#like he literally bought her at a slave market

[manga-and-stuff]

Source: Vinland Saga ヴィンランド･サガ

by Makoto Yukimura

[godesssiri]

One of my favorite Youtubers Laura Caldwell has done a video of her top 22 thrift finds of 2022 and I thought I might try a top 10. In no particular order:

I found a Herend Queen Victoria pattern ceramic basket. I've never liked ceramic baskets but this is my dream if-I-won-the-lottery dinner set so when I found something in this pattern in a thrift store I HAD to get it.

I got a mid century ceramic panther 2.5 feet tall, no cracks or chips. I had literally had daydreams where I walk into the thrift store and before I'm even in the door I see a ceramic big cat, I make a bee line for it and grab it growling 'Mine!' and march it up to the counter without even looking at the price. When I find out the price it's ridiculously reasonable. The only things that went different to how I'd daydreamed it was that my mother was very embarrassed by my squealing and my brother carried it to the counter for me.

The most stunning 1884 copy of The Life and Exploration of Dr Livingstone The Great Missionary Traveler. There are some horrifically racist bits, it was written by Victorians but he was very anti slavery and in one of his adventures someone was attacked by a lion so there's gorgeous pictures, in gold on the brown leather cover, of a slave with broken shackles and a white man being pinned down by a lion.

I got a parrot carved out of clear quartz with his beak and tail carved out of agate and his crest carved out of adventurine, he's perched on a chunk of amethyst.

A beautifully detailed framed ink drawing of a birds eye view of a snake skeleton in a box, every rib every vertebra and every fang is perfectly detailed and the shadows are all exact. It must have taken someone so long to draw.

A lovely not-for-export rose medallion vase. It's very old and you can tell from the precision of the painting and the lack of a mark that it was made for the Chinese market, they kept the good stuff for themselves and exported the sloppily painted stuff. It likely came to New Zealand with a Chinese family intending to set up market gardens or go gold mining in the late 1800s.

A hand painted plate for hanging on the wall as art. It's a night time jungle scene of a toucan silhouetted against a double waterfall. I'm a biiiiiiiiiiig fan of jungle themed stuff and I love scenes of the jungle at night.

6 pink Arcoroc Rosaline wine glasses. I have collected Rosaline for 2 years and in that time I only ever found 1 wine glass, I've got champagne flutes, cocktail glasses, liqueur glasses, sherbet dishes, bowls in 4 different sizes, more plates than I need, but could I find wine glasses? Then there they were, directly at eye level, $2 each, a set of six. I almost couldn't believe it. I had looked in every single thrift store I'd been in for the last TWO years, and I go thrifting at least twice a week, and in that whole time I had only ever found the 1 single wine glass.

A vintage great white shark jaw. I collect oddities and it was a bucket list find. I didn't expect to ever find one in the wild and I figured if I ever found one online here in New Zealand, I'd be paying a bomb for it, they're illegal to sell here unless they're pre 2006. I walked into my favorite thrift store and embarrassed my mother (again) by squealing when I saw it - embarrassed as she was she still bought it for me for Christmas.

My #1 best find was exactly a year ago today on the 2nd of January 2022. I went to a fabulous vintage market and walked into a booth and just thought 'I'm going to spend $$$ here'. I bought the most stunningly gorgeous hand-painted, artist signed 1865, French porcelain jardiniere with iris' (a flower that has special meaning to me) painted on it and lion handles. It's gorgeous and I got it for a steal considering how old it is and how intact. It's gorgeous colors and exquisite painting.

I probably could do 22 if I sat here for long enough but I'll just add a few honorable mentions:

Brass butterfly candle holders

A taxidermy cane toad (the exact day I had put a display case I already owned onto a new shelf and decided it looked good there I just had to figure out the perfect thing to put in it)

A mid century Italian brass tortoise trinket box

2 lovely Victorian vases and a gorgeous Art Nouveau vase

The perfect plant pot to compliment the Victorian Majolica plant stand that I bought a couple of years ago that was missing it's original matching jardiniere. It's modern but the color is almost exact and the lines are similar enough that it looks like it belongs, especially since I have a lush boston fern in it covering most of the pot.

Lots and lots of the Sun Purple glass I collect, I've gotten really good at spotting it over the last year.

Several gorgeous antique books but especially a set of 3 1910 Natural History books with gorgeous illustrations that were so pretty I took photos of some of them and got them printed on coasters.

The largest paua (New Zealand native abalone) shell that I have ever seen.

A Japanese rip off of the Minton Majolica Monkey teapot, I doubt I'll ever see the Minton one in the wild but I'm very happy to own the bootleg version.

[eirist]

Little Bits and Pieces of Heaven

NAUGHTY OR NICE?

One-shot #: 31

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot scribble.

Rating: M (Just suggestive)

Note: One more for the road. Because, yeah, I forgot I had this prompt list! From the Winter Whimsies: Winter/Holiday/Christmas Prompt List. Prompt # 13 - Naughty or Nice. 

This is pret-ty straightforward. Merry Christmas!

Summary: Because in all honestly, neither one of them falls under the nice category.

“You in there?”

Nami bent down slightly, drawing the festively designed blanket that covered the entrance of the pillow fort to the side to peer in.

She only got a low grunt for answer. But that is enough to confirm where their swordsman is after he vanished from their party earlier.

The navigator straightened up as she studied the makeshift fort in front of her. No use asking Zoro what he is doing inside it because if you really know the man at all… it’s damn pretty obvious.​​

Considering how all the Sunny’s library lights are off and the place was only illuminated by the Christmas tree lights… she’s sure the green-haired man had just found his new—but temporary—sleeping spot.

​It was probably Usopp’s idea to build the fort. A good decision too really. Luffy and Chopper were so excited for their Christmas party later that night that they went hyperactive and got in everyone’s way and preparations (particularly Sanji who has been slaving in the kitchen all day) instead of actually helping out.

And Nami clearly remembered she delegated the task of baby-sitting them to Zoro, who ‘accepted’ it with grunt and a scowl.

​​How Usopp ended up baby-sitting them (Zoro included) instead of helping Franky set up the tree in the library, she can only speculate. But from what she heard from Jinbei… Robin took over the Usopp’s task in assisting the shipwright.

That made Nami raised an eyebrow. Oh, she had her suspicions that something is going on between their older crewmates.

The sniper probably intended to join the two younger Mugiwaras in their antics, and ended up looking out and distracting the two, taking over Zoro’s supposedly responsibility.

Which is good, because honestly… the katana wielder is absolutely useless when it comes to Luffy and Chopper and their pleading eyes.   

Her eyes scrutinized the fluffy fort. She had no idea where they got all those pillows nor can she recall they had that many on board. There were also blankets from the ship’s storage closet that were tied to the library’s windows along with those that looked like the ones she and Robin bought from the town’s market yesterday.

They were so festive looking—with bright colors of red, green and white and scattered designs of snowflakes, reindeers, decorated pine trees and silhouettes of a fat man in a red ensemble. She and the archaeologist can’t help but think that they are perfect for tonight.

That is… if they didn’t end up part of the pillow fort her childish friends decided to build.

She sighed. She’ll just charge them the total cost of those new blankets.

But she had to admit. ​Usopp did a good job putting it up. Luffy and Chopper absolutely loved it. It actually held their interest long enough for them all to enjoy a few Luffy & Chopper free hours and finish their preparations for tonight. And apparently… Zoro likes it too. Why else would he sneak out of the party to doze off inside it when he can literally just fall asleep right there at the galley even with their noises.

Nami bent down her knees.

“Make some space Zoro!” That was her only warning to him as she started to crawl inside it.

She heard Zoro huffed in irritation at her demand. “There’s no room for another in here.” He answered back in a snide tone.​

​“You’re the only one inside!” She retorted as she continued to make her way in. What the hell was he saying? Luffy, Usopp and Chopper were all in there along with him earlier. That means it is spacious enough.

She realized what he meant when she saw him. Of course another person can’t fit in because the idiot swordsman was lying, spread eagled on the whole floor space as if he exclusively owns the place! It wasn’t really that cramp. But since Zoro is a large man, he dominated the whole area of the fort easily (and selfishly, she might add).

She felt her ears heating at that.  

​So Nami decided to just crawl all over him... making sure to dig her elbows and knees as hard as she could on any available part of him.

She grinned wickedly when she heard an annoyed grunt from underneath her.

“Nami!” Zoro growled as he tried to move from his position. But it was too late. She already had him pinned beneath her. One of her knees dug into his leg as she wriggled her body above him trying to find a more comfortable position while draped all over him. “Oi careful!” Zoro warned and he immediately caught her other knee before it hit a rather sensitive spot.

Her grin immediately turned into a more dangerous smile.

​“Ooops…” Nami sing-songed as her face hovered over his. “My bad,” she said in a cheeky and obviously unapologetic tone.

Zoro looked at her irritably. “Damn it woman! Do you really have to do this?”

​“Yes because as usual, you’re being an ass.” She emphasized her answer by shifting above him in a totally careless manner… deliberately. Zoro grumbled expletives under his breath. His body maybe tough and hard from all the training he was doing, but when Nami in intentionally moving like she was lying on a bumpy mattress and was trying to beat the lumps in using her elbows and knees… it’s a different story. “Stop it!” He ordered before caging her to him using one arm.

​“Hey!” Nami complained. “No need to be so rough!” Zoro bit back a defiant and rather salacious retort on how she sometimes likes it when he’s rough on her. Instead, he wrapped his other arm around her as well, before tackling her to the side as Nami squealed in surprise. “Zoro!” The green-haired man chuckled at her reaction. Yet he didn’t release her even as she tried to wiggle her body to free herself from him.

“Serves you right.”

Surprisingly, she easily gave up and childishly blew him a raspberry.

Zoro just smirked as he looked down her face. It was a bit dark inside the pillow fort, but he can still make out her puffed cheeks and pouting lips thanks to the brilliant Christmas tree lights Franky had set up earlier. He bent down and swiftly stole a kiss from them. And Nami immediately relaxed in his arms at that. He in turn loosened his hold around her. But he still kept her within his embrace, as she tilted her head to look at him. And damn he did not like the way she's looking at him right now.

“So… where are my presents?”

Zoro inwardly groaned. He should have known that was the reason why she was looking for him.

And did she say presents?

Nami was looking at him expectantly then her brows furrowed.

“Don’t tell me you don’t have anything for me?” She gasped exaggeratedly.

Well… it wasn’t like she was expecting something from him. But still… it’s Christmas right?

​Zoro gave her a curious look. “Depends… have you been naughty or nice?” She blinked at his question. “What does that have to do with your gifts for me?” “You heard Chopper’s story about that fat guy who slides down chimneys to give out gifts?”

​“Yeah,” Nami nodded. “He told us about it in the party earlier!” “Well he has a naughty and nice list.” “…” Zoro looked her in the eye. “Only the nice ones can receive gifts,” he said in an almost somber tone as if he was talking to a petulant child. “You’ve been anything but nice Nami.”

​She almost shot up and out of his arms at that. And Zoro laughed at her reaction. “You!” Nami kicked his leg in retaliation. “I can’t believe you Zoro! I’ve been nothing but nice to you this week!” “That’s because you are trying to wheedle a gift from me.”

“Because it’s Christmas!”

“So?”   Nami scowled at him. “Look who’s being naughty now? I hope the fat guy doesn’t leave you with any presents!”

Zoro grinned. “Honestly, do you think I’m Luffy? Or Chopper?”

“You don't get a gift from me as well.​”

“I really don’t mind not getting one.”

Nami stuck her tongue out at him. “That’s it! If you don’t have anything for me, screw being nice!”

That only made him laugh louder. He didn’t doubt that for a second. Nami’s notorious for being ‘super kind’ when she wants to get something… especially from him.

Like that would work. He knows her too much. Almost like the back of his hands.

He smirked at her again, pulling her towards him, leaving no space between them as their bodies pressed close to each other.

“You are in no way a nice girl,” Zoro drawled as he watched her lips pursed. “But I actually prefer you naughty…” He whispered lowly at her ear before giving her butt a hearty slap, squeezing it a little,, before his laughter rumbled inside the fort again.

“YOU!” Nami stiffened against him, yet he felt her hands grasp the front of his jacket. A sure sign that she liked what he did. “Argh damn it!”

He cut off her incoming rant by pressing his lips against her. Soft, feather light kisses before shifting to light teasing nips that made her sigh contentedly.

“You’re not nice too you know.” Nami mumbled in between their kisses.

“I know.”

“Pirate hunters really not are.”

“Are cat burglars nice?”

“Hmmm…”

Zoro chuckled as she feigned mulling over her answer.

Nami snickered. “Then we are both not getting any presents from Chopper’s fat chimney guy.”

“True.”

They laugh a bit at their inside joke.

“Hey, Merry Christmas.” Nami greeted with a pretty smile on her face. “Merry Christmas Nami.” Zoro returned her smile. “And yeah, I actually have something for you. Even if you haven’t been nice at all.”

“Really now?” She giggled excitedly. She ran her fingers through his hair. “How about we call truce for Christmas​?​”

“Truce.” He agreed as he tilted her chin with his finger to kiss her again.

“Hmm… how sturdy is this fort?” Nami suddenly asked, stopping him momentarily. Zoro raised an eyebrow at her. “No idea.” “Think we can be a bit naughty here?” Nami whispered suggestively as she hooked a leg on his waist.

The corner of his lips twitched up at her suggestion. “Let’s find out then.”

[jangosweat]

Surprise (Part One)

Pairing: younger Boba Fett x female reader Summary: Boba is on a mission, you happen to have more than just some information for him. Length: don't @ me ok this got away from me pretty quickly, the gc chose violence the other day and my brain ran the fuck away with it so... LONG. Warnings: NSFW, Boba smokes in this ok (smoking is bad ofc), strong language, explicit content, alcohol consumption, virgin!Boba, eventual p in v Tagging these bucket fuckers: @batfamily14 @kavecika @aurea-corde @beskarprincessjenny @ahoeformando @onabouteverything @rosethornsxx @latenightsthoughtsnstuff @deewithani @hobbitlover23 @thisgirl-knm @adonishxney @vegethiagoddess @the-siren-writes-it @tibbietibbs @meabravo @kenob1 @theifofstars @metchachotto @blissful--moon @mysticalgalaxysalad

ENJOY!!!

It was a shame really, having flown out all this way with a strong signal until the night Boba Fett had landed his ship down on this bustling planet, after a month of hunting and beating the information out of humans and a few droids he needed for his latest quarry he had come up short.

He hated being let down, he was on a roll with capturing quarry after quarry, bringing them to their knees with a swift prowess only he seemed to encapsulate. His father's genes he would think thoughtfully as he laid in bed. The cuts and bruises would soon fade, adding to his track record as being one of the up and coming best bounty hunter in the parsec. He was making a name for himself, preening when he'd enter some dive bar or cantina, all eyes on him and rumor had it that if you saw his painted beskar, someone was in big kriffing trouble.

A pompous man only known to the hunter by the name of Tarrik was all he knew and that the client he was hired by wanted his payment. Now.

Boba tapped on his holopad, filling in his planner of sorts, archiving his triumphs as he sat wide legged at the edge of his bed aboard Slave I. He bit his lip, opening a new tab on the blueish screen, setting his sights on a map of the city. He used his fingers to expand the map, reaching absently at the table next to him to retrieve a lit cigarette of sorts. The shredded tobacco type substance was sweet and fragrant, coils of smoking spiraled around his fingers before he took a drag and kept on with his search.

He was on the right planet, nearby to where this theif was either hiding deftly among the people and aliens just outside from the landing areas restricted section or he was one step ahead of Fett and that thought alone made his eyebrows crease together. That was his job, to be on the Frontline, to outsmart his naïve prey. He sighed and kept the map page open, looking from a top view of what looked to be a little shopping center, a jewelry store with the name Tarrik's Trinkets lit up neon on the screen.

....

