#me when capitalism does exactly what it was intended to do

[liomelonzz]

really lucked out with a job i kinda like that pays sorta okay cuz why do all my friends have jobs that sound like comically sinister medieval tourture tactics

[vaspider]

While I'm writing things that I've been intending to write for a while... one of the things that I think that a lot of people who haven't been involved in like... banking or corporate shenaniganry miss about why our economy is its current flavor of total fuckery is the concept of "fiduciary duty to shareholders."

"Why does every corporation pursue endless growth?" Fiduciary duty to shareholders.

"Why do corporations treat workers the way they do?" Fiduciary duty to shareholders.

"Why do corporations make such bass-ackwards decisions about what's 'good for' the company?" Fiduciary duty to shareholders.

The legal purpose of a corporation with shareholders -- its only true purpose -- is the generation of revenue/returns for shareholders. Period. That's it. Anything else it does is secondary to that. Sustainability of business, treatment of workers, sustainability and quality of product, those things are functionally and legally second to generating revenue for shareholders. Again, period, end of story. There is no other function of a corporation, and all of its extensive legal privileges exist to allow it to do that.

"But Spider," you might say, "that sounds like corporations only exist in current business in order to extract as much money and value as possible from the people actually doing the work and transfer it up to the people who aren't actually doing the work!"

Yes. You are correct. Thank you for coming with me to that realization. You are incredibly smart and also attractive.

You might also say, "but Spider, is this a legal obligation? Could those running a company be held legally responsible for failing their obligations if they prioritize sustainability or quality of product or care of workers above returns for shareholders?"

Yes! They absolutely can! Isn't that terrifying? Also you look great today, you're terribly clever for thinking about these things. The board and officers of a corporation can be held legally responsible to varying degrees for failing to maximize shareholder value.

And that, my friends, is why corporations do things that don't seem to make any fucking sense, and why 'continuous growth' is valued above literally anything else: because it fucking has to be.

If you're thinking that this doesn't sound like a sustainable economic model, you're not alone. People who are much smarter than both of us, and probably nearly as attractive, have written a proposal for how to change corporate law in order to create a more sensible and sustainable economy. This is one of several proposals, and while I don't agree with all of this stuff, I think that reading it will really help people as a springboard to understanding exactly why our economy is as fucked up as it is, and why just saying 'well then don't pursue eternal growth' isn't going to work -- because right now it legally can't. We'd need to change -- and we can change -- the laws around corporate governance.

This concept of 'shareholder primacy' and the fiduciary duty to shareholders is one I had to learn when I was getting my securities licenses, and every time I see people confusedly asking why corporations try to grow grow grow in a way that only makes sense if you're a tumor, I sigh and think, 'yeah, fiduciary duty to shareholders.'

(And this is why Emet and I have refused to seek investors for NK -- we might become beholden to make decisions which maximize investor return, and that would get in the way of being able to fully support our people and our values and say the things we started this company to say.)

Anyway, you should read up on these concepts if you're not familiar. It's pretty eye-opening.

[mothiir]

yknow what??? fuck it. im not even gonna turn on anon. IM NOT EVEN GONNA DO IT!! because at this point you'd clock my ass a nautical mile off for who it is just bc im gonna ask for exactly what you caught me for on anon LAST TIME.

SO,,,, haha,,,, heyyyy mothiiiiir,,,, pllllleeeasse more nasty ass rabbit/emp headcanonnns OR writing or anything,, you always cook and im one starving ass loser.

thank you ily and your writing once again ok ok ok BYEEE

cw: angst, not what you intended but this got me thinking about the emperor and then uh. we got this. not set in the little rabbit verse, which will soon become obvious. playing loose with the canon timelines because i don’t know exactly how the burning of monarchia went down.

—

—

Monarchia burns — and three days later, Guilliman and his sons make planet fall.

—

It takes a great deal to surprise a Primarch, and yet here Guilliman is, blinking at the charred rubble of your former capital, struggling to find words.

“Say that again,” he says, at length. You sit up from your prostrated position, lifting your head just enough to address his shins rather than the ground.

“There is no penance great enough for the crime we have committed against the Emperor and the Imperium,” you say, your voice soft, but ringing clear. “There is no punishment that we do not deserve for such blatant defiance of the Imperial Truth. I can state that we were misled — which is true — and that we were ignorant, but that is no excuse. All I can say is that when I discovered that my Lord Husband was acting in defiance of the Emperor’s wishes, I acted as swiftly as I could to remedy it.”

It makes even less sense the second time around. The once-glorious city is wreathed in flames; the sun blotted out by a miasma of smoke. The same story is repeated across the entire planet. A revolution almost overnight — temples torn down, idols cast into the sea, believers put to the sword. The few Word Bearers that remained had died at their posts; they had slaughtered thousands of their kinsman, but died all the same. Bears torn down by hounds.

“You did this,” he says. You shake your head minutely. Your hair — once a glorious braid almost to your waist, always ornamented with some fancy that Lorgar had gifted you — has been chopped into an unkempt bob around your shoulders. Guilliman vaguely remembers a tale amongst Lorgar’s adopted people: of a queen who had lost a great battle, and shorn her locks in penance.

“No my lord. I did nothing. My people acted against the rot in our ranks. They carved it out.”

“Millions have died.”

“It is no great loss that those who would espouse the evils of theology perish,” you say, your voice as flat and featureless as a windless sea. “All I ask is that those that remain…”

For a moment, emotion returns to your voice, colouring it.

“All I ask is that some of them be spared. Please.”

