#apparently some people really don't like the use of Supreme Leader?

[randomnameless]

I didn’t know people were starting shit now

https://www.tumblr.com/raxistaicho/726578348498812928/httpswwwtumblrcomrandomnameless7265622248591?source=share

Sometimes it's funny how people follow predictable patterns!

I wonder if this means I'll get new "totally unrelated" anon asks or not?

[thesiltverses]

any clues on whats next after tsv ends ? :)

No concrete confirmation, but we did put out a Patreon post back in spring with a few draft pitches, to gauge initial interest and see what kind of genre storytelling folks were most excited to see from us.

I'll paste them below, so you can see the kinds of things we've had in mind (#2 and #3 were the most popular, but it was a fairly even spread outside of that). We've had a few more really fun ideas since then that I'll keep schtum about for now.

General feedback was that people were most enthusiastic about seeing ongoing, multi-season projects from us, which makes perfect sense and is much more sensible for us anyway in terms of sustaining a livelihood / retaining audience members along the way.

That said, TSV has been a three-year endeavour which is a big commitment, and personally I think the best horror is often self-contained, short and sweet.

So I'd really love to have the time to work on a few miniseries-type shows as well, but also need to recognise that we likely don't have the bandwidth to juggle two projects simultaneously.

With all that in mind, I think the direction we're hoping to be able to pursue is:

1+ shorter horror miniseries or one-offs with production or network partners (if they want to work with us) where we're largely on writing duties or with a lighter load.

1 longer, ongoing weird-fiction show which is all ours, baby, all ours.

Draft pitches

#1: Manes

Genre: Historical horror, cosmic horror, family drama with murderous stakes

Influences: The Terror Season 1, pretty much.

Summary: In 208 AD, the ailing Roman emperor Septimius Severus travels north across Hadrian's Wall into Caledonia, with the aim of finally uniting Britain under imperial rule.

For Severus, there's more at stake - his two sons are openly at odds over the succession, and it's openly said that civil war will follow the emperor's death.

Severus himself rose to supreme power through violence and the elimination of his rivals. Now, haunted by the possibility of revenge by the shades of the divine dead and dwelling unhappily on his legacy, the emperor hopes to share his final triumph with his sons and demonstrate a different lesson to them - that an equitable peace is a lasting possibility.

But as the Roman column makes its way north into apparently endless woods, surrounded by cronies, schemers, Britons, soothsayers, priestesses of Cybele, and more, the emperor and his family find that their enemy is nowhere to be seen - but they are being pursued by a force that is both strange and terrible.

And soon enough, the Romans realise that they have perhaps strayed not into Caledonia at all - but into a hostile realm of their own imagining...

Why make this show? We adore period horror, and there's far too little of it out there.

Severus and his family are a fascinating set of characters who we'd love to spend some time with - as ethically-compromised participants in a very Shakespearean tragedy, and as individuals whose heritage, religious beliefs and psychologies allow us to explore aspects of ancient Rome that haven't been done to death in fiction already.

#2: I'll Dance In The Deep Shadow

Genre: Weird-fiction noir, paranoid espionage fiction, cosmic horror

Influences: Cold War spy classics, Roadside Picnic

Summary: Across the water from the mainland UK, a vast walled city has come unexpectedly into existence.

The city’s walls are composed of purest shadow; its leaders have not revealed themselves to us, nor have they made demands of us.

Upon its streets, our own dead and forlorn doubles wander; grinning doppelgangers who seem to know something terrible from the future that’s to come.

We call the city Umbra.

Umbra is a bottomless well of shadow and secrets; its darkened landscapes are home to suppressed memories turned savage and monstrous.

Its citizens and its guards are twisted echoes, repetitions, and whispering relics of the world's buried past - and they will not reveal Umbra's purpose to us.

Around Umbra's great walls, representatives from the world's governments gather and plot against one another - mercenaries, guides, spies, black-market traders, scientists and killers - to infiltrate the city, map its streets, and navigate its dangers for themselves.

Why make this show? Less of an Eskew sequel than it probably sounds at first glance, this one. 

We'd love to do a paranoid, twist-filled, pessimistic John Le Carre-style spy thriller, with multiple characters who can neither trust themselves nor each other - and we feel like we've got some really interesting horror themes around memory and forgetting here to explore with this concept.

#3: Our Wars Have Ended

Genre: Dark fantasy, New Weird fantasy

Influences: The Black Company, the Bas-Lag series, Gormenghast.

Summary: It’s a strange time to be alive.

Thirty years ago, countless legions of the ancient dead rose from their graves to conquer the living lands; lands which now rest in an uneasy - but peaceful - state of occupation.

Withered corpses sit upon the thrones of the living and play silent courtier in the shadowed halls, acting out the rituals and habits of their past lives while dead men and women keep watch from the ruined towers. 

Mortal historians and linguists frantically mediate between our returned masters, trying to keep the peace - which estate belongs to whom? Who shall rule eternal? Which traditions deserve to live on?

But this is a time of wondrous change, too - new technologies, empowered by the revelations of the Dead Reclamation and the will of the Ancestors. Strange machines rumble through the hills and necronautical vessels delve into the unexplored territories of the afterlife itself.

And it has been announced that the Hollowbrow Queen will unite the nation with a powerful gesture, taking on a living consort in a marriage of the fleeting and the eternal.

On one side of the conquered country, an old veteran leads his mercenary company on a reluctant expedition towards the capital, in the employ of a long-dead king on a mission of revenge.

On the other, a young dead-diver and essayer into the realms of the dead is hired to investigate a peculiar mystery, and a conspiracy that may involve both the living and the returned…

Why make this show? Because Game of Thrones had no interest in the (to us) enjoyable questions of 'well, why do the ancient dead want to conquer the living, exactly? What happens once they've done it?' and we'd love to deconstruct that and play with the idea of loathsome undead aristocrats from every period of history squabbling with one another over what their conquered nation actually means.

Because we think we've built up the confidence and the skills to take a big swing at an epic adventure story and a semi-traditional fantasy - it feels like an idea that could potentially appeal to a wider audience while remaining true to our own core values of Weirdness, Horrible Things and More Weirdness.

#4: To Those Who Wait

Genre: Cosmic horror, dark comedy, mockumentary

Influences: Dead Set, Ghostwatch, Savageland, Evil Dead

Summary: Eskew Productions has gone in a surprising direction with its latest production - a new reality experiment and dating-show podcast.

Eight lovelorn singletons have been given rooms in the exclusive Gregory Hotel. Over the course of six weeks, these contestants will go on dates, carry out team challenges, and ultimately try and find themselves a life partner - all without seeing each other's faces.

The aim of the experiment? To prove that good things really do come to those who wait.

As they pore through a mixture of recorded and behind-the-scenes footage, however, it may become very apparent to listeners that something else is waiting in the Gregory.

And one by one, our contestants find themselves at risk of far more than being voted off...

Why make this show? As a great big act of play more than anything else.

We adore horror mockumentaries, but in audio-drama they tend to be faux-journalistic. 

Doing a show that instead mimics hokey reality shows to the point of being mistakable for the real thing, but turns out to be a ghost story instead...that's a lot of fun to us.

#5: In The Devil's Counties

Genre: Historical horror, cosmic horror

Influences: Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds, Seven Samurai, Between Two Fires, Dog Soldiers, Aliens…

Summary: As the Magna Carta states: “All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffs and their servants, or river-banks and their wardens, are at once to be investigated by twelve sworn knights of the county, and within forty days of their enquiry the evil customs are to be abolished completely and irrevocably.”

In early-medieval Sussex, a motley group of knights rides out to investigate tales of ungodly horror and acts of forbidden worship from deep in the English countryside - including Ralph Dagworth, 'hell's mapmaker'.

What the party of knights discovers out in the warrens and the forests of the county, however, is far stranger and more terrible than any Christian conception of hell…

Why make this show? Again, because we're itching to have a go at some period horror, and that weirdly specific Magna Carta quote is just too fun to pass up as a springboard for some 'isolated squaddies in enemy territory' storytelling. (Sadly, it does have a more grounded explanation.)

#6: Strangling Knot

Genre: Anthology horror

Influences: Junji Ito, experimental 8-bit horror, Black Mirror's Bandersnatch

Summary: 

“The rules of the game are simple. This is a place of endless forking paths and one exit. 

There’s something terrible in here with you. Get ready."

A Choose Your Own Adventure-style horror audio anthology; each episode is a distinct story with branching paths that may lead to failure (most of the time) or escape (more rarely).

Why make this show? This is likely the only show that we could reasonably produce as a side-project (and we've been chatting to a couple of other talented horror creators about it already, sssh).

We'd like to be able to play with single-narrator horror storytelling again that's relatively quick and easy to produce - but we do want to at least try and ensure it doesn't feel like we're repeating I Am In Eskew.

There's some really fun stuff happening out there already with CYOA-style audiodrama, and that seems like an opportunity that's ripe for playing about with.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Do Gallifreyans and Time Lords have any active religion(s)? How much do we know about their old and new religions overall?

How does religion work on Gallifrey?

Ooo, fun! Here's a brief whistlestop tour of it because, unlike most things, a lot is known already and I could write an essay.

🌌 The Creation of the Universe

Gallifreyan legends tell of the Universe's birth from a sentient singularity called 'Eru' or the 'Great Old One Azathoth'. The Mother Goddess used the Aurora Temporalis to create Time itself, and in turn, seconds were created by the Temporal Phoenix (who was apparently imprisoned in a time loop by people known as the Philesians).

📜 Old Times

Shobogans were the original indigenous people of Gallifrey, and some say they were immortal until Death's Messenger came to Mount Perdition. (Rather, an ancient species of religious zealots named the Kotturuh brought the concept of mortality as a 'gift' to the universe, limiting the lifespans of other species.)

Shobogans worshipped a pantheon of gods known as the Menti Celesti ('heavenly minds') and made offerings to them in alcoved shrines in their homes, particularly if they'd had good fortune. The primary gods included Pain, Death, Time, and Fate (Osuda). There's also the mystic virgin moon goddess Pazithi, for whom one of Gallifrey's moons is named. The Devil was the Dark God Valdemar.

The Shobogans also believed in reincarnation and said that after death, souls ended up in a mysterious sea, where you can hear them whispering - which is probably their concept of Hell.

😇 The Order of the Pythia

The Order of the Pythia was the central religious institution during these times. The Pythia, chosen by the Menti Celesti, was the supreme spiritual leader, ruling over the Shobogans. This role included responsibilities like being the Mouthpiece of the Gods and the Guardian of the Great Book of Future Legends. The Pythia and her Sisterhood performed sacrifices and rituals to gain favour from the Menti Celesti and foresee the future.

🔮 The Decline and Transformation of Religion

During the Time of Chaos when Rassilon stuck his finger in, the influence of the Pythia flopped big, leading to the collapse of the order. The surviving Sisterhood relocated to the planet Karn, becoming the Sisterhood of the Flame under High Priestess Maren. It was also at this time the ousted Pythia condemned Gallifrey to be barren - this is known as the Curse of the Pythia, which I'm sure you'll already know about.

🚀 Beliefs and Rationalism in the Era of Rassilon

In the era of Rassilon, a lot of Gallifreyans moved towards a more scientific and rational understanding of the universe. The discovery of the ratio 1 to 812, crucial to quantum string theory, reinforced beliefs in a creator but distanced them from traditional worship.

⛪ The Black Council

Somewhere between Rassilon and the 1st Doctor, Gallifreyan religion included the Black Council of Cardinals, Time Priests, and other religious figures, led by the Supreme Pontiff of Time. However, significant reforms thousands of years before the Doctor's time restricted the religious class's power, eliminating their access to Time Travel and genetic benefits. By the time of the Doctor's exile, the position of Supreme Pontiff was abolished, and the monasteries dissolved.

⏲️ Modern Era

Despite all these shifts, about 25% of Gallifreyans in the modern era still worship the Menti Celesti, with private prayers to Time and her sisters. Modern Gallifreyans don't really understand or give merit to the concepts of good and evil, and sins are virtually nonexistent. Allegedly.

Related:

What does the Gallifreyan political and social environment look like?: Overview of the general structure of Gallifreyan society and politics.

What are Gallifreyans’ thoughts on entropy?: How Gallifreyans see and fight the concept of entropy.

What is looming and how does it exist alongside natural reproduction?: Overview of looming and its place alongside natural reproduction in Gallifreyan society.

Hope that helped! 😃

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[lanabeey]

Kylo ren x Reader

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓

A/n: Sorry for the delay, I ended up being swamped with work and a bit of a creative block, please take it as a joke in certain parts 🤍🙏 Sorry for any spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.

Summary: Working for The First Order is scary, and your only moment of peace is dinner time, but maybe you need company...

1665 words

2/3

Despite all the lost hours of sleep, sore muscles, and a tired look, the good mood remains. I'm already very used to some places on the ship, with just a few months working in this place I can guarantee that there are incredible places, cleaning some sectors gives you the advantages of cleaning interesting rooms, such as training rooms, or even bedrooms. from some superiors.

Cleaning the rooms takes a certain amount of time to ensure there are no mistakes, patience and a lot of attention is required to avoid valuable objects and belongings disappearing, despite this work it is gratifying to see the environment so clean. But one place that piques my curiosity is the Supreme Leader's room, although the man is scary, his mysterious nature is considerably captivating, isn't it a perverted desire and just genuine curiosity, why hide behind the mask? Maybe convey coldness, superiority, or hide your true form? I'll never know for sure, but I don't intend to lose nights of sleep, so curiosity must be put aside for my own good.

_________

Now, this time of night is one of the calmest shifts, at least no more serious incidents have happened at this time, and cleaning takes place more calmly and without people to disturb our work.

"Finally, it's the last room.." Honestly, today was extremely tiring, several sectors needed cleaning and apparently they laid off a good part of the cleaning team, thus doubling the work for us, the team I'm part of doesn't big but it is enough to hold for now due to the lack of demand. So we face the last one of the day, it is a large hall of high level equipment and devices, containing equipment for battles, maps of the sectors, some trackers and something that seems to me like others are for torture, it seems like something specific to really hurt someone.

"So shall we start cleaning?..Korys?" I think the little old lady isn't feeling so well, she seems so tired, despite being great at work lately, the hours have been very inflexible for her, the demand is very high making her work twice as hard for someone that age. "Korys, are you okay? If you want, you can go and rest, we've been working since early in the morning, you need to rest."

"I think this time, just this once I'm going to accept it, my legs are killing me from walking so much, darling" the weak voice is a sign of fatigue and his drooping gaze forms little bags.

---------

Now I realize how big this room is, and probably thousands of equipment to clean and organize, I honestly don't think I could handle it alone, but I said I could do it and I don't intend to call Korys who is going to rest.

