#so i might prime my tnt wrong

[trademarkhubris]

kind of undecided abt where to go from where i am in this game, i have full netherite and access to potions so i could try to fight the milf then go for elytra, a few shulkers, and an end experience farm, or i could go to various ocean monuments to gather sponges, or travel a bunch to find a warm ocean to build tnt dupers to do the perimeter i want ...

[be-gay-do-heists]

hello yall :) the holy month of elul started last night, which is typically a time for contemplation, so since it is impossible for me to stop thinking about leverage, i decided to write an essay. hope anyone interested in reading it enjoys, and that it makes at least a little sense!! spoilers for leverage redemption

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Leverage, Judaism, and “Doing the Work”: An Essay for Elul

When it comes to Elul and the approaching High Holidays, Leverage might seem like an odd topic to meditate on.

The TNT crime drama that ran from 2008-2012, and which released a new season this summer following its renewal, centers on a group of found-family thieves who help the victims of corporations and oligarchs (sometimes based on real-world examples), using wacky heists and cons to bring down the rich and powerful. In one episode, the team’s clients want to reclaim their father’s prized Glimt piece that had been stolen in the Shoah and never returned, but aside from this and the throwaway lines and jokes standard for most mainstream television, there’s not a ton textually Jewish about Leverage. However, despite this, I have found that the show has strong resonance among Jewish fans, and lots of potential for analysis along Jewish themes. This tends to focus on one character in particular: the group’s brilliant, pop culture-savvy, and personable hacker, Alec Hardison, played by the phenomenally talented Aldis Hodge.

I can’t remember when or where I first encountered a reading of Hardison as Jewish, but not only is this a somewhat popular interpretation, it doesn’t feel like that much of a leap. In the show itself, Hardison has a couple of the aforementioned throwaway lines that potentially point to him being Jewish, even if they’re only in service of that moment’s grift. It’s hard to point to what exactly makes reading Hardison as Jewish feel so natural. My first guess is the easy way Hardison fits into the traditional paradigms of Jewish masculinity explored by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin (2). Most of the time, the hacker is not portrayed as athletic or physical; he is usually the foil to the team’s more physically-adept characters like fighter Eliot, or thief Parker. Indeed, Hardison’s strength is mental, expressed not only through his computer wizardry but his passions for science, technology, music, popular media, as well as his studious research into whatever scenario the group might come up against. In spite of his self-identification as a “geek,” Hardison is nevertheless confident, emotionally sensitive, and secure in his masculinity. I would argue he is representative of the traditional Jewish masculine ideal, originating in the rabbinic period and solidified in medieval Europe, of the dedicated and thoughtful scholar (3). Another reason for popular readings of Hardison as Jewish may be the desire for more representation of Jews of color. Although mainstream American Jewish institutions are beginning to recognize the incredible diversity of Jews in the United States (4), and popular figures such as Tiffany Haddish are amplifying the experiences of non-white Jews, it is still difficult to find Jews of color represented in popular media. For those eager to see this kind of representation, then, interpreting Hardison, a black man who places himself tangential to Jewishness, in this way is a tempting avenue.

Regardless, all of the above remains fan interpretation, and there was little in the text of the show that seriously tied Judaism into Hardison’s identity. At least, until we got this beautiful speech from Hardison in the very first episode of the renewed show, directed at the character of Harry Wilson, a former corporate lawyer looking to atone for the injustice he was partner to throughout his career:

“In the Jewish faith, repentance, redemption, is a process. You can’t make restitution and then promise to change. You have to change first. Do the work, Harry. Then and only then can you begin to ask for forgiveness. [...] So this… this isn’t the win. It’s the start, Harry.”

I was floored to hear this speech, and thrilled that it explained the reboot’s title, Leverage: Redemption. Although not mentioned by its Hebrew name, teshuvah forms the whole basis for the new season. Teshuvah is the concept of repentance or atonement for the sins one has committed. Stemming from the root shuv/shuva, it carries the literal sense of “return.” In a spiritual context, this usually means a return to G-d, of finding one’s way back to holiness and by extension good favor in the eyes of the Divine. But equally important is restoring one’s relationships with fellow humans by repairing any hurt one has caused over the past year. This is of special significance in the holy month of Elul, leading into Rosh haShanah, the Yamim Noraim, and Yom Kippur, but one can undertake a journey of redemption at any point in time. That teshuvah is a journey is a vital message for Harry to hear; one job, one reparative act isn’t enough to overturn years of being on the wrong side of justice, to his chagrin. As the season progresses, we get to watch his path of teshuvah unfold, with all its frustrations and consequences. Harry grows into his role as a fixer, not only someone who can find jobs and marks for the team, but fixes what he has broken or harmed.

So why was Hardison the one to make this speech?

I do maintain that it does provide a stronger textual basis for reading Hardison as Jewish by implication (though the brief on-screen explanation for why he knows about teshuvah, that his foster-parent Nana raised a multi-faith household, is important in its own merit, and meshes well with his character traits of empathy and understanding for diverse experiences). However, beyond this, Hardison isn’t exactly an archetypical model for teshuvah. In the original series, he was the youngest character of the main ensemble, a hacking prodigy in the start of his adult career, with few mistakes or slights against others under his belt. In one flashback we see that his possibly first crime was stealing from the Bank of Iceland to pay off his Nana’s medical bills, and that his other early hacking exploits were in the service of fulfilling personal desires, with only those who could afford to pay the bill as targets. Indeed, in the middle of his speech, Hardison points to Eliot, the character with the most violent and gritty past who views his work with the Leverage team as atonement, for a prime example of ongoing teshuvah. So while no one is perfect and everyone has a reason for doing teshuvah, this question of why Hardison is the one to give this series-defining speech inspired me to look at his character choices and behavior, and see how they resonate with a different but interrelated Jewish principle, that of tikkun olam. 

Tikkun olam is literally translated as “repairing the world,” and can take many different forms, such as protecting the rights of vulnerable people in society, or giving tzedakah (5). In modern times, tikkun olam is often the rallying cry for Jewish social activists, particularly among environmentalists for whom literally restoring the health of the natural world is the key goal. Teshuvah and tikkun olam are intertwined (the former is the latter performed at an interpersonal level) and both hold a sense of fixing or repairing, but tikkun olam really revolves around a person feeling called to address an injustice that they may have not had a personal hand in creating. Hardison’s sense of a universal scale of justice which he has the power to help right on a global level and his newfound drive to do humanitarian work, picked up sometime after the end of the original series, make tikkun olam a central value for his character. This is why we get this nice bit of dialogue from Eliot to Hardison in the second episode of the reboot, when the latter’s outside efforts to organize international aid start distracting him from his work with the team: “Is [humanitarian work] a side gig? In our line of work, you’re one of the best. But in that line of work… you’re the only one, man.” The character who most exemplifies teshuvah reminds Hardison of his amazing ability to effect change for the better on a huge stage, to do some effective tikkun olam. It’s this acknowledgement of where Hardison can do the most good that prompts the character’s absence for the remainder of the episodes released thus far, turning his side gig into his main gig.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see where Hardison’s arc for this season goes. Separated from the rest of the team, the hacker still has remarkable power to change the world, because it is, after all, the “age of the geek.” However, he is still one person. For all that both teshuvah and tikkun olam are individual responsibilities and require individual decision-making and effort, the latter especially relies on collective work to actually make things happen. Hardison leaving is better than trying to do humanitarian work and Leverage at the same time, but there’s only so long he can be the “only one” in the field before burning out. I’m reminded of one of the most famous (for good reason) maxims in Judaism:

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it. (6)

Elul is traditionally a time for introspection and heeding the calls to repentance. After a year where it’s never been easier to feel powerless and drained by everything going on around us, I think it’s worth taking the time to examine what kind of work we are capable of in our own lives. Maybe it’s fixing the very recent and tangible hurts we’ve left behind, like Harry. Maybe it’s the little changes for the better that we make every day, motivated by our sense of responsibility, like Eliot. And maybe it’s the grueling challenge of major social change, like Hardison. And if any of this work gets too much, who can we fall back on for support and healing? Determining what needs repair, working on our own scale and where our efforts are most helpful, and thereby contributing to justice in realistic ways means that we can start the new year fresh, having contemplated in holiday fashion how we can be better agents in the world.

Shana tovah u’metukah and ketivah tovah to all (7), and may the work we do in the coming year be for good!

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(1) Disclaimer: everybody’s fandom experiences are different, and this is just what I’ve picked up on in my short time watching and enjoying this show with others.

(2) See, for example, the introduction and first chapter of Boyarin’s book Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (I especially recommend at least this portion if you are interested in queer theory and Judaic studies). There he explores the development of Jewish masculinity in direct opposition to Christian masculine standards.

(3) I might even go so far as to place Hardison well within the Jewish masculine ideal of Edelkayt, gentle and studious nobility (although I would hesitate to call him timid, another trait associated with Edelkayt). Boyarin explains that this scholarly, non-athletic model of man did not carry negative associations in the historical Jewish mindset, but was rather the height of attractiveness (Boyarin, 2, 51).

(4) Jews of color make up 20% of American Jews, according to statistics from Be’chol Lashon, and this number is projected to increase as American demographics continue to change: https://globaljews.org/about/mission/. 

(5) Tzedakah is commonly known as righteous charity. According to traditional authority Maimonides, it should be given anonymously and without embarrassment to the person in need, generous, and designed to help the recipient become self-sufficient.

(6) Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot, 2:16

(7) “A good and sweet year” and “a good inscription [in the Book of Life]”

[stellocchia]

Okay, now that I have a bit of time it’s time to analize that disaster of a custody battle stream, also known as Tommy and Wilbur visiting Las Nevadas!

As always this is gonna be quite long so I’ll put everything under the cut and remember that I’ll only be talking about the characters. Also for the dialogues the colors are: Quackity, Tommy and Wilbur

One thing that I would like to point out before we get into it is that c!Tommy is pretty much spiraling throughout this stream (he dissociates and shows his suicidal tendencies more clearly) so it’s good to keep this in mind when analizing his actions and words. 

First of all here’s Wilbur’s pov of it: Wilbur's POV

And here’s Tommy’s: Tommy's POV

I’ll be using both for this.

One thing that is immediately interesting to notice is that, despite supposedly living with Phil we mostly see Wilbur around L’Manhole.

“Have you been sewing? Knitting? That can be a dangerous sport if done too quickly” (just wanted to point out the tailor!Tommy bit)

So first of all is the confirmation that the stone never had a use beyond keeping Tommy occupied back when Wilbur asked for it. The task of gathering the stone could also have been a test on Wilbur’s part to test Tommy’s obedience considering that it was a tedious and apparently sensless task that most people would not have taken on.

Afterwards we have an interesting little bit where Wilbur demonstrates that he is still extremely knowledgable when it comes to tnt, knowing which blocks are more resistent to it and even being able to deduce that the ufo was blown up from the inside (something he’ll lie about later). 

“Someone’s a little copycat. Hey tommy someone’s a little copycat~” (in reference to what happened to Purpled’s ufo. This could be interpreted as derogatory we’ll have to see if Wilbur appreciates someone imitating his work)

Quackity’s book is then introduced, though at first Wilbur is very vague about it’s contents before straight up lying about them (saying that it said: “My dearest friend Wilbur, I’ve really missed seeing you, come to project Nevadas your best friend Quackity”), here’s the actual contents of it:

It is possible that he didn’t mention the actual content to Tommy because he was afraid Tommy would have kept him from meeting Quackity if he knew that he seemingly agreed with Wilbur’s ideology, though this is just a theory. 

Another interesting thing is that Wilbur keeps referring to Ghostbur’s resurrection site as his “tombstone” despite Tommy having already told him last time that he didn’t get one. Perhaps this is a show of Wilbur’s own fear of being forgotten or of having been inconsequential to the bigger narrative (his continued search for the confirmation that he did have a big impact would seem to point to this).

“Will, I’m accustomed to people lying to me. Just tell me: will the book, whatever is in there, bring us more primes?” (this is an interesting way for Tommy to let Wilbur know that he knows he’s lying while still trying to keep the conversation more light herted)

On their way to Las Nevadas there is an interesting instance of Wilbur standing still near a creeper instead of trying to protect himself so that Tommy has to intervene (similar instances happen multiple times throughout the stream) which could be a portrayal of his self-destructive tendencies and kinda mirrors Tommy's behaviour in exile. 

“Every person we’ve spoken to aside from say, I don’t know, Jack Manifold. Every person aside from Jack Manifold has taken a bit of a disliking to me. Oh and Phil, Phil was lovely too, and you actually! Come to think of it the 3 people I care about most, Jack Manifold, you and Phil, have been the nicest to me”

There are a few things I wanna say here: first of all there is one manipulation tactic that consists of making yourself out to be the victim in a certain situation in order to gain pity, sympathy or evoke compassion in the other and that’s what Wilbur has been doing both in this stream and in the past when mentioning that people hate him despite every single person he met (aside from Tommy himself) actually being rather kind and accomodating. This does probably come from Wilbur’s own self-hatred and his view of himself as a villain but, once again, I would like to remind you that manipulation is still manipulation even if you believe in what you’re saying. 

The second point I wanted to talk about briefly was the line about only caring about the 3 people he mentioned. Aside from how truthful he is about all 3 of them (I’m sorry but I have a hard time believing that he cares deeply for Jack Manifold when he didn’t even used to remember who he was) he also later mentions that there are other people he would like to see, basically it’s like the L’Manburg situation: just because Wilbur says he doesn’t care about something it doesn’t mean that it’s true.

“They told me it was like a small little town where Big Q sells funny potions and liquids from his van” (so from Tommy’s understanding Las Nevadas was a mix between the drug van and og L’Manburg. I wonder if we’ll find out who gave him this idea)

Little note about Wilbur throwing Linda (Tommy’s prized shovel) away twice during this stream almost casually.

“Tommy stand back. Tommy stand back” (Wilbur interposing himself between Tommy and a situation that might be dangerous, I’ll talk about this a bit later but keep it in mind)

“I’ll tell you what: it’s nice to see you out of that stupid vice president shirt. You know I never thought you were fit for that vice president thing anyway, I think that this is- this is- what- what are you like the concierge of this area? Like the cleaner?” “This is so nice!” “I don’t know what to call it Wilbur all I know is that this is my place. This is mine. I own this place”

It is interesting to note that Wilbur apparently did not think too highly of Quackity, immediately assuming he must be and employee rather then having a leading position, he even expresses that he didn’t think Quackity was fit to even be vice president. It’s also interesting to point out that Tommy gets immediately uncomfortable with where the conversation is going and splits off from the two to explore while also being extra obnoxious in an attempt to split up the fight he knew to be coming (he is always rather perceptive), to which Quackity responds only with amusement (actually humouring Tommy), while Wilbur simply ignores it for the time being. 

“If I’d known there was a place I could align myself to as quickly as this I would have done it sooner” (could be both a search for community as well as him generally prefering being aligned to a country as he comments later on that he’s not a fan of anarchy by mentioning that him and Phil don’t see eye to eye on this)

This is when Wilbur brings up Quackity’s book for the second time mentioning that he assumed it was an invite to joing Quackity in Las Nevadas, which turns out it wasn’t. 

“So that’s the invitation to work alongside you I assume, I- I accept. I accept. I’d love to come in” “Big Q I also wanted... can I move into the big- the big penis?” “*laugh* No Tommy. Wilbur, Wilbur” “Yeah?” “No? No?” “That was... that was not an invitation I’m sorry Wilbur” *Wilbur checks the book again* “That’s not an invitation. Wilbur, Wilbur, my nation will not be subject to your... unpredictability, alright? Thank you so much for coming, thank you so much for visiting Wilbur but, uhm... I don’t need any- I don’t need any extra members right now” 

So taking this conversation a bit at a time: Quackity is the first person since Wilbur has come back (aside from Tommy, but Tommy’s opinion really doesn’t matter to Wilbur) who hasn’t tried to accomodate him. He set his own rules and stuck by them not willing to budge on it at all. Also it is interesting to note that Quackity so far doesn’t seem to be interested in letting Tommy join either, only changing his demeanour later after Tommy calls Wilbur out on his lying. This change of mind could both be tied to a crack he noticed in Tommy’s loyalty to Wilbur as well as done to spite Wilbur himself. Or both really. 

“[Las Nevadas] It’s like one of those visions you have after being in the mines for several hours” (Tommy mentioning having hallucinations once again)

“No... no, you’ve got it all wrong. You’ve got it all wrong man. Okay okay, maybe, maybe I was unprdictable in the past” “But it’s really nice...” “But I’ve turned over a new leaf Quackity! I don’t lie anymore, I don’t- I don’t, you know, I don’t deceive, I know nothing about tnt anymore. I’ve forgotten everything I knew about tnt, it’s ridiculous I-” “*snicker* Ok- mmm, well... Will, well” “Is he lying Tommy?”

Also here we have a clearer example of Wilbur lying and deceiving right after asserting that he doesn’t do it anymore (he deceived Tommy on the book and lied about his knowledge on tnt) together with Tommy calling him out on it.

“This is the best place on the server! This is like heaven! Paradise!” “Quackity we can stay, right?” “You seem to like it a lot Tommy” 

Immediately afterwards there’s where Quackity seems to change his mind about letting Tommy stay while also ignoring Wilbur in the process. Again we really don’t have any definitive indication for the reason why he changes his mind, it could be because he saw how much Tommy liked it here as much as it could be to spite Wilbur. Any conclusion for either is pure speculation.

“Quackity look at me, look at me in the eyes. I. Am. Your. Servant. I am at your service. I have run countries, I’ve won elections, I’ve done everything that you will need in a leadership role, Quackity. Even not in leadership! I can- I can be, you know, assistent to president”

Another less known form of manipulation. Wilbur wants power within this new country so he offers to cover a more “subservient” position to have Quackity let his guard down so that he can achieve his role. 

“Will this is so cool!” “Tommy SHUT UP!” “Hey! What a fu- hey what a fuck?!” (a bit of Wilbur’s “affable” persona slipping away paired up with Tommy immediately noticing that that was not okay and calling Wilbur out on it)

“Wilbur listen to me: I saw what you did to L’Manburg and I’m not letting Las Nevadas have the same fate as L’Manburg. I appreciate Tommy here, I appreciate you checking this place out Wilbur but, I don’t need your services, I don’t need your presence, you’re very unpredictable” (Quackity once more standing his ground and repeating that he does not trust Wilbur in the slightest and also reaffirming that he does want Tommy there instead)

It’s interesting to notice that all throughout this exchange, while Tommy was off exploring Quackity was the one often paying attention to him while Wilbur ignored him the whole time before snapping.

“So we’re not allowed?” “Tommy, I need to talk to you Tommy” “Am I allowed? Or is it just Will?” “Well, I’d love to discuss it with you” (Quackity is the first person that actually directly addressed Tommy while ignoring Wilbur since Wilbur’s resurrection and that’s quite interesting. It could be that perhaps he noticed that Wilbur seems to consider Tommy almost like an extension of himself and that he tried to drive a wedge into that)

The next few minutes are spent with Wilbur trying to find out exactly where the confines of Las Nevadas are.

“Tommy come with me. Tommy at my side please” (addressing him like a soldier again)

There is a back and forth between Wilbur and Quackity where Quackity tries to deflect Wilbur’s question about his ownership of the adiacent forest multiple times, but Wilbur does end up finding out that it’s not Quackity’s land. (Wilbur also has a throwaway comment about that forest being Paradise in response to Tommy calling Las Nevadas that which Tommy disagrees on).

