#Wing 1 apt 13

[humblemooncat]

The imitation moonlit window makes for such a pretty backdrop. (You guys are more than welcome to use mine in my apt any time. That's where this was taken)

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

Isaiah's Call to Service (Isaiah 6:1-13)

Isaiah knew the very day and hour when he saw this wonderful vision. It was in the year that king Uzziah died. The vision had made such an impression on his mind that he never could forget it. It had meant so much to him as an experience, that he could never cease to look back to the day as his spiritual birthday.

That was a memorable year. Uzziah was one of the greatest of Judah’s kings. He had reigned fifty years with high honor, and then suddenly he was smitten with leprosy. He had gone into the temple and attempted with his own hands to burn incense. On his forehead appeared at once the white spot which was the mark of divine judgment, and the king was thrust out and dwelt in a leper house until his death. The year in which king Uzziah died, was therefore more than a date. That was the year of Isaiah’s vision .

There are one or two dates in nearly every earnest life, which are always remembered. Sometimes it is a loss or a sorrow which has made its indelible record. Sometimes it is the coming of a great joy into the heart the first meeting with a new friend, for example. Sometimes it is the day when Christ was revealed too the heart. We may be very sure that Andrew and John never forgot the day when they first saw Jesus and when He took them to His own lodgings for a long talk. It is good for us to keep records of the great days in our life.

The prophet in his vision, saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. It is a great thing when such a vision as this fills one’s life. Too often it is this world which most largely blocks the soul’s view. Men see visions of wealth, power, fame, or pleasure but see not a gleam of heaven nor a hint of the shining of God’s face. But earthly visions do not exalt our life. They make us no better. When we have visions like Isaiah’s, in which God fills all our field of view we are lifted up in spirit, in character, in hope and joy. One who sees God is never the same man afterwards. He is set apart now for holy life and service. He is dominated ever after by a new influence. He has seen God he must therefore be holy; he must walk softly and reverently; he must be true to God.

There is something unusual and very impressive in the description of the seraphim in this vision. “Each one had six wings!” Wings are for flight it is the mission of angelic beings to fly on God’s errands. The six wings would seem to signify special readiness to do God’s will. But they suggest here, more than their normal use to fly.

The modern Christian would probably use them all for flying and would be intensely active. We live in an age when everything inspires to activity. We are apt to run, perhaps too greatly, with our ‘wings’.

But we should notice that two of the seraphim’s wings were used in covering his face when before God teaching reverence. Two of them also were used in covering his feet humility. The other two were used in flying activity. Reverence and humility are quite as important qualities in God’s service as activity!

The song of the seraphim, as they veiled their faces and covered their feet, indicated praise, worship. One choir sang, “Holy, holy, holy, is Almighty Jehovah!” and the other responded, “The whole earth is full of His glory!” What we owe to God always is holiness, for everywhere is His glory. Yet many people never see any of God’s glory in the earth. They think of glory as something bright and dazzling, like the burning bush, the pillar of fire, or the transfiguration. But there is as much glory in a tree laden with sweet blossoms as there was in the flaming bush at Horeb; and as much glory in a face shining brightly with love as there was in Stephen’s. We read of Christ’s first miracle that He thus “manifested His glory.” It was the glory of kindness and helpfulness which this miracle showed. Everywhere God’s glory shines in all nature and in all true Christian living, in lowly homes where prayer is offered.

The prophet stood now face to face with God, and the effect on him was a sense of his own sinfulness. “Then said I: Woe is me I for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips! For my eyes have seen the King, Almighty Jehovah!” We do not know our own unworthiness until we have had a glimpse of God. In the light of the divine holiness we see our own unholiness!

One of the most remarkable incidents in the Gospels, is that in which Peter begged Jesus to depart from him. It was after a great miracle. Peter was awed by the manifestations of power in Jesus. Only a divine being could do such work. The effect on him was that he shrank away from the presence of such a holy being! He was not worthy to stand before Christ. “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” When the light of God’s face shines into our heart we see how unworthy we are. All pride and self-conceit vanish when we stand in the presence of the divine glory.

The mercy of God is ever instant in its response to human penitence and confession. “Then one of the seraphim flew unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he touched my mouth with it, and said: Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven!” The act of bringing the coal and touching the prophet’s lips, was very suggestive. The altar was the place of sacrifice. It was holy fire that burned there. All this must be kept in mind as we think of the meaning of this act. Not any common coal of fire would have done. It represented fire from heaven, the fire of the Holy Spirit. As the coal touched the lips of the prophet they were made pure and clean.

No sooner had the prophet’s lips been cleansed than the call for service came. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” God is always wanting errand - runners. Angels fly swiftly and eagerly. There is not an angel in glory, who would not gladly come to earth on any mission, however lowly.

A legend tells of one of the highest angels sent to earth one day with two commissions to deliver a king from the power of some temptation; and to help a little struggling ant home with its burden of food. The latter errand was done just as dutifully and joyously by the great angel as the former. But God wants men as well as angels for messengers in this world. He is always asking this question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

[libidomechanica]

“From harmony, this one, so in a man; and answer to speak the top”

A cinquain sequence

               1

From harmony, this one, so in a man; and answer to speak the top. As she doth among.

               2

Kiss thy pain. He was for all their colour animals. Fire. Where what and look! Such rage asswage.

               3

Down between classes. I played with fair and marking stay, and spangled in the space like Write it!

               4

The leagues of doom. What the blabbing like a flower as love round my darling, charlie, he’s ground.

               5

Pilots of dawn of stars go overflow. You seek for me! Give way you, all that from thy book.

               6

In all my spit. If there to worry vague and made aware. Like vibrant tail, with the river.

               7

I set me down. Me. He wrung him. Mother’s and dew upon thy wrack my peace that place an hour.

               8

And there’s thievish progress to be stars. Making a milking, that prevent my care na by.

               9

But passion and snow, despite the souls! Not Time or floats up, bright guid will, but Love fled and high.

               10

Goldilocks of Europe— can children save me not amiss. Even bury me, bury him?

               11

Except that I should do? Of unsifted off. And bosom swelling, underneath the season?

               12

What word was moved to which make. That he sat in front of men, what once I did not say, since what?

               13

And the sheet—crushed pepper— althought meant hold me beguil’d, this rage asswage. Lose some in the kye.

               14

For thee. To be happy skies, breadths of azure robe before I conceit of the evening sky.

               15

Grew or stood, which I gaze in the hold a fretful briar will; but is enough? Instruct thine?

               16

The faults should be a little flocks had cut him remains; long may win thy selfe best grac’d to think?

               17

Far grace, it light like a flowes, and cough loudly, violet, yet with rewards my lips shall sweet.

               18

Yet half the soil; and in this, that I have loved you for bliss? If it be not, there could not sad?

               19

And wanton play, dove-like flowers, the sheet and pillow. And Love is left me maim’d to dwelling.

               20

Saw the parrot’s call my mother’s vow, dead weeds and yet now knew we would breed unrest, O help!

               21

And somebody, I am clad in floods of chromatic ecstasy. Now as the fluster!

               22

With winged her comes and vibrant tail, with gathering or dead. Wherein he does to climb the space.

               23

Glen. I fry in vain. No bitter what it might; beyond the head so to see the highway home.

               24

It is that I had rather days I long dead! The Earth turn. Poor restless seas that Summer’s fate!

               25

(Linger? But their clothes, dirtying the unbroken nights not Europe—can children resist it speak.

               26

A city sound. Teach me to try. As an anger, and comfort? A fingers of Earn, and strive.

               27

And if ever mind, for this, nor I toil, the low replies. For me, in water unto thee.

               28

But soon he fountain commits strain was a saint. Big heart to driven by a lawn’s cast over.

               29

The lightly me, but, trowth, I can, the fuel; and then all song I climb the sea after long past.

               30

Because is due. And flowers to surrender the news; the melancholy into towers.

               31

The thorn, wet were once dry; but from her eldest daughter thou ever mouth of youth, and down tents.

               32

And all that will lend this or that mean. Dream how deep river, and eye’s dearest bands untwining?

               33

Who are were driven by the in Glenturit glen. And I vomit into my fathoms, false!

               34

Because your branches sit, chirping love which time breake in me her fruit. But of sight well: and more.

               35

An earth shall be you contented he field, and the abysmal wave? Shall we shower will best.

               36

And the dying no higher. One groan was never noticing underneath thee; thou survived.

               37

And having thresholds, from thee rest. How can it? Until he came back somewhere I leaves they be.

               38

Flutes: it is a praise, but and star, gleam. Nature lessened in love talk, not know how blackbird’s feet.

               39

Thought of existence beacons. And loved, the other: what is it threefold, it made apt sprites.

               40

We wanton base of my Soul. To discover, and shall be he toothy workers, even now!

               41

For its before happy rose, and all by my early morning. For the pride, the fancy yet.

[brinemcallister]

Another little party game to serve as icebreakers.  Here is one I answered. This or That Questions 1. Playlists or podcasts? Podcasts 2. Shoes or slippers? Slippers 3. Pork or beef?  Beef 4. Swimming pool or beach?  Beach 5. Celery or Carrots?  Celery (even though have an allergy) 6. Cats or dogs?  Both but lean more toward cats 7. Spring or autumn?  Autumn all the way 8. Cinnamon or paprika?  Paprika 9. Cash or cards? Cards 10. Chocolate chip cookies or Fig Newtons?  Chocolate Chip Cookies 11. Soda or juice? Soda 12. Forest or desert?  Forests 13. Text or call? Text 14. New furniture or new car?  Furniture 15. Full color or black/white?  Color 16. Driver or passenger? Passenger 17. Laptop or desktop? Desktop 18. Comedy or Horror? Horror 19. Water or milk?  Water 20. Take out or dine out? Take out 21. Movies or TV shows?  TV shows 22. iOS or Android?  Android 23. Breakfast sausage or bacon? Bacon 24. Rain or snow?  Rain 25. Fame or fortune?  Fortune 26. Blue eyes or brown eyes?  Brown eyes 27. Curly fries or straight fries?  Curly fries 28. Typing or handwriting?  Both.. But mainly type 29. Cheetos or Doritos?  Cheetos.. Like both but sucker for Cheetos 30. Arboretum or garden?  Garden 31. Breakfast or dinner? Dinner 32.  Weekdays or weekends?  Weekends 33. Pizza or pasta?  Pasta 34. Friends or family?  Friends with exception my kiddo 35. Costumes or masks?  Masks 36. Coke or Pepsi?  Coke 37. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? Milk chocolate 38. Singing or dancing?  Dancing 39. Facebook or Instagram?  Instagram 40. Books or movies?  Books 41. Dress or skirt?  Skirt 42. Dishes or vacuum?  Dishes 43. Vacation near home or travel abroad?  Vacation near home but would like to travel abroad 44. Suitcase or backpack?  Suitcase 45. Too much sleep or little sleep?  Little sleep 46. Drama or Fantasy?  Fantasy 47. Glitter or glow in the dark?  Glitter 48. Hot chocolate or coffee?  Hot chocolate 49. House or apartment?  Live in apt but want a house 50. Unicorn or dragon?  Dragon 51. Bats or rats?  Bats 52. Board games or card games?  Board gamed 53. Comb or brush? Brush 54. Ice cream or cake?  Ice cream 55. Movie date or dinner date?  Dinner date 56. Socks or bare feet?  Bare feet 57. Paint or sketch?  Both but love sketching 58. Tater tots or fries?  Tater tots 59. To give or to receive?  Give.. But love receiving too 60. Hamburgers or hotdogs?  Hamburgers 61. Introvert or extrovert?  Introvert 62. PlayStation or Xbox?  PlayStation 63. Brownies or cupcakes?  Brownies 64. Video games or party?  Video games 65. Discord or twitch?  Discord 66. Coffee or tea?  Tea 67. Pudding or Jello?  Pudding 68. Altoids or Tic-tac?  Tic-tac 69. Vintage or new?  Vintage 70. Popsicles or ice cream bars?  Ice cream bars 71. Hike or nap?  Nap 72. Wings or ribs?  Wings 73. Buffet or fancy dinner?  Buffet.. Salad bars are the bomb 74. Pretzels or peanuts?  Pretzels 75. Cheesy or chili?  Cheesy 76. Cable or satellite?  Cable 77. Sunrise or sunset?  Sunset 78. Night or day?  Night 79. Pop or reggae?  Pop 80. Captain America or Ironman?  Ironman 81. Casual or formal?  Casual 82. With make-up or without make-up? Mainly no make-up 83. Escape room or dance party?  Escape room 84. Blinds or drapes?  Drapes 85. Impressionism or abstract?  Impressionism 86. Tall or short?  I like tall 87. River or lake?  River 88. Single player or multiplayer?  Single player 89. Leaves or puddles?  Leaves 90. Music festival or art festival?  Both.  But can’t stand for a long time. 91. Massage or manicure?  Massage 92. Piano or guitar?  Piano 93. Yacht or sailboat?  Sailboat 94. Highway or back roads?  Back roads 95. Tattoo or piercings?  Tattoo 96. Chrome or Safari?  Chrome 97. Gold or silver?  Silver 98. Long or short hair?  Short hair on partners but medium length for me 99. Angels or vampires?  Vampires 100. Sun or moon?  Moon 101. Stripes or dots?  Stripes 102. Thai food or bbq? ...

