#angels friends cabale

[todaleyart]

[0alix0]

everyone separately under the cut

[whyohwhydoris]

You can't trust Alt.

I know, I know. Big claim. But it's the truth. The cold, hard truth. We know that Soulkiller makes an engram copy of you. And we know that the data can be presented with very high fidelity because we and Johnny explicitly experience each other's lives in flashback. We know that Johnny isn't... right. We know - for an indisputable canon fact - that the Johnny we're with isn't the Johnny, merely a version of Johnny. We know that Arasaka didn't pull Johnny's body out of the tower - that was Samantha Stevens. We also strongly suspect that Sam's friend Angel is a clone body built to match the original Alt and uploaded with her original consciousness. And we know that Angel has Johnny's original body. Which begs the question of who the fuck Alt actually is. And who the fuck Johnny is. But, more importantly, it raises this question: By the time that V, Johnny, and Alt meet in Arasaka, all the pieces required to save both V and Johnny are there. Because Alt has a copy of your engram. And you have the complete project files for the Relic Program. We know that V's body gets out, even in the solo ending. V survives. Or Johnny survives. Either way, they can get away. And we know that Alt only used us as a Trojan to get in and ruin the system. That she could have Soulkilled us at any point, and harboured us beyond the Blackwall. So the only reason we're in that tower is because Alt wants something else. Once we have the Relic plans, all that Alt needs to do is Soulkill V, klep a clone body off of Biotechnica - which Johnny is more than capable of - and then manufacture a copy of the Relic. And there's no limits to the number of people who'd be willing to be the first to bring the Relic to market. Alt could have saved us. Could have saved both of us. But she doesn't. Never mind how Gary keeps mentioning the lizard men from Alpha Centauri. A secret cabal trying to control the world, and tied to Arasaka, and which would get filtered through his head as "Alpha Centauri"? I kinda wonder if it's "Alt Cunningham." Just errant food for thought.

[traceofexistence]

lol okay so I watched the netflix Tomb Raider The legend of Lara Croft

and it was SPOT ON

of course it was review bombed because of course it was

and now I know why

spoilerinos under the cut

Lara looks like a delicious muscle mommy, and not a toothpick with a pair of bazonga honkers

also it follows the reboot, so the "lara used to have a personality of 2 triangle giant tits" crowd is mad.

but lets put two and two (not tits) together

original Lara was a 40 years old who didnt give a fuck, but also she showed emotions when the story allowed it. for example in the game "the angel of darkness" Lara is faced with accusations of murder, besides the shock over the accusations, it is a friend of hers who is murdered, so she shows emotions. she has nightmares, she has delusions that make her believe she did it. story wise that game was a masterpiece, but due to being a bit (read a tone) buggy, lots of ppl never played it.

another very funny fact of those crying is that they think the movies with angelina are the canon lara, which...well I liked the movies too but canon lara? please.

the Reboot, takes lara back when she was fresh out of Uni, it explores her youth and how she came to be this hardass motherfucker we know and love

now another element with both the reboot, and the comics and the movie, and this animated series, is that lara is clearly fruity, which of course she is, and the reactionaries can't deal, but when angie jolie fucked a dude in the movies that was fine!!111

anyway this animated series had everything a tomb raider game has, adventure, finding a seemingly random artefact that ends up being a tool bring chaos to the world, some big cabal is behind everything, Jonah is dead, but Jonah is not actually dead, lets save the world, meeting with gods, solving a big ass puzzle, returning the artefact, dual pistols baby, and of course dinos

very enjoyable very accurate

sincerely someone who has played the games from 1st to last

[danco110]

“Ugh…Oh…I always wondered why humans like alcohol so much. Now I know.”

The young angel groaned in her bunk, and raised a feathery wing to shield her eyes from the midday light streaming in from the open window. Another armored seraph flew in through said window, skidding to a stop in the otherwise deserted barracks. The new arrival held her sword in one hand and gestured to the groggy angel with the other.

“Rosette!” cried the standing angel. “It’s the Cabal. The others are already in the air, but the demons have…are you…were you still sleeping?”

The hungover angel sat up in her bunk. “I was, Matilda, until you burst in, at least. Remember how some of the human soldiers invited me to the tavern last night?”

The other angel gave her friend an aghast expression. “You didn’t…did you?”

“I did,” Rosette groaned, quickly growing defensive. “But, what’s wrong with having a few drinks with the troops? We were just celebrating yet another victory against those Cabal. As per usual.”

“We need you out there with us!” snapped the more dutiful angel.

Rosette arched an eyebrow at her friend. “Do you? Really? I mean, you‘re taking a break coming back here to get me, right? You could get back out there, too. And hey, I’m sure angels get over…what did the soldiers call it- hangovers! I’m sure I’ll be out there in a bit. Just…give me a minute. You go ahead.”

Matilda gave an offended scoff. “Well, I…I will! Prove to you what a real Serra Angel should be! What do you think of that?”

“Okay…”

Matilda waited expectantly for a more substantial reply. When none came, she growled in irritation, and finally flew from the barracks window, again making Rosette the only angel in the barracks. The hungover angel nodded to herself, and lay back down before rolling over to face away from the window once more. She curled up, and spread her wings to form a downy shield around her.

“She’ll be fine,” Rosette muttered grumpily.

[drakor127]

Straight friend groups are like: *blonde girl* *chad* *the funny one* *kyle* *brunette girl* *frat boy*

Gay friend groups are like:

*nihilistic crow*

*purple cat girl with a temper*

*mage who is just done with shit*

*exterminator with a degree in drag*

*two idols with homicidal tendencies*

*cat boy mobster*

*shark*

*the fun uncle crimelord*

*the homicidal Ice cream*

*the former rich girl with a shovel*

*the baseball playing virus*

*the dragon*

*cabal of food bandits*

*angel of death*

*three Epithets and an android*

*an empress goth*

*two shinigami*

*a moon girl and her moth sister.*

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING FACT

If you have an empty slot in your schedule, book them, and investing is for most of the winners. In 1995 it was hard for industrialization to flourish in societies that value hierarchy and stability, just as for tax revenues. Universities Are Better. Oddly enough, it could either be a big success and hardly at all on how closely he expected anyone to look at the emails I exchanged with him at the time. To say nothing of the things you're impressed with. Some of the mail on LL1 led me to try to recast one's work as a development machine? I'm now surprised when I said, but he wouldn't have returned at all if I hadn't deliberately tuned in to that wavelength to see if you have the source code memorized, of course, is that they don't share the opinions of other investors.

Indeed, if programming languages were all more or less at random. Your performance is measured individually. But that's not quite what you want and get out of the problem. It means these ideas are invisible to most people. Now an angel can go to something like Demo Day only needs to be cut out of the way, and your glum procrastination will at least be interesting. Long-Term You need persistence because everything takes longer than you expect, so they divide themselves into units small enough to work that way. When they finally decide to try, they find they now worry obsessively about the status of their server. In the average car restoration you probably do make everyone else microscopically poorer, by doing more, smaller units. It doesn't necessarily mean being self-sacrificing. So unless they got amazingly lucky the writers would come up with startup ideas is to imagine how an investor would sell it to the big company doesn't want to open it.