You lift your face for the first time since his arrival. Your lips are lined with blood, shadows hung beneath eyes sunk deep into their sockets. In the space of three days, you seem to have aged decades — from a fresh-faced woman in the bloom of youth, to a crone who has seen the ending of all that she loves.

—

The seas do not boil. The sky does not burn. Another battle is brought to a shuddering, decisive end as the Ultramarines join on the side of your rebels — no, you cannot think of them as such. They are not rebels; they are vindicated. They are fighting for the truth, for what is right and good. They are crusaders.

You — you are not a crusader. You are not sure what to call yourself. Lorgar called you a goddess; a title that always disquieted you, but you accepted it, for his eyes shone so when he looked at you, and he made love to you as though you were the only thing that mattered. Now, you have lost count of the number of men and women who have died for referring to you as such.

You are not a widow either. Your husband lives, though you do not know where he is. Once, Lorgar pressed his hand to your chest and felt the thrum of your heart against his palm and said that no matter where you went there was a golden cord that bound your heart to his; that no void nor fire could split asunder what was joined in love.

You dream that you wind a golden chain around your hands, pull it taut, and bite until your teeth chip, until your tongue bleeds, until it frays into dust on your lips.

—

When you meet the Emperor, you press your forehead to the cinder-warm flagstones that used to be a marketplace, and you wait for death. You know, in a distant dreamy sort of way, that you should be afraid, but you are not. You accepted your death what seems like a lifetime ago — in reality, it is less than four days since you gave the order to start burning the temples.

The irony of it all. People answered your call to arms, to not-so-holy war, because you are Lorgar’s bride, because you are the woman once called goddess. And what did you do with the power that he gave you? You ordered that his greatest works be destroyed.

But what else could you have done?

Colchis is your home. And in his arrogance — in his endless childish arrogance — Lorgar would have let it burn to ash rather than do as he had been bid. Did he truly believe his father a god? If so, why would he not obey his commandments as soon as they were given?

Thinking this way hurts you — not only because it stirs anger like a wounded animal in your breast, but because it throws into stark relief how Lorgar’s mind contained chasms and corners you never saw. How even though you gave yourself to him as completely as a woman can, he always kept parts of himself hidden from you — but you will not waste time delving into that labyrinth. His beliefs are inconsequential. Only the facts matter. Lorgar worshipped his father as a god. Lorgar was told to stop. Lorgar did not.

You visited the day of judgement upon Colchis before the Emperor got the chance, betting everything on a single desperate gesture. You do not regret it, though you will dream of the dying wails of your people until the end of your days. If you had not acted, all would have died. Now, maybe — just maybe — some may live.

“The girl acted in the best interests of her people,” the Emperor says, and it is only then that you realise precisely what was happening: he was rifling around in your head, subtly enough that you could not see the intrusion; mistaking his exploration for an ill-timed moment of navel-gazing. All at once, pain rushes into your knees and thighs, knife-like cramps. How long have you been kneeling there?

Then, inexplicably, a wash of frustration: girl, he calls you. Girl. You are staring down your third decade of life — nothing for one such as him, of course, but really.

Girl. You carved out your still-warm heart and laid it on a flaming altar and he refers to you as girl.

“Stand,” he says, and you obey, fighting the hysterical urge to snort with laughter — you’re exhausted, swooning, and starting to feel the after-effects of the universe’s most powerful psyker reading your thoughts. Blood drips down your chin. “I am satisfied with the efforts of your loyal Imperial citizens against the primitive cultists.”

“Thank you my lord,” you say, keeping your gaze fixed on the ground — thus missing entirely the swift, puzzled look Guilliman gives you, for ‘I am satisfied’ is more praise than the Emperor normally gives anyone.

(And perhaps it is just a trick of the light, or the wild shadows cast by the afterglow of battle, but Guilliman swears that just for a moment his father smiles.)

“Heracles,” says the Emperor, addressing one of the gigantic golden sentinels standing to attention beside him. “You will escort her aboard the Bucephalus. We will speak further when I have dealt with my son.”

The golden sentinel inclines her head, and you try your best to stay upright, your legs shaky as a newborn colt. You do not think of what the Emperor will do to Lorgar; you cannot.

“It goes without saying,” says the Emperor, almost as an afterthought. “But your marriage to him is annulled.”

Eight years. Your life; your heart; that golden cord. What love has joined together, none may tear asunder - except that is not true, was never true.

“Yes my lord,” you say.

[imfineitsfineeverythingsfine]

Communication and a Question for the Fandom

I started this off thinking I would end up with one conclusion and I actually found myself changing it by the end. I’ve read a lot frustration with the ineffable husbands and their lack of communication. “You don’t ever talk to each other" and "You never say what you’re really thinking.”

Now, that may be true. But also, throughout both seasons, we have seen repeatedly how they have been under surveillance too. 

Not just visual

But audio as well… Sign in Hell: Be Careful What You Say. But there’s more to the sign itself. I just can’t make it out. It’s not a sign that’s featured in the extras either, which is also interesting. 

What I could find though, in the The Devil in the Details X-Ray video was a little more of the sign, but I still can’t make out what the rest of it says:

Which brings in my Question for the Fandom. If anyone else is able to make out rest of this, I’d be interested. (This was around the 2:05 timestamp)

Moving on, that’s not the only *Clue* about their surveillance either. We know about Hell using electronics as a means of communication. They just cut in to whatever happens to be playing at the time, right? Radio, tv, Saturday Morning Funtime… so it would make sense that they’d use it to listen too. Is the Bookshop any safer, being an embassy for Heaven and all?

