#WITH HIS EO LIES

[poliodeuces]

うそをつくだろう

[mud-castle]

Continuing off my thoughts of making Sol a creacher, maybe something not cat, maybe dead, maybe spirit. Nothing I want to put a definition on.

Sol starting out as just a sort of odd looking cat. Fairly tall & lanky, short fur except for his mane and tail, male calico type deal. A little off putting, but nothing too alarming. He comes in rare times of peace, asking for nothing more than an audience. He sticks around.

Then the story continues, the clans grow restlessness around each other.. He draws Hollypaw/leaf in more. He casually picks at the threads of the code. And...he makes some sense. Does he look a bit different? His muzzle longer? No, must be the light.

Then things get worse, threat of all out war, each clan for themselves. Hollyleaf & others now listening to Sol's message. He's right, isn't he? But one could swear he towers over you a bit more His teeth look sharper. His grin wider.

Everything goes to shit. War. Death. Can't trust anyone. And a creature, large and imposing stands over the chaos. He doesn't join in the battle, oh no. He's simply there to watch the panic unfold as the moon slips into place, darkening the midday sun.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Richard R John’s “Network Nation”

THIS SATURDAY (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

The telegraph and the telephone have a special place in the history and future of competition and Big Tech. After all, they were the original tech monopolists. Every discussion of tech and monopoly takes place in their shadow.

Back in 2010, Tim Wu published The Master Switch, his bestselling, wildly influential history of "The Bell System" and the struggle to de-monopolize America from its first telecoms barons:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/11/01/the-master-switch-tim-net-neutrality-wu-explains-whats-at-stake-in-the-battle-for-net-freedom/

Wu is a brilliant writer and theoretician. Best known for coining the term "Net Neutrality," Wu went on to serve in both the Obama and Biden administrations as a tech trustbuster. He accomplished much in those years. Most notably, Wu wrote the 2021 executive order on competition, laying out a 72-point program for using existing powers vested in the administrative agencies to break up corporate power and get the monopolist's boot off Americans' necks:

https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

The Competition EO is basically a checklist, and Biden's agency heads have been racing down it, ticking off box after box on or ahead of schedule, making meaningful technical changes in how companies are allowed to operate, each one designed to make material improvements to the lives of Americans.

A decade and a half after its initial publication, Wu's Master Switch is still considered a canonical account of how the phone monopoly was built – and dismantled.

But somewhat lost in the shadow of The Master Switch is another book, written by the accomplished telecoms historian Richard R John: "Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications," published a year after The Master Switch:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674088139

Network Nation flew under my radar until earlier this year, when I found myself speaking at an antitrust conference where both John and Wu were also on the bill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VNivXjrU3A

During John's panel – "Case Studies: AT&T & IBM" – he took a good-natured dig at Wu's book, claiming that Wu, not being an historian, had been taken in by AT&T's own self-serving lies about its history. Wu – also on the panel – didn't dispute it, either. That was enough to prick my interest. I ordered a copy of Network Nation and put it on my suitcase during my vacation earlier this month.

Network Nation is an extremely important, brilliantly researched, deep history of America's love/hate affair with not just the telephone, but also the telegraph. It is unmistakably as history book, one that aims at a definitive takedown of various neat stories about the history of American telecommunications. As Wu writes in his New Republic review of John's book:

Generally he describes the failure of competition not so much as a failure of a theory, but rather as the more concrete failure of the men running the competitors, many of whom turned out to be incompetent or unlucky. His story is more like a blow-by-blow account of why Germany lost World War II than a grand theory of why democracy is better than fascism.

https://newrepublic.com/article/88640/review-network-nation-richard-john-tim-wu

In other words, John thinks that the monopolies that emerged in the telegraph and then the telephone weren't down to grand forces that made them inevitable, but rather, to the errors made by regulators and the successful gambits of the telecoms barons. At many junctures, things could have gone another way.

So this is a very complicated story, one that uses a series of contrasts to make the point that history is contingent and owes much to a mix of random chance and the actions of flawed human beings, and not merely great economic or historical laws. For example, John contrasts the telegraph with the telephone, posing them against one another as a kind of natural experiment in different business strategies and regulatory responses.

The telegraph's early promoters, including Samuel Morse (as in "Morse code") believed that the natural way to roll out telegraph was via selling the patents to the federal government and having an agency like the post office operate it. There was a widespread view that the post office as a paragon of excellent technical management and a necessity for knitting together the large American nation. Moreover, everyone could see that when the post office partnered with private sector tech companies (like the railroads that became essential to the postal system), the private sector inevitably figured out how to gouge the American public, leading regulators to ever-more extreme measures to rein in the ripoffs.

The telegraph skated close to federalization on several occasions, but kept getting snatched back from the brink, ending up instead as a privately operated system that primarily served deep-pocketed business customers. This meant that telegraph companies were forever jostling to get the right to string wires along railroad tracks and public roads, creating a "political economy" that tried to balance out highway regulators and rail barons (or play them off against each other).

But the leaders of the telegraph companies were largely uninterested in "popularizing" the telegraph – that is, figuring out how ordinary people could use telegraphs in place of the hand-written letters that were the dominant form of long-distance communications at the time. By turning their backs on "popularization," telegraph companies largely freed themselves from municipal oversight, because they didn't need to get permission to string wires into every home in every major city.

When the telephone emerged, its inventors and investors initially conceived of it as a tool for business as well. But while the telegraph had ushered in a boom in instantaneous, long-distance communications (for example, by joining ports and distant cities where financiers bought and sold the ports' cargo), the telephone proved far more popular as a way of linking businesses within a city limits. Brokers and financiers and businesses that were only a few blocks from one another found the telephone to be vastly superior to the system of dispatching young boys to race around urban downtowns with slips bearing messages.

So from the start, the phone was much more bound up in city politics, and that only deepened with popularization, as phones worked their ways into the homes of affluent families and local merchants like druggists, who offered free phone calls to customers as a way of bringing trade through the door. That created a great number of local phone carriers, who had to fend off Bell's federally enforced patents and aldermen and city councilors who solicited bribes and favors.

To make things even more complex, municipal phone companies had to fight with other sectors that wanted to fill the skies over urban streets with their own wires: streetcar lines and electrical lines. The unregulated, breakneck race to install overhead wires led to an epidemic of electrocutions and fires, and also degraded service, with rival wires interfering with phone calls.

City politicians eventually demanded that lines be buried, creating another source of woe for telephone operators, who had to contend with private or quasi-private operators who acquired a monopoly over the "subways" – tunnels where all these wires eventually ended up.

The telegraph system and the telephone system were very different, but both tended to monopoly, often from opposite directions. Regulations that created some competition in telegraphs extinguished competition when applied to telephones. For example, Canada federalized the regulation of telephones, with the perverse effect that everyday telephone users in cities like Toronto had much less chance of influencing telephone service than Chicagoans, whose phone carrier had to keep local politicians happy.

Nominally, the Canadian Members of Parliament who oversaw Toronto's phone network were big leaguers who understood prudent regulation and were insulated from the daily corruption of municipal politics. And Chicago's aldermen were pretty goddamned corrupt. But Bell starved Toronto of phone network upgrades for years, while Chicago's gladhanding political bosses forced Chicago's phone company to build and build, until Chicago had more phone lines than all of France. Canadian MPs might have been more remote from rough-and-tumble politics, but that made them much less responsive to a random Torontonian's bitter complaint about their inability to get a phone installed.

