#and also i have no sense for parsing out the different levels of flirting

[hyenaboycunt]

I'm dealing with "strangers who I find attractive consistently find me attractive in return" suddenly and for the first time in my life. So I tried to vent to girlthing about how it's confusing to once again be relearning how to navigate social interactions. But she's been hot the whole time. So she has literally zero helpful advice.

[delimeful]

you can’t go back (4)

warnings: mentioned child neglect/bad parenting, mentioned awkward saucy teen flirting, arguing, emotional upset, the dubious ethics of over-excited teenagers

-

Roman had been acting strange, lately.

It was perhaps a harsh thing to think about his friend, especially considering he was bound to behave differently when the recent disappearance of his twin was taken into account, but it was also true.

Logan had known Roman for years, long enough that it was an effort to search back through his memories for a point that they hadn’t been together, if perhaps not always in the most amicable of circumstances. They’d gone through the entire gamut of enemies-frenemies-rivals-friends, and Logan liked to think that he had a fair grasp on Roman’s tells by this point.

All of Roman’s tells were currently telling him that the other student was trying to hide something, something big.

It wasn’t just the way that he had stopped sulking whenever something happened that reminded him of his missing brother, or that he was suddenly scrawling what almost seemed like notes in a glitter-covered notebook when he hadn’t had the inspiration to work on anything creative in weeks, or that he had all but given up on the pretense of paying attention in their shared classes.

No, the real sign that something was wrong was the way that Roman had begun to outright neglect his two closest friends.

Logan was hardly affected, of course. He was above the base emotions that so many of his peers were constantly fraught with, and less time with Roman gushing in his ear about whatever had caught his interest or complaining dramatically about those who had wronged him meant more time for Logan to focus on what was important, like his AP classes and many, many extracurriculars.

Of course, that didn’t explain why he was currently trailing after Roman on his walk home, when he really should be at violin practice. No matter how much of a soft spot the teacher had for him, he’d gained his skill through hard work, not skipping practice. Certainly not skipping practice to hound off after his erstwhile classmate.

However, he wasn’t the only one being abandoned in this scenario.

Logan Croft had been forced to sit at a lunch table with an increasingly secretive and distant Roman, and a mournful, kicked-puppy version of Patton Hertz, the most cheerful guy in their grade, if not the entire school.

Roman, stuck in his own thoughts as he clearly was, seemed to not notice the effect his lacking presence had had on Patton, and Logan was just about fed up of watching the slow decay of the half life of their little group.

The secrecy was ridiculous. They’d been there when Roman had been so worked up about the ‘police coverup’ that he’d actually considered trying to break into a government building, they could certainly be here for whatever it was that had him so bizarrely clammed up now!

Logan paused from a distance and watched as Roman hurried in through the front door of his house, counting backwards in his head. It would be a fair challenge to try and break into Roman’s room, particularly with Roman in the house, but if his deductions about the seeds constantly caught on his friend’s pant legs and the odd-colored mud left on the soles of his favorite tennis shoes were correct… There!

Sure enough, only a few moments later, Roman was pushing out through the back door, taking an unusually careful moment to close the screen door behind him before turning and walking determinedly down the path into the rural wilderness that made up half of the grounds his family’s farm sat on.

Logan waited until there was little chance that Roman would double back for something he’d forgotten, and then strode confidently up to the front door, rapping on it twice. Going by the fact that there was a car in the driveway and the door had been unlocked when Roman had gotten home from school, someone else was home to answer.

Mrs. Torres opened the door, looking surprised at the sight of him for a moment, before breaking out into a warm smile. “Logan! It’s so good to see you, are you here for Roman?”

“I’ve been meaning to meet up with him for a project, but he left school before me, so I came here,” Logan said, not above lying through omission to uncover the truth. “Is he home?”

“Oh, he just got back, but I don’t think he’s inside-- ROMAN!” she turned towards the stairs and called up them, frowning when there was no response. “He must be out in the yard again. Come in, come in!”

Logan stepped inside smugly, glancing around. The interior was much the same as the last time he’d been here. If it hadn’t been for the pile of faded missing posters under a mug on the counter and his own prior knowledge of the situation, Logan would have been hard-pressed to guess that this was the home of a recently-vanished child.

“Honestly, I’m just glad he’s not staying cooped up in his room anymore,” Mrs. Torres was saying. The woman speaking casually in front of him only added to the eerie composure of the home, and Logan made his way through the general pleasantries and politely refused any refreshments with an unpleasant feeling in his gut.

“They didn’t even bother printing out new missing posters this time,” he remembered Roman telling them with a quiet, bitter sort of anger. “He dyed his hair, and they won’t even pay to put a recent picture of him up when it could be the difference between someone recognizing him or not!”

On a logical level, Logan can understand something concerning happening over and over, repetition dulling it’s effects until it feels mundane or everyday. Roman has mentioned before how his parents believed that Remus was simply acting out for attention, mostly while thanking Roman for being above that, as though the metaphorical ‘good twin’ wasn’t currently building a career on literally acting for an audience's attention.

What Logan can’t understand is that Remus’s parents are apparently completely uninterested in finding out why Remus is so desperate for attention that he would resort to a maneuver he knows will only get him negative consequences.

Logan himself would certainly like to understand. All queries on the matter had garnered only uncomfortable evasion from Roman, as though his friend might have had an idea but wouldn’t say, likely due to irritating personal feelings that Logan couldn’t parse.

So, he’d reached out to Remus directly, on one of the few days that he’d actually attended classes.

The delinquent had been visibly confused by his approach-- the twins allegedly hadn’t had a mutual friend since the beginning of grade school-- and resistant to Logan’s questioning, which Patton had later informed him was likely far too blunt for the situation. They’d gone in circles for a bit, Remus making outlandish or confusing metaphors while Logan refused to rise to the bait, and then he’d made a simple observation about the hypocrisy of the twins’ parents, and Remus had stared at him with an odd tilt to his head for a moment.

Shortly after, he had made a very confusing comment about something that was anatomically impossible, and when Logan had enquired further, Remus had then hared off with pink cheeks and ditched school for a week. He’d asked Roman about the situation, but his friend had only covered his ears with an agonized look on his face, utterly refusing to explain.

Logan shook the errant thought away, and the odd pang of something like regret that Remus had vanished before he could follow up on the interesting interaction.

He turned his gaze away from the unharried setting. The odd dynamic between the Torres family was not what he was here to investigate, not even remotely.

There was only one Torres he was investigating right now, and he had a strong suspicion that his odd behavior had less to do with family than one might expect.

“Go on ahead, I’m sure he’ll hear you once you get out back,” Mrs. Torres encouraged, picking up a particularly irritated-looking calico cat. “Just have to make sure Lady Macbeth doesn’t escape and disturb your little session. Roman’s been worried about coyotes, so we’ve been keeping her inside.”

Logan nodded, though privately he was a little surprised. Coyotes? He hadn’t thought they would be so bold as to lurk at a farm this close to urban areas. Perhaps there had been sightings near here?

He pushed past the creaky screen door with a striking sense of familiarity, despite the fact that it had been quite a while since the three of them had gone wandering together in the foliage and dirt of the Torres farm. Patton’s allergies could be quite fierce, after all.

As expected, walking into the backyard revealed no signs of Roman, even when Logan cleared his throat and called out. He knew his friend well enough to know that he would have reacted audibly to his unexpected presence, so the only logical conclusion was that he wasn’t nearby.

Clearly, it was time to check the perimeter.

He walked in a careful, orderly line next to the old wooden fence, eyeing the peeling paint and refraining from setting his hand on it. He had more to worry about than potential splinters, such as keeping an eye out for any potential strangeness that could explain Roman’s behavior.

There was little to be found in the brush except a regrettable amount of sandburs catching along the hem of his pants, so when he spotted the barn, he felt a surge of excitement.

And if he indulged in a little bit of sneaking, hoping to catch his quarry unaware, that was his business. Roman was loud enough that he could hear him ranting a good few meters from the barn, anyhow.

He managed to make it all the way to the edge of the barn wall before the rant abruptly cut off, and he stalked forwards hurriedly, pushing the door open before Roman could hide anything incriminating.

He needn’t have worried: the evidence was standing there in the middle of the barn, strapped to a support rafter.

It also wasn’t human.

“What are you doing here?” Roman shrilled, taking a quick step to be in front of the creature. It was an ineffective method of hiding it, seeing as what appeared to be long, spider-like limbs were extending in the air a good few meters in either direction behind him.

Logan had known about Roman’s theory, the one that had been laughed right out of the police station. He’d walked with Roman and scoured the fields for any sign of what Remus had mentioned, though they hadn’t found anything. He knew his friend still believed that his twin’s disappearance had been unnatural, extraterrestrial.

Knowing was quite different from seeing an entire alien right in front of oneself.

