#and burning it all the fuck down

[idealisticrealism]

TCL 3x08 thoughts

The main things:

I’ve lost track of the timeline here a bit, but Ramona mentions to Nadia that it’s been ‘a hard few days’, which I’m assuming means the few days including/after the wake? Normally it would take at least a few days (often several) just to arrange for cremation, and I would have thought that the FBI situation would have also delayed that, but maybe Jorge and Ramona were able to pull some strings and speed it up? Or maybe Russo pushed it all through quickly because the FBI wanted to see if his Velorio would lead to any new information/suspects? Who knows. On the day of the wake Jeremy refers to the chase as happening ‘the other day’ which makes it sound like less than a week had passed since the car chase/Arman’s death. Also given the fact that Ramona and Jorge only go to the apartment for the first time in this ep, it can’t be more than a couple of days since the Velorio/the reveal of Dante’s involvement. So based off all that, I’m gonna go with the assumption that it’s been about a week (or even slightly less) since Arman’s death, meaning the entire season has covered about 2 weeks thus far.

Well, I definitely feel validated as hell by the reveals in this ep lol. Dying Ramona? Called it in ep 5, though tbh it still surprises me a little that the writers would go with a plotline like that, after everything that happened with Adan. But I guess they needed a reason for Ramona to decide not to kill Thony after she no longer has Arman’s protection, and this is just the most straightforward way to do it. Not to mention it will probably mean that Ramona dies off by the end of the season, getting her out of the way like all the previous villains haha. (Please kill her, Thony. Do it for Arman, and for me). But of course, even more satisfying was getting the long-awaited confirmation about FBI Agent Jeremy– though given that I called that one literally the moment he showed his face in 3x03, his big reveal at the end with Russo wasn’t so much an ‘omg I was right!!’ moment but more of a ‘yeah duh guys we already knew he was a Fed’ haha

Thony’s dream where she is Sin Cara…. Please please pleaaase let this be foreshadowing haha. Like seriously c’mon writers, make my Mob Queen Thony dream come true! And that visual was also just really cool, with Thony stripping away layer after layer of masks only to find herself underneath… like all her efforts to find Arman, and to find who was responsible for taking him, peeling back all the layers until she finds herself?? Damn. I think that’s part of why she’s so determined to go after Ramona, because she needs to focus on Ramona’s role in his death so she won’t be torn apart by her own guilt (because lbr, she knows that if he’d never met her, none of this would have happened and he’d almost certainly still be alive). But honestly, while she did play a part in the events that led to his death, it was Ramona proceeding with the kidnapping plan and Jeremy involving his FBI buddies that were the true causes of Arman’s death. But anyway ugh, Thony’s teary eyes and damp collar when she wakes from that nightmare… her getting up for water then immediately trading her water for a beer… her almost crying as she tells Fi that her hallucination of Arman in the apartment felt so real… her saying that she can’t let his death go… help it’s raining on my face

Honestly, it was fair enough for Fi to go to Russo. Thony keeps making all these promises that nothing else is going to happen to their family, but let’s be real here (and I say this with love lol), Thony’s promises don’t mean shit haha. She truly means them when she says them, but she’s just up against far too much to be able to handle it all on her own. It was so brave of Fi to go to Russo, especially given her deportation situation, and I love that Russo is basically like ‘thanks for meeting with me. what info have you got? btw nice job sneaking back into the country’ lol. Fi’s shocked response is hilarious– I mean c’mon Fi, did you really think that that topic wasn’t gonna come up??? But ugh Russo’s ‘if you help me maybe I can help you’ offer sounds a lot like the one Nadia got, only for Russo to then screw her over… don’t trust her Fi! Loved Fi’s “I’m not a victim” though. Hell yeah sister. Reminds me of how Thony also started off as a victim (witnessing Theo’s murder and being forced into the criminal underworld to survive) but found her own power and used her new environment and connections to her advantage. Things have gotten a little rocky again though with the loss of Arman and his support, and I think Fi calling Thony out on her precarious situation was really important (“If you really wanna keep us safe, stop making things worse”) because she does need that reality check… bc while every single thing Thony does is always with the aim of fixing things, her actions do often unintentionally end up having the opposite effect, and she needs to face that and figure her shit out now that she doesn’t have Arman or Garrett to clean up her messes. Anyway, sigh, so much for my hopes of Fi deciding to go rogue with Thony though haha… I guess she just made an exception for the day of the Velorio for Thony’s sake and now she’s back to her old ‘hanging out with criminals is a bad idea’ self lol

