#i might add more to it later i don't remember what else i meant to add to this

[deathdxnces]

i know i joke about irelia being willing to look away from kayn's murder business, but i honestly think that's what she's been doing about the yanlei as a whole for a while now. because we know they are an Issue for a bunch of people, the vastaya but also the monks and honestly whoever stands in their way at all, but there's no indication they've clashed with ionia's ruling council and their representatives — and while we don't know who is part of the council other than irelia and karma, i think given irelia's interactions with zed and kayn in game being the one about finding redeeming qualities in them, and her interaction with zed in lor being the 'pledge yourself to the shadows' 'noxian tyranny has already forged our bond', i think it's made pretty clear irelia doesn't have as much of an issue with the order of shadows as other 'good' ionians do.

i think it makes a lot of sense because whatever terrible things they're up to, she knows ultimately they mean to protect ionia (and that the yanlei were some of the only ones to take a stand the first time, as well). zed is considered honorless and evil by most but i think that's not what she'd think of him, because irelia understands being willing to do terrible things for the sake of their homeland. she didn't have to (yet), but i do think she feels very certain she would if it came to that. i think she respects him more than most people who aren't part of the order, even if she doesn't agree with all of the yanlei's methods.

which extends to the order as a whole, regardless of and even before any relationship with kayn. and which leads me to the willfully looking away and letting them do their thing mostly unbothered — i think that's the result of several things, but it can be summed up as irelia thinking that's the more benefitial course of action in the long term. i think she'd believe what resources they have to face threats and keep ionia safe better employed against the leftover noxian forces, and that even when it comes to dealing with ionia's inner problems, she'd sooner turn her attention to the brotherhood, considering they're much more extreme than the yanlei. but i think it's also... not wanting to make enemies of the only other faction she's mostly certain would ally with her to defend ionia. because, as is always relevant to point out, irelia never truly completely left the war behind. even when others are at peace, she's preparing for war again. and i do think she sees the yanlei as likely allies more so than a threat to be dealt with.

of course the usual disclaimer applies, it's my take and my portrayal etc etc. but yeah i think whoever is part of the council, it's very likely the rest of them aren't as willing to use violence, even to deal with dangerous groups (karma is certainly reluctant, and she is still the greatest religious leader in ionia). irelia, of course, doesn't deal with things like that, but she's not interested in turning her blades against the yanlei. so they're mostly left alone when it comes to the council taking action against them in any way.

and i'm not saying she's right or anything, i think it's just one of the many things that highlights how flawed she is (and how ruthless she can be, as well, if it's to protect ionia; because ultimately she is willing to let them get away with harming other ionians to some extent :/ ). but yeah irelia expects absolutely nothing useful from the kinkou, and she knows not all of the monks would want to join the fight, and she knows the yanlei aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. so she definitely sees them as possible (and likely) future allies, regardless of how unsavory some of the things they do might be.

and when it comes to kayn specifically i think it's just worse lmao because on top of all that there's the personal bond and the loyalty and devotion and the fact there's. very little he could do she'd not stay by his side regardless, even if she doesn't like it/disagrees with it. she can criticize, but ultimately she'd stick with him. and it's not like she didn't know what she was getting into from the start. he was an assassin and he was part of the order already; it's part of why she sought him for an alliance. she wouldn't really turn around and expect him to change or condemn him for what he already was.

the tldr is while i don't think she's willing to do what they do or act like they do or get involved in kayn's murder business most of the time (there are exceptions), she's very much prone to not taking issue with it, both because of her views on the order as a whole, and because of how she feels about kayn specifically. it's not a good look, i know, but it is the way it is aksjnfkfn

[meowzfordayz]

when you wear baggy clothing — kyojuro, sanemi, muichiro

Author’s Note: friendly reminder to be kind toward yourself. 💓 Easier said than done, ofc, but you deserve it❣️

when you wear baggy clothing — kyojuro, sanemi, muichiro

Rengoku Kyojuro x Reader, Shinazugawa Sanemi x Reader, Tokito Muichiro x Reader

Word Count: ~1,000

CW: implied body insecurity, mild sexual content

Emergency Request Fulfilled: Hey, so I'd like to ask for a Emergency Request of Sanemi, Rengoku and Muichiro (if you want you can add anyone else) with an S/o that is very Insecure of their thighs and always wear baggy things on their legs no matter how hot it is because they just don't like them.

~faqs, image~

“Would you like to change?” Kyojuro asks, “It is quite hot out today!”

“Is there something wrong with my outfit?” you raise an eyebrow, quickly backtracking as alarm races across his expression, “I’m just teasing!” shaking your head with a fond smile, “I know what you meant.”

“I am relieved!” he exhales loudly, almost pouting as he watches you put on your shoes, “I would never ask you to change like that.”

Chuckling patiently, you pucker your lips, giggling as he squats down to kiss you, “I know, Kyo. I love you.”

“Let me,” he hums contently, gently nudging your hands aside to finish tying your laces, “Your outfit is wonderful, by the way.”

“As is yours,” you wink.

“I really am fine with waiting,” he tries again, “If you feel like changing,” standing up with a soft grunt, “Your comfort is my priority.”

“I’m comfortable,” you answer simply, “Thank you though.”

“If something else is on your mind,” he says abruptly, hesitant to approach the aching suspicion in his chest, “Then,” sighing as he mentally shelves the subject for later, “Then please remember that I care about you.”

“How could I forget?” you murmur, linking your pinky with his, using him as a counterweight to stand up beside him, “I’ll be alright.”

And though Kyojuro ultimately believes you, he still finds himself silently promising to love you better — to press your perfections into your skin, fingertips warm and trembling, until even you can no longer doubt their truth.

“You’re going out in that?” Sanemi scoffs.

“Piss off,” you snort, smacking his bicep, “I like this dress.”

“Aren’t you afraid of tripping on the hem?” he smirks, “You might need taller shoes.”

“My shoes are just fine.”

“And if you trip?” he drawls.

Blinking pointedly at him, you shrug, “You’ll catch me.”

“But watching you fall on your face would be much funnier,” he promptly quips.

“Are we done talking about my outfit?” you scowl, “We’re missing all the sunshine bickering in here.”

“So let’s bicker outside,” he winks, “Maybe I’ll toss in a compliment once I’m warm enough.”

“Oh yes, because you’re a plant who becomes much more agreeable after soaking in X amount of sunlight.”

“Your legs aren’t gonna tan,” he quips, opening the front door for you.

Eyes rolling, you pat his chest in thanks as you walk past him, exhaling softly as summer air caresses your face, “Sanemi, the last thing I’m worried about is tanning my legs.”

“And the first thing?”

“None of your business,” you retort without thinking, delayed panic setting in as you realize There’s no way he’s letting that slide.

“My love.”

You nearly wince at his lowered, serious tone, refusing to turn around, almost certain he’s glaring thoughtfully—or worse, staring softly—at you.

“What are you worried about?”

“This doesn’t feel like bickering,” you mutter weakly.

“You can always wear sunscreen,” he says slowly, “No need to resort to tripping hazards.”

Relief floods your lungs at the delicate humor in his voice, dress twirling gently as you carefully meet his inquiring gaze.

“Maybe I want you to catch me.”

“I already warned you, watching you fall on your face would be much funnier,” arms crossing as his jaw tenses slightly, “Whenever you’re ready, I’m here to listen,” continuing smoothly before your panic can flare again, “For now, know that you look amazing,” cracking a wry smile, “And I’m grateful I get to enjoy your beautiful, untanned legs.”

“Would you actually let me trip and die?” you answer breathlessly, tears pricking the corners of your eyes at his intuition and patience.

Laughing roughly, he waves a nonchalant hand, “If it looked like you were gonna die, then of course I’d catch you,” raising a smug eyebrow, “But chances are you wouldn’t die, so who knows…”

Despite his teasing reply, the moment he offers you his elbow, a sarcastic yet attentive glint in his eyes, you know better  — Shinazugawa Sanemi will always catch you.

“Why are you wearing those?” you raise an eyebrow, gesturing at Muichiro’s grey sweatpants, “It’s like, a hundred degrees outside.”

“Because you are,” he shrugs, offering you a faint smile, “We’re cute when we’re matching.”

You poke his shoulder with a snort. He doesn’t budge.

“Y’know what’s not cute?”

“What?” he deadpans.

“Both of us melting into puddles.”

“So you’re allowed to be a puddle, and I’m not?” his head tilts.

“I don’t want to be a puddle,” you huff, arms crossing good naturedly, “But it’s better like this.”

Nodding slowly, his eyes narrow with confusion, “What’s better like this?”

“Never mind,” you sigh, reaching for his hand, nose scrunching happily as his fingers immediately intertwine with yours, “We’re gonna be late.”

“I’d like to resolve this first,” he replies, tone frustratingly smooth, “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to change,” you explain patiently, nudging him with your elbow, “After all, we are cute when we’re matching.”

“But I feel like you don’t want to wear sweatpants,” Muichiro retorts, stubborn as ever, “So why don’t we match in shorts instead?”

“Don’t like them,” you mutter quickly.

“You could wear mine? They’re longer, more baggy, more comfortable,” he assures you, brow furrowing, “Because I’m absolutely not putting on booty shorts.”

Giggling quietly, the tension between your shoulders lessens, his oblivious consideration easing your nerves, “We don’t have to match.”

“But I want to.”

“Fine!” you exclaim, eyes rolling playfully, “Let’s go change into shorts, your, shorts.”

“And for the record,” he murmurs, dutifully following you as you tug him toward the bedroom, “Just because I refuse to wear booty shorts doesn’t mean you can’t.”

“I know.”

“And I know we don’t have to match,” he pauses, affection warming the back of your head as he gazes fondly at you leading the way, “But I want you to know that I support you and your fashion choices, no matter what.”

He might be somewhat off the mark, but his sentiment calms the butterflies in your stomach nonetheless, voice soft as you respond carefully, “Thank you Muichiro. Me and my fashion choices appreciate you very much.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too. Now let’s put on some long, baggy, comfortable shorts!”

[icaruskeyartist]

Part 2 of this from the time loop au

It won't let me reblog and add another read more. Stupid imo.

@pillowspace I'm tempted to write some major hurt next but idk if you would be comfortable being tagged in that.

You're dangling several feet off the ground, rotating very slowly in a circle. Below you, the arcade machines look like multi colored tiles, the carpets erratic 90's pattern (sure this place may be 80's themed, but those patterns scream pre-grunge early 90's) rendered mute by the distance.

What's scarier though is the drop to the next floor down. You got yoinked at the edge of the stairs, so the tips of your shoes poke past the safety bannister. If you fell...

"Brat." Moon's voice crackles on the word. He jerks you higher, into the safety of the rafters as the DJ drags his massive form over the machines, pushing open the bathroom doors with one hand to feel inside. Instinctively, you cover your mouth with your hands, your panicked breathing sounding loud even to you.

Moon shakes you a little and you find yourself staring directly into the red LEDs of his eyes. That smile is ever present, but he looks less a jester and more a predator. A cat, crouched and ready to pounce. You've seen a cat catch a mouse before. You hadn't ever thought what it'd be like to be the mouse.

"Are you going to drop me?" You finally managed to ask, hands still over your mouth. Moon's head rotates, just a little too much for it to look like a human motion.

"No," he finally says, and that's a small relief. "Should put in time out. Naughty naughty brats belong in time out."

"I'm not naughty," you protest. Moon's silence is incriminating. "Okay, it's a little bad to be here after closing but. But..." You hesitate. "I'm trying to help you." It wasn't a lie. It wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't a lie.

"I don't need help," he snaps back, lifting you higher. Your stomach sinks, and for one second you're convinced he's about to fling you to the ground. Instead, he sets you on one of the rafters, releasing your sweater at last.

You grab at the metal girder, heart thumping hard against your rib cage. "You do though. Don't you want to see the kids again? Like before?"

There's no response, and your fingers are starting to hurt from how hard you're clinging. Below you, the DJ is moving, searching for you. His music is thrumming in time with your heart. Or maybe it's you adjusting to it, trying to find a new rhythm after Moon scared you out of your old one.

"Moon?" You want to reach out, but that meant letting go. Trusting yourself not to fall. Trusting him. Do you trust him?

You wobble a little as you let go, leaning into the empty space. Moon flinches away, a hand raising, but you still brush your fingers over his faceplate. "Moon, I am your friend," you insist. "You have to know that. You have to."

How do you explain that you know him, that you've met him three times already, and you know how to save him. Save Sun.

"You're the assistant," he says, and the growl is back in his voice. "You're my replacement. Not a friend." He pulls away from your hand, and then he's gone, zipping away, towards the atrium. Leaving you stuck in place as the music dies down, your eyes starting to itch.

Several loops later, you won't remember the terror of making your way back down to the arcade, fighting tears so you could see where you're going. The fear will be wiped out by exhaustion and pain, emotional and physical, experienced over and over. But for now, right now, this might be the most painful rejection in your life.