“What’s the point in capitalism without healthy competition?” (Wilbur announcing he wants to create a country next to Quackity’s)

“Wait, where are you going?” “Just over here Tommy. Stay by my side, by my side” (once again an emphasis on wanting Tommy nearby, which isn’t new)

“You know what Wilbur? You’re right: capitalism strives on competition and I’m ready for all the competition you can bring me” (Wilbur is positively giddy at this declaration, which makes me think that he does truly see this competition mostly as a game)

“Will I don’t want to start a country, I very much like that country there” *Tommy points at Las Nevadas* “With the stone-” “Tommy we- we’ll discuss this in a minute” “No...” “No no no, Tommy seems to have some concerns about building a country from the ground up” (Tommy under) “Listen, listen, guys, guys, I was over there” (Quackity over) “So how about you take Tommy’s opinion into consideration? For once, for once in your life since you’ve never done so before” (Tommy under) “Can we please listen to me? You [Quackity] are not lis- you’re not lis- you’re actually speaking over me”

This is the first one of many conversations this stream where the fight has moved from the power pissing context Wilbur and Quackity had going on to Tommy. It’s also where they starting weaponizing him more and more (his traumas as well as the other’s treatment of him) while each trying to prove that they’re better for him then the other. Of course this isn’t actually about Tommy, it’s about power once again. Quackity has undeniably noticed by now how Wilbur treats Tommy (aka as an extension of himself) together with being pissed that Wilbur challenged him on his own territory (challenging Las Nevadas which is Quackity’s most prized possession) so he decided to repay him in kind. 

From here on out Tommy seems to spiral more, standing up for himself less, looking more and more uncomfortable (especially when the other two start bringing up his traumatic experiences) and slipping back into dissociation and self-loathing behaviour.

“You showed great interest for my country Tommy and I would like to speak to you about that” “Yes” “Wilbur I don’t think you’ll hold Tommy down and make him join your country” “I have utter fate that Tommy will make the right decision” (both of them starting to put pressure on him, subtly influencing him with their wording) 

Tommy and Quackity have a chat together alone (though Wilbur is listening in). 

First thing that happens is Quackity bringing up the hotel which Wilbur implies later was done maliciously, though we don’t know if Quackity knew that the ownership of it didn’t go back to Tommy once he came back to life.

Afterwards Tommy asks Quackity about his scar. 

“If I’m gonna speak to you I want you to be honest with me, ‘cause I’ve spent quite a lot of time with people who just bullshit me, they lie to me and I’m not doing that anymore” (this is one of Tommy’s 2 priorities in life right now. What he wants can be boiled down to honesty and safety)

Quackity does explain honestly what happened, though the information that they spent their time hunting down Techno while Tommy was in exile instead of trying to help him does understandably upset Tommy quite a bit. (Also Wilbur finally makes himself a sword).

“But if this [butcher army] was while I was in exile you’re meaning to tell me that you put in all of the effort to kill Techno instead of helping me?” (...) “You know I needed help and no one came to see me” (this set back his mentality regarding exile quite a bit I’d guess. The anger is more then understandable)

Quackity doesn’t deny the accusations but he does deflect a bit saying that they can talk about it another time and that he is not Tommy’s enemy to which Tommy agrees.

“How would you like to run the official food business of Las Nevadas” (this is Quackity’s big offer for Tommy)

(Wilbur putting pressure on Tommy in the meantime)

After this Wilbur intervenes directly inquiring on wether or not they were done. Quackity tries to get in a last minute sale pitch to Tommy who is getting quite overwhelmed and asks for some time to think (which he is now given by Quackity, but not later by Wilbur)

Wilbur also expresses worry for Tommy’s safety while they’re coming back, though how sincere it is it’s unknown (I think it's at least partially sincere worry, but I doubt that's all there is to it). That said I want to say that multiple times in this stream Wilbur has seemingly shown to be protective of Tommy when it comes to Quackity, often almost treating him as if he was incapable of defending himself (as if he couldn’t 1v2 the two of them easily). For example here, even though Tommy said that he can take care of himself Wilbur immediately responds out loud with an: “okay I’m coming” and bringing out his sword.

“Listen Tommy I heard what he was saying to you man and you don’t seriously believe that do you?” (keeping the question very open so that Tommy can interject his own doubts. Also Quackity technically didn’t lie once to Tommy and, while there was a bit of deflection on his part so far he hasn’t been all that manipulative if I’m being honest)

Wilbur proceeds to tell Tommy that if he stays with Quackity he’ll be nothing more then a caterer (strongly implying that that’s not something he wants) and Tommy chimes in saying that that’s not for him.

“Listen Tommy I’m not gonna stop you but, I’ll be honest with you man, you’re all I’ve got” (set up for the guilt tripping later as well as once again putting himself in the position of the victim so that Tommy won’t leave him. Also he denies that Jack and Phil count as well because the first is too busy and he doesn’t agree with the political views of the latter)

“I wanna make a place where we can be safe for once. Tommy it’s been so long since we felt safe and man you deserve it. You’ve been through so much, you’ve done so much, Tommy you’ve changed the world! And all you’ve got to show for it is some scars and some trauma. Tommy you deserve this safety and this sanctuary and that’s why I wanna make it with you and you won’t get it over there”

Now this should sound familiar to quite a few people, mostly because it’s pretty similar to the tactic that Quackity himself uses. First identify the victim’s vulnerabilities and their desires (Tommy only wants 2 things and only one is connected to physical places so safety it is). Second relate to the victims experiences repeating that they do deserve to get what they so desperately want (check back Quackity’s conversation with Fundy if you want to see that done really well). And lastly emphasise that you’re the only one who can give them what they want.

“You know what has substance Tommy? Family. Blood” (what sparked back the canon sbi discourse)

“I haven’t- I don’t wanna make my mind now ‘cause it’s- it feels like-” “Tommy you need to make your mind now” (putting a ton of pressure onto Tommy, enough that Tommy is reminded of his time in prison)

“Tommy I love a challenge” (considering the context and the fact that this is in response to Tommy hesitating on who to join this is most definitely about him. Wilbur definitely still considers this, at least partially, part of his and Quackity’s game)

“If you pick Las Nevadas what am I gonna do? Man, what am I gonna do? I’d never hurt you. I’d never want anything bad for you Tommy” (mixing in a bit of guilt tripping with a bit of lies. Now, it’s probably not a lie that he wouldn’t want something bad for Tommy, but the thing about never hurting him? I mean, this stream is a proof of the cotrary)

“You can go with whatever you want, but just know what you’d do to me” (once again painting himself as the victim while guilt tripping Tommy)

“I put a lot of things to the side that I shouldn’t of. I prioritized the wrong things, I put revenge over humanity. I guess all I’m seeking right now is someone who’ll be honest with me and a place where I can feel safe”

Here it is, we got Tommy’s desire spelled out by him. This is what makes him so vulnerable to Wilbur’s manipulation, the fact that Wilbur knows how to pretend that he can offer this. Also the first part of this is another recognition of how unhealthy his mindset was while he was with Technoblade, which makes him saying that he betrayed Techno and feels guilty about that afterwards even more sad because he recognizes that being with Techno was not good for him but still bashes himself over leaving him even if he really didn’t have any other choice if he wanted to stay true to himself. It’s quite tragic and it’s once more a show of his self-loathing. 

“This can be a safe place for them [Techno and Tubbo]” (Wilbur is using the informations Tommy provided him in a moment of open vulnerability to manipulate him further)

Tommy then agrees to stay with Wilbur though he seems far from enthusiastic about it. He seems to believe Wilbur when he says he's gonna make a safe space for him and the people he cares about, but also seems hesitant to fully trust him.

“Big Q is gonna wish he never fucked with me” (still in regard to challenging Wilbur’s perceived ownership of Tommy)

The stream is far from over though. After that conversation between Wilbur and Tommy they start to build a stone penis over the lake and Wilbur and Quackity get in a very heated argument that leaves Tommy incredibly uncomfortable. The whole conversation consists in Wilbur and Quackity shouting at each other about things the other has done to Tommy (all traumatic for him) while Tommy makes himself smaller and shuts down. First Qauckity accuses Wilbur of emotionally manipulating Tommy (which is true), then Wilbur accuses Quackity of using the hotel against Tommy (which wasn’t actually true) and they keep going like that. 

“The one thing [the hotel] Tommy’s tried to do was a failure” (way to undermine achievements like putting Dream behind bars there... however to be exact this is a manipulation tactic known as “shaming” which consists in undermining the victim’s worth to foster feelings of inadequacy which makes them more vulnerable. It’s a tactic Wilbur has used quite often since Pogtopia)

“Great job Wilbur of doing to Tomminnit what you’ve done your entire fucking life” (Quackity does sound actually upset) 

“Don’t try to compare me to you Wilbur, me and you are not the same” (this does align to Quackity’s desire to not live in other people shadows any longer)

“Hey hey hey hey, don’t come near Tommy, don’t come near Tommy” “Will, Will, hey hey, let me speak! This is about me so let me speak! I don’t know I-” “I just don’t want him to hurt you. I just don’t want him to hurt you” “I can fend for myself. You weren’t here for a long time. I thought, I thought you [Wilbur] were gonna make me feel a little bit safer, let me tell you now either of you-” “Fellas fellas” “No shut the fuck up! I didn’t feel- that didn’t make me feel- that was weird, I didn’t- don’t do that either of you” 

Now this is both Wilbur once again babying Tommy and treating him as if he’s not capable of taking care of himself (it could be done out of sincere care, but that doesn’t make it any less patronizing) and Tommy actually standing up for himself. Tommy made himself as little as possible during their confrontation and didn’t utter a word and now he finally got a bit of confidence back to say that he didn’t like that and both of them still tried to interrupt him. And Wilbur immediately went to say that he won’t do it again, but Quackity will as if he didn’t listen to a word Tommy just said. That said after that Quackity does apologize to Tommy specifically (though how sincere that was is debatable and Wilbur also accepts the apology as well even if it wasn’t directed at him) and invites the both of them to have a tour of Las Nevadas. Tommy wanted to refuse the tour because he was already visibly overwhelmed, but Wilbur ignores him and proceeds to accept anyway. 

“Quackity I wanna say from here on, as much as we may have our disagreements here man I- we gotta leave Tommy out of this” (they don’t)

“Tommy I’ll take it back, I’m fine with you working here and still being, you know, as long as you still hang out with me and don’t leave me on my own I have no problems with you working here man” (except they both already put an incredible amount of pressure on him and Will in partucular already made him feel guilty for even considering sort of leaving him)

“At the end of the day it’s okay Tommy, you make your own decisions, but let me keep showing you around the TommyInnit res- uh, I mean the restourant” (very sneaky there Quackity. Naming things creates attachment btw) 

Btw, Quackity and Wilbur are still very tense, but they both put their differences aside in a split second to get Tommy away from the strip club, which honestly is just funny. Also once again Wilbur goes before Tommy inside the casino in case it’s dangerous.

They then gamble for a bit and Tommy bets Linda away and looses it. They then go up in the white tower. 

“This would be such a good point to just jump off and just end it. Woah” “no no no Tommy get down!” “Tommy get down from the rail” (casual reminder that Tommy is still extremely suicidal, though at least this time there was someone there to get him down)

Quackity and Wilbur have a small conversation while Tommy is still checking out the view which mostly consist in Quackity trying to find out more about the Revival Book (while feigning complete ignorance about it). 

Meanwhile while dissociating Tommy puts down some water to the side of the tower and then jumps in it while taking it away (therefore technically jumipng off, but not dying because his fall was slowed down). Quackity notices and immediately panics, while Wilbur places some water down for him so he can get back up. 

“Tommy come here, I’ve got you, I’ve always got you” (both helping and emphasizing his wish for Tommy to depend on him as much as he does on Tommy)

After that they talk for a while and Quackity brings up the conversation that he had with Wilbur which is the moment Wilbur realizes that the “You were right” in the book was referring to the pre-Pogtopia him. Also Wilbur talks about the things he’s lost (years of his life and people are the two things he mentioned). 

“There’s lots of people I wish I could see. Like I wish I could just tell them ‘I’m alive’ and apologize and also thank them” (I do think he’s sincere, but it does make me a bit sad that Tommy was not in the list of people who deserved an apology in Wilbur’s mind)

After that Quackity seems to take an interest in Wilbur’s plans specifically, but, before he can investigate further, Tommy gives him his own answer and declines his offer of manning the restaurant saying that that life is not for him, it’s too relaxed (Wilbur's reaction to it is also worth notice). 

“I don’t wanna run a food stand. Wilbur gets things done” (sorry to Tommy here, but, genuinely, when’s the last time Wilbur got something done without Dream’s or Tommy’s help?)

After this they get back on the topic of the Revive Book and Wilbur reveals that Dream is the one who brought him back. He also admits that he wants to thank Dream for saving him and describes him as his “hero” again. Quackity himself reveals that he has been visiting Dream.

“Oh who cares about Ghostbur?” “Don’t fucking say- don’t- he killed Ghostbur” (once again Tommy should not be here for this conversation considering how triggering the subject is for him)

“I can’t believe- you’re like a misinformed parent, you’re just wrong” (Tommy both pointing out that Wilbur is wrong and admitting that that’s due to a lack of information)

“The prison is not just this thing, this dandelion. No no no, the prison-” “How are you back then Tommy? If you died” “Dream killed me to prove a point. That he- (continues under) he’s omnipotent, he’s got this God complex” “Quackity I need to get in there”

Once again not letting Tommy speak even if Wilbur himself asked the question, though this time it may be because if he listened to Tommy’s story and his experience with Dream he would realize that there are some incongruences between the version of Dream he created in his mind and the real Dream. Between his hero and Tommy’s abuser who beat him to death to prove a point. This split in his mind in how he views Dream was already evident in the last stream with him fip flopping between wanting him dead or not. 

“Tommy, Tommy, I’m not gonna talk shit about them [Sam] without their presence here alright?” (Quackity being protective of his own business patners)

Also Tommy manages to deduce on his own what Quackity has been doing to Dream, though he gets to the conclusion with the wrong clues. Either way after finding out how to visit the prison Wilbur leaves in a hurry telling Tommy to go with him as well.

“I’m a big boy Tommy, I’m a big boy, I’ll be fine” “Wilbur I’m a big man, but I was not fine” (Tommy tries to explain Dream’s danger to Wilbur by making himself vulnerable again, but it doesn’t work as Wilbur doesn’t listen)

Afterwards Wilbur tells Tommy that he is going to the prison and ignores any of Tommy’s concerns on the matter.

“Tommy listen, I didn’t wanna spring things on you because I’m really trying not to be a shit person to you Tommy, right? I’m really really trying. And it’s easy, it’s easy not to be a shit person to you, right? Because we got people like Quackity over there who are just- you know he said it best I’m not gonna talk shit about him behind his back"

If he’s not trying to be a sh*t person to Tommy he is failing miserably. Truly this whole stream he either ignored him, talked over him, talked about incredibly triggering stuff in front of him or tried manipulating him. This was all their interactions summarized. Pettiness aside though, he still badmouths Quackity by handing Tommy the book and telling him that Quackity agreed with the “old Wilbur” (not specifying that he is referring to pre-Pogtopia Wilbur and that he himself still agrees with the “old him”) to villainize him. He also acts like Tommy is being unreasonable for not wanting him to go, despite having died there and having seen Ghostbur die there. Wilbur does say that he won’t go if Tommy really doesn’t want him to, but he leaves telling him they’ll talk about it again right after Tommy tells him this: 

“I don’t think you should do that, he’s more powerful then you think you are”

Left on his own Tommy reminisces of when he went to the prison looking for closure as well. He then borrows an ender chest from Quackity for his and Wilbur’s little stone shack and then goes to the middle of the lake to listen to cat. 

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (April 23/2021) - The Lessons

Those resisting the Egg meet on Cloud Prime to prepare for the Red Banquet, composing backup plans and wondering if the Eggpire really is trying to turn over a new leaf.

Ranboo experiences something strange while talking to Foolish about the mansion and goes searching for some answers, confronting Sam at the prison.

---

VOD LINKS:

Foolish

Philza

Captain Puffy

Jack Manifold

Ranboo

Hannahxxrose

---

- Foolish picks out an outfit for the Red Banquet.

- Phil continues to work on the massive basement build.

- Puffy needs a Banquet skin as well. She meets Foolish at the Holy Land.

- Foolish shows Puffy the Nether Portal entrance to his summer home that he’s been working on. He also still needs therapy from the catmaid incident.

- They meet with Sam and Hannah on Cloud Prime. Foolish hands them all Rolexes for the Banquet.

- They discuss the Banquet. Sam says Bad told them they wanted to “turn over a new leaf.” They notice Bad used the same phrases for all of them. Foolish and Puffy are both skeptical. 

- Sam thinks they should have a backup plan. He pulls out diamond blocks, saying he can donate riches. The Eggpire doesn’t want them bringing items, but Sam thinks they should hide armor somewhere down near the Banquet area just in case.

- Hannah and Foolish leave.

- Antfrost comes over and Puffy and Sam briefly speak with him. They tell him they’re excited for the Banquet, for the hatchet that they’re going to bury and the leaf they’ll turn over.

- Right now, Antfrost is working on final preparations. Sam asks if there’s anything he can help with. Ant says they could bring shrimp for Puffy’s shrimp cocktails.

Puffy: “Well, I mean I was promised it was gonna be there -- that’s kinda the reason why I showed up, honestly, was -- was for the shrimp. And you know the leaf, of course, that we’re turning.”

Ant: “Of course, of course. It’ll be there, it’ll be there.”

...

Sam: “Is there anything specifically that we should look forward to?”

Ant: “I think just everybody getting along and you know, becoming one. Turning over a new leaf.”

- They say goodbye and Antfrost leaves.

- Sam and Puffy speak. Can they trust the other two, Hannah and Foolish?

Sam: “I know one of them’s your son--”

Puffy: “No, listen, listen. See, Foolish is innocent. He’s too good, too pure. But me and you, we’ve been here since the beginning. We’ve seen this unfold since the Egg showed up, and I don’t think they’ve seen all the bad.”

Sam: “I don’t think they quite grasp how much the Egg has changed those two.”

Puffy: “God no...”

- Sam has a plan: to set a trap to destroy the Egg if necessary. He’s hesitant, though, as he doesn’t want to destroy the Egg if they really are trying to turn over a new leaf. They can drop TNT down the tunnel right on top of the Egg. He’ll have to sneak in a lever somewhere.

- Sam wants to give them a chance to turn over a new leaf, but this is their last chance. It’s now or never to gain their trust back. 

- They agree to not tell Hannah and Foolish a thing about this. The less they know, the less danger they’ll be in.

- Puffy says goodbye and Sam leaves to collect TNT. They’ll speak later.

- Puffy wanders off and thinks to herself.

“This has to be on me and Sam. There’s no -- I trust Foolish and I trust Hannah, but they haven’t been here since the beginning. They don’t know. They don’t know better.”

“I wanna trust Bad, I wanna trust Antfrost and Punz and I wanna trust that they’re being honest and they do want to make a difference, but...just too much has happened, they’ve changed too much, and I think there’s too much to risk, there’s too much on the line. It has to be like this. It has to be done."

- Puffy goes to prepare sets of armor.

- Jack gets some Netherite enchanted.

- After Tubbo chooses Ranboo over Jack on his stream with Tommy, Jack goes and leaves a sign in front of Bee ‘n’ Boo to get back at him:

Hope you have fun owning your hotel with Ranboo

- Jack </3

“It’s the worst kind of villainy, chat...making his feelings hurt.”

- He goes back to enchanting.

---

The Enderwalk Saga: Chapter One

The Lessons.

---

- Ranboo is in Michael’s room. He draws the Axe of Ender for a few seconds before throwing Michael a golden apple.

- He has to go speak with Foolish to talk about the mansion about the payment. When he reaches the mansion, he finds Foolish in the library. Foolish has himself a cake.

- The mansion is nearly complete, and Ranboo is excited to move in.

- Foolish tours Ranboo around the mansion, showing him the various rooms, including a war room that Tubbo requested. Some he’s not sure about. Maybe he could get some books -- he asks if Ranboo’s much of a book-reader.

- There’s also a panic closet that Foolish has already tried out after a certain chandelier.

- Foolish tries to bring Ranboo back to the war room but loses his way. As they pass the bee on the lead, Ranboo draws his axe for a moment again. Foolish reaches it and shows Ranboo a secret back space.

- Foolish brings up the deal he made with Ranboo to thank him. Not the mansion, but the shulker box. Ranboo is confused -- what deal?

- Foolish’s voice fades away for a moment, replaced with Enderman noises.

Words appear on the screen.

Lesson 14:

If you have the opportunity to gain a favor, take it.

