#anyone who hates them should be publicly executed

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

I love you unfairly hated female characters (Dawn Summers, Skyler White, Mabel Pines, Piper Mclean, Nymphadora Tonks, Katara, Korra, Heather Duke, Elle Greenaway, Katniss Everdeen, Lucy Gray Baird, Travis Martinez)

[levyfiles]

some people are mad at steven for a moral issue, tbf. regardless of your thoughts on watcher’s streaming service he did still say he has racist and homophobic friends. he still goes to a homophobic church.

STEVEN LIM??? OF WATCHER ENTERTAINMENT??? HOMOPHOBIC???

I assume that you must have been recently introduced to The Pod Clip that the twitter teens who hate him preserved to break out whenever it's a fresh moment to rally hate against him, but I would advise anyone just receiving this clip from August 2020 being passed around with the angle that Watcher tried to hide this to examine the facts of the situation more critically.

I and many others were there when this all went down and just know that I have a zero tolerance standard for people who show no remorse or growth when they uplift racists and bigots so if this was true I would have been long gone from this fanspace.

Myself and other fans who were startled by the statement hoped publicly that it would be an opportunity to clear the air for Watcher because the current political climate was just finally examining anti-blackness in everyone's biases and as someone who is mixed-African growing up in an Asian household, I know that anti blackness is and has been a normalised mindset in the Asian community.

But the thing is, months before this, Steven platformed Tammy Cho and her colleagues to discuss how all of us can work together to stop Asian hate and one of the conversations I highlighted back then was how very clear Tammy was that allyship from the Asian community to the African-American community was tantamount to moving forward. That the us vs them rhetoric has and continues to be harmful for both parties. Ryan and Steven were very involved in this discussion and agreed wholeheartedly.

Having said that, the narrative around the podcast ep never had a chance to be discussed rationally. It really ended up skewed because Steven's response to the backlash from that clip was this

I hope that's legible to you. Many people who felt uneasy about what he said felt a lot better and his intention to say something at the top of the next episode would once again, unfortunately, get derailed because Twitter users (some who are particularly loud about loving and supporting Watcher yet constantly join in on the throng of bullying as soon as the tide turns) were adamant that they needed Watcher to post the clip and Steven's apology publicly on their youtube front page and on the main socials, to literally advertise it when the reality is that not many people were watching/listening to the podcast. For what reason would it be intelligent or good business practice to broadcast this hurtful moment so that more people could get hurt by it?

Watcher's response amid the harassment was to release a full podcast episode where they all discussed what they would do going forward to show that they are allies, not just by not being racist or homophobic but by being anti-these things. They showed that they cared about their impact. It was emotional and devastating to watch and by that time, we knew the pod was likely going to wind down. 2020 was already a miserable time and it was made worse because no matter what Steven or Watcher said at the time, the "stans" on Twitter wanted the man fired, they posted memes saying the world would be better if Steven Lim didn't exist, they wanted him shamed by his staff, and for Ryan and Shane to publicly disavow him. Many of these so-called devoted fans raided the server to yell about how Steven's alleged homophobia hurts them, most of them were white and pointedly talking over people of colour telling them "it's not your apology to accept!". It was a blood bath.

And I see waaaay too many of the same faces utilizing this completely neutral move--that of COURSE could have been executed better--to terrorize Steven, to make petitions to get him fired, commenting on his wedding photo telling him that Tammy should leave him, posting those same damn disgusting memes because you see, a whole bunch of people forgot how disgusting and evil this vendetta was to the point where even watcher's socials started to FOLLOW some of these genuinely mean-spirited individuals. They didn't give a shit about a movement or activism.

What kills me--what absolutely THROWS me--is that these same people expect to be able to return to interacting with the staff, attending live shows, buying merch and sending fan mail as soon as the hate tide winds down. All these people so concerned about a statement referencing faceless hypothetical racists and homophobes that Steven never named nor attributed any context for--as he was never given the chance--are so quick to dehumanize and caricaturize real human beings to their faces and they think this is a normal and acceptable behaviour.

You'll have to excuse me, as an older fan who has seen my fair share of normalised homophobia and racism in these communities, if I disagree.

[unhonestlymirror]

Vatņiki of the month:

I know that whenever anyone gains a bit of history knowledge, they immediately leave this fandom (because they finally realise how stupid and cruel it is) - and that's why here are mostly idiots left - nevertheless, I'm not gonna allow the number of idiots to increase. Thus:

1. This post was so cringe my phone crashed and refused to take a normal screenshot. So be it. Did you know that "BiG BrOthEr" has been killing and raping Belaruthians for centuries? Including nowadays? Did you know they burnt Polatsk with its huge library to the ground and stole our books and knowledge? And that's where many "russian" fairytales wihout an actual origin come from? Did you know about the Night of the Executed Poets? It's like Розстріляне Відродження but in Belarus. Please learn the actual history of Belarus instead of spreading stupid harmful russian propaganda. russians are rapists and mass murderers.

2. Same thing, but now posted by a roleplay Latvia account. Op, you should visit real Latvia one day, I'm actually curious how fast you're gonna end up being beaten to near-death experience.

3-4. *heavy sigh* It always amazed me how people in this fandom refuse to educate themselves, refuse to improve their knowledge based on the real world but just stick to same ideas FOR YEARS, to ideas once drawn by a crack-addicted prorussian Japanese who wasn't even able to graduate. Lithuania is such an amazing country, with an opulent history and culture - but the only thing you're interested in is... drawing russia abusing Lithuania? Why are you, guys, so addicted to genocide and violence? Why do you think mocking our national tragedies is funny and acceptable, dear artist from "China, Hong Kong"? Would you like it if somebody drew, e.g., America or India beating up your home till blood, calling your home "a kid in the basement"? I don't think so! The fact you think it's funny and totally normal to post publicly is genuinely pathetic.

Also, the fact many artists here use "russia abusing Lithuania" trope to put their OTP in the best light (usually LietPol, occasionally AmeLiet)... it's making me speechless. See, one of the countries who actually has been protecting Lithuania from russia for centuries is Ukraine - due to our geographical position and resources - nevertheless, I, as a Ukrainian, would never dare to draw Ukraine "saving poor little Lithuania from russia." Because this is REALLY offensive. In Ukraine, we know perfectly well how much suffering russia caused to others, and how many, e.g., Lithuanians died protecting their home - portraying them as Damsell in Distress means just nullifying and mocking all their sacrifices and tragedies. Once again I am convinced that only Eastern Europeans are capable of understanding this. Personally, as much as I love Lithuania, I would hate to see anyone drawing Glorious GDL saving poor little crying Ukraine from the Golden Horde - because the majority who suffered and who fought the Horde were still Ukrainians. Even if Lithuania still helped us a lot and fought with us, too. With Poland, it's even more complicated and fragile, because Poland used to kill a lot of Lithuanians and destroy their culture, and even making alliances with russia to divide my land - and even the Poland's partition by russia didn't prevent the 1920s massacres.

I hope this post will make you take a thought rather than be just offended.

[zinniajones]

These "expert" pediatricians were paid by a far-right legal group to come up with evidence to attack the WPATH transgender standards of care

What this is: Leaked documents show the anti-LGBT legal group Alliance Defending Freedom paying manufactured experts to attack WPATH’s transgender standards of care, asking them to find evidence for harmful anti-trans myths that they knew were baseless and unsubstantiated. This is an original finding and report by Zinnia Jones (she/her), a transgender Florida resident of 11 years whose access to HRT is now jeopardized by the enactment of state law and policy based on work from these same experts.

Detailed summary: From 2019 onward, states across the US have been faced with an intensely active wave of reused anti-trans experts, recurring characters who keep repeating the same spurious arguments against gender-affirming care in court cases, legislatures, and other policy bodies. Where did they come from, and why did this start happening?

Due to the Florida-based anti-LGBT hate group American College of Pediatricians choosing to set one of their Google Drive folders to be publicly viewable by anyone, files were released this month showing the contents of their staff’s communications and other working notes over several years.

These documents included records of the Alliance Defending Freedom - another hate group who are also responsible for bringing the mifepristone case with ACP as a plaintiff - approaching ACP's leaders in 2018 and 2019 to offer them a grant of $10,000 or more. The ADF wanted the pediatricians “to draft a white paper that refutes the WPATH Standards of Care”, “for use in litigation and should also benefit many other allies at State and Federal Level”.

ACP’s president Quentin Van Meter and executive director Michelle Cretella promptly got to work on this “Special Project”, and the ADF hosted expert witness workshops at ACP's conferences. ACP members including Van Meter went on to present anti-trans testimony in several ADF-litigated cases and ADF-involved trans youth care bans.

In May 2022, Van Meter authored a sham report for Florida Medicaid to justify their trans coverage exclusion, mostly drawing from previous ACP position statements; court filings later revealed Michelle Cretella was recommended by the Florida governor’s office, and she pointed the way to all the other anti-trans experts hired by Florida in 2022 to support the Medicaid exclusion of transition care.

One notable document found in the ACP’s drive contains “Transgender Research Requests”, with the ADF asking Cretella and other ACP leaders to “substantiate” now-commonplace anti-trans talking points. These included bizarre claims by the ADF such as “it is normal during adolescence for children to go through a phase when they identify (to some degree) with the opposite sex”, and “For those who have undergone hormone therapy and genital change surgery, a paper that says they are no happier (and perhaps worse off if the research supports it)”.

The ADF was asking this anti-trans group to come up with anything that could support the arguments they were already planning to make.

This appears to be one of the very sites where those baseless myths about suicide, social contagion and other supposed harms, now regularly repeated in court cases and testimony and uncritically accepted by the mainstream right wing, were conceived and gestated.

These same experts then substantially reused these work products in their reports for Florida Medicaid, a public health agency whose accepted standards determination process is supposed to be a transparent and open-ended evaluation of peer-reviewed medical evidence.

Altogether, these documents appear to demonstrate a paid smear by a hate group and right-wing law firm against a leading professional transgender healthcare organization following the best available evidence and medical practices, as well as misconduct on the part of ACP experts who reused this work in their reports for a Florida public health agency.

(asks are open)

[snickerzanddoodlez]

The “Emotional” Wordgirl Episodes

Wordgirl has the occasional episode that just feels…different. Perhaps with somber undertones, or a bittersweet feel, or just feeling generally….different. I was always waiting for those episodes, and they remain some of my favorites.

For anyone else who’s like me and wanted o hunt them down, I’ve compiled a list of said episodes. Spoilers will be included. (Suggestions Welome!)