Roman was still talking, in that nervous chattering tone that he always took on when he was working himself into a truly incomprehensible explanation, but Logan could hardly be asked to divide his attention at the moment.

Extra anterior eyes, odd shiny patches along the sides of the neck, exterior hinges along the jaw, organic plating that had visibly darkened since his first glance-- there was so much that he needed to understand the purpose of, so many questions he had about their origins. How close by was other life? Which star had they hailed from? How had they gotten here?

He was moving forwards without a second thought, enthralled by the way the legs rose up-- like a bird mantling their wings, and they appeared smooth, not hairy as an actual spider’s would be.

“Incredible,” he breathed, and then there was a hand fisted in the back of his polo and he was being yanked away. Where he’d just stood, all four of the strange limbs stabbed into the ground, their reach longer and their ends sharper than he’d anticipated.

There must have been an extra joint closer to their back, the flexible kind that would allow for such an extension. He itched to circle around and look for himself, to confirm his hypothesis before the limbs retracted, but Roman was still clinging to him like a shrieking barnacle.

“What did I just say?!” he demanded, gearing up for a scolding. “It’s not friendly! Do you want to get stabbed into next week?”

“How long have you been keeping an actual alien life form from the world at large? From scientists at large? From me?” Logan shot back, shaking Roman’s grip loose. “Have you had them strapped upright this entire time? Can they talk? How did this even happen?”

Even as he demanded an explanation, his gaze was drawn back over to the alien, taking in their every twitch with endless curiosity. He wanted to know how to read each motion, from the downturn of their chin to the scrunching of their smaller eyes to the way the flat plates where a mouth should be had seemed to twitch. He wanted to know everything.

“It’s been like a week, I didn’t strap them up they came like that, either they don’t speak English or they’re a really good actor, and they showed up in my barn after Remus was abducted, you do the math!” Roman rushed out, edging closer as though he thought Logan was about to try and get closer to the alien again. “And I didn’t tell you because I knew you would do this!”

“This is hardly the first time I’ve almost been stabbed in the pursuit of science,” Logan retorted, annoyed at the presumption that he wouldn’t risk his life for his goals.

“It’s only a little bit about the near-stabbing!” Roman’s voice cracked, and Logan finally pulled the other half of his attention away from the alien to stare. “This is my only lead on my brother, and you’re going to want to-- to-- to put it in a laboratory or National Geographic Magazine or something!”

“I’d be far more likely to write a thesis paper on the matter,” Logan corrected helpfully. Roman’s hands twitched, the body language possibly indicating that he was barely restraining himself from trying to throttle Logan.

“Whatever! The point is, this isn’t a science experiment to me!” His rival’s face was crumpling slightly at the edges. “You can’t just-- just use the alien I found as a ticket to get into some esteemed college while Remus is left to rot in the far reaches of outer space!”

To Logan’s horror, Roman’s eyes had become suspiciously shiny. He floundered for a moment, wishing Patton was there to smooth things over as he so often did, before firming his shoulders and lifting his chin. He could at least try to explain, and hope it didn’t turn out too badly.

“I’m not going to ‘leave Remus to rot,’” Logan started, remembering the recycled missing posters stacked up on the counter. “If you believe that this alien is key to finding out what happened to him, then that should be-- well, our first priority should always be furthering the advancement of human understanding, especially with a discovery as big as this, but I am an accomplished multitasker, so we can do that while we attempt to locate and recover Remus.”

Roman’s shoulders slowly loosened from their frustrated hunch. “You’re going to help me? Seriously?”

“Do you really think I’d joke?” Logan replied, gesturing to his tie. “The more information we compile on this specimen, the better we’ll understand them, and the closer we’ll be to understanding the motives behind Remus’s abduction.”

“And you aren’t going to tell anyone?” Roman asked, looking more hopeful by the moment.

“Why would I? I work more effectively on projects on my own,” Logan answered, the same sentence that had sparked a loud argument between him and Roman in the middle of Biology two years ago. This time, however, Roman looked excited rather than offended at the response. “We really should figure out something to tell Patton, though.”

“That’s… a good idea,” Roman admitted sheepishly. “There’s no way we can let him around an unknown alien fiend, especially not one so… spider-y. You almost got stabbed, imagine what it might do to poor Patton!”

“You handle our story,” Logan decided, turning to look back at the alien fully. “I’ll see what we can do about those extra limbs. We won’t be able to do any sort of up-close analysis with a constant threat hovering over us.”

He straightened his tie, studying the way the extra limbs in question were vibrating just slightly in the air, drawn in significantly closer to the alien's body than they had been before. Despite the movement of the legs, the alien themself was still as stone, all of their attention locked on Logan.

Through observation and experimentation, he was sure that each little motion of theirs would soon become as readable to him as everyday human body language, and from there, real communication would be in reach.

Communication with an extraterrestrial... This would truly be a project like no other.

Fueled by a thrill of excitement, Logan couldn't help but smile.

[thebmatt]

Another set of Character Development questions, this time very specific to FFXIV

I cam across another set of character development questions on the Emet-Selch Bookclub discord, and since I love these things, I’m going to answer all 35 of them for all 4 of my crew! Ready? Let’s go!

1. Where were they during the Calamity? 

Franks had not yet made the journey between their worlds yet, he only did so about a year into the Seventh Umbral Era.

Fearless was still living on Aerslant, which I don’t know if there’s any canonical description of how the Calamity affected that region, but I’m going to go with “they felt the effects, but it wasn’t quite mass chaos like it was in Eorzea”

Dahkar and Rheika were both living in the Black Shroud but were mostly spared the direct effects. 

2. How did they acquire their Echo? 

All four of them received the Echo as it plays out in the MSQ. Dahkar and Rheika got it after dealing with the enraged treants at Lifemend Stump, Fearless and Franks after fighting the frenzied Mossback at the Seasong Grotto

3. Does their Echo function like it does in the MSQ? Or is there a twist to it? 

For the most part it functions like it does in the MSQ, but there’s some extra abilities that it provides that I’m planning on exploring in a future fic. To summarize: the Armory system is represented as a pocket dimension the Warriors can store clothing, weapons, and tools in. The Echo also allows them to “pause and save” any learning they have done in a particular discipline and resume it as if no time had passed whenever they choose

4. Do they have a canon mount or minion? What's its name(s)? 

All four of them have their chocobos, which I don’t have names for yet (the ones in game aren’t canon, as they’re mostly inside jokes). Aside from those, two of my crew have a couple of mounts special to them.

Franks has kept Maggie, the Magitek Armor liberated by the Garlond Ironworks. Most recently, he’s taken to using a Gabriel Alpha magitek unit that he liberated and rebuilt from the Bozjan Southern Front

Rheika is incredibly fond of the True Griffin she befriended while helping the Ananta at Castellum Velodyna. 

5. Where are they from? What was their childhood like? 

I’ve covered this in some of my “Details!” posts I’ve done for them all, so I’ll be brief here

Franks - from another world, grew up on a farm, pretty normal farmer’s childhood

Rheika - grew up outside of Gridania in a Keeper of the Moon community, a middleish child of a large number of sisters. Aside from being made to understand WAY too early that the Wood Wailers will always treat her like a second class citizen because she is a Keeper of the Moon, she had a pretty happy childhood

Dahkar - Born on the Azim Steppe, mother took him to Gridania after his tribe was killed. Similarly treated like outsider, but otherwise kept mostly to himself, only meeting a couple of friends growing up.

Fearless - born and raised in Aerslant, the Sea Wolf Roegadyn homeland. Child of wealthy parents, she had a privileged upbringing but no choice in anything.

6. How did they deal with the massacre on the Waking Sands? 

All of them were horrified and angry by it. Franks had never really experienced the Garlean Empire’s brutality firsthand before this, and it cemented a personal desire to fight them. Fearless, who’d begun to develop serious feelings for Minfilia, was almost beside herself with worry. 

7. How did they deal with Haurchefant's death? 

All of them took it pretty hard, but Dahkar, who’d been romantically involved with him by this point, was almost broken by it. His grief nearly consumed him in rage, quite literally, but “Fray” managed to help him hold it together until he could process and grieve. 

8. How did they feel about the liberation of Ala Mhigo? Do they feel it could have been handled differently? Where they at all bothered by how they were involved? 

I get the sense from the way this question was worded that the original author doesn’t care for the Stormblood storyline much, but honestly, I don’t have a problem with it. None of my crew are native Ala Mhigans, but they were all too happy to participate when it became clear that the time for it to happen had been chosen for everyone by Ilberd’s actions. Plus, y’know, there was that whole potential Bahamut-level primal they needed to deal with. Losing so handily to Zenos was a serious morale blow that messed them all up quite a bit, but all four of them went along with the plan. It offered them a chance to get better, to weaken the Empire and strengthen themselves. 

