#at least The Major Evil has been defeated. I CAN at least sleep easy over that one.

[musical-chick-13]

Well...it's been a good run for...every ship left involving a woman in this poll. o7

[screechthemighty]

Resident Evil Brain is still going brrrr, so here’s a new short fic! I actually came up with the idea for it ages ago, but finishing up everything stays gave me some breathing room to finish it off. You can read the full story below, but I’ll also post it to AO3 (same user name as here) and include a link to that in the reblogs!

If it were up to him, he wouldn’t have slept. He would have powered through, gone after the next Lord. Stopping to eat was one thing; stopping to sleep felt wrong. Almost like he was giving up, or wasting valuable time that could be the difference between life and death for his daughter.

But Ethan had nearly tripped while catching a chicken to eat, and deep down he knew he'd just get himself killed if he didn't rest at least a little. He wasn't expecting that somewhere to be the back of the Duke's wagon, but the man had offered, and Ethan was too tired to complain. He kept the two flasks he'd managed to gather close to his chest as he curled up in his corner. "It's gonna be okay," Ethan whispered. He wasn't sure if Rose could hear him; the Duke had said her essence was intact, whatever the hell that meant, so maybe. It couldn't hurt to try. "I'm coming for you, honey. I promise."

He just needed enough of a nap that his limbs would stop feeling so heavy. Ethan's eyes drifted shut. He thought between the stinging pain in his hand and the memories of that awful house with all the dolls, sleep wouldn't come easy, but he dozed off pretty quickly.

He woke up to a feeling of dread seizing his body.

At first, he thought he’d had a nightmare, but...no, it was deeper than that. Maybe it was his paranoia, but something wasn’t right. Ethan carefully moved off the cot and crept towards the front of the cart. He could just see the Duke’s shoulder, and past it...

Black robes, the flutter of feathers, no, no, she couldn’t be here, not now.

The other man glanced over his shoulder, pressing a single finger to his lips. That was the only thing that kept Ethan from panicking. He thought about making a run for Rose, but that would mean making noise. It was a miracle that Miranda hadn’t heard him move the first time.

How hadn’t she noticed them? The Duke wasn’t exactly subtle. Ethan kept bracing himself for her to turn her head, try to talk to the Duke, maybe even try to hurt him. She did look their way at one point, causing Ethan to duck back behind cover, teeth clenched, trying to steady his breathing. But when he looked again, she just moved on. As if there were nothing out of the ordinary about the Duke being there.

No. As if she hadn’t seen them at all.

Ethan stayed frozen in place until Miranda was out of sight. Even then, he kept his voice down to a whisper: “Is she...?”

“She won’t be a problem,” said the Duke. Ethan was taken aback by the other man’s tone—not quite aggressive, but definitely hostile. “Not for now, at least.” And then, just as swiftly... “It’s good that you’re awake! I’ve just finished preparing lunch.”

That tone was gone.

The smell of food was the only thing that got Ethan to leave the cart; even then, he made sure everything was packed away and secure before he did. He wanted to be ready if he had to run. The Duke didn’t seem worried, though. He just served up the dish (Ethan had already forgotten what it was called, but fuck it smelled good) and started eating his own portion as if nothing were wrong. As if he hadn’t just had the one and only major change in his mood that Ethan had seen in the time they’d known each other. It wasn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, but when the guy had been so consistent up until then, it was noteworthy. Weird, even.

Why are you doing all of this?

Why, it’s all part of our first class customer service.

Or maybe it was personal.

Ethan sneaked a few glances at the Duke as he ate. The man seemed genuinely unbothered, but maybe he was just good at hiding whatever that venom had been. “How didn’t she see us?” Ethan asked. It felt almost rude to ask, but if he was throwing in his lot with this guy, he felt like he had a right to know. “She wasn’t too far away.”

“I’ve been in this village longer than she has,” said the Duke. “It seems to agree with me more than it does her.” He noticed Ethan’s immediate frown. “What’s the longest you’ve ever lived somewhere, Ethan?”

“The same...place? I mean, I was in Dallas for a while. Not the same house the whole time, but...probably Dallas?”

“Well, after a while, wouldn’t you say that you get a feeling for a place’s...essence? How it moves, how it breathes? You could navigate it more quickly than a person who hadn’t been there as long, could you not? Stay hidden in places and ways they wouldn’t know about?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “...we’re right out in the open, there’s nothing...” Ethan sighed. “You know what, never mind. This is sounding like a conversation I should be drunk for.”

The Duke laughed. It didn’t sound mocking, at least. “Well, if you find anything left to drink in this place, bring it back with you. We can split the bottle.”

“Maybe. Once this is over.” And as long as it wasn’t from Dimitrescu’s winery. That stuff definitely wasn’t just fermented grapes.

Ethan kept eating, trying to focus on the food and not on the questions still nagging at his mind. Nothing about this place made sense, and the Duke was high up there on that list. Even if Ethan was choosing to trust him for now...

No, I have to knw.

“So...you know Miranda? Maybe not personally, but...” Ethan glanced up at the Duke, carefully studying his nearly unreadable face. “...I take it you don’t like her very much?”

The Duke hesitated. Even though his face stayed impassive, that alone was enough to catch Ethan’s attention. He wasn’t usually so slow to answer. “I am not one of her devotees, no,” the Duke said. “Which means I can clearly see she is the root of much suffering in this place.”

“The Lords? All those monsters?”

“In more ways than you realize. They were people once, you know. They might be monstrous now, but they are monsters of her making.”

Ethan understood what the Duke meant. He thought about the Bakers. The madman that had cut off his leg versus the man with kind eyes who’d begged him to save his family. The shrieking banshee with her bugs versus a woman who could��ve been his own grandmother. He wasn’t sure if Eveline had ever been anything but cruel, but even if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for someone else’s greed. Even the molded had been people once. Ethan didn’t regret defending himself and Mia, never would, and he’d keep defending himself here as long as these people kept screwing with him. But...

How different might things had been if someone somewhere down the line just hadn’t screwed with everyone? Just left the Lords, whoever they had been once, and the villagers in peace?

“Yeah,” Ethan said quietly. He took his last few bites of the food. “Fuck that crazy bitch, huh?”

The Duke laughed boisterously. "I'll certainly eat to that."

Ethan didn't entirely relax. He wasn't sure he was capable of that. But he was able to relax a little. Even if he didn't know how, it seemed like the Duke's little setup was a safe place.

There weren't too many of those in this place.

---

Knowing what to say and when best to say it was one of the most important parts of customer service. It was the only thing that kept the Duke from saying more to Ethan Winters. The poor man had enough on his plate, much he had to grapple with, most of it beyond the scope of his understanding. Further truth might not break him, but it would cause him unnecessary stress.

There was much the Duke would have told him if it weren’t for that concern. What centuries felt like. How this little village had changed, people coming and going, living and dying. How many had tried to seize the power the mountains held. None had truly succeeded before Miranda, the self-proclaimed mother of this place.

The Duke may have long forgotten the face of his own mother, but he remembered enough to know what maternal love felt like. Whatever Miranda had to offer was not that love. Just a twisted perversion of it, as the Lords were twisted perversions of children. She was an infection in these lands, but unfortunately, one he could do nothing about. The Duke had a great many tricks up his sleeve, but he was only a seller of arms. He had never learned to use them himself. He had always been keen to supply those who might oppose Miranda, but none had succeeded yet.

Out of all of them, he felt that Ethan Winters had the best chance of succeeding.

It wasn’t just the man’s biology, though that was clearly giving him an edge. It was something else: the spark the Duke had in his eyes from the first second they met. Determination. Rage. The kind of drive that couldn’t be found in any mold or virus in the world.

And what better to defeat a perversion of parental love than its true counterpart?

Ethan kept his bag clutched close to his chest as he ate, the bag that contained two parts of his daughter. The Duke had heard him whispering to the flasks before he fell asleep, trying to soothe and reassure the child. Even now, as he paused in eating, Ethan hummed quietly. A jaunty tune, one that the Duke didn’t recognize. “A favorite song of hers?” he asked.

Ethan glanced up. “Oh, uh. Yeah. ‘Doctor Worm.’ Never too early to get started on good music.” He held the bag a little closer before finishing off his meal. “Thanks. For the food. And for...” He gestured. “Whatever it was you did back there. If you did anything.”

His tone cemented the Duke’s decision to keep some things from Ethan. He sounded exasperated by even a simple cloaking technique. The Duke’s true age would only elicit a similar response.

Maybe if Ethan survived this, when he had less on his mind, the Duke could tell him everything. His full, dark history with Miranda. The full scope of the horrors he’d seen. The horrors that Ethan would have put a stop to. But for now, the Duke took Ethan’s plate with a smile. “Do keep an eye out for more meat as you go,” he said. “It would be an honor to have dinner with you.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said in a quiet huff. “Assuming I make it that long.”

That was always a risk, of course. That Ethan wouldn’t make it. But despite knowing that...

“After what you’ve done, Mr. Winters? I think you’re more than equipped to handle what’s to come.”

And he meant that. He truly did. Even if it was to be the death of Ethan Winters...the Duke had a feeling it would be the death of Mother Miranda as well.

He just hoped he would be able to explain exactly how truly important that was.

[kiribakuficrecs]

hello!!! im going on a very long trip at the end of april and I'm looking for some very long fics to download to keep me entertained! i dont care what they're about as long as there's no major character death or mentions of non-con. ur blog is a godsend ilysm and you do such a good job thank you so much 🙏

hi there!! i definitely have a lot of good lengthy fics i can recommend to you!

quote love unquote by newamsterdam 

Sero nods. “It’s the chance of a lifetime, really,” he says. “We want you to date Bakugou, for the sake of his reputation with the press. Some public appearances, a few ‘candid’ photos. For at least a couple of months.”

“Bakugou sent you to ask me to date him?” Kirishima asks, baffled.

“Of course not. We, his people, are asking you to date him. He’s going to have to get on board, if he wants his career to survive. And in the bargain, Riot will get all sorts of publicity, because their lyricist will be dating one of the industry’s hottest stars. A win for everyone.”

When Kirishima Eijirou's band hits the big time, he's not prepared for his newfound fame. He's even less prepared to meet the actor he's been crushing on for years, or to start dating him as a publicity stunt. The closer Kirishima gets to Bakugou Katsuki, the more he realizes he's in over his head. But it's hard to stop, once his heart is in it.

acceptance and denial by poteto

It all goes okay when Kirishima decides to come out to his friends and it all goes wrong when decides that Bakugou is the best fake boyfriend material.

cause the darks not taking prisoners tonight by imatrisarahtops

“Are those soba noodles?” Kirishima asked.

Again Bakugou’s only reply was a grunt. He offered no further explanation—not that Kirishima honestly expected one—as though making soba noodles from scratch at half past four in the morning wasn’t at all a bizarre occurrence and made complete and total sense. For a fleeting moment, Kirishima even wondered if maybe he was the odd one here. Besides, he’d already decided it was generally not in his best interest to question these types of things with Bakugou, especially when it was something essentially harmless.

When Kirishima has a nightmare and is unable to fall back asleep, he accepts defeat and decides to study in the common area of the dorms. What he doesn't expect to find is Bakugou, also very much awake, and Kirishima can't help but think that maybe they're both having the same problems with sleeping. If he's worried, it's just because they're friends. (Right?)

the weight of your hand by kamin

That night, to the citizens, the explosions were a jolt of fear at every blast, but to the heroes and the students of UA, they were punches and swings, fierce fighting and loud strength. The explosions were the pulse of the battle, and the power of a boy that would never back down.

One after another, explosions set a chorus through the shuddering city.

And then, suddenly—the explosions stopped.

(In which Bakugou’s kidnapping goes a little differently, and just a few seconds could change so much.)

so take my hand (your life will be brighter) by multiclassmaps

When a stranger shows up at the ice rink during Bakugou's usually private training sessions, Bakugou expects to hate him. He doesn't expect to develop feelings that become increasingly difficult to deny, or for them to help each other sort through their emotional baggage. - Bakugou really didn't like Kirishima's smile. There was something about it that made his stomach hurt, something about it that made it difficult to focus. He definitely hadn't thought about that smile on his way to the ice rink that day. He definitely hadn't.

distance makes the heart grow fonder (false) by dragontrappedinhumanskin

When Bakugo and Kirishima get hit by a quirk that forces them to literally stick together or face the less then desirable consequences, how the fuck is Bakugo supposed to keep his crush hidden?! Well, turns out he never needed to.

-- “Well, this fucking sucks, how are we supposed to train?!” "Really closely?"

perihelion by tauontauoff

Bakugou was a comet, blazing out of reach. Kirishima knew he was stupidly lucky that his furious trajectory went by close enough that his fingertips got to graze the cowl of fire. It was enough.

During Christmas Class 1A and 1B spend a laid-back week learning about extreme environment hero work in the Alps. Kirishima was used to keeping part of his feelings for Bakugou hidden, and had every intention of keeping it that way, but things don't always go according to plan.

fight me by mr_todoroki

Bright red, spiky hair. Annoyingly bright smile. Clothes that radiate ‘look at me’ vibes. Neon yellow tank top with black shorts. And those were definitely crocs on his fucking feet.

Yeah, Katsuki hated this guy.

-

Bakugou gets a new roommate.

quietly by chezka

“We’ve been taking the same way to and from school for weeks,” Kirishima grinned, and then when Bakugou frowned at him he put on an affected pout, tilted his head so that he was looking at him through his thick, long lashes, “you never noticed? Am I that easy to miss?”

He could barely finish the sentence before a laugh escaped his lips, and Bakugou rolled his eyes, hit him with a shoulder a little more violently than necessary.

“You stick out like a sore thumb, broom-head,” he grumbled, promptly ignoring Kirishima's whining about his hairstyle when it started coming, “I didn’t notice ‘cause I didn’t care.”

“And now you do?”

everyone knows that cats are independent by purplepersnickety

Eijirou enjoys his job, working the graveyard shift at a 24/7 coffee shop. His daemon Riot is always there to keep him company, and he likes meeting the early-morning patrons and giving them the best possible kick-start to their day. It's been his routine for about a year now.

Then one day, a grouchy guy with a daemon in the form of a lion walks into the shop in the dead of night, and Eijirou decides to strike up a conversation with him.

punks not dead by wrunic

“So you want to use me to piss off your mom?” Kirishima summarized, raising one pierced eyebrow at Katsuki.

“Look, if you want to be all fucking judgy about it, I take cash,” Katsuki said, dropping his hand palm up on the table.

“Hey now,” Kirishima said, raising his hands in surrender, “I didn’t say I wasn’t doing it. I’m always down for a little chaos.” He flashed a grin, showing off his ridiculous shark teeth.

“Good,” Katsuki said. “We start tomorrow."

sent, delivered, read, loved by kiribakuhappiness

Kirishima E. [6.49pm]: ur okay for such an angry dude bakugou! :)

Bakugou K. [7.12pm]: FUCK YOU!

Kirishima E. [7.14pm]: haha! :D ttyl!

Bakugou K. [7.48pm]: FUCKING WHAT DO THOSE DUMB LETTERS MEAN???

Bakugou K. [7.52pm]: I JUST LOOKED IT UP DONT FUCKING TALK TO ME LATER!

Bakugou K. [7.52pm]: STOP TXTING ME!!!

- OR -

Bakugou's and Kirishima's relationship develops from classmates to friends to more, as told through their text conversations.

flicker by mr_todoroki

He was starting to feel depressed. Life was so uninteresting. It was so mundane and forgettable. He had no one to hang out with besides Kota, his family didn’t even live in the city.

He grew his hair out as some sort of rebellion, some sort of stand to make his life the slightest bit more interesting. But he could already feel himself giving in to the pressure of cutting it. He needed to work to live. Without a job, he’d truly have nothing.

OR

Kirishima never applied to UA, therefore never became a hero.

let’s get down to business by kjelfalconer

Katsuki Bakugou, one of the brightest rising stars on wall street, is in need of a new personal assistant. Again. Could Eijirou Kirishima finally be the one to last more than two months?

Katsuki's long suffering HR department sure hope so.

something about us by bigstupidjellyfish

nothing like being in highschool and having no idea how to deal with emotions

fireproof by inkbender

Four years after a classmate nobody seems to remember is kidnapped by the League of Villains, Kirishima drags an amnesiac hobo he found washed up on the beach into his apartment, attempts to teach him how to adult (with varying degrees of success), and discovers along the way that the line between heroism and villainy is quite fine indeed. Plot-divergent after episode 45, the Forest Training Camp arc.

blood riot by magicallee (alternatively)

Kirishima from a universe with no quirks is mind-swapped with an alternate universe version of himself where there are superpowers.

And in that universe he’s a super villain.