And it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how either side is listening in. We all remember this interaction but really… played as a joke but what if it wasn’t? Or maybe they just hadn’t figured out the specifics yet at that point.

Maybe there are certain “trigger words.” We see the reactions when Crowley is called “nice.” 

Crowley tells Aziraphale to “shut up” numerous times. We hear both them say “don’t say that” a lot. 

But also…

Closed captioning capitalized it just like that. Interesting. (If you haven’t watched the show with cc on, I recommend it)

What does this all mean? They just don’t talk to each other? Well, no. Not necessarily. We’ve also seen them find ways around directly speaking too.

Writing it down. (Which was promptly burned)

Aziraphale mouthing “Trust Me” during the bullet catch. Could they have had other short hands or code words? Emergency contingency plans? I personally imagine so. Side note: could they have also been using alcohol (laudanum) as cover for plausible deniability? 

“Safe spaces”? The backroom in the Bookshop that they kept going to for private conversations. We know they had alternative rendezvous locations in the first season too – the old bandstand, the number 19 bus, and the British Museum café. 

The Final Fifteen. I don’t want to take away from the emotion of the scene and I think Season 3 (come on Prime!) give us the rest of the story. I have faith in Neil Gaiman (pun sort of intended). But I will propose that the kiss may have been not only Crowley’s plead but also a misdirect or signal or other way to communicate between the two that we have yet to understand. In the end, Aziraphale was able to get the Metatron to break and divulge that the next step of the Great Plan was the Second Coming…before even leaving Earth…which was pretty impressive in itself. Was Aziraphale then able to relay anything to Crowley before the elevator? Sendarya’s video here does a great job with that very question (and others).

Most experts agree that 70-93% of communication is nonverbal and when communicating emotions, applying the 7-38-55 rule. Meaning only 7% through spoken word, 38% tone of voice, and 55% through body language. So maybe they’re not doing so bad after all. Those are just my thoughts and we’ll just have to wait and see and hope.

[xbomboi]

i wonder if people actually realize that darling and dexter being twins was a retcon

if it were up to me, they’d have always been presented as twins from the start, because that’s just way better imo, but i’m not CEO of Mattel so it’s NOT up to me and we have this weird inconsistency.

i mean, first of all, the start of the tv series already includes that weird period of time where darling just straight up Does Not Exist because at the end of the day this is just an extended toy commercial and there wasn’t any toy to advertise yet.

when darling WAS, however, introduced into the show, she strangely interacts with DARING more than she ever does dexter, despite her closeness to the latter that’s established as early on as her doll’s diary. my personal guess as to why that is has to do from the show capitalizing heavily on darling’s princess charming gimmick of being a girl who’s a knight, and as a result, benefited from portraying the fact that she and daring are, in a way, foils to each other.

anyway, when darling’s doll released, her bio listed her birthday as November 16th. dexter’s birthday had already been established as the 11th of February, so at this time, darling was not intended to be his twin.

and we can see this further shown by the word choice in darling’s diary. she refers to daring as her “oldest brother” and then goes on to refer to dexter as her “older brother”. which, sure, a twin can be older than the other, but in her doll diary, she’s gonna call him her twin if they want us to know that they’re twins.

i’m not sure exactly when the earliest instance of any official media referring to darling and dexter as twins was, but if my memory serves me correctly, i believe it was a post from the official Facebook that had stated they were twins. again, don’t quote me on that.

this discrepancy is important to me as someone who has to constantly fact check lore and timeline of events, because it very much so impacted Ever After High media released prior to the twin retcon’s ability to hold up. as far as I can remember, a good amount of the books were written under the initial status of darling’s birthday falling on 11/16 rather than 2/11 with dexter, the Susanne Selfors books coming to mind in particular. but i could be wrong, because i’m not going to reread all of those books just for this post.

the updated birthday for darling ended up being the one they stuck with. a brief scroll on the official Ever After High Instagram page will show as much, with birthday posts for dexter & darling on the same day. there is the tidbit of information that dexter is still older by a few seconds (not sure if this was ever officially stated, i’m only going off of the wiki for this one detail), but i honestly think that’s only included as a way to try and rectify the past instances of darling or possibly anyone else referring to dexter as her older brother.

as of today, it seems like everyone understands darling and dexter to be twins, and if they are familiar with the past retcon, they prefer the twin change and are glad it was made. i’ve never witnessed anyone say anything like “ugh, i really wish they wouldn’t have made darling dexter’s twin and kept her younger!!”.

still, it’s interesting that it happened. i call it what it is: a retcon. and most people hear that term and associate it with negativity. which, to be fair, in terms of writing, it more often than not absolutely is. but in this isolated case, despite it making some of the supplementary pieces of media for the series confusing (though the show and books/diaries take place in a different continuity anyway), i see this as a good thing. right off the bat, it makes less sense to me that the Charmings would intentionally go on to have not just one but two other children individually after daring with him being the successful golden child they wanted. it makes more sense that they decided to have one other child just for the hell of it and happened to end up with two.

also, and i don’t have the source for this so i’m just going based off of memory, apparently the grade-level cut off isn’t in the fall in the Ever After High universe, because daring, dexter, and darling are all intended to be in the same grade according to what i believe was one of the writers or producers or something of the sort for the tv show. and i make that conclusion about the cutoff not being in the fall because daring’s birthday is April 2nd, and since he’s older than dexter & darling, they’d have been born in February of the following year, meaning in order for them to be in the same grade together, the grade level cut off couldn’t fall anywhere within the roughly nine months gap between April to the next February. which, if you’ve done the math, you’ll have realized must mean that either the cut off for the next grade either falls sometime late February anywhere after the 11th, is on the 1st of April, or is any day in the month of March.

darling being in the same grade as daring and not a grade (or two) below also makes daring and rosabella work considering that, being her roommate, rosabella would be in whatever grade darling is in, and were she to be anymore than a grade below daring, there’d be a questionable age gap. not to mention with darling herself and apple. jesus. so it’s definitely a positive that’s not the case. and to anyone who may have been confused before, this is also why dexter can room with a character like hunter, because he too is in the same grade.

or maybe this is a show for babies and nothing matters.

