#character bible says hes not supposed to start a fight and is forced not to care about anything else until that very point | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

young-dumb-and-vaccinated · 3 years

Text

The Sommelier (Hannigram x Female!Reader) pt. 7

Y/n meets her savior and officially joins the investigation.

@deadman-inc-bikeshop @viviace and @dovahdokren here you go. If you want to be on the tag list, send me a DM.

Trigger warnings: dissociation, implied sex abuse/trafficking, discussions of death, drugs

It was only when the man left your line of sight that your senses started to return. And even then, you felt like you were on a separate plane of existence from everything happening around you. You were floating, completely numb to your surroundings, letting the world push you wherever it needed you to be.

You weren't entirely sure how you made it from the dumpsters to the FBI headquarters, but there you were.

You listened in on the conversation happening in the other room. From what you could tell, the man who saved you was arguing with his boss.

"Because if there's so much as a Tylenol in her system, you're going to pass it off to the DEA." The man said, his voice soft but firm. This wasn't the first time they had this argument and it showed.

"Will, it is not my fault that the DEA gets preferential treatment." The boss sounded exhausted. "We have a better chance of catching this man with their resources. And we can't turn a blind eye to how substances affect human behavior. I thought you of all people would accept this."

"What if there's nothing in her system?" The man posited. "Then all we have to work with is our own resources. Would that be so bad?"

"Look," the boss said, clearly trying to diffuse the situation. "We can't determine anything until forensics gets lab results back tomorrow. For now, see what you can find out from the waitress. She was able to keep her talking, maybe we can find out about what."

The man resignedly left the room and made his way to you. You glanced around the hallway, hoping he wouldn't notice that you've been eavesdropping.

He sat on the opposite end of the bench. You pulled the security blanket from the ambulance tighter around your shoulders.

"I know this is such a stupid, insensitive thing to ask," the man broke the silence. "But are you okay?"

"If it makes you feel any better," you sighed and dropped your shoulders. "I wasn't really okay to begin with."

"Yeah." The man agreed. "It doesn't matter how much you break something, it's still broken. Broken is a... Boolean value."

"It's just that.." You clutched the receipt between your fingers. "Just as I thought things were starting to improve, the universe sends me a cultist strapped to a bomb. I'm never going to recover from this."

"I don't think anyone expects you to." He said. "My name's Will, by the way."

"[F/N]." You said, just for formality's sake. He already knew your name. "I don't think I ever properly thanked you for saving my life."

"Don't worry about it." Will smiled weakly. "If you think you can, though, it would be innumerably helpful if you told us what happened."

You knew you weren't in a position to be asking for favors, but you were desperate. "Could I maybe stay with you for a while?"

Will hovered his hand over yours as if asking for permission. You took it, perhaps a little too eagerly.

"I'll stay with you as long as you want."

Will's presence made it easier to tell the man, whom you learned was the head of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI, everything that progressed that night.

"And then she started chanting that one bible verse about the martyrs inheriting the kingdom of heaven." You finished. "That was when Will shot her in the leg."

The director, whose name you learned was Jack Crawford, took a moment to ponder the information. You felt like a child that had been sent to the principal's office.

"Do you have any reason to believe that the woman was under the influence of any drugs? Alcohol?" Jack asked, resting his hands on the desk.

"Not with any certainty, no. I didn't see her ingest anything." You shook your head. "If she was under any influence at all, it was probably against her will."

"What makes you say that?" Jack cocked his head. "In your own time, of course."

"She was..." you glanced at Will, just to remind yourself that he was there. "Scared. Nothing she said had any conviction behind it. It was like she was a hostage being forced to read a fake suicide letter."

"What about these 'cult names' you mentioned?" Jack said. "What significance do you think they have?"

"She kept referring to Chase as 'vanguard'." You began.

"That's what Keith Raniere called himself." Jack interrupted. "Keith Raniere was the head of a sex trafficking cult."

"And the only reason I know that is because I listen to a lot of podcasts." You felt the need to explain. "I'm not sure how Mulvaney decided it would be a fitting title. Maybe he identified with Raniere."

"Did the woman call herself something, too?" Jack leaned in.

"Funny you should mention that," You forced a laugh. "Because she referred to herself as an 'unwoman'."

"That is interesting." Jack brought his hand to his temple, perhaps trying to convince you that he knew what ‘unwoman’ meant.

"He probably thinks Handmaid's Tale is some kind of instruction manual." You said, emphasizing the title of the work.

“Handmaid’s Tale!” Jack exclaimed, suddenly understanding. "So, are you thinking maybe he's running a breeding cult?"

“Like a borrasca.” You turned to Will, hoping that maybe he would understand what that meant.

As if on cue, a woman in a lab coat burst into the room.

“Dr. Katz,” Jack announced, taken aback by her urgency. “Welcome.”

“Jack, you’re going to want to see this.” Dr. Katz said simply.

Jack stood up from his seat. “Excuse me, Ms. [L/N], Will. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Again, you were alone with Will.

“I’m...” Will broke the silence, pausing to find the right words. “Jack isn’t as scary as he looks. He just has a habit of asking too much of people. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but you’re perfectly within your rights to tell him to back off.”

You shook your head. “That wouldn’t feel right.”

“Tell me about it.” Will muttered and leaned back in his chair. “It does seem pretty out of character for him to want to drop the whole case on the DEA, but he does have a point about their resources. You can’t argue with money.”

“No.” You agreed. “You can’t.”

Will sighed. “I’m sorry. The last thing you probably want to hear about is FBI in-fighting after almost being killed twice in a two-week period.”

“It doesn’t really inspire confidence, no.” You said.

“Let’s talk about something else.” He offered. “Do you like... fishing?”

You laughed at his strange attempt at making conversation, but answered honestly. “I used to go fishing with my grandpa when I was a kid.”

Realizing he’d tapped into a happy memory, Will decided to follow it. “Where did he take you?”

“My grandparents had this lake house up in Michigan.” You reminisced. “On this dinky little manmade lake where all the rich boomers took their spoiled grandkids for the summer.”

“Did you ever catch anything?” He shared a little smile.

You realized that he was doing the same thing to you that you did to the unwoman. He was trying to keep you talking to avoid, or at least prolong, some catastrophic event. But he was doing it for your sake. You appreciated that.

“We pulled up a ton of bluegills, some walleyes, occasionally a bass.” You listed. “One time he and his brother-in-law settled a dispute by seeing who could catch a catfish first. They were outside all day.”

“Did he ever take you downstate to go fishing on Lake Erie?”

You stared vacantly ahead. “He wanted to.”

Will lowered his head in respect. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was, like, fourteen years ago.” You admitted. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Still,” Will shrugged. “Grief takes a lot out of you. I’m sorry for bringing it up, I had no idea.”

“At this point, most avenues in my life end in death. It’s not your fault.” You smiled at him. “Thanks for trying, though.”

You settled into another prolonged but comfortable silence.

“I think Jack is going to arrange to get you into some kind of protective custody, by the way.” He said, shifting his body to face you. “And I don’t think he’s going to give you a choice now that he knows Chase is targeting you, specifically.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about that.” You answered. “I think they’re probably going to insist I quit my job, too.”

“You sound disappointed.” Will nodded. “You’ve grown to like that job, huh?”

“I was good at it.” You admitted. “My boss was gunning for me to take over when he retired. I had big plans for that place. I know waitressing is supposed to be a job that’s ‘just a job’ but--”

“You had ambition.” Will finished. “You were making an investment for your future.”

For the first time in a while, you felt heard. “Right.”

“If you would permit me to say,” Will stood up and walked towards Jack’s desk. “I think you would be an invaluable asset to this investigation.”

You leaned on the armrest. “I don’t know, Will. I feel like I would just get in the way.”

“But the sooner we catch this sick fuck, the sooner you can get back to your restaurant.” He said, grabbing a post-it note. He gestured to you with a pen. “And I will do everything in my power to get you back to that restaurant.”

“Why?” You asked. “I’m just a waitress.”

“Your profile of Chase Mulvaney in your TattleCrime interview was a work of genius.” Will took off his glasses. “And it was incendiary enough to make him come back for you. It wasn’t just a cocaine-fueled bout of murderous hysterics. He remembered you. Now, throughout this investigation, Jack has been ignoring me. But maybe he’ll listen to you.”

“And if he doesn’t?” You raised an eyebrow. “What then?”

Will sighed and leaned back on the desk. “Then I do it myself.”

“Fuck it.” You said, the complete contents of your soul behind those two little words. If he was going to raise the stakes, by god you were going to match him. “I don’t have much else to live for, so might as well die for something.”

“That’s the spirit.” Will agreed.

#hannigram x reader #hannibal x reader #hannibal lecter #hannibal x you #hannibal x you x will #hannibal x reader x will #will graham x you #tw death #tw dissociation #tw trauma #tw sex trafficking #will graham x reader #hannibal nbc

167 notes · View notes

qianoir · 3 years

Text

After Midnight 1 - On Melancholy Hill

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: college dropout!Ten (WayV) x fem!reader

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: non-idol au, angst with fluff on top

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 13+

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: cursing (censored), lying, family problems, mentions death of reader's father, romance

♡ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1k

Preview < 1 < 2

7:00 PM

A fresh, black apron is thrown overhead the moment you enter Décalcomanie, your mom’s café, feet barely stabilizing shaky legs walking to the back room after a long day of dance class that you refer to as organic chemistry when your mother is present.

“Why are you so shaky?”

“I dissected a cadaver in ana-physio today and it kinda freaked me out..”

“Ah! My daughter is doing so well in school, you’re going to become the top doctor in Korea! I can’t wait to brag to all of my friends at Bible study this week.”

She glides past you with a smile and you have to fight the urge to eye roll in front of her cherished customers.

“Thank you for always working so hard for me. You make me so proud.” Her warm embrace taunts your second facade and a fake smile is placed onto the facade before her.

“Be safe when closing and text me when you get home!” And she leaves in her mid-40s to have the Friday night that the girl in her early 20s should be having instead. Unfortunately, hiding your academic identity from your mother forces the rejection of friendships with the possibility of your true major in dance getting back to her.

The longing feeling for friends presses solemnly at your gut as the elder customers exit the café and young adult students and lovesick couples flood in asking for more sugar than is provided in the ajummah favorite black tea. Every run to each table is accompanied by the slow setting sun, reassuring me of the calm night about to come.

An hour passed, not many people came in this late, except for the insomniacs and sorority girls, but they seemed to be either finally sleeping or out partying tonight.

It was now 11:55 PM and no one else had come into the shop for the past 2 hours, but the café was open until 1 AM. At least time is money, you thought, the time being spent leaning over the counter watching Mystic Pop-up Bar on your phone, obviously very fitting for such a night. That was, until the faint ring of the bell above the front door.

You look up and see the petite Chinese kid that always comes in at 12 AM, sharp. He rarely ever talks as you two are the only ones ever in the shop at this hour, but he is not a bother. To you, he seems like a chill person. The boy always leaves a napkin with some song lyrics scribbled on it, a different song each time. They always find way into the pocket of your apron after he leaves, searching for and listening to whatever song to which the lyrics belong when you get home before throwing the cloth out. He has good taste and you often wonder if they are left behind purposely.

The boy sat down at the table in the very back corner by a large window at the front of the café, as always, separate from the other customers who adored sitting at the pretty tables prior to his arrival. He looked up at the sound of footsteps coming to take his order, greeting you with a dashing smile as always again. His craving was spoken in a soft voice, neither a Chinese nor Korean accent present in his voice.

You turned back to whip up his request. One personal strawberry chantilly cake without the strawberries. Easy.

Plating the cute cake, you looked over at him. He was hunched over a storybook-looking journal writing an artwork of Chinese characters with a brush pen, filling you with the usual curiosity about for what reason he was learning Chinese when he was of the language’s origin himself. In the midst of admiring his hard-working strokes, your finger nearly sliced from the lack of attention, and the cake knife was immediately dropped on instinct.

The noise had the boy's eyes suddenly on you again. "Are you okay?" Words stumbled over your lips as you blushed in embarrassment.

"Yes, just got a little distracted.." you honestly assured him. He let out a small giggle then continued with his writing. You blew out a sad puff of air that had been unsettling your ribcage.

You placed the plated cake slice onto a tray and walked over to the boy, gently setting the cream dessert on his table with some napkins, careful not to touch his notebook. "Thank you very much." He says with another contagious smile before you scurry off back behind the bar, continuing the drama episode prior to the regular nightwalker’s arrival. You glanced up and saw the man nibbling on the cake- which was already almost completely finished.

"Is there anything else you would like, sir?"

"I don’t suppose you know Chinese, do you?" The boy laughed to himself, seemingly desperate to have anyone teach him at this point.

"Oh! I’m taking Mandarin at university, actually. I may be of service."

The boy's eyes widened. "I'm sorry! I didn't expect a real answer.. I don't mean to bother you.. but could you please help me understand the meaning of this?"

Peering down at the paper he showed you:

我们不曲终没有人散

夜未央心还澎湃

今晚没有人要醒过来

(Until our song ends, no one’s leaving. The night is not yet over, hearts are still surging. No one wants to wake up tonight.)

Wow that is some deep sh!t.

You translated the literal meaning of the words since you did not know exactly how they mean in a poetic sense. He understood and thanked you for the help.

It was nearing 1 AM and you went to clean up the café before the closing hour. The boy stayed a while more, writing calligraphic characters on his paper and doodling on napkins. He eventually left at midnight’s 50 minute mark.

When you got around to cleaning his table, sure enough, there was a napkin with lyrics forming a neat stanza. This time, the lyrics were in Chinese. And was that.. his number!?

Moonlight shines at midnight. Heartbeats start to rise. Creating a fluttering surprise. The midnight rhythm arrives. We do not know burnout. Bodies feeling like they’re flying. Touch me when the sun goes down.. Touch me after midnight..

(xxx) xxx-xxxx

ten lee

To be continued...

After Midnight by WayV

𝘲𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘳

#wayv #ten #ten x reader #x reader #wayv fluff #wayv angst #wayv imagines #nct fluff #nct angst #nct imagines #qianoir

30 notes · View notes

dearamericaroyaldiaries · 3 years

Text

Get In Losers. We’re Going Witch Hunting

I Walk in Dread- 1691(-1692), Deliverance Trembly

By Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Don’t judge the picture. Google had no images that I felt comfortable using license wise so I took a (bad) picture of my copy.

Age of Protagonist: 12

#ReadingThoughts

-Before I even start I am digging the Puritan names. First Remember Patience and now Deliverance (and I would come to find ANOTHER MEM!!).

-My edition looses points or not having a ribbon even though it’s hardcover. This negatively impacts my reading experience for Reasons.

-Hold it. Is her uncles’ name really Razor Strap? I know Puritans were big on using random phrases from the Bible for their naming, but is that really a phrase in the Bible? Also, Sister Mem had me confused it was Mem from the last book for a hot second.

-SO do Mem and Deliverance just live with their uncle? Just the three of them? (The answer I quickly found was yes.)

-I appreciate the lesson on town politics. That's important for the Salem area in 1692ish.

-I am confused by what’s happening with the year. Why is it Dec 31, 1691, then Jan. 1, 1691, and then Jan. 2, 1691/2. There is a bullshit explanation in the about the author section. If you’re worried about Accuracy when it comes to the Julian vs Gregorian calendar, put something in the text. You’re average grade schooler isn’t going to jump to that . If I remember correctly, there’s something about the Gregorian calendar differing from the Julian calendar in the Anastasia book that is handled better. Liv explains other things to the reader, why not this?

-Why is a 12 year old more responsible than a 17 year old? Especially in 1692. Mem should at least have a higher opinion of herself in the family hierarchy and be preparing to keep her own house as a wife.

