#in case of naysayers

[brytnoter]

[bilbao-song]

i swear if this is some kind of tomfoolery to get my hopes up i will lose my whole entire mind

[klinejack]

like. i screamed when i saw dean. (every time :’)

but whe n i saw jack i stopped breathing for about 2.5 minutes

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Do you think that book!Alicent was a one dimensional evil stepmother and the show has fixed her by making her a sad victim of the men around her? I don't agree with this take but i see so many people argue in favour of stripping her of her agency in the show in that book!Alicent was nothing but a misogynistic caricature made by the sexist maesters.

Thanks for this question anon! I had actually been meaning to write something about the "evil stepmother" accusations that get thrown at book!Alicent because having recently re-read F&B, I just don't see it.

First of all, and I think most notably, Alicent's relationship with Rhaenyra doesn't really deteriorate completely until Daemon returns to court. Before that, we don't really have much information about the first few years of Viserys' marriage. The fandom likes to claim that Alicent was beefing with a 9 year old but that isn't really backed up with much evidence. After the account that nine year old Rhaenyra poured for her new stepmother at Alicent and Viserys' wedding (and on a seriously wtf note, helped undress her father for the bedding, but that's another topic), the next words we have about Alicent and Rhaenyra are when Alicent quips, about Rhaenyra's relationship with Criston Cole, "Ser Criston protects the princess from her enemies, but who protects the princess from Ser Criston?" And y'all? This is not beefing or bullying. Alicent is pointing out that Rhaenyra, now about 13-ish, is in a vulnerable position as an unmarried young woman. Is she also possibly picking up on some weird predatory vibes with Criston? Perhaps (which is also also interesting, considering Criston later defects to Alicent's camp)! Remember, book!Criston is only a year younger than Daemon, so anything between them would not only be completely off limits because Criston is a kingsguard, but also extremely inappropriate just based on their ages alone. Regardless, Rhaenyra is at this point surrounded by a lot of men ("many lords and knights sought her favor") and Alicent alone seems cognizant of the danger this poses.

After this, the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra evidently deteriorates, but we're not told precisely how, only that the "amity between Her Grace and her stepdaughter had proved short lived, for both Rhaenyra and Alicent aspired to be the first lady of the realm..." Keep in mind, this is Gyldayn editorializing without a source, and as for being "first lady of the realm," it's just as likely that Rhaenyra was jealous of her stepmother's position as queen as it was that Alicent had any particular animosity towards Rhaenyra. In any case, the book does not suggest that either of them are at fault for the breakdown.

This is also around the time that Otto gets sent home for bugging Viserys about the succession, so that probably had something to do with it, although this still does not amount to Alicent beefing with a child, as it's doubtful she brought up the situation to Rhaenyra herself, but rather she and Otto brought the issue to Viserys. And although I don't really want to get into the succession weeds here, I do want to make it clear that the expectation that Viserys would make his firstborn son his heir was an entirely reasonable one. Everywhere except for Dorne, sons inherit before daughters, and if Viserys had made it clear before he married Alicent that he had no intention of replacing Rhaenyra as heir, Otto might not have married Alicent to Viserys in the first place. There are multiple examples of men with daughters but no sons remarrying in order to get a male heir. It's the only reason Corlys offered Laena as a bride to Viserys (and, arguably, Corlys would have had the leverage to force the issue, which is perhaps one reason why he did not choose Laena). And it wasn't just Otto and Alicent-- people asked "what of the ruling of the Great Council in 101?" But Viserys basically told naysayers to shut up and stop asking. Okay.

Then we have the dress incident, and at this point Rhaenyra is 14, Daemon is back in town, and there's a tourney on. Alicent wears a green dress, Rhaenyra wears a black and red one. It's interesting that in this chapter, no additional context is given to this event. Much earlier in F&B, we do learn that the High Tower is lit green to call its banners against Maegor the Cruel. The show makes this association clear, but Gyldayn does not say that Alicent did this as a declaration of war on Rhaenyra, only that "the queen wore a green gown, whilst the princess dressed dramatically in Targaryen red and black." If you've read F&B, you know that Gyldayn loves editorializing, so the fact that the association made by the show is completely omitted here suggest that Gyldayn lacked this context, or people at the time of the event simply thought it was a green dress with no additional meaning, or perhaps he expected in-world readers to draw their own conclusions (although it's kind of unlike Gyldayn to resist showing off his knowledge when he can). Regardless, after that, the people gave them the nickname the blacks and the greens, and it stuck.

Anyway, it's clear Alicent and Rhaenyra aren't getting along at this point, and they probably resent each other, but there is no mention of Alicent actually doing anything whatsoever to harm Rhaenyra, much less "bullying a child who has just lost her mother" or "beefing with a nine year old." This seems to be a complete invention. Given that book!Rhaenyra is a spoiled only child, by this point a teenager, accustomed to having her father's undivided attention, and now he has a new wife and at this point three new children in his life, it's equally likely that Rhaenyra was feeling displaced and acting out. However, instead of giving her any helpful guidance or correcting her, the trusted adults in her life reinforce her negative feelings, and as we'll see, even use those insecurities to manipulate her. As for Alicent "poisoning her children against Rhaenyra," there's simply zero evidence to back this up. In fact, what eventually happens would seem to suggest that Alicent was at least somewhat concerned about the hostility between her children and Rhaenyra. And here is when things really break down, because this is where Daemon really starts to stir the pot.

Before the tourney, Daemon had been fighting in the stepstones. He returns to King's Landing a hero, and immediately latches onto Rhaenyra. As for Alicent, "although he treated her with all the courtesy due her station, there was no warmth between them, and men said that the prince was notably cool towards her children, especially his nephews, Aegon and Aemond, whose birth had pushed him still lower in the order of succession." So who is, in fact beefing with children? Daemon Targaryen. At the same time, Daemon starts cozying up to Rhaenyra, giving her extravagant gifts, telling her stories, and doing the one thing that is absolutely sure to win over a teenager, being a hater. Daemon hones in on Rhaenyra's issues with Alicent and together they have a great deal of fun openly mocking Alicent and her children, and what Daemon called the "lickspittles" who were in Alicent's camp. This works very well on Rhaenyra because of course it does! Daemon is the cool dragonriding uncle, the handsome Rogue Prince, and Rhaenyra is eating up the attention. She and Daemon have dragonraces and he tells her she's much prettier than Alicent and strokes that teenage ego. It's also at this point that the rumors about Daemon and Rhaenyra having a sexual relationship begin, and Daemon supposedly asks for Rhaenyra's hand in marriage because "who else would take her now?" Keep in mind, she's fourteen. And whether it's true or not, Viserys exiles Daemon again. He goes back to the Stepstones, and things settle down in King's Landing.

Of course the relationship between between Rhaenyra and her stepmother is bad by this point. Her and Daemon have just spent six months mocking her and her children and their supporters. Aegon is only about four or five years old, so the beef has got to be pretty one sided, although even little kids can tell when they're being given the cold shoulder or laughed at. Rhaenyra even makes a point of always referring to them as her half-brothers, rather than simply as her brothers. Still, a few years pass, Rhaenyra is now sixteen, and it's time for her to get married. Alicent proposes she marry Aegon, and one of the reasons she gives is that they don't get along well. "All the more reason to bind them together in marriage," Alicent says, acknowledging that Rhaenyra hating her now six year old younger brother is in fact a big fucking problem. If Alicent hoped for Rhaenyra and Aegon to marry, why on earth would she poison her children against Rhaenyra? But Viserys shoots this idea down, saying "the boy is Alicent's own blood. She wants him on the throne." And yes, of course she does, but she probably also wants him to stay alive.

So, Rhaenyra marries Laenor, and after that there's really no point in trying to maintain any sort of stepmother relationship, is there? Rhaenyra is now an adult, she's married, and she's made her feelings about Alicent and her siblings very clear. At this point, Alicent has to look out for the safety of her children, who are going to be Rhaenyra's biggest rivals. And if they dislike their older half-sister, who can blame them? Again, this is a girl who spent the better half of six months laughing at them. Rhaenyra did nothing but sabotage that relationship. And if Alicent decides she's going to fight for Aegon's inheritance, she's only doing what any mother in her position would do. There's no evidence she does it for power or greed, she simply does it because she doesn't owe Rhaenyra anything and letting someone who is actively hostile to her children take the throne unchallenged, especially when that person's claim is untraditional to say the least, and seen by many as being weaker than that of her sons, would be taking a huge risk with their lives. There's nothing "evil" in Alicent's actions. Book!Alicent did not bully Rhaenyra, did not "beef with a nine year old," or "poison her children against Rhaenyra," in fact, she did what she could to bind them together, but Rhaenyra, (at least in part taking her cues from Viserys and Daemon), was simply not interested. And you know, that's fine too, Rhaenyra doesn't have to love her stepmother or care about her half-brothers. They're much younger and it's natural that she wouldn't be much interested in them. But as heir to the throne? It sure would have been a much smarter idea to cultivate those relationships.

Book!Alicent isn't an "evil stepmother" though either, after a certain point she she simply prioritizes her own children over someone who has made it abundantly clear she has no use for any of them.

[parvulous-writings]

Untimely Reunion // Astarion x Elf! Reader

Summary: A reunion at a very unsavoury time.

Warnings: Mild mentions of grief/mourning

Words: 2.5K

Notes:  Before anyone says anything. Yes. There will be a part 2.... At some point! Did kind of run out of muse for this partway through, but I pushed through!! Hope you all enjoy <3 My requests are currently open! My pinned post (found here) contains both a list of characters I write for, and a masterlist!  Original character list - please request for these too! If you’d like to support me more, consider donating to my kofi! I’d appreciate it loads!!

