#Kendra lies

[dgknightblue]

Short story under here, press if you want to read.

She wasn’t all that interested in doing anything with her ugh- she hated saying this even in her head- brother but their parents forced them to spend time together.

So out of all the boring things she’s not interested in but would probably be good at, her brother gets to pick chess.

You’d think all nerds liked nerd things but here’s the thing. She is not like the other bozos that like tech. Her name is Kendra and she is cooler and smarter than all of the other so called ‘nerds’.

She likes to hack and code, but that doesn’t mean she likes other basic beachballs things.

Ugh, she still can’t believe she got caught cursing and has to censor herself or she’ll be ‘grounded’. Blugh, they can’t control her. She does the controlling around here!

In any case, at least she gets to see her lame ‘brother’ get beat and she has her phone so she can work on the next project outline for her group, the purple dragons.

She bristled at the thought of her arch-nemesis, Otello Von Ryan aka Bootyyyshaker9000 aka Donnie aka the weird kid that girl, April O’ Neil, brought to school one day. He ruined everything!

She was doing so well getting into the Nakamura Vault when he’d had to go ruin it. She got in so much trouble!

Dang. She got distracted and now has to delete the line of code she just typed in.

She looked up to check how bad her brother was getting crush. Eh, same amount as usual.

She went back to her code before testing it. Meh still needs work. Her brother, Jason, who she didn’t bother remembering his name until now- came walk up to her nervously. Good. He needs to know his place.

“Hey Kendra do you want-“, she cuts him off with a swift no.

“Uh… I’ll be right back, I’m-“, she cuts him off again to tell him to get her a caffeinated beverage.

So she was alone again, this time looking at her college applications. Having a recorded hurt her choices but hopefully they won’t brush off her obvious genus and accomplishments.

She groaned in frustration as no one has gotten back to her yet. It was just a little theft okay!?

The shout of check mate made her glance and take a good look at the guy that’s actually on a winning streak.

She vaguely recognized him from somewhere, but it didn’t click until she realized he had the same skin condition as- Oh this will be good….

She put her phone a way and went to introduce herself to her newest victim.

“Hey, I saw you out there. You’re really good at chess huh? Mind showing me a few moves?”, she smiled as nicely as she could.

He looked at her for a moment with a skeptical look before shrugging and explaining a simpler move set for beginners.

“How long have you been playing?”, she asked.

“Longer than I can remember! It’s something me and my twin like to play together.”, she tried not to roll her eyes at the mention of his brother.

“Twin? That’s rare, is he any good?”, she hoped not, she couldn’t stand hearing any sort of bragging about that loser.

“Oh Donnie’s great!”, then he smirked before pointing his hand to himself dramatically, “If only he was good as I! He’s never beaten me once!”

That was surprise, so there’s something he couldn’t do.

“Oh and what about when you first played? You couldn’t have been that good.”, she said looking for something.

“Nah, I was awesome!”, he sweated before looking a way, “might have gotten lucky the first few times before having actual wins…cough.”

She made a coy smirk and raised an eyebrow. She placed both arms in front of her crossed.

“Well, I’m going to get froyo if you want to come?”, she smiled easily.

“Sure!”, he brighten up with a smile.

“Cool, follow me.”, she knew Jason would be coming back any minute now and she needed to ditch him quick.

As they walked a way from the chess matches she introduced her self properly.

“Names Kendra by the way, what about you? Champ.”, she glanced at him.

“Uh Primetime- I mean Neon- uh Leo, just call me Leo. It’s nice to meet you, Kendra. You’re pretty cool.”, he smiled.

She twitched at the genuine tone in his voice but otherwise didn’t react and kept walking, ignoring her phone ringing.

“Shouldn’t you…”, she turned the silence on on her phone.

“Nope! It’s not important, now let me tell how I found this froyo place.”, she replied with a little bit of joy.

(Froyo is Frozen Yogurt by the way.)

———-

Bye!!

[cadhla182]

Patreon pieces for November 2024! NSFW alts up for Patrons: https://www.patreon.com/c/Cadhla182

[finalgirl1984]

Wouldn’t it be messed up if some known potentials where just kidnapped? Kendra was given up to be raised by her watcher. I imagine most parents aren’t going to surrender their children to a random british guy showing up on their doorstep. And even if they are given proof of the supernatural and fully believe this guys talk of monsters and slayers, thats still not much better is it? “Yeah give us your kid so we can raise them into child soldiers.”

[tmnt-2012-ftaraatg-au]

we meet again othello von ryan

thank you @revlischarm for the girl!

[atl0yalty]

well hello there,

[cupcakeslushie]

For your kendratello au:

how often does Donnie bring up Kendra ? Does he talk about her a lot, or keep to himself? If he does talk a lot about her, how do the others react when she is brought up?

I’d say it’s all he talks about when they first get him back. He’s always finding some link back to her no matter the conversation. Raph will try to gently change the subject, Mikey or April will either try to make Donnie consider and think through what he’s saying, or show him proof that contradicts whatever he brings up, if they can. Leo just flat out ignores all the praise and stories his brother heaps onto Kendra, but that’ll eventually come to a head when Leo just can’t keep quiet anymore.

