laneforetag-blog

[angelsdean]

really funny that today my younger taurus sibling is celebrating her bday. it's not til the 14th but all her friends could only align their schedules for today

[bog-o-bones]

Who the hell is CM Punk and why is he “All Elite”?

If you’re reading this post, you’re most likely somebody who’s heard the latest buzz around the wrestling world: CM Punk is back! But who exactly is CM Punk? You’ve probably heard the name before, either in the context of pro wrestling or as part of his time in UFC, and have always wondered what the big deal is about the guy. You’ve also probably seen or heard about All Elite Wrestling, up-and-coming wrestling promotion airing live Wednesday and Friday nights on TNT. But what exactly is AEW as well? That’s where this post comes in. In this long-ass post on Tumblr, you’ll be given a crash course on the history of one of pro wrestling’s most iconic superstars as well as the abridged history of AEW, the premier wrestling promotion in North America, allowing you to (hopefully) understand the significance of Punk’s return to the squared circle as well as give yourself significant knowledge of AEW enough that you can begin to enjoy the weekly shows they put out!

Okay, so who the heck is this CM Punk guy anyway?

To put it simply, CM Punk is one of the most significant pro wrestlers of the 21st century as well as the history of the industry itself. While he’s not on the level of mainstream recognition as Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin, Punk’s contributions to pro wrestling are arguably as important to the industry. To understand Punk’s significance, you need to have a little history lesson about the industry in the early-to-mid 2000′s.

When you think of professional wrestling, you probably think of one name above all: WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment. WWE was, and still is, the most mainstream wrestling promotion ever. People associate all wrestling with WWE, no matter what. But what about what’s below WWE in terms of recognition? The Minor League Baseball to its MLB? To that, we have to look at the independent scene.

The independent scene is, simply put, the underground punk rock of pro wrestling. It’s where the stars make the names for themselves to rise to the success. Indie wrestling is important because it’s where Punk began. CM (the initials jokingly standing for whatever is on his mind at the moment, ranging from “Cookie Monster” to “Charles Montgomery” or “Chicago Made”) Punk began his career in the independent scene around the turn of the millennium. He rose to significant prominence in the promotion Ring of Honor, one of the most premiere indie leagues in the United States. This prominence was brought on by Punk’s oozing charisma and wrestling talent, making him one of the best known “underground wrestlers” at the time. Then, in 2005, Punk signed a contract with the major league: he was WWE bound.

To regale you with Punk’s career in WWE would require an entirely separate post, so I’ll spare you the specifics and get to the good stuff: Punk was over in WWE. “Over” of course meaning the fans loved him. And why shouldn’t they? Big time wrestling fans knew Punk from his days in ROH and to see him rise to be on national television broadcasts and pay-per-view was rewarding. To those who were introduced to him, he was a fantastic talent and provided immense entertainment because of his talent in the ring and outside it.

Later on in his career at WWE, Punk provided one of the most scathing promos of all time, criticizing the company for its horrific decision-making and idiotic management. The promo was a “worked shoot”, wrestling lingo for a promo that seems like it’s breaking character but is all planned out (Punk was allowed to say anything he wanted, no matter if it was in character or not) but it was still extremely satisfying for the fans who agreed wholeheartedly with Punk about the state of WWE at the time. This promo (now known as the “pipebomb promo”) is just one of the many reasons why CM Punk has remained an immense fan favorite. The idea of a wrestler taking the mic, airing their grievances, and showcasing how a major corporation treated their employees with disdain and damnation is utterly unlike anything seen since Stone Cold Steve Austin back in the late 90′s. Punk, to many people, was one of the first of many “indie stars” that WWE had “poached” from the independent scene, turning them into corporate icons, stripping away their unique qualities as a person and transforming them into recognizable brands to sell merchandise with. To see Punk spit back at the WWE made a lot of people realize that enough was enough for them. Punk was the voice of the voiceless, a wrestler echoing throughout the halls that he wasn’t just a brand to slap onto a cheap mass-produced product, that he was a wrestler (in the mid-2000s at WWE, the term “wrestler” was seen as an irrelevant term, the terms “sports entertainer” and “superstar” preferred by management) in this business to prove himself as the Best in the World. And like clockwork, on July 15th, 2014, Punk was removed from WWE’s active roster after he had effectively walked out of the company weeks prior.

One of the most significant events post-WWE with Punk was his appearance on close friend Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. Colt’s podcast was known for featuring “shoot interviews”, basically interviews with wrestlers out of character detailing backstage information and telling stories. Punk’s episode of the podcast is significant as it eventually led to a total legal dispute with one of WWE’s doctors whose misdiagnosis of a staph infection was one of the reasons for Punk’s departure from WWE. Along with that, Punk’s general dissatisfaction with the “WWE Machine” as it’s been coined was another reason, with him even mentioning at times post-retirement that WWE was responsible for him never wanting to wrestle again. And so it seemed, as Punk later on signed with UFC in an attempt to get a MMA career off the ground, that the legacy of CM Punk ended with his tenure at WWE.

Until, that is, the wrestling world got a little...elite...

Okay, so I get who CM Punk is now, but what’s this All Elite Wrestling business?

AEW, All Elite Wrestling and the sole reason you’re reading this post right now, is the second biggest wrestling promotion in North America and quite possibly the world. Its inception begins with a group of wrestlers signed to the aforementioned Ring of Honor and a little bet made with wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer on Twitter.

Meltzer had proclaimed on Twitter that ROH did not have the capability to sell 10,000 tickets to an arena-run wrestling event. ROH-signed wrestlers Cody Rhodes (son of Dusty Rhodes and brother of Dustin Rhodes f.k.a. “Goldust”) and tag team brothers Matt and Nick Jackson (known as “The Young Bucks”) took Meltzer up on the bet and immediately scouted an arena for such an event. Partnering with Ring of Honor along with other wrestling promotions around the world such as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, Impact Wrestling, and New Japan Pro Wrestling, the trio promoted the event as All In and managed to sell out the arena in less than 30 minutes, even exceeding the goal by an extra thousand or so, becoming the largest attended wrestling event not held by industry leader WWE since 1993.

Naturally, the success of such an event caught the attention of many leaders in many industries. The idea that an independent wrestling event could create such a huge success in a time where WWE was kingpin of the industry was unprecedented. It was clear that the wrestling world was ready for a change and the numbers didn’t lie.

On the 1st of January 2019, All Elite Wrestling was announced with the running of All In’s sequel event Double or Nothing which would also be the inaugural pay-per-view event for AEW itself. Backing the company financially was Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan along with his son and co-owner of the Jaguars Tony Khan, who would lead the company as president, CEO and head of creative. The announcement of the company was peppered with signings of some of independent wrestling’s hottest stars such as “Hangman” Adam Page, Joey Janela, Britt Baker, and Kenny Omega, often cited as the greatest wrestler in the world with multiple 5 star+ matches under his belt. Also announced were some of the most interesting inclusions: former WWE stars Chris Jericho and PAC (f.k.a. Neville) had joined as well. At the premiere event of Double Or Nothing, the most shocking addition to the roster made his debut as well: Jon Moxley, formerly known in WWE as Dean Ambrose, one of the highest-profile stars in recent history had jumped ship from top of the card in WWE to the newest promotion. Ripples in the wrestling world had turned into immense shock waves.

Alright, I kinda know the history now but why is AEW so important?

AEW’s significance today cannot be understated. Before its inception, the world of professional wrestling consisted of two pillars: WWE and the independent scene, and the two could not be less equal. WWE was seen by many as the top of the line, the area where a wrestler could be seen by the most eyes and where they could be paid top dollar moreso than any indie promotion. But it was also seen, as detailed earlier by CM Punk, as a place of dull, corporatized profiteering. WWE does not treat its wrestlers as characters in engaging, eventful stories. To the WWE, the wrestlers are no more than brands, recognizable faces and repetitive phrases that they can slap onto t-shirts and other merchandise to sell for a quick buck. WWE as a company does not care about the world of professional wrestling, even recently going so far as to call themselves not a “wrestling company” but an “entertainment” company. Wrestlers in WWE are not given the opportunity to come up with material they think will best suit the story of the match and appease the fans, they are given pre-written scripts of dialogue to act out as if they were in a movie and storylines meant to tell the story the writers want to tell rather than what the fans want to see.

For many wrestlers, the art of wrestling is a finely tuned craft. WWE’s corporate micromanagement of the whole process is utterly disrespectful and soul-crushing. At AEW, the story is different.

AEW’s creative team allows its wrestlers to do whatever they think the fans will like. While not necessarily allowing the wrestlers full creative control (Tony Khan, after all, has the final say on things), AEW at least allows the wrestlers flexibility to try new things without being railroaded by storylines. This results in characters like Orange Cassidy (see above) a wrestler whose entire gimmick is that he just doesn’t care. In his matches, he’ll lazily loaf about the ring, putting in the bare minimum effort at attacking his opponents except when the opponents REALLY strike back at which Cassidy explodes into an array of athletic fury while simultaneously never losing his cool. And it works! The gimmick worked insanely well on the independent scene, away from the strict guidelines of a major corporation who probably would not understand it, and fans adored Cassidy’s laidback, lazy attitude. And in AEW, Cassidy’s gimmick transfers flawlessly due to the company’s trust in Cassidy to make it work. And so, AEW remains a place where wrestlers can succeed not at the whims of an out-of-touch old man playing with his action figures in a way that satisfies only himself, but at the whims of creative people who believe in the equally creative minds out in the squared circle who themselves believe in the hearts of the audience, understanding full well what it is they want to see when they come to or tune into a wrestling program.

There are a multitude of other reasons AEW is probably the best wrestling promotion on the planet (ease of access, LGBT diversity among the roster) but the creative freedom it allows its wrestlers remains one of the greatest.

Okay, now I kinda get the appeal. So where does CM Punk tie into this?

As with any new promotion heavily allowing for greater creative opportunity for its wrestlers, fans are gonna want to see their big favorites join the roster. Names like Daniel Bryan, Aleister Black, Adam Cole etc. known from their time on both the independent scene and at WWE have been tossed around a lot during discussions in the past as far as who should jump ship to the promotion that will best suit them. But one person has always been the biggest “what-if” when it comes to joining AEW: CM Punk. As laid out earlier, CM Punk’s dissatisfaction with WWE was wholly responsible for his greater retirement from the pro wrestling scene. And when there’s only one really significant promotion on the market, why bother? Punk has been vocal in the past on Twitter, in interviews and many other places that his love for the business of pro wrestling was soured and that something truly significant would be required for him to return. It seemed natural to fans that, should AEW prove to be a significant competitor to WWE that, somehow, some way, it could lead to the in-ring return of one of the best to ever step foot in it. And when AEW announced it would be running the second episode of its brand-new show Rampage at the United Center in Chicago, Punk’s hometown, the rumors began to fly.

Punk himself is known for joking about and debunking rumors, hearsay and other lies about his potential signing with any wrestling-related outlets. So when the rumors began to fly that Punk was signing with AEW...the man himself stayed uncharacteristically quiet. And the wrestling world began to gasp...was it true, then? Teasers were thrown about here and there on AEW programming, small things that could go either way but to hardcore fans seemed to understand were plain as day. Punk himself even got in on the action, posting cryptic videos on his Instagram that fans eventually linked to the United Center and a return for the Best in the World. It’s been known as wrestling’s “worst-kept secret” and today, it was revealed in all its glory.

CM Punk, one of the original independent wrestling superstars, one of the few men responsible for changing the culture of professional wrestling in the 21st century, had finally returned home.

Okay, that was pretty explanatory. So now, where the heck can I watch all this?

Excellent question! AEW currently has three methods of airing content:

- Through their network TV shows aired on TNT

- Through their YouTube channel

- Through pay-per-view events

AEW Dynamite is the company’s flagship show airing Wednesdays at 8:00 EST/7:00 CST on TNT. All the company’s major storylines are told on Dynamite and the show usually runs for ~2 hours. There are over 90+ episodes of Dynamite and its not really required that you see every single one though there are many episodes that have aired in the past that feature matches, promos, and other segments worth checking out.

AEW Rampage is the company’s second show and currently only has two episodes aired. It also airs on TNT, Fridays at 10:00 EST/9:00 CST. Rampage has been given the description of being a little more “action-packed” than Dynamite, with shows only lasting for a single hour and featuring little promo time instead focusing primarily on matches themselves.

The company’s biggest stories tend to culminate in one of its four annual pay-per-view events. AEW pay-per-views are available via WarnerMedia's B/R Live service in the United States and Canada, and on FITE TV internationally. Additionally, AEW PPVs are also available via traditional PPV outlets in the United States and Canada and are carried by all major satellite providers. AEW PPVs generally cost around $50-60 and run for about four hours or so.

In addition to the two TNT shows and pay-per-views, AEW also runs two weekly shows on its YouTube channel, AEW: Dark and AEW: Dark Elevation. Both shows are generally referred to as AEW’s “developmental” shows, created mostly for unsigned or up-and-coming talent to showcase themselves in a taped format that forgoes the traditional network TV deals for easier access online. Dark and Dark Elevation’s differences are negligible but both tend not to crossover too much with the main shows, although some stories definitely do. Both shows run for ~an hour and a half on Monday nights at 7:00 EST/6:00 CST (Dark Elevation) and Tuesdays at 7 EST/6 CST (Dark).

AEW talent also provide a few extra sources of entertainment through their own YouTube outlets as well. The Elite, a popular stable in AEW consisting of current champion Kenny Omega and current tag team champions the Young Bucks, feature themselves in their own weekly travel vlog/comedy sketch series Being the Elite while other individual wrestlers like Sammy Guevara, Allie “The Bunny”, and Ethan Page provide more individualized backstage looks at the company through their own vlogs. These aren’t necessary to enjoy regular AEW programming but they definitely add to the atmosphere and you can tell through each how much the locker room loves and respects each other.

Wow, this was really in-depth and definitely not a small task at all. Thanks for the help!

No problem! If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message, though its doubtful I’ll receive it since I barely check Tumblr anymore! If you know me on any other platforms, the message still applies! Thanks so much for reading! I really do hope this helped you understand the situation a little better. Enjoy wrestling!

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

1- you know JC stans always try to deflect claiming LQR LXC LWJ and NMJ are all equally at fault bc they didn't stand for trhe wens either but JC and WWX are literally the only two people who know the truth about the wen sibs and he decided not to tell anyone so the public has no means of knowing everything they did and risked for him, they literally committed treason to save the jiang sect and protect them from the wen army but in the eyes of the public they are known as loyal disciples to WRH-

Thank you for the question anon!

Relevant passages in regards to this issue posted first since a lot of it gets very misconstrued with what blame lies where with the Sect Leaders before the events when it came to the massacre at Nightless City and the deaths of the Wen Remnants. This is not necessarily clean cut after the fallout with Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun's deaths. This is also still with the underlying plot of Jin Guangshan aiming for the Yin Hu Fu. There is a lot of political intrigue that goes ignored with this by manipulation of the Jin Sect and Jiang Cheng being blinded by his own jealousy.

“… Four inspectors were harmed. Around fifty of the remaining Wen Sect members escaped. After Wei WuXian led them into Burial Mound, he summoned hundreds of fierce corpses to patrol the base of the mountain. Our people still can’t get any further.”

“… Four inspectors were harmed. Around fifty of the remaining Wen Sect members escaped. After Wei WuXian led them into Burial Mound, he summoned hundreds of fierce corpses to patrol the base of the mountain. Our people still can’t get any further.”

When he finished, silence filled the Golden Pavilion.

Jiang Cheng only spoke after a few moments, “What he did was indeed a bit too much. Sect Leader Jin, I apologize to you in place of him. If there’s any way at all to help the situation, please let me know. I’ll definitely compensate for things however I can.”

What Jin GuangShan wanted, however, wasn’t his apology or his compensation, “Sect Leader Jiang, at first, for your sake, the LanlingJin Sect didn’t intend on saying anything. However, some of these inspectors weren’t from the Jin Sect. There were a few from other sects as well. This makes it��”

Jiang Cheng’s brows were knitted. He rubbed the vein that throbbed at his temple and soundlessly took in a deep breath, “… I apologize to all of the Sect Leaders. Everyone, I’m afraid you don’t know that the Wen cultivator whom Wei WuXian wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign.”

Nie MingJue, “You owe them gratitude? Isn’t the QishanWen Sect the ones who caused the YunmengJiang Sect’s annihilation?”

Within these few years, Jiang Cheng insisted on working late into the night every day. That day, just as he decided to rest early, he had to rush to Koi Tower overnight because of the thundering news. He’d been suppressing some anger under his fatigue since the beginning. With his natural competitiveness, he was already quite agitated since he had to apologize to other people. When he heard Nie MingJue mention the incident of his sect again, hatred sprouted within him.

The hatred was directed at not only everyone who was seated in this room, but also Wei WuXian.

Passage 2:

Using the atmosphere, Jin GuangShan turned to Jiang Cheng, “He’s been plotting for a while to go to Burial Mound, hasn’t he? After all, with his skills, it wouldn’t be too hard to set up a sect of his own. And so, he used this as a chance to leave the Jiang Sect, intending to do whatever he pleases in the bright skies outside. You rebuilt the YunmengJiang Sect with so much work. He’s got a few controversial traits in him to begin with, and still he doesn’t restrain himself, stirring up so much trouble for you. He doesn’t care about you at all.”

Jiang Cheng pretended to stand his ground, “That probably isn’t that case. Wei WuXian has been like this ever since he was young. Even my father couldn’t do anything about him.”

Jin GuangShan, “Even FengMian-xiong couldn’t do anything about him, huh?” He chuckled a few times, “FengMian-xiong just favored him.”

