#just lift these moves in wholesale

[alienturnip]

Finished FF16 a few days ago and I do have some (long) thoughts about it, so I'm noting them down below. Reactions include the Waloed & Origin arcs.

Tagging @zadien as you requested <3 My thoughts won't be organized but I'll try my best to articulate as I go. Wall of text alert!

I think this is yet another case of "the story didn't satisfy me a lot but the characters bewitched me body and soul" so here I am at the end of the roads... with a lot of grievances toward how the story was structured & written but also impossibly attached to the cast haha, needless to say I have fanart ideas planned and incoming.

Things that I enjoyed a lot:

CliveJill's scene with the snow daisies, where she tells Clive that she wants to spread her wings after all this is over. MY GIRLFRIEND... YOU SHALL HAVE THE WORLD.

Jill being so good with acting dkfjsl <3 <3 she's so cute....

Jill being as much of a ruthless mtfk as Clive, they're soooo in tune when it comes to wrecking havoc

Everything about Joshua he brings SO SO MUCH to the table both with his personalities and the themes he represents. I would ramble if not for fear of this post's length...

Dion's contradictory demeanor hahahahaha - he insisted everyone call him "Dion" but wouldn't shut up about "Ifrit" and "Phoenix", he also refused Harpocrates' gift but then gave another to Clive 2 seconds later, then sauntered off without even checking if Clive likes it or not...

I generally bemoan the lack of discussion on Dion's relationship with his country's imperialism and his hands in that (like, everything about him was perfect to address that topic even in very brief ways?), BUT I highly enjoyed Dion's theme about the loss of personhood and to be reduced to a vessel of power and worship, his multifaceted relationship with the concepts of power & duty & hierarchy. So subtly yet powerfully done with so little screen time... I think Clive's own engagement with the theme (which is supposed to be his central theme) comes short in comparison.

Dion's side quest with Harpocrates also scratched my brain in INCREDIBLY ways, but again I won't ramble too much in this post...

(Hahaha by this point I think everyone knows who my fav is)

Dion & Joshua's dialogues are all so well-written (maybe save for Joshua's last speech...)

Everything about Mid & Gav, they're beautifully done, I love them they have such solid places within the narrative and lovely personalities too. When I watched Mid navigating the Entreprise I was just squealing and cheering for her! Her talking about the dream of flight and the danger it might entail, and her plan of turning such a weighted topic into a lighthearted treasure hunt! My gosh 💗 Gav's drinking scene with Clive is also especially touching, I felt a lot for his burdens.

Lady Isabelle may I have your hand in marriage--

Clive holding Joshua or clutching his body...... breaks me every time I love love LOVE tragic siblings

I can honestly write an essay for each of the characters (especially Jill & Dion my thoughts about them are overflowing) but they will have to be separate posts at this point, let me know @zadien (or anyone else reading this 🫣) if you'd like me to talk some more.

NOW onto the criticisms proper...

Waloed & Origin arcs were pretty underwhelming, mostly because I feel like they haven't offered anything new that wasn't already resolved in the previous arcs...? I enjoyed Barnabas' vibe but his impact on me was a big fat 0, and here comes the conundrum because, well, I'm guessing him being emotionless & devoid of a personality is supposed to be the point with his worship of Ultima, but even that was not done well... All his bedroom scenes kinda ruined all of that, not to mention the out-of-nowhere 'mother' appearances that the story doesn't even bother to explore aside from showing her naked body (Benedikta got the same treatment after her death my god I'm so sorry my beloved)...

Idk what I'm supposed to take away from the character and, in consequence, the Waloed arc? I know nothing of who he was, his dialogues didn't even match Clive's growth at that point - again, why is Clive questioning his humanity NOW of all time, when the story has been going so well? Could they have, idk, shown Clive's fear coming back to him after reuniting with Joshua & discovering Dion's descend to madness, so that they can segue into the Waloed arc more smoothly - that despite Clive's best intention he may lose all his control at the most crucial point and ruin all that he holds dear (like Dion), and that he never let go of his guilt at Phoenix Gate, and having Joshua back unwittingly brought back the nightmares he'd lived with for 13 years? Maybe that would give his identity crisis at the beach some more substance instead of "Barnabas bested me twice and now I'm wet and sat" situation he got going on... I am thankful for Mid & Dion's arc & CliveJill romance & everything about Joshua but the main villain & plot points felt so distant... MY BRAIN WAS NOT SCRATCHED

(I adore Mid & Dion & Joshua hahaha they're so colorful in 3 entirely different directions, my silly children)

I am also not really convinced by Ultima's writing. The plot reveal of him being a God who created humanity but then abandoned us all *could* have been pretty powerful and on point if it wasn't executed in such fragmented ways. If only they dig deeper into one or two specific aspects of that concept to explore...

I am especially fond of the idea of Ultima as symbolic for "the absent parent" and "the narcissistic parent" (both in the intimate familial context and the wider context of head-of-state/leader figures), which could have paralleled SO WELL with Anabella & Sylvestre & EVEN ELWIN had they not cut off Anabella's presence immediately after her death, or had they make Dion reflect deeper upon his relationship with his father beyond "I killed him I am so sad", or had they make Joshua's and Clive's memories of Elwin more complicated - maybe in how they (especially Joshua) worshipped his as their father & leader, but less so as a man, someone human & flawed? And then they can explore how the children gaining autonomy & freedom despite their parents & the circumstances that shaped their childhood as a direct mirror to them breaking away from Ultima? The frustrating thing is, I THINK they did try to do that, what with all the Inner Voice snippets and the initial buildups and all, but the execution keeps coming up short...

Ultima & the Eikons as symbols of "power that binds & enthralls" in contradiction with Clive's fight for a "free world" could've been much more relevant and poignant if maybe they allowed us to get more invested in Ultima's backstory (flashback cutscenes perhaps? more involved murals? a more multifaceted discussion around the concept of will? some attempts at humanizing Ultima's race so that when Clive says "you're just like us" we feel it a bit deeper?) instead of just having the guy monotonously narrating all the plot twists... my god. Not to mention all the on-the-nose dialogues of power of friendship & crude slavery allegories... I don't know! I think Square did NOT do it well in this one.

That's all I can pull from the top of my head at the moment! Ready to hop into replies or asks to talk some more, but yea!

[lgbtlunaverse]

heads- up: someone is taking jc-centric fics and turning them into jc-bashing wangxian fics

I don't usually like to bring twitter drama over to tumblr but since the perpetrator in this case explicitly said they do this ON TUMBLR I felt it was pertinent to do so.

Today user DyuaLan on twitter, aka @jiaoji on tumblr, publically bragged about finding chengxian, xicheng, and zhanzheng fics and changing the names to make them wangxian fics with jiang cheng bashing.

When authors (understandably) reacted to this by blocking them, they boasted about still having 15 stolen fics in their drafts on top of the ones they've already posted.

And that they do all of this stuff on tumblr anyway, not twitter

If you have written any kind of Jiang Cheng ships, or Jiang Cheng-centric fic in general, and are not a fan of your work being stolen, it's in your best interest to block them.

They also said that they block everyone they steal from. Though if you go to the blog now and are blocked, please don't panic, that might just be for fanwar reasons.

Here's proof that DyuaLan is in fact the same person as Jiaoji:

(@jiaoji and @jiaoji2 lead to the same blog, it was probably called this because they at some point lost access/moved from their previous blog @jiao-ji)

And here jiaoji is bragging on their tumblr about feeling too lazy to even rewrite someone else's work

Their ao3 is "Jiao_ji" where they have 16 works total, most of which are in portuguese, making it harder to verify which ones are stolen, as a lot of their "sources" are probably in english. (Most of the fics they have written on tumblr itself are also in english) They also have a wattpad account with the url "Dilf_ji"

As a bonus here they are 2 years ago whining about zhancheng authors blocking them because it means they can no longer steal their fics, this has been going on for a while.

