#tumblr killing the quality is real. it’s scary. it could happen to you

[boy-wonderoncologist]

what ‼️ another house md character ranking ⁉️ no way ‼️ (thanks for voting)

[kaidas-daydreams]

how would the golden dawn and the black bulls act going through a haunted house?

well here's what i think would happen

i love haunted houses and i'm so bummed i didn't get to go this year so i had to make this

not a fan of how tumblr ruins the quality of my pictures

happy halloween

william:

before heading inside the haunted house he reminds everyone to stick together once they're all inside and that the monsters aren't real and can't hurt them

once inside he takes the lead, yes he's terrified but he's the golden dawn captain and must show no fear, he screams at the first pop up running towards the middle of the group

yuno:

before heading in he was not into it, he didn't understand the point of scaring yourself he thought it was stupid but he had no choice but to go

once inside he was annoyed at bell, klaus and mimosa clinging onto him and he kept explaining to them how they made the special effects, he was the last one of the group and someone caught him by surprise which startled him, resulting in him to use his wind magic

klaus:

before heading in he acted as if it was child's play, he was nervously laughing the entire time he was talking to yuno and mimosa about how ridiculous this was but he couldn't go against captain vangeance

once inside he immediately stuck himself in between everyone, he'd cling onto anyone that was near but it was mostly yuno and letoile, he gets scared at every pop up screaming into yuno's ear most of the time

mimosa:

before heading in she was so excited, she was mostly happy over being able to spend time with the entire squad, she thought this was going to be fun

once inside she stood in between yuno and klaus, everytime a pop would scared her, she'd grab yuno or klaus and she'd laugh it off afterwards, "i'm enjoying this"

langris:

before heading in, he like yuno saw no point in scaring yourself, he thought it was childish and a waste of time, he wasn't scared of anything and didn't expect to get scared of any of these mediocre pop ups

once inside he stood closer to the front wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, the first pop up that came up he used his magic destroying half the house, "sneak attack me again and see what happens"

alecdora:

before heading in he made sure to let everyone know to protect william at all times and to not let their gaurd down even if it was for fun, he wasn't scared he was more focused on protecting william

once inside he stood right behind william to keep a close eye on him, anytime a pop up would come he'd run in front of william and attack the pop up, "don't you dare touch the captain"

letoile:

before heading in she didn't really understand the point of doing this activity, she wouldn't admit it but she was a tad frighten over the haunted house and the eerie music didn't help

once inside she stood by klaus towards the back, she'd get scared here and there but when she would get scared she'd hang on to klaus or david

david:

before heading in he thought this was easy, he talked a big game over how easy this would be but deep inside he was scared and he really didn't want to go in

once inside he wedged himself in the middle of everyone even pushing klaus out of the way. when he felt someone grab his shoulder, he screamed turning around ready to fight whatever touched him, "i'm ready to go, come on i'm not scared"

hamon:

before heading in he openly admitted that he was a tad frightend, he just continued to eat for comfort but his stomach still felt empty

once inside he just pleaded to everyone to not knock his food over, when a pop up would come up he'd pay no mind to it since he was to distracted with eating

siren:

before heading in he would just hang around hamon, not knowing how to feel about this activity but he of cohrse had to follow william's orders

once inside he stayed towards the front with hamon, he kept his emotionless face everytime something tried to scare him, he doesn't scare easily

yami:

before heading in he thought this was stupidest idea ever, he had no idea how everyone convinced him to come along, he just told everyone to not die and if they do he'd kill them

once inside he had a blast watching everyone get scared at the poorly made pop ups, one person did make the mistake on trying to scare him because yami drew his katana out ready to attack, he stayed in the back

asta:

before heading in he admitted to being scared but he also saw it as a type of training and was pumped to get inside the haunted house

once inside seeing as he was so excited, yami put him as the very first person to go in, he didn't even get through the first pop up without screaming and grabbing onto noelle to which she used her magic on him

noelle:

before heading in she played it off as if this was nothing, but on the inside she was shaking with fear and she really didn't want to go in, "i'm royalty nothing scares me"

once inside she immediately clung onto asta's shoulder still claiming to not be scared but to comforting asta, but the second she felt something brush against her she used her magic but quickly apologizing

finral:

before heading in he laughed at how scared everyone claiming there's nothing to be worried about because he was there making yami push him up fron with asta, heis legs were uncontrollably shaking while he cried on the inside, "don't worry ladies if you get scared just hang onto me"

once inside he tried to put a brave face on while he was still shaking, the first pop he ran to the back to hide behind yami, "i want to go home"

vanessa:

before heading in she tried to comfort everyone about how fun this will be and how much she was ready to see magna cry from being scared, she was buzzed

once inside she stood by yami pretending to get frighten just to be able to hold onto him, she would also laugh at how everyone got scared

luck:

before heading in he would tease magna about how scared he was going to get but to not worry because he'd be there protect him from the monsters, they made a bet to see who'd get scared first

once inside he was in the middle next to magna, he tried to fight every monster or pop up that would come up but yami would yell at him to stop, he would also push magna into the monsters to scare him

magna:

before heading in he would be constantly fighting with luck and vanessa about their teasing and was acting really macho about not getting scared

once inside he stayed in the middle claiming there was no more room up front, he was terrified and would scream everytime there would be a pop up, "i only screamed because everyone else did, i'm not scared"

gordon:

before heading in he was expressing his enjoyment over how they get to do this activity as a squad but of course no one listened and being from the agrippa family nothing scared him

once inside he stay towards the back with gauche and grey, everytime a monster would appear he'd try to befriend them but they'd get scared of him rather than gordon getting scared of them

grey:

before heading in she had already latched herself onto gauche, she kept mummbling to him about how much she really didn't want to go in

once inside she stayed in the back with gauche and gordon, she would get scared at every single pop up and monster making her hang tighter onto gauche

gauche:

before going in he was very vocal about not wanting to go and how much of a waste of time it was and he could be seeing marie instead of doing this

once inside he stayed in the back not caring that grey clung onto him, he was bored and wanted to get through the haunted house as quickly as possible, nothing scared him inside

henry:

before heading in he stayed far from the rest of the bulls but like always he was still happy to be around them, he didn't feel scared at all

once inside he still stayed far from the group but everytime a pop up or monster would scare him he'd scream in very slow tone making no one want to interact with him anymore

zora:

before heading he tried to get out of going but yami wasn't letting that happen so instead he decided to take a nap before it was their turn

once inside he didn't find anything scary so to entertain himself he would occasionally scare asta and throw stink bugs towards the pop ups

charmy:

before heading in she went around the bulls sharing her food to relax their nervous stomachs, she honestly had no idea why they were so scared

once inside she was completely oblivious to her surroundings, she would just try to share her food with the pop ups and monsters even though some of them weren't real but once she realizes where she is she screams at everything before stuffing her face again

nero:

before heading in she didn't know what was going on, she never heard of a haunted house before and wondered if lumiere would like it or not

once inside she stayed in her bird form and stayed on asta's head, she was unfazed by everything and everytime asta would get scared she'd peck him on the head

[june-again]

do you have a tumblr?

tw mentions of suicide and mental health oops

i mean, what do we really "have" in this universe? how much of what we see is real? sometimes it gets overwhelming how temporary everything is, how easily it can leave your grasp and you wonder how you could have ever let yourself take it for granted. sometimes it's scary how fast time passes and how quickly times change. sometimes even the idea of moving on can be so, so hard to process; the idea of change is the most frightening of all. because, what if we do change? what if we become someone that we were not before? what if we lose all our best qualities and the things that we love around us? change is inevitiable, and yet many of us spend so much time being afraid of losing things that we forget to enjoy them. in the end, how much of this matters? in the end, what is the point of getting attention or upgrades or progress, when in the end, we're going to die anyways? after all, we're just specks of dust in the grand scheme of things. nobody will remember us in a hundred years, unless we invent the next cell phone or save a few lives that will be gone again anyways. so what does it mean to "have" things when it will be gone in an instant? for the moment, i suppose, i could say that i have a tumblr. but what if my depression gets worse and i decide i can't be here any longer? what if my anxiety flourishes and i get so scared of people hating me that i leave? or what if -- what if i become "successful" elsewhere in my life and leave my tumblr days in the past? or i just decide that the time has come for me to try something else? i know it will happen. one of those will become my future and there's nothing i or anyone else can do about it. i believe that everything is not meaningless, but it's all but a breath and we must enjoy it while it lasts. so take a deep breath with me and enjoy this moment where you and i somehow have crossed paths. perhaps you aren't grateful for this. maybe you dislike me and that's okay because in the end your opinion is just as fleeting as your existence. it shouldn't affect me. sure, it might affect me - tiny things affect me, i'm a mentally and emotionally instable teenage girl who puts her self-worth on the approval of others - but even then... if i kill myself because you didn't like me for who i am, the only person who has to deal with that is you, isn't it? i'll be freed. my existence on this earth will end. and i won't have to decide what to value in my life anymore. but you will. you might remember how that opinion you barely put any energy into affected someone else. in the end, it doesn't matter, right? it's just an opinion. it's just a few words. it's just, what, a moment of your life that you may have messed up a little, but everyone makes mistakes in the end, right? but all the people that do "have" me will see the difference. because i'm just as temporary as the next thing. none of it matters, right? hey, anon, what if i answered this with a simple "yes" after writing all that? would you agree with me?

[miqojak]

Layers Upon Layers

one: outside layer

[Name:] "Jak." [Hair Style & colour:] "Black and orange. I wear it pulled back and braided." [Eye Color:] "Gold and jade green." [Height:]  "Fuck if I know exactly. Under five fulms." (4'9") [Style:] "Depends on the day. Maybe the hour. Leather and mini-skirts are always a good bet, though. Sometimes a nice suit, sometimes my bike gear, sometimes a little something more form-fitting, elegant and gilded - 'desert chic', I suppose." [Best Physical Feature:] "Definitely my ass...though my legs cut it close, on that one. What do you think?"

two: inner layer

[Fears:] "You ask that and actually expect people to tell you?" (Small/enclosed spaces with no readily available exit, levin, Garleans, people getting too close to her/seeing who she really is) [Guilty Pleasure:] "People feel guilty for what they like? Who's going to judge me, the sheep who can't come up with a single original thought of their own, and feel guilty if they do?" [Biggest Pet Peeve:]  "Biggest...that's tough, actually. Probably blithe optimism, or naivete. People too ignorant, or unwilling to ask questions and look deeper - or those simply unwilling to face hard truths. There can never be any growth if you aren't honest with yourself, after all. Unmotivated slackers. If you have no goals, why are you wasting this star's air?" [Ambition for the Future:] "To be feared and respected in equal measure. I've been pushed around for a long time, and now it's my turn."

three: thoughts

[First Thought When Waking Up:] "Probably...my to-do list for the day? That or wondering what the weather is like, and whether or not I'll be going on my usual morning run or be stuck working out indoors. That or 'Huh, they haven't killed us all yet.'" [What You Think About the Most:] "What my next step is in life - how I want to pursue that power I'm after without compromising who I am...and how the fuck I ended up with someone who actually cares about me in my life while distinctly trying to avoid that type of thing...and why he stuck around. I wonder about the 'why' a lot." [What You Think About Before Bed:] "Depends on the day, and what's happened, and if I'm headed there alone. If I'm not alone, it's probably something to the effect of 'I still can't believe he wants to be here/wants me to be here'. And whether or not I'm alone...there's always the nagging, ugly reminder that Garlemald's towers sit hunched in the sky, ready to end everything for everyone - predator and prey alike. It could be the last night for any of us." [Your Best Quality Is:] "My ass. But other than that...well, I'm honest, and my loyalty can't be bought. I'm not a good person, but I have my own...'code', in a sense, I guess."