- Foolish tosses Ranboo a grass block to hold. Ranboo carries it as he continues talking to Foolish. He nervously tells him he’s just remembered he has things to attend to, and they can talk later.

- Foolish leaves, and Ranboo speaks to himself. He’s confused. What was that? What deal was Foolish talking about?

- He leaves the mansion and heads out from Snowchester back to the mainland. He says it must not have anything to do with the “experiments” he’s been doing. There wouldn’t be any side effects. 

- Ranboo pauses in front of Bee ‘n’ Boo.

“I remember this...I have to finish this."

Lesson 27:

Do not reminisce on what you have lost for it will weigh you down.

- Ranboo is confused. Why is he only remembering this? 

- The Prime Path is splattered in red.

“He’s still in prison...can’t have anything to do with him.”

- Ranboo walks past L’manhole, eating potatoes.

“It was all going so well...why now? Because of what?”

- He heads towards the Panic Room but passes it. He’s just going for a walk. He figures he needs to tell people what he’s done.

- Ranboo makes his way down the railway.

Lesson 53:

Never fully trust anyone.

- He just has to block them out. That’s what he’s been doing this entire time. The experiments were doing well, he figured out how to cause it. He knew there might be side effects, but he didn’t think that this is what it would be.

- He heads back the other way to Tommy’s summer home, stopping on the hill and looking towards the prison. He promised himself he wouldn’t go in there again. 

Lesson 67:

Leave no evidence of what you have helped with.

- What did he do?

- It’s just because he hasn’t eaten. He eats more potatoes and starts heading home.

Lesson 94:

DO NOT LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.

The words flash on the pages of a book.

- Ranboo stops in front of the Nether Portal.

He has to go to the prison. He needs to find the fourth book.

- Ranboo runs back to the prison. The red splatters continue on the path leading there.

“For the greater good. It’s for the greater good. It’s all for the greater good.”

- Sam is standing outside the entrance, cleaning up the ground. Sam tells him no one is allowed to visit the prison, but Ranboo pleads with him to be let in. Sam insists that no one can go in, especially not Ranboo.

- Ranboo says he doesn’t want to visit Dream.

Ranboo: “I need to be put in the prison, Sam...”

- He can’t tell Sam why. Sam says he doesn’t need to be in the prison, he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Ranboo: “I CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT I HAVE!”

- Ranboo insists again. Just a couple years. He asks what he has to do. Sam says there’s nothing he can do that would make him put Ranboo in the prison.

- Ranboo tells him there are 93 reasons why, and there could be hundreds. Thousands.

- What if he paid Sam? Sam says no, that Ranboo’s a good person.

Ranboo: “I can’t tell you how wrong that is.”

Sam: “Ranboo I can’t put you in the prison, you wouldn’t be able to go see Michael anymore. What would Tubbo do? And Foolish is building you a house right now.”

Ranboo: “Exactly why I want to be put in there, Sam.”

- What if Ranboo put himself in the prison? Sam says he can’t. He wouldn’t lock Ranboo in there for things he only imagined he did.

- Sam draws his sword and tells Ranboo to go home.

Ranboo: “Are you gonna kill me?”

Sam: “I don’t want to. I don’t think I’ll have to. I think you should just go home.”

- Ranboo and Sam say some parting words.

Ranboo: “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

Sam: “Listen to me. You are a good person.”

Ranboo: “I am?”

Sam: “Yes, you are.”

Ranboo: “I don’t think so, Sam.”

Sam: “I do, even if you don’t.”

- Ranboo leaves.

“I know what I need to do. I���m not gonna get put in there...and I at least need answers. I need answers. I need answers right now. I need to go. I need answers, and I know who can give me answers. I know who can give me answers...”

“I have to go. I have to go to the one person I know who can give me answers in regards to this...okay. I know where to go, I know what to do. It’s dangerous, hard journey, but, I know what to do. I -- I shouldn’t have done anything. I shouldn’t have done anything! ‘Cause it was fine! But then my curiosity got the best of me and now -- now there are 93--94--90 -- there are so many reasons! That I don’t wanna know, I don’t wanna remember anymore!”

“But...I’ve opened up Pandora’s Box. I’ve opened up Pandora’s Box...and I don’t know what to do. ‘Cause instead of closing it...there’s no way to close it."

- Ranboo returns to the Arctic. 

“The way that the Enderwalk works is something that I’ve been trying to figure out for a long time. But I know what can help me.”

- He enters his house and starts brewing splash water bottles.

“If I can’t get answers from anyone else...then I know the one thing that can give me answers.”

- Ranboo writes in his Memory Book: What am I?

“The one thing that can give me answers...is myself.”

- He throws down the water bottle and the screen goes black as the Enderman noises sound.

SEE YOU SOON.

- Hannah fixes up her house, making it pink again.

---

Upcoming Events:

- The Red Banquet (Sunday)

- Dream SMP one-year anniversary (Saturday)

- Tommy’s plan

- Quackity’s business opening

- Dream’s lore video

[itshalza]

“I’m a Monster”

Just a Foolish and Puffy Family Dynamic Hurt/Comfort fic. Comes directly after Foolish’s second lore stream in canon. Cross-posted from AO3

Characters: Captain Puffy, Foolish, Awesamdude, Ponk (mentioned), BadBoyHalo (mentioned), HannahxxRose (mentioned)

!! Content Warning: just a hurt/comfort fic, light angst, spoilers for Foolish’s latest lore stream

Summary: After the conflict with the Eggpire, Foolish struggles with his feelings and memories of his past and Puffy talks him out of it.

Puffy was walking up the prime path towards the community house, heading to Foolish’s summer home to give him some of the gold she had collected while on her latest mining trip. To be completely honest, she didn’t really have a use for it, and her son needed it for his build, so she was happy to give it to him. That’s when she noticed an extremely nervous Sam exit the community portal.

“Sam?” Puffy asked, causing the creeper hybrid to jump. Puffy’s voice softened only slightly at his reaction. “What’s got you all worked up?”

Sam cleared his throat, stumbling over his words. How would he explain this to her? There’s no way that Puffy would take kindly to him saying that he was scared by her son. “Um, it’s nothing. It’s definitely nothing,” He said quickly, moving to walk past her.

Puffy sighed, grabbing his shoulder to stop him from leaving. It was definitely something. “Sam?” she said sternly, like she would scold a child.

Sam groaned. “Listen, you aren’t gonna like this, but Foolish did some freaky stuff at the temple and I do not have the time or energy to process how much that scared me, okay? I have to go help Han-” he started, speaking fast and nervously once again.

“What do you mean ‘freaky stuff?’” Puffy asked.

“The man can summon lightning! He practically smited Bad, Ant, and Ponk right in front of me because they-”

“Wait, wait, wait! What were Bad and the others doing there?” Puffy asked, concern growing in her voice.

Sam shrugged slightly. “I don’t know, apparently Ponk threatened Foolish or something and-”

“Did you know about this?” She asked, growing angry. Did Sam know about this and not tell her?

“No, Puffy! Of course not!” Sam said, growing increasingly exasperated with how long this conversation was taking. He began to walk off, turning around to talk to her. “Listen I don’t exactly know what happened, but your son is really strange and slightly terrifying, okay? I have to go. I have to find Hannah. I have to make sure she’s okay. I have-”

“Sam?” Puffy called, setting aside her anger for a moment. He stopped talking and moving, looking up at her. “Good luck.” She said gently. Sam nodded before taking off.

Puffy stopped for a moment, trying to comprehend Sam’s words before she realized that she had places to be. She had to get to Foolish, and if Sam was telling the truth, she had to move with some urgency. She navigated through the Nether, trying to hurry through the harsh terrain as fast and as safely as possible. She needed to get to her son as soon as possible, but if she fell into the lava below the bridge, that defeated her sense of her urgency.

Once she exited the Nether through the Portal that led to Foolish’s summer home, she instantly knew something was wrong. The hair on her arms stood on end like there was a static electric charge in the air. There was also a strong smell of gunpowder and smoke. In fact, there was still some smoke hanging in the air.

And then it hit her. There was a sudden absence of the large, towering statue of Ra that normally stands out over the landscape. Why did it take her so long to notice it? Now there was only a pile of rubble where the statue once stood.

As she moved closer, the static electricity grew stronger. The hair on her head began to stand on end. She smoothed it down with a quick gesture. Looking down at the path, she noticed a large scorch mark in the cobblestone path along with a large fissure in the path. This definitely confused her. Nothing she knew of could have caused such a fissure. It definitely wasn’t from TNT. She pressed on, making sure to not get any of the ash on her boots.

Puffy looked over the statue once more before heading towards the Temple. She figured that’s where he would be if he was even still here. She also noticed the absence of her son’s cat, Nefrekitty. The cat usually found its way to Puffy and rubbed against her legs as she headed into the temple, but she assumed that the cat was comforting Foolish at the moment rather than waiting for visitors.

She entered the large entrance of the temple, looking around for a moment to take in its grandiosity. It took her breath away every time visited. She could never begin to comprehend how long it took Foolish to build all of this. It was exquisitely crafted. The sandstone was carved with such precision that she would have assumed it was the work of a machine, but she had seen her adopted son carve the stone with his own two hands.

Her eyes were drawn into the center of the room, where usually a beacon shined brightly in the middle of a pile of riches mortals could only dream about obtaining in a lifetime. Instead, the beacon was shut off, and the totem sat with his knees pulled into his chest, sobbing quietly.

Puffy saw red instantly. What did Sam do to him? Who made him this upset? She would get to the bottom of this no matter what she had to do.

But then she took a deep breath… getting angry wouldn’t fix anything. In fact, it would probably only upset Foolish more to see her that upset. She took a few centering breaths before approaching him quietly.

She opened her mouth to speak but paused, realizing she had no idea how to approach the situation. She didn’t even know what happened! How was she supposed to help him when she didn’t know what she was helping him with?!

Puffy figured that her son was unaware of her presence, but that obviously proved to be false as he reacted to her hesitation.

“Let me guess, you’re scared of me too?” He asked, his tone bitter. Much more bitter than he had ever spoken to Puffy before. It was almost like he realized how harsh his tone was, as only a second later he started crying harder. He gripped his knees tighter, not able to do much other than cry.

Puffy tensed up slightly. She didn’t even know where this came from. Was this her fault?

No, now wasn’t the time for that train of thought. She could self reflect later; she needed to help comfort her son. That was her job, and she needed to do it right this time because maybe, just maybe she can stop Foolish from going down a similar path to her other son.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, wrapping her arms around his trembling frame. He reacted almost instantly, hugging her tightly and crying into her shoulder. She rubbed his back lightly, trying to comprehend the amount of emotion he was displaying. She’d never even seen Foolish cry since he was much younger, let alone full out sob like this.

“I would never be scared of you Foolish,” She said softly. She gripped him a little tighter, as if punctuating her sentence. “I could never be-” she started again before he pulled away. He scurried backwards away from her, not looking his mother in the eyes.

“You don’t know what I did! You don’t know what I’ve done!” He yelled. He held his head in his hands, choking back a sob. “I thought I moved on; I thought I changed. I’m not like that anymore.”

“Foolish-” Puffy started, a slight scold to her tone. She figured he was being dramatic. She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

“I’m a monster, Puffy!” He shouted in between sobs. He gripped his hair in his fingers, pulling on it lightly. “I thought I moved on from my past, but today I was right back there. Today there was a flicker of who I used to be and I-” He started, getting cut off by another cry erupting from his throat.

Puffy was absolutely frozen. She had no idea how to react to this. “Foolish?” She started, her tone much softer this time. The totem looked up slightly, sniffling softly. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” She asked. There was no way she would be able to help him if she didn’t know what was happening.

Foolish took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself enough to speak to her. He wiped the tears from his cheeks, sniffling before getting to explaining the events of the day.

“Well, Ponk, Bad, and Ant came over to harass me about that stupid egg again. I tried to ignore it for so long but it just came back with a vengeance. They kept putting TNT in my builds and threatening to blow it up. And then they came while Sam was visiting and-” He started before getting visibly upset again. Tears fell from his eyes once more.

Puffy leaned forward, putting her hand on his shoulder gently. He looked up at her, being greeted by a soft smile. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to Fool,” She said, using her nickname for him, “I just figured it might be beneficial to get this off your chest.”

Foolish nodded slightly. Deep down he knew she was right, but he didn’t want to tell her at all. What would happen if she found out what he did and was scared of him? Rightfully, she should be scared of him, but the last thing he wanted was for his own Papa Puffy to be scared of him. Because then who else would he have on the server… other than Junior of course.

“They blew up the statue, and-” he started, pausing when his breathing hitched, although his voice stronger than before, “ and they killed my cat and they kept threatening me and-”

He stopped, contemplating if he really wanted to tell Puffy this.

“And?” She ushered gently.

“And then I just got so mad. I was so angry and upset and I-” he started, choking on his words. “I struck them with lightning.”

Puffy didn’t outwardly react knowing that would elicit a negative response from Foolish, but that surprised her. Foolish was generally a pacifist, letting his words fight his battles.

“I just got so mad and I didn’t mean to, I promise. I didn’t mean to do it, Papa, I promise.” He sputtered out, just now looking up at her. His emerald eyes pleaded for her to say anything.

Puffy grabbed his hand gently, but Foolish pulled it away, He didn’t want to hurt her. She was really all he had left. He didn’t want to make her leave too.

“I know you didn’t mean to, Fool.”

“It was an accident. I know they aren’t bad people. They don’t have control over their actions, but I just got so mad and it just happened and then Sam, he-”

“What did Sam do?” Puffy asked, tensing up just enough to be noticeable.

“He was so scared, Puffy. He ran off without saying anything but I knew. He thinks I’m a monster. And I am! Bad, Ant, and Ponk aren’t perfect but they didn’t deserve that!” He said, his voice growing increasingly upset as he rambled on.

“Hey, hey, hey.” she said softly. She reached for his shoulder again, but he lunged forward and pulled her into a hug. Puffy instinctively wrapped her arms around him once again, letting him cry softly into her shoulder.

“Foolish, you are not a monster. You weren’t then, you aren’t now, and you never will be, okay? You didn’t mean to hurt them; it was out of emotion and that’s okay sometimes.” She said softly, rubbing his back gently. “The fact that you can acknowledge that deep down they didn’t mean to hurt you means something right?” she asked softly. Foolish nodded slightly, hugging her tighter.

Puffy sighed softly. “I’ll talk to Sam, okay? He’s… really overwhelmed right now, and he definitely didn’t react correctly.” She said gently. After a few moments, she ruffled his hair playfully. “In the meantime, let’s get you something to eat okay? You must be drained from all that. I’ll make you some of my mushroom stew and you can tell me about your plans to rebuild the statue.”

Foolish perked up. It was hard to tell whether he was happy about the stew or getting to talk about his builds, but he pulled away from the hug, wiping the tears from his cheeks. “That would be nice.” he said, his face regaining a bit of the smile that was usually plastered onto it.

The two could talk about Foolish’s past later, if he even wanted to talk about it at all. For now, they walked out of the temple hand in hand as Foolish rambled about the next statue he planned to build.

[sokayisaidiot]

Dream SMP assumption #2

Today’s topic: What does Character Tommy have?

Please DO NOT read if you’re uncomfortable with the themes of death, depression and suicide. It’s a very complicated theme. I did NOT study it and do NOT know some aspects of it. I just go off the things I saw in the smp and made my own theories about it. If you’re even slightly triggered by this, please stop and do NOT try to read it. Please do NOT put yourself in some kind of uncomfortable zone. Please do not. Thank you

(This is all assumptioning from the fictional world of dream smp)

(Heavy spoilers on the resent events)

(Mainly around the lmanburg way, sadly need to learn more about badlands ): )

(This Series is created by another person, that’s just too fuckin lazy to move her butt)

Trigger warning today:

Suicide thoughts

PTSD

Depression

Child Neglect

Betrayal and Trust Issues

Death

Character Tommy’s Mental state in the last time? Terrible. But why does he goes so fast to the way of suicide? Well, maybe all the repressed Feelings, he had since a long time. For that I researched the signs for some of the points Depression

The main symptoms are: 

depressed mood, sadness, depression = the start of the streams being completely sad, his quick Mood changes

Disinterest and joylessness = The disinterest coming with getting hurt and not really doing anything against it, with each visit he's getting, his joy gets smaller

Loss of drive and easy fatigue = Relying more on Plans he made

Side symptoms can include the following symptoms: 

Loss of appetite = saying he has no appetite, when he clearly does

sleep disorders = Having Nightmares, sleep walking or completely not being able to sleep

Difficulty concentrating making decisions = Almost burning his compass, destroying part of the nether Bridge, less concentrating while mining

low self esteem = thinking to himself how he deserves the pain sometimes

You see my points of his Depression, he makes up ALL of those Points. His Depression came as easily at the start of his second exile.

PTSD

There are 4 Categories to diagnose PTSD

Exposed to actual or threatened Death, serious Injury

Psychological Stress (Flashback/Dreams)

Changes in Psychological Stability

Changes in Physical Ability

1. Exposure to actual or threatened Death.

There are three ways of getting the first one. 

Directly experience a traumatic event

Witnessing in person a traumatic event

Learning of an traumatic event from a close friend/family member

The first one itself is the fighting and betrayal. The fighting for Lmanburg and the Duel with Dream on the Prime Path that took presumably his first two lives. The Betrayal of his close friends and ending in killing him. Mostly Eret in the start, with Dream switching sides again in the middle of the fight fo Lmanburg and Wilbur and Technoblade going against him. Wanting him to die.

Not only did Tommy witness one Death, the Death of his older Brother, Mentor Wilbur. No he also witnessed the Death of his big Role Model Jschlatt. Of course he wasn't big in the end. But he WAS a Big Figure in Tommy's Life. He saw both of them accuse and killing them completely. But the time he witnessed People getting killed and losing one of their hearts. He saw the death of his best friend Tubbo (his own execution). Also did Tommy witness Wilbur going insane and haunting him. Telling him he will never achieve him and betraying him in the end. And the teenager was there, when the nation blew up, he had to run to safety, for not being blown up.

Then he learns of his pets death, his close pets he loves. The third Criteria kinda.

2. Psychological Stress (Flashback/Dreams).

At least on of the 4 Categories have to be hit.

Unwanted Memories

Having Dreams Related to the Trauma

Psychological Distress when exposed to cues that remind you of the evebt

Psychological Reactions to those same cues

He stated as he talked to Ghostbur, that he can clearly remember when Tubbo got president and blew up the nation they FOUGHT for. Also was it shown, how he can remember every Bad thing clearly. And when Wilbur told Tommy how he never could be President, Tommy took it really bad. Wilbur meant how they would never listen to Tommy and just hold him for a joke. So he ultimately gave up his President role. Not only for his discs presumably.

Its canon that Tommy has nightmares of Wilbur going insane. He was alone with Wilbur. Exiled. Wilbur wanted to drag Tommy with him in insanity and Tommy did everything to not let that happen (and you guys have to think. Wilbur is canonically Tommys older Brother so he did already had an impact on Tommys life). He can't sleep or just sleep walks himself into the ocean. Every time going deeper and deeper. In the direction of L’manburg, also his ultimate Death.

To the last two points: Tommy, when he gave Lani, (Tubbos sister), a walk through Dream Smp, he said that the Pit in Pogtopia made him feel very uncomfortable, since the memories of getting beaten up by Technoblade, just after he killed Tubbo, were not old. Also, they forbid Rockets and TNT, since they were big part of killing or just destroying things he loved.

3. Changes in Psychological Stability.

There are 7 Points you have to fulfill, 2 of them are required and Tommy HAS 6 POINTS OF THEM

Briefly explained:

He blames mostly himself and others how things go wrong in the last time. Mostly Technoblade for placing the withers, triggering some big amounts of TNT. His friends for not visiting. Himself for not being perfect. 

Thinking to himself how he couldn't be happy only with massive influence of others or talking to himself how he would do something that might make him happy.

He feels himself detached from everybody. Thinking how everybody could easily life on without him. So he detaches himself from talking TO PEOPLE. Stopping showing up anymore. Only after a while, he trusted himself, but with the time he does it slower.

His favorite hobbies not really being done anymore. As for saying he doesn't start to care for Primes anymore.