On a panel with several buttons, something tells me that it is to see the cameras in this place, maybe seeing a little wouldn't hurt just to satisfy curiosity, these buttons have the names of some sectors and specific rooms and some green lights are on and others are on. red. Pressing the cafeteria button in sector 2, thus turning on one of the screens, just a few people from the kitchen team arranging the next day's meals; How about the hallways, just to see who's there.

In the corridors, some are empty, others are with people going to the dormitory, and then the corridor of this sector is with some people are coming in this direction...they are coming to this room, THIS ROOM.

It seemed automatic when pressing the buttons to turn it off, the automatic doors opened, luckily the screens turned off in time.

"I don't think those prisoners are useful, the best.." now his eyes are on me, with the mop in his hands looking at the floor.

"Who are you? What do you think you're doing here? This place is restricted to employees without permission."

"General Hux, I have permission, I mean, I'm cleaning and I'm... I'm just doing my job"

"At this time? Cleaning doesn't work at this time." "Of course we work with just a few employees, so the shifts are being divided until they find more employees, do you think the rooms can clean themselves?"; the last part sounds more like a joke to try to ease the tension but it doesn't seem to please him.

"Are you making fun of me? Do you think I'm kidding you?" From the tone of the voice you can see the anger building up, the face easily turning red, it looks like I'm arguing with a spoiled child who doesn't understand a joke.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you,.." "I don't care about your intention, or your apology, I just want you out of this room immediately."

The shiver down my spine is painful, perhaps the tone of voice or the angry look is the reason for my extreme fear at the moment, it only takes a few seconds to return to reality. This is not the first time I have been warned, I have already been called to attention a few times. Sometimes for making comments at inappropriate times or speaking without thinking.

I leave the room abruptly, and a little embarrassed, I wouldn't like to hear more words from Hux, I understand his warnings but always his venom in his words, sometimes I've heard unnecessary comments being directed at other people, variations like "useless, stupid , idiots, imbeciles" even... "even a tapir knows how to do that, and then you, someone with your rank doesn't know how to do that, pathetic".

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

Despite the quick steps, I was far from the dorms and today I'm not in the mood to go to the warehouse for dinner, work exhausted my brain and fried my neurons like scrambled eggs. Without thinking that tomorrow I will have to tidy all of this up again, and again, without even receiving a compliment or a thank you for cleaning and organizing the damn ship, still being paid very poorly. Honestly, if it could get any worse, I'm sure I would cry in the fetal position.

It's just a few corridors to the cafeteria, in the meantime I hear footsteps followed by voices, maybe it's Hux again, if I'm being honest I even think the Supreme Leader is running away from this man. With quick steps I turn the first corner to perhaps escape the annoying presence of that demon.

It's possible I'm wrong about fearing Hux's presence, without even realizing that the man I should fear is the one in the hallway walking with long, heavy steps, with that damned mask that gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. As much as the Supreme Leader is intimidating, scary, and a little enraged at times, I can't deny that he is enigmatic, always with that robot voice. Well, she really would be easily enchanted if she weren't a little scared at the moment.

Maybe with the heavy footsteps making noise, or the loud ventilation turbos, you didn't notice that something fell to the floor, a strange object even looks like a strange little hammer. The rush really makes him not realize that something is missing, now passing me without noticing my existence. Deep down something tells me to leave that object there, maybe someone will find it and return it to him but on the other hand if someone doesn't return it. The leader would be without his toy hammer, maybe it's something sentimental.

With light and quick steps I pick up the object, and now in my hands it is heavier than I imagined, it no longer seems like a toy. Now I just lack the courage to face him, it's no big deal, just hand over the damn object and leave. I quicken my pace to get closer, but not enough to get in the way of what he's doing.

Being much taller than I imagined, and his clothes don't help improve his image, it doesn't match kindness, just darkness.

"Ex..excuse me, I'm sorry to disturb you.." [..a deer ready for the feast, not even to notice that it was shaking, it's very humiliating, it's your leader, not an animal that will moderate you...]

"..Yes?"

That robotic voice, no matter how human it seems, is not his real voice, that's what gives me goosebumps.

"Eh.. while he was walking he dropped this, I don't know what it is but I assumed it was.. important"

Reaction was somewhat surprised, the hand checking where his saber was and now realizing that he had lost it until now. Taking it from my hand quickly, behind that mask I can feel the eyes watching me, trying to see any trace of a lie.

"Eh... I ask permission to leave, I need to go to my quarters, my lord, to rest" Trying his best to remain calm, so maybe he can put this small inconvenience aside and go back to his tasks, Hux's humiliations are enough , just thinking about what the Supreme Leader would do would be suffocating.

"..Of course, you're free,..thank you for giving me back" So he turned around and started walking again, really as if nothing had happened, being a huge relief for his heart that was about to explode. Now maybe you can sleep better, without too many worries on your mind.

-------

As normal as the gesture of returning something lost to someone may be, it was unusual due to the normality of the situation, for so long trapped in the dimension of being someone so important and being feared by the people around, perhaps it was that night the great leader wouldn't be able to sleep for the night. stupid situation that left you embarrassed; Maybe it was his busy day that didn't make him realize that something was lost; Maybe it's the shame or maybe it's your gesture, it was you who left him embarrassed, it was you.

[mountainfrogs]

ok ill start with keroro actually. specifically how He of all people got the Keron Star which is like. The Thing for all of keron. highly revered, very powerful, the symbol of Keron itself short of the supreme commander. Why tf does he have it. Who is he.

Invaders are by their nature, soldiers! Warmongers, offensive. They take over planets. They fight and kill. great. Some of canon, least in the beginning, mentions he used to Be this but coming to pekopon changed him. A serious cool invader who only likes toys and eating junk food? tf.

ofc, then you find out that he had apparently Always been like this, and he only supposedly got by through family nepotism.

imo most of that is hearsay, or propaganda, or rumors. Everyone ended up fucking off their respective ways after academy training for the next 8 thousand some years, no? Everyone has all of these expectations and visions, but i hc that the truth is that Keroro is...well...both! Both a clown, and an intelligent leader. When he has the means to be.

He wasn't really a Huge Hyperintelligent Serious Asshole before he came to earth with a fearsome rep - but neither is he a huge idiot dickhead the way later manga and early anime like to show it tbh.

The guy is a clown! He's always been a clown. The guy doesn't like to fight! But he can somehow forge alliances by Breathing. He has a Heart, for all that he's a bit of a dense jackass. He befriended the Angol tribe - an actual race of planet destroyers and otherwise a giant fucking threat to Keron. And it's clear by the progression of the anime, as well as the movies, that he's a lot smarter than people give him credit for.

He Unites people, and when push comes to Actual Shove he can and will actually murder someone for the sake of his folks.

this? these two bitches be co-existing. They are the same people. He is both Clown and Actual Serious Murder Machine.

tbh i hc that keroro is, when the humidity isn't fucking him up, friendly and thoughtful and charismatic with a love for toys ofc, but retains a very sharp edge that isn't afraid to get serious. He can Think and he can Process. He's Intelligent. He can actually sit his ass down and process and do his work like he's meant to and hold decent conversations that don't revolve around gundam or some other silly thing. He can function very well as an adult just fine. I think here of episode 262B in particular.

He's a Lot of things. Not many people saw the complexity. But the Supreme Commander did, and the Keron Star did, and that is what the Keron Star Needed and that is what the supreme commander Saw. a right and proper leader, with Actual Heart, a combination that nobody else really possessed. A person who can get things done without being so forceful or harsh, the way most of the military is designed to be. A unifying body.

its just that the fuckin humidity scrambled his brain so now he's kinda...like That, as he is in the show now.

So what people expect when they think of the holder of the keron star is not what they get - because the holder was not based on pure strength, and his environment is Also not good for his health. he's essentially kind of drunk and heat exhausted like. all. the time. so everyone is like ????

but there's a reason he has it.

[tobiasdrake]

Busy busy. Didn't get very far today but made it to the start of Free Time.

Meteors falling from the sky. Okay. So this is the great catastrophe that Kirumi was meant to lead the (presumably Japanese) people through as Prime Minister. Wow, this has nothing to do with the Tragedy, then.

Kinda makes sense. It seemed like, with the Remnants of Despair all fucking off to live on a tropical island forever DECLARING WAR ON THE FUTURE FOUNDATION AND BEING CLIMACTICALLY DEFEATED IN ONE FINAL BATTLE FOR THE FATE OF HOPE, that whole Greatest Most Tragic Event Ever thing was all over and done with, and normal life had been re-established. I just. Wasn't entirely sure how canon that was? If that makes sense?

Am I supposed to be shipping Kaito and Shuichi? Because it feels like I'm supposed to be shipping Kaito and Shuichi. And I am definitely shipping Kaito and Shuichi.

Himiko says she didn't use the escape trick in her act. It was MAGIC. And y'know what? It doesn't really matter whether she did or didn't. How she got out was ultimately irrelevant to the facts of the case. So in lieu of concrete evidence, I choose to believe in her magic. Fight me.

So apparently we're all dead or something? We all remembered watching a mass funeral for the whole group. Maybe Kokichi really is Ultimate Supreme Leader, and we're the organization he leads, and he faked our deaths or something to get us away from the Ultimate Hunt? Nah, that can't be right. It'd just be a repeat of the Izuru Kamukura/Remnants of Despair reveal.

Kaito's kinda dim but I like his take on the whole funeral thing. "We can't all be dead because we're alive; Us being alive is proof that we aren't dead." Simple, yet eloquent.

Every time Kokichi says some weird shit and then goes, "Oh, it's just a lie, don't worry about it," I start thinking things. Those moments are definitely not lies. He's lookin' real good for the Mastermind behind all this. Too good.

I'm going to laugh if the bad guy really does wind up being the guy who said out loud the moment we met him, "I'm a bad guy."

[short-wooloo]

Frankly I’m surprised this is from 99

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/HateMail/Brin.html

Written: 1999.07.06

I don't know David Brin. We have never corresponded, although I did send him a short E-mail just to see whether he would respond. He didn't. So, this is merely a criticism of his article on the Internet, rather than what I might legitimately call "hate mail". It is on my "hate mail" page simply because I don't know where else I would put something like this, and I just felt like venting.

Who is he? He is the science fiction writer who authored "The Postman", which was made into a spectacularly unsuccessful Kevin Costner movie. The article he wrote was an extremely bizarre piece of work entitled "Star Wars despots vs Star Trek populists", in which he essentially argued that the Jedi Knights of the Star Wars universe embody an anti-democracy, elitist viewpoint in which genetically superior supermen are destined to rule the universe. He contrasted this with Star Trek by gushing over Trek's populist, pro-democracy messages in which innate, genetically inherited strengths and weaknesses are irrelevant, and he made it quite obvious that he has some sort of personal axe to grind wth George Lucas. The text of his message can be found here. Have a look- do you think he makes some good points? Frankly, if you do, then you must not know much about Star Wars. Let us examine some of his more contentious claims.

One of his opening claims is that Star Wars contains the following laundry list of messages:

Elites have an inherent right to arbitrary rule; common citizens needn't be consulted. They may only choose which elite to follow.

"Good" elites should act on their subjective whims, without evidence, argument or accountability.

Any amount of sin can be forgiven if you are important enough.

True leaders are born. It's genetic. The right to rule is inherited.

Justified human emotions can turn a good person evil.

When I looked at this, I was somewhat offended that someone would actually be trying to paint Star Wars as some sort of threat to democracy (can he really be serious? Is he descended from McCarthy?), and I was simultaneously amused that an award-winning science fiction author might actually be incapable of understanding a storyline that was designed so that eight year old children could grasp it.

You see, he seems to believe that the Jedi Knights are bad because they rule the Star Wars galaxy, they are elites, and they are not elected to their position. It is a birthright, so they hark back to the bad old days of feudalism, monarchies, empires, etc. But he forgot one little detail: Jedi Knights do not rule the Star Wars galaxy! He wrote this nonsense after watching TPM- did he actually fail to notice that the government of the Old Republic was a democratic body, complete with a senate, and a democratically elected Chancellor? Did he fail to notice that the Jedi Knights are the instruments of government policy rather than the authors of that policy? Did he have popcorn stuck in his ears when Qui-Gon solemnly warned Anakin that "it will be a hard life"? Jedi Knights serve the people, rather than ruling them. Millions of people worldwide have seen the Star Wars films, and easily grasped this fact, but David Brin is apparently not one of them. Perhaps he was distracted by his efforts to write another bomb for Kevin Costner.

What else does he have to say? Read on- as he continues to write, it becomes clear that he is either deliberately misrepresenting the Star Wars universe to advance his agenda, or his intelligence is actually so low that he cannot pick up obvious plot points like "Empire is bad" or "Supreme Chancellor is not a Jedi". He goes on to criticize mythologies in general, since they usually revolve around kings and demigods.

Alas, Campbell only highlighted positive traits, completely ignoring a much darker side -- such as how easily this standard fable-template was co-opted by kings, priests and tyrants, extolling the all-importance of elites who tower over common women and men. Or the implication that we must always adhere to variations on a single story, a single theme, repeating the same prescribed plot outline over and over again. Those who praise Joseph Campbell seem to perceive this uniformity as cause for rejoicing -- but it isn't. Playing a large part in the tragic miring of our spirit, demigod myths helped reinforce sameness and changelessness or millennia, transfixing people in nearly every culture, from Gilgamesh all the way to comic book super heroes.

Interesting. He seems to believe that Joseph Campbell (who collaborated with George Lucas to create the mythical universe of Star Wars) is propagating an unadulterated duplicate of the ancient demigod myths of primitive cultures. But he fails to notice that Lucas and Campbell updated and revised those myths substantially: the Jedi Knights of the Star Wars universe see themselves as servants of mankind, not rulers. Many of the critical plot developments of the Star Wars movies were driven by ordinary humans. It seems that Brin was so wrapped up in the similarities to timeless myths that he simply assumed that Star Wars was a precise duplicate of those myths, rather than being loosely based on them. Maybe he should try actually watching the Star Wars films.

It is essential to understand the radical departure taken by genuine science fiction, which comes from a diametrically opposite literary tradition -- a new kind of storytelling that often rebels against those very same archetypes Campbell venerated. An upstart belief in progress, egalitarianism, positive-sum games -- and the slim but real possibility of decent human institutions.

He goes on to make an even more bizarre claim: that "genuine" science fiction is distinguished from other forms of fiction by virtue of its adherence to populist messages. I don't know of anyone else who believes that science fiction is distinguished from other forms of fiction exclusively by the presence of populist messages, but I suppose this claim shouldn't be surprising, considering the source. "The Postman" contains no futuristic premises, no futuristic technology, no futuristic settings, or futuristic cultures. It is merely another post-apocalyptic American jingoism story but David Brin calls himself a science fiction writer, so why not redefine science fiction to include "The Postman" and exclude "Star Wars"? That sort of carefully redrawn delineation must make Brin feel really good- sort of like an elitist :)

By contrast, the oppressed "rebels" in "Star Wars" have no recourse in law or markets or science or democracy. They can only choose sides in a civil war between two wings of the same genetically superior royal family. They may not meddle or criticize. As Homeric spear-carriers, it's not their job.