And talking a bit more about stealing from chengxian and zhancheng authors:

While I haven't written any jiang cheng ships, I am a fic writer, and I know the work that goes into it. I can work on a single oneshot for months on end. So this kind of attitude, where if you hate a ship the author's work is just free for the taking, is appaling to me. Inspiration is normal, fandom is inherently transformative. Hell, ao3 has a "works inspired by" function for exactly that. But wholesale lifting someone's else's writing, only changing the ship and adding salt about a character you hate? Yeah, no. "Character bashing" fics aren't my cup of tea in the first place, but if you're going to do it, at least have the decency to write the damn things yourself.

I don't like doing callouts, so while I know that I can't really control anyone else's actions, I want to say for my own peace of mind... please just block this person. I don't wanna cause even more discourse. Remember: you don't feed trolls. I posted this because i think writers deserve to be warned when someone is maliciously stealing and editing their work, not to instigate harassment.

[beyondmistland]

I read through all your posts about Alysanne Targaryen as Maegor's daughter and am now in a rabbit hole. Thank you. I've been thinking about Maegor's wives and which one of Henry VIII's wives they represent. Ceryse is Cathrine of Aragon and Alys is Anne Boleyn. The others are hard to pin for me since there isn't a lot. What do you think? Would Maegor's reign have been more interesting if his marriages had more similarities to those of Henry VIII?

I think this is where we run into a number of problems regarding the way GRRM wrote Fire & Blood specifically and the way he setup Westeros more generally.

For one, the fairly homogenized nature of southron culture as well as the oversimplification of religious institutions and history means you can't quite get the same dynamism as from real life European history, with its dizzying array of languages, cultures, cuisines, fashions, etc., to mention nothing of the then-ongoing Protestant Reformation. I suppose GRRM could have had Maegor convert to the Old Gods a la Julian (II) the Apostate or the Drowned God (you just know the Ironborn are the one race on the surface of Planetos that would say King Maegor the Good with a completely straight face) or even R'hllor, which would be the best choice in terms of worldbuilding opportunities in my opinion.

Moving on, we run into a handful of problems with Maegor specifically, one of them being the length of his reign. Look, while I can't deny Maegor ruling for 6 years and 66 days is incredibly cheeky, it also isn't anywhere close to Henry VIII's 36 years as king. With so little room timeline-wise, there isn't a lot of flexibility when it comes to telling new stories and fleshing out preexisting ones and all that is before you factor in Maegor himself.

I won't hold back. For all GRRM's talk of moral ambiguity, the human heart in conflict with itself, good men who were bad kings and bad men who were good kings, etc., his Targaryen monarchs are, for the most part, numbingly one-note. Aegon I is a literal enigma, Aenys is weak, Maegor cruel, Viserys I a party animal, Aegon II and Rhaenyra mirror-images of each other in their disqualifying vices, etc. As I've written before with my post reimagining Maegor as more of a Ivan (IV) the Terrible figure there was room to make him a genuinely controversial figure of historiography but instead GRRM doubled down on sensationalism and apathy-inducing slasher porn for lack of a better word. The fact Maegor is also the first and last of Visenya's line just adds more salt to the wound but that's part of GRRM's more general (and for me personally, vexing) habit of keeping family trees incredibly small.

(I do recall another alternative someone once brought up to the late Steven Attewell. Namely, turning Maegor into the Westerosi version of Macbeth by way of Der Untergang.)

This brings me to my semifinal point. GRRM didn't have to write Fire & Blood as Procopius' Secret History on steroids with a dash of Suetonius' Lives of Twelve Caesars and I, Claudius (the entire Saera episode is practically lifted wholesale from the scandal that envelops Augustus' daughter, Julia) but he did, which is doubly disappointing because not only does the final product suck quality-wise as a result but also because there were so many other avenues available to him.

He could have written Fire & Blood as a proper history (with less focus on the sex lives of teenage girls for one) or as a mirror for princes or as a dialogue between two characters or even as a character study. You can even see GRRM struggling with the constraints imposed by his use of Gyldayn in certain sections like the death of Maelor and the entire Hour of the Wolf episode, where you get reams of dialogue and characterization as well as more traditional narrative trappings like build-up, mood setting, etc.

Now, to answer your actual question (lol), I don't think any of Henry VIII's other wives map well onto Maegor's. Tyanna is, more or less, his female counterpart in terms of cruelty and zero redeeming features and entirely a fantasy construct. Elinor and Jeyne are both married to Maegor for only a year (with poor Jeyne dying in childbirth because Jeyne Westerlings, like the Brackens, Peakes, and Florents, cannot catch a break in Westeros) and before said marriage takes place neither appears on the page. As for Rhaena, well, credit where its due, she was a rare (and unexpected) highlight of Fire & Blood.

Thanks for the question, anon

[lagosbratzdoll]

Whenever I see adaptations of novels, comics, and games that elevate the source material, I get deeply and monstrously bitter. Wheel of Time, Foundation, Percy Jackson, The Boys, Outlander, Big Little Lies, Pachinko, Sharp Objects, WATCHMEN!!! All are so good, so beautifully written and moving that when you stack shit like Game of Thrones beside them, it falls flat on its face.

I still think about Jon telling Angela that he is in every moment they spent together all at once. Every time I think about Watchmen S01E9, my throat gets tight and my mouth wobbles. A triumph of storytelling. When you compare this with the disappointment that is Game of Thrones, it becomes clear that being mediocre, white, and a man often leads to success even when you fail.

I get angry because it’s possible to take novels/comics with so many moving parts and rich history, update them for our time and make the rich source material even richer. Those men just didn’t know how. 

And before anyone says the first three seasons are good. Are they? Are they really? Or are we just blinded by the perceived faithfulness to GRRM’s work when we weigh it against the utter shit show that was the last season? The show lifts all the best parts wholesale from the books and magnifies all the worst parts. 

They portrayed the Dothraki with a lack of care compared to the Free Folk. They furthered the lack of non-white perspectives by erasing what little we had. Presenting freedom as if it is worse than chattel slavery. The extinction of the Dothraki in service of white Northerners who were less than welcoming. 

The show does not name more than half of Daenerys' more prominent Dothraki characters on screen. Killing Irri, Jhiqui and Doreah to further isolate Daenerys. Transferring all the better traits from women to the men in their lives. Turning Jorah from an old paedophilic creep into whatever the fuck that was on the show. Alluding to the “first they came” poem for rapists, slavers and other monsters. Peddling the gentle slave-owner myth as if owning a person is not inherently violent. 

Having Missandei be beheaded in chains to fuel madness for literally no reason. Cersei could’ve bargained for her life or at least some concession from Daenerys with Missandei’s life, but they have her behead Missandei for no other reason than to piss off a woman with a large army and an even larger dragon. It made little sense then, and it makes even less sense now. 

I know it’s a bit much to still be so affected by that dumpster fire almost a decade in, but I saw that interview with those idiots yesterday, and I have been furious ever since. 

[yanderu-deredere]

Isamu Lowell ★ picrew link

gender: male sexuality: pansexual age: 26 height: 6'9 body notes:

type of yandere: Delusional Yandere

these yandere usually don’t really have a good grasp of reality; they have a blurry sense of what’s right and wrong and usually don’t ever acknowledge that either they’re wrong or that there are laws and expectations set upon them. they have an image in their minds of what the world is like, what their darling is like, and they don’t ever take no for an answer. how they understand the world to be is how the world is, plain and simple.

Isamu has been a little spoiled when it comes to mates. He's been blessed with both Mel and Leonard; both of them fell in love with Isamu at first sight and the three of them became inseperable almost immediately. So, suffice to say, Isamu has certain expectations for what a mate is supposed to be like. And, well, if you don't act like how he thinks you're supposed to act, there must be an explanation. Even if he has to make one up. Because he loves you and you're his mate so you must love him too, right?

likes: bubble tea, cars, motorcycles, red bean paste, deer, rock climbing dislikes: clowns, deep water, poachers, the poiice, snakes, rabbits

Isamu actually works odd jobs, often just picking up whatever he can find in the news paper or in job listings. When he's not working that way, he's helping his mate out in the forest with fixing cars or cutting down trees. The Forest is actually just a very large grove of evergreen trees that wrap around most of the north of Lovelock. A lot of people pass by it when they drive by on the interstate highway. Deep in the grove, in a hidden clearing, Mel has built a cabin for himself and his mates entirely by hand. Nobody else but him or his mates have access to this cabin.

