#indirectly but still relevant

[truckstoptigers]

man it Sucks to constantly be grieving for the child/person you could've been, but will never be

[adhdo5]

Oh fuck OFF Gender Is No Object is not zigzagged it's just fucking not true!!!! The fact that there are female cultivators and we hear about a female clan leader one time does not somehow mean that they dgaf about gender in the jianghu when

There is a deeply plot relevant fucking arranged marriage

Mianmian is constantly facing direct onscreen misogyny including misogyny used to delegitimize her

Wei Wuxian (and others, but her most notably given how much time we spend with her) is constantly saying internalized and externalized gender essentialist stuff

Mo Xuanyu/"Mo Xuanyu" is constantly specifically degraded for being a cutsleeve

Internalized homophobia central with WWX and LWJ

Not one but THREE characters (arguably 4 if you found Wang Lingjiao for this!) are wives of sect leaders whose decisions and motivations are informed by the fact that that's a position of power yes but one with extremely restrictive expectations and one that is directly and unquestionably subordinate to their husband

One of the primary antagonists is a serial rapist And his systemic power over women (especially poor women and sex workers) is literally a central defining factor of one of the main character's motives

THIS IS ALL DIRECTLY FUCKING RELEVANT AND ESSENTIAL TO THE PLOT AND THEMES

NEXT BITCH WHO TRIES TO SAY THERE'S NO GENDER POLITICS IN MDZS GETS THE BLENDER. INTO THE BLENDER YOU GO.

[shizdrone]

realised that as all of my irl friends fear me in tabletop games. even after all of this time, i am still successfully following in shizune's footsteps. next comes getting them into risk. australia will be mine

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

MAJOR spoilers for doc’s vod under the cut

as you know, doc’s skyblock banishment stipulates that his feet cannot touch the ground, or one week will be added to his sentence.

this is relevant

in his latest vod, pearl shows up to doc’s skyblock base and explains that she wants to do a hermit tour for her flower shop.

doc is understandably confused since he can’t touch the ground

pearl points out a llama she brought and says that doc wouldn’t be touching the ground if he was riding it.

doc is VERY suspicious about her motives, and so is chat

pearl demands to know what warrants his distrust

“it’s always the innocent-looking ones” doc says wisely

but anyway

pearl bribes doc with golden carrots and he eventually water pillars to the ground and onto the llama.

pearl reassures him the whole way while doc makes incoherent panicked noises.

pearl reminds doc to NOT press shift

doc is too busy panicking to listen to pearl when they’re touring the shop.

except for one bit she did with fireworks which he is moderately impressed by

anyway, he spots an ender chest, and pearl agrees to give him two seconds to grab anything.

doc takes the “that’s amazing!” horn, and is pulled away by pearl before he can take more.

and here’s the punchline:

eventually pearl brings doc back after he freaks out a bit more, and as she leads the llama out the entrance, doc desperately reaches for the ender chest to try and grab more useful stuff

in doing so he accidentally presses shift

…and GETS OFF the llama

his feet are definitively planted on the shop steps

pearl stares at him in horror

he starts swearing and jumping around and calling everything stupid

once he’s done he grumpily gets back on the llama and a very apologetic pearl leads him back

then:

just as they’re leaving the shop

like not ten seconds after the shift incident

a creeper comes out of nowhere and kills him.

it’s literally the middle of the day. this man cannot stop losing

false says “gg” in chat, and pearl a “D:”

this time doc explodes a bit more, much like the creeper

he respawns in his base and drops an f-bomb. he is absolutely beside himself

the aftermath:

pearl comes back with his gear. she is very sorry about the whole thing

doc plays the “that’s amazing!” horn with a sardonic chuckle

“that’s not amazing” pearl responds miserably. probably the first time she’s said no to gem even if indirectly

pearl offers to give him anything he wants, and doc requests a moss block

she leaves to get it and doc sulks a bit more before someone in chat points out to him that he didn’t touch the ground: he touched the steps of pearl’s shop

which is what i was thinking too

anyway doc is jubilant at this realisation and yells “LOOPHOLE” a few times

pearl returns with the moss

she still feels bad but threatens doc not to sue her

doc tells her it’s cool

he’s confident that the loophole means he doesn’t get an extra week

pearl spews a few more apologies before leaving

the moment she leaves doc rubs his hands together like a cartoon villain and says “the whining strat works”

doc i don’t think that was a strat

and for reading all this way:

not very funny but i can’t beat the comedy of doc coping for five solid minutes and the entire premise of pearl risking the wrath of hermitcraft’s judicial system and doc’s sanity to show off her interior design.

[captainreecejames]

X2CU - LH44 SMAU

tagline : if he cheats, get with his idol.

pairing : Lewis Hamilton x FEM!reader

faceclaim : Shay Mitchell

warnings : as always, terrible men and language

your messages ----------

twitter ----------

ynusername posted --------

liked by carmenmmundt and others

ynusername in new york #tommyhilfiger

(load more comments)

username26 step on me please

username37 God please make me half as pretty as her

username82 need Mick Schumacher to comment on this post ↳ username83 wait did you see mickschumy's tweets? ↳ username82 YES, need him to come through

username19 not me being delulu thinking that Carmen is gonna set this all in motion for us just cause she liked it ↳ username20 I'll be delulu too!

lailahasanovic I'm in awe 😍😍 ↳ ynusername babe thank you!!

username19 NOPE WE'VE GOT TWO WAG INTERACTIONS IT'S COMING TRUE

liamsfriend gross ↳ bsfinstagram lol not Liam trying to stay relevant 😭

your messages --------

ynusername posted ---------

liked by georgerussell63 and others

ynusername 🧳

(load more comments)

username94 they had to have seen that thread!!

username45 that's a mercedes, she's just teasing us 😭

username74 yn babe, please give us more!!!

username15 George liked I'm convinced it's happening

liamsfriend2 you're shit ↳ username11 everyone point and laugh!!! 🫵🤣 ↳ username62 🫵🤣🤣 ↳ username74 🫵🤣🤣🤣 ↳ mickshumacher 🤣🤣🤣🫵🫵 (this comment has been deleted) ↳ username71 NO MICK DONT DELETE IT

username45 Mick is now the number one Liam hater hahahah ↳ bsfinstagram no he's not 🤨 ↳ username45 omg sorry bsf/n you're right ↳ bsfinstagram it's okay girlie

roscoelovescoco cans I's gets a rides? ↳ ynusername ofc roscoe!! let me know time and place

username10 no fucking way lewis is gonna use roscoe on yn's post ↳ bsfinstagram shush he's shy ↳ username10 NOOOO lewis don't let her violate you like this lewis_hamilton

lewis_hamilton come to our garage!

Mick's messages --------- your messages ------

ynusername posted --------

liked by roscoelovescoco and others

ynusername oh to be wined and dined

(load more comments)

bsfinstagram and who's doing the wining and dining? ↳ ynusername me duhhh, I got that CEO money

username23 yn said i'm the money maker here ��� ynusername he does make more than me but I can spoil a man sometimes

username12 THIS HAS TO BE LEWIS PLS CONFIRM bsfinstagram ↳ bsfinstagram i can't

georgerussell63 what a lovely restaurant, looks so cozy and also like it has vegan options ↳ username13 George!!!! share what you know ynusername he knows nothing ↳ georgerussell63 I am stupid ↳ username14 not the charles ref ↳ charles_leclerc mate why bring me into this ↳ georgerussell63 you need to help your future teammate if you love him so much ↳ carlossainz55 yeah!

username15 george and charles indirectly confirming this is lewis with those comments ↳ username16 as they should

lewis_hamilton you look very beautiful ↳ ynusername 🫶🏼🫶🏼

username17 when he cheats on you get with his idol ↳ liamsfriend3 I don't idolize lewis, max is clearly better ↳ username17 lmao still stalking her with your friends account this is pathetic ↳ maxverstappen33 and i don't want your shitty support ↳ username17 NOOOO MAX

bsfinstagram max i was unfamiliar with your game ↳ maxverstappen33 I'm not a total monster

[pond-froggie]

When Ford was living in the shack alone, he came across a creature that towered over him with lanky limbs, protruding bones, and antlers coming out of its skull. He of course dedicated a page to it in his journal. He realized the creature was trying to communicate with him but he was never able to understand what it was trying to say. He then kept discovering other anomalies and moved on from it. 

