#avowed speculation

[tarbuchyloewenthal]

Avowed Tinfoil Hat Time

one tiny lore tidbit that is fairly obscure, and actually might have a lot to do with the story of avowed is that the emperor's scepter has an adra jewel which stores the souls of past aedyran kings and queens.

this comes into play in a couple of lines with sargamis from the barbarian gamescom footage, when the player and the oracle speculate a bit on just why the emperor would send our envoy in particular.

could the ancient souls in the scepter, y'know the major icon of aedyran heraldry

could the ancient souls have communicated to the emperor that our godlike envoy might have some connection to the living lands. and could that connection go all the way back to the godless and the origin of the two major ethnic groups in aedyr? both the meadow folk and wood elves are said to have originated in the far north.

north, vitally, being the direction in which lies the living lands. was there some calamity that caused the godless to flee and become the far distant ancestors to the aedyrans?

i don't quite think the timeline would match up, but if it does. . . oh boy oh boy oh boy

[tarbuchyloewenthal]

re upping my lil pet avowed theory

based on this info

[bragganhyl]

Y'know given Avowed's whole "there aren't many godlikes left" thing, allow me to serve some copium bc I personally don't think that godlike Watchers died and there is sufficient enough lore reasons for that

In case you never played Seeker, Slayer, Survivor, or you forgot about it, near the end of the dlc we meet Aexica, the person behind the Seeking Face and the ghost of an Engwithan animancer who worked on the Crucible which was basically a test version for the Wheel which was built next

As she explains, the Crucible and the Wheel emits (or used to emit in the Wheel's case) a signal that Watcher souls also emit - the Watcher sees souls and the souls see them back, remember? That is why the Engwithans could divert the natural flow of souls towards the Wheel instead and Aexica also explains, figuring out how to mimic the Watchers' soul signal was the hardest part of the project

Which basically means that even though Watcher souls are juicy and probs would make the best snack, in terms of long term survival, the gods are better off leaving godlike Watchers alone so they could be studied or maybe even have their souls power the new Wheel in a worst case scenario

[slayingfiction]

List of 400+ Dialogue Tags

Below is a full (but not exhaustive) and updated list of dialogue tags. Dialogue tags are a widely debated topic for writers, some saying you should only use said, others arguing the opposite. You will get no opinion for me—only a list to use as you wish :D

Some words may differ in categories based on context.

Expressing Agreement or Confirmation

Acknowledged, Admitted, Affirmed, Agreed, Apologized, Confirmed, Conceded, Gibed, Professed, Reassured, Verified, Vouched

Initiating or Continuing Conversation

Added, Began, Chimed In, Commented, Continued, Conversed, Discussed, Elaborated, Greeted, Interjected, Offered, Proposed, Remarked, Went On

Making a Declaration or Announcement

Announced, Attested, Declared, Decreed, Emphasized, Enunciated, Proclaimed, Revealed, Stated, Voiced

Formal or Deliberate Communication

Chanted, Concurred, Observed, Postulated, Preached, Put Forth, Reasoned, Surmised, Testified

Indirect Communication 

Digressed, Hinted, Implied, Insinuated 

Providing Information, Explanation or Speculation

Alleged, Articulated, Asserted, Clarified, Doubted, Equivocated, Explained, Guessed, Imparted, Informed, Lectured, Noted, Predicted, Quoted, Recited, Reported,��Theorized

Expressing Doubt or Uncertainty

Doubted, Faltered, Guessed, Hesitated, Pondered, Questioned, Speculated, Wondered, Ventured

Seeking or Giving Advice

Advised, Coaxed, Proposed, Recommended, Remonstrated, Suggested, Supposed, Urged

Animalistic

Barked, Croaked, Growled, Hissed, Hooted, Howled, Hummed, Roared, Snarled 

Expressing Discontent or Frustration

Complained, Fretted, Grumbled, Protested, Ranted

Demonstrating Authority or Command

Avowed, Commanded, Crowed, Decided, Demanded, Dictated, Directed, Insisted, Instructed, Maintained, Ordered, Pressed, Proclaimed, Reprimanded

Displaying Confidence or Assertiveness

Asserted, Assured, Boasted, Bragged, Claimed, Piped Up, Pledged, Spoke Up, Told, Vowed

Exhibiting Anger or Aggression

Accused, Bristled, Challenged, Cursed, Erupted, Exasperated, Fumed, Groaned, Huffed, Raged, Seethed, Snapped, Spat, Stormed, Swore, Threatened, Whinged

Displaying Sadness or Despair

Anguished, Bawled, Bemoaned, Blubbered, Cried, Despaired, Grieved, Lamented, Mourned, Sobbed, Wept, Whimpered, Worried

Persuasiveness 

Appealed, Begged, Cajoled, Convinced, Persuaded, Petitioned, Pleaded, Prayed

Conveying Fear or Worry

Cautioned, Entreated, Gasped, Quaked, Shuddered, Stressed, Trembled, Warned

Softly or Quietly

Breathed, Called, Crooned, Murmured, Mumbled, Muttered, Sighed, Whispered

Loudly or Forcefully

Bellowed, Boomed, Cried Out, Hollered, Screamed, Screeched, Shouted, Shrieked, Thundered, Wailed, Whooped, Yelled

Demonstrating Disgust or Disdain

Cringed, Gagged, Griped, Groused, Rasped, Scowled, Sneered, Snorted

Expressing Mockery, Disrespect or Sarcasm

Dared, Imitated, Insulted, Jeered, Mimicked, Mocked, Ribbed, Ridiculed, Scoffed, Snickered, Taunted 

Doing Annoyingly

Gloated, Goaded, Nagged, Pestered, Provoked, Sassed, Tattled

Emotional or Expressive Communication

Grunted, Mewled, Panted, Quavered, Sniffled, Snivelled, Squawked, Whined, Yowled

Showing Empathy or Comfort

Comforted, Consoled, Empathized, Soothed, Sympathized

Indicating Thoughtfulness or Reflection

Contemplated, Echoed, Mused, Pondered, Recalled, Reflected, Remembered, Reminded, Reminisced, Retorted, Reiterated

Expressing Humour or Amusement

Cackled, Chirped, Chuckled, Giggled, Guffawed, Jested, Joked, Laughed, Quipped

Revealing Information

Confessed, Confided, Divulged, Disclosed, Expressed, Hinted, Revealed, Shared, Spilled, Uttered

In a Flirtatious Way

Bantered, Cooed, Flirted, Joshed, Moaned, Purred, Teased

Demonstrating Surprise or Astonishment

Gasped, Marvelled, Yelped

Indicating Hesitation or Reluctance

Faltered, Hesitated, Stammered, Stuttered

Engaging in a Dispute or Argument

Argued, Bargained, Bickered, Contended, Debated, Disputed, Negotiates, Objected, Rebutted, Shot Back

Showing Enthusiasm or Excitement

Beamed, Blurted, Cheered, Exclaimed, Gushed, Raved, Rejoiced, Sang, Squealed, Trumpeted

Expressing Approval or Praise

Applauded, Complimented, Encouraged, Exhorted, Extolled, Lauded, Praised

Speaking in a Continuous or Repetitive Manner

Babbled, Chattered, Jabbered, Rambled, Rattled On, Repeated

Questions and Answers

Answered, Asked, Cross-examined, Inquired, Implored, Probed. Prodded, Prompted, Queried, Questioned, Quizzed, Requested

Expressing Criticism or Disagreement

Challenged, Chastised, Chided, Condemned, Corrected, Countered, Criticized, Deflected, Demurred, Denounced, Scolded

Negative or Deceptive Communication

Denied, Droned, Exaggerated, Interrupted, Lied

Finishing the Conversation 

Concluded, Finished, Thanked

Neutral or Miscellaneous

Admired, Consented, Foretold, Invited, Mentioned, Mouthed, Pointed Out, Replied, Said, Sputtered, Volunteered

Don’t forget our Grand Opening Giveaway starts February 1st/24 on Tumblr, Instagram and slayingfiction.com! You don’t want to miss it!

Happy Writing!

[bunabi]

You don't have to respond to this, I just don't have anyone irl who likes DA as much as me, but as a big fan of Origins I keep hoping for the next game to scratch an itch for me and with each game I get further and further from what I'm looking for. The in depth character backgrounds (that had real impact on the game!), the combat (it turns out I lothe RTS unless it's DAO but for some reason I love DAO's combat so much), and the impact of your choices are all things that seem to diminish with each game. I also agree with your frustration at not being able to be mean, I'm usually a goodie two shoes in games but my favorite Warden was one I made pragmatic and comfortable with authority to a dangerous degree because the brutal choices in Awakening result in the best outcomes for Ferelden. Plus even if you prefer the kind choices, you can't make choices unless you're given them. Luckily there's BG3 and Avowed coming out but it still feels like such a loss every time a new DA is released.

I wanna respond because you raise good points. 😔👍🏿

I feel the same way. I'm ride-or-die for Thedas as a world — the lore is easy to jump into and the amount of half-truths makes speculation really fun — but the games have strayed further and further from my personal tastes.

No DA entry is the same in its approach or execution, so I think having mixed opinions is completely natural.

Compared to Mass Effect which sticks to it's formula pretty closely from ME1 to Andromeda, DA is constantly changing. I think it could have benefited from more consistency. I understand why that wasn't always possible.

You're allowed to be disappointed or wistful or critical without it being construed as like...giving ammunition to bozos or tearing the developers down.

If we can't discuss those things what are we supposed to do? Sit in a circle pretending those features never mattered lol? That I never liked having more roleplay freedom, never liked companion relationships having more tension, never cared about tactics? No I don't think I will.

And I say this while fully accepting DAV for what it is. Even if I wasn't blessed with a code from EA I had every intention of playing it myself. I bought the art book. I've done two zines this year and contributed to two more. My career revolves around making art directly inspired by Inquisition's. Haven't read all the comics & books but I'm as 'hardcore' as it gets.

Me, of all people, being called a fake fan for wanting blood magic or not feeling the character model proportions shows how emotionally charged and unhinged things have gotten

All that to say: I think the best way to be a fan of anything is to acknowledge the good and the bad and let others do the same. So long as those conversations are in good faith there's nothing to lose and everything to gain fr.

[1001aus]

okayokayokay last bit of unsolicited flailing I am most definitely not stealing your idea I won't be writing this it's just giving me brainrot

Ice convinces the Pentagon that they're time travelers. He wants wanted to be an admiral and to that end spent a lot of time studying the history and evolution of modern warfare. He knows dates and names and locations which is convincing because why would a spy know so much about every front of the war? What the Japanese are doing and the Germans and the Russians and and and.

But little of that information is useful even if it's convincing. What good does it do them to know Operation Overlord will be a success or the exact day Italy surrenders? How does it help them to know the name of the man who will demystify the enigma machine?

It's Mav who convinces the Pentagon they can be useful. There isn't a plane flown by any military that he doesn't know something about. For the more common ones—his knowledge of the planes flown by the Luftwaffe and Japanese Imperial pilots are especially interesting to them—Mav knows how fast they are, how much force they can withstand, what kind of weapons they usually carried and with how much ammo.

Once he's been questioned for every scrap of information he can remember about planes it's decided that they're already commissioned navy officers and pilots so they may as well take advantage of their competence. It helps that Mav wants to fly so badly he'll agree to just about anything and Ice won't leave his wingman to his own devices.

Ice has put the pieces together already about Blizzard and Wild Thing.

For him the comparison was always complimentary so he didn't fight it as much. He didn't train himself to dismiss all thought of the famous aviators so it's easy for him to read the writing on the wall even before they get their new callsigns. He already knows they won't make it to the end of the war.

Maverick gets blindsided when they get their names painted onto their new planes. Even then he doesn't quite put the pieces together.

I had the goddamned strangest dream which led to a weird story idea but I have no clue if I'll ever get around to writing it:

TimeTravel!AU where post Layton IceMav end up back in time in WWII, and after convincing the US that they're not spies (Ice: I'm a goddamned Polish Jew you think I'd willingly spy for the Axis? Interrogator: That's fair) they convince the Navy to let them fly for them.

It's a little rocky at first, having to get used to much slower aircraft, but once Ice and Mav settle in, they're deadly. Their kill counts quickly soar past Ace to Ace-of-Aces, with whoever is in the top spot swapping dogfight to dogfight.

It takes three years for the Luftwaffe to finally take out the two deadliest pilots to ever fly, sacrificing 20 of their brand new jet fighters to bring them down, losing over half in the process.

Iceman and Maverick wake back up in the future and finally understand why everyone had always compared them to the legendary WWII pilots 'Blizzard' and 'Wild Thing'.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Hello RTA! Could you explain what the red flags about Harry being a security risk are?

I don't have any sort of training in this, and I'm curious. How would the idiot party playboy Prince who is an avowed drug addict and a fantasist be considered as a source of reliable intelligence about his family? - this guy thinks there are penguins in the North Pole.

I'm more inclined to believe that the recent conspiracies over Catherine may have been encouraged by those who want to destabilize UK democracy - taking down William and Catherine would certainly cause some upheaval. But as I said, I have no training and this is just speculation. What do you think?

Well, you can't discount anything these days. The world changed a lot with COVID so there's a lot of upheaval everywhere.

