#I do relate to Yang just wanting to retire

[lovely-------lady]

Finished a small side project today!

My beloved requested I make them a patch based on their favorite anime (Legend of the Galactic Heroes). Never made a patch before, so it was a learning experience. I think it turned out ok, but if anyone has any suggestions about how to make patches, it would be appreciated!

[howlingday]

swashbuckler au: weiss and jaune end up having a duel, and while weiss can't say he's the best swordsman she's ever faced she can say that he's the most adaptable fighting she's ever seen tldr: jaune pulls some jackie chan improvisation using the environment in unorthodox ways to win fights. slapstick action comedy ensues

Part 1

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You know those awkward family dinners? The ones where the room is tense and feels like it's filled with gunpowder, and all it takes is just one word to set it all off? Yeah, those ones.

Well, Jaune usually felt that every dinner since taking up his father's mantle as the Hero of Aquadia. Tonight, however, was especially tense since the four people hired to hunt him down were also here, eating his mother's special occasion chicken and spice. Now there was heat to help the spark.

"Hah... Hah..." The girl in red huffed as she reached for her glass of milk.

"Is it too hot?" Mom asked. "I usually cut back when we entertain guests."

"My sister never really liked spicy food." Joked the older girl. "Dad used to joke they're the reason she drinks so much milk."

"You sure he wasn't just milking you for a laugh?" Jaune's dad pointed at her with his fork, receiving a fork-point back.

"Please, don't give her any material." The girl in white said with a sigh. Jaune couldn't explain what it was, but there was something about her that seemed... familiar. "Anyway, what exactly is our task in Aquafia? Beyond the scope of capturing this "folk hero" running around in the city?"

"He's not a folk hero."

...

The room was quiet at that. Everyone was staring at me. Why was everyone staring at me? Don't tell me I-

"Care to elaborate on that, Mr..?"

"A-Arc." Jaune gulped chicken. "Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, and rolls off the tongue. The ladies love it."

"Do they, though?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, do they, Jaune?" His father sneered with a sinister grin. Sometimes, Jaune hated his father.

"Please excuse my son's outburst." His mom stated, dabbing her lips with her napkin. "He's a fan of La Lama Lunga de la Aquadia."

"The who the what?" Ruby asked.

"The Longblade of Aquadia." Blake answered. "The hero we met in the street earlier."

"And failed to capture." Mother said over folded fingers. She wasn't happy. Trust me, I'm an expert at making Mom not happy.

"He's crafty." Yang replied. "Really gave us the slip in the harbor after that Grimm attack."

"Haha! Oh, I wish I could have seen that!" Jaune's heart swelled at his father's words, even if these girls were giving him too much credit.

"And the city thanks you for protecting her citizens from the Grimm." His mother tried to get the discussion back to the mission. "But in regard to your real task, you can discuss the details in full with my son and my husband. I try not to involve myself in these childish escapades of heroism."

Jaune sank a little at that. "Sit up straight!" Okay, he sank a lot at it, but could you blame him? His mom just called him, as fancy as possible, out as a child playing hero! Still, his dad was stillin his usual high spirits. Kinda made him wonder how she never caught Dad when he was La Lama Lunga.

"It seems weird, though," The young girl said, "that the mayor of Aquadia would want to capture the hero of her city."

"He's a relic of the past, Ms. Rose." Mother dabbed her lips as she stopd up. "And though we are grateful for his protection in ages past, we must look to the future. If we wish to establish good relations beyond Aquadia, we must prove that we do not rely on fairy tales for our protection, and certainly not on vigilantes, either."

"So to make Aquadia a viable trading partner and member of the kingdom, you want us to hunt down the city's only protector?" Blake asked with a raised brow.

"We have guardsmen and a militia of retired soldiers acting as our reserve defense." Circling the table like a shark, the mayor made her case. "If Aquadia can prove we are just as capable as the northern cities in Vale, then we can prove that we are not merely a tourist trap of a bygone age."

"Oof, politics." Dad said. "Think it's time I called it a night. This talk of fairy tales and whatnot is giving me indigestion."

"We should also head back." Ruby said. "Thank you for the meal, but now it's time for Team RWBY to get to work! Starting tonight!"

Jaune swallowed his chicken a little hard, and started coughing up spices. Everyone stared at him again.

"S-Sorry." He said. "Uh, wrong hole."

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You know what the best part about being a hero in your city? The nighttime patrols. Just you, the chirping creatures of the night, and the pale moon shining into the caldera city at midnight. It's almost therapeutic.

Jaune understood what his mom was getting at, bringing the other cities closer to them by getting rid of the one aspect that separates Aquadia from everywhere else on Remnant. Kinda like how Mistral has that famous sport lady. Pyra, or something.

Still, he doubted she would be getting hunted down just so her city can build economic ties to the rest of the kingdom.

Coming from the docks where an old woman was saying her prayers in a window beneath him, Jaune kept being reminded of why he loves this city. The teenage kids sneaking around after curfew, the young lovers holding hands in gondola rides, the white glyph shining right in front of hi-

Wait a minute.

"Hold it right there, llama loonga!" The girl in white from before swiped her blade at him. Jaune barely had time to catch it as he brought his own blade to his defense.

"It's actually La Lama Lunga, princess." Jaune shoved her away.

"It's heiress, actually." The girl held a fencing position, and judging by her stance, she meant it.

This was bad for so many reasons.

First, this would be completely different from Grimm or rowdy thieving hooligans. He was fighting a genuine huntress, an actual fighter. What little he learned about them ws in one ear and out the other. What? Huntsmen just aren't as fascinating as La Lama Lunga.

Second, his opponent was not only a trained warrior, but she was actually trained in the same weapon as he was! And making this particular dilemma even worse was Jaune didn't know how to actually fence. Sure, he's got the basics from what his dad taught him, but this was a huntress with a semblance.

And that semblance was-

"Are you going to just stand there and stare at me while I arrest you?" She asked, getting closer. "If so, then by all means, continue."

Taking his own stance, he gulped. Come on... Remember what Dad taught you. 'If you ever find yourself outmatched, there's no shame in running.' Jaune took a step back. 'Unless your opponent is smaller than you, then you definitely should feel ashamed.' Jaune kept his feet planted.

She got closer. Oh crap, this really happening to him, isn't it? Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap-

"CRAP!" Jaune leapt out of the way of her thrust. He stepped on his back feet over and over until he caught himself on the edge of the rooftop.

Suddenly, nothing came to his mind. All of his father's lessons fell away as he realized this would be how he died. How the legend ended. He wanted to cry. He wanted to curl into a ball. But neither option was available. So instead...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" La Lama Lunga ran forward, swinging his blade wildly at the foreign girl. Fear filled her eyes as she backed away, unsure of how to respond! His movements were too sporadic, too unorthodox! She'd never seen a fighting style like this before!

Suddenly, he tripped and fell over, dropping his weapon. He rolled forward, almost falling over the edge. Reaching down, he grabbed a potted flower and tossed it at her. She ducked, narrowly missing a bruise, only to be forced on the backfoot by the vigilante once more when he grabbed his blade again. Then...

"AGH!" She fell off! Jaune ran over to the side and looked down, finding the girl landed safe and sound... into a compost heap.

---------------------------------------------------

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yang couldn't stop laughing at breakfast, smashing her fist on the table.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Weiss screeched from inside the shower, on her third attempt to clean herself of the stench. "WHY WOULD THIS CITY EVEN NEED COMPOST?!"

"Apparently, the compost helps improve the soil development for the farms outside the caldera." Blake answered, reading the info pamphlet on compost provided. "The humid air compounded by the naturally occurring chemicals produced in the water make for an improved-"

"IT WAS RHETORICAL, BLAKE!"

"Jeez, this guy really is no joke." Ruby sighed. "Not only to escape all of us, but he managed to beat Weiss, too!"

"N... Not really that hard, Rubes." Yang breathed.

"SHUT UP, XIAO LONG!"

"But don't you worry." Yang pumped a thumb to herself. "With me and Blakey on the case, ain't no way sword boy is gonna last another night."

[kitkatopinions]

Nitpick Number Thirteen for Nitpick November:

I feel like the Xiao Long/Rose/Branwens don't really look related.

Summer and Ruby look nearly identical but for haircut and cape color, but they don't look like mother daughter, they look like twins, or a 'this is me now this was me a year ago when I was happy' thing.

(Granted, the change to Ruby's hair made her look slightly more varied, but not enough.)

Meanwhile Raven and Yang look like someone just took Yang and played around with a color wheel, but again, they sure as heck don't really look related.

And while Raven and Qrow can pass as related, she looks more like his daughter than his twin sister. Meanwhile, Tai and Ruby have like, not one thing in common in terms of their looks, and Yang and Qrow don't really look related either, though them looking related is slightly less important than say Tai and Ruby or Raven and Yang. The only people in that family who look like they could be blood related are Tai and Yang, and even then, her hair is a totally different shade and her eyes are a different color. And yeah, there's no way I would've ever even sort of guessed that Yang and Ruby were sisters just by looking at them, and I get that they have different moms but they are still blood related through Tai.

Now, I do know that not everyone in a family has the exact same hair color or eye color. But it's kind of hard to get across facial family resemblance in this kind of art media, which is why people tend to rely on families having the same kind of color scheme in non-live action and it's why we get things like this

Or the old trick of splitting the features you want the kid to have between parents.

But instead, it really feels like they designed four characters without thought to whether or not they actually looked similar (Ruby, Yang, Qrow, and Tai) and then when it came time to design the moms, they just said 'fuck it' and used a clone of one of the girls and a clone with a different color scheme for the other one.

Here are my suggestions for ways they could've been designed to maybe look even slightly more like family.

They could've given Ruby blonde hair with red tips instead of black. I know a lot of people kinda consider the OG designs of the Ruby girls or at least their color schemes to be absolutely sacred, but I... Don't. Unlike her silver eyes, Ruby's hair isn't an actual plot point, it's as aesthetic and not technically necessary as her combat skirt. And I already think that the designers could've done more to make Team RWBY look more cohesive because everyone's got this very red-and-monotones color scheme (with only slight additions of color like Blake's tights fading into purple or Weiss's blue eyes) until you get to Yang who is all yellow-brown, and if Ruby had more yellow-gold to her own design, it'd feel a bit more complimentary. Plus, I kind of think blonde Ruby is a cute concept.

Tai could've had purple eyes.

Tai could've had silver eyes. I've been very clear that I think Summer was unimportant for like six seasons as anything other than a tool to add onto Yang and Ruby's characters, and then the show didn't do a great job of making her important when we randomly started being told to care about her in what I can only assume is an attempt to hook the audience and/or pad out the running time of the show, so why not have Summer continue to be a dead mom trope and Tai can be a retired former SEW? Maria is already there to alert the audience that "Silver Eyed Warriors are in so much danger you guys!" Why can't we have this character that says "but some of them make it" as a hopeful contrast?

Raven could've had purple eyes. I personally headcanon for my own fics that Raven did once have purple eyes that turned red when she got mad like Yang's did, and they just kind of 'got stuck' on red mood not long before she deserted, which... Might be a dumb headcanon but I like it. XD But yeah, the show could've just had her have purple eyes, to make her look a bit more related to Yang. This would make her also look more similar to Yang in the model she has, though, so I'd prefer for this to go hand in hand with my next suggestion, which is...

Raven could've been taller and her face could've been thinner, to make her look more like Qrow and (more importantly) more like an adult, and/or her hair could've been graying like his is.

If Ruby stays exactly as she is, then maybe possibly they could've had her dye her hair. "Oh but hair dye might be hard to supply on the road-" If they never run out of food and are shown hunting or restocking on the road, I feel like they can find hair dye. If they never run out of dust, she can get hair dye. If Jaune can somehow manage to never damage his sweatshirt, Ruby can manage to get her hands on some hair dye. Also, I don't hate the concept of showing fictional characters with roots in their dyed hair, it adds some relatability and humany feelings to them. It could've been a volume four thing, and she has to re-dye her hair when they get to Mistral. Ruby is supposed to have 'really into goth stuff' vibes, right? So why can't she dye her hair black on the regular like a lot of people who are really into goth stuff do?

I really don't know, I just think it's weird that they don't really look related.

[rwby-redux]

In Redux, do any of the main/supporting casts have any of their families expanded upon?

By expanded upon, do you mean their familiars have a more developed/active role in the story? Because that's a definite yes.

Zwei, for example, has quite a bit of involvement in the Redux's equivalent of V2. Unlike in the canon, where he (arguably) exists just to be a reference to Ein from Cowboy Bebop, Tai has a legitimate reason for sending him to Yang and Ruby at the last second. (And it's not a good reason, either.) Part of it is foreshadowing. The other part of it is spoiler territory, so I can't go into further details. But needless to say, the kids put Zwei to good use while they've got him.

Nyla (Coco's familiar) doesn't have a ton of plot relevance, but her inclusion was necessary for redesigning much of Coco's character. She's used primarily for introducing the concept of familiars to the story, and much further down the road, she becomes an indispensable asset for Team CFVY during the equivalent of V9/V10.

Arion, the horse owned by Amber, is actually introduced fairly early in the Redux, but he doesn't get much of a role until V3. One of the cast sees him for the first time when they head down to the stables on Beacon's campus. According to the staff, his rider was killed, and he was retired from combat. It's a bit strange though that no one seems to know who his rider was, and all of the teachers refuse to talk about it.

I forgot to mention this in the first ask I received about familiars, but technically speaking, there is one other major character who has a familiar. I'll let you guess who it is, since it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. ;)

Outside of these instances, familiars probably won't be that common in the Redux, apart from the occasional set dressing. I might give a familiar to one or two other minor characters, but they otherwise won't appear that often in the story. Familiars are statistically uncommon, and I want to preserve that uniqueness by making their appearances count when they actually do show up.

On a related note, Derecho had three known familiars: a magpie named Etterath, an elk named Tournesol, and a vixen named Austice. It's widely suspected that they had at least three others, but the names and species went unrecorded.

-

Edit: Families. Not familiars. [faceplams] Jesus, I’m illiterate. Hang on, give me a little while to write up the correct answer to your question, anon.

[littlebetesofeverything]

RoosterTeeth Panel

HERE IT IS!!! The panel I have been wanting all day. I swear all I ask is a date for RWBY vol 7 soundtrack, Kerry, please.

Fiona is a LEAD VA for Red vs Blue: Zero and Torrian is LEAD animator. They are gonna be great!!

Remember your roots: RvB is the OG RoosterTeeth show and this is season 18! Fiona is Agent One in RvB:Zero

There will action, classic comedy, and feel good nature of the previous seasons

This is Fiona’s first VA role and she is super excited for it. HYPE is the word for the season

In the timeline, the season will take place right after season 17 but with a different cast. The OG cast retires (please give me Sarge) and some of them may show up (Kerry: Palomo!)

Zero is not a reboot, this story is happening a galaxy away. The lore plays a part but these are just some new guys to follow. It can be a good entry point (Barb: it’s ground zero!)

the clip they show is AWESOME!!! the animation is already off the charts and “everything is different” 

COMING THIS FALL!!!! More info leading up to the release though

Yssa is the main girl behind Recorded by Arizal (On my to watch list) and has already premiered on RT website

She is learning if she wants to do the thing she is applying for for the rest of her life. It is about growing up, being relatable, learning about new things.

It is Yssa’s first solo show and definitely feels the Imposter Syndrome. She was not expecting how much it would explode and all the cast shouts their support for her

The idea came from limitations. She had to think about how limited the world is and came up with the vlog setup. INspiration came from Jenna Marbles and the Lizzie Bennet diaries, and pretty much Youtube in general. “It’s a self insert, what up?”

The clip they showed is so relatable, and made Kerry go make sure his books were okay. MOOD

Guest F.J. DeSanto thought this was therapy (Kerry: it might turn into therapy) lol

He worked on Tranformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy: Siege and it is gonna be on Netflix in a few days

It will not be dark and depressive, and it is a good fit with RT

It fits into the main generation story line (~prequel to 80s series) but it is its own story.

There are so many characters in the franchise that he wishes he could work with but there are diverse characters that will be on the show

Miles Luna is in this?? Okay (he will be an autobot and another character)

The clip is Cliffjumper’s cameo and is only 20 seconds but definitely hypes it

He can’t share too much or else Hasbro will make him ‘disappear’

RWBY TIME BITCHES!!!!!

8 years of RWBY, Barb is now 30 

THEY STARTED WRITING VOLUME 9!!! I’m deceased

Collab for new RWBY streetwear merch (Yssa: just in case you were a little gay. Kerry: The percentage is growing)

RTX was cancelled but coop comics will be putting stuff on in the fall

VOLUME 7 SOUNDTRACK NEXT WEEK!!!!!! (7/31)

I’m literally writing the rest of this from beyond the grave

there goes all my bday money...

RWBY is officially working with Good smile to make popup parade of RWBY preorders start 8/3

having more writers has helped get RWBY written so quickly. It has been tough to write from home but they are getting through it

Theme for volume 8: distrust (after 7 being trust? hot damn) especially with Yang and a few other characters

Can Blake purr? Kerry refused to answer. Barb said if she get excited... Bees???