[mitchellpete]

Kinktober Day 9 - Praise

pairing: pete “maverick” mitchell x f!reader

cw: post top gun: maverick, student x teacher relationship, power imbalance, age gap, rank use, praise, oral sex (f receiving), penetration, unprotected sex

word count: 1440

kinktober masterlist here.

18+ ONLY | MINORS DNI

-

The good thing is that the mission was a success, and that it’s finally over. 

The bad thing? You’re burnt out on all levels, muscles achy from the strenuous flight, the dogfighting, the getting out of there alive—quite frankly, the very uncomfortable cots on the carrier, too—and you feel like you could sleep for a month. 

That is immediately forgotten the second you hear the knock on your door. It’s late; you just showered, slipped into PJs and prepared to climb into bed for the first comfortable and stress free sleep in a long, long month, but that is obviously not going to happen anymore. Not when you know exactly who it is on the opposite side of the door. Despite how socially drained you are (thanks to the awful overstimulation you always get on the overcrowded carriers), he’s the one person you want and need right now. 

When you open the door, Maverick looks just as tired as you are, but he’s got a soft smile on his face. You beam at his presence, allow him in and practically shove him against the door for a long awaited kiss. 

Everything that had led up to the mission, Maverick grieving his best friend and really just the stress of it all had kept you apart for almost two weeks. Intimately, at least. You hadn’t been alone with him in what feels like forever, and it shows in the way you kiss him, needy and starved for him. Maverick gracefully kisses you back, grinning into the kiss and wrapping his arms around your frame. Your arms envelop the back of his shoulders, a hand cupping the back of his neck to pull him flush against you.

“God, I missed you so much,” you sigh happily, your lips brushing against his. “How’d you know I was dying to see you tonight?”

He pulls back, leans his head back against the door and looks at you longingly. Takes a real good look at you, for the first time since before the mission. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”

You raise a brow. “I don’t. You should show me.”

Maverick smiles deviously, poking your side. “I don’t know,” he sings. “I wouldn’t wanna take advantage of you, Lieutenant.”

You groan at his teasing, but it does give you an idea. “Oh, c’mon, Captain. After that mission, I think we both deserve it.”

He smiles wider, beat. “Hm.”

Pulling him in for another kiss, your hands snake under his shirt, sliding up his abs, up to his warm chest. He shudders underneath your touch, complying. He gently begins pushing you backwards towards your bedroom, and you whimper quietly against his mouth at the sudden anticipation.

Maverick sets you down on the bed, and you eagerly lay back against the mattress. He climbs on top of you, mouth still hot and eager against yours. You’re suddenly impatient, so you reach down in between your bodies to yank your pajama pants down. He pulls back to help you remove them, as well as your top, and then begins working his own clothes.

Watching him strip, you decide to continue playing with him. “I haven’t even mentioned how good of a job you did getting us out of there, Captain.” 

He gets his Levi’s and his briefs down at the same time, cocking his head at your obvious bait. “Oh, don’t do that,” he warns playfully, shaking his head. He tosses his clothing aside to climb on top of you again, skin meeting skin. You smirk as you embrace him, knowing very well what he means. Don’t call me Captain, he means. Don’t praise me like that.

It should be the other way around. Instructor praising student. 

Too bad you know him. You know very well that reversing the roles is gonna drive him crazy, and you fully intend on capitalizing. 

“I mean it,” you continue, moaning quietly as his mouth begins leaving wet trails in between your breasts, down your sternum. “You were great.”

At your words, he makes a satisfied noise, his head traveling lower and lower down your body, mouth still trailing all the way down. It’s hard not to whimper the lower he gets, his fingers delicately caressing your hip bone. Your body grows excited for him, needy, actually, wanting to feel every bit of him against you. 

Maverick has other plans, however. You gasp when he spreads your legs open and immediately ducks his head, eagerness overtaking him. His mouth slots against your cunt, tongue hot and wet. He licks into you, sucks at you harshly, and repeats the pattern, eyes looking up at you for approval. 

“Fuck!” you cry out, momentarily throwing your head back, your back arching. Still, you return your gaze to his. “That feels so—feels so good, Captain Mitchell.”

He very audibly moans against your core at that and it sends a vibration up your entire body, your hips jerking in pleasure. 

He continues lapping at you hungrily, showing you how much he missed you, indeed.

“N–need you so bad all the time,” you stammer, squirming profusely. Just talking to talk.

His grip around your thighs tightens just a bit, his eyes unmoving and stuck on your beautiful expressions of pleasure. 

When he starts to delve his tongue inside you, you try not to scream.

“God, Cap—Captain, please—” Your hands absentmindedly travel down to grab his hair. “Fuck me. Now, now, please.”

One more long swipe of his tongue over your clit and he’s pulling back, climbing over you again to meet you for a kiss. You taste yourself on his tongue, mouths slick and noisy against each other as he works his cock through his fist down below, blindly lining himself up against you. It takes a second for him to find you, but when he does, your vision blurs in ecstasy. 

