#Team Compass

[lucabyte]

siffrin starts the game with oddly empty pockets for a rogue who has a habit of stashing away every little trinket that isn't nailed down

and a hardy pocketwatch is an indispensable tool for oceanic navigation

[itspileofgoodthings]

one of the things that continues to strike me on reread is how much the character of Darcy, and Austen through him, finds Mr. Bennet dead. And how much Elizabeth, in growing and changing and discarding her past blindness, has to move past her way of seeing her father and thus of seeing reality, because the two are connected! Darcy’s letter exposes her father’s flaws to Elizabeth in a way she’d never been able to see before. Most especially the way his laziness and neglect of his own gifts have hurt his family and that ultimately he doesn’t. care. Not enough to change. It literally says that she comes home from Hunsford and tries to laugh at her sisters’ and mother’s folly (the way she used to; the way her father has taught her to by example for her whole life) and she can’t anymore! It sticks in her throat. She is grieved by the failures that she sees in him, all the more so because she IS his favorite and she loves him! And the thing about Mr. Bennet is he never changes. The Lydia/wickham situation exposes to him sharply his own conduct and the consequences and he feels it! Because he is neither stupid nor unfeeling. But he, like everyone, has free will. And he chooses not to change when the opportunity presents itself. He even jokes about how quickly his feeling bad will pass and how soon everything will go back to normal, to his laziness and his selfishness. He is set in his ways and he serves as a contrast to Elizabeth’s personal journey because he embodies a version of a person she could have become and was in danger of becoming if her only goal at all times was to laugh at and judge people from the sidelines.

[inamindfarfaraway]

I love how Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse said “Anyone can be Spider-Man”. I love how it inspired everyone to imagine their own Spider-People, saving the day in their own universes, with all kinds of cool, interesting personalities and aesthetics and mutations and life stories and relationships. We all put pieces of our soul into these homemade heroes. We had fun. We found community. And then Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse said, “Wow, great job! You’ve really taken our message to heart. Well, get ready for even more of everything you liked from the first movie and a new message to complement the first. Anyone can be Spider-Man… and anyone can be pulled into a cult.”

So now we all have to contemplate whether our lovingly crafted heroes would ever be on Team Mandatory Trauma Because Martyr Complex or not and why.

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

Alicent haters forget that she was a child bride who had 4 children raped into her through marital rape.

[witchy-v1xen]

Addressing the toxic team black accusations against Tom Glynn-Carney.

First and foremost, he is not a rapist; his character, Aegon, the second Targaryen, is. Second of all, I hate how some of you pretend Viserys and Daemon weren't groomers. Nine times out of ten, you don't see sane people from Team Green making rape accusations against Paddy and Matt. Just please fucking stop it; it's like some of you really want to ruin this man's career. And you can say what you want, so please do comment in defense of the toxic actions being taken because I want all the smoke.  I was also told by my aunt that he was a rapist, but I was quick to shut that shit down from the door. It goes to show how quickly false information is spread and how much it could really impact somebody's life. It's disgusting and makes me sick that some of you team black fans have so much hatred for his character that some of you are willing to corrupt this man's life. I find it hilarious that some of you have the sheer audacity to be that fucking bold behind a computer screen or a screen of whatever mobile device is in your possession, but would some of you ever make a statement like that in front of his face? No, most of you wouldn't even dare to do so because he is able to sue for defamation in court by law. So, please don't ditch what you can take because you will get verbally bodied by me morally, and that's not a will; that's a promise. 

Please Reblog.

[pucksandpower]

BBC Sport has received confirmation that Adrian Newey is to leave Red Bull Racing in the wake of the controversy involving allegations about team principal Christian Horner.

[bogdreamz]

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

[monsterfuckermilligan]

i’m sure this has been said before but when adam and michael are talking in the bunker about the possibility of michael’s dad being a grade a asshole, there’s something so so so important to me about how adam points out michael’s hypocrisy.

