#all the symbols are time/clock-related of course

[aroaceleovaldez]

rough concept doodles for my latest au musings (which will hopefully have a fic. im gonna try.). current title for it is “RETCON”

au premise: the gang becomes self-aware of how messed up their timeline is and seeks out the help of Chronos, primordial god of time, to set things right. The characters working with Chronos get a mark of some kind on them from him, everybody else is out of the loop and having A Time, probably.

the entire thing is ridiculously meta it’s fun.

[raayllum]

Today on crackpot theories: Aaravos' making the world's worst grocery list of items for his Cosmic Council takeover, re: Claudia and the Sunforge staff

I was thinking about how both Claudia and the Sunforge staff are included in her intro, despite not really needing the staff to be (as far as we know, but bear with me for a moment).

Viren, for example, doesn't have any item in his intro, despite the fact that Aaravos clocked that he had the relic staff Immediately. This was one of the biggest indicators at the time that Ziard's staff was related to Aaravos (since we didn't know he was a 'great one' yet).

Callum has the cube (which we'll circle back to) in his intro, yes, but again that makes a bit more sense with the context we have. It's called the Key of Aaravos, of course it was going to be something in relation to Aaravos in the Startouch elf's head of "hehe play into my hands".

It does show a pattern, though, of Aaravos not just going after mages, but mages who specifically have the 'gifts'/objects he's left behind that he needs. He needs the Relic staff, at the very least, because it has the quasar diamond he left inside as a contingency plan seemingly just in case he was ever imprisoned since murder only temporarily delays him. The cube may be something he's been looking for for a while now.

So he adds Viren and Callum to his little collection, convenient pawns pulled in by lures, and then constructs two more grocery list items together in quick succession in S3:

I've pondered before about why have Luna Tenebris and Queen Aditi go missing at all, in terms of being part of his plan. On the one hand, it makes sense without really trying: taking out Luna de-stabilized the archdragons (who seem like the only real threat to his power) and he couldn't let Aditi stabilize them. That doesn't explain why he'd eat her, though, unless it was just for fun.

It also never entirely sat right to me that getting the Sun staff / orb from Lux Aurea was just about protecting the soldiers from dragon fire. It felt too short sighted, not for Viren maybe but for Aaravos, given that if the Sunfire elves hadn't gotten involved, the assault on the Storm Spire probably would've gone on without a hitch.

Season six did provide more context, though! If Aaravos knew there was a good chance that taking out Lux Aurea and de-stabilizing the royal family again would make it easier to manipulate and kill Sol Regem, I could see that being incentive enough. If he's waited a 1000+ years for his revenge on that dragon, what's a couple more?

But like I said... if Aaravos ate Aditi for a reason, which was nullified maybe by his 300 year imprisonment... Does he need to eventually eat the Sun orb too? (Or Claudia, as she's consumed by the corrupted light for a beautifully on the nose metaphor?)

The relic staff has seemingly served at least one of its main purposes for now, though perhaps the quasar diamond can continue to be used past the point of giving Aaravos a new body? And we know the cube is related to Aaravos' book, so he'll want both of those within his possession and likely, like Viren in Lux Aurea and in Katolis with Claudia, be brought right to him. But I wonder about the corrupted Sun staff

The simplest reasoning I could see is the Staff just symbolizing Claudia's attachment to Aaravos and dark magic, but given its inclusion in the pawn intro, I can't help but think there's more to it, anyway. Why have it specifically on Aaravos' grocery list of items to get if all he wanted to do was corrupt the Sun forge, after all?

[alicerosejensen]

YANDERE RE6 LEON IS LIKE

in my opinion hes someone that would shield you from anyone, he can be possessive asf idk what else lol

It could be Leon! vendetta, so we kill two birds with one stone.

∆ He is a huge possessive in relation to you. If a man is standing next and has a nice conversation with you, then this is a red flag for him.

∆ If you're younger than him and keep your naivete, then Leon will find it charming. But your problem is that he decided that you need to be protected.

∆ It follows that Leon is protecting Yandere. He hates being away from you

∆ However, from the first time you will not see the oddities in Leon's behavior. It will seem to you that he is just a handsome man who is interested in you, but Leon already has all the information about you, down to your blood type.

∆ At home, he has a whole folder with your personal information. He needs to control everything you do and who you talk to. Therefore, he will quietly steal your phone and track all your social networks and calls. Of course, he will return your mobile to you, but you will not know anything about the fact that all your calls and messages will be viewed by Leon.

∆ "Leon is just a nice guy" you think when he brings you something that you've been texting with your bestie about. It could be chocolate, ice cream, or an invitation to dinner at a trendy new but very expensive restaurant. It doesn’t even occur to you how it turns out that he guesses everything you want.

∆ It's funny right? Your phone and Leon's phone always notify you of a new message alert at the same time.

∆ The only difference is that Leon also receives your messages on his phone. But he only did it for your safety.

∆ He doesn't want you to be afraid of him, so no, you won't suspect anything about his true attitude towards you. Leon is good at hiding emotions if he needs it.

∆ Once your relationship starts to develop, you will notice that Leon always has his hand on your waist or your wrist. And the grip is quite strong. Leon doesn't like it when you move more than a couple of steps away from him.

∆ He needs you to live with him, so that you can be in his line of sight around the clock. He still checks your social networks and correspondence through his phone.

∆ You don't have to work, sweetheart. He will try to talk you out of your job (especially if you are a waitress or some other service industry). It just irritates him unbearably that you can be kind to someone other than him, but he will not make a scandal to you. If you do not quit yourself, Leon will make sure that you are fired or you could not stand it and left this job yourself.

∆ He doesn't care what you buy, he'll pay you whatever you want, especially if you're such a good girl for him. The main thing is to thank him with kisses or hugs.

∆ He actually likes it when you smell like his cologne. For him, it's like a symbol that you belong only to him.

∆ Leon sits you on his lap when he works at home with paperwork. He doesn’t like it when you try to go somewhere on your own business, so he can lightly slap you on the ass, seat you back, pressing him to him and tell you in a warning tone to behave well.

∆ No night walks with friends, clubs. In fact, Leon will try to make sure that he becomes your only company, and no, he has no idea why your friends are such bastards, but you should not worry about it.

∆ The longer you are in a relationship, the stronger his control. Perhaps you can take off your rose-colored glasses and look at the situation from a different angle when you see that Leon has completely taken control of your life.

∆ Your phone has been tracked by him for a long time. Leon always knows where you're going.

∆ You are financially dependent on him and you have nowhere to go even if you understand that your relationship is far from normal.

∆ Leon will immediately notice your nervousness. He will try to carefully ask you about what makes you nervous and if you dare to ask him about your suspicions, he will simply grin and call you his silly girl. "Don't make me a villain, my dear, I'm the only one who can take care of you to the fullest. The world is generally full of shit"

∆ At home, you can do whatever you want. When you are both at home, Leon's vigilance weakens a little, although you can't help noticing how he periodically checks to see if everything is all right with you. It can be a silent heavy look or a light touch to your body.

∆ Perhaps Leon's behavior is related to his work, but even if you tell him that you don't like this attitude and you would like more freedom, then… "oh, sweetheart, am I holding you hostage? Am I treating you badly? Beating you up?" Leon knows how, but he doesn't like manipulating you. However, if he needs to use gaslighting to get you to stay with him, he will do it.

∆ He will never go as far as kidnapping or physical abuse, but psychologically... Leon will hit all the spots so that you are completely dependent on him. You will just think that without him your whole world will collapse.

∆ However, he still loves you. His love is strange and Leon has chosen the most sophisticated way to have you with him, but because of everything he's been through, he just doesn't know how else to keep you close to him.

∆ He really does not mind the money on you, if you want to go somewhere, he will take you, but the constant control will drive you crazy. If it undermines your psyche and you try to commit suicide, then he will never leave you again. You may even hate him, but in the eyes of others, Leon will be a good guy who continues to love his mentally unstable girlfriend no matter what.

∆ “You can’t leave her alone, you understand? Please watch her very carefully, she must take all her medicines strictly on time. This is important!” - this is what Leon will say to your nurse hired especially for you. The DSO must have contributed to this somehow, after all, Leon has an impeccable reputation as an agent.

∆ What can you say to others? He didn't really kidnap you or rape you. Leon just cares about you and the sooner you realize that, the better it will be for you.

∆ He still watches stupid shows with you that somehow entertain you; sits you on his lap and just asks how you feel. He loves you and if he has to limit you in some way, then this is only for your own good, understand.

∆ In the end you will understand that he wishes you only the very best. You just need time.

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 16

Kipperlilly Copperkettle and the World's Smallest Violin

Welcome back to Fantasy High where everyone’s graduating with A pluses and we’re *finally* figuring out what the hell Kipperlilly’s deal is! 

But, before we get to that, we have some loose ends to tie up. You’ll remember that the Bad Kids just demolished the Last Stand Exam and dropped Gavin Pundle off at the Council of Chosen office in Bastion City. It’s the day before Spring Break so hypothetically they should be relaxing–they don’t have a Spring Break project like everyone else because of the Last Stand–but these are the Bad Kids. They don’t get breaks. 

First order of business when they get back to Elmville is to check the crystal they left recording at the crime scene. They see a massive figure--14 to 15 feet--wearing a hood approaching Buddy with their back to the camera. The stones behind Buddy glow with Ankarna-style light so they check to see if Bakur is escaping the gem he’s trapped in. He isn't but Riz using his spy tie can tell it's def something Ankarna related based on the magical mDNA he's clocking. Based on the footfalls, it seems like something big and humanoid (though not like a tabaxi or dragonborn with their digitigrade feet. Giant is def on the table though).

The figure moves closer to Buddy and Kristen thinks they’re about to slap the symbol on Buddy’s chest but Buddy’s body spasms and blood spatters as his organs seem to crush. He jolts awake with a pained roar and then says in his southern drawl, "Dang, y'all. I worship a nameless god of rage." The figure kneels over Buddy and they both vanish. 

So, yeah. Good call setting up some CCTV. 

Fig right away speculates that maybe all the Rat Grinders died and were brought back to life in that way. Maybe in the Mountains of Chaos, Fabian adds. Kristen points out that KP has been angry since Freshman Year and they all finally get around to digging into the file that Riz stole. Has she always been a follower of Ankarna or was she scouted at some point because of how insanely aggro she is?

Everyone piles on buffs to Riz’s already stupid Investigation score so he gets a 32. I’m going to bullets to organize all of this info:

Her Freshman and Sophomore Year accomplishments are pretty meh. She was doing quests but pretty low level, easy ones

We find out the reason KP hates Riz so much and it’s his tragic backstory. In a meeting at the top of Sophomore Year, they see KP complaining that it’s so unfair that Kalvaxus killed Riz’s dad. She’s too suburban and normal and she hasn’t been able to find any sordid secrets in her lineage that would make for good plot hooks essentially. Her parents went to *Mumple* for Cassandra’s sake! Over the course of Sophomore year she started having rage outbursts. and saying that kids with tragic backstories had an unfair advantage in adventuring and their grades should reflect that. 

She talks about how much she loves her party. The way she speaks, she's def the leader (which we kinda already assumed from the vibes). She seems especially fond of Lucy and says that she's the only one who sort of "gets it". Apparently, KP came up with the name "High 5 Heroes" and Lucy was supportive of that because it meant a lot to KP. Rat Grinders was a name that Ivy and Oisin came up with (they're the other pair of besties in the group which checks out because they were the ones hanging out and playing beer pong together). Ruben voted for the change to piss off KP and Mary Ann voted for it as well and refused to elaborate (on brand). 

In her Junior Year she gets even more unhinged. She talks about wanting to straight up murder Kristen. She thinks Kristen is going for President as a joke and won't even do the job when she's elected. And she he hates Fig for boxing her out from confronting Kristen.   

There's a note that, for Spring Break, they're going to the Mountains of Chaos for the second time. The last time they went was a week or two after Spring Break last year, right before Lucy died. They had a school chaperone because it was too high an adventure for their abilities in the school’s view and no prizes for guessing who that was: Jace Stardiamond. 

As we kind of already know, KP has been gathering Bad Kid info via Jawbone--specifically, stuff about the Prompocalypse/Kalvaxus fight and the Yes! Stuff. These questions are coming Sophomore Year, post the first Mountains of Chaos trip. 

With a dirty 20 Insight, Fig sees that, starting at the end of Soph Year, there's a change in KP's language where it goes from, "I don't think X is fair"/"I think they get special treatment" to just straight up, "I hate them."

The group wonders if Jace is the mastermind here and scoped out which of the students were susceptible to rage poisoning or if maybe he died during that mountain trip and got taken over just as much as everyone else. As far as they know, he was super chill prior to this. 

