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hollowed-theory-hall · 25 days

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The Ministry of Magic: Part 1/?

(Part 2)

Legislative Processes

I don't know if I was the only one who was paying too close attention any time Arthur or Percy Weasley mentioned anything to do with their ministry jobs to try and understand how the magical government works... but I made some notes based on random one-off lines that have some implications.

So, I'll start with a short one about one of the ways laws come into existence in the UK Ministry of Magic.

“C-cars, Molly, dear?” “Yes, Arthur, cars,” said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing. “Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly.” Mr. Weasley blinked. “Well, dear, I think you’ll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. . . . There’s a loophole in the law, you’ll find. . . . As long as he wasn’t intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn’t—” “Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!” shouted Mrs. Weasley. “Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren’t intending to fly!”

(CoS, 43)

Like, this is bizarre. Let's recap, Arthur Weasley is the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, described as:

“What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?” “He works in the most boring department,” said Ron. “The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.” “The what?” “It’s all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare — Dad was working overtime for weeks.” “What happened?” “The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going frantic — it’s only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office — and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up —”

(CoS, 36)

It's a small office, only Arthur, the office's head, and one employee, Perkins. Even though it's such a small office, that is held in low regard, Arthur still has the legal authority to bill laws relevant to his office. Molly and he literally say he wrote a loophole into the law on purpose!

This means any department or office head in the ministry, regardless of how small or inconsequential they are, has the legal authority to draft a law and offer it to vote in the Wizengamot. We know the law bills get voted on, so at least random ministry personnel can't just make laws for whatever they want.

We don't really know what Araminta Meliflua Black did for a living, but she was clearly legally allowed to draft laws too:

and Araminta Meliflua . . . cousin of my mother’s . . . tried to force through a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal

(OotP, 113)

And we know her law didn't pass, so I assume it was dropped during a Wizengamot vote.

But this process shows how much the Ministry of Magic doesn't function like a democracy.

I'll write about what exactly the Wizengamot is, how I believe it functions, and who the members are (I'm pretty sure they aren't elected democratically though. Edit: I wrote it). Still, for now, the legislative process in the ministry is that every office head writes laws in their area of expertise (or anything else they're passionate about, apparently). Then the law gets voted on by the Wizengamot which is both the Parliament (the legislature) and the supreme court of justice in the ministry (somewhat like the House of Lords in the UK used to function in the past).

In democracies, the legislature is usually elected by popular vote or indirectly elected, this group of elected legislators would be the only ones who could legally write laws. As every office head in the ministry has the authority to act as a legislator, I assume no such election methods are in place for every single office in the ministry. For the larger department heads, perhaps, but not every minor office.

If we take the muggle UK as our legislature template, laws can be billed by any member of the parliament (be it the House of Lords or the House of Commons). Then these bills are voted on multiple times by the parliament. It's more complex than that, but my main point is that in every sensible democratic country, the members of the parliament are the ones drafting laws and voting on them. In the Ministry of Magic, it seems like basically everyone in the Ministry can draft a law, not just Wizengamot members (who vote on them).

In the US there are ways for citizens to recommend laws to the member of Congress that represents them, but that's completely different to Arthur just straight up writing a loophole into the law intentionally! There isn't even anyone who oversees the phrasing of the bill, or reads through it to make sure it makes sense or, idk, legal if Arthur could just write what he wished! Or that Araminta could write a bill for muggle-hunting and offer it up to a vote, like... there doesn't seem to be any screening for the laws that go into a vote. Not even for their phrasing.

This is just a messed up little fact about the legislative processes within the Ministry of Magic I didn't see anyone mention that I think is interesting.

#harry potter #hp #harry potter theory #hp theory #hp meta #harry potter meta #wizarding world #ministry of magic #arthur weasley #hollowedtheory

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battyaboutbooksreviews · 6 months

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🦇 Batty About Books' October Recap 🦇

🦇 Good afternoon, my bookish bats, and welcome to November! This year is rushing by, but my TBR pile just keeps growing! Is that my own fault because I keep grabbing ARCs and ignoring my buying freeze? Why yes, yes it is! Should I probably catch up on all the books I've purchased over the past year (plus)? Yes, but who has the time?

❓ What was your favorite book for the month?

📚 This month, I read 8 books! October's reads included:

✨ Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross @beccajross ✨ Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu @artofwendyxu ✨ The House Witch by Delemhach ✨ Courting Samira by Amal Awad @amalmdawad 💜 Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree @travis_baldree ✨ Forged by Magic by Jenna Wolfhart @jenna_wolfhart ✨ Artifacts of an Ex by Jennifer Chen @jchenwriter ✨ The Modern Girl's Guide to Magic by Linsey Hall @linseyhallauthor ✨ The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur @a.m.bellefleur

🦇 I'm 91% into my reading goal of 100 books for the year!

💜 What book are you looking forward to most for November? Here's to another amazing month of cozy, adventurous, romance reads!

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adarkrainbow · 2 years

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Fairytales talk: Swans and ravens

So, I was asked to go a quick go on the fairytale “The Seven Swans”. I agree but I like to point out that this tale actually does not exist. It is a mashup of two different fairytales, The Six Swans and The Seven Ravens. But this mix-up is very interesting! Because you see, those two different tales are actually two variations of one same archetypal fairytale. It is what the ATU lists as a “type 451”, the story of the brothers turned into birds. This archetypal story has variations all around the world: in Russia it is “The Magic Swan Geese”, but in Norway it is “The Twelve Wild Ducks”, in Italy “The Seven Doves” and Andersen wrote his own version of the tale called “The Wild Swans”.

So… Both of those tales are actually German variations of the type 451, and both were published by the Brothers Grimm in their folklore anthology.

To recap briefly The Six Swans:

One day a king gets lost in a forest (cause of course a king will just randomly go all alone in the woods to take a stroll). He is helped by an old woman, but she only helps him to get out of the forest in exchange for him marrying her daughter. The king doesn’t mind because he is a widow, and the daughter of the old woman is an incredibly beautiful lady. Except that the old woman and her daughter are actually both witches. The king had seven children from his previous marriage, six sons and a daughter. Wishing to protect them from their evil step-mother, he sends them away to a secret manor where he visits them from time to time – in some versions he does that even before knowing his wife is a witch, simply because he feels she will try to hurt them. But the witch wife quickly understands what is going on, and finds out the secret hiding of the king’s children. (In some tales she bribes the servants of the king; in others, the king uses a magic thread to find his children and the witch-queen steals it away from him). She saws six magic shirts and then tosses them over the six boys – turning them into swans. Satisfied, she returns home.

The sister is horrified to see her brothers are all now birds, but hopefully the brothers can take a human form for fifteen minutes each evening. As humans, they tell their sister of the only way to break the curse: she must saw for them six shirts out of nettles, and not make a sound for six full years, else she will also turn into a swan and nothing will ever be able to break the curse. The girl agrees to do so, and goes deep in the wood. She lives in an abandoned hut and spends her time sewing in silence. Unfortunately, years later a young king discovers the girl, falls madly in love with her, and takes her to his court to make her his queen. But the mother of the king hates the young girl – officially it is because she doesn’t speak, cry or laugh, merely saws and knits all day long, implying she has no emotion or soul; but in truth it is because she cannot stand having someone not of noble birth be Queen. The young girl quickly falls pregnant (since she married the King and is now Queen), but at the birth of her child, the wicked mother-in-law steals it away and claims the Queen killed and devoured her own baby. The King does not believe her, and still doesn’t when the same thing happens to their second child ; but when the third goes missing, he has to believe his mother (especially since in some versions the mother smeared the girl’s mouth with blood). She is condemned to be burned at the stake, but the day of her execution she finishes all six shirts. As she is brought to the stake, the six swans arrive and she throws the shirts at them, giving them back a human shape – the now human brothers quickly rescue their sister from the flames. The six years also end, and the young Queen denounces the mother-in-law, who is the one ending up at the stake. The babies are fine and found back – the evil mother had simply hidden them away. And everything is happy everafter.

A very common variation in the story says that actually the young girl did not finish fully the six shirts – one was missing a sleeve. And so, while the six brothers regain their human shape, one stays with a swan wing instead of a left arm.

This specific version of the tale has also a lot more variations, common to the type 451: the number of brothers will vary from two to twelve, passing by all numbers in between; and the type of bird can change (as we will see underneath) : ducks, ravens, eagles, geese, peacocks, cranes, rooks and many others were used… The years of silence also tend to change, being six or seven; or sometimes the silence vow simply being tied to the making of the shirts (hence why she can speak as soon as the shirts are worn by her brothers). The materials of the shirts also tend to vary – in the Grimm version it is nettles because it implies a form of suffering as an extra-trial; other versions rather use other plants such as asters or starflowers.

It is also fascinating to see that this is actually a two-part tale, very similar to the one of Sleeping Beauty, and with villains who respond to each other: the witch stepmother and the wicked mother-in-law, both queens and perversions of the mother figure (modern versions even make them related, or the same person – the same way the witch and the stepmother in Hansel and Gretel are tied together somehow).

That being said, we have on the other side The Seven Ravens, which is a very different version of the type 451 tale, and :

A peasant had seven sons but no daughters – and he actually wished to have one. After a long time, his wife finally had a baby daughter, but she was sick, so the father asked his sons to go fetch water for her with a jug – in Germany, it is to baptize her so that she won’t die unbaptized; in Greece it is water from a healing spring to cure her. But in their haste, the brothers drop the jug of water and have to fetch it all back (in other variations, he gave them a bottle which they break). The father, seeing it is getting very late, believes his sons have gone away, probably to play, forgetting their duty, and so he curses them – the curse turns them into ravens and they fly away.

The sister survives and grows up, but she is unaware of the existence of her own brothers – until she somehow discovers it (usually by hearing people gossip about the missing seven boys). Determined to find them back, she goes into the world, but not before taking a ring belonging to her parents, to prove her identity. She wants at first to go ask the Sun if he knows where they are, but the Sun is too hot and too bright and threatens to burn her, so she flees in terror. She decides to go ask the Moon, but the Moon actually smells her flesh and wants to devour her – because in this story, the Moon loves to eat children. So she flees once more. Finally she finds help with the benevolent Stars (sometimes the Morning Star, other times the North Star) – they give her an element which will help her access the place her brothers dwell in, the Glass Mountain (a mountain made of glass). In Germany, the element is a chicken bone, in Greece it is the foot of a bat. The girl reaches Glass Mountain and sees a door with a lock which allows to enter it. In the “kinder” versions, she opens it up with the thing the Star(s) gave her. In the Brothers Grimm version, the girl lost the bone and so, to replace it, chops off one of her fingers to act as the key to the door. Once inside, she sees rooms fit for the living, with a table covered by seven plates of food. In some versions she meets a dwarf inside who tells her that the inhabitants of the rooms, the ravens, will soon return; other times the dwarf is absent. All in all, the girl, who is hungry, eats a bit from every plate and drinks a bit from every glass – though her ring falls into the last cup. No time to retrieve it: the ravens are just entered the mountain!