Hearing the words ‘favors him’, the muscles beside the corners of Jiang Cheng’s mouth twitched.

Jin GuangShan continued, “Sect Leader Jiang, you’re not like your father. It’s just been a couple of years since the reestablishment of the YunmengJiang Sect, precisely when you should be displaying your power. And he doesn’t even know to avoid suspicions. What would the Jiang Sect’s new disciples think if they saw him? Don’t tell me you’d let them see him as their role model and look down on you?”

He spoke one sentence after another, striking the iron while it was still hot. Jiang Cheng spoke slowly, “Sect Leader Jin, that’s enough. I’ll go to The Burial Mounds and deal with this.”

Here the sect leaders were aware of the Wen Sect remnants as prisoners of war and saw it as a justifiable reason to keep the remaining Wens imprisoned regardless of age status etc. When Jiang Cheng is asked by Nie Mingjue for clarification on the matter of the debt owed by the Wen siblings it is deflected by Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao with clever wordplay to rile everyone up. This leaves those who either asked for more information, Lan Xichen who is shutdown by not having enough information by the majority and Nie Mingjue distracted by his hate of the Wens already, and Mianmian and Lan Wangji who argued that Wei Wuxian was protecting innocents and was not trying to cause a coup ignored as being irrelevant opinions. Wei Wuxian is eventually labelled a defector and danger due to Jiang Cheng exasperating what they had actually planned in the staged fight.

After this several months pass until Lan Wangji comes to tell Wei Wuxian of Jiang Yanli's marriage in a week's time. Several days later the Jiang siblings arrive with the same news and Jiang Yanli is the one to extend a peace branch to try keeping the three connected with the courtesy naming or Jin Ling. Almost a year's time later Wei Wuxian is in fact invited to the one-month celebration as another peace branch by Jin Zixuan who was the one to extend the offer. Jin Guangshan, Jin Zixun and Jin Guangyao planned the murder of Wei Wuxian in Qiongqi Pass against Jin Zixuan's knowledge. This leads to the mess of his murder and Wei Wuxian being hunted down as well as all of the remaining Wens on order of Jin Guangshan in retaliation after Wen Qing is killed as the remaining leader of the Wens and Wen Ning secretly suppressed. This leads to days later to the Pledge Conference at the city which holds Jin Zixuan's body and Jiang Yanli who is there to keep the death vigils (Shou Ling) as family. It's also why her and Madam Jin are wearing the white robes when Wei Wuxian sees them and by bad luck comes across the sect leaders pact when he tries to flee.

After the the wine had seeped into the dirt, Jin GuangShan stated, “No matter the sect, no matter the surname—this cup of wine is to the soldiers who have died.”

Nie MingJue, “May their souls live on.”

Lan XiChen, “Rest in peace.”

Jiang Cheng, however, still had on a darkened expression. He didn’t say anything even after he poured the wine.

Afterward, Jin GuangYao walked out from the LanlingJin Sect’s array and presented with both hands a square box made of black iron. Jin GuangShan took the box with one hand and raised it high in the air, shouting, “Here lies the ashes of the Wen Sect’s remnants!”

After he spoke, he sent forth his spiritual energy and shattered the box with his bare hand. The iron box broke into pieces, and white dust drifted alongside the cold wind.

A scattering of the ashes!

A series of cheers exploded through the crowd. Jin GuangShan raised his hands, signaling for the people to be quiet and listen to him talk. When the cheers slowly died down, he continued, raising his voice, “Tonight, the ones whose ashes had been scattered were the two leaders of the Wen Sect’s remnants. And tomorrow! It will be the rest of the Wen-dogs and—the YiLing Laozu, Wei Ying!”

Suddenly, a low laugh interrupted his grand speech. The laugh was too untimely, sounding both stark and jarring. In unison, the crowd turned to look at where the sound came from.

The Palace of Sun and Flames was a rather magnificent palace. A total of twelve ridges made up its roof, and at the end of each ridge were eight heavenly beasts. Yet, right now, the people realized that on one of those ridges, there were nine. The laugh from before came from over there!

The extra beast shifted slightly. The next moment, a boot and a corner of black clothes dangled down from the roof, swaying softly.

Everyone placed their hand onto their sword hilt. Jiang Cheng’s pupils shrunk. Blue veins lined the back of his hand.

Jin GuangShan was overcome with both shock and hatred, “Wei Ying! How dare you show yourself here!”

The person opened their mouth to speak. What came out was indeed Wei WuXian’s voice, but he spoke in a strange tone, “Why should I dare not show myself here? Do you people here even add up to three thousand? Don’t forget that back in the Sunshot Campaign, let alone three thousand, I’ve fought against five thousand on my own before. And by appearing here, haven’t I granted your wish? No need for you to come all the way to my home tomorrow to scatter my ashes.”

A few of the QingheNie Sect’s disciples died in the hands of Wen Ning as well. Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “What arrogance.”

Wei WuXian, “Haven’t I always been arrogant? Sect Leader Jin, how does it feel, having slapped yourself in the face? Who was the one that said he’d let the matter go if the Wen siblings went to Koi Tower and gave themselves up? And who was the one that just said he’d scatter my ashes and the ashes of the rest of the Wen Sect’s remnants tomorrow?”

Jin GuangShan, “Let’s consider things as they stand! At Qiongqi Path, you slaughtered over a hundred of the LanlingJin Sect’s disciples—this is one thing. You made Wen Ning kill at Koi Tower—this is another…”

Wei WuXian, “Then let me ask you, Sect Leader Jin, at Qiongqi Path, who was the one being ambushed? And who was the one to kill? Who was the main schemer? And who was the one being schemed against? In the end, just who was the one that came to provoke me first?”

Keep in mind none of the other sect leaders were privy to the scheme between Jin Guangshan, Jin Guangyao and Jin Zixun. And they believe they are certainly fighting off a crazed Wei Wuxian and what they think are his fodder Wens meant for corpses. After this Wei Wuxian desperately fights against Lan Wangji who is trying to calm him down before it's too late which is unsuccessful leading to Jiang Yanli also trying to calm him down enough to get him away and talk some sense to get him out of there to run and get to the Wens. After her death he mentally blacks out and Lan Wangji is left trying to take him away to safety close enough to Burial Mounds. Lan Wangji then fights off his elders as Lan Xichen gathered the Lans to find them. Immediately after this is in sequestered secrecy Lan Wangji is punished. Lan Xichen presumably stays with his own brother while Lan Qiren is the acting Sect Leader for the actual Siege that the other three are part of as support. That leaves Jin Guangshan with the ulterior motive of getting the Yin Hu Fu, Jiang Cheng who wants revenge for the death of Jiang Yanli, and Nie Mingjue left to think he is killing what he considers disgraceful Wens.

So, in short, each of them had different motivations for actually being there, and different accounts for those reasons. The Jins for more power, Jiangs for revenge, Nies for justice and the Lans in solidarity. And the fault of it isn't meted out equally as all had misunderstandings and manipulated by Jin Guangshan's pull to each of their morals as cultivation sects. In the end each of the four were there to kill the Wens and Wei Wuxian aside from Lan Wangji and arguably Jiang Yanli when she was caught up trying to get Wei Wuxian to run.

[archadianskies]

pas de deux

→ on Ao3

@dbhrarepairs​ Friday Day 5: Longing • Mirrors; post-revolution North/Chloe

Individuality is a new concept to deviants, and something North’s embraced. It’s different, though, when one seeks to stand out when one exists in multitudes versus someone who’s always been an individual; there are a thousand WR400s with her faceplate in Michigan alone and there is, and always will be, just one RT600. Chloe is the first, the last, the only, and North can’t go more than an hour without seeing someone with her exact same face.

During the revolution North had started to change her hair, adding more and more red to it so it was a vibrant strawberry blonde. It’s something she has control over, that and her makeup though she leaves those settings alone. 

Chloe is a custom Carl Manfred model, sculpted and painted laboriously as a one off in a way that can’t be printed en masse like the rest of them. Mass production hadn’t even been an option back then, of course, given she had been Kamski’s foray into the unknown. 

Meeting Kamski had been a forgettable affair and she holds no high regard for the creator of their kind, though begrudgingly there’s some respect owed given he wasn’t responsible for the WR400s and HR400s and thus can’t be blamed for life of suffering inflicted on her and her siblings. And Chloe loves him. North’s not sure why but if Chloe sees something in that disaster of a human then he certainly can’t be too bad. 

Meeting Chloe had been something else entirely, and North’s glad for her ability to record and store perfect memory. Not that Chloe could ever be forgettable, but she’s grateful for the ability all the same. For the sake of diplomacy, Markus had requested they meet at the town hall and when Chloe walked in, everyone else became irrelevant. 

It’s not that North’s never seen her face before, since there exists WR400 sisters with her same face, but it was the way she held herself, the way she exuded power unseen by the humans but felt by every android in the vicinity. Back during the demonstration when Markus had beckoned to their brethren, North had been in awe of such an ability but it paled in comparison to the way that petite android commanded the world around her. 

“It’s an honour to meet you,” Chloe had smiled graciously and North had blinked incredulously.

“ Me ?” She’d echoed in disbelief. “You’re the First of us, why would meeting me be an honour?”

“Because you are the fire of the revolution, North,” Chloe quipped with a soft giggle, squeezing North’s hands. “You inspire our people to fight against inequality and injustice.”

She had something lovely to say to all four of them, and North could forgive a bit of flattery towards Markus, but to the rest of them? The three of them? She wasn’t so sure there existed anything one couldn’t chalk up to sheer luck and good timing; for all her bravado, for all of Josh’s sage advice, for all of Simon’s caution, they’d really just stumbled on after Markus and tried their best not to get anyone killed. That didn’t sound worthy of honour, and certainly not bestowed by Chloe RT600 herself. 

* 

“Are you going to ask her to Markus’ gallery opening?” Simon asks in the taxi, a warm soft presence against her side. Kamski is hosting a super secret meeting at his villain lair and while she holds no love for the man, his villa is a fortress when it comes to information security. It’s a black spot for CyberLife as they squabble to find footing in a post-revolution landscape now that androids have been granted the status of living, sentient beings. 

“Don’t be stupid Simon, why would I ever do that?” North snaps and Simon shrugs nonchalantly.

“Because you like her, and she likes you,” the PL600 points out, and North rolls her eyes.

“She’s just being nice, because she’s a nice person,” huffing, she slumps in her seat and crosses her arms over her chest. 

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Simon prods. “That she’ll say no? She’d even do that graciously I’m sure.”

“She could wipe me out of existence in a single blink,” she drawls, and Simon sputters a laugh. “I’m serious! You were there at that board meeting! She totally just wiped that shady programmer’s entire online life off the face of the earth!”

“She put it back,” Simon frowns. “I think?”

“Anyway you can’t talk, don’t think I haven’t noticed you making eyes at Terminator Mr Darcy.”

“That’s not nice,” Simon says sternly and North concedes with huff.

“Okay, yeah, that wasn't. But I’m still right.”

Simon stays quiet for a few moments, expression softening. “I just can’t quite believe I have the time for…” He makes a vague gesture, and oh North absolutely gets it.

“To not be in survival mode. To have the luxury of stupid crushes on people way out of our league.”

“Yeah,” he laughs and it’s such a nice sound. He never laughed in Jericho, not even once.

“I’ll ask her out if you do,” she elbows him and he groans.

“That’s not fair!”

“It’s totally fair!”

He presses his mouth into a tight line before sighing. “Alright, deal.”

*

The villa really does look like a supervillain lair, though Spring has done much to soften the stark palette. The taxi pulls up and they clamber out and North wishes for the umpteenth time that she had a sense of smell. Back during her Eden days it had been a blessing not to have a sense of smell or taste, but as she watches Simon pause and inhale deeply, no doubt filling his sensors with the scent of flowers, North yearns for the ability to do the same. 

They’re early, too early for Markus and Josh to have arrived yet and North is about to suggest hanging around outside before subjecting themselves to human company but the door opens.

“Good morning North, good morning Simon,” PL400 Peter greets them with a gentle smile. “Mr Kamski is having his breakfast but you may wait inside. There are light refreshments prepared in the lounge.”

“Thank you, Peter,” Simon says cordially and nods as he enters the villa. “Is Ms Chloe free?” Oh the little shit earns a jab in the ribs for that one.

“She is in the ballet studio with Ronan for a private ballet class,” Peter gestures and Simon’s cheeky somewhat grimace morphs into surprise.

“Ronan?”

“Yes, the RK900 dances with her here sometimes,” the PL400 explains, leading them down a long hallway. “You are welcome to watch, she will not mind.”

“We’d love to,” North answers because she has to get Simon back somehow for the earlier mischief. Even if her revenge is via a double-edged sword.

* 

It’s not unknown to her, Chloe’s love of ballet- Carl Manfred had stated he’d carved her proportions based on a ballerina, and she’d spent much of her early phase absorbing movement via ballet videos. 

It’s a different thing entirely, to watch her dance. She moves with such easy grace, effortlessly elegant and yet powerful at the same time. The RK900 is a fine partner, all calculated strength and cold regality. It’s one thing to tease each other about harmless crushes from afar, and another thing entirely to be so close and full of longing. 

“Mind your timing, Chloe, you have to ease into it, you’re not giving yourself enough time to prepare,” the hologram of the ballet mistress commands, because of course Chloe’s ballet studio has mounted cameras and holographic capabilities. “Ronan you’re adjusting your stance too often, I want your footing to be neater. Again, please.” She claps her hand and Chloe blinks, soft piano music filling the air as they repeat the segment. Chloe catches her gaze briefly, smile brightening.

“Ask her, and I’ll ask him,” Simon bumps his shoulder to hers. “I promise.”

North thinks back on last November, on how everything changed so quickly with barely any time to process the violence, the trauma. She compares her life before, and after the 1st of December when the law recognised what they’d known all along- that they are alive, and they deserve to be free. 

She’s different in some ways, and the same in many; it’s normal to long for change, but one constant in her life, one unwavering trait she’s proud of is that she never settles for the theoretical, the what-ifs, the maybes. If she wants something, she’ll fight for it; what use is longing without action? 

The piano music ends and the teacher is pleased, clapping twice in praise and Chloe giggles happily as she bows in parting. The hologram fades and she reaches for North’s hands in greeting.

“Hello North, it’s so lovely to see you,” she’s beautiful and radiant like a goddess, and it’s all North can do to not buckle at the knees. She’s not one to back down from a challenge, but she thinks maybe standing defiantly against soldiers aiming rifles at them like a firing squad was easier than this. 

“Would you like to go to Markus' fancy art party with me?” There, she asked. Chloe gasps in delight, squeezing her hands as she beams.

“I’d love to.”

*~* 

It takes her a whole day to process Chloe’s acceptance, and also remember it had been part of a bargain she’d bullied Simon into agreeing to. The PL600 is sorting books Josh had left strewn on the meeting table when North wanders over.

“So. Did you ask him?” She demands, hands on her hips. He looks up like a deer in headlights, slowly taking a step back. “ No ?!”

“No, but-!” He bares his palms as if fending off an impending attack. Rightfully so. “I didn’t have to,” a shy, somewhat sheepish green. “He’d already asked me last week.”

There’s a pause and Simon bites his lip, taking another step back.

“I’m going to kill you,” she says evenly.

“Um-”

“SIMON!” 

“Okay love you bye!” The blond tries to dart out of the room but North tackles him down and attacks him with her fingers, wriggling them into his sides. “Noooo!”

“You conniving bastard!” She shrieks and Simon laughs and laughs helplessly, trying to bat her hands away. 

“Mercy! I had to do it! And she said yes!” She stops and flops onto her back beside him. After a moment, Simon scooches closer and rests his head on her shoulder. “Don’t be mad at me, you needed the push.”

“I did,” she admits and there’s no shame in the admission when the outcome far outweighs the discomfort. “Thanks Simon.”

*~*~*

{Chloe and Ronan are [rehearsing Manon].}

[fae-fire]

Yehn’li Khete (LFRP)

basics ––––

REAL NAME: Yalvus Lux Ilvanus, Suffragium Tertius Architectus Magiteci ALIAS: Yehn’li Khete. Mostly goes by just Yehn. Yehn’li or Mr. Khete is also accessible. AGE: Early 30s, looks deceptively a bit younger RACE: Keeper Miqo’te GENDER: Male, He/Them SEXUALITY: Pansexual MARITAL STATUS: Single  SERVER: Balmung/Mateus

physical appearance ––––

HAIR: A light reddish-brown. Almost strawberry blond. His hair extends past their shoulders and some chunks are longer than others since he mostly just cuts it himself. EYES: His right eye is black with a permanently dilated pupil from an injury in an explosion. His left eye is a bright green-blue. HEIGHT: 5′6″ BUILD: Small frame, lanky with more of a lean cut to him. He isn’t weak though as he’s dedicated the last five years or so of his life to metal working and crafting, so he’s got quite a bit of lean muscle. More of a runner’s body than a warrior’s though. DISTINGUISHING MARKS: His left leg is a magitek prosthetic. He has a small scar on his cheek from the same accident. His foot tends to be dirty with soot or just...dirt from walking around barefoot. There is a Garlean brand-like tattoo on his back over his right shoulder blade. It appears to have been cut with a knife to try and remove most of it so there’s a lot of scar tissue there. COMMON ACCESSORIES: Goggles on his head. A few tools laid out in what could look like a surgeon’s pack...even though he’s an engineer. 

personal –––-

PROFESSION: Former scientist for Garlemald. From a conscript family, he took on a Garlean name as he gained more respect in the medical field. He worked mostly on neurological-based technology. He still has a list of every test subject and what he had done to them. Many of his experiments were just for fun. He is now...retired. Away from Garlemald as he was in it for himself, not the Empire as a whole and didn’t care for their plans in the long run. He now is a tinkerer of random things, takes on odd jobs, fixes magitek prosthetics, and is “totally clean” of the criminal life...sometimes.  HOBBIES: Crafting and gathering junk to sell. Explosives. LANGUAGES: Common. I am unaware if Garlemald has its own language but he’d know that if it does. Bits and pieces of Hingan from hiding out in Kugane. RESIDENCE: He has two shops--one in Limsa and one in Kugane. The Kugane  one is safer due to the rules around weapons so he’s most likely there. FEARS: Being sent back to Garlemald, the Empire killing him, the alliance arresting and/or killing him, nutkins

relationships –––-

SPOUSE: None. CHILDREN: None. PARENTS: Birth parents are (probably) alive, but not of consequence SIBLINGS: None. OTHERS: None.

traits –––-

extroverted / introverted / in between

disorganized / organized / in between

close minded /open-minded / in between

calm / anxious / in between

disagreeable / agreeable / in between

cautious / reckless / in between

patient / impatient / in between

outspoken / reserved / in between

leader / follower / in between

empathetic / unemphatic / in between

optimistic / pessimistic / in between

traditional / modern / in between

hard-working / lazy / in between

cultured / un-cultured / in between

loyal / disloyal / in between

faithful / unfaithful / in between

additional information –––-

SMOKING HABIT:

never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

DRUGS:

never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

ALCOHOL:

never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

RP HOOKS –––-

THE MOTHERLAND: Garleans and ex-pats may have heard of him. Whether you need an ally in an unfamiliar land (though one that may drive you a bit mad) or are chasing down a deserter, there’s plenty of routes to choose from.

