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mulders-too-large-shirt · 4 months ago

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s6 episode 15 "arcadia" thoughts

hehehe… i’m looking forward to this one. i've seen some screenshots.

giggling and kicking my feet.

okay. let me center myself.

i woke up early so i could edit my notes for yesterday’s episode and watch this one today. i will make the most of my weekends, let it be known!

so! let us see where this brings us. i’m in the mood for spooky and sweet. which s6 has been pretty good at delivering so far. with a few headache-inducing moments to balance it out.

post-episode thoughts: nods in approval. haha... YES! YEAH!!!!!!! i have so many thoughts, but i just feel like that meme of the dude looking in through the window! HAHA!!!!! YEAH!

and the next episode has an evil dog! woohoo!! yeah!!! let’s go!!!

okay!!! i need to lock in.

we begin in california. it seems quite beautiful. a gated community!! that requires a code!!! when you enter the code, it knows who you are and announces it, which i think is creepy.

far too many waving and smiling neighbors watering the california grass. girl. the forest fires…

mr. kline gets his mail, and paint on his hands as his neighbor painted his mailbox.

LMAO mr. kline is FURIOUS the neighbor painted the mailbox LMAOOOOO. and i would be too! but there is a weird package on the floor…..

rip it open, mr. kline. but please be careful. i’m suspicious. there might be razors in there!!! it’s... a little thingy of a guy chopping wood!!!

(the proper term is later revealed to be a "whirligig"- isn't that extraordinary?)

mrs. kline declares the neighbors would hate it, and so it goes on display.

it makes a tapping noise, but it stops at night. and they hear the floorboards creaking……

mr. kline gets a trophy to bash someone over the head with. not sure that is the most effective weapon. at least get a bat.

and it’s so dark!! curse you, season 6! why is there liquid on the floor?!!!

something comes up behind him and he screams!!! it looks like a dude made out of… like, bees or something?

mrs. kline hears his screams and cowers in bed!! but the mystery thing gets her, too!! with a terrible scream!!!

intro time…

ooooo, looks like we have a beast. of some sort. a man-beast. not bigfoot. but maybe a cousin. i mean, it LOOKED like it was made of bugs, but it was really dark and hard to tell. so who knows?

full intro... you are my best friend!!!

okay, so 7 months have passed since… whatever went down with the klines. and now a neighbor has a gift for the new residents! the petries.

LMAOOOOO MULDER WITH HIS JACKET WRAPPED AROUND HIS NECK, CALLING SCULLY “HONEY”…. “is this place us or what?!” <-i’m giggling already

it is not them. it is so not them.

LMAO they have to use fake names. rob and laura petrie. scully has not said a word so far, but the giant gift basket has been thrust into her arms.

i wonder if the strategy is to let him do most of the talking since she can have some… difficulty lying. but! sometimes she can pull it off!! maybe she just needs to get really in character to do so!

"WE PRONOUNCE IT PEE-TREE ACTUALLY" "LIKE THE DISH" LMAOOOO!!!!!!! FUCKING NERDS……

hey guys. what’s going on here? i’ve been here for 3 minutes. am i imagining this?

the lady who is presenting scully with the giant gift basket is pat. and she tells them that they will not make the 6 o clock cut off!! all move-ins are required to be completed by 6. girl. what kind of rule is that?

HE SAYS HE WORKS MOSTLY AT HOME WHICH IS GOOD FOR LAURA BECAUSE “SHE GETS ME ALL TO HERSELF” (pulls her in for the side hug) LMFAOOOOOO stop. oh lord.

i’m gonna need so many minutes.

they’re clearly trying to sniff out information on the previous owners- scully wants to send a thank you note to them for leaving the place SO clean- but pat gets uncomfortable and changes the subject. oh! something weird is going on here!!!!! deeply so!!

LMAOOOO THE WAY SCULLY STIFFENS UP AND LOWKEY SHOVES MULDER OFF OF HER WHEN PAT LEAVES...........

she said do NOT get used to that, buddy!

(this is actually so funny to me. because. like. we KNOW they have feelings for each other. but scully does not feel comfortable performing that. and why do you think this is? because it feels so forced? they seem like pretty touchy people in general, but maybe she does NOT want to be touchy in that way? maybe she is anti-PDA. or maybe she is anti-inauthentic PDA.

we don't really ever see her in a committed relationship to know how she feel when it comes to domestic sidehugs. maybe she is firmly against them.

maybe she thinks he's playing a joke on her and she doesn't want to be a part of that. maybe she thinks he's taking advantage of their circumstances to indulge in his own crush, and she doesn't want to process that when there is crime to solve. maybe she thinks it's making a mockery of whatever it is they do have between them. turn it around in your brain and pick the most exciting option to headcanon!)

((but really, it's reminding me of this time i was a teenager, and i had a hopelessly unrequited crush on someone who was really cool and beautiful. and a mutual friend made a joke about how we should kiss. so i feigned disgust. "eww!", i said, "i do NOT want to do that!" <-reader, i was lying. and i feel great solidarity with scully))

the whole town is here to move them in by 6. including the neighbor who previously was painting the mailbox for the klines!! his name is win.

i would not want all these people in my house. who are they trying to please by getting everything done by 6?!

does the beast eat the people that break the rules? is that why they ate the klines? because of their lumberjack accessory??

a neighbor knocks over the box labeled “china”!!! that scully wanted to carry herself!!! he says he is so sorry. there is great distress upon her face. this dude is named mike. he is immediately my suspect for no real reason other than we got his name early on.

cami, win’s wife, helps her haul the china in. which i don’t believe is actually china at all.

mulder wants to bring a basketball hoop, but win says this is NOT ALLOWED!! unless he can get special permission from mr. gogolak, the president of the HOA. but until then… it must go in the garage.

it's cruel to deny this man his basketball.

(giggling at the mental image... did they have any sort of background on this case that nonconformity would lead to being eaten, or was mulder told he had to do an undercover gig and he said "skinner, i am NOT doing this without a basketball hoop"... fun to imagine)

mulder’s jacket that was previously stored around his neck and his polo both have the crocodile logo. hold on. i have to google something.

it is a brand called lacoste. a luxury sportswear line! okay. so this is fancy and suburban. kinda ralph lauren adjacent? or maybe more tommy hilfiger? i don’t know the brand lore. he’s rich and he’s trendy in a way that blends right into suburbia. i’m picking up what is being put down. pink polo man.

ah, you never know how much you appreciate a man's trusty leather jacket until it has been taken from you

right at 6, all of the neighbors leave.

they wave goodbye. “oh yeah, nothing weird going on around here” <-LMAOOOO

“hey, oooh, wait a minute, you didn’t let me carry you over the threshold” he says to scully as they walk inside. and he is having too much fun with this.

she takes off her jacket and asks if he’s ready- “let’s get it on, honey” (JAIL FOR THAT ONE!) and she hands him some rubber gloves with a grin. LMAO.

okay, she’s having fun too. don’t let her fool you. she wants to solve crime and he wants to play house. their interests align.

nooo!!! mike broke the box that had tools for “fluorescein bloodstain enhancement”! mike… my suspicions of you grow… you can’t take away scully's science toys!!!

she has a camcorder. she says it’s february 24th!!! so this happened soon after scully’s brush with death in new york?!?! like. right after she was shot and nearly killed in tithonus?!

unless we jumped ahead a year again, of course. in which case this might be taking place BEFORE the rain king, which was in the summer.

uh… well. who knows? what a fool i am to assume that the episodes are chronological (heavy on the /s)

anyway, i need to shut up. she’s VLOGGING.

the klines were the third couple to disappear since 1991, which was when this place was built!!

her in that sweater looks so fundamentally wrong LMAO... give her a powersuit or a sweatshirt or a big old jacket, but this purple floral piece just seems incorrect!!!

back to the camcorder vlog. all of the missing people were stable professionals with no history of mental illness or discord, and it took a family member or employee to realize they were gone!!! damn… they’re def hiding something in this place. maybe a blood sacrifice? to the HOA gods??

and their cars and some items were taken from the people who vanished!!! the police had enough, so they turned to the FBI!!

given how many autopsies she has to do voice recordings for, it’s perhaps not surprising that she takes naturally to the vlog, but it is still endearing. especially when mulder interrupts.

SKINNER ASSIGNED THEM TO THIS. oh. skinner is plotting. perhaps the very first MSR shipper.

STOP HITTING ON HER (sprays him with water when he makes a joke about the "honeymoon film")

she wants to choose the names next time, and also, she doesn’t think he’s taking this seriously. but he says he is! he just doesn’t understand why they’re on it! it’s their first case back on the x files after they were on general for so long!! but it’s not an x file!!

(i did not entirely consider the implications of the line that she "wants to choose the names next time", which implies that HE chose them out. and i can imagine this scene in great detail: him typing up their aliases and a biography for each of them before they leave, and handing her the detailed file in the car. the way her eyebrow shoots up when she turns to look at him. and he's grinning, his eyes on the road, when she asks if he really thinks she looks like a laura)

she says it’s unexplained. “what do you want? aliens? tractor beams?” LMAO

HE SAYS SHE JUST WANTS TO PLAY HOUSE!! AND WHEN HE DOES A SILLY VOICE AND TELLS HER TO MAKE HIM A SANDWICH, SHE THROWS HER GLOVES AT HIM..... LMAOOO

who is at the door??? it’s mike!! with lots of china!! he says he has more than he needs. “i just usually use one and then… wash it” yes king ❤️ that is how they work, those dishes!

he lives the next street over. and he has something i thought was a cross necklace around his neck.

but doctor scully notices it’s a caduceus! well, of course she’d know that. but would laura petrie?! is she going to blow her cover nerding out?!

he says he’s a vet. and he would be happy to examine any of their pets. but the pet better not be over 16 pounds!!!! it violates the rules!

(i know that she previously had a little dog, but i feel that scully needs a medium to large size mutt to sit on the couch with and read. and also throw lots of sticks for. i have felt this way since ice and i still do so. need to write the AU where literally everything in canon is exactly the same, but she goes home with the border collie from ice)

she says it was so kind of him to bring this china over- everyone is so neighborly, she’s unsure why the klines ever left! that was their name, right? the klines? and he says... he has to leave.

she calls to mulder and he responds with “the name… is rob” <-LMAOOOOOO

i know his ass was staring in the mirror to get into character. thinking, "what would rob do in such a circumstance?"

i thought he was fixing a lightbulb, which would have been funny in its own right, but he found some sort of blood and muck on the ceiling fan!!! must have been a hell of an impact to get up there.

cutscene to the gogolak residence. at 7:59. pat is reporting to them on the new neighbors!!! and the others declare them to be a cute couple. well, yes!

mr. gogolak says “ladies, my compliments to the chef” and all the women leave???????

very creepy. did not enjoy this.

he asks if the “pee-trees” will play ball, and win says that he is keeping his eye on them!!

big mike suggests that perhaps they tell them. win says they don’t know if they can trust them.

but big mike says that there are so many rules- maybe they could keep up with them better if they knew what happened if they don’t. oh. is big mike an ally to our agents?!? despite breaking the science equipment? was it perhaps a mere accident?

he says it’s the neighborly thing to do… i now have a feeling he will not make it through the episode. mr. gogolak says “godspeed”. and big mike asks to use the bathroom. gordy is sent after to make sure he finds it.

win says he can talk big mike out of this. but gogolak says he’s a weak link, and a strong chain cannot survive without a weak link.

you stay AWAY from my friend mike!!!

mike is watching a documentary on a tribal culture and the expulsion of outcasts. his light goes out!!!

he runs and fixes it, wincing as he does so. but something approaches???

it looks like he’s covered in blood!!!

the beast comes, and he loudly declares that he fixed it, he fixed it!!! but this makes no difference. he is…. well. i’m not sure what the verb for what happened to him is. but a large blood splatter appears everywhere.

win sprays it down in the morning. when mulder and scully arrive!!! i was wondering if the blood would wash onto their shoes, but this possibility isn't addressed.

how was your first night? win asks. “oh it was wonderful; we just spooned up and fell asleep like little baby cats” <- JDVSJBDMSBS

i can’t tell if bro is committed to the bit, living a fantasy, or a former theatre kid DETERMINED to not fuck up their cover story. probably all three in a sick way.

the pet names are SICKENING. oh my god.

win says mike had to leave town on business. veterinarian business, i guess. he leaves for weeks at a time. suuuuuure.

mulder wants to leave the china at mike's place, but win says he’ll take the box. oh! get him with the "aesthetically pleasing" jab, mulder.

oh no, win invites them over for dinner at 6. which sounds most unpleasant. and mulder asks who he needs to talk to get up the basketball hoop.

that is gonna be mr. gogolak. who has some sort of statue in his home. and he consults the rule book.

THEY’RE CUDDLED UP ON HIS COUCH LMAOOOOO and mr. gogolak declares a basketball hoop is NOT ALLOWED

the sweater vest on him is CRAZY, bahahahaha!!! and scully’s wearing a sweater now that still seems wrong, but less so than that purple number before. scully grabs his hand at this very sad news of their basketball hoop-less life. see? she can roll with the punches!

it seems his house is filled with masks or sculptures or something.

he sets the rule book down on a special stand… as if it has religious significance. hmm. a clue as to the nature of our beast?

mulder says he loves the decor; is it occidental? mr. gogolak says it’s nepalese and tibetan, actually. he goes there twice a year on business. he runs pier nine imports. he can get them a great deal on rattan furniture. INDOOR ONLY! no outdoor furniture allowed.

they nod and smile at him.

we are now at dinner with win and cami. win shoos away a dog and asks if cami used the dolphin-safe tuna. how… progressive?

HE MAKES A JOKE ABOUT EATING DOLPHINS AND SCULLY HAS TO FAKE LAUGH WHEN THEY’RE GAGGED, LMAOOOO

win asks where they met. mulder says at a UFO conference. he says she’s a new ager!! and she’s sitting there suffering.

i once again need to see the character biographies i know he made for them.

OH! mulder says he doesn’t think it’s true that big mike is out on business!!! he called his office!! they wanted advice on getting a dog!!!

ohhh, scully’s coming in with the kill. “do you know where he is, win?” she asks, with the most cheery expression. cami is glaring at win.

and mulder proposes that it has to be something freaky for him to lie about it like that- maybe he has a secret life. oh, they are a pretty well-oiled machine at the end of the day... occasional awkwardness aside.

win assures them that their gated community does NOT have a dark underbelly as mulder had proposed. mulder sips his wine. interesting. i wonder if he is a wine snob.

LMAOOOO.... CAMI GETS UP TO WALK THE DOG AND SCULLY OFFERS TO COME, BUT SHE DOES THIS SAD LITTLE AIR KISS BEFORE MULDER CAN PROPERLY SMOOCH HER… oh, the rumors about these two are going to be FLYING around town!!! she didn't even let him SMOOCH!! are they truly in love?! is he cheating?! a lavender marriage, perhaps?!

as they walk the dog in the dark, scully asks cami if it’s really the american dream living here. she hesitates. cami denies being worried about mike. but the dog runs down the sewers!!! and then the barking stops!!!! LET THE DOG LIVE.

scully pulls out a flashlight…. and finds mike’s necklace!!!! but before she can grab it, the dog returns. he is covered in some kind of blood and/or goop that scully wipes off with a handkerchief. FOR ANALYSIS!

but as they leave, the sewer grate starts rising!!

oh!! she WAS able to snatch mike's necklace!!

back at home, mulder is shedding his shirt and tossing it on the bed, which gives scully pause. LMAO. she insists he calls her laura now.

LMAOOOOO she bullies him for how he squeezes his toothpaste. and for leaving up the toilet seat. which would piss me off bad tbh, so i get that.

