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timetravellingkitty · 7 months

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Mulan 2020 sucks lol

Written and edited by yours truly

So, Mulan 2020 happened. And I am disappointed. Seriously disappointed. It is utter garbage. I would genuinely prefer it if I watched Mulan II 5 times in a row, and that's saying something.

There is so much to talk about because this has so many issues. I don't think my brain can handle a movie as bad as this for some time. It is a disgrace to the original animated movie.

(Who cares about spoilers?)

And yes, I can and I will compare it to the original movie because it is a remake. It is totally valid to see where this fell flat and where the original succeeded. I'm not saying it has to be like the original cartoon, that is stupid. As I mentioned, it's to highlight the failures of this movie.

Besides, even if we forget the fact that it is a remake, this movie is still horrible.

INTRODUCTION

Mulan 1998 is a classic. It has great visuals, an awesome soundtrack, wonderful and compelling characters, a great message and a cool plot. It's just a great movie in general. It is an adaptation of The Ballad of Mulan, a Chinese legend. Both the legend and the animated movie are about a young girl named Mulan who disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army to fight back against an invasion.

As big of a success Mulan was, Chinese audiences thought some things were weird. For instance, having a dragon be a comic relief character, given that dragons are highly respected in Chinese culture. So of course, Disney decided to try another shot, claiming that they wanted to be more culturally sensitive, accurate and closer to the original ballad.

Mulan 2020 is a remake of the original animated movie, and was marketed to be more "accurate to Chinese culture and the Ballad". This claim is, of course, false, because they failed in that aspect. Say what you will about the cultural inaccuracies in Mulan 1998, but at least it was a great movie. Besides, Mulan 1998 didn't pride or market itself on being culturally accurate, the way Mulan 2020 did, so there's that.

CHANGES

I don't mind some changes. And honestly, if there's one thing I appreciate, it's that it isn't a carbon copy of the original (looking at you The Lion King 2019).

Li Shang's character is divided into two characters: Commander Tung and Mulan's love interest Honghui, apparently in light of the Me-Too movement. This is a dumb reason. Disney wasn't comfortable with a superior having a relationship with a subordinate? The hell? The romance between Shang and Mulan was only insinuated at the end, when Mulan wasn't even a part of the army anymore, so there's that. Also, Mulan gave her consent, so I don't know what they’re talking about.

Mushu isn't present in the movie. I can see why though. He contributed quite a bit to the soul of the animated version but a CGI dragon would be very distracting. Also, the director said that removed him to achieve a more realistic tone.

Grandma? No grandma. Mulan has a sister though, who only exists to mess stuff up.

The Huns are replaced with the Rourans and Shan Yu is replaced with Bori Khan.

Mushu is replaced with a phoenix, who acts as an emissary for the ancestors

There are no songs, except in the end credits, which isn't a bad thing. The instrumentals of the songs in the animated one play during some scenes (I'll talk about the music, don’t worry)

CHARACTERS

The characters in this movie are so boring. Our lead character Mulan lacks the charisma her animated counterpart had. She's utterly bland, uninteresting and poorly written. In the original, she knew she wasn't physically strong and that she couldn't solve her problems with her strength, so she used her intelligence and wit. She excelled by working hard and being strong willed and determined. This Mulan is a well rounded character.

Mulan in the live action is given Chi powers (Chi is a big part of Chinese medicine, in case you didn't know). Honestly, I wouldn't be as mad at Mulan being given superpowers, had they actually done this properly! Chi isn't like midichlorians, it's something that flows through everyone. Mulan is naturally born with dumb superpowers and has to hide them because as her dad says, " Chi is for warriors, not for daughters”. There is a problem:

It has been mentioned many times that Mulan needs to hide her superpowers otherwise she will be shunned and ostracised. Then why doesn't she get more repercussions everytime she uses her powers? The worst thing that happens is little Mulan getting looks of disgust when she uses them. On other occasions, when she is now a part of the army, she uses her powers in training and she doesn't get any backlash? What the hell?? Then why even bother in the first place?

The only way for this narrative to work is if Mulan got more repercussions for using her powers.

If I were to make the line "Chi is for warriors, not daughters," work, I would make it go something like this:

*At the end of the movie when Mulan comes home*

Dad: Didn't I tell you that Chi is for warriors, not daughters?

Mulan: "I am a daughter, but I'm a warrior too."

(Yes, I know this is similar to a scene in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but this would be better, tbh. Also, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Let me compare the training montages from both movies.

In the animated one, there is an absolutely AWESOME montage of Mulan training side by side with her companions, slowly gaining their trust. She climbs the pillar with both medallions by using her wit, not by brute force. This Mulan worked hard. Besides, the fact that "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" plays over this is the only thing that makes it better (banger song, thank you Donny Osmond)

In the live-action, Mulan is supposed to lift up buckets and climb on top of a mountain. There are also other training scenes, but those aren't very important. In these scenes, she succeeds with the power of CHI. WHY? Mulan here just achieves her goal because she is oh so special. She didn't work to achieve her goal at all, because she is perfect. No struggling or development here at all.

Mulan in the animated version was more concerned about saving her father. Mulan in the 2020 version is a dumb patriot who can't even do patriotism right ("I know my place. It is my duty to fight for the kingdom and protect the Emperor") How very empowering.

In short, live-action Mulan can do no wrong. She has no flaws, no personality and no charm. Everything comes to her pretty easily, because MAGIC.

Li Shang's role in the live-action is divided between Commander Tung and Mulan's love interest Honghui, as mentioned before. Both of these characters are flat, dumb and boring. Tung exists to tell Mulan to cultivate her Chi and to train these idiots (and to offer his daughter’s hand in marriage to her, unaware that Mulan isn’t actually a guy, but eh). Honghui is there to be a stupid love interest, who gives us an “I am Spartacus” moment.

The witch is by far the most interesting character. She actually has more than one side to her, has SOME kind of depth and you can even feel sorry for her. She is supposed to serve as a foil to Mulan, given that both have similar powers. In case you've forgotten (which is something I wouldn't blame you for), she's an outcast who's now working with Bori Khan. Why is she an outcast? Because of her Chi. The witch has said many times that she could kill Bori Khan in a snap, then why doesn't she kill him? Because she needs acceptance? What the hell? She decides to pull out the whole "We're the same, you and I," stupidity to Mulan, and I can see that. It's just that the writers just didn't put much thought into it. “It’s too late for me” because you saw a woman leading an army of men? Also, why does she warn Mulan that Bori Khan is coming? Unless she's playing both sides, except her motivations aren't made clear enough for this to make sense. Finally, she dies for the dumbest reason. God, it just makes me so mad. She had so much potential, but no. They just had to mess her up.

Bori Khan? MORE LIKE BORING KHAN. Not much is there. His animated counterpart Shan Yu was scary and contributed to some of the darkest moments in the movie. This guy over here is just...nothing. That's all I have to say.

Mulan's sister is only there to mess up the meeting with the Matchmaker. What a stupid change. First off in the animated version, it's Mulan who messed up, because she isn't perfect. She fails at being stereotypically feminine AND masculine, but in the live-action, she literally pulls off a Spiderman cafeteria scene, and the blame is put on the sister. In the animated movie, this scene is groundwork for Mulan wanting to prove herself and going on a hero's journey, providing depth to her character, but in the live-action, she's perfect. What is the point? (I know this section was supposed to be about the sister, but eh). The sister doesn't provide anything else to the movie, so thanks! I hate it. Moral of the story: Girls can do anything boys can, as long as they have superpowers. If you are born special like Mulan, you can be respected, whereas if you are like the sister, you have no significance and in the end, you can just fit in and be irrelevant. Congratulations!

The live action group of guys Mulan met and befriended in the army lack the charm and comedic timing of their animated counterparts. That’s it. Seriously. I have nothing more to say about them, because they don't really have anything going on. I don't even know why they are included, because their contribution is nil, save for them blandly speaking lines from the animated version’s songs ("I don't care what she looks like, I care what she cooks like"), which is seriously cringe.

The dad is there to tell Mulan that Chi is for warriors. A shame, because I really liked the dad in the movie. He was a source of wisdom for Mulan, whose greatest honour was having her for a daughter. In the live-action, he just takes the sword that Mulan is given at the end of the movie. The mom is meh.

The emperor is also meh. At least he was wise and cool in the animated version, but here he just does bed sheet kung-fu.

Did I mention that the dynamics between the characters are unnatural, forced, awkward in a bad way and in no way indicates any chemistry between them? Oh yeah, I didn’t, until now. They don’t establish much when it comes to emotion.

Simply put, Khan (Mulan’s horse in the animated version) had more personality than all of these characters combined

PERFORMANCES

Liu Yifei as Mulan was a pretty terrible choice. She is just a block of wood, who has absolutely no range, and this isn't because of the writing. She is genuinely bad, and is regarded as one of China’s worst actors (I kid you not). She just can’t emote.

Jet Li as the emperor is meh. But hey, he doesn’t have much to do, so eh.

Jason Scott Lee as Bori Khan is fine. He doesn’t suck, but he lacks the command and authority of a character who is supposed to be intimidating, but I guess it has something to do with the writing of his character.

Donnie Yen is a martial art legend, but unfortunately, he doesn't have much range as an actor.

The best performance of this movie is that of Gong Li, who played the witch. Honestly, she is charismatic, charming and has an idea of what she is doing.

To save everyone’s time, simply put: most of the performances are bland and mediocre. Partly due to bad writing and partly due to most of the actors not being, well, good at acting.

CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL ACCURACY

So Disney went all “we like cultural and historical accuracy”, which is nice. For example, the Huns are replaced by the Rourans, a real tribe in China around the time Mulan was supposed to be alive. They also removed the hair cutting scene, because as iconic and awesome as it is, it doesn’t make sense. Chinese men wore their hair long too. You know what? I like these kinds of changes. I appreciate accuracy. If only Disney didn’t pride themselves on their accuracy when they got almost everything else wrong (They somehow got Mulan's house wrong lol). I don't know jackshit about Chinese culture so just go watch that Xiran Jay Zhao video it's very swag

THE BALLAD OF MULAN

In a surprising turn of events, this isn't accurate to the Ballad, like they had marketed it to be (I know, I’m shocked too). In a reference to the Ballad, Mulan is riding a horse and she sees two rabbits running side by side. She goes home and tells her family that she saw 2 rabbits, and she thinks that one was male and the other female, but she wasn't sure. This just misses the entire point of the Ballad.