The girl quickly hides. The seven raven examine the mess the girl made with their feast (or, in other versions, they turn back into humans to start eating). The youngest of the seven finds the ring in his cup and recognizes it as the one belonging to their parents. And hopes that it belongs to their sister (in one version, it is because if the sister finds them their curse will be broken ; in another it is because he struck a bargain with God, that if their sister is inside the mountain their curse should be undone). Anyway, the siblings embrace each other and all return home. The end.

[Interestingly, the Brothers Grimm used an oral German story which had three, not seven ravens. But as you can see mentioned, there is another prominent variation that comes from Greece. Other variants are found in Poland and Slovakia.]

A very interesting point to make in this tale is that, while the ravens were cursed as boys, they grew up normally, and when their sister finds them back, they are now adults. It is also notable that there is a parallel between the beginning and the ending: the curse of the ravens begins with a father making an imprudent wish, wishing out of anger and rage that his sons would turn into ravens ; but the raven curse ends when one of the brothers wishes for his sister to be in the mountain.

As you can see, two very different tales, with different social context, different adventures and different kinds of birds, but always the same structure typical of the type 451: numerous brothers are turned into birds by the action of a parental figure; their young sister has to rescue them and to do so has to perform strange tasks and sacrifice herself in a way or another ; at the end she saves them and everyone is happy.

- - - - -

If you are wondering about the "ATU Index", it is the Aarne-Thompson Index ; nowadays the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. It is an international classification of folktales (which include fairytales, among other things). It was started by Antti Aarne, a Finland folklorist who finished it in 1925. Stith Thompson, an American, completed it in 1927 then in 1961 ; and finally the final touch was given by the German Hans-Jörg Uther in 2004. This index is now widely used and recognized by scholar, considered a useful tool of fairytales classification - though it has some flaws (for example a huge focus on the European tales ; some conflicts and incoherences due to the enormous amount of tales treated ; a choice by Thompson to remove from the corpus tales that included "perversities" such as homosexuality... Each number in the index corresponds to an archetypal tale whose variations can be found across different cultures and countries. The broad categories (the biggest subtypes) are Animal tales ; Tales of magic (also called Wonder tales) ; Religious tales ; Realistic tales ; Tales of the stupid ogre ; Anecdotes and Jokes ; as well as Formula tales. For exemple, a subtype of the Animal tales are the "Clever Fox" tales, tales where the hero is a clever fox or any other clever animal ; while subtypes of the Tales of magic include the "Supernatural task" and the "Supernatural Helpers". Sleeping Beauty is an tale belong to the archetypal tale ATU 410 (The Sleeping Beauty), part of the "Enchanted Wife" tales. While the Frog King is the archetypal tale of the type ATU 440, part of the "Supernatural or Enchanted Husband". The story we just told about is of the type "451", The Maiden who Seeks her Brothers - usually where the brothers are turned into birds.

#fairytale talk #fairytales #fairy tales #brothers grimm #german fairytales #the six swans #the seven ravens

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madammayh3m · 1 year

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Day 7: Turns Out Thais has a Personality

Oh boy. Oh fucking boy. The recap is almost caught up to where the campaign left off and we’ve officially only been in Barovia for a week. Curse of Strahd spoilies obvi, especially since we go see the witch today.

Thais and Ferrin go down to speak with Urwin in the morning. He has his two sons, Bram and Bray, who were in the kitchen helping with breakfast, go ‘help’ their mother with something as a way to get them out. As they’re leaving, Bray looks up at Thais and asks if she’s dead. She leans down slightly and – trying to be scary in a good-natured way to this kid she’s known almost his whole life – tells him, “yes.” He goes to ask her more questions, but Urwin shoos him out.

Urwin and Thais have a long conversation about what has been going on exactly since she’s been away. She reveals literally everything to him – that she’s dead, she doesn’t really remember anything, that she’s been outside of Barovia for the past eight months, everything she knows about herself, and the whole situation with the Abbot (which he finds hysterically funny). He also mentions the soldiers in silver armor upon hearing about her particular brand of undeath, further solidifying her theory that she’s connected to them somehow. In turn, Urwin tells her what has been going on and reveals aspects of her past to her: she was a barmaid at the Blue Water Inn, she and Yeska were engaged, her father died from disease shortly after she left, and that her mother left town and hasn’t been seen since, that Yeska went to Brez to speak with the witch there and was dragged back half dead by his horse (which later died of its own wounds), and that after that visit with the witch, he can now use magic when he couldn’t before. Thais is pissed that the witch hurt him. He also tells them that, if they want to leave town, they’d have to do it right now, because if the Burgomaster catches them trying to leave while there’s a festival going on, they’ll be imprisoned and publicly humiliated. Thais also asks him about the pinecone gems, as one of them did go missing while he was courting Danika. He doesn’t know where the unaccounted-for third gem has gone and simply points them in the direction of Brez.

Before leaving, Ferrin – now knowing more about Thais and the extent of her and Yeska’s relationship – tries to convince Thais that they should ask Yeska for information on the witch of Brez. Thais sees her point and the two have Urwin send one of his sons to go get him. He arrives and Ferrin introduces herself as Lucy; Thais doesn’t speak to him, and she doesn’t really manage to keep her cool, but he doesn’t say anything to her. Ferrin does all the talking and asks Yeska for any information he has about Brez and the witch. He warns them to stay away, but does still tell them what he knows about the area and a little about his experience ‘meeting’ her, including that she is an ally of Strahd but hates ravens, and unintentionally reveals that she gave him the scar over his eye. Thais, via Ferrin, pays him and he notes that one of the coins is from outside Barovia (specifically, the place he was originally from). He leaves without indicating that he thinks something is up with Thais.

The two make their plan to sneak out of the city and they move through the city like ghosts, making it out past a night-shift guard who hasn’t been relieved from his post yet. As they make their way down the road, Thais notices a skeleton in the grass – the skeleton is holding a bag in its arms. Inside the bag was a twisted iron key, a baby rattle, and a drawing of a man and a woman, carefully wrapped. Thais took the key, and Ferrin made sure that the drawing was protected from the elements before they continued on to Brez.

Upon reaching Brez, the two notice a ring of standing stones very similar to the ones on Yester Hill – there is a light between them. Ferrin has Lucy scope out the area, and she notices an old woman with a lantern and a dagger, standing and looking over the river towards the ruins of Brez. Ferrin approaches her with the intent to ask her for advice crossing the river, but the woman flees behind one of the standing stones. Following her, Ferrin finds only a raven behind the stone, which flies away.

Observing the standing stones closer, they note that there are animals carved on some of them - a bear, an elk, a hawk, a goat, an owl, a panther, a raven, and a wolf, but that the cardinal stones are left blank. Thais - and Ferrin, catching onto Thais’ habits - leave an offering of gold at this ancient place of worship before continuing on.

The two observe the river and, finding it relatively slow moving and shallow, swim across with minimal difficulty, though the book Thais found at the shrine when they first arrived was ruined. Upon reaching the other side, however, they are accosted by a swarm of biting flies as they try to dry out their clothes and armor slightly before continuing. Though they are able to fend them off, Ferrin quickly begins to develop a fever and experiences fits of laughter that come on much like a cough would - a disease called cackle fever, colloquially known as the shrieks, runs rampant here. They observe the ruins and notice a group of seven scarecrows, stuffed with black feathers that they identify as the constructs that Davian mentioned. The two decide to go directly to the witch’s hut in the center of the ruins and see what information they can get from her about themselves, as she may be knowledgeable about the kinds of magic that affect them, and what Yeska came there for, before trying to kill her. The hut is built onto a tree with many roots that resemble the legs of an insect. There is also a giant’s skull, turned upside down, in front of the hut, and two cages absolutely stuffed with very unhappy ravens that scream at the two women, alerting the witch inside.

Initially it seems to go well despite the fact that she is also absolutely insane - inside the hut is, among other things, an old wooden tub stained with blood, an altar of some kind, and a crib with a baby inside in the center of the room, though Thais notes that the latter is not in fact a real child, but a powerful illusion spell. A green glow, much like the glow that came from inside the tree blight back at the winery, emanates from under the floorboards. Baba Lysaga welcomes them inside and cures Ferrin’s cackle fever. She also invades Ferrin’s privacy in a major way in order to find out more about the fundamentals of her existence. While she magically examines Ferrin’s very being, Lucy flutters out of Ferrin’s hood and hangs from the ceiling, watching everything, her eyes having turned a different color. Ferrin learns that she is a vampire that is missing her divinity - and that to fully become a vampire, she must claim a source of divinity. They also learn that Baba Lysaga was Strahd’s nursemaid - she thinks of herself as his real mother, and holds a great deal of animosity to his biological mother, who she said favored Strahd’s younger brother. She was banished from the castle for using magic on Strahd when he was an infant in order to unlock his latent potential. However, her attitude towards the two quickly shifts as she comes to the conclusion that Ferrin is a brazen hussy seeking to seduce her precious “son” for his power. However, she turns her attention from Ferrin onto Thais.

Sensing that things are about to go south anyway, Ferrin tells her that Thais is undead, and the two try to reveal enough aspects of her condition to Baba Lysaga without revealing that her end goal and purpose for revival was to kill Strahd. However, Baba Lysaga catches on quickly, and reveals that the only revenants in Barovia were of the Order of the Silver Dragon, the silver warriors that stood against Strahd. She also reveals that revenants are created by a desire in the soul to dedicate themselves fully to their cause, and that while they can be called, they can also choose not to answer. Finally, she tells Thais that Death will not claim her until her goal is fulfilled, and she then asks what, exactly, Thais’ goal is. In a last attempt to not anger her before finding out more information, Thais lies about her goal, stating that it was her desire to marry her fiance that brought her back, but Baba Lysaga sees through the lie and (correctly) assumes that Thais’ purpose is to kill her “baby boy,” and attacks the two of them, slamming the door of the hut shut magically.

The fight does not go particularly well - she casts Crown of Madness on Ferrin who, in the cramped space of the hut, has no choice but to attack Thais. However, the two women keep her blocked into the hut, preventing her from using some of her more offensive spells at the risk of catching herself in the fallout. She also summons several swarms of flies that fill the hut, further whittling away at the two women. Suddenly, the door of the hut bursts open, and Ezmerelda stands in the doorway, telling them they need to leave, now. Upon seeing another, more powerful, adversary has joined the fight, Baba Lysaga casts Finger of Death on Thais, killing her instantly (she failed the save and it did fucking THREE TIMES HER HP IN DAMAGE).

Seeing her ally fall, Ferrin resolves to stand her ground and see the fight against Baba Lysaga to the end. It’s a close fight, and Baba Lysaga awakens her Creeping Hut, which begins to move and shake, trying to throw the enemies inside of it around. Ferrin stays upright thanks to her Spider Climb abilities and she and Ezmerelda finally get the witch on the ropes. Baba Lysaga attempts to escape by turning into a swarm of flies as she gets closer and closer to death, but as she escapes the hut, Ferrin and Ezmerelda finally kill her. She dies in agony, fading away into nothing.

