#this is the result after he does it for the 20th time

[sugukururin]

bad habit.

[mask131]

The truth about Medusa and her rape... Mythology breakdown time!

With the recent release of the Percy Jackson television series, Tumblr is bursting with mythological posts, and the apparition of Medusa the Gorgon has been the object of numerous talks throughout this website… Including more and more spreading of misinformation, and more debates about what is the “true” version of Medusa’s backstory.

Already let us make that clear: the idea that Medusa was actually “blessed” or “gifted” by Athena her petrifying gaze/snake-hair curse is to my knowledge not at all part of the Antique world. I still do not know exactly where this comes from, but I am aware of no Greek or Roman texts that talked about this – so it seems definitively a modern invention. After all, the figure of Medusa and her entire myth has been taken part, reinterpreted and modified by numerous modern women, feminist activist, feminist movements or artists engaged in the topic of women’s life and social conditions – most notably Medusa becoming the “symbol of raped women’ wrath and fury”. It is an interesting reading and a fascinating update of the ancient texts, and it is a worthy take on its own time and context – but today we are not talking about the posterity, reinvention and continuity of Medusa as a myth and a symbol. I want to clarify some points about the ACTUAL myth or legend of Medusa – the original tale, as told by the Greeks and then by the Romans.

Most specifically the question: Was Medusa raped?

Step 1: Yes, but no.

The backstory of Medusa you will find very often today, ranging from mythology manuals (vulgarization manuals of course) to Youtube videos, goes as such: Medusa was a priestess of Athena who got raped by Poseidon while in Athena’s temple, and as a result of this, Athena punished Medusa by turning her into the monstrous Gorgon.

Some will go even further claiming Athena’s “curse” wasn’t a punishment but a “gift” or blessing – and again, I don’t know where this comes from and nobody seems to be able to give me any reliable source for that, so… Let’s put this out of there.

Now this backstory – famous and popular enough to get into Riodan’s book series for example – is partially true. There are some elements here very wrong – and by wrong I do mean wrong.

The story of Medusa being raped and turned into a monster due to being raped does indeed exist, and it is the most famous and widespread of all the Medusa stories, the one people remembered for the longest time and wrote and illustrated the most about. Hence why Medusa became in the 20th century this very important cultural symbol tied to rape and the abuse of women and victim-blaming. HOWEVER – the origin of this story is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the first century CE or so. Ovid? A Roman poet writing for Roman people. “Metamorphoses”? One of the two fundamental works of Roman literature and one of the two main texts of Roman mythology, alongside Virgil’s Aeneid. This is a purely Roman story belonging to the Roman culture – and not the Greek one. The story of Medusa’s rape does not have Greek precedents to my knowledge, Ovid introduced the element of rape – which is no surprise given Ovid turned half of the romances of Greek mythology into rapes. Note that, on top of all this, Ovid wasn’t even writing for religious purposes, nor was his text an actual mythological effort – he wrote it with pure literary intentions at heart. It is just a piece of poetry and literature taking inspiration from the legends of the Greek world, not some sort of sacred text.

Second big point: The legend I summarized above? It isn’t even the story Ovid wrote, since there are a lot of elements that do not come from Ovid’s retelling of the story (book fourth of the Metamorphoses). For example Ovid never said Medusa was a priestess of Athena – all he said was that she was raped in the temple of Athena. I shouldn’t even be writing Athena since again, this is a Roman text: we are speaking of Minerva here, and of Neptune, not of Athena or Poseidon. Similarly, Minerva’s curse did not involve the petrifying gaze – rather all Ovid wrote about was that Minerva turned Medusa’s hair into snakes, to “punish” her because her hair were very beautiful, and it was what made her have many suitors (none of which she wanted to marry apparently), and it is also implied it is what made Neptune fall in love (or rather fall in lust) with her. I guess it is from this detail that the reading of “Athena’s curse was a gift” comes from – even though this story also clearly does victim-blaming of rape here.

But what is very fascinating is that… we are not definitively sure Neptune raped Medusa in Ovid’s retelling. For sure, the terms used by Ovid in his fourth book of Metamorphoses are clear: this was an action of violating, sexually assaulting, of soiling and corrupting, we are talking about rape. But Ovid refers several other times to Medusa in his other books, sometimes adding details the fourth-book stories does not have (the sixth book for examples evokes how Neptune turned into a bird to seduce Medusa, which is completely absent from the fourth book’s retelling of Medusa’ curse). And in all those other mentions, the terms to designate the relationship between Medusa and Neptune are more ambiguous, evoking seduction and romance rather than physical or sexual assault. (It does not help that Ovid has an habit of constantly confusing consensual and non-consensual sex in his poems, meaning that a rape in one book can turn into a romance in another, or reversal)

But the latter fact makes more sense when you recall that the rape element was invented and added by Ovid. Before, yes Poseidon and Medusa loved each other, but it was a pure romance, or at least a consensual one-night. Heck, if we go back to the oldest records of the love between Poseidon and Medusa, back in Hesiod’s Theogony, we have descriptions of the two of them laying together in a beautiful, flowery meadow – a stereotypical scene of pastoral romances – with no mention of any brutality or violence of any sort. As a result, it makes sense the original “romantic” story would still “leak” or cast a shadow over Ovid’s reinvented and slightly-confused tale.

Step 2: So… no rape?

Well, if we go by Greek texts, no, apparently Medusa was not raped in Greek mythology, and only became a rape victim through Ovid.

The Ancient Greek texts all record Poseidon and Medusa sleeping with each other and having children, but no mention of rape. And the whole “curse of Athena” thing is not present in the oldest records – no temple of Athena soiling, no angry Athena cursing a poor girl… “No curse?” you say “But then how did Medusa got turned into a Gorgon”? Answer: she did not. She was born like that.

As I said before, the oldest record of Medusa’s romance but also of her family comes from Hesiod’s Theogony (Hesiod being one of the two “founding authors” of Greek mythology, alongside Homer – Homer did wrote several times about Medusa, but only as a disembodied head and as a monster already dead, so we don’t have any information about her life). And what do we learn? That Medusa is part of a set of three sisters known as the Gorgons – because oh yes, Ovid did not mention Medusa’s sister now did he? How did Medusa’s sisters ALSO got snake-hair or petrifying-gaze if only Medusa was cursed for sleeping with Neptune? Ovid does not give us any answer because again, it is an “adaptational plot hole”, and the people that try to adapt Ovid’s story have to deal with the slight problem of Stheno and Euryale needing to share their sister’s curse despite seemingly not being involved in the whole Neptune business. Anyway, back to the Greek text.

So, you have those three Gorgon sisters, and Medusa is said to be mortal while her sisters are not. Why is it such a big deal? Because Medusa wasn’t originally some random human or priestess. Oh no! Who were the Gorgons’ parents? Phorcys and Keto/Ceto, aka two sea-gods. Not just two sea-gods – two sea-gods of the ancient, primordial generation of sea-gods, the one that predated Poseidon, and that were cousins to the Titans, the sea-gods born of Gaia mating with Pontos.

So the Gorgons were “divine” of nature – and this is why Medusa being a mortal was considered to be a MASSIVE problem and handicap for her, an abnormal thing for the daughter of two deities. But let’s dig a bit further… Who were Phorcys and Ceto? Long story short: in Greek mythology, they were considered to be sea-equivalents of Typhon and Gaia. They were the parents of many monsters and many sea-horrors: Keto/Ceto herself had her name attributed and equated with any very large creature (like whales) or any terrifying monster (like dragons) from the sea. The Gorgons themselves was a trio of monsters, but their sisters, that directly act as their double in the myth of Perseus? The Graiai – the monstrous trio of old women sharing one eye and one tooth. Hesiod also drops the fact that Ladon (the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperids), and Echidna (the snake-woman that mated with Typhon and became known as the “mother of monsters”) were also children of Phorcys and Ceto, while other authors will add other monster-related characters such as Scylla (of Charybdis and Scylla fame), the sirens, or Thoosa (the mother of Polyphemus the cyclop). Medusa herself is technically a “mother of monsters” since she birthed both Pegasus the flying horse and Chrysaor, a giant. So here is something very important to get: Medusa, and the Gorgons, were part of a family of monsters. Couple that with the absence of any mention of curses in these ancient texts, and everything is clear.

Originally Medusa was not a woman cursed to become a monster: she was born a monster, part of a group of monster siblings, birthed by monster-creating deities, and she belonged to the world of the “primordial abominations from the sea”, and the pre-Olympian threats, the remnants of the primordial chaos. It is no surprise that the Gorgons were said to live at the edge of the very known world, in the last patch of land before the end of the universe – in the most inhuman, primitive and liminal area possible. They were full-on monsters!

Now you might ask why Poseidon would sleep with a horrible monster, especially when you recall that the Greeks loved to depict the Gorgons as truly bizarre and grotesque. It wasn’t just snake-hair and petrifying gaze: they had boar tusks, and metallic claws, and bloated eyes, and a long tongue that constantly hanged down their bearded chin, and very large heads – some very old depictions even show her with a female centaur body! In fact, the ancient texts imply that it wasn’t so much the Gorgon’s gaze or eyes that had the power to turn people into stone – but that rather the Gorgon was just so hideous and so terrifying to look at people froze in terror – and then literally turned into stone out of fear and disgust. We are talking Lovecraftian level of eldritch horror here. So why would Poseidon, an Olympian god, sleep with one of these horrors? Well… If you know your Poseidon it wouldn’t surprise you too much because Poseidon had a thing for monsters. As a sort of “dark double” of Zeus, whereas Zeus fell in love with beautiful princesses and noble queens and birthed great gods and brave heroes, Poseidon was more about getting freaky with all sorts of unusual and bizarre goddesses, and giving birth to bandits and monsters. A good chunk of the villains of Greek mythology were born out of Poseidon’s loins: Polyphemus, Antaios, Orion, Charybdis, the Aloads… And even his most benevolent offspring has freaky stuff about it – Proteus the shapeshifter or Triton half-man half-fish… So yes, Poseidon sleeping with an abominable Gorgon is not so much out of character.

Step 3: The missing link

Now that we established what Medusa started out as, and what she ended up as… We need to evoke the evolution from point Hesiod to point Ovid, because while people summarized the Medusa debate as “Sea-born monster VS raped and punished woman”, there is a third element needed to understand this whole situation…

Yes Ovid did invent the rape. But he did not invent the idea that Medusa had been cursed by Athena.

The “gorgoneion” – the visual and artistic motif of the Gorgon’s head – was, as I said, a grotesque and monstrous face used to invoke fright into the enemies or to repel any vile influence or wicked spirit by the principle of “What’s the best way to repel bad stuff? Badder stuff”. Your Gorgon was your gargoyle, with all the hideous traits I described before – represented in front (unlike all the other side-portraits of gods and heroes), with the face being very large and flat, a big tongue out of a tusked-mouth, snake-hair, bulging crazy eyes, sometimes a beard or scales… Pure monster. But then… from the fifth century BCE to the second century BCE we see a slow evolution of the “gorgoneion” in art. Slowly the grotesque elements disappear, and the Gorgon’s face becomes… a regular, human face. Even more: it even becomes a pretty woman’s face! But with snakes instead of hair. As such, the idea that Medusa was a gorgeous woman who just had snakes and cursed-eyes DOES come from Ancient Greece – and existed well before Ovid wrote his rape story.