Like stated before, Isamu is all over Lovelock. Most of the jobs he takes are delivery jobs. He delivers food, mostly. Sometimes, he'll do moving jobs or wholesale lifting jobs. He'll often do jobs covering for retail workers as well. Not to mention smaller jobs than that like baby sitting, pet sitting, fixing quick things, mowing the lawn, etc.

When he's not running everywhere in Lovelock, he's fixing motorcycles and cars in a mechanic's shop near the edge of the forest. Often times, he's known as their best mechanic. When he gets stuck with a problem he can't solve, he'll call over his mate to help him.

When he's tired doing either of those things, he'll take a break by helping out his mates or spending a couple of days just in the forest or in the cabin. He'll climb the nearby hiking trails, help his mate chop down trees, maybe even learn how to carve wood. Mostly, he'll run around the forest, helping his mate keep track of what's going on in the forest and making sure that troublemakers aren't making their way into their home.

sexual preference: switch verse turn ons: marking (giving/receiving), breeding kink, feeding (giving), scenting (giving/receiving), biting (giving/receiving), voyeurism (giving/receiving), primal play, overstimulation (giving), praise (giving/receiving)

dick size: 9.5in

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplay Ramblings: Food part 3

(art by Amaya Mori’ta on Artstation)

 Cultural Inspiration

 So now that we’ve talked about cooking terminology, let’s take a look at how the culture of a region will affect what cuisine is available, as well as how they season and prepare it. After all, cooking started with discovering how heat could make food softer and easier to digest, and preparing complex dishes arose from discovering how multiple foodstuffs could be combined to create new flavors.

Depending on what you have to work with, this can, and indeed has created a vast array of foods from across the world, so why shouldn’t it be the same for your fantasy world?

Now obviously many fantasy cultures may draw inspiration from or be almost wholesale lifted from real-world inspiration or even other fantasy fiction, so with them often comes the cuisine. Don’t be afraid to use such inspirations. After all, most fantasy settings are earth-like enough that the food should be similar, but as with taking inspiration from other cultures in other aspects, it’s best to practice self-awareness so you can leave biases at the door and do the research to understand what these cultures truly have to offer.

Moving beyond direct cultural comparisons, let’s talk about availability. The end-all and be-all of figuring out what cuisine a culture has is what there is available. While one nation might balk at the idea of frying large insects and eating them, in places where they are ultra common and might even otherwise be pest species, being able to do your own pest control and fill your belly is a very viable option. Also, consider what fruit and vegetables are local to the region, which could influence how they grow and cultivate such cuisine, to say nothing of how they prepare it, including the brewing of fermented drinks from it.

Also, think about the challenges that a culture might experience. A culture that hasn’t developed hot enough cooking fires might consider certain meats to be taboo to eat purely because they can’t cook it well enough to destroy toxins, parasites, or bacteria native to it (pork and seafood being key examples of this). But also consider how the environment might make certain foodstuffs hard to carry with on journeys, leading to the development of dried rations and travel cakes and hard tack. Rest assured that if there is a problem, sapient beings will find a solution.

Of course, the biggest way to get around not having a particular foodstuff locally is to trade for it. Once a nation gets big enough and develops the means to create or utilize byways to other nations, foods that would normally be distant dreams become available, much more so when methods of preserving said foods for long journeys are developed.

In the best scenarios, this may lead to nations taking traded fruits of other nations and planting them for their own supply, breeding such produce to create cultivars that survive better in the local area or even incorporate new flavors and other traits for a unique cultural staple which in turn gets traded back, increasing prosperity and the vast well of experiences across the world.

In the worst, however, a powerful militant nation might seek to invade, conquer, and colonize other nations for their resources, which includes not just the usual valuables like metals, minerals, wood, and the like, but also the unique foods and spices found there, which in turn further influences what foods are considered staples of a nation.

Also consider what the food itself means to the culture. For example, rice was such an important staple of Japanese society that it formed the basis for their units of measure and economy, and even had a sacred component in Shinto, as only the most thoroughly scrubbed white rice was used as an offering to the kami. Is a particular animal considered sacred, or seen as a key part of meals for certain celebrations, or something similar? Does your nation have particular iconic street foods that vendors might offer to passersby looking for a quick snack?

 Such are a sampling of the questions you might ask yourself about a fictional culture and their food, but we haven’t touched on how various fantasy ancestries throw even more questions into the mix. We’ll take a look at that can of worms tomorrow, however!

[strangerthingsstuff4]

A Story of Another Us- Chapter Four

Alicent had asked if Dahlia could help with dagging some of the sheep while Aegon was out at the wholesalers, she had excitedly accepted and they were both trudged their way down the length of the gardens towards the small opening in the hedges that led to the country road between fields. They had passed Aemond in the training ring of the stables, he was joined by a small auburn palfrey who seemed to be quite difficult.

Vhagar had rounded the ewes up into the small metal pen, Alicent pulled two sheep out before closing the gate. She passed Dahlia a set of razor clippers and they began shearing the mucky behinds of the sheep.

‘Have you ever done this before?’ Alicent asked, watching the young girl position the Berrichon sheep between her knees.

‘A few times, I used to shadow some visits with the clinic I worked at in university, I always got given the dirtier jobs that he didn’t want to do’ Dahlia chuckled.

She lifted the limp sheep’s tail and clicked the clippers on, gently and carefully work her way over the faeces and mud that had accumulated. The dirty wool fell away and drifted to the floor, she held the tail in the palm of her hand and removed the dirt that sat on top and underneath it.

‘Do you know why we do it?’ Alicent questioned, concentrating on her own work.

‘To prevent flystrike, if the flies lay eggs on the soiled wool or an open wound the maggots will eat the live flesh and it can be fatal if not treated in time’ Dahlia recited from memory.

‘Well I’m impressed, you seem to really know your stuff’ Alicent chuckled.

‘Well I only have half a year left before I can technically graduate and I’ve loved every minute of the courses content’ Dahlia smiled releasing the cleaner sheep from her legs and moving to retrieve another, with Vhagar’s help of keeping the other sheep contained.

‘So Haelena tells me you’re from up north?’ Alicent enquired

‘Yeah, just on the outskirts of Last Hearth’

‘Oh so North North!... how did you manage to end up studying all the way down in the capital? I hear Winterfell Uni has a pretty good agricultural course’ Alicent smiled, seemingly interested in getting to know more about her daughter’s best friend.

‘Yeah I was offered a scholarship there after college but erm… I don’t have the best relationship with my mum so putting a few thousand miles between us seemed like the best thing, plus Kings Landing University is the most prestigious school in Westeros so to be offered a full scholarship was like a dream’ Dahlia began, avoiding the sympathetic look she knew Alicent was giving her.

‘Oh it is, the boys were offered places, Aemond is studying a short history course as kind of a hobby I think, not sure he wants to do anything with the degree it’s just something he enjoys… and it was hard enough to get Aegon out of bed to work never mind go to school as well’ Alicent laughed lightening the mood.

‘Really? Hel never mentioned that they were all offered places that’s really impressive’.

‘Not that impressive their father was a very well-known man here in the south and it doesn’t hurt that my father sits on the board of directors for the school institution in Old Town’ Alicent rolled her eyes slightly, clearly a bit embarrassed at how entitled her children sounded.