-Again, I feel Mem should be more mature than Liv.

-Liv can use her sister’s boy-craziness to her advantage. Mem is willing to shovel shit if there are attractive members of the opposite sex in the vicinity.

-Allergies=Witchcraft. That explains so much about me and my life. Though I suppose it makes sense from a 17th century Puritan POV.

-Mem wants to be a stepmom to 9 kids all of whom are most likely closer to her age than she would be to the potential husband? The last part might not be a big concern in the time period but good gracious that’s too many kids for my liking.

-Age update- some of the kids would be older than her or her age.

-I feel the average target reader would need an explanation of what “God’s Elect” means. Most 12 year olds don’t have a strong grasp on post-Reformation Protestant Theology.

-Poor Liv. She wants to fit un but is failing spectacularly.

-Is Liv going to be among the accused? She’s not on the best of terms with the accusers and has been or will be associated with at least three people who were accused and killed.

- They used the strong trick for loose teeth in the 17th century? I have no evidence or data to argue one side or the other but I am suspicious. Somewhat amused, but suspicious.

-I find the tithing man hilarious. I want a stick with a fuzzy rabbit foot on one end and a knob for whacking people on the other. Also, he deserved getting thumped back by the one guy,

-I am calling bullshit on Goody Corey sniffing out only girl scent. Either it’s a bit or she’s a witch, not her husband. (Spoilers: He’s accused and refuses to confess so the town can’t take his land and is pressed to death while trying to get a confession. Post reading note: I totally forgot/didn’t know that Goody Corey was also accused and killed.)

-I don’t know really anything about the real Goody Corey, but she seems like a stand-in for an enlightened modern person, above the provincial notions of witchcraft and the commonplace racism toward Amer Indians. I’m not saying everyone thought they were the devil, but a majority thought that they were superior to the indigenous peoples of the American colonies.

-Mr. Cooper’s letter is too vague! We need deets!

-Because this is told through Livs’ eyes everyone asking about their uncle and checking in on them comes off as invasive and nosy but as an adult, a twelve year old and a seventeen year old have been left on a farm by themselves for almost two months at this point is an issue. Is he ever coming back?

-WHAT!? Goody Corey has a bi-racial son born when she was estranged from her first husband? Prepare for a wikipedia tangent because I had to a a google to corroborate this. Wikepedia backs this up but what it doesn’t back up is the timeline. I read her as in her 40s or 50s in the book. According to wikepedia (don’t judge me, it’s good for basic facts and a starting point) she was 72ish in 1692 and this biracial son was her first child who would have been 50ish at this point and was born before Martha Corey was ever married. *End Tangent* Good for her though if she did indeed five her husband an earful after Liv left.

-Hold on. Mr. Cooper wants to talk to Uncle Razor Strap about Mem marrying Darcy, not him. Mem is gonna be devastated.

-Would electricity have been a concept a) known in 1692 and b) be well enough known that a random 12 year old in the colonies with little formal schooling would be comfortable enough using the phrase “electrical lightning.” No, I will not be googling this. Googling historical facts is one thing, googling sciencey things is another thing entirely,

-Did the girls hear the stories and then claim to have witnessed ZYX or did they independently corroborate the stories? One is much less suspect than the other.

-At this point I wonder will we ever meet Uncle Razor Strap? Is he dead? Is he trying to get back to Salem? Is he abandoning them?

-I feel the leap to “Am I a witch?” after having a weird dream about nursing a baby Sarah Goode is sensible as someone who has been about to call the Vatican several times when their period was late. In those cases clearly the only explanation was pregnancy, even when physically impossible just as being a witch is Livs’ conclusion here.

-Hopefully the girls can just get out of the Salem area soon and the landlord giving them to the end of the month is a neat enough excuse.

-So Mem thinks that Goody Corey is a witch but is okay with Liv going over there?

-How scary it would be to worry that the one family member you have in the area, who should be protecting you because you’re 12, might accuse you of witchcraft.

-I am delighted the the horse can act as a chaperone. Really? Okay.

-How does the horse give permission to whisk a fainted person into the house? It’s a horse.

-So now Mem is forcing Liv to read her diary to her. Rude.

Thoughts on the Afterward

Meh. Mem marries Darcy but dies young so Liv gets her man. They return to Salem. They don’t go West like they talked about. Liv has a gagillion great grands. No one ever fount her journal. Meh. I’m happy she was happy and all but meh.

Overall Thoughts After Reading

It took almost 200 pages to get through four months. I think I just don’t care for the author. I should have liked this book. It ticks multiple boxes that should be my jam but something about it just... is a no for me. Maybe it’s because I have zero nostalgia for this book. It took me about 4.5 months to get through this book and finding it boring is one of them. No one seems like a well rounded character who has any growth. Last book Mem had a whole arc where she came to terms with losing her mother but this time Liv didn’t really seem to change or grow.

I had high hopes. This book came out right as I was aging out of Dear America but I remember the hype around it on the Scholastic website. (Yes I was a wee nerd who hung out on the Scholastic website.) Sadly I was disappointed.

Also, we nope out of the actual trials. The first trial wasn’t held until JUNE. The book ends on April 30. Yes, we get to see the initial hysteria and flurry of accusations and arrests, but this was just the beginning. This seems like a cop-out.

Rating: 3/10 Sisterly Cat-Fights

Other contenders included False Accusations (this one seemed unfair because while I believe no one who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Hysteria was actually practicing witchcraft, I can’t say with confidence that the accusers were all lying. They may have believed honestly that they were afflicted by witches so calling them false accusations seem disingenuous.) and Bible Verses because Puritans. In the end, I had to honor the brutal way Mem and Live went after each other. Apparently in addition to being sickly, Mem was also small because how else could a 12 year old take her 17 year old sister like that.

#Dear America #Read with me #Puritans #History #Historical #Deliverance Trembly #Salem Witch Hysteria #Salem Witch Trials #I get minorly sweary again. At this point just accept it.

10 notes · View notes

bosspigeon · 3 years

Text

maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me

Pairing: Gen, with Tina Poname & Male Detective Friendship Word Count: 2187 Summary: Tina Poname’s the new kid in a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere, and is learning the hard way that making new friends in a place like Wayhaven is easier said than done. Luckily, she’s got a can-do attitude and a forceful personality to help her befriend even the surliest of loners.

I just think Tina’s such a good character, and I loved trying to write from her point of view, and I love thinking about her friendship with the Detective. Especially with my boy, Arlo. I also read a bunch of articles trying to put together his infodump on the Satanic Panic fhdasjhgjskahg. Title, of course, taken from “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance. (I like to think I’m Funny)

Tina takes her lunch in the courtyard.

It’s overcast outside, looking like it might rain later, but the courtyard is nice enough, landscaped with flowering plants and rustic stone pathways, though it is kind of small. She’d rather sit inside, just in case it does start pouring, but every table in the cafeteria was full, and the ones that weren’t very quickly became full when she walked past with her lunch bag. She’s learned quickly that small towns like Wayhaven tend to be pretty… insular.

She’s trying not to let it get her down. She’s the new kid, and with time other students will warm up to her, but for now she feels like she’s the ugly duckling set adrift in a little pond, and all the other ducklings think she has the plague or something. The metaphor gets away from her a bit, but her head’s been a bit of a jumble since the last move. But that’s leading towards things she’d rather not think about, so she doesn’t. Simple as that.

Instead she looks around her, taking in the very pretty little courtyard, even if it’s washed in the moody tones of the grey sky overhead, made more moody still by the shade of a tall, gnarled old ash tree in the center. There are a few wooden picnic tables scattered about, all of them empty.

All of them but one.

Tina almost doesn’t see him at first. He’s hunched over at a table directly under the ash tree, his back to her. His long black hair hangs almost to the bottom of his shoulder blades in loose waves, and all she can think is that he’s never seen a boy with hair so pretty before. Every time she sees a boy with long hair, it’s always a frizzy mess, and whenever she brings up that they really shouldn’t use all-in-one shampoo, they get all annoyed with her.

She makes the decision to flounce right over, rounds the table, and wiggles into the bench across from him. “Your hair’s so pretty!” she chirps by way of greeting, unzipping her lunch bag and beaming at him. He looks up at her, and she’s a bit stricken when she sees his face properly. His dark brows are bold slashes scrunching over pale grey eyes lined in smeary black makeup that streaks down his freckled cheeks. He’s got a square jaw and a strong nose, but he still leans more into pretty territory than handsome, and she’s beginning to figure out that the uniform guidelines in the student handbook are taken as more suggestions than law, given that his lip, nose, and ears are pierced.

He doesn’t respond, squinting at her, his mouth twisting into a frown.

“I’m Tina!” she offers cheerily. “I like your makeup!”

He frowns harder, almost snarling, with a bit of teeth showing, like he’s hoping to scare her away. Well, Tina Poname isn’t so easy to scare, and she’s determined not to spend lunch alone. She just smiles right back and starts rooting through her lunch bag, pulling out the neatly packed containers of healthy fruit and veggies and hard boiled eggs to find the yogurt-covered pretzels hidden at the bottom. She crunches on one while she eyes her new tablemate, who seems to have resigned himself to her delightful company and has turned his attention back to a notebook he’s doodling in while absently eating something she thinks is a kind of pretty little spring roll. It looks really good, and she’s a bit jealous.

He staunchly ignores her eyes on him, shifting a bit and tossing the hair hanging in his face over one shoulder, so she can properly see the black enamel inverted cross dangling from his ear. Without thinking, she leans across the table and flicks it.

He flinches away from her and glowers with such ire she’s surprised her clothes aren’t smouldering. She smiles sheepishly, but brushes off the surprise and barrels on. “I can’t imagine you’re too popular wearing those in a quiet little town like this,” she chimes in a teasing sing-song. “Wonder how many old die-hard religious types burst into flames at the sight of you?”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes so hard it gives Tina a headache. But she’s also more than a little pleased she’s gotten a reaction out of him.

She leans into it, figuring she’s found her in. “So, are you a Satanist or what? It’s cool if you are! Just think it must be hell in this place.” She can’t help but cackle at her own joke, slapping the tabletop and wheezing. When she recovers enough to notice, she catches him eyeballing her like he can’t quite figure out exactly what’s wrong with her. It’s a look she knows pretty well at this point.

“I’m not an anything,” he sighs, tapping his fingers on the wooden tabletop. His nails are painted black, but they’re chipping at the tips, and he’s wearing a few really cool rings, a couple of which looks like they might be antiques. “Besides that, the whole inverted cross being a symbol of Satanism is bullshit.” His voice is pretty deep, but not nearly as deep as she expected it to be, and softer besides, with a light, lilting burr to it. Regardless, Tina’s delighted to have gotten anything more than grunts and glares from him at all. She leans forward, crunching another pretzel. “Wait, really? What’s it mean, then?”

“It’s the cross of Saint Peter,” he almost bursts out, and then pinches his lips shut, like even he’s surprised he said anything. He looks at her warily, but she just waves at him to go on. He hesitates for another moment, before he continues haltingly, “When Peter the Apostle was supposedly executed under Nero, he’s said to have requested he be crucified upside-down, because he felt he wasn’t worthy to die the way Jesus did.” His broad, tight shoulders are loosening bit by bit the more he talks. “It’s a symbol of humility. It’s even used in the design for the papal cross, because the Pope is supposed to be the successor of Peter. And because of its mistaken associations with Satanism, now people like to claim the Pope is the antichrist.”

He rolls his eyes again and picks up another spring roll, gesturing at her with it before taking a bite and continuing while he chews. “I’m not sure exactly when people decided turning the cross upside-down suddenly makes it evil, but it can probably be traced back to the whole Satanic Panic debacle that kicked up in the 70s through the 90s. Anton LaVey—fuck that guy, by the way—published The Satanic Bible in ‘69, but most of it was pretty much plagiarized from a lot of other authors who philosophized about self-actualization and whatnot, including Ayn Rand—fuck her too—and then The Exorcist movie came out, and those things combined with the whole Manson cult thing earlier in the 60s and kicked off this sort of pop culture fascination with the occult and macabre. A lot of metal bands and other counter-culture music artists started using them in album art along with other bastardized religious imagery, and it turned into a whole thing with religious pearl-clutchers.”

Tina is astounded. Not just by the subject of the conversation (which is really cool, in kind of a weird way?) but with the way the boy turns into a completely different person in the blink of an eye. Just a few minutes ago, he was all dour and moody and mean, looking as if he was a second away from biting her head off, and in the space of a few seconds, he’s morphed into someone totally different. His eyes are brighter and more expressive, he’s talking with his hands, and even the kind of monotone voice she’d heard from him before has changed. “Wow,” she says with no small amount of awe.

He seems to regain himself when she speaks, as if he’d forgotten he was talking to another person entirely. She watches him shrink, hunching his shoulders and looking down at the table, scooping up his pen and viciously scribbling a little spiral into the top corner of his notebook.

“No, seriously!” she blurts, standing up and bracing both hands on the table so she can lean into his space. “That’s really cool! How do you know all that?”

He gives her that same wary, hunted look from earlier, and she can’t help but pout. She wants to see what she saw just a second ago, when he looked like he was excited to talk about something. “Just stuff I picked up a while ago, and thought it was cool, I guess.” He shrugs and looks away, tugging at the spiked chain around his neck partially hidden under the crooked collar of his uniform shirt. “There’s this bookstore a couple towns over that kind of specializes in this stuff.” He lifts his hands and wiggles his fingers, mouth cocking in a wry almost-smile. “Plus, there’s always the magic of the internet.”

She laughs brightly, and it takes every ounce of her meager self-restraint not to reach out and try to physically drag that other boy out of him. “Oh, that sounds fun! We should go together sometime!”

He blinks at her, like she’s hit him over the head with her lunch bag. “Wh… what?”

She leans forward harder, until she’s essentially standing on her tip-toes and bouncing. “We should hang out! I’m sure if I ask really nice, my stepmom will drive us out there. It’ll be great!”

He keeps staring at her. She bounces a bit faster, hoping he doesn’t notice the pimple she couldn’t quite cover with foundation before she had to leave this morning. And if he does, she hopes he doesn’t say anything about it, because she doesn’t think trying to fight him will ingratiate her to him overmuch.

“I’ll buy lunch and everything,” she wheedles.

“I…” He looks away, eyebrows all scrunched again, but she can see him wavering. She wants to punch the air. Never doubt Tina Poname! “I guess? But why?”

Her smile falls a little at the genuine confusion in his voice, the way he’s not looking at her anymore, even to glare, the way he’s twisting one of his rings around his finger and almost hiding behind his thick, dark hair. She tilts her head and blinks at him. “Because I think you’re cool? Besides that, this town is kinda weird about new people? And you’re the only person who didn’t put a bag or book on every available seat when I walked by.”

“Mostly because I didn’t see you coming,” he mutters under his breath, and she barks out a laugh.

“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve ambushed potential friends,” she giggles. “Hasn’t failed me yet. Except when it has, but I don’t count those.”

He finally looks at her again, still kind of hidden behind a curtain of hair, but she thinks he’s actually smiling at her. He starts to open his mouth to say something, but flinches instead when the shrill ring of the bell indicating the end of lunch interrupts him. He swears under his breath and starts to gather up his things, and Tina starts shoveling pretzels into her mouth while pushing her untouched plastic containers back into her bag. She’s going to regret eating nothing but pretzels later, but at least they’re more filling than melon or carrot sticks.

“Hey wait!” she exclaims through a mouthful of pretzels as he begins to stand, almost tripping over the bench to block him in before he can leave. She’s staggered, suddenly, when he rises up to his full height and she’s looking very up at him. She’s been taller than most boys all her life, so this is a bit bizarre. He looks down at her with his brows raised, tucking his notebook into a satchel covered in patches and pins. “Wow, you’re tall,” she says astutely, swallowing her pretzels.