But what was the reason behind this change?

Well, we have to look at the Roman era again. Ovid’s tale of Medusa being cursed for her rape at the hands of Neptune had to rival with another record collected by a Greek author Apollodorus, or Pseudo-Apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca. In this collection of Greek myths, Apollodorus writes that indeed, Medusa was cursed by Athena to have her beautiful hair that seduced everybody be turned into snakes… But it wasn’t because of any rape or forbidden romance, no. It was just because Medusa was a very vain woman who liked to brag about her beauty and hair – and had the foolish idea of saying her hair looked better than Athena’s. (If you recall tales such as Arachne’s or the Judgement of Paris, you will know that despite Athena being wise and clever, one of her main flaws is her vanity).

“Wait a minute,” you are going to tell me, “The Bibliotheca was created in the second century CE! Well after Greece became part of the Roman Empire, and after Ovid’s Metamorphoses became a huge success! It isn’t a true Greek myth, it is just Ovid’s tale being projected here…” And people did agree for a time… Until it was discovered, in the scholias placed around the texts of Apollonios of Rhodes, that an author of the fifth century BCE named Pherecyde HAD recorded in his time a version of Medusa’s legend where she had been cursed into becoming an ugly monster as punishment for her vanity. We apparently do not have the original text of Pherecyde, but the many scholias referring to this lost piece are very clear about this. This means that the story that Apollodorus recorded isn’t a “novelty”, but rather the latest record of an older tradition going back to the fifth century BCE… THE SAME CENTURY THAT THE GORGONEION STARTED LOSING THEIR GROTESQUE, and that the face of Medusa started becoming more human in art.

[EDIT: I also forgot to add that this evolution of Medusa is also proved by strange literary elements, such as Pindar's mention in a poem of his (around 490 BCE) of "fair-cheeked Medusa". A description which seems strange given how Medusa used to be depicted as the epitome of ugliness... But that makes sense if the "cursed beauty" version of the myth had been going around at the time!]

And thus it is all connected and explained. Ovid did invent the rape yes – but he did not invent the idea of Athena cursing Medusa. It pre-existed as the most “recent” and dominating legend in Ancient Greece, having overshadowed by Ovid’s time the oldest Hesiodic records of Medusa being born a monster. So what Ovid did wasn’t completely create a new story out of nowhere, but twist the Greek traditions of Athena cursing Medusa and Medusa having a relationship with Poseidon, so that the two legends would form one and same story. And this explains in retrospect why Ovid focuses so much on describing Medusa’s beautiful hair, and why Ovid’s Minerva would think turning her hair into snake would be a “punishment fit for the crime”: these are leftovers of the Greek tale where Medusa was punished for her boasting and her vanity.

CONCLUSION

Here is the simplified chronology of how Medusa’s evolution went.

A) Primitive Greek myths, Hesiodic tradition: Born a monster out of a family of sea-monsters and monstrous immortals. Is a grotesque, gargoylesque, eldritch abomination. Athena has only an indirect conflict with her, due to being Perseus’ “fairy godmother”. Has a lovely romance with Poseidon.

B) Slow evolution throughout Classical Greece and further: Medusa becomes a beautiful, human-looking girl that was cursed to have snake for hair and petrifying eyes, instead of being a Lovecraftian horror people could not gaze upon. Her conflict with Athena becomes direct, as it is Athena that cursed her due to being offended by her vain boasting. Her punishment is for her vanity and arrogant comparison to the goddess.

C) Ovid comes in: Medusa’s romance with Poseidon becomes a rape, and she is now punished for having been raped inside Athena’s temple.

[As a final note, I want to insist upon the fact that the story of Medusa being raped is not less "worthy" than any other version of the myth. Due to its enormous popularity, how it shaped the figure of Medusa throughout the centuries, and how it still survives today and echoes current-day problems, to try to deny the valid place of this story in the world of myths and legends would be foolish. HOWEVER it is important to place back things in their context, to recognize that it is not the ONLY tale of Medusa, that it was NOT part of Greek mythology, but rather of Roman legends - and let us all always remember this time Poseidon slept with a Lovecraftian horror because my guy is kinky.]

EDIT:

For illustration, I will place here visuals showing how the Ancient art evolved alongside Medusa's story.

Before the 5th century BCE: Medusa is a full-on monster

From the 5th century to the 2nd century BCE: A slow evolution as Medusa goes from a full-on monster to a human turned into a monster. As a result the two depictions of the grotesque and beautiful gorgoneion coexist.

Post 2nd century BCE: Medusa is now a human with snake hair, and just that

[theanimeroom]

Chigiri Hyoma and NNN...to fit with his brand would either lose fast or win and finish fast 😂

NSFW UNDER THE CUT || MINORS DNI

NOVEMBER 20th || 5.12AM

NNN CHALLENGE LIST

Chigiri Hyoma was someone who was used to control. when he was with his friends, he was the one who made the plans. when it came to going on dates, you always let him take the reigns. In blue lock, he decided when he was going to move and how he was going to play. you'd never seen him lose control of a situation, that is until you asked him to participate in the no nut november challenge.

initially, he'd said no, but your wide doe eyes pleaded with him until his hard shell was cracking beneath the surface. you were his weak spot, always have been and always would be. because of that, it didn't take him very long to agree with your plans. although, he would have never agreed if he knew just how regretful he was going to be at the end of it.

you were his pretty girl, the one thing that could always make him feel better no matter the circumstances. just looking at you made his cock swell beyond belief, and he knew that having to restrain himself would prove difficult for the next 30 days. he wasn’t sure why you were trying to get him to participate in the challenge in the first place, but the pout painting your lips left his mind fuzzy and his mouth moving before he could stop it.

“fine,” he sighed, rolling his eyes when your bright smile and clapping hands made his heart swell in his chest. “but you owe me a month's worth of pussy after i win.”

you didn’t hesitate to nod your head, knowing that his stipulation wouldn’t last considering he was going to lose the challenge anyway.

despite your observation, chigiri was fully prepared to win this challenge, no matter how hard you made him. he means made it for him.

you wouldn’t admit it to him, but you were surprised at how long he’d lasted. you were never planning to make it the 30 days anyway, but you refused to tell him that as you wanted him to fold in his own after withstanding the torture you were planning for him. within the first week, you’d started walking around in less and less clothing, resulting in you pacing around the house in a pair of tight spandex and a cropped spaghetti strap.

chigiri didn't miss the way that you hummed as you skipped into the kitchen, a telltale sign of the conscious mischief you were causing. the man couldn't take his eyes off the swell of your ass, the way that it bounced behind you as you wrapped your fingers around the doorframe to the kitchen. his eyes shot up to your face the moment you turned your head to lock eyes with him, a teasing smile on your face and you shifted your weight from one foot to the other.

"you want anything while i'm in the kitchen?" you asked, sweetness lacing your tone. chigiri inhaled deeply, giving you a longer than necessary once over before tucking his bottom lip between his teeth.

with a shake of his head, his eyes met yours again. "no baby, but I could think of something that you could give me when you get back."

with a laugh, you were walking back into the kitchen. this was the first time chigiri had openly expressed his need for you since you both started the challenge, and you had to admit that he lasted a lot longer than you thought he would. but that didn't mean that you were going to give in to him that easily.

when you returned to the living room, you had a bowl and chips in hand, popping one into your mouth and you joined your boyfriend on the couch. you made a show of placing your long legs over his lap and crossing your ankles. you gave the man a sly smile as you held out a chip to him, teeth showing when he sighed before eating the chip straight from your hand.

you watched his jaw clench as he ate the snack, and you swear you could feel your pupils dilating as you stared at the soccer player before you. chigiri could feel your eyes on him with every move he made, yet he forced himself to suppress the smirk that was threatening to cover his face. he knew that if there was going to be any way for this challenge to end, now was his time to get it done.

he swallowed the chip you'd given him before he turned his head, an expecting yet hopeful look clouding his eyes. "so, you ready to give me what I want now?"

you laughed lightly at his refusal to give up. "while it's still november? nice try, baby."

with that being said you tried to climb off of his lap, but were stopped by a tight grip on your waist.

turning back to chigiri, you paused when you saw the glint that was hiding behind his gaze. you didn't even move when he used his free hand to graze your cheek, fingers lacing into your hair. when he leaned in you felt your breath hitch, his own breathing fanning over the shell of your ear.

"that wasn't a question, baby," were the only words spoken softly into your ear, barely having time to register what had happened before chigiri pulled away. when you felt his grip tighten slightly in your hair, you knew there was no going back from there.

"don't ever come up with a stupid fucking idea like this again," his words were dark as he nearly growled them into your ear, hips pressed flush against your ass for the first time that night. you were flat against the bed, face buried into the pillows as he leaned over your back, mouth so close to your ear that it made your brain go numb.

he forced himself as far into you as he could go, effectively knocking any rebuttals from your brain. all you could think about was how deep his cock was inside of you, and how you wanted him to ruin you until you'd made up for all the days you spent eyeballing the man without actually fucking the daylights out of him.

"m' sorry..." you breathed, hoping that he would start moving before you actually started begging. chigiri hummed inquisitively, a conniving smirk crossing his lips. "what was that baby? i don't think I heard you correctly."

a hard thrust left you crying out, eyes crossing as your mouth fell open. "m' so sorry! i promise I won't do it again just... please."

it seemed that the apology was enough for the long-haired man, as you soon felt his hips pull away, giving you just a moment of reprieve before he was forcing himself back into you at a diabolical pace. you could barely breathe as he fucked himself into you, the sounds of skin on skin reverberating around the room. you could barely even speak with the way he was fucking you, yet it seemed like chigiri had all the self-control in the world.

or maybe not.

"fuck baby, this pussy feels so good wrapped around me, missed it so much," a small mewl slipped from your mouth, walls clenching down at the praise. chigiri cursed under his breath, one hand reaching out to press against your lower back. "keep squeezing me like that baby, you're gonna make me come."

you clenched down even harder at his words, was he really about to come already? usually, chigiri could go for hours before even coming once, but he'd barely even been inside of you for 10 minutes. you couldn't help the way the revelation made your stomach tighten, your own orgasm creeping up inside you.

"p-please, want it a-all," you stuttered, eyes screwing shut as all your muscles contracted, body rolling into his in search of the release you so desperately needed. "wanna feel you fill me up, pleasepleaseplease."

you weren't even sure if what you were saying was making any sense, but you couldn't stop the words from escaping you as your mind finally clouded over, ecstasy and relief filling your veins as your orgasm wracked your whole body.

you were so fucked out that you almost missed the way chigiri growled into your ear, thrusts growing faster and out of rhythm as he spewed absolute filth into your ears.

"such a pretty girl for me. want me to come inside you, huh? think you deserve that after the torture you put me through?" his tone was wavering, the assertiveness he once had slipping away as he chased his own release. "but that's what all brats think, right? think they can just get away with whatever they want. but only good girls get the things they want, right? are you my good girl baby?"

