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darkandstormyart · 4 years ago

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Xicheng fic recs

(figured i might make a list of my own)

(to be expanded as i dig out more treasure/remember stuff)

in no particular order:

Deep as the Yearning Night by FreckledStarKnight

“At first, it was pure chance. The second time was accidental. And the third time? Well, they say the third time’s the charm, after all. Lan Xichen discovers that Jiang Wanyin sings beautifully and is immediately enamored by it. His pursuit of Jiang Wanyin’s secret talent leads to a discovery and a series of events that he did not anticipate at all. Not that he’s complaining, of course. He got what he came for and more. Or, how two sect leaders get together through the song called love. CQL-verse.“

post-seclusion lxc

trying to get jc to sing

bonus lxc & jin ling feels i hadn’t considered before

cute

Always use protection by hesselives

“In which Lan Wangji attempts to hire a new bodyguard for his older brother, a well-known traveling exorcist. Jiang Wanyin doesn’t even make his carefully considered list of Top Ten Candidates, and yet here he is.

Lots of wandering in the countryside, distant yelling, and mildly inconvenient spirits.”

bodyguard au

honestly just really intersting worldbuilding

Rewrite the stars by Arashii

“Five great kingdoms have been fighting for years and when the kingdom of Yunmeng is destroyed, the Crown Prince Jiang Cheng vanishes.In Gusu, Lan Xichen makes an offer impossible for Jiang Cheng to refuse. His life or revenge? There’s only one option and Jiang Cheng swears loyalty to the man he hated the most his whole life, the Crown Prince of Gusu, Lan Xichen himself.Written for XiChengFest2020 - Day 4“

ROYALTY AU ROYALTY AU

enemies to lovers!

flashbacks! i love flashbacks so much ohmygod

No paths are bound by Arashii

“In seclusion, Lan Huan has the support of a ghost no one has seen since the massacre of Yunmeng Jiang. His feelings start changing with the often visits and conversations they share. Before Lan Huan can confess though, he ascends, leaving everything and everyone behind him.

Two hundred years later, back to the Human Realm and without powers, the Martial God Zewu-Jun has a mission to uphold. His Heavenly Calamity started. The clues are little and the support comes in the most unexpected form, the current Ghost King: Sandu Shengshou. Now they need to stick together to contain a menace that is slowly growing.“

TGCF AU TGCF AU

ghost king jiang cheng come on

doesn’t follow tgcf plot, just the setup so no spoilers

jiang cheng gets the dogs and the xichen he deserves

once upon a dream by cafedeolla

“Xicheng soulmate AU

An au where your dreams are small snippets of your soulmate’s day. They’d show small things like buying coffee, reading a book, or hanging out with people from their perspective.

The problem was that people always have expectations and Jiang Cheng knows he always falls short of them. Time and time again.“

soulmate au, but being soulmates is more a problem than a solution

misunderstandingssss all over the place

now with a squel (in progress?)

Lan Furen series by jagaimocchi

“Jiang Cheng leaves Lotus Pier before the Wen Internment Camp and before the destruction of his home. When he meets Lan Xichen on the run from the Wens after the burning of Cloud Recesses, his plan to live a peaceful life away from cultivation sects is quickly derailed. Now, free to make his own choices, he cannot find it in himself to leave the other man's side.

With love, patience and time, Jiang Cheng finds his own happiness and peace with his past.“

have you ever wanted a fic where jiang cheng peaces out from home in search for a better life, bc he’s Had Enough??? jags got you covered

adorable xicheng

good uncle-dad-figure Lan Qiren

ongoing <3

Just around the riverbend by JungleJelly

“One day.

Jiang Cheng just wanted one day of peace and quiet, away from home, away from his responsibilities, away from his idiot brother and his nutcases of a mother and father. Just a few hours alone — him and a boat and nothing else.

Clearly, that was too much to ask for.”

now with a new story in the series which is adorable too!!!

mermaid!lxc need i say more?

Bad ideas (where they lead) by JungleJelly

“Jiang Cheng is a busy man. Fortunately, he is also a huge pushover when it comes to his sister, so when she recommends that he start doing yoga, he agrees pretty easily.Featuring Lan Xichen in yoga pants, Jiang Cheng’s inability to handle a crush, and, perhaps most importantly, a big fluffy dog.“

done for 2020 MXTX MiniBang

yoga instructor Lan Xichen

Jiang Cheng is: struggling with a crush on the yoga guy from youtube & very angry about that

If there’s a price for rotten judgement by TheWanderingHeart

“All Jiang Cheng wants to do is, well... his job, really. Other than that? Keep the city safe, keep his nephew alive, keep his sanity intact (if possible).

So when his brother calls with unexpected news, he knows all of that is about to fly out of the window.

***

[Every instinct is telling him don’t ask, you don’t want to know. By this point, Nie HuaiSang has scooted closer to listen. Jiang Cheng takes a steadying breath and pulls out his antacids. “What did you do?”]”

superhero au, come on

jc just trying to do his job in peace

(he can’t)

i love it so much oh my god *sobs*

The Form of Boneless Ice by TheWanderingHeart

“Mythical beasts have long ago been driven to extinction by the gentry — hunted for sport, but more importantly for their magical cores. Since then, there remains only one creature that has never been caught. The Jiang’s retreated a long time ago. Abandoning land altogether, they sought safety where the humans could not reach.It all comes to a head though, purely by chance. (Or is it by fate that a spontaneous decision allows for them to meet? If fate were a rock!) Jiang Cheng suddenly finds his whole life balanced on the head of a pin — on the flimsy promise of a human boy. In his opinion, things cannot possibly get worse!(But then they do when the Wens decide it’s finally time to search for the elusive merpeople, and suddenly nowhere is safe.)“

there she goes again, with another beautiful xicheng story full of awwww and mythology

actually one of the first xicheng fics i read

i chose it because there were mermaids

painfully accurate takes on Jiang family dynamics

kids! lots of kids!

Let me Slytherin to Your Heart by TheWanderingHeart

“Jiang Cheng never thought he'd return to Hogwarts, but in hindsight, he probably should have known that someday he would.With his nephew about to start school, he reluctantly takes his good friend's bad parenting? career? advice and ends up tumbling head-first back into the madness that he hoped he'd left behind... and rediscovering some feelings he thought he'd left behind too.“

Harry Potter au!

just really fecking cute

lots of snakes

[I am not going to link all of Jo’s fics, though I probably could, just my 3 favourites. UOSB is there by default]

Talent Hunt Crew Finds Angry Guy Shouting On College Campus, Recruits Him For Vocal Projection Abilities by oh_fudgecakes

“Jiang Cheng, resident Angry Guy and heir to a conglomerate empire, has never been the apple of his father’s eye. Quashed under the shadow of his brilliant brother, the music prodigy Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng sees his chance to turn things around when he is recruited by the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt. One problem: he can’t sing to save his goddamn life.As he struggles to develop his nascent singing abilities, Jiang Cheng finds himself sucked into the whirlwind drama of reality TV, helped along by his adoring siblings, his irritable vocal coach Wen Qing, and strangely enough, the unfairly attractive host of the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt, Lan Xichen. Somewhere in the glare of the stage lights and an unexpected first love, Jiang Cheng stumbles upon the thing he was searching for all along: the courage to dream — and to attempt the impossible.“

done for 2019 MXTX Big Bang

uuuuuuuuuuh i might have cried maybe

heartwarming? painful at times? lots of family love?

slowburn xicheng being lovely

The Provenence of Hope series by velithya

“A chance meeting on a night hunt sets a course of events into motion that will change everything. Featuring Xicheng getting together, recovery for Lan Xichen, healing for Jiang Cheng, and always, always, hope.“

got everything. feels. hope. love. ~~healing~~

A Small Measure of Peace by Sandstone112

“With his brother in seclusion, Lan Xichen finds himself in temporary custody of his nephew with little to no expertise in the child-raising department. Uncertain and alone, Zewu-Jun is willing to do everything to be the person Yuan needs—even if it means inviting Sandu Shengshou to a playdate.“

a loooot of adorable family times with jc and lxc taking care of their nephews

good grandpa lqr!

canon but fixed and less painful

🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋if you wish to avoid scurvy:🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋

Some day I’m gonna make you mine series by locketofyourhair

xicheng getting together through the years

friends with benefits but the real benefits are the friends we made along the way

Take me over (take me tonight) by velithya

jiang cheng has a tattoo and lan xichen doesn’t stand a chance

i'd be the sweet feeling of release (mankind now dreams of) by piyo13

two bros, chilling in a cave, no feet apart because they don’t want to lose their cultivation powers what are you gonna do

haven’t read yet and shame on me, but AM GONNA:

Upon Our Silver Bridge by TheWanderingHeart obviously

““When the path ignites a soul, there's no remaining in place. The foot touches ground, but not for long.” ― Hakim Sanai

Lan Xichen's sorrows have caught the attention of something. Unlike the adventures and foes they have faced before, there is no obvious enemy here to defeat. If this is the same thing they thought had taken Nie Mingjue's life, then he believes it is fated for him to die as well. Nothing can stop the black fire when it wants to burn.Jiang Cheng is sure his part in this is over. Wei Wuxian is back, his grand adventure concluded, and he'd never been at the centre of it anyway. So what does it matter what happens to him in the end? Slowly, he will come to realise that there will always be a battle to fight, a story to tell, a choice to make, and there is no such thing as an end to anything.“

it was difficult to do things in 2020 and few i regret not doing more than not reading uosb yet :’(

i will tho

Emergency Help Wanted by piyo13

“EMERGENCY HELP WANTED I lied when I got my job. I told them I had a kid so I could leave early from work to pick him up from daycare, take him to doctor's appointments, and occasionally miss a day when he's sick. Long story short, I'm in too deep. I didn't think it through. Looking to rent a kid for bring your child to work day. Must be a boy ages four to six, longish dark hair, likes soccer. Must also be artistic as the macaroni noodle paintings I made seem a little advanced for his age. Also, I will pay extra for someone willing to play the role of husband when dropping him off. He's a prosecuting attorney who often brings his work home. Message me for further details. Serious inquiries only.“

Running Our Hands Through Embers by MarvelousMar

“If asked, Jiang Cheng would compare falling in love with Lan Xichen to a moth inevitably drawn to a flame.It burned.***In which Jiang Cheng discovers that even death can't help him escape from his trauma, so he embarks on a quest to save the people he loves, fix what he can, make the love of his life fall for him, and maybe, somewhere along the way, do a little bit of healing.”

The Beginner’s Guide to Moving On by InvincibleMel

gone from ao3, but i think there’s a link with a pdf going around

#xicheng #fic rec #Jiang Cheng #lan xichen #mdzs #the untamed #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zu shi

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cinaja · 3 years ago

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I first got into wheel of time through the show but am now about 3/4 through Eye of the World and I love both show and books, but I have to say that while the show changed a lot from the books, I think they made good calls on most of their changes? (Except for the obvious fridged wife issue.) This might just be the first time I ever say that about an adaption, but I think they did the right thing in straying from the books in several areas. This is not to say that the plot points the show changed were bad in the books, just that I think that the books, much as I enjoy them, are impossible to make into a successful TV show without significant changes.

I get wanting an adaption to include all of the beloved scenes from the books, but I honestly can't see myself (or many others who hadn't read the books yet) enjoying the show that much if it had stuck extremely closely to the books. Mostly because the start in the books is just incredibly slow and even for me who was already hooked from the show, it took some effort to get through it. Most of the really interesting worldbuilding is revealed only gradually. The characters spend a good proportion of the book just being dragged along by the plot (in the form of the bad guys chasing them and Moiraine and Lan telling them what to do) more or less willingly. Besides, none of the characters start out especially unique or interesting. They all have their unique personalities, of course, but there's nothing that really sets them apart from other fantasy protagonists. What does exist in the books is a sort of implied promise that there will be stuff happening with them, that there is more than we see, that we'll just have to stick around and watch them because there will be something interesting coming there. (All of which is legitimate for the books and even works for a large part because of the subtle ways narration and POV keep tension up and keep readers interested. Besides, the massive scale of the series goes hand in hand with a slow start and anyone who starts reading knows what he's signing up for. But that doesn't work for a TV show with a much bigger audience that will not happily sit through several episodes before things really kick off, or wait around patiently for the main characters to fulfil their promises of becoming interesting.) Not to mention that in our time (which is several decades after the books were published), the Ordinary Farmer Fantasy Protagonist is a bit of a cliché and "Wait for the not overly unique white guy with a crush on the girl from his village to get Super Special Powers" is... not really the promise that will draw people in.

I think centering Moiraine and Lan so much in the series was a brilliant decision. As a non-book reader, they were what hooked me to the story immediately when I started the series. There were two characters who were interesting right off the bat, who provided the story with the very concrete goal of finding and protecting the Dragon Reborn (and proceeded to work for that actively, which made the entire protagonist-side feel much more active because the people doing the protecting were as much the focus as the ones being protected) and also immediately introduced the unique bits of the worldbuilding. The focus on them was what gave the Edmond's Field kids the time to develop and grow on me as the viewer. And if some of the mystery surrounding Moiraine and Lan in the books was lost in the process... well, it's honestly a small price to pay. And I think the show's "We know we are looking for the Dragon Reborn, but we don't know which of these five it is" works just as well as the books' "We don't know what the dark wants with these three, but it's pretty clear to the reader that Rand will be The One".

Similarly, I think cutting down the amount of travel scenes made sense for the show. Don't get me wrong, I adored the travel scenes following Shadar Logoth, that was when the books really started to draw me in on their own, without the show needed as back-up, but I still think they wouldn't work for a TV show. A lot of what makes these scenes work in the book is the narration, the constant sense of fear and being chased, as well as the worldbuilding and all the questions that keep being brought up. But that type of thing just doesn't translate well into movie format, and watching the show, I don't think I would have appreciated episodes of travel scenes where I am constantly introduced to new characters who all only get brief appearances before disappearing again (and apparently reappear later on, which is brilliant in a book series and something I am looking forward to a lot, but would probably have overwhelmed me hopelessly in a show) and the several run-ins with various servants of the Dark that worked well in the books would probably have felt repetitive quickly in the show.

#i really love the show and from what I've read so far I'm sure I will love the books at least as much if not more #but there are just some things that work well in books but will never work in TV shows and therefore need to be changed #and honestly also some things from the books that have to do with the series having started a few decades ago #and that need to be changed for a mordern adaption #wheel of time #wheel of time spoilers #cinaja reads wot

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lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks · 4 years ago

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Oh my gosh so I also headcannon Jack as autistic! But im not comfortable with writing it yet because idk how. Im not autistic; my little sister is and i know a few things jack could have trouble with... but hes a grown ass man so i just dont know. Im definitely taking notes on what you write him as but could you give me some pointers?....maybe?

