#i know it's not really relevant to me because i never lived in the city and the train ride to chicago was longer than it needed to be

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I don't personally live in an area where free public transit would be relevant (our idea of public transit is uber hahahaha please send help) but thinking of what a huge difference that would make for kids in cities makes me emotional, especially for kids who don't leave their neighborhoods (or even homes) much because of costs, traffic, violence, etc.

Thinking about middle school kids being able to take the metro or bus for free to go to other free events and activities in the city that they wouldn't otherwise make it to. . . Ah, it just makes me happy. I wish every kid had that ability.

[adieutristana]

heyy!! can i ask for a Arcane characters x Enforcer!Reader?? I really like your writing!! (Sorry, english is not my first language, so I don't know if the sentence is correct...)

-🦇

of course! thank you for the request <3

i didn’t put jinx or sevika in this one because i honestly can’t see them being with an enforcer, sorry :( also am i at the stage where i have emoji anons?? i love it

characters included; vi, mel, caitlyn, maddie

summary; headcanons of arcane women dating an enforcer.

tags/warnings; fluff, mentions of war and combat, mentions of drinking

vi;

✧.* after being released from stillwater, vi was incredibly reluctant to trust enforcers. of course she was, after what they had put her and her family through.

✧.* vi had been exploring piltover a bit on her own, though it went against her better instincts. the unknown had always fascinated her, what could she say? the diverse artistry that was unique to piltover, the fresh air, the music, it was an entirely new world. although it could never come close to her home of zaun, it was still fascinating.

✧.* during one of her first visits, she'd come across you in a crowded shop. a girl, a pretty girl, minding her own business and trying to get her groceries. though vi tried to resist, she couldn't help the need to approach you and talk to you- even if about something simple.

✧.* surprisingly, you took it well and were flattered. she'd asked for your name, asked if you were from around here, all of the questions that weren't too personal yet still intimate enough that she got a general idea of who she was talking to.

✧.* and despite being in piltover, despite being in an expensive grocery shop that she knew she wouldn't get anything from (zaun's cuisine is much better, thank you), she couldn't help wanting to see you again.

✧.* "i- uh, i'd love to meet with you sometime, if you're interested," vi'd said, her hand clasped behind her back and blue eyes flitted to the side. it was a bit adorable, you'd thought- this brawny, tough girl, so nervous because of you. "i'd love that. just let me know a time and place, okay?"

✧.* you'd begun meeting up about twice a week, that was about as often as you could manage with your work. you'd hit it off instantly, laughing over drinks and chatting about your lives maybe a bit too early. however, vi had never asked what you did for work, so you never thought it relevant to bring up. if you told her you couldn't meet a specific day because of work, she left it. she always wanted to keep a respectful distance; you were still getting to know each other, after all.

✧.* however, vi did eventually find out on a date, walking around the city where she'd seen the shiny gold of your badge peeking out of your badge.

✧.* "hey, uh... what's that?" she'd asked, careful and nervous. she didn't want to make any assumptions, but this was definitely concerning to her, it was the last thing she'd expected from the kind girl she'd been seeing for the past month and a half.

✧.* "oh, this? my badge, for work," you'd hummed, pulling it out of your bag to hold up. "i'm an enforcer."

✧.* "hold on- you, you never told me," she'd responded, a slightly exasperated edge to her voice. "it never came up," you'd sighed, placing the badge back in your bag. "what, is it... a problem?"

✧.* vi had hastily explained to you her past, her family's complicated history with enforcers and piltover as a whole. the destruction they'd brought, and loss they'd caused. but what surprised her is that you listened, you told her that you understood, and that you'd come from a similar background, despite living in piltover. you'd wanted to join the enforcers to hopefully change the system from within.

✧.* and vi took this as a good sign- that, and the fact that you'd never given her a reason to not trust her prior to this. so within a few more weeks, the two of you began dating.

✧.* to your surprise, vi warmed up to your occupation rather quickly! she was still loyal to her home, she always would be. yet she kisses your cheek with her strong arms wrapped around you from behind, helping you get ready in the morning. she brings you coffee when she knows you have breaks, and she always, always asks you, "how was work?"

✧.* i think vi would always be at least a little bit on the fence about your job. she'd never completely accept it, but she accepts and loves you, as long as you're willing to give her the grace she needs.

✧.* and if anything, being with vi gives you even more incentive to be better and advocate for change. you want better for her, for her friends and (only) family, you desperately want the gap between your worlds to be closed. every time you see her eyes, or hear her laugh, or see the lanes where she grew up, that feeling intensifies.

mel;

✧.* the two of you had met while mel was off duty, simply strolling around markets. it was one of her few days off that month, so the woman had wanted to make the most of it. take herself out for a nice meal, maybe support some local vendors while she was at it. a self-care day, if you will.

✧.* she'd spotted you checking out a booth with various beaded jewelry displays, still in uniform. you must've been on a lunch break, she supposed, but even from the back, mel found you intriguing. she approached the same booth, looking over the various pieces offered. this crafter was talented, no doubt, but she was more interested in speaking to you. although mel has never been one to act too quickly, something about you was different.

✧.* and when she approached you, you might have just jumped out of your skin. "oh, what's that look for?" she'd chuckled, a light smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "i- you're mel, mel medarda." "i am," she confirmed with a hum. "but i'd like to talk about you, if that's alright."

✧.* you'd gone on several dates with mel. local parks, visits to both your home and hers (which was just as lavish and beautiful as you were expecting), long candlelit dinners, and simple walks around the city during warm weather. every moment spent with the woman, you felt the anxiety melting off of you in waves. she was a councilwoman, a medarda, yet so kind, understanding, and compassionate.

✧.* you'd both talked about your work extensively as well, with mel throwing in comments like, "those people have such strange ideas sometimes," or, "i'd like to think i'm making a difference, but things feel so stagnant sometimes." to which you'd respond, "i know what you mean," or, "i'm in the same situation. i mean- not the same, but you get it."

✧.* mel had even begun to ask for some of your input. this was letting herself become a bit more vulnerable, which is what told you that she was starting to trust you- yet she knew that the enforcers had thoughts about the council, and wanted to hear your opinions. what were they doing right? is there anything, from an outside perspective, that you think she could be doing better? if there's anything mel is, it's considerate. she genuinely does care for the people of piltover.

✧.* before long, the two of you became an official couple. you'd decided to keep it private, since mel didn't like to let her personal life and work intertwine, and she didn't want to draw unwanted attention to you. it was an arrangement that worked out for the both of you- you could live your lives peacefully in public as companions, but live as lovers behind closed doors.

✧.* she knows that both of your occupations are essential- one can't exist without the other, so work does play a significant part of your relationship, even if you try to avoid it. eventually, though, the two of you come to embrace it.

✧.* she meets up with you often after work, taking you into her gentle arms and pressing her glossed lips to your temple. "i missed you," she'll say, whispering into your hair. "hopefully your work day was better than mine, hm?"

✧.* you'll often be in mel's home, her head rested on your shoulder after helping you out of your uniform and helping each other clean up. simply enjoying the quiet night air and each other's company, as well as the way her fingers slot perfectly between your own. "long day?" she'd whisper. "yeah, you could say that," you'd respond, giving a gentle squeeze to her hand. "but you always make it better."

caitlyn;

✧.* you'd met at work. you were brought on as a junior officer, training with a group of other young adults. you knew of caitlyn; you knew that she was a kiramman, that she was destined for greatness under her family's influence. that she was a determined and reliable enforcer, who many of your colleagues held in high regard.

✧.* yet it wasn't until you saw her in person, took her in and saw her shoot, that you'd understand just why the woman was so influential. she was intelligent, pragmatic, quick on her feet, with incredible reflexes. caitlyn is something that any enforcer would aspire to be, not only because of her status as a kiramman.

✧.* caitlyn was training you for a few days, and during that time, you'd become close rather quickly. being in close proximity like that, you were nervous at first- who wouldn't be? but caitlyn was professional, she was helpful, she was kind. your conversations had turned from enforcer procedures and shooting techniques to your families, your education, your hobbies, your hopes and dreams.

✧.* by the end of your training period, you and caitlyn considered each other close friends. yet more than that, you felt something more charged between the two of you. something more than a simple friendship between collegeagues.

✧.* "good work," she'd said, giving you a light smile and patting your shoulder. "you've impressed me- keep practicing, and you'll climb the ranks in no time." you'd given a smile in return, seeing the warmth in caitlyn's eyes. yet you couldn't help the need to do something- it was as if your feet moved on their own, stepping closer to the woman to press a light kiss on her cheek. "thank you," you'd whispered.

✧.* you expected some kind of negative reaction from caitlyn. her pulling back, yelling at you, maybe even cutting your friendship off. but she'd surprised you by leaning into the touch. she didn't reciprocate right away, but she embraced it, and wished you goodbye.

✧.* the two of you began dating shortly thereafter, but decided to keep your relationship relatively quiet at first. you couldn't have superiors knowing that colleagues were fraternizing, so it was your secret for a while. yet, caitlyn made it clear to you that she was okay going public whenever you were- "just let me know, okay? we'll take things at your pace, but i'm ready."

✧.* but the moment that revealed your relationship wasn't exactly... expected. you'd met in her quarters, sat on her desk while she stood before you and captured her lips with yours. it was quick, rushed, it carried emotions words couldn't quite capture yet. though when your superior opened the door without knocking, you swore you've never backed away from somebody so quickly.

✧.* though, to your surprise, there was little to no reaction. your supervisor was wide-eyed and paused, but quickly walked out, and you didn't hear anything of it afterwards.

✧.* "so... what do you say we tell the others?" you'd chuckled, still a bit flushed and breathless. caitlyn was much too embarrassed to respond at this point, but she nodded slowly.

✧.* the two of you have decided to not risk the quarters anymore (most of the time), but as soon as you're home, away from watchful eyes and the public, you're wrapped in each others' embrace again. caitlyn helping clean any wounds you may have sustained or vice versa, you kissing her temples- talking about everything and nothing after a long day.

✧.* "mm, you got pretty beat up out there," you'd murmur, wrapping thin gauze around one of caitlyn's ankles. a blow to her legs, and she was bleeding and bruised. thank the gods that was the worst of it, though. "i'm alright, darling. really," she'd smile, but you wouldn't have any of it. "shh, just let me take care of you this once. okay?"

maddie;

✧.* you and maddie were recruited around the same time, and brought to train together. in the time leading up to receiving 'junior officer' status, you'd both caught the other's eye. small talk led to goofing off in the quarters during break, which led to seeing each other after sessions, which led to feelings neither of you could exactly define.

✧.* maddie has always been rather forward, though, you'd found. never one to beat around the bush when it came to her feelings or desires, so you're not sure why you expected any different from the girl when it came to you.

✧.* she'd approached you after a day of long training. you were in a back room changing into casual clothing to walk home. maddie had swung the door open- quickly shutting it once she realized what she walked into, but rushed in as soon as you gave her the okay.

✧.* "hey, so sorry about that-" she'd begun, a nervous smile tugging at her lips. "don't worry about it, you didn't know.. what's up?"

✧.* it was then that maddie confessed that she'd started liking you pretty soon after your first meeting, that she'd always enjoyed your company and wanted to see you outside of work. to her surprise, you felt the exact same way, you just weren't so forthcoming about your own feelings.

✧.* "we can do something right now," you'd offered, swinging your bag over your shoulder and gesturing towards the door with your head. "walk with me."

✧.* maddie didn't have to be asked twice. she was following closely to the side of you, chipper as ever despite a long day of tactical training. you don't know how she does it, yet it's charming somehow.