Things were different, when you were younger - vastly different, from the situation you found yourself in now. You had grown up in Baldur's Gate - a city bustling with life, noise, and so much more besides. Your childhood was a rather happy one - a loving family, a good few friends, and all a child could ever want. Naturally, you had a tiny rebellious streak - but what child doesn't? Your rebellious streak had led down a much more appeasing path than one might have thought, though. You made a friend through it. Another elf, like yourself, by the name of Astarion. The two of you became fast friends - you thoroughly enjoyed his company and various quips he'd come up with. He enjoyed the more quiet, light hearted jokes you'd make. A slightly unlikely pair, the two of you, but an inseparable one nonetheless.

You spent the nearly the entirety of your youth together. Astarion went into Law studies, eventually becoming a Magistrate - and a damn good one, at that. He may not have been the most liked Magistrate in the city, but he was fair, for the most part. You, in turn, went into politics, becoming equally renowned for your prowess of speech. You were well respected, to say the least, to the point that there was a very large crowd who would follow you almost blindly when you made a suggestion for the city. The friendship between you and Astarion was very much a benefit, for both of you; Astarion could help you from time to time with the Legalese of your political rivals, and you kept him up to date with every single law that was freshly passed, typically on the day it was passed; a privilege that very few magistrates had, as most were brought into the loop within the next day or so. Word could travel slow within the world of law, at times.

You had this somewhat unspoken agreement between you for several years. The pair of you liked it that way - although you had your fair share of naysayers, saying how it was 'unfair' or 'too below board', the pair of you ignored it for the most part. It wasn't like the two of you were taking bribes from outer sources to change things, or to let things slide. Or, at least, you thought so.

One morning, you had expected a letter from the Elven Magistrate - a reply to a question (or, rather, several) you had sent him about some scripture a few days prior. But it never arrived, no matter how many times you checked, or pestered the one carrying the post. It didn't come the next day, either. Or the next. Or even the next. You tried not to worry about it, there were some points where Astarion was just too swamped with various cases to reply to your missives; as important as you were, he did put his job before most else. So you decided to wait.

After a week had passed, you had become truly concerned - this was more than just unusual, this was downright worrying. Astarion had never gone that long without contacting you - not even when the pair of you had had disagreements in the past. Though he was certainly a fickle creature, he had never been this bad. So, you took it upon yourself to give his household a personal visit. The journey there was much quicker for you than most would have assumed; being someone of such importance and high standing in Baldur's Gate made people very eager to be out of your way, rather than obstructing it. But when you arrived, there was no cordial greeting from the elf, nor even a flicker of a drape. For all intents and purposes, it looked almost as if there were no one home - besides, of course, the obvious care that the few servants he had employed had paid to the small estate and it's accompanying garden. As you briskly approach the door, and raise your hand to knock, a rather nervous looking gardener cleared his throat to get your attention.

"Apol.. Apologies, Laird.." He stumbled over his words as he addressed you, and clearly couldn't bring himself to meet your eye. "His worship isn't here at the present time..." "That much is obvious." You replied, sharply. "I'm sure his Steward would be happy to let him know that I paid a visit, would he not?" "... Stefan is also, not here right now... He's.. He's with the constabulary..." Your blood ran cold at this. The constabulary? Why in the hells would the steward be there? This could only mean trouble. Your glare, focused on the gardener, urges him to continue. "H-he's been there since this morning - his worship is, um.." He trails off, his voice audibly wobbling as he does. "His worship is what?" You ask through gritted teeth, taking a slow, but meaningful step towards him. "Missing- ... His worship is missing, your grace..." The gardener was trying to hide his nerves and failing spectacularly. Some things start to click into place inside your mind. "For how long?" You ask, your volume dropping. "Just over a week, your grace..." That's why he hadn't responded to your letters.

You lapsed into silence, as the gardener hurriedly explained to you all that he could recall about the situation; the morning that he had disappeared was like every other morning. He got up for breakfast, and made some idle chatter about what he was expecting for that day. The gardener scrambled to list a few of the things that his employer had mentioned - there were three cases of petty thievery, mostly concerning Gur and others that lived outside of the main city walls, that had been blown out of proportion, a property dispute, and a few cases of various assaults that had made it to court. To your knowledge, there was nothing out of the ordinary at all. Not to mention, the gardener didn't mention any unusual behaviour from the elf. Not that he would notice it anyway, to be fair to him, but at least he was trying to be helpful. A curt farewell to the fellow followed, and you were quick to leave - even quicker were you to call for an investigation into Astarion's disappearance following the Steward's report to the Flaming Fist. The search went on for near four months - you refused to let the Fist simply file this as a cold case. It was a perk, you seem to recall being told by another friend of yours, of being in the public eye so much, and being in such good standing. The Flaming Fist simply couldn't afford to displease you on this matter, lest you speak out and entirely tarnish their reputation as a law-force. But, eventually, both you and them had to admit that there was nothing more you could do - Astarion was gone, and there was absolutely no sign of him.

Naturally, you began to mourn. Your childhood friend, just... Gone. Of course, you didn't know if he was dead, but he might as well have been. It felt strange in your day to day life, catching yourself thinking about the next time the two of you would have afternoon tea, or exchange letters, only to have to remind yourself that those pass-times would be no more. As your grief deepened over the next few months, you started to accept the fact that maybe he was dead. Astarion - as wonderful a magistrate as he was - wasn't always the best at staying on people's good sides. But he was so young, for our kind. You'd think to yourself. The more thought you gave it, the more it tragic it became to you. Your childhood best friend, your closest confidant, gone before even his 50th birthday. But, time moved forward, and eventually you did too - never entirely forgetting the man, but beginning to think about him less and less. What was the use in dwelling on things that couldn't be changed? You thought about him from time to time, but came to accept that whatever had happened to him, he wasn't coming back to the city, if he was even still alive.

That was, until you found yourself amidst a mindflayer invasion. You had heard whispers, of course - who hadn't? But to see one of your fellow politicians warp, mutate, and change before your eyes... It was horrid. Nauseating. Thankfully, some deep-rooted need for survival took hold of you, and you broke into a run, trying to flee the creature before it could get it's newly-formed tentacles wrapped around your head. Scampering out into the street, you saw that you were not the only one who had been ambushed by someone suddenly undergoing ceremorphosis. The streets were in chaos - you could hardy even dwell on what had become of the city before you were on the run again, sprinting down various alleyways in an attempt to flee the hundreds of mindflayers amongst the populous. When your legs grow sore, and your lungs short of breath, you wearily come to a stop. Your hands rest on your thighs as you try in vain to recover from your sprint. You were so wrapped up in trying to figure out what in the hells was going on, that you don't hear the wet, smacking sound of a mindflayer trailing up behind you.

"Look out, you fool!" Was all you heard before being pushed to the ground - out of the way of the horrid purple creature that had nearly caught you by surprise. You didn't really get a good look at your saviour to begin with; his face was obscured by the sun. All you could make out was the tips of his pointed ears, and how some of his curls had nestled around them. You paused, watching as the figure made sure the illithid was dead with a flurry of blows from his dagger. "Gods, are all of you city dwellers this blind?" He scoffed, with a 'holier-than-thou' tone. It was one you felt was... Oddly familiar. No, more... You knew that voice. Your brows furrow, as you slowly push yourself to your feet to come eye-to-eye with the man who saved you. Red eyes glare back at you - piercing and, in a way... Keen. "Well?" The man says, impatiently. There's a rather... Upper City edge to his accent, making it all the more familiar. "... No. We're not." You reply, almost deadpan. "But... Thank you." You reply, trying to show at least some decorum. Your saviour pauses, something in his eyes... Shifting. He seemed almost shocked, but he was quick to recover. "Well, make sure it doesn't happen again." He seems quite smarmy - a small smirk gracing his features, making his eyes crinkle. "I can't go around saving everyone, you know..."

And then it clicks. You know where you've seen that face before.

"Astarion?" Your voice is quiet, unsure. Part of you can hardly believe - or maybe, doesn't want to believe - that Astarion is standing in front of you. He looks different, now. His hair is white, even paler than what it used to be, but it still curls around his ears just the same. His eyes are a deep red, and as he starts to practically sneer at you, you can just about make out the fangs that now reside in his mouth. "Is.. Is that really you?" You mumble, just barely managing to stop yourself from reaching out to him. Astarion stares at you for a few moments longer, before the sneer that had put itself upon his lips melted away, replaced with something much, much softer - something almost mourning. Something in your chest begins to ache, and you realise you had begun to cry as you feel wet tears trail down your cheeks. The elf just seems stunned. "Gods, it's been centuries-" You take a step towards him as you speak, and he takes an instinctive step backwards. "It... Has.." He says, slowly. He seems quite unsure of himself - caught off guard, even, by your presence. "You... Look well." He tells you. This isn't quite the Astarion you remember, he's much more reserved now. Or perhaps he's just nervous. "You look... Different." You echo back to him, and you see him visibly swallow. That must be a sore spot for him. He opens his mouth to speak, then sighs. "It's... A long story." He tried to avoid your gaze, and you could remember him well enough to know not to pry- especially now that you were pressed for time. He glances over his shoulder as something booms off in the distance. He curses under his breath, before turning back to you. "... How about this? We can be all sappy after this world-ending crisis is stopped... If we both survive." He says to you, and you slowly nod in agreement. Standing here for too long could get the both of you killed. "When this is over.." He continues, "I will meet with you... Say... One of our old haunts - the tavern, near where you used to live... And I will tell as much as I can..." He offered you a smile as he spoke, and you could see those sharpened teeth of his more clearly. Something wasn't just different about him, something was wrong - but, for the most part, he still seemed to act like the Astarion you used to know. You consider it for a moment - what could go wrong, should you both survive? - Before nodding softly. "It's a deal... I shall wait for you." You tell him, pushing down the myriad of growing questions that you had for him. How was he still alive? Where had he been? Why did he look so... Different? He gives a slight chuckle - you hadn't changed much at all, in his eyes. You were still that same sly, snarky politician he had known in those centuries past. He gave a rather playful bow to you, falling back into his old ways. "I shall try not to keep you waiting for too long.." You could hear the smirk on his lips as he spoke, before he rose to his full height again, his expression falling. "Now, go - find somewhere safe... And do try not to let anymore Mindflayers sneak up on you, I won't be able to help with those ones..." He murmurs. "I am, unfortunately, needed elsewhere..." He tells you, starting to march forward, dagger still in hand. You start to call out to him, but you're hardly through the first word of your sentence when Astarion calls over his shoulder to you. "Just go!" You have few other options but to do as he says, ducking into another alley and taking refuge in a partially destroyed home. You hoped to remain at least somewhat safe, here... You'd have your thoughts and theories on the other Elf to keep you company, at least. You clasped your hands together as you sunk to the floor to remain out of sight to anyone who may peer inside the building, quietly praying, to any God that may listen to one measly mortal, that the pair of you may live through this.

