#their primary theory was that she was the spirit of a kid who was killed there

[haemosexuality]

i watched the fnaf movie w my parents and cousin friday it was rlly fun

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

3

She was the eighty-seventh Nona of her House; she was the first Harrowhark.

Namedrop!! This gives me a small, tenuous hope, that Harrow might actually survive this book. I'm not hoping too much. But a little.

None of this had been kept from her. It had been explained to Harrow, year after year, right from the time she knew both when to speak and when to not. This skill came early to Ninth House infants.

I'm going to beat Harrow's parents with a stick for putting her through that. How fucking dare they.

Then everything changed, abruptly, forever. Harrowhark fell in love.

:o

...oh, no, of course, not Gideon. The girl in the tomb, of course, of course.

None of this would have broken Harrow’s spirit except that the mouth alone was perfectly imperfect: a little crooked, with a divot in the lower lip as though someone had softly pressed a dent into the bow with the tip of their finger. Harrow, who had been born for the sole privilege of worshipping this corpse, loved it wildly from sight.

Much like love in the living. Perfection does not hold attention well; it is the little imperfections which capture the heart.

How very Harrow, to fall in love with a dead girl.

She prayed often. Her brain took refuge in rituals. Sometimes she fasted, or ate the same thing for every meal, arranged in a specific pattern on her plate, consumed in the same order, for months on end.

Autistic Harrow. Perhaps schizophrenic. Probably both.

The only viable source of healthy XY had been located in her House’s cavalier primary, a boy seventeen years her elder.

So Ortus was only seventeen years older than Harrow. I have my theories as to why he was spared when all the kids were killed - it may have been as boring as "well, the House needed a boy to keep alive any chance of ever repopulating". Though, it was never meant to be:

Thankfully, their marriage would have mingled the Drearburh cavalier and scion lines beyond any hope of repair: Ortus Nigenad was an only child. Harrowhark had her parents quash the idea so enthusiastically that she cracked her father’s molar. The only virgin who could possibly be more relieved was Ortus himself.

No one at the Ninth likes sex very much, it seems, (aside from Gideon and her filthy magazines).

and with incontrovertible suggestions that Harrowhark really ought to marry this son of the Second, or this daughter of the Fifth-

Oh interesting! There seems to be some Gender Stuff going on here. (Eyes the necromancer-cavalier gender essay which I've been sent and have bookmarked for later reading) Unless it's not about reproduction in this case, but being gay is perfectly normal? Probably being trans is perfectly normal also? We just don't know.

Harrow seems to be under the impression that Ortus remained her Cavalier until the very end, until -

There had been another girl who grew up alongside Harrow—but she had died before Harrow was born.

Yeah, there's definitely something fucky and weird going on with Harrow's memories. Unless all of Gideon the Ninth was fake, a dream - this isn't that type of story, though, I don't think.

Didn't Harrow say, right at the beginning, almost pityingly;

"Oh Griddle, I don't even remember about you half the time."

Didn't she say that? What if it wasn't just scorn; what if it wasn't just said to hurt and dismiss Gideon; what if it was actually true?

Damn, Harrow might be even more messed up than I thought.

I love her and want to protect her forever.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 3

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Here be Lujanne, Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, and Soren goodness!

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

Lujanne having excellent fitness for all her walking around the Moon Nexus, and she's so energetic that Callum has trouble keeping up with her! She seems like those active grandmas who almost never stop moving, who have a lifelong supply of endless stamina. It makes me wonder if Lujanne will need that level of fitness for some upcoming conflict.

Callum feeling really hungry over not eating grubs and then still deciding he'd rather be hungry. It makes me wonder all over again how Lujanne got to the point where she eats grubs, considering that other Moonshadow elves we know of back in the Silvergrove don't. I still love my hc that the giant leech ate all of Lujanne's moonberry bushes and she's taking her revenge. Whatever's going on there, Callum is definitely not at that point yet.

When Lujanne asks Callum how he knows she's real, he thinks to himself that he'd put up with just about anything from someone who was going to teach him magic. That's a great parallel and foreshadowing for Viren's student/master relationship with Aaravos! And it's telling that neither student gets exactly what they hoped to get. Lujanne doesn't actively teach Callum any spells, because she believes he can't learn Moon magic at all. Aaravos does offer Viren power, but it takes him to some very dark places - literally and figuratively - and the cost is terribly high.

Callum sees a moon shape among the ruins, and Lujanne explains that the Moonhenge layout is an intricate rune that uses the structures themselves as part of its symbols and power. That's apparently a thing even with ordinary Moonshadow villages like Hollow Wood in the east, which is the coolest idea I've seen in a while: city planning as magic runes!

Yes, that's the same shape as the pendants Ethari made for himself and Runaan. Protection? Home? Feelsiness? A sense of safety and belongnig for all cycles and seasons?

Wonder what this Moonhenge rune stands for, then, and how much of this landscape is included in that rune. I bet it's more than we think!

But it makes sense now, how toppling the stone pillars would disable the spell the druids would cast to connect with the Moon Nexus lake. Breaking the infrastructure of the Moonhenge breaks the rune.

There's a physical sensation involved with the visuals that Historia Viventem brings up! When that one ghostly druid walked through Callum, he felt icy cold. Like in ghost stories. I really wonder about what exactly Historia Viventem is doing when it activates. It shows truth, "what really happened here?", so it must have some kind of time-related element, maybe tied to how the moon always repeats the same cycles or something. But it also seems to draw on the spirits of any living people involved in the flashback, because Callum could physically feel that wispy shape passing through him. So very interesting!

Orrr... is that all wrong, and there's something else at work with this spell than time? Maybe the world beyond life and death can act as an imprint of the things that have happened in the living world, and the spell that Lujanne (and later Callum) casts taps into that place, with perfect recall. I'm looking really hard at the sentence that says "dozens of translucent elf ghosts" and "phantom Moonhenge" and "lost in their own world" here.

Lujanne says more here than in the show about the world beyond life and death, being her mysterious Moonshadow-mage self. She says that "beyond" and "between" might both apply to where this other plane of existence is, and she doesn't much care which. With all the relativity swirling around this place, and not much in the way of empiricism, it's sounding like perhaps multiple conflicting ideas might actually coexist in such a place, allowing more ideas to fit there than we might normally believe is possible. Which is a fascinating bit of worldbuilding. Basically, every headcanon anyone has ever had about the Moon Nexus could all be true at the same time, for all we know.

Oh oh oh, Callum coming in soft with a secret wish! He takes one look at the Moonhenge and immediately thinks of finding a way to see his mom again! Poor boy, my heart! I'd say that could be another interesting parallel with Viren, but then, who wouldn't hold that sentiment?

Oh my, is this another breath of life into Ye Olde Ley Lines headcanon? Lujanne mentioning the Nexuses again, so soon after talking about the runic design of the entire Moonhenge, makes me wonder if the six nexuses are in fact giant runes. On Earth, the places where ley lines cross are called nexuses, and there are those who believe those points got marked with ancient structures, like Stonehenge and many many others. If Xadia were crossed with magical lines which naturally formed nexus points where they met, and if powerful magical runes were built across those entire areas, well. That would be cool beans, fams. Can I smack a map of Xadia and release a spell like Luz Noceda does? Because ngl that is my first instinct here.

Lujanne has got to be missing some grandkids to spoil, right? The way she's always whipping out cake and ice cream for Callum, and she's so grandma-ish about it. Headcanon about her being Runaan's mom aside, she is canonically lonely and she's very sweet to Allen and Ellis and I think she's missing whatever family she once had in the past. She may never get to have that family back, so she's finding a new one among the humans who live nearby, and I think that's sweet. Found family isn't just for the young.

But Ellis is straight up gonna be her fave, I bet, because she didn't turn up her nose at Lujanne's illusion food!

Ezran and Bait have a lot more to their relationship than was visible in the show, and I'm so excited by it! Ez can tell by looking at Bait's colors that he's not truly jealous of Zym, even if he's really grumpy about the dragonling taking up his favorite human's time.

And Ez thinking a lot about his dad and the things he's taught him. They're soft leadership material, and I love that so much! "Pick your battles" and the importance of encouragement. Ahh, my heart. Ezran, you're going to be such a good king.

But wait a second: both times that Bait gets extra grumpy in Zym's first training session, Ezran has just mentioned something about flying. Guys, I think Bait wishes he could fly, really badly. And that's his biggest problem with Zym, and with Ezran teaching Zym to fly, instead of Bait who doesn't have wings so. Bait is so old that his secrets have secrets, and I'm really curious how flying fits into them now!

Rayla, Dramatic Assassin: "I need to patrol for dark forces." That's what Lujanne called the source of the purple wisps that found them. I wonder if that's an official term all Moonshadows know, or if Rayla is just taking her cue from a veteran Moon mage. And I wonder how far Rayla is falling into the apparent pattern of "one mage, one assassin", since she does spend a lot of her time patrolling without being asked.

When Callum tells Lujanne that he was bad at prince stuff, and she asks if he didn't give up and got good at those things anyway, it's an opportunity for Callum to embrace subverting his parents' expectations in favor of seeking his own path, which is a primary theme of the show. But Lujanne is a couple generations older than Callum, at the very least, and I have to wonder what her upbringing was like. Is her version of success the one she took? Was she bad at magic once too, but she persisted? She is very soft and doesn't want to kill anyone.

Maybe Lujanne had dreams of doing something else with her life, but she felt she had to pursue the destiny that others handed to her, so she studied magic as hard as she could, and she did get good at it, but using it to defend Xadia from humans is not what she wanted to do with her life. Whether there's a parallel between her and Ethari on that point, there's one between Callum and Ethari, I think. How much of your life are you willing to let others direct for you?

LISTEN I WAS DYING AT THE EAR BREAD SCENE OKAY

This is my new favorite Soren and Claudia moment ever. Soren loves him his bread, okay. Even as earplugs for Claudia's sleep ocarina tune. The fact that it's "super effective" makes me think of a Pokemon defense. The fact that he learned it at camp, where he also learned about Moonshadow Madness, is hilarious. Later on, Corvus doesn't know Soren by name, but I still love the idea of Corvus being a kind of Strider-esque camp instructor, filling the ears of his young charges with all kinds of useful tactics like ear bread for magic spell songs (which actually seemed to work as intended), and warnings about the enemy elves' blood-themed tactics (which may or may not come back around in BH)

I thought they were gonna go in a kind of deep direction when Soren still wanted his ear bread back, but then he just. Eats them. Just noms them. I love this kid. Give Soren all the bread!

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Untamed TAZ Balance AU? Don't have to write anything, just consider that (is Wen Ning Lucretia in this or is he too nice for that)

NHS IS LUCRETIA, NHS IS ABSOLUTELY LUCRETIA, I HAVE THOUGHTS, my girlfriend yelled at me for these thoughts.  Hell this got long, I’ve literally been saving it in my drafts until Tumblr fixed the Read More issue.

WWX is Taako, JC is Magnus, WQ is Merle, JYL is in the umbrella (became a lich to keep her brother from doing it), WN is the Red Robe (became a lich because he thought it seemed reasonable), NHS is Lucretia, XXC is Davenport, LWJ and LXC are mutually Kravitz (LXC sets his bro up with the death criminal wizard), Wen Zhuliu is John Vore, LSZ is Angus but also a baby Reaper

ONE

So Wei Wuxian isn’t really a wizard, is the thing.  Like, he does the wizard magic, and apparently he has strong Wizard Vibes because wherever he travels, people ask him if he can solve their magical bullshit problems, but he’s, like, barely a wizard.  He’s an inventor, technically, except that a few years back some stuff went explosively awry while he worked with this traveling show and–yeah.  So he’s working as a wizard because, hey, he can cast Magic Missile and he needs to eat and he’s an Evocation specialist, anyway, so it’s not like he’s out here making food from rocks.  He’s hired on with a couple other random jackasses, a fighter who took a dislike to Wei Wuxian right off the bat and a cleric with a bad temper and an itchy Sacred Flame finger, and they’re doing a job for some dwarf, or whatever.  The dwarf has a guy hired on as muscle, but he doesn’t look like much, all wide eyes and baby face.  He calls himself Qionglin, no last name, and stares at Wen Qing like he’s never seen a cleric before, and Jiang Cheng spends the entire trip to Phandolin messing with his whip, which is the stupidest weapon Wei Wuxian has ever seen.

Well, then everything immediately goes horribly wrong, though, and turns out that Jiang Cheng is pretty okay with that whip.  Qionglin (Wei Wuxian spoke to the man all of one time, but he was sweet, if a little awkward) gets himself kidnapped by a bunch of goblins, and their employer is gods-know-where with whatever a Black Spider is, and suddenly this very boring escort mission is a very not boring rescue mission.

There’s a skeleton in the cave.  Wei Wuxian takes an umbrella from it, and it crumbles into dust beneath its red robe.  There’s a very annoyed man with a sword who calls himself Song Lan and speaks in static, and he’s somehow not the weirdest part of this whole day.

Phandolin doesn’t survive its brush with the Zidian Gauntlet, and neither does Qionglin.  Wen Qing screams when he dies, and Wei Wuxian grabs her under the arms with Jiang Cheng and books it for the empty well in Song Lan’s wake, and they just hide.  

And then they go to the goddamn moon, apparently.

TWO

The goddamn moon is run by an older man with hair still a glossy black, toying with a beautifully painted white fan in his hand.  He calls himself the Director and–after some testing–hires them more or less on the spot.  Something flickers over his face when Wen Qing, bemused by her own upset, makes an offhand mention of a man named Qionglin who died when the Gauntlet brought down so much lightning that it turned Phandolin into black glass.  But it’s not Wei Wuxian’s problem, so he doesn’t worry himself over it too much.  He takes the payment offered to him by the Director’s aide, a blindfolded, stunningly handsome man in Bureau blue and white who rests his hand on his own chest and says “Xiao Xingchen” and not another word.

The Bureau is–weird.  They’ve got a giant jellyfish and a store run by–something Wei Wuxian Does Not Trust and a dorm.  Wei Wuxian laughs and kicks Jiang Cheng cheerfully in the ankle and says “Just like college, huh?” and Jiang Cheng gives him a dark look and snaps “I never went to college.”

“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian says, blinking.  “Me neither.”

Whatever.  They go on a train adventure and there’s a kid, a kid who blinks and stares at Wei Wuxian like he’s seen a goddamn ghost and immediately walks up to introduce himself as Lan Sizhui, boy detective.

Wei Wuxian fucking loves this kid.  He’s not sure why this wide-eyed fifteen-year-old latched onto him so hard, but he’s smart, funny, loyal, and extremely easy to pick on.  13/10 child rating, in Wei Wuxian’s book.

(Sizhui, for his part, more or less kicks down the door to his father’s offices in the Astral Plane the second the Reclaimers are gone and shouts “I HAVE A LEAD ON WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD.”)

(His father, Lan Wangji, the Grim Reaper, is very interested to hear all about it–especially when his son casually name-drops three of the biggest bounties that the Raven King, his adoptive elder brother, has ever sent him after, with the exception of that absolutely insufferably sweet-tempered lich Wen Ning.)

THREE

So…the Crystal Kingdom.

Is it Wei Wuxian’s finest hour, shouting obscure tentacle-related threats at the second crystal construct they’ve seen in the past twenty minutes?  No, probably not.  But it’s been a stressful day, they’re already down one Regulator and Song Lan is fuck-knows-where with Mianmian and, again, this is the second menacing crystal construct they’ve seen in twenty minutes.  Or maybe it’s the same one? 

Whatever, doesn’t matter.  They’re here to hunt down Meng Yao, a scientist who’s been dicking around with some seriously ill-advised necromancy and also the Philosopher’s Stone, and a crystal construct or two isn’t going to stop them.

Wei Wuxian actually physically cannot help himself, though, when the Reapers appear in the mirror, a matched set of beautiful men, and he grins broadly at the one glaring at him most viciously.  They get let go on a technicality, along with a conduit still containing Meng Shi’s memory of a vision beyond the cosmos, and Meng Yao leaves with his life and not much more.

Later, Lan Wangji is absolutely betrayed by the realization that his brother willfully set him up to be the primary go-between for the completely breathtaking deeply irritating wizard-by-way-of-death-criminal.  And that’s before the whole lich revelation.  (He does get a kiss, though, after he watches his brother pulled under by the Hunger.  That’s nice.  He hopes Wei Wuxian will mitigate the death crimes now that they’re dating.)

