#i guess is the join-this-cult vibe it has

[arosetolivefor]

something I appreciate about the Strangelove ´88 video is that they went "why don't we objectify Dave for a difference"

[swallowtailed]

palisade 44

it’s so fun to watch the finale get built out. we’re back to the mirage!!!!! we’re in it!!!!!!!!!!!

solid arc to this episode. lots to chew on.

really liked the final beat of righteousness and mourning’s conversation—paraphrasing, but, “you came to me because you knew i’d agree.” “perhaps i did.” “i’ll back it if you give me command.” “done.” “done.” it’s especially good in the context of those same two people later being so reluctant to trust gucci to use clem. something about… being willing to make deals yourself that you think are too risky for others. individuals playing private power games in service of utopia.

keith raised a great point re what the principality even means to the bilats inside the mirage. the thing i’ve been turning over since last week is what this is like for members of the cause who just got slurped into the mirage. like, when you get to see the utopia (“utopia”) you’ve been protecting sight unseen for a year, and now you have the choice between living there for the rest of your life or spending years leaving, what… do you do? how do you value the fight outside? how do you value the chance to stay when you were never supposed to get to see the mirage in the first place? fuck.

hey speaking of mirage folks HOW ABOUT DRE’S NEW PC

levitation “levi” cascabel-gardner. wow i love this kid. i can’t wait for him and cori to meet. (like, has he heard of cori?? does he just know of the devotees as that weird religious cult??)

he is absolutely extremely mirage

there is a certain kind of suspension of disbelief required when a new character is joining the party and it just doesn’t play that well when taken seriously. with that said, clem was always gonna be a tough sell. like, a really tough sell.

i am not really interested in clem coming back in, tbh. we know her problems pretty well by now—doesn’t feel like there’s much more to say. she’s been defeated several times over. beat her to death with hammers already.

what does intrigue me is the blue channel interpersonal drama aspect. the reflexive kesh noble infighting is excellent, as is clem and gucci having weird tension and brnine finding out about the deal and getting upset. also very much looking forward to whatever conflict cori and clem are gonna have.

and also the drama in the way of… sometimes clementine kesh survives and your friends don’t, and you have to deal with that. grief has become really essential to this season.

so we’ll see, i guess! i feel like i say that a lot in these posts. but actual play is such a fluid way to build a narrative. hard to say what’s gonna be interesting in another two episodes.

other things i enjoyed in this episode: mustard red sidebar, brnine and gucci’s texts, levi’s feather covered poncho, jesset immediately vibing with levi, mourning’s comprehensive gossip intel, “a broken clock kills the right person twice a day”

kept hearing “mourning” and thinking “morning’s”. miss that guy

[mushroompollution]

Character Glossary: the Four Dukedoms

Nightray Family

( siblings from youngest to oldest)

Elliot: he's the baby of the family and he's so bitter about it!! he might seem like a hotheaded jerk, but he's really a big, shy softy. somehow a jock and a nerd, scientists can't explain it!

Leo: Elliot's valet! that's me! (ᅌ▿ᅌ✿)

Vanessa: Elliot's only sister, and currently the family heir. she can be so uptight it's unnerving, but Elliot looks up to her a lot.

Vincent (adopted): weird vibes, avoid as much as possible. his hobby is cutting up stuffed animals and curtains. maids hate him!

Echo: Vincent's valet. she's shy and quiet and doesn't deserve that guy at all.

Gilbert (adopted): Vincent's actual older brother. he's a nice guy, but kind of gloomy. he left the family house to join Pandora, and Elliot hasn't quite forgiven him for it yet.

Hans: Vanessa's valet. he's almost as strict as her! kind of scary, but not mean.

Ernest (deceased): ... he and Elliot were pretty close. he always seemed pretty nice, but he wore fake smiles a lot. he was really adamant about Elliot finding a decent valet, so I guess I should have thanked him when I had a chance.

Claude (deceased): he and Elliot were also pretty close. it was his idea to take Elliot to Fianna's for the first time, so... I guess I owed him some thanks too.

Fred (deceased): I really didn't know this guy, he died not too long after I moved into the house. but he was a lot older than Elliot, and I don't think they were very close at all.

Bernice: Elliot's mom. he loves her a lot and writes a special piano piece for her every year for her birthday. but losing so many of her sons took a really bad toll on her health, and she's been on and off bed rest for the last couple years.

Raymond (deceased): Elliot's uncle. I only met him a few times. wasn't nice.

Bernard: Elliot's father and one of the four Dukes who run the country.

Vessalius Family

because of some tensions several generations back, the Nightray and Vessalius houses have been at odds for as long as anyone can remember. the story goes that the Nightrays were framed for committing treason against the country during the great war, or something like that, and the family's reputation still suffers because of it. I think it's silly to hold a grudge for hundreds of years, but Elliot takes it to heart.

Ada: upperclassman and RA at our university. she's a sweet girl, if a bit too naive for her own good. unfortunately, Elliot hates her just because of her family name, and he isn't afraid to make it known. I can usually reign him in, but he gets extra barky around her!

Oz (deceased?): I don't really know much about it, but I guess he was either assassinated or dragged into Abyss 10 years ago? depends who you ask!

Oscar: Ada's uncle, younger brother of the Duke

Zai: Duke of the Vessalius family

Jack: legend has is that he was a great hero who stopped the Tragedy of Sablier from consuming the entire world 100 years ago! Elliot says that's some bullshit.

Rainsworth Family

Sharon: heiress to the family

Sheryl: Duchess of the Rainsworth family, Sharon's grandmother

Barma Family

Rufus: Duke of the Barma family

Baskerville

though they were never held any specific title, the Baskerville clan was a cult that held equal power with the four Dukedoms. after the Tragedy of Sablier, their assets were divided between the remaining four families. legends say the ghosts of their founding members walk the earth to this day, dragging people into Abyss to fulfill the wish of their master, Glen~

[socially-awkward-skeleton]

WIP Music Monday/Last Line Tag

tagged by: @jacobsneed @madparadoxum @inafieldofdaisies @v0idbuggy and @cassietrn

tagging: @adelaidedrubman @direwombat @josephseedismyfather @trench-rot @neverthesameneveranother @henbased @florbelles @nightbloodbix @corvosattano @blissfulalchemist @poetikat @thesingularityseries @eclecticwildflowers @clicheantagonist @derelictheretic @marivenah and anyone else who'd like to give this a go, please feel free to tag me!

With chapter 38 being posted this week and work beginning on chapter 39 which includes Kit's very own cult advertisement on the televisions of Hope County there will be no second guessing whose side she is on and this song is just ghkghs it's the vibe

(also if you managed to get the notification for my wip wed last week you'll already know about Mark - poor guy is the guest star in Kit's video presentation aka snuff film)

“Attention Hope County residents, I have a message for you. Your Resistance may have thought they were winning, that their time had come, but the Collapse is still on its way. Eden’s Gate is still willing to offer you all protection, to offer you a chance at being saved. The Project is no longer just the Father and his Heralds. It has found it’s symbol, it’s guide into the future – their Lion." Kit reached over and snatched the bag from the head of the person tied up beside her. With the whip of cloth removed, mousy hair was left all askew. Mark’s hazel eyes staring blankly at the camera, left sore and red with tears as he blubbered.  "I am giving you all an opportunity. Stand down, lower your weapons, and join Eden’s Gate with peace in your heart. Because If you are a traitor, if you stand against us, you will suffer the righteous fury of God. There will be no safe place for you to hide. No bunker or cabin left unchecked. I will wipe every Resistance stronghold off the map. For I am the Lion of God, and I cannot be stopped."

[quillandqueer]

Weekly Reading Update | 2nd June

Read This Week

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: Yes the insane Jesus references, but I would be chilling in Mr Tumnus' place with a fat cup of tea while they're busy being dramatic.

The Starless Sea: I understood more of the book this time round and loved every page, but I can't deny the ending is weak.

Currently Reading

Down Among The Sticks And Bones: I'm past the half way mark now, and getting to understand the backstory of Jack and Jill has been such a wild ride

Vivian vs The Apocalypse: A book I nearly passed on, this has been a really strong story of a group of teens thrown together after their parents are seemingly raptured as predicted by the cult they joined and the world descends into chaos.

The Things We Leave Behind: I am having to work with this very slow story, and I think the MC isn't telling us everything, so I'm hoping there's some big reveals soon.

Listen For The Lie: This is campy, and fun. A bit of a Yellowface vibe in the writing style? I'm having a good time.

Forget Me Not: This is one of those books where I just want to start incoherently sob yelling "they were getting an apartment!" "they're small town lesbians!" I'm deeply invested.

Bitterthorn: I truly admire that the MC's thought pattern seemed to be "might as well die I guess". The writing is beautiful.