As the Toronto/Chicago story illustrates, the fact that there were so many different approaches to phone service tried in the US and Canada gives John more opportunities to contrast different business-strategies and regulations. Again, we see how there was never one rule that governments could have used if they wanted to ensure that telecoms were well-run, widely accessible, and reasonably priced. Instead, it was always "horses for courses" – different rules to counter different circumstances and gambits from telecoms operators.

As John traces through the decades during which the telegraph and telephone were established in America, he draws heavily on primary sources to trace the ebb and flow of public and elite sentiment towards public ownership, regulation, and trustbusting. In John's hands, we see some of the most spectacular failures as more than a mismatch of regulatory strategy to corporate gambit – but rather as a mismatch of political will and corporate gambit. If a company's power would be best reined in by public ownership, but the political vogue is for regulation, then lawmakers end up trying to make rules for a company they should simply be buying giving to the post office to buy.

This makes John's history into a history of the Gilded Age and trustbusters. Notorious vulture capitalists like Jay Gould shocked the American conscience by declaring that businesses had no allegiance to the public good, and were put on this Earth to make as much money as possible no matter what the consequences. Gould repeated "raided" Western Union, acquiring shares and forcing the company to buy him out at a premium to end his harassment of the board and the company's managers.

By the time the feds were ready to buy out Western Union, Gould was a massive shareholder, meaning that any buyout of the telegraph would make Gould infinitely wealthier, at public expense, in a move that would have been electoral poison for the lawmakers who presided over it. In this highly contingent way, Western Union lived on as a private company.

Americans – including prominent businesspeople who would be considered "conservatives" by today's standards, were deeply divided on the question of monopoly. The big, successful networks of national telegraph lines and urban telephone lines were marvels, and it was easy to see how they benefited from coordinated management. Monopolists and their apologists weaponized this public excitement about telecoms to defend their monopolies, insisting that their achievement owed its existence to the absence of "wasteful competition."

The economics of monopoly were still nascent. Ideas like "network effects" (where the value of a service increases as it adds users) were still controversial, and the bottlenecks posed by telephone switching and human operators meant that the cost of adding new subscribers sometimes went up as the networks grew, in a weird diseconomy of scale.

Patent rights were controversial, especially patents related to natural phenomena like magnetism and electricity, which were viewed as "natural forces" and not "inventions." Business leaders and rabble-rousers alike decried patents as a federal grant of privilege, leading to monopoly and its ills.

Telecoms monopolists – telephone and telegraph alike – had different ways to address this sentiment at different times (for example, the Bell System's much-vaunted commitment to "universal service" was part of a campaign to normalize the idea of federally protected, privately owned monopolies).

Most striking about this book were the parallels to contemporary fights over Big Tech trustbusting, in our new Gilded Age. Many of the apologies offered for Western Union or AT&T's monopoly could have been uttered by the Renfields who carry water for Facebook, Apple and Google. John's book is a powerful and engrossing reminder that variations on these fights have occurred in the not-so-distant past, and that there's much we can learn from them.

Wu isn't wrong to say that John is engaging with a lot of minutae, and that this makes Network Nation a far less breezy read than Master Switch. I get the impression that John is writing first for other historians, and writers of popular history like Wu, in a bid to create the definitive record of all the complexity that is elided when we create tidy narratives of telecoms monopolies, and tech monopolies in general. Bringing Network Nation on my vacation as a beach-read wasn't the best choice – it demands a lot of serious attention. But it amply rewards that attention, too, and makes an indelible mark on the reader.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/18/the-bell-system/#were-the-phone-company-we-dont-have-to-care

[cutesilyo]

okay so in the tags of my reblogs i've been yapping about how percy's use of trickery and manipulation reminds me a lot of odysseus and how fitting it would be for percy and annabeth to essentially be modern-day odysseus and penelope

but ultimately i think it would be so funny if athena sees the resemblance. like even if percy isnt odysseus reincarnated, it'd be so funny if she saw echoes of the person who was basically her favorite pet in her rival's child. a rival's child who is dating her favorite daughter without her approval, mind you. imagine this with me: athena just. grumbling to herself because she wants to hate percy completely but she can't. because if he was anyone other than poseidon's son she would've been so happy to indulge herself in his lies and deception and happier to see him with annabeth. you know how, in the odyssey, athena convinces eos to let the dawn rise a little later so odysseus and penelope can enjoy the night of their reunion a little longer? that is how much she would've shipped percabeth. perhaps even a bit more.

and the only thing that would be funnier is if poseidon is absolutely oblivious to how much percy - his beloved son, his favorite son - resembles the man he tried his best to drown thousands of years ago. the hilarity of it all

[romanticatheartt]

The most beautiful thing

Feyre: "Standing before me was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen"~acotar, ch.20

Rhysand: “You are,” he said. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I thought that from the first moment I saw you on Calanmai." ~acomaf, ch.55

Lucien: "She was the most beautiful female he’d ever seen."~acowar, ch.24

Cassian: "In the moonlight, before the silvered lake, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen."~acosf, ch.50

Nesta: "The music was no longer the most beautiful thing in existence. He was." ~acosf, ch.57

Hunt: "She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen."~hoeab, ch.69

Ruhn: "Ruhn found himself faced with the most beautiful female he’d ever seen."~hosab, ch.31 (and so many times in hofas! 4 times to be exact)

Aelin: "He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen." ~EoS, ch.38

Rowan: "The most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Aelin." ~KoA, ch.5

Dorian: "It’d be a shame to lose the most beautiful woman in the world so soon into her immortal, wicked life." ~EoS, ch.42

Chaol: "The most beautiful he’d ever seen." (About Yrene's eyes) ~ToD, ch.39

Chaol: "Chaol thought it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard." (About Yrene's laugh) ~ToD, ch.43

Elide: "and his smile was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen." ~KoA, ch.117

First of all, I still haven't read TOG but my sister has, so I asked her.

Second, idk if anyone has noticed this… but Feyre and Rhysand both thought they were the most beautiful thing they laid their eyes on when it was night and under the stars. Cassian while she was under the moonlight and Nesta when they were at Court of Nightmare. But Lucien… he Thought Elain was the most beautiful female he'd ever seen when it was daytime and sunlight was streaming from the window! maybe it's a consequence but I love the detail nonetheless.

Third, 7.5 couples -expect for Manon and Dorian which their story ended with a cliffhanger- out of 9 are endgame... I don't see how Elucien is any different. (This might not seems a very strong reason but it's one of the many pattern sjm has for her endgames) Even when Chaol and Yrene are human, they have a very deep connection. (my sister's words hehe)

And last, I read somewhere that in the books we normally have the MCs to call the LI the most beautiful because in their eyes, they are. And I agree with that so much! Because they're in love, they're their person so that's why they're the most beautiful thing they've ever seen<3 and I think maybe that's why sjm keep using this phrase specifically.

Yeah anyway… I love how sjm copy+paste her mating bond (aka endgame) language.

[cookidoughlilac]

Space

It's been 5(ish) years since I've written for the Thunderbirds community, but I am back with something new! It's an alternate ending to Impact, because if you don't hurt or kill your favs every once in a while, are they really your favs? :)

Enjoy~

˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　　 . ✦　　　 　˚　　　　 . ★⋆.

“All hands abandon ship. This is not a drill.”

