#like there is more follow-through and consequences for actions both good and bad than there ever was in c3 and that does in fact matter | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gz-missfit · 2 years ago

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God the more I rewatch Etoiles fight the more it hurts. Hell the more I watch any parent fight their egg it hurts, from Max bawling over Trump to Quackity being basically insta killed by Tilin and Roiers anger as fake Bobby didn't attack them while Jaiden was filled with conflicting delusional happiness.

But especially this Etoiles fight yesterday puts the whole dinner into a much bigger perspective and I'd like to think that that's the reason why they put Phil in the fight with Etoiles.

They wanted him to hesitate.

They wanted Phil to be the burden during that fight because those things carry the names of his children, the children he'd burn the world down for. But they underestimated how strict Phil is with his trust and decision making to the point that even in egg form he treated them like they were monsters instead of his children.

Phil's special because while yes during Etoiles fight the code got better at adapting to an egg its still the same concept. He still had definite proof that that wasn't her but he still hesitated.

And I wanna go into the why of that, Phil's a hard-core player through and through and you will not get that out of his playstyle, you can see it on every multi-player server he's been on in the past because thats just how he plays the game. And as a hard-core player he probably has the most interesting relationship to mortality and is someone who can understand the eggs on a whole different level. But this means he's also INCREDIBLY aware of how much weight decision making carries and how even a single decision could decide over him staying alive or dying, he's used to that, it doesn't bother him anymore. That's why Phil is also someone who's very confident in his decisions, when he says he won't do or go to something because he knows the outcome then he means that and not even curiosity will get the better of him if he sees any form of danger or risk. If he tells Tallulah or Chayanne an instruction he expects them to follow it to a T because he gives those for good reasons each time (and both of his kids know that his instructions are teachings more than they are just him telling them to do something). And this confidence in his own decisions is why he fought those codes so relentlessly at the dinner, I'm convinced even if he hadn't gone back to get a picture of his kids he still would've fought these codes the same way. He trusts his experience and he trusts that he'll be able to deal with the consequences of his own decisions no matter if the outcome is good or bad. There's a reason why other players usually come to him for advice or when he spends time with someone he naturally falls into a teaching role, it's because he knows so much because he's had to know it all to survive in a world where death is inevitable.

Now why does that differ him from Etoiles? Well Him and Etoiles are good fighter's in their own ways. There's no doubt about that. But Etoiles is more upfront, he's smart during pvp and incredibly knowledgeable about statistics and strategy but ironically enough he still struggles to trust in his own words and decisions. He's someone who's quickly plagued by regret or doubts, it's why he praises Bad and Phil so much. Because both of them are incredibly headstrong and confident in their decisions just due to sheer experience. Etoiles just isn't even if his experience is just as good. And you can see this hesitancy even during the dinner fight, he didn't want to fight the codes until they hit him first. And it was Phil screaming to kill those things that made him set on actually attacking. Even when he got singled out later on and had a fake Tallulah follow him, he didn't attack until Phil confirmed Tallulah was safe with him. Etoiles trusts Bads and Phil's words a lot and holds them both in high regards when it comes to their opinions and decisions because he knows how much sheer experience those 2 carry. But during that fight yesterday he was alone, each of his actions couldn't be reassured because he was fighting alone and the actual Pomme wasn't there. He was terrified of making a wrong decision, even with Pierre reassuring him that it wasn't Pomme Etoiles couldn't bring himself to trust his own decision, even with their secret code not working Etoiles couldn't trust himself, even with seeing it carry the codes swords he couldn't trust himself. Even after the fight was over, after he saw Pommes bed with her sleeping tightly in it. He couldn't trust himself. He didn't feel like a winner to himself because his mind went into a spiral about of his decision was right or not, his mind screamed at him because he was sure he had fucked up royally and that's what makes it so interesting. Because Etoiles is a good fighter! And I'm pretty sure with equal gear he'd beat the 2 he holds in high regards to fighting skill a good amount. But he doesn't hold his own decision making very high, he's happy to be as help as a weapon that when he has to make a call he hesitates. And it didn't help that he had his daughters face stare at him while he had to make that important decision because while Phil loves his children just as much as Etoiles does, Phil never had to earn to be trusted with them. Phil's always been someone people trusted with the eggs while Etoiles had to earn his time with Pomme in promising he'll never let her die on his watch and will be careful beyond believe while he's with her.

It shows in the confidence of their decisions, and it's fascinating how much more it shows during these high tension moments. Etoiles is someone who struggles so much with the knowledge of failure and its what made his fight hurt so much more, because he was convinced he'd fucked up bad even after he saw her bed.

Just some food for thought about our codebreakers

#qsmp #qsmp etoiles #codebreakers #qsmp philza #qsmp code monster #textpost #void mumbling #just brrrrr pffff

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jiangwanyinscatmom · 10 months ago

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Once more exorcising spirits or using them like WWX does, doesn't stop them from reincarnation, you all gotta stop this when the only thing that is said is if resurrected WWX doesn't fulfill his "term" HIS primordial soul is forever destroyed based on the usual points of Mo Dao usage that is performed by everyone else that is not Wei Wuxian (i.e. Jin Guangyao, Mo Xuanyu, Xue Yang and Su She).

The nature of this “sacrificial ritual” was a type of curse. The caster was to harm themselves with a weapon, making cuts on their body and using their own blood to draw the array and write the spells within. They would then sit in the center of the circle and give up their mortal body to evil spirits, using the annihilation of their soul as the price to summon a nefarious, malicious ghost. This was all done in order to request the fulfillment of a wish. Thus, it was the opposite of “possession.”

This is the part that I can see confusing others, but, with doaist belief, there are several souls, the human (living one, the three hun and seven po that remain in death). Mo Xunayu did not sacrifice his right of reincarnation just the living one he had at the time, and frankly the one that is cared about in the moment as that is where karma is accrued in order to be judged throughout the circles of Diyu until a soul is purged clean to enter their next reincarnation cycle, samsara. Your karma only follows you based on what you did in your wordly life in consequence and a soul is thusly free to garner further negativity or, better itself to enter the next samsara. When it comes to the Po that stay it can be for any reason, and are liable to rise apart from the "human" as they are only the emotions left at the time of death or, of the "human" daily actions that were strongest. Once the hun souls (these ARE essentially the parts of the person that are essential in spirit and is the primordial existence of that life) are all reunited within Diyu, the human can move on. The Po can still roam the world and why funerary rights and respect are performed and met.

While both were forbidden magics of ill repute, the difference was that the former was much less popular than the latter. After all, few wishes were so strongly desired as to make someone willingly sacrifice everything they had. This was why the technique had been nearly lost after centuries of disuse. The examples recorded in ancient books had only a handful of cases that were backed by reliable evidence, and every single one of them had been for revenge. Every malicious ghost summoned by the ritual had fulfilled the caster’s wishes perfectly, in cruel and bloody ways.

He also did not make anything to do with this ritual or any of the actual mo dao curses (a whole one which we see in book which is the one hundred holes and what it's backlash is for Su Shi using it). What Mo Xuanyu does is also true Mo Dao as it is manipulating the primordial spirit self of another and his human existence. It is a disruption of several Samsara and consequence that will be righted, good or bad for either. Wei Wuxian's cycle just started anew sooner as he was given life again and paid for his karma with his previous death, as reiterated through the novel and himself. Mo Xuanyu has only swapped their places in samsara and death and life.

But the tough thing was, the Sacrificial Ritual followed the will of the caster first and foremost. So it didn’t matter how much he objected… He was already inside this body, which was a silent acknowledgement that both parties had formed a contract. He had to fulfill the wish of the caster, or the curse would rebound, destroying the possessor’s primordial spirit and extinguishing it forever.

Following the rules of karma and Samsara, Mo Xuanyu already gave his place in the human world, he fulfilled his part of the ritual as needed and will eventually reincarnate based on whatever karma he accrued in that life. Wei Wuxian still has to fulfill the wants of that sacrifice before he is free to do as he wants as his primordial humanity is what will be destroyed, the part that always is made to enter Diyu in order to reincarnate.

In all of this, it is not gui dao, as gui dao uses what is already in existence in order to be used with the many Po souls that can arise and still be found in the likes of graves and disturbed places. Po can be disturbed even after years of rest and why you also do not bring negativity into temples, ancestral worship places and areas, or the graves itself. Po being the emotionality left to the world are prone to aggression and can make themselves rise as jiangshi 僵尸, stiff corpse, or as the work calls mutations of them 走尸, zou shi, walking corpse and 凶尸, xiong shi, fierce corpse. None of these retain human characteristics other than the po it relies on that already have existed before Wei Wuxian was present.

I have said this before but I'm expanding on this as it fandom falsely put the onus of this all on Wei Wuxian still for a sacrifice. Or to put the death of Mo Xuanyu, the caster, on Wei Wuxian, who wasn't sure why he had been summoned back to life and was not expecting that. Wei Wuxian had already been dead, nor within that thirteen years he had been, conspired, as what most Mo Dao users do when they break their nascent souls, to eventually revive physically.

In the very first chapter it has already exposed that the moniker of the book is false. The practitioners of Mo Dao are Mo Xuanyu, later Xue Yang, Su She and Jin Guangyao, not Wei Wuxian who we see works in a totally different medium of physical cultivation and meditation that does not warp or manipulate a soul itself to become defiled, the po wandering the human world are not the human soul that are being made into jiangshi. The point of Mo Dao is to corrupt a living soul (the self usually)by evil manipulations.

Wei Wuxian is not, never was, a Mo Dao demonic cultivator, nor was the first as there were centuries of techniques for this, and his crafting of ghosts is falsely defined within the same category. This is also foreshadowed with his argument with Lan Qiren about the exorcism and suppression of ghostly spirits being the only orthodox means of dealing with them, and the lack of understanding orthodox clans approached spirits as a social taboo.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #saying this again #and again #...and again

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ao3komorii · 2 years ago

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On the Hunt (Astarion/Reader)

Happy Halloween! I want to write something for Raphael eventually, but here's a shorter Astarion thing for now. Hope you enjoy the story :)

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You had gotten very good at detecting when the light left his eyes.

