#Terminator vibes intended

[jazhara7]

I love that there seems to be a slight typo in the text, saying Thor Aakerlund discovered, in 2011, and *then* people were using it well into the 90s.

I can't find any other date, only that there was a documentary featuring him and his involvement in the conquering of Tetris, which is from 2011.

This leaves me only the option to assume Thor Aakerlund discovered this technique and went back in time to share it with the Tetris community sometime pre-1990, so that people could continue to strive to reach further levels, and these continued efforts set events in motion that eventually lead to Blue Scuti reach the kill screen before the cataclysm. His single act allowed the world to be saved from utter ruin and avoid the dystopian state it was in his timeline, where humanity had been enslaved by the Tetris gods. A real hero.

So apparently the pro-Tetris scene is exploding right now because a 13 year old nerd just reached the game's true killscreen for the first time ever

[augustus816]

my unsolicited and unprofessional predictions for the f1 drivers market:

no these are not realistic they are not intended to be they are based on vibes, whims, and chaos <3 (it’s called silly season for a reason)

Daniel Riccardo retires from F1 and moves to NASCAR, Indy or something similar! I love Danny Ric at RB but sometimes you gotta find new roots; it’s a new challenge and a new chance to win, plus he loves Americans 🇺🇸🦅

This opens space for Liam Lawson at RB. Fresh blood for the redbull machine and he gets the chance to prove his potential for a Redbull seat in the future!

Speaking of, Checo’s contract gets terminated (Sorry Checo)… and he goes to Haas. Checo brings big sponsors to the smaller team AND I think he’d thrive mentoring a younger driver like Ollie Bearman. Hopefully less pressure on him 🙏

Straight swap: KMAG to Redbull!!! He’s a good driver and known to defend VICIOUSLY to help a teammate a la earlier this season. He gets a couple of podiums and wins under his belt before retirement and Redbull has perhaps a better chance at the constructors. (Can you tell I just want a Kmag race win?)

Are you ready for more ridiculousness? Logan Sargeant to Mercedes. Williams don’t want him? Mercedes will have him instead. George can work on his garage leadership hooha without being challenged by a more experienced teammate and Logan gets an F1 seat; win-win.

Valtteri Bottass goes to Williams because can you imagine the combined insanity of ‘woke-up-with-one-shoe’ and ‘i-didn’t-know-pee-is-supposed-to-be-warm’ in a Team Torque episode together?? Worth it for the PR alone! But Valtteri also gets a slightly better car and Alex gets a senior driver to learn from

Carlos Sainz ends up at Audi, reunited with his old teammate Nico Hulkenburg! And Jack Doohan gets the Alpine seat! No funny jokes for these ones I’m sorry :(

And then PURE WISH FULFILMENT: Lance retires to go be an ice hockey player or something and Nico Rosberg returns to the grid as Alonso’s teammate. I just think the dynamic between them as teammates would be hilarious AND, if AM got their shit together in 2025, Lewis would be having nightmares about them all on the podium together again

this has been my ted talk thanks for coming

if I forgot your fave let me know and I will make a prediction for them too

[cantsayidont]

Recentish movies of note, or not:

BOTTOMS: Ridiculous "teen" comedy about two gay high school losers, PJ (Rachel Sennott, who also co-wrote with director Emma Seligman) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), who seize on a rumor about their having been in juvenile detention to start an after-school "self-defense club," in the hope that introducing the school's hottest cheerleaders to the cathartic thrill of girls beating the shit out of each other will finally give these hopeless (and ho-less) virgins a chance to score. So silly that complaining about the stupidity of the plot seems a tad churlish, but the story misses some obvious comedic opportunities, and despite the premise, the film eventually becomes far more interested in cartoonish violence than sex. If you dig the overall vibe, you might not care, but as a gay teen sex comedy, it's ultimately less successful (and less outrageous) than BOOKSMART, even though only one of the latter film's teen loser heroines is gay.

DO REVENGE: Black comedy homage to the teen comedies of the '90s and early '00s, inspired in part by the 1951 movie version of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, about a disgraced prep school popular girl, Drea (Camila Mendes), who joins forces with gay weirdo Eleanor (Maya Hawke) to avenge herself on her former friends and find out who leaked her sex tape — a plan that involves giving Eleanor a makeover so she can infiltrate the popular kids. Hawke is a delight, Mendes is very good, and the homoerotic tension of their odd relationship makes the movie fun for a while, especially if you appreciate the many self-conscious homages to prior teen movies. However, a major reveal late in the second act makes hash of the already sloppy plot, and the finale is both nonsensical and as antisemitic as STRANGERS ON A TRAIN author Patricia Highsmith, which leaves a sour aftertaste.

IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE: Bizarre slasher movie pastiche of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, about a teenage girl named Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop of YELLOWJACKETS), who kills the masked serial killer who's been terrorizing the small town of Angel Falls and murdered her best friend (Hana Huggins) at Christmastime. A year later, everyone in town seems to have gotten over it except Winnie, who's miserable. On Christmas Eve, she's magically transported into an alternate timeline where she was never born and the masked slasher has continued murdering people, including Winnie's brother (Aiden Howard). To set things right, Winnie has to stop the villain all over again with the help of Bernie Simon (Jess McLeod), the town outcast and the only one who believes her story. Not scary, gruesome, or suspenseful enough to be much of a horror movie, but there are enough grisly murders to make the comedic holiday fantasy aspects seem a trifle sociopathic, and a late reveal that the killer has supernatural powers beyond just stabbing or slashing people feels like one ingredient too many in an already convoluted plot. The main redeeming feature is that it's ultimately a gay love story, which I wasn't expecting, but appreciated nonetheless.

THE KILL ROOM: Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, and Maya Hawke go slumming in this dumb black comedy about a handsome hitman named Reggie (Manganiello) who becomes the sensation of the art world after his mob intermediary (Jackson) concocts a scheme to launder Reggie's payments by selling his abstract paintings (under the nom de plume "the Bagman") through a burned-out, Adderall-snorting art dealer (Thurman). Intended satire of the cutthroat vacuity of the art world lacks bite and no part of the plot makes any sense, but sheer star power gets the movie through about half its 80-minute running time before the banality becomes terminal.

POLITE SOCIETY: Silly British action-comedy by Nida Manzoor (creator of WE ARE LADY PARTS) about Ria Khan (Priya Kansara, delightful), a Pakistani teenager who aspires to be a stuntwoman, and her quest to save her flaky art student older sister Lena (Ritu Arya, radiant) from marrying a handsome doctor (Ashay Khanna) who seems a little too good to be true. It looks great, and the characters are very charming, but the story waits much too long to clarify the stakes of the plot: Until the finale, we don't know if Lena is actually in any danger or if Ria is just letting her imagination run away with her, and that uncertainty becomes an unwelcome distraction in the later action sequences. As a result, it feels more like an update of the John Hughes perennial SIXTEEN CANDLES than the over-the-top action movie it obviously aspires to be.

SHIVA BABY: Low-key but vivid comedy of manners, written and directed by Emma Seligman, starring Rachel Sennott as Danielle, a bisexual 20something Jewish girl who secretly pays her bills as a sugar baby. When she goes with her parents (Fred Melamed and Polly Draper) to a shiva, she finds herself trapped with not only her most annoying relatives, but also her disgruntled ex-girlfriend (Molly Gordon), her current sugar daddy (Danny Deferrari), his gorgeous blond wife (Dianna Agron), and their new baby. Seligman milks every awkward nuance of this uncomfortable social situation for maximum dramatic effect, and the tension of the final scene (which is nothing more complicated than the characters trying to squeeze into the back of Danielle's father's minivan) will drive you right up the wall.

VOLEUSES (WINGWOMEN): Is it really possible for a 40-year-old Frenchwoman living in the 21st century to not know that lesbians exist? One wouldn't think so, but watching this jokey buddy-action movie suggests that director/co-writer/star Mélanie Laurent desperately needs some kind of educational intervention in that regard. This is for all intents and purposes a lesbian romance: Master thieves Carole (Laurent) and Alex (Adèle Exarchopoulos) live together, routinely sleep in the same bed, and plan to retire together; they constantly express their love and affection for one another, and when Carole discovers that she's pregnant (the hows of which are never explained), Alex immediately assumes that they'll be moms together. Nonetheless, the story not only attempts to no-homo this cozy domestic scenario, but also presumes that there's no way Carole and Alex's relationship could ever be the de facto marriage it obviously already is — indeed, a crucial story moment involves Carole tearfully wishing she were a man so she could love Alex the way she deserves! If the movie had been made 50+ years ago, this might be poignant, but in 2023, it's just weird, and the resulting cognitive dissonance largely overshadows the thin plot, which concerns Carole and Alex trying to persuade their bitchy, cheerfully murderous employer Marraine (Isabelle Adjani, barely recognizable beneath her big hair and oversized sunglasses) to let them retire, while training a younger woman named Sam (Manon Bresch) to become their driver and the ambiguously defined third in their domestic ménage à trois.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Costume meta 6x10

Costume metas are back baby!!!! I’m so happy to be back writing these - you have no idea how much i missed writing them. This one is not quite as full on as my normal metas and has taken me far longer than I’d intended - if you’ve been following my posts over the last couple of days you will be fully aware of my insanity spiral over the Eddie of it all (as well as poker Buddie!) so I hope you’ll forgive me - I’ve not had the mental capacity I normally do to dedicate to costume spiralling!

No Eddie this week as he only appeared in uniform 😭 

A couple of more general things to point out - the use of Check - we see it on Nathaniel Greene and Phillip Buckley - which I think is a very interesting and loud choice considering this episode was all about fathers and fatherhood and the two fathers who are not all that (Mr Han is also in that number but his grey on grey suit was a deliberate choice that I will talk about in a minute) are the ones wearing check and tapping right on into my check theory!!! So Nathaniel is going to find himself in hot water very soon so the check is foreshadowing this for him. Philip (and Margaret as well actually!) in check is also foreshadowing whatever is about to go down with the Buckley parents (that happy family facade they’ve been putting on is about to crack big time!).

Grey is one of those colours that can be either warm grey (like we often see on Buck) or cool grey (which we have here on Mr Han) and that affects which meanings you attribute to it. Mr Han in double grey just about sums him up as a person - cold, conservative and controlling. Its also a colour that conveys gloom and frustration when worn in multiple like this, there is also the fact that ill people are often described as looking grey - which leads me to think that Mr Han being terminally ill is actually very likely!

The other thing I want to point out is the red harnesses - I know I don’t talk about the uniforms all that much except when there is something important an interesting in relation to them and this is very much that! Chim, Buck and Eddie are the ones we see in the red belt harnesses. Chimney removes his after Buck stakes his claim on it being his turn to go up the ladder and Chimney steps back from ladder detail. The reason I point this out is because its a very bright visual way of identifying and connecting both the fact that Chimney also has a red string of fate connected to Buck (I’m talking about family here and I know that technically all the firefam have strings of fate connecting them, but in this specific incidence its about the brotherly connection - the parallel to Kevin and Albert) which is relevant at that first moment but then the focus needs to shift. Eddie and Buck become the only ones distinguishable in the pouring rain - the only ones tied by that red string of fate - even when (and especially) when Buck is on the gurney.

over to our mains - below the cut to save your dashes!

Athena and May

I’m doing the two of them together this week because they are the costume version of yin and yang!

The silk blouse has a monstera leaf print - monstera symbolises suffocation in western culture which is a perfect symbol for this story arc - suppressing of evidence or information because of money etc. the use of navy red and white is also interesting - its very much a hint towards patriotism - a deliberate choice to play into the upperclass America vibe they’re claiming to be part of! 

Mays two main costumes are costumes themselves - they aren’t representative of who May is or her character, the are the clothes of the character she’s playing - Jada. As outfits for Jada - they are very much playing to type - teenager with issues who’s rebelling against straight laced parents - Both Athenas and Mays outfits work perfectly in sync with each other as the anthesis of the other. Mays are both in the same tonal range - burnt dusty reds, washed out blue greys and beiges - all in the same colour spectrum as Athenas ‘costume’ but tonally at the oposite end - where mays are dark and muted, Ahtenas are bright and bold

in the middle of the undercover work we get a reminder of who they really are - Athenas generally more muted palette - her comfort colour choices of black and olive khaki green, while May is back in her bold and bright blocks of colour. Perfectly summing up that while Athena is playing a role that is not a million miles away from who she is (and channeling a bit of Beatrice in the process because that blouse is a Beatrice blouse in every way!), Athena also tends to wear the olive khaki colour on top when she’s investigating something outside of work - and by this I don’t just mean full blown investigating, I also mean low key - clocking something is going on with a member of the extended firefam and she’s paying attention. May is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Jada! I’ve talked about May wearing this sugary bright pink before in season 5 and the scene here is somewhat of a parallel to the one in 5x15- youthful and considered feminine but also compassionate and caring. It is sensitive and intuitive. All things we see in this scene - May is using her intuition about Tamara and her being a ‘weak link’ that will get some information. We also see her showing compassion for Bobby in this scene.