Splinter will kinda do all these things. He’s not really sure the best route to take. But more often than not, he’s following Raph’s lead to be gentle, though there are times he sticks his foot in his mouth 😬. He does have a small, precious few photo albums that he likes to pull out and go through with Donnie, once he lets the family closer. (I have plans for a whole Splinter (and Draxum) post. Cause Donnie and Splinter’s situations are just similar enough 🙂).

It’s a very long road of convincing Donnie that Kendra lied and manipulated and hurt him. And even when he starts to believe the family over her programming, Donnie still can’t help but mention her in little ways. The obsession googles are off, but only pushed up—never removed completely lol.

Even months or years later, when he feels like he’s closer to his old self than Kendra’s puppet, his first thought is usually about how she would respond, or react to every situation. But after that long he has the wherewithal now, to keep it to himself and not hurt his family by mentioning her. When he does slip up it’s like sticking a butter knife into a still open wound.

[rjzimmerman]

Good photos in this Smithsonian Magazine article. Some of them:

Functioning as an awning, the overhang of cliffs at Mesa Verde National Park prevents snow from falling on these ancient Native dwellings. Haoyang Li, Colorado, 2023.

On a cold, damp morning at Rocky Mountain National Park, a moose stands in the burn scar left from a fire, with the fog giving the impression of smoke rising from the ashes. Dawn Wilson, Colorado, 2021.

Yes, the Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone National Park is a sight to behold, but this bison isn’t letting the natural wonder distract it from a snack. Priorities. Peter Mangolds, Wyoming, 2021.

At Death Valley National Park, heavy boulders that remain in the same spot for years sometimes suddenly relocate, seemingly dragged across the ground. After carefully studying the mysterious movements, scientists determined the phenomenon stems from an uncommon combination of water, ice and wind. Kendra Karr, California, 2009.

The brown hue of this ruffed grouse at Shenandoah National Park matches its surroundings. The male of the species is known to fan out its tail during mating season. Cindy Tucey, Virginia, 2008.

[batbabydamian]

DC May 2024 Solicitations - Comics Featuring Damian! 🦇

BATMAN #147

5/7/2024

Written by Chip Zdarsky

Art and Cover by Jorge Jimenez

Variant Covers: Kendra “Kukka” Lim (1:25), Stevan Subic (1:50), Jorge Jimenez, Yasmine Putri

With no allies, no weapons, and almost no hope...can Batman fight back before Zur makes a true devil's bargain? The world is about to know Zur's true power! Him and.. his new sidekick? "Dark Prisons" continues!

BATMAN AND ROBIN #9

5/14/2024

Written by Joshua Williamson

Art and Cover by Simone Di Meo

Variant Covers: Gleb Melnikov, Howard Porter, Simone Di Meo (1:25), Ivan Tao(?)

Who will be Gotham's true protector? The people of Gotham will decide! While his father fights for his life, Damian now knows Shush's secrets, and it's only created more problems for him as a high school student and as Robin! Can the Dynamic Duo find each other before it's too late?

THE BOY WONDER #1 of 5

5/7/2024

Written by Juni Ba

Art and Cover by Juni Ba

Variant Cover: Cliff Chiang, Juni Ba (1:25)

The young prince Damian Wayne was raised to be the heir to the fearsome League of Assassins -to follow in the footsteps of his deadly mother, Talia, and the Demon's Head himself, his grandfather Ra's al Ghul. But everything changed when his father, the Batman, reclaimed him and brought him back to Gotham City. As Robin, young Damian suddenly discovered he was merely one of a number of princes, preceded in the role by his "brothers" Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin...and Damian doesn't care to be merely anything. But when his father is forced to leave the city on urgent business, and a rash of abductions is accompanied by whispers of a demon stalking Gotham's dark alleys, Damian will find himself battling alongside his adoptive brothers- and in the process, learning what the mantle of Robin really means! Visionary writer/artist Juni Ba makes his mark on the timeless story of Batman and Robin, synthesizing the characters' complex history into an accessible and heartrending fairy tale!

WONDER WOMAN #9

5/21/2024

Written by Tom King

Art and Cover by Daniel Sampere

Variant Covers: Julian Totino Tedesco, Stjepan Seijic, Irvin Rodriguez (1:25)

The ultimate test! As Sovereign's grip on Wonder Woman's psyche tightens, she retreats into the arms of Steve Trevor. Will their love for the ages prove victorious over the web of Amazon lies weaved in Man's World? Plus, Trinity lets the dogs out!

[hollowed-theory-hall]

do you have thoughts on ariana dumbledore?

Like about her character or about her situation?

Because we don't really know Ariana as a person at all. So, I can't really analyze her. I can have thoughts about her situation and what was going on with her magic.

I should note I don't consider anything about Obscurials from the Fantastic Beasts canon. I think it's a retcon and I don't like it. I mean, you’re telling me Obscurials are created when wizards bottle up their magic and then say Harry "cupboard under the stairs" Potter didn't become one? I don't buy it.

So, let's take a look at the tragedy that is Ariana Dumbledore's existence:

So, the information about Ariana is quite scarce when looking just at the books. And most sources are unreliable. Rita Skeeter lies more often than not. Elphias Doge thinks the sun shines out of Albus Dumbledore's ass. Aunt Muriel just wants mean gossip. Then there are the brothers, Albus and Aboforth, Albus with their own biases and agendas, leaving Abeforth as the best source about Ariana (even if he has his own biases).

But, limited information is when theorizing is the most fun.

