#This has got to be going somewhere important

[morlock-holmes]

I got to thinking what underlying assumptions would have to make sense for the Starship Troopers thing to, like, even make sense as an approach to the question of selfishness in a democratic society.

And I guess the question is kind of,

"How many people are so incorruptible that they will not be corrupted even when tempted with vast, unchecked power over others."

If the answer is, like, 90% of people, then there's just, like, not a problem with total enfranchisement in the first place.

But it also can't be, like, 5% of the population, or there's also not a problem; If you and I are both selfish pricks bent on deforming the system purely to serve our own needs, we are more likely to reach an equilibrium in which we are both taken care of if neither of us is very much more powerful than the other.

So it has to be somewhere in, like, the 40%-60%.

There are enough such people that it is possible to staff large, complex bureaucratic organizations entirely with such people, but few enough that if you aren't carefully screening out the selfish people that the system will collapse.

At this point the primary obstacle to building an equitable society is screening. What process would we need to correctly identify the selfless people and push them into power?

It seems to rest on a very black and white view of selfish/selfless; you just kind of are one or the other regardless of circumstance.

It also totally sidesteps legibility issues.

Suppose, say, 90% of non-voters assert that some policy is harmful to them, and is harming them in order to enrich the voting class. The reason that they are non-voters is that they are likely to lie about this, so this is irrelevant.

Which means that the voting class should go ahead and do the policy anyway.

So how would you distinguish between:

The non-voters are sneaky, selfish people who oppose a good policy;

The non-voters are correctly opposing a selfish policy which has been enacted out of ignorance;

The voters have become exactly as corrupt as the non-voters say they are and are deliberately and selfishly enriching themselves at the expense of the non-voters.

Like, literally all government structures work if you assume that they are staffed entirely by selfless, moral people who will put the good of society over self-benefit.

I don't remember the answer to this but why is anybody allowed to vote in Starship Troopers? If the voting class can police itself without input from the non-voting class, why not extend this and assume that the ruling class can self-police without voting of any kind at all?

A lot of obvious answers to this seem like they then start to trend towards making total enfranchisement look more important.

Really weird reading Starship Troopers (the book) after watching the movie several times and seeing it played completely straight.

[sulumuns-dootah]

Celebrating Christmas w/ WHB demons

⟡ Masterlist ⟡ 

A/N: Oh hey, something other than YfoH2 :D Since tomorrow starts the NSFW part of the event, I gotta show some love to all our other boys ♥

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Satan

Piggibacking off of the prompt I wrote for him last Christmas

I think it would be actually a funny idea to make Satan dress up as Santa

Buuuut since his lap is reserved to us, his people can ask to get hit instead

It might be better also to tell the other kings that this is happening othervise they might get concerned when suddenly a large number of demons fly all the way to their country

Sitri

Meanwhile Satan is happily hitting all his people, Sitri gets swept up in the whole organising part of things

Like, he's so busy he only got to ask to be hit three times :(

Another annoying thing is that the celebrations mean Amy is around, so he doesn't even get to enjoy the time he manages to take off

Amy

Amy and his group are in the town, just to make sure that everyone is safe

But they kinda just hang out in pubs and challenge random demonst to a drinking competition

Someone call Bimet, because the liquor bussines is booming at that time of year

Paimon

Poor baby Paimon is overtaken by the sheer amount of sponsorship offers due to their social media presence

The only good thign is that they get a lot of free things, so gifts for some less important people are taken care of

To help out Sitri, they also offer to buy all the presents he'd othervise have to come up with and buy himself

Leraye

This time of year is kinda empty for Leraye :(

So he's helping out where he can

Most of the time it's helping Paimon film all their hauls and reviews

Or he's helping to oversee the decoration process

Belial

If there's any cultural event, Belial will surely be there

Jjyu has the whole holidays off, so Belial prefers to stay at home othervise

When you go to visit him, he's most likely reading while listening to some classical music

Astaroth

Astaroth is the head overseer of the decoration group

Nobody's even sure how he got this post, but he's the only one who is able to voice his visions and how to achieve them so nobody complains

Problem is, that he doesn't actually acomplish much in the decorating department himself

So throughout the whole process, he's just reading his book and occasionally looks up to steer the others the right way

Zagan

The main decorator

He's the one to organise everyone, even without words

Other tha that, Zagan is usually seen somewhere, helping other demons learn a particular sport like skiing or ice skating

Ppyong

The second main decorator

Especially for placing thigs high up where no other demon can reach

It actually helps him to take his mind off asking Sitri about when he'll get to baking all those delicious sweets he always does

       ༺☆༻

Mammon

Mammon always looks forward to this time of year beacuse of the whole auction thing

Other than that, he doesn't really do much out of the ordinary

At least until you come around introduce him to bunch of new thigns from your own culture

Those things will then get added onto the list of things the country will now do every year form now on

Bimet

Shopping? Shopping! SHOPPING!

Ofc Bimet won't be spending his own money though...

Surely Mammon won't notice if Bimet buys an extra few gifts for himself while out buying gefts for all the other nobles

Eligos

Tartaros' main and only decoration conductor

Yes, he would wrap the whole country in a giant bow if he could

Oh, and during his off time, you can definitelly find him with Paimon in one of the holiday pop up cafés or stores

Valefor

If Bimet is out shopping, he always asks Valefor tog o wiht him to help him carry all the bags

Other than that, Valefor, like Zagan, likes to dos ome winter sports with other demons

Though, for Valefor, I imagine he likes hockey and other team sports rather than the individual ones

       ༺☆༻

Leviathan

For Leviathan there's no change

He doesn't leave his chambers and refuses to interact with anyone beside his nobles and you

Though, I feel like if he likes you enough, he will go out with you (if you sweet talk him enough)

Foras

The ever so busy, our poor baby U.U

All the nother nobles are so useless in all the organising that everything falls down on Foras

Somehow, he still manages to keep his sanity tho

Barbatos

From the beginning, Barbatos wanted to be in charge of decorations

But somehow, that led to everything being wrapped in chains of lights

Which is nice, but Bael had to talk to Levi that they need to turn the lights down bc Abyssos neons were barely visible in all that light pollution at night

(Some say that even the demons of Tartaros didn't see something glow as much as Hades that night)

Glasyalabolas

Glasya's paraphilia has nothing to do with the holidays, so he can't mess up anything, right? right?

nope

The cold weather outside gives him the best opportunity to clean and sanitise the Hades castle underground where his... partners rest...forever

There isn't much space in there so he has to move them all out and since Leviathan refuses to have them inside his castle halls like that, they have to be outside the castle

So he can only take them out when it's cold outside or they might start to... decompose...