Bobby

keeping it simple for Bobby this week - just the one outfit and its supposed to essentially blend in with his uniform - we see him working on things related to the wildfire that Wendell died in both at the station while in actual uniform, and then at home with Athena and May (as an aside the fact that we see bobby with his family esp his stepdaughter and then with Buck and no other members of the fire fam is very telling!!) - it’s all signalling Bobby is in work mode even when he’s at home.

Hen

If there was ever a cardigan to signal the fact that Hen is puzzled by Denny’s behaviour and new interests - this one is very definitely it - it literally has neutral face emojis all over it 😐😐😐 which are often used to convey mild irritation and concern - both things Hen is clearly feeling in this scene. Red is also a colour associated with both anger and and love - we know Hen loves Denny, but its very likely that there will be anger down the line when she discovers what Denny has been up to. This jumper also fits with my check theory - it is a big checkerboard - so its foreshadowing for the upcoming Denny issues!

I’m going to say something here which is being used as a narrative device - Hen is wearing maroon, because she is in the ‘male’ or ‘father’ parent role at this moment - I don’t prescribe to the concept of queer parents fitting into gender stereotypes of parenting (that theres a fatherly one and a motherly one!) nor do I believe sport is a fathers domain but in this particular instance the wardrobe team are playing into a costume theme they’ve developed - namely that maroon is the colour worn when (mostly male) characters are being fatherly in someway. It is implied in this scene and the one in the firehouse, that Hen is the one who has been the one mostly supporting Denny in his sporting interests - football (sorry soccer - Im British its football 😂) initially and now she wants to be supportive in his baseball interest. 

Not a costume thing, but I think its interesting and its costume adjacent, but I love the fact they’ve chosen two very different sports - one played with hands, the other with feet and the one Denny is taking up is the one where curveballs are a thing!

Denny

Or should I be calling him ‘D’?? 

we have this blue and black shirt - I have to confess my brain went off in 6 different directions on this one. Firstly there is the fact that its not that disimilar to what Christopher is wearing when Eddie catches him talking to his friends online late at night - the colours are different but the use of patterning is similar and the fact that Chris and Denny have paralleling story arcs is very 👀👀 It also ties Denny in with Hen as she also wears a lot of patterning similar to this. then there is the fact its black and blue - what is the first thing you think of when you say black and blue - being beaten up - potentially foreshadowing - not necessarily for a physical beating, more likely for the psychological bruising ahead. there is also the Rorschach test and camouflage elements as well. All in all its a shirt that speaks of secrecy pyschological trauma and trouble ahead!

This tee has me feeling all levels of insane. We have green for growth and renewal- its a bright green too, so its really reenforcing that idea. Then there is the design - a leopard in a jungle setting which is so many metaphors all rolled into one - the obvious ones of the jungle being dangerous, leopards not changing their spots and hiding in pain sight. But there are a few others - camouflage, the fact that leopards are nocturnal and solitary, they are also opportunistic. Then theres the jungle - jungles as well as being dangerous places, are also dense and in places impenetrable, they are overgrown and tangled. All of these things speaks volumes about what is going on with Denny right now, and the fact that he’s getting himself deeper and deeper into the jungle where opportunistic animals are waiting to strike. It a really clever use of imagery in graphic tee design to convey information and its something the show does a lot with the kids clothing!

Chimney

some really interesting stuff going on with Chimney in this episode - namely the fact that he’s wearing check - all the time, as well as the fact we get him in this lovely burnt orange colour!

Starting with the check - I’ve said it a million times and I’ll probably say it a million more, but the check is foreshadowing trouble ahead - in this instance its the unexpected arrival of the Han’s. The button down shirt under the jumper is maroon and burnt orange check - maroon is the colour of fatherhood in 911 verse so the maroon is a nod to that, both the fact that Chimney is a father (and a good one), but also that his father is the trouble ahead! While the orange - well orange is the colour of optimism, enthusiasm and emotional strength - the perfect colour for Chim in this scene - he’s being optimistic about what having the Buckleys to visit will be like - that together he and Maddie can get through anything. This opening outfit for 6b also shows us that Chim is in a much stronger place - things are going well for him - life is good and that has given him confidence and placed him in a better place emotionally.

then we get this blue check button down shirt - its light blue and a darker blue, and again the check is portending doom. I don’t want to make this all about Buck, (becasue it isn’t) but, the fact we see Chim in a blue check specifically while the Buckleys and Hans argue over Bucks sperm donation is super interesting. Its not only foreshadowing that Buck - who is also in blue, is about to come to harm in the place that was very nearly chimneys (as inBuck going up the ladder instead of Chim). It is also hinting at the fact that Chimney and his father (who is incidentally also in a blue shirt) are on a collision course. This check is about foreshadowing the two opposite disasters/ issues heading Chimneys way - the fact that he is about to potentially lose a brother - and one that has taken the place he was supposed to be in. That Chimney is going to have to reckon with the guilt and grief that causes - making this shirt about Chim’s connection to Buck but also connected to the idea of another man raising a child - much of Chimneys trauma stems from that very issue - he was raised by Mr Lee, had Kevin who was a brother in all but blood - who died in a work related accident and now he’s going to go through the same thing with Buck. the whole thing is setting up for Chimneys trauma to come and hit pretty hard - which all goes back to his own blood father - which is why we see Buck and Sang in the two very different blues and chimney in the check of both of them.

Maddie & Jee-Yun

Maddie going for full on black is such a choice! Black is a power colour, its sophisticated and mysterious, while also being authoritative and protective. It is also a colour of rebirth which is really important here for Maddie. This is a Maddie who is in the best possible place right now, but her choice to wear all black for the arrival of her parents is all about her wanting to but on a display of power while at the same time protecting herself and her family (Chim, Jee and Buck) its very much fake it till you make it - its not necessarily about her having power/control (which she does), but about the appearance of it.

This is about her rebirth as a person and as a mum and her showing that rebirth to those who have judged her in her life. 

the purple suit and bright blue top are an interesting choice. The jewel tones exude happiness and contentment. I’ve spoken before about how we often see characters in these brighter versions of colours when they’re in a good place or having fun (think of the times we’ve seen Athena in bright jewel colours, or even Buck) and here we see Maddie embracing that her daughter is having fun with her grandparents and her family is all together and not fighting or distant from one another - don’t forget this is likely the fist time she has experienced this ever. The purple blazer is in line with other things we’ve seen on Maddie this season - we’ve seen her in bright purple before. Purple is a really interesting choice to me because so much of its meaning is connected to mystery, but also the understanding of ones self better, building and strengthening emotional connections to our deepest thoughts and desires. its such a choice for this scene - the happy family Maddie wants, has wanted all her life and hasn’t had in her grasp until now, but also the Daniel of it all - that she is now free to talk about her brother, to share her knowledge of him and that she has been able to actually sit in her grief and come to terms with it. It’s a really powerful choice for her and speaks so much about how far Maddie has come.

Look I love love love what the show does with the kids clothes - its always so on point for the scene - and this Baby Jee tee is no exception. ‘Shapes I know’ - a literal point at the fact that families can look different - they come in different shapes and thats something Jee ‘knows’ and is experiencing. It’s literally one of the cornerstones of he show - that families look different and come in a multitude of shapes and sizes and in this scene the show is very much pointing out that the Buckley parents and Han parents don’t really understand that in any great depth. The Buckleys are only being supportive and nice when it suits them - when they’re in front of others and can be judged - creating a fantasy of a loving and supportive family to the outside world - while behind closed doors - they’re not really interested and are in fact the complete opposite. The Han’s have a very rigid view on family and that there is only one type of family (I’m expecting Sang Han to make some comment about Jee being born outside of marriage etc at some point) and anything that doesn’t conform to that isn’t acceptable.  

Buck

I so desperately wan to quiz the wardrobe department on the choice to have Buck in trousers that sit two inches above his ankle. 

You can’t see them in either of these pictures, but Buck is still wearing trousers far too short for his legs and its making me insane. I know Oliver has stupidly long legs, but its not like they don’t have the budget to get trousers made and tailored to fit him. I mean its been this way since season 2 and everything is intentional so they must have decided on it as a character thing but I for one cannot figure out what its supposed to tell us about him - the only thinking I’ve managed to come up with is that he’s stuck in this liminal space between child and adult - not really one or the other (because of the saviour baby and not knowing about it of it all) so its a play on the historic idea of breeching and short trousers! It’s literally the only reason I can think of as to why they would do this. Especially because the outfit he is wearing in his coma dream he’s wearing trousers that fit his leg length which only proves to me that its intentional!

If we see Buck figure things out this season and we then see him start wearing longer trousers going forwards - ones that are actually the right length for his legs I might actually ascend to the astral plane!!!

This green top continues the theme of seeing Buck in either blues or this light green shade - it echoes both the polo shirt from 6x07 when he made his donation, and the one he wore to the Ren Faire in 6x08 and continues to prove my theory about the use of these green shirts on Buck - the colour might not have gotten darker, but the fact its still the same light shade and we’ve had no further progress (in terms of where Buck is at mentally - the pregnancy is obviously progressing!) at this point in time - we know he’s wearing gree ni the coma - and its a darker/brighter shade - hinting that progress- growth etc is happening and that the coma will be the catalyst for that growth to start - I fully expect to see Buck in more green as the season progresses and to see it getting deeper and brighter as we go along.

I have so many thoughts about this dark navy blue shirt we see Buck wearing for the Buckley-Han showdown. Its yet more Buck in shades of blue - forget 50 shades of grey Buck is all about 50 shades of blue (I think were up to 12 blue tops now for him this season and the next highest colour he wears is green with 3)!!  theres the uniform aspect of it all - a bit like Bobby in this episode as well, but for Buck its almost like wearing the uniform gives him confidence and strength - superhero style - something he feels he needs to go through another experience with his parents. 

There is something to be said about the use of blues at opposite ends of the spectrum on Buck - from the light pastel blues to this dark navy almost black blue, almost like Buck is oscillating between where he’s at mentally - projecting confidence, reliability, loyalty and trustworthiness, while also suggesting that internally he is struggling - blue is also a colour depression and suppression. We have to remember that Buck is still trying to figure out who he is, what he wants and how to be at ease with himself and so the use of both dark and light blues speaks of the duality of Buck right now. I bring this up because looking back through my costume plots for each character its become obvious that this season its very much deliberate - all his blue outfits in previous seasons have been within a much smaller spectrum of colour - wearing blue but all similar in shade - tending toward bright blue or navies!

If you’ve made it to the end then I thank you - have a cookie on me 🍪🍪🍪 we all deserve them after that episode and we’re going to need out strength for next weeks!!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my deep dive ramblings on costume for 6x09 - drop me a reblog or a comment to let me see your thoughts - I love reading them!!

As always tagged people below - if anyone wants to be added (or removed from) to the list please let me know in the comments!

Until next week (when I have a feeling I might be being set up for a very very long meta post 😬😬😬) 

@mistmarauder @theladyyavilee @loveyourownsmiilee @leothil @girldadbuddie @kitkatpancakestack  @buckscurls @lemotmo @trashendence @elishareads  @clipboardsandstethoscopes @comfortbuddie @fiona-fififi  @callanee @calyssmarviss @pbandjeremiah @batgrldes  @spotsandsocks  @livingwherethesidewalkends  @idontshitpostbuttheolympicpark @diazboysbuckley @sweettsubaki @shortsighted-owl @sherlocking-out-loud @dickley-buddie  @favouritealias @hearteyesdiaz  @ktinastrikesback  @princesschez75 @bucksbuddie @oneawkwardcookie  @leatherat @moniquekatie @wanderingwomanwondering  @trickster-archangel @outrunningthedark @asharadaine @ajunerose  @talespinner230 @pop-kam @swiftiebuckleys @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @butchjerry @mandzuking17 @yelenasbuddie​ @copyninjabuckley​ @name-code-black-widow​​ @rogerzsteven​

[thebiscuiteternal]

Fairytale anon - thank you so much. I'd love for huaisang to be under the sleeping curse maybe in a glass coffin for extra vibes, and maybe his myna could suddenly start talking to help Mingjue break the curse? I'm totally flexible though, go with what feels right. Thank you if you do it and thanks for listening if you don't!