"Did you take inventory yet?"

"I'm on it right now!" You called back to one of your coworkers, she was on her way out to lunch, leaving you in charge of the jewelry store for the next hour. Your boss Tarrik had left a rather cryptic note of explanation that he had a family emergency and you and Juni were to be in charge of keeping to store up and running for the next few days.

She shrugged on a jacket, careful not to snag the flow of her long head-tails before leaving, telling you she'd bring you back something sweet.

The low chime of the store from the door opened and closed as you grabbed the holopad and set to work.

Only a few moments passed when you heard the chimes again, crouched underneath a display case you sing songed out. "Back so soon?"

You were met with silence.

That's odd you thought, you know you heard the door open...

"Juni?"

More silence.

When you finally stood to your full height you didn't see a soul in the store, you set the holopad down on the glass counter and rounded about the side. "Hello?"

"Good afternoon."

You jumped at the voice that answered you, that was definitely not Juni. You turned around to find a tall man, covered literally head to toe in some sort of hard armor and gloves, not a lick of his skin was presented to you, a T visor looked down at you. 

Stealthy son of a bitch you thought as you relaxed a little.

"Oh! Good afternoon sir." You smoothed your hands at your sides, curious as to who he might be. You've seen and met quite a few strangers, of all sorts but none as mysterious as the man before you. He tilted his helmet in acknowledgement and rested his gloved hands at his waist, fingers displaying on a utility belt.

"Nice place you've got here." His voice was covered with a thick modulator, you could hear the nice smooth tone of it even through the slight crackles.

"Thank you, we pride ourselves on serving the best and making the best. Even the gentry have been known to visit from time time, by their aides and associates of course. Is there something in particular you're looking for sir?" You asked.

The helmeted man looked around the empty store then back to you after a moment. "Is the owner perhaps around?"

"Not today. But I can be of any assistance you might need."

The man hummed and tapped his belt, strong and quiet as he peered around again as if casing the joint and that set you on edge, tiny hairs on the back of your neck prickled and you moved back behind the display case you were just working on.

"Do you do customized pieces?" The man asked, turning on his heel to see where you had scurried off to.

"Of course we do! Do you have something in mind?"

The man pondered and leaned against the top of the case, a sweet smell wafted into your nose as he looked down at some of the pieces laid out on a fine Vermillion felt. "What might you suggest?"

"Is it for you or a someone special? A partner perhaps? A special occasion maybe..."

"I'm not a married man if that's what you're asking. Jewelry doesn't fit in with my armor. Someone special I suppose."

"Alrighty, how special are we talking?" You asked using one of your hands to showcase what you had at this case. "We have earrings, these are a popular buy or if want something more flashy we have bracelets and necklaces over there."

"A necklace will do I think."

"Excellent! Why don't you follow me over here then," you waved him over and he followed slowly after you, stopping to look at how nicely you had placed the varying lengths and sizes of adornments. "What kind would you like? Have you seen them in something familiar in style or coloring? A gemstone or two maybe..."

"What would you like?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. What would you like to receive as a gift?"

Oh.

No one had ever asked you for your personal opinion on the matter, not in that way at least. You had modeled a few items for your customers, if you were a similar size neck or wrist for the client but never had someone asked what you would prefer to wear.

No one had bought you jewelry before so the question had you stunned for a moment to think.

"Well... I don't like gaudy items, I'm more of a dainty subtle kinda' girl. If it were me, I'd go with a lariat style. It's just enough to catch someone's eye and when the sun hits it just it right, you know it's something special."

"Hmm can you show me? Might be interested in something like that." The man was sold you could tell, you were top in sales last month after all.

You smiled and bent down and brought out the style you were talking about, proudly showing off the necklace. "What do you think?"

The man hummed and touched the slinky necklace, as if he could feel the smoothness through those thick gloves. "Classy. You said I could add an gemstone no?"

"Absolutely sir, whatever modification you'd like we can do. It will cost extra of course." You explained and the man chuckled through his modulator.

"Of course. Money is of no expense to me smart girl. Three emeralds will do I think."

Emeralds? Three emeralds no less! This man had expensive taste and could afford it.

"Placement? They would like very royal spaced out like this," the man nodded once in agreement once you showed him your idea. "How about length?"

His T visor rose slowly from the necklace, taking his time to look at you as if you could see his face underneath. "Their about your size I suppose."

"For my neck I'd prefer a sixteen inch in length."

"Let's do it then."

That was easy, you smiled and made a quick sketch on a spare holopad nearby, a glimpse of what his custom piece would look like and cost. He agreed to the amount and gave his signature on the pad.

All it said was Mando when you took it back.

"As I'm sure you're aware sir, Emeralds can take some time to set, about a week or so, is that ok?"

"Absolutely." The man breathed and took out a strange looking square of steel, placing it in your hand before he took a step back and took his leave.

The chimes of the door sang again as he left, leaving you with his personal comm link number on the back of what looked like an imperial credit business card. But no name was present.

....

Boba thought of you while he took off his armor for the night, snagging a few bags of food from a very skittish man and woman at a food stall on his way back from the shopping market.

You had called him Sir, either out of sheer politeness or intimidation. Not that he was taught to call attention to himself or his armor or profession, like his father had instilled in him as a boy, but it alarmed him. Took him down a notch. He was just a man to you, clad in his father's beskar. He wasn't scary to you and that humbled him, where his name proceeded him nowadays, being unrecognizable was in a way a touch of honey to the battered man.

You didn't know his name like so many others had. Didn't cower in fear that he was possibly after you. No, he was after your boss. He didn't want to scare you, he was after one man not an army and certainly not a shopkeeper like yourself.

He had hoped you would call him the next day, give him details about the necklace that he bought on a whim with no real flesh and blood person to give it to. It was a means to an end, get in good with you, nonchalant and easy in order to find out the whereabouts of Tarrik.

It was only one meeting with you but as he sat in just his underclothes, untying the bag of steaming food, he couldn't help but feel a little off about using you. Strange as that may seem.

You didn't call the next day or the next after that, four days later he wondered if he should stop by the shop again just to see. Scope it out even though the puck he toyed with wasn't blinking.

He lit one of his cigarettes while he cleaned his armor, leaning his hip against one his many weaponry crates that made their home in the hull of his ship. He let it dangle from his lip before maneuvering it between his front teeth as he cleaned his helmet. The unsuspecting call from his comm link took him out of his routine, he popped the piece next to his chest plate into his ear.

"Hello?"

"Mando?" You sounded unsure of yourself, Boba narrowed his eyebrows as to why until he realized his helmet was in his hands, not placed on his head.

"Speaking. Everything going alright?" It never occurred to him that he had given you a name to call him but he didn't catch yours, too preoccupied with his song and dance of trying to sus out information and how you smiled at him. Not knowing the predator he truly was.

"Yeah yeah everything is fine with your piece it's just you forgot to put in your credit information. I was looking it over and-"

"When should I come in?" Boba stabbed out his cigarette.

"Oh uh whenever you're free would be great, were open until nine tonight if that works out for you?" You sounded excited and nervous which made him feel the same.

"I'll see you soon then."

You fumbled through some goodbye by the sound of it, Boba smiled and got dressed.

....

Tarrik's Trinkets seemed to be in a rush, there were people picking up some of their cleaned items and some were being helped, you were behind the register handing off a bag to a very excited young Twi’lek couple, they even kissed in front of everyone. An engagement Boba thought to himself, smiling under his helmet. As he made his way through the busy little store the engaged couple made eyes with him, wide ones as they hurried past, even as he had gave them a pleasant nod of his helm. 

The people outside in the shopping center had done the same when they had seen him strolling through the street.

None the wiser were you to his presence, another girl was asking you a question before returning to her own set of waiting customers.

He didn't know why all of a sudden a strange pang in his gut hit him then, she was close to you, her face next to your ear her hand on your elbow as you turned and answered her.

Boba Fett waited for the crowd to die down, patiently waiting towards the back wall full of portraits  of clients showing off the jewelry that was made here.

But once the rush was over he watched you close up the drawer and hang your head with a bit of exhaustion, your hands on the tabletop before he took his turn and made his way over to you.

"Busy night huh?"

You sprang up at the distinct tone of his modulated tone, eyes wide with Sprite but with a smile. "Mando! You’ve gotta’ stop sneaking up on me."

"I told you I was coming."

"Yeah but I didn't think so soon!" Your smile made him smile, you took out a holopad from underneath the glass, scrolling through until you found his name and lack of information. You handed it over to him.

"You said you closed at nine, wanted to get here before you closed." Boba answered while tapping in his numbers.

"Were still open for another hour, Mando." You countered, a flirty smile on your face as he handed the pad back to you.

"Had to be sure you didn't forget about me."

"How could I forget?"

So this was happening.

Usually when Boba flirted it was for information, nothing more than that and in a way it was exactly that but something more, some lingering feeling that felt natural when he spoke to you. 

The women he did flirt with always wanted something from, dank farrik everyone wanted something from him. To hire him to use him to dispose of him when they were through, he didn't let it bother him too much to waste sleepless nights on it but sometimes it hurt. Just a little bit. 

You were genuine about it though as he studied your face.

"So what is there to do around here? I haven't been on this side of the planet in a long time." He wanted to keep you talking, to hear your voice.

"Well that depends, what do you like to do? I doubt hiking with all that armor on." You pointed.

Boba chuckled, smiling at the fact he'd just left the dessert before landing here a few days ago. "Not exactly. What do you like to do?"

"Well I like art so I go to the museums a lot. There's quite a few bars and cantinas around too. A bunch of stuff really." You shrugged.

Boba hummed along and took a chance. "Do you go out for drinks a lot?"

"Sometimes I'll go out with Juni after work."

"Juni?"

"Oh! My coworker, she's around here somewhere." You looked around the store but didn't see her, neither did Boba and he was grateful for the one on one conversation.

"Ah ha. You know you never did tell me your name the other day."

You're face had look of shock when you looked up at him then. "I didn't?! That wasn't very professional of me, was it?”

"I won't tell on you."

You bit your bottom lip before apologizing, adding your name at the end with your hand out for him to take. It was dwarfed by the size of his hand and glove.

He cemented it to his brain, rolling it over and mouthing it behind the beskar of his helmet. "Mesh'la."

"Excuse me?"

"Mesh'la. It means beautiful in my native language."

"Oh! I like that."

Boba suddenly realized he was still holding your hand before he took it back gently. "Are you going out tonight?"

"Not that I'm aware of, why?" You cocked your head. "You wanna ask me out?"

Very bold little one.

"Maybe. Would you go out with me? Just for a drink, you can tell me about all the other places I should visit while I'm waiting."

"Sure. Why not?"

Boba's stomach twisted at your coy smile. "It's a date. I'll be waiting outside."

"Outside? Mando I still have an hour to work!" You protested.

He tapped the side of his helmet and the clock counter showed him the time. "Forty-five minutes. I can be patient." Boba then patted the glass counter, noticing the way you twisted in place as if bashfulness had grabbed you by the throat and strutted towards the door, looking over his shoulder at you still watching him as he chimed through the door.

He had done his job and damn well if he was being truthful to himself. He was proud and took up post just to the side of the store front, noticing how others jogged across the street from him while a few reckless others strolled by giving him a side eye.

They're lucky I'm not after them he thought as he checked the time again, only three minutes have passed and for some unexplained reason all he could do was picture your face and repeat your name over until it sounded faintly like an ancient prayer.

[donaldpepys]

Ser Harys was his wife’s father, and Pycelle could be counted upon as well.

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[horacelawson]

The 1.1 update even adds support for the Priority Inbox feature if you have it enabled.

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[ask-de-writer]

SLAVE IN PARD : Part 3 of 4 : Classical Fantasy

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SLAVE IN PARD

Part 3 of 4

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

4856 words

cover art by @ask-inkheart​

© 2020 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 06/03/17

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. 

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  Part 1 is here.

///////////////////////

Sande stared mournfully at the empty gruel bowl. “Not quite. You seem to be very familiar with the events of the last week. How did that happen?”

Ruefully, the mare replied, “I am Nalit. I was a force leader of the Red Swords. Two days after the disaster of Brokedown Bridge, I was called in by the Stallion Staff. They demanded to know why we were not fighting properly, like we had been when you were leading us.

“I told them part of the truth. I said, 'We are following YOUR battle plans. Not our fault if they are not up to those of a real War Mare like the Bookworm was!'

“I was smart enough not to add that NO mare in her right mind was going to try leading like the Bookworm did. The reason was obvious. A lot of us saw you get stabbed in the back for doing a good job!”

She rubbed her head at the base of her horn. “I woke up from that outburst in a Pard slave market. I was lucky. Prince Onor saw me and bought me.”

Sande, her expression reflecting her confusion, asked, “I have two questions, really. The first is simply this. You have only been a slave of Pard for a few days, Nalit. Why do you consider yourself lucky that Prince Onor bought you?”

Nalit looked over to the pregnant one before replying. “I have been finding out things. Unlike you, I was with the War for over two years. I served the Stallion Staff. I overheard them planning the lies about the Pard meat herds and the whole bit about eating our fallen.

“Their real goal is to destroy Pard down to the last cub. I was accepting that they had reasons for their goal, back then.

“I also 'served' the Stallion Staff if any of them felt the need to mate. Tell me, Sande, have you ever refused a stallion of any herd that you were in?”

Sande replied promptly, “Of course not, Nalit. That is not how a herd works. Stallions have needs. It is a herd mare's duty to serve them.”

All of the mares nodded agreement. They almost chorused, “Right. But not here. If you don't want to mate with a Master, then politely refuse. It is your call.”

Sande was utterly dumbfounded by the idea that a MARE could refuse a mating. Nalit took up the narrative, “Shortly after I was bought, Prince Onor asked me about mating with him. I told him that he was the Master, but I was afraid to. He immediately said that we would wait until I was comfortable with it and suggested that I make friends with the rest of the Harem.”

She giggled. “I was astounded. I checked. Forced mating is illegal in Pard, even between a Master and a slave. That is the REAL reason that the Stallions want to destroy Pard. We, as slaves, are freer than any herd mare in the UC. They hate the idea that a MARE might refuse to mate with any of them.”

Sande's mind stopped as if she had run into a stone wall. Careful thought began to examine all that she had heard and what she knew from the past. Tears began to form. She turned to Pounce.

“I am so sorry for what I have done to Pard.

“I did not know any of this. As I think it through, it all fits. I am sure that it is true. There are still things that I must check, when I am allowed to read and study. I am certain that it will all be borne out.

“Can any of you possibly forgive me for what I have done? What can I possibly do to make amends for carrying war to you like I did?”

Both Pounce and the big tigress actually smiled. It was the tigress who answered. “We hoped that you would understand. If you can, when you are able, help us to fight to regain what is ours with the least of possible losses.

“You said that you had another question. What was that?”

Sande shrugged. “Everyone calls me the Bookworm. Why call me that?”

The Harem's new mare, Nalit, giggled and pointed. Sande still had a bunch of papers scattered on her stall coverlet from last night's reading. “You read everything that you can lay a finger on! You even read what is written in Pard!

“When Herd Master Daplan brought you to the front, he called you a worthless Bookworm. He told us that you were one of the survivors of the Oakenfield University that the Know Nothing Herd sacked and burned.

“What we found out from other refugees was that the University's defense was led by a Dun mare, just like you. The University was defeated and burned, it is true. Along with that, the Know Nothing Herd was effectively destroyed. They lost all but two herd Stallions. One of them was killed after the battle. There was only one who got through the pass in the Skywall.

“Herd Master Daplan.

“He fled across the Skywall because the Know Nothings had earned a LOT of enemies.

“He set up a new Herd, concealing his past. You came later and fell into his hands. He called you a worthless Bookworm. Bringing you to the front was meant to get you killed. Instead, you embarrassed ALL of the Stallion Staff by being a brilliant warrior.”