[florwal]

I’m playing your save file and I appreciate how realistic it is! Out of curiosity I have few questions. What made you want to create the save other that the fact that it’s based off where you live? Also Love it but a lot of your sims aren’t the best of people and do bad things. Why is that? English is not my first language sorry for mistakes ♥️

here’s a very long answer! there’s a lot of good saves out there, but there weren’t any i could find that were realistic, centered around crime, regular lower income families, builds that were old and dingy etc. basically i just wanted a hood ass save file that felt familiar to my actual life/friends/hometown. it was just gonna be a personal save but i joined simblr to share my builds and people started asking me if i’d ever make a save file, since i already was i decided to share it w everyone. if i never joined simblr i don’t think i’d finish the 3 portsim worlds as fast as i did/keep expanding to other worlds but seeing people enjoy something i’ve created and adding their own spin to it makes me so :’) it makes things a lot more fulfilling/enjoyable <3

when it comes to my sims and their stories, real people aren’t 1 dimensional. to me, doing (certain) bad things or making wrong decisions ≠ being a “bad” person, it’s more complex/circumstantial than that. i guess i just want my sims to feel like real people or at least as real as sims can feel while having shitty ts4 ai. most of them aren’t meant to be seen as good/bad honestly, it’s subjective to each person that plays the save. obviously some things are dramatized to keep it interesting but overall i want things to be grounded in reality.

examples:

- charles boyce is my most extreme/one of my only inherently bad characters, i wanted him to have generic serial killer vibes. he got brain washed and manipulated into a cult which resulted in him becoming a paranoid evil person that killed his wife, jerrod banks’ mom, other pregnant women, and eventually even his own daughter for the mother plant (which canonically doesn’t exist) that the cult worships because 1. he was already misogynistic and had shitty morals and 2. he’s been brainwashed into believing that’s what he has to do to have eternal life.

- jerrod banks. he doesn’t know his mom was murdered, he and his dad (the police chief) just think she left without any explanation when jerrod was a teenager. that caused him to have trust issues and be emotionally closed off to avoid being hurt by people. his dad tried to be there for him, but he was also dealing with his wife leaving him to be a single dad, a demanding job, and a son that acted out. that’s a lot for one person. jerrod also grew up in portsim. being young and impressionable living in a place full of poverty, surrounded by the glorification of drugs, guns/violence etc causes it’s own issues. fast forward a few years later, jerrod and his childhood best friend deven have big plans. they both love creating music and want more out of life so they form a rap duo hoping to be successful and get out of portsim. but when a local record label takes interest in/only wants to sign deven… shit gets real. deven takes the deal, and jerrod is upset. the person he loved and trusted the most betrayed him, that’s his biggest fear. jerrod ends up shooting deven, which is obviously a terrible thing to do. but it wasn’t for no reason. i wouldn’t want to personally be around someone like jerrod, but i also wouldn’t view him the same way i would see someone like charles boyce.

[nerves-nebula]

Vee in your AU gives off "lost in the system" vibes like.

idk if you know about it (it's not extremely well known) but there's this ""phenomenon"" where the foster agencies will like, straight up lose kids. Like they just. have no idea where the kids in their care went. (mostly documented in the US, some states do it to the point they're infamous for it)

Vee could totally be in this situation, where maybe she's like a mix of run-away/parents died but the fostercare system just kinda, left her alone. And of course Philip was like "HEY, ANOTHER KID? IT'S PART OF MY CULT NOW". could've offered her food and housing in exchange for joining/participating in the cult?

(here's an article if you want to learn more, but big TW for the topics it covers. https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/06/19/the-other-child-tragedy-the-tens-of-thousands-of-children-the-foster-system-has-lost/)

oh yeah yeah I've heard of that whole Lost in the System thing. one of many reasons I'm suspicious of CPS/the foster care system/social workers. If I didn't know all the shit I've heard about CPS I probably would've called them on my mom a long time ago hahhh. thanks for the article though I'm gonna read it after I answer this ask.

My idea was that Vee's parents joined the cult and brought her in, but died soon afterwards. Idk how, probably like a car accident? Though part of me wants to make it so that Philip actually killed them on accident or something with one of his random fucked up machines but idk how he'd stage a car crash. I guess kikimora could help him (she definitely would). It wouldn't be perfect but they'd have nothing to link him to it so the case would get dropped.

ANYWAYs after that she just kinda got lost in the system as you said and ended up just staying with Philip.

Y'know, sometimes a family is just an Uncle, the child he kidnapped, the child he kidnapped, and the child he kidnapped! here's a family photo for you :)

[jq37]

Oh, my god. I think my soul almost shat itself when Lou landed that Nat 20. Snow better not have done anything to Scheherazade and the Lines-Between Squad or I'm....gonna stew in impotent anger behind my laptop cause I'm only a viewer. And last but not least, if Tim is the Golden Goose's human-sona, who's the Ganders?

What an INSANE moment. This season has been all over the place but geez, I think this goes up there with the other legendary Dimension 20 Nat 20s. I seriously thought they were toast when Brennan set the minimum DC to 25. What a crucial moment for the dice rolls to go your way. Absolutely wild. 

This was one of my fave episodes from a storytelling standpoint because I feel like there was a lot of positioning towards a conclusion. The Goose investigated what it is that the PCs actually want to do which I think is important. They don't really have a big overarching thing that they've decided is their goal since their plan initially was to just join up with the princesses and that super didn't work out. Now that they have the book back, they've gotta figure out what it is they actually wanna do (and I would say some of that lack of direction is due to lack of understanding of the holistic situation but we are so close to the end of the season at this point so I'm not even gonna harp on that).

We're also finally getting back to the Lines Between stuff which is like a split "yay!" and "oh no!" situation. Yay because we're finally checking back in with Scher who is one of my fave if not my fave NPC but oh no because it's not like she's drinking pina coladas and having a good time. Clearly they want to use her for the princess plan--which points to a specific princess not being needed if they can just swap out Roz and her. I do wonder how much of an element of buy in they need. Like, the vibe I got is that snatched Scher, not that they convinced her. She doesn't seem the type to be like yeah, sign me up for the death cult (though neither did Cinderella with her "don't lay the sins of individuals on the entire world" talk) and the princesses are totally chill with lying or withholding elements of the truth.  If they just need a body and no buy in, they possibly could have just grabbed her. If they need buy in/wanna play nice, they might have half lied to her like they are presumably doing with Elody.

I will say, if she is kidnapped in the traditional sense, Scher has a LOT of experience being imprisoned by a captor who plans to kill her and changing their mind, so as annoying as this is for her, it is also her favored terrain so to speak. If Brennan wants, he could very plausibly have Scher do some of the princess schmoozing that the PCs utterly failed at. Just for story efficiency's sake. I'm getting the sense of, "We are getting to the end game so let's get all the pieces where they need to be on the board." So Tim gets his book back. Tomas and Henry returned. Scher back in the main story. Muffet and Itsy Bitsy in the book to tie up those loose ends. DM housekeeping. 

I don't know if the Gander HAS a human-sona. The Goose has Tim as a human-sona because in stories the "Mother Goose" character is sometimes a person who rides a goose and sometimes a large anthro goose (usually with a bonnet). It's interesting though because in the main mother goose poem it says that Mother Goose rides "a very fine gander". Which just makes me wonder how that connects. And then of course, there's the saying about what's good for the goose is good for the gander. There's a thread that Brennan has mentioned a couple time but no one's followed up on seriously. About what is the gander when it's not stuck in the Neverafter. We don't know exactly what the Gander represents. It's not death or the end of stories because that's the wolf. My best guess is that the goose is like positive (for the protag) plot developments and the gander is bad ones. So I'm wondering if, for example, the gander was to move to the horror section of the library, would it just turn into a creepy killer clown or a ghost or something?  I dunno, just spitballing.

Anyway, looking forward to tonight's ep! Maybe we're finally gonna get an answer on those red beads!!!

[notstilinski]

The Bear Starters !

Taken from  the 2022 Hulu series, The Bear! Some of these have already been edited. You can change them however you see fit! 

“You cut vegetables like a bitch.”

“(Name), I am saying something. You are my favorite bitch.”

“Don’t say sweetheart, you fucking weirdo.”

“Listen, I’m trying to talk to ya, okay? Don’t be rude and start doing a million things-“

“One plus one equals your an asshole.”

“That’s how you say hello to me?”

“You smell like this place.”

“It’s redundant and white. Just like you.”

“Hey, has (Name) always been an asshole?”

“Look at you. Fucking softie!”

“Merry Christmas, Lizards. Sounds like we have a real problem out here.”

“DeVry teach you to fix that?”

“It’s um… A lot of words.”