Okay sooo… do we actually believe Ramona when she says she didn’t know about the kidnapping at the start, and that Dante took Arman for using their routes, not knowing who he actually was? Because I find that very hard to believe haha. Especially given that Thony came to Sin Cara literally like the day after Arman was taken, and would have told them exactly how and where he was abducted… and so Ramona should have immediately put it together then that the man Dante abducted was Arman. But according to Ramona, she found out ‘too late’ (too late for what? Even if she didn’t find out the truth until right before the exchange, she could have called it off, but didn’t), and so I’m calling bullshit on that haha. She’s still just covering her ass, telling another lie to cover up the much worse truth, which is that she planned this from the beginning to bring Arman back into the family while also scoring a bunch of cash. I do find it really clever how we started the season thinking Ramona was going to be the villain, and then we met her and learned she was Arman’s family and that she was gonna help Thony, which had us thinking we’d been wrong and she wasn’t a villain after all, and now we’ve circled back to her being the villain again lol

Huh, I did not expect Nadia to be staying at the Sin Cara Casita, but I can see how being at home alone with all the memories of Arman would have just been too hard. She has no-one now, and Ramona was so welcoming and kind and acted like she was family, so I guess she thought that maybe this was her path forward and she could belong with them… only for Ramona to betray her in the worst way. I hope that this leads Nadia to realise that Thony was right all along, and Thony is the only one she can really trust. It was nice to see her go back to La Habana, back to her old self again. Though omg that staff member (Charmaine?) asking her what they’re celebrating… like maybe don’t ask that of a person who just lost their husband??? Lol. But daaamn Russo showing up and arresting her… I appreciate that Russo didn’t seem to take any satisfaction in the arrest (I think she does actually feel for Nadia and her situation, especially after having also recently lost someone she loved) but she’s clearly angling to get Nadia to turn on whoever she’s working with. Which is why it seems like a terrible idea for both Ramona and Jorge to come visit her in lockup? Her scene with Ramona was so good though ugh, like she was looking at Ramona and seeing what her future could be if she doesn’t make changes and start letting people in. Which, like I said, will hopefully begin with Thony! And maybe Jorge too, since Ramona betrayed him as well (multiple times now!) and because he genuinely did love Arman too. Though ngl, him asking for 50mil to help her is a bit sketchy haha.. But maybe she wouldn’t have trusted him otherwise, if it seemed like there was nothing in this partnership for him? Making it a business transaction is more like something she can understand.

Tbh that’s actually something that’s been really cool about this season: the way the partnerships and alliances have been steadily shifting and changing between these four central characters as the show progresses– first there was Thony and Nadia as a team, plus Ramona and Jorge. Then there was Thony and Jorge, plus Ramona and Nadia. Now it might be becoming Jorge and Nadia, plus Ramona and Thony. Though Jorge likely expects his new team-up with Nadia to include Thony as well, given the trust that they’ve formed (which would also help bridge the divide between Thony and Nadia again, which would be nice). And that scenario certainly could still happen, with the three of them forming a plan together to manage Ramona– but it’s also possible that the alliance that Thony offers Ramona in the gallery scene may damage her own connection with Jorge and Nadia, as they might see it as her selling out both Arman and them to save herself.  But what Jorge and Nadia don’t know is that Thony is on a mission to make Ramona pay, and is following Jeremy’s advice: find your enemy’s weakness, and exploit it. 