four: what’s better

[Single or Group Dates?] "Group dates sound like a punishment. I can barely stand the slack-jawed idiots around me as it is. Though undoubtedly the punishment would be upon the others, considering who my date would be, and the fact that we'd probably spend the time verbally destroying the other couple." [To be Loved or to be Respected?] "Respected. Love without respect is horrifying. I've been there, I've suffered it, and I'm still recovering. But I still...don't know that I believe in love. At least not how most people do, I guess. Love makes people do stupid shit when they believe in it. Respect doesn't. Respect can stand alone, without needing love. Respect has to be earned. There's no claims of 'respect at first sight.' But like I said...love without respect is...ugly. Scary, even." [Beauty or Brains?] "Both, or no deal. Brains are essential, but I can't have a walking pile of dogshit on my arm, now can I?" [Cats or Dogs?] "Neither, I don't do pets - animals are food. But...I suppose I'd say dogs, though you'd probably incorrectly assume cats, based on the fact that I resemble one. But...there's been more 'canines' in my life in the last year or two than I care to recall."

four: do you…

[Lie?] "No. Not unless the situation is dire - my morals don't matter if my life is on the line. Survival comes first always." [Believe in Yourself?] "Much more than I used to. I've accomplished, and survived, more than most could even begin to imagine." [Believe in Love?]  "Not...really? Maybe? Though I'll admit that for all my vehement denial in the past, someone has made me re-examine my emotions in the last half a year or so. I don't think I believe in the sort of 'love' that the general public believes in. I had someone force his fairy tale romance down my throat and do me a lot of harm both physical and mental with those ideals, as he forced me to be someone I wasn't. If adhering to what society expects of love is all that someone cares about - hitting the expected gestures as told in fairy tales? That's about as real as a fever dream. I don't like the word 'love'. Not what it's come to be associated with, and what's expected of you along with it." [Want Someone?] "For the first time in my life...yes. Not that I don't 'have' him as much as I can claim such, but when he's not around, I find that I want him to be. So...yes?"

six: have you ever…

[Been on Stage?] "No? I mean, my organization does run a jazz club, and it's been various theaters before that, and I've...sat on the stage, basked in the spotlight of an empty theater? I prefer to be...less in the actual spotlight, however." [Done Drugs?] "I've only been clean and sober for...maybe a year now? So yeah. I've...done a lot of drugs." [Changed Yourself to Fit In Somewhere?] "I've been a con-artist to put food on the table, but I don't believe in changing who you are to 'fit in.' If you don't fit in...you don't fit in. You are who you are. Being anything else is a lie, and does you a disservice. It's also a pathetic cry for attention - for the other bleating sheep to accept you into their herd. I won't debase myself to 'fit in' with my lessers."

seven: favorite

[Favorite Color:] "Black, white, gold, and red. I don't have just one." [Favorite Food:] "Once more, I don't have just one. I like red meat, I like seafood, and I enjoy rolanberries quite a bit. Of late, I think my current favorite snack is takoyaki though - this fried dough ball with octopus inside...just thinking about it makes my mouth water." [Favorite Game:] "Breaking and entering."

eight: age

[When Your Next Birthday Will Be:] "No idea." [How Old Will You Be?] "No clue. I'm...twenty and four summers, roughly...give or take a couple." [Age You Lost Your Virginity:] "Care to lose yours to one of my knives, here?" [Does Age Matter?]  "Should it? I suppose I'd be a bit baffled to see an old geezer with a hot young thing, but even so...who cares? I haven't exactly had a lot of lovers, but I don't think I ever asked any of them their age. So long as people stay the fuck away from kids, it's a non-issue in my opinion."

nine: in a partner

[Best Personality:] "An unflinching realist who not only faces the truth, but deals it out themselves. Ambition, and the ability to be honest with themselves about who they are." [Best Eye Colour:]  "Who gives a shit? If I find them worthwhile, I'll like their eyes, I assure you." [Best Hair Colour:] "Who's out here checking people off a list because their hair is the wrong color? I mean, after some shit I went through, I might not want to ever see another red-head again, but realistically...who gives a single fuck? I think you're asking the wrong questions here. People often do - too busy dwelling on lust at first sight." [Best Thing to do With a Partner:] "Murder? Crime in general? ...Or a hot bath."

ten: finish the sentence

[I Love…] ...I just told you I don't do love. But...I do love the sun." [I Feel…] everything at once, or nothing at all, it seems." [I Hide…] who I am." [I Miss…] my family." [I Wish…] ...wishes are for simpletons. Actions achieve what you want." Thanks for the tag: @eligos-venator @placesyoucallhome @bek-sc @sundered-souls (I think I found you all who tagged me!)

I am late to this party! Tag yourselves if you want to do it, so I can read your stuff! I feel like most folks have done it, and I'm too brain-dead atm to root around in the bowels of Tumblr to see who hasn't, since I'm many days late! XD

[nonbaznary]

Carry On Countdown - Day 10: Crossover

(Not posting on AO3)

Keep reading on Tumblr below the cut!

Words: 2401

I’m a bit late with other prompts BUT for today, I edited a Cemetery Boys scene (no spoilers, really, it’s in the beginning and the plot/summary of the book basically gives this scene away), because I couldn’t help but see similarities about Snowbaz and Yadrian, both canon and headcanon. Anyways, I love my transmasc awkward heroes and their undead nobinary gay boyfriends who may seem scary but are total sweethearts. I also changed some elements of the original story so it sounded more like Carry On, so it’s kind of a Cemetery Boys remix, or something. Anyways LOL happy COC day 10!! Hope y’all like this <3 Also thank you Aiden Thomas your gays gave new meaning to my life

Cemetery Boys AU

Simon could feel energy swarming below him.

“Do you feel that, too?” Penelope asked.

“Yeah. It’s way stronger in here.” he said. Whatever spirit that led them here was close.

Simon took a step back, and his shoe slipped. He’d stepped on a piece of cloth.

Penny moved in. “What’s that?”

“I think it’s a scarf.” Simon muttered, pointing his lantern to it. The scarf was pale blue. He bent down and carefully picked it up. As soon as his fingers made contact with the fabric, a shiver ran through his body. Electricity flooded through his veins, and he took a sharp breath. Something pulsed under his feet, synchronized with his own heartbeat.

“I think- It’s a tether.” he said, a spike of adrenaline making him feel light-headed.

When a spirit attached itself to a tether, they had to stay near it. That was why haunted houses existed, but not many cities haunted by a single ghost – spirits couldn’t venture far from their tethers. And mages could only release them and help them pass peacefully to their eternal rest once they were free of their earthly bindings.

Simon had never actually held a spirit’s tether before. They were incredibly powerful. Some of the mages claimed that mishandling a spirit’s tether would get you cursed. But Simon had never heard of anyone actually getting possessed, and he had no intention of disrespecting this tether.

“But it’s not Ebb’s. She didn’t own any silk blue scarfs, that I’m sure of.” Penelope said, reaching out as if to touch it before thinking better.

“It could be Ebb’s.” Simon tried to reason, his hope of finding his friend fighting against logic. He squeezed the scarf in his hand. Warmth spread through his palm and up his arm. He turned to Penny with a smile. “There’s only one way to find out.”

Penelope gave him a skeptical look, and Simon shrugged.

“I have to try – What if Ebb’s spirit got tethered to this instead of her staff?” he said, twisting the scarf between his fingers.

“It could be attached to someone who’s gone malefic.” Penelope said, casting a pointed look around the dilapidated church.

“Then it’s a good thing I’ve got a sword now, innit?” Simon said. Penny raised her eyebrows, but then grinned.

“All right, Greatest Mage, work your magic.”

The rush of excitement made Simon feel giddy as he knelt.

He held his hand over his hip, calling for the Sword of Mages. "In justice. In courage. In defense of the weak. In the face of the mighty. Through magic and wisdom and good." The hilt materializes in his grip, and he swings the sword up to his shoulder. Maybe it was the feel of the blade in his hand or the magic he knew flowed through his veins, but Simon felt recklessly brave.

He stood up again and tried to take a deep breath, but he was too excited, practically buzzing. His palms were sweaty. He looked over to Penelope, who gave him an enthusiastic and encouraging nod.

Simon had seen his mentor, Davy, summon spirits before. It wasn’t exactly general knowledge for mages, but he knew what to do and how to do it. It was one of the few incantations that Simon believed he could get right, like with the Sword of Mages, because those weren’t like other spells. They didn’t come so easily to other mages as regular incantations did. Magic words are tricky, and Simon had never been good with words. You have to have a good vocabulary to do magic. You have to be able to think on your feet and be brave enough to speak up. And you have to actually understand what you’re saying, how the words translate into magic.

None of that came naturally to Simon. And his magic... He was powerful, he knew that, but his magic behaved differently than everyone else’s. His magic was immediate and literal. Sometimes, it acted when he didn’t even mean to make it do anything. It just… happened.

And that was exactly what he needed right now.

He felt the magic inside him, strong and infinite. He called it to the surface, his skin suddenly warmer, and held out his arm, the scarf looped around his hand. Simon cleared his throat, trying to breathe around the lump that had formed.

“I summon you, spirit!”

For a terrifying second, nothing happened. Then, an explosion of heat and golden light. Simon sprang back, choking on the smoke.

There was a person in front of him, doubled over their hand and knees, clutching their chest.

Simon could hardly believe his eyes. “It worked!”

The spirit’s face was screwed up tight in a grimace, their fingers knotted into the material of his shirt, a beautiful floral, white with blue and purple flowers and fat striped bumblebees.

“That’s not Ebb.” Penelope tried to whisper, but she’d never had a very good inside voice.

Simon groaned and dragged a hand over his face. On the bright side, he had actually summoned a real-life spirit

On the not-so-bright side, he had summoned the wrong one.

“Obviously.” Simon growled back, unable to look away from the spirit as they gasped for breath, the muscles in their neck straining. They had that translucent quality around the edges, like all spirits, Their eyes swung to Simon and Penny, with a handsome but very angry face, their grimace now more of a sneer.

“Well, at least it’s not a malefic spirit?” Penny offered.

The person staggered to their feet, upright but unsteady. “Who the hell are you?”, they snarled, dark grey eyes blazing, sharp as obsidian.

“Uhh” was Simon’s unhelpful reply, suddenly back to being capable of forming a coherent sentence.

“Where am I?” the person’s voice coming out of them in a tight roar, head tilting back as they took in their surroundings. “Am I in a church?” their attention swung back to Simon and Penelope with an accusing glare. “Who let me in a church?”

Familiarity prickled at the back of Simon’s mind, racing to place their sharp edges, posh look, and the irritated, cold tone in their voice.

“Uh- well- you see,” Simon stammered, not really sure how to explain their situation, but he wasn’t given the chance to finish. The person’s eyes snagged on the scarf still dangling from Simon’s hand.

“Hey!” Simon saw their anger swell, hunching their shoulders, and propelling them forward. The spirit stomped up to him, fire in their eyes. “That’s mine.”

They reached out to snatch the scarf, but their hand went right through it. They frowned and tried again, and when their hand slid through it a second time, they froze, blinked their eyes, and slowly waved it back and forth.

Their eyes went wide, and they stumbled back. “What the hell is this?” they demanded to know, looking between their hand and the scarf and Simon and Penelope.

“Wow, this is really awkward.” Simon said, scratching at the back of his neck. Penelope seemed less worried.

“Well, there’s no denying you’re an actual mage now.” she said, circling the spirit with keen interest. They scowled at her.

“Who are you, and what are you doing with my scarf?” they demanded, looking to Simon for answers.

“Well, uh, I used it to summon you.” he tried.

The spirit crossed their arms, arching a thick eyebrow.

“Yeah, we thought it might have belonged to Ebb.” What was the gentlest way to tell someone they were dead?

“Ebeneza. Our friend.” Penelope specified.

The spirit didn’t seem at all interested in who Ebb was. “It’s mine.” they insisted with a growl. “It belonged to my mother. It’s got our last name on it see?” their fingers curling in demand.

Simon turned the fabric over to find that a name had indeed been recorded in a tip. He blinked. “Oh.” The delicate cursive letters read PITCH. “Oh.”

The Pitch family was well known, and also magickal. They didn’t do any death-related magic, though, not like Davy or the Bunces – they were magickal authorities. Royalty, aristocrats, leaders. Researchers, linguists. They knew spells like no other magickal families. They were fire magicians, brilliant with fire. But they weren’t involved with action, not like the mages Simon and Penelope grew with. The Pitches didn’t know about death magick, not like them.