I don't think she was an Obscurial

As I mentioned above I don't believe Obscurials are a thing in the Wizarding World of the books. The main reason I mentioned above is Harry. We know Harry, Tom, Snape, and Merope were all mistreated heavily as children and none of them become an Obscurial. Harry says so himself:

Numbly Harry thought of how the Dursleys had once shut him up, locked him away, kept him out of sight, all for the crime of being a wizard. Had Dumbledore’s sister suffered the same fate in reverse: imprisoned for her lack of magic? Had Dumbledore truly left her to her fate while he went off to Hogwarts to prove himself brilliant and talented?

(DH, page 137)

Harry was raised to not use his magic. To bottle it up and not use it, and yet, neither he nor any other wizard with similar circumstances became an Obscurial. It's weird that Obscurials could exist and we never heard of such creatures in the books themselves. If they did exist, I would assume muggleborns and muggle-raised wizards would be watched more closely for how dangerous they could be. Personally, I don't think Obscurials exist at all. It doesn't make sense within the universe we know.

So what was going on with Ariana?

“When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, by three Muggle boys. They’d seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: She was a kid, she couldn’t control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw, scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn’t show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it.”

....

“It destroyed her, what they did: She was never right again. She wouldn’t use magic, but she couldn’t get rid of it; it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn’t control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet and scared and harmless.

(DH, page 479)

These are two quotes from Aboforth about what happened to Ariana and how her magic responded. That same magic that eventually killed their mother, Kendra.

Now, we don't really know what these muggle boys did. It could have been sexual assault, even if Ariana was only 6 (as gross and horrifying as it is), it could've been they beat her up badly, we don't know. Whatever it was, it was incredibly traumatic to both her body and mind.

I wrote about how magic is very connected to a wizard's or witch's intentions and emotions and I believe that is the key to understanding what happened with Ariana. We also know, that when a witch or wizard is hurt, their magic will attempt to heal them. We also know from Harry and Neville that a child's magic will try to keep them out of harm's way when they can't control it yet:

Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced — all the way down the garden and into the road. 

(PS, page 91)

Dudley’s gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry’s surprise as anyone else’s, there he was sitting on the chimney.

(PS, page 21)

So, I wondered, what would happen if a magical child got so traumatized they were stuck in a fight or flight state? What if they feel under threat constantly? Well, I'd expect their magic to act up, as it always does when a young witch or wizard is under threat.

Basically, what I think is going on with Ariana's magic is kind of like a muggle allergy. Her magic (white blood cells, essentially) that wants to protect her and heal her, registers everything and everyone, even Ariana herself, as a threat it needs to fight. So it lashes out unpredictably like any child's accidental magic when under threat.

And the descriptions from Aboforth really sound like a child's accidental magic trying to keep the child safe by going highwire. I think she actually was sickly. I can't imagine her magic left her completely unharmed. It was also likely exhausting to constantly have her magic stretched thin trying to protect her from a threat that wasn't really there.

And we know this instability of her magic is why she was never let out of her mother's sight:

“—to permit her to leave the house?” cackled Muriel. “And yet she was never taken to St. Mungo’s and no Healer was ever summoned to see her!” “Really, Muriel, how can you possibly know whether—“ “For your information, Elphias, my cousin Lancelot was a Healer at St. Mungo’s at the time, and he told my family in strictest confidence that Ariana had never been seen there. All most suspicious, Lancelot thought!”

(DH, page 137)

because the Ministry had known what Ariana had become, she’d have been locked up in St. Mungo’s for good. They’d have seen her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy, unbalanced like she was, with magic exploding out of her at moments when she couldn’t keep it in any longer.

(DH, page 479)

They hid her from everyone. From Bathilda, any other neighbors, and from St. Mongos. And they were right to be concerned about what the ministry would do if they knew about Ariana. She was a danger to herself and the people around her, not because she meant to be. Because she was a young, traumatized witch whose magic kept trying to protect her when the threat was long gone.

[dragonomatopoeia]

Air's End-of-Year Youtube Video Rec-List Round-Up

In light of recent events and also because I wanted to, I have put together a rec list of various (mostly longform) videos that I've enjoyed this year. Not all of these videos were released this year, however-- I just happened to see them for the first time in 2023. For readability and quality of life purposes, I have put this list under a readmore and divided the videos up by category, then creator, which means that some youtube channels might appear in multiple categories

I reserve the right to edit this later as I remember more videos, but I feel comfortable publishing it as is, considering it has almost 100 videos on it at this point

Cooking

Get Curried Chili Garlic Rosemary Chicken Recipe | How to Make Chili Garlic Rosemary Chicken at Home | Prateek Anardana Chicken Recipe | Delicious Himachal Style Anardana Chicken Recipe at Home | Chef Prateek Old Delhi Style Tangdi Kebab | How to Make Indian Starter Tangdi Kebab Recipe | Chef Prateek Dhawan

How to Cook That The $10 Million dollar lie (Betty Crocker) Debunking the Pink Sauce Controversy | How To Cook That Ann Reardon Top 7 Best Easy Lemon Recipes 🍋 | How To Cook That Ann Reardon Toxic Foods promoted on TikTok! | How To Cook That Ann Reardon Why is Pyrex exploding? | How To Cook That Ann Reardon

Library of Congress' Youtube Channel El Camino del Mole a New Orleans El Camino del Pan a Baltimore

Immaculate Bites LEMON BUNDT CAKE FIRECRACKER SHRIMP

Simply Mamá Cooks 3 EASY Beef Pot Roast Recipes perfect for the cold weather EASY Chicken Tamales Recipe | How To Make Tamales Easy NO-KNEAD Soft Dinner Rolls + FLUFFY From Scratch Milk Rolls Recipe Zuppa Toscana Recipe EASY | Olive Garden Potato Sausage Soup Recipe

Fraud, Grifts, and Scams

FoldingIdeas Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse In Search Of A Flat Earth This is Financial Advice

Maggie Mae Fish Is the "Off-Grid" Lifestyle a Lie??