To me, the attempted takedown of William and Kate reads a lot like bored people stirring shit up about boring people for entertainment. Because let's face it: compared to a lot of other worldwide famous people, William and Kate are probably two of the most boring and uninteresting people out there. They have complicated jobs but lead uncomplicated lives, which isn't the norm these days. Social media and the 24/7 news cycle has made us realize that most famous people are hiding complicated, messy lives and it's only a matter of time before it comes out. So when someone like Kate comes along - someone extraordinarily likeable and extraordinarily uncomplicated - it's so unthinkable that denizens of social media will do everything they can to break that person down to discover the skeletons in their closet. They do this to either a-tear them down off the pedestal society has placed them upon (e.g., "see? I always knew she was a bad person. I'm glad I didn't waste my time supporting him/her"), or b-feel better about themselves (e.g., "see? Even I know not to do that).

That's what I see happening to Kate. People can't handle that she's so ordinary and uncomplicated despite having this incredible life. They're accustomed to scandal and controversy and it's so bizarre to them that Kate's only mistake is that her skirt blew up at a windy airport and everyone saw her bum twice so when the photo edits were discovered, there was a wicked "see? I always knew she wasn't a very trustworthy person. What else has she lied about" gleefulness that perhaps she isn't so unlikeable after all.

But certainly bad actors or adversaries who want to shake things up are probably participating in the discourse about Kate. I don't think they want to shake up or destabilize UK democracy (and besides, even if they did, this is totally the wrong avenue - they need to disrupt the economy instead because all they've done is expose that Kate is happy staying at home with her family and not working so she really couldn't give a shit about the monarchy). I think it's more like they want to weaken her influence over culture, society, and the public...but the problem with that is who do they replace her with? The only options are Meghan, Charles, and Camilla, but they just don't galvanize public sentiment the way Kate (and her children) has.

Anyway, well, that's a tangent.

Let's get into the red flags and the security piece of your question. I submitted a couple of anons to another blog about this very topic a long time ago. I'll see if I can track that down later.

So some vocabulary first:

Insider threat: Someone with authorized access to or knowledge of an organization and its resources (which is everything from people to buildings/facilities to information to equipment and infrastructure).

Protected information: Information that you need authorized access to, which may or may not be classified and/or restricted.

Bad actor: Someone (a person, a group, a country) who purposefully engages in harmful behavior against another (person, group, country, region, etc.)

Adversary: An enemy

Bad actors and adversaries are often used interchangeably but this isn't correct. They're distinctly separate. A bad actor isn't always an adversary.

Harmful behavior is a huge wide range of things from the unethical and immoral to criminal and illegal. On one side of the spectrum is stuff that's pretty innocuous, like not telling a colleague a meeting was moved so you can take exclusive credit for work. On the other side of the spectrum is more serious stuff like espionage and terrorism.

When we consider whether someone is a security risk, we're looking at a) their predisposition to engage in harmful behavior and b) their predisposition to be exploited by a bad actor or an adversary. To do that we assess what indicators or stressors (aka "red flags") they have. The more indicators your profile flags, the higher your potential security risk. The higher your potential security risk, the more scrutiny you're under.

And do note that having indiciators doesn't mean you're a threat. It just means you're watched a little more closely so your patterns are better understood and once your patterns/habits are known, then someone can decide what your actual security risk is. But just as equally, not having indicators doesn't mean you're not a risk or that you aren't a threat. So it's a negotiable spectrum that changes constantly from day to day.

There are six categories of indicators: personal, background/history, behavior, technical, environment, and violence.

I'm going to list examples of them all. I'll put a 🚩 next to the ones I see in Harry and a ❌ next to the ones I see in Meghan.

Personal Indicators - Items that reflect on events currently impacting the person. There are two subtypes: personal and professional/work-related.

Serious physical, emotional, or mental health concerns 🚩 ❌

Financial need 🚩 ❌

Address change/move 🚩 ❌

Death in the family or a close friend 🚩

Addiction - Drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, etc. 🚩 ❌

Criticism from partners, friends, work 🚩 ❌

Interpersonal relationship issues (e.g. a break-up, divorce)

Unmet expectations relating to role, responsibility, recognition, or compensation 🚩 ❌

Legal problems (e.g. bankruptcy, traffic tickets, lawsuits)

Demotion or failure to achieve anticipated advancement at work 🚩 ❌

Loss of seniority or status at work 🚩 ❌

Conflicts with coworkers/bosses, including complaints/criticism and bad performance reviews 🚩 ❌

Transfers/relocation

Termination, including end of contract 🚩 ❌

Background Indicators - Events that happen before an individual is hired or prior to gaining access. Not things that are easily known, typically pop up in a background check.

Involvement with individuals or groups opposing core beliefs or values of the organization

Engagement in activities representing a conflict of interest with the organization ❌

Addiction 🚩 ❌

Short-term employments

History of emotional or mental health concerns 🚩 ❌

Spending exceeds income 🚩 ❌

Criminal record

Concerning business relationships 🚩 ❌

Social or professional network concerns 🚩 ❌

Behavioral Indicators - Events reflecting patterns of activities based on how the individual interacts with others, including technology.

Unwillingness to comply with established rules, procedures, or organizational policies 🚩 ❌

Observable resentment with plans of retribution 🚩 ❌

Excessive or unexplained use of data copy equipment

Making unapproved contacts with competitors or business partners 🚩 ❌

Discussions of new opportunities or of resigning from current position 🚩 ❌

Excessive overtime work or working odd or late hours without reason or authorization

Bringing personal equipment into high security areas 🚩 ❌

Carelessness or impulsiveness 🚩 ❌

Inappropriate statements, jokes, or bragging 🚩

Poor social interaction or social withdrawal 🚩

Disgruntlement towards peers due to perceived injustice 🚩 ❌

Increasingly erratic, unsafe, or aggressive behaviors 🚩❌

Repeated breaches of rules, procedures, or organizational policies 🚩 ❌

Litigiousness 🚩❌

Exploitable behavior (including gambling, sexual misconduct, substance abuse, etc.) 🚩 ❌

Excessive volunteering that elevates access to sensitive systems, networks, facilities, people, or data 🚩

Financial difficulties or unexplained financial gains 🚩 ❌

Taking multiple, short unexplained trips outside the US

Efforts to conceal foreign travel and contacts

Technical Indicators - Those that require IT systems and tools to detect.

Direct correspondence with competitors ❌🚩

Email messages with abornomally large attachments or amounts of data

DNS queries associated with Dark Web activities

Use of activity masking tools (e.g. VPN or TOR)

Executing offensive tools

Executing malware

Connecting unauthorized devices to networks

Downloading or installing prohibited software

Unexpected activity otuside of normal working hours

Attempts to bypass or disable security controls

Unauthorized attempts to escalate permissions or privileges without need to know 🚩❌

Attempting to print or copy protected or restricted documents (including photographs)

Abnormally large number of software or operating system errors

Attaching an unidentified device to a workstation

Maintaining access to sensitive data after termination notice

Different users attempting to log in from the same device or workstation

Lack of log messages or monitoring data

Unauthorized modification of centrally stored files

Copying large numbers of documents to a local drive

Authentication failures or failed login attempts

Unauthorized database content changes

Irresponsible social media habits ❌

Attempts to access resources not associated with the individual's role

User accounts used from multiple devices

Multiple accounts identified for a single user ❌

Triggering of key words or phrases in emails, text messages, or phone calls

Lack of controls to prevent unauthorized modification of critical data

Use of excessive access privilege

Compromised passwords

Failure to protect critical files

Violation of need-to-know policies

Unauthorized data download

Organizational/Environmental Indicators - Factors within an individual's organization or environment that can be used to create motivation or justification

High stress environment 🚩 ❌

Lack of candor or transparency 🚩 ❌

Tolerance of poor performance

Toxic leadership 🚩 ❌

Inconsistent enforcement of policy 🚩 ❌

Inaction following notification of grievance, threat, or increased risk 🚩 ❌

Overly aggressive reaction following notification of threat 🚩 ❌

Inappropriate disciplinary action

Bureaucratic compartmentalization of information

Lack of understanding or awareness regarding threat risk 🚩 ❌

Pattern of ovework

Lack of appreciation for employees/members 🚩 ❌

Hightened financial uncertainty 🚩 ❌

Apparent indifference to complaints of harrassment or discrimination 🚩 ❌

Undertrained staff

Violence Indicators - Specific behaviors or collections of behaviors to instill fear or concern of physical harm to others. Three subtypes - violence, domestic abuse, and terrorism, bias, hate crimes.

Intimidation 🚩 ❌

Stalking

Emotional abuse 🚩 ❌

Domestic violence

Expressions of hatred or prejudice 🚩

Harassment or bullying 🚩 ❌

Excessive use of alcohol or drugs 🚩 ❌

Unexplained absenteeism

Change in behavior 🚩

Statements indicating desperation or suicidal thoughts 🚩 ❌

Resistance to change, persistent complaining about unfair treatment 🚩 ❌

Decline in job performance

Paranoia 🚩

Violation of company policies 🚩 ❌

Emotional responses to criticism (e.g., mood swings) 🚩

Threats of homicide/suicide

Personality changes 🚩

Constantly checking in with partners

Never having money

Overly worried about pleasing partners

Uncharacteristic absenteeism or lateness

Poor concentration

Signs of emotional distress 🚩

Expressing bias or hatred towards a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or disability 🚩

Browsing extremist websites

Expressing hatered or intolerance of US society or culture

Advocating violence for a political, religious, or ideological cause

Monitoring or recording security equipment, movement, or responses

Engaging in deception or concealment. 🚩 ❌

So as you can see, Harry (and Meghan) have red flags all over the place. That makes them a legitimate security risk for the UK and the BRF. All a bad actor or an adversary has to do is flatter their egos and give them money, and the Sussexes will roll over. It's happened so many times already - with Spare, with the Netflix docuseries, with Meghan's interviews and her podcast. And let's not forget Finding Freedom, where Meghan and Scobie literally printed directions on how to find the royal vaults!

And because it's very obvious Charles wants Harry back - Harry keeps coming back for events and there's all these trial balloons from BP/CH and Montecito - it would be very easy for someone to gain control of Harry and hold him hostage against Charles and the BRF. All someone has to do is say "Harry, you've been selected to receive the inaugural Princess Diana Humanitarian Award for Superior Excellence. It comes with a $4 million USD cash prize but you have to come to Bosnia and do a landmine event to claim it." Then Harry goes to Bosnia, they get him drunker than sin and higher than God, he passes out wherever, and they Weekend-at-Bernie's him to Russia, where he's held in the gulag, escalating their blackmail demands until Charles is broker than a busted doorknob.

Farfetched? Sure. But still possible, which means it's a valid risk they need to consider.

And when we assess risk, we look at the probability of such an event happening and the consequence of the event happening on a scale from 1 to 5 where a 1 in probability means not likely to happen or a 1 in consequence is little to no damage or impact and a 5 in probability means most certainly going to happen and a 5 in consequence means significant damage/destruction, including significant loss of life or millions and millions of dollars to fix/repair/rebuild.

So the probability of Harry getting kidnapped and held hostage in Russia is 1. It's pretty low, not likely going to happen. But the impact, or consequence, of Harry getting kidnapped and held hostage in Russia is a 5. Meaning there will be a loss of life (such as war or perhaps a CIA-like exfiltration that goes wrong or perhaps Harry getting sacrificed) or a LOT of money being paid to guarantee his safety.

But Harry doesn't even have to get kidnapped by the Russians. He just has to be so disgruntled and so pissed off about how the BRF and the UK treats him that he can leverage what he knows against Charles or William to get what he wants. Which is, by the way, exactly what's happening. Harry is so pissed off that he's devolved to ultimatums: "Give me X or you won't see my children." "Give me X or I'll tell everyone about the time you Y." Which, depending on who your neighborhood tarot reader is, is what people are saying is happening in the background: Harry is using his insider knowledge and/or access to cause harm to Charles and the monarchy to gain advantage over William or the public.

That's why Harry's still on the website. That's why he still has the titles. That's why the US is dragging its feet on the visa lawsuit. Because whether he (or we) realize it or not, there's protection around Harry that's working to keep him safe from extremist threats like this because to threaten - or activate - Harry is more dangerous to UK stability and UK democracy than social media activists declaring that the Waleses are divorcing.

Well, that took a wild ride.

Anyway, I hope it's helpful, anon. If you'd like to learn more about this kind of stuff, check out some of the free DOD-supported online training courses here. These are pretty similar to the annual training requirements I have to do for work so they should give you a good background on red flags and insider threats to help better see the threats and risks that Harry poses to the UK.