Simon knew the Pitch’s heir, Baz Pitch, or rather knew of them. They went to highschool together, and Baz had a bit of a... reputation. They used to be a top student, and when they were roaming the halls it was hard to not notice them. They had the sort of presence that demanded everyone’s attention without needing to ask. They were hard to miss.

Until they got expelled.

“Do you know how you got here?” Simon questioned them. Baz glared.

“No. All I remember is walking down the street with my friends. Then something- someone-” they frowned. “I just remember getting knocked over.” They unconsciously rubbed at the same point on their chest, near their heart. “Then the next thing I knew, I was in a church with you two.”

Three beats passed before Baz’s eyes went wide. “I died, didn’t I?” Simon and Penelope looked at each other. “Am I dead?”

Simon gave a small nod. Baz stumbled back a step, their body wavering in and out of existence for a moment. “Oh, Crowley. My aunt is going to kill me.” They pressed both hands against their face and groaned against their palms.

“Looks like someone already beat her to it.” Penelope pointed out.

“So I’m a spirit now.” Baz scowled, ignoring the girl. They didn’t sound angry or dismayed, just… annoyed. As if this were just an inconvenience. “And you’re also mages, I suppose. So you can send spirits to the afterlife, right?”

“Yes- Well, no-” Simon fumbled, trying to explain himself. “I should be able to- er, I guess- I haven’t done the releasing part yet-”

“Great. So I’m stuck with two shitty witches.”

Annoyance flared in Simon. “Look, this is my first time, okay?” Baz blinked slowly at him, unimpressed. “You- You’re attached to a tether, your scarf. So I just need to destroy the-”

“No, no way!” Baz shook their head. “That’s my mother’s scarf, you are not destroying it.” They tried to snatch it from Simon, but, again, they were left with a fistful of empty air. Penelope chuckled.

“No, just listen-” Simon gripped his blade, raising it.

Baz scoffed, which was not how Simon thought any sane person should react to getting a sword pointed at them.

“What are you going to do, stab me?” Baz’s laughter was flat and sharp. “Already dead, remember?”

“I’m not going to stab you!” No matter how tempting it is, Simon thought. Penelope cut in.

“He can use this to destroy the tie keeping you here.” Baz opened their mouth to argue, but Penny pressed on. “Not the scarf, just the tie anchoring you to the scarf. Then you can go to the afterlife and be at peace, okay?”

Baz smirked. “Yeah, no. He’s not doing that.”

Simon groaned. Of course the first spirit he summoned was a git that wouldn’t just be released willingly. No, he had to get stuck with the one who had an attitude problem.

“I’m doing this. Right now.” Simon said. “We still need to find Ebb, and, besides, if you stay here like this for too long, you’ll turn all dark and violent and start hurting people.”

Baz crossed their arms over their chest. “No.” Simon looked at Penelope for help, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“You’re leaving me no choice.” Simon pushed his jaw forward to stand his ground. A thick eyebrow quirked. Simon called for his magic, squeezing the scarf in his hand. “Show me the bond!”

The Sword of Mages and the scarf glowed bright, filling the church with a warm blaze that made all three of them squint. A golden thread sparked to life in the air, starting from the blue fabric and ending at the center of Baz’s chest.

Simon inhaled a deep breath. “I set you free for the next life!” he sliced his sword through the air, aiming directly for the golden thread. Instead of severing it, the edge of the blade caught on the line. The Sword of Mages vibrated in his hand, and small sparks flew from where they met.

Baz relaxed, but Simon wasn’t giving up just yet. He tried slicing through it again, then tried sawing at it, but all it did was send more sparks flying and make his shoulder hurt.

Simon turned over to see an obnoxious smirk on Baz’s face.

“Wow. You really suck at this.” they said, looking pleased with themselves. Simon turned to Penelope.

His heart hammered in his ears, and his throat felt like it was closing up on him. The sudden aching in his chest (surely not helped by his tight binder) threatened to swallow him whole. Penny was immediately at his side, her voice calm and soothing as she gripped his arms.

“Don’t worry about this! This isn’t your fault, Si.” she jerked her head in Baz’s direction. “They’re probably too bull-headed to cross over.”

“Hey!”

Penelope ignored their protest. “Just like my great-aunt, remember?”

“Maybe.” Simon mumbled. He didn’t want to think about it. Shame burned hot on his cheeks.

“Look.” Baz called. “I’m willing to cut you a deal.”

Simon and Penny turned to them.

“I’ve got unfinished business.” Baz said, brow furrowed. “And I need to check on my friends. They were with me when I died, I need to make sure they’re okay.” their face twisted between annoyance and something that could’ve been worry. “And maybe they know who got me. That could be connected-” They shook their head, interrupting themselves. “If you help me on a personal project, and let me find my friends and make sure they’re okay, I will willingly let you do what you need to do and send me to the afterlife.”

Simon looked at Penelope, who shrugged. “I don’t think we have much of a choice here.”

“Okay.” Simon took a step forward. “Wait. What’s this ‘personal project’ you’re talking about?”

Baz’s features got rigid. They stepped closer to Simon.

“My mother’s killer walks. You are going to help me find out who he is, and avenge her, and bring her peace.”

[my other works for the countdown]

[mediaevalmusereads]

Master of Crows. By Grace Draven. Self Published (?), 2009.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: fantasy romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Master of Crows #1

Summary: What would you do to win your freedom? This is the question that sets bondwoman, Martise of Asher, on a dangerous path. In exchange for her freedom, she bargains with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer's treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation--until she falls in love with her intended target. Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption's influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she's a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts -against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him. Mage and spy search together for a ritual that will annihilate Corruption, but in doing so, they discover secrets about each other that may damn them both. Silhara must decide if his fate, and the fate of nations, is worth the soul of the woman he has come to love, and Martise must choose continued enslavement or freedom at the cost of a man's life. And love.

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: sexual content, blood, magical violence

Overview: After being a little lukewarm on Radiance, I decided to give Grace Draven one more try, mostly because her books seem to be popular on tumblr. I picked up Master of Crows on a whim, and though I think it has more plot than Radiance, the main characters were really not to my taste. For me, Martise was too passive and Silhara was too much of a jerk to be likeable, and the massive power imbalance between the two meant that I didn’t really root for their relationship to succeed. Thus, this book only gets 2 stars from me.

Writing: Draven’s prose is fairly straight-forward. It’s easy to get through and it flows well, giving the reader just enough to know what’s going on. I don’t really have any criticisms for its simplicity because Draven is writing within romance, and the point isn’t to be poetic. Rather, it gets the job done, and I think most readers will appreciate that.

Where I do think I can criticize this book is in the repetition of phrases. More than twice, I saw the term “half mast” used to convey when a character’s eyes were half open, and I think I saw “tattoo” used multiple times to describe a rapid rhythm or tapping. It’s not the biggest deal, but I was definitely pulled out of the story when I noticed these things.

I also think I can criticize Draven for telling us some things that should have been shown. We’re told, for instance, that Silhara isn’t a noble man, that he’s selfish and ambitious, etc. but we’re never really shown scenes of him acting out of ambition or being actually tempted to give in to Corruption’s influence. I would have liked to see Silhara be put in positions where he is making choices or doing things that make the reader think he was susceptible to Corruptions influence. Maybe we see him researching spells for making himself more powerful. Maybe something happens on page with Conclave that is so bad, he starts seriously considering Corruption’s offer to give him revenge. It could be argued that we do get some of that, but it felt like everything was told to us, or happened in the past, and we were expected to absorb it.

Plot: Most of the non-romance plot of this book revolves around Silhara trying to figure out how to destroy the god Corruption while Martise acts as a spy, trying to get some dirt on him so the Conclave (a collection of priests/mages) will have an excuse to kill him. To be honest, I thought the initial premise was a good one; I liked the idea of conflicting loyalties and the eventual shift from enemies (of a sort) to lovers.

However, I do not think this plot was handled well, mainly because Corruption seemed to be a background threat. Multiple times throughout the book, we see Silhara be more or less tormented by the god, whether through dreams that keep him up at night, through disrupting Silhara’s magic abilities, through manifestations, and through temporary possession. While scary, I don’t think these scenes had much lasting impact, which didn’t make Corruption feel like a real threat. If Silhara is being kept awake at night, for example, I want to see scenes where his sleep deprivation gets him in trouble. If his magic is out of control, I want to see scenes where he has to decide whether he wants to risk using it or if he should go through his life without his powers. Something other than Corruption just being a lurking boogeyman that occasionally pops up and becomes a nuisance rather than a real, omnipresent force.

I also think Martise’s plot was a bit weak, mainly because we’re never really shown her having conflicting feelings or arguing with herself about whether or not to give Silhara to the Conclave. Martise is a slave, and her master promises to free her if she can get dirt on Silhara. While fine, the desire for freedom never seemed like a driving force for Martise; we never see her digging through Silhara’s study for potential dirt, of trying to eavesdrop or do other things that would show her actively trying to achieve her goal. Instead, Martise is rather passive, waiting for information to come to her, and she never really wrestles with her life as a slave, not the decision of whether or not to report Silhara once she falls in love with him. I would have liked to see more angst or at least more of an evolution where it felt like Martise had an arc independent of her service or usefulness to Silhara.

Characters: Martise, our heroine, is rather passive and seems to exist mainly to be used. I really didn’t like that she seemed to have no ambition or agency; she mostly waited for things to happen to her, and only shows agency towards the end, when the big showdown happens. Even her “gift” - the magic ability which lays dormant in her until Silhara awakens it - seems to be built around her being a tool to be used, and I was extremely disappointed that her arc didn’t seem to be about empowering her as a woman or as an ex-slave.

Silhara, our hero, is the type of love interest I absolutely hate. He’s extremely powerful, but is a complete jerk to the heroine and commits random violence towards other people out of jealousy. While we’re told over and over again that Martise loves him because he’s a good person at heart, I really didn’t see it. He not only beats up someone who speaks poorly of Martise, but he also seems comfortable ordering her around and treating her as a servant until the very end. The only redeeming qualities he had seemed to be that he doesn’t like people treating women poorly (which, ok, I guess) and he’s kind to his servant, Gurn. Other than that, he’s not an alluring figure.

Side characters were fun, if under utilized. Gurn is Silhara’s mute servant who uses a kind of sign language to communicate. I really liked this character because it inserts some disability representation, and I liked his relationship with Martise. The two seemed to bond over their shared status as servants, and I honestly wish there had been more of an arc or exploration about class with these two. Other characters served their purposes. Cumbria, Martise’s owner, is largely absent, but manages to look bad in every way. He’s not a super compelling antagonist just because he’s not on the page too often, but when he is, I think Draven did a good job not making him over-the-top evil. He’s mostly just greedy and petty, and I wish he had been used more deliberately in conjunction with Silhara’s exile as a commentary on corruption within religious orders. Corruption, the god, is a different story. As I explained in the plot section above, Corruption isn’t much more than a boogeyman, and I got really tired of him really fast.

I’m not sure how to feel, however, about the Kurman people in this book. The Kurmans are a nation/ethnic group/tribe/society with some rather odd gender dynamics. Women can apparently own property and vote, and they are supposedly respected, but they are kept separate from men much of the time, wait on men at feasts, can’t meet men’s eyes unless they want to communicate sexual availability, and so on. It was rather bizarre to me, and I seemed to be getting conflicting ideas about whether or not this society was feminist or not. I also wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be modeled on any real-life ethnic groups or societies; they are described as wearing pointy shoes, having swarthy/dark skin, having multiple wives, etc. so I got the impression that they might have been like Arabs, Mongols, or Ethiopians (due to the food they eat, etc), but if so, I didn’t quite like how Silhara refers to them as “barbarian,” even if it was in jest.

Romance: I couldn’t get on board with this romance. At all. Martise was already too subservient as a character, and while I get that some of this could be a survival technique, it didn’t make sense that Silhara would fall for her based on the ways in which she surprised or challenged him. Because she barely did. She never called Silhara out in any meaningful way and seemed to go along with whatever he wanted until the end.