Yang gets a bike again!!! Also Oscar will find them pretty quick in the season

ALL THE SONGS!!!! I am sooooo ready for Friday to get here. But all the buildup for volume 8 is great and I am so happy Oscar meets up with the gang fast. Let me live with all this beautiful info. Check out RoosterTeeth people!

https://youtu.be/s4AQp3QucoI

[kcrinas]

hi  sexies  !   i’m  dani  (  she/her  )  ,  21  &  i’m  from  the  gta  aka  ur  messy  canadian  wassup  🤠  thank  u  guys  sm  for  applying  all  ur  muses  are  so  beautiful  &  im  sm  in  love  already  !  i  rly  wanna  plot  w  every  single  one  of  u  so  pls  give  this  a  like  for  permission  for  me  2  come  bug  u  for  plots  !  🖤  karina’s  info  &  wanted  connections  r  under  the  cut  !

karina maji was spotted in the fashion district adorning gucci leather ankle boots , with some airpod pros on . they’re most likely listening to don’t stop by meg thee stallion . you may know them as @karina or as that mishti rahman lookalike . their  twenty - fourth  birthday just passed . while living in tribeca , they’ve gained a bit of a reputation . they’re known to be tenacious but on the other hand quixotic . wonder if they’ll be the next person to hit the headlines .  (   cisfemale / she/her + dani / 21 / she/her  )

             *     𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬  :

full  name  :  karina aarvi maji  .

nicknames  :  kar  ,  rina  ,  maji

age  :  twenty  -  four  .

gender  :  cisfemale  ,  she/her  .

sexual  orientation  :  pansexual  .

hometown  :  chicago , illinois   .

occupation  :  professional  mma  fighter  /  instagram  model  .

zodiac  chart  :   aquarius  sun  ,  gemini  moon  ,  scorpio  rising  .

character  inspo  : alicia mendez (  kingdom )  ,  cristina yang (  grey’s anatomy )  ,  princess jasmine (  aladdin  )  ,  megara (  hercules  )  ,  alyssa  (  the  end  of  the  f*cking  world  )  ,  kat  stratford  (  10  things  i  hate  about  you  )

                  *  𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲  :

                                tw  :   death  ,  accident  ,  drugs  .  

karina’s  life  began  in  chicago  ,  illinois  .  born  where  her  parents  spent  their  life  ,  grew  up  together  &  eventually  ended  up  married  .  it  was  the  perfect  love  story  ,  best  friends  -  then  lovers  -  then  soulmates  .  tied  for  life  ,  married  young  ,  in  their  mid  20′s  .  but the  love  between  the  two  of  them  never  faltering  once  even  after  another  10  years  pass  .  

her  mother  ,  was  a  highly  sought  after  model  .  her  father  ,  one  of  the  most  legendary  ufc  fighters  in  the  league  .  the  maji’s  were  considered  royalty  to  the  tabloids  ,  their  love  story  inspiring  many  .  their  life   was  seemingly  so  perfect  ,  a  dream  to  many  .  &  when  they  found  themselves  blessed  with  a  little  girl  after  five  years  of  marriage  ,  it  just  made  them  an  even  more  “  perfect  ”  family  .

karina  was  treated  like  a  princess  ,  her  parents  adored  the  ground  she  walked  on  &  karina  did  the  same  with  them  .  she  was  well  -  behaved  growing  up  ,  knowing  how  lucky  she  was  to  be  living  so  luxurious  ,  something  her  parents  taught  her  to  appreciate  since  she  was  old  enough  to  understand  .  they  drilled  gratefulness  into  her  head  by  the  age  of  five  .  it  was  a  very  rare  occurrence  where  karina  would  fight  or  disrespect  her  parents  .

they  lived  in  chicago  for  many  years  ,  a  way  for  them  to  keep  their  roots  established  while  raising  karina  .  &  have  more  privacy  than  living  in  their  career  hubs  would  give  them  -  aka  ,  nyc  or  la  .  it  was  much  more  accessible  for  her  father  to  work  out  of  chicago  ,  but  for  her  mother  ,  there  were  many  hours  spent  travelling  between  chicago  &  new  york  .  too  many  .  

(   tw  death  ,  plane  crash  )  it  was  the  mere  age  of  17  ,  when  karina’s  loving  mother  never  returned  home  from  her  trip  to  new  york  .  tragedy  struck  when  her  plane  crashed  due  to  pilot  error  .  the  day  that  changed  not  only  karina’s  life  permanently  ,  but  her  father  too  .  both  their  hearts  broke  into  two  that  day  .

she  wondered  for  months  how  she  could  possibly  continue  life  &  living  without  her  mom  in  it  .  &  the  older  she  got  ,  the  more  &  more  the  feeling  invaded  her  .  through  every  life  experience  she  had  afterwards  she  wished  with  everything  in  her  that  her  mom  was  there  next  to  her  .  

karina  went  from  a  happy  ,  extroverted  &  polite  girl  to  a  closed  off  ,   sardonic  &  enigmatic  woman  .  it  was  as  if  the  light  was  taken  out  of  her  body  &  she  turned  into  someone  unrecognizable  . 

(  tw  drugs  )  it  tore  her  dad  apart  ,  after  taking  a  year  off  to  mend  ,  he  fell  into  a  spiral  of  alcohol  &  drugs  ,  and  he  never  went  back  .  his  career  completely  ended  .   to  this  day  ,  her  dad  hasn’t  stepped  foot  in  the  ring  since  her  mother’s  death  .

her  senior  year  of  high  school  -  karina  fell  into  that  same  spiral  .  using  cocaine  ,  xanax  ,  weed  &  booze  to  cure  her  broken  heart  .  &  she  felt  like  it  did  ,  for  a  little  while  anyway  .  by  some  miracle  ,  she  graduated  with  her  diploma  .  but  that  didn’t  mean  much  anyway  ,  karina  wasn’t  going  to  college   ,  she  knew  exactly  what  she  wanted  to  do  with  the  rest  of  her  life  .

karina  grew  up  religiously  watching  her  dad  fight  ,  she’d  seen  tapes  of  every  single  one  of  his  fights  before  she  was  old  enough  to  watch  them  &  from  before  she  was  born   .  religiously  trained  &  boxed  with  her  father  every  sunday  since  she  was  eleven  .  she  learned  the  ins  &  out  at  a  young  age  ,  &  fell  in  love  with  the  sport  the  second  she  took  her  first  swing  .  

she  fell  even  more  heavily  into  training  after  her  mom  passed  ,  spending  practically  every  single  day  honing  her  skills  &  building  herself  to  follow  in  her  dad’s  footsteps  &  become  one  of  the  best  fighters  the  ufc  has  ever  seen  .

began  building  her  career  at  eighteen  by  moving  to  new  york  city ,  she  was  signed  by  the  age  of  20  .  suddenly  appearing  in  the  tabloids  ,  there  was  something  about  her  that  seemed  to  bring  in  people’s  attention  .  mma  fans  or  not  ,   she  gained  a  large  following  on  social  media  .  

suddenly  ,  she  was  getting  sponsorship  offers  left  &  right  .  whether  it  was  mma  related  or  sugarbear  hair  ,  she  was  getting  them  .  karina  took  the  ones  that  paid  her  well  ,  &  her  following  just  seemed  to  keep  rising  every  day  after  that  ,  basically  became  considered  an  “ influencer ”  along  with  her  other  title  .  

at  the  age  of  21  ,  karina  became  one  of  the  youngest  female  ever  to  be  signed  by  the  UFC  .  this  was  a  big  deal  to  her  ,  as  it’s  a  dream  so  many  fighters  wish  for  .  something  it  takes  years  of  hard  work  &  dedication  to  accomplish  .  something  she  worked  her  entire  life  for  .

she’s  been  fighting  with  the  ufc  for  the  last  three  years  ,  loving  every  minute  of  it   .  the  intense  training  ,  the  fights  ,  the  interviews  ,  it  all  gives  her  a  rush  she  can’t  explain  .  something  drugs  couldn’t  give  her  ,  which  she’s  required  to  get  tested  for  every  once  in  a  while  ,  usually  before  a  fight  .  she’s  found  her  ways  around  using  without  it  ruining  her  career  and/or  getting  caught  .  let’s  see  how  long  that  lasts  ..  ; - )  ksjndfsfd

with  all  the  money  that  she’s  reigned  in  the  last  few  years  from  the  ufc  along  with  her  instagram  sponsorships  ,  she’s  sending  a  lot of  it  to  her  father  ,  considering  his  “retirement”  fund  is  basically  non  -  existent  while  he  stays  cooped  up  in  their  chicago  family  home  ,  surrounded  by  memories  of  her  mother .  while  karina  stays  resided  in  her  cozy  tribeca  home  ,  only  steps  away  from  her  training  gym  .

                *  𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲  :

karina  is  a  v  hard  nut  2  crack  .  she’s  closed  off  ,  sardonic  &  doesn’t  really  converse  much  with  strangers  

it’s  basically  been  her  &  her  dad  since  her  mom’s  passing  ,  so  she’s  very  hard  to  get  close  to  .  but  once  u  do  ,  she’ll  never  let  u  go .

she’s  loyal  to  a  fault  ,  because  she’s  always  afraid  of  people  leaving / d*ing  .  

she’s  trying  to  branch  out  &  make  more  friends  since  moving  to  tribeca  ,  but  she  truly  doesn’t  open  up  to  anyone  .   if  she  opens  up  to  you  about  her  life  or  her  past  ,  she  truly  trusts  u  ,  &  that  means  something

she  tends  to  come  off  as  intimidating  or  ..  bitchy  ,  even  when  she  doesn’t  mean  to  .  her  personality  just  tends  to  be  dry  .  she  tends  to  have  dark  humour  ,  so  she  has  to  be  careful  who  she  makes  jokes  around skndfkk 

sometimes  tends  2  stir  up  drama  even  by  accident  .  nskjkf

if  she’s  not  training  for  a  fight  ,  she’ll  be  out  partying  every  night  .  dancing  on  tables  &  probably  getting  herself  kicked  out  of  whatever  bar/club  she  found  herself  in  that  night  .  doing  what  she  can  to  get  drunk  or  feel  any  type  of  high  ,  whether  that  be  drugs  or  waking  up  next  to  a  stranger  .  

she’s  heavily  into  fashion  &  always  posting  cute  outfits  on  instagram  ,  something  that  caused  her  following  to  grow  .

she’s  lowkey  a  hopeless  romantic  ...  seeing  how  her  parents  fell  in  love  ,   but  it  scares  tf  out  of  her  because  of  their  ending  .  &  she’d  literally  never  admit  this  to  anyone  ever  .

she’s  a  new  muse  &  i’m  still  developing  her  but  i  have  sm  muse  so  i’m  very  excited  &  i  rly  hope  you  guys  like  her  !

             *  𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝  𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬  :

ok  hello  if  u  read  that  long  ass  messy  shit  ur  a  baddie  🖤  anyway  ,  for  wc’s  ,  i  literally  have  so  many  !!  they  are  all  listed  here  @karinawcs​ ,  so  take  a  peek  &  if  you  like  any  of  them  lmk  bc  i  have  tons  of  headcannons / ideas  for  all  those  !  hehe  ily  let’s  plot  

[newagesispage]

                                                                JULY                                   2021

 THE RIB PAGE

 *****

They are still uncovering statues on Easter Island.

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Everyone is talking about ‘Exterminate all the Brutes” from Raoul Peck.

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Vampire bats, prevalent in Latin America may be on the way to the U.S.

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What they call faith, I call strength.

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Criss angel will open CABLP, a restaurant in Overton, Nevada. The letters stand for breakfast, lunch and pizza and will include a free meal outreach program to help under privileged and pediatric cancer families.

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A fifth ocean in Antartica??** There have also found 4 new ocean species: Apolemia, Tegula Kusairo, Leptarma Biju and Duobrachium Sparksae.

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In China they have found a possible new species in a skull that is 140,000 years old.

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Why would Jeffrey Toobin be back at CNN?? Surely there are more young deserving talking heads around.

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The Keystone pipeline is dead.

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5,000 pounds of explosives were discovered in a home in South LA. LAPD seems to have detonated the fireworks in a truck right there in the neighborhood. They were too dangerous to transport but not enough to blow them up??? How stupid are these people??

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Days alert : So glad to see Clyde again even if it is only for a moment!! **BTW, I do not understand the Daytime Emmy noms this year as they relate to Days. I really was pulling for Victoria Koneful (Ciara) and she won but George DelHoya (Orpheus), Tamara Braun (Ava) and Cady McClain (Jennifer)??? I was shocked when Cady McClain won. I mean, she was so whiny. I question my own ability to judge a performance. In most categories, the winner was usually the one I thought was the worst option. I was happy for Max Gail and CBS Sunday Morning.  Some performances were sure overlooked. What about James Read (Clyde), Paul Telfer (Xander), Bryan Dattilo (Lucas), Robert Scott Wilson (Ben), Daniel Kerr (Eli) and Lindsay Arnold (Allie) ?? As annoying as the Kristen character is and as long as it took me to get used to Stacy Haiduk in the role, she kicked ass this year. Did they even submit clips?? And,  they are not often on but Tony and Anna forever!!!!!!** And how wonderful is it to see the Dimera boys all together and recounting the whole fam for the votes? **And one more thing, Days was not even nominated for writing while Bold and the Beautiful spends every other show with the Liam character standing in front of the fireplace making excuses for the same shit! Just push repeat, C,mon!!**Philip had a great line for Brady about following Kristen like a zombie.** Dis Eli really say, “Peacock and chill??’ Are these the things they will have to do to do to stay on the air? It took me right out of the show. It was the same day the ads for Days on Peacock started. OMG

*****

Texas Gov. Abbott vetoed a bill that would make it illegal to chain up dogs without water.**ATexas churches have lost their 501(c) (3) status because it actively ‘educates’ its members on electing specific Republican politicians. –Pete West* This should have been happening long ago. Many churches I know of do this and should not be allowed to have it both ways. #tax the church

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Ellen Burstyn, Jane Curtin, Loretta Devine, Christopher Lloyd, James Caan, French Stewart and Ann-Margaret in Queen Bees and directed by Michael Lembeck?? Yes please!!

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NY has suspended Giuliani’s law license.

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Miracle Workers: The Oregon Trail is coming to TBS, this will be season 3 in the series.

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What is this about Bowen Yang?? A podcast about a sperm bank heist?? Yeow!!

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David Geffen has given $150,000,000 to Yale drama school: Every student will be tuition- free in perpetuity.

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Allison Mack was sentenced to 3 years.

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The latest in sexual assault news: James Franco has agreed to 2.2 mil settlement in sexual misconduct case.** Kyle Massey was charged with immoral communication with a minor.**Bill Cosby is out and here are some reactions: A terrible wrong is being righted.: a miscarriage of justice is corrected. I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward.- Phylicia Rashad*I really don’t ever want to hear again as to why many survivors don’t report their rape or assault.- Charlotte Clymer* Women are showing great restraint in not burning everything to the ground right now and I don’t know how they do it.-Jeff Tiedrich

*****

Amazon is making a series of A League of Their Own with Nick Offerman as the coach.

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Does anyone else have family members that are rich, transient, know it all snobs??

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It looks like New York’s ranked choice voting is leaning toward Eric Adams for Mayor.

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Michigan republicans investigating voter fraud found 2 incidents. One is for a lady who voted by mail and then died, the other was confusion over a man who had the same name as his Father. That was it!

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Jamie Lee Curtis will get the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 78th Venice International Film Fest in September.

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Jerry Seinfeld will star in and direct ‘Unfrosted’ about Pop-Tarts.

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Why is Airbnb still listing properties in illegal settlements and outposts in Palestinian occupied territories? –James J. Zogby

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Merrick Garland has announced that the Justice department sued Georgia over the voting rights.

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The NFL says that it will halt the use of “race norming” which assumed black players started out with lower cognitive functioning in a $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims. The practice had made it harder for black players to qualify. –The Associated Press.

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Scary Clown 45 ended his ‘From the desk of Donald J. Trump’ blog after 29 days. Word is that he felt he was being mocked in the media.

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Religious leadership keeps engaging in partisan politics on behalf of politicians that are particularly unpopular with younger people and they wonder why younger people are disenchanted with the church. – Schooley ** Give young people credit as well for seeing through the hype and lies of these religious hypocrites who use God only as a weapon and a threat. –Larry Charles

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Amazon will stop drug testing for employment. Can every other company jump on this bandwagon? Let’s judge employees on the work they give.

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The Backstreet Boys and NSync are going to work together??!!

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Showtime is bringing back American Gigolo with Jon Bernthal.

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If Biden can carry out air strikes without proper authorization, the Senate can raise the minimum wage without the Parliamentarian.  –Alexandra M. Hunt

Reality Winner is out!!

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Judy Woodruff has been given the Peabody award for journalistic integrity.

*****

Donald Glover is bringing us Hive. Malia Obama will be a writer.

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Nicholas Cage has married Riko Shibata.

*****

Catch and Kill: The podcast tapes, is here on HBO.

*****

Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening will star in Jerry and Marge go large.

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Amblin Partners and Netflix are partners.

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Fall 2022 will bring the Roybal School of film and television production for underserved communities. They are looking to help 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade students. Among others, the program was cofounded by George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling and Eva Longoria.

*****

Will there be a Wedding Crashers2??

*****

The Mysterious Benedict Society stars Tony Hale.** I would love to see he and Danny Pudi in something together.

*****

Actor Stephen Amell from Arrow was removed from a plane after getting into it with his wife.  A source said he was drunk and screaming. An official source said that they removed “an unruly customer.”** Andy Dick was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, allegedly assaulting his partner, Lucas with a metal chair.

*****

So.. Fox news was digitally altering the faces of people they did not care for??? Is there no end to their bullshit????

*****

Mark Ronson is set to marry Grace Gummer.

*****

Crime shows seem to be in the cycle of prisoners and the women who get a thrill from helping them escape.

*****

Wolfgang Van Halen has released a debut album: Mammoth

*****

Everyone seems to love Danny Trejo’s memoir and its honesty.

*****

David Spade will take over as host of Bachelor in Paradise.

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I am sickened when I see the first question that pops up on an online search is the net worth of a person. Oh this twisted world.

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Life is a short pause between 2 great mysteries. –Jung

*****

Prince Harry and Meghan had a daughter that they named Lilibet ‘Lili” Diana.

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Michael Flynn’s brother Charles (who withheld help from the capitol on Jan. 6), leads the U.S. Army Pacific and commands 90,000 troops.

*****

I am so excited to read ‘The Boys’ from Clint and Ron Howard, due out in October.

*****

Dave Chappelle closed out the Tribeca film fest with a surprise concert. This was the first in person film fest since Covid. Look for This time, this place which premiered there.

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Ron Wood will release the album Mr. Luck: A tribute to Jimmy Reed on Sept. 3

*****

Howard Stern signed a new $500 mil contract with Sirius XM. He is taking the whole summer off and many fans say they will cancel their subscription because they don’t want to pay for a summer of reruns.

*****

Acorn will bring Jane Seymour back to a series. Seymour will be co -executive produce on Harry Wild. Her character will be a retired University professor who loves her whiskey and solves crimes.

*****

Annie Murphy  stasr in ‘Kevin can f*** himself about a sitcom wife which airs on AMC.