FOUR

The seven Relics are as follows:

The Zidian Gauntlet, which can generate a lightning blast so powerful that it can obliterate an entire city.  (Jiang Cheng–he watched the others try to lay in protections, try to make their Relics harmless, and he knew it wouldn’t work.  All the Gauntlet does is damage.  It can melt a city down to black glass, but it can’t be twisted, it can’t be made into any more of a nightmare than it already is.  He’s a fighter.  He knows all about damage, knew all about what he was making.  That doesn’t mean it didn’t kill him by inches to watch it leave a path of destruction–so much that his beloved jiejie tried to seal it away.)

The Oculus, which can make any construct real.  (Xiao Xingchen–Nie Huaisang didn’t take everything.  He doesn’t remember the mission, or his own past.  Something strange got confused in the process, and he lost most of his speech.  But he remembers how to fight, handles his sword as cleanly and effectively as ever, and he remembers that he doesn’t think much of Nie Huaisang’s combat skills.  Or maybe it’s just really obvious that Nie Huaisang isn’t much of a fighter.  Regardless, Xiao Xingchen insisted on accompanying him, before–before.  Then they went into the Felicity Wilds, and…Xue Yang is honestly delighted.  He’s never managed to ruin someone so badly on the way into Wonderland before.  It’s just a shame that Nie Huaisang sent Xiao Xingchen away before they reached the doors.)

The Healer’s Sash, which can manipulate natural forces like the wind, the tides, and tectonic plates just as easily as it can manipulate a heartbeat or a pair of lungs.  (Wen Qing–she prays to Pelor, the Dawnfather, the healer and Lord of Light, but she’s long since lost her faith in him as anything but a contracted boss.  It’s a shock to everyone including her when she’s granted a right arm made of glass and magic after losing it.  She was so determined to make a Relic that could be used for good, but–well.  She supposes she should have known better.)

The Philosopher’s Stone, which can more or less transform anything into anything.  (Jiang Yanli–she’s a Transmutation wizard, she’s been feeding the crew of the Starblaster for a hundred years on whatever she can pull together.  If the right person found the Stone, it would have ended world hunger.  The wrong person found the stone.  Jiang Yanli tried her damnedest to hunt it down, but she found the Gauntlet first, and, well–she already became a lich to stop one younger brother from doing it.  It’s not a struggle to decide that she’s going to take responsibility for saving Jiang Cheng from his own guilt.  Then things go horribly wrong, and she spends the next twelve years in an umbrella.)

The Temporal Chalice, which offers complete control over time.  (Wen Ning–he was a strict scholar until his sister was contacted about the IPRE’s creation, but he always did want to travel, and his theories about bonds were too good for Xiao Xingchen to pass up having on his crew.  Everything he’s done since they lost their home system has been about trying not to leave his family, about trying for second chances, he became a lich for them, he’s done everything to stay with them, of course his Relic is a second chance generator.)

The Animus Flute, which offers control over the spirits of the dead and, in the hands of a sufficiently competent expert, the living.  (Wei Wuxian–he’s watched his brother, his sister, his friends, die so many times.  He’s terrified of immortality, but he’s most terrified of being alone.  He meant to make something that could keep the dead present, so that they would never have to fear being left behind again.  Watching it rip Jiang Cheng’s soul clean out of his body in Xue Yang’s hands is the worst thing Wei Wuxian can remember, even after everything is over.)

The Bulwark, which Nie Huaisang never did explain to anyone, but took the shape of a hand-painted fan.  (Nie Huaisang lost the only person who mattered to him when the Hunger ate their home, and then as he slowly, painstakingly, rebuilt something like a family, he had to watch them suffer and die for a hundred years.  And then he watched them win, and grieve like dying all over again for the winning.  He’s sorry they suffered for his actions.  He’s not sorry for what he did.)

FIVE

Wen Zhuliu didn’t mean to make his whole plane give up.  But he had spent his whole life being used, and it all just seemed so pointless.  It all just seemed so pointless.  There was always someone stronger, always something bigger, always a rule he couldn’t break, always something, and he started talking, started telling people as much, and--

Wen Qing is about the farthest thing in the fucking world from a peacemaker by nature, if you ask her, but she’s a healer first, last, and most of all.  And, she thinks as she watches the sun sink with a very tired man crumbling away at her side, she might be the only person in the worlds who ever noticed that Wen Zhuliu needed a healer.

(They aren’t from the same plane, but--some of the others have found distant family, on their new home.  It’s an unanswerable question, if they might have been family, a few dimensions removed.  Wen Ning still thinks about it.)

[angelic-writer]

Ministrysona OCs

Mia Hamspon

Age: 27

Sex: Female

Role: The Sword

Powers: Telepathy, Precognition and Magic

Personality: She is a cheerful girl who enjoys life to the fullest. She likes to tease the other field agents, especially Adam and Victor. She used to be pretty shy when she was first employed, but over time, she became an open book. She always hangs out with her friends Bianca, Mary and Catherine. She has a knack for horror and loves to draw. She always shares her artwork with Mary and they spend time praising and critiquing each other’s artwork. She always tries to get Bianca to go out with someone, but due to Bianca’s chronic shyness towards boys, it took her a lot of work. She likes to play video games and she is always seen playing on her PSP. She is especially seen playing Corpse Party all the time.

She also likes to talk about the multiverse theory and is interested in philosophy. Sometimes, her conversations go to deep topics like how much life is truly worth living for and even the possibility of life outside our universe. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she can see into the future. She also is taking an interest in Rune-Crafting...

Backstory: Mia lived a relatively normal life, although she discovered at the age of 10 that she can see into the future and read minds. At the age of 17, she had a horrifying vision of a shadow taking over the entire English countryside. She tried to warn her friends about the vision, but nobody believed her. Soon, the shadow appeared and almost consumed the entire world. Mia was kidnapped by cult leaders and was about to be killed when two men saved her. One of them was wearing a trench coat and the other was wearing a black waistcoat and a trilby hat. Mia’s ankle had been twisted during the scuffle, so The Ministry Man bandaged her up and dropped her off to a safe place: One of the untainted towns. After that, the shadow was successfully banished. However, Mia, along with the rest of the country, seemed to have lost all memory of the events that happened. All she had was a vague image of what the man who saved her looked like. Over the years, she had grown enamored with her savior. She kept having dreams about him saving her and it always ended whenever she was about to touch his hand. She didn’t know his name. All she had was a vague image of his face and the sound of his voice. Wanting to hold onto that memory, she drew a picture of him. She didn’t know the man, but… He looked so familiar to her.

10 years later, she was employed by the Ministry. She was excited about the idea of being in a secret society and for a while, it was like a dream come true. But, when a certain Badger spilled the beans, she felt ready to punch him in the face. She usually hung out with three other girls. Mary Adams, Bianca Walker and Catherine Anderson. She decided, as cliche as it would be, to call her group “The Ministry Girls.” During her many adventures with the other field agents, mainly with Adam and Victor, she would meet several people, including Mike Badger and Chris Cobern. However, her meeting Chris for the first time gave her a sense of... familiarity.

She also would have several interactions with Doctor Diablerie and Kelly would often sass and insult him. She told Mia that since the Ministry hadn’t seen Trilby for 10 years, they considered him to be dead. Mia doesn’t believe that he is dead and started looking into what happened ten years ago. The things that she discovered jogged her memory about what happened...

Appearance: She has long, wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes. Her hair is put up into a half ponytail. She wears a long-sleeved white shirt with a green vest and a purple collar with light blue stripes, a red tie, a short, green plaid skirt, and black shoes with long, black socks. She has a white purse slung on her shoulder and she was holding a cell phone in her right hand. Sticking out of her unzipped purse were a pair of white ear buds.

Mary Adams

Age: 26

Sex: Female

Role: The Scroll

Powers: She has the ability to see spirits along with her brother. That ability was passed down from her mother to the two siblings. Later, she gained the ability to be possessed by spirits, mostly her mother. Malicious spirits tried to take over her, but due to her mother’s influence, she was protected. She is also immune to certain powers like hypnosis.

Personality: She is an ambitious girl who aims for big projects. She has a tendency to work for hours on end. The other agents tell her to take a break, but she doesn’t listen. Whenever she is not in the office, she is drawing in her sketchbook. She looks like she doesn’t talk much, but whenever she’s with the “Ministry Girls”, she likes to talk about what she’s working on. She appears to be working on a manga. “Some sort of Japanese comic book” as Victor would call it. Mary would be a bit sassy with him whenever they would interact.

Backstory: Her mother and father were part of the Ministry before they had the two children. Sadly, her mother died during childbirth and Mary’s father is left to care for her and her brother. When she was a child, she went to her father saying that she had something to tell him.

“Really? What did you want to tell me?” He asked her.

With a beaming face, she answered. “I saw Mummy while I was doing my schoolwork! She helped me with the problems I was having trouble with!”

Her father froze. T-This isn’t possible... There’s no way that she can see her... She’s dead... Unless...

“Mary... Can you tell me who else can you see?”

“Eh? Well, I see some kids playing around in the park... And sometimes, I see old people sitting on benches... I mostly see them at night.”

He realized what Mary was talking about. She can see spirits, just like her mother.

Soon, when they were teenagers, Mary and her brother were taken to the monastary where they worked to hone their skills. Soon, they were picked up by the Ministry of Occultism. She met Mia, Catherine and Bianca and they became a tight-knit group of friends. She doesn’t think much of it, but her ability to see ghosts worked out in the agents’ favor as she is able to see malicious spirits and get information so they can exorcise them.

Appearance: She has long, curly black hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved dress shirt with a black, buttoned-up jacket, a short, green skirt, black tights on her legs and grey boots. She has a sketchbook in her arms.

Bianca Walker

Age: 22

Sex: Female

Role: The Sword

Powers: She has the ability to control magic, although she can’t use it due to her weak body. Whenever she uses it, it puts strain on her body and she needs to rest for a while before she can use it again. It was rumored that she has a great amount of power due to her Ancient, but her superiors tell her that she should not use it under any circumstances.

Personality: She is a typical young woman with self-esteem issues and a little depression. She loves romance and is a hopeless romantic. She often imagines herself with a partner that she wants to spend the rest of her life with, but she is doubtful about it due to her being insecure. She is just a person trying to figure out who she is. She is very shy and has a hard time talking to boys. The only people she can talk properly to are Mia, Mary and Catherine. She has a big crush on Victor, but every time she would talk to him, she would always stutter. Victor would always tell her to “stop stuttering and make a proper sentence.” Although she won’t admit it, the way that Victor looks at her and talks about her... It made her heart race.

Backstory: She was diagnosed with arrhythmia since she was born. Her parents told her that she shouldn’t do any strenuous exercise or else her heart would beat too fast. Since her heart was prone to beat abnormally, she would often stay inside and have her best friend, Catherine, over at her apartment. There were a couple of instances where Bianca almost died due to her heart giving out. Once was at the primary school and the second was at the secondary school. Those heart attacks had one thing in common. It was because of her Ancient who would come out if Bianca is being mistreated. Bianca doesn’t like her Ancient doing that because her being possessed puts a large amount of strain on her body which is not good for her heart. Eventually, Catherine let her stay over at her place after her second attack and Bianca referred to her as her best friend after that.

Eventually, when she was employed by the Ministry of Occultism (Later called the Department of Interdimensional Affairs), she met Mia and Mary. Through spending time with them, she slowly started to develop a friendship with them. And then, she started to develop a crush on Victor Cassen. She manages to talk to him through her nervous bumbling. At first, it was awkward, but eventually, they started to hang out normally. But, Bianca knows about Victor’s unsympathetic views on people who carry the taint of an Ancient. Since she has an Ancient of her own, she is scared about what he would think.

Appearance: She has long, straight black hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a purple shirt with a black trenchcoat over it and black pants. She has a sapphire necklace around her neck.

@pepper-somerset @pk-sonica-omega @otter-wraith

[msfcatlover]

22 and 23 for the passenger ask game? which, thanks to you, i am now playing and it is GREAT

You are?! Awesome! I love introducing people to cool shit, and The Passenger is VERY cool!

(The Passenger Ask Game)

(Under the cut, because one of these involves death, and there will be some nasty parts of that.)

22.  How do they feel about death?

Well, that varies wildly from Newman to Newman. 

Adir finds the idea deeply unsettling, but finds it all much worse now that he’s trapped in a human form. By his math, if he ceased to exist in his true form, he would dissolve into energy which would be consumed by whatever killed him, and would truly be gone; humans, on the other hand, leave behind their awful, fleshy husks, which prior to decomp are often still?? Just the same??? And then there’s decomp itself! The internal systems turning on eachother, the external parasites feeding so slowly that the flesh has time to break down, the stink, which is because you’re inhaling tiny bits of the body that used to be a person, and, and, and the bones! They linger, they stick around, sometimes for billions of years long after they stop being bones, and it’s just…!!! It’s awful, and disturbing, and it freaked him right the fuck out long before the Hunter showed up. So, yeah, that moment when Newman realizes that the slime the Hunter spews is the putrefied flesh of its casket? He didn’t think the Hunter could get any more terrifying, and it’s like it personally set out to prove him wrong.

Cal sorta wonders if death actually applies to her, at least as she is now. The casket is just a thing she happens to be wearing as a suit, so if it died, would that  release her from this dimension? Or would she actually die with it? As she’s gotten to know humans and human beliefs, she’s also come to wonder about theories of the afterlife, since… yeah, it’s a little hard to believe all that variety and spirit just comes from chemical reactions, and she of all beings knows that a body and a conscious don’t have to be interdependent. And if there is an afterlife, does she qualify as long as she’s in her casket? Could she trick the metaphysical universe into allowing her into Heaven (or whatever else there may be)? Honestly, reincarnation seems more realistic to her (as a being who could theoretically just hop to another body,) but it also seems boring, so what’s the point in speculating there? It’s all an interesting theory, but one she’s not eager to try testing any time soon…….. at least, not on herself.

Eris genuinely cannot conceive of death. Ey cannot wrap eir head around it. Just, the concept? Of not existing anymore? How? Would that even work? You know that kid at the funeral scene who keeps asking what any of this means and why you’re putting the dead person in the ground? Eris Newman, age 26. What even is death? If asked, ey’s gonna give you a blank stare and maybe an uncomfortable giggle before asking you to fuck off. Better not to think about it.

23. What is their philosophy?

Hmmm… well, if you asked each of them the moral by which they lived their lives, 

Eris would be: “Achievement comes from a well-executed plan, with an even better back-up or three.” 

Cal would say: “Flexibility makes everything more fun!”

and Adir’s is definitely: “Fuck you, got mine.”

However, if you look at the actual way they live their lives, none of them fully live up to those goals.

Eris perpetually finds emself in a position where ey realizes ey has no backup, and the primary plan is pretty shaky to begin with. Ey’s seriously impatient most of the time, and generally uncomfortable with the idea of relying on or manipulating others, even if that is eir best strategy, which leads to having serious trouble committing to any one course of action, often leaving em with only eir eternal Plan Z: “Run Like Hell.”

Cal has control issues. Like, serious control issues. Even if she’s reacting off odd or unexpected circumstances, if she doesn’t have the feeling she could (at least theoretically) be completely In Charge™ of the situation at a moment’s notice, she starts getting…….. twitchy. It’s kinda a nasty cycle when it comes to her encounters with the Hunter, actually; it made her feel helpless, which lead to a need to be in control, then it shows up again and makes her feel even more helpless by ripping away all that control, which leads to her knuckling down even harder the moment it’s gone and being even more terrified of its return…

Adir’s “mine” just happens to include this handful of tiny humans whom he adores, and ensuring their well-being and happiness is absolutely still self-serving, shut up. He’s not a hypocrite, you’re a hypocrite!

[sailor-cresselia]

Zi-O 29-30: Blade spoilers within (from someone who has NOT watched Blade)

Ha! Black!Woz walks out of the Storytime vault and into 9-to-5.

White!Woz: Haha sweet I get to choose Another Blade

Swartz: Hey, what do you think of being a person who gets used��� you know, hypothetically speaking…

White!Woz: ...ah. Well. Shit.  

(We continue this super spoiler-iffic liveblog under the cut. It gets long - this one made it to about 3,000 words. My apologies to mobile users. Just... scroll. Scroll like your life depends on it.)

Awww… the café from Blade has photos from back then on the counter, that’s so sweet. And Amane’s actually wearing the recent necklace for Chalice – that’s a really nice touch there, Toei. Product placement, but it’s a really nice tribute.

Another Blade’s design is – that’s terrifying, that’s a lot of knifes. I like how the spade symbol glows red, and it doesn’t have the ‘handle’ part of a spade. It’s a heart, too. But the thing is… this is the second Another Rider to not have the lens-eyes. Everyone up to Another Zi-O had them, and he notably didn’t.