And Bakugou is the superhero who caught Evil-Kirishima and put him in prison.

blindside by drowclericpelor

“You’re the first guy friend I’ve had that I can just like, be friends with. You’re either the most unthirstiest boy ever...” Camie shrugged and made another wobbly illusion appear between her hands. It looked like a sparkly rainbow with the word ‘friendship’ beneath it, accompanied by what Bakugou assumed was supposed to be a twinkling sound effect, but it had a tinny quality to it and sounded far away. “...or I just ain’t got the kinda straw you like to ssssip.”

Carefully, Bakugou considered the strange turn this conversation had taken.

He had never been asked, point blank, if he was gay before. And he honestly had never thought about how he would respond. Lying about himself didn’t sit right with him. But he’d always wanted to wait until he was the number one hero - when he stood above everyone else - before coming out. Though he’d had times when he’d thought about doing it before then and had almost gone through with it once. But being the number one hero came first. It wouldn’t matter what people would say about it then as long as he’d risen to the top.

Bakugou knew his lack of a response would give Camie all the answers she needed.

flour power by wingsonghalo

“I’m telling you now, Shitty Hair,” the blonde growled, “I am not gonna play house with you. We will cart this stupid flour around for a week like the assignment says. But some of our idiot classmates are naming the thing and setting up ‘playdates’ and dressing it and I am not doing anything that stupid. Got it?”

Kirishima and Bakugou are paired up to take care of a flour sack for a week. It would be so simple, except nothing with Bakugou is ever simple. Also Kirishima might be kinda sorta completely head over heels for him.

sunchaser by chonideno

that feeling when you suddenly want to jump off a cliff for no reason but instead of a cliff it’s your best friend and instead of jumping it’s growing feelings out of nowhere

or how Bakugou has to try really hard not to throw everything to the wind, and Kirishima doesn't help

i also have a tag specifically for fics that reach somewhere between 30k-70k words long if you wanted to check that out as well! i hope you enjoy the fics here and that i was able to help, ily enjoy your trip!!! :D 

[razieltwelve]

Royalty and the Avatar (AtLA x LoK)

Korra gasped and strained against her bonds as the fingers inside her curled just so. The blindfold made it impossible to focus on anything but the sensations, and she could only arch her back and ride the waves of sensation that followed until she slumped back onto the bed, limp and exquisitely exhausted.

"Hmmm… I certainly can't fault your enthusiasm, but we do have to work on your endurance."

Azula tugged the blindfold off, and Korra stared as the other woman looked her straight in the eyes and licked her fingers clean. Spirits, that was hot.

"Are you really criticising me at a time like this?" Korra asked. She would have sat up, but she was currently tied quite securely to the head of the bed.

The princess's golden eyes gleamed in the twilight of the cabin, and Azula reached down to trail one finger along Korra's belly. Heat flickered to life, just shy of painful. "Self improvement is important, Korra. Isn't that what your instructors taught you?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm pretty sure they were referring to bending and not sex."

Azula's lips curled, and she leaned forward. It provided Korra with a wonderful view. "You know, when I first started chasing after you, I used to wonder what I'd do with you once I'd caught you." She smirked. "It's a good thing I never caught you back then. Killing you would have been such a waste." The words were accompanied by another heated look at Korra's bare body.

"Yeah, I'm glad to not be dead too." Korra grinned. "But do you think you could go back to describing your megalomaniacal plan? You were in the middle of covering that before you decided to tie me up and have your wicked way with me."

"Ah, yes, my megalomaniacal plan." Azula sat up, and a single candle flared to life. The azure light cast shadows across her face and body, and she looked equal parts alluring and imposing. Korra rolled her eyes. Azula was nothing if not theatrical at times. "Would you prefer it if I monologued, perhaps threw in a cackle or two, or would you prefer the simple version."

"I think the simple version would be best." Korra tested her bonds and sighed. Trust Azula to be ridiculously thorough even in a situation like this. "You can go into detail later."

"Very well." Azula sat down next to Korra and let her fingers trace whimsical paths across her body. "First and foremost, I want to assure you that I have no intention of trying to conquer the world."

"Right…"

"I mean it," Azula said. "I do think I would make an excellent ruler of the world, but conquering the entire world is simply impractical. The Fire Nation has neither the manpower nor the resources to conquer the world, never mind actually keep it under control."

"So, hypothetically, you would conquer the world if you thought you could?"

"You're better off not knowing the answer to that." Azula patted Korra's head fondly. "You'll sleep better at night. But, to return to matter at hand, it's really a simple matter of wanting what's best for the Fire Nation. Above all things, I am a patriot. I love the Fire Nation, and I want nothing but the best for it. This… war has dragged on for a century, and what do we have to show for it?"

"About a century of suffering and woe."

"Exactly." Azula held up one hand. Flame kindled around her fist, first orange, and then blue, and then blinding white. Korra shivered. Azula was the single most powerful fire bender she'd ever met, and it was a miracle she'd survived those early years when Azula had genuinely been trying to either kill her or capture her. "A foolish person might say that the Fire Nation has never been stronger, that we now control the North and South Poles and that we have subjugated most of the Earth Kingdom."

"And what would a smart person, presumably you, say?" Korra asked. Azula had many good qualities. Modesty was not one of them. Then again, was it really arrogance given what she'd accomplished so far?

"We hold the North and South Poles by the skin of our teeth. Oh, we've managed to grab hold of the major settlements, but it's getting harder and harder to fight off the resistance groups when they can melt back into the wilderness." Azula scowled. "Trying to fight off water benders in a land made almost completely of ice is the very definition of a bad idea. Oh, I've no doubt we could crush the Southern or Northern Water Tribes in a conventional battle, but they're not stupid. They're never going to give us a conventional battle."

"Yeah, that probably wasn't the greatest idea the Fire Nation has ever had." Korra snickered.

"Oh, be quiet," Azula grumbled. "And it's not like your ancestors have too much to be proud of. They somehow managed to lose despite the initial battles being conducted either at sea or on ice." The princess sighed. "The point of conquest, Korra, is that the conquerors should get something out of it. What does the Fire Nation get out of conquering the North or South Pole? We get constant trouble, land that none of our people want to live in, and vast sheets of ice and snow that serve no real purpose."

"Hey, there are resources in the North and South Pole," Korra countered. "How do you think my people have lived there for so long?"

"Well, of course, there are resources," Azula replied. "But they're the kind the Fire Nation could get far more easily through trade. Conquering the North and South Poles served no real purpose other vanity and bragging rights. Meanwhile, we're forced to waste almost a third of our entire military trying to keep them under control."

"Yeah," Korra said. "My people are pretty awesome."

"And then there's the Earth Kingdom." Azula covered her face with one hand. "By all the spirits, what were my ancestors thinking? The Earth Kingdom is absolutely massive and has multiple times the Fire Nation's population. How exactly were we ever going to maintain control over it?"

"Genocide?" Korra made a face. "I'm pretty sure at least one of your ancestors advocated that."

"Yes," Azula ground out. "My grandfather, an otherwise reasonable man, did propose wiping out the Earth Kingdom's inhabitants and replacing them with Fire Nation citizens." She snarled. "Lunacy! Madness! We are warriors not butchers, and I would have the Fire Nation stand ascendant over a prosperous world, not a world of ash and bones."

"Well, I'm glad you can agree that genocide is evil."

"Defeating the Earth Kingdom in battle was a foregone conclusion," Azula continued. "Their lack of tactical acumen is matched only by their lack of technological progress. However, the sheer size and population of the Earth Kingdom means that occupying it long term is an exercise in futility. The Fire Nation simply lacks the manpower and resources to accomplish that." Azula shivered. "And the less I say about our attempts to attack the Air Nomads, the better. Oh, we had some success initially when we caught them off guard, but since then…"

"So… you want to stop the fighting?" Korra asked. "You? The youngest, most successful general in Fire Nation history?"

"If this war continues," Azula replied. "The Fire Nation will eventually lose. It will take years, and we will inflict terrible wounds on our enemies, but we will lose, and do you think they will be in a merciful mood when we do?" Azula shook her head. "No. They will rip us limb from limb. It is far better to seek an end to hostilities now while we are in a position of strength."

"But you can't end the war," Korra pointed out. "You're not Fire Lord."

"No, I am not." Azula's eyes shimmered, and the blue candle flame roared. "But I could be."

"Ah." Korra nodded slowly. "I see."

"My father truly believes that we can conquer the world and keep it. With Sozin's Comet arriving in a matter of months, he's even come up with a plan. He wants to burn the whole Earth Kingdom and the North and South Poles."

"…" Korra gaped. "That… that might just be the most scarily idiotic thing I've ever heard."

"Yes. Even with the power boost the comet would give us, there simply aren't enough fire benders to burn more than a fraction of the world. That, more than anything, convinced me that I could no longer stand aside while my father leads the Fire Nation to ruin."

"So you want to overthrow him?"

"Korra," Azula said as she shifted to straddle the Avatar's waist. "I have been planning this for years. I have at least half of the Fire Nation's nobility on my side already, and I believe the other half would join me if the Avatar pledged to support my cause."

"I see." Korra's eyes narrowed. "So in exchange for supporting you against your father, you would end the war?"

"Indeed. I would, of course, have to keep some of the gains we've made - nothing too large, I assure you - but the war would end. I would become Fire Lord, and you would become the Avatar who ended the Hundred Year War."

"And you think your father will give you the throne when he realises the nobles support you over him?"

"Oh, no," Azula said dryly. "I'll have to challenge him to Agni Kai and kill him, but that will be the easy part. My dear father hasn't fought on the front lines in more than a decade, and I am the greatest fire bender and warrior my nation has ever produced."

"Not the least bit arrogant, are you?"

"It is not arrogance if it is true," Azula shot back. "The question, Korra, is whether or not you will help me. I will take the throne. Without your help, it may well involve a mountain of corpses. With your help, it will only take one."

"You know, even two years ago, if someone had asked me if I would ever help you, I'd have called them insane."

"And if someone had told me two years ago that I would seriously be contemplating making the Avatar my royal consort once I took the throne, I'd have said the same."

"…" Korra jerked up, tearing her bonds with a subtle application of air bending. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly serious." Azula smirked. "You look wonderful in blue, Korra, but I think you'd look just as good in red." Her smirk widened. "And I'd be yours as much as you'd be mine." Azula leaned forward until their lips were almost touching. "Tell me I wouldn't look amazing in Water Tribe blue."

Korra gulped. The thought of Azula in Water Tribe blue was… intoxicating. "Yeah." She shook herself. She could think about that later. "So you're really going to do this?"

"Why do you think I'm sailing back to the Fire Nation with you in secret?" Azula bared her teeth. "This war has gone on long enough. I will defeat my father and become Fire Lord. I will put an end to the war, but I'll need your help for what comes after."

"Ah." Korra grimaced. "That will be tricky. Even if you do end the war, the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes are still going to be pissed."

"Indeed, which is where you come in. Use some of that charm of yours to help bring about a peaceful solution."

"You think I'm charming?"

"To an extent," Azula countered. "But more than anything you keep your word. You don't make a lot of promises, but you always keep the ones you do make. More importantly, you have won the respect of people throughout the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes. Negotiating a lasting peace will be difficult with your help. Without your help, it will be impossible."

"You do realise that they'll accuse you of seducing me to win my favour."

"Maybe. I'd argue they'd be right." Azula smiled thinly. "But perhaps you could try to make it seem as though the opposite occurred." She swooned melodramatically. "Imagine it: the aloof and cruel Fire Nation princess, defeated and then seduced by the Avatar. Driven by her newfound love for the Avatar, the princess overthrows her father and promises to end the war and bring peace to the world."

"…" Korra shook her head. "I don't think there is a single person in the world who would believe that."

Azula straightened. "Of course not. But that's not the point. What we need to impress upon them is that regardless of the… intricacies of our relationship, peace is the best way forward."

"Well, you're not wrong." Korra sighed. "But you really couldn't have explained this to me before we started sailing toward the Fire Nation?"

"And spoil the surprise?" Azula laughed. "Korra, you know me better than that."

X     X     X

Author's Notes

This is obviously a massive AU. I'll get into the specifics in later snippets, but the gist of it is that Aang never ran away, the Air Nomads managed to survive after initially sustaining heavy losses, and the Hundred Year War has been extremely bloody.

By the time Azula shows up, Korra is the Avatar. They're similar in age, and Azula does spend some of her early years trying to capture/kill Korra. However, due to certain events, things change, and Azula develops a better understanding of the conflict and its likely ending.

Let me know what you think.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

You can find my original fiction on Amazon here. In fact, I’ve just released a new story, Attempted Adventuring. If you like humour, action, and adventure, be sure to check it out.

[houseofzoey]

Plot

The central conflict of this book relates to Zoey’s mother’s death and the mystery of Aurox. It’s stated multiple times that a powerful sacrifice would be needed to create a creature like him, and Linda was murdered not long before he first showed up at school. Therefore, Zoey and co. are pretty sure Neferet is behind Linda’s murder, but they need to find a way to prove it.

However, as is often the case with this series, very little time is actually spent working toward this goal, or even really discussing it. I mean, absolutely nothing is done about Aurox until the very end, and Zoey has a very easy way to figure out what he is. Her seer stone heats up every time she sees him, so, logically, she just needs to look through it to see what kind of old magick was used in creating him. But that would hugely advance a major plot point faster than the author wants, so of course it doesn’t happen.

Instead, we have a weird half-conflict with Zoey and Stark because Kalona invading Stark’s dreams is making him sleep deprived and grumpy, but this is ended unceremoniously and nothing actually comes of it. We have Stevie Rae and Rephaim regularly arguing about a) him longing to reconnect with his father, and b) her wanting him to stay with her when he turns into a bird. Again, nothing really comes of this. We have the Twins’ falling out, which comes out of nowhere, is way-overemphasized considering how little presence they’ve had in the last several books, and – oh yeah – accomplishes nothing.

There are other, scattered little conflicts, too, like Lenobia and Travis’ romance subplot that takes up far too much room in this book considering how little reason I have to care about it, or the rogue red fledglings showing up at school, or Rephaim and Dallas butting heads over Stevie Rae, etc.

Rather than all these different conflicts making the book feel complicated, or creating the impression that the characters are overwhelmed, all this does is distract from the one conflict that actually matters. Because nothing really comes out of these other conflicts, they essentially amount to padding and filler. It’s only there because the author wanted the book to be longer than 50 pages.

Day One: Chapter 2 – Chapter 12 (Thursday) I’m starting at chapter two because the prologue and chapter one were technically the day before, but aren’t super important to the timeline of the book, particularly as it pertains to the ritual at the end. Basically, in those chapters, we learn that Kalona is still influencing Stark through his dreams but Zoey doesn’t actually do anything about it, and we learn a little bit about what Aurox is and is capable of.

We start with ableism and too much dialogue before Zoey and co. load onto the minibus to head to school, there’s some conversation about grief between her and Damien, and then we start the school day. Zoey, Stevie Rae, Kramisha, Erik, Dragon, Lenobia, and Neferet have a Skype meeting with Duantia. This goes on far too long and basically confirms that, yes, they can treat the tunnels as a separate dorm from the Tulsa House of Night, but Neferet is still their High Priestess – except no, she’s not, at least not for red fledglings, because Stevie Rae is their High Priestess despite not actually running a school or having any valid reason to hold that level of power.

Scattered throughout is a chapter with Kalona and a chapter with Rephaim. Kalona is upset about Rephaim turning from him and orders some of the other Raven Mockers to go ask Rephaim to spy for him. Rephaim, meanwhile, is dealing with bullying and jealousy from Dallas. Damien is showing him around to classes, and they quickly decide that he should sit out his fourth hour fencing class because Dragon would not be happy to see him. While Rephaim is hanging out in a courtyard, his brothers show up.

Now, this is where the timeline gets screwy, because Zoey and Stevie Rae leave the Council Meeting at the beginning of second hour, but somehow they hear the fight that breaks out when Dragon sees Rephaim talking with Raven Mockers. There’s a confrontation, Neferet shows up with Aurox, who transforms and kills one of the Raven Mockers, and Stevie Rae uses her affinity to protect Rephaim without ever actually manipulating the earth because Wasted Potential is this series’ true name. They all argue ineffectually for a while about why Rephaim was speaking with Raven Mockers and what the hell Aurox is, including Zoey feeling her seer stone heat up but failing to even try to look through it.

We then get a single, tedious chapter from Erik’s perspective. He’s a Tracker. He Tracks and Marks Shaylin. She’s blind, but then she’s not because vampyrism. Also, she’s Marked red and that’s concerning. She confuses Erik by talking about auras. The end.