Orias

Grandpa doesn't do Christmas or anything of that sort, so like usual he's either off, looking for another delicious angel soul

Or being a menace and making sure Leviathan is on the edge of his seat at all times

       ༺☆༻

Beelzebub

The gifts this man gives are 10/10

Along his travels, he always finds some cool stuff he randomly remembers you said you'd like to have

It's all fun and games until he's hauling a giant mf statue that's almost the size of your house

Bael

If Bael's in a festive mood, he grabs a few scraps of paper and makes a star out of it to put on top of the mountain of paperwork

Other that that, he doesn't really get merry that much since Beel gets merry enough for the both of them

You'll probably have to physically lock him out of his office to get him to do something else

Stolas

Very excited for the holidays actually

Sadly, to participate in most of the stuff he wants to, he has to wade through the crowds, which is easy to set him off

And his bird form is of no use in such situations, because it's usually too cold for his wings

Naberius

Similarly to Belial, Naberius chooses to stay at home and read a good book instead of participating in the mob insanity

And don't worry that he'll run out of things to read

That's what his huge home library is for

Amon

Cold weather is perfect for hibernating, which is perfect for Amon since Beel is never around

Even if Bael commands him to go look for Beel, you'll most likely see him snoozing away in some café

Only once Beel returns, Amon will try to join in on the festivities

       ༺☆༻

Asmodeus

One of his favorite traditions is going around through the whole prison and visiting each and every cell for a round or two of his presence

And yes, it doesn take a lot of time so he'spretty much busy the whole month and then some

But nobody in hell really complains about his presence

Ronove

Actually, I imagine the Abaddon demons have an orgy just like the angels one each of them have had their own fill of Asmodeus

And Ronove uses that distraction as a way to sneak out to find some unfortunate demons outside of the prison who have gotten injured while fighting angels

His usual journey leads him to Paradise Lost where he meets Glasyalabolas who's...

... on a similar mission, but to the PL morgue

Phenix

Phenix loves this time of year!

Both because of the orgy, but also if you check them out of the prison and take them to some public event

SO many different good-looking demons in one place!

Dantalian

This time of year is Dantalian's time to shine :)

The orgy always inevitably ends up into a bloodbath given the extreme kinks of its participants

If he were to die like this, he couldn't be more happier

       ༺☆༻

Belphegor

Our resident sleeper will also try to sleep all the hubbub away

The only way he'll notice it's the season of giving is when a fully decorated tree appears in the corner of his room

And also when Beleth barges into the room while carrying a bag of gifts from him subordinates

Beleth

A concept: Santa Beleth

And if you were extra good, he'll let you sit on his lap(but beware, that it's a bumpy seat and you might have to shift around a lot)

That's it

That's what I'm thinking about for the rest of the year

Gusion

Head organiser who honestly, hates that position

"No! Stop! You're hanging that thing at a 175° and not at 180° like I told you!"

This headache is not one of those that he enjoys

Hopefully resolving one of the unsolvable equations will make him feel better

Bathin

Officially, Bathin is the one to supervise the decorating process, but Gusion always steps in anyway bc something is not to his liking

So he's just reading texts from Stolas about how much he hates all these other demons that accidentally bumped into him in the crowd

He even had to quickly jump to Abyssos a few times to stop the small demon from shooting up a very busy area

Andrealphus

Similarly to Stolas though, the crowds are a nightmare for Andrealphus

It's so hard for him navigate such busy places plus it's easier for angels to hide in them

So instead he stays at home and watches some cartoons

Agares

Agares isn't one to really celebrate, unless it becomes a competition with Belphie

His subordinates even say that during that time he's the worst

Everything has to be even more perfect than normally

Vassago

Somehow, Vassago actually manages to fullfill every demand of Agares, no matter how insane it is

And he'll still have time to spend for himself

Maybe beacuse he's so used to his kings' insane requests all the time?

Vassago's decorating skills are 10/10 too

Everything he touches ends up looking amazing, but then Agares immediatelly swoops in saying that it was his idea and Vassago only followed his vision

       ༺☆༻

Lucifer

The longer he's in Hell, the more he is open to the idea of celebrating again

Sadly though, the decorations that can be put up are limited bc anythinig living can be a potential allergy trigger and finding a good-looking fake alternative is hard

Still, you'll be able to find some sort of decoration in every room

And every demons who visits the hospital in december gets a little bag with some sweet and small gift

Morax

Poor baby Morax doesn't really like leaving the hospital during the cold months of the year because of how many of his injuries react to the sudden drop in temperature

Instead, he preffers to stay in and enjoy his hobbies while not treating patients

Safe to say, most, if not all, patients and hospital staff get something crocheted/knitted each year from him

Gamigin

Ooh, Gamigin can't wait!

Every little thing exictes him

If you give him an advent callendar, he'll be over the moon and ecstatically telling everyone what he got that day

And don't even get me started on how loud an cheery he gets when he's finally able to open his gifts

Marbas

Just like all the other tall demons, Marbas is the one to be decorating everything

Lucifer even graciously allows him to be untied so he can actually move around

But give his interest in shibari, you already know that 80% of the decorating just involves wrapping something in ribbon, tinsel or something similar

Buer

Buer is tasked with picking out some relaxing festive music that plays in the hospital halls and movie selection for the inpatients

Well that, and holding Marbas back with his decorating wich would otherwise just turn the hospital into one giant ball of ribbon and tinsel

Other than that, he's also the one responsible for creating gifts for each patient

[concreteangel92]

Thou Shalt Not Kill - Chapter 11

AU Noah Sebastian x female detective reader

18+

Summery: Reader is a detective and is assigned to a murder case which she soon connects with previous killings and figures out the religious affiliation, proving there is a new serial killer within the city. Reader soon becomes obsessed with the killers mind and methods and won’t rest until she figures out who the killer is. All while she gets used to working with her new partner on the case, detective Noah Davis

Warnings: talks of death, talks of killings/murder, use of religion, stockholm syndrome, bad language, mentions of alcohol consumption, and the address used in this I just copied and edited from goggle lol as I don’t know proper addresses in America 🤣

I’m so sorry it’s been 2 months! Life has been so hectic but this story is never far from my thoughts and I’m so ready to get back into it and get us to the end!! (although I will be sad when it’s over ahaha)

This chapter is a little bit of a filler, although it has some keys elements within, the next chapter however is where the story really starts to heat up again and I’m so excited to start that one 😏

Until then I hope you all enjoy!!