9. How do they feel about Zenos? 

THey all hate the guy for nearly killing so many of their friends and injuring them so badly. Later, pretty much universal relief when he died, pissed off that he didn’t stay that way, and now hell-bent on ending him once and for all. All of them pretty much agree that bastard needs to die.

10. How do they feel about their relationship with Hydaelyn? Midgarsormr?

Initially they accepted that Hydaelyn was a benevolent force, but once they learned of her origin, especially that she was a primal, a private debate broke out among them all the first chance they got to talk about it (which was after the Shadowbringers 5.0 MSQ when Rheika finally got back to the Source). Franks is very concerned that they’ve been tempered. Dahkar is now extremely wary of her, but isn’t certain their free will has been removed. Rheika and Fearless are unwilling to give up on her, but don’t understand why she stopped speaking to them. 

Initially, they were all furious at Midgardsormr, but came to realize that his deeds in severing their connection to Hydaelyn definitely made them stronger. They now regard him as a friend and a source of wisdom.

11. Were they more sympathetic to the dragons, Ishgardians, neither or both? 

Franks wasn’t certain of this, having known sentient dragons that had absolutely been wronged by mortals in his homeworld, but he didn’t see a way to fix this on his own, so he went along with helping the Ishgardians. He was absolutely on board with Alphinaud’s plan to try and end it, however. 

The others had far less experience with Dragons, and initially accepted their version of events without much thought. They immediately turned on the whole idea when the deception was exposed, though. 

12. How has their job affected whatever headcanon version is of the MSQ if any? 

As I’ve explained in previous posts, I’ve parsed out all of the jobs (except Monk) to my characters, with the aim of balancing the following ideas.

○ At all times during the story, one of them should be capable of tanking, one healing, and the others DPSing ○ If possible no one should have more than 1 job from any of the 5 roles ○ Obviously, don’t give jobs to characters that make no sense for them to pick up

It’s taken a few revisions, but I’m currently happy with the setup they have. For the most part, they’re extremely proficient with their chosen fighting styles and don’t mind swapping around to fill whatever need is present. For Heavensward, the trio who got their new jobs in Ishgard chose to stick with them for the most part, and for much of the Far Eastern parts of Stormblood, Rheika and Fearless chose to stay Ninja and Samurai for the most part, since it felt “right” to them to use those arts when fighting for Doma’s liberation.

13. Are they close with any of the other Scions? Who do they get along with the best? 

Franks gets along best with the more scholarly minded members of the Scions, specifically Y’shtola, Urianger, Krile, and G’raha when he later joins. 

Rheika and Tataru have become the best of friends since she joined. She’s always encouraged Tataru to better herself however she wants, and really loves the newfound confidence she’s gained

Dahkar is closest to Thancred among the senior scions. Among the other members, he’s flirted with Ephemie a fair amount, and is considering whether or not he wants to deepen that to something more serious.

Fearless is probably closest to Alisaie. She admires her confidence a great deal. 

14. Of the Scions, who are they most worried for? 

Franks is most worried for Y’shtola and her “aethersight” draining her life force. He’s actively trying to modify the SCH magicks that cured the tonberry plague to restore her eyesight (and Thancred’s ability to manipulate aether)

Rheika is probably most worried about Urianger, as he’s shown a very disturbing pattern for pursuing a hidden agenda to further the scion’s goals, He claims to be done with that, but she’s worried he might slip into old habits in the future.

Dahkar and Fearless aren’t particularly worried about any of the Scions, beyond the default “these are my adopted family and I don’t want anything to happen to them” level of fear.

15. Is your WoL promiscuous? Celibate? Or just waiting for the right person? 

Franks has so far been unable to move past the death of his wife to consider any new relationships. He’s also far older (if only mentally) than anyone who’d be interested, which also blocks him from considering anything new.

Rheika is aromantic, but pansexual. Romance does nothing for her, she just likes having fun with anyone she considers attractive and will respect her rule. She’s got a number of paramours in various parts of the world.

Dahkar is bi, and willing to engage in casual liaisons but at his heart, he really wants a committed relationship. After Haurchefant died, he hasn’t been involved in anything serious since, only crushing on people emotionally unavailable, such as Yugiri (bound by her oath to HIen) or Kurenai (bound by the oath of the Ruby Princess). He’s recently come to realize that this was a form of self-sabotage and is trying to open up again.

Fearless crushes on every pretty girl she has come across, but is usually too shy or lacking in self-confidence to follow up on them. She greatly regrets never telling Minfilia how she felt about her. Her time as a Warrior of LIght and the friendship she’s built with her fellows has helped tremendously. She’s currently involved in a poly triad with two other women.

16. What does your WoL do to relax? What sorts of distractions do they seek? Do they foster any bad habits as a result?

They enjoy spending time together or with the other Scions. If they’re at a point when they need to be alone, they’ll do the following.

Franks likes to tinker, build things, or solve arcanima problems. He can sometimes get wrapped up in any of those and lose track of time. He’s also prone to hiding away to avoid socializing.

Rheika will generally find someone to take to bed if she’s really stressed, otherwise she’s fine just hanging with people 

Depending on his mood, Dahkar will either find a monster to fight (never something he’s not confident he can beat) or leap to whatever the highest place he can find is and just enjoy the view.

Fearless enjoys reading novels, but as of late prefers spending time with her girlfriends.

17. Who is their favorite Alliance leader? Who do they get along with the best out of them? 

Counting only the 5 members of the Eorzean Alliance, in order from most to least.... 1. Lyse - because she’s one of them, come on 2. (tie) Merlwyb/Aymeric - because they are good people who have the strength to move their nation forward to a better place 3. Nanamo - she’s trying to make Ul’dah better, at least, even if she isn’t able to affect change. Plus she’s not doing enough to address corruption in the Brass Blades 4. Kan-E-Senna - she seems entirely content to leave her people at the mercy of elementals and isn’t doing NEAR enough to address racial inequality in Gridania

18. Does your WoL fully embrace their role as the WoL or do they try to remain humble? 

For the most part, they’re humble, but all of them are not afraid to use their titles/fame to get what they need or to make someone’s life better if they can do so. 

19. What do they think of the Heaven's Ward? 

The only ones they really got to know were the two that tried to condemn Alphinaud and Tataru for “heresy” and the one who attacked them when they were meeting with Hilda. Those were...not positive experiences. That, coupled with the fact that all of them willingly followed the Archbishop into summoning Primals into themselves pretty much sealed their opinion on the rest. 

20. Of all the places they've been to, which is their favorite? Do they like to go back there? 

Franks enjoys spending time in Ishgard, both because the manufactory is there and he enjoys collaborating with the other machinists and because he really enjoys working on the Restoration of the Firmament.

Rheika enjoys being in Mor Dhona and the Crystarium the most. It’s full of people all working together for the same end, and she’s happy being a part of it and doing her part to help.

Dahkar also loves Mor Dhona, but he’s found going back to the Far East oddly soothing. He feels a connection to the Azim Steppe, despite not really knowing what it means to live there, he wants to learn. 

Fearless has made Kugane her home, thanks in part to her one of her girlfriends living there and the other currently on an extended tour there as well. 

21. Are there any raid storylines (Ivalice, Coil of Bahamut, Werlyt, etc.) you consider to be canon for your WoL? Which ones don't you consider canon? 

I consider all of them to be canon, save potentially the NieR crossover alliance raids. Honestly, the entire story of that place just felt so odd and out of place that I didn’t really enjoy it, and I’m tempted just to say it didn’t happen. Everything else, though? Absolutely canonical.

22. Do you  have a unique tale for their job class or is it pretty much like what it is in the game?

Most of them are pretty much as they were in the game, though I have some personal headcanons on how Arcanima and the Paladin job work, the latter of which I’ve explored in one of my fics. The former will be somewhat explained in the current longform fic I’m working on.

23. Are there any side quest storylines that you're particularly fond of or think of as being canon to your WoL's experiences? 

Aside from the raids, alliance raids, and trial series, which 21 covered, I’d say all of the Beast tribe quests, the Scholasticate quests (which I suppose means Hildibrand has to be canon too), and most of the sidequesting in Sui-no-Sato are all canon experiences.

24. Does your WoL have any phobias? 

None of them have any real strange or irrational fears of note, not that I’ve been able to think of that make sense to the characters, anyway.

25. Do they have any habits or rituals that they do to soothe themselves? I.e. Playing with their hair, chewing their lip, fidgeting, etc. 

Franks will absentmindedly fidget with a tool or some spare parts. He’s actually built a small gadget that has some switches and buttons that do nothing for this purpose.

Rheika is restless and prefers to move while thinking. She tends to bounce a leg if she has to sit still too long.

Dahkar is pretty capable of concentrating without needing any kind of habit to aid in it.

