#fatal flaw really do be flawing

[nomsfaultau]

Halloween interactive event (p.5)

The evening soon turns to night. The sound of the clock ticking can be heard, although there doesn't seem to be any clocks in the room. Odd.

When Wilbur writes "everything", a plate of his favourite food layed out in the shape of the word everything appears.

Wilbur and Phil find that the crowd is mostly inhuman, outwardly so. There are plenty creatures with wings and claws and horns and extra limbs. Even those who do look human-like give off a very inhuman feeling. Not all of them seem to know of the proper etiquette either, the crowd is a bit wild.

The Blade successfully escapes into the garden, blissfully unaware of the others gathering near the main platform for a speech from the Count himself.

~

A tall human-like man in a blood-red suit and a masquerade mask of the same colour steps out onto the "stage". He clinks his wine glass with a small, decorative fork and the ballroom goes silent, all attention now on him.

The Count Showfall clears his throat and begins to speak.

"Dear guests, if you allow me a minute of your time, I would like to say two things. The first one is, as the clock hands are approaching midnight, the portals back to your respective homes will be available soon. The second is, thank you all sincerely for your time and your trust. Thank you for coming here. In the previous times this ball was held, we have never had so many wise, powerful people in one place at the same time. I hope that you have enjoyed this masquerade dearly. And I am certain that you will remember it for the rest of your time. That is all."

The Count stays on the platform, looking over each and every guest, but the others seem to barely pay him any mind.

You will find the continuation of this story amidst chaos and destruction.

(Discord)

Philza: “Thank you for your trust” what the m̶̗̟̀͘ư̴̫̌f̷̳͎͘f̷̧̹͛͘i̸̥̜͋n̸̡͗̐ is that supposed to mean…

Wilbur: Specifically powerful people? *Wilbur glances around the room uneasily. His foot begins to bounce, itching to run.* His sycophancy is a massive red flag. Too ominous for my liking, and I’ve already eaten ‘everything’ I wanted. Let’s bounce. 

Philza: Mmm. Want to wager those portals actually do lead home?

Wilbur: *He snorts.* I don’t reckon I’d win. 

Philza: ̷͙̐̑M̴͍̹͎̈ǘ̵̝͚̙̊f̴̬̝̈́̍̔̓f̶̝̽i̸͔̠̠͂̏͜ň̵̹̣̰̭̅̊. Where did The Bl- Wilbur go. 

Tubbo: (as a swarm of bees) Huh? He’s chilling in the garden. 

Philza: Fetch him. We should escape before the problems start. *He crosses the ballroom floor, smiling and nodding cordially, but walking with an intent that brushes past any that tries to stymie his mission. Philza reaches where Tommy and Tubbo are. Tommy has pulled away from where he was chatting with a group, arms wrapped tight around himself.*

Tommy: *Tommy jumps as Philza puts a hand on his shoulder, jerking away.* DON’T– m̶̗̟̀͘ư̴̫̌f̷̳͎͘f̷̧̹͛͘i̸̥̜͋n̸̡͗̐ing hell Phil, don’t do that. Didn’t you hear the announcement? Everyone here is super powerful, if I touch someone- *He shakes his head. His hands wring, crimson bleeding through his spiderman costume.* Should’ve told me. Someone could’ve been really hurt. 

Philza: (That…might be the point) *He drapes a wing around Tommy’s shoulders, and the boy leans into the comfort.* How has the party gone for you? Before the announcement?

Tommy: *A little too cheerfully at first, but it becomes more genuine.* Going great! The food’s amazing, and I get to talk to so many people! You lot are fine, but man being in a crowd…missed it, y’know? Just another bloke in the crowd, unremarkable, safe. I feel almost normal again. I’m glad we came. 

Philza: *The line of tension between his shoulder blades eases.* Alright. We can stay a little longer if you want. 

Wilbur: Dad! *it hisses, pulling him over.*

Philza: We haven’t been in danger yet. Hasty action could escalate the situation. 

Wilbur: You’re just saying that because you don’t want to break the news its sus as hell!

Philza: And is it wrong to want to shelter his happiness?

Wilbur: If it means you refuse to shelter his life, yes. 

Philza: I’ll protect all of you when the time comes. But it hasn’t yet. It might never. I’m willing to be patient, for his sake.

