#i need the founder dead immediately

[glsneeg-enthusiast]

im so fucking upset im always thinking about sneegs death to the Creature and how he seemed more mad at ranboo for not doing anything than he did scared for his life and how he only started screaming when ranboo started to leave and slimecicle laughing at him and

[trans-axolotl]

"Much ink has already been spilled on Harris’s prosecutorial background. What is significant about the topic of sex work is how recently the vice president–elect’s actions contradicted her alleged views. During her tenure as AG, she led a campaign to shut down Backpage, a classified advertising website frequently used by sex workers, calling it “the world’s top online brothel” in 2016 and claiming that the site made “millions of dollars from trafficking.” While Backpage did make millions off of sex work ads, its “adult services” listings offered a safer and more transparent platform for sex workers and their clients to conduct consensual transactions than had historically been available. Harris’s grandiose mischaracterization led to a Senate investigation, and the shuttering of the site by the FBI in 2018.

“Backpage being gone has devastated our community,” said Andrews. The platform allowed sex workers to work more safely: They were able to vet clients and promote their services online. “It’s very heartbreaking to see the fallout,” said dominatrix Yevgeniya Ivanyutenko. “A lot of people lost their ability to safely make a living. A lot of people were forced to go on the street or do other things that they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.” M.F. Akynos, the founder and executive director of the Black Sex Worker Collective, thinks Harris should “apologize to the community. She needs to admit that she really fucked up with Backpage, and really ruined a lot of people’s lives.”

After Harris became a senator, she cosponsored the now-infamous Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which—along with the House’s Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA)—was signed into law by President Trump in 2018. FOSTA-SESTA created a loophole in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the so-called “safe harbor” provision that allows websites to be free from liability for user-generated content (e.g., Amazon reviews, Craigslist ads). The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that Section 230 is the backbone of the Internet, calling it “the most important law protecting internet free speech.” Now, website publishers are liable if third parties post sex-work ads on their platforms.

That spelled the end of any number of platforms—mostly famously Craigslist’s “personal encounters” section—that sex workers used to vet prospective clients, leaving an already vulnerable workforce even more exposed. (The Woodhull Freedom Foundation has filed a lawsuit challenging FOSTA on First Amendment grounds; in January 2020, it won an appeal in D.C.’s district court).

“I sent a bunch of stats [to Harris and Senator Diane Feinstein] about decriminalization and how much SESTA-FOSTA would hurt American sex workers and open them up to violence,” said Cara (a pseudonym), who was working as a sex worker in the San Francisco and a member of SWOP when the bill passed. Both senators ignored her.

The bill both demonstrably harmed sex workers and failed to drop sex trafficking. “Within one month of FOSTA’s enactment, 13 sex workers were reported missing, and two were dead from suicide,” wrote Lura Chamberlain in her Fordham Law Review article “FOSTA: A Hostile Law with a Human Cost.” “Sex workers operating independently faced a tremendous and immediate uptick in unwanted solicitation from individuals offering or demanding to traffic them. Numerous others were raped, assaulted, and rendered homeless or unable to feed their children.” A 2020 survey of the effects of FOSTA-SESTA found that “99% of online respondents reported that this law does not make them feel safer” and 80.61 percent “say they are now facing difficulties advertising their services.” "

-What Sex Workers Want Kamala Harris to Know by Hallie Liberman

[kaurwreck]

My actual presumption re: Akutagawa's knightliness and amnesia is that Bram and Akutagawa are sharing a skinsuit, consequently weaving their consciousnesses into the most gothic twink the modern mind is capable of conceiving. (You might assume adding Poe or Percy Shelley would make for a more gothic twink, but the addition of either would destabilize the whole twink, and it would either become immediately beset with late stage rabies or it would drown itself within moments of its wretched birth).

Akutagawa is not entirely Akutagawa. The armor looks decidedly more draconic in the teaser we received at the end of S5, wherein Akutagawa seems to have wholly returned to Atsushi's side— fulfilling Shibusawa's climactic fight comment in Dead Apple that the dragon and tiger deserve each other— in time for the overarching climax.

(That's why I think Fyodor set Shibusawa on Atsushi— he mistook Shibusawa for the dragon that would engage with the tiger, creating a singularity that is the "book" insofar as the book exists. Really, it's a white hole that connects realities, either metaphorically or literally. Or, so I think.)

So, Akutagawa has not yet actualized into the dragon that his rivalry with Atsushi has allowed him to cultivate into over the course of the story, but he's very close. He's also too much of a knight right now, which is Bram's role— Akutagawa was always a rook. Even where Akutagawa is protective, he is not chivalrous or knightly, and his protectiveness does not arise from ordainment or ritual oaths of public service but from the individual promises he's made to others and his city. He also doesn't remember Atsushi. Bram, meanwhile, is nobility with vassals to protect, empowered by the princess to whom he swore fealty with the weight of his ordained station. He also has never met Atsushi.

However, this knightly Akutagawa is not all Bram either. His precise, clipped, and cutting speaking pattern slips between Bram's romantic, archaic denouncements. Akutagawa recalls his own words from his first appearance. He appeared where he was needed most, and he's remaining true to his promises. Rashomon responds to him. Akutagawa is very much there, but insofar as he's backseat driving, Bram has the firmer grip on the wheel.

Notably, knight!Akutagawa seemingly quotes the Kolbrin Bible, after which the chapter is named, which is something of a conspiracy theorist's secular bible that mashes together Celtic and Druid mysticism, Judaism and Egyptology. Allegedly, it's a manuscript written 3,600 years ago that was translated between WW1 and WW2. There is no evidence that any of this is true— it was most likely produced in the 90s, based on its very anachronistic language.

I fucking hate contemporary occultism, I tried to dismiss the Kolbrin Bible as the relevant reference, but I haven't yet found anything more likely (although the day is young). There's some foundation for referencing an esoteric occult publication: the somewhat notorious founder of theosophy, Helena Pavlovna Blavatsky, published a theosophical interpretation of Dostoevsky months after his death; spiritualism absolutely influenced fiction and sci-fi; WB Yeats and George William Russell (luminaries of modern Irish literature) were involved with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and their works were shaped by their interests in mysticism and the occult. More saliently, Bram Stoker corresponded with prominent occultists and harbored a tempered "writer's interest" in the occult. I am not getting into Houdini's former friend's interest in spiritualism because I hate him, and thinking about him makes me spit bile, but he's another prominent example.

So, there's cause for the reference, and, maybe this sort of text feels right for bsd, which is also an anachronistic alternative history that's mashing together a whole lot of eastern and western influences with little regard for propriety. I'm still not pleased with it, and I hope my shallow look into the imagery from this most recent chapter led me into the enshittified part of the surface web. But, there are some apparent threads worth exploring.

Prior to Akutagawa name dropping the Harbor of Sorrow, Fyodor seemingly also references the Kolbrin Bible (which is, to mirror Fyodor's language below, an imitation religious text):

"The Harbour of Sorrow we leave behind and with four ships sail towards the sunsetting."

At first, I thought the setting sun imagery in Fyodor's exposition was an uncharacteristically blunt reference to Dazai Osamu's novel, but the setting sun in the Kolbrin Bible seems more likely, since in the latter there is an intentional journey towards the setting sun, while the setting sun in Dazai Osamu's novel reflects an aristocratic family's necrotizing decline.

The Harbour of Sorrow in the Kolbrin Bible is described thusly:

They came to the Harbour of Sorrow, which lies by the Hazy Sea, away from the Land of Mists. There great trees grew and smaller trees upon them, and moss hung from them like door curtains. It lay near the great shallow waters South of the Isle of Hawhige and North of the Sea Pass. Green pearls are found there. Many died in the Harbour of Sorrow, for it was a place with a curse upon it, which caused an evil sickness. The Sons of Fire came with Hoskiah and saved them, and they came to this place and built a city.

(I can't help but acknowledge that the character for "Asagiri" in Kafka Asagiri refers to morning mist.)

In modern Western mysticism, "sons of fire" could mean a few different things, but in this context, I'm inclined towards the epithet for Western spiritualists' bastardization of sage kings— "divine" teachers. It may also reference Aaron's sons in the Bible, who were killed by Moses after they committed a profane act before God. As a reminder, shortly before stabilizing Yokohama in collaboration with Mori, Taneda, and Natsume, Fukuzawa either participated in or permitted acts that appear to have been assassinations to facilitate Japan's withdrawal from the Great War, which engendered in him self loathing and shame and shattered his relationship with four others.

(As an aside, I don't actually think Fukuzawa assassinated anyone, or was an assassin by trade— the five swords of Japan are a specific reference to five swords and their mythologies, and I think he must have been the ceremonial purification sword that was never meant to be sharp. It was meant to cut only evil. I think he allowed something to happen that violated oaths he made, so he exiled himself like a ronin who killed his master. The only reason we think he killed anyone, despite Ranpo acknowledging Fukuzawa wasn't an assassin in Untold Origins, is because the Decay of Angel fed "evidence" to the government officials who Nikolai later killed to incite them into pursuing the Agency— there is nothing suggesting that evidence has any merit, and much suggesting it's falsified. This is why I always say not to rely on the bsd wiki— it tends to take these things at face value and doesn't qualify unreliable information.)

Anyway! There are other threads to connect the text above to bsd, including the foreigners present in Yokohama and the Kolbrin Bible's British Isles settings and US + UK modern mysticism. But, to move on to other passages connected to the Harbor of Sorrow.

“When some of us came from the Harbour of Sorrow, we were full of praise at our deliverance from death, but amid the forests of fruitfulness, much of our gratitude and will was lost. Why must men always be better men in the face of disaster and in the midst of privation, than in the green fields of peace and plenty? Does this not answer the questions of many who ask why there is sorrow and suffering on Earth? Why is it the lot of men to struggle and suffer, if not to make better men?