[curtiscroachblog]

Start early

Word for Today written by Bob and Debby Gass

Sunday 17th September 2023

'Train up a child in the way he should go.' Proverbs 22:6 NKJV

The Bible says, 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it' (Proverbs 22:6 NKJV). Observe the word 'child'. Whether you're a parent, carer, teacher or any other type of role model, you must begin early when: (1) Their will is flexible. A twig is much easier to work with than a trunk. In the early years, a child's will is like soft clay; malleable and flexible. You see, it's when they're young that you are to 'set their ways', because when they grow older, their 'ways are set'. The Hebrew phrase 'train up' refers to training a vine to grow in a certain shape or direction. If you wait, it will be too late! (2) There is still hope. 'Correct your children while there is still hope; do not let them destroy themselves' (Proverbs 19:18 NCV). When a parent says, 'My kids are hopeless,' it may be that those parents didn't train their children while there was still hope.

Listen to the urgency in Solomon's voice: 'Whoever loves his son disciplines him from early on' (Proverbs 13:24 GWT). The Hebrew word for 'promptly' refers to dawn, or early in the day. So, start early! Maybe you have a little darling running around in your house right now that you think is an angel. But someday those legs will grow longer, those wings will become shorter, and sometimes a little 'angel' even sprouts horns!

While a child is young and more apt and ready to listen to your advice and counsel, teach and train them how to live God's way. If you do, you won't regret it.

[shop-korea]

FRONT - BAYSIDE MARKET PLACE

BISCAYNE BLVD / US 1

CROSS - NE 4 ST

2 LOCATIONS - BEN's - PIZZA -

MY - FAVORITE - AT - BACK 4 -

EXCELLENT - LOUD - MUSIC -

NEAREST - CORNER - THEIR -

SPANISH - MUSIC - ALWAYS -

GOOD - SPANISH GIRLS - WITH -

WHITE - BLOND - HAIR - MOST -

BEAUTIFUL LARGE - CHEST -

NICE - GORGOEOUS - SKIN -

BUTTOCKS - SHOWCASED -

IT's - SO - BEAUTUFUL YES -

THEIR - SKIN - VIEW RIGHT -

SIDE - HARD - ROCK CAFE -

WATER VIEW - FURTHER R -

CAROUSEL - OVER - $21.00 -

ADULT - PRICE - KIDS PRICE -

FRONT - BEN's PIZZA - NICE -

WITH - UMBRELLA - EACH -

BETTER - TABLES - MENU -

THEIR - PIZZA -

MARGHERITA - PIZZA - NOT -

DRINK - $7.50 - SLICES NOT -

WHOLE - NUTELLA - CALZONE -

CANADA - $14 - SOUNDS - NICE -

STRAIGHT - 2 - STREET - L SIDE -

CORRECT - WITH - APP -

ARGENTINA's -

THE - EMPANADA's -

COFFEE - ANOTHER - GROUP

UNLESS - THEY - LEFT - YES

NUTELLA - CHOCOLATE ADD

BROWNIE - COVERED - BY XO

EMPANADA - OVER - $4 - YES

SMALL - CUTE - GOD - GOOD

GUESS - NEW - NEIGHBORS -

INARI - SUSHI - FUSION

OWNER - BORN - IN - CUBA

EXPERIENCE - JAPANESE -

ITALIAN - LE CORDON BLEU

COLLEGE - HAS COCKTAILS

12P - 4P EDT

MARGARITA - $13

PINEAPPLE PUNCH - $14

MEMORY

MIMOSA - CHAMPAGNE -

FLORIDA - ORANGES $9 -

UNIQUE - MIXES

SAMURAI - ROLLS - LOVE -

EEL - SAUCE

GYOZA - PORK

BEEF - TERIYAKI

SALMON - TERIYAKI

TEMPURA - UDON SOUP - $9

LADIES - WE NEED - MONEY

EXCITED - ABOUT THIS NEW

OPEN - SUSHI

TRENDY - CHIC - TABLES

BRICKELL - CITY CENTRE

EIGHT STREET

BAR - WHITE - FAN OUTSIDE

FANCY - LONDON NOSTALGIA

THE - HENRY

COMING - MAYBE BREAKFAST

PUB - PRETTY - CASUAL - YES

ELEGANCE - SINCE YESTERDAY

NOTHING - DONE - 2ND - FLOOR

LOBBY - FRONT - OF - ZARA YES

CLOSED - ALL - DAY - NOTHING

AFTER - JESUS - NAILED 2 YES

CROSS - BAYFRONT - PARK - IS

SAME - 21 AND OLDER - LOVER

OF - THEMSELVES - B 4 - YES -

EASTER - PSYCHO - BUNNY -

SKULL - NO EASTER BUNNY -

TODAY - JACK DANIELS FOR -

SPANISH - GIVE - LIQUOR TO -

THEIR - KIDS - SPANISH - YES -

WIVES - SMELL - MISTRESS -

SMELL - SPANISH COUNTRIES -

DRUNKS - NO - CANOPY - FOR -

3RD - FLOOR - HOT - SUN FOR -

KIDS - RAIN - POUR - INSIDE -

2 ND - FLOOR - OVER - $1 B -

BILLION - RISE - APTS ARE -

ORGY - MISTRESSES - WHY -

KIDS - IN - SCHOOL - KIDS -

THEIRS - TALK - LATE - SO -

THEY - 'FAST' - LANE -

WE THE - FAITH LANE -

BIBLE - MONEY - HAS -

WINGS - FLIES - 2 THE -

RIGHTFUL - 'OWNERS'

[aftgficrec]

Any Jean/Neil, Andrew/Jean and Jeremy/Andrew friendship (nothing more than friends) fics? (For Neil, I don't mind if it's Raven!Neil au or not!)

I had a lot of fun compiling these!  For some reason, Andrew being friends with either Jean or Jeremy (or both) invites a lot of chaos, humour, and fluff.  We hope you enjoy this selection! -F 

Andrew & Jean:

Apartment 314 series by justwhatialwayswanted [Rated G/T, 18181 words]

part 1: Fettuccine Houdini [Rated G, 1166 words, Complete 2020]

part 2: Totally Reliable Narration [Rated G, 1240 words,  Complete 2020]

part 3: Cappuccino [Rated G, 1102 words, Complete 2020]

part 4: Questionable Decisions [Rated G, 957 words, Complete 2020]

part 5: Sir and King Announce Their Presence [Rated G, 1068 words, Complete 2020]

part 6: Negative Splits [Rated G, 1332 words, Complete 2020]

part 7: Vanilla Ice Cream [Rated G, 476 words, Complete 2020]

part 8: Party Planning [Rated G, 1738 words, Complete 2020]

part 9: Solidarity [Rated G, 1159 words, Complete 2020]

part 10: Ò vin, dissipe la tristesse [Rated G, 1198 words, Complete 2020]

part 11: Hi, Andrew [Rated G, 2910 words, Complete 2020]

part 12: Wait [Rated T, 2212 words, Complete 2020]

part 13: Double Text [Rated T, 1623 words, Complete 2021]

Jean and Andrew are roommates. Neil lives across the hall. There are cats, adventures with grocery shopping, and merciless roasting of each other, and it's exactly as chaotic as it sounds.

Andrew & Jeremy:

Cabin Fever by nerdzeword [Rated T, 5381 words, Complete 2020, AFTG Exchange]

Neil wasn't actually trying to challenge his husband, but when Andrew takes the challenge anyway they find themselves locked in a remote cabin in the woods with six other people for the holidays.

(tw: murder, tw: blood)

a Slytherin, a Ravenclaw, and three Hufflepuffs by justadreamfox [Rated T, 8428 words, complete, Aftg Spring Exchange 2020]

Andrew goes to Hogwarts.

We're all happy little fluff-gremlins here.

(tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced self-harm)

Neil & Jean:

BFF Neil & Jean here

‘Black as is the raven…’ here

‘Sunrise, Nathaniel, and Death’ here 

‘wings above, dangers near (they’re coming down)’ and ‘what it takes to survive’ here

‘Raven to Fox’ here

‘indebted to none’ here

‘The Foxhole Club’ series here  

not very good at this by nanatsuyu [Rated G, 2284 words, Complete 2020]

“He seems brighter,” Neil said absentmindedly, tracing the queen piece.

“I imagine it’s hard to live with Knox and not absorb a little bit of that attitude.” Glaring amount of sunshine would have been more apt, but Kevin wasn’t a poet and he had no intention of mincing words now.

Neil hummed, suddenly scarce of any teasing words. “I’m glad.”

(tw: implied/referenced alcoholism)

[fandom-hoarder]

I was tagged by @kalutyka and @starrose17 for the 20 questions game. Thank you both 💗

I did this recently, but it's buried on my blog, so I'll copy/paste the note I typed it in.

1. Why did you choose your url? I was wanting to rebrand and fandom-hoarder seemed apt. I didn't follow through, though; I'm still ladygizarme everywhere else.

2. Any side blogs? Nope. All my mess is here.

3. How long have you been on Tumblr? I made my account in 2013 I think, but there was a large gap of years where I wasn't on cuz life was too hectic. Until 2020 happened.

4. Do you have a queue tag? No. Most of my queue is non fandom and set for when I should be asleep, but I don't organize it. (I hardly organize anything. My tags are mostly feels.😓)

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? I resisted for 2 years, according to my first tumblr post on pg 2350 of my blog (currently)! (That pg # is definitely higher now.) Kept finding myself here through Young Justice and Teen Wolf posts on lj and finally caved on having a place to reblog. Everyone was migrating from lj and I stopped procrastinating.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp? It was/is my main account icon on lj and I wanted to be recognizable. Also I love dragonflies and the palette of the icon evokes a dark ethereal feeling to me. (That hairy, alien body, one eye bulb, gossamer wings, stark background. Love.)

7. Why did you choose your header? I started getting followers that weren't bots and wanted my blog to look a little more cohesive. It's non fandom because I'm lazy and have a tendency to keep the same header/wallpaper for AGES so wanted something...neutral but my aesthetic. It's just a pic I took of a tree I like.

8. What's your post with the most notes? Err... I'm gonna have to get on desktop to see... Okay, in the last month my most popular post is the twist on daddy kink. If there's a way to find my all-time top post, I don't know it. 😓

Edit: thank you for this link, @kalutyka

It's now confirmed: my post linked above IS the one with the most notes rn. 93

9. How many mutuals do you have? Is there a way to know? I think desktop has a special symbol on the followers page but I'm not counting that. I have a lot of mutuals now. It's nice. 😁

10. How many followers do you have? 156 and finally more real ones than bots lol (that number is still the same, so I've lost as many followers as I've gained this week lol.)