ADAM: Point is…. Parents keep secrets. Does it hurt to ask the question?

MICHAEL: Yes! It would mean I doubt him. The good son; the favorite doubts his father.

ADAM: You still care about that? After he left you in the cage?

this matters because michael was JUST criticizing sam and dean for leaving adam and how he is in unable to trust them. he doubts them because of their actions.

MICHAEL: You’re asking me to trust you. You who doomed me, you who let Lucifer walk free while your own brother sat in Hell.

in turn, adam is pointing out that clearly michael has a line for his family members and it’s been crossed by michael’s own, so why is his dad any different than sam or dean? what makes michael different than adam? why does his dad get to betray and abandon him and still get michael’s trust and loyalty? why is michael expendable?

he’s really tapping into michael’s beliefs that were just established to us as the audience at the diner. (ie: family sometimes hurts you and just because they’re blood relatives or ‘family’ doesn’t mean they have your best interests at heart. sometimes there are things more important than family, sometimes walking away from your family is freedom) and he’s holding michael to the same standard he’s set for the winchesters.

side note: another thing i enjoy about this interaction is that adam is being gentle, although it 100% appears as if they’ve had this conversation before since he literally rolls his eyes, and not to mention that michael is an archangel. he could easily be mean or not even care about his feelings or michael could not even take his opinion into account and do what he wants. but despite everything, adam asks for michael to listen to him, and he does. and in turn adam appeals to him with logic and reasoning, because he’s overall a very rational and strategic being that’s simply been groomed from the get go in his dad’s weird cult. adam appeals to his emotions in a way that’s familiar. they share this experience. adam knows michael is protective of him and that it’s easy for michael to hate sam and dean for the same things his dad has done. but michael’s own lack of self worth that was drilled into him by his dad for aeons is being challenged, and it’s uncomfortable for him, but adam doesn’t back down and he helps get through to him. it’s really a great scene. this post wasn’t meant to be so long but yeah i have lots of thoughts about this short interaction!

[zeldotsbrainrot]

a9. spy. That Scene from the comics. you know the one

[miniagula]

psyche and medea's relationship drives me NUTS they saw the best and worst parts and learned from each other, and both of them come to the same conclusion of if there's only one person on your side, let it be me and it makes me GENUINELY ill

[ftl-faster-than-life]

…man it still pisses me off that Team Flash had the drug that could knock a speedster out starting in the SECOND SEASON and never ONCE did they use it on Barry for Barry’s benefit. “Sorry Barry, we don’t have an anaesthetic or painkillers that work on you you’ll just have to suffer through this insanely painful process/literal surgery/injury.” KNOCK HIM OUT.

[scoobydoodean]

Cas tells Sam and Dean part of the truth. It is true that Atropos (Fate) has a grudge against Sam and Dean.

But Cas doesn’t tell Sam and Dean the whole truth. Fate didn’t randomly decide to come after Sam and Dean one day because they helped subvert the apocalypse. She came after them because Cas pissed her off.

It IS hilarious that Astropos basically casts herself as Castiel’s disgruntled employee... and Cas promptly fires her.

I can’t say I feel any sympathy for her because I absolutely don’t. She’s just another vindictive god who sees humans as beneath her. But this is pretty amusing, and it’s also clear that she blames Cas for all of this more than she’ll ever blame Sam and Dean. In her eyes, Cas had the rule book and a role to play and he tore the rule book up (note: and he was right to do that and it was very hot girl of him). Sam and Dean are just his “pets” as she calls them. She knows Cas cares about them and that’s why she takes her anger out on Cas by trying to kill them. But almost all her frustration is at Cas specifically because he knew “the rules” and how things were “supposed” to play out, and he left her without guidance during the power struggle.