At least, until you saw him again.

[canmom]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, 000-012

Or, what if that mural was the heart of a web serial.

I'm reading The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, thanks largely to the enthusiasm of @azdoine and @lukore on my dash over the last few months.

This is absolutely not gonna be a liveblog in the level of detail of the great Umineko liveblog project. Rather I'm gonna be aiming at something like the comics comints series or those occasional posts on anime. Or indeed what I wrote about Worth The Candle last year. I must create a robot whose purpose is to watch to see if I start writing detailed plot summaries and hit me with a stick labelled 'remember you have a job now'.

That outta the way, let's talk flower!

No, not that flower!

I will start with an anecdote. When I was at university, I ended up attending a talk by court alchemist senescence researcher Aubrey de Grey, who at that time did not yet have a 'sexual harassment allegations' section on his Wikipedia page. The main thing that struck me at the time was his rather spectacularly long beard. But I did listen to his talk about ending aging.

de Grey's schtick is that he, like many people in the transhumanist milieu, believes that medical technology is on the cusp of being able to prevent aging sufficiently well to prolong human lifespans more or less indefinitely. He believes that the different processes of aging can be understood in terms of various forms of accumulating cellular 'damage', and that these will begin to be addressed within present human lifespans, buying time for further advancements - so that (paraphrasing from memory) 'the first immortals have already been born'. He has some pretty graphs to demonstrate this point.

At that talk, one of the audience members asked de Grey the (in my view) very obvious question about whether access to this technology would be distributed unevenly, creating in effect an immortal ruling class. de Grey scoffed at this, saying he always gets this question, and basically he didn't think it would be a big deal. I forget his exact words, but he seemed to assume the tech would trickle down sooner or later, and this was no reason not to pursue it.

I'm sure de Grey is just as tired of being reminded of how unbalanced access to medical technology is in our current world, or the differences in average life expectancy between countries.

So, I was very strongly reminded of de Grey as The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere laid out its major thematic concerns and characters. I was also put in mind of many online arguments in the transhumanist milieu about whether it would be a good thing, in principle, to end death.

In particular, of course, comes to mind transhumanist Nick Bostrom's short story The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant, in which death is likened to a huge dragon that demands to be fed trains full of humans every day. In the story, humanity's scientists secretly build a giant gun to kill the dragon. Naturally, despite all the doubters and naysayers who foolishly feel obliged to justify the existence of the dragon, the gun works. Bostrom's imagery is incredibly heavy-handed (particularly the trains à la Auschwitz), but just in case you didn't get it, he also spells out the moral explicit at the end: basically, every day not spent putting resources to abolishing death is adding up more and more bodies to the pile of people who don't get to be immortal.

So far, Flower seems to be shaping up to be a critical intervention into that milieu, with a much more grounded view of death and a much stronger model of society - admittedly not a high bar but it's going good so far!

At the time of writing this commentary, I have read the prologue and first two six-chapter arcs, namely Mankind's Shining Future (1-6) and Pilgrimage to the Deep (7-12).

the general shape of things

We are introduced - from the perspective of sardonic, introverted Su, who is going to be the protagonist of our time loop - to a group of brilliant young medical wizards, who have just been invited to visit the headquarters of a secret society whose mission is precisely to abolish death. Su's grandfather was some kind of controversial luminary who was expelled this organisation, and he also did something to her, which is giving her some kind of ulterior motive to find her way into this society.

We know pretty much from the outset that this is a time loop scenario: Su has been explicitly given the opportunity to replay the scenario in the hopes of find an alternative outcome, by some kind of presently mysterious parties. This first part is the 'control' loop, i.e. probably more or less how things went down 'originally'.

I believe Umineko is an explicit inspiration for this story, and the influence is pretty evident. But parallels with the Locked Tomb series, especially Gideon the Ninth, are also quite noticeable. @lukore spoke of it as the STEM to Locked Tomb's humanities, and I can already kinda see it, although we haven't got into the real meat of the scenario yet. This story began serialisation four years ago, making the two works roughly contemporary. The latest chapter was published in the last couple of weeks - no idea if I've arrived just in time for the ending!

Stylistically, it's generally pretty heavy on dialogue and long asides. The characters are a bunch of mega nerds who love to have big philosophical and political discussions, but their dynamics are well enough realised and their dynamics clear enough that it can double up as naturalistic characterisation. So far, the discussions have been interesting to read.

Below I'm going to make some notes and comments on various elements of the setting and story. In a followup post (because it got too long) I'm going to talk a lot about entropy. Perhaps you will find this interesting!

the world

The first few chapters are dedicated pretty hard to exposition. We find ourselves in a distant-future setting - one in which it seems reality has totally collapsed and then been rebuilt using magic, creating a somewhat oddball universe which lacks things like the element iron, and also electromagnetism. This seems like it would have pretty severe implications for just about everything!

However, the 'ironworkers' have, after producing a series of trial and error 'lower planes' that didn't quite get it right, landed on a fairly close approximation of how things used to be on the old world. Though by 'fairly close approximation' I mean like... it's a bowl-shaped world and the sun and stars are artificial lanterns. But still, there are humans, and they seem to work more or less like we're used to humans working, apart from the whole 'magic' thing.

So, an alt-physics setting. Praise Aealacreatrananda, I love that shit.

While electromagnetism might be out, the more abstract physical principles like thermodynamics still apply, and the humans of this universe have managed to find analogues to a number of things in our world. Instead of computers, they have 'logic engines' which run on magic. Horses seem to have made it in, so we get delightful blends of historical and futuristic concepts like a self-driving computer-controlled horse-drawn carriage taxi.

The biggest difference is of course that in this setting, magic - more on that in a bit - has solved most medical problems and humans routinely live to around 500. The setting is ostensibly a semi-post-scarcity one, although a form of money exists in 'luxury debt', which can be exchanged for things like taxi rides, café food and trips on the space elevator.

Politically, we are told that the world has enjoyed a few hundred years of general peace, broken in living memory by a revolution which put an end to a regime of magical secrecy. There are lots of countries, and an alliance overseeing them.

There's a few other oddities in this world. Something called a 'prosognostic event' can happen if you see someone who has the same face as you, and whatever this is, it's bad enough news that everyone is constantly reminded to veil their faces in public and there's some kind of infant 'distinction treatment' to mitigate the risk. Given that, in the regular world, nothing particularly bad would happen if you ran into a long-lost identical twin, it suggest there is probably something a little fucky about how humans work in this world!

There's evidently a fair bit of effort put into the worldbuilding of fictional countries and historical periods. The important elements seem to be roughly along the lines of:

our world is currently in what they call the 'old kingdoms' period, which is poorly remembered;

next up comes an 'imperial' period of high transhumanist shenanigans in which society was ruled by 'gerontocrats' who got exclusive access to the longevity treatment, but this all somehow led to a huge disaster which destroyed og earth;

the survivors built the Mimikos where humanity currently lives using magic and created some kind of huge iron spike that holds the universe together; there was subsequently a 'fundamentalist' period in which a strict cutoff point was put on human lifespans and a lot of the wackier magic was banned;

now we're onto a new era of openness following a small revolution, while the major political structures remain largely intact.

Writing a far-future setting is hard, because trying to deal with the weight of history without the story getting bogged down with worldbuilding details is a fiddly line to walk. The Dying Earth series of Jack Vance might be a relevant point of comparison. Vance leaves the historical details vague - there are endless old kingdoms and strange artefacts and micro-societies for Cugel and co. to stumble on. Far more important than the specifics of history is establishing the vibe of a world that's seen an unimaginable amount of events layered on top of each other and is honestly a bit tired.

Flower makes things a bit more concrete and generally manages to make this work decently well. I do appreciate the asides where Su talks about, for example, the different architectural styles that layer up to make a place, or the way a technique has been refined. It establishes both that Su is the kind of person to notice this sort of thing, and also helps the world feel lived-in.

the names

The story doesn't do a lot with language. The story is written in English, and the narration will occasionally make reference to how things are phrased (e.g. how divination predates the suffix -mancy). We can probably make the standard assumption that this is all translated from $future_language, with the notional translator making a suitable substitution of whatever linguistic forms exist in that language.

The characters are named in a variety of languages. Our main character's full name is Utsushikome of Fusai. We're told that this is "an old name from Kutuy, and means something like 'mysterious child'" - so Kutuyan is one of the languages spoken in this world. It's blatantly got the same phonotactics as Japanese, and indeed if I search up 'Utsushikome', I find an obscure historical figure called Utsushikome-no-Mikoto, wife of the Emperor Kōgen; she has no article on English Wikipedia, but she does have a brief one on Japanese wiki. Just as Su says about Kutuyan, 'Utsushikome' is written 欝色謎 in Japanese, but it relies on archaic readings of those characters and wouldn't read that way in modern Japanese. We could perhaps assume a good old translation convention is in effect where Kutuyan is replaced with Japanese.

A lot of characters have Greek names, as do various setting elements. One exception is Kamrusepa, or Kam, who is named for an ancient goddess of medicine worshipped by the Hittites and Luwians. I know basically fuck all about Hittites and Luwians but it's a cool little nod to mythology, and it won't be the only one!