The hut, however, is still very much alive; Ferrin rips up the floorboards, revealing the pinecone gem that rests in the hollow trunk of the living tree. The trunk has barbs that gnash together like a mouth. Ferrin and Ezmerelda both try to reach into the trunk to pull the gem out, and both get injured by the gnashing “teeth.” Ferrin uses the Blood spear to wedge the mouth open long enough to grab the gemstone, which destroys the spear and kills the hut in one fell swoop. As the hut falls, Ferrin catches Ezmerelda, keeping her from falling.

Ferrin helps Ezmerelda out of the hut and goes back in to retrieve Thais and investigate the witch’s belongings. She examines the altar and realizes that the source of Baba Lysaga’s magic was not freely given, but rather that she gained her powers through force and domination. She also finds a locked treasure chest, which she brings outside, and both she and Ezmerelda try to open it. Failing to pick the lock, Ferrin decides to break it open with her axe. The box itself explodes and three crawling claws fly out, very dead. Inside, Ferrin finds all of Baba Lysaga’s “winnings” from past adventurers she has slain - or at the very least, beaten, as Yeska’s hat is among the items. She splits the gold and gemstones between her, Thais, and Ezmerelda, letting the latter have first pick of the loot and a larger share of gold as thanks for saving our collective dumb ass.

Ezmerelda notices that Ferrin sets aside gold for Thais, and begins to try and comfort her, but Ferrin explains the situation. Disturbed by the revelation of Thais’ “condition,” she attempts to leave, cool guy style, but Ferrin follows after her and convinces her to at least help them back to Vallaki. On the way back, Ferrin and Ezmerelda have a very gay conversation about what Ezmerelda was even doing out there in the first place. Ezmerelda reveals that she went to Vallaki to get supplies, and that she heard two outsiders had gone out to Brez to fight Baba Lysaga. Not wanting to see the two women (or at least Ferrin) killed, she followed. Ferrin asks her where she’ll be headed next and when Ezmerelda tries to give her the runaround, she asks if she’ll be headed to Castle Ravenloft to fight Strahd directly; Ezmerelda responds very flirtily, asking if Ferrin would mind if she was. The two finally make their way back to Vallaki, where Ezmerelda drops off Ferrin and goes on her way. Meanwhile, Lucy has begun to develop symptoms of cackle fever.

Ferrin manages to get Thais’ body into the city and to the Blue Water Inn with no one asking too many questions - after all, outsiders don’t tend to last long in Barovia. Upon reaching the inn, Urwin and Danika immediately spring into action, with Urwin going to fetch Yeska, and Danika helping Ferrin get Thais out of her armor and settled into one of their rooms from the night before. When Ferrin returns downstairs to pay for the rooms, Danika almost-hugs her and thanks her for watching out for Thais. Ferrin pulls her into a full hug, almost leaping across the counter to do so, which makes Danika feel very awkward, and then goes back upstairs to wait for Yeska in her own room.

Yeska arrives and begins to patch up Ferrin and treat Lucy for her cackle fever. While treating Ferrin, he remarks on how the “mouth” in the trunk of the tree fucked up her arm, to which Ferrin responds that the house “bit her.” Nonplussed, Yeska continues to treat her and, upon finishing, allows her to pick a candy from a small jar he keeps with his medicine kit. He asks her about how her traveling companion is doing, and Ferrin convinces him that Thais is alright, and just needs to sleep without disturbance, but that he can come back when she wakes up. He leaves, and Ferrin settles in for the night.

#things are getting dicey #curse of strahd #glorious goth girl adventures #GGGA Recap #ocs #Thais Vennoa #Ferrin Bonemarrow #I'm so fucking excited lmao #I've also got another fic from the DM to post from Yeska's perspective after Thais died #:3c #I fucking lost my shit when Yeska and Ferrin had the conversation about how her arm got so fucked up #I'm still fucking laughing about that nearly two weeks later #*yeska picking tree shrapnel out of ferrin's arm* 'jesus miss what happened to you out there?'#*ferrin sweating* 'the house... bit me?'#*yeska very concerned about how she's still alive* '...bit ya pretty good.'

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britneyshakespearess · 4 months

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2023 Recap

Goal: 35 books

Books read: 50 11 nonfiction 39 fiction

Pages read: 15,896

My 5 star reads (in order by which I read them):

The Winter of the Witch Katherine Arden

The Catcher in the Rye (reread) J.D. Salinger

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma Claire Dederer

Fourth Wing Rebecca Yarros

The Anomaly Herve Le Tellier

White Wedding Kathleen J. Woods

We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival Natalie West (editor)

Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor

Jawbone Monica Ojeda

Acts of Desperation Megan Nolan

How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti

Educated Tara Westover

Sharks, Death, Surfers: an Illustrated Companion Melissa McCarthy

Minor Feelings Cathy Park Hong

Best book I read this year:

Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor

Worst book I read this year:

In the Woods Tana French

The books I thought I was going to love but didn't:

The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls

Idlewild James Frankie Thomas

Biography of X Catherine Lacey

How Music Works David Byrne

Bluebeard's Castle Anna Biller

The book I didn't expect to love but did:

Acts of Desperation Megan Nolan

How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti

The books I haven't stopped thinking about:

The Anomaly Herve Le Tellier White Wedding Kathleen J. Woods We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival Natalie West (editor) Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor

Jawbone Monica Ojeda Acts of Desperation Megan Nolan

How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti

Educated Tara Westover Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma Claire Dederer Nails and Eyes Kaori Fujino What Was She Thinking? Zoe Heller How to Blow Up a Pipeline Andreas Malm Treasure Island!!! Sara Levine Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh At the Edge of the Woods Kathryn Bromwich Lament for Julia Susan Taubes

The complete list and my ratings (in order by which I read them):

Ninth House Leigh Bardugo (reread) 4/5 Hell Bent Leigh Bardugo 3.5/5 The Winter of the Witch Katherine Arden 5/5 What Was She Thinking? Zoe Heller 4/5 Spells for Forgetting Adrienne Young 3/5 Elektra Jennifer Saint 3/5 How to Blow Up a Pipeline Andreas Malm 4.5/5 Now Is Not the Time to Panic Kevin Wilson 4.5/5 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger (reread) 5/5 Treasure Island!!! Sara Levine 4.5/5 The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World Malcom Gaskill 4/5 Milk Fed Melissa Broder 4.5/5 Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh 3.5/5 Bunny Mona Awad 3.5/5 Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma Claire Dederer 5/5 A Crack-Up at the Race Riots Harmony Korine 4/5 Fourth Wing Rebecca Yarros 5/5 Delta of Venus Anais Nin 4.5/5 The Only One Left Riley Sager 4/5 Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us Rachel Aviv 4/5 The Anomaly Herve Le Tellier 5/5 A Court of Silver Flames Sarah J. Maas 4/5 At the Edge of the Woods Kathryn Bromwich 4.5/5 How Music Works David Byrne 3.5/5 Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises Rebecca Solnit 3/5 Boy Parts Eliza Clark 4/5 White Wedding Kathleen J. Woods 5/5 Lament for Julia Susan Taubes 4.5/5 In the Woods Tana French 2/5 Biography of X Catherine Lacey 4/5 The Near Witch Victoria Schwab 4/5 Divine Rivals Rebecca Ross 4.5/5 We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival Natalie West (editor) 5/5 Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor 5/5 Starling House Alix E. Harrow 3/5 Nails and Eyes Kaori Fujino 4.5/5 Jawbone Monica Ojeda 5/5 Small Favors Erin A. Craig. 3/5 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 4/5 Bluebeard's Castle Anna Biller 3.5/5 Iron Flame Rebecca Yarros 4.5/5 Acts of Desperation Megan Nolan 5/5 How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti 5/5 Educated Tara Westover 5/5 The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls 3.5/5 Idlewild James Frankie Thomas 4/5 The Guest List Lucy Foley 4/5 Ruthless Vows Rebecca Ross 4/5 Sharks, Death, Surfers: an Illustrated Companion Melissa McCarthy 5/5 Minor Feelings Cathy Park Hong 5/5

#books and reading #booklr #book review #book blog #bookblr #books #books & libraries #literature #bookish #reading #best of 2023

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tabletopbrainrot · 10 months

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My face when my phone has done nothing but ding in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers jingle all day

Now then uhhhh... Weekly recap?

Sunday game:

Our replacement for our Owlin Monk has showed up, they're an Assassin Rogue/Drakewarden and they're suspicious as hell. My dragon hating Drow is already barely stomaching one dragon in the party, now we have Spooky Toothless and their pet noble.

Now why is this suspicious you ask? They're from the capital city, so far behind enemy lines that there is no reasonable explanation for how they got there... And hunting displacer beasts sure as hell ain't it.

Our Drow Monk got feebleminded and unfeebleminded in the span of like two sessions. She's basically a cat when at 1int

Our Witch( hag wizard) is so low on resources that it's not funny, I don't think we could squeeze a spell slot out of her if we tried.

Kobold Paladin is just chilling, also might be the key to reintroducing a lost magic used by the divine to create souls to the world.. where did souls come from before this? Great question couldn't tell you if you had a gun to my head

Me? Drow Fighter also just chilling nothing to say other than, tried to earn the trust of a Gloomstalker(Explorers Guide to Wildmount creature, not the really good ranger subclass) after one tried to once again kindnap the Owlin didn't go so well sadly..

(Dog)Centaur Ranger helping us navigate this mess of an underground labyrinth, can't really say anything bad is happening to him he's just rolling survival really.

When this session ended we had found an abandoned minecart station full of intricate clockwork, and at the far end there was a shadow dragon seemingly stuck in a time loop? Or causing one? It pings as Winter Fey, Dragon, and Undead to the ranger. The party wants me to do something given my alleged Winter Court affiliation. So yeah that'll be fun

Tuesday game:

Aka I swear hand on a holy book of your choice it's not Fate

No session this week so a recap of last, we basically hot dropped into the center of the Woad warrior tribe our Fighter is from, and things were hell chaos creatures being vomited out of multiple purple worms, and an impenetrable barrier keeping anyone from escaping.

Our Illithid friend remarked about how dangerous it was for the choir to be away from the capital city, and offered to get us into the central command worm in exchange for allowing them to evacuate the choir. We agree even though we know this will make our lives harder and get ported into the worm and lead into a kill chamber with a red dracolich under the control of a Illithid wizard with a Roman name I can't even remember off hand.

We spend time whittling away at the dragon in our various ways, including our Woad Fighter burning an ability to reroll key events allowing me to crit a shot from my Spelljammers main cannon (20d10+4d8 my DMs face was such a meme, literally slap it on a sticker I swear)

Unfortunately for us the keyword of Dracolich is infact lich so even after all that and our Hobgoblin Irish king with no serial numbers filed off with a dragon slaying sword beating on it, it still gets back up. However our Squidly friend goes full Senate on the wizard and stabs him in the back telling him Caesar sends his regards and breaks the Dracolich's phylactery. Session ends before we see this choir, we'll deal with this next time.

Lancer:

⚠️⚠️We're playing Stolen Crown I can't really spoiler tag so you've been warned⚠️⚠️

• We stop one Ragnarok themed Mecha Kaiju assault, only for two more to kick off, despite us being very dumb we did decide to not split the party and sadly could only directly help one clan that was under attack. Cue Eikþyrnir, which would have had so much advantage, and could have collapsed the caves we were in, except one two many things first of all being I don't care about your Razor Swarms DM I have a Tempest Charged Blade, two we have a Manticore, Three our Sherman is going to use the full reactor or else.

