#「 CHAOS OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE 」 － prompts/starter call

[lurxof--thxmaw]

// alright, let's try this again... like for a starter from the Madame! If you're a multimuse, specify the muse.

[waterxstarlight]

tag drop

[caffeinated-croissant]

Musical Milestones

In honor of @writersmonth 's final Pride prompt : Write a story about a milestone, I present you a band au featuring Piper, Percy and Jason.

Percy Jackson’s three greatest loves are: Piper McLean, Jason Grace and music. Piper McLean is the omniromantic, asexual love of his life. Jason Grace is the Demiromantic pansexual love of his life. The three are in an amazing relationship with each other and music.

In their band, they all sing but constantly switch between a guitar and two other instruments. Percy is taken with “his” drums and piano; Piper has a lovely talent for the violin and drums; while Jason primarily sticks to the piano and violin.

Percy was not expecting the most amazing news to come from the call he picked up, with their manager, Frank. Maybe he had expected it as a social call, or another small venue, not what Frank had ended up sharing instead.

“I’ve got huge news for Coastal Lights, so go get the other two,” Frank didn’t even wait for a greeting.

“Hello to you too, Frank.”

“Nope, none of that, go get Jason and Piper cause this is huge.”

“Boooo, you’re no fun Zhang.” Percy started moving out of the kitchen after he set up a timer for the oven.

“Percy, why are you always like this?”

“Cause I’m a drama queen, according to Piper and Jason anyway.” He moved into the bedroom where Piper was tuning Jason’s ukulele. All instruments in their apartments were never solely owned after entering the relationship, neither were their clothes for that matter.

“You really are blueberry,” Piper looked up from her work with a questioning tilt to her head.

Percy pouted, “I see it’s pick on Percy day already.” He made a small gesture to follow him as he left for the living room.

“Starshine, It’s always pick on Percy day.” Jason barely looked up from his book.

“Fine, maybe I won’t bring you back any of my mom’s cookies the next time I visit her.” Percy sat down next to Jason laying his head on Jason’s shoulder. Jason looked affronted at the cruel statement.

“We’ll just steal from the stash you’ll end up bringing back.” Piper told him as she snuggled into Percy’s otherside.

“Percy put me on speaker.” Frank Zhang had a high patience for his friends, but he was not going to deal with this trouple's petty antics, when he had important news.

Jason set down his book, knowing their manager wasn’t normally like this unless he had band news.

“You're broadcasting in 3...2...1, you’re now live.” There was a reason Piper and Jason, among his other friends, called him a drama queen.

“I managed to book you three a spot at the “Day For Night” music festival in Nashville, North Carolina.”

Those words did not register for a good 10 seconds before it did click and the Coastal Light’s apartment went up in cheers.

=

The “Day for Night” music festival was huge. The stage was gigantic. The crowds were massive. And managing to get in as a little band like they were was a ridiculously huge deal.

The festival was mostly all outside and was literally never quite. Throughout the festival stood multiple little kiosks selling something. Some did characters, some sold records of older bands, while a vast majority of the rest sold merchandise of all different types of artists who have passed through these types of festivals. Besides the normal people who bought tickets and stuff, there were also speakers methodically placed around so it was loud enough for everyone to hear but soft enough to escape.

Percy, Piper and Jason knew they were gonna blow up in the music industry. They knew that when they were first recording their own songs on youtube. Maybe they weren’t the best back then but dam they had an audience. From that point on they knew they’d be big but now, right before they went on stage it was cemented. This was the show where a lot of their favorite artists blew up and now it was their turn.

In their first three songs the trio easily switched from instrument to instrument in a musical chairs type way (except there were no losers). They played a cover of “Riptide” originally by Vance Joy as a starter. A cover of “Tear in My Heart” originally by Twenty Øne PilØts easily followed. Their last cover was “How Far We’ve Come” originally by Matchbox Twenty. Their next three songs were originals off of their album Chaos in Control. Their last song was a special that had never been recorded, it was called “Broadway Fevers”.

=

That one scene in “Clouds” was surprisingly accurate for Piper when she heard “Broadway Fever” being announced as the next song on the radio. She was driving to Percy’s mother’s house, with Jason in the passenger’s seat next to her and Percy in the back seat.

“Oh my god, oh my god -” She shoved Jason’s shoulder not taking her eyes off the road - “Beanie? Blueberry? Did you guys hear that?” She shoved Jason’s shoulder again before getting a small glance at Percy, who was already half asleep - hearing Piper's singing didn’t help either.

Jason turned to the back seat, “Should we wake him up?”

“Yes! He shouldn’t miss this!” Piper was vibrating in her seat. Their song was on the radio and this might’ve just been the best feeling in the world, although she’d easily trade it for her boys in a heartbeat.

Percy could be slow to wake up, but he could still detect the general vibe of the people around him from the get go. “Why are we listening to our song on youtube?” That didn’t mean he always connected the dots immediately.

“Try the radio instead,” Jason was less vibraty but he was definitely still hyped under his mellow patience.

“Wha..?”

“We’re on the radio!” Piper was still vibrating and she would not calm down until at least a few days later, and even then she was giddy but at that point they were all giddy.

[whittakerjodie]

Blind Date (Dhawan!Master X Reader)

Prompt (s) 1.  Could I request a Dhawan!Master x reader fic where they go on a blind date during the master’s time at MI6 and they hit it off really well but the reader is one of the doctor’s companions and he doesn’t find out until the reader starts talking about their travels and he starts to piece things together? requested by @theaussietimelord​

2.  Would you write something dhawan master X reader? Something like the reader falling for him (and that gorgeous hair of him) and he falling too (and maybe getting flustered and confused or something)? Thanks! Also, let's appreciate his hair, because it stopped my heart. requested by @therustictea​

Authors Note: I combined two because I’ve been busy haha! Thank you both and I hope you enjoy

Words: 2k 

   The Master knew that his plan would pay off eventually. Every grueling day of pretending to be human, doing paperwork,  and putting up with the idiots who were employed at MI6 would give him the reward he was always desperately chasing: the Doctor. It just seemed to be taking a remarkably long time. It was also getting incredibly boring. 

“I know we’re supposed to be secret agents and all, but I know nothing about you” One of his coworkers pointed out to him one day. Yes, because all I want to do is reach over this table and strangle you. He thought to himself. But that wouldn’t do- he was the lovable, geekishly-charming O! O didn’t strangle people. At least, not to the public's knowledge. 

   He took a sip of his tea, thanking whatever force in the universe had arranged for him to have, at the very least, access to good food and drink at work. 

“Just busy.” He said with a smile. “Things to see, research.” 

Another one of his coworkers scoffed. “Chasing after the aliens again, O?” 

   The Master gripped his fork a little tighter, resisting the urge to stab the woman with it. That was another downside of his current facade; None of the apes he had the displeasure of being near seemed to care or believe about any of his research, even when the signs of alien invasion were right under their noses. It drove him mad to the point where cracks would appear in his disguise; he would have to kill either to cover up the slip or to temporarily quiet his rage. 

   He would still mess with things when he could, causing enough damage to send the world spinning but not enough to alert the Doctor of any wrong-doing. Every time his coworkers would grumble and run around trying to fix the mess he’d created for them. It was a nice bit of revenge, even if he couldn’t take credit for it. 

“Still chasing after aliens.” He confirmed. 

“You’ve got to give it up, man. Focus on other things. There's Torchwood and UNIT for that, isn’t there? Tell you what, you should come out with the boys and I. Meet someone nice, instead of staying cooped up inside all day. What d’you think?” 

He stared at the man blankly. He couldn’t be serious. 

   It took him four days of pestering before he finally entertained the idea. Each day the offer changed. First, they wanted him to join them on a night out. Then, they wanted him to try and flirt with the computer analyst, making bets to see if he would do it. On the third day, they joked about him getting off with aliens. Finally, on the fourth day, they slipped him a piece of paper across the canteen table with smirks. 

His eyes glanced over the folded note, processing the information. There wasn’t much- just a date and a place. 

“What is this?” He asked, trying to make his tone innocent as opposed to annoyed. 

“It’s a blind date. “ He moved to protest but his coworker cut him off, waving a hand. “Don’t worry, man, she’s a nice girl. Works here, too.” 

“I am not going on a ‘blind date’ “ He grumbled. Everyone at the table groaned. 

“Come on, man. You’re going.” 

_________________________________________________

   The Master tugged on the hem of his suit, smoothing out any of the rough edges. It felt nice to dress up, even if he was half-dreading the night that lay ahead of him. He’d entertained humans before in other bodies, even marrying one despite being disgusted by the idea. He didn’t plan on taking things that far at all, seeing as it no longer served purpose, but if the date helped ease his boredom for a moment he would allow it. 

   Even after days of interrogation he still couldn’t determine the identity of who he was meeting. According to the rules of ‘Blind Dates’ you didn’t know you were meeting him either. The small bit of chaos was the only thing that he was looking forward to.

   He flicked his wrist and glanced at the fancy watch placed on it, noting the time. He arrived outside of the restaurant 15 minutes before the dinner began. Men like O tended to be anxious and arrive early. He pushed open the door and smiled at the waitress, resisting the urge to ruin the night for everyone in the building. “Reservation for...Simmons? I’ve got a blind date” The waitress nodded, walking down the aisle.

“She’s already arrived, but she hasn’t been waiting long. Menu’s and wine list are on the table.“ She stepped aside to gesture to one of the chairs, and his eyes landed on his date for the evening. 

_______________

   When your friend brought up the idea of a blind date, you had laughed. She’d been pressing you to be more involved “in the real world’ for months, not knowing that you were involved, just in a different context. It was kind of hard to keep up with gossip and pub trivia nights when you were busy saving the universe. 

   It wasn’t until the Doctor accidentally disappeared for ten days that you became hyper aware of just how lonely your real life was. You’d missed so much during your time on the TARDIS. The silence and awkward conversations finally got to you and you asked your friend about the blind date that she’d mentioned. 

“I know him, he’s great. You can’t know him, though, that's the point, but I do think you’ll hit it off. “ 

   You were sitting alone at the restaurant, getting more anxious every minute you spent alone despite showing up super early. Would he be nice? Would he even show up? Would you really hit it off? If you did, how would you explain to him all of your absences? Maybe the was a mistake. 