More of his ignorant mis-reading of the Star Wars universe. Emperor Palpatine destroyed a democratic government system (the Old Republic) in favour of his dictatorship. Obviously, the rebels would have put a democratically elected government (probably called "The New Republic", or "The Republic") back in place after defeating him (and in fact, if you read any of the post-ROTJ novels, that is precisely what happens). But why worry about that? He's on a roll, because once he has decided that the goal of the Rebels is to put Leia on the throne as the new dictator, then he can continue with his unreasoning jihad against Star Wars.

Did anyone in the entire world besides David Brin think that the Rebels intended to install Luke or Leia as a new dictator after deposing Palpatine? It is frankly mind-boggling that he would come to this conclusion after watching the original Star Wars trilogy, and even more mind-boggling that he would maintain this delusion after seeing TPM, in which the democratic government of the Old Republic was very thoroughly portrayed.

In teaching us how to distinguish good from evil, Lucas prescribes judging by looks: Villains wear Nazi helmets. They hiss and leer, or have red-glowing eyes, like in a Ralph Bakshi cartoon. On the other hand, "Star Trek" tales often warn against judging a book by its cover -- a message you'll also find in the films of Steven Spielberg, whose spunky everyman characters delight in reversing expectations and asking irksome questions.

Perhaps he failed to notice that one of the principal heroes of the Star Wars trilogy was a snarling, seven foot tall wildebeast. In fact, all of the truly bizarre-looking aliens were on the Rebel side. In contrast, the Empire was very conformist, restricting itself almost completely to humans (sort of like the Federation Starfleet, in Star Trek). But again, he has a laundry list of criticisms about Star Wars, and he has to step through them one by one, even if there is no evidence in the films to support his claims. As for Star Trek warning against judging a book by its cover, I would say that this was true for TOS (coincidentally, the only Star Trek series which I like without reservation). But in the era of TNG, different races have uniform characteristics- you can judge a Klingon by his cover (he will be violent and ill-tempered). You can judge a Romulan by his cover (he will be duplicitous and deceitful). You can judge a Ferengi by his cover (he will be greedy and manipulative). He is completely ignoring the actual contents of Star Wars and Star Trek, in favour of some kind of modified version of Star Wars and Star Trek that he apparently carries around in his head. Unfortunately for him, the rest of us can't see that version of Star Wars and Star Trek- we can only see the version on the movie screens and television sets of the world. That version is substantially different from the version he describes.

Above all, "Star Trek" generally depicts heroes who are only about 10 times as brilliant, noble and heroic as a normal person, prevailing through cooperation and wit, rather than because of some inherited godlike transcendent greatness. Characters who do achieve godlike powers are subjected to ruthless scrutiny. In other words, "Trek" is a prototypically American dream, entranced by notions of human improvement and a progress that lifts all. Gene Roddenberry's vision loves heroes, but it breaks away from the elitist tradition of princes and wizards who rule by divine or mystical right. By contrast, these are the only heroes in the "Star Wars" universe.

Really! The "only heroes in the Star Wars universe" are demigods, in the form of Jedi Knights? How could David Brin have possibly watched the entire classic Star Wars trilogy without noticing such pivotal characters as Han Solo, Wedge Antilles, and Lando Calrissian? Did he notice that without Han Solo's change of heart, Luke Skywalker would have died a flaming death at the hands of his father, and the Rebellion would have been crushed? Did he notice that Wedge Antilles and Lando Calrissian destroyed the second Death Star? Was he sleeping when Lando Calrissian saved the day for Leia (and in the end analysis, the entire Rebellion) when he decided to defy Vader and the Empire by helping Leia and Chewbacca escape, to save Luke? Was he suffering from temporary blindness when Sabé saved the day by distracting the Neimoidian Viceroy long enough for Queen Amidala to seize control of the throneroom? Did he notice that the Viceroy was the most critical target of the entire operation, yet no Jedi or Force child prodigies took part in his capture? Maybe he's just so completely committed to his jihad against Star Wars that he doesn't feel he needs to observe trivialities like the truth.

As for Star Trek embodying "the American Dream", there are people in this world who live outside America. In fact, 95% of the people in this world live outside America, and contrary to popular American belief, we are not necessarily dying to emigrate. Star Wars is designed to have a universal appeal, while Star Trek is designed to promote West Coast American left-wing liberal socialist viewpoints to the world. Many see the universality of Star Wars as a strength- David Brin sees it as a weakness. But then again, he had previously stated his bizarre belief that American jingoism is a mandatory component of all "genuine" science fiction, so I suppose we shouldn't expect any better. For what it's worth, even if you do subscribe to his jingoist viewpoint, you should probably be aware that in several of its primary aspects, Star Trek is highly unAmerican:

Socialism and Freedom: There are no independent corporations in Star Trek. They have all been nationalized, like some great futuristic Marxist-Leninist Utopia. No one can become wealthy in Star Trek- everyone has the same standard of living. This is socialism, not capitalism, and the hard reality is that capitalism is an inevitable side-effect of personal freedom. Conversely, socialism requires heavy government control and limited personal freedom.

The American Dream: Get real, Dave: the American Dream isn't anything as lofty as "bettering ourselves and humanity", as Picard put it. No, the real American Dream (the one gleaming in the hearts of hard-working immigrants as they struggle to climb the ladder of success) is about one thing: getting rich. Don't recoil at this politically incorrect notion- we all know it's true. But there is nothing wrong with this- the pursuit of wealth and luxury has driven most of the technological advancement of the past half-century. It isn't a bad thing unless people become so obsessed with it that they hurt other people. But if we remove the possibility of becoming rich, then we kill the American Dream.

Freedom of choice: In Star Wars, there are numerous manufacturers of products- corporations compete with one another to produce blaster rifles, starships, and all manner of goods. In ANH, Luke Skywalker laments the poor demand for his landspeeder ever since a superior competing model came out. But in Star Trek? To paraphrase Henry Ford, you can have any colour you want, so long as it's beige. There is no competition for government contracts- no choices offered to consumers. If they want choice, they had better leave the Federation entirely, and shop at Ferenginar.

He then goes on to attack George Lucas personally:

Lucas defends his elitist view, telling the New York Times, "That's sort of why I say a benevolent despot is the ideal ruler. He can actually get things done. The idea that power corrupts is very true and it's a big human who can get past that."

If David Brin would accuse George Lucas of elitism and despotism for making an off-handed pie in the sky comment about how a benevolent despot would be the ideal ruler, then how would he react to the following quote? "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Do you know who said that? John Adams, second president of the United States and one of the American Founding Fathers. Surely John Adams could not be seriously accused of anti-democratic views, yet there it is! So what's wrong?

The answer is simple. Criticism is healthy. Warning about potential pitfalls and dangers is healthy. In fact, both are absolutely necessary for a democracy to function properly. John Adams understood this, but David Brin apparently does not. He treats democracy as an object of mindless advocacy rather than a political model with strengths and weaknesses. As heretical as it may sound, democracy is not perfect; it needs constant work, public awareness, and principled leaders in order to work. It may be better than some of the known alternatives, but that doesn't mean that it's beyond criticism or that people shouldn't be allowed to talk about flaws in its operation. Nothing should ever be treated as beyond criticism, unless you've decided to take the attitude that political systems should be treated as quasi-religious dogma.

The perfection and immunity from criticism of American-style democracy is a theme that David Brin harps on throughout the rest of his article. He repeatedly explains that George Lucas' political viewpoints are not just different- they are wrong, and dangerous, and should be boycotted (whatever happened to a little American concept called "freedom of expression", Mr. Brin?). Frankly, I see nothing wrong with George Lucas' statement. A benevolent despot would be an ideal ruler. The only problem is that there is no such thing as a benevolent despot- the concept is wishful thinking.

David Brin is clearly no better at understanding quotes than he is at understanding movies. George Lucas says that a benevolent despot would be an ideal ruler, but that isn't what David Brin hears; in Brin's mind, he hears George making a blanket statement that dictatorships are an ideal form of government. George is making a pie-in-the-sky, "wouldn't it be nice" kind of statement, and Brin interprets it as "let's scrap democracy and start a dictatorship".

I'm starting to wonder if one of George's kids made fun of one of Brin's kids, for him to be carrying around so much hostility that he would misrepresent both the words and movies of George Lucas in his defamatory attack. Some have E-mailed to suggest that Mr. Brin is simply jealous of George Lucas' enormous financial success with the Star Wars series, and that he feels George's talent didn't merit his rewards. If that's the case, then he simply needs to grow up. George knew what the public wanted, while the self-professed "populist" David Brin's popularity is still confined to a very small segment of the population. All of which leads me to wonder: who's the real populist, Mr. Brin?

Think he's gone overboard yet? He's not quite done.

Thus few protest the apotheosis of Darth Vader -- nee Anakin Skywalker -- in "Return of the Jedi."

To put it in perspective, let's imagine that the United States and its allies managed to capture Adolf Hitler at the end of the Second World War, putting him on trial for war crimes. The prosecution spends months listing all the horrors done at his behest. Then it is the turn of Hitler's defense attorney, who rises and utters just one sentence:

"But, your honors ... Adolf did save the life of his own son!"

Gasp! The prosecutors blanch in chagrin. "We didn't know that! Of course all charges should be dismissed at once!"

The allies then throw a big parade for Hitler, down the avenues of Nuremberg.

It may sound silly, but that's exactly the lesson taught by "Return of the Jedi," wherein Darth Vader is forgiven all his sins, because he saved the life of his own son.

Only a lunatic or a blind, deaf mute would watch Return of the Jedi and interpret it thusly. Who ever said that Vader was forgiven for his sins and made a hero of the New Republic? Did we see anyone besides Luke standing at Vader's lonely funeral pyre? I didn't. You didn't. Apparently, David Brin did. Did we see anyone besides Luke showing any sympathy whatsoever toward Vader? I didn't. You didn't. Apparently, David Brin did. Let's get the facts straight: Vader's own son seemed to forgive him, but no one else did.

As for Vader's status as a Hitler-like monster, David Brin apparently missed the following facts:

Vader was not personally responsible for Alderaan. The Death Star was commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin, not Darth Vader. Vader had no more personal responsibility for Alderaan than did any of the other million-plus Imperial soldiers aboard the Death Star. He neither gave the order or pulled the trigger.

Vader was not the ruler of the Empire. Emperor Palpatine was the ruler of the Empire, and "executive responsibility" falls upon him, not Vader. BTW, Mr. Brin, if you rewatch ROTJ, you might notice that Vader killed the Emperor.

The opening crawl of ANH states quite clearly that the galaxy is in a state of "CIVIL WAR". The destruction of a helpless civilian target in time of war is arguably heinous, but to be brutally blunt, it's been done before, by Americans. In fact, America is the only nation on Earth that has ever used nuclear weapons against civilians, not once, but twice! But a man like Brin, who's apparently given to mindless American jingoism, is not likely to notice the irony in an American painting the use of weapons of mass destruction in wartime as an act of unfettered evil.

Vader killed many people, including many of his own officers as well as his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obviously, he's not Gandhi. But comparing him to Hitler is excessive. Hitler is best compared to the Emperor, not Vader. Does Brin even recognize the distinction between the Emperor and Vader? They were two separate people- they cannot be treated as one person.

A final note on this subject: Vader was not forgiven for his sins- he died for his sins, but in a nod to the Christian concept of redemption through acceptance of Christ (which I've never personally understood but which is very popular in America), Vader achieves redemption through acceptance of his own good side. In any case, regardless of whether you believe in it, spiritual redemption is not equivalent to a legal pardon- you can be spiritually redeemed but still be sentenced to death by the corporeal government that collects your taxes. Does David Brin think that Vader should have been shown suffering in Hell after his death? He paid the price for his crimes, by sacrificing his own life to topple the despot that he helped rise to power. What's the problem?

But wait- is Mr. "I think that all science fiction should be mandated to promote my political ideas" done yet? Nope- he hasn't attacked Yoda yet. But give him time ...

You already know what I think of what came next. But worshipping Darth Vader only scratches the surface. The biggest moral flaw in the "Star Wars" universe is one point that Lucas stresses over and over again, through the voice of his all-wise guru character, Yoda.

Let's see if I get this right. Fear makes you angry and anger makes you evil, right?

Wrong. If he watched TPM (or even the old classic trilogy) he would see that hate makes you evil. Yoda's exact words are: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering!" Vader also mentions hatred to Luke, in ROTJ. No one in his right mind would seriously argue against the notion that hatred is inherently evil. Small wonder then, that Mr. David Brin chose to "forget" that Yoda mentioned hate, because a good memory would decapitate his crusade against the things he thinks George Lucas is saying in his films. Just like he conveniently "forgot" that the Jedi Knights are civil servants rather than rulers, or that non-Jedi heroes like Han Solo, Wedge Antilles, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian etc. existed. With a memory like that, it's a wonder that he remembers to pee before he goes to bed at night.

But then, in "Return of the Jedi," Lucas takes this basic wisdom and perverts it, saying -- "If you get angry -- even at injustice and murder -- it will automatically and immediately transform you into an unalloyedly evil person!

No, this isn't what Lucas is saying at all. By now, I am getting tired of David Brin's lies. They aren't misconceptions or weak arguments- they are outright lies. Are you getting tired of them too? He is now saying that the instant you feel anger, you become "an unalloyedly evil person" according to ROTJ. Funny thing though- Luke became angry in Return of the Jedi, nearly striking down his father, but he didn't become "unalloyedly evil". In TPM, Obi-Wan Kenobi is clearly seething with anger when he attacks Darth Maul- he didn't become "unalloyedly evil." Again, I must ask- did he watch the same films that we did?

"Star Wars" belongs to our dark past. A long, tyrannical epoch of fear, illogic, despotism and demagoguery that our ancestors struggled desperately to overcome, and that we are at last starting to emerge from, aided by the scientific and egalitarian spirit that Lucas openly despises. A spirit we must encourage in our children, if they are to have any chance at all.

Now he's just getting back on his high horse about the pro-despotism messages that he thinks he sees in Star Wars. More harping on a lie which hatched from his incredible claim that the Jedi Knights are rulers. They are not. The only Force user who became a galactic ruler was the Emperor, and I'll let everyone in on a little secret that seems to have eluded the Great Science Fiction Writer David Brin: The Emperor was one of the bad guys. The first time I showed Star Wars to my little three year old son, he instinctively understood that the Empire was being obviously portrayed as the bad guys. I find it amazing that my three year old son could grasp something that seems to be beyond the comprehension of an adult science fiction writer like David Brin.

