#he's over here like 'gdi we have terrible ideas'

[asomniari]

// @virassxn liked​

“Now, here’s a thought.” Felassan says, caught somewhere between exhausted and just done. “Why did we think it would be a good idea to trudge through mud that turned out to be waist deep again?”

Not that it didn’t feel nice to wade through, but it did make everything that much harder. And they were going to get shit for it the second they returned to camp completely covered in mud and whatever else they picked up by way of mud. “Because I for one am starting to regret all of my life choices right now.”

[shit-posts-and-fanfictions]

siiigggghhhhh

If I can't find Big Top Burger fanfics, I'll just fuckin write it myself 😤

Fandom: Big Top Burger

Rating: Morning fluff

Readers Gender: Neutral

Present Characters: Reader, Doctor

Trigger Warnings: Burnt breakfast ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Notes: I been thinkin' a lot about Doc cooking in the opening of Burger Expo. And I'm pretty sure he's trying to cook a decent meal and failing miserably. GDI Zomburger, ruinin' my boys cooking skills. Just a short fic till I get more ideas

Speaking of! Requests are still open, the majority of fics coming up were just my idea :(

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The sun wasn't even up yet and still, here you were, half-awake buried into a large and humorously empty bed. Why you were awake so early? Well, it smelled like the apartment was on fire. Surprisingly though, the absence of your boyfriend calmed any worry you should have had- typically you were the one to wake up and make breakfast, but it seemed he had other plans for the day.

You waited a moment, rolling onto your back and taking a deep breath of the overly grilled breakfast waiting for you only moving when you heard a muffled "no no no- damnit-!" voice hushed to keep from waking you. the floor was cold, letting your foot pad around for slippers before standing, still groggy from the early awakening.

Still not saying anything and waiting with bated breath, you watched the platinum-haired male make a feeble attempt to make bacon without splashing the hot grease on himself; using a hand towel as a shield from the sizzle of hot liquid bubbling before him. Your position was given away when you hummed out a small laugh, Doctor side-eyeing you from over his shoulder "why are you up?" annoyed more with the fact his surprise for you had been ruined. you simply shook your head "wanted to make sure we wouldn't have to pay for fire damage this month" Doc scowling at your response as you made your way to him in the kitchen. "My cooking isn't that terrible! give me a break-" drawing another laugh from you, while resting your head on his shoulder "keep telling yourself that love, should we go somewhere instead? Surprise me." Looking to him with a warm gaze. he tsked looking to the side before agreeing, turning the stove off and turning to you pressing a quick kiss to your forehead. "Goodmorning dear" he finally hummed heading back to your shared room to get ready.

You simply grinned after him before fishing up a burnt piece of toast and taking a bite. Absolutely horrendous. Taking only one more before following after to join him for the day.

[pain-in-the-butler]

it’s late, I’m bored, time for Hunger Games Simulator Kuroshit Edition Episode 2

Day 1 Cornucopia highlights

Sebastian’s just like “aight time to clean”

it’s gonna take more than that to help you now, bud

they might be too pure for this

rip grandpa

Will also said “fuck it, cleaning time”

Agni brings out the right hand of god for bread, Randall gets the broken nose he’s deserved for a while now (he did win the last Hunger Games, to everyone’s disappointment)

O!Ciel hoping to hibernate it out

TERRIBLE NEWS EVERYONE, OUR GIRL IS DEAD ALREADY

Phipps, Macmillan, Finny, Lizzie, Soma, Abberline, Undertaker, Edward, Bard, Ronald, Othello, Mey-Rin, and Grey all got away from the cornucopia safely. Some of them got weapons, but the game doesn’t record what weapons people have and what they don’t, so whatever people picked up doesn’t really matter

Day 1 highlights

HARCOURT CAME TO FUCKIN PLAY YA’LL

gdi Randall, we just lost three of four girls in one fell swoop, I hope you bleed out from your broken nose and die

Ronald says we aren’t allowed to have nice things

Other highlights:

Day 1 Arena Event: Borders Close In

Edward punishes Agni for his bread crimes

Hunger Games simulator is actually just a rare pairs simulator

pretty upset that Harcourt died so soon, it’s always kind of funny when he gets the chance to become a cold-blooded killer

and there goes our last lady (though now that I think about it, I should probably sub in Lao and Ran-Mao)

Day 1 and we’ve already lost Lizzie, Mey-Rin, Bard, Tanaka, Soma, Agni, Sieglinde, Grell, Othello, Phipps, Abberline, Randall, and Harcourt

This leaves us with only eleven survivors: O!Ciel, R!Ciel, Sebastian, Edward, Finny, Undertaker, Wolfram, William, Ronald, Grey, and Macmillan

Night 1 highlights

the boys are like “better make the best of a bad situation by creating the next Kuromyu”

Macmillan had the same idea, but he’s alone, and no one’s favorite character is Macmillan

alternate title: R!Ciel and Undertaker traumatize Edward and Finny so badly that they can’t sleep

O!Ciel’s sitting on his food cache like a fat dragon guarding its hoard of treasure

Wolfram is unable to sleep, but Grey builds himself an entire camp and presumably gets plenty of beauty rest

Day 2 highlights

Macmillan refuses to kill the shorter, two-eyed version of his friend. Meanwhile, R!Ciel is already dead

Ciel’s almost too in character as he waits for the enemies to come to him while he does whatever the hell he wants

they’re just blond boys doin what blond boys do

other highlights:

Wow, no deaths today, so it looks like it’s camping o’clock

Night 2 highlights

black ops Macmillan says never trust anyone, not even the side character who exists to set up exposition

why do I feel like Wolfram will regret this

well, at least we know he didn’t burn down the manor

R!Ciel: I’ve reclaimed the manor, my title, and my girlfriend. What are you gonna do about it? O!Ciel:

other highlights:

Alas, poor Will

Day 3 highlights

R!Ciel is really out here like “I’m incapable of dying, just try to kill me and you’ll see” but no one believes him

the food king discovers he cannot be sustained on food alone

Grey does the gentlemanly thing

Wolfram says “my death scythe now”

Other highlights:

and so day 3 comes to an end with this final roster

we’re fortunate enough this time to have things wrapping up with both twins and Sebastian still alive, which keeps things interesting. However, Macmillan is also here, and the randomizer could turn him into an absolutely feral killing machine. Nothing is sacred in Hunger Games Simulator

Night 3 highlights

looks like someone couldn’t find that water source

another man cleared of arson

fast, hungry boy and strong, hungry boy bond over being hungry

still not entirely certain Macmillan knows he’s helping the wrong twin

the only wounds he's gotten are from the thorns while picking berries.......

fair enough my man

The Feast highlights

Somehow the frail, decrepit perpetual ten-year-old managed to defeat the powerful demon and grim reaper armed with a lawn mower. Did I mention nothing is sacred

Day 4 highlights

Macmillan and Finny both spared R!Ciel, but as soon as Macmillan asks for death, Finny’s like “you got it champ”

meanwhile the brothers are squabbling but what else is new

imagine if we got to a point in the manga where the roster actually looked like this 3wijaor;jiwa

Night 4 highlights

so I guess somehow Grey has cemented himself as Enemy #1 and the boys put aside their differences so they could have a slumber party with the remaining blond boys

Day 5 highlights

Older blond boy kills younger blond boy in a truly devastating example of blond boy crime. Meanwhile, O!Ciel add medical supplies to his growing collection of goodies, and Grey says “ooga booga” at a child

Night 5 highlights

it’s like the start of the Blue Cult arc all over again

Day 6 highlights

Did R!Ciel just die really anticlimactically?? Also, O!Ciel becomes a perfect combination of McGruff the crime dog and Smokey the Bear and says no to fires

Night 6 highlights

Hunger Games simulator returns to being a rare pairs simulator. Somehow O!Ciel has acquired an infection, and R!Ciel is definitely dead

Day 7 highlights

O!Ciel, Grey, and Wolfram take a page from the Public School Arc’s notes and don’t do anything interesting for a while

Night 7 highlights

Wolfram gets medical supplies but refuses to use them on his new boyfriend. O!Ciel's canon energy is stifling

Day 8 highlights

O!Ciel receives a weapon he won’t use. Grey tries to make something happen. Wolfram goes spelunking

Night 8 highlights

O!Ciel’s canon energy continues to rise to dangerous levels, but Seb’s too dead to hear him make orders. Wolfram dies, and if this were the manga, you know our boy wouldn’t stand a chance in hell against Grey

Day 9 highlights

IT’S THE HUNGER GAMES SIMULATOR AND NOTHING IS SACRED

god look at that shit-eating grin. Ciel managed to make it through the whole thing without killing anybody and he knows his ass would be grass if Grey hadn’t gone kablooey. unbelievable. our grand champion, everyone

[themurphyzone]

PatB: Snowball Ep Talk

You know, I really do love the episode Snowball (my personal favorite AKOM episode) but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here much, and if I did it’s probably really only because of the flashback sequence. 

Okay so all looks good so far. Chain letter scheme and superstition, a standard introduction to Brain’s latest plot of world domination. All looks good. Plus I just like this shot of Pinky. Don’t mind me, just starting off light here with a smushed Pinky. 

I just like Pinky’s pose here. He’s so cute. 

You will bow before Troz.

“I met a Snowball today! Right here in the lab!” -Pinky

You know, I just find the implications of this line hysterical. This means that Snowball was in the lab that day, waiting for the moment to strike, and he definitely pushed his stolen chain letter through the mail slot. 

And then he lets Pinky see him, and no it’s not just a passing glance either cause Pinky specifically describes a tattoo with an A and a circle and points to his leg. Which means Snowball deliberately lifted the fur on his leg and showed his tattoo to Pinky. 

Like, wow. 

“It means, Pinky, that evil lurks among us. By the name of Snowball! SNOWBALLLLLLLL!” -Brain 

Talk about a bad breakup. *Alexa play Bad Blood*

Personally I think one of the interesting visual cues is that Snowball purposely plants himself into the mice’s space. There’s a lot of that in this episode. He knows how to rile up Brain and hit him where it hurts, namely through Pinky. 

Brain values his personal space, and he values a sense of control. When Snowball invades that space, Brain loses control, and his anger can lead him to make some very ill-informed decisions. Which is exactly what Snowball aims for. 

“You think Pinky is an asset?” 

“Anything I can take from you is an asset.”

Ah yes, Snowball’s mission statement. Crush everything Brain has into dust. 

The flashback sequence. Dear God this flashback sequence. They were both so cute! 

You know, it’s really sad that a younger Brain acted more like Pinky. Making silly faces and trying to get someone to laugh are such Pinky things to do. I know canon is loose but if you consider this flashback taking place shortly after Brain was captured from the wild, then young Brain didn’t gain a grasp on what happened to him until after the gene splicer.  

Ok but Brain was literally right there when the gene splicer exploded. Imagine having your cranium size dramatically increase, you’re injured, you’ve suddenly gained sentience, and as if all that wasn’t enough, you see the gene splicer explode with your only friend inside. 

Oh, and said friend’s mind was probably damaged in the explosion and now he hates your guts. And though you’re angry with him for his betrayal, some part of you will never stop caring about him. 

Once again, Snowball needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. 

This conversation here establishes Snowball as the perfect third character. He appears only in a handful of eps, but he’s fun to watch and love to hate. Snowball challenges the mice’s relationship. Snowball sees the weak points; the insults, the reliance on each other, and twists them to his advantage. And Pinky even admits he’s hurt by Brain’s insults occasionally, though he still loves being around him. 

“Pinky, the Brain doesn’t care about you. He’s just using you.” 

“No, he’s not.”

It’s really interesting to me how Pinky denies Snowball’s statement, yet his ears go down to show that he’s affected by the idea of being used. Pinky and the Brain may be night and day, but one thing they do have in common is their tendency to deny certain things. Brain with emotions and affection and Pinky with concepts he’d rather not admit the possibility of. 

Coming back to this later. 

Non plot related but Brain is teeny tiny and I love how he just trusts Pinky to catch him

Side note: I apologize if any of these screenshots look weird. It’s an AKOM ep. 

WHY ARE YOU TWO SO BAD AT SNEAKING AROUND. 

I just find it hilarious how they clearly run around where Snowball can see and hear them. Like they just shout Snowball’s name in the middle of the room. You’re terrible at being sneaky little mice. Please. 

Those dang boomers and their old timey 90s computers. Technology is ruining boomers. Can’t even hold a conversation anymore cause they keep looking at their screens. 

No touchy! 

Well, it’s awful nice of Snowball to engage in nepotism and offer Brain a position in his administration...and then tempt Pinky with an amusement park when he refuses. 

You really gotta appreciate the complexity of Snowball’s plans. Stealing the chain letter fails->plant seeds of doubt in Pinky’s mind, even if this doesn’t work right off the bat, the idea will still be there-> take over a corporation->impersonate Bill Gates->When the mice show up, offer to co-rule the world on expectations that Brain will refuse->make co-ruler offer to Pinky->wait for Brain to open his big mouth and drive Pinky away. 

All to take everything Brain has. His dignity, Pinky, his meager resources. Like holy Snowball, Batman.  

And then Snowball reveals the amusement park he had specifically built for Pinky. 

And here we have the most heartbreaking line of the ep. If I had the ability video edit I would’ve put the entire line on audio because Brain’s tone is very important here. It’s about 12:38 to 12:57 in the ep if you want to see for yourself. 

“Oh, go ahead, Pinky. I don’t need you. What did you think, I just have you around so I can steal your brilliant ideas and claim them as my own? That I’m just using you, Pinky? Oh yes, I’m using you for your brilliance!” 

First of all, very poor word choice, especially to someone who has trouble understanding sarcasm. I just want to dissect this statement here. 

The Literal Meaning: You’re an idiot to think you were ever more than an assistant. 

This is what Pinky hears. 

But if you listen to Brain’s tone rather than just reading the line, he sounds genuinely hurt that Pinky would ever be tempted by something as frivolous as an amusement park. It’s Pinky, so he just sees ‘ooh fun rides, cotton candy, and carnival games’! 

But Brain is perfectly aware that this is Snowball’s well-crafted method of taking away the only thing he truly has, and he knows it’s working. And he’s hurt. 

The Actual Meaning: Snowball’s trying to separate us and you’re falling for it, Pinky. You may be an idiot, but many of my plans never would’ve come to fruition without you. You’re much more than an assistant. You’re my friend and my world.  

Unfortunately, all Pinky hears is that Brain was only using him. That Brain values him for manual labor and an extra hand only, rather than a treasured companion. The fact that Brain often falls short of making Pinky feel appreciated just adds to this. 

And now that he no longer has Pinky, Brain’s spirit is crushed. Brain is persistent, but without Pinky, he has no reason to be. 

As far as he knows, his only two friends have turned their backs on him and couldn’t care less if he has nowhere else to go. 

Poor thing. He needs hugs. 

“I didn’t think it was possible. Humanity has actually gotten dumber.” -Brain

OK I think this one shot establishes what the world would be like under Snowball. His name is everywhere, and he tells the population to do stupid things just to bask in his own superiority. 

However, I can’t see Brain putting his name on every building so frivolously like this if he ruled the world. Sure, he’d name a bunch of things after himself and Pinky, but it would be more meaningful to them. 

Brain wants humanity to advance, not regress. 

Poor Pinky. Despite all this new extravagance and luxury, he’s also lonely. The room and bed are large, but it lacks personality. He’s sleeping with an ACME Labs snow globe, and other than a reference to Citizen Kane, it also shows that he’s not happy with this. 

The worst thing in the world for these mice is separation from each other. 

Suicide by cat. 

Poor little guy can’t make it on his own. Luckily, he snaps out of it. 

“My world. I must save MY world!” 

Said while looking at a picture of Pinky. Real subtle there Brain. 

“Look, you fool. You have no brilliant ideas. I’m only using you to get at him! So just stay quiet!” -Snowball

“You’re...using me?” -Pinky

He was just a bargaining chip. Never a friend. 

“What do you want?” 

“My friend. And MY world!”

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

He makes martial arts noises like a dork. I love him. 

I love how their characters are reflected in the mecha designs (also I had no idea Snowball was Iron Man!) 

Snowball’s is overall the more efficient design. It’s also much more combat ready and violent. In comparison, Brain’s suit is simply operated with a bunch of levers. It’s alright for peaceful situations like getting around faster or simply blending with a human population, but in a straight up fight the levers take too much time to operate. 

Snowball is more efficient than Brain, and while he’s got the ego, he lacks the insecurities that hold Brain back. His confidence makes him such an effective foe. And more importantly, Snowball doesn’t value Pinky’s companionship. He’s a tool and nothing more. Compare that to Brain. While Brain struggles at showing it, he ultimately wants Pinky’s input and values his jumbo-sized heart. 

Somewhat off topic, but I feel like the reboot missed this aspect of Brain and made him too overly edgy and violent (reboot!Brain would probably prefer Snowball’s mecha design over his counterpart’s). The only time Brain should become violent, if not for comedy, is when he’s protecting Pinky. His plans should have a level of restraint to them, and Pinky is the moral compass.  

I just like this shit-eating grin right here (I mean, he did eat shit in Welcome to the Jungle so...lol)

This is such an insanely clever move for Pinky. I feel like Brain would be like ‘oh my god Pinky!’ and then ‘wow, that’s actually brilliant what the heck is this tingling feeling’. 

ACME LABS IS IN NEW YORK CITY??????

I know this is a case of Where the Hell is Springfield but gdi aren’t they supposed to be in southern California. 

Ok fine I realize the ending to this ep is a reference to North by Northwest cause they somehow got to Mt. Rushmore but still 

Weird tangent but North by Northwest’s ending bothers me (not gonna fault this ep as it’s just a parody)? I’m sorry the girl is barely hanging onto Mt. Rushmore, the dude pulls her up, and then they have sex in a car. The sudden transition always seemed weird to me. 

I am ending this analysis post with a weird shot of Snowball cause i can and it’s his episode. 

[artificiallyimplantedmemories]

[ ooc: ep 4 liveblog & opinions under the cut! this one got long winded because I had a lot that I was thinking about (and it took me twice the length of the episode to actually watch through it because I kept pausing to type oops) ]

yeeeesh that’s one way to start. thank you for letting bucky cry.

but also the look of pride on her face when she says “you are free” they’ve been working so hard and she’s so happy with the progress bucky has made ;_;

and now she’s so betrayed :(

but I’m also so glad Bucky learned xhosa that’s super important! <3 part of decolonization of the past involves respecting and learning and propagating languages and cultures that have been trodden over. Wakanda has been something of a safe place in that regard, and are now doing the outreach to help their continent and the world, but it takes the world of people within the majority putting in the effort and learning and embracing those cultures and languages (without appropriation, which I know is a fine line to walk sometimes) in order to really make progress. once it is no longer alien, it is also no longer scary, and can be held in proper esteem.

“sweet of you” shut your mouth Zemo xD

“she’s just a kid” thank you for your compassion Sam. and while she’s an extremist, I’m not sure whether Karli counts as a supremacist or just a terrorist? maybe she counts as genocidal if she’s truly trying to restore things to Blip conditions but it’s kind of unclear.

“the serum never corrupted Steve” “touché” YO EVEN HE ADMITS IT

Sam’s understanding of cultural habits (and there are many overlaps between various cultures and the ways they mourn) is such an asset here, and I’m glad that they’re pulling a contrast between the tech-driven, cold, calculating predictions made by certain people and organizations in other parts of Marvel and the general sort of soulful and instinctive approach here

Turkish delight. Excuse me but Narnia cemented the idea in so many people’s heads that it is this magical thing but it’s like superglue in your mouth. It is not irresistible, Zemo.

Legislation and social change as a result of violent action is nothing new. Every peaceful protest has been backed up by some kind of harm, whether it be economic, like a boycott, or physical, either damage to property or lives. I think instinctively people understand this, but it’s good to see it put in the spotlight.

Sam is “stranger danger” to these kids :/

“I know what happens when people say they’re going to help out... nothing.” Ouch.

The way Sam’s gaze falls at that too, because he knows theoretically that a lot of these injustices are happening and can empathize, but practically hearing it hurts. He doesn’t like not being trusted either, but I think he can probably understand why.