"yes!" you cried, hands reaching back and pressing against his stomach. he was just using you at this point, your hole only being a tool for him to get off. "I'll be good, I promise!"

you felt chigiri's pace speed up once more, lewd curses slipping past his lips until he was bottoming out, a broken groan leaving him before you felt warmth fill your insides. you whined at the intrusion, body going limp against the bed just before you felt chigiri lay out on top of you.

the both of you were breathing heavily as you tried to catch up to what just happened. as you slowly started to regain your senses, a small moan reverberated from your throat. "baby?"

"hmm?" his voice was drowsy as he responded, one hand gripping your waist and giving it a light squeeze.

you took a second before you responded, swallowing harshly before you spoke again. "we are never doing this challenge again."

don’t not plagiarize! it’s not nice <3

[mornington-the-crescent]

The Poll

So, for those who don’t know, I put up a poll of, “Who was the worst American President?” The list was FDR, Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon. It got up to about 13k notes before I deleted it, because I was tired of the notes clogging up my feed. And the results were... telling.

About 75-80% of all the notes were, “Where is Reagan/Andrew Jackson?!?” Many of the rest, though, can be seen below:

What this tells me is that more than ten thousand people didn’t have an education; they had an indoctrination.

You want to hear it? All right, buckle up, because it’s time for a stroll down memory lane.

Why was FDR a bad president?

It is almost hard to know where to begin with this. Let’s start with one of the most basic ones: The belief that FDR got us out of the Depression.

Point of fact, No the fuck he did not.

Making American Depressed

If you ask almost any historian or economist, they will tell you flat-out that not only did the New Deal not end the Great Depression, but that it made it significantly longer and worse than it would have been otherwise. Hoover bears some of the blame for this, but the pseudo-socialist dogshit that was the New Deal bears the brunt of the blame for this one.

The stock market crashed in late October, 1929. Two months later, unemployment peaked at 9%. Over the next several months, unemployment started to fall, down to 5-6% by the spring of the next year. Half a year after the crash, unemployment had not hit double digits. Hoover’s intervention, though, did cause unemployment to reach double digits. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and took office in 1933, and unemployment did not fall out of double digits for the remainder of the 1930′s. The thing that actually pulled the US out of the Depression was the second World War; turns out that removing roughly 12 million people from the labor force to go and fight does wonders for unemployment numbers. FDR even said that Doctor New Deal was replaced by Doctor Win-The-War.

This was hardly the first economic downturn in American history. For the first 150 years of this country, there were downturns all the time. And what the government did was nothing, and the economy recovered on its own. But Roosevelt represents the first massive large-scale intervention in the economy. And government intervention in the economy slows economic recovery; when you have no idea what the government is going to do tomorrow in regards to the economy, it’s hard to make smart financial decisions, so you just don’t bother. After all, why do anything if tomorrow, the rules of the game are going to change?

Separation of Powers Who?

FDR issued more executive orders than any other President of the 20th century. He may, in fact, have issued more than all the other Presidents of the 20th century combined. Rather than letting Congress, the legislative branch of government, you know, legislate, he preferred to try to do everything himself.

The President is supposed to be the weakest branch of the government, but Roosevelt did everything he could to try to establish its supremacy over the other branches. When Congress didn’t give him his way, he used executive orders. When the Supreme Court challenged some of his acts as unconstitutional, his response was to threaten to have them replaced, or to simply pack the court with judges more sympathetic to his aims. This is a man who was openly contemptuous of the concept of the rule of law.

Here’s a fun entry from the notes:

Hey, you want to talk about fascists? Actual, honest-to-goodness Fascists, not just the modern definition (i.e. anyone a nanometer to the right of Noam Chomsky)? Let’s talk about the originals. Let’s talk about the inventor of Fascism, Benito motherfucking Mussolini. And how FDR openly admired him, and was “deeply impressed by what he has accomplished”, calling Fascism the “cleanest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery [he had] ever seen”, and that it made him “envious”. And Mussolini, for his part, said of Roosevelt that, “Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices … Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change resembles that of Fascism.”

When the guy who fucking invented Fascism is saying that he thinks that you are also doing Fascism, then maybe you’re not a good person.

Concentration- I Mean, Internment Camps

And just like his buddies on the other side of the Atlantic, right when World War 2 kicked off, Roosevelt thought it would be a good idea to take “undesirables” and throw them into prison camps. Roughly 20 thousand Italian- and German-Americans, American citizens, were thrown into camps, simply for the crime of having ancestors from countries we were at war with. And then, of course, there’s the 120 thousand Japanese-Americans who were likewise rounded up and put into prison camps, two thirds of whom were natural-born American citizens.

Almost 150 thousand American citizens, thrown into literal concentration camps, without the bother and expense of due process, stripped of their constitutional rights simply on the basis of race.

As for the concentration camps set up in Europe by the Nazis, however? Despite being told of their existence by people who had escaped, as well as journalists and lawyers from Germany, once American planes gained the ability to attack those camps, to shut them down? FDR refused to grant them permission to do so.

Commander in Thief

Executive Order 6102 outlawed the private ownership of gold, allowing the government to confiscate all of it. Once that was accomplished, the Gold Reserve Act allowed him to change the value of gold, debasing America’s currency (which was on a gold standard at the time), which permitted him to steal literally billions of dollars from American citizens, without any compensation.

World War, Too

There is evidence to suggest that Roosevelt knew about the imminent attack on America by Japan in December of 1941. He discussed with several high-ranking people in the War Department, and in his own cabinet, how to get Japan to fire the first shot in the war, so that he could get America involved. It would make sense: His oil embargo was designed to provoke a Japanese response, so as to draw America into the war. And once America was in the war, ordered the Philippines to be abandoned, outright lying that there was an army waiting to retake it once it had been conquered by Japan.

And as the war dragged on, he got quite cozy with Uncle Joe, Stalin himself. He helped to repatriate two million people to Russia, who very much did not want to go back, many of them ending up either in the gulags, or simply killed outright. And his constant concessions to Stalin helped the Soviet Union hold on to eastern Europe, setting the stage for the Cold War. Even when he was informed of Soviet spies within the American government, and provided evidence of their disloyalty and subversion, he simply let them keep at it.

Racism, Racism, and more Racism

Remember how you cheered when lynching was made a federal crime a few months ago, and asked why it hadn’t been done before now? Well, the main reason was good ol’ FDR himself. A bill was proposed in the Congress which would have made lynching a federal crime, and Roosevelt refused to pass it.

Or what about during the Olympic games in Berlin, when black athletes from America took home multiple gold medals? Roosevelt invited the white athletes to the White House, but not a single black one. Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, said, “Hitler didn’t snub me --- it was [Roosevelt] who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.”

And then there was his nomination of a KKK member to the Supreme Court; Hugo Black, who had zero judicial experience, was nominated simply because he supported the New Deal.

He also was of the opinion that America was, and ought to remain, a white and Protestant country, and that too many Jews was inherently a bad thing, because of how distasteful he found them. He boasted that there was no Jewish blood in his veins, as a mark of pride. He even went so far as to turn away ships of Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi tyranny in Europe.

In conclusion

FDR was a massive piece of shit. He massively overstepped his constitutionally-appointed bounds at every available opportunity, massively expanding the power of the Presidency at the expense of all other parts of government, and at the expense of individual liberty. He was openly racist and anti-Semitic. His economic policies brought ruin upon the American economy. He openly praised fascism right up until the moment that it was no longer politically expedient to do so, and switched to deferring to authoritarian communism instead. Almost everything that you hate about the modern United States can be traced directly back to this one man.

The fact that he is remembered as not just a good President, but one of the best Presidents, shows how utterly broken American education is.

[norrisreads]

kiss me kiss me #CS55

PAIRING: carlos sainz x reader, mercedes staff!, platonic friendships with most of the drivers

SUMMARY: everyone has a crush on carlos sainz, everyone including you

WARNINGS: fluff fluff FLUUFF!!!!!!!

FACECLAIM: jennierubyjane on ig

‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵

Daydreaming and people watching was something you’ll caught yourself doing mostly. At times, working in the motorsport industry, you’ll find yourself being busy but yet so free and here you are just staring into the space while sitting on the sidelines of the mercedes paddock club.

Until you felt someone sitting next to you, “Just to let you know, taking a picture helps, the staring is a little intense, y/n”

you recognised the voice of a specific Williams racings driver.

“what are you talking about, i’m just people watching as always albon. Where’s lily?” you shrugged your shoulders

“lily’s coming in a while, no but i am serious y/n, pipe down on the staring at the ferrari’s. George and I have been on a look out for you, you’ve been out here for at least an hour”

Honestly, you didn’t know it has been an hour until Alex told you off.

To tell the truth, you had a little crush on the driver from ferrari, specifically carlos sainz. Everything about him, just happens to be your exact ideal type. The only interaction you had with him was during the after party where he offered a drink & that’s probably when you started gaining feelings for the said driver.

“he’s so pretty and i am just this” you told alex.

“you could get it you know, there is alot of the engineers and staffs who are interested in you, especially because you’re always living up the moments, they’re just scared of toto”

Susie and you were close, ever-since you’ve decided to work under Mercedes since the age of 20th, which you’re currently on the second year right now. Susie and Toto tends to favour you especially when you were one of the youngest working under Mercedes amg, being close to the both of them practically means getting invited to family dinners, team dinners and more.

Other than Toto and Susie, you were also close to George and Lewis, and being close to George means you’re close to the Williams driver Alex Albon too. You were friends with the other drivers too, but aren’t quite close which resulted in your current situation.

staring at carlos sainz. “you know he’s freshly single?”

George came and joined the conversation between you and Albon. He then passed you a pair of tinted shades, “put some shades on, think it’s getting a-bit too obvious”

the comment by george made the both brits laughed, while you rolled your eyes to express your annoyance by their presence.

“being freshly single, does not mean i will give it a try, george. We have a 6 year difference, you know how i am with age gaps”

“if you’re gonna pull the age gap card, i’m going to pull myself out of this conversation, lily and i literally have a 3 years gap”

“no shit Alex, multiply that by two and it’ll be mine and the ferrari driver”

“To make you feel better, y/n. Think about Pierre’s and kika’s, theirs are way worse than you and him” george speaks out

“let’s move on, this is just us 3 being delusional”

“yeah you’re the delusional one, we’re just manifesting that you’ll have him sooner or later” Alex shrugged his shoulder and went back to the Williams paddock.

‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵

Qualifying for the spain grand prix has just ended, you were just walking around the paddock clubs area, instead of being at mercedes, you’ve decided to explore a little. Susie had suggested for you to have a quick walkabout knowing your job tasks was done earlier in the day, and you were just waiting for the drivers to be back on the mercedes building.

Fully focusing on the application opened on your mobile phone, you weren’t really well aware of your surroundings until you bumped in-to a certain someone.

shit, “lamento lo ocurrido, oh..?”

the universe has decided to aligned with you today, because right now you could feel the bpm of your heart rate increasing to more than 100.

“oh y/n right? i didn’t know you can speak spanish” carlos was holding on to your shoulders to balance you from the impact of the bump the both of you had.

“no, no. I meant yeah, i’m y/n, what i am saying is no i can’t speak spanish, those words were kinda taught to me by google, just for this weekend” you nervously stuttered and laugh

“that’s a cute effort to learn, where are you headed to right now? it’s a-bit crowded ain’t it?” carlos continuing the conversation

did mother earth suddenly decides to love me today?

