#& i did get called a fascist for liking jeans

[ahotknife]

there's a sweet spot to going viral. like there's a point where the commentary you're getting is funny and sometimes insightful and it's doing just enough numbers that people are engaging with your other content & you're having fun with it. and then suddenly it goes too far and next thing you know people are calling you a fascist for liking jeans.

[heavensickness]

Completely random things about Disco Elysium characters that I think about

Klaasje isn't Garte's type and he is probably the only one immune to her charm (she even manages to fool Kim)

Garte never takes a step back and even yells at the Hardie Boys and mercenaries. He doesn't give a shit if he dies.

Cunoesse sleeps outside at night

Cuno used to do his homework so he is not 100% illiterate

Cuno is locked out of his house by his father (his father keeps his key) so Harry breaking into their apartment might be the only way he could get in again

Smoker in the balcony says that Harry looks like he does belong in the Homosexual Underground. He even flirts a little

Egghead dresses like a boideiro

Measurehead can't get hard for his babe which he uses some of his racist bullshit to explain

You can touch the hanged man's penis for some reason and electrochemistry even urges you to

Kim intervenes when Harry is talking to Paledriver or Joyce only out of concern for him

When Harry sees Judit he immediately remembers her as the horse faced woman because that was probably what he used to call her before his amnesia, at least in his head

Similarly, Jean uses the words middle-class, bangable and fuckable while describing Dora in a deadpan tone even though he never met her because that was probably what Harry exactly said about Dora while he was drunk. The drunks in the fishing village also confirm that Harry said a "whore" fucked him over.

Endurance and physical instrument holds Harry's repressed toxic masculinity and possible misogyny, although you can become a feminist or grow out of those thoughts throughout the game. If you don't, they will repeat thoughts about how women are whores and they are all crazy.

Both in Harry's first dream and last dream, his subconscious focuses on Dora's sexual aspects: Warmth of her mouth, between her thighs, wearing a white gown that shows her figure etc.

Kim will still like your karaoke performance even if it was a disaster and he will even defend your performance against Jean

Jules Pideu will try to encourage you if you tell him you can't do this anymore

What Judit feels for Harry is just pity

If you make a "joke" to Cuno about Kim dressing in drag Kim will think something like "YOU are the one who looks like a hooker in those promiscuous clothes"

Jean will also tell you that you look like you have 20 STDs if you are wearing something "promiscuous"

Trant used to be a drug addict and so he understands why Harry can't just quit drinking

Ruby does not actually want to hurt Harry and Kim. She even decreases the intensity of pale emitter because she feels bad for them

Evrart will say "you are NOT an ultraliberal Harry, get the fuck out of here" if Harry says that he is an ultraliberal

Kim will yell "are you stupid??" so loud that Harry will lose a health point if he says that he is a fascist

Andre is "not twenty" and he is already balding

"Pigs" lady used to take care of the Hardie boys when they were kids

Titus says "some Hardie boys are queerer than others and that's okay", looking at Glen

Glen is probably gay but he is the one who reacts the most when Harry says that Ruby likes girls

You can give the working class woman a hug

Harry can ask Joyce if she wants to fuck but she will evade it immediately, saving both of them from embarrasment

If Harry goes on a date with Lilienne, one of his skills will say that this is as far as he could go in his current state & he should be sober for more than a year for something more. Which indicates that if Harry did not keep drinking/he has recovered, he could actually pursue Lilienne and they could be something more

Kim knows that wearing anal beads in public would not make a sound

[burningchandelier]

How to be Punk; A History

My very talented and wonderful nibling has a birthday coming up and is, perhaps, doing a bit of soulsearching. With that, they wrote to ask me "how to be punk" and I wrote this back. It is longer than they probably bargained for, but anything less would have been a disservice. Please enjoy.

The most important thing about Punk is that it is a frame of mind. A person can be the most teeshirt-and-jeans-wearing, "normal"-looking person on the planet, but if they are devoted to justice for the underdog, anticapitalism, antiracism, feminism, queer rights, and genuinely making the world a better place through action and resistance, then that person is punk as hell.

Punk is about resisting authority, first and foremost. It is about taking labels that are used to hurt us and reclaiming them, turning them into our armor. It is about making your own impact in the world in the way that suits you best, and yes, of course, to a degree it is about fashion and music.

The best way to know where you are going is to know where you have been. You have to understand the history, at least a little, in order to know why things are the way they are.

With that in mind, here is a summary of the past fifty years of Punk. I hope I do okay.

The very word "Punk" itself used to be a slur used against effeminate men perceived to be gay. Back in the early 1970s, a bunch of dudes in England got called punks for wearing tight clothes with lots of safety pins. They turned around and said "Yeah, I am a punk. What are you going to do about it?"

This caught on incredibly fast.

Originally, the punk scene-- that of the early 70s, was a response to the commercialization of Rock and Roll, which had become pretty hack and overproduced, and to Disco, which was just taking off and was not appealing to everyone (I'll get into that another day).

Early punk (Sometimes called "Proto-punk" by people who want to sound like they know a lot, but it's pretentious) is a lot more accessible than people expect it to be!

Check out Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The Velvet Underground, and the New York Dolls for a taste of this era.

But WHAT ABOUT THE SEX PISTOLS!?

Okay. So here's the thing. The sex pistols are garbage. Yes, you have got to listen to Anarchy in the UK and God Save the Queen in order to know anything about anything when it comes to punk, but they were essentially an advertisement for a clothing shop, so they were automatically shills.

The important thing is that they created the Punk Aesthetic that we still know and love. Johnny Rotten was and still is a right-wing piece of shit. Sid Vicious was a garbage human. They wore clothes and made one good album, but I'm willing to admit that they did matter.

So then what happened?

Well, let me introduce you to Joey, Johnny, Dee dee, and Tommy.

The Ramones are where Punk took off and it took off like a bat outta hell.

You still see Ramones logos everywhere and that's for a good reason. It's because they rock. In this era, you also got Black Flag, The Misfits, The Dead Kennedys, The Damned, the list goes on and on (and it's awesome).

The 80s were a tumultuous time, politically and Punk got harder, more intense, more guitar-driven, and the bands had figured out that all you needed to make some incredible music was 4 chords and a message.

Sometimes, that message was awesome. Sometimes that message was total bullshit. Sometimes that message wasn't really a message as much as it was "I want to wreck stuff" but that's still kind of a message, isn't it?

It is worth noting that during this time, Punk was fighting for it's identity and a lot of that fighting included issues of race and gender-- some bands were total fascists and some bands were all about making fun of them. So you have to kind of understand that in order to get what was going on.

This is part of why fashion is SO important in the punk scene. Everything, everything, everything, down to the color of your shoelaces used to mean something specific. A bandana in your pocket could mean how you liked to have sex (and if you were Queer). Your boots could signal if you were a Nazi. Sometimes it wasn't a big deal, but sometimes it was important.

Wait. Nazi Punks?

Oh yeah, honey. There were a lot of Nazi punks in the scene, especially back in the 80s and 90s. That's the whole reason for the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off."

We had to fight really hard, and continue to fight hard, to keep them out. They have no business in our spaces and in our music.

This sounds bad. I'm not sure if I want to be punk.

That's fair, but here's the thing. Being punk is so so so incredibly worth it (remember that part at the beginning about being anti-authority?) The community and the music and the beliefs are why we do it.

To be fair, if you've made it this far, you're probably in too deep already. Good for you! Keep going!

Okay, so then what happened after the 80s? Well, I know you can count, so you know what's coming next.

Punk took a backseat in the 90s. Grunge happened and Punk became kind of passe. The diehards were out there, slugging it out as always, but things had calmed down. In the West, politics weren't as dire, things seemed kind of hopeful. Punk was still important, but it wasn't what people needed.

That said, there was a rise in more pop-punk sounds that are, let's face it, fucking delightful. This is where we get Greenday, as well as a slew of bands that came into their own a little later on.

This was also the time of Riot Grrrl music, which I will happily tell you all about another time, but for now, we can say that it was the incredibly necessary, fantastic response to the "boys only" sign that alternative music, especially punk, had been hanging for years.

It is also worth noting that Punk, just like most art, is full of hypocrites who don't see their own blind spots. This doesn't make people bad, it just makes them people.

Punk has a long, crappy tradition of ignoring the contributions of women/people perceived as women and people of color even though it would not exist without those individuals.

It is getting much better, but god damn, it has taken a long time.

So then the 2000s happened and shit. went. nuts.

It doesn't really matter if you call it punk, pop-punk, emo, mall-goth, or anything else, but the alternative music scene of the 2000s went off like a bomb and there was no stopping it.

Like the 80s, the political landscape of the West was toxic to self expression, especially for young people who were suffering under the Bush Administration, the culture war against gay marriage, and the real-life wars that America had taken to the Middle East. Punk came back with a vengeance because the kids were not alright.

This punk, though? This punk was a different kind of fun.

This punk was the kind of punk where you were a lot less likely to get beat up and a lot more likely to get a sunburn at Warped Tour.

Making Punk accessible to more people with a broader appeal meant. for some, a watered down message, but for many others it meant being exposed to those messages at all. In my opinion, a net positive.

Did the DIY ethos of anticapitalism that bands like Thursday and My Chemical Romance, and even Fall Out Boy touted in their early days survive being brought to MTV? You have to be the judge of that. I am probably too biased to say, myself.

Into the future we go!

I believe that you need about 15-20 years to reflect on history with a proper degree of distance. It is too hard to pick out trends and important events when you're examining something that happened five to ten years ago, so I won't get into the 2010s or '20s yet.

Just remember that Punk has staying power and adaptability.

So. What makes a person punk? That's up to you.