Most of my discomfort, however, comes from two main issues: 1.) Silhara never seems to put Martise’s well-being first, and 2.) there is a huge power imbalance between the two that isn’t corrected until the very end, and Silhara never seems to be interested in leveling the playing field. First, Martise’s well-being: Silhara constantly offered comments that seemed to tear Martise down or, at the very least, be a back-handed compliment. He never seems to want to find ways of making her happy, and he centers his own desire and well-being even after big things happen. For instance, in a scene where Silhara is temporarily possessed by Corruption, he hurts Martise so badly that she cannot speak (as in, he chokes her almost to blackout). When he is freed from possession, he never seems to care about what he did to Martise or how she might be in pain. Instead, the first thing he does is order Martise to get away from him, then he orders Gurn to look after Martise to make sure she’s ok. All the while, he focuses on his own pain and jokes about his balls (which Martise kicked in order to free herself from his grasp). I was flabbergasted - why wouldn’t you want to make sure for yourself your lover is ok after something like that?

Second, the power imbalance. Even though Silhara doesn’t know Martise is a slave for the majority of the book, he does take her into his household as a servant, and has no qualms about ordering her about or taking advantage of her gentle nature. You’d think that if someone fell in love with a servant, much of the romance would be about overcoming class barriers or finding some way to put the two characters on equal footing. Sometimes, this is done by the lower class person having a sharper wit or calling out the upper class person on things that make them change for the better. Martise and Silhara never seem to have that arc. Martise calls Silhara “Master” throughout the whole book, and Silhara didn’t seem uncomfortable with it except when they were having sex. He never stops presuming to give Martise orders and expecting she obey them, not even at the very end when the question of her freedom gets resolved. And there are books out there where this class barrier is done well (Jane Eyre comes to mind), so I think Draven could have put more work into exploring the dynamics and how Martise is a match for Silhara, even given her status and lack of magic (at least, for a while).

TL;DR: Master of Crows has a good premise, but ultimately suffers from unlikeable or passive protagonists, a weak plot, and a romance with uneven power dynamics.

[ssaalexblake]

" #13 is already scary club!!!!! #she's just more emotionally mature than men 1 through 12" THIS, I am fully into this and agree!

Yeah, I mean, the first run through of season 11 I ended up focusing more on her chipper side, so I deliberately watched out for anger and personality faults on my second go through, and really, it’s all there in Whittaker’s performance. Especially in Resolution, which isn’t surprising considering what the bad guy was, it was also, strictly speaking, the first proper barometer we’ve had to measure thirteen’s reaction to something we’ve seen the other doctors react to.

I just have a lot of very jumbled thoughts about the actual narrative, where i think they’re going with this, and kind of… Weariness?? At the logic behind wanting a ‘snap’ from 13 just to prove she’s angry?? I ended up using this as an excuse to vent stuff i’ve been trying to say but am bad at putting into words, oops.

I mean, 13 was Clearly not in a good mood over that Dalek. Compare her reaction to seeing Tim Shaw again to seeing the Dalek again and that’s brutally obvious. She blatantly mocked Tooth face, and regarded him so little that she just marched off away from him and pretty much forgot entirely about him while trying to put those planets back where they came from, even After she realises that Tim Shaw pretty much slaughtered the inhabitance of a handful of entire planets she still totally disregards him.

Which, frankly, is kind of terrifying in itself considering what he did to (potentially) many billions of people, and says a lot about the doctor’s view on casualty counts, but not currently my point. In the end, she doesn’t even end up doing a single thing about him, and just leaves him in the stasis pod that it’s Very unlikely anybody will come across ever again considering the planet messes with the brains of whoever walks on it, even time lords!

Aaaaaand compare and contrast to Resolution, 13′s entire frame of mind in the whole episode was in crisis mode, she did not let it get one over on her, but she was Clearly incredibly more worked up in this episode, which, contrasting with the previous ep, is kind of jarring.

She’s erratic, frantic, at times perversely entertained, accidentally changed the entire tardis colour scheme to red in a fit of temper, takes out time more than once to taunt the dalek (and uhm.. she does this and it gets away and the next scene is of it slaughtering a bunch of soldiers), oh… And that thing where Ryan’s dad was like, about to get spaced and die horribly with the dalek and she just froze and did absolutely nothing about it. I mean, in the same episode she controls the tardis with a clap of her hands… which i will assume was just her doing it telepathically and being weird about it, which means she really doesn’t get to use ‘well i was holding on myself’ excuse to get out of That one, and this is among other things which i’m sure i’ve forgotten.

More importantly, i can trace the above things back to moments in previous episodes, like, perverse glee??? Demons of the Punjab. Anger??? King James just had that effect on her even when he Wasn’t actively being a sexist asshole, she didn’t like him hitting too close to home. Threatening? Kerblam’s ‘if i ever find out you’re lying’. Taunting? she legit taunts Krasko into straight up throttling her. Sacrifice one for the good of the many? Kerblam, you could easily view Charlie as her first proper kill. It all has roots, didn’t come from nowhere.

I’ve spoken before about how she’s deliberately tempering her anger, and how it all roots back to ‘laugh hard, run fast, be kind’, but i feel like that’s kinda made it seem to people that she’s not scary just because she’s not being openly ostentatious about it?? When in actuality she’s just performing intense amounts of emotional labour in a genuine effort to improve herself, and it’s not gender based because canonically this utter disaster had no clue how lousy they’d been to their female companions or anybody else until some very blunt life lessons… in an episode in the back half of the season, so canonically we legit Can’t write her previous behaviour off on any kind of female socialization.  

And while I feel like we are heading to 13 crashing and burning, you know, figuratively (but she’s still the doctor so i won’t rule out a 50% chance of literal crashing and burning), bottling isn’t a super idea either and she’s probably going to combust, i’m justminorly uncomfortable with the insinuation that the base line of all anger is the explosive outbursts the doctor is prone to. I’m not against her snapping and having a classic doctor outburst, pretty sure that’s where they’re heading because she’s slowly but surely gradually losing ground with the image she’s trying to project and the only time we’ve already seen her called on it (king james) she… Did not react positively.

I just have issues with the insinuation that to be the doctor she has to act out their worst qualities when we can see them in her clearly without her doing so just to Prove she’s the doctor. She’s already angry and arrogant, it’s there in the show, it’s just… Angry outbursts aren’t good? And having the storyline framed around her snapping actively being scary and bad for both her and others is more where my head is at, I think i feel like this is where it’s going, for it to be a breaking down moment rather than framed as something liberating, i just don’t feel comfortable with the grandeur surrounding it potentially happening in a liberating fashion.

I mean, from a gendered perspective, women having to temper reasonable anger is bad and oppressive and i understand the bad optics of it and wanting it it happen for the very reason of avoiding that, but also? Men Not having to bother to temper violent angry outbursts is also an awful thing on the list of shitty things about patriarchy, but that doesn’t just mean everybody should be able to have angry violent outbursts, it means nobody should, it’s not about stooping, it means work on self improvement if you do do this and stop, not ‘hey everybody gets a free pass to be an explosive scary jerk’.

The discussion around this all often makes me uncomfortable in the ways we treat violence and anger. I’m not a fan of loud/cold/threatening outburst kinda people, real or fictional, which is probably why my favourite Who characters are almost never the doctor. But I Do recognise they’re finally making an effort these days, and I do recognise and appreciate it in 13 and it makes me like her a lot more than a number of the other doctors. They’ve reached a stage where they’re actually working on it, methods aside, i respect that I can see all of the doctor’s questionable qualities within her but i can also see some kind of attempt to actively work on them.  That is laudable.

I mean, ok, maybe Not the best story to go with after 12+ men and suddenly one woman, but it Did start with 12 and Capaldi whose presence bought age and wisdom to it, Whittaker is just following the thread, really. It also Probably wasn’t purposeful that it ended up like this??? Considering new management and writers etc etc, but i also very much feel like s11 was a groundwork season and even in that i can see the fascade slipping away episode by episode, in resolution she even tells them one of her deepest shames, at the time with little context, but if any of them think back on it, they’ll Understand.

(disclaimer: I don’t have anything against anybody who wants a snap (if written well, i would also enjoy it, i like angst), i just have an issue with our cultural relation to violence in certain circumstances and this narrative kind of creeps towards the idea that if you’ve had outbursts before that you can’t stop yourself the next time and I don’t like that as a message, i don’t dislike any of the doctors, i just like the companions Significantly more 90% of the time, and yes i would very much like to be able to show anger as a woman without being demeaned for it, but there is a difference between being looked down upon for being justifiably angry, and thinking it’s ok to let your anger take control of you and scare others. Also: Not all emotional labour is bad, i have to write this bc i’m publishing on tumblr so yeah. )

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

Quite excited for the chapters to come. I’ve been wanting to read the full version of events from this time period and it has really delivered so far.

also: tumblr is being wonky with displaying the activity feed so if I didn’t respond to a reply or something, I probably didn’t see it rip. I’ll save them all up for later and respond all at once in a few days. 

Chapter 52: Courage (Part 2)

I’ve heard that the next chunk of chapters is going to be all flashback, which makes sense given how little the story has actually revealed about events from the Sunshot Campaign up until Wei Wuxian died. It also adds more life to characters who were only mentioned briefly *coughJinZixuancough*.

And, of course, we get some more quality banter between our main protags’ younger selves. The chapter opens up with Lan Wangji rebuffing all of Wei Wuxian’s attempts to talk to him, but hey, this time Wei Wuxian is genuinely concerned about his leg (though he probably still sounds like his normal playful, infuriating self) and not looking to make fun of him.

Still, Lan Wangji is on a mission here, and that mission is to pretend there is nothing wrong with his leg.

We finally get introduced to a female character other than Jiang Yanli and Madam Yu (another minor flaw of the novel: the awesome ladies are few and far between. enjoy them while they’re here.): Mianmian. Do we ever find out what Mianmian’s real name is or. I’ll put off adding her to the wiki for now.

Poor girl, confronted with Wei Wuxian’s absolutely shameless badgering. It’s cute how he bounces between conversations and groups of people though, as if they aren’t all human sacrifices/hostages of the Wen Sect.

This description of him is absolutely hilarious, and probably what Lan Wangji thought of him 90% of the time: “[He] swept over like a foreboding gust of wind”. Perfect description of Wei Wuxian. Flits about as he pleases, bringing wit him headaches and frustration.

“Seeing that he was at it again, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes with emphasis.”

is he a drama queen or what. 

rolled his eyes with emphasis

lol at Lan Wangji ratting Wei Wuxian out with his “play on words”

‘its ceaseless bounds yearn for miles and miles on’

I do love play on words. I can only imagine thinking “wei wuxian you little shit” when reading that part in its original language. 

“Do you behave in such a frivolous way towards everyone?”

Wei WuXian thought for a second, “I think so?”

that’s precious.

aww but you do get to see that, for however much of a little shit he is, Wei Wuxian does care. seeing that his behavior is making Lan Wangji annoyed enough to push past his injury, he leaves so he can stop hurting himself more.

But....AHA this is the information I was waiting for: how the heck the Cloud Recesses got burnt down.

damn, Wen Sect. no wonder the rest of the cultivation world wiped you off the face of the earth.

So, interestingly, they only mention Lan Wangji who got beaten and his leg broken for protecting the Library Pavilion. In some past chapter, it mentions that Lan Xichen saved some of those books and escaped with them.

It’s interesting that Lan Wangji was sent here, instead of Lan Xichen who wasn’t injured as far as I know.

ahhh but Wei Wuxian actually took notice of what Lan Wangji was doing. do you do this to everyone or >>. well, he is an observant person, but he does pay some special attention to Lan Zhan here

then he just states “I’m gonna carry him.” I love how he totally doesn’t take into account that the last thing the proud Lan Wangji who “who valued proper conduct beyond anything” probably...would not want you to carry him. just a thought.