I'll run down a list of characters and my comments about them in a bit. But many are named after gods or other mythological figures.

the magic

Most of the divergences come from magic existing. Certain humans are 'arcanists', who are able to use the 'Power', which is a magic system with a highly computational flavour. Thanks to Su's expositional asides, we know that an incantation is something like a short program written in cuneiform with the ability to gather information, perform maths, and manipulate particles. An example we are given is a spell called "entropy-denying", which is the following string of cuneiform:

"…(𒌍𒌷𒀭)(𒌍𒁁𒀭)𒅥𒌈𒆜𒈣𒂠, 𒋢𒀀𒅆𒌫𒃶,𒈬𒊹."

We're told that spells always start with phrases ending in 𒀭, and end in 𒊹. Beyond that, I'm not sure how far the author has actually worked out the syntax of this magic system - probably not in too much detail! Seems like the kind of thing it's better to leave vague, but also she seems like kind of nerd who would (positive). It's conceptually a reasonable magic system for a world where more or less realistic physics applies.

The use of unusual scripts for a magic system isn't that unusual - the old European occultists who wrote the [Lesser] Key of Solomon loved to write on their magic circles in Hebrew, and in modern times we could mention Yoko Taro's signature use of the Celestial Alphabet for example - but the specific use of cuneiform here seems like it might be a little more significant, because a little later in the story the characters encounter a mural depicting The Epic of Gilgamesh, which of course was recorded on cuneiform tablets. Remains to be seen exactly what these allusions will mean!

The magic system is divided into various disciplines defined by the different ways they approach doing magic, with the disciplines breaking down broadly along the same lines as the modern scientific disciplines. For example, our protagonist is a thanatomancer ("necromancer" having become unfashionable), which is the discipline dealing with death; she's specifically an entropic thanatomancer, distinguished by their framework viewing death as the cessation of processes.

Magic relies on an energy that they refer to as 'eris' (unknown relation to the Greek goddess of strife and discord). We are told that eris must be carefully apportioned across the elements of a spell or shit blows up, that it can be stored, and it accumulates gradually enough that you don't want to be wasteful with it, but so far given little information about where it comes from.

Magic in this story generally seems to act as a kind of 'sufficiently advanced technology'. It's very rules-based, and used for a lot of mundane ends like operating computers or transport. Advancement in magic is something like a combination of basic research and software development. But the thing that makes it a magic system and not merely alt-physics is that it's at least a little bit personal: it must be invoked by an individual, and only certain people can operate the magic. We're told a little about how wizards are privileged in some societies, indoctrinated in social utility in others, and expected to be inconspicuous in the present setting. It's not clear yet if you need some kind of special innate capacity to do the magic, or if it's just a matter of skill issue.

With one exception, our main characters are a gaggle of wizards, and exceptionally skilled students at that. They're at an elite institution, carrying high expectations, even if they are themselves fairly dismissive of the pomp and ceremony. They have grandiose plans: Kamrusepa in particular is the main voice of the 'death should be abolished' current.

the cast

We're entering a cloistered environment with high political stakes hanging off of it. Even if I hadn't already heard it described as a murder mystery, it would feel like someone will probably be murdered at some point, so lets round up our future suspects.

Su (Utsushikome) is our protagonist and first-person POV. She's telling this story in the first past tense, with a style calling to mind verbal narration; she'll occasionally allude to future events so we know for sure narrator!Su knows more than present!Su. She's got a sardonic streak and she likes long depressing antijokes, especially if the punchline is suicide. She will happily tell us she's a liar - so maybe her narration isn't entirely reliable, huh.

Su is more than a little judgemental; she doesn't particularly like a lot of her classmates, or people in general, and generally the first thing she'll tell you about a character is how well she gets on with them. She introduces the theme of 'wow death sucks' in the first paragraph, but she is, at least at this point, pessimistic that anyone will manage to do anything about it for good.

Her magical specialisation is entropic thanatomancy, roughly making processes go again after they working coherently.

Her name is a reference to an obscure Japanese empress, as discussed above.

Ran is Su's bestie from the same home country. She is generally pretty on the level. She likes romance novels and she is pretty sharp at analysing them. She will cheerfully team up with Su to do a bit or bait someone else when an argument gets going.

Her magical specialisation is Divination, which is sort of a more fundamental layer of magic, about gathering information by any means. In medicine it's super advanced diagnostics.

Her name is too short to pin down to a specific allusion. Could be one of a couple of disciple of Confucius such as Ran Geng, or a Norse goddess of the sea.

Kam (Kamrusepa) is the de facto class prez and spotlight lover. She's hardcore ideological, the story's main voice of the de Grey/Bostrom death-abolishing concept so far - I think she straight up calls someone a 'deathist' at some point. She loves to tell everyone what she thinks about everything, and getting the last word.

Her magical specialisation is Chronomancy, so time magic. It's described as secretive and byzantine, but also it can do stuff like (locally?) rewind time for about five minutes. No doubt it has something to do with the time loop.

As mentioned above, she's named after a fairly obscure ancient deity of healing and magic.

Theo (Theodoros) is a fairly minor character. He's scatterbrained and easily flustered, he has a similar background to our protagonist, and he's not great with people. His name is shared with a number of ancient Greek figures, so it's hard to narrow it down to one allusion. I don't think his magic school has been mentioned.

Ptolema is a cheery outgoing one, someone who Su dismisses as an airhead. And she is at least easy to bait into saying something ill-considered. Her specialisation is applying magic to surgery. As a character, she tends to act as a bit of a foil to the others. Bit of a valley girl thing going on.

'Ptolema' is presumably a feminised version of the renowned Greek philosopher Ptolemy.

Seth is the jock to Ptolema's prep, and our goth protag Su doesn't particularly like him either. ...lol maybe that's too flippant, I may be misapplying these US high school stereotypes. To be a little more precise then, he's pretty casual in demeanour, flirty, likes to play the clown. He specialises in Assistive Biomancy, which revolves around accelerating natural healing processes.

Seth is named for either the Egyptian god (domain: deserts, violence and foreigners) or an Abrahamic figure, the third son of Adam and Eve granted by God after the whole Caim killing Abel thing.

Ophelia is someone Su describes as 'traditionally feminine' - soft-spoken, demure etc. (Gender in this world appears to be constructed along broadly similar lines to ours). Indeed we get a fairly extended description of her appearance. Her specialisation is Alienist Biomancy, which means introducing foreign elements to healing (not entirely sure how that differs from the Golemancy mentioned later).

Ophelia is of course a major character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, best known for going mad and dying in a river.

Fang is the only nonbinary member of the class, noted as the most academically successful. They're not on the expedition, but the characters discuss them a little in their absence, so maybe they'll show up later. It seems like they have a bit of a rebellious streak. Their magical specialisation is not mentioned.

Fang is a regular ol' English word, but I gave it a search all the same and found there's an ancient Chinese alchemist of that name. She is the oldest recorded woman to do an alchemy in China, said to know how to turn mercury into silver.

Lilith is the teenaged prodigy in computers logic engines, and Mehit is her mother who accompanies her on the trip. They've got a big Maria and Rosa (of Umineko) dynamic going on, with Mehit constantly scolding Lilith and trying to get her to obey social norms, though in contrast to Maria, Lilith is a lot more standoffish and condescending to the rest of the gang. Lilith specialises in 'Golemancy', which means basically medical robotics - prosthetic limbs and such. She spends most of her time fiddling with her phone logic engine, and will generally tell anyone who talks to her that they're an idiot. Sort of a zoomer stereotype.

Lilith is named for the Abrahamic figure, the disobedient first wife of Adam who was banished and, according to some Jewish traditions, subsequently became a demon who attacks women at night. There may be some connection between Lilith and the lioness-headed Mesopotamian chimeric monster Lamashtu, which I mention because Mehit is an Egyptian and Nubian lion goddess.

'Golemancy' is probably playing on the popular fantasy idea of a 'golem' as a kind of magic robot, but given the Jewish allusion in Lilith's name here, I do wonder a little bit if it's going to touch on the Jewish stories of the Golem which inspired it - a protective figure with a specific religious dimension.

There are some other characters but they're not part of the main party on their way to the function, so I won't say much about them just yet. Also it's entirely possible I went and forgot an entire classmate or something, big whoops if so.

the events

In true Umineko tradition, the beginning of the story narrates in great detail how the protagonists make their way to the place where the plot is going to happen.

To be fair, there's a lot of groundwork to be laid here, and the characters' discussions do a lot to lay out the concerns of the story and sketch out the setting, not to mention establish the major character relations. A murder mystery takes a certain amount of setup after all! There's plenty of sci-fi colour to be had in the 'aetherbridge', which is a kind of space elevator that lifts you up to a high altitude teleporter network. (It's technically not teleportation but 'transposition', since teleportation magic also exists in the story, with different restrictions! But close enough for government work.)

They go to a huge space citadel, which is kind of a transport hub; some cloak and dagger shit happens to hide the route they must take to the mysterious secret organisation. They find a strange room with a missing floor and a mural of the Epic of Gilgamesh, albeit modified to render it cyclic. What does it meeaaaan?

The idea of a secret society of rationalists is one that dates back to the dawn of ratfic, in HPMOR. It was kinda dumb then, but it works a lot better here, where we're approaching the wizard circle from outside. The phrase 'Great Work' has already been dropped. I love that kind of alchemical shit so I'm well into finding out what these wizards are plotting.

the dying

A lot of the discussions revolve around the mechanics of death. Essentially the big problem for living forever is information decay. Simple cancers can be thwarted fairly easily with the magic techniques available, but more subtle genetic slippages start to emerge after the first few hundred years; later, after roughly the 500 year mark, a form of dementia becomes inevitable. It's this dementia in particular that the characters set their sights on curing.

One thing that is interesting to me is that, contra a lot of fantasy that deals with necromancy (notably the Locked Tomb series), there appears to be no notion of a soul in this world whatsoever. The body is all that there is. Indeed, despite all the occult allusions in the character names, there is very little in the way of religion for that matter. Even the 'fundamentalism' is about an idea of human biological continuity that shouldn't be messed with too much.