Long story short, Mulan in the Ballad is actually a seamstress. She joined the army in her father's place. She defeats the barbarians and goes on a ten year long campaign with her friends, after which they meet the Son of Heaven (a sacred imperial title of a Chinese emperor). He offers her a high ranking position, which she refuses, because she just wants to go home. She returns home and her family welcomes her. Sometime later, her friends come to visit her, and they find out that she is actually a woman. The friends are shocked because she has been in the army for 12 years and in those 12 years, they didn't even realise that she was a woman.

Mulan then replies:

The male hare's feet hop and skip

The female hare's are muddled and fuddled

But when two hares are running side by side

How can you tell the male from the female?

Which is where the poem ends.

So, Mulan just going on, judging those rabbits like that makes absolutely no sense. The Ballad is about how no matter how different men and women look, when they live and fight amongst each other, who gives a damn about the differences? You know what would have made sense though? If Mulan got off her horse, went close to the rabbits, examined them, and then made the conclusion that one is male and the other is female. This would actually be sticking to the message of the Ballad. Also, why do they make it ambiguous as to whether she accepts the high ranking position? I assume for a sequel (yes, God save my soul). Here we can see another example of its impeccable accuracy to the Ballad.

THIS ISN'T EMOTIONAL AT ALL

Everything that made the original film good has been stripped away. Every moment that is meant to be emotional is very dull. For example, the scene where Mulan makes the decision to take her father's place in the army is supposed to be a very powerful scene. Mulan is risking it all just so her dad can be safe. She might be killed if discovered, and her family would be dishonoured.

When Mulan comes back from the Matchmaker, she has a moment of reflection while singing "Reflection". This is the beginning of her personal journey, discovering who she is. In this, after Mulan comes back from the Matchmaker, she doesn't have a moment of reflection. The army immediately shows up. Am I really supposed to believe that Mulan feels bad about this? That Mulan is really struggling?

When Mulan’s friends are singing, it suddenly shifts to the striking scene of the burnt village. This, in my opinion, is the best use of tonal whiplash. From this point on, things are getting serious, and the emotional weight of this tragedy is felt. In this, they just randomly show up at the village. There is no seriousness (stop trying to tell me this movie is adult, mature and serious, it just looks like that on the surface).

Their attempts at being emotional are poor and unconvincing, and ultimately, the end product is an emotionless, soulless, depthless entity.

THE MUSIC

The director mentioned in an interview that she didn’t add songs into the movie because it is “unrealistic to break into song when you're in war”, and I don't think I’ve heard anything more false (apart from the concept of a flat Earth). Even I, who isn't going into war anytime soon, know this is false. They instead inserted instrumentals from the original film. Except, it's very weirdly placed. The instrumental for Reflection is placed when Mulan is fighting the Rourans after she reveals herself to be a woman. Like, there isn't any context. In the end credits, they had the original song "Loyal, Brave and True" sung by Christina Aguilera, which was nice. I don't really have much to say in regards to the music. The music is overall forgettable.

THE ACTION

The action may seem weird, but this kind of martial arts is a part of the Wuxia genre, which is what they were going for. Well, they failed. The choreography is bad, the CGI is bad, EVERYTHING is bad. Honestly, if you want a good Wuxia movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon exists. The action is here stupid and stiff.

OTHER DUMB STUFF

Why does Mulan take her armour off before going into battle? That is just stupid. Can't you just take the bindings off? Also, WHY OPEN YOUR HAIR-

Mulan really likes kicking spears (and pointy stuff in general). Seriously. It’s weird.

The CGI is okay I guess, I don't know. The phoenix in some scenes looks pink to me. There are some pretty visuals though.

It is very obvious that there is a green screen used in the scene where Mulan and her friends find the burnt village. And it looks bad. Pretty ugly. It looks bad. The green screen looks bad.

The war strategy is just weird. I can't really say anything about it in text form because how am i supposed to describe it, help- (she literally teleported behind the bad guys in the avalanche scene-).

I like how the animated film, which had a dragon as a comic relief and other silly stuff, is more mature than this.

For what joy does Mulan get another sword from the army? Also, shame the dad is all “oh look at the values written on the sword, they are honourable” even though in the original the greatest honour was having her for a daughter.

How was Mulan even able to tell the gender of the rabbits?

Why not just try to send a warning to the Emperor that the Rourans are coming to get him?

Why does Commander Tung let Mulan lead them-

I AM SO DONE

Well, I think I have said everything I wanted to about this movie. I know I havent talked about its controversies but honestly, I am done. I am so done with this. This document took 5-6 months of my life. I am kind of proud of this, and there isn't much I have done to be proud of. I did procrastinate on this a bit, and I had stuff going on, but finally, I am done. In the future, if I remember something, I'll add it here, but I think that is unlikely. I never want to watch or even go near Mulan 2020 again. It's horrible, and there is barely anything redeemable. I hate it here. It’s been reported that a sequel is in development. If it’s true, of course I’ll watch it, how else am I supposed to validate my self hate? I am also, of course, the resident “friend who suffers for everyone else’s entertainment”. If you want a live action remake of Mulan, Mulan: Rise of a Warrior exists. Go watch it, it’s free on YouTube with subtitles. I really liked it.

If you’ve somehow made it this far, thanks for reading. I congratulate you for putting up with whatever this is. I would also like to take a moment to congratulate myself for actually committing to this. It was painful yet fun to complain about this to the best of my ability. If anyone wants to add anything to this, feel free to do so. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m out. I have lost my faith in humanity, and I have other things to complain about.

#this was written 3 years ago. are you proud of me yet #i should mention. the animated mulan is one of my favourite movies ever so 😙#reva is an artist

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autumnmobile12 · 11 months

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Page 5

The top panel was part of the plan when I first decided to do this comic. (It’s inspired by a shot from a movie trailer of a film I haven't actually seen, Last Christmas, 2019.) But when plotting out the pages, I had to decide whose hand that was and that entailed a consistent layout of who is present and where they are. Having it be Endeavor made the most sense. For one, between the gloves and the size of his hand compared to the rest of the family, he's easy to identify. The action itself, however, carries a variety of connotations. This could be a sign of affection, comfort, apology, and given the volatile nature of their previous encounters, it could also be a warning for Dabi to not start throwing flames in a hospital.

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#my hero academia #touya todoroki #dabi #endeavor #boku no hero academia #comic #bnha #mha #my hero academia fanart #bnha fanart #tw blood

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rjzimmerman · 2 months

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Excerpt from this story from Grist:

One in 11 people worldwide went hungry last year, while one in three struggled to afford a healthy diet. These numbers underscore the fact that governments not only have little shot at achieving a goal, set in 2015, of eradicating hunger, but progress toward expanding food access is backsliding.

The data, included in a United Nations report released Wednesday, also reveals something surprising: As global crises continue to deepen, issues like hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition no longer stand alone as isolated benchmarks of public health. In the eyes of the intergovernmental organizations and humanitarian institutions tracking these challenges, access to food is increasingly entangled with the impacts of a warming world.

“The agrifood system is working under risk and uncertainties, and these risks and uncertainties are being accelerated because of climate [change] and the frequency of climate events,” Máximo Torero Cullen, chief economist of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said in a briefing. It is a “problem that will continue to increase,” he said, adding that the mounting effects of warming on global food systems create a human rights issue.

Torero calls the crisis “an unacceptable situation that we cannot afford, both in terms of our society, in terms of our moral beliefs, but also in terms of our economic returns.”

Of the 733 million or so people who went hungry last year, there were roughly 152 million more facing chronic undernourishment than were recorded in 2019. (All told, around 2.8 billion people could not afford a healthy diet.) This is comparable to what was seen in 2008 and 2009, a period widely considered the last major global food crisis, and effectively sets the goal of equitable food access back 15 years. This insecurity remains most acute in low-income nations, where 71.5 percent of residents struggled to buy enough nutritious food — compared to just 6.3 percent in wealthy countries.

Climate change is second only to conflict in having the greatest impact on global hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, according to the FAO. That’s because planetary warming does more than disrupt food production and supply chains through extreme weather events like droughts. It promotes the spread of diseases and pests, which affects livestock and crop yields. And it increasingly causes people to migrate as they flee areas ravaged by rising seas and devastating storms, which, in turn, can fuel conflict that then drives more migration in a vicious cycle.

#hunger #food production #climate change

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reds-skull · 5 months

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Post script on BLOOD||HUNGER

OOOkay, like I said in the ask I got earlier, this post is gonna be LONG. I’ll be covering the poems at the start (and sometimes end) of each chapter, the source of inspiration for them, the timeline of the fic compared to canon, deleted scenes and maybe most importantly the true identity of the Hunter.

I’d like to say before I start rambling that I appreciate each and every one of you that commented, liked and gave kudos! It really means a lot to me, that you’re here reading my silly little stories haha.

I’m gonna start with the beginning - how I started thinking about the main plot of BLOOD||HUNGER.

So, I kept thinking about the Alone mission in mw2 (as we all do), but thinking about “what if Soap was a civilian in Las Almas when it happened?”

(This is slightly inspired by this fic by TRaena, which I read months earlier and kept thinking about its setup because it was so damn good. I highly suggest reading it!)

So originally, I imagined a whole plot where Soap is a football player, having a vacation in Las Almas when Graves suddenly attacks. Ghost is in the 141 like in canon, but he’s the one that gets shot in the shoulder. The two of them meet, and because Ghost is injured, and Soap is stranded alone in a foreign country, they decide to fight together to get out.

In that original plot, Soap continues sticking by Ghost throughout the campaign, creating distractions for Rudy and Ghost while they rescue the vaqueros, and getting kidnapped by Hassan where he gets dangled over a window in Chicago and Ghost saves him. As you can tell I thought about that version quite a bit, but I made one change that moved it in the direction of the actual story I ended up writing.

What if Soap was dishonorably discharged instead?

That trait changed his entire character, from a guy that got dropped into a war where he has no experience fighting, to someone that is bitterly familiar with it, yet he was exiled from participating. And yet it followed him.

Ghost’s character is actually inspired by who I originally thought he was, when I first saw the mw2 campaign.

See, I first watched my friend play it, and he’s been playing cod since the original mw. He built Ghost up for my like he’s this op guy (which he is), and when he said that he’s been doing guerilla warfare for years in Alone, I thought to myself ‘was this guy just running around fighting with scarp, when the British Military just… decide to pick him up and make him a soldier since he was so good at it??’

I didn’t know about any previous campaigns, and obviously not about ‘09 Ghost’s backstory. Straight up thought he was just some weirdo the SAS recruited because they went ‘why the hell not’.