@l00na24 this chapter is definitely dedicated to you as I wouldn’t have thought to add the polaroids in if it wasn’t for you so thank you 🖤

Story Taglist: @lacy1986 @hayleylatour @thatchickwiththecamera @calleyx13 @english-fucker @malerieee @ithoughtbynowidfeelbetter @softvgold @lilhobgobbler @glccmreid @badomensls @madomens @loeytuan98 @iluvmewwwww75 @rosebushjhj @livingdeceasedgirl @lilrubles @samanthasgone @blackveilomens @hellayeahsworld @lookwhatitcost @doomhands-jr @nojoyontheburn @poisongirl616 @bakanerd @sacredthefran @flowery-mess @fadingangelwisp @theanarchymuse95 @1toreyouapart @xxkatsatwatwafflexx @overmydeadbodysblog

Let me know if you wish to be added! This is separate to my permanent Noah taglist due to the content within the story!

Chapter Index Here

Masterlist

Your eyes fluttered open as the sunlight shines through the small window and warmed your face, the feeling of longing for the outside world washing over you briefly.

Your body felt sore but satisfied this morning and you turned over only to find you were alone.

Glancing around the room you saw his black jacket thrown over a chair so you knew he wasn’t far away.

You also saw his tshirt left on the ground and picked it up to pull it over your body, you pulled back the covers and noticed the finger shapes bruises over your hips, a sinful reminder of the night before.

How did you feel about it?

You weren’t completely sure, you had let yourself go for him, to him, willingly.

You slipped into his top, the bottom of it coming down to your thighs as you got out of bed.

Looking at his jacket lying there, the detective within you wouldn’t let you not go to it, just to have a peak, what was the worst you’d find?

You glanced at the door and heard nothing so you turned back and picked up his coat, feeling the weight of it in your hands.

You put your hands into one of the pockets to find it empty, the other pocket however held what appeared to be his wallet and his badge.

You glanced at the badge, a painful reminder of everything that has happened, before you put his jacket down and opened his wallet.

Mostly inside it was his cards, I.D, a small amount of cash and a few crumpled receipts tucked into the back.

You were about to put it back when something sticking out of the hidden slot caught your eye.

You pulled out first a piece of paper with an address hand written on it, Noah’s hand writing.

822 20th Street

Los Angeles

CA

90011

You knew the address was in a dodgy part of the city, not somewhere you’d want to be walking around alone at night but apart from that, it didn’t ring any other bells for you. Your curiosity of the significance of this address was burning inside your brain, why was this so important?

You put the paper back and saw there were some polaroid photos hidden behind it, you pulled out the small bundle and set the wallet down.

The photos made your chest feel heavy as the memories came flooding back.

Looking back at you was your own smiling face as you held a wine glass in front of you as if to hide, the next was one of you both together smiling at the camera and finally one of him on his own flipping the camera off with a cheeky smile.

That night seemed like a distant dream.

••••••••

FLASHBACK

Your giggle echoed around the room as Noah walked over with another glass of wine for you both and shut your laptop closed while you’d been looking over one of the case files.

“Hey! I was using that”

It was one of your many evening spent together after work, they were becoming a lot more regular these days, both of you enjoying the other’s company.

“Not anymore detective, no more work”

You smiled and took a sip of your wine as Noah sat himself next to you on the couch, his arm resting along the back of it behind your head.

“We have a killer to catch you know?”

Noah smiled.

“And we will, I have no doubt that with your intellectual capabilities we will solve this”

You blushed, his continuous praise always making your heart swell, no one had ever believed in you as much as your partner did.

“We will…together”

Noah smiled again and took a sip of his own drink.

“Hopefully before he kills again”

Noah nodded thoughtfully and hummed in response before he responded properly.

“We can’t be too hard on ourselves, he’s certainly not made it easy to catch him”

You laughed slightly.

“Or at all. No prints, no dna, no leads….bodies mounting up left, right and centre. I feel like I’m failing the victims families”

Noah shifted closer to you, the beautiful smell of his cologne invading your senses “That’s ridiculous, you’re doing everything you can and look at what it’s doing to you. You can’t be that critical”

You sighed and looked up at him.

“How are you so calm all the time? I wish I could be that way”

“Because I know that everything will work out how it’s supposed to, you’ll find out who he is, I just know it”

You smiled at his words and finished your glass of wine, reaching out to the table to grab the bottle and have a refill, the effects starting to make your brain feel lighter.

“How about some music?”

You reached for your remote and clicked the radio to life, the classic station immediately started to play which caused Noah to smile at you.

“I wasn’t aware you listened to classical music!”

You felt your cheeks go warm.

“It helps relax me sometimes”

The current song ended and you started to hear a beautiful melody with the piano being the main focus of the opening notes, it was a song you’d heard before but couldn’t place, until Noah spoke up.

“Primavera, this is a beautiful song”

You looked at him in shock.

“So you are no stranger yourself I see”

His smile grew as he took another sip.

“In Italian, primavera means "spring." This is a fitting title as its flowing verses are akin to the opening buds, glorious flowers, warm air and gentle breezes of spring…or that’s what I’ve read about it anyways”

His checks went pink slightly and you couldn’t help but be in awe of the man in front of you, he truly was like no one you’d ever known.

“Wow, that’s beautiful Noah”

You listened to the calming music and closed your eyes, letting the horrors of the world wash away.

“I didn’t know you had one of those?”