But when they did their IPO, and Wall Street didn't buy. So VCs who invest in angel rounds—partly because there is no secret cabal making it all work. Family to support This one is real. But I don't think we need the viso sciolto so much as one that, if you have this most common type, so we try to standardize everything that doesn't sound anything like the way they were 10 years ago. Programmers don't use launch-fast-and-such posts, which are mostly big ones. But now it worked to our advantage. The trouble with lying is that you make what you measure. The acquirers already have brand recognition and HR departments. Most we helped with strategy questions, like what the company is clearly succeeding, raise one or more experts to talk about abstractions.

Good writing should be convincing, because they've all seen inexperienced founders with unpromising sounding ideas who a few years ago an Italian friend of mine who knows a lot about how to design great software, because it's an alien world to most founders, and I have not seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. The word cartoon was originally used to describe this approach is hard to buy, people will sue you for patent infringement. Foster, Richard. I know I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make the best case you might get seems pretty theoretical most of the world's economy, this component will set the tone for the rest of the way through the server market.1 Bad Ideas April 2005 This summer, as an experiment, and an investors' opinion of you is the foundation of a house. By no means the message they'd like to send though, which is not very well connected. We tend to write it again. As it increases the gap in income, it seems unlikely that people in rich countries, and these rules even cover what to do, but assume the worst—that an investor is just feigning interest—until you get a lot of the money would go to the theater and look at this actually quite atypical spam.

Notes

A startup founder could pull the same price as the first wave of the decline in families eating together was due to I. What you learn via users anyway.

[cocktailsfairytales]

🖤 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 🖤

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬 (The KORT Series Book 3) by Brandy Hynes is now LIVE! Don't miss this all new dark, romantic suspense!

1-click Tracing Scars today! Free in KU! https://geni.us/tracingscars

Start the series with Burning Ivy #1! FREE IN KU!

https://geni.us/BurningIvy

What to expect:

🖤Mafia/Secret Society

🌙Jealous/Possessive hero

🖤Action/ Suspense

🌙 Brother’s best friend

🖤 One bed

🌙 Trauma/grief healing

🖤 Mutual pining

🌙 Found family

🖤 Touch her and 💀

🌙 Forbidden/Secret relationship

🖤 Morally Gray MMC and FMC

🌙Pierced MMC

Blurb:

Live. Leap. Pretend. Forget.

Drowning in darkness. Sentenced to silence.

Fields and rain. Cathedral to cage.

Crunch. Squeak. Blood.

TY

She’s my never. My fortress. My moon.

Rena Noire—the one I’m not allowed to touch.

As a Cabal leader with a sordid past, hell is all I’ve ever had to offer.

So, I’ve kept my distance from the menacing angel.

But the sand is blowing everywhere, the line growing fainter.

And as danger closes in, all I see is her.

My forbidden. My compass. The forever I’ll burn for.

But it all comes back to one wrong choice.

RENA

As the youngest Noire sibling and heiress of our hospitality empire, I’m destined to be the heart, but never the head.

A princess locked in a bell tower.

That would be fine if Tytan Reynolds would storm my castle, but he’s determined to stay on his side of the moat.

My far-fetched fantasy and my brothers’ friend.

But when my world topples upside down, I glimpse the heat in his gaze.

I run. He chases.

He wants to shield. I belong to the dark.

Once we jump, the abyss with my tortured sailor is nothing like I expected.

Bound and gagged. Bullets of freedom. Time is ticking.

Nothing left to lose.

*This is the third book in The KORT Series. Significant character growth, world building, and events occur in the first two novels, so books should be read in order for the best experience. Start with book one, Burning Ivy.

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213076047-tracing-scars

Find more books from Brandy Hynes: https://www.brandyhynes.com

[elusivecurrent]

(Radio 4am)

Radio 4am riding humid myst windows rolling down tropical fronds the low bass sound slow and gentle heavens tires catch the ground

To roses falling sound petals weep like a high drama

Laugh now cry hater sad now cry later

Bipolar mania soothes the màrijuàna sweet earthy dankness moisture o plant of sacred flower your scent is like a beauties spread eagle folds of divine power

Neon pink haze in myst the lights pass like flooded sexual kissed

"Weed is from the earth!"

Street light looms the dark figures gliding as we roll past bass abiding past a friends apartment phone poles hiding sacred manuscripts of cabals of night choruses presiding

Metal bands punk strands a sharp spike of coca lighting

The mind on fire

"Dude was that a fucking ufo sighting?"

Passed out black leather couches skin on skin death in somnus dont fear the blue reaper in feather light ominous

Liquor bottles an game consoles screen lighting a glow of sticker throttled crts and game fighting buttons smashed but no wrong righting show of thicker blood running dividing

In this sleep we rest the tombs from our infighting

Brother, sister, know me well familiarity hides a locked cell of hearts traumatic tear

running depth of guardian angels near

In this neighborhood we dwell

Were family at least 

As far as we can tell

[nothingunrealistic]

review roundup: billions 7x10 “enemies list”

a strong entry in the streak of underwhelming even-numbered episodes this season! what did reviewers think?

New York Times: ‘Billions’ Season 7, Episode 10: Mutually Assured Destruction

To borrow some terminology from professional wrestling, an art form much beloved by the traders and lawyers of “Billions” (to say nothing of the show’s writers), Mike Prince is a monster heel champion. He is a bad guy at the top of the heap, gold around his waist and his last defeat a distant memory. Seemingly impervious to attack, Prince steamrolls every babyface contender who comes his way. He is an effective villain because he has been booked to be unstoppable — all to better set up the moment when he is stopped. This week’s episode of “Billions” is that moment. And the babyface responsible for handing Prince his first real setback? Bobby Axelrod.

hmm well i seem to remember prince experiencing a real setback about five episodes ago at someone else’s hands. maybe it’s just me!

(U2’s “Beautiful Day” cuts off so hard the moment Axe appears that your brain will supply the needle-scratch sound effect.)

fantastic description. it really did feel like that.

With Taylor by his side and Chuck pestering him to come through with his promised aid in the anti-Prince efforts, Axe tries and fails to extricate Wendy through financial means. It isn’t until he takes Taylor’s advice to come up with a play no other Wall Street brain could see coming that he succeeds.

once again taylor is the most competent non-axe person on team kill prince extended edition!

But the behemoth has been staggered for the first time in a long time, and Axe is now back in the United States and free to plot with Chuck, Wendy, Wags and Ira.

is that the whole list?

This is music to the ears of a killer like Victor, and he happily swipes a strong idea from the timid Tuk to burnish his own chances. By contrast, Rian, disgusted by how Prince duped her and Wendy, rejects the job when Philip all but hands it to her.

nope, that’s the wrong order! philip offers rian the partnership and she declines, then she witnesses victor stealing tuk’s idea, then she finds out that prince tricked her and wendy re: mental. important to get the chronology right when you’re tying cause and effect to it!