...

"Many who are with us in the light will join us, and then we shall be stronger in arms and strengthened in belief. (Annotation: How few came!) Yet our destiny lies among the barbarians. They are fine, upright men endowed with courage, do not belittle their ways, but bring them into the light.

"Our city was not founded as a marketplace, a place for exchanging only the things of Earth. Neither did we come here as conquerors, but as men seeking refuge.

“My trusted ones, remember that the road of life is not smooth, neither is the way of survival a path of grass. The most needful thing for any people who wish to survive is self-discipline. Think less of gold and more of the iron which protects the gold. Remember, too, these words from the Book of Mithram, The keenest sword is useless unless it be held in the hand of a resolute man. Also, the man who has gold keeps it in peace if he tends his bowstring."

I have not read the Kolbrin Bible, I have immense distaste for modern occultism/spiritualism/mysticism outside of limited and carefully curated, contextualized slices of the same. I also don't make a habit of overly familiarizing myself with the British Isles. I don't have much frame of reference for interpreting the above.

But on a surface reading, the passages in the Kolbrin Bible that refer to the Harbor of Sorrow touch on similar-to-bsd themes of intentional community and finding purpose in protecting and cultivating the light in both the wake and the eve of immense darkness, and finding companionship in those who share your purpose and resolve no matter how differently they may approach the same.

Further, they both embrace that it's not about being golden, but protecting what is gold, which is Kyouka's core arc in Dead Apple as she transitions from trying to protect Atsushi as someone she considers untouched by the darkness within her, to realizing that Atsushi, too, has killed, and that her desire to use Demon Snow to protect those she loves isn't shameful or a betrayal of her mother's memory. This is something that I think the fandom often misunderstands about bsd— the light and dark do not exist in opposition, but in duality. The characters immersed in the dark do not need to be saved; the characters in the twilight have their reasons for finding purpose elsewhere, but that doesn't strip the love they had while in the dark. If anything, it makes it easier for them to realize that love was and still is there.

That interplay of light and dark (which is also the title of a Natsume Soseki novel) is where Akutagawa and Bram begin to melt most into one another. They have both been dehumanized, hated, and killed; rejected and stripped of dignity, robbed of those they loved by petty violence. Neither seeks to save anyone other than those to whom they've sworn to try, and they've both been reckless with who they've killed. Nevertheless, they love fiercely, and where their fear is defensive, their anger is avenging (Akutagawa's furious pursuit of the reckless murderers in 55 Minutes, the implication that Bram was fighting to protect his vassals when he was subdued as a calamity previously).

But they aren't evil. Evilness isn't a person, it's cowardice and weakness and fear. They've both grappled with the desire to succumb to their grief and their anger and their terror. But they struggle against those urges in themselves with fierce resolve.

It's the sort of resolve that Fyodor lacks. Fyodor, codependent on his dehumanization, claims that there's death in salvation only because he can't bear to keep living under the weight of humanity's rejection but is too weak and afraid of being alone to die without taking everyone else with him. Fyodor's disgusted by Atsushi's humanity and love because he sees in it what he's convinced himself he can never be afforded. But Bram and Akutagawa both have always had the certainty of love in their families, and then in Aya and in Higuchi.

There is no salvation in death or goodness; there is no sure path towards resolution or closure. There isn't any inherent meaning to our pain, and even those of us who live in relative peace are walking on a knife's edge over uncertainty and chaos. But, we can choose to accept love, and we can choose to love others. Isn't that a little bit wonderful?

[blueberrypancakesworld]

Hey!! I love ur loc fics!! I was wondering if you could do the black circle x innocent!fem!reader?? She has body piercings and tattoos though. Also, could dead be alive?? (lol) Thxx!!<33

A pierced flower

warning : fluff, mentioning of needle

Info : Hey thanks for the praise enjoy the story and everyone else too ;)

masterlist

Disclaimer : I don't want to glorify abything, it's about teh actors who play a role, not the real events

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't quite morning when a pink car approached the music store. The town was still a little sleepy, only some people ventured out of their houses to go to the bakery, to meet in the front gardens to pick up the newspaper.

Only the sound of music coming from the bright car seemed to wake everyone up. The blonde's scream from the cassette recorder was better than any alarm clock. The young woman behind the wheel jerked the steering wheel around and turned sharply into the next street.

Behind the actually soft natural make-up was a big, cheerful grin. The bright car aimed at her normal almost shco innocent look. But ever since she had met her, her friends and so much more, inside her was a mix of sweet innocent pink and the black of the hell she kept happily walking into.

She hadn't quite forgotten the sting of the needle on her body as her lipstick-stained lips curled into a larger smile. ,,Here at last," she murmured, feeling her heart beating with joy and adrenaline.

Before she stopped in front of the store with her tires rolling. ,,Boys, open up!" she shouted over the music, pulled out the key and almost flew out of the car.

Only a few hours had passed since she returned from the larger neighboring town. This small town had neither a piercer nor a tattoo artist, so she only had to go to the next larger town, which was a few hours away. But for what they got, it was worth it to hell and back.

Tearing open the door to the store and storming in, Euronymous knew one of her friends would never lock the store, not when they'd all had a big party in the basement just hours before and might get new followers as well as further ruin the good public image.

A public image that she still had and she was also the only connection to the "normal" world for the boys. ,,Guys! Wake up look!" she shouted into the store and turned on the music and picked up her favorite record before walking through the alden.

She saw a few of her friends lying on the bed and the beanbag before the group gradually staggered up from the cellar. ,,What's-What's wrong?" asked Dead, who looked even bluer and more tired than usual, but who was immediately drawn into the crowd when he saw the piercing on her nose and the tattoo on her arm. When the two pink stones on her upper body also intervened, even if it was slightly painful, it made her happy.

Everything about it had made her happy. ,,I'm dying for this," the blonde mumbled and seemed completely fascinated and artistically inspired by the whole picture as he grabbed his drawing things and started to draw a little.  ,,Now that's devilish," joked Faust, rising from the beanbag with Occoltus, who grinned broadly and let his fingers wander carefully over the pentagram.

She saw the astonishment of the black-haired man whose own pentagram chain was still hanging around his neck, his protector and bringer of strength and now on her skin. ,,Yes, I know even the metal is black," she said proudly and smiled as she carefully tapped her nose, the septum of which had a spider's head as a clasp, making the leader and founder of the band smile.

She knew that Euronymous had been thinking about a sign for a while too. Since she had gotten to know the band and her friends, they had not only listened to music together, laughed and written songs together, but they had also all lost themselves in this idea of the devil. The pentagram was the most appropriate thing to do.

,,Shit... guys, I think we need to get something pierced too...as a band, how about a pentagram?" Euronymous suggested and the others nodded and joined in.

The music was turned up, the beers were brought out and there would be a little concert before they all got into the cars with a little alcohol in them, feeling less pain was the group's dew as they all drove to the tattoo artist without an appointment, knowing that when they finally had it Stan would come to greet them in person. For the most diabolical group in the world.

Even if things went a little differently Occultus had to wipe away a tear at the needle, Faust thought for a few minutes about where he wanted the motif, Euronymous, on the other hand, wanted to push the needle through his nose himself and Dead, Dead actually seemed dead calm for the first time and almost enjoyed the needles on his skin.

When the group walked out at the end, proud and still slightly bloody on their skin, it was the best thing they had ever done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[robertdowneyjjr]

hey, so. funny thing.

@whinysteve and i have been going insane for like two days because we couldn't find this one fic we really liked, and we both remembered reading it not so long ago but somehow neither of us could recall how it ended? and we kept saying that it's so GOOD and how the heck did it just disappear? well, after hours of losing my mind going through my ao3 history, the steve/tony tag with various keywords, the findingstony blog... it. it hit me that i can't find it because it doesn't exist. because it was the soulmates au idea you posted like two weeks ago where their words only show up after they've met their soulmate.

i thought you might find this amusing. 😩 (i do, but i also need to lie down for a bit because i will never know how steve fixed that mess)

hahahaha omg liv if this is your way of peer pressuring me into writing the whole fic i might actually do it??? because your ask has got me thinking about what would happen next.

that said, steve still hasn't figured out how to fix this mess. i'm very sorry about this.

(stonyclunks soulmates au part one here)

---

having been rescued by SHIELD, news of steve's recovery was immediately delivered to howard stark who, while not as involved with SHIELD as he used to be, still receives weekly reports as one of its co-founders.

he'd gone home that night and brought it up in the middle of cutting his steak. coincidentally, tony had been visiting that day and stayed for dinner, so he found out about captain america's miraculous resurrection before the general public did, and honestly, he had enough of hearing about how great this guy was growing up. he really didn't need to keep hearing about it as an adult after he'd finally worked through his issues with his dad and his obsession with a (not quite) dead war hero.

so after howard's announcement, tony politely requested howard refrain from talking about this guy with him.

