#the cost of living is just unreasonable at this point

[clarabowmp3]

HAHA i am on the “poor” side (i live in a hdb) and having that much land is also incomprehensible to me like isnt there land scarcity in sg pls 😭😭😭😭 i have read the trilogy though and apparently the author was on that side of singapore and he said that the series was based entirely off of his childhood!!

TRILOGY??? BASED OFF HIS CHILDHOOD???? HUHH??? no way. NO WAY!! ig mayyybe possible if we're talking abt a sg a few decades ago when land was not as scarce, maybe? and the country not so overpopulated? still tho they must be rlllyyy rolling in the dough

[bloobluebloo]

OKAY so now that I have a moment.

On the framing of Imperialism in LoZ lore in general. This is a little long so I will put it under a read more.

So, I've often seen that, in the criticism of TotK's story and how it frames imperialism, that other LoZ games come up where it has been demonstrated that the Kingdom of Hyrule's hands are not clean. It feels like a lot of people bring this up with the argument that the lore was showing that Hyrule was morally gray. Yet, when you look at the framing of these misdeeds, that doesn't seem to be the case. The most pertinent example of this is the Shadow Temple in OoT where it has been insinuated that the Royal Family did torture enemies of the crown. There is also the rampant racism that is directed towards the Gerudo, the Sheikah having all but disappeared except the one Sheikah who also happens to be a servant of the Royal Family, the Kakariko well, the tomb of the Royal Family overrun by redead, and the Civil War for which no explanation is offered except that the end result was the unification of Hyrule. (I know there is a manga that explains that the Civil War bgean as some sort of dispute between the Goron and the Zora but, as I understand, it is not an officially licensed manga and thus not canon. Regardless.)

Twilight Princess seemed to be the most overt in its exploration of Hyrule's dark past. We learn that Hyrule had a habit of dumping its criminals into the Twilight Realm, ignorant or (or very likely) refusing to acknowledge that there were people living already there, that the Gerudo desert is devoid of Gerudo save for the Arbiter's Grounds which serve as a Hyrulean prison and execution ground, and how these people living in Hyrule's shadow not only held mistrust for the dwellers of light but actively hated them too.

Then you have A Link Between Worlds which, while Lorule isn't *exactly* Hyrule, it is framed as a reflection of Hyurle. It demonstrates that, if a kingdom is in a dire condition, that a reasonable solution would be to attempt to take the very artifact that would save it from another kingdom, even at that other kingdom's expense. Hilda is the antagonist but she is framed in a sympathetic light, as someone who had the best interests of her people at heart and would not have harmed anyone otherwise. (Funny how Ganondorf is never afforded that sort of grace. When he expressed that his homeland was plagued with drought and suffering the solution was to destroy him and everything he ever held dear. Moving on.)

The wilds era also explained where the Yiga came from, that they were the Sheikah that refused to bow to Hyrule's demands that they dismantle the very technology that they had built in service to it, that they were persecuted and chased out for their refusal. In the present, they are seen as a cult that are unreasonable, a joke, and meant to be dismissed and annihilated. These are but a few pretty obvious examples. However, my point isn't to prove that LoZ lore did demonstrate that Hyrule itself has perpetuated crimes of its own, but how they choose to frame said crimes. You, as the player, learn these things but you learn them in a matter-of-fact manner, and you never question it afterwards. This violence that Hyrule perpetuates is simply the cost of business in keeping a peaceful kingdom. Because Hyrule's intentions, just like Hilda's, supposedly stem from a desire to bring peace, order, and light to the kingdom, their violence is seen as something good and divinely ordained. As a result, when you learn about it, no matter how horrific it is, you are sort of made to simply store this knowledge in mind and continue with your efforts in preserving the status quo. The kingdom is restored to its original state at the end of your journey, and the people who have been victim to Hyrule's violence simply are meant to persist and accept that this is their fate, never given any sort of acknowledgement in how they suffered. Now, some may argue that, in Twilight Princess, the plight of Midna's people was acknowledged. However, the framing for their suffering largely puts the blame on Zant and Ganondorf, and doesn't quite make it so obvious that this entire mess is a result of Hyrule's actions over hundreds of years. It is there, subtle in the background, just like everything else we ever learn when it comes to Hyrule and its less than stellar deeds. In fact, one of Midna's big character moments is acknowledging that the dwellers of light were not as bad as she had imagined they would be which, was she wrong to have misgivings to begin with? Meanwhile, when someone like Ganondorf enacts violence, his actions are framed as not only evil, but selfish. There is absolutely no other reasoning for his violence beside his own selfish desire. Even in moments where he does reveal that his desire stemmed from overseeing a kingdom that was suffering, he is still treated as someone acting selfishly, as someone who did not act on behalf of his people. Why is that? Why is it that when Hyrule tortures and expels people that they are seen as acting in the name of the collective good, but when Ganondorf, a king in his own right, does it it must stem from selfish desire? A lot of people, for example, like to point to OoT Ganondorf as being very evil because of his actions against the Kokiri, the Zora, and the Goron, but did what he do really differ from what he had witnessed Hyrule do to anyone who opposed them? I do like the angle that some people mention, that he purposefully uses the title King of Evil in a more tongue-in-cheek manner because he is willing to acknowledge that what he is doing IS evil, unlike Hyrule who insists that anything they do is good.

The point I'm trying to get at here is that, while it is great that LoZ lore does recount of Hyrule's dark past, its framing isn't to depict Hyrule as a morally gray entity. It is framed to depict that any kingdom, or empire, in seeking order and stability, does have a "right" to react with righteous violence in order to maintain said order. So long as this violence is done in the name of preserving the empire, it is acceptable no matter how violent. Meanwhile, anything done that resists or opposes the empire, no matter how small, is seen as evil and must be eradicated, no matter what the reason. We know this for a fact because the majority of the fandom doesn't acknowledge that Hyrule has done any wrong, no matter what you learn about it. Princess Zelda is her princess and Link is her hero so how can they be wrong? This is also imperialist rhetoric.

[sweetvoidstuff]

Chain the change

Cha Hyun Su x Reader

Summary: Tensions rise as Green Home votes to evict Hyun Su.

Autors Note:I haven't written stories in quite a while, but I have the desire to pick it up again. English isn't my native language, so I welcome any constructive criticism. Particulary with the titel.