It happened a lot less after Cazador had been felled, but often when Astarion had little else to focus on, his red eyes travelled back in time, back to his own world of pain and loss and hopelessness.

It didn’t help that with all that he had gained, he had lost the sun, left to see the light only from afar, his memories of its warmth nowhere near enough.

You had happily joined him in the night as you set out to cure him of his condition, but like anyone, Astarion still had bad days.

You had figured it was going to be a less good day when you had woken up in the middle of the day, your body sensing the absence of his next to yours. Drowsily opening your eyes, you easily spotted your silver-haired partner sitting at the edge of the bed, staring silently at a rectangle of light shining through a small slit between the curtains you had closed when you had first entered the room at the inn, as you always did.

You closed your eyes again, allowing Astarion his moment, knowing that you fussing over him every time would only make things worse. Instead, as you allowed yourself to fall back to sleep, you decided to do something to make tonight as exciting as you could to help give the vampire an escape from his losses.

When you woke next, Astarion was next to you in bed, his meditative pose telling you he was actually asleep. You stared at his peaceful resting face for a long moment before turning your focus to those still-closed curtains, the shade of the barely-visible sliver of light telling you that it was at least midday.

Setting about your pseudo-morning routine, you began to brainstorm a solid plan to distract Astarion from his ongoing plight.

He was likely starving for blood, you knew that much. Without a power-hungry cult looming constantly over your heads, there were much less fights to be had in cities that didn’t result in legal consequences, and you could only safely let him feed from you so often without risking your health. And without Withers around, you couldn’t risk your life quite as stupidly as you had before.

But it had been over a week since Astarion had last had your blood, and you had been considering finding a bandit camp or seeking out some wild animals just to get his mood up when an idea struck you.

It was perhaps a bit sooner than the two-week timeline you had both agreed on between larger blood donations, but you found yourself ensorcelled by the idea of putting on a little hunt for him, just with you as the prey this time. A little test of his instincts as it were, keeping your real reasoning close to your chest, not wanting him to think you were pitying him. And what was a little anemia if it was in the name of cheering up your beloved?

You were sitting at the small wooden desk in the room, itemizing your carefully-hoarded spell scrolls when Astarion came out of his trance, leaning down beside you before you realized he was even awake.

“You’re up early,” he remarked curiously, and you froze up in surprise, doing your best not to look like you had been caught in the act, casually reaching to hide your scroll of disguise self under a more conspicuous hypnotic pattern. “Now what could be so important that you decided to deprive me the pleasure of waking up next to my love?”

You shuffled your scrolls and maps into a messy pile, aware of how his sharp gaze followed the action with suspicion.

Turning from your papers to meet his eyes, you did your best to look innocuous. “I was thinking we could do something different today.”

“Oh?” Astarion’s face lit up with intrigue. “And here I thought I’d be in for yet another day of rifling through dusty old tomes written by dusty old men who haven’t even met a vampire, let alone possessed any useful information about one.”

You let out a huff of laughter, equally aware of the bad information streak you had been on for the last month, the most useful information coming from a thoroughly depraved romantic vampire novel that Astarion had found significantly too much enjoyment in reading out to you whenever he had gotten bored of reading whatever vampiric history tome he had discarded when its contents proved valueless.

“I was thinking–”

It was probably to your benefit that Astarion leaned in to kiss you, cutting off the sentence you hadn’t quite figured out how to phrase. The kiss was chaste, the smug vampire pulling back with a smirk, clearly enjoying having caught you off guard.

“You were saying, love?” he teased lowly, and you willed yourself not to fall for his distractions like you usually did.

“I was thinking we could go on a hunt today,” you said at last, Astarion raising an eyebrow in response.

“You know I always relish the chance for some meaningless violence, but why all of a sudden?” he asked, always way too perceptive for your own good. “What’s the hunt? It had better not be another cluster of ooze. It took me far too long to remove their slobber from my weapons the last time I had the misfortune of stabbing one.”

“No, no ooze,” you dismissed with a laugh. It wasn’t like you had wanted to do that job either, but it had gotten you the funds to pay for your last three inn stays. Summoning up your courage, you tried your best to not look as embarrassed as you felt. “I was thinking this time you could hunt… me.”

Astarion’s eyes glinted noticeably as he leaned in towards you, a hand resting on either armrest of your chair, his arms caging you in. “Am I to take this as a request of a more carnal nature? Because I am very willing to oblige.”

His voice was dripping with quiet ardor, the cheeky vampire using the tone he knew would lure you into bed with him every time, but not this time. You wanted something that would catch him off guard entirely, leaving no room in any part of his mind for his latent sadness to set in today. There would be plenty of time for sex later, once he had been fed.

“I was thinking more along bloodier lines,” you said, Astarion’s resulting frown at his seduction attempt failing more than a little cute. “I know we agreed to every two weeks, but I do have that vibrancy potion I’ve been saving.”

Astarion leaned back out of your space, looking quizzical, but not unhappy, so you took that as a sign to continue.

“Since this is a special occasion, I thought it might be fun to make you work for it,” you said with a conspiratorial smile. “Neither of us have been to this city before, so we’re on an even playing field. I was thinking if you can find me by sunrise, my blood is yours. As much as you want, since the effects of the vibrancy potion will last until then. If you can find me, that is.”

Astarion grinned wide, his pristine white fangs on full display. “Oh darling, I hadn’t taken you as someone who makes gambles they haven’t a hope of winning.”

You felt a flare of competition spark within you at his surety that he would win. Just because this was supposed to end with your blood on his teeth didn’t mean you were going to make this easy for him.

“If you’re so sure you’ll win, then maybe I’ll set off now and get a head start,” you shot back teasingly, reaching into your bag on the floor and downing the small vial of forest green vibrancy potion in one go before standing up, licking the last stray drop from the corner of your mouth to make sure the potion had maximum effectiveness.

Astarion’s eyes closed as he took a long inhale, which told you that the potion was indeed working as intended. When his eyes opened again, his pupils were blown wide, looking every bit the vampire ready for a hunt.

“Your blood smells even sweeter than the first time,” he spoke in a strained voice, posture so rigid he looked like he might snap if you moved an inch closer to him. “If I wasn’t such an honorable vampire, I’d already have you.”

Keeping any comments regarding his honor to yourself, you lifted your bag, sweeping the papers on the desk into it before slinging it over your shoulder, heading all the way to the door before turning your head back to face the shirtless, sleepy-haired vampire with a teasing smile.

“Good luck, Astarion,” you told him. Knowing how desperate for blood he had been the first time, he had to struggling even harder than he looked to be holding himself back right now.

“I don’t need luck,” he replied smoothly, sitting back down on the bed, hands fisting tightly onto the sheets. “There is nowhere you could hide where I can’t find you, my love.”

His sultry tone made you flush, and you quickly fled the room, knowing you had to go now before your willpower gave out.

Emerging onto bustling early evening streets, you knew that you had until the sun fell to find a place to hide. Making your way down the main street, you made sure to stop and chat up a perfume salesman, accepting a heavy dose of one of their floral samples in the hope that it would disguise the smell of your blood to the hungry vampire that would be on your trail within the hour. Your scent taken care of, now there was just the manner of your appearance.

Stopping by a busy clothing store, you stood before a long mirror in a deserted corner of the store, pulling out your disguise self scroll and getting to work.

You left the store a purple-skinned tiefling with long ruby-red hair, clad in a skimpy black dress with a long slit up the thigh, gold jewelry accenting your neck and illusory horns. If Astarion was looking for a disguise, you doubted he would think you would take on such a gaudy one, the stares of people as you passed telling you that you definitely looked the part of a lady of the night.

The sun had begun to fall as you walked the streets, intending on getting a decent distance away from the inn before finding somewhere to hole up when the dark set in. There was no doubt that Astarion would have the advantage in the dark, so you had to be as well-hidden as possible by then.

It felt too much like cheating to set up in a noisy tavern, though it wasn’t exactly like you had set any concrete rules before setting out, but still, you dismissed the fleeting idea. You wanted to make this hard for Astarion, not impossible. You didn’t often have enough gold for vibrancy potions anymore, so you wanted to make this one count, but Astarion would have to earn it first.

You had your momentary doubts that he would even agree to your proposal, given he had his moods sometimes, but his reaction had surpassed even your most hopeful expectations. You knew he wouldn’t be holding back, and you would hate yourself if you didn’t at least put up a fight.

You stopped to feign interest in a group of dragonborn musicians playing in a park as you considered your options further. You could cast a hypnotic pattern and pretend to be captivated by it as well? But you couldn’t sustain that one for long, and there was no telling when Astarion would pass by here. You could blur yourself, but that was likely to end up attracting his attention rather than evading it.

Lost in your thoughts, you took altogether too long to realize the passing of time, coming to the sudden realization that the sun was now just the tiniest sliver in the horizon. Astarion was definitely out by now, who knows for how long while you were zoning out.

You followed the crowd’s lead, clapping for the performers as you took subtle glances around you, not seeing any silver hair in the area. Still, you had wasted too much time here. You needed to move.

With most people in the park distracted by the performance, you were easily able to misty step your way across the park, exiting into what looked to be a district of… lesser repute. Here, there were women and men dressed in less than you were, hanging outside gaudy establishments and trying to draw customers in. You were just passing by a gnome and a scantily-clad human making out so loudly that you briefly wondered if either of them had ever kissed anyone now before when you ran into an issue.

“Haven’t seen yer sweet ass ‘round here before,” a male voice slurred, a large half-orc stepping into your view, or rather completely blocking it with his bulk.

“Excuse me,” you spoke flatly, immediately on guard. You moved to walk around him, but this only seemed to egg him on, as he moved in turn to step to the side and continue blocking your way.

“Ain’t no tieflings at tha bars, not anymore,” he spoke angrily, waving his arms wildly around as he talked, large axe glinting from its place on his back. “It ain’t the same when those other broads ain’t got no horns to grab while I plow ‘em!”