So our Manticore swapped places with Eikþyrnir, and I ran up and Structured it with one swing, triggered executioner and hit the Silverhoof with the back swing and Molten Wreath. Bless our Death's Head's heart, the lad is in constant suffering after getting Gallagher'd by Jörmungandr last session but did pop Eikþyrnir which basically let us take our time, also fuck hornets all my homies hate hornets.

The underground Kaiju fighter clan is saved temporary reward get!

• Cue mysterious radio broadcast, The guerilla insurgent that still thought they were fighting Seccom reaches out to negotiate, we agree to meet.

The DM improvises us a whole narrative clock check system trying to get this person to understand that times have changed and if the people of Sparr really wanted out of Union while it would take time the request would be honored. This whole scene mostly consisted of our single actual Union employee being fed information from the two mercenary Sparraboos known as Coyote and Vermin.

Despite Foundry's best efforts we pass and flipped Yennval's most radicalized guerilla.

• Which leads to us being warned about Huginn and Muninn and having backup in the form of an ace pilot, Yennval is redirecting power somewhere we have to stop this.. now if you've seen my last post... And I repeat who are you people? You'll know that I've been using a liberal interpretation of how [Total Strength Suite I] works, meaning I've been running, dashing, throwing a cover halfway through the second dash, then using [Xaioli's Ingenuity/Tenacity] for more movement by breaking the rock, triggering it again and hitting another target on the map to reset my counter to break the power poles while the most epic of ace combat dogfights is going on in the background.

Unfortunately we didn't stop Yennval from doing her thing, now like some unhinged 3D vtuber concert she's rising from her hidden bunker on the back of a spaceship shouting some unhinged shit..

I don't wanna kill this local god entity I'll be real, and I feel like that'll polarize the locals, but uhhh she's been off her gourd for over 500 years and something's gotta give.

Next session tomorrow the DM is hype and so are we, I think they've found this shit blog too from the meme so by all means expand anything you think I skimmed too much.

#dnd #5e #dnd 5e #lancer rpg #lancerttrpg #new teammates are scary #why are the Illithids so Roman #NHP are eldritch vtubers prove me wrong #I pray the rest of my groups do not find this blog #if you know me no you don't

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college-girl199328 · 1 year

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Kirschner said that Trump was "in trouble" and that accountability was "just around the corner." He recapped three news stories on the ongoing criminal investigations of the former president by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Trump is facing multiple criminal and civil investigations, which could have a significant impact on his hopes for re-election in 2024.

Kirschner pointed to an NBC News article, claiming that security is being put in place to prepare for Trump being indicted in New York as early as next week. He also referenced a Daily Beast article announcing that Trump attorney Joe Tacopina would voluntarily turn himself in if the indictment happens.

Kirschner believes that Trump's decision to voluntarily surrender in the event of an indictment is likely due to his desire to avoid a "perp walk," which could involve him being handcuffed and photographed by the press.

Kirschner believes that Trump is avoiding photographs of him in handcuffs to avoid perp walk. He believes that we should be above that.

Donald Trump will still be booked, but mug shots will be released promptly.

Kirschner reported that U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell had ordered Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran to testify before a federal grand jury looking into the former president's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Corcoran met the threshold for a crime-fraud exception, which sets aside attorney-client privilege when a lawyer may have been involved in a crime.

Kirschner called the ruling "monumental" and noted that attorneys are rarely asked to testify about crimes.

Corcoran could face prosecution if he becomes a "valuable witness" against Trump.

Evan Corcoran has no way to avoid prosecution or being a witness against his former client, Donald Trump.

Evan Corcoran has to quit team Trump due to his conflicted loyalties and need to protect himself.

Kirschner argued that the tea leaves are painting a "vivid picture" that Trump is "in trouble."

Trump denies wrongdoing in investigations, calling them a "political witch hunt."

Trump's spokesperson said the order for Corcoran to testify signals that the "underlying case is weak and vowed to "fight the Department of Justice.

Prosecutors target attorneys when they have a weak case, as it promotes adherence to the law. Every American has the right to consult with counsel and have candid discussions.

We will fight the Department of Justice for interfering with Americans' right to an attorney and violating due process. This is un-American and unacceptable.

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recapcrew · 1 year

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Week 27 Transcript

Vídeo

Intro

Extra extra, read all about it! Welcome to the Empire’s Recap, and today we will be going over the chaos and drama of our (somewhat) respected rulers!

This week is the end of something special to us all… no, not 2022! The crossover! But first we must go back in time a bit, to when the Emperor's first crossed over to Hermitcraft.

Joey

Avast! Fashionably late, Pirate Joe is finally showing his side of the Battle of Fort Riffless, though I’m not sure he properly understood the Battle part. He was sad to watch his new crew leave with hardly a second thought, and the missile shot at Grumbot could’ve blown up his new concrete maker!

Thankfully, it didn’t, and the open Rift provided a…convenient opportunity. Miss Shelby was having some trouble deciding whether to go through the portal or not, and well. Joey “helped”.

With most of Empires to himself now, Pirate Joe did what pirates do best: raid! He cleaned out Hermitopia of all its valuables, storing them in a secret room inside of his secret basement with greedy glee. They don’t need them anymore!

But if the other Emperors were going to be gone for a while. Well.

It’s pranking time. And Joey knows just who deserves a little pranking. Someone who was definitely on the other side of the portal.

Joey’s first visit to Evermoore in a while gives him a chance to marvel at the massive frog Shelby left behind - would she notice him missing?

Well, hopefully she will notice the change in her storage. A little pirate “magic” has replaced all of her valuable and important items with pieces of coal!

It even hit her shop - good luck making back the diamonds with no potion ingredients, miss Witch!

But what’s even more piratey than stealing treasure?

Burying it with a treasure map, of course! And Joey chooses Dawn as his X-marks-the-spot; if Shelby thinks it was Gem who stole her things, the two of them can fight over it, and that’s a show he wants to see!

Shelby

The missing emperors aren’t all that missing, and their arrival onto the Hermitcraft server is heralded by chaos, shown by the many ways people got out of Grian’s very inaccessible rift cave. One of those methods is death - demonstrated quite nicely by Shelby Shubble.

Rescue Squad Scar shows up with an elytra and some teleportation cookies, and then Shelby meets up with Oli so he can show her the Christmas village everyone is building in!

New King Sausage is working at the village and Shelby gets herself appointed as Court Magician, and Oli as Court Jester, of course. Cub visits for some fun and Shelby gets a bootleg wand for while she’s on Hermitcraft.

[SHUBBLE] Ok but whenever anyone wants a potion to do something like, crazy and funky, I do it for free!

[SAUSAGE] She turned me into a zombie one time!

[SHUBBLE] Yeah that was free!

[SAUSAGE] Yep! I didn’t pay anything for that one!

[SHUBBLE] And I’d do it again for free too!

[NARRATOR] Nothing wrong with that!

Sausage leads Shelby on an adventure for nether wood, with a perfectly normal reaction to their nether hub, because honestly? The hermits are actually insane

[SHUBBLE] These people are rich rich.

[SAUSAGE] Yeah these are real nether stars, each one of these is a nether star. That’s one wither kill per star, and they’re everywhere. Yeah mhm.

[SHUBBLE] Man, I’m feeling, uh, very inadequate all of a sudden.

[SAUSAGE] Yeah, these guys are built differently, it’s ok, we can’t all…

[NARRATOR] Jevin visits their humble abode with some Christmas hats, really taking on the role of Santa.

She builds her home in the Christmas village, but she doesn’t get to live in it for long when Oli comes by yelling about the rift closing!

A final goodbye to the Hermits and Shelby arrives back in empires with Tortoise back on her head. She travels home through a village where she comes across her own wanted poster.

At least she’s worth quite a lot?

Scott

Scott’s feeling a bit homesick, and with the rift shrinking day by day it’s probably time to check out and head back home.

In return for Scars hospitality while Scott’s been on Hermitcraft, Scott does some “community service” around Scarland, fixing a few things that were broken and adding in a few hidden lights to make the place more Scar Safe.

Showcasing his love for cats, he builds Jellie a cat tree in the hotel! She’s a hard worker, she deserves a gift as well.

Since Scott can’t light up the whole park with hidden lighting, the next best thing is a security force - that answers to Jellie, of course.

The last, final, best gift - if you’re a little bit of a narcissist - is Scott leaving statues of himself around the apartment.

Scarland will forever have a touch of Scott Smajor when Scott heads home…

Which he has to do quickly, as when he turns up at the rift it has shrunk quite drastically and is now just one block. He leaves a note and heads through, to the other side of the rift.

A wander through the abandoned Hermitopia yields some goodies, and when he checks his Llama outpost, Bdubs has left him his Secret Santa!

But he can’t be wandering about forever, so back to Chromia he goes! It looks a little more orange than when he left it, and to say his reaction is dramatic would be understating it.

[SCOTT] Chromia, a place to dye for! Lets go home. Home sweet--- WHAT—

fWhip

[NARRATOR] With fWhip still on the Hermitcraft server, we discover that Mr. Cuddles still owns fWhip’s apartment in Scarland before heading over to the Holiday Village.

The Holiday Village being the Empires crew’s home away from home and all, fWhip needed a tour. During this tour, fWhip hands out presents from Scarland which are all the blocks that accidentally lagged into his inventory. Sausage also continuously tries to get fWhip to remember his lore life back on Empires but fails, even with some odd-looking ears.

fWhip later checks in on the impending closure of the rift where he discovers it is definitely time to go locate where Sniff and Gary disappeared to. Sniff is the first to be successfully located, closely followed by Gary. With both Sniff and Gary back home, fWhip follows them through, where he finally remembers his life as a goblin.

Back in the Goblands, Sniff is reunited with his brother, Snort and Gary is escorted to temporary housing. fWhip decides that if Gary is to remain in the Goblands, there needed to be a hospital for Gary. Our goblin king goes scavenging for materials in the old Hermits’ home away from home for this hospital. A frog doctor is hired for the new Gobland facility. Thus, Gary is moved into the back-alley hospital in Gobland to heal before officially returning to Animalia.

Sausage

Mythical Sausage spends his Christmas break with many people. Starting off with his wood Papi Keralis, he shows Sausage the mini Sanctuary down below, decorating the new wood farm. After that, Sausage helps his thunder daddy decorate the new tree in the Christmas area. With the new balls he adds, it looks fantastic.

Pearl takes a tour around his new house, which fits her theme very well. With news of the Rift shrinking, Sausage introduces his new child Sunny.

Speaking of which, once both members of Hermitcraft and Empires congregate around the Rift, Pearl and Sausage have a small moment aside from the rest. They talk and are both thrown back into memories.

Sausage remembers the tragedy that is the season one finale. Pearl dies in his arms, so he's filled with the need to get her back.

[SAUSAGE] The days turn to weeks. The weeks turn to months. And the months turn to years. Pearl could never be saved. Now I’m just an old man, defeated, but something interesting happened…

[NARRATOR] After travelling the multiverse, he meets Saint Pearl as an old man, who throws him into Afterlife as a way to relax. After dying, he ascends back to heaven, from which he takes a nap and is thrown into Empires season two, where we are now.