Because it's Moon. And you know him. You know he's not truly malicious, that there's something wrong. And he has to know too. Why else did he save you from the DJ? Why else is he not currently hunting you down as you make it back to the ground and walk on shaky legs to the elevator? He knows you're a friend. He has to.

By the time you make it home, the sun is starting to peak out from the horizon. You pull your curtains in your bedroom, collapsing into bed without taking your shoes off. And finally, you let yourself cry. You cry, burying your face in your pillows, curling up tight. You cry, and you think distantly of fictional characters who get trapped in time loops too. What sort of monster would dream of a world like this? To repeat the same thing over and over, only to fail time and time again. Being the only one who remembered.

You fall asleep slowly, and when you wake, it's well past noon. Your body feels heavy, your eyes crusty. There's the start of a headache, medicine withdrawal. It's been over 24 hours, and your body is warning you. Your ear hurts. You find your hearing aid, dead, buried in the sheets. You put it on the nightstand to charge.

When you check your sweater, you're not surprised to find some of the yarn had been stretched out of place, frayed and torn bits where Moon's fingers dug in. You'd have to fix it before your next shift. The kids loved your sweater, found it as safe and secure as you did.

Your Fazwatch is dead too. On the charger it goes, cell phone next. There's a text, but you don't bother checking it. You know it's work, asking you to come in today. You had, twice before. You slept through it today.

It's after you shower and you're toweling off that you notice the bruise on your shoulder. You touch it and wince, remembering hitting the arcade. You hadn't expected it to still be so tender. Maybe the warm water did something? You look at it better in the mirror, catching sight of your face. You look tired. And paler than normal? You poke at your eyebags, squinting, trying to remember what you looked like before this started happening.

Maybe you shouldn't go in tomorrow.

[glitchy-anime-fan]

This might be just me, maybe I’m missing something, but I feel like some people who criticise EPIC!Odysseus for killing an infant but drawing the line at sleeping with Circe might not be taking into consideration how literally every event Odysseus has face since Troy has affected him as a person and how much guilt he’s continually facing.

To preface; THIS IS NOT ME HATING ON OTHER FANS!! I’m not trying to bully anyone or make fun of anyone, this is just something that has been in my head and I need to rant about it. This also only pertains to EPIC’s depiction of Odysseus, not any other interpretation of the character/story!

[minor grammatical edits made on 2/25/2024)

I saw a discussion on here the other day where the parties involved were talking about the changes made between the original Homeric story and EPIC. One of the main points of contention that I remember was how one of them said it rubbed them the wrong way that Odysseus was fine with killing an infant but didn’t want to sleep with Circe. I can totally understand why this may be an odd choice of morality to make, however, we have to keep in mind that the Odysseus from the Troy Saga is VERY different than the Odysseus in the Circe saga. Troy Saga Odysseus appears to be far more confident in himself and his plans; one could even argue that he’s a bit cocky. As stated by Odysseus in the ocean saga, NONE of his own men died in the battle which would add to Odysseus’ confidence and pride. This is vastly different than the grief stricken Odysseus later in the story, but more on that later.

Now the infant scene in question doesn’t necessarily set in stone Odysseus’ moral/ethical code; one could say the situation itself is an ethical dilemma (a problem with no one right answer). Odysseus is told by Zeus, king of the gods, that if he doesn’t kill Hector’s baby than Odysseus’ entire family (perhaps even kingdom) is in grave danger. However, Odysseus doesn’t make a decision right away, I’m mean the entire second song of the saga is Odysseus mulling over his options; kill an infant or risk his families safety. Neither option is preferable and I think “Just a Man” is meant to show that Odysseus isn’t a man who would readily kill a child, no questions asked, just because he was told to. In “The Infant and the Horse” Odysseus is ready to comply until he discovers that the “foe” he’s meant to kill is an infant. I mean, he literally pleads with Zeus to give him another option;

[ODYSSEUS, ZEUS]

I could raise him as my own (He will burn your house and throne)

Or send him far away from home (He'll find you wherever you go)

Make sure his past is never known (The gods will make it known)

I'd rather bleed for ya, down on my knees for ya (He's bringing you down on your knees for ya)

I'm begging please

Oh, this is the will of the gods

Please don't make me do this, don't make me do this

This part alone shows that Odysseus is, in fact, NOT fine with killing a child. Again, the second song in the saga is Odysseus going over his options and even asks for forgiveness when he finally makes his decision. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t think someone who’s okay with killing a child would ask for forgiveness. In this situation it’s very likely that Odysseus made the choice to protect his family and kingdom above all else, which I feel like is a valid choice in this situation. Odysseus was told, by a god, that him and his family would be killed should the baby live, I highly doubt Odysseus at this point was readily willing to try and call Zeus’ bluff.

It’s also not like the action didn’t affect Odysseus later. Again, I’m sure someone who wouldn’t have a guilty conscience about such a heinous act would ask for forgiveness. Similarly, two songs later in “Open Arms”, Polites brings up Odysseus’ guilt at the end when he says “I see in your face, there is so much guilt inside your heart”. Odysseus is clearly guilty about what he’s done, once again reinforcing that he is not “okay with killing an infant”. You can also pick up on it in the way Jay sings Odysseus’ songs following “Just a Man”; Odysseus seems to be more distracted or distant likely due to the shock of his own actions.

Similarly, we have to take into consideration literally every new traumatic incident Odysseus is faced with between the Cyclops and Ocean sagas. In the Cyclops Saga, Polyphemus kills a large number of Odysseus’ crew which would make this the first heavy loss Odysseus’ army would have faced since the war. I can imagine that this loss would have been a huge blow to Odysseus’ pride given the fact that none of his men died in the war. Similarly, since Odysseus is their captain and king, it’s fair to assume that Odysseus may see the deaths as his fault adding to his guilt.

Not only does he lose many in his crew, Odysseus also loses his best friend Polites which greatly effects Odysseus throughout the rest of the musical. In “Keep Your Friends Close” when the crew is scheming to open the bag of wind from Aeolus, they say “Everything's changed since Polites,” referring to how much Polites’ death not only effected Odysseus but also the crew. Odysseus becomes more and more closed off and distrusting which makes sense since it seems Polites was the one that mainly pushed Odysseus to be more open. This is another death that Odysseus can tack onto the growing list of reasons his guilt is eating him alive.

Side note: Odysseus also looses the support of Athena, his patron goddess following “My Goodby”. Athena has been someone who we can assume (given Athena’s story during “Warrior of the mind”) has been guiding Odysseus since he was a child so, even if Odysseus is no longer happy with Athena’s view on being a good warrior, it likely hurt him on some level to loose her. We have to keep in mind; Odysseus also thought of Athena as a friend not just a goddess and has thought this way since he met Athena. If we assume that Athena and Odysseus have never had a fight this bad until “My Goodby” then I think it’s fair to say that the outcome of the fight would negatively impact Odysseus. He may be too prideful to admit it at the time, but I can only imagine how awful it would feel to loose the support of a friend and patron deity at the same time.

I think one of the biggest blows yet for Odysseus comes during “Ruthlessness” when Poseidon and/or the Laestrygonians sink and kill everyone but Odysseus and his immediate crew mates (as in, the crew on Odysseus ship as apposed to those on the other twelve ships). As I mentioned earlier, throughout the ten years Odysseus and his army were in Troy not one of his men died. This changed when they faced Polyphemus, and only worsens when Poseidon attacks. Odysseus goes from having a crew of 600 (at the start of the musical) to 43 following this attack. Not only does he loose nearly all his men, it’s directly Odysseus’ fault it happened in the first place. Poseidon tells Odysseus directly that they “totally could have avoided all this had [Odysseus] just killed [Poseidon’s] son”.

Had Odysseus just listened to Athena at the time and killed Polyphemus, there would have been no one left to tell Poseidon about the attack; the god likely wouldn’t have known. Likewise, had Odysseus not let his hubris get the better of him and not told Polyphemus his full name, even if Poseidon found out his son had died or was left blind, he wouldn’t have known who did it. The whole situation is directly Odysseus’ fault and Poseidon is very clear in letting him know that. This obviously is going to add to Odysseus’ guilt exponentially since this time it truly was his own actions that lead to this scenario. Not to mention that had Odysseus just apologised, Poseidon might have been gracious to the crew.

Now there’s no saying what that would look like for Poseidon, maybe he would have only sunk one or two ships or maybe he was lying, who knows. The main point is that Odysseus was given another chance to get out of this peacefully, but he can’t swallow his pride long enough to say “I’m sorry”. Odysseus instead tries to talk his way out of it and Poseidon isn’t having it; this is another instance of Odysseus’ actions resulting casualties. All of this happens before the Circe saga mind you.

So let’s review all the instances that would be causing Odysseus guilt so far:

He’s been forced to kill a child to save his family and kingdom

He’s lost his best friend and a chunk of his crew to Polyphemus

He’s lost the support of his patron goddess who he has also seen as a friend since childhood

He’s lost 90% of his crew (give or take) due to his own actions

You cannot look at this and tell me that it would not greatly affect your mental health in any way. Odysseus is being weighed down by an immense about of grief and guilt as the story continues. It gets to be so much that in Puppeteer Odysseus tells Eurylochus that while he would like to leave Circe’s island, he can “hardly sleep now knowing everything [they’ve] done”, directly referring to the guilt that keeps weighing on his mind. By this point in the story Odysseus is so wracked with guilt that he would rather risk his own life to save the few men he has left that add anymore to his guilty conscience.

I see this as one reason why Odysseus rejects Circe’s advances. Odysseus went to save his men who were transformed because he already can’t sleep and doesn’t want to add any more guilt onto his mind. Do we really think he would change this stance just so he could sleep with a goddess? The thought of cheating on Penelope would likely cause Odysseus just as much guilt as leaving his men. This situation poses a similar dilemma to the very beginning of the story; Odysseus can either comply and free his men or not. In this moment Odysseus is in a lose-lose situation, however, he doesn’t let that stop him from trying to essentially create a third option that doesn’t add to his guilt.

And he’s successful this time.

Unlike he pleaded with Zeus, is seems that for one reason or another Odysseus is successful in pleading with Circe; he is able to create a third option for himself and his crew. He’s able to create a reality where his remaining crew survives and Odysseus doesn’t add anymore to his guilt.

Again, this is not about the original story, or other interpretations, this is solely based on what we know from EPIC. In short; Odysseus pleaded and begged with Zeus not to make him kill Astyanax, to give him a third peaceful option but failed. Odysseus is given a whole song about his own moral struggle in the options given to him and is then haunted by the guilt of his actions. He is then faced with the death of his crew due to his own actions, becoming not only a point of further guilt but also a shot at his pride. Odysseus looses Athena’s favour and looses Polities. While Odysseus may have begun to cave to Circe, I believe it was ultimately his love for his family and his desire to not add to his guilt that made him reject Circe.

Odysseus was never okay with killing an infant, he felt guilty likely from the moment he made his final decision. By the time he meets Circe, Odysseus would rather attempt to talk his way out (something that hasn’t actually worked till now) than add to his guilt. I’m truly not sure what I’m missing that, in the context of the musical, this isn’t obvious. Maybe it’s because I’m taking EPIC as its own story and not a one-to-one with the source material, who knows.

Sorry this got really long, I just needed to get it out somewhere before it plaques my mind anymore. Once again, I’m not trying to hate on anyone or bully anyone, this is just my own opinion on the matter!

[ceescedasticity]

Unforsaken, 11d

(All sections on tumblr)

(AO3, lagging behind but more polished)

While Glorfindel talks further to Eluréd-and-Elurín/Alphsîr-and-Alphlîn and Celeborn hovers awkwardly to the side, everyone else finishes setting up camp and tries not to gossip too obviously.

A top matter of discussion is why Eluréd and Elurín are using different names.

Risyind figures they wanted to use different names to suit the different lives they were taking.

Khitwê suggests they might have thought someone would react to the "Elu" negatively, as he gathers their namesake is somewhat… contentious?

Legolas says Thingol isn't that contentious… but if they didn't want history and politics following them everywhere, well…

Zuste says she was just assuming they couldn't remember their original names.

Oh right peredhil may not experience elvish clarity of childhood memory.

Elladan and Elrohir (and Arwen) actually have very elf-typical early childhood memories, or at least feel like they do. How much that's organic and how much that was helped along by family and community patching up any holes is impossible to say at this point.

Which is to say, both Celeborn and Glorfindel know about the peredhil childhood memory thing, but they don't know know about it. It may not have occurred to them. Elladan figures someone should probably remind them later.

(Sharlinnu thinks automatically forgetting infancy sounds like a pretty good deal at this point but elects not to bring it up and inevitably derail the conversation.)

Gimli as well as the Hirnedhrim had no idea that elves did remember their infancies. Gimli and Zena would like to be able to remember; Zuste and Dyn would not.

"—And I'm surprised you do, Zena. What are you expecting to remember that you would want to?"

"Maybe I want to know if Dielina is telling the truth about baby you biting everyone you met."