    Your worries temporarily subsided, though, when the waitress led a man over to your table. He was gorgeous. You nearly choked on the water you’d just sipped from your glass, eyes scanning over him. His hair was a dark fluffy mass laying neatly combed to the side, framing his (dare you say) adorable face. His smile was wonderful, bright, and all too charming for someone you’d just laid eyes on. 

He sat down and the waitress left, giving you both a small smile as she went. You shifted in your seat, unsure of what to do next. 

“I should say,” He began. “I’ve never done this before.” 

You laughed, and he joined you. “Shall we shake hands or something?” He suggested. You laughed again, feeling yourself start to relax immediately. You reached your hand across the table and he shook it briefly, grinning. “So. Names next, probably.” 

“I’m Y/N” You told him. “You?” 

“O.” 

“Oh?” You said, eyebrows raised. He paused. He’d gotten so used to everyone at MI6 referring to him as such he’d forgotten to maintain a proper ‘real’ name. 

“Sorry, O is a bit of a nickname, something everyone calls me at MI6. My real name is… Harry.” 

“That’s a nice name” You tried. The conversation was a little hard to pick up on at first, so the two of you mainly focused on ordering your food and drinks. When that was settled, you excused yourself to the bathroom to quickly google conversation starters. He seemed nice; the last thing you wanted to do was bore him. 

When you came back, he was swirling his wine, looking bored. Great, you’d failed already. You sat back down, smoothing your dress. 

“So, Harry, what do you do at MI6?” 

He set his glass back down, as if just noticing you’d come back. 

“I dabble, but I specify in researching extraterrestrials” You perked up at the final word. 

“Aliens, do you mean?” If he was researching aliens… talk about a coincidence. Not that you could unload and tell him all about the Doctor, though, even if it was incredibly tempting. He nodded. 

“Aliens, yeah. Not exactly the most popular man at MI6” 

“Why not?” You asked, frowning. He blinked. 

“Well, everyone there isn’t exactly keen on the idea of aliens. They write me off as a mad conspirator.” 

“Well that’s stupid,” You giggled as you took a sip of your wine. Harry watched you for a moment, then grinned broadly. 

“Yeah, yeah it is. You believe in them?” Believe in them? You’d seen them. Fought with them, against them. Traveling with them. But you couldn’t say that, so you nodded eagerly. “Good that's uh, that’s good. I haven’t talked with someone who does in quite a while.” 

   The conversation seemed to flow much more easily after that, snowballing into a night full of sharing and theorizing. You hardly touched your food when it came. 

   It was nearly 10 at night when you started to feel tired and a bit dizzy from the amount of drinking and talking you’d done. Despite the alcohol, you’d managed to properly dodge most of Harry’s questions like “what do you do for fun?” with vague answers like ' ‘I travel” It felt really nice. You felt like you’d found the best of both worlds in Harry: the fun outlandish bit and the normal life bit you’d been trying to reconnect with it. 

   At the end of the night, phone numbers were exchanged and you promised to meet again. Thankfully, the promise was fulfilled. Leaving the TARDIS no longer felt like you were going in for a long day of work. You had something- or, more accurately, someone- to look forward to. 

_____________________________

   The Master’s blood was boiling with a mix of odd emotions. He could feel himself growing quite appreciative of the time he spent with you, but that appreciation made him irritated. You were human; you were a distraction. Yet you felt like much more. Then, he felt angry with himself for being conflicted in the first place. 

   It was nice, though, to have company that didn’t treat him like garbage. He really enjoyed going on dates with you. Sure, sometimes he was completely lost during the movies, but if he had survived Frozen he could survive anything. He much preferred the ‘dates’ that were spent at your flat where you would read and talk about aliens. 

   It took roughly three months for him to start to get suspicious. Well, that was a lie- He was always on the lookout for problems and deception, but he had just started to believe that you were lacking in those departments. It began when his coworkers asked why you hadn’t made things “official” yet. He frankly didn’t care how you wanted to define your relationship, but it made him consider a lot of the inconsistencies he’d ignored. 

   You were rarely reachable by cell and texts were always answered hours after. Even the Doctor answered Whatsapp messages quicker than you did. Then, there were times when you’d been gone for days at a time. Dates where you’d show up out of breath and in a different outfit then you’d been in all day- even if you were arriving to your own flat. 

   Slowly but surely, he started to notice things during your talks as well. You knew a lot more than you were letting on about aliens. He began to include facts that couldn’t possibly be known by any human scientist or historian. You were so absorbed you didn’t even notice yourself nodding along and even adding some of your own. Silly human. 

   You had fallen asleep on the couch 45 minutes ago, curled up into his side. His eyes didn’t leave you. He was disappointed. Not only in you, for being one of her pets, but in himself for somehow getting attached to you. How could someone so wonderful be such an inconvenience? With a sigh, he brushed your hair behind your ear and connected his fingers to your temple. 

Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed.

    He sifted through memories of meeting the Doctor and exploring the universe with her. Facing all kinds of villains no matter the fear  you felt. Meeting him for the first time, quickly falling for his charms. He smiled lightly and pocketed a copy of that memory for himself. It would be difficult, he supposed, when he finally got the Doctor back on Earth and enacted his brilliant plan. But with time, and a little effort, he could get you on his side where you belonged.

[cyberneticpeoplespolis]

On Blockading

A treatise on NVDA tactics from a Marxist perspective.

Update: 2019 edition!

I’m updating “On Blockading” for several reasons: For starters; this post got more popular than I could have predicted and that carries with it a greater responsibility to give up-to-date advice. There have also been several developments in Direct Action tactics in Aotearoa since I wrote this: the Weapons Expo has been officially kicked out of New Zealand thanks, in part, to the success of the 2018 blockade I wrote about here. I’ve also been a part of subsequent movements like the Ihumaatao campaign where Direct Action tactics were once again used. These experiences, as well as finding out how horrendously incorrect some parts of this guide were, meant I needed to revisit this piece and bring it up to date.

An introduction to NVDA in New Zealand Non-Violent Direct Action is the backbone of several movements in Aotearoa, a long and proud tradition that has historically seen successes in anti-nuclear proliferation, anti-racism, indigenous rights and anti-imperialism. 

When US warships threatened to bring nuclear-capable missiles to NZ, community organisers built boats in their backyards, or got their rich friends drunk enough to agree to lend a yacht, so that they could amass a flotilla to harass US Navy submarines and missile cruisers. The blockades grew so successful (in part thanks to the sheer inability of the NZ Police to acquire adequate boats) that public pressure resulted in Nuclear-free legislation that amounted to a policy against port visits by major US Warships. When the Government’s resolve weakened and a visit by the nuclear-capable USS Buchanan seemed likely, it was once again groups of blockaders who forced the state’s hand into enforcing the Nuclear Free policy.

In 1981, a tour by Apartheid South Africa’s Springbok rugby team prompted a nationwide anti-racist movement that effectively halted the tour at several points through the use of Direct Action tactics. Organisers studied tactics from overseas closely, and developed several innovative solutions to state violence. Makeshift helmets and armor were common where clashes with the Police were likely, and the last test in the tour came to an abrupt end when Marx Jones flew a light aircraft over the pitch, dropping bombs made of flour and paper bags.

However the Springbok tour also showed the other side of NVDA. Many organisers suffered concussions, PTSD and other injuries and trauma that prevented them from continuing to work. A whole generation of talented activists were taken out of commission by targeted beatings and arrests - a sobering reminder that no matter how innovative our tactics are, the State retains a monopoly on violence, and will use it mercilessly when needed. Since the late 80s, NVDA has continued under the banner of the Peace movement, which remained strong but was ultimately sent into decline somewhat by the total devastation of NZ Unions between 1984 and 1991. The peace movement has been comprised of a mish-mash of anarchist, catholic worker, Tino Rangatiratanga activists, church groups and other miscellaneous community organisations. It also had a strong Marxist component from the early days right up until the global collapse of socialist groups in the 90s. 

NVDA In 21st Century Aotearoa

In Aotearoa the main site of struggle that involved NVDA was the repeated attempt by peace activists to prevent the New Zealand Defense Industry Association from hosting trade conferences with major arms manufacturers, aviation companies, shipbuilders and private security firms. These forums, known as the “Weapon’s Expo” or “Wexpo,” happened yearly, usually around October, ever since the purchase of ANZAC navy frigates in the 1980s until the cancellation of the 2019 Wexpo. While in 2018, in the face of increasing public scrutiny, the event organisers claimed to not be showcasing any weapons, media access was restricted, and even if weapons were not conspicuously on display, delegates were still free to deal in them, or make profits on innocuous items that could be reinvested into arms manufacturing. 

In 2018, despite a distant location, bad weather, vastly increased police presence, road checkpoints, extensive defensive barriers, intimidation tactics and fewer activists, we were still able to shut down the conference for many hours each day, using creative tactics.

The remainder of this treatise is an exposition and refinement of the tactics used in our blockades of the 2018 Weapons Expo in Palmerston North. I write this both for domestic comrades who weren’t able to attend, and for international comrades who may be able to apply some of our tactics in an increasingly unpredictable world. 

Blockade Tactics

In previous years, blockades were conducted in loose affinity groups centred around contingents from various left organisations. These groups were often uncoordinated, but also very fluid, hard to disperse, and generally able to cause chaos. Unfortunately these tactics were not always effective at keeping activists safe, and the arrest and injury rate at previous years was unacceptable. 

During the debrief after the first day of blockades, our group reached a number of conclusions, especially after other groups commented on our cohesiveness and discipline. This was because we recognised the need for set roles within the group - namely, a coordinator, a radio operator, and a scout. The coordinator is able to make tactical decisions, the radio operator is able to devote full attention to staying in touch with other groups, and the scout is able to keep an eye on the overall situation away from the action. These three set roles needed to be known by the whole group, and needed to keep their distance from major actions so that they could continue doing their job. 

The blockade team on the other hand was comprised of activists willing to directly confront police, and entrust any major decision making to the coordinator. This authority was necessary as most NVDA tactics require a degree of discipline so that individuals do not break a line, such as by stepping back from the action without finding a replacement.

In addition to the roles, we realised that some basic commands were necessary: these were:

Spread out: The blockade group disperses

Come Together: The blockade group converges

Lock: The blockade group locks arms and forms a tight line

Starfish: The blockade group lays down on the ground

We found it necessary for all group members to repeat the command as soon as they heard it so that all members could hear the call. We will now go into the tactics associated with the latter two commands.