Fearless tends to bottle it up until she can release it in private, either by meditating or dancing, depending on her level of anxiety and privacy expectations 

26. Do they suffer any traumas from any of their adventures? How do you foresee this affecting them going forward? 

Fearless was actually persuaded to pick of the Astrologian job thanks to the trauma of the banquet. She wanted to be able to predict anything that awful from happening to her and her friends again. 

LIkewise Dahkar was so traumatized by that (and the Braves’ betrayal), it was the final catalyst needed for him to be open to his Darkside and become a Dark Knight. He’s also the one most affected by Haurchefant’s death, and as I explained earlier, it’s subconsciously kept him from going after other romantic relationships

Rheika had nightmares about Tesleen for months, and they were made worse when she herself nearly became a sin eater. She practiced quick drawing her bow and hitting accurate long distance shots for a long time after that, wanting to be prepared to save someone from that kind of distance if she had to.

Franks has dealt with enough trauma in his previous life that a lot of what he’s seen on Hydaelyn doesn’t affect him as much as it otherwise might.

27. How did the events of Shadowbringers impact them? 

Rheika was the only one present for the events of 5.0, and my headcanon is that she wasn’t able to get home until after Hades was defeated. She felt alone and adrift without her fellow Warriors, and the trauma she endured did not help matters. Seeing them summoned to aid her was a balm on her soul, and when Franks figured out how to get the others to the First a little before the events of the Eden raid, she was overjoyed. 

28. Were they suspicious or open to Emet-Selch's presence when he first appeared? 

Rheika never believed he had good intentions. She always expected him to betray them at some point, but there didn’t seem to be much she COULD do before that happened. Even after he rescued Y’shtola, that was never enough for her trust. 

29. Did your WoL suspect anything was amiss with Urianger or the Crystal Exarch? Did they feel betrayed? Upset? When the truth finally emerged? 

Rheika immediately recognized G’raha Tia (”I mean he wasn’t even TRYING to change his voice!”), but she assumed there was a reason he was hiding from her, and she trusted Urianger’s vision. When the truth came out, she was angry about being lied to. She understood their reasoning, but threated to beat the crap out of both of them if they ever tried something like that again.

30. What was their highest point in Shadowbringers? Their lowest? What caused it? 

High point - ending Hades. Low Point - failing to save Tesleen

31. What were their first impressions of Hien? 

Aside from Rheika and Dahkar finding him very hot, they were all very impressed by his willingness to sacrifice his own life if his people chose not to fight any longer

32. Did they trust Asahi right away? Why or why not? 

Not right away, no. None of them are quick to trust Garlean officials, and Asahi felt way too slimy. None of them were all together surprised with how things turned out, save for when Maxima agreed to abide by the exchange after everything went south. 

33. How did they feel about what happened with Yotsuyu? Did they feel like she was justified in her actions? 

All of them felt bad for Yotsuyu’s horrible upbringing (and have made it VERY clear to Hien that he needs to make sure the new Doma does NOT allow for this to happen again), but accept that she made the choices she did and that ultimately, she needed to be stopped. 

34. Would you say your WoL is fundamentally a good person? Or are they a bad person that's been persuaded to do the right things? 

All of them are absolutely good people fundamentally. They know they’re the only ones that can fight the ridiculous battles they get into, and they’re okay with doing it, because ultimately, they want to save lives. 

35. How do they feel about the fact that they've killed a lot of people and/or things?

They all understand that for every life they have to take, it means more are safe, sound, and happy down the road. All of their choices are made with that goal in mind. 

[aion-rsa]

Why Evil is the Only TV Procedural Worth Watching

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This Evil article contains spoilers. You can read a spoiler-free review of the show here.

Who knows what evils lie at the heart of CBS’s Evil? Shadows know. We consulted a book of shadows (not the one Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) skims, too many spoilers there) to cut into the left ventricle of the darkness feeding the network’s supernatural series, now in production for season 2. The blood of the police procedural pumps through the veins of the paranormal investigation show, but Evil transcends the statutes of those limitations. Occasionally by papal decree. The series is intelligent, filled with symbolism, and its main character, who is training to be a priest, drops acid on a semi-regular basis. And he’s not microdosing. Look at those baggies.

Evil doesn’t debunk demonic possession, which is the main thrust of the team’s investigations. It never treats it as campy. The series believes demons are real, even giving the audience a breakdown of the six different forms possession take. But it deliciously stops short of giving full commitment. The show also explores how to parse out personal responsibility when there’s a supernatural being to blame. In episode 7, “Vatican 3,” we learn “the court does not acknowledge demonic possession” in determining guilt or innocence. The series further muddies the waters when the crew has to take a hard look at a murder committed by someone who wasn’t possessed, such as when the parents of what they believed is a demonically possessed child kill him. The series further turns the screw because the kid they killed to save their other children was born evil. It was literally in his genes.

Evil shares DNA with The X-Files, and David Acosta, played with charisma and empathy by Mike Colter (Luke Cage), is the new show’s Fox “Spooky” Mulder. He is looking for answers beyond the veil, which has the same letters as evil, and he is putting the pieces together like a hidden map of old Manhattan. There’s a truth out there and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to understand it. He’s not in it to solve any crimes against venal sins. He is looking for deeper meaning, and this alone puts the series above most procedurals. David’s got a bit of the scientist Dodge from original The Planet of the Apes film in his cinematic character. One of the first astronauts to delve so deep into the outer reaches of space, “He’d walk naked into a live volcano if he thought he could learn something no other man knew.” David is the same. He was a foreign correspondent in war-ravaged Afghanistan who got to know the soldiers whose stories he reported. Truth and knowledge are the most noble of callings, and ultimately come before his religious calling.

While the basic premise of a spiritual believer teamed with a dissenting psychologist is procedural trope, Evil is out to debunk the law of its diminishing returns. First, the show teams David with not just one skeptical voice, but two. Katja Herbers’ Dr. Kristen Bouchard plays the same role Agent Dana Scully played to Mulder, and with a similar arsenal. She comes from a different perspective, though. Bouchard does indeed believe in miracles, but thinks they all have scientific explanations. She is confident the only reason something might defy natural principles is because science hasn’t been applied properly yet. Scully, who wore a cross and took her faith seriously, accepted miracles on faith. David and Kristen rarely come to the same conclusion.

Ben Shakir, played by Aasif Mandvi, brings common knowledge, and shades his skepticism with cynicism. The former Daily Show correspondent takes on the weight of all three Lone Gunmen but with more constructive skills. Before joining the paranormal team, he was a carpenter, just like Jesus. Ben knows how things work, and when everyday mechanisms like sinks or faulty wiring are the root cause of supernatural phenomena, he can turn the screws, and spot the mold. Ben, “the Magnificent,” as Kristen’s children call him, is also tech savvy, and quite capable of hacking hackers.

Evil also throws things at Ben which he can’t easily spackle over with even the best of tests. Try as he may, and he tries, he can’t explain the light of an angel in the frame of a surveillance video. There is no evidence of doctoring, even at the most expert levels. “The world is weird,” David passes off as dating advice when Ben asks about potential girlfriend Vanessa (Nicole Shalhoub), who wants to know she if she should detach from her dead sister before committing to a new relationship. Vanessa thinks she is “tethered” to her phantom sister by the right arm.

Supernatural science is bizarre, creators Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife, Braindead) believe. They push the show to diagnose causes the external evidence of exorcisms and stigmata, the bleeding wounds which correspond to the wounds on Christ’s hands when he was nailed to the cross. Because stigmatics display their wounds as they are portrayed artistically, rather than how the Romans historically would have done the crucifixion, it proves it comes from a psychological source. Internal belief causes the phenomena, not external spiritual forces. Evil explains that, allowing ample room for skepticism, belief, and even poetic reasons for spiritual incursions. David quotes Shakespeare to enunciate his faith. The concept of free will doesn’t come up in most procedurals. Neither does the way sociopolitical issues are turned into supernatural questions and tied to the origins of evil.

Evil is almost a character in Evil, and has relatable entry points. Real demons first get to Kristen’s four young daughters through an augmented reality videogame. A little girl who never takes off her Halloween mask almost gets the sisters to bury one alive. We don’t know how much of the characters’ perceptions is the result of a demon character’s influence on them. Each character is slowly being tempted by the dark side.

Kristen joined the team as a rational thinker but has had to accommodate uncomfortable ideas and adjust her comfort zone accordingly. In her usual line of work, she’s analyzed the criminally insane, but the show has pushed her into close contact with people who are evil in the Biblical sense. She is being pushed incrementally by forces in and out of her control. Her own mother Sheryl (Christine Lahti) sides with a manipulative competitor, Leland, over her daughter, and he’s made direct threats. The first season can be seen as Kristen’s slow corruption. The second season may see Kirsten apply her skills to her own situation, which will delve further into the dichotomy between the spiritual and pragmatic.