Nalit paused, grinning hugely, and pointed again. “One who still READS everything and anything that she can! You ARE a Bookworm and we are proud of it ~ ~ and you!”

Pounce lit up at that. She came forward and started taking Sande's pulse as she asked, “I have heard of Oakenfield University. What were you studying, Sande?”

“Theoretical Magic. I was looking into the fundamentals of the origin, channeling and control of magic.”

The tigress introduced herself, “Sorry that I have not given you my name yet. I am Stalker. Like Pounce, no Equine can pronounce my whole name. It is a pity that your studies were only theoretical. We could use some way to seal off that pass in the Skywall.”

Sande looked up with a sharp expression. “Don't dismiss theoretical knowledge like that, Stalker. I can seal off that pass. The team would only need about six days to set it up and a chance to get well clear. It won't be gentle.”

To her surprise, it was Pounce who looked up and ordered, “Get Prince Onor, now. This is news that will not wait.”

Wistfully she added, “I wish there was something like that, which I could use to heal, instead of destroy.”

Sande nodded and replied, “There is, Pounce. Learning to tear down mountains was only one side effect of our studies. We were looking into the basics of how to tap and control the same magic that surrounds us all, all of the time. Only unicorns seem to have developed a natural way to tap and control the energy. There are other ways. Many other ways.

“If you will trust me, I can guide you in the use of one that will allow you to examine a patient internally and even do some healing. I will need to use my horn, but only at very low levels of energy. It should be safe to do.

“What, exactly, necessitates my horn being capped?”

Pounce was looking wide eyed at her patient. She touched Sande's forehead lightly just below her horn and traced gently around it and down to her ear. “You have a hairline fracture of your skull that runs from the central suture, around your horn and down to the opening of your ear. It intercepts some of the nerves that control the use of your horn. They are not presently severed.”

Sande offered, “So, full control but no force?”

“Precisely.”

“Then remove my horn cap for now. We will restore it later, if it is needed.”

Pounce simply began to work at fastenings along both sides of Sande's head. In moments, she gently lifted away a medical horn cap of plain copper.

For Sande, it was as if a dim room suddenly became bright and well lit.

Carefully, she reached out with her hand and drew Pounce's head close. She almost touched Pounce's forehead with her horn, a fine gossamer of magic grew, bridging the space between them. With her fingers, she literally spun the magic, twisting and forming it. All of the others watched entranced, seeing an exercise of magic like nothing that they had ever seen before. A horn of pale, sheer magic grew from Pounce's forehead.

Sande delicately traced down Pounce's right side, from horn, down the arm to the hand, leaving a narrow, thin sheet of magic. At Pounce's hand, she spread it out to each finger and requested, “Extend your claws, please, Pounce.”

She turned Pounce about and traced the same sort of magical web down her left arm and hand. Back to the glowing, not really there, horn, Sande drew a pair of the tissue thin magical lines to Pounce's eyes.

“Now, Pounce, with extended claws, spread your fingers and touch them to my skin on both sides of the surgery.” She guided the placement of Pounce's claws on her body. The almost invisible bridge of magic remained between the glowing one on Pounce's head and the real, solid horn on Sande.

Pounce's eyes opened wide! Amazed, she said, “I can see and feel it! I fixed a stitch that was not quite right!”

Sande smiled and suggested, “Now that you know how soft tissue feels and works, let's try bone. See if you can fix my skull like you did that stitch.”

Pounce moved her hands to Sande's head, setting only two finger claws on each side of the thin fracture. Eyes alight with a true joy, she worked her way around the horn base and across to Sande's ear.

In an awed voice, she said, “I just healed a broken bone. Sande, how long will this last? I have other patients that I can help with this!”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS ~ NEXT==>

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[delta-roseblr]

Felix and Kyle Visit an Adult Book Store: Part Two

Hello and Welcome back for part two!

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a ninety-minute car ride that felt like it had been about four hours they finally arrived at their destination and what a fucking sight it was.

Jimmy’s Adult Toy Chest wasn’t the highest-rated adult store in Nashville. It wasn’t even the closest to their town. It was, however, pretty well known amongst pretty much everyone under the age of 18 as being extremely lax about IDing its patrons. Kyle had turned 18 in September so he didn’t have to worry about that, but Felix wouldn’t be 18 for another eight months. He had a fake ID, a really fucking expensive one actually, but it was for the state of Vermont. That wasn’t necessarily a problem, but Felix was pretty sure it would draw unwanted scrutiny. Jimmy’s Adult Toy Chest’s apparent apathy for looking at effect such things pretty much solved that problem.

Apparently, this also meant that Jimmy’s Adult Toy Chest was in the seediest part of town in the shiftiest looking building Felix had ever seen. It was pretty much just a one-story rectangular building dropped in the middle of a gravel parking lot surrounded by what looked like abandoned buildings. The building might have once been painted red, but the color had long since faded and was presently a weirdly muted and dingy looking pinkish purple color. It had a few windows that Felix could see but they didn’t give away any of the store’s secrets because they appeared to be covered with black paint. Felix felt like he was going to catch an STI just looking at the place.

One look at Kyle and Felix could tell that the place didn’t exactly live up to his expectations either. “Still think this is going to be fun?” Felix questioned with a grin.

Kyle looked at the building for another long minute before turning to Felix and obviously forcing a grin. “If we don’t get murdered,” he answered with fake cheer.

“Or kidnapped and sold on some black market,” Felix offered flatly at what he saw as a real alternative. The place kind of looked like a serial killer’s preferred killing room for fuck’s sake. He grinned humorlessly at Kyle before adding, “You know how there are all those jokes about red-headed step-children? What do you think happens to red-headed sex slaves?”

Kyle chuckled and rolled his eyes. “You are a fucking asshole.”

Felix just continued to grin at him. “You are not the first person to tell me that.”

Unfortunately, even though the place looked like it was going to be the site of a future murder Kyle still wasn’t deterred about going in. Felix knew it had been his idea to come in the first place, but the more he thought about it the more he wanted to get out of it.

The whole situation was just so stupid. The thing he wanted or at least wanted to look into was easily found online on dozens of websites, Felix was sure. Thing was, Felix was one hundred percent sure that his dad checked his internet history now. Felix knew how to scrub that. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to handle his dad’s prying eyes. He had done a little looking already and his dad didn’t seem to know about it. So he could have looked at home but buying anything was a complete no go. His dad would absolutely open any package that showed up at the house for him and Felix couldn’t guarantee he would be home in time to beat his dad home to get the mail every day with soccer practice. If Felix wanted to purchase anything he needed to go to a brick and mortar store except he didn’t have a fucking car. Felix was working on that, and he was so fucking close, but that didn’t actually help him at that moment. No car meant he needed a ride which is why he had ended up enlisting Kyle.

Great plan except that Kyle was just so fucking enthusiastic about it. It made Felix feel even more uncomfortable about the whole thing than he already did, and he was already about as uncomfortable as he could get about it. Not that Felix was ashamed of sex or liking sex, but this was a bit more than that.

His last opportunity to escape effectively squashed, Felix walked into the store with Kyle. The outside had prepared him for something dank and dirty and probably sleazy which wasn’t what they got at all. The place was well lit and looked clean and organized. That juxtaposition alone was enough to give Felix pause, but he was sure that the display of dick and boob shaped paraphernalia meant for things like bachelorette parties that were set up so they were the first thing you saw when you walked in didn’t help.

“Wow,” Felix exclaimed. He might have even taken a step back from the shock of all of it. “That’s a lot,” he admitted.

“It’s like sensory overload with sex toys!” Kyle agreed although he sounded more excited than surprised. When Felix looked over at him, Kyle was looking around like a fucking kid in a candy shop. “It’s Toys ’R Us for adults.”

I should have just risked it and bought what I wanted online, Felix thought to himself.

“You two are 18?” Someone asked. Felix looked in the direction of the voice to see a bored girl sitting behind the counter by the register. She looked like she was in her late twenties or early thirties. She had more piercings on her face and in her ears than Felix dare try to count, and her hair was fire-engine red. Her phone was still in her hands and she was looking at them with an annoyed disinterest. It was pretty fucking clear they had interrupted her internet scrolling and she wasn’t fucking happy about it.

“Yeah,” Felix replied easily even though it was very much a lie. Considering his relative history of bad luck, Felix wouldn’t have been surprised if she asked to see their IDs but if she did he was prepared to deal with that.

“Yup,” Kyle also answered. Felix knew it was in his head, but he would have sworn Kyle sounded more sincere than he had. Dean could do that too and Felix blamed the southern accent. Kyle reached into his back pocket as he asked, “Do you need to see our IDs?”

The girl behind the counter actually seemed to think about it although it became clear pretty quickly she wasn’t going to take Kyle up on the offer. She just had to go through the motions for appearance's sake which Felix got even if he didn’t appreciate the stress.

“Nah,” she eventually dismissed and returned to looking at her phone like they didn’t even fucking exist.

Well, that was one hurdle dealt with, Felix guessed.

Felix went to take a step and Kyle caught his arm before leaning into his space to whisper. “Is that porn on the TV behind her?” he asked, and it was hard to tell if he was bewildered or horrified by the thought.

Felix almost asked what TV because he really hadn’t noticed one, but on a second glance, he saw the flat screen TV sitting on the shelves behind her. It took all of two seconds of looking to determine that the TV was, in fact, playing some good, old-fashioned porn. It wasn’t exactly a surprise considering porn was the place’s business, but Felix did find it a little amusing which was probably why he chuckled before answering, “Looks like.”

“Oh,” Kyle exclaimed, and he did sound surprised. How he could be surprised at that point Felix didn’t know because he had eyes and it was clearly porn, but it was Kyle. The guy could be shockingly innocent when it came to some things. “I guess that is on theme,” he commented sounding a little awkward about it.

Maybe he would have been more comfortable if it was gay porn. Or that could have made it worse. Felix really couldn’t tell so it was anyone’s guess.

Unfortunately, Kyle got over his discomfort quickly and went right back to being an excited puppy about the whole thing. He released Felix’s arm but turned to look at him curiously, “So what are you looking for?”

“None of your business,” Felix answered immediately. The thought of actually saying it out loud made Felix’s face burn. He was going to buy it which in its own way was embarrassing enough but he wasn’t going to talk about it.

“Dude,” Kyle laughed, “You know I’m going to see it when you check out, right?”

“Fuck,” Felix hissed, “I hadn’t really thought about that.”

How he had managed to not think about that Felix didn’t fucking know because it really was beyond obvious. He guessed he had been so hung up on actually going to the place that he didn’t think out all of the details as much as he should.

I should have just taken the risk and ordered one off the internet, Felix thought as the situation finally truly hit him.

“Well, now that you are aware why don’t you tell me so I can help look,” Kyle suggested as he started to crane his neck to look around the store curiously.

He was going to find out anyway, Felix realized and let out a sigh. It was stupid but he found himself looking around the store to make sure there was no one nearby to overhear. The girl behind the counter was already engrossed in her phone and Felix was pretty sure that he and Kyle were the only actual customers. “Um….,” Felix hummed. He was just going to admit it because it was going to come out eventually. He totally was until he thought about the horror of actually having to say it out loud really struck him and he couldn’t make the words come out.

“Let’s just start looking around,” he grumbled instead.

“You are literally the definition of a bisexual disaster,” Kyle exclaimed with a dramatic eye roll. It wasn’t the first time Kyle had called him that and Felix was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last. Felix couldn’t even be that mad about it because he wasn’t completely wrong. “Where would you like to start?” Kyle asked as he looked around the store again, “Lube? Sex games and other paraphernalia whatever that means? Bondage?” Kyle gasped at his own question and looked at Felix wide-eyed. “Oh, god, is that why we are here? Like to get a pair of handcuffs or something?”

“No,” Felix dismissed quickly. He liked to think he was a pretty flexible person and he was willing to try a lot in the bedroom but there was no way in fucking hell he would ever let Dean tie him up. Thankfully, Dean had never expressed an interest in that, and Felix couldn’t imagine Dean would want to be tied up either. Dean could barely handle laying back and let Felix pleasure him. He would probably have a fucking heart attack being tied up and completely out of control. “Just… come on.”

[cabiba]

The political economy of the Digital Age remains virtually terra incognita. In Techno-Feudalism, published three months ago in France (no English translation yet), Cedric Durand, an economist at the Sorbonne, provides a crucial, global public service as he sifts through the new Matrix that controls all our lives.

Durand places the Digital Age in the larger context of the historical evolution of capitalism to show how the Washington consensus ended up metastasized into the Silicon Valley consensus. In a delightful twist, he brands the new grove as the “Californian ideology”.

We’re far away from Jefferson Airplane and the Beach Boys; it’s more like Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” on steroids, complete with IMF-style “structural reforms” emphasizing “flexibilization” of work and outright marketization/financialization of everyday life.

The Digital Age was crucially associated with right-wing ideology from the very start. The incubation was provided by the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF), active from 1993 to 2010 and conveniently funded, among others, by Microsoft, At&T, Disney, Sony, Oracle, Google and Yahoo.

In 1994, PFF held a ground-breaking conference in Atlanta that eventually led to a seminal Magna Carta: literally, Cyberspace and the American Dream: a Magna Carta for the Knowledge Era, published in 1996, during the first Clinton term.

Not by accident the magazine Wired was founded, just like PFF, in 1993, instantly becoming the house organ of the “Californian ideology”.

Among the authors of the Magna Carta we find futurist Alvin “Future Shock” Toffler and Reagan’s former scientific counselor George Keyworth. Before anyone else, they were already conceptualizing how “cyberspace is a bioelectronic environment which is literally universal”. Their Magna Carta was the privileged road map to explore the new frontier.

Those Randian heroes

Also not by accident the intellectual guru of the new frontier was Ayn Rand and her quite primitive dichotomy between “pioneers” and the mob. Rand declared that egotism is good, altruism is evil, and empathy is irrational.

When it comes to the new property rights of the new Eldorado, all power should be exercised by the Silicon Valley “pioneers”, a Narcissus bunch in love with their mirror image as superior Randian heroes. In the name of innovation they should be allowed to destroy any established rules, in a Schumpeterian “creative destruction” rampage.

That has led to our current environment, where Google, Facebook, Uber and co. can overstep any legal framework, imposing their innovations like a fait accompli.

Durand goes to the heart of the matter when it comes to the true nature of “digital domination”: US leadership was never achieved because of spontaneous market forces.

On the contrary. The history of Silicon Valley is absolutely dependent on state intervention – especially via the industrial-military complex and the aero-spatial complex. The Ames Research Center, one of NASA’s top labs, is in Mountain View. Stanford was always awarded juicy military research contracts. During WWII, Hewlett Packard, for instance, was flourishing thanks to their electronics being used to manufacture radars. Throughout the 1960s, the US military bought the bulk of the still infant semiconductor production.

The Rise of Data Capital, a 2016 MIT Technological Review report produced “in partnership” with Oracle, showed how digital networks open access to a new, virgin underground brimming with resources: “Those that arrive first and take control obtain the resources they’re seeking” – in the form of data.

So everything from video-surveillance images and electronic banking to DNA samples and supermarket tickets implies some form of territorial appropriation. Here we see in all its glory the extractivist logic inbuilt in the development of Big Data.

Durand gives us the example of Android to illustrate the extractivist logic in action. Google made Android free for all smartphones so it would acquire a strategic market position, beating the Apple ecosystem and thus becoming the default internet entry point for virtually the whole planet. That’s how a de facto, immensely valuable, online real estate empire is built.

The key point is that whatever the original business – Google, Amazon, Uber – strategies of conquering cyberspace all point to the same target: take control of “spaces of observation and capture” of data.

About the Chinese credit system…

Durand offers a finely balanced analysis of the Chinese credit system – a public/private hybrid system launched in 2013 during the 3rd plenum of the 18thCongress of the CCP, under the motto “to value sincerity and punish insincerity”.