“Yeah, but they basically say we’re getting killed on labor.”

“Is my hair on fire?”

“I’m telling you… Beware of bitches with little notebooks.”

“FYI. You cocked it up, you’re gonna caulk it out.”

“I wasn’t expecting company, by the way. These Arby’s cups are from different visits.”

“Can’t believe I’m taking orders from a fucking toddler right now.”

“Still looks like a kid painted it with their asshole.”

“I stopped by to see you. I should have stopped by to break your legs, but, you know what, I guess I’m getting forgetful.”

“Really good short-term, (Name). Congrats on that.”

“Look, I’m, uh- I’m fine. You know, I just have trouble breathing sometimes, and I wake up screaming.”

“Whatever. I know tons of people that cry out of nowhere.”

“We can’t curb that kind-of chaos until the thinking changes.”

“Like, I just, uh, follow orders even if it leads to tensions and chaos and resentment and ultimately does not work out.”

“No, it’s just, uh, I felt like (Name) was alive for a second.”

“You two looked like you joined the dumbass cult.”

“You stick to your shit, and I’ll stick to mine.”

“Fuck brunch.”

“Why are you doing that? Why are you trying to put a t-shirt on a fucking hot dog?”

“Chill. I’m not gonna bring up shit, alright?”

“I suffer from anxiety and dread.”

“One bite of a doughnut brings much joy, two bite brings sadness.”

“If you’re into it, then I’m into it.”

“I didn’t really know him well enough to miss him.”

“Yo! What is good you fuckin’ replicants?”

“Fuck your vibe!”

“Don’t ever fuck my vibe!”

“He’s mean! He is not nice! He is a fucking asshole!”

“Yeah, I also have a lot going on. Do you know I also had a brother die recently too?”

“You’re such a soft, shitty bitch.”

“Will you fight with me tomorrow?”

“Yeah, you will. But not cause you’re you, just cause shit happens.”

“If I don’t do anything, this place will burn down. and all my anxiety will go away with it.”

“I mean, my whole shit got rocked, and there’s not a night where I don’t stay up thinking what I could’ve done different.”

“We have finally gotten this to a place where things are sort of, kind of, a little bit chill, right? I would like to hold on to that as long as I possibly can.”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask him when he’s not dead.”

“Okay. Good. So, you’re a psychopath. Cool.”

“You know you don’t realize, this is a delicate ecosystem… and it’s held together by a shared history, and love, and respect.”

“Keep not processing trauma, (Name).”

“Is there a name for that thing where you’re afraid of something good happening ‘cause you think something bar’s gonna happen?”

“They say I’m contagious, I only cause bad news.”

“I think the thing that pisses me off is the thing that I’m probably too embarrassed to admit. Is that you never ask me how I’m doing.”

“I guess all the time I feel like I’m kind of trapped because I can’t describe… how I’m feeling. So to ask somebody else how they’re feeling, that just seems, uh, I don’t know, insane?”

“The point of this is that it is a business. Not, uh, some sort of a hollow shell you can project your dying fantasies or whatever onto.”

“No, this is a war on you shutting the fuck up, (Name).”

“Somebody get me a fucking sharpie that fucking works! Fuck!”

“And that’s why you hate that I’m here, right? Because I see you for the loser that you fucking are. And everyone fucking knows it.”

“I’m fucking sorry. I’m- I’m sorry. I’m really— I’m just fucking this up, guys.”

“I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. I had a stutter when I was a kid. I was scared to speak half the time. And, uh, I got shitty grades ‘cause I couldn’t pay attention. I didn’t get into college. I didn’t have any girlfriends. I don’t think I’m funny.”

“I always thought that my brother was my best friend. Like we just knew everything about each other.”

“I didn’t know my brother was using drugs. What does that say?”

“The more he wouldn’t respond, the more our relationship kind of strained, the deeper into this I went, and the better I got.”

“And the more people I cut out, the quieter my life got.”

“I, uh, I feel kinda bad ‘cause I feel like I haven’t really like asked you how you’re doing. Um, with everything, since, you know.”

“I left you into my home, and this is how you treat me? You reward me with memories for cooking for you?”

“That’s exactly what they did. They destroyed it like a bitch.”

“(Name), I stand before you, a penitent man.”

“No, but seriously though, if you ever try that shit with me, I’ll fuck your ass up.”

“I don’t know. And I didn’t really want to give it to you because it meant that he was gone.”

“Oh, shut up, you old bitch.”

[bazwillendinflames]

Second Chances (Dylan/Ryan)

When Dylan accidentally overshares his meet cute on his college radio show, the listeners are suddenly invested in his love life. Meanwhile, Ryan is intrigued by his not-so-secret admirer.

When a second chance meeting occurs, will they be able to work it out?

Read on Ao3

Word count: 2423

“I’d take you a lot more seriously if you didn’t fall in love with a hot stranger every week.” 

“Um rude.” It had been at least two weeks since Dylan had last shared his romantic woes with Kaitlyn. “Anyway this wasn’t any hot stranger. He was the one, I could tell.” 

“Oh boy,” Kaitlyn said, taking a long, noisy sip of her iced coffee. “Did you actually talk to this mystery stranger? Or did you just stare like a creep whilst planning your wedding?” 

“Yeah. I mean, words were exchanged. And no one talks on the subway!” Dylan found himself smiling again. Sue him, he was a hopeless romantic. 

“Holy shit. That’s a big step for you.” Kaitlyn seemed genuinely proud of him, which hurt more than her usual sarcasm. “Fine. Tell me about this guy.” 

That was all the encouragement that Dylan needed. He leaned forward. “So, we’re on the train and it comes to a stop with a big screech. And the train announcement says some crackly garbage. And I go ‘anyone able to translate?’” 

“Hilarious,” Kaitlyn said dryly. 

Dylan waved a hand in her direction. “Shush. Let me finish. And then this guy sitting on the other side of the carriage laughs. He laughs at my joke and we make some pretty intense eye contact.” 

“Oh boy.” 

“By the way, this guy, absolutely gorgeous. We’re talking tall, dark and handsome. We’re talking cool punk vibes. He was even wearing a Cult Damage shirt. Hello, hot and good taste in music. We were meant to be.” 

“That’s it?” Kaitlyn asked. “Someone laughed at your lame joke.”

Dylan rolled his eyes. “No. He also said ‘bad day to forget my earbuds’. And then the train started up again.” 

“And now he’s the one?” Kaitlyn asked. “Dude, no.” 

“You mock me now, but…” Dylan stopped half way through his sentence, noticing the red on air sign. “Oh fuck.” 

“What?” Kaitlyn asked. She looked over at the sign too. “Uh, how long has that been on?” 

Dylan had already pressed the nearest button and the next queued up Arctic Monkeys song played. Double checking the mic was actually off this time, he ripped off his headphones and buried his head in his hands. 

“I’m a fucking idiot.” 

“No,” Kaitlyn said. She patted his back. “It was just a little mistake. Look, it’s live college radio, how many people will have actually heard… all that?” 

“I quit.” 

“No you don’t,” Kaitlyn said. “Put your headphones back on, the song is almost over.” 

Dylan pulled himself together, taking a deep breath and getting back into the mindset of funny radio host Dylan. 

“Sorry about that guys,” Kaitlyn said smoothly, “just a few technical problems. But next up we’ll be playing ‘guess that professor’ so get ready…” 

 “So, I’ve heard you are quite the heartbreaker.” Laura grinned at him. “One look and you have them enamoured.” 

She had heard the radio thing too then. “It might not have been me he was talking about.” 

“We both know that it totally was,” Laura said. “It’s fine, I’ll keep you anonymous. Take it as a compliment. You have a secret admirer.” 

“Who does?” Max joined them a moment later, dropping a pile of books on the table with a thud. “Should I be jealous, hun?” 

“You haven’t heard? Ryan has a secret admirer.” 

“It’s not exactly a secret. He said it on the radio and everyone knows who runs the station. It’s on the school website.” 

“Oh wait, you’re the stranger on the train that Dylan Lenivy is in love with?” Max asked. “Good for you dude.” 

“Maybe you should call in?” Laura suggested. 

Even the idea left him modified. “Absolutely not.” 

She smiled. “I’m just teasing.” 

“Anyway, it’s not like he’s not in love with me,” Ryan said. He picked at the black nail varnish on his fingers. He would have brought his fidget cube if he knew she’d bring it up. “It was more of a funny story, ‘oh I’m so hopeless, I’m thinking about someone I met once’ thing.” 

“Take it as a compliment,” Max said, “of anyone he could have chosen to gush about on the radio, he chose you.”

“It’s probably worse for him,” Laura added, “no one has figured it out but us.” “How did you figure it out?” Ryan asked. 