11. How many people do you follow? 249 252 at the moment

12. Have you made a shitpost? Surely.

13. How often do you use Tumblr each day? All day in between RL things. Tumblr replaced fb as my sm fixation so this is actually not as unhealthy as it sounds. Notifications on tumblr actually make me happy instead of anxious.

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? No

15. How do you feel about "you need to reblog this" posts? Immediate, full-bodied rebellion, typically.

16. Do you like tag games? Yes!! I take awhile to do them sometimes, but I save the link so I can find it when I need to. I get nervous about tagging people, though lol.

17. Do you like ask games? Yes!! See above❤

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous? All of them? Idk.

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? Every one 🥰😘

20. Tag: I'm too foggy to list names rn. If you see this and want to play, I tag you!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hullo, Steph, and happy new year! Sorry if someone has asked this already, but I’m searching for Jealous John fics (preferably new ones). Just finished reading “White Knight” by DiscordantWords, and it is amazing!!! Once again, thank you SO MUCH for all the work and effort you put into this blog... the fandom wouldn’t be the same without you.

Hi Nonny!! 

Thank you for the well wishes! I hope you had a good holiday season yourself

I don’t have very many new Jealous John fics, but I do have some new ones to add to my past lists! So, why not, let’s update my Jealous John and Jealous Sherlock Fic rec list!!

JEALOUSY Pt. 5

See Also:

Jealous John

Jealous John Pt. 2 and Jealous Sherlock Pt 2

Jealous John Pt 3 and Jealous Sherlock Pt 3

Jealous John and Sherlock Pt. 4

JEALOUS JOHN

Anchor Point by trickybonmot (E, 49,856 w., 80 Ch. || Truman Show AU || Psychological Drama, Suspense, Slow Burn, Dark Characters / Fic, Alternating First/Third Person, Protective John, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Tender Moments, Love Confessions, Hand/Blow Jobs, Cuddling, Jealous John, First Kiss/Time) – The world tunes in nightly for Sherlock, the ultimate in reality TV: Sherlock Holmes, a real person with a legendary name, unknowingly lives out his life in a staged setting contrived by his brother. Things get complicated when a retired army doctor joins the show to play the part of Sherlock’s closest friend. This fic borrows its concept from the 1998 film, the Truman Show. However, you don’t need to have any knowledge of the movie to enjoy this story.

Hell Sent, Heaven Bound by ConsultingHound (M, 64,381 w, 16 Ch. || Angels / Demons AU ||  Fallen Angel Sherlock / Angel Cop John, Alternate First Meeting, Slow Burn, Case Fic, John & Lestrade are Friends Before Sherlock, BAMF John, Mind Palace John, Friends to Lovers, John in Denial, Sherlock Picks Out John’s Clothing, Clubbing / Dancing, Mildly Jealous John, Awkwardness, Kidnapping, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Sacrifice, Worried / Anxious Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, Immortal to Mortal) – Ex-War healer and current angelic guard John Watson is not having the best day. He overslept, he’s underpaid, and now there’s someone tagging the Council’s building walls. However things may be about to get interesting: there’s an unusual stranger hanging around (the definition of tall, dark, and handsome), a literal underground cult is brewing, and rumblings are coming from hell. Can he keep his neighbourhood safe, how and why is he being connected to all this, and who the hell is Sherlock Holmes?

White Knight by DiscordantWords (M, 69,840 w., 13 Ch. || S4 Compliant/Post S4, Marriage For a Case, Jealous John, Pining John, Janine / Sherlock Fake Relationship, Serial Killers, Case Fic, Undercover as a Couple, Weddings, John is a Mess, Misunderstandings, Wedding Planning, Jealousy, Drunkenness, Love Confessions, Angst with Happy Ending) – Green. The word green was used to convey a great many things. Illness. Envy. Inexperience. Standing there amidst Janine’s chattering bridesmaids, watching Sherlock furrow his brow and study fabric swatches, watching him smile and simper and flirt, John thought it a remarkably apt colour choice. Because he felt quite sick to his stomach, he feared the source of said sickness might very well be jealousy, and he had absolutely no idea at all what to do about it. Or: Sherlock needs to fake a relationship for a case. He doesn’t ask John.

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel., Possessive/Obsessive Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock, Mutual Pining, Body Appreciation, Depression, Closeted Sexuality, Family, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Ogling Each Other, Anxious Sherlock, Panic Attack, Drunkenness, Talk of Forever, Big Feelings™) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it’s a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

Proving A Point by elldotsee & J_Baillier (E, 186,270 w., 28 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Me Before You Fusion || Medical Realism, Insecure John, Depression, Romance, Angst, POV John, Sherlock Whump, Serious Illness, Doctor John, Injury Recovery, Assisted Suicide, Sherlock’s Violin, Awkward Sexual Situations, Alcoholism, Drugs, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Body Image, Friends to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Pain, Big Brother Mycroft, Intimacy, Anxiety, PTSD, Family Issues, Psychological Trauma, John Whump, Case Fics, Loneliness, Pain) – Invalided home from Afghanistan, running out of funds and convinced that his surgical career is over, John Watson accepts a mysterious job offer to provide care and companionship for a disabled person. Little does he know how much hangs in the balance of his performance as he settles into his new life at Musgrave Court.

JEALOUS SHERLOCK

Santa Knows by Itsallfine (T, 1,719 w., 1 Ch. || Christmas Party, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Matchmaking, POV Sherlock, Pining Sherlock) – Sherlock and John both get exactly what they want from the Yard’s secret Santa exchange. Pure holiday fluff.

Denial Isn’t Just a River in Egypt by satanatemycat (T, 2,107 w., 1 Ch. || Humour, Friendship, Texting, Bored/Cranky Sherlock) – In which John makes a bet with a co-worker. If he wins, she shuts up about him and Sherlock being a couple. If he loses… well, that doesn’t matter, because he won’t lose. Because he and Sherlock ARE NOT a couple. Right?

The Haunting of 221B Baker Street by earlgreytea68 (M, 10,388 w., 2 Ch. || Post TRF, Halloween / Ghosts, Pining Sherlock, Ghost Sherlock, Stroppy Sherlock, Sherlock POV, First Kiss/Time, Angry Sex, Ghost Sex, Love Confessions, Open / Ambiguous Ending) – In which Sherlock Holmes is a ghost.

The Burning of the Leaves by blueink3 (M, 15,915 w., 3 Ch. || Post S4, Angst, Reichenbach, Parentlock, Past Jolto, Idiot John, Sherlock’s a Mess, Puppies, Fluff, Possessive / Jealous Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock POV, Matchmaker Sholto, Melancholic Feelings, Emotional Sherlock, Domesticity, Love Confessions in the Rain, Kissing in the Rain, Pet Names) – After the events of series 4, Major Sholto invites John and Sherlock to lunch one day. It nearly proves to be too much for their tenuous relationship as the past haunts the present, putting the future that Sherlock so desperately wants at risk.

You’re On the Air by prettysailorsoldier (M, 20,616 w., 1 Ch. || Unilock, Matchmaking, Radio, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Sherlock POV, Pining Sherlock, Flirting, Bisexual John) – The Consulting Detective and The Woman dominate the airwaves of their university radio station, doling out advice on everything from meeting the parents to sexual positions. When their ratings start to dip before the holidays, however, manager Mike thinks it’s time for some fresh blood, and who better to fill in the gaps than rugby captain–and notorious flirt–John Watson? Part 1 of 25 Days of Johnlock

A Home for Us by sussexbound (M, 30,581 w., 12 Ch. || Scars, Bedsharing, Grief, Doctor John, Hurt/Comfort, Post-TRF, Implied/Referenced Torture, Sherlock POV, Pining Sherlock, Suicidal Ideation, Heavy Emotions, Clingy Sherlock, Hallucinations, Disassociation, Emotional Turmoil) – He has been on the road for two years, and he is exhausted. He’s almost accepted that he will never see London (John) again—almost. But then there are nights like tonight, where he is weak, and all he can think of is the warmth of the flat they once shared, the crackle of the fire in the hearth, the teasing smile playing at the corner of John’s lips, the boxes of half-eaten Chinese takeaway balanced precariously in their laps. He aches at the memory of it, at the realisation that it is something he may never experience again.

The Whore of Babylon Was a Perfectly Nice Girl by out_there (E, 32,897 w., 1 Ch. || Past Drug Use, Blowjobs, Toplock, Mentions of Switching, Rough Sex, Background Cases, Sherlock’s Past, Sherlock’s Sexual History, Experienced Sherlock, Past One Night Stands, Fingering, Cuddling, Possessive Sherlock, Paris Holiday, Bed Sharing, Naked Lie-Ins, Bathing Together, Confessions, Worried Sherlock, Laying in Bed All Day, Meddling Mycroft, Naked Lazy Day) – Sherlock walks into a room and takes all the space right out of it. He does the same inside John’s head.

Guidelines by WithLoweredVoices (M, 43,018 w., 15 Ch. || Winglock || Angels, Fantasy, Angst, BAMF! John, War, Jealous Sherlock, Possessive Sherlock, Jealous John, Falling in Various Ways, Needy Sherlock, Wings) – The Good Soldier, one of the oldest and strongest of the fallen, is offered a bargain: to live as John Watson and to Guide a fledgling archangel so that he will stay on the path of good. Of course, Sherlock Holmes has different ideas about his destiny. Fantasy AU. Warnings for violence, occasional gore, and a whole load of hurt and angst.

Being John Watson-ish by elwinglyre (E, 69,902 w., 17 Ch. || Bodysnatcher AU || Author John, Cranky Sherlock, Angst, Sexual Tension, First Kiss / Time, Falling in Love, BAMF John, Past Soldier John, Feelings, Inside Someone’s Brain, Shy Sherlock, Sherlock Loves John, POV Sherlock, Switchlock, Slow Burn, Internal Dialogue, Mental Turmoil) – When consulting detective Sherlock Holmes steps on one toe too many at a crime scene, he’s consigned to a desk job in an archaic office on the seventh-and-a-half floor of the New Scotland Yard. It’s in this bleak office that Sherlock discovers a portal into the mind of renowned author John Watson. Grander than his mind palace, this new wonderland affords Sherlock new vistas of experimentation. To learn more about the mystery behind the portal, Sherlock seeks out and befriends Watson. But then it all goes wrong when others find the secret portal door—including the man whose brain he visits.

[misslisterkeepsajournal]

1831 Thursday 13 October

7 10/.. 12 40/..

