#moral of the story is if the game ever comes back i will be banned in less than an hour

[miercolaes]

last shitpost for a while but i was going through my folders on the computer and i found screenshots i took from club penguin and apparently when i get mad at someone i use their names for my puffles. idk why, my honest guess is bc i can act as an evil queen since i keep them indoors but that's still funny. all my archenemies had turned to nothing more than puffles in a silly game i once broke my parents' credit card as a kid. i think that's very iconic but please tell me i wasn't the only one doing it. this is normal, right? right?????

[animeomegas]

Visual Novels/Otome games recommendations

Here are some of my favourite games! I’ll include the name, price, some info, and where you can find it, along with my favourite routes and route recommendations! 

1. Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (DEMO)

This is one of my all time favourite games. I’m not kidding when I say that if the full game came out tomorrow priced at like £150, I’d cut back on my food budget until I could afford it. There’s so much replayability, and although I’ve played countless hours again and again, I still occasionally find new secrets and dialogue. 

You play as a delegate for a fictional country of your choice at an event in a neutral castle where you must find a marriage partner (political arrangement, love match or scandalous affair) and help mediate between opposing countries in a world on the brink of a war. Oh, and also survive. Yes, you can die in this game, but if you aren’t about that, you can play the story mode. You survive through your own skills and/or by making alliances. 

There’s so much more to it than that, but I don’t want to spoil anything. 

MC: Female by default, no artwork, but extremely customisable as far as traits, outfits, body type, skin colour, hair and backstory goes. There are multiple MCs to choose from, I believe it is currently 4-6 (?) with an extra 3 ish released when the full game comes out. You can play as any and every type of person with this game, it’s unbelievable! 

PRICE: Free (full game will cost a fair amount if I remember what the creator said, but the demo is very long and completely free) 

ROUTE RECS: Both male and female love interests! There are about 7/8 main love interests, some hidden, a couple of side romances and a couple of political matches too. 

Duke Lyon is my all time favourite. He’s an incredibly intelligent but socially awkward duke who only agreed to turn up to make use of the extensive library and spends the rest of his time standing in the corner of parties being grumpy. With a strong moral code and the world’s most adorable blush (that’s easy to tease out of him) he’s absolutely my favourite. 

But maybe you’d prefer the ever cheerful Earl Emmett, with a personality like sunshine and a love for travel and plants? Or Ana, the warrior princess who is very upset by the event’s ban on weaponry (although she makes do with using bread as a projectile). There’s so many to choose from! 

There are also many friendship routes you can take which provide some of the best content!! 

DOWNSIDES: The game is still not finished, so there are some grammar errors and the background art is a little lacking in some places, but honestly, it’s easy to ignore. I will say the major downside is how long the game is taking to complete. Although it’s still being developed and is in the final stages, the creator is active very rarely and I’ve been waiting for the game for half a decade now. It’s still really worth it though, and it’s not left on a cliff-hanger, so that’s good lol. 

WHERE TO FIND: The extended demo is up until week 5 of the game and I know that the forums where this was hosted have been down for a while, but I actually have copies of the game files, both mac and pc, so send me a private message if you’re interested in the extended demo and I will share the files 😉

...

2. Ebon Light (Complete) 

I followed the progress of this game very attentively as it was being developed. It has a very dark concept, and believe me, you will probably die at least a few dies, I certainly did.

You play as a poor woman living in the woods with her aunt, foraging for food, living that old timey life, when abruptly things take a turn and you end up on a hostile island full of very attractive but terrifying elves, most of who want to murder you for being human. But fear not, there are ways to keep your place, you just have to have the skills to pull them off without meeting a sticky end. 

MC: Female by default but with multiple hairs, skin colours and eye colours.

PRICE: Free - the full game is completely free! 

ROUTE RECS: Vadeyn is my favourite. He’s a competent soldier who wishes he lived anywhere but the militant country where he does. He is often bullied for being ‘soft’ for his pacifist tendencies. And he’s very pretty so.... 

But, maybe you’d prefer Haron, a cheeky and curious man who wants to learn more about humans. Or maybe his older brother Ernol, who is cold and withdrawn and in some serious denial about falling in love with a human? There are 5 love interests to choose from. 

DOWNSIDES: The romance and gameplay is really good, but there is a side plot about magic that gets ignored as a result. The mystery of the magical poison is a bit blah, but if you’re here for the romance and the political intrigue/survival, then you probably won’t care. But it’s free so, yeah!

WHERE TO FIND: https://underbliss.itch.io/ebon-light 

...

3. Changeling (Complete)

I had been watching this game for some time but couldn’t afford to pay full price when I was a teenager, but luckily, it was added to the racial equality bundle on Itchi.io for $5, so I managed to snag it cheap, which is no longer an option. I played through all the routes in three days where I did nothing but play this lol. 

You play as a high school girl who is moving back to her hometown for the end of school after having been living in the city for a while. But strange things start happening and she ends up in a club full of... interesting people. I don’t want to spoil anymore, but the game is seriously big! 

When I first played, I thought that there was going to be a lot of overlap between routes which would ruin the replayability, but no! Apart from a very small prologue, every route is entirely different with different dialogue, different plots, different side characters. It’s crazy! That really helps justify the price I think, because the gameplay lasts a very long time. 

MC: Female, name is customisable, but that’s it. 

PRICE: $19.99

ROUTE RECS: William the human psychic is an easy pick for my favourite. He’s shy and spends a lot of time on his own, but he’s also dedicated and dealing with a lot in his life outside of school. He’s the sweetest character by far, and I love him :) 

But I also really liked Corvin the blond clutz who couldn’t stay on his own two feet if his life depended on it, and Elliot, a not so secret hopeless romantic with a pretty awkward but hilarious sense of humour. 

There are 6 (? ish) routes to play. 

DOWNSIDES: Sometimes the main character can be frustrating but it’s definitely in character and makes sense for a high school student, so it’s not a plot hole, it’s just teenagers like this that refuse to ask for help are very annoying. The price is a big one too, obviously, it would be too much for some people. There isn’t a demo, so be careful about spending money on my recommendation, be sure you actually want it. But if you happened to be one of the many people who bought the racial equality bundle from itch.io, then you’ll already have this game! If that’s the case, give it a shot! 

WHERE TO FIND: https://steamberry.itch.io/changeling

...

4. The Letter

This is a visual novel, one with a horror theme! I loved this game so much, the way the game branched was so interesting! I remember thinking the game must have been super easy, because I kept the character alive the first time around, but a lot of my decisions were made on a whim with no real reason. I replayed it with opposite choices and oh boy. Turns out I was just lucky lmao. 

I love love love the art for this game, and the deaths are really gruesome and impactful. 

You play as the entire cast, going through the story of 7(?) ish people and unravelling the story in a non chronological, but easy to follow timeline. It’s a lot of reading and not much gameplay (emphasis the visual novel part) but the choices all have far reaching effects on the story. There are many times where I got caught up in the lives and dramas of the characters and then was completely caught of guard when I was suddenly having to press keys in the right order to escape a horrific monster that was slowly crawling towards me. Terrifying! 

MC: None, you play as every character. 

PRICE: £14.99

ROUTE RECS: None, there are no traditional routes, although there are romance subplots if you choose to get the characters together. There is also a huge walkthrough available if you’re interested in that.

DOWNSIDES: The voice acting is painful! Because it’s an entirely American cast trying to do a variety of accents. Some are good, for those who know her, AmaLee sings the opening and voices one of the characters, she’s really good. But hearing Americans do Scottish accents is really.... tough on the ears. Maybe if you aren’t British like me you could stomach it, but I played with the voices off. I didn’t find that took away from my experience though! Also, there is a lot of reading! 

WHERE TO FIND: https://store.steampowered.com/app/460430/The_Letter__Horror_Visual_Novel/

...

5. Tailor Tales (Some routes complete, others in progress) 

This game is one where every route is a completely separate story, so even if the whole game isn't complete, your experience will be. I’ve actually only played one character, Dimitri, because he’s the only submissive love interest that’s out at the moment (although an even more explicit submissive character is in the works for some time over the next few years.) 

My favourite part of this game, is that you can choose between king and fierce responses every time you have a choice. And the fierce responses aren’t mean, they’re just more forward, and I love that! 

(Dimitri’s route) You play as an owner of a new boutique who bumps into her ex boyfriend’s little brother who is in desperate need for a place to stay. And you have a spare room and could use some help cooking and cleaning. Shenanigans ensue. 

MC: Female, can’t choose backstory but I think I remember skin tone and hair and eye customisation. 

PRICE: Free!! (The other submissive route I mentioned is going to be priced because of explicit content, but the current routes are free. You do have to play a mini game in between chapters to earn coins to get the next chaoter, but it doesn’t take long and isn’t that hard. If you want to skip that, and also get an extended epilogue and some extra nsfw content, you can buy the premium version, which costs £1.99. 

ROUTE RECS: Dimitri, obviously haha. There are two other routes I think? I haven’t played them, because the LIs are a bit too dom for me, but you still get the kind vs fierce options, and I’ve heard that the MCs are still pretty good! I haven’t played them though. 

DOWNSIDES: The mini games in-between chapters can be annoying, but it’s cheap to get rid of them. But, it’s free/cheap and really cute to fluster Dimitri!! 

WHERE TO FIND: https://store.steampowered.com/app/939330/Tailor_Tales/

...

6. When the Night Comes

This was one I really don’t remember paying for? But I looked it up and it costs money? Maybe I hallucinated it lmao. 

Either way, I really enjoyed a couple of the routes for this game, and the general story was pretty good too! If I remember it correctly, there were two character that were switches, so you could choose to lead or be led. I loved that!

MC: Customizable pronouns, male and female romances (mostly male I think)

PRICE: $12.99

ROUTE RECS: I remember Ezra being my favourite by far, I definitely played the rest of them, but the story is the same each time, so I wasn’t as invested. I can’t remember much about anyone else haha. 

DOWNSIDES: Limited replayability because main story is the same each time. I also don’t remember the game lasting that long. If you have the money, it’d probably be worth it, but I wouldn’t suggest you save up unless you’re very interested in it. 

WHERE TO FIND: https://lunarisgames.itch.io/wtnc

...

7. The Wayhaven Chronicles

This is an interactive story, not a visual novel or otome game, but I think it’s amazing and I’d love to recommend it!

This is a series of interactve novels, only two are out so far, but I believe there’s supposed to be like 7 or something crazy. 

You play as a detective in a small town where mysterious things have started to happen. Then, an equally mysterious team of agents rolls in to help you solve the mystery. 

As an interactive novel, everything is insanely customisable! I’m waiting for the third one right now and I’m so excited that it might be out this year! 

MC: Customisable pronouns, height, hair, clothes, food tastes, interior design, familial relationships, personality etc. Everything! Love interests are also customisable as male or female or a mix of both. There are four love interests. 

PRICE: I think it’s £3.99 per book? You can play the first few chapters for free though, to see if you like it! 

ROUTE RECS: Nate! (Or Nat) is my favourite by far, I love him. He’s an intelligent, caring man who is a little oblivious at times. If you’re looking for some pain too, you can play a love triangle route too, which is full of pain! It’s great! 

DOWNSIDES: Because of the rules of the website, you can’t save your progress until the next book is almost finished. So, you do end up having to replay the books sometimes to prepare for the new books. 

WHERE TO FIND: https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/wayhaven-chronicles-1/ 

or

https://store.steampowered.com/app/800600/Wayhaven_Chronicles_Book_One/

...

Phew, I’ve definitely missed some off of there, but I don’t want to write any more haha. I’ll make another one some time soon maybe? If you have any questions about these games or have also played them and want to chat, or you have recs for me, let me know!! <3333

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Expanding on the “Schlatt’s book made Dream self-aware” theory

Okay, I know this theory sounds ridiculous...but hear me out.

I haven’t for the life of me been able to come up with any other possibilities for what this mystery’s answer could be, but now I’ve had the idea.

What if Schlatt’s book made Dream self-aware?

---

Let’s go over what we know about Schlatt’s book.

---

With regards to the prison, which Dream mentions the book pertains to:

Dream: “It’s just an option, because if you can’t kill somebody, you might need to lock them up.”

“I have someone in mind, but we might have to wait to do that.”

Bad: “It’s gonna be Tommy.”

Dream: (chuckles) “Tommy’s exiled. I think, for now...Tommy could end up in it, it just depends...if he does more evil, bad stuff, but...”

-

(They discuss the Crimson a little, as it had just been discovered that day)

Dream: “Speaking of creepy things...I actually have not ever to this point brought this up, so this is interesting...Do you remember whenever I switched sides? I was helping Pogtopia and I was trying to...mostly just ‘cause I didn’t like L’manburg, and Manberg, and I didn’t like their government, and I switched sides to Schlatt.”

“But the reason I switched sides was because he gave me something in order to switch sides to him, and I mentioned that...”

Bad: “What’d he give you? I remember that! What’d he give you?”

Dream: “He gave me something...very, very, very good. BUT -- that card is always up my sleeves until...until I need it.”

“I won’t go into specifics, but what he gave me was a book.”

Bad: “What kind of book?”

Dream: “The book.”

Bad: “But what kind of book?”

Dream: “A book with massive value.”

Sam: “A book containing what, exactly?”

Sam: “Maybe information? Oh! He gave him--”

Sam and Dream at the same time: “--information.”

Bad: “Information about what?”

Dream: “Mmmm...I think that it puts me in danger if people know I have this information. I can’t clarify what it is, otherwise -- I don’t think -- you wouldn’t -- it wouldn’t be a danger to you, but to other people, that...”

Bad: “Oh...okay. I’m really curious now.”

Dream: “I...we’ll find out.”

Sam: “Wait, so you’re saying...Schlatt traded you information to join his side, which you accepted, so it must’ve been valuable.”

Dream: (chuckles) “I think it’s the most valuable thing on the server!”

...

Dream: “I think that, in pertaining to the prison, it may be important, but -- so maybe I’ll have to tell you guys once the prison’s construction is done, but...we’ll see.”

“I think you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what he gave me.”

---

Now, let’s go over what Dream had been acting like up until the point that he turned.

- He had fought alongside Tommy and Techno in the Battle of the Lake.

- He was willing to trade a disc to get Spirit’s leather back from Skeppy. He still cared about Spirit.

- He claimed that he’d had a change of heart about L’manburg, that Schlatt was worse than Wilbur because he threatened the peace between their nations that had persisted up until that point.

- He supported Quackity during the Election because he figured that Quackity having a cabinet member from Dream SMP and a cabinet member from L’manburg would be an excellent way to maintain a truce between the factions. He did not vote for Schlatt. He said he “endorsed justice.” 

He had some sort of humanity to him, some sort of moral compass.

- And, very importantly...

He'd been repeatedly outsmarted by Tommy.

In the Disc War, in the Railway Skirmish, the Spirit Scam? Tommy kept slipping away with leverage against him. 

---

So how do these points add up to self-awareness?

Well, let’s go through ‘em!

- Schlatt. That guy in particular.

The only guy to have permanently died twice. Tommy referred to Schlatt’s ban as the first “death” of the server while he was in exile, and it makes sense that Schlatt’s ban would be seen as a canon death - it influenced Tommy’s character arc and was treated like a death in the story.

And when Schlatt came back...well, he was a little bit different, wasn’t he? Somehow, he was always several steps ahead despite being an “idiot.” Time and time again, he kept pulling out the tricks he had up his sleeve. Time and time again, he was more aware than he let on.

Pogtopia never outsmarted him. Ever.

He knew something no one else did.

And now that Dream knows what he knows, notice how he hasn’t been outsmarted by Tommy ever since? Tommy’s tried, but it didn’t work. Now, Dream always seems to be several steps ahead. Always pulling the strings. Always saying the right things.

- It puts Dream in danger if people know, yet doesn’t apply as much to Sam and Bad.

Having self-awareness makes you incredibly powerful. Of course Dream wouldn’t want that information falling into the wrong hands.

But why not Sam and Bad?

Well, what do those two have in common?

Not only are they neutral parties, but they’re both two of the original eight members of the server. They both keep memory of a time before Tommy. Before plot. They’d be shocked to know, sure, but they likely wouldn’t turn on Dream for it. They’ve been here before the Story.

- It’s information. And it’s the most valuable thing on the server.

Think about that for a second. Dream said that the only thing he cares about now are the discs, because they give him power over Tommy.

But this piece of information is somehow more important than those discs. It supersedes them. The discs are the entire plot! And yet this is more important.

Perhaps even the script itself?

- With regards to the prison and its prisoner, Dream kept talking about the future. Someone who’s a threat now or in the future. Sure, Dream’s smart and can plan well, but this is a long, long game plan to have over the course of several weeks. 

And what is Pandora’s Vault if not one giant plot point to avoid killing off characters? The prison is meant for a person who Dream can’t kill.

Dream can’t kill off Tommy, because that would end the story.

- It’s so shocking that the other characters wouldn’t believe it if Dream told them. I’d say gaining self-awareness is pretty surprising, right?

---

So, Dream’s lost all care for anything on the server except for the discs. He no longer cares about Spirit, or even his friends, just the discs, because Tommy cares about the discs.

The discs are what keeps Tommy fighting. Now that L’manburg’s gone, it’s the only thing that’s keeping Tommy fighting. He’s willing to die trying to take them back.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how Dream’s character motivations seem eerily similar to the writers’ motivations in the meta -- to keep the story going, to keep everything entertaining and fun, to make the SMP thrive.

That’s the only thing that seems to keep him going right now. He doesn’t care about anything else. The discs are important because they keep the story going. As long as Tommy keeps fighting for the discs, Dream’s story will never end either.

Tommy wants the endgame, but Dream would never let him get there. Not on his watch.

Because Tommy’s right: Dream is scared of him. Tommy’s the only one who can end the story.

Dream wants the story to keep going. He wants it to keep beginning again and again, and never end.

---

He said this when Wilbur blew up L’manburg, starting the story anew:

“This is the start, Tommy. It may feel like the end, but this is literally just the beginning.”

And now:

“In all destruction, there is a new beginning.”

“Beautiful, you know? The unfinished symphony, right?”

“Tommy? I’m not done with you. Y’know, our story’s not over -- L’manburg’s story is over -- our story’s not over.”

“I don’t think our story will ever be over, Tommy.”

“I think that...you’re just too fun."

And of course...

“...It’s just a game.”

[iamtryingtobelieve]

if an Year Zero finally to be adapted, what we need to know about it before seen it in the tv show?

Nothing too much as there was never really truly a narrative plot to Year Zero the album, the songs were rather a character study of different individuals and events in the in game universe all leading to an apocalypse. The websites and ARG is where the “story” took place

Sadly the websites that were part of the ARG are down now but i know there is a PDF document called Exhibit 24 which holds a lot of the website information and little bits of storyline. Also the NIN wiki has several resources.