I know people have been saying they’re proud of Sougo for managing to graduate, and I agree. I really do. I’m happy for our book-dumb protagonist. It’s actually kind of nice to see all four of the ‘team’ together. You know, for certain definitions of ‘team’.

Noting here the Tsukuyomi hasn’t told Sougo that his ‘dream’ was. Not actually a dream, so much as a memory. It makes sense that a small 8-year-old reality warper would take the trauma of something like what Swartz did, and assume the first time he saw it was a nightmare, too.

(Seriously, screw that guy.)

Okay, so, I have not watched Decade, but… from the two (2) films I’ve seen with his cast – WxDecade and the first Hero Taisen movie – this seems to be pretty damned in-character for this Daiki guy. “Lol sup hi just saying hello don’t mind me” *proceeds to steal all your transformation trinkets*

Case in point… Sougo and Geiz don’t notice their personal watches are missing until they go to activate the button on the side. Not when they don’t pull anything out – no, when they go to turn them on. Boys. Boys please.

Also, can I just say that I’m starting to see why people pair Tsukasa and Daiki? I mean, the guy came out in a ~magenta~ apron. And they’re both little shits.

Sougo just shoves Woz in front of them. Woz!Kikai is so OP, oh my god. First the mind control thing when it debuted, the satellite dish lasers in Another Zi-O, and now it has extendable robot arms to grab the watches back. Oh my god.

(Kaito, suddenly copied into another existance as Baron: GFDI just let me be a tree spirit already)

(I know it’s a doppelganger, but seriously. So many Barons. So little patience on his end for people constantly trying to revive him as a pawn.) 

Sougo: Okay, so, you guys’s past is my future, and since it’s 2019, anything that happens in 2068 is the future now, so aren’t you talking about things that haven’t happened yet?

Woz: My lord, please, verb tenses get complicated enough without you speaking.

OOF. Yeah, uh, there’s gonna be a. A few problems with Blade ‘2019’. Namely that he isn’t supposed to be in, like. Japan. Ever again. Because Bad Things Happen when he is around fellow Undead. (He made an exception for Gorider, because a certain zombie f*er was stealing his gig, and poorly at that.

((Am I saying that he’s an asshole who is also a zombie, or that he would do a zombie? … Both. I’m saying both.))

Sougo: Okay, so, we need one person who can fight on both ends, and really, if a team is going after Geiz’s watch, it ought to include Geiz, and you guys want me to go after the Another Riders, so of course the groups are me with Tusukyomi, and Geiz with Woz! :) It’s only rational! :) And if you happen to work out whatever’s going on between you, well, that’s just a bonus, isn’t it? :)

Geiz: ...if I kill him, it’s your fault, you know.

Tsukuyomi: This is a terrible idea.

Sougo: I know! :)

(gasp) Dark Toei is giving us the forbidden rebel backstory!

Oh goody Woz was the leader of their team! And he said he was going to ‘infiltrate’ Oma Zi-O’s camp! And everyone died because he seems to have switched sides. Delightful.

White!Woz: Excuse me? I see a pair of powerups here, but not the one I specifically requested you get.

Daiki: Lol you mad?

White!Woz: ...fight us irl bitch.

Daiki: Heh.

Huh… So… when White!Woz’s tablet makes someone do something, they’re supposed to hear his ‘narration’… and maybe that’s a recent idea from the team, but. When it seemed that he was compelling Sougo to come after him – I can’t remember when, it was during either Shinobi or Quiz, but Sougo and Black!Woz were talking in 9-to-5, and he summoned Sougo away, that didn’t happen. Hm.

Sougo: Dang, couldn’t even knock the watch out temporarily. Drat.

Hm. Regulus is showing up in the daytime now… and so is the rest of the constellation. That can’t be good.

Oooh, nifty. Another Blade has the inverted heart for Chalice on her torso, but the spade for Blade on her. Well, blade. As well as a circular saw, which is a bit overkill when you consider the literal knives sticking up from her shoulders.

Oh, hey, remember that theory about how the Another Riders are technically the enemy that each rider fought? Like how Another Gaim opened cracks into the Helheim forest, and Another OOO bled Cell Medals like a Greeed?

And remember why Kenzaki can never return to Japan?

Undead are drawn to fight each other.

Okay, I get why a speed versus speed battle, to counter Woz!Shinobi, would wind up with Diend summoning Accel. But why Birth? Date’s version was never particularly fast – he’s more of a Mighty Glacier. And the suit isn’t really intended for speed, since Gotou was only particularly speedy when he used the Cutter Wing ‘attachment’.

And then I am immediately answered. Bike juggling to get Woz into the air, so that ‘Birth’ can shoot him down without mercy. (Was reminding us of the bike form really necessary? Was it? I don’t think it was. I could have done without seeing that in-action again.)

Diend: Wow, that’s cold, even for me, watching your friend get beat up like that.

Geiz: Bold of you to assume we’re friends. He’s a born liar. I mean, he’s using a ninja form right now.

Geiz: Yeah, no, Woz, screw you. I know you wanted a distraction. Asshole.

Diend: Aw, look, they do like each other.

OH THANK COSMOS it’s Chalice Versus Zi-O. ...for now. There’s about minutes left for everything to go terribly, terribly wrong. (Because Blade.)

And then it immediately went terribly, terribly, wrong.

Kenzaki and Hajime haven’t transformed in years, because they can’t. They would feel each other’s power, seek each other out, and be forced to fight. Probably the only time Blade has reappeared was in a slightly-alternate reality. (shakes fist at Gorider). And Kenzaki looks absolutely terrible. How did you get here so fast, sir? That jacket has clearly seen far better days, is the damage recent?

Some excellent ‘teamwork’ on Geiz and Black!Woz’s parts – using Shinobi’s finisher to get the two targets in one spot for Geiz’s finisher. Clever. Pity that the other two watches aren’t here.

And with that, and some brutal slashes exchanged between Blade and Chalice…

we move to episode 30.

The power-up watches get all electro-staticy, and try to start a chain reaction with White!Woz, but it doesn’t hold up. Hm.

Geiz: What’s your issue?!

Diend: Looking for my boyfriend-rival. No big deal.

Oh man, neither of them want to be in this fight, but they don’t have a choice. Zi-O accidentally knocks Another Blade into the line of fire for Actual Blade’s finisher, so naturally Chalice steps in to try and take the hit.

It doesn’t… technically work. She still gets knocked out of her transformation, back to Amane, and he’s still in his armor.

Kenzaki: oh god oh shit what the hell?! Amane?! what’s going on oh shit

Woz’s storytime vault…

Oh… The Day of Oma is apparently meant for Sougo to stop the end of the world… apparently as brought on by the Battle Fight.

… Rider versus Rider, right? A pair of Riders who can’t coexist, but also can’t not coexist. And yet another who is supposedly erasing all Riders from history. Starting with the primary members of each group. So… if Blade goes, the world goes. If Chalice goes, the world goes. If they both go, Oma Zi-O rises.

“An interesting game, Professor. The only way to win is not to play.”

Zi-O II’s shot in the opening has been replaced by Zi-O Trinity.

Geiz can relate pretty hard to Kenzaki’s resignation to having to fight Hajime, but also to his desperately not wanting to do that thing.

Once again, we have the question of “What is the future you are aiming for?” The question of “And then what?”

Geiz wants to see the one that Sougo – that they will create.

<3

Junichiro: Hey, what are your plans for the new era?

Sougo: ...Uncle, you have no idea how loaded that question is with this group.

(or does he?)

Hey, that camera’s a clue in more ways than one, isn’t it? Another Blade was attacking photo studios, because Hajime’s a photographer. But that camera’s awfully similar to Tsukasas. Who asked you to repair, that, I wonder…?

Yeah, Woz, you’re kind of being a hypocrite here. Criticizing a woman for wanting to reconnect with an old friend/mentor, while unable to get over the urge to lord over having been Geiz’s superior. GEIZ has a point in his anger. WOZ is just being an ass. And Sougo hones directly in on this.

Kid’s got a decent Charisma stat, too.

When Amane picks up the photos, through to when Kenzaki calls for Hajime. That! The Background!

I think that’s a piano ballad version of “Zi-O: King of Time”!

OST when?

And, also, can we get another instance of Future Soldier in-show anytime soon?

Okay, okay, sorry, back to the show.

OH NOOOO.

Firstly, White!Woz summons the two into a fight.

Then he forcibly activates the Another Blade watch inside of Amane.

The transformation has a screen with Another Blade’s face appear and move over her, just like the card that appears when Kenzaki transforms.

Ow, my heart.

OH SHIT RIGHT.

These two episodes have made no effort to hide the green blood that both Kenzaki and Hajime have – from the miscolored bruises to actual bloodstains. And Undead can be ‘sealed’ away – that’s where the Rouze cards come from in the first place. Another Blade – no. Amane doesn’t want them to fight – doesn’t want them to have to fight. So she seals their powers. Their emblems move onto the Another Blade… armor, I guess is as good a word as any.

And now their wounds are red.

But she just took the powers of two Jokers, absorbing them into one person. Leaving one person with the Joker designation.

Herself.

Please note that I typed this immediately before restarting, only to watch the Sealing Stone appear.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and nobody feels fine.

Oh, the cinematography of this show. A beam visually separating Sougo and White!Woz from their angles on the stairs – it’s going the opposite direction, making an x with the handrail behind them.

We’re back to the question of “And then what?”.

White!Woz’s future is gone, the potential isn’t there anymore, so he’d rather there not be a future at all. I guess we’ll never see if my ‘a future frozen in an endless moment’ theory was right. Pity. I was wondering if they would go that route for him.

Oooh, an orchestral version of ‘Zi-O: King of Time’!

“You can’t just give up! What’s the use in assuming that it’s over?” Sougo is cheering on even his enemy this boy is not nearly as dark as he assumed in the Ryuki arc, oh my goodness. “You can’t say that any one future is set in stone, so keep trying, keep opposing us! I’ll... No. We’ll keep foiling your plans, but you can’t just give up on the world.”

And the orchestral theme just keeps rising in the background.

Oh… and Sougo said the same thing to Woz. Geiz says that he can’t stand living in the past. And, like I guessed last episode, in like, the fourth section of this liveblog… The past that they’ve lived is, technically, still in the future from where they are now. From Sougo’s perspective, and from the perspective of time itself, none of that has happened yet.

Besides, like Geiz is saying, they came to the past to change history anyway. They’re making a new future, all of them – Sougo, Tsukuyomi, and Geiz… and Woz.

“Do you want in?”

“… That sounds interesting.”

Hm. The Trinity watch – which is somehow successfully created by White!Woz – has all three of the current Belt Voices, doesn’t it? The two that the Ziku Driver uses and the high-pitched one from the BeyonDriver.

“If you use this, I will accept it.”

… accept what? The option to create a new future? The future that Sougo’s aiming for?

Nifty – the light from Regulus and the Day of Oma burns out the clouds from the Sealing Stone.

Pffft - ‘the light is guiding us’ no, no it’s not so much that…

(I love the ‘wtf is going on’ faces from Kenzaki and Hajime)

GEEZ Trinity’s basically a mini-Sentai mech, with all three of them in one place inside.

“Guys, no, I’m sorry, I know none of us know what is going on, but I have to take control for a second, I have to do my speech okay, it’s in my contract. This is not optional.”

I like how the hand on the clock moves to point to whoever’s in control of the body.

I really like how Trinity forms all of their weapons – and how they dissolve when discarded. Nice touch.

And I really like the triumphant section of ‘King of Time’ playing behind this fight.

...Regulus is shining still, brighter than before. With a ‘shine’ of pink, yellow, and green. Their colors.

“Why did you choose to let me stay?”

“Because I think you have more potential.”

White!Woz accepts that ‘his’ world will never exist, and that Sougo will create a better one. He goes out peacefully, and warning Black!Woz – no. Warning Woz that Sir Swartz is planning more than they know.

He goes out with a shimmer of golden motes of light, and the glitching effects that have been a key sign of time re-writing an existence.

Oma Zi-O: You’re almost done… only six more until you’re me.

Sougo: But what I don’t want to?

Daiki yoinked the Future Note. Show off.

Which, of course, creates a slight problem for me and my potential ‘fix it’ of Zi-O, down the line in the Re-United ‘verse. Or, rather, a complication.

See, the draft I’ve got has at minimum one of the Den-O’s and Zeronos ferrying Riders back and forth. THAT is how I plan to deal with the amnesia issue. Not warning them in the present and past, like I had planned. But having the ‘contemporary’ versions of them just. Sorta travel backward, and pretend that they’re the ones that from in the past. Just… ya know, keep their past selves unaware of what’s going on, take the brunt of temporary power removal. Fill in for themselves when Zi-O and Geiz meet them.

And I had everyone scheduling this from Tsukasa having somehow duplicated Black!Woz’s book when he grabbed it during the Ghost arc. I have never seen Decade, and have no idea if that would even be part of his powerset. But, like, Trinity just knocked off his ability to turn Riders into weapons and stuff, so. Ya know.

I’m apparently not that far off, if I can work Daiki into it. … need to watch Den-O and Decade first, but that’s just how it goes.

The complication is my stated ‘not wanting to touch on Zi-O’ aspect. I now admit that I want to handle it somehow, but if they keep airing concepts similar to ones I’ve been working on for months, I’m going to get accused of lying.

Arceus, Cosmos, and Gaim DAMNIT.

Of course, you may have noticed I skipped a scene there during the re-cap.

Because not for the first time, something has been saved by Zi-O taking powers away. I’m still decidedly not here for the amnesia concept, and I am not okay with the fact that certain characters have potentially been un-created – Ankh, Parad, Poppy and the like among them – but here’s the thing.

Both Kenzaki and Hajime remember being Blade and Chalice. They can properly retire – They’re both bleeding red. Hajime was never human to start with – he was using the Spirit card to be human. But he seems to be human now. The Blade and Chalice watches appear to have taken their Joker situation out of the picture.

Like how his intervention by introducing the father to Emu, who clearly went on to point him to Hiiro, saved the son during the Ex-Aid arc.

Like how the girls would have never gone missing during the Fourze and Faiz arc, to say nothing of Takumi and Kusaka being decidedly more alive than usual.

Like how Kaito also appears to be alive again after the Gaim arc.

And how neither the girl or her brother died in the Ghost arc.

How Rentaro can become Shinobi in a newly created potential future.

How Mondo got to meet his father.

… admittedly, his apparently re-creating the events of Ryuki might be a problem. I haven’t had a chance to watch any of the RIDER TIME specials, but I hear that’s what happened? Sorry, Shinji.

But here’s the thing. A not-insignificant number of things have turned out for the better… and as long as the ‘you were never riders’ thing can be… worked around…

Hmn.

((also, just a quick note, if you comment on any of the sections in here, I’d really appreciate it if you specify which statements you’re talking about. These recaps get really long, so... y’know, it’ll make it a little easier for a conversation.))

[sellinout]

TRANSCRIPT for EPISODE 7

Courtesy of Steph DiBona!

[music]

DYLAN HANWRIGHT: It’s not comfortable, but there’s a little bit of hope on the horizon, of how can we keep ourselves afloat personally, while also having money for the van, the trailer, the gear. Just striking that balance is really, uh, is a tough thing.

MIKE MOSCHETTO: What’s the old saying? If it wasn’t for a mic check I wouldn’t have a check at all? I’m Mike Moschetto, and this is Sellin’ Out.

[music: “I’m a casino that pays nothing when you win / Please put your money in”]

MIKE: Hey! Thanks for listening to Sellin’ Out. Proud to be the #1 rated podcast named “Sellin’ Out” that I am personally aware of at the present time. If you’re listening for the first time, welcome, thank you. I’m mike Moschetto. But if you’ve been along for the ride up through this point, it’s probably become clear by now that I’ve been sitting on the oldest episodes of this show for over six months, in some cases closer to a year now. Just waffling about it like a coward. And so once I finally embraced my more narcissistic side and mustered up the courage to releases this stupid thing, I was fucking mortified to find that another show called Selling Out, that’s with a ‘g’, had released its first episode literally a week before I started the submission process for this one.

I think the only course of action when it comes to being beaten to the punch in something like that is that they may have had the name first, but I will utterly crush them in ratings and reviews and buzz. So if you enjoy what you hear, please consider going to Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcatchers and help me bury these guys deep down in the search results with a nice review. I don’t know, I’m sure they’re nice but what can I say, I’ve got the spirit of a warrior.

Anyway, my guests today are Dylan Hanwright and Malia Seavey, and where do I even begin? Uh, Dylan was one of the primary songwriters in I Kill Giants, who, I know, they just had a big weekend of reunion shows, and no I didn’t talk to them about it, and yes, this episode was taped months before it was even announced, so, I’m trying to get about that. But you’ll just have to appreciate this episode for what it is.