However, it would knock on his windows and door and be especially persistent when it was raining. It always followed Ford around whenever he was in the forest, indirectly chasing off other creatures. He got fed up with it keeping him awake at night so he set traps, nothing to hurt it but just to get it suck in a way that it can get out on its own so it stays away. And it works. Ford only ever saw it in the corner of his eye. Ford then meets Bill, builds the portal, realizes he made a mistake, Stan comes, Ford goes through the portal. 

Stan has journal one which he can't fix the portal with on its own so he goes searching in the forest for the other journals. He can't find them. He breaks down and yells and sits in the middle of the forest and cries where no one can hear him. Or so he thinks. 

He somehow hears rustling of leaves through his sobbing and he looks up from his hands and finds a beast towering over him. His breath catches in his throat and he tries to scramble away but he's too shaky from his breakdown. 

The beast looks at him curiously before going down on all fours and showing its neck. That seems to calm Stan down. He thought that all the weird creatures in the journal were just some form of creative expression but he remembered seeing something like this. 

Stan pulled the journal out and flipped through it eventually finding the page. He showed the creature, feeling silly for a second until it nodded and pointed to itself. The creature slowly reached towards Stan, closing the journal before pointing to the six fingered hand on the cover then to Stan's five fingered hand and making a confused trill. 

“Ohhh buddy, you're not going to believe this.” 

Turns out he did believe it. 

Stan explained everything, the creature looked sad but not all too shocked. Stan asked if it was close to Ford. The creature made a pained grunt and showed him with leaves. 

It took one red leaf and had it move around from leaf to leaf before stopping at a leaf with a pebble on it. The red leaf moved away from it but the leaf with the pebble followed. The creature made angry grunts and growls before leaving the leaf with the pebble behind again but the leaf with the pebble still followed, just out of sight. 

“That makes two of us… Wait! So you know where the other journals are!” 

The creature nodded. 

“I need them to fix the portal. Can you show me where they are?” 

The sun had set by the time Stan had all three journals in his possession. He rushed back to the cabin but stopped at the door, looking back at the creature standing just at the edge of the treeline. 

“We’ll talk more tomorrow, I promise.”

The next day, Stan found him in the clearing behind the cabin. He brought along the three journals, books he thought might be relevant, and notebooks that were filled with Fords equations. He plopped it all on the ground and threw himself down along with it.

“Buddy, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm never going to get him out of there. I never even graduated highschool, how the hell am I supposed to understand all this?” Stan pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes till spots formed. 

Stan listened to the papers rustling and figured there was no harm in letting the creature look. He then felt a tap on his shoulder. He pulled his hands from his eyes and looked up at him. 

“What.”

The creature tapped his finger against the pages so Stan looked. He pointed to different topics in the textbook then to different equations and sections in the portal drawings. 

“You saw him do all this?” 

The creature shook his head. He pointed to himself, then to his head, then to the pages. 

“You KNOW this stuff!” 

He made a ‘so so’ hand gesture.

Stan's excitement slid off his face and was replaced with sadness. 

“You weren't always like this, were you?”

The creature shook his head sadly. 

“Is there a way I can cure you?”

The creature's eyes went wide before he nodded. 

Stan pushed the pencil and paper towards the creature but he just shook his head. After some back and forth they figured out a communication method. It was slow, but worked. The creature would point to words in all the books and Stan would figure out what he was trying to say from that. 

The cure was simple. Gnome spit, fairy dust, unicorn snot, and manotaur sweat. Mix together and wipe it on his forehead. 

Yeah… Simple.

The gnomes were more than happy to give some spit if it meant getting the creature out of their forest. They also gave a discount on fairy dust for the price of one pb&j. Stan found the unicorns and started insulting the mane of the first one he saw, making it cry. He watched the Manotaurs for a while and his first plan was to challenge one to arm wrestle until he saw one snap a small tree like a twig. So he challenged them to stand on hot coals. Good thing they aren't well acclimated to humans and dont know that human feet don't look like Ford's temperature proof boots. 

Stan hiked back down to the cabin and gathered all the ingredients together. 

“You better be a cute human.” Stan groaned, glaring up at the beast most only have nightmares about currently sitting and grinning like a dog about to get a treat. 

He smeared it across his forehead and nothing happened for a few seconds until he collapsed on the ground and started writhing in pain. Stan watched as his bones contorted and skin grew in places where there wasn't before, but where there was supposed to be. 

He was turning human. 

After an agonizing minute of Stan listening to the pained growls turn into groans and yells into words and pants, a human is left lying on the ground. He holds his hands in front of him and stares at them, smiling. 

“Ugh, spit, snot, ‘n sweat? Really?!” The man wipes the mixture off his forehead. “Thank you Stanley.” He smiles up at him. 

“Uh, yeah, ‘course.” Stan rubs the back of his neck. The two smile at each other for a little bit before the man startles out of it. 

“Oh! I’m sure you have questions and now that I can talk, I’d be glad to answer them.” 

“What about your name?” 

“Oh good golly how could I forget. Fiddleford McGucket.”

“Well Fidds, how about you get settled and some real food in you that isn’t whatever you were eating out there, and then we can get to the questions.” Stan gestures to the cabin behind him. 

“That would be nice.”

When they manage to get Ford out he asks Fiddleford who he is. He grabs the journal and opens to his page and explains the curse. 

“Im surprised someone like Stanley could figure out how to communicate with you.”

“I opened the portal once to get you out, I could open it again to shove you back in, again. And I know how you treated Fidds when he was cursed, you were too stupid to see he was trying to talk to you.”

“I had more important things to work on. Besides, I would have gotten it eventually.”