[falsenote]

ok finally one good update that you can put a read more on posts in the app like you don't need to see this yessss

anyway i watched la piscine and face to face yesterday bc i had a realization recently that when i was binge watching the romy filmography and during that i've read her biography it really made me lose all motivation to watch la piscine in particular so i skipped just that one and when i was doing the same w the gian maria filmography and read his bio also the same thing happened w face to face jsvshwnjs. and it was such a funny connection to make so i was like what if... i watched these after all, back to back, even though i still don't care about either films? like the line of thought was that bc of this experiment it would make the films at least a little bit interesting. like two negatives making a positive. well did the films turn out to be good? no they were fucking annoying i was right all along. was making myself watch two films that i was sure i would hate, funny? yes a bit.

although they varied a little like w face to face i knew it'd be a blatant didactic eye rolling moment and in the first place i didn't want to watch bc in the bio they say almost a comical amount of times how much he hated doing these westerns and i was like fine fine i won't watch any more of them then. on this note there's almost something sad about reading the letterboxd reviews calling this his best performance but what can you do. and well the film in question was not very good yes. rather annoying i would argue. the way it was put together was kind of sending me like the unbelievable dialogue, gian maria blue eyes moment (i was very hurt by that) tomas milian in an absurd wig leading the people out of the desert jshzvsubsjzjsjs uh purgatory city? random sex crazed underage girl who i think was supposed to be the mary magdalene of the group?gian maria fascist speech? him eating those weird little outfits up? so it had the potential to be trashy fun but it was too much of a mess that it became kind of a drag. but i won't lie looking back it's almost a fun film in its own bizarre way. in a sense a two star classic

but what was more enraging actually was la piscine bc i was expecting a lot of bad things (namely the presence of the lead actor in question hence my reason for not watching it before. like i really don't care to see them together. at least in christine there was jean claude brialy camping it up and in the assassination of... uh. there was richard burton also. camping it up. anyway.) but the final straw was not giving romy enough screen time like are we out of our minds. like yes the (barely existent) plot was annoying, the characters made no sense, the dialogue was verging on terrible, i only care about 2 people out of the 4 in here, but i suspected all that. and to think even in her limited screentime she tried her best and there is that confrontation at dinner scene where i was like yesss finally go give us everything queen but then we're back to alain delon staring at nothing with a nondescript expression. maurice ronet at least tried to do something, i like his performances and he had a good chemistry w romy in all their films. but people always have to hype up untalented people so tragic. and like it's literally miserable that this is one of romy's more famous roles like this is not all that she can give.... the people need to wake up. eh. also i really don't get why this film has so many remakes like what reason is there to watch besides the cast (ehhh) and the late 60s vibes. well one star for romy being cute but otherwise this was. torturous!

all in all wasn't really worth it that much but at least it reinforced in me what i already knew. and we must take all the little scraps of entertainment while we can i suppose. this was me to myself while watching these

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

I'm gonna try to knock out three episodes tonight, so let's do this. Come on, you tea-swilling, erotic cake baking bastard, let's go.

Uh... most of this episode was the major characters all milling around at a party. Adam Soong shows up and tries to get Picard thrown out by security? I think? But Jurati turns out the lights and sings "Shadows of the Night" to create a diversion. This gives Picard time to give a pep talk to his ancestor, who has to go on an historic spaceflight or humanity will descend into fascism. Wait, this is just "First Contact" again, isn't it?

You'd think the Borg Queen would point that out. "Hey, Locutus, remember the last time we were in the 21st century and I pulled this trick? Fun times!" Oh, shit, Q got Adam Soong to turn heel, just like how the Borg Queen seduced Data to turn against Picard in "First Contact!" It's all coming together... into a big dumb mess.

It's always spaceflights in this show. If I remember right, the original time travel episode of Star Trek saw them accidentally capture a pilot, and they were reluctant to send him back, except one of his descendants was fated to be on this historic spaceflight, so they had to return the pilot to his rightful place or they'd all be screwed. In "First Contact" it was Zefram Cochrane's first warp-drive flight, and now it's Renee Picard's Europa mission. Call me cyncical, but I have a hard time believing that the only thing keeping humanity on the straight and narrow is a long string of manned spaceflights, and if any of them go awry, we turn into fascists or Borg drones or zombies or whatever else.

Anyway, Adam Soong desperately needs to stop Renee Picard in order to get the cure he needs for his daughter, so when his first plan fails, he tries to run over Renee with his car, but Jean-Luc gets hit instead. You'd think this would kill our hero, but instead he's basically fine? They take him to that clinic doctor Rios met, and she's worried about his heart, but that's basically it?

Speaking of hearts, is Picard's heart still artificial? He got the new "synth" body in Season 1, but with no augmentations, but does that mean he got a new heart, or did they go out of their way to put the artificial one in? I ask because the doctor use the defibrilator on Picard, and then all this lightning shot out of him, and that sounds more like something the artificial heart would do. I mean, maybe the synth body has all sorts of weird properties, but the whole point was it was supposed to be virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

Really, I never understood why Picard had an artificial heart in the first place, since a lot of Star Trek shows have established that they can just grow new body parts for people. Maybe Picard just didn't want to go under the knife again to get an upgrade.

Anyway, Soong. Yeah, so he goes home all distaught because he's failed, and his daughter snoops through his records because she doesn't know what he's talking about, and that's when she learns that Soong has had a whole bunch of other daughters who all look like her, and she's the last in the series. I wanted to say they're all clones, but you never know with this show. This might tie Adam Soong into the Eugenics Wars? Maybe that's why Q sought him out. If he really wanted to throw a wrench in Picard's plan, then why not use another historical figure to target the first one? Picard can't kill Soong to save Renee, because then he'd just be replacing one damaged future for another.

So Picard's in a coma, and no one knows what the hell that means, so the Watcher, who looks like Laris, but isn't, so I just call her Gary Eight, she's gonna use her sonic screwdriver and mind meld with Picard to figure out what phychological thing is preventing him from waking up.

I don't get any of this. The dude got hit by a car. He's ninety-four years old. They took him to the clinic, so all he got was some 21st century medicine, a zap with a defibrilator, and now he's basically fine, except for a coma that he ought to be able to wake up from, except he's processing some sort of trauma. And this would be fine in the usual Star Trek settings, where characters get injured by aliens or whatever and sustain fictional injuries that lead to unlikely situations like this.

But here, it's just and old man getting hit by a car. They should be worried about broken bones and internal bleeding. They didn't use any 25th century tech to heal him. I'm pretty sure they don't have any, which is why Elnor died a few episodes back. If Picard's synth body was extra durable, I could buy it, but it's not. They went out of their way to tell us that it's got no special augmentations. If Soji got hit by a car in 2024, all of this would make sense, but it's Picard, not Soji, so it's fucking stupid.

But now we're going to have not!Laris go inside Picard's head to see whatever's been bugging him about his mom this whole season. I'm not looking forward to this. Either Picard's dad beat her, or she had some sort of space madness, or some maniac broke in one night and ripped out her eyeball, but it's got to be something really upsetting and tone deaf for Star Trek.

The thing is, they sort of have to do this bit now, because... I think the mission is over? They had to make sure Renee went on the spaceflight, which meant keeping her from quitting before she went into pre-flight quarantine. But that's happened now, so she's basically locked in. The gang are still worried Q might continue to interfere, except they don't know he lost his powers, so Adam Soong was his last effort, and that failed.

So all they really need to do is get everyone back on their ship and go home, right? Jurati's running loose with the Borg Queen in her, but who gives a shit, really? They both want to get back to their own time, so they'll probably get Picard on his feet, go back to the ship, and find her waiting for them, ready to go.

Wait, how do they get back? The ship's in France, and they're in LA, and no one's at the ship to run the transporter. If it was working right, they could probably do some automatic recall thing, but it's been on the fritz this whole time, so that's probably going to be a thing.

So yeah, one episode for Picard's personal demons, one episode of Jurati making goofy faces at the Borg Queen, and then the season finale, where they go back home and Q reveals he's dying of 5-D cancer or something. He wanted one last game with Picard before saying goodbye... (sniff) ... for the last time.

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

A Facebook friend reposted this. I would normally begin my commentary by trying to introduce this guy, but you can get the complete gist of him and his outlook on the world from this screencap alone. The fact that he’s Indian and not some white guy is probably the most surprising thing about him.

He says that he would make it so that people under 25 who don’t serve in the military or as first responders would have to take a “civics test” to be eligible to vote. Allegedly, younger people lack “civic experience” and therefore need to prove their dedication to society by, presumably, either memorizing biased facts that they’ll forget two hours after taking the test. Turns out that having to live through the America that other people have shaped through their votes and experiencing its ups and downs firsthand just ain’t cutting it. Even if your county banned books from the library of the high school you just graduated from or decided that your little sister can’t wear jeans to class anymore because it’s too “androgynous.” (Considering the extent of some legislation being passed today, I wish I was joking when I said that isn’t an unreasonable proposal for legislation in today’s world.)

That five year old kid down the street with a lemonade stand providing refreshments for everyone stopping by for his mom’s yard sale? Better make him pack up not just because he doesn’t have a permit, but also because you can’t just get off that easy trying to call that “civil service”, kid. Best learn the facts of life early.

With the 26th amendment to the Constitution existing, the general reaction from the professionals seems to be one of shock and disapproval, including, according to him, his staff, which is quite amusing. The peanut gallery does show some approval in the same way that some people who worked their asses off to pay off their student loans refuse to see a world where people don’t have to go through the hard work and pain that they did. America will do that to you, I guess.

If this guy really wanted to ensure that everyone who votes is on an “equal playing field”, maybe he’d call for public school systems to educate young people on how their country works and promote media literacy and transparency. But his focus is obviously not on inclusion. It is based on a systematic form of suppression against the potential that young people hold to make great societal change.

Vivek Ramaswamy would want me to say that he can’t say make such a statement, because he wrote a book called Woke, Inc., man. Critique means straight censorship to him, probably. But it’s just sad that we’re at a point in time where someone can make such a statement. It’s sad that someone can suggest that we undermine and oppress an already vulnerable group of people who did not choose their position whatsoever. It’s sad that someone can use such an egregious statement to his advantage for political notoriety points. It’s sad that such a statement can garner support from people who likely no nothing more than the selfish and unsympathetic propaganda that such a statement only amplifies.