I think all that's need to know is that it's 2022 and the US government decides to go back to Year Zero as a fresh new start. However this particular government is in favour of the bible and the gun with them testing new drugs on the public (see the US Wiretap nightclub audio) to keep them compliant and training soldiers to be come absolute killing machines that they literally get off on murdering with no consequences or chances of PTSD (see the Angry Sniper/Ball Game Over.mp3)

Within the general public, there is Art is Resistance group protesting against the government (US Bureau of Morality) and in the universe were producing art murals at different shows and holding a few secret events having the general public involved in the game such as hidden website links in murals, USBs in concert venues, several lucky members getting ammo boxes filled with memorabilia and a working cellphone which would accept calls among other things. One event was a secret show where NIN appeared and played about 3 songs (including one of the only times We’re In This Together got ever played live) but the show then got “raided” by the US Bureau of Morality cutting it short.

To give the shorthand version, there is supposedly an entity called The Presence which appears and demands mankind better their ways or be annihilated, however it is unknown whether The Presence is real or an hallucination from the in universe drug Opal that a lot of people have been taking or a spectre created by the government. Obviously humanity fails to listen and is destroyed either by The Presence or from total nuclear annihilation as seen in the Year Zero Remixed artwork and heard in the songs In This Twilight/Zero Sum.

Before the apocalypse, a team of students finally found how to displace time and go back into the past. Several of the websites have references to books or media that are banned in the universe of the game. The team of students manage to send us in the then modern day of 2007 the websites and videos/audios from the future as a parable for us to try and better our ways. 

I do hope that one day we shall see an adaptation of some sort of the World of Year Zero and see the joint vision of Trent, Rob Sheridan and 42 Entertainment come to life to make my favourite album of all time a visual spectacle.

[theletterunread]

Gothic Tale

I.

Not that I see much of anybody anymore, but I imagine that what would shock people most were I to tell them my story would not be the terrors of my three months in New Hampshire, but the notion that I once worked in reality television. For 25 years, I’ve been known only as a hermit and a luddite. My cabin has only one electronic device – a smoke detector that the woman who brings my bi-weekly groceries insisted I put up. “I get frightened,” she told me. “One night, you’ll leave one of those candles burning after you go to sleep, and you’ll cook to death.” Burning to death, I have long known, is not the worst fate that can befall a person, but to put her mind at ease – and to stop her continual offers to have her brother install “just a few simple lights” – I agreed to accept the device.

It was not always so. In 2021, when I lived in Hollywood, I was in a first-floor apartment and kept late hours, so the lights were flipped on for hours. I kept my air conditioner running anytime the temperature threatened to rise above 78 degrees. My home was full of dozens of small gizmos burning up kilowatt-hours: cell phone chargers, coffee machines, an electric toothbrush and Waterpik, two video game consoles (one contemporary, one vintage), and of course, my computer, connected to my router and connecting me to the world outside.

Like anyone who ventures onto the internet, most of my time there was wasted, but I forced myself to spend at least one hour a day hustling, a term I am disgusted to think I ever willingly applied to myself. I was searching for serious camera operator positions, having told myself a year earlier that I would no longer do student films. I believed they were holding me back, preventing professionals from taking me seriously. This may have been true, but they were at least paying my bills, and after a year without work, I was nearing the reaches of my funds. So when I at last received a response to my emailed resume, an invitation to come in for an interview, I was so relieved that I didn’t register for whole minutes that the job was for a reality show.

Not that I can claim I had an objection to reality television. I didn’t watch it, and I enjoyed privately condescending to and disdaining those who did, but there was no moral objection, no concern for the audiences being lied to or the subjects being exploited. The job was well paying, and that’s as much as I needed to know before accepting it. I mentioned it to one friend, who warned me that reality television “burns you out,” and that I “oughta be careful, dude,” which was enough to stop me from mentioning it to anybody else.

I had a week before I was expected to be in New Hampshire, which I spent catching up on 90 Day Fiancé. The show foreigners coming to the United States on three-month visas to marry their American fiancés. The couples had 90 days in which to get married, or the foreigner would have to return home. The task of us on the crew would be to encourage and capture awkward, humiliating, culture-clashing moments to be edited into a train wreck suitable for broadcast. Once I could watch previous seasons of the show without turning away in empathetic embarrassment, I knew I was fully prepped for the job, and I boarded my plane to Logan International with confidence.

II.

I had been told to expect my supervising producer to meet me at the airport, but I had assumed they’d be acting in the capacity of chauffer to New Hampshire, and that we’d spend the drive going over her plans for the shoot. Instead, I was met at baggage claim, yes, by Paula, our producer, but also by the rest of the crew and a Canon C300 MKII, which they handed to me without preamble. Apparently, the bride-to-be, Elena, was arriving on a flight from Romania just behind me, and we were there to film the meeting of her and her fiancé, Caleb. He was a patently dorky 30-year-old who surprised me none when he mentioned his work as a computer programmer. He’d arrived at the airport with a banner reading “WELCOME TO AMERICA MY LOVE,” which I remarked upon, scoffing, to a sound man. He told me that the banner had been prepared for Caleb by Paula, whom I now saw was deeper in the airport, ready to intercept Elena and give her some directions we began filming.

When Elena did arrive, Caleb held out the banner smiling, and said, “Welcome, darling. Welcome to America.” Elena smiled in what read to me as a slightly self-conscious manner, and jogged over to him. As they embraced, the other camera operators and I pushed in closer. Over Caleb’s shoulder, Paula was making an encouraging kissy face. Elena took the cue and kissed her fiancé.

Caleb’s car had already been fitted with cameras, so he drove back to Claremont while we followed in a van, watching feed of their drive on our monitors. Their conversation consisted mainly of Caleb saying that he was happy and that he couldn’t believe she was “really here,” and her replying with one or two words at a time. She was either jetlagged or uneasy with English or nervous – and my money was on the last, because Caleb would not stop mentioning that she was about to meet his family. I remember having a faint thought that it was unusual that Caleb would set up a meeting between his fiancé and his family without giving her a chance to recover from her overseas flight, and having a fainter thought that it was strange that his aged parents would still be awake near midnight, when we would be arriving at Claremont. Had I dwelt longer on these thoughts, I might have determined earlier that something was amiss.

Perhaps these suspicious thoughts were disrupted by my first sight of Caleb’s parents. Debbie and Alan looked fit and healthy, waving to us from the porch of their enormous Victorian mansion. Their physical appearance and obvious wealth suggested to me a kind of high mental functioning that was immediately countered by their personality. All through dinner, Debbie and Alan condescended to and insulted Elena. Referring to the generous spread of food on the dining table, Alan nudged Elena and said, “Better than peasant food, right?” which inspired Debbie to wonder if Romania was “really as dirty as the pictures make it look.” When Alan asked Elena if she’d “ever used indoor plumbing before,” and Caleb failed to speak up in her defense, I nearly interjected myself. But a look from Paula told me that she knew what I was thinking and to keep the camera rolling.

It was astounding to me that any family would willingly be filmed looking so terrible, but I chalked it up to the lure of fame and the promise of profits therefrom. As it turned out, Debbie and Alan were profiting immediately, having worked out a deal with our production company. We crew would pay to stay in their guest house for the duration of the shoot. I had been looking forward to staying in a hotel, but I couldn’t argue with the convenience of these accommodations, and once I was situated in my bed, I realized that sleep was sleep, whatever room you have.

At least, it is if you can be undisturbed. And on that first night, I awoke to faint whispering voices. The room was pitch black, but a crack of light shone from beneath my bedroom door, and I could see shadows moving as the whisperers milled in the hall. Silently, I threw off my covers and crept towards the door. The whispering grew clearer, but not yet discernable. As I leaned forward to put my ear to the door, a floorboard beneath me creaked. The whispering and the moving shadows abruptly stopped. Hoping to catch my disruptors in the act, I instantly threw open the door.

There was nobody, and glancing down the hall in both directions, I could see no indication that anybody had been there in hours. I assumed that I had let a dream bleed into my waking life, and turned off the hallway’s overhead light and headed back to my bed. But the whispering voices resumed, coming now from farther down the hallway.

I froze for only a second before padding down the hall in the direction of the noise. (It is astounding to me to remember that there was a time when I was not only unafraid of what hid in the dark, but eager to meet it.) I picked up my pace and rounded a corner, colliding with something hard and heavy. I fumbled, found a light switch, and saw that I had bumped into a stack of equipment cases. I recalled now that this dead-end was where the rest of the crew and I were storing our lights, cameras, and sound equipment.

I picked up a wireless microphone receiver, which was still switched on. It was emitting a steady, blank whispering noise. I switched it off and finally there was complete silence. I walked back to my room, telling myself that I had resolved the mystery. But a subconscious choice betrayed my true feelings: I did not turn off the hallway lights.

III.

Filming began in earnest, and it was a dull job. All but the most credulous viewers surely know this already, but the drama seen on reality television is highly manufactured. Being present to filming Elena, Caleb, and his parents was not at all entertaining. I requested to Paula that I be transferred to a b-crew, filming footage around Claremont to add color to context to the main story. This was no more interesting. The locals were intrigued by our cameras, but as soon as I told them what we were there to film, and asked if they would speak about Caleb or his family or his impending marriage, they would go white and clam up. Camera-shy, I assumed.

The only exception was Toby, whom I met when, in a moment of desperation, I went to the local library. I thought that the library might guide me toward some local history to add color to our story – for which, read: I was looking for examples of old-fashioned Yankee racism and xenophobia that could be peppered in to create friction between the American family and the Romanian Elena. Toby was a librarian who was not only willing to help me dig up dirt on Claremont, but also, when I told him whom we were in town to film, was eager to dish about Caleb and his family.

“I could tell you stories about that family. Stuff that would turn your stomach.”

“Bring it on,” I said, and hoisted my camera. He waved me away.

“No filming. I don’t want them finding out I told you this. Meet me in the staff parking behind the library at midnight.”

Toby was highly conspiratorial – small town people are often drawn to that, I thought, commending myself for being so sagacious – and I was skeptical that any of the secrets he was offering to dish would be good. Still, there was a chance he’d give me some material that I could take to Paula (earning myself an attagirl), and a midnight meeting was no inconvenience for me. I hadn’t been sleeping well since my first night in the guest house.

I stood behind the library for 40 minutes waiting for Toby to arrive. Eventually, I realized that the staff entrance was open, and wondered if he meant for me to meet him inside. But the library was empty too. Not only was Toby not in his office, but it seemed that the office had never been used. Mounds of whispering grey dust were pile on the floor. I felt foolish and walked back to the guest house, calculating how many days were left on Elena’s 90-day visa.

IV.

The weeks went by. My studies of 90 Day Fiancé had led me to expect bridezillas who ran roughshod over the grooms-to-be, but in the case of Caleb and Elena, the roles were reversed. It was Caleb and his family who were micromanaging every aspect of the impending ceremony: calibrating the precise placement of the dais on the side lawn down to the inch, devising a precise arrangement of 1,000 candles to surround the happy couple, insisting on Alan as the officiant. Elena was not consulted on any of these details, merely handled like a prop to be placed “just right.” I wondered at first if this was another one of Paula’s invented dramas, but Caleb’s family seemed quite sincerely to insist on control of the wedding. The process seemed, in fact, to be rejuvenating them. Caleb’s parents looked even more sprightly than they had at the first dinner.

The show had already begun to air, and the world from the network was that Caleb and Elena’s story was the season’s most popular, receiving the lion’s share of social media “engagement.” To capitalize on this, the executive producers had decided to film and broadcast the wedding ceremony live. Caleb and his family were excited by this (of course, I know now that it was them who must have planted the seed of that idea), but Elena made no mention of her feelings on that startling change of plans. In point of fact, Elena never voiced an opinion on anything until, in exasperation, I cornered her during a day’s shoot. I had been filming her trying on wedding dresses, and her total lack of any expressed opinions on the gown drove me to frustration. On our drive back to the house, I asked her, “Does it bother you that Caleb and his parents are making all the decisions about your wedding day?”

“Caleb and his parents are being very generous,” was her response. It reads as wooden on the page, but there was some depth when she said it.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get any input into your own wedding. Did you even have a choice of dress?” I wasn’t marriage-minded, but I channeled the language of friends who were. “A woman only gets one wedding dress. It’s meant to be an expression of yourself as at your most beautiful. That’s for you to pick.”

Elena shook her head. “I don’t care about the wedding.”

“At all?”

“If Caleb and his family care, that is okay. I am just happy to be in America. When I met Caleb, I was just a poor student in Bran. Now, in America, I will have the opportunity to study at MIT.”

I hadn’t known that she was a scientist at all, so this information left me silent. Elena interpreted this as dubiousness, and continued to validate her situation. “I want to study in America, and Caleb loves Romanian girls. That is an okay start for marriage.”

Living in Los Angeles, I’d encountered plenty of fetishes, but not this. “He loves Romanian girls?”

She nodded. “He had come to Bran many times before he met me.” The van pulled into the driveway and Elena returned to her customary silence.

V.

I was off duty the day before the wedding. Sick of television, I went to the public library and pulled an Abraham Lincoln biography off the shelf. I read up to the point when a passing mention of New Hampshire soldiers in the Union Army reminded me of my earlier trip to the library. I asked the librarian at the circulation desk for any books of local history. She said that I was better off perusing their archive of local periodicals and set me up at a microfilm reader. As I settled into my chair, I remembered Toby and asked the librarian to relay a message to him the next time he was at work: “Tell him I’m still waiting to hear those juicy stories.”

The librarian didn’t even hear the message, as, at the mention of Toby’s name, she choked back a sob and said, “He’s missing. We haven’t seen him in weeks.” Before I could ask for details, or apologize for being so thoughtless, she rushed off, and I sheepishly turned to my old newspapers.

“APPLE FARMERS CONFIDENT IN HARVEST YIELD,” was the first story I came to, and I made it only three paragraphs before giving up and scrolling forward in time. “GOVERNOR BELL SUPPORTS ADAMS REELECTION,” was a piece from 1828 that I brushed past. By the early 20th century, we were back to fruit: “BROAD STREET PARK HOSTS APPLE FESTIVAL.”

“Again with the apples?” I muttered, losing hope of finding anything of interest. But my next scroll landed on a familiar sight: a photograph of Caleb’s house. It belonged to an article titled, “HANCHETT HOUSE RESTORATION COMPLETE,” dated August 4, 1976. The photo itself showed several volunteers with tools standing before the house, and was captioned “Some of the volunteers who helped in refurbishing Claremont’s oldest private home.” I looked more closely at the hippie volunteers. One of them looked like Alan, and zooming in on his picture confirmed that the resemblance was total. Not a younger version of the father I had been filming for two-and-a-half months, but the exact same man.

I rapidly scrolled backwards through the film. I stopped at an article from 1942: “LOCAL GALS BAKE APPLE PIES FOR G.I.S.” The photo showed a woman in a victory suit holding up pies to the camera. She was Debbie. The first edition from 1900 featured “LOCALS CELEBRATE NEW CENTURY,” and a picture of Caleb himself posing stiffly in white tie. And at the earliest frame in the spool was a headline from 1865: “TEACHERS LEAD TRIBUTE TO SLAIN LINCOLN.” The photograph was old and fuzzy, but there was no mistaking the subject. It was Debbie again, looking exactly as she did in the year 2021.

There were rational explanations: these were the family’s ancestors, I was projecting faces that weren’t really there onto these old photographs...but I knew those were wrong. With a certainty that I now think came from some long-buried, prehistoric defense mechanism, I knew that I was among long-lived, supernatural creatures. I backed out of the microfilm room, and searched the shelves for Dewey decimal 390: folklore. A book titled Monsters of North America popped out at me, its cover featuring pictures of Sasquatch, Mothman, and the Jersey Devil. In its index, I looked up “immortality,” for which there was a single subentry: “Immortality in vampires.” I flipped to that chapter and read it with growing horror.

In central Europe, there were stories of vampir de timp – time vampires, who drank not their victim’s blood, but their youth. They regenerated themselves and could live forever without aging. Sometime in the first hundred years of the European occupation of the new world, a group of vampir de timp left central Europe for America, and were suspected in the disappearances of a number of people in New Hampshire. Four people in 1776, two more in 1825, and others in 1874, 1923, and 1972. Each disappearance was preceded by sightings and fragmentary reports of bizarre occult rituals, which the book suggested were probably ceremonies the vampir de timp held to properly sacrifice and harvest their victims. There was no description of what those ceremonies might involve, but the author said they were likely to involve very precise costuming and arrangement of props, and that if it was like other soul-stealing rituals, its power was augmented the more witnesses it had.

VI.

I went straight from the library to Paula’s room. I didn’t dare bring my findings to Elena herself. The language barrier was minor, but I couldn’t conceive of what words would convince her that she had been brought over from Romania to be slaughtered by ancient vampires. Plus I couldn’t be sure that Caleb or Debbie or Alan wouldn’t be listening in, ready to crush my skull if I threatened their 250-year habit of murder. But Paula and I could privately confer and devise a plan to rescue Elena. I was sure that I could enlist Paula by pointing out that the vampires were using her television show, and the audience a live broadcast would bring, to amplify the power of their magic. Producers hate to feel that anybody is smarter than they are.

In a hushed voice, I told her everything I had learned, bringing out Monsters of North America to lend as much credibility as possible to a story about time-sucking vampires. I was ready for skepticism and hoping for sympathetic terror, but Paula regarded the information silently. It was only after I laid out every detail that she spoke. “Hijacking our show for their own ritual…you have to respect how devious it is.”

Her calmness astounded me, and I jumped to the worst possible interpretation. “You already knew? You’ve been part of this from the beginning?”

Paula laughed. “Me? This is the first time I’ve heard any talk about vampires. And I don’t mean within this current production, I mean the first time ever in my life.”

“We’ve been working together for three months. Have I ever made up insane shit before? We have to help Elena.”

“My priority isn’t to help Elena,” Paula answered. “Or to help Caleb or his vampire friends. It’s to entertain our audience. It’s to make great television. And you losing your mind is great television.”

“And what if I’m not crazy?” I demanded. “What if this wedding ceremony is what I say it is, and you’re going to broadcast a live human sacrifice?”

Paula smiled and left the room, dreaming of the television history she’d make.

VII.

The ceremony began promptly at nine the next morning. The preceding night had given me no sleep, but no great plan either, and I took my position behind the camera as if this were nothing but your average hasty, live-on-TV wedding. A cable trailed from my camera (and the four others in use) to an ad hoc editing bay from which Paula oversaw the broadcast. Her station rivaled but was overshadowed by the elaborate altar that the vampires had set up to facilitate their ritual. In addition to the promised 1,000 candles on tall, wooden candelabras, there were burning herbs and eerie symbols carved into the altar.

