#<- which is funny because he wasn't even involved with the final fight with his abuser so what was the fucking point lol

[sorenlionheart]

when i look back at my t/oh hyperfixation i do find it a little surprising i kept up with the show past season 1, not to say the show is bad but it went in a different direction than what i expected for better or for worse

[tarre-was-right]

ROUND ONE: MATCH-UP FOUR

Remember, this is NOT about who would win in a fight. This is about who makes the best leader for Mandalore as a whole.

Explanation post

Seeding

Propaganda below the cut! You can submit more on this post and I will reblog it back to here!

BOBA FETT

Anon: Boba The Builder, can he do it? Boba The Builder, yes he can!

@spacetime1969: He grew up in the political game that is the criminal underworld and managed to out manuver all the other groups on Tatooine to take control of the planet. That's not something you can pull off without political and tactical skill.

Anon: Boba Fett Propaganda: - Boba Fett was explicitly raised by his father, past Mand'alor Jango Fett, to be the legacy of his own adopted buir, Mand'alor Jaster Mereel; while this training did seem to focus more on the bounty hunting and mercenary aspects of their work, it presumably included many lessons about working with people and negotiating, both of which would come in very handy - Boba is commonly held to be a classic example of a child who grew up in a cultural diaspora, feeling largely disconnected from his Mandalorian roots; given the climate on Mandalore after the Galactic Empire glassed it during the Rebellion Era, his experience is likely representative of many of the surviving Mandalorians, who likely also grew up away from their traditional homeworlds in the sector, possibly even in hiding as in the case of Din Djarin's Covert - speaking of Din Djarin, the strong respect between him and Fett would likely put Fett in good standing with those traditionalists, who would similarly respect Fett's connection to their people as the son of a Foundling, even if he wasn't raised the same way as them - in Legends, Fett's connection with Goran Beviin and his family really brought him more fully back into Mandalorian culture, and in a way that makes a good story to sell to reporters (and readers, breaking the fourth wall a bit there, lol) - finally, Boba DID become Mand'alor in Legends continuity, and one that seemingly enjoyed popular support!

Anon: You know what? Boba Fett was given a bad hand in life. He’s done some bad things. But you know what he’s shown? Drive. Commitment. Determination. Resilience. Willpower. And a shocking refusal to die when he’s gone up against bitches badder than himself. Thats more than some Mandalorian leaders can say for themselves. He keeps going. And it’d be funny. Here IS how Jaster can still win. - Also I think that he would be pretty chill. Cody prolly couldnt be. We’ve seen him rule a city, maybe questionably.. but he was hot doing it. Fennec would probably help him and she’s hot too. Din would prolly be good with it. Cody’s last experience ruling was being involved in the empire and witnessing a horrible execution after negotiating a surrender. He prolly wants nothing to do with it now. And good for him! Let!! Cody!!! Retire!!! This isn’t a popularity contest.

Anon: Boba Fett Propaganda: Boba Fett literally was the Mand’alor in legends, and he did a pretty fine job

COMMANDER CODY

Anon: Propaganda for Commander Cody: - Cody was a student of Alpha-17, who in turn had been personally trained by former Mand'alor Jango Fett, giving him a strong training lineage claim to the title - Cody's service as Marshall Commander in the GAR gave him a lot of the diplomatic, organizational, and military experience needed to govern a planet like Mandalore

@spacetime1969: This man has led more people at once than anyone on this list.

Anon: Cody should be Mand'alor because it would be unspeakably sexy

@cha0s-cat: Cody has experience with negotiating from accompanying Obi-Wan, he leads a massive amount of his brothers already. Can recognize when there is a need for negotiations vs a need for violence. This would balance out the majority of the two factions (pacifists/traditionalists) excluding the extremists on either end. And with the amount of chaos that he has to deal with when it comes to Obi-Wan and Anakin, this would probably be relaxing.

@skykind: - Has resisted facism and its attendant police/military state at great personal risk (Bad Batch 2.3), which is apparently necessary to successfully govern Mandalore so long as Death Watch is fully armed and also backed by someone more cunning than their usual leadership (Clone Wars 5.15). - Possesses exceptional leadership and organizational ability from his time as one of the highest-ranked Clone officers of the GAR. The Clone Wars and Bad Batch narratives furthermore present him as Obi-Wan’s peer, so he should be interpreted as equally skilled, wise, kind, and unhinged-in-battle as Obi-Wan. Jury’s out on the sarcasm. - Turns to diplomacy before fighting (Bad Batch 2.3). - Has caught a Jedi’s lightsaber mid-battle at least two times (Clone Wars 1.20 and Revenge of the Sith). This is a very useful skill to have as the prospective or current leader of people who keep chucking the darksaber about. - Has returned a lightsaber to a Jedi at least two times. This is a crucial skill to have as the prospective or current leader of people who should stop selecting said leader via darksaber acquisition.

[cdroloisms]

thinking about c!dream earlier on in the server just makes me sad man. like, c!dream has never been a perfect character. he's always been flawed, always been a bit of an asshole, always had control issues. but also he knew that. he tried to work on that. he and tommy were friends, despite being flawed people with their own issues that would bump into conflicts because of the ways that they differed. c!dream tried, god, he tried; he wasn't even on the server, when the drug van happened, and walked into a place with someone who was practically a stranger to him building a wall and calling for war and having turned half the people dream knew against him, apparently, for no reason that he could've known at the time, and he had looked straight at tommy and tubbo and asked if that was what they really wanted when wilbur told them that there was no such thing as dual citizenship. he tells tommy when he has to sell a disc for spirit's leather even though tommy had surrendered the discs to him at the end of the revolution because he knows it'll matter to him. he and tommy truce, multiple times, and c!dream gets tangled into conflicts that literally don't involve him repeatedly and gets targeted Because He's Dream repeatedly and he plays along with that trivia contest and he gives gifts to fundy and tommy after terrorizing them a little for fun and he plays along with the dreamon thing and he keeps getting pulled into fights that weren't his but tries to make them a little more fair when they get him involved. he fucks around with tommy and they have fun, they're friends, and when he and wilbur look like they're in danger dream is one of the first to find them and lend them real, practical, valuable aid. he calls himself "Big D" in that book and he tells the man that wrote him as a tyrant that he doesn't want to be a villain in the story anymore. he asks tommy if he's okay, and watches that kid's back when he walks alone and unarmed into manberg, and fights with him at the battle of the lake and all of that is thrown back in his face as being a lie. half the intial community structures that exist were built by him; the community house, the nether portal and hub, the prime path. during a time where every other piece of leverage got burned or killed (rip the casualties of the pet war), dream was kind of known for being one that could be fairly traded with, that would minimize permanent damage. the kills in the final control room were originally to strip lmanburg of their gear, which he had kept in a chest so it could be returned to them after the war.

like no c!dream isn't perfect at the beginning of the server. yes he's kind of a jerk sometimes, kind of an asshole sometimes, kind of neurotic most of the time. but god dammit like c!dream does try to mitigate the worst of his control issues, when they flare up early on; the initial disc war ends with tommy getting his discs back as well as a stack of diamonds, in exchange for a netherite chestplate. he's a flawed character and he's still someone pretty friendly on the whole to most of the server, he's also kind of just known for being a little weird. he gives gifts randomly. he fixed creeper holes, and houses, and went along with bits. like whatever im a c!drolo c!dream woobifier and i admit it lol but for as much evil as he ends up doing, pretty damn consistently early on, he's . friendly? kind? funny? helpful? their neighbor. their friend. c!dream isn't just some stranger that flew off the handle; he's someone they knew and lived with who had his actions taken in bad faith because the goddamn story said so and kept fucking trying anyway until he believed the lie too. like he was just a guy!! a guy they knew and lived with!!! like my god

[ratgrinders]

HIII i’m also a rat grinders fan in the “not interested in pretending they aren’t fucked up” but rather “interested in Why they are so fucked up” way 💥💥💥 i have Thoughts on how the shatterstar ritual affected the rat grinders in different ways and i wanted to know if u had any similar thoughts :3 - @teenagerebellion

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD ASK thank you for sending it!!!!!!!!

