#Which was abandoned first...? What started that downward spiral?

[luminaryofblood]

Right, so I had no idea what sinistral and dextral meant and did a googling -- sinistral refers to the left hand - left handed. Dextral is right.

Alright. So Miquella abandoned both his arm sinistral and arm dextral.

But when we fight Promised Consort Radahn, he is... Curiously missing his left arm.

Recall the statues of the Haligtree. How the statues showed Miquella having an unusually veiny arm.

A post on reddit mentions how he watered the Haligtree with his blood, and speculated that he specifically watered the Haligtree with the blood from his left arm.

So his left arm represented his connection to the Haligtree.

During the final fight, his right arm returns, and it's with his right that he is embracing Radahn.

His left arm remains missing.

[animehouse-moe]

Link Click Season 2 Opening & Ending Explained

Praise be the powers that be that allowed the original musicians behind season one's electric performances return to double down on their work for this new season (and even collaborate on them!). Of course, they're not the sole attraction as stunning visuals and incredible solo efforts weave two very different and unique stories for this opening, which I'd love to explain here today.

Vortex - JAWS

This opening is incredibly interesting for countless reasons, but arguably the best is that it's a solo effort that incorporates the unique experience and background of its talented creator, Somei Sun (who you can find here). Seriously a very cool endeavor that starts with Somei's forte of CGI in an incredibly uncanny-in-a-good-way scene of a teddy bear floating upward.

This sequence very quickly sets the tone for the opening at large as the theme of the reversal of time appears from the very get go. Even with things as simple as the lighting changing from our quick look outside of the arcade the bear is found in.

Even further than that, the first time we see Cheng Xiaoshi is under this water that the bear is floating up from within. Very clear symbolism for drowning and being forgotten (alongside a few other key objects that will play into this season).

Soon after this we transition the silhouette of a character obscured in darkness and surrounded by vibrant colors, with various photographs surrounding them. When you slow it down, it's all but obvious that this is Cheng Xiaoshi, and is meant to signify the loss of his sense of self, and the weight that he ascribes to the actions and alterations of the past that he's introduced.

The whole idea of Cheng Xiaoshi being lost and fumbling for where and when he belongs, stumbling through all these pasts and people, is really well exemplified through this frustratingly good cut here.

Of course Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang represent Yin and Yang, so what would a sequence about Cheng Xiaoshi being lost in his many pasts be without Lu Guang seeing all the different versions of Cheng Xiaoshi (and even potentially teasing some new ones). Incredible work here, especially with the idea of Lu Guang being "correctly" oriented in time, just instead being frozen in it compared to Cheng Xiaoshi's violent by comparison reversal.

And the whole idea of Lu Guang appearing in a mirror? That's returning from fracturing? And that at the end of this sequence Cheng Xiaoshi appears again? Incredible symbolic work to summarize their relationship and how they exist both within and separately from each other.

Of course, it only keep getting better as we begin a descent into an incredible collaborative effort between animator and musician. First, we start with this sequence of a a child reaching out to the viewer while a larger hand engulfs them from behind. This is then followed up with a teddy bear erupting into a monster.

The trick here though comes from this incredible scene. This moment of Cheng Xiaoshi going back in time to attempt to save all of those close to him (and a few "others"), but being unable to reach them he begins his downward spiral through the flow of time once more.

It forces viewers to pose the question: which way is the right way? Is this the story of Cheng Xiaoshi clawing his way back from the depths of the Abyss, fighting backwards through time to create the present that he desires so much? Or is it his descent into atomization that fractures himself and Lu Guang into fragments of the past?

Whichever you see, it's impossible to not view it as an incredible sequence when paired with the music from JAWS that reverses as the flow of time switches. From start to finish it's a stellar opening that puts it on par with some of the heaviest hitters for this year.

The TIDES - Fanka, JAWS

This ending is a little more straightforward in its storytelling, as Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang are detectives that guided by Qiao Ling through an abandoned mansion to find something. In that sense it's rather literal, but the imagery shown and story told is more implicit.

Take this first still from within the mansion. A painting that shows a man and a woman together, obviously meant to display the closeness the two have.

The pair appear through Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang's exploration of the mansion quite often, and in very interesting and leading layouts.

The idea is that the woman is depicted as beautiful, the apple of the man's eye. A Saint that exists in opposition to his more devil-like existence. Someone that exists across from the man, so close yet so far away.

Regardless, through their exploration, they find figures of the man and woman with their hands reaching out for each other, and once their hands touch a secret door opens up. Through this secret door they find what could only be a time machine.

If the pieces weren't clear enough, this ending is all about one man's love for his (presumed) wife, one that he lost before himself. One that he could not give up, that he could not forget. A wife that he loved so much he would dare to defy time for. It's a really lovely and interesting story to tell from an outside perspective such as Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang's. Not stronger or better than the opening by any means, but still a very solid ending that tells a unique story.

[chaosfindsaway]

Tommy Townley [Full Bio]

Tommy was born two years after his brother Michael. Just two years after Tommy's birth, the Townley parents filed for divorce. At this point, their father was under the heavy influence of alcohol most nights and sometimes became abusive, mostly toward Michael as he'd take what he could for Tommy. Not long after Michael turned 10 (Tommy being 8 at this point), their father abandoned them which left them in the sole care of their mother.

With what little money they had, their mother moved them to a trailer in a small Midwest town somewhere in Ohio. With little supervision, the two could essentially go where they wanted and do what they wanted. Tommy usually followed Mikey around which all of Mikey's friends found to be lame. Eventually, Mikey stopped allowing his brother to hang out with him so Tommy went and found his own group of friends. They were neighborhood trouble-makers and they often talked Tommy into reeking havoc with them.

During high school, Tommy really started to act out, but he still got decent grades as he was a smart kid who simply didn't apply himself. Michael, on the other hand, had the smarts but was also good at football - he became the star Quarterback for the football team and took them to state during his Junior year. The next year (Michael's last year in high school and Tommy Sophomore year) their mother decided to abandon them as well. She up and left with only a note saying she loved them but couldn't do it anymore. For fear that the boys would be split up, Michael and Tommy kept their mother's departure a secret and lived alone together in the trailer. Michael's anger toward his parents leaving really started to show in these days which got him kicked from the football team during his final year.

Once out of high school, Michael was the first to turn to crime, committing his first robbery in 1988 where he banked $10,000. This was the point in which Tommy wanted in. He'd go on heists and learn what he could from Michael since his brother had already gained years worth of skills.

Eventually, Tommy met a woman and fell in love with her. She wanted him to get out of his life of crime and so, he did. This was when he began to turn his life around. Since he'd never been caught during any of his crimes, he had no criminal record and decided to join the police force (partially for his girlfriend and partially because he wanted to find a subtle way to help Mikey if he could). He spent years as a police officer then eventually got promoted to detective for his work with murder cases - all while finding different ways to throw his fellow officers off Mikey's trail when he could. Around the time of making detective, his girlfriend got pregnant and gave birth to their first son, Graham 'Gray' Townley. Just three years later, they had another son named Lincoln 'Link' Townley. At this time, Tommy's successful work as a detective was getting him more dangerous work. He was officially assigned a case on a serial killer targeting couples - it was a case he was familiar with as he helped with minor investigating on it years ago before he became detective. This became his main case, the killer always seeming to be one step ahead.

Another three years down the road, while Tommy worked late one night, someone broke into their home and murdered his girlfriend. The boys were home at the time, but Tommy taught them to hide in a special cupboard inside his closet if anything bad ever happened while he wasn't there. Gray managed to get himself and Link in the cupboard before being spotted.

His girlfriend's death sent him in a downward spiral for a while, but unknown to him, the killer was the same serial killer he'd been chasing after all those years. Not long after the murder, Michael came up with the idea to fake his own death, he asked Tommy to help him pull it off. Tommy was uncomfortable with the idea, but agreed as his brother had always taken care of them when they were kids (mostly). Afterwards, Mikey asked Tommy to keep an occasional eye on Trevor just to be sure nothing ever happened to him.

For the first few years, Tommy did what he could to keep an eye on him, but hardly ever made his presence known as he feared having to lie to Trevor when the 'death' of Mikey clearly pained him so much. During one of his visits to Sandy Shores, Tommy met Trevor's neighbor, Ron. It took some time, but the two grew close as the days went on. Tommy requested a permanent transfer to Sandy Shores as they were in desperate need of a detective then moved him and his sons to the outskirts to be closer to Ron.

Special thanks to @ronplacerontime and @lymbycsystem for inspiring me to expand on Tommy and make this bio <3

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

‘Our Flag Means Death’ Sneak Peek: Inside Blackbeard & Crew’s New Season 2 Looks

Breakups aren’t easy, but that’s especially true for the new and improved — depending on how you look at it — crew of the Revenge in Our Flag Means Death Season 2 premiering Thursday, October 5th on Max, as Blackbeard, a.k.a. Ed (Taika Waititi) continues to unravel after Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) abandoned him in Season 1.

As with the end of Season 1, Blackbeard recedes even further into the persona of himself painted by various wanted posters. He’s sporting the same black eye makeup as he did in the first season’s finale and also influencing the way his crew looks while serving him aboard the vessel previously helmed by Stede. Above and below, we’re delving into some of those details with exclusive photos, exclusive interviews, and a brand-new clip teasing the dynamic aboard the Revenge.

In the sneak peek, below, times are tense for Frenchie (Joel Fry), Jim (Vico Ortiz), Fang (David Fane), and the newest member of the team, Archie (Madeleine Sami), as they observe Blackbeard’s second in command, Izzy Hands (Con O’Neill). As seen in the minute-and-a-half exchange, Izzy’s getting testy with the shipmates when they question orders to throw treasure overboard. “It is not your place to tell me what does or does not make sense. It is your job to follow my f**king orders,” Izzy spits, emotion welling in his makeup-darkened eyes.

Fang is the first to note that Izzy doesn’t seem to be doing fine, and Jim steps forward to add, “Yeah, we think you’re in an unhealthy relationship with Blackbeard.” Additional tidbits from the crew include the fact that Blackbeard does “a lot of rhino horn” and he’s cut off more of Izzy’s toes.

In other words, Ed’s downward spiral is wreaking havoc on Izzy and the rest of the gang. But depending on how you feel about certain pirate looks, their exterior makeovers are sure to excite, regardless of the reasoning behind them.

“[Blackbeard] sort of has this Mad Max thing that we already established in Season 1, that’s so gorgeous and so unique to [him]. So I just wanted to up that ante,” costume designer Gypsy Taylor tells TV Insider. “We started with that Mad Max black leather violent side of him, and he’s sort of infiltrated this crew now. So they’ve taken it upon themselves to become Beard’s crew in whatever circumstance they’re in.”