You may also know Dylan from his various other projects including Great Grandpa, Trashlord, Apples with Moya, Logfella, Slothfella, there’s probably even more that I don’t know about. And I was also joined by his partner Malia Seavey, who plays in Salt Lick, Dogbreth, and a number of other bands herself. And she’s also active in design work and screenprinting, which is such a huge economic engine within this kind of music I could do a whole episode just on that, and maybe I will.

Anyway, uh, Dylan and Malia and I talked about the role of college and its value to people pursuing creative fields, the lure of the new startup job, geographical isolation, and making do in a major American City and so much more. So, I’m pleased now to give you Dylan and Malia.

[music: “it’s just the kids these days they make me feel so old / I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin / I think the best is only over / the night is slowly closing in / and I’m staring at my thighs / you watch an episode and nothing more / I think I'd rather not be sober”]

MIKE: I met you, Dylan, through mutual friends, while they and you were at Berklee College of Music. What were you studying there and, uh, you know, this might be a stupid question for anybody who's in the know, but why Berklee?

DYLAN: Uh, originally I went in for um, the major music production engineering, which is basically recording, it’s engineering, producing, all that. That’s what my draw was, I couldn’t really find that anywhere else. Yeah, I just wanted that specific, I, you know, I didn’t just want to study music or music history or something, I wanted like a specific sort of education. So, that’s why Berklee, and I had pretty much had Berklee in my sights since I was like 15 or so.

MIKE: Right, ‘cause you’re like a player and a musician, and there’s something about that school that appeals, I mean it’s obviously the most prestigious in a certain sense, unless you’re trying to something like really classical.

DYLAN: Right, right. It’s, it’s like the more contemporary of the like, the, you know, bigger music schools, and um, and that’s definitely where I, like I didn’t do jazz band or anything in high school. I didn’t really, I was more of just like playing punk shows and stuff like that. So, so even Berklee was, it felt like a little bit of a stretch but, uh, yeah. And so when I got in I kind of had explored a little more and found a different major that seemed a little more interesting to me which was called Electronic Production and Design. And that was a little more focused on synthesis and creating sound, sound design, um a lot of like EDM folks went into that major. Um, so kind of the more like lonely end of production, just the like, you know, programming and sort of using the computer to, to get what you want done in music. And it took me, took me three semesters of applying to get into that major. So I was-

MIKE: Whoa.

DYLAN:  Yeah, I was pushing hard for it and finally got in.

MIKE: Wow. And uh, Malia, do you have a formal like college education, like a post-secondary, any kind of vocational music thing, or..?

MALIA SEAVEY: Not really, I went to school for like visual arts, mostly costuming and textiles.

MIKE: Oh, okay.

MALIA: I took like one music theory class, but I really, it didn’t click [laughs].

MIKE: That’s all fine too, and do you do anything in like costuming now? Visual, kind of..?

MALIA: Um, not really, I still sew, I make like um, accessories and like guitar straps and stuff like that, and fanny packs. But um, I don’t really costume anymore, yeah.

MIKE: Okay. And did you, you had like aspirations of that maybe, like for theater, or...?

MALIA: I did, yeah, for theater. Um, I did, I wanted to do movies and stuff to but it’s, you have to dedicate a lot of nights and weekends to that, and I like to play, and usually, you know, practicing ends up at those times, and shows and stuff end up during the weekends and stuff like that, so-

MIKE: So your like music habit kind of got in the, got the better of it?

MALIA: It did, yeah. Which is funny ‘cause it was definitely like more of a, just a fun side thing for a while, and then I took it more seriously, put the other stuff aside.

MIKE: I guess I’ll throw this to both of you, did, when you were going to school for something so, I mean I think a lot about hyper-specialization, so like, music production, electronic production, sound design. I went to college for audio post-production and sound design, which is so specific that it’s like everyone from my major went to LA to work in film and TV.

DYLAN: Sure.

MIKE: Except for me. Did you get any kind of push back before you went to college for something so specific that, you know, the chances of it being lucrative are so-so?

DYLAN: Um, I feel like I was incredibly lucky with my parents and like my support system, and even like friends and everyone I went to school was like yeah this is what Dylan wants to do, Dylan's the music guy, he’s gotta go do this. And my parents knew that's really you know, all I really wanted to do. My grandparents went with me to visit the school, and you know-

MIKE: That’s nice.

DYLAN: -that was a little like scary, I was like you know, what, what are they gonna think, and they came out thinking it was incredible, they loved it, they, they helped me fund my education, and uh, so yeah. I feel really lucky that I didn’t have that push back, ‘cause I feel like, you know, a lot of folks would and, I think that definitely helped me decide, like ok, I can do this. Like, people support that, and I don’t want to let them down, so.

MIKE: Of course, yeah.

MALIA: Mine wasn’t taken seriously, until I started to get work, I think?

MIKE: That’s, I mean, the best way to prove anyone wrong, definitely.

MALIA: Totally, yeah. And to be fair I did get like a art degree from a non-art school, so I think that maybe that had something to do with it, but um, yeah. Once I started making money off of it, then people were like, oh yeah cool!

MIKE: Yeah, there you go, yeah.

MALIA: It makes sense now!

MIKE: Yeah, yeah.

MALIA: ‘Cause, ‘cause people care about money apparently.

MIKE: There’s a lot to be said, I guess, especially in creative things, for the networking, uh, parts of it. Somethings I think, like I wish someone had said like, hey you don’t need to go to like a private college, like an extremely vocational school for this. Um, and I guess it depends on what you’re doing, right? Especially if it’s networking in the sense of like, the only way into an industry, definitely? But, you know, I also like met the woman I’m about to marry at that college so I can’t really complain that much, but I mean... is there anything that you can say about the value proposition of getting a degree, like an advanced degree in music, or art, or design, or whatever. Could you recommend it to anyone, or is it totally from situation to situation?

MALIA: I personally think that one of the major reasons to go to a school like that, is like how you said the connections that you’re gonna make with the people, so I think that if you can find those kind of connections elsewhere, and um like, intern and get like on-the-job experience, I think that that could be just as good and a lot cheaper.

MIKE: Absolutely.

MALIA: But I think that school offers a lot of opportunity to get jobs through professors or meet collaborators and stuff like that, that’s really what I took away from, from going to school.

MIKE: Oh, totally. For sure.

DYLAN: I think what helped me kind of break out of my shell was college, and, and like allowed me, like I, you know, I wouldn’t have met you had it not been for meeting all of my bandmates at college, and I wouldn’t have toured as heavily and like gotten that experience had I not gone to college. And like, the most I learned about myself musically um, was outside of the college playing in bands. So it was like, a lot of the experience I got outside of the schooling itself was the most valuable-

MIKE: Extracurricular.

DYLAN: Right, and...

MIKE: Right.

DYLAN: And I think I wouldn’t have done that, I wouldn’t have been so extracurricular had I just stayed, you know, tried, tried to like intern or tried to go to local venues and stuff and just gone that route.

MIKE: Yeah.

DYLAN: To, to like break into the music scene. But I think that it’s up to, it’s totally a personal thing. I think a lot of people totally have the ability to get that knowledge and expertise and experience just by getting their feet wet, getting in and doing it.

MIKE: Of course.

DYLAN: But I think college helped me kind of like have a community to like surround myself in, and get comfortable with, and, you know, we all, we all kind of held each other up, and helped each other out and, um, I think that’s something really valuable.

MIKE: And you still do, I’m sure, even, however many years later.

DYLAN: Yeah. Oh absolutely, yeah.

MIKE: And that’s actually, you’re kind of doing all my work for me here, and, uh...

DYLAN & MALIA: [laughs]

MIKE: So while you’re, while you’re at school, obviously you get involved with I Kill Giants, and I don’t think I really appreciated this until maybe after, but like that band got-

DYLAN: I don’t think anyone did.

MIKE: -got huge, it got huge! It got huge. And I, I don’t know if this is maybe what drove it home, but like the reunion set, the Broken World Fest thing?

DYLAN: Yeah.

MIKE: Was that a surprise to you? That, I mean obviously you put in the work for it, but, were you, was it kind of an unexpected response?

DYLAN: I think that I knew that it was gonna be a big show, I knew that it was, you know, that band was a big deal to a lot of people. You can’t really realize that until you’re, you know, on stage and experiencing and having a blast. But um, yeah it was a weird thing, ‘cause I know that when I left the band, I left Boston, it seemed like such an easier choice. It seemed like yeah, you know, we don’t, we don’t have that much going. Like, career is more important, but uh, you know, months later after I’d moved and kind of like saw the, the like legacy quote-on-quote? Um, that really like set in, and, it’s just like grass is always greener, you know it’s...

MIKE: Yeah, of course.

DYLAN: It, you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone, that sort of thing, so.

MIKE: ‘Cause you did a last EP and like a last tour, and then the reunion show and all that, do you think to tag something with that kind of finality has some effect on the response and…?

DYLAN: Oh absolutely, yeah. Yeah, um, giving people one last chance or whatever, I think, you know, it makes it a little more special, a little more memorable. It means we’re gonna try harder on our end, it’s not just another show, you know, I think, I think that, in any, in any capacity, any band doing that sort of thing is gonna see... it’s gonna feel a little more special for that reason.

MIKE: I mean Aviator never did like a last show, I think we kind of fizzled out with the understanding like, ah if you’re not riding with us now then like, we don’t wanna give anyone the pleasure, I guess, which is what-

DYLAN: [laughs]

MIKE: -what, maybe why we never really got there.

DYLAN: Sure.

MIKE: I do wanna, I wanna circle back to, uh, the reason that you left Boston, and I’ve always been curious about this. Tell me about the opportunity that brought you back to your home state of Washington.

DYLAN: It was kind of a classic start-up situation. Um...

MIKE: Okay.

DYLAN: Looking back, like, maybe a little naïve at the time, but, right as I was kind of finishing up school, someone who I had been in touch with for a long time, um, really talented game developer, programmer, who, we’d always talked about collaborating and stuff. We worked together on like, you know, a few small things throughout college. As I was finishing up, he hit me up and was like hey, I’m starting a startup, we’ve got investors, we are, you know, we’ve got this house in Redmond, WA that they’re paying rent for us, we’re just gonna turn it into a dev house. Um, you’re welcome to live there, set up a, you know, set up a studio, and basically make music for our, for, and they were working on this game, that looked amazing, felt amazing, it was a really, from my experience with it, it was a really great product that I really wanted to work on. Um, and so after, you know, a lot of like back and forth and a lot of figuring out what would be best, I decided I wanted to move back, join this startup, get into the creative world professionally. There’s that panic of being done with college and being like, oh God what do I do, I don’t wanna, don’t wanna go work at food service, you know, like... Like you’d kind of said before, going to college for something like that, you know, if you don’t have something like that afterwards, it’s like a failure.

MIKE: Oh yeah, I mean I delivered pizza, I was a mailman, I did all that stuff.

DYLAN: So, that’s kind of what made the decision for me, and uh, I told the guys I was gonna quit the band. They were all really cool with it, they were stoked for me. Um, we recorded our last EP, booked our last tour, did all the stuff, and then once we were done with that tour I pretty much got back to Boston and moved out. Moved right into the house in Redmond, and I think within like a month the startup tanked.

MIKE: Wow, I didn’t know it was that quick, I thought it was at least a...

DYLAN: It was pretty quick.

MIKE: So the project never was like, completed then?

DYLAN: Nope. No, it was uh, they had an issue with like, someone who originally was part of the team, and they decided they didn’t want to be, they didn’t want to have them as part of the team anymore, then this person threatened to sue, the investors got freaked out, were like nevermind, we’re out, and that was it. Pack up and get out of the house, and kind of moved back in with my parents, and just like started from ground zero, not, not two months after leaving Boston.

MIKE: I mean I don’t pay really, really close attention but it seems like there’s been kind of like, or maybe this was the start of an indie game development renaissance almost?

DYLAN: Yeah.

MIKE: Have you, is this something you’ve continued to try to pursue in the meantime?

DYLAN: I, it’s been, there’s been like an on and off, you know, I’ll get really inspired, I’ll get, you know, just get my shit together, and you know redo my website every you know several months, and decide now’s the time. I’m gonna write some game music. I’m gonna get some stuff out there. Let’s see what we can do. And then like, a few months later, decide it’s too hard, decide it’s just like so hard to break into, and be like, maybe another time, I’m just gonna focus on writing my own music right now. So I, I feel like I’ve gone back and forth between that for the past four years.

MIKE: Was it the major change at Berklee that kind of prompted you to get into composing for something so specific as video games? Because a lot of that has to be responsive, right, like it has to be, it’s like a totally different mindset of writing.

DYLAN: Right.

MIKE: I would think.

DYLAN: Yeah, it’s very different, and uh, I actually minored in video game scoring at Berklee, which was like, just the fact that they had a minor for that, I was like ok, this, this is doable, this is like what I want to do. Um, and I can be taught how to do it, so.

MIKE: Yeah, yeah.

DYLAN: Um, it is, and it’s, there’s, it’s a lot of tech-heavy sort of, um, knowledge that goes into it and understanding how to write for an interactive sort of experience. It’s different, but it’s something I always felt like I was good at, I’ve always loved video games, I’ve always listened to soundtracks obsessively, and...

MIKE: I mean it’s some of the most, kind of culturally memorable music for a whole, like a growing generation of people.

DYLAN: Sure, yeah absolutely.

[music: “What a gift to feel stroked off by a phrase / to be so simple and so happy and undoubting / I keep commission on the TV and I’m PKD / What a mercy we’re perpetually occluded / we crave the twangy void of the perfect diploid / I am irrational - an expert eraser”]

MIKE: Malia, are you from the Seattle area originally then, or..?

MALIA: I Grew up in Olympia, I’ve been in Seattle like eight or nine years.

MIKE: Tell me about your, your music, your bands.

MALIA: Um, I’m in a few projects. My main project that I write the most for is called Salt Lick, and it’s with a group of close friends that, a few of us have been making music together for, I don’t know, two or three years, although this project is pretty new.

MIKE: Same people, kind of reconfigured.

MALIA: Yeah.

MIKE: Okay.

MALIA: Yeah, totally. I sing in that band and like, write the words and stuff, and I joined Dogbreth last August, I think? So I drum in the band. We actually, I got home at 4:30 this morning [laughs] because we were recording for the last week or so, um, at the Unknown in Anacortes, so. Really excited about that.

MIKE: Wow.

MALIA: And, I’m in another project called Super Projection. So yeah, pretty busy, pretty busy with the tunes.

MIKE: And, do these all tour, I mean, it sounds like you were record, were you recording remotely, or somewhere nearby?

MALIA: Um, Anacortes is about an hour and a half away.

MIKE: Okay.

MALIA: It’s like this old church turned into a studio.

MIKE: Ooh.

MALIA: Um, it’s really great, loved it, I recorded there with Super Projection about a year ago as well.

MIKE: Oh cool, cool cool.

MALIA: We, we tour mildly, nothing like something people I know. [laughs] Like you know, a week or two here and there.

MIKE: Regionally, obviously.

MALIA: Totally, yeah, the coast kind of thing, maybe over to Montana, but nothing too big yet, hopefully someday, you know.

MIKE: Yeah, yeah of course. I mean you have to, especially in, in your part of the country it has to be so gradual that you get outside of your home base ‘cause everything is like, I don’t want to say we’re like lucky around here ‘cause it’s not always, results may vary, but you know, you can drive an hour and a half and you’re in like a different market.

MALIA: Yeah, I know, it’s crazy.

MIKE: I’m haunted by the three days I did in the northwest.

DYLAN: [laughs]

MALIA: Oh, long drives?

MIKE: Nobody, nobody told me that like you should really have a day in between Portland and San Francisco. So we did the whole thing-

MALIA: Oh yeah that’s a long one.

MIKE: We did an overnight drive, and we were just fucking zombies, and didn’t get to-

MALIA: Sleepy gig? [laughs]

MIKE: Oh, boy.

MALIA: Yep, been there.

MIKE: Just running off of fumes. Um, so take me through some of the, you know, you’re obviously playing in bands too, and trying to support recording and all of that, how are you making money? You said you got some work doing like costuming, and design and stitching, how else are you paying the bills?

MALIA: Um, so I worked at a sewing shop sewing and then eventually managing for like four years after school. And then eventually, about a year ago, I left to do some screenprinting, I started screenprinting on the side while I was working at that shop. So that’s mostly how I make money right now, is printing shirts for organizations and like bands and all sorts of different things. Shirts and um...

MIKE: You own all the, you own like the presses and all that stuff?

MALIA: No, no.

MIKE: NO? Oh, okay. Do you work out of a studio?