They both continued cleaning up the sheep and making conversation with each other. Dahlia told her about her mother’s sickness and how she was having to return home to care for her, she told her how she was going to attempt to get a job on Winterfell Ranch or if nothing else at least a place at the local vet. Alicent listened and let the young girl sound off to her, she never offered unrealistic solutions or told her what she needed to do with her life like everyone else she had spoken to about her career. Dahlia felt like she could really bond with her best friend’s mother and envied Haelena massively for getting to have someone like her in her life. She only wanted the best things for her silver haired sister and she would never wish her life upon her but sometimes Dahlia hated how unfair it was that Haelena not only got parents who loved her, cared her and wanted what was best for her but how she also got to own a farm and live what was Dahlia dream life. She knew it was not of Haelena’s doing but sometimes she looked at her and she wanted to cry and scream about everything!

‘So when Viserys passed away I was left with the Ranch and Rhaenyra took her inheritance and decided to open a sister farm on drift mark’ Alicent informed her as Dahlia drifted back into the conversation.

‘Drift mark is where Rhaena and Baela are from right?’

‘Yeah, their grandparents were close friends of Viserys’ s they helped her set everything up over there’

‘Do you mind me asking why she didn’t stay here? Hel’s told me she’s never been that close to her sister but if she was raised here then you’d figure she would want to stay’ Dahlia asked nervously, not sure if she was overstepping.

‘Things between me and Rhaenyra have been strained for a long time, obviously there being an age gap between me and her father she was never really too happy with our relationship after her own mother passed, when I was written into his will and left the land he had purchased she was less than happy so she took the opportunity to take the children and move’ Alicent ranted to her.

Dahlia didn’t say anything just let her vent, she clearly hadn’t spoken about the issue in a long time and was letting off steam. She nodded along as Alicent told her about her fight to try and keep her stepdaughter and grandchildren close, to try and rekindle the friendship they once shared but to no avail. She told her how she had hoped that their children could become close and be raised together but one they had been ripped away from each other they had grown distant from one another.

‘I used to love watching Aegon and Jace running around after the ducks when they were younger, now I have to grovel just to get to see the two boys, it took me almost two months to persuade her to send the boys here while she travels to different shows, even then she refused to send the younger ones, deciding to take them with her. Ever since Aemond’s accident she’s been doing anything and everything in her power to separate our families’.

Dahlias ears perked up and she looked up at the woman, it was visible that Aemond had lost sight in one of his eyes he usually hid it under a patch but there were a few times that he had been walking round without it, allowing everyone to see that pale blue iris that that had slightly clouded over. Haelena was always very cagey when it came to her stepsister and that side of her family history, never really delving into too much detail.

‘What happened? With Aemond?’ Dahlia asked curiously.

However before she could receive an answer a ringing tone erupted from Alicents pocket and she fished it out. She smiled apologetically to her and answered the call, leaving Dahlila to finish up dagging the last few sheep and wondering what could have caused such a wound to Aemond’s face. She never got to finish that conversation with Alicent, having finished up with the flock and returning back to the house to spend some time with her friend and help cooking lunch.

The next few days were pretty much the same as usual, five am wake up, get dressed and go for her jog, return and shower then help out with anything she could whether that was feeding animals or bedding out the barns or even harvesting from the small crop beds that sat in the gardens. The only difference to Dahlia’s Day was when she woke up and wandered down into the kitchen, there was a cup set up with coffee and a sugar sat next to a full kettle that just needed boiling. The first morning she saw it sat there she was a bit bewildered trying to figure out if she had done it herself in her sleepy state the night before but when she racked her memory, she had no recollection. When the penny drop her heart fluttered a little and a smile stretched at her mouth, the only other person up at that time was Aemond, he must have left it there ready for her. Every morning she continued to see it there the bigger her smile got, no matter how cold he liked to act he was making it obvious that he cared enough to make sure she got a hot drink in the morning.

On the cold Sunday morning Haelena had set all of their visitors the task of helping harvest their first summer crops. Jace, Luke and Baela were set to picking the fruits while Haelena, Dahlia and Rhaena worked their way through the tomatoes and peppers. Even making a game out of it to see who could collect more in a short amount of time. As the plant beds were sat next to the training ring they all had a front row seat of Aemond trying to train a young palfrey, watching as he was getting frustrated.

‘For fucksake listen to me this time you little prick’ Aemond grumbled at the horse, tightening his grip on the reigns as he stood in front of it.

‘Ugg why is your brother such a dick’ Rhaena grimaced at him, watching him verbally abuse her grandmother’s horse.

Rhaenys and Corlys had asked if Aemond would do them the favour of training their new show horse as they didn’t have facilities quite as good as Dragon Stone. Evidently Aemond was not enjoying himself and didn’t appreciate being given the extra work.

‘He’s not a dick he just has trouble socialising… he doesn’t get out very often’ Haelena tried to defend her brother, wincing at the sound of her feeble attempt.

‘Doesn’t get around much you mean’ Jace smirked.

Dahlia chuckled quietly before going back to concentrating on her work. She took care as she plucked the dwarf tomatoes from their vines and placed them into the basket she had been given. The group chattered amongst themselves as they continued on harvesting, Jace and Luke making jokes to hear their girlfriends chuckle while Haelena and Dhalia shared looks over the cheesiness. A loud roar of pain erupted from the horse Aemond was training as it leapt up onto its hind legs. Everyone jumped up to see Melys kicking out in pain, Aemond was trying to dodged the powerful kicks while attempting to calm him down.

Before Dahlia knew it she was up on her feet and running around the side of the training ring, she flung the gate up and got a firm grip on the back of Aemond’s collar. It took all of her upper body strength but she managed to pull him out of there just as Melys kicked his foot through the air that Aemond’s head had just resided in. Aemond hit the floor with a thud and Dahlia slammed the gate shut, locking the panicking horse in.

‘What the fuck are you doing?!’ Aemond yelled as he scrambled off the floor back to his feet.

‘Keeping your head on it’s shoulders! You welcome!’ Dahlia shouted back at him.

‘I had it!’

‘Aem you could have been really hurt then’ Haelena tried to reason with him.

‘You’re such the animal expert you fucking deal with him then!’ he yelled once again at Dahlia before storming off back into the house.

‘Asshole’ Jace grumbled watching him go.

Once the horse had stopped kicking out and had calmed a little, Dahlia entered the training ring, she approached him slowly as not to spook him again. It wasn’t hard to see the issue, he held his front right left leg up off of the floor and there protruding out of it was a fairly big sharp rock.

‘Fuck, Hel do you have a farrier?’ she questioned her friend while putting a soothing hand on the animal next to her.

 ‘Yeah! Shall I call them?’

‘I would yeah’

Haelena ran to the house while Baela and Rhaena joined Dahlia next to their grandparents’ horse, giving it their best attempt to sooth him. It was only a few minutes before Haelena was jogging back down from the house, phone in hand.

‘He wants to talk to you’ She claimed, holding the phone out to her best friend.

‘What? Why?’

‘He’s in the west until tomorrow but I told him you were training so he said he could walk you through at least removing the rock!’

‘What?! No I can’t… no no Hel… Hello’ Dahlia was forced to take the phone from her hand.

‘Hi love, my name is Erryk Haelena told me about your degree, reckon you’re up for handling this?’ He mans deep voice questioned her through the phone.

‘Erm I guess’ Dahlia stuttered

‘Okay right I’m gonna video chat Haelena just so I can see the extent of the problem and I’ll talk you through everything’ he reassured her.

Dahlia’s heart was in her mouth the entire time, despite having the professional talk her through the process of preparing the horse, removing the stone and cleaning and bandaging the hoof. She wanted to relish in the feeling of pride for being able to learn and do something new but her nerves were shot, she was sweating and shaking. Once she had administered some pain killers to Melys and made sure he was safe and comfortable she made her way back up to the house, Haelena by her side beaming with pride.

‘You absolutely smashed that Dahl! You’re going to fly through your last unit!’

‘If it’s as nervy as that was then I may end up having a heart attack’ she giggled.

‘You’ll be fine! Plus you get to rub it in my brothers face now that you are in fact an animal expert!’ Haelena laughed, linking her arm with Dahlia’s as they continued up to the house.