✧.* once you reached the lot of your apartment, you'd turned to maddie and given her a soft smile, a silent 'thank you' for walking home with you. a show of your appreciation for her, and the budding affection between you. though maddie surprised you herself, pressing a light kiss to your cheek before walking off. "see you tomorrow!" she'd shouted over her shoulder.

✧.* shortly thereafter, you'd begun officially dating. maddie has never been secretive, so she never bothered hiding your relationship from your colleagues. she doesn't exactly flaunt it, yet if anyone asked, the girl will undoubtedly start gushing about her 'perfect, beautiful girlfriend.'

✧.* the two of you are frequently assigned to jobs and tasks together due to supervisors seeing how well you work together, even in a professional environment. of course those jobs will be done with a few stolen kisses and surprise embraced throughout, but you get it done regardless. you make a good team!

✧.* target practice together! maddie has always been a much better shot than you, but luckily, she's always glad to help. she'll stand behind you- one hand planted on your waist, the other on your rifle to help you aim better.

✧.* "ah... a little right, up a bit more- there!"

[miirshroom]

Devil May Cry: The Animated Series (2007) - Dissecting Episode 8 "Once Upon a Time"

A.k.a. spending many words addressing what I feel is a much dismissed episode of the 2007 anime.

Ep 8 "Once Upon A Time" is a Vergil backstory episode. From what I've seen over the years, this apparently flies over the heads of even people familiar with all other works in Devil May Cry canon. But I think that this episode deserves re-evaluation, because it is really very consistent with how Vergil is portrayed both in DMC 3 and in his more recent re-appearance in DMC 5.

The premise of the episode is that a man named Earnest heard that his old friend Anthony had resurfaced running a business called Devil May Cry. He had fallen out of contact with Anthony 20 years ago following a fire that burned to the ground the port town called Morris Island where they lived - killing the majority of the population. The fire was claimed by survivors to be caused by a demon attack on the island. Dante denies meeting Earnest before. He goes along with Earnest to visit the town anyways because he wants to know who is putting Earnest up to this.

Consulting the various pieces of evidence.

1) Dante is not usually known for lying (except for withholding information), and yet he says repeatedly "I'm not the Anthony you are looking for". That's a pretty odd way to phrase his denial, but it makes sense when you realize why the show can't just outright say "that wasn't me, but it might have been my identical twin brother". A conceit of the show is that it never once acknowledges in words that Dante had a twin brother. The show is allergic to saying the name "Vergil" (not even once!), which made it surreal to watch as an introduction to the series in 2007 and to later learn "oh, he has a twin brother!....OH NO he has a dead twin brother!" Because of the way that in retrospect it's obvious that Vergil haunts the narrative in at least half of the episodes.

This is almost the exact same way that Vergil is handled in DMC 4, where he's very plot relevant despite his name never being spoken. The Yamato belonged to "Dante's brother" - that's the extent to which anyone acknowledges him in words. Because the writers have decided to address the question of "how do you make the viewers aware of the past escapades of the characters without wasting screen-time on exposition dumps" with the answer of: "Don't! :)"

Real people don't start off every new relationship by explaining their tragic backstory - so when characters like Patty and Nero are introduced they are surrogates for the fraction of the audience who did not play the previous games or read the books and are reacting to the mysterious figure of Dante from an outsider perspective.

2) This point is one of the weakest (because it only works in hindsight), but it should be said that as of DMC 5 and Visions of V it is known that the demon attack on Morris Island is entirely separate and unrelated to the demon attack on the Sparda mansion near Redgrave City. It is also heavily implied that Dante was constantly up in Vergil's business - making it unlikely that Vergil could keep a secret friend from Dante and also have that friend never find out about his twin brother.

Plus there is the timeline to consider. DMC 1 takes place 20 years after the attack on the Sparda mansion. Morris Island takes place 20 years before this episode of the anime. There is a gap of at least a few years between DMC 1 and the anime considering that there was enough time for Trish to partner with Dante, change the shop name, and then for Trish to leave and the shop name to change back. So even the timelines don't match up if these 20-year time spans are strictly correct rather than vague approximations of time.

3) Dante has a completely separate backstory about where he ended up after his family home burned down in a fire and he was separated from Vergil. Because of the shock and to protect himself he buried his real identity in amnesia for like 8-10 years and created an identity as Tony Redgrave. He became a regular human mercenary and unaware of demons until suddenly he was pulled back into it and forced to remember. This is covered in the DMC 1 novel. The DMC 1 novel has been more decisively folded into canon as of references to its events in DMC 5: Before the Nightmare. In contrast, Vergil's whereabouts during the same time period were a mystery. What would have been the point of giving Dante a new personal history set in a small port town when you can instead take the opportunity to fill in the blanks on the person whose past is unknown?

Basically, the writers take it for granted that there is a tacit understanding with the fans that they will be faithful in writing Dante's character to the extent that is possible. Thinking that the viewers understand that the 2007 anime is not an adaptation of any previous works and has no desire to re-tread those previous works. The version of Dante as he appears in DMC 3 and subsequently in the anime is written as the character he would be if he experienced the events laid out in the DMC 1 prequel novel. Anything that they've retconned is exclusively related to Vergil - Vergil was not abducted by Mundus as a child and Vergil did not experience the events of the DMC 1 novel (and is unaware of Gilver in general). So if those things did not happen - then what replaced them? The way that anime Ep 8 and DMC 4 are written imply that the writers already had ideas about the answers (it's only 3 years between DMC 3 in 2005 and DMC 4 in 2008), but outside of more prequels there is no graceful way to deliver information about a character who is canonically dead - everything about their thoughts and intentions is filtered through 2nd and 3rd hand unreliable sources.

Even so, Visions of V re-creates the singular kid Vergil scene that was shown in the DMC 3 manga. In that case the scene takes the form of a surreal nightmare that is forced on him by the demons that he is conversing with in the present. It's surreal in the sense of the symbolism of being naked and afraid and stabbed to a gravestone with your own name on it.

Whereas the Visions of V version positions itself as a more straightforwards narrative account of the event. Vergil chooses to acknowledge what he was really thinking and feeling that day as a step towards working past it:

4) Earnest and "Anthony" had a favourite teacher - Margaret - so they seem to have both had a scholarly inclination. The unique cutscene introducing the Vergil playable route in DMC 3:SE (and at multiple points in the DMC 3 manga) shows him browsing books in a library.

The plot of the episode is that Earnest has an ill-begotten plan to open a portal to Hell and summon a demon. Dante tries to talk him out of it and is unsuccessful. This is a smaller scale version of what Vergil did in DMC 3. The parallels - they are here.

5) The kid in the photo that Dante sees at Earnest's house is wearing a blue/black jacket and red shirt. Blue with red interior lining being the colours associated with Vergil at the time of DMC 3, but even more directly with Nero in DMC 4. Morris Island is a port town. Fortuna is a port town on an island. This anime was being written and produced during the same timeframe as DMC 4.

6) Earnest and "Anthony" buried a box of treasures as children and it was a secret between the two of them. The box that Dante digs up has a scratched out name on a field of blue. The first letter of the name is a cursive "V". How did Dante know where the box was? Dante and Vergil were twins and were still similar enough at age 10 or so that Dante could guess where Vergil would have hidden something. They were similar enough that they both chose the same name of Anthony/Tony when they tried to obscure their identity. The identity confusion is a feature, not a bug - it's part of the tragic irony. It's toying with the same question as DMC 5: if their positions were switched, would their fates be different?

Dante does not care about Earnest. At all. At least, beyond the point that he's a person about to do something foolish that could get himself and a lot of other people killed. Dante is doing the bare minimum to humor this man - so if not because of some gesture related to their "friendship", why even dig up the box? For the same reason that he went to visit the town: curiosity. He was looking for proof of Vergil's existence in the world before that one time he showed up when they were 18 talking about a lunatic plan to raise a demon tower and open the connection between human and demon worlds (DMC 3 manga), and then at age 19 actually went through with that plan while revealing that the point of it all was to gain more power (DMC 3), followed shortly by throwing himself into Hell while severely injured at the end of DMC 3. What would motivate a person to do these things?

7) This port town being burned down in a fire caused by a demon attack explains a lot about the psychology of Vergil, in ways that would not be explicitly confirmed until DMC 5 and Visions of V. He's motivated by his fear. He did not hide from Mundus as successfully as Dante, and even when he tried to reinvent himself as a different person the demons caught up with him. Dante lived through one tragic fire and loss of home and safety and he knows how devastating it is - but he repressed the memory and moved on from it in his own uniquely dysfunctional way. Vergil experienced at least this 2nd attack, which begs the question of how many more times did it happen that Dante is unaware of? How badly would it damage a person to live in fear of being constantly hunted and unable to stay in any place for very long or form lasting attachments to other people? Dante can relate to this a bit given his own personal tragedies, although unlike Vergil he has a handful of people like Lady and Trish to keep him grounded though the years.

But for Vergil it can be extrapolated that he was forced to be alone after any attempt to get close to normal people ended in further tragedy, and it seems like the demons won't stop hunting him until either he is dead or the mastermind sending the demons to hunt him is dead. This evolves into an obsession with power, detachment from human social connection, and willingness to make the decision that a city worth of humans is acceptable collateral damage so long as it gets him that power and opportunity to end Mundus.

If there is a single detail that calls in to doubt that Ep 8 is about actual Vergil post-separation from Dante, it is that "Anthony and his mother" lived in the village. On the other hand, the inclusion of this detail seems as much designed to baffle Dante as it does the viewer. This could be a hook for Dante that has him doubting Earnest's story and/or his own memory because he was certain that their mother died at the same time that Dante and Vergil were separated. However, although there are photographic records of "Anthony" in the town there don't seem to be any of this "mother", and her name is never given.

So if indeed "Anthony" was Vergil, then this mother figure is a continuing mystery. The possibility is that Vergil was accompanied by a woman who was a mentor to him in some way, similar to Dante with Nell Goldstein. Could have been a magical mentor - how did he learn to fling about spectral swords anyways? Impossible to say for certain (i.e. more flexible for future use as a plot point), but if Patty and Morrison from the anime are canon then this suggests that other things set up in the 2007 anime could get a callback if ever there was a DMC6.

As for the purpose of this episode in the context of the anime - it would have been deliberately designed as an attack on Dante by Sid - the mischief maker of the series who is advancing a background demon resurrection plot. One of the times that Dante confronts him Sid says "In the end you were drawn here by the smell of a devil weren't you?" before backflipping off the balcony as the scene lights up with blue lightning.

What is it that Vergil says in the Mission 13 fight in DMC 3 the first time he uses his devil trigger: "You will not forget this devil's power".

This whole episode is a twist of the knife to deliver a reminder that Dante and Vergil weren't so different once, that kid Vergil probably missed their mother as much or more than Dante because he didn't have the luxury of willing himself into amnesia, and that while Dante managed to make it to adulthood before demons found their way back into his life Vergil was not so lucky. Understanding some of the reasons that drove Vergil to obsessively seeking power only makes it worse that Dante was now twice responsible for unknowingly playing into Mundus plans by severely injuring Vergil in a fight to the death in DMC 3, and then by killing him instead of saving him in DMC 1.

Bonus: Even the alcohol gets in on the theme. Dante in his own home office enjoys a "Budweiner" beer with his buddy Morrison as he gets the details about Morris Island. The end credits show him with a glass of "Back Janiels" liquor - these are his usual tastes. When he visits Earnest's house it is just after seeing that photograph of (presumably) kid Vergil that he is offered a glass of red wine.

This is some classic gothic imagery where red wine evokes the look of blood. The last time that Dante and Vergil fought (intentionally - not counting when Vergil was under the control of Mundus) it was over what it means that they have the blood of Sparda. And blood is present in the lyrics of the lesser demon battle music that plays through Missions 2-13 right up to the scene where Vergil is trying to open the gate.