Locking versus Police Lines

On the first day of action, after pulling down the first defensive barrier, we were confronted with the first police line. This included officers from the so-called “grab squads” who were identifiable by their black gloves, and were tasked with randomised arrests. Luckily, enough of the activists present had been trained in the correct way to lock arms and defend against a police line. Turning away from the police (if you are facing away you're less likely to be falsely accused of assault), we locked elbows, with our fists facing inwards. Our group split into the blockading team, and the coordinators - the radio op, coordinator and scout - as supporters outside the line were necessary to keep an eye on developments. 

This formation was effective at preventing the easy arrest of random members (although one was pulled out successfully). However, it cannot hold indefinitely - the police are allowed to touch you, but the lightest tap on their shoulder is grounds for an assault charge. This prevents the line from simply pushing back. Ultimately it is an extremely passive formation that is only good for temporary delays. To counter the police line, you must make the police fear that their line cannot contain the crowd, however this is only applicable in situations where Police aren’t likely to simply panic and start assaulting people, such as a situation where there is considerable media coverage. Building up a force of activists on the flanks, while the police are spread out evenly across the road, creates a situation where the police will fear that you are going to be able to push through. In a situation where their duty is to protect something behind them, they will usually retreat to a narrower choke point if they cannot maintain a line.  Successful applications of NVDA aren’t about passivity - it is about actively making the police have to reconsider their tactics by adapting to changes. The basic strategy is outlined below.

Starfishing versus convoys. In a situation where the police are trying to move a cargo (in our case, weapons company delegates), it is often necessary to stop vehicles in the road. The most effective method of using bodies to block a vehicle that we have found is the Starfish. Although, like many NVDA tactics, it assumes your opponent has a conscience - in practice, the drivers were sometimes willing to threaten the lives of activists in order to deliver the delegates on time. 

The starfish constitutes four or more activists either sitting or prone on the road, arms interlocked in a circle facing inward or outward. Prone starfish usually result in the police pulling at activist’s legs, while sitting starfish are easier to pull apart at the arms. In order for a starfish to work - there needs to be effective support teams around them. The starfishing action is pretty hard on everyone’s bodies - not only are your elbows, hips or knees on hard bitumen, but police are often pulling at legs, hair or arms. The support team needs to be bringing water, filming police violence, informing drivers of their legal responsibilities (to not put protesters in danger), and keeping an eye on the situation and radios. In addition, support activists must get around the back of the vehicle to prevent reversing. Cars, lock-ons and other actions can all support the starfish.

Mobile Groups Due to the number of activists involved in a blockade group, it can be difficult to load everyone into cars and keep mobile. Drivers get lost or lag behind, members don’t hear the call to pull back, and generally the group will lose cohesion after a few hours of action. Larger blockade groups therefore were more effective on foot, where they could find strength in numbers, and individual car-loads of activists could not become separated. This also created issues on the first day. Police convoys were able to follow unusual routes to get to the venue, and for a while, the police had the initiative and could choose when and where to confront us. All struggle is about regaining the initiative - choosing your battles and turning passive or reactive action into unexpected action.  To keep mobile, and to help us strike in locations the police didn’t expect, we found it necessary to create rolling blockade groups, that were centred not on a large group of activists, but rather an eight-seat van. These vans are relatively common, and many activist groups will have access to at least one or two. And from our experience, just one was a very potent force. On the second day, the police forces were gathered early in the morning around the arena. The previous day had been centred around the eastern entrances to the stadium, so roughly a hundred police were patrolling the eastern street. What they did not expect was for mobile blockade teams to arrive at the starting point for their convoys rather than the destination!

The van’s objective was to be relayed information on convoys by the scouts to the radio operator, the navigator would plot the estimated movements of a bus, and find a location to intercept it. The driver would approach the convoy as it moved towards the Weapons Expo and block its path forward. In the confusion, the two “blockers” exited the van and blocked the forward and back routes, while the van rolled up alongside the bus. The van was equipped with a ladder, firmly attached to a pallet on the roof. The ladder was lowered onto the bus, where a climber, assisted by another activist holding the ladder and any supplies they might need, would board the roof of the bus. The blockers would then inform the driver that they had been boarded, and it would be illegal to move until they come down. This process is displayed below.

The bus, now relatively immobilised, would have to wait for the police to arrive with ladders before proceeding. This gave blockade teams the time to get to the bus on foot and prevent any police counteraction. These tactics were more effective than our wildest expectations - for example, just one of these mobile blockade vans was able to stop three buses of delegates (perhaps 120 people overall) from leaving their hotels! All with only eight activists. 

Criticisms of NVDA

NVDA is not Adventurism

The criticism that direct action constitutes an “Adventurism” has its roots in several conflicts in the 19th century, in particular conflicts between Marxists and advocates of Bakuninist programmes, ie. those which emphasise spontaneity, strikes and direct action rather than the prior building of party structures.

An article by Lenin - Revolutionary Adventurism - that appeared in Iskra in 1902 illustrates this well. In it, Lenin denounces the defense of terrorism offered by the Narodnik Socialist-Revolutionaries, who had advocated for a campaign of assassinations against Tsarist ministers... Already we can begin to see the false equivalency central to accusations of adventurism, NVDA is obviously totally dissimilar to terrorist assassinations.

The central point of Lenin’s criticism is that he refutes the SR’s claim that terrorist activities are able to transfer power from the state to the revolutionaries. He is correct in that it doesn’t follow that blowing up a minister would result in growth of the revolutionary movement, or that that minister’s power would somehow be gained through a destructive act. In this instance there is no transference of power, and so we can begin to see why a critique of NVDA as adventurism formed on the left - can we be sure that NVDA helps to build the revolutionary movement? This is a valid question that we should be asking, but in practice I think it is obvious. NVDA actions are, at their best, blockades of state apparatuses, or private interests that support the repressive apparatuses of the state. If we’re to make private industry grind to a halt, it's clear that we will need to eventually block the choke points of capital. But before that, do blockades assist in building the movement? It is clear that we can’t jump ahead to blocking off key industries in our tiny numbers, so is there a form of blockade that is effective, not only at wounding the state, but also building our own power?

To this I would offer our own experiences as an organisation engaged in NVDA as an example of blockading as a means of building the movement. NVDA, when done well, is not the actions of a small group of professionalised activists, but rather an expression of worker’s sentiment towards repression, it can also weaken the state (by preventing the army and police from effectively operating), build the experience of the organisation for later decisive blockades and galvanise public sentiment against the state (wherever undue repression is seen). None of these statements are true of the adventurist terrorism that Lenin denounced, and unlike the actions of the SRs, our participation in blockades involved a clear transference of power, and came at little cost to our organisations.

NVDA is not the same as Pacifism

As socialists, we are rarely pacifists. We recognise that the state, at its essence, is simply the police and army, and as such it comprises a tool of class repression. At a certain point, dangers to the capitalist class will be dealt with with violence, and we can’t fail to defend our friends and comrades simply because of vague moralistic sentiments. That being said, we should recognise that, at the current stage, pacifists have a lot to contribute to the struggle, and we are not yet at a stage where the state can operate unfettered by middle class morality. The media operates as a means for middle class morality to interfere with struggle - and this can either be to the benefit or the detriment of a worker’s movement depending on whether we are seen as active or passive actors in any struggle. Since middle class morality seeks to preserve the status-quo, it values passivity in the face of violence. For these reasons, if socialists are operating in a media-heavy environment, it sometimes helps to be seen as passive victims of police violence. We usually are anyway.

That being said, since NVDA often seeks to directly interfere with the everyday operations of capitalism, it is almost never seen as pacifistic by the media. The violence and anger of protesters is emphasised even when it is clear that the police are beating them and not vice-versa. Nonetheless, until middle class morality breaks down completely (as it will in a crisis), NVDA is our only means of direct strategic interference in production and exchange without bringing down the full force of the state on our movement. This is different to the popular conception of pacifism as passivity in the face of danger.

NVDA in future.

I hope that this post inspires comrades to pursue NVDA in areas where a direct intervention in the apparatuses of capital is necessary to build power and further the struggle. What the people of Aotearoa achieved is truly remarkable and it is doubtful that the NZDIA will be able to continue funding conferences like this in the future. In a world where the state apparatuses will only grow more brutal we need to begin taking action in meaningful ways - not as an individual display of adventurism, but as a mass movement capable of strangling the neck of capitalism in our home.

[entrepreneurdesigners]

Teaching Entrepreneurship through In-Public Experiential Learning

Insights from the Teach the 1K Workshop

In February 2019, @xuhulk​ and I convened Teach the 1K — a multi-event gathering of over 40 entrepreneurship educators and activators from a variety of backgrounds—academic, community-based, for-profit, non-profit—to teach them how to teach the $1K Challenge:

Design, launch and complete a crowdfunding campaign that benefits a community you’ve worked with over the course of the semester. The campaign should raise at least $1,000 from 50 different backers.

We ran this workshop because after collectively teaching for 7 years, we were at a crossroads with our work.

We’d seen how transformational the $1K Challenge could be as a teaching tool, and that the lessons the students learned through that experience were only becoming more and more important for the broader public.

There was tremendous potential, but it wasn’t clear how to scale it beyond ourselves. So, we decided to convene a gathering of relevant folks to see if we could teach them how to teach the $1K Challenge.

Here’s what we learned.

Teach the 1K Insights

1. There is a burgeoning interest in teaching people to confront uncertainty.

When we launched the Teach the 1K Workshop, we decided to frame it as an opportunity for teachers to learn how to teach people to confront uncertainty.

We were concerned this framing might be too abstract and thus fail to attract sufficiently qualified participants.

As it turns out, that concern was unsupported. The response was so strong and clear that we created a second event to accommodate the demand.

In retrospect, this shouldn’t have been a surprise. We’re not the only ones to recognize the need for a different, more equitable, approach that is relevant to a broad range of creators, whether they’re optimizing for economic value or social value.

2. The heart of entrepreneurship is exploration, which is rarely taught.

The heart of entrepreneurship — no matter which flavor — is about navigating and confronting uncertainty. We refer to this as exploring, and it is distinct from training the labor force to work in the venture industrial complex.

Many of the existing approaches we have for fostering entrepreneurship are selection mechanisms intended to surface investment opportunities, not opportunities to teach people to explore. While there are efforts to coach and mentor entrepreneurs, the stakes are either too high, or the experience is conflated with the separate challenge of raising capital.