“Uh… yeah, I am,” he responds.

She shakes off her shock and backs up enough to let him out of his side of the table, but she blocks his path to the door still. Though she’s not sure she could stop him from going anywhere if he really wanted to get past her, with those long legs of his. “I forgot to ask! What’s your name?”

He hesitates again before he quietly says, “Arlo.”

She shoves a hand out at him, “Tina Poname, at your service!”

He grants her a shake with his big, ring-laden hand, obviously bemused, but he’s doing that maybe-smile again, so she thinks she’s done pretty well here. “Yeah. Nice to meet you.” He turns and walks a few long steps away, then pauses and turns back towards her, waiting for her scamper to his side.

“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” she says a little breathlessly, swinging her bag and turning to him with a sly little smile “since you’re the local here, what teachers will let me get away with eating in class?”

#the wayhaven chronicles #tina poname #twc fanfic #pidge writes #oc: arlo priestley #this is kinda random and goofy but i had a lot of fun writing it #and researching for it too fhadjsdg #i had so many tabs open #in my head wayhaven is a tiny town in the uk #but i havent exactly decided where #and arlo wound up with a v slight irish lilt #so i imagine part of his family are irish #probably some of them are traditional irish catholics #so that probably has a lot to do w his fascination w the bastardization of catholic imagery #also tbh this phase of his life was 100% engineered to get people to leave him alone #bc as a gay boy growing up liking something traditionally seen as girly #he's seen his fair share of bullying #and while i also like to think wayhaven is much more progressive than most small towns are #and there's evidence for that #kids can be shitty #and older people can be too #idk i grew up southern baptist so like #maybe im projecting a bit #yeehaw

30 notes · View notes

transsexualbloodlust · 4 years

Text

Shrek and SPN an analysis

okay i said i would do a shrek and dean arch analysis and i’m here to deliver

before we ~get into it~ i’d like to say that this started out as being based on my head canon that dean likes the first shrek movie and the musical (secretly) but instead it just became it’s own analysis of the parallels, I will be doing a very short explanation of why i think that after this.

okay let’s do the obvious parts: the both have layers, and they r both bisexual and homophobic (i will not take criticism on this i’m right and u know it)

in regards to the layers:

In the shrek musical we get to see shrek’s childhood and back story. The basic summary is that on his 10th birthday his family abandons him and tells him he has to raise himself, that society will never accept him so he needs to “build a wall” (emotional) and find somewhere no one can get to him (emotional and literal). Shrek grows up knowing he is hated by society and although he doesn’t try to outright conform his choice of being the monster everyone wants him to be and living alone was conforming in itself, we learn later in the movie that shrek is lonely and wants friends but is afraid of vulnerability and how people view him. Now I’m sure we’ve all read a million and one essays on Dean’s personality but you’ll be reading one more. Dean also gets metaphorically thrown out, especially emotionally, by his father and is forced to fend for himself, except (and this is why shrek and dean’s personalities r so different) dean has sam and is forced to raise him. (dean is the woman coded version of this arch and shrek is the man coded version, once again i take no criticism). Dean is forced to live on the outskirts of society, constantly hopping schools, knowing about monsters and hunting, and he embraces that role as a form of protection for himself. This of course mixes with the way J*hn villanises dean to himself, he’s verbally abusive (and almost definitely physically) and holds dean to such a high standard he can never see himself as good enough. Not to mention how his bisexuality is likely seen as something disgusting. So in order to save himself he embraces that roll that his father has layed out for him, to the point where (like shrek and his roar) is very much a performance.

okay so how are the plots similar/something dean can relate to??

well dean and shrek both exist within the outskirts of society, never really wanting to enter and seemingly content with the performance they give. However (in very different ways) their ability to uphold the performance is tested and they embark and a journey to be able to go back to normal life. Shrek has to deal with the fairy tale creatures, and Dean has to save his father. (I genuinly think a lot of deans dependency on j*hn had to do with how much he based his identity on the man, and even though he does care about him and wanted to save him, his dependence on john and inability to recognize the abuse was a part of the performance he had to uphold). They then both get side characters , both Sam (no he’s not the main character stfu) and Cas for dean, and donkey for shrek. Who push them emotionally and force them to explore the possibility of life outside of that performance. They then both assume the roll of heros, something that their self image never truly allowed for. And when they get back to their old lives/rolls they realize it’s not something they truly want anymore, and that maybe it never was. Deans is much more subtle because he always feels the obligation to continue being a hunter wich is so heavily tied to the imagine J*hn projected on to him that he couldn’t move away as quickly as shrek did. But we start to see it in season 10. Then we ofc get to see the parallels between the love confessions. 😀😐

Okay so there’s the obvious “oh no they hate me what will i do” nature to both shrek/fiona and deancas but there’s literally so much more holy shit.

Cas/Fiona parallels:

The way Cas and Fiona r similar has a lot less to do with backstories and more to do with the essence of their arch’s, how they’re used, and how they’re coded. Cas and Fiona have Very different lives, however they where both agencies of the status quo. Fiona wants to be this maiden in her tower and be saved, and she actively reinforces that by following the ideas of a fairy tale even though she truly doesn’t understand the purpose of what she’s going through. Cas on the other hand is an actual soldier of god, he actively fights to uphold the bible and bring about heaven winning, he works to reinforce heavens power. However both he and fiona don’t fit the model of their stories perfectly and in doing so r rebelling against the story. Fiona is Quircky TM, and a whole ogre, she doesn’t fit into the basic model of her story and the fact that she’s different is what causes her to rebel against the story. Her very existence is what caused her to question the narrative. Cas’s very existence defies the narrative because he, unlike most angels, cares about humanity (dean, like humans but mainly dean). He is supposed to be an unfeeling soldier of the lord but instead he ends up being gay for a repressed kansas boy which throws a cog in the narrative he’s supposed to play out and causes him to question it. And on top of that their personality is what pushes their love interest to confront the parts of themselves they aren’t really willing to embarrass. Dean being bi and Shrek being an ogre.

Okay so the actual confession parallels:

Obviously they are different, for one shrek is canon reciprocated in all countries (that i know of). But thematically?? what the characters r saying to eachother?? girl i’m loosing it.

Shrek is about accepting ones self as who u truly are and recognizing that that doesn’t need to be changed for u to be lovable. And Cas’ speech does exactly that, it tells dean that even though he views himself as a monster who’s driven by hate, even though he see’s him as his enemies do (think shrek seeing himself through the townsfolks eyes) he is actually driven by love and that he, without changing, is lovable in every sense of the word. More than that he’s lovable by what common society would consider to be the Ideal (angels being like 🤩 and princesses being 🤩). In this confession of love Dean/Shrek r moved to accept themselves as they are, Shrek in the moment and Dean later when he doesn’t kill chuck. And their loved one has their final closure to their story. Fiona is forced to accept herself as an ogre as well and Cas shows that he’s, like Dean, fundamentally driven by love even though he was told he shouldn’t be.

This is where we once again see the whole “dean and shrek have the same arch but dean’s is woman coded” thing which I will be getting into in a separate essay. But the basic idea is that Shrek comes to the realization partially on his own and gets final validation from Fiona where as Dean gets confessed to.

Then after the initial confession both lovers are pulled apart, deancas have the empty, and shrek/fiona are briefly pulled apart by lord farquad. In both instances the characters are punished for the fact that they’re in love. HOWEVER shrek understands good story telling and has the lovers come back together.

And then ofc both Fiona and Cas get enveloped :D (Cas in goop and Fiona in light)

But this where we get into the exploring where Supernatural’s narrative SHOULD have gone, (as shown in shrek):

After the love confession we finally get to see Shrek realize that he isn’t the monster society painted him as and that that requires absolutely no change on shreks part, he’s accepted himself and realized that he can tear his walls down. Dean goes through the tearing down of walls much slower throughout the seasons, because Dean has the woman coded version of this narrative he already understands found family but he doesn’t understand that he is worthy of his family’s love in return.

So in Shrek we see shrek live out his life with his found family, he’s had his arch he understands his worth and he realizes that he doesn’t want to be alone. Now as a finale denialist I will not be talking about what happens in the finale but we’ve all seen it and you know how supernatural doesn’t follow through.

This was so much fun i will be doing more later but I hope y’all enjoyed this <3

#god this was so cursed but so beautiful #I genuinly feel passionate about this now and will talk about it later #also deadass dean is the women coded version of shreks arch but he ISNT fiona #i hope u all liked this

33 notes · View notes

thefirsthogokage · 3 years

Note

Why did you rage quit the rookie?

(this turned out longer then I meant it to be, but I kept remembering reasons why I hate this show now)

The writing went down the drain. Hard. I was so pissed because it started off well in season one. Granted, it had a couple big ridiculous things that happened, but overall it was pretty good. Especially for a freshman show. One of the best I'd seen in years.

Then season two came along and it became progressively/exponentially worse.

Obviously going for shock value over good content with extreme circumstances in most episodes, often not making sense (why the fuck did Nolan's son and his girlfriend go to that trailer park?)

poor plot lines with female characters (Lopez and Wes getting engaged after only being together a few months, Lopez trying out to be pretty damn toxic and "I was poor, you should have been happy you were rich" and "sorry you're embarrassed of me (which is the same abousive shit my mother would pull), Grace going back to her ex because they had a kid even though their marriage sucked and it was outlined earlier in the season that was a bad idea, Jessica killing that one guy and that was never followed through on and her being psycho and following Nolan around and that never being addressed, Chen never given psychological damage she should have absolutely had even of she did self-therapy, Rachel getting her "dream job" in NY and the writers couldn't even take the time to tell us what said dream job was.)

Poorly planned plots in general (stunningly so)

Most characters not feeling like a proper continuation of who they were in season one. Going a ong with that, Chen and Bradford being way too close basically over night when that isn't natural progression from season one

I was for Chenford after season one, but they escalated it in a very cheesy and non true to character way, which also happened way too quickly. So many of their interactions felt too romantically tinted when they shouldn't have been there yet. HEART EYES ALL THE TIME! Like, I stayed watching the show for them until I couldn't tolerate anymore. Then I tried staying for Nyla and just gave up because I hated the rest of the show so much

obvious lack of research (the serial killer with pathology that made no sense, never finding out the connection between him and the lady, the guy apparently also got a job a prison with a stolen social security number from a disabled person - both of which would have been flagged in a background check!!! Such a genuinely poor writing episode and the season just went even more downhill from there)

Nolan being the hero even more in most of the episodes, and his intellect or lack thereof being a plot device

not letting Chen actually suffer from PTSD like she should have and just had her basically quickly move on in an impossible way (I am including this twice, thank you)

throwing her into a relationship with a guy who was a jackass and went all "leave my woman alone" on Bradford when she absolutely didn't need help

Jackson going to a very public premiere with his actor boyfriend even though he was an active cop. What the actual fuck were they thinking with that? Jackson isn't that dumb, he would have never done that.

this show clearly is not keeping a a continuity or character bible of any sort, getting basic facts of their characters wrong (especially Tim, I just can't remember the specific thing that it was, but it could have been inconsistencies in his wounds. Now that I think about it, Chen said something about him getting shot more then once and stabbed and the only time we ever saw evidence of any injury was after he was shot in episode one. Which actually brings me to my next point...)

they never had Tim have a scar from his gunshot wound

Tim getting his 12-year-old-acting girlfriend out of trouble when she bats her eyes at him. He shouldn't have even been dating her in the first place. No way Tim would have ever dated a friend of his rookie. Completely unprofessional of him, in a way that was not believable for his character.

No way Chen could have been an undercover cop after that documentary episode. And if that episode was mean to be a stand alone, it should have never been in the show. That episode also had continuity issues, and that's not including the absolute insanity of whatever the fuck they did to Stirling. (That poor actor, he really wanted to come back and continue the story with his character and Jackson)

THE WHOLE FUCKING BULLSHIT TIMELINE AND PACING OF THE SHOW! examples: They made the stupid thing current to whatever the real world year was. The problem with that was they had an in-universe schedule set up. The first two seasons should have spanned from like October 2018 to October 2019, and yet, in the episode where Wes got stabbed (earlyish season 2), it was November 2019 when it should have been around like May, 2019. They said it was 2021 early in S3 when it should have never been around that time. Infact, it was supposed to be during their last 30 days of their rookie year, meaning THAT should have been October or November 2019. The time pacing of this show is so bad. They should have done a real time skip in season 3, instead, the first NINE FUCKING EPISODES WERE THOSE LAST 30 DAYS! And, according to someone else's math, because of the bullshit with the timeline, Lopez was pregnant for 11 months. Absolutely fucking insane. Timelines and timetables that are so thoroughly screwed up in a show that it's THAT obvious they are flying by the seat of their pants are just impossible for me to stand. That is so dumbfounding to see on any tv show and alone enough for me to rage quit. It's so bizarre they stuck to a timeframe in-universe, then so obviously screwed up what year it was every damn season at least once (in S3 2-3 times).

Just such piss poor writing. No real planning ability. No writing talent left in that writer's room after season one. Just people who throw words down on paper and hope that people will like it. Which so many people still do for some reason?

There are so many other things wrong with this show, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Granted, a couple are second hand because I stopped watching after the rookies did stuff with the DEA. I couldn't watch that. That was such and insane idea. OH AND THEM GOING ON A FUCKING SECRET OP? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!

And that's not including what I've heard was their "After School Special"-style take on fighting racism in the police force.

And I don't always pick up on these kinds of things specifically. I generally don't pick up on missteps like that in plot or timelines or whatnot or just things that even someone who doesn't have much specified knowledge in certain things should miss (the "job at a prison" thing I mentioned earlier). I'm good at telling the chemistry between actors, - or lack there of, - not the other stuff. When it's so bad I - of all people - am noticing things that are normally pointed out to me, a lot of fucking up is happening. In multiple departments. Like, normally when anything happens in other shows, it isn't as blunt, on the head, painfully obvious, and frequent as it has been in this show.

So, yeah, if you made it though my rant, congrats. If you don't get irritated with the show and bullshit that happens in it now, power to you I guess.

I really wished I could still hate watch this show, but it checked way too many "this is exceptionally poor craftsmanship: tv show edition" boxes for me to put up with it anymore. It was so promising at first, even with it's various hiccups (that I didn't notice until later on all of them) but I hadn't seen a show crash that hard in quality before. I mean, since then I had to experience the travesty that was Supernatural going from 15x18 to 15x19 and 15x20, but that was after I gave up on The Rookie.

Anywho, I would say I hope that answers your question anon, but I have little room for doubt that it didn't.

#asks #anon ask #antitherookie #tv show asks #tv show ask #fuck alexi for all of his bullshit #from what i hear the last season of Castle was absolute shit and he was in charge of that too #the rookie

4 notes · View notes

howtotrainyouragents · 3 years

Text

Things I Noticed in the Hamilton Film

Soooo, I was supposed to have posted this last year when the film first dropped, and I forgot...