Ok so I AM gonna be working off the assumption that a rage crystal functions less like "mind control" and more so amplifying existing feelings to murderous extremes. Think Adaine in the mall fight when she's asked to picture "what would the world look like if all Adaine thought about was rage" and we see a destroyed Sylvaire from Adaine's search for her mother. We know that Adaine would never do that, but we see the underlying motivation is the same.

Off the bat we know Kipperlilly's ritual is different from the others since she chose to do it "willingly" and wasn't forced to choose via death (it's described as having no scar, unlike the others, so she may have not even had to die at all). That doesn't mean though that she wasn't infected with a rage that caused her to do things she never would've done normally, as I don't think Freshman Year Kipperlilly, whose biggest grievances were "I think Aguefort likes them more", would jump to coldblooded murder. I think the fact that Kipperlilly chose the shatterstar affects her mindset pretty greatly going in to rest of the year, because there's no easy way to differentiate between what's "her" and what's the rage star. She probably is constantly thinking things like "This is all me. I am in control of my own faculties. There was no coercion involved I'm just naturally a villain", partially because she doesn't want to admit that she, a mastermind, let herself get controlled like that. Essentially, the ritual itself was so seamless and the descent so gradual, I don't think even Kipperlilly has a strong sense anymore of who she is without rage.

Ruben we know canonically has a bit of amnesia after being revived, not even seeming to remember the entire year he was shatterstarred. Ruben basically has the opposite problem from Kipperlilly, where his change in identity post-shatterstar is so drastic that his sense of self is almost completely eroded, because "how could I have been motivated to become someone like that?". Ruben's not a naturally angry person, but still though, that WAS Ruben, the rage star just tapping in to Ruben's underlying desperate need for approval, emotionality, etc. and bringing it to the forefront. The rage star imbued Ruben with such an intense pain and rage that he felt he could only express it through his music. Post finale revival I think was Ruben just being in shock at how much he's changed, but I think the memories will come back to him and he'll have to reconcile these two Vastly Different versions of himself.

Ivy I believe was still kind of a mean girl before the shatter star, the shatter star just made it more likely for her to say it to people's faces rather than behind their backs. Honestly, I'm imagining her maybe as a young Sandra Lynn before, in the sense of both having this constant bemusement. Beyond that, though, I think Ivy may have been the most likely to take the rage star willingly as opposed to being killed for it (I actually think most of the Rat Grinders still could've been persuaded to take it willingly, but that's a post for another time). Ivy seems to have a lot of pent up rage and disdain for the world around her, and the shatter star only amplified that.

Oisin got buff after getting shatterstarred, which is a really funny canonical fact to think about lmao, because I'm just imagining him doing a bunch of angry push-ups or something. Anyways Oisin before the ritual I'm honestly imagining him to be the type to hang out with guys like Skrank and Shellford, aka those kind of nerdy unpopular guys who nonetheless are still kind of egotistical and little dicks sometimes. (This is actually why I think they were the ones playing pong at the party with Oisin, because they were actually kind of friends before.) Just like Ivy, the rage crystal just gave Oisin more of an excuse to externalize his rage at the world, but I think the main thing it did was just give Oisin a little more self-confidence because now he has all this power backing him up.

Mary Ann was EXACTLY the same before and after the ritual, it was actually a little disconcerting to Jace and Porter and they didn't know what to make of it. The main thing for Mary Ann, I think, is that she really doesn't have much of an emotional stake in the rage ritual, or the beef with the bad kids, or anything like that. She's just Entirely Indifferent to whatever atrocities are being committed, which is just a different type of fucked up lol. Honestly, I think as a barbarian Mary Ann's a bit more used to controlling her rage which is why the rage crystal might've had less of an effect, Lydia Barkrock style.

Buddy's death was so sudden and traumatic, with such a short amount of time to get used to the implications before the finale, I think Buddy's mind is just in a tailspin post-ritual just trying to grab on to anything that makes sense lol. He knows worship and devotion, its been a crutch in his life for so long, and that's what he defaults to when he can no longer reach Helio. In fact it almost seems a bit like a coping mechanism, latching onto it so securely even in the face of all other logic.

[ticklinglady]

The Guild's actions during the story are so insane, when you think about them properly, you know? When I first read the arc with them, this moment hasn't really occurred to me, as I was too busy going nuts over finally seeing the names of the familiar writers, but now when I think of that... I am not sure, I comprehend how they managed to achieve such a ferocious reputation. I have already made a little post about how extremely dysfunctional the DOA members are, but at least those guys have a plan, which actually makes sense more or less, even despite the gang using cheatcodes/the Book. The same cannot be said of the Guild however archghhjkn. Like, what the hell were these guys even doing??? XD

So here are just some moments, which weirded me out the most

At first I'd like to address the entire story with everyone's favorite tsundere, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Her introduction leaves quuuuite an impression in the best way and nothing makes me happier than the fact, that she gets a chance to find happiness in the following chapters and actually becomes a reoccurring character! HOWEVER, her entire involvement with the Guild is super odd... I still can't wrap my head around her getting fired. She is a girl with a hella powerful ability, who got taken to the Guild from a terrible, terrible orphanage in order to fight for them in the war for the Book, so not only is she very strong, but she's also immensely dependant on the organisation and wouldn't do anything outside of its interests. Yet Lucy is also put under extreme pressure. As she herself puts it, the Guild doesn't tolerate failures and will kick her out the moment she screws something up.

Later we see that this is exactly what happens, when she messes up her first mission. Fitzgerald himself confirms that, since she failed and revealed her ability to the enemies, she's no longer useful, so now a powerful esper, like Lucy works for free as a... laundress?

EXCUSE ME??? WHEN HAVE THE GUILD MEMBERS EVER DONE ANYTHING, BUT FAIL AND REVEAL THEIR ABILITIES?

Let's be real, these dudes were successful like only once or twice...

This fact not only makes Fitzgerald look like an idiot for wasting such a talented and useful worker, because of one mistake, but also as one hell of a hypocrite, cause he is more than fine with everyone else fucking up. And in case of Lovecraft and Steinbeck: fucking up twice. To add to the oddity, we later learn, that Louisa genuinely cares for Lucy and despite her social anxiety actually stood up for her during the entire story, but even that wasn't enough to change Fitzgerald's mind on the issue, though Louisa is one of the few people, whose opinion he respects. Honestly, this is such a waste of a truly useful subordinate. And speaking of which....

The Guild has never even tried to implement Edgar Allan Poe during the war...

This man is actually rather op when you think of it. He can capture and neutralise literally any ability user in Yokohama (besides Dazai, Mori and Ranpo ofc) just by throwing a book at them. Seriously, as we see with Chuuya, they don't even have to read it, they just need to see the pages. Plus the book can be actually sent via email!!! So why has there been an absolute zero amount of strategies with the use of this ability??? They could actually try to catch Atsushi by sending him such email containing any of Poe's mystery stories and then safely carry him back to their base. And it doesn't have to be just Atsushi, it could be literally any of their enemies. Non-combatant, like Ranpo could use this pretty damn well to his advantage and it doesn't take a genius to understand the potential of the "Black Cat in Rue Morgue". But nooooo, it seems like everyone has just forgotten of Poe!!! (Tho to be honest, I can actually see this situation in a funny extra awfgbfggfjj. Not the main story however) The agency would never even learn of his existence, if he didn't personally decide to try to fuck Ranpo's life up. Like, what does Poe even do in the Guild? He's the master architect and, according to him, the third ranking man in the organization, but we never see him be of any use, so Idk. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Lucy at least got to do something, unlike this poor man.