WANTED: Got an itching for justice against a known criminal? Could be an open route there though I’d have to discuss for pre-established knowledge since god modding and all that cool stuff. But definitely bring it up if you’re interested in that. 

MAGITEK: In need of a magitek prosthetic tune up? Some illegal weaponry? He’s your guy. Though a lot of his product is unstable since a lot of is made from blackmarket parts and some of the Ceruleum is refined by himself...but that’s irrelevant! You’ll get a good bargain! 

I’M CLEAN NOW...UNLESS?: Yehn will swear up the ass that he’s not part of that criminal life anymore. Though who is he kidding? The man is addicted to chaos, murder and explosions and it’s not that difficult to get him to tip his hand. He still has his hands in a lot of pies and may prove to be a good criminal contact. Or enemy.

TO THE SKIES OF DRAVANIA: My main RP is focused around Sky Pirates and Yehn becoming an airship engineer. If you are also a sky pirate, that may be a useful avenue for adventure. Or at least fixing your engine... You may find him around Ishgard and Dravania as well.

Extended Background Details––––

I probably forgot something but Yehn is an ex-scientist based around studying the body and has a laundry list of lives he has taken. He left the empire to seek a life of his own since the Empire didn’t line up with what he wanted and he felt stifled by the professional environment he was in. It’s been around five years since he left and in that time he has gotten into some trouble here and there but keeps trying to quit his ways, though he really does love his work around the body and taking things apart. He focuses most of that energy into making random things to sell, and has used his knowledge around magitek and science to go more towards an engineering route and live the good-guy life, but self sabotage is a thing. He also kinda loves explosives and did blow his own leg off... Though he’ll lament about how he lost it in the war. The story changes every time. He’s pretty guarded about who and what he is and comes off as lazy and bemused.

In any case, this is a fairly dark character overall and this is kind of a warning to explain that. My OOC values and views don’t align with my character’s and he’s still very much a work in progress alongside my partner’s character. 

what I’m looking for ––––

Anything really, though this is more of a profile post than actually LOOKING for new RP since I am busy IRL. I’d like to delve in to some plot based rp a bit more, make some connections, friends, enemies, contacts. I’m open to head canons and plotting, but I am not open for RP at the moment unless you can handle slow discord replies because of working from home with the pandemic. But I try... I don’t really RP in game though. I stick to discord because I really don’t have the time to sit in game and RP anymore.

oocly, I am ––––

A nerd who Rps? Mostly darker RP that gets in on mature themes, etc.

I have a 9-5 job, pacific time (currently working from) and I run and exercise regularly and that takes priority for me. Replies from me won’t be instant.

I am a multi-paragraph RPer. I will usually match who I am RPing with, but I DO type a lot. You have been warned!! I don’t do one-line RP. If that is your style and you are annoyed by multiple paragraphs, I may not be the right partner for you.  

I do a lot of darker RP with a lot of questionable themes. I am not the person to go to for tavern RP and constant casual RP. While Yehn can be social, I’m not really looking for happy go lucky small talk, if that makes sense. It doesn’t really fit the character. 

My rules for RP are still being made, but you can call me Rae. Pronouns are He/They. 

you can contact me via ––

Tumblr DM. Discord upon request. Contacting me in game is not a good idea probably since I’m either afk or offline a lot.

@crystalxivrp @balmungrp @mooglemeet @ffxiv-crystal-rp​

[srbachchan]

DAY 4318

Jalsa, Mumbai                Jan 1,  2020                 Wed 11:42 pm

Birthday - EF - Smita Buch .. Thursday, January 2 .. birthday wishes from all of us to you and may you have a glorious year .. love from the Ef ..

The first day of the new decade .. of the first of the 10 years that shall follow .. the first of the first month .. and my Ef Sudhir gives an observation .. 

“In the morning... My elder brother, Ravi, had shown me how to read the calendar... 

This, on the top, is the number of the year... This, here, is the name of the month... This number, here, is called the date... Date is the number of the day...  This, here, is called the day... There are many months in a year, and many days in a month... but each date happens only once in a day... because date is a count... Every date is the total number of days which have happened in the month till that day...

What stuck : Every date is the total number of days in the month till that day...”

... and date has so many connotations it is impossible to enumerate .. for this though it is the evening before the DAY of the writing .. the thought the process the intent the context and the reason , why ..

.. yes many do ask for the reason of the above and the why .. 

Every why has never ever needed a response .. I write because I write .. I express here because I wish to express .. I comment here because I wish to comment .. 

Like it dislike it reprimand abuse question disagree , dis associate .. it is the ‘kala nazar ka teeka’ .. one that prevents the evil from a gaze that could be bad and irrelevant .. nothing like so here .. every gaze is relevant every expression in its import a precious gem .. it was not created , this , to create comment or demand or reason .. they all came in the course of the days .. valuable, connecting, embracing, enveloping the love and the grace of all .. 

I am in denial of gratitude here for the existence .. the family , the Ef cannot be in a reason to be here .. they are here of own will .. families do these things .. they remain within .. yes at times one reads and hears with extreme pain the parting, the going away, the desolation of separation .. 

But the moment of the hold of togetherness - even if it was for that minute second , was a holding all the same .. for that limited spell, the feel was to be together to be one to be inside the embrace .. that is it .. 

The hold though brief is not brief it is eternal .. it takes a lot to extend a hold .. to reach out and command embrace .. the touch the warmth of each other is sufficient to express that it did make effort of a feel .. for me that is enough ..

You may discard now .. throw away .. disconnect .. have a million reasons .. its water on a ducks back .. it will not stay .. once done , DONE ..

IN THE END IT SHALL BE ONLY US .. 

SO .. on the day of the first day we sit in silent understanding .. the progeny is away in their world and time .. it is normal .. so were we away on many a time in the past .. technology keeps us close and within voice reach .. even that is blessing ..

but blessings come too from quarters of them that write .. they express .. they post to me .. and I would have hesitated to talk about it .. but their writing is already in the realm of the universal , so putting it here .. well ..  is humbling and immodest .. but ..

Amitji, You  Are  One  Of  Your Kind

By Subhash K Jha

Whenever I am asked to write about Mr Bachchan I am reminded that I know  him so well. But I  wonder if  I really know him at all.

Does anyone know the real  Mr B?  Even Jayaji, the Bachchan I am closest to and the one HE is closest to, says she has to read the silences because he likes to remain quiet when at home. That is when  he can really be himself, though I am yet to understand what  it means  for him  to be himself.

What I do know is, this phenomenon  named Amitabh Bachchan is  genuinely  a force of Nature, incomparable with  anything that I’ve known in my entire life.I’ve known him for  20 years  . His energy and enthusiasm  level remain unchanged. Even today he gets as excited  about his work as he did when Mohabbatein  was offered  to him 2000 . It began his second innings in  cinema.

I remember how excited  he  was about doing the  film, and how  grateful  to Yashji  for giving him the opportunity.And I know how upset he was  when earlier this  month he couldn’t attend  the National awards  to receive  his Dada Saheb Phalke award. To Amitji, every honour is of great importance.

I don’t  know if every  friend  is  special to him. But he has always treated me as someone really special.  On one  of the earliest episodes  of Kaun Banega Crorepati,  the game show which was  a  game-changer for Indian television, Mr Bachchan when introduced  to  a contestant  from Bihar he  proudly told  the  contestant that   he has  a dear friend in Patna named Subhash K Jha.

I won’t pretend.It  was golden  moment for me.To  have his endorsement while millions watched…it meant a  lot.  Not too many of  my friends  in the film industry  would do something  like this. It is his generosity  of  spirit that I admire the most  in his personality.As an actor he  may fail some day (although that’s hard to imagine). But as  a friend he  can never fail you.

“Meet the  film journalist  from Patna who  doesn’t like travelling to Mumbai,” he’d introduce me whenever we met on his sets. But  most of my most memorable  meetings  with Amitji have  been in the Bachchan home Jalsa where Jayaji  presides  over  a household that runs  with  clockwork precision.The meals served  in silver thalis with innumerable  katoris of vegetables, are  unforgettable.

There are  numerous incidents etched in my mind illustrating his generous spirit. Two of them are more special than others. Once when I was on the airport in Mumbai to catch  my flight back  to Patna after the premiere of  Black, I was informed my  seat had been given away to  someone else. In a panic , I did the  first thing that came to my mind(this was a Sahara flight and  at that time he was  associated with the  Group).

I rang  up Amitji and  complained  hysterically like  a child. He heard me  out and calmly asked me to hand the phone  over to  the lady at the  counter.Within  five  minutes I  was  on the flight.

The  other incident  happened at my residence in Patna when Mr Bachchan came  home  for dinner. He had come to Patna  for  the promotion  of  his film Aarakshan. And director Prakash Jha tried his  utmost to dissuade  him from  breaking the schedule. When Prakash couldn’t convince Mr Bachchan, he called and urged me  to dissuade  Mr Bachchan as, Prakash claimed,  his visit to my home posed a security hazard.

I had no choice. I reluctantly told   Amitji that  it’s better to  cancel the visit to my home  .

“No,I had promised you.Whenever I  came to Patna  I’d come to your house,” he replied calmly.

And that  was  that.

By the time he arrived  with his  entourage it was late evening. The entire road and stadium in front of my home was plastered with  humanity,  not a space anywhere …How did they come  to know?! I panicked. How would his  car reach my  gate?When he arrived the sea of humanity parted  like the Red Sea and the cars sailed by.After he got out of the car he walked straight into the sea of humanity  with folded hands. Not one person  tried to  touch  him or get  close to him.

That  evening I realised why  he is who he is.

and then there is another 

Love and the greetings and the blessings of the elders to you and may the Gods grace your hearts and lives with all their might .. may that unknown force of nature build the most beautiful palaces of residences in your hearts .. may HE be there in all your guidances and give the right path the light of purity and benevolence .. give you abundance .. give you joys .. take away grief and want .. fill you with plentifulness .. as never before ..

Amitabh Bachchan .. my Ef my pride , my existence ..

[miraculouscontent]

“favorite salt blogger” eXcUse yOu

But yes, I am absolutely up for another Alya roast.

[All’s Fair in Love and Lore]

First things first, I want to reiterate something I brought up a long time ago (back when I talked about “Mayura”), which is my relationship with lore and how it affects my opinion of an episode.

I see lore as a seasoning, not as a main course, so it’s rather difficult to get me riled up over details about lore. I mean, a lot of people complained about Mayura’s power, for example, but I was not one of those people. The core of my critique and analysis lie in character interactions and plot details, not lore. If the lore is good, great, but if it’s lackluster/bad, I’m not as likely to hammer away at it compared to say, someone like Alya (we’ll get to her in a moment, I promise).

Anyway, I’m gonna be honest in saying that I wasn’t expecting Fu’s foe to be a sentimonster of his own creation. I mean, we’d known for a long time that the destruction of the temple was caused by something that Fu did, but we didn’t know what until now.

As for the reasoning itself, I’m mostly on board because Fu was like, a dumb teenager who didn’t even want to be a guardian, so the fact that it was a silly mistake makes sense to me. My biggest gripe is honestly just that they didn’t clarify how Fu dropped his staff and then couldn’t go after it. Is it going to be revealed after all this time that the man can’t swim?

(that problem might’ve been solved had the flashbacks shown less and been more vague visually; same applies to him talking about losing the grimoire and peacock+butterfly)

I’m aware that a lot of people thought that there’d be more build-up/tension from Fu making a mistake that literally destroyed a whole temple, and I think the reason for that is that we, as an audience, weren’t told that it was such a small mistake. When we see the temple being destroyed and Fu looking on with regret, it makes the situation seem really big and important, like Fu trusted someone he shouldn’t have and that someone was a big bad of some kind.

I can’t blame people for being disappointed, but considering that the temple and all its residents were brought back in the end, I’m glad it was just a foolish mistake made by a salty hungry teen that could simply be reversed, because Fu didn’t deserve to live his entire life feeling guilty over it. Like, yeah, there are some obvious things that should probably be addressed (i.e: the fact that these residents have been gone for almost 200 years) but eh, details, I don’t really care that much.

Though, I guess we know why Wang “bicycle away from all problems” Fu isn’t that great as a guardian now; he’s had a few years of training at best. It doesn’t excuse everything he did and I wish it was more of a plot point but still.

Plus, him being like, “yeah, forget how the actual guardians tried to teach me because clearly that did nothing for me mentally,” was very amusing to me and also, yeah, I don’t think that starving teens for 24 hours who don’t even want this darn job is a great idea either.

That said, I do feel like this episode kind of has the “Ladybug” problem where they’re focusing on two characters at once, and in both “Ladybug” (an episode that should be Marinette-centric) and “Feast” (an episode that should be Fu-centric), that second character is Nathalie/Mayura. I don’t technically have an issue with Nathalie getting focus in a narrative sense (though, am I the only one who thinks that the foreshadowing in “Ladybug” over Emilie using the peacock is pointless now? I felt like Adrien saying “the same thing happened to my mom” is enough.), but when Fu already doesn’t get a lot of focus outside of plot-centric episodes (technically Marinette doesn’t either but she has screen time), I feel bad for the guy. I think Nathalie’s plot points could’ve been used better in an episode like “Miraculer” since Chloe already gets more than enough focus.

Granted, if this episode was a two-parter, I would’ve been all for Nathalie getting focus because this episode is about a sentimonster, so it makes sense, but I don’t think the episode was able to touch on both topics in full in the time it had, and it’s just weird in general that this season is a downgrade from Season 2 in that respect, where Season 2 had multiple two-parters (one of them technically being a three-parter) whereas Season 3 only has one two-parter. I believe I’ve talked about it before, but now it’s two episodes that could’ve been worthy of being two-parters (three if counting “Miraculer” but I was reaching on that one), so it’s even more noticeable than before.

What I do like about the episode is the Marinette and Fu interactions along with Marinette and Adrien being heroic civilians. It was also interesting to see Wayzz lecturing Fu about how Fu was making a mistake because it’s nice seeing Wayzz have more input on the matter.

Also, Plagg playing piano with Adrien was good. I guess Sadrien was inevitable since Nathalie’s sick but thank goodness it’s brief.

...you know what I didn’t like though?

[Abandon Hope, Alya Who Enter Here]

Gosh darn--Alya, I swear, I leave you alone for one episode (for the most part) and I guess you didn’t like that or something because DANG.

Now, look, I totally get Alya being in pursuit of more information. In fact, I'd be in full support if we got to see more of Alya coming up with in-depth theories, whether they're true or not.

The problem is that Alya has no tact when doing so, and this brings me all the way back to "Oblivio" when I rambled about the fact that Alya took that photo and posted it online without Ladybug's permission, despite Ladybug having trusted her, given her an interview, and gave her a miraculous on multiple occasions.

And I do not believe for one second that Alya ever gave up on figuring out Ladybug's identity here. She clearly gets nervous when Marinette calls her out for it, and I don't see "figuring out Hawk Moth's identity" as her only goal.

Her actions here are particularly insulting because of the severity in what she's doing. Either Alya believes that her theory isn't accurate and that's why it's okay to post it, or she's just that reckless in what she's doing.

Considering her track record, I'm inclined to go with the latter.

Furthermore, Alya explaining all of these things when she already has a video about it on her blog is dumb for two reasons. One is that she's presuming that neither Marinette nor Alix follow her blog (at the very least, she presumed that Marinette did back in "Dark Cupid"), and two, she put her blog first and her friends second when prioritizing who should know. It just seems superfluous for her to tell her friends this information when she's already made a video about it (at least run it by them for a quality check first jfjisoshfhf).

And speaking of prioritizing who should know, Ladybug should know and Alya doesn’t even run it by her first either. Presuming that “The Mime” happened by now (basically impossible for it to have not), Marinette has already given Alya an interview with Ladybug, so Marinette should be the first one that Alya goes to so she can be like, “Hey, can you get a hold of Ladybug again so I can ask if this is accurate/helpful?”

I dread what would’ve happened had Alya gotten her hands on the grimoire somehow. Every single page would’ve been posted to the Ladyblog without a single thought and the mere idea of that is horrifying.

