#that said tho. just a random thought

[noxtivagus]

><

[brookheimer]

the one thing i feel pretty certain about for this episode is that america will not decide the election. a decision will be made, a president will be elected, but america will not be the deciding factor.

succession can’t mimic 2016 or 2020 point blank, that would be boring and have nothing to say. it can’t try to outdo trump because it’ll go too whacky and fall flat like veep’s last season (sorry conheads, no way he’s winning). but what it CAN do is illustrate the immensely corrupt, often arbitrary, and hugely influential nature of news media and conglomerations on political processes. i think probably jimenez will be in the lead, then atn/waystar does something to, i don’t know, discount votes or cast suspicion on jimenez or call the election for mencken early, and the tide will shift, even though the votes are already in. the votes don’t actually matter. the actual result doesn’t actually matter. that’s the power logan (and as an extension, billionaires and CEOs in general) hold. shiv says it herself to logan in s4e2: “just cause you say it’s true doesn’t make it true. everyone just fucking agrees with you and believes you, so it becomes true and then you can turn around and say like, 'oh, you see? see? i was right.'” but it doesn’t matter that logan’s “a human fucking gaslight,” everything he says comes true anyways. not because he was right, but because that’s how it works. he says things and then they happen, regardless of what the truth is or what should actually come to pass. that’s been one of the key throughlines since the very first episode of the entire show when, in response to kendall calling logan out of touch because times are changing and logan isn't changing with them, logan hisses that everyone always says you’re wrong until you do it and prove you were right: “you make your own reality.” you can't miss the bus if you're the one driving it. the election, the votes, the political process? none of that matters. it was always going to come down to the roys and their ilk (allies or enemies, just the top 1%) — that was the whole point of “what it takes” (the mencken episode) last season, after all.

i’ve seen lots of theories about what america will choose and how the candidates will respond and all that and i just don’t think that’s the show’s focus; i think the whole point is to demonstrate the lack of agency, the illusion of democracy. because, i mean, we’ve already seen the fall of democracy via fascist election and fascist election-denial, both in real life and in the countless (usually mid) satires created afterwards. it would be disappointing to see succession use the election to reiterate that same point of 'ohhh alt-right ahhhhh!!!' i don’t think it’ll be about ‘fascism’ at all — at least, not ‘trump-y’ fascism. it’ll be about fascism in the broader sense, the kind that doesn't sport a KKK hood (even when it keeps one tucked away in the attic). it's the fascism that every single roy (very much including shiv and kendall) aid and abet -- the fascism that so many succession fans don't seem to regard as fascism, despite it quite literally being the definition of fascism. trump wasn’t the entrance of fascism into our political process. he wasn’t the lone sign of the failing of american democracy. democracy in america has long been illusory, trump just made it more blatantly evident with his particular brand of hate-speech-ridden masculinist in-your-face fascism.

so i think that’s what this episode will hopefully focus on — america will not decide. corporations, news media, and the roys will. thus, the president will most likely become president not because the country supports his policies the most, but because he’s likely to agree to help block a business deal for a major media empire, and the other candidate is unlikely to. and this will likely come to pass due to said major media empire's interference and influence: they create their own reality. they say it, and everyone agrees with them and believes them, so it becomes true.

[randomwriteronline]

To the man that is claimed to be looking for me.

My name is Ingo, warden of Sneasler, Lady of the Mo. I shall be very earnest in my writing, and as concise as my long-winded nature allows me to be: seeing the means through which your message has been relayed to me, I highly doubt of your existence.

If you were, indeed, a real person - not a ruse or a fabrication of sorts - I would pity the choice of your herald, as he has shown to be unreliable when expressing his honest intentions, witholding information about them or very plainly not stating them. As such, I cannot take his word as is.

I do not expect a response. If I do get one, my cautionsess will assume it is yet another trick; the work of your chosen messenger. If you do recieve these harsh words, I deeply apologize. I simply cannot risk raising hopes in this situation.

Kind regards. Almighty Palkia be with you.

-

To who I doubt is my brother.