*****

I still do not understand why Rep. Mike Nearman hasn’t been arrested for letting insurrectionists into the Capitol.

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There is a wing shortage??

*****

The Pulitzer prizes have been announced. The list includes Ben Faub, Barry Blitt, Katori Hall, Emilio Morenatti, AP photographers Marcio Jose Sanchez, Alex Brandon, David Goldman, Julio Cortez, John Minchillo, Frank Franklin II, Ringo H.W. Chiu, Evan Vucci, Mike Stewart and Noah Berger. There was a special citation for Darnella Frazier who filmed the death of George Floyd.

*****

Conan’s last TBS guests were Martin Short, Jack Black, Bill Hader, Mila Kunis, Dana Carvey, Patton Oswalt and JB Smoove. There were some surprises.  The big musical number never happened when Jack Black hurt himself. It was all funny and sweet but Conan never mentioned the band in the last show WTF????????????????????????????????????????? Music is so important to him and he does not thank the band? ** Colbert and Brian Stack gave Conan a cute send after4, 368 shows on CBS calling him a ‘Slenderman Ron Weasly’.  Kimmel wished Conn well also.** Hope his HBO MAX variety show goes well.** BTW, the Duvall interview with Colbert was great to see but why does nobody ever mention ‘Get Low?’ What a performance!!

*****

Tattoos are on the rise.

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Fast food drive thru’s sometime close with fake excuses like the equipment is down or something because they don’t feel like working. Good people can’t find work and so many waste the opportunities they have. AAAAGHH!!

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Valerie Bertinelli and Demi Lovato will star in ‘Hungry’ on NBC.

*****

Hulu will bring us David E. Kelley’s Nine Perfect Strangers with Nicole Kidman, Michael Shannon, Regina Hall, Bobby Cannavale and Melissa McCarthy.

*****

R.I.P. Gavin Macleod, Frank Bonner, Joy Vogelsang, Benigno Aquino, Champ Biden, victims of the Miami building collapse, Robert Sacchi, Stuart Damon, Johnny Solinger  and Clarence Williams III.

[blake-belladonna-defence-force]

Writing prompt of how either Blake or Yang(whichever one you choose) proposes to the other . Craving that soft Bumbleby today :3

*throws the soft dorky bees* here, have the fluffy dorks!

Thanks for the suggestion, I do love seeing these girls be soft.

Couple things to note:

They live in their own home and Yang is working on Bumblebee 2.0

Yang designs and builds prosthetics. But she does volunteer work for low income areas.

Blake has a chunk missing out of her left ear due to a smaller Grimm getting too close.

Blake is head of faunus relations at the SDC and works with Weiss to ensure equal rights. One day, her parents will retire and she’ll take over from them.

Yang sings off key because she claims that she’ll never sound as beautiful as Blake’saugh so why even try.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Blake laughed from where she sat on the counter of their garage as her girlfriend purposefully sang out of key, a battle torn ear flicking lightly. She truly adored this woman.

“… okay and our new baby is done!” Yang said, wiping her hands on an old rag, engine grease stains coating her tank top and her skin. And yet… she was still the most beautiful thing that Blake had ever seen.

Blake never thought that this would ever happen. The war with Salem was long and hard. They had lost a lot of good people. But the two girls had done their best to never let the war affect their relationship. It hasn’t always been easy. They had their disputes and disagreements just like any other couple. But the bond they shared was so unique and so strong that nothing could tear it down. Not with the amount of work and fight that they had put into protecting it.

Blake shook her head, recalling back to the Schnee ball when she had confessed to Yang. It had been terrifying but Yang had immediately resolved all of her fears. They’ve been inseparable ever since. Much to Weiss’s sufferance.

“What are you thinking about, baby?” Yang asked softly, recognising the far away look in Blake’s eyes.

“About the most beautiful, intelligent and incredible woman in the world.” Blake murmured, reaching out to run her thumb down Yang’s nose.

“Huh. Thinking about yourself is a little vain, don’t you think?” Yang grinned. Blake felt her heart stutter as she lightly smacked Yang’s shoulder.

“You don’t need to flirt. You’ve already got me.” Blake giggled, watching as a lovesick look crossed Yang’s face. They were 22 and been together since they were 18 and yet they still managed to fluster and make each other lovestruck. Blake doubted that it would ever fade. “I just want you to know that I feel so lucky to have you. Can you guess how much?” Blake asked teasingly, leaning close to her girlfriend and kissing her nose.

“Hmm. I don’t know. Tell me.” Yang said with a fond smile and a roll of her eyes, humouring Blake’s playful mood.

“This much.” Blake smirked, placing a velvet box on the counter beside where she sat with small bang to draw Yang’s attention.

Yang’s eyes went wide and she let out a gasping laugh.

“Oh my God. Are you seriously proposing to me when I’m covered in grease? I just fixed our new bike, babe! You couldn’t wait until I got cleaned up?” Yang teased, despite the tears that were pooling in her eyes.

“Hey, I’m just giving our future kids a fun story to listen to.” Blake said playfully, pushing the box towards Yang pointedly.

“… kids.” Yang said distantly, smile wide with wonder. “Yeah. Okay.” She breathed as she tried to pull herself together.

“Sooo…” Blake drawled to hide her anxiety. “Is that a yes?” Her voice hitched slightly but even without it, Yang would have picked up on her nerves. She always did.

“Baby.” Yang cooed, stepping between Blake’s and reaching up to cup her jaw. “It’s always been yes.”

Blake let out a half laugh, half sob and pulled Yang close, wrapping her legs around her waist and entwined her fingers in her hair gently. Yang gave a happy, watery smile back before pulling Blake down to place a tender kiss on her lips, pulling back to grab the box.

“Put it on?” She asked, voice small and vulnerable, letting all of all walls just for Blake. Blake gave a small nod and a warm smile and gently took the ring and put it on Yang. It was a simple, gold band with a bee engraved in it. “It’s perfect. You’re perfect. We are perfect!” Yang said, nuzzling into Blake’s neck.

“I love you, Yang.” Blake whispered into Yang’s hair, delighting in the small, adoring rain “I love you too, Blake” that was mumbled into her neck with a kiss.

It’s been a long journey to get here. The story with Salem was over.

But now their story was just beginning.

[kurakuray]

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful  Trust The Voice In Your Heart 9th Feb, 2021 Assalammualaikum Ladies, This week’s Love Letter is inspired by one of my elders. For quite some time now, Uncle Y has shared with me how he has been thinking of retiring. He is just one year shy of the big 6-0, and has been working in his current job for over 17 years (!!!), Ma Sha Allah. Together with his wife, he has worked super hard to support his family and raise his 4 daughters as best as he can, but the past year, he’s been doing a lot of thinking and he realised that he’s missing out on the “big things” because of work. “What do you mean “big things”, Uncle?“ I asked, curious. "Well, I’ve always wanted to join Kuliah Subuh and Duha Classes at the Masjid. I want to work on my Quran and my Deen, and spend more time with my family. I want to better serve my wife too. Also, I never get to go to cycling sessions with my friends because of work. So I want to do more of that. I feel like my life has been on a pause the past 30 years or so. Aida, I have missed so much. I want to make my life count before it’s too late,” he said softly, but his sincerity was loud and clear. My heart ached for him. “Aww, Uncle! Of course, you can do all that, In Sha Allah! If you want to retire, we will all support your decision! Don’t worry!” I reassured him, something that he has been doing for me my whole life. 😭 - Uncle Y finally submitted his resignation letter just a few days ago, but it was not easy for him. This was something he was contemplating about for months. His thoughts and worries seesawed back and forth as he tried to firm up his courage to finally retire, but the decisive factor was when he finally understood what was most important for him: his faith and his relationship with Allah SWT. He knew he could do more of what he loves only if he set his priorities straight, so with a Bismillah and lots of trust in Allah SWT, he took the big step. Uncle Y taught me that sometimes, doing the right thing can be difficult. But, it will always be worth it. When I caught up with Uncle Y via Whatsapp Call today, he flashed me a huge grin and told me, “I feel so light, Aida!” I beamed with joy, proud that he finally listened to the voice in his heart to do the right thing. - One of my teachers on AA Plus taught me that “the sincere heart that is on the path of seeking Allah will always know what is the right thing to do. The sincere heart knows the right answer.” We all know in our hearts of heart what is truly the most important thing in our lives. We all know that when the day comes when we are being lowered to our next home that is six feet under, nothing else will matter except for the good deeds that we’ve done in this world, that our amal (deeds) will be our only companions. Not our phone or the Social Media accounts we are following. Not the money, status, or the fame that we are chasing. Not the people who we are unhealthily attached to. None of the things we are all fussing about in this Dunia, except our Solah, our Charity, our Quran, the Knowledge that we share, and all of the good that we are striving to do for His sake. But just knowing these things is not enough. We must also strive and take action. If the voice in your heart is constantly whispering, “I can definitely do better for Allah’s sake”… If the voice in your heart keeps on urging, “Pursue your curiosity and learn more about the Deen”… If the voice in your heart is desperately pleading, “Please stop neglecting me and start taking care of me”… Wouldn’t you say now is the best time to trust that voice and take action? Ladies, Allah SWT is as-Shukur, the Ever-Appreciative. Don’t ever think an effort on your part is too insignificant. Allah sees it all, and He appreciates it all. Just like how He appreciated Uncle Y’s sincere intentions to spend more time on his Deen, In Sha Allah, He will also appreciate the intentions you will make today to do the right thing, especially if it’s difficult and your sacrifices are aplenty. He sees, He appreciates, He rewards, and He guides. What more do we need when we have Him?

LovLetAA

Setiap selasa, selalu ada surat cinta yang dikirim AA di email. Dan, lovelet hari ini relate banget dengan apa yang dirasain. Allah… Seseorang pernah bilang seperti ini,”Allah kurang romantis apa coba dengan hamba-hamba-Nya. Benar banget. Baru aja sepertinya cuap-cuap tentang ini, eh baca lovelet ini jadi makin makin meleleh. Ditambah dapat kabar baik dari dosen wali pagi ini. Apa lagi? Nikmat Allah mana lagi yang kamu dustakan. 

Lakukanlah, nanti Allah yang akan memampukan.

He sees, He appreciates, He rewards, and He guides. What more do we need when we have Him?

Oh Allah

[lousimusician]

Losing Innocence -- Chapter 6

Pairing: Mob!Tom x Reader

Summary: It was astounding how much you didn't know about your best friend, and how much her past could affect your future.

Warning: Language

A/N: It's finally written. After like 6 months I finally finished it. I'm changing the pace a little bit of the story, so certain things may seem a little rushed but I gotta get into the plot now or I never will. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

~~

Tom pushed the door open and raised his gun.

But the sight before him made him scoff and quickly lower it. "What the fuck are you doing in here Belle?"

Belle was sat at Tom's desk, head buried in some files. She raised her head and looked up, rolling her eyes at the sight of his gun. "Nothing, I just wanted to see if there was anything I missed these last three years. I can't believe that bitch Victoria actually had the balls to take over her dad's mob."

"Yeah it was a shock to all of us." Tom rolled his eyes. "Now get the fuck out of here."

"Fine." Belle said, placing the folder back on his desk and standing up. She tossed him a key. "Y'know keeping the key to your office under that same stupid plant you have for years makes it really easy to find. You might want to move it." She said snarkily.

Approaching Tom, Belle scrunched up her face. "Ew, have you been drinking? You smell awful."

"Insulting me after I kindly saved your arse?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"Whatever." Belle scoffed. "But on a more serious note. Why the fuck is (Y/N)'s last name in one of those files."

"...What?" Tom asked suddenly feeling sober. "Which file?"

Belle stalked back to his desk, lifted a file and opened it to a certain page. "Right here it says, 'He's often spotted at (L/N)'s bar."

"I'm gonna need a little more context than that sweetheart. Give me the file."

Belle rolled her eyes, handing the folder to him.

Tom's eyes scanned the page.

'Noah Wright worked under William Taylor for 10 years before retiring, he's often spotted at (L/N)'s bar, which the location of is still undisclosed.'

Tom looked up, "Either this is a coincidence or there's more to your friend that you don't know."

"Tom~" A voice sung from outside his office, making him turn and quickly spot the girl he brought home. "It's lonely in your room." She pouted.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Get the fuck out, I need to go back to work."

An offended look covered the woman's face. "Fine." She scoffed, before quickly leaving.

Belle raised her eyebrow. "Really? A stripper?"

"Yeah and?"

She shook her head. "You seriously haven't changed a bit."

"Shut up and go get your friend. I need to ask her about this. I'm calling Harrison over."

"I'll try but that's easier said than done." She grumbled before leaving the room.

Tom picked up the phone and rang Harrison who immediately answered. "Tom this better not be you drunk dialing me-"

"Shut up, somethings come up, get your arse over here." He said hanging up. Tom sat down behind his desk and picked up the file again. He read the page over and over again as he wracked his brain for the name Noah Wright but it didn't ring a bell.

'Wright is also spotted with Oliver Reed who still works with Taylor.'

Now that name rang a bell.

"Oliver fucking Reed." He repeated in disbelief.

"Damn, I was hoping I'd never hear that name again." Harrison said showing up in the doorway.

"Took you long enough. Read this." He said holding the file out.

Harrison walked over and grabbed it from him, quickly reading the file. He raised an eyebrow after he finished and looked back up at Tom. "And?"

"And Belle's friend. Her last name is (L/N)."

Harrison looked taken aback. "What's her connection to this bar then?"

"No idea. Belle has been trying to get her down here for the past ten minutes."

"You don't know? I would've thought doing a background check on this girl was going to be the first thing you did." He said dropping the file back on the desk. 

"I was actually planning on doing it tomorrow, I thought figuring out where Taylor was was a bit more important."

"Let go of me!" Someone yelled from outside the office, before Belle quickly walked in with you trailing behind her.

"I'm sorry, I tried to be nice about it but you refused." Belle yelled back.

You stood in the office with the others, Belle still grabbing your wrist. "We just want to ask a few questions. We found something strange." 

You stood in front of Tom and Harrison in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. You looked like hell but you couldn't care less. "Fine. Just let go." You grumbled, pulling away from her grasp, you turned to Tom. "What do you need to know?"

"Do you have any relatives that own a bar by any chance?" Tom asked.

You furrowed your eyebrows. "Uh, yeah. My uncle owns an underground bar."

"Your uncle?"

"Y-yeah. I haven't seen him in years though."

Tom had a calculating look as he thought. "I usually know these kinds of things but is he related to any mob activity?"

"N-not directly I think. He just owned a bar that a lot of criminals hung out at but he was never involved in anything like that."

"Have you ever been to this bar?" Harrison asked this time. 

You bit your lip with a guilty look. You knew this was going to come back and bite you in the ass. 

Tom observed how guilty you looked. "You have, haven't you? And you've been there more than once too."

Belle looked at you surprised. "You used to hang out there? With a bunch of criminals?"

You sighed exasperated. "Jesus you people act like a bunch of detectives. But, fine, yes I used to go there a lot but I didn't used to hang out with criminals." You said shooting a glare at Belle. "After my mom left me and my dad when I was 17 I was just so mad at my mom for leaving and my dad for not trying to stop her that I turned to the only other adult I knew, which was my uncle. I used to go to his bar and hang out with him, I even worked there for a while too."

"Holy shit." Both Tom and Harrison muttered. Something seemed to click in their heads at the same time. Harrison looked at Tom with wide eyes, Tom having the same expression, an excited feeling bubbling in his chest figuring out a lead this early, and suddenly realizing bringing you here wasn't a huge mistake.

"Wright still talks to Reed-" Tom said, getting cut off by Harrison.

"And Reed is still in Taylor's mob-" Harrison continued, getting cut off by Belle this time.

"Oh my God! And Wright still hangs out at the bar!" All three heads suddenly turned towards you.

Tom's gaze pierced right through you. "You're taking us to that bar."

---

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[laulink]

hello again! i sent that last ask, and i think you just wrote a story! i liked how everything worked out and the roles that the characters continue to play in each other's lives. it got me thinking of more questions that mainly involve the romance itself. when did they start dating, who made the first move, who proposed, how did Ghira and Kali react to meeting Weiss, how many kids do they have, and anything else you can think of. i hope this isn't too much trouble!

Not at all ! Honestly, I’ve been spending waaayyyyy too much time thinking about all this so it’s nice to see that someone is interested in hearing more x)

(putting my answer under a read more though because it’s HUGE)

For when they start dating, it kinda depends if I want to stay really canon compliant or if I want to have Weiss and Blake start dating earlier. I can stay canon compliant by having Blake and Yang grow apart at the end of the war, each pursuing different goals while Blake and Weiss start spending more and more time together because of the SDC and the WF. Blake and Yang would end up agreeing that the war changed them, a lot, but now that it’s over and they’re healing, they realise that they’re better off as friends rather than lovers and have an amicable break up. Pretty soon after, Blake starts to notice more things about Weiss, like how she plays with her hair when she’s thinking, how she bites her lower lip when something is bothering her, how her eyes sparkle when she sees or hears something funny, etc... and slowly she falls in love. Weiss has had a crush on Blake for years now, since their time in Beacon, but she never told anyone because she knew Blake had feelings for Yang and she just wanted her to be happy, even if it hurt her to see her with someone else. But now that Blake and Yang have broken up and Blake spends so much time with Weiss, our dear heiress’ feelings come back full force and she can’t help but hope that her feelings might be reciprocated...

One evening after a party in Vacuo both of them attended for political reasons, Blake accompanies Weiss back to her hotel room. They both had a couple drinks during the evening and are under a slight buzz, laughing more easily than usual. When they finally arrive at Weiss’ room, they stand in front of the door a moment too long, not wanting to part just yet. No one knows who leaned in first, but they soon found themselves kissing, softly at first, then more and more passionnately. They decided to stop, however, aware that it wouldn’t do them any good to go too fast, and agreed to meet in the morning for breakfast, then parted ways with one last kiss. Both of them had very pleasant dreams that night~

After that, they decided to start dating and see where it would lead them.

If I decide to be less canon compliant, I think I’d have Blake and Weiss start dating during V6 or 7, support each other through Adam’s death and all the Atlas and Schnee family bullshit going on right now. It wouldn’t change a lot of things for the story and, at the end of the war, they’d start working on rebuilding their world together, with the SDC and the WF.