She’d never had to give an evacuation order before. Though, if Ridley had time to sit back and consider the situation, she’d never had a rocket-controlled comet hurling through space towards her before. In a way that could only be regarded as humorous in the face of imminent death, the fact that she’d arrested pirates before she’d ordered a full abandonment of Global One was… funny. 

Could she call it funny? There was a giant comet headed her way with no way of stopping, the final shuttle to leave the impact zone was short one seat, and, upon looking out of the window of the central hub, she could see the march of death inch ever closer. Even if said deathly omen was disguised as an obnoxiously large ball of frozen water and rock.

Yes, the situation she found herself in was funny, she decided. Hilarious, even.

Why do I feel so numb?

The holographic image of John appeared back in her line of sight, an expectant look on his face. This was the face he used when on the job. It was rare she saw it - usually he was offering her a smile, or a look of amused delight. He never showed her this face, the one reserved for total concentration on life-or-death situations. Right, of course, she had to clue him in about what was happening. She was the captain of Global One after all. She had a job to do as much as he did.

“The shuttles are clear.”  Ridley couldn’t tell if her voice sounded different. She quietly hoped that she’d been able to hold her composure for four words.

When John let out a breath of relief, her heart sank. She’d wanted to fool him, to make him believe that she was safe, but oh how it felt wrong to lie. She knew that he was only doing his job. He didn’t mean to be the bearer of bad news. It was his job to offer the facts. The main fact being that Global One was about to undergo rapid disassembly not by builder bots, but by a bit of space rock. 

It’s not lying, her mind supplied, the shuttles are clear. You’re just not clear with them. You’ve not lied, you’ve just omitted parts of the truth.

If only omitting parts of the truth could ease one’s nerves.

“Good. If the comet hits at least no one’s on board.” John’s voice was calm, relieved. He believed her to be safe. She’d be touched if she wasn’t so preoccupied with what to do next. 

What were the dwindling options available to her? 

She could try turning on the station’s jets, moving Global One to a safer position outside of the impact zone. An option borne from wishful thinking - Global One wasn’t built to move great distances in such short windows of time. Attempting to move with so little time could cause the comet to hit one side of the station, resulting in a spinning wreckage or worse. Cleaning up a large space wreck was difficult enough - the cleanup after Eden had taken weeks - but catching a wayward wreckage before it became a hazard to other satellites? Even for the famous Thunderbirds, it would be a hassle. Not to mention that John and EOS were probably monitoring Global One and would be alerted to any movement.

No, Ridley quietly considered, We can’t risk moving.

Another option was to play the damsel in distress and plead for John to rescue her. Morally, it was the wrong thing to do. She’d be asking John to put his life at risk to save hers. Worse, she knew it wouldn’t take much to convince him at all. Between his duty as a member of International Rescue and their ‘friendship’… it would be all too easy to bring him into the impact zone. 

It would be killing two birds with one stone whichever way it went. If the combined manoeuvring power of Global One and Thunderbird 5 were enough to clear the impact zone before the comet hit, everyone would be safe.

But if they weren’t quick enough…

Thunderbird 5 and Global One would be destroyed. John, EOS and yourself would die.

Another option out of the window.

With no alternative means of escape, her metaphorical wings were clipped. Ridley was no better than a sitting duck, left to await her fate. The most realistic of all options was to find a cosy corner aboard Global One, sit back, and accept that there was little else she could do to remedy her predicament. If she was lucky, the comet’s collision would put an end to her misery instantly. She didn’t want to experience oxygen deprivation again. The Eden Incident was enough to last a lifetime. 

Perhaps music will help. 

Listening to her favourite songs would certainly make for a cinematic end to her life as a GDF Captain. Granted, Ridley assumed it would be a little less glamorous than the movies made it out to be, but if her flame was to be extinguished, she wanted it to be memorable. Perhaps she’d rig the music to play across the speakers of Global One, to make the affair truly spectacular. 

Would she sit by the window to watch the comet get closer, or would that make her too nervous? A window seat would give her the best view in the house. House? Space station? No, house definitely worked better in that phrase. 

Ridley involuntarily shivered. Dread was starting to seep into every fibre of her being.

“O’Bannon?”

Pull yourself together woman!  Take a breath. Perform. Everything’s alright.

“Hm? Oh, sorry, John. I was just preparing a message to command. Gotta warn them of our unexpected arrival.” She paused, chuckled, cleared her throat and then continued, “What did you say?”

I should warn command that the crew are on their way, not just claim that I am.

“Is there anyone else on board?” John’s voice was patient. Understanding. As though he knew she’d be distracted with captaining her crew. 

What if the crew alert him to my remaining on Global One?

“Everyone is accounted for, John. Global One is as empty as the day she was completed.”

“That’s a relief to hear. Virgil and Alan are attempting to drill to the comet’s core and plant an explosive, but with their current progress it’s unlikely detonation will occur before Global One is hit.”

Ridley winced at the wording. She couldn’t blame John. If he knew she was still on board, he wouldn’t have mentioned how close the comet truly was. Granted, if he was aware that she was forced to stay behind, he would have figured out a way to come to her rescue. 

Tell him.

“How long do you think it will be before the comet hits?” Ridley asked, glancing at the flickering image of John to offer him a half-hearted grin, “Command will want as many time stamps as I can give them.”

“EOS estimates about five minutes at most.”

Ridley blinked, taken aback momentarily at how quickly time had passed. She braved a look at the window, blood running cold at the sight of the comet taking up the entire expanse beyond the glass. With the closing distance, she could see Thunderbird 3 attending the scene, attached to the comet’s nucleus as they drilled further into the rock.

Five minutes until her life would come to a grinding halt. 

At most, a song and a half. 

I suppose there’s no place like the central hub to await the embrace of death. Would it be wrong of me to put on Space? I know it’s a love song that has nothing to do with this beautiful, endless void… but…

“John? Are you still there?”

Tell him. Ridley, you have to tell him.

“I’m here, Captain. Is everything alright? You sound… tired.”

Tell him what? I'm still on Global One? There wasn’t a seat spare for me? I’m about to die? Your brothers will discover my body amongst the wreckage? I’m scared? I love you?  Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t do that. I can’t do that to John.

Ridley tore her eyes away from the comet outside the window, settling on John’s flickering image. His previously serious expression had morphed into one of concern. It tugged painfully at her chest, knowing that she was the cause of his worry. 

“I’m fine, John. I’d forgotten to mention during the match earlier that I wasn’t going to be around next week for our usual handball. I was going to be virtually sitting in on a meeting, but now I’ll probably just attend it in person.”

Another glance at the window confirmed that the comet was still edging closer. She could see the damned orange rocket emblazoned with the logo of Fischler Industries clearly at this distance. Compared to the dull rock, it stuck out like a sore thumb. No doubt it would look just as out of place amongst the clean blues and whites of her space station. 

Around two minutes until impact.  Tell him.

“Oh, is that so?” John’s voice took on a hint of disappointment, shattering her heart further in guilt, “I’ll just have to use next week to practice my technique. When you come back, I’ll smash you.”

Tell him.

Ridley couldn’t help but quirk an eyebrow at him. “Is that so, Tracy? Don’t go making promises you can’t keep.”

At John’s stammer and rapidly pinkening blush, she laughed. The cold numbness she’d felt before had given way to lightness. Acceptance of the inevitable. Not even the looming presence of the comet outside could rattle her anymore. It felt nice.

It’s now or never. Ridley, tell him. Or you’ll never get the chance to.

“I’m only messing with you, John, don’t worry. But you know I won’t believe it until I see it! Either I have a natural talent for handball, or you’re purposefully letting me win!”