Zemo playing that psychology game! Kids love food and the idea that he must be a good person just for having a kid is dumb as hell but something that kids would gravitate towards. Smart man. Doubly smart for not telling them, Nat would approve if she didn’t hate him :P

Sam de-escalating is gonna be a trend I can just see it.

Cherry blossom tea? Interesting choice.

SHARON HI 

Nat vc: gosh it’s nice to see someone competent around here. 

ooooh they’re really reinforcing the idea of Captain America being a figurehead that inspires people

“heroes these days don’t have the luxury of keeping their hands clean” yeah well it’s because Steve had people like Bucky and Nat do do his dirty work, but sure

“all the people history just left out” OW

okay first of all Sam being the one who is insisting on reasoning with them because he knows what it’s like to come from an oppressed people !!! he knows grief and trauma !!! he can do this !!!!! I just know Walker is gonna fuck it up for them :P

second, Walker trying to emotionally manipulate Bucky? it’s a testament to how far he’s come that he doesn’t punch the guy immediately lol

Hoskins being the voice of reason as a foil for Walker again what?! this version of Lamar isn’t nearly as terrible as I expected.

Zemo calling that itty bitty girl his associate xD He really does understand the people here though... aaaand he’s getting handcuffed. Totally didn’t see that coming (he’ll probably break free anyway)

The conversation between Karli & Sam ;_; 

“you’re either brilliant or hopelessly optimistic” “por quo no los dos.gif”

Walker trying to guilt Bucky again god he’s so dumb. I appreciate the fact that he’s ruthless but he’s so narrow minded in how he approaches problems. oh no I have an issue let’s punch it until it dies! come on man.

Karli is so heartbreakingly naive and that’s becoming more and more obvious. I love Sam opening her up like this wow.

WALKER FUCKING IT UP AS ALWAYS

and the cuffs empty WHAT DID I TELL YOU

god we were getting somewhere ;____;

oh good just what we need, serum in Walker’s hands. he was already awful he doesn’t need to be more awful gdi

“we separate them and then we kill Captain America” ...yes, we’re listening xD

I know crazy because I am crazy... oh boy we got some internalized stuff, but let’s play it off

still a little blame game going in terms of where the shield ended up I see

THE DORA MILAJE ARE HERE -swoon-

pOINTY STICKS I cackled oh boy he gonna get his ass WHOOPED

Sam is enjoying the hell out of this

Zemo watching and drinking

“Looking strong, John!” “Bucky”

oooh dear they tangling and Zemo’s getting away.

your arm’s off! no it’s not

WAIT WHAT DID AYO SAY BEFORE SHE SAID JAMES

they all got their asses kicked ah well. also the look on Walker’s face says he gonna serum himself up, the lil fucker. oh no someone’s better than you how will your ego ever survive.

a lil Battlestar logo!!! shut up that’s cute. they’re really making him halfway likeable here.

“power just makes a person more of themselves”

ohhhh okay time to unlock Walker’s traumatic backstory. at least he feels bad about the things he did. at least he knows that those medals of honor are covered in blood. people are at least partly made by their circumstances, and I wonder what he was like before the war. the only indication we have of it is him being a football star, and while I may not have had the best track record with those in my youth, that doesn’t mean there aren’t decent ones out there...

Sarah’s “my world doesn’t matter to America, so why should I care about its mascot?” Oh, we’re speaking to the disenfranchisement of marginalized people hardcore today okay. if anyone’s gotten this far in my overly long commentary I want you to know that this is the realest alright? it’s hard to be proud of a country and its symbols when it doesn’t do right by you, when the majority doesn’t do right by you. am I glad I was born here? sure. are there worse places to be? sure. am I proud to be an american? oof, man, don’t ask me that.

Karli is not pulling her punches, she’s threatening the whole fam. Sam isn’t gonna like that... He sounds like he’s trying to suppress panic instead of being angry on the phone call with Sarah. I think he understands what Karli is trying to do, even though he hates how. And he’s worried, because he’s always gonna be worried. Poor guy. And there’s the confrontation.

Sharon got their backs!

Oof, seeing the gun with the shield.

Gunshot, run, oh, listening, he’s already got the serum, maybe? Given how deeply that shield is embedded in the wall I’m gonna say yes. YUP I WAS RIGHT.

Something about the water dripping and Lemar’s face makes me think he may have been waterboarded at some point :( but maybe he’s just in a lot of pain.

THE KNIFE CATCH. YES YES YES. THE KNIFE FLIP. Nat is so hearteyes.

Ooh, we gotta upgrade that wingpack with Stark repulsors pls go Sam go

oh no. Lemar. fuck. FUCK.

oh good now you’ve done it. killing a guy as Captain America. fuck.

the blood on the shield as the last shot! ~cinematography~

hoooo I’m chilled. I knew something along these lines was coming but oof. 

[autistic-girl-academic]

Cookie Run OCs

gdi apparently one of the cookies in cr kingdom is named licorice cookie so screw it i’m biting the bullet and posting my half-baked (ha) oc ideas now even if some of them have already been taken anyway. sorry there’s no art bc i’m terrible with digital stuff and can’t access a scanner to upload my drawings. there are almost certainly going to be more to come later because this game refuses to leave my brain.

Black Licorice Cookie: The powerfully astringent flavor of black licorice certainly isn’t to everyone’s taste - and that’s just the way Black Licorice Cookie likes it! This daredevil of a Cookie loves nothing more than testing her limits, so she’s always on the lookout for something to get her adrenaline pumping. That doesn’t mean she isn’t without her sweet side, however, which comes out most strongly when protecting her precious little sister. Get between them at your own risk!

Red Licorice Cookie (Sibling): Don’t mess with my little sis if you know what’s good for you!

Mustard Cookie (Trust): Nobody else gets me like Mustard Cookie does!

Kiwi Cookie (Friendly): Hey, I’ve got an idea for some cool bike tricks!

Roll Cake Cookie (Friendly): Going for a ride in that road roller and smashing things is such a rush! WHOO!

Initially I had the mental image of her as a Cookie with a web design and a spider pet, but then Truffle Cookie came out, so now I pretty much picture her skill being that she runs a Ninja-Warrior-style obstacle course or something. Maybe her pet could be a black cat instead?

Red Licorice Cookie: Between the fruity fragrance of her signature red hair and her sweet, outgoing personality, it’s no surprise that this Cookie is so popular! Red Licorice Cookie is a champion at gymnastics with plenty of fans, and performing with the ribbon is where she shines the most. She and her older twin sister might be as different as night and day, but their bond is as strong as a thousand strands of licorice twisted together!

Black Licorice Cookie (Sibling): I’ve got the coolest big sis in the world!

Cheerleader Cookie (Trust): Cheerleader Cooke is my BFF!

Yoga Cookie (Friendly): She’s helped me train to be much more flexible for my routines.

Skating Queen Cookie (Admiration): I can’t believe I actually got her autograph!

At first I imagined her as being a sort of epic version of Cheerleader Cookie, performing double dutch with a few friends much like the cheer team. Her pet would be a charm bracelet.

Oatmeal Cookie: Every day at the crack of dawn, this dutiful cowgirl is already hard at work, keeping a watchful eye over her herd with the help of her trusty steed, Raisin. If even a single cow goes missing, Oatmeal Cookie won’t rest until she’s got them home safe and sound. The tricks she can perform with a lasso will certainly knock your socks off! And when the sun starts to set, you can hear the sound of her yodeling from far across the plains.

Peanut Butter Cookie (Family): I’m the luckiest Cookie alive to have such a beautiful gal as you...

Knight Cookie (Friendly): You sure know how to burn the breeze!

Adventurer Cookie (Friendly): Nice hat ya got there, pardner!

Space Doughnut (Tension): Hey, stop spookin’ my herd!

Her skill would probably involve dodging obstacles on her horse while catching some runaway cows, and her pet would be a cowbell.

Peanut Butter Cookie: There’s nothing better for a boost of energy than some delicious, nutritious peanut butter! And forest ranger Peanut Butter Cookie definitely needs that energy, as she spends every day traversing the woods to keep them safe. Whether she’s helping Cookies who have gotten lost find their way home or rescuing woodland critters from danger, you can always depend on Peanut Butter Cookie. She’s especially fond of younger Cookies and enjoys teaching them wilderness survival skills.

Oatmeal Cookie (Family): She and I pack each others’ lunches every day.

Pancake Cookie (Friendly): Be careful climbing trees for those Acorn Jellies, dear!

Cream Puff Cookie (Friendly): I’m sure you’ll get that spell right next time, hun.

Fig Cookie (Trust): They’re always eager for me to tell them stories.

Fire Spirit Cookie (Tension): You keep those flames away from the forest, you hear?

You can probably tell by now that I’ve put like 0 thought into any of my Cookie OC’s skills. Anyway, her pet would be a bear that she helped when it was a cub, who shows up to help her by smashing obstacles.

Coconut Cookie: The Tropical Soda Archipelago has a long history of telling stories through traditional dance. Coconut Cookie comes from a long line of those dancers, and Cookies will flock from every island to watch her perform. Crowned with a garland of bright yellow coconut blossoms, she moves with the utmost rhythm and grace. It’s said that she practices every day so that she can bring peace and good fortune to the islands.

Mango Cookie (Trust): My best friend since we were little - I remember his very first boat!

Ananas Dragon Cookie (Admiration): The Dragon honored my ancestors by praising their dances.

Soda Cookie (Friendly): Going for a ride on the waves is the best, isn’t it?

Squid Ink Cookie (Friendly): Poor little thing, there’s no need to be shy.

My first thought was for her to make a sort of bubble shield out of coconut oil, like Lemonade Cookie but without the magnetic effect (maybe slower energy drain instead?) - I’m still undecided about it though. Her pet would be a bunch of coconuts who make coconut milk potions. Also, I picture her being related to Artichoke Cookie, but he’s not in Ovenbreak...YET? (pls devsis)

Honeycomb Cookie: Out in a charming little cottage atop a hill lives Honeycomb Cookie - and her many hives of Jelly Bees. Years upon years of working with the bees has allowed her to understand them so well, it’s almost as if she talks to them! If you happen to arrive on her doorstep, you can be sure that she’ll treat you to some delicious tea sweetened with honey and send you on your way with a basket of homemade treats.

Herb Cookie (Family): My cute little grandson certainly inherited the family green thumb.

Spinach Cookie (Trust): Oh, how sweet of you to bring me a basket of vegetables, dearie!

Fairy Cookie (Friendly): Ah, you’re so small I mistook you for another bee.

Matcha Cookie (Friendly): A bit of a strange one, but it’s nice to have some laughter over tea.

Not sure what her skill would be, but I think her pet would be a queen Jelly Bee that grows from a baby to an adult as you collect more jellies.

Souffle Cookie: A chef famous for turning simple Jellies into extravagant and delicious meals. Though he can come off as strict and a bit intimidating, he truly does care about creating good food for every Cookie who comes to his restaurant. Souffle Cookie is quite the perfectionist, so if a recipe doesn’t come out as planned, he tends to sulk so badly that even his fluffy chef’s hat deflates! But it never lasts long before he throws himself back into his work with renewed passion.

Sparkling Cookie (Trust): My cooking and your juice is the ultimate combination!

Sandwich Cookie (Admiration): To create such simple but delicious meals...C’est magnifique!

Mala Sauce Cookie (Friendly): Just watch, I’ll create a meal more than spicy enough to satisfy you!

Dr. Wasabi Cookie (Tension): I am NEVER using your syrup as a ‘secret ingredient’ EVER again!

Again, not sure what his skill would be, but maybe his pet could be a spoon. Sous-chef Spoon?

Rainbow Sugar Cookie: Sugar Cookie was always painfully shy and never considered herself all that important. However, everything changed when she met Rainbow Puff, a creature who begged for her help in protecting the happiness of Cookies everywhere from the wicked Dark Puffs. Bestowed with a magical wand, she becomes Rainbow Sugar Cookie, chasing away darkness with prisms of joyous light! RAINBOW...BEAM!

Pink Choco Cookie (Trust): The two of us would make a perfect team!

Wind Archer Cookie (Admiration): Wow...what an amazing warrior...

Sandwich Cookie (Friendly): She makes the best toast as a snack on the way to school!

Dark Enchantress Cookie (Rival): I won’t let a villain like you make other Cookies suffer!

Pomegranate Cookie (Tension): Why are you helping the Darkness?

Originally her name was Glitter Cookie, but then Shining Glitter Cookie got announced. In any case, she’d pretty much be an epic version of Wind Archer Cookie, fighting a big ‘boss’ monster once enough little ones were defeated with her magic.

Jack-o-Lantern Cookie: Trick or treat! Wait, is it Halloween already? The answer doesn’t really matter to this young Cookie, who loves trick-or-treating so much that they never take their costume off! If you don’t have Jellies to give, then get ready for a mischievous trick! But if there’s one thing they love more than getting treats, it’s sharing them with friends, so don’t be shy and join in the fun!

Candy Corn Cookie (Trust): My bestest trick-or-treating buddy!

Devil Cookie (Admiration): WOW! What a great costume!

Apple Cookie (Friendly): Here, candy apples!

Onion Cookie (Friendly): Trick o- um, please don’t cry...

Vampire Cookie (Tension): Hey, don’t fall asleep when I’m trying to trick you!

I thought I was in the clear with this OC when we got Truffle Cookie for Halloween...but then Pumpkin Cookie was an NPC later, lol. At least the name was an easy change. Their skill would basically be like a slower version of Chestnut’s, where you go up to houses and trick-or-treat.

Candy Corn Cookie: This Cookie used to be a scarecrow who stood in the middle of a big field of candy corn. However, they wanted to travel the world, so one night they wished upon a star...and miraculously, their wish was granted! Bursting with curiosity, Candy Corn Cookie is full of questions about everything they see. They still have a habit of chasing birds wherever they go, though.

Jack-o-Lantern Cookie (Trust): This ‘trick-or-treat’ thing is really fun!

Alchemist Cookie (Admiration): Wow, this Cookie knows lots of things!

Blueberry Pie Cookie (Friendly): Ooh, what’s in all these ‘book’ things?

Mocha Ray Cookie (Friendly): Cookies can really live under the sea? WOW!

Carrot Cookie (Tension): Aw, I don’t wanna go back to the farm yet!

Candy corn apparently used to be called ‘chicken feed’, so their pet would probably be a chicken. Again, not sure about the skill.

[equalseleventhirds]

okay in b4 anyone goes ‘oh no martin is so weird and violent this episode he must be Evil’: NO.

firstly, as much as i love and adore oliver banks, he is also dangerous. he has killed people. he is, of all the non-eye-avatars, potentially the most dangerous to jon in particular (and btw oliver darling dear i know ur just serving ur god or w/e but i don’t think it’s jon who needs to hear ‘this ruined world will not last forever and immortality is bad and death will catch up with you’. i think that might be a message for sOMEONE ELSE coughjonahcough)

secondly, martin is still traumatized! he has good reason to be suspicious and ready to Smite even without the jealousy thing. and the jealousy thing... listen. it’s not weird or unusual for martin to be petty and passive-aggressive and jealous and bitchy. all of these things were part of martin’s personality even waaaay back in like, s1/s2 (recent events have just exacerbated that), and i have always been firmly in camp ‘good for him, he’s complex and flawed’ and also i myself a those things sometimes and lots of other ppl are too. u do not need to be sunshine and rainbows all the damn time to be a good person and worthy of love gdi. (also jon thinks the jealousy is cute so. sure he’s not gonna kill anyone over it but he still thinks it’s cute.)

aaaaand thirdly, jon is bad at boundaries. it’s already obvious that he’s bad at respecting boundaries (but getting better, and martin setting clear boundaries is helping), but jonathan ‘i’m sad’ sims cannot share his emotions and is very bad at defining his OWN boundaries, whether out loud to other people or even internally to himself. we’ve seen that before, often with that motherfucker jonah violating boundaries and jon not even seeing the problem, but in general jon is so set on blaming himself for everything that he doesn’t even realize that he can or should set boundaries.

(and i am absolutely not saying that’s jon’s fault. you see that difficulty in setting boundaries a lot, from people who were traumatized, from people who grew up in bad family situations and were forced into responsibility too young. jon says his grandmother resented him, he feels guilty that she even had to take care of him, he claims that he deserved to be bullied because he was an annoying child. this is not a child who is going to grow up knowing how to define and enforce his own boundaries. he can learn, but it takes time.)

in mag 168 we do hear jon start to try to define some kind of rules about smiting, about his own discomfort with it. before this it was all ‘i am a terrible monster and the smiting is just an exacerbation of that’ which is a. not a boundary and b. not HEALTHY, and martin rightly tells him no, that’s wrong, this does not make you evil. (’boo hoo i’m so alone and a monster’ anyone?)

this episode is the first time we hear jon express that he doesn’t want to kill people, not because it makes him a monster, but because he doesn’t think it’s necessary and doesn’t think oliver deserves to die. he didn’t say that about not-sasha, he didn’t say that about jonah, he didn’t say that when martin first brought up ‘kill bill’. it’s entirely possible that the thought didn’t occur to him; he may have been feeling vaguely uncomfortable, but was unable to put it into words. that seems totally in line with jonathan ‘not self aware at all’ archivist sims.

this is the first non-self-loathing reason he’s even sort of articulated, altho not very well, and while it took a while for martin to understand he did, in the end, get it and back off the idea of smiting.

do i think this is the end of that discussion, that jon has clearly defined a boundary and martin fully understands it and will not bring it up again? absolutely not! jon probably doesn’t even fully understand his own attempted boundary here! they’re probably going to have this conversation again! (fingers crossed that this comes to a head around DAISY bcos jon finally figuring out how to define a boundary and martin finally getting it is good but i would like daisy pls!) but also i don’t think this is some kind of big Martin Evil or Martin Possessed or even Martin Will See Jon As A Monster thing

tldr: martin is both petty and traumatized and that’s ok, jon is bad at setting boundaries and that is also ok, they are heading towards some kind of realization about this but i dont think this is some big underlying Entity Thing it’s just communication issues

(and i trust jonny to maybe make them work through communication issues, but not cause a horrible breakup between them because of it. they have so many outside things to worry about, and their relationship is the emotional core to the show; i think the apocalypse is big enough drama without adding in soap opera levels of relationship drama.)

[basketballandtextbooks]

ruminations

what’s more important, to be right or to be happy?

depending on the situation, I change my answer. if the case of fandom I think it doesn’t matter how ‘wrong’ you are, just try to be happy. in more serious real life situations, I think being right is more important.

obviously theres a certain amount of nuance to both. but i generally draw the line at happiness when possible, right-ness when important. do not cause harm to human life.

i ruminate on this because i like to be ‘right’ about fandom. it makes me happy. i like to do my research, find the hidden truth, and broadcast my findings for the world. i like being right.

but some people are happy being wrong and sometimes my ‘right’ can conflict with their ability to be happy. which is never my intention and definitely not my desire. i might revile the idea of a tiny, smol, innocent, girlish Kyle and it might bring me happiness to constantly debunk that fanon version of Kyle through research, referencing the show, and being ‘right’.

But just because in an academic sense I am ‘right’, doesn’t mean it’s wrong to like that girlish Kyle. I hate that Kyle. On some levels I love to hate that Kyle.

But Kyle isn’t real. His fans are.

Sometimes I feel because I’m so passionate about being right (”Randy is a terrible father! here’s five indisputable reasons why!” or “Kenny canonically doesn’t do drugs anymore and he’s actually grown to hate them! here’s a timeline proving it!”) it winds up being disrespectful to the happiness of real people who deserve more love and compassion than a stupid fake character in a fake show.

If you love druggie Kenny, we’re not going to agree. I have entire essays dedicated to why you’re ‘wrong’. But just because we don’t agree on the life of a fictional 2-dimensional ten year old it doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be happy and safe.

And if giving Kenny a blunt is what makes you happy and safe, I support that.

The same for Randy. The canonical evidence that he’s abusive is... a lot. But if you just like to hc a version of him that is more compassionate and kind, that’s awesome and more power to you.

My point is that sometimes in my pursuit to be ‘right’ in the academic sense, sometimes I’m ‘wrong’ on an ethical level. And I want to apologize to anyone who I’ve made to feel uncomfortable with my impassioned beliefs on fictional characters. We’re very likely to continue disagreeing but I value your happiness above all else.