“Ya barely even tried…”

~~~~~

LORE

Fiddleford told his wife he wanted a divorce and she conveniently has a witch friend that she got to place a curse on him. He wasn't able to make the cure himself or be there when the ingredients were collected. When he was cursed, he was told how to make the cure and its impossible for him to forget it. He was unable to talk or write. As for how he got to Gravity Falls… something something weirdness magnet- I don't know. 

[bomber-grl]

Leo Valdez x Child of Poseidon 🌊🐚

Pairing(s): Leo Valdez x Gn!reader

Is scared, literally.

The first time he met a child of Poseidon was by being yelled at because he was possessed and accidentally shot at camp Jupiter

Not to mention how intimidating Percy is so ofc Leo is a bit reluctant to talk to you

I mean, because of Percy being part of the 7 you end up being around and a convo between you and Leo is inevitable

Eventually after much talking and hanging around you two quickly grew closer and it’d probably be because Leo thinks you’re literally the most hilarious person on this planet

Ofc he was also intimidated by you but now it was mostly because of how attractive you are

So finally when you and Leo are just chilling, it was after a bonfire and you two began walking by the lake before you both had to go to bed

He ceased the opportunity and decided to confess, even if you didn’t like him it’s not like he would be surprised

But then you told him that you like him too

Which, that surprises him

Anyways once you start dating Percy is probably protective of you

I mean you’ve been by him and helped him out plus your his sibling so ofc he’s gonna be protective

Butttt if he sees Leo and you being happy then he’s happy too

Ok ok so we all know about Percy and Annabeths underwater kiss and whatnot

And somehow it’s stayed relevant (ofc it has its percabeth)

So Leo, his dumbass waits for your first kiss to be as romantic as that and once he gets impatient he brings it up as indirectly as he can

Ofc u catch on and call him dumb and he gets a bit depressed but what he doesn’t know is that you’ve been thinking the exact same thing

Ofc your first kiss wasn’t perfect and was a result of a failed capture the flag as u flew into the lake but when you grabbed Leo and created an air bubble he knew what he had to do

And then you guys kissed

Onto the actual things that involve your powers-

He’s so in awe like if he was still struggling with his self confidence he’d been jealous or compare himself but you continue to surprise him

I mean, ofc he knows you can breathe underwater and stuff and he asks the most stupid questions in response to finding out more things about you.

He literally asked if you ever played mermaid before and if you wanna play-

Honestly real but that’s not the point

Leo also is absolutely shocked that you can talk to horses

After he finds out he initially just thinks about how cool that is

I mean it’s giving Disney princess but hey, still cool right?

Well eventually he starts calling u a horse girl (despite ur gender) and he just makes fun

Like bro, if you wanted to you could literally obliterate him, he CANNOT be talking rn

Still even when Leo is being weird and makes the strangest jokes just to tease he’s still so sweet

Especially since he knows if he don’t treat you right he’s at risk but still

Since you’re rlly strong compared to him he feels really protected and if you let him protect him too then he’s one happy guy

[haladriel]

On Sauron and the Subjective Experience of Love

One of the biggest topics I’ve seen in recent Rings of Power discourse is whether Sauron is capable of love. And it’s one hell of a thing to grapple. But I’ll give it a go.

Some have used Tolkien’s letters to argue that because Sauron is not ‘fully evil’ by Tolkien’s own definition, this indicates he is therefore capable of love. I argue it’s more complex than that, because Sauron is more complex than that. In two of Tolkien’s most relevant passages, ‘love’ is not mentioned, but a lot of other things are:

Some reviewers have called the whole thing [The Lord of the Rings] simple-minded, just a plain fight between Good and Evil, with all the good just good, and the bad just bad. Pardonable, perhaps (though at least Boromir has been overlooked) in people in a hurry, and with only a fragment to read, and, of course, without the earlier written but unpublished Elvish histories ... But in any case this is a tale about a war, and if war is allowed (at least as a topic and a setting) it is not much good complaining that all the people on one side are against those on the other. Not that I have made even this issue quite so simple: there are Saruman, and Denethor, and Boromir; and there are treacheries and strife even among the Orcs. — Letter 154

Similarly, good actions by those on the wrong side will not justify their cause. There may be deeds on the wrong side of heroic courage, or some of a higher moral level: deeds of mercy and forbearance. A judge may accord them honour and rejoice to see how some men can rise above the hate and anger of a conflict; even as he may deplore the evil deeds on the right side and be grieved to see how hatred once provoked can drag them down. But this will not alter his judgement as to which side was in the right, nor his assignment of the primary blame for all the evil that followed to the other side. In my story I do not deal in Absolute Evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being' is wholly evil. Satan fell. In my myth Morgoth fell before Creation of the physical world. In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants: beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit. — Letter 183

What Tolkien gives in these letters is his perspective on is ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and being on one (he argues, indisputably ‘good’) side or the other (indisputably ‘bad’). I would say that the internal experience of love has nothing to do with any of these things.

To argue the point of whether Sauron can love using these letters alone, a false equivalence has to be drawn between an ability to ‘love’ and being ‘morally good’; and, it follows, an inability to love with being ‘morally evil’. To indirectly quote the letters, ‘good’ in Tolkien isn’t defined by love between one another, but rather by how people share a set of ‘good’ values. One can do ‘good’ without loving the subject of that good deed. I could be ambivalent to the person living down the road, and might not ever talk to them, but still give them my coat when they are in need, because it’s the right thing to do. 

The opposite is also true; one can do ‘evil’, hold and act upon ‘evil’ values, and still feel love, as defined by one’s own experiences. Because love as an emotion (not a dictionary entry) is not one defined feeling or concept, but is subjective; informed by past events, and unique to the person. Taking societal judgement out of the equation, an individual will act in ‘evil’ ways while loving the person involved, or indeed another person elsewhere. That feeling, and even any associated actions, is ‘love’, for the individual; only when cross-examined by society and its values is it challengeable according to the widely understood definitions of what it means ‘to love’, and any double standards the person might be exhibiting.

So, when considering whether Sauron can or cannot love, it depends on your frame of reference.

Using Tolkien’s societal lens, which is fairly rigid in defining ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ based on how society judges someone's whole, once Sauron has ‘fallen’, by the moral standards of the society around him (which as it happens is a mirror for Tolkien’s), no, he does not appear to be able to ‘love’, not in the way many viewers and readers will understand the word. Not in the way that (for example) Melian, another Maia, loves Elwë— wholly, purely, and selflessly. But with a psychological lens, which allows a deeper look at him as a character: Sauron may believe he can love, and that love is a fitting word for what he experiences concerning Galadriel — just as he wants to ‘order all things according to his own wisdom’, he will interpret his feelings according to the terrain of his own experiences. Which are warped and scarred and wounded. His frame of reference is skewed; as much is shown in the confessions he makes to Celebrimbor, and the contradictory ways he treats him. But he is so far gone he is no longer aware of this difference. Because in another society (Morgoth’s), his definition of ‘love’, what he has been taught is love, might be the norm.

Putting oneself in Sauron’s shoes, as he invites Celebrimbor, is to imagine being a lesser god tortured at the hands of Morgoth. Potentially deceived, potentially manipulated; potentially groomed by someone more powerful than he; potentially abandoned by his creators, his parent figures. He is a character full of conflicts and self-delusions that (suggested through a combination of dialogue and action) originate in trauma. It follows that his is not a wholesome or simple love that one might be tempted to associate with ‘good’, because he has not been loved wholly, or simply.

Meanwhile, Galadriel, herself having been through the psychoemotional wars, arguably has found herself connecting with a Janus; a god with two (or indeed more) faces, who has no true sense of self (‘I have many names’); and is coming to terms with how much of that was her attraction (of any kind) to noble and humbled Halbrand, and how much was to passionate, clever, jaded Sauron; if the two can be separated at all. And with whether she herself has a coltishly reckless saviour complex, or, conversely, needs Halbrand to redeem her, or both.

All of this, for both Sauron and Galadriel, involves intense emotions. And when you’re encountering one another as a reflection on the surface of the water, it’s hard to know which feelings are which.

[yourobedientserpent]

Athelind Long's Superhero Chronology

Cross-Published from my Blogspot blog, Kirby Dots & Ditko Ribbons. INTRODUCTION  There's a tendency to divide the different eras of comic book superheroes into "Golden," "Silver", and "Modern," with occasional, tentative attempts to parcel off the Bronze Age, as well.