Telling himself how everybody is doing things out of pity for him. His lack in trust others in fear of being betrayed. That everybody is out against him.

His fear of being completely abandoned by the People he has left. His Anger for not coming to visit and just giving his gift or leaving him alone. Shame on being exiled by his best friend and the second time.

4. Changes in Physical Ability

The three points are (which upwards are already explained):

Problems with concentration = him not really able to think straight while mining

Problems with Sleep = Nightmares, sleep walking, not being really able to rest completely

Easy to Startle = startled with People surprisingly coming to his island without saying things. He gets more surprised and jumpy

(This is all seen by “The Film Theorists”, “Film Theory: The Spiderman 2 Mystery! Why Spiderman Lost his Powers!”)

He has many, way too many criteria for being so young. And he won't get any help. A way of getting better is having time to yourself. But Tommy is alone in Exile? Why is it just getting worse? Well, Tommy has time to himself. But he constantly gets watched over. He gets only worse through the manipulation of Dream.

Betrayal and Trust Issues

People are getting angry at Tommy for not trusting others. But what would have you done in his position. I mean nobody could have known about the Betrayal of Eret. So when that happened we were all in shock. When Dream switched sides to fight for Marburg, we were all shocked. When Wilbur was the Traitor and blew up L’manburg, we were also shocked. When Techno kind of told Tommy he should die and Placed Withers, we were shocked. When Tubbo exiled Tommy, nobody had expected that and everybody was shocked. 

Now look at it from Tommys eyes.

Eret = A good friend, nice companion, trusted part of the rebellion. Betrayed them for seeing a better deal, leaving them to rot, while he had his castle.

Dream = Kind of older Brother, funny to be around and spends also time with him. Gives your already insane Brother Dynamite to explode the country you fought Tooth and Nail for and tosses you around like a doll.

Wilbur = Older Brother, Mentor, President, cool, awesome to be around, talented, someone who also spends time with you. kind of protects you from trouble. Goes insane, wants to drag you with him, explodes the country, betrays you for not having a thing he wants. Makes you doubt yourself

Technoblade = Also really talented. Big Brother. Teaches things like fighting. One of the best PVPers. Leaves you to rot and fight with the last bit, makes fun of you and not helping you, even if you are scared of small spaces. 

Tubbo = The Person you did everything with, trusted with everything. You are like Brothers and no matter how many people against you, you are with each other. You make one thing for yourself and apparently you are selfish. You are alone now and he didn't come ones to visit once.

Everybody else = They find you annoying and only come to visit to make fun, look at him like he's a Zoo animal. but when something happens, then he is a hero apparently. And those pity gifts. Gifts saying he is on the lowest of the low, in need of “help”. 

Help is right for you, but more like spending time with you when you're alone, and not being able to visit others. They act like they can visit him any time, because, hey look! He can't go anywhere anyways, so...

A Way of getting better is 

Repairing the broken or damaged relationships = Talking and doing something with Tubbo, his best friend. Talking and making up with his brothers Techno and Wilbur. Spending time with his father. Just relaxing and letting him talk about his trauma. 

Doing something he really wanted to do for some time = Finally getting his discs back, which were stolen and in constant danger, since its one of his most prized things

Letting him be his age = He is pretty young, but went to be a right hand man, made sacrifices, losing his lives for the country, his friends and other things. Letting him act his age, doing stupid things and not giving him consequences that would be given only people who are the worst kind. Letting him build his stuff with good arguments and letting him hang out. Not being Vice President maybe.

Putting himself over everything for once = Thats really a good discussable theme, but for my points, which I made with letting him be his age, it kind of stated it already. He wanted his discs after everything. The wars were won, L’manburg had its Freedom and its People safe. So he should have been allowed to do one thing for himself again. Burning Georges House is no excuse, but dude, thats easily reparable. The Trauma, Depression and PTSD that was given to this child not. 

It also can fit in with Tubbo- Just sayin (Just some points have to be changed)

GIVE THOSE KIDS A BREAK

I got some of those things from other Posts!

[tooomuchtofu]

It’s denial at first, Tubbo thinks in retrospect, that kept him upright where he sat. Denial, along with a healthy dose of the same sort of emotional vacancy that’s gotten him through the past few years in this fucked up world. 

He sees the message on his communicator—of course he does, so does everyone���but his eyes skim over it. It’s just another accident. A bit too long of a fall. A friendly spar. An argument gone sideways. It didn’t stick, surely; whoever’s name he just read in chat felt the death slither down around them like a shed layer of snakeskin, stepped into another life just as easily as taking another breath. Whoever that was is probably sitting up in bed right now. 

It’s fine. It’s alright. Never mind the buzzing that’s started at the base of his skull. Ranboo cracks a joke and he laughs. Jack pokes his head out the doors of the Big Innit Hotel, shooting Tubbo a wary look. Tubbo nocks another arrow and the door slams shut. He puts the bow away. 

His hand drifts back to his communicator, because of course it does. He picks it off his belt, flicks it on and glances at the messages. Did he see that right?

Tubbo has to blink before the screen focuses, his eyes blurring. He’s never been a great reader, really. Even after he’s picked his way past every letter, though, the message above Jack’s most recent death blurs still. The words have flipped themselves on their heads, twisted into monstrous glyphs. Maybe Ranboo sent something in enderspeak. Maybe he’s asleep. 

“Guys, I think Tommy just died,” is what he hears himself say.

Maybe he did read that wrong. Maybe he did. Ranboo’s hand on his shoulder—out of nowhere, wasn’t Ranboo just on the other side of the path?—is the only thing aside from the letters. He still can’t make them out. He blinks again. That might help. 

“Oh my gosh,” Ranboo says, and for a breath, the death message might be real. He can feel his fingers shaking, can feel the cold edge of the communicator where he holds it. 

“Wasn’t he like, your best friend or something?” It’s Jack Manifold. Tubbo doesn’t know when he came outside. 

Tubbo stands, then, from where he’d, at some point, sat on a stray piece of scaffolding. Everything is all bright colors. All of it. There’s sun in his eyes. He thinks it might hurt. He’s looking at it. The white is better than the red or the blue or the green or the tawny, rough oak beneath his feet, because all of that is real. And this isn’t real. 

Ranboo is in front of him. He’s taller. Tubbo can’t see the sun anymore. A shame. It was nice and bright. 

Ranboo is real, too. Black and white like a panda or a cookie or something. Red and green, black and white, rumpled suit and prickly ears. Tubbo giggles. Maybe Ranboo isn’t real; his whole face is speckles with black, swimming and swirling. That doesn’t usually happen. 

“Tubbo, are you okay? Tubbo, why are you laughing?” Ranboo’s brows are all drawn and furrowed. He looks so worried. But that’s okay. That’s okay. 

“Ranboo, you silly… silly man…” Tubbo reaches up, lets his hands find his husband’s, his friend’s, ears, feels the weird fuzzy spots at their bases. 

Ranboo flinches back, grabbing Tubbo’s wrists and pushing them down. “No—Tubbo, why—” He makes a weird hissy sound. Silly funny enderman. “Do you need to sit down?”

“No, it’s fine! I’m alright, big man.” He rubs his hands down his face, pulling at the scar tissue across his nose and jaw. He remembers when he got those scars. Tommy was there. He sat in Tubbo’s room in Pogtopia every night after for weeks. He always woke Tubbo up whenever Tubbo started screaming. That was a permanent death, the festival was. Tubbo is one slip away from dying. So is Tommy. But they’ll be okay, because Dream is in prison. It’s all okay now. Tubbo’s palms are sweaty and sticky, so he takes them off his face. 

“What the hell happened?” Ranboo mutters, fiddling with his communicator. Tubbo isn’t sure he’s ever heard Ranboo say “hell” before. That’s kind of funny. They’ve pretty much spent the entirety of the past few weeks together. Ranboo doesn’t seem to swear much. Tubbo hasn’t done anything but hang out with Ranboo since Tommy finished his hotel. They’ve barely left each other’s sides. Ranboo and Tubbo, Tubbo and Ranboo. 

“Tubbo. Hey, Tubbo.” Ranboo’s hands are on his shoulders again. “Tubbo, where are we?” 

Tubbo hums under his breath. “We are on the Prime Path, big man.” Outside the Bee and Boo. It’s very bright today. Everything looks a little blurry, though. 

“Sam says he’s at the prison,” Ranboo says. “Do you want to go talk to Sam?” 

“Sounds good.” Tubbo looks over at the prison. It’s just past Skeppy’s mansion. The prison, where Dream is. Something… something is wrong. He thinks. 

As he follows Ranboo down the path, he frowns, trying to remember what it is. Something… wrong. At the prison. 

“Wait, but Sam hasn’t died,” he says. “Sam is still there. Dream is still in Pandora’s Vault.” As long as Dream is in prison, they are all safe. Everything is fine. Everything is perfect. They won. They have the discs. It is okay now. 

“Yes,” Ranboo says. 

The approach is long, with the path he walks stretching into infinity. It seems forever that they spend walking towards the prison’s hulking shape. Sam is waiting for them when they get there. 

“I made a mistake,” he says in a shaking voice. “I’m so sorry. Tommy is… Tommy’s dead.” 

And Tubbo is seventeen years old. He is standing in the world he calls home near the path his best friend built out of oak, standing next to his friend-husband-business partner, and he is not crying, because Tommy cannot be dead. Because Tommy does not die. Because Tommy survives. It is what he does. 

And Tubbo did not spend the last week his friend spent in prison falling in platonic love, building a hotel, playing chess, singing and cracking jokes and making pancakes and playing his ukulele. Because Tommy is not in prison, because there is no reason for him to be, and if he is, there’s nothing Tubbo can do anyway, is there? What is there, really, for Tubbo to do, aside from forget what has him curled up in his bed some nights, hugging himself as tight as he can so his stomach will stop eating itself out of helpless guilt? And now everything is fine, because the time is up, and Tommy is fine, because Tommy is always fine, even when there’s lava and holes and fireworks and Dream. 

Tubbo is not crying. That is not a lie, but maybe it is wrong nonetheless. 

xxx

To Tubbo, Dream has not taken all of Tommy’s lives until Tommy is standing outside the hotel the next morning. 

He does not remember falling asleep, but it must have happened somehow, because he has just woken up. He has a splitting headache and an aching heart and dry, blurry eyes, and he thinks he’s seeing things at first. 

Tommy is staring up at his own hotel, but he turns around when Tubbo opens the door, grinning when he sees him. 

“Big man!” he shouts. “You seen this thing yet? Pretty proud of it, I am.” Tommy’s grin is glinting white, his face greyish, his hair silvery pale. He is soft and fuzzy and not-all-there. Tubbo blinks once. Twice. And then he is crying. 

Sitting on the path, crying. His face is in his hands and Tommy’s touch on his back is cold and staticky. Tubbo remembers when Tommy’s touch was warm, like fire, glowy and bright and wonderful for a cold winter’s night.

“Tubbo? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” 

Tubbo gasps in a breath, chest spasming for air. His face is drenched and raw. There is a gaping hole in his chest, his ribs shattered into jagged knives. It is Technoblade with withers and fireworks and TNT laying waste to his heart. Tubbo does not move when someone cold and full and real picks him up, cradles him in too-long arms, and lays him on a bed. Tubbo does not move. Tommy is not fine.

xxx

“I didn’t come,” Tubbo forces out one day when everything is numb again. He’s sitting in the Big Innit Hotel’s lobby, slumped in a chair beside the front desk. He’s still wearing his Snowchester jacket, fiddling with the strings of one of the buttons. He’s vaguely aware of red concrete stone bricks and Tommy’s faint form somewhere in his periphery, but it’s mostly just the button and the string. “I’m sorry. 

“What do you mean?” Tommy asks. He’s sitting behind the desk, ready for customers. He’s usually ready for customers these days, when he isn’t committing arson or wandering up and down the Prime Path or sitting on a bench on a hill, hands fidgety and unsure, like he’s missing something. That is, if he’s to believe Ranboo: Tubbo hasn’t left the Bee and Boo much. Ranboo says that’s what Tommy’s been doing, though. 

A few people have even stayed in the hotel. People will stop by to visit, to see if it’s true, to say hi to Tommy or to talk to Tubbo or just to gawk, even, and usually end up staying in a room at Tommy’s insistence. 

Tommy always acts like he’s going to charge them for it, but he never actually does. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t need money. Maybe he just forgets. He forgets a lot of things. 

“In prison,” Tubbo mutters. “Sam might’ve let me in. I didn’t even try.” There are tears at the corners of his eyes, suddenly, but he rubs them away. He’s sick and tired of having a wet face. It’s sticky and awful and he always ends up with a headache and a stuffy nose. 

“...What are you on about?” Tubbo glances up. Tommy is giving him an odd look. “Prison? Dream is the only one in prison. We put him in there, remember? I kicked his ass with the—with—” He frowns, making a swinging motion with his hands. “With—with that axe. You know?” 

Tubbo sighs. “Yeah, I know.” He goes back to his button. 

xxx

Ranboo comes for him later that evening, when the sunset has just begun to filter through the windows. Tubbo hasn’t moved from his chair, even though Tommy went somewhere below the desk a while earlier. 

The vest’s button came off. It’s still on the floor where it fell, and Tubbo’s started on a new one. 

“Tubbo,” he says when he walks through the double doors. Tubbo glances up at him. “Tubbo, can we go home now? You’ve been here all day.”

Tubbo doesn’t say anything. Maybe he doesn’t have to. Maybe they can just leave. 

Ranboo walks over. Sinks down in front of Tubbo. He looks away.

“Tubbo.” He takes Tubbo’s hands in his own. “Hey, Tubbo. Can you look at me?” 

Tubbo does not look at Ranboo. Tubbo squints his eyes shut and ignores the prickly wetness. It is not there. It has already been there too many times in the past however-long-it’s-been.

Ranboo sighs. “Tubbo, you can’t do this forever.” He squeezes his hands. A tear trickles down Tubbo’s face. “I know it hurts. I know it hurts. It’s going to hurt. It always will. But you’re not alone, I promise. He might not be here anymore, but you’re not alone.” 

Tubbo breaks the breath he’s been holding to gasp in a new one. It shudders against his lungs, painful and loud.

“Can you talk to me?” Ranboo asks. “Please, Tubbo. It’s been weeks. Please.”

And that’s where he breaks, where all the air comes out in a fragmented sob, where the tears are back again, and he throws himself at Ranboo, collapsing into his chest and tucking his face into Ranboo’s shoulder. He must be startled, Tubbo notes absently, because his hands take a moment to find Tubbo’s back.

“I’m sorry.” Tubbo gasps. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? It’s okay to be sad.” Ranboo is rubbing circles. It’s an awkward, stilted motion, but there’s heart.

“I can’t—” He blinks hard, swallowing a knotted lump. “I can’t. I can’t. He wasn’t supposed to leave me. He wasn’t supposed to be the one who left.” 

Tommy was the queen, and Tubbo the pawn. This directionless pain that festers at his core isn’t supposed to be here. Maybe if Dream had just killed him none of this would have happened. Tubbo would be dead and Dream would be free and Tommy would be in prison but he’d be alive, and maybe Tubbo could visit him as a ghost and keep him company. And neither of them would be this confused because Tommy always knew what to do. He’d get out of the Vault and he’d tell Tubbo what they needed to do next to take down Dream, and it’d be them against the world, the two of them, together always, Tubbo and Tommy, Tommy and Tubbo. 

Ranboo has always ran a little cold, which Tubbo found unnerving at first, but right now, his cool skin is soothing and better than anything else could have been against Tubbo’s face. His head is aching and it feels like it’s burning from the inside. 

“It’s okay,” he’s murmuring. “I’m here. I’m here.”

What am I without you? Tommy asked one day, in a vault swamped in glimmering darkness. And Tubbo said, yourself. It’s an easy solution to the question that leaves Tubbo paralyzed now, but one that hurts and aches and doesn’t help at all. 

He’s been here before, back when he was still president. Back when there was still a nation to be president of. Back when nothing was okay and Tubbo was a monster, the next Schlatt, a tyrant who had only doomed a nation that was doomed from the start. Back then, nothing was okay. 

Everything was supposed to be fine now. And it isn’t. So Tubbo cries.

xxx

A few days later, Tubbo goes out. 

Ranboo is with him, at his side, holding his hand. Tubbo is wearing a green button-down shirt that’s only a little bit green at this point, holey and worn. Tubbo is hazy-headed with tears. Nothing is okay. But today, he has decided to try. 

The sight of the prison made him break down once before, a week or so ago, so when they walk out of the hotel, he fixes his gaze firmly to the right. Stares at the planks of the Prime Path, puts one foot in front of the other. They’ll maybe go to the Community House. Stop by Captain Puffy’s place, or visit Eret, or something. Both of them have a sort of calming presence Tubbo can’t deny wanting to feel again, and Ranboo mentioned something about Puffy wanting to talk to him. He isn’t really sure. For now, it’s easiest just to walk. 

Step by step by step. Tubbo watches the edges of all the builds on the path scroll by. A pattern of blood vines webs its way across the grass. He’s glad there’s none on the path; he’d probably trip. 

The Targay is somewhere on the edge of his vision when he hears it. Plattering, bouncy notes, dancing through the air. He hasn’t heard this song in a while. He isn’t even sure he’s hearing it now. But each step up the staircase has weight, suddenly, as he makes his way towards the embassy. 

He sees it when he crests the hill, of course; it’s hard to miss. Someone cut down the trees that used to stand in the way a while ago, and now it’s just grass and flowers and the bench. That and Tommy, sitting there, staring out at the view, with one arm over the back of his seat just like always. Cat is in the jukebox, spinning just the same as it always has. Tommy must hear him or something, because he turns around, face lighting up when he sees Tubbo.

“Tubbo!” he cries. “Ranboo! You’re here! Come sit with me!” 

Tommy. On the bench. Waiting for him.

Breath caught somewhere in his head, Tubbo stumbles over, feet only kind of there. The grass is soft and the sun is bright and the view is beautiful and he sits down and Tommy is there and there’s music and oh, he thinks he might be crying again. Ranboo sits in the grass to their right. 

Tommy slings an arm around Tubbo’s neck.

“Hey Big T,” he says. “It’s good to see you again.” It’s almost easy to pretend like everything is the same. “You doing okay?” 

Tubbo looks over at him, blinking hard and mustering a smile. “I’m fine,” he says. “How have you been?”

“Good, good!” Tommy says, flashing a grin. “It kinda sucks being dead, though.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tubbo swallows. “Why’s that?”

“You never hang out with me anymore!” Tommy complains, kicking his shin. “And when you do, you’re always so mopey. I know you didn’t want me to die, but like… you could at least spend time with me, eh? There’s no point in just forgetting.” 

Tubbo remembers a muttered rant a few months back, something about Jack Manifold and a trident accident and a joke that turned real (count from ten backwards, don’t let this ruin your life), and he exhales. Leaning into Tommy’s touch, he tries again at a smile. “You’ve gotten a lot wiser, haven’t you?” 

“Nah, I’m just dead,” he says. “Seriously, though, Tubbo. It sucks, really, it does. But you can do this. I believe in you. You are—quite possibly—the coolest person I know. And you will be okay.”

Tubbo can’t see past his tears. “I—I just—” He stops. Takes a deep breath. “I feel so lost without you. It was always for you, all of it, I don’t—”

“No, no, Tubbo—” Tommy catches his hands where they’ve flown up to rub away the tears— “Thank you. Please. Thank you. For everything. I would have never made it half as far without you. So please. Keep going for me.”

Cat ends, the final note ringing out into the midmorning air. Tommy stands, grabbing the disk from the jukebox and giving it a spin on his finger. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, alright, Tubbo?” he says. “I’m gonna go put this away. And then I’ve got to go make sure I haven’t missed any cli-enteys.”

“Okay,” Tubbo whispers. “Okay, Tommy.” 

Tommy starts off down the Prime Path, whistling a senseless tune to himself. Ranboo wraps his hand in his cool grip. Tubbo takes a deep breath.

“And Tommy?” he calls.

Tommy looks over his shoulder. “Huh?”

“I love you.”