“The band he mentioned. You’re probably the only two people our age who listen to your indie 70s rock.” 

“Hey, for that reason alone, you’re probably soulmates,” Max joked. “I’m going to grab a coffee, you guys want one?” 

Ryan already had one but Laura followed Max up to the counter, the two of them laughing together at something. They made the high school sweetheart thing look easy. It did leave him feeling a little like a third wheel. 

As he waited alone, he found himself thinking back to the radio show. Beyond it being embarrassing to be called out like that, even accidentally, he was intrigued. 

Ryan remembered the moment. He had been trying to figure out the tattoo on his arm, left with nothing to do but people watch with his headphones back at his dorm. He’d thought he been caught out staring, but the cute stranger had smiled at him and made a dumb joke. Maybe Ryan would have said something if he had connected the moment to the same radio station he liked listening to during his morning shifts. He always liked the music they played. 

Not that it would have gone well. He wasn’t good at talking to people. Maybe Dylan would have told the story with the added twist of him ruining any allure with his awkwardness. 

Ryan doubted it, Dylan always seemed so nice. Not that he actually knew him beyond hearing his show. But maybe he wanted to. 

Not that he’d admit it to Laura. 

  Dylan’s little college radio project had started when he was a freshman. He’d always like technical stuff and the idea of getting paid to goof around for a few hours every morning had seemed fun. Kaitlyn had been running it for the last two years and had given a surprisingly intense interview before announcing he started the next day. The forced proximity of having to spend four hours a day had made them fast friends. 

He knew they had some regular listeners, half of his conversations at parties started with ‘aren't you that radio guy’ or ‘I know your voice’. Kaitlyn basically bullied all their friends into tuning in at least once a week and occasionally joining them. 

But now it seemed like half of campus had listened to his embarrassing rant about his crush. Emma had started calling him Romeo and it had quickly caught on. And once Kaitlyn had used the same corny nickname on air, that’s all he was known for. 

Even Mr H, the radio manager, had picked it up. 

“Remember what I said about swearing on air Romeo.” 

So literally everyone knew. 

“I brought you a coffee.” Kaitlyn practically shoved the cup at him. “It’s got oat milk.” 

“You’re being nice to me,” Dylan noted suspiciously. “Why are you being nice to me?” 

“Because it sucks to wake up at six in the morning.” Kaitlyn sipped her own coffee. “Also, sorry about not being supportive.” 

“It’s fine. I’m sure all the teasing will pass.” Dylan could only hope. “I mean it’s good for ratings right?” 

“Yeah. I keep getting suggestions to record our programme. I guess people are invested.” 

“Well I don’t have updates,” he said. His subway experience had been hot stranger free, which was probably for the best. 

“Best not to encourage it,” Kaitlyn agreed. “Come one, we start in ten, we better pick the songs. No more Mitski though.”

“She’s my comfort listening,” Dylan said. 

“One song,” Kaitlyn agreed, “and that’s only because I feel sorry for you.” 

“I’ll take it.” 

  Ryan spent most of his shifts with one earbud in, stacking books at the campus bookstore whilst a steady mix of podcasts, music and radio played. Although the latter was a new addition to his routine. 

Ryan kept listening to the station. He wasn’t sure what he was hoping for - he hadn’t seen Dylan again, even though he was trying to be more alert on the subway. He had been cataloguing all the music mostly, Max’s mention of musical soulmates in mind. 

From their banter, he could usually guess who picked which song. Kaitlyn seemed to like more pop music - she always played at least one Taylor Swift song, along with a rotation of other upbeat music. Dylan was into more indie bands. He had recognised Ryan’s Cult Damage shirt but as far as Ryan could tell, he hadn’t actually played any of their songs. Maybe obscure 70s grunge didn’t fit with the vibe of Walking On Sunshine. 

Dylan wasn’t on air today though. Kaitlyn was joined by Jacob, who had hosted last year. The two of them were making some inside joke about an old cereal that Ryan had never heard of. Whatever the punchline was, he missed completely, because he just realised why Dylan wasn’t on air. 

He was in the book shop. Ryan hid behind a shelf, which wasn’t very professional of him, but helped with his suddenly racing heart. He pulled out his earbud and tucked it into his shirt. He took a steadying breath. He considered hiding in the back and calling Laura, but Dylan had already stepped into the store and seen him. 

Judging by the carefully masked expression he had, Ryan would bet Dylan was banking on him either not remembering him from the subway or having heard the radio, or the rumours around it. Unfortunately for Dylan, Ryan remembered both incidents well. 

“Hi, can I help you find anything?” He asked. He shoved the books he was meant to be putting out onto the nearest shelf. 

“Um…” Dylan dragged it out for a little too long. “Sciences?” 

“It’s on the shelf behind you,” Ryan said. As soon as Dylan turned around, he sped walked away and stood behind the counter, tapping his nails against the plastic table. 

Whilst Dylan was browsing the books, or at least pretending to, Ryan took out his phone and texted Laura.

 I can’t talk right now but Dylan Lenivy is in the store

I might be panicking 

Ok, just remember to breathe

It’s probably more awkward for him than you 

Max says play dumb 

I don’t know

I feel pretty awkward (unsent)

 “Hey.” 

Ryan jumped, almost dropping his phone in the process. He shoved it under a pile of loose postcards and hoped Dylan wasn’t the nosey type. “Hey. Did you find everything?” 

“Yeah.” He seemed grateful for the small talk. 

Ryan ran through his books, both on some kind of physics that was so complicated he wouldn’t be able to decode the title. He went through the process of ringing him up on autopilot. There was a long pause as the till slowly spat out his receipt. 

“I heard you talk about me,” Ryan blurted out. 

Dylan went pink in the face. “Oh fuck me.” 

“Um. It was flattering I guess.” The receipt had stopped half way and Ryan punched the top of the till to get it going. “My friends keep calling you my secret admirer.” 

“It’s not exactly a secret,” Dylan replied. 

“Yeah. That’s what I said.” Ryan finally freed the receipt. “I like your taste in music.” 

“Oh thanks.” Dylan crumpled the receipt into a ball and shoved it and the books into his backpack. “I’m sorry. About objectifying you on live radio. It was an accident and like Kaitlyn said, I’m kinda a hopeless romantic. Emphasis on the hopeless part.” 

“I’m pretty hopeless myself,” Ryan said. “I didn’t mean to blurt out the whole thing earlier.” 

“It’s fine. I’m the idiot who screwed up in the first place.” Dylan finally zipped up his bag. “Okay goodbye forever.” 

“Wait,” Ryan said, before his brain could catch up. “I like you too. I mean I like your show. It’s funny. You’re funny.” 

Dylan had gone past pink and was now very red. Ryan was certain he wasn’t helping. “Thanks. I’m pretty good at putting on funny Dylan. For the show. Obviously in real life I’m a hot mess.” 

“I like hot mess Dylan,” Ryan said. 

“It’s just Dylan Dylan,” he replied. “But feel free to call me hot again. Maybe even in public, you know, to even it out.” 

“Does Dylan Dylan like coffee?” 

He blinked and for a moment Ryan was concerned he had scared him off. 

“Yes. I love coffee. With you. If you’re asking.” 

Ryan wrote his number on the back of one of their free bookmarks. “Maybe call Ryan Ryan up to ask then?” 

Dylan smiled, taking it from him. “I will. I might not even make it out of the store before I do so. Sorry, that was lame. Yes.” 

He left the store and Ryan finally let out the nervous laughter he had been holding in. His phone buzzed. There were a few missed texts from Laura from ten minutes ago. 

 It’ll be fine

Ryan? Are you okay? 

I can come cover for you if want

I can only assume the worse from you not replying 

 He deleted his half finished text and sent a new one. 

 I’m okay

I think I accidentally asked him out 

 The most recent buzz was from an unknown number which Ryan saved as ‘Dylan Dylan’. 

 nice to meet you ryan ryan <3

i will try and be normal on our date 

(it was a date right?) 

  “Okay, it’s time for our request hour. I have already been told that we’re uninvited to brunch if we don’t play Emma’s new favourite song, so let’s kick it off with Natalie.” 

With the song on, Kaitlyn turned to him. “Um, spill.” 

“Because that went well last time?” 

“We’re off,” Kaitlyn said. “You are all smiles this week. What’s it about?”

“My platonic love for my favourite co-host?” Dylan winked at her. 

“Nope.” Kaitlyn crossed her arms. “Dylan, you love telling me your stupid crushes. Who's the newest?” 

“It’s an old stupid crush actually,” he said. “My little slip up actually worked out.” 

Kaitlyn punched his arm. “And you didn’t tell me?”

Dylan rubbed his arm. “I’m telling you now.” 