Im mostly referencing to Bitter with this

aaaa yeah it definitely presents differently in adults who've learned to mask, personally I don't plan to put certain things in specifically to talk about how he's autistic, I write with the background knowledge of what traits he displays, and then express them when relevant, it's relevant a lot with Jack simply due to how much it affects his life

now this is going to get long, so bare with me, because this is a whole lot more complicated than you might expect

there's really no one correct way to write Jack, since there's no one way that autism presents itself, the way I write him is based on a mix of myself and some people in my family, so I can give you a basic idea of what angle I personally come from

for one, I change the way I write about facial expressions and how emotions come across to Jack, in Jazz's chapters I'll write about the exact emotion she can see on their face, with Jack's I'll go with an obvious base emotion, but then if the person is expressing something more complicated, I'll describe their face in physical details

eg;

Jazz POV - Danny was upset, but his face was tight with frustration

Jack POV - Danny looked sad, but his eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was set in a hard line

it's a subtle difference but it's one I try to maintain throughout Bitter, Jack's POV is based on how I have trouble reading non-obvious expressions, although in my case I also have trouble looking people in the face when I talk to them, that's harder to write in an emotion driven POV story, so I made Jack better at that than I am

his interest in machines is quite obvious, since he's an inventor, and he looooves infodumping on people, he gets very excited about his passions very quickly and his mouth runs off with him, something I also have trouble with, it hasn't been a prominent trait for Jack in Bitter, because he's so out of his element he's mostly confused and in a way, almost grieving his own death, so he's been far quieter than he usually is

his special interest is obviously ghosts and machinery, and in Bitter I cover that he's got a degree in engineering, physics and mathematics. He's good at them, I like to look at it as though Jack rolled high in intelligence and low in wisdom, he's book smart, he knows things that are straightforward and have firm rules, he's less comfortable in topics that are more wishy washy and vague, biology is complicated and has too many variables, he finds it difficult to grasp, there's no one standard rule that applies to every body

I also struggle with vague and unclear directions, I need a solid structure and clear instructions, my strength is in sorting, organising, alphabetising and colour coding, I like things to Look Right, I stick to a particular routine with very specific things, and it's viscerally uncomfortable and even distressing for me to have that order disturbed, I nearly had a meltdown at work because someone had done a part of my job incorrectly, and I had to fix it, it made me genuinely upset on a personal level, it was MY system, NOBODY should be touching it, NOBODY should be moving things around, they do anyway, and I spend a portion of my shifts just frustrated and on edge because of it

Jack also has issues socially, he often says or does things that other people find uncomfortable or embarrassing, I reference that in Bitter, where Jack assumes everyone is mad at him because he said or did something stupid, this I have much experience in, while in the middle of a social situation it's easy to just do what comes naturally to you and not realise it's off putting to other people, because people often play polite and you can't tell that they're uncomfortable, even though people around you find it painfully obvious

sometimes it's easy to see in hindsight after you've been told you made something awkward or uncomfortable, but in the moment if nobody says anything about it, you can remain either totally oblivious, or become anxious and second guess every interaction you have

Jack is the oblivious type, he's fortunate to live in a family that is fairly understanding, they might get frustrated with him, or embarrassed by him, but they don't really take it personally, they KNOW he means well, they know he cares, and Jack does care, he cares a lot, he feels things a lot, he's incredibly empathetic

this is a trait that a lot of media likes to ignore in depictions of autism, because I guess it makes people with autism seem 'too normal', when tv shows always want to be like 'hey wow look at this clever asshole! isn't he clever, but also an asshole! but you can't hate him because he's ✨autistic✨ and he can't help it'

that bothers me a lot, I mean some people with autism do have trouble relating and empathising with people, my brother is one of them, but some people with autism really empathise a lot, some of us feel things very strongly, I'm highly empathetic and it's a real struggle to cope with

so yeah, it is a very complicated thing, so you need to go in with an idea of what their character struggles with, how it affects them, and when it's relevant in the story, also autism falls on a very wide spectrum, some people, like myself, are able to mask well, but that creates a big issue with identity, when you start to wonder how much of you is real and how much of you is mask, then you have to decide if you want to lower that mask and accept the social consequences of expressing yourself naturally

I have a friend who presents a little more obviously, he's very rigid in his ways and he talks like he's reading from a script, I have another friend who can socialise just fine, but will go into a total meltdown when a plan gets derailed and she doesn't know what to do next

another friend I have is highly social and incredibly boisterous, she stims with her whole body, dances around a lot, she's chaotic and that can be off-putting to people, she's had to spend a lot of her life holding that back, she's only recently started learning how to be herself shamelessly

my brother was incredibly social when he was younger, and people always really loved him, but most of that is mask, he's socially anxious and just wants to be alone most of the time, and he's a total prick to his immediate family, I don't take that personally any more, since now I understand that he's so blunt and brutally honest because he isn't masking with us, but also he still needs to be called out when he oversteps, autism might be why he has difficulty empathising, but it's not an excuse to be a complete asshole, even people with autism need to be called out on shitty behaviour, it isn't a get out of jail free card, our self expression shouldn't come at the cost of hurting other people, most of us are more than capable of learning to not be an asshole

I know this is like, A LOT, but these are the things that need to be considered when writing about autism, it is an all encompassing thing that permeates your entire life experience, I absolutely welcome people like you to try to write about it! Because I think it shouldn't be a taboo subject, and I appreciate that you asked for advice and that you want to do it respectfully, you've probably seen first hand how difficult living with autism can be, having a family member on the spectrum, so you already have some experience to draw from, I don't know your relationship with your sister or how old she is, or where on the spectrum she falls, but if possible you can ask her about her experiences in particular situations that you're having trouble writing, if that's something you and she are comfortable with

I hope this helps, just remember to keep an open mind and listen to any feedback you might get, it is very VERY easy to misrepresent autism so don't be too hard on yourself if you don't quite get it right, if someone gives you a critique, take it in stride and use it to become better ~ you can even express that in an authors note, that you want to write it accurately and invite anyone with experience to share their opinion, because like I said, it is different for everyone and my experiences are not universal, and you're welcome to run something by me every once in a while if you aren't sure about it ❤️

#asks #autism #danny phantom #bitter #jack fenton #this shit be COMPLICATED y'all

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years ago

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Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep14

Do you ever wanna just watch two little girls who are actually 100+ year old witches beat the absolute SHIT out of each other for 20 minutes straight? :)

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Plus Umineko spoilers.

Part of this might just be because I’ve been high on painkillers for a few weeks now [long story short, I’ve got a lot of dental work that needs done], but this is perhaps the most entertaining episode of anime I’ve seen all year, lol. Not even in a jokey ironic ‘so bad it’s good’ way.

I feel like this is going to be the most polarizing episode of this whole show, because for better or worse it really crosses the line between Higurashi and Umineko, so whether or not you’re a fan of that whole trajectory the story’s been taking will really change how you feel about this.

Though to be honest I think on one level people are ignoring how Higurashi has always had a lot of these things in it. For one thing, the concept of the fragment space and ‘game boards’ has been a thing since Minagoroshi, and we’ve always had stuff like Hanyuu being a literal god who can manifest in the real world, and the existence of the mythical sword was hinted at in Matsuribayashi and then expanded upon in Kotohogushi. This episode also directly referenced the over the top rooftop fight scene from Tsumihoroboshi, which was just the start of Higurashi having lots of fun and silly fight scenes, like the fights between the club members and the military in Matsuribayashi, or the whole fighting game spin-off arc thing. Even in the VN there was an intentional shift from horror and mystery to high-octane fight scenes fueled by the power of friendship and miracles.

Obviously on the other hand there’s definite Umineko stuff going on here, but in general this feels like a pretty natural progression for this series to take.

Anyway, this was absolutely worth the wait, and it goes a long way toward making up for how bad the pacing in Sotsu has been thus far, lol. I still think they could have cut this down by at least two or three episodes, but still. As a climax to this whole conflict between Rika and Satoko, it was really cool.

Sort of like how Nekodamashi had it’s rollercoaster death montage, I really loved how this whole episode transitioned between fragments in increasingly seamless and surreal ways. The use of transition cuts between scenes was honestly really cool, and made it way more dynamic and engaging than it otherwise would have been to basically have an entire episode spent on one fight scene.

I think a lot of people are hung up on the exact logistics of how the fragment-hopping worked in this episode, but I don’t really think you should read into it too much. It basically operated on dream logic and heightened emotions. In the first few fragments Satoko might have waited a bit before attacking Rika, but it very quickly became one continuous sequence of events for all intents and purposes, with how their back and forth dialogue and their exact movements transitioned from one fragment to the next.

Basically it ended up becoming a fight between voyager witches who have become totally divorced from reality and just hop from one fragment to the next whenever they please.

I was wondering how they’d follow up on the gun scene, since it created this stalemate where they both know what’s going on and thus have no reason to surrender, but I really like how they decided to take this. I know a lot of people have been wanting more of a drawn out battle of wits between them, but the whole concept of them just getting into an endless fight with each other now that everything’s out in the open is extremely entertaining to watch.

It does make me even more convinced that it was a bad idea to have Nekodamashi happen in Gou, though. The immediate resolution to the cliffhanger was more anti-climactic than most people would have wanted after so much time spent leading back up to it, and the whole tone and pacing of Nekodamashi would have flowed very seamlessly into this. It also would have fixed the issue of the last two episodes being almost entirely recaps if this was instead the first time that we saw the Nekodamashi loops.

Anyway, there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not we might get a third season or some other kind of continuation to this, and I think this episode makes me way more convinced that it’s actually just going to end here, whether people like it or not. I think I’ve already said that there’s literally nothing the story needs to do anymore except have Rika and Satoko hash things out with each other, and that’s exactly what they’re focusing on now. Maybe they could spend time recapping Satokowashi, but that’d be extremely pointless. And at this point it’s pretty clear that one way or another the other club members just aren’t going to be very important to this story. There’s a bit of a loose end with their teenage selves showing up in the OP with new outfits, but that might be as simple as an epilogue scene set back in the Matsuribayashi fragment or something, and them looking ominous might be a red herring.

Also, in a more meta sense, there’s certain stuff the staff are doing and saying that make this seem like the finale of the whole series, like how in a couple months they’re going to release a congratulatory book compiling all the official artwork and interviews for Gou/Sotsu, or how they recently released a compilation CD of all of Ayane’s Higurashi-related songs, or how [I think] the artist for the Gou manga said on Twitter that the new chapter that just came out will be the last one to come out while the anime’s airing. We’re also getting two new Higurashi manga arcs starting soon, along with the reveal that the Gou manga will diverge from the anime and go into a new answer arc called Higurashi Jun.

So in general it just comes across like everything’s being wrapped up with Sotsu. I can see why people would be disappointed if we don’t get more, but with how the story’s been going, there’s just not really much material left to work with. Also, we know from TV listings that there at least won’t be a direct continuation in the next season, so if we get anything more it wouldn’t happen until January at earliest, and at this point I’d rather things just wrap up here instead of having to wait even longer to get the actual ending, lol.

I guess we won’t know how things will end until next week, but we really seem to be barrelling headfirst into this being Bern and Lambda’s origin story. Which has been pretty obvious for ages now, but this episode in particular really cements it. This whole fight is really similar to the one they have in Episode 8, and you can see throughout the episode how they’re embracing their looper/witch personas and becoming divorced from reality. You can even see the foundation for how Bern and Lambda have a twisted love for each other based on the fact that they’re basically the only people who can actually understand each other, and they’re so detached from reality that the violence between them is more like a sign of affection.

I feel like this is also going to end up tying into the miracle that Hanyuu is waiting for. At the moment we’re in a situation where it seems like they’re stuck in an infinite stalemate because they’re in a fight where neither of them wants to lose, but neither of them wants to win if it means permanently killing the other. So it seems like there might not really be any way out of this, but if they’re able to truly forgive each other and embrace their identities as witches, then they can basically step away from this entire conflict and just enjoy being with each other. It seems impossible for this to end with either of them ‘winning’ and things going back to how they used to be, so it could certainly be called a miracle if they both decide that they’re OK with that, and they take a third option where they can both be happy in a way that neither of them would have predicted at first.

This could also lead to a situation where Rika is able to ascend to a higher level by letting go of her human side once and for all, which could give her the ability to appear in the part of the fragment space where Eua and Hanyuu are, so she can save Hanyuu from getting killed by Eua’s spear.

And on that note, the whole bit with Hanyuu at the end actually reminds me a lot of the idea of logic errors in Umineko. I think people kinda over-use that term when it comes to stuff in this series where it doesn’t really fit, but that scene was actually extremely similar to the whole set-up where Battler got stuck in a locked room that he couldn’t come up with an answer to get out of, and he had to wait for the ‘miracle’ of Beatrice awakening so that Kanon could arrive and save him. Hanyuu is in a position where she’s already committed to flying straight at Eua, but the spear is right in front of her face and about to kill her once time starts again, and she has to wait for a ‘miracle’ to happen to change her fate. Which is also a lot like how in Matsuribayashi she almost got shot by Takano, but a miracle happened and Rika was able to divert the bullet. So it’d make a lot of sense in general if in the next episode we see Rika show up there and save Hanyuu.

And considering how Featherine acts in Umineko, I could honestly see Eua sticking to her word and rewarding Hanyuu if a miracle like that actually happens and saves her. So even if it’s anti-climactic, this might end with Eua accepting her loss and backing off, and maybe not even doing anything to punish Satoko for losing in her fight against Rika. Which is part of why I think the whole lingering threat of the ‘world without Rika’ might not even lead to anything and might just be a vague threat towards Satoko that never materializes.

Other than that, I think the last episode will probably also involve us going back to Matsuribayashi and seeing what sort of ending Rika and Satoko’s ‘human selves’ get once their ‘witch selves’ leave them behind once and for all. Which will probably just be along the lines of Rika going to the Saiguden to check up on Satoko, and them heading over to the cafe where the other club members [and probably Satoshi as well] are waiting for them, and it’ll just end on the note of them presumably working things out between each other peacefully.

Along those same lines, I think that the whole story of Gou/Sotsu will also get somewhat recontextualized as being a sort of deranged power fantasy that Satoko came up with in her head while visiting the Saiguden. I don’t think that’d be intended to devalue anything that happened here, but it’d be like how Umineko presents enough narrative framework for a non-magical interpretation of everything, while at the same time still acknowledging the value of the magical interpretation.

While I remember, I’m curious to see how the manga version turns out, since it’s clearly diverging a fair bit from the anime. It might just be an alternate take on the story concept, but at this point I think it might be presented as an ‘earlier loop’ of Gou/Sotsu, with how it’s been implied that Eua and Satoko have met before without Satoko remembering it. So maybe this whole series of events has repeated over and over again, presumably with Satoko ‘losing’ each time so things get reset, and Gou/Sotsu is the final iteration of that loop where they’re finally able to achieve a miracle.

I feel like the manga version is probably gonna end up being closer to what people wanted out of Sotsu, since it seems to be going in the direction of Rika knowing everything without Satoko knowing that, so they can have more of a drawn out conflict between each other as Rika tries to figure out how to win. Which is one way to take the story, but I still like how the anime ended up doing it, even if it could have been paced a lot better. I also think that the manga isn’t exactly a straight improvement over the anime anyway. There’s stuff it does well, but there’s stuff it doesn’t do well, like how the whole Nekodamashi arc feels extremely weird in the context of Rika not remembering her deaths [or at least not being given a clear reason for why she can suddenly remember them], her not deciding to go for five more loops before killing herself, and Satoko apparently not having any idea about Rika remembering her deaths, which seems to defeat the point of Nekodamashi’s rapid-fire death loops.

Either way I’m curious to see how Jun goes. I assume that we’ll still get some version of Satokowashi out of it, but I think that unlike with Sotsu they’ll spend much less time on answering the damashi arcs, and I also think at this point that the answers to them won’t be exactly the same as they were in the anime either.

Also, we recently found out that two entirely new Higurashi manga arcs will start in November, called Oniokoshi and Hoshiwatashi, which seem to be collectively referred to as Higurashi Rei, using the kanji from ‘the Reiwa era’, since it seems like the idea of these new arcs is that they take place in the Reiwa era. Oniokoshi seems to be about Keiichi’s son and a new mysterious character, while Hoshiwatashi seems to be about two entirely new characters, so I’m really curious to see how their stories pan out. I’m particularly excited about Oniokoshi since it’s being drawn by Natsumi Kei, who’s basically the primary artist for the Umineko manga, so that kinda makes me biased towards it, lol. And even though there’s basically nothing to go off of except for one preview image, it looks like it might go in a bit of a gay direction, which would be really neat. But we’ll see how it goes.

So yeah, I guess at this point with where things are going I’m gonna be really disappointed if we don’t get something like an Umineko remake after this, lol. It wouldn’t be very satisfying if it just ends on the note of ‘go and read the Umineko VN’ or something.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu

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fellulahh · 4 years ago

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Lucifer x MC x Satan Fic, Part 12/???

Read Parts 1-11 here!

Nodding, MC let out a sigh. Even though he wasn’t supportive of her love for Lucifer, he had been there for her a lot lately. “Thanks Asmo.” She smiled gratefully at him. “I better go and talk to him.”