Star Wars does not present Emperor Palpatine, or his system of government, in a good light! It does not present his Empire as a superior alternative to democracy! Doesn't everyone realize this without having to see it spelled out in front of them? To be fair, I think that everyone does realize this. Everyone except for David Brin.

At this point, I have grown seriously fatigued with Brin's repetitive, ignorant, and deceptive arguments. Thankfully, he's almost done. But of course, someone who has this much preachiness in them would never be able to end an article without an outstanding example of pomposity. Let's see if David Brin can resist:

I don't expect to win this argument any time soon. As Joseph Campbell rightly pointed out, the ways of our ancestors tug at the soul with a resonance many find romantically appealing, even irresistible. Some cannot put the fairy tale down and move on to more mature fare. Not yet at least. Ah well.

But over the long haul, history is on my side. Because the course of human destiny won't be defined in the past. It will be decided in our future.

That's my bailiwick, though it truly belongs to all of you. To all of us.

The future is where our posterity will thrive.

I guess not. He seems to think that "history is on my side." Is it really? The Roman Empire endured for 1300 years. The Chinese dynasties endured for thousands of years. The world's most venerable democracy is only a couple of hundred years old- history's verdict isn't in yet. And even if we ignore the entire democracy vs despot issue (which has nothing to do with the pro-democracy Star Wars universe anyway), history certainly is not kind to those who deceive in order to promote their views- an ignominious group to which David Brin clearly belongs. Does he have anything else to say? How about "our future. That's my bailiwick, though it truly belongs to all of you. To all of us." Pretty good Bill Clinton-style 2-second sound-bite, Dave! Have you got any more nuggets of fortune-cookie wisdom to dispense from your cache of self-important one-liners? Hmmm, let's see how he ends his article: "The future is where our posterity will thrive." Ahh, an excellent combination of self-aggrandizement and pomposity. If those things were valued, then David Brin would be a rich man indeed.

[crappy-danganronpa-imagines]

[insert anon asking for despair disease Kokichi x reader bc I accidentally answered that ask by posting the half-made draft to tumblr]

It’s finally done after the mixup!! Here ya go, hope you enjoy! Tumblr is being weird again so this may post twice, I trust modkichi to take this one down if that happens! This was really fun to write btw!!

- Mod Makoto

Reader x Kokichi with the Despair Disease!

You opened the door to the hospital room, and there he was. The boy everyone thought they knew somewhat well, but who had seemed so far away ever since this motive began, lay in a light sleep on the bed in the back of the room. Kokichi Ouma. I shouldn't be in here long, you thought. Might catch the disease, we don't know if it's contagious or not. You took a few steps forward, quietly shutting the door behind you, and tightened your grip on the flowers in your hand.

You tried to walk over to the table next to Kokichi's bed without waking him, but he snapped out of his rest as soon as you took the first step towards him.

"Hmmmmgh?" He grumbled, sitting up a bit and rubbing his eyes. "...Kirumi, that you? Oh, wait, no, it's Y/N. Hey. Nice to see ya."

He seemed so… out of it. Like the complete opposite of the jumpy liar you had gotten used to. Although, you figured that made sense, since he was stuck with the Truth Disease and couldn't lie.

"Hey, Kokichi. I'm just here to change out the flowers, is all." You gave the boy a worried smile. He looked paler than he had the last time you'd seen him, and he was sweating from the extreme fever.

"You… go ahead, then…" he said softly, dropping his head back onto the pillow, his eyes barely open.

You switched the fresh flowers with the drooping ones in the vase on the small table, and you were about to throw out the old ones when you heard Kokichi's voice behind you.

"Y/N…"

You turned around. "Hm?"

"Why do you throw out the flowers when they're still alive? Just because they've chosen to look down for a bit, because they're tired of pretending to be so cheerful all the time?"

"Kokichi…"

He shut his eyes completely and continued rambling, not letting you speak. "It's because people are stupid. Selfish. They only want the things they like, and if they're given anything else they just dump it in the trash with the other useless things. They don't care about the feelings of trash, or flowers, or anything, they just see something that isn't good enough for their selfish brains and throw it away. Yeah. That's how life is, y'know?"

You thought you saw a tear fall down his cheek at the end of that rant, but you weren't sure. This Despair Disease sure was making him think differently- or at least act differently- than normal. You couldn’t help but think he was lying, as he usually did, but this was the Truth Disease. These were Kokichi’s genuine feelings, apparently. And if Monokuma hadn’t lied, and Kokichi was really like this inside… you felt bad for him.

You walked back to his bedside and put the old flowers back with the new ones.

He opened his eyes some at the sound of your footsteps near his bed. Looking up at the mixture of blooms, he cracked a smile you’d never seen from him before.

“Y/N… The flowers are beautiful, don’tcha think? But, like, they’re not as beautiful… as you.”

This surprised you. You could feel the blush spreading quickly over your cheeks. “Uh, Kichi?”

“Yeah… you’re really pretty, Y/N. I never told ya, cause I thought you’d assume I was lying. But… I like you.” He said, glancing at your face. “Hehe, you’re blushing!” He yelled, smiling brightly and pointing at you. You backed up, practically stumbling backwards from the flustering surprise, and he sat up to keep pointing at you and giggling, now more energetic all of a sudden.

You walked out of that room without another word past indecipherable mumbles. No way. No way did the supreme leader actually have a crush on you. He… he must’ve found a way to cheat the Despair Disease or something. He tricked Monokuma once, he could do it again, right? But it sure didn’t feel like a lie. And you definitely didn’t want it to be a lie.

Because, in all honesty, you liked him back.

[we-dragons]

I'm from a different dimension actually Chapter 6 Damian x reader

Professor X sat in his wheelchair glancing around the room he hums his eyes pouring over all that there was finally landing on Robin. He gives me a look gesturing over at him.

"He informed me about The Crows sir, apparently they have gone under the radar, they've killed three people and the system didn't go off. At first, I thought we still had time, I treated a wound he had it he had come in contact with one and fought it. You know like how Wolverine did, I treated the cut and it's gone, but I was sure they were still in the dream state. But he got injured saving those left how survived probably not far from here, but the fact we didn't even receive the ring can only mean...they've returned under complete control again."

Concern fills the face of professor X, he turns to Robin, who shifts uncomfortably by the entrance of my kitchen. "Who are you then?"

"Robin."

The professor nods not even turning from his spot, he looks over Robin as if completing an inspection.

"How much does this Robin Know Dreki, about you, and The Crows?"

"I told him about the Jal-sein, the old race before the collective mind sharing, and he knows about my box of scales." Professor sighs.

"How did you meet him."

"When he broke through my window last week, infected."

"You gave him some scales to purge poison."

"Yes sir."

"Very good," He moves back to his original spot in the middle of the room. "You have been permitted to stop them at all costs if you must. Your uncle will be here soon to help you kill whatever has brought them back, in the meantime try not to use the stones. We don't want to attract more trouble than what has already been done."

"You're allowing me to put my powers to use?"

"As long as you don't wear it out, vibranium is not easy to turn into clothing."

"What a minute!" Robin's voice carried out through the room. "Just what's going on?"

"Robin," Professor X starts. "your world is being invaded by the Crow so that you become one of the many planets they have drained of life. And to do it they need a vessel that can contain the leader of the Jal-sein, Hok'mor." Professor X looks at him, his use

"And?" Robin says his face remaining unreadable

"I was the vessel, I escaped, destroyed the flagship and the army they had." I shiver moving out from my room to the box still lying on the kitchen table. "They were after the life of my home, so then I became a weapon for my planet." I pull out a bag of coins from the box.

"And what do you intend to do now (Y/N), destroy them yourself." Robin stands in the entryway, professor X stands behind him.

"Yes," I turn to him a chakram and the bag of coins in hand. "so unless you know how to obliterate a bird in 15 seconds or less you need to forget this ever happened and never come back."

"So, why tell me any of this, why tell me about anything why expose yourself?"

"So you can tell your family and friends and hopefully, just maybe you can survive. Because knowing them keeps them out of your head, but too much knowing allows them to enter." I pick up Nightmare, he crawls up to my shoulder and I head out of the kitchen, Robin makes room for me but just barely. I open my closet and pull out the last thing I have, two letters one written in my mother's signature ink and the other in my own handwriting, I hold them out to the professor.

"You know there is nowhere left for me to run professor if I end out getting caught...I just want him to have this. In my letter, papers are containing the custody terms for my brother to Uncle. I just need you to grab them to complete the transfer." Professor X slowly takes the letters where they rematerialize on his side.

"Good-bye Dreki, I will see that these get to your Brother."

Professor fades out of the com, and it clicks turning off, I pick it off the floor and slip it into the pocket of my sweatpants. I pulled out the chakram ready to leave a mark on my hand, I only needed a little bit of blood to completely transform when Robin coughs gaining my attention. He leans against the wall to the left of me now glaring at my form, Nightmare growls at the boy from the corner of my eye I see his fangs getting slightly bigger.

"Are you making it a habit to ignore me while I'm here?"

"No, But I do need you to leave, you can't stay here anymore." I begin to push him out the door in the kitchen, he slaps my hands away confusion leaving his face replacing it's with anger. He open's his mouth and I put a magic orange circle on his head.

"You Robin son of batman, found this information interrogating one of the monsters. It spoke in a language that was foreign but somehow understood all of it. You have made no such connection to the girl Y/N M/N, you did not see a man from another dimension, you came back to thank her for her help you had some tea and you were just leaving." I flick my hand and the circle vanishes, his head lowers for a moment as the information in his head readjusts. He moves to the balcony edge turning to face me the scowl returned to his face.

"Thank you for the tea." he pulls out a grappling hook and leaves without another word. I sigh moving to the same device I used to contact the professor. Picking it up I hold it to my mouth.

"Find me the closest thing to a sorcerer supreme, name and whereabouts contact them when you get there."

I toss it back onto the floor and it roars to life to give me a purple image of the earth and orange magic circles to tracking and moving. I move to my couch and fall asleep waiting for this day to take me.

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I wake the next day with the globe still searching for my request I sigh and get ready for work. I thank god that it's just the coffee shop below me, I work on the weekends mostly unless they need an extra member of staff then it's just me and the older lady and her husband. They both owned the building and the shop they helped me get the apartment set up and showed me how to work the coffee machines. I don't really drink coffee though after seeing what a raving maniac my dad became without it, also it was just so bitter no matter how much sugar I put into it. I partially blame my heightened scenes that came with my abilities, so I got free white hot chocolates and any extra flavors I wanted as long as I did my job and chatted with them for a while.

I asked them personally to stay away while I was sick, so they wouldn't be affected. When I get down the stairs Martha, the elderly lady beams thankful that I'm feeling better.

"I so glad you are doing well dear, I know the acidity in our rain makes you sick so Glenn and I got you this umbrella." She hands me a purple umbrella that still has a tag on it, it reads for sun and rain.

"You didn't have to do this Martha, I told you I'm not good with gifts, you already let me stay here on the government's program and gave me a job here, you and Glenn have already done so much." She pushes the umbrella farther into my chest.

"No you do so much for us, you work without complaint, you've also taken care of us and our granddaughter when she came over. When you were sick we were so worried about you so you going to take it or I can give you more gifts."

"Thank you very much."I smile brightly. She pats my shoulder and gestures to the counter to start the machines.

Once all the machines are started, the desserts are placed and the base coffees are made I open shop. Customers come in and some lounge around in the chairs or couches drinking coffees and either studying or chatting with their friends. Molly usually comes on Sunday as one of our regulars, so I would see her then. A few of our regulars are happy to see I'm back at work one of the other tenants gave me a green bean casserole and a hug. It's 5 O'clock and I make a cappuccino as I finish I hear the door open and the bell ring on the counter.

The black-haired blue-eyed male I had gotten to know as detective Richard Grayson, came in every other day at 5, he normally talks often while I tried to take his order. So I memorized what he usually gets so he doesn't block the register so I can still make the register.

"Hey Y/N I'll take the usual."

"I thought so," I hand him his drink " one cappuccino."

He takes his coffee and moves to the bar we have set up if you wanted to watch the process and it's only then I see the other people behind him, one pissed-off looking male with a cigarette in his mouth, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne. I look back to Richard he smiles at me leaning onto the bar.

"They came with me this time, It's family bonding time."

"You mean you dragged us out of the house to grab a coffee from this place cause you have a schedule."

"It's bonding Jason! Bonding!"

The two began arguing in the shop, I return my attention to the other two boys. Tim as at the counter puts a ten-dollar bill on the counter, while Damian does the same.

"Give me a regular coffee, black, large cup."

"Tea, no sugar, regular size."

Their voices crowed each other but since this happens frequently it was easy enough to at least get their orders down.

"Sure here's your change." I look back to the two arguing and I see Jason didn't put out his cigarette. He taps it and the ash of his drug falls to the floor.

Sighing I move out of the workspace gabbing a tong and a wastebasket, I take out the cigarette and throw it in the bin now gaining the full attention of Jason. I give him a stern look he seemed to freeze, bitting back any words he might have prepared to say before.

"Sir, I am not sure if I made we've previously made It but there is a strict no smoking policy. As you see we have many elderly, and young children in our establishment." I smile but I know my face is full of malice. "But please enjoy your stay at our cozy corner of our fine and fair city." I move back behind the counter start on some of my orders, I look at Jason again the smile still on my face.

"Would you like anything?" He gives me an odd look.

"White hot chocolate, Large," he nods his head over at Richard. "Put it on his tab."

"We don't have a tabs sir, he works for the police."

"So?"

"He gets Free coffee." He gawks at me as if I told him the sky was black, and I see Richard trying to contain his laughter.

"You give that guy free coffee?"

"It's a store policy." I pass out the coffee and the tea and I see from the corner of my eye he pulls out a flask. I grab the tongs again and clap them together, Jason looks at me then grumbles putting the flask back in his jacket, and instead pulls out a five and hands it to me. I take it from him gingerly and head straight to work on his order. I hand him both his spare change and his drink, and the complimentary cookie bag that came with it. He gives me another look.

"They come with a drink." I leave and continued my chores around the shop.

"You are doing much better (m/n)." I whip my head around and look at Damian who's behind me on the other side of the counter. His companions seemed to be in deep conversation amongst themselves.

"Yes, I'm doing just fine, it happens occasionally but nothing like a good cup of tea and a few nights rest couldn't fix." I go back to cleaning the counter.

"You were sick for much longer than that."

"Yeah...it happens." I change the topic to "Did you think of anything for the project?"

"Why not make a model, there is not really much to do with it anyway." I gasp dramatically.

"Not much to do with an astrolabe! You clearly didn't read the whole paper!" By now I have caught the attention of his group. Damian frowns.

"No, your paper was written very well, I just don't think we need to dwell too much on this project seeing as how we really are not presenting." I had heard that bit from Molly.

"I suppose your right." I put away the cleaning supplies and turn back to him. "I'll get started on a model right away!"