They take a brief detour to razz Fabian about The Incident in his dance class with some excellent puns and then another brief detour to IRL razz Murph because he makes the grave mistake of saying the phrase, “honor the cock.” And then, Kristen has a brain blast. She wonders if maybe the difference between someone who gets a crystal put in them and comes back as a rage person (eg: Buddy) vs someone who is left in limbo like Yolanda and Lucy is that you get a choice and you can either come back full of rage or refuse and stay dead with the mark on your chest. Brennan doesn't even make Ally roll for it, Kristen just gets it in one. And everyone realizes it makes sense. Yolanda was super principled and Lucy always stuck to her guns according to Ruben. [Note: This also offers a potential reason that Ivy wasn't shocked to see Lucky at the party–maybe she thought she finally took Ankarna’s deal.]

Another list of info just to keep things neat:

They check the tape from the Coliseum and see that there's a ten minute gap between the Bad Kids leaving and the figure coming to rez Buddy so that’s a bit of a timeline established (assuming no chronomancy BS I suppose). 

They also get the thing about digitigrade feet I mentioned earlier at this point but I just thought it fit better with the other tape stuff above. 

Ruben has deleted most of his social media presence from a little bit before last year but they can see from photos where he's tagged with his friends that the emo thing started after spring break of Sophomore Year, confirming what we assumed from his old Yearbook photo. Before that his vibe was more soft rock/folk pop (based on the musician they reffed who I've never heard of but just Googled--Jack Johnson). 

The Bad Kids think they might have to waste yet another Spring Break, this time chasing the Rat Grinders into the Mountains of Chaos, but before that, they have in-town business and downtime to attend to. 

Everyone's parents and guardians are so happy and proud of them for their Last Stand victory. 

Sklonda asks Riz if there's anything she can help with and he asks if she can look into Bobby Dawn. She says  Bobby used to go to Aguefort (info that has come up before according to Brennan though I don't remember it) and asks if Fig knows he's teaching there. It seems like a non sequitur until she reveals (via Emily figuring it out at the table with very impressive swiftness) that Bobby Dawn was at the center of Sandra Lynn's sordid past! For those of y’all who don’t remember, we learned in Sophomore Year that Sandra Lynn joined a party when she was young as a replacement member. There was a married couple in the group who were older and more powerful than her. She fell in love with one of them and when it all came out, she was kicked out and slandered (even though it takes two minimum to tango, as we all know). She was basically blacklisted from adventuring after that which is why she joined the rangers. Well, now we know who that couple was: Bobby and Pamela Dawn! 

Which, ugh what an upgrade Jawbone and honestly even Gilear are from Bobby Dawn.

(Also, as an aside, we learn Pamela is the chief paladin of the church of Sol which, como se dice, yikes. That whole pantheon needs better reps. Tracker is doing all the heavy lifting herself.)

Gavin checks in to say that the Council of Chosen is looking into things but the body is missing. The Bad Kids, who already knew this, share their footage because they have to do EVERYTHING around here. Gavin also lets them know that they’re completely free from academic requirements other than filling out a teacher eval and attending graduation (which is odd considering they aren’t graduating but Aguefort is a weird school and Brennan never went to trad high school so shrug–we’ll see if that’s just a weird Aguefort thing or a something suspicious).

Back to Riz and Sklonda, he asks his mom if she's ever heard of Eugenia Shadow and she tells him that she's a granddaughter of one of the founders of the Society of Shadows (which was named after their last name--it's literal AND a metaphor. She offers to drive him to the cemetery in Ashgrove which is about 90 minutes away. 

Wilma and Digby are exuberant as always about Gorgug's success. They’ve finally fixed up the Hangvan for him and give him the keys. He thanks them and then asks about why Frosty Fair picked their tree as the new event site. They think it's just because they're heavily in the Frosty Fair circuit and also someone (who we know is Ruben) vouched for them. But they mention that the FF reps had a lot of questions about their tree including whether the tree was a Root Warden. They don't have a Druid or Ranger who would know but Kristen gets a Nat 20 (and Cass is a sylvan goddess so it checks out that she would know some stuff about trees). 

A Root Warden is a tree that is so magical that it's a little more alive  than a normal tree (without fully being a treant) and has an Int of like 1 or 2 instead of zero. So it's basically the big, old tree that guards the other trees in the area and tells them when to have their guards up and protects them from general bad mojo. Brennan calls it a sentinel. The Thistlespring tree is the Root Warden for the trees in all of Elmville county.  Gorgug rolls too low to tell if the tree is corrupted but his parents do tell them that the people who came by to check on the tree dropped something into the roots with eye droppers that was absorbed. Everyone is worried about rage pollen, especially since it’s the middle of spring. And once he’s looped in, Riz can see on a map that Loam Farm is significantly outside the tree network that Thislespring tree is a part of. It seems clear that they were trying to make sure they were not only operating within the network but poisoning its very heart. 

Fabian gets a proud message from his dad now that they’re synced up with infernal/material plane communication. Gilear asks Fabian about baby clothes so, naturally, he burns them all. He also gets another 20k gold allowance because his life is full of intense highs and lows and that’s about it. 

Kristen’s parents text her to ask her to make sure Bucky is going to his classes. Suspicious! She agrees to check up on him. 

Aelwyn has accepted the job at Leviathan so she starts coming by the mansion again since there's a door/portal to the library which saves her the spell slot. Adaine tells her she can just come back home if she wants and Sandra Lynn agrees. Aelwyn asks if all her cats can come and everyone says yes, even if it means kicking out Kristen (which is a joke…mostly lol). So yay, Aelwyn is back in the bunk beds baybee! And during the month of my birth irl and in canon. Ty Brennan. Kristen tries to verbally spar with her because she knows Aelwyn is uncomfortable with people being too openly nice to her but Aelwyn accidentally claps back too hard and sends Kristen running back to her room near tears. Sorry, K! She’s working on her people skills! Fig of course has her President’s back and gives Aelwyn a wet willy which majorly grosses her out but she doesn’t sling any retaliatory spells. Progress! 

Gorthalax makes sure that Fig knows he’s always a resource for any help with anything infernal. Meanwhile, Adaine has a couple of spells she wants to cast. She makes a Simulacrum of Kristen, to make it confusing for anyone who wants to go after Kristen. It’s a clone of her with half her HP which is slightly British and slightly straight. She casts Legend Lore on Kipperlilly and gets no info which means she’s a basic ass bitch. (Riz, in comparison, does get a ping but it’s for being the 5th person to summon the Night Yorb so he is keen to do better than that). Finally, she casts Scry on Kipperlilly and doesn't get anything because she has Nondetection casted on her. She realizes that all of the Rat Grinders do at all times which is 18 third level spells a day which is crazy. Clearly, they’re scared. 

Graveyard time! On Saturday, they head to Ashgrove and find the grave of Eugenia Shadow who died at the age of 111. Adaine swaps to Ethereal Vision to try and find her but Riz (with his Blindsense) is the one who finds her (she’s carefully ducking behind Adaine to dodge her line of sight). Eugenia is annoyed to have two students find her in one year but very happy to drink, smoke, and do drugs with the Bad Kids(just go with it). 

Despite being dead, Eugenia knows a lot about stuff that's going on and congratulates them on passing their Last Stand. Riz asks her about what "the Rogue teacher found her" re: Kipperlilly means and Eugenia says that KP somehow found out that she was dead (despite the fact that as far as Shadow knows, the only records of her death exists in Aguefort’s office) and showed up at the grave with a rented backhoe, threatening to dig her up unless she showed basically. Which, yes, is grave desecration and messed up but is it any more messed up than the concept of a rogue in general? Like, I hate KP as much as the next person but this feels like normal rogue behavior. As Eugenia says in this very scene, rogues do crimes! Anyway, Eugenia reiterates something we already knew about Kipperlilly:  that she's obsessed with technicalities and loopholes. We learn for a fact that she's a Mastermind Rogue and Eugenia says that she's a lot like Riz but walking a darker path. 

As they're speculating how KP could have gotten into Aguefort's office (via Jace maybe?) Mazey comes up since she's acting principal and Eugenia reminds them that Aguefort is not a normal school with normal positions. Things are set up so that whoever is VP has to follow whatever the Principal says no matter what since Kalvaxus is supposed to be in that position as a prisoner. Equally importantly, Aguefort is more than a school. It's a hotbed of very important magical threads that Aguefort had going and they'll unravel without someone at the helm. That fact and the fact that killing her would mean chaos and not a simple transfer of power to another party is probably the only reason no one has tried to assassinate her yet. At his friends’ urging, Fabian texts Mazey to hang out, to help keep an eye on her. 

Eugenia tells them to keep their guards up and that she expects to see all of them in Rogue classes next year. She gives Riz an eval form and Fig asks about a Landscaping Company that KP contacted (which I think must be in cut footage because this is the first time it comes up in the ep. Eugenia says that the name of the company is Loam Landscaping which gives everyone pause for obvious reasons. 

Speaking of the Loams, they're on the same death clock as Lucy since it's been a while since they died and Adaine wonders if they can Plane Shift to where they are if they can figure out where that is. Brennan says that the vibe is that Yolanda and Lucy are probably with Cassandra, wherever Cass is. 

Downtime before Spring Break!

Fabian is up first. 

He rolls a 27 for Popularity. People are hoping he's gonna keep up lofi study nights over the summer and they're so psyched that his birthday is the same day as the election (the 31st). Adaine realizes that THIS must be the bday party/election victory she keeps having visions about and tells him he has to do it. For his second track, he asks Mazey out on an official date to Krom's Diner. She says yes and, on a 20, we get a very sweet scene where Fabian has a nice normal date with a genuinely nice, down to earth person.

Even though she's not supposed to play favorites, she tells him that Kristen's basically demolishing Kipperlilly in the election so far (which she is impressed by because she didn't think Kristen was going to take it seriously). She also lets them know that technically any place (including a big house party perhaps) can be a polling place as long as someone from the school admin is present (which could potentially be Mazey or Riz). 

Mazey gives him a goodnight kiss (getting his kisses in!) and we move on to his third roll which he uses to try and mend fences with Kristen for Gertie’s sake. He offers her any satisfaction she wants from an apology to combat and she chooses combat. With a 30 to her 16, he handily defeats her and she considers her honor satisfied. They'll chill now. And he even gives her some tips on flirting with Kristen. Trying to make sure his girl gets her kisses in too I see. 

Corsica and Terpsicore find him to give him eval forms. (Also, on a Nat 20, Fig steals RIz's eval and changes his one negative comment about her doing drugs with her students into a positive one because of course Fig loves her).  He just barely gets his Owlbears roll with a bardic and that's his last roll. 

Adaine is up next. She uses a portent to get a 29 on mystery to learn about the Astral Plane and figures out that when a god is dead in the Astral Plane there's still some level of intelligence, like how a mortal can die but then have Speak With Dead cast on them and answer questions. She also finds some weird linguistic trickery in a passage about how where gods die, where they go, and where they're borne--not born, borne as in carried. Imagine the laws of the universe hinging on a pun. Wild. They wonder if that's what Bakur was trying to do/if the proper location would have been the Mountains of Chaos.

Brennan also says she gets some interesting stuff about the Mountains of Chaos and its history and is left with the question of, "When Ankarna was said to have 'died' in the Red Waste, what does that mean?" Adaine decides to roll to learn some spells to help her party survive in the Astral Plane if they need to go and on a 29 spell she learns one new spell of each level. She also talks to her teacher (Tiberia Runsetaff) who, in addition to giving her an eval to do, says she's been talking to Aguefort (Chronomancy) and when she mentioned that she was having problem getting supplies for wizarding, Ayda left her a geocache. Runestaff gives Adaine the coordinates and she texts Fig so they can go together because she assumes Ayda left stuff for both of them.

Next, she wants to roll Relationships and throws an ice cream party for the whole manor which everyone really enjoys. She chats with Sandra Lynn who tells her that the Mountains of Chaos have been nuts lately and social animals like wolves have been killing members of their own packs as of the last few weeks. That sounds very rage-y to Adaine so she tells Sandra Lynn everything they know (except for the Bobby Dawn stuff so Fig can be the one to break the news). 

Adaine asks if Sandra Lynn will take them to the mountains since she knows the area so well from work and Sandra Lynn says they might have to sign some liability waivers but she's down as long as her bosses are down. They also have a very sweet conversation where Adaine says she’s very grateful to them for taking her in and she admits that she's not very good at being a kid. Sandra Lynn says that she's always available for any conversations that Adaine wanted to have with a mom and couldn't (on account of her mom being a raging bitch and also being chased by the Vands of course). Adaine thinks she's about to give her a talk on periods and dashes away, much to Sandra Lynn's bafflement. 

Fig does her evals for her teachers including Lucilla who is weeping over her not remembering her name and just calling her "Attractive bard teacher", Porter who is irked to be sharing a sheet with Zara, and Zara who wants to see Fig because she send her a flap of flayed skin with writing on it (the contract from Bill). Valid concern. 

