#anyway. she's certainly something.

[ethereal-maia]

hey so i just started reading gone with the wind and yes it's obviously. a controversial view of the civil war to say the least. but it's like... really well written? I'm taking it all with a grain of salt of course but I'm like incredibly interested in this story like oh man.

[firehose118]

rewatching Hen Begins

sal is definitely the one who took the initiative on reporting gerrard, right?

at the infamous Team Jacob meal, gerrard says he’s worried about putting his life and the lives of “his men” in the “hands of someone who isn’t up to the job”

and sal gives him this long, evaluating, critical look

this is before hen thinks quickly to save the woman in the mudslide

this is before hen puts together the clues that there was another car in the accident and saves a drowned child

this look might be about female firefighters or about black firefighters but it is NOT about hen’s as-yet-untested abilities

i think sal sees gerrard as “someone who isn’t up to the job”

i think sal doesn’t trust gerrard with the lives of “his men”

we see later how gerrard dismisses hen’s ideas even when those ideas save lives. he chastises her for having them at all. does he listen to anyone else’s ideas? does he listen to sal?

how many people have died or been in unnecessary pain because gerrard has been too stubborn to listen to anyone but himself?

i think sal has wanted gerrard gone for a long time now

does he sense an opportunity in hen’s arrival? we know from Bobby Begins Again that sal wants to be captain. the easiest path to that for him is to take over from gerrard

gerrard has his say about women and leaves the table. sal kind of rolls his eyes but looks at tommy and nods for them to both leave with him

he looks almost regretful? like he doesn’t want to follow gerrard but knows he and tommy have to stay on his good side

maybe that’s the only way to get gerrard to listen—to make him see you as an extension of himself

so sal is still playing the game, still playing along as a card-carrying member of the Straight White Boys’ Club (and plays it so well that it wasn’t until my 5th rewatch with my saltommy goggles on that i even noticed this moment of evaluation at all)

throughout the episode, tommy follows closely at sal’s heels. sometimes tommy will look to gerrard for approval instead of sal (cutting out the middleman), but if sal goes somewhere, tommy is only a step behind him

sal knows how to play the game. tommy knows how to follow along. to hide in plain sight under the wing of someone who will guide him

i think sal said “let’s report this guy” and only had more and more justification as time when on—as hen proved herself more than capable and gerrard only got nastier in response

once their mission was set, tommy sent in his own reports. so did chimney, of course. who knows how many others sal recruited to report gerrard en masse

yes, hen is a great firefighter. but gerrard leaving the 118 was a coup, and it started before she set foot on her first call

this was a coup—and an unsuccessful one

gerrard was gone, yes. but sal did not replace him

i think this casts sal’s Bobby Begins Again insubordination/meltdown over being passed over for captain yet again into a more interesting light

after all sal has done for the 118? he got gerrard kicked out. he saved hen’s career—one of the smartest and most determined firefighters he’s ever worked with. he’s held the place together and run scenes as their string of retiring captains bumbled through calls

and then this random guy from minnesota is chastising sal for saving a kid trapped in a burning building? he thinks this is his house?

[mspaintpetfinder]

now here's the purrbeast

[hulloitsdani]

What do u think Kiran is

How do u think the order sees kiran

*slowly sits up in my chair*

I think Kiran is a very normal person. This is someone you and I have met before. Be that from the other side of grocery store cashier, waiting in the same elevator, or walking by on a crosswalk. Kiran is a civilian from our world trying to roll with the punches of being warped somewhere completely alien. And you can see it in how they conduct themselves.

I always have a lot of fun writing Kiran’s dialogue because their casual modern speech almost feels like a dialect in comparison to the more formal fantasy tone everyone else speaks with. An “ain’t” will never exit Alfonse’s mouth, you know? And there’s a difference in “Do you have gold?” vs “You got gold?” To me, this gives Kiran an air of unfamiliarity to anyone they interact with. Let’s use Grima as an example, because it doesn’t sound like this grammatical change would make much of difference until Kiran has the audacity to hit Grima with a bro mid sentence. But that’s just how they talk. And as sweet and friendly as they are, there’s always moments like that to remind that no one has the cultural context to fully understand Kiran. Except for the audience, who can realize that Kiran let the customer service voice drop to talk to Grima like he’s an actual person.

And that’s just about how they talk! This view is only emphasized by every other thing about them! They’re a lovable goof, which is normal chill person behavior in the audience’s eyes but feels REALLY ODD to the characters of FE’s medieval fantasy war setting. There is this air of unknown about them that the more socially perceptive will pick up on and will try to come to a conclusion about. Example, I imagine Soren would interpret a lot of this as a dangerous and deeply annoying lack of intelligence from someone he has the displeasure of sharing a tactics table with. Or looping back to the Grima example, he would totally think Kiran has greedy ulterior motives behind that pleasant facade. It takes a lot of work for those types to realize that the discrepancy present isn’t really any of those things. But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Kiran doesn’t try to directly prove any of those assumptions wrong unless they have to.