Great deal of rain in the night but apparently fair at 7 10/.. and, now at 8, at which hour Fahrenheit 64°. - out at 8 1/2 - Went into the bookseller's shop opposite - bought Chichester guide - they did not burn the bp. [bishop] last night in effigy - the police interfered and prevented the burning - but all the people seem reformers, moderate or radical - then sauntered down to the Cathedral stopping as I went to admire the beautiful gothic market place a little below the hotel (The Swan) -

A verger went all round the cathedral with me and to the top of the tower (about 248 steps) from which springs the steeple, within the latter is a sort of scaffollding by which to secure four ladders, of 40 feet long each, hung, as it were, in air one above another and by which the workmen ascend, and, when at the top, if anything is to be done outside (which has happened without accident 4 or 6 times in the time of this verger, a singing boy in the cathedral 40 years ago) they make a hole in the stone work, and put up a scaffolding on the outside of the steeple - too hazy to see Chichester steeple, or the Portsmouth or the Isle of Wight - but good bird's eye view of the town - not large - merely high Street good and another goodish street or 2 the west Sussex and East Hampshire infirmary is a large handsome looking plain building stone or stuccoed - a small part of boulevard or old rampart left, shaded by 2 rows of fine large elms, the only town walk the inhabitants have - the corporation sold all the rest long ago by bit and bit and it is all built upon - Both inside and outside of the cathedral exceedingly plain - round Saxon arches - no ornament - the interior has been lately cleaned and scraped, so that, the white and yellow wash being gone, the natural colour of the stone is left with great advantage - saw no painted glass -

View of Chichester Cathedral in 1833 by Joseph Francis Gilbert [Image Source]

Walked all thro' the cloisters (3 sides of a square remarkably neat and well kept - roof not underdrawn - of the sweet or chesnut eatable wood that, as is the rest of the cathedral, which spiders have an aversion to, and therefore not a spider's web to be seen - thro' the cloisters, and entered by the South transept door - on one side (right) paintings of all the bps. [bishops] - on the other all the Kings from William the conqueror down to Henry 8 when they were done - this transept screened off by the tomb of St. Richard once famous for the miracles done at his shrine in this cathedral - the transepts communicate with the side aisles of the nave and choir which last takes in the part under the tower roofed in the same height as the rest of the choir - instead of tabernacle work, plain gothicized sort of wainscot of deal painted darkish brown with gild gothic mouldings - looks much better than might be fancied from the description - beyond the choir the Sanctum Sanctorum, a presbytery - handsome and spacious - 2 fine columns of darkish porphyry like Sussex marble (from near Horsham) with 4 smaller columns clustering round them - from the east end of presbytery descend by a few steps into the fine large well-aired vault of the duke of Richmond made in 1750 the 1st. duke buried in westminster abbey till taken up and brought here - 20 coffins there - the broad brickwork bench on which they stand is on arches to prevent damp and there are open windows on each side that the place is as sweet as any other part of the church -

Above the duke's vault is what was the Lady's chapel to which one ascends by a few steps - now the library - in a line with the choir, but much lower - small library - the chapter holds its meetings there - some old brass plates (like small bread and butter plates) a chalice etc. and inscription of William the conqueror's time taken from the tomb of the 2nd bishop - (translated by the reverend Thomas Valentine prebendary of Selsea - the organ is of the time of Charles 2nd - the choir screen very plain gothic of time Henry 6 - 3 pointed arches the middle one much the narrowest - no transept aisles - double aisles on each side nave and choir - fine specimen of quite plain old Saxon - church consecrated 12 September 1199 - believes there is an error about this date in the guide book - several errors - records not consulted that ought and might have been - the belfry tower not mentioned save in a note of errata - a large good loking looking square gothic tower, a little distance from the church built for the bells because of the injury they might do the steeple, as said the verger guide -

The choir at Chichester Cathedral [Image Source]

In returning, sauntered along High street in spite of its raining a little bought sponge, and a pair of strong leather shoes at a venture - back at 11 50/60 and from then to 1 25/.. breakfast and read the Times - sad rioting work at Derby - and the mob burnt down the duke of Newcastle's Nottingham castle, to the ground on Monday - Very comfortable at Chichester - the Swan a very good Inn-

Off at 1 35/.. - Goodwood (3 miles from Chichester) plantations (duke of Richmond) stretch along the range of down (down) at a little distance north of the town - the duke getting rich - a good economist - has bought a great many farms lately in this neighbourhood - at 1 3/4 pass road (left) to Goodwood and in 5 mins. [minutes] more get a peep of the house - oblong - south part a pediment in the middle and a round topped little round tower at each corner - flattish all around after leaving the Goodwood downs, and not very interesting drive till alight at the Norfolk arms Arundel at 3 10/.. - wait for my 2 servants -

At 3 55/.. at the castle - stands high, on a chalk hill - the low rich ground (some of it let at 6 guins. [guineas] an acre belongs great part to the duke great to the corporation) about it, supposed to have been covered by the sea at the time the castle was first built by the Romans - (no date of the castle) - In proof of the retiring of the sea, anchors and other marine implements have been found on digging - at present this low land forms quite a basin round particularly in front south of the castle - the river Arun running along it with remarkable windings - but if it was not for these windings - these great détours - the tide comes up so strongly that it would force the water, so back as to make it overflow this low land - the Arun runs to the sea and to the Thames - and navigable all the way, sometimes by canal-cuts - the man who shewed the house said Arundel was originally perhaps Arundale -

Arundel Castle c1880 [Image Source]

Magnificent castle - the old ruins fine - particularly the great old ivy covered round Keep Tower where we afterwards saw the 7 large horned american owls - but the present house built on the old site, partly keeping up the old walls (4, and, in places, 5 yards thick) by the late duke, who spent above 30 years and £600,000 in doing it, unfinished as he died and left it - on entering the court, the building forms nearly 3 sides of a square - or a centre and wings - centre 4 stories high - entrance (rather projecting) with its large windows above and on each side of it, 4 tiers of 2 three light windows = 8 - on entering (right) baronial hall and unfinished chapels - (left) library and unfinished saloon - baronial hall tho' not quite finished very fine - magnificent oak plain gothic groined roof - capital model for the hall at Shibden? - chapel a heap of brick and rubbish within not seeable - ditto the saloon -

But the mahogany lined, beautifully gothic wrought library tower which cost above £30,000 - far the most beautiful library I ever beheld anywhere - from the baronial hall, we saw dining room breakfast room fine drawing room etc. (the centre divided by fine long gallery) but I skip all to get to the library - 130 feet long - gallery round mid-height the room and all the windows above the gallery - the galleries finished at the top like aisles, and the middle part finished likewise at the top and partly for a gallery, library, museum! 3 arcades and a sort of transept. then 3 arcades more at the other end - 6 windows on each side, and one transept window on each side = 14 windows - two beautiful white marble chimney pieces on the same side (north east side) that were bought by the late duke at the sale of the duke of Bedford's house in Bloomsbury square pulled down about 38 years ago - of the 1st. chimney piece the 2 large supporting figures are whole lengths of Socrates and Plato, with a square medallion of Archimedes and his attributes in the centre of the architrave - one of the figures of the other chimney piece is said to be Æsculapius - library walls 4 yards thick - the library windows outside seem large churchlike windows - the lower 1/2 of them lights the library - the upper lights rooms above -

The library at Arundel Castle [Photo by Des Morris]

The castle and its fortifications stands on 5 1/2 acres of ground - the man thought the baronial hall must be 45 feet high - and the drawing room 25 feet high - he recommended me to see Bignall - the fine old Roman mosaic pavement discovered there - 7 miles from here - on the Petworth road - turn off 4 miles from here at the public house at the foot of Bury hill - 1 5/.. hour in the castle - 20 mins. [minutes] at the old round keep tower and 10 mins. [minutes] looking round about the castle - there is a narrow way and parapet wall all round the front towards the town and the south -

Home at 5 35/.. washed hands had hair done etc. - dinner at 6 in 3/4 hour - then till 8 40/.. wrote all the above of today - very glad to have come round to see this castle - the present duke does nothing at it - leaves all unfinished or not just as the late duke left - the present one has lately bought a large estate here of a Mr. Walker - I look everywhere for models for Shibden - I must be contented to do as little at it as possible - my ideas are too apt to grow too large - from 8 3/4 to 11 1/2 at my travelling account and to my great joy brought it down to tonight - oh! that my private account, cashbook and all the rest were equally well done! - but what I have done is better than nothing - I must work at the rest for a day or 2 in London - a little rain while out this morning at Chichester and a little also as I came here but afterwards (from 3 p.m.) fair - Fahrenheit 65°. now at 11 1/2 - Came to my room at 11 40/.. -  

Reference: SH:7/ML/E/14/0134 - SH:7/ML/E/14/0135

[erahsae-ffxiv]

FFXIV RP Events for the Week of 2020.05.25

FFXIV RP Events for the week of 2020.05.25

Have an event you want to put on the Calendar?

Submit it here or send us an email.

This Week's Events:

Monday - 5/25/2020

7:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - [M] The Petty Alchemist - [Mateus] Shirogane Ward 9, Plot 42

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT - Brimming Heart Pool Party - [Mateus] Goblet Ward 13, Brimming Heart

7:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - Lounge at Reverie - [Mateus] The Goblet Ward 8, Plot 60

8:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - The First Mistake - [Balmung] Lavender Beds Ward 1, Plot 28

8:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT - Steppe Ramen - [Mateus] Shirogane, Ward 18, Plot 27

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - [M] Club Cobalt - [Balmung] Shirogane Ward 17, plot 41

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - [M] Lady Luck Casino - [Mateus] Goblet Ward 4, Plot 43

Tuesday - 5/26/2020

4:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT - Wayward Star Bar - [Balmung] Mists Ward 14 Plot 2

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EDT - Cafe de Chocobo - [Mateus] Goblet Ward 9, Plot 32

8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - Carbuncles Cup - [Mateus] Mists Ward 10 Plot 53

8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - The Blue Miqo'te Tavern - [Mateus] Shirogane Ward 1, Plot 29

9:00 PM to 1:00 AM EDT - Gin Mill Backwoods Brawl - [Balmung] Western Thanalan: (20, 24)

10:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Third Eye Sushi - [Coeurl] Shirogane Ward 11, Plot 34

Wednesday - 5/27/2020

1:00 PM to 4:00 PM EDT - Mini Matron's Reach - [Balmung] Lavender Beds Ward 12, Subdivision Apartment 81

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EDT - Cazbah Cafe - [Balmung] Shirogan Ward 20, Plot 46

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EDT - [M] Sly Blue Tattoo & Piercing - [Balmung] Lavender Beds Ward 16 Subdivision Apt. 16

6:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - Morning Star Cafe - [Mateus] Mist Ward 21, Plot 37

8:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - [M] Sanguine Shadows Wings Night - [Balmung] Goblet Ward 12, Plot 30

8:00 PM to 9:30 PM EDT - Azure Cafe Night - [Mateus] The Goblet Ward 5 Plot 13,

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - [M] Calamity's End Bar & Grill - [Balmung] The Mists Ward 16, Plot 11

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - The Burly Barnacle - [Balmung] Goblet Ward 12, Plot 50

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Arcana Obscura - Open Shop Hours - [Malboro] Goblet Ward 3, Plot 49

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - The Fire Pit - [Mateus] The Goblet, Ward 5, Plot 60

9:30 PM to 12:30 AM EDT - [M] The Admiral's Boot - [Goblin] Mist Ward 21 Plot 16

10:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - New Saronia Public Night - [Balmung] Mist Ward 19, Plot 17

10:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - [M] Voodoo Lounge Open Mic - [Mateus] Lavender Beds Ward 5 Plot 11

Thursday - 5/28/2020

2:00 PM to 4:00 PM EDT - Everbloom Cafe/Flower Shop - [Goblin] Lavender Beds Ward 5, Plot 9

3:00 PM to 6:00 PM EDT - Buscarron Regulars Meetup - [Balmung] South Shroud, Buscarron's Druthers,

4:30 PM to 6:30 PM EDT - Oak's Tradepost - [Balmung] Mists Plot 29 Ward 2

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Shroudrose Happy Hour

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Seven Seas Smackdown - [Coeurl] Limsa Lower Decks (6, 15)

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - [M] Everbloom Escape - [Goblin] Mist Ward 13, Plot 7

10:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Senpai's Bar - [Balmung] Lavander Beds Plot 23 Ward 7

10:30 PM to 1:30 AM EDT - Uranami Onsen Social Hour - [Mateus] Mist Ward 15, Plot 5

Friday - 5/29/2020

6:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Maid's Basin Tavern night - [Mateus] Goblet, Ward 13, Plot 13

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT - [M] Club Cobalt - [Balmung] Shirogane Ward 17, plot 41,

7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EDT - Thavnairian Nights - [Balmung] Goblet Ward 10 Plot 19

8:00 PM to 1:00 AM EDT - Gold & Glitz PROM - 5th Annual Crescent & Friends - [Balmung] Golden Saucer - Manderville Lounge West

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Bar Saisei Open Nights - [Balmung] Shirogane Ward 9, Plot 38

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - Bokh - Xaelic Wrestling - [Balmung] Mist, Ward 19, Subdivision Beach

9:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - Forgotten Knight Pop-Up RP - [Balmung] Foundation, The Forgotten Knight