By chance (or because Paula was trying to goad me into a televisable freak-out), I was positioned closest to the altar. While Elena looked sad beneath her veil, and Caleb held her hands with a hungry look on his face, Alan officiated the ceremony. After moving hastily through a generic we-are-gathered-here-today introduction, he declared, “In honor of the bride’s heritage, I would like to say a few words in Romanian.” With a dopey smile to Elena, he added, “Please forgive my terrible accent.” I had never heard Romanian spoken, but I was not fooled for a second by the words that came from his mouth. They were an incantation in some bizarre, ancient language, long forgotten by any living human.

As he spoke, the sky darkened and a wind picked up. The candelabra nearest me swayed and, instinctively, I held out a hand to steady it. Caleb and his family seemed not to notice. The incantation (which Caleb and Debbie had now joined) was all that held their attention. They were reaching the end, and I was still without any plan to stop their sacrifice. With the wan hope that a 15-second delay might be all the time I needed to get to eureka, I dropped my camera, tightened my grip on the candelabra, and swung it hard at Alan.

As if to confirm that, yes, he was a supernatural monster, he didn’t flinch. Like I’d hit a brick wall, the candelabra splintered and one of its arms broke off. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Paula laughing, thrilled to be capturing my breakdown on live TV. Caleb regarded me for a bored second (deciding, I’m sure, to kill me next), then knocked me down with a bored sweep of his hand. I thumped onto the lawn and as I used the broken candelabra to raise myself up, I noticed for the first time the simple shape beneath its ornamentation. Smacking the remaining arms against the ground, I broke them off. What remained was a long tall piece of wood, perpendicularly intersected by a smaller one.

Coursing with what the devout would call the power of the lord, I rushed the stage, brandishing my cross. And this time, when I brought it down on Alan, he screamed. Smoke rose where the wood touched his skin, and he staggered away from me, howling. Debbie rushed towards me, and I swung a wide right-to-left arc. It connected with her ribs, although connected is not the right word, for when the cross touched her body, it passed through her, like a finger cutting through pudding. Recoiling in disgust, I fell into Caleb’s clutches. I felt something sharp against my throat ­– his hands had grown into long, thin claws – and I thrashed about. The cross made contact with his face and he released me, holding his hands up to his eyes – or what remained of them. A bubbling white goo was oozing through his fingers. Blindly, he ran towards the house, where his parents (or whatever relation these creatures truly were to each other) had already retreated.

I grabbed Elena by the arm and shouted for the crew to pile into our van for a quick escape. They were ahead of me on that one, having abandoned their equipment on the lawn and fled for the driveway themselves. All except for Paula, who had picked up one of the discarded cameras and was following the monsters back into the house. She ignored my cries to come with us and passed through the garden doors. I came close to abandoning her, but instead, after leaving Elena with the crew, followed Paula inside. I could let you imagine that this was heroism, but I didn’t feel anything like bravery when I made the choice. Just a shameful compulsion to see this trainwreck through to the end.

I followed the cable attached to Paula’s camera through the living room and up to a set of open double doors. Approaching them cautiously, I peered into the hallway beyond. At the far end, I could see Paula thrashing on the floor as Caleb and his family tore her to pieces. Debbie bunched her claws into a single talon and drove it into Paula’s chest. Blood sprayed from the wound and all life drained out of her. Before my eyes, Paula body turned grey, stiff and ashy.

Caleb’s family rose, and in the brief moment before they continued through the far door (to their crypts, I presume), I noted that all three of them looked a little younger: Caleb’s hairline was lower, and there were fewer wrinkles on Debbie and Alan’s faces. The restoration had not been as grand as it would have been broadcast to 90 Day Fiancé’s audience of millions, but a few years had been bought.

After they left, I tiptoed down the hall to examine Paula’s body, telling myself that I wanted to retrieve it for a proper burial in order to excuse what I knew was only morbid curiosity. For this, I was punished with a grotesque sight: Paula, though grey, powdery, and desiccating, was still alive. Her eyes, still human, looked at me pleadingly. Her mouth creaked open, but before she could form any words, her jaw unhinged and fell off.

Unable to scream myself, I took a staggering step backwards and tripped. Paula had reached out a hand to grip my ankle. I shook her off, breaking off her hand at the wrist. As I backed out of the room, Elena, or what was left of her, shambled to her feet and tried to follow. But as she walked, her legs began to flake away, until she stumbled and collapsed. Hitting the ground, she burst into a shapeless pile of dust.

I ran from the sight, ran out of the house, ran so fast down the driveway that I caught up to the crew’s van, which had not waited for me to return before leaving. I couldn’t blame them, of course. Once I was in the van and behind the wheel, I drove at high speeds, not stopping for several hours, until we were at an all-night diner in a well-lit part of Washington D.C.

VIII.

The next day, I put Elena on a flight back to Romania, and within the week, the crew and I were back in Los Angeles. I didn’t stay long. After packing up the barest essentials, I abandoned my apartment and set out driving, picking at every junction the least traveled road. For a time, I got calls and emails from the rest of the crew, wishing to discuss what we’d been through, but I solved this problem by throwing my phone out the window of my car somewhere in Idaho.

I never returned to Hollywood ­– the town or the industry. In fact, it’s been 25 years since I stepped outside the borders of Benson County, North Dakota. But I think every day of that family in New Hampshire, perpetuating their evil every generation. And because I worry that they might still think of me, I keep my smoke detector in the farthest corner of the kitchen ceiling with all the blinds in that room shut tight, so that they will never see its red light blinking in the dark and know that they’ve found me.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Oh you use Reddit? Do you go on the HPHM subreddit at all? There's great content.

The long story short is that yes, I have been on the HPHM Subreddit. I'm not going to be on there for a while however, as I have been put on a temporary ban. I can’t really mention that without expecting folks in my inbox to ask why, so I decided not to bury the lead, and that I should probably tell this story. For reasons that I'll get into down the line, I fully expect the moderators of the subreddit to come across this post sooner or later. So to them I say, hello again. No hard feelings. No bad-mouthing here. Just going to recount what happened from my point of view.

When I applied to join the HPHM Reddit group, I hadn’t been on Reddit for very long. So it’s entirely possible that I’m simply not well versed in the rules of etiquette. Every group (or “subreddit” as they seem to be called) that I’ve joined has had specific rules listed, and the HPHM Subreddit was no exception. One of the rules forbids any discussion of cheating or third party apps. And you know what, fair enough. That's a controversial and messy subject, and plenty of people don't approve of third party apps. I had no problem with that when I joined. However, it quickly became clear that this rule wasn't that strictly enforced. I encountered many different posts where people alluded to or directly referenced cheaters, though usually when talking about something else like Full Marks, and always with a tone of condemnation. Many talked about reporting cheaters or encouraged other players to do the same. This gave me the impression that one could get away with mentioning the existence of hackers, just not condoning them. That shall be important later. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I'm seeing a few posts that lead me to that conclusion. Most of them asking about Jam City's customer support. I came across a post where a person had been abruptly banned when they contacted Jam City for help, despite having never used cheats. This is, unfortunately, something that I’ve seen happen before. In my experience, there is very little to gain, and regrettably a lot to lose, by contacting customer support. That’s only my experience of course, but I’ve spoken to many other players who feel the same way. So I advised the OP accordingly, and explained my reasoning.

In one of these comment threads, I went a bit more in-depth. I criticized Jam City's customer support. I did not expect this tangent to be received poorly, as based on what I've seen, the general fandom has mixed feelings about Jam City at the best of times. There was also, to be totally fair, no given rule listed in the subreddit that mentioned them. As is my nature, I kept my comments as polite as possible, mentioning that the game was fantastic, just that customer support was a real weakness for Jam City as a company. I brought up a point that I've made before, that the terms of service are never presented to the player and therefore, no player has ever signed them. I’ve made it no secret on my Tumblr that I am sympathetic to people who use cheats, but I wasn’t about to make that moral argument. I had read the room. 

Besides, I was merely making observations and drawing conclusions about them. My personal opinions weren’t really relevant to the points I was trying to make. I briefly referenced how it made no logical sense to ban cheaters because there was no given rule about third party apps that was accessible to players. I even directly stated that I was not saying this as a defense of cheaters. However, it was ironically enough, this level of caution that doomed me. 

Not long after I had posted these comments, I received notice that I had been permanently banned from the subreddit. I was told that I had spread misinformation, that I had a pro-cheating agenda, and that I had acted in bad faith. That was a very confusing message to wake up to I had no idea where they got this impression of me. So, I wrote back. They said I could ask questions about the ban, and though they never technically allowed me to "appeal" it, that is basically what I did with my response. I asked them what they were talking about. While the stances I voiced might have been unwelcome, I was hard pressed to understand how I had misled anyone. The words “bad faith” really stuck out to me.

Doing a bit more research, I saw comments on the posts I had replied to where the moderators suggested that posts like mine came from cheaters who were lying about potential consequences of contacting Jam City to report players suspected of cheating, all to protect themselves. That may be happening, that may even be a serious problem, I won’t presume to know. All I can say is that I have never met a cheater who even participates in the weekly events. The general consensus I had seen among them was to avoid the weekly events at all costs, precisely to avoid the risk of getting banned. Again, I won’t pretend to be the most knowledgeable about this subject, but I had no hidden agenda and at first, it felt like they had no reason to assume I did. A person doesn't have to be pro-cheater to recognize the nuances of the subject. Cheating in video games (and in general) has always been a debate with two sides.

Well, the moderators got back to me.

They told me that it was harmful to dissuade people from contacting customer support, and they reminded me that third party apps are technically illegal, so it was their view that Jam City didn’t have to make their policy about them obvious to players. I suppose I can understand that perspective, but I still think “zero tolerance” can’t go hand in hand with “zero information.” but that’s a debate for another time. They also answered my query about the claim that I acted in bad faith. Guys, they linked my Tumblr page. They showed me my own words, sending me the petition post I made in defense of Akemi Stormborn after she was banned. In that post, I did defend cheaters. I discouraged Jam City from trying to eradicate cheating, and criticized their methods. In essence, the moderators believed I had an active agenda to discredit Jam City. To that, I have to ask...is HPHM Tumblr just like, far more critical of them than any other chapter of the fandom? Because I've been pretty tame with them compared to other users I've seen. I try to be fair.

The Mods also told me that it was not against the rules for players in the subreddit to use cheats or support players who do, but that it was dishonest for me to hide my bias when discussing the subject. This was news to me. The idea that I could openly side with cheaters or even be one myself and still be allowed on the subreddit...I won’t lie, I feel like the specific rules about these subjects could be made clearer. I messaged them back to make my case, and give my best effort to keep things friendly. Explaining my side of the story. I told them that I was sorry if I had broken the rules, but for a first offense, this felt needlessly harsh. I asked for a second chance, to be given the benefit of the doubt. Pointed out that I hadn’t been given any sort of warning or opportunity to learn from my mistake. They reviewed my case and eventually changed my punishment to a three month ban. So now I’m just waiting out my sentence, so to speak. I wouldn’t say we parted on cordial terms, but as I am terrified of conflict, I have no plans to bring up Jam City’s customer service or the morality of third party apps on the subreddit ever again. I’ve learned my lesson about going near those subjects. 

So that’s how it stands. 

[athingofvikings]

I don’t usually do “call-out” posts, but this case is particularly egregious.  It’s not strictly plagiarism, but it definitely qualifies as some form of creative dishonesty, and I need to vent on it.

So last night (Nov 15, 2020), I saw that my “Related Works” tab on AO3 had iterated up a digit and went to investigate.

What I saw made my blood boil.

“An Englishman Among Vikings” by Heinkelboy05

Checking the comments, I found that, unsurprisingly, the serial liar had lied again, saying, flat out, that he hadn’t worked with me on his story.

So.  

Let me get the record straight.

Here is his first message on ffnet, note the date:

May 27, 2018 

Hello there. This is Heinkelboy05. I'm a 21 year old college student studying to become a history teacher. I'm a big history buff and I try to incorporate it into my stories. My current story is one based on the game Valkyria Chronicles set in an alternate version of 1935. It's mostly historical though with some twists into it. Anyway, before I bore you with anymore details, just bought I'd let you know that I've been reading your story and it inspired me to try and do something similar here for HTTYD. I'm still working on it and trying to get some historical background and such. It's going to have historical information but also some small twists here and there as well. Still working a bit on finding historical information on some things. This one is going to be set earlier in the Viking Era. Just thought I'd let you know.

I responded positively, because hey, why wouldn’t I?

And thus, with the hook set, he reeled me in, talking exclusively about his own work.  We shifted to talking on Discord quickly, but it was just draining to talk to him; he only ever wanted to discuss his own ideas, and he wanted real-time discussions; he would ping me with “free to talk?” and if I wasn’t there right then, he would go off-line.  Once I didn’t get there in time for a week, and I got a passive-aggressive comment that basically was designed to guilt me.  

But, hey, I’m a nice guy, right?  So I invited him to the ATOV Discord server in October 2018, after we’d been working on his story for nearly five months.  

And once he was invited in, he settled in to feed like a vampire at a boarding school dormitory.  

In the following 18 months, he almost never engaged with other people on the server outside of his writing, just pushing his own drafts regularly, and whining that he wasn’t getting any feedback or interest.  Once, he even pinged @everyone because he wanted attention and feedback on the draft he’d just posted.  

And then he made a mistake.  The specific details amount to this: He had claimed back in his first message above that “I’ve been reading your story”, and I had taken it on good faith that he was a reader of mine.  

He wasn’t.

Because in April, he asked in the history discussion channel if anyone had heard of a historical group who show up in a major fashion in my story.

@kalessinsdaughter confronted him later and got him to admit that he’d read “less than half” (i.e. almost certainly a lot less) of my work.

He gave me an “I’m sorry I got caught” nonpology, clearly hoping for a return to the status quo.  

He didn’t get it.  

The long and the short of what followed is that we didn’t kick him from the server immediately; meanwhile, he tried a half-assed charm offensive to try to bribe his way back into my good graces.  I saw right through it, and he ended up getting so offensive and hypocritical that at the end of June, after a breathtakingly disgusting display of White Privilege, I told him that he could either leave or wait for me to find an excuse within the server rules to ban him.

He left.

Last night, I saw that my “Related Works” tab on AO3 had iterated, and went to check it out.

After two years of working on it, he had finally started posting the fic that he had badgered me and others to help him with.

And in the comments was this.

https://archiveofourown.org/comments/363482519

PoeticalHufflepuff on Chapter 2 Sun 15 Nov 2020 11:10AM EST

Oh wow, this looks interesting! The premise reminds me a lot of A Thing Of Vikings, but set later in history. Did you work with him on it?

Heinkelboy05 on Chapter 2 Sun 15 Nov 2020 05:17PM CET

No, I did not. I do however read his story. I’m having this series tied to the events of the HTTYD series to differentiate it from ATOV.

“No, I did not work with him on it.”

Now, the premise of his story is very similar to mine, and that’s fine.  

But, well.  *motions to entire history*

I left a response earlier this morning.  Since I’m not sure if he’ll delete my comment or not, I’ll copy the full text here.

athingofvikings on Chapter 2 Mon 16 Nov 2020 09:42AM CET

Well. Imagine my surprise when my "Related Works" value on my dashboard iterated up a digit last night and I found this waiting at the other end. And then, just to make it worse, I decided to check the comments out of some masochistic impulse and found you lying--as usual.

I suppose I should feel shocked, I really should, given just how brazen this lie is, but I'm not. Because it's always all about you... well, I'm not surprised that those months I spent "working with you" nearly every day two summers ago--remember those days? back before I invited you to the ATOV Discord server?--doesn't count as having "worked with you". Still. Just wow. It's amazing. I knew that you were a Grade-A self-centered asshole, but this really takes the cake. You lied to me, used me, and took advantage of my kindness for two years, and now you have the sheer unremitted gall to deny that I gave my time and effort trying to help you before I realized how much of an emotional vampire you are?

So, let me make this clear to anyone reading this, and I'll be posting this elsewhere as well: I do not accept this work as "inspired by" my own. It was made abundantly clear during Heinkel's time on the ATOV server that he hadn't actually read my work, and that persisted until he was caught in a direct lie on it. Before being caught, he spent nearly two years feeding on people's attention and not giving back to the community I had built; one of the other authors there described trying to help him as "exhausting". Prior to when he was invited to the server (by me in one of my biggest mistakes), he portrayed himself to me as being one of my readers who needed help with his own work. I gave that help freely--and it was exhausting, because he was this weird combination of "I want more clicks/attention", "I want historical accuracy like you do" and "I want these specific ahistorical elements because they're Cool" that just made dealing with him a chore.

I'm not going to call him a plagiarist, because that would require him to have read my work first, and he only did that past the first few chapters after he was caught in his lie. Yes, he took the general premise that I had come up with, but it's so mutilated by the inclusion of ahistorical elements that it's an 'in-name-only' Hollywood-style adaptation, akin to Artemis Fowl, and that's not plagiarism. Anything he might have taken from me directly was just from the first few chapters, because that's all he read before he was caught lying.

But while he's not a plagiarist, he IS a toxic, creatively dishonest, attention-starved, self-centered, exploitive and all-around inconsiderate jackass who used me, used my community, and lied to me all the while, all the while pretending that he was morally upstanding (remember that time you AllLivesMattered my explanation on antisemitism, Heinkel? I remember. I was explaining why my people are so hated and you had to butt in with a "Well, I'm so morally upstanding and good!" comment; pity that you don't actually practice what you said there). When he was caught in his lie by his own clumsiness--he asked if "anyone heard of the Jomsvikings" after they'd been a part of ATOV for years--and after having presented himself as a reader of ATOV for years, he desperately hoped that he wouldn't be called to account. And when he was called on it, he admitted to my friend that he had read "less than half" of my story and gave me an "I'm sorry I got caught" nonpology. I cannot and WILL NOT forgive him for all of that. This lie that he never worked with me on this story is just par for the course with him.

So go ahead and write your fic, Heinkel. It's clear that I can't stop you, and neither can your sense of shame or your sense of honesty, while your sense of integrity has been demonstrably MIA for a while now. But as I told you before I threw you out of the server, you're not getting anything more from me. Not attention, not acceptance, not friendship, not readers. You lied to me for two years, and this is just more of the same self-centered falsehoods. First you kept whining at me to pay attention to you, and passive-aggressively sniping at me when I didn't hop to it, did the same on the server because you were so desperate for attention of any kind--I haven't forgotten that you pinged @everyone because you wanted feedback without having to work at it by giving back to the community--and now you're saying that all of hours I spent helping you in good faith didn't exist, all of the time you spent getting advice and help from people on my server didn't exist.