"i know he's your friend, and you'll probably be spending a bit of time with him now that he's been found, and i'm really happy for you, but i think it would be better for our relationship if we could talk about literally anything but him," he'd said.

and, well. howard was trying. he knew he wasn't the best dad and he also wanted to do right by maria, who spent so many years torn between her son and her husband while trying to mend their relationship. they were finally in a relatively good place with each other which made maria happy. and to be frank, howard had actually come to really enjoy tony's company whenever he was home. he was quite happy too. so he agreed. they don't talk about steve and howard doesn't ask tony to meet steve.

that very night, tony made sure 'captain america' and 'steve rogers' were muted in all his news feeds and social channels.

he literally doesn't know a single thing about the man besides what he learned in his childhood, which he's blocked out. it's a peaceful two years of blissful ignorance.

fast forward to now, tony's packing up his suitcase and getting ready to check out of his hotel when he sees a text from his mom in their family group chat.

seems he's not quite the perfect role model you always made him out to be, howard 🤡, her message reads.

what follows is a link to an instagram post, and from the message preview he can see that it's steve rogers' profile, and under normal circumstances he wouldn't even bother clicking the link.

but 1) maria usually never brings up the man in tony's presence either, and 2) her comment made him laugh. so color tony intrigued.

he taps the link and sees the post. it's a picture of a coffee cup from the place he was at a week ago. the one where he got body slammed by his mysterious dick of a soulmate and unfairly yelled at for it.

he reads the caption and his legs give out under him.

i don't even know if you'll see this, but all i can do is hope. i'm sorry for the words that have made their mark on you. i know i don't deserve it, but i'm hoping you could give me a second chance. i won't yell at you this time, i promise. yours, a fucking asshole

one week ago, captain america was barely even a blip on tony's radar and that's how he preferred it. now, steve rogers is tony's mysterious dick of a soulmate.

what the fuck even is his life.

[crispy0nion]

hello it is now time for me to inflict YOU with the explaining lore to a new player curse. Essentially, this is an invitation to infodump about your favorite guy.

I've been hearing/reading a lot about Cayde-6 throughout the game (and Ikora made me watch his death), but who is he? What's his deal?

Oh this is fantastic. Get ready for a full essay (under the cut so I don't clog up people's dashes). I tried to link some relevant lore tabs, but still i recommend reading at least The Man They Called Cayde, or to just skim through the Cayde-6 section of the Ishtar Collective website.

Cayde-6 was the sixth Hunter Vanguard, a position widely considered to be cursed as all previous Hunter Vanguards have either died or gone MIA (Tallulah Fairwind, killed by an Ahamkara; Caliban-8, MIA; Aparajita-4, MIA; Kauko Swiftriver, went MIA and was later declared dead; Andal Brask, killed by Taniks The Scarred; Cayde-6, killed by Uldren Sov). The position is currently empty, but it is heavily implied that Crow will step up as the new Hunter Vanguard soon.

Now, let's try to go in order of events. Like all Exos, Cayde used to be a human during the Golden Age. He was a soldier, and it is likely that he had a gambling problem (a habit he retained in his Guardian life): simply put, he had a big debt hanging over his head. That's when Clovis Bray, the creator of Exos, approached him with a job offer. The reason Clovis approached him is because people like Cayde were exactly what BrayTech needed for the Exo Project: disposable and with their backs to the wall. Cayde accepted to essentially give his body to the Project in exchange for his debts to be cleared. The job offer itself was never explicited, but Cayde recounts being kidnapped and brought to Europa. This was around the time the Collapse happened.

We don't know everything that happened in his lives from 1 to 6. We know that for most of his lives before becoming a Guardian, he worked for BrayTech, first as a generic worker and later as a guard. This is where he had his first (and only, probably) interaction with Micah Abram, who at the time was a chid. Micah is a lore-only Exo Hunter, now known as Micah-10, known for her role as the 'mother-hen of Ghosts' - she protects upaired Ghosts from the Ghost Hunter, Cyrell. But why is Micah relevant to Cayde's story? Well, Cayde-6 would often mention how he used to have a son when he was human, as well as a wife. He refers to the kid as 'Ace', and to the woman as simply the Queen of Hearts. He talks about her in a TTK mission to retrieve his stash, and some of his journal entries are written as letters for his son - he also worked with Banshee-44 to craft a gun inspired by him, his Ace of Spades.

The interaction that Cayde-1 had with Micah - who, being a trans woman, was at the time a little boy - caused him to retain fragmented memories of a child in his current Guardian life. I recommend reading the lore tabs about their encounter (both Micah's POV and Cayde's POV). The following letter from Micah's POV also mentions how immediately after Cayde picked her up, he was deactivated.

So, the fragmented memories he retained from this interaction where what he based off this delusion of having a son, because yes, both his wife and son never existed, and Cayde himself admits to making them up as a coping mechanism in the last entry of his journal.

But if Micah Abram was his Ace, who was his Queen? Easy: Maya Sundaresh.

Maya Sundaresh was a Golden Age scientist who worked for the Ishtar Collective on Venus, and collaborated with Clovis on an occasion. She's also the founder of Neomuna, on Neptune. Cayde (between 2 and 6) was part of the batch of Exos who Clovis assigned to work as guards for Dr. Sundaresh during their collaboration. That's when Cayde first met her, and to say he was down bad would be an understatement. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Sundaresh was not only a psycho, but also a married lesbian. She never even acknowledged him, but still he fell in love with her. The memory of this feeling stayed with him through the resets and his death, and he contructed the memory of the Queen of Hearts over that.

As far as I know, we don't have any information regarding Cayde's death, other that he was resurrected near a cliff. After freaking out, running off the cliff and being revived again, he found on his person a journal, potentially the same one he keeps using in his Guardian life. Cayde believes his past self (specifially, Cayde-5) wrote and left this journal to guide him, to prevent him from taking the wrong path and becoming Cayde-7 - something he seemed to be absolutely against. Side note, but I find that to be an extremely interesting detail since Bungie's own signature is the number 7.

Regarding his years before becoming Vanguard, we know Cayde has been around for at least 126 years, probably more. He used to run with a group of Hunters, his 'crew': Andal Brask, Shiro-4 and Tevis Larsen. A fifth member, Lush, would also join them sometimes, being Shiro's protégé. Of these five members of the Hunter crew, Shiro is the only one currently alive. Andal was killed by Taniks before the game events, Tevis died at the hands of the Vex during TTK, and Lush lost his Ghost the first time the crew ran into Taniks, then died on a solo mission later on.

Cayde was especially close with Andal, referring to him as his best friend and brother. If you recall, Andal was also the Hunter Vanguard before Cayde; this actually is something that happened because of the Exo. Hunters have this thing called 'The Dare'; every Hunter Vanguard needs to have their own, since the Dare is what estabilishes how the next Vanguard has to be chosen. The Vanguard that came before Andal, Kauko Swiftriver, went missing for two years, later being declared dead, and his Dare was never found. For this reason, The Speaker - who created the first Dare together with Tallulah Fairwind - told the Hunters to figure it out and find a new Vanguard.

One evening, after the crew had already had their first run in with Taniks - an Eliksni mercenary, who claimed many Guardian lives - Andal and Cayde got drinking, and in the heat of the moment they made a bet, their own Dare: if one of them found and killed Taniks, the other had to step up and become Vanguard. They didn't think much of it, until Cayde actually killed Taniks first (side note: 'killed' isn't completely right. Taniks keeps coming back, and even after we killed him in the DSC raid there is a chance he is still alive). Andal, being a man of his word, became Vanguard; and Cayde wasn't happy about it, because it's a time consuming job, so Andal now spent significantly less time with the crew.

Now Taniks, after somehow escaping death, finds and kills Andal. Because of this, Cayde feels obliged to take the role of Hunter Vanguard. He also goes on a rampage, and quite violently kills Taniks again. He begins wearing Andal's cloak, and officially becomes the Hunter Vanguard we all know and love.

Cayde had always been one to constantly crack jokes and use humor to cover up all the ugly things, and Andal's death, followed some time later by Tevis's, only reinforced that. In addition to that, the job of Vanguard comes with a price: you can rarely leave the Tower. This was especially true for Cayde, considering he was both a known troublemaker and potentially in danger for filling the Hunter Vanguard position (after five consecutive deaths, anyone would get a bit paranoid), and it was something that bothered him deeply.

During the events of D1 and D2 up to Forsaken, he does... many things. Like blowing up Eris's ship in order to get the Guardian on the Dreadnaught during TTK. Overall, none of these are worth mentioning, considering this post is already very long.

What I want to talk about next are the events of Forsaken, starting from about one in-game year before the game events. The comicbook 'Cayde's Six' is a good starting point: Cayde was tasked by Petra Venj with hunting the Fallen Barons, who under the command of a corrupted Uldren Sov had been causing chaos on The Reef. His task was to find them and bring them to the Prison of Elders. To do this he assembles a small team (Suraya Hawthorne, Banshee-44, Jin, Nadiya and Petra Venj); they eventually succeed in their goal, even imprisoning the Forsaken Prince himself. Fast-forward to a year later, the events of Forsaken unfold: Uldren Sov and his Barons, now Scorn, escape the Prison of Elders, leaving behind a dead Cayde, who only died because he happened to stand in their way (it's unlikely that Uldren held any resentment as he was... very out of it, probably too much to care about anything but Mara).

This later caused the Young Wolf to go on a rampage, finding and killing all the Barons and Uldren himself (a very nice parallel to the Taniks-Andal situation). Forsaken also brought a new exotic hand cannon: the Ace of Spades, Cayde's beloved weapon. The quest to obtain this weapon, Ace in the Hole, is quite interesting: the YW has to travel across the system to find Cayde's secret stashes, that he specifically left for when he would die. These chests, other than parts to repair Ace, also contain recorded messages, each adressed to a different character. Eris, Taniks, Drifter, Petra, 'the minds behind the DSC', Hawthorne, 'any hunter who kills him' (which he speculates could be Marcus Ren), Zavala, Ikora, and the Young Wolf. Ten messages for ten meaningful people, in all senses. He left them with the intention of having these people listen to them in case they were the ones to kill him. They are very interesting, I recommend looking them up (here's Byf's video, where he also does a bit of analysis).

Many things emerge from these messages, but there's only three that i wanna talk about: Petra's, the voices's and Ikora's messages.