Whatever the way and moment they get together though doesn’t have much influence on the rest of their story together. For example, in both cases, Kali and Ghira were delighted to know that Blake had started dating Weiss. They met her briefly at Haven and considered her a delight to talk to, very kind, respectful and polite, but with a sharp tongue when needed. Ghira is particularly fond of her since Weiss is hard to intimidate, knows what she wants and can be very determined, but also open to discussion and adjusting her stance on a multitude of matters. Kali likes to act like a mom around her (though she’s the same with Ruby and Yang too, so nothing really special there).

Winter, if Weiss and Blake started dating in Atlas, would be a bit suspicious of Blake at first. She respects her sister’s decisions and wouldn’t dare interfere in her love life, but she still has a bit of a tendency to see Weiss as her baby sister, so she’d give Blake a bit of a hard time at first, using every opportunity she gets to interrogate her on her intentions toward Weiss, why she wanted to date Weiss and all that stuff. Yang finds it hilarious but can also relate and supports Winter as a protective big sister x) If Weiss and Blake start dating after the war though, it would be a context where Winter had had time to get to learn to know Blake and saw Blake’s and Weiss’ growing feelings for each other, so she’d be a lot more supportive of the new relationship and only threaten Blake’s life if she broke Weiss’ heart as a joke (or is it ? =P).

At whatever time the girls start dating, Willow and Whitley would be rather supportive. If it’s in V7 already, they wouldn’t know right away and would only learn about the relationship after they started fixing their relationships with Weiss, so they’d be surprised, but would see how happy Blake makes Weiss, so they’d wish them the best. If it’s after the war, it would be at a point in time where Willow and Whitley are rather close to Weiss and have good relationships with her, so they’d be even more supportive and encourage her to pursue Blake in their own ways (Whitley may or may not try to play matchmaker =3)

The proposal would occur a few years after the end of the war, probably around 3 years after Weiss and Blake started dating. Remnant is getting back on its feet, the SDC is getting ever closer to the point of equality between human and Faunus Weiss wants it to reach and the Kingdoms are more and more open to listening to the White Fang and giving Faunus citizens more rights. Blake and Weiss both figure it would be the best time to get married. They had already talked about it a year or so earlier, but both agreed it would be best to wait until things settled down a bit more for both of them before they decided to throw themselves into organising a wedding. So when the time finally seems to be right, it is all a matter of who will propose first. They are both sort of expecting the other to propose sooner or later, but Weiss is still enchanted and overwhelmed by emotion when Blake goes down on one knee after a romantic date in a quiet park in Vale, near New Beacon. The wedding is held in Atlas because most of their friends and family live their or near the Kingdom and it’s easier to reach than Menagerie, but the girls make sure to incorporate elements of both traditional Atlesian and Mistralian weddings (since I headcanon that Blake, with the name Belladonna and her Japanese aesthetics, is of Mistralian descent and would follow their traditions for ceremonies like weddings). It is not a quiet or private affair since Weiss and Blake are such important public figures and their wedding is one more ray of hope toward the end of the centuries old war between humans and Faunus, but they still manage to have their dream day without having to mix too much politics into it (Ghira, Kali, Willow, Winter and Whitley make sure of that).

Their first child is born about a year after the wedding and is named Winry Belladonna-Schnee. Weiss liked the idea of continuing the tradition of names starting with a W, at least for her first child, and Blake had no objection, especially after Weiss told her that Winry was the name of her grandmother, Willow’s mother and the reason the tradition even existed. Winry is a very smart child, well-behaved when she has to be, but also mischievous at times, especially when she is with her cousin Yue or her younger sister Keyla. She looks like a carbon copy of Blake, but with Weiss’ white, straight hair and blue eyes. She has a patch of black hair cutting through the white and falling over her forehead as well as two cat ears like Blake. She’s always preferred to sport chin-length hair and mostly white clothing.

Yue, born two months before Winry, is Winter and Yang’s daughter. She looks like Yang, but with white hair and blue eyes. Most of her personality comes from Yang, though her expressions are very reminiscent of Winter’s. She grows up alongside Winry, more like sisters than cousins since they live together and are so close in age, which makes them very close friends.

Both Yue and Winry want to become Huntresses, but while Yue wants to be free and travel through the world like Yang, therefore deciding to attend New Beacon, Winry prefers to enter Atlas Academy and aim to become the next General after her Aunt Winter retires.

Keyla, born three years after Winry, has long and slightly curly black hair like Blake with two black cat ears atop her head, but her eyes are heterochromatic : right eye a warm amber and left eye a soft blue. If she wears a colored lens over her left eye, one could believe she is a younger version of Blake. She is calm and quiet most of the time, but can also be quite passionnate and eloquent when defending something that matters to her. She has always been interested in politics and hesitates between joining the White Fang or trying to become part of the Atlesian politic circle. She knows how to fight and built herself a weapon in case she ever needs to defend herself, but she doesn’t want to become a Huntress (a shame, according to all the Huntsmen and Huntresses who saw her fight). Since she was a child, she has always been close to Summer, Ruby and Penny’s daughter, but only after her twelth birthday did she realise that her feelings might go beyond friendship. Summer and her start dating around the age of 15, to the delight of everyone around them who were growing tired of their obliviousness and awkwardness.

Finally, Tanya, Weiss and Blake’s third and last child, was born four years after Keyla. She is a bright and energetic girl with long, white, slightly curly hair and blue eyes with a set of white cat ears atop her head. Much like Summer, she is sort of a “mad scientist”, a genius in her own right, though her calling rests with Dust rather than machines and programs like for Summer. When she first discovers, at age 10, the wonders of the researches on Dust, Tanya becomes passionnate and studies everything she can on the matter. She dreams of joining the BSDC’s reasearch and development team thanks to her own merit rather than her family name. 

Nuts and Dolts bonus (because I mentioned their kid in all this and I think she deserves some more details) : Summer Rose, daughter of Ruby Rose and Penny Polendina, born six months after Keyla. She has long, dark-red hair, nearly black near the roots and a lighter shade of red at the tips. She wears a black bow behind her head, like her Ma (Penny) and adopted her Mom’s belief that combat skirts are the best (though she is not a fighter herself and only wears one for the style). She is a little genius when it comes to everything mechanic and is quite good at programming as well. At age 10, she is her grandfather’s best ever apprentice and at 15 years old, she starts her formal studies at Atlas Tech and Mech Academy (name is totally made up, but that’s basically where Atlas teaches all of its future scientists, no matter the discipline). At the same time, she starts dating her friend Keyla who she has always been close to, more so than to anyone else her age. Summer is a very lively girl, so much so that she’s often hard to keep up with, especially when she is very excited and uses her semblance, Teleportation, while she talks or works. It is basically in-between Ruby’s and Raven’s own semblances : Summer can’t teleport as far as Raven can, but she isn’t bound to one or multiple people, instead being able to teleport anywhere in a 2km radius. On the downside, she can’t take a lot of people with her, the best she has ever managed being five, and anything or anyone that touches her and is not the thing she is standing on will be teleported with her. Summer loves her semblance and often uses it more or less unconsciously when she’s excited, teleporting a couple of meters away when she’s switching ideas or emphasizing a point, etc. She has a lot of energy, but usually manages it quite well when she is not working, in which case she can easily get caught up in her own head and become hyper-focused on the task at hand and/or her theories and experiments. Keyla and her make for a sweet pair and get along well, even when Summer gets engrossed in her work. Keyla is usually the only one who can get Summer to rest or eat something when she’s working on something.

Elderburn bonus : I already stated that Winter and Yang had a daughter named Yue, around the same age as Winry, but they also have a son, Tai, who is also very close in age to one of his cousins, Tanya. He’s a very sweet boy, has blond hair, blue eyes and the most beautiful smile you will ever see~ He chose his name at 7 years old when he told his mothers he felt like being a boy. Both Yang and Winter were very supportive of him and offered to help him decide on a name, but he didn’t need their help to choose Tai, saying that it only makes sense for him to be called that since his grandfather was Taiyang and his mother is Yang : someone had the pick the “Tai” part of the name. (Yang laughed a lot at the way he said that, but agreed it was a good name and Tai never regretted his choice) He takes some time to figure out what he wants to do with his life because he isn’t interested in being a Huntsman, but also doesn’t have a passion like Summer or Tanya, nor an innate talent like Keyla. After he helped tutor one of his classmates in high school though, he realises he loves teaching and since he already knew he loved biology, he decided he would become a biology teacher. His students love him because his classes are lively and easy to follow and understand and he’s always really sweet.

Weapons bonus : none of the canon cast’s weapons change, but I had some ideas for the children’s weapons. Winry fights with a chokuto or a katana and her fighting style is very similar to Adam’s and Raven’s. Raven is actually the one to teach her how to best fight with her weapon, since Blake, Weiss and Winter could only teach her the basics on that matter. Yue usually fights with two gauntlets similar to Ember Celica, but she also has two sabers at her sides and is a terribly dangerous opponent when she takes them out. They are not her favoured weapon though because she prefers fighting with her fists and appreaciates that there’s less of a risk of accidentally cutting someone’s limb off with her fists rather than a blade. For those of you who played FE3H, Keyla’s weapon is very similar to the sword of the Creator : it is a sword divided in a lot of small segments that can separate themselves from each other to extend and bend the weapon, turning it into a sort of sharp, thick whip. Keyla can wrap it around limbs or pieces of furnitures and such or just extend it to hit opponents while staying out of their range. Summer fights with a halberd and, although she’s not interested in being a Huntress, she’s terribly good with it. Unlike her two sisters and eldest cousin, Tanya has no interest in fighting, therefore she only learns the basics of sword fight, adopting a rapier much like her Mother’s own weapon, with a Dust filled barrel. She also had her Mother unlock her aura and teach her how to use her Glyphs in case she needed to protect herself, but she’s not a particularly good fighter, especially compared to her sisters. Tanya doesn’t care though, seeing as she doesn’t think she’ll ever need to fight in her line of work and she’s happy with studying her Dust even if she’s not the best at using it in battle. Finally, Tai is a similar case as Tanya : he doesn’t care about fighting, actually dislikes the idea of hurting others, but learned to defend himself from Grimm and potential human attackers. Yang taught him martial arts and Tai always carries a pair of bracelets Summer designed for him that can turn into gauntlets. They don’t fire bullets like Ember Celica, but they make his hits hurt that much more and blades can sprout from between his fingers if he wants to.

In terms of Semblances, all of the kids (except Summer, of course) have the Schnee family semblance. All of them unlocked their aura and learned to use their Glyphs, including the Summoning. Winry and Yue, thanks to their training, are the best Glyph users when it comes to “basic” Glyphs and how to use them in battle, but Keyla also has a very creative way of using her wind Glyphs to direct her sword once it’s in “whip mode” and is the best at Summoning.

...

Wow, that was a lot. Huuummm... Hope you liked the read ? ^^’

[bssaz97]

Post RWBY AU

* Wanted to try something new and see how it goes, mainly a two parter but may continue if ever now and then, but it’s not related to Ancestries. So you all don’t get confused. Will contain happy and sad moments. *

- Patch, on the edge of a cliff -

A boy walks near to the edge, he has the custom to come here almost once every month. Many in his family don’t discourage him to go but usually he comes along with his mother or aunt. Today, he comes alone because he recently got into a argument with said mother and he decided to leave the house to cool off despite his aunt’s plea to do otherwise. He slumps in front of a tombstone. The memorial of his grandmother.

Boy: Hey grandma, it’s me again. I know I came two weeks ago but I can’t be at home right now.

He sighed, he knew it was not going to get a reply but he usually feels better coming here, like even if had never met her before.

Boy: I got into a argument with Mom. A pretty big one too. I....I told her that I wanted to start training to be a huntsman. I thought she would be happy to hear that I wanted to be a hero like her and Dad, but then she started getting upset, said that I was being rash and not weighing my options, that I should just stay in regular school. It’s not fair, everybody I know started their training when they were my age, and even then Dad was older when he started his. What makes me so different.

He sits down, and thinks back to a year ago when he was 11 years old, when he really started to think about being a huntsman. Now that he was 12 he could legally begin attending Signal, the combat school here on Patch, and start his training, but was hesitant to bring it up with his Mom. She was a retired huntress and from what her stories told was a pretty famous one at that. Almost everyone in his family group were former huntsman and huntresses.

Everyone except his biological aunt, she was the coolest person he knew, always taking hardest jobs and always came back with a victorious carefree smile on her face but made time to spend time with him and his twin sister, she was cool like that. But whenever he or anybody else tried to mention his father or ask questions about him, it seemed to bring the mood down. However they all kept a strong face whenever he or his sister was in the room. He frowned at this, he knew he was young but he wasn’t stupid. What’s worse is that his Mom does this the most, she tries always to be happy all the time when around him, his sister and her friends, but he could knows of times wear her mask breaks when she thinks he’s not looking or asleep and could hear her cry herself to sleep.

His mom wasn’t a terrible parent by any means she’s always active in their life, taking him and his sister on vacation trips to Atlas to see his aunt Weiss or to Mistral to visit his godparents Ren and Nora and always makes sure that his sister and him are always doing well in school. His Aunt Penny also helps out a lot when she’s not busy saving the world as she so often says. So really, he loves his mother dearly, and knows she loves him. That’s why when he told her of his goal to be a huntsman, her mask broke. Her warm smile wasn’t there and her warm silver eyes weren’t alive with love, instead she had the look as if he just signed to be hurled off a building in Atlas. He can remember what she told him. Still fresh in his mind.

*///Flashback Twenty minutes ago///*

His family is together for a dinner together that his Mom made and his sister and Aunt are at the table with him while his mom brings the dinner to the table. But when asked by his Aunt what he did today in school, he tells her that they were doing a project about what they were going to do when they grow up. His Aunt calling it cute and pinching his cheek with her robotic hand. She asks him what he plans to do, he tells his family with happiness that he wants to be a huntsman when he grows up. The peaceful atmosphere ends when his mom dropped the plate of pasta at hearing his declaration.

*Clang!*

Mom: ...What?

Boy: Um, I said that I wanted to start-

Mom: No, what heard you said. (Rubs her face) What I mean is why? Why do you want to be a huntsman? Of all things?!

Boy: What? But I thought you would be happy. I thought about this for a long time and it’s what I want to do. I mean everyone in our family is practically huntsmen and huntresses, I just want to be one too Mom.

Mom: Do you even know what you’re asking about?! A huntsman Rowan, that’s the most dangerous job on the planet and it’s not one to make a joke about!

Boy(Now names Rowan): It’s not a joke though. I really want to be a huntsman, I talked with cousin Adrian during our last trip to Argus. He said that if I could have my Aura unlocked and get the necessary paperwork, I could go to Signal academy next year after I’m done with Primary school. He even said it wouldn’t be hard we could get the paperwork easy if a parent or guardian goes with me to fill it out.

Mom: ...No.

For him, Rowan’s world stopped. He could see that his Aunt lost her smile and had a look of concern. His sister also looked shocked and cowered in her chair, afraid to get involved because she has never heard her mom sound so grim before. He couldn’t believe it either she looked at him like there was no room for argument and that anything said otherwise she would refuse. Something was growing inside him, an unpleasant feeling. Towards his sweet Mom.

Yang: Look I can tell this was a bad topic to bring up. Sorry Rubes, here I can help remake dinner if you-

Rowan: (With a quivering voice) What do you mean ‘No’?

Ruby: I mean I’m not taking you to get those documents. Your not going to become a huntsman.

Rowan: But why?! You’re not even going to at least consider it!

Ruby: I’ve already considered it, and my answer is no. That’s final Rowan.

Rowan: But that’s not fair!

Ruby: Don’t raise your voice at me young man!

Rowan: But you’re not listening to me! I want to be a huntsman, that’s my dream, I even wrote a paper and everything about it, Aunt Yang helped me write it too.

Ruby: Yang!

Yang:(Raises her arms in defense) Hey, in I’m defense I thought he was just writing another school paper so I just helped him with the thesis. I didn’t know he was gonna base his career on it.

Rowan: But you agree with me don’t you!

Yang: Oooh, really you’re dragging me under the bus too kid.~ Weeeell, I do think you should consider your options.

Ruby: Consider his- You’re agreeing with him!

Yang: Hey I never said that!

Rowan: But you just said-!

Yang: I know what I said! I just...think you should listen to your mom kiddo, right now.

Rowan couldn’t believe this, his mom turned his aunt against him and for the first time in his life he snapped back.

Rowan: Who are you to decide what I should do with my life! It’s... It’s... It’s bullshit!

Ruby:(Gasps) How dare you take that language with me young man! Now consider yourself grounded for a week.

Rowan: Wha- Why?!

Ruby: Because you’re talking back and being disrespectful!

Rowan: I don’t care if I’m being disrespectful you’re basically ruining my dream!

Ruby: Well I do care! I care that you’ll be safe and not in a dangerous environment where you can get killed!

Rowan: And what, die like Dad did?!

Rowan felt whatever fight he had left him after saying those last few words. He knew the weight they had and regretted it immediately. His mother’s face changed from angry to stunned. The room lost light in that moment at his moment of anger had caused. His mom’s mouth began to quiver, her left hand began covered her mouth and she tried to hold back the sobs that were fighting to come out.

Yang: Ruby...

His aunt tried to put her hand on his mom shoulder but she shrugged it off and excused herself out of the Kitchen. After watching her walk off, his aunt looked towards him and she bore into him. She had the angriest and most disappointed expression on her face he had ever seen, and he knew why.

Yang: That was a low blow Rowan, if I were you, I probably would just go to your room, right now.

After her scolding, she began to follow after his mom. He looks towards the table, contemplating how a happy dinner between his family quickly turned into one of the worst moments in his young life. He looks to his sister and sees that she is cradling herself, clearly hurt by his words as well.

Rowan: Summer...

She leaves her chair and runs up to the second floor towards his room and slams the door. He messed up, he knew he did. Rowan single handily upset everyone in his family. He felts bitter tears began to swell in his eyes, then he runs. Except he doesn’t run to his room like he was told, he instead runs out of the house and into the woods. He couldn’t stand being home right now, not after what he just did.