Münecat I Debunked Every "Body Language Expert" on Youtube The Problem with Tony Robbins (Deep-Dive - Pt.1) The Problem with Tony Robbins (Deep-Dive - Pt. 2)

Super Eyepatch Wolf The Bizarre World of Fake Martial Arts The Bizarre World of Fake Psychics, Faith Healers, and Mediums Influencer Courses are Garbage: The Dark Side of Content Creation Tom Nicholas Griftonomics: Why Scams are Everywhere Now

We're In Hell A History of Spam on the Internet Hustling America: I Can't Believe This Show Is Real The Problem with Voluntourism WE Charity & the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

Gaming

Hbomberguy Halcyon Dreams: The Legacy of Dragon's Lair

Jacob Geller Games that Aren't Games How Can We Bear to Throw Anything Away?

Li Speaks An Exploration of the Avata Star Sue-niverse It's Time For You To Play Flash Games Again The Strange Case of Kissing and Flirting Games Untangling the Lore of Devilish Hairdresser

Mandaloregaming The Mystery of the Druids: A Bizarre Adventure Game

People Make Games The Games Industry Must Not Stay Silent on Palestine Investigation: Who’s Telling the Truth about Disco Elysium? Working at Valve: 'A Fearless Adventure' or 'Lord of the Flies'?

PowerPak Dead Space 3 Is Worse Than I Thought King's Quest - The First Adventure Game King's Quest 2 - A Bridge Too Far... MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod Squirrel Stapler is Absolutely Nuts Tunic is Deceptively Brilliant

Super Bunnyhop Perusing Pentiment's Boisterous Bibliography

History

BobbyBroccoli The image you can't submit to journals anymore

Cambrian Chronicles Wikipedia's King who Doesn't Exist

Defunctland Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History

Elliot Sang How Tea Became European McMindfulness: When Capitalism Goes Buddhist

Intelexual Media Creating The Conservative New Right In The 1970s A Buffet of Black Food History

Kaz Rowe A Deep Dive into the Deadly World of Victorian Patent Medicine Why Have So Many People Seen Ghost Ships? Why the Myth of the Library of Alexandria Is Wrong

Kendra Gaylord 500 years of dollhouses and what it meant to teach girls Alice Austen, the 1880s photographer: her house, her photos, her love life What happened to cheap food? Diners, Automats, and affordable eating

Nerdsync Bonkers origins of superhero memes The Scandalous REAL Origin of Superman's Lois Lane Superman's Uncomfortable History with Nuclear Weapons

Premodernist Advice for time traveling to medieval Europe

Stepback History How The Vietnam War Birthed a Generation of White Terrorists OK Fine I’ll Talk About Ancient Apocalypse

Tantacrul Notation Must Die: The Battle For How We Read Music

Film and Television

Be Kind Rewind How Breakfast at Tiffany's Turned into a Totally Different Movie | Adapting a Classic Casting the Women of Valley of the Dolls | PT 1 The Making of Valley of the Dolls | PT 2 How the "Old Ladies N' Hijinks" Subgenre Became a Thing How a "Sacrilegious" Film Changed Hollywood Forever... So I watched BLONDE... Why Tallulah Bankhead Never Became a Movie Star

Big Joel The Song That Broke West Side Story

Cherrybepsi Can We Kill the Final Girl Trope Already?

Hazel weird & kinda scary tokusatsu girls

Jane Mulcahy The Lunacy of Teen Wolf (Part 1) What is the 'psycho biddy' genre?

Maggie Mae Fish BLACK CHRISTMAS Before & After "Me Too" The War on "Woke" Hollywood: A History of Blacklists and Strikes Why is Clint Eastwood

Princess Weekes Black Trauma vs. Black Horror Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires? Why Don't Worry Darling Doesn't Work ...

Shanspeare EUPHORIA: Sam Levinson’s Unfulfilled Fantasy The Girlboss-ification of the Horror Genre TikTok Femininity Coaching and Aestheticizing Racism

Science and Technology

BobbyBroccoli The $21,000,000,000 hole in Texas The man who faked human cloning How to catch a criminal cloner

Eastman Museum's Youtube Channel Photographic Processes Series

Technology Connections What's the deal with the popcorn button?

Practical Engineering How Flood Tunnels Work What's the Difference Between Paint and Coatings? Why Is Desalination So Difficult? Why Railroads Don't Need Expansion Joints

[texasthrillbilly]

I guess celebrity, Kendra Wilkinson, is a Lost in Space fan since she made a hilarious LiS inspired music video back in 2016.

Why am I just now discovering this?