Having had his vision, Sausage jumps through the portal with a final wave. It's clearly not the end for this man, it’s a beginning.

Outro

And with that, join us next week for more chaos and shenanigans! Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing, and thanks to everyone helping with the project, check them all out below!

#empires recap #empires season 2 recap #transcript

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sunnydaleherald · 2 years

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, August 4th

Lorne: "Where is the praising and extolling of my virtues? Where's the love?"

~~There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Slaying, Hunting, Potayto, Potahto by LPCollins (crossover with Supernatural, Buffy/Dean, G)

Poem: SO MANY F by Lady Giant (Faith, K)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Dawn of the Future Ch 23 by Brenna's Urbangirl Projects (Dawn/Faith, T)

Welcome to Bellevue! Ch. 1 by Yosoy Panqueques (Buffy/Spike & OC, Willow, T)

Beautiful Dangerous Chaos #4: I Wish, Ch. 5 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Exchange, Ch. 5 by DarkVoid116 (Buffy/Spike, R)

Hotter in the City, Ch. 5 by MissLuci (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

A Time to Every Purpose, Ch. 5 by Inevitablethief (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Infection, Ch. 5 (COMPLETE!) by sweetprincipale (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Time We Had, Ch. 9 by Dusty (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Time We Had, Ch. 10 by Dusty (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Perfect Clarity, Ch. 2 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, R)

Everything, Ch. 5 by Ginger (Buffy/Spike, R)

Not A Monster, Ch. 6 by Grief Counseling, Dusty (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Drawing: Cordelia in "Witch" by hastilydrawnbuffy (worksafe)

Manip: Into the Buffy-Verse by ImaginativeHobbyist (Movie!Buffy, TV!Buffy, worksafe)

Photo: Angel cosplay by angeliclestat (worksafe)

🧊113. She🧊 by tmcarlee (Jheira, worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

The Wish by handsofabitterman

Anyone else bothered by Spike on s5 of Angel? by lyricallyambiguous, IUsedToBeRasAlGhul and others

PODCAST: Angel on Top 4.18 Shiny Happy People

[Recs & In Search Of]

Fic rec: "The Girl Who Courted Death" by OffYourBird recced by myfavmultifandomfanfic

[Fandom Discussions]

is there anything more romantic than two girls who are obsessed with... killing each other? by queersupergirls

I wish they had done this styling for Buffy more by chinderellabitch

Cordy’s First Time by rednax2009

Andy Hallett (Lorne) would've been 47 today. by InfiniteMehdiLove

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series

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lipsyncforyourlife · 2 years

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Fairytale Justice Recap 🏰 All Stars 7: Episode 4 (Issue #21)

The RuPaul's Drag Race Official Newsletter

In this edition of the All Stars 7 newsletter, we’re recapping Fairytale Justice, reliving standout moments, and sharing our favorite memes from the weekend. Don’t forget to subscribe to get All Stars 7 updates delivered straight to your inbox! ✨

It’s a new day in the Werk Room, and the Legendary Legend Star-less among us have their sights set on putting a point on the board this week. The dolls talk about the current standings, and Jaida wastes no time in pointing out Monét is the only All Star with a badge who hasn’t been blocked. There go Monét’s hopes of flying under the radar!

Mama Ru enters the Werk Room in a fabulous pink jacket and platform boots to announce this week’s maxi challenge. The Queens will be improving their way through enchanted TV court show, Fairytale Justice. 👑 Working in teams, they’ll present infamous fairytale miscarriages of justice before the honorable(ish) Michelle Visage! Jaida picks Jinkx, Yvie, and Monét for her team, which means Team Trinity is The Vivienne, Raja, and Shea. The dolls split off and get to work on their scenes – Blow The House Down Boots and She Done Already Done Had Herses, respectively.

Pig Mistake, Huge!

Team Jaida is up first, arguing the case of the three little pigs against the Big Bad Wolf. Jinkx plays OnlyHams-famous Spare Rib, who is suing the Big Bad Wolf (Yvie) for blowing her house down. In return, the Big Bad Wolf – also known as BB in the streets 👅 – is counter suing for defamation of character.

Unlike Spare Rib’s house, Jinkx and Yvie build a strong foundation from the get-go. They exchange stories of what had happened, only to be made better by the arrival of Twiggly (Jaida) and Hamela (Monét). Twiggly, Spare Rib’s sister with her OWN bone to pick, enters in a nude curve-hugging dress and low-key looks good in a snout (???). After stating her case against the Big Bad Wolf, he calls in backup in the form of his girlfriend, Hamela Anderson. Chaos ensues when Hamela realizes BB has been porking all THREE of the little pigs, and the HWIC Michelle Visage dismisses the case.

She Done Already Had Porridges

Next in the Fairytale Court is team Trinity, arguing the case of a queen called Goldilocks. It’s Mama Bear (Shea) up first, who claims Goldilocks broke into her home and ate her freshly-made porridge. The Vivienne is playing the defendant, and serves up a wide range of accents throughout the scene. Coming all the way from over the river and through the woods, plaintiff number two enters the courtroom. Grandma Gwendolyn Hood (Raja) accuses Goldie of being an identity thief, stating she’s actually Little Red from Glendale 😱 Vivienne takes on a new German alter ego, Helga – who’s allegedly been making like Spare Rib, Twiggly, and Hamela and having a roll in the hay with Wolfie 👀

Can Grandma Hood get a witness? Step aside Leah Remini, Witch Theresa (Trinity) is coming for your spot in Michelle Visage’s Best Friend Race! We know and love Trinity for committing to the bit, and this role is no different. She’s definitely giving Cher and brings the scene home with her accusation that Goldilocks ate her front porch and ✨entertained✨ in her bed. Fairytale Justice may have popped Viv’s improv challenge cherry, but she is NO beginner. After giving us four hilarious personas, it turns out she really was just a girl from Glendale who’s addicted to carbs… relatable!

Category Is: Spikes On The Runway!

Before the Queens stomp the runway in their most sickening spikes, Mama Ru turns maybe my favorite look I’ve seen on her in a MINUTE! Don’t get me wrong, Zaldy never misses, but something about this blue velvet number and the white hair is giving me everything.

As literal bop ‘New Friends Silver…’ plays, the Queens turn out some seriously sharp looks on the runway. I love how each of them had a totally different take on the category, making it one jaw-dropping look after the next! It was hard to choose tops, but if I had to…

Jaida Essence Hall

Jaida had me concerned back in the Werk Room, but once this lewk came together? Gag. Not only is the silhouette stunning from the top of her hair down to her leather-clad toes, the ARTISTRY that went into this makeup is simply perfection. It’s Grace Jones…meets…it’s…burps… it’s fashion… 😌

Yvie Oddly

Yvie continues to impress on the catwalk, giving snatched reptile realness that was completely on pointe. Her teeny waist and legs for days brought this green fantasy to life in a way that felt super editorial and fresh.

The Vivienne

The Vivienne had an incredible week in both the challenge and on the runway. The silhouette was tailored to perfection, giving us a slick catwoman lewk totally different than anything we’ve seen The Viv go for thus far. Dare I say this could be the best pair of chaps we’ve ever seen on the main stage?

The Legendary Legend Star Goes To...

Mama Ru announces the top two All Stars of the week are The Vivienne and Jinkx Monsoon. Since Jinkx was blocked last week, just one Legendary Legend Star is awarded to someone very familiar with winning badges, The Vivienne! The top two put on one hell of a lip sync to “Love Will Save The Day” by Whitney Houston, complete with crowd participation and a xylophone moment I did *not* see coming.

“Love Will Save The Day” By Whitney Houston Lip Sync 💘 RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7

In the end, our British doll wins the power of the platinum plunger. She nearly gives it to last week’s winner Jaida Essence Hall, but blocks Monét X Change instead! I told you everyone’s got strategy up their sleeve… 👀

Gagatondra! It's Tweets Of The Week

Each week, we’re highlighting our top tweets from the episode. Keep using #AllStars7 and maybe you’ll see yourself here! 👑

Monét X Change

@monetxchange

Guess who cleanin’ da house! https://t.co/uS2Kwpj6Vb

8:23 PM - 5 Jun 2022

Everybody's Got One

@EverybodysGotO3

The Vivienne carrying on the grand British Drag tradition of hating your knees #DragRace #AllStars7 https://t.co/B1gXc8ytqM

4:10 AM - 3 Jun 2022

Nick Smith

@thatnicksmith09

Joseph: What should we name the baby? Mary: https://t.co/eyeroRw8Ek

9:53 PM - 5 Jun 2022

❄️Denali❄️

@denalifox

how does @jaidaehall still look so fucking hot in this pig nose

2:23 PM - 3 Jun 2022

Sequoia Tremaine

@haikuforfilth

@SheaCoulee and @THEVIVIENNEUK putting American fanny and British fanny side by side A LESSON

10:03 PM - 3 Jun 2022

The Pit Stop w/ Naysha Lopez!

Did somebody mention art? 🎨 Bob The Drag Queen is joined by her Season 8 sister Naysha Lopez to weigh in on Fairytale Justice! 🏁 Make sure you subscribe to the Drag Race YouTube channel + follow The Pit Stop on TikTok so you don’t miss a thing!

The Pit Stop AS7 E04 | Bob The Drag Queen & Naysha Lopez Are Serving!

#RuPaul's Drag Race #Newsletter #Fairytale Justice

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

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Dream SMP Recap (June 12/2021) - George the Pig

George turns into a pig.

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VOD LINKS:

Foolish

Ranboo

BadBoyHalo

Michaelmcchill

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- Foolish returns! He sees what’s changed around his summer home, including the trident statue Puffy built him for a gift, Sam’s gift of Florida and Ponk’s Sharkboy statue

- He visits the outpost by Las Nevadas and sees how much it’s expanded. He also checks around Las Nevadas itself

- Later, he returns to the summer home and reads the messages left in the chest. There is a newer addition to the Lore Suit documents written by Bad titled “Death <3″:

---

I’ll see you in court

You kidnapped Shelly You took some of my stuff you took some of skeppy’s stuff you broke some of my stuff

prepare to die

with love <3 BBH

---

- Ranboo goes mining

- George canonically swims to the prison with a dolphin

- He kills a polar bear on the beach and Bad is horrified

- George starts attacking Bad’s llama Geraldo before riding it instead

- Bad contemplates crashing the server to bring back the polar bear

[Server]: don’t crash me please

- Bad throws George rotten flesh and tells him that he has to eat it

- George starts breaking WheatBaby. Bad repairs it

- George spots the McDonald’s and runs to it. Pebble is in there and Bad shouts for George not to kill the horse, but George starts hitting it. Bad hits him away and sets him on fire

- Bad threatens to kill George if he kills Pebbles

- There’s a pig outside the McDonald’s. Bad tells George he can kill the pig instead

- George goes back inside and rides Pebbles out instead, with Bad chasing after

- As George rides Pebbles down the Prime Path to L’manhole, lightning strikes and four skeleton horsemen suddenly appear

- While George and Pebbles run around through the horsemen’s attacks, Bad kills them to defend Pebbles. By the time Bad is through, Pebbles is on one heart

- George starts riding Pebbles away again

- When George says Pebbles will make a nice burger, Bad figures that he must be back at the McDonald’s and starts running there

- George and Pebbles are on the roof of the McDonald’s. George comes down and starts attacking Bad. He proceeds to die by Bad’s thorns enchantments

- Bad, laughing, returns Pebbles to the McDonald’s and asks where George is. Callahan logs on

- George’s voice echoes as he says that he is dead. A pig walks in front of Bad and stops there, looking up at him

George: “Save me...”