*\\\End of flashback\\\*

Rowan finished telling his tale to his grandma’s tombstone and wipes away some fresh tears from his eyes. But finds it difficult as they come more than he could wipe away.

Rowan: (sobbing) I didn’t mean to take it that far, it just came out. I didn’t mean to make my mom cry like that. What kind of son makes their own mother cry. She probably hates me right now.

He continues to cry his eyes out for a couple more minutes. Until he hears something approach from a few feet behind him. He looks back sees three Beowolves closing in on him. He’s too petrified to move and couldn’t make a sound. As the three Grimm move to pounce on him he throws himself back and outstretched his arms to shield himself. He thought he was a good as dead until something happened.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

He looks past his arms and sees a man standing there with the three Beowolves dissolving into ash. He holsters what looks like a revolver into his overcoat and looks in his direction.

Stranger: Young boy, what are doing here all by yourself at this time of day...or night I should say.

The Stranger looks about the same age as his mother but bears a strong resemblance to his aunt Weiss. He even has the white hair and pale complexion. However his eyes are a light blue than his auntie’s artic blues.

Rowan:(Wipes his face) Nothing...who are you?

Stranger: Well that’s rude. Asking a stranger who they are without a hello or asking their name first.

Rowan: (Standing up) Sorry, my mom- nevermind. What’s your name?

Stranger: Well that’s better, my name is Whitley. What’s yours?

Rowan: It’s Rowan. Say, not to be rude but are you related to someone by the name Weiss Schnee?

Whitley: Huh, small world. Yes I do in fact know Weiss Schnee. She’s my older sister in fact.

Rowan: Really? Because I’ve never heard of you before sir.

Whitley: ‘Huff’, older but still the same aren’t you Weiss. Well I typically don’t stay in Atlas all the time. I’m sort of a traveler for hire.

Rowan: You mean like a Huntsman! (Beans)

Whitley:(Chuckles) Not exactly. Say how do you know my sister by the way.

Rowan: Well she’s my aunt, well not my real aunt just a close family friend who my mom and real aunt treat like a sister. Which would kind of make her my aunt, which is wired because I have other people who I call aunts and uncles but aren’t physically related to me. Which is why I am surprised to meet you right now because I’ve never heard of you before. I mean I normally ever see auntie Weiss whenever we got to Atlas or she comes during the holidays. By the way do you- mmmfh! (Whitley covers his mouth to stop his chatter)

Whitley: Good lord, you really are long winded aren’t you kid. (Takes away his gloved hand) So back to topic, why are you out here by yourself?

Rowan:(Looks down and begins to look neverous) I...I don’t want to be home right now.

Whitley:(Furrows his brow and kneels down) How come?

Rowan: Well...I said something that really upset my mom and now, I don’t want to go home.

Whitley: Oh come on, what you said couldn’t possibly be that bad.

Rowan: I did though! I made her cry all because...I mentioned my dead dad.

Whitley: ...Well damn, I guess you did fuck up pretty bad.

Rowan: 'Gasp' Swear!

Whitley: ...How old are you boy? 10?

Rowan: I’m 12! And swears are bad.

Whitley:(Rubs the bridge of his nose) My lord you really are Ruby Rose’s son.

Rowan: Huh you know my mom.

Whitley: Yes I do, in fact I’m visiting a friend of mine her on a business venture with a fellow colleague of mine. Who I’m guessing is your aunt.

Rowan: You know my Auntie Yang!

Whitley: Yes I do, but I really think we should be heading back to your house. Your family’s probably worried sick.

Rowan: ...I don’t think so. I wouldn’t doubt that they hate me.

Whitley: ‘Huff’ Look Rowan, take from a person who has been where you are. Your mother doesn’t hate you, if anything, if she’s the Ruby Rose I know she’ll be more concerned about you being out here by yourself then anything you said to her. So come on let’s get you home.

Rowan: ...I guess you’re right.

Whitley: Of course I’m right, most of the time I always am. So let’s go.

Rowan: Ok....you have no idea how to get to my house do you?

Whitley:(Chuckles) Was kind of hoping you wouldn’t figure that out.

[yoshimickster]

Rwby Volume 7 Episode 1 “The Greatest Kingdom”-MICKSTERECAP

Wiggity what, what’s that, its the Micksterecap, wiggity what, what’s that, ITS THE MICKSTERECAP!

HEY everybody,  how y’all been? I’ve been good, working a lot, the usual. For anyone who doesn’t know,all Micksterecaps will be aired a WEEK after they air on Rooster Teeth and Vrv to avoid spoilers, and so I don’t have to tag as spoiler as HEY HEY I don’t get as many notes logically. With that-CLICK THAT READ MORE BUTTON AND LET’S LOOK AT SOME SHIPS!

HELL YEAH-aircrafts!

0:41 We then see the first shot of Team RWBYQOMJNR looking ALL sorts of terse about flying into the the occupied as ALL HELL kingdom of Atlas.

Weiss: I’ve never seen our forces deployed so aggressively before.

Ruby: What about at the Vytal festival? Bunch of ships there.

Weiss: Trust me, that was SLIGHTLY less aggressive than how aggressively they’re deployed here, its like coke and pepsi, a SLIGHT differentiation. 

The crew then decide to go seek out Winter(the only Schnee besides Weiss still worth a damn) and then get distance from the fleet and THEN WE SEE-

1:31 -one HELL of a cityscape, man I’d love to Batman that shit in a video game, just grapplin’ around like a fool, it’d be SWEET. We ALSO see-

1:54 -JAMES VIA BROADCAST-in all his bearded glory, a beard that I REALLY  hope he doesn’t shave off dramatically to signify that he’s getting better or some shit because DAMMIT-beards are not a symbol of depression their just awesome facial hair! You know what movie I’m talking about.

The crew then get told by the radio-lady that they gotta dock their ship, but its okay because Weiss says her sister will TOTALLY let them sneak in-

2:57 Winter: -failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense. 

Aw man, I wanted to see Winter and have her conspire to murder her and Weiss’s terrible dad. *SIGH* Maybe next episode.

Maria then decides to take them to a totally not important person with relevance to previous characters, docking their ship, and then meeting some of the local flavor of Mantle including:

3:57 Loose exposition about the current political state that wasn’t lazily explained by a main cast member(for ONCE)-

Antles Joe, preparing to play his Banjo-

-random graffiti that the show focuses on for NO foreshadowing reason, none at all so stop talking about it-

-A camera drone whose JUST two weeks from retirement.

Yang: GAH-my visage, it has been stolen!

Yang: YEET!

*SMASH*

Yang: OOH. Maybe we should pick up the pace?

Ruby: Maybe YOU shouldn’t kick surveillance drones!

Weiss: For real, that shit gets uploaded to the cloud IMMEDIATELY.

Yang: I DON’T LIKE SUPRISE PHOTOS OKAY?!

The group then continues their leasurely stroll and see NOTHING that bums them out about the city they’re i-

-ooooooooooh right, exploited Faunus workers...’dat not good.

After Blake makes a light comment about the crappyness of the city, they are THEN verbally acosted by-

-DRUNK GORDON FREEMAN! Man, the wait for the final Half-Life game is messing him up to huh?

Seriously, TELL ME this dude don’t look like Gordon’s shitburg little brother, its un-CANNY!

Blake being the nice young lady she is apologizes for insulting his hometown, and then Drunk Gordon fucks up in the worst way possible.

*PTOOIE*

Anytime a character spits after someone talks, you KNOW their gonna start shit.

Gordon: Shtupid faunus like you, wouldn’t understand-

It was at this point Drunk Gordon realized, he fucked up.

Weiss: Ain’t NOBODY shit-talk my girlfriend’s girlfriend.

After giving a drunk racist what for, the group then go to-

6:00 THE HEALING STATION-to replenish the HP and MP! I just hope it works Toad House rules where you don’t gotta pay, at least until the NEXT game where you pay for replenishing, which I GUESS was okay given you can earn more coins but BLEH.

Its here where we meet-

-PIETRO-absentminded genius of Atlas, and adjuster of Maria’s cybereyes and that is all he is, stop asking if he’s related to someone important SO THERE!

Pietro then gives them the straight shit telling them that after the fall of Beacon, James got SUPER paranoid given that whoever hacked Atlas’s codes was either a genius...or one of their own. And I just can’t even IMAGINE who it could be-Watts, its gonna be Dr.Watts, the trailer pretty much proved it.

Its at this point, where Pietro FINALLY realizes that he’s talking to Team RWBY, and given his absentmindedness he’s the ONLY  person I’ll allow for not recognizing said celebrities right away. And when Yang tries asking  him about Mantle he goes all-

Pietro:...you PAINTED it...and added bad ass scratch marks!

Yang: Well the scratch marks were an accident, but I’m not sure why you’d care abou-HOOBAZAWAH?!

The team is surprised he knows them(for some reason despite celebrity status) due to his daughter telling him about them, said daughter baring...NO meaning...to...the plot(KEEP IT TOGETHER MICK). Right before Rubalubes asks about his daughter-RANDOM GRIMM ENCOUNTER TIME-to which EVERYONE is fully armed fo-

10:07 Blake: DAMMIT-my blade is still symbolically broken, guess its bullets only.

And then Team RWBYQOMJNR just kics EVERY Grimm’s ass, Ren goes that way, Ruby goes the other, just a BILLION awesome attacks I’m not even gonna BOTHER clipping because this is just a still recap blog post and their all really fast and the next episode is 20 minutes after I’m finishing this so don’t call me lazy.

HOWEVER-I will show ONE awesome clip, LASER TIME BABY!

11:45 NICE cuh-leeeeeeeeeeeeeean cut!

Then lasers here, lasers there, LASERS EVERYWHERE! WHO-is the bad ass laser lady? Like I EVEN need to FUCKING say it!

12:15 Ruby:...Penny?!

Jaune: Oh so YOUR almost-girlfriend gets to come back to life, that’s fair.

SHE’S ALIVE MOTHER FUCKERS! Brought back to life by sacrificing a Maximal protoform, ALSO giving her flight capabilities! And yes I’m comparing Penny to Optimus and you can’t stop me.

And the next scene is JUST adorable.

Penny: Sal-

Ruby:...huh?

Penny: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Ruby:(...OH SHIT-)

Penny: -TATIONS!

*PFFT* Paused at the RIGHT moment yo!

Ruby: AAAAAAAAAAAAH-INCOMING GIRLFRIEND!

Ruby: Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

Precious.

13:04 Pietro(who is also her dad if you weren’t paying attention) than reveals that after the fall of Beacon, they were able to recover her Spark Chamber, I MEAN Core from the arena and fixed her RIGHT up! Even gave her flight abilities that look NOTHING like in the manga, but that’s loose canon at best so whatevs.

After Penny flies off to fight the rest of the Grimm, Nora then channels the ENTIRE Rwby fandom in one sentence:

13:46 Nora: I can’t tell if I completely understand what is going on, or have like a MILLION questions!

After that craziness, the team then follows Professor Polendina to his house where nothing else bad happe-

SHIT-anime streaks, BRACE FOR IMPACT!

14:15

DAMN-critical Dexterity fail all around.

Close it out with the team being arrested for saving the day because television, and that’s EP ONE yo! Really fun, glad Penny’s back, and can’t wait to see Ironwood either apologize or shittalk the team for doing their jobs because as said, TELEVISION! EITHER WEITHER-see you next week on MICKSTERECAP!

[soveryanon]

Reviewing time for MAG141, once again abridged edition because What The Heck Is This Month on my side /o/

- Fun little thing: it was precisely as he was talking about Mikaele Salesa’s ties with the Institute (and the fact that some items in Artefact Storage were bought from him) that Jon spotted the spider in MAG038, leading to the discovery of the worm invasion and the  Prentiss attack overall. As usual when spiders are involved: was that a coincidence, or fucking not.

Anyway: it’s interesting how, between MAG115 (the statement that Salesa himself gave in 2007) and MAG141 (Floyd’s statement about his last year working under him), Salesa turned to sounding… more tragic, almost sympathetic? (I said “almost”: I’m not forgetting how easily he was throwing people overboard, or the fact he allowed people to get their hands on items that would hurt them or other people… although yeah, technically, he was leaving them to deal with what they had asked for.) With only MAG141, it sounded like he was someone stuck in Spooky, pursued by spooks and never able to escape them ever since he’d worked with Leitner:

(MAG141) FLOYD: He was tired. Everyone could tell. The man had been doing this job non-stop as long as any of us could remember, and he was clearly starting to feel it. Once found him pouring over an old photo album. The ship was there in the pictures, but a different captain, different crew. I asked him who they were, and he just looked at me, eyes sunken like hadn’t slept, and for a second I felt like he was seeing someone else, not me. But then he just shrugged. “Dead now,” he said, “doesn’t really matter.” […] This time, though… felt different. He was distant, quiet. His words, when he spoke to you at all, were blurred with alcohol and regret. Nobody knew what the plan was, so we just kept going.

(Can’t help but think about Leitner, Gertrude or Jon, here: being the sole survivor of their little circle, because everyone else… slowly got killed or sacrificed around them, whether they took an active part in their circle’s demise or just watched them as they all died off one by one…?)

- Small similarities, between Salesa’s own statement (MAG115) and Floyd’s description of him (MAG141)! Salesa was indeed the only one to deal with the merchandise during the journey, and installed the rule in 1999, and we know why:

(MAG115, Mikaele Salesa) “You see, in this game there are a few rules it’s a good idea to keep to if you’re looking to stay alive. One of my mine, is that only I take stock of the merchandise. You want to know how I came by this rule? I know you do.”

(MAG141) FLOYD: Way the others talked about it, he’d been at this for a long time, decades at least, and when I sailed with him it was clear he knew exactly what he was doing. He was the only one ever allowed in the cargo bay during a voyage.

And overall, if Floyd said that the crew trusted Salesa… it wasn’t one-sided, at all (especially when it involved throwing people overboard.):

(MAG115, Mikaele Salesa) “His movements were clumsy, like a drunk, and even at his best I’ve killed worse than Cook. He went down easy. That’s another good thing about having a crew you can trust. They tossed him overboard, and cleaned up without asking any sort of prying questions.”

(MAG141) FLOYD: He never lied to us about the sort of thing he was into. He didn’t exactly volunteer specifics, but we all knew what we were doing wasn’t legal, and we trusted him because he knew what he was doing. […] Salesa was a big guy, you know, but he never really made anything of it. He always used to say he needed a crew to follow him out of trust, not fear. But he didn’t have a problem using his size against Jésus when he found him. He threw the little rat overboard without a second’s hesitation, and there was nobody on that ship unhappy he did it. They’d all seen what could happen when someone else got in the cargo bay.

- We know that Salesa was one of Jurgen Leitner’s assistants for a time, but took off before his library was attacked (so before 1994), and that he had left with a copy of Leitner’s clients list, that he first dealt in “regular” illegal antiques before beginning to accept dealing with spooky items, out of greed, though avoiding books; he was already in the nautical Spook business in autumn 1999, when “Cook” grew fond of the Flesh-related meat grinder (MAG115). On January 19th 2000, Vincent Yang got imprisoned in an old (Buried-related) wooden box from Salesa’s stock, and was freed by Peter Lukas (MAG066). Salesa gave (“another”) written statement to Gertrude/the Institute/Elias? on January 4th 2007, after a Slaughter weapon bought from him caused damages, and Jon mentioned that some items from Artefact Storage have been purchased from him (MAG115). In the spring of 2010, he bought Neil Thompson’s “totem” syringe, which had likely been protecting Thompson from The Corruption and/or unleashed a Corruption curse on him when he sold it (MAG045). He tried to sell something to Paul Noriega in May 2011 (MAG014), contained in “a square wooden crate” by four men, although they didn’t settle on a price. He was the one to sell/give The Spiral pot from the Jiajing period to Andre Ramao in March 2012 (MAG038). He was transporting a (Spiral? Stranger?) rug when it attacked Gantulga in 2014, prompting him to apparently try to stop/flee from that life, taking on one last mission to would retrieve “an old camera with a broken lens” from an island (MAG141). Jon had already pinpointed that Salesa had apparently disappeared in 2014, back in season 2:

(MAG045) ARCHIVIST: […] I’ve been having a word with Rosie about whether we can make contact with him. Apparently, he hasn’t been seen for almost two years now, with rumours in the trade running through everything from “he had a quiet retirement” to “he’s trying to dodge a jail sentence” or even “he was shot dead in Columbia for stealing a priceless artefact from a drug lord”. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t look like he’ll be answering questions any time soon, though I have urged Rosie to keep trying.

Which was now kind of confirmed by Floyd Matharu, who worked with Salesa from 2011 to 2014 (MAG141) – according to his story, Salesa is presumably dead, although Floyd himself didn’t see anything directly and the most direct witness is already dead:

(MAG141) FLOYD: I didn’t hear the explosion myself. Dantez told me about it, as it had apparently woken him and a few others of the crew. A big explosion, they said, further into the port. […] We were still stood there, arguing amongst ourselves about what to do, when Captain Gaultier made his dramatic reappearance. His clothes were torn and his hair matted with blood. […] Some tried to ask the captain about Salesa, but he just shook his head. He wasn’t making much sense. We managed to gather the two of them had left early to deliver the artefact, but something had gone wrong. There had been an argument. They had been betrayed. Salesa was dead. The captain died soon after; the shrapnel trapped in his skull finally getting the better of him.

So, hum. Suspicious death, no body found, still not sure whether he’s still alive or not.

- Salesa was acquainted with the Institute, made a few phone calls, and officially died in an explosion… so had he made a deal with Gertrude? In which case, did she indeed betray him, or hide his escape? (It would seem… very ��kind” from Gertrude, though.) Using him to retrieve a spooky item before discarding him sounds ruthless and not totally un-Gertrude, so…

Of course, big creature under the sea sounds like a Vast thing, so I wonder if the thing with the island was The Vast’s ritual attempt? We’re still missing… everything about that one (date, place, name, people involved). And was the camera lens related to them, or to Beholding, or to The Dark? Why was Jon interested in that statement in particular – because of the mystery of Salesa’s disappearance, or because of the island, or because of the camera lens…? We did have multiple occurrences of cameras or lenses being used around Dark activities:

(MAG009, Julia Montauk) “Asking him about it, my father told me he had been trying to learn photography, but didn’t trust developers not to ruin his films, as he’d apparently had problems before. I suggested he make himself a darkroom for developing them himself. […] There were no photos stored there. To this day I don’t know where my father kept his developed pictures. But there were about a dozen images hung out to dry. They’re still vivid in my mind – black and white and… washed in the deep red of the darkroom. Each photo was of a person’s face, close up and expressionless, their eyes were dull and glassy. I had never seen corpses before, so didn’t really understand what I was looking at. On each face were thick black lines that, formed these symbols that I didn’t recognise – but they were clearly drawn on the faces themselves, not just on the photographs. I don’t remember the symbols in any great detail, I’m afraid, just the faces that they were drawn onto, though they weren’t people I recognised. Nor did they match any of the photos the police showed me later.”

