#if she's fired the french ccs will be going with her

[wildpeachfarm]

I read the entire article about the qsmp and the things being said about how Q treated his own fans and employees is heartbreaking. He only spoke to them directly twice and it was to say he didn’t like something they spent days on and change everything the day before. She says him not being there was a constant problem despite him saying it’s his “passion project” and the only thing she saw him do was say he didn’t like something. They also talk about the Unknown boss whose identity is hidden despite being so high up on the ladder that Q put the blame on even though he hired him.

Lea said she was TERRIFIED when Q went live with his response and was angry about him claiming he didn’t know as well the waves of harassment she knew she was going to get. She said she had hope at first that he would genuinely fix things but nope they just closed for a few days while he fired people which she called them out on which led to WORSE hate. She says the French CCs statements brought her comfort and assured her she wasn’t crazy and they support her.

The next thing mentioned is the union attempted to contact them with no response or message from Q studios as well as sharing screenshots showing that she did send Q an email as well.

There’s a lot more too like the employees doing “volunteer work” for months, hiring minors, not having contact with other employees/not knowing other employees exist, having their personal twitters and dms watched, being reprimanded for breaking the rules(they joke about this a few times: there were no written rules), xenophobia not being addressed, and employees constantly afraid of being fired.

this is such a mess omg

[rouge-fauna]

(be free to not answer if You want to move on from this topic) to add to your point, dream's close Friends didn't Say Much but didnt imply they were agaist dream either. Puffy Made indirects about the situation and her view seems to be neutral on all of them with the grok fanfic tweet and stuff. Sapnap talked about still making the video which dream participated.

I mostly, in this type of drama, take more seriously what people who were close to dream has to say. And i mean not just having make content together, i mean we know they have a deep connection or know each other from long ago. Dream's close Friends from years don't seem to want to drop him, expect punz but that's for a unrelated reason, but tommy. Tommy's Friends knew dream but werent that close to him, and they never gave fully convicting reasons on what dream's a Bad person. Maybe a bit of a dick or negligent sometimes but that's not being Bad person. And i Say this bc people who were not close to dream but are close to Tommy Will obviously take his side of things and try to back him up Even if they weren't close to the guy and his only proof of him being Bad it's"he was complicated to communicate/a bit of a dick behind the scenes sometimes". And i'm not saying this to bash them but bc it's a fact. When we have a close friend we tend to take their side over someone we don't know well or don't like too much and don't have anything to add not matter the situation.

I Say this bc dream's Friends know him, Tommy knew him so i take their words and tubbo too, bc he did have something to Say unlike the rest of the british ccs, as more close to factual bc of that. Just bc a a lot of people Say something it doesn't mean it's real or correct. Half the internet were saying Chris chan deserved all the stalking she received for years and that didn't mean it was correct. Also i fully remenber dream had Said to Friends before to not go and defend him and sapnap and George didn't go to defend dream when he was clearing the gromming allegations stuff in december 2023, Bad did yeah and got Lots of dms being agressive to him. But we know snf still supported and were Friends with dream. Dream's Friends not always jump in his defence Even if they side with him or not bc it's getting into the fire and it's valid they don't want to. Shadoune, sapnap's hispanic/french cc friend, Say in stream a general statement "some people in the English community seem to only create drama while My work it's to play Minecraft" and he got awfully harrassed by dream haters and the british crew fans. He later Said he'll never mention the English community again bc of this tho he's still very Friends with sapnap and he was in his event. So i don't think i'll see the silence as "dream's friends dropping him" unless that happens bc we forget how awful harrassment for being dream's friend can be. And also i personally don't think this would ruin dream's close Friendships bc like this drama isn't that serious, it's ex-friends being bitter of each other basically. Yeah The comminities harrassment is serious but i'm the personal side it's not that serious, there's not a crime involved

[context]

Fair, I mean I do but also liked your angle so felt like it was something interesting to look at.

Oooohhh… I think I understand a bit better. The fact that Dream’s oldest friends have not turned on him, the ones who actually know him (besides Punz, but I don’t think he would say Dream is a movie villain he’s just upset) and have deep relationships with him unlike Tubbo, who by his own admittance said he hadn’t hung out with him that much, or Jack who really didn’t know him that well, speaks more of the fact that Dream is not a bad person. Yes I agree, I think it’s interesting that the accusations against him have little to no basis and that the people saying he’s this bad guy aren’t people who’ve actually spent much time with Dream (besides Tommy but we’ve already talked about his possible reasonings). The fact that his old friends stay by his side proves that if you give him the benefit of the doubt and try to work things out then you can have a meaningful relationship, but like anyone you don’t know, if you judge a book by its cover and never give it a true chance for whatever reason then of course your perception of that person will be skewed and the moment they hurt you at all intentional or not is the moment they become a bad guy… anyways… in general it does just make me sad he doesn’t get more support in general (like man, to have someone defend you is so meaningful. In retrospect I realized a good portion of the times I’ve been hurt by people, I really just wanted 1 person to have my side and defend me, course I didn’t really even have that privately so… At least Dream has that. Anyways. Good points. :) )

[pommunist]

disappointing to hear from the ex twitteradmins that they and the current twt admins have heard literally nothing from quackity of whoever else is doing the investigations and they also have to find out from twitter like everyone else. apparently they have a seperate discord server but they were still mistreated and should also be talked to (@/Gaelleilei & @/ibobidou both ex admins for qsmpFRA have said this)

I hope you don’t mind anon, I will use ur ask to share some updates on the situation. I just checked the twitter accounts you mentioned and yes it seems that so far they haven’t been made aware of any changes regarding the twitted admins side of things.

As for thé server admins side, Léa made more tweets about it and what she knows so far :

« To be real clear: I want to be transparent, I really want to bring you all good news about the restructuration of the server. I'm really sad to see it is not possible.

What I saw is: The actors have been kicked out of Quackity Studio, not knowing if they would ever be back.

The voluntary people that worked for the twitter update accounts have been revoked from their access to their old tchat and account.

The admin that sent me threats, encouraged drama, is still on the server.

No French admin is included in the revamp of the studio. »

Someone asked if by « actors », Lea meant the roleplayers (and cited pomme as a example) and Lea said yes.

UPDATE : It doesn’t mean admins have been fired necessarily just that for now they don’t have their access and that their situation is unsure (lea clarified this bc the way she worded this before made people think otherwise and let to misinformation)

She then said « For thoses that don't understand why I keep and keep speaking: I have to, otherwise the changes won't be done properly, I want everyone to be aware of what is happening.

If something positive is brought to me, I will also say it. Everyone should have the right to speak about it, not only the higher ups can talk about how the changes should be made. Right now, only the people that were priviledged in the studio are giving their opinions on the changes and the others are shushed »

So yeah not great news to say the least ! Hopefully this is just the beginning of the changes Quackity talked about but personnally I can’t see things improving without better transparency and a participation from everyone involved. We still need to remember that BIG changes are needed so time is necessary for stuff to be fixed.

For me, I have full trust in the french CCs, Antoine said he won’t come back before their is proof of everything being fixed so if the french ccs give us their green light I will trust them.

Below is the link of Lea’s account, her last tweets are already in english, I didn’t translate them so if people wanna read straight from the source here u go

https://x.com/leasagne_?s=21&t=fDVoT5qDN_AAqnxYhZF3uQ

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

I saw on your reblog blog that you were written a QSMP fanfiction, are you going to publish it on AO3?

I didn't want to talk about QSMP here, but let's do a little off-topic.

I'm French, sorry if my English is a little weird.

First, for the fic, I really don't know. It's over and ready to publish, but with everything that's happening right now, I really don't know if I want to support this project anymore.

Like a lot of French people, I saw the resignation letter Pomme wrote yesterday and I'm really really upset about it. Not communicating or whatever is one thing, firing someone for no reason and then letting them in the dark for 3 weeks with only their mind to imagine reasons why is just awful. I'm very sensitive to mental abuse as I, unfortunately, lived it a few years ago, and just imagining her losing her mind over something she can't control is making me so angry, you have no idea.