Dahlia wanted to change and clean herself up before dinner, heading up the stairs to her room on the third floor. She was on the last few steps of the staircase when the door of Aemond’s bedroom opened and he stepped out onto the landing. There was a second where they just looked at each other, he didn’t say a word just shuffled past her onto the stairs. Dahlia sighed heavily and rolled her eyes at his stubborn pig headedness.

‘I didn’t drag you on your ass to embarrass you you know! That horse was going to kick you!’ she stated confidently breaking the silence.

‘I had it’ he mumbled as he continued stomping down the stairs.

‘Of course you did’ Dahlia grumbled, giving up with him and beginning down the landing towards her room.

‘Hey I’ve been working with these animals for the last nine years of my life! While you’ve been sat at a desk filling your head with all that generic shit about them so next time mind your damn business!’ he took a few steps back up the stairs to get her back in his eye line and yell back at her!

[aquaburst3]

I've mentioned plenty of times how Yana tends to over rely on the plot of the original Disney movies without changing things to fit her own story and characters. Well, she also does this with Harry Potter. Which isn't a problem in of itself. Plenty of series have taken inspo from that franchise, including shit like The Owl House. However, it becomes an issue when Yana copies ideas from it without understanding why things are the way that they are.

Take the whole "only 10% of the population has magic" thing in TWST. The reason why she did this is because that's how it is in Harry Potter and just slapped it into TWST. This makes sense in the HP universe. Wizards and Witches were persecuted throughout history, so they went into hiding out of fear and keep it a secret from everyone. This also created a stigma about marrying muggles. The low amount of magic users makes sense.

Why the fuck would that be the same for TWST? Mages aren't closed off from the rest of society. They are able to interact with others just fine. There are no social taboos about mages marrying “outsiders”. Hell, if anything marrying a magic user is seen as a huge BENEFIT like in the case of Kalim's mom. Shouldn’t that be a dominant genetic trait that grows more and more over the years to the point of almost everyone being a mage thanks to magic being extremely helpful from an evolutionary standpoint?

Like I said, makes no sense. It seems obvious that Yana just copied that from HP without thinking about WHY it's like that.

There are other instances of this as well. The whole idea of a magic school where a select few can go to, the moving portraits, ghosts on the campus, and more. All lifted from HP.

Like I said earlier, I'm NOT accusing Yana of plagiarism. A lot of works use elements from HP while putting their own spin on them. Everything from The Owl House to Fourth Wing to The Magicians. That includes Yana.

I just the way that Yana has done a piss poor job of this so far with TWST. I think it goes back to the fact that Yana doesn't know how to write a high fantasy series or worldbuild for a project like this, so she uses other stories as a crutch without thinking about how they apply to her own. Hell, she even flat out stated that she originally wanted to make TWST into a Victorious-like series before Disney forced her to change it. Even this is just a theory based on my impression of her during interviews.

What can we learn from this? It's fine to take inspo from other stories as long as you put your own spin on ideas and don't copy them wholesale. However, just fucking alter them and think about how they will apply to your own world.

[twofrontteethstillcrooked]

Destiel Month, 22 Nov.: Case

Unlike Kevin, who'd left part-time glory for grad school a couple of months ago, the new delivery man moved a little slowly. 

deancas ust, bookshop au + human cas + real baby jack

Unlike Kevin, who'd left part-time glory for grad school a couple of months ago, the new delivery man moved a little slowly. While a customer counted coins for the used book she was purchasing, Castiel observed the delivery man from the register at the other side of the shop, and noted the man's uneven gait, which was not so much a limp as a hesitation, like he was still getting used to walking without help. 

The wardrobe was interesting too. Some of the national delivery services made their employees wear uniforms, but Ellen didn't bother with that sort of thing. Her laborers were probably being paid under the table anyway. The way she trafficked perishable goods and her general attitude gave the impression that it would be best not to think too hard about how and why she was willing to sell at such, ahem, reasonable, lower than wholesale prices.

New delivery man, despite the limp, seemed more than capable of lifting heavy boxes and placing them safely on the table by the shop's back door: namely, a child-sized box of raw sugar packets and two cases of something that sloshed, likely shelf-stable milk, if this was Castiel's standing third week of the month order. At the moment, the delivery man's arms distracted him, as the rolled up flannel sleeves showed off sinewy strength and freckles, and, on one arm from wrist to elbow, a long, uneven splotch of dark pink. 

A recent second-degree burn, Castiel thought, and realized he might know this particular delivery man, if only by reputation.

Mrs. Applebaum achieved the thirty seven cents she'd been digging in her purse for. "My apologies for the wait," she said, handing over the dimes and pennies.

"Not a problem," Castiel said, sliding her copy of Mystifying Mushrooms and How to Cook with Them across the counter.

When she'd rolled herself through the front door, Castiel went to check on the delivery man. "Need any help?" he said, the words fading out of his mouth as the man's bottle green eyes caught his. 

They stood there looking at each other for a startled, suspended moment. The man let the last case thump onto the table a bit roughly, and then blinked.

"Oh, sorry. Sorry." He steadied the box. "Should be okay."

"It'll be fine," Castiel said. "I'm–"

"You're Castiel?" Dean interrupted. The freckles on his cheeks were emphasized by the flush that had sprung across his face. He cleared his throat. "Ellen sent me."

"I figured." Castiel held out a hand. "And you're Dean."

"Yes." Dean shook his hand firmly. "We haven't met before, have we?"

"No, I…" Castiel paused. "Overheard Kevin talking to someone on the phone about you once, a few weeks ago."

Dean smiled and looked at the floor. "He's a total nerd. We miss having him around."

The fondness in his voice made Castiel almost smile too. "He was always prompt with deliveries." He waited until Dean looked back up to say, "It sounds like you've made a very encouraging recovery thus far."

Dean's eyes shifted away. "Yeah. It's been going all right." He gave a small shrug. "I'm lucky to have good doctors and everything."

The light that had dimmed in his eyes made Castiel's chest ache. "Will you go back to firefighting when you're cleared to?"

"No." Dean sighed. "I could pursue teaching at the training academy. And I might, but. Not for a while, if ever. Helping out Ellen's enough for the time being."

"I know firefighters know the risks, and you were brave to take them; it must still be very hard to have this sort of thing happen," Castiel said. 

Dean's expression – well, the only word Castiel had for it was gobsmacked, though that couldn't be right. Had a dozen other people not said to him exactly what Castiel had just said?

"Would you like a tour of the store?" Castiel asked, because he couldn't think of another way to lighten the mood; and because he wanted Dean to stay just a while longer.

Oh, there. He'd surprised Dean again, but this time it provoked a shy smile and another lingering gaze. Dean nodded, after a few more seconds.

They walked together, leisurely, chitchatting, through the small shop, taking Castiel's usual path from the built-in shelves of history and science to the freestanding bookcases crammed with novels and poetry; to the children's corner with its low, colorful bins and several refurbished beanbags; to the bookshelves for nature, art, cookbooks, and biographies; to the counter with the cash register and coffee pots, the electric kettle for tea water, and two dozen well used, clean dishes, as well as a glass cake plate holding, this week, a dark chocolate and raspberry layer cake made by someone Ellen bought from.

"I recognize that cake," Dean remarked.

"You must've seen it before I picked it up yesterday." The rich, decadent scent of it had permeated Castiel's car in a way he hoped would never fade.

"Well, yeah. I baked it." Dean tipped his head wryly.

"It's the best cake I've ever tasted," Castiel blurted out. His cheeks went warm as he heard his own voice's volume. More quietly, he said, "I'd pay twice as much as you're charging."

Dean ducked his head. "I'll keep that in mind. And, um. Thanks, Cas."

Castiel had been given a number of nicknames over the years, all of which he'd loathed (even if he'd tolerated his brother's good-natured Cassie as best he could); this one from Dean…he liked.

"Your shop's great," Dean said. "I'll have to come back and buy something to read soon." He did a short double take when he spotted the framed photo by the register. 

"That's Jack," Cas said, pointing at the swaddled newborn in his arms. "He's almost six months old now."