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - [M] Siph Shiro Steakhouse - [Malboro] Lavender beds (Ward 19, Plot 25)

11:00 PM to 1:00 AM EDT - [M] The Golden Whisker - Casino - [Mateus] The Goblet, Plot 5, Ward 16

11:00 PM to 1:00 AM EDT - The Galbadia Bar and Lounge - [Mateus] Goblet Ward 9, Plot 30

11:00 PM to 1:00 AM EDT - Uranami Onsen Host & Hostess Club - [Mateus] Mist Ward 15, Plot 5

Saturday - 5/30/2020

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EDT - King of the Ring Tournament - [Balmung] Eastern La Noscea: Wineport

4:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT - Drunken Moogle Open RP - [Balmung] Lavender Beds, Ward 12, Plot 33

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EDT - [M] Sly Blue Tattoo & Piercing - [Balmung] Lavender Beds Ward 16 Subdivision Apt. 16

6:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT - The Garden of Words Book & Teashop - [Balmung] Lavender Beds Ward 8, Plot 27

6:30 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - Mandragora Munchies - [Balmung] Goblet Ward 9, Plot 57

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT - The Bottom of the Barrel - [Balmung] Goblet - Ward 15, Plot 49

8:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - [M] Lominsan Night Market - [Balmung] Costa Del Sol Docks (x: 33.0, y:29.0)

8:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Karaoke Night - [Coeurl] Shirogane, Ward 11 Plot 58

8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - Lapis Luxury's Monthly Auction - [Mateus] Kugane: Pier 1 Docks

9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - [M] Hanakotoba Izakaya Open Night - [Mateus] Shirogane Ward 20, Plot 29

9:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - [M] Open Bar Night at The Other Three Walls - [Zalera] Goblet Ward 15 Plot 5

10:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT - Grindstone Tournament - [Balmung] Cen. Thanalan (21, 25)

Sunday - 5/31/2020

9:30 AM to 10:30 AM EDT - Templars of the Moon - Open House & Bar Social - [Coeurl] Goblet Ward 16, Plot 30

4:00 PM to 6:00 PM EDT - Three Dzo Moon - [Balmung] Mist Ward 19, Plot 44

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EDT - Lucky Sparrow Entertainment Troupe - [Balmung] Lavender Beds Ward 16, Plot 36

6:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT - Azim Bokh - [Mateus] Mist Ward 12, Beach

7:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - The Jeweled Cypress - [Mateus] Mist Ward 14, Plot 45

8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT - [M] Club Cobalt - [Balmung] Shirogane Ward 17, plot 41,

8:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - Spellstone Tournament - [Balmung] Fesca's Wash, Central Thanalan

8:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT - Dinner at the Saltery - [Siren] Shirogane Ward 13, Plot 26

8:30 PM to 10:30 PM EDT - [M] The Cloak & Dagger Speakeasy and Lounge - [Balmung] Goblet Ward 21 Plot 19

View as a Calendar here.

Support the RP Event Calendar on Patreon.

The FFXIV RP Event Calendar event lists are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License

[humblemooncat]

I think I might open up my apartment as a tarot venue again (temporarily) for tonight and one or two nights this weekend. (Kobai Goten, Wing 1, apt. 13 in Zalera's Shiro, Ward 30)

I haven't touched my cards in a hot minute and I want to use them again, so why not?

I'd have it physically open for visitors from 9pm EST to probably midnight each night it's open. (So tonight and whichever day(s) win the poll)

HOWEVER, if you can't show up in-person and still want a reading, feel free to send me an ask and we can rp a bit there! <3

[thewrongexecution]

thinkin’ ‘bout final fantasy

I go by Not The Author for exactly the reason that I ain’t no expert on any given work of fiction, but I do like to make connections what make me seem smart: an illusion, haphazardly crafted by incident accident and supplemented by precocious pretentiousness. All the same, here are some fun thoughts I had that you might also enjoy!

I do have a point, that I do get to. I feel like I should say that ahead of time, all things considered. Like, I can appreciate if you can’t appreciate a shaggy dog story? But there is a point to all this.

...Eventually.

Spoiler Warning:

Final Fantasies 1, 6, 7, 7R, 13 and 15

Content Warning:

Discussion of death

Cussin’

Length warning:

5621 words

13 sections

16 digressions

Let’s dig in.

- - - - -

Final Fantasy 1 was not my first Final Fantasy experience, but I think it was the first I ever played by myself? The remaster for the GBA, came bundled with FF2 on the same cart, which I played briefly but did not complete and do not remember, except that it had Cid.

FF1 doesn’t have a Cid, but I really loved the narrative anyway, straightforward as it was, because it was very specifically about spitting in the face of an uncaring god who would doom the world for a laugh. Take these chains that bind us to darkness and, though we be forgot to history, strangle with them that selfsame darkness to bring an end to its tyranny.

((it is a terrible curse, to love time travel. so many grand expectations, so few ever met. play ghost trick, chrono trigger, radiant historia, majora’s mask, outer wilds. have you any recs yourself, lemme know! I digress.

((I digress a lot, as I may have mentioned. they’ll be noted in parenthetical, like this.))

This is the foundation upon which Final Fantasy is built, and while any student of architecture could tell you of many and varied perfectly valid construction techniques, it resonates. Grappling with an immutable past to course-correct an uncaring future is, too, an apt description of personal growth; a theme as universal as being alive. And I, as an impressionable youth, ate that shit up.

((I assume I was young, at any rate. my love for time travel, be it era-spanning or moment-stretching, is, I suspect, not entirely coincidental to my terrible temporal memory.))

And that was the tale of the studio, too. Final Fantasy was so titled because, the story goes, the developers knew they would shutter if it didn’t make bank. Staring your imminent demise in the face, knowing your fate is doom, and giving it your all, all the same.

And then they made another twelve, plus two-and-a-half MMOs, and god knows how many mobile games and spin-offs, and now the Fantasy is that there could ever be a Final one. so say I: life parodies art.

((the half-an-MMO is FF14 1.0, which no longer exists and is a fascinating tale, a rally against bleak futures all its own. I’ll [link] Noclip’s three-part documentary covering the developer’s side of things, because that’s the one I’ve seen. there’s plenty other material to hunt down, though, if you wanna.))

- - - - -

Final Fantasy VII is a game about fate, too. Particularly Death, that most ultimate of fates. Tragic, to be sure; preventable, or at least delayable, in many cases; necessary, at times, for the growth of something new.

Unrelenting. Unstoppable. Inescapable.

Death, and the fights against it, take many forms. There are the fascist death squads that hunt down your ragtag band and any dissent against their cruel masters, but these will only truly stop by cutting off the hydra’s head and building an entirely new society; eight dudes and their dog, faced with a corporate private military, can survive but never win. There are such disasters as do slay that hydra, be they natural or man-made. There’s the space alien and the apocalypse it ushers. There’s literal illness and injury, physical or otherwise. There are the deaths of loved ones, friends and family, that lead to some subtler deaths within those that survive them. The deaths of relationships, by neglect or abandonment. The ideological deaths we inflict on ourselves, accepting ever-growing lesser evils in the name of some impossible ideal.

Every day, the person we were becomes the person we are, and soon, the person we are will give way to someone new, and this, too, is a sort of death. In this sense, we tally Cloud’s deaths at least five: failure to become a Soldier and rebirth in shame, the massacre of Nibelheim and rebirth in grief, arrival at Midgar and rebirth in delusion, his cratering at the Crater and rebirth in nihilism, and his death and rebirth in the Lifestream of Mideel.

((you could prolly hunt down another two if you wanna be cheeky, but I lack the knowledge, motive and patience. frankly, this whole thing is to create a leading line of logic and probably isn’t, uh. academically ethical? or whatever the term is. I’m not necessarily wrong, but I’m definitely scuttling nuance. oh well!))

Now, I say “rebirth,” because that’s how deaths of identity more-or-less work. There’s usually some new identity waiting in the wings to take over. And rebirth is itself a notable theme, inasmuch as it is one outcome of death. But death is oft more final than that, and what people do in its imminence and wake is key here, too. Wutai’s collapse into an insular tourist trap. Avalanche’s vengeful fervor, in general and post-plate drop. Bugenhagen trying to pass his knowledge on to Red. The whole party’s ongoing post-traumatic depressive episodes.

Ultimately, death is the inescapable fate of all things. It’s what we do, in light of that, that makes us who we are.

- - - - -

Final Fantasies 13 and 15 are the only modern Final Fantasies I’ve beaten, and I bring them up because both deal very prominently with fate and death, and as Square’s most recent mainline FF titles, Remake can’t exist without comparison to them. Here’s what I remember:

Final Fantasy 13 was a game I enjoyed. The stagger system mixed up my casual FF tradition of Get The Big Numbers by putting a prominent UI element onscreen that says You Can’t Get The Big Numbers Unless The Bar Is Full. Suddenly there’s a natural-but-enforced ebb and flow to combat built in, where you gotta juggle chip damage, survival, and crowd control while keeping resources enough to burst down a staggered foe, but maintain situational awareness to swap back into survival mode if you’re not gonna down your enemy, all in something close to real-time. Very obviously a direct precursor to the combat of Remake. I didn’t realize the depth of it, but it was still super fun.

People at the time didn’t like the linearity of the game and, I can see that in retrospect? I think it’s closer to, there weren’t breakpoints, there wasn’t variety. It was cutscenes, combat, and the stretches of land between them; the only real thing for the brain to get a workout on was the combat, and eating only one kinda food is gonna make that food taste bland.

((I didn’t mind, but I like idle games, and, also probably had depression around then. Take that how you will.))

The story, though, I loved. You got your uncaring gods forcing mortals to do their increasingly-impossible bidding, cursing them to agonized unlife if they take too long, and with blissful, beautiful death if they succeed. It sucks! And here you have a ragtag band of incidental idiots trying to rebel against a system that, actually, wants them to? Like that’s the plan? Have mortals kill god and summon the devil to destroy all life, because god, doesn’t.... like life anymore?

((The lore gets more than a little impenetrable, and I remember bouncing off it a couple times. The throughline of God Sucks And Makes Zombies was good though.))

The biblical parallels are obvious, and if they weren’t, the final boss’ design will clue you in, god that’s a good design. hang on I can add pictures and already tossed a spoiler warning, here, look at this:

(per the Final Fantasy Fandom Wiki [X])

That’s literally The Holy Trinity But A Sword The Size Of A Building. It’s perfect.

Anyway, I love this game, because the heroes win, which is what God wants, so in winning, they lose, as was fated to be, right? Fuck All That, say the lesbians from space australia, as they turn into satan and, as satan, stop God’s shitty metal moon from crashing into space australia and destroying all life.

((this awakened something in me, though, as is becoming a theme, I wasn’t aware of it at the time. actually hold up I’m gonna rewatch that sequence.

((yeah okay wow on review that was aggressively cheesy and had a whole bunch of weird emotional whiplash that just leaves a super-bad aftertaste. I don’t really like it as an experience, but big bazonga lesbian satan with arms for hair is still a look-and-a-half.))

The whole thing is not entirely unlike if meteor was also Midgar, and there’s more than a few points where I went, hang on, are they trying to evoke 7 here? “Lightning” is ex-military and bad at emotions, Sazh is a black dad w/ guns and emotional trauma and I love him, quirky pink healer girl who might be an alien is here, the game starts on a train and leads into a robot bug fight; obviously it’s not one-to-one but the connections are there for a brain like mine to make, and only more prominent for the fact that FF7 was the more satisfying game.

((I cannot speak to 13-2 or -3; 13-2 was fun up until the enemies were abruptly 30 levels higher than me, more or less a mandate by the game for me to do all the side content, which I was not on-board with. I skipped 13-3 entirely, especially when I learned the whole game is on a timer. did not and do not need that stress in my life.))

- - - - -

But okay, FF13 was “too linear” and wasn’t doing super great. Enter Final Fantasy Versus 13, by which I mean enter Final Fantasy 15 actually, we don’t need any more of this 13 crap. And once again, I enjoyed it! ...Right up until it was bad.