Sacrifice your body for the government’s twisted needs, or take a stupid test. That’s what you’re worth to us. That’s the message I’m getting from this, as a young person.

Shame on a country whose political discourse has become so warped and desensitized to favor fascist thugs while the people who want an actual equal playing field are shunned and discredited as “radicals”. Nothing but shame.

[f1rewalk3r]

Initially I was going to dismiss Jean. It’s really easy to do so. He’s a homophobic, ableist asshole. At least, that’s how we see him in game. That’s pretty much all we see him as, taking into account only the direct interactions he has with HDB through the course of the game.

Of course, we can’t only acknowledge the events of the game. It’s easy to see Vic as human too, having lost a partner he spent years with building little inside jokes and shared memories. This also goes the other way. How long has it been toxic? How long has Jean resented Harry for being an alcoholic? How many times has he rescued him from the gutter, to the point where he now believes Harry is destined for it?

To be honest with you, I kinda don’t care. This is going to get into tangent territory, but I think how you play HDB can drastically affect your view of Vic. If you’re an asshole fascist, Jean is easily justifiable.

I don’t play HDB as a fascist. I tend to play a route that takes him closest to innocence-hood as possible. I think there’s something to be said for HDB being the revacholian Innocence post-DE. The revacholian innocence we do see in PJÕL is Ambrosius, who ends up causing a nuclear holocaust with the pale consuming the world. Which. That’s our innocence? Come on. Play a high shivers apocalypse cop, tell everyone the 2mm hole caused the memory loss, and tell me that you aren’t playing a burgeoning innocence. Come the fuck on.

This is, of course, only possible if we take everything that’s mystical about Elysium at face value, instead of the schizophrenic ramblings of a polyaddict. But given everything about Elysium, it’s pretty hard to deny. If not innocencehood, then there’s something going on with revolutionary plasm and Nilsen/Masov reincarnating into Steban/Ulixex and Harry/Kim. Whatever. That’s like super deep lore only vaguely confirmed by the ghost of Nilsen in PJÕL. Again, everything mystical about Elysium that Kim dismisses is either outright confirmed canon or otherwise correct.

Stickbug, “Love killed him but communism did him in,” the pale, the 2mm hole, infra-materialism is real, plasm is real, the nuclear bomb/shivers church check is real/canon, whatever, whatever, what the fuck is going on in this game, Kurvitz please lean into the mysticism if a sequel ever happens, you get it.

I think that innocencehood is only possible post-cleaning out the rooms, and by throwing away all of Dora and never getting the Final Dream. Because it has to be someone new, someone kinder to be a leader like that.

Which leads me to- were Harry and Jean like Harry and Kim at the beginning of their partnership? they’re called “Hetero Sexual Life Partners” by Torson and McLaine. There had to be something beyond the fighting. Did they start out happy, complimenting each other’s workflow? Vic the composed stoic to Harry’s erraticism, just like Kim? Did Harry idolize him to the point of destroying the relationship? Just like he does to Kim?

Ultimately Vic is a pretty nuanced character. As of my last playthrough I really don’t like him. I even waited to talk to him at the whirling until I had solid leads, to see if it would give unique dialogue. It doesn’t. Maybe ignoring him till after the island would. I don’t know. He’s very human. I don’t like him. He’s human but he’s also a bigot. Do we toss him aside like the other bigots in life and DE, or does he get a pass because it’s Harry? Does he NOT get a pass because it’s Harry? Up to you imo. We don’t see enough of them pre-martinaise to really come to any definitive conclusion.

Jean Vicquemare

glad i had my morning shower to think about this post because. hooo boy. buckle up for this one

[bimboficationblues]

What's wrong with Xorn-magneto?

for the uninitiated:

Grant Morrison's New X-Men relaunched the series for the 00s after a period of creative floundering. Morrison used a lot of surrealist sci-fi concepts, gave the series a more modernist theme and tone, and deconstructed and challenged most of the core cast's prevailing beliefs and self-image. New X-Men is mostly well-received but is still a controversial run, both for the artwork (Frank Quitely, Chris Bachalo, and Phil Jimenez do great work, but there are a couple bad artists on some arcs and issues) and the writing (highly esoteric dialogue and concepts, and questionable characterization).

Probably Morrison’s most controversial decision revolves around the character Xorn, a Chinese mutant kept in a prison his whole life because he has a miniature star for a brain. Early on in Morrison's run, Xorn is recruited to the X-Men as a healer and teacher. He's a likable pacifist who struggles with the horrors of mutant oppression.

Except, flash-forward forty issues to the "Planet X" storyline, Xorn reveals himself to be Magneto. He recruits the high school losers of the Xavier School as a new Brotherhood of Mutants, engages in a exterminatory fascistic takeover of New York, gets royally owned by the X-Men, murders Jean Grey, and then gets his head cut off by Wolverine.

Later on, in other X-Men books NOT penned by Morrison, it's revealed that Xorn was not in fact Magneto, but an actual person masquerading as Magneto while under the influence of the experimental drug Kick. So, to be clear, “Xorn” was disguised as “Magneto disguised as Xorn.” This is because Marvel Comics editorial decided that having Magneto be quite that evil would make the character completely unusable/irredeemable for the future.

The reason I describe this as a massive failure of authorial intent is because Morrison insists that their creative vision was for Xorn to always, exclusively, be a masquerade for Magneto to carry out his subterfuge against the X-Men, and never an actual person. Unfortunately, following this assumption makes the story much worse.

It really undermines the character and threat of Magneto, loses a more interesting potential character in “Xorn,” and has little to say thematically. Magneto’s plan here (“today the geeks’ lunch table, tomorrow the world”) is extremely dumb and his aggressive, raving characterization is impossible to take seriously. We’re left with a caricature who is ludicrously arch, highly incompetent, and fundamentally insecure in himself, all of which is pretty “OOC” for Mags. Morrison doesn't think highly of Magneto as a character, and that's their prerogative, but the choice to revert Mags to the one-dimensional megalomania of the Stan Lee era, is at the expense of the more nuanced and thoughtful depiction that Chris Claremont had introduced who had a lot more to say about violence, power, protest, etc.

If Morrison always intended Magneto to be Xorn, they did a bad job setting up this twist/mystery. Backfilling “his star-brain thing is an excuse to use an anti-telepathy helmet” sort of works, but Wolverine never noticed the scent of the man who ripped the metal off his bones? Then there’s a whole chapter dedicated to Xorn by himself, where he behaves nothing like Magneto and engages in actions that Magneto would be incapable of. Magneto’s scheme here also relies on him doing elaborate yellowface, which is both practically and ethically questionable. It’s just not a very well-conceived twist as Morrison intended it

As written and intended by Morrison, it’s actually very easy to assume this twist is a put-on. There is literally a point in the final fight where the X-Men keep calling him Xorn and he impotently screams a denial, which makes it inadvertently seem like he’s lying. He is literally hearing “the voice of Xorn” in his head. The final battle revolves around how fraudulent this "Magneto" seems. He gets easily clobbered by the X-Men even though every previous time they’d fought, Magneto was nigh untouchable. If Morrison wanted Xorn to be just a disguise for Magneto, their writing inadvertently leaves a lot of ambiguity and doubt hanging over that conclusion. I doubt editorial had a hard time figuring out how to make the retcon stick - it’s practically in the text already.

It’s kind of up its own ass in the way Morrison’s worst moments are. There's a bit where "Xorneto” claims the concept of a man with a star for a brain is inherently silly and the X-Men should have known it was Magneto (though, if he believes it’s so dumb, why use it as your cover story?). This is the same comic run where one of the main antagonists is a sentient bacteria colony masquerading as a New Age televangelist and organ trafficker, and another is a psychic parasite that attached to and attacked a fetus in the womb. Hell, the Phoenix Force (New X-Men has by FAR my fave depiction of that entity) is on the same level of cosmic weirdness as a star-brained man. It’s not that strange of an idea!

HOWEVER, if you take Marvel editorial at their word instead, I actually think the plotline works pretty well overall!

[atomicblasphemy]

Can’t promise this will make sense.

But I think I’ve seen people theorize this lovely enormous andominous guy is in fact not King’s dad:

And I’m inclined to agree. I mean, Lilith does mention the island King was hatched at was ancient. So odds are he was being incubated for quite a minute and, when the time was right (which may or may not have something do with that sky window thingy or Emperor Phil’s meddling with the island innate magic), he finally hatched.

Moreover, whatever magic is used to cloak that wee island, to produce King sonic rainboom, or to animate Jean-Luc is probably of a different source to that elemental one harnessed by demons and witches from the Boiling Isles since Hooty was unable to pin down what type of demon King was, suggesting he may not even be one. (Also, on a bit of a tangent I just think that’d play nicely with the contrast between Emperor Phil’s bri’ishness and King’s more francophone tendencies).

Lastly, the carvings, the plant life, of the that Island, the fort’s architecture, the writing system, and the very fact that they managed to build what’s probably the most sophisticated bunker in any dimension would in my eyes point  to two things: one, whatever civilization made the island was powerful, foreign, and is long gone; and whoever King’s dad was he was important enough a figure to justify a lot of resources being used to protect his son. And you know how monarchies are: the king is dead, long live the King. Also, we know next to nothing about the world beyond the Boiling Isles other than Eda telling the Selkidomus to hide further into sea and the fact that the Emipre has some form of navy (be it it a military of commercial one, in either case this suggest the existence of other nation with whom to wage war or engage in trade).

Now, I know, essentially, this brings nothing new to the table. But there’s to things I’d like to point which might do just that.

First and weaker evidence:

This looks like a place that has a similar origin to the Boiling Isles, but not really it.