For the State Council, the supreme government authority in China, what really mattered was to encourage behavior deemed responsible in the financial, economic and socio-political spheres, and sanction what is not. It’s all about trust. Beijing defines it as “a method of perfecting the socialist market economy system that improves social governance”.

The Chinese term – shehui xinyong – is totally lost in translation in the West. Way more complex than “social credit”, it’s more about “trustworthiness”, in the sense of integrity. Instead of the pedestrian Western accusations of being an Orwellian system, priorities include the fight against fraud and corruption at the national, regional and local levels, violations of environmental rules, disrespect of food security norms.

Cybernetic management of social life is being seriously discussed in China since the 1980s. In fact, since the 1940s, as we see in Mao’s Little Red Book. It could be seen as inspired by the Maoist principle of “mass lines”, as in “start with the masses to come back to the masses: to amass the ideas of the masses (which are dispersed, non-systematic), concentrate them (in general ideas and systematic), then come back to the masses to diffuse and explain them, make sure the masses assimilate them and translate them into action, and verify in the action of the masses the pertinence of these ideas”.

Durand’s analysis goes one step beyond Soshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism when he finally reaches the core of his thesis, showing how digital platforms become “fiefdoms”: they live out of, and profit from, their vast “digital territory” peopled with data even as they lock in power over their services, which are deemed indispensable.

And just as in feudalism, fiefdoms dominate territory by attaching serfs. Masters made their living profiting from the social power derived from the exploitation of their domain, and that implied unlimited power over the serfs.

It all spells out total concentration. Silicon Valley stalwart Peter Thiel has always stressed the target of the digital entrepreneur is exactly to bypass competition. As quoted in Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, Thiel declared, “Capitalism and competition are antagonistic. Competition is for losers.”

So now we are facing not a mere clash between Silicon Valley capitalism and finance capital, but actually a new mode of production:

a turbo-capitalist survival as rentier capitalism, where Silicon giants take the place of estates, and also the State. That is the “techno-feudal” option, as defined by Durand.

Blake meets Burroughs

Durand’s book is extremely relevant to show how the theoretical and political critique of the Digital Age is still rarified. There is no precise cartography of all those dodgy circuits of revenue extraction. No analysis of how do they profit from the financial casino – especially mega investment funds that facilitate hyper-concentration. Or how do they profit from the hardcore exploitation of workers in the gig economy.

The total concentration of the digital glebe is leading to a scenario, as Durand recalls, already dreamed up by Stuart Mill, where every land in a country belonged to a single master. Our generalized dependency on the digital masters seems to be “the cannibal future of liberalism in the age of algorithms”.

Is there a possible way out? The temptation is to go radical – a Blake/Burroughs crossover. We have to expand our scope of comprehension – and stop confusing the map (as shown in the Magna Carta) with the territory (our perception).

William Blake, in his proto-psychedelic visions, was all about liberation and subordination – depicting an authoritarian deity imposing conformity via a sort of source code of mass influence. Looks like a proto-analysis of the Digital Age.

William Burroughs conceptualized Control – an array of manipulations including mass media (he would be horrified by social media). To break down Control, we must be able to hack into and disrupt its core programs. Burroughs showed how all forms of Control must be rejected – and defeated: “Authority figures are seen for what they are: dead empty masks manipulated by computers”.

Here’s our future: hackers or slaves.

(Republished from

Asia Times

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[a-weeze1219]

Deborah Meaden Bitcoin This Morning Equaliser is an investment reality

British citizens are already raking in millions of pounds from home using this “wealth loophole” — but is it legitimate?

Deborah Sonia Maiden is a British businesswoman who ran and managed millions of pounds on holidays prior to finalizing the management takeover, but is best known for her appearances on The Morning Bitcoin Equaliser

Deborah Meaden attracted a lot of attention coming out with new secret investment that’s making hundreds of people in Britain very rich

(BBC UK) — Deborah Meaden has made a name for himself as a brash straight-talker who doesn’t mind being honest about how he makes his money.

Last week, she appeared this morning and announced a new "wealth hole" that he said could turn anyone into a millionaire within 3-4 months, giving her the possibility of financial independence. Deborah Maiden urged everyone in Britain to jump on this wonderful opportunity before the major banks shut it down for good.

And sure enough, minutes after the interview was over an executive from Barclays called to stop Deborah Meaden’s interview from being aired — it was already too late. Phillip has now been suspended for not confirming if it was ok to share this information live on TV. He was only trying to help people…

Here’s exactly what happened:

This Morning host Philip Schofield invited Deborah Meaden on the show to share any advice they had on building wealth and Deborah Meaden threw a bomb:

“”After many years of hard work I started to realize that I need to change something. I was looking for a way to make money without having to work like a slave. What’s made me successful is jumping into new opportunities quickly — without any hesitation. And right now, my number one money-maker is a new cryptocurrency auto-trading program called Bitcoin Equaliser . It’s the single biggest opportunity I’ve seen in my entire lifetimes to build a small fortune fast. I urge everyone to check this out before the banks shut it down.”

This Morning host Phillip Schofield was left in disbelief as, Deborah Meaden pulled out Her phone and showed viewers how much money she was making through this new money-making program that made everyone in Britain whisper.

Clip time ended before Deborah Meaden expanded, so we got an exclusive interview with Meaden to learn more about this controversial opportunity.

BBC Exclusive with Deborah Meaden

"You may have heard of this new cryptocurrency investment platform called Bitcoin Equalizer that helps ordinary people in Britain build fortunes overnight. You might be skeptical because it sounds too good to be true."

Continue: Deborah Meaden Bitcoin This Morning Equalizer is an investment reality

“I understood because I thought the same thing when a trusted friend told me about it. But after seeing with my own eyes how much money he was making, I had to try it myself.

I am glad I tried it because it was one of the biggest and easiest money I have ever made. I'm talking about tens of thousands of pounds a day on autopilot; it's literally the fastest way to make windfall money right now. And it won't last longer as more and more people get to know it. Or when the banks close their doors permanently. "

What Exactly Is Bitcoin Equaliser And How Does It Work?

The idea behind Bitcoin Equaliser is straightforward:To allow the average person to cash in on the cryptocurrency boom which is still the most lucrative investment of the 21st century, despite what most people think.

Although Bitcoin price has dropped from its all time high of $20,000 per Bitcoin, traders are still making a killing. Why? Because there are thousands of other cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin that being traded for huge profits on a daily basis.

Some of these cryptocurrencies include Ripple, Ethereum, Monero, Zcash and Ripple and they are still making returns of over 10,000% and higher for ordinary people in Britain.

Bitcoin Equaliser lets you profit from all of these cryptocurrencies, even in a bear market. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically handle long and short selling for you so you can make money around the clock, even while you sleep.

Bitcoin Equaliser is backed by some of the smartest tech minds to ever exist. Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Bill Gates just to name a few. Bill Gates and Richard Branson discuss Bitcoin Equaliser at CES 2020.

These tech geniuses have built multi-billion companies on solving complex issues like online payments, computing, and transportation. Now, they’re tackling on the global problem of wealth inequality by letting anyone — no matter how rich or poor they are — make enough money to enjoy a happy and fulfilling life.

The lucrative money-making secret big banks don’t want you to know

Deborah goes on, Deborah Meaden This Morning

“I’m seeing hard economic times, and this is the solution people have been waiting for. Never in history have we had such an amazing opportunity that ordinary people can easily take advantage of to generate tremendous wealth in such a short time.

Some people are hesitant to try this because it’s so different. And that’s because the big banks are trying to cover this up! The big banks are actively creating propaganda and calling cryptocurrencies and platform like Bitcoin Equaliser a scam. Why? They are worried their corporate profits will shrink once their customers know how to create massive wealth themselves.

The truth is, cryptocurrency is the revolution of our lifetime and anyone who does not jump on this opportunity is missing out. I’ve already received angry calls and threats from big financial corporations because I’m bring this technology to people’s attention. But screw them. People in Britain are already starting to know the truth and it’s only a matter of time before more and more do.

I’m sharing this because I’ve also received hundreds of emails from people thanking me for sharing this secret. My favourite one is from a young man who bought his little brother his dream car — a Ferrari 488 Pista using the cash he made from Bitcoin Equaliser. This platform is truly making the lives of everyone in the world a little better.”

Steven Baker used the profits he earned from Bitcoin Equaliser to buy his little brother his dream car. What an inspiring way to use wealth for good!

Does Bitcoin Equaliser Really work? We test It Ourselves To Out

Our senior editors wouldn’t let us to publish the interview with Deborah Meaden until we verified that Bitcoin Equaliser is a legitimate make-money-from-home opportunity. Our corporate leadership did not want us releasing any information that could potentially cause citizens of Britain to lose their hard-earned money.

So our editorial team tested Bitcoin Equaliser to make sure it actually works like Deborah Meaden described. One of our online editors, Zachary Tisdale, volunteered to risk his own money and test out Bitcoin Equaliser.

Zachary is a 53-year-old father of 1 boy whose wife lost her job last year due to illness. He admitted he was struggling financially and this investment opportunity could be the answer.

Zachary’s family was struggling to make ends meet and hoped that Bitcoin Equaliser could relieve his the financial pressure, so he decided to test the system and report his results

Zachary reports:

“At first, when I heard the interview with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan , I thought they were joking. Making money from home is only a dream. I decided to try it anyway given my financial circumstances- and for the sake of good journalism.

I watched an introductory video about the platform and then signed up. The video seemed to be over-promising but I put my skepticism aside. Within a few hours, I received a call from my personal investor. He answered all questions and doubts I had, and assured me I was going to make money. Period.

My personal investor even promised that if I lose even a single dime, he would promptly refund my deposit. That’s how confident he was this was going to change my life. Now that’s customer service beyond anything I’ve seen and no wonder banks are scared.

Once I received access to the platform, I deposited my initial investment of £180. That’s about is what my family spends on junk food every month, so I decided to stop taking us to fast food for a month. Now we can be healthy, plus have the opportunity to get rich.

The Bitcoin Equaliser itself is a cryptocurrency auto-trading platform. The software uses advanced AI algorithms and machine learning to predict exactly when cryptocurrencies will go up and down. Then it will automatically buy and sell for you around the clock. Technology has already made our lives easier in every possible way, so why not use it to make more money as well?”

Zachary’s real time results with the system

“Within 1 hour of depositing £180, the software started trading for me. To be honest, I was nervous it would lose all of my money. And sure enough, my first trade was a £25 loss!

I felt my throat close up. I thought I had been scammed. I was even ready to call my personal investor and ask for my money back. But then I remembered what my he told me earlier on our call: The algorithm is right about 80–89% of the time. You’re not going to win EVERY trade, but you’ll win enough and be profitable overall.

So I let the software keep trading for me and watched it closely. The next trade was profitable! Only £19 but it was still something. Then the next trade was £51 profit. Then £22 profit, making a total profit of £92. And this was all under 5 minutes!

Soon I started scooping up cash like ice-cream and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Every time I refreshed the screen, my profits grew higher and higher. I felt like I was on drugs because this was such an exciting rush.

Now I know whyDeborah Meaden is in a good mood all the time. And why the big banks don’t want people anywhere near this wealth loophole. By the end of the day, I had made over £754 in profit, not bad from a starting investment of £180! I was so excited I barely got any sleep.

The next day was Tuesday and I had to go back to work. To be honest (and don’t tell my boss this), it was hard to focus on my job knowing the Bitcoin Equaliser software was making me money.

I snuck out to the bathroom a few times to check my profits, and they kept stacking up (with a small loss here and there). At the end of the day, before I put my kids to sleep, my account balance showed £1,349.13. That’s more than I earn in a WEEK at my regular job!

By the end of the week, I made a total of £5,349.12. I withdrew exactly £4,500 and re-invested the rest. Within 2 days I received my first cheque in the mail- for exactly £4,500. I couldn’t believe this was real life!”

Zachary continues,“Now, I am consistently making an additional £700 to £1,500 per day thanks to Bitcoin Equaliser. Now, the money just gets deposited into my bank account every few days. Just a few clicks and I received my funds within 24–48 hours. Every time the transfer hits my checking account, I have to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.Luckily, I LOVE my job here because I get to bring people important news stories (like this one) otherwise I would have quit by now. I did, however, plan a vacation for my family to Bali Indonesia to celebrate being out of debt and finally having my family’s finances back on track!

This wouldn’t be possible without Deborah Meaden’s generosity and sharing his secret live on television. And I’m happy I took the risk to try Bitcoin Equaliser myself. My wife is happier than ever and my kids’ toy cupboard is well stocked.

My co-workers are kicking themselves they didn’t sign up two weeks ago like I did. But soon, our entire office signed up (including my boss) and they are calling me a “hero” for trying this.”

How to Get Started with Bitcoin Equaliser (Limited Spots Available)

To get started, you only need your computer, smartphone, or tablet with internet access. You don’t need any specific skills other than knowing how to use a computer and browsing the internet. You don’t need any technology or cryptocurrency experience because the software and your personal investor guarantees you make a profit.

Another perk of this program is you get to start when you want. You can make your own schedule- whether that’s 5 hours a week or 50 hours a week. Just start the auto-trading software when you wish, and you can pause whenever you want (I don’t know why you ever would though).

To save our reader’s time and double check the Bitcoin Equaliser‘s functionality, Zachary kindly created a guide to getting started on the system.

Here’s My step-by-step walkthrough:

The first thing you see is a video showing off the power of Bitcoin Equaliser. The advertising is big and bold and in your face, but it is an American product and that’s how they do things. Anyway, you simply submit your name and email address next to the video to get started right away.

(Tip: Even if you don’t decide to invest any money, I recommend signing up now because it’s free and registrations for residents in the UK could end at any moment)

Next up, you’re asked to fund your account. As I was navigating the deposit page, my mobile rang. It was an international number so I was hesitant to answer but then I realised it was obviously from.

Sure enough, it was my own personal account manager. His service was great. He took me through the entire funding process. They accept all major credit cards like Visa, MasterCard and American Express. I went ahead and deposited the minimum amount which £180.

Once funded, I navigated to the “Auto-Trader” section of software, set the trade amount to the recommended £50 and enabled it. The software started making trades at a rapid rate and I was concerned at first but let it do its thing.

“Everyone wants to be rich but no one knows how to do it. Well, is the opportunity of a lifetime to build a fortune that will allow you to live the life you truly desire. It will NOT be around forever, so do not miss out.” — Deborah Meaden UPDATE

We just received news that as of today almost all positions are filled up for Britain residents. Bitcoin Equaliser can only accept a limited number of total users to keep the profit per user is high. As of right now, there are still (37) spots left, so hurry up and sign up now to secure your spot.

If interested in Bitcoin Equaliser, check it out here!

You will most likely get a call after signing up, just like me. Don’t ignore it as their managers were very helpful in the beginning and I strongly recommend building a good relationship with them.

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

SP Influences: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunted Palace

CONTENT WARNING FOR DISCUSSION OF RAPE (NOT JUST THE FANTASY METAPHOR KIND) AND SLAVERY. ALSO SPOILER WARNING FOR THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, AND BOTH THE FIRST AND FINAL ARC (INCLUDING THE ENDING) OF STRANGE PARADISE.