the next part, kinda

Masterlist

~~~~~

The tense atmosphere in the room was palpable as the tenants of Green Home Apartment gathered for the crucial vote. Whispers of uncertainty echoed, and the weight of judgment hung heavy on your shoulder. Demending on this vote Hyun Su would be thrown out or even worse.

Mister Kim's sudden outburst shook the room, his face contorted with rage as he screamed at the other tenants to rid themselves of Cha Hyun Su. The atmosphere, already tense, reached a fever pitch as fear and confusion spread like wildfire. Whispers of disbelief and unease swept through the gathered crowd.

Amidst the chaos, Hyun Su stood at the end of the room, his expression a mix of shock and disbelief, trying to comprehend the gravity of the situation. Mister Kim continued his fervent tirade, demanding that they take matters into their own hands. "We can't let him ruin our lives! We have to get rid of him now or he will turn and kill us all!" he bellowed, his voice echoing in the confined space. Hyun Su, the center of this storm, stood amidst the turmoil, his eyes wide with disbelief and fear. The room held its breath as the realization of the severity of the situation dawned on everyone. Hyun Su struggled to find words to defend himself, caught between the accusations and the impending decision that could change his life.

It was in this moment of tension that you, a bystander until now, felt compelled to speak up. Amidst the chaos, you stepped forward, breaking the silence with a declaration that sent ripples through the room. Standing firm, you declared, "If you're going to throw him out, then I'm leaving with him." The room fell silent, all eyes turning toward you. Your statement hung in the air, a challenge to the collective judgment of the tenants.

The gravity of your words added a new layer to the already charged atmosphere. The tension in the room transformed into a palpable conflict of emotions—fear, anger, and uncertainty mixing together. The decision now rested not only on Cha Hyun Su's fate but on the willingness of the community to confront the consequences of their actions. Not just one, but two lives on the line.

Hyun Su, taken aback by your unexpected stance, tried to interject. "This is unreasonable," in a hushed wisper he argued, concern etched across his face. "What if I turn? What if i become a monster and hurt you?"

Your response was unwavering. "If you're a monster, then all of us are. Listen to what they say, what they are willing to do!," you proclaimed, your words echoing with defiance. "I'll stay with you till the end, whether that's until you fully turn or if it costs me my life. I won't abandon you." Hyun Su, torn between gratitude and concern, tried to reached out to you.

The room erupted into chaos, the revelation sparking heated debates among the tenants. Some questioned the logic of such a decision, while others began to grapple with the profound loyalty you displayed. Mister Kim's hostility turned towards you, his anger now directed at anyone who dared to oppose his extreme proposal. He advanced, his face contorted with rage, but before the situation could escalate further, Hyun Su stepped between you and Mister Kim. The room held its breath, the confrontation reaching a critical point.

At this moment blood began to trickle from Mister Kims nose. First slow but soon a stream of blood ran down his shirt. The room fell into a hushed symphony of gasps, the ominous precursor to a transformation. Eun Hyeok, attempting to calm the panicked crowd, pleaded for reason, but the tenants, gripped by fear, were hesitant to listen.

Hyun Su's own monster stirred, responding to the threat. His eyes turned black, his voice, now laced with a dark undertone, with a smirk he questioned, "I have a question. Am I allowed to vote? If I go, Mister Kim has to go with me, right?"

Eun Hyeok, sensing an opportunity for reason, interjected, "You don't have to do this. Quarantine might be the best option here. For both of them."

Eun Hyeok, taking charge in the midst of the chaos, directed the tenants to assist in quarantining both Hyun Su and Mister Kim. The room shifted from pandemonium to a controlled frenzy as the tenants reluctantly followed Eun Hyeok's instructions.

Hyun Su and you walked side by side towards the makeshift quarantine room. You felt a strong urge to comfort Hyun Su but hesitated, mindful of the other tenants surrounding you. Instead, you decided to take his hand, a silent gesture that spoke volumes. Your fingers gently intertwined with his, and Hyun Su's initial surprise was evident on his face. However, as the warmth of your hand enveloped his, the surprise transformed into a grateful acknowledgment. In the midst of uncertainty, your touch became a lifeline, a tangible reassurance that he wasn't facing this ordeal alone.

As you entered the room, a mix of trepidation and gratitude painted Hyun Su's expression. The solidarity you showed, both in words and actions, had not gone unnoticed.

Gently squeezing his hand once more, you whispered words of comfort, "We face it together, Hyun Su. I'll be back with food later. We'll get through this." Hyun Su nodded, his eyes expressing a blend of gratitude and relief.

Inside the quarantine room, the air felt heavy with the anticipation of Mister Kims transformation and maybe even Hyun Su's that loomed ahead.

Inside the quarantine room, you maintained your grip on Hyun Su's hand until the last possible moment before reluctantly letting go. Your eyes conveyed a silent promise: I'll be back. Hyun Su nodded, gratitude and understanding mirrored in his gaze. You reluctantly released Hyun Su's hand, a sense of reluctance evident in your eyes. "Take care of yourself in there," you said, your voice soft but filled with genuine concern.

Hyun Su managed a small, appreciative smile. "Thank you. " I never expected someone to stand by me like this.

With a final reassuring glance, you left the quarantine room, the makeshift door closing behind you. The hallway outside seemed quieter, the echoes of the recent tumult still lingering in the air. As you stepped back into the hallway, the door closing behind you, the weight of the decision lingered. The small act of holding Hyun Su's hand, you couldn't shake the weight of the decision made and the potential consequences it held for both Hyun Su and the community.

Meanwhile, inside the quarantine room, Hyun Su took a deep breath, a mix of emotions swirling within him. Gratitude overwhelmed him for your unwavering support, and hope flickered in his eyes as he prepared to face the challenges ahead. The makeshift quarantine became a refuge, a space where the unknown awaited.

Back in the hallway, the other tenants exchanged glances, a shared uncertainty written on their faces. The community was at a crossroads, and the decisions made in the coming days would shape the fate of Green Home Apartment.

As you ventured away from the quarantine room, the weight of your commitment lingered. The promise of bringing food later held a sense of normalcy in the midst of chaos, a reminder that even in uncertain times, small gestures of kindness could make a difference. The journey ahead remained uncertain, but for now, Hyun Su found solace in the fact that someone had chosen to stand by him, reach out to him, in his time of need.

[ghostfilecabinet]

I've thought about this a little bit, and it feels like a cop out, but truly I can see both sides.

On one hand, it's a fledgling company who wants to make art in a way they feel proud of. It's all well and good for us to say "we were here when the text was blue and yellow and we don't care about production value", but as someone who in her own right creates - whether its gifs or writing or silly little scrapbook pages - it's about creating something you believe is of the highest quality you can create.

Not only that, it's also about being a company that can support its employees and pay them a more-than living wage. It's potentially about being able to fulfill promises to people who had invested in Watcher in the beginning, though I know less about that.

To say that 'they make bank' with patreon and sponsorships and merch when they support a staff of over 20 people is potentially untrue. What seems like corporate greed can have several layers.

On the other hand, it's not an overreaction for fans to feel abandoned and disregarded - especially those in non-Western countries, as well as younger fans.

Fans feeling bitter at being told that USD5.99 is an amount 'anybody and everybody can afford' isn't unreasonable. It's a large amount for many fans who live in countries where several USD is a quarter of what they earn in a month, or even for people who are at stages in their life where everything they earn has to go into keeping themselves fed and housed.

Imagine a life where you struggle so much to meet your own needs, where some of your only comforts is sitting down at the end of the day and watching people talk about conspiracies or shout at air in abandoned buildings, only to see that was being taken away from you (and by the very system that's been holding you hostage and making you miserable)? I can see why people would lash out. Why it would seem like these people who joked about eating the rich and understanding privilege have been lying all along.

To me, both of these things - creatives turning away from a highly controlled space like YouTube with its low financial returns, and fans hating that content that used to be free now has to cost them money and reading that as capitalist predatory behaviour, all stem from the same issue, which is that money and art are intertwined. Whether this is terrible and insidious or just a fact of life is another point of mixed feelings, for me.

The point is: I understand why Watcher is doing this. I understand why people don't want Watcher to do this.

Do I think it's a good thing? I'm not sure. How much will their content change? Their reasoning is feeling that they're having to make content for both their fans and advertisers, so that creates an expectation that making this decision will change what they put out in a positive way. That's added pressure. Another thing is that there is a narrative they're pushing of doing this for their audience, while of course making it inaccessible to a potentially large chunk of them. How will that bridge be crossed? These questions definitely need answering, but they need time to be answered. I'm withholding judgement until these get answered for me, and I'm ready to be patient.

Do I think it was the smart thing for them to do in the long run? I have no idea. I want it to be, because I don't want them to fail and decide to give up. It's not a nice feeling to see artists give up on making their art be their livelihood.

[lassieposting]

So like. I've seen plenty of posts discussing CatNap's death scene, the Prototype's involvement, and whether CatNap was betrayed by his mentor or willingly sacrificed himself, but there's one detail that nobody seems to be talking about. So imma bring it up, because it's relevant, it's important, to the point that we might actually only be seeing half the interaction between them.

Prototype is telepathic.

Or at least, he's something similar. It's strongly hinted at throughout his story:

Prototype manages to befriend Theo, despite the fact that he's kept locked in the labs under constant surveillance. Theo's artwork implies he believed Prototype lived under his bed. It also shows that he was - at least partially - aware of what Prototype looked like, as he drew an accurate representation of Prototype's mechanical arm. So how were they communicating? Likely via telepathy, with Prototype reaching out to Theo from the confines of his cell, and possibly projecting an image of himself for Theo to interact with. Theo feels safe with the fearsome-looking Prototype when they meet in person, which would suggest that Prototype is, by then, a familiar face.

Prototype's influence is clear in the video tapes, such as the instructions for moving a Bigger Bodies toy or the Emergency Alert video - he overrides the original content with new instructions like "RELEASE THE GIANT" or "OPEN THE DOORS. THE HOUR OF JOY IS NOW." And it's implied that this "tampering" came hand-in-hand with some kind of telepathic hold on the Playtime workers - they do release Kissy, against all common sense, despite the original instructions being visible beneath Prototype's override, and at the cost of their lives. It makes me think that the "tampering" is actually more of a side effect - that the control Prototype is projecting is so strong that he affects not only the minds of the workers he's targeting, but also any communication media within range - the messages on the VHS tapes are the orders he was pushing into their brains, flash-framed on film. Perhaps, if a worker had picked up a phone to call for help, they would only have heard a cacophony of voices insisting release the giant release the giant release the giant.

DogDay mentions that he and the other Smiling Critters - minus CatNap - "tried to resist [Prototype's] control". It's said in a way that suggests that Bigger Bodies who weren't fully on board with the Hour of Joy were... let's say "encouraged"...to participate, willing or no, via a helpful jolt of Assuming Direct Control. Given how docile she is most of the time, this could also be true of Kissy, who we see joining in with the massacre.