LMAOOOOO SHE COMES OUT IN A GREEN FACE MASK AND HE GASPS!!!! AS SHE ASKS HIM ABOUT MOTIVES AND THEN TOSSES HIS SHIRT BACK TO HIM, BAHAHA

he tries to get her to come into bed saying “come on, laura, we’re married now” and she stares and says “scully, mulder” which makes him take his pillow and leave

LMFAO???? bro…………..

he wanted to do wild stuff even if she was covered in green goo and it scared him at first.

sex jokes aside, it's really fucking funny how he didn't expect her to come out green, but then immediately played it cool. and the fact that they feel comfortable enough in each other's presence, for better or for worse, for him to toss his clothes around and her to do her skincare.

had he not made that joke, i wonder if they really would have gotten into bed together and had awkward, 100% totally platonic sleepover time. it looked pretty big and comfy! but we do know he is no stranger to sleeping on the couch.

i need to pause and take a deep breath. LMAO oh god. yeah. domestic bliss really is NOT in their future, huh? i could have predicted that. certainly you could have also predicted that! but i’m sure some fans were chomping at the bit to see it anyway.

fans have a tendency to superimpose domestic bliss on any character dynamic, even when it doesn't seem like it would work at all. like, they have to solve crime for a living. not sure if there is time for making pancakes and dancing in the kitchen- no matter how fun it is to imagine.

i can’t really see them living together, really, unless a lot of stuff changed. she is very organized!! it would drive them both crazy!!! she likes to be cozy and he sleeps on a couch! and that is IF he can even fall asleep! because it seems that half of the time he doesn't, and she's probably in bed by 11 most nights!

regardless of mulder’s abrupt advances through the guise of committing to the cover story, he says he has a foolproof way to get an answer as to what is going down. and she says she has to leave to get the stuff from the ceiling fan and the dog tested. so i presume disaster will strike when they are apart.

LMAO HIS PLAN IS TO PUT UP ONE PINK FLAMINGO... BAHAHA

bro drinks straight out of the orange juice carton and awaits confrontation. but it appears the flamingo has vanished on its own!!!

so he kicks the mailbox over at a strange angle and leaves it open and splashes the orange juice on it. he must have been mad as hell at that point. and he waits by the door.

he clearly considers going to the bathroom in the carton in order to avoid leaving his perch by the front door, but when he chooses sense and runs to the toilet instead, the mailbox is fixed upon his return!!!! and it contains a single letter.

"be like the others before it gets dark"

DO NOT like that.

LMAOOOO, he’s outside at night bouncing his basketball as cami BEGS win to make him stop.

win comes over to try and get his basketball hoop put away, but mulder asks what will happen if he doesn’t!! cami is watching….. but something is following her!!!!!

mulder runs into action as something goes to get her!!!!!! he manages to chase it off????? but their lightbulb is cracked………

so. he hauls the basketball hoop in. just as scully arrives in a mini van. which is wild. she does not give off "i drive a mini van" vibes to me. and she has a shopping bag filled with... blood test results?

there is something creaking upstairs. but when she calls out for mulder, he doesn’t reply.

ohhhh, she gets the fire poker…. she means business! but mulder is still outside with a flashlight!!! he nearly falls into a sinkhole. he rips it open……

scully is armed with her poker as something clatters. she goes down the stairs… but something is inside…….

AH!!!!! she nearly beheads him as he makes a surprise entrance.

someone is in their house, cleaning up. oh! so he did NOT put the basketball hoop away. someone else did it for them. which is very creepy. can anyone just... waltz in when they want?!

he says he got a look at the scary thing, and it IS an x file!!!

win asks mr. gogolak what it is they did wrong!!!!!! he seems to be accusing him of being the source of whatever is going on. but he says win needs to rethink that theory.

no. he says that mulder is the problem.

he’s currently outside digging in the dirt, where he thinks a huge creature lives.

“do you care to hear what i think?” “always” <- oh…. he is so down bad…

turns out the blood they found is not really blood!! it is brake fluid, ketchup, and bristles!!! so is this a beast made of garbage?? and maybe that is why everything has to be organized? lest they fuel him?

the dog’s muzzle was covered in coffee grounds, eggshells, and motor oil… and 50 other things. plus color.

the whole place has been built on a landfill!!! hmm, that isn't too surprising. bet the land was really cheap. and all the chemicals would seep out, maybe make some sort of radioactive beast...

she doesn’t see how this has to do with the disappearances, but he insists they must be connected. what if the klines are still here? buried in the yard?

of course, they cannot start a forensic investigation, lest their cover be blown. mulder ponders…

AND THEN A BIG EXCAVATOR IS BROUGHT IN

“what if god’s name are you doing?!” “putting in a pool” “in the front YARD?!” <- LMAOOOO

HE SAID THERE ARE NO RULES AGAINST PUTTING IN A REFLECTING POOL LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO

bro has graduated from polos to a grey t shirt and jeans, LMAOOO. he can no longer tolerate the lacoste and cover stories. mr. gogolak says to let him dig his own grave.

funny how he was so eager to commit to the bit, but was the first to depart with appearances. he needed results.

you don’t know what that man can do, buddy. maybe he can defeat the beast. he has defeated other beasts in the past!

at night, scully comes out to look in the hole. WAIT. she’s talking to him. who is IN THE HOLE. LMAO. she says the klines aren’t down there and he should go to bed.

but he sees something in the equipment!!! the little lumberjack from the klines!!!

FROM PIER 9 IMPORTS!!! ...GOGOLAK!!

he declares scully must get an excavation team, and he runs off to go confront gogolak. i think.

THE THING!!!! it’s bubbling!!!! a hand emerges!!!

scully dials an excavation team. but the beast approaches. and her gun is gone!!!! it’s climbing up the stairs!!!

someone grabs her!!! whoever it is says "it’s coming for you laura, you can’t make a noise"… is it mike?!?? yes!!! he’s covered in the goop!!! and he says she has to get out of there!!!

he says they asked for it, and now they can’t stop it….

he says the ubermenscher wants YOU, laura. her husband has broken too many rules. he shoves her in the closet and takes the gun…. and he fires the whole clip into it!!! but it still runs forward!!!!

mulder is arresting gogolak, saying he is responsible for the death of the klines. by giving them the whirligig.

OHHHHHH, he tries to be all “won’t the judge think that sounds silly?” but don’t try and out occult him!!! he’s gonna tell them it was a tulpa that did it!!! a tibetan thought form!!! he thinks he picked it up on his journeys to asia!!!

gogolak says it’s important that people fit in. but he couldn’t control it. just to hope to stay out of its way.

“son, my lawyers are going to make you sound so stupid, that not only will i never see the inside of a jail cell, but you’ll be signing all your paychecks straight to me” <- LMAOOOO. okay. bet.

he grabs gogolak and takes him to the big yard pile. where he notices that all of the lights are off. and he locks gogolak up outside!!!!!!! who yells out to win that he has two FBI agents for neighbors- but not for long!!!

the house is filled with mystery stains, and mulder calls out to scully. she yells to him from the closet!!!!

win does not help gogolak as he is tied to the front of the house… cami says he deserves what he gets. well!

the thing is eating gogolak, and mulder runs outside!!!!! he’s totally dead!!!

mulder looks really fascinated more than scared as it approaches him. because it crumbles to pieces!!! he must have known it couldn't have survived without gogolak!

scully made her way out of the closet!!!

the next morning, they leave, with scully narrating that several people have blamed the deaths on gogolak. but each person in the gated community denies that they are all somewhat responsible for his death.

the code of silence continues as they move away.

ooooooo…..

interesting. very interesting.

i mean, we all had to know there is something sinister about those planned communities. the amount of pesticides, water waste, americana, levittown, etc... it's so nuclear, so fake. so i think it's a great setting for exploring the dark side of the so-called american dream, conformity, and the environmental consequences. you can practically smell the DDT in the place.

interesting, then, in an episode centering on american homogeneity, the big bad villain would be a creature from asian folklore. i think the message was supposed to be about the dangers of trying so hard to blend in, but it leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth that the evil thing that forced them all to blend in wasn't a homegrown beast. you can easily choose to interpret that in a xenophobic light. even though the problem was gogolak trying to control everyone, can you see how the optics look a bit... problematic, for lack of a better word?

i don't think the writers came in with the goal of telling a spooky scary story of something scary from TIBET ruining the AMERICAN DREAM, but you could choose to interpret it that way.

nonetheless, it is comparably tame when it comes to the cultural insensitivies of this show. i genuinely don't think they intended it to come off like that at all. but then again, i guess you could also make the argument that it is the cultural appropriation for evil purposes done by gogolak that makes the creature, intended for a very different purpose in its original context, into a murdering machine.

so. with all that being said.

(giggling and kicking my feet resumes in earnest)

you hug scully? you hug scully like wife? oh! jail! jail for mulder for 10,000 years!

a very interesting look into their dynamic. man, i just know the MSR girlies were pumping their fists in the air when s6 was dropping.

so, do i think they would make good roommates? absolutely not. do i still find myself wishing to see more scenes of semi-domesticity as they glove up to hunt for clues in their shared house and then snuggle on the bad guy's couch? yes! i am only human!

and scully said she would pick the names the next time they went undercover. which means it WILL happen again. good news for a freak like me.

hehehe...... this was a very good episode. it was enjoyable on the surface level, but also left me with many things to ponder, which i always cherish.

in addition to my many questions regarding scully's distaste for sidehugs, here are some other thoughts floating around in my brain: did skinner know what he was doing when he assigned them to this? i mean, he had to have known. is skinner rooting for them? or is that gonna be an HR problem? did they have to buy new wardrobes just for this purpose? does mulder really fantasize about spooning like kittens? under which circumstances can scully tell a convincing lie?

for those interested in sipping from the waters of angst, do you think his constant joking flirtations make her feel sad because he never quite seems authentic? or do you think she knows that he means it after his triangle confession, but won't mention it because... why risk damaging what they have? why risk crossing that line they tiptoe over and over again but never fully cross, especially when they're both so engrossed in their work and they're pretty much the only person they have?

do you think he feels like he's pushing it when he flirts with her, but that it's as real as they'll ever get, so he might as well indulge? do they both sit there and think the other is too busy with work to ever make time and space for me, so it would be best to steal what we can from this codependent partnership that we have grown accustomed to and never expect anything more? they have both at times mentioned a desire to "settle down"- do they really mean it? or is it what they think they want because that is just what you do? what would happen if they DID try to?

ha! this is excellent. i enjoy thinking about these sort of discussion questions. like a book club, sort of.

please let me know what you think! to any of my questions, or your thoughts on the episode, or how you reacted when you saw it for the first time! there is still so much to mull over, but there is no rush to get it all done right away. that's the beauty of letting something stick with you, i suppose. i can gnaw on it in my brain for years and find new things each time i return to it.

#hehehehe...... giggling.#really want to know what you thought on this one. please? please? please? please? please?#thinking about her telling him to go to bed... thinking about him saying he always wants to know what she thinks #thinking about him accusing her of wanting to play house... thinking of his gasp at her green face... and many other thoughts #i shall go to bed satisfied this evening!#juni's x files liveblog #6x15 #the x files #txf

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lutethebodies · 9 days ago

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Six Eight Song Soundtrack Game - Cannor Coth

I was tagged by @mikuchan, whose post for Yrollam is here. I chose Cannor for this one because unlike my previous Six-Song folks (Farago, Olini, Zafraia) he’s actually written and performed eight songs that fit well for these prompts. The guy’s a bard, so of course he has, right? And by he I mean me.

So, I’m taking liberties and adding two more songs, all eight of which I’ve recorded and released myself in 2023 and 2024. I’m going with my own stuff here because for better and worse Cannor is a self-insert, and I’m still really proud of what I’ve made at this (relatively late) stage of my amateur music hobby.

Am I needlessly doxxing myself for the sake of my own ego? Well yes, but that was gonna happen sooner or later here anyway. Besides, show me a bard who wouldn’t do that and I’ll show you a lying liar who lies. When I make something cool I want my name on it.

I realize that goes against all digital-era common sense, but I’m not completely stupid, so my tunes are below the cut. For their lore-galore backstories, see my “Lost Songs for Lost Singers” series (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4).

And yeah, that might scare off most people who play these games, but if you want in on this, tag yourself and @ me. Rules: make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following:

Opening credits song (I’m adding this because I can) Event that defines your character's past How your character sees themselves (I have two here, for Young vs. Old Cannor) How others view them Their closest relationship A major fight scene End credits song

Listen in after the jump:

Song for the opening credits:

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“Mark My Words” by Keir DuBois. "Imagination made me whatever I am today/When reality betrayed me and life became cliché." First lines are important during extended intros. A rousing major-key kickoff for the boundless naiveté of adolescence may or may not be important, but when it's soured with the bile of age its whispers can be dissonant indeed. Especially if they're not whispers at all.

Song for an event that defines your character's past

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“Hindsight” by Keir DuBois. "Hindsight bleeds my words and deeds until I feel fake/Now I see as I ought to see until my next mistake." Take a bite at the big world and the big world bites back, punk. I may not have fled a theocracy with my cult priestess lover only to survive an earthquake on her home island, but Cannor sure did. But hey, I could have. The late '90s was a weird and goofy time to be 19-22.

Songs for how your character sees themselves

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“Time in the Sun” by Keir DuBois. "I just want to feel like I'm one of a kind/I just want my time in the sun while it shines." Time seems to drag on and on and on when you're a young, pretty, and bored nobody. At 24 Cannor was imprisoned for a year in a place that might have been paradise. At that age I was in no-hoper bands and failing extravagantly trying to land A Career. We were not the same. And yet.

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“Exile’s End” by Keir DuBois. "I used to be somebody/Now I'm just somebody else/I could handle a crowd, I could dream out loud/And I could not get over myself." At 37 Cannor had to skedaddle northward fast when he got banished from his adopted home city. At 43 I basically lit my design career on fire and crashed out just before quarantine crashed everybody else out too. Cannor and I both have yet to come back from exile. We actually might like it a bit too much.

Song for how others view your character

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“Equipoise” by Keir DuBois. "Stability's siren song was soothing/When it promised shelter from the fear." What does a bard do after limping home from a bad tour? Why, join the local Harper chapter, of course. Cannor didn't exactly do that, but the Equiposium of Caranacia provided him with a vocation in the form of diplomacy and dirty tricks. Both those things show up in professional creativity to a debilitating degree, of course. It's very weird to be seen as a professional or a mentor when you're sure you've barely got it together. Neither he nor I could sustain it, but allegedly we looked good trying.

Song for their closest relationship

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“Dilemma By Design” by Keir DuBois. "Sometimes she says the strangest things/So I only listen to her when she sings." I've posted about this song before. It's the oldest one of this lot by over a decade, and I'd originally written it about feeling out of place in my chosen career. The "she" here could be seen as a spouse or a supervisor or some other simplistic interpretation, but it's really The Muse. Anyone who follows their muse, as both Cannor and I do (and yes it’s probably our closest relationship), know firsthand how weird she (or he, or they, etc.) can be—but more often than not, the results are worth it.

Song for a major fight scene:

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“Hostage to Fortune” by Keir DuBois. "The last day of my good name/Was a bad year at best." Did I come up with a monster riff in C# minor just to attach it forevermore to the musical version of Cannor vs. Zafraia dueling (aka the Redstone Incidents)? Yes, yes I did. Since I wrote about it elsewhere I'll just say read that link instead.

Song for the end credits:

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“Under Heaven, Over Hell” by Keir DuBois. "I've traveled too far under heaven, over hell, and everywhere else in between/To shackle my senses, give up my ghosts, or ever really say what I mean." Because end credits don't always roll after happy endings, do they? This is Cannor when he's at his lowest: exiled to some crime-ridden backwater with bad weather and worse culture (In the BG3 universe that's Luskan, where he's eventually nabbed by the nautiloid). I'm fortunate to live in a kinder clime, but I kind of view this song as the mindset I could descend to if I let the world's escalating cruel stupidities (online or off) get to me too badly. "With a song and story, I'll counter the curse/I'll transform my nightmares to dreams."

Thanks to my asker, who surely had no idea they’d prompt all this self-absorbed silliness.

#oc ask games #cannor the lost #ltb tav deep dives #ltb six song game #ltb music takes #Youtube

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littleladymab · 1 year ago

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FebruarOC - Beryl

today we're talking about Beryl Dawn from my affectionately nicknamed "07 Nano" project that I think i've posted about on here before. (I went checking and what the hell I FORGOT I EVEN DID A SECOND DRAFT OF THE BEGINNING) And as a treat for me, I've picked the others of the main quartet for their respective letters for this month.