Take care of you. And if I’m out of line or trampling over your feelings, just lmk. Tell me when I’m being hurtful or oppressive. We might not even agree on that point but I think starting a dialogue is the first step to ensure that we all feel happy, healthy, and safe in the fandom space.

All that said, canon randy is abusive towards his children, canon kenny has been staunchly anti drugs for ten seasons in a row, and canon kyle isn’t girly or submissive gdi but you’re allowed to like all of those things and i can’t and i shouldn’t stop you

[sobdasha]

Speaking of clothing and timelines

I have, apparently, been misunderstanding Yuki's childhood for a long time lol.

(I assumed Akito like, literally painted a room black somewhere adjacent to Akito's rooms and just, y'know, kept Yuki in there, a Rat Room, and I couldn't figure out when or why Yuki at some point might have been moved back home???)

But hey now I know so much more all because I said "I don't even understand Yuki's clothes" and decided, "Takaya probably had it all figured out and I just need it written down to find the pattern."

Anyway here are the results of my research! I have divided Yuki's life into 4 distinct clothing periods.

Living with Akito

Yuki's mom dresses him in a suit to go meet Akito. After that, Yuki wears either kimono or what I'm choosing to call "Kyou clothes," on account of they look like the things Kyou (or young Haru) wears. I'm not sure there's a rhyme or reason for why Yuki is dressed traditional or western clothes on any given day. I also assume the Souma maids were responsible for acquiring Yuki's clothes, what else are maids for clearly.

--

Isolation

This is the start of the "pitch dark room" which is, ah, more metaphorical than literal. When Yuki was Akito's live-in playmate, Akito talked about how they were both special and together and awesome. After the rooster hecked things up, when Akito snapped, Akito specifically talks about how Yuki is different and unimportant. Akito separates and isolates Yuki both with those words and also, I think, by literally kicking Yuki back home. I, uh, am now realizing that this is Akito's bedroom, Akito probably didn't do an entire redecorating job with a little pot of ink, and the darkness of Yuki's bedroom back in his parents' house is, y'know, less literal in nature. The reboot anime makes it pretty clear that the "pitch dark room" of Yuki's childhood is identical to Yuki's bedroom at his parents' house, so. Yeah.

(Hey, at least I'm not like the first anime who took one look at the black paint and said "that's a whip right????")

Anyway, this same time marks a shift in Yuki's clothing. He's still got a lot of the "Kyou clothes," and he still occasionally wears kimono, but his wardrobe also now contains more preppy, formal clothes that I'm sure his mom was picking out with Yuki's future status in mind.

Also, now that I'm writing these things down, I suspect this is why Yuki's mom slaps him so hard at New Year's for "embarrassing her" by ditching Akito. I mean, she's terrible, but it seemed a bit over the top for someone who was pretty content to ignore Yuki while things were going her way, and how does she know Akito didn't give Yuki permission to ditch??? But it would make sense if she's still absolutely pissed that Yuki's living with her again, clearly he fell out of favor with Akito, he fucked up his (and her) chances, Yuki should just be so lucky that at least Akito's still interested enough to visit on the regular (for verbal and emotional abuse) but that's not gonna continue if you ruin this by upsetting Akito even further!

I believe we don't really see Yuki in the years between 2nd grade and 9th grade, but all the stuff from 9th grade is the preppier, more formal clothes. I assume once he outgrew the "Kyou" things after being moved back home, he didn't get any more hoodies and cargo-pocket shorts and etc. No clue if Yuki still occasionally had kimono.

--

Shigure's house

This is the only period that Yuki wears Chinese-style shirts, in addition to his nice dress shirts.

Also I'm so sad I had this idea in my head that Yuki didn't start wearing sweaters and sweater vests with his uniform until he started copying off Kakeru, but no, he wore them right in like the first or second volume, he just wears them when it's really cold. GDI I thought that was super cute...I'm so sad…

Also tangent like. I'm pretty sure there's a great fic in here somewhere about the time of moving Yuki into Shigure's house. At this point, as far as we know, the only place Yuki goes to is school. In elementary school we saw him get driven; I wouldn't put it past his mom (who wanted him in a better school district, where maybe he couldn't walk to like is supposed to be the norm) to have him be driven to school all the time, to better keep an eye on him. So here comes Yuki to Shigure's house, does that kid even have any furniture, this is a serious question, and he's going to determinedly go to a co-ed school when he doesn't even have practice walking down the street without running into women.

I'm sure it could only help Shigure's interests of ~emotionally distancing Yuki from Akito~ by being like "Haha okay school starts in like, 2 days, son it's time for a crash-course in existing in public and we'll kill two nailing-ur-girlfriend birds with one stone by shopping for furniture and clothes and whatever as well!"

The point being that Yuki, like Machi, presumably has no idea what he likes at this point but he sees some Chinese-style clothes and they are 1) not like what that jerkface Kyou wears and 2) not like the dress shirts his mom/the household staff buy him 3) probably good enough right?? While Shigure has to stand there with, like, a totally straight face, although if he slips up a bit it's probably fine because Yuki's not been exposed to him nearly enough yet to realize what Shigure's like. Because Yuki's seen Ayame like, a handful of times, while Shigure knows full-well that Chinese-inspired-style is Ayame's absolute personal fave, and he's dying. He's dying. This is exactly the sort of entertainment he hoped to be blessed with when he signed up for this. Everything's amazing. Eh yeah I'm sure it's fine, Shigure shrugs, not wanting to appear too eager so that Yuki realizes what's up.

(And then Shigure gives him a whirlwind schooling on pop culture, so that Yuki can be like "Ugh Kyou you uneducated peon, you don't even know who Jason is" while also being "…I've literally never heard of the Power Rangers, is that, like, a thing??")

--

Kakeru

This period starts sometime after Sorta Cinderella, and is in play when the whole student council goes out together to that cafe. It's the time that Yuki begins to keep his nails shorter, his clothes change, and Machi notes that Yuki's somehow managed to get character development.

Yuki never wears his Chinese-style shirts again. Instead he wears things that are similar to his preppy/dressy clothes, but more casual. He starts leaving the top button undone. He wears a t shirt under a button front. Yuki used to wear preppy sweaters over dress shirts, but they were always crew neck--now, he wears v-neck sweaters over them. (He does once wear one of his old preppy sweaters one more time and I cringe every time I read that scene, it's so tight, it's so cringy the way the collar sticks out, it's so ill-fitting, I wonder if that's on purpose or if that's because I just don't fashion. It might be on purpose to show he's outgrown it. Oh snap, wait, was that right after the New Year's where he had another big character development?? Is that why??? SYMBOLISM?????)

--

Anyway, that's our Takaya-sensei, folks.

[darkpoisonouslove]

I’m here again. Faragonda, Sky, Tecna, and Darcy, please xD

Hi again! XD Thanks for sending more!

Faragonda:

- How I feel about this character:

I love her! She is amazing! I love that she is very patient and warm but also won't let anyone hurt the people she loves. She's a badass. She can fight her own battles and has a strong will and resolve despite her kind attitude and her desire to solve things peacefully and I think that is a great combination of characteristics. I love that she's always there for her students and is super understanding. I think she's a great headmistress.

- All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Griffin. They know each other so well and understand and respect each other. Let's be real, that would be the perfect relationship.

Hagen. I have only seen the two minutes of interactions they had in "Secret of the Lost Kingdom" so you can pretty much blame @trashcankitty12 for that since it started from her fanfiction. I just realized a few days ago that they are the sunshine and raincloud trope and I kinda like that, though, it could've been done better.

Griselda. Idk, I've seen this and I think it would work as well. Honestly, I would be more sold if we'd seen more of their relationship but I guess we'll just... have to die. 😑

- My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Griffin. Like I said, I live for this friendship. They have so much history and not all of it is pretty but they are still as close as ever. I love the fact that they've had major crises in their friendship but they still managed to get over them and trust each other. And Faragonda is so supportive of Griffin, I can't. Not to mention that they're both super protective of each other.

- My unpopular opinion about this character:

I think Faragonda is more selfish than expected. What I mean with this is that she would totally sacrifice herself for the people she loves, just as well as she would sacrifice everyone else for the people she loves. This would make sense if you look at her past, too. She most certainly went through big rejection when she discovered she was a fairy. Not only from her family, but also from pretty much everyone else in her life. So the few people that stuck with her mean the world to her and she can't afford to lose them no matter what it means for anyone else. And Marion and Oritel's death only exacerbated that thought process.

- One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I wish we'd learned more about her family and the time she thought she was a witch. I think that would've been really interesting and could have brought up some magical lore. Like, more about the fairies and witches and how  light and dark magic came to be (also, am I the only one who thinks we should have gotten more emphasis on Mirta and maybe seen a conversation between her and Faragonda since Mirta is the only one we know of who's been through the same thing Faragonda has?). I reaaaaaaally want to know how she handled that period. (Spoiler: I might have an idea about that and it might be morphing into a fanfic instead of the set of headcanons it was supposed to be.)

Sky:

- How I feel about this character:

Uh... Can I skip this question? 😅 Honestly, I don't really like him. He has some qualities that I like but just... No? I don't feel it.

- All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Honestly, I don't care about his romantic life. I would say Bloom, but they are the only canon ship that I really don't give a damn about.

- My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Brandon. As much as I hated their idea to switch identities in season 1, that's a sign for some strong friendship. You don't just do that with anyone and I like the fact that he's so close with someone who was supposed to be just a servant to him. We haven't seen anything about his life as a prince but I'm willing to bet he didn't have many real friends so it's good to see him have a genuine friendship.

- My unpopular opinion about this character:

I don't like his relationship with Bloom. I feel like they don't fucking communicate, like, at all! At least half, no, wait, at least 70% of their drama would've been avoided if they talked to each other and he trusted her to tell her shit. Imagine how much cooler it would have been if he'd told her that he was actually prince Sky and he was engaged but he likes her and doesn't want to be with Diaspro. And then Bloom could've sneaked on the Day of the Royals for support and because she wanted to see Diaspro and the two of them could've actually talked which would have provided an opportunity for character depth for Diaspro. Maybe she would get to tell Bloom why she loves Sky and Bloom would feel bad bc apparently Diaspro's feelings are genuine but they aren't reciprocated and we could have some quality drama there with Sky and Bloom both trying to let Diaspro down easily and after a period of adaptation they could have all been friends. Now i want to write this. *exasperated sigh*

- One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Get some goddamn backstory! I know I say the same about all of the characters, but that's because they have the same flaw in getting no fucking backstory. How are we supposed to get this character when we have no idea why the hell they are like that? I feel like Sky could be a great character if they'd delved more into what makes him like that. Why did he feel the need to swap identities with Brendon? They said that he wanted to see what not being a royalty was like but why? Was he tired of being a prince and just wanted to be normal (in which case some backstory would have fit right in) or did he want to see how ordinary people get treated so that he could get them better for when he became a king? Just give me something about this character's life gdi!

Tecna:

- How I feel about this character:

Pretty meh tbh. She is so underdeveloped, it's painful. We don't know anything about her except that she's good with technology and smart. That doesn't make up an entire personality and it doesn't make her very relatable for me.

- All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Timmy. We get to see some emotional reactions from both of them when they're together and I like that. I just wish they'd done more with them even if in the context of their passion of technology. Just let them go on a super cute nerdy date where they go look for computer parts at a second-hand technology store or something. If they're only gonna have one characteristic, at least expand it to the point where it's believable that it's taken over their lives because they are so interested in it. There were so many possibilities.

- My non-romantic OTP for this character:

... Error 404: File not found. Honestly, her relationships with the others are so non-existent that I don't really... have anything for this category. Like, who is she closest to? I have no idea. I'm gonna say Musa, though, because: a) I think music and technology together can make some pretty cool things and b) Musa seems prone to hiding her emotions and Tecna is a bit detached from her own feelings so I feel like that could be a bonding point while they can also learn something from each other. (Man... I feel like exploring the possibilities now... Gdi! I have no time for that.)

- My unpopular opinion about this character:

I feel like Tecna's powers were very underestimated. And not just on a magical level. She is super smart and inventive and she should've been given a bigger role in a lot of the missions. Also, if any of the magical realms are anything like Earth, then Tecna could be super useful and vital to missions since everything is so technology-based. None of that was well utilized. None of it.

- One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I wish she'd gotten her Enchantix differently. Faragonda said that to get Enchantix they had to sacrifice themselves for someone from their planet. Yet, Tecna sacrificed herself for Layla's planet and still got her Enchantix. Now technically, there might have been a Zenithian on Andros at the time, so in saving the planet Tecna saved that Zenithian as well but that is totally not what Faragonda meant there, I'm sorry. Also, if they'd gotten her to save someone from her own planet, we could have learned something more about her and her backstory. I think it would've been better.

Darcy:

-How I feel about this character:

She's my fave Trix! I've loved her since I was little. I love that Darcy is more collected and controlled than Icy and Stormy but she can be just as terrible when she's raging. I like that her composure doesn't make her more stable than they are and she can totally flip from calm to mad in 0.03 seconds. It makes her unpredictable and allows her to fit in with the temper of her besties while she also remains different from them. I love her powers! They're so cool and I wish we'd seen more of them. I'm sure they could've made something amazing if they had messed around with her power of illusions. Come to think of it that fits well with her character, too, since she isn't patient and calm but only gives the illusion of that.

- All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Riven. Look, I know that relationship was as unhealthy as it gets, but they looked cute gdi! In an AU maybe they could've been the perfect couple.

Maybe Flora a little bit. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I just remembered I had some thoughts on this but I can't quite piece it together yet. I think that could have some cool symbolism, though, because in a way Darcy's powers are the opposite of Flora's since plants need light to survive and Darcy's powers are... well, darkness. Also, nature doesn't pretend and Darcy's magic is literally focused on deception so...

- My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Icy and Stormy. They've had less than graceful moments in their friendship but they stuck together through it all and I actually like that. It gives them some depth (which, let's be real, they were very lacking of) and I appreciated it. I feel like I prefer her relationship with Stormy since they are more on equal ground while Icy separates herself as the leader of the trio (and the worst of them tbh).

- My unpopular opinion about this character:

I think Darcy is actually a lot like Musa but their approach to feelings is different. Musa will erupt when she reaches her boiling point while Darcy is more calculating in that regard and is more likely to hide her feelings if she's after something that exploding will get in the way of. So basically, you could say Musa is more genuine while Darcy is more for pretense in the name of her goal. Musa's feelings find outlet in the harmony of her music while Darcy's cause chaos and it's an interesting opposition to work with, especially considering that sometimes their reactions can overlap. I can see how Riven can be confused as to which one of them would be better for him.

- One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I wish we'd gotten some backstory. What was her life like that it made her want universl domination? How did she meet Icy and Stormy and how did they become friends, considering that neither of them are exactly open to bonding? How are they connected to the Ancestral Wicthes (I mean, they can't be direct descendants so what is up with that) and how did  they get their hands on the Whisperian Crystals (also, where the hell did the Crystals go after season 1)? So many questions and no answers.

This was so fun! I got so many new thoughts! So... Ask box is still open! 😁

[soveryanon]

Reviewing time for MAG152!

- This was another statement during which I kept hesitating between two – Buried? Oh, The End. … Buried? End? Buried? End?, OOOOH Buried it is – until Hezekiah kept spelling it out again and again. Well, to be honest, he had spilled it for a long while. But.

(MAG152, Hezekiah Wakely) “[…] sleep still eludes me. And when it does not, I wake as though my heart were trying to leap from my chest and my throat were full of dust and ashes. […] There is… such peace in the churchyard, you see. To walk atop the soil, knowing that deep below my feet those blessed souls wait happy and silent in the cool, damp earth, counting the days until the Resurrection… […] I do find, however, that… when I dig my graves, I have been going deeper. And at times I worry I might dig so far as I can no longer get out with my meagre ladder. […] I saw his body, you know, as it was being prepared, and I tell you truly that for all the wickedness that man had done, his body knew gentle repose…! Though not as gentle, perhaps, as… it might be with six feet of earth atop it. […] It was cold that day, and bitter windy, and cracking the ground had been as hard as ice. At least until I was a few feet down. But by the end of it, oh, I tell you, there was warmth in that grave. Whether by my own body or the heat of the soil, I couldn’t say, but it was as comfortable as the fireplace of a public house, and the wind could not reach me in the hole that I had made. […] A terrible, bitter rain that chilled my bones and turned the soil around me dark and sodden. The walls grew damp and slippery, their firm shape lost as they began to slip and crumble. And then, all at once, they collapsed – the grave filling in a moment with a wave of mud and wet dirt. In a single terrible moment of utter terror, it was atop and around me, covering my face and filling my lungs with its awful choking sod. And the strangest thing was that it was wonderful. I had never felt such safety as within the crushing weight of earth all around me; the pressing embrace of The Buried.

[…] If it had been me in that coffin… destined for the peace below ground… I can think of little that I would hate more than the jarring, clanging of a bell, pulling me from my rest…

[…] I have been thinking, Nathaniel, of funerals and bodies. Souls that escape, leaving this… common clay to become one again with a truer clay. Were we not created from mud? And it seems more fitting to me that we should return forever to that mud, not pulled from it by some would-be-Redeemer, or lifted to sing hosannas in His holy court. I’ve worked so long, so hard; do I not deserve a rest in the mud from which I came? Commit my body to the earth and let it stay there. I’d do the same for you. […] But sleeping in the cool, soft dirt is all the bliss I could ever ask for. I suppose the Lord would have no call to think such things a blessing. He was never buried, was he? Not truly. Laying in a cave for three days, a rock pushed across the entrance before being taken up bodily; no, he was never Buried. And He always had more work to do, harrowing hell and redeeming the sins of mankind. No, he had no rest, and never asked for it, save a moment of doubt at Gethsemane. But He is the son of God, and we are merely sons of the dirt.

[…] You’ve never felt the close embrace of peaceful soil. You’ve never truly slept in the bosom of the earth. These things are not such as can be shared in words, and it was my foolishness to think that they could. But worry not, Nathaniel: the love I bear you will not let me leave you ignorant. As I did with the Reverend, I will come, and I will show you, once and forever, the true and glorious peace of The Buried.”

I had grown accustomed to associate “sleeping” with The End, due to Oliver (yearning for a “good night’s sleep”) and to Adelard and his self-reflecting about his own fears of dying in his sleep; but I’m rather fond of the fact that Hezekiah had to scream out loud explicitly who his patron was, this time around.

- Annnnnd once again, the avatar’d person both got a death experience, and was… a vulnerable person (a mix of depression, past alcoholism, insomnia, maybe suicidal too):

(MAG152, Hezekiah Wakely) “I’ve been installed here some weeks now and I’m finding myself well-contented, my sexton duties keeping my time employed such as I scarce have a chance to allow myself those dark thoughts that so concerned you when last we visited. […] My troubled sleep, on the other hand, has not of yet resolved itself in any way to my satisfaction. […] You need not despair, Nathaniel: I know the bottle will no longer help, and my other labours keep the nights from bothering me as once they did. … But I do find myself longing for a true and proper sleep. […] I hope such talk does not upset you, and you may rest assured that I am no suicide. It is simply the serenity of the dead I envy, not their lifelessness. […] I am never as truly satisfied as when I’m in my slumber and insensible to the world. Perhaps that’s what I hoped to find in my drinking, that… gentle oblivion. But it seems like a world ago.”

Oliver had begun to have his dreams after a nervous breakdown, when he was at his lowest; Jude had encountered The Lightless Flame while she was deep in depression; Jane Prentiss was isolated, poor and/or in an unstable situation when she began to be receptive to The Hive… people in a bad place tend to be overrepresented amongst the folks touched by a power, whether it’s to be become a servant or to be sacrificed, but Gerry had highlighted the reasons a while ago (MAG111: “Well, think of it this way: right now all the entities have to act like a hunter, they pick off the weak ones around the edges, the ones that wander too close, and the rest of the time they have to just graze on whatever fear we all passively give away.”). In Hezekiah’s case, there is the Added Aouch that… he had someone who, although not absolutely close, had still looked over him, and apparently put efforts into helping him heal – giving him a job, some stability, keeping in contact with him, visiting him. And still, it didn’t prevent Hezekiah from embracing The Buried, causing misery around him and, specifically, going after someone who was close and precious to him. I feel like I’m repeating myself these past few weeks but once again: it doesn’t bode well for Jon-who-kinda-died-but-came-back-after-making-a-choice-to-not-die, uh.