Adaine wraps up her downtime by rolling to Scry on Jace and gives him a 1 to make sure he fails. She sees him sitting quietly working in his office where he's Fantasy Googling the Complicated Women podcast. Adaine doesn't see what else he's working on with a low Luck roll but on a 17 Perception, she sees that he's starting to sweat in his toasty office. He takes off his scarf and, as he does, she catches a glimpse of him in the mirror, revealing a deep ragged scar in his chest. He looks at the scar and, for a moment, his eyes flash red. 

Detention

Kipperlilly for All Of That

Girl are you KIDDING ME?

“Oh boo hoo. Riz is so lucky. School is so easy for him because he has a dead dad to avenge. Some people have all the luck.”

Man, kick rocks. And she was like that *before* she got involved with Ankarna. 

Also, sidenote, it’s not even like Riz ended up killing Kalvaxus because of his tragic backstory. He didn’t even know there was a connection going in. He just wanted to find his missing babysitter and the other missing girls! You’re a Mastermind Rogue. You want a plot hook? Nancy Drew it up, bitch!   

You want Kristen dead? You want her DEAD? You’re jealous of Riz who lives in a household where sometimes you have to eat your cereal with water because there’s not enough milk to go around? Truly, get a grip.

Honor Roll

Kristen for Making a Clutch Connection

This should really go to Ally but yeah. What a great leap figuring out that staying dead is an option and that’s most likely what happened to Yolanda and Lucy. 

This very likely explains a longstanding loose end from much earlier in the season. Ivy didn’t look shocked to see “Lucy” (Fig in disguise) at the party even though we know she was dead. With this new info, it seems likely that Ivy assumed that Lucy had finally given in and come back as a rage acolyte. 

Anyway, baller connection and she got there before I did. I love it when Brennan is so impressed he doesn't even ask for an Insight roll. 

Random Thoughts

Here is a super useful timeline of events Re: the Ratgrinders by @ratgrinders. 

I’ve seen a lot of people assume that the RG’s died in the Mountains of Chaos but I’m not convinced that happened. Because that was way before Lucy died and we know that once she died, she refused to come back as a rage person. And we know you can take a rage crystal without having to die first. That happened in the mall fight with the wizards. If they TPK’d there and Ankara offered to bring them back, then they would have come back without Lucy because she would have said no.

Here’s my current theory: They went to the mountains with Jace. They either stumbled into information about Ankarna or were led there by Jace if he’s proper evil and not just taken over. They were offered a deal and everyone went for it but Lucy. KP really wanted Lucy to join them–esp cause she considered Lucy her best friend. She tried to strong arm her into it (maybe even forging her god change form) and, when she stuck to her guns, she organized everyone to kill Lucy, forcing her into a position where she’d have to say yes to Ankarna in order to stay alive. In KP’s head, Lucy would do this and maybe be annoyed for a bit but in the end see it was for the best and forgive her–maybe even thank her. But she miscalculated the strength of Lucy’s conviction and voila. Dead Lucy. 

Edit: Wanted to come back and edit to note that it is of course possible that in the mountains everyone died except for Lucy and that's when they took the Ankarna deal, but even if that's the case, the rest of the theory would proceed as written. I was mainly thinking that while what we saw with Buddy is a strong possibility it's not the only possibility. If they died then they're a bit more sympathetic because self preservation is an understandable motivator and taking the deal doesn't make them craven--it just makes Lucy and Yolanda extremely principled. However if they just took the deal because it was offered to them then that's more eyebrow raising. Even though I'm skeptical, I'm kinda hoping their hands were forced because I think that's more interesting and we've had straight up petty power grabbing already from Penelope. But anyway, just being thorough.

"Flash of Stupidity” is so funny. 

It's not surprising that Ivy and Oisin are one of the pairs of besties in the RG's--they were introduced playing beer pong together--but I'm super curious about what their dynamic is. And ditto for Lucy and KP. Was it like a high strung one/chilled out one kind of thing? I really wish the Bad Kids had been a bit nosier about their whole deal.

Do we think KP maybe wanted to make sure the BK's died in the last stand alongside Buddy and Pundle so they'd all come back as rage people? Maybe that crossbow bolt was laced with some rage mojo?

KP being mad at Riz for trying to pickpocket Jawbone of her file when (1) she’s literally a rogue as well and (2) she pickpocketed Kristen and Buddy of their revivify diamonds is insane. 

I love Lou committing to the bit of being appalled at the thought of half-siblings via Gilear because I know he knows that every time he explodes it becomes even funnier which means it’s more likely to happen but he can’t stop because he’s Committed To The Bit. Classic Lou. 

Wizards casting Legend Lore on themselves as the in-universe equivalent of Googling yourself. 

I love the detail that Mazey’s family lives in a Labyrinth in the Red Wastes. 

Kinda bummed we didn’t get to do more with the Relationship track so the special ability never came up and Brennan had to just reveal it (it can reduce stress but also increase it). 

I am so stressed about the bylaws and also Bucky. They keep coming up and then falling off of everyones’ plates and we’re running out of runway here. 

Adaine really said, “You didn’t just kill your parents? Skill issue.” She really is Aelwyn’s sister. 

The VP has to do anything the Principal says, right? And Mazey is the Principal, right? There’s gotta be a way to exploit that, especially now that Fabian is in her good graces.

When did Aelwyn get FIVE MORE CATS?

Answered and Partially Answered Questions

Last week I made as thorough a list as I could about what info we were missing and I wanted to note the answers we got this week. 

1) Why the move to Loam Farm for Frosty Faire? (The Thistlespring tree is a Rootwarden) 

2) How is Jace involved? Why is he manipulating Ruben? (We know Jace went w/ them on the trip but that's not a full answer) 

3) What were the exact circumstances behind Lucy’s death? Who was able to put the rune on both of their bodies and what exactly was the goal there? (We know the mark is from getting a rage crystal but rejecting it but we don't officially know who did it or what the goal was though you know my guess.) 

4) How did KP find the rogue teacher? (Threatened to dig up her grave. Info that she was dead was only in Aguefort's office so maybe got that from Jace?) 

5) Also what’s her damage? Why is she obsessed with Riz? What are her anger issues about? (She's a petty basic bitch) 

6) Why wasn’t Ivy surprised to see Fig in disguise as Lucy who was at the time fully dead? (Most likely because she thought she finally chose rage zombie resurrection) 

7) What’s up with the party vision that Adaine has now had at least twice? (We know this is election night and Fabian's bday now) 

8) What made the Rat Grinders become the Rat Grinders when they started as the High Five Heroes? (We know it was a vote led by Ivy and Oisin and joined by Ruben and Mary Ann but not the why behind it) 

9) Where exactly is Cass right now? (We still don't know for sure but it seemed like a realm within Ankarna’s dead body which is prob in the Astral Plane. We do know Lucy and Yolanda are prob with her as of this ep.)

As an aside, we still don’t know how Oblivati Mori was broken to write Ankarna’s name before the Bad Kids found it but is it possible that the person who wrote it was Ankarna herself? Because Ankarna is still “dead” right now, right? Because she’s been active all the same. Oblivati Mori disallows others from speaking your name but does it disallow the god themselves from speaking or writing their name if mortals find them somehow? Kind of a stretch but I’m wondering if there’s enough wiggle room there to make something happen, especially since this episode Brennan said that gods retain some intelligence even when they’re dead on Adaine’s high roll. I dunno, just spitballing. 

(Also, I don’t remember where I saw this but remember how Aelwyn said KP is randomly loaded? The previous best guess on that was money from Oisin–the boy who was just gonna give Adaine diamonds–but is it possible that she’s spending the embezzled Frosty Fair money? We don’t know much much it was so hard to say if it was enough to be funding whatever this is. But wanted to throw that out there since we’re tying loose ends as much as we can.)

Anyway, can’t wait for next episode which I’ve been told will be more than THREE HOURS LONG and Brennan said in the AP that it’s gonna be a doozy. Excited, trepid, and preemptively bracing for another long haul review. See you then!

[atamascolily]

I'll admit I did not pay much attention to the flowers in the infamous Flower Field scene on a structural level on my first time watching Rebellion. At first glance, I took them for rain lilies (Zephyranthes spp.); then, when they transformed and went to seed, I assumed they were meant to be dandelions, which form distinctive white puffballs that are known as "clocks" and which are said to grant wishes, both of which seemed thematically appropriate in context. At the time, I assumed botanical accuracy was less important to the animators than symbolism, and didn't think too much of it.

Then I went back and looked more closely, and realized I might have been wrong about all of that.

On closer inspection, these are not rain lilies or any other monocot bulb (which always have petals in multiples of 3, never 5). Nor are they members of the dandelion family (my next guess) despite having the anthers clustered in a similar ring at the center. So what other flower meets this criteria?

I did some more digging, and "Japanese anemone" kept coming up as a possible candidate, so I checked it out, and...

Look familiar? [Source].

Japanese anemones (Eriocapitella [Anemone] hupehensis and related hybrids) are members of the buttercup family; despite the common name, they are originally native to China, but have been grown in Japan for centuries.

Because of various evolutionary shenanigans the actual flowers are tiny and clustered in the center and the white "petals" are actually colorful sepals. Many cultivars have more than five, but these are close enough to pass for what we see on-screen if you squint even though they don't overlap in the animated version.

Anemones also have divided leaves very similar to what we see in other shots:

Even better, Japanese anemones also make white little puffball seedheads similar to dandelions!

Now in real life, these puffballs are not as round and blow away almost instantly, so they do not hold together like they do here, but neither do dandelions, for that matter. I think this is a case where "aesthetics and symbolism" won out versus pure realism.

I had thought the accelerated life cycle of Homura's flowers was an exaggeration, but it turns out that Japanese anemone seed heads can apparently unfold over the course of a single afternoon, so while this is still faster than real life, it's not as much of a stretch as I initially assumed.

So am I convinced these are meant to be Japanese anemones? I can certainly see the resemblance, but if so, I wish the animators had been slightly more true to life with the "petal" placement and with the floral height--the plants I have seen are usually 2-4 feet tall with somewhat staggered flower heights, while these are much shorter and with uniform height throughout. It's possible they may have been working from another anemone species/hybrid that doesn't quite map to the plants I know, or they may have just chosen to change it up as needed for convenience.

Currently filing this ID under "tentative yes, to be revisited if/when new evidence arrives".

I still think they should have gone with dandelions, though.

[gryficowa]

Here are the common features I saw among Zionists on the Internet:

They have the Israeli flag on their profile picture (Seriously, it's weird, I can understand the Palestinian flag, because it's not the first time people showed support like that, it happened with the French flag at one point, but yours? Strange)

They often have Hebrew in their descriptions (Although their blog is usually in English) and mention that they are Jews (It's probably not a crime, but it does its job with Hebrew… I don't know why, but when I came across Zionists, their description always has words in Hebrew and mention that they are Jews…)

Of course they are bullshitting around the clock on October 7 and blaming Hamas (Because even the Palestinians themselves are Hamas to them)

David star, related to the flag of Israel, but sometimes you can come across a Zionist with this symbol on his profile, not every person with this symbol on his profile is a Zionist (I saw one person in the tags about free Palestine who talked about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, so yeah , compared to the flag of Israel it is not so certain, is anyone a zionist?

Of course they will deny the existence of Palestinian Jews, what do you require? That they accept other Jews who are not European?

They will use your ethnicity and origin as an attack (Poles, Germans and Muslims)

Of course you will meet Zionists who will claim that other Holocaust victims are "Stealing Jewish things"

Profiles without profiles, but entire blogs are fucking porn

They will attack other Jews in the comments for supporting Palestine, using the texts "You hate yourself" or "They would kill you there"

Of course they will defend Israel's crimes, because the Torah told them that they deserved this land, so fuck the indigenous people (Which they are not, because they are Europeans, or possibly Asians)

Threatening with rape because their level is typical of housing estate pathology

Everyone is anti-Semitic, even Jews, what the fuck don't you understand?

They use information as fresh as a student's sandwich left in the haversack all summer long

Of course, for every crime committed by Israel, they will go into "But Hamas!" mode

They love pinkwashing and homonationalism, unlike LGBT+ people who don't buy this shit

They love to see themselves as victims when real victims want to hit them with a frying pan

Racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Zionism in a nutshell

Their empathy went out for milk and didn't come back for decades

Sure they will call you a Nazi even though they collaborated with the Nazis, which sounds legit

They swear more than a typical Pole

They don't know the difference between manja and swastika, but they themselves wouldn't want their star to become a symbol as they see manja, which has nothing to do with Nazism, and also has a rich history and has been around longer than Hitler stole it, yes, it makes a lot of sense , yes, it references the Pokemon controversy because oh god! In the Japanese version there is manji, and this kata was imported! Obviously it's time to cancel Japan!