Also, just a real quick thing. Risk and threat don't always mean the same thing. Risk measures potential loss. Threat measures potential harm. Sometimes they're used to mean risk = potential and threat = actualized but not in the security world.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

one sacrifice ppl very commonly offer on behalf of their ideological commitments is to cultivate incomprehension of their enemies' psychology. you express yr commitment by declaring their ways of thought utterly alien and a strain to so much as reconstruct, and realise this commitment by actually believing their ways of thought to be utterly alien and finding them a strain to reconstruct. the flipside of yr positions being commonsensical (and yr opponents therefore lacking common sense) is that those endorsing incompatible views must be possessed instead of some alternative, uncommon sense, which can be understood only with difficulty. homo sum, alieni nihil a me humanum puto; i am human, and nothing alien is human to me

this is, ofc, common in fringe "high commitment" communities and movements, but we on the anglophone internet have all witnessed it flower with the polarisation of american politics: avowals of confusion as to how the other side could possibly be thinking, alongside tortured and clearly deliberately exoticised speculations as to what it could involve, are some of the commonest ways to signal affiliation. and some ppl repeating this will actually buy the hype

its tempting to draw sweeping generic conclusions from this, but sometimes this rhetoric is perfectly justified. to the extent someones beliefs are irrational, you cannot rationalise them. the trick is to only refuse to rationalise thought that actually is irrational. which ofc requires knowing what the answers are in any case already; there is no "meta" epistemological lesson to draw here. but thats how it always is

[sgiandubh]

I interpreted SAG not forcing members to break contracts they had already signed for fan cons to mean they didn’t have to withdraw their participation but members were still bound by strike rules that they can’t talk about struck work. My understanding is if members break this rule even at a fan con where they had already signed a agreement that would be a violation of the strike?

Dear Contract Anon,

It's fairly correct.

Let's unpack:

This is the general rule set by SAG-AFTRA: S must not participate in conventions, fan meet and greets, etc., that promote OL. Exception: conventions and meet and greets that have been contracted prior to the beginning of the strike and under the (suspensive) condition that no reference to the project is being made.

Same goes for fandom events, if these events are independent:

What are independent events, you might ask:

The Sasnak City event in Missouri is such an event: it is a grassroots initiative, managed by fans, for which he gets a fee or percentage. Also, here is your answer on the New York Comic Con, @mariaae: if the strike continues, doubtful you'll see him there. Sorry - guidelines are drastic.

And this is how we can already speculate on what happened in Missouri:

First of all, it's all scripted (hello?). More than ever, prior consultation on which questions are to be addressed is mandatory: the "should speak with the event organizer" must not be construed as a recommendation, but as an enforced obligation. So you can already comfortably assume they kept it fairly close to the guidelines and probably talked about 'your process, why you wanted to be an actor, what you like/dislike about working in the industry", etc. I bet for S it was not very difficult: Waypoints and such. Probably it's exactly why the mommies attending got all the feels.

Last, but not least, a very good point for self-avowed people pleaser S:

Read this carefully, Anon: "it is up to your discretion and what you are comfortable answering". That means: deflect, deflect, deflect. And smile, smile, smile!

So, unless S is a simpleton (he is not) or suicidal (come on!), chances he did not respect these simple rules are, in my educated opinion, a fat 0.

I would also call your kind attention on the event's poster:

No OL reference. No JAMMF. No STARZ. All of these were verboten.

Also, on sanctions. Given the almost complete lack of strike-related recent history, I am unable to tell you, at this point in time: a) what kind of sanctions would SAG-AFTRA think of, in the event of a breach of these rules, and b) what procedure would they follow in order to determine if rules have indeed been broken.

My money is on a membership withdrawal.

The way you formulated your question places you in Mordor. You sound almost sorry no rules were broken and it is my strong belief, unless proven otherwise, they weren't.

You disparage us every single day, but still come here for our expertise?

Sweet Lord. You are an impressive bunch of twats. I have no problem writing it openly.

[mariacallous]

On Sunday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and several other officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, died in a helicopter crash. This incident occurred following an unprecedented round of escalation between Iran and Israel in April, sparking speculation on the potential implications for Iran’s regional policy and the ongoing conflict with Israel.

Despite the sudden vacuum that has emerged at the top of Iran’s executive branch, the strategic direction of its foreign and regional policies, primarily determined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and influenced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are expected to remain unaltered. However, the recent escalation between Iran and Israel is already impacting Iran’s strategic thinking and its regional calculations.

For Iran, Israel’s April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus that killed several IRGC members, including high-level commanders, crossed a line. From its vantage point, both the targets’ seniority and the facility’s character represented an unacceptable Israeli escalation.

As an immediate matter, Tehran believed that leaving unanswered an attack on what it considers equivalent to sovereign territory could lead Israel to target more Iranian officials on Iranian territory. But perhaps more importantly, Iranian officials likely perceived the Damascus attack as the latest way station toward a bigger objective: an Israeli incursion into Lebanon aimed at cutting off Hezbollah’s logistical support.

Israel’s killing of Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi outside Damascus in December eliminated the Iranian chief of logistics in charge of supporting Iran’s nonstate allies in the Levant; a similar attack in January removed the IRGC’s intelligence chief in Syria; and taking out Gen. Mohammed Reza Zahedi on April 1 eliminated the chief of operations in that area.

Iran also needed to save face at home and among its regional allies. After the April strike in Damascus, some hard-liners started openly criticizing the leadership. Tehran thus felt it had to react with force, but needed to restore a degree of deterrence without triggering a war.

It squared the circle by conducting a highly telegraphed but massive drone and missile strike on Israel in the early hours of April 14. The priority was not death and destruction—though the scale of the attack risked both—but demonstrating that it dared to strike Israeli territory directly. Tehran likely chose which parts of its capabilities to expose while at the same time gathering significant intelligence on Israeli and U.S. defensive capabilities.

The commander of the IRGC’s aerospace force suggested that Iran deployed less than 20 percent of the capacities that it had prepared for the operation, whereas Israel, helped by the United States and other allies, had to mobilize its full defensive arsenal. If these claims are even remotely accurate, it raises questions over whether the successful defense could be replicated were Iran to mount an even more significant barrage using more advanced weapons, especially one that comes as a surprise and continues over an extended period of time.

While Israel and its partners largely succeeded in neutralizing the attack, Tehran boosted its standing among its supporters, and perhaps its reputation as an avowed defender of Palestinian rights on the Arab street as well. It achieved all this without distracting international attention from the horrors of the war in Gaza—a fact further highlighted by the pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses in the United States and some European countries.

From this perspective, the attack’s success came not from its limited military achievement but from the very fact that it directly targeted a powerful adversary backed by an even more powerful superpower. As Khamenei has contended, the key signal that Iran sent to Israel was Tehran’s high tolerance for risk, which aims to deter Israel from future operations aimed at decapitating the Iranian military and cutting off its hand in the Levant.

Yet the red line set by the IRGC’s chief commander immediately following the strike—that any attack anywhere on any Iranian target would be cause for another direct Iranian attack on Israel—was quickly shown to be an empty threat in light of Israel’s subsequent strike in Isfahan on April 19 local time, carried out with an air-to-surface missile strike from Iraqi airspace on an S-300 missile defense system’s radar, near sensitive nuclear facilities in Natanz.

A return to a status quo ante shadow war is probably an acceptable outcome for Iran. From Tehran’s perspective, it would at best find a way to limit the scope of Israel’s mabam (“war within the wars”) campaign of targeting Iranian arms shipments and facilities in Syria. At a minimum, Iran hopes to put an end to Israel’s targeting of senior Iranian commanders and its humiliating covert operations on Iranian soil. It is too early to determine if Iran can achieve any of these objectives.

A key question now is how the bilateral rivalry fits into the wider regional picture. While Israel and the United States could boast that they activated an ad hoc regional cooperation with Arab states to intercept the salvo of projectiles, the Arab states involved were keen not to be named or seen as taking sides. Contrary to the Israeli attempt to frame Arab states’ actions as signaling the emergence of an anti-Iran regional alliance that would benefit it, Arab leaders instead saw proof of what they have long feared might happen: that tensions between Israel and Iran could put them in the crossfire.

Iranian leaders seem convinced that their retaliation, which did not even include the tip of their regional spear, Hezbollah, successfully mitigated the possibility of further escalation—for now. That defending Israel against an Iranian strike cost upward of $1 billion and required a major team effort involving at least five countries versus a $200 million price tag for Iran implies that neither Israel nor the U.S. seeks additional rounds of fighting. Iran thus has a window to focus on the lessons learned, just as Israel and the U.S. military are likely doing the same.

Despite the Iranian assertion of having pulled its punches, U.S. officials assess that the goal “clearly was to cause significant damage and deaths”—in which case those punches failed to land. This appears to be the result of both offensive vulnerabilities and defensive strengths, as Iranian drones traveling long distances were detected in near-real time, many of the projectiles were intercepted before even reaching Israeli territory, and a significant percentage—perhaps as many as half—of the ballistic missiles reportedly failed of their own accord.

To correct for these failings, Iran may seek to bolster the development and stockpiling of arms closer to Israel, necessitating a deepened presence in Syria, as well as to redouble the development of more advanced missiles—including hypersonic missiles—as part of any future strike package.

Israel’s retaliation was a reminder to Iranian leaders that Israel has the capability to do significant harm to Iran’s nuclear facilities. It also exposed Tehran’s principal shortcomings—its lack of more capable air defense systems like the S-400, as well as Israel’s essentially unchallenged ability to penetrate neighboring airspaces. To address the former, Tehran is likely to redouble efforts to obtain advanced Russian weaponry in exchange for ballistic missiles, even if doing so would further damage Iran’s relations with Europe.

Addressing the latter shortcoming could also cause it to look for help from Russia, especially in Syria; but in Iraq, the U.S. military stands in the way, which is likely to further motivate Iran to try to evict the nearly 2,500 U.S. forces from Iraq by encouraging its allied militias to continue targeting U.S. bases and ramping up political pressure on the Iraqi government.

Tehran is also likely to intensify efforts aimed at loosening the already precarious hold of the U.S.-allied, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on territory east of the Euphrates River in Syria. This could give Iran more land access points to Syria (and to Lebanon beyond), while strengthening its influence on the river’s western bank in Deir ez-Zor province. Finally, Tehran will also likely focus on addressing repeated intelligence failures that have exposed its senior commanders abroad and rendered it vulnerable at home.

Iran’s leadership believes that the capabilities it has demonstrated since October—the asymmetric warfare capacity of its regional partners as well as the enduring image of Iranian warheads soaring over Israeli skies—could, together with the Gaza conflict’s fallout, portend a regional reordering.

In Tehran’s eyes, Israel will become increasingly ostracized globally; the United States will no longer be the region’s most pivotal player as other powers like Russia, China, and India extend their influence; and the Gulf Arab states will steer clear of banding together against Iran, instead seeking to improve their relations with Iranian allies such as Syria and Hezbollah.

The Iranian leadership complement this vision with a desire to consolidate Iran’s status as a threshold nuclear weapons state that could in short order develop a nuclear warhead, which would complicate any future deal aimed at significantly rolling back Iran’s nuclear capabilities, especially given Tehran’s cynicism about the West’s ability to deliver effective and sustainable sanctions relief.

Yet Iranian leaders may find that enduring realities will undermine their bullish narrative and bring both short- and medium-term risks. Given that Iran and Israel have yet to fully define and test any new rules of the game, both may miscalculate, especially because those in Tehran who believe that Iran should abandon its vaunted strategic patience and replace it with a more aggressive posture appear to be ascendant. These hard-liners believe that Israel will soon test Iran’s willingness to stand firm on its red lines, and that if Tehran fails to do so, the returns from the massive risk it took on April 14 will be lost.

That increases the risk of miscalculation on both sides and could lead to an escalatory cycle that could be devastating. In the medium term, what Iran sees as the beginning of an emerging new order to replace a vanishing Pax Americana in the Middle East could instead push Gulf Arab states to double down on their request for stronger U.S. security assurances, and this in turn is bound to deepen Tehran’s perception of the threats it faces.

[sayuricorner]

Rage-Jin - A Miraculous Ladybug X Magic Kaito story: Part 1

Part 2

Warning: English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing.

Warning 2: This one-shot content salt don’t like don’t read!

Hey everyone! ^^ Here's a reward for @lupsss1412 for her participation to my ML salt crossover contest on tumblr! ^^ She asked for a ML X Magic Kaito one-shot! :) This one-shot will consist of 3 parts, for now the first two parts are posted in waiting for the final part, hope you'll like it all! ^^

And as for @lupsss1412, thank you again for havin participated to my contest, I hope you like your reward! ^^

̎ -Don't be bemused, it's just the news ! In today's headlines, Le Louvre is organizing a big exposition for the discovery of a rare large red gemstone. According to researchers, this gemstone is nothing like any of the gemstones known to this day, there are probabilities that this gem is a new undiscovered kind.

There's also rumors and theories that this gemstone could be linked to some ancient myths, all of them talk about a red gemstone which could grant immortality. What a discovery don’t you think?! But are those rumors true ? And is this gemstone really the one cited in those myths? According to the team of scientists who are currently studying the rare gemstone there are no solid answers, merely a few speculations for now but maybe one day they will be able to give us a response. 

I am currently in front of the museum where, as you can see, everyone is working non stop with the preparations for the new exhibition of the gem! This event will take place in a few weeks, the date is yet to be determined but we hope it’s soon! Various guests have voiced their wishes to come as well as others who have confirmed their attendance, the list goes from world wide famous celebrities to avowed names in the scientific community! Also... huh ? What's that ? Is that... Fireworks ? In daylight? Wait ! They are forming a message ! This is incredible! Unknown fireworks have been launched, leaving a message from the one and only ….Kaito Kid !

For those who don't know who he is, Kaito Kid is a thief known for stealing priceless jewels ! His first heist, in fact, took place in Paris many years ago ! In his message, Kaito Kid announced his new heist will be the gemstone which is the center of the future exposition at Le Louvre ! From what the message say, the heist would happen the night before the day of the exposition.