Then there's the entire drama with the Guild's decision to destroy Yokohama. Where do I even begin...

First of all, Fitzgerald has no way of knowing that Atsushi is going to come to Moby-Dick to fight him. Poor guy is the Guild's primary goal and has already gotten himself captured once, so it would have been safe to assume that the ADA decided to hide him somewhere and not send him on any dangerous missions for the time being. That basically means Fitzgerald could have burned down not just Yokohama, but also the only person, who could actually help him find his precious Book.

But if we're to ignore this, let's also go with Wikipedia then~

"Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu. Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin Industrial Zone."

..........................

Good luck making up for the destruction of THIS, Fitzgerald 🖕

And if this in itself wasn't bad enough, most people, including me, tend to forget that all Guild members are actually big shots in the American government, which I think is very sad. Because first of all, can you imagine any of the Guild members actually working as politicians?!! The sheer idea makes me hysterical avshbgj. Like, just consider Lovecraft working as a senator or something. This eldritch horror of a man leaves the ocean once in three years at best LMAO. Second of all, I have a feeling, that the destruction of Yokohama at the hands of influential politicians from a foreign country would have resulted in an international conflict or two~ Like as if random deranged rich Americans arriving in Japan, wreaking havoc over there and destroying the second largest city in the country wasn't bad enough, these Americans just HAD to be super influential businessmen and politicians. Louisa, my dear, I understand that it wasn't your intention, but it's as close to a declaration of war as it can get, you know? Fitzgerald may be ready to do anything to resurrect his dead daughter, but I'm not sure, that the execution of himself and the rest of the Guild at the hands of the Hunting Dogs is something he'd like.

(And here's another funny thing that stems from them being politicians 🤭 As @originalartblog wittily pointed out, Fitzgerald wasting all his money fighting sskk has probably resulted in a market crash and recession over in the USA)

I also have some other questions in regards to this entire plan, such as why did they have to waste Moby-Dick just to destroy Yokohama? Yes, it works in the short term, but in the long term they loose a super powerful fortress with the stealth mode and as the practice shows, you better have a safe base, unless you want another lemon freak to blow it all up. I mean, you could just ask Lovecraft to destroy everything for free. Or, if the device is the only way to stop the giant whale from crashing, why didn't Fitzgerald just take it to a far away bunker or something and waited things out there without the need to spend millions of dollars just to survive the explosion? (And it would have been extremely funny, if during the fight with sskk he just threw the device overboard) But I think I have already rambled for long enough already atxhghbgv XD

The Guild is an even bigger mess than the DOA and I think that's glorious 🙌

[rise-my-angel]

I find it so funny when people call Jon Snow a bastard as an insult as if the show and book shows that you shouldn’t discriminate people based on their birth. I’m looking at you, targ stans. Like he might be a bastard, but he is a better man than most of the true born Targaryens.

That's the thing, Jon being a bastard isn't just about the secret of his birth. It's all about Jon starting the story as an outcast, and finally finding a place in the world amongst other outcasts and unique people. His early friendly kinship with Tyrion, finding a genuine brother in Sam, befriending people like Grenn, Pyp, Tormund. And how by not looking down on them the way the world does him, he grows into a leader. One of the only leaders who can handle the threat to come.

Jons story isn't about getting passed being a bastard or becoming trueborn named anything. Its about Jon realizing that he became the man he is, while being a bastard. That despite everyone trying to put him down for it, he still pushed passed and rose up. It's about Jon learning being a bastard isn't good or bad, it's simply about the man he strives to become.

Also Targ stans the way they talk about Jon Snow is..odd. They seem to only like him if he can be molded into a Targaryean and nothing else. But he is everything they aren't. They are obsessed with blood purity and blood superiority, ruling through cruelty and fear, obessed with prophecy and status. Jon doesn't care about any of those things.

Also, the Targaryeans are obsessed with their blood purity so much it's led to the rampant, destructive levels of incest which almost caused their house to go extinct. When Rhaenyra very obviously had bastards, instead of fighting for her bastard childrens rights, she got violent and cruel at the insinuation of the truth being told to the point she wanted to torture her young half brother for simply repeating something his mother told him.

Even her kids must know their own mother looks down on them for being bastards, because if she wasn't, she wouldn't be trying to pass them off as trueborn. Jon did not need to be a Stark for Ned to love him and include him as much as he could within the family home. Ned literally raised Jon to be the Kevan to Robbs Tywin. Ned wanted Jon to be Robbs right hand man, his closest advisor. And he never needed Jon to be a Stark to start teaching and preparing him for that.

The Targaryeans don't respect bastards so much it's literally what caused the Blackfyre rebellions. Their stans just don't seem to grasp that all of this shows it is bad to judge someone for being a bastard.

They only care about Jon if he will call himself a Targaryean and be just like Rhaegar. But they miss the point. He only has one name and it's Jon Snow.

Because that is what his father named him, and he never had to become a Stark to grow into the man he is and could become.

But Targ stans don't quite seem to care about the conversation of bastards outside of the very specific times said bastards are directly involved in house Targaryean like in the Dance or the Blackfyres. Otherwise, they flip flop on the matter with Jon because they don't really care about him unless he resigns himself to being a true Targaryean.

Which is SILLY.

[mamamittens]

Had the funny thought about how Nikia being dumped into a pre established Thatch/Izou dynamic would accidentally reintroduce bad habits from both of them they claimed to have outgrown in the early stages of their relationship.

Like, I imagine Thatch isn't afraid to throw down and was %1000 ready to do that for his bae at the slightest hint of offense. Like, it was a fucking PROBLEM how quick he was to sock someone who insulted Izou. It was partly out of a strong desire to defend someone that matters so much (in a new, emotionally vulnerable way) to him and partly because he's a bit of a possessive/protective menace to society.

Most pirates get weird about 'their' shit and people, to be honest. Thatch just happens to be people friendly most of the time.

Izou is, naturally, quite offended at the implication he can't handle himself. It took several incidents and a few arguments to chill Thatch out.

He didn't change his stance on the topic. He just learned it was less trouble to let Izou shoot their kneecaps himself instead of leaping to his defense at every opportunity.

For Izou, he used to be a massive shit and bait the fuck out of people who showed interest. Mostly in himself but also Thatch. The amount of pirates he got good by letting them spend several minutes talking about how 'beautiful of a lady' he is before ripping them to shreds in a deep, rolling voice. Really weaponized his appearance to nip any perceived threats at the bud. So in essence, he was hardly an better than Thatch.

Thatch had to intervene and get him to lay off because it started getting out of hand in how quickly Izou did it to ANYONE that approached either of them. And not even for flirting reasons. It became a knee jerk reaction. Izou reluctantly agreed and started saving it for the real creeps that needed to be taken down several pegs.

So when Nikia pops up, shy and avoiding confrontation as she is, they both backslide into old habits hard. Not for each other, because they'd already communicated how much they hated it for their own reasons. But specifically when Nikia is involved.

Izou starts to get riled up cause of all the fights Thatch gets into and tries to talk to Nikia about it. Getting her up to speed with the trouble they both got into the last time these bad habits kicked up.

