special", he sarcastically moaned.

"now, we have some high paying customers tonight and I want you freaks of nature to understand that you're fighting for your freedom per se.... Well you're not actually all free, in fact you're going to all be bought tonight! Think of it as being like a puppy, and you're all going to get adopted by a loving forever home..... That is unless you enjoy the idea of your forever home being one of the high paying customers from an undisclosed country.", something is voice was off, you sounded like as if he was recovering from a heavy injury. "Ow! God fucking damnit! Fucking Wick, bastard broke my collar bone... Anyway, enjoy your breakfast! Hope you like horse feed! HAHAHAHAAHAH~ow damn my scapula....", the intercommons.

As it does, a man with large bags of what is genuinely industrial farm food, comes in and leaves a bag in a shoot for each containment cage. As soon as he stops in front of Bilhard's cage, he chuckles with curiosity as to how such a heavily restrained Marine is going to even eat anything. He just leaves the bag and continues on.

"oh joy, hey can I get some ketchup with this stuff?", as the man leaves a bag of feed on a small lift heading towards Big Joe's cage, a mild grown softly looms. "Oh fantastic, it's the organic stuff, must be my lucky day.", Bilhard could hear him they're the bag open and begin munching.

This had to been considered one of his lowest points in his life.

"are you kidding me?! You're feeding us kibble?", Toke protestingly growled as he watched the food cart man walk away ignoring him. You could see that now he was feeding the rest of the Marines the same set of bags, only they didn't seem to object too much. Some of them even gluttonously swallowing as much of it as they could in one sitting. ".... For the Love of the emperor have some self-respect. Maybe not even for the emperor just have some self-respect in general.", he grumbled lovely to himself.

"oh my head...ugh? Where am I?", it was Cahrilo, he had finally woken up, he looked down on his leg where one of the food bags had been unceremoniously left like a pillow, "what?", suddenly a small grumbling came from a stomach. "Oh. F-", he ran to what looked like a butcher's sink and vomited, the tranquilizers had negatively affected the food from last night.

One of the corrupted Marines was watching him throw up, "......when your done can I have some?", you genuinely asked.

The rest of the corrupted Marines were cackling uncontrollably at the statement, this had to have been an inside joke with all of them.

"Lads, are we going to leave here?", Toke asked, and he did the doors opened to reveal Señor Mateo coming in with the rest of his men. He had walked around observing the potential fighters for El Nino. To which Marine that he was not interested for El Nino, he shook his head from side to side, for those he wanted, he shook his head up and down.

"Aye! You there fancy man! Where are we!", Toke roared at him. Señor Mateo turned to Toke's direction and was mighty pleased at the energy of his purchase. He marveled at Toke's hight and size.

"Mmmm, sí...creo que te llamaré El Pequeño León...y a ti, El Hombre Lobo," he looked to Toke than he glanced to Sten's cage just beside Toke.

Sten had been awake this whole time, silently contemplating. He looked at Señor Mateo, with his pysker ability, he had peered into the mind of Señor Mateo.

"I know you cannot understand me, but I am certain you will understand how me and my colleagues feel about this.", he spoke, but through his mind he was communicating with Mateo very differently.

The look of shock and horror on Señor Mateo's was exactly the reaction Sten had hoped for.

The usually cheerful and somewhat calm Señor Mateo grumbling to himself, "¿Qué diablura es esta? ¿ÉL es capaz de hacer brujería?", he whispered to his translator a different question, "You! Lobo! Que mierda you pulling on us!?", The bodyguard had never seen Señor Mateo so rattled before.

Sten sat there, calm, expressionless and hoping there was some way of getting more information from him. "....... What do you consider is witchcraft, is my Emperor given gift..... I want to convince you... To set us free... You do not understand the powers of which you keep locked up like savage animals behind you....", Sten was referring to the chaos Marines behind across the room. All of which either enjoying their serving of animal feed or watching intently as they could see their potential foes in the ring openly display what they are capable of.

Mateo was horrified, but he was slowly starting to think to himself, "éste... va a luchar contra El Niño, sólo él puede quitarle esta magia diabólica.", he did the sign of the cross. He leaned over to his translator and whispered again, "you're going to be fighting El Nino tonight, you will not be given the honor of a mask and you'll be given the least amount of protection demonio lobo!", the translator finished as they walked away.

Toke and peered over wondering what had happened, "aye, did you spook 'em?", he looked at Sten with concern.

Sten grinned, "I spoke to him, but sadly he was not willing to listen..... But I have discovered what our opponent is..... We are in for a very difficult night ahead.....".

Suddenly the laughing and cackling of the chaos Marines across the room started to echo again, the same Emperor's Children Marine begin laughing breathlessly, "Oh you're in for a terrible beating now! I could hear your thoughts you silly little psyker! Do you really honestly think knowing that information is going to help you by this point?! They're just going to give you a lot less than armor and protection buddy! Oh don't make sure you lose. I know they have done for me.", he then showed what had happened to his right arm, a mechanical augmentation, not too dissimilar to what the mechanic is adeptice would give but what had been created using technology from Earth, was given to him courtesy of who was likely the ringmaster of this underground trafficking. "Oh you're going to be very disappointed when you find out who gave this to me! Then you're going to see what your corpse center is worth!", his second and cackling continued.

Cahrilo stood up angrily, it grabbed the bars and fried bending them but as soon as he did he felt an intense electrical shock more so than he had ever experienced during training.