And now you have the gall to say that you didn't work on it with me.

I only wish that I was surprised.

~~~

So that’s the situation.  

Don’t go harassing the guy.  Don’t report him to AO3--while skeezy, he hasn’t violated the TOS as far as I can tell.  

But I had to get that off my chest.  

[kalyan-gullapalli]

Post # 149

To err is human...

For the past few days, I have been watching a 8-part, one-hour-each, docu-series called The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team on Amazon Prime Video. I just finished it and am bursting to share my thoughts on it. But a little bit of background first.

24th March, 2018, was a day of infamy in the annals of Australian cricketing history!

On this day, in Cape Town, South Africa, on Day 4 of the 3rd Test between visitors Australia and home team South Africa, Cameron Bancroft, a rookie Australian was caught tampering with the condition of the ball with a yellow sandpaper. He then tried to hide the sandpaper in his underwear. Jeez! What was he thinking? Did he not know that there are at least 50 cameras on the cricket ground these days? No one can scratch his back without being caught on one of the cameras.

Steve Smith, considered the greatest test batsman after Sir Don Bradman, because of his stratospheric batting average in tests, was the captain of that Australian side. Dashing opening batsman, David Warner, was the vice-captain. Apparently, Warner was the mastermind of this incident. Steve Smith supposedly knew what was happening, but chose to look the other way. Basically, the Australian team cheated on the cricket ground! And got caught!

The backlash was swift and severe. Though the ICC penalties were light - Bancroft was fined 75% of his match fees and Smith was banned for just one match, Cricket Australia, the national board for cricket in Australia, came down really harsh. They conducted an investigation of their own. Following public admission of guilt from all three players, Australia's Prime Minister at that time, Malcolm Turnbull, phoned Cricket Australia's chairman directly to express his disappointment and concern, stating that strongest action be taken. Smith, Warner and Bancroft were banned from playing all forms of cricket for 12 months. They were flown back midway from the series and replacements flown in immediately. They lost their IPL contracts that year. Product endorsement contracts were cancelled. Darren Lehmann, though not a guilty party, stepped down as coach of the Australian team.

Australia was rocked like never before. Warner, Smith and Bancroft had shamed the proud, cocky nation. Ex-players shook their heads in disgust and expressed their anguish, in public, on international TV. Someone said that this was the biggest scandal since the underarm ball of the Chappell brothers.

There was a huge debate whether the 12 months ban was too harsh. Personally, I didn't think so. I think they deserved every month of the ban. But public opinion was split. Harsha Bhogle said, "I honestly do not believe any other country would have handed its captain and lead player a one-year ban for attempted ball-tampering." ICC saw how steep Cricket Australia's penalties were and made their punishments steeper!

For a while, Smith, Warner and Bancroft mulled taking legal action against CA, but then decided against it. They decided to wait out their ban, straighten themselves in their own heads and hope to come back to the sport again.

The Australian cricket team, arguably the best in the world, was depleted. Their two best batsmen were not available for selection. The rest of the team was scared of its shadow. Morale was low. There were questions about "culture". Australia and Australians were always competitive. They pioneered sledging & other psychological games and called them "getting under the skin of competition." Now somebody crossed the line and the nation had lost respect!

Tim Paine (who?) was made captain and Justin Langer was made coach. Their job - to rebuild a team and regain the lost respect in the eyes of their fans - the Australian people.

I honestly thought Smith, Warner and Bancroft were finished. I didn't think they would ever come back to play for Australia. And I thought Australia was finished as a team to reckon with, for a long long time.

Smith, Warner and Bancroft did come back and play for Australia again. Warner and Smith were the champions of Australia's dream run till the semis in the World Cup 2019. Smith was the player of the tournament when Australia successfully regained the Ashes later that year. In a year and half, Australian cricket was back on its feet. They are not invincible yet, but they are no pushovers either.

And that to me is an exciting story. It is a story of comebacks. It is the story of the triumph of human spirit. It is the story of a few individuals, a team and a nation, owning up to their mistakes, accepting responsibility, bearing the consequences of their actions and making sterling comebacks. And earning back respect!

The Test - A New Era for Australia's Team is that story. It is a behind-the-scene, real time account, of the way the team regrouped under Coach Langer. Like me, you will wonder how a camera (more than one actually) got into the Australian dressing room and followed each and every player's each and every move or action, reaction, emotion, for 18 months? The answer is - this docu-series was authorised, sponsored and produced by Cricket Australia. I wonder how the players and support staff felt about the constant scrutiny. I guess they didn't have too much of a choice.

The 8-part series takes us through the 18-month journey that the young Australian team took, first without Smith and Warner, through the series against Pakistan in Dubai, then against India at home, then against India again in India, their World Cup campaign, with Smith and Warner back in the team (Bancroft too) and finally the Ashes series.

Coach Justin Langer demonstrates why he, along with Haydos (Matthew Hayden), was the best opening bat in the world in his time. With his usual grit and perseverance, he lays down the process of becoming world class again. This mantra keeps repeating again and again throughout the series.

1. Focus on the next ball!

2. Trust the process to deliver the result.

3. Let not temporary setbacks waver your faith on the process.

4. Keep the noise out of the equation.

It was fascinating to see how individuals responded to the process. Usman Khwaja bats for hours and hours in the scorching heat of Dubai to save the test against Pakistan. Nathan Lyon becomes a powerful weapon in the Aussie bowling arsenal with his frequent fifers. Pat Cummins emerges as the leader of the fast bowling pack. Tim Paine (who again?) begins to come on his own and shapes up into an amazing captain. To my mind, he becomes the first Australian captain I like (not just respect) - a nice guy! That's definitely a first for an Australian captain. Over time, Aaron Finch emerges as the ODI and T20 captain. Then Smith-Warner-Bancroft are back. The series shows how they integrated back into the team, their dream world cup campaign till the disastrous semis against England and their phenomenal 2-2 Ashes result.

The journey wasn't smooth, nor was it easy. The series shows candid dressing room conversations, post match meetings, strategy discussions, coaching staff meetings, some selection discussions and so on.

One particularly touching scene was the post match team meeting the day after they lost to England by 1 wicket - the one where Ben Stokes plays and plays and plays, probably the best innings ever, okay, maybe one of the best innings ever - to prevent Aussies the series win. The match was Aussies, till Ben Stokes decided he didn't want to lose yet. Morale in the Aussie camp was low. Coach Langer swallows his own disappointment and holds the meeting to discuss what went wrong and how to do things differently next time. That one was tough to watch. My heart went out for Tim Paine and his team.

It was cool to see some greats of Aussie cricket come into the camp and assist Coach Langer and his staff. Ricky Ponting was Assistant Coach for the World Cup campaign and Steve Waugh joined the team for the Ashes tour. Their interactions with the players and comments and expressions during key moments during the match, caught real time, are fascinating.

But to me, the one person I will watch the series for - again - is Steve Smith. The docu-series begins with Steve Smith being disgraced, deservingly, for his involvement in the scandal. There is a scene where Smith is being escorted by a team of about ten odd security people in the airport - the narrator says, like a common criminal. Of course, we have all seen Smith cry on national and international TV in his oft-repeat-telecast press conference admitting his guilt. I cannot imagine what this man must have gone through. It could have crushed him. Infact, there is a scene where he says he almost decided to hang his boots. But he didn't. He came back.

In the World Cup in England, everywhere he went, he was booed and heckled. There is a scene where Justin Langer is caught making a remark about the booing crowd, "These guys behave as if they have not made a single mistake in their lives." Maybe they have, maybe it is just Karmic justice. The Aussie crowds have been bigger assholes in the past. But this is not about the crowd. This is about Smith. He played out of his skin. He was never the greatest ODI batsman. But he was the pillar of the Aussie batting during that campaign. His was the prize wicket. The match was not over till he was out. He was one of the key players who were instrumental in Australia going to the semis, second on the league table, just below India. And for a team rocking just about an year back, that was not bad. Of course, the semi finals against England was forgettable.

Then came the Ashes in England. More intense booing. Everytime he came in to bat, tens of thousands welcomed him with booes. But that Ashes series, Smith was para-normal. He says, he was in a bubble. He says, the levels of concentration he achieved were super-human. The results show. Two hundreds on his return test, one each in both innings, a double hundred in the fourth test, 774 in a five test series in which he didn't play in one of the tests because of an injury, 300 plus more runs than the second best batter in the series (Ben Stokes, another Superman) and 400 plus runs more than the second best Aussie batter (Marcus Labuschagne).

What will forever be etched in my heart's mind is - When Steve Smith got out for 25 odd runs in the rain-shortened last test (his last innings of the Ashes) and started his walk back to the dressing room, the erstwhile hostile English crowd at The Oval stood on its feet and applauded its adversary all the way back to the pavilion. Steve Smith lifted his bat, acknowledged the ovation, went into the dressing room, acknowledged the pats-on-his-back from his team mates and sat in a corner of the dressing room, a satisfied smile on his lips. It was redemption. He had earned back his lost respect. The world had acknowledged him to be the best again. I could feel that moment for him.

The story of the comebacks of Smith, Warner, Bancroft and Australia is an extraordinary story, but in no way unique. Australia themselves have gone through a similar rebuilding phase in the 1980s post the World Series Cup turmoil. South Africa came back stronger after the Hansie Cronje scandal. India became a world beating side under Saurav Ganguly after the match fixing scandals of 2000. There are other such instances.

What caught my imagination is the story of the indomitable human spirit. A human being can be down in the dumps one day, and comeback the next. Nothing is permanently gone. Lost wealth can be regained, lost respect can be re-earned, the mistakes can be pardoned if they are owned and accepted. Life doesn't judge. Life offers second chances, third chances, multiple chances. Infact, every moment of life is an opportunity - to scale new heights or comeback from behind!

[coeurdastronaute]

Kiwi 11

Previously on Kiwi

Nothing could have been more welcomed than the spring. And not the beginning of the spring, but rather the full blown, wonderful, lush and verdant, alive and living, blooming and warm and sunshine afternoons. It brought about the feeling of new and completeness, of happiness that wasn’t hardfought. 

“Give. Me. The cookie!” Lexa yelled and she plodded her way through the park, hands up and jagged, like the monster she was portraying. 

Tiny legs waddled through the grass, squealing with delight as the auntie teased and tripped over herself, flummoxing her way around in the sunshine and grass. But laid flat on her stomach, morally defeated the monster watched the little bare feet approach and giggle before poking her cheek. 

“Aunt Lexie?”

“GrrrRRrrr.” 

“No, no bad.” 

“Please?” Lexa asks, tilting her head to the side as she squints, hair messy and obstructing much of her view. “Pretty please?”

“No more bad.” 

Not even two yet, her nephew was precocious and she had a soft spot for his tiny shirts and socks and dimples and hair and snores. Their tour came with a nanny now, and she was okay with it because he was the best way to spend a few hours detoxing from the blitz of traveling around the world. 

“You’ll share with me please?” she asked, sounding a little sad and sticking out her bottom lip. 

A piece of cookie was fed to her as a little boy squatted near her, gently feeding as if she were an animal in a petting zoo. She wasn’t sure how to explain to someone how much moments like this saved her life. How stale animal crackers and tiny fingers who pet her head and told her no more bad as the sunshine drifted in between the waving branches of the trees in the park as everyone spoke French around them and her sister lounged on the blanket, rocking her foot to the imaginary beat of the afternoon harmonies. 

“We have to head back to the hotel soon,” the adult explained as she turned a page and caught sight of her watch. “Indra scheduled a meeting.” 

“It’s our off day.” 

“I don’t think we actually have those.” 

“I can’t hear you, I’m napping.” 

“You’re less cooperative than a toddler, just so you know.” 

“I already knew.” 

“I’m going to tell Clarke.” 

“She knows too.” 

Lexa smiled to herself and pressed her face into the soft blades of grass while her nephew plopped down near her, still rubbing her hair gently, making more of a mess of it than usual. Nothing was going to get accomplished today, not with spring around them and hopeful enough to distract from the tiredness of the second half of the tour and the start of festival season. 

“She’s coming along soon, huh?” 

“Just over a week,” Lexa smiled and closed her eyes. “Dublin.” 

“Ah, the city of love. If only we went on tour and hit the actual City of Love… Oh, wait…” 

“She had to wrap up her internship and then promised to come on vacation and see some of Europe with us.” 

“You say us, like Clarke is going to be hanging out with me and the kiddo.” 

“Sometimes,” Lexa shrugged. “If you want to see her and stuff.” 

“I’d like to get to know her, if you’ll keep her around.” 

On the grass, Lexa stretched and basked in a little bit of sunshine. She savored the feeing of the dirt and the grass and the toddler that threw himself onto her stomach while her sister hinted at getting to know her girlfriend. 

“Can you remind me not to do anymore tours ever again?” 

“I would, but you’ve already got the workings of another album in the works,” Anya squinted and tossed her book down. 

“No, I refuse. I’m taking a vacation.” 

“You say that now.” 

“I haven’t taken a proper vacation in like six years.” 

“What about rehab?” 

Lexa scoffed and furrowed, rolling her eyes at the idea that she had any sort of fun while pulling the toxins from her body. That the inability to move from her bed, that the shaking and the sick and the ache and the pain-- none of it was a vacation in any form. But Lexa used it. She savored the pain, even when it was enough to make her want to kill herself, because it was her cosmic retribution for everything else she did to her sister. 

But she would never say it was a vacation.

“If that’s what a woman’s gotta do to get a break, I guess I’m due.” 

“I’ll kill you myself next time.” 

“I might take you up on that.” 

The siblings smiled at each other. Lexa smiled as she felt a tiny head nuzzle under her neck. It was perfect, and Lexa was getting good at appreciating these things. 

XXXXXXXXXX

There weren’t so much jitters anymore as there had been before. From time to time, Lexa would feeling a little more amped up than normal when putting on for a particularly raucous crowd. But in the tedium of such a long tour, the almost day-to-day schedule didn’t really get her up in arms anymore. 

But there was a ritual to it all. Most of her day was perfectly coordinate by her manager and a publicist and an entire corporate army of people whose sole job it was to make her bband a success, and as she got older and sober, she realized how good they were at it, and how easy her life could become if she let it. 

And what no one seemed to point out, or at least not that she could remember, was that if she listened and was receptive and prompt, her days led to more free time. It was an actual wonder to see it function as it should. 

The nerves came slowly, and though they never reached the former, paralyzing level, they still grew the closer it got. Lexa took the edge off with stretching and playing video games before the meet and greets, and between that and the set, she read and kept quiet, to herself, away from people. She was about to be pelted with thousands of voices, and having none was her permanent pre-detox. 

Sometimes, she watched the opener, proud of their growth. Sometimes she called Clarke, depending on the time zone. 

Mostly, Lexa sat in her green room and waited, itched, ahed to play. The nerves came from an eagerness to wreck herself on stage.

“Can we skip the hand squeezing after tonight?” Lexa asked as Indra swept into the green room, eyes fixed pointedly on her phone screen as she typed some response. “I went for a run yesterday and I need to recover.” 

“Where’s Anya?” 

“You can just tell me, you don’t have to wait for Anya.” 

“She’s nicer to me; she doesn’t ask for ridiculous favors like avoiding wealthy and famous and connected people who play your records.” 

“Not to your face,” the guitarist grumbled.

“How kind of her. But this is something I need her help with.” 

“Maybe I can help.” 

“I don’t know,” she shook her head and shoved her phone in her pocket. “I think… This is a tough... “

To many, they wouldn’t see how much Indra cared about the two sisters. They were her bounce back to the big times. She discovered them, brought them up, showed them the ropes, kept them as safe as she could. She celebrated the highs, the hits, the shows, and she was there for the lows, for the rehab, for the relapse. She lived for them, giving up all other clients, traveling with them part-time. She was protective because they were her’s. 

“You’re going to have Anya tell me whatever news you’re about to break?”

“Yes,” Indra nodded, earning a smile. 

“Coward.” 

“You could be nicer to me-- I’m letting your girlfriend come along for a few weeks.” 

“You like Clarke.” 

“I do, which makes this a little more difficult.” 

“I’ve never seen you have difficulties telling me anything before. This must be bad. Did we get dropped from the label? Am I under arrest? Embarrassing pictures leaking? My porn history hacked?” 

“Not that I’m aware of,” Indra sighed, mentally making a note to have all internet-capable devices double checked. “This is more of something that I want to prepare you for, but I’m trying to be considerate of your sobriety.” 

“Oh, yikes,” Lexa furrowed and turned around, facing her friend who looked like she struggled with these words more than ever before. “Well, I’m in a good place. I’ve been working the meetings. Honestly, I can handle anything.” 

“Tonight there’s-- Well… What I mean is the... “ she took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Where is Anya?” 

“Probably changing the kid. She likes to put him down before our shows. I told you to ban him from the tour. The whole lot of them. Anya and the kid and the husband, exhausting.” 

“Costia is coming to the show tonight.”

The name hurt. It hit her like a ton of bricks. In any string of words put together in the world, she never imagined that Indra would put those words together. 

“Weird. She hates my shows.” 

“She’s promoting a movie she’s in for a second, and she’ll be in town. She knows it’ll generate buzz and rumors.” 

“You’ve spoken to her publicist then?” Lexa nodded to herself, keeping it all business. That would help, she convinced herself. 

“I did. It… it didn’t go well. We basically got the message that it’s happening no matter what, and we should prepare, and there’s no stopping it.” 

“Couldn’t you just ban her?” 

“And then the story is about how you’re still hung up on her. If she comes here, it’s her that’s hung up on you.” 

“Is she?” 

She hadn’t meant to sound interested, and she wasn’t actually. She hadn’t thought about Costia in a long time, but suddenly she had to think about her, and that was hard. Awkwardly, her agent shifted and took a deep breath, strongly disliking this conversation. 

“I mean, who wouldn't be?” 

“Don’t manage me.” 

“It was a good line though, wasn’t it?” Indra offered a small grin. 

“I don’t care. Do I have to see her?” The manager pursed her lips and Lexa groaned. “I need to call Clarke before this hits the waves.” 

“Want to hit a meeting after all of this? I’ll go with you.” 

“I’ll let you know.” 

“Hey, you almost ready to go on?” Anya stuck her head into the room. 

“Oh, now you show up,” Indra shook her head and brushed past her.

“What’s her problem?” 

Lexa just shook her head and turned back toward the mirror. 

XXXXXXXXXX

The sweat was just starting to cool on her neck when her sister stalked toward her, and Lexa knew she was in trouble, even if she didn’t know what for just yet. The euphoria wouldn’t go away. She was still on that high and the stadium was still changing her name despite the encore and there really weren’t drugs that could compete with something like that, even with Anya’s angry face. 

“So that’s why you switched up the set list for the encore.” 

Hands on her hips, she stopped in front of her sister, blocking her off from the rest of the world, cornered and toweling the sweat off of her neck and forehead. 

“Thought we could just do a few different songs tonight,” Lexa shrugged. 

“Indra should have told me. You should have told me.” 

“Why? It’s just a normal night.” 