What does the mysterious thief Kaito Kid have in store for this heist? Could this be a sort of return to his roots after almost a decade? And with our local heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir keeping the city from any crime, will Kaito Kid remain with the title of the world wide known elusive thief ? Only time will tell us, this was Najda Chamack reporting and now, back to the studios ! ̎

̎ Kaito Kid's new heist at Paris, all police forces on guard ready to intervene ! ̎

This was the headline which occupied all Paris's newpapers's first page for days. Kaito even spotted a man reading the article sitting a row beside him when he was in the plane, much to Aoko’s annoyance. 

To be honest, ever since he became Kaito Kid, he expected a lot of things, but going back to Paris years after his first visit with his parents when he was 5 wasn't one of them. 

But one thing pushed him, or rather Kaito Kid, to go back to the French capital after all this time. A certain newly discovered red jewel which news about it being the center of the new exposition at Le Louvre in France, or at least what jewel he thought it was.

There weren't any pictures of the gemstone yet, but the description and the rumors about it being a powerful stone from old myths gave Kaito big suspicions about the jewel, maybe this time this actually was Pandora ?

This could be the gemstone, but it could also not. The young man was awfully aware of that ,however it was better to be safe than sorry. He can't just let it be and give the organization the opportunity to get their hands on what could be the Pandora gem.

Also, he heard stories about Paris about a deranged man calling himself ̎ Hawkmoth ̎ who brought fear to their city by turning citizens into magic villains, with actual magic according to rumors, by using their negative emotions.

At first, Kaito didn't believe those rumors, to him the idea of true magic was laughable, after all, like his father always told him ̎ all magic had always a trick but a good magician never reveals them ̎.

Yes, the whole “Akako incident” with her being a witch proved him that real magic does exist, but there was a big difference between seeing an actual witch performing actual magic and finding rumors about the existence of a magical criminal who seemed to come right from a magical girl anime or a comic. 

But when Aoko showed him actual videos of those magical villains, he was forced to admit that those rumors seemed to be true. Unfortunately that meant the Organization wasn't the only threat Kaito had to worry about now, after all, with this gemstone at Paris and this villain in the same city and the rumors surrounding the gem about its potential powers... who could guess that this ̎ Hawkmoth ̎ wouldn't be interested into stealing this gem too ?

And speaking of Akako, when she notices his interest in the mysterious gem, the witch gave him a rather cryptic warning about it.

“-Having an interest on this gem can lead you to troubles, not directly from the gem but more from the city its currently located, the situation there is more than meets the eye and if you keep this interest for this gem, don’t underestimate the forces which are in play or else you could meet a unfortunate fate!”

Akako seemed really serious with her warning, however...

If this gem turned out to hide Pandora, then the situation could be more critical than he thought. Kaito knew that he, or rather Kaito Kid, must steal the gem as soon as possible.

So he searched for a way to go to Paris and organized his new future heist. Fortunately for him, as lady luck loves him, the solution came in the form of a student exchange program held by his school as a companionship with a school in Paris. Kaito didn't lose any second and registered himself to join the program, he thought this was the best solution to go to France. Soon enough he also found out that Aoko joined the program as well which meant that not only he would be able to do the heist and to enjoy his time in Paris with Aoko as a bonus.

So with a new found determination, Kaito settled everything and took the plane with Aoko for Paris. Of course, not before sending with Jii’s help, a little message from Kaito Kid to the Parisians.This in order to let all the city know that the magician thief's new heist would be in Paris.

Yes, everything was going smoothly and without any problem.

… Or this is what he thought.

The school Aoko and him were assigned to go was called Françoise-Dupont, they got a small tour of the school by the principal who introduced them to some of the teachers and show them most of the school while giving them a quick presentation and from what they saw the school seem not bad: most of the students and teachers were welcoming, the lessons seemed interesting, the school was near a lot of touristic places.

But then they met their new class.

The class seemed to be fine at first but things begin to do downhill very quickly, they barely introduced themself that a girl apparently named ̎ Lila ̎ begin bragging about having been in Japan and how she met a ridiculous number of celebrities, gaining immediately her classmate's intentions.

“ Welp… This is going to be fun! ” Whispered sarcastically Kaito in japanese, a small chuckle scaping him as he watches Aoko’s face turn in disgust at the sight of the girl

“- Kaito don’t be rude!” Aoko scolded him, whispering in Japanese as well, as well as delivering a small slap to his arm

“- Honnestly, if anyone is rude, and stupid, at the moment it’s this class!”  Kaito uses a hand to motion the whole class immersed in the green eyed and sausage hairstyle auburn girl that was still talking “ I mean come on, how could anyone believe that a 14 years old girl could have done all those things and know all those celebrities AND remain completely anonymous from any press or tabloid? ”

“- ... Okay you’re not wrong, “ Aoko concedes, crossing her arms and looking at the girl expectantly one of her eyebrows raising “ but still this isn’t a reason to give a bad first impression and who knows? Maybe they’re not that bad, so for once in your life, behave “Bakaito”! ”

“- Whatever “Ahoko” , I’m still standing on my point! ” Kaito answered her back while looking annoyed at the ruckus.

To Kaito it was surreal, it was obvious that all the things this girl was telling was nothing more than fairytales but for some reason this class was believing every single thing which was coming from her mouth.

If they were five years old he would have understood, very young kids tend to believe a lot of things, even the most absurd ones. However those were 16-17 years old teens who were supposed to have learned to be critical ! Seriously, just how gullible those people are ?

And the teacher, he thought she would say something to make her students calm down, but no...!

She was just standing there smiling at her students and at both confusing Kaito and Aoko, as if the agitation in the class wasn't happening. 

Strangely this display made Kaito give more credit and respect to his teachers back home, sure they had a hard time to stop the ruckus HE created when messing with Aoko, but at least they tried... Unlike this so-called teacher. 

This display of stupidity and incompetence wasn't even the worst in this whole situation. The worst of it all, was that since the school doesn't have any obligatory uniforms, Aoko decided to profit from it and to wear pants as well as most of the girls in the class. Almost all of them were either wearing pants, shorts or leggings, which meant no panty peeks for him !

Internally sighing, Kaito went to find a seat with Aoko, away from the ruckus. He scanned the room until his eyes traveled and found two seats in the back of the classroom beside a petite girl with dark blue hair and blue eyes who, unlike her classmates, was ignoring the Lila girl's blabbers and was more concentrated on something... she was writing ? Drawing maybe? In a sketchbook.

“This..” Kaito thought as he pulled Aoko along to their new seats  “is going to be a LONG stay...”

When Marinette first heard about the two students from Japan coming to Françoise-Dupont for a student exchange program, she got… mixed feelings about the whole thing.

A part of her was curious about those exchange students. After all, having students from other countries and learning about other cultures was always an interesting experience.

Adding to this the fact Chloe was among the students from Françoise-Dupont who joined the exchange program to go to Japan, giving to Marinette and the whole school some times of tranquility, this should have put the young girl in a very good mood.

However, another part of her reminds her about one annoyance who will more than probably turn this potential good experience into a succession of headaches and frustrations: Lila Rossi.

Ever since the Italian girl’s return, she had been lying non-stop to gain attention. With her classmates being awfully easy to falling for said lies, and seeming to have made their mission to make Marinette’s life a living hell by making everyone believe that she was an awful bully to the poor italian girl.

She tried to “take the high road” and ignoring her lies just like Adrien advised her to do, in hopes of Lila leaving her alone. This seemed the wrong approach now, as it had managed to create the opposite effect making Lila have the desire to torment her even more and see how far she could drag it. 

Marinette groaned, as if being the guardian of the miraculous box and dealing with Hawkmoth and his akumas weren’t enough.

Regarding the two exchange students, she believed there would be two scenarios that could happen: either they will fall to Lila’s lies and become another sheeps in the liar’s herd or they would not believe her and because of that Lila would try and make life hard for them.

But whatever the outcome could be, Marinette’s mindset was the same: she felt bad for those two students for having to go to the same school and being in the same class as Lila.

This feeling got confirmed seconds after the two students from Japan introduced themselves. Lila didn’t waste any time to once again spill stories about her having been in Japan in the past and immediately getting the class’s intention with Miss Bustier doing nothing to stop her, as usual, much to the two japanese student's shock.

“And believe me this is just the tip of the iceberg...” thought Marinette sighing, returning to her design, trying to drown the sound of the lies spilling from Lila’s mouth.

Yep, she really feels bad for those two.

Class passed without any ruckus, the classmates even getting to know more about the exchange students as it progressed. As the last bell rang Marinette could only hope to be able to get home peacefully after school, without any akuma or Lila’s shenanigans, and working on the commissions for Jagged.

“-Marinette? Please give a tour of the school to Aoko and Kaito, would you?” Miss Bustier asked her, well more like demanded her to do so, interrupting the young girl’s mental reflection as well as ruining her plans to walk peacefully home and have a nice evening.

“-Hum, miss? It’s not necessary we already got-” Aoko tried to talk to the teacher only to be interrupted.

“-Non-sense!” the teacher interrupted Aoko, a smile on her face “You only got a short tour of the school when you arrived! You should have had a complete and informative tour of the grounds and Marinette is the best student for that! And she’s our class representative and model student so it’s her duty!” Madam Bustier started pushing both teens towards the small blue eyed girl who looked very much resigned with her fate.

Any other person would had go explain to the teacher why they couldn’t do it this time and any other teacher would have been understanding and ask someone else, but if there’s one thing Marinette learnt after years of being in miss Bustier’s class is that when she wants you to do something you must do it and nothing you can say or do will change her mind.

So, with reluctance, Marinette just nodded at the teacher’s request and silently went back to her sketchbook under the glare of her classmates, Aoko’s uncertain look and Kaito’s pensive glance. Kaito mused if they were the only ones that could see how uncomfortable and sad the girl was.

And so, after gathering their things, Marinette went on giving the tour of the school to Aoko and Kaito. At first the atmosphere was awkward with Marinette being very nervous, stuttering sometimes and not daring to speak about anything other than talking about the school and Paris as if she was talking in a commercial or informative video.

Marinette knows she should say something, begin a conversation, or something like that, to break the ice and make both japanese students at ease. Especially after Lila’s “little show” in class.

But what could she talk about with them? She doesn't know them after all, is her discussion of common subjects okay? What if they get bored? Was starting with a joke okay?What if they end up finding her annoying? What if…

“-Hey! You’re alright?” A voice with a japanese accent interrupted her thoughts, a male one to be more precise.

The boy of the duo, his name is Kaito if she remembers well, with the girl whose name is Aoko were looking at her. Kaito, looked a little concerned about her, and worry was expressed in Aoko’s eyes.

“-O-oh yes I’m fine, I was just lost in my thoughts sorry!” Marinette nervously answered to the duo, her awkward laugh making it all worse when she saw both of them frown, glancing at each other and then returning their gazes to her. 

Kaito kept looking at her with a concerned face when, suddenly, he perked up a little bit. However, before Marinette could process anything it was gone, his face devoid of any emotion once again. Marinette looked at him confused, but before she could ask anything Kaito made a deck of cards appear from nowhere. Slowly he mixed them before making a perfect fan and showing it to Marinette, talking to her while his face remained stoic.

“-Come on, choose a card!” Kaito said not before watching Marinette’s hesitation, he let a smile form in his lips easing the little bluenette into taking a card from the fanned deck.

Marinette was now confused, what was he doing? A magic trick? Was this a joke? 

Seeing Marinette’s confusion and hesitation to take a card from Kaito’s hand, Aoko quickly  shakes her head, letting an exasperated sigh escape her lips. Aoko just knew Kaito would never let someone feel that down for so long, he would always do his best to make people smile. 

“-Sorry, Kaito tends to do magic tricks to people out of the blue, especially when said people don’t seem to be okay.” Aoko playfully shoved Kaito who just stuck out his tongue at her in return.

“-Oh… I see… Well, I guess a magic trick would be fun!” Marinette said with a little smile.

Marinette bit his lower lip, this could be either an elaborated prank or it could be genuine. Her instincts were telling her to go along with it but her mind was already forming a hundred scenarios where this would end badly. 

Taking a deep breath she threw caution to the wind, looking at the two people in front of her she decided to take a leap of faith and trust them.

Marinette looked at the cards, thinking for a moment before picking one of them and taking a peek at it. She was surprised as the card she drew was a queen of hearts.

“-Okay, now put the card back in the deck without showing it to me!” Instructed her Kaito with a little smirk, his gaze turned to the side with Aoko smiling at his antics

Marinette shook her thought out of her head while doing as Kiato had instructed, as soon as she put the card back, Kaito shuffled the deck once more. To Marinette's amazement, his card shuffling was very advanced, the kind of card shuffling she only saw being made by professional magicians or those videos from youtube.

Once his shuffling was done, Kaito taped the deck before fanning it in his hand, showing every single card to Marinette.

̎ -Now look at all the cards very well, do you see your card among them ? ̎ Kaito asked 

Marinette stared at the cards for a moment, before ending up frowning a bit and shaking her head. She had been sure her card had been there. Besides Kaito was wearing short sleeves now, there wasn’t a place where he could have hid it without her noticing, right?