You could easily discern the reason why tiefling women seemed to become scarce around him, regretting that your choice of disguise had now led to this unexpected issue. You wouldn’t want to talk to this creep on a normal day, but you really didn’t have time now. You weren’t sure if your ego would survive being caught by Astarion less than an hour after the hunt had begun.

While you were confident that your disguise was flawless, the half-orc was being so loud that you would catch anyone’s attention right now. Looking around, you noticed the eyes of many of the seedy crowd were on you, but as expected, nobody was stepping in to help you, clearly wary of attracting the wrath of the drunk brute.

Sighing internally, you resolved to yourself to give this guy one more chance to leave you alone before you made him. What a mess you had managed to find yourself in.

“I’m not interested,” you said, not intimidated in the slightest by the half-orc who was at least a head taller than you. “I’m asking you nicely to walk away.”

The half-orc scoffed loudly, making a show of looking around, the onlookers all averting their gazes, not wanting to be involved, their eyes shifting back to you when the brute finished his overdramatic display before turning back to you with a cocked brow.

“Well I don’t see no man here ta claim ya,” he boasted loudly. “And Barorth don’t recognize no other claims on the womens he wants anyway!”

He would probably have been luckier if Astarion was here, the snarky vampire possibly content to mock the half-orc without him realizing rather than what you were going to do to him if he didn’t leave you alone.

“Not interested,” you repeated flatly, deathly intent plain in your voice, at least plain to anyone but this moron, who instead reached out to take one of your arms in his grasp.

“‘Nuff talkin’,” he grunted, hand clamping down on your arm. “Those tits are just–”

The second he touched you, you blinked, immediately activating eyebite, your eyes turning into teeth-ringed pools of black.

“Go,” you snarled at the half-orc, his grip falling from your arm instantly, an all-too-loud guttural groan leaving his mouth before he turned and ran. You didn’t dismiss eyebite until he was out of sight, glaring after him the entire way.

Taking a breath to calm yourself down, you blinked and your regular eyes returned. How much time had you wasted on that moron? He was lucky all you did was traumatize him, the brute likely to have suffered a much worse fate if it was Lae’zel he was hitting on. Hopefully he would leave any real tieflings alone after your little display.

Frustrated, you moved to the less busy side of the street, ignoring the people there who now stared at you in shock. You were far enough from Baldur’s Gate that very few people would recognize you even if you had your real appearance, but there was definitely going to be gossip spreading now about the tiefling escort that sent a half-orc running away with just a look.

And then you were striding past an alleyway, intent on figuring out your next move, when a hand darted out, clasping firmly around your wrist and pulling you into the alleyway, finding yourself quickly pinned to the stone wall by your assailant’s body.

Amused red eyes stared down at you, Astarion running one hand down your side to rest on your hip. “One hour and you’re already finding your way into trouble without me. Darling, I’m hurt.”

You knew he had you, despite your feigned appearance, but your pride wouldn’t allow you to give in so easily.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you sniffed with very false confidence. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to–”

“Spare me,” he dismissed. “Did you really think you could hide from me in plain sight when I know your scent, your taste so… intimately?”

You wanted to protest further, but any words you were going to say turned into a pleased sigh as Astarion leaned in to kiss at your neck.

“You do make a rather fetching tiefling, my love, but I do think I prefer the you that I wake up next to every morning,” he spoke against your neck.

You smiled despite yourself, finally giving in and allowing the disguise to drop, Astarion holding you to him tighter in response, but his fangs still hadn’t made their way into your neck. The smell of your blood had to have been driving him crazy, he had said as much earlier, so then why hadn’t he claimed his reward yet?

“You win,” you conceded, unable to stay mad with your beloved so close to you, even in the dingy alleyway whose prior inhabitants had likely been either a murder or a messy hookup. “My blood is yours.”

At your words, Astarion pulled back from your neck entirely, further confusing you. Noticing your questioning look, he gestured out to the street, where some onlookers were barely visible, but their attention at least seemed to be on their own business now.

“I won’t be playing the part of the heinous vampire attacking the fair maiden and risking some do-gooder rushing to your rescue with a stake meant for my heart,” he explained disdainfully. “No, I think my prize would be better savored in a more private location.”

You could still see just how bad his hunger was getting to him, so it was obvious that you weren’t making it back to the inn. Looking out over his shoulder, you spotted a private enough looking rooftop several stories above some seedy-looking bar, placing your hand on Astarion’s arm as you summoned a dimension door.

“Good enough?” you asked, drawing Astarion’s gaze to the matching door waiting on the roof.

“Not quite the caliber of the Blushing Mermaid, but I can hardly be choosey when it means I get more of your delectable blood,” he answered.

That was as much of a yes as you figured you were getting out of him, and so you activated the door and found yourselves instantly transported to the actually-not-too-bad-looking rooftop.

It was barren, but clean. Seemed like nobody really came up here, as all that was on the roof were a couple ratty-looking chairs and a large rug that looked like it would be worth some money if it weren’t for a large stain on one corner that was either blood or red wine.

Stepping away before Astarion could get too carried away, you rummaged quickly through your bag, pulling out one of the many arcane lock scrolls you knew to keep on hand for situations like this, sealing the door so you wouldn’t be interrupted. Job done, you went to turn back around, not wanting to keep the vampire waiting.

“Well, I think we’re—”

Astarion was way closer than you expected, having silently closed the gap between you while your back was turned.

Shaking off your momentary surprise, you smiled at him, turning your head and pulling your hair back so your neck was left bared for him to drink from. So you were caught off guard when he instead backed you up against the door, caging you in with his body and catching your mouth with his own.

While you were confused, you weren’t opposed, your eyes sliding closed and arms coming up to rest against his chest, the gentle buzzing of the magical lock against your back all but forgotten at the things Astarion’s tongue was doing to your own.

You were having a hard time telling if he was actually this turned on, or if he had just turned his switch on, as much as you had tried to break him of the habit of feeling like he had to perform sexually if he wasn’t feeling it. Recognizing you should probably make that discernment now, you pulled back from the kiss, Astarion’s lips shifting to kiss at your neck.

“It’s okay if this is just for blood,” you spoke, trying to keep your voice steady despite Astarion suckling on a particularly sensitive spot. “You don’t owe me anything for my blood if you don’t want to.”

Astarion pulled back from your neck at last, no bites taken, instead reaching a hand down to take your leg in his grasp, pulling it around one hip and using the opportunity to grind his clearly hard cock into you, the resulting feeling fluttering your lashes as you tried desperately to focus on the seriousness you were trying to inject into the moment.

Astarion saw your serious expression and only smiled, a small little smile so unlike the openly flirtatious ones he used to send your way back when you had first explored each other’s bodies.

“Trust me darling, you mean far too much to me to ever treat you like you’re a favor to be traded in,” he spoke quietly, hips still rolling into yours as he spoke. “You’ve given me too much to ever be repaid. But no need to fret, my reasons for wanting your body now are just my own selfish lust.”

He didn’t need any words from you to know he had you, one broken moan at his hips rutting perfectly against yours enough of a response for him to return to your mouth, one hand sliding under your dress to press firmly on your clit as you kissed fervently, doing your best to keep up with his tongue as you felt warm enough for the both of you even on the chilly rooftop.

The greedy vampire could only go so long without claiming his reward, mouth moving to your neck the second he felt you getting close, sinking his teeth into you at last as he barraged your clit with attention, the twin sensations of blood loss and orgasm feeding off each other in beautiful harmony, Astarion prolonging your peak with his talented fingers as he drank from your neck until you laid boneless against him, panting above his head.

“I love you,” you breathed, Astarion breaking from your neck to return the sentiment with a bloodstained smile.

And then it was your turn, pulling him to your mouth and grinding up into him, the vampire’s own panting breaths loud against your mouth. Astarion moved his hips back into yours, his pace nothing like the practiced, even rhythm he’d had back when he was playing the part of what he had thought you would like. His groans now were entirely his body’s reaction to yours, and the thought burned deeply in your core.

Neither one of you content to keep things going with clothes still on, your hands moved to the clasp holding your flimsy dress together, while Astarion smoothly discarded his own pants, his hands then coming back to maneuver you onto your back on the non-stained section of the rooftop rug, your dress splayed out under you helping to guard against the slightly rough texture of the rug.

“This is a sight I will never tire of,” Astarion groaned, ripping his shirt up over his head, his underwear following and leaving him entirely bare to your wanting gaze.

He looked every bit the vampiric seductor in that horrible novel he liked to bother you with, red eyes and bloody mouth gleaming in the sparse light the rising moon provided.

You watched his expression spark with debauched pleasure as it was plainly obvious how wet you were as he practically peeled your underwear from you, one hand returning to work at your clit, his own cock looking so hard that it must hurt.

“Astarion, please,” you begged, reaching out for him, your lover effortlessly evading your grasp as he worked you closer and closer to orgasm.

“Not yet, my love,” he chided lowly, knowing you could do little to resist his efforts right now. “I rather enjoy getting you so worked up. I could spend hours listening to your pretty cries as I bring you over the edge again and again, but I suppose that potion is only good until sunup, and I am so hungry.”

“Then come here,” you prompted, already feeling clearheaded from the vibrancy potion rejuvenating your blood supply so quickly.

“How could I refuse?” he replied happily, slotting himself between your legs.

Wrapping your legs around his back, you pulled him down, the vampire smoothly lining his cock perfectly to hit deep inside you as you pulled his mouth to your neck.

“You are too perfect,” Astarion murmured against your neck before biting down.

You decided it was better for you to start strong while you still had the blood supply to energize you, using your legs around his hips to start a slow but deep rhythm. Astarion needed very little coaxing to keep up, one hand coming up to angle one of your legs higher, the resulting shift making you cry out as he started to hit against a spot inside you that only he had ever been able to find.

You had always prided yourself on being the talker of your little group, able to talk your way in or out of trouble when needed. But here, under the snarky vampire you had come to cherish more than anything, you were wordless, barely able to manage more than his name as Astarion moved his focus from your neck to thoroughly ruin you, blood-red smirk telling you he knew exactly what he was doing with every grind of his hips.