... Taste the blood, Taste your fate, Swallow your pride, With your hate, ... Knee's in the blood with your crying pleas, Wade in your sorrow, bathe in your fear, Clear the mind of the righteousness suffered, Witness the moment of your failure's prosper!

[souliebird]

Okay. So.

I keep trying to write this and it's not clicking so. Let's do this as a My brain literally rambling with minor grammar edits. Let's go. ((I'm 🍃))

Hero!Dex!drabble time bby

Dex lives across the hall. You run into each other some times. Small polite neighbor talk if it's relevant. You don't know each other names.

The idea is you are the daughter of an Irish gang boss, with your brother being a high ranking member. You've newly run away from the family and are hiding in Hell's Kitchen. Shady apartment building, cash rent, no names.

Until Bullseye comes back from a rough Daredevil fight at the same moment as you. And you know exactly who Bullseye is.

But instead of panicking, you just go, "Oh shit, hold on, I have field medic training. Do you have a kit?"

And he's just like "Huh? Yes. Okay".

And Dex let's you in. You patch him up without asking anything while Dex tries to not panic.

Then you just tell him to wait a moment and he is like "Okay." Because he knows you know. He should kill you, but you're being nice to him.

He wants to Trust.

And you come back really quick with some left overs being like "Look here, eat this. It's got lots of protein and carbs, you'll need it. Just pop it in the microwave for five minutes, it'll be good. That bowl is microwave safe."

And Dex is just like. "okay. Yes." He likes that you're not asking questions because questions means he'd have to kill you

You're just helping him. A good person.

You leave after that.

Then you pretend it's back to normal but Dex is Dex.

But he's sure to keep his distance this time.

Time passes.

Dex wakes up to banging from across the hall. Early morning. Your door is open. He goes inside. Two men are assaulting you - you're pinned with a knife in your hand, clearly mid-fight with one guy while the other watches.

Dex does not think.

You crawl towards him. He grabs you, takes you back to his apartment, you do not fight him. He starts demanding answers.

You tell him everything.

They were looking for your brother. You haven't seen him in years, even before you left. He's turned into a state's witness and your dad thinks you'd know where he'd hide.

He's right but you'd never tell him that.

Dex looks at you very clearly. Right in the eye and Bullseye asks.

"Does he know anything incriminating about you?"

"Yes."

"Would you go to jail?"

"Yes."

"Do you want your father dead for sending his men after you?"

Pause.

"Yes."

"Okay."

He takes you to a hotel four hours away. He lets you block the doors with furniture. You cried in the car and are just tired now. He waits until you fall asleep. He leaves a note.

You wake up and panic and bit, but the note helps. He tells you he'll be back and you want to Trust that.

He saved you. He wouldn't bring you all this way to kill you. He's Bullseye. You saw him in his weird little Villain costume. He kills people in public like all the time no problem.

He's going to kill your family. He's going to set you free.

He's going to cause So Much Fucking Chaos in the underbelly of the city. It might vibrate all the way back to Cork.

That makes you kind of giddy because they all deserve it. All of them, especially your brother.

But you kinda deserve it, too.

You never hurt anyone. You've never threatened. You don't want to. You were happy to play the naive one because it meant one less criminal. But you know everything. You couldn't stop it.

Your cousin's ex-wife was a mole in the FBI. You'd be dead before you could find a lawyer.

You could very easily pretend to be dead now, though.

It's something to think about when you aren't panicking.

You hate being alone. You are terrified of someone busting in. You sit and watch bad cable for hours bc it's the only way to stay sane.

You don't sleep and you chug bad motel coffee.

Dex comes back after ten hours.

"If I don't tell you anything, you can't use it against me later."

You get it.

"Are you hurt?"

You patch him up with what's in the bathroom.

He bought clothes and supplies on his way back. He insists you go shower first. He doesn't ask why you didn't shower before.

You once again panic at being alone.

He comes in and you end up in the shower together. You keep to yourselves, backs turned. You only talk when he asks if you are finished - he has to move around you to get out.

You are.

You dress . He brought cheap ready to eat food. You both eat that while watching bad cable. You both comment on it and joke.

You still don't know his name.

He lets you push the second bed against the door. You sleep in the same bed, with you closer to the wall. Your head is on his chest.

"Thank you for saving me."

He doesn't reply.

You sleep.

He watches you all night.

And scene.

[phoenixremix69]

One thing i will always praise JJK for is how they handled the "Strongest" archetype

in so many stories, there will be a "strongest" of one thing or another only for it to be subverted later by either introducing someone just as or even stronger, or they were just being manipulated, thus once the manipulator shows up they're no longer a threat

Take Naruto for instance. Pein was supposed to be the ultimate big bad, the leader of the final villain group, the bearer of they eyes of the sage with godlike power at his fingertips. Then he dies and it's revealed that Obito was not only manipulating him, but he was stronger than Pein the whole time and could've ended him at any time. Then Madara comes back and you think "Oh, this is the guy, not only does he have the power, he's got the history and plot relevance to be the ultimate big bad," then he gets merced by a guy with no actual feats and replaced by Yet ANOTHER big bad this time with actually no relevance. Like none. Kaguya, never heard of her, but apparently she's responsible for everything bad that's ever happened ever.

Then let's take a look at All might and All For One. they're supposed to be the strongest hero and the strongest villain bar none. But it doesn't work for me personally because we never see them in their primes and we never actually see what they do. Like, sure All might supposedly waged a war on villainy that was so successful that Japan is one of the safest places to live period. But we never see any of it. Any time we see him fighting it just seems like one more battle until the next, like it doesn't seem like he's actually made a dent in crime rates. Hell, the second minor thugs hear there's even a chance they could take him on in the USJ, they take the chance. As for All For One, he never really seemed scary either, like he did evil things, he blew up that one chunk of a city, but he never felt like a main bad guy, he was like mid tier villainy for me. It doesn't help that most of his villainy was, for lack of a better term, retconned in. Oh yes, you were the one that fixed Dabi up, and made people racist against mutant quirks so they would turn to crime, and you gave Shiggy a quirk that would kill his parents and raised him to hate All might. Here's an idea. For your big comeback, blow up UA. Murder All Might on national TV. Interact with Deku once outside of battle. that would be a big bad thing to do, actually interact with the story

But not JJK. From the beginning of the story, we're told Gojo is the strongest sorcerer and Sukuna is the strongest curse, and that never changes. They feel big, every time they come out a city is wrecked. No one ever doubts that either of them would lose. Even Kenjaku, who is the usual manipulator,secret "I was in control the whole time," knows that the second Gojo gets close to him or Sukuna gets tired of him, he's dead. And it's not just the enemy sides that act like it, which really sells that they're threats. When Sukuna gets even slightly annoyed at Mahito for coming too close to his stuff, he backs off and never tries again. And the elders are constantly afraid and being reminded that Gojo is always about 5 seconds from just killing them all

[unionizedwizard]

tumblr user unionizedwizard certified #1 shadowbringers + g'raha overthinker reporting for duty

i HAVE been thinking about sphene being the exarch's foil. because it is a very obvious case to the point they had to pick him up from SHARLAYAN as an emergency Relevant Character and also allowed him to come with us to living memory (you know it's about to get serious when they let him go anywhere with the wol)

so, obviously. both sphene and g'raha (as the exarch) were thrust into a horrific nightmarish situation where they were put in charge of a entire city/state facing an umbral calamity. both care deeply about the people they're trying to protect - their people. both have undergone (willingly or not) heretofore unknown scientific operations that irreversibly changed them, using cutting-edge technology, making them immortal and fusing them with an immensely powerful reservoir of aetheric energy, all in the name of duty and preserving hope for the future; both have become a symbol rather than a person. the alexandrians needed their queen, whose mere presence stopped them from succumbing to despair; the people from novrandt forced the exarch into a similar position (even though he kept repeating he would not stand for becoming a king of any sort); himself, on behalf of the ironworks & the entirety of the post-8th umbral calamity survivors, was willing to sacrifice himself to bring back the wol - because (and this is the really important part) of the wol's status as a symbol of hope and resilience. everyone here, the wol included, is dehumanized and worshiped and used for their good, self-sacrificial qualities, as well as their unyielding willpower.

sphene's memories were altered, muddled, to an extent that nobody really understands. the scientists who managed to create the endless are all gone, the average alexandrian forgot everything and everyone they've ever known, she herself knows she's not the "original" sphene but a copy - yet she doesn't seem to mourn this loss, and indeed i don't know to which extent she conceives of it as a loss, or a violation of her bodily autonomy (which it was! she never asked to be brought back, especially not this way, which would be a more than traumatic experience for ANYONE to go through!). in the same way, the exarch's memories encompass several timelines and realities, and he spent an entire century having to hide his identity, not being able to mention his own name, much less his purpose or homeland - i'd say this self-erasure is more than comparable with sphene's experience. not to mention that both sphene and the exarch were forced into "passive", static roles - i don't know how sphene felt about this because this is the tragedy of her character, that we don't know (and she herself doesn't know) the first thing about her, as an individual with preferences and feelings and memories.

also, this all adds up with g'raha's role in the deltascape part of ultima thule - the omicrons being, as AI mechanical soldiers, the missing link between sphene and himself. there's a pattern here, interrogating the relationship between mind, body, memory, duty, freedom and personal agency & autonomy, etc. the endless in general and sphene in particular are more than reminiscent of the omicrons on this point.

all of this to say: thinking about g'raha's gondola speech, i did not think he was talking about the scions, or even the wol. i see how this is a possible (and likely) interpretation to have, but i must confess i was surprised when i saw that this is what most people had understood. to me he was talking about the people from the First, and also the people from the 8th umbral calamity timeline, especially those with whom he'd worked for, presumably, months at a time. so many people who died after the Flood (we tend to forget that he arrived right after the Flood, in the immediate aftermath), not just because of the sin eaters but also because of the sudden and catastrophic environmental changes; all the people who could never adapt to the eternal light and, presumably, went mad (it's a real thing in real life even though night does come back eventually, so i imagine it must have been that but a lot worse in novrandt). all the people who died due to lack of medicine, because all the medicinal plants and recipes disappeared in the blink of an eye, not to mention the healers themselves; all the diseases and epidemics and interpersonal violence that arose as a consequence of the severe famine and lack of basic resources that plagued what was left of the star. and the unfathomable loss and trauma of losing millenia of culture and civilization and knowledge and biodiversity and entire families, entire tribes, cities, countries, being annihilated. g'raha has lived through this for a century, combined with the post-8th umbral calamity state of the Source. we know how much he cares for the people of the crystarium, and we only see the crystarium as a fully-developed, beautiful, and harmonious city-state; we haven't seen the century of work and planning and emergency managing and unfathomable grief and pain that went into it. in the same way, we see alexandria (and living memory) as they are now, but only glimpse a few moments of utter chaos during the alexandria dungeon.

so i'm just thinking of g'raha, seeing living memory, and being the only one among the party who truly understands. who can truly relate to sphene, and understand her. he's the only one present who has personally been through not one but two calamities, and had to deal with them on a day-to-day basis (while readying a completely crazy long-term plan). how many people that he knew, loved, wanted to protect... died of "preventable" causes during the century he was on the First, while himself was immortal - so that he could keep doing his duty, doing everything he could to save them eventually? all this happened in a manner which was truly unfair, and unfathomably evil, and - possibly the worst part - he knew this was still "the better path" (as he put it himself while trying to summon the wol). the survivor's guilt that both he and sphene must be dealing with is simply impossible to really understand, i think. we've seen the crystarium. of course he'd wish for all these unfortunate souls to endure and finally know peace and happiness. and of course, he didn't have a Living Memory, but of course he couldn't help but wonder how he'd have reacted in this situation.

and i do wish we could have had him interact with sphene, actually. it made sense that she was wuk lamat's foil and all, but i think it would have been interesting..........