Su distinguishes three schools of thought on death, namely 'traditional', 'transformative' and 'entropic'. The 'traditional' form attempts to restore limited function - classic skeleton shit. 'Transformative' sees death as a process and uses dead tissues together with living in healing. Su's 'entropic' school broadens this 'process' view to consider death as any kind of loss of order - a flame going out as much as an organism dying. At the outset of the story, Su has discovered a 'negentropic' means to restore life to an organism, which she considers promising, even if for now it only works for fifteen minutes.

This is an interesting perspective, but the devil is in the details. Because processes such as life or flames, necessarily, result in a continuous increase in the thermodynamic entropy of the universe. And yet this idea of death-as-loss-of-order does make a kind of sense, at a certain level of abstraction.

Elaborating on this got rather too long for this post, and I think it can stand alone, so I'm going to extract it to a followup post.

the comments

As is probably evident by the length of this post, I am very intrigued by The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere. The setting is compelling, and it seems like it's got the willingness to bite at the chewy questions it raises instead of acting like it has all the answers, which is I think one of the most crucial elements for this kind of scifi. I like how unabashed it is at having its characters straight-up debate shit.

Of course, this all depends where they go with it. There's so many ways it could be headed at this point. I hear where it's going is 'dark yuri' and 'Umineko-inspired murder mystery', so that should be really juicy fun, but I do end up wondering what space that will leave to address the core theme it's laid out in these first few chapters.

Overall, if this and Worth the Candle are what modern ratfic is like, the genre is honestly in pretty good shape! Of course, I am reading very selectively. But this is scratching the itch of 'the thing I want out of science fiction', so I'm excited to see where the next 133 chapters will take me.

Though all that said, I ended up writing this post all day instead of reading any other chapters or working, so I may need to rein it in a bit.

[odessa-2]

Wigging Out

For all the naysayers and peeps in serious denial. For all the gaslighters and the ones that mock those who have fucking eyeballs and a brain. For all the confused and the fence sitters. For all the Kevin-o- Holics and those who proclaim that it's a ridiculous thought to believe Sam wore a wig on THAT day ........

The pic on the right was Sam working out at EDA in early February 2023. It is crystal clear he is wearing almost a full wig. The nape of his neck clearly visible; hence allowing that very distinct hairline at his nape to be in full view. The pic on left is for comparison.

His custom fit hairpieces and wigs do NOT cover his entire skull and neck. They blend into his hair.

CASE CLOSED. 🗂✔

[thyandrawrites]

Casually dropping this here too to piss off all the "dabi&twice were close" naysayers

Dabi speaks with his actions, not with his words, and his body language is relaxed and open and shows that he's clearly comfortable around Jin. I will die on this hill.

Actually, looking closer, his legs are up on the sofa, shielding him from the rest of the group. He's still an introvert, sitting on one edge of the couch, close enough to engage with the others enough and be part of the group, but still choosing the corner of the room as his preferred spot to hang out. Yet, his torso is turned toward the other occupant(s) of the couch, his arms loose and resting comfortably on a knee and on the back of the sofa. He's not closing off. He's not hanging out by himself, standing stiffly and looking out of place as usual, but posed like he's giving his attention to Twice, maybe to Hawks. He's bored, possibly, with his head resting on his knuckles, but still turned that way, with a stance that's open enough to encourage a conversation.

Now, it's no secret that Dabi is a lone wolf.

Even when he does hang out with the League, he still doesn't particularly engage with them more than he has to. Look at him sitting alone on the couch, with space on either side of him. His body language doesn't show that he's uncomfortable around them, but his arms are crossed in front of his chest in a closed off, defensive stance. The others are playing around with each other, eating sushi and bantering, with Dabi as the only one who refuses the food and the companionship vibe. He's here for business, not to socialize.

Dabi does this a lot, intentionally or not. He draws himself a little away from others, hanging around at the edges of the group, standing by himself, keeping everyone at a arm's length. He's used to relying on himself and himself alone. He grew up feeling like his family wanted him to buzz off, so as an adult he does the opposite of what he did as a child. Instead of begging people to pay attention to him, now he's the one who keeps his distance first. He pushes everyone away, acts like a dick to them to make sure they don't expect anything from him (so he can't disappoint them) and doesn't partake in social activities if he doesn't feel obligated to.

In other words, Dabi wasn't always a lone wolf. He became one after failure to connect after failure to connect stacked up, and he began to believe he was better off by himself.

Enter Twice.

Twice is the anthitesis of Dabi. Besides the obvious differences in demeanour (Dabi is a quiet, contemplative introvert, while Jin is a boisterous extrovert), they also markedly react to their trauma in opposite ways. While loneliness made Dabi close himself off and refuse companionship, in Twice's case it made him cling to the League with a fervor and a protective streak a mile wide.

They couldn't be any more different. Dabi's the resident feral cat who hisses at anyone getting too close, and Twice is a guy who is so friendly he could befriend a rock. If you tried to put a name to their relationship, you'd struggle to define it. They're not quite friends because Dabi doesn't entertain the concept of friendship, and they're not just comrades because—despite Dabi's self-denial—their bond is not impersonal and business-like, either. But Twice's insistence on treating every league member like family cracked a bit of Dabi's shell, too, and the way this is shown is so subtle. The cover art above is one of its most obvious examples, but not the first.

This was fairly early in the series. They didn't know each other well yet. They had no real obligations to soothe each other's feelings, but the moment Dabi agrees with the sentiment and self-deprecates, Twice hurries to reassure Dabi that he's strong, too. As far as we know, this was the first time Twice showed him his penchant for contradicting himself.

I find this interesting for two reasons: one, Dabi hates being seen as weak. He especially loathes the gap between himself and the "gifted" heroes. Yet he doesn't take the remark to heart, accepting it with an apathetic expression. Almost like he knows that Twice doesn't mean it. Which brings me to point two, Dabi is typically a dick. He doesn't care if he's hitting a sore spot. When he feels insulted—or when he feels like it, really—he's very quick to turn a sharp remark against others. He's not delicate about it, either, calling Toga a freak, Spinner a lizard, insulting Shigaraki's hands... Those are all things that relate to their trauma. Yet, I can't remember Dabi ever targeting Twice's mental condition. He notably doesn't do it here, where it would fall in Dabi's typical patterns for retaliation.

Their interaction reads entirely like banter. It's almost... Friendly. Dabi should feel offended, but he's completely chill, dismissing it as Twice just being Twice, and that's the closest thing to acceptance we'll ever outright see from him. With him, you gotta read between the lines.

This banters of theirs extends throughout the manga.

I know what you're thinking. I'm stretching it. They're literally fighting here. How can I take this as a sign of closeness?

Well. Dabi provoking people into being cross at him is pretty par of the course. It's just how he is. And Twice getting so invested in things that his emotions get the better of him is also hardly surprising. But what's interesting here is that by now, they're familiar enough with each other's outbursts that Dabi sees the mock-attack coming and instinctively knows when to duck out of its range. He didn't turn, either, so it's not a matter of fast reflexes. He just... Knows Twice. Knows that saying what he said would push his buttons, but not enough for a real brawl to break out, so he says it anyway and ducks with practiced ease. The action is so casual it's almost like its not the first time they roughhoused like this.

I would bet that it's not. Their bond is often told through all these subtle details. Here, for example, Twice is being his usual self and draping himself over clone!Dabi with his usual friendly familiarity. These people are his family, and Twice is a physical contact kind of guy. I'm fairly sure he would hug a cactus if cacti were to suddenly develop feelings and looked particularly lonely.

But what amuses me is Dabi's reaction. He's pushing Jin's face away, again on autopilot, but not shrugging off... Well, the rest of him. Because Jin is currently hugging Dabi's back, thumping his chest like Dabi's his favourite bro, and slinking an arm around his shoulder for good measure.

Again, the familiarity is in the details. Dabi doesn't play nice to soothe feelings. When he doesn't want to do something, he says so. Loudly. How he acts around Twice is not a ploy to get Twice to be favorably inclined towards him, either, because he doesn't need to butter Jin up. Jin was already his defense lawyer since training camp. But the fact that deep down under that bundle of trauma, Dabi cares about him in turn, is a fact you only notice when you care to look at their body language around each other.

My final (and favourite) offering is this high five. The camaraderie in this gesture is the closest thing we've ever seen to Dabi reciprocating Twice's friendship.

Tell me one time when we've seen Dabi act this buddy-buddy to any other League member.

Dabi... Dabi doesn't high five people. In fact, the only other time we've seen him initiate physical contact with someone was when he slung an arm around Hawks' shoulders during his introduction to the Plf, and that was an obvious power play. He was intimidating him. He was daring him to shrug off the touch and show that he was uncomfortable in front of the whole army (which Hawks obviously couldn't do) or play along, accept the touch, and thus implicitly Dabi's power over him as one of his new bosses.

But this high five here is not a scheme; there is no power play involved because Twice is the same rank as Dabi, a fellow commander of a Plf regiment, and a trusted ally that Dabi goes back to defend.

I find this scene significant because if Dabi was really as selfish, ruthless and manipulate as he poses for his villain persona, he should've been mad at Twice. Furious, even.

Yet, when Twice was bawling his eyes out, realizing he's the one who gave Hawks the intel to send a flock of heroes against the whole League, Dabi remarkably doesn't blame him. This faux pas could've easily undone part of Dabi's carefully planned revenge. If killing Twice was enough, on its own, to make his goals a little harder to achieve, as Dabi tells us, you can imagine what losing the League as a whole would do. If the PLF was annihilated here, Dabi would no longer have the platform he needs to be seen as a threat during the broadcast.

However, despite the fact that Twice gave away vital information and prompted the raid, Dabi knows where to direct the real blame, and it's not Jin. As he's running up the stairs to lend him help, he's thinking "Twice. This isn't your fault. As always, those scummy heroes are to blame."