“yeah cute effort i guess, oh just walking around trying to familiarise myself with this surrounding for tomorrow’s race! yeah it’s way crowded rather than yesterday! congrats on p2 for qualifying by the way!”

having a conversation with him feels utterly weird yet you’re thankful for this situation to happened, because whew this man couldn’t be anymore finer than a greek god.

“Gracias, lindura! See you later, perhaps? George’s on his way, by the look of it I think he’s finding for you love, it was nice talking to you” carlos smiled and waved at you, walking alongside Lando Norris.

dings

three little pigs

russell: what the fuck was that? were the two of you talking?

albon: what’s going on

what does, lindura means? cutie????: y/n

albon: did he called you that????????

albon: ANSWER ME!

russell: they bumped into each other, they had a 5 mins conversation, in that 5 minutes she told me her heart rate bpm increased to 110 (she thinks) he also held her

albon: why are you answering me

russell: i’m telling you the details that she’s telling me right now, appreciate it you idiot

guys i think i’m in love, Spanish accent is so sexy to wake up to everyday, six years is nothing to me : y/n

albon: i could simply ask charles for carlos contact y/n, let me do it please 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

russell: she just smacked my shoulders

“this is crazy george, that’s like my second time talking to him”

you paused your walk and turned yourself to face george

“hey guys” a thick french accent.

“oh charles, what a great timing” george pulled charles to the side and into our conversation

“hi charles”

“what’s this about? not in the Mercedes sidelines today staring into our building, y/n?” charles laughed which made my eyes turned wide

“what the fuck charles, YOU NOTICED? it was just one time, i swear.” i hid my face with my hands

“if it wasn’t for george’s tinted glasses, carlos would have caught you, good thing carlos is oblivious to everything” charles snickered yet finding the whole staring interaction adorable knowing from george about your tiny little (not tiny and little) crush towards Carlos.

“fucking embarrassing, this is my last appearance here. Im quitting this job” you rolled your eyes jokingly

“as if toto, susie and lewis will agree on that, you’re the sweet child of mercedes. Good-luck on pursuing carlos though, he’s a great guy y/n!” Charles ruffled your hair and walked off to the red building.

“I’m submitting my resignation letter tomorrow, i’m telling you Russell, leclerc can’t keep his mouth zipped. If half the grid knows of my little crush, it’s 70% chance my resignation letter will be on toto’s desk latest by next week” you sighed, for seeing the future

“dramatic as always” george laughed

y/nsocials just posted on Instagram (followers only)

tagged lewishamilton susiewolff y/nbestff

liked by georgerussell63 carlossainz55 and 11 others

y/nsocials may & beginning of june dump 💋🎞️

pierregasly this isn’t a dump , i’m not even in the dump cherie

↳ y/nsocials do you hear that? the sound of me not giving a shit ♥️

↳ charles_leclerc can’t back you up sorry mate pierregasly

carlossainz55 cute :)

↳ y/nsocials thank you carlos! ♥️

georgerussell63 alex_albon cute X)

↳ mickschumacher cute :>

↳ lewishamilton cute :p

↳ y/nsocials I’m resigning.

‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵

SPAIN GP 2023 AFTER PARTY

you were on your way to the after party with alex and lily, the others has already reached and you had to ask for a ride with the couple.

“how’s the progress of you and carlos, i’ve seen the comment”

lily asked u, i wish there was a progress though.

“the only progress there is was the fact my heart beats faster now whenever i think about the comment”

“dramatic as always, but i am being for real. Lily and i are curious, y/n. I can always ask for carlos contacts and pass it to you” alex rolled his eyes

“you were dramatic too when lily answered your dms. No alex, i want his attention the old fashion way, with him giving me his phone number by himself”

you sat back on the car seat with lily making sure your current outfit wouldn’t get ruined

“well i’m sure with what you’re wearing now, his eyes will be stuck on you all night and that phone number will be in your phone as soon as possible” lily commented and that comment had made you feel 100x more delusional as ever

dings

sharls shared a contact with you

sharls : he’s asking where’s your current location, i know the both of will you never do it, but i’m impatient

sharls : if he did ask for your number tonight, it’s because of me

what the fuck? what the fuck does charles means…..

what are you talking about??????? what about me? : y/n

Carlos Operatoooooor

russell changed group name to : carlos operatoooooor

russell added mickey chewsmacker

russell added chewis hamiltons

russell added sharls leclerc

russell: recruited new member(s)

mickey: why did i not know about this y/n

chewis: it was obvious mick, you should’ve seen her having her everyday ‘carlos’ watching hours

russell: every 2pm, don’t ask just watch

sharls: if stares could kill someone, carlos would’ve been dead

i’m in this chat idiots. I’m not invisible. : y/n

albon: we’re on the way, she’s with us! Lily thinks carlos is going to hit on her tonight, let’s see

sharls: i’m not surprised. Let’s see if toto lets y/n walk around though, first challenge 😨

you were going to fucking throw up, you were finally sitting down after celebrating max, lewis and george’s wins. Being in a huge crowded place wasn’t really your forte, but for the sake of your job you had to do it.

Other than that, susie had to bring you around to engage with other teams knowing how anti-social you are, and here you are finally having a breather outside of the club and zero signs of the carlos sainz.

you weren’t really a smoker type of person instead just a casual smoker but ever-since fully adulting, resulting to having a few puffs allowed your thoughts to permanently vanish.

you were covering your shoulders with Alex’s denim jacket (of course with the permission of lily’s) , sitting on the porch of the back exit of the club. Whenever the door swings open, you could here the songs bass booming and you could just feel a headache coming sooner or later.

Just a few minutes in, you felt the denim jacket that was on your shoulders lifted up, and replaced by a red jacket.

“thought this might be a better option, you look much greater in red anyways”

and there he was, carlos sainz taking a seat next to you.

and you’re so sure your heart is over the roof because there wasn’t any gap between you and carlos sainz.

“thank you, i don’t know about red, teal looks much better on me”

“well to me, red looks stunning on you. everything alright? too much to drink?”

if it wasn’t for the amount of blusher you’ve decided to use, the redness on your natural cheeks would’ve given away from the said comment

“just a slight pounding in the head, taking a breather. you want a puff?”

well honestly, you don’t even know if you should be offering him

“thanks for the offer love, but i don’t smoke. do your own thing, i’ll be accompanying you. A pretty woman shouldn’t be alone on the back exits”

if there’s anything a few drinks could do is having you feel so much bolder

“don’t flatter a woman like that carlos, she’s gonna fall for you especially coming from a ferrari driver”

“I wouldn’t mind flattering a woman if it’s you y/n”

there was a moment of silence because you had no idea how to react, “it’s the drunkenness in me but you’re driving me crazy carlos”

“care to explain, mi amor?”

you shook your head because no sane woman would tell the guy they have been eye-fucking that they’re interested

dings

carlos: hey cutie

“that’s my number, got yours from charles, if you’re ever wondering”

incoming facetime from mickey chewsmacker

answer or decline

“that’s mick’s name?” you nodded your head and Carlos laughed

you answered the phone-call and set it to loud speaker

“where are you little lady”

“back exit, it’s too loud in there”

“with mr prince charming?” you could hear Alex’s voice in the background

“if it’s me then yeah, she’s with the prince charming” carlos butt in the call, which made my face turned a shade of tomato red

not knowing mick was crowded around the others was also something you’ll never expected

“so no more staring from the sidelines?” this time, charles

carlos looking at you confused, you refused eye contact with him which made carlos snatching your phone away to have a conversation with charles in italian and with charles drunk on the phone, you knew the moment carlos looked at you wide eye you’ve realised charles had told him those staring moments, he then ended the call

“taking a picture would’ve lasted mi amor, i’m surprised i am unaware”

“i wasn’t looking at you, you were just in the view” you shrugged

“and that view is me?” carlos laughed and rested his head on your shoulders “you’re really cute, do you know?”

“yeah it happens to be you and i am fully aware Carlos”

‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵

3 MONTHS LATER

y/nsocials just posted on instagram (followers only)

tagged carlossainz55 y/nbestff

liked by charles_leclerc susiewolff carlossainz55 and others

y/nsocials i fell in luv but that’s okay cause i’m in luv 💋💋 #baggedaman

lewishamilton so will you be on merc or ferrari’s side from now on 🫨

↳ georgerussell63 answer y/n. our friendship is on the line

↳ mickschumacher we manifested this but we didn’t foresee this situation

↳ alex_albon yeah whatever they said ^

↳ y/nsocials dramatic all of you. merc forever of course (maybe)

↳ carlossainz55 she’s ferrari’s on sundays

carlossainz55 always swayed by you mi amor 💋

↳ charles_leclerc no longer eye fucking on the sidelines yeah

↳ y/nsocials charles_leclerc STOP PERCEVAL.

↳ y/nsocials love you so so sooooooo much

landonorris boyfriend stealer 💀😠

↳ y/nsocials cry about it!!!!!!!!! mine forever 🫢

y/nbestff give her back to me carlossainz55

↳ carlossainz55 sorry no can’t do

‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵

↳ end note: that’s all!!!!!!! sorry for rarely posting, have been kinda busy w school nowadays! hope you guys enjoy the carlos fluff 💋

[kingofthering]

saw your tags when Fabio was supposed to follow on Marc s footsteps, but a mess happened with his manager.

I am new what exactly happened

Okay, so. Going to gather all the information from Fabio's biography by Michel Turco.

Fabio's first ever manager was Eduardo Martin.

Essentially, Eduardo's main issue is that instead of growing Fabio's career to make Fabio better, he chose the directions of Fabio's career to better fit the promotion and marketing of his energy drink (Wild Wolf) [note : the brand never ever really came to life).

In 2011, Fabio was riding in 80cc and that's where Eduardo approached his parents. He started helping Fabio and buying him a bike so he could train for the next category. He helped Fabio secure a sit in CEV Moto3 in 2013, with the team Wild Wolf Racing. That year, Fabio also moved to Spain in Eduardo's house.

Fabio won CEV Moto3 in 2013, winning the last 3 races (championship had 9 of them).

At that time, Emilio Alzamora (Marc's manager for 18 years, until mid-2022) was working with Monlau Competition and Estrella Galicia to build a ladder to bring young riders to Moto3 and then Moto2 (they had already done it with Alex Marquez and Alex Rins).

During the 2013 season, in Albacete (so either June or September), Emilio approached Eduardo to talk about Fabio. Apparently, Eduardo wasn't liking the potential move to Marc VDS in Moto2 and the presence of Monster (remember when I said that Eduardo only cared about his energy drink brand?) and Emilio said that it took him days and days before being able to have Fabio's contract signed.

In 2014, Fabio was finally in the Monlau Competition structure and he joined team Honda Estrella Galicia 0,0. Emilio says that they taught Fabio a lot of things then, especially in the way his race weekends were structured. Fabio also got to try new bike parts that HRC was then giving to Alex R. and Marc.

The 2014 season of CEV Moto3 contained 11 races. Fabio won 9 of them and finished the other two second. He obviously got a second title that year. Please have a look at one of my fave quotes from the book, where Emilio compares Marc & Fabio at 14 years old.