This is because Kristen may have already fallen. The final episode includes a telltale blood stain, which she wills Ben to unsee. On any procedural this is considered a clue, but here on Evil, the evidence actually points further than a mere homicide. It is the first sign that a main character has gone to the dark side. It is confirmed when the touch of a crucifix blisters her hand. There’s no such thing as an original sin and Kristen has been flirting with temptation long before this.

Kristen is a married nonpracticing Catholic who lost her faith. She’s sexually attracted to David, a man on his way to becoming a priest. When this subject was broached on the classic 1970s cop comedy Barney Miller, a prostitute who was supposed to be a young priest’s last fling before he entered a monastery said “I break laws, not commandments.” It feels like Kristen reminds herself of this every time the two of them are on screen alone together. Their sexual chemistry is that palpable. Yes, this is very similar to the long-gesticulating romance between Mulder and Scully, but he was no priest and she wasn’t married. Not only is Kristen married, but she’s got half a brood of daughters. Annoying things, really, but at least one of them has an excuse. Another reason Evil is the only procedural worth watching is because everyone on it just might be cursed. That’s not found in the manuals.

Evil towers over contemporary procedurals in how it’s going dark. Most procedurals chase a morally compromised arc, but Evil treats it like an encroaching corruption. Kristen, who is sworn to uphold the law, may have gone more than rogue vigilante. Besides the crucifix-burning season closing, David has visions of a goat demon waiting for Kristen with a scythe. She’d been tormented by her own personal demon throughout the season but when the George, the demon-like creature who visits Kristen during sleep paralysis, falls on the knife, it changes nothing. He is just one of many demons. One of them set up practice and is taking office hours with Leland.

The Demon Therapist is an all-male Goat of Mendes, or Baphomet. The show gets into how different biblical angels look from how they’re perceived artistically and by the contemporary faithful, but won’t present a faithful representation of Baphomet. It’s as patriarchal as Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Evil keeps it vague whether the goat demon is real or in Leland’s head. The Demon therapist appears in Kristen’s dreams as well. Lexis (Maddy Crocco) disabled the house alarm for the visiting devil therapist when he invites her to “the next level,” making it seem she is at least susceptible to underworldly influence. The kids are irritating, but they are a bargaining chip and their father, Adam, put them up for grabs when they chanted together offering an exchange of souls. Kristen was co-opted into evil through protective motherly instinct. She doesn’t see the mark of the devil as a badge of honor. When Kristen puts the cross in her palm, she doesn’t look like she expected it as much as feared it.

While the network show will never have the freedoms afforded cable series, the acting is top notch all around. Series like HBO’s Perry Mason or even Showtime’s reimagined second incarnation of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, provide a wider range of emotion and carnality. But Evil gives us muted, for the most part believable performances, very often underplayed. As are the special effects and use of technology as a narrative device. Too many procedurals treat high tech surveillance and other investigative tools like they are all-seeing eyes which can count nostril hairs.  It has become normalized. Evil doesn’t waste intellectual space with unreasonable gadgets. The tools Ben or Leland use to their computerized ends are believable. At one point, Kristen asks Ben to record a cell phone conversation which is already halfway over. She is surprised he can’t with all his special skills.

The series incorporates real world horrors into mundane life. Even some of the most normal looking settings carry a sense of unease, to underscore the show’s thesis that the supernatural is natural but never quite normalized. Many of the scenes are shot vertically, drawing the viewers’ eyes upward and inferring something is always going on above. The series’ many wide-angle shots put a distance between characters even in close-ups.

The show isn’t afraid to wear its influences on its sleeves, and on several occasions has a lot of fun with it. For Dr. Kurt Boggs’ (Kurt Fuller) arrival at an exorcism, they recreated Father Merrin’s introductory scene in the horror classic The Exorcist, shot for shot, even getting an exact replica of the light post and the same make car, though different year, from the film. They gave nods to Rosemary’s Baby, Misery, Cabin in the Woods, and Children of the Corn.  The climbing ax which Kirsten grabs on her way out to do damage on the serial killer Orson looks like it has teeth. As did the walking stick Lon Chaney’s Larry Talbot carried in The Wolfman. The demon George looks like Freddy Krueger’s good-looking cousin. The tonality of the show is reminiscent of Charles Laughton’s immeasurably influential Night of the Hunter.

The main reason Evil shines above most procedurals is because it is scary, and those scares have been building slowly and deliberately. Commonplace settings feel off, and the world around is filled with conspiracies and coverup. The Vatican asks the team to determine whether a woman who knows the hidden history of the church is a false prophet. The fertility clinic Kristen and her husband Andy used when conceiving Lexis corrupts fetuses with satanic insemination. A witty but innocuous internet meme, Puddy’s Christmas song, is a hummably foreboding earworm. Anything can go evil on Evil.

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Evil season 2 is currently in production. Read more about that here.

The post Why Evil is the Only TV Procedural Worth Watching appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[simplypavus]

All of Them. All Of The Questions.

The fool here was I. These are gonna be about Seine. 

1: What’s your OC’s biggest insecurity and how would they react if someone pointed it out to them?

I think Seine’s biggest fear is not being enough, not hitting this invisible standard set for him. I almost want to say he it constantly flirting with a need for perfection. Everything must be in its place and he must be correctly in his. If this were to be pointed out to him it would probably go over his head in a sense that its so tangled up with him that he wouldn’t get its negative impact. It’s the way it’s always been for him.

2: If your OC wants to buy a firearm, what it might be for?

To end something quickly and efficiently.

3: Does your OC behave differently around different people, if so with whom and how?

To friendly acquaintances he tries to carry himself with dignity and treat them with a formal respect. Everyone is his equal but he has an almost bodyguard like mentality about it. He may converse but it will be short and often to the point.

He’s about the same with those ‘closer’ to him but they may be able to find his smile and he tends to be a lot more relaxed around them. He tends to watch his words less though there is still a grasp at formality.

With his husband he is the most relaxed and more likely to speak what is on his mind. He tends to visibly light up when the other man is around and it’s much easier to see the start of a smile pulling at his features.

4: Would your OC want to involve themselves in humanitarian work ? If yes, then for what? If not, then why not?

Yes I think he would try and aid those struck by disaster, though in the world of dnd I think he’d be much more likely to try and end the source of disaster unless it was natural. A head of the snake kinda guy but this does not mean he would deny helping those struck by it.

5: How would your OC generally react to someone being verbally abusive towards them for no apparent reason?

He wouldn’t understand what was going on. He’d try and see if there was truth to what was said but depending on what was said it probably wouldn’t have a huge effect on Seine.

6: Does your OC have a realistic image of their own intelligence?

He’s a bit hammer meets nail to everything and so he may miss his int on that sense but he also well aware he doesn’t understand emotional intelligence.

7: Does your OC have any irrational phobias?

No idea. If he did I think he’d be one of those people that force themselves to face it because his will to be the best is stronger. 

8: How is/was your OC’s relationship with their parents?Complicated, he resents them without realizing it. He respects them as his parents and would do nothing untoward to them. He is to his best abilities the perfect son they wished him to be.

9: Does your OC feel a pressure to achieve or are they content and calm with doing what they can at the moment?

He’s gotta be the very best or at the very least he must do his best at all times. There is a general sense of pressure in that but he’s not really in a panic about it. It’s more like an expression of will.

10: Does your OC guard their emotions by being tough? If not how would they?

Kinda? More its that he’s always guarded them by not acknowledging, relating or understanding them.

11: How would your OC react to hearing they’re adopted?

It would explain a lot and his upbringing would make more sense. Unsurprising his initial reaction would be next to nothing. I think if he was able to actually processes things normally he would be sad but have a reason for why things were the way they were.  

12: What is one of the most primary things your OC feels that is missing from their life?

Husbando! On a more deeper level perhaps the ability to just let go to just be without some goal or something to be related to. He doesn’t know how to simply exist.

13: What kind of situations does your OC avoid the most?

Emotional situations, he is ill equipped to handle them and will quickly look at it in a problem and solution like manner or he will have nothing to offer at all.

14: If your OC gets into a fight with their best friend, would they wait for their friend to make up with them, or would they try to make up with their friend?

Depends on what its about and who Seine believes is in the wrong. He may placate but without actually addressing any underlying issues. Though if it is an error on his end he will probably be the first to attempt a reconnect.

15: Does your OC consider themselves a good person?

Yes or at the very least he doesn’t see himself as a bad person.

16: Is your OC good at giving others validation of their feelings and making them feel understood?

No, nope.

17: Does your OC suffer from any mental health issues?

Kinda.  I’m not gonna answer this one on the good ole tumbledotcom but conclusions can be made for this.

18: What kind of interpersonal values does your OC have? (values about their self, what makes them feel like a valid person).

He wants to be the rock in the room and if people count on him for that then he is valid.

19: What boosts your OC’s confidence the most?

Killing a powerful foe. It means he’s getting closer to his ultimate goal of being a champion.