And sure, Dabi might still rationalize it as defending his interests because Twice is an important pawn in his revenge plan... blahblahblah...

But why the high five.

Why not just telling Twice "the others are waiting for you" and let him reach them as he deals with Hawks? Why bothering to slap his palm as Jin passes by, if not because Dabi simply... Wanted to?

Again, let me repeat that Twice was bawling his eyes out. A pro hero was there to see him cry through his struggles, to see him yell and thrash around, begging to be heard, and only offered silence in return.

Sounds familiar yet?

Yes, yes, I'm saying exactly what you think I'm saying.

In that moment, Dabi saw himself in Twice, saw his own childhood, and extended that hand to high five him out of sympathy, cameraderie, because he knows exactly what Twice is feeling, and how lonely and painful it is.

After all, this lines up perfectly to the kindness he later shows to Toga when he burns down her abusive home. People smile, he tells her, they smile every day in spite of our tears. So let's smile, too. Let's do what they do and stop saying sorry when it hurts others, because they sure as hell never apologized to us.

Dabi's not overt about his affections. I doubt he even realizes he has affections. He's not very in touch with his emotions. But Twice's friendliness and openness opened a crack in his shell, and I think it's thanks to that that he's finally starting to relate a little more to the other Lov members as well. Just a few months before, he never would've thought of comforting Himiko, but he does now. Presently, the only emotion he correctly recognizes and clings to is rage, but he's not the unfeeling monster he poses to be. He might outwardly refuse friendship, but that doesn't mean he hasn't grown fond of the people he spends so much time with.

Ironically, Twice's last moments might be when Dabi came closest to realizing he cared about Twice as much as Twice always cared about the League. Which makes an awful lot of sense when you realize Twice used to be the heart of the League, the glue keeping them whole, the one guy who always made room to make each and every one of them feel less lonely.

In a way, if Horikoshi were the type to add this kind of symbolism to his art... I'd say this cover refects that, a bit. I'm definitely interpreting it the way I want to see it, but... Dabi is turned to look Twice's way, shielding himself from the others with his legs propped up on the couch. -> he's still figuring out friendship, and at this time he's only really open to one person, the first he was willing to see as an equal. Then there's Twice, who's facing the whole room in turn because he always had the tools to connect with others. But he's sitting stiffly, he's not talking, and as the only one wearing a full bodysuit, he stands out. -> He looks out of place, like a guy who's lonely even in the middle of a crowd. Then at his side is Hawks... Facing the group as well, but slouched, making himself smaller, with that ever-present hand covering his mouth, stopping his true self from accidentally spilling out and say too much. -> A guy who looks like he belongs, but who never says anything substantial about himself. What a group.

... And now my thoughts are def running away from me so I'll stop here before I talk about this picture for the next 5 hours

I don't really think Horikoshi put this much thought into poses and potential symbolism, but for me what really hits about this artwork is that it gives us a glimpse of a could've been. An AU where they aren't exactly fine, yet but they're getting there. Already significantly more fine and less prone to posturing than what we're used to at least

[andrewlloydwebber]

I'm going to see POTO in Wien too! Who would you like to see play the lead roles? I hope Drew Sarich gets to finally play the Phantom!

i think there is a very strong chance that drew sarich will be cast as the phantom in some form. he is a VBW favorite after all... BUT

we all need to understand that mark seibert will be playing the phantom in the vienna revival of the phantom of the opera. like it or not, there is no situation where this will not be the case. i don't have insider information, but i still know it is going to happen and you have to accept that this is 100% true because i know it for a fact. this is not wishful thinking or manifestation on my part. this is not dreamcasting, this is not speculation, this is not ironic. i am not saying it because i think he will be amazing or because i'm a fan of his or because i even want to it to be true. it is just going to happen. mark seibert's life and career have led him to this point, it's inevitable, it's destiny. when mark seibert's parents gazed down at newborn baby mark seibert, in their hearts they knew there was simply no way he would not play the title role in das phantom der oper at the raimund theatre. the naysayers can hope and wish and speculate all they want, but their efforts are futile. they're lying to themselves. if he had to even audition, it was a mere formality. mark seibert is going to play the phantom in the vienna revival. there is no scenario where he is not cast as the phantom. there is no logical, ethical, spirtual, moral, reasonable, astrological, or legal reason for mark seibert to not play the phantom. when whoever plays christine looks at her face in the mirror, mark seibert will be there inside. i have never been more certain of anything in my life. with each passing day, life gets more and more confusing, the world becomes a scarier place. but i can always comfort myself with the knowledge that there is one constant thing i know will always be true: mark seibert is going to play the phantom in vienna.

[g0ose-bumps]

2009! Ghoap

OG 2009!mw2 Ghostsoap set between missions. Drabble of a different Soap and Ghost.

"Would you follow me anywhere?" 

John's voice was a syrupy murmur in the slow dredges of morning. Simon's half awake mind nudges at that. His body drew closer without any conscious thought, hopelessly attracted to the timbre of that low rumble.

"You would, wouldn't you Simon." 

Blinking away the afterimages of sleep from his lashes, Simon's eyes blearily focuses on John. Sunlight shone through the blinds, kissing the slopes and curves of hard muscle in slats of orange. They added a dimension of softness to the jagged scars that made up John. It was a sight not often seen and thus needed to be savoured thoroughly like Simon's most sought after tea blend. 

Fingers brushed along his naked face. Tips rested lightly on the curve of Simon's lips and then traced up towards his cheeks. But the touch went unnoticed, his gaze drawn to the much more arresting sight before him. 

John was a study in yellow. His strong features were highlighted by the sunlight that bathed the man in golden tones. The effect was almost ethereal in nature, light reflecting off like he had an internal glow. Glimmering blue eyes caged with dark lashes and a toothy grin, gave the rugged man a shockingly youthful expression. Beautiful. 

He was beautiful.

It was a compliment that made the man in question taken aback and stammer when Simon's runaway mouth blurted it out to him one day, too lost in the moment at the time to stop it from bubbling out from him. The resulting shyness he'd received had only endeared him more. It felt obscenely out of character for the captain that Simon knew first, but surprisingly in character for the man behind the perfect soldier. 

Task force 141 had started out as an experiment. A dangerous mix of a untried captain recently promoted, a masked lieutenant riddled with rumours of sociopathy and all the heavy expectation on their shoulders as Shepard's pet project of vengeance. It was a recipe for disaster many had said.

What the naysayers didn't know was how much of a force of nature John MacTavish was. A man so aggressively in control and utterly focused on the objective, any goal set before him was completely smashed. Their rag team set of soldiers selected from across the world shouldn't have worked as well as it did but somehow he had made the impossible possible. 

Mactavish expected only the best out of not only the men under him, but of himself. He was a man with a fire in his soul and a deep desire to not just succeed but exceed mission parameters. The captain would have a plan A, a plan B all the way to a plan Z and if something faltered on the way, he'd formulate the training and tools to succeed the next time. A perfectionist at his core. 

He had easily won Simon's respect within the first few days of knowing each other just like he'd easily won over the other men under his command. He'd known even then in those early days, that he would die for Captain MacTavish. All the men in 141 would, no contest. 

But John. 

John was someone he'd live for. 

There was a fragility that hid behind the roughened exterior. A softness that Simon had thought beaten out of men like them. Men who didn't hesitate before shooting, didn't bat an eye at the messier ways to achieve an objective. An innocence lost in all the ways war could be fought and better for the lack of it. More effective for it too. 

John was an outlier. 

Despite the pain and suffering they drenched themself in, John still cared. He still cared about the lives they lost, the men they had to sacrifice and every civilian lost in the cross fire. It was easy to blind oneself to the pain. Lose the part that empathised if it wasn't already gone. 

Or in Simon's case, never truly existed in the first place. 

But the caring never diminished John. It was a heavy burden to carry, for it was a double edged blade permanently notched at John's throat. It pained the man as much as it drove him. Simultaneously a strength and a weakness all packed up in one tidy package for Simon to covet.  

The knife edged line that John walked was a sight that had captured Simon's heavy gaze at first. Ensnaring him deeper and deeper the more he paid attention. He was helpless against the man, thoughts of John consuming Simon as much as sustaining him. 

Afterall, he alone had seen the depths of Simon's depravity and had not turned away. Not flinched like all the rest. Depite everything, John still had the temerity, the foolhardiness to trust him. To let Simon, of all people, know him when he'd put up walls against every other man in their company. 

His kindness was a searing weight behind Simon's ribcage. His trust the blood that ran through his veins, beating life where there was none before. They were both things to be hidden and carefully guarded. Tended to with a delicate touch and an eye for the small print like the lines of code that Simon breathed and spoke.

"Simon?" John nudged.  

Questing fingers hovered over his lips again and the sensation brought him back to John's question. Would you follow me, he had asked. A silly question. 

"I'd follow you anywhere I could." He answered firmly. Devotedly.

"Just don't go where I can't follow."

*

[roo-bastmoon]

Incredibly lucky to even be here

I just realized, exactly one year ago today (May 11th) I was diagnosed with endometrial stromal sarcoma and given less than a 34% chance of survival. I'm incredibly, miraculously lucky to be well and cancer-free today. I owe that to my amazing doctors, and also in a small way to BTS.

The moment I got told I had cancer, I immediately decided to only entertain thoughts of complete health and victory. It was a pure and immediate defense mechanism and I stuck to it. So no sad songs or movies or TV shows. No online drama. No negative nellies or naysayers. No stressful projects at work. No arguments, no entanglements, no regrets.

For months, I would focus only on laughter and quality time with loved ones and things that brought me joy, even as I had to deal with practical stuff like creating a will and a pet trust and filling out life insurance forms and undergoing test and surgeries.