Okay, so, building a fairytale!

Someone aiming to hurt Nie Mingjue by targeting his only known weak spot, his baby brother, is always a classic, so let's go with that. (Haven't decided who the particular enemy would be yet though, maybe it'll come to me as I'm typing this.)

The curse was intended to be a killing curse, but it only partially works (cheap ingredients, mis-cast, not actually the curse the caster thought they were using, any combo of the above), causing Huaisang to become narcoleptic and his health to begin wasting away. He can barely eat or drink and he's constantly exhausted and dropping weight fast.

The healers figure out that the extra hours he spends sleeping is the only time his body isn't burning itself to nothing, so they recommend putting him in a magic-induced coma to keep him alive long enough to break the curse.

At some point during their father's terminal illness years ago, an old text about using a qi-infused glass coffin to further 'preserve' a cursed person had been unearthed, but it had been determined to be unhelpful for his particular condition. But it might work for Huaisang, so Mingjue orders one made.

And it works!

But they still have to figure out the curse, who cast it, and how to break it.

Enter a most unexpected witness: Zhihua.

Zhihua the Mynah Bird has always been a yao, but because she was found as an abandoned egg by Huaisang, she never learned to take a human form. But she is just as smart as a human and saw everything.

And she's mad that her darling little master is in such a state, so she's willing to break the rule of pretending to be a normal bird around other people just this once if it means saving him and catching who cursed him.

So Nie Mingjue temporarily leaves the sect in the hands of Nie Zonghui and his uncle Nie Hengbai, leaves Huaisang in the hands of the healers, and sets out to confront the curse caster with his unusual little ally.

[softstanb]

kidnapping toxicity (star eyes)

[aka no time to bleed]

i won't lie to you, dearest reader - this fic started in a buckwild way.

it's the summer. i'm queer. chappell roan sings the songs of my people. yet somehow the music video of casual, the lyrics, the melody, it all ingrained itself into my brain in a funny way. see, i ended up with about three ideas based off the song, each looser than the previous.

though it may not seem to be true, this fic was inspired by casual. that and this lovely little tweet. it drove me insane. sorry if it does the same to you.

but there's something else i'm not telling you. have you seen the movie predator? classic 80s action/horror. lovely little flick, not at all scary if you're a weenie. feels like terminator with neon green blood and bad heat vision.

if you've seen predator then you know exactly what i'm talking about. the beginning of the movie, before you even meet the predator, they raid what seems to be a cartel compound. they take this woman as a hostage. the alien starts fucking things up, but even throughout this she doesn't let them know she speaks english until she's seen the predator murder a guy. our lovely lady is our seokmin inspiration.

and there was something in me that was just itching to write something toxic for once. look through my backlog and you'll find softness overwhelmed with even more softness, tenderness filling the cracks. i write things that are meant to be cherished, relationships that feel like warm blankets and mugs of hot chocolate, your favorite books when you were nine and it was raining and nothing hurt and everything was okay.

i was a little bored. a little weary. i craved a toxicity you never see from me. this is what comes from it.

what's funny is that this fic actually had me crying in dms that it wasn't toxic enough. here i am, sobbing in my babies' dms, that our boy mingyu has too fast of a turn around for someone who is supposed to be the leading mc of a doc called "kidnapping toxicity (star eyes)". and sure, he isn't actually toxic enough to hold down this role, but he's toxic enough for the start for it to matter, i guess. besides, when i write, these stories take on a life of their own. all i do is just put them in a silly little doc and then release them to you. i don’t outline, i just vibe. i’m sure you all can tell.

this fic also has a bit of a funny story. it’s the second fic i’ve posted in a row at a wedding. in a different time zone. my streak is beyond bizarre but i should break it soon. i don’t have any more weddings on my immediate horizon so to keep it going you wouldn’t hear from me for almost years.

i intended a little more with this one too, sure. same shit different smell. ran up against the deadline with the force of an angry bull. ran into it a few more times too. fest mods deserve the world, truly. i love them and they’re too good for the rest of us. sure, i had other shit going on, but i still was an added stress in their life. but they told me not to be sorry. (i still am.)

anyways, the intent was to have a movie night or two. or just them binging movies and eating junk and doing nothing more than rotting as their matching wounds became matching scars. y’know, cute shit. but then i wrote the ending and i looked at it and looked at it again and realized that’s it. there’s nothing more i need to say.

there was an epilogue too, one i’m not going to promise to write. i won’t even tease it. it goes like this:

they get seok out. they get him off base and move him into that city that he once called home. it’s not really home anymore, something eerily reminiscent but to the left. something hazy with memories but with harsh realities poking through the nostalgia like machetes through sheets. it’s unsettling and off putting and just plain wrong, but it’s the closest civilization to the base for miles. his sister lives there. his mother visits, too. and though they don’t seek each other out, still far too scared of seokmin’s original captors coming back for them, even if their corpses are charred husks abandoned in the middle of nowhere they were a part of a network dammit, they see each other. they’re neighborly when they run into each other. if they leave each interaction more teary-eyed than the last, no one mentions it. the town is too good to.

and maybe there’s mingyu. mingyu, now desperate for an out, who latches onto seokmin like a snapping turtle who’s just got its jaws around a delicious treat it can’t quite break. he gets wounded again. something super fucked - think a demolished knee, a fused major joint, blurry vision that can’t be fixed. he’s declared unfit for duty and they plan an extraction date. is it an execution date? no one is sure. no one finds out either. he disappears into the trees, never to be seen again.

no one talks about the new man in the city, with his clumsy language and mysterious background and lover who looks at him like he has hung the moon, who stares right back at him like he’d give him the stars if he’d only ask for them.

that city holds both boys close to their chests and shields them whenever trouble rolls through. the city laughs in the face of danger. try us, they say, they are ours and you cannot have them.

and maybe there’s a bit of a treehouse somewhere in those woods. high and hidden unless you know where to look, know where to find it. seokmin brings the home cooked meals he grew up on and mingyu brings base favorites, leftovers concealed and treated as a gold standard currency. they hug and chat and catchup, jihoon recounting the newest way he’s made the suits lives shit and seokmin talking about his new adventures, about dreams he never thought he’d be able to have. he’s so much more alive that it’s common for men to come back from their “surveillance missions” and “general recon missions” with red puffy eyes. no one asks about it, for seokmin’s sake. even if he’s not there they know he’d be upset to find out they were teasing each other over happy tears.

and maybe they find another kid stuffed away on a compound, scared outta his mind. jihoon takes him to seokmin and leaves him there, knowing there’s no better hands for him to be in. he grows up loved and understood, even if he is technically fully grown. he gets years back to act like a kid.

a happy ending. hope for the future.

it’s a tcg fic. yall know the drill.

p.s. if it helps, since this is a vague predator au and that takes place in guatemala, the way i thought of the languages is like this:

- the base/soldiers/vague govt agency = english

- the compound/vague cartel stand in = spanish

- seokmin/the natives= an unspecified indigenous language/mayan/garifuna/xinca

kidnapping toxicity (star eyes) aka no time to bleed

other notes on my fics aka the index

[afvall]

Whumptober day 1! Race against the clock

Nathan's T.O. is terminal :( and the whump wave starts in Oceania, baby!

Very mild body horror cw? It's really only alluded to happening in the future. I'll still tag it though❤️

Some sex jokes are made as well❤️

First x men fic, be mean!

Also ness is still dead in this one 💔

And title from the last unicorn!!

---

How can anything that is going to die be real?

---

Even awesome half-metal telekinetics from the future weren’t immune to the human body’s failures. Wade knew that he was the perfect candidate for all the cruelties the world had torn into his mind and body, the trauma and the cancer and the slipping mind, he was meant for all that. He was doomed for this life ever since he was born, the second he entered this cruel world he knew it was cruel and that that cruelty would stay with him his whole life. But he felt, in his cancer-ridden heart, Nathan wasn’t meant for this. Whatever it was that made it fine for Wade to suffer but not Nate beat him, whatever intrinsic value that differed between them wasn’t really something Wade could define and point to, but he felt it was there, and he felt that there was something far more hopeless and depressing in Nathan’s suffering. Maybe it was the way his smile lines interrupted smooth skin instead of indented and marred flesh, or maybe it was the way he’d managed to save his wife and daughter’s life, even if they were so many years apart from one another, maybe that was what made Nathan’s suffering worse than Wade’s.

Wade ran his thumb across the thin, tentacle-ish metallic string which crawled its way up Nathan’s collarbone, a strike of lighting which didn't vanish from the flesh toned sky it had impressed itself across. Nathan swore under his breath, the skin surrounding the metal intrusion tinted slightly redder than the rest of him. Wade understood that pain, the constant, ever present pain, that faded into the background eventually except when something put it under a spotlight. Whether the spotlight be from a flare up or from a time like this, as Wade drew his hand away from the fresh and tender metal-filled valley.

“Y’know, the tentacle sex alien STD or whatever isn’t as cool when it's killing your future boyfriend” Wade’s voice rang out, sounding more melancholy than he’d intended.

“Where’d you get tentacle sex from?” Nathan huffed amusedly, bringing one of his arms around Wade’s waist slowly, as if they had all the time in the world to love another, as if Nathan wasn’t being consumed by the T.O. quicker than his telekinesis could handle these days.

“Have you read issue sixteen of Cable & Deadpool? I get that the authors going for more of a movieverse vibe, especially since it's far more contained than all the convoluted comic bullshit, but i really do think that Fabian Nicieza gave us something special there” Wade’s inane fourth-wall shattering rambles would usually help him calm down a bit, diffuse a far too emotional situation when he needed it, let him soften the blow of all the bad shit that happened to him and the people he loved with humour and his general insanity, because if he let himself feel all the devastation and loss in his life in its entirety, he’d be a far more broken man than his marred and spoilt skin let on.

Nathan sighed as Wade’s nonsensical prattling concluded, pressing his body against Wade’s and now wrapping both his arms around his waist in a way far softer than all his hardcore 90’s action porn comics would ever let him be. Wade’s arms ran up Nathan’s back, one sliding over the corded metal muscles and the other over softer yet still battle-torn skin. The world was so quiet here, in their apartment, in spite of the sounds of the road and street seeping into the drywall, and Wade would keep it like this forever if he could. Quiet. In one anothers embrace. And that little pocket of time could protect Nathan from the virus which consumed his body. Protect Nathan, the idea would be funny if it wasn’t for the disease running over his flesh and wrapping itself around his organs, and the mental image of the T.O. invading Nathan’s innards made Wade remember the scans of his chest displaying the red sections of where his cancerous tumours were eating away at him. And how he’d lost Vanessa. And how he was going to lose Nate now, too. The only people that saw past the mangled flesh and unrelenting quips and comebacks to the person inside, who’d stand so raw and exposed under their love.

“It’ll take years, Wade, for this to get the best of me. I’ve been controlling it since I was young, it just gets more aggressive as it grows with me.” Nate’s head was tilted down by Wade’s neck, words pressing into the ruined skin. For a moment, Wade imagined Nate as a little kid, already battling the virus every moment of every day of his life, and thought, certainly, Nathan didn’t deserve that.

“I wanna be with you forever” Wade says like Nate wouldn’t eventually go back to his present once he’d fixed all he could in the past. With a time limit on his save-the-world shenanigans, this might just be Nate’s forever, giving every last bit of himself to the world in this time before he’d have to go, ensuring something better for his family.

Life is a series of trainwrecks with only brief, commercial-like breaks of happiness. This break would be spoiled by the unrelenting and sickening pain which seeped across Nathan’s skin and the knowledge it would all come to a very body-horror-ish end, and body-horror was Wade’s thing, but he didn’t want it to be Nathan’s. He wished Nate could just parade that sexy robot arm around forever, but his forever was coming to an end. Wade would watch Madame Web on repeat while having to cut off his balls with craft scissors for all of eternity if it was in exchange for Nate’s health and comfort, yet unfortunately no cosmic being has presented the opportunity to him yet.

“All good things come to an end, but that doesn't mean they never happened, and that doesn't mean you can’t enjoy them while they last, Wade. How about instead of wallowing in our pity for one another, we can have a beer and watch TV before bed. Sounds like a plan?” alright Nate, you got me.

“Sounds like a plan” Wade pretended that the metal under his palms and across Nate’s back didn’t make his chest a little tighter than usual as he heard those words, and kissed Nate softly.