Anywayyyy, things that were new, from the album, or was obvious to everyone but me. This is literally just me listing details I loved for my own keepsake later on

I hope this film’s success (and the play’s hopeful continued success on stage), shows that Broadway plays can and should be filmed for everyone

Lin Manuel Miranda is a brilliant writer, scriptwriter, musician, rapper, singer, and a genuinely lovely person, but I think my favorite part about him is his acting. He has such a pure naturalness and sincerity in his acting. He nails microexpressions/gestures and sometimes I forget that he’s acting

E.g., Lin’s devastation after Washington kicks him out

There’s some songs I wondered what their purpose was, but watching it I understood. For example, Story of Tonight sets up the purpose of the revolution. Like, My Shot is Hamilton’s ‘I want’ song, but Story of Tonight is all of the revolutionaries ‘I want’ song, and that’s why it comes up again for Laurens and Hamilton at their ends

Samuel Seabury’s acting was gold

In Right Hand Man the way the backup stage/cast lights up as they sing ‘not throwing away my shot” and Hamilton agrees to work for Washington

The fact that Helpless ends with “You’ll be a new man” because Hamilton is still so obsessed with his own ascendency

HOLY FUCK RENEE ELISE GOLDSBERRY

They way they start Satisfied, it’s like Angelica doesn’t know the true extent of her devastation until she gives her toast and says “satisfied”. Like, she knows what she’s done but she’s still thinks this is fine and this is for the best, and it’s not until this moment that the weight of it fully hits her. By the end of it, it’s like she’s barely holding it together for this toast

Towards the end of the song, Eliza kisses her cheek and Renee’s expression is like she’s about fall apart in that very moment from the sheer overwhelming joy and pain

So in Helpless when their talking about letters, Peggy does a cute random shimmy while handing Eliza the letter. But then in Satisfied we see that she’s doing the shimmy to the beat of Satisfied, meaning that she knows how Angelica feels and knows about the love triangle

I’m trying really hard not to scream about the rewind of all the dance and action in Satisfaction but please know I am internally screaming about this forever.

Almost forgot, Burr and Hamilton were friends at one point. Burr shows up for his wedding to wish him well :(

I wasn’t gonna scream that much here, but LESLIE ODOM JR.

Leslie’s smile- amused and scoffing disbelief- when singing about Hamilton in Wait for it

Speaking of Wait for it, the way the whole cast is waiting on stage and the balconies as Burr sings. and the way the dancers shift to Hamilton’s direction when Burr talks about him

Also the lighting creates boxes on the stages, like Burr is trapped. But then this reappears in Your Obedient Servant

I never knew the lyrics were “This is commonplace, 'specially 'tween recruits” and not “’tween corps” in Ten Duel Commandments...makes more sense

I think there’s 10 people in that line up in Ten Commandments

The way Stay Alive conflicts Hamilton’s precious notions of sacrifice, and forces him to shift his focus from dying to legacy

The mimic of the bullet in Stay Alive

The way that Eliza is also so excited about the war and the scholars in The Schuyler Sisters and that excitement goes away after she has the actual risk of losing someone she loves because of the war

Who’s the choreographer because DAMN (btw it’s Andy Blankenbuehler)

Also the dancers lifting up other dancers for whole bars? Incredible

The way women are interwoven into the story of the war, singing the chorus and setting the scene and rejoicing with the soldiers at the end

The fucking red lighting in Yorktown. Also, the shot in the song’s pause is one of the best shots in musical history.

The fact that ‘black and white soldiers wonder alike if this really means freedom’ ‘not yet’ is a commentary on slavery and the line is said by Washington

The brilliant way What Comes Next undercuts the gravitas of Yorktown .

Also, King George loses more and more of his costume and moves around more as the show goes on. Also, blue lighting with “I’m feeling blue” hahaha

Lafayette and Hercules getting the same letter about Laurens + Hamilton’s sobbing. And Laurens’ singing ‘there will be more of us’, referring to the future generations who will fight and win abolition.

Nonstop:

Burr’s disgust while Hamilton rants. Hamilton’s pouting then childish glee at the beginning

Burr stays at the bottom of the staircase after Hamilton climbs it. Also, Jefferson descends the staircase after Hamilton ascends it, indicating their statuses

The refrain of “How does a....” shows up in Nonstop as Burr’s “How do you write...” (other characters sing their own personal refrains but Burr sings this), and it’s like this ongoing, jealous, incredulous questioning of how Hamilton became so successful, and part of the answer of how he did it is that he doesn’t stop writing and working.

Regardless of which sister he ended up with, love was never gonna be enough for Hamilton

The way Daveed Diggs jumps and dances and dives across the stage in just about every song he’s in. The man truly deserved the Emmy

Jefferson’s being surrounded by his slaves because he sucks

Hamilton’s costume goes from white --> brown-->blue-->green-->black and someone with more color scheme expertise needs to dissect this for me please

The fact that even Burr peaces out when it comes to the affair, like, nope, this is too messed up even for me

An in-universe explanation as to why the Ten Duel Commandments and Phillip’s count is the same is that Hamilton’s killing (metaphorically and literally) in order to stay alive is a part of their family’s DNA.

Anthony Ramos is phenomenal at playing 9 years old then having to switch to 19

The fact that Phillip was probably so determined to defend his father is that this is after the Reynolds Pamphlet and everyone was humiliating and scorning Hamilton

The Room Where it Happened

Hamilton is like an apparation to him, and Burr is both scared and begging the ghost to reveal the truth

The fact that this song is a plot song and a ‘i want’ song and a villain song all at once. Also, the song picks up speed to signal the shift from historical recounting to ‘i want’ song

They replay the beginning where Jefferson/Madison call for Hamilton

Jefferson being the one to ask “Don’t you remember Lafayette”, and there’s like a slight change in his demeanor that’s more Lafayette then Jefferson

Burr, Madison, and Jefferson discreetly talking to each other in Washington on Your Side representing their nefarious schedming. Also, Daveed Diggs keeps Jefferson’s limp even without the cane. Also Madison is angry at Hamiilton when he says “the bill of rights, which I wrote!”

One Last Time:

How perfectly the Bible verse reflects Washington’s opinion of legacy. The younger men are obsessed with preserving their own memories in history, but for Washington, his legacy would be that everyone would be safe and at peace.

Washington’s practically crying at the end

Hamilton asking Washington here to teach him how to say goodbye because Hamilton genuinely doesn’t know how: people left him before he could ever say goodbye

We Know: Jefferson’s pure WTF face when he says “my God...”. In this reaidng, Burr definitely threatened him (I didn’t always intepret that way when listening). But Hamilton’s still an idiot.

Hurricane: Once again, Lin’s facial expressions. The way the the chorus stands around and watches him. But also the freaking brilliant way that the dancers mimic the hurricane, and Burr and Maria are the only other people in the hurricane with Hamilton. But at the end, it’s just Hamilton and the desk

Reynolds Pamphlet: The way Washington can’t even look at him, but Angelica gets in his face to yell at him. Also, Jefferson hands a pamphlet to the conductor

This reading, Phillippa Soo sings Burn with so much rage and fury and that is pretty much my favorite part of this entire film

Hamilton’s face at “Alexander, did you know?”

The fact that Angelica narrates Uptown because it’s too intimate for Burr or anyone else to narrate. Eliza’s changing facial expressions as she slowly lets him in. The way Hamilton just completely breaks down and sobs

The Election of 1800:

Jefferson shaking his head when Madison suggests Hamilton

Burr’s falseness is hilarious. He hands Hamilton a pamphlet.

Jefferson’s look of resignation when Hamilton is making his decision, then starts dancing around when he’s won

The close-up of Burr’s face falling when he realizes who Hamilton has voted for

The whole “runner-up becomes VP” thing made me think about if we could have had Hillary Clinton as VP, and I made myself sad.

Your Obedient Servant: I always saw this song as a reflection of the custom, but I never fully appreciated how it reflects their relationship: their relationship has completely disintegrated, but their working to maintain this false appearance of friendship/civility that no longer has a place in their relationship.

Also, Burr’s increasingly incensed and it does not help that Hamilton sends like a 12-page letter and the dancer even teases Burr

The guy who gives Hamilton Burr’s duel challenge plays Charles Lee. Karma

The World Was Wide Enough

Burr’s POV then Hamilton’s POV, like this story has become less and less about Hamilton and he is no longer in control of who’s telling his story

The shot of Eliza walking away and in her wake, it’s Burr shooting

Burr’s alone in the stage, finally realizing the world (aka the stage) was wide enough for the both of them, but it’s too late. Also, in part foreshadowing his own future: that he had the world before him regardless of Hamilton, but he was completely ruined after this duel

I definitely cried at ‘the orphanage’. Also I interpret the gasp at the end as her breaking fourth wall and seeing the audience and realizing that Hamilton’s legacy has continued even to today.

#hamilton #i know it's cool to hate hamilton now #but i dont #so forgive me for putting this on your dash #agent report #agent h

4 notes · View notes

ms-rampage · 4 years

Text

Eden’s Gate: Left Behind Chapter 14 - Skin Wearer

Warnings: Swearing, violence, demon possession

Word count: 2.4k

Summary: John gets possessed by Saleos, and forces Kate, her friends and some locals to atone. Leaving Kate and Morgan the only ones to save him.

Guest characters: Sam and Dean Winchester [mentioned only]

Note: I’m trying to wrap up this series. There will most likely be 16-18 chapters. I might post the first chapter for The Mother series probably later today.

************************************

“You’re not John” Kate says, aiming her pistol at “John”.

He tilts his head in confusion, “What are you talking about Katella?! It’s me John!”.

She scoffs, rolling her eyes, “Yeah sure, the vessel of the man that I met the other day. He’s dead, and rotting in the ground by my friends campsite. Several traits left behind that indicate a demon was there. Sulfur".

She backs up slowly, getting away from him as he moves closer to her.

“Stay where you are!!!’ she says, turning off the safety on her pistol. Slowly walking towards the front door.

“Katie!! It’s me, put the gun down!!” he says, stepping closer to her.

She glares at him, and says “Christo”.

His eyes turn completely black. Bloodshot black.

“That’s what I thought” she says, still aiming her pistol.

“If you shoot me, you kill your boy toy” he says.

“Saleos. You better get your demon ass out of John-” she says before getting cut off.

“Or what?! You’ll kill me?! Sure go ahead, but like I said you’ll kill Johnny as well” he says, cockiness in his voice.

He suddenly moves closer to her, and she manages to throw holy water in his face.

He screams in agony as the water burns his flesh, Kate makes a run to the door only for “John” to throw her across the room hitting a wall with the wave of his hand.

“You little bitch” he mutters, as his skin burns, “Do you really think John loves you?!?”.

He kicks her in the stomach as she attempts to stand up.

“John doesn’t love you!!. He’s only using you for his own pleasure, but after this he’s not gonna want anything to do with you” he says kneeling, as she coughs up blood.

“You’re- you’re a fucking liar!!” she wheezes out.

He clicks his tongue, “Yeah, but I’m being honest here”.

She kicks him in the face, and struggles to the door.

He grabs her by the shirt, and throws her upstairs. Breaking the railing.

“Katie!!!!” he calls out from downstairs.

Hitting the floor hard, groaning in pain, she crawls to a nearby room. Shutting the door, and locking it.

Using her blood to make a demon warding sigil to keep him from getting in the room.

She reaches into her jacket, and pulls out her phone.

Surprised she still had it on her person, and it worked even through all the shit she went through a few minutes ago.

In a panic, she doesn’t even think to call Morgan for backup.

“Katella, where are you?!?!”, “John” says in a singy voice.

It’s still his normal voice, but it’s a lot more bone chilling when there’s an actual demon soul harvesting his human soul.

A bang on a door coming from several rooms down, makes the walls shake.

Her mind is in a panic, and doesn’t think to call Morgan, instead her cousin Dean, who is probably nowhere near Hope County, or Montana for that matter. It goes to voicemail after a few rings.

“This is Dean Winchester, leave your name, number and nightmare at the tone” -beep-

The vibration of the demon’s strength makes the whole house shake.

“Dean!!!!It's me Kate. I'm in Hope County, Montana. I need yours, and Sam’s help. My boyfriend John got possessed by a demon Saleos, and Paige isn’t around to help me”

John’s voice coming from the otherside of the door, “Katie!!!, I know you’re in there!!!’ he says in a teasing voice.

Hitting the door, the whole house shifting.

“Please, I need your guys' help!!!” she says into her phone before hanging up.

“Katie!!! Opening the door!!!’ he says, his voice growing malicious.

She looks out the window, and tries to pry it open, she knows the sigil won’t hold him off forever.

The window being her only way out, even if it’s a 10 foot drop to the ground.

“Katie open the fucking door!!!!!!!” he yells, trying to break the door down.

She’s able to get the window open, she crawls out. Walking along the roof trying to avoid falling off of it.

She finds a ladder going down. She takes it, and once she gets to the ground she is immediately knocked out by Merihem who is possessing one of John’s followers.

***************************

A few hours go by, Kate wakes up disoriented and sees John hovering over her looking down at her chest around. Concentrating on something.

The stinging sensation of needles pinching, stabbing her skin, she tries to move away, and is immediately held back by a couple of peggies.

“Hold still” John growls, his eyes turning black for a split second, “It’s supposed to say Lust, not, Us”.

He talks a bunch of nonsense, and some other stuff.

A few minutes later he finishes, looking down, admiring his work.

He gets off of her, letting her sit up. She sees Nick Rye, Mary May, Pastor Jerome, her friends Morgan, and Ryan standing behind him

He looks at her with his hands up, smirking “Ahhh perfect”.

He chuckles, “If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, then bring the mountain to Mohammed. Let’s begin!!” he says, grabbing a book from one of his followers while walking towards the other end of the church.

A peggie grabs her, pulling her up, and moves her towards the others.

Morgan looks back at her confused, and obviously annoyed.

Several of John’s followers there, probably possessed by demons, or they’re just that damn loyal to John.

Putting her friends, and the business owners in front of her.

John smacks the bible from Pastor Jerome’s hand, and puts his own book in his hand.

“I thought a friendly face might make your atonement easier” “John” says to Kate.

Kate knows Saleos is forcing John to do all of this. He’s in full control of his body.

She knows it, Morgan knows it and she’s pretty sure John knows it.

Everyone in Hope County knows John Seed is known to do this shit.

He stands behind Pastor Jerome, and says slowly.

“Our devoted. We are gathered here to bear witness.”

When Jerome doesn’t oblige, one of John's men hits him on the side of the head with his pistol.

Having him fall to the floor.

“You son of bitch!!!” Mary yells at him, getting in his face, and is hit with another peggie’s pistol.

Morgan and Kate give him a death stare. They have to get that demon fucker out of John, and then Kate has to dump his ass before any more damage can be done.

He laughs, “Let’s try that again”.

“Our devoted. We are gathered here to bear witness.” John says again.

“Our devoted. We are gathered here to bear witness.” Jerome repeats after him.

“To those willing to atone for their sins” he says.

“To those willing to atone for their sins” Jerome repeats.

“Will you Nick Rye place your hand upon The Word of Joseph?” John says.

“Will you Nick Rye place y-”

“Oh fuck that!!. Nah I ain’t ever giving in to that psychopath”, Nick interrupts him.

He moves Jerome out of the way, and says to Nick.

“And there it is. Greed. Always thinking about yourself”.

Nick spits in John’s face.

He grabs Nick’s shoulders and whispers something in his ear.

Kate, Morgan and the others can’t hear a word he says to him, but whatever it was made Nick’s reaction change, and he does the unbelievable.

“Nick?”

“Yes. Yes I will atone” he says.

Everyone looks at him in disbelief.

“What!?! No!!!!” Ryan yells.

A peggie hands John a knife, the other two hold Nick down to the floor, while John cuts off the piece of flesh with his sin on it.

“No, John, No. Stop!!!!” Kate yells, while being held back.

Nick grunting in pain as his skin gets cut off.

John holds up the piece of skin, his hands all bloody. Looking like a psychopath.

“That is the power of yes. The power to take away your sins” he says as staples the piece of skin onto a wall, “The power to set you free”.

He moves on to Kate, Pastor Jerome standing in front of her while holding the bible, John standing behind him.

“Will you Kate Winchester. Place your hand upon the Word of Joseph?, and renounce your sins, and admit your transgressions”

Jerome repeats after him for both verses.

Kate stares at John, and quickly glances over at Morgan.