The fact that Alya mentions Hawk Moth yet doesn’t even realize the gravity of what she’s doing is ridiculous, and going further to have Marinette apologize to Fu for giving Alya the fox miraculous but not having it be directly addressed (i.e: not having Ladybug visit Alya to talk about privacy; again, having this be a two-parter would’ve been nice) while Alya clearly learns nothing by the end of the episode is just--

it’s dumb. Alya wouldn’t even have needed to get a talking to by Ladybug anyway if the episode had just had Alya see the crushed/missing statue at the museum and made the connection that, “oh, I posted a video about this statue and now the statue is gone and a terrible monster hungry for miraculouses with that same symbol on its head showed up not too long after HMMMMMMM.” The episode claims that Alya is a great journalist only to then not have her connect the dots because... like, tunnel vision, I guess???

And that wouldn’t be a problem if it were just addressed, but instead, now we have yet another female character who has their hero status brought into question, leaving Ladybug as the only female who is undoubtedly trustworthy (not counting Alix, the eventual bunny holder).

It’s so baffling to me that the episode goes out of its way to bring up the issue of what Alya’s doing and why it’s dangerous, only to then not discuss it further. I don’t know if the episode went through rewrites that ended with the scene cut out, but that scene would’ve been important unlike... say, Alya getting on Marinette’s case for staring at Adrien (and the award for the most irrelevant scene in this episode goes to--).

I mean, despite what I said about the episode itself and it needing more time in general, the episode can’t spend time on pointing out that Alya has made a mistake only to then not take the time to address it and instead show that Alya hasn’t learned anything.

Thus, given “Reflekdoll” and now this, we see that even if Alya is clearly at fault and/or needs to learn a lesson, regardless of whether the writers are aware of it/point it out or not, nothing will come of it.

*sigh*

[cat-brodsky]

richard pipen is the worst pre-med student ever: death caps in the secret history

"Judy, what would you do if you had a hundred and three degrees of fever?” “I would go to the fucking doctor,” she said without looking away from the TV.

must i say anything else

This post may contain errors, and anyone is welcome to point them out.

@sadbabywltch gets a thanks for the inspiration

some context

"You studied medicine for a while, didn't you?” [Henry] said.

I knew this to be a prelude to some health-related inquiry. My one year of pre-med had provided scanty knowledge at best...

I’m going to cite some parts of The Secret History, but I cannot copy the entire text of the scene in question. If you haven’t read it, this scene won’t make as much sense.

This post contains extensive discussion of mushroom poisoning as a murder method, so consider yourself warned. This post also contains math and biology, so people allergic to either should turn back.

Richard Pipen knows absolutely nothing about medicine. And I intend to prove that.

on amanita phalloides

Aka, death cap. The most poisonous out of all known mushrooms - half a mushroom (30 grams) is enough to kill a grown human. If Henry had really done extensive research, he should know that - and he said that he has.

“You have no idea how much thought I've put into this. Even to the strain of poison. It's said to make the throat swell, do you know that? Victims are said to be struck dumb, unable to name their poisoner.”

He should also know that the throat swelling is a myth. A.phalloides cause gradual organ failure. Symptoms of poisoning occur twelve hours later, too late to seek treatment, and death generally occurs six to sixteen days after the poisoning.

He should also know that there are less toxic species of Amanita. For instance, Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) is a hallucinogen, and symptoms take only thirty to ninety minutes to appear. Considering that the entire friend group has already been taking drugs regularly, Henry could offer Bunny a lethal dose, ingest a small one, and seek treatment.

There is also Coprinopsis atramentaria - the common ink cap, or tippler’s bane. This mushroom is poisonous, even lethally so, if combined with alcohol. I don’t need to spell the murder method out.

But, of course, Henry is high Intelligence low Wisdom and obsessed with ancient history; if Claudius allegedly died via death caps getting mixed with Caesar’s mushrooms, then it must clearly be the best way to poison someone.

on advanced calculus

“Let's say we know, for instance, that x amount of the drug in question is enough to affect a seventy pound animal and another, slightly larger amount is sufficient to kill it. I've figured out a rough formula, but still we are talking about a very fine distinction. So, knowing this much, how do I go about calculating the rest?”

Quick reminder that Henry killed one dog and poisoned another.

I’m not going to do calculations on A.muscaria or any other method of murder - A.phalloides is what the characters were poring over. I’m going to explain the calculations as simply as I can, and then provide some references for those of you who are interested in biology.

The characters don’t have the internet available, but they have the whole college library, a virtually unlimited amount of money, and a town where everyone takes illegal substances at their disposal. What they need is a pharmacology textbook (to look up the necessary equations), a reference on poisonous mushrooms (to look up death caps), and perhaps a handbook on toxins. 

LD50 is what Henry is after - that is, “the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration.” (I hope that the readers can already see that two dogs are not a large enough sample size.) LD50 is conveniently measured in mg/kg. We have the characters’ exact weights: Bunny is 86 kg, Henry is 97.5 kg.

Amatoxins are a group of toxins contained in A.phalloides, and the one that causes symptoms of death cap poisoning. LD50 of amatoxins in humans is estimated to be 0.1 mg/kg. Thus, Bunny would need to ingest 0.1*86 = 8.6 mg amatoxins, perhaps less, preferrably more, to be stone dead. Here I make an assumption that 0.05 mg/kg is not lethal; with Henry’s poor health, it might be. Henry would need to ingest under 0.05*97.5 = 4.87 mg to not be dead.

Oral LD50 for amatoxins in dogs is 0.5 mg/kg. Finding out the amatoxin content should be an easy calculation: X grams divided by 31 kg contains 0.5 mg. We know that X grams minus one gram failed to kill the other dog, so we can assume this is not low-balling the dose.

For the sake of ease, let’s say X = 31 -> 0.5 mg amatoxins in one gram of locally harvested, organic death cap. This looks close to reality. Per Yilmaz et al (2015) a death cap ingested by a patient contained 0.426 mg amatoxins per gram, and you can calculate that yourself.

And now a simple proportion:

0.5 mg (per gram) / N mg (lethal dose) = 1 gram / X grams (of mushroom)

Bunny: 8.6/0.5 = 17.2 grams (ingest more than that)

Henry: 4.87/0.5 = 9.74 grams (ingest less than that)

partway disclaimer

Of course, I wouldn’t stake my life, or anyone’s, on those calculations.

The toxin content of the A.phalloides can vary drastically depending on geographical location, season, maturity, etc. This could be remedied, I guess, by gathering a large amount of them, mixing them and chopping them into paste, then testing some of the mixture to determine LD50 and the amatoxin content.

From the data at hand, the exact content of amatoxins cannot be precisely determined. But, hey, Henry only needs to poison more dogs to find out!

and now for some more science

A.phalloides contains two main groups of toxins: amatoxins and phallotoxins, and also phallolysin. Phallolysin is not toxic if taken orally, so that’s out. Phallotoxins were found to have little contribution to death cap toxicity, perhaps because they are not absorbed through the gut. (Though it’s not certain whether the characters would have this information in 1982.) This leaves us with amatoxins.

Yilmaz et al (2015) describe a patient who recovered after ingesting approximately 0.32 mg/kg amatoxins (but after developing liver failure). This is why I’m assuming 0.05 mg/kg is non-lethal.

LD50 for amatoxins in dogs has been calculated for α-amanitin and methyl-γ-amanitin.

Garcia et al (2015) gives the amount of a-amanitin in different tissues of A.phalloides as follows (mg/gram dry weight): 0.67 to 0.78 in caps, 0.30 to 0.32 in stipes and 0.07 to 0.10 in volvas.

why richard is an idiot sandwich

Look, perhaps I’m misunderstanding what Donna Tartt has written, but Richard comes across as right for the wrong reasons. He’s right in that trying to non-lethally poison yourself with something so deadly as A.phalloides is a monumentally stupid affair. He’s wrong about everything else.

Faced with a simple calculation like the above, how does Richard go about it?

Equations about chemical concentration were never my strong point in chemistry, and they are difficult enough when you are trying to figure a fixed concentration in a suspension of distilled water; but this, dealing as it did with varying concentrations in irregularly shaped objects, was virtually impossible. He had probably used all the elementary algebra he knew in figuring this, and as far as I could follow him he hadn't done a bad job; but this wasn't a problem that could be worked with algebra, if it could be worked at all. Someone with three or four years of college calculus might have been able to come up with something that at least looked more convincing; by tinkering, I was able to narrow his ratio slightly but I had forgotten most of the little calculus I knew and the answer I wound up with, though probably closer than his own, was far from correct.

I didn’t know proportions required three or four years of college calculus. If the mushrooms are irregularly shaped, why not weigh them?

“It's a good try, but just by looking at it I can tell that it's insolvable without chemical tables and a good working knowledge of calculus and chemistry proper. There's no way to figure it otherwise. I mean, chemical concentrations aren't even measured in terms of grams and milligrams but in something called moles.”

There are different kinds of chemical concentration, and molar concentration is just one of them. “Something called moles”? A mole is, simply, an amount of substance that contains 6.02214076×1023 molecules (Avogadro number). This is sixth-grade chemistry. It’s also completely irrelevant here.

It’s a miracle Richard ever got into pre-med.

Henry, paraphrased: Oh, well, if I overdose - which I can totally figure out despite the fact that the symptoms take twelve hours to show when the damage is already done - I can just have some atropine. Atropine will totally counteract amatoxins.

...Never mind, Henry is also an idiot - though, at least, that is highlighted in-story. What does he plan on doing, drinking a whole bunch of atropine without knowing the precise dose he ingested?

“They are exactly opposite in effect. Atropine speeds the nervous system, rapid heartbeat and so forth. Amatoxins slow it down.”

No, they are not. To put it in plain English, amatoxins cause cell death - nothing about nervous system. Atropine basically counters the parasympathetic system, kicks your organism into fight or flight mode.

Do you know what atropine is an antidote to? Muscarine. It’s a compound found in certain mushrooms - such as A.muscaria, though only in trace amounts. Atropine and muscarine both bind to muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. Muscarine is not found in A.phalloides. Confusing amatoxins with muscarine is... I imagine it’s excusable if ancient Persian texts are your most recent source.

Oh, and one more thing while I’m at it.

“The Persians? I didn't know you read Arabic.”

In Persia (modern Iran), they speak Farsi, not Arabic. Oh, Richard. I imagine Henry took pity on him and didn’t correct the poor fool.

conclusion

There are two ways to engage with canon - from an in-story perspective (Watsonian) or an outside perspective (Doylist). I’ll leave you to discover what the third (Forsythian) perspective is.

From an in-story perspective, I am drawing the conclusion that both Richard and Henry are utterly inept at math, biology, medicine, and common sense; heaven only knows what “algebraic equations” they spent a good half hour going over.

From an outside perspective... well, if Tartt wrote all those errors purposefully, then it’s a nice bonus for any reader who knows basic medicine. If she didn’t, then I can fault her for not doing enough research. A middle ground is more likely: I’m certain that the 103F episode was intentional, but the Arabic in Persia wasn’t, since Henry of all people would lambast Richard for this error mercilessly.

half-assed references

Garcia, J et al. Determination of amatoxins and phallotoxins in Amanita phalloides mushrooms from northeastern Portugal by HPLC-DAD-MS. Mycologia, 107(4): 679-687. 2015.

Hooser, S.; Khan, S. Common Toxicologic Issues in Small Animals: An Update, An Issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice: Ebook. Elsevier Health Sciences. 2018.

Tu, A.; ed. Handbook of Natural Toxins: Food Poisoning (1st edition). CRC Press.1992.

Wieland, T. Peptides of poisonous Amanita mushrooms. Springer-Verlag.1986.

Yilmaz, I et al. A Case Study: What Doses of Amanita phalloides and Amatoxins Are Lethal to Humans? Wilderness Environ Med. 26(4): 491–496. 2015.

[rhyce]

This post is meant for you to get a good understanding on what my home life is like. I want to make it very clear what I'm dealing with before I explain the opportunity I have to get out of this mess.

Okay so, I'll begin with what all happened last October. It involves hard drugs, mental illness, a homicide investigation and toxic parents.

To begin this story I have to briefly go back to march of last year. And I promise, I'll be brief, there's a lot to touch up on here. Okay so, one of my best friends who I've known since way back in the day (we live 3 houses away from eachother, we were best friends growing up) confessed a murder to me around March of 2020. This friend is someone who Iive barely spoken to in recent times because she's on meth and is just crazy. She's not really a good friend anymore but she needed someone to talk to that night so I was there for her. I quickly realized she was in a meth psychosis at the time, so none of what she said really made any sense to begin with. I thought she was full of shit. She basically told me she drowned someone in a river just days, or weeks (couldn't get a clear answer) before we spoke. She explained in erratic detail, jumping from one subject to another, she was super paranoid. I just thought she was crazy and needed to calm down. I didn't believe any of the shit she was saying. And between March and October of last year it sort of became a silly thing amongst me and my family members to bring up "hey remember when K. killed that guy" yeah right. Sure. We would joke about it. She's this scrawny, paper thin meth head who is known to make up elaborate stories. There once was a time when I was deeply bothered by her meth use, I even staged an intervention for her. But she is far beyond that now, so humor is really the best way to cope with my best friend ruining her life to drugs. Call it what you want, but for me, it's a way to cope with it. Anyhow, going back to October 2020. My mom out of the blue said she was going to call the police station and report the "murder" after we had just got done having one of our "laugh about K. for being crazy" sessions. Tried talking her out of it, said she was just going to be wasting everyone's time, K. clearly didn't murder anyone, but she was adamant and called anyhow.

Jump forward to the next day and my mom and I are in an investigation room, talking to the police about the situation. Why was my mom there when she wasn't even involved? Good question. I never got a clear answer out of her. She just wanted to be there. So, the investigator starts asking me questions and very early on my mom would cut me off to add some completey irrelevant information that doesn't even pertain to the subject. She would fidgit in her seat the entire time just dying for a chance to talk. The investigator had to cut her off numerous times so he can hear what I had to say. I was getting pissed, didn't want to be there, a few hours pass and I had to go to the bathroom. Came back in the room and my mom was talking to the investigator about that time I was raped in 2010. Completey threw me off. I ask what the hell is going on. They both say they're just "establishing a timeline". Mom continues to talk about it, investigator see's that I'm clearly uncomfortable with the subject, cuts her off and begins to get back on track. I almost walked out of the room at that moment. If he hadn't of changed the subject I would have. She knows I don't like anyone knowing about that. Some time passes, he's asking me what all K. told me that night, mom still cutting me off. At some point mom tells him I was an outcast growing up. Completey not even true. I always had friends, I was bullied a lot, but I always had a group I belonged to. (later on the investigator and I would speak over the phone and he said it's not right for a parent to say that about their child. It felt good to finally have someone see things from my side and have my back). Speeding things up here, the investigation ends with my mom FAKE CRYING on cue. She said "we love K. we don't want to see anything bad happened to her". Totally not true. She doesn't give a damn about K. I look over to see the investigators reaction, he can tell it was a fake show of affection, I secretly feel glad that someone else can see right through it (that rarely ever happens). We go home.

The next few days is an all out psychological war between me and my mom. The investigator calls mom and says if I have to go back n talk to him some more then he don't want mom there. Mom tells me the exact opposite. I have suspicions. I call investigator myself, he clarifies, says he never said that and he really doesn't want her there anymore. It's just unnecessary to have her there. She wasn't even involved in it to begin with. He was mad she kept cutting me off. He doesn't want her there. I go to mom and tell her I spoke with him myself and that he doesn't want her there next time. Huge fucking mistake on my end. She don't like that answer. She becomes manipulative, huge argument ensues. The argument lasts for days. Gets to a point where I have to tell investigator what's going on and ask him if I could cease all involvement moving forward. I don't want to be a part of this anymore. He agrees, says it's okay, that he doesn't even think she commited the murder anyway and that he has enough info from me. That ends my involvement with the police. She's still a wreck, blows it way out of proportion. I can't deal with it anymore. Go back to live with my dad.

Okay so, when I get to my dad's house I see things are not going any better there either. My brother is having a series of episodes that we later come to know is caused by paranoid pschytsophrenia. It gets violent at times. It's super draining. It's not fun at all. It's literally hell.

Going back to the present time; my brother still had these episodes. Hasn't seen any improvement. We've had to call the police on him a lot, he's been in and out of mental facilities. He can no longer drive bc he caused two hit and runs both in the same day. In an episode where he no longer knew what was going on he went outside and stomped in the roof of his car, tore up the headliner, broke his rear view mirrors, and just completey ruined his vehicle.

So here's where the good part comes in. My dad is desperate for help with my brother. He calls my oldest brother, who lives a thousand miles away, oldest brother, we will call him R. flies out here, stays here for a week and he actually just left two days ago. He was out here to help with our brother, but I tell him a little bit of what's going on with me as well. He offers me an opportunity. I am both ecstatic and stressed about it. But it will be for the good, if I can pull it off.

This is already getting too long. I'll talk in detail about this opportunity next time.

That's all for now.

[mittensmorgul]

I’m rewatching 13.15, A Most Holy Man, right now, and... and I remember when it first aired. The reaction was largely “meh,” or “the noir format doesn’t really do it for me and the episode was kinda boring overall.” It’s possibly the s13 episode I have the least amount of posts for on my blog. It was largely skimmed over as mostly irrelevant, with the only takeaway being:

A. They got the macguffin they needed to progress the A plot by the end of the episode

and

2. They really should’ve cut that scene of Dean going on about how he’d kill everyone who tried to steal his car...

But... this was a Dabb episode. I wrote this post back in May, but I think it merits an additional look now:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184946657745/so-im-still-out-ahead-of-the-tnt-loop-but-i

Because this single episode functions as a microcosm of their entire lives, at least thematically, if not in a 1:1 fashion. I mean, it is just a 42 minute episode. There were only so many twists and layers they could reasonably shove in, and the Rule Of Three is a convenient metric for demonstrating the pattern in narrative shorthand that invites us to consider the unspoken “etc. etc. ad nauseum” ourselves.