Bad: “Save you, Geo-- wait, is this you?!”

- Bad asks why George is a pig. A witch put a curse on him where if he died, he would turn into a pig. To save him, Bad must complete the challenge the witch set: he must find a blue flower

- Bad asks where he can find one. George doesn’t know, as he is colorblind

- Bad puts George on a lead as Callahan arrives at the McDonald’s. Callahan attempts to kill George with TNT

- Bad asks Callahan to get a nametag. Callahan gets one and names George “idiot”

- The three of them set out to find a blue flower. According to George, being a pig is not fun

- George tells Bad to hurry or he’ll die. They only have ten minutes

- They search all over until they finally find a blue flower at the flower shop. George instructs Bad to run back to the McDonald’s

- They make it back to the McDonald’s and George tells Bad to plant the flower at the corner of the concrete. Next, he tells Bad to dig a hole and put George in. Bad buries George in the ground

- Then Bad must look to the west for a moment before going to a nearby crafting table to place nine items that he believes can fix George

In the crafting table, Bad places: a jukebox, a map, a piece of blackstone, a baked potato, gunpowder, a wooden fence, scaffolding, a spider eye and an iron axe

- After doing this, Bad must return to the flower. On George’s count, Bad breaks the flower. The second he does so, George reappears beneath the dirt where the pig stood. Bad digs him out of the hole

- George is elated and sets off TNT, dying to the explosion. That was part of it

- George returns. Now with everything back to normal, Bad works on building the statue of George

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts

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carcinized · 2 years

Text

okay masterpost for the allystobin lore so i dont forget

characters:

me: the king of the city. i built it myself (as a god). thinly veiled bitch honestly but im doing my best.

summer (@if-only-wishes-were-answered): princess

meg (@thiswitchisgay-goodforher): princess witch who can fight! she has a secret passage from her bedroom in the castle where she keeps her supplies for her nighting as a witch and some weapons... just in case

skyy (@turquoise-skyyyy): duchess

spider (@spider-shoes): noble. very sneaky

cat (@selfdestructivecat): a noble who's doing her best but messes up a lot of things oops. we love her though. currently she is the royal baker! learning fire magic (?)

rowe (@neonkoii): the sunflower noble!

swan (@an-ungraeceful-swan): flouncy noble who's a bit stuck up at times. i think ae might hate kids (and also cat)

finn (@celifin): the court jester

🌿 anon: friendly knight

👑 anon: a knight who wears a crown over their helmet :]

basic history/lore:

documents of declaration: allystobin

plotline recap:

swan and cat fought a lot, though cat was oblivious that it was fighting

both are now trying to learn magic now. i think?

art:

king allyster (drawn by @selfdestructivecat)

princess meg (drawn by @thiswitchisgay-goodforher)

flouncy noble/noble swan (drawn by @an-ungraeceful-swan)

baker cat (drawn by @selfdestructivecat)

#yayyy lmk if i missed anyone #the background lore will be revealed as time goes on. ive already given a little :eyes:#tobin's news #oh btw i'll edit this as we find out more about characters/more people make characters/the plotline starts dw :D

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365days365movies · 3 years

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March 21, 2021: Orlando (1992)

Tilda Swinton...confuses me.

Like, in a good way. Because Tilda may be the most versatile actor working today. I mean, look at the goddamn filmography, and you’ll see what I’ve mean. I’ve seen Tilda Swinton in a lot, surprisingly, and I don’t think anything I’ve seen was bad. For example, I am an ARDENT defender in the portrayal of the Ancient One in the MCU.

I understand the controversy here, but I actually think this is excellent casting. Especially considering...being comic book-accurate would NOT have been a good idea with this role, if we’re trying to AVOID controversy. But Tilda Swinton FUCKING KILLED IT in this role, and I will always be happy for this choice.

Let’s see, there’s Jadis in the Narnia films, as shown at the top, there’s Snowpiercer, as Mason (an amazing character, and an acting job that Swinton disappears into), Moonrise Kingdom as Social Services, The Grand Budapest Hotel as Madame D., and Gabriel in Constantine. Which is a good segue to the next talking point...

Gabriel is pointedly androgynous, and honestly, Tilda Swinton kind of is as well. You may have noticed that I haven’t used any pronouns in referencing to Tilda Swinton, entirely out of respect. Gonna be a little hard to keep up with, so I’ll be using she/her from here on out, only because those are the pronouns that Swinton’s most recently promoted for herself. She’s also referred to herself as queer of some variety, as well as being famously gender non-conforming.

Which is fitting, given that a lot of that public image began with today’s movie, one of her first big roles. I’ll be revisiting Swinton in the independent movie scene in a couple of months, but this may be a good introduction. Instead of spoiling anything off the bat, I’m gonna jump right in. And so, I present: Orlando. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

We begin with a young man named, well, Orlando (Tilda Swinton), a young man with a feminine appearance and a good upbringing. His name means power land and property, but all he really wants is company. He writes and rests by a tree in the day, but falls asleep by mistake. When he wakes up, he runs back to where he’s meant to be, with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp) playing in the background. And that’s a REAL song, by the way, actually sung in the 1600s for Elizabeth! Very neat.

A title screen flashes, reading “1600: Death”, and we see where Orlando is meant to be. He speaks poetry for the Queen and her court, but is interrupted by the aged queen, who asks whether or not his poem is appropriate for her presence, as the poem is about youth, and Queen Elizabeth is not that. Orlando’s father (John Bott), who is serving as host to Elizabeth, intervenes on his behalf. However, it doesn’t seem to matter to the Queen, as she invites Orlando back to England to serve as her “favourite”. He accepts, and soon lives alongside the Queen. She quickly promises Orlando much land and property, for him and his heirs, but on one condition: that he does not fade, wither, or grow old.

The same wish cannot be applied to Elizabeth herself, nor to his father, as both grow old and die soon afterwards. Fast forward 10 years, and it’s a cold winter in England. Visiting Orlando’s vast estate is a woman from Russia, named Sasha (Charlotte Valandrey), and Orlando quickly falls for her. This is to the dismay of Euphrosne (Anna Healy), his fiancée? I’m not sure, to be honest, but they’re definitely involved, and she’s definitely upset.

However, this is also a scandal for everybody else as well, not just because Orlando’s already engaged, but also because Sasha is Russian, during a particularly poor economic period for the country. Euphrosne angrily throws his ring back at him, and Orlando speaks directly to the audience, telling us that a man must follow his heart. The two go to his private cottage, and they start to make out, when Orlando suddenly comes down with intense melancholy.

Because this is such great happiness that he feels, but this happiness too will one day end. Which is, like, the most emo-shit I’ve ever heard, but I’m kinda here for it. And yet, that happiness does indeed end, when Sasha is forced to return to Russia, despite Orlando’s pleading for her to stay. He asks her to meet him at London Bridge, so that they may elope together.

Later, Orlando happens upon a performance of Othello, noting to us that it’s a terrific play. This is as the death of Othello is being played out, so that’s probably foreshadowing, right? Anyway, Orlando leads two horses through the thick fog, waiting for Sasha to arrive and come away with him. But as a storm sets in, there is no sign of Sasha. And Orlando stands there in the rain. Said rain, though, soon becomes ice, underneath his feet, floating away down the river, along with his hopes of a happy future with Sasha. The treachery of women, according to Orlando.

Over the next week, Orlando languishes in his bed, asleep for the entire time. Increasingly more servants are brought up to try and rouse him, only for him to remain asleep, no matter what they do. But then, he wakes up, noting that he can only conjure three words to describe women, none of them worth explaining.

Forty years later, and the title screen cries “Poetry”! And Orlando looks exactly the same. Guess he really took that whole “don’t grow old” thing from Elizabeth to heart, huh? He speaks to a poet, Nick Greene (Heathcote Williams), and gushes about his poetry, which is a pursuit that he loves greatly. But Nick is...well, Nick is kind of a dick, to be honest. Orlando wants only to share his love and his poetry with him, but Nick’s only in it for the money. Not a true artist, and he mocks Orlando’s poetry, which he reads only after Orlando offers him money. And then, he writes a poem mocking Orlando further, which angers Orlando...but doesn’t stop the money flowing to Nick.

Orlando moves onto his next pursuit, in 1700, in the next section: Politics. Now over 100 years old, Orlando becomes an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and travels to Constantinople. There, he receives a somewhat rough and awkward greeting, which Orlando is not helping with. They share some Turkish coffee, Orlando has trouble drinking that Turkish coffee, they drink a LOT of Turkish coffee, and they toast to multiple things, including the “beauty of women, and the joys of love.” Orlando pauses at this, and reveals that he is still suffering quite a bit of heartbreak. His Turkish friend, the Khan (Lothaire Bluteau), bonds with him about this.

After 10 years, Orlando has fully retreated into life as a Turkish man. This is interrupted by a British emissary, sent to bring him news of a new appointment and power from the Queen. However, something goes wrong when the Khan arrives and takes Orlando hostage. The city is under attack, and the Khan asks Orlando if he will help against their enemies. Orlando agrees, and gives them arms, and heads to help himself at the walls. There, he witnesses a man dying, and it shakes him greatly. And just like before, he sleeps it off for seven days. And then...she wakes up.

YUP. WHAT.

Yeah, um, Orlando is now a woman. Like she says: “Same person, just a different sex.” Which is a very interesting premise, not gonna lie. Looks like Orlando now has to live life as a woman, which is going to be...difficult in 1700s Turkey. Or England. Or anywhere. Or any time.

Still, Orlando approaches this new life with aplomb, and without really any needed caution. Parading in some awesome dresses, she greets fellow nobility as the lady Orlando. However, the emissary from earlier, Archduke Harry (John Wood), begins to recognize her as similar to the lord Orlando.

In speaking with a group of poets, however, Orlando learns EXACTLY what men think of women in this society, and it’s not even a little bit good. She leaves, enraged and embarrassed. Harry also speaks with her, assuming that she was a woman all along. However, Orlando’s in EVEN MORE shit, as she’s quickly served with papers that are an attempt to take away all of her property and titles, because Lord Orlando is legally dead, and Lady Orlando is a woman, which one of them says is basically the same thing. FUCKIN’ YIKES, BRUV.

Ah, but Harry tries to help by proposing to her ON THE FUCKIN’ SPOT. He believed that Orlando was perfect as both genders, and is happy to do it. However, Orlando understandably refuses, and after Harry tells her that she will die as a spinster, alone and dispossessed, she runs into a nearby hedge maze. And while in the hedge maze, time passes, and her outfit changes to match the period accordingly.