“It’s alright if he hates me—I don’t hate him. I’ll get him onto my back the second I get hold of him. Could he possibly choke me to death while on my back?”

this boy’s logic is golden.

“First, this isn’t a triviality. Second, things like this, somebody will have to care about them, sooner or later!”

I think this is significant in some way. >>

Wei Wuxian is the type to do something because it’s right, or what he wants to do, not because someone else wants him to do it. It’s one of the good parts of his shamelessness, but it’s also kind of dangerous.

geez, what dictators. who walks around holding a branding iron all the time to stick people with??

Also, this explains where Wei Wuxian got his.

lol how did anyone even get word that a beast thing was supposed to be in this general location. how did anyone figure this out. it’s hidden way underground in a lake.

Aahh poor Jin Zixuan, I feel a bit bad for him. He’s a bit of a prick, but not a bad guy. This is why the flashbacks are nice, we get to know a bit about guys like him. Also, Jin Ling shares several similarities with him in terms of personality...

“This time, Wei WuXian could relate to his feelings on a profound level. No matter what creatures haunted this cave, facing them would be much more comfortable than facing Wen Chao and the others.”

lool

I was really bored the first time I read this, so it was extra funny for some reason

Anyways, down the rabbit hole we go.

I once again wonder how anyone knew to even look in this general location for a beast. It’s pretty well hidden.

Poor Mianmian. I guess she doesn’t survive this whole arc, since there’s absolutely no mention of her in the present. But for now, at least, Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji refuse to let them use her as human bait.

geez, though, the Wen people don’t even care if the person is a disciple of their own sect: “he was certain that she wasn’t part of the sect’s clan. She was at most a disciple, so she’d surely be the perfect bait”

Not actually sure which sect she’s from but yeah

kudos to Jin Zixuan though! we finally get to know you!

actually, it seems that the two with the most pride end up being the ones who (literally) make a stand. both him and Lan Wangji are quite proud guys, in different ways.

“Although he didn’t say anything, the way he looked at the disciple was more than imposing. What such a look meant was clear to everyone—it truly is a shame that the GusuLan Sect has taught a disciple like you!”

ooh now we know how the scary Hanguang-jun that Jin Ling is afraid of came about lol.

And of course, Wei Wuxian must jump in and add his two cents. he really is a clever guy, haha, reciting their ancestors at them word-for-word.

“All those who oppress others and do evil relying on the power of their clan should be killed. Not only that, they should be beheaded for tens of thousands to revile so that those to come would beware.”

ironically, Nie Mingjue kills Wen Chao’s older brother, Wen Xu, during the Sunshot Campaign by beheading him as a warning to the Wen sect soldiers.

ha! it comes back to bite you guys in the ass

“You dared say that one of your ancestor’s remarks are absurd and outrageous? Well said, very well said!”

oh, Wei Wuxian, brilliant, but you sure know how to dig your own grave

Jiang Cheng is probably having an aneurysm next to him at this very moment

“Yes, very well, you can go die now.”

you’re going to get yourself killed

scratch that, it’s awesome of him to say all this, but it’s also really dangerous. I love how his character strength (shameless, not caring about the consequences) is a double edged sword. and, as a teenager, he has even less of a filter and capacity for thinking of the consequences

then he kidnaps Wen Chao and even if you manage to get out of this place alive, there’s no guarantee of what will happen afterwards. eep

the beast then rises out of the water, apparently offended by the little humans jumping on its back. lol talk about a cliffhanger! 

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →

[appelsiinilight]

I thought Nadia’s husband was The Best Person Their World Has Ever Seen

(spoilers for the game if you haven’t played at all, or for books I-VI (only Julian’s route)

I found out about the Arcana through a tumblr post, the art looked really cool, so I skimmed through the FAQ and decided to download.

I start the game, my thought process as the plot progresses:

Some local royal lady (English is my second language and I probably have never said the word «Count» before in my life (and having translated it later, I don’t use it much in my mother language too), so it flat-out doesn’t register. And Nadia’s palace is ungodly awesome, so I just unconsiously call them Queen and King)’s husband was murdered, oh no. She seems really sad. My condolences.

OK, everyone loved the dead guy to bits. Everyone is sad. A familiar (because it works pretty well, so no judgement from me) plot — the victim’s goodness gives the protagonist and the player the motivation to solve their murder. He (I completely missed his name, idk why) must have been The Great And Beloved Kind of The Land. Cool, I do want to solve his murder. The picture on the wall resembles Satan a lot, but I decide not to judge by the looks (also goats are cute).

Oh no, Julian, why would he murder the ‘king’?! Maybe he didn’t? That’s way too simple, he probably was framed. 

Aw, he liked parties! Kind & slightly funny. Who would kill the guy??? I am in the scary chambers. The non-furry picture of the guy is a bit surprising — the Good & Kind King is usually older and with a beard. But okay. Seems cool and noble. I encounter the goat-like ghost — who is an asshole??? is it really his ghost??? what happened? Did he grow bitter or something??? Or it’s hinting at his dark side which will add to his character’s complexity, so he’ll be more like Noble Leader Who Had to Do a Bad Thing, idk like Asgore/Rose Quarts? That sounds interesting.

I finished books I-V, and go straight to Julian’s VI:

This guy might be a murderer. Is this the player/antagonist plot of the game? AM I AIDING A MURDERER??

Oh thank god, he doesn’t remember. This is super shady. He was probably framed.

Now I put off Nadia’s and Asra’s routes for later — and decide to read official game blog, as I fear spoilers no more. It’s fun — but among other characters there’s some guy named Lucio? And it doesn’t ring familiar -at all-. He does sound like real quality garbage. I don’t think I’ve encountered this guy, maybe he’s in Asra’s/Nadia’s VI, or I’ve also only seen Muriel for like 5 seconds, maybe he just comes into the plot later? And there isn’t much about the victim — he really must not be too present in the present.

I check out the game menu — oh, there are character bios! And there are also Portia and Muriel — and some guy — is this the Lucio? I check out everyones’ bios and memories, Lucio’s last. 

And this guy looks like the evillest motherfucker there is. Like I could be drowning, and he’d just scoff and take half a step back. Evil bitch design 101. Maybe he’s the murderer, or some corrupt bastard in Nadia’s court. The word ‘count’ doesn’t register in my mind once more.

I open «Memories». The thumbnail looks eerily familiar. Oh no. I open it.

WHAT THE FUCK, THIS PAINTING - HE’S THE- I go back to his bio to make sure -HE’S THE COUNT TO NADIA’S COUNTESS. NADIA’S A COUNTESS, HE’S A COUNT. HE’S THE DEAD COUNT.

And like it wasn’t a secret.

Not even Disney has betrayed me so hard as this self-induced plot-twist villain reveal has. I literally thought — very hard, I was really damn sure in this uncareful assumption — that the deseased count was like the only pure person I’d have heard about. And he turned out to be. This. This evil masterlord. The goat was satan. The ghost was for realsies. Maybe Julian did kill him, and he probably deserved it. Poor Nadia. I am fuming-at-the-mouth mad at destiny for the next week. I brought this upon myself. I am still mad as I’m typing this in December.

[trebaolsmovingcastle]

Some political bone reading...

What I’m going to do is less proper analysis, and more instinctual assessment of what I’ve seen from last night till now in the different places I absorb media, and what my senses tell me will be one of the many possible outcomes.

Not an accurate prediction, just, mood...perceived possible outcome etc.

Anyway...over the years I’ve picked up a really good selection of blogs on here, skewing to the left but covering a broad enough spectrum that it’s a pretty solid snapshot of what ‘intellectual leftists’ are talking about. Like a big ol’ moodboard. 

I also have Facebook which I scroll through...not actually reading anything, just seeing what my family, extended family, friends family, and various high school acquaintances are looking at or talking about. This is like a snapshot of your average left of center occasionally moderate conservative collection of folks, this is in essence a look at a majority of Americans and their news feed.

Then I have my haphazard newsfeed, I’m not good at narrowing stuff down, so it’s a pretty broad collection of news focused on US government.

When I want to feel the mood of parts of the country, I look at all three and see what I get in terms of crossover.

Tumblr is really good at spreading news very fast about stuff, and especially for rapidly building, spreading, then dismantling or altering political philosophy. Analysis and competing ideas about what an event ‘means’ seems to be what Tumblr is good at in looking at it. It goes overboard a lot, but hey, now you can see the various rabbit holes you need to go down to realize hostess cupcakes are problematic for reasons beyond the villainy of modern food production.

SO WHAT’S THE POINT?! Now that I’ve laid out my methods and sources for scrying the news and opinion, here’s what I see.

The left is scared shitless to talk about a Bernie Bro gunman going Taxi Driver on a congressional baseball team. I found out about Covfefe before the news did. I in fact have learned more about current events and what’s happening in government via tumblr spreading news (even as they tag it with WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS EVENT THAT HAPPENED 16 SECONDS AGO???) than even my regularly checking my actual news feed.

Tumblr is mum about the shooting, at least from where I’m sitting with my 300 odd politically focused blogs I follow. It’s not just a grim vigil of ‘here’s an article about this, no comment’ it’s actual crickets and blogs all looking at one another waiting to see if anyone wants to bring up that a dude who criticized the President as a traitor took direct action against the GOP, and what that might mean for the rest of us...who call the President a traitor.

Facebook, always eager to talk about current events...also mum. though the conservative parts seem excited, oh and there’s some videos floating around of the importance of Confederate monuments...so that’s where the rights mood is still apparently on there.

What’s my news feed? What is basically the spigot of news that will be thrown out into the countryside to see what sticks?

The GOP are martyrs. The Left are terrorists...actual terrorists. SJW isn’t just a politically delusiuonal individual, they’re bomb throwing anarchists. The President is a hero who has shown incredible humility and is healing the wounds of a nation. The Left and the Right have come together to say how incredible he is, and how good he is at not tweeting something insensitive. There’s articles from actual Nazis, treated as reasonable sources, discussing the need to stop the media from promulgating hate. There are articles about the need to support the President now, put all complaints behind us, forget any issues we have and move on. I should point out, these aren’t even lone articles, this is a stream of multiple outlets reporting similar articles saying the same things, so a dearth of ‘the left are terrorist thugs’, attacks on antifa, Republicans saying they’ve never done anything wrong ever in their life, and discussions about how to get the left to stop being so hateful towards Der Trumpenfuhrer.

What I’m not getting is anything insightful that isn’t a kind of dog whistle for ‘heave to the right, stop the liberals.’

The GOP controls this narrative, they’re speaking of persecution, of dissent as treason, of opposition or even the hint of discontent as being dangerous to society. Meanwhile...I’m seeing the left talking about Russia probes, special counsels, and best of all, Bernie socialists and things he’s introducing or saying to promote a more left leaning set of policies.

All of that is now a fiction, it’s like reading fantasy stories while your house burns down around you. Because you have a shooter, who has claimed he’s a Bernie socialist, who just tried to rearrange some congressman's internal districts. Guess who is politically dead? Guess who’s movement is now inextricably tied to the classic scary image of anarchist bomb throwing terrorists who will kill anyone they want to get political action? Guess who’s Russia probe, and obstruction of justice investigations...even if found to be be completely legitimate and providing actionable legal evidence of crimes committed by the President and his cabinet, will no doubt be brushed under the rug and ignored for the sake of ‘order and continuity.’ It’s the left, it’s anyone who is actively left of center, surprise, one single gunman is enough to shut up an entire wing of a political movement...except when the gunman is right wing, then it’s just some poor confused soul.

When some right winger does this the left gets agitated, speaks of violence being promoted by the right, then the right immediately responds with everything and the kitchen sink to argue that it was never and could never be their fault because they’re patriots. What is the left doing right now? Licking Trump’s ass or pretending it never happened, leaving the GOP to basically run their mouths about the horrors of the left and set the tenor for this going forward.

Oh, and better yet, now the democrats are getting their phone calls and threats that they’re next. So if this turns into a literal war between right wing fascist militia gun nuts assassinating Democrats because the gloves are off and the GOP has labeled the left as basically enemies of the state for not kissing ass hard enough...well won’t we be in a pickle?