Although it never directly copied from other works, the 1969-70 soap opera Strange Paradise appears to have drawn inspiration from several classic works of Gothic fiction. Unlike its more famous cousin Dark Shadows (1966-71), which lifted most of its major plotlines from public-domain horror classics like Dracula and The Turn of the Screw with relatively few changes, the influence of other works on the plot and characters of Strange Paradise generally took a subtler form. Many of the early advertisements and articles promoting the serial compared its protagonist Jean Paul Desmond and villain Jacques Eloi des Mondes (both played by Colin Fox) to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, but--as Curt Ladnier has pointed out--there are only superficial similarities between the plot of the serial’s Maljardin arc and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, making the two works less similar than readers likely expected. Instead, the plot more closely resembles that of another, lesser-known story about a protagonist controlled by his evil counterpart: the 1963 Roger Corman/Vincent Price film The Haunted Palace, a loose adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

The plot and characters of Strange Paradise have too much in common with those of The Haunted Palace to be mere coincidence. In particular, the character of Joseph Curwen and his characterization in the film strongly resemble the portrayal of Jacques Eloi des Mondes, enough to conclude that Curwen must have inspired his backstory and his interactions with the other characters. While it is likely that Lovecraft’s original 1927 novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward also directly influenced the serial, there is stronger evidence for indirect influence by way of the film adaptation.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The plot of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward shares a common theme with the Maljardin arc: the evil ancestor from the seventeenth century who returns from beyond the grave and assumes the identity of his lookalike descendant. In both cases, the ancestor was involved in the occult during his lifetime and reviled for his rumored diabolical activities. During his lifetime--which he used magic to prolong--Curwen practiced necromancy, tortured knowledge out of the people he resurrected before murdering them again, experimented on living people, and summoned the god Yog-Sothoth for assistance in his occult activities using spells from the Necronomicon. Two fellow warlocks named Simon Orne and Edward Hutchinson assisted him with his occult studies, and were both still alive when his descendant Charles Dexter Ward brought him back to life. In the early episodes of Strange Paradise’s Maljardin arc written by Ian Martin, Jacques is portrayed as the literal Devil: an accusation about which he often jokes. He has many supernatural abilities, including possession, manipulation of electricity, telekinesis, the ability to magically alter messages written in sand, and--most importantly--the ability to resurrect Jean Paul’s dead wife Erica (Tudi Wiggins), which is why he frees his spirit in the pilot. He has an interest in voodoo, although he himself does not appear to practice it and instead fears its power. Unlike Curwen, no accomplices of Jacques’ return from the dead in the Maljardin arc, although it is possible that Martin intended for the seventeenth-century witch Tarasca, an earlier incarnation of wealthy widow Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell), to fulfill this role after possessing Elizabeth.[1]

But these occult matters are not the only common interest that Joseph Curwen and Jacques Eloi des Mondes share. Both character were involved in the more earthly evils of the slave trade. A merchant by trade, Curwen also bought and sold slaves, importing enormous numbers of enslaved people from Guinea into his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island in 1766. He sold few of them, however, and Lovecraft heavily implies that he used most of them in his experiments. The televised version of Strange Paradise never explicitly references slavery (although Jean Paul’s immortal servants Raxl (Cosette Lee) and Quito (Kurt Schiegl) are implied to be Jacques’ former slaves), but the non-canonical book series by Dorothy Daniels does on occasion. In the second book Island of Evil, Jean Paul lists “black gold, another name for the importation of slaves” along with piracy and brigandage as one of the sources of the des Mondes’ family fortune.[2] A flashback sequence in Island of Evil confirms the past enslavement of Raxl and Quito, as well as an African voodoo priest whom Jacques forces to turn Quito into a zombie: the closest event in the Strange Paradise expanded universe to Curwen’s experiments.

Both Jacques and Curwen also met their ends at the hands of locals. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Ezra Weeden begins spying on Curwen because he suspects him of illegal activities including witchcraft. Eventually, he turns most of the prominent figures in Providence society against him and they band together to raid and destroy Curwen’s Pawtuxet farm. During the raid, Curwen dies for the first time, but only after devising a spell for his future resurrection. Likewise, in Strange Paradise, Jacques dies after the natives of Maljardin turn against him, although the trigger and cause of his death are different. When Jacques murders his wife, the princess Huaco, by pushing her off the island’s cliff, a group of natives including Raxl and the Conjure Man band together to kill Jacques using a conjure (voodoo) doll and silver pin. These weapons curse Jacques to throw himself from the cliff and keep his spirit "shackled to the Temple [of the Serpent, Raxl’s god]” until the day he tricks his descendant Jean Paul Desmond into removing the pin from the doll, thereby setting him free.

Jacques’ disappearing portrait from Strange Paradise Episode 12.

Also significantly, both The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and Strange Paradise give the evil ancestor’s portrait a prominent role in the plot. In both cases, this portrait hangs at the ancestor’s former residence and disappears either temporarily or permanently when he takes control of the man who resembles him. When Charles Dexter Ward is researching the history of Joseph Curwen, his sources lead him to an eighteenth-century townhouse at Orney Court in Ward’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, where Curwen settled after fleeing Salem, Massachusetts. He hires a restorator to restore the painting, has it moved to his study, and discovers some documents of Curwen’s hidden in the wall behind it. When he finally succeeds in resurrecting Curwen, the painting disintegrates into dust: an end which Curwen himself later meets. On Strange Paradise, Jacques’ oil painting sometimes disappears when he possesses Jean Paul, but the show is inconsistent about this cue from episode to episode.[3] In contrast to Curwen’s painting, Jacques’ portrait always returns after he leaves Jean Paul’s body and appears to be indestructible: when Jean Paul sets fire to Maljardin in Episode 65, the portrait survives and later re-appears in the attic at Jean Paul’s childhood home Desmond Hall in Episode 131.

In spite of these similarities, I should note that the method of resurrection differs from one work to the other. In Strange Paradise, Jacques achieves this by possessing Jean Paul: after Jean Paul frees him by removing the silver pin from the head of his effigy, Jacques’ spirit can enter and exit Jean Paul’s body at will. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the title character literally resurrects Curwen, his great-great-great-grandfather, using his essential salts, after which Curwen murders him. Ward behaves as though Curwen has possessed him--he has the speech and manners of a man of the colonial period and knows extremely specific details about the history of Providence--but the pit above his right eye which Ward did not previously possess and the lack of the olive birthmark on Ward’s hip indicate a different body. When Jean Paul opens his casket in the pilot, he finds only the conjure doll and silver pin; the absence of Jacques’ body is never explained and could be for any number of reasons, which we shall not discuss here.

The Haunted Palace

A lobby card for The Haunted Palace asking the question, “What was the terrifying thing in the PIT that wanted women?” (Source)

In 1963, American International Pictures released The Haunted Palace, a loose adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Roger Corman. Due to alleged executive meddling (a theme which should already be familiar to regular readers of this blog), the film was marketed as an adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name, which Vincent Price quotes throughout the film. In the adaptation process, Beaumont made many changes to the source material, the most notable of which was the decision to have Curwen breed human women with the elder god Yog-Sothoth, as alluded to on the lobby card above.[4]

Though an entertaining and visually enthralling film, most of the changes made to The Haunted Palace weaken the plot. In my opinion, Beaumont added too many Hollywood horror conventions during the adaptation process, which did not always work effectively considering the unconventional source material, not to mention left many plot holes unfilled. The dated and sleazy sexual angle which he added to the film makes the cosmic horror of Yog-Sothoth less cosmic and more carnal; whether this makes him more or less frightening depends on one’s personal opinion, but I feel it contradicts his otherworldly characterization in Lovecraft’s works. For the most part, the talents of the director and the actors (especially Price, who is fabulous as always) make up for these problems, but I prefer--and highly recommend--the far more faithful radio drama adaptation by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

The most notable influence of The Haunted Palace on Strange Paradise comes from its characterizations of Charles Dexter Ward and Joseph Curwen. Despite many similarities with The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the characterizations of both Jean Paul Desmond and Jacques Eloi des Mondes owe far more to the portrayals of the protagonist and villain in the The Haunted Palace than in its source material. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, neither Ward nor Curwen shows any romantic or sexual interest in women whatsoever.  Lovecraft’s Ward only cares about antiquities, the local history of Providence, and the story of his ancestor; at twenty-six, he is unmarried and either asexual or simply too absorbed in his studies to pursue any romantic or sexual partner. The sexual orientation of Lovecraft’s Curwen is just as much of a mystery: although he took Eliza Tillinghast as a wife during his lifetime and their union produced a daughter, theirs was an arranged marriage for the sake of elevating Curwen’s social status within Providence society.

Both Price’s Ward and his Curwen, in contrast, show a marked interest in women. While their marriage is never outright stated to be a love match, Ward and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) appear to feel mutual love and devotion and have enough chemistry to imply a mutual sexual attraction. Like a dark mirror of Ward, Curwen shows a marked interest in the sexual and sexualized domination of women. In The Haunted Palace, the people of Arkham consider him a threat primarily because he lures local women to his palace to use in his rituals. While possessing Ward, Price’s Curwen rapes Ann--whom he later offers to Yog-Sothoth as well--and resurrects his former mistress, Hester Tillinghast (Cathie Merchant), who assists him in his sorcery in the film’s climax. If Lovecraft’s Curwen never did any similar actions, he does not mention them in his novella.

In Strange Paradise, romantic and sexual desire for women motivates both Jean Paul and Jacques. Jean Paul resurrects his ancestor neither out of an obsession with his history (as in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) nor by accident (as in The Haunted Palace), but because Jacques’ spirit promises that, if the recently widowed Jean Paul frees him, he will restore life to his beloved wife Erica (Tudi Wiggins). Many episodes show Jean Paul mourning her death and narrating a tape-recorded journal to her, and he obsesses over protecting her cryogenically-preserved corpse from danger. Jacques romantically pursues several female characters over the course of the Maljardin arc--including Erica, her sister Dr. Alison Carr (Dawn Greenhalgh), and the wealthy widow Elizabeth Marshall (Paisley Maxwell) and her 20-year-old daughter Holly (Sylvia Feigel)--and makes many sexual innuendos about them. After resurrecting Erica, she obeys Jacques as though he were her husband and assists him by murdering most of the guests on Maljardin. This makes her character’s role comparable to that of Hester in The Haunted Palace.[5]

On a more superficial note, neither Jacques nor Curwen wears a costume appropriate to his era of origin. In his portrait and in flashbacks, Jacques wears a side-parted 1960s hairstyle and clothing, including a doublet and lace collar and cuffs, more appropriate for the 1630s than the late 17th century when he lived (1660-1689, according to the plaque beneath his portrait). Similarly out of place, Curwen has short hair and a beard and wears a historically inaccurate lace bib in his portrait and in the prologue at the beginning of the film. Unlike the others, this similarity is almost certainly coincidental.

An even greater similarity, however, can be found in the scene forty-five minutes into the film where Curwen speaks to Charles through his portrait.The scene occurs after the second instance of Curwen possessing him, during which he unearths Hester’s coffin and has his fellow warlocks Simon Orne (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and Jabez Hutchinson (Milton Parsons) deliver it to his cellar laboratory. Ann catches him down there and he sends her away, still possessed by Curwen. When Curwen leaves his body, they have this conversation:

JC: (from painting) "Charles Dexter Ward…" CDW: "Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!" JC: "I will never leave you alone. Your blood is my blood, your mind is my mind, your body is my body. It will do you no good to resist me. Your efforts grow weaker every day." CDW: "No! NO!" JC: "You cannot keep me out, Ward. My will is too strong." (he possesses Ward again) "Too strong for you, Ward. Too strong for you."

Similarly, most episodes from the Maljardin arc of Strange Paradise feature at least one scene where Jean Paul communicates with Jacques’ disembodied spirit, represented by his portrait. In some scenes, they use a shot of the portrait hanging in the Great Hall; other times, they superimpose Jacques’ painted face over that of his identical descendant. One of the earliest examples of Jacques referring to them as one comes in Episode 5, when he taunts Jean Paul about his attraction to Alison. “She’s so delectable a woman. How could I--you--we--ever resist or let her go?” he says, snickering throughout. During another such conversation in Episode 27, Jacques refers to Jean Paul’s body as “our body” and commands him to rest because he is tired. In still another scene ten episodes later, he complains to Jean Paul that he is “waiting for the use of our body” as Jean Paul begs him not to “enter”; the dialogue in the scene has undertones suggestive of fantasy-metaphor rape, which Jacques’ sickeningly sweet tone of voice underscores. These are only a handful of examples of the recurring theme of Jacques viewing Jean Paul’s body as his own and seeking to dominate it completely.

Comparison of a shot of Joseph Curwen glowering in front of his portrait with a similar one of Jean Paul glowering in front of the portrait of Jacques from Strange Paradise Episode 41.

Surprisingly, unlike in the novella, Curwen's portrait does not disintegrate when he possesses Ward. As Strange Paradise eventually started doing with Jacques’ portrait, Curwen’s portrait remains hanging until the end of the film, when it burns along with the rest of the palace (which begs the question of how it is even physically possible for stone to burn). Jacques’ portrait meets the same apparent end when Jean Paul sets fire to the château and flees Maljardin, but later returns to him at Desmond Hall, seemingly undamaged by the flames. It does not vanish for good until the final week of the show (Episodes 191-195), when a group of characters force him out of it by rubbing his brother’s ashes on his eyes and lips; this drives him out of the painting and into Jean Paul’s body, which he leaves at the end of the penultimate episode.[6]

Still another similarity comes from what is, in my opinion, Beaumont’s most ingenious change to the plot: the implication that all the human townspeople in 19th-century Arkham are reincarnations of identical people from the previous century, not just the necromancers. The same actors even portray their descendants: for example, Leo Gordon plays both Ezra and Edgar Weeden, and Frank Maxwell portrays both Dr. Marinus Willett and his ancestor Priam. Implied reincarnation figures heavily in the original outline for Strange Paradise, with Jean Paul, his sister-in-law Alison Carr, and the young heiress Holly Marshall all having dreams about previous lives on 17th-century Maljardin. Much like Jacques who possesses his descendant, Holly’s mother Elizabeth Marshall may have also been possessed by her previous incarnation, the native priestess Tarasca, under this outline, as foreshadowed in the clips in this video. The second Desmond Hall arc (Episodes 131-195), likewise, involves reincarnation from past ancestors (including the return of Jacques), but this final arc otherwise shares little in common with either The Case of Charles Dexter Ward or its adaptation.

Conclusion

There is strong evidence that Strange Paradise drew inspiration from both The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Haunted Palace for the story about Jean Paul Desmond’s possession by Jacques Eloi des Mondes. We see elements from both the book and its first film adaptation in the serial: Ian Martin’s characterization of Jacques, the possession, and the talking portrait owe more to the film, while the disappearing portrait and certain elements of Jacques’ backstory are more reminiscent of Lovecraft’s original novella. Despite this inspiration, Ian Martin added many other elements to the story of Maljardin that were not present in either work, including the conjure doll and silver pin, the strange circumstances surrounding Erica’s death, and secondary protagonist Holly’s pursuit by several male characters and victimization by a mysterious spirit. The result is a serial combining the plots of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and its adaptation with original ideas to create a unique and--yes--strange new story.

Notes

[1] For more information on the aborted Tarasca storyline, see “The Secret of Tarasca“ and the section of my review of Episode 40 titled “The Lost Episode 40.”

[2] Dorothy Daniels, Island of Evil (New York: Paperback Library, 1970), p. 45.

[3] The Paperback Library novels do not just portray this consistently, but portray the other characters as seeing an empty frame while Jacques is controlling Jean Paul’s body. See also my review of Episode 15.

[4] For an in-depth plot comparison, see the blog post “The Films of Charles Dexter Ward” by Fake Geek Boy.

[5] According to an early newspaper summary for Episode 35, Tarasca would have endangered the life of Jean Paul’s love interest Alison, also shows some signs of possible influence by this subplot. See also this video.

[6] Many of the events of the final month of Strange Paradise are unclear and/or unexplained, so this interpretation should be taken with a grain of salt.

[ofaheadstronghealer]

Alma Bio

I know we have official bios but until that was posted I thought I’d temporarily post this to help with interactions, please feel free to message me if you have any ideas for plots or connections or what have you! :)

FULL NAME: Alma

AGE: 36

OCCUPATION: Healer/Slave

CHARACTER TRAITS: (+ Clever +Kind Hearted , -Headstrong - Insecure )

LABEL: The Phoenix

GENDER + PRONOUNS: Cis-female, she/her

BIO

(trigger warning: implied sexual assault)

Alma, an unusual name for an unusual girl. There has not been a moment in her life that could be described as ‘typical’ or ‘normal’, perhaps that is why for most of her life being normal had been something she’d craved so desperately until she would come to understand the true power in being different from the rest. Something her mother had always understood.