Honestly, Thony’s visit to Ramona in the gallery was so badass; the way she spoke to Ramona reminded me of what she was like when they had the motel manager guy tied up in the bathtub and were pretending to threaten him with organ harvesting. Back then, it was Arman who gave her that confidence, and it was the same now in a way; this time, it’s her love for him and her desire to honour his memory that helps her be bold enough to face Ramona, and she does it wearing the dress that she last wore on a night when Arman made a huge personal sacrifice for her and took an innocent life to protect hers. At this stage, I expect her plan is to make herself essential to Ramona as her doctor, either to earn enough gratitude from healing her that Ramona spares her and her family, or to gather enough incriminating info about Ramona that she can take to Russo to make a deal (though I have trouble seeing her doing that given Jorge’s warnings, and her not wanting to betray him). From the trailer for next week it does look like she’s going to be trying hard to fix whatever is killing Ramona… but tbh what I really wanna see is for Thony to go real dark and not just use her new position of power over Ramona to ensure her own safety, but to actually use that power to end Ramona’s life. Like imagine if Ramona agrees to what she thinks is a treatment from Thony, only for Thony to give her something that will kill her instead??? Or maybe a situation arises where Thony is genuinely trying to fix her, but then something goes wrong and Ramona starts to crash, and Thony realises that if she just lets it happen, Ramona will die and no one would know that Thony could have stopped it. Like damn that would be absolutely ice cold on Thony’s part, but could be a fascinating step in her character development, especially as she moves further away from that ‘victim’ that she was at the start of the series, and closer to being the person who controls the power. Not to mention how I’ve talked before about how central it is to Thony’s character that she always has to save the person in front of her who asks for her help, even when it endangers herself or those she cares about… and so it would be a significant moment for her to actively choose not to help that person. But anyhow seriously, if I get my wish and she does kill Ramona, she better not get any hate for it, not when Arman and Jorge have both killed many people, and even Nadia has murdered someone. Thony has been through so much shit that honestly she’s earned the right to kill the person (or rather, people– take out Jeremy next, girl!) responsible for the death of the man she loved, and not to get demonised for it when other characters wouldn’t. (Basically what I’m saying is she deserves a little cold-blooded murder, as a treat lol)

Pro tip: when the building you’re in is filling with a deadly gas, fixing a barely-bleeding scalp laceration is not a priority!! Like sure it was fun to watch Thony McGyvering a solution to close the wound, but omg if that situation was real, a doctor like her would have never bothered with the stupid lac, because of a little thing called TRIAGE, aka dealing with the most life-threatening problem first! And like I said, the deadly gas is just a little higher on the priority list!! But hey, if they both died of chloride gas poisoning, at least he would have died with a nicely closed wound on his head lol. Sigh. But ngl I very much did enjoy that her solution to save their lives was to blow up the building that they were currently inside of lol. But again, triage– the likelihood of dying from the explosion was less than the likelihood of dying from the gas if they did nothing, so she makes the tough call and takes the lesser of two evils. I really do love the moments when we get to see her resourcefulness, intelligence, and bravery all at once, and Jeremy better be goddamn grateful to her for saving his ass lol. Although it doesn’t really seem like it, because the moment they get outside he uses her distraction and distress to pump her for information, and then basically tells her to go even deeper in the cartel? (Which, granted, is exactly what I also want her to do, but he’s endangering her for his own gain and that’s fucking shitty.) At least when Garrett forced her into being a CI, he was clear about what she was getting into, and made sure to support her and check in with her. Jeremy is just shoving her deeper into the lion’s den and waiting to see who walks out alive, and I can’t wait for the moment when this dark new Thony emerges and tears him to pieces.

Other stuff:

The tunnel/hallway thing that Thony walks down in her dream is the same one Jorge took her along to meet Sin Cara for the first time in 3x01… but she was blindfolded then and never actually saw it. Spooky. Also I’m pretty sure they used that same tunnel for the scene of Fi and Chris’ underground border crossing in 3x03, just with different lights lol

Violeta is such a precious little thing omg, and I appreciate the depth that she adds to Jorge with his Soft Dad Mode. Like seriously, them snuggling by the fire? Her waking and saying something with that tiny, sleepy, adorable voice, and him soothing her back to sleep? Help it’s too sweet ugh. And look I’m not gonna lie, I’m absolutely picturing how cute it would be if it was some future moment with Thony sitting across from him instead of Ramona, and with Luca asleep with his head in her lap because he and Violeta are both totally tired out after a really fun playdate. I’m not even saying it’s a romantic moment or anything, just two single parents sharing a really sweet moment of friendship and bonding over their kids, and ugh it would be nice if Thony got to have that someday. 