Now, let’s get to the timeline differences between B||H and canon.

So, like mentioned in chapter 5, the reason Soap got dishonorably discharged was because he killed Makarov on the helo when they were exfiling with him, as seen in a mission on mw3. Soap shot him, by the way, because Price and Ghost weren’t on that mission. He didn’t respect his COs enough to not succumb to his gut reactions, so he ignored them. Because mw3 takes place in 2023 (if I remember correctly, since mw2 took place in 2022), that happened in 2019, and I specifically put it before the formation of the 141. When Soap and Gaz meet for the first time, as Ghost reveals his true identity, Soap mentions he didn’t know Gaz was in the 141, and that was the reason.

Price did want Soap on the 141, even with his track of insubordination. It was another reason he felt bad about his discharge.

I put Ghost’s capture by Roba and torture in 2009. He managed to run away and kill Roba in 2010. B||H takes place one year after Soap killed Makarov, meaning it’s 2020, so Ghost has been a mercenary for about a decade (as is mentioned in one line).

Ghost tried initially, like I wrote, to avoid fighting. He didn’t want to return to the military. After discovering his family was killed, however, he realized he has nothing. And so, he became a merc.

Which brings us to the last difference between canon and the fic (and the biggest one) - the Hunter. And to explain the Hunter, I have to first talk about the poems.

I’ll say it straight up, I have no clue what made me come up with the idea of the poems. One day, right before I was going to sleep, I shot up in bed and wrote down one poem. I put my phone down and instantly fell asleep. No idea what was rattling in my brain that night, but in the days afterwards I wrote down a few more poems, establishing the story of the Blind Man and the Beast.

Those poems I wrote in my notes app weren’t written in the same format as the ones in the fic, instead they are more… modern. I didn’t like that, I wanted them to emulate the format of a classic fairy tale or folk tale, but I didn’t really know how to write that. So I started doing research, and I decided to focus specifically on Medieval English poetry.

That is where I found the Exeter Book. And that find shaped the entirety of the fic.

Small history lesson on the Exeter, it is a codex of Middle English poems and riddles from the 10th century. Most of the poems are older than that, but the first (sometimes only) appearance of them written in text was in the 10th century.

The first poem I found a translation for and read was “The Wanderer”. The name just jumped out for me, so I chose it first.

The Wanderer is a poem that is basically a monologue of an exiled knight. His lord and companions have died in a past battle, and he now roams the land, with no goal, pondering the nature of men and war. He starts the poem as a melancholic, frankly depressed man, with pessimistic views on the world, and by the end he is referred to as the wise man, learning the values a man must keep close to his heart in order to be a good man.

Soap, as he is a sort of exiled fighter, fitted right in with that poem. Honestly, I was shocked at how much it fit. And so, he is based on that poem, the first word in the fic “often”, is the first word of “The Wanderer”.

Often, in The Wanderer, means “always”, according to the translation I was going off of. The first line of The Wanderer is “Often the solitary one”. In truth, The Wanderer is always the solitary one. The first line of the first chapter (not in the poem), is “Often was Soap told, “stop trying to be the hero, MacTavish.””. Often here, also meant to be “always”. The first line of the first poem, “Often were the stars, the only witness to me”, is in the same vein.

After reading a few poems, I moved on to the riddles. A lot of them are quite odd, some having innuendos on purpose, and some having such a weird answer I honestly have no idea how anyone found the actual solution. One riddle jumped out for me, though. It’s one I refer to as “the sword riddle”, as the answer is sword. Or at least, so it seems so, at first.

See, this riddle has possibly a different solution, but it is unfinished in the Exeter, as some pages seemed to be missing. The sword riddle starts out as follows: “I’m a wonderful thing shaped for fighting/beautifully dressed, dear to my master.” (sidenote: many riddles were in first person). The first half of the riddle continues similarly, as is a sword was explaining its victories in battle, and how it protracted its master. Except, the poem suddenly shifts, when the sword says:“I have often hurt another/at the hands of his friend. I am far and wide hated, /accursed among weapons.” as the riddle progresses, it becomes clear that this is not a sword talking, but a knight.

This riddle was the basis for Ghost, his struggles with his failure as a Lieutenant, and the resulting dehumanization he did to himself to distance himself from those emotions, as Ghost. The first lines of his introduction chapter, chapter 2, are inspired directly from the sword riddle: “It was an extraordinary thing - shaped for fighting, a strong, solid body, adorned with black…”

You can actually at some chapters find my direct inspiration for that chapter’s poem/s, if you look at the names. Every chapter name in B||H is taken from a poem or riddle in the Exeter, and I’ll list them here:

1 - Wræclast (Path of Exile): The Wanderer, line 6a.

2 - The Death-way: The Seafarer, one specific possible interpretation of a word in line 63, onwælweg.

3 - The Ruin: The Ruin, the poem is in reference to the church Soap and Ghost fight their way out of.

4 - Vainglory: Vainglory.

5 - Hell Rising: a line from “The Descent into Hell”, from a translation I don’t really like, but it’s the only complete one I found.

6 - Droops and Decays: The Wanderer, line 63a.

7 - Wont of Devils: The Whale, towards the end.

8 - Accursed Among Weapons: the sword riddle, line 16.

9 - The Downfall of Kinsmen: The Wanderer, line 7a.

10 - A Secret Disease: The Rhyming Poem, from a specific translation I chose.

11 - The Battle-Sick: Wulf and Eadwacer, again specific translation, this website has a weird format that might be broken, but it kinda makes the poem feel different, and I liked it. [Here's the Wiki for it]

12 - The Bearer of Gold: this one is from a fragmented riddle, one where the answer can’t be determined.

13 - The Song of Us: Wulf and Eadwacer, same translation.

14 - Famous Fate: The Wanderer, 100a. The translation notes this means “turn of events”.

15 - Where All Permanence Rests: The Wanderer, 119a, the last line in the poem.

To properly see all the little tidbits I took from each poem, I’ll have to explain each one, and probably also paste it here so you can read. I would if that hadn't taken five years to do, and I want to talk about other stuff haha. But I just wanted to list the ones I did reference.

So, now that I’ve explained how the poems are referenced in the main fic… what about the poems I wrote?

Obviously, the first poem references The Wanderer, just as the first lines in the fic do. But what is the story of the poems?

Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde, a fictional codex I made for the fic, is a book similar to the Exeter, collecting stories from the 10th century. Except, unlike the Exeter, all the poems in the book tell the story of the same characters: the Blind Man, the Beast, and the hunter (not to be confused with the Hunter, capital H, which refers to the character in the main plot). Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde, by the way, meaning “Blood Starvation” in Middle English. Or, Blood Hunger.

Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde does exist in the world of B||H, Soap, Ghost and the others are simply not familiar with it. I had a plot for the story in the poems I wrote, which is in direct parallel to the main story in the fic. In fact, some poems spoil some plot points, if you go back to read them after you finish the chapter they were in.

Like I mentioned in the ask I got today, I’m not sure how much, if anyone, really understood what’s going on with the poems. I honestly don’t know if it was clear, I never have anyone beta my writing, unfortunately. So, I’m going to explain the story told in the poems, and how it connects to the main plot.

I’ll be explaining the poems in the order they appear (not always the order of the book itself, as noted by the page numbers on each poem).

The Blind Man is a fallen knight (sidenote: the Beast never refers to the Blind Man with that name, and he usually calls him Fallen Knight), who lost his mates and Lord in battle, the same battle that took his eyesight. He roams the earth with no destination, simply mourning what he used to have.

The Beast starts out as a terror on a road leading to a village. The trader that first meets him decides to go to a different road, and the young girl is so afraid of him, she turns back. All the village people fear the Beast, for they know how it terrorized others in the past. The Beast at present, however, is mostly docile.

The Blind Man bumps into the Beast, while he walks on his road. The Blind Man apologizes, explains how he lost his sight in battle, and asks the Beast kindly to move. The Beast does, but he also asks the Blind Man (the Fallen Knight), if he could let him follow, as the Beast too doesn’t have a goal or destination. The Blind Man agrees.

The Trader sees the Blind Man walk with the Beast, and he worries about him, as he thinks the Blind Man didn’t realize he’s walking alongside a Beast. The Blind Man asks the Beast if he plans on hurting him - to which the Beast answers, if the Blind Man finds that the Beast pushes him on a path of death, he asks the Blind Man to kill him.

The Beast, at a later point, asks the Blind Man why isn’t he afraid of him. The Blind Man answers, that he doesn’t believe in monsters, he believes in mankind, to be kind, and cruel. For him, there is not such thing as monsters.

A knight, who once fought besides the Blind Man, spots him alongside the Beast, and he stops them both, threatening the Beast to leave the Blind Man alone. The Blind Man assures the knight, that the Beast is calm, it doesn’t hurt him. The knight asks, how come the blind lead the sinner, and the Blind Man replies, that when all other paths are unavailable, sometimes only the blind can truly lead.

The Blind Man asks the Beast what is his true name. The Beast answers, that Beast is the only name they know. The Blind Man insists that it is only the name the village people call him, and the Beast repeats his answers. It is then that the Blind Man decides he will name the Beast himself, with deeds this time, and not words. He is telling the Beast he can be defined by more than his past, than his looks. The Beast asks how, and the Blind Man answers, with ferocious will to mark yourself with actions yet to come.

At this junction, they meet a man called “the hunter”, who announces that this land is infested with many Beasts, and if one wished to do good in the world, they must kill them. It is why he, the hunter, slays such creatures. He asks how could the Blind Man protect such evil, to which the Blind Man answers, that the Beast is no more different than a man than he is. The hunter accepts the answer, but comes to the conclusion that they’re both Beasts.

One day, the Blind Man asks to see the Beast’s face. The Beast answers, confused, that he thought the Blind Man was, well, blind. The Blind Man says he’s correct, but that his hands have yet to fail him. So the Beast lets the Blind Man feel his face, his hands. The Blind Man then realizes, that the Beast isn’t actually a beast, but a man like him. He tells the Beast as much, but the Beast says that perhaps the Blind Man is also a Beast, if he thinks the Beast is like him.

The Beast asks the Blind Man how could he care for a monster like himself. The Blind Man smiles and says, how could I not?

They come across a village the Beast terrorized in the past, and the villagers come out to curse at him, telling of how the Beast took their children and ruined their crops. The villagers ask how could the Blind Man stand to not kill the Beast. The Blind Man first asks if what the villagers are saying is true, and when the beast confirms, that he was a terrible thing before anyone saw him as more than a monster, the Blind Man understands. He, too, felt like nothing more than a blind man, an injured knight, before the Beast joined his travels, and treated him as more than just his bloody past.