“Ew.” Tommy squints at him, but he’s grinning. “That’s gross. You’re gross. You’re really—you disgust me sometimes, Tubbo, you know that?” 

Tubbo laughs, then, for real, for the first time in weeks. And he thinks, then, that maybe, maybe, it’s going to be okay. 

[ask-those-dumbasses]

Battle Tactic Analysis (for the comic): Part 2

Yes I'm still thinking about this stfu.

GEORGENOTFOUND

George is. Inch resting. He’s somehow the most cautious and the least cautious of the main group. While he’s the only one that carries an actual shield, he can also be stubborn and impatient at times. Doesn't help that Sapnap loves to push his buttons.

However, in his prime, George is actually pretty logical and smart. He’s constantly trying out new strategies and likes figuring out new tricks with Dream. He wants to figure out how he can improve, and does so constantly. In a fight George switches between his sword and shield. Bock, hit, move, block, hit, move. While this is very predictable and relatively common, George makes up for it with little surprises.

One of those surprises is his dragon, Georgette! Though he doesn't use her in battle much (because you know, she baby and George doesn't want her to get hurt), if he does, she sticks to the skys. Georgette blasts her target with small fireballs on command, and can drop items from above. George also has three little robot drones that can assist with battle. They have tiny little blasters and cameras. This way, if they need to check a room to see if it’s safe before running in, they have little helpers! How cute! If only some people coughSapnapcoughSkeppycough remembered they existed. His goggles also alert him to possible dangers he might not be able to see, and can analyze his opponent to find a weak point to stab at. Basically, George has a bunch of little gadgets.

Overall, George is a very well balanced member of the team, who provides great support and coverage. If only people listened to him more often.

BADBOYHALO

“Bad’s a sweet little muffin he wouldn’t hurt a fly! uwu” Get that shit out of here. He wouldn’t hurt a fly because they don’t do anything wrong. But if anyone so much as looks at Skeppy the wrong way, he will maim them. Bad is surprisingly one of the most deadly and also one of the few who thinks of a plan before he acts, most of the time… more on that later.

If Bad is anything, it’s aware. He’s very aware of the battlefield, in fact he kinda has to be. His shadow travel is his best weapon and he uses it a lot. He can travel between areas to help his friends, appear behind enemies, or get out of a sticky situation. Because of this, Bad’s tactics change depending on the environment and what his team needs at the moment. For example, in a big open field Bad would simply appear behind his enemy and provide support for his allies. Meanwhile, in a densely packed forest, Bad sneak through the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Bad’s fighting style is almost a mix between a ballet dancer and fencing, similar to Dream but a lot more… acrobatic. Bad is very flowy and swift, much like the flicker of a flame in the wind. He’ll use his thread to attach to something and fly through the air, or to throw his needle at the enemy and pull it back. Sometimes, if the environment is right, he’ll trail his thread behind him to trip up enemies, or to circle his enemy to tie them up. Bad is a man of many tricks, but sadly he’s very light sensitive, which can throw him off. Now it’s time to take that pin out from earlier.

--> Remember that thing I said we’d talk about? Here it is. Bad’s shadow form.

Bad’s shadow form is… completely different. Pure animalistic instincts to attack and protect. He lashes out in anger, biting, scratching, bashing, killing, whatever is in his way. Keep in mind, Bad does not enter this form voluntarily. It only happens when Bad gets so enraged, he cannot control his actions. It’s not even really Bad anymore. Bad would never hurt his friends. His shadow form is another story.

But at then end of the day, if all else fails, Bad will probably just throw muffins at his opponent until they leave him alone.

SKEPPY

Skeppy is another fighter who uses rush tactics. He runs straight into the fight without much thought at all. Skeppy goes in and haphazardly hits anywhere he can. This is… confusing to say the least. It’s hard to hit an unpredictable target. If Skeppy doesn't know what he’s doing next, then how can anyone else? He has no method. Maybe an unconscious pattern, but not anything intentional. The only time he has a plan is when someone else orders him to.

Because of this, Skeppy is very good at adapting. If a situation changes, it doesn’t take him long to recover. He might be a bit shocked, but he’s back on his feet and ready to fight. However, this also means that Skeppy is very brash, and can panic and trip up easily. Plus, when Skeppy gets hit, he will snap like a twig. Just ask Techno.

Just as you’d expect,Skeppy sometimes uses “trolly” methods, if he uses one at all. While I made the joke of Skeppy’s favorite weapon being a lava bucket, that part isn’t entirely true. Mostly because that’s very inconvenient most of the time. No no no, Skeppy uses smoke bombs. Dark blue tnt shaped smoke bombs. Where’s he getting them? That’s what the group has been trying to figure out for the past 5 years. What does he use them for? What do you think?

Skeppy is also the biggest distraction. If they need a distraction, it’s Skeppy. It’s always Skeppy. Because the slippery bastard can get out of many tight situations, they don’t need to worry too much about him. Bad always does though. :3

More coming soonish maybe. Leave suggestions in the comments! Also, this came out sooner thanks to the people in my Discord server! Join us if you'd like!

[felidaefighter]

Our Metaphorical Get-Along Sweater

In which Wilbur thinks of Ranboo as an arch-nemesis while Ranboo is just There Vibing and also, Phil has adopted Ranboo, making for two very different siblings and a very interesting relationship

[Fluff, comedy, fix-it fic, some light angst that is immediately softened, work in progress; every chapter will swap POV]

Chapter 3: How Not To Babysit

    Wilbur and Phil were outside on the porch, enjoying the fresh air, when Ranboo had stopped by to say hello as he was heading to the portal. “Tommy and Tubbo and I are going to try to fix up Tommy’s old skyway rail today,” he was explaining to Phil. “Ohhh I can’t imagine that ending without at least a few broken bones.” Ranboo nodded. “That’s why I’m bringing a bunch of gapples.” Wilbur raised an eyebrow at the mention-- it had been ages since he’d seen the thing, it was probably way more rundown than even he remembered it. “That sounds like it’ll be funny to watch,” He said. “I’d like to see how many times Tommy can fall off before he realizes he actually has to do work to fix it up and quits.” 

    Ranboo looked towards Wilbur. “I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s alright for you to join us if you want,” he offered, much to Wilbur’s surprise. Internally, he thought that was extremely suspicious. A large part of him believed it was likely Ranboo was just trying to butter him up, get on his good side because that’s what he did, wasn’t it? Got on everyone’s good side, a neutral, conniving-- “Really? I--” Wilbur interrupted his own thoughts and looked between Phil and Ranboo and back again in quick form, thinking. “Sure! I don’t have much of anything else planned for the day, it might be interesting to see how the three of you get on.”

    “Oh, okay, great!” Said Ranboo, sounding as surprised as Wilbur was at the man’s answer. “You two have fun now,” Phil said with a sly, knowing smile, and Wilbur rolled his eyes. He knew that Phil was thinking Wilbur would actually wind up enjoying himself, but Wilbur knew that whatever fun he might’ve had catching up with Tommy and Tubbo would be ruined by Ranboo’s presence. There was no way the spineless hybrid would be able to hold his own against the banter that he and the two best friends could get into. Honestly, he didn’t know how Tommy or Tubbo could stand him; he was just that sure that Ranboo would infringe upon their chaotic natures just by being his boring, neutral self.

    Ranboo tried to make conversation on the way there, of course, but Wilbur answered as curtly as he could without being outright rude. In all honesty, he was still fuming from the other day when Ranboo had told him he wasn’t a bad person. First of all, it wasn’t true. He was a bad person. Everyone knew it. (He tried not to focus on the fact that he was sounding more and more like he was trying to convince himself, as if it wasn’t true.) Second of all-- didn’t that just prove that Ranboo was spineless and would say whatever he needed to get on a person’s good side? Wilbur didn’t trust Ranboo. Wilbur didn’t want to trust Ranboo. And fine, maybe he was being stubborn-- so what, Rational Thoughts In His Head That Took On The Voice Of Phil-- nothing wrong with being stubborn when it meant being the only person around who could actually resist Ranboo’s weird, enderman Bewitching Powers. 

    Speaking of. “Ayyyy Ranboo!” A familiar voice called as they approached the hillside house that was almost always where people met up with Tommy-- who, upon seeing Wilbur too, narrowed his eyes. “Wilbur. You aren’t going to get in our way are you? We don’t need you bossing us around,” Tommy said pointedly, while Ranboo greeted Tubbo. Tubbo. Wilbur hadn’t really seen Tubbo since-- Oh. That was-- ohhhhh. Wilbur swallowed a bit guiltily. He. He definitely had some apologizing to do there, huh? “Oi, pay attention to me when I’m talking to you, dickhead!” Tommy snapped Wilbur out of his thoughts, who, still distracted, muttered “Sorry, I just-- got caught up thinking.” There was a look of confusion on Tommy’s face at the soft, genuine tone, so Wilbur remembered his manners. “Prick,” He added, which righted things as Tommy instantly scowled.

    “Tubbo!” Wilbur called with a grin, who froze in a mirror of Wilbur just a few seconds ago. “It’s been a while man-- how’ve you been?” Tubbo looked rather taken aback. “I’ve been-- I’ve been alright, I guess. Just around, y’know. Building things here and there.” It was, for all its honesty, a guarded answer. Not that Wilbur blamed Tubbo. Of course he couldn’t. “Yeah, I uh, I wanted to say I’m sorry, man,” Wilbur blurted out before he could think better of it. Everyone stood around awkwardly and uncomfortably. “It’s uh, it’s alright, I forgive you,” Tubbo replied, too bewildered to really put thought into it. He was probably just saying that because he felt like he had to, then. “You don’t have to forgive me,” Wilbur promised, but Tubbo just shrugged. “I do forgive you. Doesn’t mean I trust you.” Well. There it was. Of course.

    “AN-Y-WAYS!” Tommy shouted, breaking the strange moment (though not without shooting Wilbur a dirty look). “Did everybody bring tools and whatnot? Pickaxes, etcetera? Although I suppose we’ll need rails--” Tommy was cut off by Ranboo. Of course Ranboo would be the one to cut Tommy of all people off. And nobody would think anything of it because why would they? It was Ranboo. Wilbur was sulking a bit, admittedly. He’d missed hanging out with the two boys and there was a deep ache in his chest. No trust. No easy conversations. No room on the bench for more than three people. “For in case you fall off,” Ranboo was explaining to Tommy while shoving a handful of gapples at him. “Oh my GOD I don’t want your pity gapples man,” Tommy growled while taking them anyway.

    “Thankyouthough-- anyway-- So I was thinking right, like the skyway is cool and all but all of these buildings are old y’know? Nothing around the prime path is new anymore, nobody comes here except me! So I was thinking-- Tubbo you have a pickaxe on you yeah?” Tubbo nodded, then slid his rather hefty backpack off one shoulder to open the top of. “I also have TNT,” He explained, holding up a stick, which earned a nervous and confused chuckle from Ranboo, a startled “whoah!” from Wilbur, and an “Oh my god why do you have TNT-- I mean that works too though I guess!” from Tommy. Tubbo looked extremely offended that anybody would question the sensibility of having TNT on hand. “Well, y’know, like, in case we need to do any demolition work, it’s a lot faster than having to mine things all by hand.” 

    Wilbur saw the TNT and tried desperately, for everyone else’s sake if not his own, to shove his associations with it deep, deep down in his brain where it wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Ah, Tubbo, that’s…” Wilbur started nervously, avoiding eye contact, but he didn’t miss the way Ranboo’s face lit up with recognition and understanding. “Maybe don’t get the TNT out too much around Wilbur,” Ranboo said in a hushed tone to Tubbo, who mumbled “Oh god! Oh, yeah, good point, yeah,” and put it away. It just had to be Ranboo that picked it up and said something, huh. That was nothing if not salt in a gaping wound. Wilbur was certain Tommy would’ve said something if the hybrid had waited just a few seconds more. 

    Right. No. He was supposed to be polite, he wanted to be on good terms with Tommy and Tubbo; he was grateful that Ranboo had stepped in. Disgusted with himself for reasons that made him miserable to think about sifting through, Wilbur swallowed pride that tasted like bile and nodded silently at Ranboo after catching his eye. Ranboo nodded back. Well, he didn’t much like it, but Wilbur supposed he could put aside his feelings at least for a day. Poorly-concealed hostility towards the hybrid was clearly not earning him any points in Tommy’s good book, and presumably not Tubbo’s as well; though it was genuinely hard to gauge Tubbo’s reaction considering how the years the man had spent as a spy had given him practice in having a good poker face.

    “I’m gonna give this whole place a shout,” Tommy muttered, typing something into his communicator that Wilbur knew would ping his own in just a second, “If anybody wants to stop me they’re gonna have to do it fast.” Looking at Tommy then-- in his favorite red-and-white shirt, on the prime path, by his stupid dirt hut, side by side with Tubbo and ready to cause mischief-- something unfurled from his un-undead heart that Wilbur wasn’t quite certain had been there anymore. That was his Tommy, alright. Wilbur tried out of habit to hide the fond smile that was threatening to creep across his face, but even then he couldn’t hide the way his resting scowl softened. “Tommy, Tubbo-- I missed this. I missed hanging out with you guys,” Wilbur confessed, and hey, it’s not like he was ignoring Ranboo if he’d never done any hanging out with him previously that he could miss. “I know, Tommy-- I know we hung out the other day, but that was-- that was different. This is nice.”

    “Yeah I missed this too!” Tubbo said genuinely, while Tommy tried to avoid emotions and rolled his eyes. “Honestly, it’s been ages since we’ve all hung out like this. How long has it been?” Tubbo wondered out loud. Tommy looked like he was thinking, and opened his mouth to speak. “Actually that reminds me--” He said, and Wilbur almost thought he was gonna say something nice to him for once. Almost. “Ranboo, I heard a word the other day, let me type it to you, can you tell me what it means?” Ranboo looked entirely puzzled, and not just because of the fact that he was suddenly being included in the conversation again. “Huh? Sure, okay.” He squinted at the no-doubt misspelled word Tommy had just messaged him. “What a syndicate is? Oh, I think it’s, like, a book club,” Ranboo said. Tommy spoke in a quick, pleasantly-lilted voice before going back to his usual gravelly shouting. “Thank you Ranboo that’s very helpful because Wilbur actually told me it was a government and I’m ah, far more inclined to believe you at the moment.” He turned aside. “Tubbo!” He barked out. 

    Wilbur stared directly at Ranboo (trying so hard not to make eye contact, he was respectful of boundaries), thinly veiled outrage on his face. And Ranboo, Ranboo smirked at him knowingly. Oh. So he knew knew. Wait. He knew?!? Technoblade had approved him for The Syndicate? Not to mention-- not to mention Wilbur’s feathers were all ruffled because despite him thinking of Tommy as an annoying brat most of the time, he couldn’t help but feel a little dejected at the fact that Tommy would rather listen to Ranboo’s explanation than his own. Had the charm of having an older brother really worn off that much for Tommy? Was he really stuck with Ranboo as his only younger brother? Sure, he’d always joked about getting rid of the little gremlin but-- Why like this?

    Wilbur was so busy bemoaning his own self-made prediacement that he didn’t notice the trio snickering and sneaking off until it was almost too late. He zoned back in and narrowed his eyes at the three of them, who all blinked innocently at him. “What were you three talking about just now?” Wilbur asked, curiosity in his voice intermingling with suspicion. “Oh, nothing,” Ranboo said through a grin. “Don’t worry about it Big Man,” Tubbo agreed. Tommy just looked at Wilbur smugly. Wilbur narrowed his eyes again with a huff. “Don’t you three give me that-- what are you all up to?” Tommy looked upwards, thinking and tapping his chin before looking back at Wilbur. “Frankly, uhhh-- none of your business!” He said in a hoity-toity tone. Wilbur released a long-suffering sigh. “Children, all of you,” He muttered. “Children!” At least he didn’t have to worry about memory fooling him in regards to their ages; the one thing about Ranboo Wilbur was grateful for was the explanation about the passage of time.

    For now at least though, Wilbur was content to just observe. He had been interested in figuring out how Ranboo fit into the group, to be fair; now was his opportunity. He watched as Tommy and Tubbo bickered and Ranboo offered compromises; he watched as Tommy and Ranboo quarrelled and Tubbo attempted to mediate. He watched as Tubbo and Ranboo bickered and Tommy egged them on. Somehow, instead of meaning they didn’t work together, this meant that they were in perfect sync about everything, and moved nearly flawlessly together as a unit without needing too much direction or getting in one another’s way. They were clearly not beyond getting sidetracked though, as right now they were meandering about with the hours ticking away, putting all their energy into “clearing up” abandoned and unused buildings and rubble with whatever tools they had on them at the moment.

    “Anyways, what is it exactly we’re doing here Tommy?” Wilbur asked, growing restless. “All you’ve been doing is running around placing TNT on abandoned buildings and tearing them down. I thought we were meant to be working on the skyway.” He’d genuinely been hoping to see the old thing, ugly as it was. To say nothing about all the TNT. “Oh of course you’re still thinking about the skyway,” Tommy mocked, eyes rolling, voice gravelly. “What d’you MEAN ‘of course you’re still thinking about the skyway’ you were the one who said that’s what we were working on!” Wilbur refuted, aghast. “Yes but I changed my mind!” Tommy huffed, and then for good measure, added “Duh!” 

    The two of them began aggressively and gleefully bickering, mocking, and name-calling; Wilbur calling Tommy an annoying child and Tommy in turn calling Wilbur a dirty old man-- until Tommy gave up with an exasperated growl and Wilbur gave up with a disgusted scoff, and wordlessly Tommy handed Wilbur a pickaxe to help terraform the area; and Wilbur, of course, silently started mining. The four of them got a decent amount of work done together, chatting idly and pleasantly, until all of the sudden a golden figure came sprinting down the stairs, out of breath. “Aw geez I came here as fast as I could I hope I’m not late-- you better not be taking down any of my builds!” The man said as he reached the group, taking a moment to catch his breath. “Oh hey Foolish what’s up!” Ranboo greeted.

    For a solid second, Wilbur was almost impressed, thinking Ranboo was just being utterly and blatantly rude to this strange man. But Tubbo then greeted him in kind and Wilbur realized that no, that was just his actual name. “Hey guys,” The man apparently called Foolish greeted. “Tommy-- Tommy, please tell me you didn’t take down any of my buildings,” He said, distraught. Tommy looked at him and shrugged. “We’ve just been taking down abandoned buildings along the Prime Path here, so unless one of them was yours--”

    Foolish cut Tommy off. “Ohthankgod. No, nope, none of those were mine. I am glad you took down that Christmas building actually it was kinda out of season,” he said, perpetual grin on his face, gesturing wildly as he spoke. Tommy looked at Foolish for a second, calculating, before a familiar-looking lightbulb went off in his head. “You’re going to help us take these buildings down,” Tommy asserted. “What?” Foolish asked, blinking.

    “You’re going to help us take these buildings down,” Tommy said again in the same tone, with his eyebrows raised in a “watch this” expression. Foolish stared at him for a moment and then shrugged. “Sure! I’m usually a builder, I don’t get to take down stuff a lot. I wouldn’t mind helping.” Tommy nodded curtly, sharing a glance with Tubbo and Ranboo, who were looking at him with fond exasperation. “Gets ‘em every time,” Tommy said to himself smugly, and Foolish looked at him. “Huh? What was that?” Foolish said, his grin giving away the fact that he did in fact hear what Tommy had said and was just going along with it all for fun. “I said get mining Totem Boy,” Tommy said, and Foolish giggled before unearthing his pickaxe to start to help. He glanced at Wilbur curiously for a moment before striking up a conversation.

    “You know, I don’t think we’ve ever officially met,” He said, pausing his pickaxe swing to extend a hand, “I’m Foolish Gamers! And I take it you’re Wilbur.” Wilbur nodded, and shook Foolish’s hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you!” Foolish continued, which definitely wasn’t a sentence that invoked any sort of dread in him, nope. “I’m afraid I can’t say the same about you,” Wilbur said apologetically. Although he was a bit of an odd one in whatever species he was, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. “I do a lot of big fancy buildings and stuff. Contract work, y’know. I actually built this huge mansion for Ranboo and-- Oh wait!” Foolish stared down Wilbur for a second, which was admittedly very unnerving with the way the man’s eyes were pure emeralds.