At the end of Chapter Three, the player joins Poppy on an elevator to go confront the Prototype in his lair. Which is weird, because...we know he's not in his lair. We've just seen him kill CatNap, and by this point we know he's likely been tailing us for a while. The Player would know, as they got onto that elevator, that Prototype can follow them down and trap them. But they say nothing to Poppy, their apparent ally. They don't warn her. Why? Maybe Prototype isn't letting them. If he could reach Theo in Playcare from the labs, deep in the bowels of the factory, it's not unreasonable to suggest that he's also in our head, subtly monitoring our thoughts, gently nudging away any desire to raise concerns with Poppy - who, as we know, wants Prototype dead.

So anyway: we know that Prototype has some variety of telepathy. And we know he has a preexisting connection with Theo - now CatNap.

Now, onto the actual death.

Lots of people have already covered the popular theories - that CatNap willingly offered himself to his god, and that CatNap believed the Prototype had come to save him and was cruelly betrayed. But honestly, on first watching, neither of those were the vibe I got. So I'm gonna throw my theories into the ring.

1) CatNap's death was a mercy kill

The first was that it was a mercy kill. CatNap is, at the end of the chapter, electrocuted to the point of collapse, and then horribly burned. There are no scientists left who can tend to the injuries of a Bigger Body creature. CatNap would be in horrifying pain, and if - as I've theorized here - Prototype all but raised CatNap, it could be that the death he provides is intended to put a quick end to CatNap's suffering. A mortally wounded apex predator will often become the target of groups of smaller, subordinate predators - like the swarming Critters in CatNap's territory - once they are dying and unable to defend themselves. Severing the spinal cord and targeting the brain would take away the pain, and make sure the death was as close to immediate as possible. If he'd wanted to hurt or punish CatNap, he could very easily have done so in a far more agonizing way - Miss Delight says that CatNap reports to Prototype, so they seem to be in relatively regular contact with each other and CatNap has few or no reservations about entering Prototype's territory to see him.

From this perspective, it also becomes interesting that Prototype reaches down to CatNap through a vent it's highly unlikely he could fit into, rather than fully appearing in front of us. Bearing in mind their mental connection, left open in the background of their minds, this could actually be seen as Prototype having an understandable and realistic caregiver panic response to CatNap's sudden, all-consuming agony - he wants to get to CatNap as quickly as possible, and he's picked a physically problematic route because it's faster.

2) CatNap's death was the Prototype fixing a problem he created

It's a sad truth that our children - or, in the Prototype's case, the young friend he assumed responsibility for - don't always grow into people we're proud of.

I've talked before about the Prototype's "parenting" as a positive influence on CatNap, and in several ways, it is - relative to the world they're trapped in.

CatNap is spared from the utter social isolation other experiments endure - he has Prototype to play and socialise with, which allows him to grow up with improved social skills and better ability to read people.

CatNap has a protector during the early years of the food shortage, once the toys begin turning on one another. Theo is shy and gentle, not naturally inclined to violence, so Prototype's protection probably shields him from becoming someone else's lunch at least once.

CatNap has someone to teach him to fend for himself. While Prototype's digestive system is vestigial - he doesn't need to eat to survive - he's an accomplished killer and it seems as though CatNap learned many of his hunting techniques from his mentor. It's likely that he would have learned to hunt the way young animals do - at first, Prototype hunts and kills all his food for him. Then Prototype brings back mostly-dead prey for CatNap to finish off. Then CatNap starts practicing his skills on small prey under Prototype's supervision, growing in confidence and competence until he no longer needs help, and then until he's fully self-sufficient.

But let's face it, Prototype is not exactly the world's most well-adjusted or morally upstanding individual. He's been imprisoned for decades. Tortured. Experimented on. He's deeply traumatised, his worldview irrevocably twisted in the name of survival. He's got a documented history of violence and as-yet-unquantified psychic abilities - the telepathy - that could be wreaking absolute havoc on his psyche. And CatNap is a young, impressionable mind who idolises him.

Now, we don't know how Prototype feels about the cult that's sprung up around him. It's entirely possible that he's thriving on it, that he's bought into his own mystique and begun to see himself as a god with the factory as his domain. @hrhowling came up with a fantastic theory along these lines, where CatNap's death is posed as a reward for faithful service - the opportunity to become part of his god and achieve immortality. A show of favour towards a loyal high priest. And if Prototype does appreciate the worship, honestly, this seems the most likely scenario to me.

But it's also just as possible that he's...not a fan.

It's a popular theory that "Ollie" is the Prototype, known to be a vocal mimic, using a child's voice to win the Player's trust. I vibe with this theory - Ollie's speech and tone is...not quite right, and there are multiple points where he sounds like his sentences are made up of different audio clips stitched together - stitched neatly, admittedly, but stitched nonetheless. That's very similar to the way we see Prototype stitching together words in different voices in his interview tape. Ollie's stitching is far less noticeable, but Prototype has had a long time to practice, and he's using the same voice - probably Theodore Grambell's, the child he's most familiar with - so it's not as obvious.

But if Ollie is the Prototype, that sheds a very different light on his character in general. Ollie is helping the Player. Ollie is known to Poppy and Kissy as an ally. Ollie opens up about CatNap, his history with the Prototype, and expresses obvious distaste around CatNap's religious zeal and tendency to kill anyone who opposes his mentor. If Ollie is the Prototype, it seems a lot more like he's a tired old soldier who's been made the unwilling messiah of a cult driven by isolation and insanity.

To add on to this, it's notable that Prototype doesn't seem to be hostile to the other experiments. In fact, his territory would likely be the safest place in the factory for the very small toys - with CatNap grown, he has no need to hunt or eat them, and although he's quite capable of killing anything in the factory, he seems to have no interest in attacking other Bigger Body apex predators. MLL openly hates and fears him, but Prototype has let her be for ten years, only coming to claim her once she's killed. He's openly benevolent to Huggy and CatNap. The only place we ever know him to have aimed his violence is at the scientists tormenting him and the children.

So yeah. Maybe he actually doesn't approve of CatNap's harcore religious leanings. Maybe he's disappointed at how their relationship has shifted over the years, from friendship to surrogate family to reluctant god and fanatical high priest. Maybe he's guiding and helping the Player in the hopes of finally putting an end to their collective imprisonment and misery. And when CatNap snaps - let's be honest, he does make it clear that the Player is intruding and gives them multiple warnings and opportunities to Get Out Of His Home Or Else - and tries to kill the Player, Prototype can't let that happen. He's forced to make a horrifying choice - the kid he loves the bones of, the only friend he had at his lowest points, or the instrument of his ultimate goal.

And we know the Prototype. He's willing to do terrible things in the name of what he believes is right. He massacred innocents along with the guilty during the Hour of Joy. He tells CatNap it's okay, he's done well, he can rest now...

And he does what has to be done.

3) CatNap's death was requested by CatNap

Let's be honest. CatNap is not doing well after that confrontation. He's probably mortally wounded, and he's facing a slow and agonizing death from - if not the player - his burns or his weakness or his inability to defend his own territory. I would not be surprised if the silent conversation between him and the Prototype involved CatNap asking his idol, his god, to please make the pain stop. To end it, quickly and cleanly. I think that would be a reasonable ask from anyone covered head to toe in terrible burns. And in this scenario, knowing there is no doctor that can treat, heal or gently euthanise CatNap, it would honestly be crueller for the Prototype to refuse him.

Anyway yeah I just. Think there's a lot of missing context added by remembering that Prototype is a telepath, and there is probably a conversation going on with CatNap before he dies. So this is my take on three different ways the death scene could be read.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

I want to write something long form about the teacher strikes and the state of education in England right now.

You’ll hear a lot of teachers in the coming days and weeks say they don’t want to strike, or they feel guilt about striking. I’ve thought about it, and I want to strike, and I don’t feel guilty, and I think I owe it to students to strike. Maybe not the ones I teach now, but the ones I might teach in five years time.

I owe it to some of the Y7s, 8s and 9s I taught last year who were deeply passionate about science. In particular, I’m think of the Y7s who loved our space topic, and may never get taught by a qualified physics teacher. I’m also thinking about the sort of country they’ll grow up in, the opportunities they’ll have and the future they deserve.

I can write some arguments within the liberal, capitalist context we live in,  for improving education, and specifically why pay and working conditions need to be improved for teachers and why striking is our only option. I know that’s not what a lot of you follow me for, but they may be persuasive if you know teachers or want to talk to people about why they should support the teacher strikes.

1)     There is a national shortage of teachers. This is a fact- we know a large number of teachers do not stay in the profession long term- 1/3 of teachers who trained in the last 10 years are no longer teaching. Other research suggests many of these teachers quit in the first 5 years of teaching. This year, we have struggled to recruit across secondary subjects. In subjects like maths, science, MFL, geography and more, the situation is especially dire- but this crisis is even starting to impact primary schools now. First and foremost, students are going without qualified, subject specialist teachers. In other professions, the Tories acknowledge high pay is needed to recruit suitable staff. Why not teaching- which after all requires a specialist degree and often a post graduate qualification too.

2)     This doesn’t just hurt individual students, it hurts the whole country, because it leaves us with a lack of people who are capable of becoming doctors, dentists, engineers, entering other health care professions, working in the STEM fields that are meant to drive our economy. Investing in education grows the economy long term, and is better for society as a whole.

3)     But it does also hurt the social mobility of individual students. Richer families can pay tutors, or go private to make up for deficiencies in teaching. But those from low income families can’t. Few parents have the time or ability to bridge the gap themselves.

4)     Furthermore, if we think about really vulnerable students- who, make no mistake will be used as a weapon against teachers during the strike- they benefit from well funded schools. They benefit from having consistent adults in their lives. They often take a long time to form relationships with staff. A revolving door of supply teachers (which is the reality in many secondary schools) really hurts them.

5)     Teachers struggle to negotiate pay for themselves. Many schools will baulk at the idea of a teacher negotiating on their own pay, and take deep offense, as if the idea of negotiating pay in a capitalist society when you have an unusual skill is totally unreasonable. So, teachers can only negotiate pay on a national scale. And because the government won’t sit down and negotiate, the only thing we can do is take industrial action.

6)     Ultimately, schools can’t afford to pay teachers well- so any pay rise needs to be fully funded. Again, hence strike action.

 We can say that the teacher shortage is about working conditions too- and it is, for sure. But it’s also true that the teacher shortage appears to be most acute where a teacher’s pay won’t stretch as far because accommodation costs and other costs are high.

I want to take a moment at this point to address the idea of “work to rule”- which doesn’t actually exist in English law, btw.