"You will do no such thing." His voice is stern. "I will come back later and work on it with you," He moves his chair back and heads out the door.

His companions follow quickly after him and they say their goodbyes.

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As promised, he came a few hours later right as my shift ended and another person came for the second half of the day. I moved the glowing tracker to my room so it wouldn't gather any extra attention.

"I have supplies, what is all of that?" my brows furrow staring at the bulging plastic bag in his hand while I turn the keys in my locks. opening the door.

"I wasn't sure if you were prepared." He moves to the door, my arm shoots in his way stopping him.

"I wouldn't go in quite yet."

"What?"

I put a finger to my lips and crouch slowly to the floor, I shake the key in my hand then slid them across the floor. A ball of black attacks the object just as it crosses the doorway. Nightmare attacks the keys rolling around and bitting.

"Ah yes, observe the feral kitten in his natural habitat." I walk inside the door beckoning Damian to follow. "I would beware he is an ankle bitter. You can set up in the living room I'll just drop this guy off in my room."

"Does he attack all the time?"

"He's been like that since I picked him up, I don't blame him he was born in a rough neighborhood." I set Nightmare on the bed next to the floating version of earth. "Watch it make sure it finishes." then head to the living room. Damian has all his stuff set out on the table. There was veneer, paper, paint, some nails, an Exacto knife, a hammer, and a bag of pipe cleaners.

"This looks like stuff to make a birdhouse," I try and pick up some of the wood that was on the table." you realize cardboard, scissors, and a sharpie would have been enough."

"And here I thought you like polished and neat projects."

"yeah, but even with cheap materials you can still create a masterpiece."

"You don't do anything nice for yourself self do you?"

"Dude the most expensive thing I own is a cat who attacks me." I sigh, I sketch out a design for the astrolabe. "Well, why don't you start on the Mater, I'll get to work on the plate for our side of America."

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"3 hours of hard work and I got to say it's not bad." I hold the fished product, It's attached to a string of green yarn. "The calculations are down to point." I put it down, I clean up the mess that's on the floor of the living room.

"About the last time we saw each other, I'm sorry."

"It's fine, you probably knew about me from the news already, the big myste#wayne#scifi#damian#bruce#bats#fanfiction#xreader#characterxreader#jason todd#tim drake#character x reader#mxf#fxm#batboys#batboys x reader#Damianxreader#X reader#DC#Marvel#MarvelxReader#DCxreader#batfam#mutants#Damian Wayne x reader ry of the missing journals. So many interviews." I dump the trash in the kitchen, saying that last part mostly to my self.

"You forgive too easily."

"I'm not as forgiving as you think, honestly you view me too highly it that's what you believe. Would you like something before you leave?"

"No, but I have something for you before I go." I open the door to my room and let Nightmare out.

"Oh?" He's already at the door and pulls a shiny gold card from his pocket, he hands it to me.

"Father thought it would be good to meet you."

"Because I'm the daughter of a famous dead professor, is he going to ask about the journals too?"

"No, this is to apologize for my previous behavior."

"Oh," I take the card looking at it uneasily. "I don't think I can go to this, I don't do well at parties."

"Not a very good excuse." He smirks.

"I'll think about it." I push him out the door and give him the Astrolabe, closing the door slowly. " I'll see you at school."

I look at the card again, It's like the parties mom went to I knew them well. While some were nice, others were nice only in their face. I laugh slightly to myself, Molly already called me earlier telling me I was her plus one to the same thing. This was already suspicious enough as it is. I look at Nightmare who cocks his head at me.

"You think I should go, don't you?" the furball nods

"Fine. I was going to be forced into this anyway."

[randomnameless]

The phrase “we have been aware of the high levels of competency from KT's writers, especially with their work for 3H” is worrying; i'm not going to shit-talk them just for thinking that 3H has a good story, especially when someone's standards for what makes a story good or not is subjective and could be different from ours, but KT's story-telling skills are never going to improve if people keep only telling them that Three Houses' deeply-flawed story was actually a narrative masterpiece, instead of a self-contradicting mess with plot points it introduces solely as gotchas and has no intention of ever following up on in any meaningful way, characters getting assassinated left and right to try and argue that female Ashnard might actually be right and not so different from them in terms of morality and goals (while they're in the middle of fighting for their lives and watching their friends die in battle because she decided to invade their home unprovoked and solely for a landgrab), and an over-powered villain group that should have ended the story long before it even started because the writers decided to give them a stockpile of magic nukes they can launch at anywhere in the world, which was also introduced solely for shock value and without them realizing how much of the story is ruined by making it so that the villains who want to kill everyone and take over the world can just nuke anyone they want (that isn't inside Garreg Mach when they launch it) with no consequences.

I just don't like what it means for the future of FE stories if the worst story in the series keeps getting praised as one of the best, even by separate developers, is all.

Wait and see anon!

For what it's worth, while Engage's sales are apparently not as stellar as Houses in the same timeframe (like House after month 1 and Engage after month 1?), Nopes totally crashed.

Amazon isn't the only market in the world, but in some places in the world (tfw not for amazon.fr) Nopes is now sold at around 15 bucks, which is ridiculous considering older games released on consoles still being in circulation are more expensive than this thing that is barely 1 year old(even the first FEW?).

Also, Engage was supposed to have been released earlier but Covid and Houses being released later than planned meant it was delayed, but Engage was supposed to be Fodlan's antithesis, at least writing wise - you'd think IS would have tried to retrofit more Fodlan themes (maybe more uwu maybe some villains aren't BaD and earl grey because they luf u) but they didn't.

Imo, fwiw, while KT apparently loved how Fodlan was received, IS is aghast and doesn't want to touch it within a 10 meters radius, only if it means selling units in FEH and even there, they sometimes retcon Fodlan units (hello F!Billy/Sothis) or challenge them in various FB (Brave!Supreme Leader, but also in the most recent one, Sylvain harping on his Crust being BaD...) clearly showing how they don't really want to follow KT's direction regarding those units - at times, it's almost as if the CoS receives more development in Heroes than in both Fodlan games!

So I'd like to see what IS has in store for the next FE games (or the next non remake FE game), even if in my opinion, given how Heroes has to retcon/finish the writing (Mercedes reveals more about her Adrestian family in FEH than in two of her games!) for characters just to sell them in the gacha game ffs, speaks volumes on what they think of Fodlan's writing.

On top of that, FE16 was the first game where people received surveys/mails from Nintendo/IS asking them if they understood the game... - so despite Fodlan selling well (better than expected?), imo it's clear the writing isn't to praise, at least for IS, and they don't want anything to do with it (Nopes' DLC was scrapped, when shiny!Rhea's sprite was datamined, so either they made an useless sprite, either this sprite might have been used in a future DLC?)

They can still butcher a future remake (plz no jugdral) by adding pointless supports between units and trying to uwu more than needed the red emperor - or add an OC waifu du jour who will sell merchs and try to uwu her if she is on the side of the red emperor - but I feel like we will see where they will go with a brand new game (since Heroes's writing is... as consistent as a fog and basically circles around "women sad'n'lonely*, men evyl", female playable OC simps after the avatar and is useless in the resolution of the plot because Alfonse will finally find a mc guffin way to defeat the villain of the year).

*i truly hope Vero isn't any indication to what the writing of the future games will be, like heavy retcons from her first apparition to "i was brainwashed and akshually everyone supports me from my home even if i send them to death against askr because the voice in my head told me to do it" because that'd suck, but vero is a young woman, thus she could be monetised for alts, figurines and even DLC content in a main game!

[couldnt-think-of-a-better-name]

Chapter 141 Spoilers

We have the following text spoiler so far:

The Demon[!God] says, “Fine. But give me a reward.”

People from 1000 years ago explain that the “reward” is compensation for having your wish granted and whatever is asked for you must not refuse.

There are 6 people in a meeting during the battle 1000 years ago who look like they’re from Dragon Quest or something.

One of them named Julius proposes offering a portion of the humans as a method for peace.

Everyone disagreed and that was stopped.

Various countries and cultures are all combining powers to fight! We’re finally beginning to see a chance of victory! We’ll end this war in our generation!

They’re excited but in the end Leuvis kills everyone but Julius.

Julius wants to make a deal with his majesty.

The tragic beginning of a betrayal by a comrade in arms.

We have an image as well, and I would like to point out how similar their clothing/armour look to Norman knights from history 😎:

This fits with most early medieval european fashion, but I keep getting excited because I made a theory on the first Ratri leader who made the promise being Emma of Normandy, who was an important ruler just around a 1000 years ago, when the promise was made. The manga panels again fit the clothing of a norman lady:

So it looks like the Ratri clan may be a descendant of the Normans after all! Fierce warriors who used to be vikings until they settled in the French area of Normandy, around a 1000 years ago, under the rule of viking chieftain Rollo, who was apparently a man too big for any horse to carry (perhaps the big guy in the back on the manga page?).

To me it sounds like that Norman knights would fit the bill for being able to and wanting to fight demons. It sounds like they were badasses.

The only thing that bothers me is the mention of Julius... Is this a reference to Julius Caesar? However he lived almost another 1000 years earlier, so I don't think it could be actually him.

When looking for Cuvitidala, Ray discussed an old book that was identified as the diary or various ratri clansmen during the ages. The most ancient parts were written in latin or mirrored latin.

Latin was however not only the language of the romans, but during the early medieval ages in europe everyone wrote in latin, even if they spoke their native languages only. Most people were illiterate though, only a select few learned to write.

So maybe Julius is a mistranslation, or just unrelated to Julius Caesar, or just a small nod to him being betrayed.

In terms of the price of reforging the promise, the spoiler has some contradictions:

No matter what reward demon!God asks for, it must be given. This implies that demon!God decides the price, and the negotiator has no say in setting the price.

Julius suggests offering part of humanity. So then after all, does demon!God only decide if they accept what the negotiator offers? Without demanding anything?

Perhaps there is a bit of haggling involved? Either case, Emma has seen demons make what looked like offers to demon!God in exchange for their wishes...

Emma is only speculating on this, but it seems reasonable that demons used to go to Cuvitidala to talk to demon!God through visions. Otherwise, why would the vision mechanism activate automatically, if it wasn't set up for that?

The question is: why doesn't it work anymore, why did the demons abandon it, and why did it work for Emma?

In the previous chapter's, 140's analysis I discussed that Emma's faith was important to reaching demon!God. She believed she could do it, and she did.

So what if demons have abandoned Cuvitidala because they have lost faith in demon!God, and couldn’t talk to demon!God anymore?

Sure, they still hold tifari, but perhaps that festival isn't about worshipping a God anymore, but it is a social gathering they hold as a tradition now? They certainly don't seem to know anymore what demon!God actually wants of them if they keep sending dead people, and demon!God is much more interestes in playing with living humans...

Now, I know a lot of ppl expect Emma to offer herself as sacrifice to the demon!God, but even if she is prime quality and supremely delicious, I doubt that a one-time snack is really worth much to a God...

What might be worth a lot more though may be getting their followers back, and perhaps expanding them to humans as well?

So maybe Emma could become a priest/prophet of demon!God and convert demons and humans together to demon!God's religion? Maybe Mujika could help. After all, Mujika's religion forbids eating cattle humans, and if humans and demons share a religion; then they should not fight or try to kill each other anymore.

I think that one might be a neat solution for uniting them, and also pleasing demon!God. Plus it fits with the Bible theme where in the new testament Christianity becomes available to everyone, not just the jews anymore.

(I will get back to asks soon, sorry that I haven't been answering them yet! Have quite a few in my inbox!)

[artificialqueens]

don't play the fool now (multi) - chapter two - lily2

adore isn’t too interested in attending the famous and ever-so popular: club katya however, she bumps into someone who leaves a lasting impression. meanwhile, shea breaks the most basic rules of her job and katya definitely cares for her sister more than she should.

— ✧*。

Adore stood, locking arm’s with Scarlet and Courtney who were on both of her sides, both of them completely dolled up and wearing their finest and cutest sequin dresses, the new employee stuck out like a sore thumb with her long hair down, a short and black v-neck dress and of course some fishnets and bright red lipstick— she didn’t want to be polished, it was a casino and a club after all, as if someone could get through a sentence or even speak to her about her possibly questionable style choices as they sat, gambling their life away and utterly wasted.

“Well I don’t see the others but we are a bit early.” The Australian speaking up and brushing her hair back gently, not wanting to ruin the shape before she heard a whistle and saw the rest of the girls from their unit walk up, Adore clearly the odd one out as even Yvie decided to dress in whatever she could find that wasn’t too casual. “Let’s do the damn thing ladies.” Aja spoke over the gaggle of girls who all interlocked hands, it almost looked like a cult; an extremely attractive and undercover (but not really) cult. 

First Scarlet and Courtney walked through, waving to the suspecting and familar bartenders and staff who greeted them oh-so-sweetly as expected from two glamorous regulars though Adore couldn’t help but notice the security’s eyes follow her before she turned the corner, clinging a bit to her two new teammates, not due to fear however, Azusa was far more tramuatic and terrifying as a thought than this entire casino: it was more the feeling of being so unaware, everything was bright and the lights a bit dim, people of every kind wanting the same two things: money and alcohol, music blasting as Yvie and Tatianna moved as they walked, feeling themselves to the song. 

“Obviously we aren’t gonna stick together forever so do we want to have a time and place to meet?” Scarlet raising her hand to stop the other seven girls from walking past her, raising a good concern. “The fact you think we will be sober enough to even remember.” Yvie cackled, amused that Scarlet really, truly believed picking a place in the middle of the night, at a casino was a good option for the unit of girls, trying to run away from the stress of their jobs and welcome Adore (in possibly the worst fashion possible) as they gambled and drank the night away, atleast that was what Yvie was planning to do with her time.

“It’s a genuine question, I’m sorry I don’t actually get wasted every time I go out somewhere and besides we’re not on the job, not like I have radios to talk with you guys!“ 

Tatianna held her phone up and nervously gave a smile to the two already beginning to start the usual bickering session, “But we all do have phones and I’m sure some of us will stick together, if anyone goes wrong let’s do that me and Brook Lynn are the ones to call, I know she doesn’t drink too often anhway and I’m pretty responsible so we’ll be the good parents today.” The Canadian shrugged, utterly and completely okay with that little suggestion, “That’s fine by me, I know I’m always the type to get bored and be on my phone anyway." 

"Why did you come then?” Yvie asked, gripping her arm, “Because someone has to be the responsible one like Tatianna said and I don’t trust any of the rest of you to be at Club Katya, we saw how that saga turned out for you and for Aja last time.” Adore wasn’t exactly sure what story that was about but judging by Aja’s cheeks beginning to glow red and Yvie’s stammer, she assumed it wasn’t the most pleasant situation or maybe it was the fucking funniest thing ever, she had yet to find out and maybe she never would.