(Dielina is five years older than Zena, who is three years older than Zuste. The goblin-men of Dunland mostly came in runs like that — three to eight inside a decade or two, then longer gaps. …While the Fair Orc was busy being dead, apparently.) (There were, of course, a number of older yet siblings around to raise them, at the time. They're just all dead now.)

Elladan steers the conversation onto safer (if irrelevant) ground by starting to recount all the biting Dúnedain children he had Elrohir have met over the centuries.

(The Sons of Fëanor do not say anything.)

(In addition to not wanting to attract attention, Celegorm really doesn't have anything to say.)

(Maglor knows knows about the peredhil childhood memory thing, having been witness to Elrond and Elros realizing they had lost things. They tried not to make a big deal out of it, especially in front of him, but. He knows knows.)

(He also knows that two small children focused on each other will not, necessarily, use each other's names enough to be well reminded of them.)

(Maglor is quite sure they don't remember whose name was whose.)

(He is saying nothing.)

*****

Elladan and Elrohir make the nightly palantír-call to Arwen as quietly and unobtrusively as they can, and report the confirmed arrival of their great-uncles. Swan-uncles.

"They don't seem to want to talk to anyone right now," Elrohir says.

"They don't seem to particularly want to be here," Elladan adds. "I don't think they would have come if Caraxitári — the Queen of the Geese — hadn't pushed them to."

"I think she's hoping they'll… re-acclimate?" Arwen offers.

(Re-imprint. The Queen of the Geese is hoping they'll re-imprint on the correct species.)

"I'm not sure whether there's any chance of that if they don't want to…"

When the conversation dies down, Gimli comes over to see if he can talk to Aragorn for a few minutes. He needs to share Celeborn not only calling Gimli a 'hero of the last war' but calling Gimli's people 'staunch allies'.

"Did he mean my people at Aglon? Erebor? The Line of Durin? Longbeards? He can't have meant all dwarves—"

"Honestly I think he was probably just trying to emphasize that they could trust you specifically…"

Meanwhile Zena is, by popular Zuste and Dyn's request, retelling the story of That Time Four Of Our Siblings Went Up To Those Marshes Where The Border-River Meets The Greyflood And Had A Survival Horror Experience Involving The Local Swans.

****

Glorfindel gets as far as showing Alphsîr and Alphlîn what it looks like when he gathers his power in order to apply it. He's starting to talk them through the process when one of the Geese circles overhead.

"That's Caraxitári," Alphsîr says. "She means it's time for us to sleep."

He still sounds very stiff and awkward but that is definitely disgruntlement.

"If you're living like swans that does make sense?" Celeborn offers. "Would you like to overnight here, or return to the Geese?"

"…We'll stay," Alphsîr says finally.

They turn back into swans, and settle themselves in the grass.

After a while they fall asleep.

Celeborn sits down right where he was standing. "What's the strongest thing we have to drink?"

Glorfindel: "…Sorry, but we didn't think this was the sort of journey that would allow for alcoholic indulgences."

Glorfindel is not saying: Also you and Maglor between you have polished off at least half of Imladris's remaining liquor stores since this whole thing started and I might want some of that at some point, did you ever think about that!

Celeborn: "Legolas Thranduilion. Do you or do you not have a few skins of Mirkwood moonshine somewhere in your baggage."

Legolas: had not realized Celeborn knows about that

Glorfindel: "If you're hung over tomorrow I'm not explaining it to the twins. Either twins."

[chenziee]

Fly, little bird (away from everything)

Written for the wonderful @opmarcozine! So happy and honoured to have been able to take part in this project 💙

I wrote one more fic for the digital add-on which is much, much lighter than this ahaha If you fancy yourself some silly pineapple flambe and jealous kittens, stay tuned for later this week! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Last chance to grab yourself a copy!

[ READ ON AO3 | KO-FI | COMM INFO ]

—————

The one time the Whitebeard Pirates had visited the Land of Wano, it was a peaceful and beautiful country. Marco still remembered the lush forests of Kuri, could smell the aroma of the giant koi being grilled over fire, could hear Kin'emon scolding Oden for wanting to leave. It was a great place; the stories Oden, Inu, Neko, and later Izo had shared with the family were all fun and happy.

With the isolation policy, they all assumed the country was still the same. That Oden had made his way back to the country after Roger's execution and was now busy being a terrible Shogun—having more fun than governing, giving Kin'emon and Denjiro grey hair while Toki did nothing but encourage her husband.

They had no reason to think there was anything wrong with their brother (or uncle?) and his country.

But then the news reached them.

Watching Pops' almost permanent wide grin freeze and eventually disappear was never a good sign. Honestly, a skirmish with some stray Beast Pirates who thought picking a fight with another Emperor was a bright idea wasn't a good sign either but Pops going from relaxed to shocked to angry was in a league of its own.

"What's going on, yoi?" Marco asked as he rushed towards the group dealing with the mess.

When Izo turned to look at him, Marco startled at the sight that met him. Izo's lips were pressed into a thin line, his jaw clenched. His brow was furrowed so deeply that his carefully applied make-up was creasing and the look in his eyes was… full of fear.

Marco took a deep breath, his gaze darting between Izo's twisted expression, the looks of anger on his other brothers' faces, and Pops, who had stood up to his full height with Murakumogiri in hand, his grip tight as he glowered at the pirates in front of him. Haki was vibrating in the air when he finally spoke up, his voice resounding around the Moby Dick with a commanding tone that would make even the greatest Neptunians quiver.

"Kaido's ruling the Land of Wano? What's that mean, squirt?" he asked.

"Exactly what I said," one of the Beasts said, voice full of fake confidence even as he visibly shook in fear.

Dead silence followed his words. Everyone could imagine what it meant.

Carefully, tentatively, Marco raised his hand, placing it on Izo's shoulder. When he didn't immediately shake him off, Marco squeezed lightly, hoping to remind his fellow division commander that he wasn't alone. Marco wasn't sure if that was enough… but he didn't know what else to do for him right then.

It seemed like a pointless question when Pops demanded to know what happened to his little brother; Marco was sure they could all imagine Oden's reaction when he had learned Kaido put a pawn on the Shogun's throne and took control of his homeland. Oden might have hated the isolation policy but he loved his country and its people.

Letting go of a shaky breath, Marco tried not to imagine what Oden's last moments might have been like. He simply squeezed Izo's shoulder tighter.

The man stood still for a moment longer but then he finally shook Marco's hand off and stepped forward.

"What about the retainers? What happened to them?" he asked, voice carefully measured.

"The castle burned down. There's no way anyone survived," the Beast answered after a reluctant pause.

Heavy silence settled over the deck before Izo turned around, his coat swishing behind him as he walked away. No one dared follow him.

"Toss them overboard. I don't care what happens to them," Pops announced, sitting back down in his chair to signify the matter over.

Marco didn't wait around to see Jozu leaving their lives in the mother sea's care. With one powerful wave of his wings, he rose up high to the air, soon leaving the Moby Dick behind as he shifted into full phoenix form and took off to nowhere in particular.

It was moments like this that he was grateful to his devil fruit. The ability to just up and leave when he wanted to clear his head or just needed a break—that alone was worth the threat of drowning in a puddle. Maybe he should take Izo up here once the gunman sorted out his thoughts.

Once Marco sorted out his own.

He wanted to go back; he wanted to go to Pops and demand they turn the ship around and go to Wano to free their family's country, to get revenge… But he wasn't stupid. He knew it was impossible—not without putting countless lives in danger and not without the World Government getting involved. After all, this wouldn't be just a matter of two rival crews fighting amongst themselves. This would be an open war between two Emperors.

It was simply not going to happen. Pops would never agree and Marco himself wouldn't easily make that decision. Maybe if Oden was still alive, if they were sure Izo's sister was alive… it would be different. But as it was, there was nothing to gain, Marco knew.

He knew, but that didn't stop him from wishing they could just go and do it.

And so he merely waved his wings, rising higher still.

—————

­­Looking at the large stones in front of him, Marco wondered if it was possible for tears to run out. It had barely been a week since Marineford, the wounds still fresh, still tender, still so damn painful... and yet, Marco's eyes stayed dry now. They stayed dry despite the cold, hard reminders within an arm's reach; reminders that he would never again hear Pops' laughter, never again find Ace sleeping on top of his own medical records and setting them on fire.

It almost felt like the gravestones were mocking his inability to cry anymore.

It didn't come as much of a surprise when quiet steps approached him before a delicate hand came to rest on his shoulder.

It took a long time for either of them to speak, time filled with mutual understanding and mourning for the ones they had lost. But finally, Izo's soft whisper was carried by the breeze to Marco's ears. "Thank you for being here."

At that, Marco snorted. "Shouldn't I be saying that in this situation?"

"Maybe. I just wanted to say it," Izo replied, his tone lighter but every bit as serious as it was before and Marco's shoulders sagged.

"I'm sorry. This is the second time we let your family die," he muttered.

Izo clicked his tongue, letting go of Marco's shoulder to instead whack him over the head. "Shut up. Neither what happened in Wano, nor this was your fault. We all did what we wanted in the end. Including Pops and Ace."

"I know," Marco sighed. "It's just hard, yoi."

"It is," Izo agreed quietly, his hand landing back on Marco's shoulder to give it one last squeeze.

Marco huffed, a small smile finding its way to his lips for the first time in days. "Thanks, yoi."

"You know where to find me," Izo said before he took a step back.

Marco briefly wondered whether he was that predictable or if Izo was simply that perceptive but he decided not to dwell on it. He let his arms be engulfed in blue flames that soon formed into fiery feathers—soft, warm, and familiar, turning his arms into powerful wings which could carry so much weight… but which still couldn't carry the future of the crew.

But if he let them… maybe they could at least carry the guilt and leave it somewhere far above in the clouds. Maybe turn it into rain to replace the tears Marco couldn't shed anymore.

"I'll see you later," Marco only said before raising into the air, Izo's nod nothing but an afterimage as he took to the air, just like he had done years ago after they had learned about Wano’s fate. Just like he had done countless times in the past few days.

As he rose up, higher and higher, he was surprised by how much lighter he felt now; it was like he was leaving behind not only Izo and Whitebeard and Ace’s graves, but also a large portion of the weight that had been sitting on his shoulders for days—months, really; ever since Thatch was killed—and which had been keeping his wings from spreading fully.

It would probably never go away but maybe, just maybe… it would become easier.

And he would never have to take to the air to mourn ever again.

—————

As he soared through the skies of Wano, Marco couldn't help the wry smile pulling on his lips. What a naive wish he had made two years ago.

There was no one to comfort him now; no one to squeeze his shoulder and smile encouragingly. Izo was gone, just like Pops and Ace and so many others.

But Marco… kept soaring.

[forestshadow-wolf]

[Long Post] the rewritten zombie au post (part 1)

Tav Journal - Alpha

Sanity log 1:

Something happened a few days ago, we're not sure what to call it yet. People have gone mad, it's a miracle that all four of us made it off base alive. To be honest I'm not even really sure what went down. That's why im even starting this, so I can keep it all in order. I think I'd much prefer a verbal log, but with the way things have gone I think this is more logical since devices have limited storage and usually aren't water friendly. And in any case wilderness survival training in boot taught how to make string from plants, and I went down a rabit hole af few years back on how to make books from scratch, so I know how to do that. The only problem would be finding things to write with, but there's probably an easy solution.

I've never done this before, I'm not really sure where to start, but I guess the beginning would be good.

The beginning felt like ages ago to me, so I'm a bit hazy on the details. Ghost says we were in his room watching a movie (note: it might be good to start getting the others side of things too, not sure for what, but maybe it'll be useful later). And then I think we heard lots of noise, screaming maybe, or just a stampede perhaps, I know I definitely heard a gunshot. We opened the door to see what the hell was going on and ,honest to god, the halls were packed fulled than I've ever seen them, with a moving hoarde.

After that it gets much clearer. Kinda. Ghost pulled out a go bag from, I don't even know, and the knife he keeps under his bed. It was like he was prepared for something like this, he was so fast (though I suppose if you go through as much shit as he has then you learn to stay prepared, I guess). He pushed me us out the window, and then we were running into the woods. Well ghost was running to the woods, I was following ghost.

He shoved us down under the shrubbery and the just laid there for, I don't even know how long, but it must've been a quarter of the day easily. He started peaking his head up when the sun hit the tree line, at this point we still have no idea what's up with gaz and/or price. I think ghost had us wait another hour or two, until it really got dark, before we actually got up. And then we're apparently heading to the armory, remember, I'm still just following ghost at this point.

Ghost hands me one of the tac bags and tells me to load it with whatever ammo I could grab. The bags are meant to hold guns, so there's a lot of space to fill up. Honestly I hardly even looked at it all, I just started tossing stuff in. Ghost was filling up his own bag of whatever gun was compatible with the rounds I was grabbing. (Side note: the base is only allowed to keep a certain amount in the armory at a time, so I grabbed it all). He also, apparently, grabbed 2 sets of the combat knives, which he would hand later to me once we got off the base.

