#dramatic asses the lot of them

[faster-faster-aster]

a very pissed off pecco

[whollyjoly]

so aisha just tweeted this....

and im looking at those last two emojis 😐😳....

and i remember that lou said this....

...and this....

...

...what does it MEAN??

[hilaom]

“damn my soul if you must let my body turn to dust let it mingle with the ashes of the country let them curse me to hell leave it to history to tell” is such a raw lyric out of context . unfortunately the context is john wilkes booth

[imadhatt3r]

It's a late Friday evening in Midorijima, and that means that it's time for the weekly Benishigure meetup at the Black Needle. It's always a good opportunity to meet new members, get drunk, and have some fun with the other guys you'd usually miss due to conflicting schedules. Today's meeting is a bit more special- Aoba decided to join in, which he doesn't always do. He's the boss' boyfriend, but he's not officially a member himself- he has, however, gotten close to the gang in the time they've been together, so everyone just treats him like an honorary Benishigure, which both makes him happy, in a way, and annoys him to no end, given all the attention he recieves and the fact that he's a subject of never-ending jokes and bits (in a friendly way, of course).

Everyone's a bit drunk by now, laughing and toasting for anything that comes to their heads, no matter how small and insignificant. Koujaku is smoking a cigarette and sipping on his sake, taking it all in and quietly enjoying seeing the people he brought together. Aoba had a bit to drink too; He rarely does, but something tempted him to drink today- perhaps a desire to join in and fully enjoy the atmosphere was stronger than his usual convictions.

The conversation turns to relationships, as it always does at some point when a group of drunks congregates.

"Wait, how long have you two been together? Like, a year?" One of the Benishigures asks as he turns to Aoba and Koujaku. "That's pretty impressive, I gotta admit- it's probably the longest anyone stayed with Koujaku"

He barks a laugh, like he was suprised at how funny he found his own joke. Aoba looks at Koujaku with suspicion, but he only responds with a grin and a sly look in his eye- completely unmoving, cigarette still held in his teeth.

"You thought about tying the knot yet? I'm telling ya, if you managed to keep him around for a year, that means you gotta have something special going on."

"I doubt any shrine would be willing to do the ceremony for two guys." Aoba rolls his eyes. He's mostly trying to convince himself; Both he and Koujaku are respected in their local community, so he has no doubt that their potential union would be honored. He thinks that this whole "being in a relationship with a man" had sunken into his mind by now, but in moments like these, he really worries that he will never internalize it fully.

"Since when do you need a shrine?" The Benishigure snorts dismissively and waves his hand around with no grace at all; His eyes have a spark in them that already tells Aoba that he came up with something only a drunk could make up. "You're already with your friends and family, right...? And everyone's wasted on sake...? All we need now is for the lovebirds to smooch." He grins. "I can even be your official, if you want"

He raises his mug, beer and froth sloshing with his uncoordinated movements and begins to chant "KISS! KISS! KISS!", his yell echoing through the bar. All the other members at the table quickly abandon whatever they were talking about and join in, not knowing what they're cheering for, but knowing that it's paramount to see their leader and his boyfriend make out at the table this instant.

This unrest finally rouses Koujaku. He knows that Aoba doesn't enjoy being the center of attention, and especially not when he's being goaded into doing something by a bunch of rowdy, drunk dudes. He usually trusts his men to know when to cool it when it comes to teasing Aoba, but it seems like alcohol might've clouded their judgement.

He grabs his cigarette between his slender fingers and opens his mouth to speak. Before he manages to make a single sound, Aoba is pressing his lips against his, tasting the smoky flavor of the kiss. The room erupts in cheers, and the clinking of glasses and mugs raised in toast adds to his overwhelmed state.

In a way though, Koujaku is oddly gleeful about it all; He never expected to get married, or at least not like that- when he was younger, he'd probably imagine a serious, grim ceremony where he's forced to marry a girl he never saw before, one that was chosen by his father in order to strenghten their family's position in the criminal underword. Nowdays he has no family he could invite to such a ceremony, but the Benishigure are the closest thing he has, and he loves them like he would his own blood, so getting married while listening to their howls and cheers is probably how he'd like it to go anyway. As for Aoba... Being able to be around him in any capacity was a dream come true; Koujaku knew that he himself is never going anywhere anyway. But thinking about Aoba pledging his loyalty to him with such fervor, and in front of so many other people... He's just happy he's not a crying kind of drunk. Instead, he chooses to cup Aoba's head with his free hand, gently rustling the short, stiff hair right at his hairline.