[binomech]

what is/are your favorite book/books?

I know this ask was sent on February 23rd, and I apologize for both the delay and the answer you're getting, although I'm sure you'll understand how these things are related the second you open the Read More:

There are authors that, when confronted with their whole bibliography, I can't begin to choose a piece to recommend because they're all relevant and semi-independent: Bertolt Brecht, Oliver Sacks, Chantal Maillard, Jorge Riechmann (whom I feel I'm doing dirty by only listing my favorite works of his and not, like, everything he's written; he's a not only a dear mentor but also one hell of a writer.) Then there's Adrienne Rich (criticisms of her transmisogyny in essays that are undeniably legitimate but could do with a hefty dose of historical contextualization) has incredible poetry and handles human relationships under capital with such kindness and finesse that I can't help but recommend all of her poetic work, really.

I'm bad at picking favorites, if the length of this answer hasn't clued you in. I hate quantitative appraisal of things that are meaningful to me, especially if it's art. Still, here are a few published books that I like a lot.

multiple-work recs per author

albert camus

the myth of sisyphus

the possessed (theatre)

resistance, rebellion and death (all the essays here are amazing, but if you must read one - reflections on the guillotine)

neither victims nor executioners

roland barthes

the pleasure of the text

camera lucida

mourning diary (one of my favorites, perhaps because it's so different from everything else on this list. this is an account of grief after his mother's death)

empire of signs

the responsibility of forms

what is sport? (and although i'm cheating my self-imposed rule of Only Published ISBN'd books on this, i recommend the fiction series 17776 as a companion)

mythologies

emil cioran

the temptation to exist

the fall into time

the trouble with being born

the twilight of thought

lesley a. sharp

the sacrificed generation: youth, history, and the colonized mind in madagascar

strange harvest: organ transplants, denatured bodies, and the transformed self

animal ethos: the morality of human-animal encounters in experimental lab science

james baldwin

giovanni's room

this morning, this evening, so soon (short story)

notes of a native son (which adds like 20 essays with every new edition, and honestly, all of james baldwin's essay corpus is amazing. not a single work in there that i would not recommed, and it's a long list.)

franz kafka

josephine the singer (short story)

the trial

in the penal colony

fiction (prose)

invisible cities by italo calvino

never let me go by kazuo ishiguro

east of eden by john steinbeck

fictions by jorge luis borges (and the prologues *specifically* for the library of babel, which is one of the short stories featured in fictions, although i don't know if that's been translated or how widely available it is)

how to live safely in a science fictional universe by charles yu

the monster baru cormorant by seth dickinson

dialogues with leucò by cesare pavese

the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck

this is how you lose the time war by amad el-mothar and max gladstone

when i sing, mountains dance by irene solà

crime and punishment by fyodor dostoevsky

good omens by terry pratchett and neil gaiman (yes, i know. not a word.)

discworld series by terry pratchett, but it's massive so here are my favorite story threads and novels within them:

watch cycle (favorite installments: men at arms + feet of clay) industrial revolution cycle (favorite installments: monstruous regiment + going postal) death cycle (favorite installments: reaper man + thief of time)

fiction (theatre)

waiting for godot by samuel beckett

rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead by tom stoppard

los árboles mueren de pie by alejandro casona

luces de bohemia by ramón maría del valle-inclán

fuenteovejuna by lope de vega

la casa de bernarda alba by federico garcía lorca

escuadra hacia la muerte by alfonso sastre

the flies by jean-paul sartre

no exit by jean-paul sartre

angels in america by tony kushner

seven against thebes by aeschylus

hecuba by euripides

antigone by sophocles

prometheus bound by aeschylus (kinda. you know how it is.)

these last three have translations by anne carson that i'm 100% supportive of. actually, most anne carson translations of greek tragedy are awesome, go check them out.

non-fiction (prose)

capitalist realism, hauntology and (the salvaged fragments of) acid communism by mark fisher; these go in a three-pack to me, so i'm listing them together

ahí es nada by jorge riechmann

¿vivir como buenos huérfanos? by jorge riechmann

identity and friendship by emilio lledó

diario del cuidado de los enjambres by antonio orihuela

el tamaño de mi esperanza by jorge luis borges

hope without optimism by terry eagleton

minima moralia by theodor adorno

philosophy as a way of life by pierre hadot (as a general overview to the historical overlap of ethics-as-doing with the rest of philosophical thought, but if you can use it as a foothold to his hermeneutics work, Please Do)

the idea of the holy by rudolf otto

the bonobo and the atheist by frans de waal

can the subaltern speak? by gayatri spivak

pictures and tears: a history of people who have cried in front of paintings by james elkins

la resistencia by ernesto sabato

the dialogic imagination by mikhail bakhtin

the cyborg manifesto by donna haraway

epistemic injustice by miranda fricker

prison notebooks by antonio gramsci

pedagogy of the oppressed by paulo freire

non-fiction (poetry)

grafitis para neandertales by jorge riechmann

crush by richard siken

la luz impronunciable by ernesto kavi

how we became human by joy harjo

eyes to see otherwise by homero aridjis

night sky with exit wounds by ocean vuong

i wrote this for you (series) by iain thomas (it's a combination of poetry and photography and greatly benefits from a physical format)

[ybklix]

favorite crime

♡ pairing: bang chan x fem!character

⮑ intro

⋆cw: none ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

⋆notes: narrated from fem character’s pov. fic based on 2004.

masterlist here

a/n: help, i’m not really sure how that store used to be like since I’m writing it to romanticize the early 2000’s ok

chapters one & two

ONE

word count: 816

Excluding the part about living in an insignificant town and still attending school… it’s not relevant. None of that matters or will matter once I manage to get out of here… and finally become someone else among the millions of people in the city, amidst the hustle and bustle, broken hopes, dreams hanging by a thread, and completely void happiness, just there, I’ll be there. Living, I guess. Breathing in the smoke from some neighbor’s cigarette and questioning if this is my path, since clearly the one I’m on now is not pleasing at all.

I managed to stop my thoughts for a few seconds; my mother was shouting from the bathroom, repeatedly asking me to check on a delivery the courier had just made. It was my last weekend before a new school year, and surprisingly, the weather had remained warm, so I was only wearing comfortable clothes. August had gone by, soon it would be September, and my favorite season would finally begin.

I opened the door to find an ostentatious box with the IKEA logo engraved on it. I had no idea if my mother had ordered some new furniture, so just as I was about to grab it and drag it, I realized the big mistake. The label didn’t bear any familiar name, and in fact, the address indicated the next-door neighbor’s number. Minho Lee, 143. I grimaced, unsure if I should be the one to report the mistake, or just not bother and move the box in front of his door, hoping he’d open it.

Considering, it was strange for this kind of confusion as deliveries like this always went to the reception where they would then call the owner just to make sure if it’s okay to bring it up or leave it right there downstairs.

Minho Lee… I knew they moved into the next-door apartment almost over a month ago, but honestly, I never cared to know who lived around me. I dragged the heavy box a few meters to his door and simply knocked on his door out of impulse, without hope of any response or desire to stay there to give any explanation. But the response was quicker than I thought because, as soon as I knocked, almost instantly, the neighbor appeared, dressed comfortably all in black, in shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

He had a look of confusion on his face. I remained for 3 seconds not knowing what to do until I managed to say:

“This appeared at our door, but I think it’s yours.”

The Asian-looking guy looked even more confused for about two more seconds until he managed to read that my gaze was directed towards the ground, and it wasn’t until he noticed that, his demeanor could relax. He read the name on the label and immediately thanked me.

“Yes, it’s here, thank you.”

I gave a smile with nothing else to say and headed for the doorknob of my door as I watched him out of the corner of my eye bending down to pick up his belongings. And finally, I quickly entered, realizing the ridiculous pajamas I was wearing. I closed my eyes tightly, embarrassed, as if that action could erase how uncomfortable it was for me to realize that I had a considerably attractive neighbor. His aura, his appearance… I wished to study him a little more, but really there was nothing more to say, nothing more than, here’s your box. I bit my lip wondering if I should have spoken and started a conversation with him by saying the typical nonsense like “this mistake had never happened before… the courier must be new, just like you, since when did you move…” But precisely my outfit, relaxed and messy, and my appearance… if only I had a little more luck next time, I wouldn’t think of wasting it like this.

Minho Lee looked young, like a recent college graduate, or maybe someone in their final year. As I climbed the stairs to my room, I thought about how ridiculous it was to start creating more ideas about him. Checking the clock, I smiled realizing it was my working hour and that I could leave this apartment without excuse.

After minutes, I left; grabbing my apartment keys and without saying a word to my mother, as if we didn’t have the great freedom to know or communicate our next whereabouts. Or just any kind of communication. Living with her was strange.

The building’s elevator stopped working two weeks ago and still seems to be under repair, so I hurry down the stairs until I reach the main hall, where surprisingly, I manage to recognize whose broad back was in front of me, also leaving the building, but heading in a different direction.

Part of me felt the need to follow him just out of sheer curiosity, and the fact of feeling excitement studying a new individual was… indescribable. Who is Minho Lee.

TWO

word count: 2k

My whole world sadly revolved around an idiot who never knew how to love me, care for me, and protect me the way I would have wanted. The way a sensible father would care for his only daughter. Or at least that’s what everyone reminds me every year in every damn school; always asking about my father, wondering what his next book would be about… but I can’t even speak out loud about him, sometimes I wish he were a stranger, but I have the greatest fear that… what little I know about him encompasses important concepts of who or how he really is.

I was the only daughter of a well-known artist, the acclaimed writer Henry Waldrop, whose books were such a great success that each of them —almost all of them— were adapted in Hollywood, on the big screens, with actors of the caliber of Nicole Kidman or Brad Pitt, working with promising directors like Mendes and Fincher, winners of important awards, with Henry himself writing his own scripts on a couple of occasions, nothing took him out of Los Angeles. Waldrop has been hailed as the greatest American speaking in the world of literature since Fitzgerald and Hemingway by the Times, countless interviews in the New Yorker, and among other accolades.

He has been called everything; but I will never be able to call him dad again, not since I was 7 years old.

My relationship with him is cold, distant, and almost nonexistent; I always register my name as Calliope Moore, my mother’s last name, hoping not to be recognized in this small town, however, I can’t change it at school, for the moment I can’t change it legally either; so for now, I remain hidden like this. Meanwhile, in a part-time job after school and on weekends.

I was a child who could be considered naive and sweet, at least until I was 6 years old. Then I realized many things, that my father loved fame and excess in meaningless material things more than his family, that his writing is immature and difficult to read, never matured, I never understood why I had to do it before him, unfairly, or worse, do it for him. Despite that, I became my worst enemy, I became an admirer, not of him, but of the artistic world in which he lived; my only memories with him were his huge literary collection, his love for art and cinema; he had me captive every year of my life, I spent hours sitting in his library reading instead of having a conversation with him; I chose something from his extensive collection of movies to watch on DVD. All this on his forced weekends when he legally had to see me. And worst of all, I found refuge in letters… vaguely considering myself a writer; like he is.

I know there’s the silly idea that he really cares about me just because he’s my father, that everything can be fixed if only I would talk to him… but I wish it were that simple, the reason I preferred to be locked in his office was because I saw too many things I should never have seen, situations that a loving and careful father would ensure none of his children know about, I cried seeing women enter his apartment, thinking it wasn’t the kind of love he should give to mother, I didn’t understand why my friends at school could introduce them and I just heard ‘oh, he’s something like a celebrity, he’s just busy. Maybe someday you’ll be like him.’