BTS (and Jimin, as my "recruiter") gave me moments of grace and beauty and art and warmth and giggles--and kind ARMYs gave me a sense of belonging and community, especially during a dark and terrifying time, when in the quiet of the early morning hours, the sense that my own body was my worst enemy would eat at all my mental defenses. I could switch on my phone, go to the timeline, and ARMY and BTS would be there.

If I seem to be very Pollyanna-ish or boringly polite these days, it's because I decided one year ago to focus on what I want instead of giving energy to what I don't. I know bad things are very real and they need to be confronted--of course! But I also know that depression, anger, and fear can erode the myelin sheath wrapped around our nerve endings and weaken the walls in the chambers of our hearts; that toxic emotions can bleach our hair of color and rob our nails and skin of suppleness; that negativity can lengthen our immuno-response times to bruises and cuts.

So if other folks get a thrill, a hit of adrenaline, from drama and trash talking in our fandom, more power to them, I guess. It must serve them in some way I don't understand. Me? I find meanness and pettiness draining and damaging. So I'll never do that. I'll never rudely call someone out in public or go on their blog to rant or snipe openly about members or fellow ARMY. I will just keep myself to myself and do my best to be authentic and kind and hard working.

Doesn't always work. I'm human. I will absolutely make mistakes (case in point--the campaign idea yesterday that could have really harmed Jimin. I didn't think about all the consequences and I'm so grateful to the people who patiently set me straight.) Please know that if you ever feel strongly I'm going in the wrong direction, you can always speak to me--I'll ask a million questions, I'll hear you out, and I'll try to be flexible in my mindset. You don't have to hide behind throw-away accounts or talk to others about me. I will do my best to always be kind and act in good faith with everyone. (But I'll likely still make some mistakes, because my intentions are good but I myself am not perfect.)

By and large, I feel I'm just really astronomically lucky to be here. I know the kind of cancer I had is very sneaky and could come back at any time. So how I spend my time left in this life matters to me. I want to be a source of good in the world, help other people, experience bliss and celebrate good things. I don't want to be selfish or destructive. If I start to go that way, I know good friends will gently call me back.

Like BTS, I want to connect with people and help build something worthy. So if you're on board with that, let's be friends. And if you're not, let's part amicably.

I just... figured I should probably say that... out loud. So that's that on that.

Love you guys,

Roo

[dare-to-dm]

Missouri Citizens - Call to Restore State Aid for Libraries

A post I made a few days ago about the Missouri Legislature’s proposal to defund public libraries really blew up.

I’m happy to have helped spread the word about this issue as it’s not getting enough mainstream attention.  But frustrated at the tone of the original post and the thought that it’s become a part of many people’s daily doomscroll.

This is bad, but there are things we all can and should do to make it better.

If you are a Missouri citizen, please go here and fill out the short form.  It will use your address to contact your state senator about reinstating the full State Aid funding to Missouri's libraries.  You can also customize the message and I encourage you to do so.

If you have time and energy, consider calling your senator’s office as well.  You can find out who your representatives are and find their contact information here.  A short phone call letting them know you are a constituent and this issue is important to you can do a lot of good.

Ignore the naysayers who claim that contacting your representatives is a waste of time.  I know people who intern in these offices and collect information on what the public contacts their representatives about.  If enough people call about the same issue, it raises the profile of that issue on their agenda.  It can make a difference, especially in a case like this where the mainstream media is not focusing on the story.

Please take a few minutes of your time if you are a Missourian to make your voice heard on the importance of libraries.  And please reblog and spread the word even if you’re not a Missourian.  With your help, maybe we won’t have to fight this fight in your homestate as well.  Thank you.

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Toa Metru headcanon

Makuta’s claim in the books that he chose the six most stubborn, strongwilled, and argumentative matoran (the Toa Metru) has been on my mind. I like the idea he knew of them by reputation and as center of appeals as Dume. So he’d have also known people’s less favorable opinions of them (which there is a lot of basis for in canon), which he used to justify why he chose them to foil Mata Nui’s plan:

- Nokama used to be a nuisance in academic circles. (Inspired by @crystaltoa.) If she disagreed with a point or a thesis and thought differently, she’d ignore it or try to argue it down. With her renown as excellent teacher and academic both, her words carried a lot of weight. Arguments got heated regularly because her peers got on edge. Students were much less likely to be bulldozed. But they often didn’t have the skill to argue back with Nokama or the experience to realize that she was wrong or that there existed other valid points.

- Onewa was both famous as an artist and for his scathing demeanor. He had an insult for almost anybody famous in the city - except for Dume and Lhikan -, the other Metru, and everybody he met face to face. He liked to get a rise out of people. The only reason he got so many commissions was because a) the reputation about his excellent and meticulous work was true and b) there were enough matoran willing to deal with him or have others deal with him to get one of his pieces.

- Vakama’s temper was always a terrifying thing. He argued back when somebody harassed him, real or perceived. Some of his work colleagues tried to pick on him when he started as Nuhrii’s apprentice, envious of his skill. They dropped it when he became enraged... Until one notable case that escalated to the point that the vahki were called. He debated with Nuhrii a lot about techniques. He debated with his colleagues. He argued against throwing away faulty products that could be repaired. Repeatedly, heatedly.

- Matau was infamous as a test driver. Nobody could deny his skills. Many agreed that the ban on racing for fun even on designated tracks sucked. And many of his colleagues were annoyed by him. He showboated his skills in driving, hogged the schedule, and complained when he didn’t like a vehicle. He argued a lot about designs and repeatedly proposed changes that were ingenious, but that couldn’t be implimented because of restrictions which he didn’t want to hear about.

- Whenua is the type to be passionate about teaching, no matter who they are. He’s the type to use scathing wit and words on anybody that earns his ire, no matter who they are. He was cautious. He was likely to bulldoze ahead in situations - shouldering aside colleagues, arguing with them, etc. - when he saw a solution and was going to do it no matter the naysayers. And Whenua was stuck in the past. He saw little worthwhile in the present or the future even when he knew proposed changes were necessary. Even when other archivists agreed.

- Nuju was among the best seers, and being Ihu’s apprentice made his word carry even more weight. Ehrye wasn’t the only matoran he denied becoming a scholar. What made him so unpopular among the worker ranks of Ko-Metru was his dismissal of their physical work which maintained the Knowledge Towers’ integrity, made his own work possible in the first place, and carried his information to where it was needed. This arrogance and lack of grounding made him a decisive figure among his peers. Nuju’s tendency to argue instantly rather than ignore others or leave a conversation added to that reputation.

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files Collector's Edition: Mulder, To Jew or Not to Jew

While there is no canonical confirmation about fans' (and David Duchovny's and Vince Gilligan's) theories concerning Mulder's Jewish heritage, these fics say "who cares?" and explore the topic, anyway.

Loose chronolgical order below~

@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s november 27, 1973

AU-- Different outcomes of that fateful day in the Mulder family household.

David Hearne's As Long As It's Not Patrick Swayze

Post Shadows Mulder and Scully watch a movie and bat religious ideas back and forth.

@leiascully's (Ao3) 

OctoberFicFest Day 2: Eat

Post One Breath Mulder is surprised that Maggie wants to take care of him.

Blasphemy?

Post IWTB Mulder is in Biblical times with sandals and disciples... or is he?

@writingwell/RocketMan's (Alt. Gossamer, Xanadu) Elsewhere

Mulder and Scully's car slides off the road; and the two hole up in a Lutheran church, discussing how they're never safe but never bored.

Summer's These Dreams

Mulder and Scully share a dream: saving Jewish aliens from Nazis.

@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66's

Not Alone (Ao3)

Mulder reflects on religion, faith, and his lack thereof.

i_gaze_at_scully's Unnamed

Mulder is hit hard after a case involving the death of children at the hands of a pedophile.

Thalia D'Muse's Different Religion

Post Never Again Mulder ponders on the ouroboros of it all, and how much the truth has replaced his childhood beliefs.

Lapsed_Scholar's

Atonement

Part 1: Post Memento Mori Scully is furious that Mulder ghosts her for the weekend... then finds out he's turned to a neglected part of his identity out of sheer desperation to save her life.

Lights

Part 2: AU-- Emily lives, grows up with Mulder and Scully, and becomes interested in Mulder's Jewish heritage.

Heirloom

Part 3 (a prequel to Lights): AU-- 13 year old Emily expresses interest in Mulder's heritage; and is reassured that she is his daughter no matter what.

A Devil's Office 

AU-- Mulder does not leave in S9, staying home with William while Scully and Doggett and Reyes get caught up in a demon case. He later confesses to Reyes how much his son reminds him of his sister.

Beshter's Seasons: Fourth

Small mentions of Mulder's Jewish lineage slowly peek through, then spill over in a deluge of family history during the Kaddish case.

Meredith's (Alt. Tumblr)

Catching the Train

Kaddish Mulder wants to wrap up the case as fast as possible to get he and Scully back on the curing-her-cancer track.

The Sin of Submission

Sein und Zeit Mulder thinks his actions might have hurt Scully like Bill Mulder's had Tena. She swiftly reassures him.

bcfan's Hanukkah

Post Kaddish Scully buys Mulder a menorah. He assures her he's a multicultural guy.

@mollybecameanengineer/Sareki’s My Beloved (Tumblr)

AU-- Post Kaddish Mulder, shaken by Nazis and Hasidic Jews and Ariel, rushes into Scully's motel room and tells her his feelings.

incidental's (Alt. Tumblr) Into the Red Sea

Post Redux II Maggie finds Mulder in her church; and they have a conversation about his similarity to Moses's extended family.

Laura Blaurosen's In the Valley of Sorek

Post The Red and the Black Scully is scared to sleep. Mulder keeps her company, and later changes their flights so she can rest.

@amplifyme/wonderland/Lydia Bower’s

Reconciliation (Tumblr, Ao3)

Post All Souls Mulder picks Scully up from her church; and opens up about his religious past and current agnostic position.

denynothing1/Barbara D.'s Illuminations (Gossamer)

Post Drive Scully finds Mulder stumbling through his mother's Sabbatical routine. Tena had cut her son from the rituals, painting him with the same brush as her Nazi-sympathizing husband.