Lol Chris and Jaz were totally grade-A sibling material in this ep. As a youngest sister with two big brothers, all the teasing about his crush felt very relatable haha. And it was nice to see a return of the playful embarrassing mum side of Fi too. All of them just having normal innocent fun together was so sweet ugh, I want more of that

Super convenient that the door to the sketchy apartment was just open lol. What was Thony’s plan otherwise?? Break it down?? Honestly with the state she’s been in since Arman’s death, I wouldn’t put it past her. It’s a shame that the threat of Ramona meant she had to pretty much race straight out of there, though, because I think it might have been good for her if she’d had a chance to just go and be there, to sit in the chair he’d sat in and look at the surroundings that he’d spent his last days in, and just actually acknowledge her grief for a while…

Jorge blindly pointing the gun in the direction of his sister while he demands answers from Thony in the apartment… dude where’s your basic firearm safety?? Don’t point guns at people unless you’re fine with them getting shot!

Ugh when Thony asks Fi if she was the one who tipped off the FBI to the location of the exchange… the utter panic in her eyes, not only because of the danger that that act would put them in from Ramona, but also at the thought that if Fi had been the one to give the tip, she would have been as responsible for Arman’s death as Ramona is… and how would Thony have lived with that? How could she still live and work with her, still look at her every day knowing that the man she loved was dead because of Fi’s actions? Honestly thank god that none of us had to find out.

Poor Camila needs rescuing! And so Fi turns to Thony to fix it, which means continuing her involvement with the cartel, aka the opposite of what Fi asked  her to do just hours ago… I wonder if this situation will make Fi see that Thony existing in that criminal world and having some power within the cartel actually has more benefits than she realised, and that not everything is so black and white when it comes to keeping their family safe…

Okay I desperately wanna see more of the FBI’s case board lol… so funny that the FBI’s understanding of Thony went from ‘she’s a cleaning lady for the Barsamians’ to ‘she’s somehow personally connected to Arman Morales’ to ‘she’s business partners with Arman in importing medications from Mexico, and also maybe his romantic partner as well??’ to ‘she got tied up with Kamdar and supposedly accidentally imported Fentanyl from the Philippines’ to ‘she’s the key to finding Arman’ to ‘she somehow got her sister and nephew back into the country illegally’ to ‘she’s the key to taking down the Sin Cara cartel’.... Like honestly I’m a little worried about what happens once she’s no longer useful to the Feds… given everything that’s happened, I find it hard to see how she’s going to escape the FBI’s clutches this time? And most importantly, with them watching her so closely, how am I gonna get the Mob Queen Thony that I want so badly haha? But I guess the next few eps will answer that…

[inkskinned]

one of the things that's the most fucking frustrating for me about arguing with climate change deniers is the sheer fucking scope of how much it matters. sweating in my father's car, thinking about how it's the "hottest summer so far," every summer. and there's this deep, roiling rage that comes over me, every time.

the stakes are wrong, is the thing. that's part of what makes it not an actual debate: the other side isn't coming to the table with anything to fucking lose.

like okay. i am obviously pro gun control. but there is a basic human part of me that can understand and empathize with someone who says, "i'm worried that would lead to the law-abiding citizens being punished while criminals now essentially have a superpower." i don't agree, but i can tell the stakes for them are also very high.

but let's say the science is wrong and i'm wrong and the visible reality is wrong and every climate disaster refugee is wrong. let's say you're right, humans aren't causing it or it's not happening or whatever else. let's just say that, for fun.

so we spend hundreds of millions of dollars making the earth cleaner, and then it turns out we didn't need to do that. oops! we cleaned the earth. our children grow up with skies full of more butterflies and bees. lawns are taken over with rich local biodiversity. we don't cry over our electric bills anymore. and, if you're staunchly capitalist and i need to speak ROI with you - we've created so many jobs in developing sectors and we have exciting new investment opportunities.

i am reminded of kodak, and how they did not make "the switch" to digital photography; how within 20 years kodak was no longer a household brand. do we, as a nation, feel comfortable watching as the world makes "the switch" while we ride the laurels of oil? this boggles me. i have heard so much propaganda about how america cannot "fall behind" other countries, but in this crucial sector - the one that could actually influence our own monopolies - suddenly we turn the other cheek. but maybe you're right! maybe it will collapse like just another silicone valley dream. but isn't that the crux of capitalism? that some economies will peter out eventually?

but let's say you're right, and i'm wrong, and we stopped fracking for no good reason. that they re-seed quarries. that we tear down unused corporate-owned buildings or at least repurpose them for communities. that we make an effort, and that effort doesn't really help. what happens then? what are the stakes. what have we lost, and what have we gained?