“You’re coming with me!” Scarlet winked at Adore, speaking up over the rest of them and dragging her along with Courtney, the two of them giddy as can be, they seemed to legitmately enjoy the aesthetic and double life, not like anyone would ask what job they had and if they didn’t they certainly wouldn’t answer a private investigator or detective, what a damn downer.

“The first night of your job and you’re gonna spend it with us gambling, wonderful!” The chipper tone from Courtney’s voice enough to speak volumes of how this night was about to go, she was either going to earn a fuck ton of money or die on the balcony roof and both seemed like acceptable, viable options at this stage of the game.

“Let’s get our money ladies!" 

*.✧

Bianca, Shea and Jinkx gathered in the car, all dressed about as nice they ever would going to Club Katya though Bianca always attempted to atleast look decent, wanting to make a lasting impression and also show off her clothing, it was a win-win! Shea’s fingers tapped the window of the car she she stared blankly, the window of the black Tesla dimmed, Jinkx claiming it was for protection— not wanting others to make any assumptions but Shea knew it really came down to what was probably a sponsorship and the fact that Jinkx could barely drive if the sun was glaring, she probably got tired of wearing glasses in the car, claiming always it made her look older than Bianca.

"You’re really hilarious for someone who can’t even stay awake doing a simple task, why do you think I only give you the exciting shit? It’s not because I love you, it’s because I know you won’t fucking sleep and pass out on the concrete.” The Auburn haired woman had to laugh, gently clutching Bianca’s arm, Jinkx knew the mutual love and respect they had shared for over two decades was enough to make her atleast go a bit easy on the Seattle native, she twirled her own auburn hair around her fingertips before giving a blank stare at Shea, who turned and met her eyes.

Jinkx wasn’t exactly sure what to think of Shea just yet, she had been very promising and apparently Bob’s word of her was so generous and so incredible that Bianca already trusted her with Katya: Manila had been scared after only meeting her at Bianca’s own living space, though she had a few, once a few boys and drugs got involved so to see someone as new as Shea being trusted to handle the dirt and task to come was definitely terrifying and impressive enough.

“You nervous?” Bianca asked, crossing her legs as Shea’s eyes darted away from Jinkx, her hands interlocking with themselves as she shut her eyes, running a hand through her hair. “A little, but nothing I can’t handle, I’m here to show I’m ready for the job.” For someone who had only joined five months ago she was definitely a shining beacon of what the future was in store atleast that was how Bob put it and Bianca would definitely trust her word.

“Well, don’t stress yourself out before we’ve gotten there.” Was the only piece of truth Bianca could offer before she turned away from Shea who only gave a polite nod, wishing deeply she had just been sent with Aquaria and Violet instead, she had heard a lot about the infamous Katya Zamolodchikova.

Katya Zamolodchikova who had been in prison for drug abuse, Katya who had escaped Russia due to her family and the growing and rampant terror of government, Katya who now was a mogul in the Eastern United States for her line of casinos, clubs and whatever downtrodden thing she could possibly imagine, living on her own and hanging around at her own established area’s, staying hush and quiet about any business or disappearance of men or women who had messed with the wrong people. 

All she had to do was laugh or smile and she had anyone who was willing around her finger, her thick and curly long blonde hair covering almost all her beautifully and consistently painted face, wearing lots of lace and lingerie on her downtime and spending her growing fortune on beauty products, animal charities, her new projects and sometimes saving a stack or two for Bianca who had helped her break into the business and gave her a place when she was just a bedridden, ill immigrant, lost in New York City and barley able to communicate in proper English.

“I miss Katya!” Jinkx pouted, smiling at the thought of seeing her fellow Eastern European at her own club, she knew the meeting was for business but nothing a pack of cigarettes couldn’t do for sweet and dear Katya, Bianca had already figured out every mark and weakness she had and she really would be a difficult character to crack if it wasn’t for the fact she is the reason the bitch could even communicate in English. “I don’t.” Bianca laughed, hitting Jinkx before coughing and handling herself up again realizing Shea was still in the car and she had to keep up that “leader” and “supreme boss” act up. 

✧*。

The three exited the car, Bianca giving her driver direct and clear instructions when and where to come before he was on his way off, she walked in the middle of Shea and Jinkx, the latter auburn haired woman adjusting her dress and making sure it hit the floor in just the right light before she shook a bit to ease her own personal stress and begun walking closely to Bianca, Shea following in pursuit, knowing better than to open her mouth and ask questions. 

Music blasting, lights dimmed, flashing and bright colors everywhere, alcohol splattered on the floor everywhere they seemed to look and the constant image of people grinding or kissing or attempting to dance: this was definitely Katya’s club and her own doing.

Bianca’s heels hit the tile of the hallway right next to club, her two girls following, many knew this as the gateway from the Club to the Casino or vise versa but the hallway also housed dressing rooms for any kind of entertainment that showed up, Katya took after these rooms like her own and had even converted one into her personal space, knowing her entire life was work and the occasional times she went home and didn’t have to ring down ten shots of vodka. 

A smattering knock from Jinkx, credit to her, had the Russian cursing before she opened the door and her dull and otherwise threatening expression changed into a soft smile, her eyes raising in surprise as her lashes fluttered, shrieking then which made Shea almost collapse into the pavement in surprise, still grasping the door handle she quickly pulled the three of them in and locked the door— Bianca impressed with how well decorated and insulted the room was. 

The Russian quickly grabbing Bianca in her arms and laughing wholeheartedly, the two giggling and rowdy like two high schoolers, “красивая женщина!” She cooed in Russian to her dearest and nearest friend before taking Jinkx and planting a kiss on both of her cheeks as she reciprocated the favor, “красивое платье.” Jinkx flushing and waving her off, knowing more than enough Russian to realize she called her dress beautiful, “Спасибо!” The half-Ukranian replied with a soft glow across her face, Katya wearing nothing but a gorgeous red, feathered sheer robe with a thick black bra and spandex.

“Looking like a whore as usual.” Bianca teased as Shea stood a bit awkwardly, not exactly knowing how and when to introduce herself to the not-so-mysterious Russian mogul. “Oh yes!” Jinkx clapped noticing Shea, “Katya, this is Shea, she works for us and is a very good and promising employee." 

They shook hands though Katya was never into the formality, she’d rather kiss someone on the cheek than shake their hand and hope the other person didn’t have a strong grip. "Any friend of Bianca is of course a friend of mine, I trust you are new? I have yet to see or hear of you around.” Her sniffing was absolutely correct, Bianca explaining she was of Bob’s finding and is very dedicated to her line of work and extremely intelligent. “Likes leather to boot.” The comment from the blonde referring to her skin-tight leather emsmeble, “I like it!” She slapped Shea’s shoulders and flashed that endearing and famous Katya smile.

“Thank you, it’s a pleasure." 

The four of them sat before Katya stood again, pouring four glasses of genuine Russian vodka she had gotten yesterday from her deliveries, "Just some taste of the motherland!” Handing a glass to the other three they cheered and took down the shot, Katya giving herself another sip straight from the bottle just for fun.

“So of course there is some business to speak of, we love you but we have a task to finish.” Bianca spoke first, Katya leaning in her chair and staring curiously, “Well yes, it’s what you must do, please tell me more.” Bianca opened her mouth before giving a signal for Jinkx and Shea to leave, an unusual turn of events they both gave eachother a disheartened look before they stood and went out the door, Bianca scooting closer to Katya, “I want them out because this goes back to you." 

"To me? Has my family finally caught up to me and the Russian government wants the money I stole back?" 

"Not exactly but I fear it has something to possibly do with your sister." 

Katya’s face bleached itself white, her breathing a bit slower but her heart racing almost three times as fast, her greatest and only fear in life wasn’t being killed, death, nothing like that; it was her sister being in harm and somehow poking herself at the underground and what was there, Sasha had majored in forensics and political science last Katya had heard, their brief and discreet conversation during their mother’s funeral at St. Petersburg more than enough of an indication that Sasha would absolutely become some kind of hero, politician or worse— detective.

"Bianca you swore to me she would never, ever get hurt or wind up in your cases.” The tone in her voice nothing but pure anger and disappointment, Bianca quickly grabbed her hands and shook her head, “And I’m keeping that promise, I’m a cold hearted bitch but jesus christ, you know I would never do that shit.”

The Russian breathed a much needed sigh of relief before letting go of her hands, “So what, I’m guessing she is a detective now? My worst fear.” Bianca could only nod and see Katya’s eyes flash with nothing but utter fear and worry, she knew that meant her sister was safe but at a distance— they weren’t going to just dismiss her and go easy if she tried to harass and meddle in what she didn’t need to even if she was Katya’s sister but: the promise would always be kept, Katya was absolutely sacred and her sister was untouched territory, that’s how it would stay.

“She is but from our files it shows she really hasn’t broken out on us specifically, she is doing the easy work, not the dirty work, anyone can take someone to court for a single count of murder and analyze the results." 

"So what about her is so important then?" 

Bianca snuck a file folder covered in sticky notes, throwing it to Katya for her to open and investigate herself.

"We need you to help us out and pull some strings." 

✧*。

Shea had decided to take the chance as she walked herself over the casino, knowing Bianca was someone who would take her sweet, sweet time if she was talking business and things with Katya: Jinkx insisting on just staying by the club and getting alcohol. Giving herself a grand tour, Shea gagged at the sheer amount of wealth and power and beauty the casino showed off, clearly Katya was intent on showing every penny she had put into her business and buildings, it showed from the outside to the inside.

Alcohol was the only thing really on her mind and she wanted to overpay for a speciality cocktail to atleast make herself feel a bit fancy and important, not wanting to be in the club lights and blasting music, the Casino had music but was definitely not loud and not obnxious party and dance music, it was a nice welcome in the moment.

Her eyes immediately caught eye of a stranger, short haired, curly blonde and tall who was leaning against the bar and speaking to someone next to her who had long, thick and black hair. The blonde’s soft gaze almost instantly gravitating Shea towards her, she prayed that she wasn’t married and this wouldn’t be awkward fast, she simply wanted a drink and the opportunity to buy her one. 

"Excuse me.” Shea spoke up, gently tapping the blonde on her shoulder, she turned in the barstool and her eyes met with Shea’s and the two completely melted, Sasha incomprehensibly silent before Adore nudged her a bit, smirking seeing her new co-worker and fellow friend so caught in midst of the gaze. 

“Oh I’m sorry, that was so rude.” The Russian speaking up once Adore gently shook her out of it, the two smiling at eachother as Sasha leaned on the bar counter, telling that the mysterious and new girl clearly was struggling to speak, “I…" 

Shea put her hands around her own waist and gave a glistening grin and wink, sliding in-between her and her friend, Adore raising her hands a bit frustrated that she might already turn into the third wheel. "I was wondering if I could buy you a drink." 

"I would be very glad if you did." 

Thank god, Shea begun to calm a bit, pulling out an 100$ bill and sliding it to the bar tender who quickly took it and waited for whatever drinks they wanted to purchase, "I just want straight vodka.” She must’ve been Eastern European judging by her choice in alcohol, it wasn’t sterotypical, it was just what she had come to understand from Jinkx and barely meeting Katya twenty minutes ago. Not to mention the not too obvious but still noticable punch of an accent

“Gin and tonic.” She instructed while still staring at Sasha, entranced, she was already breaking ten rules in the non-existent handbook of being in the mafia but not like Bianca was even wondering where she was, if she was she would’ve called anyway. “I’m Sasha.” She giggled, Shea taking her hand and giving a small wink in reply, “Shea." 

Adore didn’t know whether to throw up and just leave, let her be or see where this went but she decided on the usual, giving Sasha a discreet tap of the shoulder, a nod from her and she was off on her on.

Ten minutes of aimless strolling had showed that Scarlet and Courtney were both gambling as if they had any good amount of money to lose so freely, flying by the hem of their dresses. But they genuinely seemed to be loving their lives and the game they were playing.

"Oh shit!” She yelped, feeling herself fall into someone as she stared backwards, not paying attention to whatever was in front of her, an entire bag dropped but she more focused on helping out the poor person she had knocked down.

“Jesus Christ!” Yelled the other, distinctly female voice, before Adore gently took her hands and helped her up, making sure she didn’t trip on her heels before they both begun to speak, quickly letting go of their hands. 

Bianca couldn’t help but glance at her, she was gorgeous. She would usually rip someone in fishnets to pieces and destroy them on sight but damn she looked good and everything fit her to a t, clearly she had her own eye for fashion, her dark eyes and dark hair only helping her to blend in with the dark wall of the casino, “I’m sorry, I really didn’t watch where I was going—" 

"I know, I know, I got that.” Bianca dusted herself off and only hoped her heels didn’t suffer any damages, they were expensive and a gift from Raja which meant she either bought them or stole them but either way, same attachment to the perfectly snug white heels. Adore snapped back, “I’m sorry?" 

"Listen don’t worry about it, really, thank you for your help.” Bianca raced off as fast as a normal person could look trying to run in heels across a casino at night but Adore blinked, finally shying her eyes away from the woman. 

She was beautiful. 

Black hair, styled very nicely to add onto the overall package, white heels, a tulle skirt and either handsewen or what Adore assumed was designer for a sequined top that matched and coordinated so well with her entire outfit, she was either the most important person in the world and Adore was oblivious or she was just someone’s arm candy for the night who needed to make themselves into a beauty queen for the occasion.