In the next poem, it is revealed that the Beast was once a knight himself, one that slayed friends and foes, as his masters ruled. He was cursed to be seen as a Beast by everyone that casts their eyes upon him, and that he’s damned to be starved of blood and flesh. It is here that the reason the Blind Man recognizes the Beast to be a man becomes clear - because he is blind, he doesn’t cast his eyes on the Beast.

The following poem is a riddle that its answer is “the hunter”. The hunter used to hunt for consumption, but now hunts sinners. He says, only those that know justice will know his name.

The Blind Man asks the Beast, one night right before the sun rises, what he thinks will be his fate, once he dies. The Beast replies that death comes to all equally, knowing the Blind Man’s past. The answer comforts the Blind Man, that his death will be the same death as his fellow knights, and as his companion, the Beast.

The knight returns to warn the Blind Man and the Beast, that he learned what makes someone a Beast. He tells them of knights who were tortured many years, that were labeled “Beast”. Of the young girl, that instead of cursing the Beast blocking her path, only prayed for her safety. Of a man, that fell in battle, and was abandoned by all but death, that he was also labeled “Beast”. This man is implied to be the Beast travelling with the Blind Man. The knight goes on to say that the hunter, who says he’s versed in justice, calls himself a hero. The knight disagrees, says he’s no better than any of them, and that a man like the hunter, who thinks he’s above God, must be sent to the only equalizer, to death itself.

The knight leaves his sword with the Blind Man.

The hunter approaches, and he swings towards the Blind Man, but the Beast slashes his face, blinding the hunter. The Beast tells the Blind Man, that they will fight as equals. The Blind Man, with the Beast’s aid, manages to kill the Hunter.

The village people hear of the hunter’s death, and they come out to investigate. They find the blind Man and the Beast, but now instead of a monster, they see the man that he truly is. Killing the hunter lifted the curse. The Beast, the Cursed Man, however, isn’t extremely happy, because the Blind Man has always seen him as a man, when the rest saw a monster, and that is what he cares about most.

The Blind Man asks the Cursed Man, where would he go now that he is not viewed as a Beast. The Cursed Man answers, that he has no place he belongs to, but by the Blind Man’s side. The Blind Man replies, that then they will travel together, until their death, and perhaps, if God gives them mercy, they will always be together, no matter which path they belong.

Now that I explained the story of the poems, I can start explaining how it connects to B||H.

Each main character in B||H has a direct parallel in the poems, with a few exceptions.

Soap is the Blind Man, a man who is defined by his failure. He is the first one to see the Beast for what he truly is, and consistently compares himself to the Beast. He is the one that kills the hunter.

Ghost is the Beast, later on the Cursed Man. Everyone sees a monster when they look at him, and he himself ended up convinced he is one, after years of being called a Beast. He admires the Blind Man greatly.

Price is the trader (I chose that profession because of his surname), he meets the Beast before the Blind Man. Unlike Price, the trader does not know the Beast before he became a monster.

Gaz is the Knight (because of his relation to Soap and his VA’s surname is literally knight). He threatens the Beast, thinking he means bad for the Blind Man. He also ends up being on the Blind Man and the Beast’s side, giving him his sword so he could kill the hunter.

The village people are the city people in the story. Alma actually accuses Ghost of being the reason their children are dying, just like the village people do in the poems.

Other characters like Laswell and the communicator do not have a parallel character in the poems.

And the last one… The Hunter. He is the hunter, obviously.

Except, he’s literally the hunter. The only character that is exactly the same, and I mean, the same person, is the hunter. The only one whose name is identical to the one in the poems.

And this is the plot twist I was keeping hidden in the poems all along - BLOOD||HUNGER is a fantasy story, only not from Soap or Ghost’s perspective.

There is a third story, beside the main one and the one in the poems. The story of the hunter.

The hunter, after being killed by the Blind Man, finds himself in the future. He doesn’t know how, doesn’t know where, but he knows one thing:

The Beast is alive, he walks with the Blind Man, and he must be killed.

The hunter finds them. And again, he fails.

It’s not known how many times the hunter fails. But each time he’s killed, he wakes up decades into the future, with an innate knowledge that the Beast and the Blind Man are alive, and he has to kill them.

The hunter wakes up again in 2019. He knows the Beast and the Blind Man are alive, and this time, he tries something new. He gathers an army, he hides his face, and he waits for the right moment to strike.

He thought, perhaps if someone else kills the Beast, he could be free from the curse placed upon him centuries ago, by death itself, as punishment for his hubris.

And the events that follow, are the plot of BLOOD||HUNGER. And as you know, the hunter fails yet again. He will wake up again, but Ghost and Soap will be long gone by then.

This is why the Hunter seemingly didn’t exist on paper, a year before B||H. Why he knew so much about Simon, despite the fact it shouldn’t be possible. And this is why he says to Soap what he said to the Blind Man the first time he died. Because, in the Hunter’s eyes, Soap IS the Blind Man. Soap mentions that when the Hunter’s face is uncovered, he seems familiar, and after he dies, he feels like it happened before. Because it did.

The claw marks on the Hunter’s face are the biggest clue that he is the hunter, as the hunter’s face was slashed by the Beast in the poem.

And the Blind Man’s wish, to always walk alongside the Cursed Man, is the reason both Soap and Ghost feel like they belong with each other. They’re destined to meet, no matter what form they take. Whether as enemies, friends or lovers, they will walk the same path eventually.

See, I don’t write stories like BLOOD||HUNGER usually. I write fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural stuff like every other work I posted. But this, the poems, the Hunter, are the reason I wrote BLOOD||HUNGER.

Because it’s not fully set in the real world. Still, this fic was quite a challenge for me, with no magic, enemies-to-lovers (which I never use, I don’t know why I decided to here, but that’s how it ended up), and limited characters.

A little tidbit about the city - it isn’t named on purpose, I wanted it to have more of a vague vibe that fairy tales (and the poems in the Exeter) have. I was also initially considering having the entire fic set at night, one night, but with the amount of things that happen it felt a little ridiculous. Most of it is at night, though, as Soap and Ghost sleep through days more than they do nights.

Also fun fact, the names of the civilians are all names of family members of mine, with the exception of Mihail. The name he’s based on is Mircea, and it’s a little too Romanian for my purposes, so I changed it so something more vaguely Eastern European, which is where the city is.

Now, onto the last section of the post script, the deleted scenes! (Are they really deleted if I keep them, though?)

Like with Not Alive, Nor Dead’s PS, I’ll try to give each of them context and the reason they were cut:

[Context: the entirety of the scene where Ghost gets betrayed and poisoned by the Hunter in chapter 2.]

He didn’t get a potential location for intel, so he started methodically searching all drawers and cabinets, lightly passing over surfaces to search for abnormalities. The longer he goes on finding nothing, the more an icy chill spreads through his gut.

Every cell in his body is screaming something is wrong here.

Footsteps on the lower floor catch his attention. Multiple, heavy, hurried. Ghost snarls.

The soldiers climb the stairs quickly, Ghost melting into the shadows, watching them pass by him. The soldiers are the Hunter’s, their blood-red insignia staining their black gear.

He’s being betrayed again. He needs to get out. He has to get out.

“We know you’re here, Ghost. Change of plan, we need you on another location.” The soldier communicating for the Hunter calls.

No, no, no. They’re lying.

“Commander”, another soldier says, “he might be gone.”

The Hunter doesn’t answer, but frantically, Ghost hears the floorboards creak closer and closer to his location, until a red glove reaches out and pulls him out of the shadows.

He instantly shakes it off, “the fuck are you doing here?!” he growls. The Hunter looks to his communicator, “this target was a ruse, Ghost. We have a new one for you.”

They’re lying. They’re lying. Ghost can feel the barrels of rifles at his back, lifting slowly to strike him down. He can smell the gunpowder and the bite of metal-

Ghost glances behind him. The soldiers are busy searching the house. He nods.

It feels so wrong, but… could he be wrong? Is he just getting paranoid over nothing?

“Give me the location.” he grunts, his back constantly tingling with the weight of phantom gazes.

The soldier walks over to the balcony, pulling out a spotter scope, “your target will be in the central city, the high rise building next to the church.” the building is lit by neon lights, red and foreboding in the darkness of night.

Ghost carefully walks to the balcony, taking the scope from the soldier. He doesn’t put it up to his face, not when there are phantom breaths on his nape.

They’re waiting. They’re watching. They’re going to-

A hand wraps around his neck, roughly pulling his mask up to reveal the pale skin underneath. Ghost grabs it, pushes it away, when a sickly cold sting bites the side of his neck, followed by a disgusting chill that seeps into his bloodstream.

Poison.

Ghost shoves the soldier off, swiftly sliding a knife to his palm and slicing his neck. The man doesn’t have time to react, before Ghost drops down to avoid another attacker. The world explodes with hands reaching for him, weapons slung with purpose to strike.

Not kill. They want him alive.

He has to GET. OUT.

A hostile rushes to tackle him, and Ghost uses the momentum to grab him and jump off the balcony. Glass surrounds them both for a moment, before they all fall down.

The body beneath him crashes with a sickening crunch, and Ghost takes the pistol in his hand to swing around and shoot at his attackers. A few of them fall over the railing, and the resulting confusion is enough for Ghost to take off and run.

Ghost feels the poison corrupt his blood, physically sense the way it travels down his neck, the chill spreading to his fingertips. He mutters a few curses.

He should’ve listened to himself. Never trust anything but himself.

[Reason to cut: I didn’t want Ghost to suspect anything before the Hunter attacks, I thought it would be scarier than if he anticipated it.]

[Context: the last lines of chapter 2 (can you tell I struggled with that one lol)]

Ghost internally sighs. This whole ordeal drudges up too many old memories, things he rather would’ve stayed buried in an unmarked grave. But he just has to put up with Soap until they leave the city.

And after that? He can leave him to the wolves.

[Reason to cut: Ghost sounds here like he wants something bad to happen to Soap when he leaves him. I wanted him to just not care about what happens to him.]

[Context: the talk Ghost and Soap have in chapter 6, when Soap reveals he killed Makarov.]

The Sergeant laughs bitterly, “he was already captured. I slit his fuckin’ throat when his hands were cuffed.”

“Really?” Ghost drawls, “as if bars would’ve stopped Makarov.”

Soap bristles, “so what, yer saying I was right?”

“You were the only one with half a brain there, it seems.”