I sigh and look from afar at the store manager smiling at me, it’s funny to consider he has a little crush on me and I can easily manipulate him. In a matter of seconds, the loud sound of the phone interrupts my daily thoughts about complaining about life.

“Blockbus-”

“Callie, it’s Sarah, can you urgently cover for me for two hours? I have something very important at university.”

I rolled my eyes at being interrupted and at hearing my coworker’s needy voice on the other end of the line, I didn’t need details, but I was surprised by the quick passage of time, so I checked it, she arrived an hour later than agreed and I had no idea.

“All right.”

“Thank you, I owe you one, Cal.”

I slid over the counter, resting my chin on the palm of my hand, bored. Tim, the manager, who is about 8 years older than me, took care of putting on music; I really didn’t have a specific plan for this Saturday, but two more hours of time were just time.

To kill the time, I moved around here and there, sorted movies, checked boxes of new tapes, read each synopsis, sorted each genre, and finally went to tidy up a bit under the main counter; customers came in sporadically and this was the next customer I heard since an hour ago. Tim greeted them with a good evening. I assumed they had to go between the aisles of shelves to pick out their movie or movies to rent, so I didn’t pay attention to them as I continued cleaning up a bit.

Indeed, it took about 10 minutes, when I heard the plastic fall onto the cold wood of the checkout counter and a male voice say, referring to Tim, “Are you checking out over here?”

“No, um, Callie-”

Tim spoke and before he finished his sentence, I hurried to stand up, finding the guy from this morning next to me, Minho Lee. He was still dressed in black, now with jeans, he was wearing bracelets on his left hand now. For a second, I couldn’t say anything, other than meet his gaze, but I immediately regained my composure and gave him a warm smile, but I feared that this time, for him, this client, it was a genuine one.

His gaze was tender for a second as he seemed slightly surprised by the sudden way I unexpectedly ‘sprung’ from the floor; then he softened it and kept eye contact with me.

“I’m here to return these,” he spoke, dragging a stack of 3 movies “and I’ll take these” he pointed to the stack on the right.

My gaze lowered to his hands on the tapes and on the DVDs themselves. I took the products to be returned and inspected each one of them: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kill Bill, A Tale of Two Sisters. I gave him a smile, clearly judging, at least it was the fun part of the job; seeing what kind of person you were based on your taste in movies. And for Minho… there was no relation, a romantic comedy, Kill Bill, just Kill Bill and… a foreign psychological horror movie, judging by its cover, it seemed to be from Asia. If I weren’t trying to convince myself that someone considerably attractive like him is single, I would say the romantic comedy is something he would watch with some romantic date without a doubt.

“Name?” I raised my eyebrows, feigning disinterest as if I hadn’t seen him a couple of hours ago.

Judging by his look, it was clear that in some way he also recognized me.

“Under the name of Minho Lee, with an H between the N and O” he replied.

This Charming Man by The Smiths started playing and I noticed a slight movement of his fingers on the table to the rhythm of the melody; all while I typed his name into the computer. I was impressed by his profile, apparently, he’s a frequent customer judging by the long list of movies. He even has a membership, wow, I had never seen him here.

“Would you like the standard two-week rental?”

He nodded. I registered the new movies to rent, not without looking at them in detail: a foreign horror movie, Korean-looking, The Wig, Dracula 2, god, I heard the movie was terrible and Scream 2. I guess he wanted to watch only one genre for the moment, no more romantic comedies.

“That will be 33 dollars… 23 with the membership discount.”

“Thank you… Calliope” he read the tag with my name on my blue vest.

The story of my name is a bit funny, my father, a man without emotional responsibility whose heart was always incapable of falling in love, had his philosophy around the Greek mythology of the 9 muses, which is ironic considering the number of lovers he had, and, from what I heard, how much he promised each of the women he got involved with, that they were his muse and inspiration. My name comes from the muse of music, as he met my mother in college and that was her career at the time. My mother’s dream was always to direct orchestras, play the cello at important events in New York… but then I was born.

It would be a nice and moving story if any of my parents appreciated each other, but my mother made sure to make it clear how much she detested him and remind me what she could have done if I had never been born.

During that time, my father was working as an apprentice to a professor and substitute professor at the university. A literary cliché that inspired one of his books, by the way. Each page of the encounters with my mother severely altered, as she exclaimed, that never happened… if only things had been like that… Anyway, the book turned into a movie and considered a classic romance of the nineties. It was funny when someone came to rent it, since for now, I work at the town’s Blockbuster.

Anyway, my father had this immature belief that since I was the one growing in my mother’s womb, I would be the greatest force and source of inspiration for her, a muse. Sometimes I suppose my mother ended up hating me. She had to raise me and support Henry in his dream as a writer. I grew up and live in the same place as him; a wealthy area in northern New York state; where my teachers, absorbed by his work, expected innate talent from me.

But the pressure isn’t always on me. I have an older brother, a half-brother, named Apollo —a bit strange considering that literature says he was married to Calliope or something like that—; who likes to be recognized as Henry Waldrop’s legitimate son, with his gallery in Manhattan; however, he’s nothing more than another pretentious wannabe from the Upper East Side.

After Minho left, I pretended to close his membership and register the returned movies, but I was just snooping around, his birthday, October 25th, he’s 10 years older than me, he really doesn’t seem like it; it must be his Asian genetics I guess. His address, registered in the same building as mine, his email, his phone, and… the record of his rentals.

Not even 10 minutes passed when the sound of the door caught my attention again, Sarah had arrived, I didn’t notice the time so I checked it, she arrived an hour later than agreed and had no idea.

Sarah came in with a smile, dropping her bag on the counter making noise as she arrived.

“I’m here.”

I quickly closed the computer information and let out a jokingly annoyed sigh at her presence.

“Well, there are only two hours left until closing.”

“Three, we close later on Saturdays.”

I rolled my eyes playfully and took off my blue vest, walking to the other side of the counter, ready to grab my things and leave.

“Is this…?” Sarah mentioned, catching my attention.

I turned to look at her and she was holding the returned movies from a few moments ago. I forgot to organize them.

“Oh, let me-”

“Oh no” she interrupted me “Kill Bill and A Tale of Two Sisters, Korean horror? Did the handsome guy already stopped by?”

I frowned.

“He just left” said Tim.

Sarah made a disappointed face.

“I guess he comes often” I said.

“Of course, every Saturday at seven during my shift.”

I stared at her, perplexed.

“He’s definitely coming to see you, Sarah” Tim added, amused.

Sarah just smiled. I let out a reluctant laugh.

“I’m leaving” I announced.

“Wait, Callie, aren’t you going to organize them…” I heard Sarah exclaim just before leaving through the door, but I decided to ignore her.

She can do it alone. Maybe Minho can come back to help her.

[dice-sociation]

AP Review: Reckless Attack - Main Campaign

Listen Here: https://www.recklessattack.com/episodes/

Quick info:

Audio Quality: High Quality and Edited, Effects, Music. Vibes: Lord of the Rings, Ghibli, Never Ending Story, Avatar the Last Airbender, Frogs Extras: Discord and Patreon rewards. System: 5e DnD Average Episode time: 1 hour Uploads 1 Episode per week. Campaign/ Show Length: Long Term Campaign Platforms: Podcast, Audio Only. Accessibility: Content Warnings Language available: English Diversity: AAPI/BIPOC Number of Episodes Review is based on: 100 (This is my first review so I decided to start with a Podcast I’m already caught up on) ** If you want the TLDR, scroll to the bottom of the post **

Why Reckless Attack?

I honestly believe that part of the draw of listening to people play a TTRPG is not just the story telling but an assurance that adults can somehow actually and consistently come together, in person, to pull off a full long term game. Reckless Attack is one such podcast. They are a small indie podcast with excellent audio quality and editing. 

But, why should you listen to another high fantasy podcast? Well, have you ever wanted to see what a post-apocalyptic High Fantasy world would look like? The deeper you delve into Reckless Attack, the deeper the lore gets, and we have barely scratched the surface a hundred episodes in. You’ll join the players as they explore a world recovering from an apocalyptic event, ripe with magic and unstable artifacts, an undead army, and frogs.

Starting The Pod

Right out the gate, the listeners are greeted by a Lord of the Rings style opening monologue, giving relevant history and context to the kind of place the characters live in. I personally get the feeling a lot of the world was established in a previous game or between the DM and players prior to the start of this campaign. If, as a listener, it feels like you're missing something, don't worry; you'll get a lot more context down the road, especially once the players make it to the city of Agmar (Episode 15). The first 15 episodes are a nice slow build up. 

Conveniently, the first recap episode covers Episode 1-14! (Though I really enjoyed the first 14 episodes, I know not everyone has the amount of listening time I have). If you are so inclined to start from the first episode, you'll get nicely eased into the characters and their relationships with one another before a lot of the bigger world building really starts to soar.

(My one caveat is that I listen to this podcast at 1.3-1.4 speed since the players and Nathan speak with a good amount of pauses, and that can be a little too slow for me.)

About the Team

Nathan, the DM for the main campaign, paints some amazing pictures of his homebrew world. He has a real talent for creating larger than life NPCs and Big Baddies for his players to interact with. They all have clear motivations, flaws, and personalities that truly rounds out the overall story. When it comes to plot, Nathan kept me on my toes with plot twists that would literally snap me out of whatever multitasking I was doing. And I must recognize how often Nathan opens the floor for the players to build parts of the story and describe longer stretches of downtime. Those moments are like the equivalent of cinematic montages to represent the passing of time.

The players, Sophie, Steve, David, and Jonathan, deliver wonderful descriptions and leave plenty of space for each other to speak, balanced with just the right amount of crosstalk. Each character has a very unique voice which is helpful for listeners (especially because David and Jonathan are twins and have similar voices).

Sophie plays Valeska Carter, the Human * Cleric. "Valeska is a young woman in search of answers. Like, compulsively."* I quickly fell in love with Val, an exhausted nerd who can never have enough notes and organization. If you're the kind of person who is always rescuing animals, you will love her too. 

Steve plays Selv Asterlin, the Dragonborn Monk. "Selv’s years at his town’s icy mountain monastery has trained not just his body, but also his mind and emotions. The large dragonborn seeks to be a peacemaker in conflicts, exuding strength, calm and serenity while straying away from violence and lethal force when possible."* But don't be fooled, Selv is often one for the occasional good prank, and I always appreciate Steve's references even when the rest of the group don't understand them. (I got you Steve) 

David plays Kascorin "Kass" Brightmane, the Dwarven Warlock. "Tomorrow (Kass leaves) this city for the Golden Tree adventuring guild, and in leaving this city, (He leaves his) friends, (his) family, and (his) comfortable life behind."* Kass is very grounded, serious, and focused, until he runs into tasty dried meats. Kass has all the charm of a warlock and the grit of a soldier. 

Jonathan plays Checkers, the Gung Druid, with his trusty pals Mango and Junior. "Joining the Golden Tree adventuring guild on a dare, Checkers and his frog pal Mango are here to prove that it’s better to find your own path than to follow someone else’s. After all, where’s the fun in looking before you leap?"* Checkers is a lot like the characters I personally play. Someone who doesn't stand around for too much planning and prefers to "leap" into action. In my very humble opinion, every group needs an instigator. 

I have also come to really admire the level of trust and respect the group has for one another. They handle both wonderful whimsical beats as well as solemn moments with great care (Episode 108 was magnificent.)