Let's just say that this lacks nuance. The Superhero Genre has gone through a lot of trends and phases and distinctive cultures over the years, and lumping almost half of its history into some concept of "The Modern Age" is just phoning it in. 

Some notes: 

This is not quite the same as the ages of COMICS, though there's similar nomenclature, largely because comics history tends to focus on the superhero genre even when it tries not to. This is about SUPERHEROES, in more than just a single medium; the "Ages" only indirectly impact other genres. 

All dates are approximate. 

There's plenty of overlap between Silver/Bronze, Bronze/Iron, and Iron/Aluminum, but when I started looking a keystone events, I was astonished by how neatly everything fell into 15-year chunks! 

THE CHRONOLOGY

Prelude (1830s-1938): The dawn of mass-produced popular culture: penny dreadfuls, dime novels, pulp magazines, newspaper comic strips. Folk heroes and detectives start sharing the pages with costumed adventurers, some with peak-human or superhuman abilities. Professor Challenger, Sherlock Holmes, The Nyctalope, The Shadow, Doc Savage. 

Golden Age (1938-1953): Begins with Superman, of course; ends with Post-War Superhero Implosion and Frederic Wertham's anti-comics crusade. The JSA stopped appearing in All-Star Comics in 1951. Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel in 1953. 

Interregnum (1950ish-1960ish): A lot of historians make much of the gap between the Golden and Silver Ages, but, in retrospect, it's surprisingly brief. Superheroes never really go away, but they are de-emphasized in favor of other genres in comics, including horror, romance, and science fiction. Even at DC, other than Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, superheroes are relegated to back-up stories in anthology titles. Still, The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves remained popular throughout this period. 

Silver Age (1954-1970): The Reign of the Comics Code Authority (est. 1954). Really starts to roll with the demise of EC Comics and the reboot of The Flash; peaks with the "camp" craze popularized by the 1966 Batman TV series; ends when Kirby Moves to DC and Marvel publishes the Spider-Man Drug Stories without the Code Stamp. Early on, formerly-anonymous creators start getting openly credited on the title pages of their stories; this starts at Marvel, but DC eventually follows suit. 

Bronze Age (1971-1985): Begins with O'Neil and Adams revamping Batman and Green Lantern; Ends with the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Both DC and Marvel start paying closer attention to continuity and "relevance", and the most successful titles are the ones that most fully embrace an ongoing serial storyline (Legion of Super-Heroes, X-Men, The New Teen Titans). The specialty comic book shop starts becoming more common at the beginning of the era, and the closing years of the era herald a growing Creator's Rights movement, the birth of the Direct Market -- and the dawn of the independent publishers. 

Iron Age (1986-2000): Begins with Deconstruction: Elementals, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and the Wild Cards "mosaic novel" series. Ends with Reconstruction: Morrison's JLA, among others. Dominated by a determined effort to Take Superhero Comics Seriously. The Big Two kill off or "reinvent" goofy, campy Silver Age characters. DC tries very hard to bring coherency and consistency to its new, Post-Crisis timeline. Several independent publishers try cold-starting superhero "universes" of their own; most of them fail, but a lucky few manage to sell their characters to the Big Two (Ultraverse, Wildstorm). 

Aluminum Age (2000-2015): When Everything is Recycled. Marvel starts the Ultimate Universe. DC resurrects Silver Age characters who got killed off in the Bronze and Iron Age. The Comics Code finally dies in 2011. DC does a succession of "sequels" to Crisis on Infinite Earths: Identity Crisis (2004), Infinite Crisis (2005-2006), and the deceptively-named Final Crisis (2008), culminating in another Hard Reboot with the New 52 in 2011. Marvel does its own version of Crisis with the Multiverse Incursion story arc in New Avengers from 2013-2015. "Decompression" and "writing for the trade" become common as trade-paperback collections become more economically important than the traditional monthly comic magazines ("floppies"). 

Digital Age (2015-Current): Superhero not only become mainstream, but actually dominate movies and TV for several years -- this starts in the Aluminum Age, with the MCU in 2008, but is solidly codified by the debut of Arrow in 2015 and an explosion of weekly prime-time superhero shows that lasts almost a decade.

Comments are welcome, but be civil! This is intended to provoke conversations, not fights.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi. I have OCD (and various other mental illnesses) and have a character who has OCD. However, this character lives in a setting with aliens who are basically psychic with extra steps (they communicate via electromagnetic fields and can identify and interact with humans brain's electrical impulses.) What I'm wondering is should I make it so these aliens can like, easily distinguish some types of neurodiversity. i.e. they can easily recognize OCD character because his thought/brain patterns are more "repetitive?"

Personally I'm very torn on this. On one hand it feels validating because like a sort of "proof" that the difference is there and to ignore it is foolish. But at the same time it feels reductive to be, even indirectly, identified primarily by disability.

Possibly relevant, I don't think all neurodiversity should be easily identifiable by this species. Like I don't think autism could be identified (too much variation) but maybe something like DID could (parts of the brain field are somewhat "segregated")

Thank you for your ask! I think if the aliens have had contact with humans (or similar alien species) before, they might have some knowledge on what conditions are associated with certain thought patterns. If the aliens haven’t specifically spoken to humans on the matter they might make their own classifications which would probably look a lot different than ours (especially with how wide symptoms vary in one condition and how many symptoms overlap in so many conditions).

Your character doesn’t have to be only identified by their OCD, that may be what stands out at first to the aliens but if your character is well rounded they can be identified by their other traits. For example, when you first meet someone you might think of them as ‘the person with the interesting fashion sense,’ but as time goes on and you learn more about them you associate them with more traits.

Have a nice day!

Mod Rot

Hi!

I think that it's an interesting idea! I feel that it would make sense for an alien psychic creature to recognize that there are some "thinking patterns" that some humans sometimes have. As an example, I can see how they would pick up that certain people have a very specific Pure O pattern just from psychic-ing various people.

Depending on if/how the topic of mental health/neurodiversity exists in the alien society, they might not even necessarily consider it as such. If they don't recognize the pattern as a disorder, they might just think of it as a type of thinking that humans just have, like how they can perceive that some humans have brown hair while others are redheads (while readers would probably pick up on what is implied if they know anything about OCD). The alien aspect gives you a lot of possibilities!

As someone with OCD, I don't see it as "reducing" at all. It's true that his thoughts happen in a different manner than most peoples', but there's still content in them, right? His OCD is just affecting them, which is just how that works. The only exception here is that his OCD process itself is a part of the story - unless you decided to put his entire character's focus on how Weird and Exotic that is, you should be perfectly fine. I think it's an interesting part of worldbuilding to add!

If you are really worried about him being "identifiable" by his OCD, you can always make it so that different OCD types are seen as distinct (or, from an alien's perspective, perhaps even unrelated). For example, someone who's thought process is occupied with visual intrusive thoughts, versus one who is mainly having a specific compulsion-obsession pattern over and over, etc. - this will show OCD as the wide range that it is, and definitely not as "a label" that someone could just be instantly identified with. You can also make sure to show that every person's thought patterns are different to some degree (even if they're as neurotypical as it's humanly possible), and perhaps those with OCD's patterns are just hyperspecific enough to be recognized as more different; a "genre" of thought patterns of sorts. Because at the end of the day, they will also be people who don't have OCD who might share a few of these "OCD patterns" (and who don't fully get read as having it, maybe as adjacent at best), as well as two people who do have it and whose brain patterns don't match at any point, who still do get read as having OCD despite all that. It's a spectrum, afterall, so the brain patterns would be too!

I think that if you have OCD yourself, you can do basically anything you want with this. As I said, you have an interesting concept that you can tackle from a bunch of different angles, and I would love to see a take on it by an author with OCD! :-)

mod Sasza

[writingquestionsanswered]

Guide: Natural Character Arcs

Anonymous asked: My MC will have a "not my circus, not my monkeys"- behavior, but I want her to slowly want to help peopel as she gets more powerful throughout the series and eventually grows into her role as protector of the people. I want to give her natural character growth without it seeming "out of nowhere" or "out of character" since it will be a total 180 from the start of everything. Do you have any tips for the natural transition in character development that is drastically different from the start?

(Ask edited for length...)

Having a character do a complete but natural 180 between the beginning and end of the story is what's called a "character arc."