Beryl (like Ren) was one of the founding characters for this project after I took a short story I (started to, lbr, it wasn't finished) write about a boy being tasked to go bring back a girl that was kidnapped. Which sounds very, "huh??" when put that way. And as I've talked about before, I've got "city dwellers" and "hill folk" and a super basic-level dichotomy set up between the cultures that at the time I thought was good world building but i know enough now to say "girl that ain't it" at my past self.

In this setting, there is a swathe of land that's sort of a no-man's land. The Hill Folk are cut off from their elements/gods and the City Dwellers think that it is too wild. It is, for all intents and purposes, a demon grave yard. What are these demons? Pft don't ask me I never explained it. I don't think I even had an inkling kicking around in my head.

But there was one from the City Dwellers that would go and dig up the graves of demons and using their bones to carve masks and he gave them to people and they got the nick-name Grave Robbers. Now this, unfortunately, is knowledge that was lost to time before I'm pretty sure I had an idea of what Cantur was up to and what the Deacon was for (more on that in Sam's post later this month), but for the life of me I can't remember, and I didn't write any external notes (or any that survived like three laptop crashes). So I can't tell you anything about that.

Beryl was taken when she was super young and given a Raven mask. Upon donning the mask, the Grave Robber is robbed (badum tss) of their memories and they become a semi-host for the spirit in the mask. She lived as Raven for a few years until Ren Hari showed up and said he'd come to bring her back to the Hill Folk and if she would be so kind as to go with him that would be great.

As for the Hill Folk lore, the culture is divided into four seasons and each season is divided into two elements. Beryl is a Spring Water cleric (I don't know why I called them clerics probably too much Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance). I went a step further because i'm an Extra Bitch(tm) and I like forbidden romances and I made her and Ky (you'll see her later too) part of a division of "nymphs" which is an all female-division of their Spring element (Wood and Water) and they were extra forbidden from falling in love/being with a man (note: I didn't take queer anything into consideration, which would change in a rewrite)

Now, Beryl-as-Raven was considered a Fallen in the eyes of the Hill Folk elders because, strictly by their rules she "turned her back on her goddess" (we can't get too deep into it now this is just an intro to the character). Technically they would have let her remain as a City Dweller except the priestess of the Spring Water Nymphs had a vision and that means that the goddess hadn't completely given Beryl up for lost. So they sent Ren to get her (I'll talk more about that on his post).

However once they get back, before they can review Beryl's case, a massive uprising of Fallen/discontent Hill Folk/City Dwellers doing something idk attack the main establishment of the Hill Folk and everything falls into chaos.

So by the rules, Beryl is still a Fallen because they never could revoke her status, even though she has returned to them and has gained favor from her goddess to use her magic again.

She and Ren use this loophole to carry out a relationship because, if things ever settle and they fully review her case and revoke the Fallen status, then she will be fully reinstated as a Spring Water Nymph and that will be BAD NEWS BEARS for Ren, who could be severely punished for being intimate with her.

Now which of these rules and practices will I carry over? Fuck if I know, this isn't the time to figure that out. For now, enjoy this conversation between Beryl and Ren when she agrees to go back with him.

#februaroc #a lil miss original #lil miss writings #07 nano

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gavinparished · 20 hours ago

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Gavin Parished x $alem - The Beats Inside My Head

So, here it is! My second project all together is also a first in a way, my first collaboration project. For context, this is an updated cover for DSPs, it has all the original pieces but since then we've both had name changes. I was going by Gavin Burtscher at the time, yes simply my legal name. I decided to change it to Gavin Parished a while later, because I don't want to know what it'd be like being a white-passing person named Burtscher trying to be an underground rapper. However, at this time it was even worse. My name was GBX, thank God I didn't keep that one. It was taken actually which is what motivated me to switch. $alem is a great name for that style of production honestly but at the time she was going by 2can. I honestly don't remember why she changed it but I prefer the newer name as well.

So, how did this record come about? If I remember corerctly, this album came out in 2018 so my memory is a bit foggy on it, $alem messaged me because she liked the songs I had out at the time. All I had released by then was a now lost single titled Sometimes and my first album, The Beats Inside My Head. After a lot of talking about how we'd do this we decided, after creating 2 of the 3 collab tracks, to just take our own songs and mix them in. So the project would become a rule of 3: 3 of her songs, 3 of mine and 3 collaboration songs. We both thought it seemed like a cool project so she attached 3 of her previously released songs, one of the most recent at the time, and I attached 2 I had made during the summer with Don't Go serving as the album outro. During the summer the two songs I made for this were Lost In Space and Unknown Temptation (along with my own single "i hate me, and you should too" which I'll get back to later).

Lost In Space was a very large song. I spent weeks on it. It was inspired by my electronic and dubstep roots in the music creation field along with the trap music I was currently into. It's the most complex song on the album, switching up every few bars so the beat is always unique sounding.

Unknown Temptation was my tribute to XXXTENTACION, as it had been finished a few weeks after he had passed away. It was finished before Lost In Space but came out after, I saved it to release with the album. This is the more "me" sounding song of my songs on the project. The weird synths, hard hitting drums, freaky loops. This is the DNA I kept as I grew. I made this song as a tribute to him because he inspired me a lot as an artist, despite all the rotten things he did as a person. I remember when he passed away, I was sitting in my room on vacation in Austria, visiting my family with my dad. His and Chester Bennington's deaths were, at the time, the only celebrity deaths that really effected me and honestly? Without X, there wouldn't be the same Gp standing here today. But you'll hear a lot more of that in my next album.

Before I get to Ruby's contributions I want to add that currently only our collab songs and my singles are up on DSPs, but this post inspired me to message her about getting her songs up and making it a whole again. However, if you'd like to hear it in it's original form, you can listen to the whole thing on SoundCloud, with links to both our profiles, below.

So, as far as her contributions go. The intro track, 10 kills g, was new at the time and I knew it had to be the intro. It got a rerelease and slight edit as the album dropped. Cocaine and Xaxax were her already released editions. We decided on those 2 after just talking about what the album is and what I'm doing creatively. They fit so we went with them. There's sadly not much more to tell here.

But now we have it, the 3 collaboration tracks. How'd they happen? Well, we made coffin first, which samples some Lil Peep interview clips. After making that beat around it we decided to go with that concept for all the tracks and sample artists we're inspired by. Ruby chose the artists and I did a lot of the lifting on the producion side. She was the lead on the first listed collaboration, Let Me Elevate Your Mind. She picked out the song and the voice clips while I did minimal editing. However, I did my best to work with what we had for graveyard robbers with the BONE$ and $UICIDEBOY$ clips. It fits her sound a lot more and honestly you can tell we were both amatuers at the time but that's part of the charm of these old projects, right? It was fun putting these together and eventually this lead to something a lot bigger that I'll get to down the road. You can listen to these tracks, as well as my 3, on Spotify. Here's the link to the 3 collaboration tracks.

So, the album is done! 10 kills g, Unknown Temptation, Let Me Elevate Your Mind and graveyard robbers were here, fresh to the public. And people liked it. It was nice. Honestly it was the last time for a long time that people in my life actually liked my music which felt great. Another album done, on to the next. During the creation of this record I was creating my debut hiphop mixtape, this time with vocals! This tape inspired how I went about producing a lot on there and my history wouldn't be the same without this cool project. Thank you to Ruby for reaching out for me and making The Wandering Minds happen. Sadly she doesn't produce much anymore but hey, maybe I can get her out and about again to do a lil sequel to this. I'll leave with this, show her SoundCloud some love! She's a really nice person and deserves it all.

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carlyraejcpsen · 4 years ago

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alright, i’ve tried to keep quiet because i truly believe in karma and wanted this rp to close through the admin’s own actions and not give them any opportunities to blame it on me instead. it also felt like beating a dead horse, because i was sure they’d close the rp after losing a huge proportion of their active members and the majority of their diversity. however, after seeing multiple people sharing their experiences today, they are still posting promo posts and starting their event. so yeah, here’s my experience with @thevillagerp

NOTE: i no longer have screenshots from my conversations with the admins, as i blocked them when i left the rp for the sake of my own mental health, but i did save the text in my drafts, so the messages below are copy pasted. i have not edited them in any way. They also deleted my original anonymous messages off of their blog.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: racism, very vague allusions to homophobia and transphobia

so i was a member of this roleplay for around two months. during my time there, it was startlingly obvious that white fcs were preferred and prioritised, both from the fact that they got more plots and interactions in general and from the fact that admins never promoted diversity on the main. even now, they repeatedly say they “would still love to receive some more male and non-binary apps” while ignoring that they currently have a ratio of 8 fcs of colour to 24 white fcs. their diversity rules at the time were that 1/3 of a mun’s characters had to be played by an fcoc. so people could easily just play one or two white characters.

a while ago, i sent an anonymous message to the main asking if they had considered perhaps changing this rule to be 2/3 characters instead of 1/3, since there were so few muses of colour in the roleplay (as i said before, they’ve since deleted this from their blog so i cannot provide a screenshot). they responded that they had been thinking of upping the character limit to four instead of three, with a rule that 2/4 must be played by an fcoc. i gave them the benefit of the doubt and the time to enact this change, but nothing happened.

so a few weeks later, i sent them this message on anonymous:

I was wondering if you had thought any more about the diversity rules here? I know you said before that you were considering increasing the character limit, but I noticed that hasn’t happened and I wanted to know if that was a change we’re going to see or if you would consider changing the rules in another way? I’m really disheartened by the lack of diversity in the roleplay

at the time there were 18 characters of colour out of a total of over 60. they responded (again, i’m sorry i don’t have the actual wording since they’ve deleted the messages) that they had thought about it and decided against upping the character limit, but instead would be having a weekly “poc acceptance day,” where they would only be accepting apps with fcs of colour. they also said they were doing this “now that the waitlist was mostly cleared,” which meant that the rp was mostly at capacity anyway, so they needed to look more at how to encourage their existing members to promote diversity, since there weren’t spaces open for new people to bring them in.

i responded with another anon expressing my disappointment and pointing out that they had done more to prevent having too many celebrity characters than too few muses of colour, as at the time they had a ban on celebrity muses. i wouldn’t usually suggest a ban on certain fcs, but as it was something they had done for celebrity characters, then i supposed it was a reasonable option.

they didn’t even respond to this message and instead posted on the main asking me to come off anon to discuss it. so i did, and i sent them the following dm:

i didn’t want to come off anon because i honestly feel really ostracised in this group and didn’t want to make it worse, but i don’t want to drop this issue and you aren’t comfortable addressing it publicly so here we are i guess. like i said in my previous message, i really don’t see how a “poc acceptance day” is going to make anywhere near enough of a difference. people will just wait for the opportunity to play their white characters. there are only 18 characters of colour in a roleplay with over 60 characters. that’s less than a third, which is obviously concerning. what’s even more concerning for me is that these characters are more often than not overlooked. i am often ghosted when plotting, or people don’t even reach out at all when i like plotting calls or intro posts. and then i have to watch characters like leo almost exclusively interact with white women (i’m sure that’s not the only example, but it is the first that comes to mind as he is one of the more active characters).

so this issue goes so much deeper than there just not being adequate representation in the rp. i really tried to help, i suggested making it a rule that 2/3 characters need to be poc in my original ask and you mentioned upping the character limit in response. i was worried that my concerns were being brushed aside, but i waited a while to give you the benefit of the doubt and the space to discuss the issue. so you can understand why it was really upsetting today to learn that the one thing you suggested was dropped and instead replaced with something that is barely scratching the surface of the problem. and i don’t know if it was your intention, but by saying that you were waiting for the waitlist to clear, it comes across as not wanting to receive any backlash from people who would want to join with only white characters. and even if people did want to join with faceclaims of colour, they can’t because the waitlist is cleared. like i suggested, you could change the rules so that 2 out of 3 characters must be people of colour. or, as was your proposed idea, up the character limit to four. you could also put a temporary ban on white faceclaims until the ratio evens out. as i mentioned, it’s really distressing that this was something you were willing to do for celebrity characters, but not to aid diversity.

i also just want to make it clear that these have been the only anons i’ve sent, i know you’ve been getting other ones, but those weren’t from me!!

( for context, they were receiving anons from someone else claiming that they felt left out in the rp ).

i had hoped that coming off anon would show them that this was a very real issue which was affecting their members, as well as giving them a space to discuss it privately instead of on the main. they responded with:

Hi Em, thank you for coming forward. We really, really appreciate it and we understand it’s not an easy thing to do. We also appreciate you flying the flag for diversity so strongly. We can always strive to be better, we are on the same page with you here.

Let us just explain our decision making. Firstly, just to address the waitlist, that was certainly not at all our intention when we brought it up. It was a logistical decision with 5+ applicants having already waited a week for acceptance and aware of their position on a waitlist.

When we decided against upping the character limit (and therefore the 2/4 POC character rule), we thought a POC acceptance day could be a good alternative course of action. In our eyes, this was something that would probably bring more POC characters to the group than the 2/4 rule because we knew there weren’t going to be many muns taking up an additional fourth character. This was a rule we’ve seen other groups enjoy success from so we wanted to try it out here. Plus, we think a day that explicitly highlights diversity every week would bring the message to the forefront of everyone’s minds. As we said, we’re going to monitor this over the next couple of weeks to see if it brings any improvement because we’d really like to have it as an ongoing rule.

The non-POC ban is actually a measure we’ve spoken about too and we are considering putting one in place should this fail. Thank you for raising your concerns, know that we’ve taken them very seriously and we hope that you’ll trust our judgement in trying this rule out first to see where it leads.

first of all, i don’t think i even have to mention the wording of “flying the flag for diversity.” but the real crux of the issue here is that they supposedly wanted me to come off anon to discuss the issue, but instead just explained their idea further and didn’t take anything i said on board. they didn’t even say a single word about how i told them i felt ostracised and regularly got ignored. i knew from speaking to other muns in the rp who played muses of colour (and just from looking at the dash) that they felt the same way too, but of course was only speaking from my own experience.

i thought long and hard about how to respond to this, as i was so disheartened by their unwillingness to listen to their members and the fact that they didn’t care that i felt left out. it felt like they had asked me to come off anon just so they knew who was messaging them and therefore put a target on my back, so honestly the thought of being on the dash or talking to the admins made me incredibly anxious. before i had a chance, however, they responded again with:

Hi hun, we’ve continued discussing this issue over the last couple of days and we wanted to let you know that we’ve decided to put in place a non-POC ban instead. Thank you again for holding a mirror up to the group. We do hope that this will recorrect the balance.

so i waited to see how things would play out. they posted about this new ban here and pinned the post to the top of the main:

[ IMAGE ID: a screenshot from thevillagehq of an admin update, which reads: in the interest of keeping the village a diverse space, we are currently only accepting applications for POCs. please note that any apps or reserves submitted to us for faceclaims that are not POCs will be deleted. we will lift this rule once we see fit.

thank you for your understanding and your efforts in making this group a brighter, more inclusive and diverse place for all. /END ID ]

this rule remained in place for around two weeks, during which time they made almost no effort to promote it. the above post was pinned to the main page, but that was the only mention of the ban anywhere on their page, they didn’t update the rules page or even put a note on the application page about it. during this two week period, the admins posted 10 promo posts, none of which suggested fcs or even mentioned the ban or diversity at all. the ban was then lifted suddenly when the pinned post was removed and the admins just went back to accepting apps with white fcs. the ratio had only evened out in those two weeks (from 18 out of 65 to 24/50) because of people going inactive or leaving, and there was nothing put into place to continue to promote diversity after the lift of the ban. in the three days after the ban was lifted, the admins posted over 10 promo posts, the same amount they had posted during the entirety of the ban. it was clear that they had no intention of actually making changes in their rp and had only done so because i refused to drop the issue.

again, i thought a lot about what i wanted to message them. i knew at this point that they didn’t want to make any real changes, but i still felt like i had to make it clear to them how disappointing their actions were. once again, i was messaged before i even had a chance, this time for bubbling.

as you can see in the above correspondence, i had told the admins point blank that i felt left out and ignored in the rp because of the characters i played (aubrey plaza, mj rodriguez and keiynan lonsdale fcs. all of my characters were queer and used either she/they or they/them pronouns). as a general rule, the only people who wanted to write with me and have interesting plots with me were people who played other muses of colour. the rp had a rule that you must reply to 3+ muns on every character, which i had been doing. i had only been back from my hiatus for a few days at this point and had responded to 6 different open starters the day prior. their message to me read:

Hi hun. There’s something we wanted to address to you directly. It’s been expressed to us by multiple members during these last few weeks that they have felt excluded by your character within the group, especially when it comes to the friend bubble that has formed between Mars, Bowie, Luvena, Asher and others.

