#cos he just thinks he's a homeless human

[angelcake10023]

Curious MK 💛 and the Man In The Red Scarf 🧣

This au is everything to me… be ready for me to not shut up about it.

If you want a little explanation on the au look under the cut

The au pretty much follows the beats of the movie with some twists to fit the world of LMK a bit better

Tang works at his College’s museum, doing tours on a lot of historical exhibits which heavily align with his special interests (lots of JTTW like stuff)

Pigsy is the local school teacher that takes his class to the museum every week- to learn obviously. Not cause he has a big crush on this pathetic museum nerd.

Anyway the museum is loosing interest and funding you know the gist, Tang somehow agrees to go on an expedition to flower fruit mountain to maybe find something worth putting on display. Probably something related to Sun Wukong

Tang is out of his element, but also this is his hyperfixation and he can tooootally find something of note surely. However what he doesn’t know is that a few certain spider henchmen in disguise have made their way onto his expedition crew and are hoping to find something powerful to bring back to their queen.

Once they get there they do a lot of fruitless searching, set up camp for the day, and an exhausted Tang is quickly ambushed by a newly awakened baby Monkey MK. He’s very curious about the bright color of Tang’s scarf and steals it when Tang takes it off to eat.

Tang has never seen or heard of this type of monkey on the mountain before, thinking he resembles Sun Wukong but thinking it ridiculous to think more of it. They play for a bit, Tang playfully wagering for his scarf back.

Anyway the expedition continues and they’re still unable to find anything and have to leave empty handed, (except for two pieces of a little monkey shaped rock.)

Mk ends up with Tang’s scarf as he’s leaving, deciding to secretly follow them back. Wholesome shenanigans ensue just like in the movie. Tang struggles being a dad to this monkey who’s attached himself to him, while also learning he might not really be normal monkey. Add in some Monkey power shenanigans hehe. Also some spider henchmen repeatedly trying and failing to capture Mk (comedically managing to also go unnoticed every time)

Of course in the climax, Tang is pretty worn down. He’s homeless, jobless, and a disappointment. He doesn’t think he can handle taking care of MK, and that’s when Sun Wukong shows up. He’s been keeping an eye on them and knows MK has mystic powers that are probably too much for a human to handle- so he’s willing to take him off Tang’s hands.

Tang reluctantly agrees, much to MK’s confusion and sadness. Trying to reach and grab onto him repeatedly as Tang holds back tears and begs Wukong to take him. Wukong does and Mk, who’s been struggling with any speech up to this point finally manages a soft and scratchy “no” just as Wukong’s cloud zips away with them both.

Tang immediately regrets it, his regret fueled after he talks with Pigsy. He made a mistake and he needs his kid back.

Unfortunately, The Spider Queen and co managed to ambush Wukong similar to the show and capture baby MK. Cue Tang, Pigsy, and Sandy teaming up to rescue the monkeys

Rescue ensues, Tang and Mk reunite wholesomely, Wukong is impressed by Tangs determination to save the kid despite his mortality. Wukong gives him some cool treasure junk that they can take back to the museum

The day is saved, Tang and MK are a family, and Tang finally got Pigsy’s flirting through his dense head lmaooooo

Dad Tang and Baby MK are so special to me… thank you for reading haha. Itll probably be fleshed out more in the future as well

[eir-trixa]

WOTTG SPOILERS AFTER THE CUT

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Can you believe Rick is validating me in my Percy-is-the-most-empathic-character take? I have legal basis but boi does it feel nice to have canon confirmation.

Second that book was short af I got the gist of it all while reading for like an hour.

Third, we addressed everyone else’s trauma. Percy’s still the group therapist LMAO 😭😭😭

Fourth, my son is such a good kid yall, this is why I lose five years of my life when someone insults or when he insults himself jfc my child.

Im honestly still processing and I have to reread the ending. Did it address Percy’s issues? Im going to go with “a bit” and call it a night. I mean, I guess it did? Percy got to unload and help Gale and Hecuba. We got an insight to how he’s managing to stay up and fighting and good despite all the shit he’s put into. Honestly the fact that he saw the humanity in Gale and Hecuba, that he saw their pain and grief and thats what made them trust him, that is so good. And the way he related to them. Goodness. And it highlights again how good a person he is, how much he feels and cares. I mean, he cried cause he had to send Mrs O Leary away, I cant with this kid-

I supposed what Im left unsatisfied with is how he still perceives himself as dumb? Baby, you survived San Fran for two months as a homeless kid without memories and pursued by different monsters who cant die. Youre the furthest thing from dumb.

He cant see this of course and while it was slightly addressed(?) by Annabeth telling him to his face that she doesnt give him enough credit, that he’s pretty smart, I dont think thats enough for addressing this particular issue. There was a time in the middle that he almost snapped because he thought Annabeth probably thinks him too dumb to know what to do next. Which I understand is frustrating to him. But to be fair this book made him look at Annabeth for a solution a lot. Theres also little comments about how when he cant think of anything - which is every 60 seconds apparently according to him- he looks at Annabeth. This doesnt help the co dependent allegations LMAO. Idk, I will die on the Hill that Percy is one of the smartest people in the series, not just emotionally but also in strategy. And theres, of course, nothing wrong with looking at the genius strategist for answers. Ive mixed feelings because definitely this is more of a Percy-insecurity issue than an Annabeth-being-bossy issue. But okay. One more book, heres to hoping we get more heart to heart on that front because Im 999998% sure she doesnt mean to make him feel stupid, Percy’s just got a lot of demons to fight but this in particular they need to figure out together. Still, its obvious how much they care for each other still. If only Dave and Hana did not piss me off at the start Id probably be a little more lenient about this.

Annabeth’s fatal flaw also makes a comeback, we love to see it.

And Sally Estelle Jackson. Now we have to find out wth is Percy’s middle name cause if Sally has one odds are she gave her son too. Trust me. Im Filipino. Iykyk.

Lastly, while I will forever and ever and ever support the trio from pjotv (theyre perfect and have done nothing wrong ever) I can see Rick’s injecting their personalities into the books. Im not sure if he does this on purpose or just subconsciously LMAO. Some of Grover’s dialogue is definitely inspired by Aryan. Percy being Lanky? Walker through and through, especially with his growth spurt lmao, and Annabeth’s confidence? All Leah. I can see what Rick’s trying to do. Ive no opinion on this, just pointing it out. I do love love love the live action. Just. I can see you Rick. You aint slick.

So there. I probably would need to reread the book properly at some point.

[deacons-wig]

I'd prefer if we never got to see the origin of Vault Boy and Vault Tec's branding in the same way I'd rather not get a canon answer of who started the War or how. That's the point of War Never Changes.

Vault Boy is a sinister figure in his cheerful embrace of Armageddon. Giving the Vault Tec brand a face and a name and a backstory feels so unimportant to what is actually interesting about Fallout. What's important to me is the big picture pre war, and the details of what comes after.