All she needed was at least a "we're working on it" or better a "we apologize", that would have been a beginning. But no, even that was too hard to do apparently, what the absolute fuck.

I know at least Aypierre supported her during this period (he talked about it several times in streams) so it's a little comfort, but I can't express how much I'm sorry for her as she shouldn't have been caught in any of this mess in the first place. She did nothing wrong. Nothing at all.

Now that I'm pretty sure that the French CCs are leaving (I mean if you know at least a little bit Antoine Daniel, it's obvious he's going to leave, there's nothing to argue here :'), Aypierre already said he's not coming back. Baghera is very attached to the server, so we'll see what she does, and poor Etoiles can't even rest peacefully, that's so fucking bullshit), and that probably BadBoyHalo will follow since Dapper left as well, I think it's time I left the server behind as well.

I can't stand with so much mistreatment. Pomme's letter made me feel sick because I know what work abuse for "passion" is, I got burnout because of it, and seeing so few changes occur is way too much for me. All this story triggered me when it started, but now it's to the point I can't enjoy any QSMP stream without feeling guilty for the QSMP workers. I just can't.

I haven't closed the door yet, I'm waiting for what the French CC will say or do, but clearly, for now, it's goodbye for me. I don't want to support content that's triggering me, I need to protect myself as well.

I wish some peace of mind and answers for the QSMP admins who left already and hope that those who still want to continue the project will have their work conditions quickly upgraded, they deserve it. It's the least they can do, and they shouldn't have to ask it in the first place.

[mia-the-weirdo]

Hello fellow internet people!

I am a silly little goober who exists in this mortal realm to entertain and make spelling mistakes (and hopefully make you smile or feel warmth in that cold heart of yours)

Any pronouns, She/ Her if you struggle with what ones to use :3

I will make spelling mistakes, please point them out so I can be aware of them :)

✨Fandoms✨ (In no particular order)

-Call of Duty (Campaigns/ I only watch them)

-Lucifer (Netflix show)

-Formula 1 (Car go zoom around + drama added)

-Lando Norris (Formula 1 driver, personal fave)

-Bluey (Tv Show)

-My Little Pony (Tv Series)

-Wakfu (French Tv Series) (I watch it in French with cc) (FORGOT TO ADD I STARTED PLAYING THE GAME RECENTLY)

-Helluva boss (Animated series on You tube) (Had to get my friend to spell that one)

-Newsies (Musical)

-Brooklyn 99 (Tv Series)

-Warrior cats (Book series)

-The Sunbearer Trials (Book) (Series?)

-Delicious in Dungeon (Literally started watching it two days ago, it is so good) (It has now been months)

-How To Train Your Dragon (Movie/ TV series) (Also the book series)

-Slug Terror (Tv show)

- Rain World (Game)

-Detroit Become Human (Game)

-Marvel (Movie franchise)

-Hunger Games (Movies/ books)

-F.R.I.E.N.D.S (Tv show)

-How I Met Your Mother (Tv show)

-The Great Gatsby (Musical/ Movies/ Book)

-Scott Pilgrim (Tv series)

-Genshin Impact (Game)

-Heartstopper (Tv series and Comic)

-Glitch Techs (Tv series)

-Wings of Fire (Comic)

-Andy’s Prehistoric/ Dinosaur Adventures (Tv series)

-Arcane

-There is more that I will add and that I have forgotten <3

PRO BE NICE TO OTHER SILLY INTERNET PEOPLE (Aka ignore the mean ones)

Have a good day or night and stay safe! :D

[influencermagazineuk]

One word keeps surfacing in the conversation with Glasgow's beloved post-rock band, Mogwai—"weird." That was "psychedelically weird" when their last album, As The Love Continues, tops the UK charts in 2021. A surreal success if ever there is one, but it happened amidst a global pandemic. "So we couldn't even go to the pub to talk about how weird it was," frontman Stuart Braithwaite remembers with a laugh. The success did take them as far as the Mercury Prize gala, however, which, being something of a quirky affair, was "such a weird ceremony." But despite all the unexpectedness, the band didn't let it impact their creative process while working on their latest album, The Bad Fire. SuperVirtual, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons In fact, they were so disconnected to the notion of being chart-toppers that they didn't even mention it to their new producer, John Congleton—who has worked with the likes of St Vincent, The Killers, Blondie, and Modest Mouse. It was only in an interview with a French journalist that he came to know of it. "He was like, 'Wait, your last album went to number one?' And we were like, 'Yeah'.". "And he was like, 'Wow, that's weird'. To be fair, he had a point. Mogwai never seemed the kind of band destined for mainstream chart dominance. They started as a group of longtime friends with a shared love for making "serious guitar music," crafting sprawling, atmospheric instrumentals brimming with emotion. Their rise to number one took an astonishing 25 years, helped in part by the UK chart rules, which give more weight to physical record sales than streaming numbers. Mogwai, with their fiercely loyal fanbase that treasures vinyl, found themselves in the right place at the right time. For one triumphant week, they outsold pop heavyweights like Dua Lipa and Harry Styles. "It was a huge surprise," Braithwaite admits. "We want our music to do as well as it can, but we're not uber-ambitious. We're not like Queen, plotting world domination." However, just as they could have ridden the momentum of their surprise victory, life threw a series of challenges in their way. Personal Battles Behind The Bad Fire As the group prepared to start recording on their new album, keyboardist Barry Burns was delivered some shattering news: his daughter was gravely ill. Diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, a rare condition where the body stops producing enough blood cells, the diagnosis was nothing short of terrifying. "She had blood coming out of her gums and bruises all over," he shares. "It was extremely stressful." The disorder is incredibly rare, occurring in only around 30 to 40 children a year in the UK. For Burns, the diagnosis cut even deeper, thanks to a childhood memory. "The weird thing was that my neighbor when I was a kid had it, and sadly, she died," he says. "So obviously, I really panicked because I thought I knew the outcome-but thankfully, the treatment is completely different now." After a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, his daughter recovered. "She's going to be fine, but I've had an awful two years." The band had to suffer through more pain. Long-time live agent Mick Griffiths died of cancer. Bassist Dominic Aitchison lost his father. Even Braithwaite's favourite pooch, Prince, got cancer and had to lose a leg three months before the recording sessions started. As much as one might expect The Bad Fire to be a sombre reflection on pain and death, this is not the style of Mogwai. "If anything weighty happens in my life, the last thing I want to do is write a song about it," Braithwaite once told The Herald—a philosophy that still holds true. Predominantly instrumental, Mogwai’s music has always been open to interpretation. They deliberately give their songs abstract or nonsensical titles to avoid boxing listeners into a specific meaning. Tracks like You’re Lionel Richie, Secret Pint, and Simon Ferocious are part of that tradition, and the new album follows suit with intriguingly named compositions such as Pale Vegan Hip Pain and Fanzine Made of Flesh. Still, there is a faint sense of the band's emotional journey. The massive, distortion-heavy 18 Volcanoes finds Braithwaite whispering, "Hope has come another day / Hold me close in every way." "Some journalists in France said the album was really cathartic, and I can kind of see that," he says. "But I don't think it's maudlin at all. It's vaguely upbeat, by our standards." Looking Ahead Released last Friday, The Bad Fire has already started sending ripples out into the nation, vying for a Top Five spot alongside big names Central Cee and Teddy Swims. Again, physical sales favour Mogwai. "The streaming world is very murky and hard to understand," Braithwaite says. "It does make a lot of money, but it makes a lot of money for old music and artists with popular back catalogues, and I think that's really discouraged a lot of big labels from investing in new music." He also attacks the generic AI-generated music that floods platforms such as Spotify, especially in the ambient genres such as chill-out and lo-fi. "You absolutely know that if anyone's going to be making generic AI music, it's going to be the streaming services, just so they don't have to pay humans." Yet digital channels have also brought the band an unforeseen amount of publicity. The band's 2005 single Take Me Somewhere Nice has received 85 million YouTube views thanks to a video uploaded by a fan who depicted a girl with her head inside an upside-down goldfish bowl, which is the original illustration from game designer Ken Wong. Fans have become so associated with the song that they have tattooed the image on themselves. "I almost want to go, 'Mate, you know, that's not the cover of the record'," Braithwaite jokes. "But it's cool. And the comments under the video are like an endless message board of young kids supporting each other. There's an agony aunt vibe about it." For a band that once sold T-shirts making fun of its rivals, Mogwai has come a long way. And as they celebrate their 30th anniversary, the journey from scrappy Glaswegian upstarts to respected rock veterans feels both surreal and hard-earned. So, did they ever picture themselves here when they first practiced together in Braithwaite's parents' house all those years ago? "Well, I thought we'd have flying cars by now," he chuckles. "So any excitement at the fact that I was still scratching by as a musician would likely be tempered by the lack of jet packs." In other words, it all just feels. odd. Read the full article