On the next day, Aoba doesn't talk about the kiss, but when Koujaku tries to talk to him about it, he can see that Aoba remembers it all happening by the way he stammers, badly puts on a facade and downplays the whole event. Koujaku just laughs; He knows that Aoba needs to process it- he knows him well enough to know how he behaves after events like this, and Koujaku is, if nothing, a patient man. Besides, Aoba was always adorable when he was in that part of processing something, so he really doesn't mind.

Benishigure who are "in the know" sometimes call Aoba "bride" to mess with him, or ask Koujaku to say hi to his "wifey" from them. Mizuki finds out from them through rumors that the Black Needle hosted their very first wedding/reception when he happened to have a night off and he can't live that down. As for Aoba and Koujaku, they don't really consider themselves an officially married couple, but the bit is nicer to carry out than they thought- jokingly talking to eachother like an old married couple comes to them more naturally and is more fun than either has expected.

[bitegore]

if your ocs were bosses in a video game, what do you think their boss fight would be like?

[namazunomegami]

Lord of the Flies, Gluttonous Queen, Prince of Filth, Prince of Decay, Goddess of Ekron, Lord of Slander, Queen of Pestilence and Famine, The Rotting One

I Solomon said unto him: “Beelzeboul what is thy employment?” And (s)he answered me: “I destroy kings. I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants of God, priests, and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and desire for murder, and for wars, and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world.” - The Testament of Solomon

[echoequinox]

More Zelda Theories, about the Depths and the Statues!

BIG SPOILERS. DO NOT READ AHEAD UNLESS YOU HAVE GOTTEN THE MISSION "DEFEAT GANONDORF". FOR REAL, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

That said, this is a lot of theories about the Depths and more specifically the Bargainers, who seem to be a very prominent and important figure in this game, almost like the Zonai were in Breath of the Wild!

We'll start with anatomy, because there's a lot of interesting things to go off of there. As far as we can tell, the statues in the Depths of Zora, Rito, etc. are mostly unexaggerated and straightforward representations of the races they portray. But the Bargainer statues are...

Let's just say they're big.

They are confirmed specifically to be Bargainers by the map marker, namely the one of this picture: the Bargainer Cliff Statue. This implies that it is, in fact, a representation of the group.

Some other interesting things about the anatomy you can somewhat see here: no discernible feet (potentially wearing shoes or armor) and hands that each end in three blunt fingers.

The other interesting part that we can see is their face.

(Also this is a partial view of their upper half as well, which seems to be particularly hard to photograph)

Their head appears to be conical in shape with four eyes that feature prominently, especially due to the first real mission where you speak to the Bargainers and must throw their eyes into the chasms. (Also notable are their streak-like markings beneath the eyes, almost like Tears)

My two primary theories on the face is that it is either 1. A mask of some kind, with the eyes as a recurring motif and possibly some sort of symbolism, or 2. The Bargainers are constructs HEAR ME OUT

Evidence of it being a mask comes from the Hood of the Depths from the outfit you get from the Bargainers. It is shaped very similar to the head of the Bargainer statues, but the face is instead shrouded, the hood obscuring only one eye, and the rest of the face covered in the same wraps that cover Link's arms and legs.

It is POSSIBLE that the Bargainers themselves have four eyes, and using this hood structure only reveal one at a time, perhaps to keep other races from becoming unsettled, or maybe some sort of ceremonial reason. It is also possible that this is a lesser Bargainer outfit, and the ones the statues are built from have the four-eyed masks, and the statues are proof of reverence of those greater Bargainers.

Either suggests that the Bargainers are humanlike in nature, potentially a culture of their own similar to how the Sheikah are technically of the Hylian race (as seen in parentheses in the Character Dossier in ToTK).

It's also possible that they were a subculture of the Zonai, and Link's difference in outfit is due to it being an acolyte outfit rather than the outfit of a true Bargainer. It isn't, after all, called the Bargainer set, but the Depths set. It's possible that Hylians who worshipped the Zonai - and specifically the Bargainers - as gods wore these as some form of worship or ceremony.

My other theory, I personally think, holds less water, but it is interesting to pursue. Below is a spoiler for the Spirit Temple and the lead-up to it.

This is Mineru's construct body after she's resurrected by Link. There are a couple notable things here that do, in fact, relate to the Bargainers.

First, the fact that the Construct Factory is in the Depths at all, which is an area seemingly mostly kept up by Bargainers in general. Second, the anatomy does admittedly seem to line up. Longer arms that reach the knees, the shape of the legs, the codpiece and the strange segmentation of the arms, which do end in three nubby fingers. Additionally, the "head" of Mineru's construct is an owl-styled mask similar to the one we see Rauru wearing around his neck, or on his face in the trailer.