̎ -No... The card I chose isn’t in the deck ... ̎ Marinette answered, very confused and amazed by the fact that the boy had such an amazing talent.

̎ -Hum... You're right, it looks like a card is missing... ̎ Kaito said, tapping his chin as he pretended to think before smirking once again. ̎ But by looking at it I can tell you where the card went ! ̎

The young man held out his hand and slowly directed it to one of Marinette's pant pockets, snapped his fingers and, to Marinette's surprise, she could notice something was there. When she reached inside the pocket she was surprised to find something, slowly she took out a card from her pocket. It was folded, but as she slowly opened it she couldn't hold back her surprise, it was the Queen of Hearts! The exact same card she took from the deck!

̎ -And here's our missing card ! So, is that the one you chose?” Kaito said while making the cards jump and do even more complicated stunts than before while winking at her. 

Marinette, too shocked to even speak, managed to nod weakly.

“H-How... How ? That was incredible ! How did he do that ?!” Marinette couldn’t stop her thoughts from running, she hadn’t seen him come near her, she didn’t even feel the weight of something else in her pocket until Kaito pointed it out. 

Kaito smiled in victory, he looked at the card, his smile stretched wider when he saw the wonder in Marinette’s eyes and her genuine smile.

̎ -Ah ! The Queen of Hearts “ Kaito’s smile grew even wider as he turned to his best friend “Hey Aoko ! If I'm not mistaken, in the language of the cards the Queen of Hearts symbolizes people with a good heart right ? ̎ He asked his best friend, who also nodded while rolling her eyes at his antics.

̎ -Yes, if I recall well, the exact symbolism is : ̎ The Queen of hearts represents sincere and loving women of tender heart. ̎  ̎ Aoko told Marinette with a smile, and shared her amused smile with Kaito.

̎ -Exactly ! And a queen with a tender heart... ̎ Kaito turned his hand upside down and quickly turned it up once again, a yellow rose appearing between his fingers  ̎ Deserves amazing friends ! ̎ He announced holding the rose towards Marinette who accepted it even more amazed than before.

She had received roses before, as Ladybug from Chat Noir, red roses, always as ̎ a proof of his love for her ̎, a gesture she at first didn't mind, even finding it adorable and nice. But the endless repetitions of those ̎ proofs of love ̎ from Chat Noir, at the most inconvenient time, despite refusing them over and over…made the gesture she once saw as something kind and thoughtful turn into a source of annoyance and frustration.

She couldn't even look at a red rose without thinking about Chat and his reckless behavior, or his constant declarations of love.

But this rose, this gesture, it felt different from Chat Noir's. Unlike the Black Cat hero's gestures ,which were pressuring love declarations and bothersome, this gesture felt nice, comforting and was a friendly gift. Slowly Marinette reached for the flower, the sweet smell filling her nose and the soft cold stem making her fingers clench more around it. 

Because she knew very well that yellow roses are the roses of friendship in the flower language, and Kaito had made his intentions clear while handing it to her. They wanted to be her friends, no ulterior motives.

Staring at the flower in her hands, the bluenette turned her eyes to the two japanese students, a smile on her face and tears already forming in her eyes.

̎ -Kaito, Aoko... Thank you it's- ̎ Marinette started to talk, her stutter gone and she could feel at ease but before she could continue someone interrupted her. 

̎ -Marinette ! What are you doing loitering around with the exchange students ?” the annoying voice of the liar interrupted her, she could feel herself tense as the italian came near her  “Aren't you supposed to give them a tour of the school ? You're not slacking are you ? ̎

… And here it goes, goodbye good mood.

Marinette couldn’t believe Lila would dare to come here to cause a scene. Right there, in the school corridors, Lila was starting to do her ̎ innocent act ̎, as usual, with some of the infamous ̎ akuma class ̎ following close behind her.

Marinette got a bad feeling about this...she took a step back, holding the rose closer to her chest.

̎ -I mean, really Marinette,” Lila kept on going with her fake sweet voice dripping with honey and venom “I know you haven’t been THAT reliable lately but you could at last be able to do a task this simple ! ̎ Lila dramatically sighed while shaking her head in disappointment with an evil smirk on her face.

Marinette, while trying to not be too upset about the accusation, then noticed Lila was walking toward the two japanese students, Kaito specifically. Both students looked disgusted and with a hint of annoyance in their faces. 

She got a REALLY bad feeling about this...

̎ -Kaito and Akako right ?” Lila turned to them, smiling as sweetly as she could and leaning into their space “I realized we didn't get properly introduced, I'm Lila and I hope we can get along ! However, I want to warn you, Marinette is not the best person to hang out with, she seems to be nice but in fact she's really mean and jealous. Especially with me and I fear she will only bring you trouble ! I know she's giving you a tour of the school and you're supposed to stay with her during the tour, buuuut... Once you're done with it, you two can hang out with us ! It will be really fun and I'm sure you'll love hearing about all the things I do and about the celebrities I’ve met during my travels ! ̎ The liar told to both Kaito and Aoko with a false sweet voice.

The two Japanese students looked at Lila completely unimpressed. Eyebrows raised and both crossed their arms over their chest in a sign of annoyance.

̎ -First of, it's ̎ Aoko ̎ not ̎ Akako ̎ ! ̎ Answered Aoko, very angry now with this girl ̎ and secondly, thank you for the ̎ offer ̎, but we don't mind Dupain-Cheng-san's company and unlike what you were thinking, she was giving us the school's tour, we just stopped for a little moment to talk a bit ! ̎ Aoko stated as a much annoyed Kaito nodded in agreement by her side.

Marinette was getting tense at the situation, if there's one thing she knows about Lila it's that the italian girl HATED IT when people don't do things her way and that is what the two japanese students were doing right now.

As for Lila, her smile became tense and her hands were twitching, it was barely noticeable but Marinette knew the signs.

Oh no…

̎ -O-oh ! It's very nice of you, but I don't think you understand !” Lila said trying to defend herself as more of their school students walked near the commotion she was causing “Hanging around with Marinette isn't a good idea at all, she can get very jealous and hurt others because of that and is a manipulator and I'm scared of what could happen to you if you keep being around her ! So why not hang out with me and the rest of the class ? I-I’ve gone to a lot of amazing places like Achu and personally know a lot of important and famous people, even people from Japan ! Like... Like... Oh ! Like the magician Toichi Koruba ! ̎ The liar nervously said while trying to keep her ̎ nice girl ̎ image.

This got Kaito's and Aoko's attention, the two were looking at Lila stunned before Kaito spoke.

̎ -... What ? ̎ Kaito asked in total disbelief, his gaze now firmly in the Italian girl, his fist clenched and shoulders tense. His voice came out relatively calm, but Aoko just knew how dangerous that tone was.

̎ -I happen to know Toichi Koruba !” Lila said, dismissing the cold tone of Kaito’s voice and confusing his disbelief for confusion “I met him 4 years ago when he had a magic show in Italy ! My mother and I were at this magic show and there was an accident, the bunny he was going to use for one of his magic tricks escaped, it was a real mess and the magic show was almost cancelled because of it ̎ Lila blaberred, not noticing Kaito's and Ahoko's faces becoming somber minute by minute.

 ̎But by chance, I found it wandering around and give it back to Mr. Koruba, he was so relieved and after the magic show he invited my mother and me to the best restaurant in Italy to thanking me for saving his show ! And during the diner I even give him the ideas for what is considered nowadays as his best magic tricks ! ̎ Lila commented as the classmates of the Akuma class surrounded her oohing and awing at the story.

̎ -Really ? That’s absolutely amazing Lila ! ̎ Alya told her awestruck by Lila’s supposedly feats 

̎ -You personally met Toichi Koruba, the best magician in Japan, even in the world? Oooh that's incredible ! ̎ Myléne praised Lila with sparkles in her eyes “My father once talked about him, you’re so lucky!” 

Marinette looked at her classmates now surrounding Lila, throwing praises at her, with an exasperated expression on her face. As usual they listen to her stories and believe her before regarding her with adoration, honestly this was really becoming old.

She then looked at the two japanese students and what she saw made her very tense.

She saw Aoko looking at Lila, scandalized, her mouth being covered by her hands and as for Kaito...

The young man seemed to be very angry, his hands clenched and his whole body was nearly trembling in anger. He was frowning at Lila, his eyes cold and his smile gone and if looks could kill she could bet that Lila would’ve dropped dead in that moment. 

This confused Marinette, what did Lila say to make them upset like that ? She tried to remember something that could’ve angered Kaito like that, that is when she looked at the rose and she realized something...

Lila pretended to have met Toichi Koruba, and if she remembered well Kaito's complete name was...

Kaito Kuroba... Oh no, could it be ?...

Marinette’s eyes went wide, she glanced around in panic. If those emotions Kaito was feeling were that strong Hawk Moth would never let such an opportunity pass. She could only stay on guard and pray it would all be resolved without it becoming a catastrophe. 

“Please don't attract an akuma, please don't attract an akuma, please !” Marinette begged in her head while searching for any sign of a black butterfly.

̎ -What the fuck is wrong with you ?! ̎ Aoko screamed at the liar, interrupting the thoughts and compliments of the classmates surrounding the italian girl.

This startled Lila a bit, who immediately tried to regain her composure.

̎ -W-what ? ̎ Lila asked, turning to see the furious Japanese girl “I-I just …”

̎ -I agree with Aoko ! What makes you think you can say things like that ?” Kaito interrupted  whatever the liar could be about to say to defend herself  “Because from what I heard, everything you are saying about Toichi Kuroba is nothing more than mere fantasies ! ̎ Kaito pointed out, visibly making his best to stay calm. 

Kaito’s arms were now over his chest, 

̎ -But-but it's true I really met and sympathized with Toichi 4 years ago ! ̎ Lila spluttered trying to maintain her lie, eyes widening in panic

Aoko narrowed her eyes on her, she could see the liar starting to sweat.

̎ -Oh really ? Then explain to us how you could have met him 4 years ago when he is supposed to have died 8 YEARS AGO ?! ̎ Aoko demanded, her voice rising as Kaito’s hand came to rest on her shoulder.

̎ -Uh... um... well... Oh !” Lila glanced around in panic “Now I remember, I in fact met him 9 years ago ! I must have mixed up with someone else I met 4 years ago ! Ah ah, silly me ! ̎

Everyone started to agree with her and comfort her until Kaito’s voice interrupted them.

̎ -If I'm not wrong you're 16 right ?” Kaito spoke, his voice cold and calculative yet it had a feral tone  “So, if you met Toichi Koruba 9 years ago then... that means you were around 7 during that time !”

Kaito smirked, and Marinette couldn’t help but feel shivers running down her spine watching how dangerous Kiato actually looked. Taking a step forward to the liar Kaito advanced, his eyes glued on the auburn Italian as she took a step back.

“You seriously want to make us believe that a 7 year old girl could easily have a full conversation with an adult, who she barely knew for only one day…” Kaito paused and chuckled, it was cold and it made everyone perk up “no, barely hours of one evening, and give useful ideas to a professional magician? ̎ Asked Kaito with a mocking yet serious tone.

Lila was now panicking, obviously not knowing what to do.

̎ -Hey ! Don't talk like that to Lila ! She did nothing to deserve to be treated like this ! And besides, what does this matter to you anyway ? ̎ Alya angrily interjected, jumping to defend her bestie.

This intervention was what got the domino effect going on. Quickly, the other classmates from the akuma class intervened too, looking at the two japanese students in anger. Most of them turned to scream at the duo.

̎ -Yeah ! Stop being mean to Lila ! ̎

̎ -She's an awesome girl, you have no right talk to her that way ! ̎

̎ -Bullies ! ̎

̎ -Who do you think you are ? ̎

Kaito stared at them with a stoic face. He approached them slowly, his steps calculated and with grace. 

̎ -It's matter to me when someone is slandering my late father's name just to be the center of intention ! ̎ Kaito exclaimed, his face never betraying his emotions, everyone who looked at him could tell how pissed off he was.

Many of the students that had wandered around when hearing the commotion, gasped and murmured about what just had happened, most of them angrily whispering about how horrible the Italian girl was.

This statement put the class in shock, and Marinette too. It was one thing to think about a possibility, another was having it confirmed in such a way. Especially when Kiato had revealed that his father was dead.

̎ -Right, as if I would believe that ! That doesn’t tell us you aren’t lying ? ̎ Alya asked while throwing at him an accusatory look.

The rest of the class agreed, trying to throw accusations at Kaito and Lila started her fake crying. Slowly moaning and lamenting herself about how those students could be so mean to her. 

̎ -Oh I can prove it to you, alright. ̎ Kaito answered, he walked slowly to Lila and lifted his hand to her ear. ̎-Ah ! It looks like you have something behind your ear ! ̎ And in a moment, a card appeared in his hand, much to everyone's surprise.

̎ -Look at that ! It's my ID card !” Kaito smirked while handing it to the Italian girl who was just  dumbfounded by the spectacle presented by the boy, yet his smirk was making her feel even more nervous “Can you read my name on the card please ? Please speak loud enough so that everyone can hear ! ̎

With a puzzled look Lila turned her intention to the ID card.

̎ -Uh ? Kaito K- ! ̎ The liar suddenly stopped, looking back and forth at the card and at Kaito completely shocked before continuing with a trembling voice. ̎ K-Kaito K-Koruba ! ̎

Kaito nodded, his smirk widening as he took back the card. The rest of the group were dumbfounded and barely able to process the information they had received.