Why? Well now it’s time for the implications! Oh how we love the implications.

Because the Summoner is a different story. No one has any fucking clue what that is.

I can tell you what Kiran has pieced together so far. Summoning people from across time and space is apparently not easy. It’s not some school of magical study that some mage could pull off with enough time and research. Trust, Eitri tried. It’s a lot of complex moving parts. For example, the contracts. The contracts Kiran automatically binds their summoned to don’t even compare to the ones Veronica used in book 1. They are far more intense and infinitely harder to break. The only way out of them is if Kiran wills it so. Not even death is an option, because Kiran can come in for the revive. If they had to guess, it’s an older, more completed version of the art. Something lost to time. But no matter the case, Kiran has the ability to take full control of whoever they manage to summon. From a lowly farmer to the divine. And their power only grows.

In a similar vein, if there was any character to canonically see the hud, I think it would be Kiran. It’s genuinely part of their power set. I have previously described Kiran as the party mage until Veronica shows up to be the actual mage, but it would be way more accurate to call them a mystic/seer. They see the map, everyone’s stats, and is doing a fast amount of math to give the combat forecast. Then, upon processing all this information their enemies couldn’t dream of having at their disposal, Kiran can telepathically communicate any change in plans to anyone under contract. Kiran is not inherently some great tactician the moment they touch ground in Askr; they simply can do things no one else can. They’re learning the actual tactics part on the fly. This makes them simultaneously the largest ace up the Order’s sleeve and potentially its biggest liability. If they fall, it could cause a whole system cascade. By that same token, some of the biggest threats the Order has faced are the ones who do their research and rightfully target Kiran.

Now. Thinking critically about all that. That’s downright terrifying. A ridiculous amount of power has been dropped callously into Kiran’s lap and they have to work extremely hard to be moral with it. It’s terrifyingly easy not to be. It would actively take less effort to ‘take the reins’ as it were. But in order to be able to sleep at night ever again, they go the extra mile to not invalidate the will of their summoned. To take over like that. To make a colony of worker bees out of people. Because oh dear god they just summoned a child and the fact that they could easily force them to fight and die for them, only to be revived and do it all over again, is HAUNTING. No. No the Order has an in house orphanage now. This kid is getting adopted and cared for god damnit or Kiran might just pop a blood vessel. And sure that child is going to be a child and there will never be a world where they get along with everyone else, but that’s just going to need be a problem they address when they get there and not an excuse to use Hubris; the power set. Now replace the word child with everyone they ever summoned and you have the wider philosophy they apply to the entire Order.

They’re hyper aware of the power imbalance. They hate it with every bone in their body. They work really hard to correct it in whatever way they can.

So Kiran might not jump on the opportunity to correct those who think lesser of them. It’s… oddly comforting to know someone is keeping a critical eye on them. Holding them accountable. Especially since so much of the order just thinks of them as this quirky yet well meaning host. And, really, what can they even do about that? They have gone over the contract with every hero they summon and despite that they still choose to stay. So, what, do they try to inspire more mistrust? The problem with that they would have to actually do acts that intentionally inspire mistrust. And even if that was successful they can’t just waste the extra man power because every other month there’s some new divine asshole who wants them all dead. And if they fail that means they have to start their life from square one and god they can’t do that again so—

Just breathe Kiran.

It’s fine. You’re fine. Just breathe.

You have work to do.

[silusvesuius]

n*loth not being able to bag anyone over the (human term) age of 25-30 at most is the only logical and real conclusion to me because it can be just explained away as him wanting to prove and control everything and anyone (Cus he's a man!) but being stuck in that demographic because his unbearable and vile personality is a force that nobody can look past once they've outgrown the possible fear and idolization period of anyone but also n*loth in particular.

[lunarharp]

"Found out" set in kind of a made-up chapter where the girls are in trouble, or something.

[everysongineverykey]

i dunno it kinda bothers me sometimes to see characters who are referred to with they/them pronouns in games described as "ambiguously gendered" or "gender left unclear" or "gender unstated" by fans and stuff like. yeah absolutely they are sometimes that. sometimes the creator had a gender in mind for them while creating them and just didn't think to talk about it in the game. but also, like. sometimes characters can just be nonbinary? and it makes me kinda sad that everyone's first reaction to they/them pronouns in games is "oh, they have a binary gender, it's just up to the player/not stated in-game".

[braveasnouns]

(THIS POST INCLUDES SWEET TOOTH SPOILERS)

heyy here’s a little baby post-canon tigerbear one-shot to hold you guys over until I get my stuff together and post the chapter on Ao3! I couldn’t stop thinking about this so I just wrote it! hope you guys like it.