The song faded out and Dylan switched the mic back on. 

“That was Milk and Bone’s Natalie for Emma. Now, next up we have a request from a certain cute guy I met on the subway.” 

[jesuscrab]

Death Stranding 2 thoughts and "analisis"

Written from school becuse im cool like that. Bitch.

(this is not gonna be formated at all so sorry if reading this will be confusing lol)

First of, something i don't see anyone mention: Louise repatriate?

After (presumenbly) beign shot by an unkown soldier, we see in a flash of red light a bb appearing in a pod - and they have angel wings, just like the baby shown previously had on her (cute) outfit

And this baby is safely confirmed as lou, as she has that emborided in her thingy too

(i would put a screenshot here but i cant get a good capture for it - sorry)

Now, the elephan in the room - fragile has lost her scars? That's really weird. There is not enough information to say why is that, but i think it's notable to note that it's implied timefall has stopped after sam "defeated" amelie, as we see normal rain falling down in the ending. Or maybe that was timefall and that's why sam's hair is gray like that... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I think hideo will just pull some deus ex machina out of his ass that fixes timefall's effects. One i came up with myself was the idea of new reverse timefall, which reverses time - seems random but so does her younger body. I just hope it's gonna be explained in some capacity.

One common theory is that it's not actually fragile and it's older lou - that's dumb and im not gonna dwell into that. Moving on...

Cultists!

I fucking love cultists in video games. Not sure why? The vibes just click for me, i love a lot of weird video game shit. Im presuming that they are tied to higgs, since the ones we see on the end look vaugley the same with the red motife, but i guess i could be wrong.

Focus on them seems interesting, since DS never much focused on terrorists. Sure, higgs was a major antagonist which was a looming threat but the homo demens AS A GROUP was just cannon fodder and we dont even really see what they... do? What is their agenda, why they did they join higgs, what do they want, exacly? I really hope this focus in the trailer means that they are gonna be a bigger part of the story. The very idea of mules and demens where so cool and i loved fighting them.

But back to the cultists themselves. They seem to worship amelie, same with higgs. he has amelie hair with a mask of her face, the group has a thingy with her visage on it.

So, after learning of exticnion enteties higgs gathers some pepole to start a group to bring on the apocalyplse as some sort of death cult. But that doesnt make much sense, does it?

In the diary of higgs after his exile he seems pretty sad and remoursfull, understanding he was simply played by amelie to fuel her needs, thiking of himself as a stupid man blinded by a stupid goal. Doesnt sound like someone planning revenge to me.

So i dont think this is higgs - at least not entirely. Kojima loves his body doubles, repeated actors and scenarios to fuck with your expecations. I don't have any theories about that, but i do think it's probablly not fully him. Becuse lets be honest, how would he escape from that beach in the first place?

Now my favourite part to think about - fragile and her crew. And their cool as fuck ship.

It's a submarine. It comes from the tar, which is stated to be infittly deep and it has a sea monster logo on it. This is so fcking cool! I hope it's gonna be like the aac in mgsv, where you can have a mobile base to plan out your operations and fast travel around the map. We did have that kinda with the private rooms, but i feel they where a bit lacking. A mother-base type ship in death stranding where you can go around, talk to characters and maybe do some side mission stuff.... im smiling at the very thoughts, and i hope this is what kojima is going for with this. That would be so fucking cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and maybe the whale dream added in the directors cut was supposed to tease this - underwater exploration. Shits cool as fuck.

Drawbridge.

"both stick and rope, to protect and connect. together, for tommorow"

This ties to the common belief that ds2 will focus more on action and combat. its not stick vs rope anymore, it's both of them together, working as tools in an union. could tie with the tagline at the end - world has been connected now by bridges, so now they have to "protect it". changing the uca into a dystopia, maybe? would be boring.

One thing i have yet to see mentioned about the logo is that it looks like an umbrella, which is an obvious fragile connection.

Oh hey sam appears here too - not much to say about him other then he is way older then he should be, but we have simple in-universe phenomana which can cause this so. not much to talk about here imo. cool he's back - where the fuck is deadman tho...

"It wasn't the UCA that made the final decision. It was APAC. A private corporation." obvusly related to one of the logos kojima teased.

I can't think of any decision the uca has made - only thing that comes to mind is the bb project, but idk, doesnt fit to me. The logo looks like a compas, which could tie into the submarine/ship shown earlier. "automated public assistance" is such mgs speak, it doesnt make sense and doesnt mean anything, what is public assistance? Like, security? Could make sense with the drawbrige thing about using protection and stick + ropes. Automated... like robots? Like the technology uca uses? It's all so vauge and not giving much anything, but the fact it's inlcuded in the picture teaser AND the trailer must mean its someting very important to the story of the game. Can't glean much else...

And that's the trailer! I think i gave my thoughts on everything in the teaser that came to mind. But now, let's hear some... baseless speculation, yippe!!!

I think kojima will be pulling a mgs2 and sam is not gonna be the main character. Well, he may be, but i think we will be playing as someone else too. Sam is older, his story is kinda finished at this point. Addition to elle manning who was fthe first person teased for the project who we have yet to appear in the actual trailer BUT was present at the VGA. With her placement on the poster pepole speculate she's gonna be older lou - its possible.

(look at her heart brithmark, appearing right in the middle of ellies name!)

But i think it very much just be that kojima was saving all norman reedus promotion for later to give a bigger suprise. But even if it's not lou i bet we're gonna play as her. Could be cool!

There where many speculation how higgs is back, i touched upon one earlier, but i liked the theory i saw about him possesing amelie. Would explain the different hair, outfit, the mask... higgs somehow got control over her and her powers and uses them for his benefit. We have so little info it's as plasubale as any other theory you can come up with.

Lou transforms into some tentacle thing, and we saw before that bts can appear as sea monsters and are ocean themed - is she becoming a bt? We kinda saw her die... kinda, becuse she's back in the pod. Eh.

I could speak about a ton of things now since i am a weirdo who has lots of thoughts, but the main thing i wanna say is higgs's new getup looks organic. Look at his odradek, it looks more like a tentacle then a robot arm- it's weird, it's lumpy, it moves very naturally... is he mutating or something? Is it the same thing that's happening to lou? Maybe beach exposare causes some effects to the body...

And that's it i guess! I could probablly say much, much more BUT this post is going on waaaaaay too long and i think i already tocuhed on all the main thoughts i wanted to addres, and the rest would be just me looking at all the extremly little details and saying "oh hey that's there. it probablly means something" and i think that type of writing would be too borning!

AND ALSO I SPENT THREE LESSONS WRITING THIS AND I HAVE A THINGY TO WRTIE FOR SCHOOL NOW LOL.

Anywya feel free to write your thoughts in the notes, i will gladdly read yalls speculation! i love reading that shit! you guys are amazing!

STRANDHEADS ROLL OUT!

[fandumb-whimsey]

So. My interest in crafting a variation of Scarecrow that leans into the "violent dancing" aspect aka turning him into more of a physical threat has also somehow spiraled into making him the leader of a fear cult. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So it all started with some dc wiki perusal and, at the mention of his violent dancing style, the page linked to the wiki entry for drunken boxing. I don't know why this is tbh, but the ideas started percolating. Now, I wouldn't apply any of the styles 1:1 to Jonathan because I don't think it'd be suitable; he wouldn't be like Jackie Chan in the Drunken Master, etc. The general conception, however, is very appealing:

It's unpredictable. Disorienting. Pretty ideal for someone who enjoys dishing out some delicious fear. But one of my fave parts:

I like the idea of him appearing unbalanced even when he's not actively engaged with an adversary. Because someone standing there looking like they could fall over is just a fun and potentially unsettling gimmick. Of course, this would also mean he has killer core strength. As much as I like ghoulishly thin Dr. Crane, this version would have muscle. He'd still be an ectomorph body type though so definitely more wiry and flexible.

Going from there, I started pondering on designs which would facilitate a more active fighter. My idea is very derivative of the Arkham Asylum version followed by TNBA Scarecrow and Arkham Knight designs for vibes. Looser/less clothing, more practical than spooky (unfortunately). My version of his mask is more horror movie to accommodate that. I asked myself what scares me and that's mortality and body horror, so some skull elements were definitely used. I'd love to go more into detail about it but it'd be better to have a doodle to go with my atomic level rambling on design choices. Initially, I veered more towards a medieval executioner feel, but it 1. was before I was like "okay but what if he had a cult" and 2. didn't mesh with the fighting thing. I guess. I kept it though since his look changes with a single article of clothing and it works with the whole life and death theme I have going. I call one look the Shepherd (has a hood, sickle with long handle as a "shepherd's crook" for weapon) and the other the Executioner (mask only, full on scythe mode). This would make more sense with drawings, though I'm not much of an artist. (Ｔ▽Ｔ) I'll still try though. Soon.