After that we went to the cafe, loaded up on food. I wonder if ghost knew what was actually happening or if he was working off of instinct? We got off base after that, Wandered until night fall. Wandered most of the next day as well. Ran into price and gaz as the sun was setting.

There's more to add. A lot more. Important details I skipped to get the main points down. But we're moving on early tomorrow morning, I took watch last night, so I need sleep tonight.

"Hit the hay, Johnny, we're moving gone as soon as the sun's up"

"Aye, right on it, LT. Don't get too borded without me." He gave the man a mock salute, to which he got an unimpressed look. He settled with his head on his arm and let his eyes fall shut.

If soap woke up in the morning a little earlier that price and gaz so he could cuddle with ghost... well that's neither here nor there.

"I think we're crossing the city today, so... you know... expect trouble." Ghost says quietly.

"Cans 'n' gum? Or something else?"

"Maybe pick up a bag or two. Gotta be extra careful though, I think price said he saw squatters when he was out scouting with with gaz yesterday."

"Zombies ghost. Brain eating zombies, like the dumb movies." Soap giggles.

"Fine. Zombies." Ghost humors him with an exasperated sigh at soap's antics.

[hassedah]

Can you do a headcanon about a female! MC wearing a corset because she thinks she's too chubby, even though she isn't, and she thinks so because she doesn't have the perfect hourglass figure

MC wearing a corset because she thinks she’s too chubby :

Hi! How are you? I hope you are well! ^^

Here is the headcanon you asked for. I hope you enjoy it! ^^

Have a nice day and take care of yourself! ^^

Vladimir :

He understands how you may feel in some ways, he has never really appreciated himself physically, finding himself sometimes too small, sometimes too thin or not muscular enough and especially not manly enough. Other boys often try to reassure him about his concerns, but this always fails, he is convinced that they are saying this to please him and that they don't really mean it.

However, he found it a little difficult to understand why you were wearing a corset in the first place. He even assumed that it was because of some back problem you might have had. So when you told him it was to hide your shape, he was a little slow to understand what you meant.

He knows that his mother and sisters wore them so he knows very well how a corset works and he also knows very well the risks involved if they are too tight. Movies and TV shows always exaggerate a lot when they make their character put on a corset - You don't have to feel bad about it, let alone feel suffocated.

He really doesn't understand what you don't like about your body. You are very pretty, although he has no idea how to tell you that. In fact, he wishes you could see yourself as he sees you. The first time he saw you your beauty took his breath away.

At first, he tries to be subtle about it, but he can't quite get to the point and you find it very difficult to understand where Vladimir is going with this. After all, he knows that words that are meant to be kind can sometimes hurt more than anything else and he doesn't want to do that to you.

In the end, he ends up discussing the subject more frankly. He will not try to stop you from wearing your corset, nor will he try to convince you to stop wearing it, because he knows that it is not always easy to accept your body with the flaws you may find in it.

But he absolutely wants to reassure you, to tell you that he thinks you are beautiful. That he never tires of looking at you. He doesn't really know how to help you appreciate yourself, but he will do everything in his power to make sure you do.

Béliath :

Compared to most people, he has very little insecurity about his looks. Sometimes he doesn't like a few things about himself, but then seconds later he remembers that he's so handsome that men and women all fall into his arms. So he thinks better of it and goes back to enjoying himself. He didn't realise how lucky he was until he started living among humans and saw how many of them don't like each other physically.

When he first saw you in your corset he thought it was to style you, after all gothic, baby-doll, steampunk and Victorian fashion uses a lot of corsets in their outfits to add a little finishing touch to their look and he himself wore them for many years in the Victorian era and during his gothic period in the 80s.

Besides, succubi generally like their bodies. In any case, he never heard his mother or sister criticize them for it. This is one thing that disturbed him when he came to live among humans, all those unspoken standards of beauty that he had never heard of and that humans seemed to hold dear. So it takes him a little while to make the connection between your corset and the impression you have of being too chubby.

From that moment on, he will do everything he can to convince you that you don't need that corset to be beautiful. He is a professional at teaching people to love themselves, frankly. He loves bodies, especially other people's bodies, and he'll be able to explain to you at length why he thinks yours is beautiful. Seriously, he's ready to write a thesis on the subject with Powerpoint, intro and conclusion. If anyone ever said anything different to you, then that person is wrong, you are wonderful.

However, he doesn't immediately jump into a debate with you about it. He has already tried several times with Vladimir and Ivan and has seen what an abject failure it was each time. He is thinking of taking you shopping with him instead,  he knows that his taste in clothes is not unanimous, but he is sure that he can help you to appreciate yourself in this way. 

Ivan :

He's never been very sure of his looks either, so he understands how you might feel. It's even worse since he's been living with the other boys. He doesn't have the muscles of Aaron, the bewitching charm of Beliath or even the grace of Vladimir and Raphael. He has the impression of being a banal guy, not even handsome and it's always quite hurtful when he looks at his reflection in the mirror. He would like to see himself more muscular, taller too, most of the time he tries not to think about it but it's difficult, especially at Beliath parties when he sees the guests being attracted to the other boys like magnets.

So he immediately understands how you feel when you tell him you don't like your shape, even if he doesn't understand what you're blaming your body for.  And he goes on a rant about people trying to convince you that what you feel is not real. You don't get up one morning and not appreciate your nose, your hips, your eyes or even your hair and it's not easy to fight the feeling that something is wrong.

However, he doesn't know how to help you get the idea out of your head. He knows that he won't be able to convince you otherwise just by telling you that he thinks you're beautiful. Words are not enough when you are not sure of your body. He knows it himself, Beliath and Aaron keep telling him that he is beautiful and yet he still doubts it.

If he wasn't so afraid of hurting someone's feelings by going into town he would probably offer to go shopping with you. Instead, he will listen to you talk about how you feel about it and try to reassure you as best he can.

He is really careful about what he says so as not to hurt you, because he knows how hard some words that seem harmless can be when you don't appreciate your body.

Aaron :

He had a little trouble with his scars at first. He could see that sometimes people looked at him with fear and suspicion or simply looked away at the sight of him. It took him some time to accept some of them and especially to dare to wear T-shirts despite all the scars on his arms. He knows he doesn't give that impression, but he was really insecure at the time and would have preferred to disappear rather than let such scars be visible.

The first time he heard you talk about this it took him several seconds to put himself in the context of the 21st century and its standards of thinness. Clearly, he finds it very difficult to understand what you are blaming your body for. The physique of his partners has clearly never been a selection criterion for him, simply because beauty standards change too much from one society and one era to another and he would much rather get along with his partner than have to change him every time his physique is no longer "fashionable".

He doesn't really know what to say to reassure you about this, if you are so keen to wear corsets he won't try to stop you. You do what you want to do and if it makes you feel good about your body, he would think it cruel to tell you not to do it.

But he will worry if you tighten it too much.  You risk injuring your skin or more important organs such as your liver, kidneys or spleen.

He will also reassure you every day that he thinks you are beautiful. It's important for you to know that for him, you don't need a corset to be more beautiful - you are already beautiful no matter what.

Raphaël :

A bit like Beliath, he never really had a problem with his looks. He has always thought he was rather handsome. Although he knows that he is a bit too skinny and small for today's beauty standards, he doesn't care. This is probably because he has never received any harsh criticism about it and even when he has received criticism his friends have always been the first to defend him and assure him that he is handsome.

Moreover, painting taught him to appreciate all types of bodies and he liked to represent them in all their forms and in all situations without taking into account the standards of beauty which are only social norms, far too changeable and restrictive to be taken into account in her eyes. One day you have to be plump and the next day you have to be slender. One day you have to be tall and then short, with blue or brown eyes, one day you have to have thick eyebrows and the next day thin ones. It didn't matter to him then and it still doesn't matter now.

It is therefore very difficult for him to understand your fears when you tell him about them. For him the only reason you don't like your shape is that people around you have simply not complimented you enough. They didn't care enough about you, because if they had, they would have seen that you were beautiful.

He wants to help you regain your self-confidence and ignore that negative view of your own body. He will tell you every day that he knows you are beautiful, he doesn't need to see you to know that. He could talk to you about it for hours and in the end it's quite comforting because Raphael is perfectly sure of himself.

Ethan :

He only started to doubt his appearance after he became a vampire. Even today, he is still quite uncertain about this and having Beliath as his best friend doesn't help, of course the incubus has never criticized him on his looks, but Beliath has the body of a Greek God compared to him. It's not for nothing that he can't hit on people as well as Béliath does at Moondance everyone is only attracted to him. And he knows that you only really see him when he's not there. And he's not talking you about his hair! It took him many years to come to terms with them, before that he hid them under hats or did many colours to get his original shade.

The first time you told him about it he rolled his eyes and didn't really listen. This hurt your feelings a bit and you didn't try to bring it up again. He didn't mean to be mean and unpleasant though, but he doesn't always know how to react to reassure people about their looks, he's only surrounded by Apollo after all.

He comes back to you a few days later, however. He knows perfectly well all the problems that a corset can bring and frankly he would prefer for your health that you do not wear one. He will not stop you from wearing it. He will make sure that you know everything you need to know about it, such as the fact that it should not be worn at night or several days on parade, and that it should not interfere with your breathing and your movements. 

It's also an excuse to chat with you. Even if he never feels as beautiful as Beliath, the number of times the incubus has complimented him on his appearance has helped to reassure him a little. And if he knows that he won't be able to convince you that you are much prettier than you think, he at least wants to assure you that he finds you beautiful.

Neil :

In the course of his life, he went through different phases and did not always appreciate himself as much physically as he would have liked. Most of the time he found himself too skinny, especially around his wrists. Then there was his hair, which lost its colour as he got older, of course he was happy to be old enough to lose the hair colour he was born with, but he also had a hard time adjusting to it, even though now it has become one of the things he likes most about himself. Things got much more complicated after he got out of the cellar. He was already not muscular enough for his taste before he went in, the worst moment being when he looked in a mirror for the first time since the death of his jailers. He almost didn't recognise himself, and it took a long time before he dared to look in a mirror again without wanting to break his reflection.

So it's quite easy for him to understand how you might feel. However, he is not good at talking about sensitive issues, let alone being tactful.

But he's willing to give you advice, especially so that people don't suspect what you really think of yourself. He doesn't know how else to help you, because even though he does everything he can to make people think otherwise, he doesn't like much about himself since he got out of that bloody cellar, and his main aim is to make people think he has no weaknesses they can exploit.

In other ways he will compliment you a lot. He doesn't want others to be able to exploit your fears, but he also wants you to know that he thinks you are much more beautiful than you might feel. He knows that building strong self-confidence is the best way to face the eyes of others without fear of rejection or criticism and he is willing to help you with this.

[onepunchcatboi]

A Newbie Guide to Tanking

HALO~

I make this guide in the hopes that it helps out new players to Final Fantasy XIV, as the in game tutorial is um, bad. (-｡-;

I also included a general etiquette guide, because when it comes to working with other players, a lot of these things you don't pick up unless someone tells it to you.

Suggestions welcome! However, remember that this is meant to be a general beginners guide, so I'm not likely going to add in anything that's specific to a single /dungeon/raid/boss and such.

Everything under the cut!

Basic Tanking and How it Works

Part 1: How to Pull

As the Tank it's your job to make everything in the room hate you the most! That way they punch your extremely durable face instead of everyone else's more squishy ones!

You do this by creating what the game calls "Enmity", aka the stat of creating enemy aggression, or "Aggro". There are three steps in which the Tank must do this.

PUT YOUR STANCE ON Your stance is the thing that makes the bad guys turn their heads and go "Oh! You're a mother fucker!". You will generate enmity just by having it on. This is called a different thing depending on your job: Defiance [WAR], Iron Will [PLD], Royal Guard [GNB], and Grit [DRK]. You click it once to put the stance on, click it again to turn the stance off [there are a few instances you may need it to be off, they will be explained later]. It's important to put this on because if it's not, no matter how much you attack, other players WILL take aggro and get hurt.

USE AN ENMITY GENERATING SKILL Unlike some other MMOs your mere presence does not make the enemies incensed enough to fully ignore your party members, you must encourage them to hate you and only you! You can do this in a couple ways. There is the Provoke skill, which has the longest range. All Tanks also have a ranged skill which works similarly to Provoke but slightly closer distance and slightly less enmity, Tomahawk [WAR], Shield Lob [PLD], Lightning Shot [GNB], and Unmend [DRK]. [While they are fun and look cool, none of the skills that rush the enemies actually generate enmity] Using one of these once is enough to piss off a group or a boss.

ALWAYS BE ATTACKING Enemies in this game are drawn to the player doing that are doing two things at once: generating the most enmity & doing the most damage. This is important to remember! Because even if you have your stance on and you use an enmity skill, if you are not also attacking with all your might, the enemies will think you are all talk and start attacking your DPS/Healers instead! If you are fighting a group of enemies [and that is more often the case] make sure you are using attacks that are going to hit multiple enemies at once. These are called Area of Effect or AOE skills.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE DONE ALL THAT-look at the names of the enemies. There should be a little red square next to them, indicating that they are focused on and attacking you. If they are not, don't panic! A few things could have happened:

You might have just missed one

Your Healer used a Regen skill as you were engaging, and enemies just hate that.