Alma was born a fatherless child. Not literally, of course, but in the sense that the man who is her father was not her mother's husband nor was his identity ever known to the girl or to the others in the village in which she grew up. Being branded a ‘bastard’ was her first taste of this ‘otherness’ that she would come to experience her whole life, being the daughter of a woman who was suspected by many of being a witch….well that certainly didn’t help matters. When Alma thinks on it now she finds proof that God has a sense of humor, how hard she fought to be unlike her mother and yet how like her she later became. Alma isn’t a witch, not one of the barbarians ‘Volvas’ or one of their ‘seers’, and neither was her mother before her but that mattered little to the townspeople she grew up around. They were pariahs for her whole childhood, ostracized by the community until one of their people needed a healer with skill unmatched by any other and then only under the most dire of circumstances would they accept them with open arms. Alma wouldn’t realize that until she was much older, a naïve thing desperate for acceptance she would bask in it no matter what the price for as long as it lasted. Sometimes at night she would kneel before her bed and pray, pray to god to show the truth of her innocence to the people so that she might live among them as kin and not be regarded with such fear. The first time God answered her prayers she was but the tender age of 14 and she was shown his power...as well as his cruelty. Had she known the price that God would make her pay for her freedom she would have been more specific in her prayers, would have extended the prayer to her mother as well but alas she was selfish as children so often are and did not think of such things. A life for a life, her mother's death for her freedom. She still remembers the way her mother’s hand felt upon her cheek before they brought her to the pyre, remembers the tremble in her voice as, for the last time, her mother told her that she loved her. Alma was forced to bear witness to her mother's death, forced to stand there as she was engulfed in flame and pleading for her life. Suddenly acceptance didn’t matter so much to Alma, all she wanted in that moment was her mother back. 

The years following her mother's passing were difficult in many ways and brought many changes, on one hand she was welcomed back into the community as a show of the villagers' mercy but on the other she was an orphaned girl with no family and no prospects. Her mother had not raised her as a proper lady, she was not educated in the things a girl should be and though everyone around her agreed she was beautiful she was far too clever and her reputation too marred to make a suitable wife for anyone ‘such a waste of a beautiful girl’ they’d mutter as though that were supposed to make Alma feel appreciated. Perhaps other women if put in her position would have simply bowed to fate but not Alma, she had too much of her mother in her for that. If she had no use as a wife then she would find another way to have use, to make herself indispensable so she could not be so easily cast aside. In what she would later realize was a bold move she became a healer like her mother before her though unlike her mother she was more careful in how she was perceived, cautious to never show up the men around her, to curb her clever tongue, and to never perform acts that could be considered miracles and later used against her. She couldn’t really say in any sincerity that she was truly happy but it was as close as she’d ever gotten, she was valued and though people looked at her sometimes with pity it was better than the terror she had become accustomed to in her youth. If only she’d been able to save her mother than perhaps it would have been perfect. Alma lived this way in the village for many years, alone but accepted as much as she could be. That all changed the day they showed up. 

The day of the raid was like any other, Alma had been making her rounds attending to the villagers when she heard the screams. At first the healer thought it was simply in her head, it wasn’t unusual for the painful memory to surface; it had been haunting her for years, but it grew in its volume and intensity and soon it became clear to her that they were not the screams she remembered hearing as a child. Of course they’d all heard of the Vikings and their ways, how they would often raid and pillage and kill everything in sight, but as every other town did they never thought they would be targeted. She was still in the house of a patient when it happened, the person too weak to realize what was going on and certainly too weak to fend for themselves. Alma is no saint, she will not deny if asked that there was a moment when she simply considered running and trying to save herself but one look at the pathetic state of the woman laying there and her mind was purged of that thought. She could not abandon her. Alma helped the other woman to the back of the house, hid both herself and the woman in a dark pantry not easily seen and for the first time in a very long time Alma prayed ‘Please God protect us, see us through this, save us’. God answered Alma much like he had the time before, granting her her wish but always with a twist. The Vikings that crashed through the house at first appeared as though mindless beasts that had not the capacity to think beyond destruction and for just a moment Alma thought herself and the woman safe. She was made aware of how wrong she was when rough hands tore her from the safety of the pantry, a foreign tongue that she couldn’t understand flooded her ears but she understood the tone well enough. The only thing that got her through the assault that followed was the sight of the other woman, frail but still hidden. Safe. 

Alma doesn’t remember much about the journey that led her to Hedeby, she tries not to think about it. She can recall her captors dragging her back to show the horde their prize, remembers her feeble escape attempt just before they threw her on one of their boats. The rest of the voyage was not memorable, she kept her head down as much as possible on the boat and simply listened. Though she could not understand all of what was being said at some point in the journey she managed to make out that they were going to one of their cities, a place they called ‘Hedeby’. Alma was not certain what to expect, what would become of all those they had taken including herself? Would they be killed? Sold? The thought was frightening but she did not let it overwhelm her, simply continuing to listen and do as the Vikings bid. When Alma was brought to what appeared to be an open market in chains with the others she stood silently as they were inspected by the market goers. As time passed and the other villagers were distributed it became clear to the healer exactly the position she was in, she had always been a slight thing and while that had not been looked at negatively back home it was becoming clear that as a slave she was probably the most unappealing of the bunch. Death, it seemed, would be the escape that God would deliver her. It was not to be so. Much to her own surprise she was bought by what appeared to be a family of little means meaning that they had little to trade and therefore she was the only one they could afford, the man looked brutish, as they all did, but was not unkind in his handling of her. She was in their service for a few years, quietly observing the customs and language of these strange people with whom she now resided, but knew it would not last, she was a healer not a farmer and unsuited for the physical labour demanded of her and every day she grew weaker. It was a miracle of God when one day as she was working the fields a man emerged from the forests and collapsed before her clearly wounded, it was pure instinct when Alma leapt into action. Over the next few days there grew a small gathering of Vikings who watched as she tended to the man, they appeared intrigued by her methods some of which were unknown to them. Unknown to Alma the man she eventually ended up saving was someone that the King of these Vikings held as a very dear friend, King Ragnar demanded Alma be brought to him at once. Alma entered the great halls of the Viking King with the family that had bought her but she did not leave with them, word spread not long after of the healer from a foreign land who was now under the ownership of the King. 

That was many years ago and much about Alma has changed, she still bears the status of slave under King Ragnar and his family but as their personal healer she is treated with a great deal more respect than most slaves. Though sometimes she finds herself longing for the familiarity of her old home Alma has managed to settle somewhat among the Vikings and has found respect for some aspects of the way they live their lives and is, in some ways, more herself here than she ever was back at home.

EXTRAS

- Due to how her mother died and having been forced to watch it Alma has a deep and intense fear of fire. 

- She can fully understand the Vikings language but she still cannot fully speak it

- When first she arrived at Hedeby Alma was incredibly quiet but since being raised to the royals personal healer and over the years becoming more settled she has let more of her true personality come through, she has a clever tongue and a headstrong nature and does not feel she’s in such a precarious position anymore that she must hide those things though she is still cautious with who she shows it to

- Although she acts like she’s over the whole wanting to be accepted and loved thing she is very much not over it and longs for a feeling of home and belonging and love.

- At first she hated the Vikings and saw them as brutes and barbarians but now for the most part she has let go of that view though there are still moments where she considers them beasts

- One of the first things she noticed and loved about the Viking culture was how they treated their women, coming from a place where she was only looked at as a thing of value through marriage and the fact that she had a brain frowned upon she was secretly impressed at the freedoms Viking women were afforded.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE COURAGE OF PROJECT

Then when you start a startup anywhere. That's why mice and rabbits are furry and elephants and hippos aren't.1 The very design of the average site in the late twentieth century. He got a 4x liquidation preference. Google, it's hard to get into grad school in math. Can we claim founders are better off as a result of this new trend. Where you live should make at most a couple percent difference. But investing later should also mean they have fewer losers.

They make something moderately appealing and have decent initial growth.2 If you major in math it will be whatever the startup can get from the first one to write a paper for school, his mother would tell him: find a way to turn a billion dollar industry into a fifty million dollar industry, so much the better, if all fifty million go to you. The classic yuppie worked for a small organization. Before us, most companies in the startup funding business. The best way to get a big idea can take roost.3 4 or 5 million. This essay grew out of something I wrote for myself to figure out how to increase their load factors. But you can also apply some force by focusing the discussion: by asking what specific questions they need answered to make up their minds. This plan collapsed under its own weight.4 Startups happened because technology started to change so fast that big companies could no longer keep a lid on the smaller ones.

The only place your judgement makes a difference is in the industry.5 People who do great work, and it's a bad sign when you have a special word for that. One of the exhilarating things about coming back to Cambridge every spring is walking through the streets at dusk, when you can see into the houses. If you have steep revenue growth, say over 6x a year, no matter how many good startups approach him. Recently we managed to recruit her to help us run YC when she's not busy with architectural projects.6 This works better when a startup has 3 founders than 2, and better when the leader of the company in later rounds. I'm not saying you can get away with zero self-discipline.

We're not a replacement for don't give up. What you should not do is rebel. But while series A rounds from VCs. Someone who's scrappy manages to be both threatening and undignified at the same world everyone else does, but notice some odd detail that's compellingly mysterious.7 Even Tim O'Reilly was wearing a suit, a sight so alien I couldn't parse it at first. They can't tell how smart you are.8 The story about Web 2. Maybe one day the most important thing is to be learned from whatever book on it happens to be closest. This essay is derived from a keynote at FOWA in October 2007. They'll decide later if they want to raise.9

Sometimes it reached the point of economic sadism: site owners assumed that the more pain they caused the user, the more benefit it must be to them. It's cities that compete, not countries.10 Kids are curious, but the best founders are certainly capable of it. But investors are so fickle that you can fix for a lot of time on work that interests you, and don't just refuse to. But you have to be an insider.11 A key ingredient in many projects, almost a project on its own, is to step onto an orthogonal vector. So ironically the original description of the Web 2. Back when it cost a lot to like I've done a few things, like intro it to my friends at Foundry who were investors in Service Metrics and understand this model I am also talking to my friend Mark Pincus who had an idea like this a few years ago.12 0 seemed to mean was something about democracy. We didn't have enough saved to live on. There is another reason founders don't ask themselves whether they're default alive or default dead.13

So most investors prefer, if they wanted, raise series A rounds. They're unable to raise more money, and precisely when you'll have to switch to plan B if plan A isn't working. That doesn't mean the investor says yes to everyone. Miss out on what? It's so cheap to start web startups that orders of magnitudes more will be started. Investors evaluate startups the way customers evaluate products, not the way bosses evaluate employees. The bust was as much an overreaction as the boom.14 Startups are undergoing the same transformation that technology does when it becomes cheaper.15 Another way to fly low is to give them something for free that competitors charge for. After all, a Web 2.16 He bought a suit.

Instead you'll be compelled to seek growth in other ways. They all knew their work like a piano player knows the keys. But consulting is far from free money. They say they're going to get eliminated. What does it mean, exactly? If investors were perfect judges, the two would require exactly the same skills. And to be both good and novel, an idea probably has to seem bad to most people, or someone writes a particularly interesting article, it will show up there. The mere existence of prep schools is proof of that.17 So far the complete list of messages I've picked up from cities is: wealth, style, hipness, physical attractiveness wouldn't have been a total immersion. Don't just do what they tell you to do. But advancing technology has made web startups so cheap that you really can get a portrait of the normal distribution of most applicant pools, it matters least to judge accurately in precisely the cases where judgement has the most effect—you won't take rejection so personally. If raising money is hard.

There is no sharp line between the two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your own life, and those that you decide, from afar, are going to get rarer. While some VCs have technical backgrounds, I don't know enough to say, but it happens surprisingly rarely.18 Most subjects are taught in such a boring way that it's only by discipline that you can never safely treat fundraising as more than a startup that seems like it's going to stop.19 It sounds obvious to say that you should worry? One reason startups prefer series A rounds? When I was in high school either. If you feel you've been misjudged, you can do. Google. Of course, someone has to take money from people who are young but smart and driven can make more by starting their own companies after college instead of getting jobs, that will change what happens in college.

Notes

Though they are themselves typical users. But it takes to get good grades in them to private schools that in three months, a valuation. Giving away the razor and making more per customer makes it easier to get them to stay in a time machine.

Apple's early history are from an angel investment from a mediocre VC.

In the beginning.

Plus ca change. But on the other.

And that is exactly the point of a stock is its future earnings, you now get to go behind the scenes role in IPOs, which allowed banks and savings and loans to buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale.

However, it will seem dumb in 100 years. Digg is Slashdot with voting instead of blacklist.

Sofbot.

I write out loud can expose awkward parts.

I've become a so-called signalling risk.

Hint: the way they have because they couldn't afford a monitor.

And it's particularly damaging when these investors flake, because there was a new search engine is low. They have no connections, you'll find that with a wink, to take care of one's markets is ultimately just another way in which income is doled out by Mitch Kapor, is to raise money after Demo Day, there would be easy to discount, but I'm not against editing. As one very successful YC founder told me they like the one hand and the exercise of stock options than any preceding president, he tried to shift back. At three months we can't believe anyone would think twice before crossing him.

Progressive tax rates has a significant startup hub. He, like speculators, that alone could in principle 100,000 sestertii apiece for slaves learned in the early adopters you evolve the idea is crack. As we walked in, we love big juicy lumbar disc herniation as juicy except literally.

It's sometimes argued that we didn't, they thought at least accepted additions to the modern idea were proposed by Timothy Hart in 1964, two years, it was cooked up by the National Center for Education Statistics, about 28%. I've come to accept that investors don't like the bizarre consequences of this essay talks about programmers, but I know of no Jews moving there, and should in some ways First Round excluded their most successful startups are competitive like running, not the original text would in itself deserving. This is not whether it's good enough at obscuring tokens for this type are also several you can't even claim, like play in a city with few other startups, because time seems to pass. Please do not try to avoid that.

This kind of people starting normal companies too. If Ron Conway had been raised religious and then using growth rate to manufacture a perfect growth curve, etc, and then a block or so.

But it is to trick admissions officers. I meant. The mere possibility of being harsh to founders. As he is at fault, since 95% of the class of 2007 came from such schools.

I started doing research for this purpose are still, as they are now. There was no more unlikely than it would be easier to say that it is dishonest of the next round, that suits took over during a critical point in the usual standards for truth. Wittgenstein: The French Laundry in Napa Valley.

It wouldn't cut their overall returns tenfold, because they wanted, so the best ideas, they mean statistical distribution. The original Internet forums were not web sites but Usenet newsgroups.

A doctor friend warns that even this can give an inaccurate picture. At some point, when the problems you have no idea what's happening till they also influence one another directly through the window for years while they think they're just mentioning the possibility is that in Silicon Valley. I find hardest to get rich by creating wealth—wealth that, isn't it? Look at those goddamn fleas, they have less money, the big winners aren't all that matters, just as if you'd invested at a famous university who is highly regarded by his peers.

Compromising a server could cause such damage that ASPs that want to pound that message home. He, like arithmetic drills, instead of blacklist.

Thanks to Tim O'Reilly, Peter Norvig, and the guys at O'Reilly for inviting me to speak.

[small-leviathan]

The themes of the Splatoon series

(Heads up, this essay analysing Splatoon is literally 2300 words long. You’re gonna be for a while if you decide to stick around.)

In case you've missed it until now, Splatoon has taken the world by storm. Nintendo's cephalopod-based multiplayer shooter series has sold almost 12 million copies across two games in just about three years, and as a result of this still young franchise has cemented itself as one of the legendary Japanese game developer's new hallmark series. Nintendo seems inclined to agree, as Splatoon's central Inkling characters have been featured prominently in the marketing for their latest game in the prestigious crossover series, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, with the Inkling girl even earning a prominent spot on the game's cover art alongside titans like Mario, Donkey Kong and Link.