What is interesting to me is exploring how propaganda is designed to convince people how close they are to annihilation--or homelessness, unemployment, obscurity, or being The Other and therefore destined to suffer--in hell, in oppressions, being ostracized. Honestly insert any sort of marginalization or suffering here. Crony capitalism uses propaganda to market products designed to manipulate people into buying distance between themselves and that annihilation. Putting themselves "behind the thumb" of Vault Boy, so to speak. Buying a lifestyle. Vault Boy does it with a wink and a smile, inviting those who can afford it to buy their way to safety while using capital and fear to perpetuate the cycle. I don't need the specifics to understand this.

Some ghoulnaysis below the cut:

I'll admit, my initial reaction to pre-war Ghoulgins being the inspiration for Vault Boy was funny! Mr. Cooper Howard, washed up actor experiencing an existential crisis being shoehorned into corporate propaganda that then haunts him for the next 200+ years? Selling manifest destiny, racism, the Rugged Individual, the revisionist history that cowboys were a) white and b) more than a brief footnote in the history of the colonization of North America's west. The commodification of entertainers/creatives/public figures. Selling identities to be packaged into a product that will outlive them? Only to have that person live alongside that role they regret (?) playing... kinda tasty, if we have to give Vault Boy a backstory, though I didn't get a clear sense of his actual feelings about being used as a propaganda guy which I think is a failure of the show to commit to the narrative they set up, which happens with a lot of the show's (lack of) engagement with Fallout's larger themes anyway.

But The Ghoul (stupid name!!! weird and boring choice!!!) is just such an uncompelling and repellent character to me. I love a good bad guy or even anti-hero, but honestly he lacks any interiority. He's an evil karma character (eats people, waterboards and mutilates people, sells people to organ harvesters...like? that literally makes you evil in the games...) but the narrative pushes him as an antihero or someone with gray morality because he what..."likes" dogs? And isn't as decayed or unsettling looking as other ghouls (implying handsome=good or interesting). People aren't afraid of him because he is a ghoul, they're afraid of him because he's evil and will hurt them! Sometimes for no reason! I see the callback to the director telling him to shoot his co-star and Cooper saying he's "the good guy," but is that why he becomes so fucking evil post war? Really?

I don't know why he does what he does other than...the world sucked before and sucks now so he might as well represent the basest of human behavior? That seems to be the thesis of the show--unless kindness and community is engendered (by the vaults, by Management, by a civic government, by corporations) people will descend into chaos.

So why have this poorly executed anti-hero be the origin of Vault Boy? What are the narrative choices being made here? Is it just Rule of Cool?

Personally I would like a pathetic, rotting wet cat of a ghoul, some sort of carved out husk of a washed up movie star either trying to relive his glory days, or avoid them--having given up hope of finding his family after 200 years--being dragged into Lucy's orbit and being constantly reminded of his Vault Boy fame, that she is a walking Vault Girl with her Okey Dokey's and Golden Rule. He'd be a joke, a footnote of the old world. He'd be mean and snarky, even unpredictable and uncooperative--have a public persona of friendly curiosity and a private, cynical one.

Pathetic Ghoulgins would remind audiences of the cost of capitalism and imperialism without resorting to the thesis that war never changes means that people are inherently cruel and will resort to violence, rather than existent corporate and political power structures intentionally create the conditions in which people accept perpetual cycles of exploitation and harm for the sake of their own safety and comfort, despite knowing the cost of maintaining the status quo, and not seeing or believing that distance between the status quo and total annihilation is measured by the smiling thumbs up of a cartoon mascot.

I'm sure there are other ways The Ghoul could have been a successful character as well but.... That's satire. That's interesting. That's Fallout.

[still-a-morosexual-help]

okay so lately I have seen a lot of people claim they hate mammon bc he steals from mc, and like there's nothing wrong with disliking a character lol but I don't recall mammon ever stealing from mc?? like the only thing I can think of is that one time in season 1 I think where he was going through their stuff and said he was looking for something to sell (I think?? it's been a while) and beel straight up calling him a liar lmao l'm just wondered if I missed something? or if this is just newer players who maybe misunderstood that one scene? and I figured if anyone would know it would be you lmao

I got so fucking pissed about this (not at you anon <3) cos this is the third time I got an ask like this, that I scrolled all the way down my 'Obey Me Mammon' tag to June/July 2020 and then slowly scrolled my way up pulling all the receipts I could.....I saw this immediately after you sent it and I just finished now...... turns out it takes 5 straight hours to go through my Mammon tag😶

I have answered this exact same ask twice before and I can only assume it's new people? Like honestly you can't play the game for a long time and still think this (they prove this false within the game in LESSON FOUR)

Not only does Mammon NOT steal from MC, he also:

a.) Gets legitimate/legal jobs whenever he wants to buy MC something (which is pretty frequently)

b.) Shares the money with them when he comes into a large sum of money

But anyway here are the links to the posts talking about all this:

(everything is directly taken from canon or based off canon)

A.) No he doesn't steal from MC

• Full Summary of the Lesson 4 locked chapter where he goes through MC's stuff and a compare and contrast of what we know about Mammon from future lessons, events, devilgrams

• First post talking about this, goes more into detail about him not stealing from them

• Second shorter post about how he doesn't steal from them

• They're literally Partners in Crime

• He straight up refuses the Midas touch (multiple times I believe) after realising it means he won't be able to touch MC anymore

• HEADCANON that maybe he steals/borrows their clothes, with their knowledge, to wear

• In the small introductory manga page they say the thing he likes as much as money is MC

• In S3 he admits to loving MC more than he loves money

B.) He goes out of his way to get MC Presents (which we works actual jobs to earn money for)

• Mammon at the Office Devilgram, where he gets an actual office job so he can buy MC a watch he saw them looking at

• In the Movie Date Devilgram he rents out an entire theatre for the two of them because it was the anniversary of the day they first met

• In the You Always Ride Shotgun Devilgram he rents out a pool for the two of them

• He's always giving MC presents

• Usually he buys matching things for them

• He buys them shoes in their favourite colour

• Mammon's love language

• He wants to share his winnings from a lottery with MC

• He finds a secret second map in the pirate au event and tells only MC so they can share the treasure

C.) It's not just MC, he puts the others before Money too

• In the Presents From Mammon Devilgram he buys presents for everyone

• In The Guardian Demon Devilgram he saves a 9yr old orphaned homeless human girl from a mugger, fosters her and plans to pay for all her needs until she's an adult/can provide for herself - which is why he's always in debt to the three witches who look after her for him, there's also extortion going on from them towards him

• He'd rather lose the entire fortune he won than make Luke upset

• List of times he's put others before money

• He straight up tells Luke he doesn't mind missing out on a reward as long as it means Luke is alright

• Socks for Beel

• He gets a stone for his birthday which can give him whatever he wishes for, he wishes for fortune to come to whoever has the stone and then gives the stone to a student who tried to hurt him

D.) How Mammon works as a character

• Solmare makes you form certain expectations about him and then starts breaking them within the next few lessons and it's amazing to witness

• Friendship, Actions & Reality Vs Calling MC 'Servant'

• Mammon, MC and their Friendship

• Mammon being smart and why he comes off as an idiot

• His thoughts about himself vs MC

• He's actively changing and growing as a character and he knows it

• How Mammon actually views himself

• Why there's a difference in his level of affection in public vs privately

• Jerk with a heart of gold trope but better

• Mammon and how much he cares about consent

• How outsiders see Mammon vs how people from the city see Mammon vs how his close friends and family see him

• Chasing some creep away from MC

• How his relationship with MC changes and grows throughout the season

E.) Other reasons to love him

• Examples of how much he loves MC

• How supportive he & MC are of each other

• Some of his funniest moments

• He's objectively terrifying

• Mammon being a good brother

• He's extremely ride or die for MC

• He waits for MC when they've got to stay late at RAD for other work

• Despite being an ancient being all his best memories consist of the time he's spent with MC

• He created a whole line of toys based around missing MC

• Everything he says about loving MC in his 2022 birthday event

• List of things he's good at

• The amount he loves MC

And this is just a few of my posts about mammon, his character and what there's to love about him

And look it's MORE than okay for people to dislike a character but at least dislike them for something that actually happened?