@mchalowitz's (Ao3) un-mulder

Pre-How the Ghosts Stole Christmas Scully is surprised by Mulder's storage wreath.

@90stvqueen/thesexfiles's Carol of the Narcissist and the Naysayer

AU-- Post How the Ghosts Stole Christmas Scully drops in with gifts, and opens a conversation that leads to more.

@aloysiavirgata’s (Ao3, WBM, Gossamer, LJ, Alt. LJ)

The Waters of Babylon (Ao3)

Mulder spends his time in Arcadia recalling on the one time he saw his parents in-love and happy and comparing it to his own failed marriage and relationships.

Gifts/Corundum and Ourania

Post The Goldberg Variation Mulder buys Scully wicked expensive earrings, curtesy of a local jeweler named Herschel.

Unnamed 

Post S9 Mulder and Scully, out-of-practice Jew and lapsed Catholic, spend a weekend ribbing each other over ham, lamb, and The Ten Commandments.

By Falling In And In - 3/5

AU-- William grows up with his parents... but that doesn't mean he's safe from the many misadventures and dangers of being a Mulder-Scully.

@cecilysass/cecily_sass/Cecily Sasserbaum’s The Gentle Art of Dream Interpretation (Ao3)

Mulder dreams of himself, his friends, and his enemies as French Jews during the persecution in Paris. He finds Scully outside; and the two of them finally discuss the topic-- and turn a new page.

DaynaFoxe's The Return of Samantha Mulder

AU-- Post Sein und Zeit Samantha is returned, alive and unaged. Mulder becomes her guardian; and Scully takes them both under her wing as they all readjust (Hanukkah and Christmas included.)

Beduini/beduini's Hurricane Season

AU-- S9 Mulder and Scully and William are trapped with the other disgruntled Scullys during a hurricane.

@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack’s Advent (Tumblr)

Mulder and Scully's Christmases develop over the years, mixing in elements of their partnership and family life as they do their best to stop Colonization and save (most of) the world.

Susan Proto's

Barbecue Series 10

AU-- S7 Maggie celebrates Mulder's Jewish holiday with he and Scully and Charlie... and Charlie is not happy.

Barbecue Series 17

AU-- S7 Tena sends her son, fresh from the hospital after a recent round of torture, a special gift.

Life Cycles 15 - The Grand Entrance

AU-- S9 Mulder joins a Jewish church; and Scully's pain tolerance is, once again, proven to be higher than expected (hint: their second child is born very fast and, one could say, very inconveniently.)

IShouldBeWriting's Together We Believe

Post IWTB Mulder's cousin draws he and Scully into a Jewish lore case. Scully sighs, resigned, and gets down to work.

@mangokiwitropicalswirl's (Ao3) The Seventh Time He Asked

IWTB (or Revival) Scully is ready, finally, to get married after listening to years of Mulder's various creative proposals.

@cock-holliday/biggayyeehaw’s Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Reyes, Doggett, and good old Cigarette Smoking Man himself were in a room with a tied-up Chris Carter

It's crack time; and CC has a lot of questions to (not) answer.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

[notalkingbusiness]

The Book of Carol & The Heroine's Journey - Part 1: The Descent

The Descent sees our heroine in crisis. 

Carriger says The Descent’s trademarks include a broken familial network, the heroine’s pleas being ignored, the heroine involuntarily withdrawing from her community, and the heroine’s family being unable to help her. 

Let’s take these one by one and think about how they could be used in TBOC.

(1) Broken familial network. The heroine’s familial network has been broken – someone she loves is in great danger.  More often than not, someone she loves has been taken from her. 

In TBOC, Carol’s familial network is broken because Daryl has been taken from her. 

Carriger says “If you want to set your heroine into motion quickly, take someone she values away from her” – that’s certainly true for Carol, isn’t it?  Nothing would set Carol into motion quicker than Daryl being in danger.

Carol knows in her bones that there’s no innocent explanation for Daryl's absence.

Carol will have more questions than answers at this point in the narrative, but there's one thing she knows for certain: she'll do whatever it takes to get Daryl back. 

She’ll do whatever it takes to bring the man she loves home.

(2) The heroine’s pleas ignored and she abdicates power.

The heroine needs help in bringing her loved one home.  She needs resources and manpower, but she’s unable to get the support she needs from her community.

Will we see Carol's pleas being ignored? I'm not sure. I guess Ezekiel could say that she’s worrying over nothing.

Or someone could really twist the knife in and suggest that Daryl might not want to come back. It would be untrue, of course, but a comment like that would eat away at Carol.

She'd wonder if she did something wrong. If she unknowingly drove him away.

A naysayer's comment could ultimately make Caryl's reunion all the sweeter when Daryl instantly sweeps Carol off her feet.

A passionate, romantic reunion could put some of Carol's demons to bed forever.

(She is enough. He loves her. He'd never abandon her.)

While we might not see Carol's pleas being ignored, abdicating power is undoubtedly part of her story.  We last saw Carol as one of the leaders of the Commonwealth government, but her loved ones will always take priority over work.  She’ll drop her government responsibilities at the drop of a hat to rescue Daryl.

Normally I’d be a bit wary of a story in which a woman abandons her career for a man, but I was never convinced Carol wanted a leadership role in the Commonwealth.  It felt like putting a square peg in a round hole.  Carol doesn’t have to run a settlement just because that’s what Maggie and Michonne did.  Heroines don’t value power and influence, that’s not what’s important to them.

Love is the most important thing to a heroine. They want what’s best for the people they love. They prioritize keeping their loved ones safe and happy above all else.  That’s Carol’s whole personality in a nutshell, right?  Carol’s love has always been and will always be her superpower. 

In TBOC, I’m hoping Daryl asks Carol what she really wants. 

Spoiler Alert: Carol doesn’t want to go back to her desk job at the Commonwealth.  She wants to build a life with Daryl.  She wants new adventures with him.  

(3) The heroine’s withdrawal is involuntary.

The heroine is motivated by the desire to protect her loved one, rather than a desire to travel or seek glory.

This follows on nicely from the point I was making about Carol and leadership – about what Carol wants and values.  Carol’s withdrawal is involuntary because it’s not like Carol has a burning desire to see France.  (New Mexico, on the other hand ...) But if France is where Pookie is, that’s where she’ll go.

Carol has always been driven by love; glory has never been on her radar. We've seen this on the flagship show time and time again. She'll pull off these amazing stunts and she'll still be wondering if she's done enough. Case in point - remember the moment just before the Terminus hug? 

Carol emerges from the woods wordlessly and cautiously. She keeps her distance from the group.

My reading of this scene?

I think, even after saving everyone, Carol was bracing herself for another rejection. Carol was ready to drop Daryl’s crossbow and melt back into the trees, if that was what her family wanted.  She was not expecting a hero’s welcome.

Carol loves fiercely and selflessly, always putting others first.

We need to see Daryl putting her first in TBOC.

We need to see Daryl being as devoted to Carol as she is to him. 

(4) The heroine's family offers aid but no solution.

The heroine’s family is sympathetic, but they can’t solve her problems for her.  They can’t bring her loved one home for her.

I’m not sure how much TBOC will provide on this front, both because of filming constraints and other complicating factors.  I don’t know how much Carol would tell Judith and RJ about her mission.  And, let’s face it, they’d both try and join her if they knew Uncle Daryl was in danger. 

But Carol could have an honest conversation with Lydia.  For instance, Carol could explain the situation to Lydia and ask her to look after the kids.  Lydia wouldn’t want Carol to go alone either.  But Lydia could agree to hold the fort because she knows she’s not ready for a mission like this, not after her recent amputation.  This would very neatly hit the “family offering aid but no solution” beat.  Also, Carol and Lydia screentime was sorely missing in S11 so I’d be very happy if that could be rectified in some small way in TBOC.  I’d love to see Lydia acting as a sort of confidant for Carol. 

Heroines value their relationships with other women, and I really hope TBOC recognizes that central tenet of the Heroine’s Journey.  

Final Thoughts on The Descent:

The Descent will be a bittersweet watch if TBOC is taking Carol's emotions and motivations seriously - if they're not afraid to show just how much Carol loves Daryl. The joy of having Carol back on our screens will be counterbalanced with Carol's deep emotional turmoil. Carol's going to be thinking about all those people she's loved and lost, all those people who went missing and never came home.

TBOC is inherently an emotional journey for Carol - Melissa McBride should be taking the lead when it comes to the emotional core of Carol's story. She's spent over a decade with this character - she knows Carol's headspace and heart space better than anyone else. She is absolutely essential in ensuring character and story integrity.

Over to you!

What do you think Carol values most in the world?  What are her most powerful motivations?

If you’re in favor of TF cameos, who do you think Carol should interact with and why?

Do you have other ideas for what you’d like to see during The Descent section of Carol’s journey?  (Don’t be shy! There are no wrong answers or silly questions.)

Thanks for sticking with me :) I hope you'll join me next time when I'll be talking about The Search.

[saxon-official]

Hello – I'm very sorry if this isn't the correct place to submit questions like these, but, as your employee, I was cleaning your office yesterday and noticed a soft toy in one of your cabinets, curiously shaped like Public Enemy #1?

I assumed this was vandalism from some naysayers who wish to frame you, so I have confiscated and quarantined it in case of danger, and hope this was the correct course of action. However, do you have any idea how it managed to get past the security checks? I ask out of concern regarding the security of this country supposing you get elected.

That being said, I continue to support you in your endeavours, and hope that all those who have done this feel vastly ashamed of themselves.

#votesaxon

Yes, thank you for notifying me of this, I'll check the CCTV and try and figure out who put that there. This was absolutely the correct course of action.

As for how it got through security checks, I'd assume it would be someone withing the workplace sneaking it in and I do strive to improve security around certain areas in the country

Thank you for your support

#votesaxon