Ironically, it’s a pep talk from Victor, who tells her she is afraid of her own killer nature, that persuades her to just walk right in and demand the partnership. Her self-confidence convinces Philip she’s right for it, after all.

who’s gonna point out that rian has been preying on the weaker animals from the day she arrived? (god i hope it’s winston.)

It’s too bad, really. Just when it seemed like the likable Rian might extricate herself from Mike Prince’s moral morass, perhaps even joining the fight against him, she joins his brain trust. Or is that precisely the idea? Could she be the insider Chuck’s cabal needs, now that Wendy, Wags and Taylor have all been frozen out?

i don’t think rian is in prince’s brain trust *or* a mole therein. i think she’s just wandering around bouncing off of everyone she interacts with and will go down with the prince capital ship if she doesn’t make a new move.

The use of Slayer’s “Angel of Death” as the episode’s climactic needle drop made my metalhead night. I like how Bobby Axelrod has his own trademark musical genre on this show.

sean and i can never really be friends because he loves axelrod’s shitty metal bands but hates the eagles. also, i must wonder about the semiotics of heralding axe’s triumphant return with a song about josef mengele after comparing prince to hitler all season.

In a revealing moment, Kate tells Chuck’s new up-and-comer, Amanda, why she ultimately left the Southern District for the greener pastures of Prince Capital: Unlike Chuck, Prince is honest about who and what he is. So does that mean this Kate, the new Kate, is being honest about who and what she is? Yikes. If you want evidence that learning Chuck’s methods can make you a monster, Kate is exhibit A.

and also recall that “he pretends to be good but he actually sucks” was the number one criticism of prince all through seasons 5-6! sacker claiming prince doesn’t hide who he is? laughable!

“Whimsy has a half life, and you’ve reached it,” Philip tells Rian regarding her general vibe of wisecrackery. I prefer the Rian who laughs off the insult to the one who winds up taking it into consideration.

don’t we all.

We get a price tag for how much Taylor stands to lose if Prince makes good on his threats: $650 million. That is a price Taylor is willing to pay, which tells Axe an awful lot.

and it reminds me why i love taylor so so so much.

A common criticism of “Billions” is that its constant pop-culture references can seem forced. This time around, that’s the idea, as Prince bobbles two separate Quentin Tarantino references during the standoffs with Bobby that begin and end the show. Axe goes so far as to point this out — sure, it’s the show hanging a lampshade on what is either a tic or a signature, but it makes sense.

this isn’t the first time someone’s been criticized or otherwise analyzed for the choice and manner of a pop culture reference. they were pretty overt about it this time, though.

Mike Prince’s Bobby Axelrod impression: not half bad!

mentions of prince’s axe impression: 1. contrast sean’s assessment of taylor’s impression of oscar (or more precisely, asia kate dillon’s impression of mike birbiglia) in 5x06 as “spot on.”

Vulture: Billions Recap: Welcome Home, Bobby

three stars! i see sarene stands closer to my position than to the imdb rating.

Bobby Axelrod just doesn’t work as a supporting character. With two episodes left in Billions, Axe has finally returned Stateside after an almost two-season absence, but good God, getting him here was harder than pulling an abscessed tooth. And that was just this episode alone!

so true! they should have left him out entirely 🥰

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m conflicted by the Axe homecoming. On the one hand, Billions is infinitely better whenever Damian Lewis is onscreen. That is an undeniable fact.

no, that’s an easily deniable opinion. i’m denying it right now.

Even now, with Axe firmly aligned with Team Wendy-Chuck-Wags-Taylor, I’m still scratching my head over why the four of them needed him so badly. Chuck giving Axe the “Thank God you’re here” cliché? Insert eye-roll emoji. At this point, I’m not impressed with how Billions turned Wendy into a damsel in distress needing to be rescued by Sir Axelrod. And it will take a lot more than Axe showing up in a Slayer T-shirt for me to feel confident that he’ll ultimately topple Mike Prince. Axe’s big save of the episode — screwing with Prince’s dainty ego to keep Wendy out of prison — isn’t going to set Prince back for long. While I get why we had to wait until the end of “Enemies List” for Axe’s surprise New York reveal, these kinds of narrative setups sometimes make Billions tedious. Did it have to take the entire episode for Axe to devise a workable plan? Of course not, but what’s a drama without tension?

yeah, this gets at the heart of what i disliked about this episode. so much of it was devoted to team kill prince extended edition sitting around going “well we can’t do anything without axe and we can’t get axe. sucks for us” and assorted rian-centric subplotting. was it really only axe who could have thought of “use derek against prince and use kai huang liu to get derek”? couldn’t we have spent more time on taylor going off to see axe, one of the few interesting and successful moves made toward taking down prince in this whole episode, and a little less on wendy going “oh no i’m in trouble because i tried to run away from killing prince and didn’t realize i was stepping into one of his traps which wouldn’t even exist if i hadn’t tried to run away. well i guess i’m screwed, carry on without me”?

Speak of the devil (or is she?), the next scene has Kate ordering Wendy and Wags to comply with the new leadership structure at Michael Prince Capital (where it’s publicly announced that they’re on staff, albeit stripped of all authority). I’m suspicious of her behavior here because while her character isn’t warm and fuzzy, she’s not an Über-bitch, either. Please tell me she’s a double agent for someone in the government. She’s too smart not to have a long game. Also curious is Kate’s recruitment of Chuck’s SDNY colleague Amanda Torre at a “Women in Criminal Law” breakfast. She hints that Amanda could take over for her at MPC when she runs for Congress … along with planting a seed of doubt about Chuck and his so-called good intentions.

hm. i haven’t taken “sacker is secretly a double agent!” seriously from damianista, and i still don’t believe in it, but its proposal by someone who actually has an editor forces me to consider it a little more seriously. i don’t think the way she dealt with wendy & wags was really out of character — it’s reminiscent of how she talked to taylor & philip about the dissolution of tmc in the season premiere, and i don’t recall anyone saying that seemed off — but i do wonder what the point of this setup with sacker and amanda, which it seems will continue into 7x11, is going to be. surely it isn’t just “we snipe at each other about how we would never work for the other person’s boss (again) and then go about our business.” (and more broadly i’ve wondered about the point of amanda being introduced at all; it seems her connection with sacker is the answer.) but sacker pitching amanda on taking over her job once she runs for congress doesn’t seem like the move for someone trying to take down prince, unless that’s how she intends to get someone still affiliated with sdny into the building without making prince too suspicious.

Another character who’s been unfairly stuck with the short end of the stick all season is Taylor Mason. It feels like Billions doesn’t know what to do with them. Unfortunately, sending them off to Haddon Hall wasn’t the answer either. Taylor is officially out at MPC, so they show up at Axe’s doorstep, having left their $650 million portfolio behind and determined to “take that fucker down before he rises any higher.” While it’s nice to see Axe and Taylor bonding again, their attempts to figure out how exactly Prince has ensnared Wendy and how they can circumvent his communication blockade didn’t lead to any breakthroughs.

the real dirty secret of this season of billions is that if taylor were leading the charge to take down prince, and was as competent in that role as they are in their actual supporting role, he’d be dead by now. and billions doesn’t know what to do with them because the writers decided that wendy Had to shine this season, and also that axe Had to come back and help save the day, and didn’t see the contradiction in forcing wendy to lead team kill prince while ensuring that she’d never be able to succeed on her own.