[tachyonblu]

@silverwolfcc shares her thoughts on Fire Emblem, Torrential Downpour and censorship in localization. An excerpt: "My brother is one of the biggest Fire Emblem fans you will find, and my best friend is the biggest Fire Emblem fan you will find. When it came to Fates, I was extremely excited because we had just played Awakening, which was really good. It brought back enthusiasm for the series. Everyone thought it was dying; Nintendo underestimated it, so they barely made enough copies. My brother ended up buying literally ten different copies so we could gift them to various friends and even made both my parents play it, which is so funny. My dad doesn’t often play handheld games, if ever, but he played it.

We were very excited for Fates. I was counting down the days, and the more I heard about the translation, the more I got very nervous. They removed so much, and they botched the voice acting as well because they didn't have any director at least talking to them to tell them cues, so they had to kind of guess, and they did not guess well. The lines were really bad. The translation was the worst.

Soleil is a character who is kind of bi, but she is weak to women because she wants to be princely and protect them and she gets distracted in the middle of battle, trying to protect them, and passes out. There was a small controversy from someone who’s not even a Fire Emblem player, which really frustrates me to no end. They mistook Soleil as 100% lesbian, and the fact that she doesn't have S-Class support—which is like marriage in the game—with women is an affront to everything. In fact, all of her male relationships that reach S-Class are just terrible. They are absolutely trying to 100% brainwash her into being straight, just like conversion therapy camps in the US, which obviously isn’t what goes on in Japan. I was really looking forward to Soleil because I am a bisexual woman who wants to be princely to other women and be like, 'I will protect you, m’lady.' That's how I got into GamerGate. [Both laughing] So I was really looking forward to this, and they just completely butchered her character.

That’s not even the worst example. The one that pisses me off the most is what they did to the two werewolf characters. Now it’s called 'garu,' because that’s what it is in French. Garu means 'were' and then you add 'lupe' for 'werewolf,' 'garulupe.' In Japanese, they left it as the French word, “garu” in Japanese, but when translating it back into English, they decided to go with 'Wolfskin.” I have the Native American name 'Silver Wolf.' Wolves are my brothers, and I have had spirit animal encounters with wolves. I consider wolves to be my brothers, and I was really pissed off because I can’t deal with 'Wolfskin.' They’re just a werewolf, a 'Garu,' but you just called them a 'Wolfskin.'

Maybe they were trying to do the Tumblr otherkin thing, or some Western fantasy romance theme, but I don’t care. Why couldn’t you leave it as Garu? It’s a French loan word to begin with. What is wrong with you? They then changed the dialogue to literal gibberish. The daughter says to her father, 'That’s wolfer; I love you.' They just made it up. That’s not what it was in Japanese at all. They literally made it up because they didn’t even get the original translation; they were just given the material to localize, some dialogue options and told to localize it. I can go on about that for a very, very long time. They really messed Fates up." -CC

[hey-i-am-trying]

....

Okay, this is a bit of a long story, and there are better places to you to inform yourself. I will try to summarize what's going on, but this will be a long post.

It looks like Quackity wasn't so closely involved in the administration of Quackity Studio, he didn't want to receive spoilers of the lore, so he left a lot of stuff in the hands of people he trusted. This end up being pretty bad.

It seems like most of the workers at Quackity Studio were volunteers, however, they were expected to work like salary employees, almost 24/7, and the workers on the update accounts were told they basically could not take vacation days, or they would be kicked out.

The people being paid had extremely low salaries (around 150 euros per month)

There also has been allegation of mistreatment.

They were given no contracts, only made to sign an NDA.

They also had rules in place to isolate the admins. The teams couldn't speak with each other, most admins couldn't speak with the ccs, as it was also against the rules.

They were also severely under staff, at least when it came of the korean, portuguse and french speaking admins, for both server and update pages.

Of the french admins with access to the server there was two, Léa and Pomme's admins. "Were" I will explain later.

There is only one korean admin on the server. We don't have information on how many there are on the update account.

The QsmpPOR had started with 3 admins, yes to update all 5 ccs. For what an ex-admin has said, to these day there are less than 10 admins for the update account

Allegedly, there are also no "higher ups" that speak french, portuguse or korean.

We all discovered this, in the first place because of Léa. She has been fired recently because it was leaked on an Aypierre's stream that she was speaking with him.

Then other ex-admins came forward to back Léa's story. they were brazilian and french admins of the update accounts.

All the ex-admins, including Léa, said they don't believe Quackity was aware of what is going on. They have all point out to this "higher ups" as the ones at fault.

Léa also has spoken about the lack of organization and weirdly enough, talking about the disorganization of lore made, as well as the events. I will not dive too much on this, it is only important for the next segment.

It is my understanding that in the middle of this Pomme's admin had her access to the qsmp discord revoked. Apparently, there had been suspicious of her leaking information, as alleged by Léa, the only evidence of that is that she speaks French and was Léa's friend, Léa said Pomme's admins has not leaked information to her.

Apparently, before coming public, Léa had already started to talk with Aypierre about the conditions she has been working on, and about the circumstances of her getting fired. Aypierre has talked with the other french speaking ccs and they were already preparing a document about the situation to give to Quackity. However, Léa had already spoken public about it before they could do it.

Quackity had made a short stream, explaining he was not aware of the situation, he thanked all the ex-admins for bring this up. He said he will be more involved on the Quackity Studio administration, and he will guarantee all the workers are paid, and if he can't pay all the workers, QSMP will close. He even said he was under the impression that any volunteer work that was done as a "trial" to be then paid a regular salary.

Discovering that Pomme's admin may have been fired, all french ccs have spoken up in support of Léa, they stated they will not return to qsmp if the admins are not given proper working conditions and Pomme's admin is not given the option to return. They all said they believed in Quackity, and they are sure he will make the necessary changes, but they will need to see the changes to return.

A french workers' union has received a report about the QSMP situation and has public asked for testimonies, as Quackity Studio has broken french labor laws. They even let the non-french workers also give their testimonies, they will not able to give the same support to them as they will for the french workers, but they offered guidance and any help they could legally give to them.

Meanwhile QSMPtwt has been driven to chaos.

The french community has been extremely upset with the situation, for obvious reason, and has been been extremely active into asking for the workers rights to be respected.

The brazilian and korean community has been given their support to them.

Now, many parasocial fans of Quackity have harassed the french community, including the ccs, and the brazilian community as well. That includes extremely xenophobic and racist attacks.

I want to make it very clear that is not all the Quackity fans. Because it is ironic that the parasocial fans have been so "protective" of Quackity that they have been completely against his words, and they cannot understand that Quackity had been open about his fault on this mess.

They have been particularly nasty with Baghera, and it becomes very obvious why, when Étoiles posted his statement right after Baghera posted hers, they were almost identical to each other. But for some reason sexism, Étoiles has been praised for his statement inside this parasocial circle, while Baghera has been receiving tons of hate by the same people.

Mine: If I see sexist comments and/or inferiorizing comments about Baghera, it's instant block. You all pretend you want more inclusion and more women on big project but when the time comes you act like they are not even human, don't even come close of the respect you give to men that are creators.

Image: I respect you but if you come to my house to talk badly about my family or Baghera, you came to the wrong place.

[quillify-tries-to-talk]

Defense and Love

(A rewrite of that scene in Chain of Gold where Cordelia does not defend her brother when James calls him unworthy of his sister's love. Because I was angry. Because CC knows zero things about sibling interaction.)