“Ha, I suppose you’ll just have to find out at our next match. I’ll even the scores, just you wait, Captain.”

30 seconds, if we’re lucky. This is your last chance to tell him. Please don’t let him go.

“Anyway, as much as it’s a joy to talk with you, I’m sure command will require me soon to give an account of what’s happened. I’ll talk to you later. See you round, spaceman. You too, EOS, since I know you’re listening. Bye!”

I’m so sorry John. Please don’t forget me. I love you.

[fluentmoviequoter]

Teeth

Pairing: Vicious fic w/ EO!fem!reader (nonspecific to preserve the feel/suspense!)

Summary: The war between Victor Vale and Eli Ever is just beginning, and you find your place in it.

Warnings: spoilers for Vicious, graphic depiction of open heart surgery, violence (not exactly torture but it's on the bloodier side of things), angst, fluff at the very end

Word Count: 1.9k+ words

A/N: I got this idea while listening Teeth by 5SOS. I used the lyrics and highly recommend the song because it's great.

Picture from Pinterest

Masterlist Directory | Victor Vale Masterlist | Request Info/Fandom List

“Steady,” you demand. “It has to be all the way to the heart. Without direct access, this will never work.”

A moment later, you can see into his chest cavity, his heart beating within reach. As you place your hand around it, his life becomes yours.

Eli Ever gasps as he wakes. He sits up, breathless, before he realizes it was just a dream. You would never do that to him, he knows. Eli looks over his shoulder, and you’re exactly where you’re meant to be. Beside him, peaceful. You stir as he turns to face you, smiling in your sleep as he brushes his fingers over your cheekbone.

“Some days you’re the only thing I know,” he whispers. “Only thing that’s burning when the nights grow cold.”

“Nightmare?” you ask without opening your eyes.

Eli hums, and you place your hand on his and encourage, “You’ll heal from it. Just like you heal from everything else.”

“Yeah,” Eli agrees under his breath.

As he lies down, he can’t look away from you. Something inside of him pushes him to beg you to stay, make you promise to be there when he wakes up in the morning, but as you move closer to him, he knows he doesn’t have to beg. You’ll be there.

“Eli!” you yell from the other room. “Focus.”

Eli follows your voice, then pauses in the doorway of your shared bedroom to watch you. On the bed, you’re leaning forward with your head in your hands, whispering something to yourself.

“You okay?” Eli inquires.

You chuckle and answer, “I’d be better if I could get a moment away from you.” You close your eyes and sigh before you stand and turn toward Eli. “I’m sorry.”

Eli shrugs, and pressure builds in his chest when you reach out for him. “It’s fine,” he assures.

“No, I… I guess I’m just feeling lost. That’s no reason to push you away. Stay with me?” You smile as you brush your fingers through his hair. “Please stay with me, Eli,” you whisper.

Eli can’t speak, the pressure around his heart turning into a gripping pain. He nods and pulls you close. Immediately, the pain disappears, and he’s left with nothing but you.

You can feel Eli looking around as if he thinks something is missing. Moments like these are becoming more frequent, and you’re unsure how to deal with them. One wrong step, and you know he could leave you forever. Or worse.

“Stay with me,” you murmur against his shirt, speaking directly to his heart. “I’ll beg you to stay, Eli.”

“Sometimes you’re a stranger in my bed!” Eli accuses. “I don’t know if you love me or you want me dead.”

You clench your jaw and pull your arms tightly across your chest. There’s a hatred for Eli inside you, and you’re powerless to hide it.

“Something in the way you’re looking through my eyes…” Eli adds. “I don’t know if I’m gonna make it out alive.”

“What do you want to hear, Eli?” you ask. “If I tell you I love you, you’ll think I’m lying, but if I agree and say I hate you and want you to leave, you’ll say I’m baiting you! I can’t keep playing this game.”

“You’re the best thing in my life, I look at you and I see my wife. Then you turn into somebody I don’t know.”

You step toward Eli, daring him to come closer and say, “Take what you want, Eli. You and I both know you’re too scared to ask for it and this relationship was doomed from the beginning. So, take what you need and run. I won’t be surprised if I wake up alone.”

Eli’s arms drop as his gaze hardens. For a moment, you think this is the end. Then, he mumbles, “I just need some air. I’ll… I’ll be back tomorrow.”

As the door closes behind him, you sigh. There’s a photo from Lockland on the table beside you, and your smile between Eli and Victor’s masks makes you reconsider everything. But tonight, you have something important to do. Then you can call Eli and apologize. If he answers.

Your leg bounces as the phone rings. Your relationship with Eli isn’t new, but there’s still so much you don’t know about him. Like if he’ll accept your apologies or the lies you insulate them with.

“Hey,” Eli answers.

“Hi,” you greet, pulling your knees toward your chest. “Listen, I’m sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have said those things to you- to anyone, because they aren’t true.”

“No?”

“Of course not. I love you, Eli. I love you more than anything else in the world. But if you decided that there’s something else, someone else, out there that would be better for you-“ you pause and take a shaky breath – “then I love you enough to let you go.”

Eli is silent for several seconds after you finish. He muses, “You said you’d call me in the morning to apologize and every little lie gives me butterflies. Better is with you, you’re the only thing saving me from myself.”

“You’re coming home?” you ask, avoiding looking at the picture of Victor beside you.

“Yes. In a while. There’s something I need to do first.”

“Oh, okay. Be careful, Eli. I love you.”

The line beeps as Eli hangs up, and you look down at your empty hands, pristine despite the feeling of blood running between your fingers.

Eli knocks on the heavy wooden door, then steps back to wait. He knows the woman who lives here, yet he’s never been inside. Something about her makes it hard to argue and easy to tell everything. Maybe that’s why she’s such a good listener and gives worthy advice.

“Eli Cardale,” a woman says as the door opens. “Or is it still Ever?”

“Serena,” Eli greets. “You look good.”

“I know. Here for personal reasons or is this another Midnight Incorporated thing?”

“No, no, business is great,” Eli assures. “It’s personal.”

Serena smiles as she opens the door wider. “By all means, come in, then.”

Sitting in her home library, Serena offers Eli a cup of tea before she sits back to listen to his worries, stories, and everything else he never planned to share but seems to let slip. The first time he came by, he accused her of lacing the tea with something to inhibit his control. She laughed and brushed him off, and as he shares the details of his relationship with you, he doesn’t even remember that encounter.

“It’s like she… she’s the kind of person who can fight so dirty but her love’s so sweet, talk so pretty but her heart’s got teeth,” Eli explains.

“And last night?” Serena presses. “What did you think during your argument?”

“That she was a late-night devil,” Eli answers. “But even when she’s like that, pushing me, hating me, the only thing I ever want to do is beg her to put her hands on me.”

“It’s sounds like you think she has some kind of power over you. Here I was thinking Eli Ever couldn’t get hooked by a pretty girl.”

Eli scoffs as he raises his cup. “You’d know, huh?”

“We had good times together, you and I,” Serena defends. “But this is about you, here and now. What are you going to do about the girl you see a future with but can’t survive twenty-four hours with?”

“I need her,” Eli admits. “But there’s these moments, a sense of clarity, where it seems like everything is fake, something she’s manipulated me into believing to keep me in this- this vicious love.”

Serena sets her mug aside, leans forward, smiles, and encourages, “Then make your own reality. If you want the clarity, grasp it and pull until her love shatters around you.” She leans back and shrugs. “But if you want the future, figure out how to make it yours.”