The more I look at Mineru's construct, the more I begin to think that the statues are built after them, but story-wise, it has a lot of holes. It would imply that the Bargainers are, perhaps, sentient constructs. Would they be allowed free reign of the Depths? Allowed to create statues of themselves, in some form of robotic reverence?

The alternative is that they are, in fact, possessed constructs, similar to Mineru's. Interestingly, it does start to line up when you put it in that light. While the Bargainers have you collect Poes in the underground, they don't look like Poes from any of the previous Zelda games. Instead they look like Spirits, specifically those from Twilight Princess. They're said to be the souls of those who haven't yet moved on to the afterlife, and the Bargainers are able to shuffle them on their way.

Mineru, the Sage of Spirit, would be uniquely qualified to have followers who relate to spirits and souls. Putting their bodies into constructs as well wouldn't have been a huge challenge and - in fact - if the process was willing and not one of necessity, it would make sense that they would build statues of their new, superior forms.

Moving on from anatomy, we can briefly cover the abilities the Bargainer Statues seem to have.

The Bargainers are able to speak to Link in the same way many other creatures are: the Koroks, the Goddess Statues, the Horned Statue, etc. They are also able to not only take the souls that Link collects and move them to the afterlife, but compensate him for doing so. They can produce things like Dark Clumps or outfits designed to plumb the Depths. They're also able to reach out and find their "brethren" for Link to seek out and speak to. The more of them Link finds, the more they're able to work together and create better armor and gear for him.

The one on the Great Plateau says he "inhabits" the Goddess Statue to speak to Link. It feels almost as if the Bargainers are spirits themselves, able to possess objects, which is in line with the possessed construct theory.

There are two other interesting notes to leave this on, as I don't really have a conclusion for my theory at the moment. The first is about resources. Zonaite is found most prominently in the Depths, although some is found on sky islands as well. It's possible (or even probable) that the sky islands were ripped from the surface of Hyrule, or even below it, and that's why it's available on them. But Zonaite being found deep underground, and yet powering all of Zonai tech such as the Zonai Charges.

The other is about the name itself: Bargainers. Searching through the Zelda wiki for other instances of the word "bargain", only one primary entry comes up: The Statue's Bargain. This is the quest in Breath of the Wild in which you find and bargain with the Horned Statue. A dealer of life and wealth. A Bargainer, if you will.

It's possible that their powers originated not from a secret stone, like Mineru and her Spirit Sage powers, but instead from a god. Whereas Hyrulians worship Hylia and her encompassing light, it's possible that these Bargainers - maybe even the larger Zonai culture - instead worshipped Her opposite. Deep beneath the ground, away from sunlight and prying eyes, perhaps they did dealings with this strange, bargainer god. Wealth for life. Perhaps trading away your last heart for money, allowing the god to take all of your soul, would trap it permanently, forever adrift beneath Hyrule, as a Poe.

Maybe the Bargainers themselves are trying to atone for what they did, the lengths they went for riches and power, and what it took to become the monolithic figures they revered in statue form. Hylia, as we know, saw the dark god and trapped him forever within a statue. Perhaps his followers were not so different...

Edit: I absolutely forgot the fact that the Construct Factory steward mentions getting receipts and orders from Dragonhead Island, implying more than one construct needs to be built (which, I mean, they're factories and depots so of course). We see Mineru's earlier design in the Spirit Temple, and one hijacked by Kohga at the end of his storyline, so we know that there were at least several in circulation, but it makes sense that if the Bargainers were a race that inhabited construct bodies similar to Mineru, that it would be mass-produced like that.

[codacheetah]

Fuck you Shadow you useless piece of shit always falling in paint all the time. I'm sick of you man

[agirlinthegalaxy]

Something I see frequently is fans wanting characters like Elle Greenaway or Nathan Harris to return as unsubs in Criminal Minds, which. I'll be completely honest, I hate the idea for a lot of the suggested characters because it feels so undeniably tragic and hopeless that someone will inevitably become a killer, even if they don't want to become one. Yes, a lot of the unsubs have some kind of tragic backstory, but the thing is that they're still awful people (excluding very very few). I feel like having previous characters return as the unsub paints this picture that you're unable to break the cycle of violence or that you're destined to become a monster, which is just such a honestly tragic message, especially for a show that's already pretty dark.

I'm not opposed to characters reappearing, but I'd much prefer that if those characters appeared again that it'd be in the vein of them having undergone some kind of healing and growth and be able to find themselves some kind of peace and satisfaction in where they are in life. Let them reappear, but don't transform them into monsters but a symbol of the healing and growth available to survivors and the other characters.