Lemme know if you like it!

“I know you hate me for how I treated you in school, and rightfully so,” Alastair said. It was a wonder his voice was not shaking. “But however much you hate me, do not take it out on my sister.”

Please, the word hung from the very tip of his tongue, unspoken and desperate. His heart was galloping inside his chest with an almost painful intensity, even more so under Cordelia's watchful gaze. He couldn't break now. Not in front of her. She would ask, and how was he going to explain why he'd distorted into something he didn't recognize himself?

“Alastair," said Herondale in that low, cruel voice that took him back to the Academy, his own past coming back to haunt him, "you made my life a living hell at the Academy. But I’d never take it out on Cordelia. That’s something you would do, not something I would do.”

So he thought Alastair would hit his own sister. Good God. You don't know anything, rich boy, he wanted to snap. You have no idea what you're talking about. 

Perhaps it was his own fault. He’d hurt so many people in his quest to guard his family. His life had turned into one horrific, monotonous nightmare. Protect them. Protect Layla. Let her be happy. Let my mother be happy. Let Father never come back.

The rational part of his brain had taken over the reins. He stood up straighter, schooled his expression into blank, icy indifference, the mask he’d perfected at school. Let Herondale think what he wanted. Alastair had a job to do and he wasn't about to let patronizing sermons get in his way.

“I see how it is. In school I had the power, and here you have the power to lord it over me. What’s your game? What do you want with my sister?”

“Your sister,” James said, speaking with a slow, deliberate coldness. “Your sister is the only thing keeping me from punching you in the face. Your sister loves you, Angel knows why, and you aren’t even the least bit grateful.”

The words were more powerful than any Shadowhunter weapon. They ravaged the remains of his heart over and over again.

He was ten and watching his father trip on the floor of his bedroom as he collected the brandy bottles littered around. Elias had been too drunk to tell who’d been into his room.

He was twelve again and practicing the iratze. It will help Baba, he'd thought then, childish hope still guiding him through the dark descending over the horizon of their lives.

“You have no idea what I’ve done for my sister." His voice came out rough and shaking. Horror of all horrors, Cordelia was still looking at him as though seeing him in a new light. Did she agree with James? She could. She was thriving here. "You have no idea about our family. You don’t know the first thing—”

He was fifteen again and refusing to train with Layla for the hundredth time because his body ached like one giant bruise. It was Pounceby. His jaw and neck tingled with the sting of the phantom bruise. He was watching the hope in his sister's eyes die. I am sorry, he'd wanted to say then. I truly am. But I can't let you see this. Live, Layla.

Something knocked against his shoulder. Hard. Only his training, both physical and mental, kept him from stumbling back in surprise.

It was Cordelia. She’d come to stand in front of him, the way Alastair had done when they were kids whenever their father had been home. Like a shield, he realized in disbelief. He wanted to push her out of the way, but her outstretched arm only resulted in him shifting to the side so he could catch her expression.

Anger.   

He'd seen his sister annoyed. He'd seen his sister frustrated. He'd seen her distressed. He'd seen her scheme and calculate, always finding a way out of anything with her brilliant mind and ambition.

But never before had he seen her like this: dark eyes aflame, hands curled into fists, shoulders bunching up as though she was preparing to land a blow.

Oh. Oh no, no, no, no. A number of curses flashed through his head in all the languages he knew. Farsi. French. English. Urdu. 

He looked down at her, and his expression visibly softened. Alastair tried not to narrow his eyes. 

"James," Cordelia was saying. Her voice sounded normal. "You'd better go."

“Are you sure?” he said in a low voice. “I won’t leave you alone, Cordelia, not unless you wish me to.”

She seemed to rise taller, and in that moment Alastair was reminded why Cortana had chosen her. His sister looked the way their mother was, fire and embers and a gaze so piercing that the other person was left stuttering, though they'd originally come to scrutinize every inch of her. The colour of her eyes, her skin, why she covered her hair with a roosari.

He wished he had their courage. He wished he hadn't withdrawn into the shadows.

Thorns in your way, Esfandiyār, whispered Baba's voice inside his head. Why look back when you can look ahead?

But that would've entailed far worse consequences than a sermon.

Ahead? His thirteen-year-old, iratze-fumbling himself had wanted to snap as he'd stared at the glass sticking out of his foot, blood dripping on the floor. Ahead at your next bottle, Father? 

Cordelia's voice rang out in the hall, sharper than the crack of a whip. "I will say this once and only once, James Herondale. So listen carefully." She took another step closer and Herondale's eyes actually widened. In surprise? Or in whatever the hell had happened between them before coming home? Alastair thought dryly. 

"Do not for one moment think that you are my saviour," Cordelia said through her teeth. The words sent a jolt of surprise through him. "I am thankful for all your help, believe me, but my love for my brother has absolutely nothing to do with this."

A faint smile curled on the edges of Herondale's lips. "You still don't know what he did?"

Cordelia raised her brows, and oh there it was. The sibling resemblance. Clear as day in the anger cloaked behind disdain and a smile. "Why does my love for my family have to come between your feud?" she demanded. "Do I require your blessing to love them? You have notions about my brother that I would have expected from the Pouncebys."

He looked like she’d slapped him awake. "Daisy,  I—"

She took a step back, and the anxiety on his face heightened. Cordelia herself was trembling.

And Alastair? He still couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't move, save to draw breath. The scene unfolding before him seemed like a fever dream. Cordelia didn’t know how he’d tormented Herondale and Fairchild at the Academy. She had no idea of the bomb going off when he’d been mere inches from the building. She didn’t know why everyone hated him so much. He knew, and perhaps he was a greedy monster for making his sister choose between her love and her family.  

She raised a silencing hand when Herondale opened his mouth. "You assume that you know my brother better than I do. You assume that I am still Daisy—the girl with pretty ribbons in her hair, who needs your help to distinguish right from wrong. I will find out what happened at the Academy, but I will not stand idle while you say Alastair doesn’t deserve my love. You don’t get to choose who does or does not deserve me." She smiled, eyes glittering with the storms of the night. "You hurt my family, Mr. Herondale, and you will face my blade.”

Silence descended. Herondale’s eyes narrowed slightly as he glanced between Alastair and Cordelia. A flicker of longing passed across his face as he saw Layla, there and gone. Alastair was gifted with a long, hard, assessing look. 

“You may take your leave now," Cordelia said coldly.

James's expression shuttered. Was Alastair the only one who noticed his sister's wince? Guilt twisted in his gut.

"Very well, Miss Carstairs," Herondale said in a low monotone. "As you wish."

As soon as he was out of sight, Cordelia seemed to shrink, deflate. 

Alastair snapped back to his senses. There were a number of things demanding his attention but he crossed the room to catch his sister by the elbow, older brother once more. His head was still reeling with the impossible absurdity of what had transpired. 

"Layla?" He tested out the name hesitantly. "What? I mean, you shouldn't have—"

"He said you don't deserve my love." She turned to face him, and to his horror, her dark eyes gleamed with tears. Tears on my behalf, he thought dizzily. 

What was this day?

In all the eighteen years of his life, he’d been used to working from the sidelines, slow and quiet. People did not need to see his tears, his frustration at himself. Only the anger and the sneering indifference he put up to keep them away. It had always been that way, ever since he had held Cordelia in his arms as a confused two-year-old. 

She is so small, mâmân!

I know, joon. Will you promise to help her?

“Why, Layla?” he snapped, and she flinched. He wanted to hit himself all over again. “Why did you do that? Herondale is not wrong. I have hurt people. I have done horrible, despicable things. You’re going to lose out on potential allies because of me, do you realize that? How will you save Father then? I thought--” He broke off, not wanting to say the dreaded word.

She lifted her chin and glared. “You thought what, dâdâsh?”