Action short of a strike in teaching would likely take the form of teachers not running clubs and trips, maybe refusing to do marking as well. These are all things that would negatively impact students, but have a totally negligible economic impact, if at all. It would, inevitably, drag on for months, because the government simply would not notice.

A teacher strike, ideally one that shuts a large number of schools, will have a noticeable impact on the economy, because some parents won’t be able to work or travel. Yes, it’s rubbish for parents, but the impact on students will genuinely be lower than weeks or months of action short of a strike. And it’s the only language the government will listen to, unfortunately.

 I want to talk also about what the Tories are doing to education. I alluded to this earlier, but I think it bears exploring specifically.

The Tories are destroying education. At this stage, I think it’s gone beyond neglect, into a deliberate policy to damage state education. They can’t say that out loud, of course, but why else, at a time of massive teacher shortages, would they cut teacher training places from 2024? Why else would they implement the ECT program in such a way it’s driving early career teachers out of teaching? Why else would they starve schools of funding to such an extent?

Why would the Tories do this?

I’ve got two possible theories for you.

One, they want a poor, uneducated underclass, with limited job prospects, in order to exploit them. And educating the working classes and providing them with opportunities for social mobility runs against that.

Two, some tories take a more eugenicist outlook, they think education is simply wasted on said “underclass”. That no amount of good education would improve the prospects of certain groups, so why bother?

Perhaps it’s a little of column a, a little of column b. Certainly, there are strong objections to teachers in state schools sharing opinions that might be contradictory to the governments’.

So I strongly believe this strike is to preserve the future of education.

 Obviously, if we consider the wider state of the country, there are lot of important reasons to join a wider worker’s movement. And I’m going to come back to that point about working conditions, because part of that is the shortage of funding in other public sector areas, meaning schools are asked to do more and more with less and less.

It’s increasingly clear Rishi Sunak’s Tories are both fascists and disaster capitalists, who are going to take what they can from this country before their party implodes. And you all know what I think of the political alternatives. It’s also true if we wait two years for an election, people will die- not least in A and E waiting rooms, or waiting for an ambulance.

The Tories are happy to let £42 Billion in tax go unpaid (largely by the rich and mega-corporations), and then they turn around and say there’s no money.

I genuinely think this wave of strikes could be the start of something- of meaningful political change that carries this country to the left. Maybe the some of the current union leaders will not push things far enough, but we are the union, so we must push further. And we can use this opportunity to really influence the UK political landscape, and build solidarity for a mass worker’s union.

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

how do the m6 act when they're feeling petty??? and how does mc deal with it?

The Arcana HCs: M6 being petty

~ how do I begin to say how much I love writing about these lovely characters being typically human? Thanks for the prompt anon, enjoy! - brainrot ~

Julian

He acts petty about the smaller things as a way of being silly. He can hold onto a hurt, but he prefers to deal with that stuff more directly

You see it come out the most with his younger sister Pasha

She'll be rolling her eyes at him, telling him he's an idiot and she doesn't need his help

He'll be cleaning up after dinner with her and put everything away on the top shelves

She'll get annoyed and start telling him to pull them back down for her: "I know you know what you're doing wrong, Ilya!"

"What's that? I'm just your idiot older brother, Pasha, since when do I know what I'm doing?"

"I mean it! Take them down for me now, you know I can't reach up there!"

"I thought you didn't need my help."

He'll be giving her his usual rogueish grin, casually dodging her swipes at his kneecaps as he pulls everything back down

He wants to get his point across though, so he'll use the opportunity to reorganize her kitchen while she's distracted

Now the dish towels are in the oven and the sugar and salt are mixed up. He might even dose Pepi with some catnip on the way out

Asra

For someone with such a chillaxed approach to life, they are surprisingly easy to annoy

And yes, he gets petty when he's irritated

It rarely happens with you (usually when you're trying to annoy them on purpose), and then his petty retaliation prank is just for show (or to make a gentle point)

But if it's someone being genuinely maddening, maybe a Karen in the market place or a self-important jerk cutting in line?

Barely detectable spells designed to make them question reality in a decidedly unpleasant, but harmless way

The Karen screaming about the pumpkin bread being overbaked is suddenly under a 30 minute enchantment that makes her say the opposite of what she intends to

You've never heard anyone serve compliments so angrily: "Exceptional service! This bread is flawless! You're not being unreasonable, I am!" All while slowly turning purple with rage

And oh no, look at that, the guy who shouldered his way in front of you moments ago just made a beeline for the public lavatory, almost like he has sudden diarrhea

"Oh no, MC," Asra whispers quietly in your ear, dimples dancing, "Oh nooo ..."

Nadia

She gets petty when she feels like she's been insulted or underestimated

It's not her best look, but she has a lot of pent-up resentment about feeling constantly humiliated by her older sisters

So of course, that's what she does to the unfortunate nobleman who tries to mansplain his way out of taking care of his tenants in front of her court

She'll pull out the file of information she's gathered and grill him with no mercy: "You currently own 4 properties valued at ____, correct? And you charge your tenants ____ per month?"

You watch him go pale and gulp, "er, yes, Countess. But with the rain, building costs-"

"Your maintenance to date is estimated at costing you ____, leaving over 50 separate complaints unaddressed, some of which are several years old. If my numbers are correct, (and they are always correct, nobleman) you still have _____ in profits. That should easily cover the estimated ____ required to restore acceptable living conditions. I expect to receive a glowing report from your tenants next quarter. Will there be any issues?"

She usually feels guilty afterwards, but you can't blame her. It's just so gratifying

Muriel

He can hold a grudge, but his brand of petty is hard to notice until you get to know him better

It'll only happen with people he trusts, when they do something he disapproves of

For example, the time Asra visited and decided to feed the chickens some breadcrumbs soaked in mead. Just for fun

Watching tipsy poultry stagger and drunkenly cluck around your front yard was hilarious, but also a little sad

And Muriel doesn't appreciate it when someone disrespects nature. Even Asra

He'll sulk. It's a little comedic to watch a full grown man give someone the cold shoulder and huff and stomp his way around the hut, but it's surprisingly effective

Especially when Inanna joins in, skulking by his side and shooting the occasional disdainful glare

Asra crumbles when Faust sides with them, riding on Inanna's back and blepping at her master reproachfully

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have -" *giggle* "I shouldn't have intoxicated your chickens! It was very rude of me."

Really the apology is all Muriel wants, he'll stop sulking and maybe laugh about it later

Portia

She gets petty when someone comments on an insecurity of hers without meaning to

Being the younger sister of a charismatic older brother means that she *hates* being compared to him

She'll be enjoying drinks with you one evening at the Rowdy Raven, and one of the local regulars will make the wrong comment

"Hey, it's Devorak's little sister! Look at you carrying all those drinks, I bet you can hold your liquor almost as well as he can."

Uh oh. It's on.

She'll turn, smiling sweetly, and challenge him to a drinking contest in front of the whole tavern. He'll need help getting home

She won't stop there, either. After that it's arm wrestling, darts, even an insult war in which you hear some of the most creative roasts you've ever come across

All as her Nevivon accent gets thicker and thicker, curls flying and eyes sparking with triumph as she demolishes poor fool after poor fool

She'll be embarrassed about getting so carried away the next morning while she's nursing her hangover

It's worth it because Julian is now known at the Raven as "Miss Portia's older brother"

Lucio

In the same way that he only throws his tantrums cathartically, his pettiness is his other method of handling his short temper

On one hand, you're proud of him. It's a big improvement from ordering someone's execution because he didn't like what they said about him

On the other hand, it's hard to take him seriously when his response to an unwelcome comment is to mimick it back in their faces because he can't come up with a witty comeback

He'll be passing back by a merchant he tried to haggle with earlier when their shop assistant makes a friendly jab at him

"Hey, Mr Adventurer! You back for that deal, or is it still too much?"

He'll barely miss a beat spluttering before he whirls around and responds in a squeaky mocking voice at the top of his lungs:

"Hey shopkeep! You back for that deal, or am I still too much?"

Apparently, the teenaged assistant in question is gifted in both good humor and snark. There's a crowd gathering for the free entertainment and it's fueling both of them

Neither of them seem afraid of being immature in public so you wait it out at the nearby tea stand until they're satisfied

(If you liked Lucio's part, I highly recommend the meme my lovely mutual sent me based off of it here)

[kit-williams]

Hello! The Cuckoo Anon is back again!

Something more Fluffy with some existentialism sprinkled in I've had stewing in my mind. Could also be interpretted as soft yandere. Hope you enjoy.

You'd never considered getting an Astarte, and quite frankly you'd have to admit it came down to both reasonable and unreasonable factors.

Reasonable being cost, both in time and finance. Even if most Space Marines could care for their own basic needs, you'd feel bad if you couldn't provide other enrichments. Art Supplies and Makeup for Emperors Children or Blood Angels, a proper training area for World Eaters and War Hounds, nests dark and secluded enough for Night Lords or Raven Guard. All things to consider when bringing home a new large friend.

Even if you weren't financing a personal sparring ring in your back yard there would be fees and regulations to consider, not to mention travel to and from these places alongside your already cramped schedule.

In less reasonable factors, or so you thought them to be, was fear.

Dying to an Astarte was seen much like dying to the mishandling of an exotic pet or by an unfortunate encounter with a wild animal.

At worst more onus seemed put on the human for poor decision making, at best it was deemed a tragic accident that nothing much could be done about in the aftermath.

There was still culling of known human killers. And your mind wrestled not with the morality of putting down a dangerous being, but how strange it seemed for such powerful intelligent beings to be at odds with their niche.

Some feral, some domestic, some neither, yet all of them...all of them had to be human on Some level right?

They're just larger, and speak differently, but all are hominid forms under that ceramite so why...why-

You could feel your brain starting to hurt, as it often did when these thoughts surfaced.

Well right now you didn't want to think deep hard thoughts about the mysterious beings you shared the world with.

Instead you were going to let your skates do the thinking for you, and let your brain get swept along in a sea of bright colors, cheesy music and dancing on wheels.

Your local roller rink wasn't as close as you might like it, but the drive was worth it so you could practice your hobby. After a long hiatus due to personal life things, you needed to clear your head with some mindless fun.

While not a professional by any means you'd become a regular here, and you have to say, you picked up some nice tricks over the years.

As you walked in the place was a buzz with the weekend crowd. Sunday might be the less busy of the two days, but there was still a lively population within.

You didn't mind though, the rink was actually a place you preferred to visit while busy. Too few people and it just felt dead, too many and you'd struggle to not feel overwhelmed.

Truly, the perfect happy medium.

...aside from the hulking Astartes accompanying their various humans both on and off the skating floor.