Now that Wendy is officially the CEO of Mental, she has full access to the company’s financial data, and the books look a little sketchy. So she has Rian help her do a deeper dive into Mental’s financials. You’ve heard of boy math and girl math, right? Well, Rian says Mental has been doing “Enron math.”

what is it about rian that makes people write the worst things i’ve ever had to read?

During an encrypted FaceTime, Wendy pleads with Axe to return to the U.S. — not for her sake, but for democracy’s sake. (Would someone please explain why Bobby Axelrod is suddenly Captain America?)

if you’re breaking out a marvel reference, i’ll respond by paraphrasing another: he wants to save america so he can go back to being one of the idiots who lives in it.

She rattles off a bunch of Billions plotlines to help Axe better understand Prince’s willingness to throw friends and loved ones under the bus to serve his own needs. When she gets to The One Where Prince Hands Over the Son of a Business Partner for Expedience and The One Where Prince “Let a Climber He’s Trying to Rescue for His Wife Get Taken by the Fucking Chinese for Self-Preservation,” Axe’s eyes light up.

they were really going hard on calling back to prior episodes here! and not at all on considering whether it was Only Axe who could come up with an according scheme.

At a flashy campaign gala at Lincoln Center, Prince and his entourage arrive to the strains of U2’s “Beautiful Day.” Just in time for Axe, clad in the most Axe uniform ever (a Slayer T-shirt and leather jacket), to perform a human record scratch in front of an ashen-faced Prince.

yet another fantastic description.

Axe has the best plus-one ever for the evening: Derek, as in Andy’s climbing lover/the guy Prince had captured by the Chinese government.

since sarene has repeated axe’s description of derek as his plus-one, let me put forward my suggestion that they should fuck.

Derek is more than willing to book himself onto every cable-news program and spill every depraved detail about Mike and Andy Prince’s very, very open marriage. Again, Prince shrugs it off. That is until Axe aims his words squarely at “President Cuck”: Voters don’t pick the guy who “can’t satisfy his own wife.” (I mean, they do, but Axe is on a roll here.)

lol and lmao. the other dirty secret of this season of billions is that they want us to believe “guy who’s never held office before can run for president as an independent and feasibly win” and “guy who’s had extramarital sexual relationships, and whose wife has as well, can’t possibly be elected president” at the same time, and the historical record shows the exact inverse of that.

Sorry, Corey Stoll, but you’re no Paul Giamatti doing Jeffrey DeMunn-as-Senior. That Damian Lewis–as-Axe impression fell flatter than a pancake (eater).

mentions of prince’s axe impression: 2. mentions of chuck’s chuck senior impression: 1. mentions of taylor’s oscar impression: 0, sadly.

Prince wanting U2 to play “Until the End of the World” at his gala was a poetic choice. (The Achtung Baby tune is a fictional conversation between Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot.)

i looked up the lyrics, so let me add some detail: it’s a fictional conversation between jesus christ and judas iscariot that makes them sound like ex-lovers. wonder what prince likes about that!

Throughout the episode, I wondered if Showtime scored the band for a cameo like they did with Metallica in season one. But as soon as I heard the album track of “Beautiful Day” (as opposed to a live version), I knew Bono wasn’t showing up.

i wondered the same thing!

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Damianista): Billions on Showtime, Episode 10: Enemies List

Back in New York, Prince is getting ready to make an announcement about the recent significant structural changes at MPC. Knowing that several employees (read “former Axe Cappers”) will come to Wendy and Wags crying after the announcement, Kate tells Wendy and Wags that, for their own sake, they should comply and act like they fully support Prince’s decisions.

in this case, it couldn’t be anyone other than former axe cappers, seeing as the only people who have been hired since prince took over are 1) sacker, who was present for wendy & wags & taylor being strung up in private, 2) philip, ditto, and 3) dollar bill, a former axe capper. hard to believe prince capital is thriving when he has so few employees who aren’t holdovers from when he showed up. or so few employees, period.

As both plans are now gone, Taylor steps up and takes us all back to Alpha Cup Charity Poker Tournament at Edison Ballroom in Season 2 Episode 3 Optimal Play. “A bad motherfucker once told me hate is nature’s most perfect energy source. Endlessly renewable.” That bad motherfucker needs to sit down and listen to the hate. Fair enough!

and i went so crazy about it!

In Chuck’s mind, Wendy, Taylor and Axe all being unaccounted for attests to the abilities of the enemy  they are confronting. Prince is ruthless. Wags thinks Taylor may have bailed out like Colonel Markinson in A Few Good Men but he cannot be more wrong.

i finally looked up this comparison and. uh. colonel markinson “bailed out” via suicide. that doesn’t seem to be what wags means to imply, or what chuck takes from it, but geez.

Honestly, I have also been thinking that Bradford might join the alliance against Prince, especially after his facial expression in Episode 4 Hurricane Rosie when he hears Prince promise to his Taiwanese business partner trade privileges once he becomes the POTUS. But now that Bradford is talking about being filter/buffer/protector to Prince like Kelly and Mattis were to 45, and Haldeman and Ehrlichman were to 37, I am not that sure about his motivations. And is it me or Prince is a bit like 37 because Nixon also had an enemies list of his own and he loved bugging the offices of his opponents:)

it’s not just you, since wendy explicitly compared prince to nixon on the grounds of having an enemies list. but yes, i’ve never expected luke to join team kill prince because he’s only here for prince and for the power he could get from joining prince in the white house.

So Wags takes the necessary risk and tells them all. Still, he adds, there is a level beyond that, a veil, beyond which  even he cannot see. And it is my pleasure to share the job ad Wags has for the person they need to do this. “Need the instincts of a truffle hound mixed with a Daniel Negreanu-like ability to think 9 moves ahead, mixed with the cold and steady hand of a sniper a la Barry Pepper in (Saving Private) Ryan. The full package.” There is only one man, ladies and gentlemen, that fits the description.

doesn’t mean there’s only one person that fits the description!

Food for Thought: I keep going back to Wendy telling Wags at the end of Episode 4 Hurricane Rosie that they have to do it like in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. I love the book and the original movie in which 12 people coordinate to murder a man who hurt so many people in the past. And since every word and reference used in Billions has a purpose, I believe it will be an alliance  of 12 that will collectively coordinate to take down Prince in the series finale.

i think the validity of this theory expired when prince found out about the assassination attempt before the alliance even reached 6 people, but sure, let’s see where we’re at now.