“You’re so fucking screwed” she says to him, shaking her head.

She starts to incite an exorcism she was taught years ago by her mother.

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas”

John’s eyes turn black for a moment then go back to their normal self.

“What are you doing?!?” he asks, his voice growing irritated.

Everyone in the church looks at her confused. Not understanding what is going on.

Pastor Jerome is aware of what she’s doing, but unsure why she’s inciting an exorcism.

“Omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica. Ergo, omnis legio diabolica, adiuramus te... cessa decipere humanas creaturas”

“What are you doing?!??!” he yells getting angry. His eyes completely blackened.

“She’s exorcising your demon ass!!!” Morgan yells at him.

Kate is interrupted by the strike of a pistol to the back of her head.

Getting knocked to the floor.

“You motherfucker!!!!!” Ryan yells, he takes the gun from the peggie, and shoots at John. Missing him by a few inches.

He gets tackled to the floor, and Morgan comes to his aid.

A few peggies get John out of the church, blocking him from the bullets.

“Get John to the ranch!!!’ one of them yells.

They all fight the peggies, killing every single one of them.

Morgan and Kate go after him to get the demon fucker out of him.

“We’re going to the ranch, and we’re gonna get that fucker out of him” Kate says, getting into a Cult truck.

They arrive at the ranch house. A Cult truck, and Kate’s car are outside of it.

“Looks like Johnny demon is here” Morgan says.

“Come on” Kate says, getting out of the truck.

She ain’t gonna stop until that douchebag demon is out of John’s body, and sends him back to Hell.

She kicks in the front door, and sees dead Cultists on the floor.

“It’s about time you two showed up” John says, spinning around in a chair.

“You better get your ass out of him now!!!” she orders the demon.

He chuckles, “Nah. I like this vessel”.

“I’m sending your ass back to Hell where you belong” she says.

He stands up, “I like your new tattoo piece” he says, motioning to her chest, “Wait until Johnny sees that. He’ll hate himself forever. I also like the other 3 I-. I mean he gave you”.

Kate rolls up her sleeves, and sees Wrath on her right arm, Pride on her left arm and Greed on her right shoulder.

Feeling sick to her stomach.

“I wanna speak with him now!” she demands.

He crosses his arms, “No”.

Out of nowhere Morgan hits him with an iron bar. Knocking out the demon.

“Okay. So now we take him home, we tie him up and we exorcise the demon out of him”.

They shove him into the trunk of Kate’s car, and drive to their house.

After an hour, they have him tied to a chair, and put a Devil’s trap on the ceiling above him to keep him from escaping.

He finally wakes up after almost 2 hours.

Kate throws holy water in his face to wake him up.

His flesh burning, he wakes up, growling in agony.

“Oh good, you’re finally awake!!” she says enthusiastically.

“So!. I want to speak with John right now!” she orders him.

He chuckles at her, “Sorry he’s not home”.

“Bullshit!. I know you were making him do all that shit at the church” she yells.

He laughs at her, “Oh Kate” he lets out a loud exhale, “I wasn’t doing anything at the church that was all Johnny boy”.

“Liar” she spits, “I want to speak with him”.

He stares at her with a cocky smirk.

Morgan throws holy water in his face.

He growls in pain, “You bitch!!”.

“Thanks!!!” she responds.

“Put John on now!!!” Kate yells.

“Why? He never cared about you anyway!. He used you for his own sexual pleasures. He’s really good at hiding his true face”.

“Don’t listen to him Kate, all demons are liars” Morgan reassures her.

Saleos scoffs, “Oh please, the second you say yes, I would’ve forced John to cut off your skin, and I was gonna leave his body, and have him witness his own hands cutting off his little girlfriend’s flesh”.

He starts to laugh maniacally, Kate out of annoyance, and frustration throws holy water in his face, and says without taking a breath.

“To be 1000% honest, I was gonna break up with John. Because I don’t know how I could love someone as sadistic as him. Yeah he’s handsome, and all. He certainly knows how to pleasure me in the bedroom and all, but if you’re telling us the truth which I 100% doubt about him being in control throughout that whole horror show. Then yeah I am gonna dump his ass, which I should’ve done a long time ago. The second he wanted me to be “cleansed. I know I can’t change him, people like him never change, even if it’s for someone they love very much”

Unknown to her, and to Morgan. Saleos switched from him to John, and he heard everything Kate had said about him.

John’s eyes grow wide in sadness “You? You were gonna break up with me?!” he asks softly, his eyes getting watery.

“Oh shit” Kate says underbreath, in shock and not knowing what to say.

Stammering over her words, “No John I didn’t-”

Saleos switches back to his demon self.

“Yeah sorry his time was up” he says in a smartass way. Scrunching his nose.

“You motherfucker!!’ Kate says softly but with aggression.

11 notes · View notes

ziracona · 4 years

Note

What happens in Far Cry 5? I literally only know about it through your posts

Uhhh, okay so this is gonna be a little long but here goes. So, Far Cry games are always you (some PC, changes per game) vs some dictator/cult leader/mass gang leader type sitch. Apparently 4 also ends with an unhappy ending no matter what, but no other game ends remotely like 5 does, and 5 also is the only one to take place in the US or vs Americans.

So, Far Cry 5 takes place in Montana. Basically, there’s a doomstay offshoot-‘Christian’ extremist cult calling themselves Project at Eden’s Gate, following a white dude named Joseph Seed and his siblings (biological brothers Jacob and John, and adopted [kind of – more like recruited to fill a cult role] sister Faith). You play as a rookie deputy from rural Montana, going on this assignment with Deputies Pratt and Hudson, Sherriff Whitehorse, and US Marshal Burke. You begin the game headed to the cult’s center to arrest their leader, Joseph, because a guy in the cult livestreamed a little of a service secretly to try and expose them, was caught, and had his eyes ripped out by Joseph and then was killed on the stream, so you’re there to arrest him. Mostly law enforcement are afraid to go in because it’s several thousand radical insane Americans with SMGS in a cult in the middle of fuckall nowhere Montana, so yeah. Anyway. You show up and arrest Joseph, but a bunch of his followers (PEGies for project at eden’s gate) swarm the helicopter and you crash and the correspondent at the sheriff’s office is working with the cult, so all of you get grabbed initially, except the PC, who gets grabbed not by the cult but by a stranger. You wake up tied to a bedpost and confronted by the stranger who debates a second then decides to let you go and try to fight the cult instead of turning you in, and introduces himself as Dutch. He gives you a breakdown of what stuff is like here, which is, uhhhh, bad. Basically, the people here are trapped because they’ll get kidnapped trying to leave, but the cult comes for everyone eventually. John physically abuses/tortures people into accepting the whole cult “power of Yes” thing and confessing their ‘sins,’ which he then tattoos on their body, then cuts the slab of skin off their chest to staple to his wall, which is part of their initiation into the cult, as is the torture, forced baptism, and implied sexual assault by him as well. Joseph has given your coworkers to a sibling each, respectively, sans the Sheriff, who was sent to one but escaped like you did. John has Hudson, the only female deputy (unless the PC is playing as woman as well). Faith has the Marshall and was supposed to get the Sheriff, and Jacob has Pratt. You want to save your friends and Dutch wants to help, but also asks you to help the people in the community, so you do.

Basically, the cult has many ways of converting people, but also kill a fuck ton of civilians. There’s a lot of times you’ll be driving down a road and see a civilian tied up with their hands behind their back on their knees and two cultists about to execute them (usually someone who tried to flee whose car they ran off the road), and you have a very failable but potential chance to save them. A lot of these people can become your NPC companions as well and help you fight the cult if you do. I’ve gotten very good at sniping, because if a cultist sees you coming, they’ll execute any prisoners so you have no chance to save them. Definitely saved hundreds of people at this point, but it wasn’t easy. Anyway. Also you’ll see vans of prisoners being carted off (usually one or two from a house at a time), and you can shoot the driver and save them if you’re careful. But a lot of the time you show up to try to help people to find them already murdered, or hung up like a scarecrow in a field with flowers stuffed into their emptied stomach, being used for target practice. On an alter, or hung from a ceiling with deer horns tied to them. Staked through on the side of the road with a cult cross. Starved or shot to death in cages. It’s pretty grim.

Anyway, so you go around answering calls for help, doing your best to slowly track down your friends, but also help all the poor suffering people being murdered and abused by this awful cult. There are random NPCs who can be companions, plus specialists, who are more quest-designed-to-be-met characters. These include Jess, Dutch’s niece, who you find in a cage to be shipped to Jacob for psychological torture and brainwashing (I’ll get to him), a puma I loved named Peaches, a pilot named Nick who is just trying to get his family out of town and resist the cult’s attempts to steal his property or buy it out (they stole or bought land and stuff from /everyone/ and took advantage of/ransacked the whole community), but will stay to help you, and a puppy named Boomer whose family called for help that came to late and were shot to death in front of him. You find him in a cage being kicked at by cultists and save him, and watch him go cry over his dead family, then take in as your own.

Stuff goes better, though, and you make progress. There’s a lot of strongholds you can help protect, like a little town where the resident preacher and the bar owner lady are trying to keep the whole place from being overrun by the cult, and a jail up east where the sheriff and a bunch of survivors/rebels are holed up trying to survive Faith. Basically the area is broken up into three districts, and whichever you complete missions in, you get closer to a fight with that Seed sibling (also you get kidnapped and have to listen to them monologue so much. Kill me).

So John will kidnap you and force baptize you, tie you to a chair and tell you how he’s going to torture (and implied assault) you until you scream out your sins, then you escape but he does all that to Hudson, who you can’t save for another chunk of time, and he punishes brutally and is super fucked up by the time you finally rescue her. She tells you that Joseph (the leader—thinks he is God’s chosen prophet and calls himself “the Father”) would come and watch her and the others be tortured and they’d beg for mercy and he’d just stand there and watch. She’s super messed up but alive, and you’re able to get her out and kill John, but not before he kidnaps you and the preacher, bar lady, and Nick the family man, then forces Nick to confess his sins (under threat of awful shit happening to his wife and infant daughter if he does not), and then be held down and have his chest flesh cut off by John and stapled to a wall. You get forcibly tattooed with a sin but escape before suffering the same bc the preacher keeps a gun in his bible. Anyway. Digressing. You eventually kill John and rescue Hudson.

Over in Jacob’s territory, people are inducted into the cult by being kidnapped, psychologically and physically tortured, and straight up mind-controlled to go into fits of rage at a specific song being played. They are pitted against each other in some eugenicist “only the strong survive, sacrifice the weak” bullshit. There’s a militia called the Whitetails there, fighting back. Before you meet them, though, you’re kidnapped by Jacob and strapped to a chair, then subjected to psychological torture to try to condition you to kill the weak. You wake up days later, barely alive, left for dead having seemed to resist/fail his trials, still strapped to a chair. Among a ton of other dead bodies. Some of the Whitetails show up, looking for survivors, expecting none, and find you. Though everyone else protests it is too big a risk and you might be brainwashed, one guy, Eli, orders the others to take you anyway and says he won’t leave you to die. You pass out and wake up again on a couch in a bunker, and a lady screams about you being a risk and needing to go, but Eli defends you again, then gives you something to drink and takes care of you/nurses you back to health and defends you from the more paranoid members. When you’re up again, he introduces you to the militia fighting Jacob’s people, and asks for your help rescuing some people in the same situation you were in. You then start to work with the Whitetails.

Periodically, your PC gets kidnapped by Jacob again and tortured each time/brainwashed. You escape with help from the militia and from Pratt, later, who was kidnapped and broken by Jacob, but isn’t gone, just terrified and fucked up. Deputy Pratt risks his life to rescue you when you’re in trouble and you try to escape together, but the brainwash song plays and he shoves you onto a convoy so you can escape, but doesn’t make it himself before snapping into a rage, and is recaptured, brutally punished and tortured by Jacob, and then left tied to a chair to starve to death in a cell for what he did. The player is captured again, and railroaded into, in one of the brainwashed fits of rage, killing Eli himself. : ( They then snap out of it, and infuriated and anguished, go to kill Jacob and save Pratt. Pratt is still alive, but super psychologically scarred. You kill Jacob.

I should note here that you can do the sibs in any order—for example, I did Faith’s first—but I am listing them in their kind of ‘suggested’ order. John, Jacob, Faith.

So, Faith. The way she gets people is drugs. She uses a compound she calls “Bliss” to drug people out of their minds. After you are drugged up enough, you suffer irreparable brain damage and cannot be cured. She does this to hundreds of people so that the cult can have “happy little slaves” to do all the hard work and meat-shield shit they need without ever fighting back or questioning it. You are kidnapped by her as well, multiple times. Or something??? With Faith you always hallucinate, so it’s really unclear and kinda bullshit. Anyway. You help the Sheriff and everyone holed up in the jail fight off a wave of cultists, keep doing your rescue poor civilians from awful deaths or lives as drugged up vegetable slaves. Faith keeps trying to win you over and get you to do her awful pilgrimage where people climb up a giant statue of Joseph and trust-fall jump off his bible to their deaths. This whole game and cult is really horrific. Eventually, you find the Marshal and save him, but he is really far gone. He’s hospitalized in the jail for a while after. Faith gets pissed at you after that and quits trying to win you over. Just drugs you and shows you how she’s mind controlling the Marshal, who is still under too much of her brain damage and control, into murdering one of his friends, then opening the gates to the jail so her people can get in, and then shooting himself in the head. The Marshal always does so and dies, as does one of his/your friends. And a ton of people at the jail. You run to try to save the Sheriff after helping the survivors at the jail, and fight Faith, who whines about how none of this is her fault the whole time after making the Marshal murder your friend and himself with her own hands while giggling at you about how it’s all your fault five minutes ago, and tries to get you not to kill her. You do, though, and she monologues about Joseph being the real deal, then dies. You find the sheriff almost drugged to the point of no return in a cell, going to hang himself to death while singing Amazing Grace while you can’t do shit to get into the room to stop him, but awake and himself enough inside to plead with you to shut off the gas pumps for the drugs before he hangs himself, before going back to smiling and singing and pulling up a chair under a noose. You run to shut off the gas, save him, blow up the bunker, and get out.

Joseph then kidnapps all your ally characters and drugs them with Bliss into being on his side and rants at you about how all their torture and death is your fault and you are awful for murdering his siblings, then offers to let people go if you walk away. You can do so, in which case your allies get in a car with you, only for the son that triggers rage and homicide in Pratt and the PC to play, implying before the cut to black that the deputy (and Pratt maybe) kill all your friends/each other.

If you resist Joseph, he shrieks at you about not all problems being solved by a bullet, and you have a boss fight where you save your friends/snap them out of it, then defeat Joseph.

Once he’s in cuffs, a nuclear bomb goes off because apparently in this world North Korea bombs the US just then or some shit, and you try to make it to Dutch’s bunker in time. You’re in a car crash and all the other deputies and the sheriff are instantly killed. You are unconscious and dragged away by Joseph. You wake in the bunker tied to a bed with Dutch’s body on the floor, and Joseph tells you he was a prophet and was right about the collapse and you’re his family now because his old one is dead and the game ends.

That’s it.

And in the DLC for it, that makes not only that the canon end, but that the Deputy joins Joseph and is converted to a cult follower by him, and Joseph is now an ally character leading the remnants of his cult.