This was something you were used to at this point, but it still felt awkward maneuvering not just around regular sized people, but their gigantic body guards, especially when you needed the restroom and already had your skates on.

Then there were the times children would approach you asking how to do certain tricks. Explaining to a child how you learned to skate backwards was already difficult with the loud music, now you had to sweat under the intense gaze of their family Space Marine keeping an unflinching eye on you.

And don't even get started about the encounters you had accidentally bumping Into others.

People are clumsy, people on wheels even moreso, and you'd be a damn rich fool if somebody paid you for everytime you narrowly avoided a child with no situational awareness while on your own set of wheels.

Now multiply the fear of harming someone else by accident, by the fear of an angry protective space marine seeking retribution. Not a fun concept.

Fortunately, any mishaps you did have hadn't ended with a bolter stuck in your face or a chain sword through your spine. The rinks owners didn't allow weapons on the premises.

You supposed most human and astarte were intelligent enough to understand that a roller rink carries a higher than average risk of collision.

"Thank the throne for that." You muttered with a chuckle, using a phrase common enough amongst Astartes to have been translated. You pondered what kind of throne deserved such reverence, as you slipped on your pads and skates.

Once geared up, you stood, and with practiced ease carried your bag to the cubbies.

But now a new issue. The lower cubbies were full, you'd have to stretch to get your bag into the higher ones.

Shuffling onto your toe stops, you clumsily lifted your duffel bag upwards. Your balance was well enough, but it was a strain, and your bag seemed to protest by sagging down against your lifting, like a wet sack trying to fall out of your hands rather than overwhelm you with weight.

Which is exactly what Almost happened as your next bid to push/throw the bag into the desired cubby resulted in it bouncing and falling back to you.

If not for a large magenta ceremite hand coming over your head and catching the duffel with ease.

Your surprise was palpable, as you slowly turned your gaze; sliding up the arm to the hulking shadow behind you.

Note to self, don't wear both earbuds while distracted Ever again.

The magenta and gold clad space marine met your gaze. His helmeted face betrayed no emotion, and despite the chorus of the skating rink around you, it felt like all you could here was his breathing. Just that raspy...Breathing behind the mask.

Surely, he could hear your heart hammering, as he stood above you, arm still holding the duffel bag you'd been struggling with a moment prior against the cubbies.

More or less holding you against the cubbies as well.

Neither of you moved.

...

........

..................

Okay you couldn't take it anymore. "Can...can I help you?" You asked, trying to swallow the nerves that made your throat tight.

The marine, Emperor's Child your brain noted, twitched from his stillness and actually looked...surprised?

If you hadn't known any better you'd think he was just a stunned as you were a moment ago. As stunned as fully armored astartes could look anyway.

The minor expression passed in a moment, before he simply pushed it the rest of the way into the high cubby.

He said something in his Gothic tongue, seemingly an apology, then turned on his massive heel to walk back towards a small group of mostly other Emperor's Children.

As he left you found your voice. "Uh hey!"

The Astarte turned for a brief moment.

"Th-Thank you! I appreciate the help!" You called brightly over the music, making sure to smile inspite of your still frayed nerves. You even gave the big fella two thumbs up incase he didn't understand.

And then your embarassment won out and you quickly hurried onto the skating floor with your face burning and heart racing for an all New reason. 

Maybe...maybe having an Astarte wouldn't be so bad.

---

Meanwhile the space marine returned to his group of battle brothers. They'd discovered this recreational location, and more or less set up operations here after their leader bonded to one of the business's owners.

The influx of humans and their space marines made it an ideal location to conduct trades of goods and information.

While their situation was...unorthodox, I Ithio couldn't find it in himself to raise complaint.

His brother's were content, some even more so having found their bonds. He wouldn't deny he'd felt a certain yearning for that closeness. And now he may never get a chance to Feel that with how he'd fumbled his introduction.

"So...your little Bird of Paradise has finally reappeared." Salvali chortled.

Matisse chimed in. "They seemed to take the encountee better than you did brother! Regardless, I think a celebration is in order tonight!"

"Please stop," Ithio groaned, embarassed though he was grateful the humans around them couldn't understand nor see his burning face.

All he had to do was say Hello, and he couldn't even do that!

He'd tried So Hard to restrain himself when he'd seem them walk in. After so long of not seeing them he feared he'd have to take drastic measures to find them.

But they just Strolled back into his life and in turn he'd Strolled over, intending to help when the perfect moment had presented itself. Practically a gift wrapped golden opportunity to make himself known to his Bird of Paradise.

And he Froze. Frozen up! Iced over the moment their eyes met. By the throne and stars above he wanted to melt into the floor.

"Ah don't feel too bad, there's always next time." Salvali assured patting him on the back.

But would there be?! What if you were so put off you never came back. He'd have to find you, he Wouldn't live without you the way he had the first time you vanished. He couldn't take that! He couldn't-

"Uh Hey!" Ithio broke from his dooming and turned back to see you, calling to him.

Marines in general may not have the best grasp of the ancient terran languages, but Emperors Children are not general Marines. Language is but another artform, and Emperor's Children Pride themselves on their art.

"Th-Thank you! I appreciate the help!" Your sweet voice reassured him, your smile though unsteady was so genuine. You even gestured with your thumbs to show your approval before you scurried to the skating floor.

With his superior sight, and the aid from his helmets tech he could read the blush on your face, the race of your heart. All the other noise faded into the back of his mind as he replayed your words and watched you take the floor.

Oh...oh sweet Bird of Paradise.

FINALLY GETTING TO THIS ASK

I mean I think anything I write gets interpreted as soft yandere because that's what I'm good at. We will see where this goes if he gets thrown into the non canon husbandry (because that seems to be where the yandere husbandry boys and stupid sexy Gabriel hang out)

Husbandry Taglist: @egrets-not-regrets @liar-anubiass-blog

You tried not to think too hard when you skated. Enjoying going round and round doing a few tricks just simple ones and you only fell onto your ass twice. But now you were probably about to eat wall as you skated to not run over a fallen child and you were moving so fast.

You still hit something hard but the way you're scooped up as well decreases the momentum you feel as if you just slammed into the wall or the other barrier. You feel weightless for a moment as you hear the whirl of your skate wheels still go as you brought your arms to your chest to try and minimize the impact damage. You look up at the ceiling with owlish eyes as you look up at green eye lenses that are looking down at you.

Ithio felt his hearts beating hard as he moved fast to get to his Bird of Paradise from smashing into the wall and getting bruised. He feels you move in his arms as you look at the small child who started this all... who was pulled out of the way but not fast enough that you nearly fell over them as you just close your eyes as Ithio watches you lay back in his arms coming down from the rush of adrenaline. The skate ref skates on over to make sure you're fine.

"Yeah I'm fine thanks to the Astarte." You say just patting the twin headed eagle on his breastplate and Ithio feels his hearts flutter happily. You lean on him as the referee skates off and she tries to hop out his arms and Ithio selfishly keeps you just a bit too high for you to feel comfortable to leave his arms. "Um... hey big guy?" You say nervously as the blank look of the helm looking down at her was bringing back that itch in the back of her head...

Ithio was starting to feel nervous... and his mind started to race again... what if she was already bonded? What if she didn't want him around. He feels his mind race and everything about him simultaneously melt as he was actually holding his beautiful Bird of Paradise... sure the dyes at the tips of her hair had faded but they were still so vibrant in his mind.

"Brother... are you okay?" Ithio heard Salvali over the vox.

"I'm fine." He lied as easily as he breathed. As he put her down.

"Well this is twice you helped me out... um I could buy you a drink?" You say trying to not feel the danger that being stared down by an Astartes brings.

"I never..." He finally speaks and his voice is so airy, "never got to tell you how pretty your hair was dyed when I saw you last here." He was happy he finally managed to tell the beautiful bird of paradise that of course her feathers were pretty... how marvelous she looked with her hair long and splayed against her back like a colorful bird's tail.

You smiled up at him not expecting that answer.

Salvali, Matisse, and the others watched from a distance.

"He's doing it... he's doing it!" Matisse said laughing softly.

"Well he's finally talking verses standing there holding her awkwardly." Salvali says as he watches Ithio put her down and her eyes seemed to be focused on him as she talks.

"Do you think it's a bond or just affection?" Matisse asks out loud to no one really but Salvali just shrugs.

"Does it matter? Feels like it's been ages since Ithio has been happy and see him fawn over a pretty bird makes me feel like we've got our brother back. Well it's almost time for Astartes skating are you going to try?" Salvali changes the topic and teases his brother. As the two laugh leaving Ithio to continue to cling to the words of his little bird.

[notdexterousatall]

An angst idea that I really love when it comes to Batman and Jason Todd is Bruce (and/or other people) separating the idea of Jason-the-boy-wonder and Jason-the-Red-Hood into two different people. Not in, like, an identity-reclaiming way on Jason's part, but in a hurtful, delusional way against Jason's wishes. Jason always having known himself as himself, but Bruce being unable to handle the idea of his son coming back "wrong", killing people, and coming to believe that this man, the Red Hood, must not really be his son.

An aside - here's a fic series rec if that's something you also like: Abraham Fails His Test by chucklesbuckles on Ao3. It's very good.

So I've got a fic idea I'm putting together for this premise:

Batman, the various Robins/Batgirls, perhaps even the Justice League, are fighting some sort of large-scale threat. In the course of this, Bruce does something to, presumably, earn the gratitude of one of DC's Greek gods. This god/goddess tells Bruce that in exchange, they will grant him a gift - a son for a son. (Let's say Bruce saved the life of one of their demigod children at the cost of injury to himself.) And so, after the battle is over, they snap their fingers and before the Justice League appears Jason. Jason as Robin, specifically, as he was before the bomb went off. Still gravely injured but not so much that he couldn't live with prompt medical care - the son that Bruce had lost.

Meanwhile, off to the side, stands the Red Hood, who still isn't really on speaking terms with his family but agreed to help out with the threat (secretly hoping to rebuild a few bridges he'd burned, as he's been doing for a few months at that point.)

Now, the god/goddess who does this isn't someone inherently untrustworthy, like Eris. This is a deity with a good(ish) reputation. Someone who could actually pull a miracle like that off with just a snap of their fingers. Maybe Zeus, Hades, Athena, Hera, Hestia, or Aphrodite. (It's a bit hard to pick Hera... because of her whole THING with demigods, or one of the virgin goddesses, if I go with the "saving a demigod son" idea, but they could be made to work.) Either way, someone with a bent towards justice, family, or love. Believable granters of the gift of returning a dead son to life. (I'm leaning towards Hades.)

(Note: this is the point at which I admit I know nearly nothing about DC's Greek gods other than what their Wikipedia articles includes, so I'm probably leaning hard on more Percy Jackson type depictions of the gods and what Wikipedia says about their actual depiction in ancient Greek myths. I feel no guilt in ignoring whatever DC comics says except for what I like. Maybe this is where I go with my Jason-Todd-son-of-Aphrodite-AU?)

So everyone looks at Robin!Jason, seemingly brought back from the dead by the god of the dead, and at Red Hood!Jason, murderer and breaker of his family's hearts, and goes, "oh, the Red Hood is an imposter! That makes sense, considering everything about him." Then someone arrests Red Hood for all those murders he committed (and also for impersonating Robin.)