̎ -There you go ! You wanted proof, well there's your proof !” Kaito exclaimed before clapping his hands together and smiling at the rest of the people  “Now if you could excuse us, Aoko, Marinette and I have a tour to finish ! Oh and before I go ! ̎

 The young man gave a hard look to the liar before pointing at her, as well as the rest of the class

“Never say any lies about my father or my family ever again ! I hate people who slander my family, especially to get attention ! ̎ And with those words, Kaito turned and left the shocked group and went back to Aoko and Marinette, the latter was shocked to the point she was speechless.

As for Aoko, she and Kaito exchanged one look before she nodded and turned to Marinette.

̎ -Come one Marinette ! We are going ! We have a tour to finish after all ! ̎ Aoko exclaimed, slowly reaching for her as she linked her other arm with Kaito’s “And we have to make sure that Bakaito doesn’t try anything funny!” 

Hearing that Kiato fake whined before shoving playfully his best friend,Marinette said nothing and just left the japanese girl to bring her by her arm with her and Kaito away from the class.

Her brain was disconnected and only one question was stuck in her mind.

What the heck just happened ?

̎ -How dare they ? How dare they humiliate me like that ? No one can talk to me like that, no one ! And where's Hawkmoth when you need him ? ̎ Lila thought seething, it was all crumbling down before her own eyes

After the shock passed, Lila excused herself from her classmates, saying that was so hurt by this obvious misunderstanding that she needed some time alone, another lie of course.

Currently she was in her bedroom, back at her home, grumbling in her breath and cursing against the two exchange students for the humiliation from earlier, cursing against Maribrat and cursing against Hawkmoth for not having sent any akuma.

Why did they have to expose her story ? Sure telling a story about some magician guy who she heard the name only one time without doing any research first hadn't been her best idea, but to the point those two losers ridicule her in front of her “fellow” classmates ? This was unacceptable !

They were going to pay ! They will understand who rules this school ! Who made the rules ! And they will have no other choice but to follow her lead or have their lives become a living hell !

After all most of her classmates and miss Bustier were stupid enough to believe everything she says without any question, so with some lies and a few fabricated evidence she could accuse them to bullying her and like she did with Maribrat they will believe her.

Maybe before that she could try something else first, like she could try to ̎ sympathize ̎ with this Kaito guy, with her good looks it will not be difficult, by charming him, telling him what he want to hear.

And once he is under her thumb, she could use this to turn him against this ̎ A-something ̎ girl with some little stories and act like the poor sweet girl who is bullied by his jealous friend.

After all, as they say, ̎ Divide and conquer ̎.

Ever since their first true ̎ interaction ̎ with Lila and the rest of the class, Aoko's and Kaito's opinion about them wasn't the best, and as days passed said opinion didn't change, in fact, it was even degrading.

Everyday at school, Lila would try to make life hard for them... Okay more for Ahoko, the liar would fabricate a good bunch of lies to accuse Aoko of bullying her.

Of course Kaito didn't believe it for one second, but the same couldn't be said for the class who jumped on calling Aoko a bully without any hesitation.

And things were not easy for Kaito either, for some reason Lila decided to set her sights on him and didn't miss one occasion to throwing herself at him, gripping his arm, trying to sweet talk to him and flirting with him while acting as a victim to him when she accuse Aoko of tormenting her.

As for the classmates... Kaito didn't even want to get to start on them, to him ̎ annoying ̎, ̎ stupid ̎ and ̎ sheeps ̎ would be the best words to describe them. That being the most simple yet derogatory terms he could muster.

̎ Nosy ̎ would also fit them, like this Alya girl who pretend to be a journalist and who seem to be determined to get every info from him about his family, his father and particularly about the latter's death.

And as he feared, the teacher, miss Bustier, was very incompetent.

She had no hold on the class, doing nothing about their behavior, especially Lila's, she even scolded both Kaito and Aoko when she noticed they weren't very much socializing with the rest of the class and why.

̎ -It's not nice to isolate yourself from the others like that ! They just want to know you and be your friends ! I understand as you're from a very different country and as such it can be difficult to adjust to the ways of another culture, but you need to make efforts too ! ̎ the teacher had once told them, very angry at their behavior

̎ -But miss what about Rossi-san ? You're aware what she does is also bad right ? ̎ Aoko had tried to reason with her, Kaito just wanted to let loose his prankster side so that they all could end up being traumatized for good

̎ -Aoko ! You and Kaito must understand that Lila has a bad condition, she can't help telling all those stories, there's no need to punish her ! You and Kaito need to be the biggest people here, just apologize to Lila and the class, be nicer with them and everything will be fine ! ̎ Miss Bustier told them, as if they would actually listen to such bad advice and obvious plan of manipulation.

Absolutely. Incompetent !

There was also a boy in the class, Adrien Agreste, who seemed to be okay but the fact every time the liar pulled a stunt to cause trouble he just looked at it while shaking his head gave Kaito doubts.

Well, at least Marinette seemed to have more brain cells.

To be honest the girl was rather nice to hang out and talk with, especially compared to the rest of the class, she was also aware of the liar's lies and tried to exposed her, without any success and ending up to be see by the class as a ̎ bully ̎ for tormenting ̎ poor Lila ̎.

Just like she was doing with Aoko.

So in the end, Aoko and Kaito hang out most of the time with Marinette.

Through the time they spend together, they get to know more about each other and get to talk about a lot of things.

They eventually talked about Kaito Kid and his future heist in Paris, Marinette confessed to them that she only knew the famous thief by name only, most of the celebrities she really know are in the fashion or music industry.

And after being explained, the young girl was having mixed feelings about the magician thief, on one hand she kinda get why Kaito Kid was popular with his gentleman thief persona reminding of a Arsene Lupin, but on the other hand he was still a thief and to the parisian girl looking up to a thief was, well, a bit weird.

A reflection that Aoko didn't miss to agree with, even expressing with eagerness her annoyance about the magician thief, with Kaito looking at her with a jaded look. Knowing the main reason why Aoko was like this toward his other identity was because of her father's obsession to arrest Kaito Kid and as such being the cause for his absence at home very often.

They also talked about Paris's ̎ akuma problem ̎ and Marinette give them more information about it.

Just like the rumors were telling, a villain named Hawkmoth use magic to use people's negative emotions to turn them into ̎ villains ̎ with magic powers and there's a duo of heroes called Ladybug and Chat Noir who always stop the attacks and save the day.

She also warned them to be careful with their emotions and to be on guard because people being akumatized happen very often and there's a high risk they end up in the crossfire of an akuma attack.

Crossfire which happened pretty quickly as Kaito and Ahoko ̎ met ̎ their first akuma in the form of M. Pigeon, an akuma who, according to Marinette, is a recurrent.

Both of them found a shelter to be safely away from the akuma when they noticed that Marinette was nowhere to be seen and they didn't have the time to try to find her when the city's heroes showed up to defeat the akuma. As well as the ton of pigeons interrupting their efforts to find the small girl.

This was something really shocking for Aoko and Kaito, sure they have seen some videos of akuma attacks, but to be actually face to one was something else... In the ̎ Oh my god ! This is terrifying, get me out of here ! ̎ way of course.

Was that the kind of ̎ troubles ̎ Akako warned Kaito about ?

Fortunately, the akuma was quickly defeated by Ladybug and Chat Noir and the two japanese students found Marinette safe and sound, although a lot farther than where they had lost sight of her.

According to the young girl, with the agitation of the attack she was separated from them but thankfully was able to find a safe place somewhere. Kaito thought he had seen her being nervous but it could be talked about by the nerves of being in the middle of the attack , still he tried to keep an eye open. 

This attack made Kaito thoughtful, if those attacks are that ineffable and happen randomly and whenever at day and night then he must be really careful when he will go steal the jewel as Kaito Kid.

After all, what makes him sure that someone will not get akumatized the night of the heist and will not attack him and the police during their rampage ?

So kaito prepared himself, planified everything for any possibilities, especially in case of an akuma attack.

Whatever those precautions will work or not he doesn't know, it could actually work as it can end up in a disaster, you never know with an akuma.

In any case as days passed, the night of the heist came and akuma attacks or not Kaito Kid was ready for the show.

“-My lady, do we really need to be here? This does not involve akumas after all, I don’t see why we should get involved!”

“-Chat Noir! Don’t forget as heroes we have the duty to protect the city from any kind of crime, by so akuma or not if there’s trouble we must be there!”

Ladybug and Chat Noir at the top of a building near Le Louvre, observing all the police officers gathered at the museum.

Tonight was the night of the infamous thief’s, Kaito Kid, heist at the museum to try to steal the gem and the whole police forces of Paris were ready to stop the thief and arrest him.

The heroic duo were also present, Ladybug had been preparing for apprehend Kaito Kid and, thankfully, tonight no akuma was in sight which give to Chat Noir and her a golden opportunity to stop the thief without any “complications”.

However, Chat Noir wasn’t very eager to participate in the whole thing, according to him, he and his lady helping the police to arrest a “petty thief” was a waste of time, that the police could do it perfectly without them yadda, yadda, yadda…

And he didn’t stop expressing his displeasure about it, much to Ladybug’s frustration.

“-I get it! But it’s just a petty thief! Why not letting the police handle it by themself and rather go on a date together my lady?” Chat Noir suggested with a flirtatious tone.

Ladybug threw him an exasperated tare.

“-Chat Noir, no, we will not because 1: Even if the thief don’t have powers he is still a potential threat to the town and by so as the protectors of Paris it’s normal that we are here just in case and 2: I already told you over and over that I love someone els-”

“-LIEUTENANT ROGER! LOOK UP THERE!”

The policeman’s scream bring the two heroes’s intention and the duo turned their gaze to the museum.

They were welcomed by a shocking sight.

Up there in the sky was a big white airship, flying toward Le Louvre.

And abroad said airship, proudly standing in his iconic white suit and cape was non other than Kaito Kid.

Going out of his shock, Roger Raincomprix picked up his megaphone to try to apprehend the thief.

“-Attention, attention Kaito Kid! You are surrounded and have no way to do your little heist! Just land your airship and surrender, the “show” is over!”

A few minutes of silence passed, several long minutes during which the airship just stay where it was not making any move to land or to fly away.

Getting impatient, lieutenant Roger warned once again the thief.

“-I repeat! Land your airship and surrender! If you do not comply, we will open fire against your airship to make you land!”

A few more minutes passed before the airship finally seemed to move to land and as soon as the airship touched the ground, Lieutenant Roger without wasting anytime rushed toward it and roughly tackled to the ground what seem to be Kaito Kid.

“-Kaito Kid aka “ The Magician Under the Moonlight”, you are under arrest for the thief aptempt of the new found gem!”

“-Hum… Lieutenant Roger?” One of the agents said, trying to get his attention.

“-You have the right to remain silent, anything you say may be used against you!” Recited Lieutenant Roger while putting a pair of handcuffs on the apprehended, not listening to the other agent.

“-Lieutenant Roger!” The other agent tried once again, without any success.

“- You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future, but quite honestly, with all the crimes hold against you it’s very unlikely that any attorney would be able to defend you in court!” 

“-LIEUTENANT ROGER!!!!”

“-WHAT?!” The Lieutenant, finally, turned his intention to his colleague, annoyed to be bothered while doing the arrest.

“-The… hum… “person” you are arresting… It’s not Kaito Kid…” The agent explained, embarrassed.”It’s a dummy…”

Lieutenant Roger suddenly stopped on his track, a long silence passed, the lieutenant digesting the information. 

“-A… What?”

He turned his gaze once again on “Kaito Kid” and to his shock, what he thought to be the infamous thief was indeed in fact a simple dummy which look like Kaito Kid.

The police officers barely had the time to wonder what was going on that the dummy’s head fall down from it body and inside said dummy’s body was what seemed to be sparks.

Sparks which are usually signs of a lighted fuse.

Now alarmed, the police officers who were near the dummy quickly back away from it while screaming in warning to everyone else.

“-HIT THE DECK! HIT THE DECK!”

Every police officer didn’t waste any minute and throwed themself on the ground far away as possible from the potential explosion, Ladybug and Chat Noir were also about to jump into action.

But what came next completely stunned everyone: instead of an explosion, big tray of lights were blowing from the dummy and were flying up to the to the sky with a piercing sound before exploding.

To their surprise, and relief, what was inside the dummy wasn’t something life threatening like a bomb but simply fireworks.

Said fireworks were so bright that everyone was blinded by them for a few seconds before realizing that the fireworks weren’t just exploding, their explosions were also showing symbols.

Some of the fireworks were exploding into the infamous Kaito Kid’s logo and others were revealing a message in big bright lights “ Welcome Paris “city of lights”! May the show officially begin! ”.

This made Lieutenant Roger clenched his teeth in anger, this thief had lured them and had the nerves to mock them!

“-Don’t let yourself be distracted! Kaito Kid probably profit from it and is in the museum! We must stop him from getting to the gem!” He yelled at his men with authority.

“-You!” He instruct to a group of police agents.”split into two groups and block all the issues possible, if Kaito Kid is indeed in the museum, he must not be able to get out!”

“-YES SIR!” The police agents replied before splitting to get in position.