MC felt unusually nervous as she stood outside Satan’s bedroom. Gripping tightly in her hands was another DVD she loved; she’d thought long and hard what film to try and win over Satan with. But then her mind returned to the first and only one they’d watched together.

Knocking gently on the door, MC carefully let herself in. Satan was laying on his bed with his head deep in a book. He hadn’t even heard her enter. “Satan?” She asked quietly, stepping in.

Turning his head, his face softened when he saw her. “MC...are you okay?” He asked quietly as he put his book down to sit up in his bed. Satan was surprised to see her. He thought she was still upset with him so had avoided her; he didn’t think MC wanted to see him.

She smiled sweetly at him as she approached the bed. “I want to forget about this week.” she informed him, “I’ve been thinking a lot about our conversation and just want to put it behind us. I know you are looking out for me Satan saying what you did, but I don’t want there always to be tension between us.”

Satan remained quiet.

“This past week without talking to you has made me realise how much I value our friendship!” She stated, taking a seat next to him. “I don’t want us always to clash - I know you don’t want to see me get hurt by loving Lucifer but that’s a risk I’ve chosen to take.”

Satan smiled sadly at her. “I know.” He sighed, “you can’t just stop loving someone at the drop of a hat unfortunately.”

MC appreciated his words. “Thank you for understanding.”

Satan nodded without saying a word.

“I’ve actually really missed you.” She chuckled.

“Why do you sound surprised?” He asked, pretending to be offended.

“Stop! You know what I mean.” She laughed.

As she enjoyed the easing tension, MC pulled out the DVD from behind her back. “So now that that’s cleared up...do you fancy watching a movie with me?” She smiled.

Satan felt a flutter in his heart. Of course he wanted to watch a movie with her!

“Sure.” He breathed, with a soft expression. “You go and make yourself comfortable and I’ll stick it on.”

Walking over to the bed, MC sat down on the mattress. As she went to lay down, she noticed something sticking out from under one of Satan’s pillows. While he was distracted, MC gently gripped the fabric and gave it a tug. A confused yet amused expression appeared on her face as she pulled out the shirt she’d borrowed from Satan.

‘Why was that stuffed under there?’ She thought to herself as she chuckled.

Glancing over at Satan, she noticed he was still occupied with the DVD player and wasn’t paying any attention to her. MC smiled to herself as she slipped the shirt on, wearing it over her strappy top.

Tucking herself into his bed, she waited patiently for him to return. “So what exactly is this film? It hasn’t got a cover on it—“ Satan spoke as he turned around.

Once he saw MC laying there in the shirt he’d hidden, a blushed appeared on his cheeks. “What are you doing?” He asked quietly as his face softened.

“Stealing back my favourite shirt.” She grinned cheekily.

Amused, Satan walked over to the bed as he thought to himself ‘I sincerely hope she wears it in front of Lucifer again!’

Shaking his head, he had to stop himself from thinking petty thoughts. Kneeling on the bed, he laid on top of the duvet beside her.

As MC felt the bed dip beside her, she felt relaxed. She hadn’t realised just how much she’d missed Satan’s company. Slowly turning her head, her eyes studied his concentrating face as he began working the TV remote. A small smile spread from cheek to cheek as she watched him.

Feeling her stare on him, Satan quickly turned his head. “Are you okay?” He asked quietly as they gazed at each other.

“...yeah.” MC breathed before turning back to the tele.

She bit her lip as she sunk into the covers. As Satan pressed play, MC let out a loud yawn. Though an innocent action, her tiredness worried Satan. Had she not been sleeping properly again?

Glancing at her, his eyebrows furrowed as he noticed her tired eyes.

‘What are you doing?!’ He asked himself, snapping his head back forward, ‘all she did was yawn!’

As the movie began to play, MC and Satan watched in a comfortable silence. The human had an eager smile on her face as she waited for the blond haired demon’s reaction.

“Is this Beauty and the Beast again?” He questioned confused, “but with humans?”

“There’s a live action one too.” MC chuckled, “I thought you’d might like to see it.”

“Is it good?” He asked intrigued.

“Not as good as the cartoon one we watched but the visuals are really good!” She smiled.

“Right...” he chuckled.

With the film playing, MC found herself yawning more and more. She tried to conceal them behind her hand but eventually there was no hiding just how tired she was. As she felt herself grow drowsy, her vision began to blur. She tried to stay awake so that she could watch the film and even sing along but soon she accidentally fell asleep.

Satan hadn’t actually realised how sleepy MC had gotten; he was too engrossed in watching the movie. It wasn’t until he felt a weight on his shoulder that he turned his head to face her.

A small breath escaped his lips after realising MC had fallen asleep on him. His heart was going mad in his chest as he stared at MC snuggling into his side as she wore his shirt.

He completely lost interest in the movie. All he could think about was accidentally waking MC up; she looked so peaceful cuddling up to him that he’d never forgive himself if he were to startle her. With a heaving chest, Satan turned his attention back to the television; vowing not to disturb MC.

“Satan...” a small voice mumbled.

Quickly turning his attention back to her, Satan gawped down at MC.

“Hold me, Satan.” She whispered in her sleep as one of her arms drowsily reached over his chest to cuddle him.

‘She said my name...’

Completely speechless, Satan laid there stiff as he found it hard to return his attention to the film. His mind immediately went into overdrive as he began questioning every single detail of their night together. Recollecting the night he’d helped MC to bed, he remembered how she called him Lucifer as she laid down.

‘You need to stop this!’ He mentally slapped himself as he slumped back into his pillow. ‘Just watch the film and stop getting excited.’

Hours passed and nighttime had arrived. The DVD home screen played on a loop as MC and Satan laid peacefully in each other’s arms. He never intended to, but feeling the warmth of MC’s body beside him eventually sent Satan into a deep sleep.

Waking up naturally, MC’s eyes slowly opened as she adjusted to her surroundings. At first she was a little disoriented; wondering where on Earth she was. But after hearing light snores beside her, she turned her head and was surprised to see Satan holding her close.

Despite realising they’d fallen asleep together, MC didn’t want to move. The way he’d had his head tucked into her neck and his arms wrapped protectively around her made MC feel oddly warm inside. She didn’t know what to think as she gazed at him speechless.

Her chest rose up and down softly as her confused eyes studied his sleeping face. She couldn’t help but admire him; the way his lips parted as he snored; the way his blond hair covered his eyes; the way that, despite being unconscious, he held her close.

Getting lost staring at him, MC didn’t anticipate his eyes fluttering open. He was incredibly startled to see her in front of him. Jolting back, he had to adjust his vision as he began questioning if he was dreaming. His sudden movement ripped MC away from her daydream.

“MC?” He asked sleepily.

“Well so much for watching the movie.” She chuckled softly as she shifted in his bed. “I guess we were both more tired than we thought!”

“I guess so...” he mumbled with a blush.

“I er...I should probably head back to my room now.” She smiled with an obvious blush. Seeing her red cheeks made Satan begin to question their friendship, “perhaps we can try and rewatch it tomorrow?”

“Er yeah, sure!” He nodded quickly as she climbed out of bed.

She flashed him one last tired grin as she slipped off his shirt. “Here. I’ll probably steal it again tomorrow.” She stated before walking toward the door.

With his eyes remaining on her as she left, Satan pulled the shirt close to his chest as he flopped back in his bed.

Was he crazy for thinking that perhaps MC liked him back?

#obey me #obey me shall we date

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nerdyfangirl67 · 4 years ago

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Everywhere But On - Criminal Minds Reader Insert

Pairing: Spencer x reader

Warning: Angst (so sorry guys but I’ve been riding the angst train lately and this one doesn’t have a fluff ending), language

Word count: 2028

The reader comes to realize that despite the way Spencer acts around her, he doesn’t feel for her any more than as a friend. She can’t move on, so she finds herself traveling, where she realizes that she will always love him.

A/N: Okay you guys, this one just came to me after listening to Everywhere But On by Matt Stell. I am sorry for the angst ending but I just couldn’t bring myself to write another fluff ending because sometimes shit happens and it doesn’t work out the way we want. Also, I did a little crossover, you have to really squint, so I hope ya’ll are okay with it. As always, I love requests and would gladly write something you guys want to see!

“I love you but I’m not in love with you.” The words float around in your head on constant repeat, relentless in their torment, just as they have been for the past three months. Those words would hurt coming from anyone, but they hurt all the more coming from your best friend, with whom you had been quietly in love with for the last year.

It wasn’t something that happened all of a sudden, your love for Spencer. But it was something that you had identified one casual Saturday while binge-watching Doctor Who with Spencer at his apartment. Sure, you knew you loved him as a friend; that much was obvious and had been for quite some time. What you hadn’t realized, at least until that Saturday in February, was that you had gone from loving him to being in love with him.

And if someone had asked you what it was that you loved about him, you would struggle to find specific things you loved about him. Because truthfully, you loved him for all that he was, is, and could be. You loved each part of him separately and you loved him as a whole. You had never loved someone so deeply and wholly before, and despite the fact that this should scare you, you couldn’t find yourself anxious for any reason when you had realized you were in love with Spencer.

You weren’t scared about being in love with Spencer Reid because you had never once felt as though he didn’t already love you. Sure the two of you would goofily sign ‘I love you’ to each other at random moments, but neither of you had ever said that you were in love with the other. Everything you did for each other echoed the feelings you shared for the other. Yet, despite knowing all this, you couldn’t be sure if he loved you the same way you loved him. Because of that, and an increasing, irrational fear that you might actually lose Spencer, you decided to tell him, a decision you would come to regret for a long time.

You had naively thought if you told him, he would be excited, maybe even pull you in for a hug (which he never did outside of either your apartment or his) or a kiss (if you were really lucky) and tell you he felt the same way. Instead, he responded with ten little words you would never forget.

“I love you but I’m not in love with you.” Simple words really. Yet you hadn’t been expecting, nor prepared, for them and they left you reeling. You hadn’t known how to respond so you had nodded your head quickly, already feeling the tears forming in your eyes, and ran. You barely stopped to grab your purse from your desk, completely forgetting about your jacket, before dashing out of the building. You hadn’t gone home, for fear that Spencer might have decided to explain himself, which you were sure he would try to do and was waiting for you at your apartment as a result. So you had waited until you knew Spencer would be at work, having already called Hotch and requested your vacation time, before you returned to your apartment. You didn’t stay long, just long enough to pack a suitcase, before you were back in your car, driving without a destination.

——-

You hadn’t planned on being gone a long time, just enough to clear your head and figure out how to get over your very unfriendlike feelings for Spencer. But a week quickly turned into two, which soon became three weeks, and then a month which soon became three.

You spent your time putting space between you and home, or more specifically you and Spencer, going to all the places you had bookmarked on the Internet and pinned on Pinterest as “someday” activities. You saw the Grand Canyon and Niagra Falls. You visited Yellowstone National Park and the Everglades. You stopped on the east coast and the west coast. Yet, anywhere you went, all you could see or think of was Spencer.

You saw him in the enthusiastic way the guide told you about the history of The Alamo. You thought of him when you visited, and viewed impressive books, at the Phillips Exeter Academy Library in New Hampshire. You felt him when an episode of Doctor Who came on TV late one evening in your deteriorated motel room.

It didn’t take you long to realize that no matter where you went, the memory of Spencer and your feelings for him would be close behind. You knew that you could travel anywhere but you couldn’t move on from him. You had never loved someone in the way you loved Spencer and you didn’t know how you would move forward from him, or even if you wanted to.

——

After three months of trying to find an escape from reality, you realize it's time. Time for you to go home and face the music. Time for you to push aside your one-sided feelings and move on. And as much as you recognized this, you knew it was far easier said than done. Because moving on meant leaving him, your best friend and the true love of your life, behind. It meant watching him move on and find that perfect girl, a girl who wasn’t you.

You had come to the realization that you would never be able to work side by side with Spencer, knowing that he didn’t feel for you as you felt for him. With that in mind, you knew the only thing you could do was ask for a transfer. You didn’t want to leave the area, but if it wasn’t possible for you to get placed with another division, like the White-Collar Crime task force, then you would have to. You had texted Hotch earlier in the day, asking if he was available for you to come in to talk to him. He has replied with a simple, “I’m here doing paperwork for the foreseeable future.”

You notice it’s just after five and figure there’s no time like the present to talk to Hotch. It’s a twenty-minute drive to the office from where you are and you spend the entire drive wondering what you’d do if you run into Spencer.

By the time you park in the garage attached to the FBI building, you still are no closer to knowing how to act if you see Spencer. You choose to take the stairs, to avoid any possible run-ins, and hurriedly make your way to Hotch’s office. A soft knock and a stiff “Come in” later and you are sitting across from Hotch.

In usual Hotch fashion, he is quick to get straight to the point. “Am I correct in assuming this conversation has something to do with your three-month absence?”

His words are like a slap in the face, although you are sure that is not how he meant for them to sound. You hadn’t realized how truly juvenile your disappearing act had been until now. You dip your head as you respond. “I would like to start by apologizing. I let you and the team down and that was never my intention.” Your voice is soft as you feel a wave of guilt wash over you.

His eyes soften as he gives you a tight nod and asks, “And what was your intention?”

You clear your throat as you weigh the negatives of telling Hotch the truth. But in the end, you choose to tell him everything, in hopes that he will be able to better understand your decision to transfer. “As you probably know, Spencer and I are close. But I, uh, came to the realization that I felt for him more than a best friend would. And I wrongly thought that it was two-sided. I poorly decided to tell him, only to have him tell me he didn’t feel that way, and it was devastating. I figured the best way to move on was to be away from him. And three months later, I realize that it will never happen, me moving on.” You pause, taking a deep breath as you feel dejection rise in your chest and tears threatening to fall. “I can’t work beside him knowing that I not only lost my best friend, but I also will never have him in the way I truly want to. So that is why I’m here. I would like to request a transfer, preferably one that takes place immediately. I don’t care about the division I’m put in, I just can’t stay in the BAU Hotch.” You finish brokenly, your heart squeezing at the thought that you would have to leave behind those who you consider family, for a fresh start somewhere else.

Hotch stares at you for a long time after you finish your improvised speech. You can feel him profiling you, but you don’t say anything because you feel as though you aren’t in the position to. Finally, he nods his head and says, “As much as I hate to lose you from the team, I can understand why you are asking for this request. I will get started on the paperwork tonight and you will hopefully have a new position by tomorrow midday.”

As you stand to leave, Hotch stands as well. You think he is going to shake your hand so you stick yours out. What you didn’t expect was for him to pull you into a gentle hug. After a moment, you hug him back. “It doesn’t get better, but each day makes the pain a little less.” He whispers into your ear. You squeeze him a little tighter in response before pulling back. You give him a sad smile before offering your thanks and leave.

You decide to visit a pub three blocks from your apartment for a much-needed drink. It had been a lot harder than you thought to ask for that transfer and the realization that you were leaving behind your family left you swimming in guilt and sorrow.

The pub was dark and smelled of stale beer. There were a few people sitting at the bar, but more were spread out at the tables. It was later than when you usually came, as you had stopped at your apartment and unloaded your suitcase, changed, and then walked here.

You choose an empty seat at the less populated side of the bar and order your favorite drink. It went down quickly and before you knew it you were ordering another. By the time you were on your third drink, you were starting to forget why you felt the way you did in the first place.

A deep, sensual voice sounds next to you. “Hey doll, what’s a pretty little thing like you doing drinking alone?” You turn to see a tall man with smoothed down brown hair and emerald green eyes standing beside you. He had on dress pants and a simple button down that fit him in all the right places, with a brown corduroy suit jacket. You grin stupidly, thanks to the alcohol coursing through your system, at his pick up line before answering, “Drowning my sorrows, I guess.”

“Well, someone as fine as you shouldn’t have sorrows to drown.” He smoothly answers, causing you to smile again.

“Maybe you can help me then handsome.” You respond, truly shocking yourself with your wonton answer.

He takes a seat beside you, extending a hand. “Tony DiNozzo. What’s your name doll?”