But who knows. Maybe this total lack of quality analysis of this shooting and a seeming lack of interest in the left of admitting that the terror of living with this government drove a dude to try and actively kill representatives of the government isn’t a big deal. Maybe this wont be Trump’s cabinets Reichstag fire moment to push his bloated ass into a dictator in all but names seat so they can fleece the country harder than before in the guise of ‘unity’ governing.

Cuz come on, lets be real here. This dude did this for actual reasons. When a right wing gun nut blasts a school or a business or whatever...it’s for reasons. It’s because they were told day in and out about encroaching sharia law, or the danger of immigrants, or the gays. When a Bernie voter goes out and takes action with a rifle, you gotta ask...’why?’ and surprise the answer is that maybe just maybe government is so fucked up that the relatively benign left is beginning to radicalize to the point where the only plausible solution to being stepped on by government until death is to kill the government.

So what are we going to get? News articles about how it’s not republican governance that drove this man to take up arms, it’s the narrative that the President is likely actually a traitor and more than likely committed real crimes that the GOP absolutely refuses to acknowledge. Big surprise there, the left are guilty for Republican’s inability to actually uphold their oaths of office and preference for party loyalty over national loyalty. Donald Trump could literally have a billionaire ask to personally buy Virginia from him for use as a coaling station for his banana republic, and it wouldn’t be a ethics violation from the GOP, it would be the democrats fault for making a stink about business Making America Great Again.

Anyway, that’s my current view from where I’m sitting of the national tenor.

[imploder]

Response to Ikimaru Hate/Fandom Hate in General

@miss-serket​

“Based off nothing” spend 5 mins on ikimarus blog or the homestuck store lol. Check the links I provided dude I literally typed blocks of text for proof. “Based off nothing” my ass tf

I hope you and other people read this to the end. It’s important. We’re going to go step by step here. First off, you’ll have to forgive me for being a bit over the top and angry. Sunny is a close friend of mine, so I’m sure you can understand why I’d get emotional when people not only spread unjustified hate but also celebrate it. I’m sure if someone did the same to one of your friends, you’d feel the same way.

ikimaru ruined homestuck

Complete nonsense, but I’m sure you don’t care about that one because it’s written to be a “joke.” We’ll get into why this is a problem later.

She’s lowkey homophobic. She doesn’t show it much but she’s basically a yaoi fangirl who sexualizes mlm couples

If you think Sunny is a “yaoi fangirl”/fujoshi, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Have you seen works that actually do fetishize mlm relationships or sexualize them in a harmful way? The insistence of the seme/uke dynamic and using mlm smut as a means to their expressing their non-mlm sexuality are hallmarks of that. And those kinds of tones/qualities aren’t really found across her works. Yes, she ships DirkJake. Yes, she even sexualizes it. No, that does not make inherently bad. She’s not showing it in an unhealthy way nor is she claiming ownership of it. 

and she INSISTS dirkj*ke wasn’t abusive so a bunch of people blindly agree because for some God forsaken reason they think her art is in character and canon.

DirkJake being abusive is a FANON interpretation. Sure, there are some qualities of it, but at the end of the day, it’s a webcomic in which we didn’t get to directly see any of their relationship. We are just told about it through the monologues of Dirk and Jake. Was it abusive? Maybe! It’s perfectly fine if you see it that way. But it’s not CANON LAW. 

Also insisting that people are simply agreeing because they blindly follow her is just ignorant to other peoples’ own opinions on autonomy. Guess what? Other people have different opinions than you. Scary, I know! But that’s life. Shipping DirkJake or thinking it wasn’t horribly abusive isn’t wrong.

Her treatment of roxy was BEYOND awful. She makes her nothing more than a ditsy drunk who likes cats and helps Dirk get laid. Despite her struggle with her feelings for him, but that would get in the way of Hot Yaois.

So Roxy is a recovering alcoholic. Is depicting her drinking alcohol wrong? This is a really interesting question, and is one I don’t have a straight answer to. But again, in regards to the other stuff, this is coming down to how you are policing how other people interpret and draw characters. Attacking someone for depicting Roxy as “liking cats and helping Dirk get laid” is uncalled for. Literally no one is being harmed by someone doing that. You don’t get to decide what is  and isn’t okay when drawing a FICTIONAL character.

As for the “Hot Yaois” comment, see my response above.

Evey character is a 2D stereotype of themselves, and again, people TAKE IT AS CANON. This horrible mischaracterizing is definitely something that hurts the fanbase. Also, I’m not gonna rip on her art style but she only draws characters as skinny white people or skinny white people with a tan. She may give Jane bigger boobs and a bigger butt so she’s the “acceptable” type of fat. If she draws a POC they still have white features. All trolls “just 12 white people colored gray”.

People taking it as canon is not her fault. Hussie draws all the characters LITERALLY as skinny 2D stereotypes of themselves. And Hussie’s drawings are UNIVERSALLY CANON. Does that make it not okay to draw characters with different bodytypes/skin colors/etc.? Of course not.

And again you’re policing how people draw characters. Drawing characters with less common body types or as POC is great! But that doesn’t mean drawing them any other way is bad or wrong. We can discuss to what extent it’s harmful, but at the end of the day, you’re saying all these things because you think Sunny doesn’t draw people fat enough or POC enough. You’re inciting hate because she’s drawing a fictional alien race in a way that you don’t agree with. 

And the worst part, is how the homestuck store is monopolized by her. If you want diverse designs you’re out of luck! Here’s more Ikimaru!!

All this stuff combined is a huge drag on the homestuck community in the long run because she’s so goddamn influential and everyone thinks her POV is Canon

The WLF store being largely populated by her works was and is not her decision. She signed a contract with WLF a while ago. They ask her to draw things, and then she draws them. She’s not willy nilly deciding to deciding to flood WLF with unsolicited submissions. In fact, outside of WLF, she hardly even draws or wants to draw Homestuck anymore. 

As I’ve told other people in the past, your frustration here is totally justified. It’s understandable that you want to see different things in the store and that it angers you when all you see is art that you don’t like. However, Sunny is not the person you should be hating for this. That’s all on WLF’s end, and believe me, I will not get upset if people go around criticizing WLF.

But again, other people thinking her POV is canon isn’t her fault. She’s never claimed that how she draws characters is the canon or correct way. Sure, she has a HUGE following in the fandom, but that’s just what it is: a following. People follow her because they enjoy her art and interpretations. She’s drawing fanart. She isn’t creating what is suppose the be the correct image of the characters.

Yes, she’s my friend, but I’m not going to say people have to like her or her art. You don’t have to agree with her opinions; I know I don’t, and she knows that.

I think people are honestly giving her too much credit. I’ve seen this kind of thing happen on Tumblr dozens of times before. People hold Sunny to these unreasonable standards. People put her on a pedestal like she’s the CANON FANARTIST. And when she does things that people deem wrong or harmful, it creates that much worse of a reaction and backlash.

But there’s something you and everyone else has to remember, especially when saying shitty things about someone publicly. Sunny is just a normal person. She’s human. She has here own emotions, ambitions, problems, and causes for anxiety (which I might add is pretty much 100% from people like you). You shouldn’t hold her to this ridiculous standard just because she’s popular in one niche fandom on Tumblr. You don’t know her. You do not get to make sweeping judgments based on a couple of self indulgent drawings she’s posted over the past 5 years. 

That brings me to the most important part of this. A lot of the discourse near the top about interpretations of characters is something that isn’t 100% black and white. I could be wrong about those things. But even if I am, that does not justify inciting hate or encouraging people to write horrible things like “I’ll kill her,” even in jest. SHE’S A REAL PERSON. Posting that kind of stuff publicly is NOT OKAY. That is not how you act online or in the real world. I know Sunny has been deeply affected and truly hurt by seeing things like this. The worst part is that this kind of witchhunt fandom policing is still going on after multiple instances where it caused someone to attempt suicide. Why is this still going on? This kind of behavior is unacceptable and needs to stop.

[kyluhh21]

Sorry Anon I accidentally deleted your ask.So here it is :)