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Thranduil and Josie Pt. 140- Vengeance

Summary: Josie dreams of the past that holds a message. Stephane and Jo have another talk. A birthday party is planned. Josie experiences a new power. She and Charles search for something. Another side of Garrett is seen. A secret is kept. A surprise is in the works. An ultimatum is given. A visitor comes bearing bad news.

*Warnings* language, angst, death mentions, death, violence, graphic depictions, blood

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist

Your dreams took you back in time as you saw yourself at Sarah's house, your best friend in your teen years and the one you saw Harker kill when Jareth had showed you the memory of it.

It was a typical weekend afternoon of tarot cards and witchy stuff that she was into and it also happened to be Halloween, the night she went missing and the day you unknowingly met Jareth the goblin King for the first time. Back then, you didn't believe in all that voodoo stuff so much, although you remembered how your mother did. Sarah though, was all about it, a witch herself and you didn't realize the truth of it all until almost seven years after her death.

For some fun and a break from taking care of your sick dad, you would go to her place to let loose since it was right next door. The night would consist of pizza, sneaking booze from her mom's pantry since she worked in the evening, and cranking up the music while Sarah filled the room with candles and would give you readings. As skeptical as you always were about it, strangely they always became relevant to your life at some point, but you would just chalk it up to be a coincidence.

As she laid the cards out one, she placed the last one in front of you. The high priestess that held the letters B and J on it.

"Sooo, what does that mean?" you asked with an arched brow.

"The high priestess is a card of mystery, stillness and passivity. You need to reflect upon your situation and trust your instincts to guide you though what is to come. Things around you are not what they appear to be." Sarah explained, but then she just stared at the card with a head tilt.

"What things? My instincts tell me my life is exactly what it looks like...all fucked up."

"No...something is....amiss...now and into the future. I've drawn this card for you before, but it never spoke to me util now."

"Sarah, my dad is terminally ill with only a few years to live if he's lucky. That's what's amiss and that is the future."

"Jo, no...you're taking things literally, which sometimes the cards can be but sometimes they have deeper meanings, metaphoric even. I know you don't believe this stuff, but I'm telling you there's something huge about your life and your future. You see this?" she said and pointed to the lady on the card.

"Uh yeah...it looks like a queen or something. Oh my god Sarah?? Am I going to become the Queen of England??" you jested and laughed.

"No!" she scoffed. "But...you will be of some great importance. Something magical and powerful. The half moon at her feet tells me that. I know you never believe me, but I feel it in you. The witchy vibe. I mean come on, why do you think you and I connected so well. I believe you're a true witch who just don't know it yet."

"Yeah umm we connected so well because you live right next door." you chuckled. "I can't even make toast without burning it. I am far from a powerful witch."

"Jo, seriously. You even said your mom was into this stuff....and christ, look how your dad dresses and speaks, like he's from another century or something."

"She was, but I never saw her twinkle her nose and make things happen or ride a broom stick, or lure little children into her house like Hansel and Gretel. My dad, he's just old fashioned. Are you saying he's a witch too??"

"There are male witches you know. They're called warlocks and can you be serious for once? That's not what witches are all about. That's all fairytales. This is real."

"It's all hocus pocus if you ask me, pun intended but ok fine...so I am going to be some witch queen is what you're saying? Who's my King? He better be hot! And what do the letters mean?"

"Well...I definitely feel the J resembles you but...."

She stopped and cocked her head again as she ran her finger over the B.

"But???"

"A...counterpart to you...soul mate of some sort maybe? I keep seeing the word....missing....and...child....a baby maybe??"

You hysterically laughed. "The B stands for baby? I certainly know I am not pregnant...oh god!! Wait! Am I going to have a baby with my future King??? If anyone is missing, it is him! Maybe his name starts with a B! Oh my fucking god, it Bon Jovi!! That's what the B and J stand for!"

"Stop it! It's not that! It's someone you will meet. They will have the answers you seek."

"I'm not seeking anything right now except to get drunk after my encounter with that creepy guy on my way here. Like, he knew my freaking name so I umm, kinda told him my name was Sarah."

"Oh great, now we have some weirdo stalking around here infatuated with the many looks of David Bowie that knows BOTH of our names now and he probably saw you come here because I saw him from the window when you were walking over, and he saw me too. Talk about going all out for a Halloween costume and I didn't like his eyes."

"Calm down, he's probably just some senior from school out trying to score free candy like they did in Hocus Pocus, which is why he knew my name."

"Yeah well, he wasn't carrying a trick or treat bag and he looked way older than that. Def a witch vibe on him too. Probably into some cult shit and will sacrifice me tonight. Speaking of weirdos, tonight for dinner, you will meet the dude my mom is fucking, some Phillip guy. He's def creepy. I get nothing but bad vibes from him, like the hair on the back of my neck stands up when he's around. Witches sense those things."

"Ok miss superstitious, you are not going to be burned at the stake tonight or sacrificed on some stone slab in the middle of the forest. I have an idea. Since you seem to think I am a witch, we should look for our third and fourth to complete the circle, like that movie the Craft. You can teach me how to change my hair color to blonde like that girl did, what was her name...oh that's right, it was SARAH.." you joked some more.

"Fine, mock this all you want. Even the song playing right now is a message. These things don't just randomly happen."

"So when all of this happens, always remember this day and always remember, things are not always as they seem...remember Jo...remember....remember....remember....he's alive...."

Her words reverberated and echoed as your eyes sprung open.

"Sarah??" you gasped as you sat up. "God, what the hell was that?" you asked yourself out loud.

You realized it was late afternoon and that you had been asleep on Lola's sofa since you had come back from seeing Garrett. You hoped he wasn't upset with you for making him leave but you weren't sure what Narcisse and Haldir were going to do after seeing you locking lips with the vampire. Although Garrett was under Amara's protection mark, you didn't know how far that protection went and didn't want to test the waters to find out. You also knew Garrett could hold his own against them or anyone for that matter, but you didn't want to see any of them get hurt.

You sat with Leean, feeding her and as you did so, you began to recall the song Sarah mentioned, so you softly sang it to her, for she was a witch too and already coming into her powers at the mere age of 5 weeks old.

"I walk in worlds that no one can come by. I seek the trees and whispering stones. I dance at night and sing to the firelight to wake the witch who lives within me. I run with wolves and howl at the pale moon. I conjure storms that no man can tame. I love with fire so red it consumes you to wake the witch who lives within me. Music charms me like a spell. Voices fill me with tales to tell. All the women burned before are burning in my soul. All my darkness, all my fears fall away when their ghosts are near. Chanting, dancing, calling me to wake the witch in me. I sought the trees to flee all who hurt me. I whispered spells to endure their stones. I hid in dreams so no one could find me to veil the witch who lives within me. And now I fly at night like a raven. I dance with ghouls and devils till dawn. And in the forest, I’ve found my haven to wake the witch who lives within me."

Leean's big round moonstone eyes danced through yours as she listened to your voice. Little coos came from her daddy's shaped lips as she suckled and lightly kicked her feet.

Just then, a knock sounded upon the door. You already knew who it was, for your intuition told you and...you could smell the peppermint seeping under the door.

"Jo...may I come in?" Narcisse softly asked.

You covered yourself and carried Leean with you to the door, fretting that you were about to get an earful over the kiss of the vampire, but strangely, it was the exact opposite.

As you reluctantly opened, there the warlock stood and his typical grin with his hands resting at his midriff as his fingers fidgeted with his ring like always and there at his feet sat his loyal companion Merlin staring up at you.

"Well there's the two most beautiful girls in the world....and one of them has a most angelic voice from what I just heard, wouldn't you agree Merly?" he said in a baby tone as he tickled Leean's cheek. Of course, she cutely responded with an all out Thranduil smirk, making your heart shatter and ache for your King.

You turned and went to lay her down as Narcisse followed with his faithful feline right at his heels, who then jumped on the sofa making himself right at home as he laid down and yawned.

You gave the Maine Coon some quick chin scratches and then went over by the window and sat down.

"Well...let me have it about Garrett, I mean, that is why you are here, is it not?"

He smiled his arrogant smile and sat down beside you."

"No, actually I am not here about that, although I must say, I don't know what you see in him, the vampire is so boring."

You rolled your eyes as he continued.

"I came to tell you that I have retrieved your belongings."

He pulled out the spell book from within his jacket, along with the record and the dreamcatcher, then laid them beside you.

"The book was found in Claude's room and beside it laid a doll made with hay from the stables, smelling of my horse."

"Oh...gosh. Stephane, I am so sorry. It's all my fault, if I hadn't been in possession of the book, that never would have happened."

"Nonsense. The only fault here lies upon Catherine for her dastardly deeds and possibly her daughter too, which she will soon be questioned after she recovers from giving birth. Claude's diary was found as well and I have a pretty good feeling the answers are in there. I will read over it soon...but if you will notice the bookmarked page in your book. I think that explains the spell on Garrett."

After giving a concerning look, you quickly opened it to see the page stained with a yellow tint. You then looked at him in confusion.

"It's warlock blood, but still man's blood to a vampire and in this case, dead man's blood. Asher's. I can smell it. Somehow Catherine got her hands on it after his death. I have reason to believe she used Claude to place the spell. With that said, it is the same as if Garrett would have drank it himself."

"Jesus, what is it with this bitch and poison?"

"Because that's what Catherine is. Poison. Now...if you'll turn to the back, you'll find another item you were looking for...."

You flipped it to the back to find the letter you wrote to Thranduil.

"Thank you Stephane, for all of this. I will do better at keeping this book out of the wrong hands. I'm glad to have my dreamcatcher back as well."

Narcisse noticed your despaired expression when you mentioned the moonstone sleep aid.

"Jo? What is it?" he asked as he gently laid his hand upon yours.

'"It's...I don't know really. I had fallen asleep earlier and had this strange dream of...well actually it was a memory my friend Sarah who Harker killed. Honestly, I don't want to talk about it. It's my fault she is dead. I should have never left her that night, but I had to get home to my dad. The really fucked up thing is that she had cracked a joke that evening about something happening to her and of course I basically told her that she would be fine."

"You don't have to talk about it. I will say, I am sorry about your friend. She obviously meant a lot to you. And again, it is not your fault...it is Harker's."

"If only I had believed her about her witch sense and all. She figured out who he was that night and that is why he killed her. All the years I knew her, she was a witch just like me, but I didn't know I was and I made fun of her for believing she was. What a shitty friend I was."

"Jo...please don't be so hard on yourself. You were so young still and had no idea who you were. I wish I would have been around more for your dad, maybe I could have done something, or figured out what was going on. If only I had known he was sick."

"Stephane, you obviously had your hands full with Catherine and the situation with Charles. It's no more your fault than mine. You're right. It was Harker's and even my mother's. Jareth too. You would have been there for my dad if you could have. He knew how much he meant to you. You were a good friend to him. Hopefully we can find him soon and fix whatever Jareth has done to him."

"You're too kind Jo. We will get him back. I promise you. I really should get going. I have a birthday party planned for you this evening. I figured you need a break and need to unwind."

"Ummm what??"

"Your birthday, remember? I know it's not actually until tomorrow but I'm too excited about it to wait. And...it's such a beautiful December day, strangely warm as usual which makes it perfect for a nice outside gathering. What color fireworks would you like this time. I had them do purple for you at the last party...that is your favorite color is it not?"

You were completely mind blown over his attentiveness to your likings. He had told you before that he paid attention to the little things.

"I...I...you...did that? for...me?"

"I did. So...purple again? I had a cake made too. It's 25 candles now right?"

Your hands went to your face, covering it as you began sobbing.

"Jo...sweetheart. What is wrong?" he kindly asked and pulled your hands down so he could cup your face in his.

"I...I haven't celebrated my birthday since my seventeenth one, which was the last one with my dad....and he died...well supposably died the next morning. He..he still, in his sickness, made sure a cake was delivered for me, candles and all....and also had a dinner sent to the house because he knew I couldn't cook for shit....and...and this would have been my first one with Thranduil...."

Narcisse offered the most compassionate smile. "I will cancel the party. I apologize for overstepping. I just thought something of some normalcy would make you feel better...."

"No...don't apologize for being nice. You went to all this trouble for me..so it's the least I could do to attend my own party. Purple...yes...and please don't put that many candles on the cake. One will suffice so I can easily blow it out."

"As you wish your majesty. Now...I do have one other reason I came here. You promised me a date sometime. Maybe tomorrow? An afternoon carriage venture along the countryside by my villa?"

"I...umm...well..."

"It's Garrett isn't it? Is someone making you spend time with him?" he sarcastically asked.

"No one makes me do anything and you know it. And honestly, it is none of your business."

