#something has fundamentally changed in seven

[isagrimorie]

Star Trek Voyager 4E09 - Scientific Method

The Janeway Moment for Seven of Nine. (The First of Many).

Part 1, 2

[juicebuck]

actually on the subject of bpd buck i was thinking earlier about the ways buck idealises eddie when He's Not There. and how this is only something he really does to that extent when eddie's Not There. because buck's so focused on eddie not being there that eddie becomes this sort of idol. buck creates an idealised version of him in his absence. case in point 8x11 when like, buck is just talking and talking about eddie like he’s almost saint-like. he has a SILVER STAR. he would NEVER DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL. and in part i think this idealisation comes from buck trying so hard to be okay with eddie being gone. because he KNOWS he acted irrationally about eddie leaving. he KNOWS eddie isn't abandoning him. eddie's a good guy and good father and it's not nothing. and well, buck MISSES him. and so he idealises him to combat all of his complicated feelings about eddie leaving. but CRUCIALLY he doesn't actually do this with eddie. like, all of this is still true. he still thinks eddie is the best guy ever. but he doesn't actually see him as this flawless, saint-like being. he's not afraid to tell eddie that he messed up. that he's human and makes mistakes and that it’s okay. he doesn't act like eddie can do no wrong ever TO eddie. and that's because of the nature of their relationship. he knows he can be honest with eddie and it won't change how eddie feels about him. he can tell eddie that he needs to face the consequences and that he needs to dad up without fear of argument or rejection because of the trust they have in each other, because of the trust buck has in eddie and significantly because of the trust eddie has in him. because eddie has unwaveringly put his trust in buck for seven years. has trusted buck with his heart, with his son. over ANYONE ELSE. like, generally buck is very secure in his relationship with eddie and isn't afraid to be brutally honest with him. he has instances of severe irrationality triggered by his abandonment issues (7x04 and 8x09 are big ones) but after the initial reaction he is able to recognise and acknowledge his irrational thinking. because fundamentally he knows that eddie trusts and values him more than he does anyone else. HE KNOWS THIS. he just can't always feel it because his brain is actively working against him to prove all his worst fears true (that he doesn't matter, that he’s easy to leave, that he’s replaceable etc.)

[wilwheaton]

The conservative justices had an opportunity to rally to the defense of democracy, to gird the system against further attack, to righteously defend the rule of law, and to protect its own prerogatives and powers against a wannabe tyrant who is counting on them to be his supplicants. They could have drawn a sharp line. They could have summoned indignation and outrage. They could have overlooked their partisan priors in favor of principle – or more cravenly in favor of self-preservation. With the possible and limited exception of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, they did none of that. They failed in the worst possible way at the most crucial time.

Rogue SCOTUS Abandons Democracy In Her Hour Of Greatest Need

Say this with me: This SCOTUS majority is not an impartial arbiter of law. This SCOTUS majority has no respect for precedent, the will of the people, or its fundamental role in government.

This SCOTUS majority is doing through force what the other members of their movement could not achieve through elections: change laws to take equality and freedoms away from as many people as possible, to completely remake America into something we don’t recognize.

Donald Trump and his cult are the greatest threat America has ever faced in its history, with this corrupt, venal, activist group of unelected liars (and at least two rapists) enabling him.

Democrats absolutely have to expand the court and begin an impeachment inquiry into Thomas and Kavanaugh the instant they have congressional majorities. 

I don’t think it’s too late, but it’s about five seconds away from being too late. If Congress doesn’t act hard and fast, these seven people will turn America over to corporations and megachurches.

We have to stop this, and the only way we have any chance at all is to turn out in massive numbers this November to overwhelmingly defeat the people who will put Project 2025 into action.

[randomfoggytiger]

Fox Mulder: Jewish, Dutch, Or Other Some Such (UPDATED)

In my curiosity to explore Jewish cultural practices, I stumbled on an enlightening article (and a couple noteworthy theories.)

AUTHORIAL INTENT AND OTHER INTERPRETATIONS

I've briefly explored this concept in another meta post here, but it's wisest to tackle the subject as thoroughly as possible.

**Note**: This post has been shelved, since it failed to achieve its original goal. Proceed at your own peril.

Chris Carter named the Mulders in honor of his mother, a descendant of Dutch-Americans.

April 2001:

Loyal “X-Files” fans may know that Fox Mulder, the brainy protagonist played by David Duchovny, was named after Carter’s mother, the late Catherine Mulder Carter. (Scully was named for longtime-Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball commentator Vin Scully – no relation). But very few people know that Carter’s mother was born to a Dutch-American family in Manhattan, Mont.

According to McCoy [Carter's cousin], the Mulder family moved to the Amsterdam-Manhattan area from Grand Rapids, Mich. Seven of their nine children were born in the Gallatin Valley and after an unsuccessful turn farming here, the Mulders moved to Southern California to start a feed and grain business in Bellflower, Calif. Norman Mulder was the only one of the nine children in the family to return to the Gallatin Valley. While McCoy and Mulder are Carter’s closest area relatives, there are probably many distant relatives still living in the Gallatin Valley’s Dutch community, McCoy said. She added that the California and Montana Mulders have always been, and remain, close.

(**Note**: While Kuiper, Tena Mulder's maiden name, is also of Dutch origin, that does not exclude the possibility of Jewish heritage.)

Meanwhile, David Duchovny and Vince Gilligan had a differing view. David inherently played any character through his experience of the world-- culturally-ish Jewish-- while Vince worked in a reference to Mulder's "Jewishness" in a deleted portion of Drive's script:

Crump: You know... what kinda name is Mulder, anyway? What is that, like, Jewish?

Mulder: Excuse me?

Crump: Jewish. It is, right?

Mulder: No it's not, yes I am....

But there is, yet again, another schism of dissent: Howard Gordon, write of the episode Kaddish, agreed with Carter's perspective, stating that he didn't think Mulder was Jewish "or even half-Jewish." The purpose of his work was to set Mulder up as the outsider peering inward: "We had never dealt with the horrors of antisemitism and the power of the word [on The X-Files]. And because I'm Jewish, it was something that was really compelling to me personally." As explained in Paula Vitaris's Cinefantastique article, Gordon purposefully wrote in three references to Mulder's Gentile identity: Mulder is unable to identify a Jewish book, does not read or speak the language himself (" I don't speak Hebrew, I don't know what that means"), and is unwilling to pass up a reference to Jesus Christ's Christian resurrection ("A Jew pulled it off 2000 years ago") in response to an antisemite. Gordon's Mulder, then, is a man who related to all people while still remaining, fixedly, an outsider.

CHANGES IN JEWISH CUSTOM

When toying with the idea of Mulder's Jewish ancestry, I had assumed that matrilineal lineage was the opening and closing authority on the subject.

Not so, apparently (or not completely.)