MALIA: Yeah, I work out of a couple studios, I work out of um, a place called Fogland for flatstock and then I um, I work out of the Vera Project for some t-shirts and other, other stuff like that. And then, I’m like a dogwalker, like I had a dog walk today. I do like random jobs like here and there like that, and I don’t know, we do some random like, pickup work and stuff like that.

MIKE: Sure, sure.

MALIA: Yeah, mostly that.

MIKE: Like gig economy stuff.

MALIA: Yeah, I guess so. And I, I do some sewing, freelance sewing for people. I also have a company where I sew like um, accessories and straps and stuff like that, and I sell them at like craft fairs and stuff like this, to friends. Fix people’s stuff.

MIKE: So, going from working for a company for several years, and uh, you know, at the time we’re recording this, it’s tax season, that surely won’t be true by the time this comes out but, have you, like what has been the difference between working for someone and working for yourself when it comes to that sort of adult responsibility shit?

MALIA: Totally. Well, it’s definitely hard at points, but then it’s, it’s really nice to have um, the freedom to decide what I want to do and when I want to do it.

MIKE: Yeah.

MALIA: Um, that can also be kind of scary though. It’s hard to stay motivated sometimes, but I feel like I, I do a really good job at keeping busy [laughs]. So, whether it’s something-

MIKE: That’s, I mean, you have to, yeah.

MALIA: Yeah, whether it’s something that’s making money or not. I do a lot of inexpensive things now, like um, creating art, and stuff like that, like, you know, playing music, but. I mean, traveling is expensive, but I, I feel more creative now that, you know, I’m not like drained all day at the sewing shop somewhere.

MIKE: yeah, I mean that’s, that’s worth everything if you can make your schedule work for you, then that’s, I mean, so, I was a, I was a, I mean I still kind of am, but I was only a recording engineer for, I don’t know, two years maybe? And I remember the first year that I filed taxes and I owed like $1000, and I was like AUGH!

MALIA: Oh yeah.

MIKE: And then I got a side job and that kind of all balanced out, and I was like ok, alright I can like surrender a little bit, and then you kind of just inch a little bit more toward giving more and more of your time.

MALIA: Mhmm.

MIKE: Um, is what you do kind of feast or famine? Are you like loaded with work at times and then there’s a dry spell for a while? Or is it fairly constant?

MALIA: It’s pretty even. It’s, yeah, I mean, there are definitely, it, I’m always working on a project but sometimes they do stack up. So. Sometimes it can be a little bit overwhelming in that sense, but um, I don’t know I think I strive off of being incredibly busy, so, it’s good for me [laughs].

MIKE: It’s good, I mean, there’s nothing worse than getting really busy and then having a drought and then having to kind of string yourself along financially through all of that. Um, I guess I should get back to, so take me through, you alluded to this Dylan, within two months of moving out, you’re kind of back to the drawing board. You’re freelance now, but how are you kind of stringing yourself along between then and now?

DYLAN: So, um, I moved back in with my parents, they live like an hour south of Seattle. And so, that was kind of when I was back there, it was kind of a scramble, I was, you know, broke, trying to figure out like well, do I move back to Boston? Like I spent so much money getting back here,. but maybe if I can get a job and raise some money, like I can get back to Boston, just kind of, just resume what I was doing. Um, and so I moved to Seattle ‘cause I got a job teaching children how to ride bikes.

MIKE: Whoa.

DYLAN: That was my first job in Seattle. Uh, did that for a summer, basically took that whole summer to just like catch up to my credit card and pay off debt. So at that point, I’m like, now I’m, you know now I’m maybe a little bit in the black, but still nowhere near able to move back to Boston. Even, nonetheless pay for a plane ticket. So, I was like well I guess I’m here in Seattle, I gotta get a new job. Um, you know, I worked at a hospital doing, like, sound and video for conferences, and then I worked for a game company for quite a while. And then during all this, just kind of let go of the idea of moving back to Boston. I started to like make friends, I Started to meet people, started a band. And just like in all of this, sort of working a day job, just kind of like doing music when I could. A year or two after, you know, I had to move back with my parents, it was like, I’m in Seattle now, this is where I'm at, this is what I'm gonna do. Because it’s a great city, and it/s, there’s still, it’s like you said, it’s kind of a, you know there’s a renaissance for indie gaming, and there’s always gonna, it’s always gonna be there so, you know, I might as well just grind and grind and see what this can do for me.

MIKE: Let’s, I guess let's talk about Great Grandpa, right? I mean that’s going pretty well, huh?

DYLAN: Yeah, uh, as well as anything has gone for me in a band.

MIKE: It seems like it anyway.

DYLAN: You know, we put out a record on a label, and we had a booking agent, and we were like cool, let's do this, let’s do this music thing full time. And that was in July of, uh, 2017.

MIKE: How has that been? How is that, how would you describe...?

DYLAN: It's a strange world because it’s just like, it’s not that you have a better job, it’s not like you have more of an income playing in a band. It’s that maybe down the road-

MIKE: Whaaat?

DYLAN: -you will, you really have no idea but the only way to find out is just to do it. And so, that’s kind of where we were at. We had finished recording this record, we spent a lot of time on it, we got a booking agent through it, Greg Horbal, who, you know, maybe that wouldn’t have happened had I not gone to school also. So it’s like all these things that just, all these experiences, all these people, all these connections just kind of like culminated in like, great! We got a booking agent, our booking agent helped us get on a label, the label is, you know, run by folks that I’ve known for a little while too. And it’s like, sort of a, all came together at once. And um, we’re like great, we’re ready to release this record, Greg got us on our first full US tour with the band Rozwell Kid, who are some of my favorite people that I’ve known for a little bit. And uh, so it all just, it worked out so perfectly, we all felt so like, you know lucky and blessed and just kind of went for it. So, ok, let’s quit our jobs, let’s tour, and during that tour we got our offer for the next tour, the Citizen tour. Um, and then during that tour, we got an offer for the Diet Cig tour, and just kinda like, you know, you just kinda keep going.

MIKE: It’s kinda rolling at this point.

DYLAN: Yeah, you just do it. Maybe it doesn’t really work out monetarily, you kind of flounder a little bit, but, you know, when we’re on tour, we get like daily per diems to eat basically, that’s just like what we’ve budgeted for ourselves based on how much we make per show. Um, everything else pretty much just goes back into the band fund, we don’t really see a lot of that, so, um, really I just kind of saved up enough at my old job as I was preparing to quit to really just help me get by those months when I was back home, or like you know, paying rent when I’m on the road. But really, it’s like we don’t see a whole lot from the band itself, it’s still just kind of an investment towards our own future. And recently we, like, we were like feeling you know pretty, like ok, we just kind of settled down, we’re you know, about to finish off this eight months of touring, what do we want to do as far as money? Like, we get our payouts every day, but you know...

MIKE: You still have like phone bills.

DYLAN: Right, exactly. Like, what, what should we do, and so we kinda looked at what we had and just like decided on a fair amount that everyone should get, just because we had just gone through all this, you know, stuff with the record, we got like a publishing deal, and, you know. And so they gave an advance that says like, as a a band you get paid when something gets placed and licensed and used, but when a publishing company, sorry and this was all new to me when this started happening. I learned pretty quickly.

MIKE: Right, this is all kind of stuff that I’ve heard peripherally about.

DYLAN: Right, right.

MIKE: It’s so alien to me that it’s never really made sense, but.

DYLAN: It’s bizarre. It’s just insane that someone would just give you money to, to have the rights to your record whether or not it’ll get placed, you know, they could potentially not make any money off of us, you know, and, but, they kind of put their faith in us and said here’s this advance. And, so anyway, without going into like, you know, too much further into like what we make as a band.

MIKE: Sure, sure.

DYLAN: It’s, it’s not comfortable, it’s still sort of like we’re grinding, but there’s a little bit of hope on the horizon of like, ok, this happened, you know, how can we keep making this happen. How can we keep making enough to like keep ourselves afloat personally, while also like having money for the band, you know, so many expenses. The van, the trailer, the-

MIKE: Oh my God.

DYLAN: -the gear, just, yeah it all adds up. So, it’s like striking that balance is really, is a tough thing, but.

MIKE: Is there anything that you, or your bandmates, either of your bandmates, uh, that you could do from the road and like kind of generate some income while you’re, while you’re out?

DYLAN: For most of us, it’s work, work, work while we’re home, have enough to like survive on the road and pay rent, but uh, Pat from my band, uh, he’s a 3-D environment artist. Um, he does, yeah he works on video games and like VR experiences.

MIKE: Wow.

DYLAN: And so, yeah he’s been able to do a ton of work from the road, um, you know he’s had like business calls in the van, and you know, [laughs] shit like that. So, uh, it’s possible, I think it, for me unluckily, it’s, I can’t really, I don’t have a, I don’t have like a laptop, I can’t really work on music on the road in that capacity. I really prefer to have like my whole setup. So yeah, it’s more of just kind of like marinating on ideas and stuff, if that counts, but other than that, no.

MIKE: Sure it does.

DYLAN: There’s not a whole lot of money to be made, you know, freelance-wise on the road. For me, personally, I don’t know.

MALIA: I do some like, poster design and stuff like that, and I can like prep artwork for screenprinting when I get back and stuff. Uh, that’s pretty much the extent of mine though.

MIKE: Yeah. Can you like-

MALIA: Do like some clerical stuff, Photoshop.

MIKE: Can you like book work while you’re out and take like deposits or whatever? That was like, that was my bread and butter for a while.

MALIA: Yeah, definitely. I don’t really take deposits on stuff, but um, just like, yeah having, having work ready when you get home is important, or when I, for me at least.

MIKE: Oh yeah, of course. If you can line it up in advance, then, it feels a little better to be like ok I got two more weeks, one more week.

MALIA: There’s money on the horizon! [laughs] Yeah.

MIKE: Before you start calling home for a handout or anything.

MALIA: Oh my God.

[music: “I never thought it’d be easy / I never wanted to see it / and I don’t want to need it / like I do anymore”]

MIKE: Dylan, you’ve spent time outside of Seattle, like I won’t pretend to know enough about the music scene here that I can make this comparison, but at least, talk me through maybe the differences between Seattle and Boston in terms of like, I don’t know, just the cost of living, the opportunities that you get.

DYLAN: You know, I think Boston’s definitely, it costs more, but I also have a, I like got lucky with my situation here, and you know, pay a lot less than average. So that’s, you know, just my experience. But uh, cost-wise, it’s definitely seems more expensive to live in Boston, however, the community, the music scene that I was involved with, and still like tangentially am, in Boston, feels a lot more supportive but at the same time kind of like tight-knit. And I feel like I, I luckily have that tight-knit community around me, and that was really, I was really fortunate for that, and I think that helped me sort of like, exist in the music scene and, and you know, um, succeed. Uh, whereas here, it’s there but it’s not as, it’s not as like close, it’s not as friendly, it’s like everyone in the scene are, they’re my acquaintances, and I have some very close friends in the scene, but it’s all kind of-

MIKE: IT’s almost counterintuitive to think that a bigger music scene that’s kind of centered on these institutions like Berklee for example would be more cooperative, ‘cause you’d think that kinda breeds competition in a way, and kind of like shitty attitudes. And I think there’s probably that, too, occasionally.

DYLAN: Right. Well and that’s the thing, I feel like, you know, I’m sure that in Seattle there are these tight-knit communities, you know, through the college, or you know, just, there’s so many different communities, and there are very close communities where people have positions where they can book at prevalent venues and like you know, help out, sort of the DIY scene and help kind of raise it up. I feel like Boston, I saw that a lot in Boston. I saw people got positions at these venues, people like moved up and used that to like try to help each other out, and I just saw people turn from DIY people to like music professionals, but they’re still grounded in DIY.

MIKE: The rising tide lifts all boats kind of deal.

DYLAN: Yeah, absolutely. And so like I said, I’m sure that exists here, I just, it’s, I’m part of the scene in a different way here, I’m just a different sort of...

MIKE: Tapped into a different vein of it.

DYLAN: Right, right.

MIKE: Malia, have you lived in this area you’re whole life?

MALIA: Um, I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of my life that I can remember [laughs]

MIKE: Sure, and is-

MALIA: But like I said, I moved here like eight years ago or so.

MIKE: Of the places you’ve traveled is there anywhere else you could kind of see yourself, like doing what you do in kind of, or is it really all about your social circles here?

MALIA: Um, I really appreciate the connections I have in Seattle, and I think that that makes it really difficult to imagine moving, but unfortunately, Seattle is getting um really expensive. So, I have lucked out in that I have a really affordable rent, but that is kind of, it’s not easy to find that, you have to kind of have an in to a house or something, or like, be willing to live with a bunch of people. So, eventually I’ll probably have to see myself in a different place. But I, I think my skills are transferable. I think I can do this kind of thing.

MIKE: Oh, no doubt.

MALIA: Live this lifestyle, you know, in a lot of different places so I’m not too worried about it.

MIKE: I mean anywhere there’s an artsy enough community to sustain it. But I guess in terms of the price of rent, like, that’s something that obviously Boston has down, um, well I should say up.

MALIA: Is it expensive there too?

MIKE: Oh my fucking God. It’s, it’s out of control, and it’s only, I feel like it’s only gotten worse since I initially lived here for college. Like you could find places for like $675 a month and now it’s [whistles] off the charts. Um, how close to the city are you?

MALIA: Dylan lives lieka  five-minute walk to a light rail that brings you right in. ANd I, I live, it’s called the U DIstrict, it’s like where the University of Washington is, and it’s like a five minute bus to downtown, but, other than that, my neighborhood has, you know, a lot of what I need anyways. It’s like got a lot of, I got a lot of friends living around me and lot s of little house venues here and there.

MIKE: And how is that connected to, where do you practice with your bands, where does your, how far of a commute is the different places that you do screenprinting or whatever else?

MALIA: Um, I practice in Ballard, which is, you know, like a five-minute drive, without traffic from my house, so it’s not that bad. Or you know like, 15-20 minute bike ride.

MIKE: In like a rehearsal room, or uh, somebody's house?

MALIA: Yeah, I have a practice space. And then I practice at, um, my bandmate’s house, for Dogbreth, which is literally two blocks from mine so it’s like incredibly convenient.

MIKE: Oh, awesome. So all your gear lives there, and all that too?

MALIA: Mmhmm. Yep.

MIKE: Cool.

DYLAN: Yeah, and for me, I’ve kind of built, [laughs] built everything I need into my house. Uh, I, like I live with a bunch of people but I’m fortunate enough that they’re willing to, you know, have, let bands have practice here, and have me record here and all that stuff, so, um. Yeah luckily everyone comes to me for practice, in all three of my projects, so that’s pretty cool.

MIKE: Yeah it’s nice isn’t it?

DYLAN: Yeah, yeah. But like Malia said, I’m pretty close to downtown if I need it, you know, I think we’ve both just kind of set up our lives that, the stuff we need, you know the stuff about a city that you need, so like, you know, just accessible public transportation, accessible groceries, and somewhat of like a social scene. I feel like we've kind of got all those bases covered, sort of where we live, we kind of live on opposite sides of downtown.

MALIA: Dylan even brings the gig to him.

DYLAN: That’s true, yeah.

MALIA: [laughs]

MIKE: That’s right, you do.

DYLAN: We have shows here, and uh, yeah so really I don’t have to leave the house, ever.

MIKE: I mean, I’ve talked to, I’ve talked to folks who do gigs at their house before, and that’s a whole, that’s a whole ball of wax that, I mean there’s so much personal liability that comes into it. Like, you obviously know I had a house set up a little like yours, I didn’t share it with people, but um, you know, I, the night that I had to move out, like, somebody had said like when you get out of here, you should do a show and just like tear the place up. And that’s the only, that’s like the only outcome i can imagine, just like so much destruction. How do you, like, how do you navigate that? Is everyone pretty respectful generally? Do you find yourself putting a lot of rent money into like-

DYLAN: No, you know I kind of started out the venue, you know started booking shows with this sort of understanding that it’s like not a party house. We do shows here, and that’s it. You know, and, I want people to have fun and I want people to have a good time, but there is like, I’ve just seen, yeah, I’ve seen you know, what you’re talking about. I've seen some pretty rough DIY spaces in both audience kind of like unruliness but also sort of like promoter just kind of like, yeah we could have a show! And then they’re not there for an hour. You know, after bands are supposed to show up and they’re just drunk, or like whatever it is, so I think like my goal for the venue is to kind of like make it a place where people felt safe, where bands felt like they were communicated with, and like you know are willing to play here. And yeah for the most part it’s like kind of part of this venue now is that it, it is a pretty mellow, mellow place to see a show. And, I tend to even avoid like, you know, like louder punk bands, which part of me feels bad about, because that, you know, I still like that music. But, it’s also like-

MIKE: That’s sellin' out, dude. [laughs]

DYLAN: Yeah.