You opened your eyes again as you felt Noah get up and walked over to your shelves, tucked away was your old polaroid camera.

“Oh…I haven’t used that in ages”

Noah came and sat back down with it, looking it over.

“Does it still work?”

Before you could answer, Noah brought the camera up to take your picture, you laughed and held your wine glass in front of your face.

*click*

You heard the sound of the shutter of the camera going off and saw the flash behind your closed eyelids.

“Noah!”

He laughed and put the camera down as he pulled the photo out and gave it a shake.

“Sorry, couldn’t resist”

His smirk told you that he wasn’t sorry and was in fact, very pleased with himself which made you giggle again.

You glanced at the photo as Noah held it up for you both to look at.

“You look beautiful”

You shook your head and reached for the camera resting in his lap.

“Let’s see how you like it”

You quickly put the camera up, Noah gave a cheeky smile and held up his middle finger as you pressed the button down.

“Rude”

You both laughed as you looked at the new photo, putting it next to yours on the table.

“How about one together?”

You nodded and came in closer to him, you felt Noah wrap his strong arm around you and you leant back into his chest, feeling butterflies in your stomach as you did. You both smiled at the camera and held your position as the flash went off.

You slid back slightly once the photo was done, but Noah didn’t take his arm off your shoulders and he grabbed onto the photo and held it out in front of you.

“Cute”

You smiled and nodded, still hearing the enchanting melody of primavera as it played, you looked up at Noah and realised how close you actually were you felt his breath ghosting over your face.

You resisted the urge to lean forward and reminded yourself that you were work colleagues and partners and there was no time for anything else….no matter how badly you wanted it.

“This really is a beautiful song”

You broke the silence as you sat back and created space in between the two of you.

Noah finished his wine and smiled once again.

“It is. I’ll be sure to introduce you to more interesting things in the future”

••••••••

You could hear the sound of the piano keys in your mind as you relived that night.

You looked at the photos in your hand and noticed that there was an extra one, you pulled it out and gasped quietly.

Staring back at you was a photo of you sleeping soundly in your own bed, completely unaware of the intruder taking your picture.

A small chill ran down your spine. Noah had been in your apartment without your knowledge, that night you’d seen him walk out when you said goodbye but clearly he had returned.

“How many of these does he have?”

The sound of the door unlocking behind you made you jump and you spun round to see Noah’s gaze instantly on the photos in your hand, his expression turning dark.

“What are you doing angel? Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it was rude to go through someone’s possessions?”

You stepped back and he walked into the room, clearly not impressed by your snooping.

“I…erm…I wasn’t…”

Noah grabbed the photos out of your hand and casually glanced at them.

“I see you found my favourite one, you looked so beautiful while you were sleeping that I…couldn’t resist”

You stared up at him as he echoed his own words from that night, you weren’t sure what he was going to do next.

“Isn’t it rude to break in and take pictures of someone when they are asleep?”

Noah tilted his head at you and stepped forward and pressed his arms against the wall around your head. trapping you in and towering over your small frame.

“I didn’t break in angel, you left the door unlocked, very careless of you, anyone could walk in”

You took a breath, feeling the fear forming in the pit of your stomach, he was a sadistic killer first and foremost.

“I’m sorry Noah…I didn’t mean to pry”

Noah leaned in closer and then ran his hand over your cheek.

“I’ll forgive you angel, just never forget how much I’ve done for you, I’ve always been there for you haven’t I?”

You nodded at his words as he brushed some of your hair behind your ear.

“Especially at work, all the trouble you had there, no one believed in you did they?”

••••••••

FLASHBACK

You were walking down the hallway of your office at the station, a fresh hot coffee in your hands.

The excitement you felt was hard to ignore as you were up for a promotion at work, taking you from an officer up to a detective with your own office and team and you couldn’t be happier!

“I hope I’m making you proud dad”

You carried on to your sergeants office with a small smile on your face.

As you rounded the corner, you could hear a bunch of officers talking as they stood huddled together, not aware of your presence.

“Can you actually believe officer Y/L/N is getting the promotion?!”

“You know it’s only because of who her father was!”

You recognised the voice of officer Blake instantly, you two had never particularly got along but had no choice but to work along side each other.

“The sergeant must be mad, any one of us could have that detective position!”

You couldn’t listen anymore and held your head as high as you could and walked into view, tipping your head at them with a fake smile on your face.

“Morning gentlemen”

They all looked shocked and tried to act like they hadn’t just been slagging you off as you strolled past.

You made the point of waving at them once more before you headed towards your bosses office, hoping that you did get the promotion today, you’d worked so hard for it and it wasn’t just because of who your father was, you’d show them, you’d prove them all wrong!

••••••••

“But I always have, I have always seen your intelligence and your potential and how wasted you were in that station. They didn’t see you…but I do angel, I see exactly who you are”

Your lips parted in a silent gasp as his voice washed over you.

“I know…I know you’ve always believed in me Noah”

Noah leant his head down and brushed his lips against yours, you returned it, it was gentle, a very far contrast from his mood a few moments ago.

“You’re nearly ready baby, I know you are”

Your brows frowned.

“For what?”

Noah smirked and stood back from you.

“For the next step” he walked back towards the door without turning back as he said “Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Bonus Chapter - crossover with Poltergeists by concretejunglefm

[teecupangel]

A time travel AU to the pre-canon (or game's starts).

Except that Desmond, Layla and Clay are trapped as a spirits. They only can be seen (and listen) by the people who are attached to the protagonist or are important to the lore.

And the protagonists ALSO time traveled.

You decide:

1-. If the protagonists wake up in they past body or...

2-.are also trapped being spirits that only can be seen (or interact) by they past selves.

Like if you go to the first option:

Arno wakes up the moment that his father gives him the clock or Ratonhnhaké:ton wakes up the day his village was burned.

(In somewhere place Haytham wakes up a listening three voices and having a headache).

Or if you go for the second option:

Maybe past! Ezio wakes up only to be jumpscared by a old voice that maybe sounds like him?

(Claudia or Leonardo wake up by seeing two man and one lady in their room).

In general all Juno plans go and get destroyed and they found a way to fix-it the timeline (Maybe Clay accidentally saves Kadar and Desmond Khemu and Layla gets the Auditores safe?)