Your DPS is doing some bonkers damage to start pulling enmity, good for them!

Regardless of the why, you can either use an enmity generating skill, or just hit them really hard a few times, and they'll be pissed off enough to turn around and hit you instead!

[and for reference, green circle means they are not focused on you at all, and yellow triangle means that your face is beginning to look punch-able!]

Part 2: Managing your Damage

OK, now everyone in the room wants you dead more than they want your DPS/Healers dead. Excellent! Now you move to Step two: STAY ON YOUR FEET. You are made to take all the blows from the enemy and laugh at them! It's time for MITIGATIONS.

All Tanks have several mitigation skills [or "mits"] that they can use to either reduce the damage they take from enemies, reduce the amount of damage their enemies are doing, or temporarily negate damage altogether [only one of these per Tank Job].

Ideally you want to be spacing these skills out, rather than using them all at once. These skills have a longer recharge time [or Cool Down] than your attacking skills, so if you use a bunch, you will more than likely end up halfway through the fight with nothing to shield you but the Healers skills and the speed of your DPS. ALSO, mitigations have a soft cap, that is to say, the game will only allow you to negate so much damage at one time. So at most you can use 2 of these skills at once while still effectively negating damage, anything past that goes to waste.

Now there are too many mitigation skills to go through all of them individually [most are unique to their Tank Job], I encourage you to read all your skill descriptions and get familiar with them. But I will touch on a couple Role ones and the full damage negation ones.

Reprisal: Great for groups and bosses, it will reduce the damage enemies do to your party

Arm's Length: This is not advertised as a mitigation from it's description, but it is in fact quite helpful for large pulls. Because every enemy that hits you [physically] will have their actions slowed by 20%, which means less time hitting you, and more time for the Healer to do their work.

The full damage negation mitigations are great! But a couple of them can be risky to use, and require your healer to be paying attention. They also have very long Cool Downs, so they're meant to be used sparingly.

[PLD] Hallowed Ground: You're impervious for 10 seconds, have fun.

[WAR] Holmgang: You will still take damage, but cannot be taken down past 1 HP for 10 seconds, and also root the targeted enemy in place.

[GNB] Superbolide: This will negate all damage for 10 seconds, BUT it will also take you down to 1 HP.

[DRK] Living Dead: You will still take damage, but your enemies cannot take you down past 1 HP for 10 seconds. HOWEVER, if while using this mit you would have been killed by your enemies, your Healer now has to heal an amount of points equal to your HP points in a limited amount of time, or you die. So say your HP is 5000, and you use Living Dead, and you would have "died" while using it, the Healer now has you heal you for at least 5000 points [within 10 seconds], or you die .

Some tanks like to use simple macros that announce when they are using the Superbolide and Living Dead mits in particular, to give their Healers a heads up. This is up to player preference.

Every so often a boss will decide they've had enough of you kicking them in the shins and will try to get you in one blow. This is called a Tank Buster and will be indicated by a red targeting marker on you [red circles around your character and a red arrow pointing down on them] coupled with a progress bar. Stay calm! So long as you have a mitigation to use when you see it coming, everything will be fine. The Healer will know to be watching your health. Some will of course hit harder than others though, so if you're worried or low on health use 2 mits to be safe!

Part 3: Stunning Enemies & Interrupting Attacks

Now you've got the enemy right where you want them and you're weathering their blows- but oh no! They're preparing to attack the party anyways! It's a huge AOE too. What do you do? You give them the finger and then kick them in the balls! [partly true, most of the time.]

Most enemies in the game have both an auto-attack, and attacks that can be stopped in some fashion by specific skills. There are two different ways to stop an attack, you can use a skill that will Stun the enemy [Tanks and Melee DPS], OR you can Interrupt it [Tanks and Ranged DPS]. Stun and Interrupt are not interchangeable in their use.

So! How can you tell which attacks can be stopped by players? They are the attacks that have a progress bar, showing the enemy has to charge them up before they are actually used. The normal progress bar indicates an attack that can be stopped by Stunning the enemy. For Tanks this is the Low Blow skill [also the Shield Bash skill for PLD]. The flashing progress bar indicates that the attack can be Interrupted. For Tanks this is the Interject skill.

Keep in mind that both these types of skills will also have longer cool downs, so you cannot spam them. This means sometimes you might have to be strategic about when you use them, as some attacks will be more dangerous or troublesome than others. HOWEVER, not all enemies can be stunned, and enemies that can be stunned will become impervious to it after a few uses. You cannot stun bosses period.

You And Your Healer

You may be the biggest baddest person in the room now, but you are not a one man show, and you certainly cannot stay alive without your Healer! Your mitigations can only do just that-mitigate, in the end you have to rely on the Healer to help keep you standing.

You and the Healer are partners in this system. You have to make sure that if you are going, they are following close behind. If you decide to pull a ton of enemies around the corner, your Healer now has to run around that corner first before their spells can effect you.

Most Healers are going to assume you will run and grab all the enemies you can, but if you're finding that you and your Healer are struggling to keep the party alive, you need to tone down your pulls! If the Healer tells you that they are new, or straight up asks you not to full-pull, be considerate of that! Remember, while they have their eyes on you often, they are charged with keeping the whole party alive too! Literally in their case lol

General Tank Etiquette

Dungeons & General Tips

As the Tank it is your job to protect the party and make sure you are the only one taking damage. This also means you set the pace, and lead the group into every battle. This is because it is much easier to pull enemies to you if you are the first thing they see, and are the first to attack. Most players will follow your lead and wait to attack after you have done so. Mostly. So! It's good to remember that your comfort level is important. Go at the pace you feel works for you, let people know you are new if you are worried. Most other players are understanding of this! Many are willing to explain mechanics even!

Additionally since you are the leader, most players will expect you to run in first and generally to keep running until you've decided you've gathered all the enemies you feel like pulling. But! Don't leave your party in the dust. You need you DPS to kill all the things you pulled and your Healer to keep your ass alive X'D

Remember to check that your stance is on before you run in! Most times when you enter a dungeon or a raid its turned off at the start, even if you had it on when you were in the field.

Also, while not a hard rule it's generally advised not to do big pulls in early dungeons anyways [like, Lv 40 or under]. This is mostly to do with the amount of enemies in some areas versus your mitigation options and your Healers healing options. Often at this stage there is simply not enough of these to go around between you and your Healer, and a big pull can sometimes result in a party wipe.

Whether engaging a group of enemies or a boss, common courtesy is to run through the enemy and tank them from the other side [or if you're out in the field, attack from the opposite side of the other players]. This rotates the enemy so that they face you and not the rest of the party, making it so no one else is caught in the majority of enemy attacks. [You do not prevent damage from happening to others by standing in front of them, so attacks can go through you and hit other players, this is called Cleave]

Generally speaking it is also best to keep enemies in one place and facing the same direction as best you can. This makes it easier for the DPS to do their job [especially if they are using casting skills] and easier for the Healer to keep track of you.

Many of the melee DPS have a thing usually referred to as Positionals, meaning they do more damage if they strike enemies from the flank or from the rear. When possible it is good to position bosses so that they can do this, and reposition bosses out of harmful terrain for the melee DPS to strike without harm to themselves.

Speaking of that, do not stand in bad things or perfectly dodge-able attacks! You might be the Tank, but you don't need to tax your Healer while you're at it. They have to worry about other people too! One last note on movement and control of enemies: generally speaking it is also best to grab all the enemies you feel comfortable with and then stay put until all of them are dead, rather than pull a group and kill some and moving to the next one. It might seem like you are saving time by advancing slowly, but in actuality you are making everything harder for everyone else. This is because this forces all the other players to stop and start their actions constantly, which is bad. Why? Because now your melee DPS are having to chase after enemies they are trying to kill [meaning they are only hitting them half the time], and your DPS casters/Healers basically cannot do anything until the party stops again [because they have to stand still for 95% of their actions]. In the end it it more effective to stay until all the enemies are dead!

When it comes to the Limit Break [or LB], you as the Tank will almost never need to touch this button. The Limit Break is usually something the DPS will use to make a big attack on the boss, or in the case of a boss/raid not going well, the Healers can use a Limit Break Three/LB3 [when you have three full Limit Break bars] to revive the entire party. Thus far in the core game encounters, there are only a couple specific cases that utilize the Tank LB 3, and that will not occur until the ShadowBringers Expansion.

Provoke is not part of your attack rotation! If you have used an Enmity skill once in the fight, especially if you opened with it, you will not have to use it again to keep the enemy on you. While using Provoke consistently is not a big deal if you are the sole Tank, it is a bad habit to get into, as it will become a problem in situations where there are multiple Tanks.

Raids

In a Raid, be it a 8-player one [Normal Raid] or a 24-player one [Alliance Raid], you are not the only Tank on the field, making things slightly confusing and sometimes chaotic lol

When you are all facing mobs of enemies, all Tanks should have their stance on to ensure none of the Healers or DPS get hurt. Sometimes the mobs are spaced far apart when you find them, and its easier when Tanks work together to bring them in. Sometimes you may notice your Enmity being pulled, it is [hopefully] the other Tanks.

When you are facing bosses, generally the first Tank to put on their stance and engage the boss is now the Main Tank:

If that is you, cool! Have fun tanking boss!

If that is not you, DO NOT turn your stance on and try to provoke the boss away from the other Tank. That is rude. Keep your Stance off so you don't draw Enmity, you are now the Off-Tank and play the part of a beefy DPS.

If you are an Off-Tank, DO NOT stand next to the Main Tank to attack the boss. This makes you vulnerable to being Cleaved from boss attacks and unnecessarily overtaxes your Healers. Off-Tanks need to be attacking from the flank or the rear with the other DPS.

Main Tank is the Main Tank until they die.

Off-Tanks, if inclined, can help bring any extra enemies that appear on the field to the Main Tank so they do not have to move the boss around. This is helpful to the group because they can now attack all enemies together at the same time, rather than in small pockets. In this case it's okay to Stance On to get the enemies and then Stance Off so the Main Tank can take them.

IF the Main Tank dies for whatever reason, [one of] the Off-Tank[s] must put their Stance on and take control of the boss, they are now the Main Tank.

Some raids will also require Tanks to switch control of the boss off to each other, require Off-Tanks to manage their own mechanics or assist the Main Tank in some way, or even make all Tanks have to position themselves away from the group to take three-pronged Tank Busters that can cleave others! Raids are very diverse so it's a matter of learning the fights. There are many online guides for dungeons and raids you can use for this!

NOW GO! PROTECCA YOUR FRIENDS AND ATTACKA YOUR FOES!! >:3

[mlobsters]

one person's messy relationship to asexuality, relationships, sex and fandom

i saw a post the other day talking about how whenever the topic of asexual folks not having sex comes up, people will chime in that ace people can/do have sex sometimes too and that's okay! and basically how it adds nothing/takes away from the conversation. which, i mean, both things are true.

there's so much deep misunderstanding of what being asexual is and means. take myself, an ace person, i had no clue what being asexual meant until the past handful of years. at my big age of 40+. i'd seen some posts by cody daigle-orians, ace dad advice (tiktok, they have a book out now too and another on the way! i am ace), and things started churning in my mind. i read some simple definitions in a healthline article and it's like a lightbulb went off.

What Does It Mean to be Asexual - Healthline

Libido. Also known as your “sex drive,” libido involves wanting to have sex and experience sexual pleasure and sexual release. For some people, it might feel a little like wanting to scratch an itch.

Sexual desire. This refers to the desire to have sex, whether it’s for pleasure, a personal connection, conception, or something else.