*Quoted from the official Reckless Attack website. You can find this and more at their website www.recklessattack.com. (Be aware, reading the available character sheets may contain spoilers)

About the World

Ryxia is built on a world where long ago, the Gods walked among mortals, but one day they left. As if in consequence, magic in this world seems to ebb and flow, and monsters roam the wilds. Until, the "second of Ryxia’s twin suns disappeared from the sky, the Ultragiants appeared, and the Pentarchy’s great capital city of Narhasur was turned into a smoldering crater." *

You can think of the Ultra Giants as the Titans of this world, being elemental and colossal. These Ultra Giants terrorized mortals until one day, the mortals managed to kill one " wielding their city’s Object of Focus… The object was destroyed, as was much of the army. But strangely, within days, the Ultragiants no longer stalked Ryxia."*

As the mortals re-emerged, they started to rebuild despite the incredible amount of monsters who now roam the lands. 

*Quoted from the official Reckless Attack website. You can find this and more at their website www.recklessattack.com. (Be aware, reading the available character sheets may contain spoilers)

Extras

Aside from the main campaign Nathan has his own series called Reckless A-Talk. This series Nathan or others on the team interview incredible people from all over the TTRPG space. Nathan's style of interviewing is mostly allowing his guest to speak more than he does, followed by the wonderful lightning round questions. I highly recommend listening to these (as a little treat) if you are interested in learning other perspectives and other aspects of the industry. 

Bonus one shots are another part of Reckless Attack, allowing the players to take the reigns.  They serve as fun filler for when you just can't wait for the next episode to drop. 

And if that's still not enough content for you, you can always subscribe to their Patreon for even more content, including the very relaxed Reckless A-Snack.

TLDR

High Fantasy world rebuilding the world after mortals were nearly wiped out.

Listeners will get a good feel of the world within the first 14 episodes. (IMO, the pacing starts to pick up after Episode 14)

Here are "Tale Til Now," recap episodes for those who want to catch up faster. (Episodes 1-14, 14-42, 42-66, 67-84)

Non Player Characters are larger than life, with clear motives and personalities.

The Dungeon Master and Players share a lot of world building and you can feel the love and trust they have for each other.

Recommended listening at 1.3x-1.5x speed if you are one of those people (you know who you are).

Find more details about the world and characters at www.recklessattack.com.

Lots of extra content for those who just need more, including; interviews, one-shots run by the players, and patreon bonus content. https://www.patreon.com/recklessattack/home

Do you have ideas or suggestions? Please feel free to comment!

Special thanks to Artax of Who's Taking Watch for helping with editing!

No Context Spoilers:

[pokemonshelterstories]

Even after reading your FAQ and a bunch of asks you've answered, I'm still not sure if a shelter blog is the best place to ask this, so do feel free to delete this (or tell me privately that you won't post it, but only if you have the time and energy), but I can't think of anyone else, and if you do post it, you or some of your followers might have some interesting thoughts, so here goes:

How would you feel about using Pokeballs to catch Pokémon you're planning to eat?

For context, I and my siblings grew up in a small, mostly off-grid community, and while most details aren't relevant, we did hunt for food occasionally. We never used pokeballs, but instead bow and arrow, fishing rods, nets and traps.

These days I live closer to a big city, sharing a house with my brother, his husband, and their teenage son (my other nibling, their older child, has moved out a while ago, so they're not part of this story).

Last month, we visited the community my brother and I grew up in, and during our two week stay, I took my nephew on a hunting trip. He was decently enthusiastic to train his archery, but he asked why we don't just use pokeballs. Wouldn't it be easier? I didn't have an answer for him then, only that we'd been taught this way and that I'd never considered using pokeballs.

But I've been thinking about it. It would be easier, but wouldn't it also be more cruel? After all, by catching it in a pokeball, you're giving the pokemon false hope of a nice life with a trainer, only to then kill it. I feel like killing it quickly while it's still in the wild and doesn't know any better is more, like, honest maybe?

What do you or your followers think?

(If any angry vegans find this post, don't even waste your energy on a mean response or lecture, because most likely I have you blocked already, and if I don't, I'll correct that when I see you being rude to me)

oooh, this is an interesting ask to get...

i think this is really more of a matter of personal comfort with the idea of eating a pokemon that's been caught in a ball, but as long as it's done properly, i don't see anything wrong with it. after all, pokemon for the most part don't really have any concept of what's going to happen to them in the future.

as someone who hunts, you (i assume) understand our duty to give the pokemon we eat as painless of a death as possible. then, as trainers, we have a duty to maintain the 5 freedoms for our pokemon, which includes freedom from psychological stress. provided you meet those requirements, i think it's ok to catch a pokemon in a pokeball for the sake of eating it. it's more humane than certain types of traps that leave the pokemon struggling until the hunter comes to check them, and pokemon tend to relax in pokeballs, since they mimic the way pokemon curl up when healing. when the pokemon is released from its ball, you then just need to humanely slaughter it. there are some pokemon that i wouldn't do this with, since they don't immediately take well to being caught in a ball; buneary is a good example. but many common game pokemon do just fine.

i've actually used a different tool to help out with culling food pokemon- my styler! there are a lot of farms out near artazon, and rangers do sometimes get asked to help with keeping livestock mons calm in the moments leading up to slaughter. i've met rangers who aren't comfortable taking on those cases, and i've definitely gotten fussed at by my share of pokemon rights activists, but i think pokemon raised as food deserve as calm of an environment as possible. so, no, i dont think using pokeballs to trap game is cruel as long as you know what you're doing and don't stress the pokemon out. but if you're used to the way you already do things, don't feel like you have to change it up either.

[inkievoid]

I think I genuinely found the perfect song for Leon and his wife as like "their song".

(Yes ik it's the song from Twilight but it's fitting!!!)

Now, when I think about them getting married I don't think they did a big wedding. They got married on a whim because Leon had vacation time coming up. They got married by a justice of the peace at a courthouse in front of everyone they cared about and rented a party room at a nice restaurant they really love just to have a good meal and be with everyone who matters.

They didn't have a cake, no flower toss, no first dance. But you did get to dress up, everyone did. Just shared their happiness with everyone. You had a honeymoon for sure though. 2 blissful weeks in Italy together, the vacation they'd planned on taking together. Just to have a romantic get away.

You promised each other that you'd do something special for your first anniversary but you got pregnant and Violet was barely 3 months old on your wedding anniversary that the thought slipped both your minds.

But one afternoon Leon's heading home from a particularly grueling case. Everything that could have gone wrong almost did. And of course he's sitting in traffic when all he wants is to go home an see his wife and daughter. The only thing sounds are the engine and occasional honks from idiot drivers. So he turns on the radio to fill the silence. He catches the ending of some other song. The radio dj coming on and talking for a bit, he reaches for the dial when piano keys fill the car. He just goes back to waiting, sitting back in his seat as he does so.

And my God does he get emotional... He doesn't know if it's the stress he's under or if it's that he can't stop thinking about how relevant everything feels.

He knows his life is hard, It's been hard since that night in Raccoon City and everything that's happened to him. All the people he's seen suffer and the awful things he's seen. But once he met you he finally had something good. Something that gave him hope.

His life changed so much in the past 5 years of being together. You loved him. You married him. You gave him the family he's always wanted and his life is barely over a quarter of the way through. He gets to come home to you and the beautiful baby girl he loves so much.

How could he not finally be thankful for being alive?

Because he gets to live not to just be a weapon anymore. He's got something to look forward to.

Your anniversary rolls around. It's almost midnight and you're prepping your lunch for the next day at work. As Leon walks into the kitchen. Doing his usual schtick of wrapping his arms around you and burying his face in your neck. Giving you the usual kisses with a tight squeeze so you can't escape his love as you squeal for mercy. He eventually stops his torturing affection and looks at the stove clock as you zip you're lunchbox closed.

Soon you're lifted from the floor being carried by the waist out of the kitchen.

"Leon! I'm not done yet!"

"It's our anniversary now so I get to do what I please."

"That's not how this works!"

He sets you on the floor, standing as you playfully glare at him. He hustles over to the stereo, plugging his phone in and turning it up, not loud enough to wake the baby.

"What're you doing?" You question, hearing the piano fill the living room as he hustles around the couch.

"What we should of done last year. Our first dance. He wraps his arms around you, pulling you close.

"Leon, we've danced since we got married."

"Yes, but we never picked a song! So just, dance with me and listen. Please? Pleeeease?" He bounces on place till you sigh and wrap your arms around him.

You just stare into each other's eyes while you slow dance. Swaying gently to the music as you listen. Both of you getting emotional by the end of the song. Tears streaming down both your faces. Still smiling as you hug him tight.

"Being with you was one of the best choices I've ever made. I love you so much."

[kharmii]

Kharmii Take: Meta-Human Liberation Army

Since 80% of active content creators into the Meta Liberation Army have blocked me by now, I'm free to throw out my takes that are contrary to popular fanon. Why not? It not like any of the others own these characters just because they've been into them longer.

This will get explicit so don't read if you are under 18.

First thing, the MLA people are terrible human beings. No, they aren't the 'good villains'. No, they aren't human rights activists who really care about each and every member of their secret army. If you believe they are then congratulations. You fell for the propaganda put out by the unhealthy xNFx mtbis among them.

That's not to say they aren't nuanced. Fans are allowed to like them and see good in them....it's just they are mostly irredeemable bastards. Not only are they terrible people, but they hit the ground running the moment they are introduced. There's ReDestro with Giran tied up in a chair with all the fingers cut off his smoking hand. Meanwhile, Skeptic uses his puppets to torture Twice both physically and emotionally. Curious uses Landmine to blow up random objects in the street, some of which happen to be living breathing people. Geten rolls a glacier over random citizens along with the Twice army. Even Trumpet who isn't seen torturing anybody with his own two hands still coldly watches people die around him and uses emotional manipulation against Spinner.

Bad Take 1: ReDestro saw the burdens of his bloodline as a prison. He was relieved when Shigaraki defeated him and took over.

WUT. That was the worst day of his life! -The worst day for all of them! They probably had to drug themselves to sleep at night after that.

There they were trying to put on a fun PR skit for the shits and giggles, but then it goes horribly wrong. Not only does ReDestro lose his legs, but thousands of people die when Shigaraki disintegrates several city blocks. Suddenly, they all go from being respectable members of society to criminals overnight. They probably all had such good gigs with Detnerat-Feel Good Inc-Hearts and Minds-Shoowaysha Publishing that they never planned for the MLA to come out of the shadows, or at least if it did, it would be baby steps. Between Trumpet and Curious, they would have tried to gain ground using media and legislation to make them relevant. After the LoV debacle, they were forced to come out of the shadows and fight a war. Not ideal.

Bad Take 2: ReDestro was a bootlicker who was absolutely star struck over Shigaraki being their new leader.

Not really. I see ReDestro as being a toxic ENFJ/P mtbi personality type. That means he's good at making anybody think he's their friend. He comes across warm and likeable, but in actuality, he's a phony and convincing liar. It's obvious all the MLA people are uncomfortable around Shig, and even ReD is bad at hiding it at one point. It's possible they know about All For One's influence and the hidden mechanism working behind the League of Villains. If anything about Shig intimidates them, it would def be that. Otherwise, they might all feel sorry for him if they knew what he went through, but in no way would they take him seriously as a leader.

That would make the other LoV members heading a regiment a clown show. The original MLA people are all professionals with plenty of life experience, except for Geten. Even Geten is a well-trained soldier from the time he was a child, and therefore he'd be more valuable than a rag tag bunch of good-for-nothings.