While we encourage the development of friendships and trust that this isn’t intentional, we have a zero tolerance for bubble roleplaying at The Village. We are aware that our three mun activity rules have been met by all parties involved, however, bubbling is usually a little more nuanced than that and it seems it has unfortunately begun to create a bit of a divide within the group.

We have already issued individual warnings to a few people within the bubble, however with multiple members still expressing their concerns to us, we decided it would be better to address the group as a whole. We hope that by pointing this out to you, you will try and branch out to your fellow members a little more from now on - and try and be a little more inclusive when it comes to everyone else in the group.

We take such matters very seriously as admins, and while we hope it won’t have to come to this, there will be consequential steps taken should we not see any changes in your interactions in the weeks to come.

as you can imagine, i was incredibly upset to receive this message after already telling them i didn’t get plots from many of their members and they had done nothing. even people who i had previously messaged continued to only write with the same few white characters. i don’t deny that we definitely had a friendship group between our characters, but there were multiple people in that roleplay, including the admins, who only cared about ship plots or plots with the same few muns. me and other people who received the same message had all previously told the admins that people aren’t plotting with us and gotten ignored, so receiving this message made it clear that they neither cared about us nor wanted us in their rp. and so i responded as below:

yeah i literally told you i felt left out because there are multiple people only writing with white characters and you never addressed it, so this message is honestly insulting. i have reached out to almost every new member, responded to multiple open starters and have tried to plot with as many people as possible. like i told you, i am often left on read or people don’t even message me at all. if people do message me, i am usually expected to put in all of the effort and if people aren’t interested in actually developing plots with me then i am obviously not going to force my characters on them. all of my characters are queer, non binary people of colour and the harsh truth of this roleplay is that people don’t care about them. i even wrote out a whole list of 20 detailed suggested connections in an attempt to get more plots and nothing came from that either. i’ve even gotten anonymous hate saying that offering to explain my characters’ pronouns was “patronising,” which i didn’t feel like i could approach you about because, when i told you about how i’m feeling excluded, you didn’t care.

so if i only have actual plots with the people who actually care about my characters, i make no apologies. i also don’t even have threads with half of the characters you named, asher being the only one, and have literally only just come off hiatus. so please explain how i am bubbling, because this really just feels targeted at this point.

you’ve made it endlessly clear that this rp isn’t a safe space for people who want to play diverse characters. the main was practically silent while you had a ban on white faceclaims, which you never actively promoted, and then you dropped that suddenly without putting anything else in place. you also deleted my initial anonymous messages asking about diversity as if you were trying to hide that there was ever an issue. you turned anonymous messages off, so that no one can safely criticise you. because i did that off anon and ever since it has felt like there is a massive target on my back. my characters have been “accidentally” on the activity checks multiple times despite me being on hiatus (people get a notification that they were tagged even if you remove their name from the list btw). plus when i asked for an extension on my hiatus, you said that you would allow it “just this once” which now makes me feel like i can’t come to you if i’m busy. right now, for example, i am in the middle of moving house, but i’m also stressed about trying to stay active because you have made yourselves completely unapproachable.

the ratio only evened out slightly because members left. then suddenly after the ban you’re posting multiple promo posts a day??? you couldn’t get more obvious. i came to you about diversity in good faith, hoping that it was something you were unaware of, but you have made it abundantly clear that you actively do not want to promote diversity in your roleplay, we are just here to be witnesses to your ship. there are multiple members who are actually bubbling who have been brought to your attention, but nothing has been done. leo continues to only write with the same three white and white passing characters. charlotte pretty much only appears to write with leo and post a vague “message me for plots” post that wasn’t even tagged. both of you only put effort into your ship threads with each other and the occasional text threads. even with something like group events: while i’ve been here, there’s been a pride event that neither of your characters were even in new york for (an event where i was the only one reaching out and posting multiple starters, by the way); there was no event last month, and this month all you’re talking about is this housewarming party.

i’m really disheartened that it’s come to this, but i can’t be here anymore. please post unfollows for all my characters. you’ve said multiple times that we should trust you as admins, but this message shows again that i simply can’t do that. from the disregard of trigger warnings, to the way you treated being held accountable for the lack of diversity, to how you respond to people asking for hiatuses, this isn’t a safe space. even if i stayed, the target you have placed on me is making it insufferable to just write my characters in peace.

the other muns who received the same bubbling message (copy pasted btw, we all got the same one word for word) all responded with their own concerns and criticisms in responses of a similar length to mine. none of us received a reply, our unfollows were just posted the next day without any further responses from the admins. a few of the other members who had written and plotted with us chose to leave as well, which the admins wrote off as us just dragging them with us as opposed to them being able to make their own decisions and being aware of the situation (which was incredibly obvious. no promotion of a white fc ban, suddenly being active on the main once they try to stealthily drop the ban, then the majority of their muses of colour leaving???)

i haven’t paid the rp much attention since i left, as i mentioned above i blocked the main and the majority of the members just for my own mental health. but from a quick scroll through today i can see that the only change in diversity rules is that now instead of your third character having to be a poc, it is now your second. however, you still only have to have 1 character out of 3 have a fc of colour. so very little has been done, but of course i’m not surprised in the slightist.

these admins don’t want diversity in their roleplay. if you play any character who isn’t a rich, white, cishet neurotypical, please avoid it at all costs. it’s not in any way a safe environment.

#rpc #rpt #rp #thevillagerp #hope this makes sense i think there's a lot that needs context and hopefully i did a good enough job explaining #sorry to my non rp followers this blog is such a mess

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jq37 · 4 years ago

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The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 1

Meet the Maidens

It is back to school baby, both for D20 and, funnily enough, myself as well (something I hope will give me more time to get the recaps out in a timely manner fingers crossed).

As I’m sure you all know if you’re reading this, this season of D20 takes place in the world of Fantasy High but with a focus on Aguefort’s OTHER most badass adventuring party who we’ve so far only seen on the sidelines, the Seven Maidens! You’ll recall, they’re made up of the seven girls who were captured by Penelope and co. to fulfill the prophecy that would let Kalvaxus rule the world freshman year. And, in fact, we start with a flashback to freshman year so let’s just jump right in.

We find our seven soon-to-be heroines chained in the Red Waste in front of what we know and they will shortly learn in Kalvaxus’ lair--a crucial part of the prophecy that was the subject of season 1. The structure of this episode is sort of like 2 rounds of introductions--first here with the maidens meeting each other for the first time and then again at home with their families a la the first episode of Freshman Year so I’ll be glossing over certain things that we’ll get to later in their second intros.

Anyway, the first two to wake up are Danielle (aka Yelle: half-elf, druid) and Zelda (satyr, barbarian as we know). Zelda is her usual, adorably nervous self in contrast to Yelle who is no less sweet but in a super chill, granola girl, fuck the system kind of way. We actually learn that Penelope had her on board with the plan for a hot second when she thought it was just “overthrow the government” but didn’t know about the “install a just as bad if not worse evil dragon overlord” part.

Ostentatia (dwarf, cleric) wakes up next and is, as Izzy--her player--describes her “Jersey Trash.”, all blinged up with jewelry that she secretly made herself and didn’t buy. She wakes up pissed and ready to bodyslam Aelwyn which are both extremely valid emotions as much as I love Aelwyn. By the way, all of the girls recognize each other as girls who go to their school but none of them are really friends though they very quickly start throwing the label around because that’s what you do when you wake up chained with 6 other people in front of a dragon’s lair in a place called the Red Waste.

Katja (half-orc, fighter) wakes up and immediately cares about nothing more than the status of her beloved horse, Cinnamon and declares that if Cinnamon dies, she’ll die. This is a fantasy world so Ostentatia and Danielle are a little concerned that might literally be true via a soul bond or something but it’s more that Katja just really, really loves that horse. Danielle tries to cast a spell to locate the horse but can’t get the somatic components quite right with her hands manacled.

They all get into a discussion about the fact that everyone for a fact knows they’re all virgins now (you know, the real issue here) and what exactly counts as “virginity” for the purposes of this prophecy (like, does second or third base count or only traditional home runs using the baseball analogy) when Penny wakes up and is, just so excited to be here gang! Penny (halfling, rogue), who is one of the girls who has been kidnapped the longest, is adorably and honestly a bit concerningly exuberant to be surrounded by all these new friends, totally disregarding the fact that they are clearly in some deep shit. Zelda mentions that Riz, her old babysitee, knows they’re kidnapped and is trying to help and she lights up.

Next up is Sam (water genasi, sorc/bard) who immediately starts thrashing to get out of her chains and, when she can’t get free, is devastated by the fact that her ex betrayed her (!?) Finally Antiope (human fighter/ranger) wakes up all out of sorts having started her growth spurt while in the crystal and also having needed to pee right before she went in which becomes a problem all over herself (which Sam helpfully cantrips away).

With all of them awake, the stones they’re chained to light up and some of Kalvaxus’ minions (the ones who tied them up) show up to do minion speechifying. Yelle does a horrifying Animorph style morph into a waterbear (a tardigrade if you wanna get all Bio 101) to get out of her bonds but then Sam who has a serious one track mind re: getting out of here (Correct) and has exactly zero patience for these guys casts Tidal Wave and just knocks them off the cliff. Yelle frees Ostentatia who frees everyone else with Animate Object on their chains. Hands free, Yelle also casts Locate Animal and tells a very pleased Katja that Cinnamon is doing a full Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron down the highway searching for her.

The girls decide to explore the cave which has recently had most of its treasure moved (it’s currently in the gym for the Prompocolypse fight which is currently happening). Penny and Sam (who are in insanely different emotional places) find all these broken mirrors which Sam takes as a cue that they need to GTFO (which is what she was already doing) and Penny thinks would make a great material for friendship bracelet making which she starts doing as Sam physically pulls her away. Sam hears someone doing post-cry sniffles and is like, “Not today Satan,” still trying to leave. However, Penny sees that there is one mirror left and, inside, sees a ethereal looking human with flowing, preternatural, black hair who senses their presence and asks if Penny is someone named Anima. She asks for their names though she declines to give hers (hmm, feels very fae) and the girls give the fake names of Kelly and Cecelia which the figure says she will guard and not misuse. The figure says she is looking for her sisters (who she says when Penny asks are at Aguefort which...hmmmmm) and, all of a sudden, Sam and Penny are having a bad feeling about those mirror shards.

They ask her a question about the mirror and she gets really aggro when it’s referred to as “her” mirror as she would very much like to be out of it. The woman really wants to get out and says she can give them lots of power if they help. Sam pulls out her compact Mirror of the Past (magic item that does basically what you’d expect--shows you info from something’s past though in a cryptic way usually) to try and get some info on this thing and just barely avoids losing her mind in the process because this thing is ancient. Like eons old. She also learns the woman’s name (or maybe title): The Ending of Things (will be calling her Ending for now).

Yikes!

Right around now the other girls come in and can see at the angle they’re looking at her at the woman in the mirror is Not Really A Person and Antiope points at her and reflexively casts a ranger sense spell to try and clock its weaknesses and stuff but Ending grabs the spell energy like a lasso and tries to drag her into the mirror. She does however find out that she’s stacked with hella resistances (total immunity to necrotic damage and non-maj weapons, resistance to most elemental damage, and more).

Sam briefly considers using Lightning Lure to pull Antiope back before deciding on a much less ouchy Counterspell. Unfortunately, it’s not strong enough and now she’s being pulled in by her spell energy too. Yelle casts Erupting Earth which has some pros and cons.

Pros: Antiope and Sam are saved! Yay!

Cons: The mirror breaks and whatever was in it is fully freed. Not yay!

Shortly after (but not before Penny gives everyone their new friendship bracelets), someone calls into the cave looking for them--it’s Fig’s mom, Sandra-Lynn (with new art)! She’s happy and impressed that everyone is OK (also, Katja and Sam both have little lines that foreshadow their ~parental issues~ for the season--Katja being very moved by the simple act of Sandra-Lynn showing up for them and Sam saying that in her experience moms can be very evil).

As they all leave the cave, they all do checks and get some info:

Ostentatia: The mirror was kinda like a palimpsest (the crystals they were trapped in) and whatever this thing is is ancient and powerful.

Yelle: Gets the above info and the fact that when the thing left it wasn’t quite a bad vibe, just the vibe that something big and important is at play.

Penny: On an Arcana check she knows that what Danielle did 100% saved Antiope and Sam’s lives from whatever and wherever was on the either side of the mirror but the contact marked them in some way.

Katja: With History she sees some Primordial writing which is the writing of elementals (one of the things Ending has resistances to which might be relevant; also Sam reads Primordial but doesn’t get to read what it says)

Antiope: She knows that she and Sam are connected to Ending now somehow but it’s a two way connection which means they can also use it to their advantage.

Ostentatia casts Mending on the mirror shards which I think was to reconstruct the mirror but what it actually does is someone link their friendship bracelets. Cute!

And, with that, we cut to the present a year and a half later (which is Jr or Sr year for everyone).

We hop from kid to kid as they get ready to head in to school and get glimpses into their homes lives! Let’s do a quick rundown for each girl:

Antiope Jones

We see that Antiope is the youngest of five in what is essentially a military family full of basically every kind of fighter (she says she basically lives in a “Crossfit box”). There’s an 8 year gap between her and her sister Corsica who is the second youngest so her parents are kind of already living like empty nesters. When she comes downstairs she is promptly handed a protein smoothie and told two pieces of info: (1) from Corsica she learns that she overheard at school --where she teaches--that Aguefort needs to talk to her for some reason but she won’t say why which annoys the crap out of Antiope and (2) her parents lined up an internship for her at the Ministry of Adventure. She and her mom verbally spar a bit about them being all up in her life and how stressed she is and how she likes what she has going now with the Seven but her mom wins ofc because she’s a Mom and also a master tactician with a deft hand for loving mom guilt. On the way to school her bros (who include a gunslinger and an eldritch knight cause they run the whole gamut of fighter classes) Facetime her like, “Yikes Ant, heard about what happened with Mom, this is why you don’t fight her lmao.”

Sam Nightingale

This is a heavy one so strap in.

We check in with Sam who isn’t at her own family’s home but at Penelope’s family home which is off the bat eyebrow raising. It’s an upper middle class house and, on the way down, she has to pass Penelope’s bedroom which is conspicuously empty. Downstairs she’s greeted by Penelope’s human mom Rebecca who she learns is moving out soon because her elf husband is both cheating on her while away in Falinel and starting the divorce process. Sam clearly sees Penelope’s mom as a surrogate mom (for reasons we’ll learn in a second) and goes full ride or die assuring her that her ass is better than the ass of the woman he’s cheating with and offering to help burn his stuff even though drowning is more her specialty (she’s so cool). She also is a little stricken at the thought of Rebecca leaving her in the house alone but Rebecca says she can come with if she wants, she just didn’t want to disrupt her school life.

She also tells Rebecca that her bio-mom called recently which immediately sets Sam off. Through the convo we learn a couple of things:

Sam used to be an actor it seems.

And it seems like she was kicked out of the house after she transitioned or something similar which is why she lives with the Everpetals.

Now that it’s more “fashionable” to to be trans (her mom’s words, not mine) she wants Sam to talk to her so they can get her back in the game.

Sam is having none of that and tells Rebecca to just delete her mom’s number. Then they have a cathartic session of burning her cheating husband’s shit before Sam leaves in Sebastian--her sentient, seafoam blue, self-driving car with a very hot male voice which I am extremely jealous of. She picks up Zelda on the way to school and they commiserate a little and have a heart to heart about adults and change and how much Zelda wants to body slam Sam’s mom.