Sexual attraction. This involves finding someone sexually appealing and wanting to have sex with them.

i realized i'd never experienced sexual attraction, and in fact had a complete misunderstanding of what sexual attraction even was. i was conflating my libido and sexual desire with attraction. similar to being agender and having aphantasia, i think it can be difficult to conceptualize something you've never experienced. whenever you hear people talking about things, you're trying to fit it within the framework of what you experience and how you understand the world works, to realize they are experiencing the world in a fundamentally different way you didn't know existed. it might seem absurd but i remember being around women talking about how they were looking forward to a movie because it meant some dude's ass would be out. and inside my head i was just like, really?? ....huh. (i said it was absurd.)

sex has been a large source of conflict and stress in the past 20 years of my life. so i guess this is that story.

i don't know how old i was, but some time in my early teens, i figured out women's bodies were what turned my crank. i had romantic crushes on boys at school, but thinking about girls got me going. but no one specific, never anyone specific. to this day, never anyone specific. this would be an important detail i didn't connect until much later. so i knew i was bi from early on, but it was the 90s and being out just wasn't really happening in school where i lived. i got into a serious, and abusive, relationship with a boy when i was 17 and that lasted 11 years. i was interested in sex, i had a lot of sex with him at the beginning. over time, i didn't want to have sex anymore.

i've always been conflict avoidant, and being with someone who picked a fight with me nearly every day for years made it so much worse. i didn't feel like i could say no. i looked forward to my period because then i had an excuse to not have sex. i briefly was in therapy, never mentioned the abuse or a whole host of other things but i did tell the therapist about not wanting to have sex with my then-spouse. she told me "use it or lose it", that the less sex i had, the less i'd want it. so have more sex and you'll want it again. that poisonous bit of advice stuck with me a long time. i didn't believe it, but i didn't not-believe it either. i didn't stay with that therapist more than the whatever number of allotted weeks insurance would pay for. years later, i asked for a divorce and left that relationship.

i got into other relationships, and sex again was that shortcut to intimacy/attention/affection and it was good. but then at some point, again, i didn't want to have sex. i was married, i had kids. i seriously thought it was part of my responsibilities of being married. like, spousal obligation. i knew when it had been too long and i needed to step up. go search on the internet "don't want to have sex with spouse" and basically the vast majority of advice will say sex is essential to the relationship and sometimes you have to compromise.

but i didn't want to, and i hated having to. why is it that i always have to compromise in a way where i'm losing bodily autonomy? my body is mine except once a week because i have to do this for the better of the relationship? this obviously was a big source of stress for me, and my partner could tell things weren't right. i avoided physical affection because i didn't want it to be confused with interest in sex.

i've spent a long time feeling guilty about not knowing i was ace. that i got into relationships and then flipped the script when i didn't want to have sex anymore. like i'd inadvertently done a bait and switch. i've been trying to pick apart what changed, why it changed, etc for years. ultimately, sex was a shortcut to affection and undivided attention. and if my libido and desire for sex was lining up, it worked. until it didn't. maybe six months before i was really sure, my spouse asked if i was ace. i thought i was somewhere in the spectrum maybe but i didn't know. and then things clicked and i got it. i was honest with the fact that i didn't want to have sex, i hadn't wanted to have sex for years, and as far as i could tell i could be fine with never having sex again. i didn't want to be "fixed", i didn't want therapy, or hormone checks to see if there was something "wrong" with me. i still have a moderate libido, i just don't want sex with someone else. i still struggle with some guilt over that last bit.

there was some inner turmoil over whether it was the years of baggage, of having sex that was vaguely consensual but also clearly unwanted, if that's what "caused" my loss of interest in sex. that the inability to say what i wanted from the abuse trickled down to other relationships. maybe if i'd figured out what was happening in my 20s, i'd be less rigid about no sex when i understood i could say no. i slowly came to accept that it didn't matter. what matters is where i am now.

all that said, let me wrap up a bit with how this all intersects with media and fandom. sex scenes, especially with my faves, in visual media often weirds me out (not always, and it's not terribly clear to me when it does or doesn't, but also not sure it matters.) and there again, there's been a trend of less sex scenes in movies etc, and i don't think that's a good thing either. just because it sometimes makes me very uncomfortable, i don't think they shouldn't exist. i just often don't want to see it. but i can skip it or look the other way or whatever. that is my problem, not everyone else's who does want to see it.

and nowadays the only time i feel much turmoil is within fandom spaces. being horny on main for your faves is normal and expected and i don't begrudge anyone that. especially with how puritanical some fan spaces have become and the nonsensical moralizing over shipping. i'm a wincest shipper, i read plenty of pearl clutching fic on the daily. but there's some internal weirdness for me seeing people being horny on main about their faves. please go ahead, but i don't want to see it. but i absolutely also do not want to unfollow people because of it, but it's also not something i can filter on.

so i try to get a feeling of the type of posts people might be getting up in their horny feelings in the tags and i scroll past without reading. people being horny for their faves and writing some explicit fic about it, sign me up. it's a step removed from anyone i know and i can just sort of, live vicariously through the characters experiencing things i don't experience. but there's something very different in my mind when it's a person talking about it on tumblr or twitter or whatever. it doesn't make sense and i get irritated with myself over it pretty regularly, and it adds to feelings of isolation.

i already have a lot of unpopular opinions about my current fixation, just add this to the pile of things i am alone in feeling. which is terribly dramatic and ridiculous, but it is what it is. and my anxiety+social anxiety+depression make this whole cocktail more potent. i'm always trying to find a way to let these things roll off my back. it's a work in progress.

so i think the point of this all is that it's hard talking about asexuality in general terms because the spectrum of feelings and experiences and relationships to intimacy is vast. and as asexual people, we're often combating some very base level misunderstandings from the public at large - that being ace isn't about not being interested in sex. it may involve that, but it's not what the literal definition is. so this is just one person's very messy relationship to asexuality.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[wavering-eyes]

January 7, 2023 Richmond Regional Report - Top 32 w/ Salamangreat

Mole gaming.

First off, proof of the above.

And my list below. Note the matching COSSY ID:

Let's talk about the format before we get into my deckbuilding choices. I heard a shit-ton of complaints from many, many people seemingly already tired of Level 1 FIRE the format, but that didn't really pan out in a way that represented my matchups. I played 9 decks and two were on Sinful Spoils.

I expected a lot of Fire King, R-ACE, Labrynth, and Orcust going in, and was very close to taking Fire King myself. Harp just got unbanned and people are still so keen on their new toy that they haven't realized Orcust cards aren't good. I thought Mannadium and Runick decks were strong enough to compete, but given their difficulty I expected relatively lower conversion from them. That left Orcust and the rock-paper-scissors of Lab beating R-ACE beating Fire King beating Lab.

And I took a deck from 2019. Why, exactly?

It's my favorite deck of all time.

Lots of people have forgotten what my cards do!

Veiler, Impermanence and Ash Blossom are all very low-impact hand traps against Salamangreat and those are the most played ones currently.

I didn't practice anything else.

My build is schnasty.

My main combo was Debug + Gazelle, with an additional extender in some cases. This sounds like quite a lot to ask for, but the 1 and 2-card combos are both okay so it pans out pretty nicely, and it's Salamangreat with all cards unbanned so it was very consistent despite that. Here's how it goes:

Debug search Mole (we'll get to this later)

Make Balelynx, search Sanctuary, summon Mole

Make Wicckid, trigger and summon Gazelle, banish Debug, search Weasel and send Spinny

Turn those into Heatsoul, draw a card

Weasel (or extender) summon, make Raging Phoenix

Activate Sanctuary, make a second Phoenix, search Will (if you don't have it and that wasn't your extender)

Will back Weasel, Spinny, Gazelle, and something else

Make Horse Prince with Weasel and Gazelle, summon out Ash Blossom

Make Stallio with Ash and Spinny, trigger Weasel to give opponent Gazelle, then activate Stallio summoning Jack Jaguar

Link off Stallio and Raging Phoenix for Sunlight Wolf, bounce Gazelle, then link off Wolf and Jack for another Wolf

Jack put back Sunlight Wolf, summon to Wolf's zone, add back Ash Blossom

Turn two of your monsters not named Sunlight Wolf into I:P, pass. If you have an extra monster, make S:P then I:P, and on the opponent's turn you can I:P into S:P if you haven't made it or Unicorn otherwise. If you pitched Ash Blossom you can add that back again when you do.

None of this is possible with Salamangreat of Fire which is why it is absent from the above list. I considered one to enable Circle into a decent 1-card combo but assumed if I had only Circle that summoning Gazelle would have to be enough to get me there, and that decision generally led to me winning and losing the same games I would have anyways.

Now, the elephant in the room, Mole. That combo above also works if Debug searches Meer, but Meer is a really versatile card that allows you to play through Debug's biggest weakness: immediate spot removal. Having Meer in the back pocket is always a huge deal since you can Circle into it and keep playing the game, and I think it's a huge waste to have it be essentially Backup Secretary in this combo, so I played a Mole to have a second slightly worse Meer with bonus text. The GY effect made effectively no influence on this decision. It still came up once but we'll get to that later.

Now, what about that extender? Well. The one thing everyone knows about Salad is that every combo line ends on a Nibiru token, so you can let them cook all turn and just Nib once you've decided they've plussed enough, right?

NO. If you read my last post, you might remember that I said Salamangreat had better things to be doing than summoning Gazelle with Speedroid cards, and I meant it--Salamangreat now has anti-nib lines by more or less holding cards to make Stallio. It came up several times this tournament: by the time that combo reaches 5 summons, you already have Spinny in GY and Weasel in hand, so your response is to immediately make Stallio and continue as before with a 1-card Stallio combo, then turn the Nib token and Jack into Hiita and that and Wolf into Raging Phoenix. If they stop you on Raging you can continue similarly. These combos become much stronger once Promethean Princess comes out since you can do this while popping the Nib your opponent controls--there is in fact no good time to use Nibiru against that combo once that card comes out, it literally ends on the same board with a draw off of Weasel.

And this is all a supplement to the lines where you just hold one of your three copies of Will, which is always a possibility. The only game I lost after being Nibbed this tournament was because I literally threw it away.

Enough about engine, though, let's talk about defensives. Ash and Impermanence are unsurprising inclusions. Veiler is very nice right now since two hand traps including Veiler or Impermanence is enough to consistently interrupt Rescue-ACE. Belle is in there to counter Orcust cards, Big Welcome Labrynth, and Fire King High Avatar Kirin, as well as other random things it also happens to answer--but mostly just Kirin. I didn't play Fire King all day so naturally it came out almost every match. Droll was not in main because it's really bad against R-ACE and inconsistent vs. Fire King. Nibiru was not in main for similar reasons.

And as for the rest of the side, Bystials, HFD, Cyclones are obvious side inclusions. Cyclone was chosen over Lightning Storm to beat specifically Runick Fountain and Orcust Crescendo. Phantazmay is quite nice since all of those decks I prepared for are Link decks, Labrynth aside.

Rivalry of Warlords is not joined by Gozen Match here because using Weasel to lock a FIRE deck into FIRE monsters is generally a pretty bad idea. But Rivalry could be highly destructive against anything except the mirror and Marincess, two decks which I would literally never expect to see.

So that's the list. 41 cards because Mole was a last minute inclusion.

And brief notes on siding patterns: Underperforming handtraps usually came out. Ashes almost always stayed in. Mining generally came out after Game 1 unless I was desperate for engine. Rage usually came out going second except when I forgot to take it out, in which case it somehow always came up regardless. Rivalry came in against every deck when I was on the play and Phantazmay went in against any deck with Link Monsters when I was on the draw, though I'd probably not have put it in against Fire King.

Round 1 began, I won the die roll and full comboed against a Labrynth player who seemed stoked at first. At some point in my combo he activated Arias to set Big Welcome Labrynth, but for some reason chose not to activate it until my End Phase at which point I had already searched an Ash Blossom, and he quickly scooped. Game 2 he opened equally bad and I turned off my brain and comboed until he gave up, negating a random set Called By with a Belle. Incredibly easy 2-0.

[I would like to make this at least somewhat educational, so let me tell you right now that you have absolutely nothing to gain from counting yourself out after your first loss. This guy was very depressed after running into rogue and getting smoked like that, but if you look at the top cut, there were no undefeated players, and one X-2 made it into top 8. And realistically speaking... he was definitely not playing well enough to expect to make top 8 that day, but I know at least one person who got their invite at that tournament after dropping to X-2 by round 2. You have to have nerves of steel to do it, but it is very possible. Moving on.]

Round 2 started and I once again won the die roll and opened full combo. Naturally he failed to play through it since I learned he was on Branded and I had literally searched Ash Blossom in front of him--I think I had a Belle in the mix as well. Game 2 I open Ash Droll Droll Spinny Circle and draw into a Gazelle, and my opponent after those interruptions ended on no cards in hand, controlling Branded Lost, Cartesia, Guiding Quem, and Granguignol with Fallen of Albaz in GY. Over the course of the following turn these would turn into another Granguignol sending Rindbrumm to revive Albaz, triggering Branded Lost to grab Mercourier to pitch for it, allowing him to turn one of my monsters and his Albaz into Mirrorjade, and a Despian Luluwalilith via Quem. 3 interruptions isn't that much, but all of them float, Luluwalilith gets him another Quem, Mirrorjade wipes my board and the Lubellion sent off of it gets him a play for next turn while triggering Cartesia to add herself back. And I'm on effectively 3 cards.

I played through it all and outgrinded him because he wasted his negates, outing Lost with Foxy and bouncing Mirrorjade with Stallio, ashing Lubellion search in End Phase after adding it back from GY, and eventually topdecking into more playable cards since his Cartesia was actually dead. Another easy 2-0. At this point I was pretty convinced that I was going to top and I felt very confident in my deck.

Round 3 I beat Vanquish Soul 2-1 and took no notes so I guess you're not hearing much about this one. Don't worry, it will be back. I walked out to my car to enjoy my lunch break with the two guys I'd traveled with, absolutely pumped that I was starting off my tournament so strong. Both of them were much worse off, unfortunately.