[liesmultixxx]

“Why did you leave me?”

can you hear me crying?

the way annabeth thought percy had abandoned her like everyone else

… girl he fell into tartarus for you, he would never leave you

NEVER

rick was evil for that

[isolophilian]

you can already see seeds Annabeth's fatal flaw in the second episode. the expressions of agreement like "yep" when Percy says "I know you're better at this than me." the way she leaves him on the cliff knowing Clarisse would be after him. the way she shoves him into the lake, knowing there's a chance she could be wrong about this guy. she knows how incredibly smart she is and is confident in it, however, she's also confident to a fault. it'll be a big source of problems for both herself and those around her. i know it's not a lot but it's there, and I'm here for it

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

The tragedy of Kokichi to me is that he really Didn't have to do all that. There's endless discourse about ch4 and if what Kokichi did was justified. And a lot of people argue that Kokichi had to sacrifice Miu and Gonta, mainly for his life, and partly for his plan. But the reality is he didn't have to do that- but not in an immediate sense. His cold attitude and lack of belief in others pushed him into a corner where his long-game Plan to End The Killing Game was his best course of action. So in the end, no, he didn't need to do all that, but it's not as easy as stopping at ch4. The cause of his actions runs much deeper than the surface level motivations of that case.

[loumandaniel]

Yeah. Armand looks sooooo annoyed 😭😭😭 every time Daniel opens his mouth. I have to confess something. Even if I do kind of like the concept of dm and the eternal sunshine theory- I do love the question of what happens if you don't have time and your loved ones will never run out of time and also won't ever grow into anything else either- I don't think past dm happened. And uh. Idk how can dm happen then if there has been no past dm and a considerable part of dm was Armand terrorizing Daniel and Daniel trying to push through it before they eventually take a liking to each other.

i agree that past devil’s minion is essential, so without it, present dm going forward could feel odd. it’s easy to forget in fandom that devil’s minion is a blank slate right now. everything about them is essentially just theory. if you avoid outside interviews and books, the only thing you really know is that armand turned daniel out of spite. that’s it. if you don’t actively search for them, you won’t know they’re drifting toward something romantic until it actually happens.

i just can't come up with a reason to remove the chapter at all though. it plays a major role in armand grappling with his trauma surrounding marius, so i see no reason for it to be cut (hello anne rice's opinion on the cycle of abuse). it also ties into daniel’s character - his pursuit of truth, even to disastrous and unethical ends. the core elements of their relationship can exist in any form, but if there were to be something more between armand and daniel, it fits perfectly within themes of the show and who they are, even with your mention of "time running out." if dm broke up as poorly as they did in the book and there is no queen of the damned event to bring them back together, then of course armand being annoyed fits very well. imagine your annoying ex who left you because you two got too codependent is in your home untying your web you built for your current companion lol. i wouldn't want the king of destroying relationships in MY house.

the issue i've found with fandom and devil's minion (and honestly, a lot of other characters & ships get this treatment too) is that they're quite sanitized. when held up against their antagonism in the show, this tends to lead towards conflicting opinions. i hate to say it, but reading the books does a lot more heavy-lifting than one would expect. armand and daniel don't speak any differently in the show than they do in the books lol. they clash in both materials. they both want what the other has and they bleed together, which results in love.

i know this is mean to say, but the iwtv fandom as a whole really sands down the idea of love, or sticks to one singular interpretation. love doesn't immediately equate to a positive. the entire show revolves around how vampirism, whether as a curse or as a gift, confronts your emotions, your memory, against an unending corridor of time. if time heals all wounds, how many times can you rip the scar open again? like, yes, sure, louis and lestat love each other, but should louis love the man who dropped him thousands of feet to punish him for his denial of love? no lol. except, love here is measured against a passage of time beyond human comprehension. much of the love in this show can be horrific and dark, and yet there it is.

anyway, an unnecessarily long post to essentially say that, yea, devil's minion fits the show's theme too well for it to be abandoned in any form. armand enjoys living in lies at his own comfort, while daniel will pursue truth at the cost of his own. throw in the theory that a part of daniel's life is gone, potentially because of something armand has done? now, they’re clashing, but each with a long stretch of time to deal with that. they can be the warped mirror image of loustat, which is delicious to think about.

[notmontauk]

i was rewatching the last few episodes of the pjo tv show and the way percy’s loyalty is being depicted kinda makes me think that rick riordan heard those few people who say that loyalty isn’t actually a serious/dangerous character flaw (when talking either about pjo or about other media) and just said BET

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Magneto had a really great character arc in the 80s which just got completely chucked in the bin because the new editor taking over the title thought that he should always be a one-note maniacal villain, and I'm disappointed to see X-Men '97 doing the same because the ex-showrunner wanted to recreate his favourite issue.

[randomnameless]

Reading something about "why won't the CoS open the borders will Almyra?"

Disregarding the fact that the only CoS controlled territory is Garreg Mach and the Locket is located in the Alliance, why won't the Alliance open the border and welcome Almyrans with open arms?

Well, it's basically showcased (tfw show not tell) in a certain paralogue in FE16.

To start, this is one of the few "defend" maps in the entire game, iirc we have this one, the "protect GM" version of chapter 12, Shamir's paralogue and, iirc, Chapter 14 when Randolph tries to earn "merit".

Basically, the objective of this map is to protect the locket from Almyran forces who are raiding them for some reason.