Soap is visibly stunned at that, quieting down and averting his gaze. Did he really believe that he shouldn’t have done that? Shouldn’t have killed the worst man in modern times?

Really thought those restraints were made for the betterment of humanity, rather the benefit of the powerful few?

They continue walking in silence, the only sound accompanying their steps is the bristling of crops.

[Reason to cut: didn’t like how the dialogue sounded, wanted the conversation to be longer.]

[Context: the first time Ghost called Soap “Johnny”, chapter 7.]

Soap has a feeling the nickname just slipped, and he didn’t mean to call him ‘Johnny’. His mind, as it often does, starts mulling that small detail over.

If it was a slip of the tongue, it means this wasn’t the first time Ghost thought to call him that. How long have he thought of him as “Johnny”? Does that mean, under that bleached bone, he

[Reason to cut: didn’t like where Soap’s thoughts were going. Didn’t know what to do with them.]

[context: beginning of chapter 8, when Ghost’s real identity is revealed.]

(From the grave rises someone else, someone wrong-)

Soap takes a step back, the sound echoing through his mind and returning him to the surface-

(They know. The communicator. The Hunter.)

Johnny knows.

[Reason to cut: I liked the first line, but I wanted it to be memories of Simon’s rather than introspection of Ghost.]

[Context: start of chapter 8 again. It’s always the Ghost POV ones I struggle with huh?]

“Didn’t you,

Simon Riley?”

Ghost ceases his attempts to move. Thoughts slipping away from him, sinking down to the dark sea, drowning him.

(Don’t cry like a pansy, son. Just like your mother, you’ve always been weak-)

(You always had a bleeding heart, Riley. Time you wake up, see how the world really works-)

(The rotten flesh, the maggots borrowing into his ears, the dirt and grit between his teeth-)

(Lieutenant Riley was his most caring soldier-)

(What’s wrong, son?-)

(LT-)

(SIMON-)

Ghost feels him claw out, from the fortified casket he buried him in. Memories as his weapon, he rips through his chest, uncaring of the trails of broken bone and blood he leaves behind, splattering on the floor.

From the grave, a dead man rises. A man who always found the world too cruel, too loud, too unforgiving.

And with him, emotions Ghost long buried; Hurt, sadness, confusion. Fear.

Rage.

The knife in his sleeve slides easily to his palm, cool metal doing nothing to soothe Simon. He winds his hand back, and throws.

The blade shines almost blindingly across the room, missing Johnny by less than an inch and hitting the gleeful communicator in his eye. The man slumps over, smile melting away with the last of his life.

Simon heaves a breath, arm still forward, eyes snapping from the corpse to Johnny.

Johnny, who turns around, shock in his bright blue eyes, mumbling, “What… the fuck… did you do?”

He can’t look at those eyes again, can’t see the betrayal cloud them over, the pain he caused, always causes, spread through him. And so Simon, the coward he is, looks away.

“What the fuck did you do?!” Johnny repeats, stomping forward to haul Simon up by his vest. “LOOK AT ME! YOU JUST KILLED OUR ONLY WAY TO THE HUNTER!”

Johnny’s hands are trembling, Simon notes, when they take hold of his face to force him to make eye contact. Simon watches Soap’s expression falter.

What do you see, he wants to ask.

Do you see the man he was, Or the monster he became?

The clanking of the metal staircase behind them makes Soap sharply turn. Simon can’t see, doesn’t care to when Johnny is in front of him.

Tell me, he wants to scream, tell me I’m irredeemable. Tell me you hate me. Bury me, please.

I can’t be Simon again.

But Johnny ignores his silent pleas, grabbing his forgotten rifle and throwing it to Simon. With a dirty glance, he growls, “don’t think I’m lettin’ it slide. Get up, we need to fight.”

And Simon would’ve stayed in the tower, waiting death to take him for the final time, if he could stomach the idea of taking Johnny down with him. Simon, stupid, foolish Simon, wants the Sergeant to do what he couldn’t. To be better than him.

He takes the rifle, military instilled instincts helping him push up and take aim. Johnny is already ahead, fighting his way down the stairs.

The world outside is loud, gunshots and screams, bullets dinging off metal, blood dripping down to the earth below. Soap shoots them as the come up, but he’s quickly getting overrun. Simon spots a pile of crates right at the edge, where Johnny is currently taking cover.

He runs at it at full speed, shouldering it and pushing it down. Johnny curses at him, before he watches how the heavy crates clear them a path down. The soldiers groan, struggling to get up. They run down, barely avoiding the hands grasping at their feet. Below, soldiers attempt to shoot them, but they make an almost impossible target on the spiraling steps.

Simon jumps the last few, firing at the group around their truck to cover Johnny. The Sergeant shouts at him something, but he’s too focused on the enemies aiming at them.

A few bullets hit him square in the chest, knocking the breath out of Simon.

He doesn’t get time to recover when another bullet pierces through his shoulder.

It hurts more, oddly enough, after Simon clawed his way out. Everything feels… more.

Johnny takes out the shooter, and drags Simon to the truck. Throwing him to the passenger sit, he starts up the engine and shifts it to reverse to run down a few hostiles.

“Yer not gonna die on me, are ye?” He grunts, examining the blood sluggishly flowing down his gear.

Simon opens his mouth to answer, as he sees from his peripheral a wounded soldier shakily lifting his gun to aim at Johnny.

He pulls out a knife to throw at him before Soap can even clock the danger, the soldier crumpling back down in a blink. “...Thanks.” Soap’s eyes narrow. His eyes are no less bright for it, Simon reckons.

He returns to his sit, applying pressure to his gunshot wound, “drive.”

In the silence, Simon’s mind drifts. He’s finding it harder and harder to focus on anything besides Johnny.

[Reason to cut: a few things here are the same as the final version, but I specifically didn’t like how Soap acted here, and the fight Ghost soloed.]

[Context: chapter 10, after Soap bit a guy, and Ghost lost control of his limbs because of the poison again.]

The pain doesn’t even register in Ghost’s mind anymore. Nothing does, except Johnny’s form, sure-footed as he rushes back to battle, mouth still red.

Johnny is a disaster. An omen of ruin. A harbinger of death.

Simon wants to be destroyed by him.

If only to feel that searing touch once more.

[Reason to cut: Ghost is a little too in love with Soap with the way he’s talking here. Didn’t want that yet.]

[Context: chapter 11, the very end of it, where they realize who could find the Hunter.]

Soap inhales sharply. That’s it!

“Simon.” Dark eyes look up at his urgent tone, “I know how we can get to the Hunter.”

Gone is the softness in his eyes, Ghost turns to face him fully

[Reason to cut: wanted Ghost to come to that conclusion, not Soap. Thought it would be more impactful, if Simon chooses that fate on himself.]

[context: chapter 12, when Ghost and Soap explain to Price and Gaz that the Hunter is responsible for everything that happened in the city, not Ghost.]

“The Hunter?” the name makes Gaz falter, “who-”

Ghost cuts him off, “who do you think is in charge of this militia, Lieutenant?” he says the rank mockingly.

The Lieutenant fires back, “according to our intel, you!”

Soap shakes his head in disbelief, he and Ghost sharing a baffled look, “yer tellin’ me ye never heard of the Hunter?!”

This complicates everything. Ghost himself knew of the Hunter because of his line of work, and he was aware their existence was a closely guarded secret, but for the 141 to not even know of them…

It’s like they popped out of nowhere, a special hell designed for Ghost.

It does clear out one thing. The reason they wanted to pin the massacre of the city on him, leave him poisoned to rot until the 141 catches him. If the SAS believes they took down the militia, the Hunter would be free to do anything they wanted, under the radar.

Cut the head off the snake, it dies. Unless you cut the wrong head.

“You’re telling me”, Price starts, “that we’re after the wrong person?”

Soap sighs, “Ghost may not be a bleedin’ saint, but he’s not the leader of the fuckers shootin’ everyone out there.”

Gaz scoffs, “John, you know I’ll fucking take a bullet for you, but I won’t be able to believe that without some solid proof.”

Price joins him, “even if there is another individual… “The Hunter”, you called him?” he realigns his gun with Ghost, “we still need to take Ghost into custody.”

Soap bodily pushes Ghost behind him, again, “if you want ever want to catch the Hunter, you’ll need him! We’re not gonna-!”

[Reason to cut: Okay, I did a little mistake and completely forgot that Gaz and Price brought up the Hunter by name before, therefore they know of their existence. Had to cut a few pages because of that, as you can see…]

[Context: chapter 12, after Ghost falls because of the poison, still discussing the Hunter.]

Price holds it still, “Laswell said local police reported of a skull-masked man.”

“I haven’t seen a single police officer in the entire city.” Soap says slowly, “fuck- how did we miss that?”

“This city…” Gaz’s brows lift in shock.

Simon grunts, “the Hunter’s soldiers took over before I ever stepped foot here.”

[Reason to cut: didn’t like this explanation, didn’t feel like it made sense to me. The final version uses the informant instead, which ties in with the man Ghost kills for the Hunter in chapter 2, and I like that way better.]

[Context: chapter 13, when Soap and Gaz talk while he’s smoking.]

“John, mate. C’mon.” Kyle places a hand on his shoulder, leaning in to whisper, “tell me, what are you going to do after?”

“After what?”

“After you kill the Hunter. Are you going to leave back for Scotland, never see Ghost again, go back to your civilian life? Or…” Gaz nods towards Simon, “you’re going to stick with him?”

Oh… He didn’t even think about that. ‘After’... Soap swallows around the excitement the second option rises within him, “yer jokin’, right? I don’t- that’s not even a choice. What am I gonna do with Ghost?”

[Reason to cut: didn’t like how I phrased things here, felt like I could do it better.]

[Context: chapter 14, right before the operation to kill the Hunter begins]

It strikes him then, how much he wished they could’ve met on different circumstances. Perhaps if they knew each other before, they could’ve been more.

Perhaps he wouldn’t feel as doomed.

[Reason to cut: just didn’t really like it, it kinda introduces new feelings that I didn’t have time to explore in the last chapter before the epilogue.]

EDIT: I FORGOT TO PUT THE POEM AAA SHIT

Page ?? of the “Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde”, parable ?:

What drives a monster from the woods, the merchant questions,

As evil often lies within the dark, feasting on sin and vice,

What drives a man from his home, the Beast replies,

As he is nothing, when his steps sound alone,

What drives a knight from his kin, the Blind man finishes,

As a vow cannot be fulfilled, when it is voiced to the dead.