“They’ve all taken to that color palette of the black leather and filth, which makes ’em look mean,” Taylor adds with a laugh, but makes it clear, “individually, I wanted to give [them each] a really unique look.” Teaming up with Taylor to accomplish that look is hair and makeup designer Nancy Hennah, who enhances the fantastic clothing ensembles viewers will see onscreen.

“We spent a lot of time working out what we were going to do for the raid makeups,” Hennah says of the Revenge crew. “Blackbeard in particular has lost it a bit and is really going off on a tangent, and the rest of the crew have kind of been pulled into that. We spent a lot of time working out what products were going to be good to emulate [something like the] grease found on the boat and they’ve smeared it on their faces.”

“Blackbeard is really struggling with having lost Stede and is leaning into that dark side, which is frightening for everybody else, but they’re sort of trying to play along,” Hennah continues. While fans may have already seen previously-released photos of the crew, Taylor and Hennah dug into their personal archives to share exclusive sketches and behind-the-scenes photos to provide a closer look at their process and each individual character’s look aboard the Revenge. Check them out below.

Our Flag Means Death, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, October 5, Max

“With Jim, that’s a huge transformation,” Taylor says about star Ortiz’s onscreen evolution. “It was a really exciting one. We talked about it a lot with Vico, and I wanted to bring in a whole lot of ropes and things that they would’ve found on the ship to make an outfit out of and a giant fishhook that we made a belt out of.”

When it comes to the Revenge crew’s ensembles, there’s a focus on found materials doubling as clothing, “so sort of scrounging and finding elements around pirate ships that they could make a costume out of,” Taylor elaborates, noting that the pirates are being resourceful in “almost the same way that drag queens do.”

When it came to styling Ortiz in their costume alongside the other crew members, Hennah says, “Vico had a great new hairstyle, which we were really excited about, and we cut that early on in our testing phase. Then they had to hide [it].

Everywhere they went, they were wearing a hat.” It was all about “getting the right balance between the amount of hair on top and the amount of hair that we took [off] on the side,” she adds of Jim’s mohawk sported by Ortiz, which can be seen in the sketch and behind-the-scenes test photos.

Similar to Jim’s found fashion, Frenchie’s sporting an edgier look this season that is supposed to look like stolen wares from another pirate. “Because pirates steal a lot,” Taylor says, “they’ve quite often got cool things that they’ve stolen off of other pirates. And that’s where the inspiration for Frenchie’s jacket came.” As fans may recall, Frenchie found cats particularly terrifying in Season 1, so it makes sense that he’d emulate the feline, which has a motif on the back of his coat according to Taylor.

“Maybe he stole it from another pirate ship, and then he made it his own by putting this sort of ode to Desperately Seeking Susan on the back of his jacket with this rearing cat, which in the first season, the cat was very innocent lightly licking his paw, and now we’ve gone really manic and bad,” says Taylor.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard’s soft-spoken, but brutish when-needed crew member is enhancing his look from last season with some ornamental additions. “We didn’t want to change Fang too much, but I incorporated a whole lot of new elements to his costume,” Taylor teases. “So he’s got the teeth of sperm whales all around his necklace, and then he’s got walrus teeth coming out of his jacket. So he’s sort of made a new look based on animals that he might’ve found out in the open seas, like dead carcasses and things like that.”

This behind-the-scenes shot from Hennah offers a closer look at Fane’s Fang on set.

An exciting aspect of the season for Taylor and Hennah was the addition of Archie to the crew, giving them something new to craft. “Archie’s now part of the gang, and she’s just a badass,” Taylor gushes. “We figured she was sort of deep from the dark alleyways of New York in her sort of street punk aesthetic.”

One piece of Archie’s ensemble is an homage to one of Taylor’s favorite films, The Warriors. “She’s wearing a little Warriors red leather gang jacket,” Taylor shares, adding, “Her t-shirt is a really cool, very subtle print of Blackbeard’s wanted poster.” Why? “She’s a bit of a fan girl,” Taylor notes. “She really looks up to Blackbeard and how bad he is.”

When it comes to tattoos, Hennah says, “I try to talk about their personal heritage and where they’ve come from and if there’s anything that they want in terms of tattoos.”

For Sami, Hennah sought out designs with Fijian and Indian influence to reflect the actor’s personal heritage. “I approached a Henna artist, and we just got her to do a drawing of some designs,” Hennah reveals. “And then Madeline and a few of the other makeup team [members] and I spent about four or five hours just turning those little puzzle pieces into the tattoos.”

Sami loved her tattoos so much that Hennah says she was told Sami “is thinking about getting one of the tattoos for real.”

And when it comes to Izzy, he’s not changing things too much. “He’s just a man of his own. He wouldn’t really listen to Blackbeard,” Taylor says. “So there were very subtle things [that we were going to do], like adding studs to his gloves so that when he beat up people, it was a little bit more violent.

But in the end, we took it away. He’s enough of a badass on his own.” Ultimately, the only real change people will see on Izzy went the show returns is, “He got a bit dirtier from being at sea. We broke him down more, added a bit more sort of salt and all those crusty sort of overlays.”

When it comes to the crew’s man in charge, Blackbeard’s transformation has evolved a bit since viewers last saw him in Season 1. “I wanted to keep his leathers because pirates, as you see in Season 1, are at sea for a really long time. They don’t have a closet, unlike the Gentleman pirate Stede. So they’re always just wearing the same thing and getting dirtier and dirtier and dirtier.”

When a pirate dons a new garment though, it’s usually stolen. Such is the case for Blackbeard, according to Taylor: “We figured he’d stolen this black leather jacket in a raid, but he’d sort of made it his own in his own manic way, much [like] he’s done with the ship where [things are torn down and burned].”

Wanting to reflect the season’s production design in Blackbeard’s coat, Taylor says, “We burned it, and we ripped it, and we added six different belts to the sides that are holding it together, which would be like he murdered six pirates and stole their belts. And he’s started to collect a little bit more jewelry. So you’ll start to see some new rings and a little lovely pearl necklace that he’s stolen off of someone at the wedding party [seen in the teaser trailer] perhaps.”

As for Blackbeard’s makeup and hair, Hennah says, “We stuck mostly around his eyes. It just looked more sinister, and he was a lot more disheveled. He spends a lot of time this season wet, which is a bit of a nightmare when you’ve got beards and wigs and drying and getting back to dry. He has always had two wigs, and we got an extra one made this season as well because we were having to swap between wet and dry a lot.”

Apart from the extra wig, it was the tattoos that made up Blackbeard’s biggest makeup change. “We added quite a few tattoos,” shares Hennah. “I think in Season 1, he had around 24 tattoos, but at times this season, we were up to 30, and three of them were the big chest tattoo and then a brand new back tattoo. I worked with Dean Sacred at Sacred Tattoo for the big back tattoo design. He did a beautiful drawing for us of the skull with the snake coming out, the skull’s eyes with the snake crying.” As fans can see, the snake and skull sit above another tattoo with the words “Trust No One.”

Will he ever trust again after Stede left? Only time will tell.

Source: TV Insider

[engelakiko]

Yandere player is jealous of his MC's main love interest in a yandere visual novel.

WARNING: Mention of suicide, yandere themes, neglect of one's psychological and physical health. Message me if there are any other warnings I forgot to mention. GN (at least I'll try). English is not my native language, so there may be mistakes.

Yandere player scrolling through a social media feed (ahem, ahem, Tumblr) stumbles upon the attractive main LI of some visual novel.

"I wonder what this novel is about?"

Yandere player gradually becomes interested in the story of the novel. By consuming any facts that the author lays out, the player becomes more and more interested in the story and characters of the novel.

"They are so cute, although a little scary. I wonder what else the author will surprise me with?"

Yandere player begins to single out one of the main LI - an obsessed yandere who seeks to appropriate the MC and get rid of the other LI. At first, the player simply considers the "yandere" to be the most outwardly attractive of all the characters, then the most interesting of all.

"They…they are so damn cool! How could you come up with such a cool character?!"

Yandere player doesn't notice how they gradually begin to obsess over "yandere", obsessively following all the author's posts and fan works of other users. Reading fanfics and requesting them, drawing their own fanart, absorbing "yandere" content like a last meal.

"I need more work, I wonder when the next post will come out?"

Yandere player, wanting to get closer to a "yandere", creates their MC based on their character traits, appearance, and preferences. The realization that this way they can be with their beloved warms their soul immensely and reinforces the idea that a "yandere" is created just for them.

"They are just perfect!"

Yandere player, getting deeper and deeper into his love for the character, gradually abandons real relationships, devoting as much time as possible to his virtual lover

"Why real relationships, they won't understand me"

Yandere player falls into the abyss of love for the character and notices something is wrong in their relationship. "Yandere" sees and loves not the player, but the MC. All of "Yandere's" actions are performed on behalf of the MC, not the player. No matter how hard the player tries, "Yandere" will always love the MC.

"N-no, that's not true…y-yes?"

Yandere player trying to calm his storm-raging soul sends the author a question: "Hello, does "yandere" have feelings for the player or MC?", the author should confirm that "yandere" loves the player, right? But it is not so…

Yandere player is plunged into apathy by the author's words that the "yandere" loves not the player, but the MC. The "yandere" does not even know about the player's existence, their history is connected with the MC and they are yandere only in relation to the MC. The player is an empty space for them, a thorn in their side.

"H-how is that possible..?"

Yandere player continues to go crazy, their psychological state spirals downwards. What was at first a simple love for a character has grown into a desire to be with him forever. The stage at which the player is jealous of a fictional character to another fictional character deprives the player of the desire to monitor their health, eat, sleep, now the head is eaten away by only one question:

"How can I get to you?"

Yandere player, in the tiny breaks from browsing posts about "yandere", tries to find a way to get to his beloved on the Internet, if they are in a novel. Yes, it is doubtful, but love and obsession are blind to rationality and logic, so the player finds a dubious way to get into the virtual world on a godforsaken site.

"We have to be together!"

Yandere player prepares everything for the ritual: candles, a photo of the character, a device with a novel… a knife. According to the ritual instructions, before starting the ritual, you need to play the novel you want to get into while thinking about the desired character, this was not a problem, perhaps it was the easiest part. Then, sitting in a circle of burning candles, cut your hand so that the blood gets on the photo…

"I will definitely succeed!"

Yandere player obediently and selflessly performs the ritual, reaches the very last part of the task - kills himself. According to the instructions, if everything is done correctly, the player will be rewarded with eternal life with his beloved. At that moment there is no room for hesitation, the sharp metal touched the delicate skin, the world around seemed to freeze. The sound that the knife made was like a whisper of silence in the heart of the night. Drops of blood like scarlet flowers froze in the air, and time stopped. Everything is over.

"Now we will be together … right?"