Round 4 started with me sat at Table 4. I lost the die roll and was quickly faced with the brutal combo of Dimensional Fissure into Pot of Prosperity revealing Kashtira engine cards and Lightforce Sword, and I promptly realized that my opponent was a bozo who doesn't know how to deckbuild and that I was still probably going to lose to him despite that. I scooped without showing him a card beyond Ash Blossom and in the following game I opened poorly, my opponent dropped Shifter at the start of his own turn, played a little but I left him on just Unicorn, then banished it with S:P the next turn. Naturally, he ripped Pressured Planet off the top and I signed the match slip. I am pretty sure this guy heard me bitching about him post match but I don't care, he's not a bad person or anything but maining cards like that is bad deckbuilding and it sucks that he was rewarded for it against me specifically. But I got the last laugh--his name is not on that list at the top of this post and only top 48 got invites. Make of that what you will.

I took a brief mental break here and wandered around the venue for a bit. My lowest table this entire tournament (excepting Round 1 where I was placed at complete random) was 37, so I took a quick peek at bottom tables to see what was kicking around there and lost my shit seeing an Air Hummingbird for game--visibly enough that the player performing it looked directly at me and joined in the laughter. Shine on, you beautiful scumbag.

I rebounded into Round 5 accepting that there was nothing I could do about the loss and resolved to do better and was sat across from someone from my locals activating Peaceful Planet. I actually played Mannadium for my last event so I was very familiar with the combo lines, and I correctly predicted out loud that his board was probably going to be S:P Baronne and then picked up my cards before showing him any.

Going into Game 2 I opened Gazelle, Parallel Exceed and Will of the Salamangreat and my opponent did me the favor of handlooping himself on cards that did not matter, starting by using one imperm each on Gazelle and Parallel only for me to make Wicckid into Stallio into Jack into Heatsoul into Raging as though nothing had happened whatsoever, ending on a trap with Gazelle in hand which he couldn't beat with only three cards.

Game 3, due to his poor siding decisions, he opened 4 non-engine and Peaceful Planet, I activated Phantazmay for the only time this tournament on Light-Heart summon, and it drew me into Nib just in time for him to show me Baronne materials. Sorry bro.

This round ended somewhere close to time and the next round started nearly an hour later. Our lunch break was after Round 3 so this was very much off schedule. This isn't really related to the content of this post but I did get to hear the scoop on this drama, so I might as well share that with you:

I've included alt-text for this if you prefer that, but otherwise I have no comment on it. Moving on.

Round 6 starts with me going first against Rescue-ACE opening my worst hand of the tournament, double Ash, Veiler, Sanctuary, Will. I pass showing no cards and Ash one of his plays and he uses Talent to look at my hand. I draw no engine the following turn and naturally can't play, so, next game.

I really want to tell you I smoked this dude this game, because I had him absolutely dead to rights. I played through Nibiru and Ash in that order. His only play was to stick Accesscode and wipe board to swing for 5300, but him wiping board turned on my Mole.

I would like to tell you that I shuffled back my GY with mole and cooked him, but... I forgot it even had that effect and summoned Gazelle, throwing the game entirely. Whoops. I congratulated my opponent on his free win after interrogating him on why he didn't scoop and sat down to examine my mental state, realizing how tired I'd gotten after six rounds (and an extra hour...) given that I woke up at 6:00 that morning and had been the one driving the car to the event.

I sat down the following round across from Vanquish Soul activating Stake revealing Ash, and he passed after I ashed it. Good start! One thing I'd picked up from rereading the cards is that effects like Pantera and Razen which check columns do so on resolution, so S:P virtually by herself cooked all of his later plays.

I eventually lost Game 2 after playing through half a board and drolling my opponent on turn 3 because he had already drawn into all of his big VS monsters, used some position-changing effect on a stray Mole to push over 4000 damage, I'd already taken a stack from Heatsoul, and there was nothing I could do to stop myself from being burned 1500 twice. I was otherwise far up in material so I guess this is defeat snatched from the claws of victory. Game 3 went to time and he couldn't burn me through Rivalry, so we drew.

At this point I had the (wrong) supposition that I could still top at 5-2-2. It didn't turn into anything but it was in the back of my mind, so I figured the following round was the real do-or-die moment.

And I absolutely crushed it. Soundtrack for the moment--this is the exact song that was playing in my head as I sat down and mercilessly full-comboed through imperm veiler for the third or fourth time that tournament, ending on I:P S:P Raging. I actually misplayed this combo by searching an unnecessary Will, but it didn't matter; my opponent's first play was to imperm my S:P then activate King's Sarcophagus pitching a Hapi and milling Imsety, after which I activated I:P and spun it with Unicorn, leaving him on one card and leading to a concession before I learned which Horus variant he was on. But seeing that he had hand trapped me technically three times, I assumed Orcust, put in Nibiru and Bystials and was immediately rewarded with an extremely live Magnamhut and Nibiru when he activated Imsety by pitching Orcustrated Return, making The Zombie Vampire and summoning out Knightmare before linking both into Galatea.

This got punished by Talent draw into Foolish Burial, but even as he eventually passed on a Galatea with Crescendo and Impermanence set, my Nibiru was enough to force him into Dingirsu pass with random dead sets. I quickly cleared out his board in battle phase, went to MP2, cleared out some more dead backrow with S:P and Unicorn and eventually baited out a Nibiru that I sent with Druiswurm, leaving him on no cards. I thought to myself for a bit, saw that I still had a Will and cards in hand, and decided that was probably fine. I said to this guy out loud: "Sure. You have one card. Go."

He topdecks ROTA. What a god. It still wasn't enough--he went through Dingirsu and TY-PHON to try and push damage but wasn't able to accomplish much beyond getting rid of the token, and with over 20 minutes left I slowly calculated exactly what it would take to push game, which as I recall involved Jaguar doing piercing and crashing a revived Raging Phoenix into TY-PHON to revive the other one at 5600 ATK.

Cool guy, cool deck, exciting mach, incredible experience playing two 2019 decks in the final rounds of the first tournament of 2024. But this guy never stood a chance. 2-0.

I walk into the final round seriously considering the possibility that I might play the only other person in my car still in the tournament, but that didn't end up happening. My opponent started his first turn by accidentally drawing 6 cards and being ordered by a judge to shuffle back a random one after revealing it, which ended up being a starlight copy of Triple Tactics Talent. Whew.

He pitched a Scareclaw Arrival for Diabellestar, Normal Summoned Visas Samsara and... I think his hand was basically just that and Visas Starfrost? He went through both copies of Light-Heart before activating Primitive Planet and I correctly determined that stopping it would stop at least two interruptions, and was correct. He ended on Savage with Light-Heart and S:P Little Knight, banishing my Ash as though it was an afterthought.

[Another potentially educational sidebar! Mannadium has generally three major parts to its engine: Visas Starfrost and Samsara, 1500/2100 "Heart" monsters (of which Samsara is one), and Mannadium Meek. There is some overlap, but it is a lot to ask to see all of these, so you can usually try and interrupt Manndium hands by thinking about which of these they have and which they need. In this case, the only way he had to summon a Heart monster was by keeping Arrival or if the Planet resolved, so I made sure it did not even though he had a second copy available for next turn. I would probably highlight this as my best play of the tournament--had that resolved and been played correctly, I think it ends on Savage + Baronne + S:P + Dis Pater via Crimson Dragon and I would not have been able to play through that.]

I commended him on banishing the Ash after showing him Lady Debug, which he let resolve, hit over S:P, used Meer to pitch a dead Foxy (which he negated for some reason?), bounced his Savage, and... kind of fumbled the rest as I misplayed my combo, ending with neither Gazelle nor Ash in hand. But he also threw and I was able to pull ahead, after which we both agreed that I had thrown and he had thrown harder.

Game 2 I open 4 engine and a Veiler, and he opens with Wanted once again, but starts by summoning a Fenrir. I think to myself that there's a possibility he needs the Fenrir to hit GY to turn on Scareclaw Kashtira, so I veiler Diabellestar and he shows me both Riumheart and Mannadium Abscission before I scoop, acknowledging that there is simply no way I'm playing through a hand that good. He mentioned later that he also had Visas Starfrost; I don't know what his extra was exactly but I usually turned a hand like that into S:P, Baronne and Dis Pater with two cards ripped from hand via Omega. That hand steals your opponent's girl and does your taxes for you. It's insane.

Game 3, we have very little time on the clock. I open Gazelle and... Rivalry of Warlords. I proceed to fumble my combo horribly, making Stallio into Weasel but forgetting to make Balelynx to search Sanctuary, but he panics and activates Enemy Controller before realizing the lock he's placed himself in, hits me for 1800 and passes.

For the next 3 turns, I perform the Yu-Gi-Oh equivalent of a constrictor hold, locking him under a new Cyberse monster every turn by using Sunlight Wolf and Gazelle to loop Weasel and zeroing my own monsters with Sanctuary to prevent him from crashing to out the lock. He set monsters every turn but it didn't matter; by the time I finally outed the lock to put myself in the life lead, there were three seconds left on the clock.

I commended him on his play (honestly at the time; I only spotted his numerous misplays later) and walked back to my friends to share results, learning that my region had showed up big--some eight or ten of us had made top cut, including one other person in my car, and one, with whom I built this deck, made first place. (He said it was a grown-up decision to take R-ACE instead of Salad. I'm happy for him but a little miffed it paid off so handsomely; it was very sad to see him looking for R-ACE cards on Facebook after theorying Salad so much.)

And that's the story of how I got my invite after a years-long second place/bubble curse. My semester started the following day and I couldn't imagine a better way to start it, apart from having won a mat and deckbox. But this is a bit more than I expected going in and I'm happy to finally have my invite again.

Here's hoping I get to go to Nats this year. Thanks for reading.

[cherienymphe]

when I'm already so down, I just know it'll really send me into a spiral and I'd rather just wait

Like it was said, that's valid as hell. I understand both sides here and I'll briefly mention that dark fics get less reblogs because many blogs are not specifically aimed for this kind of content want and might not have a side blog for this. Reblogs are what gives inspiration, room for improvement and excitement. But it's still not the best to say 'i don't care about likes' because that's blatantly ignoring the fact that people still like it, even if they write it to you or not and that they enjoyed reading this. Reblogs are something more appreciated and more detailed but when i find a fic and see it has 900 notes, even if there aren't many reblogs I'll be drawn to it because apparently many people liked it. Also many many fic authors, with more different interests that don't attract attention have 30-40 notes and no reblogs and would probably die to have 900 notes and just a few reblogs. STILL understandable feelings you have but that's a fact. Also it's good you don't post because you'll feel worse, mental health is important but I want to add this and you can agree or disagree, idc. You said ‘why post when i know not that many will read', yes but many will. i get excited as fuck when i see an update of this story. Many others do too, 90, 100, 1000 people, they do. Might not be a lot but from my side these people need to be appreciated and not just want more and more. Of course want more and of course hope other reblogs come but appreciate the ones you already have.

I literally never said this. Ever. It's hard to take these little comfort chats seriously when y'all quite literally keep putting words into my mouth and idk why 😭 literally why are you doing that? This is a genuine question

I appreciate you trying (I think) and I get this is your opinion, but I actually don't care about likes. I never had. Yes they are nice and I find appreciation for them sure, but likes don't tell me anything. At least not to me. Someone liking my work actually doesn't always mean they "like" my work. The amount of people who like fics to save for later is astronomical and like someone else said, liking a fic doesn't tell me what you like about it. A like doesn't tell me what you'd like to see more of or what really stood out to you so that I can remember to include more of that. I genuinely meant it when I said I'd rather have 100 notes over several hundred if 90% of the notes were people just reblogging and telling me what they actually liked instead of leaving it to my imagination

[thebreakfastgenie]

Ellsberg variant (which I’m sure you’ve told me about but do you think *I* remember?) but also 💜💜💜 (I meant to send this sooner but I saw it when I was still on the train last night at like. 11:57 PM)

No worries!!

So I explained the basics of Ellsberg Variant here but I'll go through some of it again and add some things! So basically, the idea is there is a break in at Josh's therapist's office, and copies of his records are stolen. This is a variation on what happened to Daniel Ellsberg; the future Watergate burglars broke into his psychiatrist's office looking for his file to retaliate because he leaked the Pentagon Papers. They did not find it, but these fictional guys are more successful. The burglars make copies, so nothing is missing, so the break-in isn't really reported and no one really knows about it until an advance copy of an upcoming tabloid with a hit piece on the White House staff, including the stolen records, is anonymously delivered to CJ's office. I don't have a snippet to share unfortunately but I can talk about it!

What I'm really excited about writing is the first day. The high stakes mystery of it all... CJ ends up consulting with Danny, but of course she can't tell him what it's about, and he's the one who finds the break-in buried in local news. CJ spends a couple hours figuring out what's going on before going to Leo, and at first he's made she waited but realizes she was right to wait until she had something concrete. Shortly after that they bring Josh in to tell him together. That goes... not great, but about as well as it can. Josh has to verify the stolen records are real, as well as provide CJ with the rest of his file, in case anything else was stolen and hasn't been published yet so she can be prepared (she doesn't force him to do this; he agrees it's necessary even though he hates it).