And with that, you find someone who truly helps you forget the lack of one Spencer Reid in your life, at least for the night. Because you knew, no matter how hard you tried, Spencer Reid would always be the one you couldn’t move on from.

#criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fandom #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds reader #reader #reader insert #criminal minds reader insert #imagine #fandom #fanfiction #spencer reid #spencer x you #spencer x reader #reid x reader #reid x you

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adapembroke · 4 years ago

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Dreamwork as a Spiritual Practice

Many of my most powerful spiritual experiences have happened in my dreams. I have looked up into the sky on a rainy night and heard the stars sing. I have gotten writing advice from a favorite author who died before I was born, and I have explored caves with an ancient hunter-gatherer. Dreams allow us to do things that are impossible in waking life, to hear voices that would otherwise be silent and go places that are inaccessible or don’t exist in the physical world. An active dream-life can be awe inspiring and terrifying, but dreams can also help us find meaning in our lives. They can help us grow and change if we take them seriously and use them as a tool for meditation and introspection.

In my experience, there are four types of dreams: processing dreams, shadow dreams, divinatory dreams, and spirit work dreams. Each of these types responds best to different types of examination. Though, individual dreams can have elements of more than one type.

In this article, I examine the four types of dreams, show you how to recognize them, and share how I work with them in my spiritual practice.

Processing Dreams

Processing dreams are a mashup of things that have happened over last day or two.

Example: Characters from Outlander (TV) were contestants on the Great British Baking Show. Dougal was angry because his cake collapsed after Jamie stomped around the tent.

I had this dream when I was reading the Outlander books before bed and binging the Great British Baking Show. Usually, dreams of this kind are funny and not deeply meaningful. They can be helpful on a practical level. Recent scientific studies suggest that we learn skills by practicing things we do when we’re awake in our dreams. As a focus for meditation, though, processing dreams aren’t very useful.

When I have a dream like this, I ask myself if things represented in the dream are taking up more space in my life than I’d like. After having the dream about Outlander and the Great British Baking Show, I decided to watch less TV but keep my reading schedule the same.

Shadow Dreams

In shadow dreams, I encounter needs, hopes, and fears that I haven’t been looking at closely enough in waking life.

Example: I was a teacher in a one-room school house filled with students who are talking over me, won’t listen, and don’t want to do their work.

Dreams are this type respond particularly well to Jungian-style analysis. In this way of looking at dreams, each character in the dream corresponds to a part of yourself, not just the point of view character. The plot tells you something about the way these parts of yourself feel about each other and how you live your life.

When I figure out that I’ve had a shadow dream, I journal from the perspective of each character in the story. Allowing each side a chance to speak helps me to learn what their needs are and how their needs aren’t getting met. This is an important step because I often think that I understand the issues at play in the dream, but journaling reveals the places where my assumptions aren’t correct.

When journaling about the dream about the one-room school house from the perspective of the teacher, I learned that my inner teacher was frustrated because my schedule was disorganized. Like a one-room school house, my day had a definite beginning and end, but my work and interests had no set place in my life, like students at different levels being lumped together under the care of one teacher. As a writer, I don’t have a boss imposing a schedule, so I didn’t have one. My inner teacher pointed out that without order, I spent my time on the things that “yelled” the loudest instead of on the things that were most important to me.

When I switched sides and journaled from the perspective of the students, I expected my inner student to whine about needing freedom. This was the story that I’d been telling myself, that there was a conflict between my need for order and my need for freedom and the best way to resolve the conflict was to give myself as much freedom in my routine as possible. Instead, I discovered that my inner student didn’t fight for its freedom. It only asked for kindness.

I realized that when I’ve tried to create a structured schedule for myself in the past, I was overly strict. I set unreasonable expectations, planning every minute of the day and refusing to change my routine when my mind and body needed it. I’ve learned a lot about self-care since then, and I discovered that when I tried to create a routine again I approached things with a more mature awareness of my own limits. As a bonus, I found that I had more freedom in the end because I knew when I’d met my obligations and my work day was over.

There are some who say that every dream is a shadow dream. In my experience, when a dream is a shadow dream, it is always obvious from the beginning that there’s something for me to learn from the dream, even if I don’t know immediately what it is. I’ve found that if I work too hard to find the hidden motivations in a dream, the interpretation ends up being trite or doesn’t stick. The shadow reveals itself when it’s ready. It can’t be forced by ruminating.

Divinatory Dreams

Divinatory dreams seem to predict the future or tell us things that are going on in the world around us that we would have had no way of knowing otherwise. These dreams are often dramatic, as if the universe is trying to wake us up to an awareness of our power.

Example: There was a war in a park in my city. When I woke up, I learned that, while I was asleep, there had been a shootout between police and a man having a breakdown not far from the park.

I have heard stories about people for whom divinatory dreams are an important part of their practice. Their dreams give them useful information that they can use in waking life. Scientists and artists sometimes seed dreams like this to help them solve problems. By musing on problems before they go to sleep, they often find that they dream about the answers to their questions. Depending on the source of the information (and the beliefs of the person having the dream), these might be thought of as either processing dreams or divinatory dreams.

Personally, I have not had much success seeding dreams like this, and I find that there is little I can do with divinatory dreams when I have them. The dream about the war in the park gave me a creepy anecdote to tell, but it didn’t tell me anything I really needed to know or wouldn’t have found out when I woke up. Worse, I had a spike in dreams about intruders in my home for a week after the shooting.

In my experience, divination dreams come when I’m not doing enough divination in my waking life. They’re a nudge to make it more of a priority.

Spirit Work Dreams

When I’m doing a lot of work with a spirit I particularly trust, I give them permission to work with me in dreams. I don’t have the ability to lucid dream, so for me, giving a spirit permission to work with me in dreams is a big deal. I’ve had spirits abuse this privilege in the past. Like Lady Poole from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, I’ve woken up exhausted after a night of spirit work dreams, as if I’d been working all night. Right now, only one spirit, my guide, has permission to give me dreams, and I ward my dreams against everyone else.

Example: I was in a school cafeteria getting food, and I was told by a faculty member to fill my plate with vegetables first. By the time I filled my plate with vegetables, all of the protein and grain dishes were being taken away because lunch was over. My guide appeared and told me that if I followed that advice to the letter, I would never have enough time to get my needs met.

In this case, I was given this dream because my guide wanted to have a conversation with me about the difference between rules and guidelines, a subject that was unlikely to come up in our conversations in waking life. I was embarking on the quest to schedule my life more strictly, and he wanted me to beware of meeting some needs completely at the expense of other needs. It’s better, he said, to meet a few needs imperfectly than to meet one need completely and the rest not at all.

At other times, my trusted spirits will give me dreams about experiences they want me to have that I can’t have in waking life.

Example: I was camping without a tent in the rain. While I was waiting to fall asleep in the dream, I had a mystical experience of oneness with nature.

My guide is very old and closely connected with the wild. I am limited in the ways that I can commune with nature, so he gives me wild dreams about sleeping under the stars and making homes in caves. This helps me to feel closer to him, and it helps me to understand his values and examine my own.

Sometimes, my guide uses dreams to give me direct, practical advice.

Example: A voice said, “It will be hard. Take this.” A disembodied hand gave me an apple.

In this case, with the help of Lee, I was able to figure out that I was on the edge of getting a cold, and I needed to take care of myself. Because of my guide’s warning, I rested and was careful with my diet, and I was able to avoid getting sick.

The best way to know if you’ve had a spirit work dream is to ask the spirits you work with. If you aren’t actively working with spirits, I suggest warding your dreams for the reasons I gave above.

This post was originally published on Aquarius Moon Journal on 7 February 2020.

#witchblr #dreams #dream work

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drunklander · 5 years ago

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Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 512

Looking for a way to spend Mother’s Day? Well, we here at Outlander have the perfect idea! Celebrate with the women you love by watching us gang rape grannie!

This episode is like the perfect storm of everything that is wrong with Outlander. The cast and crew saying it’s their strongest episode yet when it’s basically artsy gang rape. The CYA trigger warnings when the story would have worked perfectly well without including yet another rape. The kool aid-drinking fans yelling at and acting holier than thou at the fans who rightfully call out the massive problem this show has with rape and assault. The fans yelling at other fans because It’S iN tHe BoOk so it has to be included. The fans yelling at other fans for wanting to follow the books but not wanting rape every 0.5 seconds. The fans yelling at other fans to fuck off if they don’t like the show. The women in the cast throwing out trigger warnings while the men are radio silent or wanting the gladiators to face the plague and fight for their own amusement. It literally has everything.

And I am tired.

I’ve been in this fandom for six years and have had quite a journey. From first discovering the show and immediately devouring the books. The honeymoon period where I could headcanon out all the problematic bits. The getting deep into the fandom nonsense. The getting out of the fandom nonsense. The judging the fandom nonsense because it’s funny and they’re all idiots. The getting sick of the fandom nonsense because it’s not even fun to judge the dummies anymore. The becoming more and more aware that it’s impossible to whistle past the problems in the books and the show. The sticking around, holding out hope things might turn around and the initial magic could be recaptured. And finally, the giving up.

The books are trash. The show is trash. There are a handful of good scenes in each which can be enjoyed on their own, but as a whole, holy shit this stuff is not good. (Seriously, I tried to do a Fiery Cross reread before the season started. I started like a year ago and am still only at Jocasta’s wedding because I just don’t care enough to actually get through it.)

Which brings us here. I am tired. I have already ranted and raged and yelled and swore and wrote far too many words about the gratuitous overuse of rape in the Outlanderverse. It fucking has its own tag for fuck’s sake.

So here’s a recap. And then I think I’m done looking at this show in detail. Not because the idiot fans insist on coming to my notes to tell me to fuck off if I don’t like the show. Not because the crew are condescending douchecanoes. Not because the author is a misogynist garbage heap. But because spending an hour of my time for a few weeks out of the year to write these things isn’t worth it. I did it for as long as I did because it took so little time. So why not? But yeah, it’s not even worth that tiny commitment anymore.

And to the people who I know will @ me about how no one was forcing me to stick around and I could have quit any time, yeah, no shit captain obvious, I know that. Fuck off already. I stuck around because I really liked the little corner of the fandom that I’d found. I made some awesome friends. Most of those friends have since quit the fandom. I’m really glad to have them in my life outside of this little corner of the internet. And it was a fun writing exercise. I don’t really like the show anymore, but I enjoyed building an argument about why I don’t like it and think it’s bad that has valid points behind it. Especially considering how blindly overly adoring a bunch of the fandom is about it. But now I think I’d rather consume Outlander content as pretty people in pretty period costumes in gifsets. Or like, on in the background but not really paying close attention. Why not quit altogether? Because to quote the great Ron Swanson (I’m halfway through a Parks rewatch and I just love that show a lot ok.), I can do what I want. And besides, there’s like a fucking library’s worth of fics that I haven’t read and have been meaning to. And I like the characters enough to want to keep reading about them in stories that are better than the canon. (Bless you fic writers, blesssss.)

So. Was this whole ramble self-indulgent and overly serious for a fucking TV show? Absofuckinglutely. But please see the aforementioned Swansonism.

Alright, fuckos. Let’s do this.

This is a Roberts brainchild, isn’t it. *checks credits* Yup. Knew it. This feels very much like a Roberts special. In that he is probs quite pleased with himself but like, it’s crap.

Yes, we ARE doing ANOTHER rape story! But look! It’s a disassociation montage! It’s the ‘60s, get it?! There are callbacks! An orange from the king in season 2! A vase from season 1! A rabbit from season 3! An amber-looking dragonfly! Jamie with the young hair spouting off book lines! ApPrEcIaTe MuH aRt! We are so good at finding new and creative ways to rape our characters! Fuck off, twatwaffle. You are the worst.

Like, does Roger feel left out at this point? He’s only been hanged. Literally everyone else has either been raped, been sexually assaulted, or been threatened with rape and/or sexual assault.

“But it’s not gratuitous! Look! They’re all so different! Jamie’s was overly graphic and he got a half a season to brood about! We manged to not show much of Fergus’ (but still showed a thrust) because he’s a child and it was just a plot device for Jamie and not actually about him! Mary’s was about Fred! Claire’s with the king was about Jamie! Jamie’s with Geneva was shot like p0rn! Marsali being threatened by the sailors was to motivate Fergus! Bree’s was about the other people in the room and Roger! Claire’s really has no purpose because she’s already been kidnapped and beaten, and that is super traumatic, and we’re gonna wrap it up with a bow by the end of the episode!”

This fucking show, guys. This fucking show.

Bonus points* for the Black character spouting off the superstitious stuff.

*By bonus points I mean this show, and the books are absolute shit on matters of race. The books especially.

The cast and crew have 100% heard everyone’s thoughts on the overuse of rape in the Outlanderverse. And their response has been to include more and more of it. We had a whole season of one character’s arc being about her rape and literally as soon as that was resolved, they gang rape another character. It really does tell you as much as you need to know about them. Lazy. Fucking. Cowards.

Kidnapping not enough trauma? Let’s add some gang rape! Gang rape not enough trauma? Let’s add visualizing that your daughter and grandchild are dead! Just like Fred died! This show really brings trauma p0rn to a whole new level.

Called the Bree and Roger shit.

This scene with the men rallying to go save Claire is like another layer of fuck you. Bree, you stay home, men, give your hero lines and let’s have a getting ready montage. Because your hero moment is what this is really all about. And your manpain about killing someone. *screams into a pillow*

The petty side of me is happy that it was Fergus and Young Ian who are with Claire when they find her and not Roger. Her two sons...

Why yes, I am judging all of the fans who like get their panties all wet over Jamie being like “It is I who kills for her.” Like “yeah go ahead and rape and beat Claire within an inch of her life if it means the big strong man gets to come in and save her and say something intense.” Fuck off and go take a hard look at yourself and what that says about you.

“Was there an Indian there?” “Nope, he wouldn’t help you because LiOnEl but somehow was able to peace out when it was in his interest. Because he is as bad as the ones who actually raped you.”

The Bree and Claire hug makes me both sad and angry. I want to hug them both and take them out of this fucking place and tell them that they’ve been done dirty and deserved fucking better from the writers.

Glad Marsali gets in on the hug. Claire’s two remaining daughters.

Claire’s “I have fucking survived” speech is like the one time she she actually talks about herself not in relation to a man. It’s about her. Claire. HOWEVER! It is epically fucked up that a woman needs to check off all the trauma she’s endured to show she’s a strong character.

So. Fucked. Up.

The fact that we’re spending time on Roger’s manpain about killing someone also really tells us a lot about the show’s feelings toward women. Yeah, killing someone is a big deal. It’s normal and expected to have feelings about it. But the juxtaposition of Claire’s speech about all of her traumas with Roger being like yeah, I killed a guy who had kidnapped, beaten and raped your mom is like, read the room, bro/writers.

The fact that the men put Claire’s rapist in her surgery, her space, her place of healing, where she is able to be most herself, makes me want to punch each and every one of them in the throat. Like seriously. Fuck each and every one of them.

Also Lionel is like cartoonishly terrible. Not that nuance has ever been this show’s strong suit. But like come the fuck on.

Marsali killing Lionel is the one thing about this episode that I didn’t hate. The men are all like “We kill for Claire! Let’s all rally in this montage and go do the manly thing of defending the woman!” Marsali is just like, yeah, that’s my Ma you fucked with. She shows some agency. She doesn’t do it in a performative way for the other men or for Claire like the guys do. She just knows this fuck needs to die, knows it’s gonna be hard for her and might damn her soul (don’t worry Marsali, all that religion crap is bullshit), and does it anyway.

Marsali’s arc has been my favorite of this whole fucking series. The one bright spot I was hanging on to all of this season especially.

Her quick scene with Jamie doesn’t bother me like Roger’s does. Because Roger is like oh no, I killed a guy! Can you forgive me? For killing a rapist? Like fuck off, bro. And Marsali is like yeah, I killed a guy. I hope I’m not damned for it, but the guy needed to die so I did it.