sometimes we take our cars through a car wash and then later, it rains. "oh," we laugh to ourselves. we gripe about it over coffee with our coworkers. what a shame! but we are also aware: the car is cleaner. is that what you are worried about? that you'll make the effort but things will resolve naturally? that it will just be "a waste"?

and what i'm right. what if we're already seeing people lose their houses and their lives. what if it is happening everywhere, not just in coastal towns or equatorial countries you don't care about. what if i'm right and you're wrong but you're yelling and rich and powerful. so we ignore all of the bellwethers and all of the indicators and all of the sirens. what if we say - well, if it happens, it's fate.

nevermind. you wouldn't even wear a mask, anyway. i know what happens when you see disaster. you think the disaster will flinch if you just shout louder. that you can toss enough lives into the storm for the storm to recognize your sacrifice and balk. you argue because it feels good to stand up against "the liberals" even when the situation should not be political. you are busy crying for jesus with a bullhorn while i am trying to usher people into a shelter. you've already locked the doors, even on the church.

the stakes are skewed. you think this is some intellectual "debate" to win, some funny banter. you fuel up your huge unmuddied truck and say suck it to every citizen of that shitbird state california. serves them right for voting blue!

and the rest of us are terrified of the entire fucking environment collapsing.

[drbtinglecannon]

In Knives Out Blanc wanted to do the murder mystery investigation with Marta so bad, but she was certain she was guilty so she spent a good amount of the movie avoiding/hiding stuff from him

Meanwhile in Glass Onion Helen was fucking carrying the investigation, even while accidentally getting drunk, and even went to investigation lengths Blanc was hesitant to do

[losersimonriley]

W AIT A MINUTE. the end scene of mwii. I’m having a moment.

When soap passes makarov’s picture to ghost and ghost slowly (hotly) looks up and over at soap. Do you think he’s specifically remembering 3 years ago in verdansk when makarov threatened soap.

Like. The guy next to him was never anything more to him than another sas man but now. Suddenly he’s everything. And he only just got him. Now there’s this enemy reappearing, one who personally has it out for his Johnny, and he’s just sitting here remembering “I’ll be seeing you again, MacTavish. I promise.”

His inner monologue here is just kill bill sirens

[shorthaltsjester]

it is quite funny to me as someone who studies philosophy and has had to have the conversations that bh and ludinus have been having many times over and often with people who like ludinus do not have any reading comprehension and truly like. the notion of “this shouldn’t exist” is almost always one that comes up regardless of whether it’s a discussion on the metaphysics of a potential God(s) or divinity, high political powers, or vehicles of systemic oppression. and what anyone who cares about people more than their ideals (even, sometimes, ideals that started out being about people but quickly come to be about the ideals themselves) realizes very quickly in a philosophical discussion about what should and shouldn’t exist is that it does not matter if what you’ve decided ‘shouldn’t’ exist does in fact already exist. like that tends to be the difference between sociopolitical philosophy that actually has teeth and substance in the world — a willingness to engage with the world as it is, not as it should be. because you can have the perfect image of a just and wonderful future world, but if you do not at every step reckon with the unjust world from which you are aiming at that future, you’re doing nothing. ideals are helpful because they aim us toward goals and hopes, but they’re nothing without a reality that grounds them.

and so people like ludinus, who in the real world would play the role of a graduate student with critical thinking skills that make every professor he comes across question how he arrived at his level of study, they don’t have Wrong ideals, there’s obviously plenty of reasons why an exandria without gods might in fact be a better place for mortals (there are also many Many reasons why it would not). but ludinus has also chosen his ideals to weigh heavier than the mortals he claims to uphold them with. i think ashton is also interesting, because i think a lot of their positions have a fun fluctuation between being ideal focused and person focused, where sometimes they’re focused on how unfair life is in a very nihilistic position, and at other times they seem quite clear about how much ideals help no one if they’re not second to the desire to help others. and i think that made their role in the convo with ludinus in 102 especially interesting and irritating (but in a narratively fulfilling way). anyway, truly so fun watching ludinus argue with the amount of fallacies and undeserved confidence of like right wing first year students in an ethics class explaining how actually the ends justify the means and thanos had the right idea actually if it means no more starvation. get a grip old man.