It was jarring to have heard her defend him, even more jarring than hearing the language of his home, the language he’d spent years shoving down because it tended to attract the wrong sort of attention. It was jarring that she’d even noticed his trembling hands or the tears that were clawing at his throat, begging to be let out. It had been years since he’d truly cried but London seemed hell bent on breaking him. He'd never really thought how much he'd needed Cordelia by his side. How many years had passed with just pushing and pushing and pushing people away until time sped by and they simply grew out of their love for you.

His sister was no longer a baby. She was nearly as tall as him, looking him in the eye, silent and waiting. 

"I thought you-you... loved him."

She closed her eyes. "I do. I think so. It doesn't mean I stand by idly while he goes on insulting my brother. It certainly does not mean that I hold back on my own feelings." Her eyes opened. A wry smile played on her lips. “You keep forgetting that only I am allowed to insult you, Alastair.”

Hoarse laughter escaped him, and Cordelia looked delighted to have been the cause. 

Taglist: @youngreckless @eugeniaslongsword (look, your annoyance inspired me lol), @cant-think-of-anything @reesecarstairs @cherilyn-rose @carstairs-hopelessly

[pxtopia]

My dream smp playlists

i recently made some spotify playlists that have to do with the dream smp and I’m adding any song that reminds me of a certain character!! i wanted to make a post of all of them cause I’m honestly really proud. These are constantly updating and I’m gonna be adding more characters / storylines 

The Dream smp / Wilbur Soot / Technoblade / Dream / Tommyinnit / Quackity / Jschlatt / Georgenotfound / Ranboo / Tubbo / Dreamnotfound / Philza Minecraft / Karl Jacobs / Fundy / Niki / Jack  Manifold / Sapnap / Ghostbur / Badboyhalo / Captain Puffy / Awesamdude / Eret / Hannahxxrose / Foolish Gamers / Pogtopia / L’manberg 

DISCLAIMER: !!! these playlists are about the characters / relationships from the dream smp and have nothing to do with the ccs and their real life !!!

i hope you like them they’re constantly being updated :D

DREAM SMP: The city of fallen angels 

WILBUR: I am the villain in your story, I guess there’s only one way to go from here. Take my sword and cut through me, find peace in my solitude, find happiness in the hate I now attract, find love in the destruction of my own happiness and most importantly, find contentment, in the death of the life I have always known.

TECHNOBLADE: i still don’t care about your bright, feeble existence. but then you never cared much for mine, did you?

DREAM: the art of lying is a science: i’ll put on my lab coat and tinker inside your head until all you see is what i want you to see. you’ll wonder, “have i gone blind? or was i blind all my life.” and ill slyly grin, baring my teeth, tucking my demon’s tail away and out of sight, pleasantly answering, “i don’t know, you tell me.” not many can see behind the thick draping of those velvet curtains, but i see. i see everything. and you see nothing, because i’ve kept everything from you. take a scalpel and slice through my chest, peel back the thick draping of this velvet flesh, crack the cage of ivory bone, have a peek inside at all these holy terrors. they’re living in me. i am them, and they are me. 

TOMMY: And I traveled far, I reached for the stars, but those stars don’t reach back they’re better left alone 

QUACKITY: Excuse the shit out of my goddamn french

SCHLATT: At lease we’ll be entertained while the world goes to hell 

GEORGE: His soul burns so brightly, I fear I’ll catch fire. Ignited by passion, consumed by his light. I risk losing myself in the flames of lust burning into the night.

RANBOO: The situations becoming dire, my treehouse is on fire, and for some reason I smell gas on my hands

TUBBO: Thats what an angel is. Dust pressed into a diamond by the weight of this world.

DREAMNOTFOUND: I was in love with you before I even knew what love was

PHILZA: “What if I fall?” Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?

KARL: The world fell apart…Didn’t you notice?

FUNDY: Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.

NIKI: Finding nothing but brightly colored failures, and shame colored relics, of what used to be.

JACK: There is a bitter triumph in crashing, when you should be soaring

SAPNAP: Im everything you can’t control

GHOSTBUR: I told the stars about you

BADBOYHALO: Take a look around and what do I see? It's looking like the whole world's goin just a little crazy. And I know it can't be all of them and just not me, so I guess I'm going just a little crazy

CAPTAIN PUFFY: No god worthy of worship would demand such horrors to be committed in his name 

AWESAMDUDE: Life went on, but it was never the same

ERET: this place is always better when youre here, i dont know how long youre going to stay, but its been the most fun

HANNAH: she had a galaxy in her eyes and a universe in her mind

FOOLISH: I go to seek a great perhaps 

POGTOPIA: The world had drained me for everything I had. I couldn't draw my face if god asked.

L’manberg o7: We deserve a soft epilogue, my love. We are good people, and we've suffered enough.

[pommunist]

Do you think all the francophone streamers will still choose to leave the server even though Lumi technically quit "voluntarily"? (Biggest quotation marks in history...)

Or will some of them be like "okay well if she doesn't want to stay then we don't need to demand anything from Quackity anymore and we might as well come back"?

- 🐧

I really can’t speak for them (obviously) so this is mostly going to be my own speculation !

For Baghera, Antoine and Etoiles I think that if they ever come back it would be after they had been shown concrete proof that the admins work conditions have been drastically improved (this one isnt speculation Antoine literally said it) that the people who are to blame for what was going on aren’t part of the project anymore, and that people who needed to be paid got paid.

I know that the « No Pomme No french ccs » thing has circulated a lot but what Antoine (I’m singleing him because he’s the one who said the most on the situation so he’s the one whose stance is the clearest) said that he would not come back if they fired Pomme’s admin and replaced her by someone else to play the character. I don’t know how this applies in the context of Pomme’s admin leaving like she did (and, I would assume and hope, her character ending).

For Aypierre’s case, he seems to have still been active on the server up until recently. He also did say in a tweet that he didn’t completely close the QSMP door. (Note that I don’t follow Aypierre or watch his streams at all so if he said anything else on this Idk)

So yeah tldr the big thing that would keep the French ccs away is the workers treatment more than Pomme admin’s being present of not.

Another thing is that (Once again speaking mostly in regards of Antoine, Baghera and Etoiles here) I’m not sure that their audience wants to see anymore QSMP related content.

[etoilesbienne]

- accidentally was the person who leaked the screencap of (one of the only two) french admins messaging him, leading to leasagne being fired

- leasagne was messaging him to explain a DDOS THAT HAPPENED ON THE QSMP SERVER. Why one of the non-managerial admins had to be the one explaining a security issue in the first place is insane. Like if these people aren't allowed to be messaging the CC, there needs to be some clarity with a manager who /can/ message cc and explain security issues if the people you are working with feel they need to be in the know about security concerns like a DDOS.

- this message about purgatory one:

tl: "I'm going to tell you the truth, the only way you are going to move someone from their preferred POV is: Drama. Create drama. Drama moves people. If you make two teams fight, or two users fight, or a winner, we can generate the situations."

- he got a huge amount of hate and threats over purgatory one for playing the game As It Was Intended. With causing Drama. And putting the most popular cc on a single team and intentionally throwing everyone else to the wolves is possibly the dumbest move i've seen in a while. Especially if it somehow was meant to make people "watch other pov" than their usual.

- French QSMP twitter admins had apparently been collecting clips for the clip compilations during events the whole time, and giving them to the team behind it. the team just decided to consistently not use any of them, for whatever reason.

- Making a huge defense post of Pomme and the hate she was getting because none of the CC wanted a new admin for Pomme.

- Leasagne is saying Pomme's admin got de-whitelisted because the managers suspect her of communicating with Leasagne behind the scenes after Leasagne was fired.

- Pomme's admin isn't even being paid.

- Now there are no french admins currently whitelisted on QSMP.

- The upper management team was discouraging workers of discussing pay or communicating at all.

if i were aypierre rn id be the fucking joker that guy has to be the most screwed over cc in this whole ordeal

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Are there books you recommend reading?

Only books I've read which are historical fiction at best and non fiction at worst lmao. But I'll put a few fave down.

Ken Follett (as previously mentioned) - Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, a Column of Fire (theres a fourth I havent read all the way yet)

CC Humphreys. Canadian author. Books I've read by him: The French Executioner and its sequel Blood Ties, and the Jack Absolute trilogy. As well he wrote a book about Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) but I don't think I enjoyed that as much ahaha.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - its dry in parts but I enjoyed it, historical vampires and shit.