The reason why this can hardly be called evidence is simple though: Eda was undergoing a very bad acid trip when this happened. So while that whole sequence offers a lot of insight into her psyche, that’s all you can take from highs. Everything else there has a very blurry relation with reality. I mean, I’m not even sure that figure people thought was Amity is really someone from Eda’s past or just a way her mind found to cope with the trauma from years of persecution by a fascist state on account of factors way beyond her control.

Regardless, if this is a real place (and consequently faux-Amity a real person), this would mean confirmation that lands other than the Boiling Isles do indeed exist, and on top of that would suggest at least one candidate for King’s true place of origin (and possibly of Eda’s curse, after she became Icarus she did turn into that suspicious looking scroll after all). Hopefully though, the show won’t really focus on that. I mean, just look at how the show sidelined Willow this season then just imagine what the sheer amount of lore this would imply would do, especially considering how short the run time ahead of us is.

But hey, I don’t even know why I’m speculating on all this and seeing how given what we know pretty much all bets are off... so you know... no harm, no foul.

Anyhow. as I briefly mentioned before whoever the lovely guy (fig. 1) is, he seems pretty huge. And that’s actually quite important. Because there is one physically big (to fit her big heart ofc) with a very unclear backstory that the show seems to bring up only when strictly necessary. This lovely gal:

The one on the left.

The reason why I point this out is: I like her and want to see more of her; her backstory was left deliberately hanging after her second appearance; what we do know about her is that she was part of the “staff of a giant” some thousands of years ago; she’s takes care of palismen which put her in a collision course with Emperor Phil; I like her and want to see more of her.

Now, those second and third points are important because as previously stated that guy (fig. 1) is buff. And so was that other figure portray on King’s forts walls. Maybe enough to call them giants (we don’t know what their growth limit is), but not so much to be a Titan. If there’s really a kinship relationship between them and King, then we should probably expect him to undergo a growth spurt, maybe not one of continental proportions, but still a growth spurt.

Anyway, not only that, but Luz (the one on the right in fig. 3) did offer to help Bat Queen find out more about her past, and the offer probably still stands. Meaning that the show writers have this avenue open, and if she really was King’s dad’s palisman then that make her the most poised one to give him the insight he needs on his past (and that his dad is, most likely, long gone, making his story pretty much like Luz’s and Eda’s in the sense it could be described as learning to accept what you can’t, change what you can and from that forge a self you can actually like). Not only that, but this would make her have a deeper connection with Luz’s camp against Emperor Phil, giving her chance to avenge all the palismen he ate over the years (which as of now she’s probably not aware of).

Also, if all of that is the case and King’s civilization is as ancient as Lilith suggested that’d probably mean she is among the oldest palismen out there if not the oldest, which could offer a solution to the palistrom wood shortage problem. And it would also raise the possibility of King’s dad being the inventor of palismen or something along those lines, not sure what that’d entail and I’m into way too esoteric territory to comfort. 

But on a mostly unrelated note and seeing how I’m taking a few hours to aimlessly speculate: Luz’s palisman. I’ve seen people suggesting she’d pick all sorts of different animals from bats to blue cardinals.

I just think she won’t really get a palisman at all. She will get a staff though, Hunter’s artificial one to be exact.

Here’s the thing, getting a palisman and the accompanying staff is kinda painted as this whole rite of passage from witchling to witchhood so to speak. Meaning that from that point on they are a witch, a part of the Isles. A huge commitment for a human to make, and her character’s  whole subtext thus far this season has been a balancing act between her human past and her magical future, culminating in the promise she makes to Camila.

That’s why the Bat Queen (fig. 3) calls her out on her insecure, tentative response when pushed to state her purpose to the potential palismen - even if covered by her usual upbeat presentation (that girl’s mind is a storm right now, poor child). In other words, for good reason, she sees getting a palisman as too much of a commitment, implying certain sacrifices (her link with the human world) she is not ready to make. 

On the other hand, she found in the Boiling Isles everything she was missing in the human realm. She was accepted there, she has a family, friends, and a girlfriend now, all of whom see her as a cherished part of their lives as much as they are of hers. She belongs in the Isles, she belongs in the human realm, and those two are on equal measure to her.

That’s a pretty tough place for some who just started learning who she is - I mean, she is 14 after all. And as of the place that the show left after Yesterday’s Lie, there’s really nowhere she can say to her self that she belongs to.

However, since we are apparently getting a Hunter redemption either way because that’s what popular media is now, every story has a quota of redemption arcs to fill (preferably of officials of monstrous regimes, but i digress) him and Luz could form a sort of parallel. If, as certain sects of the fandom believes, he is a clone of Emperor Phil’s brother (Bob, that’s his name), that’d make them along with Phil himself the characters with the closest connection to the human. Phil is the one pulling the strings so I can’t really tell what  the parallels there would be other than some kind of “what if Luz had less of a moral center to her”. That’s not the interesting parallel though.

By the way, obviously, this whole word soup’s validity depends on the Emperor being either Phil, Bob, or some derivation. I know the show hasn’t made it quite canon just yet but I mean, come on, they’ve been throwing so many bones at this theory that we could build a skeleton army.

You see, Hunter’s staff is great symbol of the relationship he has with Phil. Something that symbolizes that, the way things are, seeing how he is a magicless witch in magicful world, his only way to truly be a part of the world and of society, the only way he can have a sense of belonging is through Phil, it is through the magic he provides via the staff’s artificial magic.

Moreover, if Phil being human ever comes out, and that Hunter is Bob’s clone, then Hunter would have this delightfully existential question to answer: “Who the fuck am I then?”

Essentially, he’ll be in a similar mind space as Luz buuuut their ways out of that are opposite. In order to make a self for himself the first thing he has to do is to sever his connection with Phil and reaffirm what he wants to do with his life (wild magic). And now he has the means to do just that, he has a staff and a palisman (made of wild magic) of his own, he doesn’t necessarily needs the artificial one anymore. A way he can cut that connection is by giving his old staff to Luz.

From Luz’s point of view that would solve her own existential problem, this staff, made with artificial magic - thus suiting the existence of a human in this magical world - would allow her to either/or conundrum: she can be a witch AND a human. She hasn’t gone through that rite of passage, so she didn’t forgo her humanity (in a metaphorical sense, of course). But she was given, from possibly her biggest enemy, tangible proof that she has a place in the Isle, not by birth, but because she made one for herself through the relationships and bonds she formed, through the way she changed people’s lives just being there and being herself. It isn’t a complete solution, but it is a compromise between those too sides of her being

That leaves that piece of palistrom wood Eda gave Luz out of the equation. What the show would try to do with it is anyone’s guess. But I think something along the lines of “Willow finds out a way to replenish the palistrom wood forests, she needs Luz’s branch to do it, Luz gives it to her out of a sense of moral obligation but is torn about it since she feels she’s giving up her chance at having a staff” would be pretty neat. You know, building up a bit of dramatic tension and whatnot.

Anyway, that’s it. Word soup’s over.

[warm-starlight]

My thoughts regarding SnK chapter 139

Read at your own risk because my thoughts are all over the place and incoherent. 😅

So when the spoilers came out i innitially cringed a bit because of how cheesy the leakers made it sound due to the salt lol. After Korean raws came out, i liked the images. The art is phenomenal! After reading the official translation i am in love with it. ❤😭

It was so incredibly bittersweet, just like Isayama promised us.

The entire EreMin dialogue was heartwrenching and i said that if Eren pulls a Lelouch i will apologize for hating his character so much post TS. So i guess i have to apologize.

This dude was willing to turn himself into an absolute monster to ensure his friends have a bright future ahead of themselves. He believed that with him laying down the foundation and dirtying his hands to the point of being irredeemable they will be able to ceize their own future.

The story he told about Ymir and her motivation explains few things: Why she protected the king with her body, why she kept building the titans even after Eren seemingly freed her, why killing Zeke stopped the rumbling and why Eren told her "You're not a got nor a slave. Just a human being". He felt how strong her love for the king was and realized she is just a poor girl who was bound by her feelings.

Then we go to the talk about Mikasa and Eren reveals he has been in love with her that whole time, but kept it within because he knew their love is impossible, because he will have to die for their sakes. He completely bares his soul to Armin revealing his selfish, pathetic, Human side which i absolutely loved btw! But despite that he asks Armin not to tell her about it as he wants her to be happy, never wondering what if.. This also confirmed that the scene in 138 was in fact their shared dream and not "mikasa's delusion"..i hope antis die of embarassment now haha.

It is also revealed Mikasa's choice that time in 138 will lift the curse of the titans. Ymir was waiting for a girl who is deeply in love to show her how to break free and let go of her loved one.

This was what led Ymir to smile and finally free herself and remove the curse from the world.

It seems that everyone got their little talk with Eren, except Levi and Pieck. I think Eren was not sure what to tell Levi or maybe because Levi is an Ackerman, getting him to the paths was too much effort, considering he could only access Mikasa's mind only moments before his death.

In the end all their friends acknowledged his sacrifice (not the genocide!). Annie and Jean calling him suicidal blockhead for one last time made me sad and nostalgic. Annie showed she cared about him since trainee days... 🥲

Now we get to Levi's final goodbye and this was the moment i started crying. This man... He suffered so much, lost Everyone, destroyed his body just to make sure their deaths had meaning, but in the end it was all worth it, so he gave them a soft smile while shedding tears. Don't get me started on Hange being front and center ashdnkhdudjndnkxh

The warriors reunited with their loved ones, FaBi got to see each other again and their suffering also ended..

Armin's scene was such a great callback to trost arc.

It was sooo good. Also bonus Annie blushing at her husbando.

Three years later we see Queen historia with her beloved child who is now free from the titan curse, being happy and soft. She is probably much better mom than her own mother was

But she is also a Queen of the country who has become like a fascist dictatorship. 😬

Despite that, she retains her kindness for her friends, sheltering Jean's and Connie's families from the Yegerists. She is a strong, independent woman.