[hapan-in-exile]

Volume 2 - Post #3: Downward Spiral

Another installment in this ongoing serialized fanfic

Genre: Mandalorian x Fem Reader

Total word count: 1.8K (of 21K total in Volume 2)

Rating: Explicit - smut, language, +18 *NSFW*

______________________________________________

III. Apparently, it was naive to assume that the Mandalorian would naturally step in to take control once you were in the field. Ugh, you are the farthest thing from leadership material—why did he insist on doing this? 

“I–eeeeeeee…like to lead by consensus?” you shrug. 

“This is supposed to be about whether I can trust your judgment, Thuli." Mando’s staticky sigh hisses through the modulator as he cracked several knuckles. Always a warning sign. "So start making some decisions.”

Hearing him say your name galvanizes your resolve. You check the time.

“I don’t think we can afford to wait for them to clear our route inside.”

The guard had mentioned a path through the kitchens, but that felt too exposed. You pull the comlink out of your sleeve and turn the speaker back on.

Thank the gods you had it on mute during the live sex show! You are not ready to have ‘the talk’ with Nito.

“Hey, is there...I don’t know; do you see some kind of service entry or secret tunnel?”

“I’m posted in the northwest corner of the courtyard. It looks like there’s a stairwell that should connect to the roof? You can use the entry on the ground floor, but you’ll need to get past the biometric scanner."

Mando eyes the guard and reaches down for the knife in his boot.

“Retina scan? Or do we need fingerprints?”

“Whoa! We’re going to refrain from maiming and dismemberment tonight, ok?”

“Your call,” he says, pocketing the blade and grabbing the guard roughly by the collar. Striding confidently toward Nito’s coordinates, he drags the guy behind him into the inky blackness of night.

“Wait, Mando! We’re not all equipped with infrared.”

“Why aren’t you wearing your visor?” 

“Would you be shocked to learn that Miralukan formalwear is not designed for visibility?” 

While Mando was less than pleased to find you’d been lying to him for months about your identity, he agreed that 'Miralukan healer' was a good disguise. A disguise worth maintaining. But, the gilded band encircling your eyes was more decorative than tactical.

“What’s shocking is that you’d wear those shoes when you can’t see one foot in front of the other."

The first portico you walk down is empty. The second is not.

Rounding a corner, Mando throws out a hand to press you back into a shadowed nook, narrowly missing the eyes of another guard posted between you and the stairwell’s access panel.

Mando deposits his haul on the tiled floor and unholsters his blaster. You shake your head vigorously, mouthing the word, ‘please.’ 

“Have it your way,” he whispers before slipping into the darkness.

There’s a prolonged silence in which nothing happens, and you begin to feel a creeping surge of panicked abandonment. Suddenly, the guard near the stairwell splutters, grabbing desperately at the arm wrapped around her neck. Her legs kick out wildly before she sinks to the ground, unconscious.

“What do you want to do with this one?” Mando asks.

“We can hide them both in the stairwell,” you suggest.

“We?” He snorts. “You planning to carry one of them?”

“Fine. As field commander, I order you, Mandalorian, to hide the guards in the stairwell.”

At that, Mando lets out a laugh—like a real one—and you almost forget about the mission entirely.

“Well, I know you’re telling the truth about being a veteran. It’s a job, not a mission,” he says, as though reading your thoughts. “And being in charge doesn’t mean you have a rank.” 

“I know," you say, taunting. "If this was the military, I’d punish you for insubordination.” 

As soon as the words are out of your mouth, you wish you could swallow them back. This is neither the time nor place to say that in such a suggestive tone. You clear your throat and recover your focus. “Hey, Nito? Can you search for an entry code?” 

“He must know it,” Mando says, holding up the guard by his flack vest. “Can't you take a look inside their head?”

“That’s not how it works. I can’t just scroll through his brain like an entry log to pick and choose.”

“I thought you were going to erase the guards' memories? Wasn’t that the plan?” 

“By preventing their brain from converting this encounter into a lasting memory. I can’t isolate just ‘me.’ I have to erase everything.” On that note, you place a hand over the guard’s wrist.

“Which, incidentally, is a lot harder than I made that sound…if I overshoot this, it will be a matter of days, not minutes.”

“Waking up to lose a week of your life?" Choosing between the two guards, he yanks the big one over toward the access panel. "That’s gotta be disorienting.”

“Well, if we did this your way, one of them would be missing an eye….so let them count their blessings."

Hopefully, this guy will wake up to decide this was simply the inevitable result of using whatever growth hormone he’s clearly addicted to.

“I’ve got that access code if you guys are done bickering,” Nito snickers.

Wordlessly, Mando enters the code and smashes the guy’s hand onto the keypad. “After you.”

Nito had set himself up in a utility room to slice into the palace's systemwide network. The problem was there were about three flights of narrow, corrugated stairs between you. 

Hiking up your trailing hem, you take each and every—very steep, very shallow—step down at an agonizing pace since you can’t see shit. 

“Come here.” The suddenness of his hands gripping your waist takes you by surprise, and you utter the most embarrassing little “w-w-whoa,” as Mando lifts you off the staircase. 

“This really isn’t necessary.” 

“Put your arms around my neck,” he says. “I’d rather you didn’t roll an ankle before we’re thirty minutes into the job.” 

With one hand clutching your midriff, he slides his other arm under the crease of your hamstrings to carry you down the stairs.

His fingers dig painfully into the soft curves of your waist—but you like the sensation, this contrast of how solid and firm he is while you are all supple silk and velvet. The fact that your coy teasing immediately dissipates into a stunned silence whenever he touches you is probably the most straightforward evidence that you're falling in love with him. 

"Is your palace as big as this one?"

"Hmmm?"

With the helmet on, it's impossible to know if he's looking at you. Yet you can't seem to turn your gaze away from the black view plate.

"You mean, the palace...on Hapes?" It takes you a minute to realize Mando's asking about your childhood. He'd been doing more of that lately—seeking to learn things about you.

"Ha!" You snort. "It's not my palace. But, yeah, it's sort of like this—built into an ocean cliffside. But immense. Many times, the size of this place. I used to get lost all the time."

"Why is this the first I've heard about your terrible sense of direction?"

"I was a child!" You cry in mock indignation, thumping a fist on his chest.

"What's it like growing up in a palace?"

"Lonely," you reply honestly.

Mando pauses, clearly surprised by your answer. While he doesn't say anything else in response, he continues to watch you thoughtfully.

Hopefully, he's enjoying the way your cleavage bounces each time his boots hit the stair tread.

“Why is he carrying you?” Nito looks up from his boards and buttons, genuinely confused.

“Because it would have taken twice as long to let her hobble down here in those shoes.”

You smile broadly over the Mandalorian's shoulder, kicking your feet up obligingly so Nito can appreciate the intricate embroidery covering every inch of your very tall heels. “I hope there’s a way back into the palace that doesn’t involve stairs.” 

“Couldn’t she have just…taken them off?” 

Mando's body tenses beneath you as though he'd been accused of something. In hindsight, it was the obvious solution, but you don’t think the bounty hunter should have to justify putting his hands all over you. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” You say cheerfully while he bends down to place you back on unsteady feet. Nito shoots Mando a worried glance, clearly alarmed by your giddiness.

Time to suit up, so to speak. Opening your clutch, you pull out a pair of lace gloves and the tracking fob. You offer Nito the fob and slip the cape off your shoulders.

“Maker!” Nito puts two furry hands over his chest, mocking a heart attack. “I thought the purpose of reconnaissance was to blend in?”

“Trust me, I look like any other woman on the hunt for a rich keeper. I’ll fit right in.” A memory of thrusting hips and keening moans flashes behind your eyes. “Don’t ask me to explain that, Nito.”  

“I wasn’t born under a rock, you know.” He rolls his eyes with such youthful condescension. “We just got here this morning. Where did you even get a dress like that? Same place that did your hair?” 

The braid had taken hours, but it was worth it, cascading down your back in messy, gorgeous knots studded with gleaming pearls. 

“Believe it or not, I had this lying around.”

“Liar.”

“That’s the dress you were wearing the first time I saw you.”  

You almost snap your neck, turning around to look at Mando.

“Yeah? At Ingtar’s place?"

He nods.

"That’s so funny,” you demure. “I didn’t think you noticed me that night.”

“Isn’t that why you wore that dress? To be noticed?”

A familiar stirring churns low in your belly. “With that helmet on, it’s hard to know what catches your eye.” 

You blush spectacularly, hearing that suggestiveness in your voice again, a little too sincere this time. It’s just the dress putting you in a flirtatious mood. You're getting into character. It was nerves bubbling up before the mission. Job. 

You clear your throat and laugh, “Never would have guessed you’d be on my operating table by the end of the night, did you?” 

Mando doesn’t have an answer for that, but fortunately, Nito interjects to reset the energy in the room. “Should the fob be silent?”

All three of you stare down at the stubbornly inert indicator light. 

“Surely we're near enough in range for it to register?” You ask the bounty hunter.

“He could be using some device to block the signal,” Mando considers thoughtfully. “But nothing that’ll work at close proximity.” 

You look between them. Your boys. Your partners. “Ok. We keep to the plan.” 

Nito places his two left hands on your shoulder. “Guard change is in two hours. I’ll have eyes on every inch of the palace. Mando and I won’t let anything take you by surprise.”

You nod, feeling oddly reassured. The Mandalorian’s pep talk is a little more dire.

“This is reconnaissance only,” he says firmly. “I will bring him in. Identify the target. Do not engage.”

But before the door slides shut, you hear him say, “Please be safe, Thuli.”

*********************

Read the next post: Post #4: Another Thrilling Tale of Emergency Medicine

Back to Volume 2 - All posts

[londonspirit]

Breakups aren’t easy, but that’s especially true for the new and improved — depending on how you look at it — crew of the Revenge in Our Flag Means Death Season 2 premiering Thursday, October 5th on Max, as Blackbeard, a.k.a. Ed (Taika Waititi) continues to unravel after Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) abandoned him in Season 1.

As with the end of Season 1, Blackbeard recedes even further into the persona of himself painted by various wanted posters. He’s sporting the same black eye makeup as he did in the first season’s finale and also influencing the way his crew looks while serving him aboard the vessel previously helmed by Stede. Above and below, we’re delving into some of those details with exclusive photos, exclusive interviews, and a brand-new clip teasing the dynamic aboard the Revenge.

In the sneak peek, below, times are tense for Frenchie (Joel Fry), Jim (Vico Ortiz), Fang (David Fane), and the newest member of the team, Archie (Madeleine Sami), as they observe Blackbeard’s second in command, Izzy Hands (Con O’Neill). As seen in the minute-and-a-half exchange, Izzy’s getting testy with the shipmates when they question orders to throw treasure overboard. “It is not your place to tell me what does or does not make sense. It is your job to follow my f**king orders,” Izzy spits, emotion welling in his makeup-darkened eyes.