Penny Luckstone

Penny’s house is a whirlwind of activity and her harried parents get her and her 19 young siblings ready for school (no wonder she’s such a good babysitter). We see where Penny gets her type-A ness from as her mom and dad both have this cheerful but overworked energy of “EVERYTHING IS FINE” like that Good Place sign. Her mom spares a second to tell her that she recently got a letter for The Society of Shadows which is like a super secret rogue college (which her parents assume is legit even though they haven’t heard of it cause they’re Mumple people and also, if you've heard of a rogue school, how good could it really be?) Penny is excited except that it would mean she’d have to move and leave her party. Her mom is like “hey it’s a full ride and there are 20 of you guys so just take that into consideration but it’s ultimately your decision” before she dashes away to get to work because it is always Go Go Go with the Luckstones. She texts Sam for a ride and Sam swings by to grab her. This is not plot relevant but she has a booster seat in the back of Sebastian with her name carved into it and it’s important to me that you know that.

Katja Cleaver

Next up is Katja who lives in a Richie Rich style mansion and comes from very old money as she is descended from one of the first adventurers in Solace. She is in the barn with Cinnamon and the bugbear farrier they have employed (her name is Gertrude and a farrier is someone who does horseshoes). She eats the same breakfast as Cinnamon (hot dry oats and berries baybee) wo she loves so so dearly. Cinnamon is a magical horse--basically like a Find Steed spell that’s on all the time. She’s modeled the horse in her fave book series--the Babysitter’s Horse of course. Lockwood, the staff’s hobgoblin butler, is also there and they get a fantasy Zoom call from Katja’s dad who is in the middle of the insane 20th level adventurer stuff which he says might make him miss her graduation. She is extremely disappointed but just barely hides it from her dad (who seems to really care despite his not being around). She can’t hide it from the staff or Cinnamon however and Cinnamon offers to give her a ride to school via the scenic route.

Note: We also learn two sad facts about Katja from the conversation with her dad.

Her mother is Disney Princess dead* and

She wears one half of a friendship necklace and it seems like she’s waiting for someone to give the other half to. It’s implied earlier that the way Penelope got her was by promising to be her best friend. Sad!

*Edit: Well, she’s gone and we’ll leave it at that until next recap.

Ostentatia Wallace

Ostentatia wakes up and goes downstairs to have a very high energy in both directions interaction with her very fantasy-Italian mom and grandma. Her grandma is concerned her beard isn’t coming in--not knowing she shaves it on purpose which her mom is like, “Listen it’s fine but don’t tell grandma it’ll kill her.” She clocks very quickly that her dad isn’t there and his mithril working tools are gone. Her mom tries to play it off but she knows she’s being lied to and her mom relents. Her dad is at a meeting with the other workers of the shut down mithril factory and negotiations have ceased. It looks like he’s gonna be long term out of work. That explains where her dad is but not why the tools are missing. She decides to go do some investigating on her own and ambushes her dad in his car where, with the inaugural nat 20 of the season, she realizes he pawned his tools to get her 5 revivify diamonds. She's upset by this and he’s upset that she’s, in his eyes, questioning his ability to take care of his family. She’s like, alright, you did a thing for me, I’ll do a thing for you and she casts Animate Object to make his stuff steal itself back in a sequence that involves an animated crowbar using another crowbar which is just wild.

Danielle Barkstock

I’m gonna be real, Danielle’s life is exactly how you assume it is based on Who She Is As A Person so this one will be real short. Eco-friendly off the grid geodesic yurt. One super chill peace and love elf sorc mom and one rough and tough human ranger mom. She also knows and helps the Cubbies with their anarchist machinations because yeah, duh. She gets some messages from school on her crystal--one being a message from the principal saying that she and the rest of her party have first period off to meet with him and the other being a newsletter from the school showing, among other things, a photo of the Druid class doing a project but she’s not in it for some reason. She texts one of the other druids to see if she can figure out why she wasn’t invited but fully gets left on read. Brutal. Of course, she hasn’t messaged that person in 6-8 months so maybe that’s why.

Anyway, with that, all seven of our maidens make it to school and are all exuberant to see each other in a very teen girl way before getting to the principal’s office and learning that their party will be broken up at the year!

Bad!

Superlatives

I wanted to do something a little different for these recaps than the Bad Kid ones so instead of Honor Roll/Detention we are doing Superlatives and the inaugural one goes to...

Sam: Most Like To Survive a Horror Movie

Man she woke up chained in a ritual magic circle and she was Ready To Go Immediately. You will not catch this girl doing horror movie victim BS like exploring the spooky house or giving the creepy obvious ghost the time of day. She is hyper-competent and her goal is making it out alive and dragging her friends with her. Love her.

Random Thoughts

The season immediately starts with a bang or I should say a bing with Izzy trying to say “bling bang” and accidentally saying, “bling bing” and immediately getting roasted by everyone. I love the authentic girl group vibes (which include everyone clowning on her then immediately hyping up Zelda to the max after being way more awkward).

Handshake meme with Danielle and Moonshine from Naddpod. Also, Cinnamon and Horse from Centaurworld.

I love that Rekha and Erika just straight up were like, “Our characters are Asian”. Like obviously, make your characters Asian coded in your fantasy world--all my D&D characters are black like me--but it’s funny that they completely disregarded the, “There’s no Asia in this world so I guess they’re this world’s equivalent to--” Nah just, “I’m a half-elf and I’m Asian.” You love to see it.

I absolutely LOVE the choices the cast made to flesh out their characters based on the little info Brennan had about them, none moreso than rich horse girl Katja. Rekha is a genius.

“I only want one thing and he’s working” KATJAAAAAAA

Man if I was in that flashback I would have been wilding out so much with my flashback plot armor.

I appreciate that the first thing that Aabria has Antiope do is extremely uncool. I love it when players aren’t concerned about just being cool and on point all the time. Sometimes (read: often) that’s the less interesting choice.

But on the exact opposite side, she’s a ranger and an arcane archer which I think is extremely cool. Lmao also I didn’t mention in the recap but she HATES dragons now which, understandable. I’m guessing they're her favored enemy.

I can’t wait to see another group of kids interact w/ madman Aguefort.

Also, as a known Aelwyn-stan, I am very excited for the possibility of the Seven interacting with her cause as much as I love her they are under no obligation to acknowledge her redemption arc and I would love to see them throw hands.

I love the Greek myth naming scheme of Antiope’s extremely cool family as with her on the spot nickname “L-Cab” short for long caboose since she’s the youngest by a mile.

Also this is out of character not in character but Sephie is an extremely cool nickname for Persephone.

I wonder why Brennan didn’t let Sam read the Primordial in the cave. He just glossed right past her saying that she speaks it and she didn’t push it. Would it have solved his entire plot in the span of a flashback or was he just keeping things moving?

Sidenote, if I was married to an elf man and worried about aging like Rebecca, I would simply become a druid (or a monk or up my wizard levels so I could learn True Polymorph or Wish or something).

I wonder what the deal with Ending is. She seemed relatively sincere in the mirror but that doesn’t mean anything. She could be sincere and also Very Bad News.

There is an offhand comment by Brennan about how the dwarf forge god gives spells but doesn’t talk to his followers which I think means that Ostentatia is gonna be getting a direct god call soon enough.

Also she mentions that her dad is doing some criminal activity on the side which seems like a Problem for later. Honestly all of the kids have some pretty rich parent drama happening which should be interesting to see explored.

No nat 1s this ep and 1 nat 20 as I mention from Ostentatia.

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #the seven #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers

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thoughts-on-bangtan · 4 years ago

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Let’s talk: RUN Episode 131

by Admin 1

I know I’ve probably said this about literally every episode but this one was so fun! Admin 2 and I were honestly laughing almost the entire time while also trying our best to follow along their “debates” and just taking in all the chaos. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Quick recap: in this episode we’re at the pool that belongs to the same hotel at which they had lunch at the end of the previous episode and the objective is twofold--not get wet and win a debate. That’s basically it, it’s like the mint chocolate debate episode but even more hilarious and with the addition of wet Bangtan.

Something I truly love is how it took vmin exactly 57 seconds (which includes the 18 second long intro) to find some kind of ‘reason’ to hold/shake hands behind JKs back. Because of course they did.

After the whole “mess” that ensued after the Titanic preview picture was posted yesterday, I can basically just say one thing--there was literally no need whatsoever to get all anxious and uncertain about the picture, or anything the shippers made out of it. As always the best course of action, which is the one I usually apply, is waiting until we get the full thing so we have context for what we’re shown in the picture/teaser/scene. It’s like that scene at the end of one of the ITS episodes where Jimin goes to JK to tell him about a supposed leak in his room which was taken way out of context and proportions until we got the next episode a week later and the actual events were completely different from anything and everything that was theorized.

So, what’s the lesson? Wait until we get the full thing, dear fellow vminnies, that way we can avoid making each other anxious and unsure.

Anyway, let’s get into it by starting with the ‘warm-up’ which consisted of one-on-one “battles” where the members stood on these floating foamy mats being held by two staff members and having to make each other fall into the water by playing the hand pushing game.

Yoongi VS Jimin -- I like how the two shortest members went against each other, which I’d assume might’ve had something to do with Yoongi’s shoulder and how chances of Jimin hurting him due to his height/size/weight were the smallest as opposed to Namjoon or even Hoseok. Maybe I’m imagining/overthinking things but it seemed like Jimin was a little hesitant/careful in how he approached the game and in the way he touched Yoongi, which honestly is very thoughtful and cute of him if that’s true, considering his shoulder and all. In the end Yoongi, after they basically goofed around more than actually tried to push each other, offers a deal of just doing it once properly, ending in both of them falling in the water since Yoongi leans forward, hugs Jimin and drags him down with him.

Tae VS Hobi -- These two might’ve been the quickest, given how Hobi said he’s scared at least three times and Tae basically use a moment to ‘attack’ where Hobi was distracted by the fact that a moment prior he thought Tae almost would’ve hit him in the face with his forehead on accident. That lucky did not happen, but Hobi did end up in the water and Tae remained on the float and completely dry.

Namjoon VS Seokjin -- Now these two, how can I put my thoughts/feelings into cohesive words and sentences instead of just a long key smash? They were hilarious, and their round definitely took the longest out of all of them, both trying to make the other fall yet simultaneously seeming like they weren’t trying all that hard since neither wanted to land in the water? After all before the game started Seokjin did complain how the RUN crew told him they wouldn’t have to get into the water. And yet, in the end, after a visible moment of contemplation, Namjoon hugs Seokjin (who hugs him back) and they fall into the water together (when I tell you how much I love them, wow).

JK VS Jimin --Here’s where we get the Titanic moment while JK and Jimin stand on the float and are being pulled to the middle of the pool, the members immediately jumping in with Hobi going “Jack, come back” in a breathy voice while Yoongi (?) sings the melody of My Heart Will Go On and everyone is laughing. It was an absolutely hilarious and cute moment. What made me laugh the most during the whole thing were the Jimin heads used to hide whatever, which I as a joke called the “Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra (Head Edition)” while talking to Admin 2. During the game itself Jimin and JK are hilarious, slapping each other’s chests and trying different tricks to make the other fall, showing how amazing their core strength and balance is, but eventually Jimin shoves JKs chest and JK falls into the water, winning the game since Jimin “cheated” and thus lost.

Seokjin VS Tae -- Interesting to note is how Jimin remained in the water and close by while these two were playing. Seokjin and Tae though somehow seemed the most chaotic out of all of them, despite Seokjin offering that they should just do it in one go...which didn’t work out. They leaned into each other twice while laughing before starting to “wrestle” until Tae put his arms around Seokjin’s waist and basically threw him into the water while subsequently being pulled after him and falling in as well. Sometimes I think we forget how strong Tae is (though after his BE_log earlier today I doubt we’ll forget that again any time soon).

Once “warm-up” was done, the members were split into two groups of three while one person, the MC, sat in the middle in a glass box (though missing the front glass panel). The rules were established and we basically figured out that there are water canons in front of the seated members and a bigger one releasing water onto the member sitting in the middle. They got words and things they were not allowed to do/say since otherwise they would get splashed.

Safe to say they all fairly quickly looked even more like very wet puppies. I mean look at Yoongi and his cute curly poodle hair, adorable!

The debate portion itself was about “crunchy or soft cereal”, “eggs of peas on jjajangmyeon” and “firm or soft peaches” and truly more chaotic shouting than actually debating. The team members and the “MC” changed for each round, which lasted 11 minutes each. Who debated what was chosen by the crew (or the MC). My highlights for the cereal debate (besides Seokjin cutely complaining how he prefers his cereal soggy and Namjoon equally cutely telling him to just pretend he likes it crunchy) were Yoongi (who was team soggy cereal) and his argument that since Kendrick Lamar eats soggy cereal, that’s basically the winning argument, Namjoon arguing that since “cereal” and “crunchy” both start with a c that’s the only right answer, and Tae arguing that if you eat chocolate cereal it’ll melt and you’ll additionally get chocolate milk so obviously soggy cereal is better. The jjajangmyeon portion had discussions about prices, as well as Hobi (team peas) arguing he doesn’t like seeing animals in pain (which was quickly countered by JK saying he’d just eaten pork before the episode) and Tae generally being appalled by having to argue in favor of peas since he doesn’t like them yet used the argument that his dad likes them so if you argue against them...well.

And finally the peaches debate had Tae and his galaxy brain using their Chilsung Cider ads as argument and how the peaches in it were firm since they bounced and thus they are better, which JK tried to counter by pointing out that those were just CGI to which Tae basically said he’s insulting their beautiful ads, how dare. I also love how Jimin, who was on Tae’s team, went along with whatever nonsense argument Tae came up with as though it was the most logical one in the world. Just lovely soulmate things, we love to see it. Speaking of nonsensical arguments, you have to give points to Namjoon for his ability to sound like he’s making perfectly sensible and logical arguments while doing, well, the exact opposite. Or Yoongi who just bs-ed his way through the entire thing while acting totally serious about it.

Can we please have a quick look at the following screenshot:

And now, can we please talk about how everyone is nicely sitting in their designated place with space between them...and then there’s vmin who are like magnets because “Space who? We don’t know her”.

Admin 2 asked me to add their comment/thought about how it looks juuuuust a little as though vmin may or may not have been holding hands below the table, which, I mean, we’ll never know but, at this point (especially after the BE unit unboxing video) I wouldn’t even be surprised if it were true.

At one point when Seokjin became the MC the water kept on coming and coming and the members were desperate to figure out what was the thing they were doing that caused it. Jimin thought it could be the caps that some of them wore, so without hesitation or question, he took off Tae’s cap (bless Jimin for giving us another view at wet hair Tae, truly) and then, I swear, it looks like he wanted to ruffle Tae’s hair yet just a second before making contact he stops himself and instead turns his hand in like a “I’m presenting some kind of argument” way. Adorable.

A final note goes out to the fact that they are wearing white button downs which, I mean, makes perfect sense I guess? And also how the crew gave them bathrobes so they’d stay warm, I’d assume, yet very quickly those were drenched as well thanks to the water canons so it basically defeated the purpose completely. And yet, despite all the water etc they all look fantastic.

Overall it’s a hilarious episode that’ll give your stomach muscles and lungs an amazing workout. Bangtan were their chaotic, loud, and mischievous selves and honestly, I can’t wait to see what else they’ll debate in the next episode.

#vmin #RUN BTS #RUN BTS episode 131 #BTS #Taehyung #Jimin #Namjoon #Seokjin #Yoongi #Hoseok #Jungkook #namjin

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incorrectlumityquotes · 4 years ago

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FULL REVIEWS: “Lost In Language”

Lost in language and I don't know much. Was I thinking aloud and fell out of touch? But I'm back on my feet and eager to be what you wanted.

Seriously? Nothing? You guys have never heard Air Supply? I mean, they’re old AF but still. It’s a funny pun. Whatever.

Back in the day (like it was so long ago) I didn’t know what to expect from this episode. The only thing I caught from the description was library, but hoo boy, we got so much more!

I love the cold opens to this show. It always reminds me that Luz is a silly ass hyper fangirl who still wants life to play out like it does on TV.

“Learning about love and life through the eyes of a child.”

Spoken like a true person who have never done any actual babysitting. The Bat Queen gets her own soft intro for another episode, which I’m noticing more and more re-watching this show. She pays Eda to watch her baby in exchange for a butt-ton of money. Eda, in classic Eda fashion, would rather not split the cash with Luz and gives her an errand to run so she doesn’t have to do it.