Eli nods as he stands, not because he feels ready to leave but because something urges him to. He knows what he wants, and while Eli has the clarity to see that you’ve been manipulating him, hooking him into a false love that makes it impossible for him not to return, he pulls. And everything shatters around him.

When Eli blinks his eyes open, you are standing above him. He tries to smile, but then he sees the look on your face. The look Victor gave him after Eli killed himself. Like he’s a monster.

“Welcome back,” someone says on the other side of the room.

You step back, and Eli tilts his chin to watch you. His eyes widen when he sees you and everything else in the room.

“Back to what?” Eli asks, his throat dry and scratchy.

“Reality.”

There’s blood on your shirt, a rose in Victor’s hand. You’re looking at him like you don’t know who he is. When Eli left your manipulative reality, he wasn’t expecting to come to this.

Blood on your shirt, a heart in your hand, Eli thinks. My heart.

“What did you do?” Eli demands.

“Nothing you didn’t deserve,” you answer carefully. “Tell Victor thank you for the get well present.”

“Oh, no,” Victor interjects. “Thank her. She’s the one who decided you should have something beautiful.” He twists the stem, raising the flower toward the light. “A desert rose. Poisonous, perfect, and deadly.”

“You said you loved me,” Eli says, his eyes on you.

“I said a lot of things,” you reply, putting pressure on Eli’s heart. “The only time I meant what I said was when you thought I was lying. I’ve never loved you, and no one ever will.”

You shift and lower Eli’s heart back into place. Blood covers your shirt, runs down your arms, and drips from your fingers as Victor lays the poisonous rose across his exposed ribs. He removes the clamps holding Eli’s incisions open, and the skin begins knitting itself closed over his heart.

“Try healing around that, Cardale,” Victor says.

“What was it you told sweet Serena?” you ask, faux sympathy on your face. “That my heart has teeth? Well, there’s one thing you didn’t learn. Those teeth bite. And now that your heart has poison in it and thorns wrapped around it, we’ll see who’s really the monster.”

“Victor,” Eli grits out. “When I get out of here-“

“I’m shaking in fear,” Victor deadpans, “but I’m going to stop you right there. You’re not going anywhere. Welcome to purgatory, Cardale. Enjoy dying, over and over and over.”

As you follow Victor out of the sterile room, you grimace at having any trace of Eli on your skin.

The last thing Eli hears you ask is, “Vic, do you think insanity is spread through bodily fluids like hepatitis?”

On the other side of the door, Victor thanks you for your help, then tells you to leave.

“Yeah,” you agree sarcastically. “One thing you should learn from that is I don’t give up. And you’re stuck with me until Eli meets his true fate. I just determined his fate for three days; I’m not walking away yet.”

“You heard her,” Sydney calls from the end of the hall. “And from Eli’s girly screams, I’d suggest not picking a fight for her.”

Victor sighs but waves for you to follow them. Holding Eli’s beating heart in your hands was a good start, but this fight is just beginning. Luckily, your heart, teeth and all, is still beating.

[mysteriouslytransparentwitch]

Catherine energy 3/02/2023 tarot & oracle

With the oracle of energies, we start with the patience card, we are talking about winter 2024 at the end of March. We're talking about strategy here (Catherine's energy is not really present, it's more around her) something is closed and locked. We talk a lot about hostility (internet?) I have the 3rd chakra open archangechamuel = emotion of desire, vital energy, it is immersed in an energy of management of internal and external emotions. We talk about a storm coming, something is coming to an end, we talk about the card of deception, lies, hidden money. We also have the 1st chakra here with Michel, action, security…. we're talking about the community = the people around her have created a safe place for her! It was a victory for them! Catherine wants to get out of there (from her psychological state?) There is something broken inside her!!! She tries to hold on to certain things that make her smile.

with Greek mythology: I have the map of Eos and Apollo, interesting I read like Catherine and William both have the light but each takes a direction. We're talking about vulnerability here, we're talking about a karmic lesson like Icarus who was emotionally violent! We are talking about a new challenge in their relationship between husband and wife. They are embarking on a new path of transformation. We talk about communication and protection. Hygeia = health is reversed. Catherine is still ill. We are hesitant about a health protocol. The drawing ends with Charon = the transition. It is as if Catherine had previously suffered the dark night of the soul.

with tarot cards: We start with the 3 of Wands + Death + 9 of Cups = Catherine has the desire to be reborn emotionally, to rediscover her joy of living even if she is going through a difficult moment with the reversed strength card. But she comes as Empress. There is a king of denarius who is there, he hopes that things will become lighter again. There are discussions about a project, we learned more (this passage is quite complicated to understand)

we are talking about a slanderous woman here, meghan thinks that the press is too kind to Catherine and William?

They found things of her (because above we talk about disgusting things that were discovered!!!!)

OK, I have Charles here and his thoughts, he is thinking about certain things and how to recover?!

There is a king of wands who has a lot of energy around them (maybe an advisor?!) We talk about something that comes up and then accepts help from Catherine.

[your-friendly-neighbourh00d-fag]

i do think heathers the musical romanticised jd a lot more, which is. a really bad message i think. like. we are not supposed to like him. and people watched the movie and said 'christian slater is hot as hell but i feel bad for thirsting after him' because. you know. terrorist.

but then after freeze your brain and the whole trauma with his dad, everyone went 'nahh jd is just misunderstoood, soft boyyy :('

like this man has killed three people and planned to blow up a school. we should not be glorifying jd. he is a horrible person. and i think the musical framing him as some kind of tragic martyr, veronica being really sad that he dies, shit like "im going steady, mostly he's awesome. if a bit too rock and roll! hehee", oh he's just a little guy!! is a dangerous mentality. i really do think heathers the musical was a really shitty adaptation and isnt faithful to the movie at all (but it still is one of my favourites because the music is just so fucking good.)

also veronica saying "ich luge bullets! you lied to me >:(" as if lying is the issue and he didnt just s h o o t t w o p eo p l e.

anyway. uh.

[stupendousfoxthing]

“Haaang on. So... "Jimin didn't say he didn't see him" is fine here but we can't say the same about JK seeing Tae on birthdays? I BEG them to get a speck of logic that applies across the board.”

Reply from @peachjagiya

See why I say there is a serious lack of reading comprehension?

Jungkook in 2019:

“We may all be in the same group but on all our days off I only saw Jimin hyung and Hobi hyung”

(Jungkook’s birthday was during the same break he said he didn’t see anyone except Hobi and Jimin)

Jimin in 2020:

“It was around 4am when I heard the news, I was with Jungkook…..”

Jimin later that day during a Live:

“I’m the one who told Jungkook about the news” (because they were together when they heard of their song getting a #1 on BB Hot 100)

V on the same day during the Live:

“I spoke with Jimin on the phone and I asked him to come sleep by my side but he was too lazy to come to my place”

Jungkook in 2022:

Jin: “Did V come?” (2x)

Jk: No he didn’t come (2x)

What other logic are we supposed to be applying here? Wasn’t Jungkook clear enough when he explicitly said during the break he ONLY saw Jimin and Jhope? Wasn’t he clear enough when he said TWICE that V didn’t come greet him in 2022 and he was Live till past midnight on his birthday then. Wasn’t Jimin clear when he said that Jk was with him at 4am on his birthday? Didn’t V make it clear that he wanted Jimin to come sleep by his side? What am I missing?