Hilda starts with :

"Most of our allies have fallen."

So confirmation that Almyran forces aren't only coming with mock weapons to play bowling with their Fodlan neighbours, or are asking politely if they can pass, House Goneril's allies were killed.

"He's not here?! Oh... I'm sorry. You must have been absolutely terrified."

She tries to reassure her random (a Goneril soldier) that she will help, so they don't need to be afraid/to panic anymore.

"That's you, Professor. Please help us save our allies and protect Fódlan's Locket."

The first thing she says is to please "save" her allies/her randoms, and then to protect the locket. Emphasis again on "saving" lives, because Almyrans are raiding not only houses to bring souvenirs, but take lives too.

"Support! We're saved!" "Ah, things are looking up. Let's keep going, and save the others!"

Yep.

If a loldier dies :

"Oh no! They got one...but we can still rescue the others!"

Hilda still wants to "rescue" the others. She worries about the lives of her soldiers who are defending the Locket, but not only the locket!

If they all die, a soldier says this "We must defend here, or else... Our house... The Alliance...".

And if the line is breached, an Almyran soldier will say this :

"Yeah! We took Fódlan's Locket! With this, we'll be able to invade, no problem!"

:(

So bar this chapter blowing a hole the size of a 7 floors building in Claude's character across both games, we see here that, well, Almyra uses weapons and isn't afraid to kill Goneril soldiers who want to protect their homes and houses to "invade".

So who is behind Fodlan's general apathy towards Almyrans, the CoS like Claude says in both games (even if he seems to reconsider after discovering water is wet in VW), or Almyrans themselves???

Or, in other terms, who are we supposed to believe, Claude who tells us the CoS is the reason why Fodlan people don't like people coming from Almyra, or the game, showing us Almyrans are trouncing Fodlan people to happily invade ?

[bendover-productions]

Yes hehe, I do have a follow-up, because I AGREE it's so good!!! I just rewatched it for the first time since it first came out (I think?) and I was so charmed by it all over again! I kind of think episode 5 of that season is objectively one of their best episodes ever… I looove the way the teams splitting up allows for interesting interactions between all four of them, and I like the strategizing over the phone parts, I find it really charming. But yes I remember the comments on reddit and youtube being kinda harsh on that season when it came out, ESPECIALLY about Sam and Scotty. And I think youtube and reddit are just generally harsher on Sam, more so than on tumblr, but I just think they're misreading him soooo unfairly in this specific context!!! People were mad at how "smug" they were when their tactic was getting in Ben and Adam's way instead of capturing flags, but I found it very funny and think most of those people would have too, if it was happening in the opposite direction… Also that season just has incredible Sam vibes imo. He literally seems thrilled just to be travelling Japan and to be getting some jogging done. He's having so much fun!!! And the Sam and Adam 5D train chess moment that leads to them hanging out in a picturesque little town… Obviously incredible. And then them watching Ben and Scotty's trackers next to each other on the train later. And also, importantly, Sam's bucket hat… Literally what's not to love??? And as far as I remember they all describe the season as having been a lot of fun to film as well… One criticism that I maybe do get is that it's very much a high intensity game with fewer chill moments for both them and the audience, especially in the first round, so I can understand that not being to everyone's taste….. But yes, I think that season is sooooo underrated and I'd love to see them bring the format back! And I had that take rattling around my head for many days, so I thought I'd free myself of it by giving it to you :) I'm glad you also liked it <3

me + u....

as i’ve been powering through seasons i have been a little worried like. what am i gonna do when i get to the end and have to WAIT but hearing this is good because i feel like it confirms there's so much re-watch potential!! don't threaten me with a good time (rewatching jet lag).

i also love the phone strategizing!! charming is the right word for it. can’t remember any quotes precisely because my brain is a sieve but i just remember them yapping for a majority of the episode and i liked being able to see them collaborating even though they were doing different things if that makes sense? they got to be their own decision-makers within the unit which is interesting To Me in terms of strategy. which! i have not been on reddit or the youtube comments but :/ don’t malign my boy sam!! he might’ve done all that (been very happy to have thwarted adam and ben) but he doesn’t deserve it…*

i think it is very common for all of them to do that and it’s not malicious? it is maybe a little smug but one of the unique things about this season was how much they got to SEE each other after making moves. usually they’re facetiming across countr(ies) for five minutes and even then they do gloat a little bit about particularly good or thwarting moves. we just get to see in person the joy of coming up with a strategy that was successful [and perhaps ties back into scotty. scotty just wants SO badly to do well and not let sam down that to me!! it’s really important that they celebrate this (not)victory!! let scotty have success even if it’s not conventional!!] the other team didn’t think of because they all fundamentally think different ways. ben and adam are always more high risk high reward and especially in this game sam and scotty played a lot more defense so it feels natural to me to extend that strategy to the fact that after obtaining a lead he wouldn’t risk it, he’d defend it (thwarted ben and adam). if you’re already winning you don’t need to pull the goalie!!