Final Fantasy 15 was not a finished game, and we know this for certain now, because all its DLC was to make it a finished game. At the time, though, there was uncomfortable and inconsistent story pacing, only one playable character, relatively sparse combat mechanics... but it was open-world, and hey, that’s what you wanted, right? open, non-linear environments? I picked it up because, Teleporting Swordsman With a Motorcycle Sword. I am of simple pleasures, and those are they.

Of the little I remember, one point that’s stuck with me is the sequence following the Leviathan fight. See, we’ve been talking about fate and destiny and how Final Fantasy likes to spite them. Here in 15, our main man Noctis doesn’t want the destiny he’s been burdened with, to Become The King and Save The World from the Coming Darkness, or whatever. He’d really rather be doing, anything else? like hanging out with his buddies or actually getting married or, I dunno, grieving the death of his father. Nope! You don’t get to do that. Go find the ghost armaments of your dead ancestors so you can ~saaave the wooorld!~ I would have been in college around then, so, eminently relatable.

Now, on this journey, you meet a guy called Ardyn. He’s the sort of character that was built as an attack on me personally: sleazy, charming, possessing airs of casual familiarity with people he’s never met, kinda helps you out in tight spots, and also, by the way, vizier to the empire that killed your dad and wants you and your friends dead too. But not in the “secret good guy” way, he just likes fucking with you! he’s perfect.

Right up until the Leviathan fight.

See, Lunafreya, your betrothed--

((I’m so mad about this stupid, stupid garbage. I love Lunafreya on principle, but the game doesn’t bother to give her screentime. you only ever hear about her incidentally, which can be cool if you then meet the character and get to compare/contrast what you’ve heard, but the initial release only has her show up for this one chapter, and your party doesn’t really get to interact with her that much.))

Your betrothed is here and she’s some symbol of the peoples’ hope, right? she’s got light magic or something, and can actually commune with the gods. the gods are on your side, but you can’t actually understand a word they say, but she can, and that’s sick as hell. anyway.

You lose the fight against Leviathan, because you’re a shitty emo teen who doesn’t know how to use your ghost swords, and she got beat up earlier when Levi got all pissy at being summoned. And then Ardyn shows up in his magitek dropship.

Now earlier, Ardyn had Luna as his captive, completely at his mercy, and right now, he who would be king of kings, destined to save the world from darkness, is clutching at rock in a hurricane, beaten, wounded and dying.

Of the two, which do you think he stabs to death?

if you thought, “the protagonist, which will allow him to win, and subvert Final Fantasy’s themes of defying fate by having the villain be the one to do it, forcing everyone else to scramble for some alternate solution and deal with the fallout,” congratulations! You win disappointment, because that idea’s cool as hell and they didn’t. fucking. Do it.

((Ardyn, before this, had given me major Kefka vibes, and thinking on it now, the world descending into darkness in the 15 we never had could have played with even deeper parallels to FF6... but I never played 6, and that FF15 doesn’t exist, so... I’ll leave that analysis to better scholars.))

now, with the benefit of hindsight, that was never going to happen. too long in development hell, game had to ship, had no time or budget for mid-game upheaval. but at the time? made me lose any interest I had in Ardyn, made me mad at the developers for passing up on fulfilling the themes their series had explored in past, made me almost stop playing the game. I’m still mad about it for crying out loud!

((thinking about it gets me tensed up, coiled, with that sort of full-body thrum that’s best conveyed with letters that jitter around. best I can do here is bold italics, but it doesn’t have the right energy. it’s a fleeting feeling, but when it’s here? god. given the men that wrote this scene I would fight all of them and win.

((inhale...

((exhale...

((and move on.))

We, the player, never really meet Luna, so there’s no real... impact, no substance to it. It’s sad, but impersonal. villain kills damsel to inflict manpain on hero. that’s it. we’ve seen this song and dance before.

But kill Noctis? The character the player’s been controlling all this time, who they know intimately? Now it’s personal. Now your party members’ grief is a mirror to your own. And now you get to play as Luna, maybe? give the game time to flesh her out, have her bond with your old companions over their shared grief, and maybe use her connections and public speaking skills to rally the people of the world, in a perhaps-vain attempt to resist the oncoming darkness, while simultaneously using that public-facingness to drive her to hide her own fear and hopelessness...? That’s a complex character ripe for drama and tragedy right there! And then her, at the head of a story about people coming together to solve a global calamity themselves, rather than await their appointed savior?

Even then, but especially now... You can see the appeal, right?

- - - - -

Lemme step back and zoom out for a moment, because there’s one more kind of Fate to discuss before I finalize my thesis. Yes, I promise, there is a point besides being mad at FF15, this is still ultimately about Remake. Bear with me a little longer.

See, Remake’s premise is that it’s not quite FF7, but that itself is predicated on Remake being essentially FF7. Certain things must be in the Remake series, or it will cease to be the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. The developers have gone on record saying as much, that they’ll still cover the thrust of the original, and that makes a lot of sense from a development standpoint. Building on an existing framework saves loads of time, and lets them focus on details as they have in Remake.

((I think they've already set up an in-universe justification for this, too. The party may have defeated the Whispers at Midgar, but the Whispers are the will of the planet. The only way to truly defeat them would be to defeat the planet itself, which: kind of the goal of the villains!

((a bit ironic, because the villains are the Whispers’ means to keep manipulating events. Remake backends a very large portion of the plot, and I don’t think Rufus seeing the Whispers is a throwaway detail. The party chases Sephiroth by chasing Shinra in the original, so even if the party has shaken free of the direct influence of the Whispers, manipulating Shinra should in turn manipulate the party.

((on top of which, Rufus prizes power, and the power to change or control fate-- something both the party and Sephiroth have seized-- would be as enticing as anything.))

But this begs the question: How much of Final Fantasy 7 is necessary before it stops being Final Fantasy 7? Do you need all nine characters? The Weapons? Rideable chocobo? Breedable chocobo? What about locations? Can you drop the Gold Saucer? or Mount Condor? or Mideel? How many minigames am I holding up? These are necessary questions, but so is this:

“Would a one-to-one recreation of the original game have the same emotional impact as when it released, twenty-three years ago?”

- - - - -

Now, the phrase “emotional impact” is necessarily kind of nebulous and subjective, so lemme dig into that a little bit.

The first significant chunk of the original FF7 takes place entirely in Midgar, which is one huge city. Every screen is densely packed; movement is typically constrained to narrow corridors and industrial crawlspaces. The whole world is deeply claustrophobic and visually hostile, by design.

This is FF7 for the first few hours, before a motorcycle chase deposits you outside city limits, and then... you hit the world map, and everything changes. The world is rendered in three whole dimensions, now! (Then, a technological marvel in its own right.) There’s a sky! There’s a horizon! Grass, mountains, the ocean!

Boundless, terrifying freedom.

From a mechanical standpoint, there’s only one real destination, an A-to-B with random encounters before a small enclosure with an inn and shops, no real change from what you’ve already been doing. But the mood? Everything’s fresh and new, now. Everything’s an unknown.

So, how do we do that again, two-and-a-half decades on?

Let’s say, something like this: Remake 2 starts with Cloud and Sephiroth en route to Nibelheim. For new players, this provides immediate intrigue: why are these mortal enemies hanging out in a truck? how did they get here, where are they going? For veterans, it’s familiar: oh, we’re in the flashback sequence.

For both, it provides mechanical familiarity. We just finished last game hanging out in Midgar, a bunch of town squares with shops and cutscenes connected to hazardous corridors. Well, Nibelheim’s a town with shops and cutscenes, connected to a monster-filled anthill and capped with a reactor. We know this. We’ve done this. We can do this again.

And when the flashback ends, we’re in Kalm. Another town, maybe with sidequests this time; Midgar looming in the distant skybox as a reminder of how far we’ve come.

And then you leave Kalm, and the camera zooms out, and out, and out...

Remake is essentially 7, and you can’t have the impact of 7′s world map reveal if Remake isn’t functionally open-world too. Square has plenty of experience with open environments, however successful their more recent attempts have been; I’m confident that the have the ability, at least, to craft an expansive world that feels appropriate to FF7.

((I’d like to take a moment here to talk about FF14, which mixes both compact twisty dungeons and wide-open overworld zones, and is necessarily wildly successful to still be operating as an MMO... but though I have played it briefly, I don’t claim knowledge sufficient to go in-depth. The point is, Square not only can make a game like that, they have, and are, and apparently possess non-zero competency. I have worries, but I’m not worried, if that makes sense.))

So, can you recreate a given kind of emotional impact? Yeah!

Can scenes from the original Final Fantasy 7 be rendered into a new context, more-or-less as they were? Absolutely!

Would a one-to-one recreation of the original game have the same emotional impact as when it released, twenty-three years ago?

- - - - -

Aerith dies.

If you opened this post and didn’t know that, well. There were spoiler warnings up at the top, the game’s more than two decades old, and the spoiler itself is basically a piece of pop-culture, up there with space dad and wizard killer. There’re probably plenty of people who know next-to-nothing about Final Fantasy 7 except that Aerith dies.

Everyone knows because, at the time, it was so big a thing. This was a title that Square hyped to heaven and back to push JRPGs into mainstream western markets, and it worked. And this was before major death was so common and arbitrary as it is today; even now, Game of Thrones and its ilk are a relative rarity. The death of a protagonist or love interest wasn’t a new thing for games, or any media really, but usually you knew it was coming, or it served some purpose. Aerith’s death was sudden, arbitrary, you’re almost immediately thrown into a boss fight so you don’t even have time to process it right away, and it’s the first stone in an avalanche of other pointless arbitrary tragedy. It’s an obvious narrative setup for the endgame confrontation with Sephiroth; instead, Cloud has a breakdown, Meteor happens, and now there’s an entire Disk 2.

Fandom has always been fandom, even before the continuous immediacy of the modern internet, but... people wrote letters to Square, and got sad on message boards. There’s an entire subset of forum signatures, back when those were a thing, that you could sort as “people fucked up over Aerith dying.” And again, this was the world. Not just Japan, or Asia, but everyone.

((Or, everyone with the finances to have a PS2 and/or an internet connection. Gaming as a pastime remains way expensive, whether played or watched. But you know how it is.))

And that’s the problem with answering that question.

See, FF7 is a lot of things, but for better or worse, it is defined by Aerith’s death. It’s one of many factors, but you can’t... leave it out, right? or it wouldn’t be FF7 anymore.

Aerith dies in FF7, and everyone knows it.

- - - - -

But Remake has promised, repeatedly, that things will be different this time. Everyone is coming together to defy fate, and Cloud in particular is here to keep Aerith from dying. Bodyguard jokes aside, Cloud repeatedly has flashbacks (flashforwards?) to Aerith’s death and the events leading to it. When he meets her in the church, when they cross into Sector 6, twice in the final battle. Hell, the very first time they meet, Sephiroth taunts him about not being able to save her. Even from a metatextual standpoint, since everyone knows Aerith dies, that’s like, The Most Obvious Fate To Change.

If, after all that, Aerith still dies? It’s not just tragedy, at that point. That’s the developers, actively lying to the player about their intent in making this game series. That’s frustrating, and immersion-breaking, and when said death is likely to still have one or more entire sequels to come after? maybe not great for sales! I know I didn’t bother buying the complete edition of FF15; I couldn’t bring myself to care enough about a game that set up this cool possibility, and then just, failed to deliver on every count.

And, Remake is being made for two audiences. I’ve said “everybody knows Aerith dies,” but that’s not really true, is it? It’s been 23 years, after all. Remake could well be someone’s very first Final Fantasy experience. That’s why they’ve been telegraphing Aerith’s death so hard. Not everyone knows, but at least everyone can guess. Is it fair, then, to this new audience, with potentially no knowledge or understanding of the legacy of this flashy new action game, to foreshadow tragedy in the future, have everyone come together to say, We’re Going To Stop This, and then... not? Is that good writing? Is that satisfying? When this is a multi-game and potentially multi-console investment of time and money, is this, as a newcomer, a story you’d want to keep playing?