(MAG057, Carter Chilcott) “At some point on the first day, I remembered the camera. I focused my attention on it and began to scream, and shout for help in the vain hope that someone might be watching a feed of it and might be able to make contact. I cried, and begged, and pleaded with that camera for almost four hours, before I was suddenly struck by a terrifying thought. I floated over to it, and gently took hold of the cables that fed, out from the back into the wall. I followed them along, looking for where they connected to the power or broadcasting apparatus. What I found instead were a pair of neatly severed wires – transmitting nothing, powering nothing, connected… to nothing. The camera had never even been turned on, and had certainly not been transmitting anything to Earth. So what data had they been collecting? I still have no idea the answer to that question, but I did feel like I gained some… small sliver of control back after spending an… all-too-brief hour smashing up the camera.”

(MAG063, Erin Gallagher-Nelson) “It’s always been me and Luke Nelson – he was my wife’s brother, and did all the lighting for our shoots. At least, until he was… eaten by the darkness, last week. […] Then the scraping came again, now from the other direction and I sank to the floor, clutching my camera to my chest like some sort of protective talisman. It was silent, once again. […] Somewhere in my mind, I remembered… the flash of my camera, and my fingers instinctively flipped the switch. As I pressed the button, the screaming stopped with a wet snap, and for the worst moment of my life, an explosion of light shot through the darkness. […] It was the rector of St. Paul’s, and a small group of what I assumed to be parishioners. […] The rector was very understanding, though I wasn’t making much sense. He spoke soft words of reassurance, brought me out into the sick pale blue of dawn, and called an ambulance to look me over. I didn’t get his name, and it was only after I’d reached the hospital I realized he had taken my camera.”

And we know that a company involved in the Daedalus project, Optics Solutions Ltd, was based in Ny-Ålesund and specialised in cameras. It’s one of the numerous companies reportedly tied to The Dark, along with Outer Bay Shipping and D.K.N. Systems:

(MAG025) ARCHIVIST: Also of note, the words “Ny Alesund”. I don’t know for sure if Mr. Bilham remembered them correctly, but Tim pointed out that Ny-Ålesund is actually a small town in Norway. In fact, except for research installations, it is the most northerly human settlement on Earth, located at a latitude of North 78°55′30″. It is a company town, owned and operated by Outer Bay, but what it has to do with Mr. Bilham’s account is anyone’s guess. Assuming it isn’t all… coincidence. That far north… during the winter… nights can last for a very long time… Mm.

(MAG057) ARCHIVIST: Tim was, however, able to get a list of the businesses involved in the venture. Three names stand out: “Pinnacle Aerospace”, majority owned by the Fairchild family; a large private investment by Nathaniel Lukas; and “Optics Solutions Ltd”, a relatively benign-seeming company manufacturing specialist cameras for research and industrial application, who are nonetheless notable for having their business address listed as being in Ny-Ålesund, in Norway.

(MAG073) BASIRA: The building was in an industrial complex up in Harringay. It was a two storey brick building, with a weathered sign claiming it belonged to “Outer Bay Shipping”. […] ARCHIVIST: I can’t help but feel I’ve got the last chapter of a story and I… don’t even know the title. At least I hope it’s the last chapter. I still can’t find much about the company “Outer Bay Shipping”. Looks like a shell corporation, but tracking corporate ownership is not something I’m skilled at.

(MAG106, Jan Kilbride) “[Manuela Dominguez’s] research was kept entirely separate from mine, and while we spent plenty of time together, I never did figure out exactly what it was. Something to do with lasers, I think. […] She said she’d felt the station shake, bu–ut when I pressed, she… claimed she hadn’t heard anything. Her eyes were red and I noticed for the first time that the tips of her fingers were burned.”

(MAG109) JULIA: Sometimes, a start-up would make it big, but usually it was the inevitable bankruptcy that moved them out. All except “D.K.N. Systems”. I never really figured out what it was they were meant to be doing; something full of meaningless buzzwords, like “business networks” or “media solutions”. Thinking about it, it might actually have been “Business media network solutions.” Point is, there didn’t seem to be anything suspicious about them. At least not at first. […] There was only one of them that ever spoke – at least to me. A young guy called [Vardan Darvish]. He seemed to be the manager, at least as much as there was any clear structure. And unlike his colleagues, he seemed happy, almost eager, to talk. […] TREVOR: I’d been tracking Darvish for a good few weeks by then. There’d been a couple of homeless I knew gone missing around Parrs Wood, where I were keeping back then. […] Third night, I spotted him at work, taking a delivery. It were a big truck for some company called “Outer Bay”. I tried to follow them up since, but didn’t find much.

So, mmmm. Lot of lenses, and still the mystery of… Robert Montauk’s photographs.

- In the same way, there is the year of Salesa’s death/disappearance… Because 2014 (and 2015) were definitely activity-heavy for The Dark: in MAG141, Salesa was revealed to have officially “died” in 2014, after retrieving the camera lens. In MAG063, Erin Gallagher-Nelson and Luke Nelson had an encounter with creatures(or followers?) of the Dark underneath St. Paul’s Church, on the night between March 25th and 26th 2014. In MAG135, Manuela Dominguez left her statement on July 14th 2014, announcing that The Dark and Maxwell Rayner were ready for their ritual and challenging Gertrude to stop them. In MAG025, Mark Bilham recounted the events at the Hither Green Dissenters Chapel, involving followers from the People’s Church of the Divine Host on March 11th 2015, and Jon added that a scream was heard on the evening of May 15th 2015 (the day Gertrude passed away according to the “official file”, although in MAG040 Elias reported the blood in Gertrude’s office and her disappearance to have occurred on March 15th).

So whether there is actually a direct connection or not, it’s still a bit suspicious that Salesa disappeared in the timeframe he did…

(- Thinking again about how both Jon and Tim had specifically mentioned that they had watched what was happening during their first spooky encounter, and how they both ended up in the Institute and Beheld, it’s interesting to note that Floyd:

(MAG141) FLOYD: Something began to break the surface as I realised the deep rumble was no longer the thunder, and I closed my eyes and fell to the deck, gripping the rail with all my might as a wave hit us from behind, propelling us away from it.

… precisely closed his eyes. Not everyone would watch, as their childhood bully is snatched by Mr. Spider, or as their brother or what’s left of his skin is played with again.)

- Interestingly, Basira had said that she would book the trip, and now it turns out that Jon changed their plans?

(MAG140) ARCHIVIST: So what’s the plan? BASIRA: I’m getting us passage on a boat heading up there. ARCHIVIST: … Right.

(MAG141) BASIRA: What the hell was that?! ARCHIVIST: He had information about Salesa. I thought it would help. BASIRA: Is that why you were so keen on this ship? ARCHIVIST: I wasn’t sure; just had a hunch there was something here. BASIRA: And what? You thought the best way to find it was by… slurping it out of his brain?

… So it looks like Jon now has a radar for people with spooky stories. To quote Tim in MAG114: “Fan–tastic”.

- AND ONCE AGAIN… about how Jon Behaved and… compelled someone to do things (to give his statement, then to leave and get some rest):

(MAG141) BASIRA: Jon, I’m not sure about this. ARCHIVIST: I am. Tell me what happened. [STATIC INCREASES] FLOYD: W–what…? What is this? ARCHIVIST: Whenever you’re ready. FLOYD: A–a–alright. [STATIC DECREASES] … Sure… [SILENCE] He… he–he w–was a good boss, you know?

[…] ARCHIVIST: It’s alright, Floyd. You just… [STATIC INCREASES] need a break! FLOYD: … Yeah. [STATIC DECREASES AND FADES] Sure. [RINGING FOOTSTEPS DEPART]

… I’m just baffled about how Web Jon sounded here?! Especially since MAG134 (with Peter making the distinction between The End being passive, and The Extinction being active), I’ve been wondering about the possibility that Beholding and Web were a bit like that initially, having emerged from the same “shade” (Beholding passive/Web active), or on the contrary that they might be merging now with the rise of technology and surveillance society… And once again, mMMMMMmmm, it’s. Definitely strange. There is also the fact that The Web sent Oliver to wake up Jon (supposedly in order to push him to choose to become a Beholding avatar?!); the fact that Jon is unable to tell the details of his coma (he knows he made a “choice”, to become inhuman in order to avoid dying, but hasn’t been able to provide more specifics), and there is his childhood connection with The Web…

Though: there was static, too, when Elias hired Melanie in MAG084, specifically when he asked her whether she wanted to work in the Archives. So. That’s another kind-of similarity between what Elias did, and what Jon is currently doing. (Or is it that, like Elias, Jon is now able to put thoughts in someone’s mind, and that’s what he did to Floyd? But even that sounds awfully Web, if it’s about getting someone to do something by getting into their head… Once again, what the heck is happening re:Spiders at the Institute and around Beholding agents…)

- ;; I’m especially SAD about what happened to Floyd since… he specifically wanted to stop thinking about what had happened to him. And here he is.

(MAG141) FLOYD: My last voyage with him was the one that killed him. [Four] years ago; I still have nightmares sometimes. Tried to escape it, but some things follow you no matter where you go. A smarter person might have stayed off the water, but this job, it’s all I’ve ever really known. So here we are. […] I’ve gone over that memory so many times, trying to think what I might have missed, but even now, whenever I think of it, it just looked like an old camera with a broken lens. […] And I have tried, ever since then, to leave those memories behind me.

Doomed to get the nightmares.

Curiously, Lucia had also mentioned to Gertrude that she was already having nightmares – and Gertrude knew she would get them too.

(MAG130) LUCIA: H… uh. Will it help? GERTRUDE: I’m sorry? LUCIA: Telling my story. To you. Will, will it help with the nightmares? GERTRUDE: If that’s your primary goal, my dear, I would suggest you speak to a qualified counsellor. We can suggest one, if you like; that said, I do believe most people find the process of giving a statement to be rather… mm, cathartic. And whatever nightmares your experience has left you with, I’m sure they won’t be bothering you much longer. […] GERTRUDE: Sad about the loss of history but Miss Wright didn’t seem to think the old Gnostic church got many visitors anyway. I’m honestly impressed she had the strength to get through it, even if she does seem to have been… deeply affected by it. Shame about the dreams; I would avoid them if I could.

So does someone need to have nightmares for them to be “given” to the Archivist? Or are they different things, “normal” nightmares due to trauma vs. spooky nightmares due to the Archivist extorting the statement from someone?

- Overlook of season 4, time-wise:

MAG121 (+MAG122?): February 15th 2018 MAG123: February 17th (“Two days out of a coma, and I’m already tired.”) MAG124: February 24th~ (“It’s been a week and… Melanie’s attitude towards me hasn’t softened.”) MAG125: ? MAG126: ? MAG127: ? MAG128: 3rd March MAG129: ? MAG130: 17th~ March (Gertrude recording; “It’s been two weeks since I heard from Basira”) MAG131: 20th March MAG132: 24th March (given that Jon has been in the coffin for three days, either 21 to 24th, or 24 to 27th?) MAG133: ? MAG134: ? (Martin, chronologically after the coffin things) MAG135: ? MAG136: at the very least two weeks after MAG132 (since Jon hasn’t seen Daisy in his dreams “for the last couple of weeks”) MAG137: ? (Gertrude recording) MAG138: ? (Martin) MAG139: ? MAG140: one day after MAG139; end of May 2018 (“Summer solstice is the 21st of June. So we leave in a fortnight, and should arrive about a week before.”) MAG141: June 11th 2018 (two days before arrival)

… So: Jon’s average rhythm tends to be around one statement a week, and it was… more intense before the coffin, and then it just slowed the heeeck up. After MAG132, from March 24th to June 11th excluded (MAG141), he only recorded five statements, so roughly one every other week… and he hadn’t recorded one for 15+ days between MAG140 and MAG141, when he just… jumped on Floyd.

(And surely, he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to not have packed written statements…? So why didn’t he record any in the timelapse…?)

- Aaaaand I’m especially horrified by the fact that:

(MAG141) ARCHIVIST: He didn’t exactly seem inclined to volunteer the information. Besides, you said I needed to be ready for Ny-Ålesund. BASIRA: [SNARLS] ARCHIVIST: “Full power”, I believe were your words. The statement helped.

… is the same kind of logic we had seen with Manuela talking about her “Fear Battery” (MAG135). (And yeah, Basira also didn’t seem to be seasick anymore after the statement. Which could be due to the adrenalin/revulsion rush or… because Beholding.)

- Alright, so. The biggest thing for me was clearly Jon in this episode. As in “What the hell, Jon” (and/or “What the hell is happening”).

I… have a lot of trouble taking Jon’s behaviour in this episode at Face Value; and I don’t know if I can still hold on with the wishful thinking that it’s not as bad as it looked, or if… it is like That, and kind of “over” for Jon. At the very least, Basira seemed scandalised so we might get more insight into Jon’s behaviour, whether it’s a call-out or special measures taken to shackle him or someone clearly expressing that “Jon, no”. He was… flat. Almost casual. Just barely softer at some points, but mostly Elias-sounding (really reminding me of how Elias had treated Melanie in MAG106: fake concern and softness and benevolence, offering her the afternoon off when he had been the one to wreck her). And the thing that that threw me off the most wasn’t so much what Jon did, but how… casual he was about the whole thing, without berating himself or having some moral dilemma about it afterwards…? As if it was a logical and natural thing to do…?

See: Jon behaved in this episode the way I feared he would be when he would wake up from his coma – taking what he needs, without caring much about the fear and pain he spreads, as long as it feeds him/feeds what feeds him. And then, season 4 rolled out, and it wasn’t the case at all! Jon expressed, multiple times, that although he was aware of being different, he was still feeling many things: he even expressed empathy for victims and disdains for the spooks that terrorise them…

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: No notes or follow-up here that I can see, just… [SIGH] It looks like the statement came in just after Gertrude disappeared. Another gap. And whoever took it didn’t do any follow-up, just… filed it away. I may be the first person to actually read it, so… sorry Angie, I suppose.

(MAG124) ARCHIVIST: Simon Fairchild is one of the… recurrent figures that I think disquiets me the most. Not simply for what he does, the endless spaces of highs or depths to which he’s so quick to condemn his victims, but… the joy he seems to take in doing so. And I don’t think there is much to this tale beyond that: an evil man tormenting and killing simply for his own pleasure, and to feed the power that sustains him.

(MAG126) ARCHIVIST: A “Great Twisting”, that Gertrude stopped at the cost of a single life. … I thought… moving away from my humanity would have made that seem more acceptable. That sort of sacrifice… but it just makes me sad…

(MAG127) ARCHIVIST: Hm. “Jonah Magnus”. I’ve never really given much thought to him. Not nearly as much as I should have. I suppose I had always hoped there was a chance he was… innocent, in all this. I know, I know! But I had… [EXHALE] I had just… hoped that maybe the founding of the Institute was in earnest. And not simply the foundation stone for all the terrible things that have happened here. … But no. Whatever is happening now… has its origins two hundred years ago. In the work of an evil man.

(MAG129) ARCHIVIST: I just– I worry. You’re working for someone… really bad! MARTIN: Yes, I’m not an idiot, Jon, but it’s no… worse than working for something really bad, so… ARCHIVIST: At least, The Eye hasn’t gone after our own. Lukas has vanished two people!

(MAG129) ARCHIVIST: With one or two notable exceptions, the only statements the Institute receives are those where the witness has… successfully escaped whatever terrible place or being has marked them for a victim. … I wonder how many don’t make it out. How many of those shapes in the water were once just like Mr. Shakya. Hm. Or perhaps I shouldn’t wonder. [HUFF] Even as I say it, I can feel the knowledge, pushing in my mind. Eager to find a way in. But I don’t want it. I don’t want to know. … I don’t want to see. … No more than I wanted to see how Gertrude stopped The Buried and their ritual, but that came to me as well. [HUFF] They called it “Sunken Sky”! And she calculated, correctly, that casting a void-touched body down The Pit at the right time would be enough to disrupt it. Something she found in… Jan Kilbride. … But Gertrude also realized that the body need not be alive. Or in one piece. She thought it was a mercy. It wasn’t.

(MAG132) ARCHIVIST: I… heard someone. He was begging for me to save him. Said he couldn’t breathe. … I can barely breathe. I couldn’t find him. But I am… n–not here for him. I don’t even know him. I can’t… I can’t see… anything here… for all this… this place closes around me, I… I feel adrift. Like nothing can get through the dirt, and the muck, and–

(MAG135) ARCHIVIST: Is locking [the coffin] up the right thing to do? There are other people in there. And Daisy and I got out, but– … No, I, uh… I can’t think about that. Even if I could somehow be sure of recreating our escape, I–I can’t save everyone that’s been taken. I–It’s not my job to try, I– And I can’t spend another three days in there, I just… I need to let it go.

He was sad and horrified about Jan Kilbride; he didn’t sound onboard with Gertrude’s methods at all. He expressed that he was feeling so, so many doubts, about himself and what he had to do:

(MAG122) ARCHIVIST: They can be hard, though, sometimes, oth–other people… feelings. I’m… I’m… I’m trying to focus. Trying to make sure I’m the same me as before, but… how can anyone really remember that? How do you know… you’re the same person that went to sleep…? […] BASIRA: Me first. What are you? ARCHIVIST: … Honestly… I don’t know. I don’t feel… inhuman, or… … I want to say I’m the same. But I don’t… really know if that’s true. I know I’m different. I feel… more real, somehow. BASIRA: So what does that actually mean? ARCHIVIST: Probably nothing good.