REFORM

Chabad.org

The Code of Jewish Law clearly states that a child of a Jewish mother is Jewish, regardless of the father’s lineage (or whatever else may show up in a DNA test), while the child of a non-Jewish mother is not Jewish. Matrilineal descent has been a fundamental principle of Torah since the Jewish people came into existence.

The code, however, has gone under intense scrutiny in recent years.

As My Jewish Learning explains: Although the Hebrew Bible defines Jewish identity in patrilineal terms (determined by the identity of the father) the Mishnah [a record of the oral Torah in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple, 70 CE] states that the offspring of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father is recognized as a Jew, while the offspring of a non-Jewish mother and a Jewish father is considered a non-Jew. This talmudic position became normative in Jewish law.

This continued as the religious and ethnic norm for many centuries until, about, 1947: ...the CCAR adopted a resolution that stated that if a Jewish father and a gentile mother wanted to raise their children as Jewish, “the declaration of the parents to raise them as Jews shall be deemed sufficient for conversion.” And though the wording changed somewhat in 1961 ["The insistence on a “conversion” was dropped completely...."]

But it did not become-- in effect-- law until 1983 resolution:

By 1983, the CCAR was ready to spell out the patrilineal descent resolution in greater detail. By this time there was a broad-based commitment to egalitarianism. To many, it seemed unnecessarily biased to accept the child of a Jewish mother and a gentile father as Jewish while rejecting the child of a Jewish father and a gentile mother. 

[Rabbit Alexander] Schindler initiated a process that eventually led to the CCAR voting in favor of what became known as the Patrilineal Descent Resolution....

What this meant was that if a child was born of either a Jewish father or a Jewish mother, and was raised as Jewish, that child would be regarded by the Reform movement as Jewish. They were, however, expected to participate in the various Jewish life-cycle ceremonies which usually mark the life stages of a Jewish person.

1996 brought another development:  ...the CCAR created an 11-member task force to interpret and develop guidelines for the successful implementation of the patrilineal descent policy. The task force recommended that the resolution be referred to as “equilineal descent” or simply “Jewish descent” rather than patrilineal descent since the resolution accepted descent from either the mother or the father.

The radical shift, encapsulated, is as follows: While Jewish children had always been asked to prepare for their bar and bat mitzvahs, their Jewishness was never contingent upon successful completion of that ceremony or any other.  The Patrilineal Descent Resolution shifted the emphasis from birth to conscious choice.

DISSENT

Regardless, there is still broad disputation between Conservative and Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews:

...However, patrilineal Jews are likely to encounter problems later in life if they decide to become more traditional in their observance. A problem arises if Reform Jews who are Jewish by patrilineal descent choose to participate in ritual or celebrations at more observant synagogues. 

...Conservative and Orthodox Jews do not recognize patrilineal descent as a valid means of passing on Judaism. “Who is a Jew?” has been a controversial issue for several decades, and the Patrilineal Descent Resolution deepened the division between the opposing viewpoints. 

The article also raises an intriguing point:

Interestingly, this created the possibility that someone who had a Jewish mother, but had not been raised Jewish and had not had any public religious acts of identification such as a Jewish baby-naming ceremony, a bar or bat mitzvah, or a Jewish confirmation service could theoretically be regarded as a non-Jew despite his or her lineage. However, many rabbis recognize lineage alone.

SECULAR JUDAISM

If we work off of the assumption that Tena Mulder was a Jew, then Mulder's heritage is without question, as matrilineal descent is a core part of the Jewish identity.

It would then inherently inform Mulder's branch of Judaism, nonbeliever that he is--

Phoebe Maltz Bovy, The Canadian Jewish News:

Secular Jews are in some sense a process-of-elimination category. If other Jews register you as Jewish, if antisemites hate you for being Jewish, but you are not a practising member of any religion, then you are a secular Jew. It’s roughly the same as being nominally Jewish. It’s Jewishness, rather than Judaism, perhaps. A convert from Judaism to another faith might be culturally or ethnically Jewish but is not, obviously, a secular Jew. I will not belabour the terminological aspects of this....

“Secular” is a spectrum, and means different things to different people. It might mean avowed atheism, it might not. Secular Jews pick and choose from elements of their—our—religious heritage, but tend to interpret these as cultural, rather than spiritual, traditions. Though “pick and choose” suggests more intent than may enter into it.

MULDER'S EARLY PARENTAGE: A DIFFERING THEORY

Early canon states that Bill Mulder was Mulder's father, while later canon debates the issue back and forth a bit before settling on CSM in Season 9. In spite of this, the world en masse wouldn't have known the murky nature of Mulder's paternal origins; and, thus, would have regarded him in line with Bill's (and Tena's) ethnic heritage.

That being said, I do find it interesting that Mulder wouldn't have been considered a Jew until the 80s by the broader, entrenched community had his father-- and not his mother-- been a Jew.

Regardless, this speculation bears little weight on canon; and is just an interesting thought exercise.

CANONICAL INTERPRETATIONS (AND GAPS)

We are shown three Mulder family funerals: Bill Mulder's in The Blessing Way, Fox Mulder's in Field Trip, and Fox Mulder's again in Deadalive.

For Bill's funeral, Tena Mulder made the executive decision (or carried out his expressed wishes) to involve a minister, not Jewish Rabbi, in her ex-husband's final service:

For Mulder's Season 6 funeral, Scully glimpses a cross of white flowers standing above her partner's casket; and doesn't bat an eye:

For Mulder's Season 8 funeral, Scully chose a Protestant (or derivative thereof) minister-- not rabbi or priest-- to read from scripture and pray over her partner:

We aren't shown Tena Mulder's funeral; however, her burial wasn't within the traditional twenty-four hour timetable for Jewish custom (i.e. her body was likely preserved for multiple days while Mulder was tracking his sister.) Barring Shabbat or other religious observances, this points to two possibilities:

Tena Kuiper-Mulder was, like Carter originally imagined, a "generalized" American with Dutch roots.

Tena Kuiper-Mulder was a nonsecular Jew (with or without Dutch roots.)

Both interpretations work for her son, as well. Referring back to Howard Gordon's Kaddish, Mulder can't read or speak Hebrew; additionally, he is nonreligious (and devoutly so.) However: as @waxworkdaughter and @leiascully both pointed out (here and here, respectively), Jewish identity is a complicated, personalized topic that expands beyond simplified, black-and-white thinking. Mulder's lack of familiarity in Gordon's script could (and can) easily be explained if Tena Mulder distanced herself-- and by extension, her children-- from her heritage, for a myriad of reasons. Mulder's familiarity with other religious observances (i.e. kneeling in a Christian church and weeping for his sister in Conduit) could as equally be explained by many other factors without erasing a tie to that Jewish heritage.

With reference to the end scene in Conduit, Mulder's observance could simply be a shadow of Bill Mulder's WASP upbringing: Protestant symbolism tied to his father's upper crust, in-group sensibilities-- a societal expectation passed down as tradition.