- And I liked Hezekiah’s casual disenchanted and deadpan tone, gdi ;; (“Not his fault, of course. The Lord gave him that voice for a purpose, no doubt. But sometimes that purpose does feel like it might be providing me a few minutes of unearned slumber. Still; his conduct towards me has never been less than compassion itself.”)

I do still like (/scream about) the reveal that

(MAG152, Hezekiah Wakely) “I’ve been trying to sleep. But that bell kept ringing, the one over Jacob the baker’s grave – that nonsense safety bell the Reverend insisted on putting there, ringing and ringing and disturbing the sleep of everyone in the churchyard. I’ve no doubt it disturbed Jacob as well, who worked so hard all his life and never thought to complain of his lot. He deserved to rest. So I cut the cord. And now he is quiet.”

hE CUT THE CORD OF THE SAFETY BELL…………………… (complete with the sudden spike of music, perfect “oH SHIT” moment), actually makes you reconsider how oh, what an absolutely perfect coincidence! There was an outbreak of fever in the city, many graves to dig and people to bury. Oh! What a mistake, little Nellie died by drowning (… Nellie hadn’t “drowned” on her own, uh?) but was actually still alive. A lot of things sounded like an unreliable narrator and/or someone in denial over what they were doing and trying to achieve (Hezekiah ensuring that he would have occasions to dig more graves, and trying to share his ~discovery~):

(MAG152, Hezekiah Wakely) “Eh! You’ll laugh, Nathaniel, but I almost wrote that I hope I have a chance to dig more graves. What a thought… No, I’d not wish that; for to dig graves, one must have something to fill them, and the good Lord takes that at His own pace.

[…] my nights have indeed been easier of late. Something I may partially ascribe to the recent outbreak of fever in the town, taking more of my time for the grim business of grave-digging.

[…] The circumstances and causes are easy enough to explain. It was the funeral of young [Nellie Cooper] that did it, which was a most upsetting affair. I’ll say I have much sympathy with his plight, as I had a chance to view the body myself, and if you’d asked me if I concurred with [doctor Grants’s] judgement of “death by drowning”, I would have agreed without hesitation. She had that peace to her, that I’ve spoken of to you before, and I knew how happy she must be, to soon be returning to the earth. […] To my mind, there are… far worse fates. But he has in his head an idea to begin fitting the graves I dig with these new “safety bells” that he has heard of, so that any as might be alive below ground might… signal us above, for rescue. I dread the idea. If it had been me in that coffin… destined for the peace below ground… I can think of little that I would hate more than the jarring, clanging of a bell, pulling me from my rest…

[…] I’ve been trying to sleep. But that bell kept ringing, the one over Jacob the baker’s grave – that nonsense safety bell the Reverend insisted on putting there, ringing and ringing and disturbing the sleep of everyone in the churchyard. I’ve no doubt it disturbed Jacob as well, who worked so hard all his life and never thought to complain of his lot. He deserved to rest. So I cut the cord. And now he is quiet.

[…] That you chose to share what last I wrote you with the magistrates… has wounded me so. They came and asked their questions, as I’m sure you hoped they would, but could of course prove nothing. Jacob is long dead, and I was very careful how I stopped the bell. […] But worry not, Nathaniel: the love I bear you will not let me leave you ignorant. As I did with the Reverend, I will come, and I will show you, once and forever, the true and glorious peace of The Buried.”

… until Hezekiah basically was that Russian cat meme, “THAT’S RIGHT, TWAS I THAT SET THE HOUSE ABLAZE!!!” (/ “Friendship ended with Nathaniel, The Buried is my best friend now.” / “Bury Your Gods.”) That. Certainly. Escalated.

- The fragmented and one-side epistolary presentation was enough to give clear implications: everything happened in one year and a half (it went fast), and it was enough to see a gradation, but also enough to feel… the contrast between Hezekiah’s first letter and the last. While at the same time…

(MAG152, Hezekiah Wakely) “August 1837. […] Your humble servant, Hezekiah Wakely.

February 1838. […] Your humble servant, Hezekiah.

June 1838. […] Yours, Hezekiah.

December 1838. […] Yours, Hezekiah.

January 1839. […] Your most humble servant, Hezekiah Wakely.”

The last letter closing, by returning to a phrasing closer to the first one, was also telling us: this is the same person.

The epistolary format makes me wonder, though: how did these letters reach the Archives? These were only the ones Nathaniel Beale had received, and Jon confirmed that Hezekiah had indeed got his hands on Nathaniel, burying him alive. The story happened around the time Jonah Magnus was at his peak (Jonathan Fanshawe’s own letter, in MAG127, was sent in 1831). Did Hezekiah’s letters reach the Institute through tours and detours, or… was Nathaniel another of Jonah’s close ones, that he watched getting pursued and consumed by a Fear…?

(Is Hezekiah still around? Was he Karolina’s shovel guy – or was that one Enrique MacMillan, who would have come back after dying from “asphyxiation”?)

- Jon going back to thinking about Jane Prentiss, and having changed his stance about what exactly happened to her was… telling of his journey and of what he has learned through it, in a very bittersweet turn: back in season 1, she represented the first “arc” of the series; she was the first red thread for the Archival team, the first to explicitly threaten them, the recurring menace surrounding them and looming closer and closer (MAG006, MAG022, MAG026, MAG034, MAG035, MAG038/MAG039) – and she impacted everyone: Martin, who was besieged by her for two weeks and had to live in the Archives for almost five months; Sasha, who followed Michael because she wanted to help the others and was almost infested, and who was killed in a blind spot by the Not!Them during the attack on the Institute; Tim, who suffered the most injuries alongside Jon. Jane Prentiss was also one of the only two subjects that Jon initially acknowledged as worthy of genuine concern (together with the Leitner books), and was the first Jon agreed to acknowledge as paranormal; she was the first statement he read that absolutely cracked his mask – he had… trouble getting out of it, it impacted him a bit more than the others:

(MAG032) ARCHIVIST: Statement ends. This is… uh… Excuse me, reading that was, um… hmm. While I am pleased that we have… found the statement that Prentiss gave the Institute, it answers far fewer of our questions than I would have hoped, and gives us little new information about her than we had before, save for a snapshot of her mental condition before her hospital admission. […] We still don’t have any evidence that Prentiss is actually paranormal. It could just be an unknown, aggressive parasite. There are weird things out there that are perfectly natural. It’s not, though. I know it’s not natural. Somehow I… I feel it. I’m sorry, my academic detachment seems to have fled me. Something in this statement has got to me a bit. I’m… I’m going to go lie down. End recording.

(Jon also got a lot of trouble “getting out” of MAG074’s “Fatigue” – was it because of the statement-giver’s state of mind at that point…?)

Jane Prentiss left scars, both physically and mentally: Tim and Jon got striking scars (Basira pointed them out in MAG052), Jon kept her ashes and still wanted Jordan Kennedy to confirm, again and again, that her body really had been cremated (although Elias had told him that he had witnessed it already), Martin hadn’t forgotten the fears and humiliation of being pursued by her by MAG117 and MAG118.

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: It’s the last thing I remember before blacking out. Tens of thousands of… things without mouths screaming as one. ELIAS: … Yes. Horrible sound. […] Sasha was already there, but you and Tim were in a bad shape. It looked like a few dozen worms had been going into each of you when the carbon dioxide killed them. Was like bloody Swiss che– ARCHIVIST: Yes… thank you. I remember everything from when the ambulance arrived.

(MAG055) ARCHIVIST: Are you… saying there might be more out there like [Jane Prentiss]? JORDAN: God, I hope not. I don’t… know. The man from the ants’ house, he wasn’t like her, not at all. But that smell when they burned, I… think they’re connected. Somehow. And that scares me. ARCHIVIST: Yes… yes, it rather scares me too. […] While I am… always glad of any further closure to the case of Jane Prentiss, this seems to come with the rather serious caveat that she might not have been working alone. No, that– that doesn’t sound right. J–Jane Prentiss, or whatever this… flesh hive was that took her, does not seem like the sort of being that would work well with others.

(MAG065) ARCHIVIST: Well, excuse me if my experiences of th– TIM: Your experiences? Fuck you! I got eaten by worms because of you! ARCHIVIST: Well, what do you want? You want sympathy? TIM: You know what, yeah! A little bit of basic sympathy would have been nice! ARCHIVIST: Jane Prentiss was not my fault, I did not bring her to the Archives! TIM: Oh, but you went off the deep end afterwards, didn’t you?

(MAG118) ELIAS: [SIGH] Are you done. MARTIN: Not even close. Because... [HEAVY BREATHING] I… I’ve been thinking. It’s not like you’ve got this all-seeing thing recently. You’ve had it the whole time. I remember the way you looked at Sasha after the attack. You knew it wasn’t her. And I reckon you knew Prentiss was lurking under the Institute, too, and you did nothing. Why? [SILENCE] WHY?! [SLAMS TABLE] ELIAS: … Let’s just get this over with, shall we?

(MAG120) ELIAS: Then all at once, the ants are gone, fled in a moment away from the still shuddering form of the exterminator – and a familiar terror finally pushes his way into the Archivist’s heart. Before him rises an incinerator door, the glowing light of the flames curling around the cracks. With a wailing shriek, the door opens and the burning silhouette that stands within is ingrained upon the Archivist’s racing mind. They smoke and sizzle, but still the worms crawl through her charred and pockmarked flesh, her now singed red dress shifting with the movement beneath it. The exterminator looks to her, then to the Archivist, and it is not certain which he fears more. The Archivist, for his part, is hopelessly willing the dream to stop – but as she takes one scorched step after another, it is clear that he has no power to make it. When faced with her, he even longs for the terrible dream of the melted woman, who would see everything desolated without rhyme or reason. But she was beyond his reach the moment she knew he was there. So the Archivist can only stand and stare as the Hive goes about its infested, long-dead work.

But Jane Prentiss is also… the remnant of a time when everything seemed dichotomic. When Elias was still that boring bureaucrat, not keen on intervening but mostly harmless, that Jon could still partially respect (MAG049: “Certainly, the Elias I know now is almost unmatched in terms of paranormal knowledge. Well. Theoretical knowledge, at least. And yet, everything I found out about his life before the Institute seems… an ill fit with the austere man I know.”). When monsters were “outside”. The supernatural thing coming after you. (Was Jon already alluding to that loss of clear separation, of the stability of being on a “moral” side of things, when he wondered in MAG115: “God, do I– do I miss being chased? That’s depressing. No, it’s… I just miss feeling like I’m moving, like I…”?). It was easier to think of the monsters as other, to distinguish “Jane Prentiss” and “The Hive” – he repeatedly referred to his encounter as “the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss” in MAG040.

Jane Prentiss’s death also came with other losses: the Archives in which Martin had taken refuge weren’t actually safe either. Tim went through hell with Jon. Sasha died, unnoticed, in Artefact Storage, and was replaced by the Not!Them. Gertrude’s body was discovered, together with the reveal that she had been murdered, leading to Jon suspecting his co-workers of being her killers. The original team only lasted through season 1; and although nobody amongst the remaining ones died in season 2, the team continued crumbling altogether – Jon against everyone, irremediably losing Tim even before his death an entire season later. Only Jon and Martin are left, now; but it was not surprising that, when discussing about “Jane Prentiss” with Helen, Tim and Sasha were right around the edges, too, because they belonged to that time, had been involved with her too:

(MAG152) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … It’s all that left of her now. Apart from a… jar of ashes in my desk. Just a circle of rotten stone on an otherwise… unremarkable wall. HELEN: More of a legacy than some people get. ARCHIVIST: … It was meant to be a gate, I think. A hole that she… rotted into The Corruption itself. Maybe the start of a ritual. […] Huh? You’ve got hands. HELEN: Sharp enough to pull out worms. Kill a few old men. Maybe stab an overeager Archivist… ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

“Kill a few old men” like Paul McKenzie (MAG027, MAG146). “Stab an overeager Archivist” like Jon trying to make Michael release Helen Richardson (MAG047). “Sharp enough to pull out worms” like Michael preventing Sasha from getting infested:

(MAG026) SAHSA: As I stood there, staring at the wallet, I felt a sharp pain in my right arm. I looked up to see Michael, reaching into my shoulder. Its fingers were long and distorted as they reached through my skin, cutting it like paper. I screamed. After a few seconds, it withdrew its hand. Held there was a single silver worm, wriggling pathetically in its grip. I hadn’t even felt the thing burrowing into my arm.

And Tim had been the one to discover the circle of worms, during MAG039’s events, as he described it to Jon in the following episode (and if it was indeed “the start of a ritual”… then, Tim stopped that one, too), leading to Jon confirming it for himself some weeks later:

(MAG040) TIM: No, it’s just… I think I was still gassed, and it was dark, but… I found a room. ARCHIVIST: Go on. TIM: I didn’t stay long, ‘cause it had a lot of worms in, and they weren’t acting like the others. They were sort of… wrapping around each other, like they were trying to form a… thing, like a structure or something. A ring. I was probably still out of my skull, and half-hallucinated the whole thing, but it looked like they were trying to make a doorway. ARCHIVIST: A doorway? Is it still there? TIM: No. I pumped two full extinguishers into that room. Nothing was getting out.

(MAG041) ARCHIVIST: It was almost impossible to retrace my steps. I tried to remember my route using what vague oddities I could remember as landmarks: a burned door, a particularly warped corridor. But trying to find them again was useless in the winding passages. In my increasing panic to find the way out, I almost forgot the things I had originally gone down there to look for. Then I found the circle of worms. When Tim had first described it, I had only half-believed him. I’m sorry, Tim, if you’re listening, but the CO2 had done some strange things to you at that point. He had the right of it, though. By the time I found it, there was little left but a thick carpet of dead worms, but a few were still embedded in the wall providing the clear outline of a circle. The ceiling was higher here, and all told it must have been about… ten feet in diameter. Its size was not the most disconcerting thing though. Inside the circle, the stone was… wrong somehow. Solid, but oddly wavy, like chocolate that’s melted and then re-hardened. It took me a minute or two to work up the courage to wade through that shallow sea of filth, but I did, and when I touched the warped wall, it felt soft and porous. But stable. I turned and left, but not before noting that another path also appeared to have been pushed through the worms on the floor, though when it had happened or who had made it, I couldn’t say.

What I still find curious, however, is that… Sasha and Tim were there in spirit; Helen referenced specific events that they experienced. But they weren’t named. How come Jon has stopped mentioning them at all, and has barely had any thought for Tim all through season 4? The way Jon found out about Tim’s death was different from Sasha’s, but still: in both cases, he learned about it six months after the fact. In Sasha’s case, it had left him shaken, starting in MAG078. It was a subject painful enough to make him snap at the worst time: revealing his cover when hiding from the Not!Them in MA079 because it was taunting him about it, or snapping at Nikola during The Unknowing:

(MAG079) NOT!SASHA: […] And it will hurt. Oh, yes, it will hurt. It hurt Sasha. ARCHIVIST: Shut up! NOT!SASHA: [CLOSE AND DISTORTED] There you are.

(MAG119) ARCHIVIST: Who are you?! NIKOLA: Who am I? Tim, of course! Who else would I be! ARCHIVIST: You’re not– you’re not… Tim. NIKOLA: Oh, you caught me~ I’m… Sasha! ARCHIVIST: Shut up! NIKOLA: No~! Really, it’s me! Sasha– whatever her name was! Back from the dead, just like you wanted~! ARCHIVIST: Get away from me, or, or I swear I’ll… I’ll…

So why, although they’re almost present, although there is the faint ghost of their experiences, they’re… not? (Not named, barely remembered, almost never alluded to. This season, it feels like they… never existed, never died tragically.)

(- Especially in this episode, I had to wonder if Jon hadn’t been relistening to old tapes lately. Because his description of the worms… was really, really reminiscent of Tim’s own interrogations right after Prentiss’s attack:

(MAG040) TIM: Well, yeah. There weren’t so many down there. I think they were almost all in the Archives. I have a theory, actually. I think they weren’t ready to attack when you found the tunnels. It’s like, something in the Institute slows them down, and makes them, um, heh, sluggish. And that noise they make? That squirming sound? They don’t make it when they’re in the tunnels. I don’t know why. It was only when they came into the Institute. Maybe the light, or the aircon, or something? I’m not sure, but I think it made them weaker, and they’ve been down there for months, breeding, building up their numbers until there were enough to properly bury us. Except you found that hidden passage, and they had to act.

(MAG152) ARCHIVIST: I’ve been wondering what they were doing down here. Though they must have been down here for… weeks, months maybe; spreading, growing. They could have spread all the way through these tunnels, but they didn’t. They didn’t find Leitner down here, didn’t find… Gertrude’s body. Didn’t find… whatever else is here.

Another thing is when Jon said that Elias had called The Corruption “Filth”:

(MAG152) HELEN: Hm. Not exactly impressive, is it? ARCHIVIST: Less complex, certainly. But I think that’s the thing about– … what did Elias call it… “Filth”. I don’t think it really plans much. It just starts to grow wherever it can get a foothold and… if no one stomps it out in time: Game Over.

It’s… actually not something Elias had said on tape recently. Post-reveal about The Entities and Jon being involved with them, I think the first one to allude to The Corruption as “Filth” was Mike Crew:

(MAG091) MIKE: But I knew that Filth was not for me. Buzzing flies and rot disgusted me, but they never spoke to my soul. I threw the book into a sewer, and began my hunt.

However, Elias immediately gave Jon MAG102’s statement after Jon revealed that he Knew that Gerry and Gertrude had been collaborating at some point (Jon had included Gerry in the list of Gertrude’s collaborators in MAG099, before his month-long kidnapping!), and that statement was about The Corruption, so Elias might have made a mention off-screen. Or… or Jon remembered this line:

(MAG040) ELIAS: But… honestly, I didn’t fully appreciate what you’d been talking about until I turned that corner and we saw what I can only describe as a… a tidal wave of filth rushing towards us.

… and it was so long ago, and so… inconspicuous?, so I’m not sure that Jon had noticed and would remember that one. If he’s been relistening to old tapes lately, however… Given how Jon has been expressing nostalgia, is having an identity-crisis, and how Annabelle had pulled out his very first statement from MAG001 as a taunt in MAG147, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jon is said to have relistened to them all recently.)

- … And the last one of the original assistants was also there peripherally, through… the jar of Jane Prentiss’s ashes – Martin was the one who had somehow managed to obtain it from the ECDC, because he wanted to give it to Jon as a proof/reminder that Jane was dead, cremated and gone:

(MAG041) ARCHIVIST: I have a small jar on my desk of what are supposed to be [Jane Prentiss’s] ashes, though I don’t believe it for a second. I think… Martin just gave me a jar of dust to try and calm me down. Give me something to focus on, for closure. I hate to say it, but it does appear to be working. A victory for the placebo effect, it would seem.

(MAG055) ARCHIVIST: … say it again, please. JORDAN: Excuse me? ARCHIVIST: What you’ve just said – can you say it again, so I have it on tape? JORDAN: Oh, okay. Jane Prentiss is dead. ARCHIVIST: … You’re sure? Completely? JORDAN: Yeah. I watched the incineration. ARCHIVIST: And there were no… complications? Like… wasps, surviving worms that escaped; err, movement from the body during incineration; noises from it, like screams, or chanting; weird feelings, li– like a thousand, tiny crawling things are moving across your skin? JORDAN: Waw. No. Nothing like that. Just the smell. But, I mean, I’ll get to that. It went well. Nothing left but the ashes I gave to your friend. Which I shouldn’t have, by the way, so… keep it to yourself. ARCHIVIST: Of course. And, thank you.

(And the fact that Martin managed to get someone to give him something although they shouldn’t have is still *squint.* to me. We know that Martin can be persistent and nagging until he gets what he wants (he had managed to get Jon to come eat with him in MAG053), but is it… absolutely mundane, Martin’s Absolutely Normal Power, or is it… spooky. Martin, what the heck are you.)