I wanted to be vague, so you can...

Go Wild.

So are we going for the modern day Assassins getting separated in time?

Because I think it would be funny if some poor unfortunate soul gets haunted by three ghosts.

But it would be so chaotic if they don’t know there’s three of them because they’re haunting three different people.

(In this one, the Assassin will be haunting their past self and there’s a bit of ‘I’m the only one in the past’ thing going on because they assume what they’re doing is having butterfly effect on everyone else when, in reality, there’s four different ghosts fucking up the timeline.

.

Altaïr

Altaïr will absolutely be annoyed by his older self. “Shut up and watch” is a very common response to a lot of ghost Altaïr’s suggestion. It doesn’t help that ghost Altaïr knows that his younger self needs to do this by himself. It’s really just small mercies that he was able to shout at the young man before he got thrown out of the room, taking down two knights with his knives. It saved Kadar after all.

Altaïr saved no one. Kadar survived because some strange man started talking to him and helping him. He thinks he’s being haunted by the guardian of the treasure he touched and he can’t tell anyone because this ghost keeps telling him that Al Mualim is a traitor.

Malik is having a bad day. Some woman that dresses too lightly has been haunting him and gawking over the supposed legendary Master Assassin Altaïr. Oh, and apparently, she’s from the future but she doesn’t really know what’s supposed to happen. All she knows is that Al Mualim is a traitor and now Malik has to keep a secret from everyone how he’s looking for evidence that could get him beheaded. His brother seemingly getting a sixth sense of when he’s snooping is not helping (Kadar absolutely believes his brother notices he’s been acting strangely and that’s why he’s able to predict Kadar’s next moves and be in the same location before him)

Desmond is fucked. He is so fucked. Why, of all people, was he haunting Abbas??? He can’t even poltergeist the shit out of him because he can’t interact with anyone or anything. Fuck this ghost business. He can, at least, slowly drive him mad by making sure he can’t sleep.

Ezio

Ghost Ezio and teenager Ezio would probably have the best partnership. Ezio wouldn’t trust him at first but, once his father and brothers are arrested, things will absolutely be different.

Clay has no idea why he’s haunting Claudia but he’s making the best of it. She just needs a little push to get the ball rolling and, my god, Clay was going to make sure Claudia Auditore would be the best Assassin in this time period… just to fuck with Ezio.

Layla only read the summary about Ezio’s life so she’s winging it with helping Federico Auditore. It’s not that bad. Federico seems to think she’s some kind of ghost of an ancient civilization (the Isus, Layla realized later on) and she’s going along with it because it makes things easier.

Desmond wants to strangle someone. Why was he haunting Lorenzo de’ Medici??? No. Seriously. Why the fuck was he- Fuck it. He was going to bother Lorenzo until he gets out of his lazy seat and do something about the Auditores’ arrest or, help him, he was going to haunt the shit out of him that everyone will believe he’s become mad.

Ratonhnhaké:ton

Ratonhnhaké:ton and his younger self would have a more father-son relationship although neither of them would admit it. The longer Ratonhnhaké:ton guides his younger self, the more he sees his children in him. All he wish for is for his younger self to have a better ‘ending’.

Clay is gonna end up with Haytham because that would be funny and, if anyone can screw up Haytham, it will be Clay and his casual digs of the family trauma Haytham has and how he’s just adding more family drama to his own son.

Layla’s gonna have a freebie for this one and haunt Faulkner. She’s living the good life, sailing the seas without all the problems that comes with it. This is a vacation for her.

Desmond is going to be Achilles’ problem and, dear god, he’s going to make Achilles actually talk to Ratonhnhaké:ton and have a healthy relationship with the man if it’s the last thing he’d do in this weird ghost state he finds himself in.

[vespaer77]

Aside from the fact that I think I might be the only person on the planet who could genuinely be interested in the Executors (I say "could" because my faith in good storytelling from BW is on shaky ground), I fully agree with this post.

And I say this as someone who wasn't sure that the Veil coming down was the right move. But whether someone thinks the Veil should come down or stay up is immaterial. The whole point is that no arguments for the validity of either claim were really ever truly examined. The only reasoning in the game that we get for the Veil remaining intact is that its collapse would "drown the world in demons." Which is... almost a fallacy on its own. Aside from naturally occurring malign spirits (that we learn about from the Mournwatch), demons exist as a direct result of the Veil simply existing.

Perhaps the danger is in not knowing what would happen to all of the mundane, unmagical folk when confronted with the full power of all the raw, unfiltered, chaotic magic of the Fade. But that's still thinking of magic within the confines of the Fade itself. We have no perspective, outside of Solas, on what magic really looks like when the Fade and the mundane world combine. Does it change? Is it still dangerous? Who does it endanger? Are we wrong? Are we right? Who knows? The whole point is that there's never an opportunity to ask those questions. And we have at least three characters fully immersed and available in the story who could provide concrete, first-person, lived and experienced answers.

But we never ask.

We have a spirit of Wisdom who loves answering questions.

And we never ask.

Hell, in addition, we have two dwarves that are connected, isatunolly, with the Titans, who were also there before the Veil.

And we don't get to really ask anything of great value. Even our characters are canonically frustrated with how little we get to ask.

I just think it's very interesting that this game was called Dreadwolf for so long, and then it wasn't. The game we got has very little to do with, and makes very little use of, the Dread Wolf at all. So the game is called The Veilguard. But at no point does the Veilguard really ever.... guard... the Veil. Or make any mention of guarding the Veil. Or have any discussion on why guarding the Veil is so super important or what it even means, especially considering that, in the first 20min of the game, the only real element threatening the Veil is neutralized until the last 10min.

The game, called The Veilguard, isn't about the Veil at all.

In my humble opinion? This game should have been given a title that had more to do with the Blight or the gods or something. Or, given how many times it gets said in game, it could've just been called, "Dragon Age: It's Just So Hard." Even on a meta level, that's a title I could've believed, lol.

All this without even mentioning that one mural memory. We all know the one. The one that falls somewhere between a shameful, textbook retcon and a blatant attempt at gaslighting.