[tmnt-2012-ftaraatg-au]

@revlischarm has graced us with the local acearo gremlin and her undying support for her lesbian bestie and evil girlfriend

[timeagainreviews]

A Foot in Two Worlds: 73 Yards

My third-grade lunch buddy was a girl named Kendra. We used to love chatting about movies and television. My favourite topic was Batman. Hers was Full House. However, one morning, instead of gushing over Stephanie Tanner, she told me about a movie she and her brother had watched over the weekend. The movie was 1989’s “Clownhouse,” and she was a bit traumatised by it. And because of her vivid description, so was I. Honestly, I don’t remember anything past her saying “It’s about these kids who see clowns watching them through their windows,” because I never stopped thinking about that sentence, for years. While I’ve still never actually seen Clownhouse, nor do I experience coulrophobia, the idea of being watched from a distance still creeps me out. I still close the blinds at night.

Initially, I wanted to compare “73 Yards,” to something like “It Follows,” or even “The Immortal Snail.” Both scenarios entail being tracked by a slow but relentless pursuer who kills you if it ever catches up to you. But “73 Yards,” isn’t so much a story about being pursued. It’s about feeling watched. It’s about feeling judged. It’s about feeling abandoned. It preys on our fear of being the subject of gossip. That people could spread lies about us that scare away our loved ones. The fear that maybe they’re right. Maybe we don’t deserve love. It’s about the ambiguity that sits within our hearts. The liminal threshold between us at our best and us at our worst. But it’s not just about the wicked and the divine, but also body and spirit. A foot in both worlds.

Doctor Who currently has a foot in both worlds. The Doctor steps on a science fictiony land mine one week, and the next week he’s stepping on fairy circles. A recurring theme in this new season is “look before you leap.” Or ‘watch your step.” Ruby steps on a butterfly in the past and changes species. The Doctor steps on a land mine and almost dies. And now, the Doctor steps on a fairy circle and disappears. The Doctor is learning to have a healthy respect for the new supernatural powers coursing through the Whoniverse. At least he would if he remembered anything from this adventure. Not even Ruby will learn a lesson here, so was it worth it?

After last week’s “Boom,” I was game for whatever Russell T Davies had in store for the future. The trailer for “73 Yards,” gave us very little to go on, and in hindsight, it’s pretty easy to see why. This was a Doctor-lite episode and therefore not a lot of footage to share that wouldn’t also spoil this being a Ruby-centric story. But I was ready for it. Ruby has been suffering a bit from underdevelopment as a character. I even saw a Chibnall stan on Twitter saying so, which is quite extreme when you consider how underdeveloped Yaz was. In Ruby’s case, however, it’s hard to pinpoint what it is about her that’s underdeveloped. She’s got a great family dynamic. She’s nurturing. She plays in a band. But who is she? Like River Song before her, her character arc is starting to affect her character development. And my interest is waning.

After the Doctor steps onto the fairy circle and disappears, Ruby unsuccessfully tries the TARDIS doors. She then checks around the other side to see if he’s having a pee. This may be the first time the show has canonically mentioned the Doctor goes to the bathroom. It’s funny to think of the great Time Lord having a slash off the edge of a cliff. The Doctor seems to do a lot of important things on cliff edges these days. Failing to find the Doctor, it’s then that Ruby notices a strange old woman standing under a creepy old tree from 73 yards away making some sort of hand gestures. However, the closer she walks toward the woman, the further she appears away.

The mechanism of how the woman moves is hidden by editing, but it feels like something Ruby would notice quickly. I don’t imagine Ruby walking closer would cause the woman to start backing up physically like that Community episode where Professor Duncan got a restraining order on Chang and used it like he had force powers. Instead, they cut back to the woman and she’s simply further away. Ruby is conveniently looking for footing every time, so she fails to see this. But if you started walking toward someone and they started hovering backwards, wouldn’t you find that weird? It’s not like she doesn’t sense something weird pretty early on. She even asks the woman if the Doctor’s disappearance has anything to do with her. She even asks the hiker (yet another character played by Susan Twist) if she can see the old woman.

Something I found interesting about the Susan Twist scene was that whoever her character is, she’s not immune to the effects of the old woman. Either that, or she’s lying. Either way, it feels important that we were shown her having the same reaction to the woman as everyone else. If she’s a magical trickster, she’s not an invincible one, or maybe she’s not magical at all. We’ve learned very little about Susan Twist’s character(s), but this indicates that she’s not fully in charge of the situation if she can be scared off like that. What’s frustrating is that the first time a character looks at her and says “Hey don’t I know you from somewhere?” it’s in an aborted timeline. I would have expected the Doctor to have made the connection after the ambulance screens in “Boom,” matched the woman from Space Babies, but maybe he’s been distracted by clothes.

By this point in the episode, I’ve been fully drawn in. Ruby finds her way to the small village of Glyngatwg and a pub called “Y Pren Marw,” which translates to “The Dead Wood.” I thought this might have been a reference to the weird tree on the cliff, but the illustration on the pub sign looked more like an oak tree, so I doubt it. Another name they could have used for the pub could have been “The Gaslight Inn,” because man oh man did they gaslight the hell out of Ruby. They keep accusing her of thinking they’re yokels for asking pretty innocuous questions. Asking if you can pay with your phone is perfectly reasonable. There’s a chippy in my village that does the best fish n chips in the area, but I never use them because they haven’t got a card machine and I don’t carry cash. I don’t imagine the owner of the chippy goes home every night in his Fred Flintstone car because of it. Maybe they’re worried they really are yokels. Either way, five quid for a Coke and abusive staff? What’s their Trip Advisor score? Negative six?