20: Does your OC hurt others often unintentionally? If yes, how?

His emotional issues make it easy for him to accidentally hurt people.

21: Does your OC hurt others often intentionally? If yes, how?

If you are in his way or an enemy he will stop at nothing to destroy you with his glaive or sword.

22: How does your OC usually show affection? Are they openly romantic or more restricted with their affectionate emotions?

Seine is undoubtedly restricted with his affections. For people he gets on with he tend to hand near them like a cat. For romantic interests he’s also generally subdued but he is more likely to invade personal space or just hang very close if not touching.

23: Does your OC tend to hide something about their personality/essence when meeting new people? If yes, what?

His whole ass personality.

24: How would your OC react if they got humiliated by someone in a group of people?

Threaten/attack them if feasible and quite possibly threaten or attack them in its not. Though it depends on where it is because some of his upbringing would get in the way of him decking the lord of a manor in the middle of a party but he’d certainly want to.  

25: How would your OC process the grief caused by the death of a loved one?

Seine would shut down and return to the empty and emotionlessness he knows. It would be hard to reach him and he would basically become a robot.

26: What is the most intense thing your OC has been battling with?

Facing his emotions and trying to actually parse them.

27: Does your OC practise any kind of escapism? If yes, what kind?

I don’t think so.

28: How would your OC react if a bully stole their lunch money in high school?

Bold of you to assume it would be stolen in the first place without great bodily harm on both sides. Though if this was when he was actually a child he wouldn’t react at all. It would be like it didn’t happen.

29: How does your OC behave on the face of a conflict?

Find source, defeat it, profit. Unless it’s talking, then let someone else do that and back up if needed.

30: What makes your OC defensive quickest?

Threatening those he sees under his protection. I’m not sure what would make him verbally defensive

[grammarkid]

can you rant about Jennifer's body plz? I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on it

oh, my dude.. my dude, ur rly gonna regret asking me this. like, i legit wrote a paper on this film. i analyzed it for a month straight and did research. for ur own sake, i’m so sry. for everyone else, i’m gonna put it under a cut, bc.. it’s a lot.

ok, i just want to preface this by saying that i know that the movie is objectively just bad. tbh, the writing is terrible, and diablo cody? thought she could tap into the hip cool teen lingo™️? but she was rly just pulling words out of her ass, so i always get torn between finding the dialogue laughable and cringe-worthy.

but i love the movie to death and i actually got the chance to write a big paper about it in college. long story short, i took this english/social studies class that was all about monsters – vampires, werewolves, zombies, cyborgs, etc. – and how they were representations of society’s fear of those who transgress social norms. so, basically we spent an entire semester studying ‘monster culture,’ a way of reading texts that parses the social anxieties from within their monster stories, bc the word ‘monster’ comes from the latin ‘monstrum,’ which literally means “that which reveals or warns.” so in monster theory, a monster always signifies something other than itself. & our final assignment was to analyze a monster film that we hadn’t discussed in class and explain the issues behind the film’s monster – but i won’t get into all that, bc that’s kind of a diff story.

but without going into all the social anxiety stuff about teenage sexuality, simply put, the film is an allegory for the ways in which sexuality and one’s self-esteem are intertwined. literally, jennifer gets turned into a demon, and the only way she can remain healthy and beautiful is to kill/feed off the guys at her school – but, rly, the story behind that is about jennifer’s insecurities. 

listen. jennifer slept with a lot of guys, even before she was transformed into a demon. needy said that jennifer lost her virginity in junior high. did u know that adolescents who have sex earlier are more likely to be depressed and to have issues with their self-esteem? (i told u, i did the research.) and teens with high levels of “sexual permissiveness” are often low in self-esteem in comparison to those who abstain. (no judgment at all, that’s just what the studies say. and let’s talk about the word ‘permissiveness’ here – it’s explicitly stated that jennifer’s already done anal. i’d say that’s permissive for a teenager.) and studies have also found that ppl who do participate in sex will often experience a temporary boost in self-esteem afterward, bc it makes them feel desirable – shocking!! 

so, ok, the point is, what jennifer does with boys after she becomes a demon is rly not that different from what she did with boys before she was a demon – she uses them to improve her self-image. (the only difference now being that she.. u know.. kinda eats them.) bc as confident and pretty as jennifer is, she has a lot of problems with her self-image. she’s peppy and vivacious whenever she looks pretty, but rude and mean when she feels ugly. & like, the biggest fuckin’ insult needy could use against her was that she was insecure?? literally nothing else that needy said had any effect on her, but she rly cracked when needy accused her of being insecure. i mean, she literally starts crying as she’s putting on her makeup for the winter formal bc she can see herself in the mirror and she’s ugly, and the only way she can fix that is to, u know, eat a guy – and it’s not just any guy, ok? she’s not just going around murdering the random 65y/o dude in the mcdonald’s drive-thru or the lady running the convenience store. they’re all young guys, around her age, who very obviously find her attractive. 

hmm. deteriorating demon eats boys who are attracted to her to regain beauty vs. human teenage girl with deteriorating self-worth and self-esteem sleeps with boys who are attracted to her to feel beautiful again. and uh let’s not forget that girls who regularly use guys are often called ‘man eaters.’ like, it literally could not be more obvious?? yet so many ppl i’ve talked to about it are oblivious.

but the thing that rly gets me about this movie? it’s the relationship between jen and needy. and i’m not just talking about the fact that they made out in bed for thirty seconds – although that does play a factor. i’m talking about how the film is rly an exploration of how these issues literally destroy their relationship.

bc jennifer is detrimentally obsessed with being pretty and popular and ‘socially relevant’ but she can’t let go of needy. needy even says that it’s to the point that kids at their school literally can’t understand why jen hangs out with her?? and i think that reason is pretty obvious.

like, ppl have their opinions, but i feel like there is clearly something between jennifer and needy beyond just friendship? jennifer is constantly sizing needy up, flirting with her, touching her, etc. jennifer even says that they used to play ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’ when they were younger. like, idk, that doesn’t seem like something friends do to me?? & it definitely doesn’t seem like something needy would suggest. no, that had to have been jennifer’s idea. but why? bc she has feelings for needy. hint: jennifer didn’t go after anyone in the film other than ppl she could use to her advantage – she explicitly mentions wanting to sleep with ahmet, jonas is the quarterback so ofc sleeping with him would be a boost to her esteem, colin asked her out on a date despite her lackluster appearance, and she also mentioned finding chip attractive. (if she could get him to choose her despite his loyalty to needy, wouldn’t that be a rush? why do u think she was so adamant when she said ‘tell me i’m better than needy’??) she doesn’t even attempt to approach anyone else in that way except needy. immediately after jennifer’s transformation, she goes back to needy. she’s the first person jennifer thinks of, and the first person we see jennifer approach in that way. and the scene definitely isn’t lacking sexual tension?? but ultimately it just suggests that needy could, in fact, give jennifer the same thing she got from the boys – i would even go so far as to say that, as a whole, the film suggests that needy is the only one who could give her that – but she can’t bring herself to do it. she cares too much about her to hurt her, to use her like that, and she even admits that later in needy’s bedroom. she literally says “i couldn’t hurt you.”

like omg the real tragedy of the movie is that needy and jen are torn apart by their missed opportunities. they’re constantly reaching out for one another, but they’re never in sync. after jen’s transformation, needy tries to be there for her, asks her questions, wants to be sure she’s okay, but jen can’t let her in bc she can’t even cope with the truth herself. after she kills colin, jen goes to needy’s room and tells her what happened to her bc it’s taking its toll on her and she’s desperate for needy’s support and validation, but needy is already convinced that she’s evil and her aggressive questions make jennifer retract. and without needy, jennifer has nothing. that’s why she goes after chip, bc it will hurt needy the same way needy hurt her. & personally, i don’t think jennifer was ever truly attracted to chip – i think she was attracted to his loyalty. & she was jealous of needy’s relationship with him bc it was steady and respectful and jen had no way of obtaining that for herself. and at that point in the film, she’s got nothing left to lose. honestly, like, with the others? jen didn’t hesitate. she made out with them and tore them apart at the first available opportunity. with chip? she took him to the pool and they just.. fucking sat there?? she tells him “i feel so empty” and yea most ppl probably take that to mean that she’s hungry, but if she was starving, then she’d just have her way with chip and be done with it, wouldn’t she? but she didn’t want to. she feels empty bc it’s all catching up to her and she doesn’t even have needy to help her through it. needy pushed her away. 

which is why i personally think that jennifer looks her absolute worst in the final scene with needy in her bedroom. she fed a bit off chip, obv, bc it was enough to kill him, and enough to completely heal the giant gaping hole in her stomach – which she plainly says to needy only happens ‘when she’s full.’ and yet she’s still so ugly. her skin is pale and her eyes are yellow and bloodshot, why? bc her physical state is a literal representation of her self-image and she feels terrible about herself so she looks terrible. ok, another hint: immediately after jen dies? she’s beautiful again. you literally watch it happen. & yeah, bc the film is about demons and the occult, u could say that the demon left her body, blah blah, but i think she becomes beautiful again bc that’s what she looks like when it’s not being distorted through the lens of her own self-view. all her insecurities aren’t killing her anymore, bc there’s nothing left. (and, just one last note about this final scene. what allows needy to kill jen? she tears off her bff necklace. and then jen literally loses all her power. she falls out of midair. it’s like everything stops, bc she still wore the necklace, she was still holding on to needy, even tho needy pushed her away. that was the last thing holding her together and needy took that too. and i think, rly, that’s what ultimately killed her. sure, the boxcutter had something to do with it, but there’s a reason that moment took up so much screen time, why it had such an impact, whereas the knife going in and that stupid ass ‘my tit’ line were so rushed in comparison.)

ugh, gosh. ok, i rly need to stop now. all that is already all twisted up and it hardly makes any sense bc i was rushing. i could literally go on for days about this movie, but this has already taken up like an hour of my day?? and i’m sure no one has even read this far anyway. but yeah. i have a lot of feelings about jennifer’s body, because imo it’s rly a tragedy disguised as a horror film.