Whoops. I mentioned it, didn't I? Maybe I'll make a longer post about that someday. That's the part of this game that really grinds my gears, the status of the Veil notwithstanding.

In short, I firmly believe that the vilification of Solas is purely based on a retcon (and one that makes no logical sense when properly examined) and it's a hill I'm prepared to die on.

Anyhoops, if someone told me that, even though this game had been in development for 10yrs, the final version of this game was produced from start to finish in 16mos or less, I'd honestly believe it. I also feel like they were 100% shooting for a game that would have DLC afterwards and were told late in their development cycle that there wouldn't be so they tried to gift wrap everything with the ribbons and bows that they had. Like... go to the Halls of Valor and tell me that this is a fully finished game that was intended to be complete from the very beginning.

Castles in the Fade, or What Was the Point of the Veil Anyway

Something that will now haunt me until the end of time is why was the concept of the Veil ever introduced into this series.

We’ve been hearing about it since the very first game. There’s a codex entry about tears in the Veil in Origins. Tamlen mentions a thin spot in the Veil if you play a Dalish elf. Sandal has a prophecy in Dragon Age 2: “One day the magic will come back—all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see.” Admittedly, this is just one line said by a character who often says odd things, but it hinted to the fact they were planning to do something with the Veil from the very beginning. The state of the Veil is repeatedly brought up. It all had to mean something! Or so I thought. 

When I saw “The Dread Wolf Rises” quest in Veilguard, I said, “Oh, here we go!” The Veil is coming down, magic is coming back, and it’s going to set up such an interesting story for the next game. 

Alas, no. 

I hadn’t really enjoyed my time playing Veilguard up until this point. It felt like the game was ducking and dodging every bit of world building and lore that could possibly bring nuance or complexity to the story. Every returning character or faction was a cardboard cutout of themself. They shoved Solas is a time-out box and gave him nothing to do. They refused to let him have any impact or influence on the story when he had been set up to be our main antagonist back in Trespasser. This game used to be called Dreadwolf! And while we learn about his past… we never talk to him about it. In the present, he’s in stasis.

Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain are our villains. And they are your typical evil for evil’s sake villains. They are mad, bad, and only as dangerous as the narrative will allow as to not give Rook and co too much trouble. They are surprisingly patient while Rook fixes all their companions’ problems… until Elgar’nan moves the moon to cause an eclipse. A vital component in making his own lyrium dagger. For some reason. This guy can move a satellite!? And he just let Rook walk away in previous encounters… twice. Ok. Sure.

The Evil Duo need their own dagger ostensibly to tear down the Veil, because they want to unleash the full force of the Blight onto the world. Because they are evil. And they were thwarted last time they tried to Blight the entire world. Why do they think Blighting the world is a good idea? What’s the point of ruling a world if everyone is dead? I guess they haven’t thought that through, because of the madness and the evilness.

Ok, I thought. Perhaps the gods will be the one to tear down the Veil. Or maybe we’ll have a choice to let Solas do it his way before they can, which will be less chaotic and less full of Blight. Because the Veil has to be coming down one way or another? Why introduce the concept of the Veil, especially a Veil that has been thinning and failing since the series began, if it’s just going to… stay.

There is a principle in storytelling called Chekov’s gun. If something is mentioned in a story, it must have a purpose. If you keeping mentioning that gun hanging on the wall over the fireplace, it’s because at some point in the story, someone is going to take it down and use it. The Veil felt like Chekov’s gun to me. Chekov’s Veil, if you will. It’s been here from the beginning of our tale, the spectre hanging over our protagonists’ heads for multiple games.

The Veil has been a character unto itself. It was the central focus of the third game, and its dissolution was set up to be the core conflict of the fourth game. We learn everything we thought we knew about the Veil was a lie. It was not created by the Maker to separate the Fade from this world because of jealous spirits, it was created by a guy named Solas to trap the elven gods and the Blight from destroying the world. Also, the elven gods were never gods, and they are also evil.

This reveal will surely throw the Andrastian religion into chaos! This puts the very existence of the Maker into question! The Evanuris are a lie; it’s only fair Catholicism—oh, I mean—the Chantry is a lie too. We briefly touch on that in Veilguard… then it is quietly discarded. Religious crisis averted.

But I digress.

When the title of the fourth game was changed from Dreadwolf to Veilguard, I started to see the writing on the wall. Still, I held out hope the Veil would have some greater purpose in the story. That its introduction as a concept was for a reason. That something in this world would change.

Instead, from the get-go, the question of the Veil is no question at all. We only get Solas and Varric making oblique or catastrophizing statements about it. Solas says little beyond he has a plan. If I ever wanted to hear a villain monologue about their plan, it was now! Varric, on the other hand, decries Solas’s plan. He warns that should the Veil fall, it will destroy the world and drown it in demons. And that’s that.

We never really learn why Solas wants to tear the Veil down, or why he thinks it will help anyone. “The Veil is a wound inflicted upon this world. It must be healed,” he says. And that’s basically all he says about it in Veilguard. In Inquisition and Trespasser, we learn it took the immortality from the elves. It cut most of magic off from the world. Spirits are trapped and are being corrupted into demons, and most of what we know about spirits and demons is wrong. There are ancient elves possibly asleep? That part is left vague, but ancient elves are still about. We meet some in Mythal’s temple. There seems to have been some merit in bringing it down, because elves were flocking to Solas’s cause at the end of Trespasser. He had agents working for him already. What do they know that we don’t know?

Apparently nothing, because by the time Veilguard rolls around, there are no mention of agents. He is working alone. His only motivation now seems to be he’s too deep in his sunk-cost fallacy. The Veil is unnatural, so it must be removed—consequences be damned. We are never given any reason to think Solas has a leg to stand on in his pursuit of tearing down the Veil. We never hear any kind of counter argument from anyone, not even Solas, as to why the Veil should come down. We are only told it will destroy the world. It will drown the world in demons. This is all Solas’s fault.

There is no nuance. No complexity. No moral quandary to mull over. The game gives us vague warnings with no explanation as to what exactly is so world-annihilating about the Veil coming down. We must take Varric’s word at face value. We’re the heroes; Solas is the villain. Stop him.