Also like, Richard had potential to not be cartoonishly bad. But like nope. “He reaped what he sowed, but cLeArLy I’m gonna need to escalate this further. Because manly men can’t let shit go.”

Fuck all men, tbh.

*googles how to emigrate to Themyscira*

Jamie’s speech that’s like supposed to parallel Claire’s can fuck all the way off. Giving him the last voice over just underscores how this was all about men. Not Claire. But the men. Fuuuuck everything.

Look! Everything’s fine again! Back to normal! Peaceful for a bit! With a cheesy af on the nose storm coming! So you know something bad’s coming! In case you forgot!

And Jamie got a book line. So it’s all good now.

And don’t worry about Claire, y’all. She feels safe now. Her and Jamie fucked it out.

It’s amazing, in retrospect, that I ever let this story suck me in so much.

Happy Mother’s Day! See you on the other side of the hiatus.

#*#outlander starz #outlander 5x12 #drunj!der yells about outlander #rape in outlander

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theseerasures · 4 years ago

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Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2020

it’s that time of year again! *saddest toot from the party horn*

for those of you just joining us: it’s a “consume a different content every week for 48 weeks of the year” challenge. for a longer explanation, check out last year’s write-up here, and as always, feel free to pop in and ask questions about any and all of this content.

(same disclaimer as last year too: content for this project ONLY here, and not certain...*looks at my billion Sad Cop Lady posts*...hyperfixations.)

(man remember when i was big into X-Men comics earlier this year? better times than these, if only because no one's discoursing about Emma Frost’s woobie/war criminal ratio anymore--her w/w, if you will)

(...i swear at one point i didn’t exclusively like platinum blondes but alas)

Bitter Root (comic, 1 issue finished 1/1/2020): still very cool on a basic concept level, but runs into the Image Comics problem of just not having enough content to keep my interest beyond that. part of that is on me, for picking it up again BEFORE the second arc rolled out, but the first five issues didn’t really follow (or resolve) any cohesive story either, so...meh.

Immortal Hulk (comic, 3 trades finished 1/17/2020): still not gonna be something i care deeply about (maybe one of Bruce’s Hulksonas dyed his hair???), but i do want to give kudos to Al Ewing for sheer consistency in terms of sustaining this level of quality storytelling month by month for more than two years now. working with the dense archive of the Hulk mythos and managing to make it interesting and thoughtful is impressive even if i personally would not expend the same effort.

Disco Elysium (game, finished 1/18/2020): honestly i should have twigged onto what this year was gonna be like when the third thing i drew from the barrel was pure uncut Eastern European flavored depression. i faintly recall people ragging on it for being pretentiously cynical, but i actually thought its core slid more towards idealism than people give it credit for. also gratified that i haven’t heard anything about Robert Kurvitz using slave labor to finish it, which is a thing we have to say about our video games now!!! fun.

Watchmen (TV, 7 episodes finished 1/27/2020): i am a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof and I WAS RIGHT!!! honestly still cannot believe that he pulled off this highwire act with such deft aplomb. might be my favorite TV this year, which is a pretty high bar given how much TV i ended up watching.

On a Sunbeam (comic, finished 2/1/2020): Tillie Walden rightly deserves all the praise for inventive queer storytelling, but i will say that on reread--since i first read this as a webcomic--there ARE some issues with pacing here that clearly come from the foibles of its original intended medium. still just excellent, even if after some plot significant haircuts i was having trouble telling a few folks apart.

Lazarus (comic, 1 trade finished 2/8/2020): it’s so good and i want moooooorrrreee--though obviously Rucka and Lark have the right to take all the time they need. the newer longer issues work really well with the epic prestige drama vibes of the story! i’m into it.

The Good Place (TV, 4 seasons finished 2/18/2020): i’m gonna be super honest: i actually wasn’t a big fan of the finale, nor the last season as a whole. it felt like all of Eleanor’s flaws vanished for a majority of the season, and the Chidi-centric episode where they tried to give a legible justification for why he’s Like This was...i didn’t care for it. still, it’s so good and unique on the WHOLE that we’ll literally never get anything like this ever again, and that counts for a lot.

The Old Republic (game, finished 2/21/2020): it’s an MMO so it will never actually Be Finished so long as the servers aren’t shut down, but i caught up on the content i’d missed in the intervening months. Onslaught thus far has mostly been...kinda bland tbh; going back to Imps vs. Rebs after all the shakeups in the previous expansions feels like a waste.

High Road (album, finished 2/22/2020): someone should tell Kesha not to say that word!! otherwise i was very happy with this album, and happy FOR her even though we don’t know each other. being able to find joy again in the same genre of music you made while you were being horrifically exploited is very cool.

Young Justice (TV, 13 episodes finished 2/28/2020): given how much the middle stuff dragged--STOP KILLING YOUR HIJABI CHARACTER IN HORRIFIC WAYS--i was...actually kinda mad by how the end managed to stick the landing anyway. the day being saved by Vic’s self-acceptance and Violet’s sublime compassion was A+, and even the Brion/Tara switchup was a pleasant surprise, though it relied on me caring about Brion MUCH MORE than i actually did.

Manic (album, finished 2/29/2020): do people still care for/about Halsey? i feel like even That One Song that was on every tumblr gifset ever has kinda faded into obscurity at this point. this album was...okay. i feel like people give Halsey a pass for extremely obvious lyrical turns that they wouldn’t for other folks because of her subject material--which is fine. not really my cup of tea, but i also listened to lots of Relient K this year, so that’s probably a good thing.

Jade Empire (game, 3/10/2020): the only 3D-era Bioware game that didn’t franchise out, and for good fucking reason!!! the Orientalism and appropriation really haven’t aged well, and even beyond that the story was...standard Bioware faire. even my usual “my wife’s a bitch i love her” Bioware type didn’t do it for me, and i just ended up romancing no one. it did make me think a lot about what level of cultural borrowing is accepted nowadays, and why: people still look fondly at Avatar and talk about how ~accurate and respectful it was, for example, despite it being staffed almost entirely by white folks, and the Orientalism ALL OVER the monk class in DND is still fine for some reason.

Alif the Unseen (book, finished 3/31/2020): interesting to have read this AFTER reading The Bird King last year, because it highlights how the intervening years have shifted G. Willow Wilson’s thematic interest and improved her craft. i’m actually quite fond of how her characterization work is rougher here--Alif is extremely flawed to the point of being insufferable, but it makes his development by the end more satisfying. Dina is also just good and i love her

Baldur’s Gate (2 games, finished 5/31/2020): well, having finally finished the series i’m happy to say that it...still doesn’t really do it for me, sorry. any awesome story moments were overshadowed by the EXCRUCIATING inventory management system and the combat (i still don’t know what a THAC0 is and at this point i’m afraid to find out). these games crucially lack the Home Base that later Bioware games were so good about, and that (coupled with the huge cast of characters you can drop off and never see again) really hurts the intimacy for me. by the time we finally did get one it was the Hell Dimension in Throne of Bhaal, and i was just...trying to get through it. (yes, i did just say that about one of the most beloved expansions ever to one of the most beloved games ever.) THIS particular iteration of “my wife’s a bitch i love her” was very good, but the game wouldn’t let me romance her :(

The Underground Railroad (book, finished 6/19/2020): honestly what is there even left to say at this point! it was exactly as good as every critic on the planet said it was, even with my usual aversion to hype. draining and horrifying in turns but still insistent upon a future for Black folks.

Steven Universe (6 seasons and a mooooooviiieeee, finished 7/11/2020): yes, i DID finish the show and almost immediately begin a rewatch. this series is now one of my top five most formative things, and the amount of love and respect i have for it is incalculable. that said: i once again did not love how the central conflict of Future was resolved (just the resolution--i loved the finale just fine). for all of Steven’s breakdown was built up, resolving it with “EVERYONE HUG HIM UNTIL HE CRIES” felt...cheap, especially since up until this point the show had been so good about treating trauma and mental illness with the respect and nuance it deserves. it made me wish some of the earlier, less substantial episodes had been cut so we could spend more time at the end.

What It Is (comic, finished 8/19/2020): y’all i love Lynda Barry SO MUCH. for the longest time i was worried that One Hundred Demons was more a lightning in a bottle situation but every book of hers i pick up makes me feel obscure emotions i didn’t even realize existed. the compassionate way she’s able to describe her child self and how weird and fucked up she was (and still is) is honestly aspirational.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV, 5 seasons finished 9/26/2020): so here’s a reversal of what i’ve been complaining about with other shows: i was mostly lukewarm-to-warm about She-Ra, but the later seasons and the finale made me much more into it as a whole. more shows should improve in stakes and overall quality as they age tbh!! i still don’t actively love Catradora (my sole quibble with season 5 actually has to do with the way Adora kept backsliding as a character to make certain Plot/Relationship things happen), but i’m very happy for them nonetheless. i can certainly appreciate a show that will go for High Feeling over tight plot. dark horse standout moments: trees growing everywhere proving that Perfuma Was Right, and Hordak and Adora seeing each other--that weirdly intimate moment of recognition.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters (album, finished 10/7/2020): again i find myself not having much to say that no one else has said. it’s good! once again love it when an artist reclaims something they’d attached with negative affect (anxiety, depression, disordered eating) for better and brighter things.

Solutions and Other Problems (comic, finished 10/25/2020): i was very into Allie Brosh’s ambition with this book, which feels weird to say but i stand by it. it’s cool to see an artist try to make a new medium work for them instead of just sticking to what already works. not all the experimentation was 100% effective, but it was still delightful and occasionally devastating to read, so.

Legend of Zelda (3 games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Link Between Worlds, finished 11/1/2020): this was the third time i’d played Ocarina of Time, which made it the nice, comforting groove i settled into before Majora’s Mask blatted me in the face. i’m not usually a completionist Zelda person because...the gameplay in Zelda is bad, do not at me it just is, but i really felt like i HAD to be one for Majora’s Mask since the whole point is to get attached to the banalities of the town. i’m sure nobody’s surprised that i loved it, even if it gave me an existential crisis about how life goes on in the game for NPCs when you’re not there to save them from it, and there’s not enough time to save them all all the time (also not a surprise to anyone: Romani and Cremia gave Personal Feelings). Link Between Worlds...bad. not like in a “this is a bad story by every measurable gauge” way, but i was already struggling with the 2D playstyle shift enough that for the whole story to end with some “yes it’s v sad that Lorule is Like This but trying to steal Hyrule’s privilege is Even Worse Actually” noblesse oblige bullshit left a VERY poor taste in my mouth, this year of all years. i did audibly gasp when Ravio took off his mask, though. i’m currently playing Breath of the Wild in cautious increments; it’s the first time i’ve enjoyed early Zelda gameplay, but if they wanted fully voiced cutscenes i wish they got voice actors who...knew what words sound like.

folklore (album, finished 11/6/2020): my belief that Taylor Swift is Just Fine continues, i’m afraid. i LIKED this album, don’t get me wrong, and respect her constant drive to innovate, but i didn’t love it substantially more or less than any other Taylor Swift album. mostly i’m just tickled by how she thinks leaning into the indie aesthetic means borrowing Vita Sackville-West’s entire wardrobe, though i will admit to feeling Something when she swore in a song. i think it was like. savage vindication?? you go ahead and swear, Taylor Swift. you deserve it.

Shore (album, finished 11/19/2020): do people still care about the Fleet Foxes? i think there was some Drama with Josh Tillman a while back but i don’t remember where the discourse landed with who was being more problematic. it was nostalgic for me to listen to their new album--made me remember being an undergrad who exclusively listened to men who mumbled and played acoustic guitar all over again.

Star Wars (3 movies: original trilogy, finished 11/27/2020): there is So Much bad Star Wars these days that every time i rewatch the original trilogy i’m afraid that they will suddenly be bad, but guess what! they’re not. i love these children and their hot mess stories, i love that Lando doesn’t know how to say his best friend’s name. what stood out to me this time was the way Obi-Wan described the Force in A New Hope, which strongly implied that ANYONE can be Force Sensitive; that obviously faded with each subsequent movie, but part of me does wish they’d kept it.

X of Swords (comics, 22 issues finished 12/5/2020): i am enjoying Hickman’s X-lines!!! not so much here for the Grand Conspiracy or whatever, but the character work and highkey weirdness is fabulous--they FEEL like X-Men, despite all the shakeups in-universe. this crossover is a nice microcosm of all that: grandiloquently all over the place, but still full of cool standout moments and genuine hilarity. ILLYANA DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL MAGIC.

Fire Emblem (4 games: Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, finished 12/14/2020): this was the thing that i was closest to giving up early on, but i ended up hyperfixating on it instead. that’s a credit to what the gameplay does to my lizard brain more than anything else, because the story and character writing is...insipid. it was very bizarre to witness this franchise blunder around with its animal-people racism allegory around the same time i was getting back into RWBY, and ITS animal-people racism allegory blunders. Awakening was the first time i felt anything for the franchise beyond “teehee red units disappear make exp bar go up and brain go ding,” so i’m excited for more mature storytelling in subsequent games (they MUST get better. they MUST). the child husbandry thing is...very bad tho, and Apotheosis being “challenging” entirely through the game changing all the rules is also bad.

once again no vidya games that came out this year--i’ll probably pick up Spiritfarer or Hades after the New Year, though (or maybe TLOU II! but probably not. sry Laura and Ashley). more TV and franchises this year, which made me feel In Touch with the Children but was also kinda exhausting. nothing was so egregiously terrible i dropped it without finishing! in a year like this that feels almost like an accomplishment

#conspicuous media consumption

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eirian-houpe · 4 years ago

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Darkness Falls On Hyperion Heights - Chapter 1

Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings<br />Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold

Characters: Belle (Once Upon a Time), Rumplestiltskin|Detective Weaver, Wishverse Captain Hook | Detective Rogers

Additional Tags: Angst, Supernatural Elements, Hyperion Heights (Once Upon a Time), UST, Smut

Summary: When Librarian and Scholar Belle French arrives in Hyperion Heights in search of an artifact stolen from the British Museum and to enlist the help of Detective Weaver in that search, events in the Heights go from mildly intruiging to dangerously terrifying. Can Belle and Detective Weaver find the truth before time runs out?

Chapter 1 - The Coming of the Storm

Thunder rolled overhead and Detective Weaver turned up the collar of his jacket against the rain. They were huge, fat, tepid globules that fell from a slate gray sky that was fast becoming almost black, and not yet the sheet of water that was promised in the weather forecast. Weaver knew that - as they would have said in his native Glasgow - it was in the post.

He took a long, lasting look along the street opposite to Roni’s Bar. Daytime drinking for the next few days, if he wanted to be social, which was rare. He was on the late shift, six till two, not that he ever really stopped working. One thing about Weaver above all else, he was always on the go - always watching.

With a sigh he turned and hurried into the forty-second precinct building, where he almost immediately bumped into his partner. Rogers appeared to have been waiting for him, pacing the foyer for some time, judging by the look of relief that came over the desk sergeant’s face, and the way Rogers’ shoulders slumped as he sighed when he set eyes on Weaver.

“You do know what time it is, right?” Rogers said by way of greeting.

Weaver glanced at the clock. “Had to call in and see a guy before coming in,” he said absently

“One of your CIs?” Rogers asked.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but… yes.”

“Of course it’s my business. I’m your bloody partner!”

“Then start behaving like one instead of my mother.” Weaver retorted. The day was not getting off to a good start.

“There’s someone waiting for you, in our office,” Rogers said.

“So you’re out here,” he emphasized his words with cutting motions of his hands, “instead of in there talking to them… why?”

“Because she didn’t want to talk to me. She was polite enough about it, but made it pretty obvious that she would only talk to you.” Rogers answered. “Said she came straight from the airport, and judging from the number of suitcases we had to stow in the interview room, plans on staying quite a while.”

Weaver sighed, and shaking his head said, “All right. I’ll see what she wants,” he began to head toward his office, then shot back over his shoulder, “Mean time, Rogers, how about some coffee? It’s fuckin’ miserable out there.”