Forward 140 years now! The year is 1850, and a new chapter begins: Sex.

And as she runs from the maze, she runs into who else...but Shelmerdine (Billy Zane), a man who...Shelmerdine? SHELMERDINE? What fuckin’ witch cursed his entirely family line to have THAT name? That’s the kind of family that was named AFTER a bridge, not the other way around! WHAT KINDA NAME IS FUCKIN’ SHELMERDINE?

Well, I’ve looked it up now, and it is apparently a real name. So, if any Shelmerdines are reading this...I mean, I’m sorry, but also, FUCKIN’ SHELMERDINE? OK, back to Shelmerdine. He’s twisted his ankle falling off his horse, and Orlando is now taking care of him. She reveals, in the process, that she’s about to lose everything. The reasons for that aren’t quite said, but Shelmerdine offers a place at his side, back to the great free land of America.

After having a conversation about the roles of men and women in the world (which is interesting given the context of the film in general), the two fulfill the chapter’s imperative. And we never see the act, but we do get some interesting angles and hand-holding. But the next morning, this post-coital reverie is interrupted by the lawyers from the Queen. The lawsuits have been settled, and Orlando has been legally declared a woman, meaning that unless she has a son, all of her possessions will be lost.

Shelmerdine (I swear, every time I say that name, a fairy gets chlamydia) leaves as well, with the southwest wind. As he heads back to America to fight for freedom, Orlando stands in the rain, facing an uncertain future, and broken fully by the politics of the time period.

And then...the sound of planes overhead. Looks like a new time period once again, heading into the periods of World Wars, and Orlando is now...heavily pregnant. OH. FUCK. Welcome to the next chapter: Birth.

We jump past the period of World War II, and to the 1990s! Orlando is presenting a book to a publisher, and he believes that the book will sell. With her young daughter in tow, she finally goes back to her old mansion, now finally able to go back after losing it 100 years prior. The narration from the beginning repeats, recontextualized for Orlando’s new life. She is over 400 years old, and finally, FINALLY...she is happy.

youtube

And that’s Orlando! I think I loved it. Real talk, this was a fascinating movie, and I’m into it. I’m very much into it. I’m sure there’s more to be gleaned from this film, but I’m glad I watched it regardless. More in the Review, though! See you there!

#orlando #orlando 1992 #sally potter #tilda swinton #billy zane #lothaire bluteau #john wood #virginia woolf #orlando film #fantasy march #user365 #365 movie challenge #365days365movies #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #mygifs #my gifs

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quazartranslates · 3 years

Text

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH1

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 1: Resurrection Overture (I)

{E/N: The first section is recap, the rest is new. If you wish to skip the recap, scroll down to the &&& scene break.}

{cw: mention of miscarriage, religious homophobia}

Welcome to Nightmare Game I. A review of the story:

1. [First People's Hospital of X City]: Qi Leren, the protagonist, downloaded a computer game called the Nightmare Game on the Internet. After the first BE ending, his computer broke down. He took his laptop to repair it, but the bus he was riding was involved in a traffic accident. He and the injured passengers were taken to the First People's Hospital of X City by ambulance and he met Dr. Lu in the ambulance.　　

After waking up again, Qi Leren found himself in the empty People's Hospital and he had received his own task system, which asked him to survive in this hospital until dawn, and got an S/L skill card: [S/L Data] (binding skill card): the holder can set a save point at the position where his body is located. If he dies or suffers fatal injury within 10 seconds after saving, his body will automatically return to the position and state where the save point was set and will immediately trigger the second use. One save point can be used three times continuously and the cooldown time is 1 hour. Anyway, if you want to use it, you will die.　　

In order to survive, Qi Leren had to commit suicide frequently in this haunted hospital to save his life. He met Dr. Lu and Xue Yingying, who were also involved in this game, and learned that there was a murderer in this hospital who was killing any survivors like them. With such an unexpected factor, the task of surviving until dawn became more difficult. The three people also met another mysterious player, Su He. With his help, the four people and the murderer fought bravely and killed him and cracked the secrets of the hospital from more than 20 years ago, successfully avoiding the earthquake before daybreak and surviving until dawn.

2. [First Arrival at the Village of Dusk]: After the mission, the four people came to the players’ homebase in the main world of the Nightmare Game - the Village of Dusk. There were many ordinary people here who had the same experiences as Qi Leren. They received "survival days" by constantly going to other worlds or performing tasks in the main world, and they would die once the survival days were exhausted. In the Nightmare World, apart from a few human settlements where the status quo of peace has been maintained, other places were ruled by demons. Qi Leren was very surprised, because he found that the Nightmare World had the same story background as the Nightmare Game he had played before entering here, but no one else had played this game, so he had to keep the secret and think about whether the tasks done in the Nightmare Game could be triggered in this world. Su He, who had been very mysterious in the first mission, also confessed his identity. It turned out that he was a Game Master from the Village of Dawn who went to investigate a bug in the Novice Village. Not long after settling in the Village of Dusk, Qi Leren triggered the compulsory task "Witchcraft Sacrifice" from the dead because of a murder case on the road.

3. [Witchcraft Sacrifice]: Qi Leren had to perform the "Witchcraft Sacrifice" task, but during the task, male players were given women's appearances, because the background of the task was that a small village that sacrificed thirteen girls to a demon every three years in order to seek refuge from the Devil. These girls killed each other in the forest, and finally a winner became a witch who served the Devil. Qi Leren, who had become a girl, met an iceberg, Ning Zhou, and fell in love with her at first sight. He pursued his beloved goddess while struggling to perform his task. The goddess seemed to have a good impression of him. After a series of adventures where they shared life and death, they finally defeated the powerful enemy and completed the task. The NPC Isabel finally became the witch who served the Devil. The two players met on the steel bridge in the Village of Dusk, but unfortunately he found that his goddess was also a man, and the undying love shared between the two people in the task quickly died.

4. [Seed of Slaughter]: After his failed first love, Qi Leren suffered a great blow and unfortunately met a player who had been parasitized by a seed of slaughter while flying in an airship. This player went mad because of the seed of slaughter’s outbreak, killing innocent people on the airship, but Qi Leren was parasitized by the seed of slaughter after killing him in defense, and then was taken away by the Village of Dusk’s judicial Trials Court. In order to remove the seed of slaughter, he made a deal with the Trials Office and became an undercover member of the crazy society that worshipped the Devil of Slaughter. Chen Baiqi, a businesswoman whom Qi Leren had met in the Village of Dusk, invited him to visit a common friend's grave on the Undead Island. After every player died in the Nightmare World, a tombstone was automatically generated on the island. As a result, Qi Leren found a large number of his own tombstones on the Undead Island. He had thought that his S/L skill was simply activated in the instant before he died. He felt very scared and questioned if he had already died, or if he was just a copy with his memories. On the Undead Island, his friend Chen Baiqi told him the story of Ning Zhou. Only then did Qi Leren know that Ning Zhou was an exorcist of the Nightmare World’s Holy See, and homosexuality was forbidden in the Holy See. Therefore, Ning Zhou was very pained after learning that he was a male, and Qi Leren felt very guilty.

5. [Castle Cry]: Qi Leren and his good friend Dr. Lu activated a copy task called "Castle Cry". The background of this copy was that three couples came to the mountains in the suburbs to watch the stars in the middle of the night for the once-a-century meteor shower. There was a European-style old castle built on the mountain during the Republic of China, which was said to have been built by a German couple who came to China to do business, and was later abandoned after a fire. The local government had repeatedly tried to repair the old castle, but accidents had occurred. No one had set foot on the old castle. At midnight that night, the clear night sky suddenly covered with dark clouds, raining heavily, and the six people were trapped on the top of the mountain. The rain was getting heavier and one of them proposed to take shelter from the rain under the eaves of the castle...

After entering the castle, Qi Leren and others dug up the old castle’s story. It turned out that a noble lady with a family history of hereditary mental illness had married her sweetheart, but her sweetheart loved her maid Adeline. The noble lady poisoned Adeline because of jealousy and married her sweetheart as she wished. After marriage, they came to China to do business and built the old castle. Her husband did not want her to give birth to children who might also suffer from the hereditary mental illness, so Nina, the housemaid, was instructed to add mercury powder to her diet as a contraception. After learning the side effects of the mercury powder, Nina secretly reduced the dose. Finally, the wife became pregnant. After Nina heard that the child would be deformed, she was very afraid, worried that the wife’s mental illness would be triggered if she gave birth to the deformed fetus, and she accidentally caused her to fall down the stairs and miscarry. After the miscarriage, the wife’s mental condition deteriorated sharply and she was often paranoid, suspecting that everything was caused by the ghost of Adeline, the maid she had poisoned, and the relationship between husband and wife almost broke down. In order to save her love, she began to sacrifice to the Devil, and finally became demonized herself, killing everyone in the castle and setting fire to it.

During the mission, Qi Leren found the laptop computer with the Nightmare Game, but the computer had run out of battery. He put away the computer and prepared to bring it back to the Village of Dusk to find someone to make a transformer so he could connect the power supply and try to play the ending. During the mission Su He reappeared, saying that there were some abnormal reactions in this mission, and it was suspected that demon energy had polluted the task’s world, which led to the plot confusion and difficulty increase. This mainly manifested in the fact that the crazy lady sacrificed to the Devil and gained demonic power after her mental illness worsened. This mission should not have had such a plot. With the help of Su He, Qi Leren and Dr. Lu successfully solved the problem of the crazy lady and finished the task, then returned to the Village of Dusk, but the laptop mysteriously disappeared from Qi Leren’s item storage.

6. [Slaughter Secret Society]: After returning to the Village of Dusk, Qi Leren received a notice from the Trials Court asking him to disguise himself as the secret lover the former head of the Slaughter Secret Society (deceased), and seize the Slaughter Secret Society’s memento ring to gain the command of the Slaughter Secret Society, so that the Trials Court could catch all those crazy believers. Qi Leren approached the members of the Slaughter Secret Society as the coquettish gay "Red". During the mission, he was unfortunately attacked by Ning Zhou and both of them were shocked. During the undercover mission, Ning Zhou helped him get out of trouble several times. Both of them vaguely felt that they still liked each other. Although they were not women, they were still attracted to each other. After successfully seizing the Slaughter Secret Society’s memento ring and handing it over to the Court, Qi Leren had the seed of slaughter removed and triggered the main task "The Dream of the Holy Nun".

7. [The Dream of the Holy Nun]: The Dream of the Holy Nun was carried out in the main world, involving the past where the old Devil led the demons to invade the human world more than 20 years ago. At that time, the Holy City where the Vatican was located was unsustainable, and the Holy See evacuated urgently to Neverland. The Holy Nun Maria couldn't bear to see the people of the Holy City slaughtered by the Devil and created a powerful field, sheltering the whole Holy City in her territory. After the war, the old Devil was killed and the Holy City was left with serious destruction. After more than 20 years, the Holy City was still protected by the remnants of the Holy Nun and was shrouded in fog and inaccessible. Qi Leren got the Holy Nun Maria’s memento in the Village of Dusk, and he could enter the Holy City with it. At the same time, he also learned that Ning Zhou was the son of Maria and a player. In order to fulfill Maria's last wish—to liberate the closed and dying Holy City—Qi Leren, Ning Zhou, Dr. Lu, and Su He went to the Holy City together.