They are so fucked up that they enjoy raping Palestinians and dying children…

Yes, Polish anger, when Damian Soból died, Israelis started memeing it and calling him a Nazi (And from Hitler), so I don't have much to add, I won't forget it

I don't know why but a lot of Zionists are LGBT+ which is weird, it just sounds sus (I'm aroace)

Many Zionist blogs have "Anti-Semitism" in their names, which is interesting

They consider Poland a country that cooperated with the Nazis, which is a lie, Poles were victims of the Nazis, and many died in concentration camps along with the Jews

Of course they appropriated the watermelons, because Zionists only know how to steal (Oh, you can see how much Polishness they have)

You can fight for Sudan and Congo, but you will be an anti-Semite because you are also fighting for Palestine, what don't you understand, you stupid non-Jew?

A text about Ukraine, because of course, white people have to be in the spotlight all the time, and the rest? They not white so they has to die, typical mentality…

Of course they use the Jewish tag, because it is known that Zionists must represent the Jews, no, good plan (They probably think they are safe, no, you won't be safe, we will harass you for supporting the genocide)

Yes, these are many of my observations (But probably many others had them too)

Zionists are simply trying to disguise themselves, but the truth is that it looks like manipulation to them, which is shit

[neversetyoufree]

Ok gang, so while I've talked a lot on here about VnC's recurring Vanitas painting allusion, I don't think I've ever actually talked in detail about my favorite example of that reference, so it's time to do the thing.

I am obsessed with the cover of the first volume, and I think you should be too. It's the perfect introduction of Vanitas as a man doomed to death, executed entirely through symbolism.

To start off, for those of you unfamiliar, a brief introduction to the concept of Vanitas art: Vanitas paintings are artistic reminders of the inevitability of death and the futility of all earthly pleasures. A Vanitas can technically be any form of art, but still life paintings are the most common variant by far.

Vanitas still life paintings were most commonly done in 16th and 17th century Europe. They use specific symbolism to evoke the images of death, the ever-ticking clock of time, and the transience/inevitable decay of the fine things in life. They often place images of the decadent and luxurious next to the rotten and dead in order to remind the viewer that death is always there waiting, no matter what pleasures you may have. This was, of course, a deeply Christian art movement. 16th and 17th century protestants were very invested in reminding themselves and others that pleasure (and even life itself) was futile and transient in the eyes of death and god.

I promise I'm going to relate this art history lesson back to Vnc soon.

The most common symbols in Vanitas paintings include, among others, books, maps, and instruments (symbols of worldly knowledge); jewelry and gold (symbols of wealth and power); bones, especially skulls (symbols of death); fruits and flowers (luxuries subject to quick decay); and clocks, hourglasses, and burning candles (symbols of the passage of time).

Fun fact: Mochijun once did a Gangan Joker cover featuring Vanitas and Jeanne hooking up in front of a Vanitas still life.

If you think about it, the presence of the still life there kind of turns this cover into a Vanitas painting in its own right, but that's a deep dive for another day. In the meantime, let's look again at the volume 1 cover:

The frame that Vanitas is sitting in here is covered in images from Vanitas paintings. In particular, it very heavily features bones and flowers, which are two of the most common Vanitas symbols. Bones are the very direct reminders of death, especially skulls, and flowers are something beautiful and pleasant that decays quickly.

The frame also includes a crown (luxury and wealth made meaningless by the presence of death),

butterflies (living things that are beautiful but incredibly fragile and brief),

and what I'm fairly sure are pomegranates (fruit as another example of luxury subject to decay).

Plus, though you can't see it on the front cover itself, the exact same frame is replicated for volume 1's inner cover illustration, and guess what's on the bottom under Vanitas's leg.

It's an hourglass! The symbol of time's eternal running out, and one that is very deeply tied to Vanitas as a character.

Beyond the fact that these images are commonly found in Vanitas paintings, almost all of them have further significance and meaning. The traditional uses of the flowers featured are very relevant, pomegranates have the Persephone myth, butterflies have their own established symbolism in vnc, and the way that crown is bolted onto the center skull is also important. However, each of those could be a meta post in their own right, and this post is already long enough, so for now I'm going to focus on the simple fact that these are Vanitas images.

Because the thing is, the inclusion of Vanitas painting imagery in this cover is really just what sets the groundwork for my favorite part of it. By introducing the idea of Vanitas paintings via these images, then putting Vanitas the character inside a picture frame, Mochijun suggests that Vani himself *is* a piece of Vanitas art.

Every volume cover features a version of this frame motif, but volume 1 is the only one in which the featured character is within the frame in this way. Vanitas is perched on it and almost entirely contained, as though he's coming from within it, and the background suggests much the same thing. With the stark white of everything outside of the frame, it doesn't look like an empty frame that you can see through to the other side of (the way Noé looks on the volume 3 cover). It looks like volume 1's Vani has climbed out of a painting.

Thus, with the symbols decorating the frame putting Vanitas paintings in our minds and Vani himself held within the frame, he becomes a piece of Vanitas art, and that fits the story perfectly. Vanitas the man is a walking, talking Vanitas. A human reminder of death. And that's why he's called that.

I've talked before about how I suspect other vampires called Luna "Vanitas" because they served as a living, breathing reminder of futility and death for crimson vamps, and Vanitas took his name from them. So on an in-universe level, it makes sense for Vanitas to be called that because he has taken on the role of "death symbol to crimson vamps." But even more interestingly than that, on a more metal level, his whole life is eventually going to become a reminder of death and futility for those close to him.

The story of Vnc is the story of Noé and Vanitas's relationship. It's Noé's memoir of their time together and his case study of Vanitas as a man. They've only grown closer and more important to each other as the story has progressed, and I doubt that's going to change. Vanitas is a great source of joy and color in Noé's life.

Vanitas is also going to die at the end of the story. From the very first chapter, we have known that Vanitas's end is coming and that all of that joy and closeness is going to do nothing to stop his demise. And that is the futility of Earthly passion in the face of the inevitable creep of death. That is the reminder that no amount of joy or pleasure can avert the end of all things. That is the setup for a powerful reminder for Noé and the others at the end of the story. Death comes for us all and will render your pleasures moot, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Furthermore, Vani's inevitable end won't just serve as a Vanitas, a reminder of death, for the characters of Vnc. It also serves the same function for the audience. In fact, I'd argue that since Vnc is the case study of Vanitas (the character), and the character is a living (for now) Vanitas, Vnc itself functions as a piece of Vanitas art. It's Vanitases all the way down.

Vani's oncoming death at the end of the story carries the exact same lesson for the audience that it does the other characters he meets, and that's what makes Vnc a piece of Vanitas art. As a story, it's exciting and it's sexy. The art is a feast for the eyes, the settings lush and almost every character beautiful. And yet, the cold, painful reality of death waits inescapably at the end. What is that if not the manga equivalent of a painting of stunning finery with a skeletal hand lurking in the background?

And of course, it's not like Mochijun is a 17th century protestant. I don't think she's trying to teach her readers a lesson about the meaninglessness and vanity of earthly pursuits so that we'll devote ourselves to god. However, I've always read Vnc as a tragedy, and futility is a fundamental mechanic of many tragedies. All the pleasures Vani has experienced will be inevitably erased by death. All his relationships will be forever marked by one-sidedness and grief. And that's because his story is tragic, and no matter how much he heals from his traumas, he cannot take himself off the path toward death.

But it's not like every character in Vnc is sitting within the frames on their covers. And though Noé and the others will be marked by tragedy in the sense that they will suffer Vanitas's death, not every individual character arc in Vnc must necessarily be tragic.

This is the case study of one instance that encapsulates the ideas of a Vanitas. It is the story of Noé experiencing Vani the man and reacting to his death. It doesn't mean that futility and death are the only lessons that Noé learns through that experience. And though the central theme is bleak and heavy, the manga itself is about the beauty and pleasure experienced on the way to death as much as it is about the death itself.

The love and joy and sensuality is all tangled up with the death in Vnc, and neither can be extracted from the other. It is beautiful and fun and it is a piece of Vanitas art, and none of that is contradictory. You cannot have one without the other, and that means that death can never be escaped.

So on the cover of volume 1, Vanitas the man becomes a living piece of Vanitas art, sitting within a frame that is covered in Vanitas art, within a manga that is in itself a piece of Vanitas art. And that's why it's my favorite illustration from this series.

[wheelercore]

Mike, Victor, Fred, and Ted: weird murder/killing & PTSD subtext

Now that I have been thinking Too Much about Fred, I am interested in the "holding the mirror up" aspect of it.

We see them intentionally show Fred's reflection on the grandfather clock

Which the camera angle in which this was done reminds me SO MUCH of how they reflected Victor in the bathwater where the spiders were.

Also notice when Victor was arrested it was against the same wall the grandfather clock stands against-it actually might be there within frame on the right but that also might be a doorway- I'm not sure. Looks like its probably a doorway but the clock is somewhere around there.

You also have the fire similarity between Fred's vision and Victors:

The similarity being: murderer

They both feel and intense amount of guilt for what they have done- however both was an accident. Victor, I think, pretty obviously has PTSD and Fred might have also. We'll get to this later.

They also do the same reflection into the grandfather clock with Henry- right as he uses his powers for the first and it immediately cuts to him killing a rabbit.

Also the rainbow being ~~gay~~ but also may I say it might also be a reference to Henrys future killings in the Rainbow Room.

The thing that interests me is why the grandfather clock is associated with 'murderer'? In fact it's what is associated with Henry's powers, which is what he then uses to kill his family and the kids in the rainbow room. We also see the clock presents most of the time as jutting out of trees (Chrissy- reference to Nancy in s1) and walls (Patrick and Max)- which are places we've seen be associated with a breach in the barrier between the UD and RSU. As if the clock is forcing it's way from the UD to the RSU- like we see repeatedly UD beasts do.

So in a sense the symbolism works like this:

Clock -> breaching the barrier between the UD and RSU -> akin to UD monsters -> the UD monsters being a mirror/reflection of humanity's predatory nature -> predator defined as "preys on the weak" -> mentions of various famous killers (Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, and Ted Bundy- all in the same episode by the way).

Its especially interesting that Fred is a mix of Mike and Ted:

(Mikes s3 scar and Ted's glasses. Again, all in the same episode.)

Mind you, they make a whole circle of character-murderer references: Victor is compared to Michael Meyers, Eddie (not a murderer but was witness to one and is later accused) is compared to Ted Bundy (both names are short of Edward also), and I believe Vecna/Henry is compared to Freddy Krueger at some point also.

To add to this, the topic of PTSD is also something shared, I believe, between Fred, Victor, Mike, and Ted (and also most likely Henry but I haven't really looked into any specific uses of symbolism, name games, etc etc im lazy).

I believe I saw @aemiron-main mention previously about how it seemed that Victor had gained weight over the course of the Creel sequences given to us. While neither Victor nor Henry, I believe, are inclined to mention how much Victor had been eating once he was triggered by the Vecna visions so we don't necessary see any explicit confirmation of it, to me in a round-about way its supported by Ted's eating habits particularly in s2 and how that ties back to Victor since they're paralleled in this sense.

(Em, you're the resident expert on Victor so feel free to add anything on here related to this if you would like to. I'm sure you have much more coherent things/proof to say about this than I do when it comes to Victor haha).

In Henry's monologue (which is literally just the writers "spelling it out to us" as promised), he mentions eating as one of the distractions, ie just another way of describing coping mechanisms (heavy themes of mental illness/trauma all over the place in s4 as it relates to conformity and the metaphor behind Vecna).

In season 2 we hardly see Ted not eating/drinking (dinner scenes- obviously, doorbell scene with Dustin where he was holding a mug in his hand). Even in the opening scene he's the only person eating pringles (?) in the kitchen with Karen and Holly:

Even in the end of s1 he's apparently fallen asleep while eating out of a large bowl of popcorn.

Multiple times overeating is brought up with Karen angrily commenting that she hopes he's enjoying his chicken after we see her observe twice Ted not backing her up at the dinner table but rather just drinking/chewing (mind you this is all happening while discussion wills disappearance is going on, with the general consensus in the town being that Will was taken by a child abductor/murder- with Ted's See what happens? line being particularly interesting):

and Dustin jokingly putting an excessive amount of pancakes on his plate after Ted sarcastically tells him to "take us for all we're worth".

Hell, even the scene were Ted is holding a random donut in the church in s4- it's overeating/eating when its inappropriate, particularly doing a stressful moment, and again, this was related to the serial killings of Chrissy, Fred, and Patrick and how Eddie was scapegoated for it. Or Ted being the only person eating at Will's funeral, very obvious because he's the only one holding a plate. And these are only instances I remember off the top of my head.

Victor, while, again, we don't see as much of an association with food we do see him repeatedly get triggered over the course of the events shown to us. Victor describes his vecna visions as "living nightmares" which is a callback to Hopper and Joyce's conversation, again, in season 2:

Victors visions, unlike Virginia's, were intentionally very reminiscent of PTSD flashbacks. Victor was being repeatedly triggered all throughout the time of being "haunted" by this "demon".