I can say Jimin didn’t say he didn’t see Jungkook on his birthday because he really didn’t say that but you can’t say the same about taekook because Jungkook very clearly said he didn’t, all these times. That is the difference. In one of these cases, you are concluding that Jimin didn’t see him even though Jimin literally never said he didn’t while in the other case you are trying to say that we don’t know if they saw eo or not even though we know because both times Jk explicitly said he didn’t unless you are trying to imply that Jk lied all these times. Is that it?

I don’t want it to seem like I am only talking about birthdays so let’s talk about other days.

Chuseok 2017:

All the members go home for chuseok

Jin: “Jungkook was the only one who stayed back to work on music. He was home alone”

Jimin: Hyung, I was home with Jungkook”

New year 2018:

Interview: what did you do on New years Holiday?

Jungkook: “I didn’t really do anything special, just stayed in the workroom. Ah, I also went bowling with Jimin and we had some really good food. We did some karaoke too.”

Valentines 2018:

14th February 2018:

Jimin seen at the airport back from Japan after a schedule with Hobi.

15th February 2018:

Jk, Jimin and Ha Sungwoon seen together on the street and also left autographs at an escape room they went to on the same day.

Winter 2018:

Jimin who loves the snow talks about not being able to see the first snow of the season and feels bad about it. Few days later Jimin and Jungkook post a video on twitter watching their first snow of the season together. (We know what watching the first snow together means in korean culture. Don’t have to believe me, just google it)

Chuseok 2020:

Jikook together, post video of themselves together from Jimin’s apartment around 3am

White day 2022:

Jimin, Jungkook and friends spotted at a restaurant (Jk was at Jimin’s place the night before, after they finished the final day of Seoul PTD concert)

White day 2023:

Jimin in the US promoting his album, Jungkook in Korea, V in Korea. Jungkook goes Live for almost 5 hours all alone from his apartment.

So it’s not only birthdays that taekook don’t spend together but couple days and other holidays too. I wonder why they only seem to be able to hang out on the most ordinary days but choose to hang out on these significant days with different people or alone?

Y'all. 💀

In one of these cases, you are concluding that Jimin didn’t see him even though Jimin literally never said he didn’t while in the other case you are trying to say that we don’t know if they saw eo or not even though we know because both times Jk explicitly said he didn’t unless you are trying to imply that Jk lied all these times. Is that it?

I'm saying we don't know and also I don't care. 😂 If you want to hyperfocus on a handful of cherry-picked days that you think are super important and think that's enough to prove two people are or are not dating go for it.

[mrs-monaghan]

I just hope Jkk going forward take a more realistic approach about Jikook. Esp JK's lives and the scenarios surrounding the timing in which JM leaves the country. Does there seem to be a pattern now, 3rd times a charm, not to mention all the meat touring when JM was gone previous times or posting Ramen out of the blue? I would say yes, its enough to say its an established pattern, but what happens when JM leaves next time and JK doesn't go live or the next time and so on? We will be right back to insecure Jkk screaming "JK isn't going live when JM left, did they break up" scenarios. Frankly, I'm exhausted with insecure Jkk more then antis. Taennie going public, does not automatically mean Jikook are real or going to be more public as well. I can admit this & I wish others would as well. If anything the whole Taennie situation taught me, not everything is as it seems and you can get slapped in the face hard that your ship is not real & that you can and will still delude yourself and choose to die on that hill, like some are doing right now, cause they made it their whole personality and life to ship a duo based on lies and manipulations & their so called gut feeling. I think Jikook have had enough proof, not just verbally from each other, but also physical proof that alludes to more then platonic friends. I personally think Jikook are in a romantic relationship. I also think Jikook love each other. however, I am not gonna allow myself to sink my teeth into this pattern of JK going live and JM leaving, in case JK catches on and changes his routine or it just doesn't happen again. We are going to be fighting Antis and insecure Jkk all over again, if it happens. We are confident and we know Jikook are in love, we just need to stay grounded and realistic and aware that we don't fully know or things can change. Sorry for the mini rant, I just see people getting carried away lately.

On the contrary, I encourage everyone to get carried away as much as they want to.

Tweet

I won't tire of saying this but Jikook are real because they are real. Not because Taennie is real. Not because of any other factor. They just are. Even if JK changes things up, it doesn't erase the fact that there has been an undeniable pattern so far. And it didn't just start the other day. It started with the meat tours like u mentioned whenever Jimin was busy.

Fuck tkkrs, fuck antis and fuck insecure jkkrs/ the wishy-washys with something sandpapery. I don't give a flying fuck what they have to say. If JK changes it up, then he changes it up. So what? We will just watch out for the next pattern. Or the next sus thing. It is what it is.

But for now, I'm gonna be celebrating the fact that our boy is predictable AF and its simply adorable.

If anything the whole Taennie situation taught me, not everything is as it seems and you can get slapped in the face hard, that your ship is not real.

Jikook is real. I know in my hearts of hearts. This is a fact. I don't need to pump no breaks, I don't need to be careful. I know what I know. I've seen what I've seen. I am extremely confident in their relationship. They ain't never gonna prove me wrong coz there's nothing to disprove. I've said this a million times, if Jikook aren't Jikook anymore, it will be because of a break up. And everything will change between them. I don't even think they will be able to remain friends or stay in the same band. If they break up it will ruin everything. Because they love eo too damn much. They are way too interdependent. If they break up we will know. Believe me when I tell you, we will know. But understand, it will be a break up. It won't be because they were never real.

You can rant whenever u want to anon. But I got carried away a long time ago and I have 0 regrets. I feel very safe and confident in my support for Jikook. Caution was thrown to the wind a long time ago and I've never looked back. These 2 are in a relationship and are going very strong; Doing very well. I love their love and I've got their back

Anyway, back to our regular programming:

[aeithalian]

Light Bringer thoughts

spoilers below:

So the fact that Virginia disappeared from the narrative after the first half of the book kinda threw me for a loop, but I suppose if she had gotten a subplot of her own, it would have felt like we were getting pulled from the action too much… because the Darrow/Lyria/Lys*nder side of the story was all one cohesive plot, and Virginia’s POV, had it been maintained, would have added a certain level of unrelated chaos, with the audience getting jerked away to Mars every so often. So while I missed her, I can appreciate why Pierce didn’t include her as much. 

I LOVELOVELOVE getting outsider POVs of Darrow. Our only other one was from Lys*nder in Dark Age. When Lyria hung around and got to really know Darrow was when she was solidified as one of my favorite characters, for the pure merit that she was able to change her perspective from the myth to the man. It made me realize that more people would like Darrow if he wasn’t famous for war. That and I love the stark difference between how Darrow is in his own head and how he is to other people. It’s so much fun. Likewise, an outsider POV of Lyria was equally fun as well. 

Figment. It’s… I don’t know. I think I expected it to have a bigger payout? Or I expected Lyria to have it for longer. Figment was a really cool mystery that didn’t get fleshed out. But then I realized that the story didn’t really need another physically powerful female character. We have Virginia, Victra, and Volga for that. Aurae, Athena, Theodora (RIP), and now Lyria are a new brand of strong female characters that I’m really glad Pierce has gotten into a groove with - strong, empathetic women who don’t need to hold their own in a fight to be respected and awesome in their own rights. So no, I don’t think Lyria will ever be that ‘red god’ character people thought she might become, because that’s not where her strength lies. And who says Figment won’t return? (No, I don’t think Matteo left it in, but who knows)

I honestly wish Volsung Fá had been introduced earlier, I think it would have made him seem like a bigger threat. The fact that he was introduced as Atlas’ puppet, which was supposed to be this huge mystery to the Volk and the Ascommani, is something we knew the whole time, and decreases on the ‘drama’ of it, I think. I’m excited for an adaptation of him, though! The fear that he supposedly evokes is something that I was kinda missing, so I’d be excited to see it on a screen for a bigger effect. 