I’d go into the entire structure of the episode, but I’m hoping that just explaining the outcome-- after reading the post I linked above-- everyone will be able to see the parallel itself without me having to write 5k words on the subject today. :P

Let’s start with the exchange at the end of the episode that prompted this realization. Because it’s a bit of chicanery:

FATHER LUCCA: I think I got shot. [DEAN lifts up FATHER LUCCA’s shirt to see only a little blood.] DEAN: Looks like he just grazed you. A few more inches to the left and, uh... FATHER LUCCA: It’s a miracle. [SAM and DEAN, with FATHER LUCCA behind them, search the warehouse and find GREENSTREET still hiding.] GREENSTREET: I didn’t know this would happen. I… I’ll give you anything you want, huh? DEAN: The blood, where is it? GREENSTREET: It, uh… doesn’t exist. SAM: You… what? Wait a second. You told us– GREENSTREET: Exactly what you wanted to hear. It was just a bit of… DEAN: Chicanery? GREENSTREET: Exactly. DEAN: Well… chicane this. [DEAN punches GREENSTREET to the ground.] ACT FIVE EXTERIOR – WAREHOUSE – NIGHT [There are police cars outside the warehouse. A policeman leads GREENSTREET to a car and sits him inside.] GREENSTREET: No, no, no, no. Wait. Don’t – you – you – you’ve made a mistake.

For a refresher, Greenstreet was the author of this entire bit of chicanery. For a while, it appeared as if it was actually each of the other people involved:

Margaret Astor, the first person we meet, and also the one APPARENTLY holding all the cards when they walk into the final deal, who ends up backstabbed (well shot in the back anyway, close enough) by her own assistant

she sent them to Greenstreet, who introduced the term “chicanery” to the narrative, which I’m gonna focus on next, because despite all his plotting, his narrative didn’t end the way he wanted (he’s getting hauled off to jail, but heck, at least he didn’t end up dead like most of the rest of these conspirators...)

Greenstreet sent them to Scarpatti, with the partially true information that he’d been the one to have the artifact stolen in the first place, only to learn that it had been stolen from his man in turn...

(and remember, the skull isn’t actually what Sam and Dean need... it’s the currency they believed they needed in order to trade for what they DO actually need... it’s a bit of a chicane... which I’ll get to... sorry for this meandering on the way to the conclusion, but this little side journey is 100% relevant... you’ll see what I mean in a minute)

While investigating Scarpatti’s side-detour, they end up having to investigate a murder, and inadvertently stumble over Father Lucca Camilleri... but Sam and Dean have no idea that they’re now traveling through this episode with the thing THEY actually need. But rather than just... take what they need because that fact hasn’t been revealed to them yet, or even continue to pursue the currency they believe they need to trade for the elusive thing they need, they selflessly choose to do the morally right thing despite believing that in doing so they are forfeiting their chance to get the macguffin they need.

Ain’t it just Winchesters vs The Cosmos on a microscopic level?

Because one thing I’ve learned about Dabb as showrunner is that his absolute favorite thing is gleefully pointing back at canon and explicitly clarifying things. It’s not always obvious, he tends to be incredibly subtle, but if you’re looking for it, it’s impossible not to see in pretty much all of his writing. He LOVES messing with prior perception, and making us work for the satisfying moment where all the pieces fall into place.

Chicanery and the chicane. THAT ITSELF IS A CLARIFICATION. From vague to specific. Because “a chicane” is a very different thing than “chicanery.” And it’s all a bit of a winding deception.

For reference, the definitions of these two very different words:

chi·can·er·y /SHəˈkān(ə)rē/ noun, the use of trickery to achieve a political, financial, or legal purpose. "an underhanded person who schemes corruption and political chicanery behind closed doors" synonyms: trickery, deception, deceit, deceitfulness, duplicity, dishonesty, unscrupulousness, underhandedness, subterfuge, fraud, fraudulence, legerdemain, sophistry, sharp practice, skulduggery, swindling, cheating, duping, hoodwinking

and

chicane (/ʃɪˈkeɪn/) noun, a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety.

What the definition of “chicane” doesn’t provide is that in auto racing, a chicane isn’t seen as a “safety” measure, but an obstacle. If you’ve ever watched road racing, the chicane is where a lot of drivers wipe out. It’s a choke point where everyone HAS to slow down, but when you’re RACING each other, the objective is to remain out in front, you know? Jockeying for position, trying to get through the obstacle as quickly as possible to get back to direct racing toward the finish line. So while a chicane literally slows the racing by design, forcing drivers to adapt to the physical reality of safely navigate through the pinch point while not wrecking themselves, they need to maintain absolute focus to retain their position, as well. It’s not about slowing down for safety but about finding the balance point between “safely navigating through without wrecking myself or being wrecked by the other cars trying to achieve the same objective I am” and “but we’re still racing and I can’t let anyone pass me so I’m still gonna push it as fast as I can while still conforming to the laws of known physics.” It’s... difficult.

THREE TIMES in this episode, they use the word “chicanery” before Dean clarifies it to “chicane.” For reference, out of the other 306 episodes of this show that exist at the time of writing this post, they’ve used “chicanery” a grand total of ZERO other times. Seems significant, yes?

In the same way the show has frequently used Wizard Of Oz imagery to convey these same points, with the reminder in the end of the “you had the power inside you all along” sort of themes, this episode takes it one step further. Which... logical considering the nature of the spiral narrative, that when it comes around again, the circumstances aren’t exactly the same. Think of it in terms of that racetrack with the chicane.

In the case of the plot of this episode, a similar comparison can be drawn to The DaVinci Code, since through most of the wild goose chase running through all the games and puzzles, the guy is literally traveling with the object he seeks. It just doesn’t become obvious, like with Dorothy and her Ruby Slippers, until they’ve worked their way through all the puzzles and subterfuge along the way. As Dean says in Scoobynatural when Sam points out that if he knows how the episode ends, why don’t they just get to the point already, and Dean replies “Because sometimes it’s about the journey.” Rather intuitive meta observation about the point of the narrative structure, yes?

Back to our road race analogy now, after passing through the chicane chicane. Every lap, the drivers are driving through the same essential course. The shape of the road doesn’t change in the most fundamental way. The same parts are still paved, the walls around the edges don’t move, etc. But each time they drive around, other conditions vary. Their tires wear down so their traction changes. Heck, the drivers themselves are wearing out physically and mentally. Maybe a dude’s just thirsty or has an itch on his nose or just has to pee real bad. Maybe the wind speed or direction has changed. Maybe the sun has moved so different turns become more tricky with a glare in their eyes. Their engines are slowly shifting as wear and tear of operating at a high performance level alters performance. Their brakes might be wearing down. They may be in need of more fuel and are driving more conservatively, or may have just gotten new fuel or new tires or made some other alteration to their car that shifts not only their ability to go faster, but changes how they handle corners, etc. But there’s also the factor of all the OTHER cars driving around them. Maybe they’ve hit the chicane all by themselves because they’re out ahead of the pack (or trailing far behind it). Maybe they’re clustered tightly together with other drivers. Maybe there was a wreck that altered the road surface... cleaning up fuel/oil spills, sand or dirt having “spilled” out onto the road surface, maybe a slight drizzle started making it more slippery, or even random trash has blown from the stands into the road, or debris from a wreck-in-progress hampers their progress. There are SO MANY FACTORS at play that make each lap around the course an entirely different experience, you know?

Same with the spiral narrative. The major landmarks might be similar, but everything else is new.

And the moment Dean says “chicane this” and punches the author of this series of events in the face, that’s basically 14.20, yes?

They’re tired, and they’re on the last lap, and they’ve been through this chicane so many times now. And they’ve just been told that after every lap, Chuck refused to wave the checkered flag. They kept reaching the finish line over and over, only to discover it was also the starting line and the race was still going. And each time through Chuck’s big chicane, he’d deliberately change those variables, so the more experience they gained on the track, there’d always be a bit of new debris to navigate, a new difficulty level added.

And now in 14.20, it’s like they finally caught him in the act of throwing thumbtacks down on the road, you know? They caught him at his tricks.

And like, to use a favorite metaphor of Dabb’s, it’s like the roadrunner and the coyote. Only the roadrunner had always known all along that the coyote was laying traps for him and always found the most hilarious ways to foil the coyote’s plans and turn it back around on him. It took them 14 seasons for TFW to finally pull a roadrunner.

This has always been Dabb’s ending, because it’s actually the story he has been telling all along. The spiral’s broken, and instead of continuing lap after lap with no end in sight, they’ve finally realized they can just... stop driving in carefully paved loops and drive in a direct line to the finish.

(and maybe the only way to make it to the finish is to pave their own road around all of Chuck’s chicanery... it’s gonna be some heavy lifting and some rough off-roading, but it’s the only way to get off the track to victory lane)

(apologies, this is the sort of place my brain goes when Mr. Mittens is watching nascar at Road America in the background... but it’s super apt, and full disclosure, I started writing this about an hour before he turned the tv on. I was already on this road course >.>)

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

I want to talk about the rumour of Kraven being from Wakanda.

Now I hope in the past I’ve been very clear about my stance when it comes to casting actors of different races, ethnicities, etc from their comic book counterparts.

To repeat myself I think it’s fine so long as the character in question doesn’t demand to be of any particular race or ethnicity (for the sake of argument let’s discount being an American/New Yorker) and the actor is a good choice for the role. As a follow up I do fundamentally disagree with actively seeking out to racebend characters 99% of the time, it should simply be that every actor who would be a good fit, regardless of their race and so on, should be looked at and then the best person for the job hired.

This then brings us to Kraven and for what I am about to say let’s presume for a moment the rumours are true.

For Kraven casting a black actor in the role is rather dependent upon what direction they are going to adopt for the character.

In a sense there are two Kravens from the 616 universe. I’m going to refer to them as pre and post KLH Kraven. Pre-KLH Kraven, as the name would imply, is Kraven as he was typically portrayed prior to Kraven’s Last Hunt and post-KLH Kraven is how he was portrayed during and after that story, which would include not just stories where he was alive but also flashback stories, appearances as a ghost or vision and also his metaphorical ‘ghost’, e.g. how characters talked about him after he died.

Whilst neither version was portrayed exactly the same way in every story, more often than not they had a consistency to them.

Pre-KLH Kraven was really nothing more than a B or C list villain who’s gimmick was simply being a jungle themed big game hunter who was a take upon the classic ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ archetypical antagonist.

And he was a jobber. Really his shining moment was in ASM #47, a story remembered more for it’s supporting cast drama and Romita artwork than for it’s super villain plot, but the latter (and thus the super villain in question) became memorable via association. It was also a time when Kraven scored essentially an unmitigated victory against Spider-Man but got his comeuppance shortly thereafter. Really Kraven’s role might’ve been played by almost any villain and amounted to practically the same thing.

In truth he was something of a joke character no one took seriously as a threat and was a villain few people, if anyone, particularly liked.

Post-KLH Kraven though is a different story altogether. The unimpressive reputation of pre-KLH Kraven helped to fuel the success of this iteration as in Kraven’s Last Hunt a villain considered a joke suddenly became deadly dangerous and effective. It wasn’t just in terms of the physical threat he posed though or even his deranged plan. Kraven’s personality got a makeover. Instead of overwriting what we’d known of him before J.M. DeMatteis expanded upon what we knew about Kraven and constructed a truly complex and nuanced character, who’s motivations and actions were understandable even as they were clearly deranged and insane.

Across just six issues (arguably just one even) Kraven the Hunter’s reputation was totally hanged. He became a contender amongst Spider-Man’s most effective and formidable foes and to many a fan favourite. This reputation was further fuelled by the legacy of Kraven’s Last Hunt consequently leading to further mentions and appeareces of Kraven usually being reframed through the lens of his more complex and darker Kraven’s Last Hunt characterization. This was even the case with the Chameleon, a character strongly associated with Kraven who was used in a very ambitious revenge scheme upon Spider-Man motivated by Kraven’s death, and used his ‘ghost’ as a weapon against Spider-Man. In the story Chameleon received his own share of character development as his backstory was revealed as inherently linked with Kraven.

The key to DeMatteis’ decision to use Kraven, to understanding the character and to developing him (and by extension the Chameleon) was the fact that he was Russian. DeMatteis was a fan of Russian literature and connected with it a lot so it was through that lens he expanded Kraven’s character. Rather than being a big game hunter who happened to be of Russian descent*DeMatteis revealed Kraven was a Russian aristocrat who’s lose of his home, wealth and ultimately his family in the 1917 Russian Revolution was the key to his embracing of a more primal lifestyle in the animal kingdom and his obsession with Spider-Man.**

The Russian influence was so important that on occasion Kraven’s name would at times be stylized with Russian alphabet characters.

In other words post-KLH Kraven is the more popular and dramatically compelling rendition of the character and his Russian origins are integral to that.

You likely see my point in all this.

If the MCU adopts the pre-KLH rendition of Kraven casting a black actor won’t really be a problem as his ethnicity is mostly irrelevant to the character.

However if they MCU adopts the post-KLH Kraven then casting a black actor would be a problem as his Russian aristocratic heritage is inherently vital to who this rendition of Kraven is; and unless I am very much mistaken there were no black Russian aristocrats.***

The question then becomes which version should the MCU adopt.

And frankly the answer should be pretty obvious. Even if you wouldn’t commit to a Kraven’s Last Hunt story specifically the post-KLH rendition of Kraven informed by his Russian heritage has proven itself inherently more dramatically compelling and effective. Pre-KLH Kraven is really just a gimmick villain with little substance, making him a Wakandan might improve upon that to an extent but why bother when the comics already have a more compelling version of the character to drawn from. Making him a Wakandan also perpetuates a systemic issue with MCU Spider-Man, that his corner of the MCU is dictated more by the wider MCU than...well...Spider-Man himself.

If you examine most of the Phase 1 movies, or in fact most of the MCU origin films you will see that most everything in them is built around and flows from the central character. Captain America the First Avenger might use Asgardian technology as a plot device, but fundamentally the movie revolves around Steve Rogers and everything is first and foremost connected to him. Same thing with Thor 2011 and Iron Man 2008 and Doctor Strange 2016.

The Spider-Man films have been this weird exception to the rule as Spider-Man himself and his world has to a very large extent revolved around other characters or the wider MCU, typically Iron Man or Iron Man associated elements. Case in point both of his villains’ have been designed as dark reflections of Iron Man and their motivates stemming from him, their ultimate plan revolving around the acquiring of his technology. If MCU Kraven is a Wakandan and uses Wakandan technology, and presumably will be motivated due to factors connected to Wakanda, we might be not be usuing Iron Man elements but the underlying problem would remain the same.

It’s Spider-Man’s characters and Spider-Man’s world essentially filtered through the lens of the MCU rather than organically integrated  within the MCU. It is allowing the MCU to lead and dictate the character and his world rather than reconciling the creative integrity of the latter within the pre-established world of the MCU.

*A fact likely established either because the Chameleon was Russian recruited Kraven and/or in the 1960s Russian was shorthand for villain.

**I should also note that DeMatteis explained that the source of Kraven’s powers alter retarded his aging hence he could look so young in spite of being born before 1917. This was revealed alongside the fact his origins date back to 1917.  

***I’d also add that his dynamic with the Chameleon, already established in the MCU with an Eastern European flavour, (though his skillset means you need not be constrained by that) would be inherently different (and inherently lesser frankly) if he is neither Kraven’s brother nor his lower class punching bag. So far in the MCU (and Black Panther fans will need to tell me if this is also true in the comics) apart from the royal family there doesn’t seem to be a class system in Wakanda wherein there is anything akin to an aristocracy. One might even argue the lack of one would fit with the notion of it being so advanced.

[mental-mona]

My Anxiety Coping Strategies

Yesterday’s #postitforward was about anxiety and how people cope, so even though I’m a bit late to the party I figured that I’d share mine. First and foremost, I need to figure out where the anxiety is coming from - Is it related to a bipolar flare? Is it someone else’s mood which I picked up on? Is it my GAD? Is it my OCD?

Once I’ve figured out where it’s coming from, I can figure out how to deal with it. If it’s related to a bipolar flare, that means extra meds, listening to relaxing music, and maybe asking a loved one to remind me why these anxieties are so stupid. I just have to ride it out until the meds kick in. If it’s my GAD, my best bet is to stare my million “what ifs” in the face and say, “Ok, scale of 1-10, 10 being the most likely, how likely is this thing to actually happen?” I’ll give it an educated guess if it’s really something mostly out of my control, and then move on to “Ok, scale of 1-10 again, how bad would this thing actually be if it happened?” Again, I’ll give it an educated guess if I don’t have enough true information. Once I have that, how high it has to rate on both scales varies depending on my anxiety level, but if it’s high enough to still concern me I’ll say, “Ok, let’s plan for that scenario,” and go from there. I will think through in excruciating detail exactly what I’ll do if the Bad Things happen.

Another tactic I’ll use, depending on the nature of the anxiety, is to ask myself, “Ok, what are the worst-case and best-case scenarios here, and how likely on a scale of 1-10 are they?” Then based on that if I walk it back to not-as-bad and not-as-good scenarios and their likelihoods, I’ll figure out the most likely scenario and plan for that. Sometimes despite my best efforts I still need to ask a loved one to remind me that whatever I’m worrying about is rather stupid, and that’s ok!