Fang is the first to note that Izzy doesn’t seem to be doing fine, and Jim steps forward to add, “Yeah, we think you’re in an unhealthy relationship with Blackbeard.” Additional tidbits from the crew include the fact that Blackbeard does “a lot of rhino horn” and he’s cut off more of Izzy’s toes.

In other words, Ed’s downward spiral is wreaking havoc on Izzy and the rest of the gang. But depending on how you feel about certain pirate looks, their exterior makeovers are sure to excite, regardless of the reasoning behind them.

“[Blackbeard] sort of has this Mad Max thing that we already established in Season 1, that’s so gorgeous and so unique to [him]. So I just wanted to up that ante,” costume designer Gypsy Taylor tells TV Insider. “We started with that Mad Max black leather violent side of him, and he’s sort of infiltrated this crew now. So they’ve taken it upon themselves to become Beard’s crew in whatever circumstance they’re in.”

“They’ve all taken to that color palette of the black leather and filth, which makes ’em look mean,” Taylor adds with a laugh, but makes it clear, “individually, I wanted to give [them each] a really unique look.” Teaming up with Taylor to accomplish that look is hair and makeup designer Nancy Hennah, who enhances the fantastic clothing ensembles viewers will see onscreen.

“We spent a lot of time working out what we were going to do for the raid makeups,” Hennah says of the Revenge crew. “Blackbeard in particular has lost it a bit and is really going off on a tangent, and the rest of the crew have kind of been pulled into that. We spent a lot of time working out what products were going to be good to emulate [something like the] grease found on the boat and they’ve smeared it on their faces.”

“Blackbeard is really struggling with having lost Stede and is leaning into that dark side, which is frightening for everybody else, but they’re sort of trying to play along,” Hennah continues. While fans may have already seen previously-released photos of the crew, Taylor and Hennah dug into their personal archives to share exclusive sketches and behind-the-scenes photos to provide a closer look at their process and each individual character’s look aboard the Revenge. Check them out below.

Our Flag Means Death, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, October 5, Max

“With Jim, that’s a huge transformation,” Taylor says about star Ortiz’s onscreen evolution. “It was a really exciting one. We talked about it a lot with Vico, and I wanted to bring in a whole lot of ropes and things that they would’ve found on the ship to make an outfit out of and a giant fishhook that we made a belt out of.” When it comes to the Revenge crew’s ensembles, there’s a focus on found materials doubling as clothing, “so sort of scrounging and finding elements around pirate ships that they could make a costume out of,” Taylor elaborates, noting that the pirates are being resourceful in “almost the same way that drag queens do.”

When it came to styling Ortiz in their costume alongside the other crew members, Hennah says, “Vico had a great new hairstyle, which we were really excited about, and we cut that early on in our testing phase. Then they had to hide [it]. Everywhere they went, they were wearing a hat.” It was all about “getting the right balance between the amount of hair on top and the amount of hair that we took [off] on the side,” she adds of Jim’s mohawk sported by Ortiz, which can be seen in the sketch and behind-the-scenes test photos.

Similar to Jim’s found fashion, Frenchie’s sporting an edgier look this season that is supposed to look like stolen wares from another pirate. “Because pirates steal a lot,” Taylor says, “they’ve quite often got cool things that they’ve stolen off of other pirates.  And that’s where the inspiration for Frenchie’s jacket came.” As fans may recall, Frenchie found cats particularly terrifying in Season 1, so it makes sense that he’d emulate the feline, which has a motif on the back of his coat according to Taylor. “Maybe he stole it from another pirate ship, and then he made it his own by putting this sort of ode to Desperately Seeking Susan on the back of his jacket with this rearing cat, which in the first season, the cat was very innocent lightly licking his paw, and now we’ve gone really manic and bad,” says Taylor.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard’s soft-spoken, but brutish when-needed crew member is enhancing his look from last season with some ornamental additions. “We didn’t want to change Fang too much, but I incorporated a whole lot of new elements to his costume,” Taylor teases. “So he’s got the teeth of sperm whales all around his necklace, and then he’s got walrus teeth coming out of his jacket. So he’s sort of made a new look based on animals that he might’ve found out in the open seas, like dead carcasses and things like that.”

An exciting aspect of the season for Taylor and Hennah was the addition of Archie to the crew, giving them something new to craft. “Archie’s now part of the gang, and she’s just a badass,” Taylor gushes. “We figured she was sort of deep from the dark alleyways of New York in her sort of street punk aesthetic.”

One piece of Archie’s ensemble is an homage to one of Taylor’s favorite films, The Warriors. “She’s wearing a little Warriors red leather gang jacket,” Taylor shares, adding, “Her t-shirt is a really cool, very subtle print of Blackbeard’s wanted poster.” Why? “She’s a bit of a fan girl,” Taylor notes. “She really looks up to Blackbeard and how bad he is.”

When it comes to tattoos, Hennah says, “I try to talk about their personal heritage and where they’ve come from and if there’s anything that they want in terms of tattoos.” For Sami, Hennah sought out designs with Fijian and Indian influence to reflect the actor’s personal heritage. “I approached a Henna artist, and we just got her to do a drawing of some designs,” Hennah reveals. “And then Madeline and a few of the other makeup team [members] and I spent about four or five hours just turning those little puzzle pieces into the tattoos.” Sami loved her tattoos so much that Hennah says she was told Sami “is thinking about getting one of the tattoos for real.”

And when it comes to Izzy, he’s not changing things too much. “He’s just a man of his own. He wouldn’t really listen to Blackbeard,” Taylor says. “So there were very subtle things [that we were going to do], like adding studs to his gloves so that when he beat up people, it was a little bit more violent. But in the end, we took it away. He’s enough of a badass on his own.” Ultimately, the only real change people will see on Izzy went the show returns is, “He got a bit dirtier from being at sea. We broke him down more, added a bit more sort of salt and all those crusty sort of overlays.”

When it comes to the crew’s man in charge, Blackbeard’s transformation has evolved a bit since viewers last saw him in Season 1. “I wanted to keep his leathers because pirates, as you see in Season 1, are at sea for a really long time. They don’t have a closet, unlike the Gentleman pirate Stede. So they’re always just wearing the same thing and getting dirtier and dirtier and dirtier.” When a pirate dons a new garment though, it’s usually stolen. Such is the case for Blackbeard, according to Taylor: “We figured he’d stolen this black leather jacket in a raid, but he’d sort of made it his own in his own manic way, much [like] he’s done with the ship where [things are torn down and burned].”

Wanting to reflect the season’s production design in Blackbeard’s coat, Taylor says, “We burned it, and we ripped it, and we added six different belts to the sides that are holding it together, which would be like he murdered six pirates and stole their belts. And he’s started to collect a little bit more jewelry. So you’ll start to see some new rings and a little lovely pearl necklace that he’s stolen off of someone at the wedding party [seen in the teaser trailer] perhaps.”

As for Blackbeard’s makeup and hair, Hennah says, “We stuck mostly around his eyes. It just looked more sinister, and he was a lot more disheveled. He spends a lot of time this season wet, which is a bit of a nightmare when you’ve got beards and wigs and drying and getting back to dry. He has always had two wigs, and we got an extra one made this season as well because we were having to swap between wet and dry a lot.”

Apart from the extra wig, it was the tattoos that made up Blackbeard’s biggest makeup change. “We added quite a few tattoos,” shares Hennah. “I think in Season 1, he had around 24 tattoos, but at times this season, we were up to 30, and three of them were the big chest tattoo and then a brand new back tattoo. I worked with Dean Sacred at Sacred Tattoo for the big back tattoo design. He did a beautiful drawing for us of the skull with the snake coming out, the skull’s eyes with the snake crying.” As fans can see, the snake and skull sit above another tattoo with the words “Trust No One.”

Will he ever trust again after Stede left? Only time will tell.

[bleakfated]

INTERACTIONS. HEADCANONS. PHOTOS. IISMS. WISHLIST. OPENS. SC.

STATISTICS

BASICS: name: inias age: timeless gender & pronouns: agender, he/they sexuality: asexual faceclaim: michael b jordan occupation: angelic farm owner location: sonoma, california after he abandons heaven

PERSONALITY: positive traits: loyal, intuitive, peaceful, forgiving negative traits: idealistic, sensitive, nosy, obedient

APPEARANCE: scars: none tattoos: none piercings: none

VERSES

BIOGRAPHY

TL;DR

Inias is one of the youngest angels that God created and is in Castiel's garrison. Never fond of the destruction being a loyal angel sometimes entailed, many of his siblings believed him to be too weak. Still, Inias was loyal and always did what he was told. After the Winchesters thwarted the plan for the apocalypse, Inias was at a loss of what to do with himself without any direct orders. He was uninterested in participating in Raphael's destructive ways. When much of the angel garrison was destroyed by Castiel, he still valued his brother from all the time they had spent together. After he nearly was killed by a Leviathan while protecting the prophet and the fall of the angels due to Metatron, Inias settled onto a farm in Sonoma, California. He was done with the death and destruction now so intimately tied with Heaven.

FULL BIO

Inias is a peaceful, low-ranking angel of the lord. He was one of the youngest angels to be created by God, which allowed him a lot of time to learn under his siblings. A member of the same garrison as Castiel, Inias quickly grew fond of him. He tended to shy away from any of the archangels, their power and personalities could be rather intimidating. From the moment he came into existence, he knew that remaining loyal to God's wishes was of utmost importance. When Lucifer was cast out of Heaven due to his insubordination, it was enough to intimidate Inias to continue on his straight and narrow path, not that he even had any intention of deviation int he first place. While other siblings rebelled as well and some had nephilim, an abomination crossbreed between the angels and humans, Inias continued with whatever orders were passed his way.

The violence that started to rear its head often in the workings of Heaven not much later never sat well with him. The angels were responsible for keeping the universe balanced with the monsters that Lucifer and Eve had created and the humans that had turned evil themselves. Inias hated it and wished for the vision that his father had once had for Earth, idyllic and peaceful, but also understood the betrayal of Lucifer and humanity had broken something in his father. Much like Castiel, however, his memories of these dark times were often erased by Naomi and the others. After a while, he found a few pockets of people’s personal Heavens to spend time in. Whenever he could, he reveled in the peaceful moments so that he could tolerate the violence that he was forced to be witness to or participate in whenever anything got out of hand.

Millenia passed and things remained relatively the same as he and the other angels continued to watch humanity grow and develop on Earth. Disease and natural disasters came and went and Heaven was ever-expanding as faith remained alive and well after Jesus was put on Earth to remind humans of what Adam and Eve had failed to do, to remind them of how they were supposed to live. Direct orders from God ceased apart from a select few and orders in general slowly became less and less frequent until they all but stopped. Inias and others worried about their father, but continued to do their part in keeping Heaven running. Most never questioned that their father was continuing to make plans and look over his universe. However, the birth of the Winchesters started a downward spiral that nobody truly saw coming.