BREATH OF STONE HOLY SHIT this entire sequence was so good. I actually teared up. I was so excited. The ‘clang clang clang’ “confess”? Daddy Darrow. ohmygod. Darrow rediscovering his roots in the mines of Mars? A spiritual experience. AND he recreated the Trojan Horse moment from Red Rising and it was like a little part of me was healed. It was so good. That moment where he talks about the game he played with Eo as kids really got me because I think this is the first time in a while where he’s looked back on his memories of Eo and not thought about her death and her dream, but her life. I think he remembered why he loved her so much, and it made me like her a bit more too. But the power up moment. So good. Ugh. 

I’m gonna be honest. I saw Cassius’ death coming from a mile away. But it hit me WAY harder than I thought it would. I was never his biggest fan, even in Iron Gold, but I knew I was in for it when he rejected the ‘au’ honorific to Matteo, and I really started seeing his development. And his last words? Gut punch. I’ll never get over that. Formally rejecting Gold? Claiming Darrow as a brother in life and in oath? Declaring solidarity with the Republic? Yes, Cassius. Your honor does remain. 

The fact that Atlas died in this book kinda freaks me out, because I really thought he was going to be the big boss at the end of the story, because Atalantia doesn’t scare me enough just yet. But now that Lys*nder has the Eidmi, I’m getting a bit nervy. Lys*nder was fine before because he was never a real threat. But there’s nothing more terrifying than a man who has all the power in the world and doesn’t know what to do with it. 

My last thought: Fuck Lys*nder. This absolute pisspot. This pubic hair of a being. This man - no, *BOY* - is going to forever taint my idea of the word ‘honor’, not because he has any, but because he is a bastardization of everything honorable people stand for. He can say he has honor over and over again, but when it clashes with his reputation, he always fails to do the honorable thing. Killing your brother? Not honorable. Doing it for a weapon that will let you commit mass genocide? Hm….. not very honorable, methinks.

Predictions for Red God:

Red God is Darrow. No question. The term ‘red god’ has come up before, in direct reference to Darrow in Dark Age (someone was talking to Alexander) and I heard someone saying it might be Lyria, but honestly, I doubt it.

There are still a couple mysteries that didn’t get revealed that I was curious about: in Dark Age, Virginia says that the Pandemonium Chair was only ever used twice, once being on Lysander… so what was the other time? Similarly, when Atlas is getting un-carved from his Helios-doppleganger body, it’s mentioned that this isn’t his first time, and Lysander noted it as unusual. So what’s up?

I still really think that Lyria’s brothers were the snipers Darrow ordered to kill Lysander during the Long Night. We’ll have to see where that goes. 

Eidmi. It honestly feels too simple, and I’m worried that Atlas wasn’t telling the full truth. Bitch didn’t even have a plan for it, but the thing is, he was afraid of Atalantia having it, because he was afraid she would use it wrong. But oh honorable Lysander (please sense the sarcasm) I don’t really think you should be any less afraid of genocide just because you’re the one holding the trigger. I actually think he’ll try to use it on Luna first, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to get it that close to the planet itself. He probably won’t use it on Mercury, because that’s where he’s going to try his major rejuvenation efforts. And he’s more afraid of Atalantia than he is of the Republic, so Mars probably isn’t that high up on his priority list - remember, he thinks Darrow is dead, doesn’t know the Volk, Daughters, and Rim are all flying to protect Mars, and has wildly underestimated the power of the Republic. He might blame it on the Republic, in a last-ditch effort to get any Golds that haven’t claimed a side to do so. It's almost impossible to predict, because Pierce is inherently a very unpredictable author.

The Abomination is an interesting stone left unturned. The thing is, I thought Virginia might have had a chance to turn him good (?) before she tried to kill him, and I thought she actually could have done it if not for Lilath. Maybe she’ll use the PsychoSpike on him, and somehow implant memories of the real Adrius in him so she’ll have a chance to show him the love he didn’t have before. Because I saw someone say the same thing about wiping Lysander’s memories, but I really don’t think Lysander would take any chance he has for redemption, he’s already turned his back on ‘honor’ too many times. The Abomination, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t have done anything wrong had be been guided by a hand other than Lilath’s. I think there’s hope for him. 

I don’t think Rhonna is dead! No body, no death, especially with Pierce. In the Dramatis Personae, she’s described as ‘lost’, not dead. Chekov’s gun, and all that. 

Darrow better not die. Here’s the thing, though. If the Darrow we saw in Dark Age had carried over through Light Bringer, I think Pierce would be setting him up to die. But now that he’s got the Breath of Stone, the Path to the Vale, and the power given to him by letting go of his guilt and worry, it’s setting him up for a happy ending, moreso than I remember ever reading the rest of the series. I think LB!Darrow is the first time we’ve really seen him believe that he could also live. Remember, he’s always thought he’d end his story as a martyr for the Rising/Republic. But now I think he knows he can not just fight for more, but live for more too. Sevro said it well. We’re tired of this shit. Let’s band together so we can start living rather than surviving. 

[i-needserotonin]

You said your favourite thing was Eli's abilities to ignore reality. Can you elaborate on what you mean? Some examples?

I think him in vegenful when he was at EON is a great example of how inside his own head Eli can be, he just seems to convince himself that he's right and nothing will ever stop him, like, yes keep talking to the "ghost" even after connecting that he was alive, do it! delusion at it finest.

I think this might be one of the most striking traits of his character and how he reasons things, a lot of people just hate him for how he called the cops on Victor and if you just try to follow his vision it makes sense! come with me for this one.

- I feel strange after becoming a EO, like something is missing, apathy and emptiness, loss of fear, so I try to "protect" the only person I consider a friend, this person kills my girlfriend and lies to me even after I saying it shouldn't be done like that, I call the police, he comes back and stabs me, and uses his power on me, confirming my "suspicions" that EOs are in fact inherently evil and wrong I no longer recognize my best friend as himself but rather a "devil" who is using his body. -

at the end of the day I think a lot of Eli is how he rationalizes and tries to fit together pieces of a narrative that doesn't go against him being exposed as wrong or as monstrous, or not holy, for various reasons, being a martyr? maybe his general relationship with religion and how he sees himself as a person? What he knows is that he can't be wrong, it can't be true, if he's wrong what would become of him? Then god hates him, and god doesn't hate him. if he can't die. There's a reason. It has to be one.

"Wouldn’t You?” He cut deeper, through to bone, over and over, until the floor was red. Until he’d given his life to God a hundred times, and a hundred times had it given back. Until the fear and the doubt had all been bled out of him. And then he set the knife aside with shaking hands. Eli dipped his fingertips in the slick of red, crossed himself, and got back to his feet. " Part Two; Chapter IV,  Vicious.