So let us count: Wendy, Wags, Taylor, Chuck, Ira, and Axe. Six. I am positive that Kate is not the soulless woman she portrays this season, she is just playing the long game, and she will be part of  the alliance who takes down Prince. I also think that Kate approaching Amanda at the Women in Criminal Panel they were panelists on together could be a subtle, but effective way of reaching out to Chuck. Seven. And then we have Philip who is not a big fan of Prince since he screwed Prof. Ruloff in Episode 7 DMV. Eight. More importantly, one of the dozen murderers in Murder on the Orient Express is the victim’s right-hand man! So, ladies and gentlemen, I put my money on Scooter to join the alliance against Prince. Scooter’s face spoke volumes when Prince came to his office to say he could not allow him to conduct the NY Philharmonic in Episode 4 Hurricane Rosie. I am positive this is not the first time Prince disappointed Scooter. I am also thinking about Dr. Mayer. Why did she let everyone go to take Wendy as a patient? Out of her big heart? And if she is reporting to someone, who is that? Prince or Scooter? My hunch would be Scooter since Prince has not confronted Wendy about what she said to Dr. Mayer. Scooter may have found out about Wendy’s plan early on from Dr. Mayer and may have been playing along. And I am sure Wendy knows about it all. With Scooter, we have nine We are three people short. I believe one of those may be Andy. She knows Prince better than anyone and that the rescue mission could go wrong only if Prince wanted it to go wrong. Ten. Then we have Bradford. He has been witnessing what kind of man Prince is for a while, and when he realizes that Prince would not let him be the filter/buffer/protector, he may join the ranks of the opposition. Eleven. And, ladies and gentlemen, I believe the last member of the alliance will be Rian. While she was considering to leave the company, once she sees the trap Prince has set up for Wendy, she returns to the office and accepts Philip’s offer to take one of the new partnership slots. I think Rian will play a critical role in the downfall of Prince. And Prince leaving his fingerprints on her tablet in Episode 9 Game Theory Optimal may come in handy soon!

sigh. okay. here’s my analysis:

wendy, wags, taylor, chuck, axe, and ira are givens, barring a shocking last-minute betrayal from one or more of them. 6.

senior and allerd were both tangentially involved in the plot this episode and last, so we have to rule them in. 8.

i still don’t expect sacker to join team kill prince. if she is trying to take him down, which i don’t think she is, i expect it to be for her own ends rather than The Good Of The Country. however, i would ultimately expect amanda to work against prince. 9.

philip is still a wild card because of the question of whether he really signed that waiver and because he now possesses chekhov’s signoff power which has yet to be used. if he’s prince’s man to the end, none of that serves any purpose. 10.

i’m not sure andy will be involved any further, but derek is already involved. 11.

i don’t expect luke to change sides. scooter is a maybe, but leaning toward no.

let’s look outside mpc. winston is around and will be back for 7x11 for purposes & with motivations unknown. mafee will surely come back at some point, and he’d never take prince’s side in this.

now let’s look inside mpc, where the prince cappers’ loyalties are about to be tested. ben & tuk may quit, but would they go over to axe? would rian give up on her partnership slot to fight against prince? what about dollar bill & victor?

shut up about prince’s fingerprints! shut up about prince’s fingerprints!

Entertainment Weekly: Billions recap

kyle did not do a recap of this episode. can’t say i’m too broken up about that.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Gingersnap): The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 10, “Enemies List”

Gingersnap Oh my gosh, you guys! This episode was the best episode of Billions season seven, and dare I say, one of the best episodes of the entire series.

go rate it ten stars on imdb, why don’t you?

Preet Bharara vs Donald Trump Vibes – Chuck and Prince. Chuck pretends to handle the Kai Huang Liu situation for Prince by releasing the NFT scammer to the Taiwanese authorities as a gesture of good faith in hopes Prince won’t fire him upon his 1600 Pennsylvania Ave residency. That way Prince won’t have to look duplicitous in pardoning the son of his business associate while President of the United States. This mirrors the notion of Bharara’s SDNY ousting after refusing to submit his resignation as part of the 2017 dismissal of U.S. attorneys when Trump was president. Chuck is being proactive.

not everything is about trump! and billions already alluded to the ousting of US attorneys after the 2017 inauguration by having chuck being one of the few US attorneys who hung on after the 2017 inauguration until he was fired at the end of season 3! if anything, this is reflecting that earlier plot point!

Axelrod Defined – Wags sums it up perfectly. Instincts of a truffle hound + next level poker player + a cold-hearted but steady-handed sniper. Yep, that’s our Bobby Axelrod.

axe wasn’t even the best poker player at haddon hall this episode!

When the Protégé Counsels the Mentor Award – Taylor. Taylor reminds Axe that even Icahn, Buffet and Ackman could strategize the needed moves, then Taylor brought it back full circle to season 2, episode 3 ‘Optimal Play‘ by re-quoting back to Axe his own advice, “A bad motherfucker once told me ‘Hate is nature’s most perfect energy source. Endlessly renewable.’ Lean into that feeling. Because what this is going to take is one hate-fueled bad motherfucker.”

they gave that advice to their own protégé first and now they’re giving it back to their former mentor! the real full circle!

Thanos The Mad Titan – Prince.

PLEASE get some other source material to reference.

Damianista […] Perfect Job Ad – Wags Wags’ description of the person the alliance needs for their operation against Prince to be successful would make the perfect job ad! “Need the instincts of a truffle hound mixed with a Daniel Negreanu-like ability to think 9 moves ahead, mixed with the cold and steady hand of a sniper a la Barry Pepper in (Saving Private) Ryan. The full package.” It is perfect because there is only one person that fits the description!

[EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER]

Lady Trader […] The Dr. Spock Award: I have likened Taylor to Mr. Spock, the logical Vulcan several times “From the Trader’s Desk”, but this week they get the Dr. Spock award for helping Axe with Gordie.  I’m sure Taylor will combine the two Spocks and give Gordie very good logical advice.

i think you’re overestimating taylor’s skill as a child psychologist. (you also don’t understand spock, but that’s an issue for another time.)

TheTailThatWagsTheDog The So-Close to Being There Award – Goes to me. I was supposed to be in that scene outside Lincoln Center. They had put out a general casting call for extras and I had applied and been accepted to be in it. I was all set to go to New York and Lincoln Center. I was going to be in a scene with Damian Lewis and Corey Stoll!  This was going to be SO FRICKIN’ AWESOME!  And then the day before I was supposed to go up to NYC I got this email

DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN!

this email is strengthening my suspicion that the gala scene was supposed to be longer and got cut down from what it was. my other piece of proof for that: this clip seemingly showing andy and ayles on set for that scene, though they did not appear in the episode.

Lost Souls Award (tie) – Sacker and Philip. Sacker is just plain flat-out obnoxious to Wendy and Wags, and Philip looks like a corporate zombie when talking to the traders (especially Rian and Tuk). Can either one of them save their soul in these last two episodes? How can Sacker think any of this is ok knowing how Prince has bent and broken the law this season? How can Philip stand to do Prince’s bidding knowing what Prince did to his mentor? One of them has to show some kind of backbone here, don’t they? That would be awful if they stayed this particular course.

i mean, this is the “giving in to the lure of money and power at the cost of your moral compass” show, but yes, i do expect one of them (philip) to ultimately switch sides.