Switching back around to Mike for a bit, we get the parallel in s4 to the s1 dinner scene, this time with Mike, who, unlike his father, is not eating very much. And Will, from the same vantage point as Karen in the s1 scene and like Karen, notices subtly:

Takes a similar sip of his drink when El storms off, similar to how Ted takes a sip of his drink both times when Nancy and Mike storm off. Honestly it would have been funny if Murray had made chicken risotto.

Regardless to get to my point, these can be signs of traumatic events happening in the past:

(x)

While again, it's hard to tell with Victor, because comparatively we don't see much of him, there are some subtle hints. Talking about being "moody":

Dr. Owens explicitly mentions "changes in personality" as a sign of PTSD to look out for.

There's the clothing parallel between Mike and Ted related to this in again, you guessed it, season 2:

Both are scenes in which they are acting pretty irritable and standoff-ish to someone. Mike being this way towards Max due to the trauma and guilt of watching El "die" at the end of s1, related to death- again like Victor and Fred, however Mike was not culpable although I suppose he may have felt that he had not done enough to save El.

We don't know what's up with Ted, but he was actually strangely in this scene- not hearing the incessant ringing of the doorbell or even noticing Karen out loud ask him to get the door judging from the fact that he says "I'll get it" as if he hadn't heard her. Karen seemed annoyed by this as if this has become a common occurrence in the last year or so. He seemed to have been intensely concentrated or more so distracted, obviously with a drink in his hand.

stranger things writers dot twitter are sooo correct s2 is underrated we love the PTSD season

Notice how both are all dressed up- projecting an image of having yourself together, "perfection", when you're really not. Reminds me of that scene of s1 where Mike is complains the tie is choking him, and Ted tells him that that's how its supposed to be. Symbolizing an excessive amount of control over oneself and ones emotions (choking oneself as symbolized by clothing), which is seen through various habits, e.g. overeating/lack of eating.

Now, last thing that's a bit of a tangent, but going all the way back to this theme of murderers and killing- e.g. Mike's survivor's guilt, the interesting parallel between Holly and Henry catch my attention. Both are described as "explorers". Henry after he looks into the grandfather clock and 'gains' his abilities:

I saw my parents as they truly were. They presented themselves as good, normal people. But like everything else in this world, it was a lie. A terrible lie. They had done terrible things, Eleven. Such awful things.

(Sorry I ran out of image space >.<)

After Holly witnesses the Demogorgon ("predator") almost come out of the wall, again like we see with the grandfather clock which is reflected on Fred (Ted+Mike), Karen describes her as an explorer- which is referenced back to Henry seeing his parents for who they truly were. Holly then also notices the flesh monster from the ferries wheel (UD "predator") but Karen and Ted tell her to ignore it and look at the pretty fireworks. We know Holly was at the pool when Karen was flirting with Billy there, however what "terrible", "awful" thing Ted had done in the past is still unknown.

Shortly after this in s3- Karen, Ted, and Holly become the family unit which is then indirectly described in the church scene as "a lie designed to hide a truth", with Karen and Ted's clothing paralleling Mike and El's from early s3 when they were being an annoyingly fake couple.

While Victors fate is almost obviously reminiscent of Oedipus (the whole eye gouging and all- falling into a fate that was one of his own doing when he accidentally murdered that family during the war)- Mike does also get two moments were he technically "blinds" himself all throughout s4: the sun glasses in the airport and the sensory deprivation glasses at that pizza place- a fate that more closely follows Oedipus: kill your father, become your father, and then marry your mother.

(the last one being a whole nother long post)

Anyways... what exactly happened in 1959?

[thewebcomicsreview]

Oh hey, an update!

It is not, in fact, the long-teased [S] page, though. Alas. It's...John and Vriska? What do they still need to do?

JOHN: well i just think maybe it might've been a little less risky to go that way, instead of weaving through battle ships and cross fire and all that war junk.

The extent to which world war 3 is apparently happening just offscreen all the time is really strange. There's apparently currently a battle happening?

ROXY: oh the kids are safe btw JOHN: that's good! JOHN: wait, they were in danger?

John's endless quest to make it through the entirely of Homestuck without knowing literally anything continues apace.

ROXY: rosenaya and jade picked em up while they were ROXY: um ROXY: runnin around outside unsupervised

Everyone in Homestuck is in a competition to see whose least qualified to have children (but the winner is Jane)

JOHN: you left your own clone on her own in a dungeon! VRISKA: It wasn't a "dungeon" John, it was a high-security 8lack site!

Vrissy....isn't a clone? OG Vriska's her ancestor, and they physically resemble each other, but they don't have any particular relationship like that. Obviously John doesn't know this, see above about how he doesn't know literally anything, but Vriska was all about the ancestor stuff, and I'm a little surprised she's not pushing back here. But I guess she's also trying to take credit for all of Vrissy's good qualities so it makes sense.

Neat little meta bit of having "The Plot Point" take over the prompt like that. It's finally revealed! Will it be the Cherub portal from Hiveswap? Suspense!

Looks like it is, or at least something similar. Cool effect, too, popping out of the frame. Let's speculate!

The main differences from the Hiveswap version are

It has Calliope's symbol in it. The symbol has angel wings with wispy trails behind it, which looks like it might be related to the Hope angels. That's maybe a reach, but Grandpa Harley had the other portal so it at least kind of makes sense to be connected to Jake.

The Hiveswap version needed a key to open, this one is unlocked.

The Hiveswap version has a clock vaguely resembling the God Tier clocks. The Plot Point has an hourglass turned on its side like an infinity symbol.

The Hiveswap version is red and green, the colors of Calliope/Caliborn (and cherubs generally). This one has black and white orbs. Black and white are the colors of Space, Calliope's aspect.

One laser has a black circle with a white spiral, matching the orbs. The other is a blue circle with a darker blue spiral. These color patterns match the symbols for Space and Void, respectively (which makes sense since it's Calliope and Roxy's thing, though this is a "Skaian Artifact").

The base is way more "gadgety" with pinkish gamer lights, which I'm interpreting as indicating Roxy's influence on the machine. It's also chonkier than the Hiveswap version, possibly indicate this is the prototype of the Hiveswap portal.

Instead of pointing straight up into the air, the cannons are firing into each other and making what looks like a tiny black hole.

The laser is alternating Red, Blue, and Yellow. These are primary colors, of course, but this is a machine to traverse universes, and Homestuck already established that the original human universe was Red and the Troll one was Blue. Yellow is presumably the new Universe. But it seems like this machine isn't limited to just going to Meat, which is what everyone predicted, but anywhere in the entirety of Homestuck.

Short update, but lots to speculate on. Curious what part 2 brings, and what precisely they need Vriska to do.

[frangipanilove]

Eye of the Beholder; Troy’s journey as a Sirius Character from season 3 to season 8 of FTWD

I’ve talked about the Sirius symbolism for years, and written many posts about it. It ultimately means return/resurrection/rebirth, and it’s not seen just around Beth, tptb utilize it around many characters. Most notably around Rick, which I’ve discussed here. We also saw it around this handsome psychopath from FTWD, Troy Otto.

I’ve often pointed out how tptb offers us almost a blueprint to how to interpret the symbolism through the various spin-offs. We’ve recently seen Troy Otto “return from the dead” in FTWD, complete with one functioning eye, which is classic Sirius symbolism, and I wanted to elaborate some on his case, because it brilliantly demonstrates exactly how tptb use Sirius symbolism, and how consistently they use it across TWDU. There’s nothing random or accidental about it, it’s all carefully planned and executed.

Within minutes of appearing in his first episode, Troy was was marked by the Sirius symbolism. It was literally the first thing that happened to him in his first episode of FTWD, and the Sirius symbolism was fulfilled 6 years later (6 years for us, the audience. More if you go by the show timeline), when he returned “from the dead”.

Let’s explore his journey!

When Troy returned to FTWD is season 8b, as a Sirius character with one functioning eye, there really wasn’t any reason for anyone to be tremendously surprised. For starters, his “death" back in season 3 of FTWD was a textbook death fake-out situation. We watched Madison strike him across the side of his head with a hammer, we saw him fall down and we saw him laying unconscious inside the dam structure that was about to be blown up.

We didn’t see anyone stab him through the brain, we didn’t see him buried. It was heavily implied that he was dead, but there were never any sort of definite confirmation.

He didn’t return for season 4, and I don’t know if he was ever spoken about again on the show. That is, until we saw him in the coda of FTWD episode 8x6 All I See Is Red, and then in the trailer for FTWD 8B.

He was “gone” for a long time, until he suddenly was “resurrected”, in a coda (and OF COURSE we should read into that), seen by a radio (Sirius symbolism).

But that’s not the only reason we should have known he would eventually return as a one-eyed Sirius character. It was, in fact, foreshadowed pretty much from the second he introduced himself, in the first episode he ever appeared in, 3x1 Eye of the Beholder.

The name of the episode itself, “Eye of the Beholder”, is a clue. I’ve written countless posts about the Sirius symbolism, here’s an example (x). For TD, the most interesting part about the Sirius symbolism around Beth is the one-eyed dog from Alone.

He introduced himself to Madison and Alicia, and offered a nice cup of tea. We get this shot of a spoon as he says his name. Read about spoon symbolism here, it's tied to the North Star symbolism which I've also written about in a bunch of posts.

Madison wasn’t impressed with Troy or his beverages, and inevitably responded in the most Madison way imaginable, by stabbing the man through the eye, with the spoon we saw just moments earlier.

She stabbed him through the eye WITH A SPOON!!!

There are a bunch of other references to eyes in the episode as well:

There are references to death and resurrection:

There’s a clock on the wall, which happens to have its hands pointing to the 5 and the 8 (as in 5x8 Coda), a complete coincidence I’m sure, not at all related to all the talk about resurrections and eyes/Sirius symbolism:

There are a lot of numbers mentioned in the dialogue, such as this reference to 11 and 8 (which I’ve written about here and here):

And let’s not forget this mention of the number 17. Greg Nicotero famously stated in The Talking Dead that there had been 17 days between 5x8 Coda and the start of 5x9 WHAWGO. Many of TD’s theories revolve around what we believe happened in those 17 days. Here, we see that number in a scene where they’re experimenting on how long it takes from a person dies until they “resurrect”. They actually use the term resurrection in the episode. It's all about resurrection symbolism:

Tptb utilize the Sirius symbolism when a character is about to go through a death and resurrection arc. TD often focus on the Sirius symbolism around Beth, but I think it’s interesting to see how it’s used around other characters as well. Troy’s journey from episode 3x1 Eye of the Beholder to his "resurrection" in 8x6 All I See Is Red proves an excellent example of how tptb utilize the Sirius symbolism. It was literally around him from the second he was introduced in his first episode, and he was “gone” from TWDU for six long years. Tptb always have plan for a future death and resurrection arc when they introduse the Sirius symbolism. And like we've recently seen with Troy, the symbolism is always eventually fulfilled, even if it takes literal years.

When he returned in 8x6, it happened in a coda, which every TD’er quite rightly will heavily side-eye, and we saw him near a radio, which is Sirius symbolism. It was Madison’s voice on the radio that had led him to her, it was the radio that was the “instrument” that facilitated their unhappy reunion. I have a feeling there’ll soon be a different reunion, and I expect it to be of a more “happy” nature 😍

[tleeaves]

[enter FOOL wearing sunglasses as a Stayin' Alive remix plays on loop]

First and foremost, you must remember that I know nothing about anything--never have and never will. The second thing you must know about me is that I am obsessed with time loops and anything time-and-space related (not just Dr. Who specific, chill, whovians), which includes the multiverse and layers of reality. Various timelines existing at once and so on. It's been done over and over again, and I can't get tired of all the interpretations and stories.

A truly satisfying story, in my humble fool's opinion, relies upon the use of seemingly innocuous pieces of the story recurring in such a way that they gain importance, gain a narrative weight, and start to predict patterns that can tell and add layers to unfolding events/character arcs. A watch is just a watch until you see how many times the reader's attention is brought to it, until we see it fixed, and later broken, for some reason or other. It's a piece of symbolism. In that same way, authors essentially "time loop" everything in a story to make consistent themes for characters to struggle against or within. Not many excellent examples are coming to my mind because I'm an old woman and it's bedtime, but here's some brief mediocre ones:

I would argue that The Shadowhunter Chronicles (TSC) is about time loops (without, of course, being about time loops) because of the cyclical nature of each "era's" narrative. Female Main Character, Two Male Love Interests (of various interest), curses real and imagined holding everyone back, over and over and over and over. Told and retold. This creates layer, which then creates significance when Clare varies the loop just a little bit.

Or, look at tragedies. I may have spoken about tragedies before (they're another personal favourite of mine), but what makes a tragedy, well, a tragedy? I argue that many are a tragedy because they are about time loops. The characters are stuck in a situation they are forced to play out to the end--and it will always have ended with the same bitterness, one way or another. The narrative is inescapable. Each time you open a book, it's going to happen the same. No matter how many times you tell the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, he will look back and she will be lost to the Underworld forever.