1: My name?Kyla 2: Do I have any nicknames?Ky,Tank, and Knucklehead 3: Zodiac sign?Sagittarius 4: Video game I play to chill, not to win?Minecraft? 5: Book/series I reread?Percy Jack and the lightning thief. 6: Aliens or ghosts?Ghosts 7: Writer I trust enough to read whatever they write? Idk a fanfic writer I guess.. 8: Favourite radio station?Anything but country 9: Favourite flavour of anything?Chocolate 10: The word that I use all the time to describe something great?Cool or nice. 11: Favourite song?Say you won't let go-James Arthur 12: The question you ask new friends to get to know them better?Whats your name? 13: Favourite word?My dad said I say Seriously a lot and also are you kidding me. 14: The last person who hurt me, did I forgive them?Yes 15: Last song I listened to?Gasoline-Halsey 16: TV show I always recommend?24 17: Pirates or ninjas?Ninjas 18: Movie I watch when I'm feeling down?Titanic 19: Song that I always start my shuffle with/wake-up song/always-on-a-loop song?Idk 20: Favourite video games?I don't have any. 21: What am I most afraid of?Not making my family proud. 22: A good quality of mine?My cheeks! (I messaged all my friends and they answered my cheeks lol) 23: A bad quality of mine?I don't have Patience. 24: Cats or dogs?Dogs 25: Actor/actress you trust enough to watch whatever they're in? Anna Kendrick 26: Favourite season?Summer 27: Am I in a relationship?No ( I could have if I didn't reject the person who ask me out about a week ago.) 28: Something I miss?Filipino food 29: My best friend?Grace and Hollie 30: Eye colour?Dark Brown 31: Hair colour?Black 32: Someone I love?My Mom 33: Someone I trust?My Best friend 34: Someone I always think about? Sage. 35: Am I excited about anything?Im going to Florida in 4 days and also going to the Philippines this summer. 36: My current obsession?Chocolate 37: Favourite TV shows as a child?Dora the Explorer 38: Do I have someone of the opposite sex that I can tell everything to?Yeah Corey. 39: Am I superstitious?No 40: What do I think about most?My future 41: Do I have any strange phobias?No? 42: Do I prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it?Behind it. 43: Favourite hobbies?Playing soccer and watching kids. 44: Last book I read?The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. 45: Last film I watched?Beauty and the Beast. 46: Do I play any instruments?Yes I play the Clarinet. 47: Favourite animal?Penguins and Pandas 48: Top 5 blog on Tumblr that I follow?Woso blogs. 49: Superpower I wish I could have?Able to read people's mind. 50: How do I destress?Listen to music or playing soccer. 51: Do I like confrontation?No 52: When do I feel most at peace?Im playing soccer all by myself. 53: What makes me smile?My family and Friends 54: Do I sleep with the lights on or off?Off 55: Play any sports?Yeah I play soccer,Basketball, and Softball. 56: What is my song of the week?Gasoline-Halsey. 57: Favourite drink?Water 58: When did I last send a handwritten letter to somebody?About 3 weeks ago. 59: Afraid of heights?Yes 60: Pet peeve?When people say they are sorry so many times...ugh it kills me I hate it. 61: What was the last concert I went to see?Adele 62: Am I vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian?No? 63: What occupation did I want to do when I was younger?A singer 64: Have I ever had a friend turn enemy?No 65: What fictional universe would I like to be a part of?None 66: Something I worry about?My grades 67: Scared of the dark?No 68: Who are my best friends?Grace,Hollie,Corey,Hunter,Bailey,and Arrie 69: What do I admire most about others?Their eyes and smile. 70: Can I sing?Yes I can. 71: Something I wish I could do?Teleport to anywhere. 72: If I won the lottery, what would I do?Shopping lol and save it up to buy a house someday. 73: Have I ever skipped school?No 74: Favourite place on the planet?The woods! 75: Where do I want to live?Oregon. 76: Do I have any pets?No 77: What is my current desktop picture?A picture of me and my friends when we went to Boston. 78: Early bird or night owl?Early Bird. 79: Sunsets or sunrise?Sunrise but I don't want to get up so early to see it. 80: Can I drive?No not yet. 81: Story behind my last kiss?Umm it was 8 days ago when my friend and I went to watch a movie.He grabbed my face and we kissed. Which I didn't want to happen at all and now we have been really distant from each other..So yeah. 82: Earphones or headphones?Headphones 83: Have I ever had braces?No 84: Story behind one of my scars?When I was a little kid someone threw a broken glass piece in the side of my face. 85: Favourite genre of music?Pop 86: Who is my hero?My stepfather 😂 87: Favourite comic book character?Clarke 88: What makes me really angry?When people lie 89: Kindle or real book?Real Book. 90: Favourite sporty activity?Soccer 91: What is one thing that isn’t tight in schools that should be?Idk. 92: What was my favourite subject at school?Social Studies and English. 93: Siblings?I have 3 brothers and I'm the oldest :) 94: What was the last thing I bought?Ice Cream 95: How tall am I?5 feet and 3 inches. 96: Can I cook?Yeah but not really well lol. 97: Can I bake?Yeah 98: 3 things I love?My family,friends and God. 99: 3 things I hate?Clowns,Scary movies, and Trevor. 100: Do I have more girl friends or boy friends?Girl friends 101: Who do I get on with better, girls or boys?Girls 102: Where was I born?Ozamiz City, Philippines. 103: Sexual orientation?I don't know I'm still figuring that out. 104: Where do I currently live?America 105: Last person I texted?Grace. 106: Last time I cried?Last week I cried 7 times :/ 107: Guilty pleasure?Chocolate 108: Favourite Youtuber?Shannon Beverage 109: A photo of myself.Nah maybe later 110: Do I like selfies?Heck No. 111: Favourite game app?I don't have any. 112: My relationship with my parents?I love them to death and they love me to death. 113: Favourite accents?Australian and British. 114: A place I have not been but wish to visit? Spain. 115: Favourite number?21. 116: Can I juggle?A soccer ball yes. 117: Am I religious?No 118: Do I like space?Yeah 119: Do I like the deep ocean?No 120: Am I much of a daredevil?No 121: Am I allergic to anything?Im allergic to Pine cones. 122: Can I curl my tongue?Yes 123: Can I wiggle my ears?No 124: Do I like clowns?No 125: The Beatles or Elvis?The Beatles. 126: My current project?Painting my room. 127: Am I a bad loser?Sometimes 128: Do I admit when I wrong?Yes 129: Forest or beach?Forest 130: Favourite piece of advice?Don't let anyone ruin your day :) 131: Am I a good liar?Haha no 132: Hogwarts house / Divergent faction / Hunger Games district?Lol Idk. 133: Do I talk to myself?Sometimes 134: Am I very social?No I'm so quite. 135: Do I like gossip?No 136: Do I keep a journal/diary?Nk 137: Have I ever hopelessly failed a test?No 138: Do I believe in second chances?Yes 139: If I found a wallet full of cash on the ground, what would I do?Find the person who dropped it. 140: Do I believe people are capable of change?Yes 141: Have I ever been underweight?No. 142: Am I ticklish?Yes. 143: Have I ever been in a submarine?No 144: Have I ever been on a plane?Yes a million times 145: In a film about my life, who would I cast as myself, friends and family?Idk 146: Have I ever been overweight?Lol no 147: Do I have any piercings?Only in my ears. 148: Which fictional character do I wish was real?Lexa 149: Do I have any tattoos?No 150: What is the best decision I have made in life so far?Moving to America. 151: Do I believe in Karma?Haha yeah. 152: Do I wear glasses or contacts?None 153: What was my first car?I don't have one I'm only 15 lol. 154: Do I want children?Yes I want two boys. 155: Who is the most intelligent person I know?My oldest brother Pierce. 156: My most embarrassing memory?I thought that Albany was a state for like 2 minutes. 157: What makes me nostalgic?idk 158: Have I ever pulled an all-nighter?Almost. 159: Which do I value more in others, brains or beauty? Probably both. 160: What colour mostly dominates my wardrobe?People at my school said I look good with the Color red. 161: Have I ever had a paranormal experience?No 162: What do I hate most about myself?I get mad easily. 163: What do I love most about myself?I love to make people smile and laugh. 164: Do I like adventure?Yes 165: Do I believe in fate?Not really. 166: Favourite animal?Panda or Penguins. 167: Have I ever been on radio?No 168: Have I ever been on TV?No 169: How old am I?15 years old 170: One of my favourite quotes? "Everything will be ok, if it's not ok then it's not the end". 171: Do I hold grudges?Mhmm. 172: Do I trust easily?No 173: Have I learnt from my mistakes?Yes 174: Best gift I’ve ever received?SmartTv. 175: Do I dream?Yes 176: Have I ever had a night terror?Yes 177: Do I remember my dreams, and what is one that comes to mind? Yes and it was about me and someone I love 👀. 178: An experience that has made me stronger?Idk. 179: If I were immortal, what would I do?Im not sure 180: Do I like shopping?Yes But I don't like shopping with my mom. 181: If I could get away with a crime, what would I choose to do?Id kill myself. 182: What does “family” mean to me?It means that they are always there in your happy days and bad days. Always go to your sport games and cheer you on the sideline. And just being supportive anytime! 183: What is my spirit animal?A monkey. 184: How do I want to be remembered?I want to be remember as a good set of example to other people in my school. 185: If I could master one skill, what would I choose?Juggle for a very long period of time. 186: What is my greatest failure? I don't know. 187: What is my greatest achievement?Making my family proud. 188: Love or money?Love 189: Love or career?Love 190: If I could time travel, where and when would I want to go?I want to be in the Philippines right now. 191: What makes me the happiest?When I'm with my family and friends. 192: What is “home” to me?Be with my family. 193: What motivates me?My family and soccer. 194: If I could choose my last words, what would they be?Deuces! 195: Would I ever want to encounter aliens?Heck no 196: A movie that scared me as a child?Chucky. 197: Something I hated as a child that I like now?Pizza 198: Zombies or vampires?Vampires. 199: Live in the city or suburbs?Suburbs which I don't like. 200: Dragons or wizards?Wizards. 201: A nightmare that has stayed with me?When somebody pointed again at me. 202: How do I define love?I don't...the dictionary does. 203: Do I judge a book by its cover?No never. 204: Have I ever had my heart broken?Yes. 205: Do I like my handwriting?No but a lot of people do they said it's really neat. 206: Sweet or savoury?Sweet. 207: Worst job I’ve had?None 208: Do I collect anything?Soccer balls? 209: Item of clothing or jewellery you’ll never see me without?A chocked. 210: What is on my bucket list?Skydiving before I die. 211: How do I handle anger?I just seriously go to my bedroom and listen to music. 212: Was I named after anyone?I was named after a singer in the Philippines. 213: Do I use sarcasm a lot?No 214: What TV character am I most like? Kimberly Bauer? My brother said. 215: What is the weirdest talent I have?i don't know. 216: Favourite fictional character?Lexa from the 100

[aion-rsa]

Batman Faces His Worst Fears in The Batman Who Laughs

https://ift.tt/2COdSZY

We sat down with Batman and Justice League writer Scott Snyder to talk about his upcoming miniseries, The Batman Who Laughs.

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Feature John Saavedra

Batman

Oct 16, 2018

Scott Snyder

DC Entertainment

NYCC 2018

NYCC

"I will never get tired of writing Batman," veteran DC writer Scott Snyder tells Den of Geek on the last day of NYCC 2018. "I mean, I will stop writing it, you know, cause I don't want to overstay my welcome. And when I don't have an idea that I think is special. But I get in that Batmobile and I just love it to death, I have so much fun."

Since 2011, Snyder has been working on a Batman epic that is already regarded as one of the all-time great runs on the character ever written. Snyder has tackled everything from Batman's origin story to his adventures through the Dark Multiverse, a nightmare version of the DC universe run by an evil Justice League and a Bat-God. Batman's also fought a villain-turned-kaiju in a giant mech, punched a plethora of zoo animals (a running gag in Snyder's stories), teamed up with the Joker, and even created clones of himself in order to fight crime forever.

What's kept Snyder's Batman work so interesting is his unbelievable range as a writer. He's explored Batman through the lens of horror, sci-fi, and the adventure genre. He can make you laugh, cry, or shiver in terror. Most importantly, the stories he tells about Batman feel personal, more concerned with what makes Batman human than whom he is punching. 

With almost a decade of Batman stories under his belt, Snyder has shown no sign of leaving the Dark Knight behind. In fact, he has at least two more stories left to tell. Next year, Snyder will team up with his Batpartner-in-crime, artist Greg Capullo, for Batman: Last Knight on Earth, a postapocalyptic three-part miniseries inspired by Mad Max and billed as "the last Batman story ever told."

But before that, Snyder has an ever grimmer tale to tell: The Batman Who Laughs, a six-issue miniseries with art from Jock, another frequent collaborator (most recently on Wytches and All-Star Batman). It will see the return of one of the most grotesque villain's in the Caped Crusader's rogues gallery, a Jokerized Batman from the Dark Multiverse who killed all of his friends and enemies on his Earth and has now come to our Earth to do the same. For Batman, the Batman Who Laughs is a terrifying mirror image of what he could become if he ever broke his most important rule.

"It's a really personal story," Snyder explains. "It's very much about the Batman Who Laughs coming to Gotham and saying, 'I've seen you across multiple worlds, and I know what really makes you happy. And what makes you happy is going to surprise you.'"

While the material is certainly dark, Snyder says that the book will still contain plenty of the over-the-top action Batfans know and love. 

"The story starts with Bruce tracking down the smuggling ring, and they're smuggling things in these heavy load trucks, with these kinds of compartments that sort of sit beneath the truck. He's following one that's carrying houses and people are pushing houses off and trying to stop him. He's busting through the houses on his Batcycle. I love it, it's so fun."

Related Article: The 6 Actors Who Have Played the Joker

According to Snyder, what the Dark Knight finds inside these hidden compartments is what sends him on a collision course with the Batman Who Laughs. 

"He opens up the compartment and he sees a dead Bruce Wayne. This Bruce Wayne is ten years older than him, has lived a different life, was married to Selena, had a kid with Selena," Snyder reveals. "He has to autopsy himself and discover the clues as to whose back and he realizes very quickly it's the Batman Who Laughs."

While it's true that the Batman Who Laughs is what happens when you mix Batman and Joker together to form the DCU's most terrifying bad guy, Snyder stresses that this isn't necessarily a Batman vs. Joker story. Even the Joker doesn't know what to make of the Batman Who Laughs.

"I would say that the thing that's really interesting to me right now is not the Joker/Batman antagonism," Snyder says. "It's the Batman Who Laughs as the nightmare that the both of them are sort of unprepared for. I don't think Joker ever really thinks Batman is going to kill him. I think he just pushes him and pushes him to be a better version of himself in his own evil, psychotic way. He believes he's helping [Batman] somehow as his kind of best villain."

Related Article: The Batman Movies That Never Were

Just imagine a villain who has every quality that makes Batman great -- the superior intellect, combat training, and determination bordering on the suicidal -- while also enjoying the amorality that allows the Joker to destroy, burn, and kill without hesitation. He's the perfect foe for Batman, he knows every move the Dark Knight will make as well as all of his weaknesses.

"The Batman Who Laughs to me is a figure who, he's not even so much the Joker as he is Batman. He's Bruce Wayne, he has all Bruce Wayne's memories. He knows everything that's happened with the Justice League," Snyder teases. "That's what's scary about it."

First introduced in Snyder and Capullo's big Dark Nights: Metal crossover event, the Batman Who Laughs was only defeated when the Joker decided to team up with the Caped Crusader to take the monstrous aberration down. This was one partnership that the Batman Who Laughs couldn't predict. 

Most recently, the Batman Who Laughs returned in the pages of Snyder's Justice League series. It's revealed that Lex Luthor captured the villain and locked him up in the Hall of Doom. In Justice League #8, Luthor and the Batman Who Laughs make a pact to help each other take down the world's greatest heroes. But while Luthor wants to take down all of the superheroes who stand in his way, it's clear that the Batman Who Laughs has his sights set on his heroic counterpart. And this time, he's not coming alone. 