I don't know where the cult idea popped up from. Maybe it was the God of Fear comic storyline? Maybe it's all the shitty darksynth with ominous pipe organ and satanic chanting I listen to??? Anyway. The general idea is college professor Jonathan Crane would really like funding for experiments related to fear, but no one is interested. Somehow gets the idea to start some secret society (named something edgy and cool like Eye of the Crow Order) based on, you guessed it: fear! The concept would be making individuals stronger mentally by forcing them to confront their fears. And other philosophical bs. At least on the surface. Jonny boy really just wants willing participants in his experiments but shhhh they don't know that. Induction into the group would involve being injected with a weaker form of the fear toxin or something. With time, more people join in. People who want to get hit with the fear toxin again would prob get subjected to higher dosage or a more experimental variant.

The turning point is after he's fired for, you know, the whole shooting a gun in a classroom thing. He kidnaps those responsible and decides to make a spectacle of their murder during a meeting of the secret society. This causes massive division within the group and a double or nothing scenario; people who aren't cool with murder and craziness obviously bail out, but those completely devoted to the "doctrine" go all in. And so begins the era of Scarecrow and his fanatical cult following.

This version would have no need to hire thugs. He has his "flock" fully willing to carry out his vision. The most committed of them (his "Disciples" perhaps?) are probably those who volunteer for multiple occurrences of fear toxin experimentation (and live through it) which has left them a bit unhinged and probably very dangerous. These are the ones which would likely also get shipped to Arkham if caught. But yeah, the cult angle is great because it adds an element of intrigue (is this otherwise polite Gotham citizen part of his cult??) and it makes Scarecrow a bit more threatening not only to Batman and the Batfam, but to the other rogues. Can't imagine some of the latter would be very keen on dealing with zealous cult members if a team-up was orchestrated.

As for Jonathan, the whole thing starts as a front just to get bodies to experiment on but, after huffing enough toxin over the years, he starts fully believing he is the Master of Fear and deserves to be worshiped over it. ALSO. He has a nice, tidy murder of crows. He gets all of them to mimic the sound of creepy laughter and say "hroo hraa" :)

also also trying not to feel A Way at him calling his followers "lambs"

[crescentmoonrider]

People who don’t see the fascist elements in AoT aren’t stupid, you guys just can’t recognize effective propaganda

Aight, so one of my guilty pleasures for the past few months has been to watch reaction and analysis videos about AoT, by people who actually like it (I like their enthusiasm I guess)

Anyway I noticed something while watching all of this, that I think might explain why a lot of people just seem to... not catch on to the faschy elements of the show ? Or see their presence as criticism rather than support. And I thought I’d share my findings ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Warnings for : discussion of fascism and all that entails, including antisemitism, as well as detailed spoilers for AoT up to the end of Season 3. Might have some vague mentions of later events (including manga stuff), because I am aware of them even if only through commentary on them (and also reading some of the wiki because Hey What The Fuck)

TL;DR : The story of AoT is built in such a way that once you’re invested in the setting and the characters, all of the more objectionable elements end up unquestioned because you’re just too busy making sense of everything the author is throwing at you quickly, be it lore or emotional stuff, or more often both at the same time

So the thing with the fascism in AoT is that, while there are elements of it present from the very start, with the idealization of the military and the “everyone not part of the (literal) in-group is an enemy” premise, it isn’t quite as blunt as most of the tumblr posts about it I’ve seen. Not at first

The first Season (and I’m going to be referring almost exclusively to the anime from here on, one because it’s the material I am most familiar with, and two because it seems to be commonly accepted to be the “final version” of AoT) starts with what can be seen as some pretty intense criticism of the meaninglessness of war. Our protagonists’ hopes are crushed over and over by the deaths of their comrades, Eren (almost) dies (and then gets better) in front of his best friend who can do nothing but watch... the fight that has been idealized so far is shown as brutal, and nothing their training could have really prepared any of them for

The fight against the Female Titan, later, is just as brutal, with almost everyone directly involved in it dying. So, like I said, I can understand why people wouldn’t catch the faschy stuff at first. Because at that point, it’s still subtle

The celebration of the military is reserved for a single branch of it, the Survey Corps, which is deemed the only useful one by virtue of actively engaging in combat and expansionism. (We also later learn of the corruption of other branches which. We’ll get to. Don’t worry, we’ll get to it)

The amount of death is immense, and tragic, but also - it’s all part of the fascistic cult of death. People don’t die as heroes, they just die, and yet - Jean, often seen by commentators as the Normal Relatable One out of everyone, is inspired to join the Survey Corps after Marco’s death, and each meaningless death is used as fuel for the motivations of the survivors. No one quits, no one who matters in any case, no one is truly crushed by the weight of loss. Armin almost is, and so is Mikasa, but they get back up and “move forward” (and also Eren isn’t dead, that kind of helps)

I genuinely cannot remember a single character who doesn’t embrace death as a motivational force. Who goes “I’m done, I’m tired, this is bullshit”

I don’t know if there actually is such a character. A named one, I mean. Beside Floch that one time (and again, we’ll get to it). One who saw the meaninglessness of war and death and got crushed by it, and still mattered as a person anyway. If you’re “weak”, you’re dead to the narrative

So basically, fascistic elements are there, but easy to overlook

Things get more complicated as the story moves on, especially once the military overthrows the government, installs a military dictatorship, purges the parts of the military and government that opposed their coup in a very Night of the Long Knives vibe (with more uh. Artful torture let’s say), and makes territorial expansion official policy

And yes, I do mean it when I call it a military dictatorship. All governmental offices that we see are overseen by military personnel, Historia (the “legitimate” queen) is literally a member of the Survey Corps and also has no experience with governing and is basically a puppet monarch. Also the press is seen having lunch with high-ranking members of the military by the end of Season 3, including the head of the Survey Corps and Levi, the latter of which “jokingly” asks the press to write nice things

So basically, we’ve replaced one oppressive government with... well, the exact same structure, except this time it’s the good guys in power, we swear~

Back when I still followed the manga, the preparation of the coup was about the time I jumped ship. The fact that there was no criticism of it in the story and that it was seen as a universally good thing seriously put me off, especially since my family has some personal experience with military dictatorships and coups (Kissinger drop dead challenge)

Also the story was kind of dragging on, ngl

And no, I am not joking about the fact that the system remains the exact same with just the people on top changing. “The good guys are in charge now” is the way things are presented, without a drop of irony

At the same time as the coup happens (although I think the chronology is slightly different in the manga ? Whatever), we learn of the existence of Literal superior races. The obvious example is obviously the Ackermann family, who have a mental switch that just ??? Allows them to fight better ??? And who aren’t subject to the Coordinate’s memory altering powers. Speaking of the Coordinate, the royal family also has special blood that allows whoever holds the power of the Coordinate be able to use it

Two of the Achermann Übermenschen are basically the strongest members of the Survey Corps, with one of them basically the ideal anyone should strive for even though he does it all effortlessly. And yes, I know Levi is cool and badass and voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi, that’s kind of the point I’m making here. He’s an Übermensch, that’s the way the story is written

Meanwhile the royal family remains in power, unquestioned, because their blood just makes them fit to rule, which. Kind of yikes. Not exceptional for fantasy stuff, but yikes still, and not a good look given all the other stuff

This shit is Not Subtle. We’ll come back to it, but first I want to talk about the Basement, and the fight to get there

I mentioned the corruption of the other military branches outside of the Survey Corps, and we can see here the culmination of this idea : all of the brave, good ones, such as Marlo, who weren’t part of the Survey Corps are now joining the fight to retake the wall. Marlo also helped earlier during the coup, because you know. Changing things from the inside is impossible and the only way to do something for this world is to (check notes) participate in a military coup that doesn’t change the oppressive structures of power

The real corruption is that the right people (which is, by fascist logic, them, strong and capable and Superior) aren’t in power

On the same front, Floch has an understandable breakdown at the idea of dying for nothing. He ends up being the only survivor of this group. He also ends up worshiping strength, which he saw in Erwin’s devil-like behavior and the way he sent them to their death mercilessly. Floch sees death, dozen and dozen of dead bodies surrounding him, and what what he gets out of it is a necessary evil. More than that, he sees in it something with worth, something to embrace, something to worship. The ultimate good, the only thing the world can rely on to move forward

And yes, narratively it makes sense for someone to oppose resurrecting Armin instead of the commander, but also there was no reason to have him so into the death cult aspect of fascism, or to have him stick around once this narrative beat was done. Unless, of course, the idea was to give more speaking time to this part of the ideology