Mademoiselle Boleyn by Robin Maxwell, it's a nice quick read about Anne before she met Henry.

Edward Rutherford - the Forest, follows a family through different generations in an English Forest. It's really interesting and he's done several like it based in several other locations across time including one I have on my bookcase about Russia and New York too I believe. I need to go thru my collection tbh.

Margaret George - she writes giant tomes on historical figures, I read her Henry VIII and Cleopatra books.

One I recall decently since I read only once was The Canterbury Papers by Judith Koll Healey. Medieval fiction which features Eleanor of Aquitaine and peers.

I'll be obvious and say A song of ice and fire (game of thrones books)

Sandra Gulland trilogy on Josephine Bonaparte.

I lost a lot of my Canadian history books but I can check my GoodReads account later. I remember I read one called the Bride of New France (I think) and enjoyed it a lot.

And I'll keep it there as y'all dont want the real dry stuff.

[purplebass]

James and Cordelia and James and Grace: an analysis

Hi! The other day I wrote a post explaining why, in my opinion, James and Grace are not meant to be together and won’t probably be together (I do wonder if they have supporters? No idea). 

SPOILERS FOR COG2, OF COURSE.

Well, for one, the reason why they may not end up together is that we have a family three that shows that James and Cordelia got married. Of course, like CC said, this may be misleading, but I believe that most of what it says it’s correct.

Two, Cordelia and James are both main characters, while Grace is a secondary character more than a main one. (I think the main main characters are James, Cordelia and Lucie and I guess aside from Cordelia, they are going to be on the covers of the last two books, just like for example on the original TMI covers we had Jace, Clary and Simon on the first three book covers.) Some may argue that a main character can end up with a secondary character, but what would the point be? It’s true that there is conflict between James and Grace and that they give the vibe of the star-crossed lovers who can’t be together because she’s thinking about herself more than she’s thinking about him - if you think about, anything Grace ever did in CoG was for herself. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it just means that in her list of priorities, James is the one she’d most likely sacrifice for her own survival. Either because she doesn’t love him so much as she claims or because she’s sacrificing their love for her own sake. James and Grace are like Pip and Estella (hence the Chain of Gold inspiration and why it’s James’ favorite book). In the end of Great Expectations (SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT) Pip ends up loving Estella, but Estella ends up with someone else in the end (the first husband dies while the second is a doctor... Christopher?!). Miss Havisham is clearly Tatiana Blackthorn, lol. In the end, Estella and Pip remain friends, which is what will eventually happen to James and Grace once the bracelet magic is over. Great Expectations ends with a bitter note and there is no Cordelia-alike character for Pip/James, but in CoG2 she is there. And she is the one who will probably mend James’ broken heart. I think I read a post on CC’s tumblr where she said that we’ll see how and if Cordelia can break the silver bracelet spell, since she seems aware that there is something wrong with it. After all, I still believe Cordelia is James’ missing piece. Unlike Grace, not only Cordelia showed to be selfless and loyal even if she could risk to hurt herself (like when she follows James into Belial’s dimension). She also proved that in the end she could lose everything but she wouldn’t want to lose James (and the others, not only him) if she can do something to help them. Which is why she lied that they were together when Tatiana was accusing him.

Three. Grace is a Blackthorn. The Blackthorns have had a difficult relationship with the Herondales and the Lightwoods ever since they killed Benedict. It is an overused cliché to make the guy/girl fall for the guy/girl who is the son/daughter of your declared enemy. Remember when I talked about star-crossed lovers? This also resonates with the Romeo and Juliet idea I wrote above, even if in this case the Herondales and the Lightwoods don’t despise the Blackthorns even if Tatiana treats them like gum under her shoes. But... Jesse is also a Blackthorn. During CoG we saw how he and Lucie got closer despite him being a ghost, which would make him impossible to love, since he is nothing but a shadow (for now). Yet, Lucie probably already fell for him and is determined to find a way to make it come back to life as flesh and blood. If you think about it, James and Jesse are alike: James can turn into a shadow while Jesse is a shadow. And after James met Belial and was dying, he came back to life because of Jesse’s last breath, and this, my friends, is not casual at all. Plus, you can tell Jesse is not like his mother, and out of the two Blackthorns, he is the most likely to end up with a Herondale, which takes Grace out of the question. Why? Because it would be too predictable to make BOTH Lucie and James end up with a Blackthorn, and Lucie’s story with Jesse is much more complicated and attracting as a plot twist than James and Grace’s ever be. 

Four. Besides the Jesse/James parallel, Grace and James’ stories are alike in some ways: they both end up engaged to someone they wouldn’t have chosen in other circumstances. Grace chooses Charles because of his position, James chose Cordelia because of her lie. Charles accepted Grace’s proposal to protect himself, since he wants to keep it secret that he is gay. Cordelia accepted James’ proposal to protect him. They both have something to lose: Grace might lose her freedom, Charles his image, James could be questioned because he met with a Prince of Hell, Cordelia might lose her honor as a woman. While Grace and Charles’ decisions are selfish (they only think about themselves in the end), James and Cordelia’s are selfless (they care more about the other person’s safety and well-being more than theirs). They did it because they wanted to help each other. Cordelia lied to protect James and James lied to protect Cordelia. Unlike CG, James wouldn’t have cared to be questioned (he is someone who faces his actions) nor Cordelia would have cared to be ruined and without a husband (James’ secret was far more important than her reputation). Which could end in tragedy when and if these lies would come out. In Grace and Charles’ case, I can’t imagine Tatiana’s ire against her. And Charles may or may not lose his credibility because after all, it doesn’t seem that many shadowhunters besides his family and friends are willing to accept a gay man as the consul. In James and Cordelia’s case, on the other hand, they may face issues, but it seems that being safe is what counts the most. Which, ultimately, like I said on the post I linked above, could lead us to new twists, like James having to face what happened in Belial’s dimension and Cordelia being proposed to by Matthew so that she’d still be respectable. I can totally see Matthew doing this, since he also likes Cordelia. 

Five. Bodily reactions? Well, I don’t know how to define this point, lol. But let’s just say it’s about physical attraction. James kissed both Cordelia and Grace in this book, and we experienced how he behaved with them. Despite what bracelet!James says at the end of CoG2, that his kiss with Cordelia was all pretense, we know that nobracelet!James told Cordelia that he meant that kiss. Meant. Since we know the bracelet is binding James to feel something for Grace, it makes all of his “affection” (I called it infatuation on the other post) is not genuine. I mean, it’s obvious James likes’ Grace’s appearance because she’s described as a very beautiful girl. But every time they interact or kiss, I felt nothing but coldness, ice. James and Grace’s kisses lacked passion, so to speak. Even when they were alone, they never kissed with the passion of a thousand suns. Even Grace’s appearance recalls the cold. She looks like Elsa from Frozen. OK that every couple has its “temperature”, but man... with Grace, James seemed like a mannequin, which, in literature, isn’t a great sign. A couple that lacks heat is a dead couple. At least to me. I usually don’t like “cold” couples, even though they exist, and usually they are not endgame if one of them is a main character. Trust me. Which brings me to James and Cordelia... let’s start by saying that Cordelia is Grace’s opposite. Everything about her is warmer: her eyes, her skin, her eyes, her heart. Cordelia means “lionheart” from French but also “jewel of the sea” from Welsh. Both meanings apply to Cordelia, which likes to face danger head on and she’s fierce, doesn’t care if her dresses get ruined. James and Cordelia only had one kiss, THE KISS, which ended all other kisses. The way the whispering scene was written, the way that kiss went, basically made James forget about all of his previous kisses (I assume he only kissed Grace before, because of his loyalty to her). It was hot and heavy because James and Cordelia are hot and heavy. Because Cordelia lights James on fire, basically, so much that he isn’t able to control himself like a big fire. I am one of those people who likes fire couples. Basically, most of Cordelia and James intimate scenes happened around fire or a metaphorical heat: when he has scalding fever, Cordelia is the only one who can stay by his bedside and she takes care of him and James thinks about how she didn’t run away when he turned into a shadow. Then when Cordelia risked to drown and James takes Cortana back to her and she’s sitting in front of the fire in the library. And even in the end when James goes to destroy the clockwork thing in Blackthron manor and this starts the fire, when they are about to go out of the building James takes Cordelia in his arms because he thinks her leg still hurts. 