I am Emmet. I recieved the letter. I understand. I don’t trust my messenger either. I think he wrote your letter to trick me. He would have no reason to be so mean to himself, but I don’t know how his mind works. I don’t care. If he did write it he will read this and know I know. Maybe he’ll keep writing. I don’t care.

I miss my brother a lot and he knows, so he definitely will use that against me if he has some motive. It’s nice thinking he might actually keep his word and I’m writing to my brother. Not that nice that I’m being so rude after so much time.

Goodbye.

-

To the man that is claimed to be looking for me.

If you do exist, I am sorry to hear about your brother. I hope your separated tracks will merge once again soon, and the two of you will be able to reunite into a single double-car train at your station at the end of the line. I wish you the best of luck.

Kind regards. Almighty Palkia be with you and bless your search.

-

To who I doubt is my brother.

You’re very nice. Thank you.

I read the first letter again. I looked up Sneasler. It’s an extinct Pokémon from Sinnoh. So you would be in old Sinnoh. He’s told me as much. He said you’re a warden and you wrote that too. I still don’t think you’re real.

I don’t know what Palkia is. But thank you for that too.

Goodbye.

-

To the man that is claimed to be looking for me.

Palkia is - if professor Laventon is right - what is called a ‘legendary’ Pokémon, personification of and ruling over space. The Pearl Clan has venerated them as theirour deity and creator of Hisui - the ‘old Sinnoh’ you speak of. I have heard rumors of a change in name for the region, in honor of its true creator deity, as its name (Sinnoh) and role were erroneously assigned to both Palkia and a sibling legendary of sort, Dialga ruler of time.

It saddens me to hear that my lady’s kind is no longer with you in the supposed future in which you live. She is very dear to me.

If it can help, though I am not sure of how it could, I still doubt of your existence as well.

Kind regards. Almighty Palkia be with you.

-

To that motherfucker.

trains arrived in hisui in 1910 and hisuian sneasles were already turning from fighting to dark type by then you son of a bitch i fucking knew it you dumb fucker you think i cant open a damn history book? you said he didnt remember shit. you said he didnt remember shit but you know how we speak and you had to make it as close as possible and you forgot he couldnt have known trains were a thing by then. you almost got me because im used to it. well not anymore. dont ever talk to me ever again. slide another letter under my door and im going to burn it.

go to hell you fucking piece of shit.

-

To the man that is claimed to be looking for me.

You seem exceptionally upset.

As I mentioned, your messenger is untrustworthy and prone to witholding important information. In this case, however, it has proved directly unhelpful to whatever goals he had if he wanted to manipulate you, and has put me in an equally embarassing situation.

I was the one to warn you of his words, wasn’t I? And while you immediately noticed how strange it would be for him to start off his fake correspondence with such a harsh judgement of himself, now that would be an easy way to explain the fallacy in his retelling: because he did not tell you the whole story, I, as the primary source he made up, would and could easily correct him.

So how can I assure you I am real, now that you have proof otherwise?

I know I am. I know I am writing these letters. I do not know to whom, if to Emmet or to nobody, mere pawn in a scheme I know nothing about, though I do hope at this point that you are real.

I do not remember my life as it was before Hisui, that much is true - I have no idea where I came from or if I had any family. But despite this, I still have managed to recall some things, minuscule memories: words of a vocabulary I can’t say I fully understand (since, as you noted, their subject hasn’t come to Hisui), a partner Pokémon which lead through the darkest night, something of machines which are hidden, a man with my likeness who I cared for. Is that you?

I don’t know what will become of this letter. I want to prove my existence but I have no way to do so. I don’t even know if I should trust your outburst as much as I want to believe it’s honest. I hope I’m I hope I a I

Almighty Palkia be with you.

-

To to Ingo To who I hope is not a trick.

I burnt twenty-seven letters. He slid them under the door for a month. They were all copies of yours. He was worried I wouldn’t have read it. I read a copy first; then he gave me the original. He used completely different paper from yours. And he signed the number of the copy on the papers. That’s how I know they were twenty-seven.

His handwriting is nothing like yours. I forced him to write and he couldn’t do it. Not even if I didn’t look. So. I guess you are real.