"You adopted him after his mom died." Dean's soft voice sounded awed. Off of what was surely shock on Cas's face, he said, "I've heard Ellen talk about you too. I'm sorry for your loss."

Cas's throat had to open again before he could say anything, but it finally did. "Thank you." He swallowed. "You should come back when you have more time to browse the stacks."

"I will." Dean's eyes were kind. He glanced at the clock on the wall and blanched. "Shit, I'm late to empty out the rest of the truck." He hurried, in a somewhat lopsided way, to the back door again and looked back. "Good to meet you, Cas."

"You too." Cas waved, and then Dean was gone.

Cas leaned against the counter and listened to the clock tick. After a few minutes, he shivered and made himself go unpack the deliveries.

-

"Are those delicious?" Cas asked Jack the next morning. "Are those the tastiest fingers ever?"

The baby half grinned at him and kept gnawing on his own fist. A blob of drool dripped onto his chin and Cas wiped it up with a napkin. Jack kicked out his chubby legs and made his bouncy chair bobble. He had just started his usual pre-lunch gossip babble as the bells on the front door jingled.

"Hold that thought," Cas told him and turned to see if his customer needed any assistance.

"I've heard," the customer in question said as he came, a little slowly, up to the counter, "that you sell slices of decent chocolate cake."

"Hello, Dean," Cas said.

[mariacallous]

Keir Starmer has released an op-ed today for the Telegraph in which, in half a line he praises Margaret Thatcher (he also praises Blair and Attlee in the same paragraph) for changing the paradigm in which the UK operated.

Obviously, some have been up in arms about this ‘betrayal of the left’. But as they say the same every time Starmer so much as sneezes, their indignation has long since been drowned out by our indifference.

Twitter (No I don’t call it X and neither does anyone else) might be a bit skittish about it but most people who read the piece will see exactly what is happening here.

Essentially, to win elections - now bear with me here - you have to get more people to vote for you than for the other lot.

Sometimes that means fishing in the other guy’s pool. A Tory to Labour switcher counts double basically as it reduces their tally while increasing yours. It’s why well-meaning attempts to win over thrid party voters are usually naive in political strategy terms (With the exception of Scotland and Wales).

The front page of the Telegraph is a great way to find those voters. If you read the article, it sets out a narrative of Tory failures that is as deep as it is comprehensive. It could easily win over some wavering traditional Tories who are long past fed up. It could convince a few more to stay at home and sit on their hands safe in the knowledge that Starmer doesn’t scare them.

But to get that onto the front page? That’s where the Thatcher praise comes in. Starmer’s team will have known that in order to lift this from the swirl of political pieces it is not enough simply to write for the Telegraph, they had to put something eye-catching in there that would get people talking. And would give certain readers permission to be open to Starmer’s argument.

That it would also piss off the left might be seen as a bonus by some in Starmer’s team. That’s a shame I think as - frankly - they need to move on from that phase of Starmer’s three-point plan. But I am never going to win that battle sadly. Every LOTO ever will act factionally and interfere where they shouldn’t. That Starmer’s lot are more successful at it than most does not mean that others didn’t try.

So on those grounds, I have no real problem with Stamer invoking Thatcher.

Nor do I have a problem with him saying that he would like to make changes to the country that are on the scale of those that Thatcher made. We need wholesale change - not least to make up for the changes that she wrought and the long-term damage that still echoes today in our lack of housing - particularly social housing; in our filthy rivers and beaches which can be taken back in a straight line to privatisation of water; and in the austerity brought in by her acolytes as a response to an overmighty city that was started with her ‘big bang’ reforms.

Where I think Starmer has a problem is that this is not an article about having a vision as big as Thatcher’s on economic remodelling or Attlee’s on building the welfare state. In fact, the rest of the article is all about Tory failure and Labour Party reinvention. There is not nearly enough forward vision to claim to be a new Thatcher-level figure.

A while back I wrote the generous and ungenerous cases for Starmer’s approach. This is an extract from the generous part. You will see that I too invoke both Thatcher and Attlee:

I return to this because I think in that piece I did make quite a good fist of setting out how Starmer can be a reforming Prime Minister in a time where high spending won’t be possible. But, here’s the thing. I’m a blogger. I am just an observer of politics. I don’t work for Starmer’s office. So why am I better linking that sense of being as reforming as Attlee or Thatcher to a sense of the future a Labour government could potentially offer than they are?

Sure, maybe I do have the shackles off. I don’t have to get anything past Pat McFadden. But nothing I wrote in that piece was about increasing spending. Instead, it’s about changing the machinery of Britain that we know to be broken.

At the start of the year, I offered Labour a simple slogan I still think they should take up as we go into a General Election year: Let’s Fix Britain. They don’t have to use that particular phrase (although my consultancy rates are VERY REASONABLE and I will explain to them exactly why they should) but they do need to give a sense of that renewal. That means not just talking about how bad the Tories have been or how much they have changed Labour but what the country will look like after five years under Starmer.

Why? Labour will almost certainly win the next election. But honestly, they don’t want to win by default. They need to make and keep promises that really will change this country. We need it.

If they don’t - the scariest thing of all is not that Starmer is invoking Thatcher - it’s that there isn’t a positive reason to vote Labour beyond “Not the Tories”. However mad the Tories are now, when they get their act together, Labour must have something to say for themselves.

[running-on-narrativium]

Little Shop of Horrors Lyric Starters

(Feel free to change to fit your muse.)

“On the twenty-third day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence.”

“this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places.”

“What a creepy thing to be happening!”

“Stop right where you are. Don't you move a thing.”

“Best believe it something's come to get 'cha.”

“Alarm goes off at seven.”

“Then you go downtown.”

“Uptown you cater to a million jerks.”

“The bosses take your money and they break your hearts.”

“Your morning's tribulation, afternoon's a curse and five o'clock is even worse.”

“Poor! All my life I've always been poor.”

“I keep asking God what I'm for, and he tells me "Gee, I'm not sure.”

“Oh, I started life as an orphan, a child of the street.”

“Someone show me a way to get outta here.”

“Please, won't somebody say I'll get outta here.”

“Someone gimme my shot or I'll rot here.”

“I was walkin' in the wholesale flower district that day I passed by this place where this old man-he sometimes sells me weird and exotic cuttings.”

“He knows, you see, that strange plants are my hobby.”

“Suddenly, and without warning, there was this total eclipse of the sun.”

“And when the light came back this weird plant was just sitting there.”

“You've given me nothing but heartache and hurt.”

“I'm beggin' you sweetly. I'm down on my knees.”

“What do you want from me- Blood?”

“Looks like you're not happy, 'less I open a vein.”

“I know (Name’s) the greatest.”

“I'm dating a semi-sadist.”

“So I've got a black eye and my arm's in a cast.”

“Well, if not, he's got inner beauty.”

“I dream of a place where we could be together at last…”

“I cook like Betty Crocker and I look like Donna Reed.”

“There's plastic on the furniture to keep it neat and clean.”

“A picture out of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.”

“I dream we'll go somewhere that's green.”

“When I was younger, just a bad little kid my mama noticed funny things I did.”

“My boy, I think someday you'll find a way to make your natural tendencies pay.”

“You have a talent for causing things pain!”

“Your temperament's wrong for the priesthood and teaching would suit you still less.

“Son, be a dentist, you'll be a success!”

“Who wants their teeth done by the Marquis de Sade?”

“And though it may cause my patients distress, somewhere in heaven above me, I know that my mama's proud of me.”

“Feed me!”

“Would you like a Cadillac car?”

“Would you like to be a big wheel, dinin' out for every meal?”

“I'm the one that can make it all real!

“You gonna git it!”

“I'm your genie, I'm your friend! I'm your willin' slave...”

“I don't know…I have so... so many strong... reservations…”

“Should I go... and perform... mutilations?”

“If you wanna be profound...If you really gotta justify...take a breath and look around... A lot of folks deserve to die...”

“The guy sure looks like plant food to me!”

“He's so nasty treatin' her rough!”