Petra's message is highlighted by the presence of an encrypted message Cayde asks Petra to relay to someone called 'Paladin Oran'. This 'Paladin Oran' is actually an Awoken code to indicate that the next thing he will say is a secret message. The message essentially boils down to the sentence 'It's on Enceladus'. To this day, we still don't know what is on Enceladus. The most popular theory is that Cayde thought the DSC was there, since it was only rediscovered on Europa after his death.

The message he adresses to 'the minds behind the Deep Stone Crypt' introduces us to the Long Slow Whisper, something all Exos seem to be affected by as a side-effect of, well... being an Exo. Long story short, it's the voice of the Darkness: the reason Exos hear it almost constantly is because Clovis used Clarity, a power born from Darkness, to create them. We discover much more about Exos, the LSW, Clarity and the DSC during Beyond Light.

Lastly, Ikora's message. Not much to say, other than how heart shattering it is. In most messages, Cayde still maintained his humorous personality, however this one is the only one adressed to an ally in which Cayde unmasks. He knows Ikora sees through his facade anyways, and since he's dead, he might as well be honest. Here, he admits to thinking most people dislike him; he is convinced Ikora hates him, and makes sure to specify how 'it wasn't mutual'.

Once you find all 10 caches, you unlock the Ace of Spades, and Cayde's story ends there. He says in the message adressed to the YW that every story has it's end, and this is his. He instructs us to burn his journal and move on. And that's all. At least it was until a year ago, when Bungie released the TFS Teaser Trailer, officially bringing back Cayde for this last stand against Darkness.

As we recently discovered from the Unforseen Consequences Ship's lore tab, it is very likely that he was actually brought back because of a wish Crow accidentally made to an unnamed Ahamkara (likely Riven), disguised as Mara. This means that the chances of Cayde fading away at the end of the TFS campaign are very high, but I guess we'll find out on the 4th!

This is all I got. Anyone who reached the end, feel free to add to this if you noticed I missed something.

[williamaltman]

IWTV 2x02

Ok, last episode was great and all, but now this feel like the season REALLY started, for obvious reasons.

I'm a bit disappointed that Armand wasn't on stage. I figured from all the teasers/trailers that that would be the case, but...

I really like the whole play besides that though. I thought it was a lot more haunting than the movie version.

We didn't even get to see the "men enjoying themselves on the park" that they needed extras for xD

Lestat's letter... This one was even nicer than his appearance in episode 1.

I kinda don't like the idea of revealing so early that Lestat was a "co-founder" of the theather. But I guess with Armand being there it's not like they could save it for TVL, so... It adds an immediate sense of danger towards Louis and Claudia, I guess.

Claudia loving the theater so much just makes it all more tragic what's gonna happen to her :(

Loumand's chemistry is on point... I'm happy to see them have it even in the present, though it still seems reliable on memories. Book Loumand being so dead when they actually get together has always been one of my biggest disappointments.

I FUCKED SANTIAGO TOO

The past Loumand which is the focus here anyway does feel like the book's version imo. I get what the writers meant when they said it was more "old school romance".

LOVE TO SEE THAT OLD MAN GET HUMBLED. I could watch a whole episode of just Loumand tormenting him.

Damn, the Alice and Armand theories were onto something??? And when he says that she said no for the proposal... As in Armand telling him no to the proposal of turning him. Armand saying she wanted to say yes...

[goodluckclove]

WRITERS - Read More Nonfiction! (With Recs)

Okay so before I start I'm making it very clear that I don't say this as some generalized statement about how All Online People Aren't Reading Right. I doubt that's true! But based on some of the threads and discourse I see on my corner on Writeblr, it definitely seems like a lot of you would greatly benefit from expanding the scope of what you read.

I think there's probably a big stigma against nonfiction for a lot of people - there was for me for the longest time. Maybe six years ago, though, I stumbled into the genre and found that it can actually be rad as shit. It's been an invaluable form of research from people who definitely know what they're talking about, as well as a way to open myself up to new ideas.

You have chronic writers block? It could potentially be because you're consuming exclusively one genre of media. If that's the case, this will definitely get the gears turning!

Below are a collection of my favorite nonfiction books from my own shelf. The funny thing I immediately learned about suggesting more than like three nonfiction books at a time is that it does paint a kind of intimate picture of who I am. Feel free to tell me if these recommendations surprise you based on who you view me to be.

Clove's Favorite Nonfiction Books!

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris - a collection of historical medical cases back when someone would see a doctor for a gunshot wound and the doctor would treat it with a laxative. WILD stuff.

American Monsters by Linda S. Godfrey - US cryptids! Lots of first person accounts.

Cursed Objects by J. W. Ocker - Famous cursed shit. Quick read but very fun.

The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Prector-Pinney - this was written by the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, a real organization. It tells you everything you need to know about clouds. Fascinating.

Gory Details by Erika Englehaupt - stories and studies of more morbid and "gross" aspects of science, like the guys who stung themselves with instincts to measure the pain or that beach that feet kept washing up on for a while. Cool interviews with science people.

Fuzz by Mary Roach - wild animals break the law a lot actually and we still as a species don't really know what to do about that.

Spook by Mary Roach - an account of Ghost Believing from all sides of the argument. There was a guy who measured dying bodies to see if he could see them get lighter as their soul escaped.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimberly - an indigenous-influenced look at our relationship as a species to nature around us. Really beautiful prose from someone who I believe is primarily a botanist and activist?

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell - stories and analysis from different aspects of the death industry! Embalmers to crime scene cleaners! Super interesting!

American Afterlives by Shannon Lee Dawdy - I have. A lot of death culture books. A lot. This one talks about all the neat things people in America do with their bodies after they die in the modern age. It's fun!

Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom - so this IS a book on the history of Anthropodermic bibliopegy, or books bound in human skin. I'm actually midway through this now and it's super fascinating and cool. Also my wife refuses to talk to me about this so I'd love someone else to talk to.

The Secret Lives of Color by Cassia St. Clair - I read like four books on color theory and pigment for a novel I wrote a few years ago and this was my favorite. It's a look into a ton of major hues and pigments throughout history as well as a peek into the timeline of color making. Did you know making green fabrics used to be illegal?

Atlas Obscura - a fucking cool look into weird and unique spots across the globe. Every artist who works with places should have access to this. It's awesome.

Every Caitlin Doughty book they're all great. She's a modern mortician and founder of the Order of the Good Death. Just an incredible human being and a super engaging and informative writer.

If someone wants to reblog with their favorite nonfiction books and what they got from them, be my guest! Maybe someone could use a new read to get their next idea or refine what they're currently working on!

[ggomos-maribat]

It's Just Me, You, and the Cosmos

A small piece for SuperMari May, cross posted from AO3

Nothing else rang in his head except the harsh words uttered by Damian, and a replay of their latest mission which he apparently nearly steered to failure. Immature. Impulsive. Reckless. As much as he wanted to deny those descriptors, he only fell more disheartened. Sure he strayed away from the plan at times, but he understood the consequences of what he was doing. The rest of the team didn't see that.

The final blow was delivered when they mentioned his father.

Jon had flown out of their base as fast he could, withholding the tears pooling at his eyes. He knew he wasn't the glorified Superman, the symbol of hope and founder of the Justice League. He wasn't his father who had saved countless lives, who knew exactly what to do each time. He knew his own shortcomings more than anyone else and to have his insecurities thrown at him was like a kryptonite-infused slap in the face.

And that was how Superboy found himself hovering past the earth's atmosphere, in the vast space littered with stars. He had carefully avoided the Watchtower and its line of sight, propelling himself near the sun. He swallowed thickly. They can get by a few hours without me.

His friend lashing out wasn't a rare occurrence and he was certainly used to it, but it was one of the times he needed to take a step back. There was an anxious thought at the back of his head saying that he didn't actually deserve to be a hero, that he was dead weight if not a liability even with his powers.

Jon ran his hand through his head. That's not true. And yet the thought persisted as he thought back to their missions.

He suddenly felt a tap on his hand, startling him a little.

Floating alongside him was a girl, clad in a suit with a brown-red palette and black spots. A translucent visor covered her face, but he could see a mask surrounding her eyes. Matching the bluish tinge of her hair was a pair of sturdy wings on her back.

Jon tilted his head in confusion. Who . . .? For a second, he wondered if she belonged outside of earth but his gut told him otherwise.

The stranger seemed as surprised as he stared at her in scrutiny. She fished out a device from her side (a yoyo?) and plucked out a black circular object from it to offer to him. Co-mmu-ni-ca-tor, she mouthed.

Confusion unwavering, Jon accepted it.

"Who are you?" he immediately asked after fitting the comm in his ear. "What are you doing here?"

"Who are you?" she bounced the question back. Jon noted how her voice was light. Melodious.

"Uhh---err, Superboy?" He internally winced at his awkwardness.

Her mouth popped into an 'o' as a light blush covered her cheeks. "Ahh, sorry, I'm not familiar with all the heroes." She fidgeted before clearing her throat. "I am Ladybug---or Cosmobug?---heroine of Paris. Nice to meet you."

"Paris? I didn't know Paris had heroes."

Her figure shifted to more anxious movements. "Yes, um, Paris does but can you . . . maybe keep this a secret from other heroes?"

Jon only nodded, already making a plan to research it later. It wasn't like he didn't believe her, but as far he knew, Paris didn't have local heroes nor villains. If there was Ladybug-themed hero anywhere, he would've heard of them.

"So . . ." he trailed off, "If you're from Paris, what are you doing in space?"

Ladybug laughed nervously, her gaze averting. "I just needed to get away for a moment. It has something to do with our villain. I hope I didn't bother you?"