If these aren’t enough evidence, I don’t know what is. I really wish I am not wrong, but of course we’ll know when the books come out. LOL.

I don’t know if you read the whole post, but if you did... thank you!

[strays-cemetery]

Tales From the Underground

Outside my window. If you asked me to describe what I see, I wouldn’t know what to tell you. I’d say that I see lights. Lights echoing the life behind them like eyes, projecting the inhabitants emotions onto the streets through rays of color. I see couples walking down the street holding hands, chattering as they ignore the world around them. I see Hawk’s apartment at the top of the cc-net tower. He’s sitting next to his sister at the dinner table while his parents glare across the table at each other. It must be meatloaf night.

I can see the two-story farmhouse a few blocks away. It’s Bear’s house. He’s probably watching TV with his mom, or working with Alberta the cow in the stable. Or maybe he’s just sitting at his desk, staring up at Hawk’s place like he used to.

I can see the waterfall at the entrance to the city. The silver gates shine in the spotlights of the pool below it as the artificial moon hangs above us. It teeters on its silver chain, casting it’s dim light upon our restless faces and sleeping bodies.

I can see Madame Fish as she closes up her studio in the shopping square. Nobody really knows why she needs a two story studio, especially since she’s the only one who ever goes in. Although Bobcat did go in there once, he was never seen or heard from again, so most people stay away from there. Many people think she uses it to smuggle people in and out of the Undesirable District, but she’s probably just some grumpy old French lady who doesn’t like people.

The city’s auto rain system just kicked on. Good, the garden needs the water.

Beyond Madame Fish’s studio I can see the fire at the top of the factory pyre. It’s purple, but dim. Mr. Tiger must’ve fallen asleep.

Beyond the factory pyre I can see the chain-link fence that separates us, and beyond that- the Undesirable District. Hopefully on my morning walk I’ll be able to walk the fence again. I know I can’t go into the district, I’m desirable after all, but I’ll bring some food with me just in case I see Drew on the other side. They may have chosen to live there, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to have the simple things in life, like fondue or a chat. I’ll just have to remember to not let them take off their blindfold. Last time I spoke to Drew the guards almost caught us. I had to scale three of those ten foot fences and hide in Bear’s stable with Alberta the cow. She almost pinned me into the corner, but when I gave her the general hand sign of who I was, she sat in the corner of the stall, keeping her ten eyes locked directly onto me while she growled. The Undesirables are a docile people, really, but they’re a little skittish and irritable. Hell, I would be too if I had to get a blindfold welded to my face.

But beyond the Undesirable District, there’s nothing. Beyond the silver gates, there’s no world for those that live down here, and they only open for incoming citizens and the people sent to retrieve them. Few people have left this place, and those who do don’t remember it. It’s said that they only make it past the gate, but we all know that’s not true.

It’s getting late. I can barely see Hawk’s apartment, Bear’s house at the edge of the farming sector is gone. I should probably go to sleep. Mom is supposed to be up in a few hours to wake me. I don’t sleep much these days, so I don’t know why she insists on waking me when I can barely stay asleep.

Maybe I can introduce Drew to Bear and Hawk one day- if I can get them out of their cycle of making out and arguing.

[magicalgirlfumiko]

Just feel like posting one of my short stories set in this blog’s world. 

The Dwindling Flowers chronicles the lives of several young mages that work for the Organisation (The Original Agency). They are magical soldiers called the Flowers to trained to fight evil born from curses of mankind. These people no longer exist to the world. Their memories are wiped clean and their family never knew they ever existed. These mages live solely to protect the balance of the worlds. Why they were chosen to become Flowers, is for the Organisation‘s ears only. The difference between our world and the world of Dwindling Flowers' Organization primarily comes from magic. As such, the 'timeline,' as it were, has diverged in several places. For starters, Nikola Tesla was a celebrated mage scientist until his death in 1945 of natural causes in the Great Magickal War of 1914-1953. His wireless telegraphy system expanded into cordless and cellular phones by 1960, though it was deadened by 1969 after consumers lost confidence in American industry. This brings us to the present day. The Cold War instead ended in 1998 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, after which they lost a special little magical super soldier to the Organisation. The cellphone industry boomed as well. And Provere, France? Well, things are getting a little strange.

Provere City, France 04:50 A.M. 21 Nov. 2013

Judith pushed her hat down over her eyes. The men and women of the Provere police force all knew her, but she was still trying to at least be a little inconspicuous. She walked over the Jeanne d'Arc bridge with purpose, though, as the latest victim of the 'Morpheus' murders still hung below. Her report was that he was hung by a rope of braided human hair.

The victim himself, one Ansolom Broussard, was a simple taxi driver from the eastern district. The slums. He was a heavy-set man, with a family to feed. Someone was going to have to tell them. It wasn't Judith though. She just wanted the details, like the answer why to the fact that his cab was found three miles away abandoned, the ticket still marked. It was warm but dark and humid. A light rain coming down, as typically happened on the nights of these murders. She watched the cops pull the body up, and watched as the coroner and the R.I.S. closed up the scene and sampled the follicles from the noose. The only reason they could tell it was hair in the first place was that whoever did this left some at the top of the bridge. As the R.I.S. worked on the hair samples, she was busy taking pictures of the body. The first picture was the face and neck, showing lacerations and bruising from the noose, as well as an obvious change of angle in the windpipe. Next was the torso, which showed almost no damage except perhaps where it hit the abutment below. A close-up of each hand seemed to show no resistance. Curious. Hardly any scuffing on his shoes either. She went about her business and took pictures of the noose after the R.I.S.had finished sampling. “Thanks, Dion,” she said, smiling wanly. The rain picked up a little bit, a constant drizzle now. She turned to her phone, compiling the messages into a mass text. Constant; Camille; Piper CC: Crime Scene #6 Attached are seven pictures of the victim and the apparent murder weapon. It's definitely connected. Meet me on the Jeanne d'Arc in twenty minutes. That should give us enough time. -J Also, Constant – Leave Katyusha out of this. She didn't have time for petty politics, so she just nipped that in the bud.

"Oo ye yi!" Screamed a young woman with raven hair as her phone buzzed. 

Her name was Camille. She was a mage of Acadian ancestry that had been selected by the Organisation due to her efficiency with French Alchemist tomes and spells upon leaving Quebec to further her mage studies.

Camille had been drinking some warm coffee that just been brewed on the small stove top in her shared apartment with Constant. She nearly jumped out of her clothing when her phone's buzzer went off, causing her fumble around the cramped kitchen to reach for the device. Upon pulling the phone out, it appeared to be rather large and clunky. This technology was one of a newer type of fusion between modern science and magic. 

"Oh god...." She muttered. Her eyes looked drained as she began to study the photographs closely. She always had to deal with the pictures of corpses first since Constantina conventionally seemed to always misplace her phone.

"CONTAST!" Camille yelled as she walked out of the kitchen sideways just to get out of that room and into the shared main common area where both of their beds were.

"The boss w-wants us to be get ready for something...." She then tossed the phone at her partner. "Just look at those p-photos. They are some of the worst in recent memory!"

"S-She also said not to get your girlfriend involved." Camille said this to annoy Constant for not having her phone again.

Constantina, the Greek operative of the Organisation , blinked sleepily. She heard her Quebecian sidekick distantly yell her name. “conSTANT!”

:I told you to stop calling me that...” She thought in her haze. "The boss w-wants to be get ready for something....” 

“Huh? Yeah, she usually did.”. 

“Just look at those p-photos. They are some of the worst in recent memory..." Consti felt the phone hit her smack in the stomach, and she opened her eyes. Seriously. What now? Their cramped barrack room was stuffy with the odd heat.