If the anxiety is coming from my OCD, or sometimes even if it’s my GAD, I typically go with mental redirects and meditation. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think of my obsessive thoughts as “the demons.” They run the gamut from my brain showing me people getting cut or stabbed by knives, to “what if I ran the light and got hit by a truck?,” to body image issues, to walking me down some of the darker parts of Memory Lane. If it’s the first type of demon, I’ll try to redirect with something more positive. If it’s the last, I’ll tell my brain, “This again?! No, we’re going to think about this positive memory instead and savor the feeling.” If it’s a body image demon telling me something like “you’re fat!,” I’ll respond to it with “Yes. And?” It usually doesn’t have an answer. (This trick often works on obnoxious people too, because it totally breaks the social contract for them to spell out exactly why they think being fat or whatever is bad!) Sadly, I still don’t have much response to the second kind of demon other than telling myself that it won’t happen.

One of my best tactics against anxiety, particularly the OCD demons but also the GAD ones sometimes, is to meditate. I have a very complex meditation where I imagine myself building a mental “quiet room” brick by brick; I am inside it and safe with my thoughts swirling outside, unable to reach me. Then, I’ll put myself on a throne in the quiet room and a gate in front of me, a gate which only allows in one demon/anxiety at a time. Each demon is a supplicant before Queen Me, and I’ll deal with each as seems appropriate. With some, I will simply explain to them how irrelevant they are, and send them away with instructions not to come back unless and until they actually matter. With others, I will explain to them exactly why they are stupid and grind them to dust beneath my feet. With the semi-sane ones, I will make plans for how to deal with whatever they’re telling me, then send them on their way. I have been known to spend literally over an hour meditating away demons when they get bad.

I also have another, far quicker meditation which works particularly well for the kind of anxieties that just sort of buzz around my brain with no logic whatsoever and too numerously to deal with one by one. I’ll simply imagine the demons/anxieties as flies, grab a mental fly swatter, and start swatting. It’s an incredibly satisfying meditation. Of course, for really bad anxiety days there’s always extra Valium, but that’s a last resort. I find that Frank Herbert’s “Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear” from his Dune series makes a great calming mantra, as well.

So there you have it, all my coping strategies for various types of anxiety! I hope this helps someone!

[all-the-kookies-fall]

A THEORY: Linear Timeline of reputation

This is going to be a very long read; but it may just include unlocking the 15 Taylor's from the LWYMMD MV so read on if you dare…

 (OK it totally includes the theory, please read and tell me what you think!)

An Introduction:

I've been a casual fan of Taylor Swift since she started. Loved all her radio singles, listened to her albums (at my leisure upon release), and admired her platform and brand image. I guess I became a huge fan after 1989, but around the release of reputation, I realized just how much this woman's music has been there throughout my life and decided to fully stan her. As I fell down the rabbit hole of  learning everything I could about TS as an artist, I became completely enamored with her wits & charms. However, the more I learned to love about her, the more I could feel just a slight inauthenticity; I was constantly thinking of the hypocrisy of how she "never names who her songs about" yet she created this scavenger hunt with her liner notes that seemed to point in an obvious direction of one of her "ex-boyfriends." It didn't align with how she presented herself in every other aspect. Then, I felldowntherabbithole for real and found all of the incredibly documented and organized realm of the Kaylor's, and everything was literally in screaming color.

reputation made even more sense with fresh Kaylor eyes and once I read this Taylor Swift quote: 

reputation, in my mind, is an album that is very linear in it’s timeline. Meaning that it kind of starts out where I was when I first started making the record. The album ends more where I am now in my life. So this is more towards the end of the album, it’s called ‘Call It What You Want.’

my mind became OBSESSED with cracking this code. I had combed through all the kaylor blogs and while I had read everything I could, I still couldn't place it within any timeline. Then, Delicate came out and the code started to crack; I could peek inside and make sense of something, but was still unsure what it was. I put together a loose concept which had some plot holes, but it was when I remembered to revisit the 15 Taylor theory that everything completely revealed itself.

  I would like to start with a disclaimer: I have never, ever actively participated more than lurking or even posted anything on Tumblr. I would like to fully acknowledge that there is a huge, fat chance none of this makes sense to anyone but me, but my husband was really getting fed up with me talking about it and I just needed to share. THANK YOUS to the Kaylor blogs I frequented with incredible analysis and POV of Tay in the media and her music-  @all-my-possessions​ @howyougetthenerd​  @jennyboom21 @karlitakloss​ @kaydar​ @kaylorrepdetective​ @larrienation​ @out-of-the-klosset​ @paradisekisses  @tallcurlygirl​ @taytaysbeard​ @that-curly-haired-lesbian @thoseflashinggreeneyes​ @whaler13bg​ to name a few. (Sorry, tumblr is not letting me tag a few of you.)

 A lot of the information I am providing is not new and connects the dots from the amazing posts from this community. I tried as best as I could to cite all relevant posts - you can definitely let me know if I've made any errors. Please feel free to edit//contribute//comment because I have a feeling that a more seasoned eye would be able to expound on so many more clues and easter eggs!

Let the Games Begin!

Overall Concept/Themes

There are truly some insightful analysis of the overarching themes and concepts of the album already. Secrecy, partners in crime, forbidden love… In general there's a complex theme of Duality to the album; conflicting feelings, Brand vs Self, bad vs good, truth vs reputation etc. I think it's most important to note is that any analysis that views these tracks differently than listed below, can still be correct. Our Queen is a lyrical master plus there's that added layer of intentional dualities in her story telling; there's always at least 3 different meanings to her songs and that's one of the reasons we admire her wordsmith ways.

 The Timeline!!!

 …Ready For It?  - So It Goes… 2012* - 2014

This has long been inferred in every side of the fandom to indicate this is Part 1 of the Story, implied by the ellipses as the beginning and end of the track names. All the timelines I've previously read started at either the introduction of  1989 or even later beginning with 2016/2017 events, but it didn't make sense applied to the album as a whole. Once Delicate MV came out, I began to notice that all of the nods to RED in all these MV's were not just for nostalgia. She is literally telling us that this part of the story was about the end of RED era leading into 1989 - not quite 1989 era just yet. ;)

*2012 is an estimate based on the beginning of the Delicate video; it's possible that TS & KK met before Swiftgron was officially over but who will ever know? Karlie's buzz cut was December 2011 (x). The first half of the album is difficult to theorize specific dates within this period because we really have no idea when KK & TS met.

LWYMMD - New Year's Day 2014 - 2017 (NYD)

I gotta tell you - immediately after reading this, go watch LWYMMD. It was (is?) literally hiding there in plain sight; it's a GENIUS video walking you through EXACTLY what she did (you could say from a satirical standpoint more how the media/GP thought she did) to prepare for this era! When she refers to the "Old Taylor," she's using the term in the exact way her fans have been using: to refer to Country Taylor. She is officially Pop; Look What We Made Her Do when RED, a pop-country album, "a patchwork of songs," didn't win the Grammy. She went full POP princess. This post in particular helped me remember that these songs are not fresh in regards to her life even though they are brand new to us. Part 2 of the story more clearly follows the events of the 1989 era through just before rep's release.

Track by Track // 15 Taylors

…Ready For It?  Intro

I believe this is an introduction of what's to come, an overview of the story. Yes, she's definitely asking herself if she's ready to come out of the closet (x/x), if Karlie is ready to glass closet (x), is her beard ready for the consequences(x), and most specifically, are we, her fans, the GP, are we ready for her to come out and live her truth unapologetically? It's her laying the groundwork to prepare for 1989; her literally coming up with the concept for the whole era which is why we see the references to her 1989 MV's in the glass room. This post  cites the connection to the Dykes on Bikes; are we ready to accept Taylor to not only come out, but be a strong voice and activist of the LGBTQ+ community?

End Game April 2013 - June 2014

I KNOW Taylor is singing to KK about them first meeting - and I KNOW we think they just met before VSFS 2013 (even though there are rumors that say they met sooner…) But, hear me out because this lines up way too easily with the information we get from the MV (x/x). Remind yourself… Who opened for Taylor's RED tour? That’s right, our favorite ginger. It's a nice additional nod with the callback of Everything Has Changed duet with Ed Sheeran. Miami (shoutout to my hometown even though I have no inkling to its significance) tour dates were 04/10/13, London was  02/01/14 (Did she really show us their first  NYE together?!), and Tokyo was 06/01/14.

Irrelevant now but important for later (LWYMMD): And I bury hatchets, but I keep maps of where I put ‘em. This post highlights a cool interpretation of the line that applies to this whole post!

I’ve been doing some digging to try and somehow link Miami in this mix, and this is pure speculation but I feel like Future represents her bearding with Harry Styles. Karlie’s “buzz cut” was in December 2012, and shortly thereafter she was in Miami for a photo shoot. 1/4/12 marks the official break up of Haylor in the US Virgin Islands… it’s a stretch and I’m totally grasping at straws but they are geographically close and it’s all I got for now.

   "Me, I was a robber first time that (s)he saw me…"

I Did Something Bad early 2013

So, I have to admit… IDSB and DBM were the two songs I was having the most trouble placing within the linear timeline; my initial thought was this must have been a metaphor for her confessing her "sins" a.k.a. bearding, to Karlie when they first started dating. This was the song that clicked once I looked through the lenses of the 15 Taylors and reaffirmed my thoughts with the visuals of this Taylor on the cross in LWYMMD. In digging a little deeper, I found a Vanity Fair article - one of the only cover stories found online about TS during 2013. I'm not as confident about my perspective on the linear timeline with this track, however I feel like it's a good start especially considering the next holy church track.

In regards to the "light me up" lyric, and clear visual reference in the …RFI MV as well as the crucifixion of Taylor in LWYMMD, I thought this answer she gave the   73 Questions With Taylor Swift | Vogue video was also interesting to note. The question was what is the one thing she wishes she would have known at age 19 (8:03)?

"Hey, you're going to date just like a normal 20-something should be allowed to, but you're going to be a national lightning rod for slut-shaming."

I'll leave this quote from the April 2013 Vanity Fair interview right here:

"But nobody calls them the kinds of names that get thrown at Swift. “They’re ‘playboys,’ ” Swift says wryly. “They’re ‘having fun.’ ”

By the way, in the Vanity Fair article there's an "authorized source" giving insight to what "really happened" to Haylor aka probably lies.

 Every lie I tell them, they tell me three

Don't Blame Me early - mid 2014

I can really only hypothesize through the lyrics and the Taylor line up that this may be a reference to how the RED "media" circus (as quoted from the VF article cited above) literally made her do crazy things - maybe how her past experiences had caused her to react a certain way in an undefined relationship, maybe how the media circus in general had her guarding her heart, and of course the religious context of the song leads me to believe of course it is connected in that aspect to the confessing of her actions in the previous track. Big Sur trip also falls within this timeline. (x/x/x) 

I once was poison ivy, but now I'm your daisy…

Delicate 2013 - 2014

I think this one has so many beautiful analysis with the music video that syncs perfectly with this time line with no need for additional explanation, and I think it's especially apparent why this Taylor represents TraKK 5 in the line up. (x/x)

It's interesting that Fearless Taylor and Red Taylor were the ones actually fighting on Taylor Mountain in the LWYMMD MV; this may be a reference to her insecurities and headspace during the RED media circus//break up anxieties fighting contrasting to her want to just dance in her best dress Fearless with KK with no inhibitions.

Dancing in my best dress, fearless 

LWYMMD End of 2014

Has anyone noticed the crows in the beginning? It literally hit me as I was finishing this post - a group of crows is called a murder.

We see her Driving a new Maserati (well, car with significant meaning) down a dead end street and then crashes into the pole. (x) She literally killed the "Old Taylor" to get the Grammy - as well as set up clever disguises as red herrings* so that we missed the most obvious clue that this is about the release of 1989. I think even cleverer, how she walks away from the crash unscathed at the end of the MV to imply she rose up from the dead, she does it all the time (with each era release). (x/x/x/x)

*Red herring: something, especially a clue, that is or is intended to be misleading or distracting. In reference to the post regarding hatchets in End Game, she's definitely sending us on the hunt… remember that post above I asked you to note?

 Then of course another hint to the timeline is in the lyrics and MV (look at the date of the tweet...)

I've got a list of names and yours is in red underlined 

So It Goes… October/November 2014

This was definitely the most challenging to figure out, but there's definitely two clear ideas that are represented here - the linear timeline alludes to the HOT KINKY SEX our girls probably had after VSFS '14 (x/x/x) and the death of her 'innocence.' Coincidentally, I had read Slaughterhouse Five for the first time earlier last year and lurking around the Reddit TS  community where they spent so much time trying to figure out how they could circle this back to Vonnegut. Unluckily for them, it is the most heteronormative//homophobic community where even Kaylor posts are censored/deleted/ridiculed etc so they weren't ever going to get it. This song represents a toxic relationship with CH in their eyes, and I can see that perspective… another Salute to the American Queen of Wordplay.

 Anyway, here is a quote from a NY Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/books/review/and-so-it-goes.html)

That is, the constant repetition of “So it goes” makes readers ask themselves about the meaning of death (or its lack of meaning) and the incalculable human costs of war.

The 2009 VMA's Taylor is the epitome of everything her art, brand and music spoke to prior to 1989; and with the Pop princess she was no longer the relatable girl next door. She had gone full big-city, celebrity friends, glitz and glam - feeling so Gatsby for that whole year. With 1989, represented by the LWYMMD music video, that image was shattered, it was the death of her reputation but the true beginning of laying the groundwork for her and KK's future and she truly felt alive. 

Not to mention a song about kinky sex is a huge step away from that image.

So it goes...

And so it goes, now Part 1 of our story is done.

Gorgeous Met Ball 2015

Part 2 moves into the 1989 era starting with the Met Gala. (x/x) I read a great analysis using the lyrics to prove why this song is not about someone you just met because of the intense conflicting feelings. (I have scoured Tumblr to find it and link it but can't rediscover it… sorry I explained I've been a noob and a lurker and I never liked or reblogged anything, I'll update with a link if I ever find it again!) That made me reevaluate my original thoughts of this track being Enchanted 2.0 and representing her meeting Karlie for the first time. This was the first public event Kaylor attended together; it must have been strong conflicting feelings of joy & giddiness of the relationship quickly overtaken by nerves, fear, and anger that she would be found out and/or couldn’t show any outward PDA towards KK at the event. I would imagine there was a lot of drinking that night to cope, thus the “drunk” perspective.

 PS she probably didn’t go home alone that night (DING)😉

 'Cause you're so gorgeous it actually hurts

Getaway Car May - August 2016

There are great analysis looking at this song from two main POV's- 1. the bearding CH-TH circus(x/x) and 2. a reflection of Swiftgron in hindsight (x). For the sake of the timeline/15 taylor line up, it was too coincidental that this was the Taylor snapping at the beards in I <3 TS shirts and  from that perspective, fits perfectly into the linear timeline. It is suspect  that TS went against her management in anger of how the "break up" with CH unfolded, and so it would make sense to be a little apologetic towards TH -- the one beard aftermath she may have regretted but that is just pure speculation.

And a circus ain't a love story, and now we're both sorry

  *I JUST NOTICED! She POPS HER LEG for the 7th boyfriend in line - AKA CH. She is SO EXTRA!

King of My Heart August 2016

The below quote and Taylor line up don't need further explanation. 

"I think it’s very interesting when people talk about their love stories. Like when you guys blog about, “my and my husband, me and my boyfriend” or just anyone talking about how they fell in love. 

There seem to be these very definitive phases. It doesn’t matter how long that phase lasts. There seems to be a moment where you know it transitioned to the next phase. People will be like, “Oh my God, we were friends for six years and there was this moment and we knew and then it changed. Then there was a moment and it got even deeper. Then there was a moment and we knew” or like “I saw this person and there was this moment and we knew.” Everyone has a different story with how they connect with someone else and what i find interesting is the moment where it switches. You always hope that switch is going to move forward and not backwards because it can happen either way. I always wanted to structure the song where each individual section of the song sounded like a move forward in the relationship but still being listenable. So I wanted the verse to seem like it’s own phase of a relationship, the pre-chorus to sound like it’s own phase of a relationship, and the chorus to sound like it’s own phase of a relationship. I wanted them to all have their own identity but seem like they were getting deeper and more fast paced as the song went on. So finally I was able to achieve that in a song.”

 Here’s a couple of my favorite analysis regarding this song. (x/x)

 Up on the roof with a school girl crush

 Dancing With Our Hands Tied Mid - End 2016

This analysis  really explains the lyrics and matches the allusion of the Zombie Taylor to make it seem like it is a hindsight song about Swiftgron; however Out of the Woods is the last MV of 1989 era released the end of 2015 (aside from New Romantics your video) and this can perhaps be expressing the death of Taylor’s 1989 reputation after the slew of public feuds. It can also be interpreted as a hindsight song in regards to Kissgate in 12/2014(x/x); how she had found herself coming into 1989, but was a zombie version of that because she had to beard with CH and TH and it perhaps made her feel dead inside. Maybe she’s implying that she would have just taken the fall from grace then put herself through another (particularly long and grueling) fake relationship.

I had a bad feeling

Dress October 2016

Not only is Dress pretty frequently analysed, it's also the most obvious and blatant within the theory.  I thought it was very cute that this was represented by the Ballerina in the line up as a not so subtle nod to Karlie. October 2016 was the infamous Golden Tattoos at Drake's birthday party. (x/x/x)  

Made your mark on me, a golden tattoo. 