[euclydya]

ok we're back. what the fuck

[ghostbustermelanieking]

i'm really of two minds when it comes to ofmd 2x04... on the one hand, i absolutely love it. my favorite episode of season 2, maybe even of the show. every beat is perfect, every character is perfect, there's no plotline i'm ever bored with. and as a conclusion to the breakup plotline beginning in 1x09, it's perfect.

.... almost.

i really am so conflicted! i love the episode so much. i remember watching for the first time and thinking oh, they're gonna be fine at the "buttons turned into a seagull!" line. i love how quickly everything becomes okay between ed and stede, because they just are with each other... but at the same time, i remember being a little disappointed that this was all that came of the breakup storyline.

you might argue that the first three episodes of season 2 add quite a lot to that storyline, and you wouldn't be wrong at all, but the way i see it, those first three episodes are more about the consequences of 1x10, and izzy threatening ed until he took up the blackbeard mantle again. stede leaving absolutely plays a role, but i feel like if izzy hadn't threatened ed, the fallout of the breakup would be VERY different. i was so on edge for 2x04 bc i was here for the REUNION. i wanted to know what they'd say, how stede would explain himself... i remember being rly sad when the opening scene cut after the headbutt (which makes complete sense after thinking on it, but at the time i was bummed), and then again in the parlor scene when stede never explains WHY he left that night. i love how easily things get back to normal, but i also love the drama!!! ed snippily pretending he's fine while peppering in little comments; anne meddling, and stede being way more concerned about it than ed is; anne telling ed that stede left him for mary; the PARLOR SCENE. having that back and forth feels cathartic in my mind. and i may just feel with this way bc i sat with that horrible/amazing cliffhanger for over a year, building up the inevitable reunion in my head. i think i was just expecting more. i could've watched like three straight episodes of their Ex Era.

and this isn't necessarily a criticism of the writers!! i DO love 2x04. and i think there's a lot of reasons the messy parts didn't get drawn out. budget cuts, two less episodes than last year. my biggest complaint was stede not mentioning the chauncey thing, but a part of me also kind of likes it -- bc season 2 was ed's season, and i'm guessing part of the reason stede never said is because he didn't want to put the burden of his trauma on ed when ed was already going through so much. honestly, part of my frustration with this plotline might just come with building up that cliffhanger in my mind for a year, reading all these fics and imagining it in all these different ways... and it's not as if the breakup trauma isn't littered throughout the season. it's absolutely part of the reason ed leaves in 2x07. and part of me really feels like we might come back to all this stuff that's been left unspoken between them, PARTICULARLY stede being abducted -- this show feels too deliberate to never tell ed that's what happened.

i hope we'll get more of this addressed in season 3! and if we don't, i guess a part of me will always be a little bummed that we never got back to it. but no matter what happens... i still do love what we got. love it to the point that criticizing it feels kinda insane! i guess that's a testament to the quality of ofmd: even the frustrating parts aren't all that frustrating.

[nomairuins]

anyways sry its not srs eventually ill get it together . and be a person again. one day

[reflectionsofgalaxies]

I FIGURED IT OUT

[andromedaexists]

thinking real hard about translations today, specifically translations of the Iliad

One of the things that Ehrman has instilled in us through class is that we, as translators, have to make a decision on what word to use and i just think that a lot of people used the wrong word for μῆνιν

i mean, the line is μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος (Sing, O Muse, of the wrath/anger of Achilles, son of Peleus)

and notice I put wrath/anger there, those are the two most common translations of μῆνιν. Wrath or Anger. but I don't think that does the story justice. Maybe it's because I've got my own story that I'm writing through the lens of the sublime and the wrath of the Gods but I think those words aren't strong enough.

I mean, book 21 Achilles doesn't get angry and throw a tantrum. Book 21 Achilles rages. Book 21 Achilles kills a God and nearly ends the Trojan War like years too early. Like, mans had to be put down like a rabid dog because he was going to upend the Trojan War Cycle and the Gods couldn't have that

that's not anger, hell, I'd say that's not even wrath

That's Rage

I think the first line should allude to that, gimme something like: Sing, O Muse, of the Rage of Achilles, son of Peleus. gimme the foreshadowing! make it dramatic! we all know the greeks loved drama, gimme!!

anyways, i'll def be using rage in my own translation but like. it's right there. and every translator has to make their own decision on what word to use, but also rage is RIGHT THERE

[inutaffy]

idk have u guys considered that if we get an angsty confession the GA would call them toxic yes or no

[rigginsstreet]

i learned today that my family legitimately thinks my mental health didnt get bad until after high school which is absolutely insane behavior to me considering i am the girl who threw up every morning before school and this was a problem in my household for years