Here are the steps in creating a natural character arc:

1 - Understand the Internal Conflict - Stories are either plot-driven (centered on an external conflict/problem in the character's world), character-driven (centered on an internal conflict/problem in the character's self), or a combination of both. Character arc occurs in stories that are character-driven or both plot and character-driven, mainly in the protagonist and other important main characters. It's this problem in the character's self that causes who they are in the beginning of the story, and it's this problem that they must resolve in order to change by the end.

2 - Choose a Relevant Internal Conflict - Your protagonist needs to have an internal conflict that is relevant to the story events. If your story is entirely character-driven, the character arc is the whole story. The events of the story should naturally stem from your character's journey to resolve their internal conflict. If your story is partially plot-driven, the internal conflict should tie into the external conflict in some way. Both conflicts should stem from the same problem, or the path that leads to resolving the external conflict should lead to resolving the internal conflict--either directly or indirectly.

3 - Events = Experiences = Change - As the events of your story unfold, your character should have experiences as a result of those events that impact their understanding of their internal conflict. Let's say your character's internal conflict is the belief that they have no value beyond their role in a villainous organization. As the events of the story unfold, they would need to start seeing evidence that challenges that belief, makes them ask questions, and motivates them to push against the boundaries of that belief. In other words, as this character gets involved with things outside the organization, they start to see evidence that they do have value outside their role in the organization. This avalanches into questioning not just their belief but the organization itself and their involvement of it. As they test the waters of this new understanding and find confirmation that change is right for them, the change naturally takes place.

4 - Include Doubts, Fails, and Setbacks - Although you want the overall trajectory of their arc to be in the direction of their change, you still want to illustrate their doubts (Could this really be true? Do I really have value beyond the organization? Could the organization be bad? No, surely that can't be right...) and have the occasional failure or setback in their attempt to change. In other words, you don't want them to have an easy transition from where they are at the beginning to where they are at the end. Their internal conflict's claws are in pretty deep, so there needs to be some struggle as they try to move in a different direction.

5 - Show the Completed Change in Action - Wherever they end up, you want to give the character the opportunity to show that they've changed. For example, maybe the villainous organization comes at them with an "offer they can't refuse," and the old them would have jumped at that opportunity, but they're not that person anymore. Showing them refusing this offer illustrates that they've really and truly changed once and for all.

Happy writing!

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[miffy-junot]

I really wanted to be kind, I really try to stay away from discourse, but my friend sent me a post containing opinions so rancid that I had to say something. I'm turning off reblogs and I will not name the user who made the post because I do not want any discourse, please be respectful of this.

Time to respond to the words of "Tumblr user X":

Firstly - I know not everybody here is Christian but to make a post being rude to dead people on All Soul's Day is immensely disrespectful, to say the least. Don't you have any graves to put flowers on, any people to remember?

1:

The majority of people interested in the Napoleonic Wars think Junot is a blundering buffoon. You really have to dig deep to find nuanced sources on him beyond the usual "mad general" stuff. There is a niche community of Gen Z Tumblr bloggers who like Junot, by no means the majority of the Napoleonic community - and since Tumblr is very easy to curate, it's on you if you are stuck in this niche bubble.

Let me tell you, Junot does not have a good reputation at all. You can let the topic go, you are fighting against an enemy that you believe numbers in the hundreds when in fact it is a small group of mentally ill teenagers (many of whom are lgbtq+, which is something interesting in itself).

2.

You are an adult, but how did you graduate high school with no skills of reading comprehension? Nobody has ever said that Junot's actions with Laure were "normal and okay". Once again, you are fighting an imaginary enemy.

Napoblr is essentially a war criminal fandom. That does not make it any more or less valid than other history communities, but it means that we have to take a slightly different approach to moralising historical figures. Almost every single person involved in the Napoleonic Wars would be a bad person if you took their actions out of the historical context. Most people relevant to the Napoleonic Wars were sexist, racist, imperialist pieces of shit who turned a blind eye to war crimes.

Because that makes up such a large percentage of these people, being overly judicious about their morality will leave you with the following group of "unproblematic people": a large gathering of peasants and children, none of whom we know the names of.

"Evil" is a very strong word to use, one which denies nuance, but let me speak in your language: all Napoleonic figures were somewhat "evil", if you are unwilling to deal with "evil" people then study art history, or any other subject that doesn't deal so much with moral complexity.

3.

In my opinion war crimes committed as part of your job are still war crimes????????? "Indirectly" or not, there is little difference between ordering an execution and murdering someone with your own bare hands, in both situation you take away a life from the world and there is blood on your hands. Some might even argue that having a callous approach to life and death is even worse!

And like I have said above: endless moralising is counter-productive. There are better ways to use your time, such as researching things that actually fulfil you.

4.

(just a tiny nitpick but please do not use that certain misogynistic term)

"Could have" and "should have" are words that cannot be used in the study of history. Speculation over endless possibilities of alternative realities is meaningless.

I thought we as a society had moved beyond calling addicts "evil", but apparently not! (and again, "evil" is a very charged term that leaves no room for nuance)

For the record, I support abstinence of all the things you mention. Irl I have a bit of a reputation for being a puritan. But even I will not blame somebody's entire morality on that, and call a man "evil" for being an addict?! Where is your sympathy?!

Self-destructive behaviour is a major symptom of both head injuries and personality disorders, but I doubt "Tumblr user X" has the thinking skills required to understand that properly.

And either way, even if it was all "his responsibility", so what? That's his personal life, why do you care? If you don't like it, go away.

5.

Again, I genuinely thought people knew how to be sympathetic towards addicts but apparently not.

The emphasis on "self-restraint" is insane, if you had any restraint you wouldn't be bitching on Tumblr. You are sounding more like a 17th century Puritan than me, the person who gets accused irl of acting like one.

People on Tumblr find Junot relatable. That is why he is cute, because he is relatable. Additionally, it is big part of Gen Z humour to call bad men "babygirl" and to combine cutesy aesthetics with dark stuff, hence the whole coquette/girlblogger aesthetic.

Like I said at the beginning of this post - most people do not like Junot. The people who do are mostly mentally ill young people who naturally gravitate towards this "crazy but make it cute" aesthetic tendency, and the "I can make him worse" sort of mentality.

"Violent tendencies" is a lot to extrapolate from a single incident, but that seems to be something you're fond of doing.

6.

You deliberately phrase this to imply sexual harassment. Here is what happened: he flirted with her and invited her to dinner, she had heard the rumours of his mad behaviour and ghosted him, he got very upset. Nothing physical ever happened.

Additionally, none of his mistresses ever mentioned any violent behaviour by him. In fact, in one anecdote related by Laure herself, Junot's Abyssinian mistress Xraxarane encouraged him to shoot an orange off the top of her head because she was so confident in his abilities with a pistol, and even though he knew he could do it, Junot didn't even try because he was too afraid of hurting her.

7.

Do your research before making snarky comments, I am begging you.

While it is true that men wrote more passionately to each other in those days, "I who love you with the affection of a savage for the sun, I who am entirely yours" is not something you would say in passing. I'm not going to argue that Junot and Napoleon did anything romantic together, but it's undeniable that Junot's feelings towards Napoleon surpass those of a completely platonic friendship.

There are many sources that attest to Junot's fanatical devotion being unusual, not just Laure. And it was not a single remark in Laure's memoirs, but many anecdotes. Junot had many close male friendships, but they all took on a very different character to his friendship with Napoleon - his letters to other friends have a casual, jovial tone; the intense and poetic language used in his letters to Napoleon instead mirror his letters to women.

Is it really so unfeasible to you that, out of the thousands of men in the Napoleonic army, one of them might have developed feelings for Napoleon beyond those of conventional masculine friendships? Statistically, it is impossible that every Napoleonic man was straight.

8.

Okay, I am going to be directly bitchy here.

Tumblr user X, YOU DIDN"T EVEN BOTHER TO READ THE JOURNAL INTIME BEFORE PUBLISHING A POST ABOUT THE INCIDENT.