MALIA: A lot of thought goes into, um, like the promotion of the shows too, that’s like specifically respect the space, and I don’t know people are reminded that throughout the night sometimes by the bands.

MIKE: Doesn’t it suck to have to remind people of that?

MALIA: It does, I get it though. I think that people that don’t organize shows, they don’t really think about that, you know. They just go to this show and they’re like it’s a party! But um, you know, when you’re like hey this is our fuckin’ house, like, can you please [laughs] respect it, and like-

MIKE: Yeah, I see like, like pillows on couches and-

MALIA: -clean up after yourself, and you know.

MIKE: Yeah, of course. I, uh, in the interest of like journalistic fairness I should probably interview some like ornery landlords or something.

MALIA: [laughs] yeah.

MIKE: Uh, what’s your ideal situation, either of you? Like in terms of like earning, and making a living, like how does that, how does what you’re doing now play into it, into like a larger goal?

MALIA: I mean hopefully in the future my ideal would be like making a little bit more money, but like as for what I’m doing, like, I don’t really see myself wanting to anything much differently. Which is like a nice place to be in in life, I don’t, I feel really content with the activities that I do on a day to day so to speak.

MIKE: That’s great, that’s always nice to end on a high note.

DYLAN: Yeah, and it, to go off of that, I’d be stoked to like be similarly like, in any realm of possibility making more money off of music to support myself and, and be able to fund my insatiable need for video games and uh, and music gear. That’s all I need.

MIKE: Oh man, that’s a money pit right there.

DYLAN: It is, it really is, I don’t think anyone can really afford it.

[music]

MIKE: As always, if you liked what you heard today, I urge you to support Dylan and Malia in their numerous endeavors however you see fit. There is a veritable plethora of links and info in the description of this episode, including a link to the ever-growing Spotify playlist of songs featured on the show. You can find a transcript of this and every episode on my blog at sellinout.tumblr.com. If you want to support the show and get exclusive bonus content you can find out how to do that at patreon.com/sellinoutpodcast. Follow the show on Twitter, @SellinOutAD. Leave a nice rating and review on your favorite podcatcher, it helps others find the show. Or you can screenprint some bootleg Sellin Out merch, sell maybe two, and leave the rest to be eaten by moths in the attic.

Our theme song is “No Cab Fare” by Such Gold. Photography by Nick DiNatale. I’m Mike Moschetto, this is Sellin’ Out.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #21: I want to believe wholeheartedly that Raven has always been the Spring Maiden from the start. However within that revelation, there are details that make sense and a few others that don’t quite add up.

Like for example, if Raven had been the Maiden this entire time then how in all of Remnant did neither Lionheart nor Qrow know about it?

For Lionheart to know the back story of the Spring Maiden must mean that he had a personal hand in either  picking the candidate or at least met them at least once in his lifetime. So obviously if Raven was the missing Spring Maiden then wouldn’t Lionheart have recognized her when they met up in Chapter 10?

Seriously some things don’t add up and need to be pondered about. So in the spirit of analytical fun, this squiggle meister is going to play super sleuth and present my own deductions involving this top. Let’s start:

In the first episode of Volume 5, Lionheart mentioned that the Spring Maiden has been missing for ‘over a decade’. Doesn’t really paint an exact number now still puts a number into perspective. This means that Spring, as I’ll refer to her, has been gone for more than ten years but still less than twenty years (two decades). If I had to make an exact guess of how long the Spring Maiden hasn’t been seen, I’m going to say she’s been missing for approximately eighteen years. I say 18 years because I believe that’s how old Vernal is. What does Vernal have to do with this you might ask? Keep reading and I’ll explain. 

The previous Spring Maiden must’ve been at least 17 years old when she succeeded the last Maiden before her. I’m saying this going purely on the notion that that’s how old Pyrrha Nikos was when Ozpin first asked her to be the next Fall Maiden.

Since we don’t know the exact age a Maiden candidate is chosen, I’m basing my theory solely on that evidence and while I know that there were some dire shortcomings for Pyrrha’s rise to Maiden candidacy, nonetheless, it’s the closest canonical evidence we have so far so might as well use it to start piecing stuff together.

I believe that the last Spring Maiden was a teenager when she was picked up by the Branwen Tribe. We don’t know exactly how old Raven was when she was promoted to Leader of the Branwen Tribe but I’m going to take a wild guess and say she was at least eighteen years old when she met the last Spring Maiden and she joined their tribe.

While fans are saying that Raven killed the last Spring Maiden and therefore stole her power, I, on the other hand think it was less brutal than that. I am among that small 1% who still wish to believe there is a shred of good and redeemability in Raven as a character despite her actions; both past and recent. Seriously why does everyone want to automatically assume that she’s entirely evil just because she’s committed a few heinous yet justifiable crimes? The irony is Raven is no different than Ozpin. They both share blood on their hands and could easily be painted as bad guys but at their core, they still possess likeable qualities about them that contradict that. You know what I think?

Spring and the Raven

 I want to believe that Raven shared a close friendship with the last Spring Maiden. How else could she have inherited her powers if she and the last Spring weren’t connected? I think after Spring abandoned her training, she joined the Branwen bandits, befriended Raven their Tribe Leader and eventually settled down in the tribe.

I say this because I’d like to think there is a connection to Vernal and the last Spring Maiden. Because of all the people in the Tribe that Raven could’ve chosen to impersonate the Maiden, why Vernal specifically? It has been shown earlier on that there are other female tribesmen within the bandit ranks. So why Vernal? This led me to deduce this theory.

Vernal, Daughter of Spring

I think that Vernal is the orphaned daughter of the last Spring Maiden before Raven. I want to believe that the previous Spring made a comfortable new life for herself with the Branwen. She probably got married to one of the men in the tribe and together the two had Vernal.

Vernal is a true blue member of the Branwen Tribe, born and raised and it’s on the campsite where she spent most of her days. The way how Vernal spoke of the Tribe in the last episode got me thinking that she sounded more like someone who was raised amongst their culture all of her life rather than one who’s only been with them for more than ten years, y’know what I mean? And since it was later revealed that Vernal wasn’t the real Maiden, this kind of supports this theory.

I think after the last Spring had Vernal, Raven possibly had Yang the following year. I’d like to believe that Yang and Vernal are around the same age with Vernal only being a year older. Y’know that thing that girlfriends who happen to get pregnant the same time or have kids do when they joke about their kids either marrying or at least being best friends with each other the same way their mothers were at their age?   Funnily enough, I’m envisioning this friendly scene of Spring, Vernal’s mom, bringing her to visit a pregnant Raven’s tent and making a joke about their daughters growing up to be best friends implying that if things had gone accordingly, not only would Yang had possibly grown up in the Branwen Tribe but she and Vernal would’ve been good friends or rivals even (or one of RWBY’s first canon LGBT ships featuring a main character maybe? Who knows?)

 Passing the Torch

My theory is that Raven became the Spring Maiden after the previous one, who was her friend, tragically lost her life during an unexpected Grimm attack on their camp.

Remember how Raven pointed out the possibility of their camp grounds being flooded with Grimm if the tribesmen didn’t cease their conflict in Chapter 5 of Volume 5. While one could argue that that was merely a generalization based on Raven’s experience with the Grimm, I’d also like to believe that there was no coincidence that she made that particular point. I’d like to believe that the Grimm attacking their camp was something that definitely occurred in the past; an event that Raven remembered all too well in order to avoid having it again.

In continuing my theory, Spring Maiden died after she was mortally wounded during a Grimm attack on the camp. Although the Maidens are powerful, let’s not forget that the last Spring Maiden abandoned her training and ran away because she didn’t want to be a Maiden anymore.

So it wouldn’t surprise me if the last Spring Maiden never fully used her powers again or at least never learnt how to utilize it properly in combat.

Lionheart referred to Amber as being an inexperienced Maiden when she first possessed the Fall Maiden powers.

However if I recall, Amber was well-versed in combat enough to hold her own against a three-way assault by Cinder, Mercury and Emerald.

This tells me that Amber had completed her training but just didn’t have enough years of experience practicing all the knowledge and skills she acquired from her training in the field. Kind of like someone fresh out of school being thrust into their first job and struggling at first.

I’d like to believe that if the last Spring Maiden abandoned her training then she must’ve been in worse shape than Amber and was unable to control her powers and utilize it well especially if it were against something like continuing hordes of Grimm.

So Spring perishes in a sea of blood-thirsty Grimm, probably even sacrificing herself to protect the Tribe knowing fully well that she wouldn’t survive. And in her dying moments, she thinks of the next best person to succeed her. In her last breaths, her mind passes on her precious little girl Vernal who’d now be left without a mother and father (cause let’s say that Vernal’s dad also lost his life in the Grimm pillage on the Tribe). However she didn’t want to pass this power onto her beloved daughter for she was still too young to both carry and even understand the burdens of possessing such an immense power. So instead, Spring thinks hard of one other person. The only person she trusted over everyone else in the Tribe and the one person she believed would be strong enough to carry the mantle of Maiden: her dearest friend, Raven Branwen. So the power is passed onto Raven and...she begrudgingly becomes the new Maiden. She then makes a choice.

Raven decides that she can’t be Tribe Leader to protect her tribe, a Spring Maiden to protect herself and a mother to raise her daughter all at once. If she did so then sooner or later, those things would clash. So one of those things would have to be discarded and in the end, we all know which one she chose to give up.

Having learnt all about the Maidens from her time with Ozpin, Raven knew that so long as she had the power she will always be trouble to those around her.

Following the most recent twelfth episode, RWBY fans have already started speculating that Raven becoming a Maiden was her primary reason for ‘running away’ and abandoning her family and personally, I’m starting to see the probability in that too.

Raven being a Maiden meant that sooner or later, she would be hunted for her power and that would mean placing her loved ones in danger.

But to me, for Raven to have been chosen as a Maiden, someone must've known and I’m not just referring to her fellow tribesman or even Vernal. At least one person outside the Branwen Tribe must’ve known Raven’s secret. And sadly...I think that person must’ve been Ozpin.

The Maiden and the Old Wizard

Y'know what'd be interesting?

What if...

Raven went to Ozpin soon after becoming Spring and begged him to take the Maiden powers away from her knowing all about him being the Wizard who created the Maidens in the first place. However she is met unfortunately with Oz either refusing to help her and/or was given an answer she found dissatisfying.

Like perhaps Oz mentioned to Raven that once he gave the Maiden powers away, it’s irreversible. As he informed Team RWY and JNR in Chapter 6, his power is finite.

So I believe even if Ozpin wanted to take the Maiden powers back, he simply lacked the ability to. And I think that's how Raven lost all trust in Ozpin, blaming him entirely for the damned fate he didn’t just place on her but all the Maidens.

He made them all martyrs to be sacrificed like lambs to the slaughter for an enemy she soon learnt cannot be defeated. An explanation like this would explain Raven’s mistrust in Ozpin and why she left his inner circle in pursuit of protecting herself and her tribe.

If Ozpin could not even undo his own blunders of the past then what good would he serve in her preservation or her people’s. Did he even cater for any of them at all? Or were they all just nothing more than mere human shields for Salem to target in her unending war with Ozpin?

Becoming a Maiden was another thing that opened Raven’s already very perceptive eyes to the real dangers of the world she lived in. She knew she couldn’t convince Tai and her brother in seeing the truth in all that she preached about Ozpin so instead she gave up and left them to their own damnation.

A part of me innocently wants to believe that Oz didn't know that Raven was a Maiden. For the sake of his very close camaraderie with Qrow and the high amount of trust the younger huntsman has placed in him, not to mention the years committed to following him, I sincerely hope that Oz was oblivious to this bit of information. Please!

It’s bad enough that Raven has planted seeds of doubt in Yang which I wouldn’t be surprised will come to fruition very soon. But imagine how heartbreaking it would be if Qrow discovered that for all these years, his sister had been a Maiden and Oz never told him. Oz kept a secret from him.

Of all of Oz’s associates, Qrow is akin to what Pearl was to Rose Quartz in Steven Universe; at least in my eyes.

As a matter of fact, there are lot of shared similarities between characters from RWBY and Steven Universe. 

For all my fellow Steven Universe fans who are also in the FNDM, remember in the episode Rose’s Scabbard where we learnt that despite the fact that Pearl proclaimed herself to be the closest companion to Rose and the one who she shared all her secrets with, there were still may more secrets that Rose kept even from Pearl.

I’m not saying that Qrow is anything like Pearl in terms of personality nor do I think that Qrow’s feelings towards Oz are anything like how Pearl truly felt about Rose. Unless Qrow is later revealed to be bisexual and was secretly in love with Oz for the entirety of their relationship together then I don’t think romance is the basis of their close bond. However, admittedly, there are secrets that Oz only shares with Qrow.

While we don’t know the full motives behind Qrow’s devotion to Ozpin, one could argue that Qrow, despite his youth, is the most trusted of Oz’s lieutenants. He is definitely his right hand man whereas Glynda Goodwitch is the great woman that stands loyally behind him.

If Ozpin’s Circle were Voltron, Glynda and Qrow would form the two strong arms that dutifully stand ready at his side to support the head whenever necessary. Whereas Lionheart and Ironwood unfortunately are the two legs who were supposed to keep the circle balanced but are sadly falling apart and greatly threaten the entire stability of the inner circle as we’ve noticed recently.   I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that I just don’t want Qrow to start having any misgivings about trusting Ozpin. I can stomach any other character’s suspicion of Oz but not Qrow’s.

But...knowing how the show and its writers just loves to paint Oz as the man with a million faces built on a millennia of lies...I would not be surprised if it’s revealed that Oz did in fact know this detail about Raven and just didn’t tell Qrow because...

...Because...

... Because I dunno, maybe Raven made him promise not to tell her little brother or Tai out of consideration for their own safety...and it’s a secret that Ozpin actually took to his grave and beyond for Raven even after all she did to him. That seems like an honourable thing Ozpin would do. Yeah. That’s better. I like that better.

Something interesting to consider about Yang Xiao Long

If Raven has been the Spring Maiden this entire time, especially if my theory about her becoming the Maiden shortly around the time she possibly have birth to Yang is correct, I wonder...

What if...and this is a very big IF...during child birth when the Spring Maiden powers were being transferred to Raven...some of it...like a very small teeny-weensy portion of the power was naturally passed on to Yang.

As the series made a point of, the way in which Maidens are chosen is still a mystery in itself. All we know is that its passed on to a young woman or whoever was in its predecessor's thoughts last and happens to be female.

I'm actually wondering what would happen if a potential Maiden received the power while giving birth to a child who is a girl.

Remember how in Tangled, after the sick Queen consumed the magical flower, the flower's power was inadvertently passed onto her newborn child: Rapunzel.

I know it is said that Yang’s character was inspired by Goldilocks from the fairytale Goldilocks and the Three Bears but in reviewing Tangled, I noticed something interesting.

What’s one thing both Disney’s Rapunzel and RWBY’s Yang Xiao Long surprisingly have in common? I’ll give you a minute to come to the same conclusion as I did.

I’m not saying that this is the case with Yang. But seeing as Tangled came out in 2010 with RWBY premiering three years later and since we also have yet to see another character in the show with a unique hair trait such as Yang’s, it does make you wonder if there was some form of inspiration, am I right?

What’s one thing both Disney’s Rapunzel and RWBY’s Yang surprisingly have in common? I’ll give you a minute to come to the same conclusion as I did.

I’m not saying that this is the case with Yang. But seeing as Tangled came out in 2010 with RWBY premiering three years later and since we also have yet to see another character in the show with a unique hair trait such as Yang’s, it does make you wonder if there was some form of inspiration, am I right?

And...with Raven being revealed to be the true Spring Maiden, it is kinda clear that the series is starting to set Yang up to possibly becoming a Maiden herself. Not just as a coincidence but as probably her birth right.

It'd be interesting if Yang was literally born to become a Maiden especially if the case is that she unexpectedly inherited some of the Maiden powers after Raven gave birth to her. I know this all sounds very implausible right now however it does make me wonder certain things about Yang now.

It makes me wonder what makes this sunny dragon burn so bright and it’s not exactly just because of her semblance either. That’s why I made the connection between her and Rapunzel. Rapunzel received her powers from a magical flower that was given to her mother when she fell ill. I’m not saying that Yang’s hair glows as a sign of her receiving some of the Spring Maiden powers upon birth from her mother who is the current Spring Maiden. It could very well be just her semblance doing that.

Still it makes me see a connection and it’d be cool if it were true. 