Note: while many of these are my favorites, I am not claiming they are “the best” (although some of them are!)

Where is The Remote? - A personal favorite of mine, this episode always hit different. The plot follows Tobey and Wordgirl, as they scour the city for the remote to Tobey’s robots (unbeknownst to Wordgirl, Tobey has a tracking device for it- he just wants to spend time with her). It’s cute to watch them genuinely have fun, especially since nobody was really in danger.

Yes Monkey - Any long-time follower of mine will know that this may be my favorite episode in the whole show. Leslie, fed up with Mr. Big’s self-centered attitude, finally resigns- and Huggy, who is fed up with being put down, does the same. Seeing Leslie so sad without her boss and Mr. Big so happy to see her at the end is rather sweet, especially with the smile they exchange at the very end.

Rise of Miss Power - Of course this is on here- the movie that focuses on a newcomer encouraging Wordgirl to antagonize her foes, leading to some pretty rough moments (my heart goes out to Tobey). Two-Brains nearly gets publicly executed, Tobey shuts down after being bullied….and nobody talks about how, when Sally says that the city “can’t stand (the villains)”, all of the villians- INCLUDING THOSE SUCH AS GRANNY MAY!- droop a bit and seem saddened by this fact.

Showdown At The Super Secret Spaceship Hideout - THE Dr. Two-Brains angst episode. Boxleitner is mentioned often, both by Two-Brains and Wordgirl! The scene where he recognized the book he wrote….this is a PBS Kids’ show, those eyes should not have been so emotional!

Dr. Three Brains - Most episodes would have been demoted to Honorable Mentions if their bittersweet feel came only from one scene- however, that didn’t feel fair to this episode. The episode stars Dr. Two-Brains and Wordgirl working together to stop Glen Furblam. This has one of my favorite scenes in the whole series at the very end between Wordgirl and Dr. Two-Brains, with them reminiscing on their old partnership (something that scarcely happens outside of Showdown at the Super Secret Spaceship Hideout), and when Wordgirl leaves, we see Dr. Two-Brains look very sad and slink off into the shadows….so melancholy and bittersweet, and it’s a season finale!

A Questionable Pair - Nobody talks about this episode! Brent and Ms. Question are very underrated, yet somehow not nearly as underrated as Reginald and Ms. Question. I love how she likes listening to him talk, and he just likes actually being asked questions 😭…. I don’t know why, but the way this episode ends always made me super sad. In the end, Reginald feels so betrayed by what her (and Invisi-Bill’s) original plan was that he pretty much cuts off their little friendship. Reginald seems so hurt, and Ms. Question looks so so sad….

Even more melancholy is Reginald looking agh the pictures of the two of them, and seems like he’s trying not to cry. Wordgirl what the frick why would you make me feel things

A Few Words from Wordgirl - An episode that I maybe should’ve swapped with a certain episode in honorable mentions? But I think it juuuust earns its place here. I love this episode, and there are so many cute dad!brains moments in it. It’s nice to see them so civil.

Rhyme and Reason - The show finale, and overall a great pair of episodes. There’s not a single moment without some sort of almost-uncomfortable subtext or even details just shown loud and proud. You’re WAITING for Reason to snap whenever he and Rhyme are onscreen, and then the Violet-Wordgirl plot….I hate Violet with a burning passion, and this episode is a big part of why, but it is extremely emotional and earns its place here.

Becky Knows Best - I don’t remember this one well, but it’s the episode starring Ms. Question and Brent. A very different episode as far as its tone and story. I’m a little iffy on whether it should go here or in honorable mentions, as at the moment I don’t remember it very clearly and can only find clips, but it would be in this post either way. The happier ending to “A Questionable Pair”.

Honorable Mentions:

By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robot! - The episode that got me into this fandom, and one that remains a favorite. “The same sparkling smile! The same ruby lips! The same…..I realize I’ve said too much.” I didn’t think this episode fit with the others, but was absolutely worth a mention.

A World Without Wordgirl - I don’t remember this episode very much, but it was worth a mention for DtB’s alternate universe self and the general uniqueness of the episode. You really feel bad for Becky.

When Chuck’s Mom is Away - Not an emotional episode, but one very focused on character dynamics and very standout. I figure that anyone who’s looking for the more emotional character-driven episodes would enjoy this one as well!

Tobey Goes Good - A normal episode changed by one scene, but to a lesser degree than Dr. Three Brains. Tobey genuinely seems willing to change long-term, and I’ll admit that seeing him entertain some smaller kids was really cute, but when Violet (unfairly lol let’s be real) wins the contest he’s been competing in, he completely snaps. Oddly enough, he seems genuinely hopeless and even cries. If I’m not mistaken, this is the only episode where he actually tries to kill Wordgirl. Aside from maybe Miss Power, this is absolutely his lowest point.

Oh, What a Tangled Knot You Tie, Amazing Rope Guy! - Not emotional, but this episode does make me a little sad for some reason. I don’t know. It is character focused, though!

It’s Your Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To - This is a sweet episode. Tobey, for once, ends up unable to fulfill his goal, which today is destroying the birthday party of a classmate (as he was not invited). He seems to feel quite bad at the end and even tries to make it up to her, and it’s cute seeing him and Wordgirl bond over the situation.

Invasion of the Bunny Lovers - Here only due to Scoops discovering Wordgirl’s identity. Scoops exemplifies everything Violet *should’ve* done in Rhyme and Reason. Maybe I’ll make a post about that.

[howtofightwrite]

Hi! Are there certain types of asks you don’t respond to, and/or do you have a huge backlog of them? I sent one in like 3 or 4 months ago and still haven’t seen it come out, so I’m just curious as to what’s going on :) (I’m sorry if you do have guidelines posted anywhere I could not find them)

There are a few topics we won't touch. As a general rule, we're not particularly interested in covering sexual violence, violence on children, child abuse, and animal abuse. That list shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Beyond that, there are a few other things we, generally, won't cover.

The most common are cases where someone wants us to write their fight scene for them. We do offer that as a Patreon perk, but it's not something we're ever likely to do for free here. Off-hand, I think we've gotten about a dozen of those asks this year. The most recent was in the last couple weeks. Now, some of these asks do get public responses, but it's usually in the form of discussing world-building, or because one of us thinks we can get something interesting out of it. The recent “water horse,” question was one of these. So was Professional Monster Removal, now that I think about it. The original ask didn't come through Tumblr, and so I decided to revise it without the prompt. Which, part of why the tone of first couple paragraphs didn't exactly match the rest of the text (if anyone noticed.)

We also can't privately audit your work. At least, not through the ask system. This does come up from time to time when someone will send a sample of their writing (this did happen twice in the last four months.) There's two issues here. One, I wouldn't, so you'd get Michi editing and she is an absolutely merciless editor. The second thing is, there isn't really a way to do that privately in Tumblr. If you did it through Patreon, it would probably be through a shared Google Doc, or via Discord, but if you're in that tier, get in touch, and we can work with you.

I know this isn't relevant to you, but hate mail doesn't generally get a response. This should go without saying, but, I did publicly clown on that Dragon Age fanfiction writer over her attempted death threats a few years back. Similarly most of the misogynistic responses from Women are not Weaker than Men, or any of the subsequent posts, tends to get summarily executed. That stray fan of Shane O'Mara who never really understood his work, tends to get ignored. Though, I haven't seen anything from them in a year or two. Similarly, that guy who wanted me to know that “Space lizards are very important for the economy,” will probably have to wait... forever.

The real problem you're running into is probably because of how our backlog works. It tends to runs in a FILO pattern. That is to say, “first in, last out,” meaning new asks go on the top of the pile, and pushing down earlier questions in the queue. This has more to do with how Tumblr organizes its inbox rather than an intentional decision. For example, if I remember a question from five years ago, and want to answer it, I probably could not find it. I might be able to write up a post without that ask, but I wouldn't be able to notify the original sender (assuming they still use Tumblr.) This is the other reason that the dude who wanted to talk about space lizard economics will have to wait forever, that question was in 2013 or 2014, and there are roughly four-thousand asks burying his inquiry. (As a general rule, the only stuff that actually gets deleted is some of the hate mail.)

Another way to ensure a question won't get answered is to send it to Michi's personal Tumblr blog. There's only 153 in there, but, when answered, they don't get posted to How to Fight Write, and as a result, they're likely to get missed. (To be fair, the most recent ask in her inbox is from April 20, 2021, so that's not you.)

If you're asking about invisible lightsabers, I wouldn't completely give up hope. It wasn't really suitable for a full post, but assuming I can get Tumblr's inbox to cooperate again, it might show up in a batch of questions like the ones earlier this week.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[browa123]

Ok Here's a Giant Reginald Ramble

If no one else wants to over-analyze the funny nyeh man with the banana stache then I will. I've talked on and on about this on discord because I actually Roleplay as Reggie on the regular, so I've talked about how I characterize him a LOT.

The following is a collection of random headcanons in an attempt to keep them in chronological order, along with some screenshots and images to back up where these ideas come from, take em with a grain of salt ^^

Inspired to ramble by @the-irken-pony so I hope you have fun reading this

Alright, lets get this thing started.

-------------

Chapter 1: Pre-Leadership

Reginald joins the Toppat Clan around when Wilford the Fourth is either high up in command or the leader himself. Wilford stacks the hats of clan members he's defeated on his own, is a no-nonsense leader and leads a very respectable era of the clan's history. Reginald IDOLIZES Wilford, so that when he takes over the clan, he starts stacking hats too, specifically Terrence's to use as a trophy for his victory, once he's in charge.

This is a no-brainer, but Reginald HATES Terrence. Where Wilford was a strong, guiding hand that lead the clan to greatness, Terrence leads the clan into ruin.

The fact that it's canon that the leader that came right before Reginald is specifically stated to be the worst Toppat Leader EVER, compared to candidates like T.R.N.K who went on a rampage instead of actually leading and Randy Radman who bankrupted the clan after partying too hard, it means that Terrence's lust for cheep thrills got SO MANY TOPPATS arrested or killed in one leadership, it probably scarred Reginald for life.

Now Reginald IS a coward. He never fights anyone directly and would rather have other people fight his battles for him. Namely, RHM. Perhaps even Wilford the Fourth before Reginald met his Right Hand Man. So, how does he stand a chance against someone who keeps doing these kinds of terrible things and making it out alive where so many other toppats suffer?

He plays dirty.

He rallies the entire clan against Terrence using his greatest weapon, his mind. And one way or another, Reginald ends up throwing Terrence off the airship to his doom, and Reginald takes his hat as a trophy.