Now, this in mind, look at time loops themselves: they absolutely are all about grief. Whenever I have worked with time loops (god, I love them, I will always be trying to sneak one in somewhere), they are essentially an embodiment of grief. To me, grief has always been the replaying of something over again in your mind, playing it to death, trying to find how you got from Once Upon A Time to The End, how many other ways it could have gone, how many other endings you could have wound up with, why this one, playing it to death, trying to find out how you got from Once Upon A Time to The End, how many other ways it could have gone, how many other paths you could have taken instead, playing it to death, trying to find how you got from Once Upon A Time to The End, how many other ways it could have gone, whether you could have asked her to stay, whether you could beg, whether you could have punched him, if remembering to buy that carton of milk would have saved them from the accident, if a firmer step would have stopped you from falling and ruining a life forever, if you hadn't looked back--if somehow you trusted the god of the underworld--if you had only heard her voice, some confirmation she was there--if, if, if--

Grief is ugly. It's screaming, it's wailing, it's tear streaks, it's clawing at the dirt, it's reversing the clock, it's rereading old messages, it's listening to voicemails, it's rewatching recordings and movies, it's going back to the same place the murder happened trying to remember just one more clue to put your spirit at rest forever. It's a time loop. It's going back, driven by stubbornness, madness, desperation, the feeling that this time--this time--you can find something to do differently so the loop breaks.

All stories are about time loops, except time loops. Because time loops are about their inherent grief, regret, knowledge of a mistake requiring correction. Being stuck. Doing something over.

Staying alive.

Keeping someone else alive.

Keeping something, a memory, alive still in the only way you know how within your limited power.

All stories are about time loops, except time loops. Time loops are about grief.

Anyway, time to go rewatch all the Spider-Man movies that exist so I can live once again in a time-loop that spans universes as I try to also predict whether the next Spiderverse movie is going to break the loop.

[exeunt FOOL jingling merrily to something that has transformed into a Christmas carol]

all stories are about time loops, except for time loops, which are about grief

[edenparkway]

Current Hyperfixation on (and Amplexations of)  Hannibal and its Metaphors

(A note, before reading. Please excuse my wordy and cringe style. This is what it sounded like in my head, and in a passage on introspection I decided it more emotionally honest to leave it as such. I read a lot of old books. My apologies, it will happen again.)

Part One, Introspection

Lately, I have resumed my on-again-off-again hyper fixation with the show Hannibal. On Tumblr, we are in good company for this. 

There are many reasons to hyper-fixate on the show Hannibal as a fan, the complexity of the characters both on their own and in relation to each other, it's signature visually striking and artistic cinematography and dark and atmospheric visuals, and its various symbolic elements that leave room for interpretation, leading fans to engage in discussions and theories about the hidden meanings and motives within the narrative.

But why this time?

I am not old, but nor am I young. I came into the world in 1981.(The same year as the novel Red Dragon, if you will allow me to nerd about it.) I am routinely mistaken for someone in my thirties. The twenties even, if I am in a slim phase and play up my femininity. But I am not either. I am 42. A lot of people close to me have died lately. My elders of natural causes and way too many friends in deaths of despair. And of course, the planet is on fire. It causes one to feel the clock ticking on their mortality. And I am seized with this profound desire to know myself fully, the good and the bad, before I run out of time.

I've gone to professionals and friends, taken assessments, been prescribed medications, and seen therapists that delved into my family's histories of addiction, mental illness, abuse, and neglect.  I've scored positive for autism, slightly lower for dark triads, gender dysphoria, etc. I've seen many kinds of professionals, all with wildly different perspectives on what is going on with me. And I have run out of options with the insurance I have before I could come to any conclusions.

A friend of mine from my past who shares some of these issues and is in a better place in his life than he ever has been reached out to me. We began to discuss my journey. He asked me why I was trying so hard to find a label or a hard and fast answer. He supported my self-exploration but put to me the question, to what end? Why could I not see myself simply as me for what I am without picking apart all these tiny elements?

What I explained to him was not that I needed a label to sum me up. I have no desire to pick the feature which describes me best and call myself that thing, but rather to blow up all these elements  out into my field of vision like stars. To look at them, to make note of their constellations, to zoom in on certain stars and zoom out and see where they fit in my own personal galaxy and what and where my fractures are, so I can move on. I just hope when I'm done driving myself mad to find my true self, that all these shattered elements come back together neatly.

AHH, there's the metaphor!

And if you're a Fannibal, I need not explain what it is, and you'll understand without question how I find myself like the prodigal AFAB son coming home to the fictional world of Bryan Fuller's Chesapeake Bay area. (Known in our world as the Washington–Baltimore–Arlington, DC–MD–VA–WV–PA Combined Statistical Area) And following Will's journey like another stray dog, ever-present but helpless to intervene and just happy to have found a place here.

To be continued in Part Two, The Teacup

[vendetta-if]

What are the ROs, Luka, Jackal, Viktor, and Grandpa' opinion on the movie Goncharov (1973)?

Scorsese’s Goncharov (1973). A classic, undoubtedly one of the best mafia movies ever made😩

Ash

Watched it with MC and Luka. Thinks it’s pretty neat, doesn’t really care too much about the imageries and symbolisms, but loves its thrilling story and the tragedy. If MC likes it, then they have no problem with it 👍🏻 Also, they probably won’t admit this but their favorite character from the movie is ‘Ice Pick Joe’.

Rin

They enjoy it and approve of how Scorsese didn’t shy away from the gritty and violent portrayal of the world of organized crime.

Santana

Sadly has never watched it yet. Has heard of it, of course. They just have never been a huge movie enthusiast. Maybe your MC will be able to make them watch the movie with them? 🤔

Skylar

Watched it and loved it. The frames are well shot and as always with most of Scorsese’s movies, the acting by the actors are phenomenal. Not to mention, the drama and the tragic romance. Oof, Skylar can’t get enough of it 😩

Luka

Luka is kinda a film buff and he really loves it. Still thinks it’s one of Scorsese’s best works yet (yes, even better than ‘Taxi Driver’). Can talk and discuss about the imageries or just the scenes of the movie for hours! Don’t let him catch you saying that you haven’t watched Goncharov (1973) yet!

Jackal

Jackal is a victim of letting Luka hear that you have never watched Goncharov (1973) yet! Well, Luka has often invited Jackal to come watch some classic films together, so no big problem.

Here’s a snippet of their conversation after the movie is done:

Luka: “So… What do you think?”

Jackal: “I think that if Goncharov and Andrey just fucked, a lot of the deaths in the film could’ve been prevented.” [shurgs]

Luka: “W—What? But one of the themes of the movie is about inevitability… with all those ticking clocks imageries—”

Jackal: “Spare me that pretentious stuff and just take a second to picture what would happen if only they fucked and tell me that I’m wrong.”

Luka: … [thinking about it]

Jackal: …

Luka: [sighs] “You know what? You have a great point…”

Viktor

Can relate to Goncharov a bit, about trying to get away from your past and outrun the looming consequences dogging your footsteps, the inevitable karma making it feel as if you’re constantly running out of time.

Grandpa

Can relate a lot with Goncharov, as a fellow immigrant from the Soviet Union setting foot in a new country trying to build something better for his family and getting embroiled with the local criminal organizations.

The only difference is he succeeded, of course.

Grandma

Can understand and sympathize with Katya’s strained relationship with her husband, Goncharov. After all, her own marriage to Grandpa started out pretty rocky, but thankfully, they managed to fix that not long after her sons were born and they eventually fall in love for real.

Cara

She fell asleep halfway through the movie when Luka invited her and Viktor to watch it together. She only remembers the ice pick guy. Don’t tell Luka, please! He’ll ask her to watch it again with him.

Takashi

He would be most interested in the sexual tension between Goncharov and Andrey… No reason at all… Would totally agree with Jackal’s statement 😂

[bigskydreaming]

Okay, so you know “Justice League meets Batman’s kids, who they’d previously been unaware existed” AUs?

So picture that.....but this time, instead of them just having no knowledge of any of these other Gotham vigilantes at all....the Batkids all migrate to various cities as they get older and become known as their protectors - Dick in Bludhaven, Tim in San Francisco, Cass in Hong Kong, etc....

Meaning they’re all established figures, the Justice League are aware of them as solo local heroes who stick to their cities and so they just don’t interact with them much if at all, or else some are members of team lineups but are particularly vague about their histories or life outside of the team’s adventures....

So the big reveal isn’t that they become aware of all these other Gotham vigilantes all at once....its that some big conflict or whatever requires a huge team up of all available heroes, and in the aftermath, they figure out that like.....despite being known as solo heroes who work alone or loners outside of their team settings, 80% of these heroes all not only seem to already know each other, they seem to be related.

And so naturally they all turn to Batman, who has profiles on every known hero and they thus figure had researched these individuals too and just never mentioned this little detail, and they’re like, “Did you know about this?”

And then Nightwing turns to him too, arms crossed and is like, “Yeah Dad, did you know about this?”

And the infamous Red Hood is all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have never met any of these people before in my life. Lives? Whatever.”

And then Red Robin moodily grates out “I have no siblings.” Since he’s nursing a grudge since Dick and Jason broke into his apartment the night before and replaced all his custom Red Robin gear with Darkwing Duck merchandise and his vengeance will be swift and also totally disproportionate because things escalate quickly in this family, that’s true in every universe.

Cass meanwhile has deftly skewered Jason’s lie by walking over to him and brazenly patting down the man with many many guns with no fear whatsoever. He squawks and futilely attempts to bat her hands away as she riffles through his many pockets, but he doesn’t seem shocked, just annoyed. Eventually, she pulls away and triumphantly reveals a box of Hello Kitty themed band-aids.

“So these are yours then? Just for you?” Black Bat asks smugly. Red Hood squints at the box.

“What the fuck? How long have those been in my jacket? Why are those in my jacket? Did you freaking plant them in my jacket just on the offchance you could at some point in the distant future use them at my expense?”

Black Bat frowns, puzzled. “Yes?”

“Oh come on, Dead Hood,” Spoiler says with an exaggerated toss of her head meant to convey she’s rolling her eyes beneath her own mask. She skips her way across the room to Black Bat and then drapes herself languidly all over the smaller woman. Who in turn doesn’t so much as twitch beneath the sudden added mass as Spoiler holds out her hand towards the box of band-aids. 

“One please. I have a boo-boo,” she says with easy familiarity straight into the intimidating cowl of Black Bat. Only then does she deign to finish her train of thought with Red Hood.

“I mean seriously, are you saying you don’t have potential blackmail set-ups, pre-rigged releases of incriminating material, and a random assortment of traps, pratfalls and mortifying scenarios in place for the express purpose of being able to humiliate any and all of your siblings at any given moment, without any need for additional prep time?”

“Is this true, Little Wing?” Nightwing whirls on the larger Red Hood with a faux-scandalized gasp. The founder and leader of the Titans, formerly the Teen Titans, renowned for his stratagems and calm competence when directing squads of supers in the heat of battle while he keeps pace with nothing more than naturally acquired acrobatics and a utility belt that apparently uses the same technology as Wonder Woman’s invisible jet....now appears to be....staggering with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead, moaning about how he felt....faint? 

What is happening right now, several dozen superheroes want to know. Is this a drill? Are they supposed to be checking for signs of a mental ambush from undetected psychic saboteurs? Did they all hit their heads at the exact same time and are now experiencing some kind of shared mass concussion?

Look, that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to ever happen on the Watchtower. 

“Have I failed you so utterly?” The veteran child hero bemoans with a dramatic twirl - that when contrasted with his stern demeanor of a mere ten minutes ago - makes the fears of telepathic infiltration seem less paranoia and more....concerningly probable. “Did you learn nothing from me? Did you learn nothing from B?”

He stops and jabs a finger up at the sky. “Quick, everyone! What is the very first rule of Living While Batty?”

As if by rote, over a half a dozen voices chime in from all over the room, causing various heroes to jump. Spooked by yet more and more vigilantes joining in some kind of mass recitation like they and they alone have some kind of clue what the hell is going on and everyone else just hadn’t been invited to the party. Which is just rude, honestly. Nobody likes feeling like they weren’t invited to the party. Not even superheroes. 

“If you’re not going to bother preparing for every possible contingency and at least six impossible ones, you might as well just stay in bed.”

Even the Red Hood joins in the Illuminati chant or Cub Scout pledge or demonic ritual or whatever the fuck that just was, though his slumped and exasperated posture gives away every hint of sulkiness his headgear otherwise would have kept safely hidden. He’s surprisingly more...expressive, than most who’d only known of him by reputation had expected him to be. The day continues to yield surprises.