The only non-yokel in the pub is Enid and that’s solely because she’s played by Siân Phillips, who could never be mistaken for common. She was easily the highlight of the episode for me, sitting elegantly at the bar in her fashionable hat. Of all of the patrons at the bar, she’s the one I believe would coin the Latin phrase “semper distans,” to describe the way the old woman follows but never approaches. If only she could have taught Isaac Newton the word “gravitas.” Beyond being incredibly rude, I rather enjoyed the patrons of Y Pren Marw. They reminded me of characters you would have found in classic Doctor Who. The pub scenes reminded me a lot of “The Dæmons,” or “Terror of the Zygons.” But more than anything, this episode reminded me of “The Stones of Blood,” wherein things start like folk horror and end in a more mundane setting.

After Ruby’s unwanted follower scares away one of the pub’s most faithful patrons, she’s forced to head back to London, which is about where the episode starts to lose steam. Up until that moment, I was expecting a sort of witch coven or worse to spring up in the sleepy village of Glyngatwg. I was ready to call it RTD’s best ever. But now we’re back in London where the biggest mystery is Mrs Flood, and she’s really only there to remind us she exists. But that’s not to say a piece of Glyngatwg didn’t leave with Ruby, and it’s not to say I disliked the story’s ending. But there was a noticeable drop in excitement the moment Ruby boarded that train.

I found it odd that Carla and Cherry were badmouthing the Doctor in his absence. Cherry was ready to jump his bones the last time they spoke and now he’s good for nothing. I get that they want to support Ruby, but like, what if he’s hurt somewhere? All I’m saying is that if I ever go missing, please don’t send Carla and Cherry to find me. After telling Carla about the old woman, Ruby’s deepest fears are realised. Like Susan Twist and Josh before her, talking to the old woman causes her to abandon Ruby. The look Carla gives Ruby from the cab as it drives away is the last way anyone would want to be looked at by their loved one. It wasn’t a look of fear, it was a look of disgust.

It’s that look of disgust that really started to make me think of another story from the Whoniverse- “The Curse of Clyde Langer,” a Sarah Jane Adventures episode written by Phil Ford. In it, Clyde’s name becomes cursed and anyone who hears or reads it becomes irrationally opposed to Clyde. His friends and family disown him and it’s Clyde against the world, which is wild because Clyde’s one of my favourite characters in all of Doctor Who. Who could hate that precious cinnamon roll? Even further, who could forget that episode? Well, it turns out Davies was kinda hoping the answer would be you. I’m not saying Davies is out of ideas, but he seems to be “remixing,” a lot of what has come before. More on that in a moment.

After losing her family, Ruby gets on with life, but not before being given a spark of hope in the form of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. We even learn some things about the old woman from Kate. We establish that yes, it is always 73 yards away. And no matter how close a person gets to her, she always looks as in focus as a person with 20/20 vision would see her from 73 yards. We also learn that the old woman’s “powers” work via headset, as Kate breaks contact with Ruby, leaving her devastated from losing yet another lifeline.

An interesting factoid about that scene is that Kate and Ruby were sitting across from “The House of Pi,” and Pi Day is the 73rd day of a non-leap year. Why do I know this? Because I went into a bit of a rabbit hole trying to learn about the number 73 yesterday. I looked into its mathematical significance. I learned it’s Sheldon Cooper’s favourite number. I looked it up in terms of numerology. I read the 73rd Psalm. There are 73 books in the Catholic Bible. But none of it felt significant. Then my dumbass googled whether RTD had explained the number, and he claimed it was as simple as going outside and measuring the distance from which people’s faces began to blur. Right. Well, that’s disappointing, albeit creative.

We’re treated to a montage of Ruby getting on with her life throughout the next couple of decades. Like the rest of us, her age starts to show itself with long hair and big glasses. I mentioned earlier that Ruby suffers a bit from a lack of character development and this montage does nothing to help that. She grows up into possibly one of the most boring people they could have made her. Her queer group of friends she has a band with seem to have disappeared. Her dating life is painfully heteronormative. She didn’t date a single woman throughout that time? She would have learned by now not to encourage her friends to talk to the old woman, and due to the perception filter, it’s not like anyone seemed to mind her anyhow. I’m just saying, if someone as normie as her started wearing a political shirt for the nuclear war-hungry Albion Party, I’d look at her and say “Pssh. Figures.”

Speaking of the Albion Party, it’s time we started talking about Harold Saxon. Oh, sorry, I meant Roger ap Gwilliam. The episode implies that Roger is the trickster “Mad Jack" who had escaped the fairy circle after the Doctor stepped on it. But Davies is remixing the classics, or as LCD Soundsystem puts it- “Shut up and play the hits.” He even mistreats women in the same way as the Master. I took this to be Doctor Who’s flimsy attempt at a comment on the MeToo movement. It would work better if ap Gwilliam was more than a moustache-twirling miscreant. Especially because Ruby throws poor Marti to the lions by not warning her away from Roger. If this is a MeToo story, Ruby is an enabler, which is not a great look. But she apologises so I guess it’s ok. Don’t worry Marti, your trauma gets erased anyhow.