She writes her letter and tells Armin and co even if Eren was right about one side not being able to live in peace until the other is wiped out, he left Paradis in *their* hands, meaning Herself and The alliance. Which is why i believe the peace negotiations would go successfuly.

I am really digging Armin's speech here. Armin has been a chad this entire time heh.

And so we see Levi chilling in a wheelchair in Onyankopon's country, living the life, until a plane flies by and Onyankopon gives him that look. And he looks somewhat sad.

An anon pointed out that the bubble of "They'll want to know what we saw" being placed on Levi's panel is so poetic, because from 115 Levi only saw Hange and followed her lead to free humanity and i agree.

And finally we see Mikasa sitting by Eren's grave, waiting for everyone to join her. Her clothes and longer hair indicate she indeed became the same normal girl she was before she met Eren. She misses Eren, it's normal, but a bird comes by and wraps a scarf around her, making her smile and look happy which gives just the right amount of sweetness to the story.

My only complaint about the story comes from Bias. Yeah, Isayama killed Hange for seemingly no reason, but i think the reason was simple: He needed to portray two characters who love each other letting go of each other, of their dream to remain together forever for the sake of the world and create a parallel between Ymir and the king and Mikasa and Eren. As i said earlier, Hange didn't do it for fame or recognition, she did it so humanity could keep surviving and so Levi could see the world without walls that he talked about in front of her in uprising.

I think no matter what happens, Levi will Never forget them as long as he lives just like Mikasa will never forget Eren.

So i guess that's it.. I sincerely am grateful to Isayama for not letting me down with his story, for creating amazing, relatable, Human characters, for sending me on a rolercoaster of emotions every month and it was so many emotions from depression, to thrill, to happiness, to anger... 🥲

I think just like the editor said i will reread the story from the beginning and with the ending in mind. It should give me a whole new perspective!

Oof this got long. If you are still here, thanks for reading.

[the-cartoon-princess]

Why I still ship RivaHisu after 139...

Yep, Levi and Historia. Crazy, right. I bet you never thought of the ship before either, but I've been in enough fandoms now to know anything is possible... Rule 34 and all that.  I always feel too scared to openly declare I like this ship (no, love it) even when I say I ship them once Historia reaches 18/19, but now that the manga has officially ended, I feel more comfortable expressing my love for it, and Tumblr seems a safe place. 

I feel the manga left so much open-ended, that anything is possible. So take all this with a pinch of salt...  I get some of the qualms with RivaHisu. He is much older (by 16 years at least), and she has the ship and history with Ymir (YumiKuri) However… bear in mind Ymir was even older than Levi after being a titan for 60 years, so Historia has dated someone much older than herself (if they did date, that is). I suppose Ymir was still mentally and physically a teen in some way, but the age gap still applies.  The one qualm I do understand the most: They had no chemistry and barely interact on screen. Yes, on screen... So much was going on behind the scenes, as I said, anything was possible. It’s all up to interpretation and honestly, I don’t think Yams will ever clear anything up, and in a way, I don’t want him to (though still pining for Hooded person to be Levi). He has given us this amazing gift. You see it with other fandoms such as Harry Potter, people theorize for years to come. An open-ended ending was the best of all in my opinion.  Well, back to that Levi and Hisu never interacting and having no chemistry thing... Well, they did interact for a short time during Uprising. I always thought the reason the anime removed some of Levi’s more violent scenes towards Historia was a sign of the ship becoming canon possibly one day (in about a one in a million chance, but still possible). They also removed the part where he suggested to his soldiers about turning Historia into a titan after she gives birth, but then it turned out nothing came of the ship, and all of my friends marvellous theories concerning the two never came to fruition after all... Or did they? The ending has been left opened-ended... We even have a brand new time skip where Historia is even older, a full grown woman now at 22 who no longer has ‘teen’ at the end of her age. And then we have a full grown man in his late 30s, two grown people who are only a decade apart (twenties and thirties, respectfully), but we also have no true reveal of the father of Historia’s baby... not really. Farmer-Kun never even had a real name at the end (he will always be known as that farmer who knocked up Historia...allegedly).    People will argue about the real father for years to come, so that is to be expected, but I am going to add a few of my own points as to why Levi may still be the father. Call me crazy. Everything is up to debate and some of this is reaching, but I am biased, so I do admit...  Think of me as serious but not too serious... I don’t mind if you don’t care for this ship, but do so in a polite way (please) if possible.   Reason 1. Historia couldn’t openly declare that Levi was the father because the new fascist Jaergerist government would potentially consider her hostile and create a new revolution, doing away with the monarchy all together... They could have even killed her and her baby if they knew she had a traitor’s child, a man who had a hand in killing Eren Jaeger... Reason 2. It looked to me as if Historia was still sending the Alliance letters, and was very willing to negotiate peace talks with them. Who is to say she never kept in touch with Levi either. She could have sent coded letters about their child, about her learning her first words, taking her first steps, etc. (don’t make me cry now).  Reason 3. This is reaching a little now. Honestly, all of this is reaching, but hear me out... Since Levi can’t be on Paradis to help raise his daughter with Historia, that for me, personally, amplifies the angst and the romance between them and just leaves so much room for the imagination. Imagine what it will be like when they do reunite again... Fireworks! Yams was never about writing straightforward, easy romances... His HEAs are bittersweet at most (look at EreMika).  Reason 4. Who was Historia married to when Jean mentioned it to the creep Reiner? Farmer-Kun? It never directly says... I know Levi and Historia couldn’t have married after the Battle of Heaven and Earth because of all the points I made above, but maybe they got married in secret before the Scouts departed to Marely in chapter 123... Reaching for the stars again, I know, but I like to let my mind wander... Hisu may have even mentioned she is married in a letter to Armin, but never specified who she was married to, and that was how the Alliance (sans Levi) knew about it on the boat. She may have also performed a sham wedding to the farmer for the benefit of the people of Paradis to keep up the ruse (honestly feeling bad for Farmer-Kun, being used like this 😂).  Reason 5. It looked to me like Levi was returning to Paradis. That was why he was looking at the plane (and not just because it made him think of Hange). He was looking forward to returning to the island he helped protect for many years, the island where he was born… Maybe he was hoping to finally meet his daughter too. There is way more to discuss. My friends are much better at theorizing at this stuff than I am, but it’s fun to finally get my own voice out here. I was leading up to it by posting parallels between them, but I wanted to wait until the manga was over until I went public with my love of the ship. I mean, I write fanfic for them, but that’s not enough... 

Remember, I ship two consenting adults. Many celeb couples have large age gaps too. Beyoncé & Jay-Z (12 year age difference, for example), and Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriend Camila Morrone was born the same year when Leo starred in Titanic back in 1997 (22 year age gap). Age gaps happen… It’s really all up to debate, but these are just little RivaHisu headcanons that I am going to hold on to for a while. It may only exist in fanfiction, but I will still take it. Also, here is a meme I made. Please feel free to use (if you like the ship too that is).  Thank you for reading my dissertation...  

[shreddedleopard]

Historia: An Observation

I’ve seen our girl’s character getting called into question since the chapter release, and I’ve seen her called many terrible things on all social media. I, too, was ready to condemn her, until I read the official translation, and then I realised something.

Say what you will about Historia and her supposed position as ‘the head of a fascist regime,’ but let’s be clear here: without her, the Alliance and their peace talks with Paradis would absolutely be doomed to failure.

Historia has to be in the position she’s in for the talks to stand a decent chance of success. Because whatever she is, she will always be an ally and friend to Armin and the others.

Weren’t we all saying a few chapters back how screwed everyone was even if they managed to stop/kill Eren? Because Paradis had been seized by the Jaegerist movement, and the Alliance’s goal was to destroy their symbol of hope in Eren. They were hardly going to be welcomed with open arms.

The situation on Paradis was and by the looks of things still is highly volatile. Jean and Connie’s families have had to be put under protection by the Queen. The very best hope for the Alliance would be to have another ally on the inside, in a position of power, who could calm the situation on Paradis in the direct aftermath, while still keeping the support of the people. We know that a large number of people on the island were behind the Jaegerist movement. If Historia had tried to oppose them immediately, she would have undoubtedly been overthrown and removed from her position by revolution. She had to find a way to keep that seat of power so that she could help her friends on their return, and engage in peace talks while still keeping the population of her island appeased. Big demands for a barely 20 year old.

Not to mention, on top of all this, she’s a young mother. What a scary situation to be in, and what heavy responsibilities to have on one’s shoulders.

Speaking of heavy burdens, it does seem like she has one ally back on the island with her: Mikasa. She is Historia’s ‘perfect match’ - a friend and confidante to help support her through her difficult duty in the aftermath of Eren’s actions.

I wonder if Eren realised it.

As for that conversation in 130, and why Historia didn’t inform anyone ... there are two options I can see: she had her memories altered by future Eren, like Armin and the others, and these were returned to her upon Eren’s death.

OR

She really did decide to keep quiet for the sake of her island and the belief that this was the only way forward. If she was already pregnant by this point, and Eren presented her with a scenario that would rid the world of the Titan powers for good, and stop her child from ever having to inherit a Titan and repeat the cycle, well then ... it’s absolutely a damning decision morally, and not one I would ever, ever wish to face as a mother myself. But it’s not a reach to think that she might go along with it to protect her child and her people, with the vision of a future, peaceful society in mind.

Here is where I understand a lot of Erehisu shipper’s comparisons, now. Like Eren, Historia is not supposed to be seen as a morally ‘good’ character. She is very much in the grey. She says so herself, back in Uprising:

Ymir made Historia promise to ‘live for herself.’ Eren reminds her of this, by calling back to this moment with his words to her in 130. Is it completely OOC for Historia to prioritise her own and her child’s survival? The survival of all the Orphans she’s gathered and protected up to this point? I’m not saying I agree with or want to excuse her decision, but it certainly would add up. It seems she’s not the innocent, pure hearted girl once thought. Yet that just makes her all the more real and flawed and interesting.