[mirrobs]

Not to derail this wonderful conversation, I simply have something to add that may be related. A moment during a night that I've yet to really figure out, concerning a follower of Odin I met and the shrine she had made for him. A personal moment that, only now over a year later have I really had a chance to talk about.

Maybe this is one of those secrets being glimpsed at, but I didn't know how to parse it.

As I like to joke, my job consisted of me hand delivering decadence and pleasure to the masses, one housecall at a time. Cookies and other sweets, things that you really have no right spending $20+ for in the middle of the night. But hey, I can't say no to making people smile. Even if I was greeted at gunpoint one time, but that's a different story entirely.

On one occasion a woman decided to flirt with me, hard, after a couple times of me showing up at their door. Texting went back and forth, and soon enough I was appearing at their new house on a windy spring evening. There were three of them living together and I ended up hanging out with all of them.

To say things were sexually charged would be an understatement. I suppose I was a bit charming for all of them, on various levels, but the little competitive snipes at one another that bubbled up were notable. Territory was claimed and all that. The one who invited me tried to act in charge, and it was honestly adorable to watch. Everything was enjoyable, there was just an undercurrent that I could pick up on.

However, things shifted when I was invited up to the attic bedroom to check out a shrine.

It was a simple affair, really. A wooden table adorned with paganist pieces and imagery that I freely admitted ignorance to, pressed up in a tiny alcove underneath a window a child would have trouble climbing through. She talked to me about how she received a sort of calling to become what she referred to as a shaman - a practitioner, someone with an ear to the gods and willing to teach others as well. In front of this shrine atop the cherry red carpet that must've been laid in the 70s and never removed, she then showed me a walking stick that she had adorned with carvings of runes and other symbols that were lost to me.

Still, it was gorgeous in the way something made for an expressly personal purpose can be.

This is the moment that really stand out to me. I spotted it first, the spider that was hanging off the stick in front of the new shaman's face. For a second we both stared at the little guy, completely at a loss for words. It was almost as if the spider cast a spell over the two of us and it was all we could do to gather our senses and work together, still in complete silence, to gently place the spider outside. It took maybe 30 seconds from making eyecontact to safely letting the spider go outside, but it felt like it lasted for ages.

Soon after the spell was broken. The one who invited me showed up at the shaman(ess's?) door to figure out why we had disappeared for so long, worry obvious by how she walked into the room. Still, we hung out even more, and there on the red cherry carpet I sat as these two took to my arms with sharpies. My left arm became the doodles that ring a school notebook during those wistful moments when your imagination carries you far and away from the current moment. On my right, I was adorned with runes that I was told was for good luck (given what the other was likely imagining at the time and the shamaness was sure to have picked up on, I'm sure they had a fertile flair).

The rest of the night after that needn't really be detailed, as I'm sure the inevitable direction that I landed in is obvious. The one who invited me got her wish, as it were, and we were bith sated by the end of it.

What may be less apparent is the fact that while this was the first time I'd be invited into this new home, it also ended up being the last. Nothing specific happened, but I think it's safe to say that the sheer, overwhelming energy of the previous night had flittered away by the time the morning came.

With my habit of falling in with people, maybe it was I playing the opportunistic bastard without being consciously aware of it. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, other than the nagging, obnoxious idea that I went to bed with the wrong person that night.

It was a surprise to see the shamaness just last week, happening to deliver to one in the house. The look of pure shock at my appearance was... disconcerting at best. I politely reminded her that I was just doing my job, delivering decadence and pleasure one housecall at a time, and fled.

Maybe the old bastard could make more sense of all of this than I can, who knows. Thanks for reading this reminisce.

I’m interested in working with Odin however I have heard both positive and negative things about Him. The negative stuff (such as manipulation and being immensely forceful in getting someone to work with Him) make me wary about working with Odin despite feeling a pull to work with Odin. What are your thoughts about my dilemma and about Odin?

It depends on the person, and their personality, and what they like and don’t. 

He is a bastard. I won’t lie about that. He has and will manipulate and schmooze to get his way. And he will show up like “Hey. Here’s my business card HMU.”

Some people don’t like that. That’s fine.

On the other hand, some people get his good side, and are also, perhaps, just enough of a bastard themselves to get along with him. I don’t get his manipulative side, perhaps because I’m more of the “Oh my god. That’s terrible. I love it” vein myself. And can also tell him “No I will not, fuck off old man.”

Now, if you can’t do that? then perhaps do not work with him.

[touristguidebuzz]

WorldMate’s Retreat Leaves Itinerary-Organizing Rivals in Dogfight

As of March 31, WorldMate's itinerary-management apps will be removed from mobile app stores by parent company Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

Skift Take: WorldMate suffered as many smartphones and other services added free travel notifications. But TripCase and TripIt still have fans among many frequent travelers.

— Sean O'Neill

Back in the days of Blackberrys, Nokia S60s, and Palm Pilots, WorldMate was the leading mobile app for organizing itineraries. During the 2000s, it was routinely one of the top 10 highest-grossing mobile apps.

Yet WorldMate is winding down after a 17-year-run, surprising many. (It claimed 10 million users.) At the end of March, travel management company Carlson Wagonlit Travel will pull the app from stores. By September it will stop supporting many of the app’s functions. Gone. Poof.

Rivals now see an opening to gain share. The largest is TripIt, which touts having 13 million user accounts. It’s run by travel expenses software company Concur, part of German software group SAP.

The other top competitor is TripCase, which claims 11 million user accounts. It is backed by travel software company Sabre.

There’s a debate over user numbers. App Annie, which tracks downloads, says that in the U.S., TripIt has seen well over 5.7 million downloads since late 2009 and TripCase has seen more than 2.8 million downloads since its launch, across both iOS and Google Play platforms.

TripIt measures a user as someone who signs up for and verifies an account. Some users go web-only, and some access TripIt via the mobile web, neither of which situations would be traced by App Annie. TripCase measures users similarly.

Lost Mojo

WorldMate was most popular in Europe. After 2007, TripIt eclipsed it as the hot commodity in the Americas.

In recent years, WorldMate, TripIt, and TripCase have all been undermined by the spread of free tools like Apple Wallet for displaying flight and hotel information on the fly.

For instance, a user of Gmail and a Google Android phone can see details of their upcoming flight and hotel reservations extracted and displayed on their phone screens automatically at the relevant moments.

That said, TripCase says it added more than a million users in December, and TripIt said its engagement levels have remained “strong”.

Why WorldMate Wiped Out

A spokesperson for Carlson Wagonlit, which acquired WorldMate in 2012, describes the consumer-focused WorldMate app as “a non-strategic and de minimis part of our business.” It decided that putting the effort into supporting a consumer-facing app with product and engineering resources didn’t align with its core as a travel management company.

Some industry insiders expected the move. Nadav Gur, one of WorldMate’s co-founders and its chief executive for a decade, says, “The company lost its consumer-marketing and consumer-product experts years ago, mostly before the acquisition by Carlson Wagonlit.”

Innovation had stalled. “So, if anything,” adds Gur, “I’m surprised they waited four years to shut down the consumer brand.”

Tricky Business

The business of trip organizing has coalesced around a few models.

One is centered on selling advertising that is more relevant to the user thanks to knowing where and when the consumer is traveling.

But ads aren’t moneyspinners anymore. WorldMate tried advertising, along with a subscription offer for avoiding the advertising, to modest effect.

Last year TripIt abandoned ads on its free apps due to a lack of success. TripCase says advertising isn’t a significant part of its approach. Both rely on subscriptions.