CONCLUSION

Church and prayer, funerals and flags, could all be part of the nostalgic American 90s, symbols of meaning rather than actual belief.

Mulder could have been raised Christian, Jewish, agnostic; or all three. Mulder himself could be Jewish or Dutch or Dutch Jew or generic American (or a combination thereof.)

Tena Mulder could have been Jewish. Or Bill Mulder. Or neither.

The truth is, ultimately, what you make of it: everyone has their own perspective.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[teyrnacousland]

I'm jumping in on the Spite spirit vs demon discussion going around because this is one of my favourite Dragon Age topics!

I've always thought the concept of spirits and demons is less black and white than it's presented. I see it the same way I see the concept of "Good" vs "Evil" in people. 'At what point in DA2 does Justice become a demon' is the same question to me as 'at what point in DA2 does Anders become evil'? In my personal opinion, it's never. Others might disagree. (They do, trust me, they won't stop telling me about it) As does Anders himself. Is there a definite, objectively true answer to whether or not Anders is evil? Or is it all subjective?

I think it's the same with spirits. I think a lot of which spirits are considered spirits and which are demons is based purely on what morality we ascribe to certain feelings. Pride is Bad. Valour is Good. Rage is Bad. Compassion is Good. Etc.

But it isn't that simple. Rage may have a tendency to lash out and destroy everything around it, but it can also be healing like in Harding's companion quest, or it can be motivating, sharpened and used as a weapon for justice and to protect others like in Grandin's case in Inquisition. Similarly, Compassion, despite being "Good", can come to kill innocents in the name of mercy. None of these concepts and emotions are clear black and white. It's just that most people would categorise them as bad and good respectively. (Especially since the Chantry teaches them to do just that.)

The thing with spirits is that they reflect people's opinions.

Lucanis: I notice you never say demon around me. Emmrich: Watchers avoid the word. It begets unfortunate expectations. Lucanis: With just a name? Emmrich: Spirits are mirrors of our emotions, and we, the unconscious creators of their environments.

Emmerich doesn't call Spite, or any spirit, a demon because that opinion could reflect on Spite. I love this banter because I've been saying this about Justice for over a decade now. Is Justice a demon because he was twisted by Anders' feelings, because of his own actions, or because he's always feared becoming a demon and Anders feared his own flaws corrupting his friend and those fears combined to make them think it was true, and because everyone around them talked about and treated Justice like a demon for the better part of seven years?

Even humans adapt to meet expectations in that way. If you treat someone like they're evil, they're more likely to see themselves that way and act accordingly. Spirits just take that to the extreme. Expectations and environment can literally fundamentally change them, they're beings of the ever shifting Fade, where nothing is constant and everything is adaptable.

Going back to Spite, the reason he and Lucanis don't become a typical abomination is because they made a deal. Which has to start with Lucanis choosing to see Spite as something that could be reasoned with. How much different would things have gone for them if Lucanis had responded by panicking and trying to fight Spite off because he saw Spite as nothing more than a monster? Spite would likely have reflected that instead, not because that version of Spite is any less capable of reason, but because that's how any frightened being backed into a corner would respond. Maybe it helps that Spite is literally the demon of "no, fuck you" and all it takes to reason with him is saying "calm down, because freaking out and bursting out of me is what the person who put you here wants you to do". But we also know that even something like Rage is capable of coming to this type of agreement, as the Rage demon does with Grandin.

Here are some things Solas says about demons in Inquisition:

"They fight to gain entrance, and when the rules of this world do not mirror theirs, they lash out. Tragic, but not evil." "The dog that bites you because it is rabid is not the dog that bites you because it is starving. You may kill either, but one is just a few scraps of meat away from being your faithful servant."

Rage is said to be the most common type of demon. Rage is also one of the most common responses to trauma and stress. And Solas seems to be claiming that this state of lashing out isn't permanent, as it wasn't for Grandin's Rage demon. (As it isn't for people who are hurting.) Grandin's Rage demon found him, drawn to his own rage, and was likely soothed by the fact that together they had a purpose and a target to focus all this new Rage on. Rage's voice speaks alongside Grandin's when he talks about protecting people. Is this version of Rage still a demon? If working with Grandin gives it focus and purpose while it adjusts to this world, like Lucanis' goals do for Spite, will it still be Rage when they're done? Could it calm down and become a spirit of Justice or Protection? Will it go back to being whatever it was before? Or will it always be a spirit of Rage, just a more complex one now that it is a thing that exists in our world and not just a simple concept in the Fade?

In both Spite and Grandin's case, neither of them fit into the clear cut Good Spirits vs Bad Demons method of categorisation. They fit far better into a system where spirits are like any other people, complex and capable of both good and evil.

[beware-of-pity]

I need people who would die on the hill of "Fire and Blood is completely unreliable, therefore we cannot trust anything that's written in it" to open their eyes and read a book that is similar to the structure that Fire and Blood uses to realize how wrong of a statement that is. I know that this will probably be received as a very hot take but I do not believe that everything needs to be analyzed or has to have a deeper meaning behind it. The curtain can be blue and there doesn't have to be a reason for the curtain to be blue other than the fact that it's just blue (hope someone gets the reference). Ryan Condall obviously disagrees with that, because in his quest to recreate his own 'magnum opus' of a 'Shakespearian tragedy', as he always likes to refer to it as, he has instead created the equivalent of a dumpster on fire next to the other bigger dumpster on fire that was Game of thrones.

Bland, whitewashed characters with little to no turmoil or agency going on are revered as complex and nuantical on Twitter. And if you even dare to disagree, you're immediately sentenced to the stake. Characters like Alicent and Rhaenyra could literally not even be in the episode and nothing would change. Rhaenyra was in episode 4 for not even 5 minutes and with everything going on in it you wouldn't even have noticed that. She should have been there, leading the council as Cole marched on rook's rest, her only available connection to the mainland in the crownlands, apart from Claw Isle, after duskendale fell to the greens and instead her only scene in such climactic episode is her walk of shame returning home and her, rightfully, getting scolded by her son for thinking that she could still sue for peace with Alicent, the mother of her son's murderer. The show makes the decision to have Rhaenys volunteer instead of having Rhaenyra send her there so that later when Rhaenys dies Rhaenyra cannot be blamed for it. The fundamental changes of characters like Alicent don't work because the writers are not able to sustain such changes from the source material they are deriving the story from. Going from leading the council that would place Aegon on the throne, to never even being in on the plan to usurp Rhaenyra, that her father created, is such a letdown for such a political savy character like book Alicent.

Aging her down, to Rhaenyra's age, and making these two childhood best friends, was a mistake.

What is very evident is that the showrunners have no clue, so far, what to do with a character like show Alicent. If she's not going to lead the council when Aegon is bedridden and Aemond is off to fight in the Riverlands, why doesn't she just leave?