- Thinking again about Jane Prentiss now, when Jon Is Like That, is also a punch because! When I had begun to listen to TMA (towards the end of season 3: I was spoiled about Tim’s eventual fate before I even met him, spoiled about Jon growing powers and the risk of him becoming monstrous), I had… stopped at Jane Prentiss’s statement, wondering if it was supposed to be Jon’s fate, too:

(MAG032, Jane Prentiss) “Something, not moving but that wants to move. Wants to be free. It itches, and I don’t think I want it. I don’t know what to do. […] If I wanted to be helped. I don’t know if I do. You must understand, it sings so sweetly, and I need it, but I am afraid. It isn’t right and I need help. I need it to be seen. […] I… I haven’t slept in some time. I can’t sleep. My dreams are crawling and many-legged. […] I hope you will forgive me for such a rambling story. I hope you will forgive me for a great many things, as it may be I do worse. […] Sings that I am beautiful. Sings that I am a home. That I can be fully consumed by what loves me. […] I wanted something beyond myself […]. Perhaps I’ve always heard it. Perhaps the itch has always been the real me, and it was the happy, smiling Jane who called herself a witch and drank wine in the park when it was sunny. Maybe it was her who was the maddened illusion that hides the sick squirming reality of what I am. Of what we all are, when you strip away the pretense that there is more to a person than a warm, wet habitat for the billion crawling things that need a home. That love us in their way. I need to think. To clear my head. To try and remember, but remember what? I was lonely before. I know that. I had friends, at least I used to, but I lost them. Or they lost me. Why was it? I remember shouting, recriminations, and I was abandoned. No idea why. The memories are a blur. I do remember that they called me “toxic”. I don’t think I really knew what that meant, except that it was the reason I was so very painfully lonely. Was that it? Was I swayed and drawn simply by the prospect of being genuinely loved? Not loved as you would understand it. A deeper, more primal love. A need as much as a feeling. Love that consumes you in all ways.”

Especially the bit about her friends calling her “toxic” – aouch, Georgie……… did. So. It’s happening.

- Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we’re back to The Mystery Of The Tunnels. Little things about them:

* They reacted/adapted to a Buried book, Leitner might have messed them up even more in the process:

(MAG080) LEITNER: An unexpurgated copy of Ruskin’s The Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in 1845. Of course, Ruskin didn’t even begin writing the book until 1846, and the text of this one varies markedly from the version that was distributed. It gives an acute sense of the walls pressing in around you, and if consumed recklessly will physically entomb the reader. Over the years I have found that it interacts with Smirke’s architecture, and those tunnels specifically, in a more predictable way. By carefully reading specific passages in certain locations I am able to exercise… a degree of control over the substance of the tunnels. […] In retrospect using The Seven Lamps so much was perhaps unwise. It is possible I unbalanced Smirke’s architecture somewhat, however cautious I might have tried to be.

* Leitner’s mention in passing was the only time, I think?, that confirmed that the tunnels themselves are SmirkeTM. But we do know that Smirke and Jonah had done… something together in Millbank, and that it was Beholding-related:

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “What we built at Millbank should be left well enough alone, resigned to the nightmares of the reprobates and brigands contained within its walls. […] This is, of course, assuming you have not taken the path of The Eye that I know has called you – called us both – for so long, even since before we began our work on Millbank. […] I am not a fool; I know well enough what this dream is likely to mean, and I warn you again that if you have any remaining ambitions to use our work, to try and wear The Watcher’s Crown, you must abandon them!”

* More specifically, they are likely remnants of the old tunnels under Millbank:

(MAG040) MARTIN: I wandered for a while. It’s a, it’s a maze down there, Jon. I don’t know how far the passages go. Maybe miles. I think it must be the old Millbank Prison, like Tim was saying before. I even found some stairs at one point, but I really didn’t want to go down them.

(MAG041) ARCHIVIST: […] I had done what research I could on Millbank. First proposed and designed in 1799 by Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher who wished to test his theories of the panopticon prison, where cells would be arranged in a circle around a single, central, guard tower – so all cells were observable at once. It was to have six such areas, arranged in hexagons, giving it from the air the shape of a vast, angular flower. It’s not clear why that original plan was abandoned, but from 1812 onwards, a succession of other architects were brought in to try and finish the project. Finally, three years later, they brought in Robert Smirke. He saw the project to completion in 1821, with a design remarkably similar to Bentham’s original. However, whereas Bentham’s would have been geometric, and easy to navigate, Millbank Penitentiary as it was built was more often described as an eccentric maze: twisting corridors, doors at strange angles, and narrow passages so poorly lit inmates would need to feel their way along. Throughout much of the 19th century it was where prisoners were kept before transportation to Australia, and the brutality of the jailors was said to be second to none. Its position on what was then marshlands hardly helped, with sickness and disease rife within their walls. It was a huge complex, covering much of what we now call Chelsea, but when it was finally closed in 1890, it was demolished. Flattened. Which meant that what I was in now couldn’t be the old prison itself. It had to be something built bellow it.

So, a place infused with prisoners’ misery, involved with ~the Panopticon~ project – constant surveillance, constant fear of being watched without being able to know if you really are and by whom.

* Not!Sasha was searching for something in them… and Leitner thought it may have been him? But Leitner was also particularly self-centred, so maybe… maybe the Not!Them was after what the tunnels are hiding, after all. (And Martin was thinking that what Peter’s plans might be involving them…)

* Enrique MacMillan tried to dig his way down towards… that “hollow space that all eyes point towards” and the “DIG” had snuck its way into Jon’s dreams, complete with an increase of statics:

(MAG088, Enrique MacMillan) “so here I came. To tell my story, of course, but another thing as well; cold, empty and calling. There’s something here, you see. Something to be dug up, rooted out, buried within. A hollow space that all eyes point towards. And I intend to reach it, if my fingers don’t give out first. I know where to dig.” MARTIN: Uh, um, the, uh, the statement ends rather abruptly there. Based on a few scattered notes and accounts from some of the older staff, it sounds like Mr. Macmillan got in a bit of a fight, which led to his arrest, and the replacement of quite a bit of the floor in Jon’s office. There are still a couple of boards with marks on them that I’d always hoped weren’t fingernail scratches, but I guess…

(MAG120) ELIAS: He catches a glimpse of an advert above his seat: [STATIC INTENSIFIES] “DIG”.

* Daisy, Basira and Jon have all remarked that the tunnels feel… off to them. And Jon was suspecting that Elias couldn’t see anything in them either:

(MAG041) ARCHIVIST: It is… hard to put into words how it felt to be down there, in the cool, mouldering air of the tunnels. Have you ever left a crowded room, and literally felt the silence as you walked out into the night? It was something like that; a sudden, quiet… absence. Not in itself a fearful thing, but unsettling, in a way I hadn’t noticed through the fear and adrenaline of my first time in the tunnels.

(MAG103) [CLICK] ARCHIVIST: Thank you for coming. DAISY: Sure. Why down here? ARCHIVIST: I, um, E–Elias, I–I think… I think he has a hard time seeing things down here. DAISY: I.e. he’s not watching? ARCHIVIST: Maybe? I’m, I’m pretty sure it takes him actual effort so…

(MAG110) BASIRA: Tim is… Elias is watching him too closely. MELANIE: He’s probably watching me too. MARTIN: We–we could try the tunnels, uh, Jon says they might help. MELANIE: Right. […] MARTIN: Hang on… BASIRA: Not here. The tunnels. MARTIN: Right, right! Right!

(MAG114) ARCHIVIST: You alright, Daisy? DAISY: [NONCOMMITAL SOUNDS] BASIRA: Don’t think either of us like it down here. ARCHIVIST: Uh, well, no, me neither. Feels… DAISY: Empty. ARCHIVIST: Yeah.

* … they have exits. HELP, I’M REALLY WORRIED THAT JON IS ALLOWED/ABLE TO ROAM FREE IN THE TUNNELS, IF HE CAN GO OUTSIDE FROM THERE AND POTENTIALLY GO AFTER PEOPLE???

(MAG080) ARCHIVIST: How long have you been down there? LEITNER: Hard to say. I’ve been in hiding for over twenty years now, ever since my library was destroyed. Obviously I have not spent all that time below your Institute. The old Millbank prison tunnels stretch out a very long way, and there are other entrances than the one below the Archives. I have a small number of… secure locations, though since Gertrude’s death I have been reluctant to leave the tunnels.

(MAG114) TIM: … How did you know I was going to be here? ARCHIVIST: Th–The others haven’t seen you in weeks, and you’ve still been using the computers here, accessing files and books… I… I know there are some exits to the tunnels outside the Institute, so– TIM: [SIGH] ARCHIVIST: –I guessed you were using them to get in and out, avoiding any… tape recorders.

* Gertrude’s body was discovered in them, although the blood found in her office on March 15th 2015 seemed to imply that she was at the very least wounded there first. So, did she drag herself down into the tunnels? Did she hide there for a few weeks? Was she killed in the tunnels – had Elias gone into the tunnels, after all? How come Martin managed to find her body? WHY THE SPECIFICATION THAT THERE WAS NO “COBWEB” IN HER ROOM, MARTIN.

(MAG040) MARTIN: When I finally found a door, I thought it might actually get out, but instead… It was a small room. Square. There was dust on everything. Cardboard boxes were piled around. They were full of old cassette tapes. ARCHIVIST: That’s where you found her? MARTIN: Yes. She was sat in a wooden chair in the middle of the room. No worms. No cobwebs. Just… an old corpse. Gertrude Robinson. She was slumped forward, but I could see her mouth hanging open.

- Confirmation that it’s perceived as a “maze”:

(MAG040) MARTIN: I wandered for a while. It’s a, it’s a maze down there, Jon.

(MAG041) JON: To call it a maze wouldn’t quite be accurate, as a maze is designed. It is set out with an obvious goal, even if that goal is to confuse and disorientate. This place, it felt more organic in its unpredictability, as though it had been intended to be used, to be travelled, but had gotten twisted somehow.

(Martin: *uses one word* / Jon: I suddenly have the compulsive urge to explain in great details how much you’ve been Wrong and misusing it.)

(MAG152) ARCHIVIST: They didn’t find Leitner down here, didn’t find… Gertrude’s body. Didn’t find… whatever else is here. HELEN: It is a maze. One of the reasons I like it. ARCHIVIST: Mm. [SILENCE] … I can’t see things properly here. I thought it was just me, something interfering with my connection to The Eye, but… I’m wondering. Maybe it affects everything else. Like this place is some kind of… “universal blind spot”. Everyone gets lost, down here. HELEN: What a fascinating idea. Although… some of us are always lost, in a sense. ARCHIVIST: Wait– Are you saying you can navigate it? HELEN: Not exactly. But my door has been part of these tunnels for some time, now. ARCHIVIST: Wh– [SPLUTTERS] What’s it hiding, wh–what’s in the middle? HELEN: A delightful surprise…! [LAUGHS AND LAUGHS, ECHOING] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

(Helen says “Let s1!Martin breathe, Jon.”)

So, “maze” and not a “labyrinth”.

- … if the place has to do with Smirke&Jonah’s previous involvements with the Beholding, is… The Distortion staying around because ultimately, The Eye’s ritual attempt could take place here? It was a Beholding-touched person who had stopped the Great Twisting (Michael Shelly, orchestrated by Gertrude), so… is this payback. (It would sound awfully coherent and straightforward for The Distortion, but…).

- We know that Michael-The-Distortion’s characteristic laughter, with the little sigh at the end,  directly came from Michael Shelley (it was his laugh, recorded on tape, in MAG099 when he was working with Gertrude); Helen-the-Distortion had begun to laugh with some echoing recently, but this time around, it was full-blown The Laugh.

I always had a bit of trouble trying to picture The Distortion but, in the middle of the discussion with Jon, I feel like I… got to understand it a bit more, thanks to this episode? It’s plural; sometimes a bit more Helen, sometimes not. Sometimes, Helen is “she”, sometimes it’s “I” – and always a bit of both, always multiple and “more” than who Helen Richardson was (it knows about other entities and their schemes, it remembers past and present victims). It took a bit from humans who were consumed, from people who went through the door, and those things are swirling and sometimes coming out to the surface?

- Helen made a lot of… actually good points re:Jon’s decisions, (in)actions and complacency until now regarding The Eye:

(MAG087) GEORGIE: Come on, I’m not throwing you out, Jon. I know you wouldn’t be here if you had anywhere else to go, and I… I do want to help, but… y’know, you’re a good person. You were, at least. But whatever this is, it’s messing you up! [SIGH] Look I’ve, I’ve got work to do. You listen, or don’t listen, or cross-record, or whatever you want, just… just think about it first, okay? You can choose to leave it alone. [DOOR CLOSES] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] [TAPE PLAYER IS LOADED] [CLICK–] […] GEORGIE: That’s it. Whatever the hell this deal is, the tapes, documents, I don’t want them in my house. ARCHIVIST: Look, look… No, no… Look, you, you don’t need to be scared. GEORGIE: I’m not! You are! Look at you, you can barely stand! ARCHIVIST: But I… But I need– GEORGIE: Listen to me, Jon. I can’t stop you doing… whatever secret bullshit you want to do, and I’m… not going to throw you out on the street, but I’m not having it in by home. ARCHIVIST: No… No, they won’t. I’ll make sure it doesn’t… I’ll keep it far away. GEORGIE: No, you need to stop. ARCHIVIST: I’m not sure I can.

(MAG107) ARCHIVIST: I feel… a lot better! … I’d love to rattle off a lot of potential other reasons for this, nice rational causes of recovery, but… I feel we’re past the point of transparent rationalisations. It looks like the recording of statements has now passed over from psychological compulsion into… a more physical dependence. I don’t whether this is… some sort of classical addiction or something a bit deeper. But either way, this is not the time for experimentation. I’m on a deadline, and if I need to be reading statements to stay well enough, then I suppose that’s what I shall do.

(MAG111) GERRY: Hmmm… Well, she could make people tell her stuff, sometimes. They’d suddenly get real talkative, and lay out whatever she needed. She didn’t do it often though. I don’t think she liked it. ARCHIVIST: [PERKY] Oh, er, I can do that, too. GERRY: Huh. Do you like it? ARCHIVIST: I–I don’t know. I… I never really thought about it. … Yes, I… I suppose I do. GERRY: Hmmm.

(MAG129) MARTIN: Yes, I’m not an idiot, Jon, but it’s no… worse than working for something really bad, so… ARCHIVIST: At least, The Eye hasn’t gone after our own. Lukas has vanished two people!

And there was the fact that Jon began to refer himself as “The Archivist” when introducing his statements in season 4, too. Was it a supernatural compulsion? Something he has been doing consciously, identifying with the status, giving it… more strength than the “Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute”, which was lowering it to a simple job?

(I can’t help but wonder, too, if, at that moment:

(MAG092) ELIAS: [SIGH] What are you? ARCHIVIST: I… The Archivist. ELIAS: Precisely. It is your job to chronicle these things, to experience them, whether first-hand or through the eyes of others. To simply be told, well…

Jon was clearly answering what (he thought) Elias wanted to hear, there, but… if Jon had refused to take up the title, refused to identify with it, if he had just obstinately answered “Jonathan Sims”, again and again, would things have proceeded differently…?)

… At the same time: it’s “The Distortion”, who has always gotten its kicks out of confusing people. It’s a predator who likes to toy with its preys, with the added dimension that it explained that “Helen” had made a decision to stop feeling guilty over her actions – because she wouldn’t be changing them. It feels like victim-blaming (like Elias did when he gave his whole speech to Jon about his choices: sure, indeed, Jon could have elected other options… but there is no such thing as uninformed consent. Not knowing what you’re signing up for and being denied the opportunity to back out is arguably a choice; is it truly a choice when you don’t have all the parameters, and are manipulated/groomed/raised into doing something you didn’t want…?); and also like the “Helen” part of the Distortion is trying to “help” Jon feel better by inviting him to do the same (Helen liked Jon, it might be a way to alleviate his pain, as she told him in MAG146: “It would be better if you embraced it.”) in order to feel less bad about her own choice – if Jon, if anyone succumbs, then, nothing to be done, right? It happens anyway. It’s not their fault. They “chose” but they didn’t have any choice in the first place, since the results is the same for everyone. It’s not their own personal choice to give up.

- Re:Helen being manipulative/confusing on purpose…

1°) Avatars referring to Jon as “Jon” are usually a Bad Sign:

(MAG102) ARCHIVIST: [LONG INHALE] So what do we actually know? ELIAS: Jon… ARCHIVIST: Don’t you dare [SLAMS ON TABLE] “Jon” me.

(MAG121) OLIVER: Hum… Hello, Jon. Do you… m–mind if I call you Jon? I… I mean. You don’t actually know me, it’s just… well. “Archivist”, it’s so… formal, isn’t it? And I do kind of know you…? […] Make your choice, Jon.

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “‘Free will’ is a funny old thing – isn’t it, Jon? Can I call you Jon? I’m going to call you Jon.”

(MAG152) HELEN: Hello, Jon. Been a while since you’ve been down here. […] Cheerio, Jon! Enjoy your brooding.

2°) Helen presenting the idea of Jon giving up and attacking someone again as unavoidable certainty (while highlighting that Jon has no Spooky Knowledge on the matter: it feels like he could die without… but he doesn’t know. It might not actually be a necessity. It “just” makes him suffer. If he attacks someone, it would be about comfort rather than survival.), and presenting the relationships within the Archives team in a specific way: not as friendship or stemming from affection… but only as a “responsibility”?

It’s true that Jon never chose Basira, Daisy and Melanie as his assistants. He never was exceptionally close to them – Melanie and him disliked each other, Daisy was threatening towards him and hated what he had done to her, Basira… used to like him, a bit, and that was all. Meanwhile, Jon had asked Tim to come with him in the Archives (and had calmed down as soon as Tim had conveyed that he was getting too heated, in MAG033; they had a very good relationship, Jon trusted and followed Tim’s warnings), Sasha could interrupt a statement to nitpick pronunciations with him just like that (he liked her! she sounded like she was probably his favourite!), and Martin was… Martin…, so by comparison… the current Archives team is not really made of spontaneous friendship. But affection seemed to have grown, and Helen is casually negating all of it, implying that Jon is only holding off on statements to preserve himself, while it could be many other reasons (and “not wanting to disappoint the others” would be absolutely valid!):

(MAG152) HELEN: Hungry, are we~? ARCHIVIST: That’s not…! I haven’t done anything– HELEN: Yet. [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: I feel like if I don’t… I might die. Fade away into nothing. HELEN: Do you “Know” that? ARCHIVIST: No. But I– … I can’t die. They need me. HELEN: Come on, Jon, no excuses. They don’t need your protection. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] What, are you going to look after them? HELEN: And how would I do that? […] When has your guilt, or your “sadness”, or your hand-wringing, ever actually stopped you from doing what it wants? ARCHIVIST: I, uh, I–I have not been taking statements…! HELEN: You’ve sworn off other people’s trauma for now… because you were caught. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] HELEN: Because continuing would endanger you. But other than that, when has your discomfort ever actually stopped you walking the path of The Beholding?   ARCHIVIST: I… I don’t know…

(Joooon… you would have an answer to that, though. It was when you decided to trust the assistants, and when you burned Gerry’s page, even though it caused you pain and EVERYTHING was telling you to not do it.

(MAG117) ARCHIVIST: That’s it, then. I, I think. Except… [PAPER] I, uh… I haven’t burned it. Gerard’s page. … G–Gerry. I, I… I know there’s more he could tell me. He, he wouldn’t, of course, I, I, I know that, b–but he, he, it would still– b–be– there, that, that, that knowledge. I– It it would, it would still exist, I– I, I, I can’t. I… I want to help. I, I want to. But I… uh… I’m scared. On, on tape, just… just– just do it. [UNCAPPED LIGHTER] [HEAVY BREATHING] [SOUND OF A FLAME] Do it! [HEAVY BREATHING] [CRIES OF PAIN, BURNING SOUND] [HEAVY BREATHING, MUFFLED] I… [CAPPED LIGHTER, SHAKY VOICE] … you owe me one, Gerry. Rest in… … Just rest.

When you were finding reasons to not do it, and you still forced yourself to do it because you had promised Gerry.)

(- Meanwhile: if Jon is feeling like Hell after a few months, and is confused and tired (his voice is… raspy)… once again, how does Elias feed. It’s been a year. How come he’s managing. Has he done something to the prison, is he actually in control of the whole place.)