Anyway, people die, the wall is retaken, the basement is reached. And we learn “the truth of this world”. And. Hooooo boy. Where do I even start with this

If the titans were the ultimate out-group, Marley is the incarnation of the enemy who is both strong and weak at the same time. Marley is strong enough to oppress the Eldians living there, Marley has technology developed enough to crush anyone living inside the walls. Marley is weak and scared of the strength of the Eldians and the power to turn into titans

And the Eldians. God, the Eldians. On top of the absolutely repulsive use of holocaust imagery, complete with yellow stars and ghettos, which. Out of context is already tasteless enough, but in the context of Eldia being the master race with a glorious past that is now oppressed by weak and cowardly enemies ? Using holocaust imagery as a narrative tool to call for sympathy is just incredibly gross

Got kind of sidetracked here, but I think it’s worth saying again. Jewish deaths are not a narrative tool

But anyway, as I mentioned, Eldia is the Idealized Glorious Past upon which this story’s fascist ideology builds itself. This can be seen in the way Grischa joins an Eldian supremacy group once he decides he’s fed up with the way things are. Not a group that fights for equality or independence, but one that fights for the restoration of the Eldian empire

And unlike Eren, whose genocidal plan in the later parts of the story could be argued to be a criticism of such ideas, Grischa’s actions are just. Never questioned. No one looks at his journal and goes “Hey What The Fuck man”, even though the only difference between the Rumble and the Eldian Restoration group is, like, power level. Ideologically, they’re the same

So, with all of that said and all these honestly obvious fascist elements to the story, how come people (specifically fans of AoT) don’t see it ?

Well, here’s the thing. For each of these elements, each of these reveals and twists and turns and Hey What The Fuck do you mean the military dictatorship is fine/there are literal superior races/Grischa was a MAGA head ? For each of them, there’s something else going on

It can be an emotional thing - Erwin being in danger of an execution during the coup, Levi and his uncle having a heart to heart, whatever fucked up thing was going on in Grischa’s miserable life

It can be a lore dump, too - the Ackermann thing is sandwiched between revelations about how people can become titans and the reveal that Grischa ate the Queen (and also was eaten by Eren). Everything about Eldia is a lore dump, and then there’s some douchebag who just namedrops Armin and Mikasa even though they’re not even born yet

And it’s like. If you’re invested in this story, in those characters, it’s fucking overwhelming. Just, stuff that will evoke an emotional response, usually a negative one because there’s just so much fucked up shit happening, and information thrown at you in such quick succession that your brain has trouble following it

In short, it’s just like watching Infowars, or some alt-right video playlist. The way things go way too fast, and encourage the watcher to feel something strong, it puts the watcher into a state of almost shock, where they won’t question the sense something made, or whether a plot point or piece of lore isn’t kinda fascist actually

It’s propaganda, pure and simple. And it’s really effective

[thousandbuns]

Since you read horus heresy how much Imperium apoligism is in it. Just wondering sorry

So far I'm only at book 4 (minus "A Thousand Sons" which I've read out of order), and here are my impressions:

"Horus Rising" does a good job setting up the grounds for an extended critique of the Imperium. Lots of small "makes you think" moments culminating in the encounter with Interex - a peaceful, prosperous human-xenos alliance which is aware of Chaos being a major threat - and Horus openly asking during the war council: "perhaps the Emperor's model [of human civilization] is too stringent". Future traitors except Erebus are written with care and feel like people who'd fit in an Astartes Legion, even the more... "gun-happy" ones aren't cardboard cutouts with an angry face. Erebus has bad vibes, but isn't doing anything overtly evil (outside of secretly stealing the cursed Warp dagger from Interex and sparking a conveniently timed conflict that prevents the Imperials from learning too much about Chaos).

"False Gods" doesn't really talk about the greater Imperium outside of the subplot about the (for now secret) God-Emperor cult, because it's too busy murdering the character writing from the previous book. Everyone is an idiot, a caricature, or both. Ignace Karkassy, a poet who (after surviving a lynching by Imperial soldiers angered by his drunken nihilistic rant about the Imperium eventually having to come to an end) ends up under captain Loken's "protection", gets repurposed into a writer self-insert to creep on women and occasionally snoop around the growing anti-Imperial/Chaos-driven conspiracy - but his subplot doesn't go too far. People like to meme about Horus' complaints about Imperial taxes and bureaucracy wasting his time, but he actually rebels because of plot convenience. And also because Erebus and his pet Chaos cult show him several psychic visions, including a vision of a future Imperium's shrine world where his father and (loyalist) brothers are worshipped, yet he is forgotten, I guess. Erebus' vibes are now so rancid even Loken starts picking up on them. Overall the book still makes an "Imperium bad" statement - a very flat, weak and unconvinced one - but also deploys fascist dogwhistles (for example avantgarde/modern/abstract etc. art being seen as worthless) without a hint of irony, doesn't really follow on what "Horus Rising" set up, and makes everyone on Chaos/traitor side blatantly and downright cartoonishly evil with next to no buildup or explanation. Horus wakes up from the Chaos dagger nap and is now a total asshole. So are Abaddon and Aximand, for some reason.

"Galaxy in Flames" and "Flight of the Eisenstein" (so far) suffer from having to follow up on "False Gods" and not having 1-2 books that'd elaborate on the Legions joining Sons of Horus in Istvaan system, forcing them to either squeeze in some last minute character buildup or just not elaborate on the Legion past superficial impressions ("Galaxy..." expands a little on EC, but largely skims over WE and DG aside from bringing up Garro). They also start falling into the mold of writing heroic loyalists - Loken, Torgaddon, Saul Tarvitz and Nathaniel Garro are all brave, kind, loyal, fighting for the good of mankind - vs. nasty traitors with little to no redeeming qualities - Eidolon is an arrogant and barely competent jerk, Lucius is a jealous narcissist, Abaddon is a bloodthirsty sadist, Aximand is an obedient tool, World Eaters are only here to murder things, Typhon feels like a rehash of Erebus (bad vibes, quietly sows anti-Imperial dissent and riles up others against the pro-Imperial faction of the Legion), and Grulgor is a rude arrogant asshole and a bully. "Flight..." has me especially worried so far because it centers the conflict between "Emperor-loyal" Terrans like Garro and "Primarch-loyal" Barbarossians while making it painfully binary and lacks mortal characters who can question Garro on his belief in the Imperium being a "force for good" like "Horus Rising". "Galaxy..." isn't too far behind though because of how it frames the fast-growing Emperor Cult and its "saint" as a good, holy force standing against the "darkness" of Chaos. There could be something to be said about religion giving people hope and relief, but sadly what we end up with lines up a lot with how Imperial faith in modern 40K gets framed in marketing and codexes - as if it's a wholly separate "sacred" anti-Chaos power and not just Catholic-flavored psykery.

It's been a while since I touched "A Thousand Sons" and I'd have to read it carefully again to separate my headcanons and early impressions from the actual text of the book. Unfortunately so far my attempts were squandered by either the story beats accidentally touching some personal sore spots (Council of Nikaea), hitting me with a wave of anxiety when I was already a frayed bundle of nerves (buildup to destruction of Human Webway and Burning of Prospero), or McNeill continuing his trademark Heresy novel habit of creeping on fictional women - and in ATS it specifically sets off a major trigger for me. Anyway, from what I remember the book is kind of... mixed on that front - on one hand Thousand Sons are fighting a losing battle to appease the Imperium which despises them on principle ("the more they know about us, the more they'll hate us") and many of Magnus' flaws are also the Emperor's flaws, but on the other I got the impression that the book is a little too happy to slam TSons for "abuse of power" and arrogance in a kind of... fash-dogwhistle-y ways. Like "your reliance on your powers makes you weak and soy, you should be a strong violent macho soldier who detests convenience and only cleans his gun with his hands", or "knowing too much about psykery is bad because you may as well be dabbling with Chaos and consorting with daemons without realizing it". The same kind of narrative that people will invoke to unironically claim that human spirit is so weak and easily tempted that it needs a dystopian tyranny and aggressive propaganda to be kept "strong" against "corruption". Y'know, another fash dogwhistle.

Tl;Dr: it starts off good enough, but then "False Gods" hits the second tower and everything falls apart. It may get better later, but I'm not going to read all the Heresy books. I also hope Graham McNeill grew and changed a lot since 2006-2009 because Jesus fucking Christ.

[littlebigmouse]

TMA MAG52 round 2 and also so many theories.

I would have put this in the reblog of the previous post but it uh, got away from me, and the cork board needs its own post.