Jon blinked. It was now clear that she'd traveled to space to shake off some stress like him. And she's worried that she bothered me?

"I can go somewhere else but I'm afraid the Watchtower will see me and the Justice League will try to capture and interrogate me. Which is a bad, bad idea because they can't---shouldn't---know about Paris and it's dangerous if they find out anything," she continued rambling. "And it's ah, um, a potentially world-ending outcome---"

"Hey, hey, it's okay, you can stay here." Jon cut her off to keep her from spiraling. "I think it's better that I have a distraction anyway. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone about you."

She took a deep breath. "Really?"

"Promise." He smiled. "If it makes you feel better, I can keep you company."

Ladybug put a hand on her chest. "Thank you very much. What are you doing here by the way?" She looked around them. "Is there trouble in space?"

"No, I also came here to blow off steam actually," he admitted.

"What happened?"

Jon hesitated on telling her but he found himself unable to resist those wide curious eyes. A part of him was saying 'why not?' while he mulled over it.

But now the things upsetting him seemed pale---shallow---in comparison. This girl had to travel to outer space to get away from her city's villain. "It's not a big deal," he began, "We, the Titans, had a mission and I screwed the plan over when I attacked the enemy first because I realized they were going to kill the hostages before we made a move. My, um, friend got mad and it escalated from there."

"I get what I did wrong, I really do, and I was ready to apologize." His fists clenched subconsciously. "But I just . . . I felt so defenseless, like what he said was all true. Then there's this insane pressure being Superman's son and . . ."

If what she was going through was actually a thousand times worse than his situation, he was going to feel terrible.

He expected her to relay empty 'sympathy'. To give him a pat on the back, saying that 'it's going to be okay'. Instead, she nodded. "I get that. Sometimes, I just straight up sacrifice myself if nothing's going according to plan and my partner hates it when I do. But it's not like I'm mindlessly putting myself in harm's way. It's just the . . . best thing to do if we're out of options."

Her hand rubbed her arm, expression turning pensive. "And carrying a mantle? It's horrible. An important responsibility was passed on to me very suddenly and I keep worrying about having to fulfill that role because the city's fate rests on my shoulders."

Jon was awestruck. And at the same time concerned over the fact she seemed to be alone in her heroic burden.

He bit his lip. "Your life sounds . . . wow. Sorry, my rant was childish. Sometimes I think I don't see eye-to-eye with my teammates because I grew up 'normal'. I haven't seen the worst of everything."

As if she couldn't surprise him any more, she floated closer and put a warm hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's not childish and it's good to air out things that upset you. Take it from someone who always doesn't have that luxury. You're still figuring things out for yourself, I think, and just because your teammates have different experiences, it doesn't mean they can say mean stuff."

He wanted to ask why she 'always didn't have the luxury' but kept his mouth shut.

"Actually, I'm . . . I was just an average Paris citizen before I became a hero," she chuckled. "The learning curve was seriously steep."

"Thank you." It seemed like all the tension had dissipated from him. "I probably can't ask many questions but I'm sorry about your villain?"

"To be honest space is already too far for him to get to me, but I wanted to be sure." Her cheeks were set aflame again. "Talking to you helped me too, so thanks for that. I wish I could tell you more, though."

"It's okay. That's your business and it looks like you're better off handling it without other heroes interfering, right?"

"Mon dieu, yes, thank goodness you understand." Ladybug's lips stretched into a grin. "If I met any other hero, they would've been nosy."

"But is there any way I can help?" he asked. "I know I can't be too involved, but . . . actually do you have something I can write on?"

She thought for a moment before taking out her yoyo and handing it to him. There was a digital screen on one half of it and a digital keypad on the other. Jon hastily typed on it. "This is my personal number. If you need some sort of backup for an emergency, you can reach out to me."

Giving her his number was a gateway to revealing his civilian identity, but he didn't mind. If there was a way to ease off this sweet stranger's troubles, he wanted to be that support just for her.

"Thank you so much," Ladybug breathed out. "You're trusting me too much."

Will we see each other again? Jon wanted to ask. He fiddled with his fingers before he said, "And if you want to talk again . . . about anything, give me a call, okay? I'll meet you anywhere."

"You're really nice," she said quietly.

A light on her yoyo flashed with a ping and the smile on her face was slowly replaced with a frown when she looked at it. "Sorry, I think I have to go," she apologized, taking out a pair of goggles from her yoyo. "I'll contact you, I promise."

Those mere words warmed Jon's chest. He watched her put on the goggles, summon a portal out of nowhere, and disappear into it. 

[fangxin-guoshi]

Madara's value system and its relation to his completely bonkers tsuki no me plan:

this is completely my (admittedly delusional) interpretation if you disagree that's perfectly fine

I like to think of Madara's value system as a hierarchy of people, with Izuna/immediate family at the top, then the clan, then the village, then everyone else in the world (hashirama floats somewhere between the clan and the village i still havent decided where). He still cares about each and every one of them, but definitely some more than others.

How did I come up with this hierarchy? Dont worry I didn't just pull it out of my ass:

Izuna's pretty easy to explain, since he's easily the single most important person to Madara. Up until he died (even after he died), Madara did EVERYTHING for Izuna. When kid hashirama and Madara were talking abt their reasons for wanting to build the village, Madara's first thought is his brother. He chooses izuna over the clan, hashirama, EVERYONE. His whole thing abt "keeping his oath"? That was his oath to izuna to protect the clan. Madara brings up his feelings of failure to save his brother CONSTANTLY in the founders era. I feel pretty comfortable putting him at the top.

Next is his clan, sorta self explanatory. But I actually think the clan isn't as important to him as for someone like fugaku. Most of his ties were to individual people he cared abt, not really the clan as a whole. Of course, he did care abt the clan a lot, but izuna (and hashirama) had a much more personal relationship with him than the rest of the clan (again, he put so much effort in to protect the clan bc of his oath to izuna).

I was struggling where hashirama would fit, because his falling out with Madara and the Uchiha kicking Madara out of the clan coincided. I do think that as kids, hashirama was more important to the clan, or more accurately, madara and hashirama's dream was worth putting the clan at risk for. Things got a bit fuzzy when they became adults tho.

The village comes after, and Madara is evidently very defensive of the village. Like when he went to the hidden stone and slapped a tiny ohnoki around. He was all like "you shall succumb to the might of the hidden leaf" or something like that. This part also ties in to how the rest of the world is below the village in the hierarchy, since he sorta goes around threatening other nations.

Its only until after izuna died, the clan kicks him out, the village hates his guts, and hashirama stabs him in the back, that Madara goes crazy. He lost everything that was important to him. The hierarchy collapsed, and the only thing that he can save now is the rest of the world. This is why he goes through with his insane tsuki no me plan, because nothing he ever did before protected the people he wanted to protect.

From his perspective, six paths sky daddy and hashirama's worlds they "crafted" to establish peace failed. Madara's initial idea of peace is based around whether the people he loves are safe, and in order to keep them safe, conflict must be resolved. Since they're kinda dead now, he feels the need to take desperate measures to save everyone else, aka the people on the bottom of his hierarchy, aka the LAST PEOPLE ALIVE on his hierarchy. His decisions may seem very calculated, but his whole drive is an emotional response to the loss of the people he wanted to protect, which consequently led to his extreme savior complex. Combined with the fact that black zetsu was manipulating him + half a century in complete isolation in his dingy lil cave probably wasn't all that great for his mental wellness.

[jjnonken]

Been a while since I've posted. I've decided I hate Facebook again and for now I'm letting off steam here.

I said before that I'd deleted my long rant and just stuck to a mini-rant. Well, today I'm posting a long rant. Fair warning: This is a rant.

As far as I can tell, there's no good news about the Borderlands movie. They've changed Commander Knoxx's character to be Atlas's daughter instead of General Knoxx, so I guess she'll be Commander Atlas now. That... doesn't matter. Of all the issues I have with this movie, whose daughter she is is probably the least important. Actually, it's not an issue. Her EXISTENCE is an issue, but not which NPC is her parent. Atlas isn't even an NPC, it's just a gun manufacturer, presumably named after its founder. We never see the founder(s) nor, as far as I can remember, hear any backstory. I'm not sure which problem they were trying to solve by the rename.

First problem: We do have to rescue Lilith, Athena, and one other who I won't mention due to spoilers. I can only think of those three. Lilith tells you to kill her if you can't save her... "Better dead than a damsel." Athena engineers her own rescue; you're just the muscle. So there's kind of a dearth of damsels in this franchise. The movie's premise is that Commander uh... Atlas?... needs to be rescued. So, right. Damsel in distress. Kind of immediately contradicts the lore of Borderlands, who has strong women who generally don't need rescuing.

Second is: why General Knoxx's er, I mean, Atlas's daughter? She's a new character. It's like BORDERLANDS ISN'T CHARACTER-RICH ENOUGH, we have to add more just to get the plot started.

Edit: She still shows credited as Commander Knoxx in my web search, including on IMDB. I saw Atlas in the last article I saw on the movie. It's possible it was simply mistaken. I note parenthetically that Knoxx works for Atlas Corporation, and the DLC he's in is Atlas-heavy. Could just be a mistake. Edit to the edit: The Wikipedia article premise mentions her as Atlas's daughter. But she's named Knoxx. I'm fucking confused; which is she?

Next: They have Kevin Hart playing Roland. Kevin Hart is a comedian. Roland is a serious, somber, straightforward guy who never jokes and never laughs, or even smiles. Any humor that happens in relation to him works because it plays off his sober sincerity.

Roland: Oh good, you're not dead. Lilith: That's his way of saying "Hi". Roland: Sorry. Hi.

Why do they need a stand-up comedian to play Roland? Either Hart is trying to branch out and do some serious acting, or... they're making a comedy.