Most of Heaven knew the Winchesters were descended from Cain and Abel and that their line held the true vessels for Michael and Lucifer. Inias didn’t hear of Azazel’s plans for Sam and many other children until he had started his test to find the right person to open the gates of Hell. That action led to the path toward getting Lucifer out of the cage that he was imprisoned in. Talk about the upcoming battle between Michael and Lucifer was running rampant and Inias couldn't be more opposed to the idea. The idea of his siblings fighting like that disturbed Inias, but he knew there wasn’t much he could do but to remain loyal to his orders. Castiel was tasked with pulling Dean out of Hell, which started a long chain of the angels needing to resurrect the Winchesters to keep them alive for the battle.

Truthfully, Inias admired the Winchesters and all of the other hunters for what they did for humanity. He often wondered why angels themselves didn’t take care of the vermin that Lucifer and Eve had created, but knew it wasn’t his place to step in unless asked. Castiel fell as he grew more involved with the Winchesters and less inclined toward his orders. At the time, Inias felt sorry for his brother. His task had led him to a path that had caused him to fall. Others fell around or before this time as the angels were starting to grow uneasy with no guidance from God and the impending battle. When Lucifer and Michael both ended up trapped in the cage with the younger Winchester, Inias falsely hoped that it would be the end of the unrest in Heaven between his siblings. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Raphael became the leader in place of Michael and fighting continued to escalate.

Inias stayed out of the fighting altogether, perturbed by the inability to follow any orders. He didn’t know how to help. Then, Castiel declared himself the new God and killed many of the garrison that serviced Raphael. While it was hard to imagine that any good could come from that, he trusted Castiel’s instincts and knew that Raphael was eager to push for more destruction. However, Castiel soon became unhinged with power and the souls of the Leviathan he had taken in to gain power to end Raphael’s rule soon killed him. At this time, he stepped up alongside Hester as they were at the top of Castiel’s garrison and took over command for the remaining angels in their garrison.

When new prophet Kevin Tran came into power, indicating the death of Chuck Shurley, Inias descended with Hester to secure the prophet in hopes of getting more guidance from God. Surprisingly, they ran into Castiel. Inias was happy to see his brother, whereas Hester grew angry because she could tell he was out of his mind due to taking on Sam Winchester’s torment from his time in the cage. They were banished by the Winchesters before they can get their hands on the prophet, but soon found them again. Hester beat up Castiel despite Inias’s protests for a peaceful resolution since they had lost so many angels, but also because his brother had been through a lot and Inias cared for him. She was killed by the demon Meg. Inias and the other angels that had accompanied them stood down. After a moment with Castiel to say that he wished Castiel could come with them, he and the other angels took over the duty of protecting Kevin Tran.

He protected Kevin while he deciphered the demon tablet with other angels, but two of his other angels are killed by a Leviathan named Edgar when they go to visit Kevin’s mother. Inias and another barely escape with their lives. Inias returned to Heaven and worked under Naomi, because being a loyal servant of Heaven was all that he had known. However, he fell with the others when Metatron tricked Castiel into banishing all of the angels from Heaven. Once on Earth, mortally wounded, Inias found his vessel to heal in. Everything that Inias had ever known was stripped from him. He knew that he could no longer try to fight through the destruction that had become commonplace with Heaven. Instead, he found a ranch house with a small amount of property in Sonoma, California that he was able to acquire.

Since the fall, he has resided in the angel proof home, gardening and immersing himself in literature and other creations of humanity that he had admired from afar. He still has his angel radio and was briefly conflicted when he heard that Heaven didn't have power to keep it running years later, but ultimately continued to stay in hiding. As time on his own continued on, Inias started beekeeping and has built some on his property to house farm animals that he saves from abusive situations. To make a bit of money with the upkeep and watch humans find happiness in what he has built, his rescue farm and greenhouse are open to the public. Inias enjoys his time with humans, even when they find him rather eccentric while he tries to learn their dialect and customs.

[izzysarchivedblogs]

IT'S A NICE DAY ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

Bed-Stuy may be home, although that was complicated. SOLD IT FOR PETTY MEANS TO AN ENDS. However, there was something about the West Coast that beat out the East Coast, WHY HADN'T HE JUST STAYED HERE. There's an endless spiraling downwards list of possibilities that could have played out if he had done that.

They weren't all good. Alcohol would always be a problem; the events of the last month took him on a course that led to him facing that NOW. Agreeing with a lawyer that he was going to rehab. HE SHOULD TALK HIMSELF OUT, BACK OUT, RUN AWAY.

He can't, it's too late, and than the part of him wants to change, wanted HELP. Clint's knows he is going to be locked in an internal battle until he gets started on this, until he is several weeks in and than maybe he'll know WHICH SIDE SHOULD HAVE WON.

❝ Normal lives. I looked up that word in the dictionary. CONFORMING TO A STANDARD. Usual, typical, expected. The avenger state or condition. ❞ If he's remembered a dictionary, than it means that he has contemplated it. Wonder what a word like that could mean to him. CONFORMING was the word that turned him off. IT DOESN'T SEEM FOR HIM. Even he had been the one with a wife, a pipe dream, and a future baby on the way. WELL LOOK HOW IT TURNED OUT.

Clint's here, depressed and hungover. A criminal with new crimes committed. Laid out by a pool under the sun. Tony said this was an orgy house? YEAH, NORMAL IS OUT OF HIS REACH.

Head turns as Tony starts to talk about the things he missed. The mansion, the West Coast compound, Jarvis. IT ACHES. ALL OF IT. He had his own memories wrapped up in those places. They were both home for him, he hadn't a home when he came to the mansion. There was no home address to a traveling showsman. EVEN BEFORE THAT HE HADN'T ROOTS.

The mansion was his first. Jarvis had become his mole for Avengers gossip over the years. WHAT'S HE DO?

❝ I visited it; the old compound here. It was- ❞ It's just kind of sad looking. Abandoned. The new team West Coast team had built elsewhere, had it's own thing and his second home? THAT WAS DECAYING.

He doesn't finish, letting them back track to the topic about hot springs. SIMPLER THINGS. ❝ Blade calls himself Blade; he's got the whole matrix, a hot spring would take way his imagined-cool factor. ❞

Tony laughed at the mommy talk and he pushed Clint's head, finally taking his hand away again and leaning back on his hands, so he was looking up at the sky. It was a pretty nice day for San Francisco. Good for Clint. Warmth didn't make you magically not want to drink, but being cold seemed to make it worse. As well as the warm sun, the sea breeze and the sound of the sealions carried through the bay to them. It felt good. It was helping Tony not to think about drinking, so maybe it was helping Clint too.

"Carol can have it. I'll be that weird eccentric Uncle Tony," Tony said. "But it's nice. Things have been so hectic. There's been so much. But even with the world falling apart on all sides of us, I'm getting to see these little pieces of what everyone might be like if we'd ended up having normal lives. I don't know, maybe they'll all get it sometime."

He smiles and nods. "I don't know why we agreed to it. It's like the most extra thing. And it was trying to kill us. It's almost like the equivalent of killing an enemy and then serving food out of it's head so that other enemies can see what kind of fucked up crazy you are. But I guess Nowhere is a planet now. They got a head, we got the whole thing." He shrugged. "I miss the mansion. I really miss it. I have all these places around the world but the mansion was my home. The West Coast compound was good too. But I miss the mansion. And Jarvis."

Okay that's not going to help with the wanting to drink thing. If Tony wanted to drink after getting all introspective it wasn't going to help Clint. He needed to get off that topic immediately. Thankfully Clint has also doubted the hot spring time and Naked Steve and Thor was a pretty good distraction. "It's true! It's some of the only time when we're not out on the field. Just naked in the hot springs. I'll go down there with just my helmet and work while relaxing. The others just come and go. No Blade. Blade doesn't like babies or hot springs. Or fun."

[gfablogs]

Child Marriage: Recognizing It and Stopping It

Two hundred million girls might be alive today if they weren’t, well, girls.1 That is how many female babies and girls the United Nations estimates have died because they were not born male and were rejected by their families. “Son preference,” as it is called, leads to the pervasive degradation and devaluing of women that can result in a child being given in marriage, a form of abuse that is alive and well in the 21st century.

The history of child marriage has its roots in the complex, cultural belief that female human life lacks value. Curses, dowries, employment, poverty and misplaced ideologies all contribute to the varied reasons a family would choose to give their little girl in marriage before the age of consent.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) defines marriage of children as “a formal or informal union where one or both parties are under the age of 18.”2 Though this can and does happen to boys, it is predominantly an issue for girls.

Child marriage statistics include the following:

12 million girls are married each year before the age of 18.3

650 million women living in the world today were given in marriage before 18.3

19% of all married women worldwide from 2014-2020 were married before 18.3

In the same time period, Niger led the world with 76% of its women married before 18.3

Ending child marriage is a matter of restoring human rights to millions of girls and women and strengthening communities as a whole. The International Center for Research on Women and the World Bank estimate that marrying girls too young costs the world economy trillions of dollars.6 When a girl marries at, say, 14 years old, she often must forgo an education, which means she cannot pursue more skilled work or employment that requires literacy. This traps her and most likely her children in a cycle of poverty that becomes difficult to escape without an education.

Olimani thought she was helping her own daughter find a better life.7 With an abusive husband who took her wages to buy alcohol, she wanted more for her daughter, Mayuri. So, Mayuri was married at the tender age of 14 years old. Olimani had hoped it was a fresh start for her, a safer place away from the abuse and day labor jobs she did with her mother. And at first, it was.

Things seemed harmonious, which is what Mayuri wanted, even though she could not go to school; she had not been able to when she worked with her mother either. The harmony came to an end when she could only produce daughters. Her husband and in-laws became furious with her, and the cycle of abuse started all over again. Mayuri took her daughters and fled home to her mother, who had since been abandoned by Mayuri’s father.

This all happened because Olimani thought she only had one choice for her daughter: marriage as a child. Like many before and after her, she assumed it would mean security and protection. Instead, things spiraled downward for Mayuri.

God has been merciful to Mayuri, and today she believes in Jesus Christ and attends church with her daughters in a congregation that loves them as people made in the image of God, giving them the support they need without a traditional family structure.

But what if Olimani had had a different choice? What if there had been a GFA child sponsorship opportunity for Mayuri? Through child sponsorship, children and their families receive key essentials like nutritious food, clean water education opportunities and many other areas of support. This could have been what Mayuri experienced instead of being married at 14 years old. It likely would have changed the course of her life and Olimani’s.

Click here, to read more about this article.