“That dumb bitch got you hooked--”

“Okay, hold on. You can’t blame her for my actions. Costia didn’t--”

“Don’t defend her!” Anya yelled. 

Lexa had seen her sister mad. She’d made her mad from time to time, believe it or not. She was good at it, but it was never real anger, never this real kind of bite to her words that she currently was exhibiting. This wasn’t a time to reason with her or nitpick word choice. 

In all honesty, Lexa just wanted the night to end. 

Her legs were sore, her brain was a little distracted, and she knew she was gong to wake up to very stupid rumors. But she’d be one day closer to her girlfriend arriving. She smiled, thinking about Tinder’s numbers. 

“You’ll be with me. We’ll do the stupid hand shaking and after party thing, and be on our way. I’m fine, by the way.” 

“You changed the songs.” 

“Yeah.” 

She looked guilty at the admission as her sister sized up the result of the news. 

“You played her song.” 

“The only songs I play are mine.” 

It was a lie, but her sister didn’t push. 

“We’ll do a meeting tomorrow. Two if you want.” 

“Can we just take it hour by hour. I’m honestly fine. I don’t want to think about it too much.” 

“Okay.” 

“Thank you.” 

“Does Clarke know?” Anya ventured, softening slightly. 

“Yeah, I called her before we went on. That was an awkward conversation.” 

“What did you say? Hey, my ex is here and I have to see her for very stupid and very commercial reasons?” 

“Basically, but with a lot of ‘please don’t be mad at me’s thrown in for good measure.” 

Anya smiled and put her arm over her sister’s shoulders before steering her toward the dressing room. 

“You should send her flowers tomorrow.” 

“Already ordered.” 

“Thata girl. I knew you were trainable.” 

XXXXXXXX

It wasn’t hard to see Costia, and that was the hard part. She was beautiful. She was still beautiful. She would always be beautiful. It wasn’t hard to be in the same room as her because she was light and airy, she was wind and wild and illuminating to anyone that came within her orbit. She was intoxicating so that nothing made sense and you did things you normally wouldn’t do, but it was okay, because she had the capacity to see you and believe in you and make you believe in yourself. She was effervescent, and Lexa hated that word because no one was ever actually effervescent-- except for Costia. 

She wasn’t a bad person, contrary to what Anya might think. In fact, often she was a very good person who held doors for strangers and was the type to discreetly tell you there was food in  your mouth before following it up with a compliment about your shoes and the next thing you knew, you were best friends and it was a week later and you didn’t know how you got to St. Tropez. 

It wasn’t hard to see Costia-- it was actual torture. 

Costia smelled like coke in Barbados. She tasted like lines off tanned thighs. She looked like two yellow pills and a tab on a tongue. She was a numbness that made Lexa itch like she hadn’t itched before and she wondered if she was still in love with her. 

And all of this happened in a room full of people who had no idea. 

The niceties of the party were done and the evening stretched. Anya kept an eye on her sister and Lexa was grateful for it. She needed it, she realized; not because she was afraid of doing anything, but just that she was very afraid of being alone. 

“I recognize that look,” Costia whispered as she slipped beside Lexa, weaving through the crowd to find her alone in a corner. 

“I don’t have looks.” 

“You are desperately planning your escape.” 

“Just trying to find my sister,” Lexa disagreed, avoiding looking at her. 

If she glanced, she would have seen her shoulders, bare and sun-kissed. She would have seen the familiar slope of her nose and the stupid little scar on the corner of her jaw that she felt very self-conscious about despite it being half an inch and unnoticeable to anyone who wasn’t intimately-- Nope. She wouldn’t glance. 

Her palms were sweaty, and she gripped the glass of water tighter in her hand. 

“You look good, by the way. I don’t think I told you that. We didn’t really get a chance to chat, though I imagine that’s by Indra’s design.” 

“She’s good at her job.” 

Costia chuckled and Lexa felt her throat close. 

“I followed your lead. Clean for 4 months.” 

“That’s really good. You look,” Lexa gulped and looked at her ex, cursory and strictly for show. “You look good.” 

“Thank you, for doing this, for coming tonight,” Costia offered, taking the chance of meeting Lexa’s eyes finally to be earnest and grateful. “I know it’s stupid, but our paths crossed and we need all the publicity we can for this movie. It’s stupid--’ She tucked a stray curl behind her ear and Lexa died. 

“It’s not. I’m proud you’re branching out. I wasn’t going to do anything else tonight anyway.” 

She got sized up with that comment and she felt it. Deep amber eyes searched her face and plump lips curled up the faintest amount. Only someone acquainted with those lips would see it and appreciate. 

Lexa looked away immediately before taking a sip of her water. 

“We should get out of here and catch up.” 

If only Anya were around. Or Clarke. 

Clarke. 

Fuck. 

Lexa took a deep breath and let it out slowly, clearing all of the noise and the memories. 

“I promised my sister I wouldn’t leave without her. We have a show tomorrow, and this tour has been crazy. I’m running again and I ran yesterday but I want to do it again tomorrow.” 

“That was about six excuses rolled into one.”  

“I think the most important of all might be Clarke. I promised her I’d behave myself.”

“You don’t trust me?” 

It was the look. The same look she had before every wonderful thing that happened during their relationship. The look that Costia got before mischief was afoot-- before she tackled Lexa into bed, before she tossed her book aside and crawled into her lap, before she told her to ignore her phone and spend the weekend in a cabin. 

“No. I don’t.” 

She laughed and shook her head. 

“That’s fair. I’ve been fairly untrustworthy in the past.” 

“You can say that.” 

They were quiet for a moment and Anya caught Lexa’s eye from across the room and did her best to make her way over for the rescue. 

“So. Clarke. That’s an interesting name. How’d you meet?”

“Tinder.” 

“Wow. I wouldn’t have taken you for a dating app user.” 

“I’m not. It was for a radio interview game… almost a year ago, actually,” Lexa smiled to her chest as she recounted it. 

“How’s she doing with the whole,” she waved her hands in Lexa’s direction. “Rockstar thing.” 

“Anya doesn’t let me call myself that.” 

“It’s still true.” 

“She’s good. She’s... “ Lexa paused and smiled, unsure of how to describe her present versus the haze of memories she’d buried and been forced to excavate in the past fifteen minutes. “She’s sturdy. She’s steady. She’s gorgeous and funny and strong. She finds me impressive for the things I’m proud of being and she’s not bothered by the things everyone else latches onto. She’s a photographer. And messy but in a neat way-- like her mess isn’t unwieldy. It’s perfect. She’s like breathing, you know? When you sit at the bottom of the pool and then get a big gulp of air. That’s what she feels like.” 

Speechless, Costia stared at her ex as she realized she’d said many words. She recounted it all in her own head and felt each syllable like a knife creating small slits across her skin. 

“Wow. Where can I get one of those?” 

Lexa blushed to the tips of her ears and smiled, embarrassed and awkward as she sipped a little more. 

“Sorry, I just… I don’t get to talk about her much on the road.” 

“No, no… it was refreshing,” the model lied. “Have you written her songs yet?” 

“No.” 

It was Lexa’s turn to lie, though she didn’t consider it such. Not when she hadn’t published or really polished anything worthwhile. 

“That’s surprising. Did you tell her you were going to see me?” 

“Yeah, I called her before I went on tonight.”

“How’d she feel?” 

“Not great. But she understood.” 

“Sounds too good to be true.” 

“She’s… yeah. I don’t know. She’s my favorite person on the planet, honestly.” 

Before Costia could ask anything else, Anya was able to disentangle herself from the group that accumulated and found her sister. 

“I think you gave the reporters more than enough time together,” Anya muttered, disinterested in anything from Costia. “Ready to head out?” 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Lexa nodded. “It was great to catch up. I’d say let’s do it again, but I have a feeling our sponsors might say no.” 

“Or your girlfriend.” 

“Clarke?” Anya scoffed. “Nah. She’s too graceful to say something like that. But I will. I think we can say this was enough catching up for a century.” 

Costia nodded and looked back at Lexa who didn’t disagree with her sister, though she shook her head and tried to soften the blow. 

“That’s not true,” Lexa feigned politeness. “It really was good to see you, and I’m glad you’re doing so well.”

Costia leaned forward and hugged her ex. Lexa only used one arm and pulled away as quickly as possible. 

“You too, Lex,” she smiled. “I’ll see you around.” 

“Yeah, I hope so.” 

“I could go without it,” Anya interrupted. 

With a nod, Costia made her way back into the party and Lexa looked at her sister before earning a disapproving glance. 

“We were just catching up. She’s clean, and I know how hard it is sometimes.”

“You looked chummy.” 

“We actually were just chumming it up.” 

“She lives in a room behind a door that you don’t want to reopen. Leave her there, Lex.”

“I am.” 

“Good.”

NEXT

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale’s Top 10: Favorite Rivals

For this list, I will be picking my favorite Rival Character’s in Media. Video games, anime, manga, comics, etc.

Now the question is, What makes a character a rival?

For this list I will be making clarifications:

1. If one of the goals of one of the characters is to surpass another character, battle multiple times, state that this person is their rival, and/or have the same objective as a character but puts them in conflict.

2. Moral alignment doesn't mean anything. They can be friendly rivals or even hero/villain rivals as long as their main objective is to best their opponent.

3. Bonus points if the rival is equal in strength and find themselves on opposite sides.

4.There are differences between Archenemies and rivals. So likely Super villains, Like The Joker (who do exist to defeat batman, are more like nemesis rather then rivals).

5. One per franchise

_______________________________________________________________________

10. Dark Pit/ Pittwo ( Kid Icarus Uprising)

Dark Reflections are often seen as cliché when it comes to rivals, but I have a soft spot for this dark copy.

Dark Pit is a copy made by Pandora to be Pit’s equal and defeat him for the sake of the underworld. But the process of making him resulted in his obedience being... shattered.

Dark pit doesn't side with the underworld or Skyworld. He does his own thing and wants to be his own person. Even achieving unlimited flight for a brief period, making him superior to Pit.

Equal in strength, speed, power, and abilities. Dark pit is a pinnacle of dark copies. But he is even seen being more observant and smarter then Pit. Since he is more self reliant, he is shown to see things more objectively.

His connection to Pit is revealed that if Pit falls, He will fall as well. So it makes for an interesting dynamic that Dark pit wants to prove his superiority yet still bound to Pit. Which leads to an interesting dynamic.

(also if you have not played Kid Icarus Uprising, for the love of Palutena DO IT!)

9. Metal Sonic (Sonic the hedgehog)

Oh I can see the anger from the Shadow Fans. ‘Why did I pick Metal Sonic?’ ‘Why not Shadow?’ ‘Shadow and Sonic have more of a rivalry?’

Here is my response. Metal Sonic is Sonic’s greatest rival and vice versa.

Created by egg man to be Sonic’s equal, to learn and grow with each fight. Metal sonic always pushes Sonic to his limit.

There are even cases where Metal Sonic has Surpassed Sonic going so far as to have sonic need the help of others to best him.

His goal of defeating Sonic goes beyond programing. He will even find a way to break free of Eggman’s control just to achieve his goal of besting sonic.

Whether its the Comics, the games, movies. Metal Sonic is seen as Sonic’s most dangerous rival.

And proof? He is a character in the game Sonic Rivals! So that shows he is a rival of sonic.

Not to insult shadow, but the OG shadow wasn't focused on fighting sonic, he had his own goals and sonic just happened to be involved. While later renditions have him more of a vegeta knock off to sonic. I find these interpretations lame.

I also considered Scourge, but that would give acknowledgement to ken Penders and honestly I aint gonna do that.

_______________________________________________________________________

8. Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto/Naruto Shippuden)

Yes, cue the cliche gasps. Despite how obvious he was that he is on the list, it makes sense why he is here. His and Naruto’s dynamic is iconic. Best friends, rivals, enemies, brothers in arms.

The two went down two different paths, striving to surpass the other to achieve their dreams.

The main reason I put him on here is simple.

I could write several essays about why Sasuke is on this list, but that would be boring. You all know why he is here.

He is an iconic rival and that is a fact

_______________________________________________________________________

7. Kim Ban Phuong (Sun-Ken Rock)

Now I know what you are thinking. Who the f*** is this guy? Time for gale’s obscure pick.

And that is understandable, since this is a manga that wasn't made into an anime (despite DESERVING TO BE ONE) (though to be fair, it is MEGA DARK, a lot of messed up themes in this. Really nails how corrupt people can be)

A man that became a monster for the sake of surpassing Kitano Ken (the main character of the manga)

A man that was one of the only two people to have ever beaten the main character in a fight (and the only one to do so when the main character was trying to be a boss)

Formed an assassin guild to destroy Ken’s gang. 

The tragic backstory of this character is enough to give the reader the understanding on how he is Ken’s shadow. Why he is fighting against Ken so hard. All the way to the tragic end he faced. Something which I dare not spoil here.

The fight between him and Ken is nothing short of breath taking and this is written by the guy that did the Dr.Stone Manga.

Seriously, while the fan service can be grotesque at times, the plot of the story about Korean gangs, race relations and asian history are something to behold. The fact that its so underrated is a travesty. (but skip the idol arc, it does capture how messed up the entertainment industry can be.)

_______________________________________________________________________

6. Ryoga hibiki

The undisputed king of getting lost. The man of many misfortunes. The half piglet half man. Ryoga.

For those who have seen Ranma 1/2, What you see here is top tier best boy in the series.

If you go strictly by the anime, you would believe that he is a better match for akane (or Ranma depending on what side of the fandom you are on)

Ryoga puts Ranma as the focus of all the misfortune he has faced, he is mostly self taught and is acknowledged by Ranma as his only true rival.

When it comes down to it they are constantly on a seesaw on who is stronger. Despite all of the hardships, Ryoga does see Ranma in a friendlier light as the series goes on, even considering him a friend. They actually have helped each other on occasions, The manga showing times where Ranma tried to help Ryoga with his date with another girl. Or Ryoga putting his feelings for Akane aside to stop Brainwashed Ranma from marrying shampoo.

The back and forth between the two and the unspoken connection of having a jusenkyo curse has really made the two have a strong bond.

Ryoga deserves a spot on this list because of his strong character.

______________________________________________________________________

5. Henry Cooldown (No more Heroes)

For those of you unfamiliar with the series of No More Heroes, Henry is the Scottish Half-brother of the main protagonist. Cool, confident, a kick ass accent, and a masterclass assassin. He is the final boss of the first No More Heroes.

The rivalry between the two really takes head when the main character, Travis, finds out that this cool customer that stole his kill and saved his life was his half brother and wants to settle it in a duel to the death. Henry was a rival that was always one step ahead of Travis. Travis wants to bang Silvia, (the woman that set up the assassin ranking system) She was Henry’s Ex-wife. Travis wanted to be the number one assassin, Henry was the original number one. Travis has a beam Katana, Henry has one that looks even cooler.

In terms of the cool rival/ brother rival archetype, Henry Cooldown is the best fit, and he even helps travis out again in the sequel.

_______________________________________________________________________

4. Paul (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl)

For those of you that have seen the anime, You understand EXACTLY why Paul is on this list.

In Ash’s journey through Sinnoh, there was a Pokemon trainer that always seemed to one up Ash, no it wasn't Gary Oak, it was Paul.

But what made Paul so different? Why not pick Gary?

Paul was Ash’s antithesis.

Ash loved his Pokemon and battled with instinct and trust.

Paul evaluated his pokemon’s potential, he released any that failed to meet his standards. He was focused on attaining power and would use any means necessary to attain it.

He saw how his older brother failed, and refused to give up like his brother did. Paul wanted to prove himself better.

Ash saw Paul as a strong trainer but HATED the way he treated his own Pokemon. Ash even ended up asking Paul’s Chimchar to join his team after Paul abandoned it, which allows for a more dynamic clash in their beliefs.

Battle after battle, Paul kept proving better then ash, until the Sinnoh League tournament. Where they faced off in the quarter finals.

(Which is personally my favorite anime Pokemon battle of all time)

Ash gets to show Paul the importance of Loving and respecting one’s Pokemon. And that is pretty beautiful.

_______________________________________________________________________

3.Shego

Shall we talk about my favorite character in Kim possible? About time we had a lovely Lady rival on here.

Yes, we shall.

The former Super powered Hero turned Villain, the Number two of Dr. Drakken.

Shego is a self interested individual that loves to pamper herself and to do bad.

Whenever she is involved, it is guaranteed that she and Kim are going to be fighting.

The fights are always intense and always show the capabilities of both fighters. In a way Shego is a dark reflection of Kim.

Capable, sassy, fashionable, and a total threat to anyone that gets in her way.

Not to mention, (I TOTALLY WAS CRUSHING ON HER AS A KID)

Shego’s only reason for not being the most evil villain out there is simply because she couldn't care less about actually ruling the world, Not that she wouldn't do it if she had the opportunity (a stitch in time showed she totally would) She is just more relaxed, even willing to help Kim.

There is even an episode where Shego turned good and she and Kim got along legendarily.

When it comes to rivals, Shego’s got sass, class and can whoop ass.

______________________________________________________________________

2. Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Don't act like you don't love this arrogant douche.

Seto Kaiba is one of the most iconic characters in Yu-gi-oh.

This Blue eyes dragon fetishist is the head of his own company and wants to prove that he is the greatest duelest in the world.

His obsession with besting the Pharaoh (Atem / Yami Yugi) is documented and the lengths he is willing to go.

He advanced the technology of the world so far just so he could find the long dead pharaoh who went back to his time/ spirit world and he nearly did it.

He even found a way to counter magic using technology.

Though despite his ego that could rival MOUNTAINS in size, Kaiba does care about his little brother mokuba, willingly sacrificing himself just to protect him. Even willing to put his life on the line to save him.

When it comes to showmanship, Seto Kaiba is number one, and likely the inspiration for EVERY BADASS ANIME OUTFIT TO EXIST

_______________________________________________________________________

1. Vegeta (Dragon ball Z and Dragon Ball Super)

When one thinks the word Rival, one man pops into my head. Bar none, the Prince of all Saiyans. Vegeta.

The prince of all Tsundere’s, the walking Napoleon complex. The genocidal warrior to defender of earth and father of two.

Vegeta’s goal was to be Number one, and Kakarot/ Goku is the one that stands in his way.

After Frieza’s defeat, Vegeta’s goal was to surpass Goku, to prove he is number one.

His actions and antics could hardly be considered good, not until the end of the Buu saga would he even be considered a good person.

But the reason why vegeta is number one is because of what happened during Super.

Vegeta has gained a LOT of character development during the sequel series. Especially in the super Manga.

Vegeta shows that he has grown to care about the planet that he has lived on, even feeling guilty of his actions back in the Namek saga, doing his best to make things right.

He still wants to beat Goku, but he has more reasons to fight then simply his pride.

Vegeta is arguably the most developed rival on this list.

There are other iconic rivals that could have hit number one, but Vegeta is the text book definition of Rival.

Thats why the Prince of all Saiyans is finally number one

[gavillain]

8, 18, 20

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

Not on tumblr, but yes on AO3 and FF.net. See what happened was there was this user on AO3 named PandoraHearts20 who has since been perma banned because of this incident. Pandora left a rude and overly critical comment on one of @jcmorrigan‘s fanfics, and I basically replied telling them to piss off and that it wasn’t warranted. Well they started spamming me with suicide baiting anonymous reviews on my stories immediately afterwards and in the reviews of JC’s fanfic devolved the entire thing into a huge ordeal that it really didn’t have to be with them getting into a really repetitive fight with me, JC, and one other person. They then proceeded to periodically send me anonymous hate and suicide bait on both AO3 and FF.net, but then last month, I dunno what triggered it but they escalated to actual graphic and explicit death and rape threats towards me (and not just one, it was a storm of like 32). AO3 finally banned their ass, and I’m still keeping those death threats in my back pocket to report to cyber crimes if they ever try to come after me again. Moral of the story: there are some really unhinged people out there online, so be very careful telling off someone who you don’t know how they’ll react. Better to just delete/ignore them and move on with your life.

18. Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased?

Not at all. People do and don’t ship things for a variety of reasons. Also, quite frankly, popular ships are usually the least interesting to me because to become popular, you have to always have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. That means most of the stuff that makes ships actually interesting and unique has to be stripped away in favor of a generic uniformity. The most popular ships are also usually either straight white couples that adhere to a generic stock plot or they’re M/M ships between two straight (or at least straight passing) white guys written by straight women who probably don’t know many actual gay men. Now I’ve got nothin’ against people shipping popular ships, and I have a couple of popular ones myself like those in my repertoire. But I also wouldn’t take them over my more niche ships any day, and I really do not believe that “popular” or “canon” is a measure of “good” or “more valid.”

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

Depends on which fandom, but I’m typically not very interested in “pure” ships because I don’t find them as interesting. I like my ships to have a little mess to them because those are more satisfying to me to see the couple grow and overcome (or sometimes just not - I don’t need a happy ending).But out of my big ships, I think the ship that feels the most pure and the one that is the most RL “romance goals” is the Inquisitor/Dorian Pavus in Dragon Age: Inquisition. I think they just have such a beautiful love story in canon, and because my Inquisitor was basically my self insert in my playthrough, it was like Dorian was MY boyfriend when I played through the game. Back when I was single, I actually used to daydream about Dorian actually existing and being my boyfriend. I wouldn’t trade my current boyfriend or relationship for anything, but that ship was there for to hold me over for the years when I was single XD

[arcticdementor]

In the fall of 2008, America’s wealthiest companies were in a pickle. Short-selling hedge funds, smelling blood as the global economy cratered, loaded up with bets against finance stocks, pouring downward pressure on teetering, hyper-leveraged firms like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. The free-market purists at the banks begged the government to stop the music, and when the S.E.C. complied with a ban on financial short sales, conventional wisdom let out a cheer.

"This will absolutely make a difference," economist Peter Cardillo told CNN. "Now, if there is any good news, shorts will have to cover.”

At the time, poor beleaguered banks were victims, while hedge funds betting them down as the economy circled the drain were seen as antisocial monsters. “They are like looters after a hurricane,” seethed Andrew Cuomo, then-Attorney General of New York State, who “promised to intensify investigations into short selling abuses.” Senator John McCain, in the home stretch of his eventual landslide loss to Barack Obama, added that S.E.C. chairman Christopher Cox had “betrayed the public’s trust” by allowing “speculators and hedge funds” to “turn our markets into a casino.”

Fast forward thirteen years. The day-trading followers of a two-million-subscriber Reddit forum called “wallstreetbets” somewhat randomly decide to keep short-sellers from laying waste to a brick-and-mortar retail video game company called GameStop, betting it up in defiance of the Street. Worth just $6 four months ago, the stock went from $18.36 on the afternoon of the Capitol riot, to $43.03 on the 21st two weeks later, to $147.98 this past Tuesday the 26th, to an incredible $347.51 at the close of the next day, January 27th.

The rally sent crushing losses at short-selling hedge funds like Melvin Capital, which was forced to close out its position at a cost of nearly $3 billion. Just like 2008, down-bettors got smashed, only this time, there were no quotes from economists celebrating the “good news” that shorts had to cover. Instead, polite society was united in its horror at the spectacle of amateur gamblers doing to hotshot finance professionals what those market pros routinely do to everyone else.

…

The episode prompted calls to regulate Reddit and, finally, halt action on the disputed stocks. As I write this, word has come out that platforms like Robinhood and TD Ameritrade are curbing trading in GameStop and several other companies, including Nokia and AMC Entertainment holdings.

Meaning: just like 2008, trading was shut down to save the hides of erstwhile high priests of “creative destruction.” Also just like 2008, there are calls for the government to investigate the people deemed responsible for unapproved market losses.

…

The only thing “dangerous” about a gang of Reddit investors blowing up hedge funds is that some of us reading about it might die of laughter. That bit about investigating this as a “pump and dump scheme” to push prices away from their “fundamental value” is particularly hilarious. What does the Washington Post think the entire stock market is, in the bailout age?

America’s banks just had maybe their best year ever, raking in $125 billion in underwriting fees at a time when the rest of the country is dealing with record unemployment, thanks entirely to massive Federal Reserve intervention that turned a crash into a boom. Who thinks the “fundamental value” of most stocks would be this high, absent the Fed’s Atlas-like support in the last year?

…

In other words, it was all well and good for investment banks and executives of phoney-baloney companies to gorge themselves on funhouse profits on a funhouse economy, but when amateurs decided to funnel just a bit of this clown show into their own pockets, finance pros wailed like the grave of Adam Smith had been danced upon. The worst was Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, who issued a somber warning that those behind the recent market frenzy are “in for a very rude awakening,” adding, “I don’t know if it is going to happen tomorrow, next week or in a month, but it will happen.”

This is the same James Gorman whose company just saw its 2020 fourth-quarter profits go up 51% versus the year before, with total revenues up 16% to $48.2 billion, matching almost exactly the 16% rise in the stock market last year. If you’re going to rake in $33 million as Gorman did last year captaining a firm that just siphoned off billions in essentially risk-free profits underwriting a never-ending bailout, should you really be worrying about someone else getting a “rude awakening”? There are 19 million people collecting unemployment who might be reading those profit numbers. Does this man know how to spell “pitchfork”?

GameStop has prompted more pearl-clutching than any news story in recent memory. Expert after grave-faced expert has marched on TV to tell Reddit traders that markets are complicated, this isn’t a game, and they wouldn’t be doing this, if they really understood how things work.

…

Furthermore, everybody “understands” what happened with GameStop. Unlike some other Wall Street stories, this one isn’t complicated. The entire tale, in a nutshell, goes like this. One group of gamblers announced, “Fuck you!” Another group announced back: “No, fuck YOU!”

That’s it. Or, as one market analyst put it to me this morning, “A bunch of guys made a bet, got killed, then doubled and tripled down and got killed even more.”

Regarding improprieties, leaving aside that the Redditors were doing exactly what billion-dollar hedge funds do every day — colluding to move a stock for fun and profit — the notion that this should be the subject of a federal investigation is preposterous.

…

While it isn’t a complicated story, some of the awesome humor of GameStop is in the mechanics.

Unlike betting on a stock to go up (i.e. betting “long”), where you can only lose as much as you invest, the losses in shorting can be infinite. This adds a potential extra layer of Schadenfreude to the plight of the happy hedge fund pirate who might have borrowed gazillions of GameStop shares at five or ten hoping to tank the firm, only to go in pucker mode as Internet hordes drive the cost of the trade to ten, twenty, fifty times their original investment.

Short-sellers bet by borrowing shares from so-called prime brokers (Goldman, Sachs and JP Morgan Chase are among the biggest), selling them, and waiting for the price to drop, at which point they buy them back on the open market at the lower price and return them. The commonly understood rub is that prime brokers don’t always really procure those original borrowed shares, and often give out more “locates” than they should, putting more shares in circulation than actually exist (as in this case). GameStop is exposing this systematic plundering of firms using phantom shares and locates, by groups of actors who now have the gall to complain that they’re the victims of a “get rich quick” scheme.

…

The home of James “rude awakening” Gorman, Morgan Stanley, got its bank holding company license (and the lifesaving Fed credit lines that came with it) late on a Sunday night in September, 2008, because the firm couldn’t have opened its doors without it the next Monday morning. They’d have been blown to bits, by “fundamentals.” Instead, they got rescued, given a forever pass to keep feeding at the neck of society while claiming, falsely, to be not-failures and not-welfare recipients, better somehow than the “dumb money” they think should be theirs alone to manage.

The rank selectivity of this makes any moral argument against the GameStop revolt moot. There’s no legitimate cause here, just an assertion of exclusive rights to plunder, which will doubtless be exercised now in the form of bans, investigations, and increased barriers to market entry. Probably also, in the political spirit of our times, there will some form of speech crackdown on platforms like Reddit, to protect us from the mob.

About that: there are many making hay of a description found on a Subreddit, to the effect that wallstreetbets is “like 4Chan found a Bloomberg terminal.” A columnist at the Guardian, settling into the rhetorical line sure to find acceptance among the wine-and-MSNBC crowd, admitted to finding the rampaging-id dynamic on 4chan funny as a young person, but strange now to “witness a brief and regretful adolescent occupation re-emerge as a prominent cultural force.” The author wanted to admit to laughing at this “intentionally senseless” behavior, but ultimately decried the “transgressive attitudes” of the Redditors.

This is where society will ultimately come down, of course, uniting to denounce $GME as financial Trumpism, even though it actually comes closer to being an updated and superior version of Occupy Wall Street. It’s likely not any evil manipulation scheme, but ordinary people acting — out of self-interest, but also out of sheer enthusiasm for one of the best reasons to do just about anything, because you can — on a few simple, powerful observations.

They’ve seen first that our markets are basically fake, set up to artificially accelerate the wealth divide, and not in their favor. Secondly they see that the stock market, like the ballot box, remains one of the only places where sheer numbers still matter more than capital or connections. And they’re piling on, and it’s delicious, not so much because they’re right, but because the people running for cover are so wrong, and still can’t admit it.

Buy the ticket, take the ride, nitwits. If you earned anything, it’s this.

[marginalgloss]

the republic of heaven

Back in 2000 when The Amber Spyglass came out I feel like there was not so much news in the world. At the turn of the millennium we seemed to be entering a more optimistic time. Tony Blair was elected in 1997 at the head of a liberal Labour government, and while it may be true that Blair would never be so popular again as he was in the opening years of his premiership, the Tories seemed hopelessly outdated by comparison. They were still the nasty party of old, while the country was ambitious, outward-looking, internationalist. Explicit racism and homophobia were no longer tolerated. We were Europhiles, but we weren’t part of Europe. There seemed to be a lot of money about.

At home there were occasional horrors — the murder of Jill Dando, the homophobic pub bombings in London, Harold Shipman — but they were somehow isolated, disparate, inexplicable. They were exceptional. There was the war in Kosovo, which set a template for liberal interventionism in years to come. The economy was trucking along; unemployment was low; for the first time there was a national minimum wage. I skim the headlines today and it seems like such a comfortable time by comparison. Perhaps I am remembering it wrong. But when the years to come would bring a spiral of endless war, recession, and one of the most significant declines in relative generational living standards, I’m not sure there is any need for rose-coloured glasses.  

Into this comes The Amber Spyglass, which is basically quite an optimistic anti-authoritarian novel. It was also the book which, for a handful of reasons, really brought Philip Pullman to the world’s attention. It was this which ensured that his name still lurks around the list of authors most frequently ‘banned’ in America, and which in the years after its publication would attract scores of avid cheerleaders and detractors. Inevitably most of those had no interest with engaging with the substance of the book itself. Instead, it became a sort of battleground: on one side, those convinced that religion was under attack from an educated elite; on the other, those who were committed to reducing the role of religion in public life, discourse, education, and so on. It is worth revisiting this typically excitable interview and profile by Christopher Hitchens for an example of how these novels were talked about. 

To call the novel ‘optimistic’ might seem surprising, because much of it is shrouded in scenes of gloom and suffering. But when I think of the tone of the novel as a whole, it is pastoral. When the world isn’t tearing itself apart the language seems more lyrical than in either of the two preceding books. Some of that is to do with the perspective, which now has at least three (and sometimes more) main characters to follow. This means that a sense of distance, of floating high above the many worlds of the story, becomes necessary. But it’s also that the reader has a sense that this book is going to be about the promised war against the heavens outlined in The Subtle Knife, and it’s likely the reader will also understand that this is a war that must be won. 

It feels like a world of binary opposites. Even characters who seemed villainous in the previous novels are here redeemed (at least in part) so they can be mustered against the ultimate figure of the ‘Authority’. A certain amount of good versus evil is likely in any book for children, but here things are now cast explicitly in terms of these two sides squaring up against each other. And taking sides is a matter of decision, not of belonging. This is a book where angelic figures can decide to fight alongside men, and where demonic harpies can be convinced not to consume the souls of the dead because they want to hear their stories instead. It’s plausible in terms of oldest storytelling traditions, where it is possible to talk one’s way out of anything — where the role of storyteller gives a person the ultimate kind of authority.   

Is the capital-A ‘Authority’ in these novels intended to be absolutely synonymous with God? I’m not sure. The book is explicitly anti-religion in the sense of being anti-church, but the forces of the Authority (and the being himself) do not seem to represent any kind of absolute power in the universe. The Authority is not omnipotent nor omnipresent, nor is he very much of a creator or a father-figure any more — he is a despot, but he is also somehow irrelevant. Like a shrivelled relic, he is vastly reduced when we finally meet him. The worst aspects of his regime seem like the calcified remnants of decisions long since made and now barely remembered, like the afterlife that has become a giant prison camp. In fact it’s the abolition of the afterlife, not the death of its creator, that’s the only really significant consequence of the fall of the Authority. 

So if God isn’t in the Authority, then where is he? In spite of the tendency for atheists to want to claim the author for one of their own, it seems like the heart of these novels is not in pure humanistic rationalism, but in a broader sort of pantheism. The idea of ‘Dust’ is the closest thing to a true divine presence here. It could be characterised as something akin to a spirit which moves through all things. It is ‘conscious’, and though it’s hard to determine what this means in practice, we know that it is not indifferent to humanity. It’s not like a host of little thinking homunculi (although Mary did have a whole conversation with it on a computer back in The Subtle Knife). But it wants to persist. It would seem to be the force that drives the Alethiometer. It has intentions.  

The counter-argument to this would say that Dust isn’t divine at all — it exists at the bleeding edge of science, and has nothing to do with faith. It’s a material thing. It’s not a spirit. But I don’t know that this is especially convincing. The books often try to equate Dust with quantum mechanics, but this doesn’t entirely seem to add up — these are particles which are somehow small enough to slip through gaps between universes, but big enough to see with the naked eye. Everything about Dust seems too convenient from an authorial perspective. It’s as though someone took everything indefinable and unique about evolved human (and non-human) consciousness and made it into a quantifiable thing and then said: there, without this thing we are no longer what we are. It’s an easy solution to the hard problem.

It the article linked above, Hitchens described the Alethiometer and Will’s knife as ‘tools of inquiry and struggle, not magic wands’. This is only half-right. Clearly they aren’t tools like a microscope or an X-ray machine. Both items are bonded to their owners through an innate sensitivity that has little to do with rational enquiry or rigorous method. The Alethiometer is even compared to the I Ching at various points. It seems wrong to mistake ‘inquiry’ here for the scientific method; it has much more in common with ‘negative capability’, a term which is actually quoted in The Amber Spyglass — the ability to pursue truth and beauty via one’s innate sensibility, to ‘see feelingly’ through a fascination with a sort of natural mystery, and not to depend exclusively on reason and knowledge.  

This leaves the reader in an odd sort of no man’s land between the armies who supposedly either adopted or despised this novel. A hypothetical arch-rationalist might find it difficult to accept all of what they find here without rolling their eyes at some of it. Negative capability does not sit comfortably alongside the scientific method as a tool, but nor does it have much to do with priests and popery. And yet it is a sort of inspiration, and in that respect I think it comes closer to a religious experience than it does a rational one.  

The problem with this is that it is not possible to get any sense from this novel of what it means to be religious, or to believe in a higher power, or to be ‘spiritual’ (choose your own euphemism). There is Mary Malone, but while I like Mary’s story here, her account of her early life in cloisters and later conversion/defection is unsatisfying. We have no sense of doubt, of anguish, of guilt — it is an all-too-straightforward seeing of the light. Will is arguably more complicated, more conflicted, but for the most part he never seems to have to make any difficult compromises. If he ever loses out on anything by abandoning his mother to travel through a whole set of alternate universes, we aren’t told about it. 

What if Will made the wrong call? What if he weren’t so trustworthy? He is, in a way, the lynchpin of the whole story. For all Lyra’s good intentions and inner strength, if it weren’t for Will, Asriel would have failed and nothing would have changed. So Will must be made to work. Yet it often seems as though he doesn’t want anything for himself, except perhaps to be with Lyra. It’s interesting to wonder what might have happened if Will weren’t quite so faithful (for want of a better word). 

But it’s inconceivable in the world of these books that anyone could possess negative capability and then use it for anything other than a pursuit of — well what exactly is being pursued, anyway? What is Asriel’s goal, above and beyond the overthrow of the Authority? There is vague mention of something called ‘the Republic of Heaven’ — a heaven on Earth, as it were — but today that phrase can only make me recall the idea of ‘Outer Heaven’ in the Metal Gear Solid games. It’s difficult to discern any latent irony lying in wait for the reader in this case. Will whatever replaces the Authority be just as bad, eventually? Perhaps, but again, the vibe of optimism in this novel is so strong it feels odd to impose doubt on it from elsewhere.   

The paradox of The Amber Spyglass is that while the explicit ‘moral’ of the novel is set against organised religion, it cannot help but describe the world in terms originally set by religion. (A very basic reading might declare the novel invalid for this reason, for much the same reason as a socialist might be declared hypocritical for buying a smartphone.) It isn’t just that there are angels, or that the story of Adam of Eve is central to the thing. It is the journey through the world of the dead and back. It’s the arc of redemption and overthrow. 

At times it feels like this book is re-fighting a battle that was begun hundreds of years ago in the English reformation. In the pursuit of humanistic knowledge, a godlike figure is re-cast in the guise of an Authority who can be overthrown, and cast out of our land, and even killed. And all for the sake of nothing especially certain, nothing at all new in political or ideological terms, except a sense that we would be more free — that we would be better off without. Is it better to eject the columns of the dead into a kind of oblivion than to consider any improvement to their position? I don’t know. Perhaps things seemed simpler twenty years ago. 