In the summer of 2014, Emilio had to go talk to Carmelo Ezpeleta because back then, the minimum age to participate in a GP was 16 (note : Fabio would only turn 16 on the 20th of April 2015, the day after the 3rd round of that MotoGP/Moto2/Moto3 season). After a bunch of discussions, Emilio managed to have the big instances say that "a 15 years-old crowned in CEV could start in the World Championship even if his birthday was after the start of the season" [note : we essentially still have that rule today except now you have to be 18 and 17 years old are accepted if they were crowned champions the year prior].

Now the year is 2015 and Fabio is riding for Estrella Galicia 0,0 in Moto3. His season does not go as he would have hoped. He gets two second places in the early part of the season but finishes 10th and has a couple of crashes, ends up beat by his teammate Jorge Navarro.

Here's what Emilio had to say about the situation : "The issue wasn't Fabio but this Eduardo, taking care of him. [...] He didn't know much about racing. He only had one thing in mind : to see Fabio on top of every practice session. He wanted him to win before he had even learnt what had to be learned. This attitude didn't benefice anyone."

Mid-season, Emilio said : "His results until now have exceeded our expectations. The objective of the first half of the season is to gain experience. Some people seem to forget that he's only 16 years old."

As the season progresses, tensions rise between Eduardo and Emilio. Eduardo wants to take Fabio to Leopard Racing (they were on top of the Moto3 Championship with Danny Kent then) while other team managers are interested in Fabio, including Aki Ajo. Aki said that he was really interested in getting Fabio and that he did a lot of efforts to have him in his team. He said : "I remember that it was a real challenge and that insisted a lot, I was convinced that we could do something to help him. When I met him in my office, I immediately felt like he was the type of guy I would really like to work with. I think that he felt the same thing then but there were other reasons, coming from his management or elsewhere, that made this not happen."

Towards the end of August, in Misano, Fabio gets a double fracture in his right ankle and shortens his first Moto3 season. Fabio wasn't doing well then but that's when he met Tom, please see some of my other favorite quotes.

At the end of 2015, Fabio leaves the Monlau structure. Back then, Eduardo justified it by saying this : "When we started renegotiating the contract with Alzamora, the question of our liberties for the future came. The contract we were offered was engaging us for a longer time than I wished for Fabio. Leopard was giving us this freedom and everything else I asked for. The Estrella Galicia project went from CEV to MotoGP, going through Moto3 and Moto2. I understand this philosophy and I suppose it suits most riders. It wasn't fine for me because Fabio is not a rider like the others. He's a special rider and he needs to be free so he can always make the best choice at the right time. The Almazora project is not flexible enough for us."

Also, like I mentioned earlier, Eduardo didn't want long term because he didn't want to end up in Moto2 with Marc VDS. Michael Bartholemy, then head of that team, says : "This guy was crazy. He didn't know anything about motorbikes and racing. He thought he was managing Lewis Hamilton, he wanted 300-pages contracts, wanted to choose the sponsors, etc..."

We'll finish this with one last quote from Emilio, still having regrets about not being able to finish this missions with Fabio six years later [note : the book was published in 2021] : "It was a waste. We had sponsors like Estrella Galicia who had already invested a lot in the project. They were counting on Fabio to launch themselves on the international market, notably the French market. Everything fell through because of a manager not very clear-sighted... At the same time, this taught us how to better write our contracts. On my side, I'm very happy that Fabio managed to bounce back and that his talent didn't end up being wasted."

[eldritch-spouse]

MY BIRTHDAY IS THE 20TH UH SO UH WOULD THE ICONS CARE ABOUT THEIR SO’S BIRTHDAY? HOW WOULD THEY CELEBRATE IT?

(Or Just Livius cause he’s my bbg and I loooove him)

[Happy barfday, you aged. 🎉]

Icons during your birthday

Vesper wakes you up with birthday head. Sure, you get that plenty of times, but this one is special!! Because he's going to eat you out to the table and then, as you're having breakfast, someone else is between your legs. The whole ring knows, so you probably have a plethora of gifts that are usually some variation of degenerate or filthy and funny. Vesper does pay attention to what you say however, so he'll make sure to get you things you actually want aside from just whatever he thinks would look sexy on you. The day goes by in a hurry because you're too fucked out to think honestly.

Rinx throws the largest party ever. It's embarrassing. It's super embarrassing. But hey, you get a house-sized pile of presents. You're going to spend most of the day opening these while Rinx peels himself for your approval. Put it on! Put every cloth and jewel he gave you on! Let's face it, he probably gets a bit of everything, since usually when you want something Rinx just gets it instantly. He knows it's selfish of him to ask you this on your birthday... But can he fuck you on the pile? Please?

You like piñatas? Kalymir likes piñatas... Okay, now bash the fuck out of this prisoner's brains! That's a fun way to start. You're going to play all sorts of games, from aim to raw power, all of them resulting in some por sod's death. If you have a favorite type of weapon or sport, he's one hundred percent going to bet on that too. You're going to be eating like a real Queen too, so don't worry about breaks. You're going to celebrate every birthday with Kalymir just like you did the first one in your life- Naked, screaming, and covered in blood.

Zizz will ask if you want to spend the whole day in bed. He'll get up and go anywhere you want since it's your day, but he also had a perfect setup ready just to stay with you in his room the whole time and watch movies or play stupid games and nap together. Your presents are buried under endless piles of plushies, and he's going to enjoy watching you dig around for them, especially when you get stuck in a tower of stuffed animals and pillows and he gets to see you wiggle your ass in a struggle. Do you like video games? Zizz will get you into them today.

You've never had a real birthday cake until you become Vorticia's lover. This woman will get you such a magnificent, delicious, mouth-watering, gorgeous, unbelievable cake that you will cry for more, and probably get a stomach ache. She's content to sit with you on her lap and feed it to you, maybe even make you lick her fingers clean. But, eventually, she might just drop you on it and let you go ham. Watching like a pervert before scooping you up to lick you clean, and dropping you again. After that, it's a relatively normal day, she has plenty of cute presents for you and will take you to her son's esteemed sorbet establishment to have all the fun you want.

Livius is very good at listening to the things you want, that's why his presents are usually always the best out of all Icons, as he seems to hit the nail on the head every single time. Since he assimilates plenty of your tastes, he's likely to guess correctly what you'd most like to do for your birthday, and has no issue slipping into the surface to rip his way into the theaters or go to a water park, whatever the Hell you so please! Nothing will stop him from giving you everything you want, so that you feel so special in that one day that you'll never feel jealousy ever again in your entire life. Because you deserve that.

Cero is too fucking extra. This is the definition of being treated as a Queen. You're forbidden from moving a muscle since the moment you wake up. He's already dolled up with the best attire he has, the servants will start piling in the room to bathe and dress you like a doll, preparing you to go out into the halls and greet all sorts of people you've never even heard of as Cero apparently organized a dazzling party while you were fast asleep. You feel sorry for the imps. Since the spotlight is always on you, it will feel a little exhausting, but Cero's always there to make sure others definitely give you space, by shooing them away, or speaking for you. You're complimented and praised the entire time by everyone, including him, and you get some of the most elegant gifts ever out there. Then, of course, you're gently fucked in your get-up while the King of Pride whispers about how well-behaved you were.

[drconstellation]

The Great War of Tadfield Manor

Future Echoes of the Past #1

One of the books on the shelf that Jimbriel is organizing is Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. I have to admit it’s been a while since I read it, (er, several decades, if I’m truthful about it) but my enduring memory is it seemed like the author wrote it in a linear fashion, then took all the chapters and threw them up in the air and put them back together at random, because it bounces back and forth in time in a confusing kind of way. There is a method to this madness, however, and the structure is deliberate. It’s also dealing with bureaucratic absurdity, but that’s not what I’m trying to explore in this particular meta. It’s the bouncing back and forth in time bit.

Now we have two series of GO to feast on, we seem to be slowly piecing together the expanded history of the GO universe in an inferred kind of way. It’s rarely given to us directly in a chunk, it’s mostly by a comment here and there and then we try to join the dots.

So we’ve learnt that there was a great deal of time that existed for Heaven before time on Earth got started, in 4004 BC, maybe an ineffably long period of time, maybe millions of years, maybe not. Sometime prior to 4004 BC, however, there was a rebellion in Heaven between at least two factions of the angels. This event is sometimes called the Great War - which is what Aziraphale is referring to in S2E6 when he is removing his halo for demon-detonating purposes; he’s not referring to what us humans would call World War 1 in the early 20th century. The result of the Great War led to the formation of Hell. The angel known as Lucifer was the leader of the losing side, and he was known as Satan afterwords. A third of the heavenly host of angels were sent with him down to Hell, and this event is called the Fall. They became fallen angels, or demons. At some point, there is supposed to be a second War, one that will decide who is the winner once and for all time. Well, that’s supposed to be the Plan - God’s Ineffable Great Plan, right? And we all know how the first attempt for that to get started ended up, don’t we?

As we start to look more closely into parallel stories and scenes between the two series, some curious pairs of parallels are starting to emerge. And even more interesting is that some of these pairs indicate that they will get a third presentation  - I’m not just talking about the 1941 Blitz scene here, there are others! And I’m going to try and talk about one of them here, that I think has largely slipped under the radar up until just recently.

There was a meta by @newfangledfancy here about the two parallel scenes in S1 and S2 involving miraculous escapes from being shot with a loaded gun, and we should expect a third one in S3. It’s worth pausing and heading over to read it at this point, but if you don’t, I’ll try to fill you in - and I will revisit in the future, as while it contained the seeds of inspiration for this meta, it also reveals something interesting about Crowley's backstory that's worth discussing on its own. You probably know what and where the S2 “miraculous escape” is referring to: the Bullet Catch scene during the 1941 Blitz minisode in S2E4. But where is the one in S1? It’s at Tadfield Manor, in S1E2, after Crowley has turned all the paintball guns into real guns, and Norman, on the yellow team, cracks it, does a big rant about his life and charges into the firing line of the opposing red team, only to be shot straight in the heart.

Let’s rewind this a little bit, because I want to talk about when Crowley and Aziraphale first arrive at Tadfield Manor. All seems calm and quiet. They stroll in side by side – and are each shot by a paintball. Yep, this has been watched over and over, comments made about the colours of the paint, how they represent their various “sides”, and the sexual innuendo in way Crowley miracles it away after Aziraphale makes heart-eyes at him. But you’ve all missed once very important clue about what was about to go down in the next few minutes that was right in front of you all along.

Maybe I should pause this meta just here and refer back to my big colour meta I posted recently. I specifically went to all that work so I could come here and discuss the following event at Tadfield Manor.

Firstly, the paintball colours. There are three: blue, yellow and red.  

There is a discrepancy between the colour that book!Crowley and screen!Crowley gets hit by. In the book its yellow, but in the tv series its red. Just at this point I’m going to emphasize that yellow is not the same as gold; gold is one of the colours of Heaven, but yellow is usually associated with fear.

Secondly, Aziraphale is hit with blue paint. That’s consistent with both book and tv. Then Crowley blows the blue taint of Heaven away, because Aziraphale needs help to escape its abusive clutches, its not something he can do on his own. Ah, a cute demonstrative metaphor there, another layer to that little scene.