As I was listening to the story of Robert Montauk, murdered in the dark, it occured to me that this reminded me of the case were a girl's roommate joined a cult - I don't think any lightbulbs blew in that episode, but I think the roommate kept screwing them out, so maybe they would have? Either way. Darkness cult. Robert Montauk got murdered after a visit of a supposed old colleague (if I remember right, Robert's daughter said the guy claimed to be a detective, no?). Montauk somehow got away with 40 murders and didn't have a job for months, if not years, during his killing spree. Which sounds to me like he had help. The episode about his daughter made it sound like the Rayner guy was the boss telling him to kill people, so I assumed Robert was more or less coerced into committing the murders. Which he could have still been, but also given that there was this weird pendant that showed up with his missing wife(?), I feel confident in assuming that Robert was also part of a cult, telling him to kill people, and helping him hide the deeds, either by financial support or cover ups or both.

Then he stabbed an unidentified heart and was probably dropped by the cult, if Rayner's "Did you think you could kill it for long?" (which also, uhm, helllooo???) was any indication.

How he managed to keep his daughter out of the cult is anyone's guess, but that's probably why they had leverage over him in the first place.

So there's this cult. And it commits murders in the dark. And it has showed up in multiple episdoes.

And suddenly I realized how deep that stupid rabbit hole goes. I think I remarked in the middle of season 1 how I'm surprised how many stories ended up connected or relevant to the current plot, but I am only now realizing that it's probably FUCKING ALL OF THEM.

I can probably assume that all the fear factions have their own subplots, but I am unsure how easily seperable/how entertwined these are. I have attempted to name and assign the fear factions to different episodes, usually failing, until now, where we have a clear motive of "getting murdered in the dark", or probably just, "the dark", which is a common fear, so I feel confident with this one (well, and serial killers and cults I guess, but hence the overlapping part, and by inability to assign episodes to categories).

What I can do, however, is group episodes that seem (clearly?) connected, and I will do this properly, with references and all, some other time, but until then, my random stabs in the dark: Robert Montauk's death, his daughter, the darkness cult that that one roommate girl once joined. Potentially related to the girl who got lost in a non-existent graveyard following the rudest encounter with a family at a funeral, mostly because I got cult vibes from the family and both supposed cults met at a chapel, if memory serves right.

Graham and his stalker, the table, Not-Sascha (who seemed to relate to Graham's replacement, so, you know, that's practically confirmed), also the ornamented weird vase that one antiquities dealer tried to get rid of? (the pattern descriptions were similar to the table, I think), which may connect to Salesa, who's also showed up in several more episodes, so he's probably the middle piece there. Or all these subplots genuinely end up forming one giant interconnected story by the end in which case I will scream and seek to buy the board that founded that plot, because it's juggling more pieces than the FMAB finale, my god.

The house on Hill Top Road (?) with the worker who tore down the tree, the priest who ate people and I think the nurse who experienced hospital heat and met Gerard Key Gerard Key and the Leitner books and all cases relating to those Jared the bone-melter(?) who had an encounter with a Leitner and proceeded to melt people's bones, possibly related to other meat-y, gore-y or otherwise body horror related stories, like the one with the guy who kept finding boxes with body parts he then lost, who I think also encountered Salesa?

I swear I remember Jon and Martin had a conversation about the delivery man from episode 2 (feat still my fav survivor through sheer apathy, never change bro), going along the lines of "Can you describe the delivery man" - "looked like delivery man" - "Why does everyone say that" but I cannot remember what they delivered and in which episde, but yeah, these guys.

SImon Fairchild and the guy who almost drowned, Simon Fairchild and the guy who was eaten by the sky, the story of the ship with the antisocial crew that had a member go missing when a sailor discovered their cargo as emtpy, which did not mention Simon Fairchild but I'll go out on a limp here and just assume he has something to do with that one too. I mean, how many ship-related horrors *are there*, really.

Jane Prentiss and everything related to her, potentially tangentially related to Mikey Scissorhands, who helped Sasha that one time, but is probably a more seperate thing, since he made a Real Estate Agent disappear and also Jon got trapped in similar tunnels beneath the archive. Also potentially related to that one cave diver that got lost in a cave system for days and lost her sister? I'm very wonky on that episode, but you know, the difference between total darkness and a tunnel is the light at the end of it, so.

Potentially related to Michael, since her body was found in the tunnels - Gertrude Robbinson, and ... yeah I'm gonna be real I have no idea what she has to do with anything except that one guy who prophecized her death in early season 1 and made Jon freak out about it.

I realize there are many more statements I haven't connected yet (the murder piano, the homeless vampire hunter (miss him!), etc pp, but I'll rest my case for now.

Happy to note that aside from the obvious attack on the institute and the unsolved Gertrude murder, none of the main characters (besides Not Sascha) are clearly involved in one of the subplots. Yet.

[calciumcryptid]

can you tell us more avout the Classverse? I'm invested already

The Classverse is the name of my first ever super hero universe that followed the more traditional comic trend of making individual heroes with their own mythos and bringing them together to combat a greater evil.

It is named the Classverse because it was originally younger me making my classmates into superheroes because why not, but it sort of spiraled into its own thing.

When my iPad died I actually lost a lot of shit to the void, so I had to rename every single person due to forgetting their civilian identities because I haven't touch this universe in years.

However, I also have a Google doc that has other notes which boils down to me making my own superhero family and the order of the stories of the universe. Which goes as follows:

I do not remember what some of these are, but here are the ones I do know.

Rattus: Billionaire's mother got fucked by a genetically enhanced rat so billionaire now turns into one when the sun goes down. He has had a good time escaping parties before the sun starts to set, but demon traps him at a party which causes him to transform and gain the reputation of a hero for fighting the demon.

Mask: Previously mentioned demon is actually the personal bodyguard of the princess of hell, and she has to track down a cult of demons who want to dethrone the monarchy in order to go to the old ways of free range haunting.

Sea Urchin: Business Woman's girlfriend gets posessed by a demon who is a part of the previously mentioned cult, and controls mirrors and illusions so business woman uses family's ancient water powers to defeat her.

Jackal: This was the one Burnum Hayes stars in as Jackal was his original vigilante moniker, forgot how it was supposed to go but demon causes unrest so he needs to take demon down.

Thunderbird: Aspiring actress gets electrocuted in a freak accident on set which causes her to gain electric powers, so she uses them to take down a demon that is causing chaos.

Wombat: Police officer in Brazil needs to track down a serial killer that turns out to be a demon.

Demonic Panic: The big team up where they all end up uniting to take down the demon cult. They end up making a hero group except it is a more keep in contact if things go south again.

Rattus Druidic: I don't remember much about this one to be honest, I just know that Rattus' best friend awakens powers and becomes known as Deer Tick by the others because- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sea Urchin Family Ties: Business woman digs into family history and discovers an old superhero organization but upon tracking down the last few living members she learns that her aunt who she has idolized for her entire life was not a good person... like at all.

Sea Urchin The Organization: Business woman remakes the organization and hunts down other superpowered individuals to join.

{ That was the end of like Phase One if you wanted to keep these arcs separated. }

Silver Mage: Magic exists now, and she knows everything about it.

Amazon: Amazons exists now, and she is the last one of them and sort of in love with Silver Mage.

Sea Urchin Iron: Business woman has a hit out on her in her hero form so they have to take down an assassin but learns assassin is mind controlled introducing her to Escort. Sea Urchin meets Silver Mage in this one and learns about mental magic.

Tigress: Modern day Robin Hood does not want to join hero network... basically gets strong armed into joining hero network.

Organization Tigress: Part two where Tigress resigns themselves to working for the fucking hero network they didn't want to work for. The assassin is back, and vibing now that they are no longer being mind controed.

Mask Hunted: Mask (demon princess) is being hunted by an assassin who works for Escort, assassin is a fellow demon who wants to overthrow hells monarchy... because chaos I guess.

Mask Mysterium: I honestly don't remember. Judging by the title alone, I think this was supposed to be when mirror demon comes back so a crossover between Mask and Sea Urchin.

Jackal Wild Dogs: Wild Dogs are formed, which was the original name for Burnum's team.

Thunderbird Rising: Mask wants to flirt with Thunderbird but she's not the only one interested. Thunderbird unlocks new amounts of power and kicks ass and ends up dating Mask because the other dude tried to get Mask to compete for Thunderbird's love but Mask actually respects Thunderbird so she refused to do that. Oh, and Thunderbird's best friend is now a furry.

Thunderbird Heaven: Hell exists, so does heaven and this is when I reveal that Thunderbird is a white woman named after Native American mythos and to add insult to injury she is secretly an angel and heir to heaven. I'm so sorry, there is a reason I'm rebooting this universe.

There is so much more then that such as the Rogues, the Periodics, the whole Dragonblood Saga, three alien planets with one of them based around Zodiacs, and much more.

Now take everything I just told you, and throw it the fuck out the window because I am still rebooting and writing new stories.