#Compass of the Lost

[bees-and-boos]

Mr. President, the general public is still concerned about VP Tommy’s behavior when robbing King George’s house. We have not seen any formal punishment announced and we are deeply concerned that this crime is going unpunished. Do you have anything to say on the matter?

Tubbo straightened his tie, his eyes darting to the ground to avoid making eye contact with the reporter before glancing back up. He took a deep breath before uttering the news.

“Vice President Tommyinnit has been exiled from L’Manberg until further notice. That is all I have to say on the matter.”

Saying it made it feel all too real. Did he make a mistake doing this? No… it's for the better of the nation. Tubbo knew he had no choice but why did he feel such guilt whenever he thought about Tommy…

[mellocats-enthusiast]

good morning chatt! I woke up today and tembered I had my new pickaxe wrich means more mining for more good shit!!! Also me typing weird cuz it’s so fucking cold and I knly have a shitty blanket so Im fucking cold and my fingers hurt a lot…

[youryurigoddess]

Kind reminder that the A. Z. Fell & Co. bookshop was designed by Aziraphale as:

An Eden to return to — for him to guard, for Crowley to feel safe in;

A giant compass showing the directions of the world.

No matter how lost either of them is, they’ll use it to find each other.

[razberrypuck]

something about kinger being in the circus "the longest" and him still openly caring about the other members and striving to be kind to them makes me emotional actually.

like yes the scene where he comforts ragatha but also the "pomni, take this" scenes. putting a bucket on ragatha's head after jax's licorice-hair comment -- said in front of a monster that eats candy people. winning rock-paper-scissors and being so excited to get to help zooble. remarking "oh, thank GOD you're okay," when zooble gets ejected from the gloink queen. he can be a great source of comfort in his moments of lucidity, but even when he's not quite there, he really does try his best to protect his friends -- even if his efforts come across as goofy or nonsensical.

I find it especially interesting that these moments are really the only times he actively involves himself in the adventures. yes he makes a few comments here and there, but when he isn't trying to help someone, he tends to just let things happen around him. he's largely absent in most of episode one (mostly because he seems to be freaking out about his own safety -- and granted, we don't know whether or not he was just having an especially bad day, but I think it's worth noting) and he doesn't get involved with the adventure at all until he's told to find zooble. he's also shown to be very observant of the people around him, like how he accurately predicted that kaufmo had completely lost it, when no one else picked up on the signs.

more than anything, though, I think kinger's conversation with ragatha shows some of his philosophy when it comes to the other players. "it's a lot for anybody to go through; don't take it too personally," is likely a learned sentiment -- and consciously or not, I think he doesn't have any bad blood with the other members (see: kinger being the only one (from what we've seen so far) that jax doesn't actively torment) because he understands why they act the way they do and doesn't hold it against them. everyone copes differently, and like I said before, he's very observant, especially when it comes to the emotions of others.

and idk. I just think it's nice the longest standing member of the circus didn't survive this long by learning not to care.

[kalicocal]

i find it so telling that the s2 opening features a Caitlyn physically similar to the version of herself that Grayson asked the question, "Begs the question, young Kiramman. What are you shooting for?" because she's lost her aim despite her saying otherwise.

[eerna]

me explaining why Will/Elizabeth/Jack love triangle was a perfect little one-movie arc that wasn't present in the final movie because it was never about choosing and instead just about dynamics and character development so they all outgrew it by then

[thinwhitedoc]

SHERLOCK | Martin Freeman as John Watson

[finexbright]

so glad harry isn't on social media anymore so that he can grieve peacefully and doesn't get to see all the heinous things people have been saying about him. like so fucking what if his message seemed detached (it didn't to me btw) or that it was impersonal (are u seeing the same thing as i am because???) because he just lost a friend! for a boy who's just 30, he's lost so many people close to him, friends and family alike. he shouldn't be this familiar to grief and yet! but that's not the point. he didn't need to post anything but he did because he wanted to share his grief and because people would have chewed him up alive if the others posted and he didn't. it doesn't matter who wrote it (harry did, not his pr btw) because i'm genuinely surprised we got anything from the boys in the first place (i'm grateful, yes, but still surprised) and yet u all are out there fucking criticising his message like vultures. like have we learnt nothing from what's happened? are we really going to continue this cycle all over again??

[thetypewriterdaily]

let your inner compass guide you 🧭🌌

[royalarchivist]

Pac: I'm a little naive. And innocent, in some cases, you know? I'm very compassionate, and I believe that everyone is going to be very kind to me too, you know? [...] I wanted to know what mine was, my specialty, what made you see something in me. Because– I'm great at gossiping, and I'll admit that. But I don't know if that was the thing that brought me here, you know? I don't know.

Jota: Do you know what brought you here, Pac?

Pac: No, I don't think so.

Jota: Your heart... is pure. Like a crystal. And that's something you should be proud of.

Pac: Thank you, Jota. So my specialty... is having a pure heart?

Jota: [He hits Pac] I’m kidding– you're gossipy as hell. [Laughs]

Pac: Ah, what's this man?! [Laughs] What's this! You convinced me, Jota! You convinced me, for a second I thought it was real, man!

Pac finally learns why he was summoned to Valigma and (almost) has a nice moment with Prefeito Jota.

Thank you, as always, to Kia for their translation help! This was a beast and I couldn't have done it without them.

[ Full Subtitle Transcript ↓ ]

—

Pac: I'll even tell you this, Jota. I'm a little naive. And innocent, in some cases, you know? I'm very compassionate, and I believe that everyone is going to be very kind to me too, you know? So I'm 100% with a person, and sometime that person is not 100% with me...