Generally speaking, people aren’t being taught to explore. Our current educational system is optimized for training people to climb ladders rather than to sail the open seas.

The fundamentals of how to explore can be taught in a consistent and repeatable fashion, but doing so is a distinctly different practice from teaching skill acquisition (especially at scale). Everything from the interaction model to the economics of what sustains such an effort needs to be carefully considered.

3. What makes the $1K Challenge an effective teaching tool is that it takes place in public.

Many lessons are best learned through experience rather than lectures, and this requires that the students pursue real projects with real consequences.

Unequivocally, we have found that it is this decision — that the students pursue a challenge with real-life outcomes outside of their control — that is the most critical enabler in teaching people to explore and confront uncertainty.

The $1K Challenge is an example of what we call In-Public Experiential Learning.

4. Online public spaces create new opportunities for In-Public Experiential Learning

The rise of online public platforms like Kickstarter and Twitter has resulted in an exciting arena for In-Public Experiential Learning.

By leveraging Kickstarter, for example, we inherit the constraints of the platform, which make it easier for someone to launch something as audacious as an original idea. We also benefit from the resources Kickstarter provides to any creator, not to mention the collective wisdom of past creators. Twitter creates a space where by the students’ projects can be discovered (or not) by a receptive audience.

In essence, Kickstarter is the boat, Twitter is the open sea, and our 16-week course provides the prompt (the $1K Challenge), the training, and a safe harbor.

Once the student launches, the outcomes are out of everyone’s control — which is a valuable lesson in itself. As a class, they’re going out to sea together and coming back with personalized lessons which inevitably benefit everyone.

This is just one example of an educational experience that is built on this new terrain. Done well, there’s a huge unrealized opportunity to create similar educational experiences across all online public space.

The hard part is figuring out how to craft the right challenge with a clear success or failure mode that encourages the student to willingly jump in, and the necessary safeguards for guiding participants to the endpoint with minimal risk.

5. In-Public Experiential Learning requires resilient instructional systems.

The experience of teaching an in-public challenge introduces an additional layer of chaos and complexity in the form of unpredictable student outcomes and obstacles.

This can be overwhelming for both the student and the teacher. By taking the students out of carefully controlled conditions, you are subjecting them to the entropy of the world, which can surface many irrational fears and reflexes. Similarly, as instructors, it’s inordinately expensive to support a whole cohort of students working in this manner.

The key to managing this is to build resilient systems in lieu of defaulting to “hero mode”, where student challenges are resolved solely through increased individual effort by the teacher.

Such systems include things like:

leveraging our own personal and professional networks for student project feedback,

building software tools to automate mundane tasks, and

establishing rituals where the students share some responsibility.

Thinking of teaching as a set of systems means that we can do more than just react; we can pre-empt problems, point out inefficiencies, and continually iterate.

6. The $1K Challenge is a specific implementation, not an adaptable framework.

Our hypothesis going into the workshop was that the $1K Challenge was one of the best ways to actually teach people to explore and confront uncertainty, and that other educators could potentially modify it to fit their contexts.

In reality, it would be more effective to teach other instructors at the level of abstraction right above that.

The $1K Challenge has worked well for us because over the years, we tailored it precisely to our context — teaching first-year graduate students in the SVA MFA in Interaction Design program. We built a precise obstacle course that accounts for our students’ strengths and weaknesses — as well as our own — and considers the constraints and the institutional context in which we operated. The process we have shared here is the outcome of seven years of optimization.

While there are many components of the $1K Challenge that can be borrowed or adapted, it’s ultimately too custom-built to serve as a starting point for other educators and activators, especially those working in very different contexts.

Rather than teach the $1K Challenge, the more impactful (and scalable) approach may be to share what we know about designing and operating In-Public Experiential Learning programs, and to help people create programs customized to their context — whether they’re coming from academia, government, non-profits or for-profits.

Hot Takes

No blog post is complete without some hot-takes. Here are a mix of trends and insights, all of which are worthy of longer posts in themselves. Each of these represent opportunities for further exploration.

1. We will see new a whole bunch of educational experiences that take place in the new networked public. 

The $1K Challenge is but one example of what can be done. However, most of what we see in online education is skill acquisition or a straight port of offline classrooms to an online container. There’s a huge opportunity to create fun and powerful experiential educational experiences, akin to Pokemon Go. This doesn’t mean that classrooms are irrelevant—in fact, quite the opposite. Classrooms provide space for cohorts to support and learn from each other—which is key for experiential programs—and IRL will always be more compelling than virtual. Related, we’ll also see a fair amount of innovation in networked teaching models.

2. Teaching is a horizontal practice that’s increasingly relevant outside of academia. 

For a certain class of companies, Education will graduate from being a Support or Marketing activity, to being a core function that reports into the CEO. It’ll be the most effective way to grow and retain customers/users while simultaneously becoming a powerful input into the product development process.

3. Build (or join) a community before you begin to build a product. 

The first “product” you attempt to build should be the thing that either coalesces the community you want to serve, or grants you trusted access to an existing community. In most cases, it should notbe an MVP of your idea. Done right, you’ll have less guesswork on the road to product market fit, lower user acquisition costs, and a built-in group of advocates—if not customers—you can build for and with. Or, you may discover they’re not who you should be building for at all. If you fail to coalesce a community, it’s a non-starter. Start over. (Note: this idea is the undercurrent of the most recent version of the course.)

4. Mission-driven entrepreneurship is a different process from what’s been popularized. 

There are many flavors of entrepreneurship, and they all optimize for different outcomes—wealth creation, agency, impact, are some examples. In all cases, you can’t escape the laws of physics—at some point you will need to figure out how to financially sustain your work. Often, the biggest hurdle is the mindset shift from “what you can dream up” to “what will actually work”. If you are optimizing for a mission over wealth creation—meaning you’d rather shut everything down than pivot to a completely unrelated random business—you have an added level of difficulty in that you will need to figure all of this out as early as possible. Otherwise, things may get really complicated. Furthermore, you may need ignore the majority of the advice, programs, and support infrastructure out there, simply because they just don’t apply to you. Honestly, the best approach you can probably take is #3.

The Teach the 1K Insights were co-written with Christina Xu and can be found on our website Post-Industrial Design School along with an archive of the Teach the 1K Workshop, our course materials, student blogposts and much more. Hot Takes are written entirely by Gary.

Post-Industrial Design School is an experiential learning lab run by Christina Xu and Gary Chou.

[gothsic]

@spacymuses​ said: DARKNESS!                    ↳ halloween-ish starter prompts.

it was the kind of place best designed for someone such as himself - a getaway from the wild life of venice beach. lately, some manager had been courting him for whatever reason; his language seemed to match too. lots of “honeys” and “dears” - it really was quite obnoxious. but the truth was that jonathan was running out of options. in the industry, he was considered toxic waste - and indeed, he knew this quite well. it was troubling, in fact, the more he thought of it. no matter how many meetings he went to, how many smiling executives he shook hands with, what was it all for? it was always a “thanks, we’ll call you later” sort of deal where the creator was thrown to the dogs.

how pathetic.

the moment he was sinking deeper and deeper into these thoughts, however, as though they were the limitless mariana’s trench, the lights went out. at 1 a.m. in the morning.

the relentless honking and beeping of the city outside devolved into chaos - it seemed that the entire block had lost power. what in the fucking world? was this for real? just four days before halloween, and this was how life decided to throw a curveball at him.

well, luckily for him, his good ol’ aspiring manager was just a door or two down the hall. that was one of the requirements to live there, a pushy little statement he threw his way. live close by! it’s great! better than los angeles, so superficial and fake there. not like manhattan, not like nearby times square. surely luka had been kidding - but no, there seemed to be some genuine sense of belief in the pitch, if jonathan remembered correctly.

if it had even happened like that.

jonathan let out a deep sigh and exited his apartment, using his phone as a flashlight and walking towards luka’s door - again, just two doors down from his own. easy. not a tough trip. but an annoying one. better to spend it with someone else and potentially mine them for ideas rather than spend it all alone like some LOSER who had nothing better to do on a friday night ( though it was not a friday night. may as well have been, though. ).

begrudgingly, with his lips pursed of course, he knocked on the door, and leaned against the wall.

“ listen, man, i know you’re in there. really excellent first few weeks in this place - i’d rate it a solid 10/10. unless the building is haunted. “

why he decided to make the sentence that long with the door closed, however, was beyond him. call it enjoying the sound of his own voice in the stillness, in the darkness, where anything could lurk.

[charcherry-weekly]

Charcherry Weekly - Issue 77

Heya peeps, Mage of Light Nick Card here! Got another leg of travels to cover this week!

Kisibuza Chaos!

This week, your dear newsletter writer, and bug catching expert Heir of Void Mimi So &so have been doing some exploration on planet Kisibuza, searching for bug Pokemon. There were minimal results here. The location we arrived at was quite difficult to traverse, as there were large rocks and rubble blocking the way through the canyon. After only being able to locate a few nincada in the canyon, we travelled onwards and arrived in a town populated by tetrarchs. Neither of us had met a tetrarch in person, only having seen them in the form of the twin statues that were unwittingly retrieved from the voidco dungeon once located here. They are much shorter than the statues, but still taller than me or my partner. I'd estimate roughly... 7 or 8 feet tall on average?

Upon arriving, we were asked if we had anything to do with the weird cult recruiter that showed up. Naturally, I said no, and that we were just here to relocate the foreign bug pokemon that may have wandered there. Unfortunately, they were still suspicious of us and took us to the local police station for questioning. The main reason they were suspicious was due to being accompanied by a void player and knowing about pokemon. While Mimi was not in their void player garb, there were reports of an alleged "similar voidlike aura", as well as the previous void player having such a forgettable face that the one they were looking for could have easilly be any void player to the untrained eye. Mimi may have gotten offended by the accusation and was thrown into the slammer shortly afterwards. They then proceeded to phase through the bars, prompting the jailers to freak out. Meanwhile, I proceeded to do my journalistic duty and attempted to obtain information on the alleged cultist group. I was handed a flyer with the following message on it:

Do you dream of a utopia? Leave your old life behind and start anew on a distant island on another world! Live alongside mystical and powerful pokemon in harmony! Contact hauntingTroubadour for details.