Sound Familiar?

It's how the Toppat Civil Warfare path starts, with Henry in Terrence's place. Called out by Reginald very publicly after Ellie gives him an opening. Funny how the Toppats specifically have an area to make traitors and prisoners walk the plank, eh?

Even in the betrayed, Reginald is clearly no stranger to throwing people off the ship. Dangling Henry over the abyss, you get the impression that this isn't the first time Reginald has done something like this. He can't fight for himself, but when it matters, he'll finish what's been started.

Although...

If this grey hat with the gradient split is Reginald's original hat...

He takes the one he stole from Terrence and puts it on....

Ohhhh now we get into the real subtle machinations of Reginald's mind here. Now, this is exclusive to the Rapidly Promoted Executive branch of timelines, but it's really the most in-depth path for Reginald. We don't see him much in the other branch he's able to appear, Pure Blooded Thief that defines how he works outside being a smug bastard on the outside.

Chapter 2: Henry Ruins his Life

To be fair, Henry also gets a hat in Toppat Recruits, but this hat is custom made and tailored TO Henry. Henry gets a proper initiation ceremony and earns his hat in TR alongside Ellie. Reginald doesn't have any major issues with Henry aside the ruby thing, so he doesn't need to act against Henry in this timeline.

All four of the RPE timelines on the other hand...

Anyone who was in the clan during Terrence's leadership and survived it should KNOW that particular black hat. What Reginald has done here, in the most subtle way possible, is WARNED everyone about Henry being a terrible leader. That black hat is a red flag in the eyes of everyone that recognizes it: Henry is an outsider and is not to be trusted.

And it's not like Henry knows that's what that hat means. He just got put in charge of the Toppats and got a pretty sweet new hat too. Yay!

Reginald doesn't see Henry in charge of the Toppats. He sees Terrence Suave 2.0, coming to undo all of his hard work. And it's a LOT of hard work on Reginald's part.

Reginald took a clan that was in shambles from Terrence's cheep and reckless raids, erased any trace of the Toppats on government records around the world to the point where they're desperate for evidence on the clan and brought it back to the great heights he always wanted. Henry threatens all of that.

"I just wanted to look you in the eyes as I took it all back," is a really telling quote. Because it's true. Henry had taken everything from Reginald in RPE. Leadership, status, respect, his clan, his significant other. Henry tore a path through the ship with RHM as part of the carnage and left nothing for Reginald behind. Even in the entire RPE end card, you can see how blank and unhappy his subtle, neutral expression is.

He wants Henry gone. But some of the junior clan members are starting to like his style of leadership, like Thomas and Geoffrey. So if he's going to make Henry disappear, he's gotta make it subtle, like...

Chapter 3: Get Someone Else to Do It

"What is this?"

"I found potential asset."

"Henry Stickmin. Why does he belong here?"

"He was arrested for breaking into a bank."

"We already have very many thieves in here."

"Yes, but he also escaped from prison. He is also the one responsible for the disappearance of the Tunisian Diamond."

"I did hear about that."

"There's more. You know the Toppat Clan."

"Of course."

"Apparently he had some sort of incident with them as well."

"What do you mean by incident?"

"There are conflicting reports."

-Fleeing the Complex Trailer.

-----------

This is more of a personal headcanon than anything, but I solidly believe that Reginald sold (RPE) Henry out to the Wall in an effort to get rid of him.

There are confirmed undercover Toppat spies in the Wall Staff like Wallace Pemberton, who have been undercover for at least 3 years. So, Reginald is well aware of the Wall and its reputation for not being broken out of for 50 years. It would just take a bit of passing hands to get files on Henry from the Airship to the Wall in order to make Henry disappear.

This is further backed up by how surprised Reginald is to see Henry in every single RPE branch the moment Henry returns.

Funny how it sounds like he wasn't expecting Henry to come back, huh?

Of course, this leaves us with Reginald's most character defining moment: when he throws Henry off the ship in The Betrayed. In this timeline, Reginald is well aware Henry is trying to escape and come back to the clan well before he's actually succeeded yet.

Prime opportunity to silence him for good.

After all, Reginald doesn't know Henry. He only knows that history is going to repeat itself all over again if he doesn't get rid of Terrence Suave 2.0 all over again. His own pride blinds him to who Henry is compared to the man Reginald sees him as.

A lot of paths Henry takes define his character, like Ghost Inmate timeline Henries being selfish, or Pure Blooded Thief Henries being greedy. Betrayed Henry TRUSTED the Toppats enough to call them for help, so it could be implied he would have been a good leader to them had Reginald given him a chance, just like in Toppat King.

But, being it Pride or Misconception, Reginald only sees someone who would bring him back to the worst time in his life all over again, and he lets him fall instead. Because Henry took everything from him, and Reginald will do anything to make sure it can't be taken again.

Chapter 4: Complete the Mission

Okay, so for a moment lets put ourselves in Reginald's shoes for a moment as the four timelines in Completing the Mission for RPE come to a head.

You lost EVERYTHING. You gave everything you owned to the guy who shoved your husband off a bridge. They're still cleaning his remains out of the engine while you wait for a miracle worker to bring the one thing you had left back to life.

You also just witnessed him betray the people who sent him to attack you in the first place. You don't know this man, you don't know his loyalty lies, if he even has any. Your only impressions are that of a reckless bastard who took everything from you and nearly killed your husband.

And then you went and put him in charge of your family out of desperation.

-

TCW: You knew it.

You knew Henry was a traitorous bastard with no loyalty with anyone but himself. You might just recruit this Ellie character on the spot for finally giving you your opening.

You've had this planned out for weeks. Every word of undignified, dishonourable rot Henry had left the clan with ever since he took over. He only cares about himself, and soon enough you've gathered an entire rally. You even get to carry this out with some dignity, and you've solidified yourself as this clan's true leader.

He's not worthy of being our leader, he was never worthy. And Ellie had just given you cold, hard proof. So, your rally moves to throw the imposter overboard.

But, not without your prized trophy. That hat is a symbol of your victory over Terrence, and it would be your symbol of victory over Henry as well.

Except your arm gets grabbed as you reach for your prize, and as you fall you begin to wonder if this was really for the clan, or just for yourself.

-

TK:

This was an unexpected turn of events. Down on the ground, and with no one left to turn to, you beg the only other person in the room to do something!

And he does do something. He saves your life. You're at such a loss for words you can barely speak, watching the helicopter fall and explode on the ground just inches behind the other. He risked his life to save you. The evidence was at your feet in the form of dead soldiers.

The Rocket is Launching in 4 Minutes

Damn it all, you don't have time to ponder this. You need to get to the rocket before launch. Though you grab a pair of binoculars as you leave the control tower and hitch a ride with some of the members. You're intrigued now.

And your intrigue soon grows to gratitude. You watch from the loading bay as Henry moves to assist your Right Hand, your beloved husband. You see them defy the odds and work as a team to save each other. You can only mutter out the word "wow" as your mind moves a mile a minute. Had you misjudged Henry?

Finally, the ally he had brought with him unannounced helps get everyone up the rocket just in the nick of time. Well, everyone except the man that made this all possible in the midst of the chaos caused by the raid.

You could have shut the door as soon as Ellie and Right left. You could have dropped him and no one would know. You makes this clear to him as he dangles by the arm, at your mercy.

But, he is one of your own. He's just as much a Toppat as your are. He's earned his place, and your respect.

You pull him up.

-

T4L:

You thought Henry was dead. You heard it in all the news reports. Captured Toppat Leader dead. Fell off a cliff into the snow never to be seen again. You almost wish your hand was a part of that fate. You would have loved to look the smug bastard in the eye before he fell.

But clearly you don't have to worry anymore, as he was apparently alive, riding a tank up to the rocket base with the stupidest, smug grin on his face.

What's he doing here, alive, in a tank no less? Where did he even get it? He tosses you something, and it's barking orders.

"Repeat, Toppat Raid has been aborted, fall back!" A gruff voice calls from the walkie-talkie.

He protected the clan. Everything Henry could have done. Run, hid, just come back to them unannounced. But he went and stopped an entire planned raid that You didn't even know about. By Himself.

Ok. So maybe you misjudged him. Things might turn out okay under his leadership. Even if he is more of a lone wolf rather than a team player.

You put off your plans to dethrone him. If he can garner this much respect, while doing all these crazy things by himself and coming out fine, you can find it in yourself to put up with him until his own reckless solo missions do himself in.

-

Betrayed/ R:

Finally.

You were alone. No one was around to save him. He dangled helplessly in your grip, looking so relieved you caught him. But no one was watching. This was probably the most easily staged accident you'd ever made. You wanted to see him squirm.

He took everything from you. Now, you were going to take it all back. The look in his eyes is something you've been dreaming of since you started plotting. The utter despair, the look of betrayal on his face is everything you wanted it to be.

Finally you can rid yourself of this parasite that has been plauging your clan for good. They will never have to suffer under a foolish leader again.

You let him go.

-

He lived.

Everything you planned for and he ended up surviving the fall. Damn it, damn everything, damn it all to HELL. He should have known that salty cybernetic surgeon would find some way to get back at him after making her do that surgery at gun point.

You weren't just gonna let your beloved right hand die that day, can you blame yourself for that?

Still, you know that your no match for Henry. You hardly were before, you're the brains of the duo you and your right hand made, hardly a fighter. And the cybernetics didn't help that prospect.

Right takes the fight outside, while you can only silently hope the best for him. You know he won't go down as easily the second time. You know he wants you out of the line of fire, but you can't help feeling anxious. Last time he left you to fight Henry alone he nearly died.

A loud explosion overhead, and scorching heat. Alarms are blaring, your airship is loosing altitude. There's a high chance your going to crash. You can only hope Right made it out okay with his upgrades.

Your hopes are dashed when Henry drops into the cockpit with his own weapons at the ready. It's a sickening thought, but the only logical conclusion is that Right didn't survive this time.

Still, in a rush of adrenaline, you draw your pistol and attempt to fire. Henry grabs your arm and points the gun back at your own head. You're at his mercy now.

He staples you to the wall. Smug bastard even when he's pissed huh? You hate the stupid grin on his face. Though, you do what you do best when he turns his back. You shoot him in the spine.

Like hell you're letting him walk away from this. You'll take him with you for Right's sake. The explosion hits. You're quickly loosing consciousness. Everything you loved is up in flames. Your husband is dead and you're hanging from your own grave. You're sure the impact punctured a lung, it's hard to breath with the smoke.

