#i dunno. it's an interesting line

[vickyvicarious]

'Truly, Monsieur le Comte,' said Franz, 'anyone would think you had made a comparative study of executions in different parts of the world.' 'There are very few types at least that I have not seen,' the count replied coldly. 'Did it please you to witness these horrible spectacles?' 'My first feeling was repulsion, my second, indifference, and my third, curiosity.'

The Count's conversation continuing from here down the track of "why would you want to give someone who hurt you terribly a quick death" is pretty clear in its meaning, of course. It's an explanation for why he's taking his time with his revenge plans as well as a hint at some really elaborate and intense vengeance to come. But this line is interesting too. Later on he watches the execution with a sort of vicious glee and bitter amusement. He finds it funny in a horrible way how Andrea gets furious at Peppino for being freed and thus forcing him to die alone; he scoffs at Franz's pity and forces him to watch too. For all that he acted as though he was only mildly interested at best earlier, he gets way into it.

Edmond was always more of a hothead, but initially an honorable one. In chapter 17 he admits to having tried to initiate a duel with Danglars in the past, but that did not connect in his mind to considering him an enemy who would have plotted against him: "Only one man had a reason to dislike me: a short time before, I had quarrelled with him and challenged him to a duel, which he refused." Of course, he was never completely bound to his honor when in unfair circumstances; when imprisoned he promised not to try and escape but almost immediately did so, and multiple times was extremely ready and willing to fight his way out no matter who he had to kill. He also obviously wanted revenge on those who had put him there, and initially did seem to want violent revenge.

So his first reaction to executions being revulsion is interesting, because it would have come after his imprisonment, by which time he had become much more hardened. I wonder if his repulsion stemmed at least partially from memories of his own prison time and seeing himself in their place. But it also suggests that outside of the context of his own revenge, he was initially still more sympathetic to others suffering cruelty. But if so, at some point that went away. He stopped caring. Both about their suffering, and also perhaps he got enough distance from his own past that it no longer led him to identify with condemned prisoners in the same way. And finally, he began to develop a morbid interest in the proceedings. This ties in to his own thoughts about revenge, of course, and perhaps he initially was searching for some terrible enough torture before concluding that physical torture wasn't the way he was going to go in his revenge. But it also seems like a sort of philosophical interest in a way. His bitter amusement at Andrea's actions when Peppino is released - he has these ideas about the natures of people (typically not good) and perhaps sees suffering, torment, and death to be times when people become most honest and reveal their true selves. Both as they are about to be killed, and to an extent maybe as they watch others about to be killed too.

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.

[slingbats]

just testing a brush

[cementcornfield]

Some D-Line Observations from Twitter

as we could all probably tell, trey is the only one making ANY difference on the d-line at this point. and not only is he the best on our line, he's one of the best in the entire league! like look at how alone his name is in that chart, he's getting doubled more than myles garrett or aidan hutchinson, and still winning as much or more than them!

and then we see sam, who seems to be entering a second season in a row of decline. he IS hurt, so you can blame injury, or maybe just old age. either way it's not great for him or the team 😔

the thing is though, his injury wasn't a secret during training camp. and myles murphy was getting more and more reps before he was hurt. i'm sure the plan was to let sam rest a bit, and have myles rotate in more than he did last year. and then....he hit IR. (the good news is that he'll be eligible to come back week 5, if he's feeling up to it!)

all of which leads to the first series of tweets....we have invested more than anyone!!! in our d-line!!! the most high round draft picks in the league! significant amounts of money in free agency!! and yet!!

it's easy to blame the FO (and i do, for a lot!) but they have been trying apparently. i know it doesn't seem like it, i personally was shocked at this info lmao. it's just that, for whatever reason, things aren't paying off. joseph ossai, zach carter.....they were 3rd round picks that have contributed very little so far. myles had flashes last year and could be a hit, but he's hurt. cam sample has historically been good depth, but he's hurt. kris jenkins is finally back in, but playing hurt. mckinnley jackson could be good, but we just don't know enough about him yet...because he's hurt! and beyond our draft picks, our acquisitions like bj and sheldon got hurt in the chiefs game, and you could REALLY feel their absence the next game against washington. the effect of injuries on this line really cannot be overstated.

and that sucks! because you look at the dj reader situation (and note that i was always on the side of keep him keep him oh my god keep him!) and see how the gamble of not paying your star vet and hoping that a lot of unproven young talent would come through....has not paid off! but! to be 100% fair, betting that dj would come back fully healthy and play like his old self, when he was getting older and had a serious injury, also would have been a gamble. it's just that that gamble paid off for the lions, and only time will tell if it pays off for us 🫣

[xcziel]

has anybody else thought about how jk could easily manage sofia's parts of slow dance or is it just me?