So yeah. When Cas tells Sam and Dean Fate is coming after them because she hates them… he’s telling part of the truth but not the whole truth. He isn’t going to mention the straw that broke the camel’s back was sinking the Titanic and that it was his idea and not Balthazar’s and that he had Balthazar do that so he could use the passenger’s 50,000 descendants as batteries. All of Cas’s dishonesty about what really happened with fate and what Cas’s role actually was in the situation leaves Cas ashamed. It leaves him so ashamed he awkwardly flies off when, in the end, Sam praises Cas for saving them. Cas knows he actually saved them from a problem he himself created, and he also knows that Sam’s comments about him killing 50,000 people for them are misplaced because Cas was going to let those people die either way and harvest their souls. He knows that Sam and Dean wouldn’t approve of what Cas is actually up to if they knew. So he flies away. Cas is ashamed.

[hopeswriting]

imagine you're luce, and you're born the heir to a mafia family. you're mafia-born, and so of course also mafia-raised, and then also a donna-to-be. you're raised to be able to take on the role, to be good and capable at it, are taught to make one of your core beliefs about how the many must come before the few, because the family must always come first. you're going to be the donna, of course you must always prioritize the family above all else, it's your foremost and most important duty.

if caring about the few too comes at the price of the many, comes at the price of the family, is it even worth it? if the happiness gained from it comes at the price of a greater suffering for others, is there even any meaning to it, even if it's your happiness we're talking about? you understand, don't you?

you're not sure if you do, but you care about your family, love it, want to do right by it once you become their donna, so you nod, listen and learn.

(you don't have to be taught the pain and loss and guilt and anger and bitterness is a fair price to pay for the pain you decide has to be inflicted and the sacrifices you decide must be made, including by yourself. it's the least you could do, even.)

imagine you're luce, and the gift of foresight runs through your blood.

you would not call it a gift. you did not ask for it either. and you'll never come to see it as something wanted by you.

you can see the future, and it happened exactly as you saw it would, so of course it's exactly the way you wanted it to go. you can see the future, and it happened exactly as you saw it would, so of course you didn't care to try hard enough to change it. you saw the future before the shape of it had yet to be breathed into existence, and who's to say it didn't come into existence only because you saw it happen? you saw the future, and it happened worse than it had to for it.

you can see the future, but you still can't make it anything else than what it was always going to be. you can even make the visions happen at your will, but you still have no say on what you see or how much you see. you still can only be the witness of it before anyone else can.

it does mean double and longer the happiness sometimes, means relief and gratefulness and hope beyond words, and it'd be cruel of you to voice out loud your feelings for others to hear the many more times it means something else.

you can see the future, and it doesn't make it any kinder on you than on anyone else, does not give you any more power or control over it than anyone else, but at least you can see the future. you're given the time to make peace with it, to brace yourself for it, to bargain with it, to plead and beg and fight against it however desperately and hopelessly, even if in the end it still happens exactly as you saw it would.

(you can see the future, and it still doesn't hurt you any less than anyone else when it happens, but you don't expect anymore for anyone to hold you any less responsible for it anyway. it would be nice for someone to do it one day, but you understand.)

you can see the future, and you decide it's a kindness to both yourself and others to keep it for yourself as much as possible whenever you can.

imagine you're luce, and your family has this set of rings they've looked after and protected for as long as your family has existed. they're one set of three of the most important artifacts in the world, ones that help in safeguarding its existence and balance. they're duty, the very first one and the most important one your family was created for.

the pacifier around your mother's neck is duty too, and the most important and powerful artifact among twenty-one in safeguarding the world and its balance. it's been passed down in your family too, from mother to daughter. it's duty, but less tied to your family and much more to the blood running through your veins. it's a curse, in fact, as it demands heavy sacrifices the rings don't, and one that can only be tied to the blood running through your veins.