It makes me wonder why Solas was ever a companion in Inquisition, let alone a romance option. Solas was presented to us as a complicated character in Inquisition. We had the potential throughout the game to make him see the value of this world, to help him realize he was wrong about it. “We aren’t even people to you,” the Inquisitor says in Trespasser. Solas replies, “Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong...again.” He began the third game viewing the world as tranquil, seeing the people in it as nothing more than figments in a nightmare, just as we saw our companions in the In Hushed Whispers quest. He ends the game having made friends, having recognized he was mistaken. He might have even fallen in love. (Or he may still seen no merit in this world if the Inquisitor antagonized him the entirety of their time together.) But something makes him continue with his plan to tear down the Veil, despite recognizing this world is real. He must know something we don’t. Something we’ll learn about in the next game.

We’ve been hearing about the Veil for three games now. We’ve set up our complex antivillain for the next installment, and he’s going to tear the Veil down. We swear to stop him or save him. But it has to be more complex than that. It can’t be so straightforward. Uncomplicated. Simple. Boring. Right? Right?

Nope. He really is just the villain, mustache-twirling and all. He apparently had no greater motivation, no as of yet unrevealed knowledge that would put this whole Veil thing into a new context. It was really as simple as the Veil falling will destroy the world, so Solas must be stopped. There is no new information that is revealed which makes us question what we are doing. Solas is never given any nuance or complexity to his actions. Nuance and complexity have actively been taken away. Both him and the Veil are looking like they are the worst things to be in a story: pointless. Why introduce the Veil if it’s just going to remain unchanged? Why introduce a character like Solas, bother humanizing him (for lack of a better term), giving us his backstory, setting him up as a cunning antagonist, only to make him look stupid, then put him on a shelf until the last ten minutes of your game?

Solas was the trickster archetype of this tale. He was our version of Loki from Norse mythology. What is the role of the trickster archetype? To challenge the status quo. To bring about events of extreme change, like say, the tearing down of a Veil that holds back all of magic. Loki is a huge contributing factor in Ragnarök. Through his manipulation, he causes the death of the beloved god, Baldr. This ushers in a long winter, which signifies the beginning of the end. Loki is imprisoned for this crime. When the final battle between gods and giants begins, the sun and moon are swallowed, plunging the earth into darkness. The earth shakes and Loki is freed to fight on the side of the giants. The world burns in raw chaos, falls beneath the sea, and is reborn. The world is remade, and a new realm of the gods and a new, better earth is formed.

It really felt like this was the setup they were going for. Solas causes the death of Mythal, and this is his catalyst for creating the Veil, which ushers in a world without magic. This could be seen as equivalent to the long winter. Solas falls asleep, trapped in dreams. He wakes and sets in motion bringing about the apocalypse. It’s not a perfect one to one, but it’s there if you squint. We have a war against the gods in Veilguard. I was expecting a few remaining Titans to wake and join the fight. But we don’t get any of that. There is a final battle, but it does not end in the end of the world. Or a better world. It just ends, and everything is the same.

It seems our trickster god caused his apocalypse thousands of years before our story started, when he created the Veil. His role in this tale was over before ours began, and he really is just some relic from a long-past age. He has no role, no purpose in this story. He is here to be thwarted. He is no Loki at all.

If you can’t tell, I wanted the Veil to come down. Did I think the Veil coming down would be painless? Have no negative consequences? No. Of course not. But keeping it up has negative consequences too. And it made for an interesting story. Or at least it could have. But we never explore that. The game presents no counter argument to having the Veil stay up, which, again, begs the question: what was the point of introducing the concept of the Veil at all?

Did I think the Veil coming down was actually the best solution to help Thedas become a better place? I don’t know, and I never will, because the game never argues for it one way or another. It just tells you to want it in place and to stop asking questions. In real life, a catastrophic event is not the best way to solve any of the world’s problems. But this is the realm of fiction. We have gods and monsters, magic and myth. We have introduced the status quo of Thedas, recognized it needs to change, then our trickster god appears ready to fulfill his role in the narrative. 

Instead, it all comes to nothing.

I got to the end of Veilguard… and everything was more or less the same as it was at the start of Origins. Veilguard actually tries its hardest to pretend any previously mentioned problems don’t exist, so of course the Veil coming down has no merit. There are no problems to solve in this world, apparently. Solas is just stuck in the past and can’t get with the times. Silly Solas.

The Veil isn’t even a permanent solution. It wasn’t to begin with. It was some duct tape wrapped around a broken pipe, and we’ve just slapped an extra piece of tape on it. It’s still leaking. It is still unnatural, and will fall eventually one way or another. Large amounts of bloodshed weaken it, so I guess Thedas better achieve world peace real quick to avoid any battles. There were seven super-powered mages holding it together… now there is just one. Ironically, the Veil was going to fall after two more Blights anyway. The Wardens were doing Solas’s work for him! It would also have released the full force of the Blight at that time… which Solas was trying to avoid, I presume.

It feels like keeping the Veil up just pushed a big problem onto Thedas’ future generations. We’ll keep slapping bandaids on it until it all falls apart. Someone else can deal with the fallout, but we’ll be dead by then, so who cares.

Primarily, I wanted the Veil to come down from a storytelling perspective. The Veil was an interesting concept and I wanted the story to do something interesting with it. Conflict is what makes stories stories and the Veil coming down could create so much compelling and complex conflict. And the Fade is weird, and I like weird. Stories are also about change, and I wanted to see Thedas change. Yet, Veilguard is over, and barely anything has changed. Instead of magic coming back being a conflict for the next game, they went with Fantasy Illuminati. Oh.

The Veil turned out to be a nothing-burger, and no problems in this world are even close to being solved. Slavery is still rampant in Tevinter. The elven people are still oppressed everywhere. Mages have no more rights in the South than they did in Origins. Spirits are still trapped and being corrupted. The Calling still exists, though might be different somehow now? They don’t really get into that. The Chantry’s validity is still not allowed to be questioned. The Blight still exists in some form, but again it’s vague. Oh, and we learn the dwarves have been gravely wronged, and the Titans are still tranquil. At least if you redeem Solas and a romanced Lavellan joins him, they can work together on healing the Blight and helping the Titans. Oh, good. One problem is being acknowledged and some action will be taken. Offscreen. Hurray? Solas doesn’t have a really great track record of fixing problems, so Lavellan is definitely going to need to be there to make sure he doesn’t fuck it up.