But you still have enough life in you to ask the million dollar question.

Was it worth it?

It wasn't entirely directed at Henry, but you take that thought to your grave

[abdullahblogsposts]

What is the difference between murji’āh and madhkhalis?

Madākhîlāh are those who are murjį’āh with the hukām and salātīn (i.e. rulers), and are khawārij with the du’āt (preachers) and the Mujāhidīn,

Cementing the throne of tawāghīt!! Cancerous scums of the earth!

The term Madkhâlį comes from the name of Rābį al-Mâdkhâlį, a Saudi scholar who promoted strict obedience to the rulers irrespective of their crime.

His students became Mâdkhâlįs since his opinion is the final even if they have been refuted time without number.

His followers are the most notorious when it comes to splitting the ummah and declaring the Muslims and it's scholars deviants. They hardly exist in a place except that they disrupt the peace.

Their common features for easy recognition.

1. They (the Mâdākhîlāh) love the Kufār and will happily see the Muslims suffer if it means safety for the Kufār.

2. To them, there is no Islām outside of what is preached by Rābį Al Mâdkhâlį.

3. They are the “dogs of the rulers” who are forever barking at anyone who in any way criticises the Kûfr, Zālîm regimes or proclaims the Hâqq.

4. Their Dā'wâh is centered on protecting the evil rulers(Tawāghįt). They fight the Muslims and leave the idolators.

5. They tend to hide obscure words in quotes by Âhādįth or classical scholars. They are known to quoting half citation.

6. They demand from Muslims: Don’t question the legitimacy of secular regimes or their actions.

7. They shout on top of their voice Claiming that Muslims cannot even publicly command the good and forbid evil against these regimes.

8. They like to denounce people as deviated ‘takfįrįs’ for saying that anyone who legislates from other than the Qur'ān and Sunnāh has committed major kufr.

9. They are dangerous, because they call their opponents Khawārîj. Thereby making their blood Hâlāl.

10. They do a type of Irjā (deferring takfįr) and shout ‘we don’t know what’s in the heart’ of a leader under kûfr law.

11. They will pave the way towards secularisation of the Muslim world. How? Because they follow the ways of the Christians before – who invented the doctrine of "give to Cesar what belong to Cesar and give to God what belongs to God".

12. They legitimize the killing of Muslims who criticize the secular rulers.

13. They focus on the secondary issues to cause division. They dissociate and boycott the Muslims on this basis.

14. Most of them are agents of the west. They are trained to keep the Muslims tearing each other apart. They hate to see Muslims uniting under any platform of goodness. This is why you can't praise anyone on their hit list else you become tagged.

15. Most of them cannot do Dā'wâh without insults and abuses. They pick on the unclear statements of the Muslims and uses that as justification for their oppressive lebelling.

There are more to this list.

MURJĮ'ĀH: They uphold the belief of Irjā' (to hold that sins, major or minor, do not affect Imān and that Imān neither increases nor decreases). The first to call to this belief was Ghīlān Ibn Abį Ghīlān, the Qadārī. He was executed in 105АН. They claim that actions are not part of Imān, that people do not vary in Imān, that Imān does not increase and decrease and that one should declare himself a Believer without saying "If Allāh wills". The Murjį'āh are divide into 3 groups, as Shāykh al-Islām Ibn Taymįyyāh mentioned:

i) Those who claim that Imān is a condition of the heart only.

ii) Those who claim that Imān is merely verbal affirmation (i.e. the Karrāmiyyah).

iii) Those who claim that Imān is only affirmation with the heart and tongue, but that action is necessary in addition to it. (Pages 13, 27, 40).

Difference is simple that Mâdkhâlįs not only have irjā' but they are the ansār of the tawāghįt!!

[mainstoryarchive]

Kingdom - 74: Atonement

Mao: Excuse me.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Location: Student Council Office

Mao: Excuse me.

I'm sorry I'm late. As expected I was quite tired right after the DreamFes and couldn't really move until I had rested for a bit.

Do you have work for me? I'll do anything.

Keito: … …

Tori: … …

Mao: (Muuu, the atmosphere is heavy!)

(That's only natural. With the DreamFes that just ended a fissure started to form in the authority of the student council.)

(I straight up bared my fangs against them, it'd be weird if they'd be calm about it.)

(I'm talking as if it's someone else's business. But I am one of the perpetrators, I have betrayed them… I used their trust in me in an underhanded way, I revolted against the student council.)

(It'd be nice if it would just end with me being punched. What kind of judgment will it be? How scary.)

(I'd be more relieved if they'd just spoke ill of me, but they're all silent!)

(Well, I have to draw a line. It's an unshakable truth that I fully cooperated with Trickstar and started a revolution.)

(But at the very least I should do my best so that the blame is concentrated on just me.)

(So that with me taking responsibility, no punishment will fall upon Trickstar…)

(For those guys, it's just the start. They will keep changing this school, right now is the most important time for them.)

(I need to become their protective wall. That's the reason I am stuck between Trickstar and the student council.)

(It may sound like the words of a poor person, but I wished to be in this position.)

(I need them at least to keep walking, facing forwards… If not I couldn't die peacefully. There wouldn't be any worth in me going as far as to become a traitor.)

(If we get served poison, it will only come as far as the plate.)

Keito: Isara. What are you spacing out for, go sit down and do your paperwork.

There is also the usual post processing of the DreamFes, however…

This time too many unusual situations broke out, so it seems to be taking forever to put out the fire; we need your skills.

Be prepared for an all-nighter. I will talk with you about your punishment regarding today later.

However, it isn't as if you broke any rules. You did your best for your unit and showed everyone a praiseworthy live performance.

You are a model idol. You only did what was natural as a student at Yumenosaki Academy. I don't really have any plans to punish you. It will end with just a light scolding.

Which is why right now I want you to do the work you need to do as a student council executive.

Mao: That's a very light punishment. I was prepared for not just being fired from the student council but for being expelled from this school.

Keito: I don't have the authority to expel someone. On top of that, I make a point to not mix my personal affairs with official business.

What happened today certainly made me mad but… Using the authority of the student council to settle a personal grudge isn't right.

It is my own mistake from underestimating Trickstar and feeling complacent. If there's anyone who should receive punishment then it's me.

I'm disappointed with myself, I soiled the dignity of the student council.

I can't excuse myself in front of the student council president… in front of Eichi.

Don't force me to say even more of my grievances. I feel so pathetic I can't help myself.

Go sit in your seat, do your work. That's the only thing I can tell you right now.

Tori: Uu! You really are being too soft, vice-president, I can't believe you!

Damnit, you traitor! I'll publicly execute you, I'll hang you in front of the school gates in just your underwear and make you feel real humiliation!

Keito: Listen up, just keep working, Himemiya. …You don't have the authority to decide on Isara's punishment.

Tori: Aaah, that's irritating! Acting like you're such a good person like that!

I don't like it, I don't like it, I don't like it! I really hate both losing and being made fun of!

If I knew it was going to be like this I should have stopped the DreamFes in the middle even if I had to use force!

Yuzuru: That in and on itself would have been a great embarrassment.

If you'd stopped the DreamFes in the middle, it would be as if the student council ran away because they hate losing…

More than losing fair and square, that would have resulted in us losing our reputation.

It isn't very constructive to just talk about 'what ifs'.

I will help you, so let us first finish this mountain of work… Young Master?

Mao: …Fushimi. You're looking after Himemiya today too, thank you for your hard work.

Yuzuru: Certainly, that is my duty after all.

Look, Young Master, you misspelled. Please concentrate.

Tori: Ugyaaa, shut up! Even though you're just a slave! Don't complain about what I do, you have to be absolutely obedient towards me!

At least don't just watch, help with the paperwork! It's a hassle to do it!

Yuzuru: You may say that, however I am not a member of the student council… I can't just touch those documents.

I shouldn't even be allowed to be here. I have special permission thanks to the vice-president for just that.

[ ☆ ]

← prev ❖ all ❖ next →

[gaykarstaagforever]

Republicans:

If you don't support Israel, a foreign country on another continent, your American patriotism is void.

If you support a Palestinian State you are Antisemitic and support terrorism and should be publicly censored and sanctioned, regardless of Constitutional free speech protections.

At least a third of the party is virulently Antisemitic based on racist conspiracy theories, but if you tell them to shut up, YOU are oppressing their God-given freedoms, and so are the REAL Nazi.

Russia is evil and we have to be prepared to confront them, but only when it's time to fund the Department of Defense. When Putin actually attacks Ukraine and attempts to annex it, which includes him firing missiles over Poland, a NATO treaty member we are pledged to defend, this is a foreign war we shouldn't get involved in, because Putin is telling the truth about how Ukrainians are secret Nazis led by a corrupt Jewish leader.

We only hate Ukraine because Donald Trump claims to believe a conspiracy theory about how Ukrainians hacked American voting machines to make him lose the Presidency. He knows this isn't true but it was part of his attempt to save face when he lost the last election. But saying you also believe it is a loyalty test to him personally, and he owns the Republican party now.

All anti-government protests, which are protected by the First Amendment, should be banned and broken up by force.

...Unless you stormed the capital as part of Trump's botched coup attempt, where you tried to find and execute politicians. Then you are just a noble patriot who was exercising your First Amendment rights, and them arresting you for insurrection is unlawful oppression.

When Trump finally wins again, he needs to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, and jail or kill anyone who dares question him.

No wonder everyone in the House is getting so frustrated! This isn't a political party so much as an unsupervised junior high.

[daitranscripts]

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts Pt. 18

The Fate of the Empress

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts Masterpost First: Gaining an Invitation Previous: Jardin de Rȇverie

The PC enters the ballroom, where Celene is standing on the balcony preparing to speak. Cullen rushes up the PC.

Cullen: Thank the Maker you’re back! The empress will begin her speech soon. What should we do?

Dialogue options:

I’ll talk with Florianne. (Publicly expose the duchess’s crimes to the court, avoiding further bloodshed.) (requires high court approval) [1] +Iron Bull approves +Blackwall approves +Solas greatly approves +Dorian greatly approves

Detain the duchess. (Save Celene’s life, then deal with the duchess.) [2] +Sera approves +Blackwall approves +Cole greatly approves

Wait for Florianne to attack. (Allow the empress to die before dealing with the duchess.) [3] -Sera greatly disapproves -Blackwall greatly disapproves -Cole disapproves +Cassandra approves +Iron Bull approves +Dorian approves

1 - I’ll talk with Florianne. PC: Wait here Cullen. I’m going to have a word with the grand duchess.