While the campaigners prepare for a press conference for Roger ap Gwilliam to announce that Britain has purchased Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, Ruby realises she’s out of time and needs to act now. Using her semper distans friend to her advantage, Ruby backs 73 yards away from Roger and sends him cowering and eventually resigning from his position as prime minister. Ruby expects this to be the end of the old woman, but she remains with her until the day she’s on her deathbed, at which point, the old woman changes from her perspective to Ruby’s. As the old woman, Ruby sees her young self and is able to call out to her and warn her about the fairy circle. That’s what happened, right?

Well, maybe? The biggest curveball comes in the form of the old woman herself. Because while Ruby does age to the ripe old age of 80, the actress playing her is Amanda Walker. The actress playing the woman is Hilary Hobson. Set pictures have also revealed Hobson in make-up that appears to be scarring going up the left side of her face. And those hand gestures of hers? Sign language. Eagle-eyed viewers have roughly translated her signing as “Bless you. Thank you so much, that's so kind of you. When you gave me that little thing, it was just so precious. How am I ever going to repay you? But we will think of something.” Perhaps this scarred woman is someone the Doctor and Ruby have yet to meet. Perhaps she repays them by warning them away from the fairy circle and saving both the Doctor and Ruby from a bizarre fate.

People seem divided by this episode in a major way, which is pretty normal for Doctor Who. But one of the more irritating takeaways I’ve seen is that the episode doesn’t make any sense. That’s only sort of true. There are some bootstrap paradox things occurring, which if you haven’t accepted as a reality of Doctor Who at this point, what are you even doing here? But what does the old woman say to Ruby? Where does the Doctor go? How does she travel back in time to the clifftops of Glyngatwg? Forgetting completely that we’re in a Doctor Who era which has introduced magic in a real way. But that’s a bit hand-wavy, can’t we do better? Well, they do mention that the TARDIS’s perception filter parked so close to the fairy circle might affect how people ignore the old woman. I liked this because it implies that the TARDIS and magic are somewhat compatible and therefore opens up new avenues for storytelling. You could also imply that if the TARDIS could affect the fairy circle, perhaps it can affect the TARDIS in turn. Maybe people reject Ruby because the warding spell placed on Mad Jack is affecting Ruby. Maybe Ruby needed to be in a position where she was so friendless that she would join the conservative party.

The episode may not have explicitly explained things, but it gives us enough of a vague framework to form an idea. As a fan of David Lynch, I am rather happy to exist in that liminal space. To straddle the cusp between the known and the unknown. It leaves an air of mystery, or as David Lynch would say “room to dream.” I will however slightly come down on the episode for its rather bland ending compared to its strong start. I don’t agree with the people who said it nosedives toward the end. But I would be lying if I said I lost a lot of interest the moment Ruby left Glyngatwg. Earlier, I compared the story to “The Stones of Blood,” but where the two stories differ is that when “The Stones of Blood,” changes its setting from the occult folk horror of the Cornish countryside, it replaces it with something equally strange.

That isn’t to say the jump to the year 2046 isn’t interesting. I’d be very curious to see how this story plays over the next few years. It acts as speculative fiction and the bizarre reality of speculative fiction is that it occasionally becomes mundane in hindsight. What once sounded unreasonable now feels painfully obvious. HBO’s “The Leftovers” hits different after the pandemic. Richard Kelly’s loony “Southand Tales,” feels tame after the 2016 election. Therein, I fear the day Roger ap Gwilliam becomes something more than a cartoonish depiction of British politicians. Partly because of the implied threat of nuclear devastation, but also because 2046 feels like a rather generous timeframe.

[coraniaid]

Kendra shows up for the first time in What's My Line? and delivers several speeches about her past and her training to (maybe!) one day become a Slayer that boil down to:

"I don't really remember my parents except as pictures I've been shown, but I do know [somehow?] that they took slaying really seriously and they sent me to be trained as a Potential Slayer when I was very young. I know that if you want to be a good Slayer it's important not to be distracted by things like boys or friends or school or family, and I really want to be a good Slayer. And I know that a Slayer has to work in secret, and she musn't tell anybody else about vampires or being a Slayer (but again, my parents -- yeah, the ones I'm not allowed to talk to -- they really knew I was a Potential Slayer and they definitely approved of me being raised by my Watcher and never seeing them again ... No, I don't know their last names). You shouldn't feel sorry for me, though: I definitely don't feel sad or angry about this at all. My Watcher -- he's pretty much the only person I'm allowed to talk to, I guess -- he says that emotions are a weakness. I am a good Slayer. I definitely don't feel sad at all."

If you take Kendra seriously as a character for even a second, I'm not sure how you can hear all that and not think that something suspicious is going on. I'm not saying the Council had Kendra abducted or had her parents killed -- it doesn't seem quite their style -- but ... if her parents or her extended family (her "people", as the show puts it) know about Slaying and take it very seriously, why would the Council want them to send their daughter somewhere away from them where she isn't allowed to talk to anybody apart from her Watcher about being a Slayer? Was she going to be "distracted" by being brought up by people who were definitely 100% in favour of her being a Slayer? What real evidence does Kendra have that her Watcher can be trusted about anything he tells her about her parents? Why does this sound like the internal monologue of a character in the first third of a horror novel who doesn't quite yet realize they've been raised by a cult?