When, in a discord server, I shared a small piece of the journal intime I had translated that was referring to Junot's affair with Caroline, YOU DOUBTED IT"S CREDIBILITY.

You claim to trust what women have to say, BUT YOU DON"T BELEIVE HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS' CLAIMS THAT HER HUSBAND ABUSED HER. BE CONSISTENT.

And finally: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION OF JUNOT TRYING TO RAPE LAURE AS YOU CLAIMED. NOWHERE IN HER ACCOUNT OF EVENTS DOES SHE ALLEGE RAPE. STOP MAKING THINGS UP, IT IS DISRESPECTFUL TO REAL RAPE VICTIMS.

You pretend to be diligent with your sources, but you are not, you only read things that support your pre-conceived opinion, you make posts based on false evidence. Shut the fuck up about topics you know nothing about.

9.

Gurl we are not bureaucrats, we do not care about military efficiency.

"glorified cavalry skirmish" - is a group of 500 men defeating a force of 3000 men not glorious to you? Those are odds of five to one.

If you don't care about military history, don't talk about military history and get out of the military history fandom.

10.

(fyi it's spelt crucify)

You are fighting imaginary enemies. Bessieres is adored, he is babygirled. Junot is loathed.

Nobody ever said Junot trying to kill Laure was cute. (I would also provide evidence that Junot never intended to kill her, but then I'll get accused of defending domestic violence)

Junot being babygirlified is not a recent thing. What about:

Rapp, who didn't think Junot was a great soldier but still defended him

Foy, who hated Junot but still wrote positive comments about him in his memoirs

Arthur Wellesley, who respected Junot as an enemy

James Forbes (and many others), who hated Napoleon but praised Junot for being kind to Englishmen in Paris

Antoine-Romain Hamelin, who didn't like most people he met but adored Junot for defending and rescuing him

André Delagrave, who wrote very sympathetically about Junot after serving him in the peninsular wars

Laure's letters

Junot's letters to Laure

Junot's letters to his daughters

+many, many more sources but those were the only ones I remembered off the top of my head.

And please don't disrespect Laure's own wishes and opinions. What about the highly affectionate language used to refer to Junot in her letters about her grief over his death? What about her letter to Berthier complaining about Junot being defamed?

Please be respectful here, I don't want any discourse. I shouldn't have to say this but please do not share this with "Tumblr user X", I don't want to have anything to do with that person ever again.

a little side tangent on the infamous incident between Junot and Laure:

When Junot went to break off his affair with Caroline Murat, he took two duelling pistols and khanjar (a Middle Eastern style of dagger) with him in case he was confronted by Murat and things got messy. This is very important - Junot had lethal weapons easily accessible to him and was willing to use them to kill his rival. So if he genuinely had every intention of murdering Laure, why didn't he shoot her? Why didn't he stab her with the fatal khanjar rather than a pair of scissors? Speculation on this point is useless, but it's vital to know that he could have easily killed her, but he didn't. I'm not defending his actions in any way, Junot certainly did something awful, but he did not intentionally plot to murder her.

[fsfghgee]

How do you think Bi-Han's father died? We know it was an accident and Bi-Han probably just stood there watching. I'm curious to know how that accident happened and why Geras was telling Scorpion that he wasn't ready to see how it happened 🤔

Also, was Bi-Han's father really respected in the clan? Why did everyone follow Bi-Han after he decided to stop serving the land. The only ones who refused to follow him were Kuai, Tomas and apparently Cyrax too.

I still think it's weird that a powerful cryomancer like Bi-Han's father should have been just died in an accident. Not that I doubt it, because Bi-Han sounds very sincere when he admits that he let their father die, but it's weird to imagine that the Grandmaster died in a simple accident. Like, I know there are people who think that Bi-Han actually killed his father because many characters accuse him of it, but the reality is that they simply associate Bi-Han's lack of remorse along with the information that he let the old man die as an intention to kill. And I don't blame them, really, if you refuse to save someone you could have saved, you are indirectly responsible for that person's death.

However, I feel that despite him not having the best relationship with his father — and that just like Sektor looks up to her father and has a good relationship with him, Bi-Han admired his mother more and had a good relationship with her — Bi-Han, being the first in line of succession and trained since childhood to be a Grandmaster, lived following his father around. Accompanying him everywhere and observing how his father behaved. I can bet that Liu Kang watched Bi-Han and Kuai Liang grow up and this hatred Bi-Han has for Liu Kang and his deceased father has been growing inside him since he was very young, it has been inside him for a long time, most likely since his mother's death. He actively blames the mediocrity of the Lin Kuei on his father's bad decisions and his blind loyalty to Liu Kang. However, he didn't hate his father as much as he hates Liu Kang to kill him in cold blood…

Which makes me imagine only two scenarios for the death of Bi-Han's father:

1 - Bi-Han, accompanying his father on another mission to a hostile place in some realm, was attacked by enemies who, despite having been subdued by him and his father, the Grandmaster ended up hanging on the edge of a cliff and Bi-Han ignored his father's calls for help and just watched him fall to his death.

2 - Bi-Han, accompanying his father on another mission to a hostile place in some realm, was attacked by enemies who, despite having been subdued by him and his father, the Grandmaster ended up buried by a landslide/rockslide and Bi-Han just watched his father take his last breath instead of trying to rescue him.

Geras must have seen in the hourglass Bi-Han watching his father die with a sinister smile on his face. And if the vision must have been a shock to him, I imagine he believes that Kuai Liang would hate his brother even more and go after him to kill him right away if he saw it. And we know that according to Geras' bio, he is responsible for trying to ensure that Liu Kang's vision for his timeline is not changed, and among this vision is that Scorpion and Sub-Zero should be brothers, belong to the same clan (Lin Kuei), be allies, Hanzo never being relevant enough to the point of threatening Bi-Han's life so that Bi-Han would never die and be resurrected as a Wraith in Quan Chi's service. If Geras showed the vision of their father dying with Bi-Han probably smiling and with his arms crossed, he would be fomenting the hatred and desire for revenge that Liu Kang wants so much to prevent from taking over the Scorpion of his timeline.

About whether Bi-Han's father was respected or not…

I believe he had respect for being the Grandmaster, having the ideal of only serving and defending Earthrealm and for carrying the cryomancy blood of the Lin Kuei founders…

But he didn't have even half the charisma that Bi-Han has, that's why most of the Lin Kuei remain loyal to Bi-Han. Some of Bi-Han's intros about the followers and the things Sektor says in the story mode (and some intros too), reveal that Bi-Han is a greatly admired leader and most of the Lin Kuei believe that the clan should really be an empire and rule Earthrealm:

And as Bi-Han himself said…

This power he seeks for the Lin Kuei is simply the only solution he sees that can be effective in freeing the Lin Kuei from Liu Kang's control forever. Bi-Han and the Lin Kuei do not want to continue hiding and only coming out of the shadows to defend people who have never expressed any gratitude for their sacrifice over the centuries.

They no longer want to get involved in conflicts they didn't start and lose family members under Liu Kang's orders. They no longer want to serve as lackeys to a god who clearly favors others…

They want to fight for Earthrealm on their own terms. And receive the respect they deserve by doing so.

,,,,,

[samijey]

If one were new to watching NXT and wanted to catch up with all the trickunov promos and matches... where does one start

Oooo you came to the right place, you know she got the full encyclopedia for those two 😩 but heads up, it's LONG

Carmelo is obviously gonna be all over this thing because this storyline was a three-way feud for a long time and Trick's relationships with him and Ilja paralleled each other for a long time.

Sidenote that I'm only pointing out the stuff relevant to the Trickunov relationship and the characters interacting with it, but there was a lot of fun "ship-friendly" stuff going on in NXT at this time that you can keep an eye out for in case you happen to enjoy it and want to follow it too - some examples are the Axiom/Nathan partnership (my beloved comic book bfs and the only duo that's still together today 🥲), the Lyra/Tatum toxic yuri saga, the creation of the Wolf Dogs, Tiffany vs Fallon etc.

For all the Trickunov canon thus far, we're starting in February of 2023 with their very first on-screen interaction - below is a list of pretty much all the moments that directly or indirectly impacted their rivalry:

February 07 - Carmelo (w/Trick) vs JD McDonagh

February 14 - Ilja backstage interview + in ring promo w/ Trick + Trick and Melo backstage segment

February 21 - Ilja vs Trick I + locker room segment w/ Trick, Melo and Tyler

Then they both get caught up in other stuff for a bit so you can skip ahead to:

July 11 - opening segment + Ilja vs Bron (much better than the one we just had on raw AND it had important stakes) + main event tag match w/ Judgment Day

July 18 - opening segment + backstage segment with Schism

The Great American Bash 2023 - Carmelo vs Ilja I

July 25 - Melo, Trick and Ilja vs Schism + post-match backstage angle + backstage segment with Trick and Melo + main event segment.