Back with Zoey in the stables, Lenobia reassures her that it’s totally fine to not look at Aurox through the seer stone because that makes her uncomfortable. Also, Stark being briefly possessed is definitely not worth worrying about. Then we meet Travis, the new human stablehand that Neferet has hired for Lenobia. There is much tittering about how hot he is, though the author very confusingly insists on comparing him to Sam Elliott. There is tension between him and Lenobia, but she decides to be courteous to him to thwart Neferet’s dastardly plan of creating mild confusion and irritation – sorry, I mean “chaos”.

Damien shows up to tell Zoey that her Grandma is there and looks like she’s been crying. We get confirmation that Zoey’s mom has been murdered. For some reason, the police assume it was drug addicts looking for quick money, despite the body being entirely drained of blood. After completely mistranslating a bunch of Cherokee words, they agree to perform a cleansing ritual at Grandma’s farm once she has completed her own seven days of mourning.

There’s a scene with Aurox and Zoey. He randomly has Kleenex because he is Heath and ~*symbolism*~. Zoey’s emotions stay with him, which is weird.

Zoey meets Shaylin, who reveals she can see auras in the most confusing way possible. Damien concludes this is probably True Sight, and almost immediately after their introduction, Neferet shows up. Shaylin pretends to faint. There’s some arguing, but because Shaylin is Marked red, she goes to the tunnels with Zoey and co. instead of staying at the school under Neferet’s sway. After Neferet leaves, Shaylin basically says her aura looks like pure evil.

(This is also about where we derail into an infuriating and unnecessary rant about the author’s – sorry, Aphrodite’s – right to say ableist slurs.)

We cut to Kalona. He learns that Rephaim is human now and Aurox killed one of his sons. He decides to seek out Rephaim in the interest of working against Neferet, their common enemy.

We cut to Rephaim. He and Stevie Rae argue because she wants him to stay with her when he turns into a bird, but he says being a raven makes him a dangerous beast. Sure. Right. Also, Stevie Rae tries to convince him to stop holding out hope for his father because he’s a bad parent.

Zoey and co. talk about True Sight. And then they argue about if they can still trust Rephaim after seeing him talking with Raven Mockers. Nothing comes of any of this. They all go to bed.

We have a pointless chapter with Lenobia and Travis.

We then cut to Aurox. He and Neferet go into the basement of Will Rogers High School in a needlessly complicated and drawn out scene. They find the rogue red fledglings and convince them to come back to the House of Night, largely because they’ll all die if they aren’t around adult vampyres – never mind that Dallas is an adult and there aren’t that many of them.

Day Two: Chapter 13 - Chapter 16 (Friday) Stark has a dream about Zoey dying. The narration makes it seem like it’s not from Nyx, but nothing comes of it, so… I have no clue what it was supposed to accomplish.

They arrive at the school. The bus full of rogue red fledglings is already there. Requisite but pointless drama. Then, as everyone is heading into the school, Rephaim pulls Zoey aside and tells her he can feel Kalona calling to him. They go meet with Kalona, talk for far too long to basically conclude that he wants a truce so he can help them defeat Neferet.

Zoey skips class because she’s stressed, then spends several pages recapping events to herself. She has another conversation with Aurox, which is interrupted by Stark. She tries to talk to Stark about Aurox, but then they’re interrupted by Thanatos, who tells them that she has a new class for special students that will take over her first hour slot, effectively saving Zoey from ever attending class with Neferet as her professor. Can’t have Zoey dealing with discomfort!

They eat lunch and talk about daddy issues. This is where we learn that, suddenly, Shaunee also has a tumultuous relationship with her father. We thus start the Twins’ conflict.

There’s a short and pointless scene with Lenobia in the stables.

Back at the tunnels, Kramisha reveals her new poem. They speculate about what it means for a while but ultimately come to no useful conclusions. They once again argue about if Rephaim can be trusted, which – again – leads to no meaningful changes or developments. Aphrodite makes a rude comment when Rephaim leaves to go turn into a bird, and Stevie Rae runs out of the room crying. Zoey goes to comfort her. Then Zoey goes to be and uses spirit to calm Stark’s dreams.

Kalona is watching Stark’s dream, which is cringey and pointless, but seems to be the last time Kalona ever uses this connection to Stark in this way.

Day Three: Chapter 17 (Saturday) Shaunee refuses to go shopping with Kramisha, Aphrodite, and Erin on the excuse that she is sick, which causes tension between her and Erin. Shaunee reflects on feeling neglected and abandoned by her father. Kalona shows up and they talk. Shaunee is sympathetic to his efforts to reconnect with Rephaim, so she gives him her cell phone.

We then cut to Shaunee telling the group about this. Tensions boil over between her and Erin. They officially have a falling out.

Day Four: Chapter 18 (Sunday) While Zoey and Aphrodite are sitting outside the depot chatting about recent events, Thanatos shows up. She waxes poetic about train stations for a needlessly long time. Then she announces that she’s buying the depot in their name (even though Duantia had already declared the High Council was going to do this), and then explains that she wants to uncover the truth about Neferet, which is further cemented when Zoey says she believes Neferet has taken the white bull as her Consort.

We have a scene where Aurox attempts to rape Becca and is only stopped by Dragon showing up. Dragon tells Becca to stop freaking out and walk away gracefully if she’s not interested. Aurox and Dragon talk, and Aurox says Zoey isn’t mean like Becca.

Day Five: Chapter 19 – Chapter 24 (Monday) Zoey and co. attend their first class with Thanatos. Nothing really happens except that Thanatos threatens bodily harm against Dallas, not because he’s a bigot, but because he’s a bigot in her classroom. Everyone writes down questions they would like to have answered and Zoey shows complete and utter disregard for her friends’ privacy by trying to peek at them.

After class, Dallas and Rephaim have a confrontation in the hallway. Or possibly the courtyard. The scene can’t make up its mind. Dragon breaks up the fight, but still doesn’t like Rephaim, so there’s a bunch of yelling and arguing about that. The chapter ends with Thanatos, Zoey, and Stark talking about their fear that Dragon might turn over to Darkness.

We have a chapter with Lenobia. She and Travis are still flirting and I still don’t care. They kiss, then she rejects him and runs away to cry in her room. I still don’t care.

Over with Neferet, she narrates about all the “chaos” she is causing and is very smug about it. Then she sees Zoey and Shaunee talking outside. She tries to call on Darkness to break a tree branch and kill Zoey, but Darkness – which killed Jack and Shekinah without additional sacrifice – refuses to kill Zoey because she’s a High Priestess and demands a powerful sacrifice. So Neferet asks Darkness to break the tree and bruise Zoey. Aurox rushing in to save her is written off as the white bull interceding for Reasons.

We get the same incident from Zoey’s perspective. Aurox gives off the same heat as the seer stone because… sure?

Zoey skips class again and runs into Thanatos, who asks her if she will talk about her mother’s death in front of an entire class of her peers. Thanatos also asks for Grandma’s phone number so she can talk to her about Linda’s death. Oh, and apparently Thanatos can see Darkness and Light, but has kept this a complete secret because apparently it won’t accomplish anything because the High Council is uselss. Also, Zoey is now being compared to Frodo.

On the bus home, everyone discusses whether or not the wind felt unnatural that day, and then Aphrodite has a vision. Too much time is spent discussing ordering pizza as a distraction. Finally, we get to Aphrodite in her room after the vision, which is followed by her rehashing the vision in a completely disjointed, poorly prioritized, and way too dragged out fashion. The conclusion is that Rephaim cannot attend the cleansing ritual at Grandma’s farm or he’ll die. Naturally, Stevie Rae and Rephaim show up to say that no, actually, Rephaim will still be attending that ritual, because logic and survival is for chumps.

Neferet and the bull spy on Kalona and conclude that his attachment to Rephaim is a big weakness.

Stevie Rae and Rephaim discuss the same BS about Kalona again, but also argue about him attending the ritual. They conclude that he is, in fact, still going to the ritual, and also Stevie Rae says she will stop pestering him about how his dad is evil and he should stop trying to repair their relationship.

We get the scene Neferet witnessed, but from Kalona’s perspective. He realizes Neferet is watching him. Concerned for Rephaim, he flies to the depot, where he sees Rephaim transform into a bird and gets mad at Nyx for still punishing Rephaim despite supposedly forgiving him.

Day Six: Chapter 25 - Chapter 29 (Tuesday) Zoey talks to the special class about her mom’s death, which includes digressions into Islamophobia and gay stereotypes. Then Thanatos announces – in front of the entire class, including Aurox – that Zoey and co. will be helping her perform a ritual to reveal who killed Zoey’s mother at her Grandma’s farm and that they leave right after class. Naturally, Aurox goes and tells Neferet, who tells him to follow them and interfere so that the ritual can’t be completed (but not to kill a High Priestess, because we can’t have actual threats or tension for the main character). Dragon also finds out what they’re doing because he sees everyone heading in the same direction despite having different classes, and also because Thanatos cannot understand the concept of “don’t tell Dragon because he might be the one who murders Rephaim.”

We spend a very long time on exposition and set up for the ritual, including heavy emphasis on how important it is that it be performed on the fifth night – which is unfortunate, since this is canonically the sixth night in the timeline. There’s also some serious research failure regarding Grandma’s dress, and for some reason Grandma is representing spirit in this ritual despite not having an affinity for it. Everything in the ritual is going fine until – shock horror – Aurox shows up! Because Thanatos announced their plans in front of him. Darkness has forced him to take on his bull form, he charges Rephaim, but Dragon shows up and defends Rephaim, completely countering literally everything that was built up about his motivations and regrets thus far.

They complete the ritual, witness Linda’s death, but can’t close the circle because Thanatos left out one very small detail: The ritual needs a death sacrifice to be ended. ‘Cause, you know, that’s not an incredibly sinister or disturbing thing to avoid telling a bunch of kids until the last minute.

But this story is built on convenience and contrivance, so Dragon is killed by Aurox, ending the ritual while allowing our main characters to survive and keep a clean conscience. Zoey finally looks at Aurox through the seer stone, realizes he’s Heath, and uses earth (sorry, a “green glow”) to prevent Darius and Stark from killing him. Aurox runs off. Everyone sees Dragon’s spirit reunite with Anastasia. Yay, happiness.

But Rephaim is badly injured. Kalona, who Stevie Rae had called on her cell phone during the climax, has shown up and is distraught that Rephaim is dying. So he cries and tells Rephaim he loves him, asking Nyx to spare him. One or all of these things – it’s not clear – heal Rephaim.

Thanatos declares she is the new High Priestess of Tulsa, ‘cause I guess she can do that and doesn’t, like, have responsibilities she needs to get back to in Italy. For unknown reasons, Kalona swears a Warrior’s Oath to her and says he will be the school’s new Sword Master.

[invertedfate]

Random Ask Dump - Anniversary Edition (50+ REALLY OLD ASKS!)

Going through OLD AND CRUSTY ASKS to try and chip away at the inbox. HERE WE GOOOO...

That’s an interesting idea, and I could run it by Cake, but I think it would honestly be a LOT to track from a programming perspective. Especially ‘cause killing Sans is gonna result in a “bad ending,” so to speak.

An attempt was made by Undyne to have all three hang out at the same time. Papyrus was SUPER EAGER. ...but one thing led to another and there were many messy explosions of chemicals and lots of smoke. Alphys had to step in before things got out of hand. It was all very daunting for her. Pap and Undyne are VERY LOUD, VERY AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.

I actually have some ideas of some side comics I may do at some point! :o It’s just that right now there’s a lot going on.

I need to poke Carni about that at some point. He’s just been very busy with other projects!

Clearly he’s standing on the “out to lunch” sign.

I wanna say that it’s very possible in theory. :o It probably affects them differently since monsters’ emotional state affects their magic and their physical state.

I do like little easter eggs like that, though I’m not sure where I’d fit it in atm just ‘cause I already showed Pap’s room, haha.

I made the chase theme for Mad Dummy as well as Mad Mew Mew’s battle theme. @pinewsun​ made the battle theme for Mad Dummy, and @thomasthepencil​ made the Season Dude battle theme and MD’s overworld theme. :o

That’s a really fascinating conundrum! You’re absolutely right- if IF was a standalone game, then from a writing standpoint, having more subtle implications would make sense! The reason I chose a different approach for IF is because it’s set after Flowey’s already known to be evil and I like to give different POVs rather than stick to just Frisk’s.

That’s an interesting thing, actually- both fights lean heavily on the fourth wall. Both are treated as climaxes for their given routes. It’s funny because Asriel’s fight is a lot more straightforward and less meta by comparison.

I agree! The thing with Papyrus is that he’s extremely powerful- he just doesn’t want to kill. But it’s a deliberate choice not to kill- he’s able to force his attacks to do next to no damage. He’s also pretty darn crafty, as he made the Gauntlet himself. It really is just a case of Undyne’s personal biases and concern for him.

That was a deliberate choice. :O Papyrus is very influential toward Frisk. He is best skeleboi.

Papybot loves you, anon! He just wants to feed you WHOLESOME SPAGHETTI!!!

It is possible to whistle through teeth. ...alternatively, magic. As for the music, Undertale implies that the music is heard! Maybe it’s just... a thing that exists in this world. Or it’s just meant to be a silly meta joke. I try to keep it somewhat ambiguous other than occasional nods to it. Chara’s pants are lighter because I just... felt like it, I guess? Haha. I wanted their feet and pants to stand out more from each other, so they have khaki pants. As for the Undyne fight being animated, well, this ask is old by now, but Sparks was the one who was down for it.

Well, the teaser’s been out for a long time now, but that’s the idea! It’s also why this has been in production for so long. The Determinator has some really over the top attacks (that weren’t even shown in the teaser), and Sparks animated in Photoshop. That’s how hardcore he is.

Shhhhh. Don’t give me ideas. I’m already slacking on Tem Village. :P

Sometimes I do have slumps and burnouts (see Antipode’s lengthy hiatus), but breaks lead to me being refreshed and coming back with even more enthusiasm than before!

Oh, there are a lot of these throughout the comic. For instance...

Flowey appears in a few background shots in the Ruins!

When Sans says “or maybe...” he looks at the empty flower pot. This was one of the earliest bits of foreshadowing about who created Flowey, and nobody noticed it at the time!

The MTT vending machines initially look like this but have helpful items.

And then they look like this, with an angry face and pose- Mad Dummy has possessed them!

As of Part 38, it’s been revealed that he did first meet Asgore as “Santa.” As for whether or not he knows the truth, time will tell. :o

Oh, these are excellent suggestions for calls! I’ll try to keep these in mind.

So, I believe Glyde uses the Mysterious Door motif. Jerry uses the motif in its battle theme- I believe it’s a mix of original motif and Wrong Number song?

Sans is a master of power napping. He probably gets a decent amount of sleep, though.

There are a lot of ways to interpret Pap’s lack of sleep! In IF, he can get by without it, but he also has a lot of reasons to avoid sleeping. Some reasons include productivity but also due to a looooot of heavy baggage. More on that later.

I think sleep can definitely make monsters healthier. Rest = better mental health as well as physical health, and with how important mental and emotional help is for monsters, that’s very important!

They just really like socks. Socks are warm. Socks are slinky. And googly eyes are the best. So they took on the form of a really eccentric sock puppet and sock collector. Scandalous.

It also has Alphys’ motif, as the two are the leaders of the royal guard!

I would say the lack of Asgore as an influence has left Undyne slightly less grounded? Like, she had Toriel and Gerson in her life, but her relationship with Toriel is... definitely not quite as close? Like, Toriel by that point kept people at an arm’s length due to losing multiple children (including one from old age). So, while they were on friendly terms until the aftermath of the DT experiments and the tapes’ release, it was more like mutual respect and a sorta professional relationship with Undyne admiring Toriel and wanting to spare her from more heartache.

That is a really interesting idea. While that didn’t happen, I do need to maybe revisit the grumpy dog at some point or another. He’s still a lil’ salty.

I think in terms of layout it won’t change much, but there will be new/different content for sure. :O

Mad Dummy’s base design is mostly original, but she has a wig + headband from DIO from Jojo Part 3! Fun fact: While MTT has Kamina shades, Papyrus’ goggles are loosely based on Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in terms of color. :O

So basically, when Asriel defeated Frisk, he had the power over the timeline to reset it as he pleased- in theory. However, that power was overwhelming for him, and due his lack of understanding OF said power and one last ditch attempt at resisting from Chara, things went wrong.

There is a track that takes some inspiration from Rage Awakened. It’s not released, and it’s not exact, but it won’t be released for a WHILE. Like until the part comes out.

I think it’s just the fact that tacos are so random. Like, my biggest beef in that regard was that OG Underswap had a lot of arbitrary replacements for things in UT and not all of them made sense. Like, if Sans was to make a foreign food, ramen would’ve made more sense due to Alphys being weeb trash, haha.