“Of fucking course I do,” he growls out, snatching the box from Black Bat. She doesn’t even fight to hold onto it, just lets it go with a knowing smirk. “I wasn’t surprised by the idea of it, I was just surprised she bothered with such a weak effort. Like yeah whatever, actually those could be mine. I use those all the time at home. So what?”

He aggressively yanks one of the band-aids out of the box, fumbles with the peel-off strips with one hand and he roughly rolls up the sleeve of his jacket with the other. Then just slaps it on his forearm and raises said appendage high, showing it off this way and that. “See?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Signal drawls from the other side of the room, nodding his head approvingly. “Totally convincing. Nice job walking that one back, you really showed them.”

Red Hood’s head snaps in his direction with ominous intent. “Watch it, Day-Glo.”

Signal just snorts.

“Yeah, like I’m gonna take constructive criticism on my name and costume from a dude who’s spent the last several years calling himself Red HOOD while running around in a freaking HELMET.”

“Its not meant to be literal, you fucking pedant.”

“So wait, its not literally a helmet? Huh, does it at least protect your head literally, or just like...symbolically? Like if Bane were to clock you across the head, would your concussion just be a metaphor? What’s the treatment protocol for a metaphorical concussion? Fluids, bedrest and a philosophical prescription of two chapters of Chicken Soup for the Soul as needed?”

“Laugh it up, KC and the Sunshine Band,” Red Hood bats back. “You just got yourself disinvited from Thursday night’s poker game.”

Signal just grins and folds his arms over his chest cockily. “Please. You’ve been looking for an excuse to ban me for weeks, cuz you know until you can prove I’m using my ghost vision to cheat, you can’t actually bring suit against me for it in Family Court.”

“That, and also Family Court isn’t a real thing, you toddler. Stop validating Wing-a-ding-ding’s obsession with Shitty TV Nostalgia and just call it that thing where Oracle traps us all in a room until we settle our latest fight without anyone getting stabbed.”

“Yeah, but like, say that five times fast,” Spoiler pipes up. “Its just not practical. Family Court’s way easier.”

“Says the one who’s not even in our fucking family.”

“And yet I grace you all with my sublime presence anyway,” she blows a kiss at him, beatifically unbothered. “You’re welcome.”

The Red Hood scoffs and rounds on his heel, zeroing in on Batwoman in the far corner.

“Hey Auntie B, my siblings are all dead to me and I just helped stop an alien invasion so I deserve nice things like a fun Saturday night. Can you get me into Dad’s fundraiser so I can crash it? He won’t put me back on the list until I promise not to bring any C-4 with me and I won’t promise not to bring any C-4 because he should just trust me that I won’t when I say I’m not gonna and he won’t trust me that I won’t until I admit I shouldn’t have brought any to that sting last month where three tiny little yachts blew up through barely any fault of my own, and I’m just not gonna do that ever because I have convictions and I feel I shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Y’know?”

Batwoman blinks at him. “Kid, I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re my nephew and I love you, but I stopped listening three seconds into all that.”

“Ugh, fine. Can you help me crash Dad’s event tonight so I can teach him a lesson about why he should just trust me not to make a scene so I don’t have to always make a scene to make a point.”

“Tempting as you make that sound,” she says wryly, “I have a strict policy for dealing with you lot and your......everything. I only worry about tolerating one of you at a time, and there’s seven of you, and seven days in the week. You each get your own. You know perfectly well its Robin’s day today. You get me on Tuesday, just like always.”

“Auntie B, we’re not like other families, are we?” Red Robin’s delivery is sarcastically childish and his question clearly rhetorical. Most of his attention is fixated on whatever it is he’s doing with his wrist-mounted computer. 

“No sweetie, we’re all severely fucked in the head and a little bit too comfortable with that.”

“Just checking. Oh hey, Hood, I just emailed you a patch for the hole in your firewall I exploited when replacing all my shit using your accounts just now.”

“You did what?”

“Used your accounts to pay to replace all my stuff that you fucked with last night?” Red Robin says slowly. “Did you not realize that I’ve been sticking within ten feet of you for the past five minutes just so I could clone your devices and do all that while BB and Spoiler kept you distracted? I gotta say, bro, I feel like that’s on you then.”

Red Hood swivels his helmeted head in the direction of the aforementioned two. Black Bat waves. Spoiler shoots him an utterly unrepentant thumbs up.

“You’d side with your ex over me? That’s what its come to?”

“My only allegiance is to chaos,” Spoiler says brightly. Black Bat shrugs.

“Plus he bribes better.”

“Hateful,” Red Hood points at Black Bat, moving on to level the same finger at Spoiler, who curtsies in acknowledgment: “Hateful-er.”

Then the finger rounds the bases to aim judgmentally at Red Robin. “Hateful-est. And that was all Nightwing’s idea anyway, not mine.”

“Oh, I assumed as much,” he says casually. “Your idea of a prank tends to have more of a Carrie vibe. Or be a literal literary reenactment.”

“Its called an homage, 4chan.”

“Whatever, plagiarist. And anyway, I couldn’t go after ‘Wing for payback on this one. He used an Immunity card. If you didn’t want me getting back at you, you should have used one too."

Red Hood looms aggressively. Red Robin ignores willfully. Round and round they go. Superheroes who can survive excessive G-Forces are getting dizzy just watching them have a largely motionless stand-off. That shouldn’t be how that works, but whatever. All the most infamously reclusive and isolated heroes in all hero-dom are apparently part of the same one big reclusive and isolated family of fucked up weirdos and they’re all officially bonkers. Nothing makes sense anymore. Reality broke. Try another stall.

“Okay, but see, in order to have an Immunity card, I would have to participate in one of you losers’ stupid Immunity challenges,” the Red Hood drags out with exaggerated patience. “And I’m just not going to do that, on account of those all being fucking stupid. You see the problem there?”

Red Robin just shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you, bro. You can have principles or you can have an Immunity card. You can’t have both.”

Meanwhile, on another side of....the same room.....look, its like, an octagonal room, probably. It has a lot of sides. Robin fends off questions from an aggrieved looking Superboy.

“You never told me you had a bajillion brothers and sisters!”

“Yes but I never said I didn’t either.”

Superboy rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, so I should just assume everyone I meet has a bajillion secret brothers and sisters?”

“Well clearly it would have worked out in your favor in this instance if you had, now wouldn’t it?”

“Assuming of course that you can trust what has been said or implied here today and I am actually related to any of those numbskulls. Which I am not actually admitting to,” Robin tacks on hastily.

Superboy eyes him dubiously. “You joined in the same creepy chant all the others did and then got super self-conscious and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Which uh. I did.”

“First off, your interpretation of body language is abyssmal. I do not get self-conscious,” Robin says with a delivery that probably could have benefited from being a little less self-conscious. “And second....that proves nothing. I guessed what they were going to say.”

“Word for word,” Superboy says super-skeptically.

“I’m very good at guessing things. You know this.”

“Okay. Guess how much I believe you right now then.”

Robin glares and folds his arms grumpily across his chest. 

“And what was that anyway? Was that like....you guys’ family motto or something like that?”

“Oh no,” Spoiler pipes up. “That’s much shorter.”

Superboy balks at that. “Wait, you guys actually have one of those for real?”

“Yup,” Steph says, counting out the words with her fingers. “He who laughs last....probably works for the Joker. So tranq him just to be safe. See? Only sixteen words. The first rule of Living While Batty is way longer, and what we said was just the abridged version. You should hear the original, before Black Bat put her foot down and refused to memorize it unless sizable edits were made.”

Superboy hovers between her and Robin now, both in mid-air and on the verge of taking Spoiler’s words as an invitation to hear just that. A low growl arises from Robin’s direction.

“Must you?” He asks the older vigilante, with a most put upon expression.

She looks at him pityingly. “Do you actually need me to answer that? Like, we’ve met, right? Hi, I’m Spoiler.”

“Wait, so Robin said that I just never specifically asked him if he had a bajillion brothers and sisters, and that’s why he didn’t tell me, so that means he wouldn’t have just lied and there’s not some code of secrecy that flat out forbids telling other people stuff, right?” Superboy realizes excitedly.

“Yes, excellent direction. Go on,” Spoiler says, steepling her fingers. Robin buries his face in the palm of one hand.

“Soooo, what other stuff could you tell me about Robin’s super top secret family that I wouldn’t think to ask about but that he would tell me about if I knew what questions to ask?”

She claps once, lightly but with emphasis. “Well done. You’ve passed the first barrier. Untold secrets await you behind just a few more.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Robin vows calmly. She waves a hand at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you do it before January 1st, remember? You’ve promised retribution like ten times already this year and those don’t roll over, y’know. Rules are rules.”

“Enough!” Thunders a voice then, from the front of the room. Well one of the fronts anyway. Like sides, it has a lot of them, but this is the one where Batman’s standing. All eyes snap to him. Which is kinda just what eyes do when Batman says stuff like that. Its like his superpower, except he doesn’t actually have superpowers, which is what makes it scary. But where the snapping of the eyes (directional) is usually followed by Batman saying something else besides just “hey look at me,” here he pauses in the wake of his own call to attention’s waning reverberations. Uncharacteristically silent.

Not that, y’know, he’s normally Mr. Talkity Talk, but usually his silences feel like he has the words to fill them, he’s just withholding them. This though, this feels more like he doesn’t have any words at all. And he’s as confused by it as any of them, and most everyone else is confused by Batman being confused, and its this whole trickle down economy of confusion and its wrecking havoc on the value of the golden silence standard.

Of course, not everyone present is rendered spellbound with confusion.

“C’mon B,” Nightwing cajoles, leaning forward and practically radiating delight. “I think you know what you have to do now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Its not likely to come around again.”

Red Hood snickers beneath his helmet and chimes in. “Yeah Pops, go ahead. You do this and you’ll actually have my respect for a whole twenty four hours. No, wait. Sixteen. No! Eight. Yeah, eight. Still a good deal.”

“Carpe diem, B,” Red Robin grins, leaning back as if to enjoy the show.

“Hey! Infringe on my trademark one more time, dude,” Signal throws a faux-glare at the former. Red Robin just quirks an eyebrow.

“And what, you’ll start saying Yum every time you eat a burger? Oh no. I’m hoist by my own petard.”

Signal flips him off with a grin and then redirects his attention back to Batman. “Yeah seriously though B, you kinda gotta do it now. Because if you don’t do it, then you’ll forever be the guy who didn’t do it, and you don’t want to be that guy, do you?”

“Yeah you really don’t want to be that guy,” Spoiler shouts out. “Nobody likes that guy. He’s the worst.”

“Do it, do it,” Black Bat starts chanting beside her, steadily picking up speed and volume. Several others start joining in. Even Robin appears to be slightly anticipatory, albeit trying very hard to hide it.

Batman sighs, and somehow everyone manages to hear it. Stills. Waits for....something? Nobody but them seems to have any clue what, but the air is thick and heavy with portentiousness. Something is about to happen, and all most of the heroes present could say for sure is it was something they never would have in a million years seen coming.

Finally, Batman straightens with the resigned air of a man about to have oh so many regrets. He crosses his arms, shakes his head, and in an absolute deadpan monotone, says:

“You are awful children. You know you’re killing me. You’re killing your father.”

[unoisveimved-un-proffesional]

As it happens I’d in recent years taken a special interest in numerology, and so (after 3 drafts of multi paragraphed nonsense because I just can’t shut the fuck up, and additional hours of research just to make sure I actually knew what I was talking about) I now have an answer for you!

The angel number 777, skipping over the books worth of background details and reasonings and so and so forth, is (who could’ve guessed) a “lucky” number. Of course it symbolizes fortune, but the term luck is antithetical to what ology and mysticism is all about. What it really means then, is that through either some divine intervention, universal mishap, or your own volition, presence, ability, gravity, or magnetism (metaphorically of course) you’re far more likely to succeed at whatever you just decide to do, as long as it’s something you actually want to do. That’s of course, not even the half of it either. The make up of 777 points to messaging about the individual, and internalization as well as introspection. It’s simultaneously reassurance, as well as advice, basically saying that you need to look out for yourself, but also take it easy. Don’t stress about things, go on your whims, and ask if the things other people are asking of yoi, or their presence in your life is right, good, or healthy for you. Taken a dark extreme it can be about isolation, hedonism, and hardcore dedication and arrogance. It’s selfish in a way, but not in one that’s inherently or entirely harmful. Some selfishness is incredibly beneficial.

