#like as an institution they are fascinating

[maccreadyswife]

Okay. Okay

I think Deacon is by far the most tragic Fo4 companion because my GOD he spends so much time, as MacCready says, “being anyone but himself.” Literally you never learn his real name. He’s constantly watching his friends and allies die all for a cause SO much bigger than themselves.

Deacon never gets that chance at happiness and true companionship that the others get. He stays with the Railroad. He keeps his secrets and theirs to the end. You never find out… much at all about him. He always joking and saying random things and it’s such a perfectly crafted distraction from… finding out anything real.

The constant changing disguises, the lying, the. Just everything. His saying he prefers to be alone because getting too close could get him and his allies hurt all over again. He also says he likes traveling with you, but his base instinct is to just “pop a stealth boy and bug out.”

Also. The making up for his past mistakes and actions against synths. The actual RISKING HIS LIFE and throwing away his ENTIRE own identity, his being, for the sake of this cause. I cannot stress enough that this man has no identity left of his own anymore, and what there is is buried underneath so many layers that you, and probably he— will never find it again.

Also I’m adding to this. If you betray the RR for the Brotherhood or Institute, Deacon’s (cut) line about “how could you betray us… betray ME” and the actual rare hint of REAL emotion in his voice before he immediately turns on you. Someone he’d put trust into, someone he actually thought was going to do good for the Synths and for the Railroad. He doesn’t hesitate. That probably legitimately hurt him so much to do.

Deacon is not a character I can wrap my head around easily. He’s not someone I can conceptualize or fit into any box or any one sort of character trope. For that reason, I find him absolutely fascinating, and also completely heartbreaking.

[ghost-bxrd]

I read the ask about dimensional travel in owl song before the preview post showed up in my feed. I also happened to be standing in the security line at the airport at the time. I was all like wtf wtf wtf WTF, frantically scrolling through tumblr, while the poor TSA agent was all, ‘Ma’am I need to scan your boarding pass’ and in my head I was like ‘I have more important things to worry about!!!’ Luckily I chose not to create an international incident and surrendered my phone so they could scan my boarding pass. It was a close call though.

✨🦉🎶✨

Lmaoooooo, yeah that pesky security always wanting your phone right? 😭 hehe no really tho this made me grin like a little kid presented with a cupcake. I love to see that people enjoy Owl Song as much as I do writing it 💚💚💚💚🦉

[rexonalapis]

it is very telling that average genshin players cannot comprehend seeing an actual mature, qualified leader that is actually good at taking her job seriously after meeting archons who either is still childish, clowning whimsically, or straight up incompetent.

[pmpknsoup]

i actually am a defender of georgie and melanie and basira being mean or rude to jon bc that man really needed to be put in his place sometimes. like i understand that they were also wrong sometimes— basira is hypocritical and the other two could be nastier than necessary, but i literally cannot blame them at all. jon was so out of line sometimes

[cookinguptales]

I was trying to learn more about Japan's parapsychology craze in the 80s and 90s and was having a surprisingly difficult time finding good sources on Google. So I kept trying different search terms and finally this comes up

cia??? freedom of information act???

Anyway!! I clicked on it and the page is "down for maintenance" and I have never been more consumed with curiosity lmao.

I had no idea that Google would search through FOIA documents...

[mantictiger]

I'm fascinated by Gwendolyn Bouchard for a multitude of reasons (love me a girlfailure) but what I'm the most curious about is why she's so hellbent on having Lena's position at the OIAR. It's been established that the Bouchards are a very well-off family (I can't remember if thats tmagp-specific lore or if that was mentioned in tma as well) so it's not like Gwen needs the job, especially a job that doesn't seem very glamorous. She seems incredibly dedicated to it though (her being so insistent with specific filing of cases in episode 1 I believe? is what piqued my interest) and is so insistent on climbing a corporate ladder that only seems to lead to Lena's position for no real reason. I get the OIAR is a part of the UK government and that could look good if she's trying to get higher-up positions, but the OIAR is certainly far from a respected or well-known organization (as far as I am aware) so I'm not really sure what her goal is here, and I really hope we find out

[lesbian-space-fish]

If you are for whatever reason (money) deciding to make a dexter cinematic universe™️ why would you not make a show about brian?? Girl he’s right there

[dilfssi]

on the haunting of fc barcelona

[sysig]

Do I know you? Do I know you? Do I know you? (Patreon)

[ghost-bard]

im like varric in a lot of ways, mainly that I too have an odd fascination with sebastian vael but instead of being a little freak that insults him every five minutes bc why would varric ever admit to potentially being infatuated with him, im very open about wanting to fuck him. i could make him worse, but he'd be better for it.

[punkrogue]

one of my fave things about the xmen is like half of them are super geniuses or experts in some field and half of those people don't even have high school diplomas. none of these people are accredited but half of them can build a fusion reactor as a fun weekend project

[the-magpie-archives]

The thing about blood is that once you've seen it you can never really get it out. It has a tendancy to linger, to drip into those places impossible to reach, a slow unnoticeable movement breaking its stagnation. Even if you think you've got all of it, chances are you haven't. The smell lingers, a sickly sweet fuzzy smell tinged with iron that somehow sticks in the back of your throat.