Okay, so the rough timeline iiiis... Falling: - Cyan - Green - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow Dying: - Cyan - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow - Green

You know, it’s funny because this ask is super old, but that’s basically sorta what happened. :O It became a beach-themed resort.

Never forget MTT fangirl Temmie’s pool escapades.

I think Forgespring for me because I had to make the tileset myself (it took a few months, I think?), but Aquarius was definitely in the works for a while. But once I had the tileset from Fours, the rooms were very easy to design!

That woulda been pretty rad! Maybe I can find another spot for it one day, haha.

I think for Dohj, I’d have to check with Fours, but I’m certainly not opposed at some point? Right now, the following chars can take questions: - Frisk - Papyrus - Sans - Undyne - Alphys - Napstablook - Mettaton - Asgore - Chara - Flowey

Cyan appears in Part 45! :O No answer about orange for now, tho.

I do have vague ideas for Tem village. I just haven’t had time to go back and do it.

Stay tuned and you may find out! :O

Hmmmm... I had a lot of fun with MTT SPIRAL and the Determinator, tbh. They were both very time consuming, but I love how they came out! Also, buff Jerry.

Turnabout Storm. :)

It’s a really awesome fan crossover that works way better than it should. :P

None taken! We know that with headcanons, everyone is gonna have their own interpretations. These are just the voices we liked for Fireglobe Production, but everyone has their right to their favored interpretations!

Yeah, Knight Knight is one of the coolest CORE mercs in the original game. It was fun to repurpose them for Inverted Fate as royal guards. :o It made room for unique encounters in the CORE in the form of them robots- as Undyne would rather use machines than other monsters to do her work.

Personally, I see it as an Asriel motif, but I also acknowledge that at one point it WAS gonna be an Asgore motif. Toby has a habit of just using whatever music works for a scene (see sans. at the snail farm.)

I do have a few ideas, though I won’t say for what yet. :o

He’s likely made blueprints for that train. :P

It probably would just have different flavor text/progression!

So basically, I treat the starting motif for BAaTH/Power of NEO is just a “true hero” motif.

MTT is definitely major in IF! As for whether or not he’ll have a hangout, time will tell. There’s definitely more to resolve with him, though.

I’m gonna remake at least a few of the older tracks, including Regret. My goal is just to bring the OST to a similar standard of quality.

So, animated parts coming up: Part 47, Part 49, Part 50. There may be some other parts, but we’re gonna wanna scale things back for a little bit for the sake of all our sanities.

I go with both. ;)

Honestly, probably fairly similar to the bully fight in the Ruins- which is why I ultimately decided not to do one. Both fill similar archetypes, though I think if I did do a battle, I woulda still had Flowey interrupt at the end and scare them off.

It’s a very emotional scene. Far more tragic than her geno death, IMO.

Well, the main goal in that regard is the remasters (Part 9 is in progress). Otherwise, I do think these hiatuses are good for working ahead. I’ve still gotta do more work, though, because my buffer this time around is a lot smaller from the trial-hiatus buffer. Alas!

Honestly, the website is the best thing to happen to IF. It’s allowed us to do so much with the comic’s presentation that would be impossible with imgur. NORIX IS THE BEST...

[megashadowdragon]

(cont.) 2. If anything, Ironwood erred toward compassion. He shouldn't have released/trusted RWBY, but he did. He didn't have to evacuate Mantle (infiltration risk) but he did. He could've declared martial law earlier, since he knew the city/Council was compromised (he didn't, and it cost him). He could've recalled important people to Atlas (eg Pietro) instead of letting them help Mantle (conservation of scarce resources). And as you said, he shouldn't have told people about Salem. (cont.)

itsclydebitches: 

I’m so sorry, anon, I seem to be missing part one here. I don’t know if I accidentally deleted it at some point or if tumblr just ate it :/

But under the general subject of “RWBY failed to give Ironwood a truly callous response to these circumstances and thus far there are no ‘good’ plans here,” I’ve honestly been surprised by the number of fans emphasizing how (supposedly) useless Ironwood’s plan is in the long run. I’ve read through long breakdowns about how even if they’re high enough to escape the grimm they’d be unable to sustain themselves and everyone would eventually starve. With the takeaway being, “Ironwood’s plan kills Atlas in the long run so he’s more heartless for abandoning Mantle than we originally thought, since that sacrifice won’t even save a portion of the population in the end.” However, ignoring that this is a massive conclusion based on RWBY’s incredibly flimsy world building (I don’t think we know enough about Atlas to prove one way or the other whether the city could live self-sufficiently up in the sky/for how long), these responses are missing the point. Ironwood is buying time. He’s retreating to regroup. Not to fight Salem then and there because, you know, immortality - a lot of fans are also insisting that a retreat is only a valid option if he turns around and re-enters this specific battle - but rather to fight her in the long term. Days, weeks, months, even years later. He’s trying to ensure that his top fighters, two relics, a Maiden, and at least a portion of his people are out of Salem’s reach so that they can find a more hopeful solution down the road. It doesn’t matter whether Ironwood could only keep the Atlesian people alive for a month, or a week, or just three days. The point is that those three days are more time to think and strategize than they currently have with Salem literally on their doorstep. I think that’s why we don’t see a more complicated plan like the one you’ve laid out above: that takes at least a bit of time to think through, conceptualize, and weigh against other options. Ironwood heard out of nowhere that Salem had appeared, while in the middle of three other emergencies (heat down, grimm attacking, Salem’s men on the loose) and had to come up with a plan in a matter of seconds. Obviously we, the viewers, will always be able to come up with something “better” with months of time to think it over, in the safety of our homes. But retreating would provide some of that much needed space/time for everyone to think. Retreating might encourage Salem to back off if she can no longer access what she came for. Retreating will allow the group to recover, regain their aura, prepare for another fight. If Atlas is truly safe up there maybe the relics can stay while the people head back down, keeping them continually out of Salem’s reach. Even if they’re not safe limiting the grimm army to just the flying grimm is already a boost. Maybe with even an hour of time where they’re not fighting for their lives someone could come up with a plan. It’s true that we don’t know for sure what would come of buying time, but no one is going to find out what possibilities might be made into reality if Ironwood isn’t allowed to try.

To simplify things with another wonky comparison, pretend some evil supernatural killer has broken into your home. They’re blocking access upstairs to where a bunch of your friends are and you have no way to reach them. If you try to attack this creature you die. If you try to sneak past it you die. No one has come up with a solution that allows everyone to make it out of the house alive and the chances of death aren’t just high, they’re nearly guaranteed. How do you fight a creature that just reforms every time you do damage? How do you defeat them and protect your friends? No one has figured out an answer. Ironwood is the one going, “The back door is open! It’s horrific that we can’t get the people upstairs but we need to go. Head into the wood where maybe this creature won’t be able to find us. If we escape we might be able to figure out a way to still save some of our friends before they all perish. If we escape we’re going to keep this Magical Relic safe that’s potentially the key to defeating this creature in the long run, saving the whole world. At the very least we’ll survive and isn’t that better than all of us perishing?”

Team RWBY are the ones insisting that the only heroic option is to charge the creature head on. We don’t leave friends behind. Noble, but a death sentence - and one that does damage to the overall war (it’s not just a personal self-sacrifice). They’re also locking the back door to make sure Ironwood and others who might want to escape have to stay and fight with them, all while knocking out four allies for trying to get them to stand down.

Meanwhile, a good portion of the fandom is going, “Ironwood wants to run into the woods? That’s absurd. You can’t survive in the woods! They’ll get lost. They’ll starve. There are other creatures out there that I’m sure would kill them even though we’ve never heard about such creatures before. This isn’t a good long-term option.”  

But it’s not meant to be a long-term option. It’s meant to be the one option that might a) keep them alive in the short term and b) allows them to come up with a plan. Any plan at this point. To still save some of Mantle. Or keep the relics safe. Or help ensure that the 1,000 year attempt to defeat Salem doesn’t end here and now. Something to make this situation a little less horrible.

That’s not coldblooded pragmatism. It’s common sense in the face of noble heroics. Team RWBY should be commended for their bravery and their devotion to the people of Mantle (even though they didn’t care about the people while stringing Ironwood along…), but that doesn’t mean what they’re doing is smart. They know about this war. They know that their decisions are so much bigger than themselves and the immediate problems in front of them. They know there’s a long-term to think about, but so far they haven’t demonstrated any willingness to take that into consideration. It wouldn’t be so bad if the story just framed this around their trauma - some in the group literally can’t leave people behind after the death of Pyrrha - but insisting that this is the only Good and Smart solution here doesn’t work.

whitleyschn33

I was literally just thinking about this after running into one of those "here's all the reasons leaving Mantle means Atlas will die in the long run" posts. What those people don't seem to get is that with the only other plan on the table - stay and fight - there is no long term because in universe as of the finale, staying and fighting is a death sentence.

At least there is a long term to consider with Ironwood's plan. There will be time to regroup, recover, minimize the amount of combatants being faced, and take the time to come up with a new plan. Because yeah - odds are they can't stay up there forever. But they don't have to. They need to get out of reach to buy time for a better plan. Staying and fighting means game over - everyone dies, Salem gets two Relics and a Maiden, and the majority of the people that are in the loop about her threat are gone.

Is having to leave people behind tragic? Yes - but I think choosing to sit and let everyone die and let Salem get what she wants when there is a chance you can save some of them - maybe even most of them, depending on how much of Mantle has evacuated - and prevent her from being halfway to her goal of essentially killing the entire world is worse. I wouldn't sleep easy, but if I was in that office, I know who I'd be siding with - the guy that has a chance to save Atlas, part of Mantle, and the Relics, vs the girls that have proven to be liars and are advocating for an option that's essentially a suicide mission.

[xiaq]

Well you've been doing research about redemption/recovery arcs for a paper or something, right? And you asked for a bunch of HP recs. What's your own head-canon for ignoring Rowlings "happily ever after"? I'd love to read that.

Yes, hello. I want you to know that I was thinking about this abstractly today and you may have just opened a can of worms because I started writing a thing.

The war was over. Or at least that’s what the papers said. They’d been saying it, for months, as if people needed reminding. Maybe they did. Maybe others found it just as easy to forget. Maybe they, like Harry, often ducked at sudden movements, flinched at loud noises, and sometimes, inexplicably, found breathing an uncertain and laborious task. Maybe they went to sleep with ghosts and woke up with guilt and spent a little too long, eyes closed, head submerged, in the bath. The war was over. But what happens to heroes when wars are over? When prophesies are satisfied and evil is defeated. Heroes are supposed to live happily ever after, Harry thinks. But he doesn’t know what that looks like. How that happens.There aren’t stories about that part. He wishes there were because he’s eighteen and living in an empty house with a second inheritance and a job offer and thousands of owl-post letters thanking him and asking him for interviews and—he feels simultaneously ancient and infantile.   He is so, so tired. But he also wants someone to tell him what to do. To tell him what comes after the fighting and the death and the supposed victory. Maybe the better question is: what happens to weapons when wars are over? Because that’s what he is, Harry realizes, and perhaps it is an embarrassingly delayed realization. After all, he had been carefully honed: by ignorance and cruelty and finally, maybe worst of all, affection. His abusive childhood was not just a thing overlooked or allowed, but curated, to make him more reckless, more desperate, more stupidly, fiercely, loyal. More willing to die. It was effective, though, wasn’t it? He’d saved the world. And now he was—he didn’t know. He took Kingsley’s offer to join the Aurors. Of course he did. It was expected. It only occurred to him later to ask why a traumatized teenager without completed schooling or any legitimate credentials would be given that dispensation. But by the time it occurred to him to ask, he already knew the answer. The ministry of magic did not need a weapon, not anymore. But they did need a figurehead. He was the boy who lived twice. The savior. Harry, photographed at crime scenes, returned widespread public approval to the ministry. Harry’s endorsement determined the success or failure of politicians’ runs. Of legislation. Of books and brooms and fucking soap. He shook hands and held his tongue. He learned the right lines. He wore the right clothes. But. You can put a sword on a wall. You can shine it and mount it on mahogany and show it off as nothing more than decoration. But it is still a sword. And Harry is still a weapon. Harry realizes this on an otherwise ordinary Monday, that starts, early, as most days do, with the lingering feeling of nightmare blood on his hands. When the day ends, the blood is real. When the day ends, so does the last of his willingness to pretend. So he goes home and he emails Hermione and he sends an owl with his resignation to Kingsley. He packs a bag, and floos to the international travel office. And he stands in front of the permanent portkey map and chooses the most obscure, ridiculous, location. Somewhere with more livestock than people. With no expectations. With enough space and open air that maybe his lungs will stop feeling claustrophobic in his chest. Where he won’t be able to hurt anyone. He picks somewhere no one will know his name. What happens to heroes when wars are over? In Harry’s case, they run away.**** What happens to villains when wars are over? Draco supposes that, in most cases, they die. That certainly seems to be the ministry’s objective. His father is dead, along with the majority of former death eaters sentenced to life in prison. Admittedly, death was perhaps preferable to the alternative of actually living in Azkaban. They’d given Draco his father’s ashes. A pitiable allowance, really. He wasn’t sure what to do with them. Lucius Malfoy should have been interred in the family crypt, but the marble mausoleum, its centuries of residents, and the estate they belonged to had all been seized by the ministry as reparations. So his father was left, without fanfare, a pound of dust in a wooden box that Draco handled with more quiescence than care. Draco can’t decide if his own punishment is worse. It was professed as a kindness—a mercy due to his youth: Five years without magic. But everyone in that courtroom knew it was equal to a death sentence. He was unlikely to survive one year, much less five. With his magic hobbled, his health and fortune gone, and a face as recognizable as his anathematized surname, Draco quickly finds himself thinking, not fondly, but certainly resignedly, of death. It would be easier. His mother, at least, is safe. And he is indebted to Potter for that. Thanks to Potter’s intercession at her trial, she avoided both prison time and magical impairment. She is a shadow of the woman she used to be, working for the first time in her life at a bookshop in Diagon alley. She lives in the tiny flat above it and is slowly selling the family jewelry collection, one agony at a time, to supplement her meager income. But she is alive. And people do not treat her too cruelly. Draco, though. The black snake on his arm is a testament to the ending he deserves. Six months after Lucius’ death, Draco visits his mother for the last time. He refuses to let her watch him die. He will not continue endangering her and his remaining friends with his presence. He is out of money, he cannot find a job, and the constant rattle in his lungs is getting hard to hide. So he brings his mother a flower at work and kisses her cheek and waves off her concern that he’s lost even more weight. Despite caution, someone catches him with a hex as he leaves the shop and he returns to Theo’s horrible muggle flat—where Draco has been sleeping on the couch—with bloody teeth and enough shame to last for the rest of his life. He packs his father with the meager remnants of his belongings and he walks to the international travel office. He stands in front of the permanent portkey map and chooses the cheapest, strangest, most rural, location. Somewhere that might as well have been called “Anonymity.” Somewhere without city streets or alleyways or preconceived notions. He picks somewhere no one will know his name. What happens to villains when wars are over? In Draco’s case, they run away.

[reveriequill-rai]

Blood Candy: Chapter 1

(This is the first of 12 chapters, each of which will be posted every few days at least, and weekly at most. Stay tuned :D)

My alarm went off at around 3pm that afternoon. I had taken a nap, just as I always do, as soon as I got home from school. Thing is, I hadn’t acknowledged the alarm until much later—a rather hypnotic dream trapped me in the dreamworld for about half an hour.

It was a dream of red. 

Red and white, filling my entire vision. 

Like a peppermint, almost. 

Just a swirling peppermint, right before my eyes. 

Now, I’ve seen hypnotism at work before—while I, myself, was never the subject, I’ve had a few friends and acquaintances who’ve went to magic shows and been the subject of hypnosis. To my surprise, it actually worked...but never for a long time. That was stage hypnosis. That was for show. And shows are always temporary.

But this? 

This was pure, raw hypnosis. 

A hypnosis trick set up by some unknown, disembodied mastermind, silently instructing me to do nothing—forcing me to do nothing. This swirling peppermint pattern was practically sleep paralysis itself; chaining me to my bed and draining me of all brainpower and willpower to fight against it.

So I stayed there. 

My alarm went off at 3pm. It was beeping for fifteen minutes before I actually woke up.

Well, I was awake the whole time. I heard the alarm. I knew I had to get up. But I didn’t care. I bet the noise would’ve drove me insane had I not been fully focused on that swirling peppermint pattern. It was slightly terrifying, if anything—the fact that something so simple and nonsensical can have such a tight grip on the mind—it even transcended reality, inhibiting me from what I was supposed to be doing. 