He ignored Rogers’ huff and headed into his office, snatching up a file from the basket on the door and flipping it open as he went through the doorway without raising his eyes from the paperwork.

“Detective Weaver?”

It was the accent that struck him first, and drew his eyes up from the file. Then, the breath went out of him in a rush. He couldn’t have said what he expected, but she wasn’t it. She was dressed in a golden yellow, floral patterned dress, which fit the curves of her body perfectly, and flared at the waist - he noted as she stood up to offer him a handshake - to fall loosely about her thighs to just above her knees. The dress was sleeveless, and probably afforded little protection from the chill that had settled in with the storm.

Remembering himself a moment later, he flipped the file closed and took her hand in his to accept the handshake. He hadn’t been wrong about the dress.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “It seems as though my partner neglected to tell me your name, Miss?”

“French,” she answered, not taking her chilled hand from the warmth of his. “Belle French.”

“Well, Miss French, please don’t keep standing on my account.” He dropped the file into the tray on his desk, and turned toward the door. “I can get you some cof—.”

“Actually, I’d prefer tea,” she interrupted adding somewhat bashfully as he turned back to look at her, “if you have it.”

“O’ course,” he said, and sticking his head around the office door he fixed the nearest uniform with a baleful stare and ordered. “You, find Rogers’ and get him to bring a tea along with my coffee.” He was about to head back into the office when a thought occurred to him, and he added, “And tell him from me, none of that shite he fob the suspects off with either. Something halfway decent. Go over to Roni’s if he has to.”

The startled young officer nodded, with a half terrified expression on his face, and scurried away to do as he was told, even before Weaver ducked back inside the office.

“You certainly have a way with words, Detective,” Miss French said as he returned to his desk.

“So I’m told,” he answered, settling himself into his chair, leaning back slightly to once more take in the small brunette in front of him, unable to ignore her obvious beauty, and seemingly having a hard time not to be affected by it as well. He cleared his throat after a while and asked, “So, what brings you to Hyperion Heights?”

He watched as Miss French picked up a leather satchel he hadn’t noticed, set it on her lap, and rummaged around in it for a moment. Then, she handed him a photograph.

He looked down at its glossy surface, taking in what looked like a large black arrowhead, laid on a piece of cloth next to a measuring tape. Its length from tip to the chipped butt end was five inches long. The surface of it seemed to shimmer, to ripple in a way that made him feel deeply uncomfortable for no reason he could put his finger on. Still, he wasn’t sure why what was obviously an archaeological artifact, had anything to do with him.

“Very nice, Miss French,” he said, handing back the photograph, glad to be rid of it, and forced himself to resist the urge to wipe his hand on his jeans. “But I don’t see what this has to do with the Hyperion Heights Police Department.”

“It’s not, Detective Weaver,” she said by way of an answer. “It’s not very nice at all. Most people that have been in its presence are profoundly disturbed by it… and it’s been stolen.”

“Stolen,” Weaver echoed at just the moment that the junior officer brought in a tray with two steaming mugs, a little jug of milk and a small bowl of sugar with a spoon stuck into it. He nodded to the young officer, and then gestured to the tray of beverages set down on the table. “Help yourself,” he said to Miss French. Then waited while she poured a drop of Milk into her tea. Only once they both had their drinks, and she had wrapped her hands around the mug in a way he found strangely endearing, did he prompted her to go on.

“Yes,” she said, confirming the object in question had been stolen. “From the British Museum. I work there.”

“Then surely the police department you should be informing of the theft is the London Metropolitan,” he suggested, “Not a force half way across the world.” He stopped as she shook her head.

“They weren’t interested,” she said.

“So, what, you thought you’d go chasing after it by yourself?” he found he was holding his breath.

“Detective Weaver,” she began, and he thought she sounded as though she was being overly patient with him. “The missing item is priceless. An ancient artifact of enormous archaeological and anthropological significance, and despite its… reputation,” he cocked an eyebrow at that but she continued unperturbed, “I could not let the theft go without investigation.” She pulled a journal of some sort out of the same satchel as before, that she still cradled on her lap, and set it on top of his desk beside the photograph. It was obviously well used, many of the pages had been turned time and time again, and in places cuttings almost spilled from the book where their folding had become less than perfect. “So yes,” she went on, and sounded irritated, “I went ‘chasing after it,’ as you so eloquently put it. I have spent months and months investigating numerous dead ends and some more promising leads that have left me with more questions than answers.”

“So why here?” he asked. “Why me?”

“Because those investigations led me to this little neighborhood of yours,” she said. “And you, sir, like the artifact in question, have a rather large… reputation, which most certainly precedes you.”

It had taken perhaps another thirty or forty minutes to persuade Detective Weaver to agree to look into the case and to provide her with whatever help, whatever leads he uncovered, but Belle wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t going to hold her breath.

He talked a good talk, but something within her knew that he had no intention of walking the walk to go along with it.

Belle rubbed her eyes with a sigh, and looked around at the hotel room she was in. It was basic at best, but at least it was clean. She could have looked further afield for a better hotel, closer in to Seattle’s city center for example, but she didn’t want to be so far from where the trail had led her, and so had settled for the only hotel that was available in Hyperion Heights itself.

She sat down on the side of the bed, and then, as she was wont to do lay back and curled up on her side and pulled out the notebook from the satchel that she had set beside the bed, along with a pen. She opened the journal to the next blank page - and noted that she would soon need to purchase a new journal - and began to chronicle her meeting with Detective Weaver; her impressions of him, and the next steps she might have to take in search of the stolen head of the Spear of Camlann.

It had been a complete accident of fate that had brought her to Hyperion Heights. For almost six months, no matter what avenue of investigation she pursued, the trail had gone cold and she began to think she would never be able to find the missing artifact. Then, while cataloging the Dark Ages exhibits and texts, she came upon a truly obscure version of the Arthuriad of which, in all her years as a scholar and archaeologist, she had never previously been aware.

To be certain that she hadn’t taken herself off on a fool’s errand, she peered again at the badly reproduced photograph that showed the text. It was written in the English of the Dark Ages, and the hand that had set down the account was spidery at best, and in places took many moments to read the intended words, even though she had already written a rudimentary translation in the later pages of her journal.

Swá fæder ond dóc dyde beadu æt gefilde Camlann, se táhspura Caliburn áhniend clēafan wiðinnan bodiġ Mordredh, swá héafod ahyfend gardena wiðinnan Brytenwealda…

Belle stopped squinting at the photograph, setting it down as she sat up and reached for the note book in which she kept all of her findings and flipped to the page on which she had written her translation, and beneath, her more detailed thoughts on what she had read.

Anyone that knew the Legend of King Arthur, in any one of its many forms and re-tellings knew of the rivalry that grew between father and son even after they were partially reconciled against Morded’s mother - Arthur’s sister, or half-sister in some versions - knew that both the King and the pretender had been mortally wounded on the field of Camlann. Before she had discovered this text, however, Belle - and she suspected few others - had known of the damage wrought to each of the weapons involved in the final battle, nor that the tip of each had lodged with the bodies of the two men. Nor did many know that each had been removed and preserved. Belle had known nothing if it until she had unearthed the fragile pages in the archive of the British Museum, apparently as forgotten as the artifact itself.

She flipped the page of the book to the next page, on which she had reproduced and translated the words on the page which spoke of the anguish of the author as he documented his dismay at having to bind the woman he had loved to the blade he had made of the broken portion of the sword of legend…

“In order to contain the darkness wrought inside of her,” she murmured, reading aloud the words she had written, letting her thoughts go as she did. “Never shall I forgive myself for my lack of foresight which allowed this - which I allowed. I can only hope that my intervention is in time, and that the balance of its power, in the tip of the Spear is enough.”

It was far fetched at best. She was not a superstitious person, and certainly had cause enough throughout her life to abandon childish games, belief in Santa Claus, fairies, and the existence of magic, for good or evil at an early age. However, something about this account, and about the chain of access that showed who had viewed this document, when and where, had somehow made a believer out of her. Investigating living persons was, after all, a far easier undertaking than piecing together the events of something over 1500 years ago.

Turning the page once more, she stared at the drawing she had made - a copy from the pages she had studied - of a dagger with a wave edged blade, highly decorative along its length, beside and around the etching of a name, which as she looked, she could have sworn the letters swam, wavered and changed.

#rumbelle #woven beauty #angst #supernatural elements #hyperion heights #UST #eventual smut #Darkness Falls on Hyperion Heights

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frumfrumfroo · 5 years ago

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What are your favorite movies and TV shows outside of SW? I’m looking for new things to watch since SW was so disappointing

My tastes are pretty eclectic, so I will stick to just things that are either similar to sw or are in the reylo-esque romance wheelhouse and have happy endings:

Chuck. It is a goofy, light-hearted action-adventure show with extremely endearing characters and a very prominent central romance (seriously, heavy romance and there is a lot of payoff for it, you will be FED- it's kind of slow burn but also shockingly NOT slow burn, they are deep into it pretty much immediately). The main couple is the classic Stoic Badass gradually softened by an innocent they have to protect who is a liability in battle but full of the Power of Heart. Chuck is The Heart btw. He is of that vanishingly rare male Beauty (of B&tB) type. He's incredibly generous and open, Sarah is prickly and closed-off. It is Quality. Very much a gender-swap of your typical cliche anime couple lol. I would recommend stopping at the mid-season finale in season 4, because it's downhill from there. The beginning of season 3 is very rough, but it's definitely worth it to stay for the back half, imo. There are several great endings to choose from before things go to shit, so we don't need to talk about the finale. Probably the most tonally similar to SW thing possible without being high/space fantasy. More humour, more silly, but definitely has a spiritual kinship. Has the best THE BEST 'secret revealed' scenes I have ever seen in anything. If you're into that and were hoping for that in ep IX, you need to watch Chuck.

The Shop Around the Corner. 1940 romance/drama film. You've Got Mail is a remake of it. Jimmy Stewart being profoundly adorable, Frank Morgan (aka the Wizard of Oz), various amusing side characters, and an absolutely deathless double blind 'secretly in love with the workplace nemesis' plot that can and probably has been a great reylo AU.

Mirromask. Fantasy/coming-of-age film. Touted as a 'spiritual successor' to Labyrinth by the filmmakers (one of whom is Neil Gaiman) and let me tell you, that is extremely apt. Beautiful, magical, laden with symbolism and Mask Discourse, and has a great ship. I quote it regularly.

Speaking of which, I'm sure you've seen Labyrinth? If you haven't seen Labyrinth, drop everything and watch Labyrinth.

Legend (the Ridley Scott director's cut, not the theatrical cut). Sumptuous fairy tale, runs on proper fairy tale logic, stunning to look at and overall captivating. Tim Curry. Tim Curry as a lonely tragic lord of darkness who tries to seduce the heroine and has drippingly overwrought monologues.

Howl's Moving Castle. Fairy tale adventure/romance film. Beautifully animated, has the ending you want.

The Silence of the Lambs. Thriller/drama film. Actual masterpiece. Use it as a gateway drug to read the books and rejoice that Clannibal is canon and it is spectacular. Just SotL and Hannibal, you don't need to read the other two. Stan Clarice Starling and revel in that ending. Most triumphant 'villain'/heroine ship of all time (he is not technically a villain but for shorthand's sake).

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Terry Gilliam 1988 fantasy/adventure film. THE TRIUMPH OF IDEALISM OVER CYNICS I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW HEALING IT WAS TO WATCH AFTER THE TROS BULLSHIT HIT. Jonathan Pryce's spiritual villain is basically Chris Terrio and it is cathartic to see imagination and sentiment conquer him.

Sabrina. 1995 romance film. Modern fairy tale with Harrison Ford. Rejecting what you thought you wanted all your life for the thing you actually need, growing up but still believing in magic, beautiful character development across all the leads. Could be (and is irrc) a fantastic reylo AU.

The Scarlet Pimpernel. 1934 adventure film. High romance, secret identities, play-acting, people who aren't at all what they appear to be, falling in love with your own spouse, Big Heroism, guile and wit and audacity. It makes me do little kicks like a happy baby. This is one of the 3-5 films constantly tied for my favourite film of all time. There is a good quality rip free on youtube. Watch it and fall in love with Leslie Howard (this is possibly my favourite acting performance of all time).

Oh, related note. Pygmalion 1938 or My Fair Lady. (The musical is based on this film and borrows from it heavily, including its much more romantic ending compared to the original play.)

The Mummy. 1999 action/adventure/romance film. Very tonally similar to sw. A fucking great time, A+ characters.

EVER AFTER. 1998 romance film. The flawless and perfect and best ever Cinderella adaptation. This is the most satisfying film in history, maybe, the ending is so good it is amazing it exists. Also, it has Richard O'Brien being slimy. Huge selling point. Grapples with identity and stewardship, is brilliant.

Fruits Basket. drama/romance anime. I haven't watched the new version yet, but it's following the manga so I know the story. The original anime didn't do the whole plot (because they caught up with the source material) but it's wonderful and I still recommend it. The central ship is (spoiler.........) a B&tB type where we eventually discover the main love interest both feels like a figurative monster and turns into a literal monster. He has an incredible speech about his relationship with people's fear, it makes me weep. I called the endgame from the first episode and always thought it was obvious, but there is a red herring love triangle dynamic. It's really not annoying, though, because it is a red herring. (I hate love triangles)

I am Dragon. Russian monster romance film. Beautiful, simple fable with a really great heroine.

Jane Eyre. 1943 Gothic Romance film. It's Jane Eyre, byronic hero x sensible heroine love story with much atmosphere and Gothic drama. I stan this version because I am an Orson Welles fangirl and I'm also not convinced it can be improved upon. Elizabeth Taylor's film debut btw.

Hellboy. 2004 action/adventure/romance film. Defying destiny, reconciling identity, monster romance. The complete package and a great time. Tonally similar to SW and probably thematically closest to it out of this whole list. Don't watch the sequel.

Beauty and the Beast 1987 tv series. Exactly what it says on the tin. Deals with the classic B&tB themes, but in a different way. He's not cursed and will never transform into an ordinary man. The first season is very episodic and 'case of the week', but the second season gets more into character drama. It's dated, but if you give it a chance you can get past some of the cheese factor and it's really a unique experience. Its concerns are SO atypical that it feels like something fandom would make rather than a mainstream network show. It was so massively, insanely popular with women at the time that a record of Vincent (the beast) reading poetry topped the album charts. Also Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Stop at season two. Point of interest: George RR Martin wrote for this show.

Stargate (the movie not the series) sci-fi fantasy about a nerdy guy who accidentally a hero.

Possession. 2009... mystery/supernatural/romance. Okay. This is a whole thing. Lee Pace and Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's based on a Korean film I've never been able to find for some reason, but being Hollywood they ruined the romanticism and nuance of the original in the theatrical cut to make a shitty punative ending. However. If you buy it on dvd and go to the alternate ending (which follows the original story) with around 20 minutes left (scene after Lee Pace's character wakes from a bad dream-go to deleted scenes and select the alternate ending), you will get a very, very interesting character study/thriller/redemption about sincerity within deception, compassion, and a major question about second chances with a positive answer. It's kind of dark and kind of astonishingly idealistic at the same time. The heroine makes a very powerful choice, twice over. It's fascinating. If you're into the conflicted and uncertain period in reylo, the part where he is most ambiguous, and you wanted more of that and much darker shades to it, you might be really into this. Also, it should be noted, there is a MASSIVE height difference and they show it off. The film is flawed (and the seams show on the Hollywood rewrite) but idk, it's fascinating. Shocking to me that they even got to shoot the original ending. It is pretty balls to the wall with its themes on forgiveness.

I would recommend getting into kdramas because there is a wealth of female-gaze tropey amazing content, but always check the ending before getting invested. My all-time fave is the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, but it's not sw related at all lmao. It has a happy ending with all the elements you'd want, but it's not satisfying in execution, so that's it's major flaw and I find that pretty common with kdramas. One that is maybe more relevant is My Love from Another Star, which has a hero who is a little bit like Ben in personality. The heroine isn't my favourite, though. It does have a decent ending.