Cullen: What? There’s no time! The empress will begin her speech at any moment.

The PC crosses the ballroom floor to where Florianne, Gaspard, and Briala are standing.

PC: We owe the court one more show, Your Grace.

Florianne: Inquisitor.

Dialogue options:

General: You should turn yourself in. [4]

General: Everyone is watching. Smile. [5]

General: It’s over. [6]

4 - General: You should turn yourself in. The PC walks up to Florianne PC: I’m giving you a chance to end this peacefully. There’s no need for more death. Corypheus is only using you. Florianne: I don’t know what you’re talking about. PC: You arranged for your brother to be at the ball so everyone would be watching him while you carried out your plan. The PC begins to circle her. So when the council emissary stumbled into the wrong room and found your assassins, you could pin the blame on Gaspard. The empress, your brother, and the entire court all here as your guests. A tempting target for Corypheus. [7]

5 - General: Everyone is watching. Smile. The PC walks up to Florianne PC: The eyes of every noble in the empire are upon us, Your Grace. Remember to smile. This is your party. You wouldn’t want them to think you had lost control. Florianne: Who would not be delighted to speak with you, Inquisitor? PC: I seem to recall you saying, “All I needed was to keep you out of the ballroom long enough to strike.” The PC begins to circle her. When your archers failed to kill me in the garden, I feared you wouldn’t save me this last dance. It’s so easy to lose your good graces. You even framed your brother for the murder of a council emissary. It was an ambitious plan. Celene, Gaspard, the entire Council of Heralds… all your enemies under one roof. [7]

6 - General: It’s over. The PC walks up to Florianne PC: You’ve been beaten. You’ll never get near the empress. Florianne: Oh Inquisitor, your jokes are so charming. PC: It’s no joke. Your plan to assassinate the empress has failed. The PC begins to circle her. You said you needed to keep me out of the ballroom in order to strike. The Chalons family crest… it was your knife, not Gaspard’s, used to murder the council emissary. You brought your brother, your cousin, and your most hated enemies together so you could wipe them all out. [7]

7 - Scene continues.

Florianne: This is very entertaining, but you do not imagine anyone believes your wild stories?

If evidence was shared with Gaspard: Gaspard I did not wish to. But it seems I have no choice.

If evidence was not shared with Gaspard: Celene: That will be a matter for a judge to decide, cousin.

Florianne: Gaspard? You cannot believe this! You know I would never…

Gaspard shakes his head and walks away.

Florianne: Gaspard?

Dialogue options:

Take her away. (Give the duchess to the guards.) [8] +Dorian slightly approves +Blackwall approves +Cole approves +Iron Bull approves +Sera approves +Solas approves

I will execute her myself. (Kill the duchess.) [9] -Blackwall disapproves -Cole disapproves -Solas disapproves -Cassandra slightly approves -Sera slightly approves

8 - Take her away. PC: You lost this fight ages ago, Your Grace. You’re just the last to find out. Guards come to take Florianne away. Florianne: (Sobbing.) [10]

9 - I will execute her myself. PC: At least this time, justice will be swift. The PC stabs her as the court gasps.[10]

10 - Scene continues.

PC: Your Imperial Majesty, I think we should speak in private. Elsewhere.

Celene and the PC walk away.

Scene ends.

2 - Detain the duchess. PC: The grand duchess is the assassin. Don’t let her anywhere near the empress.

Cullen: The duchess? At once, Inquisitor!

Herald: Let all gathered attend! Her Imperial Majesty will now address the court!

Celene: Lord and ladies, as a nation we mourn our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers claimed by war.

Celene: The sky is torn open, our Divine is dead, and many fear the end of all things comes upon us. Orlais must stand as a bastion, a bulwark behind which all Thedas may take shelter. So has it stood for a thousand years! So shall it ever stand.

The PC and Florianne both make their way towards Celene.

Celene: This would not have been possible without the efforts of many. Dear cousin, please step forward.

PC: Grand Duchess, stand down!

Florianne starts killing Inquisition soldiers.

Florianne: Now!

More assassins flood the court.

Florianne: For Corypheus, kill them all!

Florianne runs away, and the PC follows.

PC: Cullen! Protect the people!

Cullen: Yes, Inquisitor!

Florianne points a bow at the PC

Florianne: Beaten at every turn.

Florianne: You stole the moment of my triumph, just as you stole the demon army from Erimond. Florianne: You’ve taken the moment of my victory and left me in disgrace.

Florianne: And now you’ve chased a defenseless woman into the garden. Are you proud of yourself?

Dialogue options:

General: Surrender, Florianne. [11]

General: Defenseless? You? [12]

General: Stop pitying yourself. [13]

11 - General: Surrender, Florianne. PC: We have the palace. Surrender, Your Grace. You don’t have to die today. Florianne: Surrender? Now? Oh, you poor, deluded thing. [14]

12 - General: Defenseless? You? PC: You were about to murder the empress. We both know you’re not defenseless. Florianne: True. You never were one to fall for my helpless-damsel act. Florianne: True. Even you couldn’t fall for my helpless-damsel act twice. [14]

13 - General: Stop pitying yourself. PC: I don’t have time for your self-pity. You brought this on yourself. Florianne: How perceptive. I did arrange every event of the evening. Including this one. [14]

14 - Scene continues.

The PC is shut into the courtyard.

Florianne: The night is still young. All I need to recover… is to kill you, Inquisitor. So good of you to attend my soiree.

The party fights Florianne.

Scene ends.

3 - Wait for Florianne to attack. PC: The duchess will assassinate Celene personally. Wait for her to strike, then grab her.

Cullen: As you command.

Herald: Let all gathered attend! Her Imperial Majesty will now address the court!

Celene: My friends, we have lost much. We have each seen a child, a lover, a friend consigned to the flames. The darkness has closed in around around, but even now there is light! We must be that light! We must lead our people safely through these troubled time. We must be their guiding star.

Florianne approaches Celene.

Celene: Tonight, the war dividing us must end.

Florianne: My friends, we are here to witness an historic moment. A great change is coming for all of us. Isn’t that right, Gaspard?

Florianne stabs Celene in the back. The PC runs towards them.

Gaspard: Florianne! What have you done?

Florianne: (Laughs.) Don’t be coy! It went just as we planned! I did this for you, brother!

Gaspard: Me? Have you gone mad?

The PC confronts Florianne.

PC: No. Not Gaspard. You did this for Corypheus.

Florianne: What a terrible guest you are. Interrupting your host.

Assassins flood the court.

Florianne: For Corypheus, kill them!

Florianne runs away, and the PC follows.

Florianne: I should thank you. You played your part marvelously. Both Celene and Gaspard destroyed in a single blow. The Council of Heralds will devour each other. And while they do? Corypheus will come.

Florianne points a bow at the PC

Florianne: His army will march on Orlais straight from the depths of a nightmare. And all Thedas will fall. Florianne: The demons of Adamant were not his only army. The empire will fall. And Thedas with it.

Dialogue options:

General: You can’t possibly want that. [15]

General: You won’t live to see it. [16]

General: I’ll stop it. [17]

15 - General: You can’t possibly want that. PC: Listen to yourself. You can’t want to see the world burn. Florianne: From the ashes, a new, glorious world will rise. Corypheus will be its god. And I, its empress. [18]

16 - General: You won’t live to see it. PC: What a pity you won’t live to see any of it. Florianne: You don’t think I came this far without an escape planned? [18]

17 - General: I’ll stop it. PC: Not on my watch. Florianne: That is precisely why I led you out here, Inquisitor. [18]

18 - Scene continues.

The PC is shut into the courtyard.

Florianne: Your death will be the crowning jewel of my victory tonight. So good of you to attend my soiree.

The party fights Florianne.

Scene ends.

Next: Long Live Empress Celene Next: Reunited Lovers Next: A Public Truce Next: Emperor Gaspard

[scentedchildnacho]

The news i dont think that salon lady is being honest that random homeless people tried to burn down her salon....i think she is use to victim strategy and did know the just homeless people as friends of her son maybe.....if its that company that is all I have seen it do to property is position it in places that flood or will mudslide off a hill I think they aren't a politic that way...their there to establish impermanence with a wealth they didn't earn the networking to do

I think that salon lady is dependent on insurance and government apology

I think slashing tesla tires is because if Elon musk is around it's so trump people are expected to publicly defecate like an animal and get raped and murdered in a jail....so people who continue to access public lands for only their private rewards with a big fuck you to anyone who should have benefited off fascist closures then I don't feel at all bad for Tesla from a Harper's ferry standpoint it's a wealth republican and he hired men to really really kill people in revenge for something

Its Tesla so there is no public bathroom for mommy prostitute to run things like an OMA

If it's Elon musk his nazish concentration ladies probably do come down to homeless areas and can want to also sleep through it's cruel brutal unconscionable pollution and won't have to be executed

I mean there is a golf course and they could have legally told the government to not kill them early of old age and positioned property in safe ways and most that those companies do is neo Africanism they don't want to live they want they think therefore they are

That's why I don't have hope as a homeless lady African invasions have just so ignored European testimony about Mussolini or adoloh hitler and that's banal and when people reject banal ideas they hate young women and cause abortions

A lot of property companies do more inspire migration not housing it's such a fuck and if people ask me to rejuvenate it's image with my special missing face on a milk carton I prefer to speculate a fiction somewhere ministries can talk to my people normally and care if poor women do have an abnormal amount of adversity compared to nudity and prostitution

It apparently wasn't a victorious and proud move to evict me from property because all I see or witness of jobs is some type of terrorist that clinically murders them

They all are having very bad pornographic times for people who act financially victorious off my slow murder by negligence

[theros]

Things you may want to look out for before following me:

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Minors can follow, but please do not private message me. Likewise, any asks sent by minors will be posted publicly. I'm not comfortable with private one-on-one conversations with minors, sorry.

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I support the majority of controversial or "weird" identities. This includes but is not limited to alterhumanity, mspec gays/lesbians, pan/omni/multi orientation labels, xenogenders, neurogenders, religiogenders, gender/pronoun nonconforming people, nonlesbians using "femme" and "butch", quoi- labels, contradictory labels, confusing labels, and more.

I don't support any identity or label that comes from the radqueer/transid/transx/trans+ community.

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I'm really uncomfortable with the term "p-shifter" and prefer that you don't follow me if you identify as a p-shifter. Clinical zoanthropes who experience physical transformation are fine, it's specifically the p-shifter community (wing-growers, teen werewolves, etc.) I'm uncomfortable with.