[mariacallous]

‘I don’t like it when a comedian just spouts his own political views and relies on the audience agreeing with him to get a round of applause,’ announces Ricky Gervais in his new Netflix Special Armageddon. For 60-minutes Gervais, clad in his usual black t-shirt and jeans get-up, tells jokes about dwarfs, gay people, ‘disabled creatures’, African babies with AIDs, Chinese people eating dogs, people pretending to be asylum seekers, people pretending to have ADHD, students taking micky mouse degrees, Greta Thunberg, homeless people (‘fucking horrible’) and the fragile and narcissistic ‘woke’ youth. Which is to say that Gervais just spouts his own political views and relies on the audience agreeing with him to get a round of applause.

Gervais’s portrayal of David Brent in mockumentary The Office (2002) was a work of comic genius. Brent, a hapless white-collar middle manager who desperately wants to be popular, cuts a pathetic but ultimately sympathetic figure. The viewer didn’t so much hate Brent as feel sorry for him; he was an uncalibrated fool but a well meaning one, hence the happy ending written for him in the Christmas Specials that brought the curtain down on the story in 2003. Gervais foolishly resurrected Brent in 2016 for a feature length spin-off, Life on the Road (2016), this time without the grounding influence of his original co-writer on The Office Stephen Merchant. All of a sudden the charm had gone out of the franchise and Brent had morphed into something genuinely tragic and repulsive, trucking in boring jokes about gays and fat people.

Expressing any form of reservation or note of disapproval about anti-woke comedy nowadays is to get oneself marked down as an invertebrate. For those of us who possess a strong enough constitution to sit through jokes that poke fun at the shibboleths of political correctness - provided they are actually funny - retorts like this don’t hold much water. But I’ve come to realise that such humour is increasingly sustained by a section of the audience being reliably ‘offended’ by it and kicking off. How else to keep the lucrative conceit going which says that rich middle aged white men telling rollicking jokes about asylum seekers are heroic truth-tellers saying the unsayable? These days Gervais’s adoring fanbase seem more enthusiastic at the prospect of upsetting their political opponents than about the material itself. And who could blame them: most of the jokes in Armageddon are hackneyed and stale - ‘Doctor, Doctor, I keep thinking I’m a pair of curtains’; ‘You are then’. Heady stuff that is indeed guaranteed to ‘annoy all the right people’.

Netflix describes Armageddon as ‘controversial takes on political correctness and oversensitivity in a taboo-busting comedy special about the end of humanity’. Yet those on the receiving end of Gervais’s barbs are hardly considered off limits by the wider culture: illegal immigrants, the homeless and transgender people are all regularly subjected to invective from government politicians and Britain’s overwhelmingly right-wing media. By all means make an off-colour joke about those groups if you wish: I’m a big boy and I know how to use the remote control. But you won’t convince me that publicly flogging these tabloid bête noires makes one a gutsy truth teller. It’s true that a disability charity condemned Armageddon before it was released on Christmas Day for a joke Gervais makes about terminally ill children. But it’s also true that Gervais is still on Netflix telling the joke, which perhaps gives a good indication of just how risqué this style of humour really is.

One of the biggest cheers from the audience during Gervais’s performance in Armageddon erupts in response to a fatuous joke about mobs pulling down statues originally put up to honour slave traders - another example of woke hypocrisy apparently. ‘He was a slave trader, pull down the fucking statue.’ ‘He built the hospital, should we pull that down too?’ ‘No, leave the hospital’. It’s certainly true that wealthy people have historically (and not just historically) tried to launder their reputations through philanthropy (and on this note Gervais enjoys boasting about how wealthy he is and how much money he donates to animals, who he prefers to humans). But you needn’t take a course in critical race theory to recognise that those who became uncontrollably rich from the slave trade might have set aside some of their tainted money for similar ends. ‘Pride and vanity have built more hospitals than all the virtues together,’ wrote the Dutch physician Bernard de Mandeville in The Fable of the Bees, his eighteenth century polemic against philanthropic hypocrisy.

It isn’t for me to tell a comedian who the ‘correct’ target of his humour ought to be - comedy is subjective after all. But then Gervais’s current shtick is of a piece with right-wing populism more generally, characterised as it is by a servility to the very power it ostensibly rails against. I’m no more required to accept Gervais’s assessment of himself as a brave heretic saying the unsayable than I am obliged to join in with the hysterical blue pencil-wielding critics who really do want to see him cancelled. As to who is currently coming out on top, Armageddon is apparently the highest grossing single stand-up performance ever, bringing in £1,410,000 for a recent show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Cancel culture indeed.

At one time conservatives and reactionaries would doggedly stand athwart history yelling Stop. Nowadays they need constant reassurance that they are still the plucky countercultural underdogs they imagined themselves to be in the halcyon days of their youth. Which is understandable I suppose. Nobody wants to be the angry young man whose waistband has inexorably expanded along with his list of blimpish grievances. ‘I think I am woke, but I think that word has changed,’ says Gervais. In other words it’s not him, it’s us. ‘No-one likes a white middle aged man anymore,’ laments Gervais at another point in the show. I’ve heard that one before too.

I used to enjoy Ricky Gervais but when I think of him today I always imagine some braying face demanding to know how ‘triggered’ I am by something puerile he’s said. This ‘type’ is seemingly ubiquitous at the moment: everything is geared toward getting a rise out of the libs and sticking it to the man in a way that doesn’t threaten one’s status as a servant of power (am I still allowed to say “man”? hehe - you get the gist).

The role of humour according to Gervais is ‘to laugh at bad shit to get us through it’. Which isn’t a terrible definition, though I suppose it depends on what one considers the ‘bad shit’ to be. I found much of the material in Armageddon indistinguishable from the endless bleating we hear in some quarters about the country going to the dawgs because of foreigners and queers and the young with their trendy ailments and political correctness et cetera. I can’t say I feel hysterical or offended by jokes about that stuff - soporific is more the word that springs to mind. Perhaps I should just be grateful that Gervais didn’t make an ‘Orange man bad’ joke. Maybe he’s saving those gags for his next Netflix Special when Donald Trump is President of the United States again. Important to laugh at the truly bad shit first though right.