Click here, to read more blogs in Gospel for Asia.Com

[merrock]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

face claim: joshua bassett

full name: stephen leblanc

nickname(s) / goes by: stevie (the nickname he commonly goes by), steve (used on occasion by his family), sunshine (childhood nickname used exclusively by his mother)

pronouns & gender: he/him, cis man

sexuality: demiromantic asexual

birth date: february 28th, 2002

birth place: merrock, maine

arrival to merrock: he’s a local

housing: the coast and pier

occupation: dog walker and sales associate

work place: around merrock as a self-employed dog walker and part time at the vinyl hub

family: brandon leblanc (28, brother), justin leblanc (25, brother), violet leblanc (12, sister), and lily leblanc (8, sister) 

relationship status: single

PERSONALITY

Stevie is very much someone who “lets and let lives”, so to speak. He is constantly in search of his inner zen, and marches to the beat of his drum. While that mindset has ensured that he isn’t as insecure about himself as he used to be, it also means that he isn’t very responsible at times. For instance, he’s almost always running late and he hates planning ahead for anything due to the anticipation being greater than if he decides something on the spot. He's a little bit of an anarchist in that respect and he works best alone for that reason. 

As an introvert, albeit a friendly and laid back one, Stevie can get overstimulated fairly easily, in which case he needs to recharge by taking a break from other people. Which isn’t always easy in a house full of five that’s almost always in chaos. However, he’s found a solution to this by taking a few hours out of his days to go surfing by himself, go on nature walks, and skateboard around the fountain at Cityview Park.

In general, Stevie doesn’t talk a whole lot, but he’s very affectionate and he loves harmony. He isn’t good with conflict and avoids it at all costs, making him a good candidate for a low-maintenance friend that will never complain about missed calls or forgotten text messages (provided said friend doesn’t mind their occurrence either, as it happens fairly frequently due to his habit of spacing out and failing to remember).

WRITTEN BY: Isa (she/her, they/them), gmt-5.

BACKGROUND / BIO

triggering / sensitive content: death, drugs, parental neglect, and abandonment.

The third-born of five children, Stevie derives from a very chaotic and dysfunctional family due to the unbalanced nature of his mother, Corrine Leblanc. While the vast majority of the Leblancs are quiet suburban folk who settled within Merrock a few generations ago, Corrine was always a wild card. She slept with dozens of men throughout a twenty year span, three of whom helped her conceive five children she didn’t know how to parent. Her first husband was a young man who divorced her after sleeping with his secretary, leaving her with three boys to raise on her own and unknowingly kick-starting her downward spiral. Because he was still a baby when the man left, Stevie doesn’t know much regarding his father, having been an accidental pregnancy who came into this world a good four years after his second-born brother. All he knew was that the man was not a Merrock native, rather someone who moved to his wife’s hometown from Portland. As such, Stevie has no knowledge regarding that side of his family, or even what his last name was as his mother changed all of their surnames to her original name after the divorce. Despite the countless times Stevie asked about his father, Corrine always openly dismissed his questions with the age-old adage that children were better off being seen but not heard, and the sting of abandonment caused the man to be a forbidden topic among the Leblanc brothers.

Growing up was a tumultuous affair, as Corrine struggled to keep a steady job and used their savings on things like liquor, clothes, drugs, and whatever else she wanted to buy. She had no regard for giving her children a stable homelife, and they bounced around town as a result. Stevie could recall plenty of nights wherein he and his siblings stuffed themselves into the bed of Corrine’s red Ford pickup truck and huddled under a collection of ratty blankets with second-hand hoodies and sweaters to keep them warm, their mother having left on the back of a biker’s motorcycle or skipped off to one of the local watering holes. It didn’t matter whether they were sick, hurt, upset—Corrine only ever cared about Corrine, and more or less forced the Leblanc kids to raise themselves. When Stevie was around seven years old, their mother left her colic-ridden newborn baby, Violet, wailing in their rented motel room in favor of going out to dinner with a group of partying frat boys. Stevie’s oldest brother, fourteen-year-old Brandon, had no choice but to forget his homework and soothe the crying infant to sleep all night. 

A street-smart kid that taught his younger siblings to be just as wise as him, Brandon was someone who Stevie idolized a great deal; both as a brother and a pseudo father figure. He taught the Leblanc siblings a multitude of important lessons over the years, including the fine art of dining and dashing, where to tap the ketchup bottle to get as much of the condiment out as possible, how to open a locked door with nothing but a few paperclips and some patience. And, of course, how to be polite by always saying please and thank you, yes ma’am and no ma’am, and even shaking hands to form trust. Although, Stevie suspected that his oldest brother didn’t trust anyone, especially adults when he was still a child himself. 

They continued this way for several years, newfound adulthood allowing Stevie’s older brothers to get jobs and earn money that was kept safely away from their mother. However, just when it felt like the Leblanc kids would have some form of normality, Corrine found the savings, left on a bender, and simply never came back. Thirteen-year-old Stevie stretched what little money she left behind as much as he could, but after an entire month without contact from his mother—while doing his best to look after his two baby sisters, the youngest of whom was a newborn baby—he had no choice in contacting his oldest brother for help. Having decided that they could no longer rely on Corrine, and with multiple past-due bills and eviction notices piling up, the Leblanc kids were forced to leave their home in favor of their grandmother’s cramped three-bedroom bungalow on the coast.

Vivian Leblanc was… a character, to say the least. While she openly welcomed her displaced grandchildren into her home without question, she wasn’t known around town for being the friendliest or most conventional of senior citizens. She drank a glass of whiskey with her breakfast every morning, smoked unfiltered cigarettes like a chimney, and taught her grandchildren how to play Texas Hold ‘Em; the game she proved in mastering when she won the deed to the very house they were staying at. She also wasn’t known for, in her own words, pussyfooting around. She gave the Leblanc kids rules when they were under her roof; rules she expected them to follow to a T, which included dropping all contact with their narcissistic mess of a mother. Otherwise, she didn’t care what they did so long as they didn’t burn the house down or get themselves arrested for doing something stupid.

For seven long years, the Leblanc kids had more stability than Corrine ever gave them. Stevie graduated high school with straight A’s, only for Vivian to refer to him as a Grade-A Dumbass when he forwent college in favor of working at the local vinyl shop and skateboarding around town. He couldn’t help it; having never been an ambitious kid, college felt like a waste of money they couldn’t afford to pay back. He liked the idea of financially pitching in the same way his brothers had been doing, ensuring that they could build up a collective savings to guarantee their sisters had everything they wanted or needed in the long run.

On an early morning in August of 2022, Vivian Leblanc was discovered to have peacefully passed away in her sleep at the age of seventy eight. Stevie and his brothers organized a funeral that had next to no one in attendance aside from her poker buddies and a few curious neighbors who’d crane their necks over the fence. It was a quiet affair that ended with a threadbare grave site at Pinecrest Cemetery. Corrine showed up several weeks too late to try and claim ownership over forgotten belongings, but everything had already been divided between the Leblanc kids. Vivian had left all of her things to them, including the bungalow that—while incredibly outdated and lacking adequate space—was paid off free and clear. Corrine exited the house with absolutely nothing to show for her impromptu trip, tear-streaked and empty-handed.

For the last year, Stevie has been focusing on helping his brothers raise their sisters; twelve-year-old Violet and eight-year-old Lily. It’s a task that is oftentimes easier said than done, as Violet has a mouth that constantly gets her into trouble (and many fistfights at school) and Lily is forever pulling some sort of stunt for attention (many of which have landed her in the ER with broken bones). The Leblanc girls each have their own ways of getting into a near-constant state of trouble, and it seems to have only gotten worse since the loss of their beloved grandmother. But Stevie does his best to lend a hand when necessary, to help ensure that his brothers don’t get overwhelmed by the two terrors they’re currently living with. Apart from that, he can usually be found skateboarding around Merrock, equipped with a disarming smile and a carefree boyish charm that’s kept him within the acceptable viewpoints of other locals.

[rainnydayzz]

I love you

I will attempt to answer what I can lmao

Yes this takes place prior to the first movie, so all the trolls are still worried about being eaten by Bergens. It’s part of how Branch gets away with this for as long as he does. He doesn’t really care much for the Bergens in general, he knows he could take one of them out quite easily if he needed too, as he’s much more focused of survival.

It takes a long while for any one in Pop Village to notice anything is up, as when a troll every few months goes missing they blame Bergens. Were he found out, yes the Trolls would be terrified of him 💀

If he were to capture other genre trolls I like to think it would reflect on his outward appearance yes, but at this point he’s unaware that there are other trolls out there.

He absolutely begins to lose his sanity. He’s able to be in control for a good while, especially when it’s early in an le spaced apart by a good month. But as he continues and the high wears off sooner, he finds he needs more and more troll sooner, and the drive to stay happy essentially drives him completely. And as with humans who eat humans we also begin to go a little crazy…

At the beginning he targets trolls that he believes deserve it. So if he were to see one being an asshole or something, sayonara. His conscious catches up to him when he starts to really care about poppy, but eventually his addiction outweighs his guilt.

He also believes his brothers are dead at this point, not wanting to believe they simply abandoned him.

Let’s say we make it to the second movie, Branch has managed to stay under the radar, but now without the Bergens to blame for disappearances it does become a little more difficult. Especially when the princess is obsessed with knowing everybody. He then learns he can go after other trolls, and quickly realized they affect him differently, both visually and emotionally. He prefers pop trolls for various reasons.

If he were to miraculously make it to the third movie (which he doesn’t) discovering his brothers are still alive would seriously send him into a downward spiral. He’s much more agressive here and would probably immediately attack JD, he wouldn’t kill him there but it crossed his mind. Not even to eat him, he’s not worth that. JD would be more cautious to work with Branch but thanks to Poppy they do go looking for Floyd. A vital different this time however is Branch hasn’t sung since losing his grandma. Things played out however differently to rescue friends and whatnot and he still refuses to try and sing again. Singing separated his brothers, killed his grandma, and nearly the whole world thanks to the rock trolls. He just can’t do it. But he’s determined to break Floyd out a different way. He doesn’t tell his brothers this.

Things are similar enough in the third movie up until rescuing Floyd. Branch isn’t against hurting Velvet or Veneer if it gets his brother back. He’s still insanely upset with him, of course, but… he’s not dead… something branch never let himself hope for. Though to call it hope may not quite describe the feeling. If they were alive, it meant they actively *chose* to stay away from him and each other.

Anyway Branch gets to Velvet, threatening her brother with her life. Veneer of course immediately lets Floyd out of the Diamond, this is insanity.

Yay they’re all together. Branch has some weird feelings about all of it, and he doesn’t know what to think. If he hadn’t gone crazy before, this would certainly be the trigger.

Now I would like to think Branch would get caught before discovering his brothers, but honestly it doesn’t really matter, it’s all just fun shit anyway.

Getting caught would be devastating news, particularly for poppy who was actually warming up to Branch. She’s the one who discovers Branch’s little hobby on accident whilst waiting for him in his bunker. Some trolls just never know when to shut up.

“Oh Poppy… I had really hoped it wouldn’t come to this…”

As for any other questions I would love to answer them or leave them up for interpretation. I would love to see other ideas and suggestions as this is all still very speculative and subject to extreme change!