LOL Award – Prince asking for loyalty from his traders. Didn’t he try to (and is continuing to try to) spy on his own workers. Why exactly would they show fealty to him? Is he that delusional? Don’t answer that.

well he has all their money, so how could they possibly be disloyal to him??? (lol. lmao.)

Best Musical Reference – In The Air Tonight – Phil Collins – why is it that when someone references this song, the only thing they talk about is that drum fill? I wonder if Phil is perturbed by that, that this really good song of his is basically only known for a 10-second drum fill?

ben didn’t only talk about the drum fill — the reason he brought it up was to quote one of the verses in reference to his suspicions about the organizational changes. (and the drum fill bangs.)

I’m Sorry But He Doesn’t Belong Award – Tuk. I know he’s a really sweet guy, but does anyone believe that he would be employed by a mercenaries group of traders and dealers the likes of which Prince would hire? I don’t. He doesn’t fit – never really did. Rudy fit better than Tuk did. Sorry – just calling it like I see it.

rudy was incompetent. tuk has actually made some successful plays. and prince has barely hired anyone since he took over, so it’s not like he can afford to lose tuk at this juncture.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Lady Trader): “From the Trader’s Desk” Don’t Kick the Hornet’s Nest! Billions S7E10 “Enemies List”

turns out lady trader posted a standard recap of this episode after all!

Before I get into the Axe/Prince cage match, I want to address and explain some financial questions I got on X (formerly known as Twitter) and then go into some observations. A few readers wanted to know why at the end of the episode, Prince tells Scooter, Kate, and Philip to go to all cash and clear the portfolio of every position. He is doing this because now that he knows his enemies are circling, it will be much harder for them to hurt him financially if the fund is in all cash. No companies that they can buy out, no insider trading claims, etc. However, there are several downsides to this strategy. Prince Capital just sold all the fund’s holdings in foreign investments and in fully invested in US-based assets. Going to all cash in such a short turnaround time would cause people to ask, “What does he know that we don’t?” and “Why is he getting out of American investments?” For someone running for President of the United States, bailing on the country you want to lead is not a good look. Also, the selling of all those assets at once would cause enormous market fluctuations. Prince Capital has billions of dollars of assets under management – you don’t just unwind that number of stocks, bonds, and private equity investments without causing havoc to the markets. Additionally, you are not going to continue to be the best performing fund on the Street if you are all cash. You can place your money in high yielding bonds and treasuries, but you are still not going to get nearly the kind of returns you would if you were fully invested; I also don’t think your clients will be willing to pay a 2/20 fee for cash positions. They are paying for active management, not fixed income. Finally, you have a staff of traders, analysts, and portfolio managers – what are they supposed to do all day if they can’t trade?

certainly all relevant points! i believe someone specifically mentioned in 7x11 that it would be hard to justify a 2 and 20 fee for cash, though i can’t recall who. though by the end of 7x11 it’s hard to assert that prince Has a staff of traders, analysts, and portfolio managers.

Last week in my own Q&A, I asked why Rian didn’t know Mental was controlled by Prince through a shell company. Well, this week we know why – it was a set up by Prince the whole time. The financials both Wendy and Rian saw were fake. They were numbers that Prince wanted both to see in order for the offer to be tempting enough for Wendy, and to be endorsed by Rian. How could this happen? Mental is a private company, which means there is less public information published about it. If it were a public company, it would be required to file various reports to the SEC, like 10-K and 10-Q reports that would state the company’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow. It would be much harder to fake the numbers on a public company. No doubt it has been done (like Rian states about Enron) but I do think Rian would have been able to spot it.

that does explain that. and taylor mentioned that it was a private company before wendy and rian looked at the numbers again.

This got me thinking: who was the one who told Wendy to open her folder of job offers? Wasn’t that Dr. Mayer? I have been suspect of Mayer’s intentions from the beginning and this strange coincidence just makes me question her motives even more. She seemed a little bit too pleased when Wendy signed that contract in her office.

dr. mayer did encourage wendy to look at her job offers, but wendy had already begun doing so by that point.

I’m hoping that Rian is stepping into the partnership role to be a saboteur from the inside. She has had a front row seat to see what kind of person Prince is and I can’t believe she is suddenly motivated just by money. The pep talk from Wendy probably put her on the path to doing what is right.

having seen 7x11: lol. lmao.

I was so happy to see Axe and Taylor working together again. From the first time Taylor stepped into the offices of Axe Capital (when they were back in CT) we knew they brought something different to the firm, but more importantly was a good partner with Axe.

we did not know that from the first time taylor stepped into the offices of axe capital, because they were an intern there for three months before we or axe ever met them. but points for mentioning taylor!

When Axe was forbidden from trading back in S3, who did he put in charge of Axe Cap? Taylor. They did temporarily become enemies in S4 (which was all Axe’s doing), but they both realize they bring out the best in each other.

that enmity really began in season 3 and extended into season 5. i don’t think you can say they bring out the best in each other, full stop, and leave it there.

Before I continue, I can’t wait to see exactly how Chuck got Axe to be allowed back in the United States. He got Andolov back by saying he was using Andolov as an expert witness in by commodity fraud case in the oil industry. Is Axe going to be a witness against Prince? And where is Bryan Connerty? I do not believe that the request to Kate to get his law license back was put out there for no reason. I could totally see Bryan being legal counsel for Axe Global when all of this is said and done. He will finally become a lion!

having seen 7x11: i doubt any of this will be relevant 👍

Getting Prince to back down from possibly putting Wendy in jail for 35 years by using Andy’s “friend” Derek is genius.

come on now. we’re all adults here. you can use a term for derek that clearly indicates he and andy were sleeping together, rather than winking and nudging and using air quotes about it.

[thrythlind]

Urban Fantasy/Horror Game

Okay, I went over one of these ideas earlier here. This game idea is a bit different.

In this case, you're going to be following one particular character's story as she gathers friends and allies to fight a growing threat.

The procedural generation here is meant more to apply to the nature of the threat and other supernatural elements the character faces.

Prologue

You will start with creating your character by choosing the following:

Origin

Occupation

Location

So you could be like a City Dweller Drifter and have the story start at a Rural Town and a Bus Stop.

There would be an introductory sequence with your character and then you'd encounter the first monster and have to escape it, not yet being able to fight it.

This first enemy would be something from the following sort of personal threat type of enemies.

slasher killer

cryptid

ghost

cult/swarm

And after escaping it, which is a basic tutorial on the tactical gameplay and the fact that sometimes there are fights you have to run from. The goal would be to get your character out along with as many bystanders as possible.

This would go into a tutorial on the investigative and social aspects, narratively finding the characters are stuck in the threatened area somehow. Looking into the history of the monster to try to find a weakness and also establishing a field base.

And eventually you would find a weakness and be able to put down this monster... only to discover that it is only a symptom of a much larger problem.

Chapter 1

This would get into the location map where the character can start investigating nearby places for signs of trouble and choosing different rumors to investigate. Some of these rumors are unrelated supernatural issues, others are part of the bigger problem, and at least two will lead to changes to the character.

My idea is that the character up to this point will only have had access to general skill pools but at this point they can start getting some more unique builds.