[aegoneggon]

i liked the episode but now that I'm thinking about it for more than 2 minutes and I turned my brain back on some things just make no fucking sense to me

why are there still so many city watch people completely loyal to daemon and mysaria? why hasn't anyone (larys) cleaned up the city watch of daemon supporters after the blood + cheese fiasco? also why are there still SO many citywatch people who are daemon loyalists when he hasn't been a leader to them in like 20 years?

also does kings landing just get a huge majority of their food via the sea? how are we in such dire straits foodwise?

[sinusoidaldysfunction]

Blister. Twisted Sister.

[fairycosmos]

imagine your loved one is brutally murdered and someone makes a makeup and true crime video about it

[rraaaarrl]

OH PLEASE OH GOD OH PLEASE GO FUCKING BANKRUPT PLEASE JUST GIVE ME THIS ONE THING LET'S GOOOOOOO

✨to hasten the bankruptcy✨

❤️ LIKE TO CHARGE

🔁 REBLOG TO CAST

[tiredyke]

i cant stand feminist discourse on this site because its like 90% "feminism means equality which means you can't say anything bad about men and you have to criticize women just as much as men because misandry is just as bad as misogyny" and these posts always get thousands of notes from other people who call themselves feminists likeee

[luck-of-the-drawings]

!!! FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING!!! [IM NOT FUCKIN AROUND!!]

REACHED THE CUSP OF 'THIS MAY NEVER BE ABSOLUTELY FINISHED N IF I DONT SHOW IT NOW, IT WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.' SO HERE, A PROJECT IVE BEEN ORBITING AROUND UHH SINCE 2021 OR SO.

[stinastar]

I know some AI has its uses, but I’m currently feeling very “burn all AI to the ground, and I shall dance on the remains.”

[blamemma]

Daniel Ricciardo discussing the new chassis he will receive at the Chinese Grand Prix

[feroluce]

Belobog was my fave main quest but a lot of it is so. Contradictory. It's like they had multiple groups doing different shit and none of them checked in with each other for consistency. And you see this so much in Gepard's profile.

So in the main quest, they made him unfailingly, unquestionably loyal to Cocolia. Gepard's character arc is him learning to question authority etc etc. And this isn't even a bad thing; that's a story worth telling! It makes good conflict between him and Serval! And I love that we got Gepard as a boss battle and I get to see him all the time in SU!

But then you look at his character stories and it's like. The complete opposite.

According to his profile, Gepard has already HAD this awakening, long before the Astral Express, and he'd already decided Cocolia sucks. Even outside of his stories, there's a pretty damning readable between him and Pela.

He even disobeyed direct orders right in front of her- he has been disobeying orders for a while now!

So I've decided I'm marrying the two different sides of this into a 1.5k fic-ish thingy, because I think there's some fun potential there with Gepard not trusting Cocolia, but still having to pretend to be a good obedient little soldier.

Anyway. I love to think of it as like. Gepard knows Cocolia has sunk into her apathy. He can see it in her eyes every time he looks at her. She doesn't care. Not about him, not about Pela, not about all his soldiers on the frontlines giving their lives to protect the citizens. And that's... It makes him bristle a bit, but ok. Gepard can deal with this. Even if Cocolia no longer cares, as long as she does her job then it's fine. Having compassion behind an action doesn't matter as much as the action itself. If Cocolia's heart is no longer swayed, then he'll just have to care twice as hard to pick up the slack. He considers it part of his duty as a captain of the guard anyway. It's fine. Gepard can deal with it.

And then, Cocolia starts coming down to the restricted zone. Issuing direct orders.

And Gepard realizes he is in way over his head.

Because Cocolia orders him to stay back and issue commands from the ramparts, away from all his comrades, away from where he can protect them.

Gepard had thought nothing could be as bad as watching a fellow guard die right next to him. But the first time he watches someone struck by a killing blow, so far away, it hurts. Every defensive scar across his arms itches, his fingers curl in want of a weapon, the cold cannot numb his hands enough as they desperately ache for his shield. It hurts.

Gepard tries to find any reason to stay. Because surely... He knows Cocolia has lost her love for her people, but surely... She wouldn't...

One day, Cocolia orders for their gunners to advance 20 yards. There are no survivors. She almost looks like she smiles.

Gepard doesn't sleep that night.