Sorry I couldn’t help myself with this gif :P

TIWWCHNT November 2016

Originally, I thought this was the easiest one- yes, the Snake Queen is sipping and serving tea on her infamous feuds however it just didn't fit in the more transparent timeline of the second half. There's been a few posts that hint the track may be a slight diss to her fans. Once it hit me she was alluding to herself as our (the fans) American *dream* Queen, I realized: this song is not a slight diss - it is harshly directed to us, all of us. Hear me out: Just like KOMH is about a love that reflects back on different periods in life, this track also calls to a couple different conflicts with the relationship of TS and her fans. She's never enough for either aspect of the fandom.

I thought it was curious that she would have the "ET TU BRUTE" (x)  as a reference to Kanye because let's be honest, she probably never trusted him after 2009 and rightfully so. "Et tu, Brute?" is a Shakespeare reference and a phrase that is now used to describe a friend stabbing you in the back. This would be more applicable to us, her fans. V1:

It was so nice throwing big parties

Jumping to the pool from the balcony

Everyone swimming in a champagne sea

And there are no rules when you show up here

Bass beat rattling the chandelier

Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year

This easily refers to 12/2014 - Kissgate. Feeling so gatsby for that whole year; throwing big parties. She had to close the gate before she was outed prematurely by the fans watching her during the concert.  We were the last ones she ever expected having to protect herself from; she had been so open, glass-closeting, but the fans took it too far and crossed the line of her privacy. She was surprised by the network that had expanded to track her every move. A couple years pass, V2:

It was so nice being friends again

There I was giving you a second chance

Think back to the election of 2016; Taylor being back in the media and more open again with her life wasn't enough at this point. America had reached a boiling point and everyone had to pick a side; even Taylor's most dedicated fans were constantly expressing their disappointment at her so she changed her priorities and went into hiding.

 As @paradisekisses once posted, “Not everything is about Kanye.”

 Salute to you, our American Queen of Red Herrings

 Because you break them, I had to take them away.

Call It What You Want End of 2016

The lyrics all harken to 1989 (x) and this is when her reputation has never been worse (again), but she’s stronger this time and it didn’t break her as much as post RED era. Not to mention, she’s madly in love and found her end game so nothing else really matters to her; her priorities have been shifted and she knows what truly matters in her life. 

Call her what you want, she is Karlie's Partner in Crime.  it's an obvious call to the gold cage, hostage to my feelings; she will jail herself once more with this ((hopefully)) last beard and that will be the official death of  (2.0? 6.0?) Old Taylor. The best part is the BTS video showing how much fun she was actually having in the gold cage. There are beautiful analysis of this song (x/x/x/x/x)   , and to me it's just the most real/pure love song. Love isn't just about all the good times, it's how your partner and you navigate the bad. Sometimes the worst moments in life show us just how strong our relationships are and bring us closer together.

Karlie what you want, call her what you want to (I can't unhear this in the background now <3)

New Year's Day January 1, 2017

This Taylor is hidden from us because she will probably never be as open with the GP, media, or her fans ever again. Who knows what to come in the future, but she actively tells us "don't read the last page" and to "hold onto the memories." Ugh, this is making me tear up --  I just officially joined the fandom!! Don’t tell me this is it already... (x/x/x) 

This post highlighted the importance of the sunshine necklace with Taylor's obvious sarcasm in the BTS in saying “It’s really important to wear subtle jewelry in music videos, I’ve learned.” (If anyone can forward the gif I’d love to add it to the post :))

Sidenote: technically, isn't this another closet she's in during the rep era?

Wear you like a necklace…

And I will hold on to you...

I had so much fun putting this together and being inspired by all the amazing perspectives the Kaylor fandom has been churning! Hope you like it :) Let me know your thoughts!

[ayearofpike]

Thirst No. 4: The Shadow of Death

Simon Pulse, 2011 492 pages, 28 chapters + epilogue ISBN 978-1-4424-1319-1 LOC: PZ7.P626 Th 2011 OCLC: 731720997 Released August 9, 2011 (per B&N)

The immortal Sita has died. Only not — her soul still lives, in the body of her descendant. How did this happen? In seeking the answer, Sita will learn the secret to defeating the ancient race that imperils humanity. The search won’t be easy, though. Sita must traverse time and space, heaven and hell, the physical and the spiritual, and what the hell is even going on my head hurts.

Honestly, I’m not sure what Pike is going for in this book. Is it trying to be smarter than other authors of the era and genre by bending the rules of continuity? Is it striving for a narrative that is just beyond his reach? Is it just pounding out Another Damn Sita Book against deadline to get that green? It could be any of those. At least it ties up the story of the Telar and the IIC relatively well, although there’s still enough loose ends to keep our vampire going if necessary (and of course it is; Thirst 5 is still on the horizon).

One thing Pike has totally bought into is the arbitrary capitalization of the names of things to make them Important Artifacts. You remember this: probably the impetus was Suzanne Collins, naming specific elements of the Hunger Games to showcase why they were relevant and how the country had accepted them as elements of the competition. But then every single friggin’ YA book about a post-apocalyptic dystopia started adopting the shit. At least Collins tried to come up with catchy names for her Artifacts. The other authors just come up with a word to call something and throw an initial cap on it, and Pike leaps happily aboard the Proper Name Train. And every time you think he’s drilled down to the smallest level of a Category, he names a smaller subgroup that needs its own Capital. Eventually it makes me want to put the Book down and kick the Ass.

Is it obvious I’m teaching again? Not just because I’m going all loco on repetitive cliches, but also because it’s taken me like three weeks to write this. 

Let’s just bore down into the summary. We start with Sita in her descendant Teri’s body, awakening to that fact at her own funeral. Apparently she had a couple of days that are just blank or at best hazy, but then Miracle Baby Teen took Teri’s hands and looked into her eyes, and crystallized Sita’s presence. Nobody is sure what this means, exactly, but Sita is feeling blood hunger for the first time in years. The new body doesn’t have the five thousand years of experience and transfusions from multiple vampires and gods and saviors to abate it, after all. So when she gets back to her hotel, she orders room service — only they don’t offer blood. But the delivery boy has some, and dude does she drink it ALL. So then there’s some wacky hijinks as she has to clumsily get the body out of the hotel and dispose of it.

She’s not ready to reveal herself to Immortal Boyfriend yet, though. He was against her turning Teri into a vampire in the first place, remember, and in her weak state she figures he’d kill her. So she carefully and strategically reveals some info like Sita told Teri as they try to figure out what to do about the bigger threats of the virus wielded by the immortals and the crippling mental focus of the monster corporation. The Telar-ites want to focus on mass producing the cure to the virus and getting it distributed, but Sita thinks the only way they can do that is to involve IIC. Someone’s research has turned up that all of the main members were students of the same parapsychology professor at Berkeley(?), and so Sita, Seymour, Miracle Teen’s mom, and the young Indian girl who has been sucked into this life all drive out to meet him.

But before they go, Sita/Teri has to clean up her mess. Apparently she’s not as stealthy as she used to be either, because some dumbass kid saw her taking the room service cart with a body stuffed under it down to the garage, and his mom reported this Olympic champion to the police. So she has to try to wipe out any trace of suspicion from the cops’ minds, as well as finding a safe source of blood to feed on. Turns out one of them has a wife who is a doctor, and after an overreaching act of hypnotism, Sita gets into the hospital blood bank and takes all of it, then goes back home with the doctor and wipes out her memory as well as her husband’s. So it’s cool that she still has her vampire hypnosis, but it’s super clumsy, just like everything else in this new body. And what happened to Teri? Miracle Teen seems to think she’s dead, but that can’t be right. But why not? And if not, how come Sita is so in control?

The professor is quite a font of information, and he sure is scared of the IIC boss. He suggests they go talk to her ex from school, who was one of the major catalysts in the discovery of group-focused mind control via ESP. This dude and his girlfriend are still living in Santa Cruz, and they aren’t at all surprised to find four random diverse strangers at their door. Sita is confused, though, that the math doesn’t add up in regard to how old these people are. According to the research, their studies happened in the ’60s, but there’s no way this dude can be older than 40 when he ought to be knocking on 70. It gets late quickly, and so the couple offers our ramshackle group a couple of rooms for the night. Sita takes the opportunity to decode some more of Original Vampire’s book, and learn more about the deep and true love between him and the Telar he married. She also calls Teri’s parents to check in, and learns that the cops are still looking for her in connection with the missing room service dude, so that sucks.

In the morning, the CEO’s ex tells them more about his research and how IIC stole it to find exactly the right sociopaths to use in its mind-control device. Basically it was an astrological predictor, so that you could tell with a high degree of accuracy what someone would be like and how their extrasensory facility would manifest based on where and when they were born. Sita realizes, all of a sudden, that the creepy kid she ran into at the CEO’s house is actually conceived with this ex, because of his own predilection for ESP and his familiarity with the needs of the astrological predictor. He talks about having been targeted by the device himself, and his girlfriend says that she managed to shake him free by pushing him down the well on the property. They’ve mentioned this well before, and how it provides such amazing water, so now Sita is curious.

She ends up climbing down the bucket rope in the middle of the night, into a vast cavern with a faint glow at one end. Following the light leads her to: her own body. Sita’s body, that is, the one that was supposed to have been buried in Denver. Sitting by it is the astrological researcher’s girlfriend, who Sita immediately realizes is more than she’s revealed herself to be. Yep: it’s Original Vampire’s wife, Immortal Boyfriend’s mom, and one of the oldest and most ancient Telar still in existence. But it’s not like that. She took the body to protect what it holds, not just to keep it from these creepy evils that are trying to get more power but also because — check this shit out — it’s healing.

Sita can get back into her body, Ancient Telar says. All she has to do is let Teri finish dying.

Obviously when he finds out, Immortal Boyfriend is pissed. He is totally ready to murder Sita, without actually ritualizing it so she returns to her body. And Sita knows she deserves it, sort of. She’s as much to blame as anyone for the mess they’re all in, and she loved Teri as much as any of them, maybe even more. So she’s not going to fight back if Immortal Boyfriend exacts his rage. But he can’t do it, and he does realize that having a full-strength Sita will help their cause. So they all end up back down in the cave, where they reconnect the appropriate bodies by ripping Teri’s femoral artery and allowing Sita’s corpse to drink the blood. The transfer happens fast, and lucky for Immortal Boyfriend Teri has just enough consciousness to say goodbye.

I have to step out of summary for a minute to flat-out state how GROSSLY DISSATISFYING this is. Like, for seven books now we’ve known Sita as this inhuman giant, capable of defeating everyone and anything. Now she’s in a newer body, with a younger brain and less experienced reflexes even if it has all her consciousness, and she’s supposed to start figuring out how to overcome that. To just un-write the whole thing and stick her back in her old body not even half a book later strikes me as Pike didn’t want to commit to a decision he’d already made, rather than any kind of grand plan that this was always gonna happen. And yeah, I get it, Sita’s body has all kinds of implications, but why did it have to come back almost immediately? I’d go so far as to say that this makes Teri Raine practically irrelevant to the grander scheme of the story. And it sticks the whole personality quirk we’ve just learned about Sita — where she has followed and cared about her line of descendency, one that never actually seemed believable having read the first six — even deeper into the grave.

So now the gang is all together and ready to carry out their plan. Sita waltzes into the IIC office, releasing the deadly virus as she does so, and makes her demand: use the mind control group to destroy all of the high-ranking Telar or die painfully and frightened today. This is where the Arbitrary Capitalization makes its most insidious entrance. The top Telar, the Source, can meld to form the Link, which makes them unbeatable. But IIC can focus its Array through the Cradle, powered by a smaller group known as the Lens, and at least find where they are. So once she learns a Location, Sita can use her Knowledge to open up a Can of Whoop-Ass. But to join the Lens, she’s required to offer up a sacrifice, and she figures the best candidate is the mole who keeps feeding up information on where the group is, and not least the DNA of Immortal Boyfriend so he could get possessed. Who is it? Probably the math teacher who conveniently keeps not being with the group every time they get attacked. Only as the Lens forces her to climb to the top of Truman College’s bell tower and hurl herself off it, Sita sees inside her mind and knows she was innocent the whole time. 

As it happens, she feels claws on her shoulders. Ancient Telar warned her that this would probably happen: in order to tap into the powers of the extrasensory, one has to connect to a Familiar. Sita can see the ones clinging to the kids in the room, but is not permitted to look back at her own, which makes her suspect that it’s probably the most powerful demon of all — a demon that was never actually a demon, but an angel that refused to accept its grace in being less than God and ended up falling into the deepest of despair. Yeah, that one.

She calls back to base and lets her crew know what’s going on, then tries to use her newly replenished powers to fix the police detective whose brain she screwed. Only he starts feeling scared and disturbed, and she realizes that this Familiar that is now attached to her is having a negative effect on her powers. IIC Boss comes in and they talk about the computer game that everyone’s playing, the one about being saved and moving to higher planes of heavenly ability, which is (not coincidentally) being constantly written and updated by the kids in the Lens when they’re not out brain-murdering. 

Have I talked about this game before? It feels like I did, but maybe I’m thinking of Alosha. Miracle Teen loves it, and he said his presence in game was literally just to make himself known. But there are obvious creepy levels behind it, and IIC Boss reveals that there is no possible way to delete or destroy the code because of how it’s been embedded into the Internet. What’s it for? We don’t know yet! We do know that there’s significant backmasking and subliminal messages which echo the invocations the Lens uses to get into its power state. So maybe this game somehow charges telepathic batteries? I’m pretty sure this is the last time Pike mentions it in this book.

But now they’re getting ready to attack the major players in the Telar, so they have to work fast and without many breaks. They get two by melting them with too much chlorine in a hot tub, and then there are four in an LA hotel that they attack by forcing one of the guards to disrupt them and break their Link. But before they can kill all the Telar, one invokes a name that throws the psychic connection into the garbage. Sita knows where they are, though, and attacks in person. We get some more Matrix shit as she leaps from a helicopter and uses stairs like trampolines, and she ends up leaving the last Telar alive with a command that he use his high-ranking government contacts to launch a missile strike on a location that she will psychically contact him with in a few hours. That is, once she figures out where the rest of the Source is hiding.

The rest of Team Vampire shows up (well, not Miracle Teen, who is smart enough to keep the hell away from the demon-summoning corporation that would love all of his power) to help Sita fight the final battle. Seymour and Immortal Boyfriend are going to vaccinate the IIC against the virus, which is dormant but not totally gone as Sita’s bargaining chip. Only not the kids in the Cradle and the Lens: Sita has arranged for them to get a full dose of the virus instead, so the company can’t wield its devilish mind-control device with impunity once its primary antagonists are all dead. Yeah, we’re murdering children now. Sweet. Oh, and also, Ancient Telar is also the mother of the leader of the Source, and Sita has learned that you can control someone who is related to the person with the blood (or DNA, or whatever the fuck marker it is they’re actually using) and so attacking the dude might kill her too. It’s a risk Ancient Telar is willing to take.

She joins the Lens, and her sacrifice is the creepy teenager who leads it. Like, she literally breaks his arm and allows his brain to murder himself. Shit, if Sita knew she could do that! They find the Source and realize it’s impenetrable; their shield is too strong and all the kids will break before they can get through. (Like, I’ll murder kids, but not before I’m done using them to murder immortals.) Ancient Telar tells Sita there is a way — she just has to remember what happened after she died. Like it’s that easy.

But she does. Suddenly, we’re back on the mountain, where Sita has just been lasered in the heart. She finds a cave and follows it down forever, until she sees others and decides she needs to follow them. The path leads to a giant river teeming with inhumanity, all sorts of dead people who are trying to answer a question about their lives in order to take a boat across. Only thing is, if you answer it wrong you’re forced to forget it. We get to remember them, though, because this is a book and not some crazy spiritual encounter. 

Sita answers the first question wrong (”what is the most useless human emotion?”), and then finds a beautiful and familiar-looking young woman who tells her not to despair, because she has plenty of time to think about the answer. She’s already gotten her question right, and is waiting for Sita so they can ride together with another woman. After a second missed question (”what quality is both great and dangerous in humans?”), she meets the other woman, who also looks familiar. Weird! She tells Sita that all of the questions may be different, but the answers are all important, and they should come back to us when we need them. So I guess we can yell at the book like it’s Dora the Explorer later on. The third question is “what is the greatest mystery in the universe?” Sita knows this one: it’s that God and his names are all the same, so by invoking the name you are bringing God to you. It does take her a second, because she has to argue with the boat driver over misleading info he’s given her, but in the end she gets to cross the river with her new friends.

On the other side is a mountain full of caves. They each have to go through their own cave, and Sita ends up at an abyss, where she can see the tunnel on the other side but doesn’t know how to get there. A woman with some grotesque facial scars shows up and walks across the space, offering to help Sita do it, for a kiss. She knows about Sita’s final sin, showing a blood-stained syringe like she’s predicting kid-virus-murder, and with a kiss they will bond and the woman will protect her when it comes to final judgment. After all, she did miss the second question. And suddenly it comes flooding back to Sita, with a realization of what the correct answer is: faith. She doesn’t need to get across, necessarily; she just has to take a leap of faith.

She passes out for a minute after jumping, then comes to in a pathway with the syringe on the ground next to her. She makes her way to the obvious judgment house and sees how it works. You state your name and age, put your hands over a scale, and one of them makes diamonds and the other black pearls. Whichever side is heavier determines where you go in the afterlife, and the younger you are the less the scale expects, I guess. The young woman that Sita rode in the boat with offers to go first, and OH HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK IT’S TERI. Because this is happening in the past, remember, Sita doesn’t think Teri is dead, but the other woman says time doesn’t matter here, you can encounter people who are dead from all periods, including apparently the future. But Teri was good, duh, and she goes up. And now we learn just how old Sita is exactly: 5152 years old. Naturally someone with this long of a life and this complicated of a history produces enough gems to bury the scale entirely. Her hands drop with the exhaustion of producing so much junk, and ultimately the dark side of the scale prevails. The devil himself shows up to make a deal with Sita, though: if she destroys the light bearer, he’ll go easy on her.