Needless to say, I am pissed. This is the /only/ Far Cry game where the villain wins regardless, as well as the only one where they suddenly decide to …??? stan??? the torturing abusive brainwashing serial killer? And of course it’s the one in America where the enemy is a hyper-religious Christian-offshoot cultist brainwashing vile serial torture murdering messiah-complex gaslighting abusive white man who thinks he’s God. I am beyond disgusted by that choice in this game and glad I found out before finishing it; wish I had never played any at all. I cannot adequately describe to you how horrific the cult shit is, and how like, gaslit by the company I feel for having played this game and being thrown that. I think this is legitimately the most upset I’ve ever been about a video game’s writing choice. What the actual fuck. Like, I cannot describe to you enough how fucked up this is you’d have to see the shit they do that’s getting pushed in a face-heel turn by the company as somehow justified and sympathetic like. As someone who has firsthand both experienced and seen trauma from an over-religious area of the US, and just a tiny % over-religious-lead-terrible-actions? I cannot emphasize enough how disgusted and enraged I am.

#ask #anonymous #far cry 5 #long post

5 notes · View notes

prolestariwrites · 5 years

Text

Overdue Lessons

Fandom: Devil May Cry Characters: Nero, Vergil Rating: T Words: 2515

Summary: Nero checks on the Devil May Cry and finds Vergil instead. Unfortunately, Vergil is looking to spend quality bonding time doing the thing he knows best: kicking the crap out of his relatives.

Thank you to @solynacea for reading this over for me!

━━━━━━━✧━━━━━━━

Nero slides his key into the lock on the front door of the Devil May Cry, yawning a bit. It is a rare thing for the place to be closed up like this, but when Dante is away on a job for more than a day or two he usually asks Nero to just check in, grab the mail, make sure that no one or nothing has burned it down. Dante had called him five days prior, saying he’d be gone for a week, but Nero ended up having to deal with his own crop of demons in Fortuna. Couple that with parent/teacher conferences and a busted window in the van, he hadn’t had a moment until now to stop by.

With relief he had seen that the shop was in fact standing; but when his key does not click the lock open, he frowns. Carefully he turns it again, his eyes widening as he realizes it’s already unlocked. Would Dante be so careless? Possibly, but he softly slides it back to unlocked as he reaches for his revolver, drawing it from its holster as he steps inside.

It’s already dusk, and the main floor of the office is dim without the overhead lights on. Nero quickly scans the room, sweeping his eyes around as he holds the gun up, ready to take on any intruder. He steps inside completely, approaching the edge of the top step, his brow drawing down when he sees nothing inside.

A sound from the back catches his attention, and Nero nudges the door shut. It comes again, and he quickly walks down the handful of steps from the foyer, stopping just short of Dante’s desk. Warm light streams from the door that leads to the back kitchen, and he points the revolver straight ahead. “I can hear you, asshole,” Nero shouts. “This is my uncle’s shop, so you better have a damn good reason for being here.”

He grits his teeth as a familiar silhouette steps into view. Vergil leans against the doorjamb, holding a carton of ice cream and frowning at him as Nero’s arm relaxes. “I knew him first, you know,” he says dryly.

“What are you doing here?” demands Nero. “I nearly shot you.”

“I came for a snack. But the pickings are slim.” Vergil carves out a spoonful of ice cream, making a face as he eats it. “Dante’s not here, you know.”

“Yeah I know, that’s why I’m here.” Nero holsters his gun and rubs his forehead. He turns on a few lights, pulling the mail he had collected from his coat pocket and depositing it on the desk. “Does he know you’re here? I’m supposed to be checking on things.”

Vergil’s mouth quirks up. “In case you were unaware, Dante isn’t in charge of me.”

“How did you get in?”

“I broke the lock,” Vergil shrugs. “It was easy enough.”

Nero rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine. You can explain that to him then. I’m going home.”

He turns to head out, but Vergil calls, “Why the rush? You just got here.”

“Yeah, but I told Kyrie I wouldn’t be long, and I don’t want to miss the kids’ bedtimes.”

Nero glances back at Vergil, who frowns slightly. “Since when do you have kids?”

Groaning, he drops his head. Doesn’t Vergil listen to anything? “Foster. From the orphanage. Where I grew up?” He searches for any response in Vergil’s face, but there is not so much as a flicker in his eye or a twitch in his cheek, so Nero sighs. “We have four now. Three boys and a girl. They’re good kids.”

Vergil tilts his head, as if considering. “Aren’t you a bit young to be a father?”

“Didn’t realize there was an age requirement.” Nero checks his phone, all at once feeling uncomfortable with the topic. “Like I said, I gotta get back—”

“Stick around. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something anyway,” Vergil says.

Nero’s brows twitch up; that is unexpected, to say the least. Vergil gives no sign as to what that something is as they stare at one another, so Nero spreads his hands. “Well?”

His heart skips for a moment as Vergil seems to consider him. The things the two of them need to discuss could probably fill a bible, and his mind starts to flip through the possibilities. Is he finally going to tell him about his mother? Is he going to explain what happened when they met? Will Vergil apologize, ask forgiveness, pledge to do better? Oh Christ, what if he wants a hug?

“I noticed that your sparring skills are rather lackluster,” Vergil finally replies. “You need to work on your swordplay.”

The words don’t register at first, and Nero simply blinks. “What?”

“Your hand-to-hand is fine, and you know your way around a gun. But your use of the sword is… pedestrian at best.”

He lifts his chin as if to accentuate the point, but Nero only frowns. “You think I need sword fighting lessons?” he scoffs. “What is this, the Dark Ages?”

Vergil’s lips grow thin as he glares. “It’s an admirable way to fight, and takes more finesse than just shooting bullets at your opponent.”

“I know how to use a sword,” Nero protests.

Now it is Vergil’s turn to sigh. “No, you don’t. You’ve had no proper training, that’s obvious. You’ll find yourself surrounded by enemies one day, and your bullets can only do so much.”

“Yeah well, must have been absent the day they taught sword fighting in elementary school.” Vergil makes another face, and Nero pushes off of the desk, ready for this conversation to be over. “On that note—”

“You’re right, you’ve probably not learned anything useful.” Nero shakes his head with a humorless laugh, knowing Vergil has no idea how insulting that is. “Our training started young, as soon as we could hold swords,” Vergil continues. “We should start yours now, before any more time is wasted.”

Nero frowns. “Now? I don’t think so, I gotta go.”

He takes a step, but before he even shifts his weight, the Yamato is pressed to his throat. Nero shoots a dark look at Vergil, who is grinning at him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growls.

“Starting your education,” Vergil smiles. “You can’t leave until you disarm me.”

“Damn it, I don’t have time for this,” Nero says through gritted teeth.

“Then you better try something,” replies Vergil.

Nero tries to nudge him back, but Vergil does not move. “I don’t have Red Queen with me!” he protests. “How am I supposed to sword fight without a sword?”

“That’s not my problem, is it?” Vergil replies pointedly. But he eases back, jerking his chin to the side. “Dante has plenty. Choose one.”

With his jaw clenched tightly, Nero slides past him. His plan is to walk right past Vergil to the door, but the other catches on immediately. Vergil swings Yamato towards him, forcing Nero to jump out of the way, rolling across the floor into a crouch with a cry. He pulls his revolver from its holster and points at Vergil, but a moment later the gun is knocked from his hand with the flat of the blade, skidding across the ground and landing at the foot of the stairs.

Angry now, Nero darts to the right. He slams into the wall with one palm and pulls a sword from the wall. The hilt has the head of a dragon seemingly biting the blade, its wings the guard. The blade is nearly as long as Yamato, and Nero adjusts his grip as he stands, his eyes glued to Vergil. “You’re gonna regret that,” he growls.

“We’ll see,” Vergil replies, and the hint of amusement in his voice makes Nero grit his teeth. “Advance.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Nero spits back, but he does anyway. It’s true that he has never had any formal training—hell, none of his fighting abilities were through anything close to formal training. He had signed up as a cadet for the guard that protected the Order, but with his arm and his natural strength and agility, the instructors had given him wide berth. Any time he did try to take part in the usual drills, he would quickly find himself either without a partner, or reassigned to some other duty. Nobody wanted to take on a freak with a glowing arm and the ability to knock a guy out with one punch, and if it hadn’t been for Credo’s intervention, Nero might not have ever made it through basic at all.

The memory of Credo actually gives him a boost. Credo had agreed to train him, and showed Nero his way around a gun, and yes, even a sword. Those lessons were slim, however, but he calls on them now as he advances. Credo’s voice rises in his head with the drills, Keep moving, Elbow up, Tighten the left, as Nero sweeps his sword towards Vergil, changing his stance and speed and trying to find an opening.

Yet every slash and strike are easily countered, and Vergil isn’t even breaking a sweat when Nero drops back to reassess. His eyes dart to the gun on the floor and Vergil warns, “I’m still faster than you.”

“Maybe,” Nero huffs. “But you’re uglier too.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Vergil argues. “We look nearly identical, since you’re my son.”

Nero rolls his eyes. “Are we done?”

“Not hardly.”

This time Vergil is the one to advance. The difference in their skill level is immediate: where Nero’s technique is crude, more straight-forward, Vergil uses a variety of holds to twist and turn Yamato. Even though Nero parries each one, deflecting each strike away with a loud clash of metal, he has the feeling that Vergil is not showing him everything. Whether he is taking it easy on him out of concern or simply playing with him, Nero can’t be sure, but he is certain that Vergil is holding back.

Holding back, but not going easy. Vergil moves differently each time, forcing Nero to think and counter until his head is pounding. Within minutes he is covered in nicks and scratches on his arms and hands and chest, holes in his shirt he is sure Kyrie will cluck over later when she sews them up. How is he going to explain this stupid activity to her, explain why he is so late getting home? There has to be a way to come out on top, and he decides to double his efforts and just go for it. If Vergil’s strength is his technique, then Nero should use his complete lack of it. If there is one thing he knows about Vergil, it's that he hates simplicity; everything has to be dramatic and complicated with him.

To his delight it actually works, and when Nero lands a slice on Vergil’s arm, he grins when he sees the bit of red staining his coat. “What’s wrong, old man?” Nero laughs.

“One slice to your thirty,” Vergil snorts. “But you’re learning, a bit anyway.”

Both are breathing heavily now, and Nero wipes the sweat from his brow, his cuts stinging. He is tired from the long day and now this ridiculous fight, adrenaline and frustration the only thing keeping him engaged. “Cut me a break,” Nero groans. “Look, this has been a really swell time, but I really gotta go.”

“Then I suggest you disarm me,” Vergil replies.

With a growl of frustration, Nero yells, “I’m not gonna! You’re better than me, okay? Sorry I didn’t grow up in some super cool demon hunting group home, but I was in the regular kind, where I had to fight the other kids off with my fists.” He raises his sword and points it at Vergil, who looks at him with that same infuriating passivity. “You got sword lessons from your father? Well I didn’t. I’m not gonna disarm you, and we both know it. So piss off.”

Vergil stares at him for a long moment before saying, “Your footwork is off.”

“What?”

“You transfer your weight incorrectly.” He nods to the floor. “You bounce back and forth like a fighter, where in a duel you must be centered. The strength of your attack is done with your legs, not your shoulder.”

Nero’s brows draw in as his hand clenches around the hilt of the sword. “I see,” he answers slowly.

“Visualize your attack before just charging in,” Vergil continues. “And dodge sideways, not back.”

Swallowing thickly, Nero nods. Vergil advances again, and it’s actually harder this time, because his advice is echoing in his mind as he tries to fight him off and remember to keep his feet planted and stay quick and dodge to the side. But he starts to get the hang of it, and despite the minor injuries his body grows warmer as it heals, his thrusts becoming more precise, sidestepping Vergil’s attacks a bit easier.

There is a tiny opening as Vergil sweeps around, and Nero takes it. With all his strength he launches himself in the air, tackling Vergil to the floor with a shout. Vergil curses but Yamato clatters on the ground, and Nero kneels up, pumping his fist in the air in triumph. “Yes!”

“Hardly an elegant win,” Vergil scoffs.

“Still a win.” Nero grins as he climbs to his feet. Vergil frowns up at him, so Nero sighs and offers him a hand up.

Vergil doesn’t take it, but his mouth does twitch as he stands. “You still need a lot of work.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Nero rubs the back of his neck as the air turns awkward, so he turns and hangs the sword back up on the wall. Behind him, Vergil sheaths the Yamato, and Nero clears his throat. “Is that why you and Dante fight all the time? To get better at it?”

Vergil actually chuckles. “No. I fight Dante because he’s an idiot. And it’s fun.”

Nero snorts. “Fair enough. Do you uh…” He looks around, not sure what to say, before glancing down. His cuts are pretty much healed, although there is blood and sweat on his clothes, and he sighs as he thinks of explaining this to Kyrie. “I do need to get home. Are you uh… you gonna be okay? Just here?”

“As if you could really hurt me,” Vergil replies.

The cool demeanor is back, so Nero nods, crossing the room to pick up his gun. “Okay. Well then, I guess I’ll see you around.”

He slides the gun in his holster and glances at Vergil, who watches him in return. “This was… fun,” Vergil says.

“Yeah.” Nero hesitates again. “Thanks for the tips. I’ll keep it in mind.”

Vergil waves his hand in dismissal and heads back into the kitchen. Nero watches for a long moment, wishing he knew what the hell that was. At least he didn’t kill me, he thinks, chuckling to himself as he shoves his gun into its holster and heads out the door.

━━━━━━━✧━━━━━━━

Thank you so much for reading! If you liked this, please check out Time To Go, my new DMC fic that updates every Friday!

#dmc #devil may cry #vergil sparda #dmc vergil #dmc nero #nero sparda #dadgil #oneshot #myfic #overdue lessons

45 notes · View notes

intro-v · 5 years

Text

Debunking all anti-BB arguments because i only have so much tolerance(Edited with new extra content cause i still have little tolerance)

“BB isn’t beauty and the beast, stop stealing from t*uradonna shippers”

-The fact that yall want such a beautiful story to represent ya abusive ship is reason enough to reclaim “steal” it

Yang’s last name is “Little Dragon”, last i checked that dragons are pretty fucking beastly by concept alone

“Wings isn’t a BB song, stop stealing from M*nochr*me”

“Wings” is a song ABOUT Blake

It ain’t my fault yall are deaf to not think of Wings when you hear the verse “Help you spread your wings and fly” in “All that matters” and never once hear the word “Wing(s)” in a Weiss song

“Yin and Yang MUST mean man and woman, sorry wasps, E/clipse has that point, Yang means man in that regard”

Yang’s literal name is YANG, what kinda ancestery.com bullshit do you want. Also like shut the fuck up, y’all deny most of Sun’s Chinese influence, like fuck you guys are right in this regard

“The monkey king and the Bull demon king were supposed to fight, YANG STOLE SUN’S FIGHT WITH ADAM”

No she didn’t because Adam ain’t based on the bull demon king, if he was, it would’ve been mentioned a long ass time ago

“It could’ve been anyone going after Blake in the Fall of Beacon, Yang ain’t special”

Yang is the only member of RWBY with the most context of Adam

Yang saw Blake drawing Adam in the cafeteria(Which is were Adam and Yang’s first encounter happened, so it was foreshadowing right from V2)

Blake was comparing and contrasting Yang to Adam in V3, Yang is smart enough to put two and two together that the guy she’s talking about must’ve the same person she was drawing

Yang literally shows up after Adam threatens Blake with “I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love[Yang shows up yelling for Blake, Adam notices Blake’s mortification]starting with her”

“Blake went to the dance with Sun, not with Yang”

She literally says “Technically, but my first dance is already spoken for” with a massive “Bitch i’m not here for you” tone of voice

If it wasn’t for Yang she wouldn’t even be going to the dance, Sun asked her to the dance and Blake answers “No”

“Blake and Yang don’t even talk”

This hour long video says otherwise

And the storyline in V4, which y’all worship as the E/clipse bible is barely half the length

“Blake blushed at Sun, never at Yang”

If someone did a stupid dance and then winked and pointed at me, i’d be red with embarrassment too