"Tell me then, is it my business when just the other day, you were kissing me?"

"Ok well you kissed me."

"And you kissed me back. It scared you didn't it? What you felt, so you turned to Garrett instead. But you, you came clear to the city to try and stop me from that fight. You care for me whether you admit it or not. You and I, we are the same Jo. Both witches that share a rare electrifying sensation when we touch. We empower each other."

"Maybe so...but this is all a game to you. You even said so yourself once, that you like games. I cannot trust what you say is real. I feel this is all just about winning to you, especially over that of a vampire. as if I am some prize...and he does not make me feel that way. I know him...I don't know you."

"Then get to know me. Give me that chance to prove that my feelings for you are genuine. What I said is that I had never had a worthy opponent. I will not deny thinking of you as a prize because you are just that and I would be the luckiest man to ever be able to call you mine. A winner indeed of true happiness that I have never experienced. All that I have done and am doing is because I have come to deeply care for you. This is all new to me. I know in the past I have come across as a seeker of victory but I assure you, that is not the case with you. Since our eyes first met, I wanted more. Much more. I have felt your approach long before you ever arrived."

Narcisse certainly knew how to choose his words, but you knew he meant them. He wasn't wrong. You did feel something for him and yes, you were scared. And you didn't want to hurt Garrett because you felt something for him too. Your dream made sure you faced that. You were just flat out scared to move on because this isn't where you were supposed to be, having to choose between two men. You were supposed to be with Thranduil forever, for he was your only choice.

"I'll tell you what. I will not hold you to your promise, for I know you were just trying to keep me alive at the time. Wear a flower in your hair tonight and if you do, then I will know you have agreed to share a date with me tomorrow. There is fresh new array of them in my office that the servants brought in this morning. I would love to spend your birthday with you. I must be off. It is time to serve more retribution where it is due."

Narcisse got up, offered you a head bow and then left.

Who crossed Narcisse this time? you wondered as you sat where he left you and stared out the window.

Lola then came in and her presence helped aid you in your decision for tonight.

"Lola...how would you like to join me tonight with Leean for a party. It is a beautiful day out and you are always stuck inside."

"A party miss? I was not aware that there was one."

"I was not either, but Narcisse was just here and informed he that he was hosting a birthday gathering for myself."

"It is your birthday? How wonderful..but...why do you not look so eager to attend? Oh how foolish of me to ask such a thing. Of course I know why. My apologies."

"No Lola, it is quite alright. I truly need to face reality and stop wallowing over what will never be again. Besides, he went to all the trouble to do something so nice for me when I was certain after what he saw today...well that's not important. Will you come? I hear there will be cake....and fireworks, although I don't know if that will startle Leean. That will probably be around her bedtime anyways. So what do you say?"

"Of course my lad...Josie. I would love to attend."

"Perfect. I need to do something first. Will you stay with her?"

"You know you do not need to ask. Of course I will."

"Maybe you could pick us both out something to wear while I am gone?"

Lola smiled and nodded, then you left for Stephane's office, still pondering over whether you would wear a flower or not, but you decided to go look at them anyways, for anything floral made you think of Thranduil.

A beautiful rainbow of flowers in a large crystal vase sat on Narcisse's desk just where the sunlight shone in to feed them. Cleary there must have been a greenhouse on the grounds for they couldn't be from the gardens in the middle of winter, but then again, as Narcisse said, the weather was strangely warm...and you did see a purple one sprouting from the ground a few weeks ago after the ice storm.

Of course you chose a violet beings that it was purple. You put it in your hair and stood at a mirror to see how it would look, but all you could see was the memory of the vision you had at Lestat's of Thranduil in the mirror. You closed your eyes and turned away, trying not to cry again.

As you took the flower out of your hair, you stood there and just inhaled it's scent, reminding you of how you would sit in Thranduil's gardens for hours when he was out tending to his Kingly duties. How you missed his Kingdom. Would you ever be ready to go back? You knew you needed to. It was Leean's home...it was your home...and you missed Legolas something awful and surely he was missing Leean if not you. You needed, wanted to make things right with him, but could you? Knowing how he felt about you now and how hurt he was. And why couldn't you hear him anymore? Did you just imagine it all?

You began to leave when something caught your eye on the desk. It was the doll made of hay that Stephane mentioned they found in Claude's room. Out of some strange intuitive feeling, you picked it up and looked it over....and then, something happened that had never happened to you before. You saw a vision.

Arion, standing alone in a place of darkness with a mangled mane and he turned to look at you as if he saw you. His eyes were so sad and lonely.

And then the darkness began to fade and you could see the surroundings. A place you didn't recognize but appeared to be some sort of desolate dungeon standing at the edge of a forest.

You gasped and dropped the doll and ran off to find Narcisse. As you turned a corner, you almost ran into Charles who was coming out of his chambers.

"My lady? Where are you off to in such a rush and why are you out of breath and look frightened??" he sincerely asked.

"Charles...you know the grounds here well, do you not?"

"I..I do yes, why?"

"Is there somewhere around here that is desolate...another dungeon maybe? A big round stone structure by a forest??"

"Umm..y..yes I believe so? A bit south off the back side of the castle. It hasn't been used for years. Why would you ask of such a place?"

"Can you take me there??"

"N...now?"

"Yes, please Charles!"

"Josie, what is this all about??"

"Just take me there. If my vision is true, I am about to make your father the happiest man in the world."

After saddling up some horses, you and Charles galloped off down a discreet pathway behind the castle and headed off into the woods. Roughly twenty minutes later, you came to a clearing and at the other end of it was the stone building you had seen on the edge of a cliff, hidden behind the forest.

"Wait. Stop!" Charles loudly whispered. "There are guards?? Why are there guards at this run down place?"

"Because I believe your mother has something valuable to your father locked up inside of it. I'll take care of them."

"With what? Magic? My father has rules about magic used on his guards. Trust me, I just got an earful about it this morning."

"Fuck the rules." you quipped and rode off.

"I'm going to be in so much trouble...." Charles whispered to himself with wide eyes and took off after you.

"Halt! What business do you have here? This area is forbidden." One of the two guards said as he walked towards you with his sword drawn.

You dismounted and fearlessly walked up to him as Charles jumped down and followed.

"There is no need to draw your weapon on a lady!" Charles snapped. "I know who you are and you know who I am. Exactly what business is it that YOU have here at a deserted dungeon??"

"That is classified information young warlock. If your father wished you to know, you would not be questioning me. Now move along."

"I take no orders from you! I demand to know what is inside, for I feel my father has no knowledge of this at all!."

"I said it is forbidden." the guard snarled and took a few more steps towards the both of you as the other guard then joined him.

"What are you going to do if I pass? Kill me? My father will have your head if you harm me or Josie."

"I will not harm you...now the girl on the other hand means nothing to me...but...maybe for a small price, we can work something out? I have not had the pleasure of a woman in a very long time."

"Nor have I." the other guard said with a twisted grin.

"And I can see why you disgusting oafs. Narcisse will have your heads either way for I know what is inside. His beloved horse. Arion."

"What??" Charles strongly asked as he whipped his head to you.

"That's right. Arion is not dead. Your mother stashed him here to make your father suffer by making him believe she killed him and fed the horse to him. I'm sorry Charles but I told you Catherine was sick. Now, let us pass or..."

"Or what??" the guard laughed. "See, now we have a bigger problem. You should have minded your own business. We cannot let you go now...my lady." the guard said, bearing a sinister smile as he neared you.

Just then, something swarmed him. It was so fast that you couldn't even see it...but you smelled the gush of wind that burst over you....Garrett.

The man backed away in panic, nearing a steep cliff that held only massive sharp rocks below at the ocean's edge. He was stormed again, but this time you saw something you had never saw of Garrett before. He appeared from a swarm of bats and raged in the man's face, causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards, screaming to his death below.

It all was happening so fast, you and Charles were frozen solid as you watched the horror unfold before you.

Garrett charged the other one with his fangs in full view, something else you had never seen on him before, and then he bit into his neck and ripped his throat out.

The man fell to the ground and frantically scurried away from Garrett, ending up being backed against a tree.

Garrett leaned over the horrified man and bit into the other side of his neck, killing him instantly.

Your terrified gasp caught Garrett's attention and he froze, keeping his head down. He then slowly opened his blood soaked hands and looked at them.

Garrett's hands began to shake and his breathing became heavy.

"G..Garrett?" you squeaked as you took a step towards him.

"Stay back!!!!" he growled. "You...you can't see me like this..."

You ignored him and slowly crouched beside him, gently placing your own shaking hand on his shoulder. Your touch startled him and he quickly scooted away, keeping his back to you.

"I said stay away! This...this wasn't supposed to happen...they...they were going to hurt you...I could hear their disgusting thoughts."

"Garrett...it's ok. Please look at me."

"No! I...I never meant for you to see me like this. I can only imagine what you must be thinking. I heard your fear...I can smell it as well."

"Garrett...I...I'm not afraid of you, I was just taken by surprise. They were bad men Garrett...this...this is what you do to those kind of people."

"But you weren't supposed to see it! Not ever! I lost control...I...I'm so...sorry....I...I'm so ashamed..."

His voice was breaking as if he were going to cry as his entire body was now trembling.

"Garrett talk to me...Did...did something happen to cause this?"

"I...I'm a monster Josephine! Just like I always told you I was. That's what caused this. You...you need to stay away from me. I...I don't belong in your world just like everyone has told you."

"Garrett, stop talking like that. You are not a monster! They were the monsters. If you hadn't have come, even I myself would have hurt them. I was going to set them on fire. Does that make me a monster too then? Garrett, please...look at me...let me help you."

"Have a great birthday party and date with Narcisse." he softly said and then his scent rushed through your hair as he vanished.

"Garett wait!!!!!!! You don't understand!!!"

You turned to see Charles still frozen solid with wide eyes and shaking.

"Charles, it's ok. I know him. He wouldn't have hurt you. He was only protecting me."

"Even so, he's...a vampire...on our lands...he just killed two of our guards. I...I have to tell my fath..."

You ran up and grabbed him. "No! You cannot tell Narcisse about this, ever! Do you hear me?? He will have Garrett hunted and they will kill him and I will not let that happen! Those guards were evil and you know it. If Garrett hadn't killed them, I would have...and so would your father if he were here!! But the fact that it was a vampire won't matter to Narcisse, especially that it's Garrett. Please Charles, I'm begging you. I...I care about him...very very much."

"I...I don't know Josie. I think you should just tell him so he does not find out another way. He would understand that the monst...sorry, the vampire was only protecting you...and judging by the way my father looks at you, I would think that your safety would be all that mattered to him. Do you not trust him?"

"I...I want to...but...I just can't risk Garrett's safety...not after all he has ever done for me."

"If..if I stay silent, how will their deaths be explained?? It's quite obvious from the one's wounds what killed him. My father will eventually know they are missing and have them searched for."

"Then they shall not be found."

"W..what?"

You turned to the dead guard and flung your hand out. It ignited into flames and you showered it over him, setting him ablaze.

"There. No more evidence. He will burn to ash. As far as the other guy, he wasn't wounded. It will just look like he accidentally fell if he is found. As far as Narcisse, he only needs to know we found Arion here, nothing more."

"Jesus. Remind me to never piss you off. Alright. I won't say anything...but if I am asked...I will not lie to my father."

"Ok...I can deal with that. Thank you Charles. Now, let's go get Arion."

Sure enough, the snow white horse was inside alive and well, but seemingly depressed and in untidy conditions. His eyes lit up when he saw you, for he remembered his first meeting with you....and of course he knew Charles.

"It's alright now big fella. I am going to take you home where you belong and that wicked witch will never harm you again." you assured him as you lovingly stroked his nose.

He tilted his head and nudged it into your chest, making snorting sounds which had you and Charles laughing. Strangely, it was the first time you had ever heard the boy laugh and you felt slightly guilty for berating his mother in front of him. You understood exactly what it was like to have a love hate relationship with a parent.

You brought the Lipizzan horse outside and let him drink from the canteen you brought, then let him snack on an apple while you tried to untangle his neglected mane. Once he finished his fruit, you both took him back to the stables where the other horses were overly happy to see him as they loudly greeted him with many different pitched neighs and hoof stomps. You spoke with the stableman, asking him to see to it that Arion was pampered, cleaned up and well fed. You also told him to have him ready for a surprise tomorrow and to keep his return a secret until then, for Arion needed a good nights rest in the comfort of his home. After giving the gentle giant a kiss upon his nose, you then left to get ready for the party you were definitely not in the mood for after the recent events, for all you could now think about was Garrett, who was ignoring all of your calls to him. He obviously had heard your conversation with Narcisse and that is what had triggered his anger.