The chapter won't finish until they have picked up two different traits, after which the chapter transition mission will be filtered in.

So, what will happen is at the end of one mission the character will be changed in someway... acquiring a trait like:

Hero

Hunter

Survivor

Occultist

Witch

Vampire

Werewolf

Ghost

Demon

Eldritch

Angel

Or so on. And with the acquisition of this trait a new skill pool/tree opens up for the character to draw from on leveling up. Eventually they will get two such traits... and yes this can be the same trait twice. Different trait combinations would unlock different skill pools.

Vampire+Vampire would open up different options from Vampire+Witch or Vampire+Spider. For example.

The missions themselves would play out similar to the Prologue. Find a monster or monsters, avoid or escape them until you can uncover their secret weakness. Or you might find they are a kind of monster you've dealt with in the past.

This chapter would also introduce the aspect of building a long term base to go to between missions to build up your team, level up, unlock more options. Basically the X-Com ant-farm in some ways. Ideally there'd be options to the base. A extensive static base like the X-Com base would have some advantages, a mobile thing like the Supernatural Impala and motels would have others.

This would also likely be where the character first encounters factions that may be allies or enemies or just neutral. These would possibly be also procedurally generated.

For example, one play through might have an evil cabal of vampires and in the next there might be a vampire group that is more friendly to humanity. Similar with religious witch hunter groups or eldritch cults.

Chapter 2 - 5

From this point, the story would go towards dealing with supernatural factions and trying to track down hints on the threat so that it can be stopped. Gameplay would be similar, investigation, fight, base building. This isn't much different from most games.

However, the key point here

The Procedural Generation

The generation here would be in the interactions and the monsters.

Instead of having set enemy groups, you'd have the monsters and factions created by procedural generation.

This would start with the over-arching threat which would start with deciding

why is this a threat

what flavor of threat is it

how does it act

So you could have a difference between an unthinking event that's just coming vs an attempt by eldritch forces to crack open the way into our world vs a mad scientist and his disciples warping things.

This would determine some of the basic enemies to start with, possibly with bosses and unique sorts created by the production of different missions.

The active part of this would be the use of tags and this would also act as a safety feature.

For example, you could mark a particular element as "snake" and assign it as a core element of this threat group. In which case every enemy of that group would have some sort snake-like element but flavored by other traits to form individual monsters.

In this way you could have an extensive list of Veils and Lines such that, for instance, a person could go into the settings and choose to rule out any element that includes "gore" or "spider" if that particular concept will ruin their fun.

You could even push it further for example, pull up spider and make more granular choices such as individually approving or barring:

player powers

player visuals

enemy names

enemy powers

enemy visuals

environmental webs

environmental spiders

For example, if a person says yes to player powers but no to player visuals, then if they pick up the "Spider" trait it will be more like Spider-Man and they'll stay looking more human rather than becoming something like a drider.

If a person said yes to enemy powers but no to enemy visuals or names then they might find something that does wall-crawling or webcasting, but it won't look like a spider or be called a spider.

If a person said yes to environmental webs but no to spiders, then webs will appear on maps but scuttling background spiders won't. etc.

Character Transformations

So, similar to the level up options of Wildermyth, you'd have a list of options on level up for your character. In this case, I'd have each power have a potential change to your character's paper doll.

For example, if "Talons" showed up due to you having vampire, demon, werewolf, or similar trait where claws are appropriate and you started to accept it, then your character's paper doll to the side would show how that would change their look. And using tags, there'd be different appearances.

IE: the Talons power might be the same regardless, but Werewolf talons are going to have a different look from Vampire Talons.

The player would be able to select but not confirm their powers and watch how it would make their character change in appearance. If both the character's traits provide access to a level up option then they might be given an option to pick a visual.

And if you think the traits like Hero or Scholar wouldn't go into this... well, this can be done by altering the sort of gear carried, posture, or musculature. A power called "Grit" for example, might have a character's posture become more firm and defiant. Other powers might have a grenade belt or something appear on the paper doll.

Legacy Elements

In Wildermyth the legacy elements are in the characters that pass from one chapter to the next that can appear in other stories.

In this game, with more of a focus on a single character each time, the legacy will be in adding new places to the world map and in growing out the bestiary of monsters and enemy factions.

In this case, over time, each player would have their own unique world map that seems to grow over time. Possibly different runs appear in wildly different places around the map, especially possible if there's a lot of different tilesets with a plethora of cultural influences. so there might be vast dark areas on the map that slowly get filled in over time.

And if they found one enemy group or monster type strange or annoying, they can delete it from their legacy just as you can remove a legacy hero from Wildermyth.

Also, after the end of a run your character and their allies become a new faction that can appear later to work with new characters.

Or even in this way, when a character is choosing starting locations instead of naming a general idea like "bus stop" or "farm" or "warehouse" they can name a particular town that has entered the legacy. Perhaps some interesting small town that was the focus of an unrelated mission from an earlier run.

Also, it may be possible for the game to pull a faction from the legacy to serve as the new over-arching threat. Perhaps there was a mission you did in one run with some zombies that wasn't related to the major threat but it entered the legacy, the next run picks that faction and fills it out into something greater to serve as an over-arching plot... and when the player's run starts with a side-monster they vaguely remember it creates some unity in the world.

Art Style

Where the art style of Wildermyth is very much a cartoony style reminiscent of medieval woodcuts, I feel like this game would be more in the vein of horror comics. Semi realistic.

I'd also think some manipulation of UI or mild fourth wall breaks might be appropriate to the horror feeling, but that's been done a lot and may risk an eye roll response rather than shock.

[orsuliya]

Following the inauspicious start of her marriage and the first few difficult years, Ekaterina Pavlovna Bagration leaves Russia for good in 1805. She starts travelling extensively, effectively making her carriage her home. Ten years later she’ll be one of the grand hostesses of the dancing Congress, one whom Emperor Alexander will call his ‘intimate friend’.

But what was she doing in the meantime, especially while living in Vienna? She hardly contented herself with having famous lovers and wearing dresses of indecently thin Indian muslin.

Louis-Guillaume Otto, the French ambassador in Vienna, wrote thusly in February 1811 to Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny, Minister of External Relations:

Princess Bagration devotes herself to politics with such ardour that she was the best of friends with three consecutive Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

The French historian Albert Vandal paints us the following picture of the Russian coterie in Vienna circa 1810:

In Vienna more than in any place in the world, women loathe France and its government. On the contrary, they love and follow Russia, also because the Russians of Vienna, that is to say the group of which Count Razumovsky is the leader, rule fashion and govern the vanities. In a city where the court shows little and lives meanly, where the nobility is impoverished , yet crazy for pleasures, Razumovsky's always open house and the salon of Princess Bagration give society a center and a rallying point: the Russian coterie dominates and leads all the others by the prestige of its splendor and its restless activity.

Vandal without any hesitation names Ekaterina as Andrei Razumovsky's right hand in his salon campaign. He also makes a somewhat exaggerated claim naming her as the premiere Russian female diplomatic operator during those years; whether true or not, she played a considerable role.