[acourtofthought]

Somewhere SJM claimed that Lucien and Dorian would be friends if they knew each other and that’s always kept me hopeful. Dorian is one of the most interesting characters in TOG for me and he is also surprisingly slow to find love, even though he’s a rake and he enjoys the company of women. His experience with Sorscha is the same as Lucien and Jesminda (losing their loved one and witnessing their brutal deaths at the hands of their fathers). Both characters are fair and good despite everything else going on around them, they enjoy reading and knowledge, they are ready to sacrifice themselves, they are both excellent candidates to lead due to their innate sense of goodness and fairness. And even their cheeky personality is similar in many ways. Dorian’s access to his own powers was manifesting slowly in TOG and it kept trickling in with each book and I feel like we’re going down that path with Lucien too. We learned in ACOWAR that he sees magical work with his golden eye, we learned that he can track this magic very well. We also learned about his spell cleaving abilities that even he seemingly didn’t know (or hid from others) and we know from his time in autumn that his brothers felt threatened by the power they could sense in him from the beginning. I think Lucien might go through a similar arc to Dorian as he comes into his full powers and that really makes me think about how he actually might become high king. I love Rhys but Rhys is first and foremost for his own people and he is so attached to just the Night Court that I don’t think he would do well with representing everyone. Lucien is essentially homeless in Prythian, he belongs to so many courts and has connection to so many that I can see him do well with such a big title.

Add Elain to this mix. Her powers could be very useful for someone in her position if she ends up high queen with Lucien. They are basically an unstoppable safety net for each court. Elain might see visions of conflict and trouble coming their way, she could aid in decisions about anything, especially if she masters her powers and could look into the future for various outcomes. Her love of nature and travel would definitely come in handy. She would want to protect those courts. Not to mention her love for social events and her ability to charm people. Could you imagine her helping smooth things over between high lords just with her wit and charms? I know a lot of people think she’s going to become a spy but for me she is always more of a politician/courtier and her qualities would shine in such a situation.

I agree and it gives me hope too. Not only did she say Dorian and Lucien would be good friends but Lucien would be someone she could see herself co-writing a book with because of his cleverness. Dorian would be someone she could see herself going to the opera with, who wouldn't mind if she took a long time to get ready (and we know Lucien takes care in how he dresses). Dorian was a human with unknown powers and he ended up having unlimited raw magic that could be shaped in whatever way he wanted. She's also set up Lucien to be someone with unknown powers, a future HL as Dorian was King. I do think there are differences between Lucien and Dorian but those seemed to come into focus after he finally was rid of his valg collar. I think a little bit of that darkness seeped into him and he became well matched for Manon whereas Lucien and Elain both individually and as a pairing embody light. My vision of Elain matches yours as well, where Elain will make a difference, not sneaking around in the shadows spying in the quiet but out in the open, influencing others with her loving, kind and wise personality.

[monotonous-minutia]

final thoughts i guess

you just walk into this production thinking it's weird and kind of silly. but then it just works? and it's funny how well it works. and you keep thinking well, eventually it's going to stop working. this opera is so Out There and this concept is so involved.

but it just. stays. good.

it doesn't run out of steam after act 3, like so many productions of this opera do. it fully embraces the weirdness of Giulietta's act. I mean Kayes' version of this act is like a fever dream anyway. why not run with it?

one of the things about it that really gets me is how it shows us Hoffmann's struggle with addiction and how it affects the people around him, particularly those he's closest to, in this case Nicklausse and Stella.

from the start it's clear these two have a rivalry. they both love Hoffmann and neither wants the other to be the center of his attention. but they're professionals and co-workers. they put pettiness aside. at one point Stella even helps the Muse write one of their songs. and when it comes down to it, when Hoffmann has hit rock bottom, the only thing to them that matters is his health and safety. they join forces to try and get him back to reality.

Nicklausse has been with Hoffmann in this from the beginning. he's there when Hoffmann takes his first illicit drug and watches as that one mistake slowly starts to pick Hoffmann's life apart. Hoffmann was young and naive and didn't know what he was doing. Nicklausse watched and rolled his eyes. he didn't stop it. now he has to watch as Hoffmann starts to crumble.

Nicklausse follows Hoffmann throughout his career. they work side by side as Hoffmann's success grows. as his relationship with Stella grows. Nicklausse watches. he doesn't interfere. he's jealous and heartsick but he doesn't know how to reach out, how to show Hoffmann this love and devotion he's had before either of them even knew. he tries, but Hoffmann doesn't see.

he waits. and he watches as Hoffmann's addiction grows. he's there the moment it tears his life apart. he sees the end of Hoffmann's relationship with Stella and the end of his career. Hoffmann falls and Nicklausse catches. he didn't stop it before so all he can do now is be there and love and protect.

but it's hard. Hoffmann is hard.

Hoffmann is ruined. he loses his job and the love of his life. he's homeless, bereft, and isolated. but Nicklausse follows. he follows as Hoffmann sinks deeper and deeper down. Hoffmann drowns himself in drinks and drugs until he doesn't know what's real anymore. Nicklausse tries to pull him out, over and over again. no matter how many times he's hurt. no matter how many times Hoffmann hurts him. because he loves him. he needs to be there. nothing is more important to him.

Stella tries too. She may not forgive Hoffmann for his earlier actions, but she still cares about him and she's a good human being. She taps in when Nicklausse is near his own breaking point. She tries to bring him back, tries to help Hoffmann step back into reality, realize that it isn't all over, this isn't the way to cope. people care about him and want him to be okay.

but he's too far gone, and she can't keep trying anymore. her health and safety is at risk now too, and she can't help someone who's refusing to help himself.

Nicklausse stays.

He stays and watches over him. he catches him when he falls and holds him when he breaks. he helps pick the pieces back up.

Hoffmann sees him.

He sees him but he doesn't know what to do. this has been his life for so long. he doesn't know who he is anymore and how to cope without the crutch he's carried so long.

but every time he reaches out Nicklausse is there. and he will not let go.

Hoffmann has hit rock bottom and there's nowhere left to go. but there's someone here beside him who's always been there. the person who's stuck with him through it all, who's loved him and protected him and never asked for anything in return. who stayed no matter how many times Hoffmann turned away.

Hoffmann has been fighting for his life. when he lets go of his ghosts, he can breath. and Nicklausse is there. he will always be there.

Hoffmann is ready to start again. he goes back to what he used to love. writing and creating. making stories. sharing his creativity with the world.

it's not going to be easy and he knows that. but he has someone who will always be at his side.

Stella is there too. She may forgive him, but she won't truly open up to him again. She wants to see him succeed, but she's chosen her own path. it's her own story. the part she plays in his isn't over, but it's not as big.

But Nicklausse is there and will always be there. he will stay through the fights, through the doubt, the pain, the anger, the withdrawals, the relapses, the effort, the successes, the joy, the triumph.

maybe Hoffmann isn't ready to love him yet. but the day will come. they know it will.

but the important thing is that Hoffmann is ready to live again.

and Nicklausse will always be there.