It took almost embarrassingly no time for you to finish again, Astarion’s keen senses picking up on it immediately without you having to say a word.

“I do so like to see you like this, darling,” he said, slowly his pace down as you came down from it. “So thoroughly ravaged that you couldn’t recite a spell if you tried.”

You knew that he wasn’t unaffected, the slow roll of his hips telling you that much, but you found yourself determined to exhaust him just as badly, a tall order for someone of his stamina, but you were going to try your best.

With as much grace as you could manage with legs that felt like jelly, you withdrew from under him, pushing him back so he was sitting back, staring at you with loving eyes more black than red as you climbed onto his lap, settling back down on his cock, intent on riding him until he lost himself.

Astarion’s hands quickly found the back fastenings of your bra, unhooking it with a satisfied growl and tossing the garment aside, allowing him access to lean down and lave kisses and bites across your chest as you continued to ride him hard.

You were slamming your hips into his now, running a hand through his hair, his increasingly loud groans of your name telling you that he was finally getting close. With a shuddered breath, his hands went down to your hips, holding you still against him as he came, teeth sinking into your neck once again in tandem.

You slowly stroked his hair, in no rush to free yourself from his embrace, even as you could feel stray droplets of blood running down your neck and onto your chest.

With a pleased sigh, Astarion’s hands went from your hips to around your back, pulling back from your neck to see you smiling at him, the sight sending him leaning forward to kiss you, his peaceful expression one you could look at forever and never get tired of.

“Here I was thinking all I had to thank that grotesque nautiloid for was my freedom,” he mused between kisses. “If it hadn’t found you too, I’d probably be dead, hunted by that gur and delivered to my death. Never thought I’d be so grateful to a damn illithid for plucking me off the street.”

“Yeah,” you smiled. “This makes even the whole parasite insertion thing worth it, if I get to be here like this with you.”

“How sweet,” he huffed in response. “I however could have done without Gale’s lectures on morality. And Lae’zel’s snoring.”

“And the Withers lecture about how you were distracting me from my quest,” you added with a laugh, recalling the at-the-time awkward talk with the skeletal man the morning after you and Astarion had first slept together.

“I don’t know about that, my dear,” Astarion replied slyly. “You did seem a touch distracted after that first night. I recall you stepping on several fire mines that Shadowheart had warned us of not five minutes before. Hard to blame you though, I mean really, just look at me.”

“Having fun?” you sulked, pulling back from him to cross your arms across your chest, trying to appear annoyed but fully aware your point was not well made considering he was still inside of you.

Astarion didn’t let you get far, arms pulling you back in. “Not so fast, my love. As I recall, my reward was to last until sunrise, and I intend to reap it in full.”

#baldurs gate 3 #astarion #astarion x reader #reader is tav #tav is a sorcerer #can be read as human/elf/half-elf #smut #baldurs gate x reader #baldurs gate astarion #reader insert

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savethegrishaverse · 5 months ago

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Something I think isn't talked about enough is the representation of what gambling really is vs. what it feels like. Ding ding ding it's a character essay.

I think it's super important for an audience to see what gambling addiction how how addiction affects everything around you. On paper, I can say I know what gambling addiction means, but it's hard to truly understand the gravity of what living with a gambling addiction is like. That's why seeing it represented (ideally represented well) in stories helps bridge that gap.

Watching characters like Gi-hun from Squid Games and Jesper Fahey from Six of Crows, we see characters who actively have gambling addictions and how it caused their suffering.

Every decision they make, both the good and more importantly the bad, you can follow and understand when given the context of their addiction. They're both very earnest and kindhearted people who are quick to make decisions (impulsive, one could say) and that need to gamble when the stakes are high causes actual consequences in the story. It makes the reader/watcher upset because we know why they did it, and we know they didn't intend to hurt the people around them or themselves, but they did anyway and they can't take it back now. We understand their motivations, their fears, their wants and desires, and as the audience we can relate to them on a more personal level because everyone has times where they can't help themselves. But, we as the audience can also come to understand why gambling addictions ruin lives. We can see where Gi-hun's or Jesper's addictions directly cause their grief or their pain, and when they put forth effort to change and understand those addictions we can feel pride in them.

This (taps my screen for emphasis) this is why it's important to have characters in media that struggle.

As cringe as it sounds, because I watched Squid Games and because I read Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom I can honestly admit that I am kinder. I am more likely to stop and listen and think about the people around me and why they ended up how they did. I am more cautious, but I also make a harder effort to leave everywhere I go even just slightly better than I found it. Now this isn't to say everyone all the time is always going through life with the best of intentions. The worst characters you can think of are just as inspired by real life as the best characters. Some people don't want to get better, and they don't care about the consequences of their actions.

But seeing a queer, emotionally lost, well-intentioned POC farm boy with a quick mouth and a habit of getting in trouble struggle with an addiction that he is learning to cope with makes me feel more seen in return. Hearing Jesper's struggles and hearing how desperate he was to do good and despite that sometimes he still did something bad anyway in turn makes him more compelling. Seeing Gi-hun actively work to do good when faced with the worst circumstances makes me feel good and I feel in a bizarre way seen when I am doing the same small good. And it feels real. It makes addiction feel more grounded, in a way, and gives it a more tangible shape in my head. And that shape in turn helps me empathize with people I wouldn't ordinarily understand. It makes me feel more accountable of my own actions, and it makes me feel less lonely to know I have characters like Jesper and Gi-hun to relate to. Granted, I don't struggle with a gambling addiction, but I do struggle with anxiety and OCD. I am plagued with impulses I can't help and I have to fight hard to control them so I can live my life. I can sometimes have the best of intentions and still end up in a giant (metaphorical) dumpster fire of a situation anyway completely because of the decisions I made in the process.

Addiction has a million faces. Mental health problems can rear up in anyone's shadow. You never can fully know what weighs on a person or why they act the way they do. And because of that, characters who struggle in that same way will always be important because they both teach us that intangible shape we may not yet know and simultaiously provide stories for suffering people to hold onto when they need it.

TLDR Netflix CEOs stop letting all your decisions be motivated by capitalism/greed. You are entirely missing the point of the stories you are telling. Stop cancling shows when they have genuinely good characters and good ideas, and stop overworking a production just because it is successful. Slow the fuck down already and make genuinely thought out decisions.

Also if you haven't seen Squid Games yet it's a great (but devestating) watch. If you (somehow) haven't read Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom yet it is unironically one of the greatest duologies I've ever read.

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shan0blight · 5 months ago

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My favorite genre of characters is the trope of two sides of the same coin. (Pt.1 Charlie and Cameron)

Charlie and Cameron:

Charlie is the delinquent of the story. He is the rebel and he is admired for that by classmates and even the fan base. He searches for validation in Mr.Keating because he needs that. Charlie as a character search’s for validation and attention through lashing out and breaking rules. And from the way the movie is set up and his conversation with Neil we can assume that Charlie doesn’t get that by his parents. This is more shown when he threatens to get expelled by Mr Nolan and Mr keating shares his displeasure with that. Charlie’s response is “I’d thought you’d like that”. This shows such a new part of Charlie’s character. Charlie inadvertently through this line is telling us that he seeks validation in higher authority he looks up too. Charlie has no conception of his consequences even after being beaten. He wants so deeply to be noticed and treated as what he preserves himself to be and through that he hurts himself. He is “choking on the bone” as Mr. Keating says which directly contrasts with Cameron.

Cameron is the tattle of the story. He is not the scapegoat but the butt of the joke. He is the up-tight “fink” who sucks up to teachers. Like Charlie he craves attention but not from Keating but from Nolan. Cameron wants attention and he does that through Mr Nolan by getting good grades and being the model student. But to no avail. He goes unnoticed and pushed in the background despite being Mr Nolans model student. Cameron works to be liked upon higher authority which is shown when he is the only one writing down the J. Evan’s Pritchard scale and how Keating describes his walk as trying to fit in. Cause that’s what Cameron wants to do. He wants to fit in and conceptualized himself to be better perceived by others of higher authority and intelligence. He never acts out of line and even when he does with the secret meetings he does it to insure the best interest in his friend group. Cameron notices the consequences of his actions and acts upon making them better.

Cameron and Charlie are two separable people who share such similar angsts. Charlie is defiant while Cameron is obedient. Charlie is a rule breaker while Cameron is a rule follower. In an outside perspective they are polar opposites but that is so far from the truth. They both share a major commonality that is the true message of the movie. They both are victims of conformity.

Charlie conforms himself in fitting outside the box (acting out for action do higher powers) unlike cameron who conforms himself to fit in. They both went to Mr. Keating class and they both learned the same thing. But why did Charlie end in a more favorable position at the end? It’s because Charlie had support. He will always be seen as a defined system of seizing the day while cameron will always be defined as a subject of conformity. Cameron every time he speaks or expresses his way of seizing the day he gets out down cause that’s unconventional. But Charlie expresses his way of seizing the day and he is loved. That’s why Charlie ends on a better note than cameron because he has SUPPORT!!!!

Charlie can sieze the day because he is what’s expected but Cameron can’t cause he is what everyone else is striving away from being.

Yes cameron did learn and hear what Mr keating was saying just like Charlie . But he saw the bad, he saw the reality of choking on the bone while Charlie is blind to it till told by his role model. Charlie doesn’t see the consequences of his actions when Neil passed but Cameron did. He saw Neil’s death as a direct consequence of him expressing himself outside of social norms. That’s why he got defensive.

Charlie is the tail of the coin. The sees the world blindly from behind while Cameron the head of the coin sees the world as it truly is.

I hope this makes sense lol 😭

#dead poets society #charlie dalton #richard cameron #richard cameron apologist #character analysis #neil perry #todd anderson #knox overstreet #gerard pitts #stephen meeks #ginny danburry #chris noel #movies #mr keating #mr nolan #conformity #seize the day #two sides of the same coin #character tropes

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zer0-devoox · 8 months ago

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My opinion of the ending of Murder Drones (which no one asked for but screw you)

Ugh... Okay, I've been putting off this post for a while, but here it is. I've heard many mixed opinions, "that it was a rushed ending" "that it was the best ending of the animation" and blah blah, well, this is my opinion.