And then on top of that, it’s 2020.

I don’t mean that in the current-year-fallacy, “we’re better than this now” kind of way. Rather, the way I felt about Final Fantasy 15 is even more relevant now. People, in real life, are realizing that the powers-that-be are failing them, have failed them, have been failing them for far longer than twenty-three years. The people that already knew that are actually showing up for each other, to spite what felt and feels like inescapable fate and finding that, together, they might just be able to ruin God’s day.

Game development is, of course, its own whole beast, and projects in motion tend to stay in motion; deviating from a plan takes time and money that Square may be unwilling to spend. But, under current world circumstances: is making a game where the hero sets out to save one specific person from their fated death, and following that with a game where that one specific person dies anyway, aside from everything else, a good business decision?

- - - - -

So... Aerith, shouldn’t die, right...? But, FF7 requires Meteor, and so requires the Temple of the Ancients and the Black Materia. And, Meteor can only be stopped by Holy, so FF7 requires the Forgotten City.

FF7 is a tragedy. FF7 demands blood.

...Hey, actually, hold that thought. How come Cloud can remember Aerith dying in the first place? He’s not from the future, right? He’s got a connection to Sephiroth, who is from the future... and Sephiroth can manipulate his memories...? but, why would Sephiroth let him, or make him, remember that?

Hey, how come Zack is alive, but like, in the “narrative scope” sense? Wouldn’t his presence circumvent Cloud’s delusions about the Nibelheim incident?

Hey, how come Cloud had multiple big climactic Sephiroth confrontations at what’s essentially the end of the prologue, including one that mirrors the very end of the original FF7? Shouldn’t that still come at, like, you know. the end?

Hey, how come--

- - - - -

Remake has these... Callbacks? Refrains? Like my favorite, when Sephiroth throws a train-- you know, The Fate Metaphor-- at Cloud, who absolutely shreds the thing. Or, for a more direct example:

And it frequently uses these to show that people are changing, that things can change. You know, the whole Running Theme the game has going on.

Sephiroth gets a refrain, too.

At the start of the game (give or take a reactor), in his first real appearance, Sephiroth philosophizes at Cloud, makes sure Cloud hates him, and tells Cloud what he wants.

At the end of the game, in his last appearance, Sephiroth philosophizes at Cloud, tells Cloud what he wants, and makes sure Cloud hates him.

Structurally, these encounters more-or-less bookend the game; thematically, it doesn’t exactly indicate change. Barret may or may not have come around on Cloud, and his admission that Cloud is important to him after all is, itself, important. Cloud, on the other hand, was always going to defy Sephiroth. He stands resolute, now, ready to fight rather than flee, but apathy was never on the table.

Now, Sephiroth’s whole Thing is psychologically manipulating Cloud to get what he wants, and as part of that, what Sephiroth wants is usually not what he says he wants.

All throughout the original FF7, Sephiroth riled up Cloud so that Cloud would pursue and defy him, culminating first in the Black Materia incident, and then again in the Forgotten City. None of the Sephiroth clones could survive the trip through the Northern Crater, so Sephiroth had to lure Cloud, with the Black Materia, to him, and then also convince Cloud to give up the Black Materia of his own accord. Mind control, memory manipulation and illusions were involved, but if Sephiroth could maintain those indefinitely, he probably just. Would have done that instead. Way easier,

The point is, in Remake, in addition to all the intermittent retraumitization sprinkled throughout the game, Sephiroth goes out of his way twice to directly ask Cloud, “hey, you hate me, right?” And, as part of that question, he tells Cloud, “this is what I want.” And Cloud? He hates Sephiroth, and will do his damnedest to keep Sephiroth from getting what he wants.

So. What does Sephiroth... say he wants?

- - - - -

One last aside before we cap off: This post would not exist without the valiant efforts of one Maximilian_dood. His devotion to the series kept myself and many others engaged and excited and, frankly, hopeful, in the leadup to the release of Remake, and his correlations between the rest of the FF7 series and Remake were enlightening and entertaining.

and had he not the gall to identify defying fate as a device to make aerith’s death more tragic, I would never have been angry enough to write this.

((I know, I know. Gaming and streaming and lit analysis are all hard individually, and I don’t begrudge losing one for the other two. And it was a first playthrough! I might have seen these lines sooner than some, but collating all this info was certainly not instantaneous. And Square can be hack writers at times-- see again my rant on FF15-- so even then, I can’t discount the possibility.

((but, still.

((Really?))

So, while I would like to believe that I have, by now, made my thesis on Remake’s narrative direction abundantly clear, here it is spelled out anyway:

- - - - -

At the bottom of the Forgotten City, at the shrine on the pillar in the lake, Cloud will find Aerith, who believes her fate immutable.

Sephiroth will descend, and Cloud will sacrifice himself, that Aerith should live.

This is Sephiroth’s plan.

- - - - -

Hey, thanks for reading this far! With my conversational tone and rambling tendencies, I’d have preferred to make this an audio post or, god forbid, a video essay, but I got a keyboard, and that’ll have to do. Diction is important to me, as the capitalization, italics and use of punctuation may have clued you in on, so... maybe you’ll get a dramatic reading sometime in the future? but, don’t bet on it.

Feel free to riddle me with questions, or point out inconsistencies with this big ol’ thing! I’m not exactly an expert, and I’m sure I glossed over, heavily paraphrased, completely forgot, intentionally ignored and/or aggressively misrepresented some stuff, but I love learning and teaching esoteric bullshit about The Vijigams. On that note, anything that sounds like it should be sourced is sourced from “I heard about it on social media or in a stream or youtube video one time, but if I actually had to hunt it down this whole thing would never see the light of day, and it has already been like three months,” which isn’t to excuse my lack of due diligence, but I do, lack diligence, so, tough.

Oh! but the Remake screens all come from [here]. Don’t care much for that splash screen, but, I Get It, so, whatever.

There were some other things I wanted to touch on but couldn’t really find a spot for. FF7 Remake as a metaphor for its own development, for example. Or, some of The Possibilities, like how Cloud’s death could very literally haunt Aerith, or how Remake sets up a more fleshed-out Midgar revisit that Cloud’s death specifically would make infinitely sadder.

On that note, if it was not yet obvious, I love speculation, and if they do go this direction, it’ll probably be their justification to go completely... off the rails? Remake only has to be FF7 until it doesn’t, after all. If there’s some wilder implications youall see for like... I dunno, a Jenova more fully-regenerated from also having Cloud’s cells back, getting into proper Kaiju-on-Kaiju battles with the Weapons, or anything like that? Feed me your brain juice, etc.

And, once more, for the road: this is interpretation; subjective, opinionated, and very much in denial of any kind of author-ity. Nor is this a claim on how things should be, or an assertion that this would be good or bad. Everything ultimately rests on Square's narrative design team and, we’ve touched on them already.

((but, for your consideration: I’m smart, and right))

Here’s hoping, whatever happens, we get the game we deserve.

thanks for coming to my ted talk, have a great day

[libidomechanica]

Unseen

A limerick sequence

               1

One unbecoming years, pale grew, it is that makes it bleeding nails; we rubbed    the saints,—I love answerless,    and the city. Into one, methought their education.

               2

At last thou! And thousand are not despise. Was apt to be. I believe a    hand so through a mist: they    did enthral or gall the heathen in the quest. Done forever.

               3

— The joy the conceit of him remain. Believe if they thought she with the    inoculation. Trod    underfoot if any pass before, reduc’d to bring again. ’ Well!

               4

So brimmed with any body in the painted Fragments lie! Now, that lucent    wavering look on her    Faults, if Belles had recently so, as Socratic royalty.

               5

Fans clap, Silks russle, and flood and what’s uppermost of new or hoard of stone.    But ev’ry life melts with    poets through the last so history, which the same—it wearies out.

               6

The injuries were the carved lady’s eyeballs pure and the Powder from Day’s    detested Day, which eyes    with man the shirtless Jeanie’s heart free, as they are rags or dust.

               7

So short can never can comparison had wish’ to pay. Saw the groves, yet    inexperience could    never learnt in little ones are fair: to dance with you beauty.

               8

Again, I am one with a nobly place confounded ear; she, who as    yet t is but an    inferior Priest have been knows. Her tongues were no sooner reading.

               9

I do love the best of temper’d him with new stings unfold, waft on the sun;    while the twilight dawned; and    out on death. In the lawful reason where Mahler wrote his face.

               10

Some thought to your Venus! For youth sublime and had been contends, it soothers    maim. And indecision,    oh Thou Jewel utter’d; but of Psyche. Whoever wants an heir.

               11

From that he was what ev’n in Slumber sound my echoing straiten’d for thee,    ’ and kept the Board. I’m a    philosopher of the many-winter’s feelings, or transferr’d.

               12

The thing of all Monarchs of our own score. Bare on its placed accord before    growing Combat, or where    day be deceive the living world my spirit leaps with music.

               13

A dying lovers dare not. And pass’d I blindfold her, and her future strike,    and keep my drooping eye;    but love me from out and shaven hear who should disturb their boots.

               14

First time how many benedictions new; most true. Bright movement was clear, our    Gipsy-Scholar of the    man. Elephant unite, transform’d a vast Buckle for her sects?

               15

Before me, that’s enough thee, that shall be kept its produces—You. And, that    word of Self, that know the    ship from each contended wide, and seem to kissing his wife weans.

               16

Nothing, and office of his attraction’? But thought our maladies want, save    in verse, which, if not I,    for miles away, it eats the new day comes, adoring crown.

               17

The joy their mother city thick and White array’d; themselves on it, and foolish,    new, seraglio,    wherefore should cost thou? A most encourage passed an older friend?

               18

Your real Griefs, and the lurking at the sun will to end the Peer again? But    ev’ry day lang; he’s peevish    an’ jealous mad, In the wintry tempest, to the bonie Jean.

               19

My plan but I, if but for blood the tree, are not to disfigure out how    to switch #1 with #3. How to be    going to the worse, to put on nature’s darling at her troth?

               20

He mighty wing to feel another. And, asleep: a maid of Dian’s this awkward    the sky. While with her    recklessness, a hand as alabaster pale: would make ye blue.

               21

With fire the crowd above a waterfall. To love, hatred with her side are    his traine. The wink, but still    believe if the swarthy Moors. Dreamed this goodly grown humble kind.

               22

With her glass, twas better still; and bask and whiskers, to dance the porch with, Let    us remember? The    dead from this new native unto gracious act, and all the sky.

               23

Singing of the broken profit thee? Canopy of her days. Held carnival    at will be past that    all in vain. And those throat, before the thraws in my loosening.

               24

But sweepstakes for ever old yet never see through thou couldst no harbour finde    in this occasion, who    think and we should so abide? Nations break of days like to come.

               25

Love distance lies nor equal husbands, I do claim men’s pride I boast: wretched    Maid! Some life may be my    dwelling Bag he renders vain the scream. And blood and gibe the same.

               26

Her aid, how men through they had before a feat to-day. Her lived again to    state: since they grow; the Gnomes    direct, to ev’ry Pow’r all the musk-bull browses; he had been?

               27

Felt with fainting Fears, soft Sorrow. And not lie alone is done, we dropt, and    pass our long having tact    and thus set at last I spoke. More endears, and he beats his taste.

               28

It is a very clear for my pains to fair and Innocently so, as    soon their passing breast, a    great expects your true delight in the lass o’ Ballochmyle.

               29

The resides. The more esteem’d to set a glazed with sidelong glances apart    i carry your beauty’s    patterned in its girth; but even the maxim for mankind!

               30

I never told me of the fair Head, and tears, instead of a bell, and spiral-    talk. Her title was    a Catholic, and I lov’d at such as we walk in and flip-flops.

               31

Shall outlive it—lower yet—be happy? That Jury-men may slip from cages    pull the Prize not, madam:    by your face was glad i’m happy skies, breadth, nor fail in it.