“-Agent Marcel! Call the central! Tell them to send more back up!” Lieutenant Roger told to one of the agent who was near a police car.

“-Already on it sir!”

The lieutenant then turned to a few other police agents.

“-Agent Leroy! Agent Simon! Go to the room were the gem is exposed! Make sure that NOBODY SUSPICIOUS get near it!”

“-YES SIR!”

Meanwhile, both Ladybug and Chat Noir were looking at the police agents scattering around.

“-Welp! Look like they handle “purrfectly” the situation!” Chat Noir commented nonchalantly before being once again flirtatious with Ladybug.”So… How about we call it a night and go to that date my lady?”

“-Not the time Chat!” Ladybug groaned frustrated with her partner.

“-But my lady!” Chat wined.”The police is all over the museum and probably will catch up this thief in no time!”

But as soon as Chat Noir finished his sentence, the angry voice of the Lieutenant Roger draw the two heroes’s attention.

“-AGENT SIMON! I THOUGHT I GAVE YOU THE ORDER TO GO SECURE THE GEM WITH AGENT LEROY WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?!”

Said agent Simon was looking at him completely confused.

“-I’m sorry Lieutenant Roger but I just get there with other agents who were called as back up as we were among the agents who were the nearest of Le Louvre! I wasn’t there before!”

The Lieutenant and some other agents were now looking at their colleague with wide eyes.

“-Hold a moment!” Lieutenant Roger ask with a trembling voice.”If you just got there, then who was the agent I ordered to go secure the gem with…”

Realizing he have been tricked, Lieutenant Roger was now frantically running to the museum while shooting orders to a group of agents.

“- YOU! COME WITH ME! WE MUST GO TO THE GEM’S ROOM RIGHT NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!”

Meanwhile, the agents Leroy and “Simon” were guarding the gem.

“-Stay on guard, we don't know when Kaito Kid will strike!” Agent Leroy warned his colleague.

“Agent Simon” nobbed in agreement.

“-Agree! Who knows what that thief planned? For all we know, he could take us by surprise at any moment- Ah!!”

“Agent Simon” barely finished his sentence that he feel someone tackling him on the ground and was shocked when he realized that the person who tackled him was Lieutenant Roger.

“-What the? Lieutenant Roger, what are you doing?” He asked the lieutenant, completely confused about his actions.

“-Drop the act Kaito Kid! You thought you could fool us by passing for the agent Simon, but you were wrong!” The lieutenant stated proudly while making his best to keep “agent Simon” on the ground.

“-WHAT?! Have you gone crazy? I’m not Kaito Kid!”

“-Right, right! Keep on with your little masquerade all you want, it will not save you!”

“-There’s no masquerade! I. AM. NOT. KAITO KID! I’M THE TRUE AGENT SAMUEL SIMON! SO FOR HECK’S SAKE LET ME G-”

*BOOM*

The agent didn’t had the time to finish his sentence that he was interrupted by smoke bombs exploding and the room finding itself invaded by the smoke and blinding the police agents.

When the smoke finally faded away, the police officers got an awful surprise:

The showcase in which the gem was exposed was now empty, the gem being nowhere to be seen.

Completely confused, Lieutenant Roger frantically looked in all directions, trying to understand what was going on.

Someone stole the gem? How? He captured Kaito Kid, the gem was supposed to be secured! So why?

These were the questions which were endlessly repeating in the lieutenant’s panicked mind, until, by quickly staring at a corridor, he caught the sight of a white cape and a white hat.

And at the enter of said corridor was, on the ground, the police uniform of the one he thought to be the real agent Simon.

At this moment, things were now clear for the Lieutenant, he didn’t caught Kaito Kid, he never did, he and the rest of the police have been played.

“-That dirty thief! He tricked us!” Lieutenant Roger raged, while getting up and letting agent Simon go.

“-That's what I keep trying to tell you!” The poor agent Simon groaned at him while massaging his sore arm. He was sure he will feel the pain for at least a week.

“-There’s no time to lose! Kaito Kid had stolen the gem, we must stop him before he escapes!” Lieutenant Roger yelled, ignoring the agent’s remark. ”AFTER HIM!” 

The police agents all ran toward the corridor where Kaito Kid was spotted, the run led them into the Egyptian collection room looking for the thief.

“-LIEUTENANT ROGER! LOOK OVER THERE!” Agent Leroy exclaimed, pointing at the other side of the room.

Kaito Kid was standing there, looking at them with his iconic smirk.

A smirk which made Raincomprix even more pissed than he already was.

“-So, you thought you could fool us? Well, too bad for you but the game is over! You are UNDER ARREST!” The lieutenant screamed while charging at the thief.

Meanwhile, the other agents were looking at the scene, agent Leroy particuliary, found that something wasn’t normal.

Despite Lieutenant Roger charging at him, Kaito Kid stayed still, not moving a muscle, as if the police officers weren’t there.

As if he wasn’t real…

Looking closely at the thief, agent Leroy, his eyes wide, finally noticed what was really going on and tried to warn his superior.

“-LIEUTENANT ROGER WAIT! IT’S ANOTHER TRICK!”

But before the lieutenant could register what the other agent just told, he crashed into; instead of Kaito Kid, was in fact a projection screen and found himself trapped under the sheet.

The other agents rushed toward the lieutenant, who was groaning and screaming under the sheet while trying to get out.

“-Lieutenant Roger! Are you alright?” Agent Simon asked his superior.

“-HELP ME TO GET OUT FROM UNDER THERE INSTEAD OF ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS!” Yelled Lieutenant Roger from under the sheet.

Meanwhile, in the room beside the egyptian collection, Kaito Kid was listening to what was going on and judging by all the commotion, it’s mean they had fallen into his trap.

“-Look like my “surprise” for them worked! Though, it’s a bit disappointing, they were very easy to fool!” Kaito Kid commented before smirking.”Oh well, too bad for them but good for me!”

On this reflection, Kaito Kid begined to walk away to find an exit.

He then looked at the gem in his hand, it was big and covered the palm of his hand and, unlike what the media were saying, it wasn’t exactly red, it was more of a purple redish color.

Welp, now he has the gem, all he had to do is get out of the museum, put the gem under a moonlight to check if the Pandora is inside and get back to his hideout.

But his project was interrupted by an authoritative and feminine voice strongly resonning.

“-STOP RIGHT THERE KAITO KID!”

Turning around, Kaito Kid got the, not so, surprise to find in front of him the well known Paris’s heroic duo, Ladybug and Chat Noir.

“-Well, well look at that! Ladybug and Chat Noir! I didn’t expect the heroes of Paris to honor me with their presence!” The thief commented with a smirk.

The heroic duo looked as the thief was walking to them.

“-And I must say, it’s even more an honor to meet you Ladybug!” He said before avoiding a direct attack from the two heroes and taking Ladybug by surprise by abruptly getting in front of her, his smirk still present on his face. “And I see that your fierceness is as strong as everyone says and, if I may add, they forget to mention you were also very cute, ma Dame !~” Kaito Kid complimented Ladybug and even gave her a hand-kiss, much to the latter’s shock.

The shock passed, Ladybug found herself extremely annoyed by what just happened.

“- Oh great Kwamis no! No, no, please no! Not another Chat Noir! ” Ladybug mentally begged.

It was painful enough to have to deal with Chat Noir’s constant flirting, but also dealing with another guy’s flirting and who was a thief, a criminal? It was unbearable.

Someone else wasn’t happy with Kaito Kid’s flirting toward Ladybug, said someone being Chat Noir, he wasn’t only unhappy with the situation, he was angry and jealous!

Who does this dirty thief think he was to flirt with his Lady?

The cat hero quickly put himself between Ladybug and Kaito Kid, staring with anger at the thief.

“-You stop right now thief! Ladybug is the Lady of only one and that is me!”He told the thief while pointing his staff at him.”You had your fun, but now the show is over!”

The first remark made Ladybug clenches her teeths in frustration and was making her best to not snap at her partner that she wasn’t his.

It was always the same thing with him, Chat Noir can’t help it but trying to flirt with her and at the worst times… ALWAYS…

She was sick of it.

Kaito Kid just smirked further at Chat Noir’s outburst.

“-Really now? I think, on the contrary, that the show is still going on, in fact…” The thief looked at the two heroes with a confident look.”I think we just get to the highlight of the show!”

Ladybug and Chat Noir get on guard, ready for whatever Kaito Kid was about to do.

But the next thing he told them really confused them.

“-If I’m not wrong, in France you had a tag game called “Chat perchés” right?” He giggled.”Well how about we play?”

As Ladybug and Chat Noir were about to attack him once again, Kaito Kid opened up his arms and declared in a playful tone. 

“- Chat! C’est vous qui êtes! ”

Without any warning, the thief clapped his hands together and, to the heroic duo’s shock, a thick smoke came out and in no time invaded the whole room.

At first disoriented by what just happened, the two heroes quickly get a grip and Ladybug wasted no time and used her yo-yo to spin it around to get rid of the smoke.

But when the room was once more clear, there was no sign of Kaito Kid as if he vanished into thin air.

“-Where did he go?” Chat asked while he and Ladybug were looking frantically everywhere.

Turning her gaze to the ceiling, Ladybug froze when she saw one of the windows wide open.

“-OVER HERE!” She screamed to her partner, pointing to him the window.

Ladybug quickly acted, grabbing Chat Noir and thanks to her yo-yo made the both of them go through the window from which Kaito Kid escaped.

Once they get on the window, the duo spotted Kaito Kid escaping on a hang-glider and have gone after him through the buildings’s roofs.

But as soon as they were about to closing in on him, they notice to previously clear night sky being quickly covered by dark clouds and heavy thunders were roaming everywhere.

In the roaming of the thunders a how so well know evil laugh shrilled.

“- AH AH AH! CITY OF PARIS! I, CLIMATICA, AM BACK! AND I’LL MAKE PAY THOSE WHO MOCKED ME! LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR, COME AND HAND OVER YOUR MIRACULOUS! AH AH AH! ”

Ladybug was internally panicking.

Of all the nights, of all the times an akuma could have appeared it has to be when she’s trying to stop another criminal and of all the akumas possible it has to be Climatica!

Why dear Kwamis? Why? What did she have done to deserve this? And what she should do now?

Recomposing herself, Ladybug turned her attention to Climatica.

As a hero and protector of Paris it was among her duties to stop criminals like Kairo Kid, but fighting akumas and stop them from hurting anyone was Chat Noir’s and her top priority!

With her newfound determination, Ladybug turned to Chat Noir.

“-Come on Chat! We have an akuma to take care of!”

“-WHAT? But my Lady! We can’t let this thief get away! Didn’t you say earlier that it was our duty as heroes to stop criminals like him?” Chat Noir asked shocked.

“-Yes, I did! And I want to stop this thief as much as you do!” Ladybug explained, trying to stay calm.”But defeating akumas is our top priority and right now an akuma is wreaking havoc and will hurt a lot of people, or even worst, if we do nothing! so we better intervene before Climatica cause even more damages!”

Chat Noir stared at Ladybug for a few seconds before smirking.

“-You know what? You’re right my Lady, fighting akumas is a top priority!” Ladybug relaxed in relief as it seemed like her partner was understanding the situation.”That is why I think the best thing to do is you go fight the akuma while I catch Kaito Kid! Like this it will be killing two birds with one stone!”

… Aaaannnd goodbye relief and hello high anxiety and frustration…

“-What? Chat, no! You know we must do this together! Please, we don’t have time for this, kwamis know the rate of the damages and victims Climatica is doing right now!” Ladybug begged his partner almost desperately.

“-Oh don’t worry my Lady, you’ll manage just fine!” Chat flirtatious told her his smirk still on his face.”And if anything “cat-astrophic” happen, you’ll have the miraculous cure will revert any damages! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a thief to “cat-ch”! See you later bugaboo!”

And just like that, Chat Noir have gone in pursuit of the thief living a desperately frustrated Ladybug behind.

“-CHAT! COME BACK! PLEASE, CHAT!” She was screamed desperately at her partner but he was now far away.

Her fists clenched in frustration, she just wanted to scream at her partner’s behavior, to letting all her overwhelming feelings go without caring if the whole town hear her.

But she can’t do that, she had a her duty as a hero to accomplish, now was not the time to had a break down.

Calming herself down, Ladybug took her yo-yo and took the other way toward Climatica.

It’s time to defeat another akuma.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaito Kid admit it, it was rare to meet someone this determined to capture him during a heist, even inspector Nakamori didn’t last that long during a heist, and with the japanese inspector’s history of his endless determination to arrest him that mean a lot.

Especially after a good chase through building’s roofs after his escape with a hang-glider.

But he didn’t know if in Chat Noir’s case this determination to catch him was based on impulsive recklessness or blatant stupidity.

The fact the cat hero’s partner, Ladybug, seemed to be nowhere to be found and the sound of the rampage of a potential akuma attack far away give him an idea of what Chat Noir was doing.

And if his theory turn out to be right, then it will be official: Chat Noir was an idiot.

“-Look at that, Chat Noir! Fancy to see you there! All alone! Shouldn’t you be with your partner, fighting this “akuma” who just appeared a few moments ago?” Kaito Kid asked him with an inquisitive tone.

“-Don’t get casual with me! You’ll- Wait a minute! How do you know about the akumas?” Chat asked shocked.