Oh yeah- brain fart. Kurosawa films and classic westerns were both very influential on SW. Or you can combine both and watch The Magnificent Seven.

#this somehow ended up a wall of text??? I'm so embarrassed #anyway it should be fixed now #recs #anyway 40s movies are fantastic they used to CHURN OUT rom coms and even the bad ones are entertaining #and they were not in the romance ghetto they had prestige actors and directors #I don't know what happened and why this isn't done now because that shit was profitable #another edit:#I messed up my directions on Possession bc I first saw the alt ending on YouTube from the fridge point #but actually the full thing starts way earlier and covers more of the loose ends than I remembered #so I've fixed that now as well #(because I just rewatched it after writing this rec) and serious SERIOUSLY someone watch this movie and scream about it with me #I can't stress enough how important it is you switch to the alt ending and watch that INSTEAD of the theatrical cut but but but #If you do - OMG the ending is incredible #the coded conversation the subtle optimism #it is a meeting place where we Soft Reylos and the edgier villain/heroine stans can meet in the middle

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illgiveyoumygavichal · 4 years ago

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I don’t know why I wrote this, or why I wrote so much. Gomen.

So I just re-watched The Scene while I’m actually awake and coherent and I blasted the volume with my headset so I could hear every little thing and while it’s pretty clear they were filmed separately(?) from a writers point of view, the dialogue and reactions made sense --- not the ‘all gays go to super-hell’-bit... there’s no excusing that, but it was foreshadowed a long while ago (hence why I’m not 100% surprised that The Scene even happened since it was obvious that the character in questions’ ‘moment of true happiness’ would be a confession the moment the deal was made. I still think they’ll end on a ‘reset the universe back to point A to prevent point B’-type to just be like... well you already know the story so even if it’s ending, it’s not really ending but going on and on and on in a paradox because the whole show is convoluted what with the time-travel and parallel universes and other dimensions and shit.

Not my point, I started rambling. Uh... Click the ‘read more’ for more? Gods, I can’t believe this is what spurred a real-ass post from me...

If anyone wants to discuss this, please do. But don’t be an ass about it please, I’m just here to have a discussion.

Anyways, Jensen’s acting was flat. Like he wasn’t into the script at all. Like he totally believed that this went completely against the character he’s supposed to play - and he’s not really wrong, but you can see this a lot in movies and tv shows where the actors disagree with the writing and direction that it’s reflected in their performance.

While this scene in particular seems like the actors were shot apart and chopped together, I think they were both very much in the know about the script. Misha gave it his all, you could hear him thanking the audience for watching his performance. His in-character confession was just as much his ‘thank you’ and it shows - but while his whole speech was likely one good take (probably after a long day, especially since every one working on this show had to work around covid-19 safety procedures) Jensen’s was probably multiple takes, with the good shots being chosen and patched together to make him seem a least a little like he isn’t completely refusing the script.

As for the characters and the writing, it worked. Now I’m no expert in homosexual relationships but I’m very queer, as is my s/o, so I’m gonna try to not stick my foot in my mouth for this part. While homophobia is in no way acceptable, it’s understandable why Jensen isn’t into this particular pairing: The fandom shoved it down his throat, down the producers throats, until it was made canon. One thing that sucks the life out of creators is self-entitled fans. Yeah it’s nice to show your support and love of a content, but you shouldn’t be shoving your ideals for the content into the creators faces. It’s just uncouth.

Rambled again, sorry.

Cas’ speech was wonderful. He clarified his love for Dean by leveling his love for everyone and everything first, and then showing how his love for Dean was stronger than those - but stronger because of them. This way, in describing the care and love he has, Cas can be sure Dean understands that his love for him is a different kind of love without worrying about Dean being confused about his meaning when he’s already gone. Sorry I’m trying to figure out how to word this.

An example for clarification: A tells B they love them, but then they leave/die/whatever, and without clarification B might assume that it was a familial/platonic love - like saying you love your parent/sibling/friend. However, if A prefaced with a confirmation of familial love to B and then confessed their love for B, there is a better chance for understanding.

And from the way we see Dean shut down after the Empty takes Cas and Billie, completely ignoring Sam’s calls (which, after what he just learned from Billie as well as knowing Sam is in pain from losing Eileen - and everyone - is abnormal) in addition to not really moving from where he was thrown and burying his face - while SOBBING - I think it’s safe to assume he understood Cas’ confession as something more than family. Like, we’ve seen them ‘lose’ Cas before and Dean wasn’t as broken up about it as he was this time. Sure he was angry, but he’s always angry - but this time he isn’t angry.

Additionally, Dean didn’t outright reject Cas. He said “Don’t do this, Cas.” Which could easily be interpreted as ‘how fucking dare you confess to me when you’re about to die, thus immediately breaking my heart’ - which, if you’re really reaching for straws, could be a ‘wow, so my feelings would’ve been reciprocated if I actually had the balls to confess - not that it matters because apparently if I did confess you’d literally be so happy you would die.’ Ultimately, it’s a lose-lose-lose situation.

To add on to Sam’s phone call, when we see him hang up after leaving the silo we could assume he first tried calling Cas and then called Dean meaning that since Cas was taken, Dean sat there disassociating and trying to figure out wtf just happened when Sam snapped him back to reality - thus interrupting his compartmentalizing and forcing him to feel, because Dean hates feelings.

And yeah, the whole ‘Bury your Gays’ trope is shitty, but this is Supernatural: a horror-drama tv show where People Die and unfortunately, because most of the characters that die are side characters, the queers die mostly because they’re side characters and side characters are expendable. It fucking sucks, especially now that they are using LGBTQIA+ to boost their views at the END OF THE SERIES. Honestly, would be more acceptable to have it be a thing a few seasons ago, but they also have to work with the actors to even produce the show - and if the staring actor isn’t comfortable with certain themes, they can’t really force him without the show crashing and burning - which, in good old capitalism, a little homophobia to conserve their money-maker is normal. I don’t even know where I’m going with this.

Luckily, this is Supernatural, and Supernatural doesn’t like leaving people dead - even at the end of the series. There are a few possible endings they could go with, but through speculation there could be more without noticing.

A) Chuck taunts the brothers, probably tortures them more just ‘cause, before simply ending everything.

B) Amara somehow takes over Chuck - or they properly combine and suddenly remember why they made everything.

C) The boys give up and accept their fate.

D) The boys don’t give up and go out fighting.

E) Somehow they negotiate with Chuck and exchange themselves for everyone else.

F) Chuck hits the reset button, and this time he’ll make the boys more controllable.

G) The boys kill Chuck, but in the sudden power imbalance, the universe eliminates all supernatural beings and just create a mundane world - whether the boys are part of the world or not is up in the air.

H) Everyone is in the Empty now cause there’s no place left to exist but the Empty - since for some reason the Empty is more limbo than purgatory, but it makes sense.

I) The Empty is piiiiiissssssssed that Chuck suddenly made everything stop existing and then eats Chuck because Chuck will be loud making new things - or because Chuck will be a threat to the Empty... or he just wont let the Empty sleep. God what even is the Empty? Like, really, shouldn’t they be all-powerful - moreso than Chuck - since, without God there is nothing and without anything existing wouldn’t everything/nothing be Empty?

J) Empty eats Chuck 2020 - and the show ends just like that.

K) Chuck, to prevent being eaten by the Empty, brings everything back to put some cushion between him and the Empty - or gets the boys to kill the Empty in exchange for their world back sans God. (Their own little playpen that they can do whatever they want with.)

L) Dean kills Chuck with Death’s Scythe.

M) Sam and Dean somehow kill Chuck and in the power imbalance, replace him. (I’ve had this theory - unspoken though - before where Dean becomes head honcho in Heaven or Hell and Sam takes the other spot, no luck on this one yet.)

Either way, two episodes left to find out what the fuck is going on.

Next episode will be dramatic and sad as Sam, Dean and Jack reconvene - probably with Sam and Jack stopping Dean from giving up. Also, Jack will probably get dusted too - I’m surprised he didn’t go at the end there.

HONESTLY by the title of the episode, I think option K if more likely... but Chuck will probably be like... yeah here take it idgaf anymore. The road home will be very epilogue-y with flashbacks and shit to tie everything up and be all ‘They lived happily ever after.’

I don’t even know anymore... why can I write this much over a stupid show but not for like... a book or something.

#wtf #spn #theories #review #destiel #i guess #what is wrong with me #imagine writing 1.5k words #about a show that's about to end #feel free to interact

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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Pluralistic: 25 Mar 2020 (National Emergency Library, Kaiser threatens nurses, no more O'Reilly events, White House pastor's coronavirus funnies, automatic bill-relief notices, Mat Ricardo's lockdown TV, Xi's internal enemies, coronavirus meets immigration detention, doctors hoard choloroquine, toilet paper separator, Conzealand goes virtual, the Postal Plan, Volante's masks, and more!)

Today's links

Internet Archive lifts lending restrictions on ebooks: They're calling it the "National Emergency Library."

Kaiser threatens to fire Oakland nurses who wear their own masks: They're treating positive patients from a cruise ship with insufficient PPE.

No more O'Reilly events: We've been here before, kinda.

Trump's Bible study teacher thinks coronavirus is God's wrath: For homosexuality, China, environmentalism, Catholics, and women in the workforce.

A chatbot that petitions companies for financial relief during the crisis: Donotpay's robot lawyer is here for you.

East London showman Mat Ricardo's Youtube playlists: Lockdown TV for "comedy, variety, circus, magic, dance, music."

Xi's enemies sense weakness: Autocracies are only as good as their last crisis-response.

Locked down in a lockup: Coronavirus meets immigration detention.

Doctors hoard choloroquine: MDs to lupus sufferers, "Drop dead."

Toilet paper separator: Covid crafting for household essentials.

Conzealand goes virtual: The first time a Worldcon isn't in person since WWII.

Posties are key to America's emergency response: The only agency that could deliver covid meds to every US household in a single day.

Volante's masks for covid responders: Streetwear for Superheroes.

This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, current reading

Internet Archive lifts lending restrictions on ebooks (permalink)

The amazing people at the Internet Archive maintain a digital lending library: they buy and scan one copy of every book (pretty much every book, ever) and lend it out to one person at a time.

They've just announced that during the crisis, they are lifting the one-borrower-at-a-time restriction and allowing unlimited borrowing, "to meet the needs of a global community of displaced learners". They call it the "National Emergency Library."

https://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/

It's got more than a million titles.

https://archive.org/details/nationalemergencylibrary

They're calling on all who can afford it to buy books to support authors and booksellers during the crisis, Authors can also request to have their titles removed:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QjErbouWG7pUlzcxPcRk4YEtbYs8ItlVTgLa1DfGh68/edit

It's a bold move, but it's got widespread support. Here's a list of endorsers. I signed on too.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vkl3RX4CzpRTQsoG1tsdHC0foYiU7A8U_Vt1UyVboP8/edit

Kaiser threatens to fire Oakland nurses who wear their own masks (permalink)

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland are treating patients from the Grand Princess cruise ship, at least 21 of whom have tested positive for covid-19. The nurses are working without adequate PPE, thanks to a national shortage (and asshole hoarders).

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/21/oakland-coronavirus-hospital-kaiser/

Nurses who report for work wearing their own N95 masks have been threatened with immediate dismissal for "insubordination."

Akela Lacy from The Intercept asked Kaiser's Marc Brown about it, but he ducked the question.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/kaiser-permanente-nurses-coronavirus/

The nurses say that their supply cupboards are locked down, and they're being asked to treat potentially infected patients whether or not they can find someone to unlock the supply cupboard.

No more O'Reilly events (permalink)

I attended my first O'Reilly conference in, I think, 1997? And I sponsored my first O'Reilly con, the first P2P con, in 2001 (?). I spent years on the committee for the Emerging Tech conference, and I've keynoted more O'Reilly cons than I can recall.

These events have been some of the most important gatherings I've ever attended: places where I made lifelong friends and collaborators (I first met my wife at an Etech con), and learned so much.

This is (obviously) not a good time to be in the event business. For perfectly good – and nevertheless so, so sad – reasons, O'Reilly has just exited the in-person conference business.

Forever.

https://www.oreilly.com/conferences/from-laura-baldwin.html

"Without understanding when this global health emergency may come to an end, we can't plan for or execute on a business that will be forever changed as a result of this crisis. With large technology vendors moving their events completely on-line, we believe the stage is set for a new normal moving forward when it comes to in-person events."

The covid collapse feels a lot like the post-911/dotcom crash moment. That was when we lost the Etech conference, whose focus had always been "what are the most speculative things the weirdest nerds are doing?" No one had a budget for that kind of thing after the crash.

The dotcom crash and the loss of Etech were hugely traumatic, but there WERE silver linings. Etech's crash begat FOO Camp, consistently the best events I've ever attended – small gatherings of smart weirdos who programmed their own conference in realtime.

It also created a brief moment of breathing space in tech, which had its origins in driven tech enthusiasts but had been steadily colonized by buck-chasers who upped sticks and quit when the money disappeared from the sector. For a brief moment, mid-decade, people who wanted to build meaningful technologies for users – not investors – could hire engineering talent and find office space. That was ended by the finance bubble that shattered in 2008, but for a while there, it was good.

It's brutal to think that I'll never go to another O'Reilly con, but my hopeful inner voice tells me that there might be something as wonderful on the horizon as FOO Camp. I'm so sorry for all the O'Reilly conference staff, who are amazing and have done so much good work.

As O'Reilly CEO Laura Baldwin writes, "No offense to 'Netflix and chill' but how about we move toward 'Code and conquer' as our new mantra during these trying times?"

Trump's Bible study teacher thinks coronavirus is God's wrath (permalink)

Wanna hear about an extreme religious far-right bigot who thinks that coronavirus is God's punishment for Chinese excess, American tolerance for homosexuality, and environmentalism?

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/trump-cabinet-bible-studies-coronavirus/

Ralph Drollinger is an evangelical pastor. He says Catholicism is "the world's largest false religion." He says women working outside the workplace is against scripture. He runs Capitol Ministries, whose goal is to have 200 ministries in 200 world capitals.

Drollinger may sound like a garden variety Christian Taliban, but he's awfully distinguished.

For one thing, he runs regular Bible study classes…at the White House.

His scriptural lessons: God would approve of kids in cages. God also wants lower taxes on rich people.

His twice-weekly Capital Hill Bible classes are regularly attended by 52 GOP lawmakers, sponsored by Kevin McCarthy [R-CA] and John Thune [R-SD].

His Wednesday White House Bible study classes are attended by Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Alex Azar, and Mike Pompeo. Pence, too!

His organization has received official endorsements from Joni Ernst, James Lankford and other GOP senators.

This anti-Catholic, homophobic, sinophobic, anti-enviromentalist, lunatic is squarely in the mainstream of Republican thought.

A chatbot that petitions companies for financial relief during the crisis (permalink)

The $3/month DoNotPay service has added a new covid-19 service: automatically petitioning the companies that bill you for mercy based on the coronavirus econopocalypse.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/25/21192765/donotpay-rent-bill-delay-chatbot-coronavirus-extension-laws-pandemic

Using a chatbot, you determine which of your bills are eligible for relief. Then it generates a "compassionate and polite request" seeking help. If the company does not comply, it follows up with a firmer letter citing relevant state/federal laws.

https://donotpay.com/

East London showman Mat Ricardo's Youtube playlists (permalink)

Under normal circumstances, showman MatRicardo is either traveling around doing his juggling and conjuring act, or hosting amazing variety show nights in east London. Neither of those are an option, now, obvious.