Going from an active participant in a usurpation from somebody who needs to miss-hear or misunderstand her dying husband for her to get in on the plan, only so there is an excuse to get her on the war council is bad writing.

Making people believe that Rhaenyra was usurped because of a misunderstanding, and not only because she was a woman, is bad writing. And going to the extremes, of having these two 'betray' each other in order to have a reason to make Rhaenyra look bad in the eyes of her rivals is bad writing. Rhaenyra could have been the perfect heir, and even only because she was a woman, Otto and Alicent would have usurped her either way.

Going back to the point of this post; Timelines, ages, events, who got married to who, how many kids they had, things that you can quantify are not something that can be made up, used as rumors or form of propaganda in a history book. What you make up as a rumor is sexual escapades and a young girl seducing her sworn shield who has watched over her since she was seven. Things that can make a person look bad to glorify or uphold the good of someone else alongside all the other stuff that happens behind closed doors and makes you question where the information is coming from.

I find it so odd that the aggressive marketing team for the second season was all about choosing your side. Lol, what is there to even choose? Choose between the overly sanctified Rhaenyra, who god forbid is still searching for the peace that has already been thrown over the cliff long ago, and is not allowed yet to make a mistake. Or, Alicent, the pathetic hypocrite who made her bed and is not willing to admit it. Anything interesting about these two women is completely being cut so that Ryan Condall and Co. can continue to spread the "men are bad and violent, women are the gentle peacemakers that don't want war." which is leaning a little too heavy for my taste into gender essentialism which would make every choice they have ever made about these two characters more misogynistic than any of the action of the actual misogynistic characters in this story. Taking away the very little agency these characters had and constantly making them the perpetual victims of the patriarchy and completely sidelining any sort of character traits that they may actually develop through their actions had they actually been taking any, doesn't work for me.

This show was a mistake.

[crudely-drawn-ben]

Introducing Trilogy

Yesterday I released Trilogy, a new tabletop RPG crafted to support you in having grand adventures in worlds of your own making.

There are several reasons I started writing Trilogy, but the biggest one is that I ran a Dungeon World podcast called Crudely Drawn Swords for seven years and that was a lot of time to think about what we were playing. To a degree Trilogy is the game I wish that we could have had to run the podcast.

Starting from the question "what would a purely PbtA game for epic fantasy look like?" I started thinking more widely - what do I want from a fantasy game? And the truth is that I want a game that supports the structure of characters and their interactions but doesn't tie itself to a specific setting.

Trilogy begins with The Appendices - conventionally in epic fantasy these are at the end and document information about the wider world that might not have made it into the story, but here it is where you sit down as a group and decide what tone you want your game to have, and your world looks like. What kind of place is it? What magic is there? What is religion like? What are the major cultures where the story begins? How would it feel to be in this world? Trilogy doesn't tell you any of these things, it gives you the tools to think through how you want your world to look.

This creates a secondary challenge - without knowing what the world looks like, how could I design character classes for this type of game? Trilogy answers this by going back to the fundamentals - instead of a conventional character class, the playbooks in Trilogy represent a narrative arc. Some of them, like The Fighter, The Priest, or The Magus, look like familiar classes. Others, such as The Volunteer, The Mentor, The Weapon, or The Defeated, are a little different. Character arcs have a set of turning points, story beats that allow you to advance along your arc after you have collected a certain amount of experience. Some are positive and others negative, you choose which ones you want to hit and when, but every character's story has its highs and lows and to get the most from the game you need to lean into both. A character can pass through three arcs as they grow and change, like the three volumes of a trilogy.

The aim of the game is to create a slower but satisfying sense of progression - instead of hit points characters take Stress and Harm like in other Powered by the Apocalypse games that can have both mechanical and narrative effects. That makes combat feel dangerous, but the game also offers more ways to solve problems without getting into combat - I have played games where the player characters never got into a fight, instead resolving confrontations through an ingenious selection of alternative strategies including "lying" and "vomiting magic ink all over the floor." I'm genuinely enthusiastic about this game - I think I would be as excited about it if somebody else had written it. It leans hard into the joy of discovery and the excitement of adventure - you can play it as spooky and whimsical or gritty and hard-edged and anywhere in between.

Because I was writing it I even got to make most of the examples of play roll out as the story of someone's game, something I always appreciate when I read it. It also contains every technique I use as a GM in the hope that even before people get the chance to play it (heaven forbid any TTRPG afficionado have books we haven't got around to playing yet!) people who read it will still be able to use that advice in their other games. So that's Trilogy, the game I've been working on for the last few years. I think it's pretty great and I hope you will too:

Obviously it's a full-priced game and that's a big gamble from an unfamiliar creator - if you want an idea of what it's like in practice we've got the CDS team back together and we're starting a streamed campaign so you have a chance to see it in action. You can find that over on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxpXacko9Nc

The first episode includes me notably failing to use OBS at both the beginning and end, and I can't make any promises things will improve in that regard, but it should be a good opportunity to see how the game shapes up from this start and with this crew I know it's going to be funny and take some wild swings. If you're interested in reviewing Trilogy or you really want to give it a try but you can't afford it, drop me a message

[catalinemorosetheblog]

Otto and Hua's pseudo-friendship is fascinating to me because they are two very different characters, yet are formed from similar circumstances. More than that, I feel like they are different reactions to those circumstances-two sides of a coin, in a sense.

Hua lost her whole world-her hometown, her family, her friends and comrades, and even her memories. Fundamentally, the only constant in her life has been the goal of protecting humanity from the Honkai. Hua's goal has been purely selfless, even costing her own happiness. But this has had consequences! Heck, one of those consequences was creating Otto! Senti points this out in Chapter 21, had Hua killed Otto and Kallen during the Crusade, none of the story events would have ever happened. Even more so, Hua was indirectly responsible for the events of Seven Swords, another Otto defining event, as her intention to kill one of her students has an attempt to preserve this mission got her literally murdered. And yet despite all these things...Hua was able to change. She was able to see her flaws and improve as a person, and find a path beyond her mission, save humanity, and build a new "world".

Otto's loss, on the other hand, is smaller in scale, yet carries equal consequence. Kallen Kaslana was his whole world, and everything that he believed that was good about the world. When she died, saying he lost it is the understatement of the last five centuries. Thus began his century-long goal of reviving her, committing multiple atrocities and harming many people, some of whom were his own family. His mission was a purely selfish one, something him and many other characters do not hesitate to admit. And yet...without his actions, humans wouldn't have been saved from the Honkai. It's a strange paradox. He did keep humanity from dying to the Honkai for his reign as Overseer, and he created Theresa, Bianka, and most importantly, Kiana, all important to the final battle, especially Kiana, who literally becomes the embodiment of Finality. Somehow, in a weird irony, Otto's actions do some good. More harm though. Lots of harm. Still, Otto was not able to change. He remained largely the same for 500 years. His goal remained unchanged for 500 years. And the Will of Honkai was right. He would die for it.