    “You’re Philza’s kid right?” Foolish asked, and Wilbur narrowed his eyes, now entirely unsure of where this conversation was going. “And Ranboo is too right?” Ranboo, hearing his name, hopped into the conversation and nodded. “Oooh wait, so that means you guys are both siblings then? Really? Oh wow,” Foolish said, curious. They both hummed in acknowledgement, though Wilbur’s admittedly was more of a grumble. “I’m the adopted one, by the way,” Ranboo said, which wasn’t funny. “I never could’ve guessed,” Foolish said, which actually also wasn’t funny. “Very funny. Humor. Good job,” Wilbur deadpanned at them both, who were both grinning far too proudly for their stupid jokes. “Thank you, thank you,” Ranboo said, despite certainly being aware that it wasn’t a compliment. 

    “No but like to be fair you don’t have wings and Ranboo’s only half enderman so like it could go either way, technically,” Foolish was saying, and Wilbur started muttering under his breath about stupid enderman and weird totem men comparing him to his dumb adoptive sibling as if he wasn’t clearly the one more like Phil, and Ranboo stage-whispered to Foolish “I think that might be a bit of a sore spot for him,” to which Foolish replied also in a stage-whisper “Ooh you’re right you’re right, I can kinda see that now, I’ll keep that in mind.” 

    Wilbur rolled his eyes at those two, Foolish starting to mine again and Ranboo disappearing to go be closer to Tubbo again. Somehow everyone he managed to find himself hanging around with fit the description of “annoying brat who thinks they’re clever and funny”, huh. Except Tubbo, of course, Tubbo was an angel compared to the rest of them even if he was just as prone to chaos-- which Tubbo proved at that exact moment he thought it, shouting “Look out below!” which was accompanied by a high-pitched, startled Tommy-scream. Wilbur just barely managed to dodge the TNT that had been dropped from the now-dilapidated roof before it exploded. He looked up to where it had dropped from, seeing Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy at the top, the former two grinning somewhat manically.  “Oops,” Ranboo and Tubbo both called down apologetically, while Tommy went off on a tirade just for the fun of it. These kids-- Wilbur looked up at the sun to gauge the time. Exactly how much longer was this going to go on for?

---

    “I will say, Ranboo,” Wilbur said with a small smirk as they were striding along home, “I do appreciate the level of chaos you seem to conjure when you’re around Tubbo. You described yourself as so neutral to me I guess I didn’t factor in that morality and politics have nothing to do with teenage shenanigans.” Ranboo looked to Wilbur, surprise written on his face, but he offered a small smile to the older man. “Mhm! Oh, yeah, absolutely. I usually try to be the responsible one since Tommy and Tubbo have no self-control--” The hybrid mumbled “Seriously they have no self-control” before continuing-- “But when someone else like Phil or you is around to do that instead?” Ranboo grinned mischievously. “Oh man,” he concluded.   

    “Well, don’t expect me to babysit all the time,” Wilbur said with a small scoff, “I do have my own things to be doing.” Ranboo shot Wilbur an offended look. “Babysit? I don’t--” Ranboo sighed and shook his head. “You don’t have to worry about that, Wilbur. We can get up to plenty on our own. Probably more, actually,” He added with a slightly mischievous tone. Wilbur sighed. “It’s not gonna be my fault if you three get yourselves killed,” he told Ranboo, fully meaning it. “Ehhhhh we’re not gonna get killed,” Ranboo said with a dismissive handwave. “I got Tubbo and Tommy full maxed-out enchantment netherite, and we all have totems. Plus we’re not that reckless. I think.” Wilbur groaned. These kids were going to be the second death of him. Even if they weren’t technically his responsibility. Luckily, he didn’t have to think about that too much as they trekked the rest of the way through the thick snow in silence.

    “So, did you two have fun on your day out today?” Phil asked as the two of them walked in the door. “It was horrible,” Wilbur deadpanned, “Terrible. They are all chaotic gremlin children.” Phil grinned at Wilbur. “Nahhh. Not Ranboo, surely. He’s responsible, right Ranboo?” Ranboo smiled innocently at Phil. “Mhm!” He said. “Even Ranboo,” Wilbur continued on in his deadpan as if Ranboo hadn’t spoken. “You wouldn’t believe some of the awful things he said to me today. It was genuinely horrific, actually.” Phil shot Wilbur a completely bemused expression. “That’s not true!” Ranboo protested. “Philllll Wilbur is slandering meeeee!” He said with pseudo-pout. Wilbur scoffed. “As if! It’s not ‘slander’ if it’s true! The lot of you just wouldn’t shut up about--” Phil cut him off with a barked-out cackle. “I’m glad you two had fun,” he said with a knowing smile. Wilbur grumbled and Ranboo thanked Phil, before heading back to his own house. 

    As much as Wilbur hated to admit it, he did have fun, though. It was… strangely nice, getting to see Tommy and Tubbo just happy and acting like kids-- or rather, teenage brats, again. And he found he didn’t dislike having Ranboo in the mix, either. The hybrid blended perfectly, no pun intended, with the two best friends, and they all had a level of respect and established banter that Wilbur was almost (but not quite) envious of. He did actually hate being the voice of reason, but it was a little bit worth it just to see Ranboo of all people, the neutral nervous wreck, let loose and cause chaos. He did himself like a little chaos, after all, so it was nice to know it wasn’t out of the question for his newfound sibling. Startled at his own thoughts, he quickly checked himself with a modicum of disgust. Wow. If he wasn’t careful, he might actually wind up feeling attached. Good thing he’d never let that happen. He glanced at Phil, who was smiling smugly at him as if he knew something Wilbur didn’t. Right. One more time for reassurance, then. He’d never let that happen.

[fourteendaysinaweek]

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My overview: Portland detective Nick Burkhardt thinks he's going insane when he randomly starts seeing monsters at the time his aunt goes into a coma. Turns out he's not, in fact, going crazy. He deals with shit trying to kill him and his girlfriend and friends CONSTANTLY and in reality all he wants to do his keep his city safe, and he accidentally saves the world in the process.

Thoughts on the show: I love it, it does have a habit of setting up for recurring characters and then never mentioning them again, so that's annoying. There are 6 seasons. There are some great romances in the show, and also some iffy ones, but the iffy ones are definitely regarded as such in the show, and eventually either develop past the weird stage or die before anymore harm can be done. Aired from 2011 to 2017

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The Umbrella Academy

Platform: Netflix

Official overview: On one day in 1989, 43 infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who creates the Umbrella Academy and prepares his "children" to save the world. In their teenage years, though, the family fractures and the team disbands. Fast forward to the present time, when the six surviving members of the clan reunite upon the news of Hargreeves' passing. They work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father's death, but divergent personalities and abilities again pull the estranged family apart, and a global apocalypse is another imminent threat. The series is based on a collection of comics and graphic novels created and written by My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way.

My overview: adult survivors of abuse with increasingly weird/out-there superpowers due to the weird circumstances of their birth come together to celebrate *cough* I mean mourn the passing of their "father" And accidentally cause the apocalypse.

Thoughts on the show: I love it. I've finished season 2,currenfly there are only 2 seasons, it's still in progress, I love it. I'm sure most of you have already watched it because what is the supernatural fandom if not emo? Also a good one for representation. Mexican man with a stutter, black woman with a daughter she is in a custody battle for, gay druggie veteran, Ellen Page, Asian ghost boy, 58 year old man in a 13 year old's body, and a half-chimp man.

Thoughts on the fandom: big. Big big big. Haven't found any fics that cater to my specific wants in a fic, but there are fics. Some of them have weird pairings, but since the show made two (adopted) siblings canon, I can't exactly blame them.

Lost Girl

Platform: I actually have no idea

Official overview: Bo is a small-town girl on the run after a disastrous sexual encounter with her boyfriend ends with his death. Bo learns that she is not human, but a succubus, who feeds on the sexual energy of humans. She and her kind are members of the Fae, creatures of legend, who walk among humans and feed off them in different ways. As she searches for the truth about her origins and runs from her inhuman urges, she vows to help those she meets along the way -- human or Fae -- who need to right a wrong.

My overview: bisexual woman finds out she's a succubus and she has to choose to be either good Fae or bad Fae (I think it's light vs dark but it's been a Hot Minute) she has a thing with a werewolf and also a thing with a Fae doctor who is human and a woman.

Thoughts on the show: it's good, 5 seasons, don't think I've finished the first season. Back when I started watching it it was on Netflix and has since been removed. It's on Vudo but it costs money which is bullshit. It's a little weird at first, but I like it. Ran 2010 to 2015.

Thoughts on the fandom: have not interacted with the fandom for fear of spoilers. I'd imagine this show's fandom is about the size of Grimm.

Being Human (USA version)

Platform: again, I don't know.

Official overview: "Being Human," based on a BBC series of the same name, features three 20-something roommates who each try to keep a secret from the rest of the world -- one is a ghost, another is a vampire and the third is a werewolf. The three roomies try to help one another navigate the complexities of living double lives.

My overview: again, weird starts off in almost the middle of the story. It deals with abuse, death, fighting urges, dealing with past sins, and, well, being human. The characters are Sally (Ghost) Aidan (vampire) and Josh (werewolf). The three of them are trying to live like normal, Aidan and Josh as workers at the local hospital as Sally works to deal with her death.

Thoughts on the show: I love it I just wish I could find it on a reliable site, again, it's on Vudo but it costs money. It definitely had the set up for a good mlm relationship but from what I've gathered they end up forcing heterosexuality.

Thoughts on the fandom: again, too small, roughly the size of Grimm. I have seen 0 fics.

The Librarians

Platform: Hulu I do so believe

Official overview: Cued by TNT's popular 'The Librarian' trilogy, this series introduces new members of an ancient group protecting mystical artefacts. Hidden below the Metropolitan Public Library, the secret society's longtime leader is Flynn Carsen, whose job has become very complicated. To help, the Library recruits Eve, a counterterrorism agent responsible for organizational security; Jacob, who has encyclopedic knowledge of art, architecture and history; Cassandra, who links auditory/sensory hallucinations to memory; and Ezekiel, a skilled thief and master technician. Overseeing them is Jenkins, the reclusive caretaker of the Library's sleepy little outpost in Oregon. Noah Wyle executive produces and recurs as Flynn, the role he played in the movie series.

My overview: very similar to W13. This time imagine the Bunker, and the Warehouse, and boom, you've got the Library.

Thoughts on the show: good! I love it, I just found out it was on Hulu and am going to be binging it as soon as I finish Grimm and Warehouse. I'd love to see a crossover between W13 and The Librarians I feel like they'd have a feud.

Thoughts on the fandom: probably the same size as W13 if not bigger as the series came from movies. Again, haven't finished the series so I haven't interacted with the fandom.

Eureka

Platform: Amazon Prime

Official overview: In the years since World War II, the U.S. government has been relocating the world's geniuses (and their families) to the Pacific Northwest town of Eureka. Daily life there shifts between amazing innovation and total chaos. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter learns this first-hand when his car breaks down in Eureka, stranding him among the town's eccentric citizens. When they unleash a scientific creation still unknown to the outside world, it's up to Carter to restore order. Subsequently, he's let in on one of America's best-kept secrets.

My overview: a small town but make every person a genius. Has some crossover with Warehouse 13, they exist in the same universe.

Thoughts on the show: I love it so far. Just the kind of weird shit I enjoy.

Thoughts on the fandom: I'd imagine about the size of Warehouse 13's but I've yet to interact considering I'm still in season 1.

[aftermathdb]

DEATH BATTLE review: All Might vs. Might Guy

First Atlantis^2, then Widow^2, then Marvel^2, then ONE^2, and now Might^2.

(Holy Hell! I have exactly 100 screenshots for this episode!)

All Might′s Preview.

We open on a world where superpowers are common.

A world where schools are everywhere so that people can harness their powers.

These “Quirks” are varied, and some are… not that great.

But one aspiring hero would rise up to be the greatest hero around. Toshinori Yagi, who was given the greatest Quirk of all: One for All.

The hosts go over how badass this Quirk is. But more specifically how it’s the Quirk that can be passed down to other users.

Toshinori got his from Nana Shimura, and he became the ever-smiling All Might.

All Might keeps that smile on his face to ensure that everyone around him feels safe.

Thanks to All Might’s Quirk, he’s got everything from Super Strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

Aside from Boomstick’s apparent ability to manifest seafood, the hosts go over All Might‘s main powerset.

Interestingly enough, All Might’s tendency to name his moves after the US is kinda accurate.

For example, the Texas Smash and Oklahoma Smash both create forms of tornadoes. And guess what states are smack-dab in the way of those things?

But All Might can combine those States together in one extremely powerful attack: The United States of Smash. PLUS ULTRA!

The power of the USoS is actually quantifiable. Given the size of the storm compared to the buildings around it, the force would be over 11,000 tons of TNT.

All Might can also move at speed around Mach 29.

Now, here’s the thing: All Might’s doing a lot of this with a handicap. So these moves are still impressive. Since DEATH BATTLE takes a look at these characters in their prime, those are the stats that would be used. In his hayday, All Might would be 60 times more powerful.

He’s on par with many a fighter, like Nomu, whom he had punched 300 times in ten seconds.

Even when crippled, All Might’s proven exactly why he’s been the number one hero for years.

Might Guy′s Preview.

a

In the world of Naruto, there exists schools that train the best Ninjas around. These schools would essentially teach Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, or in Boomstick’s terms, Ninja Magic.

But one ninja doesn’t really have that. Rock Lee was never really that good at the whole “Ninja Magic” thing, so when he found a mentor, it was a good thing for him.

Enter: Might Guy.

Despite not having that great of skill when compared to the other guys, Might Guy and his dad opted to focus on one thing and become the undisputed master of it:

Punching people (Thanks for the description there, Boomstick).

Strong Fist is a subset of Taijutsu, or hand-to-hand combat. A hard martial art that is focused on breaking the bones of the opponent.

Only the toughest people can really use Strong Fist according to the hosts, and it comes with it’s own set of skills.

But it’s a really big double-edged sword.

And we get more into that double-edged sword by an animated segment.

Regardless, the technique Guy and Duy developed was the Eight Gates.

With these Gates, they can unlock a whole slew of crazy abilities by way of removing limits on the body. From mental inhibitions, to physical limitations.

Some of these Gates are safe to use. Numbers 1-3 are good to go, but once you go past that, you’re in trouble.

At Gate numero six, Guy moves so fast that his fists ignite the air around him and can be used as projectiles.

In order to ignite the Hydrogen in the air, Guy’s swinging at speeds at 40000 km/h.

For reference, that’s nearly five times as fast as the X-15 Rocket Jet, the fastest man-made jet that has been made so far.

Gate Seven is still relatively safe for Guy, according to the hosts, but the final Gate is a fatal attack.

That’s not some sort of “Battle Aura” you’re seeing around Guy, that’s his blood burning. With this, he can use… “Night Guy.”

Yeah, I’m a little unimpressed too.

This form was able to decimate Madara. You should know that guy by now. He’s the deadly villain that could take on Naruto and easily defeat him in base mode.

Naruto’s super modes are definately better that Guy’s best mode, but it’s also way better than Jiraya’s best move.

Guy is also a match for Kakashi, who could catch lightning.

Kakashi’s speed clocks in at around 763000 m/s, so Guy is definitely in that ballpark.

And with all the feats he has, he’s proven to be a badass through and through. It takes a lot to bring down this Mighty Guy.

… Yeah, the end quote doesn’t exactly inspire greatness, but eh, it’s probably iconic (Really sorry, not a Naruto fan).

The Battle Itself.

Torrian is back to head this project, All Might will be voiced by Kaiji Tang, while All Might was voiced by a guy named “Dick Splitter” (No, I’m not making that up). "Mighty” by both Brandon Yates and Therewolf sprite artist (If there are any), and audio lead by Chris Kokkinos.

Our fight starts with Guy sitting in a park, reading a bit of Manga. For those eagle-eyed viewers, you’ll notiice that he’s reading a My Hero Academia book. I’ve circled it for you.

Anyways, All Might drops in and does his dramatic enterance. After geeking out, Guy challenges him to…

An ARM WRESTLING CONTEST!

Which All Might readily accepts.

I want to go on record and say that this initial explosion is in essence, them just starting.

And can I also point out the absurdity in the ground being cratered before the table? Like what is that table made of?- Adamantium?

Well, my accusation is unlikely. The table breaks, and then the two duke it out. Not out of jealousy or because one of them accused the other of sabotaging the contest, but because they’re just that hammy.

So with the fight underway, these two go at it. It’s readily clear that All Might has the edge up in strength over Base Guy, but Guy is certainly faster  given how often he dodges the attacks that All Might dishes out.

He even gets a perfect 10 on his dodging!

I want it to be known that Might Guy actually dodged this attack. He clearly has the speed advantage.

And these two just keep complimenting each other! Like, come on! Who am I supposed to root for here?

Anyways, Guy opens his Sixth Gate, which gives him an edge up over All Might.

And you want to know what’s better than a beam struggle?- A Barrage attack struggle.

What’s better than that?

When the barrages are fire vs wind!

They make an explosion that brings Guy to the ground, and he opens the Seventh Gate.

He unleashes his Daytime Tiger, and actually puts All Might on the defensive.

Here’s my question: How is it that all that power is being condensed in that one park? Those buildings should have destableized by now!

Anyways, Finishing Blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Might Guy gets impaled! Well, it was a good run, and he certainly put up quite the fight…

And he’s also not done yet. We still have one more Gate.

REAL finishing blow iin

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

You gotta wonder what the report by the  authorities and news is going to be like.

Verdict + Explanation.

So, right off the bat, this fight actually is close. Guy’s Gates were really the big thing that was letting him keep up with All Might and his  speed was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Now, As for All Might, since DEATH BATTLE was looking at him in his prime, they had to scale accordingly.

All Might himself claimed that a fight he finished in 300 punches could have been done in 5. So that means that the All Might that is being used is 60 times stronger.

Take this feat for example, All Might’s foe Gigantomachia, once blew a hole through the mountain. Adding in the X60 multiplier, and All Might’s batting in the 154.8 Gigaton range.

However, Guy is still way faster, add in his better training and more versatile arsenal, Might Guy just needed to hit All Might harder than All Might could hit him.

All Might’s feat of changing the weather clocks in at about 1462 Gigatons of TNT.

Now, that’s impressive and all, but Guy hasn’t really shown his full power.

So we have to compare him to another person that we’ve seen all too many times before: Naruto.

Now remember: Base Naruto < Madara, and Night Guy > Madara.

As we’ve seen all too many times before, Naruto’s Base Chakra was enough to blow a hole through the moon.

How much force is that?

About 480 Petatons of TNT.

How much is a Petaton?

A million Gigatons. Simply put All Might > Might Guy, but Night Guy > All Might. Sure, Guy goes down not too long after using the attack, but he wins in the moment, and that’s what matters.

The winner is Might Guy.

Overall impression.

I came into this thinking “This feels more like season premiere material.” Something to hype up the crowd for the upcoming season. And I was right in the absolute most wrong sense of the word. The fight is spectacular, and it makes me want to read up on MHA. In all honesty, if this were a season premiere,  everything after it would feel boring in comparison.

Now, admittedly, this was basically just a fistfight. A battle of who could punch harder than the other guy. Which isn’t very exciting on it’s own, but is still interesting given the characters.

Plus, given that no sane parent would ever give their kid the name “Richard” if their  last name was “Splitter”  I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that this is the official VA for Guy.

I’m not going to link to his twitter, I’d rather he not get in trouble, but it’s still pretty cool.

Then again, my dad knew a guy named “Richard Head” so I guess the name “Dick Splitter” isn’t that farfetched. Who knows, maybe this is a real name.

Tangent aside, this battle was epic in all sense of the word. I’m sure there are a lot of references that I missed because of my lack of knowledge on these two, but it was a joy to see, and the music is awesome. Definitely looking forward to downloading it.

9.6/10.

Next Time…

I’m calling…

… Well shit. I don’t know what to call. But I recognize Miles Morales, Beerus,  and Danny Phantom, so who knows?