Pela brings him the report at the end of the first month; and then the month after that, and the month after that. A significant uptick in losses, and all of it started on that first day Cocolia started overriding his authority and issuing her own orders. The ends of Gepard's pens have all been nearly chewed off. Pela outright calls Cocolia an idiot, and Gepard corrects her. Cocolia isn't an idiot. Gepard had known her through Serval, knew her through all her college years and then some, and he knows how intelligent she is. It's not that she's stupid, and it's not that she's inexperienced, it's nothing of the sort.

Cocolia knows exactly what she's doing.

She must, there's no way she could make such a horrible mess of things so badly by accident. And Pela, quick as a whip, sharp as a tack, always too smart for her own good, catches onto the meaning behind Gepard's correction without any further prompting. The tent goes deathly quiet, nothing but the wind howling outside.

"...She's trying to kill us," Pela whispers, her voice swiftly suffocated by the silence.

Gepard swallows. He can't bring himself to correct her this time. There is nothing he could say that he would actually mean.

His gaze drops, back down to his desk and the reports on it. The names aren't listed, just the numbers, but Gepard knows them, knew them, and there must be something wrong, something he's missing, because why, why would she-? What could this possibly accomplish-?

“Gepard! Focus!” Something snaps right under his nose, and Gepard startles, eyes instantly honing in on Pela's irritated face as she leans over his desk. She holds his gaze for a moment before she huffs and begins to pace, wedges a knuckle between her teeth and bites like Gepard hasn't seen her do since cadet school.

Pela angrily strides from one end of his tent to the other, words hissed between her grit teeth. “What are we going to do?” In the dim lighting, Gepard can just barely see the damp spot of blood weeping under her gloves. “We need a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Wh- Yes, a plan! Unless you want more people to die!” Pela rounds on him then, all the wrath of a blizzard, winds roaring and snow sharp enough to cut.

“We don't even know-”

“What does it matter?! She killed-!!” Pela cuts off with a garbled noise when Gepard leaps up from his desk, hastily shoves his hand over her mouth. The prosthetic, not the flesh one, because he knows better than to assume Pela won't seize the opportunity to leave teeth marks in his skin.

“You're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry; you're right. But you need to keep quiet.” Pela quirks an eyebrow at him and Gepard can read the question in her face. “Because we both saw what she did to Serval,” he hisses.

It's amazing the snow plains haven't thawed out yet, the amount of heat Pela can put behind a glare. The mere mention of Serval, and the smoking ruins Cocolia had made of her life and career, have her bristling up like a riled cat. The sudden hot breath she takes fans fog across his metal skin, and Gepard wisely keeps it in place until Pela finally sighs and reaches up, taps her fingertips against the back of his hand.

The second she's free, Pela bats him away and then her knuckle is right back between her teeth again, Gepard leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed to watch her resume her pacing. “If we spread the word, she'll have us discharged and make sure we can't even touch the frontlines,” Pela's voice seethes like an open sore. Gepard nods but keeps his silence. He knows better than to get in her way.

“And if you and I are both out of the picture, Belobog is fucked.” A little harsher than how he would have put it, but there's no denying that they're both important to the city's survival. Pela has the restricted zone running as efficiently as ever, and Gepard had become the youngest captain on record for a reason. “We need to keep this tight under wraps, at least for now… It can't leak to anyone higher up the chain.” Another nod. “Serval might know other discontents…” Another n-

Gepard's head snaps up. “No.”

“No what?”

“No. We're not involving Serval in this.”

Somehow, even the same tone that leaves entire squadrons shaking in their boots has never worked on her. “You're not deciding that for her, Gepard.”

Pela hadn't seen the worst of it, though, back when his sister had just been banned from the Architects. Serval's pride hadn't allowed it. Pela wasn't the one to find her passed out bottle still in hand, hadn't been the one to wash the sick out of her hair or carry her to bed. 

Serval still has trouble thinking clearly when it comes to Cocolia, still can't quite bring herself to be objective. And Gepard maybe doesn't want her to be purely objective- but he would worry a lot less if she thought twice before she acted more often.

“At least let me be the one to bring it up to her.”

“Whatever, fine,” Pela gestures affirmatively at him as she paces past, and Gepard sighs. Good, at least that's one thing he can help.