It was... An ending.

X: Lmao, of course it was an ending girl, explain yourself

What I want to say is that we need to put ourselves in context a little, look people. Reality is what it is, Murder drones it was. A. Experiment. Those at Glich told Liam that they will develop the story in eight chapters to see how the project fares, and in the first chapters it looked as if they had a second season planned, only then the amazing digital circus arrived and even though it hurts...

AND NOT! I don't want to say that it's THADC's fault, much less @gooseworx I'm a follower of that series, I love the concept and I wish both series could have forty seasons as far as I'm concerned, but unfortunately, we're not Netflix, we're not Disney ( Thank God)

There were good parts and bad parts, scenes that I loved like N and Uzi formalizing their relationship in some strange way (although I wanted a kiss) and also really scary scenes, like Cyn giving Tessa's voice, and without going any further I am traumatized with a incoming call.

---Were there things to improve/that I didn't like?

Of course yes, for example the climax, yes, yes, I see people saying that Cyn was nerfed but that we are going to make the difficulty of creating such powerful characters, I guess.

One thing that bothered me was the treatment of other characters other than N or Uzi, for example Khan, Nori, or any other sequence, the one that annoys me the most, Lizzy, who is not a character I like, in fact I hate her, but at the very least he could have received SOME consequence for his actions, someone will come out and say that he had his development in the dance chapter, but I don't see it that way, I don't know, say you.

O thad who is top best characters and I love him

--DON'T MAKE ME TALK ABOUT J PLIS---

And what hurts me the most... V

What? Did you think I wasn't even going to talk about her? Well you're wrong!

I feel like the series struggled a lot to develop N and Uzi individually while also developing their relationship, but speaking of V... His development fell short.

I don't want to go on for too long (if you want a deeper analysis of the character, tell me and I'll do it) V had a very serious change from his personality in the mansion to the beginning of everything that happened in Cooper 9, becoming someone more sadistic and aggressive Since murder was her "job" in chapter eight we found out that she knew that Tessa was Cyn, but she was under changate (practically she and N each had a rifle in their heads, for God's sake)

The first time I saw the scene where V tearfully confesses everything to N, it broke me, I admit. But in retrospect, I feel like it wasn't enough. It was good to show the sensitive side of V that we were seeing through the impenetrable diva mask, but she herself tells Cyn that she "still can" which doesn't convince me.

I loved chapter six, it's simply one of my favorites, because with all the reasons to leave Uzi where Alice had them, he chose to save her.

Damn!

He defended her to tooth and nail, he seemed like a beast with -Tessa- and with N, he literally didn't want anyone to touch Uzi because she was hurt, without going any further

his damn last words were for her!

I loved that scene because literally and symbolically V took a step forward to break the block of ice that the two of they had placed in front of each other since chapter two, this is when V first calls her by her name, not cyn, not purple thing, not parasite... Uzi, just that.

And it bothers me that this was completely ignored in chapter eight (I mean, not completely but it was not given the value it deserved) From the bottom of my heart I would have wanted V to apologize to Uzi for everything he had done, for Uzi to somehow thank her and also apologize (because Uzi also almost killed her)

I know that neither of the two characters are the most emotional thing in the world, but I only ask for three dialogues, not a kiss and an emotional thirty-minute speech (which wouldn't have been bad either)

And spoken of the devil... The time

raised the hand who imagined that chapter eight would last (minimum) an hour. Because im yes, I feel that the ending was rushed, don't get me wrong, the final fight was beautiful, with framing shots and very very epic with the background theme. But, I don't know. I think that another ten minutes just to complete the developments, explain the unresolved doubts and give seriousness to some things was worth it (*cough, cough* Doll)

Anyway, this post already seems like a Twitter statement...

I love murder drones.

there isn't a joke that doesn't make me laugh or an emotional scene that doesn't make me cry, I wish with all my might for a second season of this series so much. potential, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I have a little faith in a spin-off or a continuation in some way because of the fucking open ending, nothing and no one is going to stop me from continuing to love these schizophrenic robots, or from continuing to ship my weird ships, far from it. to play eternal dreams at the faculty parties.

Leave your opinions in the comments or reblogs, I'll be reading them! And if you want V's analysis, say so! maybe we could reach 200 notes?? Who knows? Bey-bey devils don't get lost.

#much text #murder drones #murder drones spoilers #uzi doorman #serial designation v #serial designation n #murder drons opinion #postshit #opinion #zer0 dearcoupse #The amazing digital circus #glich productions #liam vickers animation #gooseworx

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jmnthem · 1 year ago

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How "You" (the player) Made Elster Suffer

SPOILERS FOR SIGNALIS (and its endings)

What elevates video games to an experience that you can only get from said video games and not from books or film or shows is one particular quality: "interactivity". You are not a passive viewer in (most) video games, and a few game developers take this idea to the next level: having your interactions--your agency--affect the outcomes of a game's narrative and direction. In a more typical fashion, a game might have you select a speech option amongst a handful in order to change an event, or to choose your player-character's morality at that moment in time. Perhaps the game might even hit you with a visual reminder that your actions have consequences, or "they will remember that."

Signalis has this quality too, but it's one that often gets overlooked when discussions are had about the game because it's not obvious that it's happening. But rest assured, Signalis remembers 'how you play.' The variables involved are a decently sized list, but for now, the core of what you need to know is that there is a distinct playstyle difference between someone who gets the Promise ending versus someone who might get the Memory or Leave ending. (We will also discuss the Artifact ending briefly afterwards.)

The core of this thesis is that your first playthrough--and your first ending--is incredibly important because that ending is the punctuation at the end of what ought to be a blind playthrough. For extra context, Yuri Stern (one of the two devs behind Rose Engine) once wrote that there were no 'good' or 'bad' endings in Signalis. There is an ending screen that we all get that shows us our own statistics and performance, but the endings were not designed to 'rate' us on how well we performed. Instead, look at the endings from the perspective of Elster. What did Elster experience in your playthrough? Consider how she might have felt at the conclusion of the journey that you, the player, put her through.

If you saw the Promise ending, then Elster had to suffer. In order to get Promise, Elster not only has to kill as many enemies as she can find (and potentially kill those same enemies again), but she also needs to receive a significant amount of damage over the playthrough. Elster needs to be both brought close to death (Deaths Cheated) and entirely die more than a handful of times. The longer your playthrough is or the longer you hold Elster in this "hell" of a reality, as it is described, it becomes even more likely that Elster will receive the Promise ending. Thus, if you genuinely struggled with Signalis' gameplay on your first playthrough, you most likely got the Promise ending. On the other hand, if you were aware of how to get the Promise ending (perhaps this wasn't your first time) and deliberately saw Elster through this process, consider the following: what is Elster's reward after doing violence and having violence done upon her? That a playthrough defined by combat, death, and ultimately failure, ends cloaked in an overwhelming amount of red, and Elster has to commit one more act of violence on the one person she actually cares about.

Elster's Promise ending is as much a physical struggle for her as it is an emotional one. Without getting too deep into an "in-universe" reading of the endings, what we can say for certain is that the fact that this particular ending was titled as 'Promise' leaves me to believe that the emotions centered around the 'Promise' between Elster and Ariane are weighed down by a very real and very deep pain. In this way, one could describe Promise as the more cruel and severe of the endings. Again, this is NOT to say that Promise is a bad ending. Rather, it is the tip of the iceberg.

In order to get the Memory ending, you would have to play Elster quite literally like a machine: fast, efficient, and with few errors. Memory is given to players who cleared through the game without much trouble, maybe even to a point of mastery. Did your Elster only kill enemies out of necessity? Did she always keep a forward momentum, rarely getting hurt and seldom dying? Maybe you, the player, are no stranger to survival horrors. Or perhaps games in general come more naturally to you. Regardless of how well you might have performed, the conclusion for Elster here is finding an Ariane who does not remember her.

What is the reward supposed to be if you--by most survival horror metrics--played well? Perhaps reward is the wrong word. Perhaps Ariane's actions (or her reactions to Elster) ought to be viewed from another angle. Because look at how Elster reacts to Ariane forgetting her: "It's okay. Please, let me stay by your side a little longer." This scene, for what it is, shows you that no matter how perfect or proficient you might be, someone else could make a mistake. Someone else could forget the promise they made with you. And yet--despite all that--to Elster, Ariane's forgetting did not matter. Because to her, she made the journey, she made it to Ariane's side. And in the end, that's all that mattered to this Elster. It was getting there. That's what was important: the Memory. A heartbreaking ending, surely? But wait, there's more.

There's Leave.

This is perhaps the most peculiar (and contested) ending not just because of its content, but because it requires some highly specific and deliberate actions in order to even unlock--even more so than Promise and Memory. Whereas Memory had Elster focusing on moving to her destination quickly and Promise focused on having Elster linger in the 'hell,' Leave is affected by Elster doing the most to keep herself physically and emotionally safe.

repeatedly attempting to open already known locked doors

exhausting NPC dialogue beyond what they already have to say

having Elster heal constantly as soon as she's hit, staying in blue/nominal health

having Elster far overstay her welcome in those 'memory' sequences (such as on the Penrose, on the beach, and any scene that involves the first-person perspective)

Instead of immersing Elster in the cruelty of the 'hellish reality/dreamscape' she finds herself in--

Instead of having Elster focused on a distinct goal--

If you had Elster linger in the environment, in the presence of other characters, and the past (her 'happier times' perhaps), Elster instead finds a state of twilight.

Because the Leave ending starts off the same as the other two: Elster still finds her way to the Penrose, goes inside, read Ariane's notes, finds the body of the original Elster-512, receives the same prompt just before heading to the cryopod that read "Go Home?" and when she accepts it, where does she go? Back outside.