Sorry this was a little all over the place 😅

Colored ver. (Totally talking abt Creek)

HES SO CUTE HE WOULD NEVER HURT A FLY OKAY

But he would hurt a troll.

- when the troll high wears off (which takes a good while at the beginning) Branch gets splotchy and his color begin to fade again. Poppy is aware that that’s not something the average troll is affected by, but then again she’s never actually known anyone grey in the first place. Branch is already so much of an outcast as it is, she doesn’t bring it up to him.

- branch has more predator like features, such as sharp canines, claws, and reflective pupils

I like drawing Branch a bit rougher for this AU since he really fell into survival but also agression. He doesn’t wear Floyd’s jacket as he holds more of a resentment towards his brothers, though he does still have it, unable to completely let go, especially as he assumes they too were eaten by Bergens after leaving like his grandmother.

[pinkumiilku]

Sanji’s trauma is represented in a phenomenal way, unlike anything I’ve seen before in comics.

Taking the specific case of emotional abuse, over the concept of failure, turning into the unwilling outcast, who had no idea any world existed beyond what they told him. A child who was never allowed to bloom, show any interests, left to feel as though he must be evil or profoundly sick, over failing within that reality.

Having to create multiple facets, “versions” of himself, simply to appease the looming wrath of abandonment, and within that downward spiral, developing an implied eating disorder, needing some, any, form of control.

This not only created a selfless identity, but one easily sacrificed, at first in what seemed to be “noble causes”, later revealing Sanji’s insecurity, and lack of compassion towards himself.

Failed by family, adults and children alike, for the core reason of not being able to meet expectations, leading to endless cycles, unable to reach out to a single person.

Being locked underground, in a mask, is a fantastic metaphor for abusive families, denying the existence of failure, the failure they created, keeping him around either out of guilt, or fear. They understand Sanji’s wrath, and fear the consequences, if he would ever to be let out into the world they denied him.

Even as a child, Sanji understands leaving is the only option, because nothing he ever did or will ever accomplish, will be good enough, that still being his main concern.

You don’t need to fear revenge from a child with no sense of self, hence why he is allowed to go.

And it was at this point that meeting Zeff, his “Grandfather” figure, with a completely different set of values from his family, who instantly rescues him because he is a child, and he is important, will be the key to Sanji’s “salvation”.

Starving on a stranded island, is a metaphor that will be repeated throughout his story. One where he is given the choice to live or die, and one where his untold suffering takes the form of a life threatening illness, and the “ease”, with which he confronts it.

Zeff is what shattered any prior belief he had about the world, in his own rude and drastic way, and validates Sanji’s pain and his dreams, right off the bat, and sees just how hollow of a child he is, willing to sacrifice his own leg to save him, despite having just met.

Teaching him about his interest, or metaphorically, how to manage his need for control, and redirecting it into something useful, starving to cooking, and teaching him that all those expectations he was put under, did not matter as long as he is a good person.

When Sanji leaves to join the pirates, there is a stark contrast within having been forced as a child to run away, and then being encouraged to leave by his new family, because he deserves to live and see the world.

“Don’t ever tell anyone I am your father, it’s a shame I don’t want anyone to know,” spoken by his biological Father, becomes: “Don’t catch a cold!” spoken by his adoptive, or true Father. Suddenly, Sanji kneeling in front of him on the floor, and sobbing while thanking him, makes a lot more sense given the right context.

Despite Sanji’s growth, once the opportunity to make his family proud shows itself again, he is dragged back right where he started. This time disgusted, and distant, understanding for the last time, he was only ever useful as a tool, and never as a person, as a son, a sibling or a man. This is where we truly understand the extent of his abuse through stuttering, jittering movements, chain smoking bad even for his standards, the pain in his expressions in each panel, the instant surrender, and seemingly forgotten growth, willing to sacrifice himself, abandoning his crew, and acting differently.

This is where his captain’s starvation is perfectly done. Refusing to eat anything other than what he cooks, until Sanji joins them again. This is as demonstration, showing first hand what his suffering looked like, and how irrational and cruel he was being towards himself, in this case food being a metaphor for love. This somehow works, and he brings him something to eat, though purposefully gross to encourage his captain to leave, and with that, understanding his worth a bit better.

He could have left again, but the threat his biological family was headed towards made it impossible for him to turn his back on them. Because, despite it all, despite the agony he’d gone through, he loves them still. And ultimately ends up saving their lives.

Once that was done, where we could have expected a sort of emotional reunion to take place, forgiveness, an apology, Sanji through gritted teeth and a panic attack, forces his Father to kneel, and does not forgive him. He demands never to be contacted by them again, and they comply.

Oda was giving us a clear message. Sanji’s story is that of many, too many children. Too many survivors, who end up taking their own life, who have no sense of self, who love their families despite not forgiving them.

He was saved by kindness, and kindness alone, which is his main character trait, feeding anyone who is hungry, or taking care of children, acting as the backbone for his crew.

Oda talked about something that is not talked about, and he did it phenomenally well.

[dizzydennis]

Sonic x Metal Sonic Cover Story!

Translator note: I am not totally fluent in Japanese so please understand that my translations are not perfect, but I hope you can enjoy this fun story. Any constructive criticism is appreciated.

Deep within Dr. Eggman’s abandoned, secret lab... a robot connected to a database booted up made note of the current situation. The evaluation was as followed:

[[Current status... "unfavorable"]]

While this robot was in rest for maintenance, Dr. Eggman was once again defeated by Sonic. Yet again, “he” was unable to rush to protect his master from crisis.

The same amount of bitterness stirred inside him... or perhaps even more.

It longed for the opportunity to defeat Sonic.

This mechanical piece of intelligence was known as “Metal Sonic” and it was created for the sole purpose of destroying Sonic. It continued to analyze the situation:

[[Current status is "unfavorable"]]

☆ ★ ☆

"Speed ​​Highway" is a super-three-dimensional highway that runs through a plethora of high-rise buildings.

It has many acceleration lanes such as the “360-degree rotating loop” that rises to the sky and a corkscrew that stretches into a large spiral. It attracts the souls of speed enthusiasts everywhere!

Sonic was running around in good spirits as he hummed to himself.

CRASH!!

Suddenly, something attacked Sonic head-on! He barely avoided it as the road just ahead turned into a pile of rubble from such a shattering impact. Sonic let out a gleeful grin.

“I’m worried. You didn’t damage yourself with that stunt, did ya, Metal?”

It was, in fact, Metal Sonic that stood up from the rubble.

Metal gave a piercing, sharp gaze towards Sonic. Within a second, he quickly closed the gap between the two of them while pointing his left hand to Sonic.

“Hey! Isn’t that--!?”

It was the flickering of a Chaos Emerald. Metal’s other hand pointed to the innermost parts of Speed Highway. It was unwavering.

Sonic instantly understood what Metal Sonic meant.

“You’re gonna bet that in a competition against me? That doesn’t seem very fair now, does it?”

Sonic then took out his all of the Chaos Emeralds he had on him.

“Alright, Metal! This is for real then. All or nothing!”

In an instant, two blue shadows dashed out onto the street, illuminated by the lights of the skyscrapers at dusk. The race that moved faster than the speed of sound had begun!

☆ ★ ☆

As the sound barrier was broken, the rush of wind echoed through the elevated roads that were cast as a valley between the buildings.

A corkscrew twisted down from a 360-degree loop as it curved to the right and then to the left. It then went into a spiral that took them up and down and all around.

Sonic lightly traced across the road’s surface as he felt enthralled by the difficult course of the Speed Highway. Metal Sonic was able to glide across the road with the use of a jet engine.

The race continued with the two hedgehogs barely gaining a step on each other, but a big change occurred in the middle of the course. A super long and sharp curve came out after a speedy decent. Metal Sonic decided to engage in some close combat before this area.

He boosted forward as his body entered this shocking, electromagnetic state. It was a sudden attack, but Sonic was able to avoid it. He must have read his moves. Metal Sonic’s energy output temporarily dropped at the end of the boost as he slowed down; just as planned. He could clear the curve with just the right amount of speed. Sonic had to slow down here too and Metal Sonic had nothing to lose!

Everything was going fine, but at that moment, Sonic was speeding up and approaching fast. Metal Sonic’s thoughts became fragmented if only for a moment.

[[......!?]]

Sonic, as he started to tumble off the side of the course due to his great speed, had put his hand out and grabbed Metal Sonic’s head, curved inward, and accelerated towards the inner-section of the course. He pushed Metal downwards and perfectly made the curve.

“My bad!”

Metal Sonic, who managed to regain his posture, raised his face, he saw Sonic running far ahead.

Metal Sonic tried to analyze the situation

[[Current status... "unfavorable"]]

☆ ★ ☆

Metal Sonic continued to analyze everything while giving chase. He had never won again Sonic ever since their first battle. He was built for the best performance and had a tireless, steel body. There were many factors of his creation that should have meant he was unbeatable.

But I can never win.

Why? Why... it’s just a hedgehog that runs fast...

Right at that moment,

A buzz of electricity rippled through the robot’s AI and it’s train of thought.

Is it because it’s not just “fast.”

 [[............!]]

Why was this robot made to resemble Sonic?

Perhaps, the creator, Dr. Eggman, created this body simply to not waste time creating it, but to also be a replacement to Sonic.

It was created for that specific purpose. There’s something that had to be done.

Metal cut all non-essential parts such as “fire control” and the “electromagnetic spark capacitors.” All systems were set on full power to “Speed.” Metal sharpened and gutted himself on the inside.

A moment later, a creature of blue steel, which had become the pure concept of a new “Metal Sonic” began to chase after Sonic the Hedgehog.

☆ ★ ☆

Meanwhile, Sonic had already taken notice that something had changed with Metal Sonic. The distance between them was gradually getting shorter.

Metal Sonic was purely a machine. There’s no way to know what it could even be thinking about. However, Sonic could sometimes tell. He could sense Metal Sonic’s joy, willpower, and unhealthy obsession towards victory.

“Looks like things are heating up!”

Sonic sped up even more, with a serious expression, muttered words of amazement while suppressing a grin that was continuously rising to his mouth.

“Heh, you don’t feel like you’re getting burned out?”

It was a straight line from the left-twisting, half-corkscrew to the goal. Below, you could see the surface of the city piercing upwards. The two blue streaks sped up the outside of a vertical skyscraper.

The goal was just around the corner. Sonic was in the lead.

Metal Sonic’s AI became fully aware at this point. It would not win at this rate.

How can it win!? Perhaps it could increase the output from the jet propulsion unit a little more, but where there even enough resources to do so...!?

☆ ★ ☆

"...?"

Just a few hundred meters from the goal.

Right then, Sonic couldn’t understand what happened.