If I’m being honest, I don’t even remember what had broken me free of this dream in the first place. And you know what the scary part is?

I wouldn’t be surprised if I never even got up in the first place.

Here’s the thing: I wasn't exactly a fan of sweets. I didn't exactly hate them, either. But if someone gave me a piece of candy, there's about a 68% chance that I would turn it down. They just weren't my thing. 

So this peppermint dream was rather strange to me, though not exactly the strangest thing I've encountered. My mind is constantly filled with strange things, though not necessarily by choice. My friend Sebastian, or Seb/Sebs for short, runs a conspiracy blog called AkiSeb Theories alongside my friend/classmate Akira, and constantly drills just the strangest ideas into my head, the majority of which seem to run around the supernatural: How the zombie apocalypse has already started, how schools can actually steal our souls, how my own mother is a witch, you name it. Seb comes up with the theories and writes the overdramatized articles for the blog, and Akira, alongside occasionally writing some articles and theories, does the research. Please don’t ask me how and why she did the research for the ‘my mother is a witch’ theory.

“Dakota!” my mom yelled. “You up?? Your alarm has been going off for fifteen minutes! Sebastian said he’s coming to pick you up at four!” 

I was scheduled to get a blood drawing at exactly 4:15pm at North Clueham Health Center. Appointments, they say, are easy to get. Despite it being one of the few health centers in Clueham--which, in a city rumored to be filled to the brim with supernatural creatures, is a very, very bad thing--people rarely go there. 

“Coming!” I shouted. I went into the bathroom and quickly combed my dark brown hair, making sure to take care of the bangs over my forehead. Seb teased me enough about my ‘giant forehead’ and I didn’t feel like giving him more of a reason to do so. 

I headed downstairs to wait for Seb. 

“You really should stop taking those after school naps, you know,” my mom said. 

“Well, maybe if the school system stopped throwing mountains of homework at us,” I argued, “then maybe I could get some sleep.”

“Maybe if you stopped procrastinating and building yourself mountains of homework,” my mom retorted with a smile, “then maybe you could get some sleep.”

I rolled my eyes. 

“Fine. You win.” I stood up after getting a message from Seb that he was outside waiting for me. “I’ll see ya later?”

“Nope,” she said. “Night school again, remember?”

I sighed. 

“Right. What time will you be home?” I asked.

“If I’m lucky, things’ll wrap up at about eleven?” she answered. “I have a lotta papers to grade.”

“See you tomorrow then,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek and a hug before leaving.

I walked outside to find Seb in his car. If I’m being honest, I was never 100% comfortable riding with him. I don’t trust anyone who gets their license before the age of 18.  Granted, Sebs was only six months from the trust zone, but that’s still six months too early.

“Hi, welcome to your Uber!” he greeted me cheerfully. “How may I be of assistance?”

“You know where I’m going, dweeb,” I joked before getting in the passenger seat next to him.

“Ah, yes, the evil lair of the vampires.”

“...come again?”

“You’re getting blood work, right?” he asked me. “Where’s the only possible place where people just take your blood? A vampire’s evil lair.”

I couldn’t resist the urge to laugh.

“I swear, you watch too many movies,” I said. “Would a vampire give you a legitimate results and information about your health?”

“You know anyone could fake blood test results, right?” Seb pointed out, confident in this refutation.

“I think I’d be able to tell,” I replied. 

Seb rolled his eyes. Whether or not he was admitting defeat, or finally decided that I wasn’t worth drilling unfounded conspiracies into, was beyond me.

“One of these days,” he said, “You’re gonna find out that I was right. And when the apocalypse inevitably comes, you’ll have no pity from me when you turn into a mutant or a vampire.”

“You’re lucky that you’ve got someone as smart as Akira backing your ideas,” I replied. “I’m sure you’d look crazy without her.”

“Buddy,” he laughed, “I’m crazy regardless. But...I seriously don’t get it...why do they need your blood to determine all this?” 

“That’s where, like, everything is, dude,” I explained. “The nutrients, the cells, etc. It’s the only way to determine if I’m still allergic to eggs. Didn’t you pay attention during science class?”

I knew the answer to this question, of course. Seb got a 58 in science last year. He claimed he was too busy making articles for AkiSeb Theories, but Akira got an 83--and she does most of the heavy lifting for the website, anyway. 

“I’m telling you, man,” Seb said. “They’re probably just vampires. Same goes for the freakazoids who run those blood drives.” 

“You idiot, they run blood drives for people who need transfusions,” I sighed. “If someone’s, like, bleeding out and no one goes to the blood drive because oh no it’s run by vampires, we’re gonna give them strength to take over the world then tough luck! That person’s gonna die because everyone’s a bunch of bloody cowards.” 

“Relax. I know why blood drives are made! Lighten up, man.”

I let out another exasperated sigh. I didn’t really mean to sound so bitter--he truly was my best friend, and one of the few idiots in school I can put up with without pulling my hair out--but the least he could do is sound like a legitimate reporter instead of a paranoid doomsayer. 

“Sorry, man,” I said. “Past few days have been kind of...stressful, and the last thing I want is to have to do this.”

Seb looked at me with a cheerful grin.

“Don’t worry about it!” he reassured me. “I get it. It’s almost the end of junior year, everyone’s just about done with everything. In my defense, though, it’s either you ride with me and let me drive you insane, or you take the subway and deal with hobos, angry pedestrians, and plague rats.

“Yeah…wait there are no plague ra—eyes on the road, Sebs!” I cried. 

“Oh! Right.” Seb just missed a black Sudan before parking in the lot of the doctor’s office. “Good luck,” he joked as I got out of the car.

“Oh, can it,” I retorted playfully. I walked inside and checked into the doctor’s office. I was told by the receptionist to head to the basement levels for the bloodworks, and that I would be with Dr. Jasper Kermit. I nodded and went on my way.

[pbpress]

Blood Candy: Chapter 1

Ruqayyah Pickel

This is the first chapter of a longer piece of writing.  Chapters will be posted here as they are finished.  Stay tuned for the continuation of the story.

My alarm went off at around 3pm that afternoon. I had taken a nap, just as I always do, as soon as I got home from school. Thing is, I hadn’t acknowledged the alarm until much later—a rather hypnotic dream trapped me in the dreamworld for about half an hour.

It was a dream of red.

Red and white, filling my entire vision.

Like a peppermint, almost.

Just a swirling peppermint, right before my eyes.

Now, I’ve seen hypnotism at work before—while I, myself, was never the subject, I’ve had a few friends and acquaintances who’ve went to magic shows and been the subject of hypnosis. To my surprise, it actually worked...but never for a long time. That was stage hypnosis. That was for show. And shows are always temporary.

But this?

This was pure, raw hypnosis.

A hypnosis trick set up by some unknown, disembodied mastermind, silently instructing me to do nothing—forcing me to do nothing. This swirling peppermint pattern was practically sleep paralysis itself; chaining me to my bed and draining me of all brainpower and willpower to fight against it.

So I stayed there.

My alarm went off at 3pm. It was beeping for fifteen minutes before I actually woke up.

Well, I was awake the whole time. I heard the alarm. I knew I had to get up. But I didn’t care. I bet the noise would’ve drove me insane had I not been fully focused on that swirling peppermint pattern. It was slightly terrifying, if anything—the fact that something so simple and nonsensical can have such a tight grip on the mind—it even transcended reality, inhibiting me from what I was supposed to be doing.

If I’m being honest, I don’t even remember what had broken me free of this dream in the first place. And you know what the scary part is?

I wouldn’t be surprised if I never even got up in the first place.

Here’s the thing: I wasn't exactly a fan of sweets. I didn't exactly hate them, either. But if someone gave me a piece of candy, there's about a 68% chance that I would turn it down. They just weren't my thing.

So this peppermint dream was rather strange to me, though not exactly the strangest thing I've encountered. My mind is constantly filled with strange things, though not necessarily by choice. My friend Sebastian, or Seb/Sebs for short, runs a conspiracy blog called AkiSeb Theories alongside my friend/classmate Akira, and constantly drills just the strangest ideas into my head, the majority of which seem to run around the supernatural: How the zombie apocalypse has already started, how schools can actually steal our souls, how my own mother is a witch, you name it. Seb comes up with the theories and writes the overdramatized articles for the blog, and Akira, alongside occasionally writing some articles and theories, does the research. Please don’t ask me how and why she did the research for the ‘my mother is a witch’ theory.

“Dakota!” my mom yelled. “You up?? Your alarm has been going off for fifteen minutes! Sebastian said he’s coming to pick you up at four!”

I was scheduled to get a blood drawing at exactly 4:15pm at North Clueham Health Center. Appointments, they say, are easy to get. Despite it being one of the few health centers in Clueham--which, in a city rumored to be filled to the brim with supernatural creatures, is a very, very bad thing--people rarely go there.

“Coming!” I shouted. I went into the bathroom and quickly combed my dark brown hair, making sure to take care of the bangs over my forehead. Seb teased me enough about my ‘giant forehead’ and I didn’t feel like giving him more of a reason to do so.

I headed downstairs to wait for Seb.

“You really should stop taking those after school naps, you know,” my mom said.

“Well, maybe if the school system stopped throwing mountains of homework at us,” I argued, “then maybe I could get some sleep.”

“Maybe if you stopped procrastinating and building yourself mountains of homework,” my mom retorted with a smile, “then maybe you could get some sleep.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Fine. You win.” I stood up after getting a message from Seb that he was outside waiting for me. “I’ll see ya later?”

“Nope,” she said. “Night school again, remember?”

I sighed.

“Right. What time will you be home?” I asked.

“If I’m lucky, things’ll wrap up at about eleven?” she answered. “I have a lotta papers to grade.”

“See you tomorrow then,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek and a hug before leaving.

I walked outside to find Seb in his car. If I’m being honest, I was never 100% comfortable riding with him. I don’t trust anyone who gets their license before the age of 18.  Granted, Sebs was only six months from the trust zone, but that’s still six months too early.

“Hi, welcome to your Uber!” he greeted me cheerfully. “How may I be of assistance?”

“You know where I’m going, dweeb,” I joked before getting in the passenger seat next to him.

“Ah, yes, the evil lair of the vampires.”

“...come again?”

“You’re getting blood work, right?” he asked me. “Where’s the only possible place where people just take your blood? A vampire’s evil lair.”

I couldn’t resist the urge to laugh.

“I swear, you watch too many movies,” I said. “Would a vampire give you a legitimate results and information about your health?”

“You know anyone could fake blood test results, right?” Seb pointed out, confident in this refutation.

“I think I’d be able to tell,” I replied.

Seb rolled his eyes. Whether or not he was admitting defeat, or finally decided that I wasn’t worth drilling unfounded conspiracies into, was beyond me.

“One of these days,” he said, “You’re gonna find out that I was right. And when the apocalypse inevitably comes, you’ll have no pity from me when you turn into a mutant or a vampire.”

“You’re lucky that you’ve got someone as smart as Akira backing your ideas,” I replied. “I’m sure you’d look crazy without her.”

“Buddy,” he laughed, “I’m crazy regardless. But...I seriously don’t get it...why do they need your blood to determine all this?”

“That’s where, like, everything is, dude,” I explained. “The nutrients, the cells, etc. It’s the only way to determine if I’m still allergic to eggs. Didn’t you pay attention during science class?”

I knew the answer to this question, of course. Seb got a 58 in science last year. He claimed he was too busy making articles for AkiSeb Theories, but Akira got an 83--and she does most of the heavy lifting for the website, anyway.

“I’m telling you, man,” Seb said. “They’re probably just vampires. Same goes for the freakazoids who run those blood drives.”

“You idiot, they run blood drives for people who need transfusions,” I sighed. “If someone’s, like, bleeding out and no one goes to the blood drive because oh no it’s run by vampires, we’re gonna give them strength to take over the world then tough luck! That person’s gonna die because everyone’s a bunch of bloody cowards.”

“Relax. I know why blood drives are made! Lighten up, man.”

I let out another exasperated sigh. I didn’t really mean to sound so bitter--he truly was my best friend, and one of the few idiots in school I can put up with without pulling my hair out--but the least he could do is sound like a legitimate reporter instead of a paranoid doomsayer.

“Sorry, man,” I said. “Past few days have been kind of...stressful, and the last thing I want is to have to do this.”

Seb looked at me with a cheerful grin.

“Don’t worry about it!” he reassured me. “I get it. It’s almost the end of junior year, everyone’s just about done with everything. In my defense, though, it’s either you ride with me and let me drive you insane, or you take the subway and deal with hobos, angry pedestrians, and plague rats.

“Yeah…wait there are no plague ra—eyes on the road, Sebs!” I cried.

“Oh! Right.” Seb just missed a black Sudan before parking in the lot of the doctor’s office. “Good luck,” he joked as I got out of the car.

“Oh, can it,” I retorted playfully. I walked inside and checked into the doctor’s office. I was told by the receptionist to head to the basement levels for the bloodworks, and that I would be with Dr. Jasper Kermit. I nodded and went on my way.

[inomana]

Okay listen up losers I'm about to prove a fucking point.

So my presentation will be about proving season 3 Shiro is a clone and why DreamWorks made it too easy. I rewatched a crapton on episodes to make this, I need to sleep. 

If you guys didn’t notice the first thing Clone Shiro, umm wait imma call him Kuro Kuro looks at is his hand and a Galra symbol.

And that in and of itself is a big clue because there’s already a lot of meaning behind that since season 2. In which, Hunk and that team discussed how the arm can be used against them.

Memory is key! How could Galra have Shiro’s memories? The arm! Like Hunk said, if it could create memories than it’s pretty safe to say it can record them too.

Linking that with the shot of the Galra emblem is a huge deal in symbolism. Trust me I’m an English major, I deal with this shit all the time.

(I’m writing this on my laptop and phone at the same time, godspeed)

Speaking of symbolism, Ulaz made an appearance when Kuro was dazed

(Is that even Ulaz? I can’t tell I’m bad with faces)

This does two things. Reaffirm Kuro’s undying trust with his arm, and make a connection with Galra as a comrade. Lemme explain;

During Shiro’s ‘I can suddenly remember shit’ scene in season 2? He die-hard believes the memories are his and not a [insert dream here] from Galra, by showing him Ulaz they are trying to recreate that same feeling.

By showing him a Galra (regardless of being evil or not) you’re connecting the dots with trust.

That could be a good reason why the Galra decided to give Shiro a weaponized arm in the first place. Why would they power him up for shits and giggles? Haggard herself even said this:

(Bitch, no thanks.) They wouldn’t have given him a cool fighting arm just so he could be cooler in the arena. That’s fucking idiotic to arm a prisoner. (sorry)

This wouldn’t even be the first time Haggard had some evil version of Shiro

Remember this scene from season 1? Cuz I sure fucking do.

Speaking of that arm, why would they take it in the first place? Listen, it’s already pretty fishy they gave him a super arm but why would they take it at all? Dare I say, D N A ?

This leads me back to this scene here:

Why would Kuro hurt himself? A French term can explain this, ‘L’appel du vide’ translation: The call of the void. Basically, your brain is telling you to self-destruct in order to take control of a situation.  Now we already discussed how the Galra controls his brain sort of so that’s that.

Now I know what you’re saying: Oh! But that’s so he could close the wound!!

Listen, man, I did training with an Army doctor on quick fixes for medical emergencies. Now I’m not saying I’m an expert cuz I’m not, but if Kuro did that do it to heal himself up it wasn’t done correctly. Or at least done accurately…. Especially with an unknown power. This might be wrong, it was a brief training,  so don’t take this part too seriously.

Adding to this point:

If you’ve ever seen anyone wake up from a long coma, and I mean  l o n g  coma, they don’t have full feeling in their muscles and tend to fall because they do not have full control of their limbs. I’m assuming by the hair this hasn’t been up and about for enough time to get that effect.

Speaking of hair, yes guys, Kuro’s hair is WAY too long to be Shiro.

(Lmao, Shiro/Kuro w/ long hair; hit or miss??)

Kuro’s hair shows that he hasn’t cut it in at least 1 ½ years. There might not be much context of how long he was missing but I’m sure as hell it’s couldn’t be more than a few months since Keith was searching through the Glara rubble.

<Man, all these analytical essays are finally paying off>

This scene here:

Is a big clue. For real why would the Black Lion do that? Send him into more danger? That’s not right.

Well, guess what, she didn’t.

Remeber this gem? I sure fucking do.

She sent him with someone he trusts, Matt. This really makes sense cuz mATT JUST HASN’T SHOWED UP BUT IS OBVIOUSLY REALLY IMPORTANT *cough* sorry, I don’t know what came over me….