- Oh Gods No, Jon:

(MAG152) ARCHIVIST: … Fine. I get it; my feelings mean nothing to it. HELEN: Mm, not true. They carry a certain flavour, a seasoning. ARCHIVIST: [HUFF] [NASAL CHUCKLE] I see. HELEN: [LAUGHS, ECHOING] I am enjoying our time together.

… is now deliberately making Beholding puns.

- One big distinction from other avatars, regarding Jon, though? He still… doesn’t put the blame on his victims. It’s him doing something awful to them, he takes no pride in it. There is still that “guilt”… and an absolute lack of zealotry regarding The Eye? Elias was all over Beholding in MAG120. Hezekiah got all over The Buried in a year and half. But Jon… still isn’t waxing poetry about Beholding?

And same: he… still hasn’t attacked anyone, although his surveillance seems quite loose. Why has Jon agreed to stop, since he’s been confronted about it and unable to keep on being in denial or finding a scapegoat through The Web…? There have been talks about how he will come back to it, how it won’t last, but… no discussion about the reasons he would have to stop, although he admitted that he “[did]n’t want to stop” (MAG147), and has indeed been stopping since then. I don’t think that it’s only as Helen said, that he’s restraining himself for self-preservation…?

- … There is now an additional dimension to the fact that Jon was keeping his rib in the same drawer as Jane Prentiss’s ashes, since he explained how he was… likening their situations:

(MAG140) BASIRA: Er… Jon. What’s this. [DRY SOUND] ARCHIVIST: Mm? … Oh. That’s… [SILENCE] That, uh, that’s… my rib? BASIRA: … Right. [PUTS IT DOWN] ARCHIVIST: Yup… BASIRA: And… the jar of ashes. ARCHIVIST: Not– Not mine; I–I mean, it belongs to me, I–I guess, but it’s not… Er, stationery is in the other drawer?

(MAG152) HELEN: Hello, Jon. Been a while since you’ve been down here. ARCHIVIST: [ANGRY EXHALE] I didn’t come here to see you. HELEN: Oh, come now. I’m sure I’m more interesting company than the late Jane Prentiss. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … It’s all that left of her now. Apart from a… jar of ashes in my desk. Just a circle of rotten stone on an otherwise… unremarkable wall.

(I first misunderstood this passage and there was something really striking about the picture of Jon going back in the tunnels where Jane Prentiss had hidden, and from where she had attacked them, going back to that special spot with the circle of worms and going back in time to when she was the current threat, holding the jar of ashes in his arms… But he doesn’t actually have the jar with him.) This is not just about Jane Prentiss specifically, though. Jon has had a trend of focusing on avatars and their stories to try to see what is the logic, where he fits in:

(MAG139) ARCHIVIST: Why were we chosen? Agnes was created – crafted with a specific purpose so finely tuned that even a grain of uncertainty threatened the entirety of her being. [CHORTLING] But I’m so full of doubt it feels like there’s no room for anything else, and… I’m sure Martin is the same…! Is there “destiny” here? B–bloodlines and… prophecies, or did we just… stumble into this? Maybe we’re the opposite of Agnes; maybe our doubts are exactly what we need. I–if that’s the case, I’m a… an amazing chosen one. … [LONG EXHALE] Don’t know how that would work, though.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] The more I listen and learn, the more it seems to me we’re all just… “groping about”. Trying desperately to find out what we’re actually meant to be doing. [PAUSE] These things that… loom so large over our lives trap us, and push us, and… sometimes kill us. But they never actually tell us what we’re supposed to be doing. So we scheme and we plot, lash out at each other without ever really knowing why. […] [SIGH] … We’ve been back in London for just over a week, now. I’m… more or less recovered physically. It’s just this nagging sense of unease that won’t leave me. … I was so sure I’d find something up there. But instead, it was just another broken person trying to come to terms with the wreckage of their life.

(MAG148) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] Did he mention it at all? My, uh… BASIRA: Oh, your new diet? Nothing useful. Didn’t seem too fazed by it. ARCHIVIST: [LONG SIGH] Right. BASIRA: What? ARCHIVIST: … I–I don’t know, I mean… We still don’t really know… what Elias actually is…? I thought… Maybe if he was more like me than we realised… BASIRA: He might have some advice? ARCHIVIST: Stupid, I know.

(MAG152) ARCHIVIST: I cannot tell how much of the change that comes over someone, when they are taken by one of the Fears, is a… direct product of their influence, and how much is their own mind, desperately contorting itself to accept and justify the awful things they find themselves drawn to doing. I have read… many statements now by those who are changing, who are becoming… something else, and few, if any of them, seem… entirely rational. Entirely the people that they were before. And how can I tell, I suppose? My job is to view people at their lowest, their most fearful and unstable moments. Perhaps there is less change there than I imagine. Certainly… I don’t feel different; I have no desire for pseudo-religious philosophising or… delighting in the suffering of those I harm. … Then again, I suppose I’m hardly in the best position to judge. Perhaps to anyone listening to these tapes, I sound… remarkably similar to Hezekiah, or to Manuela. … Or to Jane. […] HELEN: But that’s not why you’re here, is it? ARCHIVIST: [EXHALE] … Yeah, mm. … I’ve been thinking a lot about Jane. She was the first, you know? The first I actually… “encountered” like… [SMALL HUFF] like us. She seemed so… inhuman. Like everything she used to be was… stripped away…! HELEN: And now? ARCHIVIST: … I wonder how much of her was still in there. How much did she choose to be what she was? I read her statement, she was… [SIGH] She was scared. I assumed she’d been possessed completely against her will, but now I’m not even sure that’s possible…! HELEN: It is astounding the sort of things you’re willing to choose, given an unpleasant enough alternative, isn’t it? ARCHIVIST: How much of “willpower” is just… safety. Comfort by another name. The option to choose and be fine. […] HELEN: But we’re not talking about me, are we? ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … When does it stop? HELEN: What? ARCHIVIST: The guilt… The misery… All the others I’ve met, they’ve been… cold. Cruel. They’ve enjoyed what they do. When does The Eye… make me monstrous? HELEN: [LAUGHS AND LAUGHS, ECHOING] Why would it ever do that?

Trying to find a reason about why this all was happening to him through Agnes’s story; throwing his lot in alongside other avatars, and expressing a form of pity towards Manuela (Jon???); trying to find out if Elias’s own experience and managing methods could help him (you know you’re at your lowest when–); and now not being sure, anymore, that he’s any different from the others. Mostly concerned about (not) dealing with his own feelings of guilt rather than… finding ways to stop causing harm. Still portraying himself as passive without realising it much: wondering if he had been “chosen” (although it has some truth to it – Elias did pick him out, after all) meant that he hadn’t made the choice himself. Being at the mercy of Fears gods way above his comprehension meant that they were the only ones able to give him a purpose. Thinking that he was manipulated by The Web to attack people and feed from their traumas, meant that he wasn’t the one choosing to do it. Thinking of Jane as “possessed” meant that it wasn’t really her; that it isn’t really “Jonathan Sims”, either, cornering people and hurting them deeply. Waiting for The Eye to “make” him monstrous means that he is not becoming it almost on his own.

I’m still absolutely lost on the matter of what Jon is heading towards. We began season 4 with Oliver inviting Jon to make a “choice”: but I feel like lately, characters have insisted that… it wasn’t an all-defining, all-compassing choice. That Jon kept choosing, afterwards, and is still choosing right now, although that’s still not something that he is fully acknowledging. It feels like he’s being handed key hints about his own faults and flaws, and about his own situation, through what it isn’t; he’s been given other examples; he’s been told both by Helen and by Annabelle that he was still constantly choosing, that nobody else was making his decisions for him. But, at the same time, Jon has… never been known for his ability to self-reflect until it was way too late. So: on the one hand, Helen Richardson choosing to “stop” feeling guilty because she’d keep going could be once again a counterexample, something he will chose to not do because others have chosen this before. On the other hand, if Jon Definitely Crashes… we would have been given the keys to understand why and how it happened. So, no idea.

… But: since Annabelle’s statement, Jon has been shown interacting with Basira (MAG148), then Melanie (MAG150). We know Daisy is around, though we still haven’t heard a glimpse of conversation between them. I’m still Very Worried About Daisy (what did Jon stop himself from saying about her to Basira, in MAG148…? Does he know something we don’t? Has she secretly relapsed? Is she currently dying from withdrawal?) but at the same time… she made me want her to be the person to pull Jon up – Jon, who has been digging into avatars’ mechanisms and histories and raisons d’être… and drifting away from the “human” side of things at the same time? (Or, to make a more accurate distinction: Jon has been focusing on people and creatures who deem it acceptable and fine to feed from other people’s misery, while beginning to ignore and close his eyes to the people who are hurt by them.) I still feel like Daisy gave us the most hopeful line, this season?

(MAG132) DAISY: Y–you know what I thought wh–when I woke up here? I thought this was hell; I wa–, I was dead, and within hell. And I… eh, I–I knew I deserved it… I don’t want t–to be a s–sadistic predator again… I–I don’t want to… hobble around, like some pathetic, wounded prey either… I don’t know which would be worse. And I’m sc–scared, now, that I’ll never get the choice… ARCHIVIST: One thing I’ve learned, Daisy, is that we all get a choice. Even if it doesn’t feel like one.

Jon had been the one to get her out of the coffin; it would be fitting for Daisy to pull him back up, too. Daisy, who used to simply be a “rabid dog”, just a way for Elias to get Jon to develop his powers – how fitting would it be, if she was the one who had not been factored in for, if she managed to save something or someone…? I don’t know. Don’t want to be too hopeful, especially when I’m still worried about Jon’s interrupted “Daisy is–” ;;

MAG153’s title is… OUUUUUUUUUUUUUFTTTTTTTTTT. First thought is “Gertrude.” (Are her boxes of tapes & statements still accessible in Elias’s office?), obviously, then “Martin?”, then I googled it and got acquainted with the actual meaning of the expression, and PLEASE DON’T BE ABOUT MARTIN… (be it on the receiving end, or as… the one… doing it… to someone… especially not Jon… please, don’t be about any of the assistants………………).

So eh. Many potentials and D: Web? It’s about manipulation. Lonely? We know the Lukases are really good at raising/grooming kids/people. Corruption? It sounds… a lot like Jane Prentiss, uh. Slaughter? Beholding and it’s about Jonathan Fanshawe and Jonah Magnus? Oh gods, please, don’t have Elias talk in this episode, not with a title like that. Fear Entities overall (from Smirke or another architect)?

[fromthedeskofelizabeththird]

Bewitched, Body and Soul 4/?

Areum is taken to the house of the stern Mr Jumin Han, to whom she takes an instantaneous disliking. The feeling is very much mutual.

I’ve given up trying to guess how many chapters this is going to be lmao. This entire chapter was supposed to be a side scene in chapter 2 but GDI if the piano scene isn’t my favourite in P&P. Well...second favourite, falling just a little behind this one. Also the bit about the Countess and Pemberley is partially true

Intro - If You Go Chasing Rabbits 

Jumin Route - Bewitched, Body and Soul - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

A word, perhaps, about Pemberley house.

Many hundreds of years before Miss Areum or Mr Han drew breath, it belonged to a Countess of great repute and incredible vanity. It’s not clear when exactly she decided upon it as a personal project, only that through multiple marriages and favours to the crown, she was able to expand it several times over. By the time of her death, the house was barely recognisable from its humble beginnings. Pemberley rivalled most palaces of its era in terms of grandeur, though its remote location came at a great cost; it was far less renowned than others in the region and all but impossible to find in bad weather. The Countess craved admirers and praise, but few of her peers were willing to travel through the winding moors and woodland for a simple visit.

Even if Areum were better educated and from a noble family, it is unlikely that she would know of Pemberley. As a matter of fact, Areum had never travelled outside of London and the prospect of doing so left her incredibly nervous. She planned to take the earliest opportunity to escape, though the further she travelled from the city, the more she realised how unrealistic it was to presume she would be able to find her way back. She had no pennies to rub together; no idea of the roads.

Somewhat luckily, Miss Kang was just as uneasy with the situation as she was and far less concerned about speaking her mind.

“We didn’t give the staff any warning,” she said dragging out her notebook and scribbling amendments to several entries. “We weren’t scheduled to be back for a week and-”

“I know,” said Mr Han, without turning away from the window.

Miss Kang sighed and lowered her pen.

“What was it that Luciel told you?” She asked, lifting the notebook to her lips and blowing on the ink. “It isn’t like you to be so impulsive, sir.”

Mr Han took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, changing it from pristinely brushed back to falling around his face. Areum wasn’t sure why, but watching felt oddly intrusive and she averted her eyes back to the window.

“He told me,” said Mr Han, seeming to contemplate it even as he spoke, “that he received an anonymous tip from an insider at Mint Eye...someone keeping an eye on them for quite some time and understands their methods.”

Miss Kang’s eyes grew wide at the revelation, lowering her notebook onto her lap.

“By an insider…” She said. “Could it be a hoax?”

“I suspected the same,” said Mr Han, “but they had information yet to be revealed to the public.”

“Information?”

At that Mr Han fell silent, glancing briefly across at Areum.

“The source specifically referenced that Mint Eye has no member by the name of Areum nor any plans to send spies into our group at this point in time,” he said. “Their goals are rather more...ambitious.”

Areum’s heart skipped a beat at the knowledge that someone somewhere had tried to clear her name. Neither Miss Kang nor Mr Han seemed as happy about the news, however.

“I don’t understand,” she said before she could stop herself. “Isn’t that good news?”

Mr Han let out a sigh of frustration and Areum wondered if she had made a mistake by speaking at all. Ultimately it was Miss Kang who answered, in a soft voice far removed from her status as page.

“It’s certainly good to hear that you might be innocent,” she said. “But your presence here is known only to a small number of people. For a stranger to know not only that you are with us, but also the subject of suspicion, well...we must be prepared for the possibility that they have been watching us from the beginning.”

Areum’s blood ran cold at the prospect. She could think of nothing but how many times she had taken a seat in Mr Han’s window, watching wealthy strangers go about their daily lives. The idea of someone watching her back left her uncomfortable.

“But then,” she said, wondering if she truly was as idiotic as she felt for having as many questions as she did, “if you know that I’m innocent, why are you taking me with you? If I’m cleared from suspicion, there’s no need for me stay.”

Evidently Miss Kang wondered the same thing, for she turned to Mr Han instead of making any attempt to answer. He said nothing, though, breaking his gaze and turning back to the window.

The journey to Pemberley was long, usually lasting about two days. Come dusk they took refuge in the countryside estate of Jumin’s aunt, better known as the Dowager, Lady Margaret. Her lands were not so impressive as Pemberley, though there was no denying her expensive taste. Areum stared in awe at the high ceilings and starlit windows.

Ever considerate, Mr Han had sent a messenger ahead of time to announce their arrival, leaving the Dowager plenty of time to prepare several rooms and a proper welcome. Areum’s stomach turned somersaults as she followed Miss Kang and Mr Han into the mansion, eyes darting left and right in an attempt to take in every painting and candelabra. Areum knew nothing of the Dowager, but she surmised from the fine layer of dust on the more ornamental of her possessions that the woman had more trinkets than sense.

The Dowager waited for them in the parlour with a warm fire and expression of scrutiny.

“Ahhh, Jumin,” she said as the three of them bowed their heads in greeting, Areum making a clumsy attempt at a curtsey. Though the Dowager made little to no effort to look them in the face, Areum got the impression she took in every detail. “How are you?”

“It’s good to see you,” said Mr Han. “Though I am sorry to take advantage of your hospitality in such a fashion.”

“Ahhh, it is no mind.”

She glanced from Mr Han to Miss Kang with a smile.

“Miss Kang, is it?” She asked, seemingly drawn to her by the awkward way she shuffled on the spot.

“Yes, Ma’am,” said Miss Kang, bowing her head a second time.

“How are you finding your current position? Is it to your liking?”

“I...yes Ma’am. I enjoy it a great deal.”

“Fascinating. It is...unusual for a woman to take on a valet’s responsibilities.”

“Mr Han is very forward thinking, Ma’am.”

And just like that, her attentions fell to Areum.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you before,” said the dowager and Areum’s mind went blank. She knew she ought to introduce herself, but she got the distinct impression that the dowager would be less inclined to believe the story about her being a distant cousin.

“M-My name is A-Areum, ma’am,” she stammered, “I…”

Luckily, Mr Han had prepared for such a sequence of events even before coming to the conclusion that they might visit.

“Areum is to be Elizabeth’s governess,” he interrupted, prompting guffaws of laughter.

“Well it’s about time! Tell me,” the Dowager fumbled with a set of spectacles to view her better. “How many languages do you speak? French? German?”

Areum felt herself flushing a bright red, acutely aware of the fireplace behind her.

“Only the one, Ma’am.”

“Do you sing? Play the piano?”

“Not very well, Ma’am.”

In one of her more rebellious moments, she had taken seat at the piano in the Finchley house and played the keys she was supposed to be cleaning. It would probably be more accurate to suggest she did not play at all, though she got the impression that the Dowager would disapprove of such a fact.

As expected, she lowered her spectacles with an expression of both surprise and disappointment.

“Well that’s no use,” she said, though not to Areum, but Mr Han himself, who seemed completely disinterested in her opinions one way or the other.

“Elizabeth needs the company,” he said. “Miss Areum may not be the most intelligent of her ilk, but she is loyal… and good natured.”

Mr Han had never praised her before and it sounded not only awkward but positively unnatural. The dowager seemed to notice, too, for her immediate reaction was to laugh.

“Sweet tempered and loyal,” she said, “you speak of the poor girl as if she is some sort of terrier.”

“Apologies,” said Mr Han, bowing briskly. “I say only what I know to be true.”

If Areum didn’t know better, she might have thought he was embarrassed. Where before she was nervous, now her only concern was to avoid laughing.

She couldn’t help but wonder if the sudden trip to the country would be so terrible, after all.

After their introductions to the Dowager, Mr Han, Miss Kang and Areum retired to their rooms for evening with the express instructions that they were to dress for dinner. Miss Kang was unhappy about the arrangement even if she did not say so, rummaging in her luggage for a proper dress. Ordinarily, she wore plain clothes in the style one would expect of a man and it was all too clear from her stiff movements and stern expression that she considered anything else an imposition.

Despite everything, Miss Kang had had the foresight to pack several of Areum’s new dresses into their luggage for the night and as they fiddled with the ribbons on their dresses, Areum finally broached the subject that had been bothering her for most of the evening.

“Who is Miss Elizabeth?”

Areum had at first wondered if such a person might be Mr Han’s wife, though it seemed unlikely a grown woman would require a governess. Unfortunately, the thought of Mr Han having a child seemed equally unbelievable.

“She is a ward of Mr Han’s,” said Miss Kang. “For the past year or so, she has lived with him in his estate.”

“A ward? So she is not his child?”

Areum didn’t know why it disappointed her that she might be.

“Not through blood,” said Miss Kang. “Miss Rika and Mr Kim...the pair of them would travel between workhouses and buy as many people out of poverty as they could. They gave them clothes, houses, an education...they reformed them, integrated them into society. Mr Han owns factories and businesses all over the country, so it wasn’t difficult to find them well paid work.”

Areum was sure she would never forget the day Mrs Ridgebit bought her out of the workhouse, nor the heady mix of joy, hope and other emotions rushing through her that she had not been able to understand as a child. For Mr Kim and Miss Rika to undertake such altruistic pursuits, they must have been kind souls indeed.

“A few years ago, the pair of them came back with Miss Elizabeth. She was all skin and bone and a sorry sight and I think Miss Rika planned to be a mother to her, but...”

Areum thought she caught a glimpse of something in Miss Kang’s eyes; not quite regret, though something equally dark and forbidden.

“But?”

“Miss Rika,” she said, “god rest her soul. She died so suddenly and Mr Kim was so grief stricken that Mr Han took over most of his affairs. He took charge of Elizabeth, intending to send her back after a few months, but Mr Kim is a changed man these days. I don’t think she will ever go back.”

The Mr Han that Moss described was considerate and kind and completely at odds with the one she had come to know. Areum wondered if it was all a joke; that she would arrive at Mr Han’s estate and find Elizabeth to be little more than a cat.

As a matter of fact, she could think of nothing else at the Dowager’s dinner table, the polite conversation around her barely crossing her ears. When the dowager first decided to ask her to play the piano for a third time, she almost jumped out of her seat.