At this time, the Holy City is still peaceful, unlike the nightmare of the outside world. However, Qi Leren and his party had found an abnormality. No newborn had been born in the Holy City for more than 20 years and, from a certain year, every night of the new moon the citizens had to fall asleep before midnight and sleep until dawn, otherwise they would disappear. In order to explore the truth and fulfill Maria's last wish, the group of people began to investigate the cause of the abnormality. Finally, it was found that a surviving witch who had followed the old Devil King was accumulating strength to unlock the Holy Nun’s seal, which caused the sleeping people to change from human beings to demons because of the influence of demon energy on every lunar night, while the humans who remained awake became the targets of the demons, who hunted, brutally killed, and ate them. Qi Leren and others opened the seal on the site of the Vatican and acted separately.

When Qi Leren came to the cathedral where Holy Nun and old Devil had fought in the war, he found that his good friend, Su He, who had always been mysterious, gentle, and powerful, turned out to be a Devil. After the death of the old Devil, he gained part of the Devil’s power and had been secretly planning something. When he was in the Novice Village he had discovered Qi Leren's uniqueness, so he had been deliberately approaching him and using him, successfully following him into the Holy City protected by the Holy Nun’s power, and reached the old Devil as he wished. Su He let Qi Leren choose whether to degenerate into a demon or die. Qi Leren pretended to obey and died with Su He after saving, but failed because of the great disparity in strength and was finally killed by Su He, who was summoned by a messenger of the Devil of Power to leave the Holy City.

Because he had an item that would resurrect him in seven days, Qi Leren wrote a 7 on the ground in blood before he died, trying to tell Ning Zhou that he would be resurrected in seven days, but suddenly remembered that 7 means I love you in the Nightmare World. After Ning Zhou arrived, Su He had already left, leaving only Qi Leren’s body and a misunderstood confession. Ning Zhou realized that he was deeply in love with Qi Leren, regardless of gender, and that he loved this person's soul. So Ning Zhou returned to the Vatican in Neverland after the funeral, confessed his sin of falling in love with the same sex to the Pope, and left the Holy See.

So ends the first chapter.

&&& The story continues &&&

As the sun rises and the moon sets, the days and nights change. Seven days are fleeting.

The Garden of the Holy Tomb was wrapped in a gentle barrier.

Here, the sun was blazing, and it was also hit by an afternoon rainstorm. Countless monsters lingered outside the enchantment, showing malicious curiosity about the scent of a human inside the enchantment. But because they can't destroy the enchantment, they left disgruntled.

The breeze blew, tossing up the blue and white petals on the branches and they fell in great numbers to the ground, as well as to the hollow tree that had become a tomb. In just seven days, layer upon layer of petals had covered the man sleeping in the tree tomb, letting him be buried in this annihilated city together with the fallen flowers.

[Countdown to resurrection: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds.]

[Easter Egg has taken effect, all skills and items are returned.]

[Player Qi Leren has completed The Dream of the Holy Nun. The task completion rate was 117%. Obtain special task clues, and reach the Purgatory deep in the Underground Ant City within 23 days for the next task to auto-trigger. If it becomes overdue, it will be regarded as giving up the task.]

[The reward is 90 survival days, and the unexpected factors interfering with the task progress have given an additional reward of 10 survival days.]

[Player Qi Leren has completed the achievement of "Deceiving the Devil of Fraud". The reward is the skill card "Secretly Observing".]

Qi Leren opened his eyes.

Stiffness, soreness, heaviness... Countless negative states superimposed on him, making him almost think he was paralyzed. The world consisted of mottled floating light and shadow, but the fresh scent of flowers and plants entered his nose.

The heart was beating again, the blood was flowing again, the lungs were filling again, and the Qi Leren was gasping for breath. The body that had been suspended in death for seven days seemed to have just been lifted out of an ice coffin. All of the organs in his body had almost forgotten how to operate, so they could only restart with difficulty as they let him change back from a dead person to a living person.

It took him a long time to remember everything, including his own name, but the next thing went smoothly. Qi Leren quickly recalled where he was and what he’d experienced—he was killed by the Devil of Fraud and the murderer had gotten the demon crystal of the old Devil before he left, but he’d concealed the fact that he would be resurrected in seven days.

Ning Zhou!

Qi Leren suddenly sat up from the tree tomb. He was dizzy because of insufficient blood pressure, and his spine made a scary "click" sound which made him almost think it was going to break. Fortunately, it held up strongly. Because of lack of oxygen in the brain, Qi Leren lay back again, staring at the blue sky and white clouds overhead.

The Dream of the Holy Nun task had been completed, that was to say, Maria's field had been solved. There was no doubt that the person who completed it was Ning Zhou, not Qi Leren who had won by lying down. Now that the task had been completed Ning Zhou had left the Holy City, but he had stayed in the Garden of the Holy Tomb because Ning Zhou had left his "corpse" here.

Thankfully, Ning Zhou didn't cremate him. Thank you customs of the Holy See!

Orthodox Vatican people usually put corpses in open coffins, covered them with cloth or other materials, and then buried them in the coffins after they decayed into bones. Because if a corpse was buried directly in the ground, the power of faith couldn’t dissipate, and the corpse often couldn’t rot for several years, so it needed to be placed in the open air to wait for the power of faith to collapse naturally. This process was also considered as the process of the soul ascending to heaven.

Although Qi Leren was not a member of the Holy See, Ning Zhou followed this custom and left him a whole corpse.

His body recovered some strength, and Qi Leren's thinking recovered from the initial delay to his usual state. He sat up and drank some water, and recalled his "death".

Death was like sleeping to the extreme. He had no longer been able to feel anything externally, but he had started "dreaming".

A looming dream that made him feel lost.

He had dreamed of Ning Zhou's mother, Maria.

She sat on a swing in the Garden of the Holy Tomb, which was on the big tree that was later broken by lightning while it was still verdant. At that time, Maria was not the famous Holy Nun. She was just a young girl, swinging on a swing in the warm afternoon, enjoying the beautiful time of youth and leisure.

Qi Leren walked towards her. Maria saw him and nodded to him with a smile. Her blue eyes seemed like the blue sky.

The sky... Qi Leren's consciousness was shocked by this deep blue. He suddenly flew, as if his soul had detached from his body, rising higher and higher, and the Garden of the Holy Tomb grew small beneath his feet. Together with the old site of the Holy See, it all became far away. The whole Holy City was brought before his eyes, and then the distant mountains and rivers... Countless demons were wandering, human beings were experiencing unprecedented suffering and struggling to survive, all of the cruelty of this world was shown to him.

He seemed to be a god overlooking the world, staring at the devastated land with compassionate eyes, but he could do nothing but grieve. This pain lashed his soul and great sadness tormented him. He desperately wanted to do something for the world, but found himself as weak as a worm.

"Look, when you stand at this height, you will find that you are even smaller and weaker than you think."

A gentle female voice came from behind, and Qi Leren "saw" Maria behind him. He understood why there was always a lingering pity and sadness in her eyes.

"But such fragile human beings have to fight against this world persistently, control their own destiny and the destiny of the world, and we never give up. Let the Devil go back to hell, let human beings dominate this human world, and let foreigners like you return to their own world—the martyrs who are gone worked hard for this, and one day, this dream will be realized."

"Ms. Maria, why did we come here from our own world?" Qi Leren asked.

Maria shook her head gently. "This is something that the will of the world decided. We suspect that it was only an accident at first. Later, it deliberately introduced more foreigners and wanted you to maintain this unbalanced world. Unfortunately, there are too many variables amongst you, and the fallen foreigners have aggravated this imbalance... It still has not given up... You have to be careful, you are already the object of observation."

The feeling of being secretly watched made him uneasy, and Qi Leren wanted to ask more questions, but he has already started to fall.

From the sky, dropping rapidly and falling to the earth!

This feeling of weightlessness was like being awakened every night by his nightmares, when he woke up in horror at the memories of his deaths, sweating profusely.

There was only Maria's gentle but regretful voice in his ear: "I can't tell you any more. Come to the church. I have something for you."

The dream of Maria had ended, and the Qi Leren who had come back from the dead recalled this strange dream. He understood that this was not an ordinary dream, but the residual power of Maria’s influence on him. It seemed that he must go to the church at the top of the former site of the Vatican again.

His body gradually recovered its strength and Qi Leren gawked at the Vatican uniform on himself, and the white roses that had already withered on him. Those thoughts about Ning Zhou that he didn’t dare to dwell on rushed back to his mind.

Love at first sight, feelings amidst danger, life and death before disaster... The beauty in these memories was deeply buried in shock when they had met again, but his death was the key to awaken everything, and the mistaken confession of that which should not be said was the straw that crushed everything.

He shouldn't have said anything, he should have died in silence.

If Qi Leren could go back in time and choose again, he would not write down the 7. He would rather swallow this overflowing love silently and would rather let Ning Zhou think he was really dead, so that he wouldn’t be forced to go down this blind alley that would only lead him to the fire-lake of hell.

He couldn't tell the person whom he loved, who maybe loved him, that he loved him.

Because this was an impermissible and sinful love.

He was not afraid to fall in love with Ning Zhou, but he was afraid that this love would bring pain to Ning Zhou. He was even afraid of himself, who was full of hope and longing in his heart—how could he expect a saint to admit his guilt over such a love?

This secret expectation was selfishness and even sin.

How was Ning Zhou now? And where was he? Would he return to the Holy See? Could he go back?

When love broke taboos, how could a devout believer face the reality that he had deviated from his faith? He was destined to give up one of them.

Qi Leren shook his hand and picked up the bunch of white roses on him.

The roses had already withered, and fragile yellow petals fell from the stems that had had their thorns shaved off, just seven.

That is Ning Zhou’s silent answer.

Qi Leren slowly showed a smile, but his eyes were wet-

On the ring finger of his left hand, there was a ring made up of grass stalks. It was so rough and humble, like a craft made by a child. If it fell to the ground, no one would look at it again.

It just so happened that it was placed on Qi Leren’s ring finger, a symbol of love, commitment, and eternity.

Therefore, its destiny was not to be a toy woven by a child, but to be the most faithful and brave answer given by a devout believer after he had tortured himself and subverted his faith.

A pair of lovers who shouldn't fall in love, at both ends of life and death, spoke their own words from the soul.

I love you.

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Editor’s Notes:

Welcome back! A little bit of housekeeping to begin:

[Here] is the NovelUpdates page for part 2.

I made up a little [list of significant characters] who appear in part 1, including which skill cards they have, for anyone who would like a refresher. This is also linked at the top of part 2′s TOC page.

As was the case for most of part 1, I intend for chapter updates to be every second day. I will mention if this is ever subject to change.

Lastly, while this chapter does not have an author’s note, I wanted to include a note from part 2′s summary section since it gives some fun hints of what’s to come:

“PPPS: Inspiration comes from horror movies and games such as the Alien series, the Silent Hill series, the Resident Evil series, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, etc. There are also a number of documentaries used, specifically when it comes to time periods.”

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