[brasteryakintosh]

So I recently played a decent chunk of Snoot Game because of how many people I saw who claimed it's the best VN ever and the fact it was made by 4channers to spite Goodbye Volcano High for having fair working conditions and queer representation totally doesn't taint it at all. I can confirm that those caveats definitely taint the game A LOT more than those fans make it sound. It's a good game if you're a teenager who thinks Family Guy is funny and has never played a VN that wasn't a boring slice of life dating sim where the goal is to click the right dialogue to get the sexy CGs with the hottest waifu. However, if you have any criteria for tastes higher than that bar, you probably won't enjoy it.

The entire game exists purely to be able to say it's possible to make a good VN in one and a half years without doing a bunch of delays, but Snoot Game is a straightforward VN made in the easy to use Ren'Py engine while GVH is being developed in the much more complicated Unity engine as a pseudo-VN/rhythm/adventure game with a large branching storyline. It's really not comparable. Even so, it's just a weak point to criticize a game for taking a long time to come out. Delays are frustrating in the moment, but once a game is released, it usually ceases to be relevant. On top of that, the point is kinda negated by the mere fact Snoot Game is bad. The early parts are downright repulsive and it only starts to become tolerable around the point most decent players just adapt to its shittiness.

On top of that, even from what we know about GVH, it's clear its story is more ambitious overall. GVH is about a group of high school students going to school while knowing a meteor is coming that will kill them all. Adults are making them go along like nothing is wrong while the central cast use the opportunity to grow up in the ways they wouldn't really get the chance to if they had any futures to think about. It's a really great premise with a lot of promise.

But Snoot Game? A human goes to a high school of dinosaurs and falls in love with a classmate. The twist? The human is a 4channer and his love interest is a non-binary "girl" who he tries to convince to detransition for him and if they don't, they become a homeless drug addict or a school shooter. And in case you are wondering, you can donate to the development team using Crypto. Oh and the meteor from GVH just doesn't factor into the story. Granted I haven't played through all of it, but even if it does factor in, the fact it doesn't come up at all for as long as I was playing is a seriously bad indictment of the game that it thinks its most promising narrative device should be taking a backseat to the teacher who looks like that fat dude from Aqua Teen Hunger Force (did I mention this game is extremely unfunny?)

And even for a Ren'Py VN, there's just a lot of better games to play, especially furry VNs. There's Adastra, Echo, Arches, Remember the Flowers, Burrows, the Smoke Room, and Where the Demon Lurks to only name those I've played. I legitimately do not see a single reason why one would enjoy Snoot Game unless they are queerphobic, hate the idea of game developers having good working conditions (because GVH is made by a workers' co-op), or have their sense of humor completely ruined by 4chan, especially for enjoying Snoot Game over the many other far better furry VNs out there. If you're a veteran of furry VNs and want to know how bad Snoot Game is, it's like every single pet peeve about furry VNs stuffed into one game with all of the most obnoxious bigoted jokes and outdated pop culture references caked into it that doesn't even have any furry hunks to thirst over, unless you're really into scrawny scaly dudes drawn in MS Paint

[tempestgnostic]

tw: physical assault

so i was walking in the city the other day when this piece of shit came up and grabbed the side of my neck before he kept walking.

we were on a dark-ish street walking opposite ways and he was muttering to himself so i tried to subtly give him a wide berth and didn’t acknowledge him ‘cos i was minding my own business and he literally swerved over to grab my fucking neck and then went on his merry way like nothing happened.

when i say that i advocate for human rights and dignity, i’m including that asshole, too. yeah, my initial adrenaline-fueled reaction was to pray that the next person he fucks with would curb-stomp the guy. and then i stepped back from that thought and realized, this guy—who was certainly on drugs or mentally ill, if not both—has probably been beaten down and tossed aside like trash by this system. this city fucking hates poor people, much less if you take drugs or are mentally ill. and god forbid if you’re homeless in this city, you’re just fucked.

i’m glad i didn’t try and start something with this guy. honestly i think i might get the logic he was running off of, even given the state he was in. here i am, dressed up in my little dress clothes from Target, walking down a gentrified street in one of the poorest parts of the city toward a fancy hotel where they sell $4 chocolate bars at the café and none of the employees can afford a room for even a night. here i am, a young 20-something white guy coming back from a restaurant where they’ve got hundred-dollar entrées, looking like i’m ready to attend an upscale tech seminar, followed by my parents who are dressed to the nines. and this guy knows full well that his neighborhood is being bulldozed so that people with money who look like me can come and eat lobster tacos and talk down to the hotel staff and treat folks like him like they don’t even exist—or worse, like an eyesore that should be purged from public sight.

idk where i was going with this, but basically what i’m trying to say is that my advocacy includes him, too. what he did was fucked up but ultimately i’m not hurt, he didn’t use any pressure and it was over in a second anyways. regardless of his reasons, if he even had any, if i were in his situation and shit had gotten that bad for me, honestly i’d probably reach a point where i’d want to do the same. looking the way we did that night, folks like us are a grim reminder of the reason he’s on the street to begin with.

[sarah-sandwich-writes]

Hi Sarah! Wish you the nicest of days🌸 For your ask game, can I get The Chosen One’s BFF please?👉👈

/it was so ridiculously hard to choose like oh my god. i hope people ask you about everything on this list. or else im gonna do it myself out of insatiable curiosity/

Omg hiiii you're so nice (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) I got more asks than I thought I would but several are repeats lmao what can you do

The Chosen One's BFF is in the plot bunny stage. It's the standard hero's journey storyline but told from the POV of their best friend. They have to stand by and watch the chosen one be turned into a weapon and a sacrifice. All they can do is make sure the CO is fed and rested and soothed from screaming nightmares--and sometimes they're not even allowed that as the CO is whisked away, forced to trek and train and ration.

It's about the terror they feel every step of the journey, knowing the end, knowing there's nothing they can do to change how the story plays out, and staying by their side anyway. If their friend has to die to save the world, they aren't going to let them die alone.

Until the day the Wise Wizard steals away the CO to complete the journey alone because he thinks the friend is holding them back. They're clinging to comforts of yesterday rather than pushing ahead onto what needs to be done for the good of the world.

And so the friend races off to find them. It's not difficult to follow their trail--their path of destruction. Smoldering towns filled with the corpses of monsters and demons, awed and afraid townsfolk. And well... it's important that they find their friend, but they can't just ignore these people that are hurting.

So they help. They bandage the wounded, they cook for the homeless and hungry, they repair walls and fences and doors, they tend the damaged fields. And they talk. They tell stories about their friend, humanize them to these people who have only seen the raw power that hurt nearly as much as it helped. And they explain the horrible sacrifice they're going to make to save all of these people they weren't allowed to meet.

It's like this that the friend collects an adventuring party of their own--but rather than the wisest and strongest and fiercest, the people that join are the people who care too much to look away. They're people. Just people.

so idk it's going to be like my love letter to humanity i guess. I'll be taking huge inspiration from my humans are good tag.