Though the end colors for the start of Season 7 makes me think of… Harley Quinn.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

A DEATH BATTLE.

[preppymayhem]

This is where I live now

I SAW IT 2, and HONEY Y’ALL DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE IN FOR!!!

But there is something that is to be said about me. I unironically love the book. I know it was written on a coke binge. I know there is a whole lotta shit in it that I wish wasn’t because it was so unnecessary. And you can rec me other similar things that may be less problematic, and I will love them too, but I love this. This is my trash hill and I have lived here for over 20 years.

Everything is spoilers below the cut.

I am going to start with the not great stuff

So most of the most problematic content in terms of graphic discomfort is stuff that is literally lifted from the books. The homophobic gay bash which was graphic but honestly wasn’t as traumatizing as the hammer scene from Roswell New Mexico so you know mileage may vary.  Also Beverly’s abusive husband. I imagine that those will effect you harder if you hadn’t read the book and knew they were coming.

Holy mother of Fat!phobia, Batman! So unnecessary and not all of it is lifted from the books. I felt they could have at least at the end had Ben make it explicit that losing the weight didn’t matter at least that he was still loved for he was.

I don’t know exactly how I feel about how they found the Ritual of Chud stuff (which is different in the book, it involves some more graphic stuff but that wasn’t filmable so I understand why that changed.) I am not knowledgeable enough to comment or critique the Native American bits so I’ll leave that to better people than me to dissect. I will say that the ritual loses something in adaptation not due to the actual change but that in the book it is involved in BOTH timelines.

I understand why they were cut and I wouldn’t argue that they weren’t necessary cuts, and it wasn’t like their roles in the book were that great but the cutting of Patty and Audra in particular was a little sad to me. Why make such a big deal about who they cast as Audra if they weren’t going to do Audra’s whole bit in the final act??? They might as well should have cut her all together and just reference Bill has trouble with endings.

I had to shut my eyes at the two child!deaths, because while they weren’t scary, I just can’t handle that. So I guess content warning for that because in the first Georgie’s (nor Patrick’s or Henry’s for that matter) were all that graphic, but this one was.

While I love that Mike got to be in the sewer, and he did get more this time around than the first, but I still think he was short changed over all. I think they should have given him more of an emotional resonance with Stan’s death since he made the call. And in the book that was such a big thing for him, stressing out about making the calls. In the film they make it like Mike is just bulldozing them into this (I didn’t like the lie about the ritual) whereas in the book, Mike’s whole thing was him being worried that he was leading the others to their deaths. 

Now the middle of the road - neither here nor there stuff:

So the just a bit of casting fun, the main gay basher dude in the beginning. That actor actually plays a major character whose gay in TNT’s Animal Kingdom whose love interest on that show is named Adrian of all things. Just a bit of an odd coincidence, that.

It was gorier but just as scary as the first one. I just closed my eyes during the child deaths as mentioned, but other than that if you didn’t find the first one scary, I doubt your mind is going to change with this one.

There were way too many trailers in front of this movie. That is all. (Also someone needs to talk to me about Ewan MacGregor’s American accent. Also does Doctor Sleep take place in Kubrick’s The Shining or King’s The Shining because those two are very VERY different things)

Now the big one, which wasn’t a downside for me which is why this is in this section and not the above, but I guess it will be for others because I know people had hopes up. Reddie is not subtext but it isn’t like out and out explicit either. The reviews calling this “Horror Brokeback Mountain” were overblown and it was over-marketed. It is not on par with the queer baiting of many things but you aren’t going to get an explicit “I love you” or “I am gay” out of either Eddie or Richie. BUT it isn’t subtext, they make explicit references to it so that anyone who doesn’t read it for what it is, is just fooling themselves or being willfully homophobic. My expectations on that front were low, and I do think they baited it as more than it was, but honestly we all knew Eddie was dying and this film already had one bad gay death, do you all really want to die on that hill?

My big Mike complaints are above, but I guess my middle road of thing was last year they made a big thing about Mike possibly being in an addict in which I was just, “No.” But while there was some subtle prop hints they didn’t really lean on that and for that I am grateful.

All the Billverly was basically what you saw in the trailers, I will talk more about this below.

How they explained how Henry Bowers survived was pretty weak. 

Now the STUFF I LIKE. PREP FOR CAPSLOCK! AND GENERAL INCOHERENCE

The Stephen King cameo was great! I LOVED IT!

THE KIDS ARE STILL AMAZING I LOVE THEM!

No really all the kid scenes were great, and the CGI used wasn’t too bad, the only scene where I was like “uh oh puberty” was in the Bill and Bev bike scene with Jaeden and his voice which definitely sounded different from the connecting scene from the first film.

The separated scenes during the climax were great (tho so sad Mike didn’t get one :(((((((() Particularly the Bill and the Bev and Ben ones. Like the emotional pull of the Ben and Bev scene was amazing and PRIME OTP material, their hands grabbing each other.

MY BOY BEN!!!! Omg, I know everyone was and is rightfully crowing about Bill Hader (Richie) and James Ransone (Eddie), but THIS WAS MY BOY BEN’S BIGGEST FILM. And he may have forgotten most of the events but he held on to that yearbook page and he never forgot Bev, and he understood all this time. I LOVE HIM> HE IS MY THIRD AND ONE NON-DISASTER SON!!!

Ben and Beverly who are my RIDE OR DIE IT OTP, were so good. AND THEY RIDE OFF ON A SAILBOAT?! OMG Is this real, did I dream that? OMG Benverly is so good!! The kiss at the lake, 

I am not over this but Ben Hanscom gave me such Pacey Witter vibes it was fucking UNREAL. We love a great, thoughtful romantic lead guys. WE LOVE IT SO FREAKING DAMN MUCH!!!

Ok I really loved Bill’s whole thing with his guilt over not wanting to play with Georgie one time and and the scene in the cellar..... Was it cliche? Yes. Do I care? Hell fucking No.

I love that they changed the ending and that they don’t forget. Bill and Mike’s I love you (which in the movie is platonic, but if anyone wants to go there I wouldn’t complain). 

I love how they kept Stan present even with what happens in the beginning. I loved that he is the emotional core of it all. I loved the bar mitzvah scene. I JUST....STAN!!! Take me to the universe where you get to live. Please. I guess you could say that the way his letter frames the suicide is problematic, but the letter at the end had me in tears.

AND NOW FOR THE THING MOST OF ALL. THE THING THAT GAVE ME THE MOST JOY, I ALMOST SQUEALED:

THE DEADLIGHTS - OMG, The dead lights. I kept my expectations as to IT’s true form very low, but if you are worried they are going to just repeat with Giant Spider from the miniseries you are wrong, they allude to it but keep the Lights and it was everything that I hoped it would be.

IT SAID IT’S NAME! EATER OF WORLDS!!!!! I literally cried. I was so worried when I saw the Bev scene that they were going to ruin IT’s backstory and make it boring and they didn’t. The animation sequence was really brilliant.

Give Bill Skarsgard a fucking medal.

THEY LOVED EACH OTHER GUYS. THEY REALLY LOVED EACH OTHER.

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

JUNE PICKS

I know, I know it’s currently July 13th and I’m only posting my June picks now. In my defense summer is going FAR too fast and I didn’t want to encounter spoilers for Stranger Things so i was avoiding a lot of social media. So without further a do here come my picks.

Always be prepared for spoilers. Tread lightly. 

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

Best.season.so.far... As a MAJOR fan of all things Arrowverse, recently I have found myself losing interest in the Berlanti CW/DC shows. Some of the plots feel overdone (we’ve done it on one show and now it’s appearing on another), or characters are losing who they once were. The only show in this multiverse that I’m caught up on is Legends of Tomorrow. Thanks to Netflix I was able to binge it all at once (which I found really helps watching this show. You just want to watch episode after episode because you NEED to know where we’re headed next). I think Legends is really underrated as a whole, which is wrong. It deserves more love compared to Arrow and The Flash. I believe it is the strongest of the superhero shows on the network. That was proven with this great season (I’d call it the best and I can’t wait to watch season 5). I really enjoyed this team of heroes aboard the Waverider. We’ve seen much change from last season and only 3 remain from the original team that Rip created. (Which is SO crazy!) At first I was worried about Charlie because I didn’t want her to just be a recasting of Amaya, but I loved her addition. She brought another style to the Waverider and having her as a “monster” was perfect for this season that involved bringing awareness to these creatures. Plus her power came in handy a lot of the time. I’m always a fan of Constantine so it was great to see him as a permanent fixture of the Legends (even if he claimed he didn’t want to be :). After speaking with him at HVFF in Edison, New Jersey this June I am excited to see his character return as a regular for season 5. I also enjoyed Nora Darhk. When we first met her last season we we’re supposed to like her, but since she’s no longer possessed and wanting to change her ways we see a different side of her now. A side that Ray sees (still think it’s super adorable that off screen husband and wife are love interests on the show). I was a big fan of her involvement this season. Speaking of Ray, what a journey he went on. Props to Brandon Routh for his acting this season. Very out of his regular character, which often is the most fun to watch. I loved the Time Bureau getting more involved in the plot. We got to see more of their headquarters and how they function while the Legends do their thing throughout space and time. I hope that continues, especially so we don’t lose seeing characters like Ava and Mona (oh and of course Gary-oops!) MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!   That ending!!!! Please don’t tell us Zari is off the team for good. I mean I’m sure her brother is nice and all, but we need her! After speaking with Tala, also at HVFF, she said we’ll be getting a much different Zari this season. Which makes complete sense seeing as how her backstory has drastically changed. 

Man, I guess I could have dedicated an entire post just to Legends of Tomorrow. Just shows you it is a great show that you should be watching. 

Now I can’t stop singing James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James”

Good Omens

This Amazon Prime Video original was my first watch of the month. I didn’t binge it all at once (mainly because I don’t like investing ALL of my time into watching something that’s only a handful of episodes and then feeling completely lost when it’s over...Wow that opened something I didn’t know was there....) While that’s one of the reasons I didn’t watch all episodes in one sitting the other is that I couldn’t really get into it. People have told me great things about the book, but I haven’t read it and I didn’t know a whole lot (other than what I’ve seen from the trailer) before watching. It’s hard for me to explain why I didn’t enjoy it or get into it. I don’t know if it was the large amount of characters to follow or the style of episodes or just the overall style of the show. I enjoyed the voice over narration and I thought the dynamic between Aziraphale and Crowley was great (always a fan of David Tennant). I liked the reinventing of the final battle and how these forces currently exist on Earth. I think my favorite episodes were the last two as the battle occurred and how Adam was a part of it all. 

Have you watched Good Omens? Did you like it? 

Jack Whitehall’s Travels with my Father

After watching Good Omens I was looking for a quick watch before jumping into Daredevil (which I know is also a quick watch). Seeing Jack Whitehall in Good Omens reminded me of a Netflix show I had saved in my queue a while ago. The British Comedian Jack Whitehall decides to go on a gap year in his late twenties and bring along his seventy year old father. Like everyone does! I’ve read a lot of things, while I watched, about how the show is scripted and while it is at times very obvious I still liked watching their banter. His dad had some great lines as Jack brought him to some eccentric spots. It was also nice to see their relationship progress as the episodes went on. As someone who wasn’t thinking of traveling to Asia I really liked being able to see some of the places and attractions in different countries that might not be as publicized. I have the second season saved in my queue where Jack’s dad will bring Jack to what he considers a vacation. This time traveling around Europe. I think it should be good, but right now I have other things to watch before.   

Blood & Treasure

CBS’ new summer show has already been picked up for a second season and the first season hasn’t even finished yet! If that’s not a reason for you to check this out then read this review. :) 

This action adventure show follows Danny, an ex FBI agent, and Lexi, an art thief, as they travel the globe in search for Cleopatra’s tomb and other Egyptian antiquities before they get in the hands of a terrorist. Each week feels like you have entered a movie as you join this team race against the clock to retrieve these artifacts. Because of this there are times where I feel like the show might work better as a movie or a mini-series/3 longer episodes. By this point I feel like there are times where the plot gets a little extended and parts might not need to happen (but do because of the length of episodes). That being said I am still enjoying this show and am excited to see how the season eventually ends. Now that I know there will be a second season it will be interesting to see what they pursue next. If you like movies like Indiana Jones and National Treasure as well as the TNT show The Librarians, then this show is one for you!    

PBS Les Miserables 

I am way behind on reviewing this program that debuted on PBS’ Masterpiece in the Spring, but with one episode left I am very excited to talk about this new adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. This six episode show directed by Andrew Davies brings Hugo’s characters to life without music. Being a fan of the musical, I was a little worried about how the show would be without this element. While there are times where I would like a song that is traditional sung by one of the leads to be played in the background (and I think it would have put the scene over the top) I have really enjoyed watching. Due to the length of the series we have really been able to get to know these characters and watch their transformations. I have always been daunted by the size of the novel, so I have not had the chance to read it, but being familiar with Davies’ work in the past (the iconic Pride and Prejudice 1995) I have a feeling this program is very accurate to the original text. My favorite character is still Jean Valjean (despite the slight plot wholes at how he has so much money despite escaping jail so many times). I think my favorite parts have been the earlier episodes when Cosette is young. I understand she wants to see the word as she gets older, but sometimes she bothers me. Currently I am at the barricade with them. One more episode to go. I know how it will end, but I’m probably still not mentally prepared.    

Master Chef Junior

This season I have watched a good amount of reality shows (in the sense of game shows/competition shows/and yes Bachelorette). Some seasons when you watch I feel that you connect better to the contestants. You root for them and are devastated when they lose or get out. You call them by name as if you know them. I often feel this way with Fox’s Master Chef Junior, but this season especially I was invested in this show. They were a great group of young home cooks.

While their cooking skills ALWAYS put mine to shame and half the time I don’t know what they’re talking about and just smile and nod, I always find myself watching cooking competitions that involve kids. It’s just so impressive all that they can do at their age. I always love how they talk about cooking for so long meanwhile how much cooking could you do at 2 years old? (Or was it just my parents that wouldn’t allow me to use a stove??) This season they had multiple non-elimination rounds showing just how good these kids were. While my favorite, Reid, did not make the finals (he was soooo close) I will forever think of him when people talk about fishing. “The best part about fishing is fishing.”   

The Amazing Race

I’ve been a fan of the Amazing Race for a very long of time, but cannot believe that this past season was their 19th SEASON! In the past I’ve heard of the show possibly not returning for another season, but I’m so happy that was not the case. There really is still not too much out there like it. This season the teams (ironically) came from all reality shows ranging from Big Brother, Survivor, and (of course) The Amazing Race. There were so many familiar faces that it was like we were visiting old friends. (I’m still super happy that the top 3 were all Race teams). This season was another example of getting too invested in the show. It often caused a lot of anxiety and being told to ‘fast forward to the end’ to know who got out. (Which I usually refused to do). Next season will be very hard to beat!

BINGEING

The Walking Dead

I mentioned that the Walking Dead was on my to watch list and I have decided to make it my Summer Show of 2019. Season 1 went by extremely fast (it was only 6 episodes) and now I’m in the middle of season 2. (I think I just hit episode 10?) Shane is getting crazier and crazier by the day. Sofia was discovered. I knew she’d be a zombie, but wow I was not expecting where we’d find her. Dale has quickly become one of my favorites and I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I love how he knows what’s truly going on. Glenn is still my favorite and I’m excited to see his relationship with Maggie progress. Carl got his signature look wearing Rick’s hat. I think Hershel might let them stay on the farm. This show is just so addicting. I can never just watch one. I know I’m in for a roller coaster and just like when I watched Game of Thrones, the spoilers are out there (because I’m watching it so late) and I do know some, but not all. Can’t wait to continue. Are you a fan?  

So, that’s it! That’s the June Wrap Up. Are we watching any of the same things? Are there any shows that seem interesting? Anything I should add to my watch list? Let me know!

July Watch Preview

Just finished it last night. (You now see why I had that rant earlier about finishing a show and not knowing what to do with my life.) Wow! I am probably not going to be able to wait to post an article till July. Keep your eyes open for a new post soon!!

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (March 10/2021) - Attack on the Temple

Ponk gave Foolish five days, and now the time has come for the Eggpire to attack the Temple of Undying. Sam joins Foolish for the confrontation.

Later, Sam rescues Hannah from the Egg, but the danger is far from over. The Egg’s threats are louder than ever.

---

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Foolish

Tubbo

Jack Manifold

Ranboo

Awesamdude

Hannah

---

- Ponk surveys the Temple of Undying. He plants TNT in the Sphinx head.

- He heads through Snowchester as his chat says to kill Michael. Ranboo logs on to make sure Michael remains safe.

- Ponk tries to set up an arrow trap in the spider spawner for Ranboo. It doesn’t work.

- Tubbo and Ranboo want to attack Ponk for threatening Michael. 

- Foolish comes online. He’s been busy, but Ponk warned him about an attack. He’s not sure what to expect.

“Fear is a tricky thing...you see, fear is something mankind has dealt with since the beginning of time, and there’s two ways to go about it: either you conquer that fear, no longer worried of the unknown...or you suffer from it. You suffer living in fear.”

“So me? I don’t fear."

- It doesn’t hurt to bring backup...Foolish finds Sam at Hannah’s house. Sam asks if he’s seen Hannah.

- Tubbo and Ranboo make their way down to their secret bunker in the Egg Room. 

- They experiment with breaking blocks of the Egg, seeing how much damage it does. Tubbo tries to break the black concrete but takes a lot of damage.

- Foolish leads Sam to the Temple of Undying, filling him in on what’s going on. They find some of the TNT and get rid of it. Foolish notices the button on the Sphinx and finds the TNT there as well.

- Ponk, Antfrost and Bad appear at the Temple’s entrance. 

- Tubbo and Ranboo see them log on and try to find them to spy on.

- Ponk greets Foolish. Foolish says the button was a giveaway.

Ponk: "You think you can fool me? You think you can fool my brothers? No...Foolish, the Egg wants blood. The Egg will get blood.”

- Sam asks what’s going on here.

Ponk: “Ah...the cheek. The cheek of you to speak right now, Sam! Huh? You caused this.”

- Ponk takes them on a walk, telling Foolish to pick and choose what he wants destroyed.

- Sam asks why Foolish is being threatened. Foolish says the Egg sees him as a threat.

Sam: “The Egg is an inanimate thing! It’s just an Egg! It doesn’t see -- It doesn’t have eyes!”

Foolish: “You’re wrong, Sam...have you not heard the voices?”

Ponk: “The Egg is life, Sam. It is life.”

Sam: “Don’t talk about the voices.”

Foolish: “So you know then, it speaks, Sam. You can’t just ignore the problem.”

Sam: “Not to me anymore, it doesn’t.”

- Foolish challenges their power against the statue of Ra. Ten seconds.

- Ponk speaks through the Egg.

“Just a sacrifice...”

- Ponk kills Neferkitty.

“You’ll see, you’ll see...”

- He laughs as the statue explodes.

“Goodbye...”

- Foolish is outraged. He tells them to leave. Ponk says this was just a warning. Next time will be worse.

Foolish: “I...can show you...what happens...when you really piss me off! So I...suggest...you leave...now.”

Ponk: “Your empty threats mean nothing. The Egg is all-powerful! What can you do? What can you do?”

Foolish: “I’m a peaceful man, Ponk. But if I must defend myself, I can.”

- Ponk throws his trident at Foolish. Foolish challenges him to throw it again.

Foolish: “I might...be a Totem of Undying...but in the past? I have been a Totem of Death. Let me show you...”

Foolish: “you know, as a god of the ocean, I also have control of the skies...”

- Foolish asks if they’ve ever felt the taste of lightning. Ponk points out the sky is clear.

It doesn’t matter.

Foolish strikes them with lightning and sends the three running.

- Sam is fearful, but Foolish assures him he would never use it to hurt someone.

- Sam tells him he’ll go back to find Hannah, but Foolish should stay there. Foolish tries to tell him he’s not a bad guy, but Sam’s already gone.

- Meanwhile, Tubbo and Ranboo look on in surprise. They start going back through the Nether to gain reconnaissance on the Eggpire.

- They go down into the Egg Room and hide on top of the Skeppy statue, watching as Ponk, Antfrost and Bad enter the chamber and gather around the Egg.