August 01 - Backstage segment w/ Trick and Melo + Ilja promo package (this one is easy to miss - it plays at the very end of the episode, after the main event match)

August 08 - In-ring promo between Trick and Ilja

Heatwave 2023 - Ilja vs Trick II

August 15 - nothing too relevant in this episode but I like the backstage segment between Melo and Wes for how it hints at Melo becoming a heel + Trick makes a silly dragon pun after his match with Gulak + there's a short hype package for their match that plays before Tyler vs Joe;

August 29 - Ilja in-ring promo (where he starts by singing Trick's praises and ends up getting bullied by Meta-Four lmfao)

September 05th - Ilja vs Oro post-match segment w/ Wes and Melo + backstage segment w/ Trick and Ilja

September 12 - Ilja vs Wes Lee + backstage segment between Trick and Melo

September 19 - Ilja backstage interview + Trick & Dom backstage interaction + Melo vs Dom (w/ Ilja on commentary) + Melo parking lot interview

No Mercy - Carmelo vs Ilja II

September 26 - Trick vs Gacy post-match interview + Backstage segment w/ Trick and Melo + Fatal Four-way match + Melo and Ilja contract signing

October 03 - In-ring segment between Ilja, Trick and Melo + Trick vs Dom

October 10 - this is the famous crossover episode extravaganza but watch the opening segment + Ilja vs Dom (w/ LA Knight as the ref lmfao) because it's messy fun and Trick makes an appearance. The Trick & Melo segment with John Cena is also important foreshadowing

October 17 - Carmelo in-ring promo feat. multiple "guests" + Trick's backstage attack + main event match

Halloween Havoc (Night 2) - Ilja vs Melo III

You can skip a bit again while Ilja deals with Corbin and Melo continues to act shady but please watch Ilja vs Nathan from the 28 November episode - it's short but it's great and it displays how volatile Ilja was during his feud with Baron Corbin - it's even on YT in full here. Then watch Deadline for the Men's Iron Survivor match and the brief post-match angle after Ilja vs Corbin (I'm not a fan of this match but the promo package is very good in giving Ilja some more depth, so check that out too)

December 12 - Two opening segments + medical room promo + main event segment

December 19 - Backstage segment between Trick and Melo + Ilja in-ring promo + backstage segment between Trick and Ilja + another one with Trick and Melo + Ilja vs Ridge Holland post-match angle (tw for like REALLY good selling - a lot of people thought it was legit when it leaked from audiences at the tapping)

December 26 - Backstage segment between Melo and Trick + Contract signing segment between Trick and Ilja (plays after the main event match)

January 02 - New Year's Evil is just extra story development with a few fun cameos - watch Kelly's backstage report after the opening match + the segment between Melo, Trick and a surprise Grayson Waller + another segment later between Melo and Trick + Trick vs Grayson (feat. another great cameo)

January 09 - Backstage Melo & Trick segment (also PLEASE watch the Fallon and Tiffany segments even if you're not following their story, they are GOLD)

January 16 - Opening match (optional) + Melo, Trick and Ilja backstage segment + another Trick and Melo one later on discussing Vengeance Day

January 23 - Ilja backstage interview + Trick and Melo backstage segment + Trick vs Briggs w/ Ilja on commentary + Trick and Melo backstage after the match

January 30 - Melo and Trick backstage segment + main event promo between Trick and Ilja

Vengeance Day - Ilja vs Trick III

Feb 06 - Opening segment + Ilja in-ring segment + Melo's in-ring promo + Ilja vs Dijak

Feb 13 - Not much here, just Melo defeating Gacy in a match and mouthing off at the camera to taunt Ilja

Feb 20 - Melo promo + Ilja promo

Feb 27 - Ilja & Melo in-ring promo + Ilja & Ava backstage + Melo promo + main event segment (Ilja was so unserious here and I live for it. also lots of Paxlyra on this one)

Not much happens between Roadblock and Stand & Deliver (April 06) - watch the post-main event promo from Trick on March 19 and the final confrontation between him and Melo on the April 02 main event segment. The Ilja vs Tony feud isn't mandatory viewing but the segments are fun and so was their PLE match. Trick vs Melo sadly wasn't that great, so you can choose to just watch their actual final match later on instead

Road Block - Melo vs Tony

April 09 - Main event segment between Ilja and Trick

Here you'll notice WWE started WILDLY rushing things due to the upcoming Draft (because ofc they'd fumble near the finish line).

I believe the final Trickunov match was originally supposed to be at Heatwave - marking exactly 1 year since the match that, in-storyline (and irl) started Trick's rise to stardom. This is based on the abrupt shift in storyline flow and the original Heatwave marketing, which prominently featured them both, as well as Lyra and Carmelo (it has since been updated to remove the three who got drafted).

So what ended up happening was the last match was booked for Spring Breakin' instead so Ilja could be called up immediately after. The same thing happened to Lyra and her story with Tatum and I'll be forever bitter about it. Back to viewing:

April 16 - Trick vs Melo (the "real" end to their feud + Ilja shows up at the end too)

Spring Breakin' April 23 - Ilja vs Trick IV

Bonus: backstage footage of Spring Breakin' included in this video package that honestly feels so in-character that I'm simply choosing to consider it kayfabe-compliant lmfao + Ilja's draft to RAW feat. a very funny reaction from Trick and the post-draft interview where you can see Trick in the background listening in and smiling + reacting and laughing when Ilja says sharing a roster with Gunther is "destiny" and I thought it was cute?

And that's it!... for now 🙏

Extra bonus moments post- Spring Breakin':

Trick thanks Ilja

Meta-Four make fun of their relationship

[serpentface]

Question: given the former’s lack of experience, and the later’s lack of skill; why were Palo and Tigran specifically chosen to accompany the White Calf, especially since the calf’s other escorts seem to be important (or at least, well connected) people?

A lot of it was purely circumstantial. The pilgrimage was held out of the city of Wardin and the vast majority of participants were those located there. Wardin has a relatively small Galenii population to begin with (most of the order is based out of the western half of the region, in Ephennos), and the chosen emissaries are mostly young people in their early-mid 20s (chosen in hopes of being physically robust to deal with the strains of travel).

Also a lot of Galenii were sacrificed during the drought, which contributed to narrowing down the pool. Under normal circumstances, one state-sanctioned human sacrifice occurs in Imperial Wardin per year, which is a Galenii who offers themself up at the peak of the dry season to encourage the return of annual rains and confer God’s blessings of fertility on the land and people. A Galenii is already considered to have given their body to Mitlamache become a conduit for fertility blessings and the divine sacrifice-rebirth cycle, and are thus the most powerful offerings for such rites. The drought was reckoned as a result of the disruption of the sacrifice-rebirth cycle, making offerings to Mitlamache more vital than to Anaemache (the superficially more relevant river/rain Face). Many Galenii volunteered to give their lives (both as a sense of duty, and due to beliefs that deaths of this nature are the most esteemed and confer the best of possible afterlives), some were coerced, and some were murdered in un-sanctioned DIY sacrifices.

And also this is a truly devastating famine and a huge proportion of the population were straight up just dying of starvation, dehydration, and disease, which affected the Galenii order as well.

These combined factors limited the potential pool enough that Tigran and Palo would be seen as worthy potentials for the task.

Tigran was originally the sole pupil of a monk who would go on to become one of the high priests of the order, and this association led him to being a likelier candidate. He’s actually not inept at his basic, normal-basis duties and is considered by most of his peers to be a good Galenii in rite and practice (if a deeply unserious and annoying person). This just doesn’t translate that well to transporting a sacred cow cross-country.

Palo had much less going for him, given he was a very new initiate, and he was mostly chosen as an emissary for the fact that he was considered Tigran’s pupil at the time. Galenii perform most of their duties in pairs, and he would be a natural choice to accompany Tigran.

The final reason was a complete right place at right time situation that got them circumstantially connected to the calf, as well as Faiza and Couya. They were present when the white calf was escorted into the city after its initial capture, with Faiza and Couya being among the escorts. Palo was still in the begging phase of initiation, and had showed up in hopes of receiving charity from the accumulated crowd. This gathering devolved into a food riot at the approach of the escort train, and Palo and Tigran were both injured and indirectly saved by soldiers forcibly breaking up the riot as the calf passed by.

The calf laid down in the street when it just so happened to be near where Tigran and Palo were watching, and refused to get up (it was very tired and had a hard day). Tigran, who is in equal measures a suckup and a true believer, hailed it as little Mitlamache and blessed it. Palo was like 'fuck well ok then' and followed his lead.

Faiza was a key decision maker in the process of choosing the escorts for each sacred animal, and this encounter heavily contributed to their choosing when she later saw them again in the pool of candidates. Couya was very interested in this incident, seeing it as a true and auspicious sign- the calf had chosen them, perhaps even saved them. Faiza, noting Couya's reaction, decided it made for a very good narrative and gave it the go-ahead.

[nachosncheezies]

The Bet - Chapter 7

A canon-adjacent "pilot wedding" fic. Previous chapters can be found here.

Shock & Woe

5x01 - Redux, and 5x02 - Redux II; also on AO3. tagging @today-in-fic