BUT YOU DON’T SEE A BLUE COLOURED TEAM IN THE FOLLOWING BATTLE! Where is the blue team, that supposedly represents Heaven in the following battle? Did they just vanish when Crowley snapped his demon-miracle into place? I dunno, but we just see a yellow and a red coded team for the rest of the battle. But if blue is always Heaven-coded, yellow is fear, and red, while often demon-associated should be seen more as an indication of passion…what it really going on? Who is at war with who? It can’t be Heaven against Hell, because Heaven is not present, per se, as you know it, and neither is Hell, which is usually green. Oh no, it’s not that black and white…because we are watching a battle where Hell doesn’t yet exist, there is only Heaven at this point. One side, one faction, in fear, the other fighting with passion, and the division that actually creates the ‘blue’ side is yet to occur…

We’re watching a re-enactment of the Great War.

Let’s take another step back, to here: S1E2, around 15.46 minutes in. Newton Pulsifer is about to start a new job (wait, what? What the Hell is Newt doing mixed up in this? To honest, I'm not quite sure...*looks at a certain at note she made IN ALLCAPS again*...oh ffs- that is the worst joke, its got to be one of Terry's...now I can't stop cackling...oh, god now I've spotted another awful, awful joke...poor Newt, I love you more every second...)

*ahem* Back to the impending battle. Because it's here in the office of UNITED WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS (HOLDINGS) - an office *wink wink* of management and bureaucracy, that we establish the tension. As Newt slides into his seat, Nigel the manager arrives to ask who is exited about the upcoming "training initiative." Turns out, not really anyone has much enthusiasm for it.

Janice is going to complain to HR. Nigel points out there is no "I" in team, and Norman, who apparently organized the whole thing, proceeds to pick the three 'eyes' out of the "team building exercise."

This is going well, isn't it? [Newt departs. His role here is done.]

Lets skip to Tadfield Manor and the "training initiative" is underway. The Red team, lead by Nigel the Manager, seem to have the upper hand. The Yellow team see to be pleased at a chance to let off some steam with anyone who has annoyed them, the bitches.

Then God drops in to make an interesting observation.

Firms these days expected more than that. They wanted to establish leadership potential, group cooperation, and initiative, which allowed their employees to fire paintballs at any colleagues who irritated them.

Oh. Right. Lets deliberately cause a little chaos so we can see who's got leadership potential, who works together, and who actually has some brains? Go God! Lets start a little War and we'll pick the new Archangels out of the winners? Nice one. Plus, we get rid of all the troublemakers in the process, and we'll just be left with those who like to follow management's orders...

Then Crowley ups the ante. As the young woman who was the only keen employee to come, and is on the Red team, no less, runs past and asks "Who's winning?" he snaps his fingers and to change all the paintball guns to real guns.

Cr: You're all going to lose. Az: What - what the Hell did you just do? Cr: Oh, they wanted real guns, so I gave them what they wanted.

You're all going to lose.

Aziraphale does his best to protest at the demon's bit of wicked mischief.

Az: But there are people out there shooting at each other! Cr: Well -  Lends weight to their moral argument. Everyone has free will, including the right to murder. Just think of it as a microcosm of the universe.

A microcosm of the universe?

Who's universe, Crowley? Yours? The humans? It's a big universe out there...

Things don't seem to be going to well for some, and Norman, on the Yellow team, has finally reached his breaking point. He makes a declaration. I'm only going to quote the last bit of his little speech, as I want to deal with the first bit in another meta. As he takes off his tie, and wraps it around his head, he says:

"They want war, we're going to give 'em war! OK guys, let's go get the bastards!"

Hmmm. Do the visuals remind you of anything?...

He turns around to charge out - and is promptly shot in the heart. While it's Nigel the manager he is facing when it happens, it's actually the young woman from the Red Team who ran past Crowley and Aziraphale inside the Manor, who asked who was winning, that fired the shot. The implications of this? I'm going to save that for another meta.

The sequence moves on to the infamous wall-slam encounter, which I don't think we need to go over here, so lets skip to where Crowley and Aziraphale have finished questioning the past-Sister Mary Loquacious and have decided they've found all they are going to find here its time to leave. The police have arrived and have broken up the fight. The fun and games are over. As they walk, floating unnoticed and serene, through the chaos, Aziraphale starts to ponder.

Az: You'd think he'd show up, wouldn't you? You'd think we could detect him in some way. Cr: He wont show up, not to us. Protective camouflage. He wont even know that his powers will keep him hidden from prying occult forces. Az: Occult forces? Cr: You and me. Az: I'm not occult. Angels aren't occult, we're ethereal.

Crowley refers to the two of them as one kind of entity, but Aziraphale insists there is a difference - they aren't the same. Not any more.

The War is over, and the division between Heaven and Hell has been created.

[Edit: I've since finished a meta on the Bentley and it's connection to crossing the thresholds between worlds. I mention this scene in it, as it is actually a beautiful example of two different times and places existing at once, overlaid on one another, as indicated by the smoke - that's a sign we are in a subliminal space. Its why Aziraphale and Crowley seem to just glide through untouched and noticed, as they aren't really there, in a way.]

Will we see another echo of the Great War in S3? Possibly.

It's the 3-card Monte. Its the three cowrie shells and a lone caraway seed. It's the Professor's Nightmare, where you don't know how long a piece of string rope is.

It's a f*cking Mobius strip that has no beginning and no end, infinitely going around and around.

It's God's game. Only She knows where it stops.

Further reading in this series:

#2: The Newton/Crowley Mirror-Parallel in S1

#3: "Not Even At Gunpoint!"

[wordsandrobots]

Apropos of half-awake thoughts this morning, I've been considering the perennial subject of people coming into fan-works and making demands of the writer or artist in regards to their creative choices. You know, 'this is wrong', 'you should change this', 'make more!!!' etc. It's been quite some years since I had to deal with that kind of behaviour but I've seen it happen to other people and it always sucks. Today my brain has decided to connect it to Humphrey Smith.

Story time: the town I come from has three breweries. The reason for this is that the limestone we're built atop filters the local water, making it 1) good and hard and 2) easy to access. Technically we're a market town but brewing is the foundation of our modern economy.

Two of these breweries, John Smith's and Sam Smith's, are the remnants of the brewing empire started by John Smith, a Victorian gentleman endowed with truly spectacular mutton-chops and also money, who bought an existing brewery in the town before building a new, much more impressive one further up the street. After his death, the business was left to his brothers, one of whom would go on to leave the old brewery to his nephew Samuel. Thus, the empire split into two. Both halves are still operating and have been successful enough that the current owner of Sam Smith's -- Humphrey -- is the biggest land-owner in the town.

Here is where the problems begin. You see Humphrey is, to put it gently, crackers. He suffers from being exceptionally wealthy and, despite some motions towards investing in local amenities, largely exists on a moral crusade against the changing social mores of the 20th Century. He won't countenance any businesses that does not contribute to the atmosphere of a sleepy market town (read: basically anything), refuses to maintain or sell off his properties, leaving the place full of the rotting shells of buildings, and he's been at war with the town council so long, they're currently planning to build on a flood plane that does indeed routinely get swamped by the river just to have somewhere to put new houses.

The man is not well-liked, is what I'm saying. And among his 'charming eccentricities' are the strict requirements he enforces on the pubs he owns. Any Sam Smith's pub must be run by people of good moral character (preferably a married man and woman), there must be no music and no phones, no swearing, no motorcyclists, no kissing, etc, etc. Basically imagine the dourest stereotype of Yorkshire grimness and that's what he's actively aiming for (no I am not kidding, just check out the 'controversies' section of the Sam Smith's wikipedia page).

Anyway, the point of all this is that there's a lovely tale shared around the town about how, one day, our Humphrey walked into a local pub and said to the bar-tender something to the effect of, 'Switch off that music, throw those people out, take down those fixtures and fittings, this is not the Victorian traditionalism I pay you for.'

Only, the bar-tender leant over the bar and replied, 'well that's nice, Mr Smith, but this isn't one of your pubs.'

Should you find yourself in the position of having some dipstick with fixed opinions swan into your work and start telling you everything you've gotten wrong, I think you could do worse than bear this heroic chap's words in mind. Your work is not their pub. They have no claim on what you make and no grounds for enforcing their vision over yours. They aren't paying you, you aren't working for them, and frankly, they have profoundly misunderstood the situation if they think they're entitled to tell you want to do.

This is true even in the face of widely accepted fanon or when you're cutting against general expectations. In fandom, every piece of art is the result of our own personal reactions to a piece of media. We can decorate our individual pubs however we want and if other people don't like it, well, they can lump it. Go forth and do what you like, music and kissing and all!

[This post brought to you by the belated 11 year anniversary of that berk on dA who spent ages arguing with my attempt at redesigning the Quarks from Doctor Who. The *bloody Quarks*, man! Sheesh.]

[gren-arlio]

So, I appear with Madou findings I forgot to give. And Yokai Watch updates.

I was supposed to show this in my last post but forgot to make a section for it, so I'm deciding to do it here, alongside other stuff.

Check it, a popularity poll around the time Saturn released. (The Schezo and Witch artwork.)

It's quite literally a popularity poll. There's the usual, Arle and Schezo being top 2, Witch and Draco in top 5, Satan being 6th, that nonsense. However, as we go down the list gets more interesting. Notably, Kikimora ranked 10 over Lagnus, who ranked 11th.

A few more notable placement is Momomo outplacing Suke (15th to 19th), Skeleton-T being 14th, and 20th being Honey Bee.

Waku Puyo Stuff:

So, a pal (@kirstenonic05 ) and I decided to go through some old Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon manuals we found online, and honestly? Yielded interesting results.

Waku Puyo Translations takes a super long time. Believe me, I'm working on them.

But with that, here's some of what we found.

Photo of Serilly inside one of these manuals. If you notice, there's some text next to her, so I decided to quickly run through these. The result is:

Serilly: A Rather Timid Mermaid

17 years old

210 CM (so about 6'10 in Ft.)

B: 93 W: 58 H: N/A (all in CM)

Undefined Weight, but likes round things.

A slightly naive girl with a complex due to being legless. She's paranoid that people are out to get her, but is actually lonely and wants friends.

Then after this, we have Harpy.

This stuff is partly in Korean, mostly because the best quality image I could find of this (The ones we had weren't the best,) came from Puyo Chatterbox, so the Japanese text could be easier to read.

Harpy: A Self-Proclaimed "Diva"

14 years old

147 CM (About 4'8 Ft)

B: 75 W: 58 H: 79 All CM

38 KG (About 83 pounds), and likes singing.

A young girl with wings who loves to sing more than anything else. But the heavens never bestow things to one person, and she's frankly bad at it. She's so bad at it, you can complain at the top of your lungs and she won't hear you. No offense given.

And then we got Incubus.

It reads as follows:

Incubus: The Invincible Narcissist

Unknown Age

181 CM (About 5'9)

71 KG (156 pounds)

B, H, and H: I don't want to tell you. (AKA. Undefined.)

Likes cute girls and himself.

A narcissistic Demon who loves any cute girls, no questions asked. Despite being confident in his looks, rumor has it that he wears makeup. According to Arle, he's a pervert like Satan and Schezo. There's really no serious men in this world.

And now, Draco.

So what does her bio say? Well:

Draco: The Energetic Dragon Girl (You could add Kung Fu if wanted...?)

16 years old

162 CM (5'3-ish. Are YOU taller than Draco?)

B and W: 78, with her H being undefined.