It’s funny. I wasn’t sure how I felt about any of the RWBY girls eventually becoming Maidens. As you probably heard me mention before, I remember reading somewhere in the RWBY community where someone said that one of the writers revealed that the RWBY girls’ would never be Maidens.

While I still haven’t found the proof of that till this day, at first I agreed with the idea of the RWBY girls not becoming Maidens specifically because of the cliché of it all. However I actually wouldn’t mind it now if one of the girls were set up to become a Maiden and not all of them. And of the main four, Yang would be the most likely choice.

Compared to her group, she’s the only one in RWBY that doesn’t possess a major ‘quirk’ (for lack of a better term) about her that makes her significant or at least an important player in something major to come in the story, y’know what I mean?

For Ruby, it’s the fact that she’s a Silver Eyed Warrior, inherited from her mother and cause Oz sees her as someone who can turn the tides in the impending war against Salem.

 For Weiss, it’s the fact that she’s a Schnee. Not only is the Schnee Family practically seen as royalty in Atlas and other parts of Remnant but let’s not forget the mystical element of her family bloodline where they’re the only kin so far to possess a rare hereditary semblance of glyphs and summoning. So not only was Weiss born into power, she also naturally inherited it because power flows through her veins.

For Blake, it’s the fact that she’s a Faunus and an ex-member of the White Fang who once shared a close relationship and history with its present tyrannical leader.

If you compare Yang to her team members, it becomes apparent that she doesn’t really have anything major going for her. As a matter of fact, Yang’s arc has always mostly centred on her finding her mother.

Ever since her first character trailer debuted back in Volume 1, Yang’s story has always involved her searching and finding her mother Raven for answers; not just regarding her reasons for abandoning her but more so answers to questions Yang might have about herself.

Raven has always been a key aspect to Yang’s character arc and now we know why. At first I figured it might’ve been because Yang possessed a unique hidden ability which she got from her mom’s side of the family and could only master if she sought out Raven to train her. Kind of pleased that the actual truth might not be too far from my initial assumption.

If Yang became the Spring Maiden especially if it is supposed to be her destiny since her mother was the last Maiden before her. Even more so if it is later shown that some of the power was given to her at birth, I think that’ll be cool for Yang cause she would’ve earned this right of passage or at least that’s how the show is setting her up.

But for Yang to become the new Spring Maiden, this would mean that Raven will have to die. For what it’s worth, I’m hoping this is prolonged for another season. Because despite her being a major player this season, Volume 5 has taught us jack shit about Raven’s character. Sure we learnt that she’s a Maiden but beyond that we still don’t fully understand why she distrusts Ozpin, how she became a Maiden and why she abandoned Yang. Certainly those are all very important things we can learn about if Raven is kept alive for another season, am I right?

I don’t want to say that Raven will be killed off at Volume 5’s finale but...in the event that Raven is unceremoniously axed off, I hope she at least goes down showing her daughter that she does love her by protecting her.

I would very much like for Raven Branwen to survive for another season. But just in case she doesn’t and the Battle Haven claims the life of yet another important RWBY supporting character, let’s just hope that it doesn’t subvert from the fact that the spring maiden powers is that trolling power that’s gonna keep giving Cinder Fall the proverbial middle finger no matter how many times she tries to get her power hungry grimm-y little hands on it.

After all, even if Cinder manages to successfully kill Raven, we all know the power will naturally go to Yang. The show is definitely setting up for that to happen and it will be a twist if it didn’t.

I’m just looking forward to the look of pure unadulterated dread on Cinder’s face when full-powered Spring Maiden Yang Xiao Long makes her debut, infernal red eyes and blazing gold hair and everything. If Ruby took Cinder’s eye and arm for Pyrrha then Yang’s gotta take Cinder’s...kidney or appendix or whatever organ she pierced for Weiss. It is the rule of thumb for karma. Just picture Spring Maiden Yang punching a hole through Fall Maiden Cinder’s stomach; impaling her somehow but not killing her somehow either. I want Cinder to live long enough for Ruby and Oscar to fittingly kick her ass when everyone returns to Vale to reclaim Beacon because y’know that shit’s coming.

So yeah, if Yang becomes the Spring Maiden, let her get a nice good swing on Cinder and not kill her cause I’m sure Mercury and/or Emerald will arrive in time to rescue her. I’m not one to usually promote violence and gore especially in an anime like RWBY but I will say that that would look cool if it happened in the show. Just saying.

The Longevity of Vernal’s Character

Unless Yang’s destiny isn’t to ultimately replace Raven as both the current Spring Maiden (and essentially Leader of the Branwen Tribe cause I imagined if both Raven and Vernal are killed then the Branwen Tribe would possibly wage war with whoever they hold responsible), then she’s going to need a mentor character to guide her.

If Raven must die then Vernal must live and vice versa.

I’ll only accept justification for Vernal’s death if the story will lead to Raven training Yang and rekindling their previously strained relationship. However in the event that Raven dies then I hope by some feat of magic, Vernal lives somehow.

The show is going to need someone to help Yang with the next chapter of her character arc and if it isn’t Raven for some reason then at least let it be Vernal, man.

I’m really hoping that Vernal isn’t dead. As you can probably tell, I’m very much in denial over Vernal actually being dead after last week’s episode. I mean, I knew that Cinder was going to betray them and that Vernal would ultimately be murdered for her so-called ‘powers’ but that still didn’t stop me from hoping she would’ve stuck around longer in the story. 

So for what it’s worth, I’m hoping that Cinder didn’t totally kill her and that she only passed out from extreme blood loss and trauma.

Let me exist in my bubble of ignorance until Chapter 13 confirms it for me, okay? 

Maybe Jaune can even heal her and resuscitate her. I really want to see more of Vernal you guys.

As I claimed in another musing, I like Vernal’s character and wanted to see more from her.

My hunch is that after Raven became the new Maiden, she also adopted Vernal and raised her in place of her mom. I spoke about Raven and Vernal sharing a mother-daughter kind of connection in this ♦ previous musing. So while Raven was a surrogate mother to Vernal, Vernal was also a surrogate daughter to Raven since she was forced to abandon hers. When you put it that way, if fans ever wondered how Yang would’ve turned out if she was raised and trained by Raven, take a long hard look at Vernal’s character because she’d be the living embodiment of that upbringing or the closest thing to it.

I really like the idea of Vernal being the daughter of the last Spring Maiden who Raven adopted and nurtured after she became the new Spring Maiden. It would bring so much more meaning to her character and connection to Raven than her just being her second in command for reasons I’m not sure will ever be explained further in the series; especially after this season. We never did get to learn Vernal’s last name too. Maybe her full name was Vernal (whatever the last name of the last Spring Maiden was) before it was later changed to Vernal Branwen when she was adopted by Raven.

I honestly hope Vernal survives for another season somehow. I’d love it if she and Yang developed a close friendship and even sisterhood as both the biological and adopted daughter of Raven. Y’know like Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne from the Batman series.

We see how close and devoted Yang is to Ruby. Imagine adding another sister to the fray with Vernal being Yang’s (older) sister by her association with her mother and by extension another big sister for Ruby to look up to. Imagine how interesting and actually quite cute it would be if Yang gets to be the little sister for once cause of her connection to Vernal and Vernal in turn learns what it’s like to be a big sister figure to someone.

I know this all sounds farfetched since there’s a greater chance that Vernal is just the one-off character from this season but...hey CRWBY! C’mon!

If Raven is unfortunately killed off and Yang succeeds her as the next Spring Maiden then you’re going to need someone to take over the Branwen Tribe and it’d be cool if Vernal inherited the Tribe after Raven (given that it’s not Yang, of course). Just as how it’d be cool if Yang and Vernal bond over their connection to Raven and Yang gets to learn more about how Raven was through Vernal (y’know all the good qualities about her that we never got to see) as well as her mother’s honest thoughts about her. Add in a bonus character development arc for Yang where she even helps Vernal reclaim the Branwen Tribe after a political uprising involving who should be crowned leader of the bandits breaks out following Raven’s death.

Interesting how Vernal described her bond with the tribe as being family. Although Vernal was only spouting this stuff as gibberish to play Cinder, I’d like to believe her thoughts on her tribe were sincere. That’s how she sees them. She truly sees this band of outlaws and thieves as the closest thing to a family she has (especially if my theory about her being the last Spring Maiden’s daughter is indeed true).

So then why do I feel that that will all go to shit if Raven is ever killed off and certain people among the Branwen Tribe ranks start showing their true colours?

All of these plot points that I’ve listed above can actually work for either Vernal or Raven’s continuing relationship with Yang if given context. So in the end, it’s either or. Seriously if no further plot development comes for Yang with Raven, then at least give her Vernal as a worthy substitute somehow depending on how things go.

Not saying that’s the case. Not even saying that we’ll ever gain more focus on the Branwen Tribe beyond Volume 5. Heck we barely got any this season to be frank. All I’m implying is that...this kind of plot continuation could be nice if we got something like that for a future season. Just putting the thought out there.

So in conclusion...

The way how Volume 5 is shaping up now, there is no telling how things will end. This is the first season of RWBY where I want so much to happen and be discovered by its finale.

I’ll save how I think Volume 5 should end for another musing after watching this week’s episode. Still, I don’t want to think that we’ll get the conclusion to Cinder’s fight with Raven until the finale.

I still stand by my last musing that this week’s episode might more focus on Ozpin/Oscar’s clash with Hazel with a possible little teaser of Blake and the Faunus Calvary finally making it to Mistral and clashing with the White Faunus.

But depending on how long Chapter 13 will be, anything can happen in the next episode. For me personally, as one thing for me to possibly look forward to, I really would like to see the conclusion to Ozpin/Oscar vs. Hazel.

As I made mention of in my last musing, I’m hoping that fight is the main focus of the next episode because I think it needs to be. There’s also Ruby and Yang vs. Emerald and Mercury but I think we can all guess how that’ll end. Either Emerald and Mercury will be defeated for good by the sister tag team or they’re backed into a corner. For what it’s worth, I hope the latter is Emerald and Mercury being forced to retreat after noticing that Cinder hasn’t returned yet.

And after one of them, probably Mercury, let’s it slip that Cinder planned on double crossing Raven and Vernal, that’s when Merc and Emerald make their daring jump down under into the vault to see what’s taking Cinder so long.

This will then prompt Yang to pursue especially after hearing that her mom might be in danger. Ruby would want to follow, not wanting her sister to go alone but, as a I made a very big point about in my last musing, I REALLY hope the CRWBY Writers don’t backtrack and would let Yang go alone to help her mother while Ruby stayed above to offer a hand to Ozpin/Oscar and everyone facing Hazel.   There’s a lot that can come from an episode like this and I’m very much excited to see if we do get that.

Since this post is mostly about Raven and Yang, I’m hoping that the Battle of the Maidens and the reveal of the Relic of Knowledge is best saved for the finale.

Similarly to how the conclusion to the Hazel and Ozpin fight deserves its own focus episode that fight also needs its own focus episode fittingly reserved as the finale to a compelling season.

But as always, this is just my opinion. Not sure about other fans.

All in all, I’m excited for this episode to come and can’t wait to see what it dishes out.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

[dipulb3]

How Trump allies stoked the flames ahead of Capitol riot

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/how-trump-allies-stoked-the-flames-ahead-of-capitol-riot/

How Trump allies stoked the flames ahead of Capitol riot

As 2020 faded into 2021, some of President Donald Trump’s most influential supporters — among them members of his inner circle who were in direct contact with the President — spoke in ominous and violent terms about what was coming on January 6.

Even as anxious eyes turn toward the Inauguration Day on January 20, the words of these firebrands in the leadup to the riots at the Capitol raise crucial questions about the relationship between the rhetoric of far-right figureheads and the violence that unfolded on January 6.

“All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” Bannon, Trump’s former top White House adviser, promised listeners of his podcast — called “War Room” — on January 5.

“We are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” he added, “and we are probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you will never take back our country with weakness.”

Soon after, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, killing a police officer and assaulting others before charging inside — some carrying weapons and zip-tie handcuffs.

“What we have is influential, powerful people influencing the President and pushing out messages that are radicalizing large chunks of the population,” said Heidi Beirich, chief strategy officer for the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit organization that monitors extremism around the world. “It’s very dangerous.”

To be sure, as a rule most speech that doesn’t convey a direct threat or incite “imminent lawless action” is protected under the First Amendment.

But experts told Appradab they believe Trump and his most visible allies bear a great deal of responsibility for stoking the flames that led to the January 6 uprising.

“When you are an adviser to a President, formal or informal, you need to think about the impact of anti-democratic rhetoric,” said John Hudak, an expert on governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “And the President himself, and a lot of the President’s supporters and certainly his children, seem to believe that it is responsible for a President and his advisers and family to be anti-democratic. That’s a real problem. And we haven’t really experienced that in our history.”

Trump has already paid a historic price for his words, with the US House on Wednesday voting to make him the only American president to have been impeached twice — this time for “incitement of insurrection.”

But while much attention has been paid to Trump’s words in the run up to the breach of the US Capitol, less talked about is the fiery rhetoric of his most high-profile champions.

Bannon and Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment. Stone rejected Appradab’s questions as “defamatory attempts to say that my belief in God and my view of the last election in apocalyptic terms is somehow inciting violence.” Alexander argued he had “no involvement in the breach of the US Capitol.”

Flynn attorney Sidney Powell, who herself is facing a defamation lawsuit over her claims about the election (she’s denied the allegations), insisted that Flynn “encourages patriotism and lawful political action,” and to suggest otherwise is “absolutely ludicrous.”

Bannon’s menacing metaphors

In the weeks between the election and that day, Bannon and his guests and co-hosts on his “War Room” podcast relentlessly promoted conspiracy theories of election fraud and cast the fight to overturn the election results in war-like and often apocalyptic terms.

Bannon’s menacing metaphors first landed him in hot water a few days after on Election Day, when he suggested in a video that posted to several of his social media accounts that, if he were in charge, he wouldn’t merely fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and Anthony Fauci — the US government’s top infectious disease expert — but would put their heads on pikes “as a warning to federal bureaucrats.” Twitter permanently suspended his account.

In December, Bannon’s co-host tweeted a video of Bannon speaking on “War Room” overlaid with cinematic music and dramatic images from the famous D-Day battle scene of “Saving Private Ryan.” In it, he spoke of the “moral obligation” Trump supporters have to “the kids that died at Normandy.” He added that if they allow Biden — “that feckless old man” — to win, “I want you to explain that to the 20-year-old kid in the first wave on D-Day.”

On December 28, Bannon insisted that patriotic Trump supporters had to be ready to fight in the spirit of George Washington’s soldiers during the American Revolution and American soldiers on D-Day in World War II. “That’s our DNA, that’s where we come from,” Bannon said.

Bannon began promoting the upcoming DC protests of January 6.

“l’ll tell you this,” Bannon said the day before the riot. “It’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen. OK, it’s going to be quite extraordinarily different. And all I can say is, strap in … You have made this happen and tomorrow it’s game day. So strap in. Let’s get ready.”

The podcasts also pointed to close coordination with Trump’s team. “You and me were talking almost every day, many times, you know, 10 times a day,” Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn said to Bannon on December 28.

Meanwhile, a senior Trump adviser confirmed that the President and Bannon have been in communication in recent weeks, discussing Trump’s conspiracy theories about the election.

‘You either fight with us or you get slashed’

Just before Christmas, Alexander — a political activist who has organized pro-Trump rallies, including one of the demonstrations that converged on the Capitol lawn on January 6 — used violent metaphors to hint at what was to come in January when speaking to followers of his livestream channel on the social media platform Periscope. In his freewheeling monologue, Alexander credited Roger Stone, a veteran Republican operative and self-described “dirty trickster” whose 40-month prison sentence for seven felonies was cut short by Trump’s commutation in July. (He was given a full pardon in December).

“This is something Roger and I have been planning for a long time,” Alexander said. “And finally, he’s off the leash. So, you know, it’s a knife fight and your two knife fighters are Ali Alexander and Roger Stone, and you either fight with us or you get slashed. So I’ll let you guys know more about what that means as we evolve.”

Alexander has helped turn the “Stop the Steal” slogan that Stone launched on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 primaries into a rallying cry for conservatives around the country.

At a DC rally on the night of January 5, Stone took the stage clad in one of his trademark pinstripe suits as a dance track titled “Roger Stone did nothing wrong” blared from the speakers.

After repeating the falsehood that the election was stolen from Trump, Stone, 68, rallied the faithful with an us-versus-them battle cry.

“This is nothing less than an epic struggle for the future of this country between dark and light, between the godly and the godless, between good and evil,” he said. “And we will win this fight or America will step off into a thousand years of darkness. We dare not fail. I will be with you tomorrow shoulder to shoulder.”