If Hua is a flower, waiting for a place to bloom and lay down her roots, Otto is a long dead tree, his roots stuck deep in the ground. Both are products of the flow of time. Yet, Hua's clock has just begun to turn, and Otto's has finally stopped.

[infamous-if]

There's been some discussion recently about MC that caught my attention because I agree. MC feels like a loser when you think about all of the other characters. When I play an MC who did nothing wrong to Seven it just feels like Seven is angry for no reason. Seven is allowed to act like a child while MC has to take it? Doesn't seem fair.

Everyone has something going for them and what about MC? No one likes them and everyone hates their guts. Aren't they supposed to be the main character? Why does everyone hate them? Why aren't they considered more talented? It just feels like MC is a doormat while Seven and the other ROs are these talented superstars.

I don't want this to come off any way but I feel like the story would be stronger if you made MC a bit meaner or at least made people acknowledge MC as a better singer.

I don't want to sound rude but I'm very much exhausted by this topic. I've probably explained this 5+ times but I'll try to break it down one last time just so people can understand what I'm trying to do.

First, to get it out of the way, we are only on Chapter 2. I just want to reiterate that. The story just started.

It just feels like MC is a doormat while Seven and the other ROs are these talented superstars.

Secondly, MC is a character I try to give as much customization to, both personality and appearance wise. There's a variety of ways you can approach everything, or I at least try to in a way that doesn't sacrifice what I want to write for the plot, but I think people are under the impression MC is 100% a blank slate character when it's not true.

MC is still dependent on the plot and I always strived for MC to have their own narrative arc. The same way the ROs have their own character arcs, MC will have their own, because they are a character in their own right and going through some that fundamentally changes their life. That means the MC from Chapter 1 will not be the MC at Chapter 20. They will be different. That's what a character arc is. Character development is expected. How can you expect a slew of ROs to grow and change and MC remaining stagnant? Doesn't make sense narratively and it seems unfair to MC.

The MC is not a completely blank slate, and that's where people are getting it confused. In the beginning, MC is going through such a change with BOTB, without their family, and on the heels of a band breakup that's still impacting them today. MC is a little down, maybe even depressed if that's how you read it, and they're getting pushed to be leader by their manager. They are not really okay right now. They have to be professional and put on a brave face for the sake of their band, who, if you paid attention to what Rowan said in Chapter 2, are all depending on this. This is what they worked for since high school. MC is not going to flip a damn table on Day 1 just because you want them to. MC can fight, if you choose, against UWB. That's not supposed to be a smart choice, but emotions get the best of all of us.

They are only just navigating a worldwide globally famous show with a cheating allegation hanging over their heads, and a manager who wants them to be leader when, up until now, they haven't been. They've just been friends making music and miraculously having a fanbase. Now they're really in it. They have been thrust head first into the industry in a way that is so big that MC has to go from singer playing with their friends to a leader of a band who may just become globally famous in a few months if they play their cards right.

A lot of their actions are influenced by the fact that their band almost broke up and it's a thing that hangs over their head. Their past influences them. That's...how people work.

Now, if we're at Chapter 20 and MC is still acting like a scared bunny who doesn't know what they're doing, then be my guest. Scream in my inbox, I'd understand. That would be terrible writing, but we're not. The tour just started.

I play an MC who did nothing wrong to Seven it just feels like Seven is angry for no reason. Seven is allowed to act like a child while MC has to take it? Doesn't seem fair.

MC doesn't have to take it lol. I've always given an option to be rude to Seven/try to put them in their place.

People think I favor Seven when that's not true. (Seven isn't even my favorite RO)(That title goes to August lol). Seven acts the way they act because they are not in a healthy headspace. Their actions are not meant to be understood, because they are not entirely justified. Seven has a lot of growing up to do, but I have never sat here and advertised Seven's emotions as correct. Everyone knows Seven is childish, everyone knows Seven is handling everything terribly. People in the story have mentioned it. Their abandonment issues GREATLY influence their characterization and actions. MC has abandonment issues as well, of course, but MC is not as emotionally unstable as Seven. That's canon. It is what it is. Seven has a whole subplot about it.

As do other ROs. The only difference is that they're not so open about their struggles. Seven just doesn't care. Their emotions guide them. They can't control it. That's who they are. I have also said that many times.

I don't know why you think Seven can get away with everything when 1) it's only been 2 chapters and 2) no one knows how anyone feels about Sev because it's in MC's POV. Seven goes through their own trial by fire. As every RO does......thats a narrative arc.

Seven was always going to be a plot point, whether they were an RO or not. They were always going to be MC's former best friend.

Everyone has something going for them and what about MC? No one likes them and everyone hates their guts. Aren't they supposed to be the main character? Why does everyone hate them? Why aren't they considered more talented? It just feels like MC is a doormat while Seven and the other ROs are these talented superstars.

This one bothers me the most, mostly because I don't know where this came from. "No one likes them" Jenna and The Jewels does. Slow Crawl does. Their fans do. We haven't even properly met the other bands. Of course there will be bands who don't like MC: they're competitors. They're not friends. They don't know MC, why would they be biased towards them? Because they're the main character? They don't care about that?? It's how fiction works.

Maya is following the band around because of how much she admires MC.

Orion quit his job because MC's singing inspired him that much.

G listened to MC and saw something in them. Literally calls them the 'Chosen One'

Fans of the old band preferred MC over Seven. They liked the songs where MC sang solo. MC was better for their future over Seven. Hence why it was Seven getting demoted, not MC. I've said this. It's in the story.

I don't see how being the lead singer of a band on a global show at 26 makes anyone an actual loser but I digress.

Literally in Part 2 MC is acknowledged so maybe it'd be better if we waited? Say a good few chapters...?

If you wanted a story where MC is Queen level famous right out the gate and the #1 draft pick for BOTB and has no problems and better than everyone, then I'd advise you to look elsewhere. I don't like that. I like giving MC obstacles because conflict creates story. I like MC having to fight for their spot. It's more realistic, and this has never been a story of fame. It's been a story of their journey to fame.

That's their narrative arc. They grow into it.

You are allowed to hate/dislike Seven. I encourage it. I have given MC the option to hate Seven, because I'm aware that what Seven is doing is unfair. I am not punishing you for hating Seven. And this goes for all the ROs. It does not bother me if you dislike my characters. It means I haven't made them squeaky clean and have made them realistic enough to have people both dislike and like them, much like real life. I get it.

I've always advertised Infamous as a messy, angsty and dramatic story. I've used the term 'melodrama' for it often. I've always said the ROs--especially Seven--are flawed. Some more than others. I've said, verbatim, they are not wholly good people. I don't know why people act so shocked when they act some type of way. Like...I've always stayed true to what the story is. Half the dynamics aren't healthy right now...but that's the 'growing up part' of the story we haven't even gotten to yet?