Red Hood gets carted off to Arkham and Bruce gets his presumably-real Jason to the hospital, to be joyfully reunited with his father, older brother, and new younger siblings (although Tim may be older than him since he's about fifteen, and Cass is also older than him but is in Hong Kong, probably.)

Red Hood Jason knows he's the real deal, however. (At least, he thinks he is. Right? Holy identity crisis, Batman!) Shortly thereafter, he breaks out of Arkham and sneaks back to the manor to confront imposter Robin in the dead of night.

But imposter Robin seems to know everything Jason did when he died. And he acts just like Jason did when he was still a stupid fifteen year old. And he's just as horrified by the Red Hood as Jason always figured he-as-Robin would be if Jason ever got punted backwards in time (not an unreasonable confrontation to fear, Jason tells himself, considering the multiversal road trip bullshit he recently had with Donna and Kyle.) Jason is almost convinced.

And then imposter Robin tells Jason that, considering how Jason as the Red Hood has let his anger and hatred consume him, he has decided to forgive the Joker.

And that's BULLSHIT. Jason's identity crisis is over - he's 100% positive that Robin is an imposter. Because Jason, especially right after his beat down in Ethiopia, would NEVER forgive the Joker. Because the Joker is evil, and Jason knows that he can't forgive evil and live with himself.

But Jason has to leave or he'll get arrested again - and now that Batman doesn't think he's his son, he won't be pulling punches, especially if he catches him near his "baby". So Jason heads for the one person he knows will believe him: Talia, because of her involvement in Jason's real resurrection.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Bat clan are desperate to (re-)form their familial bonds with the REAL Jason Todd. But, while they don't know it, over time, it becomes clear that the new Jason isn't a gift. He's a punishment - a lesson - a haunting - for failing to show sufficient gratitude for the return of a lost son from the grave.

(Because of the BATARANG, Bruce, Hades let Jason go for reasons-to-be-revealed and you try to send him right back??)

[magnusbae]

"surprise i have feelings and you just hurt them" is so good

Thank you anon-dearest! 🥰🥰🥰

As I was given free reign, and also was too unreasonable for self control—I didn't only write it way longer than it should have been (250w per prompt LOL) I also fully rewritten in afterwards :')

Obikin || 1,500w || Obi-Wan & Anakin formed a new Force Bond and Obi-Wan has to deal with an increase in Force Migraines poor man

▾▾▾

“Surprise, I have feelings and you just hurt them.” Anakin spits the words out angrily, punctuating each word with a sharp hand gesture.

There’s heat rolling off of him in waves, it’s a tangible thing in the Force to anyone who is even mildly attuned to it. Even small living organisms would try and stir clear from someone so prominent in the force while they’re emitting such waves of emotions. It’s unsettling to all who is untrained, unable to recognize where and why the thing they are sensing is coming from. To someone who had even just begun their training, this would be a deafening roar. As for Obi-Wan, who had happened to share a somewhat-training-but-not-bond with said individual…. It’s destructively overwhelming.

There’s a pulsing migraine building up at Obi-Wan’s temples, swiftly spreading in pulses of pain through his forehead and head, blearing his vision in a way that is usually reserved to extreme battle fatigue. Obi-Wan’s patience is not only thinned out, but fully gone by this point. The pain, and the previously failed mission do not help. Anakin’s need to prove himself had cost them an important battle and speaking of Anakin’s feelings is truly not the thing they should be concerned most with—

“I think it’s hardly a surprise Anakin” he hears himself say more than he actually thinks through the words, he hardly manages to care as much as he probably should given how violate Anakin anyways is. “You are, more than less, hammering them against the minds of anyone unfortunate enough to be within the standard hour distance from us.”

Anakin’s mouth snaps open, there’s blotchy redness across his cheeks, he seems to not find the words to describe precisely how angry Obi-Wan’s word just made him. Silencing Anakin would be a feat to be commended on a normal day, if only that was true for his Force Signature as well. A fresh wave of emotions crush against his battered shields, straining them beyond their capacity.

The moment he feels the first crack run through, is the same moment they collapse completely.

Anger, hurt, betrayal, and…

Obi-Wan’s mind is momentarily blinded by the whirlpool of emotions washing over and sucking his own mind in. There’s too much of it, all at once, all different. The indignant anger, the vulnerable hurt, the deep sense of being abandoned and uncared for, the—

Obi-Wan whimpers silently. It’s a sharp exhale more than anything, yet it’s more than enough to alert Anakin. He might have found it endearing, how quickly Anakin’s attention had shifted from himself to him, if not for the crushing wave of new emotions, even more absolute in their intensity.

Worry, anxiety, fear, anger, confusion, fear, worry—

Obi-Wan feels like he might lose his mind within them.

“Stop,” he snaps at same time as Anakin had reached out for him. The boy pulls his hand away as if hit. Obi-Wan should care for this, care for how he feels more than how he himself feels at the moment….

Hurt, confusion, anger, hurt— anxiety, fear— fear—

Anakin’s emotions spiral into a deeper, more violent vortex of darkness, a never ending cycle, one emotion swallowing the tail of its predecessor, being reborn into the next one, each time bigger, stronger.

Oh Force. Obi-Wan thinks in desperation.This is too much.

“Master?” Anakin’s Force Signature is dripping fear, there’s an urgency to it that centers Obi-Wan enough to realize, with great shame, that his own pain started bleeding through their not-quite-training-bond— or…Force Bond, if he was honest enough. Call a Bantha a Bantha.

“Master, what is wrong, why are you…?” he reaches for him again, stopping quickly and retrieving his hand away. Anakin opening and closing his fist draws Obi-Wan’s attention. He looks like he’s about to blow up, and that, Obi-Wan knows, is something that would certainly echo even louder in the Force.

“Anakin please,” he reaches out to him, despite the inherent risk of touch increasing the intensity of the Bond. He must balance the boy long enough to give himself the opportunity to gather his shields into anything resembling those of a Jedi Master. That, or leave. He is not pained enough to be that cruel. Doesn’t ever plan to be. He braces himself instead.

“Dear One,” his knuckles touch Anakin’s cheek briefly, the word of endearment is strained, forced to some degree. It’s the one that never fails to get a reaction, uncover a meeker, more gentle side of Anakin. “You are deafening me” he gives the Bond a light, barely there nudge.

Anakin jumps at that as if zapped. Eyes wide, his face shifts through a number of complex thoughts, faster than what could register or broadcast emotionally through the Bond.

Suddenly, the storm is gone. What Anakin calls shields and Obi-Wan chides as only a suggestion of such is now a durasteel tight and not leaking anywhere. The silence that follows is deafening in its own right. He has to muffle the groan of relief, not wanting to rile Anakin again

“Thank you.” Obi-Wan smiles, pained. He knows that the migraine will only worsen now that it was set off, he still can appreciate not being radiated by a small sun through it, though.

“Excellent shielding, Padawan.” He sounds sarcastic even to his ears, even though he doesn’t mean to be. Anakin doesn’t react to it, looking more troubled than angry now, a deep crease between his eyebrows.

“I’m…” Anakin bite his lower lip, still fuller than most despite him well and truly out of his teenage years. Obi-Wan should not be noticing those things. “I didn’t mean to…” his cheeks are darker now, he looks ashamed. The aftertaste of Anakin’s emotion’s linger in Obi-Wan’s mind. Guilt. The last clear emotion Obi-Wan managed to decipher. Guilt for hurting him.

“I know.” Obi-Wan says curtly, he hopes that not unkindly. “I’d appreciate it if we could discuss the matter when I’m a little less…” he gestures at himself with what he hopes is the appropriate amount of self deprecation. There’s many reasons for Anakin’s lack of control, not all are good, but he still is a knight, still is learning.

There’s not a single good excuse for his own lack of mastery of himself.

“Obi-Wan, the Bond—” Anakin starts, disregarding Obi-Wan’s request in favor of what to his mind, is no bound far more urgent. The Bond. It had taken months for Obi-Wan to notice, the budding start of something new, growing in a different place than the long severed training Bond, developing over the months spent on joint missions on this endless war.

It seems that, as Obi-Wan had suspected, Anakin had managed to miss it out entirely.

“Not now, Anakin.” Obi-Wan’s voice sharpens, he should feel more guilt for the way Anakin’s shoulders jump up and tense.

“Fine, whatever…” Anakin mutters, looking away, glancing back and then away again. “Feel better.” He says with more hesitation than such a simple wish should warrant for. This time, Obi-Wan feels the full extent of guilt. He was too strict with him, those past few months were strained beyond what either one of them had wanted. He needs to speak with him, properly, make amends, properly.

Not now though, not while his head is splitting into two and his Force Signature is shaking after Anakin ground it so relentlessly. Knowing that Anakin didn’t mean to, doesn’t change the reality of things, his Force Signature can be downright oppressive if left unchecked. It’s not so felt when he himself is in the state for proper shields, however the repeated missions, the lack of sleep and the loss of the recent planet… were factors that are hard to ignore.

He needs to rest. He needs to meditate. Then he’ll be fine.

Obi-Wan refuses to acknowledge, even now, that what would bring the most immediate relief would be severing the Bond. Today showcased just how dangerous it is, how out of control it is, how out of Obi-Wan’s control it is. It all makes sense, any one following logic would have done it. A bond developed without their conscious choice in the matter, one that is not appreciate for Jedi to have.

The only thing that makes sense, is to end it. Yet this is the only thing that Obi-Wan will not do, is unwilling to do. He will not severe another Bond with Anakin. The consequences of the first time still too fresh in his own mind. Both for their relationship and…himself.

“Thank you, Anakin.” he says politely, hoping that he looks more collected than what he feels like. He refuses to think of this further for today. Giving Anakin the barest of hand waves, he turns and walks off.

He needs to rest. He needs to meditate. Then, he’ll be fine…

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for refusing to empty the food waste bin every single day?

I (22f) am a uni student sharing a flat with three other friends. As most people will be finding at the moment, we're having a real problem with fruit flies. Not like an infestation or anything, just enough of them around the flat to be annoying. Our flat sits over a pizza shop and our kitchen window looks out over all the bins which I think makes the problem worse.

To begin with, we tried keeping our food waste bin (one of those small countertop ones) by the door outside. It made a small difference but not enough to justify how annoying it was to go down the stairs each time we wanted to throw away a teabag or an apple core, so we voted 3:1 to put it back in the kitchen. The minority voter (22f), let's call her Jane, suggested that we instead empty the food waste bin every single day.

Me and another flatmate, let's call her Debbie, said we were fine if she wanted to do that herself but that we didn't want to do it too. We have a bin rotor in the flat and each of us has a particular day on which we're supposed to empty any bins that are full. Jane was proposing that the food waste bin gets emptied every day regardless of how full it was. For context, it usually takes the four of us 3-4 days to fill up the bin. We said that we didn't see the point as it wouldn't make enough of a difference to bother, and we didn't want to waste the biodegradable binbags by going through 1 a day as they're expensive.

Jane got really upset that we refused to cooperate, even though we emphasised that we had no problem with her taking on the extra labour and costs herself, accusing us of ignoring her particular comfort needs. We said we didn't think it was fair to ask us to go above and beyond what is considered normal for the sake of her comfort, but she claimed that it was normal to empty a food waste bin every day (despite the fact it would take a family a good few days to fill one up) and that this was how her family had always done it (even though she'd been happy until now with just emptying it whenever it gets full). She implied that me and Debbie were dirty or had low standards for being able to tolerate the "smell" even though there was no smell at all and as far as we were concerned the issue had always been related to the fruit flies.