[calliecat93]

You know, every time I get ready to write these reviews I think ‘oh God, how am I gonna type all of this out?!”. There is so much to say. So much to go over. It’s like that with every review I’ve done, but for this volume? God… I am at a loss every single time. There’s so many conflicting things going on. So much where I have an opinion on practically everything. Differing views about everything. Where I can see both the right and wrong in every action that the characters take.

RWBY has grown more and more complex over the years, but this volume? It takes the cake. The last chapter has so much of… everything that watching it again still gives me chills. So… how will the follow-up go? Going off what I already said, you can probably guess: tense as Hell. So let’s get on with it.

Review

Things are at an all-time low. Ironwood has banned public gatherings in Mantle. Curfews have been put in place. Everyone is utterly terrified and despite Atlas saying that the footage was doctored, they are calling for Penny to be deactivated. With Atlas becoming even more strict and her no longer able to get on the council, Robyn and her Happy Huntresses have gone full-on vigilante and are robbing the military for everything that they’ve got. We get to see their Semblances though, wth May being able to create an invisibility dome and Fiona (THE SHEEP LIVES!) having some kind of pocket dimension ability. Kinda reminds me of Miroku’s Wind Tunnel in Inuyasha, awesome!

Needless to say, Ironwood is nooooot happy right now. With the stolen resources and Mantle no longer cooperating, Amity has been at a standstill. It is at the point that he and Winter are strongly considering enacting Martial Law on the city, much to the shock of both Ruby and Nora. Well… for Nora, shock isn’t the right word. No, no.. she is enraged. She angrily rebukes Ironwood when he says that he knows that Mantle is taking the brunt of the sacrifices, pointing out that no, they’re taking all of it. They’re suffering, scared, and being forced to fall in line all because of this waiting game, and all it’s going to do is make them easy targets for the Grimm. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Nora this enraged before, so… yeah… wow…

Ruby, much more calmly, tries to convince Ironwood that his actions are only causing the division that Salem wants. But it’s derailed as the reason that they are Ren are there is to confirm that it was indeed Tyrian there. Which we learn that he is a wanted serial killer who was caught, but escaped when his prison transport was attacked by the Grimm. Which we all know where he ended up after. Ruby wants to tell the people, but Clover says no since it’ll only cause even more panic, which is why Ironwood refuses to talk about Amity or Salem yet. His orders for now? For Robyn to be arrested in order to get Amity back on track/Mantle’s cooperation, and anyone not doing that will be assigned to finding Tyrian. He asks if he’s made himself clear, which is acknowledged by Clover, WInter… and to the shock of Ruby and Nora, Ren. 

Later in Mantle, Blake and Yang are with Ace-Ops on tracking down Robyn though in a different van. This gives them time to talk about the recent events. Yang still believes that they should have told Ironwood the truth from the start since he deserved to know, but Blake still believes that it was best to hold back especially since it’s now proven that he tends to overreact to bad news. But Blake is pretty worn down about their actions in the name of doing the right thing, and not just with Atlas. They don’t outright say it out loud, but it’s clear that she’s referring to Adam. Even when Yang reminds her that they had no choice, Blake is still worried about it coming down to that again and isn’t exactly looking forward to arresting a Huntress who is only trying to do good… at least, until Yang proposes that they don’t have to.

Meanwhile in Atlas, Pietro has Penny hooked up and is working to get the footage that she recorded to prove her innocence, though even he doubts that it’ll do any good now. Ruby and Weiss are there… as is Maria, who has been helping Pietro with his work. FINALLY SHE IS BACK! Pietro is understandably upset about his daughter being framed and viewed as a murderer, especially since Robyn would have been killed had Penny not been there. Ruby, however, suspects that Tyrian never intended to kill Robyn and that framing Penny was exactly what they wanted. They wanted to use Penny to send a message of division, just like at the Vytal Festival. Pietro has realized that the same person who caused the events then is likely the one doing it now, though with Atlas’ code updated it should be safe. Though since the SDC is one of the ones with access, Weiss isn’t so certain and even more suspicious of her father’s involvement.

But hey, if worst comes to worst, Pietro can just rebuild Penny again, right? Well… not exactly. You know how Penny said in V2 that she’s the first robot to be able to generate an Aura? Well… there’s a reason for this. Pietro reveals his Aura… and there are two noticeable chunks missing. That’s right, Pietro gave us parts of his own Aura, his own soul, to create Penny. We find out how back in his youth, he and his colleagues proposed their own projects to Ironwood, and his was selected. He wanted to create a protector with a soul, and thus The Penny Project came to be. But the more times that Pennyisi destroyed, the more that it takes from Pietro and he may not be able to do so again if Mantle gets their way. Something that very understandably has him scared and distraught. Ruby swears to find the man responsible… as Pietro puts down a photo that he has of himself and his colleagues. Including a certain disgraced scientist…

Back in Mantle, Robyn and her gang start to rob another truck.. But it’s the one with Blake and Yang. They start to try and talk to her, but Robyn and her team run for it. They give chase, eventually leading to a clash between the Bees and Robyn. It’s not exactly a spectacular fight, but a nice and short one that further shows the Bees teamwork as well as their own capabilities, and especially Robyn’s own skill as a Huntress. They do eventually convince her to listen though, revealing the purpose of Amity being reconfigured to re-establish communication. To see if it’s true, Robyn has Blake take her hand where we discover Robyn’s Semblance: Lie Detection. Wow, the theories were true. Robyn is surprised to realize that Blake is indeed being honest and confused about why Ironwood would keep that a secret. She wants to know what else is going on and who the actual villains are, but the Bees aren’t ready to reveal anything more. The Ace-Ops are nearing the area so Robyn flees, swearing that nothing is going to stop her until she knows the truth.

We cut back to Atlas Academy... and into the Vault where Ironwood has taken Oscar in hopes of jigging up some Oz memories. Behind the door is the Staff of Creation, which we learn is pretty much some kind of endless energy generator. In fact, it is the reason why Atlas is floating in the sky, an idea made by Oz, and not Gravity Dust which was the cover story, However, the Staff can only be used on one thing at a time, hence why they can’t use it on Amity since… well…that would cause some devastating issues for Atlas, to put it simply. It’s certainly strange for Oscar. To see something that a part of him helped create, even though he himself didn’t do so. But Ironwood says that he’ll get used to it and eventually won’t even be able to tell the difference anymore. Something that Oscar doesn’t exactly look happy about, though at least he takes it better than he has in the past.

But instead of pondering on his identity issues, Oscar instead tries to talk to Ironwood about the path that he’s currently heading down. How he keeps trying to be the one with all the answers. The one where he does everything to do what he feels is right, even if it means crossing several moral lines. Essentially, Ironwood is trying to be Oz, and we all know how that went for him. But Ironwood feels that there is no other choice. Allt hat matters is stopping Salem, though Oscar rebukes that preserving their humanity, the thing that Salem threw away, matters even more. But Ironwood isn’t so sure, even wondering if that’s Salem’s greatest strength. Can she feel fear? Hesitant? Helpless? The same things that Ironwood felt at Vale. When he saw his forces be taken over, with him unable to do anything. How even with all of his forces, he could do nothing. We even see him flashback to seeing the Queen Virus appear on his screen back then. It’s… pretty damning. 

Oscar tells Ironwood that it’s okay to feel these things. Even fear. You just can’t let it control you. Ironwood however only swears that he won’t end up like Lionheart did and asks Oscar if he believes in him. Oscar says yes… but not /only/ on him, encouraging him to talk to the people he’s afraid to. The two take the elevator up, only to find an anxious Penny and Winter. The latter gives Ironwood a letter… from her father. Turns out, they’ve all been invited to the Schnee Manor for dinner. One where Ironwood will be defending his seat on the council, Jaques first act as the newest Councilman. 

Review

So… not quite as evil as last week, but still a very tense ride. You can cut the tension with a butterknife at this point. Everything is building up, and I imagine that the downfall won’t be pleasant.

We’re going to talk about where RWBYJNRO stand respectively. Let’s start with JNR. SInce Jaune isn’t in the episode it’s hard to gauge where he stands currently, though going off the past few chapters I imagine that he’s in the middle of Ren and Nora, but leaning towards Nora. The Renora duo though? Ho boy… they’ve never been more divided. It’s been clear since Chapter One where Nora stands. She is completely disapproving of the treatment of Mantle, and it and the secrets have her nearing a breaking point. And she’s totally right. Mantle is bearing all of the burdens, all of the sacrifices, and they don’t even know why. They don’t deserve this. Considering how we know that she was a street urchin, having to steal food and be mercilessly bullied by others when she ended up in Kuroyuri, it makes perfect sense for Nora to be this way. But it also makes sense why Ren is how he is. I don’t approve of him siding with Ironwood… but I understand why. After all, lack of any security and protection is what caused his village and family to be slaughtered. No, I don’t view Ren as a boot-licker and IDT he’s particularly happy about any of this. But he’s so focused on the what-ifs over the now, and it’s messing with him. Tyrian’s massacre, an event that he got distracted from detecting due to kissing Nora, doesn’t help.

I just feel so horrible for both of them. I am glad to see it though. For the longest time, Ren and Nora have differed but generally, they had little conflict between them despite their varying different personalities. It’s sweet to see, but they aren’t the same person. Ren is reserved and quiet, Nora is outgoing and bubbly. Ren is the Straight Man of the group, while Nora is the Genki Girl. Ren had a family that he lost, while Nora had no one until Ren came along (that we know of anyways). Ren’s Semblance involves masking emotions, while Nora’s involves absorbing energy. They are both very different people, but they love each other and always supported each other. But now they’re at an impasse. Nora is against Mantle’s mistreatment no matter the reason, while Ren sees it as a necessary evil to protect everyone and appears fully on board with it. And Ren seems even more closed off as ever since he didn’t even talk or express anything until siding with Ironwood’s orders, while Nora made her stance and feelings very clear with Ruby backing her. IDK where this is going to lead, but it shows that the kiss didn’t just magically fix their problems. Which is good, but it makes it all the more painful as we see the division grow between them.

Then we get to the RWBY girls. So let’s discuss Blake and Yang’s decisions here. For the most part, I agree with them. Robyn is only trying to do what’s right for Mantle. Sure she’s robbed military vehicles, but so far that’s the only morally ambiguous thing that she’s done, and she has a pretty valid reason for it. Trying to talk and work with Robyn is a much better option than opposing her and furthering the divide. It’s also good to see that the two have differing opinions on Ruby’s lie, with Yang still trusting Ruby but still feeling that Ironwood should know, while Blake feels that it could have caused much worse and in that regard is still on the same page as Ruby. They discussed it maturely and while again they don’t outright say it, it’s good to see that Blake does still have lingering issues from killing Adam despite knowing that she had to. It makes sense that she doesn’t want to arrest Robyn since… well, a Huntress doing morally ambiguous things to help the oppressed. Yeah, she fully understands that. And Yang has always kinda been anti-authority and is clearly against secrets especially towards those who deserve to know it (though it further makes her hiding Ravens Maiden identity very bad on her part), so of course she’d be on board with Robyn.

But… I can’t say that this was the right thing to do. First of all, they don’t know anything about Robyn. Yes, it’s clear that she does indeed care about Mantle. We also do see here that while she’s still upset about what happened before, she isn’t unreasonable. She does listen, and once she sees that Blake was telling the truth, accepts it. But of course, we see that she’s Hellbent on knowing the full truth and finding out who actually did this. We don’t know if she’s going to give the Bees her trust. We don’t know what she’ll do with this information. Maybe she’ll be swayed, maybe she won’t. She knows that Atlas has reasons… but they’re still oppressing Mantle instead of just being open about it. And if she does find out about Salem, there’s no telling what she’ll do. Robyn isn’t a bad person, but she is certianly not afraid of breaking the law and while IDT she’d harm innocents, there’s no telling how far he’ll go to get answers. There just isn’t a lot known about Robyn and while I think it is right to reach out to her, IDK if doing so without talking to Ironwood or the rest of the team was a good idea.

This brings us to the next point, the lack of communication. It’s been pretty clear that Bake and Yang are kinda doing their own thing and have for a while now. Which is fine and helps with their development, especially after V6. There’s a lot of trust and understanding between them in a way that only they can understand. We see that in how they talk about their differing opinions, doing so maturely and understanding the other’s view while still standing by their own thoughts. It’s good to see. But the problem is they made this decision about Robyn… without talking to the others, especially Ruby and Weiss. While I do agree with them, it makes it look like... kinda iffy. Like despite Yang saying that she trusts Ruby, she doesn’t fully. How despite Blake saying that they’ll follow Ruby’s lead, they won’t. On the one hand, they aren’t following anyone blindly, and that is important. But doing do without trying to talk to the others? That is not a good thing. Sure they think they’re helping and I do think that they’ll tell Ruby when they get to Atlas. But IDK how she’ll feel. I can see her agreeing that it was right... but IDK how she’ll feel about it being done behind her back even if it was split-second. She may/say it’s fine, but is that true? It may just add more pressure to her and her worries, and that is going to lead to bad things. I agree with Yang and lake, but I feel that they should have waited until they talked to the others because if Robyn does who knows what, it could only make things worse, and in turn make Ruby’s ultimate decision even harder.

But Ruby’s also not communicating anything. So far, aside from talking to Qrow a little in Chapter 4 and expressing her uncertainty in Chapter 6, she hasn’t talked about making a decision or her own feelings. She’s on board with Amity going up, but we don’t know if she feels like she needs to tell Ironwood about Salem now or not. Aside from any questioning it in Chapter 3, no one else has tried talking to her nor has she tried talking to any of the others or their opinions. Mind you, we may see that soon since the recent events are still recent, but it needs to happen soon. Weiss has so far been uninvolved with the Robyn stuff and while shes voiced her disapproval of Ironood’s regime and suspicions of her father, none of the others have really talked with her about it. Yang dismissed Weiss’ concerns about Jaques in CHapter 6 (though tbf it was before everything went to Hell), and no one acknowledged her voicing her suspicions this chapter. She’s ceritnaly against Ironwood’s regime, but right now her focus seems to be on her father, which isn’t unfounded. But it’s hard to say where she stands regarding Ruby’s lie and working with Robyn at this point nor especially how she feels about Winter’s current stance.

Then we have Oscar. This was an interesting chapter for him. He’s been completely uninvolved in the Robyn stuff and we haven’t seen how he feels about Ruby’s choices since Chapter 3. But he was good here. We see him display a lot of maturity and hindsight. He’s pretty much seeing Ironwood trying to be like Oz, and he knows how that is a bad thing. He wants to side with Ironwood since he sees that he’s a good person… and he is. Ironwood is one of if not the most complex character in the series. He is a good person. He is caring, can be light-hearted, and ultimately does want to protect everyone and do what’s right. But he is also a very, very flawed person. He is allowing Mantle to suffer and be viewed as a dictator, which he puts off as not caring about even though it’s clearly tearing him up. He saw what happened last time when he had a huge army and usurped power for his own reasons, but here he is doing it again. He’s trying to shove away his emotions and trying to be this fearless leader who has all the answers and is doing what’s best, aka be like Ozpin. But he isn’t Oz, and no one should be. He is letting fear control him and compromising his morals to do what he views as the right thing, even if it means that innocents suffer. The Tin Man is throwing away his heart, just as the Cowardly Lion gave into his cowardice.

Oscar can see this. He gets it. Ironwood is a good man, but he’s so focused on his own goal that he’s disregarding everything else. He’s practically shoving away his humanity, the same thing that Salem lost a long time ago. The general is heading down a dark path. It’s like I said in my Opening Analysis, Ironwood’s hopes are shattered. He’s trying, but he doesn’t know what to do. He’s just lost, and he’s risking staying that way for good. IDK how much Oscar’s words actually helped, but I am glad to see him speaking his own thoughts. Not Oz’, his. We do see for a brief second that Oscar is still unhappy about being viewed as Oz and the eventual merger, which that seeming to be dropped was a big issue with him last volume. I still don’t feel like he’s getting proper development, but this is a start. He’s acting like his own person instead of needing Oz to guide him or worrying about if his thoughts are his own. This is very much what we needed from him, and I’m very happy to see it here.

Finally, let’s talk about Pietro and Penny. It’s clear that the last chapter broke Penny. Any time that we see her here, she’s either sad or anxious. She is completely quiet, a major contrast to her bubbly, energetic personality throughout the volume. Once more, the villains used her status as a root made by Atlas to turn the people against Ironwood. How she may look like this sweet little girl just trying to protect the people, but in reality, she’s just a weapon used to further oppress the people. Now people want her destroyed, even though despite being made of metal, she is human. She has a soul. She has a heart. She has genuinely good intentions and just wanted to do good. But now it’s pretty much impossible for her to be viewed as anything but a weapon. The poor girl deserves all the hugs in the world.

But it’s equally heartbreaking seeing Pietro’s reaction. He clearly loves enny. His creation. His daughter. His distraught over this is a feeling that any parent who sees their children suffering can relate to. But then the bombshell happens. We find out that Pietro gave up his own Aura, the manifestation of his soul, to bring enny to life. Twice. Something that’ clearly wearing him down, and it’s pretty likely that doing it again may very well mean his death. It’s… IDK how to express it. It’s so sad to see, but it’s so sweet that he was willing to do so to bring Penny to life, and he clearly loves her with all his heart. This might also mean that he’s the one who created the Aura Transfew tech, and he used it on himself to bring Penny to life. IDK if he extended it to jam Aura into another person, but he clearly developed the tech. Still, it’s… such a bittersweet backstory. It’s about a man who wanted to create life. To create something with a soul, and he succeeded… but it cost him his own soul. And now he has to watch his daughter suffer, helpless to do anything except hope that the one behind this is caught before she can be hurt anymore. It’s so heartbreaking, but comes across as so genuine and just makes me care about these two characters even more.

This was a very eventful chapter. The length of the Overview alone I think demonstrates that. But it was an excellent one and a perfect follow-up to last week. There’s so much tension and conflict, but you can look at all these characters and understand all of their decisions. Ironwood, Robyn, Nora, Ren, Blake, Yang, everyone. There is no clear cut good or bad choices here, just choices. Everyone is trying to do what they think is right, and no one is particularly wrong. But every choice has a consequence. Even with the best-case scenario of appealing to Robyn, there is uncertainty regarding what she’ll do or how far she’ll go. It could lead to the worst-case scenario. As Blake said, there are few if any good options left. Add in things like Penny and Pietro backstory, Tyrian stuff, and talk about the Staff of Creation, and we’ve got what may be the best chapter so far. It’s gonna be one Hell of a second half, especially with the DInner Party ahead. Speaking of…