If that doesn't interest you, then that's perfectly okay! If you don't like the narrative arc I have planned for MC, that's fine too! It just becomes a bit disheartening when people ignore the narrative.

I will try harder to write in a way that specifies my intentions. I always believe that if more than a handful of readers have the same complaint, then it's on the writer to fix it.

I hope my tone didn't come off rude, I'm just really really tired of this. I've had to deal with this since even before the demo dropped :) but your critiques are valid and everyone is always free to express themselves however they want. <3

[veliseraptor]

@stripedroseandsketchpads since you asked!!!

"this" here meaning my sudden and somewhat inexplicable desire for f!sam winchester, and two disclaimers feel necessary here:

(a) I have always been and probably always will be an inveterate samgirl

(b) this is all based on my memories of a show where I last participated in the fandom more than a decade ago and only watched the first seven and a half seasons or so.

and of course all of this is running on like. #vibes.

but basically what I think is interesting to me about this specific gender-change au is the way that it, like. feels like it gets very knotty in the context of canon.

so people who aren't me back in the mists of time wrote some interesting meta about the ways in which Sam is sort of "female coded" in the context of Supernatural, at least in early seasons; he's cast as the more emotional and in-touch with his feelings of the pair of brothers. Dean, while there are complications, gets on the face of it more of the stereotypically masculine characterization (compare, for instance, his womanizing with Sam's serial monogamy).

another layer to this has to do with the position Sam occupies as a character who frequently lacks agency in general and bodily autonomy in particular, and the potential interplay of that as an element of the character with the gender change. I also think about the way that Sam in relationship to both Dean and his father is the site of a lot of anxiety around the need to protect him, to an extent that does often end up interfering with his agency/autonomy. if Sam is not just the youngest of the family but also a girl, how does that inflect the perception of her as especially vulnerable and in need of safeguarding? how does that inflect the way that her family interacts with her ability to make choices about her own life?

and then there's Sam as the outsider/outlier, the "freak" - infected by evil from birth, destined for dark ends, etc. etc. which again gets especially interesting to me when read along gendered lines. there's a slightly different and to me very compelling valence that I think is particular to a universe where Sam is a woman - particularly when that's stacked on top of the largely male, patriarchal world of hunters in Supernatural canon. it's another layer of isolation/estrangement from her community that highlights the ways in which Sam is or has felt fundamentally different from those closest to her.

but yeah I think what interests me about this concept specifically has a lot to do with the gender politics of Supernatural as a whole (which are, uh, interesting) and the way that it is a show that is almost hyper-gendered, exaggeratedly gendered, and how a female protagonist might interact with that environment. not change it, critically - I don't want a version of this where the milieu is less sexist/fucked up about women than it is in canon. I want to know how a woman, embedded in the fucked-up-about-women world of Supernatural but positioned at the center of it, would navigate that.

the other thing I have been turning over in my head as I've been reading some fic of this, also, is "do I want Dean to also be a woman or do I want him to stay Sam's older brother" and I think I lean toward the latter because it turns some of the dynamic between them up another notch in interesting ways - the existing older/younger brother dynamic is messy enough and then you introduce gender into it, particularly with canon!Dean's gender issues, and it gets even thornier and messier in ways that are fun to think about.

as mentioned in dms I am especially fond of lesbian/bi Sam whose first serious girlfriend is Jessica (and then that goes...badly) and definitely Lucifer in my personal version of this AU needs a lady as a vessel.

anyway I'm thinking about this way too much and there's a part of me that's like "is there a real risk you're going to end up writing something for this." and while I don't think so it's not as out of the question as I'd like it to be

[raayllum]

So, obviously, after the seven-year timeskip, Ezran and co are going to finally reunite with Harrow/Pip, right?

I was thinking at first the last quasar diamond could potentially be used on him, but 1) Harrow’s not technically dead, and 2) it would remove Ezran’s agency as king, correct?

So, what if them reuniting gives the boys a chance to have closure with losing/parting with him (similar to Rayla with Tiadrin and Lain), and he (Harrow) ends up sacrificing himself in some way to both save them and finally get to be reunited with Sarai…?

Pssst! Also, attached to my last ask… you are always awesome!!

(You are awesome too!! Thank you for sending this in)

So the last time I talked about the bird theory extensively was this ask, which is one of the funniest ones to read retrospectively, I think, given S7. That said, I always thought it was Possible they'd find a way to do a "Harrow may fully come back" plotline and have it work for me, and well... Ezran being like 20 after 7 years in limbo and the imminent end of the world on the horizon? Yeah, that checks all the boxes.

After all, it was always very clear (as said in meta linked above) that SOMETHING had happened. You don't remove Pip from the story and keep him removed unless you have a (world shattering) reason to. You don't have the characters steadily get all the spells and ingredients you need to restore "bodies to separated spirits" (5x04) and have Claudia lampshade it (5x09) unless you want it Go somewhere. (Plus the three father potential parallels of Harrow, Runaan, and Aaravos being reborn through the quasar diamonds, and then those three + Viren being reborn and fundamentally changed through death? Yeah. Yeah)

So I think I'd be wholly okay with like 19-20 year old Ezran who bore the brunt of the kingship the past ten years (his childhood/adolescence) now being freed from that burden or shouldering it alongside his father (getting the chance to be a kid and have his dad all over again) as, like you and I have both indicated, it'd likely impact Ezran's arc the most (the way he was the most impacted in s7, the way they did it preserving the consequences for Runaan's actions). Nothing will ever erase the grief Ez went through or the experiences/sacrifices he's had to make as king, after all, even if Harrow does come back.

HOWEVER, Lain and Tiadrin taught me not to count my chickens before they're hatched. I could, for example, see some alternatives wherein:

The final quasar diamond is used for Kpp'Ar (maybe by Claudia) and Harrow stays on as an advisor in a bird (relying on Ezran's animal communication for speech)

Harrow is released from the bird and allowed to reunite with Sarai

I lean towards the second one in some ways (in a lot of ways, Harrow traded the prison of the crown—"Hold on, you're not free. The king has to pose for one more" / "and that is for you and Ezran to be free"—for another of his beloved bird) but could see any working out. We'll just have to wait and see!

[goodnightbirdy]

The Poets as Tarot Cards

if you know nothing about tarot a lot of these are gonna sound really weird or scary but BEAR WITH ME PLEASE.

Neil Perry - The Fool

Upright: innocence, new beginnings, free spirit

Reversed: recklessness, taken advantage of, inconsideration

Do not take lightly to the fact that i gave him my favorite tarot card. Its the very first major arcane and it usually is a good sign in a pull, something is going to begin, you need to look at something with a new light ect. I think the upright and reversed meaning show the dichotomy between the beginning and the end for Neil.