And so, you might think, this is where Kendra's arc is going to go. Next season is, after all, all about Buffy losing confidence in her own Watcher and the system of Watchers in general. Maybe Kendra will start to suspect she's been lied to. Maybe she'll try to track down her parents. Maybe they've been looking for her all this time; maybe they died in an accident and the Council decided it would be simpler to train Kendra as a Slayer if she didn't have anything else in her life to "distract" her. Maybe this is another Ampata situation, and Kendra's family really did give her up, and when she has some space away from her Watcher to think about it she realizes she's pretty angry about that. Maybe she'll go through the Cruciamentum, and lose her powers for a bit, and ask herself what would have happened to her if she'd waited and trained and gotten older and never been Called as a Slayer at all.

But instead the show means all this to be taken entirely at face value. Everything Kendra says is just supposed to stand in contrast with Buffy's own experience of becoming a Slayer, even though you can't really just reverse "Buffy's parents don't know anything about Slaying" and "Buffy lives with her Mom and has to try to hide her patrolling activites from her" and "Buffy never knew anything about the supernatural or vampire slayers until she was told she was one" and "Buffy still tries to go to school and socialize and date and have as much of a normal life as she can" and "Buffy isn't always perfect at keeping her Slaying secret from the people in her life" and hope to create anything coherent.

The next time we see or hear about Kendra it's literally just for about fifteen minutes so she can be killed off and written out of the show forever. And then pretty much nobody ever talks about her again (except for a brief mention the episode after she dies and a final fleeting reference early the next season. And then in Season 7 we meet Kennedy, the only other Potential with any real screen time who the Council seem to have trained from a young age, who definitely does remember her family and tells Willow about growing up as a relatively normal (if slightly spoiled) child and doesn't seem to have gone through anything like this.

[finalgirl1984]

The thing about that whole speech Spike gives to Robin in "Lies my parents told me" Is that in basically saying that Nikki had a choice, and she chose slayerhood over her son, and she chose to die, and that in doing so we should have little sympathy for her or Robin, is that it kind of indirectly says we shouldn't have any sympathy for Buffy either. If we shouldn't care about Nikki because she "chose" this life, then why care about Buffy. It could even be argued Buffy had more of a choice than Nikki because of Kendra and later Faith. If Nikki's being a slayer overshadowed and negated her love for her son, then Buffy's being a slayer should negate her love for Dawn. If it's ok for Spike to kill her with no remorse, then it would have been fine for any other demon to kill buffy. If Nikki's death isn't tragic and just part of the game she knew she was getting into, then Buffy's deaths shouldn't be tragic either. If we shouldn't care about Robin's pain at losing his mother, then we shouldn't care about Dawn's pain at losing her sister. But of course, we do and are supposed to sympathize with buffy because she's the main character.

[inafieldofdaisies]

5 Songs, 3 Outfits | Tagged by @clicheantagonist @marivenah @shellibisshe @onehornedbeast @voidika @nightbloodbix @g0dspeeed @corvosattano @amalkavian @carlosoliveiraa @kyber-infinitygems

Rules: Post 5 songs associated with your OC, followed by 3 outfits they would wear.

Power - Missy

Hellhounds howling for the heathens Fire wings, Salem, Madness reasons Taste the blood of the purest treason Hellhounds howling for the heathens Power, witch, so, so, so, so, so much power

Black Gold - Missy

You're like gold, black gold My kinda poison, I would do anything just for you to be mine

Doomsday - Kendra Dantes

When the world's in ashes, lost to all the havoc Raise our swords and fight till doomsday When the earth is severed, we will not surrender In this war, we'll fight till doomsday

Arise - CLANN

Thrown to pieces, ast to the wind From ashes we ascend Harken to me, hang on, this life's your own I'm right here beside you, you're not alone In darkness we shine Now place your hand in mine Arise

American Jesus - Nessa Barrett

Knees down at your altar, please don't fail me now You know all my secrets, American Jesus, baby, won't you take me to heaven tonight? You know you're my weakness, American Jesus, save me You're the greatest love of my life

Velvet World - Shiadanni

Just like the sun, I melt the snow Diva la Catrina, like a diva Strip down yourself, I'll tango with your love I'll be your medicina, your tequil I'll hide in your warm arm in the misty dawn Gentle, treat me like a piece of art

Jungle Type Love - Skylar

He's a psychopath and I like that, made a run for the famous triangle Bermuda Bark and I bite back Couldn't give him all my time, my service required Sun in my veins have all these desires

Daddy Issues - Skylar

Sinner in your shirt, attire illegal Take off that shirt, oh, we could stay for the night, we'll make the sequel Slutty in the satin sheets, then I'II leave you Bit of naked poetry for the people

Bad Bandit - Xana

Now she promised me her best in a bloody satin dress And i could see forever in her golden eyes My baby told me lies, I swear i'm gonna die But i ain't the one biting the dust tonight

Lethal Woman - Dove Cameron

'Cause she walks like a saint, floats like an angel Sharp like a knife under the table

Tagging, @strangefable @socially-awkward-skeleton @adelaidedrubman @aceghosts @la-grosse-patate @dumbassdep @florbelles @cassietrn @purplehairsecretlair @nightbloodbix @theelderhazelnut @josephslittledeputy @josephseedismyfather @trench-rot @wrathfulrook @thesingularityseries @direwombat @simonxriley @the-silver-chronicles @strafethesesinners @gearvmac @captastra and anyone that would like to do the tag <3