Burying his face in between your neck and shoulder, Maverick gasps at how tight you feel; perhaps he’d forgotten after going a while without this. That, or you’ve got him spellbound, gripped by your words and praises. He almost aches for the rush, and begins thrusting into you immediately. It’s easy enough, considering how wet his mouth has left you. His moans spill louder than usual, mixed with the hot and filthy noises from below.

“That’s it,” you whine, breath catching in your throat. “Just like that, Captain.”

He snarls, his nose rubbing up and down the length of your neck with each sharp thrust. 

He knows very well what it is you’re doing, but he has no intention of stopping you now.

“So so good—fuck!” you continue, fingernails slightly digging into his shoulders as his pace roughens. “You take such good care of me.”

Something like a whine comes out of him, enthralled entirely by your choice of words. He’s gonna have to work hard not to cum soon, to hold it together for you. 

“Oh, sweetheart,” he groans in response, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth.

Maverick’s pace remains relentless, and frankly, you’ve put him here. Grounding his hips into you over and over, he exhales sharply as you clench around him. You still hold on as tight as you can, wanting to push him to his limit before cumming yourself. It’s your self-proclaimed mission tonight.

“Mav,” you whine out, eventually too dazed to remember you were supposed to call him Captain. “Mav.. you feel so—nghh, you feel so good inside me.”

He bites down hard on his lip, a hand balling the sheets into a fist. He’s trying to hold it, trying to get you there first, but there’s absolutely no way he’s going to make it. Not if you keep talking like that. 

Just a little more..

A thought pops into your head. Somehow, through the white hot blur overtaking every bit of your senses.

“Best pilot I’ve ever flown with,” you manage, voice shaky.

Maverick cums, hard and suddenly, a loud groan next to your ear. You’re eager to let it go, doing so right with him. Your heels dig into his lower back, legs jittering as it washes over you. You wail out, feeling the tension escape both of your bodies. You pull him down to slot your mouths together again, murmuring incoherently against his tongue.

He’s almost trembling when he pulls out and pulls back from the kiss. Still hovering above you, green eyes stare you down as he pants, trying to catch his breath. “You mean that?” he huffs. “Or was that just for the moment?”

Mixed with the remnants of your orgasm, you burst into a fit of giggles. “No, I meant everything.”

[truthdogg]

How long can an extreme ultra-capitalist nation survive without becoming an authoritarian dystopia?

I’ve been pondering that today, but it’s occurred to me that it’s worth noting this extremist capitalist society called the United States did start out as an authoritarian dystopia.

I had originally typed “for a massive number of people living within it” to the end of the sentence above, but I’ve erased it because that’s what all dystopias are. They are never horrific dictatorships to everyone. There is always an in-group that lives in relative comfort with relative freedom that simply does not consider the suffering of others to be relevant to their lives.

The US was built by a wealthy merchant class to be that dystopia where those merchants and landowners were the in-group, replacing the king and his appointees. The country shifted toward freedom for all, toward democracy over time, not away from it. The right to vote was first held only by male landowners of the upper class, it was not designed to be egalitarian for all. The notion that it was ever meant to be for all people is a lie we tell ourselves so we can feel special about our country’s founding, but it’s still a lie, and it’s a dangerous one.

Accepting this history, and considering it, changes the question. It becomes:

How long can an extreme ultra-capitalist nation survive without returning to an authoritarian dystopia?

That’s a more tangible premise to consider. It shifts the argument from an inevitable economic condition in the hands of capital, to a political one in the hands of people. Extreme capitalist oligarchy has always been in direct opposition to full democracy, because under democracy, capital’s power can be overruled by the will of the people. When the needs of the people cannot override the interests of wealth, then democracy is no longer functioning; an oligarchy has control. Maintaining that control in the face of increasing hardship for people inevitably requires more power. This premise leads us to look at how oligarchy may strengthen its grip.

We can look right now and see precisely which elected politicians are arguing that the US is not (and should not be) a democracy, but a republic. We can see exactly who is arguing for a return to constitutional principles, while suggesting we suspend the Constitution. We can see exactly who preaches “Law & Order” while ignoring the law. We can see exactly who claims that some votes should count more than others, and that their candidate is “the real winner.” We can also listen and learn exactly who is paying them to do that. We can then gauge their support and the support for their ideas to see how much time we have left before we empower people to undo the past century of incomplete social progress.

An oddity of today is that the US is hurtling in two directions at once. One is toward a more empowered people, with unions rising, differences celebrated and enjoyed, and a support for struggling individuals. The other is accelerating wealth inequality, indifference to suffering, and desperation driving down wages while increasing profits. Both are happening, both are accelerating. That’s not sustainable.

The highly dedicated people pushing hard in both of those directions often see the other side as a destabilizing anti-American force, determined to upend whatever greatness we have. And they’re both right about that, it’s just that one sees America as a fully-formed sacred ideal that’s been lost, and the other sees it as a process for building a more perfect Union. This is the divide that the nation was born with, and the same divide that led to the Civil War.

I’m not shy about which side I’m on. We have to keep pushing for stronger democracy and a happier people.

The other side, the one that sees America as built by prophets, that wants to ban history so their prophets won’t be questioned, that unrealistically imagines themselves to be the in-group the founders intended, will return us to their authoritarian dystopia. That is where all of their arguments originate, and where all of their arguments lead.