Pac: You recruited what I think is an elite team, Jota. The curation you had for recruiting these specialists was... perfect, you know? From various areas... with various different specialties... I– I even want– I wanted to know what mine was, my specialty, what made you see something in me. Because– I'm great at gossiping, and I'll admit that. But I don't know if that was the thing that brought me here, you know? I don't know.

Jota: Do you know what brought you here, Pac?

Pac: What?

Jota: ...You have no idea, do you?

Pac: No, I don't think so.

Jota: Your heart... is pure.* Like a crystal. And that's something you should be proud of.

Pac: Thank you, Jota. So my specialty... is having a pure heart?

Jota: [He hits Pac] I’m kidding– you're gossipy as hell. [Laughs]

Pac: Ah, what's this man?! [Laughs] What's this! You convinced me, Jota! You convinced me, for a second I thought it was real, man!

Jota: But it's both. It's both. It's gossip and a pure heart.

Pac: [Laughs] But the fofoca– the gossip part is true. What can I do, Jota? It's in my blood, but I swear on everything that everything that we talk about, I- I keep it between us, you know? So much so that when I saw your…

[He pauses, then quickly changes the subject]

Pac: Yeah, but I don't tell anyone– I don't tell anyone these things, I can stay quiet.

Jota: When you saw what?

Pac: When I saw your face, I was nervous at the time and stuff, but... but... I- I- I– [Stammers] What I'm trying to say is: I'm not a snitch when it comes to things about you.

* Note: Literally translated, Prefeito Jota says Pac has a "clean" heart, but given that he compares Pac's heart to a crystal, Kia and I decided that with that context, "pure" was a more accurate translation.

[james-p-sullivan]

[bogdreamz]

whatever it was. you hate how you came to love it. admirable lunatic

[mellocats-enthusiast]

It wasn't bad… I behaved well… that's what he said at least. I uh... I was good! It felt nice to have someone care again… Prime… my hands are shakinggg just typidnng right noow he gave me a new pickaxe chat!!! I'm super happy with it!!! Its pretty cool… that he's… happy with me!!! Let'ss fuckingns gooooo Chattttt!!!

[soracities]

if we should protect children because they are vunerable, this means you would protect cruel children who bullies people who different than them then. the children who responsible to trauma for someone else's entire years

You're assuming that "protecting" children is the same as absolving them of responsibility and that's not what I said. All children are vulnerable, because all children are children; they don't come out of the womb with a perfectly working moral compass anymore than they come out of it waiting to hurt people--they're vulnerable because their understanding of the world is entirely at the mercy of what we, as adults, consistently tell them and show them. Children behaving cruelly aren't exempt from that--they learn that cruelty from somewhere, or someone. Your job, as the adult, is to make sure they understand that it's unacceptable so it will not happen again--but your job is also to ask why someone that young is behaving this way to begin with, so you can ensure they become better.

"Protecting" kids is not ignoring when they hurt or torment others, it's not refusing to teach them consequences or right from wrong, it's not "zero tolerance" policies in schools that treat a child being bullied and the child bullying them as equal instigators, and it's certainly not protecting them from recognizing, and atoning for, the pain they have caused someone else. You don't have to make peace with the now-adults who hurt you when you both were kids, but you cannot let the horrors of your own childhood impact how you treat or respond to the children living theirs around you right now, either.

You don't protect kids so they can get a free pass for bullying or tormenting another child. You protect them because kids are impulsive, emotionally reactive, and profoundly social (which means deeply impressionable) human beings who are still learning & processing insane amounts of information every day about what it means to be alive, to be alive as yourself, to be alive as yourself with other people. Protecting them is realising that you can't isolate the responsibility of a 10 year old from the bigger responsibility of the literal grown adults around them, adults who are in charge of teaching them about the world and how to behave in it. Whether you have children of your own in the future or not is completely irrelevant to this; we all become those adults eventually--no matter what happened to us as kids.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

thinking about “i may not see you again” “it’s okay as long as I know you’re happy” as a perfect ending to c!tommy's character not just in the fact we may never see him again but it’s okay if we know he’s happy (bc like, tommyinnit spontaneously starts RPing as him sometimes, he’s an OC Haver who constantly brings up his blorbo to the point I’ve noticed and I literally don’t watch the guy, i highly doubt he'll stop all of a sudden he’s been doing it for years) but also in the sense that like. all of c!tommy's trauma was caused by adults who Did genuinely love and care for him in some fucked up way (be it as a brother, comrade, or protege-in-training) but used that love to control and hurt him and treat him like a shiny possession. c!jack affirming he is still loved and cared for but not pushing those boundaries and trying to Enforce their idea of what’s Best for him onto him is such a beautiful end to that pattern. c!tommy can be loved without being caged. sometimes loving someone is accepting you’ll never see them again and maybe that’s best. sometimes it’s letting them choose on their own terms. c!tommy was allowed such little autonomy bc he was seen as unable to know what would be best for Him. being able to be happy on his own terms is something he’s never really been allowed before. like hell even with clingyduo they’re great but they’re also, y’know, clingy, and that is an unhealthy trauma response. they’re not bad people for having it and they’re clearly doing a lot better by the epilogue, but even c!tommy's most positive relationships have had Issues with independence. the fact the last thing we see of c!tommy is him mentioning that he might not ever see someone again and them accepting it as long as it’s his choice while reaffirming that despite everything they love and care for him and want him to be happy is so cathartic and honestly such a sweet ending for him it makes me tear up to think about. the eternal cycle of toxic friendship he was stuck in for years is finally breaking, and he's able to be an autonomous human being even if it’s not what his friends selfishly think is Best For Him.

[superbellsubways]