She chose to not tell her weight, and likes beauty contests.

A high-spirited half dragon, half human girl in a Chinese dress. She's a fighter of many techniques, has a variety of special moves, and can even breathe fire. Rumor has it, she's gets stronger depending on her popularity. (Or yours.)

And finally, Witch.

Ah, here we go.

Witch: The Tomboy Who Runs Her Own Path (directly doing translations gave me the tomboy of the Witch clan, which is...correct too? Your choice.)

15 years old

158 CM (5'1. Wow. She's short.)

B and H: 81 W: 58

45 KG (99 pounds)

Likes clean clothing and brooms.

A magical girl whose tone is influenced by The Drifters (a Japanese comedy band), with phrases such as "Oops!" and "That won't work!" She has a rivalry with Arle, but for some reason, she has a soft spot for Schezo. (You can also say she's very friendly to him.) She tends to be nosy.

Quick Yokai Stuff:

A while back, I posted the 3D models of the Yokai Watch collab finally being unearthed, so I decided to just quickly find some neat looking stuff.

This thing.

First thing I wanna say about it: Arle is legit part of the metagame. She's unironically amazing.

Second, just some promotional artwork I found of the game. I couldn't find more stuff for Witch for some... unexplainable reason.

(Thank goodness for my friend finding the last image. And also the watermark being noticeable enough.)

And honestly? That'll be all for now. Thanks for reading.

Adios.

[heartshapedbubble]

Hi love. Hope you're doing well. I was wondering if you would be ok with some general Frederick and/or Helena headcanons for the birthday requests. Hope you have a nice day and thank you for your content 🥰💕💕

hello and i am, thank you sm! 💓💓 you've just requested both of my faves (for the first time too on here too) so who am i to deny🤲

helena adams and frederick kreiburg general/random hcs👁🎼

helena adams👁

first of all, i hc her as american (not CAWWWW MURICA🦅💥🦅💥🦅💥 (well now that i think about it...) american, but rather mid-atlantic accent american. yeah. the early 20th century american) and obviously quite short, standing around 158cm (~5'2") and being of a bit chubbier, pear shaped build

i'd say that she's a pretty picky eater honestly. she really likes eating sweet foods and is used to the food that's generally on her repertoire at home, so eating out makes her feel a bit anxious since it's a whole different way of preparing food (and whole different dishes/meals, after all) and she's worried that it might have the wrong texture and that it's not going to taste as well as it does at home. she'll always give it a try before judging it though!

it's been made quite obvious in the previous hc but helena loves routine and needs it to function. she only feels completely calm once all the furniture in the house is at the same place it usually is and when her duties/tasks are organized throughout the day. although the manor forced her to adjust to an unpredictable lifestyle, she kept on doing some of the "rituals" she did at home to feel more at ease

definetly has gotten education in the music field! poetry and music go hand in hand, so i'm sure she at least had singing lessons or listened to a lot of classical music growing up. she is very knowledgeable on the topic and can quickly analyze any given composition

prone to meltdowns when she's very, very upset. she bottles it up 99% of the time and hides it well, but sometimes she just snaps and it results in a very self-destructive meltdown. she's a calm person in reality, so if you've managed to anger her you seriously had to fuck up BIG time

she dislikes getting any pity because of her disability, she knows that once her teacher and her father pass away she'll have to be able to stand up and fight for herself. and hell, she has been living like this since infancy, she's prepared for a lot of situations! might occassionally accept some gentlemanly aid, but anything else is a no, thank you. despite her short stature she is incredibly stubborn and strong willed, never giving up even when it seems the most reasonable option

frederick kreiburg🎼

slim and of proper posture, frederick stands at 175cm (~5'9") tall and is of austrian descent

very paranoid about cleanliness and keeping everything tidy, refusing to take off his gloves unless necessary

he likes piercings very much! has a double helix piercing on one ear, an industrial on the other and snake bites, he's not sure why he's so fond of them but it's probably because they're (usually) not very flashy, easy to remove and safe (as long as the piercer is experienced)

very thick body hair/hair in general and has a greek nose!

not incredibly talkative, and when he does talk he often drifts away mid conversation and gets easily disturbed by the background noises or chatter - has a very light lisp and sometimes struggles with pronouncing english words as it's his second language and he was forced to learn it during his homeschooling program, fred's kind of insecure about it so it's one of the reasons he doesn't talk a lot

uses a cane to support himself as he limps, the reason behind it is that some other health problems of his built up over time and resulted in him struggling to walk and becoming exhausted quickly - being frail and sickly all of his life took a serious toll on him and his mental health, constantly making him paranoid about becoming seriously ill and even resulting in a lot of early gray hairs

[breitzbachbea]

this is so so optional but 🐖 for a character of your choice

Spitroasting Dolcetto! WAIT-

Ask Game for someone’s OCs

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Okay, this is going to be batshit, strap in. So anyone remember Fullmetal Alchemist? Anyone remember Greed's Posse of Chimeras? Remember how one of them was named Dolcetto? Yeah.

I was so obsessed with Greed and Dolcetto (another story, another OC entirely) that the name stuck with me. Once I had moved on from FMA and gotten into Hetalia, for some reason that name had stuck with me. Somewhere I had found out that it means "little sweet one" and thought 'Wouldn't that be a funny name for an angry, short character?'. I hadn't bothered to check at this stage whether any of the names I had salvaged from somewhere else were actually names. Sorry Dolco, teenage me was careless and now your parents named you after a grape.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Born 20th of May 1994. He's 19 in Italian Affairs, the first book of the mainstory he crops up in. He tends to be around that age for all AUs, too.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

The one and only motherfucker unlimited Francesco Belfari. Francesco is his first kiss, too, due to Dolcetto's atrocious social skills and thusly resulting disinterest in mingling with people.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

He's a ghiottone! He has a sweet tooth and especially can't get his fill of chocolate!

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Babysitting Feli and being a ruthless bastard! Like many of my characters, he's part of the mob, in this case as a right hand of the Vargas' Bros.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Already answered here! However, I do want to draw attention to the tags by outright stating - I think wanking should count as a hobby when you are as horny and suppressed as this goblin.

🎯 -What do they do best?

Keeping others on track. Don't get me wrong, he is quite hot-headed and can lose sight of things that are important and chronically overworks himself, but he's a perfect fit as Feli's right hand for a reason. He truly is ruthless in the sense that he sees a way that goes from A to B and is not interested in any frilly side-adventures. He's dependable as all hell and while not as creative as the Bontade twins, actually a good match for them in terms of thinking on his feet.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Francesco. He loves to see plan work out and reap the rewards. He loves to achieve either a physical feat (like rock-wall climbing and reaching the top) or a logistical one (getting one over the Bontades) and get a pat on the back. If it involves hurting people, so be it, good way to get his aggression out, if it involves hurting himself, all the more so be it.

He absolutely loathes having to play along to someone else's games. I bet you he's exploding everyone and himself internally every time he goes to France. At least the Germans are just either as awkward as he is, whatever Gilbert got going on or straight up assholes. He's not good at playing nice, he's not enjoying anyone's attention, he has no interest in being charming at all. He's that Francis Crozier at a party - "Tell us about birdshit island again, that's a capital story." It's the worst part about caring about Feliciano honestly, having to participate in what comes so easily to Franci and Feli.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

I think he does remember Gabriella very fondly from their childhood. And he also misses Venice sometimes, especially when the tourist crowds weren't around in the old city on rainy, gloomy days. Being landlocked in Rome makes him yearn for seaside.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Perhaps when he realized his parents don't care much for him. When they wouldn't intervene with the bullying at school, wouldn't help him much and reach out to him at all. When all his cries for help by acting out got him written off as never making something out of himself. He wasn't the 'little sweet one' they had hoped for, so he was on his own.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Yep! Wiry, corkscrew curls, Short - always been my boooy.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Can't tell you for the life of me, honestly. It's been a long time ...

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

He should have been in actual gritty gangster drama, to be honest. Not his clownshow, but he is still excelling at it. He's also slaying in nigh every historical AU I have, so he was just made for the drama.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Cis man and the flop bisexual nobody wants.

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

One! His beloved older sister Gabriella, with who he has an absolutely terrible relationship for many years, because he's pushing her away to not hurt her and she keeps pulling him back so he won't hurt himself.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Bad and now non-existent. As I said, the Acerbis (Martina and Bernardo) didn't really know how to handle Dolcetto after Gabriella was such a poster-child of success. They were probably also fairly conservative and saw Dolcetto as someone unwilling to work/who needed to straighten out. Honestly? Lie to them about the mob thing and hide her queerness, they'd take Gabriella back with open arms alongside with her well-to-do Milanese boyfriend. Dolcetto? If he wasn't dead to them before, he'd be now, queer troublemaker with a Neapolitan ne'er-do-well as a partner.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

I like how much Dolcetto's heart is both in the right and the wrong place. He reminds me a lot of my younger self, hell, even of me now at times. He's so focused on having to be useful or otherwise no one will want to have him around that he's willing to destroy himself over it. He thinks if he's not delivering, no one would tolerate him. He IS a bastard, he IS callous often, but he does love and appreciate those around him and I love his journey recognizing that. I love that he finally gains self-worth and not just ego.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Not as much as I'd like to! I recently drew a tiny headshot of him because I've watched Hazbin and he'd make an excellent exorcist - Plus I cannot resist anything where Dolcetto has a high social status that is yet precarious and along comes Francesco, completely untethered from societal opinion and completely fucking all that up for Dolcetto. But since I've been rewriting Irish Problems for two years now, baby boy isn't as present as I'd like him to be.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

I mean, I can't imagine Dolcetto growing old, but that's none of my business.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Nothing I can think of from the top of my head.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

Marco and Lorenzo! The Bontade twins are one year older than Dolcetto and very much everything he's not. Social butterflies, totally confident in all of their skills, completely sexually open ... To be fair, Dolcetto also looks down upon them and, much like his sister, finds them rather grating and more hot air than skill. In his eyes, with he entire Vargas-Vento rivalry creating this enmity in the first place, them seementitled to something that isn't theirs. So while these two are definitely bullying him, Dolcetto is absolutely not the bigger person. Marco: How could he be? Lorenzo: He'd need stilts!

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

I was definitely still in middle school. So probably since 11 or 10 years, I don't know how quickly I came up with more characters to populate the LFLS world back then.

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

14 or 15. Absolutely wild to think a 19 year old would be too much meaningfully different from his creator at that age. I'm six years older now than he is in IA.

[flaylore]

MACHINA X FLAYON

Note: Highly recommend watching the streams/reading the summaries for more info on each version of Flay. This only covers basic and up-to-date information needed to start with.

“Man, talk about working someone to the bone…”

The pilot of Adventurer's Guild TEMPUS.

A real prodigy who can instantly grasp the piloting mechanism of any form of transport.

As a result of skipping many steps in his education, he is at times unable to maintain a conversation and can be misunderstood.

He is frequently seen as haughty and arrogant, usually when he's muttering pointed remarks under his breath.