Not only does Shiro trust him but so does Pidge, and I know those two never really had a connection but they kinda all share a state of thought while forming Voltron…

So the Black Lion theoretically has seen Pidge’s thoughts and stuff. Theoretically Black has two reasons why to trust Matt.

The Black Lion has so many reasons to send Shiro to Matt and not some Galra base.

This can also help understand why the Black Lion didn’t trust Kuro.

From what I’ve seen (or remember seeing at 4 AM, I haven’t slept in 45ish hours guys, help) all of you guys think that Black knows that’s not Shiro from the Connection they have but that might not be it!

Kuro thinks he’s Shiro, he has the same memories, the same body, the same scar on the face! So the Connection can still be there, what he doesn’t have is Matt with him.

Which wouldn’t make sense because Black sent him there, so it’s ridiculous cuz “hey I sent you to be with your buddy? Why didn’t you bring him along to see his sister who has been searching for him like crazy???”

That could be why the Black Lion found Kuro and trusted that was the OG but then changed its mind and was like ‘no thanks’ when she saw Matt wasnt with him.

I mean look how….happy?? She looks when they find him!

Why would that change after the fact? The Connection had to be there in order to sense him in the first place. It just makes sense.

Also look at the symbolism here again:

Kuro is in a Galra ship, it’s so subtle you might not even catch it (unless you’re used to over analyzing everything in order to fit 3 more pages into a term paper like me)

Instead of animating Kuro getting physically off the fighter they show them apart, separated from Black. They show him in enemy weaponry.  

As an enemy kinda…

(I’m getting too into this…)

This is Kuro while he’s being cloned

This is Kuro after he’s ‘escaping’

Sounds like the plan was a success, but all that happened was Kuro getting away? I don’t know about you but prisoners stay locked up, unless they aren’t.

They even say Kuro’s is approved for Operation Kuron!

Also from that scene:

Kuro was given that codename ‘Subject Y0XT39′

But Shiro already had a codename, and it wasnt that.

Its ‘Prisoner 117-9875′

Subject and Prisoner are two different things and two different codes.

Kuron is already a huge fucking clue. I donno know if you seen this yet but,

Shiro’s name is literally White and the opposite is Black or Kuro which sounds a lot like Kuron

If you think that’s just a coincidence then try this:

Just try telling me this isn’t legit?

To add just a bit more, Kuro and Keith clashed a lot while both trying to lead Voltron.

He also made it so Keith looked like a weak leader, which he was not once he got more use to the role.

Appearance wise, Kuro is different from Shiro in a low key way. First off both haircuts he has where different from Shiro’s. They’re all horrible but that’s a different story.

His cloths is different too, it shows more skin. The sleeve shows his arm and he took off his glove. Symbolically this means he trying to be more open, more free, more approachable.

This would make it easier to give the wrong feeling of trust to the team, which is the plan Kuro was given

*searching through my notes* okay did I miss anything…? Ah Yes!!

When Shiro first meets those two freedom fighters the transmission radio picks of two things; something less important about Lotor and Voltron.

Which one was ignored and which one was heard?

Yes guys, Kuro didn’t even pay attention to Lotor cuz that’s not what he was told to do. He was told to find out about Voltron which, he did.

Also with those freedom fighters, we learn this:

It wouldn’t have been easy to escape injured and tired. When he escaped the first time it was with the help of Ulaz. They didn’t even try keeping him there, he wasn’t restrained and didn’t have any guards. The only thing trying to stop him were those androids they know Kuro/Shiro could easily defeat.

And last thing.

And I think this is the most important thing.

He didn’t finish that sentence.

He didn’t say he wasn’t a traitor.

He didn’t have too.

This concludes my presentation on ‘Proving That’s not Shiro but Kuro the Clone’

Thank you for your time.

For my next presentation, I will talk about why we should save Kuro and love him indefinitely

Help Me Out?

[nighthaunting]

I have an interesting idea for you: Based on the timeless isle daily quest about the history of the world. What if Darion Mograine had become the new Lich King instead of Bolvar? The man's all about self-sacrifice, retribution and atonement. The Ebon Blade backed by the Scourge work machine can only be an asset... what fun to contemplate~! :D

i have so many feelings about darion becoming lich king! 

like, i understand that bringing bolvar back was a last-minute thing because they realized that if arthas died and the threat of the scourge was finished forever, they’d never be able to bring it back into the storyline. and i do actually like bolvar as lich king insofar as what i imagine his struggles are trying to remain somewhat moral and reasonable while contending with the weight of both arthas’ and ner’zhul’s legacies and the ‘memory’ of their wills in the scourge. (and obviously not always managing to negotiate that slippery slope, if legion is any indication).

but also, darion’s whole life has been self-sacrifice. its very bleak, but i fully imagine him being raised by alexandros with the idea that darion can somehow achieve greatness and it will ‘make up’ for elena’s death and what alexandros feels was elena’s lost potential. which is a hell of a thing to teach a little kid, when it boils down to ‘you have to succeed because otherwise your mother died for nothing’. especially considering alexandros is the one who’s really At Fault for elena dying in the first place, and although arguments could be made that at least part of his shitty parenting was a result of him knowing that and being guilty about it. the result is that darion grew up to be a person who is highly skilled, highly intelligent, highly ambitious, and with very very little self-worth. the omnipresent idea that elena sacrificed herself so he could live made a very deep impression on darion. and so the combined notion that self-sacrifice for a loved one is the greatest expression of love, as well as the idea that he himself needed to be held to a higher standard to be ‘worthy’ of that sacrifice (and thus, worthy of love) literally drove him to suicide at the first light’s hope. 

and to sort of segue into a tangent for a moment, tirion absolutely did not know that darion’s idea of what the greatest expression of love was when he told darion that ‘only a greater act of love can undo an act of evil’. and tirion was honestly horrified that darion took his advice like that, even if it did save the argent dawn. 

the way i imagine it is like this: tirion and darion are at icecrown’s summit after arthas has been defeated. terenas’ ghost tells them that there must always be a lich king. bolvar died at the wrathgate, and his soul rests now, saved from the darkness of the shadowlands by the red dragonflight’s cleansing fire. the helm of domination rests on the ground between them, and tirion picks it up, contemplating the dimly-glittering jewel and the cold ridges of saronite that make up the helm’s faceplate. tirion would never ask anyone to make a sacrifice he himself would not, and so he intends to assume arthas’ place as lich king. darion stops him. tirion is still mortal, and still one of the living, there’s no reason he should resign himself to undeath when he has the option not to. darion is already dead, and has already served as the lich king’s right hand before he was freed at the second battle for light’s hope. he knows the workings of the scourge, and the necromancy to control them, and has been tied to arthas and ner’zhul’s wills before and broken free. he tells tirion to give him the helm, and tirion does.

i don’t tbh imagine darion deciding to go into the ice, because that was half a writer’s decision to store up the scourge until they wanted to make storylines for it again, and half because i imagine bolvar was still like, tremendously injured by being plagued/burned/tortured. so darion just takes off his own helmet, and for the first time in a long time tirion sees his bare face again. still painfully young, kept hidden behind armour for a reason, and it makes tirion’s heart ache a bit. and then darion slides the helm of domination over his face, and his eyes close, and then open again, the gemstone set into the helm’s faceplate sparking with a new glow, and the lichfire in darion’s eyes more pronounced than before. as he turns away from tirion to take his seat on the frozen throne, tirion grabs him by the arm and pulls him into a hug. its slightly awkward, but tirion doesnt want to let him go without reminding him that tirion is there for him. 

and so darion sits the frozen throne. he doesnt allow the ice to take him, because barring kel’thuzad’s shade that wanders the shadowlands, he knows more about the scourge than anyone even nominally alive at this point. he begins calling the scourge back to icecrown. he summons koltira and thassarian and tells them simply: any death knight who isn’t willing to serve him now is free to leave and make their own ends, but he is still highlord of their order, and he wants them to assist in managing the scourge. i feel like the majority of them accept that, because i have a lot of feelings about darion having the respect and honest admiration of his knights. he tried very hard to be a good boss for them, and they’re willing to stay in his service now that he’s lich king. 

they set out to contain the scourge. its a Process, to say the least. the undead themselves are easy to manage, because the psychic might of the lich king can reach nearly across the whole of azeroth. its the living cultists that are the problem, and darion issues an ultimatum, return to icecrown and serve the scourge, or die. 

i think things are a bit different in this, that there’s not so much a Great Secret that the lich king still exists, so much as its well known that the ebon blade moved into icecrown and is working on destroying the leftover plague caches and containing all the random scourge and so forth. naxxramas gets cleaned up. acherus is moved to hang out over the shadow vault or maybe even the argent tournament grounds once the argent crusade decamps. 

its a bit confused, but as i understand it the val’kyr and so forth went looking for work because bolvar was sleeping/moping/whatever and some of them just left. darion doesn’t allow this. he has his death knights to think about, and the val’kyr were their spirit healers, so he very swiftly re-establishes the lich king’s vigil so his knights can be raised by the val’kyr if they should fall. 

sylvanas doesnt throw herself off of icecrown, sylvanas isnt particularly welcome in icecrown. no one is quite sure if sylvanas knew about the wrathgate or not, but what is known is that she had approved research on the new plague, and darion isn’t about that plague life. as the leaders of the two undead factions, they write very terse letters to each other, and darion moves his efforts to gather up all the scourge’s necromancers along that much quicker, once he realizes that sylvanas is hunting them too. 

and so time passes. in chronicles its made pretty explicitly clear that deathwing hesitated to emerge while arthas was active bc the lich king is such a badass, but when bolvar decided to ‘sleep’ instead of doing anything he took his chance. i feel like darion is a balance between the two approaches to lich kinging: he’s not sleeping in the throne, he’s out and about in icecrown working to restructure and manage his kingdom, because he was raised from birth to be a highlord and he takes his responsibilities seriously. but he’s not plaguing things and being gratuitously evil and actively building his army. so deathwing probably pops up eventually, but perhaps it takes a while longer than in canon, so there’s more time for things to heal post-wrath. 

i don’t really see things being Very different than in canon beyond that? arthas knew the legion would eventually come for azeroth, and his plan to kill everyone and make the scourge super powerful was half motivated by his own crazypants ideas and half because he’d decided that the best way to fight the legion was with a world unified in undeath under his rule. darion inherits this knowledge, and at least part of his rebuilding of icecrown is motivated with the legion’s eventual invasion in mind. he doesnt know when it will be, but he warns tirion that the legion will someday return, and at some point or another he probably set the cult of the damned (or what’s left of it at least) to attempting to find ways to un-plague things so the lands can be healed, just like the cenarion circle and argent dawn and earthen ring have been attempting to do. 

this got really long, but i adore the idea of lich king darion? he has such a practical mentality most of the time, he’d try making the best of it, especially since he isnt saddled down with any more angst over being undead than he had before, and repairing the scourge and fixing things the scourge broke was the way he intended to atone Anyways. 

but also, i leave you with this mental image: three lich kings’ worth of rage being brought down on kil’jaeden’s head when he invades azeroth. ner’zhul’s fury at being used and lied to lingering on as a memory within the lich king’s power. arthas’ despair and pain at failing to save his kingdom from ruin before he went mad and destroyed the rest of it himself. darion’s faith, that even when he’d never shown skill with it the light would guide him to set things right; and darion’s love, that he’d lay down his life without hesitation for the people he cares about. 

[megacircuit9universe]

Cage Match

FRI SEP 18 2020

I really did want to keep my posting to just once a week or less. Every time I do one, I risk oversleeping and being late for work the next day.

And today, when I woke up and checked my phone, to see that Trump had announced he was going ahead with the TikTok ban, ordering it to be out of the app stores by Sunday... I figured that could wait until next week to talk about.

Users who already have the app installed on their devices will still be able to use it, and a full crackdown (the execution of which is legally murky) isn’t slated to begin until mid November, after the election... and thus might not happen at all, or... might only be a few months long, should Biden win.

But then, just around sunset, I received a notification on my phone that Ruth Bader Ginsberg had died.

We all knew she was 87, and had been in and out of the hospital battling cancer over the past few years... so this shouldn’t have been too big a shock, but... we all prayed to Jesus, Mary, and God that she would make it to 2021 at least.

Trump has already gotten two conservative justices into the Supreme Court... the first thanks to McConnell refusing to hold any hearings for Obama’s last nominee, Garland, in March of 2016, because a general election was happening in just eight short months... and the second, after Justice Kennedy retired unexpectedly, under shady circumstances.*

Even if it’s not true that Kennedy was pressured to retire by Trump, who had dirt on his son... you cannot say that blocking Garland was fair, unless you agree that it’s also fair now, to hold off on any hearings to replace RBG until after the current general election, which is only six weeks away.

But that didn’t stop Mitch McConnell from coming out only ONE HOUR after the death of RBG today, and saying the Senate will definitely hold confirmation hearings for her replacement as soon as possible.

In the second hour after her death, her body still warm, not yet stiff, Republican trolls went out on Twitter and all other social media, like hounds, released to justify the immediate confirmaton of whoever Trump nominates to replace her, calling to bypass hearings altogether... because look what a circus the Democrats made of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, right?

Democrats had to immediately strike back, rolling clip after clip of McConnell, and Graham, from 2016... still in their PRESENT TERMS expounding upon the public’s sacred right to have a say in any Supreme Court nomination, so close to a Presidential election.  My oh me... how could anybody disagree?

These are not clips of young Graham and young McConnell from 1996, arguing for impeachment... against their gray haired selves from 2019 saying impeachment is wrong... this was four years ago Graham and McConnell arguing against themselves from earlier in the self-same six-year term they were last elected to... for which both are up today, for reelection.

But the hypocrisy of the impeachment example only serves to magnify the hypocrisy of the moment for both of them. And in the present political climate... with Trump just having been exposed on Tape admitting to a caronavirus cover up, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives... voters are keenly taking note.

Both of these guys, two of Trumps top sycophants in the Senate, have enjoyed decades of easy congressional races in safely red states against weak, token opponents who stood no chance of beating them.

But in 2020, that’s not been exactly the case. Both these assholes have had to spend some real money, and sweat a little, as, for the first time in their careers, polls have been showing their opponents within striking distance of unseating them.  And that was before today.

I hinted in the last entry that Trumps exposure by Woodward justified his impeachment.  Why?  He was impeached for holding back despirately needed weapons to an ally, unless he got some falsely manufactured dirt for his reelection in exchange, and he did not care how many Ukranian lives were lost as a result.

But, GOP senators failed to remove him and, when Caronavirus came along a few months later, Trump witheld PPE and ventilators from American governors, and left all American citizens hanging out to dry, even on the basic informational level about the threat... again, for the sake of reelection.

They should have removed him, but they couldn’t, because they’d already removed their testacles and handed them up to him in a slavish offering of cult loyalty... and now, here they are... trying to fuck us over again, in the eleveth hour, to replace a Supreme Court Justice who... even as I write... is days away from having a proper wake... much less a burial.

But this is not just because of slave-ball oaths to an authoritarian spank daddy... the GOP has been salivating about overturning Roe V Wade since long before Trump joined their ranks, and now... like Golem, from LOTR, hissing and salivating over the One Ring... they see it within their grasp!

PRECIOUS!!!

This is why, an hour after her eyes went cold, the 2020 election turned into a no-holds-barred political cage match to the death, tonight.

Dust clouds are billowing... people are breaking kitchen sinks over one anothers heads... spitting out teeth after getting punched... then jumping up to go at it some more.

The big questions here are:

1) What happens to the nation if they do replace Ginsberg immediately?

2) How will this affect the voter turnout on November 3rd?

3) How will the shift in the balance of the Supreme Court affect the outcome of the election, should Trump sue to challenge the results when he loses?

4) How are we all not going to die?

The big answer is... it all depends on how big a win Biden gets on election night.  If biden loses... or it’s too close to call... or  only wins by a slim margin in one state... or only wins by a slim margin in two states... we are all royally fucked up the ass.

If that’s the case, then, even if Ginsberg’s replacement wasn’t already rammed through, he will be, and then the election results will go straight to the new Supreme Court, who will rule in favor of Trump, and then he’ll effectively be King.

Because... with the Supreme Court behind him, and with his second term a go, he’ll invalidate the House and Senate election results in the months before the new House and Senate can come in... and once he’s stacked congress in his favor, he’ll be invincible.

On the other hand...

If Biden wins a decisive victory on November 3rd... over 270 in the Electoral College, with all the states that gave him those electoral votes, having done so by large margins that can’t rationally be contested...

Then even if Trump has replaced Ginsberg, the Supreme Court will refuse to hear any challenges to the election results, and the Military will recognize Biden as President Elect.  The House will continue to resist, having potentially grown stronger, and the lame duck Senate... possibly housing a lot of lame duck Republican Senators, will stand down... taking solace that they packed one extra conservative Justice into the court before their ride was over.