[shoecrabs]

HoO things I have headcanoned/au'ed for my canon divergent version of the story (most take Percy and Annabeth out of the story lol):

Leo and Piper meeting before the Wilderness School. They became begrudging allies to friends while hanging out in the streets, causing mild vandalism, and shoplifting chocolate. turns out a born-to-be-public speaker with a healthy hatred for authority and a hyperactive homeless kid with an arsenal of scrap metal make an incredible duo against police

They were both worried about going M.I.A since they had no proper way to call eachother before being spontaneously thrown into the Wilderness School. then they got excited that they ended up together! Man, what luck is that :D (it was Hera lmao)

Piper met Aphrodite on Cyprus and finally had a chat one-to-one about everything and her place amongst the team

although Lupa raised Jason like a pup, she wouldn't let him forget just how human he still was. She'd always tell him to straighten up, or to use his hands rather than just teeth. She'd teach him to skin animals by himself with sharp stones. Still, she warned him not to be too human, too mortal. "human weaknesses" such as crying would not be tolerated.

Jason then had to relearn how to be human by trying to copy the members of Camp and interpreted them how Lupa taught him. The demigods didn't help him as much as they would've due to his parentage, so he was always awkwardly trying to fit in and adapt. He spent ages trying to associate names to facial expressions and it made him upset realising he didn't recognise that many anymore

Hazel and Gaia almost always fought for control over the earth. Hazel eventually pried the land out of Gaia's control just long enough for the others to escape a collapsing cavern & teams up with Piper's charmspeak with her power over the Mist

HAZEL CONTROLS OPALISED FOSSILS. I think she should have gotten the chance to summon opalised skeletons, especially since they were by the sea a lot of the time

Frank was always clumsy because his body was always twitching to shapeshift. Once he unlocked his shapeshifting, he'd instinctively transform to continue his stride. when not paying attention or too tired, he'd still stumble and trip

Frank and Hazel took over when Percy and Annabeth (without them it'd probably be Leo) fell into Tartarus. Jason advised them, but was glad at not needing to lead

All of them (again, without percabeth) learnt at least one way of supporting the ship when Leo wasn't available or too exhausted! Jason would send winds into the sails and navigate at air, Piper learnt a few of the controls and which ones opened up to secret storage and etc, Hazel was in charge of retrieving metal and noticing damages to the structure of machines, and Frank was the main strategist that ended up being really good with the ballistae. They still couldn't match up to Leo, but they managed to get the ship stumbling to its destination

Jason doesn't give Frank Praetorship until the final fight against Gaia, where the Romans have a chance to agree or disagree and all that, but he takes the position of team leader after Jason steps down (Hazel is his second in command + co-leader)

more time between books, arching within 2 years at least

also a possibly hot take: the sacrifices should've been Jason and either Piper or Hazel cause they have more thematic weight to them other than "they're the oldest and most annoying" or whatever the original reason was

[beardedmrbean]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Democratic mayor of San Francisco is pushing a pair of controversial public safety proposals on the March 5 ballot, including one that would require single adults on welfare be screened and treated for illegal drug addiction or else lose cash assistance.

Mayor London Breed also supports a ballot measure that would grant police more crime-fighting powers, such as the use of drones and surveillance cameras. In November, she'll face cranky voters in a competitive reelection bid.

San Francisco is in a struggle to redefine itself after the pandemic left it in economic tatters and highlighted its longstanding problems with homelessness, drugs and property crime. Opponents say both ballot measures are wildly out of step with San Francisco's support for privacy and civil liberties and will only hurt the marginalized communities the city prides itself on helping.

But Breed, the first Black woman to lead San Francisco, said at a January campaign stop that residents from poorer, Black and immigrant neighborhoods are pleading for more police, and recovery advocates are demanding change as more than 800 people died of accidental overdose last year — a record fueled by the abundance of cheap and potent fentanyl.

“They said San Francisco makes it too easy for people to access and to use drugs on the streets of the city and we need to do something a lot more aggressive,” Breed said at Footprint, an athletic apparel and shoe store that has been repeatedly burglarized.

While Breed's name isn't on the presidential primary ballots going out now — San Francisco uses a method where residents rank mayoral candidates by preference a single time in November — the two measures she's pushing are. They serve as an opening salvo for her reelection campaign as she faces off against fellow moderates who say her approach to the city's problems has been weak.

Violent crimes are low in San Francisco, but the city has long struggled with quality-of-life crimes.

Breed said rates of retail theft and auto smash-ins have declined recently, thanks in large part to strategic operations by city police. Similarly, police have stepped up enforcement of drug laws, including by issuing citations to people using drugs in public as a way to disrupt the behavior and an opportunity to persuade the person cited to seek help.

But she said San Francisco needs to do more.

If approved by voters, Proposition F would offer another way to compel treatment, by allowing the city to screen single adults on local welfare for substance abuse. People found to be abusing illegal drugs would be required to enroll in treatment if they want to receive cash assistance from the city, which maxes out at just over $700 a month.

Opponents say coercion doesn't work and homelessness may increase if the measure passes. Drug addicts are not criminals, they say, and there are not enough treatment beds and counseling services as it is.

A crackdown on drugs is reminiscent of the failed war on drugs that disproportionately harmed Black families, said Chris Ballard, co-executive director of Coleman Advocates, which pushes for improvements for Black and Latino youth in San Francisco.

“There are more ethical ways to address the issue aside from punitive measures, and that’s the proper way to take care of a community, to show true support,” he said.

Yet Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which provides cash assistance and employment services to low-income residents without dependent children, said the current situation is in conflict with the agency's mission: to improve lives.

“To give someone who’s addicted to fentanyl $700 a month, I don’t think it helps improve their lives,” he said. “In fact, I think it does the opposite.”

Compelling treatment has become more acceptable in Democratic California, despite angst over the potential loss of civil liberties, as visible signs of homelessness and mental illness, fentanyl addiction, and unsafe street behavior surge.

Last year, several counties rolled out an alternative mental health court created by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco, to fast-track people with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders into care, and in March voters will take up a statewide mental health proposition that some say will increase involuntary treatment.

Rhorer said the welfare program for single adults — which serves about 9,000 people per year — already asks applicants about substance abuse, with about 20% self-reporting an issue. A data check with the Department of Public Health revealed that almost one-third of recipients have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, he said.

The ballot measure would replace that question with a more rigorous screening test that would be verified by an addiction specialist. If substance abuse is found, Rhorer said, the specialist and applicant would agree on treatment options that include residential care, a 12-step program, individual counseling and replacement medication.

There is no requirement that the person be sober, only that they make good-faith efforts to attend their program, with the hope that “at one point a light bulb will go off,” Rhorer said.

The measure calls for the city to pay the rent of those accepted into the program for 30 days or longer to avoid eviction. About 30% of the people who fatally overdosed in 2023 were homeless, and more were living in subsidized city housing.

Besides authorizing drones, cameras and other modern technologies, Proposition E would reduce paperwork so police have more time to patrol. It would also allow police to pursue more suspects by vehicle, and not just in cases of a violent felony or immediate threat to public safety — a policy store owner Michael Hsu learned of the hard way.

Hsu has had his Footprint store broken into multiple times since he took over in 2020, most recently on Jan. 1. Police arrived as the suspects were leaving but could not pursue them because no lives were at risk. Hsu, who lost about $20,000 in merchandise and damage, called that discouraging.