“You need blood and he's got more than enough!”

“He's got your number now.”

“You've got no place to hide, you've got nowhere to run…”

“I think it's suppertime.”

“Come on, come on, think about all those offers.”

“Ain't no time to turn squeamish.”

“Lift up your head. Wash off your mascara,here, take my Kleenex, wipe that lipstick away.”

“I know things were bad, but now they're okay.”

“Nobody ever treated me kindly.”

“Daddy left early…Mama was poor.”

“I'd meet a man and I'd follow him blindly. He'd snap his fingers, me, I'd say "sure."”

“Tell me this feelin'll last till forever…”

“Please understand that it's still strange and frightening.”

“Suddenly (Name) is standin' beside me.”

“(Name), so finally we meet you!”

“You're gonna host it, you lucky kid, sign.”

“Yes darling, we're sending photographers Thursday, so get the plant ready and wear a clean shirt.”

“They say the meek shall inherit.”

“It's not a question of merit.”

“You’re a meek little guy.”

“You know the meek are gonna get what's comin' to 'em by and by.”

“My future's starting, I've got to let it.”

“I take these offers, that means more killing! Who knew success would come with messy, nasty strings?”

“I sign these contracts, that means I'm willing to keep on doing bloody, awful, evil things.”

“No! No! There's only so far you can bend!”

“No! No! This nightmare must come to an end!”

“It's the only solution. It can't be avoided. The vegetable must be destroyed.”

“But then there's (Name), lovely (Name)…”

“Without my plant, she might not love me anymore.”

“Better wait a minute! Ya better hold the phone!”

“Better mind your manners! Better change your tone!”

“Don't you threaten me, son!”

“We gonna do things my way or we won't do things at all!”

“Ya don't know what you're messin' with. You got no idea.”

“Ya don't know what you're up against, no, no way, no how!”

“I'm just a mean green mother from outer space and I'm bad.”

“You've got me fightin' mad!”

“You think he's the worst, well, you're thinkin' wrong.”

“He got a temper, ha! He ain't got mine.”

“I'm from past the stars and beyond the moon.”

“You can keep The Thing, keep The It,keep The Creature, they don't mean shit.”

“I got the stuff and I think that proves, you better move it out.”

“I'm gonna bust your balls.”

“It's all over, ace.”

“Subsequent to the events you have just witnessed, similar events in cities across America, events which bore a striking resemblance, to the ones you have just seen began occurring.”

“Unsuspecting jerks from Maine to California made the acquaintance of a new breed of flytrap and got sweet-talked into feeding it blood.”

“Thus the plants worked their terrible will...”

“And the plants proceeded to grow and grow, and begin what they came here to do. Which was essentially to eat Cleveland and Des Moines and Peoria and New York… and this theater!”

“They may offer you fortune and fame, love and money and instant acclaim. But whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!”

“Look out! Here comes (Name)!”

“Here I come for you!”

“Hold your hat and hang on to your soul!”

“Something's coming to eat the world whole!”

“If we fight it we've still got a chance!”

[writer-sedai]

Thoughts on Wheel of Time 2x06

For the first time this season it really felt like every minute of screentime was used for a purpose, multiple plotlines are coming together, and this is exactly the feeling I got in the back half of the books when shit really started to go off the rails so let's goooo

Literally everything about Egwene's storyline was perfect (I can't help it if I like my faves tortured okay). It's been about two years since I last read TGH so it's not super fresh in my memory but it feels like so much of this sequence was lifted wholesale from the books

Her punching Renna and feeling the pain twice as much! Having to truly BELIEVE the water jug was not a weapon before she could touch it! Looking out at the courtyard and the tree and FREEDOM only a couple feet away but it might as well be the moon for how possible it is for her to get there.

And Renna was...perfect. she's horrible but she's not a monster, or at least she doesn't believe herself to be...she doesn't hate Egwene with the intensity of the Whitecloaks, she only believes wholeheartedly that Egwene is damane and the faster she realises that, the happier they'll all be.

The emphasis on damane being separate from woman, or Aes Sedai, or human really drives that belief home...Egwene is no longer any of those things and as far as the Seanchan are concerned, she never was. She is only and will only ever be damane.

Seeing it onscreen in the cell, I understand why they got rid of the physical leash between adam and wristband. In a visual medium it would just take up space and be distracting, not to mention hindering movement. They've still made it clear that a link is there and Egwene cannot move too far away from the bracelet, it's just invisible most of the time.

There's so much going on in the scene where Renna links with Egwene: the absolute euphoria on her face as she's made "complete", using Egwene's power to destroy something beautiful because destruction is all the Seanchan know how to use the One Power for...and of course, her disbelief and anger when even after that experience, Egwene still wants to hurt her.

I was not expecting a Rand/Egwene reunion in a dream this episode but ohhhh boy was it ever good. Lanfear using Rand's existing feelings for Egwene to fully manipulate him into going to Falme, where of course he needs to be to fight Ishamael in the sky and fulfill the Dark Prophecy... and then Egwene! Waking up from the dream and believing it was nothing but a dream because as far as she knows, Rand is dead!!! Like, way to play on the bond between two characters to make both their situations actively more painful but also drive the plot forward. Beautiful work.

While we're talking reunions...Rand and Mat! The way Rand has told all his friends he's dead and gone as far away from them as he can to protect them, but when he sees Mat his first thought is to go to him!

And Mat's reaction at seeing him - Mat knows Rand is the Dragon Reborn and everything that comes with but he's still just so happy to see him that he doesn't care - or maybe he stopped caring a long time ago, while trapped in a dark cell for months with no one to talk to but Liandrin.

Mat's relationship with Min continues to exactly capture his flirtatious but not creepy nature. It really feels like he flirts with Min because he thinks it's fun, but they really are only friends.

I know Min's reaction upon them reaching the Foregate can be chalked up to her feeling guilty that she's followed Ishamael's orders, but I also immediately thought that she was having visions of the Foregate's destruction. In the books Trollocs get into the Foregate by blending in with all the costumes and I'm not sure if they'll end up using that plotline in the show but it would be interesting if they did.

Interesting that Ishamael knows about Min's vision of Mat (how??) and that it's the reason he think Mat will be easiest to turn to the Dark. It makes me even more certain that the vision is from an alternate timeline or that Mat will actively choose to change his future by not picking up the dagger now that Min has told him about it. Either way, I think Min's visions will be less guaranteed than they are in the books, which can only be a good thing.

I really liked the scene with Lan, Alanna and her Warders...it felt much more concise than the scenes in 2x04. The fact that (FOR ONCE) no one in the scene was a Darkfriend but they were all suspicious one of them was? Delicious.

I'm still going with the assumption that Logain's Talent is seeing the power of channelers. Otherwise I will go insane with the inconsistencies around how a) he was able to see Nynaeve channel and b) twice now he's been able to see/sense Rand's power despite already being stilled.

Tbh it happening 3 times now makes it more likely it is intentional and not just repeated plot holes so I can hope.

Most of the cast is in Cairhein now and I'm assuming they'll be leaving at the end of the next episode (by Portal Stone? I sure hope so). I do wonder what remaining parts of the Cairhein plots will be kept and which will be cut/moved. Will we see Barthanes marriage? Destruction of the Foregate? Run into Thom again? Meet Aludra and her guild? I can't see all of it or even any of it happening in the time they have left... especially since they've moved Rand's introduction to Suian to Cairhein instead of having it in Fal Dara.

And perhaps most importantly - will Mat run into Liandrin again?!

Given that travel at this point in the series is still Slow there must have been a time skip somewhere in here - enough time for Lan to find Suian on the road, go back to Tar Valon (?), put together a retinue of 14 sisters, and make it to Cairhein. Which means Egwene has probably been captive for some time already.

Lanfear immediately trying to get Liandrin on her side was very interesting. It feels like she and Ishamael are already maneuvering for the position of Nae'blis.