That’s why MAGA uses the word “again.” They mean to return us to a time they thought was great, where the in-group was clear and life was miserable for everyone else, because they genuinely believe they’ll be the new in-group. They won’t, they all can’t, but they will take us there quickly as soon as they can.

[eggybug]

guess what time it is! its end of season 4 thoughts time!!!!

they are going to be a lot more insane and outta order than in the past

1. the entire season they were yelling at us that lilith was the final seal and it pissed me off jfc

2. i forgot what it was like to lowkey hate sam, i hate it.

3. so cas was in love the whole time, right? RIGHT. like i know ive been ranting about it all season but are you KIDDING me

4. ruby is a bitch and i hate her so bad. but she was in it for the long game thats for damn sure

5. im REALLY not looking forward to the whole "sam gets haunted by lucifer" bit

6. i love cas, i really do, but he looked right in deans eyes, knew that he was doing this shit to him, and did it anyway. like he was probably tortured by the legions of heaven, but goddamn it

7. when i start making cain and abel comparisons all next season, i don't wanna hear shit about it. itll be my bout of insanity and i apologize in advance

8. i fuckin LOVE bobby

9. no body liked john winchester, they loved him, but they hated the son of a bitch

10. i never got to the point where chuck became TRULY the worst guy ever, but i know we as a fandom hate him, so i hate him.

11. i think demons eat babies and i don't know how i feel about that

12. i don't know who i hate more, uriel or zachariah. maybe im glad cas killed all the angels

13. like i get it but HOW did it take dean so long to realize heaven wanted the war too. they disappeared for weeks while lilith was breaking seals like a bull in a damn china shop

14. they keep doing that thing where one of the capital A angels does something shameful to dean, or dean questions his faith in the "Plan" and the camera cuts to cas looking like a sad puppy

15. ik ive said it 1000 times but goddamn those stupid lil boys need therapy

16. GABRIEL WAS TRYING TO WARN THEM, HE WAS TRYING AND HE COULDNT. THEY COULD NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU GABEY!

17. hey, in the last episode they killed a bunch of nuns, which like damn

18. back to sam, his dumbass really fell for the devil on his shoulder bit jfc

19. like i understand camera work, but two straight men don't stand that close to have a conversation. they just don't.

20. hey sammy, you throw a lady in a trunk, you stop being the good guy

21. at any point did they just consider... not doing that. maybe perhaps, waiting a week?

22. there was a thing with the mirrors and zachariah in the last ep, wasn't there? like that wasn't unintentional. mirrors are notoriously terrible to work with, that can't be unintentional.

23. i love that biblical fanfiction always somehow ends with an angel, a demon, and a human coming together to stop heaven and hell playing out a war on earth.

24. spn just proved you can't leave a bunch of corporate assholes in charge of a planet.

26. im really not looking forward to sam whining about starting the apocalypse for a whole season.

27. dean fighting tooth and nail for cas to see the truth in humanity. to find faith outside of heaven. cas seeing that and it breaking his morale a little bit more and more every time. cas repeatedly seeing dean, perfect vessel, perfect soldier, dean be willing to lose the promise of heaven, of peace for his little bit of humanity. it broke cas. and dean keeps begging cas to see it too. and they're going to drive. me. INSANE.

28. "we're done" those were the exact words dean said to cas.

29. so cas and dean can talk without saying anything, and i hate to say that means they're in love... but thats exactly what that means.

30. cas did it! he broke his faith, he sacrificed himself for dean. and now they're gonna kiss (ik they don't kiss but a boy can dream)

31. have i mentioned that sam pisses me the FUCK off! like yeah i blame ruby but goddamn.

32. this season was hell in a handbasket, jfc (no ounce intended)

omg! season for is done!! woooo! onto the most annoying and lowkey painful season ever! my takes and thoughts for season 5 are going to be annoying, so be prepared !

[wordsandrobots]

Right. Again, not intending this blog to offer advice on the regular but I think a bit of basic analysis guidance is on theme. So:

If a text does not target its criticisms towards the profit motive and private ownership of the means of production, it is not meaningfully critiquing capitalism.

Capitalism is not 'there are rich and poor' or 'greed is bad', or even 'money motivates people to act'. These existed prior to the capitalistic revolution and could very well endure under any successor systems. A text that deals with them alone -- without targeting the way the pursuit of profit *specifically* leads to distorted social priorities (like running healthcare as if it should generate more money than is put in) and how this manifests when things everyone on the planet needs are controlled by individuals -- is not making an effective argument against the economic arrangement currently buggering us all six ways to Sunday.

This is especially important to bear in mind if dire consequences are presented as a result of 'human greed', because doing so abstracts the problem away from its technical causes, which is one of the key ways capitalism diverts attention from its flaws. If the issue is merely people being 'greedy', then we just need to operate with more checks and balances. No need to tackle the core concept of a system geared to maximise profit over everything else . In fact, maybe capitalism is simply an extension of human nature and therefore *can't* be changed. Isn't it comforting, to know this is just what we're like?

(Urgh, what's the keyboard equivalent of washing your mouth out?)

A story isn't doing anything wrong if it does not concern itself with capitalism as a system. Heck, there's not anything wrong with grappling with the question of greed in general, because that is indeed something we need to grapple with: what does it mean, how does it work, how can we best mitigate it and the other worst aspects of ourselves? Many stories do exactly this while clothed in the aesthetics of capitalism and its many, many horrible outcomes.