Ship/art/kink/whatever:

I'm not proship OR antiship. I'm anti-censorship and anti-harassment. I hate the black/white thinking on the issue and will block anyone on either side who thinks doxxing and callouts for shipcourse are okay or says the people they disagree with should be shot/executed/anything else.

Dark/taboo/"immoral" kinks are fine. What two or more consenting adults do with and to each other is none of my business 👍

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Monsterfucking, dragonfucking, enjoying sexual furry art, or thinking sheaths or other nonhuman traits in fantasy art or sex toys are hot doesn't make you a zoophile, and it definitely doesn't make you a zeta/bestialist.

I'll hardblock bestialists/zetas/pro-contact zoos, white supremacists, zionists, radfems, radqueers, and aggressive shipcoursers and syscoursers who follow me.

[enderwoah]

ORIGINS SMP HEADCANONS (because i love them): SEASON TWO EDITION BAYBEEE

(this is really long ENJOY :gun:)

tommy

he is phil's son smile

phil's most recent son at least

he's got like one more somewhere

he picked this one up off the dangerous streets a few years ago and he's been sticking with phil ever since

his wings are small- not too small to fly, but they're untrained to the point where it would take a lot or work to get him off the ground

but at first, he didn't really seem to want to learn all that much?

(he has three scars on his face- all from trying to learn how to fly when he was younger)

(he gave up after the third one)

("if at first you don't succeed; try, try again" is his motto, and he tried all three times)

but!! phil and wilbur are very persuasive :) and now that he knows he can fly, he's not going to rest until he does

he's a little manipulative to get what he wants sometimes, but can you blame someone that lived on the street for so long?

he had to do that to survive! it's not his fault.

(it's a great excuse.)

he laughs like a kookaburra amen

he squawks when he gets scared

he chirps. he tries not to because it makes phil go absolutely bird-brained but he does sometimes and he hates it.

tubbo

NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A B[GUNSHOTS]

god he is. so fucking annoying (/rp)

he simply does not know when to stop

he ignores social cues to see when someone is annoyed

(see: he can read social cues. he does read social cues. when you get annoyed that's when he starts being more annoying, because you're more likely to give him what he wants to get him to shut the fuck up.)

he loves talking to (at) people, especially people he doesn't really know that well

so he's trying to be friends with ranboo, but the absolute prick keeps trying to avoid any actual conversations, so that's not working

he buzzes when he gets excited-happy

his fingertips are completely blackened and horrendously sharp, functioning as ten individual stingers

they don't do any actual damage but he's working on that

techno

wither hybrid (??)

how can you be a wither hybrid?? nobody got down and dirty with the wither

he's an experiment

the reason we haven't seen him yet? he's staying away from the main area of the smp

he doesn't want to ruin its natural beauty with his withering effect, so he keeps to himself on the outskirts of the smp

which sucks

withers get health from killing things

he's not fully a wither, so he gets energy from being around people and sort of draining their life force a little bit

he feels terrible when he's with just one person because they are Literally his life support and it makes the person feel like shit

when he's with a big group of people its great!! he only has to take a little bit from everyone and its barely noticable!!

but then there's the wither part. so he has to stay away.

he's always tired

always exhausted

he's a farmer, so taking it from animals works, but god does he miss people

but he can only visit a few times and for very short

(he's afraid that one of these days he'll get so bad that the next time he sees someone he'll accidentally kill them)

(it already happened once. he's blessed that he's been forgiven, even made friends with by the victims, but he doubts he'll be able to pull that off again with no consequences like last time)

wilbur

phantlings are dead elytrians, and given that wilbur was phil's son...he's a phantling

he died in the late 50s and was a librarian when he was alive, so he's very possessive (ha) over all of his things

you should never ask to "borrow" anything from him, he will hound you about it until you give it back

it's best to just say that you want something from him to keep

even if youre going to give it back

just for your own peace of mind

phantlings can feel fear and get a genuine feeling of elation from scaring people

of course, sometimes its unwelcome (feeling large amounts of fear from someone they care about in a bad way just makes them pissed)

but for the most part, wilbur loves appearing in the corner of people's visions just to jumpscare them a few minutes later

all in good fun, of course!! it's just hilarious :)

being the lighthearted, fun guy he is, he's not particularly secretive about his method of death

"how did i die? well, it all started -- ended -- on november 16th, 1958!"

"i walked out of the library late, since i took the shift for my wife since she was feeling sick and i worked there anyways,"

"the streets were dark and only lit up by gaslamps...and out of an alley...appeared..........."

techno.

he didn't mean it. wilbur isn't at all mad at him (anymore)

he was starving. he didn't know that one touch would be enough to fully revitalize him...

and murder wilbur where he stood.

sneeg

has details on everyone on the server

you Cannot Hide Shit From Sneeg

its impossible

if you find of his any shittly little mouse holes then you're doomed

you find one and there are twenty more

he's under your floorboards while you're having your important discussion about trapping the nether roof

sucks to suck ig??

he seems to be the favourite of many, which is weird since he rarely goes out of his way to actually talk to many people

he's the only person that tubbo doesn't actively try to annoy (or maybe he just doesn't find tubbo's antics all that annoying)

he's the only person that ranboo stays around (or maybe he stays around ranboo- he and Phil seem to be the only ones not off-put by his slightly sadistic and whiny demeanour (not counting tubbo, who annoys him anyways)

phil seems to be more protective of him than he thinks is normal (he lets sneeg ride on his shoulder while travelling, so he doesn't really complain)

niki is completely protective over him (again, not complaining)

contrary to popular believe, he does not get high from sugar

if anything he gets

high-per

(get it)

(high-per)

(hyper)

he's literally just a nine-year old getting a sugar rush leave him alone

phil

take the normal "bird-brain" headcanons and multiply it by like sixty-four

and you've got origins phil

he can't see glass- or, rather, he can, but it doesn't register that 'hey, this is a solid surface i am going to slam into'

its very funny for everyone else but he's pretty sure he has permanent brain damage from the blunt force trauma

if there is ANYONE on the server who dares to chirp, bird or no, they must understand that they are signing away their privacy and giving phil the right to go absolutely bonkers over them momma bird style

(shoutout to tommy, wilbur, ranboo, and fundy for having to suffer through this)

"oh??? you don't have wings?? you don't have feathers?? omg?? then what's this im preening?? what do you mean im just braiding your hair?? nono this is preening smile"

god help you if you dare to have wings

poor tommy, wilbur, sneeg, and tubbo

phil can't help himself alright

do you think he wants to be any sort of protective over sneegsnag?

no!! but he cant stop himself!! sneeg might damage his wings if he keeps flying those super long distances!!! nnnno! carry the bug man!!!

it's weird, he's always had that protective sense over ranboo, too

but ranboo very obviously doesn't have wings, so he doesn't get it...

ranboo

yes ur a peasant

yes ur poor

yes im cooler than u

what r u gonna do about it

the enderdragon's son! partially a dragon, partially enderman, partially human (don't ask, his other mom is a hybrid), all spoiled brat!

given that he has a ton of dragon genes, he's extremely possessive over his stuff and Yes He Does Do The Hoarding Thing

he has a pile of rings and gold chains and necklaces and most of his jewellery hidden underneath his bed

(if you ask him, no, he doesn't)

not to wear

just to Have

one time, fundy stole one (1) bracelet from the hoard and ranboo was sent into a panic for a good 24 hours

he wouldn't leave his cave and kept counting and recounting as if that'd make the missing piece reappear

(when fundy had to give it back because of the guilt, he expected to get his face bitten off)

(instead, he just watched as the prince was flooded with relief, telling him to get the hell out and nothing more)

it's weird, he has so much gold and even a crown, and yet here he is

living with all those people ^^^

truth be told, the enderdragon isn't a very nice dragon

nor is she a very kind queen

nor was the other queen

nor was her son

there was a mutiny in the end, leading to the dragon queen and her wife being killed brutally by the crowd of angered people

they went after their son next, who had ordered executions and worked servants to the bone just as much as they had

they cut off his wings in the middle of the square

he was sure he was going to die until a random person (a peasant) jumped up and yelled at them for publicly torturing a child

but ranboo didn't really catch all of it, given he was delirious from pain

he got to get some stuff quickly and escape with his life

this wasn't too long ago, either, so he's still trying to...adjust...to people talking rudely to him

(he's also trying to adjust to not having wings)

(hence why he hurls himself off the edges of cliffs and then has to teleport to the bottom instead of glide. he keeps forgetting.)

[attllhak]

Adoption AU: Midna

AKA: The one where Twilight got shot.

@tortilla-of-courage @ghostdragonace @sekiumiarashi @anadorablekiwi

Also, mind the tags for this one, since it is the fic where Twi gets shot I did look up the warnings list I gave my best friend when I shared it with them. It shouldn’t be too bad, but better safe than sorry.

----------------

Twilight wasn’t terribly happy about this arrangement. He understood what Keapora was trying to do, he did, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.

It was a group project for their history class, about the French revolution. Everyone was assigned a historical figure to research, and at the end of two weeks they would need to present an argument on why their figure shouldn’t be executed. The class would vote, and if you lost then a carrot that Keapora’s daughter, Zelda, or Sun as his family called her since they knew so many Zeldas, dressed up to look like the figures would be executed. Twilight’s brother often helped her, and people didn’t usually survive since everyone loved watching Keapora execute carrot nobles with the tiny, functioning guillotine he had.

Twilight was one of the people that was really valuable in group projects because he actually did the work. He was especially sought after because he never made a big deal of it, unless the others did absolutely nothing, and even then he cornered the teacher after class instead of calling anyone out. Dusk, another Zelda, was another of these very valuable group project members. She was a little more vocal about being used, but only because she approached the teacher while class was still in and did so regardless of how little effort was put in. Twilight didn’t know Dusk personally, they didn’t run in the same circles very often, but they got along well enough.

Midna, however, was another story.

Midna was a foreign student, whose parents had immigrated not long after she was born. Her mother’s brother and his family moved with them. Twilight was more familiar with her, but only because they had ended up in the office for fighting once.

Not each other, they had never hit each other. In fact, they had been on the same side. The person they were fighting was Midna’s cousin Zant.

Zant was a grade above them, and a real piece of work. He thought because his family were immigrants that he could claim discrimination any time anyone wasn’t willing to do what he wanted. Plus, if you asked Twilight, he was just a bit loony, and every time he saw the guy he got a worse and worse feeling about him.