Many people wonder, why does he kill other EOs if he himself is one, doesn't he consider himself unnatural too? when in fact it is more he has convinced himself that he is different and that this has a purpose! he clearly doesn't like being an EO and appears to admit that he would kill himself if he could, he literally tried too, but if he can't then this has to be something bigger than him right? he can't be a sinner, against God's nature, God obviously has a mission for him! Because God loves him.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a bigger picture of how I think Eli works as a character, I think too much about this guy, sorry for the delay in responding, and thanks for the question!

[infiniteetcetera]

I’m glad the HOFAS bonus chapter is finally helping some people realize Cassian is a crappy mate to Nesta because I feel like the fandom is genuinely blind when it comes to this like… the amount of people I see praising Cassian for being the best bat boy/the best LI is so wild to me

Say what you will about Rhys (not about Az tho, I take no criticism on my precious broody shadow boy❤️) but I genuinely can’t imagine him ever letting someone talk to Feyre the way Cassian lets everyone talk to/about Nesta, same for Az and any of his girls. If Cassian genuinely/morally agrees with Rhys on some matters he’s totally entitled to that, but keep that to yourself and stand up for your partner first. Like genuinely I can’t even fathom letting someone talk to my girl the way Rhys does to Nesta and just keeping my mouth shut😩 It’s not about whether Rhys or Nesta is right in the moment, it’s the principle of the matter. Even Feyre and Rhys agree in ACOWAR that they are totally entitled to disagree with each other in private but will always stick up for and by each other to the rest of the world and present a united front. That’s what a relationship should be. It’s also just so so sad to see this happen to Nesta when we know she often thinks very little of herself already.

Anyway, I would really not be sad if Nessian is separated in one of the future books (I don’t think it’d be that crazy either, SJM has done this a thousand times and they’re very much giving Feyre/Tamlin or Celeana/Chaol to me). A part of me is deeply saddened by this because I loved them up through ACOWAR and was rooting for them more than the other ACOTAR couples but if they’re going to keep up this vibe i want them done with honestly…

Side note, I think next book is probably Elain/Azriel’s but maybe after that we’ll get a multi-POV one? KOA or EOS style where we can revisit Nesta’s story arc.

[zeroducks-2]

I'm confused about this new ship because I keep seeing the claim it's actually canon. Wouldn't that be like if Dc made Tim, and Captain Boomerang canon? Thawne killed Barry's mom?

Lol who claimed that, of course it's not canon.

What's canon is that Eobard has a fixation on Barry. As I mentioned before, it's a mix of wanting to kill Barry, have Barry's attention all to himself, and literally be Barry, and the result is a cocktail of stalking, violence, psychological warfare and these two chasing each other through time, killing the other then bringing him back, and ending up being essential to each other's very existence.

Barry tried to extend sympathy, compassion and forgiveness to Eobard but it didn't work - there are instances in which they cooperate and don't try to kill each other, but they aren't destined to last. Barry feels for him in the way that he feels for every person who's suffering, and you can be sure that Eo is suffering greatly; his erratic, violent behavior stems from a deeply rooted childhood trauma and the inability to conceive love in its genuine, unconditional form. He was never loved by anyone growing up, and his only solace was the parasocial relationship he had developed with his childhood idol - the Flash.

So, in short, the canon part lies in Eobard's twisted feelings towards Barry. Joshua Williamson writes him as in love with Barry by his own admission (again, a twisted and insane form of love), but he's not reciprocated and Barry would rather be left alone, or anyway find some way to help him and make him stop trying to ruin his and his family's lives. Not gonna happen unfortunately, not long-term anyway.

[vesperpharsalius]

I read the quote you posted from golden son and I didn’t immediately read the tags so I was going crazy because I remembered the scene differently, but since I have only read GS translated in my language I thought it was a translation change. But now I feel dumb because what are the RR snippets I need more of whatever that was because that was beautiful, the lancelot part got me screaming crying and throwing up. please help😭

Thanks for the ask!

My copy of Red Rising (which is just a standard American mass–market paperback I bought back in 2016) has a teaser for Golden Son at the end, excerpts from Ch. 11–12, which cover the Gala.

It is mostly consistent with the corresponding parts of GS, with less dialogue and detail and overall polishing than the actual book, but there’s the occasional thing that got cut or changed in the final version. Strangely, the teaser at the end of my GS is identical to its corresponding scene in Morning Star—it’s the prologue—so I’m not sure whether this was deliberate.

Here’s the official version of THAT scene:

He of the bloodydamn golden curls is with the girl who nursed me to health in the winter, who helped me remember Eo's dream. His hand on her waist. His lips whispering into her ear. As surely as Cassius au Bellona put a sword in my stomach, he now sticks a dagger in my heart. His hair thick and lustrous. His chin cleft, hands steady. Shoulders powerful, made for war. Face made for the hearts of court. And he wears the rising sun of the Morning Knight. The rumors are true. It rips through the party. The Sovereign has made him one of the twelve. Despite the fact that I won the Institute, he's risen higher, tearing through the Dueling Circuit on Luna like an ancestor possessed. I've watched him on the HC, watched him stalk around the Bleeding Place as another Gold lies near death. But here, now, he dazzles, charms. Face split with a white smile. In his Golden body he has all I have and more. He is faster on his feet than I. As tall. More handsome. Wealthier. He has a better laugh and people think him kinder. Yet he has none of my burdens.

And this is the teaser from RR:

He of the bloodydamn golden curls is with the girl who nursed me to health in the winter, who helped me remember Eo's dream. His hand on her waist. His lips whispering into her ear. As surely Cassius au Bellona put a sword in my stomach, he now sticks a dagger in my heart. His hair thick and lustrous. His chin cleft. His hands steady. Form powerful. Shoulders made for war. Face made for the women of court. And he wears a crown badge. The Sovereign has taken him for one of her lancers. Despite the fact that I won at the Institute, he's risen higher, tearing through the Dueling Circuit on Luna like an ancestor possessed. I've watched him on the HC, watched him stalk around the Bleeding Place as another Gold lies near death. He stalks like a famished beast as if one life cannot sate the hunger that roils inside him. Here, now, he dazzles, charms. Face split with a white smile, he is the man fit for stories of romance, a Lancelot galloping from myth to steal a woman who could have been, but never was, my Guinevere. His is a charmed birth. He has all I have in his Golden body and more. He is faster on his feet than I. As tall. He is more handsome. Wealthier. A golden knight. He has a better laugh and people think him kinder. He does not have my burdens.

As you can see, the final version is a little more eloquent and better–worded. The teaser is rawer and a little clumsier. But… whoever cut the Lancelot and insatiable beast bits out should go to Deepgrave, fr, because they’re just 🤌🏽

With the exception of THAT scene, the differences are minor, the Final Cut being obviously superior and often opulent by comparison. Still, there are some notable omissions that didn’t make it, like:

A brief but important conversation between Darrow and Karnus (where he guzzles like, four glasses of wine in less than a minute; Eagle Rest needs an AA chapter, apparently) about butter, in which they establish that A) Lunese food has too much butter and not enough salt and that B) butter is disgusting and makes them feel like pigs.

Karnus also mentions that Julian loved butter so much he ate it by the stick, alone. Wtf, Julian.

Darrow also remarks at one point that A) Martians pride punctuality and always arrive on time, that B) Venusians disdain it and are always fashionably late, and that C) Lunese either come first or last, to keep people guessing and mess with their heads, ofc.

(I like to imagine the Raa being equally punctual and Dido coming to dinner two hours late wearing a diaphanous dress and body glitter, getting criminally offensive side–eye.)

Secret canon facts! Reblog for Lancelot Cassius and Carny Julian.