OK, Cate Blanchett is doing Lilith. I don't know if she's the best choice, but I don't know who else I'd recommend. I guess I'm OK with that.

As for Tannis... I love Jamie Lee Curtis, but she's a scream queen that also does comedies. Tannis isn't FUNNY, she's TRAGIC. Again, there's humor, but it plays off her personality, which is informed by her severe social awkwardness. (She's pretty much coded autistic. I don't know if it's canon.) No doubt the trauma she's suffered has exacerbated any existing personality deficits. Or caused new ones. Can Curtis do a sober Tannis? I mean, play her seriously, not deadpan. I don't know. Again, I don't think she's meant to -- this movie is looking more like a comedy every day. Could be worse, but I'm not sure I'd pick her.

Next, we have Claptrap, who is introduced as "The wise-cracking robot" and played by... Jack Black, a comedic voice actor. Thing is, Claptrap does not crack wise. He's hilarious, but that's because, similarly to Roland and Tannis, the game plays off his naive sincerity. He's funny because he's so serious, but clueless. I haven't memorized every line in the entire franchise enough to instantly recall everything that every claptrap robot has said, but as far as I can remember, Claptrap has told MAYBE three jokes on purpose. One is self-referential, spoken by a claptrap who is supposed to be programming the game: "Borderlands? More like Memelands, am I right?" One is spoken right after a hatch is automatically locked, trapping you in the first map: "I hear that getting eaten by bullymongs isn't such a bad way to go." Was that one a deliberate joke? Don't know, so that's my "maybe." And the third is from a side mission called The Iceman Cometh. It's a moderately silly pun that any 10-year-old would be proud of. When you (as a character) don't react, he then EXPLAINS THE JOKE. When you still don't react, he LECTURES YOU on the nature of humor. TWICE. Naive sincerity, not cracking wise. So again, this suggests the movie being a comedy.

So, we have two of the four vault hunters from the first game, Lilith and Roland. The roles of Mordecai and Brick are interesting, in that THEY AREN'T THERE. Why?

Tiny Tina is. She's a psychotic young teen with a penchant for explosives. She's got a connection to Brick, who -- for some reason -- isn't in the movie. She's not the kind of person who needs a bodyguard -- she's the kind of person against whom YOU need a bodyguard. I only bring this up because... ... Krieg is her bodyguard in the movie. Why? I already mentioned her connection to Brick. Krieg doesn't have a connection to Tina, he has a connection to Maya. I don't know when this movie is supposed to take place in the Borderlands timeline, but if Lilith is retired, it'll be between the first and second. Possibly around the time of the Pre-Sequel. We don't see Krieg until BL2, where he's added as the last playable character after the original four plus Gaige. So the timeline doesn't make sense and Krieg's connection to Tina doesn't make sense and Krieg being Tina's bodyguard doesn't make sense. I don't know anything about the actors, I may look them up and try to watch some of their stuff.

Tina doesn't show in the game until BL2, but there's no reason to think she hasn't been around since Borderlands, we just haven't seen her. (But only after the events of BL:PS, since it's Jack's slag experiments on Tina's parents that kill them and drive her into being a vengeful little psychopath.) But Krieg doesn't show up until he becomes a vault hunter? OTOH until then he was living as a psycho... probably on Pandora. So I suppose the timeline might be OK, technically. I'll give them that one. But I still object to the Tina/Krieg connection.

Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi: Gina is an attractive woman, doesn't have Moxxi's curves, and she's 61. She's pretty hot-looking but I'm not sure she really fits the character, physically. Can she do Moxxi's va-va-voom? Don't know.

Charles Babalola: I don't know him. I try not to get upset at race lifts; I'm used to Sir Hammerlock being the "great white hunter" stereotype, but I suppose it doesn't hurt anything if he's black. At least he's British. This is a weak protestation at most. EDIT: Several people have pointed out that he's canonically black, which I never noticed. Well, OK then, that one's on me.

Bobby Lee plays Larry. He's another stand-up comedian. There sure are a lot of those for a serious film, eh? Also, who the fuck is Larry?

Ryann Redmond as Ellie: nobody's going to match Ellie's unrealistic proportions, but Ryann seems like a reasonable choice physically; basically, you just need a plus-sized woman who can act. I don't know anything about her acting but I presume she's competent, at least. Ellie is a smartass, so wise-cracking from her is welcome. So how come they cast a stand-up comedian as Roland but a serious actress as Ellie? The cognitive dissonance is making my brain cramp.

And Eli Roth has left the project and declared that he does not want credit for his writing. THAT bodes well.

This is supposed to be canon. Canon my ass. This is a TRAVESTY. EDIT: Somebody said it's not supposed to be canon. I read that it is. I'll try to dig up the reference when I get a minute. EDIT 2: Sorry it took me so long, I was busy procrastinating. Now, in my memory, when the first announced the movie they claimed it would be "true to Borderlands", but of course that's changed. I must have skimmed over the more recent "canon" phrasing, sorry. Apparently it's changed to "canon for the Borderlands Cinematic Universe", which is not the same as canon to the games. To me that's seems a bit disingenuous, considering that as far as I can tell, the Borderlands Cinematic Universe consists of one unfinished movie. (And calling it a "Borderlands Cinematic Universe" also seems a bit conceited since their first -- and so far only -- entry has been in Production Hell for 9 years and hasn't even finished.) So my apologies for getting the "canon" claims wrong, but I'm still unhappy and I think they're making excuses. They've taken an Action Movie script, grabbed some names from the Borderlands franchise, and pretended that the result is a Borderlands movie. They did that with Sly Stallone and the first Judge Dredd movie, remember? (Maybe you don't, but I was a fan of the comics. Fortunately the second movie was much, much better.) This makes me think of Stallone's Judge Dredd. (Also the anime version of the Lensman, but that one's pretty obscure.)

Anyway, I have more, but I think I've said what I need to. I may watch the movie out of morbid curiosity. I'm not going to dislike it out of spite, I'm not that hateful. I'll try to give it a chance. I just don't like the odds.

[catindabag]

TBOSAS on Crack short take (23)

*How The Grandma’am and Strabo Plinth ended up scheming together* Read [this] & [this] first.

Tigris: *still busy dancing like crazy* Thank Panem for the SnowPlinth Fan Club! I can finally quit my stupid dead end job!

Grandma’am: Tigris! My dear, stop swinging your arms! What if our neighbors see you?!

Tigris: You don’t get it, Grandma’am! I’m so happy for Coryo and the money- I mean, their marriage!

Grandma’am: Yes, I concur. We are so happy for Coryo and Strabo’s boy.

Tigris: And their money- I mean, marriage!

Grandma’am: Of course, as expected, only a Snow is capable of marrying the richest unmarried boy in the Capitol.

Tigris: Does that mean I can finally quit my job?🥺

Grandma’am: Maybe.

Tigris: But I really want to start my own-

Grandma’am: Only after Coryo’s graduation.

Tigris: Why?

Grandma’am: It’s still too risky if we rush these things, especially a wedding between a Snow and a Plinth.

Tigris: Oh, ok. So what should we do now? Wait after the games are done?

Grandma’am: It does not matter. The only essential thing for our family’s survival is for Coryo to secure his position as Plinth’s spouse.

Tigris: I think we don’t have to worry about that! Coryo’s got it covered!

Grandma’am: Yes. You are right, my dear. No one can resist a Snow. And someday their union will change Panem for the better! When Coryo becomes the President-

Tigris: I think Coryo will most likely become the ✨First Lady of Panem✨, don’t you think?

Grandma’am: *sighs* You may be right on this one, my dear. But it doesn’t matter! President or First Lady! Power is power!

Tigris: Yeah! Snow lands on top!

Grandma’am: Unfortunately, as I’ve heard from the Creeds, not in the bedroom.

Tigris: Well, I need to start designing Coryo’s wedding dress-

*suddenly, the phone rings*

Grandma’am: Tigris, go get the phone for me, my dear.

Tigris: *sighs* Fine. I just hope it’s not one of those nasty loan sharks.😞

Strabo: *on the phone* Hello? Is this the Snow residence? I need to talk to the head of the family.

Tigris: Who is this?

Grandma’am: *immediately takes the phone out of Tigris’ hand* Who are you and what do you want from us?!

Strabo: This is Strabo Plinth, founder of the Plinth Munition Empire. Is this Coriolanus Snow’s grandmother?

Grandma’am: Yes. This is the Snow Matriarch speaking.

Strabo: Have you seen the public announcement? Our children are engaged!

Grandma’am: Of course, I have seen and heard of it. My grandson told me himself!

Tigris: *whispers* No, he didn’t-

Grandma’am: And as the head of the family, you do not have to worry. I shall give my blessing and approval to your one and only son when Coryo introduces him to me.

Strabo: Ah, that’s wonderful! I already gave my blessing to your grandson!

Grandma’am: Perfect! Our families will soon become one.😈

Strabo: Yes. We shall become one.😈

Grandma’am: And as a Snow, I assure you that your son, Sejanus will have doors open for him when he joins the political scene.😌

Strabo: Oh, that’s good to hear. I was quite surprised that it only took young Coriolanus one moment to convince my fool of a son to want something greater!

Grandma’am: That’s a Snow for you.

Strabo: My wife and I can’t even believe that our son’s new goal in life is to become President of Panem!

Grandma’am: Of course! I shall fully support him.

Strabo: And I know that your grandson will do well to help him-

Grandma’am: Stop with the niceties, Mr. Plinth. Aren’t you the one who desires to rule all of Panem?

Strabo: Well-

Grandma’am: Even if it’s through your son and my grandson? Isn’t that the very reason why you called me?😈

Strabo: *leans closer to his phone* How did you know?! I thought I was the only one who sees the bigger picture of our families’ union?