Quirk Awakenings:

AFAIK, only Geten and ReD had profound quirk awakenings due to extreme trauma and stress during training. I head canon that the others never went through enough hardship to obtain their own awakenings. Here's a question for the readers....what do you think they'd be? Would Curious be able to explode stuff through pure telekinesis? Would Skep be able to make his puppets speak? Would Trumpet be able to let out a primal scream and get anyone in earshot pumped? -Or something better? Those takes are rather boring and spur-of-the-moment. Help me out.

Character Analyses:

ReDestro: Like I said, he's a toxic ENFJ/P. With those types, it's often unclear if they actually believe their own bullshit, or if they are just really really good at making you think they believe their bullshit. Either way, their enthusiasm rubs off on people, and that allows them to emotionally manipulate people better. Sure, ReD cried after he murdered the mouse assistant, but his warped radical ideology let him think that was the correct and necessary step to make, as difficult as it was.

Said on another post that if it was true he welcomed Shig as a leader so he could shirk his own duties, then he'd have a change of heart later. Maybe one night he'd have a dream where his great great (x however many) great grandfather Chikara Yotsubashi aka "Destro" would appear before him and tell him, "You must retake your position as Grand Commander of the MLA. You must fix this huge fuck up the League of Villains turned it into. It has to be your capable hands that makes it right.."

ReD would agree wholeheartedly. He'd enthusiastically promise his ancestor that, yes, he'd fix it. -But then he'd wake up and be like, "Awww....DAMMIT!" because he'd be drugged up and restrained in prison to prevent 'stress' from activating.

Even though I head canon Trumpet as being a straight guy on his third marriage with eight kids, I still imagine lots of sexual tension between ReD and Trumpet. They are each other's emotional support, and I imagine them doing all the same cute stuff together that I've posted the Subway Bosses doing. IE: Falling asleep together on the train, or like one will drape a jacket over the other if he falls asleep at his desk.

They've messed around a bunch but have never had full on penetrative sex. The hangup is all Trumpet due to a past trauma. One time, ReD was training with Geten at like 2% stress. He made a gesture just as Trumpet walked by accidentally striking him and breaking a few ribs. Now ReD can tell Trumpet will always be afraid to be touched by him for fear it will lead to him being skewered by his stress dick at whatever percent by accident.

Geten: I'm not going to write about him much because I already wrote several posts and a whole-ass novella analyzing his personality. Let's just say he's like a son to ReD. He gets along really well with Skeptic but is colder to Trumpet and Curious. ReD totally purchased him as a child like an expensive pure-bred puppy. I'm 100% behind that fanon theory because it's too weird.

Skeptic: I admit it. I think Skeptic is a creepy incel. He's such an incel he failed No Nut November on the first day at exactly midnight. That's his yearly tradition. Srsly though, why haven't more people done fan fiction exploring the creepier side of Skep? He started out strong in the anime and then..... *thumbs down* *fart noises*

You'd think more people would have done fan fics about "Skeptic's creepy rape puppets" or something equally as entertaining. I thought my take was decent in my AO3 fic 'Trumpet's Trauma' where Skep and Shig worked together to torment Trumpet into attempting suicide. One would think that would be the standard MOD writing Skep. I made sure to make Skep's involvement in my writing vague so that he wouldn't be on the wrong side of ReD. As far as the evidence stands, there was no proof of Skeps involvement. It appeared to be all Shig's doing.

Since Skep has the surveillance shtick, I can imagine ReD asking for the link to Trumpet's shower cam. He's the pretty one they both like to creep on.

Curious: Manipulative bitch with a fun mischievous side. Trumpet tried to zero in on her straight away, but she let him down hard. She knows what he's about and sees right through him. Skeptic also simps for her, but she keeps him at arm's length. They actually get along well and are 'work spouses'.

I imagine at least once, Trumpet will be lecturing them about something, and Curious would bust out with, "This is why nobody likes you!"

Trumpet's face would fall because he's the type who wants and needs everybody to like him. Skep would smirk. Geten would be confused. After all, ReD likes him. ReD seems to like him a lot. After all, he often buries his face in Trumpets neck to take a long sniff Joe Biden style. Later, Geten would ask ReD about it, and the GC would reply that sometimes people have bad days and get to be assholes with each other.

After Curious's death, Skep made an online shrine to her that he updates about once a month after the initial photo dump. ReD looks in on it every so often, but not too often. It always makes him cry, and he's trying to stay upbeat. After Shig's death, Skep made an online shrine to him called, "The Good Things Shig Did" where he posts pictures of Shig holding puppies or hanging out with his friends. In case you're wondering how Skep managed it, I head canon he escaped in Season 7 by making a puppet of himself carrying out his equipment and then becoming detained. That could possibly be where he'd achieve a quirk awakening allowing his puppets to talk.

Trumpet: The boring sensible guy that always looks worried in fan art....and well he should. He'd been promised nothing but good times joining a fascist cult. Sheesh though...artists shouldn't draw him looking like a hand-wringing housewife or beleagued soccer dad. He's supposed to be a greaseball politician. Someone did a post recently I didn't respond to, but they head canoned the following:

I already made a beautiful wife and young children for Trumpet. The wife's name is Shigemi Hanabata (花畑 茂美), also known as Preach (せっきょう/Sekkyō). She is a member like him and has a useful quirk called Propaganda (宣伝/Senden), an emitter type that causes people to believe everything the user says as long as they either trust or find them attractive. Their children have mixed variations of Incite and Propaganda, one of them being called Excite.

That would be the arranged marriage his family made with his first wife. He's a sensible guy, and he would have realized that combination of quirks would create an advantageous quirk marriage resulting in powerful offspring. Unfortunately, Trumpet has a wandering eye, and that would destroy his first and second marriage.

His third wife would end up being Uwabami, the tall hot blonde model with snakes in her hair. It's unclear how the combination of 'incite' and 'snakes in hair' would be an advantageous quirk marriage, but Trumpet's diiiiick, erm, gut instincts told him to keep an open mind.

It doesn't behoove a politician to be such a sleezebag, but it's not like Trumpet's political party is one of the mainstream parties. He's also an unhealthy solid ENFJ mbti. Like any modern politician irl, he uses emotional blackmail to guilt the most gullible of suckers into supporting the cause of liberation. He'll do shit like convince all the heteromorphs he's their advocate, but then when he's in private with those closest to him, he'll admit he doesn't give a sweaty donkey's balls about heteromorph rights; he's just using them to gain money and power. That's the mindset he'd have watching Shig use decay on a bunch of them after he just used 'incite'.

Trumpet would be an insufferable two-face, like he'd belittle Spinner when they're on opposing sides, but then he'd pull the advocate shite the moment the PLA is formed.

[kiththecat]

okok i have a few questions all related to the same topic

SO we know from how parrot is clearly a bird hybrid, and how branzy can just eat nether brewing supplies, there are hybrids or different humanoid species in this world

what kind of hybrid is Branzy? Does it have any physical changes to his appearance (like horns, a tail, etc)

Is Clown a hybrid? It would explain how hes been doubted to be human before. We also dont know a lot about his general appearance like skin tone and whatnot, all we know is the hair texture and color (curly, black)

(Continuing off that) How long is Clowns hair? Does he need to put it up in the mornings when getting ready, or is it short and choppy because its a bother? (Additionally, whats his hair care routine?)

Are the fake ears (?) that Kab wear seen as offensive to some? Maybe a mockery, or something?

sorry for the massive yapping THIS IS FOR ART PURPOSES I WANNA BE AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE WHEN MAKING FANART !!!!!

HI THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTIONS I SHALL ANSWER AS GOOD AS I CAN!

to the question of what hybrid branzy is i am going to be a little bastard and say i wont tell :3 itll be relevant later. but as far as physical features go i kiiiind of left it vague purposefully. mostly because in mcyt the designs of the characters are based on skins and all vary a lot and i wanted people to be able to read it and just have their own pictures of the characters. that being said, in my head branzy's non-human traits are purple eyes, white hair and horns (not canon, i never mentioned this in the fic, no one else has either, it's literally just ingrained in my head that he has horns). i know that's kind of a mess😭😭😭 but bear with me here i didn't start thinking about the elements of magical worldbuilding until like… chapter 9… this is the bad side of planning as you go

is clown a hybrid? i'll leave it to him to explain that at some point! :D

hair routine question made me laugh. i don't have a hair care routine. i dont know what part of having hair really demands an established routine. i cant answer it😭😭 im sorry ;-;

the fake ears question was so interesting it forced me to think about the culture of this world which forced me to think about the history but anyway. kab's situation is the same as branzy's where she just Looks Like That. but the ears are fake to me. and i dont thiiiink it's seen as offensive or a mockery. my idea is that this world has such weird genetics that people just dont care if someone dresses a certain way. i am now starting to realise that this doesn't reflect the real world at all. point is. to me this world, or at least the city, has a live and let live attitude. new headcanon just dropped. the city has the most diverse population of any city in the world so there's a lot more tolerance. maybe if you went out to smaller towns…. aaaand now its getting real world-y.

i realise now that you said these questions were for art purposes and i just went "so here are my reasons for some holes in the worldbuilding"

also ill answer the question about clowns nails here too! yes he has gloves on and yes i used nails as a descriptor at some point!! that's on me. sometimes when im writing a sentence like that im just like "well, this is sloppy and can easily be misunderstood but also I NEED THIS DOONE." what i imaged with that scene is just that the fabric of clowns gloves being just thin enough for branzy to feel the nails though.

i cant imagine any of my answers here giving you any clarity on the art thing and im so sorry for that hfskjhfdkjshfdkjs ONTO THE NEXT ASK 🫡🫡

[fantasiawandering]

I've been struggling a bit lately and could use some advice from the hivemind. It deals with a lot of the emotional baggage I've been trying to carry lately, so I'm putting it under a cut if you're not in the headspace for that sort of thing right now.

So the relevant backstory: Dad was in love with Mum since high school, and when she died, he went to pieces. My sister, who'd been living at home, helping take care of Mum through the cancer, basically put her grief on hold to keep Dad going through the next six months. Then, on the way home from Mum's memorial six months after her death, he told my sister he was seeing someone. He met her at work when he returned from bereavement leave. Now, I do understand this is a man who never learned how to handle his own emotions. He'd always had my grandmother, then my mother, to manage them for him. But in the next year, he did pretty much everything he could to drive both of his children away for a woman who bailed on him the moment the going got tough. Without getting into too much detail, my sister checked into an institution a while back because she was having some pretty dark thoughts about her own life, and her triggers were feeling like a burden to the family. Mum assured her she wasn't, and that she'd always have a home as long as she needed it. But as soon as that woman moved in and Dad didn't need my sister anymore, he started emotionally abusing and berating my sister, telling her what a burden she was every day until she had no choice but to leave. This was in the middle of the lockdowns. My sister landed with one of the greatest people in the world, and they're living in poverty but relatively happy. Because of this, Dad has convinced himself that not only did he do nothing wrong, he was actually a great Dad, making sure his disabled child developed independence.

But after multiple infections thanks to the woman he was living with (who believed that COVID was "just the sniffles" and vaccines were poison, and as long as they drank colloidal silver they'd be fine), Dad now believes he's developing dementia. His doctor thinks it's actually "pseudodementia," which apparently is mental health related. But Dad watched his mother lost to Alzheimer's and nothing scares him more. And the second colloidal silver and celery juice didn't cure him, the woman he'd moved into the house bounced.