After this, I attempted to contact the owner of the chumhandle to confirm things:

-- lavenderSiren [LS] began pestering hauntingTroubadour [HT] -- LS: Hello? this is Mage of Light Nick Card, writer for the Charcherry Weekly. May I have a word with you, regarding the flyer found on Kisibuza? HT: Hm, a fellow player of the game? LS: Yeah HT: I guess I could answer a few questions. My playergroup is a big fan of your work, by the way. LS: I see. First of all, are the allegations accurate regarding rumors of a cult? HT: Is that what they're calling it? If anything, its more like a micronation than a cult. LS: Where would this micronation be located, might I ask? HT: That, I'm afraid, I'm not at liberty to reveal quite yet. HT: We want to make sure the launch goes off without a hitch, and a publically known location could throw a couple hundred wrenches into the whole operation. LS: Fair enough. Can you at least say what planet its located on? HT: Yeah, I figure that's vague enough. Its on Starter Planet. You'd think the president would figure out a better name for this world than that by now. LS: President Katie's got more important matters to attend to than renaming a planet. Half the worlds in Desertian territory just have basic terrain number names anyways. LS: Which brings me to my next question. Has your group gone through proper channels in order to establish this micronation? Like, I'm not sure what's required exactly, but I figure something that's attracting outsiders is going to need at least some sorta paperwork. HT: Our accountant is currently working on that. There's been delays this month, but he's getting a feeling that the legal process should be able to proceed soon. LS: I see. I wish the best of luck to your accountant with that. HT: Thank you. Will that be all? LS: I still have more. This is the handle to contact in case of wanting to join your mysterious micronation in legal limbo, correct? HT: Yes, though its not exactly mine. Our time rogue runs things, I just handle the recruitment and transportation. Are you interested in moving? LS: No, I actually have other plans, but thank you. HT: Keep in mind, this offer will last until the end of the month. after that, the offer will be unavailable through this channel. LS: Uh, okay then. LS: I believe that's the extent of my questions for now. I hope this will be enough to get me and my bugcatching friend out of police custody. HT: Excuse me HT: what LS: The cops in the town of Visvikarshar have come to assume that myself and an heir of void are associated with your group and are highly suspicious of our business after reported activity from your alleged "cultist" group in the area. HT: wow, seriosly? HT: You two need any help busting out? LS: Mimi managed to slip out, but they're being chased and I'm not exactly the most interested in being this close to law enforcement. HT: Question: do you two plan on going back there aqny time soon? LS: Uh, probably not? like, we didn't find very many bug pokemon here and the weather's pretty hot around here. HT: You're welcome LS: Uh.... thanks??? LS: Where are we anyways? HT: That's for me to know and for you to forget. -- hauntingTroubadour [HT] ceased pestering lavenderSiren [LS] --

During the tail end of this conversation, I had fallen into a hole of some sort, later waking up under the gazebo in charcherry square. Mimi was nowhere to be found, assumed to have been voidnapped or still on the run. I do hope that they are safe, wherever they are.

That being said, please exercise caution when you contact mysterious unknown individuals.

In much more relieving news, Warlock of Time Coleman has been confirmed to be doing just fine and has neither been stricken with the mysterious draining that a few of the time players had dealt with, nor has gone anywhere further beyond his usual routes.

Recently he had apparently sent a plush Snom to Bard of Time Gararl, in response to the featured story last week. Taking a moment to contact Gararl for comment, they are grateful for the gift, especially considering it does not need to be fed or put in a cold location.

Meanwhile, I've been still carrying that egg in a backpack, and that larvesta has been showing up fairly often. The larvesta didn't go to Kisibuza, but did show up when I woke up back in charcherry. Considering it likely has the ability that would make it good at hatching eggs, I'm highly considering officially adopting it.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe try to take it easy next week and just check some local sites? Are there any places that might be in danger if bug pokemon persist there for too long? Please leave a reply if you have any requests. https://letssosl.boards.net/thread/300/charcherry-weekly-issue-77

[thesffcorner]

Dishonored Retrospective Part 5: DLC Changes and the Knife of Dunwall

The first four parts of this retrospective covered the base game. Part 5 will look at the DLC, specifically its changes in the first installment, the Knife of Dunwall. 

Dishonored got two story expansions: The Knife of Dunwall was the first, followed by the Brigmore Witches. Both are set in Dunwall, and in both you play as the assassin Daud.

The expansion starts a lot of trends and improvements that become staples of the latter games, like the villains, the inclusion of some sort of gang conflict, the introduction of corrupt/black bonecharms and favours/contracts.

The first and most notable one is that we no longer have a silent protagonist. I like this change a lot, not least because it would have been incredibly weird to have Daud voiced in the original and not in the expansion. Michael Madsen reprises his role and he’s even better in this DLC; he gets more lines and more time to shine and develop Daud’s voice and character.

There is a lot of debate surrounding voiced vs silent protagonists, but personally I prefer the latter. It helps cement the character’s personality, and actually allows for dialogue and real interaction. Instead of pressing 1 of two prompts in response to someone just standing in front of you and talking at you, you can have an actual ‘scene’ with dialogue and personality and ‘gasp’ character development.

The change from Corvo to Daud marks another improvement. While you technically can still play as Corvo in Dishonored 2, it’s clear that Emily is the intended protagonist, which makes each instalment have a different lead through which we experience the world and story.

Speaking of, let’s quickly go over that!

Story:

The Knife of Dunwall (KoD) takes place right after Jessamine’s murder. Daud is already having second thoughts, not helped by a visit from the Outsider who mentions the name Delilah. He starts trying to figure out who or what Delilah is, and this quest takes him from the bowels of the ports to the glittering streets of the Financial District.

Brigmore Witches (BW) takes place directly after and sees Daud go on the offensive, for his final confrontation with Delilah, now that he knows who and what she is.

Unlike the original, the story here is more of a mystery rather than a revenge, which I really like. Daud has already done the deed; not only has he killed Jessamine, he has had an entire lifetime of killing that he can’t easily (or at all) make up for. So figuring out who Delilah is and how she ties in with Hiram Burrows and Jessamine isn’t just for the player’s convenience of having a plot; it also literary is about saving Daud’s soul, whether you chose to play a redemptive or destructive path.

Gameplay:

The chaos system is the same from the previous game, but the extremes have slightly changed. In the original, doing a non-lethal playthrough earned you an achievement called Clean Hands, whereas here it’s Cleaner Hands. It’s fitting, both because Daud is after all, as assassin, but also because from what I know you can’t do an entirely non-lethal playthorugh.

On the flip-side, high chaos still allows you to destroy everyone and anything, and gives you a different ending. I don’t know how different the ending is, since I’ve never played on high chaos, but I do know that the ending is already hard on low chaos so I don’t need or want an extra challenge.

In terms of gameplay, there are a lot of small changes that I found really improved the experience. First off, Daud has more weapons that are non-lethal. He has his chokedust, and his electric bolts, and his shock mines, which are ironically, more options than what Corvo had. Additionally he doesn’t have a crossbow; he has an Assassin’s Creed style launcher in his sleeve.

Daud, like Corvo is marked, but his abilities are slightly different. His Void Gaze combines Corvo’s Dark Vision and the heart, highlighting both enemies and runes; Blink teleports Daud in a slightly different way, by slowing time; and Summon Assassins which again, similarly to an ability in Assassin’s Creed summons Assassin helpers.

Like Corvo, Daud also can upgrade his abilities with runes and bonecharms, except this is the first time the developers include corrupt and black bonecharms. These give advantages but also have downsides, like wasting more mana or depleting health or generally having some downside that the player has to balance out. I personally don’t find bonecharms that useful outside of a collector standpoint, so I’ve never had an issue with the balancing, but I do think it’s a neat addition, especially on higher difficulties.  

As for the enemies, there are quite a few new ones. For starters KoD doesn’t have any Wheepers, but instead there are Overseers, City Watch and most importantly a new gang called the Hatters. We’ll talk more about both of these when we get to characters.

In BW, Wheepers make a return, along with more Overseers and City Watch, as well as two new group which I absolutely adore, because as I said in my Dishonored post, this is the first time we get female enemies! The two groups are the Hatters’ rival gang the Dead Eels, and Delilah’s coven of Witches.

Characters:

Daud is our protagonist, and he is a more interesting presence than Corvo, if only because he actually talks. He makes quite a few jokes too; my favorite is him telling two of his assassins who want to betray him to the Officers that he’ll come quietly.

Daud’s main conflict that follows him through both expansions, is his misgivings on killing Jessamine. He starts questioning the life he has lead and wondering how much of what he has done has been his own choice and how much has been subtly guided by the Outsider. There is a lot of debate about whether his decision to go after Delilah and stopping her from taking over Emily is really altruistic or motivated by a selfish, shallow need to ‘redeem himself’, and either way you land, the fact that there is this much discussion in the first place speaks of good writing. While there is some question of how ‘good’ Corvo is, you can actually play him entirely non-lethally and it’s easier to get on board with a wrongfully accused character than a man who has spent a good 30 years of his life killing. But I like that a lot about Daud, and the questions that he himself raises about faith and responsibility and regret are all fascinating themes that are way more interesting than anything raised in the base game.

Other important characters are: Delilah, Billie Lurk, Lizzy Stride, Barister Timsh, Thalia Timsh, Burndry Rothwild, Nurse Trimble, and the Old Geezer.

Level Breakdown:

The Knife of Dunwall has three levels, while the Brigmore Witches has four. Like before, we have a mix of city levels and single location levels, and some of these, like the first level of KoD and the third level in BW are on par with Flooded District in length.

The game starts with a short cut-scene and a visit to the Void. The Outsider is not happy with Daud; it’s clear whatever affection or relationship the two have had has long since ended, and it’s especially funny as the Outsider is about to mark Corvo to essentially replace Daud.

There is no Hound Pits Pub-like area where Daud can relax and shop, so you start each level with an upgrade screen. This is where we are introduced to Favors, a concept that gets even further developed with the Black Markets and Contracts in the sequel.

Favors are small things that Daud can pay for to make the game slightly easier or open up different paths of playing, such as purchasing extra tanks of whale oil to be put in a specific location or having a bonecharm hidden somewhere in the level. They are useful and can sometimes be done without, but sometimes, especially on medium chaos they make the job a lot easier.

A Captain of Industry:

The first level sees Daud breaking into the Rothwild Processing Plant and Refinery. The man who owns it, Rothwild is a ruthless businessman who is in the process of rather brutally crushing a workers strike in his factory. What Daud needs from Rothwild is actually information about his boat called Delilah.