They’d met the year before, when Midna and Zant had switched schools. Zant had tried picking on one of Twilight’s little brothers, and Twilight was not having that. Midna had the same thought, apparently, since she was pretty quick to get involved too. Then Zant punched Twilight. Midna punched Zant. One of Zant’s cronies jumped in to defend him. Twilight’s brother Legend saw this going down and decided to lend his fists to the cause when he noticed Twi and Midna were outnumbered. Things devolved from there.

In the end, Zant’s cronies, and Legend, booked it before the teachers got there to break it up. All three of them got dragged into the office and had parents called. Twilight had been miserable until Midna leaned over to compliment him on his form and show him funny videos on her phone. They didn’t talk much, but there was a mutual respect there.

Midna was not like Twilight or Dusk. She was very useful to a group project, but also had a tendency to publicly call out everyone who didn’t help. During the presentation. Twilight had howled the first time she got to the ‘credits’ slide and it was all just her name, and then the other group members listed as ‘standing around looking pretty’. He wasn’t alone.

So he understood what Keapora was doing. By putting all the kids who were invaluable to group projects together it ensured that they wouldn’t get taken advantage of and that they’d all be able to only do their part.

He didn’t have to like it.

It was because he was on the soccer team, he figured. He knew the other sports kids used that as an excuse to get out of projects. And Dusk was on student council and in debate.

That was the only reason he could find that Midna didn’t trust them to do their part. Or maybe she was just jaded. He understood that feeling.

Either way, after the first ‘huddle’ to begin dividing the work where Midna had complained about doing all the work, Dusk pulled Twilight aside and they worked out a plan to get Midna to trust them.

A large part of this plan leveraged the fact Midna already seemed mostly cool with Twilight, so he’d be mostly on the charisma front (which had confused him, since he was far better with animals than he was people), and Dusk would focus more heavily on gathering and sorting research. This, worked less well than Dusk had hoped.

Fortunately, Midna came around the day they got kicked out of the library for getting into a screaming match about a few contradictory facts they dredged up. They left the room still steaming, but Midna was laughing pretty loudly. After that, the three of them got along pretty well.

The project went pretty smoothly after that as well, and they agreed if any more screaming was to happen they’d relocate outside. This worked really well, and soon enough they fell into a system. Dusk even offered them her house to get together after school to work on it. This worked well for Twilight, who had four and a half brothers and counting, and thus didn’t exactly live in a house conducive to group projects. Or any projects.

The three ended up spending a lot of time together working on it, and even managed to get to the point where they were well ahead of the rest of the class. Twilight was even hopeful their carrot might survive (though not so hopeful he thought it would, he knew better than that).

Of course, the universe didn’t seem to think he should be able to take a break. Ignoring that Wild had just gotten another cast off and he’d had to rescue Legend from a few more fist fights, he didn’t think anything big would end up happening. It was just the usual shit where his biggest break was going over to Dusk’s house to work or disappearing on his Epona for a few hours.

But, he wasn’t oblivious. He noticed the warning signs, he just dismissed them.

In hindsight, he shouldn’t have done this.

Zant had always made Twilight uncomfortable. It didn’t help that he seemed to really hate Twilight after the fight they’d gotten into, and made worse by the fact Twilight got along well with Midna. Midna mentioned he was always a little jealous of her for various reasons, and that they’d never been close. So he didn’t think much of it when Zant started acting weirder than usual. He asked when he noticed Midna was getting more fidgety and nervous, but accepted it when she brushed him off. He paid no mind to the fact Zant started skipping school.

He never brushed things off like this again. His therapist said it was paranoia based on trauma, but Dusk agreed with him that it was a reasonable caution. After all, he was the one who got hurt.

They had finished the project early, after spending the entire weekend at Dusk’s place to work on it at Midna’s request. In hindsight, it should have been worrying that Midna was avoiding her home, but no one said anything about it since she just brushed them off.

The three were sitting in the library, sorting through the last few bits of information and the presentation to make sure they had everything. Twilight was sitting closest to the door, which is probably why he was the one who did the stupid thing.

They had been there for maybe ten minutes when an announcement for a lockdown came over the intercom. Lockdown drills had been happening since Twilight’s dad had been in school, after he’d done something really stupid and brave in the face of danger, so no one thought much of it. Mostly, they just moved all the papers and the laptop they were using under the table so they could keep working.

That is, until Twilight noticed how worried the librarians looked.

Suspicious now, Twilight rapped twice on the top of the table and hissed to the girls his concerns. Midna agreed, but looked suddenly really, really pale, and a little scared.

“Midna, are you alright?” Dusk hovered a hand over Midna’s shoulder, and Twilight crouched down next to them to watch as well.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Midna waved them off, but both of them could tell she was lying.

“Midna, do you know what’s going on?” Twilight asked her, glancing back at the librarians every so often.

“No, well, maybe,” she was now wringing her hands in her cloak, chewing on her lip.

“Midna, what’s going on? Is this for real?” Dusk set her hand down and Midna jumped, Dusk retracting her hand as she did.

“Well,” she hesitated, but Twilight offered her a smile and Dusk nodded. “There have been a few, issues, with my cousin. You know, Zant? He uh, he’s not been doing well recently,”

“Not been doing well?” Twilight led, hoping for something more.

“He’s been getting more violent,” Midna admitted quietly. “And, and he’s starting to scare me a little bit,”

Twilight and Dusk shared a look, both coming to the same conclusion.

Before anything more could be said, however, the library door was thrown open, and the librarians screamed and ducked behind the counters. Twilight jerked up to standing, having not slid under the table with the girls.

Sure enough, Zant was standing across the library, panting hard and looking more than a little crazed.

“Call the cops,” Twilight muttered to the girls, frozen where he stood and just waiting for Zant to spot him. “One of you call the police,”

“Link,” Midna hissed at him, probably well aware of what he was planning. “Don’t you even think about it!”

“Just make sure the police are on the way,” Twilight hissed back, ignoring the use of his real name.

“Link!”

“Twilight,”

He ignored both girls when Zant finally spotted him. He knew what people looked like when they were going to shoot. Legend and Wild both learned to shoot for fun a while back and would practice on old milk jugs in the yard. He had more than enough warning before Zant even brought the pistol up to aim.

Twilight took off at him at a dead run, knowing full well he was dead if there was enough distance, ignoring the cursing from the girls.

He shoulder checked Zant hard in the stomach and managed to duck beneath the first shot. Unfortunately, he was very close to the gun and it didn’t have a silencer. He stumbled back and rubbed his ears, trying to dispel the ringing in them. This gave Zant enough time to get back to his feet and regain his breath. Twilight noticed and pushed the ringing to the side and lunged for the gun.

The two tug-of-warred over the weapon for a few beats, Twilight trying to get it away from Zant and Zant trying to get it at an angle so he could shoot Twilight. Twilight kept trying to push the gun pointed down and Zant was desperately pulling on it and trying to shove and hit Twilight.

This went on for several long moments, though Twilight didn’t remember exactly how long. He was way more focussed on the fight than how long it was.

He most certainly remembered his hand slipping and the gun coming up, and the second gunshot was burned in his memory, never to be erased.

The pain didn’t register for a few heartbeats, and shock set in almost immediately. He lost his grip on the gun and stumbled back, eyes wide in shock and horror, mouth open in a silent scream.

Zant stumbled back as well, and both boys seemed frozen. Zant grinned, however, and lifted up the gun again to finish the job.

Twilight had never felt so scared before or after.

And then a loud crack sounded, and standing behind and over Zant’s now crumpled form was Midna, chair held by the legs over her head.

Midna caught sight of Twilight, and dropped the chair, swearing really loudly.

It was at this point Twilight lowered his hands to his stomach, and the hole that now existed there. He didn’t dare look down, instead keeping his eyes on Midna and the look of horror on her face.

“Is, is it bad?” He tried for a joke, but it probably fell flat. It was then that Twilight, a little dizzy, tipped over onto the floor.

He didn’t remember much after that. He remembered Midna screaming his name, his real name, and Dusk dropping into view, phone held up to her ear. He remembered vaguely being moved somewhere else, and then being rolled onto his side and pressure on his back and stomach. He thinks he cried out at that, but his head was already starting to swim a little, and the shock wasn’t helping. His next really clear memory was in the ambulance.

He blinked and groaned, and Dusk popped into view over him.

“Easy, Link,” she reached up and moved some of his hair out of his face, smiling but not able to hide how shaken up she still was. “It’ll be okay, you’re gonna be fine,” she sounded like she was convincing herself.

“Midna?” He asked, then blinked at the muffled sound of his voice.

Dusk held his hand down, chuckling at him. “A mask,” she explained, “to help your breathing. You were gasping. Midna needed to talk to the police, since it was her cousin. She’s going to meet us,”

“Okay?” 

“Yeah, she’s okay,” Dusk smiled and rubbed his shoulder. “We’re both okay. You’re the one we’re both worried about,”

Twilight just nodded, and sort of drifted out of focus again. There was a bit of activity when they arrived, but then Twilight was put under and rushed into surgery so he didn’t remember anything that happened afterwards.

He came to a few hours later in a hospital room with stitches in his stomach and back. Dusk had collapsed over his right arm, and Midna leaned on the edge of the bed, careful to avoid the IV in his arm. He couldn’t see any family, so he figured they hadn’t gotten there yet.

Midna looked up after a few beats, and Twilight smiled at her. That had her bolting up.

“Twilight!”

Dusk lifted her head on his other side, her own face breaking into a grin when she saw him too.

“You’re up!”

“Yup, I lived,” he paused. “Actually is my phone here? Can someone take a picture of me to send to my brothers? Wild always does it when he breaks a bone, and I wanna see why he finds it so funny,”

“You’re high on pain meds, aren’t you?” Midna deadpanned at him.

He laughed, until he realized that made his stomach hurt. “Ow,”

“Okay, maybe not,” Midna admitted, then handed him his phone. “What’s your passcode?”

“Midna!” Dusk cried.

“What? He asked!”

Twilight happily opened up his phone, ignoring Dusk.

“Say cheese!” Midna grinned at him, holding up the phone.

Twilight lifted both hands in a peace sign and grinned. Midna took the photo and sent it off into the group chat without another word, even as Dusk made disapproving noises next to them.

Immediately a string of excited and relieved texts started pouring in, and Twilight had to remind himself laughing hurt.