Only to see, much to his horror (and intrigue) that she didn't... Terribly mind. Like, she didn't like confrontation but she'd be lying badly if she claimed it wasn't... Very flattering how they both got over her interacting with strangers.

Like... Really flattering.

She's embarrassed about it though and it takes a bit of prodding to have a proper conversation.

After a long, honest talk, they agree to some boundaries because it really did get out of control last time. Thatch is thrilled to be allowed to show off his skills (even if it's a bit caveman like at times) and Izou can indulge his sadistic tendencies with barbs and flustering Nikia to scare off people bothering them.

The boys assume Nikia doesn't have a particularly possessive, protective, or sadistic streak.

Wrongly.

It's just an on/off switch because she doesn't entertain games with her feelings. If someone insults them and think they can get away with it, the won't.

And unlike the boys, her range is very, very impressive. And she has one rule.

One shot. One kill.

It's a bit more final than theirs, which is why it takes so long for it to show. She doesn't like to lose her temper, preferring to bury it... But if she absolutely can't?

Another crew manages to insult them and get away before they can be caught, jeering into the sunset. And Nikia just quietly goes to her room and comes back not five minutes later equipped for a short flight with her rifle.

"Uh, baby?!? What's that for!? You're not thinking of teaching them a lesson, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Oh, good. They're not worth it, sweetie--"

"You don't learn anything after you're dead. This is an execution."

And then she's gone. Up in the air for barely a minute, thunder snapping through the air as she fires for each person that pissed her off.

Then, like nothing happens, she sits on deck and cleans her newly fired gun before putting it away in her room. Kissing their cheeks as she goes.

"...That was hot, right?"

"Oh, absolutely. I thought she'd be the soft one out of the three of us."

"She still is. She just has a long fuse."

"Really long fuse. Better not light it."

"Pft, no shit!"

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. last night we watched voy's "waking moments" and ds9's "waltz" (omg waltz).

waking moments (voy):

i was afraid this one would be bad but it was good! -something i say about voyager a lot lately.

naked tuvok was extremely funny especially when they kept teasing him about it. he's like "vulcans dont experience embarrassment may we please change the subject as quickly as possible"

my villain origin story is when inception came out and claimed to be about lucid dreaming i, who was at the time obsessed with lucid dreaming and attempting to teach myself to do it, flipped my lid because absolutely none of it was even remotely accurate to like, actual dream science. (in the very first act, someone READS, which like...you can't read in dreams or at the very least not in the same way you do as in reality. i spent the whole movie fuming and took something very different from it than the shipping girlies did)

anyway, this healed me, because while i WAS annoyed that tom paris was like yeah one time with no training whatsoever i had a lucid dream (not impossible but man come on), he did quickly and accurately explain what they ACTUALLY were

this is also a piece of media that made me very afraid of the moon. just like majora's mask

like, the plot twist when he thought he was awake but was still dreaming...damn...they got us...and then they did it AGAIN. those magnificent bastards, etc

like, not only is that a very successful and smart bit of writing to be able to do the same twist twice, it had me guessing for the rest of the episode at what might be real and what might be fake. they could never do this, but chakotay seeing the moon again in the final shot would have been great

speaking of chakotay, can we please stop saying "vision quest" on this television show. that's two episodes in a row. he can just lucid dream like anybody. don't worry about it. you don't have to make a special racist lucid dreaming ritual

waltz (ds9):

OMG WALTZ...............................

dukat is crazy. off his fucking rocker. it's so good and so layered and it's the perfect way to illustrate that like. the ramifications of colonization and occupation on EVERYBODY involved without forgiving him for what he did and what was his personal responsibility to stand up against and like. how "good" people who do nothing are in so many ways worse than evildoers and become evil in a system that turns them into evil people because if you're not against the oppressors you're literally with them

like, dukat shows up to bajor and he is just Some Guy. shaped by the values of his culture (ie that their race is superior and colonization is the cool hip thing to do) yeah but he's just a dude. he's never really had to look at it up close until now. so he looks around at the labor camps and the executions and he goes yikes this makes me squeamish! hey guys what if we were super nice to the bajorans. and then less bajorans died and they were like Great this enables us to fight back better! let's do some terrorism! and he was like wait what why are you fighting back. you're supposed to love me because i said we should kill less of you. like i need you tell me it's all okay now and i fixed it and he absolutely SNAPPED when they would not do that

like he's crazy now but i think this is just the final result of like. he looked around at what was happening and he could not deal with the fact that he was participating in it. he needed someone anyone to tell him he was good and kind and loved and would never do such bad horrible things unless he was FORCED to and when no one told him that he just told himself that and it became the truth. because either someone forced him to do this or it's his fault and he is a bad and evil person

he begged sisko ALL. EPISODE. to tell him he wasn't evil. he just wants one single person to tell him he's not a bad person. that he wasn't a bad person when he raped leeta, or (in all probability) ziyal's mother. that he wasn't a bad person when he sentenced innocents to torture and execution and that he wasn't a bad person for overseeing the slave labor that BUILT THIS FUCKING STATION

and no one will tell him! his own daughter wouldn't tell him! ziyal got FUCKING SHOT because he's so evil his OWN DAUGHTER could not stomach what he's done. HIS OWN DAUGHTER. and he's so evil that he's not even grieving for her! he's grieving for the loss of the one person he had managed to trick into thinking he WASN'T evil! when sisko took him into prison and he handed back that baseball he was full of forgiveness because he wants just ONE PERSON to forgive him (even kira said this in a previous episode) and like NO ONE CAN. his own daughter can't!

and then hes like. well they MADE ME do this. the bajorans MADE ME punish them because they wouldn't worship me for being SLIGHTLY less awful than the other people occupying their planet and forcing them into labor camps. but I'M less awful everybody should LIKE me everybody should FORGIVE me but they MADE me execute them by the hundreds and rape and torture them they MADE me do that!

AND HE'S NOT EVEN GETTING MAD AT THE RIGHT PEOPLE. you could justify anger at the cardassian government even if that still does not let you off the hook morally for helping that government commit atrocities but he CAN'T. because his identity and his idea of acceptance is so tied up in that society he CANNOT believe it's the problem because it's too much like believing HE is the problem and he CANNOT be the problem because HE'S good and moral and soooo nice to bajorans! he was even "in love" (blech) with the bajoran who became ziyal's mom! he loves bajorans so much he called leeta into his office just to be better friends with one and definitely not abuse her at all!

and the end result is you take this mostly normal guy who is not a good person by any means but is also vaguely squeamish about war crimes happening right in front of him. and you put this guy who wants really badly to be liked in this position of immense power where he is doomed to be hated. and what that does is turn him into the screaming maniac we got in this episode saying he should have killed every bajoran man woman and child who ever lived. colonization ALSO HURT HIM, irreparably. like we're also doing a fantastic at job at illustrating the evils of colonization - just the entire concept of it is so systemically rancid that it is hurting and making worse literally every single person involved, because the people upholding it and participating in it, like dukat, can never ever be forgiven for that crime

AND HE SHOULDN'T BE. this is so crucial: there is NO sympathy. sure he is suffering but he made his own bed of nails he dug his own fucking grave and he DESERVES TO SUFFER there is no fucking m*rvel let's meow meow this guy bs. this is not l*ki this is not w*rd this is a fucking killer. this is a guy who sisko hits on the head with a pipe and says AND THAT IS WHY YOU'RE NOT EVIL??? we joke about speaking truth to power but jesus fucking christ sisko shouted it at power from the ground with a broken fucking arm and a phaser pointed at his head

it's just such a good job at making such a complex fucking villain without him needing a redemption or a sad little wet cat phase. it's so refreshing. sisko literally said damn sometimes i forget people really are evil but there it is. i hit evil on the head with a pipe and told him to get fucked

and by the way.......the fact that avery brooks did do little outside of ds9 is a fucking crime because good lord that man can ACT. the fact that he didn't win that vintage hot guy scifi poll is fucking unforgivable. not only is he hot but he is out-acting everybody else on that show by MILES except for perhaps nana visitor whomst he is only out-acting for like maybe one mile. he's running fucking circles around them. he should have been an a-lister. sisko is so cool and badass and sexy and i had never even HEARD of him until i was like halfway through tng. again i say: unforgiveable!!!!!