Instead of back out to the endless red desert from before, she's met with a blue, calm night sky seemingly reflected by water. Quite literally, this is the Elster's "twilight." Twilights are a literal signifier for a period of time between daylight and darkness (and vice versa) but they could also signal a period of obscurity and ambiguity. After tossing away her armor and curling up on the ground, Elster almost looks peaceful. Maybe. Because after all that the player put her through (and also what they did not), can we surmise that Elster was able to at least find a little relief at the end?

We never see the inside of the Cryopod in this ending and I have to ask why? Did Elster never go inside? Or was there no one in the cryopod at all?

Allow me to briefly introduce a new idea (I know it's late in this already long essay but stick with me): have we yet considered that every piece of text that shows up on screen like the ones we see above (unless otherwise identified as Alder, Falke, Isa's memory) has always been Ariane talking to Elster? Because here's another detail about Leave, it's the only ending to not include "Remember Our Promise".

We find in Ariane's own notes near 1:1 phrasing as she described why she wanted to leave Rotfront on the Penrose. What comfort could Ariane possibly find after these words flash on the screen: "In the end, I had to leave you behind. I wanted to see you again, but it's too much. Forgive me." That is, unless, the final words in Leave were not meant for her by Elster but for Elster by Ariane. Again, if we're viewing the game from the perspective of the player's/Elster's interactions and experiences having a tangible effect on Elster, then who's to say it did not also do the same with Ariane? How did Ariane feel after witnessing Elster try so desperately to survive, healing at every available opportunity, checking locked doors that would surely never open, talk to other Replikas that were surely doomed? Was the pain too much for Ariane as she realized that this Elster would rather soak in the memories of happier times than to deal with the pain of the cycles? Perhaps Leaving after such reality-bending nightmare is reasonable response for both Ariane and Elster. But this is not to say that Leave is the happier ending.

One last thing: the Artifact ending. In fact, acquiring the Artifact ending is in and it of itself a meta-narrative ending. By pure technicality, Artifact is an ending where those who found it first (and the resulting players who looked up the guides made afterward) dig much deeper in the game--into the nature of the dreamlike reality itself--to find a new conclusion through mutual means. In other words, Artifact could not be obtained without multiple players controlling multiple Elsters convening and contributing together, like in the scene showing the graves surrounding a newly created or conceived 'tesseract'--that shiny object in the center, which is also the symbol of the game itself.

And the results of their (half-literal and half-figurative) ritual was conceiving a new reality?/present?/ideal? where Elster and Ariane are finally together. Does this mean that, with their efforts combined, they found a way to beat death and live with each other once again? It's almost like this ending serves as a congratulatory thank you from the developer just as much as it might serve as an actual extension of the game's events into something new?/hopeful?/neverending? Perhaps it can also be as simple as viewing the dance that Elster and Ariane share as complete and utter wish fulfillment for the viewer (for the player and whoever the Red Eye is). But the Artifact ending rabbit hole is another talk for another time...

Back to Yuri's words from earlier,

"I wish people would be more open to let others figure out for themselves how their ending made them feel. Instead of telling a streamer "you got the best ending!", maybe you can ask "did you think this was an interesting conclusion?" and they can decide if they liked it or not."

If you made it this far, I would like to thank you! Did this perspective of player agency affecting the ending of Signalis make the game more interesting to you? What made your first playthrough of Signalis interesting in the first place?

#signalis #signalis spoilers #signalis endings #signalis elster #signalis ariane #signalis analysis

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orangepanic · 7 months ago

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Finished Fic: Smoke

It's finally done! My fic for this year's @wipbigbang is one of my longest-running WIPs and also one of my personal favorites. My apologies and thanks to anyone still waiting to find out what happens to Equalist!Asami and her unexpected lover - I hope the ending is both satisfying and believable.

Story Title: Smoke

Fandom: Avatar: Legend of Korra

Summary: When General Iroh is captured during the Battle of Yue Bay, it's up to Asami to extract information from him that will win the Equalist revolution. By any means necessary.

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, major character death, suicide attempt, major character injury

Characters: Iroh II, Asami Sato, Hiroshi Sato, Amon | Noatak, Amon's Lieutenant, Tarrlok, Mako, Lin Beifong, Zuko, Izumi, Original Equalist Characters

Pairing: Iroh II/Asami Sato, other background pairings (some canon, some not)

When I Started: February! February 2021, that is. Eek.

How I Lost My Shit: Most people who know my writing know I'm a die-hard panster, so while I had a loose idea of how this fic would go from the beginning I of course didn't write that. This was my first time writing a real Enemies to Lovers (like literally they try to kill each other a lot) and I found that as a consequence of that I needed to make changes to the story along the way in order to fit the genre. A big decision was to slow down the action to make the romance believable, and another was to flesh out more of the Equalists and their operation in order to avoid a "good guy good and smart, bad guy bad and dumb" dynamic which wouldn't support the kind of story I wanted to tell. All this in turn led to a time skip and whole second half to the fic that I hadn't anticipated followed by a few long breaks myself while I tried to figure out where the story needed to go from there and who with. Mostly because the main characters both wound up killing people I hadn't planned for and so there was a whole legal thing I had to puzzle through that eventually ruled out the original ending I'd had in mind. Nobody listens to me, you know? And I now know an awful lot about immunity and extradition.

How I Finished My Shit: @chocolate-cringymuffin, an existing reader of this fic, incredible artist, and dear fandom friend, agreed to be my artist for the WIP Big Bang. I could NOT let them down. There's really nothing more motivating than fan art from someone who cares about your story. I might not have finished this fic without their enthusiasm. I certainly wouldn't have finished it today.

ALSO CHECK OUT THEIR BOMB-ASS ART!!!! HOLYYYYY CRAP!!! It's so beautiful I'm crying. They're so happy. I also love the choice of scene, which comes at a part of the fic where I think both of them really commit to letting the past be the past and their new life together.

A/N: Thank you so much to the mods of @wipbigbang for putting on this event again! It's a great forcing function. I also want to give a shout out to @alishatheninth who, while not a beta reader, gave me a lot of feedback that I needed to hear about what was working and what wasn't early in the fic and in general has been an invaluable critic and cheerleader on this grand adventure. Alisha, I'm lucky to know you and I'm sorry I killed your favorite LOK character in a truly horrible way. Mostly.

#wip big bang #irosami #iroh ii #asami sato #tlok #tlok fanfic

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definatelymrhyde · 11 months ago

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Worse than I had thought lore dump because I’ve been holding it in way too long

THE CHARACTERS

JEKYLL

Jekyll is meant to be a little crazy, or at least very eccentric. Think like he’s TGS Jekyll, but slightly crazier and much less good at masking his true emotions. He was disgusted at Edward when he first created him, and as much as he hates to admit it, he and Edward are verrrrrry similar. I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it yet, but Edwards' mannerisms and ways of movement and facial expressions are just exaggerated versions of all of Jekylls. Why, they’re literally the same person, just not. Confused? Yeah, me too. He tries to be polite with Edward and stuff but he just isn’t very good at it. This backfires later on.

EDWARD

Edward is weirdly chill at the start of the fic, and also a little socially awkward. But this is kind of just because at the point we’re at right now, he’s been an existing being for what, like eight to fourteen days or something?? He’s Jekyll but intensified, and if we’re going with the theme of masking, he just.. doesn’t mask anything about himself. He also actively spoils books for people which is kind of funny. Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t JUST an eccentric bad boy or whatever. He’s a terrible person. He’s all of Jekylls (or what Jekyll himself considers to be) bad traits personified. Edward is openly mean, VERY spiteful and just generally a not nice person to be around. He doesn’t like people lying to him, he knows by Chapter gen that Jekyll doesn’t like him and trust me, it’s MUCH more than what you see at the end of that last chapter (as of posting this at least). He gets MUCH worse, and the whole situation with him and Jekyll is much WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT. (BAD-UM SSSSS PUN INTENDED. HA.)

UTTERSON

He’s concerned for his friend, Jekyll. And you know what? He’s probably the least insane and most reasonable one here. I would trust him with my life honestly. He’s responsible, kind, and generally a good person if a little bit nosy when it comes to other peoples situations. But he has good reasons. JEKYLL TRIED TO FRAME IT LIKE UTTERSON BETRAYED HIM BY OPENING THE LETTER. UTTERSON DID NOT DONT LET JEKYLL GET TO YOU UTTERSON IS A WONDERFUL PERSON.

THE MURDERER

You know, I’ve never actually done much but describe the way these guys look. But they DO have cannon designs and some pretty intense lore I’m not revealing yet because spoilers. We don’t like spoilers here.

Yes that was plural. The plural part was intentional. You’ll see.

THE MORALS

All actions have consequences: This isn’t just Jekyll creating oh super evil Edward, it’s his constant mistreatment of his already ‘evil’ or ‘distasteful’ alter ego. Jekylls first thought upon seeing Edward was essentially ‘oh fuck oh god what have I done what have I created what have I unleashed upon this world.’ Followed by pure disgust and shame about what he’s created, or rather what he’s done to himself. Of course, Edwards reaction upon digging through their memories (which is never shown, but mentioned in I THINK chapter ten?) is to be spiteful and live up to what Jekyll thinks he is.

Yes, everything CAN get worse: It’s in the name. Worse than I had thought. TGS Jekyll (Henry), upon looking at a situation almost identical to his from an outside perspective realizes that maybe his situation is worse than he plays it off to be. It’s a BAD situation for both Henry AND Hyde.

Sometimes, being TOO similar can make some people hate one another: Hyde and Edward do not like eachother. They’re too similar but also too different at the same time and it’s jarring to both of them.

And here’s the big one, Masking: Essentially Jekyll masks and put on a facade (haha get it? GET IT??) of being a nice perfect person, and isn’t very good at it and Edward goes “fuck it we ball.”