Now Dad's scared. And he's been pressuring us to move in with him to take care of him. My sister will never trust him or put herself in that position again, and I'm of the same mind. He used to do similar to me when I lived there. Meanwhile, I'm still sick with a mystery disease that has no cure yet. I've got GP who actually believes in Long COVID, and a series of specialists I can get to in under 20 minutes. They're basically hacking away at the hydra heads of my symptoms until modern medicine figures out where the heart is. I'm still very much disabled. If I get ANY infection, my immune system goes berserk and starts doing the equivalent of firing a bazooka into a crowd in hopes of hitting whatever is off. I'm just coming off of about 2 months of throwing up at least once a day from the havoc it's wreaked on my digestive system. I can barely take care of myself, let alone another person, and if I moved three hours away to a small town with no public transit, at a time when there's a provincial crisis and NOBODY can find a new GP, not only would I lose my health network, but I'd be essentially housebound in a way I'm not in the city. I also know that I physically cannot handle a three-hour commute either way on days when I have to go in to work, so moving in would involve giving up the career I've been working toward for twenty years.

For all of these reasons, I said no. His siblings are coming at me with varying degrees of "it's your filial duty." None of them really understand just how sick I actually am, but I also don't think that would change things. And I feel guilty. Despite knowing that moving into a place with no infection control could make me bedbound or worse, and that I can't afford to be without a GP or a medical team, I feel like I've failed somehow. I love my Dad. But I can't take care of him and keep myself healthy at the same time. I've been doing what I can from here since he first started feeling like he was losing it. Every other day, I call him and read him a chapter of Sherlock Holmes, and he's told the rest of the family how much he enjoys it. And sometimes it's exhausting to read for that long, but I do it because he needs me and it's something I CAN do. I've also offered to help with his banking and things, but he's turned me down whenever I offer.

Now, since I said no, Dad has said that he wants to sell his house and move into a care community, and that what's holding him back is knowing if he did, there'd be nothing left for me and my sister when he's gone. And I don't think that's an attempt at manipulation, I genuinely believe he's concerned, because he knows how much we both struggle currently. But honestly, neither one of us was counting on getting anything anyway, and as much as we're still deeply hurt by what he did (he also threw my mother's remains away and then informed us in an add-on to an email forward, which broke me in a way I've never been broken before, and when my sister called him out on it, HE got mad and said "it was none of your business, this was between a husband and his wife."), we still want him safe and not alone and scared. We've both told him as much, and that neither of us are the kind of people who'd be sitting around going "raaah, how dare he spend our inheritance! Who does he think he is taking care of himself?"

But it's not an easy thing to deal with, especially given that I'm the one he's leaning on hardest -- I think even he realized he didn't just burn the bridge with my sister, he nuked it from orbit. I've been crying on and off for the last three days. And I don't know how to get myself out of it. Anyway, if you've made it this far, thank you. And yeah, that's what I'm dealing with as I try to drag myself out of this funk. So here's where the advice part comes in. I've been reflecting on a lot of things, and one of the conclusions I've come to is I need something to DO. I fill my days when I'm not working with movies and playing video games with my sister, but I think I need a physical hobby. Something to do with my hands. Something that lets me create things.

I've had to put a lot of what I used to do on hold. My brain still hasn't healed enough to write reliably. I started knitting, but COVID did something to my eyes, and when I look at the knitting for more than a minute or two, the rest of the world goes blurry and I can't see clearly again for another thirty minutes. I have similar problems with the beadwork I used to do. Anything that involves leaving the house is iffy due to my health, so it's got to be something I can do from home. So. Any ideas? What brings you joy?

[thesuntookgoodcareofme]

watch my amv, boy!

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-UTENA, A GAROTA COTIDIANA-

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notes under the cut ♡

OHHHH MY GOD I WAS DYING TO DO THIS. I HOPE YALL LIKE IT.

So, this is my first-ish amv that i put a lot of work into. Missed some school assignments while at it, but this will be fine.

So!! What I am very excited about is that the music is by one of my favorite national artists, Chico Buarque. Im not sure if yall have heard of him, but he was a very very relevant brazillian artist especially during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985) and his songs are often critizing this very moment in our history, highlighting the feelings of the people that went through a period full of oppression, censure, suffering and torture.

His songs are incredibly well-constructed, especially the lyrics, with very rich rhymes, wordplays, good sonority and meaning. He also sings a lot about the everyday of the people, simple people, paying tribute to the value and humanity of the often forgotten. In this song, for example, it talks about the everyday of a simple couple; A housewife and a working man, that live the same things every single day. It reflects on the exhaustion and anxiety that comes with living a life that never changes, and that you can't ever stop, even if you really wanted, because that's how you live. It shows the routine of the couple waking up early, eating (probably rice with) beans for lunch, yearning for a bigger life, going back home at sixpm, sleeping at midnight. It also counts with the heavy gender roles, of the woman that takes care of her husband, staying home waiting and cooking for him and waking him up, and the husband that works for money. All the tension that builds up from the repetition sounded greately Utena-esque for me. A life where the routine is forever the same, but you and your feelings change, and the days go by, and you know that eternity is not actually there, and you might be wasting yourself for a life you can't change. Or can you?

So, I hope I made tribute to these both I combined. Anime of course is Shoujo Kakumei Utena and the song is Cotidiano by Chico Buarque. Thank you for listening !!

( There's also a song by him called "Geni e o Zepelim" that would match Anthy perfectly. It's about a possibly transgender simple woman that is always by the side of marginalized people but, despite being a "pit of kindness" everyone on the city uses her as a scapegoat, saying that "she was made to be beaten, she's good to spit on". Then, one say, an enormous zeppelin comes flying to the town, with the powerful commander saying that he'll explode the entire city because of its evilness. But then, he changes his mind if a beautiful lady agrees to be with him. I'll write this here so i can remember later, and to he a song rec if u want!)

[tshortik]

Hiiiiiiiii 👀 👉👈 thats SUCH a cool redesign for Zariel, it got me so excited to DM a DiA campaign. Any tips for running it? I LOVE YOUR ART ITS SO AMAZING AND THE COLORS ARE SO PRETTY, THANK YOU FOR SHARING IT OKBYEE

Aww thank you so much! ❤❤❤ I LOVE Descent into Avernus, but my love is a complicated one. I do think it is a really good, albeit difficult module, to learn how to become a better DM, though... I will explain.

The lore in DiA is pretty flat and the campaign is pretty railroady by design. If you have a roleplay-heavy group, I think it is best to heavily alter the module and incorporate things in there, that are very relevant to your players. That is also its magic though, because you can make the conscious decision to just use DiA as a base and structure, that you then heavily alter. The premise of the main quest is cool and imo easy to follow, so taking that and shaping everything around it can be pretty neat. I don't think I would have learned as much as a DM, if I had just used a "perfect" module that already did everything for me. If that is not what one looks for though, that's also understandable.

Tips:

In DiA, the characters start in Baldur's Gate, which is imo the absolute worst decision I've ever seen. Elturel's fate is integral to the story, so I recommend having your PCs at least see what happens to Elturel. I recommend the oneshot The Fall of Elturel for that, where the PCs become witness to Elturel's fate from afar. It will also cover the low-level sessions in a neat way. Having at least one player character with a connection to that city also really helps. Otherwise, your PCs will just go "Oh wow how terrible. Anyway, I'm not from there anyway, don't know anyone from there, never been there, whatever lmao."

Some people cut out the Baldur's Gate part, but my group enjoyed that area a lot, so you can use it for roleplay-heavy sessions and fleshing out the lore. It is also a great sandbox to figure out how you as the DM will implement your characters goals and backstory into the plot, before venturing forth. Having a player character from Baldur's Gate or with a connection from there is also perfect. SPOILERS: Same thing with Candlekeep as well. It is a wicked cool location that is not explored in the module at all, but it might end up a very interesting mini arc for your PCs if you approach it on your own terms.

To flesh out the lore and make everything feel more lived in and logical (note: there are some very silly bits in the module, that would make a thoughtful player immediately go "that makes NO sense lol"), I recommend checking out the Alexandrian Remix. It can go on huge tangents that are unnecessary for your own means though, so don't feel like you have to stick to it 100%. It does have some really neat ideas and fixes for the lore though, and I have ended up using it more than the actual book lmao.

Avernus as a Sandbox is also great. In general, if you find a way to give your players choice in where they go in the Nine Hells, they will probably have a good time. I think they should def feel pressure and know of a goal, but also make sure that they have power over what road they take there, you know?

I mentioned Candlekeep – Elminster's Candlekeep Companion is also an amazing resource if you wanna flesh out that location. I have also heard of some people adding adventures from Candlekeep Mysteries in there, but I didn't do it myself cuz my players felt time pressure.

Contrast the evil, awful and depressing with moments that are nice and calm, even if it's just roleplay opportunities. Otherwise everything will feel like a drag. On the other hand, don't be afraid to then overwhelm your players by throwing a bit too much at them afterwards. High tensions and emotions are perfect for the setting imo, but you need to design it with ups and lows as to not overwhelm.

I have completely rewritten some of the Forgotten Realms lore, changed characters' genders and names and races in the book (Ravengard is a woman in my story, Reya is a dragonborn, etc.) especially about the deities. Don't be afraid to make the story your own. I also incorporated the player backstories heavily into the plot, which makes them sometimes go on completely homebrewed sidequests. Embrace that and don't be afraid of it!

Sometimes players also see connections where there are none, or they speculate about super wild stuff – and this might be controversial – but sometimes it is really neat to take some of those ideas (not all! otherwise there is no surprise) and make them actually relevant, even if they weren't before. If your players are engaged, that is always the best possible situation. Making some of their thoughts true can be on one hand extremely satisfying for them, and on the other hand they will make your own made-up-world much more interesting, because they collaborated unknowingly in making it so much richer and complex.

It really helps the flow of the campaign to have at least one PC that is: Morally dubious, or interested in deities, religion or lore. If not, you as the DM can attempt to make them more interested until they actually get to Avernus, through new goals or revelations. The themes of the Nine Hells have a lot to do with corruption and betrayal and emotions, so having characters with themes that go into that direction will make it easier to keep your players engaged.

This is my own opinion, but maybe play a couple devil npcs with this motto: There are certain good deeds only a devil can commit. Devils are the enemies, but they also have to become your allies. Your characters will be literally walking through a plane that is inhabited primarily by devils, and they will have to speak to some of them or parlay, if they don't want to be ripped to shreds immediately. Devils are smart and cunning, and many would prefer to talk it out, instead of risking their lives in the Nine Hells. This can also be an opportunity to explore corruption or redemption arcs, or to explore fiendish pacts. Both can flesh out the story tremendously. 👀

The setting gives you the opportunity to explore some esoteric and theological concepts. IF that is your jam (it is certainly mine), think about how you make that digestible to your players. They could find lore in a library, find strange ruins, meet a powerful deity, get visions by other deities, be manipulated by archdevils, etc. You don't have to leave it all as subtext, because devils and angels and otherwise literally become a central point of the campaign. Also don't be afraid to get weird about angels and devils. They are from a different plane – making them a little alien, letting them have absolutely wild opinions about the universe, not needing to fit them into our ideas of science – that is rly interesting stuff to explore as a PC and also DM. Resources (optional)

Flee Mortals by MCDM, Tome of Beasts (2023), Tome of Beasts 2, Creature Codex have really awesome monsters

Encounters in Avernus

The Encyclopedia of Demons & Demonology by Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a book that I own privately for some creative projects, but I got some neat inspiration from it for my campaign too!

A lot of the lore in Dnd is very questionable, but especially in the older versions you can find some wild and creative shit (and also lots of problematic rubbish you can just filter out lmao) that is mentioned once and then never again. Little nuggets like that usually inspire me the most and a simple sentence can spawn an entire lore or mission idea for me. Some books that you might find interesting (try to find a pdf version online cuz they aren't printed anymore) are Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (3.5), Guide to Hell (2e), Manual of the Planes (3.5).