(MAG127) ARCHIVIST: [STATIC] Look, I don’t know, Basira. I hope I’m still human, but it… but it’s seeming more and more unlikely. BASIRA: … I didn’t ask. ARCHIVIST: No, I suppose you didn’t. […] I’m sorry Basira, I–I will try to keep anything I learn about you to myself. My priorities haven’t changed; I hope you can believe that. [SIGH] I’m still on your side. You can trust me.

(MAG131) HELEN: Not this again. I’m not “wearing” anything, Archivist. I am at least as much Helen Richardson as you are the Jonathan Sims that first joined this institute. Things change. People change. It happens. ARCHIVIST: … We’re not “people”, though, are we? Not anymore. HELEN: Names, categories… it’s all so important to you, isn’t it? You do know none of it is actually real. It’s all just… meaningless boxes.

(MAG132) DAISY: Realised what was happening then. Realised you weren’t human. Needed to die, as soon as it was safe. Never mind Elias and his… insurance. ARCHIVIST: And now? DAISY: Don’t know. I miss dreaming. Y–you don’t sleep… down here. ARCHIVIST: Daisy… you should know I’m… If I wasn’t human before, I’m, uh… I’m even less now. DAISY: Yeah. Well. At the moment, I don’t care…

He understood people’s stance and wariness towards him. He highlighted that he was still feeling fear, sadness, concern. We got glints of guilt, of melancholy:

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: Melanie, Melanie: it’s… it’s me. MELANIE: Oh! Okay, so what, “Hi Jon, how are you, get anyone killed lately?” ARCHIVIST: … I… MELANIE: Wipe that look off your face. Like you’re not the reason all of this is happening. Like you’re any better than– ARCHIVIST: [MESSY STUTTERING] MELANIE: –than him! ARCHIVIST: Basira said Elias was gone!

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: I have no theories on it, no… no sudden insights. [SIGH] I wish I could talk it through with Martin. … Or Tim. [SHORT SAD CHUCKLE] Or Sasha. But we never really did that, did we…? … Everything’s changed. … [SIGH] Two days out of a coma, and I’m already tired.

(MAG126) ARCHIVIST: I’ve been… trying to check on Melanie’s condition. She refuses to see me – understandably, I–I suppose, and Basira has been looking after her. [SIGH] It hurts, of course, but… [SIGH] I really hope getting that bullet out of her helps. At least… stops it from getting any worse. I can’t have been too late again.

(MAG132) ARCHIVIST: Wish me luck…! … Although I suppose if you’re hearing this, then I… I didn’t have any. I don’t know. I’m… I’m scared. [SHORT CHUCKLE] When does the fear go away…? A–anyway, I–I’m sorry. You too, Basira, if you’re hearing this. I know you’d… stop me. You’d be right to, but… But if this goes wrong, all you lose is– …  I’m not risking anyone else. And I know– … I–I think… I can get her out.

(MAG135) ARCHIVIST: […] they can’t wait until they don’t have to talk to me anymore. Can’t honestly say I blame them, none of this is easy. Everyone’s just trying to get through as best they can. Living one day at a time. [SIGH] But I can’t afford to be just living one day at a time, I need… a plan. But I don’t even know what I’m trying to achieve… And no one… no one wants to tell me.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: I… [SIGH] I don’t feel like I’m exactly in the best place to judge the… intersection [CHUCKLE] between free will and humanity. Still trying to figure that out myself. […] DAISY: You need to stop swanning around, being all sad. ARCHIVIST: I’m, I’m not “swanning around”– DAISY: “Boo-hoo, I’m so alone and a monster!” ARCHIVIST: I am alone, Martin is– DAISY: Busy. doing. paperwork. Not like he’s dead. Beside, he’s not the only other person here, you know. There’s me; Melanie; Basira– ARCHIVIST: Traumatised; traumatised; and paranoid, because of me. DAISY: Get over yourself! You’re always talking about choices – we all made ours.

(MAG139) ARCHIVIST: Why were we chosen? Agnes was created – crafted with a specific purpose so finely tuned that even a grain of uncertainty threatened the entirety of her being. [CHORTLING] But I’m so full of doubt it feels like there’s no room for anything else, and… I’m sure Martin is the same…! Is there “destiny” here? B–bloodlines and… prophecies, or did we just… stumble into this? Maybe we’re the opposite of Agnes; maybe our doubts are exactly what we need. I–if that’s the case, I’m a… an amazing chosen one. … [LONG EXHALE] Don’t know how that would work, though. … [SIGH] I’m just worried about Martin. … Christ… Every other Avatar gets to have their feelings… burned right out of them, but me? I’ve… just got to sit in mine.

And it’s been a constant throughout season 4! Nothing “bad” recently happened to sharpen him or to make him change his mind like this! The last time he went into a tangent about, precisely, his still having to bear all these “feelings” was two episodes ago! And nothing life-threatening happened to the assistants on his watch, no near-death accident which could have made him… change his mind and adopt that “the end justifies the means” attitude that he was strangely deadpan about in MAG141. Jon knows what the dreams do. When he apparently cracked the code, he seemed to been keen on avoiding further cases:

(MAG113) ARCHIVIST: I’m not too concerned, to be honest, my dreams are, uh… well, let’s just say I don’t think they’re going be letting anyone else in any time soon.

(MAG115, Mikaele Salesa) “So I suppose if it’s a statement you’re wanting… it’s no inconvenience to me. I don’t sleep well anyway.”

(MAG132) DAISY: I realized you were in my dreams. Reliving t… this. The coffin. You were there. ARCHIVIST: … Yes. DAISY: Didn’t think it was real. Not really… Just my mind putting you there, because I h–hated you but… no.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: And you’re not… worried about… DAISY: Basira’s trapped here. So are you. Not like I can be going anywhere anyway. ARCHIVIST: … I suppose not. So… no more dreams. DAISY: Not of you and your weird eyes. Just the coffin. ARCHIVIST: Is that better…? DAISY: ’T’s mine. ARCHIVIST: … right.

It’s not just nightmares for the victims – it’s a loss of control, it’s something that could potentially wreck their lives and reduce their lifespan. It’s not just “a few bad dreams”:

(MAG141) BASIRA: And now he’s going to see you in his dreams as he relives that for the rest of his life! ARCHIVIST: [INHALE SHARPLY] BASIRA: Because… because a tape recorder told you to do it?! ARCHIVIST: Yes, Basira, he is. And I am sorry about that. But we needed it. Anyway: you’re the one who wants to be like Gertrude. [SILENCE] You think she’d give a damn about a few bad dreams?

True, Jon has already taken live-statements in season 4, but under specific circumstances: he neutralized Breekon when he was ready to fight with Basira (MAG128), and took Jared’s statement to know more about the fact that his attack on the Institute had been orchestrated by someone else, as part of a deal offered by Jared (MAG131). Both cases were known multiple murderers and in urgent situations (both Breekon and Jared were capable of wrecking him) – and he even wrote down Breekon’s statement rather than speaking it outright. It had… nothing to do with forcing someone who, all right, had dealt in illegal business in the past but hadn’t killed anyone as far as we know and wasn’t a spook himself, to give a story that he was adamant to forget about! It’s not even a natural evolution (small steps would require some urgency or no other option), it’s going from 1 to 10 with no apparent incentive…? Jon had just checked that they still had two days on the boat. He could have chosen the (still very morally reprehensible) option to blackmail the guy through compulsion (like he did with Kurt in MAG103), in order to get his written statement…? There were other options than this!

So what is happening? Because I trust Jonny to destroy me emotionally, yes, but this was… so abrupt, so I still have trouble taking it at face value, I still feel like there must be something happening to explain the complete turn-over that Jon did between MAG140 and MAG141. Though yeah, I guess that it would also be a real tragedy (I find this infinitely sad, depowering and tragic so – it’s doing its job if it’s the case), but after so many talks about “choices” in season 4, and about how, maybe, the spooks we had met so far were… mostly Very Bad People to begin with, or people easily convinced to kill others if it would mean surviving themselves…

(MAG121) OLIVER: The thing is, Jon, right now, you have a choice. You’ve put it off a long time; but it’s trapping you here. You are not quite human enough to die, but – still too human to survive. You’re… balanced on an edge, where The End can’t touch you, but you can’t escape Him. I made a choice. We all made choices. […] Make your choice, Jon.

(MAG125) ARCHIVIST: In many ways, The Slaughter fascinates me. There seems to be, in all cases, a question at its heart about… control. Is it a mindless dance, dragging participants along by the beat of a drum or… is there a kernel of will in there, a lucidity and deliberateness to the random fury and violence? I suppose that’s the question with so much of “violence”, “war”: how much are you really in command of yourself or of others? I’m not sure what scares me more: the idea that deep down, everyone is in complete control of their actions, that everything is, on some level, intentional; or that ultimately, we don’t have any control of ourselves at all, and the rest is just… rationalisation.

(MAG131) MELANIE: And then, one day, I suddenly have this thing that takes all that rage, and it holds it. Tells me it’s right. That it’s me. It didn’t stay in my leg because of some Ghostly Masterplan; it stayed… because I wanted it.

(MAG132) DAISY: I don’t want t–to be a s–sadistic predator again… I–I don’t want to… hobble around, like some pathetic, wounded prey either… I don’t know which would be worse. And I’m sc–scared, now, that I’ll never get the choice… ARCHIVIST: One thing I’ve learned, Daisy, is that we all get a choice. Even if it doesn’t feel like one.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: My– [PAUSE] [INHALE] [SIGH] My memories of the coma are not clear. But I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die. […] DAISY: Get over yourself! You’re always talking about choices – we all made ours.

… we would reach the conclusion that… no, the atrocities of the past will constantly repeat themselves; that Jon wasn’t able to learn enough from his mistakes and Gertrude’s; that in the end, Tim was right in MAG114 when he spat out that Jon “couldn’t not” because these spooks are pure instinct and you can’t do anything to refrain them, cue Jon now being unable to not jump on anyone with a Spooky Story, and finding it natural to doom them to get nightmares about it for the rest of their lives, without finding it problematic at all nor expressing any internal conflict…?

I’m not ready to give up on Jon as character-person (someone struggling, someone trying). If the Jon from MAG141 is What He Is Now and we’re getting that until the end of the season/series… I’m not ready ;; He would still be interesting to me as a character-character but I couldn’t empathise or sympathise with him much anymore if… he casually accepts to hurt people without sadness nor regret. So: I might be grasping at straws, I might be uselessly hoping, but… I don’t want this to be the end of it? Not yet? So, multiple possibilities that I am thinking about regarding this whole situation:

* The major difference with the rest of season 4 so far (except for MAG121 and MAG122) was that Jon wasn’t inside of the Institute/in the Archives. It could be possible that in Beholding’s temple, he is more “in control” of himself (and able to avoid casually hurting people if it serves him). Though: he was outside of the Institute in MAG122 and didn’t jump on Basira (who had More Spooky Stories, since she had experienced Peter Lukas’s reign over the Institute and The Flesh attack while Jon in the coma) nor Georgie (who had just met Oliver).

* Drinking at the Lonely Bar at the end of MAG139 actually messed Jon up more than he was aware and he was submerged without realising that he had “drowned”. Though: he… acted normal-Jon in MAG140 – wise-cracking, sighing a lot, being awkward and critical and… not glad about the whole necessity of the trip.

* This one feels more akin to wishful thinking to me than something actually likely, but orz I wanna hope and have faith in Jon, gdi.

Jon sounded… oddly focused on Basira after taking that statement – as if… making a point. He kind of cross-checked everything Basira expected from him: just answering to the call of a tape recorder:

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: And we’ve got an audience. Perfect. I thought you said you decided to throw them all out. BASIRA: Yup. And I did. And here’s another one. ARCHIVIST: Maybe it’s hungry. BASIRA: Seriously? ARCHIVIST: I mean, I did have a statement I was planning to record.

(MAG141) BASIRA: Yeah, I heard. ‘anks. … What? ARCHIVIST: The tape recorder. BASIRA: [INHALE] Get ready. Any idea what’s coming? [QUICK FOOTSTEPS] ARCHIVIST: N–no, I’m… No, I–I don’t think that’s it. BASIRA: It’s not recording for nothing. ARCHIVIST: No, I… [STATIC RISING]… I think… [LOUDER] Excuse me? […] BASIRA: And now he’s going to see you in his dreams as he relives that for the rest of his life! ARCHIVIST: [INHALE SHARPLY] BASIRA: Because… because a tape recorder told you to do it?!

and being unable to not answer to the Call of knowledge and actively pursue it:

(MAG127) BASIRA: Don’t snoop in my head. ARCHIVIST: I’m not “snooping”, I’m not looking. That’s not… how this works.

(MAG128) BASIRA: Keep it safe, I’ll be gone a few days. I have some leads I need to follow up. ARCHIVIST: Sorry…?! BASIRA: You heard me. Don’t ask about them, and don’t know about them either. ARCHIVIST: I can’t exactly control that! BASIRA: Learn.

(MAG141) ARCHIVIST: I had to know. Basira. BASIRA: It wasn’t right. ARCHIVIST: … You could have stopped me. [SILENCE] But you wanted to know as well, didn’t you…? [SILENCE] [INHALE] Get some rest. Two days yet.

(And Jon, as far as we know, had managed to learn? Unless he hid it from us, he still doesn’t know that her intel was Elias, still doesn’t know what she was doing apart from what she told him. He also stopped meeting Martin when Martin told him to stop “finding” him. True, Jon tried to use his powers to see what The Dark was doing, and what Peter’s plans were, but… he was more in control, trying to use instead of being used, and it was to protect people!)

And Jon also reversed the dynamic by reminding Basira that she had elected Gertrude as role model, and he was merely behaving like she would have, ruthless methods included:

(MAG133) ARCHIVIST: You were hoping for a defender. BASIRA: I was hoping for someone I can trust to share the load. Because right now, it’s all on me. ARCHIVIST: [EXHALES, SLOW] It doesn’t have to be. BASIRA: Hm. ARCHIVIST: You’re not happy she is back. BASIRA: I didn’t say that, Jon. I would never abandon Daisy and, having her back is… [SIGH] But right now, she’s dead weight. And I need to be able to travel light. ARCHIVIST: … You’re starting to sound like Gertrude. BASIRA: Good. As far as I can see, Gertrude Robinson was the most effective person in this place.

(MAG141) ARCHIVIST: Anyway, you’re the one who wants to be like Gertrude. [SILENCE] You think she’d give a damn about a few bad dreams? BASIRA: … No. ARCHIVIST: No. She got the job done, and didn’t care about the costs. BASIRA: But I thought you did.

And it seems so… pointed? So orientated? So “look at me being the monster you needed”?

So I wonder (/probably: hope) if… Jon wasn’t mainly trying to disgust Basira, with this. Playing a role, and keeping calm and quiet because he needed for the lesson to sink in. Season 4 has been about him more or less saving the assistants: removing Melanie’s bullet; getting Daisy back. Martin is still inaccessible and a sore spot. He’s tried to reason with Basira, and she deflected every time, even when he capitulated and offered for her to “use” him even if she still didn’t want to trust him. He is making himself usable here, but also… making himself loathable. And I’m wondering if this might be the way he has found to try to “save” her, too, by making her realise that the system she wants to adopt is messed up, and disgusting, and not… very “her” either.

* Not incompatible with the above, there is technically another option, when Basira told Jon that Floyd would now get plagued with nightmares:

(MAG141) BASIRA: And now he’s going to see you in his dreams as he relives that for the rest of his life!

… the other option is: “for the rest of Jon’s life”.

Because another thing in season 4 so far has been Jon’s research on rituals: how Gertrude dealt with some, how some others cancelled themselves or failed independently from Gertrude (for example, in MAG135, “I’ll keep digging. If there is another ritual upcoming, I’ll need all the information I can get on it.”). The fact that Beholding still has its chance has been looming since even before Jon’s return to the Institute, and he went back to that notion much later, with restlessness – it’s absolutely possible that, with his digging about rituals, Jon has been trying to find something that could help prevent Beholding’s:

(MAG123) BASIRA: [SIGH] Alright. Best I can understand it, Beholding, or The Eye or… whatever you want to call it, we’re one of the only powers that hasn’t actually taken a shot at our ritual. Yet. And everything out there knows it. ARCHIVIST: … No, I mean, we… we can’t be the only ones, surely? BASIRA: I don’t know. Probably not. But we made a big noise with The Unknowing and… other stuff, and… now they’ve taken notice.

(MAG137) ARCHIVIST: Ever since I crawled out of that damn coffin, I feel like I’ve been… adrift. Filling in blanks and diving into History, but only…! [EXASPERATED SIGH] The breadcrumbs I’m finding are… stale. Old. … What the hell is The Watcher’s Crown? So far the only mention of it I’ve had is from Gerry, and he didn’t seem to know much about what it actually meant. [PAUSE] And he’s gone now. But if it is the grand ritual of Beholding, then I– … I mean… I need to know about it. Right…? I feel like I’m on a deadline, like I’m running out of time somehow – and I don’t even know where to go! What to look for, o–or… [EXHALE] Just casting around blindly for more clues to just… drop into my lap.

Gertrude’s methods mostly consisted in using either explosives or the Fears’s antitheticals – Vast-touched Jan Kilbride neutralised The Buried, and she had planned for a Beholding-touched person to be the one activating the explosive during The Unknowing:

(MAG137) GERTRUDE: To be sure, I–I think the detonation would need to happen from within The Unknowing, while it was going on. Gerard may have a connection to The Eye, but I’m not convinced it will be enough. And I will admit I’ve grown… fond of the boy.