THE UNIVERSE

This is a biggie to explain. So essentially, yes, it’s a musical, but it’s not THE musical. The songs do not appear in the same order as they do in the original show, instead they appear in whatever context I say fits. The music part works as follows: The music and underscoring (music that plays during a scene or in interludes with dialogue) is an integral part of the universe. Ingrained in everyone’s minds, the motifs they need to know, what means danger, what means it’s time to sing, they know it all. And the singing? It’s just a thing that happens there. It’s a way to push along stories and life and stuff.

The story basis of the universe itself is different. It’s like a mix of the original book, the musical and TGS in a way. I’m not even 100% sure how to explain it myself. But I CAN provide some fun facts about it!!

-Jekyll does not date and is not engaged to Lisa/Emma Carew, and he’s never romantically involved with Lucy either. Because I didn’t want to write romance.

-I’m not sure if I’ll ever mention it, but it IS a cannon fact that Lisa/Emma and Lucy are girlfriends because I’m the creator of the Musical Mixup universe and I do what I want i guess

-Utterson and Jekyll have been friends since probably just before, or since the start of university! They’re very close, and there was even a deleted Edward dialogue saying “I mean, we get along better than them, still not as good as you and Utterson, though.” That was deleted because my editor, Ash, mentioned that it sounded like a dirty joke and I hadn’t intended for it to sound like that.

Aaaand that’s about as much as I can say without there being spoilers for any stuff in chapters I haven't posted yet. If that made zero sense then I apologize, feel free to ask me questions and stuff! I don’t bite, I promise!!

The end!! (For now, probably at least)

#the glass scientists #jekyll and hyde #edward hyde #henry jekyll #tgs hyde #tgs jekyll #oc #worse off than i thought tgs #ao3 fanfic #definatelymrhyde talks about random things

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supakixbabe · 11 months ago

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Ah, hello. I welcome you back to your normally scheduled program of me deciphering what I think is happening within a wrestling storyline by concluding all context and visual representations. It’s a little something I call, “Kayfabe With Laura.”

Today’s topic: Hangman’s Redemption Story; Is Hangman Okay?

The answer is: No.

By now I’m sure you all have either come to the conclusion ‘Hangman’ Adam Page is either a face, heel, or justifiably morally gray before he returned and after he returned. Let’s break down Hangman’s vignette that was shown on AEW’s Saturday night program, Collision. The vignette showed Hangman sitting alone in what is to be believed to be his living room while movers are packing up his things and moving them to what we now know is where he relocated to. Followed by his favorite artist Orville Peck playing ominously in the background. While I can’t decipher the Peck song, I can give you my thoughts on what I think it means.

The song is, “Chemical Sunset” by Orville Peck. There’s a line in his song that goes: “I can see it in your eyes, you're not afraid to die.” And what I got from that is Swerve and The EVPs took everything he had. Made him hate who he is even more than he already does. This man is no longer afraid of the consequences of his actions and will go down swinging. He wants Swerve Strickland, that is his main goal. Swerve broke into his home and went into the presence of his kids' nursery to threaten them both. And Hanger being a family man, you just don’t screw with other people’s families.

We all noticed his shirt. It was the same shirt he wore when he was kicked out of The Elite the first time. The same shirt he went drinking his sorrows in. People are convinced Hangman is on a warpath for the championship, but I’m here to tell you it’s a lot more than that. Sure, he’s consumed by needing that gold strap around his waist; he feels like that will solve all his problems and he’ll be whole again, but he mainly doesn’t want Swerve to have it. Swerve went to depths no man should ever go to with another man, and Hangman wants his redemption, but not just for him, but his violated family.

Hangman lost to Swerve three times in their rivalry, the fourth was a triple-threat at Revolution 24’ so I can’t necessarily count that one. Their match at Wrestle Dream 23’, then their Texas Death Match at Full Gear 23’, then their Dynamite match before Revolution in 24’. Hangman has been blinded by unadulterated rage. Plus Swerve not giving him that ‘five more minutes’ really killed him inside. And his former best friends, the EVPs, Nicholas and Matthew Jackson are latching onto his rage and pushing him through obstacles to get what they want, not really caring if he gets the redemption he needs.

Hangman’s shot was unfortunately taken away by “The American Dragon’ Bryan Danielson by losing to him in the Owen Hart Cup, but I do not believe this is over.

This brings me to Blood & Guts coming up in less than a week; Team AEW Vs Team Elite. Now before you all get excited, Hangman is not a part of The Elite. This is merely a business deal for him to get his hands on Swerve. That’s all he wants – blood. Swerves blood on his hands and his head on a stick. Yeah, it used to be about a championship, but now it’s about Swerve not being on top any longer than he currently is. Now as Matthew and Nicholas seem to think they are on the receiving end of a good deal, they may have made a huge mistake by adding Hangman.

If Hangman is fueled by his rage, who's to say he won’t turn on The Elite during or after the match. Who's to say he won’t be blinded again and cost The Elite the match? Tensions are running high, but one thing is fairly certain, Hangman is on a mission and he will not stop until Swerve’s time on the mountain comes to an abrupt end.

My only question: Can Hangman and The Elite co-exist even after everything that went down? There is some serious bad blood between them all.

Note: Feel free to reblog with your own thoughts and opinions. I love reading them. ♥️

#wrestling #aew #the young bucks #matt jackson #nick jackson #young bucks #nicholas jackson #the elite #matthew jackson #bryan danielson #aew dynamite #kazuchika okada #jack perry #team elite #team aew #aew blood & guts #kayfabe with laura

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meekoftheweek · 11 months ago

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**SPOILER WARNING FOR "SLAY THE PRINCESS"**

I know I said in my post from earlier that I didn't want to put anything out there that might be spoilers but I'm going more in depth because I can't just let these thoughts go away

the thing that resonated with me about this game and its characters and themes was the portrayal of gender roles and the way that they manifest in heterosexual relationships

now, I know that seems like weird connection to make and a bit out of left field but let me explain

we can start with a quick summary

you play as "The Long Quiet", who is told by his inner consciousness to seek out a princess, who we eventually discover is "The Shifting Mound"

Now, we have a man being told his only purpose has to come through a woman by his inner conscience, a predisposed expectation thrust upon our main character. Even worse, when attempting to leave this incredibly confined chain of events, the world collapses, unable to function without this key part of his destiny.

If we look at just the names of our two main characters, we can see that they fit nicely into the old fashioned problematic gender roles of men and women in a heterosexual relationship.

"The Long Quiet" never speaks a word throughout the game, his only form of communication is text based or inner monologue and although this may just be a tactic by the developers to make him more relatable to a wider audience I have trouble seeing this as non deliberate.

Although great progress has been made, men still struggle with talking openly and honestly about their feelings, dealing with the inner conflict of trying to tough things out and deal with their problems on their own and with their own experiences and wisdom instead of speaking up and asking for help. This is why the voices are such an important part of the story, they each represent a branch of possible advice for Quiet, a different perspective - commenting on what should happen next.

It is only through the use of the mirror that these inner voices dissapate, leaving us room to think about ourselves and the decisions we have made free of expectation and worry. It shows our true self and the consequences of our action, no good or bad biases.

Next, we get to "The Shifting Mound" dummed down and objectified as simply "The Princess" - already indicitve of the themes of pre assigned gender roles and ideas. We, as Quiet, in our very first run are encouraged to make a choice - kill or save the princess. It is through following the path of blind devotion and saving her without a second thought that we arrive at the path of The Smitten, a new voice that emerges within us that wants nothing more than to blindly love the princess for all of eternity. This kind of unhealthy attachment is directly addressed by the other voices and when we interact with the princess, she is shown to both physically and mentally simplify before our very eyes. In the mind of The Smitten, the princess is nothing more than a cardboard cutout, a vaugely womanly shaped being without an ounce of depth or meaning, and this is exactly what she becomes, through the conversation with her, she slowly begins to lose all of her meaning, loudly proclaiming after every question you ask that all she wants to do is make you happy - this eventually reaches a breaking point in which this is all she can say. becoming truly emotionless and void of any possible sign of humanity in order to fill our selfish idea of love.

this ties into her name and her role in the game - she's labelled as "The Shifting Mound" and depending on our choices - In another word "us", she will change her form and personailty in order to fit our expectations. This ties into the problematic old fashioned expectations of women to change themselves to fit the wants and needs of men, which cruelly removes them of the ability to genuinely express and be themselves. It is only through repeatedly exploring the different versions and facets of the princess that we eventually learn to truly love her, all of these parts must be accepted - the key to a healthy relationship being a mutual acceptance and understanding of both people involved - free of the societal expectations that bind the way we think and percieve one another.

this is why this game resonated so much with me. these beautiful themes of being more than your label and breaking free from the monotonous loop of holding yourself back in the case of Quiet or changing yourself in the case of Mound for the sake of your significant other I feel is a really important and valuable message, no mattter who you are.

anyway rant aside go play this game it's really good!

#slay the princess #the long quiet #the shifting mound #long post #I CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS GAME

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cazort · 10 months ago

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I've seen a small number of people on Tumblr advocating for voting for Jill Stein, the green party candidate, and a lot of them seem to take for granted the idea that she is better than Harris. None of them really make a convincing case for her, they just seem to assume that she is, particularly on the issue of Palestine.

But here's the thing. I don't even think she's a good candidate. Like I consider her borderline unacceptable, whereas I consider Harris to be a genuinely good candidate. It's bad enough that if I were in a state like Maine or Alaska that had ranked choice, I'm not even sure I would rank Jill Stein above Kamala Harris.

Why don't I like Jill Stein?

Inexperience. She has only held one political office, the town meeting (like city council) of Lexington, MA, a city with population under 35,000. This community is an extremely affluent community that leans very far left; in 2020 nearly 81% of the community voted for Biden and under 17% for Trump. Interestingly, in this own community where she served as a local elected official, in her 2016 run she still only got 1.3% of the vote, so she isn't even popular in the one place she has the most experience. She has never held state- or national political office and she has lost every other election she has run in. Her lack of experience is related both to her ability to win (people are unlikely to vote for someone who lacks experience) and her ability to do the job if she were to win. And it's not unrealistic for independents and third-party candidates to get elected to bigger offices. There have always been a few in US congress and it would be more attainable to get into a state congress; a few green party members have done this recently: Shane Robinson served in the MD state house until 2019, Henry Bear and Ralph Chapman in Maine. One, Fred Smith, even got elected in Arkansas as a green party candidate although he later changed back to a Democrat. The point is that there are even people in her party who are more experienced.