In her final panel in 139, she very much reminds me of Erwin. And she’s going to have to channel him for these peace talks, considering she has a very delicate balance to strike in order to achieve a favourable situation for all.

“This fight will not end until either Eldia or the world disappears. That is what Eren said, and he may be right. Even so, he chose to leave this world in our hands.”

Even though Eren might be right, Historia is still prepared to give it her all with Armin and the others in the search to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. It’s not going to happen over night. But these simple words give us an indication of her intentions, and they seem to line up with the Allince’s.

Actually, I have a shit ton of respect for her. Sure, she’s not a good girl. But I don’t think a good girl is who Armin needs on his side now, at the head of the volatile Paradis island. He needs someone with grit, influence and an ability to read the situation and act accordingly for their ultimate goal. We know she’ll deliver on these.

Historia is as vital for the vision of world peace as Armin and the rest of the Alliance.

[blakelywintersfield]

As a victim of gun violence myself, I will be keeping my guns, thanks. Fear mongering? Maybe a little bit the fact is politicians absolutely “hell yes I want to take your AR15, your AK47”. They’ve said it often and loudly that they would like you to be disarmed. If you feel no one in your home is mentally stable enough for a gun, great, but you have zero right to tell others they should do the same.

1. If you're a victim of gun violence then the NRA gives absolutely NO fucks about you. You're not a victim of gun violence in their eyes, you're a victim of a criminal who happened to have a gun. Calling it "gun violence" is liberal propaganda to blame the gun, instead of the person. The gun didn't create the violence, the person did. That's their shitbrained logic and that's how they would respond to you if you told them (without disclosing if you're a gun owner or not) "I was a victim of gun violence." Because just like your dumb ass, they're not responsible gun owners, they're reactionary gun owners, and if you're reactionary as opposed to rational, you shouldn't have dangerous weapons, and your "you can't tell me what to do" 5-year-old attitude towards that would not hold up in a myriad of other scenarios. By your logic, suspending the driver's license of an elderly individual with dementia is unconstitutional. Not allowing someone with chronic seizures to drive is unconstitutional. Not allowing people to sell food without meeting safety and sanitation standards is unconstitutional. "You can't tell me what to do 'cause muh freedumb" isn't a fucking part of the constitution, you're just a chronic nationalist boot deep-throater whose mommy told him that the world owed him everything.

2. Where did I say guns should be taken away from you, or anyone else in my tags. Where? Here, I'll post the fucking screenshot of it and you can highlight it:

Please show me where I said "people should have their guns taken away" you reactionary cowardly fuck. I'll wait.

3. Politicians stating "no one needs a stockpile of AK47s" is not synonymous with "we want to take your guns". Gun buy-back programs that are VOLUNTARY are not the same as threatening to "take your guns". What benefit would you, as one person, gain from owning 5 semi-automatic weapons in the argument of "self-defense"? Are you going to wield one in each hand, one with each foot, and one with the mouth you can't seem to fucking shut? Do you think any of these weapons would protect you against government militia (which is what the second amendment is FOR, for one, and which the NRA does NOT condone if it's conservative sanctioned militia takeover) breaking into your property with a force of 10 people in bulletproof gear and military-grade weapons that could probably blow your fucking empty head off your body in one shot? Or do you like owning all of these shiny scary-looking toys for intimidation, thinking it'll protect you from future violence, like a fucking Halloween house made to scare away children? If that's your reasoning, then you definitely need therapy because that's textbook maladaptive coping with trauma -- I'd know because I have my own array of self-defense weapons that I got in response to my traumatic event, including a knife that could fatally gut an adult man with one stab. That's not a reasonable response to trauma!! But at least I can admit it! Your pisswad ass on the other hand can't, and views anyone saying "the NRA is a shit organization that doesn't support responsible gun ownership or the responsibility of gun owners and their actions, and is essentially a domestic terrorist grooming organization" as an attack on you as an individual, because you can't stomach the idea that maybe, just fucking maybe, you may be on that list of people who shouldn't have a gun because you're too mentally fucked up to be trusted with something like that, like people who are chronically suicidal (in other words, the MAJORITY OF GUN RELATED DEATHS), people with psychotic tendencies that can lead to hurting themselves or others (not because people with psychosis are "scary evil people", but because those moments of psychosis literally keep a person from making rational observations and decisions, and these individuals are already advised to have possible harmful tools locked up or just not in the house for their own safety), people like incels that believe if their entitlement is denied that they have the right to murder, etc. Honestly, you do sound like someone who shouldn't have guns, because your unstable ass probably read up to the second tag and skimmed the rest in a blind rage before sending an ask two days after I made that post, and seemed to conveniently miss the end:

What's your reasoning for the NRA keeping silent about responsible black gun owners being gunned down by police because the cops know they're legally registered gun owners (Jason Washington, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, whom the NRA defended being murdered by police while pulled over for a traffic violation, in his car with his wife and CHILD, and verbally informed the cop like a responsible gun owner that he had a conceal and carry permit, and was reaching for his wallet in plain view of his family and the fucking pig)? What's your reasoning behind them callously dismissing police violence against black people who are unarmed or have a history of supporting gun control (Botham Jean, Clementa Pinckney, fucking JAMES SHAW JR., WHO STOPPED A MASS SHOOTING WHILE UNARMED HIMSELF), as though that makes it their fault they were murdered, injured, or otherwise victimized? What's your reasoning behind them only piping up about "muh guns" whenever politicians say "there's a gun problem" after the 29th public shooting that month, but not tackling the issue of gun control disproportionately impacting people of color while letting crazy little white kids run loose with a multitude of firearms? What's your reasoning behind them siding with idiot fascist Trump's temper tantrum over the NFL's protests on police violence -- something they, once again, consistently respond to with "they should've been armed" if the black person wasn't, and give complete fucking radio static to if the black person was armed (even if legally armed)? They're so against gun control, but never seem to care when it affects black and brown people -- only when Jack Incelson, age 16, who posts on 4chan about how he wants to cut women's heads off and fuck their dead bodies, is at risk of not being allowed to keep his AR15. If people of color are killed while armed, it's justified because "they had a gun"; if people of color are killed while unarmed, it's their fault because "they should've had a gun" -- this is something the NRA is notorious for, because they don't give a flying fuck about people who should have the right to arm themselves.

4. On that point: I fully support the Socialist Rifle Association, even as someone who does not want to own guns -- because, as stated in the post you're shitting your diaper over -- I support organizations that vouch for responsible gun owners. The SRA holds irresponsible gun owners accountable. They actually support people's right to bear arms to defend themselves against tyrannical government forces. They are active in disaster aid, in environmental defense, in protecting people of color. I do not like guns but I 100% support the SRA, because they fight for people who do need to arm themselves to have that right, and I support that sentiment. I believe people of color should be able to arm themselves. I believe queer people should be able to arm themselves. I believe poor people should be able to arm themselves. But the NRA doesn't actively fight for any of those groups' rights -- the SRA does.

But you know what the SRA doesn't do? Send out unsolicited letters begging lower-middle-class white people for money so they can "fight the gun-hating liberals" from "taking away our guns n freedumb" and offering "i <3 guns" bumper stickers and shit in return. They don't view any political party as their friend because they know that Republicans and Democrats alike do not actually want you to be able to defend yourself against the government. They don't send fear-mongering letters full of hyperbolic bullshit to scare people into thinking that Biden or Obama or whatever Democrat is in the office is going to break into your house with police, beat your wife and children, and steal your guns while cackling maniacally over you as you sob "why mister president? why would you do this to your loyal and patriotic citizens?" The SRA opposes gun control laws that unfairly target demographics that are at the highest risk of police violence. The NRA does not, and, in fact, has a very heavily documented history of siding with conservatism, including making statements about things that don't even involve guns -- stating that American men are being turned into "second-rate women", outcried banning anti-queer discrimination and compared the ban to slavery, made a call to imprison people protesting against Trump's Cabinet picks, called the Women's March anti-American. These are all recent you shithead, so you must be purposely ignoring all of this to feel justified in defending this domestic terrorist organization, or you're probably a self-victimizing white man who can't handle being told no. Or maybe both. I don't know and I don't fucking care.

Don't fucking message me again. Unfollow me if you were previously following me and haven't already. Get some fucking therapy instead of crawling through strangers' blogs trying to find a reason to justify your irrational anger at them. And while you're at it, do me a huge favor, you cowardly fucking cunt: go to your nearest sex shop, buy 5 gallons of lube, pour them over your guns, and shove each and every one of them, fully loaded, up your ass. That way you can keep a close eye on them since your head is obviously already lodged up there.

Alternatively, you can eat shit and die.

[harostar]

How do you think of how AoT handles Anti Semitism, X Men fallacy aside. I've heard of how the reason the Eldians are so Hated was a result of reprehensible things there ancestors had done, and there religon with Ymir was sort of based on a Lie.

That would seem problematic at first glance, But I did want to learn more from someone who actually knew the series. Especially as I do know the situation in real life has complexities regarding Cycles of hate

You know, I had kind of set this Ask aside and been unsure about answering it. But I think I will give it a poke, as best as I can as someone that is one-degrees of separation from Jewish folks. So obvious disclaimer that I am approaching things from an outsider’s perspective.

The series stumbled heavily in choosing to so closely use allegories related to Nazi Germany and the Jewish people. I think a large percentage of the problem is because the Holocaust has become short-hand in public consciousness for Genocide and atrocities. Those images are scorched into the world-wide mind, and unfortunately touching on it as an allegory or using it as the basis for fictional discrimination is a very, very, very messy and difficult thing. ESPECIALLY when the creator(s) involved are not Jewish, and don’t understand the deeper aspects of Antisemitism that have been weaved into Western culture for centuries. 

Isayama borrowed from European history, used a historical atrocity to create a comparison in his work. He.......made many mistakes in doing so, because it’s a messy thing to do even when you ARE familiar with how much that hatred is woven into a lot of European imagery, stories, and beliefs. A Japanese audience is probably not going to pick up on those elements, the way a Western reader might for better or worse. 