The roofs outside the factory is where we first meet Billie Lurk, hands down the best character in this entire series. Billie is one of Daud’s assassins and point-woman, the best and smartest of all his Whalers. She is a snarky, no-nonsense person who will question Daud and banter with him during and in between missions.

For now, she informs Daud that punch cards are revoked because of the strike, making it difficult to get inside.

This is a good time to talk about the new enemy of this area: the Butchers. They are an imposing, lumbering yet fast gigantic enemies who kill you in a really gruesome way by burring their circular saws in your flesh. These enemies were horrifying the first time I played this level; their design is genuinely great, and makes for a fun contrast with Rothwild once you actually get to see him. The game sets you up to think he will likewise be a gigantic butcher, but instead is a skinny man who looks less intimidating than Piero.

Entering the Slaughterhouse isn’t easy and required you to acquire a punch card. This also potentially lets you see the prison where those who dared go on strike are held; again some rather gruesome imagery which at this point is par for the course for this world.

The Whale Butchers are like the regular Butcher’s jacked up cousin. They have a gigantic saw in the front and the engine of a tallboy in the back and are one hell of a monstrosity to fight. Best to avoid or bolt them. The Slaughterhouse itself is huge and contains a lot of interlocking rooms; it’s a perfect example of a single location level done right.  

There are several side-quests to be completed here, one of them being putting a whale out of its misery in the Refining Room where he is being slowly electrocuted and leaking oil and bodily liquids on the floor. This space is incredible and grim as hell; the Butchers, the sounds the whale makes, the enormity of the room, it’s all a brilliant piece of world building. It’s probably my favorite area in the whole DLC.

The rest of this level involves Daud exploring the Slaughterhouse and finding Rothwild involved in an argument with Abigail. Abigail is a union representative, sent to deliberately start the fire that was the strike to undermine Bundry. Her involvement in this level gives you a ton of options as to how you want to deal with anyone. It also presents you with an interesting choice.

If you decide to play non-lethally, you will be met with scorn and resistance from everyone you encounter, especially, at the start Billie. Here, Abigail mocks you for the decision not to do what she asks, which is essentially, not just killing Bundry, but also blowing up the Refinery along with every single Butcher that’s still trapped inside. Talk about overkill lady!

In return she offers to tell you about Delilah, but there is another way. You can knock her out and then take Rothwild to the very chair he has been using to abuse his workers and shock him until he talks. Then you can put him in a crate sent to the western part of the Isles and be on your marry way.

Well… sort of. Additional enemies appear as you exit, and if you avoid them, you get to experience Overseer’s music box. This was a weapon that appeared in the base game but wasn’t utilized much (other than the first level). Here it appears quite a lot; it dulls the assassins’ senses and makes it impossible for Daud to use his powers. A chokedust grenade will be enough of a distraction to let Billie escape the Overseers who have her trapped.

Eminent Domain:

With the information Daud got from either Rothwild or Abigail, you now know that the boat used to belong to Barister Timsh, a friend of Hiram Burrows who was Delilah’s lover. However recently he has been trying to get rid of the boat and a lot of other things, and learning that you are suddenly interested in Delilah, prompts his niece, Thalia to seek you out.

The level starts with you and Billie taking out some guards. Thalia is waiting for you on the other side of the wall of light, so you have to make your way there.

SHUT IT OFF. That’s the main advice I’ll give you, because if you don’t, there is no way to get back to the Waterfront, and you will essentially break the game. Do it and save yourself the frustration.

Thalia is waiting for you in a small square, harassed by a Hatter. This is where using Void Gaze really helps, because if you take out the Hatter immediately, you will be ambushed by two more who, if you’re not careful, will start a gang war.

Disposing of the Hatters lets you talk to Thalia. She will tell you that Timsh was so obsessed with Delilah, he rewrote his will to leave his entire estate to her. She wants you to kill him and replace the will which is maybe a problem if you’re playing Cleaner Hands.

Before you can worry about that though, there is the slight issue of getting into the Financial District. You need a key, and the key has been promptly stolen from the City Watch by the Hatters. This brings you into Hatter territory, where stealing the key from Chauncy is a lot harder than it sounds. Depending on your chaos level Chauncy will change location and getting to him can be tricky. Once you do manage it, you can enter the Financial District.

Since the assassins have been planning a hit on Timsh for a while, you have a scope location already set up where you can talk to Billie and stock up on weapons and gear. Before you do that, it’s good to save one of Timsh’ former ‘friends’ from some City Watch, since he gives you an alternative to killing Timsh. Essentially Timsh seized the friend’s property unlawfully, and he wants to repay the favour, using some forged documents and a bag of dead rats.

This is also the place where you can talk to the Outsider. Billie will make some snarky comments about your face while talking to, as Daud calls him “the black eyed bastard”, and now you can really go after Timsh.

Let’s talk about the way I did it. Blinking from the apartments across to Timsh’s fourth floor will land you right in front of the room with Delilah’s statue. Because Timsh wanders the house, there is a good chance he might be on this floor too. Knock him and the guards out, steal his key and replace his immunity document with a forgery.  Use Delilah’s statue to talk to her; this is your first interaction and she’s pretty great at self-aggrandizing.

Now all you have to do is take the will and dump the rats in the air duct in the basement. You can watch General Turnbull hilariously arrest Timsh and you are done my friend. Return to the sewers (though beware the Butchers who will appear as revenge for what you did to the Slaughterhouse).

I love this level. It’s a lot of weaving from building to building, carefully knocking out or avoiding enemies and some very entertaining scenes between Delilah and the Outsider. I like city levels the most because they are best at showing the world, and seeing the rich part of Dunwall was immensely entertaining. It adds another level to the world building we got in the base game. While I did love it there, most of the city levels were set at night and crawling with City Watch; it’s nice to see that Dunwall was still a functioning city while Corvo was out killing people.

The Surge:

And now, we get to the third and final level of the KoD. I won’t lie, the first time I played this level, I hated it. It’s very hard and it combines a lot of my least favorite things. It’s a single location level, that reuses a location (the Flooded District) and it’s a level full of enemies. For playing Cleaner Hands, this was a nightmare.

However, the plot here is good and it’s probably the best-known beat of the whole series, and it informs so much of what happens in the BW and the sequel games. So let’s start.

Billie Lurk informs you that the Overseers have taken over the Flooded District; someone has betrayed you and your base, and Daud’s first priority will be to find out who. You climb out of the chain and follow Corvo’s footsteps and get to see the massive number of Overseers. There are two main goals of this level; getting to Overseer Hume and freeing as many of the captured assassins as you can.

How you deal with the Overseers is a personal choice that I won’t even attempt to influence; I started out painstakingly taking them out one by one, until I figured out chokedust works really well to disorient groups and then either shoot or choke the Overseers while they are distracted. This goes double for Overseers who carry the music box, because they can only be attacked from the back.

You locate the assault plans in the house next to the makeshift platform and find out that Hume was tipped straight to your hideout. To take Hume out, it’s best to use the three story building directly opposite the hideout and use the open window. Once you take the letter he carries you can return to the roof and order your assassins to either kill or knock out the remaining Overseers.

And now we get to the moment. Billie reappears and informs Daud that the Overseer Hume moved too early; more Overseers should be on their way, but with Hume defeated it’s too late. Daud asks again how the Overseers knew where to find them and Billie admits to betraying you.

I love this moment. That Billie betrays Daud was unfortunately something that was spoiled for me, but I still thought it was a great beat. Billie has been your point woman the entire time, bouncing off ideas and plans in every level. To find out that she and Delilah wanted to kill you all this time is a big blow, especially because Billie doesn’t seem sorry to have done it. She explains that she thought Daud’s refusal to kill has made him weak and she was going to take his place. But seeing the change and his defeat of the Overseers convinces her that he isn’t and deserves better.

Delilah bamfs out, with a ridiculously over the top warning that she will “crush your cold heart and walk into your skin” and you get a choice; spare Billie’s life or kill her.

I said before that I didn’t like the DLC’s ending choice, and that’s in great part because of this one. There is a different weight to deciding Billie faith when you are Daud; she directly betrayed you, and if you died a lot in this level like I did then you have a lot of personal reasons to be angry with her. It’s a better motivated choice, and the weight of what decision you make, will really inform the way you interpret Daud’s character. Either he really is starting to change, and is sick of killing, or he is still just the same vindictive man he was before.

Another big debate is what type of relationship Daud has with Billie. The game leaves this open to interpretation, and honestly, I think it’s for the best. While I do lean a lot towards the fatherly, there is a case to be made that their attachment is romantic, but at the end of the day I think it’s irrelevant. They cared for each other, and being betrayed by someone like that will be a heavy blow, no matter how you interpret this attachment.

With KoD over we can go over to part 6 and the Brigmore Witches. 

part 4 < > part 6

[lurxof--thxmaw]

// I feel inspired to write... like this post for a short starter call ！If you're multimuse, specify the muse.

[pallideinanis]

Dishonored’s The Outsider :::: RP Starters

Alright kids, I wanted to experiment a little bit and get to know my character more so I WENT THROUGH AAAAAAALL OF HIS DIALOGUE (which includes all three games, both dlcs and the trailers for both Dishonored 1 and 2...) and have presented some of his lines for you all to use for prompts! Those that wish to avoid spoilers, please tread carefully.