NAME: Machina X Flayon (マキナ・X・フレオン)

BIRTHDAY: June 5

AGE: 18,432 (Jan 7 2023- June 4 2023) 18,433 (June 5 2023- June 4 2024) 18,434 (June 5 2024 - present)

HEIGHT: 163cm-166cm (Jan 7 2023- up to before Jan 20th 2024) 171cm (Jan 21- present)

DREAMS: Hm…Dreams. I have lots of those..I want to become…the ultimate Jack of All Trades!? I wanna compose more music, draw, act, do photography, and cook!! Basically, I want to live without regrets with the time I have left! Let’s enjoy ourselves, okay?

LIKES: I really like to do a lot of things, but I really enjoy theater a whole bunch! Singing, drawing and writing are also really fun!

Unit: HOLOSTARS EN, GUILD TEMPUS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Originally turned down Altare’s request to join the guild multiple times but eventually agreed. He only met the R-TRUS and received his current pilot outfit after joining the guild.

His weapons include: his shields, his energy drinks (they act as bombs), and the R-TRUS

He has been getting visits from scientists since he was young. It is still unknown for what reason those scientists have been visiting him for.

Childhood friends with Doppio Dropscythe of Nijisanji EN, Doppio calls him X instead of Flayon.

His tail is sensitive and strong. Has mentioned being able to hang from places with it.

Towards the latter half of 2023, he has had a decline in his “genius” ability/trouble piloting the R-TRUS.

The black strands in his hair seem to be spreading.

He does not have a reflection in the mirror.

His second outfit is his old academy uniform or at least similar to it.

Is suspected of having died thousands of times. His age is thought to be the amount of times he has died.

Might not be the original Flayon that was supposed to debut.

FLAYON VARIANTS:

Machina X Flayon Identifiable features: red/green eyes, Tempus Guild outfit

X Identifiable features: black swirly eyes, black unstyled hair, dark grey oversized pullover sweater with a white button up underneath, black shorts, white sneakers

Mysterious cloaked figure Identifiable features: at times normal eyes but at times black swirly eyes, black hair, black cloak-like outfit, black cap

Father Machina Identifiable features: black/white priest outfit with a four pointed star near the collar, hair down, bobby pins in the shape of an X

Machina Flayon Identifiable features: red/green eyes with stars in them, front part of Tempus Guild outfit jacket closed over mouth

Academy Flayon Identifiable features: solid red eyes, a black cap

Other Unidentifiable Characteristics Glowing + Swirl eyed Flayon, saturated red eyed Flayon and circle swirl eyed Flayon

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

A Christmas Carol (1984) George C. Scott and Edward Woodward (one of my favorite versions - Fred, YDI)

This is probably the only version of 'A Christmas Carol' in which Scrooge wears dress pants with a dress shirt, vest, and smoking jacket instead of his nightshirt, slippers, and cap. Rumor has it that George C. Scott openly reeled at the very thought of portraying Scrooge under such conditions, especially in an English winter. In the book, Scrooge wears his shirt, pants, vest, dressing gown, and slippers. Scott's clothing is very close to the book.

Although this movie was made for television, it was released theatrically in the United Kingdom in November 1984.

Many versions of A Christmas Carol depict Scrooge as beginning to understand his mistakes by the end of his time with the Ghost of Christmas Present. However, this is one of the few versions that makes a point of showing that Scrooge does not accept his mistakes until he spends a good amount of time with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. As an example, when he is deserted by the Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge sits down and states "What have I done…to be abandoned like this."

This movie was filmed on location in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in the English Midlands. It originally aired on the American television network CBS on 17 December 1984, and was released theatrically in Great Britain.

The movie has run in syndication on local American channels since it debuted in 1984, and was released on VHS in 1989 (in the UK) and to DVD in 1999. This was because Scott himself (and later his estate through Baxter Healthcare, to whom the Scott family donated their copyright) owned the rights to this film. On 25 November 2007, it returned to national television on AMC for the first time since its debut, and the network continues to show it each December under license from the Scott estate and 20th Century Studios/Walt Disney Television (the latter's distribution rights the result of their owning the video rights). In 2009, the Hallmark Channel also ran the movie soon after Thanksgiving. It remains among the most beloved of the several adaptations of A Christmas Carol.

The fade outs for commercial breaks (as seen on television airings and original VHS releases) perfectly broke the story up into the five 'staves' as per Dickens' original novel (Marley's Ghost/The First of the Three Spirits/The Second of the Three Spirits/The Last of the Spirits/The End of It). However, these have been edited out for the more recent DVD and Blu-ray releases.

[modmamono]

Fun Puyo Puyo Fact for you power scalers out there.

The more Ls one takes one after the other the stronger they are. Because in general, the loser gets exhausted after losing, meaning they don't have it in them for a rematch. So getting back on their feet is impressive.

Lemres, Possessed Klug, Satan, Ecolo, Ex, Marle, and Squares all operate(d) on this.

Squares in particular was on steroids, like 8 losses so close to each other. The one time he did one Marle was holding back.

To be fair the last few weren't hostile but he's still outdoing Satan.

Satan's highest losing streak was either 4 or 5 in 20th's final story. It's legit nothing to him. He can keep on playing until you're exhausted at winning. (Someone turn that into a comedy fanfic, please... or a dramatic one.)

Doppelganger Arle I guess is a glass cannon retroactively. She took one defeat and bolted out of there. Which is a little amusing.

And Rafisol perhaps shouldn't be judged by the same standards. She's a final boss in an RPG. The numbers she has should speak for her. Though it was 3-v-1.

The point of this post is I just find it funny that you can tell who's strong overpowered if they lose and go "That didn't count, let's go again!" It's inherently oxymoronic.

But in most if not all cases it does show it shows those guys are decent people.

Satan usually just leaves it at one match. Despite him being the one most capable of abusing it, it is often casually implied he is the strongest there is after all. Nobody comes close, even steroid Squares.

Possessed Klug loses one after the other, it's just Sig and Raffina bolt out of there before he can get up and rechallenge them. And maybe PKlug could have another go if Amitie didn't go:

He is brought down on his knees 3 times though. But that could mean anything.

I think Lemres reached more than his limit after all of the Fever 2 Waku Waku Courses because he's absolutely wrecked. He Puyo'd too much in the sun.

The Squares gauntlet is more about trying to de-escalate him than actually fighting Squares. But also demonstrates the BS "that didn't count" thing to its logical extreme. Satan could be that if he wanted too, but unlike Squares he isn't attempting to do something evil.

Only about 5 or 6 matches Squares partakes in are actually serious. He is successfully convinced he did a bad eventually, and the final few matches aren't antagonistic as a result.

Honestly, now that I think about it. The fact losers are kinda drained by a losing a Puyo match, and Squares almost exploding because he had too much power, would imply the final battle, a skill battle, is everyone Puyo-ing him at once to curb his powerful tummy ache. (I mean that's always stated, just I have more clarity now I think.)

Besides maybe Tee I think everyone else just doesn't rematch after a loss. They are consistent about this.

I'm not into power scaling persé, I don't like rating things like that and deciding who or what is only worth my time. That's reductive and dumb taking things with personalities, experiences, stories, and lore into account especially.

But I think it says something about these strong characters that's more than "Satan could beat Goku".

Ecolo and Satan, the two most recurring ones that can pull the "That didn't count" but usually don't tells us a lot about them.

That and as I said I find it funny. This is like so funny, flies in the face of logic. The more you lose in quick succession the stronger you are.

Also it's a Puzzle game, Satan may have the highest AI, but that still put him on equal grounds with Onion Pixie.

[yuurei20]

Crowley Fact Sheet

(Did not rank in a combination of seven different character-ranking surveys held throughout 2021)

Name: Dire Crowley Role: Headmaster Age: unknown Height: 185cm (taller than Vil/Idia/Crewel, same height as Leona, shorter than Sebek) Homeland: Unknown Hobby: Traveling Favorite food: Wild game meat

According to the official fanbook Crowley’s first name, Dire, has been retconned to be pronounced as “Dia” in order to be closer to “Diablo”, the name of Maleficient’s bird in the original Sleeping Beauty movie. I also came across a fan theory that the name “Crowley”, might be both a reference to Diablo and to early 20th century English occultist, magician, poet and painter Aleister Crowley, but this is unconfirmed.

Crowley hires the player to fill the role of “beast master” and keep Grim in check after being impressed by the player’s ability to goad Ace, Deuce and Grim into working together to take out a monster in the prologue of the game. In return, the player is permitted to live in the abandoned “Ramshackle” dormitory on campus.

While Crowley insists that he is still searching for a way to send the player back to the world from whence they came (claiming that it is all he thinks about when he sleeps and eats), it is difficult to tell how much effort he is actually putting towards this goal.

Crowley has explained that he likes shiny objects like gems and precious metals, and thus the mirrors that he carries about on his person.

In other voice lines he says that he wipes down the frames of the portraits of the Great Seven in his office everyday, watches Spelldrive tournaments on television late at night and that he does not like spicy food.

He has also said that, “To create whatever magic you wish to produce, you need imagination. Some mages say that they practice drawing and writing in order to strengthen their ability to make their imaginations more concrete”.

Crowley often meets with Trein for tea, but has said that Lucius makes him uncomfortable and he is not very good with cats. Despite this apparent camaraderie with Trein, he was once ten seconds late to a meeting and Trein lectured him for ten minutes as punishment.

He says that while he greets every student he sees every morning, sometimes they ignore him, but he doesn’t mind as it is part of being an adult.

He often leaves difficult situations and problems up to the school’s students to handle rather than facing them himself, claiming that it is to cultivate their independence; the students, by and large, do not trust him as a result.

Crewel describes Crowley as being very busy and always hurrying off to deal with one issue or another, but it is unclear what he is actually up to most of the time. It is commented during the Halloween event that he seems to have secrets that he would prefer the police not know about.

He seems to have a soft-spot for money, receiving a portion of Azul’s profits from Mostro Lounge and—according to Jamil—arranging for Kalim’s belated enrollment in the school in exchange for large monetary donations from Kalim’s father.

On the other hand, in the Port Fest event half of the profits earned by the student food stalls are donated to Crane Port, and Crowley arranges for the remaining half to be divided amongst the students themselves (at Azul’s request).

Crowley's voice actor Miyamoto has been voice acting since before many of us were born. He was inspired by a favorite TV show to become a teacher, but failed to acquire a teaching license.

In a 2014 interview he said, ‘I would love to play a villain or eccentric role that is far removed from myself, like Tim Curry in "The Rocky Horror Show’.”

He is the voice of adult Simba in the Japanese-language-dub of Disney's The Lion King, the voice of Soma Ayame in the original release of Fruits Basket, Roger Smith in The Big O, Hubb Lebowski in WOLF'S RAIN, Jean Croce in GUNSLINGER GIRL, Maiza Avaro in BACCANO! and other characters in over 170 other anime series, OVAs and video games.

Additional Fact Sheets ・Riddle Rosehearts ・Trey Clover・Cater Diamond ・Ace Trappola・Deuce Spade ・Leona Kingscholar ・Ruggie Bucchi ・Jack Howl ・Azul Ashengrotto・Floyd Leech・Jade Leech ・Kalim Al-Asim・Jamil Viper ・Vil Schoenheit・Rook Hunt ・Epel Felmier ・Idia Shroud・Ortho Shroud ・Malleus Draconia ・Silver・Sebek Zigvolt・Lilia Vanrouge ・Sam・Crewel・Trein・Vargas・Crowley