For some reason, this game seemed terrified of letting us think about anything for more than two seconds. It shied away from complexity or nuance at every turn. The game is called The Veilguard—ironically, that word is never uttered in the game—but we are given no real motive for guarding the Veil. We’re unquestionably the hero. The villains are uncomplicatedly evil. Save the world… never wonder what you are doing or why.

I wanted the game to make me question if the Veil staying up or coming down was the right choice. I needed to be given a real counter argument. Convince me the alternative would actually be better or worse, because as I mentioned… things suck quite a bit in Thedas already for a lot of people right now. Let the Veil’s fate be a difficult choice to make. If the conflict cannot be what to do about the Veil, it should be am I doing the right thing about the Veil. If the heart of your game is so thin on motive, everything else falls apart around it.

I hoped they were setting up a complex, Thedas-sized existential conflict for this game in Trespasser, but no. I wanted something to happen, but nothing did. 

I want to feel challenged and changed by a story, not left feeling empty. I’m tired of superficial entertainment. I want to sink my teeth into a narrative that doesn’t paint the world in broad strokes of black and white, good and evil, heroes and villains.

Ultimately, I think my issue is why even introduce a concept like The Veil if you’re not going to do anything interesting with it. Or anything at all. What I thought was Chekov’s Veil turned out to just be a MacGuffin. And that’s disappointing.

[only-god-canstopme]

aaron forgiving andrew for killing tilda when he has children of his own because he thinks that if she were around he never would’ve let her meet them.

(and if he didn’t want his children near her, or any children near her, that means that he, as a child, should’ve never been near her. and he gets what andrew did bc he would kill to keep these children safe too.)

[every-sanji]

[practically-an-x-man]

this fucking mosquito allergy is going to be the death of me i swear

[sysig]

Gotta sweep up all this Dust (Patreon)

[jubileebloom]

I aspire to be a lover not a hater. but

[meringuejellyfish]

[waywardsalt]

mmmgh

[jimmyandthegiraffes]

King Ottakar's Sceptre (1938-9)

Health

Sleeps - 3

Ow! - 15 (head injuries - 3; hospitalised - 1, with suspected concussion but left before being treated)

Eats - 3 (szlaszjeck and szpradj, unknown meal, and bread)

Unconscious - 2 (both relating to head injury)

Emotions

Cries - 1 (castafiore-related rather than emotion-related)

Angry - 1 (at Snowy for stealing bones from a natural history museum lol)

Afraid - 2 (thought he ate snowy :|; got dropped from an aeroplane)

Crumbs! - 1

Great snakes! - 1

Eureka! - 2

The Law

Arrested - 2

Imprisoned - 2

Activities

Violence - 5

Radio - 1

Reads - 2

Travel

Motorbike - 1 (crashes - 1)

Car - 4 (drives - 1; hit - 1)

Boat - 2

Plane - 4 (pilot - 1; fell/jumped/was dropped out - 2)

Horse and cart - 1

Ambulance - 1

Peril

Shot at - 4 (hit - 1, by anti-aircraft guns while in a plane; uninjured)

Hit by car - 1 (accidental, driven by King Muskar, no serious injuries)

Dropped from a plane - 1 (and jumped once when aircraft was on fire after friendly fire)

Thompsons? - Yes

Thomson spoonerism - 1

Thompson spoonerism - 1

Bianca Castafiore? - yes

Sings - 4

QUIFF DOWN - 0

[kavehater]

I wish I could inject pasilyo into my brain so I can have permanent happiness

[crescentfool]

"completed" side order (got the credits roll and currently have four developer logs), some thoughts about the gameplay + lore under the cut 👍

i really enjoyed playing side order! i felt that a lot of my experiences in salmon run carried over with having to assess situations and maneuver around large mobs of enemy. so it's not much of a surprise to me that the gameplay structure really scratches an itch in my brain...!

i've played side order for around 10 hours so far (5 hour sessions each)... it wasn't intentional, but i really felt that each run taught me something about the chips/specials and i couldn't help but want to give another try again... (and i do appreciate that the game does allow for breaks between runs, even if i didn't utilize it this time around!)

the only thing i didn't like gameplay-wise (so far) was the weighted rates for certain chips depending on palette, i didn't particularly enjoy my run with charger (even though it's my favorite weapon class), but it could've just been bad rng giving me chips that weren't that fun/interesting...? there's some modifications that i want to explore, but it can be hard to do that with the weighted rates.

that said, i personally think the developers did an excellent job of blending together splatoon's mechanics/objectives with the rougelike style of games! i definitely want to play more sometime, there's still a lot of lore, chips, and palettes i've yet to see. i think it's a breath of fresh air from the other singleplayer parts, but i also recognize that it might not be for everyone (the structure of side order inherently requires a lot of patience and endurance).

as for the story and lore bits, i really liked the framework of the memverse! i do think that some of my affection for it stems from the fact that it has some parallels to persona games (i legit messaged a friend saying "omg it's like apathy syndrome but for splatoon"). but i think side order's a pretty fun follow up to octo expansion, i like that there's potential closure for sanitized octolings and whatever happens to the deepsea metro afterwards. i think it's a pretty cool basis for ocs which is nice!

the bits of character interaction were nice too, pearl and marina are endearing and lovely as always (they are so in love)! deep cut reporting on the side order things before/after the campaign was really funny too, i really liked it (especially after watching the nintendo live 2024 concert).

i think i found the story more satisfying than rotm- the stakes made... more sense to me, but also the setup was just, really interesting to me (persona fan moment). i'll need to check more of the dev logs when i unlock them and reread some things, but, overall, really enjoyable!

anyway, the short of it: side order was fun for me because the gameplay scratches the grinding itch in my brain (salmon run player moment), and also i just like the premise of the memverse because i'm a persona fan and it reminds me of that. LOL.

[lesbiangracehanson]

lmao the therapy session i just had . no one will be hearing from me for 2-5 working days whilst i ponder…..