[The only reason I didn't put it in is because there wasn't a good point to, sicne I wrote it when the fic was already ending]

And that’s it! Another fic done!!! I had a lot of fun, I think you can tell haha. I also feel like I improved a lot compared to Not Alive, Nor Dead, I love seeing the progress. Thank you, if you read this monster of a post script, and for reading BLOOD||HUNGER.

As a little thanks… I will probably talk about it more later, but I am planning on beginning work on Revenant AU part 2 after I finish my semester. It will involve new villains, new Revenants, new Reapers… I’m excited to be able to return to that universe again!

#BLOOD||HUNGER #not tagging everything bc this is a post script #fellas Ill be honest its like 2 am #if there are any mistakes pls tell me Im very tired and I dont think i got all braincells working rn lmao #edit i did forget. I forgot to put the cut poem. its here now

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syoddeye · 7 months

Text

for @mellowtheoristpainter. answering here because price brain go brrr

notes: this is only about reboot!price. i'm not super knowledgeable about the military. this is 100% my opinion. would love to hear other's thoughts. and, some of this is conjecture because we just don't know enough about price.

this recent post of mine is an intro on my thoughts re:price: posty post. cap price is my favorite cod man and a complicated character. he's an insidious motherfucker.

i think to expand upon it, i want to talk about price and gaz specifically.

in the post you're referring to, i also use the tag #he's all business all about the mission. 'old comrades' in mw 2019 is a good illustration that shows how far price is willing to go to accomplish a mission. he'll use whatever means he has to to achieve it and in that case, it's the butcher's wife and child - 'truth serum'. price even makes a comment (i don't have the transcript in front of me) that boils down to "the butcher has no problem hurting children" - a callback to the embassy mission, where early on, we see a child run from the butcher and is presumably shot and killed (the death is hidden by smoke iirc). now i don't think price had intentions to kill the butcher's family, but something tells me it's not the first time he's used the 'truth serum' tactic.

i won't get into the full gloves off speech in mw 2019, but i AM looking forward to seeing how it continues in the franchise. see here for a scrap of what i'd like to see in future games: posty post

also, tats (@stuffireadandenjoy) added great commentary to that post about the embassy line.

when we first meet price in the reboot, it's at piccadilly, where he throws a man with a bomb locked to his chest over a railing to save the lives of other hostages. ngl when i play, i feel awful, but i still rationalize it. not getting into a philosophical debate on morality here, but the scene's upsetting. it's supposed to be upsetting. the entire franchise is upsetting.

but that's not the only interesting thing about that mission to me. gaz tries and fails to open the locked suicide vest. price makes the decision for gaz. gaz, even though there's only ~5 secs left on the timer, insists he can get it. price doesn't just outrank him - he's older and more experienced. price shoves gaz away, pitches the guy over the balcony, thus saving the rest of the hostages. again we can see where this was a good decision despite it being an awful one. it establishes john price as a character that can 'rise above' to make the hard choices.

gaz is a great character, hands down, love the man. (also a war criminal. anyway.) but i think he's especially interesting in these interactions with price. we see this young sergeant, fairly early career (compared to price), who is frustrated by the limitations and red tape of his job. joins price when price validates his anger post-piccadilly. gaz was probably like "fucking finally someone higher up who gets it". the way price looks at him in that scene too -- the man is listening. observing. he sees someone he can bring under his wing and help shape him. there is a reason he recruits gaz for tf 141. i think price sees gaz as a protege/successor.

ok this is getting long so here's an unceremonious wrap-up: in conclusion, price has had to make fucked up choices in pursuit of The Mission™. some he doesn't want to make (see: mwiii, i blame shepherd for EVERYTHING) and some he seems to have no problems making (piccadilly, using 'truth serum'). he learned at some point in his career he can take the gloves off and get dirty because what matters is mission success. the end justifies the means.

i haven't even touched on the military propaganda of it all, either. but smarter and hotter people than i have done that on this site.

unfortunately, i am still riddled with a disease called priceaholicism.

if you read this far and don't hate me, thank you! 🫶

#sy speaks #sy asks #john price

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fourbrickstall · 1 year

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Skol!

Took this one for the @brickcentral contest this month where we challenge LEGO photographers to use some of the tips we've published over the years.

I've been thinking about how BC has impacted the community since we rebooted with an education focus in 2019 and I'm floored at the skill level we see now compared to days before.

That kind of growth is so rewarding and fun to watch!

Anyway, here are some tips I used in this shot:

#lego #toy photography #lego photography #brickcentral #medieval lego #vikings

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meta-squash · 29 days

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Yet another fic post for @shamelessdvdcommentary because it's fun and I'm hoping it'll somehow inspire me to write another fic or something.

Proof Of What You Want Summary: Ian's on his goddamn mind all the time and this isn't like bruises or near misses with cops or his dad's fucked up punishments. It doesn't matter what he does. He's not thinking of anything else. You've never been like this. Slow and soft and someone asleep at your back. Vulnerable. Ever. There have been very few bright spots in your life: your mother, Mandy, Ian. You try and convince yourself it's not what you want. It is. It's what you want.

Give us some stats - (when you wrote it, word count, how long it took to finish, is it a one-shot/multi-chapter, etc) I had the idea for it in December 2019, but I didn't start working on it until March 2020. It took me about 2 months of working on-and-off because the mechanic I used for this fic was a little weird so I had to be in the right headspace to work on it. It's a 7,331 word oneshot.

What was the initial inspiration for your story? My two initial inspirations were the storytelling mechanic -- third person POV and second person POV (both Mickey) switching back and forth, and examining the emotional difference between Mickey falling in love with Ian before 3x06 and his loneliness and trauma after Ian runs away to the army.

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character? Because poor Mickey went through so much trauma with the assault and then being forced to marry Svetlana and then Ian running off and he's trapped in this abusive household with a pregnant wife he doesn't want and is pretty much totally alone. And we don't see any of his feelings about that. And I've always thought that the night that Ian stayed over would have been a huge threshold crossed for Mickey, and that he was ready to start actually accepting himself and his feelings, and then the morning happened and that all came crashing down.

What was your favourite scene to write? The bit about Ian and Mickey in the dugouts, sharing a cigarette which is they way they kissed before they ever kissed for real. It's just a really warm and sweet scene. And I really liked writing that and then the crash into a less pleasant reality with the switch to "present". I did really enjoy writing sad and lonely Mickey too, because I think the conflict between his self-hatred and anger/anxiety vs the slow dawning that he misses and loves Ian, the softness of those Ian-feelings compared to the pain of the other ones is really interesting.

How did you come up with the title? Just that Mickey spends the entire fic thinking about Ian, either in the "past" segments as he's falling in love or in the "present" segments all lonely and worried and missing Ian. And that constant thought is proof that he does care about Ian and he does want him around, and he's starting to accept that after all that trauma even if it is scary.

Was there anything you struggled to write? If so, how did you overcome this? The smut. I just so rarely write smut, I prefer character studies. When I read smut I often end up distracted by trying to figure out where the characters are in the space/in relation to each other, or if they do something that would be uncomfortable/unhealthy/physically impossible. I wanted to write the smut scene in a prettier way while also maintaining realism, and I wanted it to advance the plot. I concentrated less on making it sexy for the reader and more on making it a moment of emotional (and physical) first times for Mickey, which would help to heighten the feeling like some barrier had been crossed (which then reinforces how hard those walls slammed back up after the morning).

Favourite line in the story? I don't have a favorite single line but this little section is one I really like: Waking up in the morning beside the Russian bitch, feeling her breath on his neck and his skin crawling underneath like there's ants in there? There's no manual for how to handle that. He hasn't slept a full night in weeks. And he doesn't know what to do with the way Ian sits there under his skin either. He wants it to crawl like she does. He wants it to itch. He wants to want to scratch it out. He wants to hate Ian. It just aches. Definitely doesn't feel like hate.

Did the storyline change in any way as you wrote the story? I wasn't sure what I wanted to end on, if I wanted to end on a happy or a sad note. The second person POV "past" sections also jump around in time a little bit, so at first I thought I was going to do Ian and Mickey having a conversation at the obstacle course, something similar to the "he's not afraid to kiss me" conversation that indicates Mickey getting closer to accepting his feelings. But then I decided I didn't want that much dialogue; I wanted it mostly to just be Mickey's internal feelings.

What are you most proud about in the story? (plot, characterisation, dialogue, twist/cliffhanger, etc) How well the third person/second person POV mechanic worked! It was a total experiment, I don't even know how I got the idea. But having the second person POV as pre-3x06 Mickey falling in love and starting to open up vs third person POV as post-3x06 Mickey alone and depressed and worried ended up working sooo well. People really liked it!

Are there any ‘behind the scenes’ info you’d like to share - e.g. what’s going on in a characters head in a certain scene or how you came to write a certain line? I think post 3x06 Mickey is such a tangle of emotions and I wanted to see how that gap between Mickey's trauma and his acceptance of himself in season 4 gets bridged. I wanted to explore Mickey's self-hatred and his feelings like he deserved to get hurt, and the way those feelings are vying with the dawning knowledge that he still cares about Ian, and the feeling that he didn't deserve any of what happened to him but that he's completely trapped in it. I just think Mickey is so messed up in seasons 3 and 4, with his feelings for Ian growing stronger and him becoming really properly conscious of them, but also being completely terrified of them and of the consequences of those feelings.

Would you ever write a sequel to this story? No, but I did unintentionally write a prequel, Abrade. That one explores the immediate aftermath of the morning of 3x06. It's also in second person POV, and it's very intense. They're not fics that are meant to be read together, but they fit together like an unintentional puzzle.

Are there any ‘easter eggs’ in your story - e.g. references to other stories you’ve written, a trope you often use etc? I have a headcanon that after the immediate events of 3x06, once both Ian and Terry left, Mickey vomited into the kitchen sink, on whatever dishes were there. I used it in this fic, and in Abrade, and maybe in another one as well (I think it's just implied in Scar Tissue). I think it's a detail that is nearly as visceral as the actual events, but it's a reaction rather than the actual moment. It really gets across how intense and traumatizing and awful the entire event was, without actually describing the details of rape.

Were you nervous or excited to post this story? A little nervous, actually, because of the weird mechanic. I just thought maybe people would click away from it once they saw the second person POV because I know it's kind of a weird way to write.