LIKE. HE FEARS NO EVIL BECAUSE HE IS THE EVILLEST MOTHERFUCKER IN THE VALLEY. YES HE IS. HE HITS EVIL ON THE HEAD WITH A PIPE. HE TELLS EVIL YOU'RE A BAD PERSON AND YOU DESERVE THE SUFFERING. god. god!!!!!!!!

okay. i'm calm. i'm normal. ds9 GOOD.

TONIGHT: voy's "message in a bottle" and ds9's "who mourns for morn?" rip morn :(

[writing-frenzy]

Of course, after obsessing over the funny train men for a while now, with all this beautiful content, it's only when I find out about Beta!submas that I actually start to actually want to write shit down. Of course. So, here is my idea for Beta!Submass world.

First, onto the world building

Best way to describe beta world is creepypasta and glitches somehow work together to make it all work. Some Cults are in fact recognized as religions here because they pull actual work into stabilizing the world through patrons/gods, tho any cult involved in live sacrifice is still illegal. The only, and I mean only live sacrifices allowed is elderly/fatal illness people who 100% agree (they can check with Psychic Pokémon, both willingness/brainwashing). With the world like this, of course it's recognized one must be ready and willing to fight for your life, so classes for self defense and even dojos are considered required learning from young ages. Because seriously, you might not be able to survive long enough to pull your pokeball out, but using a technique to blind an eye could get you that valuable time to do it.

This is the world our Beta!submas was born into.

Ermen (Beta!Emmet)and Yngvi (beta!Ingo, his name pronounced like Ing-V) were born to parents who absolutely despised each other and were an accident that wasn't caught in time. They were named by their great grandparents who were still kicking around for a bit (life expecty... is a little skewed in this world).

After years of dealing with their fickle and sometimes emotionally unavailable parents, the two adults finally had enough and separated from each other in a messy ass divorce... separating the twins with it, much to the boys' displeasure. Ermen became Ermen Emmet Blake and Yngvi was Yngvi Ingo Black, Blake being the mother and Black being the father.

Treatment on both sides was a great improvement... which sadly isn't good to say when you've been treated worse than shit before hand; Yngvi basically being raised by his strict and judging paternal grandparents as his father only got him so his mother couldn't. Yngvi learned young to always keep a pokerface, fighting moves that would make a pokemon jealous, hide your vulnerability as much as you could... and gain some ghost abilities when you least expect it after some too close shaves in training. He's also managed with his brother to arrange library trips where they can both talk over the PC for bonding/venting/and just letting themselves be kids together and bick over how just being 5 minutes older doesn't make a difference in being older.

Meanwhile, Ermen... well, he learned rather young just how to keep secrets, lie with a smile on his face, gaslight like it was nothing, and be quiet and listen when it was needed, fairy type developing right alongside his already normal moves he learned through sheer force of will and baby doll eyes. The boy's mom was not a good person; Ermen did what he had to do to survive the two years he was with her and be able to still be in contact with his brother before he managed to get out from under her thumb through luck and a miracle. After a bit of work and determination, Ermen and Yngvi go on their pokemon journey a little earlier then would be recommended, but with parental permission and the fact they're both top of their classes in fighting/self defense. Through highjinks and tomfoolery, they gather a team of loyal pokemon and develop a love for trains. They were the one who took an abandoned railroad station and turned it into gold, a safe place if still a little rough around the edges. They have made it once more safe enough to travel the land, and even have training and battle spots for those travelingto let off steam safely, since people need to what with typing and all. They've also, at this point, decided to go by their middle names of Emmet and Ingo, the two huffing over the idea their great grandparents probably foresaw them changing them, so named them that for ease.

Now, onto fun parts.

B!Emmet is the older brother and he will hold it over B!Ingo's head... until he chokes when B!Ingo talks about how of course he has to respect the elderly and other old people jokes

Now, I have fallen in love with the idea that B!Ingo wears a red turtleneck because he doesn't do as well with cold, plus gives him more padding for falls and tumbling he does, as he has a more active and rougher fighting style then his twin. B!Emmet on the other hand, does wear the tie to appear more above board and professional (not to mention another weapon if he needs it in a tie-ght situation XD)

They both have weapons to defend themselves; B!Emmet has two electric baton that can go from thunder wave to thunder :3 B!Ingo has a doublesided plasma cutter that is just pretty much a lightsaber with a non-leathal option of inflicting burn to you you can be fut in half.

B!Emmet only allows people he loves and trust to see him unsmiling, his smile much like armor for him, but if he hears a really, really bad joke he will allow his lips to thin in a straight line to show you what he really thought of it (there is a whole compilation series dedicated to telling Emmet bad jokes to see if they can get that expression on his face. The pentacle of it all is the one guy who actually got Emmet to draw his unlit baton and say 'he just wants to talk'. Before he is pulled away by his chuckling brother.)

B!Ingo... his smiles either look really fucking bitter or serial killer, there is no inbetween. So thus, he doesn't smile often, not wanting to upset or unnerve people unless he wants or needs to. (Something that makes his brother so fucking bitter, all these asshole's taking away his brother's smile. Anyone who comments on it gets on his shit list.)

Both brothers will pick and prod at each other, going for topics that only children would gasp at... but they also know the others sore spots and never make them worse, refusing too.

B!Ingo does make them go to therapy and after three therapist actually find one that is perfect for the brothers. They haven't tried to trick them or sacrifice them to a cult, even if they’re pretty sure they're a witch.

B!Ingo is the one who would accidentally form a Team without knowing it, what with him helping out in tons of charity, aiding youths and even giving intern positions to them just to give them another chance, a different opportunity in life.

B!Emmet would accidentally form a team but realize quickly afterwards and use it to his advantage for memes and information network. If he's gonna have followers, might as well give them a better option in life and get something good for himself as well. He also helps his brother's accidental team, but doesn’t have to do much there as they've learned to manage themselves well enough, he just has to poke here, prod there, maybe clean house once or twice with the help of the others.

But yeah, go train men :D

[trans-queen-administrator]

Ok people seemed to really like the last post I made summarizing an unwritten fleshed out worm fanfic I had, so here's another! This one's an altpower and wait where are you going come back its good I swear.

(tw: suicide)

Taylor triggers with Ingenue's power after an incident involving Sophia (who is removed from the wards and not a part of this fic past this), and outs Sophia as a cape since Ingenue can see powers. She's forced into the wards because she has no ability to defend herself, is immensely powerful, and people will want her dead or on their side since she can out every cape in the city. She genuinely has no practical choice besides the Wards here, so she begrudgingly joins. It's not all bad though! She actually makes friends for the first time in so long :)

Her and Missy hang out a lot, and their powers synergize super well since Taylor can make Vista frighteningly powerful. She warms up to Dennis after some patrols, she can make his power non-touch based too! Dauntless is like a mentor figure, they meet up every day so she can make his charge way more powerful, speeding up his growth by like 3 times, and he gives her lots of advice, helps her begin to come out of her shell, and is generally chill. Good times.