… which ended up happening with Tim. And, right before Basira came in with Flamsteed’s statement, Jon read how… Agnes had asked her own followers to hang her, officially to allow their cult another chance soon – and possibly, given Jack Barnabas’s statement and Agnes’s melancholia about how she hadn’t chosen this life… to plainly make sure that their ritual wouldn’t happen? And Jon did confess to Daisy that he wasn’t sure that he had been right to choose to “become” something else, that he felt like a potential danger, and that he was actively willing to sacrifice his life if it meant saving others:

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: My– [PAUSE] [INHALE] [SIGH] My memories of the coma are not clear. But I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die. But ever since then, I… I don’t know if I made the right decision; I–I’m stronger now, tougher, I can… … If I do die, now, or get sealed away somewhere forever… I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. And I don’t want to lose anyone else so, if I can maybe stop that happening, and [DRY CHUCKLE] the only danger is to me, I– I’ll do it in a heartbeat; worst case scenario… the universe loses another monster. DAISY: That’s messed up. ARCHIVIST: [LOW SELF-DEPRECATIVE DRY LAUGHTER] … Yeah. I suppose it is. DAISY: Did you know the coffin wouldn’t kill you? ARCHIVIST: I– guess I thought imprisonment wouldn’t… wouldn’t be as bad as it was. And it’s a lot easier to make that choice than it is to actually… endure the result. You might have noticed when I was in there with you, I… I had regrets. DAISY: Yeah. I remember. ARCHIVIST: Plus, I thought… [PAUSE] W– [SIGH] Well, I didn’t know what being down there had done to you. DAISY: You thought I was gonna kill you? ARCHIVIST: It was a possibility. DAISY: Guess so.

… so I wonder if Jon isn’t trying… to make Basira disgusted enough with him for her to be ready to sacrifice him when they fight against The Dark, because that would be his logical conclusion to both neutralise it and Beholding in one go, without having to lose anyone else…? He said that Melanie has been doing better; that Daisy and Basira seemed a bit warmer. Martin has cut him out. From Jon’s perspective, he probably doesn’t have a lot to come back for…?

(Or yes, maybe I’m just in denial. SHHHHH.)

Title for MAG142 is out, and MMMMMM does it sound like a Beholding title?! (So not necessarily Jon&Basira-related; could be back to Martin at the Institute. Poor Martin.) Potentially Hunt, I guess, too??

And Anil teases Things and I don’t know if I can get my hopes up for Julia&Trevor………….. because The Dark is Julia’s family story, and she became a Hunter to survive them… (And OOOPS, remember how Trevor had described Darvish in MAG109? “Point is, soon as I saw [Darvish], I knew he were there one I were after. There was a smell to him. Something dark and sick, rolling off him in waves. [SCOFF] Sure, he didn’t smell like a vampire, but he smelt like something that weren’t meant to be in this world. So, I reckoned I best help him out of it!” … I wonder if another-Hunter-than-Daisy would react in front of Jon, nowadays…)

[thenovelartist]

The Love Dare, chapter 1

Novel is feeling pretty good and has been on a writing roll, meaning there’s going to be daily posts on this story until Valentine’s day. ;)

~ AO3 ~ Fanfiction ~ Support me on Ko-Fi ~

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Life was good in Paris. Hawkmoth had been defeated last year, meaning the superheroes got to retire, and Marinette got to take over a fashion company and make it her own. She had nothing to complain about.

Or, so one would think.

They say young love doesn’t last, and if you had asked an eighteen-year-old Marinette who wore a ring on her finger given to her by her precious superhero partner, she would have told you to shove that advice up your you-know-where.

Now, at twenty-four years of age, she was beginning to believe it.

When it had been discovered who had been behind the Butterfly Miraculous, it had wrecked all of them, but Adrien had been the most damaged. Since that day, he never was the same. Marinette could only do so much to make him open up, particularly when he didn’t want to.

However, besides Adrien being a mess, Marinette was left with the disaster that was the Gabriel fashion company. Previous to his defeat, Gabriel had taken a liking to Marinette and had taught her how to run the business. When everything hit the fan, she was there to work overtime so that the company would still be standing and everyone would keep their jobs by the time the dust settled. Adrien didn’t seem to mind; he’d dove into his fencing as a coping mechanism and soon offered to take over for his old fencing instructor when Mr. D’argencourt wanted to retire.

For a while after that, that’s just how it was. It’s how it had to be in order to cope with everything. One year later, and that didn’t change.

It was edging closer to seven at night by the time Marinette got home. The second she dumped her keys on the counter, her phone began to ring, meaning she had to dig in the overlarge tote bag to find the thing.

“You just got home and you’re still working,” Adrien grumbled.

“Well, you try to deal with the shit-show that’s your father’s company.”

“You could just leave it ‘til tomorrow.”

“Except most people who call me need me immediately.”

Adrien scoffed. “You run a huge company that makes copious amounts of money, yet you don’t staff people to care for it in your absence.”

Marinette dropped her purse on the counter, looking up at her husband with a spark in her eyes. The phone was long forgotten; she’d check the voicemail later. “I’m trying to keep everyone on, but as you know, Nathalie quit and no one can fill her job. No one exactly wants to play PR rep for a company that’s only just hit its upswing after that disastrous scandal. What do you expect me to do, Adrien? Let it die? This is your family business I’m keeping alive.”

“The business was called Gabriel. I don’t know why you bother keeping that legacy alive when he’s dead and deserves to be.”

“Because he’s your father.”

“No, that’s no why and you know it.”

“Oh, then enlighten me.”

Adrien stared at her with a frown that seemed to perpetually be on his face. Long gone were the days he smiled for cameras, but Marinette couldn’t even remember what his smile looked like beyond the photoshoots.

“I find it fitting,” Adrien growled, “that a company built by a selfish workaholic gets taken over by someone equally so.”

Marinette’s jaw hit the ground in pure and utter shock. Those words hit her hard, settling sourly in her stomach and starting a fire in her gut.

Thinking he’d won, he turned to march off.

“Well,” she said, the words coming up so fast she couldn’t stop them. “Like father, like son.”

He whipped around to face her in a millisecond. “Excuse me.”

“You heard me,” Marinette snipped.

“And just how do you think I’m like my father? Enlighten me.”

“Both reclusive, bitter people with no care for anyone living under the same roof as you.”

“Reclusive?” Adrien sputtered.

“Deny it,” Marinette challenged, staring dead into his eyes. “I dare you.”

“And I dare you to deny that you care for nothing other than that damn company.”

“I do care.”

“Not that I’ve seen.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. Damn workaholic that never does anything if it’s not related to the company. I do all the work around the house.”

“You have more time than I do,” Marinette defended.

“We both run our own business. Does it not occur to you that maybe I have just as little time as you?”

“Oh, well, if you think my life is so easy, then I suggest we switch a day. You’ll eat those words.”

“Or maybe you could just admit you’re wrong.”

“What am I wrong about? It’s not like I don’t clean the house.”

“When you’re here which is, oh, how often?” Adrien snipped, voice dripping in bitter sarcasm.

“I don’t need your sass.”

“And I sure as shit don’t need yours.”

“Oh, like you weren’t the one who started this.”

Adrien paused. To say the ensuing silence was tense was an understatement.

“Well,” Adrien finally growled. “I can end it.” With that, he ripped the wedding band off his finger and slammed it on the kitchen counter. “I’m done.”

Then he turned and marched away. Somewhere in the house, a door slammed shut, leaving Marinette standing there, stunned, numb, but surprisingly fine with that decision.

“So be it.”

…

From their hiding spot in the kitchen that allowed them to have full view of the explosive encounter, Plagg and Tikki shared a look. “This isn’t good, Tikki.”

“I know, Plagg,” the little kwami said, nervously looking at her charge as she marched into the guest bedroom seeing as Adrien barricaded himself in the master. “I’m worried for them.”

The little black cat rubbed his paws together. “Do you think it’s time we…”

Tikki looked at him, then nodded. “Its our only hope for them. I’m scared to say that Adrien may not be open to it.”

Reluctantly, Plagg nodded. “Usually the first one fed up is the last one to come around.”

“And your black cats are usually reluctant to do it.”

Plagg nodded. “They’re volatile. Your bugs are tamer.”

“They have to be to balance out your cat,” Tikki said. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try with Adrien. And I’ll hope for a miracle when it comes to Marinette.”

“You and me both, Tikki,” Plagg said, flying over to collect Adrien’s wedding band off the counter. “You and me both.”

…

Five long days had passed since the explosion between the two of them, and they were each plenty fine with not seeing each other as they came and went. Better that than arguing half the time.

“And he always starts it!”

“And she always starts it!”

Their friends and kwamis had heard it all, but it always came down to the same issue.

“Neither can accept responsibility for any of it,” Tikki said to Plagg as they were curled up together in their hiding spot. “And the only way they’ll make it work is if they stop doing that.”

“They’re both hurting, Tikki,” Plagg pointed out. “This fallout with Hawkmoth lead to both weaknesses being exposed. Adrien needs her comfort and support because she’s all the family he has left, yet he believes she is treating him similar to the way his father did, so Adrien’s closing off to protect himself. Then Marinette is trying to preserve Adrien’s father’s legacy and trying to help everyone else because she doesn’t know how to care for her own problems first. She likes fixing things, and since she can’t figure out how to fix Adrien, she dove into work because that’s the one thing she can control.”

“And it leads to a self-perpetuating cycle,” Tikki finished. “Yin and Yang.”

“The negative version of it.”

Tikki sighed, snuggling closer to Plagg. “We’ve handled this before,” she whispered. “So I can only hope we can fix this now.”

“The forty dares?”

“The forty dares,” Tikki confirmed. “It’s the only thing I see working at this point.”

Plagg sighed. “Hopefully, they’ll see sense, Cookie. They were always such a good team together.”

“Because they were strong separately,” Tikki reminded. “They aren’t now.”

“But that’s one of the things the love dares do,” Plagg said. “A partnership, whether of the superhero kind or a marriage, is not about each individual but individuals coming together. Tikki, they have to be reminded that they are part of something bigger than them and they are letting it fall apart by pointing fingers at the other.”

With a sigh, Tikki put her paws over Plagg’s. “Let’s just hope they’ll listen.”

[phemonoi]

tarot cards as foster the people lyrics 🌿✨

*based on the waite tarot deck

I've wanted to do this to better understand the relation of the cards with one another and I thought it'd be a good idea to post it here!

i. aces, the magician & justice

—houdini

“rise above, gonna start the war!” / “well, and eye for an eye, and an ‘f’ for a fight” / “well, you got what you want and what you never knew, perfect gift from me to you” / “focus on your ability, then they can’t get what they want to steal”

the aces have an aura of beginning, the spark of an idea, oportunity, birth. however, the magician is the “trigger” of that change, he controls it, activates it. he’s the architect and alchemist that has the ability to make use of each suit as he pleases. with justice, as we see, this power comes with a responsability. you get back what you give. and because the magician is also an illusionist, a liar and a thief, justice needs to be there as a reminder of what happens when you abuse magic. 

ii. twos, high priestess & the hanged man

—shc

“you’re a secret, that’s worth keeping, and now i’m keeping my mouth shut” / “well, i’ve been sleeping waiting for something, but to feel nothing at all, avoid the call” / “when i’m alone, there’s a ghost the keeps talking, and i know there’s gotta be more, for sure”

the twos are a symbol of alchemy, and this can be clearly seen in the cups with the caduceus of hermes on the background. the high priestess is the master of occult knowledge, she channels cosmic knowledge through intuition, thus creating a bond, an exchange of energy within her and the universe. the hanged man needs meditation and contemplation in order to decide what’s next, what’s real from what’s an illusion. he urges stillness in order to recover, much like the two of swords.

iii. threes, the empress & death

—fire escape

“my spine is made of iron, my heart pumps out old red paint” / “I see the seasons change, all the young faces come and replace the dying ones” / “i’ve watched the dreamers find their legs, and i’ve seen the ones that come get reduced to bones and rags”

this procesion of cards illustrates the importance of cycles. the threes combine pain, sorrow (swords) with recovery, harmony (cups), planning (pentacles) with action (wands), conveying the message that one simply can’t exist without the other, for the presence of the other is what gives one its importance, its core definition. they’re light and shadow, much like birth (empress) and death. 

iv. fours, the emperor & temperance

—coming of age

“you know i try to live without regrets, i’m always moving forward and not looking back, but i tend to leave a trail of dead while moving ahead” / “just like an animal, i protect my pride, when i’m too bruised to fight, and even when i’m wrong i tend to think i’m right. well, i’m bored of the game, and too tired to rage”

the emperor is the giver of stability, as we can see in four of pentacles and four of wands. he provides a stable foundation to build a home, he’s a father. meanwhile, the four of cups and four of swords portray temperance; they’re about patience, balance, and meditation. the emperor, as a leader, needs to balance the responsability of his power out with temperance, or else he will become a tyrant, ruled by fire.

v. fives, the hierophant & the devil 

—pay the man

“say what you love, it’s alright don’t be afraid to find your light, embrace the day, at night we’re here to fight, we all go wild again” / “climbing up my own tree, hoping it can hold all the things i’ve seen but i’ve chosen to ignore. well, i said, well i believe i’ve been well fed but the wolf’s not dead” / “lift up your name, seasons change, you know that it'll never be the same, we'll see the sun again, and before it fades, i just wanna say that i love you”

this procesion is very deep. it speaks of the spirit on a level that no other procesion of cards does in the entire deck. because the hierophant is combined with the devil, i feel like it unites opposite religious concepts: heaven with hell, purity with dirt, wisdom with madness. this alchemy of the soul is pretty much a product of dionysos, and that’s why he’s often identified with both major arcanas. the fives, now, are the middle point of each suit; they mark a transcendental point in the path of the fool. they speak of poverty, sadness, confusion and conflict. this is the event that leads to the tower; the failure, the longing for illumination, the unmasking of the lies and illusions that have ruled one’s life until now. the unity of darkness and light, the highest power, thrice-born and divine, with the lowest impulses of nature, the satyrs and maenads that lure you into their orgy. the devil here demands to be payed back, he wants retribuition, while the hierophant presents himself as the saviour, the guide, that happens to also be incredibly biased. i think it’s very useful to view this procesion as a representation of dionysos, he who initiates us into the journey of self-discovery through mysteries and shadows. 

vi. sixes, the lovers & the tower 

—the truth

“well i’ve been trying to relearn my name, it feels like a thousand years that i’ve been out of frame and i surrender, the truth is what it’s what i’ve needed from you, cause i’ve been floating within your walls of opinion, and i’m tired. i only want the truth” / “a blinding call to prayer has touched my feet, like the call of the prophets, a purpose is needed before you know that you know, to never wonder what you are, and not forget where you’ve come from” / “is it really love you’ve been speaking of?”

the lovers and the tower have a closer relation than what i thought at first, and the verses of this song really show it. the lovers is, finally, the resolution of the devil and the hierophant: it is the unification of duality, the yin and yang, and its lust is still present in the devil; the impetus and dichotomy of human emotion. but the tower and the hierophant are both events of immense spiritual enlightment. they represent freedom. the sixes are about charity, change, escape, and victory. 

vii. sevens, the chariot & the star 

—doing it for the money

“just close your eyes, we’re gonna run this blind, we live our lives, we’re not wasting time, maybe we lost our minds, we’re gonna get what we can” / “i said it doesn’t matter where i go, i am calling all the poets into battle, i am shouting to the world let them know that we won’t be afraid to step into the fight when we can’t see the light” / “there’s no retreat and no escape if we keep dreaming while we’re wide awake”

dreams, hope, courage and art. this is a creative procesion of cards. after the breakdown of the sixth procesion, the seventh brings bravery forthward. there’s no time to waste and we’re now purified, convinced of our worth and what we need to do in order to achieve what is needed. we’ve accepted the situation, the nature of our uncontrolling emotions and the will of fate. the sevens take action, a bit impulsively, but still they trigger a necessary change after the depression seen with the lovers and the tower. 

viii. eights, strength & the moon

—a beginner’s guide to destroying the moon

“and now i’m staring at the moon wondering why the bottom fell out, been searching for answers and there’s questions i’ve found” / “we’ve been crying for a leader to speak like the old prophets, the blood of the forgotten wasn’t spilled without a purpose, or was it?” / “you’ll never be whole until you lose control, and think freely to smash the wall of apathy, stop your self-importance and lift the weight off somebody else”

there’s a very pretty picture on the eight of cups in the ethereal visions illuminated tarot deck, because the moon is full, shining enormously over a deep blue landscape, and that perfectly illustrates the relation of this card to the major arcana of the moon. this procesion for me is about confidence. change is never easy, even when we’ve finally surrendered to the fate of circumstances, even when we were the ones to trigger it. eight of swords and eight of cups are not easy cards to gaze at, but we must remember that the moon is a mother, it is nurturing, it reminds us of the quality of nature to be cyclical, that things are always moving and flowing, and emotions don’t last forever. it’s also a card of illusions; it yells at us to remove the blindfold from our eyes and rediscover our worth. strength is about taming the beast, keeping on working, effort and struggle. so this tells me; no matter how much it hurts, keep going, be a leader, be the lion, make the blood you shed worth it. 

xix. nines, the hermit & the sun

—pseudologia fantastica

“don’t be afraid of the knife, sometimes you gotta cut the limb to survive” / “you got to love the madness of the feeling, don’t have to rush the freshness of beginning, you got to get back up and face your demons, don’t ever be afraid of starting over”

the nines follow the archetype of the hermit and continue their path through the sun. when we’ve worked hard enough, when we’ve compromised to facing our shadow self, when we’ve retired to truly know ourselves, admiting what we’ve done, what we’re worth, and retreated into silence, then there’s a comeback filled with joy, music, light. the nine of swords is a necessary dark night of the soul leading to a definitive awakening. 

xx. the tens, wheel of fortune & judgement 

—iii

“and i wont be afraid, it’s true we’ll never know, when the night will come and take us home, and people change, we fade from youth, and evolve into eternal life” / “wake the sleeping from their dreaming, we all want more, we all want more saints will sing and hearts are beating, saying we all want more, we all want more”

there’s still much to learn in the ten of swords already, but because life is an ouroboros and our purpose is to return to having full control of all the suits and making use of that power faithfully and wisely, it doesn’t matter. in the tens, we admit that we can affect certain situations but there’s always something that escapes our sight; fortune acts alone. wheels turn again, endlessly, for eternity. we want more; the ten of cups portrays a couple with kids new life, new paths, a new story that is, again, yet to be unfold. ten of pentacles passes down its knowledge and experience to the youth; ten of wands continues with its struggle, in the conviction that the nine will come back. ten of swords, however, looks defeated. it ain’t. it’s finally the death of the past self. ten of swords is, actually, the scene of the moment the knight defeated his adversaries. it is a card of victory; but the knight is yet to become a king.