I don’t know about you guys, but liked going to the library when I was a kid. It was the only way I could play computer games or go on the internet. Getting online is the easiest thing in the world today, but when I was a kid, it was a luxury my parents couldn’t afford. And dumb-dumb kid me didn’t know that you can borrow movies and comic for free at the library too. That’s how I saw Jaws for the first time.

The library at The Boiling Isles is almost exactly what I expected. Kinda like the Hogwarts library, but with a lot more teeth and eyes everywhere. Luz has a bunch of fun just messing around, until she stumbles upon the cutest goddamn thing ever!

Amity reading to kids at the public library in her free time. My god.

I’m with Luz here. Holy hell, I did not see that coming. I thought Amity was the rival character, the Draco Malfoy of the show, the reluctant ally, the jerk with the heart of gold DEEP in there somewhere. Instead she’s at the Kid’s Corner reading her favorite childhood classic to toddlers. I didn’t know there were angels in the demon realm.

Stop. Stop! You’re already cute.

Seriously this moment made me go “aw” and laugh at the same time. It was weird. Also how does this library have a manga section? Do they import these books from JAPAN in the HUMAN REALM? Is there a publishing company that acts as the middleman? Or are these just the books that the trash slugs ended up barfing on the beach somewhere? I’m thinking too hard about a throwaway joke in the background. Big brain hurt.

AND back to reality...

Luz tries to extend the hand of friendship to Amity and Amity rejects it. I have...thoughts.

First, they this up with another parallel to Azura in the beginning of the episode. I get it. It’s a theme that they are doing, but I would have rather have Luz try to befriend Amity because she wants to, not because Azura did it. It’s not the only reason she does it, but it does kinda bug me a bit. It kinda goes back to Luz wanting life to play out like a story.

Also, a part of me thinks that this is something Amity likes to do alone. Her way of getting away from everyone else and just do something that she enjoys and makes her feel good. We have no proof that it gives her extra credit, so she could just use that as a way to save face. She seemed so happy to do it too.

Finally, you know what this else this reminds me of? The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. There’s a popular fan theory that has been around since the eighties that if you look at The Karate Kid from the rival’s perspective, the protagonist is the bully. I’m more than sure that’s what going on here. From Amity’s perspective, Luz just gets her into trouble. We’ll get more into that later.

Luz walks off dejected and we get the second big surprise to punch me in the face.

Holy hell, why the fuck are you two so goddamn fucking pretty? I mean, holy shit, look at these two. My god. And ERICA LINDBECK as Emira? Jesus Christ, I’m going to be feeling things I shouldn’t be feeling in places I can’t say!

Joking aside, we get one of our first full introductions that didn’t come with a soft intro from a previous episode. Enter Emira and Emira, Amity’s older siblings who in true sibling fashion like to give Amity a hard time.

“Hey, mittens!”

This seems normal at first. Siblings always rib each other. No big deal.

Amity storms off. The twins introduce themselves proper to Luz (and the audience) and they mess around for a bit.

In fact, they have so much fun messing around with Luz that they decide to invite her back afterhours to check out The Wailing Star. Luz thinks that this is a great way to get on Amity’s good side by befriending her siblings. Why she would think this I have no idea.

Meanwhile the B-plot continues its adventures in babysitting. I don’t like using the word filler (so I won’t) but this B-plot is really just for two things: setting up Escape of the Palisman and jokes. It does both. No harm, no foul.

Also the twins said for Luz to meet back at midnight and Luz was at The Owl House for like a hot second. There’s like a huge gap of time there. What did she do until midnight? Whatever. If it was important it would have been animated.

Also also, I love all of Luz’s little saying in this episode. She does it a lot but they cranked it up in this episode. Featuring great hits like:

“This sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center.”

and

“I thought we were as cool as cucumbers but we’re as sour as pickles.”

and my favorite

“Call me a library book because they were checking me out.”

I hope they keep doing that.

Back at the literal Wailing Star (I laughed so hard), The twins and Luz discover that The Wailing Star brings the content of the books to life. Does that work for all books in The Boiling Isles or just the library? Enough. No more big brain. The three proceed to...mess around some more.

The twins discover offscreen (Really? Really.) that if you edit the contents of the book, you change what comes to life. Then the twins reveal their true objectives. Apparently, Amity has been tattling on the twins whenever they cut class or do whatever it is that they want. They’ve decided to look for her secret little hideaway (that they somehow know is in the library), find her diary and post all the pages all over school to teach her a lesson.

Um, fucking no.

And here we enter the true lesson of this episode and probably the reason why Hecate is draw with two faces. People being more than just what they appear to be at face value.

Amity appears to be the bully character of the show, and while she did bully Willow, Luz and King, there’s more to her than that. Amity is lonely. As a fellow person who grew up lonely, trust me. I can tell from a mile away. She puts pressure on herself to be the best at whatever she’s doing and to be the best. She hates that she follows the rules but people like her siblings seem to get rewarded for breaking the rules and doing whatever they want free of consequence. She sees the double standard that they live by and it angers her. But at the same time, everyone seems to give the twins a free pass so she can’t do anything about it.

Even worse, there’s no one for her to confide in. It wouldn’t make it better but it would make it easier for her to just vent and get the bullshit out of her brain. She doesn’t like her friends and the one friend she did like...that’s for another episode. Hence, the diary. Amity is a big ball of frustration and loneliness. I know because I grew up in a very similar way.

When you’re forced to keep your anger inside you, you lash out at any little thing that bothers you just to ease your frustrations. It doesn’t make it okay but it’s the only way to cope sometimes just to get by.

The twins on the other hand seem like everything you’d want in a friend. They’re fun; they like you; they’re attractive; they’re attentive. But in reality, they live in a world where they believe consequences and accountability don’t apply to them. And they’ll do anything to keep it that way. Even humiliate their sister.

Luz seems like a happy-go-lucky, friends to all things kinda person, but she can also be innocently insensitive. She just does things hoping they turn out the way they would for Azura without considering how the people around her would feel about it.

It doesn’t make any of these characters two-faced. We just are different things to different people.

Amity discovers what’s going down and Luz (being the empathic person that she is) decide to try to go talk to her.

Then I’m reminded that this is a horror-comedy.

My god, you’re ugly.

One climax later (don’t laugh), and Luz and Amity try to make amends with each other. They both have to think about how they’ve been treating the other, earning the title of bully or not. They’re not friends yet but this is...better.

FINAL SCORE: 5 - Loved it.

Damn, The Owl House is one a roll. That’s what? Three 5 scored episodes already? Hot damn. This episode was fun but it really hit hard with the character work on Amity. She quickly became one of the most interesting characters and a fan favorite. And the third act provided a good amount of horror to call this a horror comedy. The B-plot is fine but probably one of the weakest only saved by several funny jokes. This is one of those episodes I kept coming back to and a favorite to watch.

Could you two please not? I’m gonna get in trouble.

#the owl house #my works #full review #full reviews

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i-am-very-very-tired · 4 years ago

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Let’s get one thing straight: Body-shaming someone is never OK, even if the target is a public figure. However, despite the fact that this should be a universal rule of decorum, people are still prone to criticizing the appearances of others, including those of celebrities.Although social media has shone a bright light on the issue in recent years, celebrity body-shaming is nothing new. Since the rise of gossip magazines, stars have had their bodies scrutinized for all the world to see. From critics saying Gigi Hadid is too skinny for the runway to onlookers rudely commenting on Tyra Banks's swimsuit body, it seems no celebrity is totally immune to the plague of judgment and unnecessary remarks.Pregnancy rumors, comments about weight gain, and bullying for clothing choices all fall under the tasteless domain of all that encompasses body-shaming — and it happens even more often than you may think. But that doesn’t stop most of these stars from living their best lives and even taking some time to teach these trolls a lesson or two, when they're in the right mood for it. Below are 17 times celebrities have experienced body-shaming, either before their time in the spotlight or while living directly in it. Gigi Hadid Supermodel Gigi Hadid is no stranger to having her body commented on by the public. Some people have accused the model of being too thin while others have said she’s too curvy for the runway. Despite these comments, Hadid stresses that she loves her body and that shamers should mind their own business. It’s not their body, after all. Demi Lovato Growing up in the spotlight is no easy task for anyone. Demi Lovato has dealt with body-shamers since her days as a Disney star and still faces unwanted comments about the way she looks regularly. Most recently, people came after the singer for supposedly gaining weight while in rehab and used a paparazzi photo to tear the singer apart. Thankfully, Lovato isn’t afraid to stand up for herself and has a history of taking people down when they make negative comments. Selena Gomez Like Lovato, Selena Gomez grew up in the spotlight and has subsequently suffered years of body shaming at the hands of "fans" and haters alike. In 2015, the actress and singer opened up about how she sought therapy after being body-shamed publicly. Most recently, Gomez clapped back at fans who commented on a photo of her wearing a bikini on Instagram. Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Aniston has also experienced some body-shaming. The former Friends actress once wrote an empowering essay for HuffPost in 2016 about being “fed up” over ridiculous rumors and unwarranted comments about her body. During this time, gossip magazines were speculating that Aniston was pregnant because her stomach "looked bloated" in a few photos. The actress set the record straight while simultaneously destroying the idea that people’s bodies are something that should be critiqued. Tyra Banks “Kiss my fat ass.” That’s the iconic and unforgettable response that queen Tyra Banks had for body-shamers in 2007 after tabloids captioned a photo of her in her swimsuit with cruel phrases, and it seems she's sticking with it. Kelly Clarkson Kelly Clarkson has dealt with body-shamers, as well. In 2017, a Twitter troll tweeted that the American Idol winner was fat. Clarkson responded, “...and still fucking awesome,” proving she is not here for any type of comments on her body. This wasn't Clarkson's first troll, either. In 2015, British media personality Katie Hopkins had the nerve to comment that Clarkson had gained weight, to which she responded by saying this wasn’t the first time she’s been attacked for the way she looks. Clarkson also said she’d rather have wine than waste any time thinking about shamers. Same, girl. Adele Adele has faced years of disgusting comments about her body since her intro to stardom in 2006. Nevertheless, the clap-back queen makes sure to shut down instances of body-shaming immediately. But that doesn’t mean words don’t hurt. In a 2015 interview, Adele mentioned that while she does sometimes

struggle with her body image, she tries not to let it rule her life. America Ferrera For her 33rd birthday, America Ferrera wrote a letter to her body. She shared the body-positive message on Instagram, saying she’s finally learned to love her body after years of harboring feelings of negativity towards it. However, people are still commenting on Ferrera’s body. In fact, Ferrera has famously said that she didn’t know she was ugly or fat until she starred in the show Ugly Betty, which says a lot about the way people treat public figures. Chrissy Teigen Twitter phenomenon and multitalented model Chrissy Teigen has often been the subject of judgmental comments. In fact, Teigen was body-shamed at the 2018 Emmy Awards, with trolls talking about her weight post-pregnancy with son Miles. Teigen sarcastically responded to the trolls in her typical hilarious tone by showing them she has no time to be shamed for her body. Lady Gaga Body-shamers have come after Mother Monster, too. Lady Gaga, who has been open about her struggle with chronic illness, has had her image picked apart since appearing on the scene with her 2008 hit “Just Dance.” Trolls also had something to say after her 2017 Super Bowl halftime performance. Of course, the ever-busy superstar didn’t have time for such nonsense and quickly responded that she loves her body. Alicia Silverstone Clueless star Alicia Silverstone saw her career take off in the '90s, but stardom didn’t come without a slew of critics picking apart the actor's appearance. When it was announced that Silverstone would play Batgirl in the then-upcoming film Batman & Robin, the actress was met with an onslaught of hateful comments about her body. In an Entertainment Weekly article from 1996, it’s noted that fashion critics said Silverstone looked “more Babe than babe,” referring to the fictional pig. The actor later recalled that paparazzi chased her down in an airport chanting “fat girl” to the Batman theme song. Rihanna Rihanna has also been attacked for the way her body looks. After her 2018 Grammy performance (which she slayed, by the way), trolls came after Rihanna for her apparent weight gain, speculating that the singer might be pregnant. This isn’t even the first time Rihanna has faced such criticism. In 2017, the Fenty Beauty founder shut haters down with a Gucci Mane meme (in which she showed two photos of rapper Gucci Mane, from 2007 and 2017, and captioned the meme "If you can’t handle me at my 2007 Gucci Mane, you don’t deserve me at my 2017 Gucci Mane"), proving that body-shaming her or anyone else will not be tolerated. Serena Williams Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Yet the 23-time Grand Slam champion has had her body scrutinized countless times for being "too muscular." Although the tennis champion says such comments have hurt her feelings, she also says that she's now more confident than ever about her body and calls it her “weapon.” Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Lawrence says that when she was beginning her career, people in the film industry shamed her for "being fat.” According to the actor, she was once told she would be fired if she didn’t lose weight. Kate Winslet Before she landed her lead role in Titanic, Kate Winslet says the kids at her school would bully her for the way she looked. The actor opened up about being body-shamed by her fellow classmates, who called her “blubber” and told her she was too ugly to be an actress. However, Winslet never gave up on her dreams and has since spoken out against body-shaming, saying that she had to ignore the negative comments to be the person she is today. Drew Barrymore The lovable Drew Barrymore faced her own harassment in the '90s over the way her body looked onscreen. During this time, Barrymore often had her “baby fat” criticized in reviews. In a 2010 interview, the actor says she was often bullied for her weight when she was younger. More recently, the actress has had to refute pregnancy rumors over the way her stomach looks on TV. Renée Zellweger It seems Ren´ee Zellweger

can’t please the critics (nor should she have to). Since gaining weight for her role in the early-2000s film Bridget Jones's Diary, Zellweger’s weight has been a subject of contention for body-shamers everywhere. Some people think she’s too skinny, while others think she’s too fat. Nevertheless, Zellweger isn’t here for tabloids that want to critique her body. The actress wrote an article for HuffPost in 2016 after people commented on her rumored cosmetic surgery, proving once and for all that her body isn’t for public consumption or criticism.

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dansnaturepictures · 4 years ago

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30th April 2021: Lakeside and home-5 different pictures in this photoset to those I tweeted tonight, the first, third, sixth, seventh and eighth in this photoset

A quick (ish) note at the top of the blog to say I am going to cease to put in the blog title which ones or all of them of my pictures from the day in the blog are different to the ones tweeted on Dans_Pictures after this post, as I just worry it could get annoying and I have got a little bit bored of doing it myself to be honest. So anyone who knows me from Twitter just be aware that on certain days there may be pictures I took on the day which I didn’t tweet which are in the night’s blog. I will of course in my intro tweets be saying still if there will be exclusive photos in my blog, as I still like to say <insert number> photos from my day to come now to warn you that I will be uploading photos so I may as well still say if some of those will be via a later Tumblr post. When I first did the idea of having my Tumblr photoset for the day full of different photos to those I tweeted to reduce the number of tweets I do on high yielding days producing 30 or 40 in a day was a novelty for me so of course it made sense to highlight that at the top of my Tumblr post. But I feel its not really needed now as I’m in such a habit of taking those amounts of photos in a day quite frequently. For the last couple of years I have done a system of if my photo yield is above 30 on a day I’ll do a Tumblr photoset with 10 exclusives. But on my week off last week my yields were so high on some days that I did two photosets of exclusive photos and still had slightly more than 30 to tweet and actually I didn’t think it was too bad as a one off or a series of one offs over a week it might well happen on similar weeks off. So from now I may be a bit more flexible and may tweet a few more if I feel I get the right set where I don’t have many I think will look good only in the blog etc. But I am going to be mostly playing by a rule of tweeting 30. So if I produce 36 or over the Tumblr photoset/s for the day shall have 10 different pictures to those tweeted, but if 30-35 I will reduce the number of exclusives to however many it needs to mean 30 tweeted so three exclusives for 33 etc. Today I did play by the rougher rules I’ve been doing a bit too which I might sometimes too, 34 taken and 5 exclusives to give me 29 to tweet, albeit some sunset pictures I took after I tweeted them all took me to 36 and 31 tweeted.