The injury wasn’t bad, he found out. He wasn’t sure how getting shot could be ‘not bad’, but apparently since the bullet went through the damage wasn’t severe. He was expected to be back at full in less than a year, but had to be pulled off the soccer team for the rest of the year, and discouraged from rejoining the next year. That was disappointing, but livable.

About half an hour before his parents arrived, Midna offered to paint his face for him.

This had confused Twilight quite a bit. What did getting paint on his face have to do with what had happened?

Midna explained that for the Twili, her people, facial markings were important parts of identity, and you can earn them for doing certain things or surviving awful events. Twilight argued that he wasn’t Twili, and Midna pointed out she was, and that Zant was as well, and since both of them were involved she got to make the call. At this point Twilight was mostly confused as to how he would have even earned facial markings.

Midna just sputtered. “You got shot! AND you defended me and Dusk from Zant. You fought my cousin for the gun so he wouldn’t shoot anyone else! That, as far as I’m concerned, makes you a hero! And heroes obviously get facial markings. Not to mention I’m pretty damn sure getting shot counts as a ‘pretty damn awful experience’. So yes, you qualify for markings.”

Twilight blinked at that. Well, he couldn’t really argue with that.

So he let Midna paint his face.

When his family, and Midna and Dusk’s parents, arrived Midna was sitting on the bed next to him, a paintbrush in hand and Dusk holding a small pot full of a specific kind of paint Midna had ducked out to get. Twilight had half a diamond shape on his head at this point. The three teenagers all froze to turn to look at the newcomers.

“Hi,” Twilight waved at them.

“What’s going on here?” Time asked, eye roving over the group.

“I’m painting his face,” Midna explained.

“Why?” Time asked, and Midna’s father, who also had an elaborate series of markings on his face, leaned around him.

“Yes, why are you doing that?”

“Because,” Midna explained, “he got shot. And he fought Zant to protect us from him, and as per tradition, that qualifies him for facial markings. So I’m doing them for him,”

“Zant?” Midna’s father asked.

“Yeah, he showed up and tried to shoot up the school,” Midna explained as she went back to applying paint to Twilight’s face. “He busted into the library where we were and Twilight tried to fight him to protect the rest of us. He got shot and I whacked Zant in the head with a chair. Then we huddled off somewhere else to hide until the cops showed up.”

“No, Zant was the shooter?” Her father repeated.

Midna froze and turned around. “Yes. Did you not know?”

Her father shook his head. “They didn’t catch the shooter,”

Midna’s shoulders dropped, and both hylians behind her looked equally horrified.

“What?” Midna asked.

Her father shook his head again. “They didn’t catch him,”

Midna took a deep breath, then shook her head and turned back to Twilight. Her hand was shaking now, so she didn’t go back to painting. Twilight lifted his hand to pat her knee.

“I’m sure they’ll catch him soon,” Malon offered, slipping into the room to take up on the couch against the wall. “He’s pretty easily identified, after all,”

“Right,” Midna nodded, then shook herself once. “Right, it’ll be fine.”

She dipped the brush back into the paint and went about continuing to paint on Twilight’s face.

“What are you doing?” Eyes turned back up to find Zant’s parents in the doorway now, after everyone else wandered into the room to settle down.

“Why is everyone asking me that?” Midna turned to face the ceiling. “I’m painting his face! I can do that! He’s earned the markings, and as the present Twili I can choose to provide them to him, even though he isn’t Twili. Believe me, I’ve considered whether or not this was something I could do, and I can. And besides, I’m already half done,”

“No,” Zant’s mother corrected. “I mean why are you painting his face for assaulting my son?”

“What?!” Midna whipped around, fury on her face.

Zant’s mother nodded. “He attacked Zant, and you rewarding him for it is a betrayal to this family,”

“Zant brought a gun to our school!” Midna burst, apparently pissed off and finally snapping after the stress of the day. “He tried to shoot me, he DID shoot Twilight! Twilight saved our lives by attacking him, and he got injured for it! He more than deserves these markings, and Zant should be in jail!”

Zant’s mother stuttered, then drew herself up. “That boy is a danger to everyone around him,”

“Yes,” Midna agreed and pointedly added a line under Twilight’s eyes. “Zant is unstable and dangerous,”

The woman huffed, and went to start yelling when Malon stood up again and blocked her from the door. “Let’s talk, hm?”

The door shut and Twilight had to put in a lot of effort not to laugh as his mother tore into the woman outside the door. After a few minutes, Midna’s mother joined her, and Dusk’s father followed with a camera in hand.

No one else questioned the paints again.

In the end, Zant’s mother filed for a restraining order against Twilight and Malon, which Malon said she would abide by exclusively because it was one less expense on them. Midna’s parents refused to separate Midna from one of her friends, especially one who put his life at risk to help her, and didn’t sign onto the order the way Zant’s mother wanted them too.

Twilight ended up with a very nice looking set of markings over his forehead that Midna told him symbolized courage and boldness and sacrifice. He was quite proud of them.

He got back to school the same day as the presentation, which he thought was pretty amusingly coincidental. His mother, ever worrying, did insist he use a wheelchair (one they had for Time from a few years before Twilight was born) so he didn’t put undue strain on his injury.

The presentation went well, and things worked out fine. They even managed to keep their carrot alive. Midna’s ‘credits’ of course popped up, but it was much more even than in the past. Of course, there was still the ‘sitting around looking pretty’ category.

Midna was listed. They had taken a vote. Everyone found this hilarious.

There was more laughter when Twilight was listed as having ‘bled for this’. Keapora didn’t find it as amusing as their classmates did.

Midna moved away not long after that, her parents worried about Zant. She explained she wouldn’t be able to talk to them anymore until things calmed down or Zant was caught since her parents were scared.

That was the last time either of them spoke to her.

(---)

The markings Midna painted on stuck around for a very long time. Dusk theorized that the paint was probably some kind of tattoo paint, meant to stain the skin for a long time. Even four and a half years later, the paint was still visible. It was beginning to fade now, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to get it redone. The only Twili in the area was Zant’s family, and no one was asking them. It was quite the conversation starter though.

He hadn’t heard from Midna at all since she moved away, and he really missed her. Turns out when you fight someone’s loony cousin together you bond. Who knew?

The scar on his stomach didn’t bother him much, unless it rained really hard or really suddenly. Overall, despite his continuing visits to a therapist and the occasional nightmare, he had recovered from the entire event mostly unscathed.

Most of the time he didn’t get to think about it, helping out on the ranch and prepping to take over some day, alongside his now seven brothers, meant he didn’t have time too.

His therapist was worried his drag racing was a sign of self-destructive behavior, and a symptom of trauma. He ignored her, even though she may have been right.

And that was life. That was just the way it was.

Eventually Time got a call from the police captain, whom he knew quite well by now, letting him know they apprehended Zant, and charges were pending. Time promised they’d testify.

Twilight finally put in an application to a college, one of the really rural ones that offered classes in the sort of stuff that’d be useful when he took over the ranch from his parents one day. He got accepted.

About two weeks after Zant was convicted and carted off, and Twilight was looking at packing up for his first semester, he got a call from an unknown number.

Curious, but not stupid, he turned on the call recording app he’d gotten after the first few times he’d received a threatening call after the whole Zant thing, and hit answer.

“Hello?”

“Hey wolf boy,”

He nearly dropped his phone.

[burritosandpeppermint]

(Just real quick: the Jar Jar thing is covered in this video and I get why it's the "Title Card" or whatever for this video because that's very intriguing for a lot of people but there's a far, far better Star Wars edit in this video that's 100% worth your while).

Anyway...

I am actually completely out of the loop when it comes to fan edits of anything - I have a weird thing where the final product, or a "director's cut" version, is the real and authentic piece and no others should be considered - but I've at least been aware that they exist. And it's entirely understandable: almost all of us have an absolute love for some piece of art where we can also think "I wouldn't have done this part that way" or "I would have removed this" or "added that." It's perfectly understandable.

But there's something else I love about the concept of fan edits and it has to do with criticism of art in general. Now, I'm not a noted historian of art criticism but I think that what I'm about to say is mostly true.

Generally speaking anyone can have an opinion on art, just as anyone can have an opinion on anything. We may disagree but that's just literally what the internet is for (besides cute animal videos and porn). Over time there have been many methods of critiquing art, which is to say, many schools of thought, but there have also been many means of critiquing art.

One could do it verbally for themselves or anyone nearby: "Venus de Milo? With those arms? Pfft!"

One could write down one's thoughts in some manner and post or publish them for a wider audience: "The arms of Venus de Milo are perfect, it's the rest of the statue that I hate..."

One could create art in response to the art: "Here's my Venus de Smilo; as you can see she has huge muscular arms - one giving the peace sign, the other giving a rude hand gesture - and she's smiling at all you fools."

One could destroy or damage the art: "I don't think Venus de Milo needs arms at all and I'm going to remove them."*

I believe that criticism can be more than just praise or damnation by itself, or an examination through a specific lens; it can also be thought of as a conversation with the artist. Whether we're addressing the artist and their vision or their execution we use our critique to actually say "I like it!" or "I wouldn't have done this part that way" or "I would have removed this" or "added that." The artist may not want to listen but someone may be trying to push that across anyway.

In this silicon age more people have more access to more creative tools - specifically visual and auditory - than ever before, and they're more powerful and cheaper than ever. And the biggest, most attention-getting art out there are movies. And we live in a time when there isn't just one genuine copy of a movie; virtually anyone can have a copy. We might then be able to make more copies and edit them how we want, keeping them private or sharing them publicly.

Editing in itself is an artistic endeavor. Taking a lot of parts and finding the whole that you can create from them is amazing work. When you're part of a crew making a movie it's expected to have an editor, but if you're just doing it to a finished piece of work you're taking matters into your own hands. For you the movie isn't done, or at least not quite to your liking. You're a civilian editor, a "one more thing" editor...a Columbo editor? I'm not sure what the right phrase is, but you're willing to take the time and effort to edit it and put it back out there into the world, perhaps just as nervous or as satisfied as the people who put out the original version.

And here's a way of thinking about all of the above that kicks me in the head:

In releasing a personally edited version of a film the new editor is using the work itself as a medium to have a conversation about the work.

Like, whaaaaa?

Maybe this has been done before. Maybe this isn't a unique thought. But it made a pretzel of my mind because that's such a cool thing to do! It's not just writing about it; it's not just standing outside the homes of those who made the film and shouting your opinions; it's taking what they made, changing it, and saying "No, THAT'S it."

So I encourage watching the video and other videos on the same channel. I just discovered it the other day and they're quite good.