Yawning, she sat up, phone still on her stomach. "S-She also said not to get your girlfriend involved." 

Damn it! Stop calling her that! “Shut up about Katyusha! She's not my girlfriend!” Of course, that got Constantina fired up. It always did. The absolute loathing she had for that woman... But in the end, didn't she want to be just like her? Eyes still half glazed with sleep, she picked up the phone and scrolled through the pictures. “Huh. This is bad. Not the worst I've ever seen, but pretty terrible.” 

She rolled out of bed, grabbing yesterday's gear to slip it back on. It wasn't dirty, she had only worn it for a meeting with Judith. Of course, she mimicked Katyusha's deadpan. It really wasn't THAT bad, and even though you never really get used to seeing a corpse, she had to seem strong for her partner.  After she got dressed, she stole a cup of Camille's coffee. She didn't even like the stuff, but she needed caffeine desperately. “Hey, Cami, can you help me find my phone?” She tripped over it the next moment. “Never mind...” Katyusha will not be involved. Ever. Thanks. She shot Judith a text.

Camille cocked an eyebrow at the half awake Constantina. "R-Really? With how much you complain about that Soviet, I would think you secretly harbor a deep caring for her." Once again she continued to egg Constant on. 

Camille understood why Constantina wished to be well respected like that Russian. Katyusha was a force to be reckoned with. Whenever Camille came across her, she kept her distance. "O-Okay, maybe they aren't the worst photographs ever." Camille sighed. "I just don't like always having to be the first ones that see them. You're the scout, I'm the backup...What happens if I am not there to do the research for you?" "Hey!!! My coffee..." Camille sighed. Once again, her small pot was swiped. It seemed that after this meeting, she would have to go to the cafe for tea. Ten minutes later, Constantina and Camille stepped out into the street. The weather was unnaturally warm for November. It was 21 degrees Celsius, rainy and humid as hell. 

“This is going to do wonders to my hair,” Consti thought almost absentmindedly. She pushed her hood over her head, both to protect her hair and to attempt to hide her sword. Her favorite camera was tucked safely in its waterproof bag, so she didn't have to worry about that.But... this case. 

Why were the Flowers being put on it? She had to admit that the bit about the hair was weird - and awful. But, really? Most of their cases were much more... odd. Much more bloody, too, like the case of the bull spirit. It gored seventeen people in one night before it was put down. 

That was a Katyusha case though. She helped, what little she could, but... damn it. She really had to stop thinking about that Russian reject.“

Hey, you think we should hail a cab? Or just take the truck?” That was always the difficult part. Sometimes a cab was helpful because they never, ever listened to traffic laws, but at the same time, hiding a sword on her back was way harder. Stupid time of year for her to be taking lead on a case. 

Was she ready?---The girls were late, again. Judith realized they were just waking up, most of them anyway. This scene was getting colder, however, and Constantina knew better. The coroner was packing the body away, taking it to the morgue for the autopsy. If this was anything like the last murder, they'd find his stomach filled with hair as well.She fired off another text to the girls.You're late.

Again.She didn't really think she needed to expound on that, Constantina knew it was for her. You're supposed to be leading these girls, Constant, not teaching them how to be lazy. Oh, well, she would give her a new ass later.

"Do you have enough money to take a cab?" Camille asked Constant.

If there was a constant theme for Constantina and Camille was that money between them was always short. Camille was constantly buying random old objects and texts to add to her collection. The older an item was, the more likely that it could have hidden potential magic.

"Then again...I am not sure if I trust you with driving the unit's truck...Ever since the Cheval Mallet incident, I-I still have flashbacks to when you used it to ram that otherworldly horse into the depths of the sea." Camille said.

She then hugged her book bag that contained her spell book. Sometimes it was hard to tell if she was actually friends with Constantina or one of her biggest critics.

“That horse was kidnapping people, so I hit it with the truck. Sue me,” was Consti's retort. 

“Anyway, I suppose you can drive - if you get the lead out.” 

Cheval Mallet was supposedly folklore, but with the history of the Flowers, and even what each girl could do... Not everything is as fake as people think.

They hit the road a few minutes later, air conditioning blaring. Constantina was extremely tempted to kick Camille out of the driver's seat. People were passing them as though they were standing still. Cautious was understandable, especially after the Cheval Mallet incident—the horse didn't even die, apparently—but this was ridiculous. “Hey, Camille, I thought we agreed for you to step on it!” she repeated often.

"I am doing the speed limit. If we go over it, we'll get noticed." She stated.

An orange horizon greeted them by the time they actually reached the Jeanne d'Arc. Twenty minutes their collective asses, it was now 6:10, and Judith was clearly heated. Consti swallowed the lump in her throat. Damn...

“Constantina,” boss lady really didn't waste time on ripping her a new one. “Do you have ANY idea what twenty minutes mean?”

Again, she swallowed. One of the few things she truly hated—other than Katyusha—was getting in trouble with Judith. It always started with the dress-down, but her disapproval lasted so much longer. “Yes, Judith, I know what twenty minutes meant.”

“I suppose you have an excuse?”

How about I don't know how you're going to make a forty minute drive in twenty, including dress time? “No. I don't.” 

Even with her Mediterranean heritage, she suddenly felt like it was 130 degrees with enough humidity you couldn't towel dry. Judith at least seemed satisfied with her answer because she immediately wheeled on her for something else. In this case, she was not wearing the regulation uniform.

“You do realize we have a dress code?”

 After she parked the car, finally Camille slowly got herself ready. Judith seemed to know that this bookworm took her time, it was just a part of her duty as the magus of the group. Camille then adjusted her cap, so that it was squared more on her head. She then got out of the truck and slung her heavy side bag over her body.

"I apologize, Commissar." Camille said. "I'll make sure to go a bit faster with the truck. I don't trust it that much. A-Anyways, outside of lax uniform wear...What would like to discuss with us?"

Judith paused her tirade for a moment, studying the girls. Camille was attentive, always listening and taking criticism with the astute purpose of bettering herself, other than when it came to her driving. She was like that to a fault, often backing down when she should be getting angry and stepping up to the plate.

Constantina wanted so badly to be like Katyusha, going so far as to hate her. But in reality, she might be strong – and decent with her sword – but it was her words that made her useful. A real crowd pleaser, easily placating the masses in a situation like this.

“Constantina. Lead these girls like you're supposed to. If you can drive faster than Camille, do so. Get here when you're supposed to. Learn to sleep lightly, as you should have been the first one awake.

Pacing across from them, she considered what was actually important. The body, the man hung up by ropes made of human hair. And hair that defied science.

“Anyways, here's the situation. This is the sixth such murder in the last three months, spaced exactly two weeks apart. Positive ID on all of the victims. The first four were Jack the Ripper style murders, all of them prostitutes out of the red light district. The last two, a businessman and this cab driver, while a-typical, mimic murders that happened over a hundred years ago, and a hundred more than that. Pattern also stands that there are four more victims. One an officer of justice, so keep an eye out for that. Do you two have any real questions about this?”

"Is it possible for me to get a piece of the hair?" Camille asked quickly. "I-I mean, before the Agency’s researchers get their hands on it. My tomes might be able to sense something about what we're dealing with. If what you are saying is fact...That there have been historical accounts going back several hundred years...We can pinpoint a common thread. Maybe...Constantina and I can work together on some scouting out clues once I connect the dots?" She knew it was going to be a long shot. The Agency always got its hands on the supernatural before the local cops or civilians could make answers out of it. The simple answer was that it never happened or it was mass hysteria.

For once, Judith lacked the forethought to utilize a Flower's magic. It wasn't that it never happened, but it wasn't often, for sure. Quickly, she scanned the bridge, looking to see if anything had been untouched. She sighed. “I'm sure we'll find something for you to use.” Clearly, Judith was having an off day.

Jack the Ripper... Still alive after a century and a half. Why was the Agency so sure it was him? It could be any number of monstrous people. This wasn't even his modus operandi.

The braid! She'd kept the braid the killer had used as a noose. She'd hid that from the Agency’s Forensic Team to show the girls just what kind of monster they were up against. “We do have the noose that was used.”