Imagine how much blood there was when Jared Hopworth attacked the institute. We know the boneturner is capable of removing bones with no blood at all but why would he when what he wants to cause is fear? He says that they undid the institute staff for parts, so I'd say they took a hell of a lot more than bones.

That's not to mention Melanie's attack with the knife, God knows how much blood Jared and his "perfect" friends had in their eldritch bodies, but if that knife hurt I'm willing to bet that blood was spilled. A lot of blood.

There's something uncanny about a place where something that awful's happened. Something in the foundations of the place. In a place with a history as messy as the institute I'm sure there was always something on the air, but that amount of bloodshed never really fades.

Even if you can't see or smell it I think there's something in the soul that knows it. Growing up there was a small park near where I lived, I always knew of it, walked past it, but never once had any desire to go near it. I don't know if I avoided it, but I never wanted to go into it. I found out a few years back that a girl died there. I won't go into detail but it was the kind of death that leaves that mark, and when I did eventually end up in that park the weight in the air was palpable.

I wonder if Jon could feel that sense of something when he came back to the institute after his coma. Does otherworldly sight stretch into the realms of the metaphysical? Could he see the residual fear of an entity so different to his own lingering in dark corners and clinging to his coworkers? Or could he simply sense it, that slight wrongness that would be so easy to attribute to being away for so long.

Jon didn't get a warm welcome, and perhaps he returned to a place that didn't even feel like the prison it'd been before. There's a comfort in the horrors we face daily, and even positive changes can make it feel even worse than it did before. The behaviour of his friends changed so much, and somehow so did the behaviour of his workplace.

It begs the question, is it better to know or to be oblivious? To be blind or to seek knowledge relentlessly? That feeling, that slight instinct that something happened here, there's something to know; how could one bear that after six months of knowing nothing real at all? Jon didn't know about the attack, and him knowing didn't help, but did he feel it? Was it there in that sea of knowledge the whole time but he couldn't bring himself to reach out and grasp it?

Because the thing with blood is that it lingers, and once you smell it, it never really goes away.

[attila-werther]

ngl the thing that was missing from leverage redemption for me was this undercurrent of seething hatred for these people they were up against, but they got it back with the oil rig arc. that is a pretty nifty shift of tone, I do admire a story that can pull you along and then abruptly shove you down a flight of stairs.

[badolmen]

Morbidly fascinated by the insight I have into the college republicans’ prayer priorities. Don’t get me wrong having a discord channel specifically for prayer requests is already an interesting social experiment sandbox (what do you consider worth asking others to pray for? what are you willing to share in that regard? how do you frame your desires versus your submission to the will of God?) but add in the fact that many of these Catholics are so far removed from the Church that they actively hold heresies? Captivating stuff.

For example, re: divestment protests from the Palestinian Coalition on campus. As shaken as I was I made a note to include in my prayer request an intention for those arrested as well as for the law enforcement who arrested them. This is an inherently neutral request at face value - my intentions for the arrested is unstated (charges dropped and recovery physically and emotionally from the police brutality they were subject to during the arrests) as are my intentions for the police (quit your job quit your job quit your job open your eyes see what you are doing be a better person please).

Contrast this with a CR’s prayer request in response to some graffiti criticizing the university’s refusal to divest found this morning focusing on a) the groundskeepers who have to clean up the paint but also…b) the ‘historic’ building itself? (The front door and stairs are concrete and particle board installed as early as the 80s if I had to guess. There was no structural damage, just graffiti.) They had no concern or intentions for the soul of the perpetrator. Just, absolutely enthralls me to peek inside their skulls and see white supremacy rattling around in there like a marble in a pinball machine. You really live like this?

[yulon]

there is some link between the hatred for teachers and the general lack of reading comprehension. i know it

[specialagentartemis]

Reading Euripides’s “Hecuba” and it’s fascinating that he has Agamemnon, specifically, oppose sacrificing Hecuba’s daughter Polyxena after the war to appease/honor the demanding ghost of Achilles. The Athenian leaders, Neoptolemus, and, very prominently, Odysseus, convince the Greek forces to sacrifice Polyxena; Agamemnon seems to be the major voice opposing it.

Iphigenia’s name doesn’t come up, but Agamemnon’s resistance to sacrificing Polyxena even though Achilles demands it, Polyxena’s dignity in going to her sacrifice—it all evokes Iphigenia so strongly. A sacrifice of a noble daughter to begin and to end the war. Agamemnon’s sympathy and even kindness to Hecuba after Polyxena’s death makes me think he’s thinking of his own daughter sacrificed at the beginning of the war—and after ten years of this, ending right back where he started, in a way. His sympathy to Hecuba is extremely personal. He knows. He’s sorry.