- Bad slowly turns and makes eye contact. Tubbo and Ranboo start running.

- Foolish walks around and surveys the damage. He’s been a man of peace for a very long time -- he shows his stats again: “Player kills: 0.”

- It’s so easy to direct anger towards the Eggpire, but it’s not their fault. They’re just puppets of the Egg.

- Foolish goes down to the basement, a place of riches: The Pharaoh’s Chamber. Untouched for now, but if the Egg really wanted to piss him off...this would be a worthy target.

- It would be foolish not to attack back. Empty threats do nothing. But for now, Foolish will rebuild and rest. Using powers isn’t as easy as it looks.

- Tubbo and Ranboo spy on the Eggpire from their bunker

- They start digging a tunnel beneath the floor of the Egg Room, still in hiding. The Eggpire leaves the Egg Room

- While snooping around, Tubbo gets spotted by the Eggpire and he and Ranboo run back to the bunker, heading to the surface

- The Eggpire comes and they turn and run back up. The Eggpire chases Ranboo and Tubbo as the two attempt to shoot back

- Tubbo manages to slip away as the Eggpire heads back down

- Tubbo is excited, while Ranboo wants to not get involved. Ranboo is worried about Tubbo only having one life left. They head back to Snowchester. Foolish is there with Michael and Foolish Jr.

- Tubbo and Ranboo ask Foolish what he thinks about the Eggpire. Foolish says he doesn’t hate the people -- it’s the Egg that controls them.

- Tubbo mentions that they have nukes, but when Foolish asks they quickly cover it up as “nuclear fireworks” again

- Tubbo says they should do more reconnaissance while Ranboo is still having doubts

- Sam starts his stream playing “Fallen Down”

- He goes to the Nether to gather soul sand, aiming to destroy all the pieces of Blood Vines that were on Hannah’s house

- He goes to Hannah’s house and sees that all the pink and red has been sucked out of it, turning it gray. All the roses have shriveled into small white flowers instead

- Sam rushes to Church Prime to grab bottles of holy water

- Sam heads down to the Egg Room. He notices the poster for the Red Banquet.

- As he approaches the Egg, it speaks.

“So you’ve come to see me again.”

“You can stay if you want.”

“You can stay if you want.”

“You will not escape me again.”

“You will not escape me again.”

“You can bring me Fran now.”

“You’ll be happy here.”

“You’ll be happy here.”

- Sam calls out to Hannah.

“How dare you try and take this one from me.”

“How dare you try and take this one from me.”

- He climbs the Egg and sees her, her skin drained to white and gray

(NOT in reverse) “You will suffer for this.”

- Sam starts breaking the blocks to get her out

“How dare you try and take this one from me.”

- Hannah drinks the holy water

- Hannah asks Sam what’s happened. Sam tells her about her house. Hannah says the Egg was talking with her in her dreams.

- The Egg speaks, and Hannah starts walking back, closer to the Egg, trying to hear it. Sam gets her to come away and gives her more holy water.

“All will accept me soon.”

- As they head through the spider spawner, Hannah hears the Egg murmur again

“Come back and stay with me down here.”

“Come back down below.”

“Come back down. I’m not finished with you yet.”

- Hannah sees her house and the altered roses. The Egg murmurs again and Hannah stabs Sam with a sword once. She says the Egg told her to do it.

“Do not leave.”

- She and Sam start hoeing down the Blood Vines.

- She gets her armor from her Ender Chest. She doesn’t know about this — something isn’t right. The Egg speaks again and Hannah stabs Sam another time. Sam tells her to ignore it.

“If you leave, you will die.”

(Ambiguous) “You [will/won’t] believe in the powers. [All/of plants?] will be mine soon.” 

- Ant, Punz and Bad ask Hannah where she is. Sam tells Hannah to run to the basement.

- Sam confronts Bad, Ant and Punz. Sam says he hasn’t seen Hannah.

- The Egg whispers. 

“All will accept me soon.”

“All will accept me soon.”

- The Egg speaks again. Hannah goes up the elevator to the surface, inching her way towards them.

“Come back down. I’m not finished with you yet.”

“Come back down below...”

- The Eggpire leaves. Sam asks Hannah what she’s doing up here.

- They throw the Blood Vine remnants in the soul fire. Hannah says it kind of hurts…

- Sam tells her she should go and pick some roses. He leaves Hannah alone in her house.

---

Upcoming Events:

- Quackity’s business opening

- The Red Banquet

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (April 26/2021) - L’Sandburg

Foolish and Puffy are both reeling from the events of the Red Banquet. Foolish confronts a familiar foe in his mind while Puffy works through her grief.

After Foolish’s lore, Bad, Antfrost, Purpled, HBomb and Foolish get involved in a new conflict, as Bad declares his  walled-off tollbooth on Foolish’s road a new nation called “L’Sandburg.” Foolish, mad that Bad would attempt to occupy a spot on his land, intervenes. Bad ends up declaring war.

Later, after things settle, Puffy is invited to L’Sandburg but instead attempts to take over the nation, declaring it “L’Puffburg.”

---

VOD LINKS:

Foolish

Captain Puffy

---

- There’s a flashback to the Red Banquet from Foolish’s perspective, watching as Puffy and Antfrost argue.

- As Foolish dies, the screen goes black. The Egg speaks.

"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME AGAIN.”

- Foolish gasps and wakes in the green beacon light within the Temple of Undying. He’s confused -- he’s immortal. But that was different.

The Egg makes noises, then speaks -- but not in reverse.

“I...am..in your mind...”

“I am IN YOUR SOUL.”

“No, no no no no, this is -- this is just tricks! Games! This is just something new!”

“IT IS NOT A TRICK.”

“Is this -- is this the Egg? It’s tough to forget a voice like that.”

“CALL ME WHAT YOU WANT. I HAVE MANY NAMES AS YOU KNOW, BUT YOU’VE FORGOTTEN.”

“What do you mean? No no no, I have never heard you before, it wasn’t that long ago that I first met you. You’re something new, something I’ve never met before.”

“I AM AN ANCIENT ONE. EVEN MORE ANCIENT THAN YOU.”

“So I guess...I guess I was wrong -- I’m not afraid of you! Even after all that, I am still not afraid.”

“AFRAID? YOU ARE TRULY FOOLISH IF YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE STRONGER THAN ME! YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID.”

“Maybe...maybe I had it wrong. Maybe I thought I was stronger. But...but I’m still here! I’m still here. And where are you? How’d that Banquet go?”

“FOOLISH...WHEN WE MET, YOU SAID YOU FEARED NOTHING. BUT NOW? I CAN SENSE YOUR FEAR, FOOLISH.”

“No...no.”

“YOU FEAR DEATH ITSELF, DON’T YOU?”

“No, no...you don’t know! You don’t know anything about me!”

“I...KNOW WHO YOU ARE...EVEN THOUGH...YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN SOME OF WHAT YOU ARE.”

“And? Enlighten me, tell me something. Tell me something that only I would know!”

“I KNOW...OF YOUR SECRET PLACE THAT YOU HAVE TOLD OF NO OTHER!”

“Be more specific.”

“FOOLISH...I KNOW WHAT YOU KEEP IN THERE. FOOLISH...”

“You could be lying. Where?”

“HOW CAN I BE LYING, WHEN I CAN HEAR YOUR VERY THOUGHTS?”

“How do I get you out of my head? I’m not -- you’re still trying to get me to join your side, that’s not gonna happen!”

“FOOLISH...YOU ARE WEAK! FOOLISH. YOU ARE CAPABLE OF SO MUCH MORE! BUT YOU CHOOSE PEACE. AND YOU WASTE YOUR DAYS BUILDING...PATHETIC. YOU HAVE MORE POWER THAN YOU KNOW.”

“No...no, you have it wrong! I’ve tried that, okay? I’ve tried power in the past and it doesn’t work! It doesn’t work. You can’t just use overwhelming force. It worked for short term at best.”

“POWER! POWER IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, FOOLISH! YOU OF ALL SHOULD KNOW THAT. HOW ELSE CAN YOU SAVE YOURSELF FROM DYING, FOOLISH?”

“You think...you think I’m weak? You think there’s strength -- there’s strength in what I do! Let me explain to you. Let me explain to you why I build.”

“Before, I was reckless and wild. I used to believe wielding godlike powers and a sword gave me some sort of control. But it all led me down a path of violence, and anger, mistrust. I can’t control the actions of the world through overwhelming power. It doesn’t work, just doesn’t. But building provides two important elements in my life. Creation and control...”

- Foolish walks back to the mainland as the Egg continues to speak with him.

- Foolish heads to Church Prime as the Egg keeps asking to join him. It says that it knows about Foolish’s deal with Ranboo.

“Hm. So maybe you do know something. Which is all the more reason I need to be rid of you. And you can go back to whatever dark abyss of the Nether you came from!”

“FOOLISH, STOP. WHY ARE WE FIGHTING? IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR YOU TO JOIN ME. I WILL MAKE YOU STRONG AGAIN. DEEP DOWN YOU MISS THE POWER YOU ONCE HELD. 

GO BACK TO BEING A TOTEM OF DEATH, AND TOGETHER, WE CAN RULE AND CREATE PEACE. PEACE IS WHAT YOU WANT. RIGHT, FOOLISH?”

- Foolish tells the Egg it doesn’t work that way. The Egg says it can and it will. Foolish asks if it has any last words.

“I AM A PART OF YOU, FOOLISH. YOU CANNOT GET RID OF ME.”

“No...then I mean this in the most polite way possible...”

“Go to Hell.”

- Foolish submerges himself in the waters of Church Prime as the Egg shouts. When he emerges, it’s gone.

- He wonders if anyone is still alive from the Banquet. He walks down the Prime Path, not understanding why he’s afraid of death.

“There was that brief second before that sword...I don’t see beauty in mortality.”

- He jumps down into the spider spawner and makes his way down the hallway, but he hesitates. He needs to calm down.

- Foolish heads back home. Did the Egg know better than him? Is it saying things that he’s afraid to admit? 

- He makes it back to the temple, wondering if it’s really safe. Even if he can die, why is he so afraid? 

- He opens the secret door and walks down the staircase. He still doesn’t fault the members of the Eggpire for the Egg’s control. He retrieves his things from the basement.

- He just needs to rest. Foolish returns to the beacon light.

---

- Bad creates a three-block-wide area on Foolish’s path to the Nether portal and claims ownership of it. He constructs walls around it and declares it the Town of L’Sandburg. 

- As a gift, Foolish gives Bad a bed and the HBomb catmaid service coupon.

- Bad creates Halobucks. Antfrost arrives to help Bad, and they request more sandstone to build with.

- Foolish gives Antfrost the Sword of XD to kill Bad with. Now, Antfrost and Bad have defenses for L’Sandburg. They refuse to give the sword back.

- Foolish attempts to negotiate with Antfrost to kill Bad in exchange for the supplies. Antfrost is reluctant, as Bad is the ruler of L’Sandburg and he doesn’t with to betray his country.

- Antfrost changes into his maid skin. Foolish asks for his sword back.

- They do an exchange of supplies, but Bad doesn’t give Foolish his sword. Foolish, frustrated that he is unable to break his vow of pacifism, calls in some help: he tells HBomb about the possibility of maid service for Bad.

- Purpled joins the call and logs on. Bad invites him to join L’Sandburg.

- Bad and Ant inform Foolish that he must pay a toll to pass through the path.

- Purpled arrives to join L’Sandburg. He is their lawyer.

- Foolish gets Purpled to kill Bad and then pays him. Purpled also kills Antfrost.

- Foolish says he’ll give Purpled a block of Netherite. Antfrost offers emeralds, but Purpled weighs the options and decides Foolish’s offer is better and continues to kill the L’Sandburgians.

- Bad threatens to declare it an international incident.

- Purpled starts mining bits of L’Sandburg, but Bad stops him, saying he has to take it up with the court. Purpled isn’t one for politics. Bad warns them that if they continue, he’ll have to declare war.

- Bad says they’re bringing HBomb over to act as a judge. Purpled says that’s his cue to leave and heads off. Foolish lets him know that he might need a favor later.

- HBomb arrives in his catmaid outfit and Ant asks him to join L’Sandburg. HBomb becomes a citizen of L’Sandburg. 

- Bad hands Foolish a representation of the court papers (a single arrow) as HBomb exits L’Sandburg to carve out his own country neighboring them. Ant says he can have dual citizenship. 

- H creates a running stream of water and a wall of wood and declares his new country: L’damburg.

- He also creates a seat in the sun and offers Foolish take some time in L’tanburg.

- He then makes a ton of cars and welcomes Foolish to L’jamburg.

HBomb: “Wait, are you streaming?”

Foolish: “Yeah.”

HBomb: “Welcome to L’camburg.”

(Foolish tells chat to never become a pacifist)

- HBomb lights a piece of TNT and explodes L’tanburg, declaring it now L’bamburg. 

- Bad declares that L’Sandburg’s borders, now the entire chunk, have now extended into L’damburg. They now have territory for agriculture.

- Foolish asks, how are they even a country? Do they even have a declaration? One way or another, Foolish says, they can have their little fantasy for a bit but then L’Sandburg is getting destroyed.

- Rat is a canonical L’Sandburg member

- He asks how to make a TNT cannon. Bad warns him against that, saying it would violate their peace treaty.

- Bad declares war on Foolish’s summer home over a piece of cake.

- Bad annexes a block of cactus into L’Sandburg. Foolish is outraged, insisting that this is his land.

Bad: “You will rue the day, Foolish, you started war with L’Sandburg.”

- Bad starts building a wooden one-block-wide pathway to annex territory to the cactus. Foolish gives in and says that they can have this strip of land officially, but not anymore land or else Foolish will have to bring in necessary forces.

- After learning that the cactus has been around for centuries, Bad realizes that L’Sandburg must be older than Foolish’s summer home!

Bad: “Everything the eye can see must be L’Sandburg!”

...

Foolish: “The strength of my patience is the reason you’re alive.”

- HBomb gets injured from falling outside the strip and Bad says Foolish needs to pay for the damages.

- To be good neighbors, Bad offers to let Foolish keep the strip and the cactus, and L’Sandburg and L’Damburg will stay within their chunks. In exchange for the ancient cactus, Bad requests stacks of sandstone.

- HBomb pulls Bad aside, suggesting they form a new nation: L’hamburg. They claim another chunk.

- Bad starts building a statue to Rat. Foolish blurts that he doesn’t want a statue of that “ugly creature” and Bad and H both stop and look at him. HBomb immediately starts building a wall between them.

- Foolish walks into L’Sandburg, checks a chest and is outraged when he finds that the L’Sandburgians/L’damburgians have been stealing supplies from him. 

- Foolish insults how ugly L’hamburg is. Bad leaves. 

- HBomb explains that he is not a citizen of L’Sandburg now, but L’damburg, and that L’bamburg and L’damburg are the same.

- Foolish tells HBomb that he will wait and get rid of L’Sandburg later. HBomb asks if that’s a threat.

Foolish: “That wasn’t a threat, just a promise.”

Foolish: “We strike at dawn.”

- HBomb points out that Foolish hired Purpled to kill them. He’s the judge.

- While H continues to work on L’damburg, Foolish performs the Shift Dance.

- Bad returns. H has to leave, but he tells Bad to keep an eye on the ‘burgs. Bad suggests he and Foolish create a peace treaty. 50% off toll, and in exchange they have peace.

- Foolish asks, what if someone else isn’t peaceful? Bad would consider that an act of war on his part. He offers to gift Foolish L’hamburg.

- The only thing, Bad says, is that Foolish can’t get rid of the L’Sandburg capital. With that, he departs.

- Foolish says he might keep the tower, but he’ll have to do this later.

---

- Puffy examines her Netherite axe. The axe that she killed her best friend with. She still can’t believe what happened. Worse than Foolish dying, she stooped to their level and took a life. She swore she wouldn’t be like them.

- Antfrost was right. She failed. She understands why people didn’t fight for L’manburg now.

“Chaos always wins. Despite all odds, despite everything you think you can do to fix the situation, to help each other, to persevere...you can’t.”

- She doesn’t know where Foolish is, but killing Antfrost didn’t fix anything. 

- There’s somewhere she hasn’t been in a long time. She’s done with Bad, done with Ant -- but at least Ant has a reason to hate her now. By killing Foolish, they’d hurt her more than if they’d killed her.

- Nothing excuses what she did. She’ll face the consequences for killing Antfrost later. She acted on her emotions, but she’d do it again.

“Maybe the only way to have people listen to me, to take me seriously, is to instill fear in them. And that’s not who I want to be, but if it’s who I have to be, if I have to be the villain in everyone’s story? Then that’s the choice I’ll make.”

- The Captain’s Log was meant to document her progress as a knight. Now, this book is her undoing. She goes down into her underground base, looking at the signs on the wall.

“You can’t connect the dots, you can’t see anything coming because everybody you think you know about everyone on this server is a lie! Everything you know, you can’t trust anybody!”

“Even the sweetest of people, the closest of people, the people that you have trusted since day one? They’ll turn, because everybody on this server has a dark side, whether they like to think it or not, whether it’s been shown yet, whether it’s been revealed, everybody -- everybody including me! Including the quote unquote ‘mother,’ the ‘protector of the server,’ even me! Because I could be worse than all of them! And the best part is is that they’ll never see it coming.” 

“Some people are predictable...I’m not one of them.”

- Puffy writes in her Captain’s Log, changing “What it means to be a knight” to “What it means to be a villain...”

DON’T TRUST ANYONE.

NOT EVEN YOURSELF.

A DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND BE THE PERSON YOU RECOGNIZE LEAST IN THIS WORLD.

“Trust...trust is the biggest weakness there is. Trust is what separates strangers from friends. From security, from vulnerability. Trust is weakness, and...on this server, you can’t have any weakness, because if they find out, if anybody finds out you have a weakness, they’ll use it against you.”

- A new era of peace isn’t going to happen. Puffy will bring a new era of darkness. There are few people who haven’t broken their loyalty yet, and she’ll keep an eye out. But to the people that failed her, 

“To those people, I say...’welcome to Doomsday.’“

---

- After discussion about Puffy’s height, Bad tells Puffy that he’s forming a new nation if she would like to join. A nation called L’Sandburg.

- Puffy arrives at L’Sandburg. The capital tower has been renovated, the base reinforced with obsidian.

- Puffy asks if this is canon. Bad says yes, this is his tower. (After Puffy gets mad at him for killing her son, Bad says it’s maybe not that level of canon)

- Bad lets Puffy into the L’Sandburg capital.

- Puffy asks what the point of L’Sandburg is. Bad explains that it’s a sort of tollbooth on Foolish’s road. The toll depends on how much armor a person is wearing. The more shiny, fancy armor, the higher the toll, because that person can afford to pay more.

- Puffy starts twerking to test the road durability. She pays a toll of carrots with one steak. Bad plans to increase toll amounts as the nation improves infrastructure. 

- Bad tries to arrest Puffy and put her into toll jail for bypassing the toll, but he gives up and walks away when she says no. Puffy points out that his security system is not very good, and Bad starts to see the problem here.

- Puffy walks into the toll booth and Bad asks her to pay a toll of five carrots this time. The price has gone up due to inflation. Puffy turns the tables and starts charging Bad toll to enter L’Sandburg, declaring this territory “L’Puffburg.”

- Bad bypasses the toll by saying he’s ready for hot girl summer and agrees to let Puffy keep ownership of the top floor of the capital.

- L’Sandburg is apparently Bad’s “vacation country.”

- Bad and Puffy hang out in L’Sandburg/L’Puffburg some more and Bad plays around sticking his head out of sand and doing various voices.

- Antfrost arrives. 

- Ant changes into Badboyhalo in a maid outfit.

- Bad and Antfrost fight. Antfrost runs out of L’Sandburg and Bad chases after him, threatening to take his second canon life, telling him to accept his death like a good potato.

- Antfrost kills Bad. Puffy tells them to put their weapons away so that they can have a proper duel. They fight a second time.

- Ant and Puffy say goodnight and leave Bad to work in L’Sandburg.

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Upcoming events remain the same.