On a rainy lunch time walk at Lakeside like Wednesday I took the first three pictures in this photoset of two views and one of the Greylag Geese I got close to at beach lake. As I rounded concorde lake before I saw the geese flying suddenly and firmly which was exciting to see the squark through the air in a territorial display another brilliant nesting moment this week. And things are reaching a fever pitch in the avian world at Lakeside with Mallards coming close to me, and quite an attentive looking patroller of the lake as they always are one of the Mute Swans keeping its eye on the Canada Geese family the two parents and one chick which I saw yesterday as well I took the fifth picture in this photoset of them. I also took the fourth picture in this photoset of one of the Great Crested Grebe parents and I just about about spied the chicks on the other’s back at the back of the lake I think. This is closer than I’d ever seen one of the grebes to the shore of beach lake before it was a brilliant view. It was also nice to see some memorable flowers on my lunch time walk, some vetch like some I remember seeing here last year by the lake, the forget-me-nots again and some cuckooflower one I learnt last week elsewhere which it was interesting to see at Lakeside as well as the usual suspects.

I predicted the sun would come out this evening with a second walk with me finishing early on a Friday in the offing and I did step out after finishing work with it shining after taking the sixth and seventh pictures in this photoset of views out the back. I took the eighth and ninth pictures in this photoset of a view on my walk this evening near Lakeside and some lovely blossom there. I did enjoy seeing these nice white bits of blossom and pink buds today there was a lot of it around whilst a lot of the pure white blossom has now ended. A great moment to think back on all the blossom I’ve seen this year I’ve taken in so many beautiful and stunning scenes especially at Lakeside but elsewhere too it was definitely my best ever blossom season as hoped I think. There were great flowers again tonight with puffy dandelions forming a nice carpet as one of the photos I tweeted showed and another vetch a different kind I think which I also tweeted a photo of. I also loved seeing a fantastic group of periwinkle adorning the little patch of woodland south of the bowl where I walked around tonight they really stood out nicely. Surely a candidate for my flower of the year I have seen so many so well at Lakeside and photographed them a lot too its been a pleasure to learn these this spring. I took the tenth and final picture in this photoset with my macro lens the only one I had tonight on my DSLR of one of these flowers. There were nice interesting sky scenes as darkness ensued again but it got brighter as the night went on with a brilliant sunset I observed tonight. I hope you all have a great and safe bank holiday weekend.

Wildlife Sightings Summary for today: One of my favourite birds the Great Crested Grebe at Lakeside and one of my favourite birds the Buzzard out the window as I worked, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Black-headed Gull, Magpie, Jackdaw nicely out the back today, Starling, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, forget-me-not, daisy, dandelion, cowslip, vetch and periwinkle.

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kimberly-spirits13 · 5 years ago

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Burning Kingdoms and Runaway Rulers Pt. 1

Pairing: Dick Grayson x reader

Note: So, this is an OC reader insert where this story is taken from the story of an OC I have but instead of the OC, it’s reader. I didn’t really know if I wanted to post this but then again, why the heck not. This is the same OC that I used for that mood board one time, I’ll post it at the bottom if you ave no idea what I’m talking about/ So part one is an intro and it takes place the night that you arrived in Gotham. The italics are what happened before that

Warnings: Mentions of death (not explicit)

Word Count: 1,808

To say you weren’t close to people was an understatement. The fire found a home in you and you were too busy trying to keep it contained to be concerned with those around you. Some children are born with tragedy in their blood, it was something you’d gotten used to seeing in people other than yourself. The last light in someone’s eyes before the kill, the glimmer of hope of a better fate, it was telling. You saw it in ballrooms and on battlefields, but now you were somewhere different. Now you were in realms unfamiliar to your senses. Adaptation was a choice, but in order to return home, survival was key-

-3 Months Ago-

No one knew where you were. You intended to keep it like that. The assumed lost Princesses of Amara was not be forgotten until it was your time to return home and reclaim the throne. That was a nice thought. Going back home and resuming life as usual. If everything was normal, you’d be on a mission into the rebel country of Ingram off to kill one of the high rulers to whom was setting the country into total and mass chaos by order of your father, the supreme ruler and king of your home planet. But that was yesterday’s news and your old team’s mission. Today you were in Chicago, on Earth, the only near planet you had never visited.

The clock on the wall was the only thing keeping you company besides the ever -intrusive thoughts bogging down your memories of the past 48 hours. It all happened too quickly, the death of your family, the fall of an ancient monarchy, and the discovery of the hidden Chamber of Magic in the core of your home planet, something that you were immortally entrusted in keeping safe in all past and future lives you might have lived. It was something to take time in understanding.

Your father, a man of top royal and intellectual status was never a truly sane man as some tend to be. He kept it well under wraps as far as you were concerned. It wasn’t until one time, in a fit of dismay and disarray in one of his now more frequent walks, he discovered the chambers that you wandered through every night in the shadows of the hallways and the glow of the golden strands of light that floated ever weightlessly through the air without anyone’s knowledge. That was when he discovered it. Amidst the ancient and crumbling catacombs, down winding stairs, and across underground streams of magic that might have replaced a mass amount of water, he found the source of all magic in this universe. He found what you were entrusted in keeping safe your entire existence. That was when he went mad.

On the night of his breaking, you were coming back from a mission meant to take down part of the Ingram Royal Army. It had been a success but the mission was draining and the royal guards still needed you, their leader to keep yourself in your place for one last briefing before they could disperse. You were sitting at the front of the ship when a guard came to you saluting you before handing you a letter with the golden seal of the Amaranian king and then leaving. You carefully opened it and read it, finding out, much to your horror that he was holding your family, the rest of the royal family hostage and would only let them live if you relinquished all your power to him.

That was where it began, the ending however, was much worse. Your entire family was dead now including your father. His blood was on your hands, but the rest? His. You finished off the traders in the guards and carried on, leaving on a ship, no possessions but your training and coordinates to Earth.

The chime of the bell snapped you out of your never- ending trance in time for you to realize the time. A few seconds later, the shadow of a ship graced the window and floor of your hotel room floor. It was time to leave Chicago, it was time to leave for Gotham. You knew not of what would happen in this crime filled city, only that your guide told you to go. That was enough for you to leave with Batman. That was enough for you to think of possibly starting a new life.

You leapt out of the window and on to the roof of the building before being met by the bat clad vigilante.

“Queen Y/N.” He greeted formally calling you by your newly gained title, “Are you ready to leave?”

“I am, and please, just call me Y/N, I am no princess nor queen on this planet.” You answered before getting into the jet.

“Very well... Y/N, I have accommodations for you at Wayne Manor as said. Alfred, my butler has prepared a room, if you’d like to change it, you may seeing as this will most likely become your permanent residence.” The bat explained as the city disappeared from under you.

You gazed out of the window and watched as the world seemed to become smaller and smaller, clouds rapidly going in and out of view. It was mesmerizing to see but you were pulled out of your thoughts for the 100th time tonight once more.

“I assume that you would like to carry on fighting?” He asked shooting a glance your way.

“I-I would.” You answered.

“What name will you go by?” Batman asked, “You don’t have to rush, but you do have to follow my one rule.”

“Let me guess, this is going to be the opposite of what I was raised to do and I suspect an impulse training segment. I cannot kill? Is that your rule Mr. Wayne?” You said rolling your eyes.

“It is.” “And for simplicity’s sake, please, call me Bruce.” Bruce stated making a sharp turn and then diving down, “This isn’t the Thanatos Royal Army anymore, this is Earth, this is Gotham. By code, people allowed to work in Gotham as vigilantes cannot kill.”

“And you are going to make me partake in vigorous training to control the possible impulse or habit of killing those guilty of a crime? People who might not have committed crimes against the high or superior kingdoms, or even those who make their citizens beg for quick death rather than life, but instead a different breed? The Gotham made mass killers?”

Bruce sighed, “Yes. As much as you question it, this is not debatable.” He informed you in a stern tone.

You kept a neutral expression, but that did not mean that internally, you were questioning this man’s will to live or even intelligence on the sharp turn and his rules. You were however pleasantly surprised to find him landing in a massive cave, and a boy, around your age coming down a stair case.

“Hey B!” The young black -haired teen said.

Bruce nodded at him, acknowledging his presence before turning to you as you landed next to him from jumping out of the jet with no sound at all.

“Y/N, this is Dick Grayson, my ward.” Bruce said as you nodded, “Dick, Y/N L/N. Y/N has just arrived from her home planet Amara, I expect you to make her feel welcome.” Bruce emphasized the last part.

“You got it Bruce.” Dick said before turning back to you, “Do you want me to show you your room?”

“That would be most appreciated.” You replied following him before meeting Alfred.

“So, you’re a queen?” Dick asked as you two walked around the house and up the stair case in the front.

“Technically. I have not had a proper or official coronation yet, however, I am the successor to the now empty throne.” You replied, a ping of sadness hitting your chest.

“I’m sorry.” He said, “I lost both of my parents when I was younger. Used to be part of the circus.”

“My condolences.” You said, “How long have you resided here?”

“I’ve been here around 4 years now.” Dick answered turning down another hall, “Trust me, once you get used to everything, it’s not totally terrible.”

“But I’d presume that there are some terrible things. More than the fighting?”

“Yes, flashing lights, paparazzi following everywhere, sometimes B, he’s well, not that great with emotions and opening up so that gets weird. You should be fine though, and if you need anything, I’m always here.”

“Thank you.”

Dick led you to your new bedroom, opening the door to let you inside first. There was one other door, leading to a bathroom, a massive bed, a small desk, nightstands on either side of the desk, a sitting chair, dresser, and bookshelves. On the floor by the bed, a Persian rug. The room fit the theme of the manor very well in your opinion. It did not however, fit your idea of a suitable bedroom. Bruce said you could change it, so you would tonight when Dick wasn’t in the room as to not make you seem ungrateful.

“It’s lovely.” You said walking in further, “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem really. I’ll leave you alone now, but if you need anything, but room is the next one to the left.” He said, “Alfred has already prepared the room with whatever you’d need but clothes, you can get those tomorrow.”

“Oh, there will be no need for that.” You said before walking to the closet.

“What are you doi-“ Dick stopped talking when he saw you mumble something to the air and put your hand out.

Without warning, the closet was filled with Earth clothes. That was something you were informed was important by your guide. They were your mentor or sorts. It came straight from the magic in the core of your home planet and was eternally bound to you as an advisor, something you found yourself needing more and more as of recently.

“T-that was amazing!” Dick exclaimed.

“Thank you.” You smirked some, “These are suitable Earth clothes to you, correct?”

“Oh yeah, perfectly normal clothes.” He looked around not noticing anything wrong with what he saw.

You nodded when he told you goodnight and left your room. You changed the room to your likings when he did leave, but after that, you had work to do on these people. It was important that you knew who you were “bunking “ with for the next while and what was to possibly be expected from these next few days, weeks, or even years. Your guide would be by your side, but also something that you had just gotten used to, a laptop. It was a strange thing, but at least it beat the old royal archives, even if those were more magical.

Okay so that’s the mood board that this is inspired by. Anyways, I hope that you guys liked this one and are also staying safe and healthy. Have a wonderful week and day and take care of yourselves!

#dc comics #dc x reader #dc characters #batfam x reader #batboys x reader #batfam #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson x y/n #young justice x reader #young justice #young justice robin #young justice robin x reader

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stry-someone-to-remember-you · 4 years ago

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Plan(ed) to Have Something Ready, By The Ball Drop &/or Tomorrow!!! If Everything Works out...

Hey Everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!!

Wow, this is the second message without any art added or anything... LOL... Seems odd really to do this without having something up by now... By the way, yes the current avatar pic is related to the comic as you’ll come see soon. It’s and early sketch so some kinks aren’t worked out in the current image. But it was the one I was ready to have when I made this blog so there was at least something...

So as you probably can see by this title, I do plan on having something posted... I just don’t know to what extent. Due to some family drama, and continually piling on work I wasn’t able to get my Christmas Pic out to you guys, which was just a static scene with a few of the characters to get us started here. But... well family got in the way, continually decorating till Christmas day... a lot of things going on, bickering (though we all love each other) it’s just... you know life. I fully expected this as well, which is why I promised something before New Years, but didn’t specify as to what.

I postponed that idea to be released today or tomorrow, after seeing how I was completely unable to get to the work by Christmas Eve. But, by the looks of the progress I made on it and my families continually need of me till we get some things done in this house (that always has something to be done in it... LOL, at least things are coming fairly together). So lets just say, I may not have anything out by tomorrow. But with hopes I want to have something out. So We’ll see. I could release early the character sketches. But I want to keep this blog clean as possible, so I feel releasing the character profiles, cards and blogs together prior to the Prologue, would fit better and keep this page having a cleaner look to it at the start.

Maybe even by midnight tomorrow PST I could have something... But that again depends. I need to clean stuff for the internet/cable guy and I’m seriously allergic to dust... So the next few days I may be in an almost sickly comatose state regardless of the precautions I take. If dust gets kicked into the air at all and isn’t properly vacuumed up, than I’m often sick for days... I feel like all I’ve been doing the whole month is cleaning or working story wise on this comic... Mostly cleaning if you ask me, but at least after Saturday things should be more relaxed and I can have a better work schedule planned out. So yeah, that’s my life...

But DIDNT’ WAN TO LEAVE YOU HANGING with this Negative Nancy Talk ;D ;P ;D lol....

I want to tell you what I have so far:

I have the Christmas Image at least with the basic building blocks to complete it. Like I’ve drawn where I want things, but not detailed anything... So that’s why it may be a day or so... Technically its a Happy Holidays and New Years piece, but with the Christmas Tree in it I have the habit of calling it such...

I may have plans to detail it a bit more then I plan on having the comic, but that also depends on things. I may just leave it in the same style and not fully decked out to make it easier to finish...

~Several Characters for the beginning have their final forms created. These are major characters that will be scene in the prologue. I’m just having to figure out out little things with background characters in some instances.

~The prologue is almost completely written out. I had a change of heart a week ago on some things and had to change it around, which is why the written format for the prologue isn’t complete as it initially was. I just felt some things didn’t fit, so I added and took away some things so it flows better and also works both fanfiction wise for the story, but easily mixes for the Ask AU... I also have at least the beginning portion of the Intro script written, the parts unaffected by the changes. However, parts of the intro will be written out, depending on the questions you ask the characters in this prologue so these portions I’m leaving open on purpose. It’s the plot driven portions I’m mentioning that I’ve changed slightly. ;) I have fun plans for the prologue. Remember this story has a clear direction I’m taking it with plot. But the Ask portion will be a part of it, I have such a fun way of Ask’s being tied into the plot driven story, and it will change depending on the context, person and setting which makes this really fun to plan out.

-With that said, here’s an early heads up, that for Ask Questions, I will allow any sort of asks, but if it has potential to spoil a part of the story, then I won’t answer it. Alongside this, I’ll allow Anon magic to a small degree. I won’t include Asks that like spoil something for a character, or tell the character where someone is, give away what someone else is doing to another character, etc... Unless it may fit the context, but generally I won’t use these types of asks. I will allow Anons to appear occasionally rather then just be unseen voices, as I have fun ways of incorporating Anons into the story that also works with different points in the plot. I will accept things like... say a dog or cat to appear for ex. amount of asks. I already know who they’ll be and have been planning out their designs, but I may draw the line at other animals (e.g. horses, fish, racoons, squirrels, lizards, etc.) Although, I do really love rabbits, I chose to make it concise to just two animals that if asked could appear. It’s not because I can’t draw them but I don’t want things getting out of hand. Types of anon magic I’m not going to use if put in the Ask portion, are things like giving people certain powers or items that may completely effect the tone or plot of the story, accept maybe if I did a non-canon AU to this au for fun one day. I will go more in depth in the general rules later. In no way is this to discourage anyone from asking such things. I may set reminders at times if I get to much of something. But, in general I’ll do what I can to make this a fun Ask blog all the same.

~The Larger Summary, I promised like a trailer would be in the comic form I have rendered the Script for, and have two slides so far drawn out, just not completed. (for the time I didn’t have around the Holidays compared to normally I actually surprised myself with this)

~The story itself is really coming together, I already have a starting and stopping point (which I had prior to this blog) as it will have several Acts and Arcs, some which have greatly changed and take on new depth since the point I started this blog. The themes and story in general are drawn out pretty well. I don’t have all the chapters I’d want fully written. As I have my plan, but I also want to get the prologue in first, just to see if there’s anything I should change with my concept. It’s just a precaution, something I’ve learned well when taking on something new. So I don’t have things that are written in stone and hard to change if the form I’m hoping to take doesn’t work out and needs to be retooled or something. But these are minor and shouldn’t change the overall scope and plot I’m taking this story on either.