Anything else you’d like the readers to know about the story? Seasons 3 and 4 Mickey is fascinating to me because he's clearly depressed and scared and somewhat self-destructive and yet he's also so protective and willing to do stuff for Ian and because of Ian that I don't think he'd do otherwise. So I think the moments without Ian around in this fic are just him falling back into that misery -- but this time with a sort of awareness of how much Ian lightened everything for him without him really even realizing it at the time. Mickey's growth between seasons 3 and 5 is fascinating to me. I really think he's more introspective than people think, even though he does tend to act first. But I feel like with the important stuff, he mulls over it internally for a long while and does have thoughts and opinions, not just gut reactions.

#shameless #fic dvd commentary #shameless meta

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sophia-zofia · 10 months

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33,000 wounded, with nowhere to go The number of wounded in #Gaza is higher than the number killed. But Gaza’s dead comprise a staggeringly high proportion of casualties when measured against closely comparable casualty data. Latest figures from Gaza are 14,128 killed and 33,000 wounded—a ratio of around 1 to 2.3. However in earlier IDF attacks on Gaza the ratio has ranged between 1 to 4.6 and 1 to 6. This means that the dead now form a 2 to 3 times greater proportion of Gaza’s casualties than they did in earlier Israeli attacks. Why? Before coming to the most obvious cause—the destruction of Gaza’s health and emergency services—one key factor is that children constitute an unprecedentedly high proportion of the dead (around 40%). Due to their smaller size children are more likely to be killed than to survive bomb blasts and other war injuries, as a 2019 Save the Children study underlined (also emphasising that the children who do survive will be worse affected than adults). But the unprecedented number of children killed in Gaza is only partly a function of its youthful demographic. It is also a direct and predictable outcome of the IDF’s targeting decisions. Informed by “Israeli insiders”, Seymour Hersch recently reported that Israel’s mapping of Gaza’s underground tunnel system enabled them to “assassinate many Hamas brigade commanders and their families, in their beds”, when they’d allegedly “spend the night” in the family home. Thus children’s presence at the target and the point of impact of IDF’s bombs is not inadvertent but expected. Simply put, if large numbers of children are present where you bomb, your killed to wounded ratio will always be high. So how have the attacks on hospitals played into this? Hospitals, ambulances and emergency services that might have saved some lives have been bombed, besieged, and deprived of essential medical and other supplies including water and energy. Their staff have been arrested or shot, as have patients. At present not a single hospital is said to be operational in northern Gaza. And as we show below, the change in the pattern of killed to wounded directly reflects these unconscionable and unlawful actions: it’s for good reason that they are considered war crimes. In three previous, air-strike and artillery–heavy assaults by Israel on Gaza—Operations Cast Lead (2008-09), Pillar of Defense (2012), and Protective Edge (2014)—the killed to wounded ratios were 1 to 4.6, 1 to 5.2, and 1 to 6. During the first 10 days of Israel’s current onslaught the average ratio for killed to wounded was 1 to 4.2, roughly in line with earlier military operations. However from week three onwards—by which time hospitals’ capacity to properly treat casualties would have been overcome—that average had risen to 1 to 2.1. This is still a highly conservative assessment, because if the missing—most of whom are generally assumed to have died—are added to the latest number of dead, the ratio rises even further: 1 to 1.6. (Note that fully 66% of the missing are said to be children, therefore more likely to be among the dead.) So Israel’s “Operation Sword of Iron” is not only creating many thousands of wounded but is ensuring that they cannot receive medical aid, and are destined only to be added to the number killed. One war crime on top of another.

#palestine #free palestine #israel #gaza #free gaza #genocide #war crimes

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darkaac · 2 months

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Ok finally finished ghostwire tokyo and, hm. Not gonna lie i'm a bit disappointed.

I'll concede part, perhaps even most, of it is my own expectations based exclusively on the reveal trailer from 2019 (lmao), how I thought it'd be about some sort of modern onmyouji dealing with youkai in current-era Tokyo, with gameplay not dissimilar to what to me is the King of First Person Games With Funky Hand Bullshit (Dishonored): snappy combat, acrobatics, stealth, maybe a power that teleports/slingshots you forward, normal things (Somehow I do have to give it props here for having the voice of a dead person as your companion, something something two nickels).

But of course, as is evident in the way I've framed it, it doesn't... do that.

Before even getting into the combat I have to mention the camera, because I swear no matter how I moved the sliders around there was no way to make it feel comfortable. Either it slingshot 180º as soon as I touched the stick or I'd have to pull it along like I was trying to walk a cat on a leash. This becomes a problem in combat, considering it's first-person and all, even if you slam on L2 to lock on (for it is a capricious little thing and it may not feel like doing that, admittedly it slows down the camera so it's easier to line your shots better). L2 also does 5 quintillion other things so maybe that's why the lockon doesn't quite work right.

Your combat equipment is as follows: you have 3 weapons, each corresponding to an element, you have a bow for longer range, a melee attack that is mostly for breaking objects in the environment (though you can upgrade it to give it more functionality in fights), and a variety of support talismans. Each of the elements has its own characteristics: fire is slow to charge but has good range and damage, water has great damage at the cost of a pretty reduced range, and wind. "Odd way to finish that sentence!" Well, you see, it's because wind doesn't really have, um, downsides, beyond its lack of (inherent) AoE damage*. It's supposed to have mid range and mid damage, but your rate of fire is so fast, you get so many shots with it (around 30 by the end of the game, compared to fire's ~6 and water's ~10), and the shards (ammo) for it are so numerous whenever you break anything, that the other two feel like they're just kinda there, you know. *There are explosive cans and barrels around sometimes, and it doesn't really matter what you hit them with

The combat itself! It's boring. You stand there, finagle with the camera until it's on the enemy, and start spamming R2. After enough damage you can press/hold L2 (depends on how far you are from the enemy) to finish them off. The animations for this are pretty cool, but you don't get i-frames or anything, and if you're hit during the Hold animation it will get interrupted and the enemy won't be stunned anymore. If anything gets close, press L1 for a shield or L3 plus a direction to dodge (NOT forwards you CANNOT dodge forwards if you press L3+Up you SPRINT because it's the SPRINT button). You deal with the bosses in the exact same way, just whaling on them until their core(s) are exposed. That is, except for one of them: the Chapter 3 boss is a stealth fight, where you have to hide out of its view as it patrols in order to snatch its cores away .

Neither I nor GwT itself consider this game a stealth game, but let's look at its options in this regard anyway! You can Crouch and Sneak Kill.

Moving on.

Fine just kidding you can also go over the rooftops and avoid 85% of the overworld enemies, leaving only sheet ghosts (who die in 2 shots anyway), and teruteru bozu - Evil and Fucked Up Edition, who WILL rock your shit because they fly all over your FOV and, as established, the camera doesn't want to collaborate. Remember how I mentioned you have a bow? Sounds like it'd be a good weapon for picking off enemies from a distance without others noticing, yes? Eh. The damage seems inconsistent (a fully charged shot may or may not kill a basic enemy) and the projectile falls off pretty fast. Plus, enemies don't really chainpull based on sound anyway, so it might actually be safer and quicker to just Wind them to death (arrows are also rarer than shards because you have to either find quivers at shrines or buy them).

Ok now we can move on.

The main story! It's there, it's serviceable, it made me say "wow that sure was a Story that I Experienced", no more no less. I've heard the stories for some of the side missions are pretty good, but I didn't feel like going through all of that. The characters are also Okay.

The sound! The SFX department did a pretty good job, impact sounds are appropriately weighty, each element and the transitions between them are nice and distinct, the ambient drone of enemies that haven't found you yet (but are orbiting your location) is unsettling. I cannot say much for the music because none of it really stuck out to me. The cast does a good job and their voices fit the characters well, I think (played with JP voices).

The graphics! This is A PS5 Game so of course it's going for superultraturborrealistic graphics, and of course I mean no disrespect to the artists and modelers and other such members of the team but I do have to wonder What's The Point, Really. I don't want to lay the blame at their feet necessarily but most I was hitting was ~25FPS, less so when it was raining, even less so (to the point of having to relaunch the game completely) after cutscenes stopped playing. Could it be that that's because I'm still using a GTX 960? Maybe so, but Elden Ring and BG3 had no problem with my setup, so maybe the answer here is to have actual graphical options so that I could've put this bad boy on Low and enjoyed a relatively stable experience. Beyond that, I enjoyed the enemy design and how the Visitors represent fears and stresses of modern life: faceless, office worker-looking guys, "lost" children in bright raincoats that summon stronger enemies if they see you, the legless, untethered ghosts of those who've been cut off from those around them, the lady that cuts you up if you answer a question wrong... There are classic youkai around, usually in side missions (nekomata are everywhere as shopkeepers), I have nothing in particular to say about them. The environments are also quite detailed, and I particularly liked the times you get to visit the spirit world, it really felt like a place you were not meant to be in, a serenity that remains unperturbed even while you're fighting for your fucking life against a bunch of guys. Shibuya on the other hand suffers from Open World Game Map Syndrome, so it kinda became a blur after a while, other reviews I read were wowed by how close to the real thing it was, however, so ?

Should you play Ghostwire: Tokyo? idk I'm not your boss, if you buy it now it's certainly not gonna be to support Tango Gameworks (rip), but maybe if you don't go in with the Lofty Dishonored Expectations it becomes a much more enjoyable experience. Honestly if you want a cool story about supernatural happenings in Shibuya with banger after banger in the OST just get your ds and find a copy of (og) TWEWY somewhere.

#darktalks #mind not my inconsistent romanization of long o sounds #i mention L3 as the sprint button but i immediately swapped it and circle (crouch) around bc it just Didn't Feel Right #watched the kemuri teaser again and it might actually be closer to what i wanted? crossing my fingies #can't recommend neo twewy because i haven't played it. i refuse to believe that any of the non-DS remixes can be as good as the OG however

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winterpinetrees · 5 months

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Zerada Adust of the Las Vegas Strip (The Gap Years Part 12)

June 20th 2019

Las Vegas, NV

I'm definitely jumping through time in a far more disorganized way than a properly paced thing should, but I never said this was going to be good. It's going to be, and that's all.

…………

In the 1950s, tourists would come to Las Vegas to see the clouds of the nuclear bombs being tested a hundred miles to the northwest. The city wasn’t really known for gambling then, and the only thing most of the tourists were betting was their lives against the nuclear fallout. Of course, back then there was lead in gasoline and no seatbelts in cars, so safety was always relative.

The United States government stopped atmospheric testing in 1962, though they’d keep producing bigger and bigger bombs for years. In the half-century since, fallout has drifted over the city exactly once; in 2009 when the Excalibur Project was destroyed by a team of elves wearing that familiar neon-lined armor. It wasn’t a situation like Chernobyl, but the echoes of that disaster are still in the pavement. Sierra’s gadget ticks quickly as the group stands by the New York New York casino. If someone is watching them, they have no way of knowing.