I think that decision has muddled and tainted a lot of discussion around the series. Some people outright call it “Nazi Propaganda” and refuse to associate with people that read the series. I would argue that we are the audience have a lot of digest and discussion in terms of how the “Eldian Allegory” plays in comparison to the other themes of the work. 

Because the series would have worked MUCH BETTER had he not made the decision to base his fictional ethnic group on a real one. It was a mistake that casts doubt on a work that focuses so much on themes so opposed to a “Nazi” or “Fascist” ideology.

The atrocities of the Eldian Empire simply being exaggerations and demonizing, not matching a simple history of neighboring groups/nations fighting each other for resources and land. The idea of Ymir as a Goddess or a witch that made a deal with the Devil both being false versions of what was simply....a girl. An ordinary girl that stumbled across something Otherworldly, and gained a power that was exploited. 

The history of the series is simply about one group gaining an advantage over their neighbors. The Titans served as numerous metaphors throughout the series:

Dehumanization, especially in times of war

Gunpowder 

Chemical weapons

Nuclear weapons

The largest theme that emerges particularly in the final arcs of the story are explicitly Anti-War, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Militarism, and Pro-Humanitarian.

Hatred and Bigotry are learned, they are things that people actively have to teach their children. The most powerful counter to Hatred is simply meeting other people. Our shared humanity proves that we are more similar than we are different. 

(This is beautifully illustrated in a flashback, in which the Survey Corps are infiltrating Marley. They end up meeting a group of foreign refugees, who welcome them into their camp for helping a child. Though the two groups do not speak the same language, they are able to understand each other enough to share in a communal meal and then party the night away. Even when we come from vastly different cultures and don’t speak the same language, we can find common ground. There is a simple joy in how people are people are people, no matter what differences we might have.)

In terms of the problematic elements, I would argue that Isayama did not intend anything Antisemitism about his work. In particular, he frames the allegorical Eldians as sympathetic with most of the cast coming from this group. The story centers on their plight and spends the most time in humanizing them. Ignorance rather than Malice. It taints the work, but also clashes with the major themes of the story. 

Indeed, our common humanity is such an important theme. Hatred and Revenge are empty, only leading to further tragedy. Eren represents those emotions and urges taken to the extreme, and that is ultimately why he becomes the Final Villain of the series. Because he allows hatred to consume him, and loses hope in the world. He can only see “Us vs Them”, and cannot see a path forward that does not involve Genocide. It’s a tragedy that warns us about letting anger consume us, and the dangers of surrendering ourselves to Violence being unavoidable. Eren can see the Future, and therefore he is trapped with the belief that there are no other paths forward. That he must follow in the footsteps of his future self, no matter what. 

It’s an ugly, tragic turn that transforms the series protagonist into a Monster. Into a world-ending monster that his loved ones must now deal with, because they have learned the lessons he did not.

The thing that separates the heroes in this story is Hope, but also a willingness to recognize the futility of revenge and hatred. As the final arcs progress, they are increasingly confronted with the option to look away from atrocities or to take revenge on people. Increasingly, they choose to take a different path.

The story of Sasha and Gabi is central in this particular theme. Sasha kills soldiers that Gabi knew, and attacked her home. But she cannot bring herself to shoot a child, even one that is clearly an enemy. Gabi is a child indoctrinated into Nationalistic, bigoted views. She kills Sasha as an enemy, but then finds her world turned on its head when she accidentally meets Sasha’s family. She’s forced to confront the reality that there are no Monsters and Devils, just ordinary people just like her that have suffered tragedies because of war. 

When given the opportunity for revenge, Sasha’s father refuses. He gives the “Forest” speech, comparing his daughter’s decision to become a soldier in war to letting her go alone into the forest. He accepts her decision and the tragic outcome, but also HIS responsibility as an adult to not pass burdens of Hatred and Revenge on to the next generation. He will not punish Gabi for being a child caught up in war. 

And this becomes an important moment for Gabi and for everyone else. She is not FORGIVEN for her crime, but these people make the conscious choice to spare her. Mikasa shields her from harm, Jean regrets hurting her in anger, they all make the choice to treat Gabi as a CHILD and not a soldier. To recognize their responsibility in doing better than the adults responsible for them. They were Child Soldiers, but they make the choice that the next generation SHOULD NOT be soldiers. 

The series deals heavily in Trauma, especially the ways that War destroys people. The physical, mental, and emotional cost to people are heavily on display throughout the series. The cast have suffered emotional and mental injuries that will never heal, and they struggle with wanting a better world for the next generation.

Children are another big theme. We have the cast start out as children, becoming Child Soldiers, and eventually reaching Adulthood. As they become the adults, we have a new generation introduced in Gabi, Falco, Udo, Sofia, and Kaya. The series gets a little heavy-handed with how Children are the Future, and people have a responsibility to not burden them. To not force their sins upon the children, to not teach them hatred or revenge, to not use them as tools. 

Zeke’s storyline contrasts with Eren’s in that each brother has reached a different conclusion about the central problem. 

Zeke wants to snuff out their own future, preventing more Eldians from being born. Their lives are suffering, so the kindest thing that can be done is to kill them or prevent them from being born. Life is meaningless, because living means suffering. 

Eren takes his hatred to its most extreme, deciding that to protect his “In Group” (the Island of Paradis) that he will destroy everything else. He has taken Dehumanization and Us vs Them mentality to its greatest extreme. He sees no future where people can do better. He refuses to even let them try. He has no hope, he sees only ugliness in the world.

In contrast, we have what has become the alliance. The surviving members of the Survey Corps, the surviving members of the Warriors, and an assortment of people from other nations. A motley group of people of different backgrounds, races and political alliances that are all brought together by a singular belief that the world is worth saving. That it shouldn’t be a Zero Sum game.

That the world is very cruel, but also very beautiful.

Hatred, cruelty, selfishness, greed, militarism, nationalism, imperialism, racism, and bigotry have led the world towards possible destruction. The Rumbling as a metaphor for Nuclear War, humanity destroying itself because it cannot look for a path besides violence.

The pure Destructive urge that is Eren, contrasted against the other two parts of that Golden Trio. 

Mikasa, the girl that was saved by a single act of kindness. The strongest of all, but also so very kind. A girl that has seen the ugliness of the world, but also the goodness in it. 

Armin, the boy with a dream. The intellectual that once asked if it was necessary to abandon your humanity to win, but has realized that our shared humanity is more important. The one filled with hope, even in the darkest moments.

And of course into this, we have Falco Grice. The boy that embodies the central themes of the story: a child soldier that has seen the worst of humanity, and has decided the best way to fight is by being Kind. 

[jaffacakerebellion]

I posted this on Saturday but I really need people to hear this

There was a protest in my city today, by a group called ‘white rose’. They were protesting lockdowns, masks and vaccinations. They’d stuck up stickers all over a certain area, outside a library, near a university campus, and around a park. It scared the shit out of me, seeing the people in town, with about 10 police officers keeping the 25-50 protesters in a tiny (and incovenient tbh) space, not too far from where they’d put up the stickers. As I was walking home, I found some of the stickers, and tore down as many as I could see.

Some of the stickers were obviously theirs- meme templates from reddit, claiming the government was lying about the pandemic to stop people from ‘living their lives’, saying ‘the media is the real virus’ and ‘if you tell a lie enough times it becomes the truth’ and all sorts of shit. Some other stickers were much more inconspicuous- little round ones with a pair of hands tenderly holding a blue dove. Around the edge they said ‘I do not consent to another lockdown’ and ‘I do not consent to get vaccinated’. This was very similar to some of the banners they were holding, and some were wearing ‘FREE HUGS’ t-shirts.

The one sticker which stuck out to me most is one which said something like ‘how do you think the German people felt when the Nazis were taking over, with no power to stop them?’ This is the same rationale the Nazi Party used at the time to gain ‘support’- convince people there is no other way, that their system is the strongest, the right system, how will you disprove us? They scared people into their system, turning vulnerable people into fascists. The White Rose is employing Neo-Nazi thinking. To be honest, it was fucking terrifying.

After they were presumably done, they started coming back to the park where they’d already posted plenty of stickers. It’s a hot Saturday afternoon, so lots of people are in the park, families, children, and I’m busy ripping these stickers (most of them about half the size of a bumper sticker) off bins and signposts. Now, at this point I’ve already been confronted by:

- a woman with red hair (dyed red) in a black suit. She asks me what I’m doing. I tell her that some people have been spreading misinformation, and she recalls the demo in town. She agrees ‘yeah, that did look kinda like misinformation. huh. well, cool, okay’. She may just be bad at interacting with people, but there was something pointed, and I don’t think that she could pluck up the courage to tell me to look them up and find out jus how wrong I am. She didn’t look much like the other supporters.

- a woman in a ‘FREE HUGS’ t-shirt. When she asked me ‘why are you taking those down’, I already had a headache and didn’t fancy an argument, so I said ‘they’re the wrong ones.’ She couldn’t hear me, because so many people were walking past. She yelled ‘what?!’ so I repeated ‘THEY’RE THE WRONG ONES’, nodded affirmatively, and walked in the opposite direction. This, of course, was nonsense, but it left her looking incredibly fucking confused, and she eventually just walked away, which I was thoroughly delighted about, as I wanted to return and take more stickers down. I later realised that the men walking past and making so much noise was probably most of the others at the protest, like 25 men and me and her in an underpass. If they’d have seen me taking the stickers down, who knows what would’ve happened. (yes I know I made some bad decisions today and it would’ve been my fault but fuck it, when a dog shits on the pavement someone’s got to clean it up)

-Two bald middle aged white men, both holding pints. One of them yelled ‘what are you taking them down for? Read what’s on them, you might actually learn something!’ I just said nothing and stared at him as he walked away, whilst continuing to crumple one up, which I’d just taken off a railling.