Todd Anderson - Death

Upright: end of cycle, beginnings, change, metamorphosis 

Reversed: fear of change, holding on, stagnation, decay

I TOLD YOU. IT WAS GOING TO SOUND SCARY. but its not. The death card is also one of my favs and also usually a good sign. Its a symbol of something changing. I think Todd goes through a fundamental change that sets him on a new path. Its always sad when something ends but its not always necessarily a bad thing.

Charlie Dalton - King of Wands

Upright: big picture, leader, overcoming challenges

Reversed: impulsive, overbearing, unachievable expectations

Its so clear in the film that Charlie puts up a front of the unshakable leader. He is strong, and he does lead but the reversed meaning is a very important part of this. Its so clear in the movie that he doesn't break down because he feels the need to be strong for the other boys. He has to be the unflappable face of strength but that is ultimately unachievable.

(i came SO CLOSE to giving him strength)

Knox Overstreet - Seven of Cups

Upright: searching for purpose, choices, daydreaming 

Reversed: lack of purpose, diversion, confusion

Oh our little delusional weirdo. Its so clear that his every action towards chris is not about chris, its about finding himself (through... interesting means) I think he embodies a certain search or lack of purpose. He doesn't know what he really wants and that's why i gave him the CHOICE card.

Steven Meeks - Ace of Swords

Upright: breakthrough, clarity, sharp mind 

Reversed: confusion, brutality, chaos

We see this man being so sassy. so sharp. i love him. he could have so easily just been a nerdy smart character but instead he's so quick and it just adds such depth to him. His intentions are left widely unclear to the audience and i think thats why the clarity and chaos card is so perfect for him.

Gerard Pitts - Temperance

Upright: middle path, patience, finding meaning 

Reversed: extremes, excess, lack of balance

our gentle giant <3 HES SO- Patience? Finding meaning?? we never get to see him seize the dayb in the film other than the radio and its just- THE MIDDLE PATH?? go read my fic you'll understand.

Richard Cameron - Justice

Upright: cause and effect, clarity, truth 

Reversed: dishonesty, unaccountability, unfairness

i need you to know i was so torn for his card. I almost gave him the hierophant, the hermit, judgment, and the wheel of fortune. TWAS A DIFFICULT DECISION.

Ive talked about this kid so much, yall know what i think. The upright meaning is so- its so him. AND THE GUILT HE WOULD FEEL- AH. the reversed meaning feels like a stab wound and thats all i have to say.

John Keating - The Hanged Man

Upright: sacrifice, release, martyrdom

Reversed: stalling, needless sacrifice, fear of sacrifice

Do i have to explain this one? I almost gave him the Emperor, BUT LOOK AT- SACRIFICE? RELEASE?? MARTYRDOM??? NEEDLESS SACRIFICE??? oh it was to perfect and this caused me pain.

Bonus ✨

Ginny Danburry - The Star

Upright: hope, faith, rejuvenation 

Reversed: faithlessness, discouragement, insecurity

SHES CHARLIES FAITH- i say as the drag me away to a white padded room. shes the star. idk what else to say. iykyk. never sad to see this card.

Chris Noel - Two of Swords

Upright: difficult choices, indecision, stalemate 

Reversed: lesser of two evils, no right choice, confusion

i just think. knox put her. in a really tough spot. and she did what she could. thats all. no right choice more like no choice

[artbyblastweave]

Hey, I just read this superhero series called Rising Stars. Have you heard of that before, and do you have any thoughts on it?

Personally I loved it. 113 children in utero get affected by the energy of a comet passing overhead, and start developing powers. They all get different levels of power, some never realise what their powers are, some just straight up suck.

Like there's a guy who's totally indestructible. But he's not and stronger or faster, he just can't be damaged. And he can't feel anything tactile either. So he over indulges in taste because it's one of the only sense he has, and ends up obese.

There's a girl with telekinesis, who can only manipulate small objects. The carotid artery is a small object, so she gets headhunted by the CIA for assassination work.

And then there's the reveal that their powers operate off a shared energy pool, and if one dies the remaining power gets shared among the remainder. And then people start turning up dead...

Rising Stars has been near and dear to my heart for a very long time. It's by no means perfect, but one of the things I find the most compelling about it is how it positions superhumanity as a fundamentally extremely finite phenomenon.

Works in which superpowers are introduced to a world that didn't previously have them will often break in one of two directions; either they'll treat it as a new, sustainable equilibrium that will somehow fail to change anything of import, or else it's a floodgate that opens and completely wipes away the status quo. But both scenarios generally take for granted that capes as a general phenomenon are here to stay- that there's some replacement-rate mechanism at play. Rising Stars depicts a world where this isn't true, and moreover it very quickly becomes clear to everyone that this isn't true- that these 113 people are the only superhumans the world is ever gonna get. That's enough to be extremely disruptive, but not necessarily paradigm shifting- and the worldbuilding reflects that in interesting ways, the sense that the reaction of many is just that they've gotta wait these assholes out.

Maybe some of them habitually dine-and-dash at upscale restaurants but what are you going to do, call the army every time? Not worth it. There's fewer than a hundred of these guys, it's not like letting it slide is going to be the start of something. One of them takes over Chicago and runs it as a fiefdom? Okay, that's bad, but it's one city and everyone else who's similarly inclined already rallied under her aegis, still not a paradigm shift. The entire containment strategy for the ones who are habitually supervillainous is to ring up one or two of the ones who decided to be superheroes and dump them in Antarctica, forcing them to walk back. Obviously not a great solution but what's the incentive to come up with something better? This isn't a growing population that demands a systemic response, it's the same six or seven guys every time, and you're only gonna have to put up with them for so long.

And the series really did a lot with the fact that these people all know each other- a small-town's graduating class worth of superhumans who all grew up together. The "oh, what's so-and-so up to these days" energy of it all. The comparable sense of wasted potential as you get into your late-twenties-early-thirties, take a look at what everyone you grew up with has been up to lately, and really seriously evaluate what it is, exactly, that you've actually accomplished with your life, compared to what you thought you were going to do when you were a teenager. The Specials don't even have the luxury of existing in a conventional superhero universe where their personal mediocrity (real or perceived) will come out in the wash due to all the other superpeople running around-they're wasting more than just their own individual lives through their inaction or failure, and the series milks that growing sense of rat-in-a-trap tension as their numbers start to really dwindle in earnest over the course of the comic.

[mrs-delaney]

Hide | Chapter Seven | Teaser One

Layover in Cincinnati

When Riley steps off a private jet in Cincinnati, exhausted from her journey from Italy, she finds Joe waiting—steady, certain, and somehow becoming familiar despite the newness of everything between them.

What begins as a simple weekend visit evolves into something neither expected: the merging of their separate worlds. As Riley's spontaneous energy meets Joe's careful precision—wet footprints on hardwood floors, music filling the silent spaces—something fundamental shifts between them.