“You’re sending the wrong message to these criminals,” he said.

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Book recs based on stuff I read in 2023

Nonfiction

Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer (2003) - it's outdated by about 20 years which leads to one hell of a jumpscare at the end, but I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested at all in Mormonism, high control groups, FLDS, and the history of abuse against women and girls in the LDS; it covers everything you need to know about the ways the LDS church has cultivated a paedophile/domestic abuse culture and it's fucking haunting and it's the most upset a book has ever made me

Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufman (2017) - a really fun read; it's a collection of case studies of the real life Africans living or working in England during the Renaissance, with each chapter focusing on a different individual and what we know about them from parish records, legal documents etc. It's also a great primer on England's relationship with the slave trade and African nations from the 16th to 17th centuries. Also I listened to this on audiobook and the lady's voice is super soothing

Problematic gay rep

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (1956) - yeah okay turns out Baldwin is the GOAT of queer lit for a reason. I don't even like 20th century stuff but Baldwin can WRITE man I was sucked in! And David is the BLUEPRINT of problematic gay rep! I loved watching his awful decisions I hope he suffers eternally! It's a short and easy read and a classic for a reason do give it a chance

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite/William Martin (1996) - I'm not sure if I'm deadnaming Martin here because I bought the book earlier this year and it was still being attributed to Poppy Z Brite so I guess it's being treated like an author pseudonym now? I think? Anyway, don't read this book unless you're a disgusting freak like me who enjoys torture porn. This book comes with every content warning under the sun and I had an AMAZING couple of afternoons reading this book. American Psycho, Jeffrey Dahmer and NBC Hannibal had a baby and Martin delivered it; it's a raw, twisted and angry scream into the void about AIDS, homeless queer youth, homophobia and cultural stigma, wrapped up in a bow made of intestines. I went into this book hoping to see people get tortured and came out of it quite melancholic with a lot to think about, and I accidentally got attached to the victim oops!

The Charioteer by Mary Renault (1953) - I was gonna make a non-problematic section just for this book but then I remembered all the rampant femmephobia xD and Ralph and Laurie would 100% be bootlicking gays against pride. This book personally isn't for me - it's a lot of love triangle nonsense - but I think the tumblr demographic is particularly primed for gay World War II love triangle stories, and it's a softer, happier love story than my other recs. Would recommend if you can get past the main characters being pick mes.

Manga

No Longer Human by Junji Ito (2019) - this is a story about being a bad person and ruining everyone's lives especially your own lol; I loved the original prose version, but Ito's spin of the story makes everything so much worse and if I hadn't literally read a book about irl paedophilia the month before I think this book would have put me in the angriest and most violent place I've been all year. Love gorgeous art? Love mental illness? Love despicable spineless main characters? Get on this

Other fiction

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980) - it took me a month to read this entire book. It's so self-indulgent and long winded and contrived and the big twist is laughable and I wouldn't have it any other way! It's just some old guy playing in his sand box with his little monk action figures and it's charming af. Plus the concept of a monastic murder mystery involving several orders of monks will never not be fun, and I'm biased towards the book cos my guess at the very start as to whodunnit was right >:) would recommend if you like Sherlock Holmes and long long diatribes about medieval Catholic geopolitics

Garth Marenghi's Terrortome by Garth Marenghi (2022) - this one's just a bit of a laff. The horror comedy ramblings of a man going stir crazy during COVID lockdowns. You don't need to have seen Garth Marenghi's Darkplace to understand the book but it is recommended if you can access it. Content warning for explicit man x typewriter

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962) - it's a modern day (relatively) witch story! Jackson was writing about and for all the weird autistic little girls out there with this one. It's a gothic murder mystery about two co-dependent sisters who are outcasts in their village. It was a great introduction to Jackson's work

[cuuno-moved]

uhh so questions, lemme think… hmm do the turtles and co. run into any conflict with the foot clan? because i imagine they wouldn't be too fond of splinter because they thought he was dead and wanted to do experiments on him (speaking of which where did the foot clan get mutagen? is stockgen a thing) and now maybe they want to know more about them since they were still only testing mutagen. speaking of which, do a lot of official characters show up? how are they different from canon? do you have ocs? and judging by how the turtles were able to find casey, how often do they go to the surface? is it a casual thing where they like to explore or is it like in 2012 tmnt where splinter is very cautious about them heading out? how do they feel about humans outside of casey and april? do they get seen sometimes but then most people just are like "some turtle guys walking around just another day in NYC amiright" or do they try very hard not to be seen by people? does casey act different from spending so much time with the turtles? is there any places they like to hang out? how is their home in the sewers, is it like decorated n' stuff? do they all get to have a lot of personal area or is it kind of cramped? what stuff does donatello build, and do they have a version of the turtle van? how do the turtles go about resolving the occasional conflict? i imagine they don't fight as often as they do in some official stuff, but like do they get into silly squabbles often that aren't too serious? and when they are serious, how does everyone act? also, if mikey is similar to the 2018 one, then does he also kind of try to help his family in a lot of stuff when it comes to conflict? when it comes to villains and stuff, what kind of people do they fight against? is it more "we fight when we have to but generally try to avoid it" or is it more "i am going to go on a space adventure to fight the utroms or something WOO!" oh wait this ask is kinda long now. uhh well you don't have to answer everything!!!!! i just saw the post asking for asks and thought oh i like tmnt aus lemme try to ask as many questions as possible. sorry if it's kinda rambly!!! okay have a good day or night

OUGHHHH i love you so much anon thank you thank you thank you

okay so. the footclan originally think they died because. yk. mutagen. but when they find out they mutated (via mikey getting a little too clumsy on a suply run) they decide they need to make more mutagen. that's the first time that the turtles have to fight for the safety of the public. however, some mutagen does in fact get out in the bottled water, and some people are transformed

there will be a couple of canon characters - i've already mentioned usagi, and im adding barry just for kicks as a sheep mutant. and i've got an oc named dusty miller who im adding because i like him.

the turtles weren't supposed to leave the lair as kids, but casey happened to make the insane decision to hide in the sewers from his bullies, which is how he met them. over time they began to sneak out more and more until splinter found out and realized he couldn't stop them anyways, and started to train them more. just to be sure they could defend themselves

casey does end up picking up a couple habits from the turtles, like trying to mimick their sounds, ie growling or chirping. he also forgets he cannot in fact hold his breath for an hour underwater sometimes

they live in an abandoned subways station, and they each have a tent set up where they sleep. it's not super exciting or nice to look at, just like a regular homeless camp, but donnie made a power generator and they have a tv that works pretty well most of the time

donnie works mostly with junk he finds in scrapyards or pulls off of old trains, but when they run into the foot clan, he manages to steal some of their technology, which really helps him. they have a sort of turtle van which is an old volkswagen that they decked out and occasionally drive around town. they call it the shellraiser because i think that's a really funny name actually

they do get in a lot of fights. especially when it comes to donnie. he's really bad at tone and understanding when people are mad at him, so he will overreact and assume everyone hates him, which they don't, which inevitably pisses raph off, which upsets mikey, which upsets leo. mikey does his best to smooth things over by clarifying what people mean to donnie, but it doesn't always work, and that kind of affects mikey in. really negative ways. like he thinks he isn't important if he doesn't help people

the villains are mostly foot clan and some mutants. most of the turtles don't like fighting them, but leo is so obsessed with being a hero that she actively starts picking fights with the villains.