- Some old Scottish guy and his family. I pretended to be taking them down bc the QR codes didn’t work and the sticker had to be replaced. He asked me why I had a mask on, I lied and said my mum wouldn’t let me out of the house without it and took it off. He told me what to go and tell my mum, whilst standing way too close, with his family gathered around him (like 6 people in total, including 2 kids). He was the reason I took a COVID test when I got home, alongside the blaring headache.

-Another family, this time the patriarch was a skinhead in a black polo shirt and jeans, same height as me (kinda short). Just like the others I was confronted by, his regional accent was very strong. Again, I said the QR code didn’t work. I started to walk away this time, kinda scared, and all his family walked up into the park, but he left his teenage daughter behind for a bit to make sure I didn’t come back (how brave). I came back anyway, but they wanted to go into the park and have fun.

But the last pair is what got me. One of them claimed to have done a biomedical science degree at the local university back in 2005. He was the only non-white person involved, and the only one who had anything scientifically based to say. However, the more I asked him about the degree he said he had, the more he started backing physically away from the conversation, claiming he had to go. The discussion I had with him lasted maybe 20 minutes, during which he confessed a belief that big pharma was dishonest and covered up heinous activity, which I agreed was absolutely right, but these ideas came to the total wrong conclusion.

I’m not explaining this very well anymore, it’s late and I’ve still got a headache, but his strong short white skinhead friend kept walking away then coming back, even at one point claiming that he was going to go and get someone. When I asked the first if he agreed with the non-scientific way the first man’s ‘friends’ were talking, and the fact that he is coming at this argument from such a different angle, he just changed the subject. It was around that time that I noticed that he wasn’t blinking, and that he was wearing a ‘Guardians 300′ t-shirt. I’ve since looked them up. They’re a cult. Nobody’s talking about it. He tried explaining the science to me, and I said that I don’t know enough about science to understand what he was saying, but tried to change the subject away from science- it just clearly wasn’t about that for any of the protesters except him.

Anyway, after he was done talking to me and claimed he had to go (right after I claimed to know a few lecturers in the university (I don’t but it was worth a try to see if he was bluffing) and started questioning him on who he knew), I turned around and just kept on taking off those fucking stupid stickers, including two which the skinhead had stuck on while we were chatting. They saw me doing this. I wanted them to see it, but now I’m not so sure. It was a dangerous move.

When people feel certain of something, you have to listen to them to let them air their uncertainties and change their mind. They were aware of this. I was aware of this. Neither of us listened much to each other. I was, to be honest, freaking out all the way home. What the fuck? I’d only seen people say this online, usually Americans, I’d heard about them on the news too. Suddenly I was getting looks from strangers, whilst taking down these stickers, and honestly had no idea who was who, or what they thought of me. And anyway, I’m trans, and have the fear of being looked at funny for that compounded with the fear of what a member of this group could do, it was terrifying.

I think there are very few things which stand between a person coming to a logical conclusion about what’s going on and a less logical conclusion and getting sucked into dangerous territory, although in this day and age there aren’t many logical things left. I’ve experienced the Dunning-Kruger effect at school, but some may never have experienced that, to feel like their understanding of something can only ever go so far.  I’m alright with saying ‘I don’t know’ and admitting that I’m not an expert, but I feel like all these people feel like they do have to know everything, and their genuine, valid fears have turned them to these crazy ideas because they’re nicer than the truth. I got told by a lot of people to ‘do your research’, but I didn’t say that to them, because they may well do their own research, but not necessarily using reputable sources. 

This is how Fascism works. If I had the same beliefs as them, I know I’d probably be doing the exact same things- trying to spread awareness. They genuinely think that they’re making a positive difference when they ‘change people’s minds’. Either that or those stickers were put up to get ripped down, to show their followers that ‘everyone is out to get you’. I was definitely scared most, however, by how close we all are in this day and age, to being them. I’ve attended protests, argued online, sent people links, spread my views. Most of my friends and I share the same views, we share each others’ information, when something’s wrong we blame ‘them’, or ‘the government’. These radicalised people were people I’d probably passed in the street before, who I’ve bought bread next to or admired their dog in the park. I met the next Nazis today, and they looked just like everyone else.

[misskittysmagicportal]

Tupelo Honey

Word Count: 1082

Film: Moonwalkers

Warnings: Swearing and minor drug use, sexual references

a/n: None of us know anything about the affable, simple-minded, downright hysterical stoner Leon from Moonwalkers. It's fun to have a tabula rasa with such a great character.

Chapter One: Kult of Dionysus

Leon wasn't always a junkie. Until he started orbiting inside Renatis’s gravitational pull, he was a rather promising young actor. There's always that centuries old cliche of doing what you can to get ahead. An upper to get you through. Downers to finally sleep after rehearsals and auditions and shifts at the day job. Sleep with someone’s wife, never the daughter. But a foreign film, even if it sounds a bit dubious, would definitely benefit someone trying to leap from the stage to the screen.

Honey wasn’t always called Honey, but she was destined to be a radical. She, her siblings and parents were smuggled out of Florence before Mussolini was taken out. Papa was on Gestapo radar for anti-fascist teachings. So owning an underground comedy club in Manhattan made sense. Lenny Bruce was Honey’s godfather, and she knew Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsburg before she knew Cinderella and Snow White. It was Uncle Lenny who told her she needed to be a bit more bitter and not so sweet. Honey caught the flies. That sweetness is how she ended up on the run. Now strapped for cash, Honey figured a bit part in some weird foreign film would get her to India.

The young man and woman stood only feet apart in the parlor of the most insane manor either of them had seen. Like someone ruined Marie Antoinette's summer home with a psychedelic woman begging you to crawl inside her vagina. Which they did to reach a fat, Dionysian Frenchman laid across a chaise lounge. Flanked by nude women and men and a cloud of sweet smelling opium.

“Oh look at what Hermes has for us children! Johnny you ginger haired messenger of the Gods, who have you brought me?!” He slid in and out of French as he labored to get up. Yet seemingly floated on air towards the trio.

Honey stood apart from two Englishmen. One flaming red hair and short, broad shouldered and decked out in a checkered green and yellow suit. A silver chain around his neck. Fidgeting, he swiped at his nose a few times while a cigarette burned low in a free hand. Johnny, Honey heard, was an entertainment manager from London.

The other was much taller than his companion. His body willowy under a large peasant shirt and bell bottom jeans. A mass of dark, messy curls framed his expressive bushy eyebrows. Meadow green eyes wide with shock as the director caressed his angular jaw affectionately. Honey couldn't quite place him, but somewhere in her brain it tried to reconcile that she knew him. He was, in her eyes, breathtakingly beautiful.

“Oh yes, my little pixie, you will do so well. Don't be afraid of Renatis! Come how old are you?”

“23?" he stuttered.

“You don't know?” Renatis walked around him slowly. From behind, his hands moved over shoulders and over the clavicle peeking out through the shirt. Then he slapped the actor roughly on the ass and attempted to reach around the front.

"RENATIS!” Johnny interjected. “How about we don't molest the fucking talent?!” He had the fat man by the thick of his wrist. “You told Derick attractive and eager to work. Leon here is all of those things.”

"Thank you, Johnny” his gratuity coming out similar to a whine.

His accent forced Honey to bite her knuckle to stifle a gigglewhich she choked on as a snort. No one had turned Eliza Doolittle into a lady yet with that voice. Leon turned his nervous gaze on her; she blushed immediately.

With a wave of his hand, Renatis swatted at Johnny as if he were a fly. Then, clapping his hands, a toppless woman wearing the bottom half of a lion costume appeared. A tray with several pipes and bottles in her hand.

“Tell me Leon, do you need to relax? How would you like to chase the dragon before we get down to business? Maybe the green fairy?” He shoved opium pipe in Leon's mouth and lit it. “Suck hard pixie.”

All Leon could do was comply with a large inhale. Johnny rubbed his palm furiously into his forehead before downing all of the shots of absinthe.

This time Honey laughed so loud it echoed off the walls. She had gone largely ignored once Renatis had discovered his handsome muse. Her black hair was braided in a nest on top of her head and woven with bits of lavender. Her tanned legs bare under a red plaid romper. And she quickly realized what kind of film they were going to make the moment the Frenchman started filling Leon with drugs.

“And what of this succubi, Johnny?” Now he turned his sights on the young woman. Tugging gently on her braid before attempting to cop a feel of her breast.

Honey’s turned to grab a wrist, but this time she twisted it slightly. “Don't fucking touch me. I'll get high but not on that shit.” She gestured at the opium pipe. “I'm not with them. I'm here for the cash. I don't do threesomes, anal or animals.”

Leon choked on the pipe, “ANAL?! Johnny you didn't say anything about sex.”

“What the fuck kind of movie did you think was being made here?”

“Derrick told me it was avante garde like that Jean Goddard guy”

“It's a porno, Leon” Honey informed. “I'm Honey Comb, and shockingly this is my first dirty film. Mostly I've had to do some.. favors and pictures.”

Leon turned to leave but Johnny caught his shoulders. That didn't seem to stop him as the opium took over and his body sort of walked in place. Totally unaware he was not actually moving as Johnny held him back.

“Leon! We are already fucking here. Now do heroin. Snort coke. Get high or trip balls. You’re gonna fuck that chick so my cousin knows I can do this job. You don't do this, I don't get paid. And you are stuck as a choirboy on the West End forever.”

“I'm not a slag, Johnny. I don't think I can make my willy work after smoking that dope.” That whining sound again.

“SWEET CHARITY!” Honey snapped her fingers. “I SAW YOU IN SWEET CHARITY! See, you know all about whoring yourself out.” She broke out in more laughter.

Johnny's eyes pleaded with Leon whose mouth hung open in confusion. Soon his body folded in defeat and he sighed. Then looking over at Honey he smiled and waved, “I guess so then. But I've gotta sleep this off first ok?”