And now Sita is back in her living  body, still channeling into the room that observes the Source, with a bitter realization of what she has to do. Ancient Telar has described their initial Link, the one that granted her people immortality, as one that filled them with light. So she needs to kill this lady in order to make the current Source vulnerable. Which, duh, Ancient Telar knew it the whole time, and is ready to make peace with her twelve thousand years. Her soul’s absence weakens the Link, and Sita makes herself visible through multiple ancient magics to let them know of their fate. Of course they try to reason and bargain with Sita, but as she’s already been tortured nearly to death by the leader she doesn’t think it’s necessary to make a deal, and sticks around long enough to make sure they’re all still present when the last dude she left alive sends in the missile strike.

So now obviously the kids are sick and dying and Team Vampire has to get out of this building. They’re stopped by the CEO and her husband, who insist that they heal all the kids, only Sita refuses and the CEO knows why: this Cradle business has gotten out of their control and the only way out is to let it die. When her husband argues in favor of the kids, she shoots him in the fucking head and then asks Sita for one kid: her daughter. They get in the van, Seymour screaming and protesting the whole time, and they’re only maybe a mile away when the shit blows up. See, while Sita was planning for her child murder to be slow and painful, Immortal Boyfriend laced the whole place with powerful explosives so that they’d just die instantly. 

Almost immediately, they get pulled over. Why? There’s no connection between this van and the building they just left, or any of their identities. But CEO confirms that the Internet program just kicked on, which means maybe there’s one person still connected to the Cradle who could make it go. Who the hell could it be? For now, Sita hypnotizes the cops away from the van and they figure out how to make it to a middle-of-nowhere hellhole hotel, where she shares a room with the young Indian girl who had been a part of the Array but has had some unusual powers against it, who had also been scarred in the face before Sita found her, who somehow had the original copy of Original Vampire’s book even though Sita KNOWS she made a copy of it to send back with her. Weird!

And suddenly Sita realizes who is the mole, the rat, the link, the answer to all of the problems. And the young Indian girl slowly drops her facade and reveals that yes, she’s been the human connection for the devil the whole time, and that she was dark and evil even before her arranged fiance threw acid in her face. And just as suddenly, Sita is talking with the devil himself, in a luxury hotel room overlooking ... I dunno, Hell City? He’s kind of pissed that she wiped out the Cradle, and counts himself lucky that the Internet program was able to be started up. Still, he offers her another deal so that his connection to the human realm won’t be lost. Sita wants the answer to the ferryman’s first question in return, but he won’t give it up. But she’s figured something else out: the light bearer is actually this first fallen angel, Lucifer. And now she’s back in the nasty hotel room, where she doesn’t hesitate to rip of the Indian girl’s head and throw it out the window.

And suddenly AGAIN, Sita is back in front of the scale, where she knows the answer to the riddle and realizes just what is holding her down: guilt. It’s her guilt that has caused her hand to rest on the dark side of the scale and pull it down. She releases it and immediately the light side takes over. She is led to a long tunnel, which leads to an intoxicating blue light, and a man with a long braid and a flute. Finally, Krishna has come for Sita. Only he didn’t have to, because he’s always been there for her, and will be even if she chooses to go back to her body.

And that’s the end of Thirst No. 4! It seems like this would have been a satisfying enough ending for this whole series, right? We got some closure, we know that the monsters have been dealt with, we are ready to be done. But we can’t, because we know there’s still a fifth book coming. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I’ve never read that one, after two attempts by Pike to end this series. Maybe it won’t suck? Let’s find out.

[treehouseart]

Why Reblogging Is So Important to Artists | Why Being Nice Online is Important | Storytime

First of all, I wasn’t going to talk about this. Because I thought it wasn’t needed, because I thought there was enough information out there asking people NOT TO REPOST ART and if we do, at least give PROPER CREDIT.

But there isn’t. That’s alright. Let’s talk about it.

 Two days ago I was approached by the lovely @vaugleysassygrunt​ who told me someone was reposting my art. They said this person had been changing their url all day (and they’re still doing it) and sent me a hyperlink to the art they had posted. It was one of the comics from my on-going Sanders Sons series, a sequential comic I have been working on for almost a year. It was pretty dear to my heart (and the context was pretty important as well). 

My immediate thought was “Oooh boy, my first art thief, that’s so exciting”. All the big ones get those. Along I went to this person’s tumblr and was about to send them a message when I saw they had already addressed the issue by saying they found reblogging annoying and that’s why they preferred reposting. That they never claimed the art was theirs.

Of course my first thought was “if you don’t like reblogging what are you doing on tumblr?”. But we shouldn’t give in to our first thoughts. They’re often rash.

So I get into a conversation with said art thief and try another way. Because THERE IS another way. We can’t nunchuk our way to awareness. This is what I wrote:

Hi, friendo! I'm sorry people are giving you a hard time, but crediting art is very important for us artists :( It's how we make our carreers. I understand you don't enjoy reblogging, but it can help people find our art and find more of our work if they need to. I also am really embarrassed to have to ask, but could you please credit sandersssons-comic or sanderssons in the quadruplets AU? It's a series I spent a lot of time on and I would hate it if people only read a part of it. Thanks and have a good day :D

They repond right away. Telling me they accept my apology (?)

Also that they found the image on google images.

Also asking how much artists get.

FIRST LESSON TO TAKE FROM THIS: Google Images, such as Google itself, it’s an image SEARCHER. It COMPILES images from the whole internet. An image being on Google Images DOES NOT MEAN IT’S UP FOR GRABS. Google Images provides the proper source of the picture.

BESIDES, Google Images can be a great tool for finding the author of an artpiece. Just go to Google Reverse Image Search. You can do it from your phone and from your desktop. Just put the image on and Google finds the original source for you!

So I proceed to explain to this person that artists don’t make much. Most of us get money from comissions that depend on the complexity. Some get Ko-Fis and Patreons and online shops with stickers and key chains and some other goodies.

ALTHOUGH, FOR YOU I ALSO SAY: PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR ART EVEN IF THEY DON’T GET MONEY FOR IT. BECAUSE IT’S THEIR OWN AND THEY MADE IT. DON’T BE A DICK.

They say: 

I don’t mean to be rude but you could just get more money by being an art teacher or something that pays good minimum wage. 

And you can imagine this big red flag raising in my head. Disengage. Disengage. Disengage. But this was a HUMAN BEING. And a misinformed one. I had already made contact. Might as well. I explained that we DO NOT WANT other jobs. This is our jobs. This is our choice of carreer. And it’s not hard to respect.

Reminder, that should go without saying: YOU DO NOT HAVE A SAY ON PEOPLE’S LIFE CHOICES

Our friend says they don’t understand cause they’re in high school and they don’t draw a lot (as if art knowledge just comes by osmosis when you draw a lot)

I said it was totally cool not to understand. Because it is

SECOND LESSON: SOMETIMES PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THINGS. I came back to tumblr for the Thomas Sanders fandom. A fandom that thrives on kindness and caring and validation of different people  

They thanked me for being cool and explaining things and asked if we could be friends. I said that absolutely

(After our little talk, they started giving credit to the pictures they could find. Read as: the ones that had signatures on the image)

We talked yesterday a whole part of the day. We get acquainted. They’re finding themselves as non-binary, they’re in high school. Things like that. I tell them I’m 20 and in college for journalism

In this proccess I explained how comissions worked and, again, why reblogging and not reposting was important

So yesterday night I’m already in bed when they message me “Hi”

I responded I was tired and going to sleep. They said they were going to bed too. And that they hated when they were accused of something they didn’t do. Which was stealing art

And I said that, indeed, they weren’t STEALING art per say. But reposting was a dick move. They got PISSED. So I tried to find an analogy they would understand.

Ok, think of it like this

You've painted a tradicional piece in oil and put it in your gallery with other paintings

Someone can't come and take the painting off the wall and put it on their gallery

Even if they say it's yours... It doesn't bring more people to your gallery. It exposes your work... But that's mostly it. 

To which they replied:

The Mona Lisa got stolen once and people have made counterfeit paintings in the past 

Which, goes without saying DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY. Just because someone already murdered another, it doesn’t mean we can go around on a killing spree.

Besides, tumblr has original content and tools to get replicated inside the website. And so I told them.

And then again:

Why are the majority of people here artists who clearly don’t realize they can get a part time job? 

And I told them, AGAIN, they do not want part time jobs. They want these jobs.

They said I lied then, when I said art didn’t pay well. And proceeded to say they didn’t understand why people want to be starving artists.

Also that tumblr didn’t have the kind of images they wanted. EVEN THOUGH THIS WHOLE THING WAS HAPPENING BECAUSE ARTISTS FROM TUMBLR WERE FINDING THEIR ARTWORKS REPOSTED ON THEIR ACCOUNT.

I was also making them upset.

I tried to explain further, but they blocked me.

Fortunately, I was able to send one last message and I think it’s the biggest message I want to pass here.

I'm sorry I'm upsetting you but I've been nothing but respectful

Be respectful. Even when you’re mad. Even when people are rude. Kill them with kindness. If they’re too immature to listen to you, that’s on them. Practice what our dear youtubers preach (Thomas Sanders, Jack, Mark). 

This person is still reposting, yes. They’re giving credit, but still reposting. It’s a start, I believe. It’s more than I would have gotten sending a hate ask. 

So now, princes, princesses and non-binary royalty, I give you the

TL;DR

Artists are ENTITLED TO THEIR ART. You. Are. Not. It doesn’t matter if it’s on tumblr, on google images or on the street. If there’s a signature or not. Getting money for it or not (also, since I’m here, don’t forget that art is not only visual arts, but also videos, music, podcasts and a bagillion other things. If it’s not yours, don’t post it)

You DO NOT get a say on how people should get their wage (just like you don’t get a say on how they dress, on where they go, or who they love)

When you REBLOG, you help the artist to get known. It costs nothing. When you REPOST, you’re a dick. You’re not helping anyone and you’re giving yourself more trouble than just clicking a simple button

It’s okay not to know everything, but listen when people talk respectfully

Don’t be hard on people when you can be nice. Aggravating people will only make enemies of people who can be friends

Be mature enough to accept sometimes you’re wrong

BONUS ROUND: I believed we were done, but I saw this post short after. I didn’t think it was relevant to include, but I feel like I must say something.

I’ve had it with everyone being nothing but mean and antagonizing me. I’m not the bad guy and I really want to kill myself or leave tumblr. I’m never accepted by anyone or anywhere. Hell its hard to tell my friends I’m into men and women or that I like certain things. I get rejected constantly so goodbye forever 

And later proceeded to post normally.

Please notice that your life BEING HARD does not make up for BEING A DICK and REFUSING TO BE EDUCATED. I will not refrain from telling you the truth R E S P E C T F U L L Y to protect your feelings just because you’re LGBTQ+ (specially because the you being B part was totally new information for me in this post/and I’m in the community too).

So since I’m giving moral lessons, do this for your friends. We should not stand for something we do not agree. Real friends will respect your side and reconsider. If a person hostilizes you for having a different opinion - or, in this case, being right - they’re not someone you want to have around.

PS.: I will not disclose this person’s identity because it’s irrelevant. I’m only posting this in hopes it can help someone else

PPS.: I ended up did reporting this person for giving my comic specifically the wrong credit

[quinintheclouds]

I found out im a ravenclaw! It doesn't feel like it fits me but hey, what are you gonna do about it. Can you tell me stuff about ravenclaws?

Yay, I’d love to! Quick aside though, what do you mean by “found out?” Your wording seems to indicate it was something shown/told to you rather than a conclusion on which you’d arrived yourself. If you took a quiz, those can be fun but aren’t reliable. I can take the pottermore test 3 times in a row answering with complete honesty and get sorted into 3 different Houses. The quizzes are all just someone else’s perceptions of what innocuous details might pertain to each House, and a few years ago I conducted an analysis of the different options/choices and the Houses to which they led, and… a lot of it’s kinda irrelevant and arbitrary.

If I’m misinterpreting and you DID come to this realization for yourself, I’m curious as to why you feel it doesn’t seem to fit you. but WELCOME to Ravenclaw! :D Keep in mind though that everyone has aspects of every House, and aspects of themselves that aren’t contained by Houses at all!

Okay, initial ramblings aside… sorry :P Ready to hear some bomb info about us Ravenclaws that often isn’t talked about? Let’s go! [Bear in mind that these aren’t exclusive to just Ravenclaws and also won’t apply to every Ravenclaw! Some of these are just my personal experience/thoughts]

So first, Ravenclaw’s canon defining characteristics: intelligence, creativity, wit, imagination, love of learning, uniqueness, originality, individuality, curiosity, open-mindedness, and acceptance. 

We are largely a compassionate bunch that stands against ignorance of all kinds and will fight by informing others. Ravenclaws can often be found organizing protests and the like for important causes (akin to Hermione’s S.P.E.W.)

A lot of Ravenclaws have trouble settling on our House, because we can have the inclination to look at every angle of a scenario so that we can at least attempt to more objectively weigh the options. This is why I used to think I was a Gryffindor/Hufflepuff for long stretches of time.

Another reason some of us hesitate to sort ourselves as such is because of the misconception that Ravenclaws always make great grades or are dutiful with schoolwork. Not true. Intelligence comes in many forms!

On that note, neurodivergent Ravenclaws may struggle to feel we belong when we see so many our peers excel in school. 

On the brighter side, Ravenclaws like these will somewhat unknowingly wind up banding together. We’re the ones who accidentally miss class because we’re so engrossed in researching some big new interest. The ones who annoy the others by testing out new spells/potions of our own creation and consequently making a mess and ruckus. We’re the ones who forgot to study because we got confused by one of the points in the book/lecture and wound up writing an essay trying to debunk the error instead of doing the actual assignment. Here’s to us lol

A bunch of us DEFINITELY waste time gathered outside the common room (or CAW-mmon room!) just solving the door’s riddles. (If you didn’t know, the door only opens after you answer a different riddle every time) 

The vast majority of us LOVE puns. Ah, wordplay… the toy of language.

Starting a million projects and never finishing them whoops

Having a million journals you’ve written in so you have no clue which is which at this point

Buying way too many books but rarely finding time to actually read

OUR HOUSE COLORS ARE BLUE AND BRONZE, DAMMIT! THE MOVIES CHANGED THE BRONZE TO SILVER AND I’LL NEVER BE OVER IT (lol I’m totally chill about this, can you tell?)

We are HUGE daydreamers! We pride ourselves on imagination, and luckily for us, we’re in one of the tallest towers of Hogwarts (bc we represent the element of air) so we have beautiful windows out of which to gaze while letting our minds wander 

Also the cawmmon room ceiling is magically designed to always look like the night sky, so we love to lie on the floor and watch the stars, moon, planets, etc.

WE FRICKIN’ LOVE SPACE, OKAY???

NEVER leave your stuff behind in the dorms! You’ll have to answer a riddle to get back in, and by that time you’ll be late to class (fellow ADHD Ravenclaws, we know this pain all too well)

We’re an adventurous bunch, contrary to some belief. But our adventures aren’t purely for external enjoyment — the excitement arises from the stimulation of our minds. Curiosity killed the cat, as it were, but feeds the eagle. We’ll sneak out of the dorms to go to the library or steal some ingredients from the Potions classroom for an experiment. The Restricted Section is our playground. 

We’re artists, writers, poets, performers, musicians. People overlook this too often, but these are so important to so many of us. I create, therefore I am.

We’re pretty weird and eccentric a lot of the time, but embracing that helps us gain understanding about what makes us passionate, and we’ll work hard for things we care about.

Side Note: I’ll never not be bitter that Fred and George were in Gryffindor. They were such Ravenclaws. They were impish lil pranksters, and very clever about it, and only did so when there was something to be learned from it (i.e. testing their numerous inventions). I could even see Slytherin more than Gryffindor. *Sigh,* I digress… for now.

I’m one of the Ravenclaws who discusses philosophy and theoretics for hours on end, and the annoying one who asks random questions for the sake of asking questions, just as a game to test myself and see if I can come up with possible answers. (The embodiment of the “do you think pigeons have feelings?” meme).

We, uh. Have terrible sleeping habits. And eating. And showering. And we forget water exists sometimes. We kinda have problems remembering we have corporeal bodies with needs or whatever. Lame.

Some of the more rigid, stereotypical Ravenclaws can be defensively competitive for top of class, and that can turn a bit sour, but I like to avoid that drama altogether.

We notably broke into the Astronomy Tower to watch a meteor shower, and lost so many points we came dead last in the House Cup that year.

Many of us have ALSO snuck into the Forbidden Forest to study creatures and explore deeper.

Yeah we don’t win the Cup often.

Muggle-born Ravenclaws get together in secret to teach the others about math/science/literature/etc. because the purebloods BEGGED them to and they were happy to oblige.

Interviewing the paintings to learn magical history from a firsthand account bc Professor Binns is too detached and boring

According to the wiki, we’re the House most likely to dismiss social conventions and unspoken rules in the search for satiating our curiosity. We’re full of quirks and often won’t stand for playing by unnecessary or flawed rules of any nature.

As hyper and Extra™ as some of us can be, we also love to chill by the fire with a book, a blanket, some music, and maybe too much tea

In general, we’re “well-known for being welcoming and encouraging of creativity, eccentricity and individuality and being very accepting,” as stated by the wiki.

Okay, I am physically forcing myself to stop now. As you can see, we also tend to just dump information all over the place lmao XD Anyway this was fun to write and I might make a post about neurodivergent Ravenclaws in particular… Let me know if you have any updates on your House, and if you ARE a Ravenclaw, we’re happy to have you!!!