Oh! And feel free to change the pronouns. :)

DISHONORED “My dear _____. What a sad hand fate has dealt you.” “We know what really happened, don’t we?” “You don’t want to end your life to the sound of idiots cheering as your head hits the muck, do you?” “Let’s see if we can do better.” “And to make things interesting…. My Mark.” “Consider it a gift.” “Your life has taken a turn, has it not? “You will play a pivotal role in the days to come.” “For this, I have chosen you and drawn you into the Void.” “I am the Outsider and this is my Mark.” “Use this new-found power, my gift to you.” “Come find me.” “In the days that follow, your trials will be great, _____.” “These runes will grant you power beyond those of other men.” “I give you this, the Heart of a living thing, molded by my hands.” “How you use what I have given you falls upon you.” “Know that I will be watching with great interest.” “You wouldn’t recognize her name, or even the name of her family.” “An emperor begged for her hand, once.” “Then she made a different choice.” “What will you do, I wonder?” “Now your choices interest me.” “I’m older than the rocks this place was built on, and even I didn’t see that coming.” “I suppose I should thank you.” “Rivers change course over many lifetimes, and eventually, all bridges tumble down.” “He’s not special like you are.” “If he really wants to meet me, he could start by being a bit more interesting.” “Going to a party, _____?” “I can see all her tomorrows.” “Will you tear it all to pieces?” “Either way, it’s _____’s last party.” “I suppose she had to go.” “What choice did you have?” “Here you are, _____, within the high walls of your enemy’s stronghold.” “How will you end his reign? By blood or by truth?” “He’s not an easy man to get close to.” “Is it just revenge you’re after? Or do you have another plan in mind?” “Will you restore things? Make it all right again?” “Or will you send them all howling into the Void?” “Either way, I expect a good show.” “You’re an unstoppable force, it seems…But also unpredictable.” “And that is most surprising.” “He must have realized that all his planning was for nothing.” “That must have been exquisitely terrifying.” “But in the end, you chose the more measured response.” “What will that mean in the days to come, I wonder?” “I’ve lived a long, long time, and these are the moments I wait for.” “The scent of his blood is still fresh in the air.” “My, how you’ve changed things.” “The truth is, he knew he deserved to die.” “Don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you he deserved sympathy.” “The worst part must have been knowing it was all his fault.” “Here you are at last, in a ruined and drowning world.” “Your friends poisoned you and dumped your body in the river.” “Did they do it to protect themselves, so no one would ever know what they had done?” “Perhaps that’s just the nature of man.” “You find your way into such interesting places, _____.” “How does it feel knowing your allies betrayed you?” “Strange how there’s always a little more innocence left to lose.” “You had him in the palm of your hand and you let him walk away?” “You fascinate me.” “Was it the primal desire to rise above other men?” “Do you even know why?” “You watched and listened while other men would have shouted in rage.” “You held back instead of striking.” “What will history tell us?” “Whether the stories told mention you by name or not, she will remember you were there, _____.” “I don’t know about you, _____ , but I’ve had a lovely time.” “Soon there will be nothing left for the rats.” “All it needed was the right man to send it over the edge.” “But now you’ll be off over the horizon on an outbound ship.” “I wonder. Are you chasing something? Or running away?”

KNIFE OF DUNWALL “_____, my old friend, it’s been a long while, but you got my interest again.” “How the years pass and the bodies fall.” “Did you know there are only eight like you in the world, bearing my Mark?” “I’m here because you’re right.” “This time, you can’t just fade away into the shadows.” “There will be consequences.” “Your story is close to ending, and even you can’t escape it.” “But what ending will you make for yourself?” “I’m here to give you one last gift, _____.” “It’s a mystery.” “Here’s one last lesson, for old time’s sake.” “I see everything. I see forever.” “And right now I see a man walking a tightrope over a sea of blood and filth.” “The Empress is dead and the water’s rising.” “Surprisingly clean work for a man with so much blood on his hands.” “Do you think this will help you dodge what’s coming?” “You better hurry. You’re running out of rope.” “You left a mess on the killing floor,  _____.” “I guess you know by now these things have a way of catching up with you.” “But maybe you’re past caring.” “At the last moment you seem to be acquiring a curious sense of justice.” “Funny how the final days always mean so much.” “He died before he could say his last words.” “She watched you. Learned from you. And then she saw you losing your grip.” “_____, who spared his betrayer’s life.” “When she saw weakness, she struck. Just like you taught her.” “Only you were a little better.” “In the seconds before she died, she remembered the first time she met you.” “She had no regrets. And you, _____?” “You once told me _____ was your finest pupil.” “She proved to be more ruthless and deceptive than you thought.” “But she was no match for you.” “I wonder what the final chapter will be.” “What happens to scary monsters, in the end?” BRIGMORE WITCHES “You keep surprising me, _____.” “I wonder? Are you hoping it will change the way things will work out?” “The song’s almost over. And when the music stops, we all fall down.” “This is the _____ I remember!” “They soon won’t forget you, either.” “What a relief. Life has been remarkably grim in Dunwall lately.” “But in the long view, a smoking ruin makes as good a monument as any.” “Hello, _____. I’m enjoying renewing our friendship, if we can call it that.” “You’ve become quite the peacemaker, _____.” “Be careful what you do.” “You’ve always been canny, a spider in the web of the city.” “But you may out-do yourself on this little adventure.” “It’s the moment just before the light goes that matters most.” “I can see nothing’s going to stop you.” “You’ll cover yourself in blood if you have to.” “He lived a long time and knew many secrets that were lost with him.” “Did you take pity on him or was it simply easier to get what you needed that way?” “You’re putting it together, aren’t you?” “It’s not easy. _____ is exceedingly bright.” “Change is coming, and  _____ has a plan. But do you, _____?” “What will you do with what you find there?” “_____ knows you’re coming, cutting a bloody path through the city in search of her.” “She’s afraid of you.” “I wish you luck.” “I don’t decide who wins and whose body gets tossed into the river to rot.” “But I enjoy watching.” “You have many talents, _____, and they’ve served you.” “We’re witnessing her masterpiece, and perhaps yours as well.” “I gave you _____’s name and you followed it to this moment.” “You see now what hangs in the balance.” “In your long life I’ve rarely seen you act with such consummate grace.” “I give my mark sparingly and I don’t play favorites but I will watch this… with unusual attention.” “Now you understand what you were doing all along.” “The next few moments may be the last choices you make in your life.” “There are times when I delight in seeing lives ends and chaos spread.” “The path you’ve taken here honors your skills.” “I give my mark sparingly, _____.” “You’ve taken a bloody road here, and no one has enjoyed it more than I.” “But there are still a few more choices left to make.” “The end is coming.” “It’s been glorious to watch you throw your will against the machinery you set in motion.” “All things end, all things burn to ash. But you, my friend, burn bright.” “You make an eloquent plea for a man with innocent blood on his hands.” “It’s a shame _____ doesn’t know the real story, isn’t it?” “You make your own choice, and accept the price.”

DISHONORED 2 “It’s happened again: someone’s pulled the rug out from under you.” “An empire at your feet and you’ve lost it all.” “Be honest, did you really deserve any of it?” “More important, what would you do to get it back?” “Careful, there’s always a price to pay. What you decide will ripple across the years.” “Blood in the gutters and corruption on the wind… It will be fun watching this unfold.” “What will you do with the power I’ve given you?” “How will you make your mark on this wretched world?” ”The years are long, but it’s always good to see a familiar face.” “_____ old friend, do I even have to say it?” “Fifteen years ago _____ could have warned you about her, if you had bothered to ask.” “But you were too busy for questions.” “Times have changed, _____, and you haven’t been watching the dark corners of the world.” “Maybe living in a palace has made you soft.” “What happens when you push a man farther than he ever thought he could go? Does he snap?” “What happens when he tries to go home?” “Maybe you’ll finally know what it feels like to kill an empress.” “_____ could have told you about that, too.” “There’s no one quite like _____.” “She took all the abuse the world could deal out, and now she has a crown.” “But I’ll let you in on a secret; she’s got her eyes on a much greater prize.” “I gave you my mark for a reason.” “I wanted to know what happens when you take an honorable man’s life away.” “What will he do, given the chance?” “And what a sight it was.” “You gave yourself over to blood and terror, and gave it everything you had.” “Then you spent fifteen years making sure it wouldn’t happen again.” “Will you do it all again? Where is that good man now?” “I’m a friend of your father’s from the bad old days.” “I never expected us to meet.” “I thought that was the end of the excitement.” “You’ve lost your throne and your father… And I promise, _____ won’t just give them back.” “So what are you prepared to do about it, _____?” “And are you clever enough to do it without spilling a river of blood?” “I asked _____ these same questions fifteen years ago.” “This is the moment that changed him. Now it’s your turn.” “How many of your own subjects are you willing to slaughter and what are you willing to become?” “We’ve both seen cities go bad before.” “I hope you’re ready.” “Did you miss it? The years that made you who you are? Don’t deny it.” “Welcome back. Welcome home.” “People like you and _____ are a part of places like this.” “But you’ll always remember the truth, won’t you? Your truth, at least.” “Look at you, making your way across this shuddering city.” “You know he’d be happier deep down if this ended with _____’s head on a spike.” “Look at you, leaving a trail of bloody boot prints across this dying city.” “He doesn’t care a fig for me.” “What will he leave behind? And what about you? Who will you leave behind to pick up the pieces?” “Three years ago, something inside of _____ snapped like a cheap lock.” “The Void is not exactly a place, and it is much older and stranger than you could ever know.” “See for yourself what they did.” “Look around you, a crumbling island at the very edges of the Void.” “But this one is special.” “It’s the place where my life ended and began again.” “It’s where they made me.” “Right up until the end I thought I’d find a way to escape.” “I fought but the ropes cut my skin and I went limp.” “And the knife touched my throat and I knew I had waited too long.” “The blood ran out and I became a god.” “_____ is… a part of me now. And I don’t like it.” “You have to give _____ credit.” “But what comes after that might be the hardest thing you will ever have to do.” “You’re back at the heart of your homeland.” “Feeling nostalgic?” “Will you ever be comfortable in _____ again, assuming you make it back?” “You’ve seen the suffering here, the decay.” “Here you are back among your own people.” “Are you feeling more comfortable, _____?” “It never seemed to bother you before.” “Maybe it looks different up close.” “In any case, I know what you’re after.” “You better be ready to leave something behind.” “_____’s waiting for you.” “_____’s been waiting for you with murder in her heart, but also fear.” “All hail the victor, assuming there’s anyone left to celebrate.” “But now she’s got a secret as well.” DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER “She can see it all.” “We carry what was done to us throughout our endless days.” “No one asked if we wanted it.” “I’ve seen the bones these places are built on.” “I’ve seen them under the mud in the riverbanks, under the stones in the streets.” “It will all shudder and writhe.” “All the old boundaries are falling apart.” “She  watches them crumbling.” “They cower, fearful, and try and halt the tides.” “A thousand lives, a thousand choices, all converged into one wounded body, one wounded mind.” “Let me tell you something about the Void, _____.” “It touches the minds of the dreaming and the dying alike.” “And sometimes, dreams can only tell you what you wanted to forget.” “People usually want something from me. But you don’t want my Mark, do you _____?” “So, I will return something you lost.” “The world was wounded around you, and you carry the scars.” “You will never be the same… I wonder if you’ll like that?” “There is death in their dark eyes.” “They kill and dive deep to escape the slaughter.” “They scramble to find meaning while each day cuts deeper into their throats.” “Some want revenge, others just want peace.” “There is freedom in being hated.” “There is license in being cast out.” “Some learn this lesson a little too well.” “You and I were both abandoned to uncertain futures on dangerous streets.” “_____ spared your life all those years ago.” “But I was taught a lesson that you still haven’t learned.” “Some wounds stay with you, even in the Void.” “Time repeats in the same unending patterns.” “Four thousand years ago, this knife cut my name away…Forgotten forever.” “You know what it’s like to lose one name and live with another.” “We are all made from the things that are taken from us.” “I know more than most.” “I know that time is bleeding itself around you.” “I know that you have felt it.” “I know that _____ is dead where you left him on your ruined ship.” “And I know that you will carry that knife to face me at the black center of all things.” “I’m here because you are different.” “The Void has found you through the cracks in your broken life.” “And when you cut me out of it, what will remain?" “What will you leave behind when you walk away?” “The Void tempts mysteries and craves answers.” “Bones and dead things, thrown into the dirt.” “They scream against the indifference and whisper questions.” “I died because they demanded it.” “But soon there won’t be any more demands.” “They won’t meet my gaze.” “She will peel back all the lies and symbols.” “For some, a catastrophe. For others, a revelation.” “And for some, my death will be a promise.” “What will it be like, to finally experience and ending?” “I see forever, and even I can’t see that future.” “When I died, this world was remade… And when I die again…” “Soon she will see me unobscured.” “The age closes around us all like rows of black teeth.” “I can taste blood in my mouth.” “I can hear _____’s voice in my ear.” “You have done something impossible.” “These eyes were closed for centuries. And I saw…everything.” “Bound here, I walked through the minds of generations.” “I see...I see… There are no choices left.”