"it's no use, I guess El Nino told them everything. Or at least, he told them everything on how to restrain us.", Big Joe cynically spoke with his mouth full. "This place was built to hold Astartes, Emperor knows how on Earth they found the technology to do so. I have to admit though, this place is a whole lot better than the facility that I was held out for a while.", he continued munching on his relatively tasteless breakfast.

Trying to ignore the burning feeling on his palms and the electric stinging throughout his body, "you were held somewhere else?", Cahrilo groaned.

"Yeah, not certain how, but whoever is behind all of this must have talked to them. Cuz some of the stuff seems rather familiar, a little more open air then those glass containment units for sure, but I do miss being served actual food. So what's your name buddy? How did you like the pressurized electric bars?", Big Joe have referred to what had currently just happened.

Each of the bars had been given primary and secondary restraints, each restraint had three levels.

Level one restraints were simply pressurized electrical bars, if any amount of pressure or manipulation had occurred, the entire containment unit itself would admit an electrical shock.

Level two included sensory disruptions, similar to the ones that Sleen had used on the room itself. Only the ones in the cages were intense and included a chemical that wouldn't induce nausea along with the auditory disruption.

Level 3 was where currently Bilhard was being kept in, complete restrainment.

"Cahrilo, the other space wolves are Toke and Sten!", he muttered. "what is this place?".

"it's a gladiatorial fighting ring.... Unfortunately it's not just Astartes that are forced to fight here to death for the highest bidder...", Sten groaned a little.

"oh so your buddy is a Psyker? That's nice, not going to be much use here. They have some electromagnetic thing underground that prevents anything beyond mind reading here. You should have seen what they did to a human psyker. The guy was beaten in one second. Never seen somebody just crumple up like an old tin can too.", the fact that Big Joe alluded to the possibility not only Space Marines had come to this world, but other members of the Imperium holds much more weight to their situation by this point.

"you have got to be kidding me.", Toke side exhausted.

"me, and chuckle nuts over there I've been the oldest ones here. I've been having to deal with this place since I busted out back in '85. Starting to regret my decisions though, I mean being held in a containment facility dedicated to anomalous entities, much like us, maybe wasn't such a bad idea.... That or it could be just bad timing.", Big Joe sighed.

"you keep saying that you were in a previous facility, it wouldn't happen to be one infamous for-", Cahrilo I've been interrupted by a small snap of Joe's fingers.

"Bingo! Those guys. Also did you guys make enough of a ruckus to attract their attention? I would really appreciate if they could just help us out right now.", he didn't really mean that considering what this organization would do to everyone here would be considerably far worse.

"oh I believe we have stolen a few of their equipment and vehicles actually in the past few years.", Cahrilo admitted.

There was a small silence until there was a hearty cackling from Big Joe, "YOU GUYS WHAT?!", his laughing continued to the point of hysterics, "oh man, I don't know where the hell of you guys been, but you guys are in a whole lot of trouble, did you take out some of their bugs?!", the team wasn't understanding why he thought this situation was so humorous to begin with.

"Ugh, I think Moors is removed most of the innards of many of their stuff and triple checked everything....wait! Bilhard! Can you hear me?!", he shouted to Bilhard.

Bilhard wasn't too sure of what to do, until he remembered that Morse code was taught throughout the facility in case of something like this were to happen. You begin to bang on the wall of his containment cage.

After a few taps, Cahrilo had understood Bilhard's situation. "You must have put up quite a fight huh? Aldercon would be proud!", Cahrilo responded verbally.

"Aye, where Wick?! I haven't heard him this whole morning!", Toke asked.

Bilhard how to get banged a message relaying what had happened that night.

"Ok, I will .....", Cahrilo was not any difficult position, he had to figure out a way to non-verbally communicate with Toke and Sten about the fact Wick had successfully escaped.

"No need lad! I understood that loud at clear. Toke, when we're close, I'll explain to you later.", Sten had already probed Bilhard's memories from last night and Cahrilo's mind just now.

As they were having their conversation, Sleen, who is now wearing medical braces around his neck shoulders his arm and his leg. "Would you freak stop banging on the walls?!!! I'm trying to take a nap!", he coughed painfully as it was clear that Wick had done significant damage to him physically. "When I get my hands on him... I'm going to chop them up and feed him throw a wood chipper I swear!", Sleen growled, but then grinned sickeningly. "Hehehehe, you see my dear, when I get your little goth boyfriend back here.... He is going to be put where he belongs.... IN A GOD DAMN ZOO!", he turned around as he had his guards forcibly bring Selene into the holding room by her arms.

She had been hurt in the process.

"now my pet, if you don't behave... You're going to have to play with one of them.", Sleen points to one of the chaos Marines, which is reveling at the idea of having a new toy to tear apart, "you are going to do as I say..... And You and Wick....may get out of this alive. I mean in one piece I'm not guaranteeing you that, that would be too generous of me.", he sneered.

"-as for you lot! Oh I can't wait to show you guys off, unfortunately I don't know what the hell one of you did but Señor Mateo wasn't at all too happy to find out one of his purchases had made him uncomfortable! And that cost money! So I hope you guys don't mind being separated for the rest of your sad freak lives! I'm just hoping to get my money back from Mr. Green... That big dumb bastard always bets on the wrong guy! Hahahaha! Chump.", he limps around monitoring the rest of them.

Although Sten and Bilhard we're not in the same room, the two of them are already attempting to figure out a plan.

They could trust Wick and Moors to get them out of there, but in the meantime, they had to survive the fight with El Nino first.

End of Log 20

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