To be honest, even without that much radiation, The Strip still feels it’s going to give her cancer. It has the flashing lights of a science fiction nightmare combined with the noise of a thousand advertisements. Everything smells like cigarette smoke and car exhaust and even the sunset can’t compare to the colors on the signs and walls. That being said, she might be a bit more on edge than usual. Yesterday, she was shot in the neck with something that Brian keeps describing as an arrow. She also hit her head -hard- on the way down. Was she cursed now? Concussed? Who knows, honestly. She can feel the blood pulsing in her neck where she was shot and she swears she’s hearing things that aren’t there. Her steady mechanic’s hands drift against her will. Marin doesn’t know how to fix it.

What else has happened? Well, Marin finally read that casualty list. Apparently it’s short this time, but his parents are still dead. So are Zerada’s parents. The thing that really shook Marin up though was one of the killers. Apparently several guards and a noble were killed by a woman named Devana Marolak, despite the fact that Devana was supposed to be on his side. Clay stated the obvious -she must have turned traitor- but Marin refused to believe it. The high nobility live for their storied bloodlines. She wouldn’t betray her family like that. Well, she’s a problem for another time.

They’re standing in front of the fifty foot tall statue of something almost like the Statue of Liberty. The area is more of a plaza for once. It was over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit today (she still thinks that way, despite her best efforts to use Celsius) and a good part of the strip is barren sidewalk. You aren’t supposed to walk outside in Vegas. Any time spent where you can see the sun is time where you aren’t losing track of reality. Sierra guesses that this place is close enough to a casino that it’s profitable to hang around.

“It’s sunset. She should be here.” Marin’s recovered fully from their little car chase. He’s explained again that the nobility are fragile, and that he just needed to sleep it off. He’s also fidgeting and nervous and put on eyeliner this morning so…

“Or, this whole thing was a trap,” Clay replies, unhelpfully cynical as always.

Sierra’s tired of it. “Pretty stupid trap, unless they want to give us cancer first”.

“Hey, we don’t know what that magic arrow did”.

A patch of light moves on the ground in front of their feet. It looks like the reflection off of a phone, and Sierra looks around to see if anyone is moving theirs. No one. She follows the light up and behind them to the torch of the replica statue. Marin’s face lights up (no, not literally this time).

“Of course she’s up there! We’d always…” he laughs. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Wait here,”

Marin disappears with a flash of green. Once he’s out of earshot, Clay shakes his head.

“So our only hope is Marin’s girlfriend?”

It seems like it is.

“Are they even dating? He keeps calling her ‘his betrothed’ which is a different thing” Brian replies.

“Are elves even, like… what’s the word for only having one spouse?” she asks.

“Monogamous?”

“Yeah, that”. To be honest, humans aren’t always monogamous either. She has two step siblings to prove it.

“I don’t know. Ask him”. Brian shrugs as if he doesn’t care, but everyone knows he’s obsessed with all that cultural stuff.

They quietly discuss. Brian mentions that Marin’s been translating everything into English and trying to not offend them, and that they really can’t be sure of anything because of it. The two of them pester him for being an annoying future English major and decide to ignore it.

After a few minutes, Marin reappears with a woman in an orange dress on his arm. She’s holding the cheap carnival fox under the other, and they’re both smiling like maniacs. She is only the second elf they’ve seen outside of combat.

Marin is an elf prince, but he doesn’t look like it. Ignore the pointed ears and he looks pretty unremarkable. Zerada though? She would be mistaken for a goddess if she showed up in Ancient Greece. They’re in Vegas instead, so Sierra invents other comparisons. She looks like a supermodel. She looks like what the media wants her and her mother to be. She is all of this while holding a stuffed animal.

Zerada looks about their age, so she must be nearly a hundred. She stands taller than Marin, but only while wearing four-inch heeled boots. Zerada throws her dark flowing hair over her shoulders when she laughs and her practically glowing skin is somewhere between suntanned and bronze. Sierra made a comment a few days ago about the Genus Adust symbol (a burnt-orange fox) being a cliche for a woman, but it fits. Her ears are sharp and pointed, and there’s a mischievous spark in her amber eyes. This is a smart, smart woman, but women are never allowed to just be smart. Zerada is both smart and drop-dead gorgeous, which means she’ll only ever be cunning and dangerous. Foxy. Then again, she’s an elf princess who survived a coup. Maybe Sierra should wait a second before deciding that she isn’t a threat.

The two speak in an elven language for a moment, but Zerada switches to English.

“So I hear you’ve all had quite the adventure?” Her voice is low and playful. It’s exactly what she’d expect from a stereotypical vixen. Considering how the elf is from another planet (parallel dimension. whatever) she’s definitely playing into it on purpose. It unsettles Sierra, who won’t touch that sort of behavior with a ten foot pole.

“You could say that,” Clay replies, deadpan.

“How’s Mari been treating you?” She looks at Sierra and grimaces. “Life and death, that is quite the spell. I’ll get you all some rooms and…”

Mari? His nickname is Mari?

“I’m sorry, but you are Zerada, right?” Brian asks.

“Yes! My name is Zerada Adust. It’s a pleasure to meet the humans who have kept this idiot alive. And you all are?”

Marin elbows her. She puts a hand on his head and pushes him away. They all introduce themselves.

Zerada raises her eyebrows in exaggerated surprise “Those are some familiar names”.

They speak in elvish again.

“It isn’t nice to talk about people when they’re in the room,” Clay says firmly.

“I was just telling Mari that the three of you are impressive companions”. She looks at each of them in turn. “The favorite child of the world’s most interesting tech magnate, the overlooked son of the California governor, and well, I don’t exactly recognize you…”

She stares at Clay. They’re about the same height and neither one looks away for a long moment, but he backs down first. “A lot of people in Vegas are desperate. Addiction, medical debt… people come here to die. Your father is part of the reason why”.

He straightens his shoulders and glares back at her, but the woman keeps talking. “You aren’t his heir, or part of his appearances. An exotic pet, then? I’d say seen and not heard, but I haven’t seen you either”.

Clay starts to say something, but is cut off. “Not that? Not good at doing tricks?”

“You don’t get to say anything about me, princess”.

“I do, actually. I don’t play by the rules either, but I suppose I got the last laugh.” She bares her teeth. “I’m here and alive, after all. Daddy isn’t”.

Sierra has really never seen Clay outplayed by anyone, especially not someone holding a toy fox. “I’m not interested in women,” he replies, which is as good a response as any.

“Oh? Hm”.

There’s a beat of silence. Then Sierra starts laughing.

“Really? Flirting with my companion?” Marin has his own exaggerated look of shock.

Zerada lifts her hands in surrender. “Hey, you had a crush on my brother”.

Marin smiles awkwardly, but then they both go silent.

“Jezero is still alive,” he says. “He’s not on the list”. Zerada replies that she’s already seen it. It’s not clear to Sierra if the elves are happy about this or not.

Whatever the hell that was, it’s over now. Zerada walks them up the Las Vegas Strip towards the hotel where she’s rented a huge suite under one of a dozen fake names. Her tall boots clack against the sidewalk while Marin’s footsteps are silent.

“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” she explains when Sierra asks if they’re safe here. “This place is full of elves who just want to have a good time. If Mercuralis wants to send soldiers here, she’ll piss all of us off”.

“So we’re counting on a bunch of drunk, magic, gamblers to protect us?” she replies.

Zerada turns back and rolls her eyes. “Please. Why would we gamble? There’s better games to play”.

That’s when the elf starts talking about herself. She’s spent four months in Vegas, but most of the past decade in all the cities, islands, and exclaves where the world’s rich and powerful waste their money. She’s fluent in English, Mandarin, and Arabic, as well as Portuguese (which is her favorite, and shockingly useful where she travels). Zerada is a shameless thrill seeker and gifted at charms and mental spells. There isn’t a criminal underground she doesn’t have friends in, or a casino she hasn’t robbed. Zerada makes a single quip about her body count without confirming what she’s counting, and both options make perfect sense. This woman is a femme fatale straight out of James Bond, minus any chance of dying for some man’s character development. If anything, Marin is the trophy spouse, and he seems okay with it.

Zerada changes her room every few weeks to avoid suspicion, and she’s currently staying at Caesars Palace purely for the pun. Marin and Zerada speak for a long time in elvish about something that leaves both of them doubled over laughing before Marin stalks off to buy the party a two bedroom suite. (Zerada insists they stay somewhere nice for once after a week on the road).

And the room is nice. Her father would probably buy out the whole building if he were here, but he isn’t, so the three rich kids sit awkwardly in the ‘living room’, because yes, this hotel room has a living room in it. The truth is, this is what they were trying to get away from. Staying in a room with a wet bar feels wrong when they were all nearly dragged off to imprisonment and death yesterday, and when the future is sure to be worse. The side of her neck is still glowing very scary red in the mirror, and Zerada didn’t do anything about it despite her also very scary reaction to it. She slunk back to her own room, and Marin followed… so they’re not going to interrupt. It’s fine. Sierra isn’t cursed. She’ll be fine.

They sit in silence.

Brian drinks from a can of soda. “So what does everyone think she meant about there being better games to play?”

“Politics, probably. She’s a noblewoman. I wouldn’t be shocked if they’re pulling strings everywhere”. Clay responds as if elves manipulating everything was too boring to focus on.

“So there’s a secret society of elves puppeteering everyone in Vegas and we’re okay with this?” Sierra says.

Brian gives her a movie star smile. “We don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

“We’re trying to save the world, Brian”.

They pause for a moment. Clay sighs.

“Please do not tell me you have a crush on Marin’s girlfriend. She is not nice. No one like that is ever nice”.

He takes a very long and conspicuous drink from his soda. “You’re nice, and you like politics and lying”.

“You dumb blond. That’s not what I mean!” He grabs a pillow and throws it.

Well, there’s only one thing to do now. Who says that the heroes can’t act like idiots sometimes? Brian’s certainly going to, so she picks up a pillow.

…………

As always, foreshadowing is a literary device.

Zerada and Marin’s relationship status is a secret third thing! Imagine the most complicated on-again-off-again relationship you heard about in high school, and then consider that they’ve been friends for eighty years, and are societally expected to have 2.5 children or whatever the average noble birth rate is.

I do not know how to write, or fully understand, romance. I guess I'll figure it out because Brian making a very bad decision is a central part of his character arc, and also crucial for the plot.

#by me #the gap years #writing that *is*

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