In Joe's meticulously ordered world, small changes speak volumes. A thoughtful addition here, an unexpected gesture there—each one creating space for someone new in a life that rarely makes room for disruption.

"I've never experienced anything like that before," Joe confesses in a rare unguarded moment. "It wasn't about thinking at all."

Their connection deepens through shared revelations and comfortable silences, discovering how opposites not only attract but complement. Yet the reality of their separate lives lingers on the horizon—tomorrow, she'll return to LA while he remains in Cincinnati.

As Riley prepares to leave, the uncertainty of distance looms between them. Something has shifted—something neither of them is willing to simply walk away from.

"This isn't it for us," Joe says with that quiet certainty that's uniquely his.

Chapter 7 drops Friday. The connection deepens.

🔔 TAG LIST ALERT! Want early access? Comment or message to join the tag list!

📅 Posting Schedule: New chapter dropping Friday at 7 PM CST!

💬 Let's chat! Have you ever experienced that moment when someone makes space for you in their life in a way that speaks louder than words? Share your thoughts in the comments!

[lyxthen]

My Seven Year Gap narumitsu headcanon is that not only did Miles help Phoenix build the MASON, he actually became chief prosecutor with the objective of helping him instaurate the jurist system.

By the time Trials and Tribulations comes around, I feel like the two of them are in a point in their relationship where they aren't too prone to angsting about each other. They trust each other fully. So when Phoenix pushes Miles away, Miles assumes it's for a good reason, even if it still hurts.

He does tell Miles eventually, in that mythical trip to Europe, when he knows for ceirtain Kristoph can't hear him (the guy probably keeps track of his phone calls bank accounts and has his house bugged as all hell because he's insane like that). He still doesn't tell Miles how bad he's struggling emotionally, and how the reason he's drinking so much grape juice is because he struggled with horrible depression alcoholism, particularly early in his disbarment. He just tells him about Kristoph and the Gramarye trial and how he's trying to connect the dots and find the truth and clear his name.

And you know what Edgeworth does? He tells him, "So, basically, you want to fundamentally change the way the Japanifornian justice system works. Wright, you are fucking insane. And I must be insane too because of course by god I'm going to help you." After all, foreign justice systems are his expertise. He's been studying this shit for years, and he finally gets a chance to put that knowledge to use.

It's hard for them to get any work done without Kristoph suspecting them, of course, but by some miracle they manage it. Edgeworth applies for a position as chief prosecutor a year or two before the events of Apollo Justice, explicitly because he wants to amass enough political power to implement their silly little project. When the disgraced former defense attorney comes one day with an insane outline of how to reform the entire court system no one dares to reject him, because he's already got chief prosecutor Miles Edgeworth in his pocket.

Smooth. As. Fuck.

They have spent years planning and scheming and it has finally come to this. Their professional relationship is blooming. Their personal relationship... Well, they're not in bad terms by any means but like, come on. These two are extremely emotionally repressed so it's not like they are going to openly declare their undying loyalty to each other and get married or something. But they are perfectly capable of working in harmony with each other, and that's as good as either of them think they're going to get.

I feel like this time line of events makes sense. I don't see Phoenix building MASON alone, let alone implement it. He doesn't have that sort of clout or analytical mind. But Edgeworth does. It's just a testament to how compatible they are that they are able to work together to find the truth™ and change things for the better. Shipping aside, I just think that's really cool.

[edelfie]

#𝓣𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘! bumpin’ that?

as an aspiring a-list celebrity, it’s important for (y/n) to have a strong inner circle. not just for her work, but also for her own sanity. she was grateful when she met yachi and asahi, who were both kind enough to remain her friend after their work together ended. in terushima’s case, it was less of a choice for him to stay so much as he glued himself to her side from day one. fukunaga was similar, but most won’t believe it from his introverted personality. above all, tendou has been by (y/n)’s side since day one. even when he’s continents away, he is still her closest confident.

or, our main character and her crew! how exciting

BLIND ITEMS! —

## many small work-hands in the music industry only have positive things to say about this rising pop star. allegedly, she only conducts business with other up-and-comings and forms lifelong bonds with them. she appears to be the best of friends with her hairstylist, stylist, and creative designer. [revealed: Y/N L/N, terushima yuuji, azumane asahi, yachi hitoka]

## this z-list pop singer insisted on allowing her close-friend and amateur comedian open at all her shows for her freshman and sophomore albums, despite it not being good for her business. luckily for both, the crowds loved it, and the two still seem to be good friends. [revealed: Y/N L/N, fukunaga shouhei]

## according to an old school acquaintance, this renowned paris-based pastry chef is childhood friends and penpals with a music-industry nobody. the chef used to have a crush on the nobody, but the nobody turned them down in favor of becoming a groupie and eventually dating the A-list lead singer for 5 years. [revealed: tendou satori, Y/N L/N, unknown]

## the two-time flop artist has more exes than she knows what to do with it seems. now that she’s been dumped again, it’s only a matter of time before she writes a trash album about him too. [revealed: Y/N L/N]

hat3r. are we even surprised by any of these?? this isn’t even real tea or news. it’s getting stale — ynisjesus. you don’t ever have a single nice thing to say do you ???

runaruna. i want to know who she dated for 5 years, he’s gotta be like a totally industry bombshell if he’s an A-lister right? — sera_pent. EXACTLY like why is nobody talking about this! — junebuggg. it’s gotta be the guy from undead right? — harobio. no i think its mr “has-it-all” from SIR7 — sapphics4yn. why is everyone thinking it’s a guy ?? DID WE LEARN NOTHING FROM ALISAGATE??

gunslinger67. stream VNGELS by MISC9 !!!

read more…

NOTE! —

Today's fundraiser is "A Father's Plea: Help Save my Family" by Youssef Helles. In 2019, Youssef left Gaza for Belgium to find a better life for his family. However, five years later, the conditions in Gaza have worsened significantly. Now he's fundraising to bring his family to be in Belgium with him. Of the 23,000 goal, about 15,000 has been raised thus far. Every bit counts, so donate to Youssef's cause here or copy and share the link to spread the cause!

And a friendly reminder to register to vote! Please vote in the presidential race, but especially please please please vote in your regional and district elections! Remember to vote based on policy and meaningful change, not just color or party lines, and vote with your values and your important issues in mind. I know as I get older, my priorities have shifted, and as a college student loan forgiveness has become one of my must-addresses, so please! Go out and vote!

In "non-world-altering" news, I had my birthday recently! It wasn't that recent honestly since it was on the 15th, but I still thought it was worth mentioning. I also started college that week, which was fun! Due to the nature of my major, there aren't any stressful classes my first semester—mainly public speaking and fundamentals. I'm sure I'll bite my tongue on that soon though, especially since I have something due tonight *skull emoji*

MASTERLIST + SEVEN EVIL EXES

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