Related Article: 25 Essential Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

The Batman Who Laughs will also introduce the Grim Knight, a gun-toting Batman from another universe who Snyder likens to the Punisher. He's packed with weapons and isn't afraid to pull the trigger on his enemies. As you can see in the art above, the Grim Knight has a real love for killing machines.

It's impossible to ignore the fact that the Grim Knight is making his debut at a time when our country is facing a major gun violence problem that's resulted in over 280 mass shootings just in 2018. While Snyder isn't using the Grim Knight to comment on current political issues, he does stress that this gun-toting villain isn't meant to be celebrated. The Grim Knight is very much the bad guy.

"With Batman, a lot of the time you get the question of 'Why doesn't Batman use lethal force?'" Snyder says. "This is one of Batman's worst fears come to life. That fear is that he will cross a line and will never be able to come back and get darker and darker and darker."

Guns aren't the only tools the Grim Knight uses to inflict his particular brand of justice on his enemies. He's got plenty of other ways to hurt his enemies.

Related Article: The Many Deaths of the Joker

"It's not really about guns, so much as it is about lethality. And the story itself, as much as he's shown with the guns on the cover, he actually uses many other means. He uses a lot more blades and gauntlets and scythes and electricity, and all kinds of horrifying things to get you."

Like Bruce Wayne, the Grim Knight is also incredibly rich. While our Bruce has used his immense wealth to fund his non-lethal crimefighting tech, the Grim Knight is basically running something like Murder Google.

"The Grim Knight is literally the head of a multi-billion dollar military industrial complex. He has stuff in your phone. He has stuff in your car and GPS. So if he wants to kill you, your car just goes off a bridge. You don't even know it was him. So its really not about the guns, so much is about the fact that he's willing to kill anyone to get what he wants, anytime."

With two killer Batmen on the loose (and one dead Bruce Wayne), will the Caped Crusader be able to win the day without breaking his one rule? Will he survive the onslaught at all? We'll find out when The Batman Who Laughs #1 arrives in November. 

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9. 

from Books https://ift.tt/2CiWKdM

[our-controversial-opinions]

ANTIFA is going to be the downfall of everything America stood for

Just watching the news of what Antifa has been up to, I’ve been shaking my head and mourning the loss of American freedom. Antifa’s tantrums and recent threats to kill Trump for the anti-liberal decisions the Republican party has made have easily been comparable to a child. A child whose parents just divorced due to parenting differences and they got stuck with the parent that actually disciplines their children instead of giving them everything they want. You don’t get to pick your parents, kids. You do, however, get to pick your president.

Americans have the liberty of voting for their leader who, in fact, doesn’t even actually lead unless they need to keep their PR up to date. They talk. They’re a face. Trump isn’t any different. Antifa seems to believe that isn’t the case. Trump is a yappy chihuahua on a leash that just so happens to have nuclear launch codes (which I’m sure he’s forgotten already) but everything he does has repercussions within his own government. The Republican party lets him talk but they hold the leash. Yes, there are more people behind the conservative decisions that everyone hates. We’ve been under democratic leadership for the majority of this turn in history where everyone seems to think they’re privileged and entitled to explanations, to reparations, to forgiveness, and to a blurred definition of ‘justice.’ Nobody owes anyone. Forgive and forget so you can live instead of dedicating your life to a cause that will ultimately end in making someone miserable just for you to feel better. What kind of justice is that?

We notice that the more mature democrats took this presidency like they did every other time it didn’t go their way. They brushed it off and said ‘we’ll get em next time.’ I’m a millennial and I acknowledge that it’s the millennials that are losing their minds like it’s the end of the world that he’s the president. Antifa was a byproduct of lax parenting, a right to entitlement, and a screwed up sense of justice. All of our movies, books, etc. has always told us that the good wins in the end. That constant exposure and ‘justice’ has made everyone think that’s how it works in the real world. It’s really not. Everyone’s sense of justice is blurred and different. No two people will have the same opinion on justice. (ex: If you were to come up with the punishment for every sex offender in America, what would it be? How would you classify them? What would be grounds for that title? Because right now you can be sent to prison and labeled as a sex offender if you just so happen to download porn of a 17 year old girl advertising herself as 18 AND if you just so happen to have more than 7 files, your charge will be ‘Possession of Child Pornography with the Intent to Distribute’ and you will end up with 5+ years in prison just for believing a teenage girl when she lied about her age. How would you settle that?) Nobody has the same ideas for justice because everyone thinks differently as you probably noticed when considering the answers to the questions previously presented. Nobody will be happy no matter who is in office. All we can do is keep our mouths shut and wait until next time. That’s the mature way to handle it. (Doesn’t mean we don’t have to complain the whole time. By all means, complain and ridicule till your heart’s content.)

Antifa has taken such a violent approach to this disagreement that the government is looking down on them as a child that has been spoiled into adulthood, not accepting that the world doesn’t bend to their whims like it did for their whole life. A child with guns that they can hurt people with. The moment the order goes out officially labeling Antifa as a terrorist organization and/or treasonous against America, allowing officers to arrest and charge members as criminals, Antifa will play victim and pull the ‘just kidding’ card. I’m sorry but if you ever say something horrible knowing it’s horrible and follow it with ‘just kidding’ so you can get away with saying it, I lose all respect for you. That is not okay. However, that is how over half of this population gets away with being rude to people. Because everyone is entitled to their own opinion, right?

Antifa and people who defend Antifa have claimed that they haven’t been violent. When regular people (or “sheep” as you so politely call us) are afraid to stand against you because they fear you like they fear a wild animal rather than see you as a person, you have a problem. I know a lot of Antifa members use Tumblr and I know you guys may see this post. I don’t look forward to it because I DO fear you. You are a terror to this nation and people are scared of you, but I will not accept any abuse from you because you don’t agree with me.

If there is one thing I want Antifa members to read, it’s this:

You are creating a more strict, more dangerous, more scary, and more fearful nation by your actions. When you are cracked down on, the rest of America will suffer with you. The same way that bratty kid gets the whole class in trouble, you will ruin the freedom we’ve had. We were a country of freedom. Then you got offended over everything, started demanding things you are not owed, and threatened those who got in your way. Now, we’re suffering for it. Before you go into your next rally or plot to kill the president, think about whether or not your life is worth it for this ridiculous notion that you can change what’s going on. We are a system for a reason. A system that can help you if you put the effort into it instead of being lazy and expecting everything to fall into your lap. If you gave up on that system, you didn’t have a chance to succeed. You’re throwing a wrench into the cogs of our system and we are not planning to fail. If we do, however, what do you want after that? Anarchy? We will all be thrown into poverty and you will be the reason this nation lost its freedom. Sit down, shut up, and wait until the next voting period before trying to make a change. There is no perfect world. We were as close to it as we could be before everyone started taking it for granted.

Thanks, your friendly neighborhood straight, white, privileged millennial female who just wants to live without fear.

Censorship on the internet is starting to happen because some people just can’t handle the reality that is the world. People are assholes and you need to learn not to take it to heart. Don’t riot against people who can’t do anything about it at that very moment because they’re currently focused on the big picture for the nation. That doesn’t mean you group everyone of their race or tax bracket together and tell them to pay you back for their words or actions via taxes. I am a white, straight, privileged female who has no clue of your struggles. What I do know is that because of the fact that my family is Republican and I live in South Texas, I am automatically in a group of people that is told that it is okay for you to beat me, to abuse me, and that my feelings don’t matter because I have more than you do. That I supposedly haven’t struggled.

Living in a low income neighborhood in a crap 3 bedroom, 1 & 1/2 bathroom trailer that’s falling apart from the inside out, my mother struggling to feed myself and my four younger brothers after the divorce from my abusive father, that’s a struggle. Apparently my situation isn’t valid, however, because I was only in that situation from 2009 until June 2016 when she remarried a wealthy, nice man who gave us a nice home and a warm bed to sleep in. I’m not still in that situation. People that are still in that situation get to talk about it. I’m not allowed to mention that part of my life or I’m an attention seeker who’s making things up or being dramatic. There’s nothing dramatic about cold winters wrapped in hand-me-down quilts and roaches crawling out of the sink every time you turn on the lights to bathroom. It’s a cold, hard truth that everyone of every color has the possibility of experiencing.

( The Demands from Chanelle Helm from Black Lives Matter: https://www.leoweekly.com/2017/08/white-people/ )

( The Official Black Lives Matter website, again with demands that would make the quality of life for black people better but at the cost of white people’s hard earned money: https://policy.m4bl.org/ Just scroll on down to the demands. They’re separated into categories for us. )

Then I get to see Antifa and Black Lives Matter on the news saying all white people should pay reparations to them for their struggles. Where are my reparations? My father already pays child support but what about the bills paid and food stamps used by my mother? I should be paid back for that too, right? And I’m going to ask all Mexicans to pay me back because that was the kind of neighborhood I lived in. They stole gas out of my car and stalked me down the street when I got off the school bus after school on my own. I was 12 when I noticed what was going on. THAT is about how much sense these ‘reparations’ and ‘demands’ make. Want to talk about racism? It’s not just the white neo-nazis out there that are racist. I’m pretty sure the posters saying ‘They voted for Trump, they deserve this even if they’re women’ with pictures of white women with bruises on their face is pretty racist and sexist. I didn’t even vote this year!

Fake/Joke or not, these posters are circulating around the internet and SOMEONE is going to take them seriously. These posters scare me. I am scared to talk to anybody that I don’t already know because you just don’t know if you’re going to happen upon an Antifa member who plans to beat you to death behind a dumpster because you’re a privileged white woman.

The nation is becoming a more dangerous with Antifa’s presence and contagious mindset. America functions and maintains its freedom by staying unified in a system rather than fighting and destroying the system. Dramatic changes needed to be made to start the fight to get America out of debt and save ourselves a war with some of the biggest countries in the world. Debt to other nations that own nukes and control most of our trade is more dangerous than hurt feelings. Antifa has become the weak link that attacks us from the inside and could lead to the nation’s downfall if someone starts a war with us. When you’re working in a factory for another nation, paid in rice and living in small shelters, then you can revolt about your hurt feelings. When this whole nation is privileged compared to most other nations in the world, we look like fools because of Antifa’s antics.

Nobody needs to be running around with a hero complex like it’s all fun and games with no consequences. There are plenty of other organizations to join that don’t involve trying to destroy the government and ruin everyone’s lives. If you’re an teenager on Tumblr who just goes to Antifa gatherings on the weekends to mess with the government and push buttons so you feel special, get out of it. Criminals are becoming known for using Antifa as a way to get away with doing what they want to the government in retaliation for their sentences and/or titles, including sex offenders with very serious rape charges and violent felons. Covering their face protects them from the police that are focused on the rioting and everyone within the group trusts each other more than they should. It’s horrifying. You could be raped or murdered in the chaos and nobody would be able to help you.

I personally hope that an order gets passed down to allow police to arrest every Antifa member that shows up to these rallies as a terrorist or for treason. I hope it’s explosive, violent, and shocking. The bratty kid needs to get their butt whooped by the parent until they get their act together. Peaceful protest is constitutional, what Antifa does isn’t protected by any of our rights. Antifa is lucky they’ve gotten as far as they have and they’re definitely digging a pretty deep hole for themselves. Hope you are prepared for the possibility of prison if you are actively fighting in these rallies. If you’re a bystander, I’d love to hear your input on the situation.

                                                                                                         - F. Grayson

Note: This post is intended to be opinionated based on “factual resources” collected, read, and watched by the author. (If this were a paper for my college class, I would have provided a Bibliography, not a Works Cited. That’s the difference for fellow college nerds.) By no means are any of the statements intended to be taken as straight facts. They are simply as accurate as possible according to the author’s knowledge. This is a topic up for debate. Feel free to reply with an educated statement in a post. I, however, will not be replying to any replies on this post. Do what you will. I have said what I want to say as my icebreaker for this blog. If you have taken offense or believe that this post was too harsh, you’ll need to just learn how to ignore me. Expect more in the future.