Stone also has bumped elbows with extremist groups, most notably the Proud Boys. In September he endorsed the congressional candidacy of Nick Ochs, who founded the Hawaii chapter of the far-right organization. Ochs, whose bid for the US House came up short, was arrested for his role in the Capitol siege. Law enforcement was alerted to it by the photo Ochs posted on Twitter of himself enjoying a cigarette in the building, and by the comments he made to a Appradab reporter.

Long a dispenser of supercharged rhetoric, Stone was not muted by his recent run-in with the law, and was talking about election fraud even before November.

In September, he went on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show, InfoWars, and the two mused discursively about “fake ballots,” Big Tech and the Clintons.

“If someone will study the president’s authority in the Insurrection Act in his ability to impose, impose martial law,” Stone said, “if there is widespread cheating, he will have the authority to arrest (Mark) Zuckerberg, to arrest Tim Cook, to arrest the Clintons, to arrest anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.”

War analogies abound

For his part, Jones has joined “Stop the Steal” efforts since the November election and used inflammatory, dark rhetoric to bolster the movement’s false claims.

Two days after election day, Jones said, “We are in the attempted overthrow of our country.” When a guest on the show mentioned people showing up in person to protest the counting of votes, Jones drew a comparison to World War II.

“It’s like when Hitler was bombing London, most Brits were against a war because they had World War I. But once Hitler bombed them, over 95% said let’s go to war,” he said. “This is a war. This is not regular times.”

Jones did not respond to Appradab’s request for comment.

Also employing war analogies is another beneficiary of Trump’s pardon powers — Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.

Speaking to a fired-up crowd at the DC rally on January 5, Flynn — who was pardoned by Trump in November after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat — managed to pack election-fraud conspiracy theories, violent innuendo and a call to action into a couple of sentences.

“In some of these states, we have more dead voters than are buried on the battlefields of Gettysburg, or the battlefields of Vicksburg, or the battlefields of Normandy,” he said. “Those of you who are feeling weak tonight, those of you that don’t have the moral fiber in your body, get some tonight because tomorrow, we the people are going to be here, and we want you to know that we will not stand for a lie.”

Much of the rhetoric leading up to the riot has been draped in the language of existential threat.

Speaking at a January 6 rally just before the siege, Rudy Giuliani — Trump’s personal attorney — spoke in grandiose terms about the stakes at hand.

“This is bigger than Donald Trump,” he said. “It’s bigger than you and me. It’s about these monuments and what they stand for. This has been a year in which they have invaded our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom to move, our freedom to live. I’ll be darned if they’re going to take away our free and fair vote. And we’re going to fight to the very end to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

His mention of “trial by combat” was cited by the New York State Bar Association, which has launched an inquiry into Giuliani to determine whether he should be expelled from the group.

“Mr. Giuliani’s words quite clearly were intended to encourage Trump supporters unhappy with the election’s outcome to take matters into their own hands,” the group said in a statement. “Their subsequent attack on the Capitol was nothing short of an attempted coup, intended to prevent the peaceful transition of power.”

Experts concerned that incitement is far from over

John Scott-Railton, a researcher at University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab who now works with others to identify extremist groups who were part of the Capitol mob, said the rhetoric plays into the fantasies of armed protesters who have been gunning for a civil war.

“They’re ready — it’s what they’ve been prancing around in the woods, playing dress up, preparing for,” he said. “I’m just terribly worried that they weren’t satisfied with what happened on the sixth, and they’re going to come back for more.”

As for Bannon, the tenor of his podcast took a turn once the violence started unfolding.

On the morning of January 6, before the rally and march on the Capitol, Bannon echoed Stone’s words by saying the day would be a battle between “the children of light and the forces of darkness.”

But the podcast’s tone shifted sharply as footage of the violence at the Capitol was broadcast nationwide. Even as Bannon and his co-podcasters continued to describe Vice President Mike Pence as a traitor, they absolved Trump and themselves from any responsibility for fomenting violence.

“What’s going on right now was choices made by individuals who are fed up with what they’ve seen happen,” said right-wing activist Ben Bergquam on a War Room episode later that same day. “When I’m talking to people on the ground, that is what I’m hearing over and over and over again, it has nothing to do with President Trump’s words.”

Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, said anyone paying attention knew the events on January 6 would be a magnet for angry people. The violence of extremists, he added, has historically been sparked by a fear that something is being taken away — be it a White majority, guns or a way of life.

“Whether it’s illegal or not, people have gotta know better,” he said. “You don’t have to be a genius to know how people are incited by words.”

Appradab’s Nelli Black, Scott Bronstein, Bob Ortega, Benjamin Naughton and Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report.

[cloakedsparrow]

DC Ficlet: Batdad Rules.

Bruce knows he asks a lot of his children. He knows how very strict he is with them. Some say his rules are too rigid, that he’s too dominant, too controlling. Most of the people who say these things don’t have children and they certainly don’t have children who are secretly vigilantes. If they did, they would understand.

Bruce is strict because he needs to keep his children safe. The sort of distractions, lapses in concentration or unexpected moments of defiance that could mean a bad grade or damaged car for most kids their age could mean a serious injury or death for them. He doesn’t demand they follow his command just to satisfy some need to feel in control. He can’t take the risk that he calls out an order during a critical moment and the time they take to question it leads to their deaths or the deaths of innocents that they’ll have to carry around the weight of for the rest of their lives.

He’s been worse since Jason. He knows that. Sometimes he makes a sharp remark to Tim or Cassandra and immediately afterwards wishes he could soften it. He doesn’t know how to without risking too much. They seem to understand, for the most part.

He hopes they do, anyway.

His rules are in place for good reason.

But sometimes, he lets them slip. Not often, but on occasion. This generally happens because one of his children are either too hurt or too excited that he can’t bring himself to remind them about a particular rule at the moment. Its especially hard to be bothered with certain rules when his children are breaking them together.

Bruce loves seeing his children getting along together. In those moments, everything he’s lost and everything he’s given up feels completely worth it in a way that’s similar but somehow altogether different to when he puts a Rogue behind bars.

For instance, there is a rule about loud music in the Batcave. The Batcave is for training, for focusing on cases or working on their gear and armor. These are tasks that take concentration. They can’t afford to slip up because they were distracted.

So one day, when Bruce heard loud music coming from the cave, he was irritated. His kids knew better. He’d taught them better. But when he went down there to scold the offending party, he found himself stopping short at the sight before him.

The sparring area had been turned into a makeshift dance floor. The stools that normally sat by the workbenches were placed around with napkins and trays of appetizers like waiters at a fancy party. The ‘hors d'oeuvres’ looked familiar; Bruce had been served them by a smiling Dick on several Father’s Days when he was a small boy. They consisted of crackers and mini bagel chips, covered with either almond butter and honey, cheese and apple slices, or hummus and sprinkled with either cinnamon or paprika to make them look ‘fancy’.

The memories alone would have brought a small smile to Bruce’s face, but the inhabitants of the room were already doing just that.

Dick was wearing one of Bruce’s suit jackets over his jeans and t-shirt. Cassandra was wearing a long, flowing skirt and opera-length gloves over her Wonder Woman tank. They were gliding across the floor in tune to the music as Dick clearly taught Cassandra how to dance.

She was picking it up almost as quickly as she learned new fighting techniques. In fact, her main problem seemed to be that she kept moving as though she were sparring with an opponent instead of dancing with a partner. Dick was wonderful, of course, smiling and encouraging his sister every step of the way.

When the current song ended, they stepped away and Dick offered a bow while Cassandra gave a perfect curtsy. Then Dick offered and arm and Cassandra allowed him to lead her toward one of the appetizer trays. She slipped off a glove in fluid, graceful movements before picking up an appetizer and shoving the entire thing in her mouth. Then he stuffed another in too.

Dick laughed warmly. “Hold up there, Cass. You’re supposed to take little bites. Like this.” He selected an appetizer and demonstrated.

Cassandra looked confused. “But they’re bite sized.”

“I know, right?” Dick looked happy and proud as he explained to his little sister that it was all about appearances. “Its supposed to be sophisticated. I think the rich people just like feeling like they’re classier than everyone else.”

“We’re rich.” Cassandra said it like a fact but looked as if she was asking a question.

Dick seemed to understand perfectly. “Not like the people you’ll meet at this gala. We weren’t born rich, so as far they’re concerned, we’re not as good as them. Personally, I look at it as a challenge. Every time I do something right, its proving that a circus brat can be just as classy as they think they are.”

Cassandra seemed to consider this and then she delicately took another hors d'oeuvre from the tray and took a small bite. She offered Dick a small, sweet smile as she chewed with far more care than she ever did.

It made her brother laugh. “That’s the spirit! We’ll show them we can be just as good as their purebred rich kids.”

They moved back to the dance floor for the next song and Bruce decided to leave them be. They weren’t breaking a rule so much as they were training for a different sort of battle. Besides, they were having fun and he didn’t want to spoil it.

Another strict rule was the ‘no guns in the manor’ rule. The cave was another story; sometimes a case required them to inspect or become familiar with a certain weapon. Sometimes the local criminals were using a new type of gun and his kids had to learn how to dismantle it or take it out of commission. Sometimes Dick had to come straight from the precinct or Jason had to stop by during or straight after a patrol and it wasn’t reasonable or responsible to demand they leave their guns outside.

But there was no reason why any of his children needed to bring a gun into the manor. It wasn’t just that Bruce personally hated guns. Guns were clumsy and dangerous. Their primary purpose was to kill or cause harm and they could misfire all too easily. No good could come from having them lying around.

That meant that when Bruce walked past the formal dining room one day and spotted Jason though the doorway, with newspaper laid across the table as he cleaned his guns on it, he was angry. He had already turned with full intent to storm in and lay into his second eldest when he realized Jason was speaking calmly, in Spanish, to someone else in the room. Unsure of what was going on and who else was in his house, Bruce decided to sneak around to the other door and take a peek before letting his presence known.

With Jason, he couldn't be sure what the danger was.

However, when he finally peeked through the crack in the door on the other side of the room, he saw that the person Jason was talking to was Tim. His youngest was speed reading through some documents on his laptop. They could have been for a case, Wayne Enterprises or a homework assignment. Tim put so much focus into everything he did that it was hard to tell the difference.

Relaxing slightly, Bruce realized that his sons were not actually speaking Spanish, but Portuguese. While they both fluent in the former, only Jason was fluent in the latter. Or that had been the case. Apparently, Tim had decided to learn Portuguese and Jason was helping him with it. From what Bruce could hear, his youngest was doing well, but was having some trouble conjugating.

Jason would occasionally stop to correct his brother and explain why a verb was conjugated a certain way under certain circumstances but not others. He never sounded irritated or tried to make Tim feel foolish. In fact, he spoke with a gentleness Bruce had all but forgotten the young man possessed.

The lesson aside, his sons seemed to be having a casual conversation about cats, of all things. Tim thought they were more suited pets for a vigilante and Jason conceded his points, but commented that dogs could alert you to intruders and that they could contribute to an exercise regime. Tim pointed out that you could walk, play with and train cats just as you could a dog. Jason laughed at that but then actually took the time to explain that he was laughing at the mental image of someone entering a cat into the agility program at the Gotham Kennel Club. It made Tim laugh too.

The conversation moved on to theories on why cats weren’t allowed in the manor. Tim believed it was because of the extra work they would cause Alfred, shedding and the like. Jason was convinced that Bruce didn’t like them around because they reminded him of Catwoman and that was a touchy subject. Bruce slipped away just as Tim paused in his work to show Jason a video of a cat he’d seen online.

Bruce would never be a fan of guns and would never be pleased to find any in his home, but it was so nice to see Jason and Tim getting along. After the way Jason reacted to Bruce having a new son and Robin... Bruce wasn’t sure they’d ever be able to be left alone in a room together. To see them willingly spending their free time together, talking and laughing, was worth looking the other way for once.

Then there was the ‘no animals on the grounds’ rule and the ‘no pets’ rule. Bruce had been required to make the distinction back when he only had Dick and the boy’s endless bounds of energy and quick wit to contend with. Dick had technically found a way around the ‘no pets’ rule when he was eleven by giving the macaw he’d somehow acquired to Barbara and agreeing to take care of it for her until she finished high school. Possibly college if she lived in a dormitory that didn’t allow pets. The bird now resided in a sanctuary in California.

Jim Gordon still laughed whenever he was reminded of the incident. Bruce had to admit (out of his children’s ear shot) that it had been pretty funny and very clever.

While Bruce could financially afford any pets his kids wanted and certainly had the room to house them, he couldn’t help but think of them as a distraction or liability. Normally, a pet helped a child learn responsibility, but his children already had that in spades. They didn’t need to be responsible for yet another thing on top of the duty that weighed them all down. Their schedules were already a nightmare and they hardly had free time as it was, it probably wouldn’t be fair to the pet anyway.

At least, that’s what Bruce reminded himself every time he caught Tim petting or feeding a stray cat while out on patrol. The boy never asked to take them home, but Bruce knew his son wanted to. Cassandra didn’t weigh in on the subject (not that it was openly discussed) but Bruce knew his daughter would quickly come to enjoy having a pet, especially one with reflexes to rival her own.

At first, he didn’t realize the rule had been broken. He was so surprised and pleased to come home late from a business trip and find all of his children fast asleep in the living room together. They were all in their pajamas, except Jason, who had clearly borrowed a pair of Bruce’s sweatpants and a t-shirt. The level of curl visible in each of their hair mean that they’d hastily showered and then crashed without putting any effort into taming the curls into something manageable.

Dick was stretched across the sofa on his stomach with one of his legs dangling over the side and then returning to be help up by an ankle hooked over a cushion. Cassandra was curled up on the other side of the sofa, with her legs just starting to tangle with her brother’s and one of her arms flung over the edge. It wasn’t dangling toward the floor though, instead it was draped over Tim’s knees. The boy was lying on the floor with his knees up and his shoulders and head supported by Jason’s side. The young man was sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa and his head resting on Dick’s thigh.

None of them appeared to be in the most comfortable sleeping position, That, along with the hair and pajamas told Bruce clearly that they’d come back from patrol and been too tired to care. That they’d been together was also clear and that’s what caused Bruce to smile.

The smiled lightened but didn’t fade completely when he notice the bundle of fur and bandages on Tim’s stomach.

“Its a cat, Master Bruce.” Alfred spoke softly as he handed Bruce a cup of tea.

“What did I miss?” Clearly, there a story here. He’d expected to find his youngest in their rooms and his oldest at their own apartments when he came home. Not that this wasn’t welcomed but Bruce never like not knowing something.

“Killer Croc broke out of Arkham. Your children located him in the sewers and apprehended him. There were no casualties or significant damage to the city and as you can see, your children are mainly unharmed.”

Bruce’s eye brows shot up. Killer Croc was not an easy fight, especially in his element. Looking closer, he could see a bruise starting to form on Dick’s jaw and the telltale signs of bandages under Tim’s right sleeve. He wanted to check them out himself but he trusted Alfred. If he said they were alright, then they were.

He would still be asking about their injuries and the fight that had caused them later. For now, he would ask about the most out of place element of the scene.

“And the cat?”

“Was the only casualty of the event. Some bricks landed on her tail and held her underwater. Mistress Cassandra freed her and discovered the extent of her injuries. Master Dick took her to a vet. Her tail was amputated, one of her legs needed stitches and it was discovered that she has conjunctivitis.”

Alfred eyed the creature as if he cold see the germs spreading from her. “Master Tim has requested that he be allowed to care for her until the risk of infection to her wounds has passed and the conjunctivitis has cleared. At that point, it is my understanding that Master Jason will be taking her home.”

Bruce frowned. “I thought Jason preferred dogs.”

Alfred responded with a look Bruce received with increasing regularity as he adopted more children. It was a look that mean the had completely missed something that should have been clear. It was a look that meant he needed to take stock of his children beyond their secret identities.

He suddenly thought of the macaw. It made him smile. “He’s keeping her for Tim.”

Alfred’s answering smile was filled with pride. “I believe so.”

Normally, Bruce would refuse the cat’s presence and instead pay for her to stay in an animal hospital or kennel until it was healed. But looking at his children, he couldn’t send away the reminder that they’d been there for each other. That they were a team as both the Bat Family and the Wayne family.

“Then it can stay. Just until its healed.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Bruce may have a lot of rules in place for his children. He may demand a lot from them. He may not be great at telling them how proud he is of them. But he has his little ways of showing them how much they mean to him. He thinks they see that. He hopes they do.

If they ever have any doubts, at least they have each other. He gave them that too.