This make the thief chuckle.

“-Come on, I may be a thief but I’m a professional one! And as such it’s normal for me to get as much informations as possible about the places of my heist!” Kaito Kid explained with a smirk.”After all anything could happen, so it’s normal for me to be well prepared for my shows and fulfill my role!”

Kaito Kid then get a more serious expression and give the cat hero a judgemental look.

“-And on the subject of “fulfilling our role” I ask again: What are you doing here chasing after a thief when there’s an akuma roaming around and not helping your partner to fight said akuma?”

“-My Lady is perfectly able to manage akumas! She’ll be fine until I join her later! But first I’m gonna put a stop in your little games! And you can be sure that I have a bone to pick with you! No one had the right to talk to my lady that way except me!” Chat Noir hissed at him getting in position to attack.

Which was making Kaito Kid completely unimpressed.

“-So you’re telling me you left Ladybug to fight an akuma, which, if I remember well my sources, is considered as your top duty as heroes, just because of a matter of pride? You’re not really the sharpest tool in the shed about priorities when it came to be a hero uh?”

At this remark, Chat Noir began growling in anger.

“-I don’t have to get lessons about how to be a hero from someone like you! What does a criminal like you know about being a hero more than a hero like me anyway?”

“-... Well, what I’m doing is the opposite of what you’re supposed to do, that's true! But, let’s see…”

Without any warning, he dashed toward Chat Noir, the latter barely had the time to react that in a blink of an eye that the thief was at the other side of the roof.

The cat hero stared at him surprised before noticed he was holding something he didn’t have before and this something turned out to be his own staff and he finally realized Kaito Kid stole his staff.

“-You are inattentive…”

Groaning in annoyance, Chat Noir jumped toward Kaito Kid in a attempt to grab his staff back, but everytime he was about to get it, Kaito Kid counterattacked by using the staff to block and hit Chat Noir, the latter rushing to make another attack hit after hit without any success.

“-You act before thinking way too much…”

“-SHUT UP!” Chat Noir screamed at him, ready to attack with a “cataclysm”.

“-CATACLYSM!”

As he was aiming his attack at Kaito Kid when the thief suddenly get out of the way, deviating the attack’s target from him to the building next door which was right behind Kaito Kid.

Realizing what was about to happen, Chat got no other choice but to quickly throw his attack away to the least collateral damages, which happen to be a billboard.

Chat Noir winced at the damages, it was, thankfully, just a billboard but his actions almost resulted in a catastrophe and he know his lady would had be angry at him if she was here.

“-You are impulsive and reckless…” Kaito Kid commented from behind him with a judgemental look while tapping Chat’s staff on his shoulder.

“-You…” Chat Noir answered angrily before jumping at him and tackled him on the roof’s floor.

But just as he was celebrating for finally having immobilized the thief, he realized too late that what he caught was a dummy dressed as Kaito Kid.

“-And finally from what I see in the situation…” Chat lifted his head at the thief’s voice and spotted him at the top of a chimney with his staff.”You are awfully stubborn and not in a good way!”

“-I’m not!” Chat Noir furiously denied.

“-Really? Then tell me was Ladybug alright with you going after me and leaving her facing the akuma on her own?”

“-I.. Well… Uh… Most of the time it’s harder for her to fights akumas alone and… Well… She might have asked me to drop the chase against you and to come fight the akuma with her and… I… Might have not listened to her?” Chat Noir nervously explained before recomposing himself.”-B-But it’s okay! My Lady is perfectly capable to face this akuma, I’m sure she’s fine!”

Kaito Kid looked at him deadpanned before turning his gaze at something in the horizon.

“-Does she now? Because from what I see she seem like she need help!”

Following the thief’s gaze, Chat Noir found himself face to an alarming sight.

Near the Effel tower was Ladybug fighting Climatica, but what was alarming was that the heroine seemed to had a hard time to fight the akuma and it seem like the worst risk to happen if she didn’t get help and quick.

Chat Noir was now looking in panic, he didn’t expected this to happen, it wasn’t his intention to put his Lady in a such bad situation!

“-Look like you made a bad mistake! And if you do nothing about it I fear your partner will pay the price of your stupidity!” Kaito Kid commented.”But I’m sure if you go right now you could get there in time! But of course that up to you!” He concluded and throwed the staff at Chat Noir.

The cat hero catched his staff and looked at Kaito Kid puzzled.

“-So what is gonna be Chat Noir? Your partner? Or your pride?” Asked Kaito Kid with his arms crossed.

Chat starred at his staff for a moment, thinking, before he tightened his grasp and raced across the buildings’s roofs to his Lady’s side.

As he watched Chat Noir leave, Kaito Kid smirked before turning and leave in the opposite direction.

“-Good choice!” He commented.

He then starred at the sky and frowned at the now heavily clouded night.

The sky was clouded to the point that even the moon wasn’t visible and that mean he will not be able to check to gem to see if it was the Pandora or not.

Kaito Kid sighed at this inconvenience.

“-Well, looks like I’ll have to wait for a more clear night to check! Oh well, it’s just a little set back! The most important thing is that this heist is a success, as always!”

With these words, Kaito Kid jumped across the roofs and in no time, disappeared among the buildings, without any traces, all was left was the noises of the heroes against the akuma and of the police doing their best to find the magician thief, without of course any success.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TO BE CONTINUED

[tarbuchyloewenthal]

i have been wracking my brain trying to figure out just what this mural in the story trailer could mean. what eothas-lookin calamity struck the godless?? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? (also the colors and line work in it is so f'in pretty).

and we're fighting the spirits of past unknown godlikes?? i don't know what this could all mean, but it's provocative.

[solas-backpack-mug]

avowed gameplay!!!

a summary of the video:

game mechanics:

there is parkour

the five ability trees are: Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, Godlike, and Companion

there is swimming

lore that people in-game know (tiny spoilers):

sargamis may have named himself after one of the early figures in eothasian scripture (dialogue option available for arcane scholar background)

in-game lore explanation "(...) Eothas was destroyed, but later rose again in the Deadfire Archipelago. What happened to him there is a matter of speculation."

in kai's words "Eothas is a dangerous god associated with Eora's bloodiest wars, and he recently killed thousands of people in Deadfire."

sargamis has this cool sword

plot of a part of the game and some fresh lore (bigger spoilers):

sargamis built a statue of eothas and has some animantic devices near it

sargamis is looking for a relic called Splinter of Eothas. "You see, this construction beside us is no mere statue, but a reliquary I have built to house the Splinter of Eothas in its appropriate grandeur. It is nearly complete, and ready for the Splinter to be interred, but I can no longer reach the relic on my own". that relic was also sought by the aedyran expedition team the player character is looking for

the expedition team is found dead without a single wound. some dialogue options about it are "I've seen something like this before, in the creation of animats" and "They remind me of the bodies of the godlikes who died a few years ago". this implies that some godlikes lost their souls somehow (imo most likely the gods fed from them because they were starved of essence)

kai theorizes sargamis put the sould of the expedition team into that statue of eothas in the main chamber. one of the dialogue options that requires intellect 2 is "Could the oracle's plan have something to do with Eothas' vanishing at Ukaizo?"

sargamis, upon being confronted about killing the expedition team: "Ah. I did not expect you to be so thorough in your explorations. Nevertheless, am impressed. As to whether I killed them, well, that is a matter of semantics. Does death occur the moment the heart ceases beating, or when the soul is broken upon the Wheel? In one sense, then, they are quite dead. In another, they remain very much alive.

sargamis intends to redeem eothas

sargamis: "The relic you have retrieved was stolen from Eothas' body. He is bound to it, or it to him. And before the events at Ukaizo, he would speak to me through it. He speaks to me no longer, but I believe he resonates with the Splinter yet, as I do. If I am correct, when it is placed in the statue, the magnifying power of the adra will draw him into it, and he will be trapped. Locked into the reliquary with a chorus of furious souls acting as his conscience... He will finally begin the work of making right all the wrong he has done."

if the pc agrees to help sargamis and does what he asks, the process fails. sargamis then asks the pc to lend their godlike chime

[transmutationisms]

materialsm or idealism or thoughts on the dichotomy?

i mean it's a false dichotomy in that presenting it solely on philosophical terms doesn't historicise the distinction being made---meaning, there are histories to each of these positions & how they come to be defined and used, & how the distinction between the two positions comes about. that analysis itself needs to be materialist in nature bc i am team historical materialist. but ofc these are kind of crude terms in the sense that, again, they're flattening a lot of social and historical specificity into just two 'camps'. like, in what sense can we say that plato and thomas kuhn and max weber and st augustine are united.... these are all idealisms and yet obviously the social commitments are quite different, they wouldn't necessarily recognise one another as acting on the same 'side' of a universal immutable debate, &c. plenty of avowed 'materialists' also fail to engage in the type of analysis i'm asking for here, eg this is sort of a defining failure of the 'new materialism' / 'speculative realism' that was trendy a few years back. so again like, gun to my head yea i'll pledge fealty to the materialists on this but i'm specifically defending a materialism that is historical & historicised, as well as a historicism that is materialist / 'social'

[cola-canine]

Quick takeaways from the XBOX developer showcase:

Indy game looks FANTASTIC, I was really worried that MachineGames wouldn't be going FPS with this one and they're sticking with FPS! Looks like less of a focus on gunplay, which is fine. The whip takedowns are perfect for MG's comic brutality. I would assume that there won't be a weapon roster and more of a "pick up a gun, use it up, toss it aside" mechanic but that's just speculation.

I completely forgot about Avowed and I'm back on board. It looks so damn pretty and the emphasis on different combat styles and a heavy focus on dual wielding is going to be very fun. I just hope it can capture me a little better story-wise than Outer Worlds did.

Everything else was a pass. I was really only here for Indy and MG

[theenchantedecho]

MINISTRY MELEE: BARTY CROUCH SR. BEWITCHES THE WIZENGAMOT!

Steeped in scandal and simmering speculation, the usually staid corridors of the Ministry of Magic are a veritable cauldron of whispers and wonderment. The Minister of Magic, Barty Crouch Sr., whose political manoeuvres hold more surprises than a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, has unrolled a parchment of shocking revelations. His latest spell of audacity? An ambitious expansion of the Wizengamot, our time-honoured court of law and legislative body. This bold move has left the wizarding world more stirred up than a perturbed nest of Puffskeins.

The bewitching question on everyone's lips is, why the sudden expansion? When cornered by my trusty Quick-Quotes Quill, Crouch, in a torrent of grandiloquent rhetoric, avowed his intent "to bring in a fresh perspective and fortify the institution's ability to maintain peace and order in these trying times." Now isn't that a charmingly altruistic sentiment? One can't help but sniff the faint but unmistakable scent of political manipulation wafting from such noble intent.

To fully appreciate this unfolding drama, let's take a moment to delve into the depths of Wizengamot's illustrious history. Predating even the Ministry of Magic itself, the Wizengamot's roots dig deep into the heart of the medieval Wizards' Council. Its ceremonial robes of plum and silver, bearing an ornate W, are as much a symbol of our tradition as the Sorting Hat itself.

The Wizengamot, more than just a court of law, is our legislative body. With about fifty members, whose selection process remains as elusive as the secrets of the Chamber, it's an intriguing institution, to say the least. Trials are swift and final, offering no room for appeal, making the identities of these new prospective members all the more significant.

The Ministry's marble halls buzz louder than a hive of enchanted bees as rumours dart around like mischievous Nifflers. My sources, as shadowy as the Forbidden Forest and equally as tantalizing, suggest that the new appointees may have closer ties to our Minister than a Hippogriff to its nest. Could this be the beginning of a Crouch dynasty? Or a simple refresh of perspectives? Only time, and Rita Skeeter, will tell.

Sensing the urgency of my relentless pursuit of the truth, an anonymous Ministry official (yes, Cornelius Fudge, we see through your cloak of anonymity), whispered in my ear, "It's a dangerous game of Gobstones being played in the Wizengamot. Keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you." In the echoes of the Minister's office, the Sorting Hat's chilling words resonate: "Those cunning folks use any means, to achieve their ends." Could this be prophecy taking shape?

Meanwhile, for our passionate puzzle aficionados, keep your Spectrespecs ready! Tomorrow's Daily Prophet features a special Wizengamot-themed crossword. Can you, through a labyrinth of cryptic clues, discern the identities of the future members of our esteemed court? Gird your wands, dear readers, the game is afoot!

For the symbol savants amongst you, we present a magical game based on court emblems and Wizengamot seals. These, my fabulous readers, are the heralds of change and innovation.

Stay tuned, dear readers. I, Rita Skeeter, your audacious correspondent, am on the case. I promise to delve deeper, to push past the obscurity, to reveal the truth, the intrigue, the pure

scandal hidden beneath the surface of this Ministry maelstroöm. Brace yourselves, for the best version of the truth is yet to come. It's juicier, it's wickedly fascinating, and it's the only truth that you won't want to put down.

Until our quills meet again, I will continue to lift the veil of secrecy on the world's most enthralling mysteries. The wizarding world turns, and with it, the Daily Prophet, offering you the first, the last, the only word on the enchanting and enigmatic world of magic. Keep the magic alive, my spellbinding readers! Stay curious, stay vigilant, and above all, stay enchanted.