So y'all remember that bit about Ingenue's power causing people to go insane in the long term? What if you didn't know about that and you constantly used your power on your friends? Wouldn't that be funny?

Clockblocker is the first to snap. He's on a train when he just decides fuck it, and freezes a pencil in the air. Everyone sitting to the left of him down the length of the train gets impaled by it, just goes clean through. It's covered up as a villain attack, he's ushered off to the asylum, and the wards are just. Really messed up by it. They miss him, they miss his jokes, and they don't get why he did it.

A week passes. Taylor confides in Dauntless about how she feels like it has to be her fault, like everything is, but he reassures her. It's fine, she's done so much good, sometime's people just go bad. Genuinely just a great pep talk, she still misses Dennis but she's grateful she has the rest of her friends and Dauntless is there to cheer her up. She also mentions how it's hard to walk around the city, she keeps seeing villains and she can't do anything about it. She mentioned a few weeks ago that a bunch of them keep going into the same building, but she's helpless and just has to sit by.

That night, Dauntless levels the Medhall building. A few E88 capes were inside and they fight, and he kills them. Everyone else in the building is injured at the least, collateral damage that Dauntless would have cared about before. There's no covering that one up, he's killed dozens. When he's caught more than half the empire is dead, along with upwards of a hundred bystanders, and he's sent to the birdcage.

Taylor doesn't leave her room for a few days. Vista reassures her that it wasn't her fault.

On their next patrol, Missy begs Taylor to use her power to remove her manton limit. Taylor doesn't, but she's pretty sure she sees the pattern now. Vista's going insane. Were the other two this obvious? Should she have noticed? Would everyone be alive if she had? Would she still have friends? How can she tell anyone about this, when she'll be blamed?

She goes to Piggot, pretty much accepting that she'll get birdcaged or something. She's a horrible person, she knows that. She never gets to talk to Piggot, because all the heroes get called into the field to stop an A class threat. Vista is twisting the city around her, killing countless people. She turns bullets back, she extends a knife with her powers like Jack Slash. She's finally proving what she can do, then they'll all see, and they'll respect her and let her fight the way she wants to.

(side note, ingenue's power makes people closer to their shards in this interpretation, which also means they're flat out way more powerful even without her touch after a while)

The heroes are fighting Missy, they're losing, none of them want to hurt her. Missy see's Taylor from across the city, she's using her power to see almost everywhere at once by distorting space. Within seconds, Taylor is next to Missy. She reaches out to touch her, if she can shut down her power then it'll all be ok and Missy can get help and they'll be friends again and it wont be her fault. The space between them is a mile long and a foot thick. Missy doesn't want her help right now, she wants to prove herself to Taylor so Taylor will finally appreciate her power and they can be a team. Taylor tries to look away as Missy kills someone, space is warped so her line of sight is directly on the act. She closes her eyes, and the space between her eyelids is stretched infinitely wide. She watches, unable to stop her, as Missy keeps killing and defending and destroying. Missy begins to try to upend the sea floor, to dump the ocean onto the city. She's taken out before that can happen. How doesn't matter, what matters is Taylor couldn't stop her. The city is in shambles, its her fault, she was RIGHT THERE and she couldn't do anything, she could just watch and watch and watch.

She tells the PRT about how she thinks her power is breaking people. She's banned from touching anyone. They don't do much more, legally speaking she's safe and it wasn't her fault. The rest of the wards don't talk to her anymore. They blame her, just like she knew everyone would. It's her fault everything went to shit. She can't blame them for hating her, she hates herself too. She sneaks out to go on a walk one night, when the hateful looks and resentment get to be too much. She sees a cape. Lung.

Taylor knows her power is practically useless alone, and she walks up to Lung and insults him, provokes him, riles him up to attack her. If she dies here at least she'll be remembered for dying as a hero fighting a villain, rather than someone who corrupts everything they touch. Lung burns her, bad, all over her right side. He lifts her up by the neck and prepares another fireball. This is what she wanted, but she can't do it. She twists his power, reducing his durability and fireproof nature to zero and ramping up his firepower. Lung burns himself to a cinder in seconds, erased by his own power once the protections were gone. Taylor gets burned again in the blaze. She couldn't even commit suicide without hurting anyone else. She couldn't even die without fucking it up. She's alive. Panacea refuses to touch her to heal her, for very understandable reasons.

She goes to the asylum, despite her request for the birdcage.

Filled with guilt, afraid to touch anyone and everyone, blaming herself for everything that happened, avoiding Dennis at lunchtime while he glares at her, closing up and being silent for days on end, haunted by the people Vista forced her to watch die. Her fault, all of it.

And that's the end! Woooo! She's broken forever, no coming back from that one!

[sarnai4]

Movie Marathon

Here are some modern headcanons I have for Dagur when he's watching movies/his reactions afterwards.

Action films: He's memorizing all the best stunts so that he can try them immediately once the movie has ended. If one of these includes a fight scene, he's also planning which one of his friends he's going to have join him in this (probably Snotlout because Hiccup would die).

Comedies: He does better with dark comedies because he always laughs at the wrong spots for the regular ones. They have a sad moment and he's still thinking it's a joke, then wonders why everyone is giving him weird looks. At least with the dark comedies, he's supposed to laugh at someone dying.

Romance: Constantly says something inappropriate so that Astrid and Hiccup are embarrassed. The scene wasn't even intimate, but all his comments and winking would make you think otherwise. The only time he blushes too is when he and Mala are brought up, then he gets a bit bashful, but he also keeps kissing her during the smooching scenes.

Adventure: Will not stop asking Hiccup to go on the same adventure with him as the characters had. The puppy dog eyes don't go away until Hiccup finally agrees, then he gets a giant hug.

Film noir/mystery: Trusts no one, especially the main character. He's convinced the killer is secretly the hero and that the MC is just giving their side of the story to deliberately throw everyone off their trail. He's extra paranoid towards everybody for a minimum of 3 days. Mala's trying to let him know that their friends are not out to get him.

Drama: Finally knows when the sad moments aren't supposed to be laughed at. So, he tears up instead while hugging a pillow. Snotlout sees this as a cue that he can be watery-eyed too without being poked fun at. Now, they're both crying on the sofa because the main character just expressed how much love is had for someone else right before that second person dies.

Western and pirate: Combine action with adventure. This is why Hiccup's on a horse with a cowboy hat and why Snotlout is trying to not be forced to walk the plank.

Suspense/thriller: You thought he was paranoid before with the mystery films? He's not so much suspicious of the others as he is jumpy. This was probably the quietest he's ever been when watching something because he's waiting for that moment when everything goes wrong. The twins definitely take advantage of the jumpiness later, but they might get tackled in retaliation.

True stories: Sits by Fishlegs so that he can fact check that what the movie is saying really is true. They're whispering just about the entire time because Fishy is having as much fun talking about what he knows as Dagur is having learning about it. When the movie ends, they will proceed to geek out about the new information like it's a Gronckle until someone stops them.

Fantasy: Lots of "oohs" if there are impressive visuals. This genre gets his mind going with all the potential creativity, so he becomes disappointed if what actually happens in the story isn't as inventive as what he thought of. He also always thinks the heroes should be more ruthless than they are.

Musicals: Is making a mental note of the best songs so that he can ask Heather to sing them. He'll sing his request until she gives in. Some form of dance/movement is happening during the numbers too. If he's trying to not disturb the others, he's probably bouncing in the seat.