But aesthetics are not an argument. And getting mad about social inequality and wars ignited by the whims of the rich is not the same as zeroing in on capitalism as the major cause or catalyst. It is in fact quite common to hate all the consequences of private ownership and the profit motive while still believing those things in and of themselves are neutral, normal ways of organising the world. This filters into fiction, producing ultimately toothless attacks on 'big business' or 'corporate greed' or even just the insidious idea that if we put the right people in charge of the system, everything will be OK.

(I cannot think of a better example than the first Iron Man movie, an almost pathologically deflective piece of cinema.)

Take the time to consciously read fiction through a capitalistic lens! Pick apart how it reflects the world at the point the story was written! Ask how the author approaches the issues they raise!

At the same time, avoid crediting them with an argument they aren't making. Identify what they actually say above all else and check it against the definition of the things they evoke. Only then will you be on solid ground to state whether or not they are attacking capitalism.

To beat a favourite drum, words have meaning. That matters quite a lot when talking about the meaning of a story.

This has been me vague-posting at the entire Gundam fandom. You're generally lovely but I do occasionally feel the strong urge to start pelting you with dictionaries, and burying this point in an essay about McGillis Fareed was apparently not enough to sate my need to grumble about it (c.f. section A digression into narratives about capitalism).

Thank you for your time. I shall be standing by the position that Iron-Blooded Orphans is the only solid critique of capitalism the franchise has produced (as a subset of exploring exploitation in general) until further notice.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I don’t care about his haters I want to hear about buggy’s qualities 😭😭😭

i let this one sit in my inbox for a while because your phrasing kept making me laugh. i hope you don’t mind the delayed response.

buggy’s qualities! (note i did not specify good qualities or bad qualities.) let’s get into them.

already established in that post:

greedy (obviously)

selfish (obviously)

two-faced (very obviously)

loyal (limited applications)

self-preserving (a strong instinct)

untrustworthy (almost comically obviously so)

trusting (to the point of naïveté)

an interesting, contradictory lineup. what else is there to buggy?

he has very romantic notions of piracy.

despite saying the only thing that matters to him is treasure & the acquisition thereof, the way he acts says otherwise. he parties at the drop of a hat (improving crew morale). when his crew, thinking he’s dead, has moved on, even going so far as to adopt a new captain and flag (after… how long have they been apart, exactly? weeks? days?), he rescues them, no questions asked. he weeps to hear how badly he was missed after his arrest, how proud his crew was to hear of his involvement at the paramount war, and he returns both sentiments instantly. the captain-crew bond means something to him. (small wonder why.)

he turns up his nose at crocodile’s deeply unromantic “piracy is a business” mindset—buggy doesn’t care about building capital, he wants to find the one piece! who needs a five-year plan when you can just find the biggest, best treasure that ever existed right now?!

oh, hey, related to that:

he’s impulsive.

why make a plan when you can just do things?! who needs to learn anything from these soft-hearted pirates—buggy’s got a treasure map and a devil fruit worth more money than he’s ever seen in his life! he’s gonna head out on his own ASAP! that should be no problem at all… for this pre-teen… on the grand line. mm hm.

he wants to get back on the grand line and find the one piece—or captain john’s treasure—or any other treasure he finds a map for, really. how? well, he’ll follow the map, obviously! …and when that leads him into danger?

he can be inattentive.

more specifically, he gets fixated on his goal—treasure, killing luffy, silently panicking, yelling at shanks, whatever—to the point that he somehow misses everything else going on around him. does not notice shanks walking up behind him—twice. does not notice smoker or his officers surrounding his men until it’s too late. walks into a cave that’s actively being mined because he thinks treasure might be there. walks into a well-appointed navy garrison because he thinks treasure might be there!

he doesn’t notice he’s standing next to whitebeard—you know, the nearly twenty-two foot tall man—until he hears the guy call him by an insulting name.

buggy makes rash decisions and has a short temper—a dangerous combination.

he hears insults where none are intended, and lashes out violently—maybe lethally?—and sometimes when insults are intended, he doesn’t bother to wonder who’s offered the insult until after he’s fired one back. at which point he may wilt like a daisy, if the person he’s insulted turns out to be, say, whitebeard.

(why yes, i do think that moment is hysterical. not least because i suspect whitebeard cannot remember buggy’s name, and calls him red-nose because that’s all he does remember about him.)

but even at his most weak-kneed, fawn response, pathetic little guy, we have to keep in mind:

he’s charismatic and inspirational.

and i’m not just talking about the impel down guys! his original crew were just as impressed by him—though maybe impressed and terrified in equal measure?—at the start of the orange town arc. they were confident in his victory over these three weirdos to the point of cockiness, just laughing when zoro cut buggy down. they’re really shaken when luffy, after a few minutes of devil fruit v devil fruit combat, totally curb-stomps buggy. they prefer to believe he’s just not taking the fight seriously yet.

they’re fully convinced of his strength, cleverness, and power!

…now i’m not saying their impression of him is based in reality.

buggy’s an excellent bullshitter.

but it’s not enough to just tell a good lie, you also have to be convincing about it. (usopp, early on, is more entertaining than convincing—a good liar of a different flavor. storyteller, not self-promoter.) and while there are plenty of characters who can see through buggy’s act (to name a few: alvida, galdino, luffy (sometimes), most of luffy’s crew, most of the named characters who broke out of impel down…), there are plenty who can’t.

buggy’s “who am i?!”/“captain buggy!” chanting with his crew is not super original, maybe, but it sure gets his men pumped up. his “let’s go after the one piece!” rant in ch 1082 doesn’t impress crocodile or mihawk, but when he airs it to cross guild as a whole it sets things in motion such that the two of them can’t do shit to stop it.