Grandma’am: Easy. We Snows have our prestigious family name, and you Plinths have your vast wealth and assets.

Strabo: And if our families become one, then we both reap the benefits.😈

Grandma’am: Exactly!

Strabo: My Lady, we really are on the same page!

Grandma’am: Oh, don’t flatter me, Plinth. People may think I’m crazy, but I can still play the political long game.

Strabo: I have no doubts about your abilities, Lady Snow.

Grandma’am: And I have no doubt about yours.

Strabo: And with this “political marriage” that we successfully concocted, no one will be able to stop our rise to power!

Grandma’am: I assure you, Plinth, not even the Ravinstills and those nasty Cardews will see this coming!

Strabo: It will only be a matter of time before we rule all of Panem!

Grandma’am: Oh, yes. Your son and my grandson may work at the front, but we both know who’s really in control.😈

Strabo: Oh, I can’t wait to assassinate people. *evil laughs*

Grandma’am: And I can’t wait to poison them with my pretty roses. *evil laughs*

Tigris: So should I start cooking dinner then?😀

[via-the-cryptid]

Idea:

Simon goes to the Isles and Elements does happen. After Finn meets Minerva, she and Simon have a little talk, she wants to meet one of the persons looking over her son and maybe Simon can convice her that Ooo its not a bad place and that Finn its better there that trapped in Founder's Isle (and stopping the White Cloud incident from even happening to beggin with).

And once they return to Ooo, everyone freaks out and Simon immediatly flies to where the Snow Kingdom was to find Betty.

I do wonder, at this point Bonnie its again a Princess or is still on excile for her crimes? Because I can see Patience trying to convince her that aweakening her Elemental powers is what she needs to return to her position and protect her loved ones.

man you just keep hitting me with genius after genius, props to you.

so what I’m thinking is, Simon tags along to look for more humans and Snow Queen ends up going to see them off at the beach, but stays behind because she doesn’t really have a reason to go, but she knows it’s important to her prince so she’s obviously not going to try and stop him. At this point, she’s a lot more aware that Magic Simon can protect himself just fine, so she’s a little bit less overprotective and overbearing in that regard. still just as clingy, though, but Simon honestly sees this as a plus since he’s equally clingy.

on Founders’ Island, Minerva tries to convince Finn to stay, first by words and then by force. after seeing Jake stretch and Magic Simon hover in the air, she’s thoroughly weirded out by everything outside of their island and is utterly positive that Finn will be much safer if he never leaves. Simon, however, has seen this once before in the form of Snow Queen/Betty trying to keep him trapped in the Snow Kingdom forever in order to make sure no one can yet him. Minerva sees from Finn’s memories how dangerous Ooo is, but when Simon steps up, he knows exactly what to think of to prove to Minerva that Finn is capable of living in Ooo and doesn’t need to be coddled and constrained. Minerva sees all the times that Finn has won the fight and celebrated with all his friends, the times he’s sought out Simon and Snow Queen for comfort and reassurance, the times his friends have all supported him even when it does become too much. Finn may not be the most powerful in the world, may not win every single fight, but Minerva needs to see that Finn will always have his friends and family in Ooo to support him, no matter what.

and Minerva caves. Simon has been more of a parent to Finn than she ever got the opportunity to be, more than Martin ever chose to be, in her eyes. Finn has parents, a brother, so many friends and so much family, and Minerva… she can’t — won’t — take that away from him.

of course, then everything gets Weird As Hell as soon as they get back to Ooo. Simon definitely panics and runs off to go find his wife as soon as he realizes she might be in danger (so, immediately), leaving the rest of the gang to sort out whatever the fuck is going on by themselves.

when he finds her, she’s a heap in the newfound Ice Empire, lying on the outskirts just outside Patience’s dome, unconscious and without her crown (and strangely enough, there’s a propeller hat lying above her head like it fell off when she fell). Simon of course freaks out and tries to wake her up, but without the crown, she’s catatonic. the most he can do is cast a bubble around her to make sure that nothing and no one can harm her while he goes to get the crown back. the crown is a problem, yes, but without it, she wouldn’t be alive right now. Simon would much prefer an alive Snow Queen to a dead Betty, and he’s sure his beloved would agree.

Patience gives up the crown fairly easily, and it’s not hard for Magic Simon to figure out what happened from the remnants of the ritual left on the ground, etched into the ice itself. she used the crown as a battery for some sort of element-based spell, but rather than the traditional four of fire, earth, water, and air, it’s fire, ice, candy, and slime, a quartet he’s only ever seen before this in the Enchiridion and in a few old texts he found in Wizard City. there are at least four places which correspond to these elements that he already knows of — the four kingdoms that match the four elements, and the Snow Kingdom is already a mess as it is, what with Patience St Pim having gotten her hands on it. He shudders to think what the rest of Ooo might look like right now, but he needs to go and help Betty before anything else. Once she’s safe, they can go and find Finn and Jake and BMO, and regroup by the Candy Kingdom.

also: Bubblegum is back in her kingdom at this point and is on slightly better terms with SQ and Marcy after she apologized, but Marcy is still a little bit pissed off and will take a minute to cool down from that.

(KoO went running for the hills after they called Phoebe on his ass. She’s a very effective wax deterrent.)

[krispyweiss]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day Two, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 5, 2024

It was strictly bluegrass to kick off Day Two of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass as the Dry Branch Fire Squad offered stories about HSB founder Warren Hellman and songs of the Civil War and death and Jesus alongside instrumentals on the Banjo stage. There were no amps during the day-opening set that found the quartet playing and singing into shared mics and telling slow-to-develop tales with good humor.

Later in the day, Moonalice would grace the Towers of Gold audience with the second “White Rabbit” of the festival - following Molly Tuttle’s Oct. 4 version - and Tuttle would return with Golden Highway to back Steve Earle for a set that included a surprise appearance from Emmylou Harris on “Goodbye” and a rare festival encore of “This Land is Your Land” to end Oct. 5 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

As a warm morning turned to a sweltering afternoon that found festivalgoers gathering in shady areas and leaving sun-drenched stretches of grass empty, Jobi Riccio and her rhythm section created a stripped-back, Hejira-era Joni Mitchell/Harris hybrid for the Rooster-farians, as the emcee called those gathered at Rooster stage. Playing during Buddy Miller’s daylong Cavalcade of Stars, Riccio surely earned some new fans.

Showcasing their new How to Make Mistakes LP, Fruition entertained the Swan stage shade-seekers as the quintet with multiple lead singers and multi-instrumentalist members took a a Bandian approach to 21st-century Americana with faux-blood harmonies buttressing ballads like “Still on My Mind.”

Following immediately on the adjacent Towers of Gold, Moonalice - with drummer John Molo, guitarist Barry Sless, singer Lester Chambers, bassist Pete Sears and others - turned in a hugely entertaining and soulful set that included the front-line trio of female vocalists leading the large band through such covers as Marvin Gaye’s “You’re all I Need to Get By” the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song,” “(Turn on Your) Lovelight” and the aforementioned Airplane number.

Back on the Rooster for the ongoing Cavalcade, former Carolina Chocolate Drop Dom Flemons played bones, harmonica, guitar and quills on traditional songs to demonstrate what being an American Songster is all about. As he performed Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train,” on guitar and “Brown Skinned Girl” on harmonica, Flemons proved himself the rare solo-acoustic performer who could hold a field full of festivalgoers in rapt (near) silence.

But he also had assistance from the Red Dirt Boys - who’d previously played a rich-gumbo show of their own - on original country and western songs from Traveling Wildfire and an old-timey rendition of “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” as he danced with rubbery legs of joy. A couple of false starts added to the spontaneous nature of this surprise mini-set.

Carlene Carter provided midafternoon lunchtime country music as the Sound Biteses prepared for Mavis Staples on the Banjo. And she did not disappoint, cooling down the afternoon with such hopeful numbers as “I’m Just Another Soldier,” “Handwriting on the Wall” “Respect Yourself” and “Freedom Highway” as she declared the healing power of music and her gruff, joyful laugh.

“We come to bring you some joy, some happiness, some inspiration - we want you to feel good,” Staples said.

And she made people feel just that though it was disheartening to see the 85-year-old American treasure needing to sit during a portion of her show, which she did not do in Ohio several months ago.

Earle, Tuttle & Golden Highway ended the day with 75 minutes - HSB’s longest performance - and opened with “Warren Hellman’s Banjo.” The show was a little under-rehearsed but a prime example of live music without a net with songs from the Del McCoury-Earle joint the Mountain, a cover of Little Feat’s “Willin’” and perhaps the most-emphatic version of “Copperhead Road” to date.

“This turned out exactly the way I wanted it to,” an exuberant Earle said with a comment that summed up Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites’ day perfectly.

Read Sound Bites’ HSB Day One coverage here.