After a long discussion, which I guess got a little tense or passive aggressive in places, but there were no raised voices or anything like that, we agreed to disagree and we left it by saying that Jane could empty it each day if she wanted to but that the rest of us weren't going to empty it on our days unless it was full. I thought it was a bit annoying but ultimately not that deep as these sorts of spats are just part of living with other people. However it soon became apparent that Jane took it a lot more personally than either Debbie or I as she didn't speak to either of us for three days. When she eventually did speak, she asked if we could sit down to have a Talk and basically said that she felt like we had been overly harsh (even though all we had done is disagree with her) and that she wanted an apology. We had a civil discussion about it where we asked for her to tell us specifically what we had said or done that was harsh, she couldn't give us any examples, so then we explained that we weren't going to apologise as we didn't feel like we had done anything to apologise for but that we weren't annoyed at her or anything as sometimes in life people disagree about things and that's just normal. And also this whole thing is about a bin which is just ridiculous (though we didn't say that).

We felt like the discussion was civil and productive but afterwards Jane cried to our other flatmate, let's call him Harry (who isn't taking sides) and apparently is really upset that we didn't apologise. Now she's back to not speaking with us. We feel like this has been blown out of all proportion but can't tell if we're truly being unreasonable.

Am I (/are we) the asshole(s)?

What are these acronyms?

[the-ghost-bracket]

VikingPilot propaganda:

"Unreliable narrator of all time, this FUCKED UP MESS OF A GHOST has sooooo much nonsense going on and going WRONG with him. This mans starts off as a tragic character whos unable to interact with ANYONE, but once he becomes semi-corporeal and is finally able to speak to others, this results in a LOT of problems for everyone else.

To simply name a few, he phases through things and jump-scares people any chance he gets, he went to unreasonable extremes in order to acquire an I.O.U. from a very powerful person (Legundo) that ultimately accidentally results in a mini apocalypse, he gets an I.O.U. from someone else (Fixxit) and just orders him to stop Legundo at all costs?, hes ALMOST canonically plural/two people, this bitch has a fucking insane underground vault (with like twelve full sets of netherite, a dimond and netherite throne, and its just spooky as hell), He probably has the best scary laugh i’ve ever heard, and hes ALWAYS up to mischief.

Oh also he tries to do some Dark Magic but isn’t capable of going through with it due to Legundo not properly following through with his I.O.U., and he decides to remind Legundo of this in the MOST mentally well adjusted way possible ( https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxbcBe_A7YYtt2K33_Rm4V71SG0sqdnEY_ ).

Anyways thats most of the major nonsense I can think of for right now so uhhh! Enjoy the VikingPilot propaganda and please remember you are NEVER immune to Bell Noises!"

"Lovely unreliable narrator who loves jumpscaring his friends."

"quote from the ghosty boy himself. ""what do the interest rates look like on your word?"""

"he's a ghost. he has no memories. his soul got torn asunder by an evil magic book. he's trying to do a ritual from the evil magic book that split him in half so that he can get his memories back. he's a sneaky bastard who's double crossing everyone else on the server. he makes a lot of really terrible jokes. he (canonically!) says trans rights. vikingpilot you agree reblog."

"split color scheme. unreliable narrator. plural swag. committed tax fraud."

"Viking is a ghost haunting the world of Dominion SMP! For a long time, he was merely an observer— no one could see him, no one could hear him, he couldn’t interact with anything; no one knew he even existed. That was, I until the members of Dominion killed the Ender Dragon. This changed… something… in the world, and caused him to be visible, audible, and (mostly) tangible.

From there, he made a haunted graveyard, spooked people by sneaking up on them and shouting ‘Bell noises!!’, had a totally normal and not at all unhinged response to (one) asking for a favor, and (two) following up on that favor when it had not yet been kept, and he built a creepy mansion! He also plays piano!

He’s not sure how or when he died, but he feels certain that he was someone important. At some point in the time he was a ghost, he somehow got his hands on a book, which contains different rituals, and apparently, the contents of this book broke his mind, somewhat splitting it in two, and possibly being the source of his amnesia. Notably, the book contains a ritual that would allow him to regain his memories, and this has been his main objective for most of the series."

"ghost of ALL TIME. haunted his friends for months before they suddenly became able to see him. walks through walls. has world's most evil nervous laugh. knows exactly where his hinges are buried. unreliable narrator. has an underground vault full of diamonds and expensive armor, including a throne made of netherite. causes shenanigans on purpose. lived in an underground graveyard and then a haunted mansion. monologued for 11 minutes about wanting to do dark magic in order to necromancy himself and cure his amnesia. very pluralcoded. won round 1 of a sexyman bracket despite being a niche character. the most guy/ghost of all time forever"

"i haven’t actually watched dominion,,, but like. i keep seeing this funky little unreliable narrator ghost man on my dash sometimes. so fuck yeah."

"He’s just a silly little ghost guy!"

[batrachised]

saw these tags from @the-piper-and-the-lion and I want to give my two cents, but I also suspected it would get long.

I think you've hit the nail on the head for Robin, and my theory is there is a very similar explanation for Andrew. Robin was spoiled growing up, the golden child, very young and relatively sheltered, and had someone who catered to her every need and want. This is what she brings in with her to her marriage.

So, what about Andrew? Well, I think the answer is in a line from Aunt Irene: "I've always been more like a mother to him than a sister." As others have pointed out, we get very little insight into Andrew and Irene's life, but what is made repeatedly clear is that Irene is to Andrew what the Grandmother is to Robin. It manifests in a different yet (almost) equally insidious form.

Andrew is selfish, has been petted over his entire life, has also had his every need and wanted catered to, and really could also be seen as the golden child as well. This is what he brings in with him to his marriage. As you indicate, the war trauma also plays a huge role here in my opinion. I don't think Andrew was exaggerating when he talked about his first impression of Robin, despite the flowery language. He was desperately grasping onto anything that was not the war, specifically anything that was the opposite of blood and filth of the war, and one of the first people he sees? Robin.

Andrew's deal is that he did not understand that he was marrying a person in her own right. He was marrying an escape route. This is not to say that Andrew was not actually in love with Robin; it's more to say he saw all the shiny parts of her - and that was it.

So you take that, and you combine it with what Andrew is bringing to the marriage - selfishness and unreasonable expectations - and you combine it with what Robin is bringing to the marriage - naivety and unreasonable expectations - and you get one hot mess. Both Andrew and Robin were taught what love is like by Aunt Irene and the grandmother, respectively. Andrew seems to be more well-rounded in his views because he wasn't as sheltered as Robin, but at heart that influence is there.

Robin is described as spoiled, but what's unstated is that Andrew was too. It's implied in almost everything he does. He expects his marriage to be about him. He expects Robin to focus on him. Of course he's going to be mad about a baby; it means he's not the center of attention anymore. On top of that, if we want to leap into more speculative territory, we also have his reaction by seeing the medal from the war over a decade later; I can only imagine what living with him must have been like when he was fresh off the battlefield and beginning to really grapple with what he'd seen.

And, very importantly, in the midst of this hot mess, in the midst of everything crashing down, you have Aunt Irene. She's picking apart Robin - and she's definitely affirming Andrew. Yes, Robin is being unreasonable. Yes, she's being hysterical about Jane's health. Yes, she's spending too much time with her baby; good thing I was there to help get supper on the table. She's fanning the flames of Andrew's pride and driving every wedge she can find between him and his family.

This is not at all to excuse Andrew's behavior here. He should have been capable of taking that millimeter step of recognizing Irene's toxicity, but he likes that Irene affirms him and pets over him, and his self-centeredness blinds him. It blinds him, and in the end, it costs him everything.

As for who Andrew is...I think Andrew was the cocky, confident man in uniform who was charming and knew it. He also wasn't just a blowhard; he was intelligent and sharp. He writes political commentary and gets along well with everyone. He's shown to be a pretty outgoing, hotheaded, arrogant dude who is more than a little stubborn (he did stay up arguing with his friend until the wee hours of the morning). He's seen things he can't forget and that he'll always carry with him. He's spoiled. His ego is massive. He's friends with everyone from fellow political commentators to the Jimmy Johns.

You're right in that we only ever see Andrew through Jane's perspective, but we do get the bare threads of who he is outside of "dad." Someone struggling with PTSD, someone so arrogant he can't-or won't- see what's in front of his face, someone who spends time advocating for international peace, someone who snaps savagely at his friends in arguments, someone willing to stay up all night for those arguments, someone who is a keen learner, someone who seems so ashamed of his behavior he doesn't want to be called father, someone so arrogant and ashamed at the same time he thinks Jane hates him even after he has met her and doesn't expect her to want to return - it's barely there, but it's there. I'll end this long post by saying i would have killed for an andrew/robin perspective or prequel or sequel lol.

[sweetcloverheart]

Clover Rants Miraculously: Complexity

Miraculous suffers badly from complexity addiction and it’s gotten absolutely worse since season 5 started. Character routes can’t be predictable or just being A to B to C anymore - no, there has to be a twist every minute, they have to deconstruct all the tropes and chara types, they have to keep the audience on their toes every second or else! No one’s allowed to predict anything and things can’t be simply as they appear. However, they also lacks the patience to make the complexity they put in relevant or meaningful. As a result, character growth becomes flat as their personalities and values are changed or reverted back to previous stages to suit whatever the plot needs, with opinions that seem ripped straight from reddit pages and twitter threads that seem to lack any understanding of the topics they’re preaching. No one is allowed to contradict or question anything and status quo must be maintained at all costs, even as it bogs down all the new plot elements and lore they try to bring in. It wants everything to be “deep” without actually doing any work in digging for it.

Which is why the canon Chloe salt, Marinette’s bullying backstory, sentikids, and the Gabriel thing fall flat in their jobs to get everyone to subscribe to the writer’s sole interpretation of the characters/plotlnes they present (and nothing else) - because the writers want the benefits of creating a deeply thematic work that goes outside the bounds of its genre without actually doing anything to create said depth.

Chloe can’t just be a dumb mean girl bully with a sad backstory to explain why she does it - nah, she has to represent the worst of humanity and parallel an abusive parent and monologue about how she has no soul and everyone’s stupid for thinking she does and turn out to be responsible for every bad thing to everyone ever, but the writers will never actually address any of it meaningfully while actively trying to pretend that any implications they made about her character or backstory doesn’t exist or act like it was actually this super malicious psyop done by Chloe herself and we just imagined seasons 2 and 3 in a collective mass hallucination.