Adore didn’t believe too badly in many things but she would definitely pray and hope that somehow, somehow she could find that same girl again, someday

[dailyaudiobible]

05/04/2021 DAB Transcript

Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalms 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-23

Today is the 4th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a joy and a privilege to be here with you today as we continue to take steps forward, day by day and they keep leading us a day forward. And every time we do that then, a week passes and then a month. And here we are in this fifth month of the year on this fourth day of the month we find ourselves in the book of Judges all the way from the book of Genesis. So, we’ll just keep going and before we know it we’ll be reading the last paragraphs of the Bible and it’ll be like, “where did the year go?” So, let's continue our journey learning about the different judges of Israel, the people that rose up to lead the children of Israel after Joshua. And after that entire generation died out everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Israel didn't have a king or a supreme ruler and they were pretty meticulous about abandoning the Lord and doing some of the very, very critical things He asked them never to do. And we kind of see that coming out in the book of Judges. So, today we’re reading from the New International Version. Judges, chapters 19 and 20.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have a little bit of a cliffhanger going on in the book of Judges and we have a story that is really difficult - profound injustice followed by very very costly injustice. I mean there are a few really really difficult stories in the Scriptures, and we've encountered a couple of them. This one…this one is up there at the top of the list of just being hard to imagine and, you know, trying to find some sort of spiritual undercurrent here that…that we could look at. That's not really in this story, though, is it? Kind of hard to find that redemptive thread and maybe that's the point. It's not there. And this is what happens when it's not there. So, we’re not done with this story. We’ll have to continue forward into tomorrow and maybe we’ll have some…some things talk about tomorrow. But let’s just look at the story in as much as we know of it and let's take note of something. The story begins not like, “once upon a time in a land far far away”, the story begins, “in those days Israel had no king.” And that is a phrase and a theme that we keep seeing in the book of Judges. The book of Judges kind of opens up with this idea that Israel has no king, and everybody is doing whatever they think is right in their own eyes almost like it's a little bit of a disclaimer. Like, “okay the things you are gonna read you need to understand that Israel didn't have a supreme ruler, and everybody was doing whatever they wanted. You need to know that as you go into this time period.” Judges makes it very clear to us if we’re paying attention. So, just like this story begins, “in those days Israel had no king.” And that's when we learn of the story. A man in the remote country of Ephraim had a concubine. So, she's like his common-law wife as we see later in the story, like when he goes back to get her, her husband treats him like a husband. This is just a different arrangement. We don’t have these kinds of…of arrangements typically in the cultures that we live in. So, we can back read our culture into this time and go, “how strange, how weird, how awful”, when what we need to do is just go, “this is a totally different point in history. People are valuing completely different things and they have different priorities.” So, this man, he has this woman. She's not named. She is unfaithful to him according to what we…we read…we read in the book of Judges and she goes and returns back to her father on Bethlehem. And, so, four months later he goes back essentially to see if the relationship can be repaired. The father welcomes him into the house. He stays there for several days. There all getting reacquainted. The…perhaps the relationship is being repaired because she ends up leaving with him and. And then we just begin to realize that the systematic choices in this story actually draw out the conclusion of the story. It's just so bizarre. If any one of these little, tiny decisions were different the whole story would be different. Like, what if he didn't go for months to get her? Then this is a total…this story never happens. And then what if he just gets her and leaves for home the next morning? Well then, this story never happens. But it’s the father-in-law that keeps like trying to delay the departure. And we can understand that. We don't…I mean…if our kids come to visit we don’t want them to leave. And, so, stay another day or whatever. So, we can kind of read into that or just look into that and go, “I kinda understand what's going on here little bit” or at least potentially what's going on. The father-in-law keeps trying to delay their departure. Finally, the man is determined he's gonna get away. Like, he's not waiting another minute. He's not staying another night. And, so, he ends up instead of leaving early in the morning leaving late in the afternoon. That choice right there, like if he left in the morning this is totally different story. So, they’re traveling north, they’re traveling north. I mean Bethlehem's like 6 miles south of Jebus, Jerusalem. So, they had traveled that 6 miles and it was getting dark and there were near the city of Jebus, which is Jerusalem and the servant’s like, “let's stay with the Jebusites.” And he's like, “no. We’re gonna stay only where there are Israelites.” And, so, they continue to move on a couple more miles until they…until they get to Gibeah, which is where this whole thing happens. They probably didn't stay in Jebus for fear of what actually happened in Gibeah. Again, these choices, they stack up to tell the story. So, they’re waiting to be taken in. They’re sitting in the city square looking for some hospitality. This is the custom. They get no hospitality until an older man from Ephraim comes in, welcomes them into his home. And then the…the men of the city surround the…surround the old man's house. They want the guy to come out. They want to have sex with the man, the visitor. And, so, the old man comes out and is like, essentially what he's trying to tell those men is, “these are my guests. They are under my roof. I have extended hospitality to them. They are under my protection. It's against the code, basically. It's kind of against our unspoken ethics here, that you don't do this kind of stuff. We have offer…offered hospitality and they’re safe here.” But then this…just the whole thing goes sideways when he's like, “look, take my virgin daughter, take this man's concubine. Do whatever you want to with them. Just leave this man alone.” This is when we brush up with the patriarchal nature of a very ancient time and it's… Look, this story bothers me. It doesn't bother me that it's in the Bible. It bothers me that there is such a thing as this story and you probably feel the same. So, what we’re not trying to do is figure out some way to whitewash and paint this thing into a good story. It's a horrible story. It's in the Bible because it's a horrible story. Nobody's gonna read this story. Nobody has been reading the story over the last several thousand years, “going that is in awesome story. Let's make a movie. I’m gonna write a children's book about this story and it should be told throughout the generations.” Nobody's doing that. It's not that kind of a story. This story is supposed to be an awful story. We’re supposed to read it like it's a bad story, like it’s a disruptive, disconcerting story. And we can see…like I'm not making that up, but just keep going…like…we’ll see how in just the second. So, that happens. The concubine gets thrown out the door. The men of the town rape her to death. She dies on the doorstep with her hand on the threshold. Don't think for a second that those details, all those details are not meant to make us that much more unsettled about a kind…this kind of a story. And the Ephraimite, he wakes up in the morning, which…man… He wakes up in the morning, he steps out the doorstep. He’s gonna go on his way. He finds concubine, apparently sleeping on the doorstep because she's had, I guess, apparently a long night. And he's like, “let's go. Let's go. Get up. Let's go.” But she's dead, so she doesn't answer, and he realizes that she's dead, so he puts her on his donkey and takes her back home to Ephraim. It's okay to look at this kinda look at this guy and go, “I have no respect. I…I don't respect how this went down.” That's okay. Nobody does. But he does set off something because he cuts her up into 12 pieces. And that's grisly and gory enough, but they don't have email and they don't have local or national news. They don't have Internet. They…they spread the word in very different ways than we do now. And in this case if you have a body part of someone along with a bit of a story that shows up to your tribal Council then your tribal leaders are probably going to get together with the others because they’re getting body parts to to try to figure out what this all means. And they do get together. They do come together, and they come together with outrage, which is how we begin to know that this is actually an outrageous story. The people, 400,000 armed men from the other tribes come together outraged. “How could something like this happen among us?” This is the question. “Nothing like this has ever happened among us before since we came out of Egypt.” This is what they're saying. So, this is an outrageous thing that has happened. And once the story is told in their hearing, they…the story binds them together as one with one voice. And that one voice is justice will be served upon those people in Gibeah. And, so, at that point we can go, “okay. I’m on board with that. Like, I see…I see that the people are shocked by what happened.” And, so, this wasn't like the normal way of things. The people are shocked enough to go to battle…to go to Civil War over it. And, so, they send messages to the tribes, the tribal leaders of Benjamin saying, “hand over the perpetrators” basically “hand over the evil people that were…perpetrated this kind of violence, this kind of outrage, this kind of sin among our people. It must be purged from among us.” The tribe of Benjamin, though, they just get their own army together. And, so, it is…and so it is…so it is Civil War. And we watched several battles. And we watched tens of thousands of people die in pursuit of justice. And we see one final battle that pulls the Benjamites out into the open and they are defeated, robustly defeated. What we don't quite understand yet, what we will begin to see as we conclude the story, but what we don't quite understand at this point in the story is that Benjamin is destroyed, an entire tribe. The youngest son of Moses, remember that…that younger son and Joseph sees his younger brother that he hasn't seen since he was a baby, and he weeps? Remember that whole story back in Egypt? These are his offspring, Benjamin’s children, the tribe of Benjamin. They are utterly destroyed. There are only you hundred people left in the entire tribe. So, an outrageous crime, like an outrageous tragedy, an obscenity committed within Israel and then the rebelliousness of those who will not turn over those who perpetrated the violence has led to the tens of thousands of people losing their lives and the annihilation of one of the tribes of Israel. And we can look at it and go, “there is no redemption in this story”, but there is actually. Taking the long view, there really is and we’ll see that. We’ll see that…we’ll see that as the story continues, but we’ll see that as we continue our journey into the era where there are kings in Israel because Israel's first king, his name will be Saul. Guess where he comes from? The smallest family in the smallest tribe. He's the insignificant person in his family who lives within an insignificant tribe known as Benjamin. So, we’ll allow the story play out while keeping in mind that at those…in those days Israel had no king, because that's we keep being told. It’s being told to us almost like a warning, like some of this territory is tough and we just happened to past through some of that tough territory. Because this is what happens when people in covenant with God abandon God and go their own way. And we can see, like all these little choices, they add up to stuff. I mean we could say, “well…dah…like you didn't have to make it about that story. Every little decision that we make adds up to stuff all the time.” Yeah, that's kind of the point. We’re telling the story of our lives with the choices that we make all the things we choose, all the motives of our heart, they’re leading somewhere. And, if anything, we can look into this story and go, “a couple different decisions change this whole story.” And, so, maybe we should slow down and be just a little more cautious about the decisions that we’re making because a couple different decisions can change anybody’s story.

Prayer:

Father we thank you for your word and we thank you for disruption. We thank you. It’s not like it was an enjoyable story to read but this is what happens. And we think you for leaving that in there, for leaving that for us. This is what happens when the covenant is broken, and everyone goes their own way and chases after all other gods and gives themselves in worship other things. This is where the trail goes. So we don’t like to read these stories, but this is where that path goes where awful things can happen. And, so, help us Holy Spirit to pay attention to the decisions that we make, especially the ones that can be consequential. And help us Holy Spirit to have wisdom's voice that is calling to us at every crossroads, help us to stop ignoring, help us to follow the path of wisdom because it's not like this sort of thing doesn't still happen on planet Earth. Human beings still stray incredibly far from you and lose all tethering to humanity and become animals and do this kind of stuff. It still happens. So come Holy Spirit let us be the wise ones. Let us see what's going on and learn the lessons that are bestowed upon us from the Scriptures. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what's going on around here. Always something going on around here.

So, we are settling in with this new baby that's a part of our lives now, Reagan the brave, and seeing her with her eyes open and looking around and becoming aware and getting to know the voice of her mommy and her daddy and loving, loving, loving that. And yes, I think probably for the next several months I could give to daily update on Reagan. I won't. But it brings up something else that we have discovered to be quite exciting in our neck of the woods and that is that we have been informed that there will be another baby coming into our world yet this year. Our son Christian and his wife have announced that they are also expecting, and they will also be…be bringing up baby girl into our lives this September. So, the girls are making a comeback, they’re making a show here and I love it, I love it. And, so, we are certainly excited and overwhelmed with all of this is news and that's just…I mean…part of the of the world around the Global Campfire here. And, so, thank you for he hooker prayers over this next little one and her development and her safe delivery into this world come this autumn. We’re gonna have a couple of babies around Christmas time this year and that's…that's pretty exciting. So, thank you for your prayers over our family as we expand.

And, of course, we’re a community of prayer and so we pray for each other all the time every day and there are a number of ways to stay connected in prayer and fellowship. One would be…well…the Community section in the app or on the website. That gives links to different social media channels as well as that…well…that’s home base for the Prayer Wall. And, so, there's always prayer happening there.

And if you have a prayer request or encouragement that you want to call in then there are a number of numbers that can be used. But first of all, you can use the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top no matter where you are in the world, or if you want to use the phone, the…the number in the Americas is 877-942-4253. In the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. And in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to call.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good evening Daily Audio Bible this is Faith from Mississippi. I just want to say congratulations to China and Ben on the birth of their little Princess Reagan. It's such a blessing. And I want to let Honeybee know that I am praying for her as well as well as everybody else. Have a blessed day. Again, this is Faith from Mississippi. Thank you to Brian and Jill for this podcast.

Hi, this call is for…brother you went by the name, I think it was Running Bear, it was like a trail name or something. I just…man that totally…your message there…I've done that to people who have lost people and I didn't even…didn't even realize that was what I was doing or why. So, thank you for calling. I'm gonna do my best not to do that. I'm praying for you guys. I love you guys. And yeah, thank you for calling man. I'll be praying for you guys.

Hi, it's Donna from California and it's April 29th and I've listened a few times now to a prayer request from, I think his name is Running Bear whose wife passed away about four years ago. He has teenage children and was describing something that really just should not be but sadly is, just an abandonment by the church because people, I don't know, are uncomfortable. People, as you very acutely noted, want to avoid any hint of suffering. People don't want to be reminded of something could happen like that to them. That is our American culture. And Running Bear I am…I just…I wanna say I am so sorry for that. That just shouldn't be. I…I…I repent of that in my own life of times that I’ve just withdrawn from somebody who…who had suffered a tragic loss. And I don't want that to be. That…that should not be who we are as Christians. And thank you so much for that reminder, that we need to step up, we need to do better as…as Jesus followers. We need to care about one…one and other much better than that. And please call in again. We love you and I…I bet lots of people are praying for you. I am too.

Good morning DAB family God bless you all. So, congratulations China, Ben, and Hardin family. Oh, my goodness Reagan Brave Brown you are in this world and the Lord's gonna do amazing things in your life. I pray that over you in the name of Jesus. Alright family, here we go. Tony the Narrator I am so sorry you have not been feeling well and this anxiety over you, but we bind those spirits in the name of Jesus. I bind those spirits of anxiety that are trying to take over you in the name of Jesus. Madison from Cali a newbie welcome sweetheart welcome. Your dear friend Tray, I am praying for sobriety. I have prayed alongside with you. I am praying that he will be able to find his Sabbath, you know, to take his release from work in the name of Jesus and to be free of alcoholism in the name of Jesus. David from Pennsylvania, yes, that revelation, Hallelujah. God's love never fails. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for sharing that in the name of Jesus. Tim congratulating us. Praise you Jesus, you know, for being a part of this family as you are, and we congratulate you for being here too. And happy birthday to your sweet little one who turned 2. Diane Olive Braun, shalom, shalom. Yes sweetheart, I thank you Jesus. Every day should be like today because there are new mercies and new grace every day, every morning. We are so blessed to be here with the Lord. We are so blessed to share His love. We are so blessed to share His word. We are so blessed to be a beacon of light to others. I love you family. I love you. I love you. __. Esther from…

Hello Daily Audio Bible friends and family. I just want to take this time to…just to pray and just to give God glory, just to remember who He is, what He's about and what He stands for. Too many times we forget just like the Israelites. When they got in trouble they called out to God. God rescued them and he went…they went back to their sinful ways serving other gods and then they get in trouble again, call God…call on God again to rescue them. One time He told them, “hey you get that other God that you serving to…to…to…to rescue you.” But they kept crying out. And we know the blessings and the greatness of our God. He always…He always comes through. So, let us never forget who God is and what He's about. Let us serve Him with all our heart. Let us not keep dabbling back and forth into sin and righteousness because it's not a good mix but instead let us hold on to His mighty hand and have Him help us to live a righteous life, a godly life, a godly life that is free from idolatry, a godly life that is free from serving other gods because we know the one and true God, the only God is our Lord and savior. So, let us not go back and forth but let us pray and ask God to help us to live in a way that honors Him every day, each day, all day long, and from here until the time that we…until the time that we enter in…

First and foremost, thank you God because a lot has happened in my life and you are really truly watching me, keeping me. This is Carla from East Texas and I’m…I called with a prayer request for my great niece who I still have guardianship over. We are taking a tiny vacation in Galveston right now and it's lovely here. We're just chilling and I’m listening to my…my Daily Audio Bible on a swing outside listening to these strange birds while the girls are running around, and my mom is here with us. And it's nice to get away. And I praise God that we were even able to do this because I've never done this in my life. But praise God that she is thriving in school things are still a little bit rough sometimes, but she loves it with us, and I tell her every day that we're so glad to have her. Family life is still a little rough. Just please keep praying for all of us including her dad, my nephew who's going through a lot and my daughter who's adjusting pretty good. But I just wanted to get on and at least update you. I love hearing this - the prayers and the praises. And I just feel like I'm a part of an awesome new big family. So, God bless, and I love you.