[orderfromchaos-roleplay]

PLOT DROP : I N T O    L I  M   B   O 

1 May 1980. 

It was all supposed to be in good fun. The game was something everyone was looking forward to, a conflict that they could all escape into rather than face themselves. Wilda Griffiths leaving the Harpies team was a simple betrayal, one that didn’t prompt people to look back into their own lives and try and read the signs, wait to see who had betrayed them. No, this was about Quidditch. It was all about Quidditch, and there was no need to focus on anything else.

It was the perfect environment to have people distracted in. It was all too easy to set the traps.

Not everyone gathered for the game, but the crowds were still large as people swarmed to the stadium to watch. Others less fortunate and unable to get off from work keep the radios on, eagerly listening in on what’s happening as each second unfolds…

Good morning, listeners, and welcome back to the match! Today, Puddlemere United faces off against the Holyhead Harpies after the brutal departure of chaser Wilda Griffiths from the Harpies! For the first time since her defection, Griffiths will be on the pitch with her former team. This match promises to be a bloody one, listeners.

An update for those of you who haven’t been following the latest news as attentively as I have– if you haven’t, shame on you!– Griffiths is being replaced by up and coming chaser, Gabrielle Garcia. Garcia, nineteen and an alumna from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was recruited to the Harpies straight out of her successful four year Quidditch career at Hogwarts as chaser and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team to be put on the reserve team. This will be her first ever professional game, and marks her maiden match as a member of the Harpies. She’s hilarious, listeners, she really is. You’ll never meet a more awkward and nervous player as Garcia, though hopefully she plays better than she talks, otherwise the Harpies are in for a crushing defeat.

And the players are coming out onto the pitch now. The tension in the air is thick enough to spread on toast, folks. Harpies captain Constance Garroway is one of the first stepping out onto the pitch, and she’s got no interest in keeping the peace here, folks, she looks ready to take beater Gwenog Jones’ bat and start swinging. Puddlemere captain and chaser Abigail Bridge is sticking close to her teammates as they walk out onto the pitch… and yes, we can see Griffiths now, clad in her navy blue robes after turning in her green Harpies getup. Everyone is looking ready for a fight.

Referee Agnes Murphy better be ready to jump into the middle of a brawl, folks. Garroway and Bridge are meeting in the middle of the pitch right now to shake hands. I bet Garroway is trying to break Bridge’s right now. If looks could kill, Griffiths would be flat on her back stone cold dead right now. Everyone’s on edge. Bridge has stepped back for the coin toss, but Garroway still hasn’t moved ye– oh! Oh, Garroway has hurdled past Bridge and punched Griffiths in the face! Griffiths is down, folks, and I don’t know if she’s getting up!

The rest of the Harpies have entered the fray now to protect their captain– Garroway is taking some good punches thrown by the Puddlemeres! Puddlemere seeker Martin– ooh! he is on the ground, folks, he is on the ground! The beaters have their bats out and are swinging away at each other– bloody hell, you’d think heads were bludgers! Officials are running to try and stop– I can’t see Griffiths anymore, I can’t see her! Amira Gordeu of the Harpies is kicking at someone like there’s no tomorrow, but I can’t see who. There is definitely blood drawn, folks. There’s–

Griffiths is up! I repeat, Griffiths is– and down she goes again! She’ll be lucky to be alive after this one, folks, it’s a bloodbath down there. Martin is being hauled back– it’s lucky that so many of the Harpies are short, or there’d be no stopping them. Jones– Hestia, not– oh, no, and Gwenog– are no longer touching the ground— I can’t see Griffiths– bloody hell, Garroway’s snapped her broom– is she using that as a weapon? PU Beater Elias Burn just hit Jones– might be his Jones– in the shoulder. That’s not going to go over well. Oh, no, it was Gwenog. Can’t say I’m relieved about that one, and she isn’t eith– I think his nose is broken, folks! And she’s being hauled back again. I still can’t see Griffiths!

      I can’t see Griffiths! Can anyone see Griffiths?

                                                        Can anyone see Griffiths?

The chaos and the excitement of the game is overshadowed, and the radio cuts away from the broadcast, leaving the outside world in the dark about what’s happening. Of all things, that seems like it would be it, but it’s a distraction. No one notices the wizard sneaking into the post office, and Skeuomorph is able to do his job. Hundreds and hundreds of notes are put into the post, with information and threats wrapped up in pleasant little envelopes that no one suspects to be dangerous.

Constance Garroway, captain of the Holyhead Harpies, is arrested by Aurors, and is hauled away while screaming insults at Wilda Griffiths.

                    “ You filthy mudblood! You filthy mudblood, next time I’ll kill you! ”

Her shouts stop abruptly halfway across the field. The curse has been lifted, the twisting of her mind and her tongue released as the Imperius curse is lifted. A distraction was all that they needed, and a distraction was what they’d gotten. There was no use in keeping the pawn in play. Her only use now was to fall, and fall hard, on the choices of another made for her. Skeuomorph disappears, and any who ask later whether he belonged to either side, Death Eater or Order, is told they have no idea who he is, nor will they ever. He vanishes, true name and identity unknown, leaving the notes in his wake do do their damage.

While the wreck of the Quidditch match disaster is cleared away, the post goes out. And nothing is quite the same as it was…

Under the cut you will find the note sent to each character by Skeuomorph. While no threads may take place during the incident, you may write drabbles that do, and all starters take place after the incident. If you have any questions about this, feel free to message us, and we will be more than happy to help you out and clear things up for you!

Please include “into limbo” in the title of all starters related to the plot drop, and tag things related to this plot drop with the tag “ofc: into limbo” so that others can find them.

MARGOT ABBOTT

You’re never going to be the heir they wanted, they’re always going to love Mychelle more than they love you.

CASSANDRA BLACK

How many more people will die when they find out the truth about you?

SIRIUS BLACK

Do you think Regulus realized he was in too deep before it got him killed? Do you realize?

AMELIA BONES

Do you think anyone believes you’re not the girl you were when things fell apart?

EDGAR BONES

You’re never going to be like your parents.

JOHN DAWLISH

How many lies can you tell before they catch who you really are?

CATRINA GOYLE

Will Marcus be so proud when you give birth to your daughter?

GALVIN GUDGEON

Will it be worth all it cost you?

GLADYS GUDGEON

Maybe they’ll finally pay attention to you when your brothers are dead.

MAFALDA HOPKIRK

How long do you think they’ll stay this time?

GWENOG JONES

You’re captain now. Are you happy?

HESTIA JONES

Everyone knows you want to be on the Harpies. Was it worth cursing Garroway to get you that opening?

BELLATRIX LESTRANGE

Blood traitor sister, blood traitor cousin, halfbreed little niece. How many branches will it take you chopping off the tree to get people to believe you’re not just as rotten as the rest of them?

RABASTAN LESTRANGE

You think loving her will make you feel less guilty about what you did?

ALICE LONGBOTTOM

Trying so hard to be like your father is only going to make you more like your mother.

FRANK LONGBOTTOM

Do you think your child will be proud of their Auror parents when it means they grow up an orphan?

REMUS LUPIN

Which dies faster, a blood traitor or a halfbreed?

MARY MACDONALD

You think Mulciber’s forgotten about you?

BRONTE MACNAIR

Can you really trust him again when he’s still in love with someone else?

LUCIUS MALFOY

What’s the point of trying to prove that you’re not like your father when you’re going to be like him anyway?

DORCAS MEADOWES

Will you feel good about not telling them you’re fighting when it gets you killed?

ALASTOR MOODY

Do you actually know what’s a lie and what’s not anymore?

CLAUDIA OLLIVANDER

How long can a family last when you’re on opposite sides?

GARRICK OLLIVANDER

Do you think they’ll be proud of you for this?

PETER PETTIGREW

Do you think they would even notice if you vanished now they’ve got each other?

JAMES POTTER

Do you think they’ll still call you a hero when they have to live without you?

LILY POTTER

How long do you think you’ll last raising your child on your own after your blood traitor husband is dead?

ATTICUS ROWLE

How much longer will it take to realize they’ve been lying to you the whole time?

LAVINIA ROWLE

How long until you stop being content with being dragged behind someone else’s choices?

VIOLA ROWLE

Would he kill you if you told him?

ANDROMEDA TONKS

Which do you think will go first— the mudblood husband, the freak daughter, or the filthy blood traitor?

TED TONKS

Her death will be on you.

TILDEN TOOTS

Do you think they’ll still like you when they find out you’re a fraud?

BILIUS WEASLEY

Do you think they’ll be happy when the family freak is finally dead?

MOLLY WEASLEY

Does it feel good to know that each of your children has a target on their back because of you?