“My goodness,” said the dowager, with a disapproving look, “lost in her own thoughts, this one.”

“I-I’m sorry Ma’am,” she said, lowering her fork and bowing her head. “I’ve just...I’ve never been in such fine company before.”

Only after she said it did she realise that, by extension, she had insulted Mr Han.

“I, sorry, I-“

The dowager merely laughed, seeming to find her discomfort incredibly amusing.

“As I was saying,” she said, picking up from where she left off, “my dear Areum, might you honour us with around on the piano? I’m curious of the sort of person my nephew would choose for a governess.”

Areum’s heart skipped a beat at such a proposition.

“I, ma’am...I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I really was not lying when I said I didn’t play well.”

Unfortunately, the Dowager would not hear her protests.

“Such humility! Such a rare quality these days-wouldn’t you agree, Jumin?”

“Ah, you’re right,” he said, as awkwardly as before. Under different circumstances, she might have found such a display amusing.

“As you wish, my lady,” she said, standing up from her chair and taking a good long glance at the piano on the other side of the room.

She told herself that she had seen the Finchley girls play and if she re-enacted their hand movements she might at the very least seem convincing. Unfortunately, she had forgotten how terribly complicated pianos were, with dozens of almost identical keys. Areum gulped, willing herself to stay calm even as she took a seat and reached for the songbook.

“Please excuse me,” said Mr Han, also leaving the table. He approached the piano without the slightest hesitation, seeming not to notice Areum’s stares as he took the music book from her and sat down himself.

“This is my aunt’s favourite,” he said rather louder than was necessary, turning to a particular page and lowering his hands to the keys. By some degree of good fortune, the piano was positioned in such a manner that the dowager would not see who was actually playing.

He reached for her hands and placed them across his own, seeming not to notice the close contact. In contrast, Areum barely heard the notes he played; too fascinated by the warmth of his hands and movement of his fingers. His hands were so much bigger than hers and nimble across the keys.

The Countess seemed enamoured by Mr Han’s playing, closing her eyes and nodding her head to the tune.

“Why did you say it?” Areum whispered, so quietly that only Mr Han would hear.

“Please be more specific.”

“That I was loyal and good natured.”

“Oh,” he said, attentions barely shifting from playing. “I see. Did it offend you?”

“No,” she said, “it’s just…”

She wanted to ask him if he meant it; that he really considered her in such a fashion.

“I’m surprised you can vouch for my good character given how little we’ve actually talked.”

“Would you rather I called you troublesome and a ruffian?”

“I think I preferred being a terrier.”

Mr Han laughed softly, playing a livelier set of notes.

“Duly noted.”

It was the first time in a long while that she had seen him smile in an honest fashion, if at all. For a moment, Areum forgot that she was a maid and Mr Han so deplorable. Nothing but the piano and her fluttering heart seemed to matter.

“Did you mean it?” She asked, voice trembling at the brashness of asking him outright.

Mr Han sighed, slowing the melody. For a time, she believed that he was not going to answer. Before long, the song was over and he rested her hands down against the keys.

”I do not lie, Miss Areum.”

“You’re lying to the dowager right now.”

“And perhaps I was lying to her then.”

That night, Areum barely slept, instead considering the hateful nature of one Mr Han. Miss Kang fell asleep the moment her head so much as touched the pillow, leaving the room silent but for her quiet snores.

Areum was almost tempted to haphazardly stretch out an arm or leg and wake her up, thereby having something to occupy her attentions beyond the memory of Mr Han’s hands on hers or the soft smile he showed only briefly. Her stay at the dowager’s home had filled her with many questions, the likes of which she had not previously believed possible. She had never spent so long deliberating another person’s character as she had Mr Han.

After many hours of tossing and turning, she finally gave up and pulled a shawl around her shoulders, meaning to take a short walk along the hall to clear her mind.

The dowager’s fine manor appeared entirely different after dark. Her fine trinkets and oil paintings appeared almost grotesque, blanketed as they were by shadow. Areum shuddered at her new surroundings and made her way towards the nearest window, which lay a short distance to the left of her own room.

She had not expected anyone else to be awake at such an unforgiving hour, much less wide awake and speaking of serious matters, so it came as something of a surprise when she turned the corner and saw candlelight shining through the gaps underneath a nearby door.

Ordinarily, she might have remembered her place; disappeared out of sight to where she was welcome. The business of rich folk with estates to their name was none if her business nor her concern, yet at the muffled sound of Mr Han’s voice inside, she was unable to resist creeping closer.

“You can’t hold it off forever,” came the dowager’s voice. “A man of your position…”

“I know,” said Mr Han. “But you, more than anyone should know of the stakes.”

“I can’t understand why you turned down that girl...Susan...Samantha…”

“Sarah.”

“Ah yes, that’s the one. Your father was most insistent upon it as a match.”

Areum’s eyes grew wide at the name. Had she not bumped into a Sarah only recently? One who, for that matter, had faced a grave injustice. In her wildest dreams, Areum would never have guessed that Miss Sarah’s past history with Mr Han-the history that left her shunned from high society and homeless-began with a marriage proposal.

Areum wondered at how such a terrible thing might have occurred and if it had any kind of connection to his interference in Effy’s affairs. As much as she was loathe to admit it, she doubted Mr Han would cast aside anyone without just cause.

Unfortunately, she was soon proven wrong in that respect-Mr Han revealing the awful truth as if he spoke to her directly.

“My father might not have been so fond of her if he knew she hadn’t a penny to her name.”

Areum didn’t understand why his words upset her so, leaving her running back to her room without a care for the racket she made.

How naive she had been to believe Mr Han could be anything but proud and judgemental; why had she questioned the extent of his hatefulness? Why did it bother her so much to hear him speak so cruelly of the common folk? His words were nothing she had not heard before.

Miss Kang stirred as Areum climbed back into bed, rubbing her eyes and adjusting her hair.

“What...what time is it? Did something happen?”

Areum rolled onto her side so that she faced the wall, her tears and sniffles obscured from view. She had no doubt that Miss Kang could tell she was distressed, but Miss Kang was a professional of common courtesies. She bade Areum a good night and pressed the matter no further.

[skyhopedango]

Nobunaga Concerto ch96

Just, that intro pic. GDI, Hidenaga.

*ahem*

So anyway, in the previous chapter Saburou was about to get assassinated while he was enjoying an onsen during a surprise visit to Hideyoshi. Yuki managed to stop the assassin, who revealed himself to be... 

“’That’...? What do you mean?” “I mean, are you that Ishikawa Goemon?!”

And yes, it is Ishikawa Goemon, whose name is completely unknown to everyone but the star-struck Saburou. Not that Saburou knows why Goemon is famous, mind, but still, 

“He’s all over anime and games and other media! Wow, I had no idea he really existed. Not to mention he lived in the same age as Nobunaga! What a surprise!

Goemon is like “..okay, Nobunaga is seriously weird” and concludes that 1) he just can’t with this guy, and 2) he’s already failed, anyway. So he escapes, and Saburou tells his men not to kill him, because “something tells me he shouldn’t die at this time.”

(He shouldn’t, indeed. While fleeing Goemon runs into Hideyoshi, who is hurrying to the scene as this is all happening on his land. They verbally spar about how assassination should be done with conviction, dammit. Goemon, of course, will eventually die after a botched assassination attempt on the same Hideyoshi, and it’s kind of amusing to think that Hideyoshi’s grudge over this incident and his personal dislike of Goemon might be behind the extreme cruelty of that execution.)

Because oh, Hideyoshi is really, really frustrated, partly because the assassination attempt on Nobunaga happened on his territory making him seem suspicious, and partly because it was unsuccessful. He’s also trying to figure out who sent the assassin. 1) The Mouri? Nah, they have good ninja, they wouldn’t send some weirdo who half-asses the job. 2) Maybe it was Hidenaga going behind his back again?

“This is terrible! That I was not here to witness such an amusing incident... How deeply disappointing!!”

OK, so it wasn’t Hidenaga. And the next most obvious culprit is... 

3) The shougun. Of course it was the shougun, who just has to keep meddling and screwing up. Hidenaga offers go and tell the shougun that if he wants to kill Nobunaga he should do it right and also not on Hideyoshi’s land. Hideyoshi tells him to get the fuck out. 

And so, we cross into the new year, and HOLY SHIT it’s Tenshou 9! 1581!! 

The new year finds Saburou in Kyoto, taking up residence in Honnouji, as he promised he would. Unsurprisingly, Mitsuhide is really unhappy about this.

“Stop with the sighing, Micchi. Look, I’m just doing my best trying to live Nobunaga’s life until the end.”

But that is exactly Micchi’s problem. Is this really what Saburou wants? To die as Nobunaga? 

No, says Saburou. I’m leaving the rest to the heavens... and you.

“You will break my destiny, right?” “Yes... I swear I will. Saburou, I won’t let you die at Honnouji.”

(´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

One year... only one year until 1582...

[spideyxchelle]

So I kind of have this nsfw headcannon that Peter and MJ have sex and fuck and have been desperate for eachother. but they have never admitted their feelings for one another. And then this one time when they are at peters house after one of his more life threatening missions, they start 'fucking' but this time it turns into something more. instead of roughly going for it they end up 'making love'. And at the same time they both realise how far gone they are. Pls do a headcannon around this! ❤️

gdi, i wrote a whole thing and tumblr deleted it. so here is my second attempt at this headcanon. i’m so upset, guys. so upset. this also has sensitive content. 

it doesn’t start accidentally. it starts in anger. it starts in the midst of flashing teeth and yelling. it starts with shaking hands and a desperate need to feel the other breathing. it starts when peter stumbles into his bedroom after a particularly trying patrol. it starts because MJ has to patch up a fist deep wound in his side, her hands painted red with the color of his sacrifice. it starts because peter tries to grab her shaking hand to comfort her. it starts when she shrugs her hand away from his grip and sneers at him. it starts because she snaps at him about how reckless and stupid he is. it starts because she says he has no idea what its like to be his friend. the constant panic and worry and fear. 

that first time ends because he gets his back up. it ends because she doesn’t understand. it ends because he tells her that it would be more reckless of him to not do anything with these powers, because its irresponsible to stand by when people need help. it ends because she yells that she’s sick of his white savior nonsense. it ends because he grabs her frustrating, mind-fucking face by the hands and pulls her in for a kiss. it ends that first time in a flurry of angry words and wandering hands and open mouthed, lavishing kisses. it ends that first time with the pair of them getting their hands on each other for want of something else. MJ can feel his breath, remind herself he’s there and alive. and Peter can feel her pulse under his fingertips, reminding him to live for something. to feel something other than devastation. 

it begins in earnest after that first time. they fight best with their teeth dragging across the other’s skin. they argue loudest when they shout each other’s name in ecstasy. its never sweet or slow. whenever a touch lingers or a kiss deepens they both quake with terror at what it could mean. and that only encourages the haste. they fuck like they have something to hide. 

they hide it for a time. but a secret as loud as love eventually outs. 

MJ sits in the grand, glass entryway of the Avenger’s headquarters. she waits with a book on her knee for Peter to get back from a mission and finds she likes the compound best when no one is around. she likes the silence. the echoing silence of glass hallways. the moon is her only source of light but it sweeps beautifully against the floors. 

all is quiet. until she hears shouting. 

the Avenger’s jet from where she is sitting is docking in the front lawn and people are screaming. it sounds like orders, people shouting for help. MJ feels something prickle at the back of her neck.

she closes her book and stands just as Nat bursts through the front door. Nat calls for the AI to page the doctor. and that’s when MJ notices the color of Nat’s hands: red. a sticky, tacky color. blood. 

MJ looks just beyond Nat’s hands and through the windows. Banner and Thor are carrying a limp body in their arms. Peter’s body. his head lolls back, free of his mask and clearly unconscious. his suit is in disrepair. a gigantic gash is ripped across his chest and an angry, open wound bleeds there. 

they hurry him past her and to the medbay. and MJ covers her mouth in a gasp, or a sob. she hears that strangled noise creep from her throat. what she doesn’t notice is her knees collapsing out from underneath her. not until Nat catches her and guides her slowly to the ground. the concrete is cold. she’s so numb she barely notices. 

that night she spends every waking hour sitting outside the surgery room. her spanish book clutched against her chest. they were supposed to study. she holds on to that promise. 

tony tries to talk to her. she looks straight ahead, her eyes never leaving the door. then, steve. again, nothing. finally Nat joins her, but thankfully she doesn’t try to talk. she sits there in silence. 

finally, at day break, the doctor comes out, stripping his bloody gloves off of his hands. he looks at the crowd of people waiting for news and announces, “he’s gonna be fine.” there is a universal sigh of relief. MJ clutches her spanish book tighter. “we needed to help his body patch itself up. with his accelerated healing he should be moving around good as new in a day or two.” 

so MJ flees. that’s so soon. she isn’t prepared. she doesn’t know what she wants to say to him. she wants to pull his hair and call him an idiot for worrying her like that. beyond that? she’s not sure. feelings are best unspoken, but she’s so raw, like an exposed nerve, she’s not sure she’d be able to talk to him right now without spilling everything. 

its easier to breathe away from the compound. in the safety of her room where she can burrow away and pretend nothing has changed. 

peter wakes from his surgery induced sleep an hour after she flees from the compound expecting to see her. everyone comes to visit him except her. and it worries him at first and then it angers him. because she should be there.

Nat tells peter that MJ left as soon as the doctor gave the all clear. that he was going to be fine. and he’s even, if possible, angrier. he holds on to anger because its an emotion that stabilizes him. if he releases the anger all he’ll have left is the hurt. because he wanted her there. he always wants her around. 

when he’s cleared from the compound, when he’s cleared for activity, he swings to her bedroom window. and knocks on the window incessantly until she relents and opens it. 

like it was at the beginning they opt for anger. its easier to fall to this than accept that they’ve fallen period. “you left,” is the first thing he says, “you didn’t even stick around to see if i was okay.” “the doctor said you’d be fine, parker. don’t act like i’m some kind of monster that doesn’t care about your well being.” “could’ve fooled me.” she snarls, “don’t you dare. don’t presume to know what it was like, okay? you getting dragged through the entryway by Banner and Thor. your body looked like a fucking broken doll, peter. it was scary.” 

“if it was so scary,” he counters, “why didn’t you stay?” “i was too mad at you to have good bedside manners.” “bullshit.” “don’t start with me, peter.” “it was shitty, what you did.” “at least i’m not some stupid idiot that terrifies his friends half to death because he’s always throwing his body, LITERALLY, in harm’s way.” “i’m fine.” “YOU DIDN’T SEE THE BLOOD. I DID.” “I HEALED. AND YOU BAILED.” “GET OVER YOURSELF, PARKER. YOU INCOMPREHENSIBLE OAF-MM..”

rage simmers between them when Peter slants his mouth over hers. this kind of fight-fucking is familiar to them both. its easy to scratch and tug and pull at each other between kisses. its effortless. peter turns her back against her desk and lifts her up on it. they’re kissing sloppily, eager for more than they can have at any given moment. 

she’s wearing these terribly thin leggings and peter rips one of the seams open on her leg to gets his hand on her skin. she growls at him ruining her clothes but he wants to touch her bare skin. and the warmth of his open palm is enough to have her head roll back. his mouth latches on to her neck. 

he feels up her one exposed thigh. indulgent. she hikes her other leg up around his waist and hits the spider at the center of his suit so it falls away. it pools around where her legs are wrapped around him. but his chest is exposed, which is enough for now. 

“you scared me,” she snarls. but her voice cracks at the end. sadness and terror leaking into her words. 

he takes a steadying breath in her neck as the weight of her words settle over him. his hand runs down her arm before he pulls his head out of her neck to meet her eyes. water is pooling in her eyes but he can see her fighting off the urge. she glances away from him, “oh shut up.” 

“Em-” but in truth he doesn’t know what he would even say. there are no words for this kind of a moment. so he grabs her hand and places it over his heart. he can feel the beat of it through her fingertips. 

she meets his eye. 

this means so many things all at once. it means i’m alive, MJ, feel my heart beating. it means i’m sorry i scared you, i hate hurting you. it means can you hear my heart beating? it beats for you. 

she understands all of his meanings. and her heart clutches in fear. 

his eyes glance down to her lips and up to her eyes again before leaning in to kiss her. its a soft, fragile thing. her lower lip wobbles into it. 

they pull apart and stare at each other. “don’t say anything,” peter whispers, “its too mu-” “shh,” she shakes her head, “shh.” 

this time she initiates the kiss. its impossible to hide the magnitude of their feelings when they kiss like this. its easy to hide them in the folds of anger but their souls are bared like this, gentle and terrified. 

peter’s shaky hands cup her face to indulge in one last kiss before he slips his hands under her ass and lifts her off the desk and crosses them to her bed. he sets her down gently and when she unlatches her legs from around his waist the rest of his suit falls away. 

she hoists herself up slightly on her elbows to look at him. he stares back and dips his fingers in her leggings to pull them down her legs. she lifts her bottom off the bed to help and once they’re off, he climbs on the bed and lifts her leg to kiss her inner thigh. its not sexual. its worshipful. 

he fits his body over hers and they are a breath apart. noses colliding to touch. his fist clenches and unclenches before winding into her hair. but still they do not look away, their eyes are locked. 

MJ presses her chest up against his and leans in for a kiss. its slow and sensuous and they’d never done this so deliberately soft before. if they had they would have noticed how their blood sang out. ringing the same tunes. 

they’ve always been little soldiers, suiting up for war. they’d never considered how blissful peace could be. 

they sigh into kisses, presses their bodies up against all of the right places. and clothes fall away. not in haste. everything about this moment is fragile and conscious. 

when there is nothing between them, they fall together easily. one piece made for another. 

when he is sheathed inside of her they both exhale. MJ scratches the back of peter’s head affectionately. they do not start moving. they relish this moment. peter has a moment of utterly clarity, and shutters, “i love you.” 

his words squeeze her chest, make her breathing faint. she looks up at him, unruly curls and all, and knows his words echo in her. it doesn’t make the truth less scary. he looks at her like his own words scare him. “i know. i love you, too,” she manages. 

he slides his hand in hers and grips it tight as they begin to move. a steady, gradual pace. peter’s forehead rests against MJ’s and their eyes close. they share intimacy as their bodies roll together on her bed. like waves crashing on the sand. each thrust is more spectacularly overwhelming the last and it never seems to end. 

which is why it catches them off guard when they cum. its sudden and blinding and white light. one moment they are moving together and the next their bodies are clenching and pulsing with one another. 

MJ keens his name and arches off the bed while peter anchors himself into her and lets it all go. every last moment. 

they share in a moment of perfectly crafted perfection. and when its over, he lays on top of her as she runs her fingers through his hair. its their attempts at hiding again. the truth of the moment is clinging to each of them. and now that they have given into passion they have to discuss what it means. 

both of them are hesitant to own to their words. to look in the other’s eyes and say without hesitation that what exists between them is love. real love. scary, adult love. 

peter eventually untangles himself from her. but he tucks her in his arms. she ran at the compound and he’s not sure what he’s afraid of more: her loving him or her running away again. 

she nuzzles into his arm and silence fills the room. finally, he asks, “did you mean it?” it hurts to answer him but she nods. he sighs, “yea, i thought so.” “now what?” she chews her lip. peter stares up at the ceiling, “i have no idea.” 

they don’t understand it. love. not really. they just know how it feels. how it consumes them. how it takes all forms. how it exists just as strongly in this moment of silence and contemplation as it did when they were making love. it doesn’t go away, its a constant dull ache. 

his fingers trace patterns into her shoulder. MJ smiles, “you ripped my leggings.” he turns his eyes on her, smiling back with them, “i’m sorry about that.” “no you’re not,” she rolls her eyes. “no i’m not.” 

MJ feels a wave of something, so she hugs him tight, “i love you. please don’t die.” he knocks his forehead against hers, “i love you, too. and i’ll try not to.” “no. none of this try bullshit. don’t you die on me, Peter Parker. i plan to have you for a long time.” 

he nearly fights with her but she looks so scared and so open and honest. he can’t take away the hope that she clings on to. he’s not naive enough to think that they won’t fight about this again. that he won’t get hurt again. but in this moment he can offer her some comfort. so he lies, “i promise not to die.” 