(this is if Tiger was injured but survived and stayed back with the hybrids during season 3 btw)

-

Becky was happy, really and truly happy as she saw that familiar corner of the forest unfold in front of them and the smiling faces awaiting their arrival just down the hill. it had been an incredibly exhausting journey back but seeing the kid's swaying tails and running hugs made it all feel so far behind her now. the sick feeling that had been stuck in her chest every day since she stepped foot on that beach had slowly begun to dissipate as she greeted everyone once again. she still felt on edge, still kept a lookout around them even as she felt the joy of the hybrids reunited all around her, she just couldn’t help it.

and then she saw her. walking out from behind a thicker cluster of trees a yard away, slower than she’s ever been. Becky immediately took notice of their dark grown out roots and slight limp as more of her appeared.

Tiger.

she couldn’t even help the way she ran to them, weaving past Maya and her sister to get a clear path as Tiger stopped in their tracks as they saw her approaching.

and suddenly her arms were wrapped around her and she could hear both of their heartbeats loud and clear as her face found its way to be nestled in the side of Tigers neck. she felt their arms around her waist and Becky could swear they melted into each other as they stood there like that for a lot longer than either would care to admit.

they had only ever shared a handful of hugs in all of their years together, usually much preferring a sparring match or a rather long arm wrestle to satiate their need of human touch within the animal army. but this, this felt every bit of right to Becky. a bigger breath then she’d known she was holding onto escaped her as she felt the tickle of their hair and the steady arms holding her again. her lips brushed the warm skin of their neck as she pulled away only slightly, and she knew this was the most alive she’d felt in months.

she caught the look of their brown eyes and the quirk of their lip as she brought a hand to their jaw, her brain connecting the dots slower than her body as she leaned in and pressed their lips together, bumping noses and standing on tip toes as it were. the rough feel of Tigers lips against hers and the release of breath as Tiger matched her passion made Becky feel like she was floating in thin air, like she was underwater and every little worry of the past and future was out of sight beyond the surface that was Tigers warm flushed face finally pressed to hers.

Wendy and Gus peered over at them from a distance, Wendy gave Gus a questioning look and all he could do was shrug in response. they both looked away from the scene as the two parted and they couldn’t help but giggle at what they had seen.

“I guess you missed me” Tiger said when they both finally came up for air, the playful tone of their voice cutting through the yearning stares the other still hadn’t stopped giving them.

Becky hesitated, not really wanting to reveal the way she had been thinking about a moment like this for quite a long time now, but her bright eyes and glances up and down Tigers face had already done it for her

“…maybe a little”

[30403099]

homo sapiens sapiens, the modern human, last surviving member of the genus homo. the inventor, the thinker, the greatest and most terrible of all species.

(1/12)

[cult-of-dollbabies]

blablabla art block breaking

[dykesynthezoid]

I do think people love to hate on Madeline Miller just bc it’s cool (???) and bc they hate that she happened to inspire the wave of myth “rewrites” that came after tsoa but then it’s like. Her prose and her understanding of the mythos are not bad actually. Like she has an understanding of the context of the period. And she’s just doing her own thing with it. And it’s well-written enough. And it’s like. Literally fine. Like it’s fine.

[putterphubase]

in light of midnight museum ending soon i would just like to throw this out there: i would watch a 30 ep second season of them scooby doo gang style where they just solve mysteries of the week just saying gmmtv

[genspiel]

did. did alyss think that red eyes would be perfect for cheshire because. those with red eyes are the only ones besides glen who can approach the core. and alyss is kind of half merged with/the spokesperson for the core. and cheshire is very dear to her. just like lacie was to the core---

[lunar-years]

I know I tend to take things dark places but one thing I will NOT be doing is pretending that Rebecca and her house boat man was a bad or heaven forbid "dangerous" plot I LOVED it. We got to see a whole new side to Rebecca, a side that throws caution to the wind and decides she deserves a chance at not even love necessarily, but just a good freaking time.

There is also something there about how different this was from her story of how she meet Rupert. Rupert won her over by wearing her down. Persistence and repetition. Boat man won her over by just being good and kind. Chucking his phone into the water alongside her, throwing caution to the wind but not expecting anything of her. He took a chance and it made her feel comfortable taking chances, too.

In a nutshell: the first day Rupert showed up at the bar, Rebecca's gut instinct was to say no; and she should have stayed with that gut instinct. I think she's spent a hell of a long time regretting that, and second-guessing all of her choices. But on that houseboat, her gut instinct was to stay. So she stayed.

[trainingdummyrabbit]

i canot participate in the pm smashorpass going around but reading thru th tags yall are on another fucking LEVEL oh my god

[medicinemane]

Should make a pain killer that actually kills (or even touches) pain