10/6/24

[idyllphile]

thoughts about BunnyFarm and the Hippos:

in the game, Pete the Hippo offers the Showstoppers the fruit they need in exchange for them doing tasks for him. this is similar to the agreement between Cyberfun Tech and BSI: 'we'll give you animatronics for your restaurant, and with the profits you'll give us a return on our investment'

the plaque (before it changes) says that Pete is the son of the deceased Bobbie the Hippo, who was the original owner of the town and promised to create "the best quality barn in the world." this is similar to Jason Pooltrick, the deceased founder of Cyberfun Tech who wanted to (quoting the wiki here) "explore and push the limits of modern technology"

the plaque also says that Bobbie had two sons, Pete and another named Johnny the Hippo who appears in the Hippo House mini game. Jason Pooltrick has one known son - Norman Pooltrick, who took over Cyberfun Tech after Jason's passing - but it's not impossible that he had another who we haven't been introduced to yet

the Pooltrick family has been given enough detail that I feel they must have a key role to play in the story. if they didn't, there'd be no point to the character of Jason Pooltrick at all; Norman is the current owner and the one interacting with BSI, why bother giving info on his dead father? it could be just world-building, but I think there's more to it. I think there may be a second, not-yet-revealed Pooltrick brother who will be turn out to be important. this makes the Hippo family a stand-in for the Pooltrick family: Jason is Bobbie, Norman is Pete, and the other brother is Johnny

in the mini game, after Sophie gets the key (which Johnny was a barrier to, interesting), she goes through door one and is almost immediately brought back to the house, where several things have changed:

Johnny is gone

the two hippo kids no longer have eyes and or idle animation

Banny and Holly still have eyes, but their positions have changed (Holly has moved slightly forward and Banny has moved back so much she's partially off-screen)

Banny also has no idle animation and her face starts off normal before becoming either distorted or mangled

the picture on the wall has changed into a picture of Felix (I'm not really sure what it was before, but my best guess is it was one of the hippos)

the two hippo kids are a clear reference to Edd and Molly, and obviously Banny is synonymous with Susan, whose death we get our first look at a few seconds later in this mini game. what I'm thinking about is this: there are two deaths represented here, and all involved parties of one - Felix and Ed and Molly - appear, so it would make sense and feel complete for all involved parties of the other to appear too. we've got Susan, but what about her killer? is there any reference to or representation of "Bon" here? maybe there is, and maybe it's Johnny the Hippo

TL;DR what if "Bon" is Pooltrick Brother #2

[miiilowo]

Not a very simple ask so feel free to not respond but

Since the mimic thing is so incredibly dumb and the alternative is also dumb. And the entire "WOAG afton is back!!!" thing is dumb.

What do you think would've been a better direction for the story? Like as a way to continue from pizzeria sim? Bonus points if you figure out a satisfying plot thread that still involves the pizzaplex.

I personally think it would've been interesting if the game went more in the direction of exploring more varied horror settings, all within the world of FNAF and using the underpinning of agony and remnant as a way to introduce new creepy crawlies. Possibly going along with the "cult of Afton" thing. A buncha internet peeps get fascinated by the mysterious deaths surrounding Fazbear's and it's founders, so they do some searching around in Afton's stuff, y'know casual B&E. They find some scattered notes on remnant (and agony maybe?) in his old house, which was abandoned a while ago and is in significant disrepair. Proceed with delusions of grandeur and hopes of immortality, and boom! You have a death murder cult!

So the spirit of Charlie is roused from its peace and begins softly manipulating random strangers into stumbling upon the machinations of the Macheivellian Murder Immortality Cult and putting a stop to their nonsense.

First thing that comes to mind is a building that someone was tortured in and subsequently had their body cut up and strewn across the building, and their remnant placed in the rebar, that kinda shit :3

While I do really like those ideas, I think i would try to keep it a bit more contained and maybe expand into some of the stuff you've brought up as time goes on

I would forego any lore relevance that help wanted/fnaf vr has, first off, and i mean completely forego it. it might drop some hints for upcoming games, but making it an in-universe meta thing has always rubbed me the wrong way. non-canon in every sense. just a collection of games, like we thought it was going to be ! ! ! ! !

I've never liked glitchtrap, and I have also always believed that Vanny should be a copycat killer, who has absolutely no direct affiliation with afton, because he is dead. forever. and ever. never to return. him "always coming back" should be more of a 'he always comes back to haunt you' situation or a 'his actions will affect people for the rest of time' thing rather than a literal resurrection

Instead of it being a network of people, I kinda just want Vanny to be a true crime freak who got a little too invested in Afton and his business and it eventually spiraled into her doing what you something akin to what you described. I have a whole AU for this, though no content has been created beyond designs. If agony & remnant work with all living things and not just people, I think maybe she killed some small animals before, saw a glimpse of how possession worked as an experiment, and immediately bought into (and spun more) conspiracy theories surrounding freddy's and the animatronics. I don't want her to be some dark, sad, motivated villain like Afton sort of became, but instead just literally being fucked up for the sake of it. Murdering kids for fun, because she wants to be like her idol. I think this arguably makes her more frightening than William, because at least he had motivations for a bit, right? He had a reason to be doing what he was doing. She doesn't.

Of course, that would be where the pizzaplex comes in. Assuming Henrys whole fazbear-entrepreneur-package wasnt ONLY dished out to Michael, that would be why it exists. Probably built by someone who already had way too much money, but I digress. Vanessa gets a job at the Pizzaplex. It's the perfect opportunity, afterall, and she probably needs the cash anyway.

The Glamrocks would be a threat because theyre trying to return Gregory to Vanessa, as per their night mode where they try to locate any lost patrons (or ones hiding out after dark) and bring them to whoevers working the night shift. I would definitely make them less sentient than they are, with any lines being more like glamrock chica's specifically (since they actually feel like something an animatronic thats programmed to round up kids after hours and get them back home WOULD SAY)

I think in order for this to work out with security breach still sort of being security breach, we'd have to rewrite the introduction to the game. There's a few big issues here, but the main one is figuring out why he's in the pizzaplex after dark. Since William is not involved anymore, having glamrock freddy faint on stage doesn't make sense, so we would have to get rid of that--At least, not in the way he does, for the reasons he does.

One thing I would've enjoyed about security breach were the content not cut, is that the player wouldn't have a reason to believe Gregory about Vanessa. Not fully. He never explains why we shouldn't trust her, and its very likely that there was supposed to be a bit where she "turns into" vanny, which would reveal her as a threat to the player; Beforehand, it just seemed like she was trying to genuinely help us out of the pizzaplex. It makes her go from someone we can possibly trust (even if gregory doesnt) to an explicit threat. I think trying to achieve that in some way again would be cool.

We could still keep the thread that Gregory is homeless, and he just snuck in during the day and stayed after hours to try and seek shelter-And what kid wouldn't want to stay at a fucking amusement park overnight? Naturally, he would want out once the animatronics start being aggressive with him, but I think we can take another route with this too:

Start out with Vanessa being nice! She's clearly the only guard at the pizzaplex (for some reason? despite it being so massive). She offers to help, to not only get Gregory out of the pizzaplex because he shouldnt be there, but because she finds out he's homeless and he needs a place to stay. Lure the player into a false sense of security. She brings him to a back office where she says he can stay while she gets things sorted, then comes back to kill him wearing her funny little rabbit suit. Before she does, maybe she cuts the power, so none of the security cameras capture what happened. (maybe in the vanny hideout that already exists in security breach?) Once she tries, though (or maybe once he smells the decay of other dead children in the room) Gregory manages to escape through a vent, and from there it would be a game of cat and mouse as she chases him around the pizzaplex. in the dark.

Having glamrock freddy be this all-protective saint wouldnt really mesh well with this, but I do think him being on our side could be incorporated. No stomach hatch mechanic, first off, and if it ever is included, it needs to be nervewracking and evoke the same sort of feeling as the minireena springlock night in sister location. As for why glamfred doesnt just try to gank him like the other animatronics do, we could say he never entered the proper night mode like the other glamrocks did because of his mishap earlier sort of resetting his shit. I still dont want him, or any of them, to be sentient, so at most any intelligent responses could be chalked up to AI. That way, we could have some offputting, not-quite-human, inconvenient interactions with him that (at most) are a response to something gregory does or says. We could keep an element of humor that FNAF has always had that way, too.

As for why glamfred would be trying to PROTECT Gregory, we could go back to what fnaf 2 was doing with its facial recognition system: they help protect kids. if a child tells him that hes in danger, he will try to help that child. all that being said, i would want to bring the shattered freddy story beat back where the other glamrocks rip him the fuck apart and turn him into a threat like halfway through the game. Instead of him being literally destroyed (since again. vanny would have commanded them to do that and it doesnt make sense if shes the killer and theres no afton) it could be that vanny got him working in his proper night mode and so now hes in the "find child and return it to the proper authorities" mindset like everyone else is. make the player feel hopeless. and so on

im going um. way off the rails here. and im gonna continue. but i dont think the animatronics should be possessed yet for the sake of motivations and trying to keep them as lifeless as possible. I mentioned it earlier, but I think it would be good if she hasnt stuffed the kids into the glamrocks yet because she hasn't killed enough, and is keeping their bodies in her little hideout--Gregory would be the final piece of her puzzle before she can enact her plan how she wants to.

Alongside the pizzaplex being In The Fucking Dark Now, I always thought having Vanny be visible around corners and on railings due to her eyes and then vanishing once you see her would be neat. Always being watched, sorta like a g-man situation. The type of killer who likes to toy with her prey, which would eventually lead to Gregory actually escaping, her becoming a suspect, and then managing to get away at the last second and continue her antics in true afton copycat fashion.

i have more to say but im going to stop myself and summarize:

canonicity of help wanted would be done for

vanny/vanessa is obsessed with william afton and the murders

decides to emulate his crimes

pizzaplex exists due to the entrepreneur thing henry set up in FFPS

she gets a job there

gregory is there because hes seeking shelter as a homeless kid

she lures him into a false sense of security but he realizes whats going on before it happens and escapes

glamrocks have a night mode which makes them try to locate kids and return them to the nightguard so they dont camp out overnight (because lets be real, more than one person has tried to do this for their youtube channel)

glamrock freddy is kind of useless and gets turned against the player either about halfway or a third of the way thru the game

becomes a game of trying to wait it out til 6 am evading various threats

i do want to fully rewrite security breach one day for my copycat killer au (CCKAU), but heres something to chew on for now