VERY interesting how Ryma was able to use a different technique to get Nynaeve to channel...I wonder if Nynaeve's block won't be as much of a thing in the show as the books, or if she'll be able to get around it more easily. A bit sad if that's the cause because so much of the books' humour came from Nynaeve desperately trying to rile herself up in order to channel.

But I also loved that with one short burst of power Nynaeve was able to intuit what the adam needs? Ryma as a full Sister couldn't do that! It just shows HOW powerful she is compared to most Aes Sedai and her natural understanding of how to use weaves without being taught.

The last sequence was everything to me. Seeing Ryma go crazy when her bond to Basan was snapped and her outburst of power...how it seemed like she was using healing weaves to kill instead. Her assertion that she'd rather be dead than captive.

I knew Maighain was the Blue who had been captured but it was still absolutely chilling to see her on the other side of Egwene's wall, absolutely broken. So now we have three characters who have been taken, all in various stages of being broken into damane.

God I really hope Ryma doesn't get the same ending in the show as the books. Since Maighain is already broken maybe she'll be freed? If the girls don't go back to the Tower someone will need to carry the news (though if they don't go back Elayne and Egwene won't become Accepted and I don't know how I feel about that).

I saw someone speculate that the way the girls pretend to be full Sisters is by wearing the rings of Aes Sedai who have died or been taken...and tbh I think that's likely, since there's a visible difference in the ring of an Accepted vs full Sister, unlike in the books.

Hmm while thinking about how much Stuff has to happen next episode in order to get everyone in Falme for the finale, I think we probably won't actually see much of Egwene's captivity next episode...she's already started to break and it would be heartbreaking to step away from her a bit and then come back in EP 8 to see how much worse she's gotten.

[such-justice-wow]

Clearly the solution is to run to and from work while lifting wholesale sized deodarant packs/a change of clothes that you change into and spray on in the bathroom stall duh. On a more serious note mental exhaustion and physical exhaustion are not entirely linked so finding a mindless repetitive physical activity you can force yourself to do as soon as you get home while you veg out/dissociate until it just becomes routine could prove useful.

I wanted to move within a half an hour walk of my work so I could do that every day but I can't afford to live in the area I work :/

Also i dont think you understand how exhausted I'm talking here. I mean i physically lack the energy to sit at my pc and have to lie down when I get home. Thays the level of exhaustion I have.

[jcmarchi]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Review - Not-So-Special Ops - Game Informer

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Review - Not-So-Special Ops - Game Informer

Call of Duty cycles through its lineup of villains on a yearly basis. Sometimes it’s Nazis, other times it’s Russian nationalists or zombies. But the most dangerous threat is one without a lust for brains or access to weapons of war; it’s stagnation. And while many Call of Duty teams often switch up just enough variables to stave off monotony, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III fully submits to the annual churn.   The campaign embodies this, as it rushes to a conclusion with little care for the details. COD missions usually follow a predictable yet mostly effective formula of packing together various one-off gameplay mechanics through fluctuating levels of intensity. Modern Warfare III cuts out necessary buildup and most of the variety, leading to basic stages riddled with pacing issues. Many max out at around 15 minutes, which means the usual rollercoaster of ups and downs has been stripped down to only include the descents. The spectacles are also less bombastic, and the abbreviated journey to them only further diminishes their appeal.

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Speeding ahead also impedes the storytelling since it barrels through beats at an astonishing clip. How Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’s antagonist is alive and why they’re now an ally was haphazardly glossed over in a cutscene from a previous multiplayer season. Vital details like that are just more casualties of its hurried pacing.

While much of the campaign poorly emulates what COD has already done, the wider Open Combat missions attempt to take that blueprint into new territory. However, the promise of more agency is undone by how shallow these stages are. Exploring these larger levels is not worthwhile as unlocking new guns is often redundant. Upgrades and weapons also don’t carry forward between missions.

Objectives can be tackled in different ways, but these options don’t go far beyond going loud or sneaking through using rudimentary stealth mechanics. Static mission and map design, limited interactivity, and a lack of meaningful rewards deflate their intended replayability and mean one run is more than enough. Nonlinearity is novel here, but novelty alone is not enough.

MWIII’s multiplayer modes more clearly flex COD’s signature smooth gunplay and impressive sound design, but are not exempt from the malaise that affects the whole experience. Lower score thresholds and more agile movement mean competitive multiplayer matches have a faster tempo that’s still kept in check by the higher time-to-kill. This cadence allows for thrilling firefights, but time spent out of combat is a drag. Earning all the same gear each year is already a tiring process made even more laborious by MWIII’s grindy unlock system and busy menus.

Competitive multiplayer, while familiar, highlights at least many of the series’ strengths, but the Zombies mode can’t even shamble over that low bar. Turning Zombies into an extraction shooter waters down the formula since success now requires multiple matches. The high difficulty means players must repeatedly drop in and acquire better gear before moving forward. The process is slow and tedious and full of uneventful loot runs and, if killed, lost progress.

Zombies feels more like a limited-time Warzone event cobbled together from existing ideas and assets and that sentiment permeates throughout MWIII. Each pillar is an inferior patchwork of past ideas from its stunted campaign to its multiplayer that, while the strongest mode, is comprised of systems lifted wholesale from MWII with maps from 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This year’s COD is a threadbare expansion masquerading as a sequel and an embarrassing way to mark the series’ 20th anniversary.

[cosmoteab]

A router is designed to rout

A router is designed to rout, or mill out an area in the surface of a piece of wood. This tool, however, is not limited to just one application. In fact, it would be difficult to determine which application the router is most commonly used for. Famous for its functionality and versatility, it is no surprise that the router is one of the most widely used woodworking tools on the market today. Routers champion edging wholesale Emulsion pumps Suppliers operations, and are masterfully equip for rabbeting, mortising, box joining, dovetailing, and dadoing to name only a few.There are several types of router available, each having individual features, benefits and their own favorite applications.

The most popular types of router are the fixed-base and the plunge-base router; each of which offering their own set of pros and cons which I will attempt to shed some light upon. Beginning with the first born, the fixed-base router is a favorite of many craftsmen because of its more simple more, compact and versatile design, and its relative ease of operation. In a fixed-base router, the motor is securely clamped into the base, and has a more light weight design making it easier to work and maneuver. Built for table mounting and more stationary routing, the fixed-base router is generally better for running slots, rabbeting, and edging or molding patterns than its top heavy, plunging brother. For plunge cuts, however, the fixed-base router must be tilted or angled into the workpiece which can be a difficult procedure to master. Because the base is not fully supported as the bit enters the wood, plunge cutting can be much more difficult with a fixed-base router. These routers have simple and accurate depth adjustment systems. They must, however, be stopped and reset in between each cut.Unlike the fixed-based router who's configuration has changed relatively little over time, the plunge-base router is more innovatively designed. The plunge-cut router is built so its motor sits atop two spring-loaded posts; this trait allows for the vertical motion which makes the plunging action possible.

The vertical movement of the router essentially "plunges" the router bit into your workpieces without ever tilting or lifting the tool enabling users to get directly into the center of a workpiece without any pre-drilling or acrobatics. With the plunge-base router, making through cuts, deep grooves and mortises is generally much easier than with its fixed-base counterpart; but although a plunge-base router is the best choice for applications requiring more and deeper cuts, it is much heavier and can be difficult to move and adjust. Understanding which router is right for you can be a long process. The information below will help you narrow down your search options and determine which router fits you best.To begin, again, with the fixed-base router, Bosh offers a 2 HP (horse power) fixed-base router with a powerful 11 Amp motor and 25,000 RPM. This router is built with a precision centering design that makes it significantly easier to keep your bits on their intended cut line. The 8.3 lb tool is also designed with a macro and microfine bit adjustment system with resettable depth indicator for constant precision. This system provides always fast and accurate depth setting adjustment. Bosch has also incorporated a large 3-3/4 in base opening (6in. base diameter) plus a 2in. subbase opening to accept larger bits. For fast and easy template guide changes there is also a tool-free template guide adapter.

[byershassan]

Why Choose Bamboo Linen?

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