Ruby blushed at Emerald...does that mean they’re canon?(If you ship it that’s dope)

Blake never mention Yang while in Menagerie

In the intro of V4 Blake looks off to the horizon and immediately transitions to Yang

When Sun gets stabbed she’s fucking sobbing “no no no, not again” gee i wonder what recent event in life would make her say not again when a friend gets badly wounded by someone very close to her in the WF

Sun, the messiah himself mentions Yang when he mentions “I’d do it all again if it meant protecting you”, Sun is aware Yang lost her arm trying to protect Blake

Blake’s voice cracks when she mentions Yang when explaining why she left her team

Blake mentions Yang when saying what one word describes her teammates

“Oh yeah, Yang and Blake killing someone together, how romantic~”

Don’t start clowning, you all would be saying the same shit if Sun was in Yang’s position, quick ya bitchin

If you actually fucking ask an actual BB shipper they will tell you, that the moment is not romantic, it is an emotional moment they shared together. Not every BB moment is romantic

Some of yall use the uncomfortable argument that Blake and Sun have as “Aw look, they’re acting like an old married couple”so shut the fuck up ya lunatics

“Yang doesn’t care about Ruby and the team dynamic is ruined and imbalanced”

We goin’ to ignore the fact that the “hur dur team dynamic” was already imbalanced because Ruby and Yang are sisters

Yang doesn’t need to baby Ruby anymore she knows she can take care of herself since the fall of beacon when Blake said “She’s our leader, she can take care of herself” also like...siblings don’t stop loving and caring for each other when they have an s/o, if you actually think that you are flat out wrong

So Blake and Yang would “ruin the dynamic” but Sun and Blake would’t ruin RWBY and SSSN’s dynamic...That’s some double standard right there since two teams are being affected

Are yall just gonna ignore how fucking scared she was when Ruby was face to face with Lenny? She was horrified and was reaching out for her...yall gon ignore that?...okay

Literally JNPR were dating amongst themselves...where are yall on that shit?, hell STRQ is the same thing...where are yall on that shit? Oh right its because this is between two main characters

“Blake is abusive”

Yall love painting Blake as the devil, despite her Sun slaps are a confirmed mistake, but yall don’t see a problem with Sun stalking simply because he had good intentions....okay fine, whatever

Yall think Blake ran away because it fun!? She thinks its all her fault, the last fucking thing she wants when thinking that is to be around her friends for what all she knows have a targets on their backs

Blake literally hates herself for leaving, she wants the others to hate her too

“BB STOLE ALL THE FAN CONTENT MAKERS!”

This is a you problem if you think this and you are really fucking dumb for thinking this

Have you thought that there is a reason why BB “””””Stole””””” all the fan content makers

“Wasps are so toxic!”

While i will not deny that there are some awful people in the Bee community

But at the same time, the ones against BB aren’t free from that either. Yall go out and harass people for fucking years, yall are the ones who go and comment nasty shit on BB posts(and BB art posts), and are even passive aggressive towards BB shippers in the comment section of E/clipse art posts

“Sun would be so jealous and Yang should feel guilty!”

Sun is the same person who pinched Ilia as payback after getting stabbed...That boi doesn’t hold grudges, sorry you guys aren’t fooling anyone into thinking Sun would be the next Adam

“E/CLIPSE IS SO DEEP”

Yall immediately started to ship them once they made eye contact ONCE

Sun thinks Blake’s best feature is her being a faunus

Sun does not understand Blake, ONCE

Blake is constantly tired of Sun’s bullshit

“BLAKE GAVE SUN A PECK ON THE CHEEK”

-Camera angles/placement -setting -lighting

“Adam is delusional him saying ‘What does she even see in you!?’ means nothing”

By that logic than Sun never went to school because Adam called him a classmate

“Everything that happened between Blake and Yang happens between siblings and best friends all the time!”

If you stare at your sibling or family the way these two look at each other...seek help

And the all time “favorite”

“BB IS TOO FORCED”

Yes because a love triangle between generic twinky blond boy, rich prissy tsundere and blue sexist boy is TOTALLY not forced

Because immediate eye contact between boy and girl MUST mean they in love

If you watch the essays and watch the hour long BB movie you will see how its NOT forced

397 notes · View notes

florrickandassociates · 4 years

Text

TGF Thoughts: 4x06-- The Gang Offends Everyone

Thoughts under the cut.

Another long episode, yay! But it’s a minute shorter than 3x04, so I feel slightly better about it.

Lucca bought herself a Birkin bag with a portion of her poker winnings. Clearly she knows it’s a status symbol, but the second she realizes people are noticing it, she’s slightly embarrassed. Or maybe I’m reading this wrong. I think she wanted to impress everyone and show off and then started feeling uncomfortable. I am a little shocked she decided to take it to work.

Tbh I don’t think I would notice if someone carried a Birkin bag into my office.

Marissa knows a lot about Birkins, which tracks. As she says, she was raised around rich people. I would bet ELI knows about Birkins and the types of stitching too.

Landau is back with an absolutely ridiculous idea: Running Adrian for President in 2024. Landau mentions that this year we started with a diverse field of candidates but “no candidate of color went the distance.” I know what he means but could he maybe phrase it in a way that doesn’t make it sound like it’s the candidate's fault? Also, question, what is running Adrian as a candidate early on going to do other than create more noise in the field and prevent people from unifying behind one candidate?

(And, surely, there are more qualified people to run than Adrian Boseman, but this is TV and I will be quiet about this.)

As far as I can tell, this plot is about forcing Adrian into a new realm where optics matter more than money, thus forcing Adrian/the audience to confront a lot of the choices Adrian tends to make.

They want him to stay on the stage until Iowa so black voters can “see themselves up there.” So it’s almost like their plan is to pick a moderately convincing candidate they know will lose in order to appease black voters??? What’s the point, to say they care but not enough to find a candidate who could actually win? Maybe I’m being too cynical. Or maybe it’s because it involves a fictional character that I’m so critical.

That said, the way Landau/the DNC have been written on this show? They CLEARLY are not supposed to actually understand black voters.

Just… don’t turn into season 7 of TGW, show. Peter running for president was such a poorly executed idea.

I can’t tell if this plan would be to run someone in 2024 no matter what (meaning if Biden doesn’t seek a second term or if we have to deal with 4 more years of 45) or if it’s contingent upon 45 being reelected. If the latter, then that means that Adrian, in his own self-interest, would.... Want 45 to get reelected? Odd thought.

Adrian promises he won’t tell anyone and shakes on it. He immediately tells Liz.

I love how Diane’s name is on the letterhead but she is almost never looped into conversations like this. This is more personal than professional so it obviously makes sense that Liz would be the one he confides in, but it happens more generally too.

Liz kind of mocks the idea of Adrian being the future of the party, and Adrian accuses her of being jealous. “What are your positions?” Liz wants to know. Good question. Adrian jokes that Liz could be his policy adviser, and Liz reminds him she brought the DNC in to begin with, used to work in government, and knows how to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name. All fair points. Adrian is definitely the more charismatic of the two (and he’s been on Cable News-- he went viral in the universe of the show AND in the real world for it!) but charisma is the kind of thing that matters far more than it should in politics.

“Are you saying former prosecutors are unelectable, or just black female former prosecutors?” Liz attacks. IMO Adrian hasn’t really thought about it and is just parroting what the DNC said. And this is why Liz would be better at the job than Adrian, but it will never matter because no one is ever going to ask someone like Liz when they could ask someone like Adrian. Which is, I think, Liz’s point: she’s not jealous so much as she is incredulous at how this opportunity just appeared out of nowhere for Adrian when he has no experience, no policies, and no stances. Liz has all three (maybe not policies, but I bet she knows where she would stand if she needed to make policies) but no one is asking her to run.

“Would it kill them to recruit a woman every once in a while?” Liz wonders after Adrian’s gone. Precisely. I don’t think Liz wants this for herself-- but when she sees it go to Adrian, she sees how it’s not going to any of the other qualified black women who want it more than Adrian.

Adrian goes to see his client, a swimmer, and says they’re changing strategies because of the politics. This may very well have been his plan for a while, but putting this scene right after the other two definitely makes it feel like Adrian is doing this for his own image.

I feel like most TGF characters are motivated by some combination of power and stability. Diane and Adrian want to have power, so they compromise on their principles to get ahead or make their position as prestigious as possible. Liz (who is actually a bit like her former rival Alicia in this!) compromises on her principles when it means not getting into fights that aren’t worth it or jeopardizing job security; Lucca is usually the same way and doesn’t wade into controversies. I have lots of thoughts on this I will probably come back to as the episode goes on and we see more from Liz.

This is one of the more case heavy TGF episodes, and it’s one of the more interesting, layered cases they’ve done. An aspiring Olympic swimmer has just missed the mark for going to the Olympics. As far as I can tell the underlying issue is that the meet was rescheduled from 2019 (normal timeline) to 2020 to let another swimmer have more time to prepare. I can’t tell if the timing ceases to matter once they switch strategies (right now they’re arguing it’s racial descrimination) or if it’s just forgotten as the episode progresses. Seems to me like that’s where their case is the best-- if they moved the date to advantage one swimmer, for any reason, that’s a pretty bad look.

How is it possible that this dude who played Bree’s sex addict boyfriend on Desperate Housewives and was on The Americans and a few other NYC filmed shows is only just now showing up on TGW/F!?!?

Memo 618 leads Diane and Julius to compare what they know. Julius explains what spooked him; Diane explains the Visitor. In the middle of all this, Marissa interrupts to share the news of Lucca’s new bag-- heh.

I assume the middle 3 numbers of Visitor’s phone number are blank because the writers wanted to use the fact they couldn’t print an actual number to add MYSTERY! Citing the bible, Julius decides to call Visitor to get more information.

Marissa brings Liz around to see the Birkin. Something weird about the name partner coming in to admire something one of her employees owns, no? Lucca’s hidden the bag but shows it off. Liz is mesmerized by the bag (my guess is even if she had the money she’d never consider buying one-- she says it’s a good investment but idk how much she means that) and Lucca’s really embarrassed to keep explaining why she spent 20k on a bag.

Marissa wonders if Bianca bought it for Lucca. “Jesus, you are a one woman surveillance state,” Lucca says to Marissa after Marissa confesses she’s looked up the price of the bag. She is a natural investigator, yes.

Lucca explains she bought it with the poker winnings, and Marissa calculates that Lucca must have won a lot if she was willing to spend 20k on something inessential. Marissa starts her guess low-- 200k. She finally gets the number out of Lucca (or at least the range it’s in) and tells Lucca she needs to talk to David Lee about taxes and accounting.

On the one hand, very glad to see Marissa is knowledgeable about this. On the other hand, Lucca and David Lee are both family law department heads, so the implication that David Lee knows the ins and outs of gambling laws as pertain to St. Lucia while Lucca doesn’t know that winnings are taxable. I’m fine with David Lee being better at this than Lucca-- he’s a slimeball and has more experience-- but Lucca shouldn’t have to be told this. And this is the second time this season we’ve seen something similar happen.

(Another reason I’m fine with David Lee being better at the job than Lucca in general: we have seen time and time again that DLee isn’t just good, he is worth compromising the mission of your firm to have on board. So as great as Lucca is, not sure we’ve seen any evidence she is THAT good at this point in her career!)

The racism angle doesn’t work in court because the opposition brings in the argument Adrian was going to go with originally: the swimmer who beat Adrian’s client’s time is trans. Now if he wants to represent his client, Adrian has to be on record saying someone trans shouldn’t be able to compete as the gender they identify with.

This is one of the more interesting approaches TGF could’ve taken to deal with trans rights, so it’s also one of the more interesting cases they’ve done in a while. This is one of very very few places where there could be a compelling case to look at sex assigned at birth instead of identity. So the writers focus on that, all the while acknowledging that even raising this question is pretty fraught.

“Okay. From race to trans. Let’s go,” the judge says as we head into the credits. P sure that is not the right language to use but also VERY certain this judge has not fully wrapped his head around the concept of people being trans yet.

Awww, using a Fountains of Wayne song over the credits is a really nice Adam Schlesinger tribute.The song doesn’t go super well with the credits but this is such a nice gesture I don’t care.

Something else I like about this tribute is that it dates this episode. The reference might not be as easy to get in a few years, but since the characters can’t address COVID-19 (since all this was filmed pre-pandemic), this is going to be one of the only in-show ways to contextualize these episodes. (I would not be surprised if there is some sort of reference next week, and I am holding out hope for some sort of animated video or epilogue song (like the end of BrainDead))

This episode was written and directed by women!

Adrian for some reason demands Liz-- and not any of the other black female lawyers at his firm-- join his case. This makes sense if we assume that the default state of RBL name partners is “doing what they please when they please because actual work is for associates and bigger cases are for STRL”. Otherwise it seems like a huge waste of resources.

Liz immediately understands the optics are important in the case but also to the DNC.

Adrian goes to talk to Charlotte about the DNC, and his timing is awkward… she wants to move in with him! (I didn’t realize his secret gf was that serious!) But Adrian is worried that since Charlotte is corrupt, she’ll be an issue for his campaign. Here is a thought: don’t take an opportunity that will invite scrutiny into your life but ultimately not lead to any type of lasting success unless literally all you care about is power? Adrian can say no! Of course, if he doesn’t want to say no… there’s his answer to all the dilemmas.

Charlotte understands this better than Adrian does. He promises her “issues” won’t impact his campaign, but he’s gotta know that’s complete bullshit, right? Her issues would absolutely disqualify him. He swears there will be no impact but… LOL. I don’t think he gets to be the one to swear there will be no impact.

Lucca and David Lee’s meeting, in which David Lee is the right mix of professional and scheming, reminds me so heavily of the great scenes where he handles Alicia’s inquiries about divorce. David Lee was overused in late season TGW but this is reminiscent of him at his best. I’m glad that TGF is using him appropriately.

Here’s something stupid: Lucca spent $20k of the money BEFORE SHE HAD THE MONEY IN HER POSESSION. David Lee realizes the problem immediately. Lucca, astonishingly, doesn’t. Lucca is not an idiot.

Adrian successfully gets Liz to join him on the case. Case stuff happens.

Julius and Visitor have lunch. Visitor tries to get Julius to play along. Julius continues to resist, then Diane appears. Visitor isn’t scared and threatens Julius and Diane. How else was this going to go?

Marissa and Jay tail Visitor (this is slightly less ridiculous than the 5x10 Kalinda car chase, but only slightly) and lose him… but find Rachel Dratch, who was also trailing Visitor! Interesting.

Adrian asks Landau about his relationship with Charlotte, without any specifics. Landau gives the obvious response: “Get rid of her. Do it now.” Adrian is like, why? And Landau says “You said there was corruption there.” Yes. This is pretty damn obvious. Also this ends one of two ways: Adrian dumps her and the DNC thing proceeds, or he doesn’t dump her and then the DNC dumps him the second they do some investigative research.

Alicia is in Lucca’s phone contacts!!!!!! (Maia’s ex, Amy, and Barbara Kolstad are too BUT LET ME HAVE THIS AND PRETEND IT’S SPECIAL.).

Bianca calls, or maybe Lucca calls (this makes no sense because Lucca says hello first and it says incoming call from Bianca, but we see Lucca scroll through her contacts and Bianca asks what’s up). Bianca wants to do a celebration dinner, on Lucca. Lucca, knowing the power differential, can’t say no.

Case stuff happens! Liz hates being on the wrong side and refuses to do a redirect!

Ugh the judge misgenders the swimmer. Ugh.

A bunch of associates present Adrian and Liz with a petition to drop the case because they are on the wrong side. Good for them!

Adrian says they’re not being hateful, it’s just a strategy. Sure. A strategy that, if successful, will set dangerous precedents.