(your mother looks at you as if expecting some kind of reaction from you, and you can only wonder at which point you weren't supposed to see it as a given. duty and sacrifices have been one and the same for you for a long time now. is it even duty if it doesn't require any sacrifices from you?)

imagine you're luce, and your mother dies for duty. she's the donna, and so she dies for your family. she's the sky arcobaleno, and so she dies for the world. she's your mother, but she dies anyway, doesn't fight it either, even knowing she will leave you behind, even knowing she won't ever get to see what you look like all grown-up.

everywhere you look, duty stares back at you, from your mother and the pacifier around her neck, her love for your family and the life she gives up for it, her love for you and how she dies anyway while you're still only a child. duty, from your family members and how they die for you and kill for you, how they do both at your command, how their lives are in the palms of your hands and how they weigh only as much as you allow them to at a time. duty, from the knowledge your foresight gives you and the shackles tied to the blood running through your veins.

your mother's only duty while she lives too. she loves you, but she'd have had to give birth to you anyway even if she didn't. she loves you, but she still gave birth to you even knowing the kind of life you'd have to live, the kind of hands you'd inevitably end up with, the burdens she'd have to lay on your shoulders, passing them down from her own. because she loves you, she finds the resolve to raise you to be able to face all of it head-on and come out on top, but she'd have had to raise you much the same way anyway even if she didn't.

(she doesn't die for you, doesn't fight to be able to keep living with you, and this, too, is your mother surrendering to duty one last time.)

(you're so sick of it, so angry at it, so hateful and resentful against it. you're so stifled by it to the point you've stopped being able to breathe for a long time now. or you would have been if they had taught you how to face duty in this way too.

it's for the better they didn't. a silver lining, sparing you pain that isn't necessary for you to go through. everyone you turn to only teaches you how to keep holding your breath longer, and you listen and learn, obedient and dutiful as you've ever been.

you're grateful for it too. really, you are.)

everywhere you look, there's no room for you to so much as question any of it, let alone anything more. duty is commendable, something you ought to look up to and strive towards, strive to achieve. duty is the right thing to do. of course it is.

(you exhale a breath of relief that shakes you down to your very core.

thank god, it's at least the right thing to do.

you're grateful for it beyond words. really, you are.)

imagine you're luce, and before it even happens, you know the choice you'll make when climbing that mountain, when standing on top of it, when waiting for a bright light to shine down on you from above. you know the choice you'll make then, even when pregnant with your daughter.

it doesn't matter since how long you knew, be it years, months, days, hours or minutes before. all that matters is that before you can even contemplate the idea of making another choice and all its implications and possible consequences, before the thought can even come alive in your mind, you already know the choice you'll make.

(you can see the future, but just because you already saw it, it doesn't mean it's now set in stone.

you can see the future, but just because you're given the chance to fight to change it, it doesn't mean it still won't happen every bit like you saw it.

it doesn't mean it can't still happen even worse than how you first saw it happen because you fought to change it, no matter how already dreadful it originally was.)

imagine you're luce, and before it even happens, you know they'll be others with you standing on top of that mountain. you're the only one who'll know it before it happens.

(because you can see the future.

and oh, you did not ask for it.)

they're strangers, people you don't owe anything to. adults who choose to show up at the first meeting, and to show up to every following mission after that. the chosen seven, whose ambitions and prides lead them to walk the path of the seven strongest too once laid down in front of them.

you don't force their hands in making any of those choices for them. you're not responsible for any of them.

you become coworkers then, accomplices, your hands stained in blood to various extent, but now dipping in the same pool of blood as you strive towards the same goal together. you have each other's backs, learn each other's strengths and weaknesses, learn each other's personalities, likes and dislikes. you keep having to spend more time together as the missions keep coming your way.

inevitably, you come to care about them. even more damning, they come to care about you in return. enough so they'll look after your daughter even after what'll happen on top of that mountain. enough so they'll look after your granddaughter too, warmly and fondly enough she'll call one of them uncle.

you're still the only one who knows they'll stand together with you on top of that mountain, not knowing what'll happen on it like you do.

and you do care about them, you swear you do. really, you do.