Part of it is getting to know yourself better, what you want, what you lack, how you work, and using that introspective knowledge to build towards success of some kind. It’s quite an efficient prophecy. It says you need to work on yourself, forget about the noise of the world and the anxieties that come with it in order to focus on what’s beneficial for you and what your needs and wants are, and also says that you’re fortunate and very likely to succeed, in some way shape or form, in whatever you set out to do. It can also be a self fulfilling prophecy. It encourages a very positive look on the bright side mindset, so even if you do “fail”, you’ll find a reason to believe you succeeded, and because failure and success is all just imagined, redefining it for yourself actually leads to success, and you learn and benefit. Failure is only a good teacher when you’re open to being taught, so maybe this number, for being so selfish, could be quite humble when it needs to he. This positive attitude creates good feelings, positive things, and give people the impression that just being happy materializes goodness and success like magic. It doesn’t, but it’s not wrong to say a sense of positivity and optimism is beneficial. It’s all about those aspects of the self, the self in relation to itself, the self in relation to the world, and the self in relation to its goals, actions, progression, evolution, ultimately in service of that self.

In simple terms, you’re “lucky”, and you shouldn’t let people and things mess with that “luck”, and in fact, should treat yourself and have some more one on zero time with yourself. I say luck in quotations because, in either dark extreme of realism and science or mysticism and prophetic ideology, there is no such thing as luck. Luck only seems to exist when you can’t understand the forces at play, whether they be natural, physical, supernatural or metaphysical, there’s always at least a reason, even if it may be a mistake. What this means then, is that things will be turning in your favor, predictably or spontaneously so, but only for the person the numbers are being ascribed to, usually the people who notice them more than other numbers amidst clocks, street signs, and online, or who somehow materialize that number around them in RNG’s, lotto tickets, and peculiar accidents. It’s all about numero uno, as in the one person who really matters in anyones life, themselves. Don’t let the self be dragged out of otherwise guaranteed success and fortune by these other forces, whether they be the people in your life or the environment around you, work towards your own happiness, cultivate your abilities and success, and don’t for a moment doubt or belittle yourself. There’s a lot more to get into, and many more synonyms and metaphors to get more angles on 777, but in fear of making this any needlessly longer, I’ll cut it off here.

That’s my interpretation of it anyway. I usually try to avoid the more lofty language present in most readings in mysticism and all kinds of ology, and get to a solid core and understanding of any given phenomenon or piece of information, a uniquely difficult task, just as it must have been for humans to first discover and concepts like explain fire and electricity, with a lot more metaphor and side stepping language for words we haven’t invented yet than should be reasonable, but that’s where I’m at right now in my explanatory abilities, so I apologize if it may seem confusing, redundant, too bold, blunt, or brash.

I’ve never before this quite given enough thought or attention to 7, let alone 777. 6 and 666 always seemed to be the more mechanically interesting numbers to me. But it’s been quite a ride dissecting 777, breaking it down and building it back up. There’s more to be explored certainly, but as of now, this is the absolute best I could scrounge up of any semblance of “meaning”, in our simple understanding of it. At the end of the day, what anything “means” is 100% up to only one person, the one in our heads, the self, ourselves. That is just in my, unprofessional opinion.

Holy shit wait hold on I just realized who I was actually responding to. This is NOT advice, or guaranteed anything or anything like that. You can take it like that, you can take it as purely some form of information, but you don’t need to see it as like the universe telling you what to do or anything like that! 1. That’s not how it works. 2. Sometimes we just can’t do the things we need to. Sometimes this prophecy or divination shit is really redundant. I once had a tarot reading that told me I had recently suffered a great loss after my Grandma who I was really close with died and I lost my house. Like yeah no shit, what am I supposed to do about it? But yeah, this is in no way any kind of life advice. It’s not harmful to adopt it as a sign of some sort, but nobody should feel obligated by it or anything. Sometimes you just have to block out God’s voice. It’s absolutely okay to think about it and factor it into your choices, but no one should be swayed into making a decision purely off of divinations like this, it’s merely one aspect of the world, and it’s the vaguest one. Not bad not good, it’s just a thing.

It is though really fun to implement into writing and stories and stuff. Assigning numbers and cards and elements to characters and events can really help solidify their identity in your head. Okay now I’m done.

someone who knows about angel numbers what does 777 mean

[inkpot909]

Josuke Higashikata x Hippie!Reader Headcanons

↳ Reader is written as gender neutral. There’s a lot of traits, habits, practices, and different types of people that fall into the definition of a hippie. This list is focuses on a ‘flower child,’ defined in the 60s and 70s.

Warning(s): Mention of drug use for underage characters. If positive mentions of marijuana will make you uncomfortable, or put you in a bad place, please do not read.

There’s hardly anyone who understands your ‘outdated’ fashion sense more than Josuke.

He would never think to describe his hair or your own in such an unfavorable way, however, the same cannot be said for others. Josuke hasn’t met many alternative individuals before in person, so it stands out to him to see someone with fashion so distinct.

Upon learning more about you, he in turn understands further the extent of what your community means to you. Fashion is quite special to you, a symbol of the counterculture that you find yourself at home being a part of. It’s a direct reflection of your values, as well as personal taste. Therefore, a direct insult or just a passing scoff might really sting.

It makes Josuke’s blood boil; the personal nature of counterculture styles reminds him of how he feels towards his own appearance. Whether you want him to or not, Josuke’s going to defend you if someone has something smart to say about what you wear. Josuke can be quite cruel protecting the honor of people he’s close to, and when it comes to you, he’s prone to even try to show off a bit. Even over the littlest comment, he’s at your side ready to clock someone over the head for daring to mess with you. If the insulter really hit you where it hurts, Josuke will use his stand to rearrange their face in the hopes that it’ll make you smile.

In turn, he’s throwing compliments at you all day- even prior to dating. He didn’t know much on how to flirt or show interest, so this was his go-to before becoming more familiar with expressing himself in that way. It was adorable, if not a little ridiculous at it’s quantity (although always genuine).

A more familiar and confident Josuke surprises you with his keen observance when offering compliments; he always knows when you’re wearing something new. From a brand new shirt down to the smallest accessory, he’ll be sure to say something sweet.

Josuke also likes to give gifts seemingly at random, a natural part of his love language. It serves to quietly expresses his grasp on your personal taste. Initially, he would misjudge how you’d feel about certain patterns or designs. He took every reaction you had into account, and adjusts his understanding accordingly. In short- he knows your tastes very well after just a month or two. From what you like wearing to what records you’re hunting for, Josuke becomes a walking encyclopedia on how to buy for you.

He’ll actively ask you questions about hippie history and culture. Josuke had a rough overview of the psychedelic era before meeting you, mostly limited to what he’s learned in school. Nowadays, it’s you he runs to for help if he has a test on anything related to that point in history rather than some boring textbook. Regular studying could never compare to the way your eyes shine when telling him about or events impacted by the community you identify with.

If you get so excited you end up speaking too fast or assuming Josuke already knows a particular aspect of the 60s time period, have no worries. It’s nothing short of adorable to him. If you’re that caught up in what you’re getting at, it speaks volumes of your passion. Before you began dating, it would make the two of you quite flustered:

“… Revolution 1’s message was panned by hippies everywhere; especially in the United States. If yippies themselves were anything to go by, it’s that the group wasn’t as deathly afraid of violence as Lennon, and other artists at the time, seemed to think. If the conversation was civil rights, of course they-“

“Wait, wait, hold on,” Josuke waves his hands in the air, chuckling lightly. “I’m sorry to interrupt- but… what’s a yippie?”

“Oh!” you blurt, eyebrows raising. Your gaze falls, eyeing your feet intently. A slight breeze picks up, grass tickling the bottoms of your shoes. The two of you were sitting together on a park bench, taking a (extended) break from walking. “Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t… explained that to you before have I?” you asked, rubbing the back of your neck.

A warm smile grows on your friend’s face, one charming and warm enough to make your heart skip a beat. He scoots closer to you, as always, ignorant to the bind he has you in. Poking your side teasingly, he laughs out, “You got ahead of yourself again!”

You swallow a lump of saliva down your throat, jumping at his touch. Josuke’s actions only made your cheeks heat further in embarrassment. How rude of me to speak without even thinking first! Josuke didn’t even know the difference between between mods and hippies until two months ago- certainly it makes sense he wouldn’t know much about yippies as well. I should’ve left that out- or asked if he knows what they are! Stupid, stupid. He must think it sounds dumb; everyone else does when they hear that word. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Next time, I ought to-

“You’re cute…” A sigh slips through Josuke’s calming laughter, blue eyes softening.

Oh.

You blink, pulled back into the moment. Staring at Josuke, his usual pale cheeks flush a full red color. It seems both of you let something slip out without properly thinking.

“You… you think I’m cute?” you ask honestly, voice quiet.

“I-I, uh,” Josuke stammers, avoiding direct eye contact and eager not to dwell. “I do happen to think that… yes. A-Anyway, please continue- you were telling me about yippies, then?”

If watching documentaries on the time period are your thing, he’ll be more than willing to sit down and watch with you.

Don’t- unless, that is if you actually want to pay attention. He gives it his best effort, but soon enough your lap looks too comfortable for him to resist. And once he’s perched there he may as well start playing with you hair. Just to tease, why not block your view for a moment? If you want him to leave you alone, he requires a kiss and then maybe he’ll think about it. All the while he’s cracking jokes; usually at the expense of whoever or whatever the documentary is on. His absolute favorite is to playfully critique the fashion on display, claiming with  artificial arrogance he has a keen eye for vintage fashion thanks to you.

As far as music goes, it’s hit or miss with Josuke. He doesn’t mind the pop side of things; baroque pop specifically stands out to him. You lose him once 60s heavy metal are thrown into the mix. Something about blues’ influence on the era’s music also is something he’s not too fond of. However, Josuke’s not the type to complain about it much and he’s willing to give song’s a try for you at least once.

He will love teasing you a little over the era’s more illusive or avant-garde content if you’re not the type that minds. Sometimes he just can’t help himself, though. You tell him you’re playing a song by The Flying Burrito Brothers and he swears he’ll give it an honest listen after he stops rolling on the floor laughing.

The best support in activism you could possibly ask for. He may get into it a bit himself after some time passes- especially regarding human rights and environmental topics. He mentions it to just about anyone he brings you up to, a lovesick grin plastered across his face each time. Everyone in his close circle of friends is well aware of this fact about you, very well aware. He just loves boasting about you, and the deep care you have towards social issues is a shining example of your character.

Josuke’s eyes gleam with admiration merely thinking about it. To him, it’s your way of protecting your community (he respects it even more if you’re not a stand user). Josuke would never think of discouraging such an attitude, even if you favor unconventional methods.

Passing an electronics store, Josuke nearly trips over his own feet attempting to whirl his body around. Something particular caught his attention, causing his body to jerk. Regaining balance just in front of the window, he peaked inside eagerly.

In the display window, there’s a large set of state-of-the-art televisions being advertised. Each were turned on to the same exact station- a local news channel. Bending down, his jaw drops to concrete below. The reporter on-screen said nothing he could understand without sound, but stood calmly in front of a large crowd. Bold text at the bottom of the screen indicated the report was live, showing the current time as well.

Josuke’s gaze stayed glued to the report’s title, which told of a protest currently being held in downtown Tokyo. A gasp escapes the teen’s lips, immediately pressing his face and hands to the window. His cheeks puff out obnoxiously and warm breath fogs the window just below his line of vision.

An middle-aged man walking his dog glances curiously at the teen while passing by. After a moment, they approach the window next to him. Without a word, he curiously examines the TV sets. He reads over the marked prices over and over, rubbing his chin. The two stand there for a moment, the only sound coming from the man’s dog softly tugging on its leash.

On TV, the camera pans away from the reporter, showing a shot of specifically the protest crowd. Josuke slams his pointer finger on the glass, making the man and his dog jump. Josuke turns his head to the side, exclaiming proudly, “My boy/girlfriend’s there!”

The stranger raised an eyebrow, tugging quickly on their dog’s leash. Seemingly no longer interested in TV prices, they leave an attentive Josuke to watch alone. Not that he minds much.

If you’re a spiritual type of hippie, Josuke offers you a much quieter support that’s just as persistent. Religion and anything like it is sensitive, so he doesn’t press you on your views.

However, if your definition of a spiritual experience is laying outside in an open field buck-ass nude he’s all for joining you.

If you smoke pot, he might try it with you. Further along into your relationship (around a year) is when he’ll even think to consider it. Unless it’s a problem, he doesn’t care what you do. It’s just that the thought of doing it himself causes more anxiety than excitement for a while. Still, he maintains a curiosity about it. Given time, he may shyly ask you about trying it.

This is a huge step for Josuke trust-wise. If he puts himself in this position, it’s no doubt because he loves you and knows you would never do anything to intentionally scare him. He’s also insistant that it’s only the two of you the first time (Okuyasu wanted to join in and try it too, poor guy).

Josuke is quite giggly when stoned, but not hyper. His brain power equals to that of Okuyasu; tell him and he’ll deny it adamantly with rosy cheeks. He mostly likes to stay in and cuddle with you. Listening to music or watching television is all the same to him, it’s all up to whatever you want. He will draw the line at video games. Josuke refuses to make a fool of himself in front of you (gaming is one of his ‘cool’ hobbies; he wants to impress you rather than make you laugh over his impaired incompetence).