[front-facing-pokemon]

[luimagines]

can u do the chain - wind bc hes a minor obvi if thats k

reaction to reader beind a siren and maybe can u make it a series?

(or chain reactign to siren readinf sinking ships) and also (again) its an x reader

Hello! Thank you for your interest but requests are closed right now.

My commissions are open though, if you're willing to check those out. You can find the link to my ko-fi in bio (only works on mobile for some reason) or in the pinned post at the top of the blog.

[sysig]

Some scribbles :) (Patreon)

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I feel like the post I just reblogged pointing out the all-or-nothing in how many people interact with their deconstruction of systems of oppression is resonating for me right now with so many different moments in my life where someone decides that because some part of myself has access to some of the levers of control/influence/etc that come with the relationship to power, and decides what that must mean about all the other parts of me that might be explicitly refused access to those same levers.

It has happened in so many spaces/aspects of my life, and it can be so hard to feel safe and seen and trusting of others when that's my chronic relationship to being perceived - half truths and obfuscation.

It doesn't really change regardless of who's doing the assuming either. Like, where they land in relation to systems of power may influence which direction they lean in their assumptions about me, but even that is often inconsistent. Both sides of the equation (those who share my marginalizations and those who exist in spaces of closer proximity to power) will still do it nonetheless.

When I was doing my liminal social identities work in undergrad, this was actually a big part of the conceptualization we explored of traumtic alienation of self as individual from self as collective, and what it can do to people to exist in this liminal relationship with your environment and the people in it. As I'm starting to gather my thoughts about my stress modeling, this conceptualization is bubbling back to the surface. I'm finding myself meandering through it on both a path specifically my own, and in an effort to better understand what other paths may be available to people during their version of the process/experience.

Selfhood is so fragile, and so in need of balance between self-construction and co-construction for us humans, and that gives us so many beautiful, even spiritual, experiences of meaning making and generativity of self. It also createa many pivot points where we may find room in our path for vulnerability or blurring of self. As much as these pivot points can be distressing, I think they also sometimes become our foundations of change/personal evolution, when we find that through the distress of existing in shift, something meaningful is occurring or observable in our experience of self-in-transition.

I think something I've valued especially about my own relationship with self is its transience. It doesn't always end up somewhere I would be happy to sustain, but it always allows me a degree of comfort in complexity that I think has made my body-mind a safer place for me overall.

[exasperatedoctopus]

Have a crackpot theory: the people who enjoy most of the new police procedurals that have been coming out recently just secretly wanna watch soap operas but don’t have the Guts

[lem-argentum]

than/rudy/raha is an interesting concept to me becauseee. th.ancred deals a lot with words unspoken. his most meaningful relationships are hurt because he focuses on action to the point of miscommunication. and meanwhile, aside from what he keeps hidden very intentionally, raha says a lot more in terms of affection. because (from his perspective) his time is almost up, and he wants to leave those relationships with the other knowing how he feels without any doubt. y’know………

[whcwashe]

One of the things I think about a lot is the fact that they ostensibly wrote Liv off of the show because she would be too easy for John to manipulate, but like ….

Idk, she knows John for like two days (in the midst of which she’s going through her own intense trauma) and still accurately manages to pinpoint his emotional triggers enough to save herself from his mistakes. Like she knows well enough not to beg for her own life on the roof because that won’t get her anywhere. But getting through to John DOES. Like — I dunno, she’s smart, and it’s not like she’s gullible, she just …. Trusts John. Which, arguably, is not an exceptionally good idea. But it’s not a weakness either.