Science fiction: Is torn between being a skeptic and suspending his disbelief. He both scoffs at the overly unrealistic parts, then is impressed by how the characters managed to pull something off without dying. This time, Hiccup is his fact checker if the movie involves some type of engineering.

Horror: He's taking notes. Who let him watch one of these? There will be no stopping him now. He's determined to be even better than the scares he saw in the movie (according to him, they weren't scary and he thought each kill was funny). At least the next week is spent with everyone around him on edge because they don't know when there's going to be a pretend masked slasher coming for them. It's not even Halloween, but it is for them. Mala's not safe either. After Dagur puts a probably harmless snake in their bed, she makes him sleep on the sofa until he's out of his horror phase.

Every movie: Has a big container of some snack. Don't reach in without asking because he will bite off your hand not be happy. He's never on the edge seat because he wants to be able to hug people on both sides. He tries to not talk for the entire thing, but he will absolutely give the characters advice with Snotlout. Expect an in-depth discussion afterwards.

(Update) Decided to write this for whatever reason, so the first part is now on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net under "Movie Marathon" too.

[buttsnorkeler69420]

presenting: This Bastard

it's EXJ!!!!!!!!! one of @chickennuggetonastick's slime characters. EXJ was originally made for @presidentgun's Goku Royale Original Character Tournament (entered into a post-elimination bracket in Goku 1, and as our main entry in Goku 2) but currently exists in our funny slime rancher headworld.

more character info under the cut! content warning for uh slime abuse

EXJ was originally a tornado slime held on a ranch by a rancher who only cared about money and clout (which included purchasing Secret Styles) and severely neglected their slimes. All the corrals were super overcrowded and there was usually not enough food to go around, so many of the slimes there were either crystallizing or downright feral. Slimes were forced to fight over food or let the crystals overtake them, not knowing when—if ever—they'd wake up again.

On this ranch, EXJ met Jack, a bubbly, optimistic phosphor slime who was this rancher's favorite because he could provide light during nighttime expeditions. Jack tried to help the other slimes on the ranch as much as he could: sharing his food with the others and showing them how to avoid drawing the rancher's ire. EXJ finally found guidance and a supporter in Jack and tried to protect him as much as was possible from inside a corral. But it wasn't enough.

The rancher would often disappear from the ranch for long stints (the reasons for which were unknown to the slimes, but probably involved plort peddling or resource gathering), and unfortunately one of those trips happened to coincide with a serious drought in the Dry Reef. Crops and chicken populations dwindled out and soon enough, with no rancher to make up for it, the ranch's food shortage was exacerbated.

Determined to save his friends from starvation, Jack forwent food entirely and spent all his energy distributing food to all the corrals. This went on for so long that Jack slowly lost his mobility, and faculties to crystallization.

EXJ, having honed hunger as a tool so EXJ could use crystallized body parts as weapons, had cultivated a row of crystals on the ring orbiting EXJ's body so it could be spun around like a buzzsaw. As EXJ watched Jack crystallize in horror, the tornado slime frantically tried to break out of the corral by slamming the spinning blade into the walls. Eventually, EXJ was able to break out of the corral by damaging the ceiling, but by then, it was too late. Jack had been starving for too long and had gone feral—there was none of the slime EXJ remembered; only desperation and hunger could be seen in Jack's eyes as he lunged to attack.

In a fit of rage and anguish, EXJ flew to each and every corral on the ranch, shattering the ceilings to let all the slimes leap out to freedom. It so turned out that the rancher had chosen this very moment to return; they only had enough time to report the incident to 7Zee before EXJ noticed they were back and shredded them to ribbons.

Looting their vacpack, EXJ was able to scrounge up some fruit, and while the other slimes fled, EXJ brought them to Jack and patiently waited for him to recover. He devoured the food quickly, but when the crystals disappeared, his eyes lit up as if he were meeting EXJ for the first time. He didn't seem to remember anything about his time on the ranch at all—even worse, he had forgotten entirely about human cruelty. When more humans, answering the rancher's distress call, arrived to clean up the mess and redistribute what slimes were left to new owners, Jack was horrified when EXJ jumped forward to attack. The sudden fear in his eyes—fear of EXJ, his friend—shook EXJ enough to cause hesitation, leading the two of them to be captured.

They, along with quantum slime omelet, were shuffled around several ranches through the Range Exchange until finally ending up at Zhanpeng's ranch.

I'm planning on making a comic about that last event at some point,,, but for now... funny ball!!!!

[danistotallyuncool]

frustrations under the cut please feel free to ignore.

It's now setting in that all the friend group drama I've gone through in the past 2 months started with warhammer 40k, but it wasn't actually about 40k. But it nonetheless effected my enjoyment of the hobby due to the association of said drama. And that sucks.

something that went from a slight disagreement regarding game rules unraveled a 8 year friendship because one person just couldn't accept the fact that he has historically treated his friends badly, and we were trying to get him to get a grip and not be a sore winner. but it dug up the fact that he was mad at me for not choosing him to be my best man, he tried to discourage me from going back to school, and multiple stupid arguments where he was in the wrong and would just die on his stupid hills.

He called me a liar to my face for not pointing out his behavior in public when I knew that he escalates arguments to the point of yelling, and I am bad with confrontation, even worse if it's in public.

he did this all in public, in front of my friends, as well as employees of the store we were at and their customers.

we all had an in person group discussion on table etiquette where i established this boundary, only for 1 week later to have that boundry crossed, and when my wife was explaining the fight, flight, freeze trauma response, to which my wife tried to elaborate on them still calling me a liar when i freeze to avoid confrontation and compared it to victims of sexual assault also freezing in those situations. to which this player *laughed* knowing damn well my wife is a SA victim.

This was a point I should have fucking hit him. I wanted to so bad. I didn't want to catch a charge though, so the best I could do is ask, "what's so funny about that?"

him and his wife proceed to message EVERYONE in out friend group about this feud which as far I was concerned, did not involve anyone else at that point. They sent everyone, including me a book about how we are trying to kick them out of the friend group, which was not true. I in turn began to write a long worded response that became a 14 page word document but chose not to send it and let them keep showing their asses. When some people came over to my home to paint and play warhammer, this couple promptly uninvited us from all future plans as this was seen as "taking sides" and forced this fight onto people who asked to stay out of it, one of which is someone going through the death of a pet and a divorce.

This was my final straw. this all happened at the beginning of the month. And the remaining players have a separate chat. But we all know the elephant in the room and to me feels like there is more unspoken awkwardness.

All this couple had to do was take the L, say sorry, and change their behavior. but they didn't. they let it all fall apart because they were too fucking egotistical to admit they were in the wrong and they caused people I like to hang out with to ghost the main group chat.

I know these people only have their side of the story, and I haven't tried to write to the others to defend myself or Ren because they specifically do not want to hear any more arguing, so I am trying to respect their boundaries.

I've been sitting on this for a while. And was hoping to fix it. But I see now that I can't and I gotta move on. The Hobby is still fun. But I don't enjoy it like I used to. and that sucks. It was the one fucking hobby that stuck for me and now it's tarnished. I don't know man. I just needed to vent. All I wanted to do was to build and paint little dudes with my friends and play a stupid badly worded game from the UK. and they fucked it all up.