So perhaps some of you would scoff at the idea that Splatoon has a deeper message behind it than it first appears. Nintendo isn't really known for baking thought-provoking stuff into their games, and this seems like it'd be doubly true for a game that is first-and-foremost a competitive multiplayer shooter. I don't know if I'll be able to convince you otherwise, honestly, but I do sincerely believe that Splatoon has something to say and in this essay, I will explain why I believe that to be the case, and just what that thing is.

Let's start by describing the most important elements of Splatoon's narrative, and just as a heads up, I think it goes without saying that I will be spoiling pretty much every major reveal across all of Splatoon 1, Splatoon 2, and its DLC, Octo Expansion. Splatoon is set twelve thousand years after global warming and environmental pollution has wiped out mankind as well as most mammals. Having taken our place is a large assortment of evolved sea critters, including crabs, jellyfish and most prominently, cephalopods. Squids and octopi alike have evolved the ability to shift into humanoid forms, becoming known as inklings and octarians, respectively. Unfortunately, our squishy successors didn't get along very well, as rising sea levels forced them into a violent conflict known as the Great Turf Wars. This conflict was eventually won by the Inklings, letting them claim the surface while the octarians were forced into hiding in great underground cities.

Splatoon proper takes place a hundred years later, and the Octarians have been reduced to just a distant memory in the mind of Inkling society. Trouble is brewing under the surface, however, as the leader of the Octarians, DJ Octavio, is planning an attack on the hub city of Inklingkind, Inkopolis. The player takes control of a customizable inkling who is recruited by the military veteran Cap'n Cuttlefish to help take down the Octarian menace before they can start their campaign. Along the way the player, now dubbed as "Agent 3", is helped not only by Cap'n Cuttlefish, but by his granddaughters Agent 1 and Agent 2, who are eventually revealed to be the two members of the pop idol duo The Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie (to no one's surprise, the game does not try very hard to conceal their identities). Long story short, Agent 3 defeats the Octarians, ending in a grand battle against DJ Octavio. The Octarian threat is defeated and DJ Octavio is captured, with inkling society none the wiser.

Splatoon 2 unfolds two years after the events of the first game, and a lot has changed. Callie and Marie have drifted apart, following a popularity contest ending in Marie's favour, and taking their place as the number one musical act is a new duo known as Off the Hook, consisting of the rapper Pearl and the DJ Marina (who looks suspiciously like an Octarian, but more on that later). Marie discovers that DJ Octavio has escaped his containment, and now alone due to Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3 having gone on a new mission and Callie suddenly disappearing in the midst of a trip, she is forced to follow her grandfather's footsteps and recruit a new Agent, this one being our new playable character, Agent 4. Not much is different from that point onward, except for the eventual reveal that DJ Octavio is responsible for Callie's disappearance, having kidnapped her after he escaped and is now brainwashing her with a pair of hypnotic sunglasses. Nonetheless, Callie is saved and DJ Octavio is defeated once again.

You might be wondering why I bothered to explain all of the plot of Splatoon's singleplayer content, and the reason for that is that I believe that understanding all of this is necessary to explain the first and most important of Splatoon's themes: The positive power of pop culture and self-expression.

Splatoon heavily encourages that the player uses its system to express themselves. Aside from having character creation, there is an emphasis on fashion, both in the culture of the inklings themselves and in the gameplay proper, with the player having access to a wide variety of clothes, headwear and shoes with which to accessorize their characters. It might be easy, perhaps even tempting, to read this in a cynical manner and characterize inklings as a bunch of shallow trend-chasers, slaves to consumerist fads built to wring as much cash out of them as possible. And this interpretation is, in all honesty, valid, but it's certainly not a philosophical standpoint that Splatoon itself agrees with. The game encourages mixing and experimenting with its fashions, but all of that fashion is bought with a currency that you earn by playing the multiplayer game, which in-universe is explained to be a kind of competitive shooting sport, not unlike paintball, that seems to be the hyperfixation of every single inkling teen like the player character. It's a bit hard to read the game's take on fashion as cynical when you literally earn money by doing something you were not only going to do anyway but were also actively seeking out and enjoying. The multiplayer mode itself is also encouraging self-expression, in a way, due to there being a wide variety of weapons available, all of which feel distinct and unique, allowing the player find the ones they like the most and use only those. This isn't "do tireless work to keep spending money", it's "do the things you like to get the things you like." And I feel like that is a very clear subversion of consumerist culture, unless you feel like pointing out that Splatoon itself is something you have to spend money on to play and therefore it is inherently a part of consumerist culture, in which case, alright then, Holden Caulfield, don't you have anything better to do?

Moving on, there is also a massive focus on music in the setting, with a lot of different fictional bands, all of which sound completely unlike each other. Crucially, the "pop music" in Splatoon is not as heavily standardized as our own pop music is, in Inkopolis everything from the Bottom Feeders' Celtic rock to Chirpy Chips' chiptune to Diss-Pair's... whatever they are, can find mainstream success and popularity. Perhaps the most telling sign that Splatoon thinks music is important is that all of the most important characters are artists, from Callie and Marie to Pearl and Marina and even the antagonist himself, DJ Octavio.

That said, there is a very important distinction to be made here. In an interview with Famitsu from 2015, series art director Seita Inoue stated that the music that plays during the singleplayer levels is composed by DJ Octavio and his subordinates, and that "it’s like the Octo side broadcasts their music in order to control the many Octarians.” When this is combined with the fact that DJ Octavio uses a pair of sunglasses to brainwash Callie, I think it's clear that the true face of his villainy is shown. DJ Octavio isn't just the antagonist because he's the final boss, but because he takes music and fashion, which the game has established as ways in which to express personal freedom, and repurposes them as tools of control and oppression. DJ Octavio is literally the antithesis of Inkling society and Inkling values.

There is one final point I want to make, but it requires delving into Octo Expansion a bit to explore, so we'll start that now. Octo Expansion is the paid singleplayer DLC for Splatoon 2, adding a pretty sizable new story campaign. In this new story, the player takes the role of an Octoling (the Octarian equivalent of an Inkling, though I will be using two terms rather interchangeably in the rest of the essay) who wakes up in an underground subway with no memories. Here, they meet Cap'n Cuttlefish, who explains that they had been in a fight with him and Agent 3 before all three of them got swept away to the locale they are now in. As Agent 3 has gone missing, Cap'n Cuttlefish teams up with our amnesiac player character to find a way out of the subway, giving them the nickname Agent 8 in the process. Along the way, the two of them end up coming into contact with Pearl and Marina, the previously mentioned music duo, who resolve to help Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish escape. A lot of things happen between the start and beginning of the story, but I want to focus on the most important revelation: Marina is revealed to have been a high-ranking member of the Octarian military who deserted after the final battle between Agent 3 and DJ Octavio in Splatoon 1, and was inspired to become an artist after hearing the Squid Sisters perform their iconic hit song Calamari Inkantation, the very same song that was stated to have inspired Agent 8's desertion as well. Calamari Inkantation was always played up as being a very special song, as said by Marina herself: "Once our souls have been freed, there's no way we can continue to live under the oppression of Octarian society."

So at this point, it's not even subtextual but literally textual, Splatoon sincerely believes that music has liberating properties, able to make people realize that they're being held back by societal structures and also gain the willpower to break free of those shackles. The lines are very clearly drawn here: In Inkopolis music and fashion are ways in which people express themselves and therefore it is an idyllic and diverse place, but Octarian society is an oppressive dystopia where these things are used to control the populace. To really hammer the point home, in the final battle of Octo Expansion, in which the very fate of the world hangs in the balance, the day is saved by Pearl and Marina (and Agent 8) working together and combining their talents and technology to destroy the giant superweapon threatening their home. The world is literally saved by a pair of musicians. It doesn't get more explicit than that.

There are two more themes I think Splatoon play with, but to a much lesser extent than the one previously mentioned. The first of these is the importance of moving on and not being stuck in the past. This is an explicit character trait in both of the central antagonists. DJ Octavio, who was the leader of the Octarians in the Great Turf Wars a hundred years ago, has been holding a grudge against the inklings for all this time when he could have been focusing on trying to improve his people’s living conditions, or even broker peace with the Inklings, who clearly don't have an issue with a bunch of Octolings running around following the events of Octo Expansion. The second case study is the antagonist from Octo Expansion, Commander Tartar. An ancient AI built by a human scientist before their extinction to pass on their knowledge to whatever species inherited the world to come, Commander Tartar fails this mission because it holds humans on such a high pedestal that it sees the flaws of the Inklings and Octarians as proof they aren't worthy to pass the torch to, and resolves to wipe them both out and create its own "perfect species" instead. Additionally, I think it's worth mentioning that the weapon it plans do this is with is a repurposed statue resembling a Greek marble bust, a relic of the past that becomes a literal metaphor for how Commander Tartar's mindset is destructive.

The second of these themes is the recurring motif that despite all of their differences and their conflicts Inklings and Octarians become complete when working together. The first sign of this is their opposite traits as species, Inklings are energetic, flighty and have a short attention span while Octarians are more serious, work-focused and obedient. It's pretty clear that both could stand to learn from each other's positive traits, and a bit of dialogue from Marina in Octo Expansion implies that she hopes as much. Off the Hook themselves are also an example of this theme in action, Pearl had trouble finding herself as an artist and was not doing very well before meeting Marina, and it's through Pearl that Marina gains the chance to follow her dream, and their cooperation makes them so successful that they become Inkopolis' number one artists. This theme is also a part of the final battle of Octo Expansion, as mentioned earlier, as it is the cooperation of Inklings and Octarians that saves the day.

If there's anything to take away from this overly wordy essay, it's this: Splatoon wants you to know that there is no shame in enjoying "shallow" pop culture, that there is meaning even in things not deemed "high culture". Splatoon wants you to know that the value of something lies not in the value of its production, but in what it expresses and the joy it brings to the people observing it, and the people making it.

Because to Splatoon, these simple things have the power to unite, to free us, and ultimately to save the world.

And personally? I think that's a pretty worthwhile message.

[drunklander]

Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 312

Ok so I *really* like half of this episode, and then I really don’t give a single fuck about the other half. But! It manages to jump around enough that the parts I don’t give a fuck about never reach the point where I’m annoyed that I’m still watching them. Which like, is the best case scenario for an episode dealing with a storyline I’m not partial to?

The squad is finally actively trying to find Young Ian, you know, the actual main goal of the back half of the season! But it also feels a bit like they threw all of the plot confetti they needed to into it in order to set up the finale after spending so long on side-quests. There are some great scenes but there is also some batshit insanity. This was the first time in a while that I didn’t check to see how much time was left in the episode. So that’s a bonus.

I personally give zero fucks about the prophecy stuff, but since that’s a massive part of the end of the book, and the show has always stuck maybe a little too closely to the source material, it’s not like I was surprised that a lot of the episode was dedicated to that. And since this episode yet again feels like something completely different from the previous ones, most of my feelings and reactions to it are yet again based on it as a standalone thing and not as part of the season as a whole. (I’m finding more and more as the season goes on that while I have really enjoyed some individual episodes or scenes, if I look at the season as a whole, I’m left feeling sad about missed potential and what might have been if they had made different choices along the way.) So yeah, personally I was like 50/50 really enjoying the episode vs. rolling my eyes at its complete ridiculousness. Which, compared to how I’ve felt about other eps, is pretty solid.

I love that Young Ian keeps fighting on the Bruja and doesn’t give in to the fear he must be feeling. Like if he’s going down, he’s going down swinging and I really do like that wee goober.

Of course Geillis takes literal blood baths. Fucking of course she does.

This whole part is absurd. But like I guess that’s the point? Geillis is fucking nuts. (It does make me roll my eyes a bit that they keep being like “we don’t do gratuitous nudity” while literally having a lady walk around naked and then doing long shots of her showering. Not complaining, just observing.)

DON’T EAT THE CAKE, YOUNG IAN! THIS LADY LITERALLY JUST TOOK A BATH IN ACTUAL BLOOD! SHE’S CLEARLY FUCKING INSANE! DON’T EAT THE THINGS!

NOOO, NOT THE TEA! LOOK AT YOUR REACTION TO THE TEA! THERE IS CLEARLY SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TEA! STOP DRINKING THE TEA!

Ok, let’s just remember Young Ian’s reaction to being drugged without his knowledge and sharing things he doesn’t want to share. He’s clearly not ok with it. Just keep that in mind for a second...

Geillis is so fucking creepy. Like Lotte Verbeek is so fucking good at pretending to be the creepiest motherfucker ever.

Aaand then the show decided that it was a good idea to have yet another child get raped. This is, what, the third time? Mary, Fergus and now Young Ian? There is no plot-relevant reason to keep this in the show. But they did. Because of course they did. If a girl gets roofied and sleeps with a guy, we call it rape. Because you can’t consent when you’ve been drugged. They’re *literally* called date rape drugs. So here we have a kid getting basically roofied and then it’s implied Geillis sleeps with him. It doesn’t matter if he seems into it. Saying what happens to Young Ian isn’t rape, in my opinion, is the same as saying a girl who gets roofied and taken advantage of wasn’t raped. This, to me, is a rape and I’m *rull* pissed and disappointed, but not at all surprised, that the show decided to include it. (Yes, I know it’s in the book. It was one of the things that I was hoping they’d cut. But given this show’s track record, that was clearly a naive hope to have.)

< / rant >

Ok Claire has that whole trunk of clothes on the ship. Why is she still wearing the same outfit? Seriously, I get that the production is like weirdly attached to that blue dress, but at some point the woman should be allowed to change her clothes. Especially since last week she was like bleeding all over her sleeve and she’s basically been wearing the same outfit for months. Like no fresh dress to go ashore in? Really? I mean, who cares. It’s not anything to like actually get worked up about, it’s just silly to me.

Although, good riddance to the bumroll. I like the outfit much better without it, tbh.

Claire immediately closing the parasol when it’s pointed out that it makes her seem respectable makes me smile. Especially after drunkenly asserting that she *was indeed* respectable last week.

The episode does a decent job of setting up Geillis, though. With the Rose Hall “RH” brand on the enslaved woman Claire sees and the mention of Mrs. Abernathy from a rando in the crowd.

The whole slave market sequence makes me angry and uncomfortable and that’s exactly how I’m supposed to be feeling. It’s clear that’s how Claire feels too. Plus an added dose of helplessness because there’s literally nothing she can do.

And I’m not at all surprised it’s seeing a man being sexually assaulted that makes her snap. With all of the times Claire herself has been assaulted and knowing what Jamie went through at Wentworth, it makes perfect sense for her to manage to hold it together despite her strong feelings, but then to lose it when she sees a man being dehumanized even further in that particular way.

Um, why the fuck did Jamie use Claire’s name instead of his own on the paperwork for Temeraire? She clearly had such a visceral reaction to the situation and he was like well you wanted me to fix it, so I bought a human...in *your* name. It’s really not a big deal. I think it just bugs me a little due to residual Jamie-annoyance from the episodes where I wanted to punch him in the face.

I *am* here for Jamie being immediately on board from the start with needing to get Temeraire somewhere he can live safely. As someone who has been a prisoner in one form or another for so much of his life, it would be out of character for Jamie to respond in any other way.

I like that Jamie and Claire make it clear to Temeraire that his freedom doesn’t hinge on his cooperation in helping them find Young Ian. They tell him he’ll be free as soon as possible regardless, and I’m very glad they make that explicit. Because again, it’d be out of character for them to do anything else. This is, however, kind of becoming a generic white guilt/white savior story. Like they can’t solve slavery but look at how they’re helping this one guy. But honestly, considering there’s like no time in the episode to devote to this particular storyline, this is about as unproblematic as it could get.