Another model — one that WorldMate pursued heavily — is upselling travelers on hotel and car rental bookings and earning commissions along the way. The theory is that a traveler is more likely to book, say, an Uber ride if the ride is promoted to their phone when their flight lands than at another time.

Another option is building a database of traveler profiles, and then selling the anonymized data to suppliers. Yet another model is offering the itinerary software as a white-label service to suppliers. TripCase is flirting with both of these ideas.

One thing that won’t work is lead-generation for travel management companies. WorldMate’s app was not helping persuade corporations to sign up for Carlson Wagonlit’s services. In other words, the decision-makers Carlson Wagonlit most wants to influence are travel managers, but travel managers typically don’t travel much themselves, and thus weren’t using WorldMate or being impressed by it.

In short, the sector keeps experimenting with business models, making it seem like Calvinball, where the players discover the rules as they go along.

The X-Factor: Google

The rise of Google’s trip management tools intimidated WorldMate, one former Carlson Wagonlit employee says. The Google Trips app that debuted last year is also aimed at anyone who is looking for things to do, see, or eat — plus information about how to get around — when they’re in one of some 200 destinations. That mobile experience makes sense for leisure travelers, but it could also matter to people traveling for business, some experts say. (Google declined to comment for this article.)

TripCase and TripIt officials say they don’t fear competitors. What sets their services apart from rivals like Google is that travelers can use them regardless of email provider. (Users can forward booking confirmation emails from any account, and the companies have integrations for automatically trawling for reservations in multiple types of email services. Google, in contrast, is basically limited to Gmail.)

Still, the rise of Google points to a broader issue about competition in the consumer marketplace. One former WorldMate executive adds that Carlson Wagonlit risked entering “a race to volume rather than profitability. I don’t think it’s possible anymore to do another TripIt or WorldMate as a consumer play.”

Said differently: A challenge TripCase and TripIt each face is that consumers benchmark travel services against online travel agencies and search sites, such as Expedia and Booking.com, and against mobile-first tools from richly funded startups, like Airbnb and Uber, who often invest very heavily in user-facing tech to improve experiences, increase conversions, and increase loyalty.

If a tech company like Carlson Wagonlit, Sabre, or Concur is not investing large sums of money in consumer-grade interfaces, they risk travelers rejecting their mobile user interfaces as being comparatively clunky or outdated.

A former WorldMate executive, speaking anonymously so as not to step on the former employer’s message, says: “The reality is that to compete for lightly managed and unmanaged frequent travelers, one needs large amounts of capital for product development and marketing and customer acquisition. That threshold is getting higher every year.”

What’s more, neither parent company Sabre or Concur SAP has much experience with consumer marketing, putting them at a disadvantage with traditional consumer players.

Sabre’s Bold Bet

Keeping up with consumer-grade standards is a key reason why Sabre backs TripCase, says Florian Tinnus, VP of Sabre Traveler Experience business unit, within the Sabre Travel Network division.

Most of TripCase users are consumers, not corporate users, the company says. That makes the product unique for Sabre, which mostly provides business-to-business services. The parent company sees TripCase as a research-and-development test bed for its corporate mobile tools, the company’s bread-and-butter.

Tinnus says the company’s investment in TripCase is “strong and stable”, despite the WorldMate collapse. Looking ahead, TripCase strives to build its own email-parsing engine — the tool that extracts data out of emails forwarded or searched — to replace the template-based one it licenses from WorldMate, which may be discontinued. Sabre aims to use more machine learning and intelligent messaging to get more feedback when the parsing process goes awry, i.e., when an email is misread.

Sabre is also creating direct-connect feeds from some hotel groups, to pull in reservation data without consumers having to lift a finger. Reservations made through the company’s network, use by 425,000 travel agents and its SynXis central reservation system, used by 30,000 hotels, can automatically flow into a user’s TripCase messaging channel.

In a test with 300 properties since September, hotels have been able to directly send personalized promotions and upgrade offers to guests using TripCase. In turn, the hotels promote the app to consumers.

Tinnus places the test in a larger context: “What we have learned through several studies is that travelers feel they have to use too many apps. We also find that travelers alternate between sometimes traveling for business and sometimes traveling for pleasure but perhaps wanting a unified tool to handle both types of trips…. So our mission is to create a single place for all your trips.”

If Sabre’s strategy works and it stays the course, riches await, predicts one former WorldMate executive. Some itinerary-management companies will try to sell subscriptions, while others will try to profit off the traveler data. Whoever can achieve a critical mass in terms of itineraries and form an ecosystem matching travelers with traveler suppliers might win big.

“The key would be forming partnerships that could reduce acquisition costs while avoiding biases that would prevent the participation of the travel supplier partners,” one former executive says.

TripIt has added a flight Navigator tool.

TripIt Says It’s in It to Win It

Concur doesn’t agree with the notion that trip-management apps are outgunned against other consumer companies.

Jen Moyse, director of product, says, “The proof of our commitment is that, in the past year, we have been doubling down on our user-experience and completely overhauled our iOS and Android interfaces in tandem, in stages.”

For example, in the past week, TripIt launched a flight Navigator screen that more concisely presents information in real-time from more varied sources.

Moyse adds, “Our users also want to access their itineraries and other information in new ways. So we have improved our chat functionality, such as by adding in 2016 a way to share trip plans via iMessage’s rich context messaging….

“In the past year, we improved the functionality for wearable devices, like Android Wear and Apple Watch, and we improved the quality of our notifications across channels,” she adds.

The subscription service, TripIt Pro (at $49 a year), includes perks such as alerts if you have been booked in a middle seat on a flight. A new integration with data from Rome2Rio lists ground transportation options (along with their costs and estimated journey times), ranging from public transit to private services like Uber.

Possible Spoilers: A New Wave of Startups

There’s a small wave of startups aiming to scoop up users who are defecting from WorldMate. Two of the most notable are Expensify and Pana.

Expensify is a micro-managing business app for expenses that is used by 100,000 companies. As perks, it provides live flight status updates and it creates automatic expense reports from itineraries.

This is limited functionality. Individual consumers booking non-business trips are probably better served by another itinerary management app that focuses exclusively on that.

But founder David Barrett says, “If you are a business traveler looking to do more than merely ‘not miss your flight’, then Expensify becomes a stronger choice because we seamlessly combine your itinerary data with the receipt and expense data you are already capturing.

“So if you are traveling with the intent of actually doing business when you arrive, then Expensify’s automatic reporting can group together all the receipts you scan while on the trip, and submit them as one report to your company for reimbursement. Similarly, our integrations with systems like Uber automatically capture your receipts (just use Uber’s “business profile” feature) so you needn’t think of them.”

Expensify isn’t alone in offering services like this, but it shows how major players like TripCase and TripIt face some fracturing of the market.

Pana is a straight-up competitor to TripIt and TripCase that was founded last year. Unlike those legacy giants, it focuses on leisure travelers specifically.

Founder Devon Tivona says “the features that make up an amazing leisure trip planner are very different than what makes an expert personal assistant for frequent travelers.”

Tivona believes that WorldMate’s collapse “signifies how vastly and fundamentally different the worlds of managed and unmanaged travel are, and that trying to jump that gap (from either direction) is a difficult move to make.”

Both TripIt and TripCase disagree with that view. Each one says there’s a set of frequent travelers outside of heavily managed corporate programs who are willing to pay for the convenience of having their travel information and records stored in a consistent, easily retrievable place. Each also believes that travelers switch between leisure and business personas at will and, as noted above, only want a single app to use.

Pana counters that it is stealing away a slice of the market with superior interfaces because of its leisure focus. For example, one of its rare sharing features is making it automatic to alert someone that a traveler’s flight is delayed and to collaboratively build shared itineraries in a unified trip plan.

WorldMate Is Dead. Long Live WorldMate

As for the WorldMate wind-down, the brand and company live on as a research and development center in Tel Aviv for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, which says, “We are materially increasing our product and engineering resources and capital spending on our mobile and digital platforms, making strategic investments to enhance our capabilities.”

Amir Kirshenboim, vice president and chief technology officer of the digital product division, is putting the team to work on the suite of tools aimed at driving top-line revenue growth for its core business with corporate travel clients. That suite goes beyond CWT to Go, its flagship itinerary-management product. WorldMate plans to expand that team, says a former insider, speaking anonymously.

Perhaps its most lasting legacy is two-fold. It pioneered concepts like finding relevant reservations in your emails, sending flight change alerts, and displaying boarding passes that update in real-time with gate changes. These were widely cloned.

But WorldMate also replaced the technologically suspicious mindset of Carlson Wagonlit — which some said had the kind of bureaucracy you might expect in an oil-rich, one-party state — with the quick iterative approach favored by engineers from Mountain View to Tel Aviv.

That changed mindset may be the legacy that most helps Carlson Wagonlit as it faces competition with Expedia-backed, tech-heavy Egencia on a global stage.