Instead, Ricardo is curating playlists of "comedy, variety, circus, magic, dance, music and other kinds of culture and entertainment to distract and amuse."

https://www.matricardo.com/blog/2020/3/17/lockdown-tv

https://www.matricardo.com/blog/2020/3/24/lockdown-tv-week-2

Highlights:

Kids in the Hall: "I speak no English"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vgoEhsJORU

Gene Kelly: "Summer Stock"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFJrV3pI5Zs

"The Knife-Throwing Mother & her Children (1950s)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHxodb2uUhQ

Mat Ricardo: "How to charm a German audience"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ECcHLvRYA

Xi's enemies sense weakness (permalink)

Autocracies are intrinsically unstable because their have-nots (who tend to be numerous) believe that they have no path to becoming haves, and see no legitimate purpose to preserve the social order.

China has stabilized its autocracy by simultaneously lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty and by using internet surveillance to both neutralize dissidents and spot its most corrupt and dangerous politicians.

But under Xi, internet surveillance has primarily become a weapon for spotting and neutralizing dissidents, and less so a way of spotting self-dealing technocrats and shutting them down. This created "authoritarian blindness," which meant Xi didn't spot or respond to Wuhan in good time.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/24/pluralist-your-daily-link-dose-24-feb-2020/#thatswhatxisaid

This failure ruptured Chinese public confidence in Xi, and emboldened his critics. Ren Zhiqiang (a party "princeling" whose father was a top Mao official, who made a fortune in real-estate and has been an outspoke Xi critic) issued a "viral" jeremiad against Xi this month.

Ren's post, "An official call to arms against Xi: The clown who insists on wearing the emperor's new clothes," spread on Twitter and other foreign services (he has been banned from Wechat for years).

https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/as-virus-recedes-in-china-anti-xi-revolt-spreads/

Ren disappeared shortly thereafter and is said to have been sentenced to 15 years in a secret prison near Beijing where his interrogators have been ordered to mete out "harsh treatment" to the 70-year-old.

Ren is a bellwether for other Chinese power-brokers, many of whom resent Xi and his power-consolidation techniques, such as his 2018 corruption purge that preferentially targeted corrupt officials who supported Xi's rivals.

https://web.archive.org/web/20181222163946/http://peterlorentzen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lorentzen-Lu-Crackdown-Nov-2018-Posted-Version.pdf

These grandees have been sharpening their knives for Xi for years, and coronavirus has made him vulnerable. Ren was the first to turn on him publicly, but I'm sure he won't be the last.

Locked down in a lockup (permalink)

You know what's more terrifying and frustrating than being locked down at home during a coronavirus pandemic? Being imprisoned during a coronavirus pandemic, crammed in with others, deprived of soap and supplies.

It's very bad in regular jails and prisons, but if anything, it's even worse in ICE's gulags, where thousands of law-abiding long-term US residents – and asylum seekers – have been detained by the Trump administration in order to please his sadistic base.

For example, Ian has lived in the US for 20 years. His wife and children are US citizens. He was detained while awaiting a decision on his spousal visa. His wife is a nurse treating covid patients. His children miss their father.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/24/everybody-s-scared-panic-at-immigrant-detention-center-after-positive-coronavirus-test

Ian has a heart condition that puts him at severe risk if he contracts coronavirus. He's in a 40-person dormitory with a recent arrival from China who is exhibiting symptoms.

He's in NJ's Essex detention facility, which is serviced by Corecivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, a notorious human rights abuser with a long history of beltway banditry while running private prisons. Some detainees there are on hunger strike.

One of the medical staffers there was confirmed by ICE to have contracted coronavirus. The next day, ICE denied that he was medical staff. ICE would not comment on the contradiction.

(Image: Fibonacci Blue, CC BY)

Doctors hoard choloroquine (permalink)

After Trump made misleading statements about the safety and efficacy of treating covid-19 with chloroquine, members of his cult began dropping dead of overdoses on the antimalarial drug.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/health/arizona-coronavirus-chloroquine-death/index.html

But it wasn't just low-information Trumpers who took the advice to heart. Pharmacists are seeing surges in massive orders of chloroquine from doctors and even dentists who are self-prescribing in order to hoard, and then lying about it when the pharmacists ask for explanations.

https://www.propublica.org/article/doctors-are-hoarding-unproven-coronavirus-medicine-by-writing-prescriptions-for-themselves-and-their-families

This hoarding behavior deprives people who rely on chloroquine for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus of their medication during a pandemic emergency.

"People are losing their minds about this product. We're selling so much of this stuff and people are just stockpiling it prophylactically if anybody in their family gets sick — they're just holding on to it." -Brian Brito, Miami pharmacy owner.

"Currently, both nationally and in West Virginia, some prescribers have begun writing prescriptions for these drugs for family, friends, and coworkers in anticipation of Covid-19 related illness." -West Virginia Board of Pharmacy

Toilet paper separator (permalink)

The Toilet Paper Splitter: a DIY project to separate a single two-ply roll into two single-ply rolls. Requires two paint rollers, a couple bolts, a rubber band, and some stiff metal for a handle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JEfCAFHcPk

Conzealand goes virtual (permalink)

The World Science Fiction Convention began in 1939, when 200 sf fans who'd come to New York for the World's Fair gathered together (while explicitly excluding the leftist "Futurian" writers, who held their own counter-convention).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_World_Science_Fiction_Convention

Since then, there have been 77 Worldcons in total, one per year, excluding 1942/3/4/5, during which WWII intervened.

This year's Worldcon is Conzealand, the first Worldcon in New Zealand. Except it won't be. The organizers have wisely decided to move to a virtual event.

The hotels are allowing for cancellations, though there's some work to be done to allow the organizers to do mass cancellations for their group block. Different airlines have different rules regarding cancellations.

https://conzealand.nz/hotels?utm_source=CoNZealand

They're expecting to offer limited refunds to participants who don't want to a virtual con experience. They'll be offering a new online rate by April 15, and kids memberships are refundable now (but they ask you to forebear as their own personal funds are on the line).

Potential panelists are requested to put some thought into how they might help a virtual con with its programming.

This is incredibly disappointing, of course.I know the organizers and visited Wellington and the venue, both of which are incredible.

https://conzealand.nz/blog/2020/03/25/conzealand-special-announcement

I've been looking forward to attending for years. But it was the right call to make. it won't be the last such disappointment, either.

Please consider supporting the organizers by buying an online membership once they're offered and attending the con from wherever you are.

Posties are key to America's emergency response (permalink)

The USPS is amazing. A fully self-supporting federal agency that provides universal service as well as good, well-paid jobs with benefits and pensions. It's also a vital lifeline during crises.

https://www.wired.com/story/us-postal-plan-coronavirus-vaccine-doomsday/

Since the Cold War, posties have been integral to America's crisis plans. They were once deputized to catalog the dead and the living after a nuclear holocaust, distributing Safety Notification Cards (POD Form 810). Mail trucks would have been repurposed as ambulances.

Both Obama and GWB integrated posties into their plans for biological attacks, planning to have masked and gowned letter carriers deliver Cipro door to door (the "Postal Plan").

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-medical-countermeasures-following-a-biological-attack

As the DHS noted in its prep documents, the USPS is the only federal agency that could knock on every door in America in a single day.

When (if?) effective covid meds are available, it's likely a postal worker will deliver them to you.

Now is a good time to remember that the GOP have been trying to dismantle the universal, self-funding, vital USPS for decades, so that private carriers like UPS and Fedex can cream off the most profitable parts of its business and leave rural Americans in the cold.

Volante's masks for covid responders (permalink)

I've long admired (and worn) clothing from Volante Design, whose "streetwear for superheroes" is made by well-paid, onshore workers and is cosplay-adjascent — the kind of thing you can wear out and about, but also to a con.

Now, they're making masks for covid responders.

The masks are made from cloth and can protect N95 masks from contamination as they are reused (they have a pocket for this purpose). They can also prevent you from touching your face, and partially contain coughs when medical masks are not available

https://www.volantedesign.us/

They're seeking donations to cover the cost of making these and shipping them to orgs that have requested cloth masks:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1txEanDkIrJ5GNfSk-zlXkTlB-bQPNRN_Y69qEwmdme8/htmlview

A $105.50 donation lets them make 50 masks. They're also selling them on a sliding scale to those in need.

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Matrix online game hires real actors to play in-game characters http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-matrix-online/598441p1.html

#15yrsago Fox is advertising on Grokster, also suing to put Grokster out of business https://web.archive.org/web/20051018083600/http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=28535&Nid=12722&p=244505

#15yrsago US sabotaging efforts to create humanitarian copyright and patent policies https://web.archive.org/web/20050916104840/http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/2005/03/25/united_states_v_wipos_development_agenda.php

#15yrsago Ex-coder's account of life as a bike courier https://web.archive.org/web/20050323071902/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/3/19/133129/548

#10yrsago Profit-sharing arrangements among Somali pirates https://web.archive.org/web/20100323020702/https://www.undispatch.com/somali-pirates-buisiness-model

#1yrago Peak Indifference: are we reaching climate's denial/nihilism tipping point? https://www.wired.com/story/we-might-be-reaching-peak-indifference-on-climate-change/

#1yrago London developer makes last-minute changes to lock poor kids out of "communal" playground https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/mar/25/too-poor-to-play-children-in-social-housing-blocked-from-communal-playground

#1yrago Chinese censors incinerate entire run of a kickstarted Call of Cthulhu RPG sourcebook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Urosc-JEY

#1yrago The Vessel: a perfect symbol for the grifter capitalism of New York City's privatized Hudson Yards "neighborhood" https://thebaffler.com/latest/fuck-the-vessel-wagner

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Wendy Hanamura (https://twitter.com/whanamura), Geekologie (https://geekologie.com/), Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/).

Currently writing: I'm getting geared up to start work my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: Data – the new oil, or potential for a toxic oil spill? https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/23/data-the-new-oil-or-potential-for-a-toxic-oil-spill/

Upcoming appearances:

Quarantine Book Club, April 1, 3PM Pacific https://www.eventbrite.com/e/quarantine-book-club-cory-doctorow-tickets-100931360416

Museums and the Web, April 2, 12PM-3PM Pacific https://mw20.museweb.net/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

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morfinwen · 4 years ago

Note

5 - 10 for two ocs of your choice :)

Not that it won’t be immediately obvious, but i picked Elise and Julie Wilson.

5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)

Elise has always been a fairly tidy person, but becoming an ER nurse has put that up to eleven. When she finishes eating something, any paper or plastic goes in the trash or recycling, and any plates or silverware get rinsed off and put in the dishwasher or at least next to the sink. Once she’s done with a book or movie, it goes back in its case (if it has one) and back on the shelf in whatever order she’s set it up in (occasionally alphabetical, but not always). Dirty clothes go in the hamper, clean clothes get folded and put in the dresser or hung up as soon as they’re out of the dryer. The bed is always made, with hospital corners. At least once a week, floors get swept and mopped, carpets get vacuumed, rugs get beaten outside, dust is wiped off, surfaces are wiped down with disinfectant, and windows get washed, more often if it gets used more often.

She treats her workstation exactly the same, just with more disinfectant and plastic gloves.

Her personal hygiene is quick but thorough: on days she works, a quick shower, brushes her teeth twice a day and flosses once, and combs her hair. On her days off she puts a bit more time into it: a longer shower or perhaps a relaxing bath, and brushes her teeth after every meal and uses mouthwash.

---

Julie’s pretty tidy, even compared to her aunt. Trash gets thrown out quickly, dirty clothes go in the hamper, and if a thing has a place it’s supposed to be, she’s not going to be comfortable leaving it on a table or chair for very long. If she didn’t live with Elise, she wouldn’t clean until things got visibly dirty, but she wouldn’t leave them dirty for long, either. Her bed doesn’t get made as such, but she’ll pull the blanket up to the pillow, so that the sheet is all covered.

She showers every other day, brushes her teeth regularly, washes her face every night, and takes good care of her hair and skin. She sometimes teases Elise about it, that of the two of them it’s not the nurse who has the “better” personal hygiene.

6. Eating habits and sample daily menu

Good eating habits are an important part of overall health, and provide energy to get through the day. Elise has alarms set on her phone to remind her about eating, and if she doesn’t have time to stop for a meal, she’ll eat an energy bar or some other substitute.

Breakfast is usually coffee, eggs (scrambled or sunny-side up) and toast, and fruit -- apple, banana, or orange. Occasionally vanilla yogurt with granola in place of the eggs and toast, if she’s in a rush.

Lunch is almost always a sandwich -- ham or turkey and cheddar, mayo, pickles, and a leaf or two of lettuce -- and a cup of soup or a salad, depending on how cold it is. She goes for more variety in her soups and salads, even with types she doesn’t like but have nutrient-rich ingredients. Tea to drink if she can get it, or water if she can’t.

If she doesn’t work, dinner is something hot from her well-worn cookbook at home, with a glass of wine and a light salad. If she’s at work, she’ll bring something from home -- usually a serving of a casserole or other storable dish that she cooked in bulk. Juice, or maybe a sports drink if she thinks she needs the electrolytes.

---

Jack was a big believer in eating at the same times every day, and he kept to that schedule even after he got sick. Julie doesn’t value that schedule as much as her dad did, but she’s used to it.

Breakfast is cereal, or oatmeal (instant or microwaveable) with fruit and/or cinnamon in colder weather, with coffee. Sometimes she’ll have a banana.

She ate lunch at the university cafeteria when she was at school. Otherwise, it’s either reheated leftovers or a sandwich.

Since she has a light lunch, she’ll often have a snack in the mid-afternoon: carrot sticks, celery with peanut butter, chips, granola bar, it all depends on what’s available and what she feels like having.

Dinner is whatever Elise has made, whether she’s cooked it that evening or left some in the fridge. If for some reason there isn’t anything, or Julie just really doesn’t like whatever there is, she’ll make some mac’n cheese, chicken nuggets, instant rice, soup, or some combination. When she was a kid, her dad would let her have two cookies or a small bowl of ice cream after dinner if she’d been good that day, and so she’ll usually have something like that for dessert.

7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time

Elise is not a fan of wasting time. Time is not meant to be wasted.

If she’s too tired to concentrate but not tired enough to go to bed, she might watch some light TV program she wouldn’t normally (a cooking or home renovation show, for example) to kill time. That’s not something she’s happy to have done, though.

---

Julie would never say wasting time is a good thing, but there are worse things in the world.

She can sink hours into watching Youtube videos on weird facts or events, or one of those channels that shares real-world spooky occurrences or unexplained scenarios.

8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging

Elise finds nothing wrong with indulging yourself, so long as it is either small or infrequent. In fact it’s healthy, to some extent: life is meant to be enjoyed. Obviously some indulgences are better than others, and some things should never be indulged, but broadly speaking it’s not something you should feel guilty about doing.

Her favorite indulgences are bringing a piece of pecan pie to work to have with her dinner, or a dark chocolate bar from a vending machine. Only once or twice a month.

---

In theory, Julie considers it acceptable. In practice, she doesn’t do it much. Maybe an expensive coffee before school on occasion, in the winter.

9. Makeup?

Elise put in a lot of effort into it when she was younger, but she puts on very little now. Usually she only wears it if she’s had a long day, because no one wants to walk into the ER and see a nurse who looks like she’s about to fall over (maybe it’s sexist, but Elise isn’t in the emergency room to fight sexism, she’s there to keep people alive and as comfortable as possible), but unless she’s going somewhere fancy she doesn’t bother with anything more than foundation. She knows a lot about it, though, so if you need any tips, she’ll be happy to help you out.

---

Unless she’s running too late to bother, Julie will wear some very lightly -- foundation, a bit of blush, maybe a little lipstick or lip gloss if she’s feeling fancy. On formal occasions, she’ll break out the mascara, eyeliner, and eye shadow.

10. Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such?

I don’t think Elise has any. She would have a hard time recognizing if she did, unless they got really serious.

---

Since her dad’s death, Julie’s been somewhat depressed (probably not clinical, but i’m no expert), and struggling to move forward. She’s got some lingering anxiety and stress from her time in high school, with her dad being sick and pushing to finish early. She recognizes the depression, but not so much the anxiety and stress, since those have been around since adolescence and she’s gotten used to them.

Thanks for asking!

#ask #answer #OCs #elise wilson #julie wilson #ioannemos

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