Disregard for the consequences of her actions. She threw at least one national election, the 2016 Presidential election, for Trump, and we are still suffering the consequences. Jill Stein's actions contributed to outcomes including the loss of abortion rights, all sorts of horrible environmental consequences, all sorts of negative consequences for immigrants, and a long list of other problems. This scenario is fully preventable; it could be prevented for instance by calling on your followers to only vote for you in states with ranked choice and non-swing states, and then giving a conditional endorsement of the next-best candidate and calling on your supporters to vote for them in swing states that lack ranked choice. She could have made this call and prevented the calamity we lived through, but she didn't. This shows great irresponsibility.

Age. She is already getting very old; she is currently 74 which is only 7 years younger than Biden and 4 years younger than Trump. Age was one of my biggest objections to Biden, was a big factor in me disliking Trump, and is a major reason I think Harris is a big improvement. And Jill Stein is much closer to Trump and Biden in age than Harris. Age is a big concern for me because older people are likely to be or become out-of-touch on many issues and also may experience cognitive decline.

Platform. Jill Stein's platform is objectively worse (and weaker) than the national/global green party's platform. One of my favorite things about the green party is that they tend to take a systems approach to environmentalism, through things like carbon tax which work with the market rather than against it. In countries where the green party has a significant number of seats in the legislature, like Germany where they control 117/733 seats in the Bundestag, they often end up cooperating with pro-business parties like Libertarians and even the center-right party on some issues, and this makes them better able to achieve their goals. But Stein takes a more stereotypically liberal "tax and spend" and regulatory approach making her not much different from the mainstream of the Democratic party in this regard. I.e. she supported the "green new deal" which is supported by many Democrats and to some degree by nearly all Democrats. This approach makes it less likely she would be able to appeal to and/or cooperate with moderates and independents.

Lack of a realistic plan to win. There is a realistic path for an idealistic third-party candidate to win the presidency, and it is through getting ranked choice implemented in more states first, thus removing the spoiler effect. And it particularly through embracing TVR (total vote runoff) over IRV (Instant Runoff Voting, which Alaska and Maine use currently.) Jill Stein hasn't even mentioned TVR, and although she has voiced support for ranked choice, it is not a point that she emphasizes particularly strongly. She is not active in the Fair Vote movement which is the largest movement to implement ranked choice in most states. To me, this sends the message that she's not really in it to win, she's just here to make a statement.

She's not a serious candidate, not a good candidate, and not an acceptable candidate.

I don't say this lightly, but I think that if I wanted to, I could mount a more successful third-party campaign for the presidency than she has. I think I would be a better candidate for president than she is. And I think I could make a more realistic path towards those goals than she has.

And I don't even think I'm particularly good. I know other people who could probably even do a better job than me. This is not saying I or these other people would be good candidates. It's more saying how I just see Jill Stein as being inadequate.

And this is why I think Jill Stein is a really lousy candidate. She is not the idealistic third-party candidate to break us out of the two-party system.

And when you see this, you see that all the people pushing her as "the only good candidate" are really pushing anti-vote propaganda. They are trying to manipulate the left into throwing the election.

This election cycle we have a legitimately good candidate: Harris. She ticks all the boxes. She is younger than Biden. She is more progressive yet while being rooted in reality enough to bring in moderates. She has called for a ceasefire in Palestine, and has been critical enough that she's attracted ire and backlash from the Israeli hardliner and AIPAC-funded crowd. And her track record as Attorney General when you start scrutinize it, is surprisingly and refreshingly good. Go look it up and see for yourself.

#jill stein #green party #two party system #us politics #idealism

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shadystranger · 11 months ago

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"The fandom unnecessarily villainizes sam and dean for choosing each other over strangers when it's literally how humans work" great critic but I actually think the fandom (those interested in the brothers' relationship) are reacting to it how they're meant to: in a negative light.

To trace things back, yes, it's a given, kind of an innate human nature to respond in situations by prioritizing the people you know over ones you don't. That is true. On an individual basis, each person would do this, I would do this, and anyone'd be crazy to villainize this act on my and your part. But sam and dean do it, and it's painted in this hyperbolic moral degeneration light both by the narrative (we could argue) and by the fandom. Because see, sam and dean are a little different than you and me.

They're positioned in their world as tragic heroes who, given the nature of their job, are expectedly deprived of things the normal person could enjoy. They don't get to lead normal lives, they don't die by natural causes, and they must navigate through life bearing more than they must know with soul-crippling responsibilities. "We're the people who save the world," sam and dean don't spend much time before they assume the token role of saviors in their world. Along with that role comes even more imposed limitations.

They are more viscerally equipped and knowledgeable. They have access to things randoms could never dream of having (like death and god). The more you know, the worse you sleep and comes with the mere knowing is the obligation to do something about it. Someone ignorant to the whole ordeal simply doesn't have to answer to it.

Basically, they're soldiers. Imagine samdean reporting for duty, they preserve peace of the public and their blind following to decision moral rightness is taken for granted. It comes with the job. You don't get to make ill-advised progress in your self-interest as a person (sth random ppl can enjoy) when several lives are at stake.

At some point, sam and dean themselves are metaphoricaly acting Gods: people's survival or death depends on them. Sometimes, it's a city's worth of population. Other times, it's the entire world. Their right to free-decision making stops depending only on its virtuous intent and starts being consequential. They're elevated to adhere to higher standards and criteria than normal people are held to.

The rightness of their actions will not be determined among a set of feasible options but instead assessed by whether they chose the option with the best consequences. Or not. The main decision-making factor for "heroes" like them should be putting the general welfare at its fore interest. Not one individual's. Especially not if it's one individual's.

When dean and/or sam sacrifices someone stranger to save his brother, it's a subjective good call I can relate and see myself in it, but given their position within the universe it's irresponsible and far objectively wrong; especially if at the cost of saving his brother, several others suffered.

There are criteria for judging the actions of the pivotal role they uphold. From a subjective moralness standpoint, sam and dean are only humans, and they can be cut some slack or even not at all villainized for doing what their instinct demands. On the other hand, moral objectiveness influenced by the world-setting's structure deems the goodness or badness of how they behave based on the particular consequences of their given actions and whether said actions affected people in good or bad ways. If sam and dean did something that brought peace to the world on the whole and reduced suffering, it's good and logical, whereas if said action caused suffering and threatened peace, it's bad.

dean grudgingly accepting sam’s plan to overtake lucifer even though it meant losing his brother is the objectively morally good choice to make. He had to sacrifice his precious family, but he ultimately was rational and responsible enough to know his brother's life is not a fair trade-off to millions. both sam and dean here act in accordance with their positions within the story/world: they're heroes. But by S8 dean doesn't let sam make a similar sacrifice. He prioritizes sam's life over the many who'll be possessed and will either kill others or be killed themselves. sam releases a world-ending evil to save his brother, and later on, both take turns facilitating the guy who practically promises them an apocalypse to once again save each other.

"The good of any one person is no more important from the point of view of the universe than the good of any other." sam or dean's lives aren't more important than someone else's, this was a point so base sam felt the need to make because it needed to be addressed, their lack of changing anything about it is another matter. Thing is they're the world's designated saviors be it by choice or not, the narrative views them as the fact, they're expected to value the well-being of all individuals equally, regardless of their personal closeness. Imagine a firefighter postponing saving you because someone he knows is more important even when the situation for them is not as grave as you. It'd be unethical and worthy of condemnation because in this line of work, and in general when your job is saving people and work towards the greater good, you do it indiscriminately, you don't get to privilege the well-being of yourself or your family over the well-being of distant others.

sam and dean hold a rightful consequentialist commitment to their actions being as good as possible: the basis on which one outcome is better than another is only if it contains a greater sum total of people's betterment. No impartiality.

Yes, it's his brother, his only family, but it's still morally wrong to prioritize him (in their case). Let's use a patriotism allegory. Imagine a general of a losing army. He catches wind of the enemy's secret bases or is exposed to confidentials enough to turn the tide to his side. However, he finds out his family at home is being held hostage. The moment he reveals what he knows, they get killed. A man has to save his family it's the most basic human instinct, yes, but you'd think it's irredeemably wrong for him to prioritize his family in this case. You'd think he doesn't even have the right to choose when it's a choice between two insignificant people and the entire country being infiltrated and invaded, with the deaths of million soldiers and citizens. It's not even a choosing matter. sam and dean are the general in this scenario, and instead of the country being at stake, it's sometimes the entire population they're throwing to the fire for each other. Anyone'd think it's messed up. You're supposed to.

There is a good reason to save your family (brother) over a stranger (or two, or hundred or million); but labeling both actions as right would risk ignoring the important moral difference between the two. And we need to draw an account of what a hero is obliged to do in order to meet minimal moral standards. sam and dean's constant moral failure to meet such standard despite their role in their universe paints them as flawed, sometimes as the story's designated antichrist.

Their ceaseless prioritizing of themselves marks their moral debauchery and decline as heroes. they get away with not fulfilling their obligations that are thrust upon them by design, they're using a cheat code acting not how they're supposed to and that's the characters/narrarive's grip with them. I don't blame corbin for what he did, while It’s extremely wrong that he tried killing sam, it was a call for survival. Your savior normally doesn’t come with conditions. He was faced with an oddity from the typical rescue mission. And he did what he had to ensure the more number of people survives. We sympathize with sam and dean, so we criminalize corbin immediately and side with dean. We're swept by emotions and our judgment is clouded you could say but from a utility standpoint, dean's decision to stay with a dying sam would've lead to four people's death, or three and one heavily wounded meanwhile corbin's leads to three people's survival and the loss of one. With corbin, more lives are saved, with one unfortunate but necessary sacrifice. Morally and objectively, corbin was more right in choking sam than dean was in staying.

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