[blujayonthewing]

justin and I were talking the other day about whether/ how melliwyk might fit in and interact with other parties, and it was just a silly passing concept but I realized it's really hard to transplant melliwyk into another dnd setting because she's so fundamentally built into hers

she'd dedicated her life to artificing specifically because it wasn't possible in her world! she's a wizard and a transmutation specialist because it's the field of magic that deals the most with imbuing mundane objects with magic, even if temporarily; she took up adventuring because she'd hit the limit of what known history and theory and experimentation could teach her, and was hoping to make some discovery in fieldwork that would lead to a breakthrough; she's only now An Artificer [player class] because she invented it herself after having someone from a lost world teach her how to craft magic items

'would simon and melliwyk get along' hang on I can't even play in this space because I LITERALLY don't even know whether she's also an artificer in this context

[tfwen]

chlodine week day 3: danger/disaster

they’re posted up just outside an abandoned compound

enemies just inside

no doubt waiting for them to storm in, crosshairs aimed right at the doorway

most of them have been taken out already but the last two have been evasive

chloe and nadine are each braced against either side of the entryway

nadine: all right. i’m going in. watch my six in case one of them tries to flank us, ja?

chloe readies her gun: got you, love

she does not let the attractiveness of her girlfriends commanding confidence distract her

no sir, definitely not

nadine pulls out a flash grenade and launches it right into the inner room with practiced ease

following the bang, she charges in

chloe keeps an eye out behind them

footsteps become audible as the enemy scramble, stunned by the grenade

shots go off

nadine: dropped one!

that means there’s only one left

2 on 1 is good odds

especially with nadine on her side

but chloe’s learned to never underestimate an opponent

so many have done the same to her and ended up bested or dead for it

chloe breaches the doorway of the room just to see nadine take a shotgun shot to the chest

nadine: damnit!

she goes down

chloe : nadine!

he’s firing pop shots at them

she quickly gets out of his line of fire

chloe: fuck! what do i do?

nadine: he’s in here! i got one but his partner got me

she manages to crawl her way around the corner

nadine: he’s looking this way. he’s trying to finish me. if you come in from behind him you can get him

the enemy lets off more shots in nadine’s direction

chloe: shit, i can’t do this without you

nadine: you’ve got this, bokkie

as much as chloe wants to rush to nadine’s side, the adrenaline-laden, rational part of her brain knows she won’t be of any use to her with the remaining guy and his shot gun aimed in at their position

frantic as she is with her partner down, chloe follows nadine’s directions and let’s her experience with on-the-fly situations guide her

she prays she’s quick enough

not to be dramatic but nadine’s life depends on it

she circles around the room to the doorway on the other side and sure enough the last guy is facing the other way, weapon trained right at nadine’s head

chloe unloads a clip into his back

but not before he gets off one last shot

he goes down just as nadine does

blood sprays on impact as nadine slumps to the floor

chloe: no!

the round ends

the tv screen displays the game’s score chart with nadine at the top with 20 kills and chloe near the bottom with a measly but crucial single kill and several assists

nadine: you did it! we won!

chloe: oh my god!

nadine slings her arm around chloe who is seated beside her on the couch, one leg resting over her own

chloe considers the controller she has in her hand: well, technically i won

nadine rolls her eyes and gently shoves her away: still so cocky

chloe: but i couldn’t’ve done it without you, china

she sneaks a playful kiss onto nadine’s cheek

nadine pretends she doesn’t blush a lil

even after being together for years now her heart still gets all fluttery when her partner shows her affection

nadine: you’re getting better at this

chloe: sent ‘em packing back to loser land

they look at each other and burst into laughter

chloe: ok that needs some work

she snuggles further into nadine

chloe: can we play some crash bandicoot?

nadine sighs but boots up the game anyways

nadine: i don’t know why you and drake like this game so much. bandicoots do not spin

chloe laughs: so you’ve said. try to suspend your disbelief, love

nadine relents because she is in looooooooveee

[mik-mania]

speaking of masks. yall who have masked trolls... how did u come up with the mask designs?

every time i try to make one, it just feels off to me.

also i wrote a novel in the tags about it, but if anyones got some good research sources too, im all ears 👂