[todayisafridaynight]

I should be studying right now, but… do you ever think about how Arakawa didn't have to die?

Not even in the meta sense that it's RGG "tradition" to take faceclaims/father figures/antagonists out of the picture and that traditions should sometimes be broken, or that Aoki would've changed his mind, or that Ishioda or Tendo could've been stopped. But because Jo is the captain (and later second patriarch) of an organization specifically stated to specialize in faking deaths. A practice that originated in the Bubble Era years after Jo had already joined, and that Jo was no doubt intimately familiar with.

Like, isn't that why Arakawa was able to take that risk shooting Ichi? It just feels like things could've gone so much differently had Jo "accepted" Aoki's orders and "confronted" Arakawa with some kind of escape. Perhaps the Ijincho homeless camp would be off-limits, having drawn too much attention recently, but an assassin would surely know how to lay low for a while.

And maybe Aoki, Ishioda, and Tendo would've been undone by their own ambition anyway. And Arakawa could've kept his word and ran the security company with the pillars of the Tojo and Omi, while Jo could've been the chairman of the Tokyo Omi Alliance; light and shadow, opposite to their respective sons. And so many more yakuza wouldn't have been left with nowhere to go.

And hell, maybe none of it would've worked out in the end, maybe it would've all folded like a house of cards, but wasn't it worth a shot? Perhaps it was Yokoyama he who didn't think of it (or couldn't/didn't pursue it even if he did), perhaps it was Jo. But there's something so tragic about being so fundamentally opposed to lifting a finger in violence towards your co-parent and patriarch that you decline the opportunity to save him.

I wonder if the thought has ever occurred to Jo.

I wonder how much he regrets it.

UGH RIGHT IT'S SOOOO....

Like of COURSE I'm upset about Arakawa's death in that we lost a wonderful character and father figure in the franchise, but also it's cause it's just... for all the scheming Arakawa and Jo have been doing behind Aoki's back this entire time, Jo folded on this opportunity to get Arakawa out of Aoki's radar for good this time- or for at least the time being.

It's a testament to the humanity he convinced himself he threw away, and that's why it especially makes me want to scream. From our understanding, Jo is supposed to be very pragmatic and tries to deal with matters as efficiently as possible and generally seems emotionally detached from his work (of course we know that's not the case, but just from a surface-level perspective that's how it appears). So the one time Jo does show an ounce of humanity, it has the greatest consequence.

[cjbolan]

Up to Chapter 14 of Emily Windsnap and the Tides of Time. More thoughts...

Is Emily learning in school about Greco-Roman mythology? Her classmate mentions King Midas...

Aiden: Something about gold. King Midas or something.

Does this mean Emily is learning in school about King Neptune? Being a human school, would they get the facts right about Neptune? After discovering that Shiprock and Neptune are real, would Emily’s school have to change their lessons about Ancient Rome? I’m sure every school has to teach about Ancient Rome at some point, be it through history or English literature class. This also brings to mind my headcanon about Emily being possibly Greek...if she is, would this affect how much she knows about Neptune?

IF ONLY Emily had just waited to talk with Shona first before making her 2nd wish DX .....

I KNEW there was gonna be some catch to things in Shiprock becoming better.

There’s a recurring theme of small run-down playgrounds getting replaced by bigger playgrounds. Make of that what you will. Kinda funny because IRL the reverse is happening, with playgrounds getting downside due to safety/financial reasons.

I giggled at the mention of old mermen with “strong muscled” arms XD. Because it reminds me of this viral shot of JK Simmons:

Did Shona just imply Emily offers sexual favors XD?

Adult Shona: *to adult Emily* How did you get here? Still got that friendly guard on the border?

Millie’s future may be the saddest, if not second saddest, part of the series. Maybe even sadder, because Millie this time is gravely ill without any doctor nearby she could see. Again this also hits home hard: my neighborhood getting rapidly gentrified coincided with rising homelessness, more business closures, and more chain stores getting relocated.

Where’s Mr. Beeston in the 2nd future? Did he die of old age? For some reason I always just assumed he’s really old.

LOVE the bait-and-switch on who Councillor Windsnap is. Just like Emily I thought Mary P. was the mayor of Brightport. Makes sense as she’s known Brightport way longer than Emily would, she has the right persistence and compassion for the job, and Book 4 showed she's capable of bringing a peaceful co-existence between humans and merfolk. Until I was shocked to find out instead Emily became mayor. If Emily became mayor, then why didn’t she get her mom a better place to live than that shabby boat? Did Emily at least try? 

Are humans more feminist than merpeople? I’ve mentioned this before, but Brightport electing a woman mayor brings me back to something I noticed through the series. The last 3 books make me think human women have way more equality and opportunities than mermaids do. In the human world women can be…

Mayors (Emily)

Queens (Pirate Queen)

Captains (again the Pirate Queen)

Goddesses (Terra Mater)

Tribal Leaders (Ella though she’s technically just second-in-command)

Business Owners (Mystic Millie, Mrs. Rushton)

School Principals (Mandy)

Meanwhile teachers are the only mermaid authority figures we ever see . No hate to teachers but, compared to human women…mermaids don’t have many options. Also everyone working for King Neptune is male, does Neptune not allow mermaids in politics? Meanwhile on land Emily just assumed her mom is Mayor, which suggests women politicians are nothing new to humans. I can better see why Mary hated Allpoints Island. She went from a world where women can be anything, to a world where women can be only teachers or stay-home housewives.

Mary Penelope: …look at my life here. What do I do all day?  Sunbathe, comb my hair, maybe go to synchro swim a couple of times a week. This isn’t a life for me, Jake. I want more than this. (Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist)

I wonder how shocked Jake was learning how much more human women are allowed than mermaids. 

SOOO happy this time Mary P. and Jake are still together!!! These 2 really are my OTP for many reasons One of those reasons being the only couple that stays together the entire series. All the other couples either broke up (Emily/Aaron), started dating later (Shona/Seth), or met a tragic fate (Neptune/Aurora, Archie/Millie). And they’re good people unlike the Pirate King&Queen. I might do a later post about just Jake/Mary P.

Are Jake/Mary P. the next Shona/Seth? In this 2nd future they’re still in a relationship, but just don’t spend much time together because one of them is busy working for Neptune.

King Neptune is such a sly cunning bastard. Shortly after releasing Jake from 12 years of imprisonment, he has Jake working for him. In both situations Neptune is keeping close tabs on Jake. I guess to make sure he doesn’t break the law again. Unfortunately this means Jake having to spend long periods of time away from his family, which is especially cruel after he was forcefully separated from them for 12 years. Gotta both admire and loathe Neptune for keeping people in his clutches in such a clever way.

What do y’all think Aaron is like 20 years later? Because this book keeps mentioning him.

Gonna keep reading! If you’ve read this book, what are your thoughts? Always down to talk more about my favorite book series.