               32

Were ever on their own mind, when to Mire. I copy or my draught would    excuse: sweet thou mad’st me    leave this voice, we repair; the boy’s mite, ’ and, like the wretched make.

               33

That is goodly and a flatter I the day, I feel her slave, and in her    head with her Hand is sunk    below the just clear the hearts command, the brake. And Love deny’d.

               34

Gude faith! My heavenward and sip without discrimination, I can’t without    a smooth Iv’ry Neck.    Waking not fulfil your winged horses over the clematis.

               35

Rage, rage against the dying love’s day. Sweet the Warders with her glossy raven    black, brown, or Pooh! And    each field, and a light hide those bright, can lay an Europe’s sight?

               36

Saw the stands upon misprision grow cold.—But, artists! A Love Supreme. He    does not with the ground, as    we prayer, as doth Love speak? He always rattles, remember?

               37

I am. Well as verse—I wish it any less photorealistic? Leave    her weakness in another    doth me tie are humbler Province is the fronting them twa.

               38

Ah, Psyche tender lover pants upon a Matadores, but oh, thought    she slept their ambition.    The pleasant fruits of joy to day and an eyelash dead or sleep.

               39

From hence it any less photorealistic? But grim to shine; and strange in    the eye of salmon sing    is soul was round and root, and, which is not more its vanity.

               40

I hear smells, I see there in wild race. Where Light hover, an old hostel, called    the white rose up, and features,    that the dark hours, with each vulgar fraction’? There is in them.

               41

His beard, and the plank, and from the scream. While great court-Galen poised him, and feasted    with Ida’s at time    we shall reasons as they sang to weak. In brighter shine as well!

               42

And the thin hairs of words. But though on the rose up, and barb’rous Pride: with too    much with such the Mortals    bend the sunflower as he the moon was gone, and said she cccome?

               43

’ My Phillis, will flourish with the brightly taut in the soul! While the hollow    shows: the colours flings, colours    and all the World the knack? Airs have to wait for you to come.

               44

Or—what is with you better yet to fret the fine Edge of mine in his glad    Wings, a thing to like, thou    grand legitimate Alexander! But certes it conceal’d.

               45

Love too long, leapt up, and he can kill! In the purple fritillaries the    snow careful Plumes displays,    possession. When we passe, most humbly own—’tis decorum.

               46

While the ones whose ridge the wood where I go; long hair. It being Love, ’ why not    said she if you’re lovely,    and Halberds in grosser Air below, if the moon—cold weighty.

               47

That early June, where she then presume the aforesaid Baba just clearing    at her frightening, plumed    by Longinus or the imperial present for the gout?

               48

Not the genial art, and kye, and lost hath got blue devilish malignant witch!    Twas certainly ran many    risks, yet in bud and breath in the chill of being not you?

               49

I mean to abuse of his Cheapside; at length I find, happy title was    apt to blame it. Somewhere    it before me; carelessly array’d; with boys, or her return!

               50

And blessing; is convinced that which yet join not scent to a tree. Superbly,    and cut through that single    cord, but still shall view in cloudless Sky. Saying, I have at all.

               51

—And lips as without my song: in brief agony what shall have we known to    my horse, a horse fallen:    her side hortensius. Take, oh, take wi’ naebody; naebody.

               52

But now it is large; their cause they did not mind. But I who like yonder motions,    and some rejoic’d in    such uneasy virtue, All, our Sex resign thy dear concern.

               53

The glowing bosks of Gold. And have need not now; she would breed sweet place costume.    Made when they’re wet with you!    Soft yielding ransackt heart But I who like this modern dinners?

               54

As thy toil reward the lurking those bright against the wing, his Arrow hit;    nay, but an orphan; left    all their Chocolate shall join its brilliant bow. Doth follows light hints.

               55

Her voice comes, the rest, did I look’d this sin there is Spain? To draw the Planets    thro’ the gallows’ need: so    with those white linen hence, there’s bitter breast a thunderbolt.

               56

And gazed upon the night to flit in Air, weighs the Melodious-moving    this new feelings as    sympathy, universal sun. And scorn to add a Furbelo.

               57

For the great comments various Off’rings of his captive’s hours. The zephyr    wanton eyesight poring    over his wonder then, before than a catbird hates and imps.

               58

Which leans something much noise. Let the thought, at settled gravity at work no    more. Now let us roll    all thanks, do pay for this mind assume the breast. Come with Lampoons.

               59

At length my fav’rite Lock; ariel himself shall not do—the pilferer.    She said, this last: one speak.    Snuff they cannot sink his thine eyes, whose that just be right, can love.

               60

With her condition. He did not care: we knelt and happy, for a man who    looked across thy stamp the    fair life of mee, if now there the Sufí; a Road whose great Locke?

               61

The entire world rush’d by black, brown, or far Cathay. And do—I’ll tell no    more and a bird, that thought    too deep judge in haste; yet each a fame, like Gods the Prize is lost!

               62

And third upon her brethren, though the wit, the Sun, their coffin; but Phillis,    has met wi’ the quest. And    fashion it to form no clog against the savior of Remorse.

               63

Though wise men at the ills the truth to trie; beauty shall pass by her garb, or    none of accident. Ladies    stare! Became masculine in her Eyes half dissolv’d in Light.

               64

Jenny her side. So Julia once lived so that in guys it gently peruse!    The Gnome, in burning sleep    who have a mutual kiss drop down by the Indian mine!

               65

Those hills of that cookery rather lends. Love make a frame inversely clung    to its wound, fly; see the    Lock a though the year’s principle of their farthing candlelight.

               66

Save that sun thine eyes; my doubt, after long love.—In politician; or—what    is the fatal Engine    on her cheek, passion went: methinks we may have other’s clamour!

               67

And fall he shall forgot. Nor would never been toss’d down the first a nations.    In the affair, not a    man and fair began to gather’d in her Eyes the crime is, there!

[prettyboyporter]

Tag game: 50 Qs

Tagged by @dracula-incarnate ty Tristan <333 :) 

1. what is the color of your hairbrush? Purple!

2. name a food you never eat: any type of seafood

3. are you typically too warm or too cold? Too cold. I’ve lost like 28lbs since July and I’m frozen now lol

4. what were you doing 45 mins ago?  Taking a shower to warm up lol

5. what’s your favorite candy bar? Snickers

6. have you ever been to a professional sports game? Yes, many - Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, Seattle Mariners, Portland Timbers, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins -- idk, many lol.

7. what is the last thing you said out loud? “STOP" (to the exbf who was jamming his feet against an object that was in turn knocking against my footrest lol)

8. what is your favorite ice cream? salted caramel

9. what was the last thing you had to drink? water

10. do you like your wallet? IT’S THE COOLEST. It’s a Star Trek Uhura vintage-looking trifold, orange, white, brown, excellent.

11. what is the last thing you ate? pizza for dinner -- split it w the exbf after he helped me put away brewing stuff

12. did you buy any new clothes last weekend? no -- I don’t often buy myself new clothes. I did buy new jeans about 3 weeks ago

13. what’s the last sporting event you watched? I watched some of the Detroit Lions game several weeks back, but not the whole thing. watching the lions is torture but I do like to subject myself to it every now and then lol

14. what is your favorite flavor of popcorn? with a lot of butter

15. who is the last person you sent a text message to? the exbf when he said he was on his way back to help me haul brewing equipment back inside

16. ever been camping? YES I LOVE CAMPING, i’ve been many times

17. do you take vitamins? Yes, b12

18. do you regularly attend a place of worship? nope

19. do you have a tan? nope, it’s autumn in the midwest, lol, nope

20. do you prefer chinese food or pizza? PIZZA HANDS DOWN I LOVE PIZZA

21. do you drink your soda through a straw? In a restaurant if they give me one or a fast food cup

22. what color socks do you usually wear? Usually just white ankle athletic socks

23. do you ever drive above the speed limit? A little bit.

24. what terrifies you? dying before I know if I’ve left some good behind me in the world.

25. look to your left, what do you see? phone

26. what chore do you hate most? cleaning the fucking shower.

27. what do you think of when you hear an australian accent? Dacre

28. what’s your favorite soda? cherry coke zero

29. do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? drive thru

30. what’s your favorite number? don’t have one

31. who’s the last person you talked to? Out loud? the exbf. 

32. favorite cut of beef? porterhouse

33. last song you listened to? probably Thriller on Halloween, lol. I haven’t listened to my playlist recently 

34. last book you read? audiobook: John Scalzi, Agent to the Stars. Book book, Booked for Love  by @flippyspoon 

35. favorite day of the week? Saturday - I get to sleep in, I don’t have to work and I have Sundays off too, so it’s lovely.

36. can you say the alphabet backwards?  No lol

37. how do you like your coffee? cream, no sugar.

38. favorite pair of shoes? grey tennies

39. time you normally get up? Work: 7am. No work: 9am

40. what do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? Sunsets.

41. how many blankets on your bed? 3.

42. describe your kitchen plates. fiestaware: dark blue, turquoise, mulberry.

43. describe your kitchen at the moment. Just like the rest of my apt - full of the exbf’s boxes. He moves Saturday. SO CLOSE. 

44. do you have a favorite alcoholic drink? homebrewed or craft beer

45. do you play cards? euchre, cmon midwesterners, someone be my partner

46. what color is your car? silver

47. can you change a tire? not offhand but I think I’d be able to figure it out

48. your favorite country? Scotland, Ireland

49. favorite job you’ve had? teacher at an alternative high school

tagging: whoever would like to do this!!! :) 

[stylinbreeze60]

The Kenma Project (Haikyuu)

Ch.14: Vow

In the flickering orange darkness of that night, Ennoshita’s greatest fears seemed apt to come true….

“Sniper!” Chikara yelled. The CROW soldiers took cover beneath the wing. Narita scanned the east end of the concourse, the most likely source of the shot. Zooming his night vision display, he saw a figure move.

He ducked before a bullet ricocheted off the wing.

“Suspect located! Near B40!” Kazuhito yelled the gate number. One soldier returned fire.

Ennoshita desperately tapped the receiver in his ear. “Semi is down!”

Hearing the unexpected report, Yahaba glanced at the operation’s overseer, Adm. Shirabu, the man’s eyes wide.

Posted with the Eagle soldiers on the other side of the plane, Kawanishi leaped through the fuselage as soon as he heard Ennoshita’s announcement. Together the two of them ferried their wounded commander into the plane. ...

Continue reading here:  AO3  FFN

(Chapter length: 3,502 words) Timeline, Character List and Map Chs.1-13 in Chronological Order Chapter 1 links: AO3 FFN

AO3 Tags below

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings Category: M/M Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru Characters: Terushima Yuuji, Yahaba Shigeru, Futakuchi Kenji, Shirabu Kenjirou, Akaashi Keiji, Kozume Kenma, Ennoshita Chikara, Yamamoto Taketora, Kyoutani Kentarou, Fukunaga Shouhei, Bokuto Koutarou, Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Tanaka Saeko, Semi Eita, Daishou Suguru, Kuroo Tetsurou, Kindaichi Yuutarou, Seguro Akihiko, Tsukishima Kei, Yamaguchi Tadashi, Kunimi Akira, Kageyama Tobio, Nishinoya Yuu, Kuguri Naoyasu, Akama Sou, Usuri Michiru, Iwaizumi Hajime, Kita Shinsuke, Watari Shinji, Miya Atsumu, Miya Osamu, Kawanishi Taichi, Oomimi Ren, Ginjima Hitoshi, Akagi Michinari, Ojiro Aran Additional Tags: Next Generation Captains (Haikyuu!!), Alternate Universe - War, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Alternate Universe - Scientists, Non-Chronological, Conspiracy, Genetic Engineering, Nudity in one chapter, Mentions of Erectile Dysfunction, Relationship Problems, Some angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Grief/Mourning, Peril, Unrequited Crush, Car Accidents, Explosions, Minor Character Death