The burglars basically sold copies of high profile patient records to the highest bidder. The buyers (Republican) can't give them to a legitimate newspaper, but once they're published in the tabloid, the news media will report on the break-in and leak and they'll be out there. They discuss trying to go to court to stop the publication, but decide that will only draw more attention to the issue, and the records will be entered as evidence and maybe even be posted on the internet by whoever has them.

It's basically a combination emotional story and thriller/drama as they try to figure out what happened. Danny might get a moment where he refuses to write the kind of coverage other papers are writing. It's mostly gen, with the same level of pre-relationship Josh/Donna friendship I would write in a canon-compliant season 3/4 fic. Amy will probably show up, but Josh and Amy are not together (they're already broken up if I can make the timeline work). There will definitely be some CJ/Danny; I haven't decided how far it'll go, but it won't be the main focus, this is more of a plot fic. I tried writing the first scene a couple times but haven't had a draft I'm happy with. I do know the first scene is from Carol's POV and talks about how she later recounts her memory of the envelope containing the advance copy a bunch of times for CJ, Leo, White House counsel, etc., and she's always completely consistent. I really want to play with this idea more!

[verfound]

I might be late to the party but If you're still taking WIP game questions I'd like to know about a couple! Winters: -I want One -Keep Your Mate Warm -Scratchpad - The Stairs House Band: -Papa's Ink -Harold the Glitter Cow -Maman's First Maman's Day

I was gonna add a couple other from the dingo files and the main folder but I didn't wanna be too greedy 🤣.

Ha ha, definitely not too late! Let's see what I got here...

So I am gonna start by saying any file/folder labeled "Scratchpad" is exactly that: scratchpads. I don't like to completely delete stuff, because I might find whatever was happening doesn't work there but might work somewhere else? Or there's a line/idea I liked but wasn't working out right at the time. So I have little Scratchpads with old drafts/nixed ideas. I was struggling with Luka's reaction in Some Scars Run Deep, so that's the majority of that scratchpad - a few versions of the latter half of that fic where things weren't coming together right.

"I Want One" is set around that last chapter of Winter's Fury and focuses on Juleka and Rose. Specifically, Rose meeting Clara and immediately going home and telling Juleka "I want one. Now." After WF wrapped up I had like three or four fluffy ideas that all got jotted down as "Owed Fluff", but then Princess Heartmaker took over and nothing beyond notes has come of them yet. 😂

Same thing with "The Stairs". In the last scene of WF, remember how Tom mentions what Luka thought was a closet was stairs/a second floor? And Luka was asking Marinette about it, but she was like "later I'm sleepy"? I wanted to go into a bit about how that was Marinette's next project once he finally started sleeping again: she is trying to move forward and look ahead to their future, and they both have said they still wanted more snakelets (even with everything that happened with Clara/Lila), but her cottage was only ever meant for a single person. So she made a second floor so they'd have room for their family to grow. It was becoming too much to include in WF, though, so I had it set aside as something to play with later.

"Keep Your Mate Warm" is actually "Keep Your Mate Warm (and Your Friend's Mate Warmer)". Quick found this prompt:

“Because, your house is freezing. What’s with the weird possessive thing around the thermostat? Let her be warm, for fuck’s sake. And, before you get weird. Yes, we were naked in bed. No, we weren’t doing anything sexual. We were watching cat videos. She wouldn’t cheat on you. I offered, but she said no.”

“Leave - before I kick you out of my house.”

“Gladly, it’s warmer out there.”

And made the comment how it would be a great Dingo prompt - specifically Winters Dingo, if I hadn't...y'know. So it starts with Marinette out by the river around the turn of season, when it's still cold enough to be an issue, and Perry runs into her, startles her, and she falls into the water. Hits her head or something so doesn't immediately come out, and she's freezing when he fishes her out - so he takes her back to his home, because it's closer, and sets about warming her up (getting her wet clothes off, shoving her under a million blankets, cuddling up in wolf form bc body heat). When she wakes up it's awkward but she gets it, only when they get her home and tell a half-awake Luka what happened he starts to overreact - until Perry gives him shit for that time Brielle went to check on him in the winter and found him asleep and half-dead outside his cave and did the same thing. Which was all done to get us some Winters Bri, really. 😂

Aaand for the HB fics...

...a common theme you will notice with a lot of HB prompts is "Quick sent me X and..." 😂 There's a reason we call them Dammit Quicks. 😂

"Harold the Glitter Cow" is from a video she found where this girl is grooming a cow, and the final step is adding a coat of glitter? Which got this idea in my head of this one older cow named Harold (it's not even a bull - it's a cow, and for some reason the kids named her Harold) that Mellie wants to make pretty, so she gets her with a glitter bomb. Which makes Luka go, "Ok, Mel, we're teaching you how to do this right." So it's all about Mellie learning how to properly groom a cow, and yes, there are ways to coat them in glitter, but don't use your maman's stash what were you thinking.

"Papa's Ink" is Bloody's fault. 😂 She found this BNHA picture of Aizawa grading papers while Eiri colored in tattoos on his arm, and it Sparked Things. Luka, before his sleeve was complete, working on something when he feels something tickling his arm. Looks down and Mellie's there, coloring in his sleeve with her markers. It's keeping her calm/occupied and is cute as hell, so he doesn't say anything. And it keeps working, so maybe he gets a few outline tattoos specifically for that purpose? He takes pictures of the colored ones before he washes them off to save (maybe hangs 'em on the fridge like a Dad or saves 'em to use as Embarrassing Baby Photos when the kids start dating).

"Maman's First Maman's Day" is another DQ. She found this vid of a daddy taking his toddler to Target to pick out Mother's Day gifts, and one of the things the girl grabbed was a sexy nighty bc "it was pretty". So it's set when Harm's still little, like the Mother's Day before Mellie comes along, and Luka takes her out to get Marinette something for Mother's Day. And it's mostly safe, until Harm finds a black underwear set or something that she thinks is pretty/likes the feel of, and Luka's like "No no no Maman won't like that" - so Harm grabs for a pink one, because of course Maman will love that one. 😂 It's mostly just daddy/daughter fluff, but Luka totally sneaks the underwear in as his gift.

(If you want more feel free - going through these helps me remember which ones I need to get cleared out. 😂 Some of them can be short/quick and just get buried under Other Projects, so yeah totally help me get a checklist going! 😂)

[zevranunderstander]

tumblr didn't allow me to add more tags to my other post so. new post. anyway i really really like that tamsyn muir made john into an imperialist because for me its really a lot like the ending of the hunger games, where coin asks the survivors of the games if they want to continue the hunger games with children of the capitol as sacrifices

the book makes it clear that the offer is meant as retribution for what was done to the people of the districts. and instead of breaking the cycle of violence, katniss and haymitch both let their trauma and their hatred for what the capitol did to them win over any empathy they could have with the citizens of the capitol.

the children of the capitol aren't at fault for the hunger games, and this choice that katniss makes (if it would have actually come to pass) would have turned her into the new snow (= the person perpetuating violence) and would have turned whoever would have been fighting in the games into her, she wouldn't have fought for a revolution against oppression, she just would have won a war to become the new oppressive power. that's what her sister (and everyone else) would have died for. and katniss isn't an unempathetic, or uncaring character in any way it just so happens that she can't find it in herself to grant forgiveness for what has been done to her

and the locked tomb goes a bit further with this and asks 'well, what if it's not the children of the capitol but their decendants about three hundred generations removed from them?' blood of eden might be the decendants of trillionaires who have fled to space in an attempt to escape the planet they destroyed, leaving everyone else to die a miserable death on earth, but their decendants 10,000 years later are no longer at fault for that. unlike the children of the capitol, these people probably don't even know what they did to provoke john's hatred. there are no power structures remaining in their favor, they have none of the privileges remaining that would make someone think they were children of trillionaires.

most people in nona the ninth hate the houses, they are nothing more to them than profiteering oppressors who abuse their military and necromantic power to oppress and scare them. and none of the people in the houses have an actual reason to hate the people living on nonas planet. ianthe isn't getting off on scaring the people on the broadcast because she knows they secretly deserve it because they are the decendants of trillionaires, she is just enjoying that she can exert her power over people who are terrified of her.

no one, not one person in the universe, aside from john remembers what happened. it's just the new order of things. and still, john cannot let go of his hatred for them. there is no enemy he can kill anymore, he created a new world and he also created a new hierarchy where he is on top and blood of eden is at the bottom, and his only OPTION is to hold onto his hatred because if he doesn't, he would have to see that the children on New Rho look at him with the same righteous hatred with which he once looked at their forefathers

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Re-Watch of Conquer, Religion in the Daryl Spinoff, and the PPP Card

@galadrieljones:

Finally watched Conquer tonight. I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said, other than that I can see why many older theories thought Beth might show up with the Wolves.

Morgan finds that Hannah Fairlight magazine in Coda. She’s a native American singer dressed as such with a wolf tattoo, then the Wolves come along in Conquer with their story about wolf resurrection. “There’s gonna be a party when the wolf comes home,” etc.

Obviously, she didn’t come back. What is the reason for this deceit? So much has been learned since, about tptb and their oblique mannerisms. They never hit the nail head on. It’s usually slanted, in some way.

The Wolves were a red herring, like the man in the poncho. The real enemy in season 6 is hubris. It’s what leads Negan to their door. It’s worth noting that Beth does make an “appearance” in season 6, as Tina, and then Denise. She’s being “resurrected” through other characters, like the wolves of old. Anyway, I am gonna think on this more…

Also there’s some weird dream dialogue in Conquer. In the beginning after the credits, Rick wakes up, and he laughs, and when Michonne asks him what’s so funny, he says to Michonne something curious.

He says, “It’s like the train car. After the whole thing, I’m still there.” Later on he says, “We’re here,” about being in Alexandria, and she says something like, “You just said you’re not.” Sort of weird timing to bring up “A.” Something else I want to think on a bit.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, good points about the weird Rick dialogue. I haven’t watched that in a long time, and I’d forgotten that. We know tptb don’t ever waste dialogue or screen time, so they would have inserted that dialogue with a specific purpose in mind.

@wdway:

This afternoon I was just scrolling through some old comicbook articles and there was one from November 21by Cameron Bonomolo that I'm sure that we talked about at that time but there was a little piece of information in there that I don't remember seeing in any other article. Norman talking about his spin-off. Everything else I've heard or read about repeatedly.

He mentions a religious vibe to the spinoff. I thought that was more than a little interesting. The fact that we haven't seen or heard him mention it again might be very telling. Just thought I'd let you see it for yourself and if this is something that you guys have seen other places I really like to hear about it.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I kind of vaguely remember reading that line back when the article first came out. But you're right. I don't think I've seen it talked about anywhere else. When he says it will be a religious vibe, I envision it being religion like TDVC is religious. Can't wait to see what goodness the spinoff brings us!

@wdway:

Changing gears for a moment. The other day I was just reading comments on a TWD site that had an article about the PPP card. I always read the comments usually more often than the actual articles.

Someone had thrown out the idea that PPP could stand for Philadelphia and Paris but could not come up with a third P. Just thought that was kind of interesting. Although I truly don't think they had Paris in mind back when we first saw the card in the episode Swear but things do change.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I agree. Gimple had something specific in mind for that card, and we don't know what. I guess I could believe he might have meant Paris if they'd always planned on the French thing, which is mentioned by Jenner in the pilot episode. I just think he wouldn't have known that they would be filming on location. But they might have just figured they would still film in Georgia and "say" it was Paris, like they did with D.C. I don't know. I guess we'll know when they tell us. ;D

@wdway:

How about Project Primrose, Paris? Except I don't think that Paris was Primrose was it? Anyway you could play with this all day and not have the answer.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, for sure! Sounds good to me. But yeah. No way to know for certain. But fun to speculate about! ;D

@galadrieljones:

I like this one! Primrose team was based out of France but in Toledo at the time of the Fall, which means they were stateside. I think one of them could have been TB Ellis, since the woman from the Violet Team has a folder full of her papers on her computer, and Primrose Team seems to be the team she thinks could actually find a cure. Also idk if it would make sense but Portland starts with a P. That’s where Major General Beale’s kid is from. Portland Paris Philadelphia = PPP

@wdway:

I love this. Fun to guess what it could mean. We do have months and months to go before we have anything solid to go on. I couldn't remember if Paris was Primose or not so thanks for clearing that up. I do need to go back an watch s2 of TWB as a refresher on Primrose and Team Violet. I was going to wait for a while to rewatch but who knows I might just decide to watch a few out of order episode some afternoon along with Tales of the Dead episode 5? Wasn't that the one with the PPP card? I believe it is.

@galadrieljones:

Yes, it’s Davon with the ppp card. I’m still super intrigued by him. He’s out there somewhere. And so is the madman who shot him.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Lol. I love that last line you typed. Something that can only be said with a straight face during a TWD discussion.

@galadrieljones:

ROFL

I wonder if we know the madman who shot Davon…? Another creepy thing to hear somebody say if you don’t have the necessary context.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

So true!