Metal Sonic pulled out to Sonic at an impossibly fast speed! A dazzling seven-colored light erupted from Metal’s chest as a bright red flame with black smoke gushed out of the jet exhaust hole on his back. Parts and debris flew off of him in a violent roar.

“Metal...!?”

That’s right. Metal Sonic absorbed and utilized Chaos Energy! However, the power of the Chaos Emeralds was not stable and was very uncontrollable.

While speeding ahead, Metal lost his balance and collapsed.

Upon seeing this, Sonic tried to call out...

In a single moment, Metal was swallowed the the seven bright lights as they were then engulfed by smoke. Metal Sonic turned into a glowing red bulb.

The explosion sent an impact out that knocked Sonic back. As he looked up to the sky...

Against the backdrop of the night sky, Metal Sonic’s scattered body parts, which drew a trail of red flames alongside shimmering shards of window glass seemed to fly by in slow motion.

For a single moment, Sonic thought it was strangely beautiful.

Immediately after, Sonic got to his feet while being shocked at the explosion sounds that came soon after. When suddenly...

Metal Sonic’s upper body, which only had the torso, head, and right arm attached had crashed to the floor. As it made attempts to crawl towards the goal. The efforts proved too exhausting as he soon stopped dead in his tracks... just 10 meters away.

Shortly after, Sonic begrudgingly crossed the finish line; putting this little game to an end.

A Chaos Emerald flew towards Sonic. As he caught it, he looked back with a unique and serious expression. Metal Sonic had tossed the emerald with the last of his power.

[[......!!]]

Metal Sonic jumped to restrain Sonic as he approached with his fiery eyes.

Sonic felt as if Metal Sonic was saying that it’s impossible for two people to have crossed the finish line.

The damage that Metal Sonic had taken wasn’t as bad as Sonic had expected.

Sonic spoke in his usual tone, feeling uncomfortable with how relieved the situation felt.

“It was a good race.”

As Sonic let out his remarks, he never turned back and said,

“I’ll be waiting for a rematch.”

☆ ★ ☆

The defeated Metal Sonic was analyzing the current situation.

This time, it was an utter defeat.

Metal tried to re-calibrate all of his resources, but still couldn’t win.

Metal Sonic tried to sharpen his strengths, but it was all too late. In the end, he lacked a way to channel his resources and self-destructed.

....However,

it should be noted that an unprecedented performance was achieved this time.

 Even with the final Chaos Emerald, considering that the race would have been lost regardless, it wasn’t necessarily a bad move... but a more detailed analysis is to be postponed.

A rescue signal was already issued. Aid was available and recovery could be achieved at Eggman’s base. If Metal connected to the base’s main computer and analyzed today’s data, he can definitely win next time. There is room to not only improve speed, but also inhibitory behaviors and attack patterns.

I can still reach a tier of being and there will others who can surpass or fall victim to that tier!

At the moment, Metal Sonic was forced into a deep sleep mode due to a drop in his voltage energy. His ability to think dropped rapidly and Metal Sonic obtained an analysis result that was unbiased and unemotional.

 [[Status is... “favorable."]] 

[magicalgirlgrimoire]

A Eulogy to Black Rock Shooter

AKA My Wild and Unsubstantiated Black Rock Shooter Conspiracy Theory

A long time ago, I saw a friend posting about a thing called “black rock shooter” on their deviantart journal and I asked them what it was. It must have been circa 2009/10, since it was about the OVA that was soon to release. I’d gotten into Vocaloid pretty bad around that time, right at the fandoms infancy, and I was immediately intrigued by BRS’s creation. I could and would talk more about it ; it’s an interesting case of various creatives building off each other to make a collaborative media property, and one of the earliest instances of this coming from the vocaloid community.

But that’s not why we’re here; we’re here for my hit piece on Black Rock Shooter 2012.

But let’s roll back a bit, to the OVA first. Now, for the purposes of this blog, I’m only going to be touching on the OVA and 2012 anime. I know there’s a few games, manga and a new anime that came out this year, but I’m interested in BRS mostly as a magical girl property, so I’m ignoring media that doesn’t involve the duality of a normal girl / magical girl in the plot. Speaking of, BRS’s OVA is a simple story; Mato and Yomi are two girls who meet each other as they join a new school and immediately hit it off. However Mato is more outgoing, and soon Yomi finds herself sidelined in Mato’s flourishing school life. In another world, a seemingly twisted version of Yomi is gaining power as Dead Master, and it’s up to Mato’s other self, Black Rock Shooter to defeat and subsequently rescue Yomi from her own darker emotions.

There’s something incredibly relatable to me about the short narrative presented to us in this OVA. The quick way Mato and Yomi befriend each other and reach that level of intimacy within their friendship reflects my own experience as a young teenaged afab; often your most intense relationships at that age are with friends you made, in retrospect, for the convenience. Not that Mato and Yomi don’t have a genuine connection; but more that it’s clear during the OVA that they have differing interests and levels of openness, leading to their friendship straining over the course of the story. There’s also a distinctive saphic edge to their relationship too; the disappointment and abandonment Yomi feels, which instigates her downward spiral, also mirrors the feelings of many young queer women, who find themselves in incredibly emotional and weighty relationships with their best friends, who often don’t have the language to explain why they want to spend so much time with them, why they feel such jelousy when that friend is away, or why that friend in particular is so important. This makes it all the more sweet when the conclusion of the OVA is Mato gaining her powers as BRS in order to save Yomi, proving she also sees Yomi as important. The final scene where BRS breaks out of her chains and defeats Dead Master with not her iconic sword or gun, but with a hug, dispelling Yomi’s anger and sadness, always gets me. Despite the somewhat edgy pckaging, the Black Rock Shooter OVA presents a sweet story about a friendship between two girls, and about girls rescuing and caring for each other.

Cute. Nice.

The Black Rock Shooter Anime throws all that out the window.

The anime starts out close enough to the OVA, though with a notably expanded main cast and some adjustments to the characters relationships. In this version, Mato has a pre-existing friendship with Yu, a character who does appear in the OVA but who I glossed over, and Yomi is friends with a new character who I despise. Black Gold Saw is also here.

The first few episodes are normal enough as we follow both the every day storyline and a parallel narrative with BRS, giving us more insight into the connection between the other world and our world. While I have my own petty gripes about the expanded cast taking focus away from Mato/ BRS and Yomi/Deadmaster, I concede giving them other girls to bounce off is a good shout. However the characterisation of all the cast goes right into yandere mode; unlike in the OVA where Yomi’s withdrawel into depression feels gradual and foreboding, the overblown drama of the anime removes any sense of realism from the scenes. What could have been an intimate look at the interpersonal relationships between a group of girls becomes a melodrama interlaced with cgi fight scenes.

The plots between the two worlds feel more disconnected than ever; despite all the new backstory provided, there’s no compelling through line between the real world and other world plots. The worst slap in the face is episode 5, which is a complete inversion of the OVA’s ending; Mato goes into the other world willingly to save Yomi, only to find she’s murdered Dead Master. Expectedly, she flies into a blind rage as a result of this. To add insult to injury, the plot wraps up so neatly after this, to the point where one of the final scenes is all the girls giggling together, it feels completely bizarre. The conclusion is unearned and the core conflict of the girl’s tumultuous attachments to each other, though resolved on paper, feels like it wasn’t ever truly addressed.

I don’t really expect all magical girl media to be uplifting, especially since this particular franchise is definitely not aimed towards the same middle school girls it depicts, but the radical shift from a somewhat eerie but ultimately good natured narrative focused on friendships to outright torture porn felt inexplicable on the first watch. I couldn’t understand how a story that was ultimately so wholesome and clear cut could lose its way so severely, and in such a short time. Afterall, there was only a 2 year gap between the OVA’s release in July 2010 to the anime’s in February 2012, and the OVA was clearly meant as a proof of concept for a longer show. What could have possibly lead to this change in direction?

It was MADOKA.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica came out squarely inbetween BRS’s OVA and Anime in January 2011. I don’t think anyone foresaw how wildly popular the show would be; and anyone who was there at the time knows that one of the key components that made Madoka the success it is was the shocking nature of the plot and how it juxtaposes the cute aesthetic of magical girl media with the tragedy and violence experienced by the main characters.

This is where my speculation comes in.

The facts as I see them are as follows;

Black Rock Shooter OVA comes out with modest popularity backed by the vocaloid communities that supported the project in it’s early days

BRS is never intended as a widely syndicated show, and is very independent in it’s release. It isn’t intended for a mainstream shoujo demographic.

Madoka comes out; it’s a seinen pairing cutesy magical girl designs with surreal aesthetics and focuses on the psychological turmoil of its young female cast and a massive hit

BRS anime comes out a year later with a bigger focus on its character’s suffering and an overall edgier vibe

My conjecture is I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that the production on BRS’s anime saw how well Madoka did and wanted a slice of the pie. It is only after Madoka’s airing that we see this hard shift. BRS 2012 was trying to capitalise on the zeitgeist’s interest in watching girls suffer, and it sucks for it. The voyeuristic framing of the girl’s mental breakdowns, the focus on body horror and maiming and the way we hardly see any real positive real world interactions with the girls towards the latter half of the story ( until the weird ending ) feels like proof enough to this theory. There is a preoccupation with creating a marketable property to serve male fans emanating from the series; there is no care given to try and depict the real friendships of girls. Instead, the relationships are needlessly twisted and again, come to no meaningful conclusion aside from murder. While I have my reservations about Madoka, even it had the decency to ground our characters more extreme behaviours in understandable motivations. Black Rock Shooter 2012 is a sloppy repackage and disappointment on almost all fronts-

At least the opening still slaps.

[the-awful-falafel]

Okay, so normally I'm not a huge fan of the "Evil Morty is Rick's original Morty" theory, because it's kind of overplayed by this point and I'm convinced there are many other interesting routes to take that particular character, but just for fun I propose a small, alternative version of the theory: The baby Morty in the pictures/memories is Rick's first Morty, Evil Morty is Rick's second Morty, and our current Morty is his third. The first Morty was the one Rick grew slightly attached to and he died suddenly in an accident at a young age (hauntingly similar to what happened to Beth, except it was probably our Rick's fault this time), the second Morty was similarly young but treated far more distantly/controllingly which led to him betraying and/or abandoning Rick in favor of Big Plans, and our Morty started as an anxious wreck but is clearly growing much more confident and resentful over time from his abuse. Rick's treatment of each Morty can be dissected as a toxic overcorrection in response to the fallout of each previous Morty up to that point, since he’s trying to prevent his grandson from dying/leaving through various methods. Which in actuality is a self-fulfilling prophecy and inevitable downward spiral of abuse because Rick is a traumatized god-complex asshole who does not grasp how to have healthy family relationships, especially if it's based on what he sees as an "irrational attachment", and Morty is the recurring casualty of this trait. In this essay I will--