I am terrified. If you are, I yelled at you. If you aren’t, I am getting manipulated. No win.

I need you to be real so badly you have no idea.

I put an image of me here. I’m not in uniform. So you know it’s not just a drawing over an image of you. If you look like that. We have solved the mystery.

Please be real.

Goodbye.

-

To my brother

(the letter is covered in ink splotches that make it illegible, and half crumpled. A photograph from an extremely old portable photocamera is wrapped within it.)

-

(the letter seems to have been heavily wet and later halphazardly left to dry up. Tearstains smudge every single word and make it illegible.)

-

[Emmet laughed when he saw him in person. He laughed and started coughing to try and not cry. Ingo held his face in his hands and shouted that they were so alike and then burst into tears. Volo looked at them crumble on each other like a badly made house of cards and felt a little lighter.]

[spacedimentio]

To this day I don’t understand why people are convinced that Dimentio wrote the Dark Prognosticus. I’ve been a fan for over 10 years now and not one thing in the game’s text has given me cause to think that he might be the author. If he’s the magician’s son, it still most likely predates him as the knowledge of how to create Pixls in the first place came from it. It’s just a very long standing fan theory that’s been around since the game came out.

[faunandfloraas]

Honestly a fun thing about going all the way through a kpop groups catalogue and seeing all the hair colours they've had over the years is seeing which colours certain members end up going back to again and again, it's cute.

[avatardoggo]

I HAVE FEELINGS FOR A BOYMAN

[spearxwind]

Hi Alex! I was wondering, since there's leviathans of all fuck off sizes, are there other species in this world? Like Wyverns that can fly above and swan dive to say hi to their leviathan buds?

Hiya! There arent any dragons if that is what youre asking, nor any other massive species.

Besides the leviathans and all the regular sealife, fauna in CD is mostly avian (primarily seafaring birds and jungle fowl on the islands)

There are some bigger birds around but they are nowhere near as big as the leviathans are. I think the max size for birds would roughly be around cutter class sized (the smallest leviathan class), and those DO dive for fish like ospreys, though leviathans might chomp at them if they get too close (the same would happen with wyverns too)

----

As a note, there's a non-lore adjacent reason for it too, it's that I do not want the focus to shift away from the ocean and the leviathans. If I made giant flying things there would have to be logistics around that and I would not want them to interfere with what I already have.

Though now that I'm thinking about it, it could be really swag to have hunters who ride on big birds (I am immensely biased), though as much as I like it idk if I can make it work without pulling too much focus from the CD vibe haha

[mazojo]

Butai ni Sake! chose emotional devastation once again

[decembermoonskz]

update on flirty idiot that I may have a mini crush on bc I can

[bluepallilworld]

each time I make a post about a fic of mine, I wished I had a gif to add

like it was a known media and you could just find it in the gifs

nothing to do with it being famous (very much not my goal XD)

just

I like gifs

I like lil' moving characters

[bolithesenate]

which one of the songs from the swiss songs poll is your favourite? (also i swear i got psychic damage realising which ones some of them were, good god)

heh, my job is done then

but also how DARE you make me choose. how COULD i choose

...

as an ex choir kid i am legally obligated to say d' W. Nuss vo Bümpliz

[graciousdragon]

god i wish that 8-hour fnaf lore video came out like 2 months ago because maybe i would actually be interested in my yoga class

[everwisp]

me, a Guy stan: *has drawn nothing but Homare (and tasuku, but mostly Homare) during my absence*

[wafflesthewombat]

I'm the gaffer (so like lighting and stuff) for my classmates and mine first short film this semester and lemme just say when my professor tries to read the lighting diagram I just submitted he's gonna be just as lost as I was making it... so very very lost

I DID MY BEST THOUGH and that's what counts (and also my grade)! I'm just not cut out for gaffer lol I can't wait to be literally anything else

[faunandfloraas]

Hmmm, online pal and I exchanged addresses to send Christmas cards but hilariously have both yet to send one, but do you think it'd be weird or too much if I sent a present for them and their sister as well 🤔

[kiddokori]

doctor office workers love me for my polite tones and sense of whimsy