(you care about them the same way your mother cared about you, and how she still raised you to have steel in you and be made of sharp edges you know how to use. you care about them the same way you care about your family, and how you still send them to their deaths as needed so the rest of your family you care about just the same can keep on living longer and safely. this is the only way you've had the chance to learn how to care and love.

duty and sacrifices have been one and the same for you for as long as you can remember. it doesn't matter at which point sacrifices came to mean love to you too.

and most of all, you love your daughter more than anything else in the world.)

imagine you're luce, and this is who you are. this is who you've been raised to be, the only way you've been given room to grow up to be. this is the life you've lived and the kind of life that has shaped you as the person you are now. this is what you've been taught and told is the best version of yourself you could have grown up to be. this is who you ended up being by what you've been taught and told are all the right choices to make.

you're still the only one who knows what is about to happen on top of that mountain. it hasn't happened yet. the fate of the world hangs on what'll happen on top of that mountain, the same world you'll have to give birth to your daughter in. the same daughter you're currently pregnant with.

now imagine you're luce, look me in the eye and tell me you'd know how to even form the thought of the possibility of there being any other choice to make. look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't look at the only choice in front of you, and know deep in your bones it's the only right choice to make. that it is right of you to make it. because it simply has to be.

(imagine you're luce, and you're not doomed by the narrative. of course, you're not.

why would you need to be when the narrative has painstakingly shaped you all your life to become its perfect, faithful and dutiful sacrificial lamb?

and then, imagine you're luce, and you're even grateful for it, so, so very grateful it held up its end of the bargain too.

truly, you are.)

[attractthecrows]

thinking about Alistair in the aftermath of Sy's self-sacrifice where she just left him behind..... he couldn't do anything to save her, he couldn't even see the battle, fuck that must hurt like hell. He can't even GRIEVE. he had someone to talk to about Duncan, but the love of his life gave hers for Ferelden and he doesn't even get the benefit of a few days of privacy because she fucking made him King. he has to LEAD.

but he still goes up to the battleground. he can't not. He has to find her, and he does, and he tenderly, carefully picks up her broken body. Those eyes he loved, closed, that face he loved, expressionless and still. If not for the sickly white shards of bone peeking through her raven hair, the thick dark blood dripping from her nose, she could be asleep. She's not, but she could be. And he carries her - fuck, where??

I can see the well-meaning Andrastian nobility and Chantry priests trying to organize a "proper Andrastian" funeral pyre. But she wasn't Andrastian, and Alistair won't let that happen. No. He watched her bury Tamlen; she will be buried in the Dalish fashion, with cedar branch and oaken staff, and a tree planted for her. A silver birch; her favorite. If he can manage it, in the castle courtyard. What are they going to do, tell the King he can't bury their Hero wherever he damn well pleases?

Even if they tried, I think Anora would back him. Especially if she saw that Dalish ring on his finger, far too small for his hands, but perfectly sized to Mahariel's. She gets it. She didn't get the chance to have a proper funeral for Cailan, after all.

[nocternalrandomness]

The F-16 Demo Team jet in new paint over the compass rose at Edwards AFB

[werewolfsmile]

Just watched The Librarians S2E8 And the Point of Salvation and...

I loved it, for the most part. Cleverly written and a fantastic Ezekiel-centric episode! He had beautiful moments with each of the others and learnt so much from them. He had substantial character growth and was given the space to bear the weight of serious circumstances and respond appropriately. This episode had the potential to be incredibly pivotal for Ezekiel's character!

And yet....

That ending. What the hell?? What do you mean his memory is lost and he forgets all of those poignant moments???? All those conversations, all that learning to rely on others - are freaking serious??

I'm never a fan of time loop episodes, but I thought they were handling this one pretty well. Right up until they erased all of Ezekiel's character growth at the drop of a hat. This was literally the equivalent of "and then she woke up" being used in a novel. It's weak and strips all purpose of what the characters have just been through.

Ugh! Tell me I'm not the only one. How dare they give me such a good episode of growth and discovering potential for Ezekiel Jones, then take it all back with a just kidding!