[redemptioninterlude]

💏 from Jade

50 ways to kiss someone meme ( accepting ) + @wndrbcy // jade random: 41 …because the world is saved.

it's been... a little fucking unreal, let's be honest. jade is dragged, unceremonious, into her world. how she thinks he might regret so much of it now, knowing that he wasn't defending his helpless lover outside that club on what felt like a FATED NIGHT to them both. that she'd been smoking and waiting, purposeful bait until she'd been ready to take on her target for the night. jade had been cover, and pleasure, mixed - her deadly flaw within this. now an accomplice within her life and made to see the ugly unravelling of it. did he wish now that he had never gotten involved with her? did it all click and fall into place, how they could find one another in the strangest places both home and abroad?

i'm an accountant, had felt like a convenient excuse. when asked how that would necessitate in overseas travel, a smile. I'M A VERY EXCELLENT ACCOUNTANT.

( nobody ever wants to talk about numbers. )

but there he is now, a part of her life. learning, too, which perhaps makes her a little sad, her sweet boy knowing how to use his hands for a more intimate and awful kind of violence. it starts with a gun, then learning how to fight... it's funny. he's pretty good at this, isn't he? at least enough to KEEP UP as she does a job, here and there, enough to keep them moving. "should we retire?" she asks him once without the irony in his voice. he says something something about worrying that she'll get bored.

this job is unexpected. something about killing someone dangerous in a way that threatens the world as it stands before them. "heavy." she murmured, quietly, with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders. it's enough for him to feel like they could be safe without having to live like this. a choice. isn't that what she thinks he DESERVES to have within his reach? isn't that what he said she had been in the first place? it's the kind of thing that he's had robbed of him, and she didn't want, too, to be another person he was swept up by.

but this is the one that COUNTS. bloody, brutal, she feels something pull uncomfortably within her as she stared outward, her dark eyes finding jade's own with a wan smile. because it was finally over, and wasn't that good? reaching to pull him in a little bit closer, that kiss that felt like relief at the other end of it. she doesn't know who it was that they killed - she just knows that it's enough money to set them up if they need it, a shiver there, with the realization that this? and maybe, perhaps, a little worry too. this really might be over. "now jade. it's all with you now. where you want to go, and... even who you want to go with. i want this to be... your chance to pull to an exit if you need to. i owe you that much."

[imaginarycyberpunk2023]

Forgive me if you have already shared this bit of Lore.

How did Macha and Vinnie meet? Did they have a meet cute moment? Idk why I’m suddenly obsessing over the idea of Vinnie tripping up somehow meeting Macha.

Hi @medtech-mara 👋🏻 I'm finally getting around to your ask because I am curious which song you associate with the bebbies and apparently I only get to know that after answering this. As usual I went a bit overboard with this. Deal with it!

Ok, lore bit about how they met:

Macha is usually not on site for gigs because, as a netrunner, she doesn't have to be. But for this particular gig, her fixer Wakako asked her to be on site and take another merc called Vinnie with her as muscle. Macha did question why because the gig just involved getting an encrypted data shard back, and she asked if it wouldn’t be easier to have the merc retrieve the shard and for her to just decrypt it. But Wakako was adamant they go together. (Look, it is my head, I can make her be a matchmaker, and she has her reasons) Macha then just shrugged and accepted because she wasn't going to get in a fight with Wakako who usually just tells you what to do and you do it. So if that's what the client wants, so be it.

She called up that Vinnie guy to meet her at El Coyote to discuss the deets of the gig. He immediately starts flirting with her, but she notices that that seems to be his regular routine with people. She usually tries to keep things professional, but she feels herself being very susceptible to his charm from minute one. (And that smile of his.) And she flirts back.

She is out of her element because of all the flirting - and she is surprised that on the gig he a) lets her take the lead without questioning and b) how agile and efficient he is.

(He definitely knows what he's doing)

As she's not used to being on site, she is a bit overwhelmed with the whole situation. Her adrenaline is on a high, and she can't focus like she usually does. So, on their way out, she doesn't notice a goon hiding in the shadows, and Vinnie pushes her aside out of harms way and deals with him quickly before Macha even realizes what's going on. She is a bit stunned after that, and he practically drags her out of there. And she feels grateful. And it feels so nice to be protected.

I could also say - just look at her, but Vinnie is very used to being with pretty people, and what really captures his attention is her bluntness, honesty and openness. She does not try to change him in any way, and is very interested in who he really is as a person, without judging anything he tells her about himself.

With all the adrenaline and excitement of the situation, she can not help but be drawn to him. She does not communicate that to him because she feels a bit ashamed of liking it so much. But she definitely has a lot of feelings from the beginning. Whereas he just feels like he did his job. He likes her because she is pretty, capable and funny, and he wants to make a move on her because that's what he automatically does when he's into someone.

Wakako keeps giving them gigs to work on as a team - because - unbeknownst to Macha - Vinnie asks her to, and Macha never objects because they get to spend time together. Until one day, he asks her out officially, and I have a write-up for that that I wanna share, but I also wanna take pics for that, and it takes time, ok? It's cute. They're cute.

Macha doesn't react to his usual advances, though, while still being very friendly and affectionate with him, and he is confused by that. But also intruiged. She does not react because she decidedly does not want to be just another fling for him, but she also can't help but like the dude. He's much more uninhibited than her, funny and not intimidated by her. And to her, he is the most handsome man she's ever met.

[bywayofmemory]

hey for the WIP, tell me about honor. :)

Poor Snacky, you keep missing the ones I know you want!!

Honor is part 3 of Love Keeps Her in the Air, my Firefly Mal/River series that I wrote in the early 2010s before any of you knew me. I actually have it 75% outlined and maybe a third written, but then I moved across the country and got a new job and a new life and just couldn't keep it up, so it languishes on my hard drive. The plot involved Simon and Kaylee's wedding, which would have brought Inara back to the ship and stirred up old jealousies and insecurities in River. Mal would have been bad at soothing them, but eventually (with Inara's aid) they'd have made up.

This bit follows a fight between Mal and River, where she's discovered hiding in the ceiling of the ship crying by Jayne, who for once does his best to be helpful. Funny thing, Jayne was my least favorite character, but he was by far the easiest of them to write. (Also, you can tell just how long ago this was written because it was originally double spaced between sentences. Good lord.)

Sitting down across from her, he eyes the untouched mug. “Waitin' for an invitation to drink it? Don't make me sorry I'm goin' to all this gorram trouble,” he says, and his gruffness stirs up indignation in her, a frowning irritation that for a moment eclipses her sadness. Sipping the tea slowly just to spite him, she reflects, not for the first time, that Jayne may be dumb, but he isn't stupid. Silence spreads across the room, and he's not looking at her but she can hear his mind, distantly, clicking away. “Never did understand the way girlfolk like to go off and blubber over what's got 'em upset,” he says finally, staring into his bottle of beer as if it's got all the answers in the 'verse floating inside. “Now, me, I'm feelin' something I don't like, I gotta be doing somethin', distract myself.” She nods carefully at her tea. “Activity releases chemicals, hormones. Comforts the brain, tires the body. Makes for restfulness.” “Could be that's what you need. I might be willin' to spar a bit with you, if'n you promise not to be takin' my head off. Or grabbing any parts ain't proper to be laying hold of, you understand.” She smiles a bit into her mug, but only shakes her head, amusement rapidly falling from her face. “Aw, hell,” Jayne says, shifting in his chair and looking right at her. “You want me to go beat up Mal for you?” “You couldn't.” He snorts. “Ain't like it's hard. Kaylee could beat up the Capt'n if she really wanted to. Even that wimpy-ass brother of yours laid him flat before.” “True. But he wasn't expecting it then.” She looks up at him, tilting her head. “You don't even know what he did.” “Nah. But I know outta the two of you, I'd rather have him bein' the one who's unhappy.” River frowns. “Jayne,” she says, reaching for his beer, “let's get drunk.”