Adrian explains he’s actually just defending their client. As always, I don’t find this excuse satisfactory. Do you really need the business of this one swimmer? Is it worth being the one to essentially fight against trans rights? I feel like the answer to that is pretty clear.

This case may be one of the more interesting ways to discuss if/when sex assigned at birth matters, but when it comes to whether or not Adrian/Liz have to be the ones fighting to count a trans woman as a man… that answer is way, way more clear cut. They absolutely do not need to take part in this.

I appreciate that Liz is unhappy with this strategy and wants no part of it and admits that the associates/assistants are right. Liz also understands that this is generational and Adrian is like “Liz, I’ve won awards from covering every one of the letters LGBT” in his condescending tone. Liz, correctly, calls him out on basically trotting out the equivalent of “I have a black friend”.

Liz suggests reframing the case and leaving out the “anti-trans tone”. Adrian says “Not if we lose, Liz. Now this is not about politics. This is about rules. Are the Olympic rules fair, or are they not? That’s all.” Man, his tone is so insufferable sometimes. He always seems like he’s belittling whoever he’s talking to. He is also completely wrong here. And, as Liz points out, that’s never all.

Lucca and Bianca have dinner and Lucca still says nothing and still gets stuck with the $3,000 bill. I feel like the firm could probably pay for that as client maintenance?

Charlotte lists out all the things she’s received as payouts. Some are small-- tickets to the bulls after an endorsement, a friends and family discount at Neiman Marcus after a zoning issue (seems pretty illegal), a speaking engagement for a judge after a favorable ruling… got a Mercedes with no money down… and she fucking bought shares in a tech stock before the IPO was announced. Well those last two seem like trouble. Any of these are potential problems, something involving stock and tech and IPOs? ANYTHING involving her getting nice things like Neiman Marcus discounts and a Mercedes? Those may be smaller scale but people would LOVE to hate on that. So she’s corrupt as fuck. No way out of this. OH ALSO SHE WAS TIPPED OFF ON WHEN TO SELL THE STOCK. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. And this is just what she admits to Adrian.

I wonder if this would trouble Adrian if he weren’t in the running for the presidency.

Adrian asks about 618. Charlotte says it won’t be a problem “because it’s the solution”. ??????

I have never understood this relationship and I continue to not understand this relationship.

Case stuff happens.

I’m not sure how Liz’s new strategy is any less anti-trans. She isn’t either, so she gives up mid sentence and sits down, telling Adrian “You want this, you do it.” That’s kind of like taking a stand? I know Liz isn’t going to rock the boat that much, not in the middle of court, but like, how much does standing up for what you believe in matter if all you’re doing is saying you won’t personally do something without fighting further? Liz gets as much of a say here as Adrian and the third person who would get a say is Diane (well, and STRL but shhh) and Diane would 100% take Liz’s side. So how much credit can I really give Liz?

Does anyone really think someone would just decide to be trans to get a competitive advantage?!?!?! Jesus. That’s wild.

Diane goes to talk to Rachel Dratch (Linda, here). Even though Jay and Marissa found Linda’s address they didn’t bother to look at her occupation?? She’s a court stenographer and she recognizes Diane.

She knows all about Memo 618 and shares her knowledge with Diane.

Who is behind it? The Office of Legal Counsel.

How does she know this? Well, there’s a handy TGF short (YAY!!!!!!) to explain.

I love the little joke about how they won’t ever mention censorship in China in the song. Haaaaah.

The Secret Law in the song is so friggin’ cute. I love it.

The explainer songs that explain largely unfamiliar, complicated topics are the best. And it’s perfect to deploy one here, since this is one of the most crucial concepts of the season and something that most viewers are going to WANT an explanation of. Like, I don’t need an explanation of Downton Abbey or whatever some of the lesser songs of last year were-- but I do want answers about Memo 618.

Is there a good article about some of the real cases of this happening? I assume in most cases Memo 618 is just a stand-in for whatever legal-sounding bullshit was in real memos that secretly shaped the US, but I’d be curious to read more about how this works.

Linda gives Diane a few examples, like one about FDR and the Japanese internment camps (I did find an article from The Atlantic about an OLC memo from the same time, but not sure if it’s the one being referenced.) I am just going to assume that “M. 618” close up they show is faked. As I said, Memo 618 is more about putting a name to the idea that powerful people can author documents that shape the world but go unquestioned. I don’t think the point is that it was literally this same memo… just the same sort of bullshit.

The “Torture Memos” are another example. I appreciate the show telling me where to look for more information. There’s a ton of info around this.

I don’t believe this lip reader stuff but also don’t care.

And finally this circles back to the claim in 2019 that a president can’t be indicted. Is it a law? Nope, a memo from 1973. This is real and fascinating.

I think the show’s approach is REALLY working here. It trusts that I can separate fiction (the lip reading, Memo 618) from fact (the spirit of Memo 618, what it means to have an entity that can make its own rules without oversight) and gives me the reference points I need if I want to dig further. It’s a satisfying way to pay off their mystery, and very much in keeping with the spirit of the show.

Linda basically explains Memo 618 as a placeholder for a law. Justify now, create the law later. Yikes.

Case stuff happens! There is a very odd last minute twist here in which the RBL client loses (yay!) but then another teammate is intersex so they try to disqualify her instead??? Wtf? Did we need this?

David Lee has sushi with Bianca and pushes Bianca to get Lucca her money. Bianca had no idea her friends never paid up (did Bianca not pay her share?) and Bianca, who CAN hassle her friends about this, gets on the phone immediately. There’s a funny montage of David Lee being confused by sushi while Bianca gets Lucca her money.

Bianca asks Lucca why she didn’t tell her she hadn’t been paid! I’m glad to see Bianca cares, but I totally get Lucca’s hesitation. She explains she’s uncomfortable talking about her own money because it feels wrong. Huh, wasn’t she literally always talking about money on TGW?

Lucca says she’s not sure she can get over this and be friends with Bianca. Because it’s not just money to people who don’t have it. I fully understand this discomfort. I haven’t ever befriended a billionaire, but I get it. I do want Lucca to have a friend though! I think if they’re just candid about this and don’t always do expensive things (and they sever the fact that Lucca is an employee…) they could still be friends!

OOOH this Piper Vega looks familiar bc her sister is Alexandra Daddario. They have the same eyes.

The RBL client gets to go to the Olympics. Yay? Why did we get this instead of follow-up on the associates’ petition.

Lucca thanks David Lee and he reminds her that he gets money for managing her money. Fair point. But I think he’s got more of a soft spot for her than he cares to admit. Is managing a million and a half really going to help him that much? I imagine he deals with far bigger fortunes on a daily basis.

Adrian says he took care of his issue, which hopefully means he broke up with Charlotte? He’s all in on the DNC.

Like, I want Adrian to be happy but Charlotte has seemed like a corrupt sexy plot device in every episode??? She makes me actively uncomfortable bc she comes across as a sex object AND ALSO a bad person?? So if they break up… good?

Lucca arrives home to find a gift on her bed… lots of money. Is this how this arc ends or is there more (/was there going to be more without a pandemic?)

I do NOT like the zoomed out shot of Lucca that ends the episode. She is in such an awkward position on the bed???? It looks like a crime scene???

Season finale is up next. I’m sure it’s gonna be weird. And what a title it has.

#the good fight #tgfthoughts

10 notes · View notes

tessatechaitea · 4 years

Text

Cerebus #15 (1980)

If the story so far had revealed that Cerebus has a vagina, I could make a hentai joke here.

The first time I encountered hentai was at an anime convention at a Red Lion Inn in San Jose in 1994 or 1995. I went to the convention by myself because I had recently fallen in love with the cartoon Sailor Moon and wanted to get some Sailor Moon LaserDiscs unless it was actually Sailor Moon dolls I wanted. It was so long ago, how am I supposed to remember?! They had a room where they were showing movies and one of the movies I watched was Sailor Moon R: The Movie. It was subtitled which was great because then I had the story memorized for all the times I watched my non-subtitled LaserDisc. But that wasn't the pornographic anime I saw! I don't even remember what that was but I watched some tentacle fucking movie late at night in a dark room with a bunch of other sweaty nerds. I didn't know that was what was going to happen though so I didn't have my dick in my hands like the other guys probably did. I was as shocked as anybody when they first find out that cartoons where women get fucked by tentacles exist! I mean, how many penises does an alien need?! I grew up thinking the little gray aliens had zero! That Red Lion Inn was the same one where I played in a couple of Magic the Gathering tournaments. Being in a dark room with a bunch of horny anime fans was less awkward and uncomfortable than playing Magic the Gathering against Magic the Gathering fans. Most of them probably couldn't believe they were actually playing against such a cool and handsome dude. It really threw them off their game when I would say things like, "Yeah, I've touched a couple of boobs. I attack with my Serra Angel." I know what you're thinking: "Anime, comic books, and Magic the Gathering?! This awesome dude must have owned every single Stars Wars figure too!" Aw, you're too kind! I'm blushing! But obviously I never owned Yak Face. "A Note from the Publisher" is still being published so I guess Dave and Deni are still married. In his Swords of Cerebus essay, Dave Sim discusses "Why Groucho?" It seems to mostly come down to this: Dave Sim enjoyed the characters of Groucho Marx as a teenager and memorized a lot of their lines. He also mentions Kim Thompson's review of Cerebus in The Comic Journal (the first major review of the series) in which Kim praised Sim's ability to make his parody characters transcend the parody to become unique creations of their own. This review gave Sim the confidence to put Groucho in the role of Lord Julius. Which worked out so well that Sim later adds Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Margeret Thatcher, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Woody Allen, Dave Sim, and the Three Stooges into the story. I'm sure I'm missing some but I can't remember every aspect of this 6000 page story. Was The Judge also a parody of somebody? Was the Regency Elf based on Wendy Pini? I don't know! I'm sure I'm missing a lot of references in Cerebus simply because I haven't experienced all the same knowledge sources as Dave Sim. Just like I'm missing a super duper lot of references in Gravity's Rainbow because nobody in the history of ever has experienced all the same knowledge sources as Thomas Pynchon. I've been reading Gravity's Rainbow (for the first time but also the third time because I'm basically reading it three times at the same time. You'll understand when you read it) and I'm surprised by how funny it is. I don't think anybody ever described it as funny or else I'm sure I would never have stopped reading it multiple times prior to this time when I'm actually going to finish it. Although I suppose when I read Catch-22, I had done so on my own so nobody ever told me how funny that book was either. But for some reason, Catch-22 lets you know it's going to be a funny book pretty quickly. Gravity's Rainbow is all, "Here is a description of an evacuation of London which is just stage setting because, you know, the bombs have already blown up, but it makes people feel safe. And after that, how about a scene where this guy makes a bunch of banana recipes for breakfast. Is that funny enough for you?" Oh, sure, there are some funny moments like when that one guy pretends a banana is his cock and then some other guys tackle him and beat him with his own pretend cock. But there's a gravity to the scene that doesn't lend itself to the reader thinking, "Oh, this is a funny book!" But if you make it far enough, you start realizing, "Hey! I'm not understanding this!" So then you reread the section and you start realizing, "Hey! I'm laughing at this stuff! This is pretty funny!" Plus there are a lot of descriptions of sexy things that I'm assuming are really accurate because Pynchon is obsessed with details.

Anyway, I was supposed to be talking about Cerebus, wasn't I?

A Living Priest of Tarim crashes Lord Julius' bath to scold him about a party Julius is giving in a fortnight (which is the amount of time your kid has lost to a video game). I don't know why the priest has to declare he's a living priest. You can tell that by the way he's shouting and foaming at the mouth. Although this is a Swords & Sorcery book so I suppose there are many dead creatures that also shout and foam at the mouth. Sometimes I forget I'm reading a fictional book and wind up ranting and raving about stuff that I'm supposed to just assume is fine. Like when I read The Flash and nothing in it makes any sense at all because The Flash should never have any trouble stopping crime or saving people from natural disasters. The comic book should be over in two pages. Even the writers, at some point, realized how ridiculous Flash stories were and decided the only way to make them believable was to have The Flash battle other super fast people. But that just meant Flash stories basically became bar-room brawls. Two people with super speed fighting is the same as reading a story about two people without super speed fighting. Boring! Some writers even decided that maybe a telepathic monkey would make things more interesting and I suppose telepathic monkeys make everything more interesting so kudos to them. I was going to go on a long rant about telepathic monkeys but then I realized how much I love the idea of telepathic monkeys so why should I create an argument against them? More telepathic monkeys, please.

This made me laugh out loud. Not as much as the chapter in Gravity's Rainbow where the old woman forces Slothrop to eat a bunch of terrible candies. But then it isn't a competition, is it? I mean, I guess it's a competition for my time which is why I haven't written a comic book review in a week or more. Blame Thomas Pynchon for being so entertaining (and also Apex).

Baskin, the Minister for Executive Planning, has come to let Lord Julius know what the revolutionaries have revealed while being tortured. The only bit of useful information was one prisoner's last words: "Revolution...the pits." Cerebus immediately assumes "the Pits" is a location and not a summation of the prisoner's feelings about revolution which led to torture which led to his death. Cerebus, being the Kitchen Staff Supervisor, begins an investigation into The Pits. His first step: threatening the Priest of the Living Tarim. Which makes me realize I transposed the word "living" in the previous encounter with the priest and went on a digression that makes no sense to anybody who has read and somehow remembers that particular panel. I'm sure they were scoffing and snorting and exclaiming to their pet rat, "What a stupid fool loser this Grunion Guy is! Living Priest of Tarim! HA! Ridiculous! What a moronic mistake! He has made a gigantic fool of himself!" I don't know that the almost certainly imaginary people who called me on my mistake as they read this have a pet rat but I do know there almost certainly isn't another imaginary sentient being in the room with them. Cerebus learns that The Pits are Old Palnu that lies under current Palnu. It was destroyed in a massive earthquake long ago and the new city built over the top of it. It's like a Dungeons & Dragons module but with a lot less treasure.

This scene reminded me that I need to finish rereading The Boomer Bible: A Testament for Our Times (which is what it was called in the 90s but is just as accurate for today).

Cerebus and Lord Julius engage in another typical misunderstanding (it's not hard when only half of the people in the conversation care about making sense) which ends up with Lord Julius deciding that the location for the Festival of Petunias will be The Pits. This complicates Cerebus' job of not allowing Lord Julius to be assassinated because the assassins are most likely housed in The Pits (along with their giant snakes (*see cover)). Lord Julius, Baskin, and Cerebus descend into The Pits to find a suitable location for the Festival of Petunias. In doing so, they wind up in a trap and confronted by a masked revolutionary of the "Eye of the Pyramid." Which is odd because you usually have to murder at least a dozen kobolds and several goblins before you reach the room with the boss in it.

Typical unbalanced beginning level module. A giant snake as the first encounter!

Cerebus manages to defeat the giant snake by crashing it headfirst into a wall. The wall winds up being a key support structure and the roof collapses. Everybody makes it out alive but the masked revolutionary evades capture. He will be back next issue to ruin the Festival of Petunias. Aardvark Comment is still just a mostly standard comic book letters page. I'll probably stop discussing it until people start criticizing Dave. Right now it's just "This comic book is great!" and "Keep writing, Dave, and I'll never think ill of anything idea you espouse!" while Dave replies, "I owe my fans everything! I can't wait until I can stop feeling that way and start jerking off onto my art boards and selling those as pages of Cerebus!" Cerebus #15 Rating: A. Good story, good Lord Julius dialogue, good Living Priest of the Living Tarim scenes. I wholeheartedly endorse this comic book and Dave Sim. No way a guy with a sense of humor like this is going to go off the rails, right?!

#Dave Sim #Cerebus

3 notes · View notes