[vorthosjay]

Let’s Talk About Hour of Devastation

It’s finally here: Hour of Devastation by Ken Troop. This story has a lot of baggage to work through, being the pivotal moment that shifts the Gatewatch from their ‘Phase 1′ to ‘Phase 2′. If you’ve ever wondered if Wizards realized the problems inherent in the Gatewatch, this story should settle all doubt.

It’s fun. We certainly get better insight into Nicol Bolas than any time in the last ten years, but if you were looking for resolution to any lingering plot threads, they’re not here. And that’s kind of disappointing.

This is a LONG one, people, so settle in.

Hour of Devastation by Simon Dominic

Either he would have deaths, screams, and blood, or he would, perhaps, have something better.

Okay, so the first thing we have to get out of the way is that we don’t have resolutions to those lingering Bolas threads between Alara and Amonkhet. On that front, this story is very unsatisfying.

This is the first of the new mysteries that we’ll be tracking going forward. Why does Bolas want the Gatewatch broken and in the wild? I have enough faith in the post-Origins team setting up for the long term that I think there’s something planned there... but will it be satisfying when it pays off?

They fancied themselves The Gatewatch. As though for some bizarre reason there were gates scattered throughout the Multiverse. That deserved watching.

And here is the beginning of Bolas disassembling everything about the Gatewatch. Bolas is exposing those obvious flaws in the Gatewatch.

Why does Bolas want heroes out in the wild? What possible reason could it serve?

The heroes, Nicol Bolas thought. Bless them, each and every one.

I didn’t know Nicol Bolas was from the south.

No matter. There were others, if need be.

Who? The Takewatch, maybe :D

His roar echoed the cries of countless other predators throughout the eons, predators who have no more need to be silent. Over the long years, Nicol Bolas knew it served him poorly to be too much the dragon. But it was no fun to be the dragon too little.

This is so relatable.

Oh, they probably had a plan. A plan, charitably, could consist of kill the dragon. Or, you burn it, you zombie it, you elemental it, you illusion it, you block it. These were all, given enough leeway, plans. And plans of similar competence had served them well enough in their recent escapades. Nicol Bolas could appreciate efficiency. Why bother being smart when the Multiverse so conveniently conspired to keep your idiocy alive?

This story is more or less Bolas reading directly from the storyline forums.

He wondered how much it would crush their spirits if he applauded. Metaphorically, of course. His talons did not clap together well.

Look, for all that I wished we’d have learned some whys in this story, Bolas is great. He chews exactly how much scenery I would expect him to. He is both witty and terrifying.

More than several, ideally, but unless you are a brilliant elder dragon archmage planeswalker, several would suffice.

That’s a heck of a creature type.

They were children of a civilized and gelded age, these planeswalkers, this Gatewatch. They had no idea of the dangers lying in wait, ready to kill them . . . or worse. Their lack of actual power had somehow protected them from all the ways they could have died.

Catch that he says gelded, not gilded? I missed it the first time and it was John Dale Beety on twitter that made me notice it.

He’s referring to the relative safety of the post-Mending era. How things have seemed to be calm because evil god-like planeswalkers aren’t being constantly created (or evil just-a-guy planeswalkers).

Nothing about this day had gone as planned.

The irony of this comment, multiplied by all the Gatewatch members who’ve expressed it, is great when juxtaposed with what Bolas thinks of their planning.

We hit him with everything we've got. He will fall, Gideon thought back at him. 

No, this is a bad idea and I’ve been telling you for a while Gideon is a terrible leader and just keeps doing dumb things that will get people killed.

Jace had never encountered a mind so impenetrable, except for . . . the merest moment of a memory surfaced of a mind as smooth and dazzling as a wall of crystal. But even as the thought entered his mind, it erased itself, and he could not remember where he had seen such a thing—or even what kind of thing it was.

What . . . Jace shook off the sudden fugue that had overtaken him. It hadn't seemed to come from Bolas, but rather from inside himself. What was I thinking about? But he could not recall. Bolas's mind still loomed in front of him, closed and locked, as he futilely sought purchase.

Here’s our Jace story hook. Before Jace’s mind is wiped, we get a hint that his old memories are still there. This is clearly a reference to Alhammarett

He did not move to attack them, merely continuing to fling a helpless Gideon against the wall.

Look, the idea that all Bolas had to do against Gideon was keep flinging him against a wall with his tail is amazing. His over-reliance on his aura has always been a mistake. Where is Gideon’s hieromancy? Why wasn’t he summoning magic chains to bind Bolas?

Without conscious thought, he began planeswalking away blindly, not knowing or caring where. He had to avoid that darkness.

He felt himself being pulled across the Blind Eternities as the wave of darkness struck, and then he knew nothing at all.

Okay, so as we enter Ixalan, Jace is playing the part of the amensiac castaway. Will this lead to an alliance with Vraska?

Find out Monday on my first look at Ixalan!

"That was your mind expert, I believe? Do you have a spare? I can wait, or I promise not to listen if you shout at each other."

I thought Nicol Bolas was an Elder Dragon not a Troll.

Nicol Bolas lingered on each word, his voice rumbling through the open plaza, punctuated only by the continued thwaps as he bounced Gideon off the wall.

I giggled every time. I might be evil.

You have never been such a fool as to think you can win this battle, Liliana, whispered the Raven Man.

Raven Man with the sage advice. I don’t want to comment to much about the Raven Man piece here. I don’t believe Nicol Bolas is the Raven Man, but how the Raven Man views Bolas is interesting.

You alone amongst them know what true power can be again.

Can be... again? What does that mean? Might Bolas actually be looking to undo the Mending, as I’ve speculated in the past?

The dragon continued in his smooth voice. "Do you know, Liliana, how to use the Chain Veil so that it doesn't rupture your skin or drain you of life? Do you know how to make the spirits of the Onakke serve you as their master instead of seeking the destruction of your soul and body? I do, Liliana. I do."

He lies! screamed the Onakke in her head. Interloper! We will crush him!

You know he speaks truth, Liliana. He can help you. The Raven Man.

In case you were wondering, the Raven Man and the Onakke are clearly not on the same side.

That each of you has lived so long is merely a function of how useful you can be to me.

This is also what I’ve been saying for a while.

Nicol Bolas looked down at the planeswalkers and smiled. "And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?" 

IS there some kind of an application process?

Why is it that a 30,000 year old Elder Dragon has to be the one to suggest? Do the Gatewatch have bylaws? Honestly, I’m as surprised as Bolas that they’ve lasted this long.

Her fire was blinding white, coruscating rivers of flame that lashed the dragon. Bolas's eyes narrowed, and he was forced backward for the first time in the fight, letting Gideon drop to the ground as the dragon retreated.

Blinding white fire, eh? And all of a sudden, Bolas needed to avoid her flames?

Remember when I said it would be cool if Chandra learns to cast the Purifying Fire, like she learned to cast Ghostflame? Both could have served her well here, and I think that might be something we see in the future.

The Purifying Fire cover art by Michael Komarck

"Chandra Nalaar. You had so many useful characteristics. Powerful. Emotionally unstable. Easy to manipulate. Refreshingly predictable unpredictability. I really wanted to make this work." Bolas's voice boomed through the empty air. I am not easy to manipulate, she thought, her anger revving up. Her flames lit up the night sky.

Is... is Bolas complaining about Millennials, here?

I mean, I totally feel his point. ADHD caricature Chandra is frequently disappointing, but still. Wag a walking stick at her, too, Bolas.

Wow, that's a lot of pain.

Look, I have some problems with Chandra’s immature characterization sometimes, but at least this girl keeps it real.

She had thought her destiny to be different on this world, had thought her time in Kefnet's temple opened up possibilities previously unimagined . . . but no. Kefnet and the other gods lay dead in the streets, their threads cut short, their uses unexplored.

GDI Ken Troop. Now that he knows we know to hunt for meaning in his articles, he’s throwing red herrings into the mix.

Nissa had never questioned the purpose of the Gatewatch before. There was always an immediate need, wrongs to be righted, evil to be overcome. And it had worked. For so long it had worked. Until now. Until a dragon of immense power and intellect had shown the errors of coming in unprepared and underpowered.

Perhaps there was a better way.

Such musings occupied her as she fought to regain control of the land. If she were to have any chance in this fight, it would be through the earth.

I’m curious to see where Nissa goes with this. I think we’ll be seeing her explore that tentative connection with Emrakul more as time goes on.

All of Gideon's invulnerability had proven little worth against an opponent with the size and strength and mass of the dragon.

OK. Nicol Bolas is big... but Gideon went toe-to-toe with this.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger by Michael Komarck

"Gideon Jura, you are very bad at analyzing reality. I have fought against thousands of generals, thousands of tacticians and strategists and battle masterminds. You might be the worst. Let me help you. Ignoring obvious reality is a fatal flaw in our line of work. By all means, I understand the importance of . . .aspirations, but being able to accurately assess the facts in front of you is an essential skill in the trade."

Thank you, Bolas. It’s funny, Bolas is giving each member of the Gatewatch exactly what they need to hear. Is this narrative convenience, the author dissembling this for us, the reader? Or is Bolas purposefully trying to turn them into more useful tools?

"I could kill you, Gideon, anytime I want. But I suspect you would not mind dying, the way you play so carelessly with your life. And the lives of others." Gideon thrashed his head back and forth, desperate to escape. 

Gideon was shocked to realize that a part of him yearned to stay. To no more feel the guilt of losing Drasus, Olexo, all his Irregulars. All the people he had seen die on Zendikar. He didn't want any more death on his hands. He could just . . . let go.

GIDEON WANTS TO DIE. @sarpadianempiresvol-viii​ has been calling this for a long while now, and I agree. It’s nice to see it confirmed.

He willed his body through the Blind Eternities, the hole the dragon left in his shoulder only the most visible of his wounds.

Looks like Gideon still has his arm, folks.

"No, master, I did not doubt. I was . . . delayed. You defeated them as quickly as you predicted." He glanced around the plaza, looking for bodies of planeswalkers that weren't there. "I can seek to find where—"

"No. It does not matter. This was better than blood."

Tezzeret looked at him quizzically, but knew he would offer no more explanation.

"Master, I should update you on . . ."

Okay, a few things. What delayed Tezzeret? Or is he just lying (probably). What does he need to update Bolas on?

Why is this better than blood? I’m legitimately kind of tired of vague Bolas plot set-ups. After around ten years later, the old Bolas fatigue is setting in again.

"Later. Go and tell Ral Zarek to come to me. His progress is too slow."

Okay, what the hell. Is Project Lightning Bug actually Nicol Bolas’s deal? Is it some other project? Was this actually planned? I’ve got to go back and re-read a whole lot of Ral stories to see if this secondary master was ever hinted at.

Homing Lightning by Slawomir Maniak

[raindrop-rouge]

How well do you know your best friend?

Original post here. Answer these questions about your bff, your tumblr bff, or just anyone you want to show a lot of appreciation on here to!!!!

I was tagged by @chiruchill and will answer the questions about her (and tagging her back!!!). Tagging @shulkie @milleandra-nebula @crying-abt-fictional-people , uh chiru also tagged @glassesgirl0401 and @gray-x-natsus-matching-hip-scars  but it didn’t seem to work? idk guys feel free to spread the love but also feel free to ignore!!! (I HIGHLY recommend getting the questions from the original post, I rambled for MILES in every single question you don’t wanna read the below trust me)

1. What is your best friend’s dream job, and why? Man, idk that you’ve ever blabbed about something specific, like I know you’d love to run a café with me, or a library with your mom, or any kind if small store like that... Obviously I know you were ready to invest a lot of time and effort into teaching too... Any job that would give you enough time and self management to allow you to spend time with your dogs really ahaha

2. What is their biggest pet peeve, and why do you think that is? The main one is people being 1)  messy and 2) loud. A few weeks ago I would have just said “well you’re considerate and wish they could be too”, but I said I’d be brutally honest about this and girl... I read something a little while ago and I am genuinely worried your hyperawareness of everyone around you stems from something more specific, but we can talk about it whenever

3. What is their favourite TV series (live action)? LMAO GO AWAY I GET THE MESSAGE I will watch Arrested Development asap

4. What is their favourite TV series (animated)? Ahaha you’ve recommended a lot of quality comedies to me over the years, do you have an ultimate fave though? I know there was that group of school girls comedy gdi I watched it but forget the name >< welp

5. What does your best friend value most in life, and why? (Do you think they value most what they say they do, or something else?) Holy shit ok this goes right back to a thing the guys were talking about earlier. I’m gonna say your dogs, like you do say you do :p If we’re talking values in people/ ways of life... What the guys brought up was that you say you only want a simple life with just what we need, but... well, I guess we all know none of us have ANY idea what a minimal life is like, so I’d say what you mean by that is, you do value the life standard we currently have, where we never have to worry about a solid roof over our heads, food, and enough money left to support your pets. So yeah, my answer is 1) your dogs, and 2) the kinda life where we can support them x)

6. How would you describe their style, and how would they describe it? Colorful (but that’s how us French see all Scandinavians tbh), comfortable, like effortless but still cute? You’d probably agree it’s colorful but then say it’s not “stylish” though XD I think you just really like cute things but muuuuch prefer comfort first

7. If you were to decorate a room for your best friend, what would it look like, and why? !!!!! Aaahhh I’m a shit decorator with no taste, but I’d keep it minimal cause that’s how you feel best! A massive bed for you and your dogs, maybe nice tall lights you can reach from the bed but light the room well... A bookshelf... A pretty big desk... I’d want to add lots of plants and pillows, but idk if you’d want that clutter :/ Colors would be white beige and either pastel green or pastel pink.

8. What do you think their best quality is? You know how during a mario kart race you can see the names shuffle on the side as players cut in front or fall behind, that’s what your qualities are doing in my head now... You’re patient, so strong and independent (which I admire endlessly), generous, smart, but I guess what really sets you apart from me is your specific sense of humor and just wit in general??? idk how to explain, it’s not just that you make me laugh, it’s everything you say, I know only you would come up with that at that moment. It’s a big part of what makes me so excited when I’m around you, and a big part of why I miss you so badly when I’m not.

9. What does your best friend think their best quality is? Would they agree with you? Yee you think you’re funny and you’re right :p  Unless now you think your patience is your top quality given how much you’ve put up with lately

10. What is your best friend’s favourite book (or book series)? The Hobbit

11. What do you have in common with your best friend? LMAO our shitty sense of humor... Omg what else though :o we’re really different... maybe how difficult we are when it comes to really letting people in? idk please answer this one better than me

12. How did you meet, and what was your first impression of your best friend? First day of uni!!!! I was lost and confused, she had papers and was alone and therefore less intimidating, I asked her where she got the documents from... And once I got them, I think sheeee was the one to offer we sit next to each other while I was munching on my apple ahaha. I missed the next meeting, but after that she saw me at the bus stop, and offered to wait for the bus with me??? Kindest thing anyone had ever done for me at that point in my life, so yeah... How far we’ve come :’) Very first impression though... “she looks reasonable enough to talk to... Oh she’s nice... Yay she’s really nice!!!” ahaha

13. What does your best friend spend their free time doing, and why do you think they choose to do what they do? Reading, petting the dogs, watching stuff, gaming... It’s escapism isn’t it babe :’) Anything that’s relaxing and distracts you from whatever is happening irl

14. Who is their favourite fictional character, and why? Luigi cause he wears green lmao and cause he’s like the “second” brother and therefore deserves more love

15. What’s the first thing you tell other people when you talk about your best friend? “So Chiru - she’s my best friend and you’ll be hearing about her every day -” ACTUAL LINE SERVED TO ALL MY CO-WORKERS. And then I tend to say we lived together for 2 years, and that I miss you a lot

16. What’s your favourite story about them? Is there a single fave...How we met, how we came to do our groceries together and suddenly became unseparable, MY SURPRISE BDAY x2, coming to cheer for me at cheer, casually inviting me to your home, Nice (omg you reading Scandinavia and the world to me!!), our Japan travels, everything, right up to getting your last dog, is a highlight in my life

17. What’s your least favourite story about them? :))) fuck if I am telling that on here. Oh shit I said I’d be honest. Look... I think sometimes you forget I’m pretty insecure and basically any minor (or... you know... not so minor) event that makes me think maybe you’ll leave me behind after all is just like. uhm. “least favorite stories” is a mild way to explain how I feel about those times

18. Why do you think you two ended up becoming best friends? My dudes I wonder a lot. I know it’s so much more than just living together, if anything that makes most people hate each other. It’s shared values, willingness to make balanced efforts for each other, an endless stream of ideas for fun coming from both sides, similar interests... I don’t know, but Chiru I am just so grateful everyday I did find you

19. Would you be honest with your best friend if they were happy doing something, but you think it might end up harming them in the end? Ouch. Ok well... The truth is sometimes I doooo worry, but I’m so convinced you know what you’re doing so much better than I do, that no, I tend to trust whatever you say, if you’re convinced (/telling me you’re convinced) that what you’re doing isn’t harming you, I’ll believe you. At least, that’s what I tell myself... A part me of does worry, though, that I just don’t speak up because you’ll already have all the arguments ready and we’ll just unnecessarily argue about it, and I’ll end up hurt, and yes exactly it’s as bad as it sounds, I’m worried I wouldn’t want to fight you over your happiness in case it would result in hurt feelings. I’m a mess, this is terrible and I gotta work on that

20. Does your best friend play any instruments? Why do you think they chose that instrument? BISH SAYS SHE CAN SORTA PLAY THE GUITAR AND PIANO BUT HAS SHE PLAYED FOR ME YET, I THINK NOT. I am unappreciated, where is my serenade (jk jk, I realy doooo wanna hear you play though!!)

21. Do you and your best friend have a dream for the future, if so, what is it? Move in with me please it’s the one thing that keeps me going

22. What is one thing you have always wanted to tell your best friend, but never have? :)))) ((((: *digs through a million letter drafts and hell, fic drafts, we all know where my inspiration comes from anyway* Sigh... Well first of all I need you to know you’re the most beautiful and kind soul I have ever encountered. Please get that through your head. Secondly... I don’t think I’d have EVER brought this up, but that’s what the question is aiming for, isn’t it... You probably only held my hand in Barcelona because I was so black-out wasted you were worried I wouldn’t follow you home otherwise, but it made me sort of ridiculously happy, and I guess I wouldn’t mind if it happened again

23. What do you think your best friend’s life will be like 10 years from now? What I’m thinking or wishful thinking hah... Thinking, well... deep breath, you’ll be alright :) You’ll have a comfortable home somewhere you like, with a job that suits you. You’re too stubborn to settle for any less. Your dogs are with you, of course. And so is whoever will be lucky enough to be chosen by you. You can guess based on that what the wishful thinking is

24. What song makes you think of your best friend? IT’S 4:18 AM AND HONESTLY THERE ARE SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM (anything from Just Dance tbh XD) BUT I CHOOSE THIS GEM (45:21) because fukkit it’s cold as heeeeck in my room right now and I’m only listening to this kind of music

25. Just to end on a mean note, what’s your best friend’s worst personality trait? (Be honest now, guys, none of that “they’re just too kind” bullshit) Worst? You wanna hear something crazy... Well you know I miss you, I always do and have been for so long now, but once I thought maybe if I listed everything that maybe weren’t the beeesst parts of your personality, and all the parts of my personality that probably annoyed you, I’d force myself to accept that maybe it’d be best for us to stop living together... And gdi I tried. But it’s just a really ridiculous list ... or at least it was, until that one night... Remember when one of my friends took my phone and texted you quite extensively, and that went really really badly? Well here’s the moment of truth: (hey it’s 4:25 now and I was out) I had broken down sobbing after you compared me to your dogs again :’) Look, sober me can rationally process your way of thinking. But... I guess deep down, we’re not the same, I want to be loved and appreciated like a human being. I’m genuinely sorry I couldn’t bring myself to tell you this sooner, idk what I was so scared of. So, uh, “worst” personality trait (which really isn’t one but)... omg I can’t even phrase this without turning it against myself ahaha, like it’s my own fault for telling you that everything was fine when it wasn’t. So look this isn’t even about your worst personality trait, I guess it’s me realizing I gotta stop lying about crap, and I hope you’ll be considerate and understanding like always :’)