[coppermarigolds]

If you don't mind me asking, what are your thoughts on reylo, and how has TLJ changed them?

I’m glad you asked, actually! That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot since seeing TLJ, so thanks for giving me an excuse to get said thoughts down in written form. 

I’ll start by saying that I personally did not ship Reylo after The Force Awakens, though I can see why plenty of people did. They’re pretty; they have chemistry; he swoops her up in his arms and carries her off to his ship like Hades and Persephone. The interrogation scene in particular was a pretty charged sequence. The moment when Kylo takes off his helmet and the camera zooms in on Rey’s startled face, it was really easy to interpret that as an oh crap, he’s hot expression. Even I half-interpreted it that way and I didn’t even ship them. :p

The primary reason I was pretty iffy about the pairing after TFA (aside from thinking, at that point, that they might be related), was because of the whole vibe leading up to and during the interrogation scene. He forcibly renders her unconscious, abducts her, then invades her mind and uncovers personal information without her consent while looming over her and saying “You know I can take whatever I want” as she is physically restrained and crying. I don’t know if the screenwriters were intentionally drawing parallels to rape threats or not, but it’s uncomfortable and was actually quite upsetting to me the first time I watched the film. That she turns the tables on him and ends up reading his mind saved the scene for me, but still doesn’t entirely negate the previous creepiness. 

In TLJ, on the other hand, Rey essentially has all her agency back in their interactions. It’s interesting to compare and contrast their scenes in TFA versus TLJ:

In TFA, they both get into each other’s heads, but there’s that inherent underlying violence and power struggle. In TLJ, they have this mental Force connection to each other through most of the movie, but the fact that neither of them initiate it or can control it puts them back on equal footing. (Granted, there’s still a manipulative aspect to it if Snoke is telling the truth about being the one who established the Force bond, but in that case, Kylo was being manipulated just as much as Rey.) 

In TFA, Kylo abducts Rey without her consent. In TLJ, she basically mails herself to him of her own free will. Side note: I loved that her motivation in this was two-fold and that it was prompted by a Force vision. It would have been easy for the filmmakers to portray it as a clichéd “good girl tries to change bad boy with the purity of her luuurve” thing. But while Rey does have compassion for Kylo/Ben and wants him to be redeemed, she also has the purely practical motivation of wanting his strength in the Force to benefit the Resistance instead of the First Order, and she has a reason (the Force vision) to believe it will work rather than just blind naiveté. 

In TFA, they have a big lightsaber battle against each other. In TLJ, they fight together against mutual enemies. This illustrates another area where the filmmakers subvert what might be the typical toxic trope. After Rey defeated Kylo in TFA, conventional masculinity would dictate that Kylo be enraged and humiliated at having been beaten by a girl, and an untrained girl to boot (see: all the dudes post-TFA who insisted until they were blue in the face that Rey was a Mary Sue). But instead, after having his ass handed to him, Kylo changes his tune from threatening and domineering to restrained and even respectful. He recognizes her power and wants to add it to his own rather than freaking out, feeling threatened by female strength/competence, and immediately wanting to undermine or quash it. (Refer, again, to that certain noisy subset of the fanbase.)

In TFA, Kylo says “the Supreme Leader is wise” right before killing his own father in hopes that it will please Snoke. In TLJ (which takes place, like, three days later), Kylo chops the Supreme Leader in half rather than obey his order to kill Rey. 

The magnitude of that is actually pretty significant when you consider how long Snoke has been influencing Kylo/Ben. He’d been in Ben’s head since childhood, at least. I haven’t read any of the tie-in books (except Phasma which, unrelated side note, is awesome), but apparently one of the novels actually suggests that Snoke first started influencing Ben before he was even born? In which case, that he was able to break free from Snoke’s influence at all is pretty miraculous, and that Rey was the catalyst definitely says a lot about how he feels about her.

In TFA, Kylo is all about imposing his will on Rey. In TLJ, he asks her to join him. He even says ‘please’!

So yeah, overall, their interactions in TLJ make the idea of Reylo far more appealing and more in line with the pairings I usually ship. There’s still one caveat, of course, which is the now-infamous scene where Kylo tells Rey “You’re nothing…but not to me.” 

There seem to be two popular ways to interpret this scene. One is that Kylo is using a common abusive, manipulative tactic in which the abuser tries to get his victim to depend on him (e.g., “no one will ever love you but me; you’re so lucky that I’ll even have you”). The other is that the scene is something reminiscent of the Pride and Prejudice proposal scene in that Kylo is a conflicted, misunderstood, awkward guy, himself a victim of Snoke’s abuse and manipulation, who is trying to express to Rey how he feels about her in the best way he knows how and kind of royally mucking it up in the process. 

I personally fall somewhere in the middle on this scene. On one hand, I’m really hesitant to label a guy flatly telling a woman “you’re nothing” as in any way romantic or sexy. We’ve gotten enough of those problematic messages from the Twilights and Fifty Shades of the world, and if Rey had accepted Kylo’s offer at that point, I would have been upset. On the other hand, I do think it’s important to take characters’ entire contexts and histories into account when analyzing their actions, and I can see how interpreting Kylo as a Mr. Darcy-esque figure kinda works here. (Also, I love Pride and Prejudice.) And, Rey is not swayed by anything he says at this point, which is HUGE!!! I love that she sticks to her principles and refuses to compromise them. 

Anyway, I could probably say more, but it’s late and this post is already way long. So in conclusion, I would currently label myself as “cautiously shipping Reylo.” Some of the less-than-comfortable aspects I’ve mentioned here make me hesitant to completely and totally embrace it, but at the same time I recognize that there’s never going to be any such thing as a completely perfect ship with completely perfect characters. (That would probably be boring, anyway.) And there’s still a whole ‘nother movie for Ben to get his issues straightened out and become the person Rey deserves,* so there is definitely potential there.

*As much as that is possible, because Rey is the pure shining angry compassionate wonderful cinnamon roll moonbeam of my life and no one could ever be good enough for her lbr

[randomnameless]

What do you think about the Leicester Alliance? Despite the instability regarding the Riegan house and their heir it seems to me like it's the least fucked up of the three countries

Oh!

I wanted to make a more detailed reply but I don't think I'll have the time before forgetting it lol

But in general, the Alliance suffers from the FE franchise's lack of interest in what I previously called "merchant republics". Let it be Jugdral's Miletos or Magvel's Carcino, they just exist to be rolled over, sometimes they have "corrupt Nobles (tm)" and that's it.

Leicester seems to be in a similar position, even if, by virtue of being Claude's homeland it would be more developed, right?

Well, no, Claude talks more about Almyra and has stronger ties to that country, so whatever Leicester development or lore we could have is just, three supports here and there about "Corrupt Nobles (tm)", a land where wealth gains more and more importance (Marianne's dad became a member of the council bcs of this iirc?) and where old Houses keep on having an ancestral feud even if it dooms the Republic/Alliance (Gloucester wants to get rid of Riegan, and sacrifices Raph's parents in the process?).

So with the minimum world building we have about the Alliance, I wouldn't say it's the least fucked up, rather it's the less developed, so by extension they feel like they're in a better state than the Kingdom - heavily developed - and Adrestia - which is kind of in a similar boat as the Alliance, but since the content focuses on Enbarr and the War afterwards, it's swept up.

But for what we know,

The Roundtable, before Nopes, was made up of 5 great families and minor nobles, while not sitting, could have their voices heard or at least taken into consideration (as opposed to Clout's Federation).

The Alliance apparently heavily dislike having a central authority or a powerful person ruling over them all... But only 3 minor lords riot when "we bow to no Emperor and to no King" is farted upon by King Clout of the Federation...

Lorenz tells us faith is performative in the Alliance, but some people are devout believers, which leads to no one giving a fuck, in Nopes, about their country going for the kill against the Archbishop.

And more importantly...

In the Alliance, through Raphael and Ignatz, we learn there is a "bourgeoisie" class, people who aren't born nobles or anobled and yet who manage to thrive and, if not for Gloucester Sr's gambit, live quite well, despite the "Crust system!!!!" the scripts hammer.

Leonie is a commoner and is in debt (tfw rl catches up to you in a vg!). Her village pays taxes to their Lord (Gloucester) and in exchange this Lord offers them protection (by hiring Jerry) against poachers - which is both textbook Noblesse Oblige hardbaked in Lorenz's character, but also, some kind of weird example of a system based on feodality - vassal offers an "hommage" to his Lord (here taxes) and in return the Lord protects his vassal - with the twist that Leonie's dad isn't a knight or a feudal vassal (afaik?).

Also, from the unused trading post data, Riegan should have been famous for its factories?

In a way, it feels like Leicester's organisation could have been something very interesting to explore - it's completely at odds with the Empire and the Kingdom and much more fragmented - but as usual, the FE series don't really develop those "kingless" factions...

And of course, they couldn't develop the "merchant nation" more else the "Church BaD bcs IsOlAtIoNiSm" falls apart or the "Crust SyStEm" argument as to why Supreme Leader has to change the world falls too, Edmund sr is at the roundtable despite having no crest, the Ordelias never were at this roundtable despite having a crest (iirc?), Judith is a Hero of Leicester and has no Crust, Holst is beloved by the world and has no Crust, despite having no Crust Ignatz's parents are implied to be rich as fuck and living the best life, crustless!Leonie and her entire village are helped by the "nobility system" Supreme Leader vowed to erase, etc etc.

Acknowledging Leicester's existence as something more than "that place Clout and some people hail from" blows so many holes in the leitmotiv of the war - thus the twist "you should feel bad for fighting your former student" - that the writers, imo, prefered not to shed any light no it (+ the context with merchant republics!) that it's no surprising the few crumbs we have aren't developped.

And before Nopes, the Alliance was the only slither free place, so all the "bad stuff" that happened, like Raph's parents, can be blamed on regular people and not "they were brainwashed!!". Ordelia's a different situation, I know a lot of people support the "Lys got her present because crust system", but I always have doubts - Lys got her "present" because Adrestia (Ionius) believed they could infringe on Leicester's territory, and the Agarthans needed to test their "present making" before gifting one to the Hresvelgs.

With Nopes, the Alliance disappears under a King with no fanfare, some people follow Clout, they dgaf about the Church, and that's it. It's just a blank cardbox, removed of the few crumbs that made it different from the other cardboxes.

[randomnameless]

"even if IS just said she was the villain and needed to be stopped, clear as day, people would reject it." Let's be real: the moment people started using "death of the author" to reject the Nintendo dream interview where IS confirms Supreme Leader is the villain, that's when we should've realized that people have already made up their minds and don't care anymore. It's like telling a flat-earther that the earth is not flat or trying to debunk a conspiracy theory to believers of that theory.

Tbh, I agree sometimes with disregarding the author's intent, especially in some games where the "author" wants to push "feels" and tells the olayer how they should react.

Take Berkut for instance, for a reason I still don't understand, SoV wants to paint him as a tragic figure, who ultimately redeems himself dying. You're supposed to feel bad for Berkut and sad for what happened, to the point where Alm, the Hero - who was challenged on earlier opinions - plainly states Duma is the reason why Berkut turned sour, and no one is here to tell him "uh no sorry to tell you but your cousin was a bona fide asshole".

Ditto for the devs's lunar interview about Clout's story being a "heart-warming story", like no, sorry, no matter how much you push for it, I personally don't think his story is heart warming, rather it's blood boiling.

Does it mean I use the "death of the author" like the people we're talking about?

Yeah, maybe!

But what is more gratting about those people isn't how they use DoA to make up their own canon and story (everyone can make headcanons!), but how they push their headcanon on everyone's lawns and asking for everyone else to treat it as the truth - the Aeneid is the perfect example, people really rec this fanfiction to have a "better understanding" of canon characters, or some people said it understands the characters better than the canon does. For a fanfic, sure, it's cool and all*, but to treat this as canon?

Like, there is no discussion possible between people who argue canon and others who argue using headcanons and imo that's the crux of the discourse bcs FE Fodlan is vague about 70% of its worldbuilding.

I don't like Berkut and believe he toasted Rinea because he loved being Rudolf's heir more than he loved her, but FE15 makes it uwu clear that Berkut apparently loved Rinea a lot and apparently torched her just because Duma promised him power, which makes somehow Duma the reason why Rinea was Bernie'd.

But you won't see me pop up in a discussion about FE15 or people talking about their favourite ships in that game to point out how Berkut burnt his fiancée at stake for "power" on his own volition - canon is canon - even when it blows - I'd rather rant about it and have my own HC in this space rather than piss canon-lovers/users with it.

Saying in your hcs Supreme Leader isn't the villain of the game?

Sure, do whatever you want, have a nice day, eat a sandwich, whatever. Maybe some people will join you, share your sandwich and you'll have fun developping hcs!

Saying in canon Supreme Leader isn't the villain and disregarding the dev's interviews?

That's going to be more problematic, in a way that this specific interview isn't subjective or open to interpretation (thus hcs, like Sylvia being FE4!Claude's relative or not), so people are going to disagree and be more vocal about it.

Some other blogs already explained it, but it seems like FE Fodlan attracted a lot of persons who aren't used to fandom, as in a place with transformative works and where making OCs and fics and having headcanons isn't "BaD" - so they try to retrofit canon in their headcanons because "fanfics" and transformative works are BaD etc etc (insert the general dislike for fanfictions from the early 2000s (?) and the regular/usual insults towards people who write fanfiction from the same era (them being fujos, etc etc)) so they're not writing fanfictions or arguing headcanons, no, they're just writing "totally meta pieces that are better than the canon".

Imo, the second you're disregarding canon to write something about a work, you're writing a fanfic (let it be a "real fic", random hcs, etc etc etc) and that's totally fine! You're not a "fujo degenerate" for not liking the canon and "rewritting" scenes, or building more stories about a character your like!

What's not "fine" is forcing everyone to adopt your headcanons and fanfictions - if the flower is red, you cannot force people to admit the flower is blue, otoh, if you write a story where the flower isn't red but blue, it's your story and you can whatever you want with it! Ditto with fanfic writers when someone argues canon against them, dude, you're reading a story where the author wrote the flower to be blue, like they gaf about the flower's canonical colour to be red - it's a fanfic!

Don't like, Don't read!

*not withstanding with the actual quality and body of the Aeneid, which isn't something I'd personally call cool or "alright", but that's another debate.