As you and Charles arrived back at the castle, there was a large gathering of of guards and horses in the court yard, along with some man lying on the ground.

"Oh look, Narcisse is serving punishment to one of the guards who caused you trouble the other night in the dining hall. The other guard knew of what would come, so he fled, but he will be found soon enough and pay for his involvement. Come, let's go watch!" Charles eagerly said and trotted off.

How quickly the boy went from referring to Stephane as his father while defending him, then right back to addressing him as Narcisse when it came down to business.

When you walked in, the man on the ground was being tethered by his arms and legs. He saw you and your eyes locked.

"Please....I was never going to hurt you, I swear it! I...I had too much to drink. I shouldn't have said such vulgar things...I...I'm sorry my lady!" he cried.

You gasped in horror, looking all around for Haldir but he was not there. You then rushed up to Narcisse, who turned to you and explained what was happening.

"Do you know why they bind him at up the arms and legs? For a good clean break...or they can do it the other way, at the hands and feet...which do you think would be more painful?"

"Stephane, you cannot be serious? Please, stop this now!"

"Why on earth would you want me to stop? You know how things are done here when it comes to harassment of women, especially you. I had my men stoned to near death as equal punishment over harming a bird, so certainly you must know that this offense would deserve a far worse punishment, for men like Asher should not breath at all."

"The...the crow..." you muttered, wondering where your feathered friend had been since then."

"Yes? I was told by witnesses that it was a black bird when I caught them just after the heinous act of hurling rocks at it. How did you know that?"

"Because that crow is my friend who has saved me many times from danger. He came to me that night, barely able to fly and covered in blood. I had meant it speak with you about it but so many things were happening. He told me, well, he showed Garrett what happened to him, but Garrett said he saw that you had returned from the city and were handling the situation. I'll have you know, the bird would have died if it had not been for Garrett. He healed him when I could not."

You defense of Garrett was another attempt to make Narcisse see he wasn't a monster in case what happened earlier with the guards was ever revealed, but of course, Stephane's response only proved your efforts pointless.

"Ah yes, the infamous heroic vampire saves the day once more. Well...for the crow's sake and yours, I am happy he was saved. Why was the bird here anyways?"

"He's a messenger and my guardian of sorts. Usually he has something to tell me or bring to me. He is how I had gotten my moonstone back. I guess he knew I needed it or something."

It then be became clear to Narcisse that, that is where Thranduil's letter came from that his guard found nearby one the ground that night. The crow somehow knew the Elvenking was alive and brought it here to tell you.

"Can we get back to what's happening here Stephane? I understand you have rules and beliefs and whatever but...I was the victim and I am telling you, it was only drunken words. He does not deserve to die over it. He is sorry, you heard him,...and I believe him. Please, punish him some other way."

"He is only sorry because he is about to be drawn and quartered. Carry on." he then said to the horsemen as if your words meant nothing.

They began moving the horses, pulling his arms and legs nice and taut as the man screamed in sheer terror.

"Stephane Narcisse!! This is not you!!! I thought you believed the spell had been broken?? This is a disgusting vile act!" you shouted in one last plea to save the man.

"Tell me something Jo...your King has done similar and even far worse things to those worthy of their punishments and you did not have a problem with that, so why is it that you have a problem with how I operate things here?"

"I never said I liked it and many times, I told Thranduil how I felt about it, not that it's any of your business, and many times I was able to get through to him because he had a good heart inside of him that only I or Legolas would ever see....and I have seen that heart inside of you. This man does not deserve to die and if you go through with this, you can shut that party down and kiss your date goodbye, and me for that matter, for I will not stay where death takes precedence over what is right. You told me you were not a soulless animal now prove it!" you reeled with your own nose flaring like that of your Elvenking's.

Stephane's bright blue eyes softened and he turned to Bash and nodded at him to stop.

"Release him and take him back to the dungeon. This is your lucky day Rossif." he said to the warlock who mouthed the words 'thank you' to you with tears in his eyes.

"Will I...see you tonight then? Hopefullllly with a flower in your hair..."

You wanted to say no and you wanted to still be mad at him...but you couldn't and it drove you crazy that this warlock lord was growing on you.

You simply nodded with a light smile and left.

On your way to the front entrance, you sensed someone familiar. A vampiress and only vampiress that smelled of baby powder. Selene.

As your eyes scoured for her, you then caught sight of the dark haired vixen standing on the edge of an empty loading dock where she could easily dart off over the Rhun if detected.. Discreetly, you snuck off and made your way there.

"Selene?? Oh my god...." you raved as you stepped onto the dock and then ran to her.

She braced herself for the impact of your bear hug, laughing as you pounced upon her.

"It is soooo good to see you again! I have missed you immensely. Is everything alright? What has brought you to the danger zone?" you asked with a chuckle.

"Well I have certainly missed you as well, my only human friend and I wish this was just a social call but..."

"But? What's going on?" you asked in wariness due to the irresolute look in her ice blue eyes.

She reached into the pocket of her black leather pants and pulled out a small piece of folded paper, then reluctantly handed it to you. Dithering to open it, you slowly unfolded it and softly read it aloud.

"This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am leaving Devil's Island. You will not see me again. You know you and I could never be and I cannot bear to look you in the eyes again after you saw the real me. I would rather be truly dead than to feel this kind of pain. Hopefully I can make that happen. The dumbest thing I ever did was fall in love with you but it's the happiest I have ever felt. I will carry the memories of you with me until my last breath. I am so sorry I have ever hurt you. I love you. Forever. Goodbye my little one....- Roman"

"This...this is a joke right?? He's just going to leave me??"

You crunched up the letter in a fury and walked to the end of the dock, shouting out into the sky.

"You promised!!!!"

"I..I'm sorry Josie. I begged him to change his mind but he wasn't having it and he wouldn't tell me what happened."

"I'll tell you what happened. Garrett's a fucking LIAR!!" you screamed back at the sky again. "He can't leave anyways, he has my..."

You stopped yourself, because no one but you and Garrett knew about your moonstone's whereabouts.

"You mean the gem? He told me where it is in case you needed it. Don't worry...I will never tell a soul."

'Wow, well I guess he thought of everything didn't he. I guess this means he really is leaving...I...I..."

You could feel your chest tighten as a panic attack threatened to consume you.

"Josie??"

"He...he leaves me now, when I need him more than ever....he's gone." Tears filled your eyes, blurring your vision. "Well I guess he made my choice quite easy for me....although it would have been quite simple."

"Choice?"

"I would have chose him....."

@redeemer46

[draconic-hazard]

Im bored and currently afflicted with terminal brain rot so here is my post about Which TMA Entity I Think WordGirl Characters Would Belong To. This post caters to me and me only bc idk how many wordgirlies like TMA

I might make another post later with more characters if i feel like it

Becky Botsford, AKA Wordgirl - The Eye

Lets put aside her superpowers for a second and focus on her main shtick: Words. It seems like she knows every word in the english language. Eye avatar behaviour 👁️👁️.

Dr Two-Brains - The Corruption

Alright some may disagree with me but hear me out. First of all he’s a mouse, which are generally associated with filth and disease and other nasty corruption things. Secondly, he has a second brain attached to his head. One could argue he and Squeaky have a parasitic type of relationship, classic calling card for the Corruption. Thirdly (and admittedly the weakest point on this list) he eats cheese and only cheese, which is basically just edible mold

The Butcher - The Flesh

Do… do i need to explain? Meat is his whole thing. I wish i could write more but like. This is pretty much self explanatory

Granny May - The Web

The web is all about manipulation, and Granny May has this down pat. Every single episode with her in it she is making people trust her because ‘oh look shes just a sweet old lady she cant possibly be robbing the banks 🥺🥺🥺’. Also her main attack is her yarn balls which some could argue is similar to the spiderweb thing that most Web avatars have going on

Mr Big - The Web

Ok so i have less of an argument for him than i did Granny May, but! There is still a case here. Mind Control is his thing, his brand, heck its even in his company’s mission statement. That sounds like Web behaviour to me. Also he’s a capitalist and name one thing more manipulative than capitalism

Tobey McCallister III - The Extintion

WAIT WAIT WAIT HEAR ME OUT! Tobey is all about robots, and destroying things with said robots. Now that may sound kinda slaughter-y, but a lot of the times the episodes conflict is also about Tobey thinking robots can do a better job and everything than humans, be it painting, sports, or even being his mom. One part of the Extinction that is slightly overlooked imo is the idea that after the apocalypse, a new, and inhuman species will inherit the nuclear wasteland of an earth we’d leave behind. And who else to rule that wasteland than an army of giant robots? Plus he’s the youngest of the (main) villains, which could be a little nod to the fact that the extinction is the newest of the fears

Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy - The Buried

This one was kind of a struggle, because sandwiches aren’t very scary so how would one draw a connection to fear entities there? But i believe i have a case here. So! His main attack is his condiment gun, which sprays mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise, which seems to solidify around the target, thus trapping them as they are unable to move. Plus, a machine that we see him use several times in the series is his giant sandwich press, which works by crushing down a target. Awful lot of claustrophobia, wouldn’t you say? Also idk why but he has the same vibes as i feel most buried avatars have (no offence intended)

[ratwavegamehouse]

I make a lot of playlists. I've made two for Terminal, an upcoming digital pirate action game coming to Kickstarter on July 20th (written by me, illustrated by Gormengeist, edited by Alyssa Ridley).

There's lot of different reasons I'll make a playlist. Capturing a mood, something to create a certain mood, processing feelings. I make playlists for most books I do and they're usually doing one of those others for me as well.

This post I'll share both playlists and run through one which will also work as a sneak peak at the game.

The first playlist (the Digital Pirate Action mix) is a long sprawling one that I keep adding to. It's stuff that feels like Terminal vibes, whatever that means. It's lot of alternative hip hop, dark ambient, harsh noise, some pop songs and then songs from various influences sprinkled in. There's a character in Terminal called The Hedonist, an obsolete program and pirate contact who runs a nightclub for others who've escaped deletion. I imagine the Digital Pirate Action mix as what's playing in her club.

The second playlist (Enter the Terminal) I made more recently, after a conversation on a yet-to-be-released episode of This is Your Lifepath where we talked about music. In this case it's a linear playlist where each sings maos to aspect of the book. It's less concerned with being a cohesive listening experience and more about whatever songs reminded me of different things.

Gonna do a run through of this second playlist and explain some of my thoughts, also because it's a useful way to preview the game.

Song 1 - Break the Glass by Clipping.

This is essentially a mood setter. I think of it like an opening credits song. The repeated refrane of "wake up", lines about "life binary in Morse code". I was thinking of unreality.

Song 2 - Gospel for a New Century by Yves Turner

This song I'm also thinking about breaking from the simulation.

Song 3 - A Drop of Nelson's Blood by Jarvis Cocker

I needed a sea shanty (in this case a cover of a sea shanty) to set the mood in the Wake, the real world. Long ago, before anyone can remember, the robots and humanity shattered the moon and the world flooded, reshaping landmasses. Now the pirates of Libertatia, those who've awoken from the simulation, battle the Robot Authority on the waves.

Song 4 - Road to Hell II from Hadestown

In the world of Terminal there is story of the omen, someone who emerges in each iteration of the Terminal with extraordinary power. They use this to battle the system and hope to overthrow it. They have always failed. This song choice reflects, the idea of trying again, in the hope things might turn out different this time.

Song 5 - Saint by Deaf Havana

For this song I was thinking a lot about the pressure the pirates are under. Specifically I ended up thinking about Captain Breach, the chair of the Captain's Council, who has this position at what is going to be a pivotal moment in Libertatia's history.

Song 6 - Miracle by CHVRCHES

I wanted a song to represent the character of The Seer, a program with the power of precognition, who often aids the pirates but is ultimately still a routine part of the Terminal's function and so is difficult to trust.

It was hard to find a song that really fit, and honestly this doesn't feel like it fits perfectly but I think I'm almost imagining from the perspective of a pirate wanting to feel trust.

Song 7 - I'm Beginning to Think You Prefer Beverly Hills to Me by Fight Like Apes

This was about the aforementioned Hedonist. An upbeat song about firing fit their attitude to being declared obsolete. She intends to dance to the night away until the curtain falls, rather than fighting back.

The Hedonist's starting point of inspiration was the character of the Merovingian from the Matrix sequels. Her role in the world ended up drawing from Carrie Ann Moss's character in Mass Effect 2. They also, in my interpretation of them, ended up having some Jareth the Goblin King vibes. She's one of the NPCs I end up thinking about a lot.