From there, it's a lot of hemming and hawing and frustration. Cocolia has them under her boot, and Gepard and Pela both know it. Even with the way she's been cracking down on freedoms lately, Cocolia is still, overall, liked by the people. It's unlikely anyone would believe them. They don't even have solid proof, because most people don't know Cocolia as well as they do and won't see the clues in the same light. 

The Fragmentum has been ramping up in recent years, too. Everyone is struggling just to survive as is, they can't afford a fight on two fronts. Gepard is a damn good captain, one of the best for that matter. But they're at a massive disadvantage, his experience is narrowed to fighting a defensive battle against monsters, that's all he's ever done. That's all anyone there has ever done. He has no way of finding first-hand knowledge for taking the offensive against a human opponent, and if he goes at this blind, there's no way he'll get everyone out unscathed. He's going to lose people. He's going to lose a lot of people.

He'd never thought before that Cocolia would have it in her to have someone killed. And with this new knowledge, he has no guarantee she won't go after Serval or Lynx if she decides to retaliate.

Gepard has to remind himself to breathe when he realizes this.

Pela writes down every name the two of them can come up with. Lists and lists of names and groups and anyone they can think of who might be an ally in all of this. They memorize every bit of it, make their plans of who to talk to and when. Gepard watches the sparks reflect off Pela's glasses as they burn the evidence together.

Pela finally leaves, far too late to make it home, but says she wants to stay in the restricted zone anyway to investigate. Gepard watches her make her way in the direction of Dunn's tent, watches her back until she's out of his sight and squashes down the urge to follow and keep an eye on her. His tent feels empty.

In the morning, Gepard is up before the wake up bells. He drags himself out of bed, leads his soldiers through their morning training. The same people gravitate to each other everyday. Friend groups and training partners. There's an ongoing rivalry between a few squadrons that everyone bets on. Some of them have lockets around their necks, keepsakes, mementos. Some of them wear wedding rings.

Gepard is suddenly, painfully aware of something acidic clawing at the inside of his throat, of a heavy weight low in his chest that blooms, takes up room until it threatens to spread his ribs. His mouth tastes of bile and blood.

He rearranges the schedules. Puts himself down for every open patrol into the Fragmentum, makes sure he'll be on the frontlines every single time Cocolia visits.

He only hopes that it's enough.

[slime-sandwhich-nom]

Ngl gumball is the type to not fuck around when someone says anything about his gf he's very obsessed with

the tags aren't letting me tell you how gumball literally brought an entire PERSON, probably a dead one of unconscious as a SACRIFICE to a fake cult made by his own teachers and classmates (they didn't take it well)

[veerbles]

I keep thinking about this line from ck.

this is the culmination of the van eck job; the 'post-credits' scene that tells us where each of the characters is going forward. nina is 'going to find a way to make it matter', which teases row. inej is starting her journey of ending slavery on the seas. jesper and wylan's futures are explicitly intertwined and implicitly turning to politics.

what does kaz's line mean? what was leigh trying to foreshadow?

I refuse to believe the phrasing of it means nothing, because in the context of this scene, it can't mean nothing. this is kaz's next big journey. and it also references another big conversation from ck:

this scene from the geldrenner bathroom is so important because, in it, inej confronts kaz with the truth of his revenge arc (which essentially drives the plot of the entire duology): how is the person he became to ruin pekka different from pekka himself?

and again, kaz mentions building an empire and burning it.

so it has to have meaning. is it literal? will a big plot point in soc #3 involve kaz setting fire to the barrel? but if that's the case, why is it significant that he rebuilds it into something new beforehand?

or maybe it's figurative. at the very end of ck inej asks kaz to help her end slavery from his side of things in ketterdam. she mentions taking down the crooked politicians, the slave-owners, the... even less-moral barrel bosses. while it seems obvious that kaz's 'new empire' is a barrel under his control, what would become of a criminal empire under the thumb of a man indirectly helping to destroy it? perhaps it figuratively 'burns to the ground'.

so either kaz builds his empire, and then literally burns it to achieve something else, or kaz builds his empire and uses its own power to 'burn it' by helping something cleaner grow instead. maybe that's the connection to the bathroom conversation: maybe it's the way he finally proves himself to be different from pekka.

or maybe it's neither of those, and I'm completely off-base? either way it has to mean something big, and I would honestly love to hear more interpretations.