~I’ve created several of the character bios, many in fact are already written in true Henry Stickmin fashion. But as I took inspiration to make this into a AU as well, I will possibly make both the bio cards and show a static shot of the characters alongside it or something... It’s an idea, but I want this to also be the easier comic. But, considering that I’ll always have a static shot I use as reference for any character I make, this is what makes this more realistic to occur as well. ~I’ve nearly drawn out all the characters for the intro portion. And already know how I’ll handle Anon’s in the story. In the Prologue itself, I’ll actually have you Anon’s being referenced as audience members in a conference of sorts. Think of it like those conferences when a new Apple or Microsoft product is first advertised as something new to the news conference, those big rotunda’s where someone's being interviewed and presenting the hot new item. Think of the opening to the prologue being something like this scenario. So the questions directed at the character in there, who... *cough* I will introduce later after I fully render both their character profile and have their character bio(s) fully done. Which considering how fun and easy it’s been to do this so far shouldn’t be to long now... Although to keep from getting questions to soon on them, I may hold off on posting the Characters and Bio’s till I have that Intro/Trailer completed... I’m still considering which to do first actually. But top on my list out of all of these is having my cover art for the top completed. That’s something I admit though I have the layout I have hardly started on and should focus on first.

~I’m also taking close looks at how to properly make the rules for this group. When I posts either the Character Bios, Holiday Pic, OR the Trailer Comic... Maye even just the cover art... Then I will try to have out an official Rules list. The one I have on the group posts is just general stuff... But I’m reconsidering some rules I already wrote... Basically keep things family friendly, be kind an courteous, nothing vulgar or disturbing.

I may change this from a PG-13 comic to maybe PG-15. I’ve realized recently, there are some points that some characters do swear... sometimes more then once. I’m not someone who talks with vulgarity myself, but I sure can write characters with it.... Let’s just say I’m going to see if in those scenes I might just bleep out words and see if the dialogue still comes through. But, I dunno... LUCKILY, we don’t have to worry about many of those scenes till way further into this comic. So lucky for either of us, this isn’t a major concern at the moment. And on the plus side it’s not the crudest words I could have chosen so... it may still work as a PG-13 work... I’ll make this decision soon as possible.

Another reason for the sudden change, came as I realized as the story goes, and even in early chapters there will be scenes where blood is shown and physical mortal danger and peril is experienced by the characters. I do have heavy theming sometimes, later on it may seem constantly about. As this story is heavily Drama/Mystery and some suspense based. As the story progresses it will become less Drama/Mystery and more based around the drama/suspense itself. This will obviously be some more intense scenes that showing less blood would allow me to make PG-13, however I also don’t want to undercut the certain tones using representations of a mortal wound would bring. I also want to look at things like these future scenes realistically. Which is why I’m mostly considering changing this story to a PG-15 or at least more certain I am. I just don’t want people shocked that I’m doing this. I don’t feel this story will be R, there was a time where I heavily considered it. But for once I decided no, I didn’t want that. I just didn’t want to open the door for scenes I didn’t intend to have in this story. There will be heavy themes that my have TW for some people. But I didn’t want some TW’s that having a R rated story could potentially have. I mean certain themes people are free to write fanfictions for, and depending on the content can make art for. But again this will be family friendly group... As You can see I’m considering more then a little here when it comes to the official rules. These details will be followed up on the official rules post.

~~~~~~

Now I apologize for the length.

The structure of this and the previous Authors Notes will probably fall under their own category for length. I’ll work to make sure posts in the future won’t be so long and hard to read. It is early morning for me when I woke to write this, and I found once much of the day passed that I still wanted to include the stuff I did into this update.

I have more to tell you, but I think this post has spurned the energy in me out. Anything that I missed in this post, I’ll try to remember to update in the next post (hopefully after I get some art on here). What I can’t do at the moment is promise dates right now till I’m more certain of schedule to work on this or can promise that my general allergies won’t cause me to delay this at all. But I can confirm that I should have several things coming out this next month, including the comic Prologue I hope. Depending on the traction the comic and fanfic gets, I may try to work on it quickly, or take my time with it. I may do a mix of both as my perfectionist self won’t let me just shoot something out without giving it my all first. I’m shushing that side slightly so this comic will be easier on me then the more detailed one I have planned. All the same, I’m planning to work on this one more at the moment till I can get an idea of my work flow. Sometimes the easiest route of work is better for planning, rather then diving head first into the deep end right away. You don’t learn to swim by jumping head first into the ocean. Piece of advice that it took years for me to learn myself ;). Anyways, I figured since I did promise something hopefully by today or tomorrow, I’d give you a formal update... Also... Well I can’t promise that updates won’t be like this in the future. I’ll try to keep them concise. But as people who know me, well have learned when it comes to personally talking I tend to write or talk out epistle. So... When I give updates, I may have lengthy ones... I’ll try my best to keep this side of me out of updates, if I can help it. Anyways Happy New Years Everyone!!! I hope everyone's Christmas and Holidays were extra special, despite the state of the world!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE AND DAY!!! Sincerely, <3 (Mod) Sweet Heart Blaze

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thepavensiestyle · 4 years ago

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A Fighter is Born

A bright, sunny day would promise heat for a majority of the early morning. Seeping well into the later afternoon. An expansive sea in possession of rough blue waves would lap up against the sandy shore of a littered beach. The conditions were visible along the horizon as heat waves rose up to distort reality.

But well beyond this sunny patch of peace, the scenery had erupted in chaos. Nothing natural but rather manmade. An illegal sparring ring consisting a myriad of races that had ranged from humans and elves, to orcs and tauren. Though, there was more where that came from, a lot more. Horde and Alliance both coexisted in order to get a view of this popular event in Stranglethorn. Members of both factions assembled in a friendly clash of one mass for but a singular look at those that would be participating in the center ring.

The roar of a crowd sounds just as those already on the sparring grounds had first made contact. At first glance, they could be mistaken for gnomes or goblins. But on closer inspection, the fighters were made up of children. Whose ages ranged from 5 to 10 years old. Regardless of those circumstances, these particular fighters appeared well trained. They carried weapons like they’d had years of experience with them.

Although, deep underground, the sound of the crowd muffled.

The latch of one iron shackle sounded in a faint click as it clamped around the bared ankle of one such human boy. It wasn’t anything to hinder him in any way but it sure was tight. Tight enough to cause discomfort. “There, that’s to identify ya’.” Such was always Kleegal’s excuse on the matter. The well dressed Goblin stood roughly around the height of the 7 year old child, perhaps a few inches shorter.

The boy was not as well dressed as Kleegal. He wore no shoes on his feet, a patchy and faded shirt along with ripped shorts. Beside him, another Goblin had stood with a drink in hand. This one was a female, her blue hair dolled up nicely in a loose bun on the top of her head. She wore a lack of clothing as well, though not quite so roughed up as the child. “Make sure ya win for us, will ya’?” Was the first thing she’d said. Ena was always focused on the riches that had come from accomplishing such tasks.

“‘Ey, kid.” Kleegal spoke without regarding Ena for the moment. “Just rememba’, if ya’ lose, you ain’t gonna be allowed back inside for the night. Ya’ hear?” The male would look the boy in the eyes, pressing the threat by the slight tilt of his head. He receives no verbal response other than the light nod of the boy’s head. But he was acceptant of it all the same. “Good, good.”

From behind the Goblin couple, a door had seemed to swing open to allow for a brutish orc to enter with a child of his own. A child who was also of orc descent and had already been huge for his apparent age. Tall and buff by the looks of it, and staring at the human boy like he was fresh meat. “Ah! Karguk!” Kleegal announces before making his approach towards the burly Orc.

“We’re about to be called up.” The Orc had spoken in a deep and gruff voice. Complete with the intimidation to scare off a lion. A singular hand would shove the Orc child forwards, allowing him to stumble gracelessly into the room. “You’d better get the little-” Karguk looks over at the human child and grumbles. “-worm ready to lose.” The same hand used to shove his own child would be one to pat him on the shoulder. A gesture used to show off the prominent size differences between human and orc.

Kleegal would fall to a lean against one of the posts holding up the underground ceiling and laughs at Karguk. “He ain’t gonna lose! We trained him well enough!” This would be enough for Karguk to expel a gutterous series of laughter.

“And I have trained mine well.” Once again, he pats the Orc child’s shoulder. “I will see you in the stands, Goblin.” That would be when the giant Orc would turn around with the child in tow to leave the underground room. All the while, the remaining trio would stand by watching. Kleegal and Ena with sneers while the human child had nothing short of fear written across his features.

“Well!” Kleegal calls back out just as the door to the room closes. “He was peachy, wasn’t he, Ena?” Laughter commences, until the male was right back to confronting the child. “Johnny boy.” He finally called the child by his name. “You betta’ not lose this one. It’s gonna really put a stake in our career if ya’ do. So let’s do this!”

Out of the room Johnny had been ushered, and onto the sparring ring outside. The hot sun boring down upon everyone who’s attended. Though it seems the attendees had less of an issue to worry about. There’d been vendors going about selling drinks and snacks for the audience. Many overhangs gave the audience shelter from the merciless sun but standing in the very center would be open for all elements to view. The worst of the conditions being the sun of course. And with the ground being made entirely from sand, standing still for too long meant burning your feet, if you’d been unlucky enough not to wear shoes. Kleegal would only linger for a short time to mumble something towards the human child before he hurried away from the sandy center. Desperate enough to flee the harsh conditions.

“‘EY LOOK!” From the booming crowd, one voice stood out to them both. “Kleegal’s free laba’! AHAHA!” Then the Goblin’s voice would be drowned out by the loud crowd. Whistles and cheers would sing in an immense choir as voices filled up the entire audience. Though, Johnny and the orc child both stood together in silence, both peering up at the crowd of faces.

And above all of the sound of cheering, an echoed voice through what can only be described as a loudspeaker would manifest. Another Goblin’s voice. “Ladies and gentlemen! Here we have next on the docket, fightin’ for this swell 13th anniversary of the Black Sun Sparrin’ Ring! This time we got somethin’ a little different! We got a new competita’ with us! Ahaaa! Today will be the day to showcase a series of new faces overall, most of which should be bloody by the end of this! Now we will be featurin’ Yegoth! Also known as Beast! The mightiest orc boy in the land! Challengin’ against Lil’ John! Who we will call, Fish Food!” The name call would promote laughter amongst the crowd around them. “You all know the rule! First fighta’ dropped for 10 seconds is the losa’! Ladies and gentleman, are you ready?!” And with that, the promotion of louder cheers and whistles as the crowd would get pumped for the coming fight. “Alright! Let’s get ready to rumble~!” Shortly afterwards would be the sound of a loud bell that brought the fighting to its introduction. Which had only excited the crowd even more.

That was the same time Yegoth had started forwards, raising his hefty fists up in defense. He approaches Johnny rather quickly despite his immense size. While Johnny would stand by and simply watch to see exactly what was to come of the action. He’s seen fights like these go down but never has he been in the center ring doing the fighting. It wasn’t like the boy even knew how to fight but he braces all the same.

Yegoth would have been able to land the first hit, while Johnny had taken it like a champion. He emits a loud yelp as the force had sent the boy back several paces from where he’s first started. Already, the side of his face had bruised over and his head rattled by the impact. It was by some miracle he hadn’t fallen over into the sand but he straightened up in an instant.

Though, this had not seemed to be the end as Yegoth had once again recoiled a fist to land directly into Johnny’s nose just as the human boy turned to face his opponent. Immediately, blood would spurt from his nostrils and the impact this time had pushed Johnny to fall on his ass in the sand. The announcements would come up as this was witnessed. “And we got the first drop in not even two seconds of the intro! Will Fish Food get back up?! Help me count! 10! 9! 8!” He continued to count down while Johnny stayed seated, with the help of the crowd counting along with him.

Johnny would raise a hand to his bloody nose, barely listening to the sound of the numbers counting down. Although, it was just when the audience and announcer had reached ‘3’ that Johnny had slowly gotten back up. He was relentless despite his desperate desire to flee and leave the area. Not to mention the sudden nausea from the rattling of his brain with all the whiplashing as a result of the punches. Needless to say, he wanted to get out of there. But the only way out was to either win or lose. And losing only meant sullying his foster parent’s names. He didn’t want to do that.

So he pivots back and raises his arms up in a defensive posture this time, similarly to his opponent’s stance. Yegoth was big and tall but that might have just been an advantage for Johnny. He was small and more agile than his counterpart. The sight of Johnny’s positioning gave cause for Yegoth to sneer and smile with mockery. It was easy to note that the human child had no idea what he was doing and to the orc, it might be the only thing he needs to best him. Use his lack of coordination against him.

At first, Yegoth had sprinted towards Johnny and feints a punch in his direction. During such an action, Johnny would raise his arms up to cover much of his face but when no impact was made, he instead felt the real punch to his uncovered stomach. He let out a wheezing breath and was quick to drop his arms to protect his stomach, now leaving his face uncovered for yet another punch to his bloodied nose.

The blow was enough to send him backwards a few steps at first before flopping on his back in a heap onto the sandy dunes. Curling up into fetal position, Johnny would make no move to actually stand back up. Despite the daunting sound of the crowd and announcer counting from 10 to 0. He wanted to throw up in that moment but he held his breath so as not to allow for any spew of chunks to leave his empty stomach. Vomiting would only add insult to injury for both the loss and the obvious tears in his eyes.

Though once again, one thought would stand out against the others. The thing Kleegal had once said before he entered the sparring stage. About his career and all, Johnny did not want to be responsible for his losses. So again, the boy would force himself back to a stand just as the crowd and announcer made it to ‘2’. “TWO! And Fish Food is relentless! Second time! Could this be his charm?!” The announcer shouted loud, again urging the crowd to laugh and roar in cheer. At that moment, Johnny’s ears had started to ring. Head pounding and heart thumping hard against his chest. His blue eyes locked down on his opponent much like a predator to its prey; just as the orc had begun to lunge for Johnny once again. Time would gradually begin to move in slow motion to a point of stoppage and just before Yegoth was able to close the gap with Johnny, the human would duck down to let the orc’s fist soar past him as he swung it. Unknown to Johnny, something seemed to have gotten over him. How was he able to commit to these actions with no training at all? In the next instance, none of that seemed to matter as the 7 year old straightened back up to land a heavy blow to the side of Yegoth’s face during his recovery. The momentum from the orc’s punch preventing him from defending his person for a time and so the fist would land. The attack was enough to rattle Yegoth but not completely deter him; he was mostly caught off guard by it. How Fish Food suddenly had the prowess to fight against Beast. When Yegoth pivots back towards Johnny to follow up with an attack, the human had suddenly dropped in a crouch to the sand and collected a handful of it in order to throw it in his opponent’s eyes. Giving cause for a loud yell from the orc to manifest before his hands had risen up to try to clear up the grainy mixture that blinded him. It was in that moment, Johnny would take to attacking every aspect of the orc’s person. Punches and kicks would land on the entirety of his body and it was when Johnny kicked the other in the groin that Yegoth dropped. Sand filled eyes wetting with tears in a desperate attempt to get them cleared up enough to see. Both of his green hands struggled to rub away the countless grains that were stuck under the small crevices and sockets. But in the end, it was for naught. The poor boy was down and laying on his side in the sand while Johnny awaited for a response. Blue eyes rage filled and boring down on Yegoth like he was the enemy of this arena. He had half a mind to continue brutalizing the boy but he does no such thing. This time, the announcements and the count down from 10 was music to Johnny’s ears. With no prominent move from the Orc to stand back up, he could manage a smug grin up until the 0 mark was struck and the audience both cheered and booed in one chorus of excitement and disappointment. Regardless of it, Johnny turns about in the hot sand to raise his scrawny arms up in celebration. “We have our winna’! An unlikely fighta’! JOHNNY BOY! The Unda’dog who was able to pull through!” The announcements would continue but Johnny tuned it out, smiling throughout. All he could think about was sleeping in a nice bed back home.

#WoW RP #Fighter #OC Story #IC Story

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