Song 8 - Not in This World by Kids in Glass Houses

A campaign of Terminal begins with the startup operation Run, Atalanta, Run, a scenario designed to introduce players to how the game plays and the world as a whole as well as sparking the overall campaign. It involves your crew trying to help free a restless sleeper known as Atalanta. It's the thing in the book thats going for the plot of the first Matrix film the most.

I was thinking of the character Atalanta with this song choice. The lyrics "Don't wanna see, I want an ocean, and all of the madness, so give me your worst" feels very them.

Song 9 - Heel Turn 2 by The Mountain Goats

The major scenario arcs in Terminal are called Crashes, and each could escalate to the point of being the games finale. I picked a song for each crash.

Heel Turn 2 is for Curations of The Archivist. The crew faces of again an obsolete program who's former role involved cataloging everything important in an iteration. Now they turn to capturing and freezing everything they find value in, eventually threatening to cause enough instalibity to kill everyone in the system.

Heel Turn 2 felt appreciate for this bitter character lashing out.

Song 10 - Zero Zero by Gerard Way

The Crash Multiplied by 0 involves faxing off against the titular 0, a former special agent turned living virus who threatens to assimilate the entire Terminal (their analog should be fairly obvious to anyone who's seen the Matrix films).

This was an on the nose song choice but the refrain of "Call me zero you are zero" is pretty perfect for the way they assimilate others.

Song 11 - Frankenstein by Rina Sawayama

Corruptions of The Passenger involves facing a new plot by the Robot Authority, involving a program who can hack into pirates mind and leave bots that take over. The first known hacked pirates is Orpheus, appropriately named for their failure to avoid looming back.

I love the album Hold the Girl so much. I think this placement here is almost imagining this as from Orpheus to The Passenger.

Song 12 - The World We Knew from Sayonara Wild Hearts

The Dying Dream is where a lot of the games Paprika influence is. The crew venture into a firewalled off domain where nightmares have begun to bleed from the mind of a dying sleeper. Much of the dreams fixate on the fears and regrets of the sleeper which led to me picking this song from Sayanora Wild Hearts.

Song 13 - Born to Lose by Jenny Owen Youngs

The Twin Peaks influence I may have mentioned before is sprinkled throughout the game, sometimes in direct riffs like the character of The Arm in the Dying Dream, but also in general vibes and logic of certain places like The Seer's domain. The Crash Tortures of The Killer draws some influence from Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, and involves The Killer, a disgusting program deployed by The Puppeteer, threatening lingering threads to the crews sleeping past.

The lyrics "Somewhere in the night, a man is standing by/With a deal you won't be able to refuse/No, you can't call him, but expect your phone to ring/And brother, you prepare yourself to/Offer up what you were born to lose" reflects the way The Puppeteer wants to blackmail the crew into doing their bidding.

Song 14 - Life on Land by Dessa

The Crash Sailor's Warning is the only Crash taking place mostly in the Wake, the real world. It involves tensions at the heart of Libertatia, and challenges the crews relationships with their pirate comrades.

Using a song called Life on Land for this Crash is partly being cutesy but also a lot of the song does feel like it drives at the mindset of the central NPC Captain Wail.

(Not related to Sailor's Warning but the lines "I'm just a girl, in the body of a boy, in the belly of a whale" also really brought to mind transness in Terminal specifically.)

Song 15 - Volunteer DJ by Fishboy

[ERROR//PERMISSION DENIED//OPERATION ENCRYPTED//ALTER EGO CONTROLS REQUIRED]

Ok so I won't say what this song relates to textually, but thematically I was thinking about the last and what gets left behind.

Song 16 - Black Wave by K.flay

So as mentioned before any of the Crashes can become the games finale, the Total System Crash, where as well as defeating the central threat you'll determine the fate of Libertatia and this iteration of the Terminal. This song fits for facing something as immense as the fate of two worlds and also musically fits for like a final montage as you prepare for the last showdown.

Song 17 - There is a Place for You Here by Left at London

Figured the last song on this playlist is almost like an end credits song for the book. The lyrics remind me of some of the more emotional and subtextual themes of the game.

Like I said, less musically cohesive then the other playlist, like very much made up of songs I listened to a lot that I linked to different things. Probably also influenced by my mood when I made it, which was kinda depressed over some personal life things. It's got a more melancholy tone then the playlist I made have made a week before or a week after.

Anyway so that's two playlists about Terminal, which as a reminder is coming to Kickstarter on July 20th. Please follow the pre-launch at terminal.ratwave.uk and back when we go live!

[kaecodes]

As Promised, A Poll

As I mentioned before, I intend to put out a series of Free to Use skins with consistent features & standards that are easy to install, edit, & use. These will be designed off of the inspiration of specific games, series of games, & genres of games.

I will, however, only be using games I can clearly see a visual language in the UI of. I went through a few hundred games yesterday perusing UIs & considering atmosphere to determine the shapes, themes, & vibes they might offer that would work in a skin.

I now have a working, if incomplete, list to pull from. So now, I'm going to post a weekly poll with games to choose from & brief descriptions of their general design philosophy. That said, I am already working on two skins that are inspired by games; Alan Wake 2 & Control both from Remedy games.

A sampler of the Alan Wake skin, which will be called Vigil. My notes for the skin were: Green, Moody, Noire/Surreal Detective, Lovecraftian/Unknown Menace.

As you can see, the header starts with a greeting for logged out members, or an announcement brief in the case of the logged in member. Clicking the username or briefing button in the box will bring up a full page modal containing userlinks, quicklinks, & a large custom account switcher if logged in, or featured wanteds if not. It's nothing fancy, but I thought a visual would help folks know how I design based on what will seem like vague/brief descriptors in the polls.

Speaking of which, it's time to get to the first of them. Of course, the Remedy inspired skins will be my first works, but I'd like to collate a list for what comes after, so when I hit a block or am just doodling while busy, I can get a head start on designing others...

Feel free to pick the one you like most, don't worry, none are being eliminated unless they have no interest at all, this is just about forming an ordered list based on demand. I want to make skins that are needed the most the fastest. That's all for now, thank you all so much & I would be obliged if the reach was extended through sharing <3

[bittersqxtch]

Songs and Ships

thank you @athenswrites for the tag! i shall add @imslowlydisintegrating and @taeonysus8 (i really need more writer moots sob sob)

the rules of this tag game: write 2-5 songs that represent a ship between your characters (can be romantic or platonic or a secret third thing). then add a quote from your WIP beneath each song (if possible!).

i've decided that i'm gonna focus on Jae and Jun from TGCT for this since i'm currently working on that fic and this might help me get the vibes right for once (literally on my third rewrite already, someone send help ;^;)

HER - Chase Atlantic

"ꜱʜᴇ ꜱᴀʏꜱ 'ᴏᴏʜ, ᴡᴇ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴅᴏ ᴡʜᴀᴛᴇᴠᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ʙᴏʏ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ɢᴏ ꜰᴀʟʟɪɴɢ ɪɴ ʟᴏᴠᴇ…ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ꜱᴛᴀʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ, ᴀʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ'ʟʟ ᴇᴠᴇʀ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ɪꜱ ᴏɴᴇ ᴅᴀʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ'."

this song reminds me of them because, in a moment of vulnerability, Jae makes Jun promise that he will keep hating her until the end of time. her greatest secret is that she is terminally ill (suffering from a heart illness) and that's why she lives every day like it's her last - considering how she refuses bad medication most days, she could drop dead at any moment. anyway, she has no problem hanging out with Jun and getting into messy situations with him because she believes that he will keep hating her indefinitely. unlike her friends, he won't mourn her when she dies - or at least that's what she believes. even when things get a little heated and feelings start brewing, Jae pushes the longing aside and intends to cut him off when the time comes. having a relationship with him would only subject Jun to a great deal of heartache and Jae would much rather he stay as her enemy than have him become something more only to end up wasting his life on mourning her once she passes away.

"Please hate me," Jae whispered, pulling him out of his thoughts.  When he turned to look at her, he was caught off by the silent plea shining in her eyes. "Why?" Jun frowned, confused by her request. "Why do you want me to hate you?" "Because you hated me before," Jae responded quietly. "It should be easy for you to keep hating me even if we start hanging out and acting civil with one another like this." A sad smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she added, "Besides, you never liked me in the first place, did you? So don't change that now. Don't stop hating me."

"ɪꜰ ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴜᴄʜ ᴀ ɴɪᴄᴇ ɢᴜʏ ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴅ ᴀ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ ᴛɪᴍᴇ, ᴡʜʏ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴇ ᴋɪᴄ�� ɪᴛ ᴜᴘ ᴀ ɴᴏᴛᴄʜ? ʜᴏᴡ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏᴠᴇʀ, ᴍᴏᴠᴇ ɪɴ ᴛᴏ ᴍᴇ ᴄʟᴏꜱᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍʏ ʜᴀɴᴅꜱ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɪᴛ ᴀ ꜱʜᴏᴛ"

Just Friends - JORDY

Jun is the first to breach the thin line between love and hate. being reluctant acquaintances with Jae seems impossible until he finds himself thinking constantly about her, wondering if she got home safely from school, becoming irritated when she's too close to other guys, and so on. he denies it time and time again, half because he cannot imagine that he could've caught feelings for his enemy and half because he subconsciously knows that nothing good will come out of him developing feelings for her. still, a part of him can't help but yearn to cross over that line. unfortunately, Jae is intent on staying enemies. no one said anything about that coming with a few benefits though...

Uh oh, he thought, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. This won't end well. "Hey," he uttered quietly, knowing that he should probably step away from her but not being able to move from the spot. Jae quirked her eyebrow at him. Equally quietly, she replied, "Hi...?" "About my wish..." "What about it?" Jun's eyes flickered down to her lips briefly. Influenced by a sudden burst of bravery, he blurted out, "I know what I want." "Oh yeah?" Jae tilted her head to the side curiously, a small smile playing on her lips. She found his awkwardness adorable, but she wasn't about to tell him that. Instead, voice quiet, she prompted, "What is it?" "...Kiss me."

"ᴛʀᴀᴘᴘᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ, ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ꜰʀᴇᴇ, ɪᴛ'ꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟɪᴛʏ ɪꜱ ᴍᴏᴄᴋɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ. ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴄʀᴇᴀᴍɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱʜᴏᴜᴛɪɴɢ ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ'ꜱ ɴᴏ ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅ. ɪ'ᴍ ʟᴏꜱᴛ, ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴛᴜᴄᴋ, ɪ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇ ꜰᴏᴜɴᴅ"

Trapped In A Dream - RudyWade

when they figure out that they are living in the world of a manhwa and that all that they have been through was scripted by The Writer for the plot, Jae and Jun begin to question everything - their past, their hardships, their relationship, and where The Writer intends to take the story next. amidst the chaos, they start to remember bits and pieces of their previous lives and both start wondering whether their feelings for one another are real or if, perhaps, they are nothing more than a set-up forced upon them by their god.

(i have yet to write this section so no WIP writing for this i'm afraid)

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you know of any creepypasta and/or internet urban legend themed ttrpgs? Not (just) horror, but specifically creepypasta with all the kind of silly stuff that includes like… themes and vibes of common ones that might even make the game silly depending on how you play it? Whether u play as Jeff the killer or have to fight him I’d love to see it lol

THEME: Internet Legends

What I looked for when I tracked down these recs were either a) things that referenced creepy pastas in their description, or b) games that directly connected to internet culture. Have fun with these ones!

Watching Us, by Justinquirit.

Tonight, we are alone together with the Watcher. None of us knows who or what he is, but he has been haunting each of us with his silent gaze. Although he has never approached us, we have imagined what he might do if he did.

Perhaps, if we stick together, we may escape this nightmare.

Watching Us is a game for 2-6 players and takes about an hour to play. Draw cards and answer their prompts, then invoke the Watcher's image. Together, slowly uncover the face of the entity that has been haunting all of you.

This looks like an excellent way to slowly build up the terror of something that’s been following you for a long time. It’s built on For The Queen, which is a game that relies on a story that’s built slowly over time by answering questions. This game was also made for the Fucked-Up Guy Game Jam, which has a number of other ttrpg items that may fit into the creepy-pasta mold about eerie human-like entities that won’t leave you alone.

Chase the H0ll0w, by Brandon Leon-Gambetta.

A game of fear and isolation for 3 to 5 players who would go into a bunker in the woods to follow something horrifying.

Chase the H0ll0w is a secret identity roleplaying game that tells a story similar to creepypasta fiction over the span of about two hours. It is intended for 3 to 5 players with one of those players taking on the role of game facilitator.