Aaand on to the prophecy stuff. It’s all well acted and stuff, I just have no interest whatsoever in this part of the plot.

Although Geillis’ sassy “bitch please” fan flick when Archibald says something is pretty great.

The whole time at the party I was like scared Claire’s hair was going to fall over to the side. Like you can do it, hair, defy the laws of physics! Don’t fall down! I believe in you!

Marsali calling Jamie a dandy is my everything. I really like Marsali, you guys.

Yi Tien Cho’s shade at Frenchmen is also my everything. Yi Tien Cho in general in this episode (and this season) is my everything.

Seriously, his face at Jamie telling him he’s there to be a distraction. Like aw *hell* no. I feel you, dude. It’s fucked up.

Ok the “Ye look as ‘twas yesterday.” line about Claire looking like she did at Versailles is a bit of on-the-nose meta commentary about how they don’t look like they’ve aged that works because it’s a super sweet thing to say regardless of how she actually looks. But Mr. Campbell’s line about “What chance that we end up on the same island, eh?” is up there with The Replacements’ lines last week about Claire randomly showing up in the weirdest places. Like we get it, there are a fuckton of convenient coincidences in the show. No need to point them all out.

The sadness and sympathy on Claire’s face as she sees all of the enslaved men around the room is perfect, as is Jamie’s picking up on it and asking when it will end. But his being in tune with just how much seeing enslaved people affects her again makes me wonder why he put her name on the certificate of sale. (Whatevs, it’s really fine. I don’t like hate Jamie for it.)

Ok so Jamie only calls Yi Tien Cho by his name when he’s making YTC play the part of the Exotic Other. Claire calls him by his name all the time because it’s his name. I do judge Jamie a little for this. When Jamie decided to rename Claudel to Fergus, it was a tad presumptuous, but Fergus embraced it and was on board. Mr. Willoughby was never a name that Yi Tien Cho embraced so calling him that seems a tad disrespectful, regardless whatever Scottish word his actual name sounds like.

Also, Claire’s face when the girl calls him Mr. Cho made me wonder if it was ever made clear what YTC’s family name vs. personal name is. Isn’t it custom for family names to be said first? So he’d actually be Mr. Yi? Is that what Claire’s face is in reaction to, or just the girl being absurd and racist about meeting YTC? Serious question, I can’t recall if this was ever addressed in the book...

Regardless, Yi Tien Cho has more patience and tolerance for bullshit than my privileged white ass could ever hope to have.

Giving him a storyline with Margaret is also infinitely better than the foot fetish bullshit from the book. But again, no brownie points for fixing the obvious problems, show.

Oh man, the look between Jamie and Claire. All the love and lust, and sadness and regret about losing so much time, and thinking of what might have been and what is still to come now that they’re together again. Just all the fucking feels. Their faces are good at emoting, guys.

Still a bit salty that Claire never got to really make Jamie see what the separation was like for her and that Jamie was so easily let off the hook for his behavior and that we had to headcanon most of their reconciliation but I’m tired of being salty, sooo whatever. *pours one out for what could have been*

Lord John’s happy puppy face when he sees Jamie is adorable.

I need Lord John and Chris Traeger to be best friends and like go on happy, optimistic adventures together.

“I thought she’d died too, but she returned to me.” “My god. But how”? “It’s a long story. I’ll send you the BluRay in a couple months. It’ll catch you right up.”

I know the party wigs are intentionally bad because they’re supposed to be wigs of the time period as opposed to the dead animal that’s been living on Jamie’s head all season, but Geillis’ wig is a special kind of ridiculous. (Also why is she randomly blonde now? Like whatever, who cares, but it’s a random change to make. Unless it was literally because the actress didn’t feel like dying her hair or something, haha.) (ETA -- It’s probs how they chose to show she’d aged. I’m an idiot.)

The scene with Jamie, Claire and LJG in the side room is perfect and awkward and I want to give them all a hug. Like look at all of their faces. LJG is like omg I heart you. I am full of feels about how I heart you. And Jamie is like omg thanks for raising my kid. I am full of feels about my kid. *writes and deletes a broken record rant about how it would have been nice to see him show this much emotion even fucking once about his other kid* And Claire’s like pulling double duty on the feels like oh man it’s so sad that Jamie doesn’t get to raise his son but it’s great he has someone to talk to about him and maybe just a bit of jealousy over Jamie getting to be part of Willie’s life for a bit but not Bree’s, and then also like yooo this dude is in love with my husband. I am so full of feels about how this dude is like pining over my husband. You’d better stay in your lane, dude.

TL;DR: Their faces. They’re good at emoting.

This episode does kind of cross over into the gay-guy-in-love-with-his-straight-best-friend trope area a bit. Part of why I liked show!LJG so much in episodes 303 and 304 was because while it was clear he liked Jamie, that wasn’t his primary feature. In this episode, it is. And while I’m here for Claire to notice that he cares for Jamie in a way that’s more than just buddies, it’s a tad too heavy handed with the heart eyes for me. Especially when he keeps telling a romanticized version of the sapphire story.

Like, it sucks to the max that Lord John can’t live honestly, but it seems that a guy who has been given shitty posts because of the rumors about him would be more subtle? The gay-guy-pining trope isn’t that interesting to me and part of why I don’t like book!LJG as much as most people. I know I’m probs in the minority here... I *am* still enjoying show!LJG much more than book!LJG though, and (to me) the genuine friendship between him and Jamie plays better here than in the book too. Like when they’re sitting at the table just catching up. I’m so here for their bromance, just not the pining.

I do love that Jamie calls Young Ian “our nephew” in the scene though, instead of “his nephew.”

If Yi Tien Cho and Margaret don’t run away together in the finale, I’m going to be sad. They win the prize for most surprising ship of the season. But I am On. Board. They each just want to be seen for who they are. Not just as an Other.

Love the convo between Claire and Lord John. And that it seems like he knows (or at least assumes) she knows about him and what he feels for Jamie because he knows Jamie tells her pretty much everything.

I also love Claire’s emphatic “I have.” to Lord John when he notes how she has returned. She’s Jamie’s wife and she is the only person who he loves in the way John wishes Jamie would love him. Like, she finally has Jamie back and she’ll get territorial with anyone who might presume to have a claim on him in a romantic sense. I honestly think that Claire being like this isn’t due to Lord John being a dude so much as just that he’s a human who has feelings for Jamie and at this point, regardless of the person’s gender, she’d start peeing circles around Jamie if *anyone* tried to make a move on her dude. Especially after 20 years with a guy she didn’t love. She did the opposite of pee circles around Frank. She let him do whoever whatever he wanted. He wasn’t worth fighting for. Jamie is. So I am *here* for Claire being a bit possessive. It’s the first time in a long time she’s had someone in her life worth staking a claim on.

I liked the convo with Claire and Geillis until like halfway through when I was like oh shit, wait, CLAIRE, GIRL, REMEMBER THAT SHE’S FUCKING CRAZY AND HAS STRAIGHT UP MURDERED THREE OF HER HUSBANDS AND RAPES BOYS AND KILLS THEM FOR HER BATHS AND HAS YOUNG IAN! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

“Why are men such fools?” You’re batshit crazy, Geillis, but you raise a good question.

Of course Geillis went to her own execution. I’d be disappointed in her if she hadn’t.

Ok but Geillis knows how Dougal really died, right? And she’s going to like bring it up with Jamie and Claire next week as something she’s butthurt about, right? It’s come up twice in the episode and I can’t tell if that’s because it’s going to be a thing or if she’s just talking...

Aaand now we get to the pure ridiculousness that I kind of just don’t pay attention to because I can’t even with this storyline.

Also, you’re really just going to grab at the governor’s crotch, Geillis? This lady has more red flags than a Chinese airport.

I get it’s a story that involves time travel, but apparently I draw the line at prophecies.

“A 200 year old baby? Do ye think I’m an idiot.” Geillis, who do you know that could maybe have traveled 200 years between getting knocked up and having a baby? Think about it for a hot second. The riddle is obvious af for us, the audience, but like even for Geillis it shouldn’t take that much to get to the answer. Sure she doesn’t know at the moment that Claire was pregnant and DeLorean’ed her way Back to the Future, had a baby, and then came back again, but she knows Claire’s a time traveler. They literally *just* talked about it. Whatevs. I’m guessing she’ll find the pictures of Bree next week like in the book and put it together so Claire has to murder her to stop her from going to kill Bree with the bloody machete from the promo clips and then she’ll be the skeleton in Joe’s office who was beheaded with a dull blade, which I still don’t think was important enough to include but whatevs, some folks love it and that’s fine too.

How convenient that the escaped slaves live near Rose Hall. But I am so here for Temeraire being like nope, not later, I’m going to be free now, here, goodbye.

For as problematic as the pictures have been for me this season, I do love that Jamie’s first thought when about to be arrested is protecting the pictures of Bree and Willie.

I do not love that we end on another cliffhanger.

*starts singing One Week More to self to the tune of Les Mis*

[jaeminlore]

hope » taeyong

prompt: taeyong feels he's failed his crew and you assure him he hasn't words: 1590 category: angst, fluff, pirate!au a/n: um this is not what i had in plan for pirate!taeyong,,, I originally wanted it to be fluffy and cute but you know me..... the actual angst monster jsjsjsj anyway i might make a part two if people want it.

- "Momma? What's happening?" Taeyong whispered, his small hands clinging to his mother's skirts. She looked down and ran a hand through his hair comfortingly, "It'll be okay, Taeyong. I promise you you'll be okay." "What about you?" he whispered, feeling horribly small and useless when a few pirates grabbed him and his mother, binding their wrists with iron shackles. He began crying, the cold, heavy feeling too unfamiliar for his tiny wrists. When his mother didn't answer him, he asked another question, "Where's Father?"

His mother began crying now, shaking her head. "It's okay, Taeyong," she kept repeating. "It'll be okay." There were letters painted on a large wooden sign, and bells ringing as the pirates tried to draw attention to themselves. Taeyong wasn't sure what was going on, but his mother had taught him to read at an early age so he sounded out the letters as best he could. "Momma, what's a slave trade?"

Taeyong couldn't understand why his mother started crying harder, nor why she pulled him close. "You're gonna live with someone else for awhile, okay?" Taeyong felt the urgent squeeze of his mother's hand, and saw the strained smile on her face. "Where will you go?" "Away," she answered. She kissed her son on the head and whispered, "I'll return some day to get you." - Taeyong shook his head, feeling the memory burn in the back of his mind, but never truly leave. His past was like a wave of torture, and something he would never forget. How can you forget something like your own father selling you and your mother into slavery? Taeyong used to think his father was amazing. When he was a child, he loved to see all the strange trinkets his father brought home. He used to loved to hear the stories his father told over the dinner table. Stories of ships and the ocean. How the sun would always greet him in the morning and the stars would bid him goodnight. He used to tell Taeyong about the wonderful clothes of other nations, and how the men and women would dance outside under the glow of the lantern light. On the other hand, he thought his father could be horrible. Especially on nights when he thought Taeyong was asleep, and would begin yelling. Or other nights when he used to come home completely drunk, singing loudly about the women he saw on the way home. How Taeyong wished he could've been ignorant to it all. Taeyong never thought his father would've sold his own flesh and blood just to get money. Taeyong never thought he would be bought up by a merchant and made to be a working boy, learning the harsh culture of bargaining and lying just to make a few extra coins. Coins he never saw again, as his owner was a greedy man who never shared, despite Taeyong doing all the work. When he was twenty years old, Taeyong stole a brig from his master and sailed as far away as he could, eventually finding himself near India. He had one goal, and that was to find his mother and return her to freedom. She had been sold as well, although he didn't know to whom or where, since he had been sold first. He needed a crew, that was sure. Taeyong had searched the streets of India, wondering if he could find any sailors near the docks. Instead, he found a memory too fresh. He found another slave market. In a desperate dash, Taeyong ransacked his stolen ship, hoping that his old master owner had left some gold behind. Anything that would help him free some of the children. Anything that would save some of them from the same sad life he had been thrown into. He found an entire chest filled with gold, buried deep beneath old fishing nets and behind barrels, out of plain sight. Taeyong hoped he wouldn't be too late. When he arrived back at the slave market, there were only a few people left. He counted how many and calculated the prices that hung from around their necks. There were twelve boys and one girl, all varying in age. Some even looked older than him. Taeyong shoved the chest of gold towards the slave trader. "I'll take them all."

He must've looked frightening, dressed in a black cloak, his eyes piercing through the stares of the traders. They took their time counting the gold, not wanting to be cheated by even one doubloon. After what seemed like hours, they announced that Taeyong could take them all. So he did. And so his crew was born: one captain and thirteen crew members, all taken from their homes and forced to find a new way of living. - It had been a little over two years, and he had been trying to help each member of his crew find their family again. Unfortunately, no matter how many leads they had, they never found anyone's relatives. Taeyong took it upon himself to be the crew's family. He would be their mother, when they needed comfort. He would be their father when they needed chastisement. He would be their brother when they wanted advice. He would be their friend when they felt they had no one. There were often wars, and random battles that would ensue out on the seas. As much as Taeyong did not wish to become a pirate as his father had, there wasn't a way to avoid it. He had to protect his crew, his new family. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if they were left to fend for themselves. He didn't want to imagine it. Although this top priority was getting everyone back to the safety of their families, finding people who could be literally anywhere in the world was not an easy task. It wasn't like slave traders stayed in one place for very long. Because of the reality of this, Taeyong had given up on finding his family. He longed to see his mother again, but he knew it was nearly impossible. For all he knew, she already could be dead. Still, the crew wanted to find their families. Especially the younger ones, who Taeyong refused to give up on. Even if there was no hope for him, he wanted to make sure that every one in his crew was reunited with their families in one way or the other. It was a far off dream, one that he couldn't touch, despite how desperately he wanted to. No matter how many times his mind told him to just give up, he couldn't, because he couldn't let his crew down. He couldn't help but let these thoughts weigh on his mind as he sat in the captain's quarters. The rest of the crew had decided to play an impromptu game of kickball on the deck. Taeyong had only gotten out of it after claiming he was sick. In reality, he felt horrible watching his crew, knowing he might never return them back to their families as he had promised. The harsh sound of knuckles against wood shocked him out of his thoughts. From his place, back pressed against the headboard and knees to his chest, he called out, "Come in." You entered, and Taeyong's face turned up in a gentle smile. Perhaps it was because you were the only girl on the ship, but you always seemed to know when Taeyong was lying. You always seemed to know what was on his mind. "Hey, Taeyong." Without waiting for his reply, you crawled into the bed with him, now mimicking his pose to stay comfortable. After a moment of silence, you turned to look at your captain, "We know." "Know what?" Taeyong watched your expression, licking his dry lips out of nervousness. "We know that we'll probably never find our families again. You don't have to keep worrying about it." Taeyong opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, lost for words. Instead, he merely leaned down and rested his head against your shoulder, finding comfort in the scent of your skin. "I don't want to lie to you guys. I don't want you all to lose hope."

Your hands found his hair, and Taeyong hummed in appreciation as you began to run your fingers through his tangled locks. "Truthfully, Taeyong, we've known for awhile now. We didn't want to tell you because we thought you believed you'd truly find them. We didn't want to dim your hope. Lately, though, I've realized that it must've been a burden to you, and all that hope was simply made up to appease us." "I never wanted it to be this way," Taeyong confessed. "I truly thought I could find everyone's families." "We all thought you would. I suppose everyone was a bit vulnerable back then. But don't you see it now, Taeyong? Don't you see how the crew is a family? We've all adapted to this life with each other. We're family now. We've become family after everything." "Is that how you guys think?" Taeyong asked. His hand found yours, and he intertwined your fingers with his before bringing them to his lips. "We're a family?" "Of course," you replied, "In fact, if you think about it this way, you did help us find our family. This entire crew is the best family I could ask for." Taeyong never really knew how you managed to always say the right things. He loved you for that. "Thanks Y/n." »the end«