And then, when the new Congress comes in, with Democratic majorities in both houses (because this would be the case if enough Democratic voters turned out to give Biden a decisive victory on election night) they’d expand the number of Supreme Court Justices from 9 to 11... or 13... to mitigate the nighmare scenario where Roe V Wade gets overturned, etc.

So...

Which outcome is more likely?  A solid win for Biden on election night?  Or a contestable win / outright loss for Biden?

Presuming that voter suppression, and foreign tampering are turned up to 11, in favor of Trump... can Democrats so overwhelm the polls that Biden still gets that decisive victory?

Well... in some other year, probably not.

But in 2020, probably yes.

Why?

Well, for starters, all the anti-abortion voters already always vote in every election.  You can’t scare up any more of them to get to the polls, because they’re already, always at 100% attendance... primaries, generals, federal, state, gubenertorial, mayoral, dog-catchorial. 

So, the long awaited (from their perspective) death of evil RGB, will not change that base line.

On the other hand, the long dreaded death of RGB, will bring out legions more young women, between 18 and 35, who do not want Roe V Wade overturned.

The banning of TikTok... which Trump also committed to today... will bring out legions of voters, 18 to 35, who are feeling very keenly the threat to their free speech and expression that this move represents.

And this is on top of all the voters, young and old, who normally don’t vote, who were already champing at the bit to defeat Trump and his junta for a thousand other contemporary reasons, from Covid19, to protest crackdowns, to calling all fallen soldiers suckers and losers, and on.

Very few extra right wing votes will be cast on election night, in comparisson, by crackdown supporters, or people who want to see more denigration of war heros.

In short, the cage match atmosphere that the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg has now created for this election... Doesn’t do much to help an anti-abortion turnout that’s already maxed out.  But it does motivate pro-choice turnout like crazy, especially among young women who are facing a life of oppression if they don’t get out there.

And that same dynamic goes for all younger voters, and all armchair liberals of older generations... for related reasons.

And these people are overwhelmingly white, and middle to upper class... meaning that voter suppression techniques, and foreign tampering won’t affect them.  They are a sleeping army, immune to such tactics.

Voter suppression targets minority people of color and the poor.  Foreign social engineering techniques target the poorly educated, and mentally ill.

That worked in 2016, when the electorate was snoozing... didn’t want any part of the drama... when Millenials were apathetic, and Gen Z was too young. 

The world has changed in four years.  A lot!

So, it’s time for bed again, but I do see a clear pathway for dramatic change on November 3rd... and the TikTok ban, and the death of RBG only intensify the potential for a sound smack down of Trumpism, and hyper-conservatism.

*Justice Kennedy’s son Justin, who became the head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank, worked closely with Trump in the years before his presidency, swinging him billion dollar loans at a time when no other bank would loan to Trump.  

Such dealings were almost certainly criminal to some degree, and so it is speculated that Justice Kennedy resigned to avoid a scandal.

Calls were made for the Judiciary Committee to investigate, before the Senate held any hearings to nominate Kavanaugh as his replacement, but they were steamrolled.

[deathglare]

UNFINISHED (If someone else wants to continue the story, please go ahead!)

Commander Peepers becomes the talk of the ship once his diary is discovered, and he must do everything in his power to prevent the news spreading to Lord Hater.

((Just something I wrote for fun while on a long car ride! Probably filled with errors, but it was fun to write regardless!))

Commander Peepers scribbled anxiously in his diary, his red glove clutching the pen tighter as he continued to write. Lord Hater was most definitely asleep — Along with a majority of watchdogs — but the Commander wanted to take extra precautions as to not arouse suspicion. His lights were turned off, and he lay under his blanket beside his flashlight. If any emergency were to occur that required anyone barging in to his room, all it would take was a swift motion to click the flashlight off to appear as though he was sleeping. The Commander, ever since the defeat of Lord Dominator, hasn’t been able to bring himself to sleep. It was odd, to say the least, that after defeating what kept him up for months, a new problem started gnawing at his stomach the same day. It was a feeling he couldn’t, and wouldn’t dare to try and describe. All he knew is that they were connected to Lord Hater, and if he wanted to continue to be a productive commander, he’d have to destroy whatever feelings plagued his vision.

“Dear my very manly, very evil logbook meant for only the most crucial details involving my life…”

Peepers muttered quietly under his breath, without even realizing he was doing so. “It is to my great misfortune that I must bring up my feels dealings with Lord Hater once more.” Peepers took a moment to give the word ‘feelings’ a few more hashes through it, his gut feeling like it was twisting. That was not the correct word, it was just an easy mistake brought forth by his exhaustion. Clearly. “It appears as though I can’t stop thinking about him in ways indescribable by even the smartest watchdog: Me. It’s like hatred, but not really at all. It’s miserable and…” Peepers shuddered a bit as he continued to write, the tip of his pen pressing harder in to the paper. “… Happy at the same time, which only makes it twice as more miserable. Every time I close my eye I see him conquering plants, or shouting threats, and so on. I’ve noticed that, peculiarly, I hate not being around him more. And certainly not the good kind of hate.” Peepers felt his heart beating faster, a feeling of dread laying heavy in his chest. The more he wrote, the more obvious it became, and the more denial he forced himself to feel. “Surely all second-in-commands feel fondly of their boss in the same manner. It is nothing significant or worth worrying about. Perhaps all this spawned from the pride I felt at seeing him act all tough and brave and strong when—” Peepers’ pupil shrunk in realization. There was no denying it, and absolutely no possibility of ignoring it any longer. The pen barely contained any pressure as he sloppily wrote, barely allowing himself to look down at his own writing. He couldn’t help but mutter out the words. “I appear to have a certain endearment to Lord Hater.” Peepers wailed in despair, his current thoughts outriding his goal to keep quiet. He slammed his eye repeatedly against the cover of his diary, in some hopes to knock the feelings out of him. It was ridiculous, embarrassing, and worst of all, the exact opposite of evil. Hater would be ashamed of him, but nowhere near as ashamed as Peepers was with himself. “Uh, sir?” Peepers frantically waved his arms as he panicked to switch off his flashlight and shove his diary under his pillow. Afterwards, he ripped his blanket off his eye to face whomever entered his room. “WHAT!?” Peepers shouted irritably, quickly blinking away the wetness in his eye. Several watchdogs were standing at the door of his room, peering in. Peepers blinked again, this time in confusion. “We heard you yelling and—” “NO YOU DIDN’T!” Peepers shouted before he grabbed his blaster and threw it at the door. It slammed it shut, knocking over at least two watchdogs in the process. Peepers glanced at his alarm clock. 7:00 AM. “Oh grop!” Peepers quickly scrambled out of bed, frantically reaching for his helmet as he slipped in to his shoes. “I lost track of the time!” In a matter of seconds, Commander Peepers was ready. He quickly opened his door and pushed the crowding watchdogs aside, rushing to catch up on his duties. With as much effort as he could, he left his feelings in his room and focused on his job.

“Greetings, dear viewers! Today, there has been an overwhelming request for today’s special topic involving none other than our very own: Commander Peepers!” Andy the watchdog held his microphone proudly as he spoke. “Lately, our commander has been reported to be, and I quote, ‘Not himself’. It’s got every one of us watchdogs talking and curious.” Andy began walking down a hallway, his eye not leaving the camera. The watchdog carrying it kept it as steady as possible as he followed him. “Rumors have been spreading throughout the Skullship! But today, dear viewers, I will get to the bottom of all of it, just as you requested! Dangerous? Of course! But not so much so that I would consider not satisfying my dearest, special viewers!” Andy halted in front of a door, and gestured to it with his hand. “This is the Commander’s room! It is time that we begin investigating!” Without a moment’s hesitation, the watchdog entered the room, walking lightly on his feet. “There isn’t much to search in here…” Andy stated as he glanced around the surprisingly empty room.

Andy walked towards the bed, which was left in the center of the room. It wasn’t made.

The watchdog gave a quick glance around the room, double checking to make sure he was the only one there before he began pulling at the blankets. His hands gripped something peculiar, and he quickly pulled it out for inspection.

“A flashlight! Perhaps our Commander has developed a fear of the dark?” Andy pondered a minute as he continued to examine the object.

“Nah, that can’t be it.”

He stuck his hand back in to the blankets. After just a few moments, his fingers slid under the Commander’s pillow and he felt another object. Immediately, he pulled it out. Bingo!

“Aha! All our answers might be answered in this… Diary?” Andy questioned, holding it up closer to the camera.

Without thinking of the possible consequences, the watchdog began flipping through the pages.

“Now, we don’t want to invade all of Peeper’s privacy. We’ll just skip to last night’s entry, and see what we can get.”

With book in one hand and microphone in the other, Andy stopped at the previous day’s date. He mumbled out the written words as he read, carefully searching for evidence. When his pupil reached the final sentence of the page, it shrunk before looking back up at the camera.

“Commander Peepers has a certain endearment towards Lord Hater! Could this be w—”

“ANDY!” The watchdog quickly turned, tossing the diary up in to the air in shock. Commander Peepers was standing in the door way, his eye bloodshot in anger. Though frightened at first as the commander began approaching him, the watchdog quickly tried to regain his composure for the sake of the show.

“Commander Peepers, sir! What exactly did you mean by a certain endearment?”

Peepers’ pupil shrunk as Andy held out his microphone towards him.

“I.. YOU…” Peepers stuttered in anger, shock, and embarrassment. His fists were clenched and shaking. “GET OUT OF MY ROOM AND DELETE THIS FOOTAGE BEFORE ANYONE SEES IT!! BY THE TIME I’M DONE WITH Y—”

“Oh, uh, this is actually broadcasting live across the Skullship! It is Live-Friday, after all!” Andy “winked” at the camera.

“I… Live F-Friday?” Peepers looked at the camera, his pupil even smaller.

“That’s right, sir! The Eye on The Skullship’s Live Fridays, where every Friday the show is live! We just started doing it last week!”

“So you mean to tell me that right now, who knows how many watchdogs are watching this, and saw you… Reading that?” Peepers pointed at his logbook.

“That’s right sir! All for the sake of the watchdog’s curiosity!”

“ANDY!” Peepers quickly reached for his diary, holding it close to his chest.

“Sir! One time I saw you and Hater walk in to the smooching room together! Is there a relationship budding!?”

Peepers turned around to see a crowd of watchdogs outside of his room, all either staring at him or the camera. Andy wrapped his arm around the watchdog who had spoke out before holding out his microphone once again to their commander. The watchdogs then began speaking of other instances involving Hater and Peepers.

“Wha— NO!” Peepers shouted, quieting the chattering watchdogs. “I couldn’t believe that we had six smooching rooms, Lord Hater was simply showing me that they existed! There is NOTHING going on between us!”

The watchdogs were quiet for several seconds before Andy asked another question.

“Do you wish there was?”

Before Peepers could respond, another voice shouted out above the rest.

“OF COURSE HE DOES!”

Peeper’s felt his stomach drop as Wander appeared from the middle of the crowd, a smile taking over the majority of his face.

“Oh grop, no.” Peepers squeaked out in disbelief.

“COME ON EVERYBODY, WE GOTTA TELL HATER SO WE CAN START PLANNING THE WEDDING!”

Wander yelled out a “yee-haw” before running out in to the hallways.

The watchdogs watched him run off before turning to Peepers.

The commander held out both of his hands, signaling for them to all stay in place so he could speak.

“Weddings have cake!” A watchdog shouted. Not a second afterwards, the watchdogs began running with Wander.

“NO!” Peepers quickly ran after the group, frantically trying to raise his voice over the cheering and chatter.

“Commander Peepers! I bet our viewers are just DYING to know what flavor cake you plan on having!” Andy fell back from the crowd to run beside his commander.

Wander appeared from seemingly nowhere and got in between Peepers and Andy’s microphone.

“Well, I was thinking about having a layered devil’s food cake with buttercream icing, custard filling, and some luster dust! Hater does love his glitter!”

Peepers shouted loudly over the two. “THERE WON’T BE A WEDDING! THERE WON’T BE ANYTHING!”

Wander’s smile didn’t falter. “Sure there will! When Hater finds out how you feel, he’ll realize that you two have always been close, and you two will fall in love and get MARRIED!”

Peepers came to a halt, grabbing Wander by his arm. He continued running forward a bit before he bounced back, much like a rubber band.

His immediate reaction would’ve been to threaten him, but he knew that it wouldn’t work.

“Listen! You have to use your banjo or something to stop them!”

Wander tilted his head in confusion. “Why? Don’t you want Hatey to know how much you care about him?”

Peepers blushed and screamed in fury. “I DON’T!”

“Well, why not?” Wander asked. His genuine sound of confusion was infuriating.

Peepers took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.

“You trying to pair us up is just as crazy as trying to pair him up with Dominator!”

“Aw, C. Peeps! This is way different!” Wander wrapped his arm around Peeper’s shoulders, leading him forward.

“Sylvia helped me learn that you can’t force love.. But you and Hater are already in love!”

Peepers shuddered at the “L” word. Before he could respond, Wander continued.

“Dominator and Hater barely spent any time together, it was silly of me to think that they could’ve gotten married after a music number when they weren’t  even friends yet… That’s how Sylvia explained it, any way. What you and Hater have is definitely special, it’s easy to see why the watchdogs are so supportive!”

“They’re only supportive because they want cake!” Peepers argued. “Lord Hater and I are buddies, I admit that, but we aren’t, and CAN NOT be anything more than that!”

Wander stopped walking, and Peepers shoved his arm off.

“But why?” Wander’s confused face returned. “You two already spend every day together, and you’ve got significantly closer than when I first met you two! Plus, the two of you would be ADORABLE together!”

“Why is this so hard for you to understand!?” Peepers shouted. “Hater does NOT like me in that way!”

Wander’s confused face turned to one of worry. “But how do you know that?”

“It’s obvious!” Peepers couldn’t believe that he had to explain this. “If he already did, he would have told me!”

“And what if he thinks that way, only with you? I know Hater tends to usually be more forward with who he likes… But that’s what makes you special!”

Peepers groaned.

“PEEPERS! The watchdogs won’t stop barking at me!” Lord Hater came running down the hallway, a crowd of watchdogs following close behind him. They were all yelling loudly, and nobody could really make out anything they were trying to say.

“Oh grop, I completely forgot!” Peepers quickly stood up and ran towards the crowd, quickly trying to formulate a plan in his head as he confronted them.

Hater quickly ran to Peepers before standing behind him, glaring at the watchdogs who started chasing him.

Hater, without thinking, grabbed the journal from Peeper’s arms and threw it across the hallway. “FETCH!”

The watchdogs were quiet for a moment and looked at each other. Peepers looked to Hater.

“Sir, they aren’t—”

Before Peepers could finish, the watchdogs ran after the journal. They wanted to find the page that Andy read.

“Phew!” Hater smiled at himself for his clever plan. “What do you think that was all about?”

Before Peepers could think of a response, Wander ran up.

“Hater, C. Peeps has something to tell you!”

“WANDER!” Hater turned towards him, his fingers already sparking with lightning. Peepers turned his attention to the group of watchdogs that had started running back, much louder than before.

Wander began running in circles, with a screaming (and very angry) Lord Hater following close behind him. The group of watchdogs split: One group went after Hater, and the other went after Peepers.

[upthenorthmountain]

Disneyland Paris Ride Reviews

Here they are! Reviews or all the rides and shows we experienced. So there’s a few missing that we didn’t do for various reasons, but we hit the majority of what was available to us I think!

DISNEYLAND PARK

 FANTASYLAND

 Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

At Disneyland Paris the castle is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant). There are steps up inside the castle and you can see stained glass windows and tableaux with the scenes from Sleeping Beauty, and also step out onto the balcony to see the view over Fantasyland. There is a dragon under the castle - if you walk up from Main Street and head round to the left of the castle, not over the bridge, you will see the sign for La Tanière du Dragon. There is also a shop inside the castle selling jewellery and crystal, and sometimes you can watch someone making glass roses.

The nighttime show, Illuminations, is mainly projected onto the front of the castle. It starts at park closing - currently 11pm - and it’s a good idea to take your place at least an hour before. There is a lot of projection, also fireworks and fountains, and as we left the park afterwards Mickey Mouse was standing on the balcony of the Main Street railway station waving and wishing everyone goodnight, which was a lovely touch.

 Royal Castle Stage

This is to the right of the castle, coming from Main Street, and there are currently two shows using it - Joyeux Anniversaire Disneyland Paris in the morning/lunchtime, and the Starlit Princess Waltz in the afternoon/evening. Both shows are mixed French and English. The first has a cast of different characters and they do a birthday song and one with sections for each of the lands in the park. The princess show features eight princesses, who dance, then their princes come on and they all dance together, because Disney knows how to give the people what they want. There are a few stone benches but you’ll need to get there fairly early to get one; otherwise you’ll end up sitting on the floor but Disneyland has the cleanest floors I’ve ever seen so whatever.

 Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains (Snow White and the seven dwarves) 

This is a Snow White dark ride, which sounds lovely! But two years ago when I took a four year-old and a six year-old on it, by halfway through I was hugging them both and saying ‘I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just close your eyes, I'm sorry’ because they were fucking terrified. It opens with happy dwarves and woodland creatures, but then immediately heads into the dark woods, with scary trees lunging at you and the witch constantly appearing and a dungeon full of skeletons, one of which jumps right at you. Then a brief scene of Snow White and the Prince waving at you, then the ride is over and you have to stop everyone crying. You think I am exaggerating. I am not. What the hell were they playing at. Worse than the Phantom Manor because at least you expect that to be scary.

 Les Voyages de Pinocchio 

Now this is more the thing! A traditional dark ride, scenes from Pinocchio, jolly good stuff. Boys turning into donkeys, being eaten by a whale, just what you'd expect. Not that exciting but it is nice in a traditional sort of way

 Le Carrousel de Lancelot 

The first time we went to DLP as a family was in 2014, and we were only there one night and didn't have time to do everything. Several times we walked past this lovely carousel and I told the girls we'd do it later, but we never got round to it. When we returned in 2015 I said we'd go on the carousel first, marched straight into Fantasyland and it was surrounded by hoardings as it was being renovated. But this time! We went on it! First of all! And it was lovely. A lovely carousel with lots of horses that go up and down, as carousel horses should, I can’t stand it when you go on a carousel and your horse doesn’t even fucking move, but it’s okay because Disney understands me.

 Peter Pan’s Flight 

Another dark ride but you ride in a flying pirate ship, out of the nursery and over London to Neverland. Newly renovated and much more colourful and sparkly. Flying in a boat makes it that much more fun, until the ride breaks down, and everyone has to be evacuated, and you’re ten feet above Neverland and cast members have to help you down with ladders, and today it was warm so you wore a skirt, and your six-year-old was so very brave so you have to be brave too even though it is Surprisingly High. Walking back through the closed ride was awesome though and we rode the ride several other times without incident.

 Disneyland Railroad

Steam train that takes you round the park. We only went halfway on it on this trip, from Fantasyland through Discoveryland to Main Street, which is cool because you go through the top of It’s A Small World and you can wave at the boats; I think the other side through Frontierland has a Grand Canton tableau thing but I forget. The main problem is that if they only have one train on you can wait up to half an hour for it to come round again.

  Meet Mickey Mouse 

Here is where you can meet Mickey Mouse, all day, because why not. And they will take your picture. Does what it says on the tin. Can be quite a long queue but you’re inside and can watch cartoons on a big screen.

  Dumbo the Flying Elephant 

You sit in the elephant and there is a lever to make it go up and down. A bit of a slow loader so can build up quite a queue but I think an essential part of the Disney experience. Let the small child accompanying you believe that you get scared when it goes all the way up and it will vastly increase their enjoyment or maybe my daugher is just evil.

  Alice’s Curious Labyrinth 

Alice in Wonderland themed maze in two parts; the first is pretty much a walkthrough, with a few different paths and dead ends but it isn’t really possible to get lost; you run into the Caterpillar and the playing cards painting the roses red and can take a picture. After this section you can exit, or you can enter the Queen of Hearts maze, which is a proper maze, and has a castle in the middle that you can go up. A good arrangement as children are satisfied with the first section without having to risk spending time getting lost and frustrated. Only open during the middle of the day, I’m not sure why; when we were there it opened at 11am and closed at 5pm.

 Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups 

Another Disney classic and the canopy and lanterns are very pretty. You can turn the disc in the middle to make the cup spin faster, possibly while laughing maniacally….guys, I think my youngest daughter might be Slytherin

 Casey Jr - le Petit Train du Cirque (the little circus train)

 This is the circus train from Dumbo, and it shares space with the Fairy Tales boat ride; you can wave at the boats as you go round and see some of the scenes and the central castle. These two rides are set a little back from the rest of Fantasyland, behind Alice’s Labyrinth, and they close earlier for some reason (7pm while we were there, the rest of the park not closing until 11pm). This is a good little trainer rollercoaster and it plays the Casey Jr song all the way round, as it should.

 Le Pays des Contes de Fées (the land of fairy tales)

A boat ride past scenes from various fairy tales, some Disney (Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Aladdin etc), some not (Peter and the Wolf, the Wizard of Oz etc). Nice and relaxing and plenty to look at. Not very exciting though and probably best for little ones.

 It’s a Small World

This is a goddamn classic and no Disney trip is complete without multiple rides, I am not even joking, I think we went on it four times on this trip? And a good time was had BY ALL (the good time is compulsory). This had been newly renovated and looks very shiny but WHY is the ceiling still just tiles? Why is it not painted black? There are even things that draw the eye upwards - kites in China, monkeys in Africa - and then it looks like an office building or something. Paint the ceiling! Black! It would be so easy!

 Princess Pavilion 

This is the place to meet a princess! It had changed a bit from our last visit - then, you queued up before it opened at ten and got a timed ticket to come back and see whichever princess was on duty. This time you just had to wait in the queue, but there was a sign saying which princess you would see, which was good because then we could decide whether to bother. If you have a Priority or Easy Access card you can go in the morning and get a timed ticket but they only have so many so best to go early. We saw Rapunzel one morning and my husband queued with our eldest daughter for two hours to see Aurora in the afternoon, which was 100% worth it because Aurora is her favourite and she hadn’t met her before and we have a photo of her face when she first saw her and I’m tearing up just thinking about it

 DISCOVERYLAND

 Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast 

This is a ride that is also a game! You have a laser gun and you have to shoot the targets with a Z on them to defeat Emperor Zurg. You get points for hitting the targets and it is possible to get very competitive. Every photo from this ride has me frowning in concentration. I always ride with a child and I always win. Because it’s a continuous loader, they have to stop it every now and again to help someone with reduced mobility, if this happens while you’re on the ride find the closest target and hit it over and over.

 Orbitron

Like the elephants but you ride in a rocket ship that goes up and down. I’m not good with heights and this seems to go very high and not be entirely stable? And you slide from side to side and I’m not super big on it. I’d rather ride the elephants again to be honest. It makes me uncomfortable and whenever I’m on it I just want to get off but other people love it so what do I know

 Videopolis Theatre 

This used to have an awesome Lion King show but now it is the Jedi Training Academy, which we didn’t do, but we did enjoy a performance from the Calidcott Musical Theatre Company while we were eating at the fast food restaurant that’s also in the building so that was nice.

 Star Tours: l’Aventure Continue 

This has all be redone and relaunched and it so much better! Not as rattly, 3D screens, and in theory you get a different ride each time (our first and second rides were different, the third was the beginning of the second with a different ending). It’s all in French which I suppose can’t be helped but did impact our enjoyment a bit. But very slick and I enjoyed it a lot.

 Starport 

We met Darth Vader! That was nice. He was a bit scary but we were brave.

 Hyperspace Mountain

Space Mountain but skinned as a Star Wars ride - I’m not sure if that’s permanent, as a lot of the Jules Verne-esque theming was still in place, but it was fun. The ride now has space battles, big screens with spaceships and lots of lasers and sound effects, pew pew pew. I think at the beginning it says you’re flying to Jakku? But my French isn’t good enough. We didn’t realise until the last day this was open in Extra Magic Hours or might have gone on it more, but did manage six rides between us which was pretty good (I rode with eldest daughter twice, and she rode with my husband twice, youngest daughter not being tall enough to join us).

 Autopia 

Little cars that you drive along the track; there is a steering wheel but you don’t have to steer properly if you’re lazy or six years old. Someone over 1.32m has to control the pedal. You have a little drive through the countryside then you spend ages queuing up to get back to the platform to disembark. Eldest can drive the car herself and loves it, youngest can’t reach the pedal but loves to steer or at least try to.

 ADVENTURELAND

 Pirates of the Caribbean 

Is still closed for refurbishment which is a BIG PILE OF POO. This is youngest’s favourite ride and we couldn’t do it. So it gets ZERO POINTS.

 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril 

Mine car rollercoaster, a bit rattly and jerky but good fun, has one 360 loop. Good theming, tucked away right at the back of Adventureland. I think for a few years they ran this backwards? But it’s forwards again now.

 La Passage Enchante d’Aladdin 

A walkthrough with scenes from Aladdin. This was closed on our last visit but this time we all enjoyed going up Aladdin’s Enchanted Passage.

  FRONTIERLAND

 Phantom Manor

This is the Haunted Mansion. A bit hard to follow the story if you don’t speak French, something about a bride? She keeps turning up, certainly. Another Disney classic and I know I shouldn’t keep complaining about the language barrier when I’m the one who willingly went to a foreign country but it does make it not as good as at the American parks, for me.

 Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing

You can ride the riverboat round Big Thunder Mountain. Pretty slow and not enough seats and we didn’t bother on this trip. There are some tableaux along the side of the lake, mostly on the outside, so stand on that side of the boat if you want to see them.

 Big Thunder Mountain 

Mine cart rollercoaster, has been updated with new scenes including a dynamite blasting section, top stuff. The ride loads on the side of the lake and most of the track is on the island, so you immediately plunge into a pitch-black tunnel before surfacing to climb and go round and round, then back through a black tunnel full of bats to the platforms. Just the kind of thing I like and it’s got even better since our last visit.

  WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

 BACKLOT

 Rock’n’Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith

A rollercoaster in the dark, with loud music and flashing lights. Launch start. Very fast, don’t put your head against the headrest or it’ll get rattled to pieces, I like it but it’s very intense and the theming seems a little bit dated now.

 Moteurs...Action! Stunt Show Spectacular featuring Lightning McQueen

We saw this on our last trip but not this one. Quite long and didn’t seem to know if it wanted to be a stunt show, or a Cars show, or showing film special effects, but good if you like that sort of thing.

 PRODUCTION COURTYARD

 Studio Tram Tours: Behind the Magic

You ride in a tour tram thing and see some props from such blockbuster hits as Dinotopia, Reign of Fire and Pearl Harbour, none of which I’ve seen, has anybody? But there’s a bit where they show special effects with rain and fire and a flood which was quite cool. Sit towards the right of the car if you don’t want to get wet. But it was a hot day so we didn’t mind. Needed more to look at as some parts of the road were empty and that was a bit dull.

 Disney Junior Live on Stage! 

We saw this on our last two trips but not this one as our two are growing out of Disney Junior a bit, and the show badly needs updating. There are alternating French and English shows so check the times.

 TOON STUDIO

 Animagique Theatre

The current show here is Mickey and the Magician. We had to queue for about half an hour before the show but it was well worth it, it was a very good show with live singing, magic tricks, lots of songs and dancing. In general, Mickey speaks French and the other characters speak English, but the plot isn’t complicated and is mainly an excuse to show songs from different Disney films. The theatre is also air-conditioned and has comfortable padded seats which was almost worth the wait by itself.

 Cars Quatre Roues Rallye

Similar to the Teacups, but you’re sat in a Car and they move round each other in a figure-of-eight and you keep thinking you’re going to collide but not quite doing it. In theory each car seats four but my husband and I are average-sized and only just fit side-by-side in the back row of the car. Good fun though and doesn’t make you as dizzy as the teacups, not me anyway.

 Crush’s Coaster 

This is AWESOME and probably my favourite from this trip. The rollercoaster car is shaped like a turtle shell, with two seats facing forward and two back, but once you get into the rollercoaster section it spins so you’re facing forward, backward, this way and that way. Starting off forwards you see more of the shark, starting off backwards you see the jellyfish better, but it doesn’t matter once you get past the first few scenes and into the East Australian Current, which is a dark rollercoaster section with spinning lights and occasional turtles. Smooth except for when it rights you at the end which can be a bit jarring. Top stuff.

 Les Tapis Volants - Flying Carpets Over Agrabah 

The thing about this ride, which is like the elephants again but with flying carpets, is that it should clearly be in Adventureland in the main park, which has a big area themed for Aladdin, but I’d guess there isn’t room for it, so it’s in the Studios park, with the genie there and supposed to be directing a film? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. The ride itself is good though, smooth and quite fast. Nice breeze on a hot day.

 Art of Disney Animation 

This building currently has an area where you can meet Belle - don’t believe the times in the programme, she was here all day, with a long queue (again, if you have a Priority/Easy Access card you can get a timed ticket but get there early as they only have so many). There is also an exhibition of Disney concept art and, my favourite part, an area with little desks shaped like the bottom half of Mickey Mouse and a cast member who teaches you to draw a Disney character. We all drew Stitch. The drawing bit was a nice change of pace and also I got to show off a bit and the cast member said my picture was very good, she really did, no honestly

 Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Remy

This was my favourite ride on our last trip and it is still my second-favourite (Crush’s Coaster, which we didn’t ride last time, has just pipped it). You wear 3d glasses and ride in a little rat and it is all very slick and immersive. Half in English and half in French but not much dialogue so it’s easy to follow.

  TOY STORY PLAYLAND

 Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop

You sit under a parachute which goes up, then drops, four times over I think. I didn’t ride this one but I was informed that it is higher than it looks and you have a great view; it feels secure as it drops; and that it is very good.

 Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin

My husband won’t ride this one as it gives him a headache but my head, which can be delicate, doesn’t mind it. The dog goes round and round and a bit up and down. Quite bumpety and you get pushed to the side of the car.

[malcolmxfanclu]

100+ Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

100+ Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Mahatma Gandhi, or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was born at Porbandar in Gujarat, on October 2, 1869. People also call “BAPU” or “Father Of The Nation.”

He was not an ordinary man. He was God’s gift to India. Gandhiji believed in non-violence and love. He was against untouchability and all sorts of injustice in society. His body was frail but his soul was mighty. His philosophy is so great that he is regarded as “Mahatma.”

“Simple living and High Thinking” was the motto of his life. He gave us so many quotes about Life, Love and Nonviolence. Following is the list of Mahatma Gandhi’s Quotes.

The real love is to love them that hate you, to love your neighbor even though you distrust him.

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

where there is love there is life.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Non violence is a weapon of the strong.

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

God has no religion.

A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own conscience.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

My life is my message.

Peace is the most powerful weapon of mankind.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Be the change you want to see in the word.

I believe that there is no prayer without fasting and there is no real fast without prayer.

I wish to change their minds, not kill them for weaknesses we all poses.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

A man is a sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else.

God has given me no control over the following moment. I am concerned about taking care of the present.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

If you want real peace in the world, start with children.

Dreams at first seem impossible, Then seem improbable, and finally when we commit ourselves, become inevitable.

Faith is put to the test when the situation is most difficult.

Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.

No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

First, they ignore you, then laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

Ashram means a community of men of religion. I feel that an ashram was a necessity of life for me.

A nation's culture resides in the heart and in the soul of its people.

Action expresses priorities.

I have no disciples, being myself an aspirant after discipleship and in search of a guru.

The future depends on what you do today.

Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not even one man’s greed.

Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people.

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one’s own religion.

you must be the change you wish to see in the world.

To lose patience is to lose the battle.

We have to hand over the earth, the air, the land and the water to the children at least as it was handed over to us.

What is truth? A difficult question; but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the “Voice within” tells you.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

The weak can never forgive.Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Civilization is the encouragement of differences.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

The one religion is beyond all speech.

You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise ever moment limits of its compromise in practice.

Love is the strongest force the world possesses, yet it is the humblest imaginable.

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends but to befriend one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion.

To retaliate against the relatives of the co-religionists of the wrong-doer is a cowardly act.

Have faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the whole ocean doesn’t become dirty.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path.

you must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

First they ignore You, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

God lives, but not as we. His creatures live but to die. But God is life. Therefore, goodness is not an attribute. Goodness is God.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.

All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others.

Distinguish between real needs and artificial wants and control the latter.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory. When you want to find Truth as God, the only inevitable means is love, that is nonviolence.

If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

What is faith worth if it is not translated into action?

Faith becomes lame when it ventures into matters pertaining to reason!

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.

To answer brutality with brutality is to admit one’s moral and intellectual bankruptcy and it can only start a viscous cycle.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.

We must become the change we want to see.

Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

The most heinous and the cruelest crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives.

Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it.

Faith... Must be enforced by reason...When faith becomes blind it dies.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such.

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children.

Patience means self-suffering.

I’m a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours.I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present, God has given me no control over the moment following.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Hate the sin and love the sinner.

Religions are different roads converging on the same point.

Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

Democracy and violence can ill go together. Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side.

It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machinery's of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.