Players portray a group of internet sleuths exploring an abandoned or hidden place that is haunted by something terrifying and strange. They will be attempting to learn enough about it to solve how to get it to stop chasing them and (hopefully) to get their friend back who was already taken. 

This is a game in which each player is going to take on a secret role that will also likely determine their objectives throughout the course of play. If you want a game that will challenge you to out-last your friends, this might be worth checking out.

Contact from Unknown, by Speak the Sky.

..the graveyard shift 24-hour store clerk has too many teeth (pale like the moon, which is losing its shine)

...the airport never gets any night flights but there's always arrivals (in the moon-shaped terminal)

...the public-access astronomy TV show that starts at 3:33am and plays backwards (with a weird fixation with 'lunar songs')

Why doesn't anyone see this? Nobody seems to care. So, you turned to the best store of esoteric knowledge you could find - pseudonymous night owl weirdos in online chatrooms for paranormal investigators. Luckily, you matched with someone else in town, but it sounds like you might have different ideas about what's causing these things to happen. Still, someone is better than no-one. Now you just need to swap your knowledge, share your insight, and see if you can find the truth that's out there.

Before it finds you.

Contact from Unknown is a 2-player role-playing investigation game of dark lunar mysteries, esoteric chatroom weirdos, and gut-feeling horror that's designed for play via online messaging apps!

Each of you plays a paranormal investigator who's realised there's something terribly wrong with the moon, and the only other person in town who also knows is a fellow night owl in an internet chatroom... unless they're actually in on the mystery too. It's up to you to find out the truth and live to tell the tale. How do all the local urban legends and assorted weirdness in town figure into the mystery? Is the force behind everything merely alien or truly malevolent? Play to find out!

This is a great two-player game for making up and tracking down urban legends, especially if you don’t necessarily want a horror element. The two of you will put together clues together while on an internet chat-room, as you figure out whether the street sign parasites are connected to the new kid who everyone already knows, or whether both are just signs of something bigger… and weirder. This is also perfect for play between two people who can’t share the same physical space.

[fountainpenguin]

I came across your story "Flypaper" about the superhero convention (Fun read! Highly recommend!) and I was just wondering if you had any other interaction headcanons that didn't make the final draft?

Oh thank you... and oh, yes. I didn't include him because I knew no one would know who he is, but I love one special, incredibly charming boy... King Off-Putting himself... Bruno :)

He is so very... uncomfortable to be around.

I had one line referencing Bruno and Danny in "Flypaper" but hhh... Dead Boy Duo, my beloved... I want them to be friends so bad, I want them to be sassy partners in the field, I want this with all my soul. They're brothers in spirit... Their moms have the same voice actor... Please, they would be so funny together.

I know there are oodles of fictional spy agencies in media, but I've always been a Bruno the Kid fan at heart. Ever since I first watched Danny Phantom, I've loved the idea of Globe getting in touch with Danny post-"Phantom Planet" and inviting him into the agency... Sometimes Bruno's villains canonically die instead of going to jail and I think Bruno and Danny would be a silly pair. Two "dead" (they got better!) cartoon boys goofing off and takin' names.

Specifically, Chick E. Love would have a flippin' field day burning holes in the Ghost Zone, unleashing wave after wave of ghosts into the world, and I just really want Bruno to do his "If I ever use a spy gadget the way it's intended I will die" schtick while Danny keeps dumping all the Fenton ghost-hunting gear on him...

I want the sassy boys to drive everyone up the wall. Bruno tolerated being bullied for about 5 seconds and then ruined that kid's life slkdjf. Cheerfully told Cy what he wanted to put on his tombstone. He does not mess around. I want Bruno to straight-up kill a man again and Danny to lose his mind.

Bruno is the boy who ran gleefully towards an electric fence with intent to climb it. He literally targeted HIMSELF with a missile in an attempt to win a chess game. I want the crossover joy of Danny throwing himself at everything that might kill Bruno and Bruno just Does Not Sweat It... Stupid.

[More under the cut]

Anyway yeah I have very normal feelings about "Dead Boy Walking" as an episode. Bruno's enemies pinning him down and injecting a terminal disease in his system... Bruno stumbling around until he hallucinates his best friend giving him self-care advice... Bruno quietly sitting down and staring into the void, separating himself from the ongoing conversation, instead of engaging in his usual banter... Boy crosses Australia on borrowed time, his legs give out beneath him at the worst moment, he's still wheezing about how he's going to do everything in his power to save others, just a little kid lying on the cold floor alone while Sydney gloats that he only has minutes left to live... His enemies making out over his unmoving body... I am so normal about this episode.

I just want Bruno and Danny to be friends :) I think they would vibe with each other even though they'd both want to bonk the other on the head. I so very badly want to see the first moment Danny realizes "Oh... Oh, this guy's, like... serious. He will kill people if I take my eyes off him." sldkfj Bruno's so intense and I love him. Danny is so tired and I love him. I want to see the first moment Bruno blearily wakes up to realize Danny just saved him from a ghost's revenge attack in the middle of the night. I love the Dead Boy Duo.

I only threw one line about these two hanging out in "Flypaper," but in my heart they spent the whole convention together because they're co-workers... they are buddies, your honor.

I do not think WordGirl would like Bruno at all because he comes off as a smarmy, know-it-all creep to those who aren't familiar with his sense of humor... Kid Math should not be left alone with him because he's very impressionable and Bruno is a terrible influence slkjdf.

Here's a little deleted scene I had:

I also had a loose draft for a scene of WordGirl and Super Why getting milkshakes with some other hero friends when Kid Math finds them again. WordGirl greets him like "Oh, how's your day going?" and Kid Math is just... very overwhelmed from his experience of interacting with two fast-paced sassy kids while he's still struggling to grasp the concept of superhero banter. Like. Bruno and Danny would destroy him. Blow his mind. There's no coming back from that.

So yeah, Bruno was definitely at the convention... I just didn't show him apart from that one-liner about him hanging out with Danny. "Flypaper" was really fun to write. I don't plan to do a crossover like this again any time soon, but the convention was a cool setting to explore and I'm glad you enjoyed! <3

One of my favorite stupid jokes in "Flypaper" is that Romeo was being a troublemaker in the daytime and WordGirl asked if he was "even allowed to do that" since he's supposed to be a "nighttime villain" in the PJ Masks lore... But tbh I watched a lot of Romeo clip compilations before this story and ?? apparently it's just a thing that Romeo regularly commits crime during the day and the PJ Masks literally hang back and wait until nightfall before they fight him?? That's SO funny to me.

(I also don't understand when the PJ Masks sleep and if anyone has the answer, please drop it in my inbox because I'd love to know but I also don't want to binge the series over this, ha ha)

I also wanted to make a joke about Alphapig being 5 years younger than the rest of the Super Readers because the amount I lost my mind when I saw that on the [unsourced] Super Why wiki was indescribable. POV: One of your friends is a princess, at least one is in college, and you're starting high school.

(I'm dying at the idea of three 10-year-olds running around Storybrook Village and there's a 5-year-old tagging along with them. The mental image of 7-year-old Whyatt taking a 3 or 4-year-old pig under his wing as his new friend... Such a good boy.)

After Tobey launched Romeo off his robot, I had WordGirl catch him, but I'd originally hoped to have Kick Buttowski catch him because I thought writing cool skateboard rescue mission would be fun. It seemed like it would just be shoving in an extra character who didn't need to be there, though, and it risked dragging down the scene with introductions and descriptions, but in my heart, Kick was at the convention too. Extreme.

I think another of my fave dumb jokes was just... WordGirl approaching the superhero panel she's supposed to speak on, she looks out into the crowd, but then she's like "Oh no the entire Paw Patrol are watching me, this is so much pressure."

Nothing to see here, just Baby Dog Squad taking notes... I still think about that randomly throughout the day and giggle. I love this 'fic.

[grandhotelabyss]

Thoughts on the Lynch Dune adaption? Maybe I will be called contrarian or some crypto fascist, but I kinda vibed with the whole thing of actually subverting the subversion and making Dale Cooper be some ubermensch power fantasy that brings back the wrath of God, like some space King David - maybe because I'm tired of the now prelevant pop nihilism, especially the historic one as the chinese comunist party calls it "wow actually even in the future all religion will be used is for self destructive aims" - then its funnier to see nah it actually does pay off by them accidentally creating something sincere and not plagued by self-terminating doubt

I haven't seen it in years. I watched it before I read the book and remember being pretty lost because of how much plot and concept they were trying to compress into such a short span of screen time. The novel trades in the "pop nihilism" you mention: the libertarian author intended the saga as a warning against the centralization of temporal and spiritual power into one paradoxically anti-imperial empire, as has been, I assume he would further argue, the shared fate of Christianity, Islam, and perhaps also America. On the other hand, our whole cultural attraction to Dune depends on the glamor of what it depicts—the warring feudal houses, the immemorial order of witches, the desert psychedelia, the dream of collective emancipatory violence in a primal horde—which no merely rational critique can dispel. Therefore, Lynch, whatever his own politics[*], understood this impotence of critique well enough to create a phantasmagoric spectacle of Dune superior on its surface to Villeneuve's later version, despite the narrative's not making much sense. I respect Villeneuve's ambition, and I respect Blade Runner 2049 in particular, but he is undoubtedly a symptom of "stuck culture," since all his works subsist on what little can still be scavenged from those ruins of Jodorowsky's abortive Dune that gave us Alien and Blade Runner in the first place. (And Villeneuve's Dune fantasizes, by cannily or cynically manipulating American racial signifiers, of fusing anti-imperialism with empire into a single regime that will boast such monumental artworks as his cinema as its ornament. This kind of thing, not libertarian populism, is probably the real fascist ideology of our age.) Which is all a long way of saying that I agree with the common consensus on Lynch's Dune: perhaps the worst movie to have the best mise-en-scène ever.

__________________________________

[*] Lynch makes face-saving left-friendly remarks from time to time, but I suspect his politics are closer to Herbert's than not. He gingerly dared to say something nice about Trump back in 2018, got pilloried, and had to walk it back. Anyway, I'm a bad Lynchian. When he's good, he's good, but I never got all the way into Twin Peaks (probably my fault), and I turned off Inland Empire after an hour (definitely his fault).

[sandwrrm]

Lol, you all know me too well! Great question! And sorry it took so long to answer!

In no particular order:

1- The scene during the invasion of Sundari after Death Watch "saves" the city (around 9:35 here) where she's addressing the crowd of people and basically giving a propaganda hype speech. I just love her mannerisms and attitude here. The dramatic flair. The drunk-on-power swagger. She was a villainous ham to the core in this era and I love her for it, and this scene is such a fun and interesting instance of that.

2- This brief conversation she and Pre have about whether or not to work with Maul (around 7:28 here.) One: I love that she's headstrong about her opinion and doesn't hesitate to share it. There's so much fanon around how she was a downtrodden victim with no agency in her DW era and like... that's not true at all... clearly she was comfortable challenging him and standing up for her own ideas, and here's some canon proof. Two: yes... I love this scene for shipping purposes. Epic trash power couple moment. "Mandalore will be ours" "nobody will doubt why we're in power" uh-huh. yeah. that definitely means the group and not the two of you specifically 😏���

3- The nitearmor "remove your helmet" moment in the old forge 🏳️‍🌈👭✨ Yes, I love this scene for shipping purposes also. Thee exponential amount of sexual tension during this exchange is borderline comical, like why would they write them like this if the takeaway wasn't supposed to be "they're terminally wlw and down bad for each other" ??? In all seriousness, this scene was so emotionally charged and touching, and even if they weren't intended to be simping, it's nice to see something like this play out between two female characters, I feel like it's sadly rare.

4- The scene where she saves Din from the... thing... in the mines and we see her use the darksaber for the first time. She is so cool and badass with it, and she wields it flawlessly... it was meant to be hers 😩💖

5- Her fight with Axe when they meet back up on Plazir-15. On a surface level, because I love mando-on-mando sparring and we don't get to see enough of that in canon. On a deeper level, because I feel like this is the moment where we really see her let out all her rage and bottled up emotion that's been stewing beneath the surface of her depression era, which is so satisfying. I feel like we don't get enough angry Bo in live action, which like. some of that is that she's not the same person and has mellowed on the surface with age, but still, I miss her angy vibes, scrunkly mad faces, etc.

6- Honorable mention: the Ahsoka ass slap. God what a fucking introduction. Literally unforgettable. *chefs kiss*

Thank you again @kevystel @hotgirlvader !