Chapter Eight Predictions

Final chapter of the year, folks. Going off the past, this one is gonna be a doozy. We’re clearly going to the Schnee Manor, though IDK who all is gonna go aside form Ironwood and Winter. Sure WInter said ‘all’ but it’s hard to say if the main group would be tagging along. But I am for certain that Weiss is going to go. Not because she wants to, but because she feels she has to (if Jaques didn’t make it clear that she has to be included, of course). She suspects her father of rigging the vote and of his recent decisions, and she’s gonna want to know why. But the only way is to go back home, something that will be very, very difficult for her and Winter both. But if it means stopping her father and uncovering the truth, she’ll do it. Might not be the smartest thing to do, but she’d do it.

This could lead to a number of things. There’s, of course, the political drama between Jaques and Ironwood, cause that’s ALWAYS fun. But this will be the first time that we’ve seen the Schnee Manor (outside Jawues office in Chapter 4) since V4. I already worry about Klein’s fate since it was Whitley who answered Watts and not him, but he could still be there. Though I suspect that Weiss is going to find out otherwise. Whitley will most likely be there, and we’ll see if he keeps on with his facade or if it’s gonna slip. Maybe even see him and WInter interact finally. But the thing I’m most hoping for That we finally see Mama Schnee. It’s been so long, and this seems like the right time especially if Weiss is genuinely concerned for her after Jaques gaslighting. And haha… if so they’ll beat the DC Comic in showing her first by mere days. Great timing there! Whatever happens though… it’s not gonna be a pleasant night for everyone involved. Hope that the food is good, at least.

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Nora Valkyrie, Pietro Polendina, James Ironwood, and Oscar Pine Favorite Scene: Nora telling off Ironwood and the Ironwood and Oscar talk Least Favorite Scene: The first minute or two, only cause it feels weird that we had the Grimm Attack last week that… just went nowhere. Favorite Voice Actor: David Fennoy (Pietro Polendina) Favorite Animation: Bees vs Robyn. Rating: 9/10

Final Thoughts

Dear God this is probably the longest review yet. And with where things are heading, they’re only gonna get longer. But damn… this has been by far the most complex volume and I am /loving it! SO many different conflicts between everyone, and you can understand everyone but see the problems with all of it. Good fights. Good expositions that don’t feel dragged, Good character interactions, and even more interesting choices made by characters. There are so many things that can happen form here, both good and bad. I feel more and more uncertain about things the more that it goes on, except that I love it. While IDK if it tops 3 and 6 yet in terms of enjoyment and we’ve still got six more chapters to go, this may very well be the best-written volume thus far.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Well then.

I recently discovered this "Gem" of an article and oh boy. This is next level insane conspiracy. *The article in question*

https://reclaimthenet.org/no-pixels-for-fascists/

Now the article is not promoting the context in it so much as covering it as a horror story. And at first I believe it to be satire...... But sadly it is not. First if all. Censorship is BAD. Many people will always argue with this because, "hate speech" or, "violent speech" but fact it, the people arguing for censorship so it because they believe that nothing they can or will ever say will be censored. Fun fact mind you. The term, "useful idiot" plays a big part here. See, people in powerful places don't ACTUALLY care about you or your views. They care about power. Consider for a moment why EA is backing this campaign. EA is a game publishing company that has been in hot water MANY times over the past several years. Up to and including incidents like putting out a game that was supposed to have some level of historical accuracy, but with "their version of history". Then there was the loot boxes controversy that literally started a legal war against predatory loot boxes in games, of which EA is literally the worst offender.

Now with all of this in mind realize something VERY specific. Many people that were "right wing" were very much not happy about the "our version of history" crap because it was not how the franchise had been treated prior. ""Left wing" people were mostly against the whole predatory loot boxes thing. Grant you yes, there was a lot of cross over, but fundamentally these were split issues. Now consider for a moment what some people consider to be fascist in modern culture. It's pretty broad. And it has been escaping it's proper meaning by a long shot. But with all of this said, something people neglect to realize is that totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism are all basically the same. And all involve one fundamental truth. Absolute Control.........by ANY means necessary. Censorship is authoritarian by nature. Because when you can't speak, you can't spread ideas. Imagine for a moment Progressives, you finally get free speech removed. FINALLY these "right wing Nazis" can't spread their hate messages any more out of fear of fines, jail, or imprisonment. What doth the governing bodies do next? Maybe they ban protests. Maybe they don't ACTUALLY like gay people and ban pride parades or maybe remove gay marriage. And you think to yourself, "THEY CAN'T DO THAT! THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED T-". Yes they are. You literally handed them the keys and papers to the car....... And handed over your spares while you were at it. Meaning it's theirs now. They don't have to answer to you any more.

And that's the point. You THINK you can just take away people's ability to speak because you don't agree with them, but who's speech do you think they come for next? The people who helped put them in power. The people that handed them the keys. WHY?! You might ask? Because at that point, YOU are the biggest threat to them. You are the loud, violent, useful idiots that wished for absolute control over speech to adhere to your ,"moral compass". News flash. That power? Is all encompassing. And does not just go away when someone you won't like takes power. What's more, you actually TRUST many of the people in power at face value as if they actually care about you. They don't! You, to them, are only a means to an end. And think about it really. The biggest road blocks to freedom right now are mostly all people that label themselves, either left wing, or progressives. Any idea why you can't see your own folly? Because you have too much trust in people that have no real moral compass. Consider for a moment what you've been advocating for (not all of you).

Disarming the general public (2A)

Banning certain types of speech (1A)

Give full control of healthcare to the government (which they can then deny you of)

Give full control of production rights (to the people) by proxy also the government

You are literally advocating for the government to have absolute authority over everything. And it's funny too. They've got you believing that, "The rightous path to end *fascism*, patriarchy, racism, and bigotry,-" is to give them the power to make all of that much MUCH worse. What happens when a progressive get into office that is SO progressive, they legalize pedophilia? Maybe beastiality? Guess who speech gets removed next? Everyone against those ideas since one, you no longer HAVE the first amendment to protect you, nor a second to defend yourself. Then after that person, an extremist right wing LITERAL Nazi gets put in power? Guess what? Racism and bigotry are in full swing now. Welcome back to the 1800's. And guess what you can do about it? Absolutely nothing. And you know who's to thank for that? You are.

The above article also goes on to mention this, which...... Is basically insane-

Fact is, contrary to MOST news sources. GG was not a hate movement. The FBI confirmed as much. And calling "Trump and his associates" gamers? They can't even operate FB half the time. Their only experience with gaming is probably Pac Man. Also the article goes on to say "right wing people" are the problem. No they are not. Because of the text I wrote prior to this. Because they SEE the trap and they are the only ones fighting to keep us free. Them and a hand full of centrists and not insane leftists. Also, it bares noting that "right wing" and "left wing" are not the same in the US as they are in other places, but a lot of people don't fully grasp that. People still have this view of "the right" as hillbilly racists, who shoot people because they can, and wish death upon "the gays". But that's a far cry from the bulk of the right in modern days. Because consider for a moment if the left wing was identified by their extreme? Full government control, make people be gay by force, legalize all age dating/sexual acts, let everyone love everyone *most specifically animals*, and killing/imprisoning all "non progressives". That's your fringes.

The reason so many people literally can't open their eyes is because they honestly can't think for themselves. They listen to "news" media to get all their info, even though that info is often doctored to be as woke and untrue as possible. Do you know why? Because activist types of the progressive fringes are the loudest and most entitled of us all. Salon, Kotaku, IGN, Vice, BuzzFeed, Feminist Frequency, Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN etc. They ALL get their news stories from one another. And they are all activists who want to push a narrative. They have no reason to be honest. The more angry you get reading their stuff, the more you will come back to read their stuff. Basically a loop of hate. Because without it, they'd go out of business. They NEED you to click on, share, and parrot their stories. I mean consider this for a sec. When GG got big, who was it that would have taken the hardest hit from the information found out? Games journalists. Do you know why mainstream news outlets came to their rescue? To paint gamers as all being racist, sexist, bigots? Because if it had come out and gotten attention beyond the gaming sphere that games media was being dishonest and unethical in its practices, how long do you think it would have been until we started to consider the same about mainstream journalism. They KNEW this was bad for them. But they also knew they had dedicated fan bases that would spread their propaganda for them. And they used that. They used that to pin down a few bad actors (the fringe people latching into the coat tails of the movement) to paint the entire movement as hateful. And not only did they succeed in spreading those lies. Now any time they need to make people angry again, or they need something to hide behind, the bring up GG *GamerGate*. Because the article writes itself. And they know by talking about it, they can deflect all forms of criticism. Journalist has sexual assault allegations against them? It's just GG trying to hurt progressives. Black Face? Just a GG lie! They threatened me/my family. It's the perfect shield. So much so, even Hollywood had taken on the mantra. But they took it up a notch to just say, "my movie did bad because sexist man babies". And they all do it. They don't actually CARE about sexism or whatever, but they KNOW, even the mention of "those types" is basically a battle cry to misinformed people that only wish to form a hate mob and enact "justice" on these "bigots". Open your eyes. You're a tool for the rich and powerful and you can't even see it.

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 121 Review

TFW you’re relying on someone to pull through and they’re failing badly.

Has anyone ever seen JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? SPOILERS

One of the villains is this guy named DIO. He’s an asshole. 

DIO’s whole schtick is that he is obsessed with being dominant. In the clip, he assaults JoJo’s girlfriend to show his dominance over both her and JoJo.

In JoJo’s, people fight using spiritual manifestations of their own life essence. These manifestations are called Stands, and because they are a manifestation of the user’s essence, Stands are revealing in some way as to the nature of the user.

DIO’s stand is the World and it has the power to stop time. Being able to stop time is absolute domination, both physically and temporally. Physically because you can stop the world and fuck around with everything as you please, and temporally because you are no longer subservient to the constant flow of time. The world stops for no man, except you.

Now Eren is fittingly in the same boat, except worse because while DIO could only stop time, Eren can control the course of events. He can see the future and affect the past. His domination over the world is (theoretically) absolute.

I don’t know what Eren’s plan is, but we get a taste of it this chapter. Zeke asks him point blank what he hopes to accomplish and Eren’s response is the most disturbing thing ever.  

“If people try to take my freedom away, I will take theirs away.”

My God.

This statement completely encapsulates Eren as a person. This is the rambling of a deranged lunatic. Worse, even. It’s the thinking of a stupid kid.

“Eren, why did you hit Little Timmy?”

“Because he hit me!”

You cannot hit someone just because they hit you. It doesn’t work that way. You are allowed to hit back in self-defense, but not to exact revenge. Both actions are the same, but the state of mind backing either action is the key difference. The former is the mindset of someone trying to protect themselves. The latter is the mindset of someone trying to hurt someone else.

That’s the faultiness of Eren’s thinking in principle, and it’s even worse in practice.

Eren believes that them trying to kill him gives him license to kill them. Nope, wrong.

Human life is, of course, inviolably valuable, and therefore killing in itself is always wrong. You can kill in self-defense, because the point in that case isn’t the killing itself, but the preservation of your own life. Killing for its own sake is appalling.

Ironically, this deranged narcissist perfectly illustrates why this tit-for-tat way thinking is dangerous. Restraint? Graciousness? Mercy? Can Eren comprehend these concepts?

It’s just so stunning how childish this whole thing is. Eren is opposing a king who would force his will on the future, but since Eren is doing the exact same thing, I can only assume he doesn’t think this is intrinsically wrong.

No, it’s not that Fritz’s vow is wrong, it’s that the same mechanism isn’t being used in service of Eren’s goals. Eren doesn’t think the vow is wrong in itself, he just opposes it because it’s another limit on his freedom.

There is no reason to believe Eren has any boundaries whatsoever. Or any shame for that matter. 

This “me-centric” form of morality is called egoism. It’s an utterly disreputable theory that no one defends. It’s the same with the children he killed in Liberio. Killing is wrong, unless it helps me, in which case it is good. By defining what’s good and bad in these terms, Eren reveals himself as the egomaniac man child that he is.

And yet.

Eren is the one who lectures Zeke in this chapter!

This is what Eren has reduced me to, defending Zeke. Why is this happening to me?

Zeke is supposedly the pathetic one, because he has, you know, an ideology. It’s a stupid AF ideology that is completely indefensible, so it is pathetic, but not the way Eren thinks.

Zeke’s opposition to Grisha is incidental to his ideology. It’s not that Zeke is opposing Grisha out of spite, which would truly be pathetic. Zeke opposes Grisha because their respective worldviews are incompatible.

Meanwhile Eren is saying he should be allowed to do mean things to people because they did mean things to him.

The idea that people can just kill others, simply because they tried to kill you is fundamentally lawless. Not to take the fun out of superheroes, but vigilante justice isn’t actually justice. It’s totally illiberal to have one person hold the power to judge, convict, and sentence another.

But it is also totally in character for Eren to support that idea. With Eren, it’s all about power.

I’ve often compared Eren to our 45th president. Whatever the Eren stans say, that is an apt comparison. Eren’s talk of taking freedom from those who try to take his is not unlike something Trump would say. 

They are both narcissistic man children with an insatiable lust for dominance. Slighting them creates an imbalance that they must make right, and the world is off kilter until that is done. It’s that one itch they must scratch.

Eren fights because, to be blunt, he wants the world to be his bitch and he will not settle for anything less than that. This is second nature to someone who says the things Eren says. If you think killing is justified just because they tried to kill you, then you obviously do not value human life.

At this point, Eren is undeniably similar to Zeke. He wants to bring his dream to fruition and anyone who gets in his way is just a pissant to be stomped on. 

Is Eren redeemed by his (apparent) concern for his friends? 

Nnnnope!

While friends do have certain obligations to each other, it is completely obscene to do the heinous things Eren’s done just for their sake. 

You cannot define the morality of your actions by how much they help a random group of people. Why are the lives of Eren’s friends worth any more than the lives of the people he’s killed?

The answer is that, all else being equal, they aren’t. 

You may care deeply for someone, but that does not justify a killing. 

Who is even the hero of this story anymore?

It can’t be Zeke, because his values are anathema to the series values. He may be the audience surrogate this time around, but I doubt fucking Zeke Jeager is going to be the hero when the final chapter comes around. 

Eren is theoretically the hero because his values broadly align with the story’s, but his actions are depicted in an almost devilish light. I always hoped the series would tackle the notion of fighting too hard for what you believe in, but…it’s too late for that now?

We’re in the final story arc. It’s weird to only just now be dealing with this meaty idea. Over 100 chapters of “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” and we’re just now getting to the “But not too hard.” part? There’s no way. 

Alternatively, this is just one final fake-out in the game of is-he-or-isn’t-he that Isayama has been playing since the Marley Arc. Is Eren evil, or isn’t he? Or maybe they’ll play it as “Can he be redeemed or can’t he?” 

Either way, I bet there’ll be some kind of change of heart from Eren soon. 

This chapter echoes a point made by Yelena about the titans and their relationship to humanity: that the titan powers will be abused by people because that is just the nature of things. So let’s unpack that.

King Fritz, speaking through Frieda, says that the power of the titans must not fall into human hands lest it be abused. This mirrors ongoing debates about how to deal with certain controversial weapons, such as nuclear weapons.

The (very) liberal position is that nuclear weapons should be banned completely because the risk of abuse is too great.  As per usual, the liberal position is taken by King Fritz.

The conservative position, which, once again, is the position the story sides with, is made more implicitly: that the titan powers can be a force for good, it’s just a matter of making sure only good people can access that power.

This conservative position is what underlies US policy towards North Korea and Iran. Those countries are rogue states that the US believes cannot be trusted. (Note, though, that the nuclearization of Iran is supported by Russia, a nuclear power.)

Personally, I believe nuclear weapons should be banned completely. Most countries are at least nominally supportive of the eventual, complete destruction of all nuclear weapons, and international norms have been evolving in that direction.

That is the contradiction of this issue: most people take the liberal position in the long term, but hold the conservative position in the short term.

This is just another reason to think that SNK will end with a ringing endorsement of nuclear weapons, with nary a nod to the need for eventual total disarmament.

See, ungodly amounts of power aren’t inherently bad, we just need special people to wield them for the public good.

Yeah, I get it, we need special people, but you know what? Frodo was special. The One Ring supposedly couldn’t corrupt him, but they still set out to destroy it. Because power on this scale is itself wrong.

Nuclear weapons aren’t the only possible parallel, though. Any controversial weapon will fit. In the United States there is a debate over regulating high powered weapons like the AR-15.

How do you handle such a thing? Do you ban the weapon completely, or just certain people from using it? I won’t wade into something as controversial as that here, though I will point out that the story clearly sides with the position of regulation over a total ban.

The scene in the cave also mirrors Japan’s current nuclear predicament. Japan has many outside rivals and threats, and Japan could build nuclear weapons if they wanted too. They have the technological capability, but in spite of the threat of North Korea, and the tense relations with China, the Japanese government chooses not to.

So, yeah, I’ve had the series pegged as leaning neoconservative and I still think that.

So what does the future hold?

Apparently, an event where Eren… becomes/does something. They both saw the same thing: a future where Eren is this OP chad of chads and a total boss. Grisha looks like he saw the worst thing imaginable. Eren looks like he just had an orgasm.

Since Eren is portrayed in a more sinister way this chapter, I am inclined to believe this future actually is a ghastly one.  

Before this chapter, my guess was that Eren wanted to destroy the world using the wall titans, but would somehow come around to using it the way Armin mentioned: defensively.

Having it be preordained that the future holds a version of Eren that people who aren’t Eren will think is abominable throws a wrench into that.

I wouldn’t bet against Isayama somehow finding a way to make it work though. The only other alternative is that this series ends in the most ironic way possible, with the deranged lunatic having his way and “freedom” finally being established.