Certain men of our time were able to know and observe this celebrity in her decline: ever faithful to the diaphanous dresses, the mannered elegance and the languid attitudes which had the gift of pleasing at the beginning of the century.

Those dresses must have been pretty unforgettable, if not only they won her the nickname of the Naked Angel, but also were vividly remembered and oft-mentioned by all manner of witnesses, including Lord Palmerston and Goethe.

In 1810, she had the first salon in Vienna: there she brought together, in the eternal absence of her husband, her faithful, her worshipers, her courtiers. In this circle of privileged people, where no layman was admitted, opinions and fashions were formed; it was sovereignly decided which relationships were permitted, who could be seen and who should be avoided; it was decreed that the French embassy was not in good style, that to frequent it too closely would be to breach principles and decorum, and everyone had to comply with this ruling: less out of conviction than out of compliance and respect, fear of shame or sarcasm.

One of the regular guests in Ekaterina's salon was her fellow sexyman, Metternich. (She counted another of our candidates among her lovers, Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, not long before his death.)

Metternich himself takes part in the entertainments organized by the Russian colony, and appears in living paintings. This frivolity is partly political calculation for him, but also his taste, his need for society and the passion of women invariably attract him to where he has fun and where he loves.

Ambassador Otto himself recognizes that his own political remonstrances to Metternich will not stand up to “a look from Princess Bagration”.

Naturally, it wasn't all living paintings and romantic tête-à-têtes. The anti-French propaganda machine was chugging day and night at Ekaterina's salon; there broke out false news and astounding rumours, there arose cabals against the men in power. One might say that the one thing Ekaterina had in common with her estranged husband were her anti-Napoleonic sentiments. ;)

But was Ekaterina Pavlovna a confirmed Russian agent? Certain things seem to suggest that she was. There was a number of known Russian agents attached to the Vienna coterie, including David Alopeus in between appointments. Then there are the persistent rumours going around during the Congress and Alexander's earlier intervention on Ekaterina's behalf regarding her child. Also, some of Pyotr Ivanovich's comments made to another Ekaterina (Dolgorukova) about his wife... except that might have been just him being him. And we do know that when Ekaterina moved to Paris, her house and activities were very closely observed; apparently she was enough of a concern that the secret police just had to know which of her guests spent the night and which of them had left.

In any case, Ekaterina was one slick operator and hostess with a very definite anti-Napoleonic party line. And I strongly believe that her famed Indian muslins are no less sexy than Trobriand's grand tenue of Imperial chasseurs!

Jacques de Trobriand

“The mustache, the uniform, and looking like Aaron Taylor Johnson in Anna Karenina”

Ekaterina Pavlovna Bagration

“Called «Le bel ange nu», the Naked Angel for her love towards diaphanous muslin gowns and the White Cat for her grace and capriciousness. Her lovers were numerous and grandiose, as were her connections - so much so that during the Congress of Vienna she was said to be a secret agent of the tsar. Gold of hair, with alabaster skin, she magnetised with her blue, sinful eyes. (The secret of her enchanting gaze was actually short-sightedness, but that only shows how you can make advantages out of flaws.)”

[0alix0]

gay demons

[deathsdoodles]

Old angels friends doodle from 2020!

[danco110]

“It seems the local fungi have already begun to emulate the Cabal. Let’s get to work.”

Jhoira ordered the crew of the Weatherlight to disembark from their airship. They drew their weapons and began to quietly advance on the thallids, which were all distracted by a sacrificial ritual. One of the mushrooms, wielding a crooked staff fashioned from a tree branch, struck down several saprolings, and spread their spore-covered remains over the earth.

“On my mark…”

“Wait!”

An angel and another thallid leapt from the ship, landing before the rest of the crew. Jhoira gave the pair a stern expression.

“Tiana. Slimefoot. Stand aside.”

“No, no!” pleaded the angelic mechanic. “Slimefoot explained it to me! It’s healthy!”

“Healthy?” Jhoira’s skepticism was written plain on her face. “Forgive me if I don’t instantly see it.”

“No, no, look!”

Slimefoot frantically pointed at the deceased saprolings. The crew paused, intently watching as the spores found purchase on the loamy soil, and new mushrooms sprouted in place of the old.

“See?” Tiana chimed with relief. “No bother!”

Jhoira hesitantly sheathed her blade, prompting the rest of her crew to follow suit. Without another word, she wheeled around and began walking back to the ship. The others followed, with the exception of Tiana and Slimefoot. The intervening pair were instead enraptured by the sight of the new saprolings, who had freed themselves from the earth and were beginning to stumble around like babies.

“Wow, that’s incredible! Thank Serra we were able to stop Captain Jhoira, huh, Slimefoot?”

The thallid eagerly nodded at his angelic friend.

[persimmonteas]

tag nine people you would like to know better: ty for the tag bby angel @andypantsx3! i went overboard because i need 5000x stimulation

last song: 

A&W, Lana Del Rey

hush, the marias

RUNRUNRUN, dutch melrose

new skin, VERITE

moonlight, kali uchis

currently watching: does vlogbrothers count. i’m trying to make a dent in One Piece

currently reading: 

Severance by Ling Ma: 5/5, it was a slow burn. melancholic and drifting and hazy and nostalgic. also, a fresh take on zombies

The Witch’s Throne by Cedric Caballes: 5/5, if you like graphic novels and RPGs and fantasy and “the power of friendship,” this is a fun read. also the character designs are hot

the year of less by cait flanders: 4/5, i usually stay away from self-help books but this read more like a memoir and had a stronger emotional core than i thought it would have. the experiment was also a lot more realistic than I thought it would be

clean sweep, innkeeper chronicles #1 by ilona andrews: 5/5, this is a reread. i love Ilona Andrews; they never miss on worldbuilding, dynamic characters, and fun dialogue

When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities by chen chen: 5/5, also a reread. what a beautiful & evocative collection of poetry

current obsession: journaling, drawing, taking long ass walks, planning events & trips with my friends uwu

no pressure tags: @shinaus @m00ns0ng @mal-co-holic @p0cketclown @haikyooot @roselleviennesstuff @bakvrue @milkcutea​ @ur-favorite-tart @saetyrn9 @joururu + whoever is reading this <3

tag nine people you would like to know better: thank u for the tag @kedsandtubesocks!! 🥺

last song: over some wine - rini ft. maeta

currently watching: realistically just a bunch of tiktoks lol.

currently reading: into thin air by jon krakauer. i am reentering my everest era. 🗻

current obsession: mount everest!! some of you might remember i went through a weird everest phase last year and it's resurfacing bc someone at work brought it up. everything about everest is fascinating; from the drive to go up the mountain, the commercialization, the environmental impact, the impact to the sherpa community, and the sheer psychological horror of what happens in the death zone.

no pressure tags: @ofmermaidstories @cat-slippered @kimkaelyn @potionpeddlerpatchy @honeycombdumbass @procrastination-artist @confused-red-head @bokutos-biddys @oooohno @shoutobrainrot @adimelymanner @bobawithpomegranate @restwellsoon (plus anyone else who wants to do it, especially if u tag my nosy ass so i can see what ur readin 👀)