~~~~~

For being ride-or-die, they sure were a pair of odd ducks. The Hoover's social diaspora was not wrong about that.

They didn't talk about their bet. Only once, indirectly - after the submarine incident. When she told him she'd had to paddle the juice back into his heart, she made one request. She renewed her licenses to practice on the living, and was officially listed in all the relevant places as his personal physician. If he did anything that hare-brained again, she wouldn't have to fight for the right to save him, and no one would have to know.

Strange, they would each reflect sometime later, the mutual assumption that that other card would remain in both of their arsenals.

Four years gone and no one knew, no one apart from three bureaucrats in some northwestern backwater who wouldn't be able to tell them from Adam. No one had learned when she was taken. No one had learned when she was returned. When her living will was to be carried out and her life support removed, her mother had called it 'a moment for the family, but.’ But then she offered him a place in the room to bear witness. As if it were a kindness. As if he needed permission. 

Maggie would drop her rosary if she knew the truth of it.

It remained their unexamined secret, but with her pale and unconscious from hypovolemic shock and two agents dragging him away, he almost, almost told the world. 

He spent as much time at her bedside as he could, probably more than propriety would have advised. Her mother was tolerant, even kind. Her brother hated him. 

Junior didn't know that Fox Mulder already had that market cornered. The man could be as much of a dick as he wanted. Soon, Mulder feared, soon he would know their secret, too.

~~~~~

Mulder, alive to the world, so busy and unsleeping. He was under suspicion, and for once rightfully so, but he would not take what she offered. He would not free himself on the back of her reputation, even as she was very nearly certain she wouldn't need it anymore. Every time he came to her room, she would try to ask him about the case. She worried for him, all alone now trying to root out the traitor and clear his own name. Halfway neglecting his own fate, she suspected, in scrambling for a means to save her. But when she asked, he just smiled and shook his head. "I'm not here for that," he said. "I'm here for my friend Dana."

She screwed up her chin, and said she wished he wouldn't call her that. Not now.

After so many months - years - together, they knew each other in ways she scarcely even knew her family. But somehow in all their long hours in the office and on the road, between the intellectual repartee, the philosophical debates, the quoting of studies both psuedo- and scientific, there were still things - little, biographical things - they had yet to learn about one another. He wanted to know what her favorite color was. Did she have a lucky number? Did she know how many generations back was she Irish-American - as opposed to Irish-Irish, he clarified - and was it just on her father's side? What superstitions did she have as a child - come on, Scully, kids are insane; surely you weren't always so committed to rationalism - and had any of them hung on? What was her favorite dessert; and was he right? Was it ice cream?

It was like he was trying to etch even the most mundane pieces of her into three dimensions in his mind. And that, more than anything, made her fear for him.

Mulder being Mulder, he sensed it. Mulder being Mulder, he wanted to change the subject rather than acknowledge it.

He started carrying a fat deck of Trivial Pursuit cards in his pocket. There was no board, but he'd cut the deck and hand her half, and they took turns asking each other whatever questions they felt like, tallying their points as they went. She surprised him by knowing much more than he would've guessed about sports. He surprised her by knowing very little about science. Or, he pretended to; she suspected he just wanted to listen to her lecture him on the topics she was best at. She, in turn, started playing dumb on things that might be of personal interest to him. She loved listening to him talk, too. 

On one visit, her energy waned much more quickly than normal, and she set aside her share of the cards. "Mulder-" she started, but he was instantly on his feet, leaning over her with his thumb brushing back and forth across her brow.

"Shh," he hushed. "I know." Her brows knit together and she opened her mouth to protest, but he put his finger across her lips and shook his head. "I know," he said again. He seemed surprised to find himself touching her lips, and didn't linger, but immediately moved to tuck back a lock of her hair.

She watched him, glassy-eyed, while he watched his hand, then he met her gaze again, his expression softly sad, his eyes pleading.

It wasn't fair. 'Until death do us part' was not supposed to have been literal. It was supposed to mean, 'Until one of us meets someone, or we otherwise come to our senses.' They were supposed to have been colleagues, amiable - she had hoped even good friends - with a silly story they could tell one day when it had been long enough to not matter. Something light to go with the war stories they would inevitably accrue. Since then he had become her confidant, her partner-in-crime, her blood brother. He was her dimorphic counterpart, her insular twin; grown up beside her and communicating with her in their own twisted tongues that no one else could understand. He was more than all of that in ways she could never hope to explain. He was the only one she truly trusted, the only one she would put herself on the line for, the only one she was always happy to see. He was her very best friend.

"Tell me about the pukwudgies," she requested, and he lulled her to sleep with one of the most fantastical, most ludicrous stories she'd ever heard.

~~~~~

She woke in the dead of night to someone holding her hand. Hot, jagged puffs of air blew over her knuckles. She peeked, and saw the top of his head resting very close to her pillow, his face turned away from her. His shoulders strained in an irregular rhythm and his whole body seemed to rise and fall with them. Her breath hitched as she realized what was happening, but he seemed too lost in his agony to notice.

She wanted to soothe him. To let him see that she hurt for him just as much. But he had asked her not to say it. He said that he knew. She hoped - she prayed - that they were talking about the same thing.

She took deep, measured breaths, and pretended to sleep. If the truth was too painful, she could at least give him his dignity.

When he seemed to have exhausted himself and cried himself to sleep right there on her floor, she opened her eyes. She looked at his darkened form, the light from the window catching on his silhouette and giving him a bluish aura; a full-body halo for her sad and tragic guardian. She slowly, gingerly moved her face closer, until her forehead came to rest on his crown. She placed a careful kiss there and nuzzled in, her dried-out nostrils giving her only a bare hint of shampoo and Mulder. She thought she heard his own breathing hitch, but if he was awake after all, if he knew, she knew they would never talk about it. She stilled, and after a time he got to his feet. She let her head roll limp on her pillow and kept her eyes closed. He whispered her name, sorrowful and reverent, and after another moment he bent to brush his lips, barely-there, upon her cheek.

When he was gone, she put her palm flat on the wet spot he'd made of her sheets, and she cried for him, too.

~~~~~

remission (noun)

/rəˈmɪʃən/ ruh-MISH-uhn

From Anglo-Norman remissiun, remissione, remissioun, via French remission. Historical meanings included forgiveness or pardon of sins; pardon for a political or legal offense; reduction of a debt; weakening or diminishing of a thing. Also from Latin remissiōn-, remissiō. Meanings included the action of sending back; action of letting go; action of slackening, relaxing, softening; action of relieving (the mind) of cares or preoccupations; cancellation (of a debt or penalty); forgiveness, pardon (of sins). Compare to Old Occitan remessió, Catalan remissió, Spanish remisión, Portuguese remissão, Italian remissione.

Definitions:

      1. Forgiveness or pardon of sins or other offences.

      2. Release from the obligation of a debt or payment.

     3. a. The cancellation or reduction of a debt, payment, etc.; an instance of this.

         b. The cancellation or reduction of a penalty or punishment; (now) esp. the reduction of a prison sentence as a reward for good behaviour; an instance of this.

      4. Diminution or reduction of effect or force; decrease or abatement of a condition or quality, such as heat, cold, etc.; (also) an instance of this.

      5. In medicine, the lessening of the severity of a disease or symptom; disappearance of symptoms or cessation of the activity of a disease for a period; an instance of this.

      6. The action of sending or sending back. In law, the action or an act of referring a case from one court to another....

No. Scratch all that.

remission (noun) 

/rəˈmɪʃən/ ruh-MISH-uhn

Definitions:

      1. Scully is alive. 

      2. Scully is going to live.

~~~~~

Content notes:

Regarding the pukwudgies: these are described as small, disappearing creatures, from the Wampanoag tradition. I found them while searching for mythologies and cryptids of Massachusetts, figuring that Scully would ask him about something he might have known since childhood. (I'm also assuming that young Mulder, at some undefined time in his past, turned his insatiable curiosity on Aquinnah and the Wampanoag just next door to Chilmark, and that Scully would have known or assumed this, too.) I selected them from amongst other legends precisely for being Wampanoag and thus local to him, but I do not know anyone from or very well-acquainted with indigenous traditions in the east of North America, so if I've carelessly stepped on something sacred or taboo here please DO let me know. I would be happy to explore alternatives.

The end section of this chapter was adapted (read: gently mutilated) from the Oxford English Dictionary's academic database here. You'll need an institutional or library login to access the full entry.