Marinette can’t just be cringe about her first crush because she’s a teen and that’s what teens do when it comes to first crushes - nah, she has to have this completely out of nowhere and nonsense dramatic backstory about a prank by Chloe and Kim that justifies all the (kinda borderline creepy) stuff she pulled in the start of the show with PTSD and now you can’t make fun of/criticize her or your mocking a trauma victim you jerk (all while these issues get solved in one episode and all the other reasons to properly explain her flightiness around Adrien are either swept under the rug or just ignored due to inconveniencing their insistence of pushing this “Dating trauma” storyline that somehow only effects her with Adrien and not Luka or Chat Noire for reasons)!

It’s not enough that Adrien (and Kagami and Felix) is an abused kid trying to get out of his father’s controlling grip and come to his own as he explores expanding his boundaries and learns to stand up for himself - nah, he has to be a magical slave golem with 180 different flavors of awful implications baked into the lore of how his creation works and no feasible way for him in canon to actually break away from his dad on his own or with help, with the ending (if it makes it to the final draft/actual episode) regarding it making his entire journey of self-actualization and independence basically meaningless

Gabriel can’t simply be being an over-the-top control freak because of losing his wife and have that be shown as unreasonable - nah, he needs to be given Marinette’s exact same backstory (minus the bullying but I would not put it past them at this point) to justify why he’s totally in the right to be ruining children’s lives and terrorizing citizens and should totally be allowed to win in the end. It’s not that he’s unfairly putting the responsibility of his grief onto completely strangers and poorly justifying it with the idea that it’ll restore his family back to their idyllic days and benefit his son - in the end, guy’s just “a man who loves his family”, so let’s just forget about all the terrorism and emotionally abusing his only living child and focus on the important stuff, like the fact that Chloe and Lila are both the devil and more evil than him.

(Speaking of) Lila can’t just simply be a consummate liar who develops an irrational hatemance against our leading lady for pointing this out - nah, she has to turn out to have a gajillion different damn fake families and even faker aliases to jump through when she get tired of it or they get compromised, and all with it’s own naming system! Are her eyes actually green? Does she really have hair? Is she even Italian? Who knows - certainly not the writers! Isn’t great you invested years of interest and headcanons into a character who turned out to be a complete sham and whom the writers are now going to use to recycle the S1 villain gimmick because the Butterfly is the only villain allowed to exist? I sure am!

The writers want their story to be overly complicated and “deeper than average kids cartoons” but they want to retain their “silly simple cartoon” format and while it’s possible to do, the show runners seem adamant in not taking the steps forward necessary to achieve it, causing a constant conflict in both the show’s genre and character narratives that hurts it’s plotline

TLDR: In the immortal words - pick a lane my dude

[elvenbeard]

2077, April

"You really think I can make it, survive this?"

"'Course you can. I mean, you did already die and come back once, didn't ya?"

The chance of a lifetime the Konpeki Plaza Heist should have been turned Vince's existence into a living nightmare. Going from "just living, day by day" to "sheer survival, at all costs" in the manner of moments and following a row of bad decisions made by everyone involved, this was now definitely his last chance to get his life back on the right track. A second chance, after so many other second chances he'd already botched... while the one who would've really deserved another shot was now gone from Vince's life forever.

Jackie, the one person he had never regretted to trust in, who had never let him down, helped him out of the greatest messes, wouldn't be at his side through his biggest challenge so far. Vince would often lie awake at night wondering "What if he'd just kept the damn biochip? Would he be here now, instead of me? Why am I still here when he'd deserved it so much more?"

But then again... Jackie wouldn't have deserved Johnny Silverhand, Vince's newly acquired brain parasite from days long gone, unwanted voice of unreason, and perpetual threat to his mere existence.

Vince was dying, losing himself, little by little, day by day, after it had taken him ten long years to get to a point of self-acceptance and recognizing his strengths, desires, what he truly wanted from life. It was the cruelest irony of fate imaginable.

Misty's words accompanied him through his darkest moments: as long as your heart's still beating, there is hope.

Vince never wanted to be a legend... but for Jackie's sake, he'd make sure everyone would remember their names. He'd survive this, get rid of the Relic, of the terrorist in his brain, and make it out alive. No matter the cost.

Vince through the years (7/9)

A handful of before and after screenshots this time:

Some slight colour adjustments, and a little Relic-like glitch effect like it happens to Johnny whenever he's visible!

Also these two didn't make it to the final set, but I still really love the flying sparks effect :O These are completely vanilla, done in vanilla Photomode without path tracing. There's a lot of particle effects going on at Afterlife that render very interestingly sometimes (I think only since the graphics update though, since pics in Photomode take a moment to render, creating this motion blur/ long exposure effect). Sometimes this a bit annoying when you want to go for a relatively clean shot, but these looked really kinda cool for once xD

I've also been playing around a lot with a free filter plugin (search for GMIC) for Photoshop that has some really nice glitch effects, chromatic abberation, amongst many many many others :o If you don't know it and use Photoshop (although I think there are versions for other programs available as well!), I can definitely recommend it!

Now, to what I wrote above the cut, briefly. This is a relatively short post compared to all others in the series cause it's obviously the one aligning with what canonically happens in game and there's no need to retell all that in great detail xD What I wanted to focus on though was Vince's shift of mind between pre-Heist and post-Heist.

Before the heist, when Dex asks him what he wants, a quiet life or a blaze of glory, Vince is internally leaning more to a quiet life. Assuming though that that's not what Dex would wanna hear, probably, he deflects, gives him no clear answer. But yes, after having to run away from home, struggling on the street, busting his ass for Arasaka and barely making it out of all of that alive, had it not been for Jackie, he has no intentions of just throwing all his growth and progress away by blowing himself up in some daredevil endeavour. He's reached a point where he genuinely likes himself, his body, his life, and while he's not perfect, still in recovery from his time at Arasaka, and has done messed up things to get here, he would've been content with just small-time, low-risk merc work for the years to come.

With Jackie gone though, who has been a constant guidance over the last 10 years, with everything that rains down on Vince during the post-Konpeki shitstorm, I think this would change. He's being told "you're gonna lose yourself, forget who you are", "the body you literally shaped after your own wishes will soon be Johnny's", whom he cannot stand, no one wants to work with him initially after such a legendary failure, he has "a few weeks, at most" left to live... fuck all that, so hard. He's gonna fight tooth and nail to make it out of it alive, forget the quiet life.

He's gonna make sure as hell that, if all ends up being in vain, people will remember him and that he didn't settle for the easy way out. If he has to die, he'll do so standing - maybe scared, but head held high. Cause everything else would be a disservice to how far both he and Jackie have come together, to who he is at his core: a rebellious kid who once rather would've taken on a whole Valentino gang on his own instead of calling his corpo mother for help, someone who quit his secure job because he refused to keep taking the abuse from his boss, who risked his life for his best friend despite sending himself down a spiral of despair in the aftermath. He's not scared of getting his hands dirty, of forging his own path (alone, if need be), and of taking risks if he thinks they're worth it for himself or the people he's loyal to.

[antiquatedsimmer]

"Holy Cats! Extra! Extra! Billions Lost in Stock Market Crash!"

The year is 1929, and your Sim finds themselves among the countless affected by the devastating aftermath of the stock market crash. With nothing left but shattered dreams, they must now begin anew!

No job, no home, and worst of all, NO MONEY :(

The goal of this Mini Decades challenge is to get your sims to build, live and have raised a family in a happy home by the beginning of world war 2. The great depression was considered over by the start of the 1940s

I didn't invent the Rags to Riches challenge or the Decades Challenge rules. I'm just sharing a slightly tweaked challenge I've been enjoying and thought others might like too :)

*currently working on a random encounter table to make this version a bit more unique

My Guide Below:

I am following these guides with basic tweaks

Rags2Riches Challenge

Decades Challenge, Follow the 1930s Rules

BAISCS OF THE CHALLENGE & MADATORY RULES

• You must follow technological limitations of that Era.

• No Cheats or Mods made to make the challenge easier allowed.

Being this is a Decades inspired Challenge the use of CC & mods for realism involving historical gameplay is fine. At the end of the day the point is to have fun!

• Choose your sims age & lifespan.

Whether your sim had a family & children prior to the crash is entirely up to you!

• Sleep in a public area or a friends home if you do not own a bed.

Historical Tweak:

During the Great Depression, the prevalence of "slums" or homeless encampments surged due to the housing crisis that plagued people in the early 1930s.

If you opt to invite Sims into your household, take on roommates, or utilize the FOR RENT Landlord ability to rent out beds, you can do so. However, it is imperative that you secure the necessary funds to construct housing for these new Sims.

• You may eat/ make dishes using public spaces or a friends home, however taking food with you is not allowed.

Historical Tweak:

In the tough times of the Great Depression, families were really struggling, which means your Sims' neighbors might not have much food to spare.

If your Sim wants to hit up a neighbor's kitchen for a meal, they gotta flip a coin:

Heads - They can grab a quick meal from the fridge.

Tails - Sorry, no luck. Time to try somewhere else.

So, your Sim might resort to begging if they are unable to feed themselves But hey, it could lead to some interesting stories and maybe even some new pals along the way.

• No selling through household inventory

• No selling through Plopsy - no internet in 1929

• No selling through Retail job due to the unemployment crisis, if you can afford to purchase a retail lot however you may open a retail business.

• You CAN sell items through the Food Stand or Market tables.

●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●～●

GOALS OF THE CHALLENGE

Build a home:

• At least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, a study ( with a type writer if u have historical CC ), and a outdoor garden area.

MANDATORY STEPS FOR BUILDING A HOME:

In order to build a home you must have completed these steps:

• Reach level 7 Handiness and level 5 gardening before you begin building or placing items outside.

• Have 1 Bedroom with bed, a bathroom with toilet and shower, a living room and kitchen area.

• you must own at least one of these: Fridge or Icebox, sink, stove, stove, counter, table, chair, and couch.

• A blueprint for your house cost $500

HAVE A FAMILY

Find love, and have the opportunity to raise a family despite the hardships of the great depression!

• Get married

• Become a grandparent

MANDATORY STEPS FOR STARTING A FAMILY:

due to the affects of the great depression I feel like it would be unreasonable to expect a FULL HOUSE BUILT before you can start a family, so instead I'm tweaking that a bit.

You don't need a HUGE MANSION by the end of the challenge but a decent house should be expected. the point it escape being forced to live in a shack.

• For every new Sim joining the household, you must ensure there is a dedicated room to accommodate them. This room must be equipped with basic necessities, including a bed, access to a bathroom, and sufficient funds and food to sustain them.

• Max Toddler Skills

• A Child must complete one of the options before becoming a teen:

Reach level 5 in 2 skills with perfect grades or reach level 10 in any skills.

• Teens must complete one of these option before becoming a young adult

Reach level 5 in 2 skills & a part time job or reach level 10 in 2 skills.

• Host a wedding every time a pair of sims get married.

ASPIRATIONS:

• Complete at least one aspiration for your sim and it's spouse

• Complete an Aspiration for each of your sims children.