but yes sam has a GREAT time this season and every time he gets on a super fast train he’s so excited 🥺 AND THE 5D CHESS!! the sam/adam scenic getaway means sooo much to me i watched it heart in my throat and also pen in hand ✍️ ✍️ ✍️

let it be said i don't think this season was the one that stressed me out so bad that i HAD to keep watching it? for sure this one was very tense but i think i exist at such a high state of stress at all times watching jet lag that this didn't even register as more stressful than normal. or i simply repressed all the stress i felt idk. it was simultaneously not a chill season (them getting lost and on the wrong trains right off the bat) but also very chill because there’s a lot of downtime on the trains? and we got choo choo chew!!! which is so beloved to me!!! there’s a lot to love about this season i think.

[dlstmxkakwldrlarchive]

I found out I only really care about shipping when jinki's involved because his shippers aren't serious about it. You go anywhere else and there's actual three page mla format essays about why these specific members are having sexual relations, like I thought we were just having fun 💔

kinda unrelated but ppl need to admit that most of rpf shippers get so attached to their ships only because that's their only escape from thinking about their idol ending up with a beautiful woman and not with them, like if he's gay he isn't going to look at them or any woman around him yk also you can always notice which member in wtv ship is being used as some self insert. i think that's why twomin minkey and even jongtae stuff is always mature content with mh/kjh doing this and that and have accounts posting essays and other shit abt them, there's a minimal difference when it comes with jinki stuff bcs... yeah... but ppl aren't that serious abt it bcs #no entienden la jinki vibra like

[bayetea]

where do people get the idea that the narrative demonizes marie for practicing voodoo...... that is not what happened in son of neptune at all. the story has absolutely nothing to say about voodoo - disappointingly so. louisiana voodoo (a diasporic variant of haitian vodou, which is a distinction that those of vodou faith usually care to make) is an actual religion and with its own practices and belief system. voodoo is exoticised and sensationalized and demonized because it is poorly understood - and the natural consequence of being poorly understood is always fearmongering and hatred, hence why black women have been historically targeted with harassment and violence for even being suspected of performing voodoo. ye olde witch hunts but make it racialized

but marie's relationship to voodoo is not framed by the narrative as a positive or negative aspect of her character. it's the people in hazel and marie's community that ostracized and demonized them. marie was already touting herself as a voodoo queen and selling gris-gris charms, and while she told hazel that it was all bogus, marie privately understood that there was magic in the world. the community turned on her once marie started selling hazel's gems and the gems ruined their lives - which is to say, her voodoo practice was at least tolerated by the community until it negativity impacted them (and they didn't know that the negative impact was completely unrelated to marie's voodoo practice). marie had a presumably fair reputation before that and it was ruined because she "asked for too much" and caused hazel's gem curse

she is also unambiguously inspired by marie laveau, who was an actual louisiana voodoo practitioner from the 1800s. it's not subtle. louisiana voodoo queens were a real thing back then and they still are today!

[cultivating-wildflowers]

today a friend at church asked if I or my brother was older and I said my brother, and then my mom threw in “but she’s the oldest”, to which I further clarified that our middle sister is actually the big sister of the sibling group

the youngest maintains her title of “baby of the family”

[sapphire-heart-tippy]

Me: I'm not gonna get super attached to Kars because he's a pretty popular character and canonically has a husband, this is just casual haha

Me now: ..................... I'm uh...... painfully attached to Kars and imagine very intimate and passionate moments with this man but I'm staying strong, I'm being so brave about this 😏👉👉 ..... Oh dear Neptune help me-

[nancywheeeler]

at the end of the semester, i'm going to have to issue all my students both a formal apology and a debt of gratitude for being guinea pigs

[seawitchkaraoke]

The thing about me is that I am simultaneously a bad bitch who will (unwisely) push through pain to go to cheerleading practice or theater rehearsals while injured or sick bc "the others need me!" but I'm also a whiny little bitch who absolutely cannot study while sitting in bed drinking tea with a sore throat

[d-adpool]

📔- For a secret sketchbook they keep (Bonus: Share a sketch or doodle within it!)

🌟- For a secret wish or desire of theirs

📲- Talk about someone/something you dislike, but only pretend to like

📗 - i have so many sketches but they're almost never in a real sketchbook. the last sketch i did was of me shooting webs like spider-man and swinging around outside stark tower. it was on a receipt

🌟 - i wish i had a cooler superpower. the healing factor is all well and good, but it's 100% defensive. you can't use a healing factor to win a fight. all it does is let you survive one.

📲 i'm pretending to like tony stark right now! at least long enough that he lets me stay in his tower