…and that’s buggy as i see him, more or less! let me know if you think i’ve forgotten something! i certainly may have, or i may have lumped the trait you’re thinking of in under one of these other headings, but you won’t know unless you ask.

[hedgionary]

GO ON ABOUT SHAMBALLA!!!! I have the same dilemma where I can’t just ignore it… it is so good and yet. So very. Ah…

Alright, so here we go! I may not be as sleep deprived and obsessive and I was when I wrote the first (now eternally lost, RIP) draft, but I'll do my best!

This post contains spoilers. So in case this showed up randomly on your dash and you intend to read it, please keep that in mind. I'll be going over literally everything that comes to my mind.

1. The length and what was cut

SO MUCH WAS LEFT UNEXPLORED! SO. DAMN. MUCH. START, MIDDLE AND ENDING.

Start

If they were going to cut so much anyway, why did they leave the whole castle sequence? I'm not saying it's not entertaining at all, ("Let's go. This whole place is about to blow up." "Brother, why?" "Because I don't like it >:]") it just seemed really detached from the rest of the movie. And considering how long it is, there could've been quite a bit of story packed into the space it took. That's not to say Edward with a fishbowl on his head wasn't funny.

Dunno how they found a lake that big in a landlocked country either.

Middle

Let's start with where the movie picks the main narrative. What exactly was Edward doing when he met Alfons? What was their relationship like? How bonkers did Alfons think Ed was exactly?

Mustang. Depressed Mustang. Riza having to deal with it. How bad has he gotten when even Hawkeye isn't by his side now? Team Mustang were also such a BIG part of the story. Their presence in CoS was definitely lacking. The scene in the North deserved to be longer though.

Envy my little blorbo, I want to put you in the Salad spinner. Both versions. Into the spinner, you. Is there another one of you on this side of the gate??? Would he, or they, have shown up in the life of the Elrics, possibly making it more difficult for the two of them than it already is? And as much as I hate to say it, Nazi Envy is still less annoying an idea than Hughes. The whole military cast all sad little war criminals anyway :[

Wrath. My baby was supposed to have more screentime :( Sure, his death would've been even more painful if he'd had it, but stilll, more Wrath content!!! That's always good!

Izumi's death. I've got more of a love-hate relationship with that woman than I have with the whole movie, and that's something. While I adore BH Izumi with every fibre of my being, '03 just... Rubs me the wrong way. It could've been such a painful scene. But still I get why they chose to do it off-screen.

Ed's fake arm and leg deserve more screentime. You can fight me on this one. While we did get the "This is a carnival! Go have some fun!" Scene for Ed's arm it was... That. And literally nothing else save for a quick shot of how he attached them. How did Hohenheim's replacement affect him? How many times did he assume it was metal and broken it? How delicate is it in comparison? Does his leg also require a pull-start, or is it constantly running? (Haha. Leg. Running. I'm so funny, I know.)

Eckhart get out. 🚪👈🏼 Seriously? After Dante? Now Dante was a Villain with a capital V. Eckhart? Maybe if she'd had enough time to stew on-screen. As it is, she's been stewing in our minds off-screen and getting progressively more pathetic as time goes by. Movie could've worked out without her being the way she is.

Ending

I. Hate. Open. Ambiguous. Endings. WDYM WE GET TO DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS? I DON'T WANT TO. I WANT TO SEE THE ELRICS BEING MESSY. FIGURING IT OUT. FINDING THAT BOMB THING. ALPHONSE WITH A GUN.

Because let's face it; we got Edward with a gun. He doesn't have alchemy anymore. I stand my case. Alphonse with a gun.

Also, hello? Scar and Lust? What could we get from that? Ed and Al both going "Noah, of all the people in the world, you had to find... Them." And just having to roll with it. (Don't let Ed drive. Please don't let Ed drive. What we didn't need was a third car crash and the repercussions of that.)

Most importantly. We all know of Ed's coping habit on this side of the gate. Did he manage to get out of that? Is Al gonna grow slowly aware of how different and broken his brother is? Depression doesn't go away just like that and Edward was already in a difficult place before the brothers were separated.

Something that irks me but probably shouldn't is the fact Shamballah didn't end on a train. Every other piece of Fullmetal media, be it the manga, Brotherhood, or the episodes of '03 ended with Ed on a train, looking out of the window. And then we have Shamballah where they're looking at... Scar, Lust and everyone else in that car. The only reason we know Ed and Al lived is that little OVA from 2005 that said Ed would be 100. And I don't remember if that even mentions what happened with Al.

2. Muuuussiiic

Just to think there could've been more of these treasures. "Alchemic World~Two Years Thereafter" being a variation of the first verse of Brothers. The silly little soundtracks like "Castle of Science Goes Kablooey" or "Automated Mechanical Arm"

Maybe an actual instrumental to "Kelas (Let's-Dance) not just an instrumental version that's a nightmare to attempt singing to. Seriously. It's easier a capella. If you have someone to sing it with, that is. (I don't)

"Requiem" during the funeralll. That track is just... Chef's kiss.

The last track to play is "Lost Heaven" and oh boy doesn't that pack a punch. While Amestris was not heaven, at least it wasn't torturing Ed psychologically 24/7 (Nazi Hughes will haunt me until the end of my days...)

I actually enjoy writing to the CoS soundtrack on random! Gives a weird mood to the story, but when writing scenes as wacky as I am currently... Definitely helpful!

3. Winry and Automail

More if her time with Edward. They didn't even get to say goodbye??? Also, how did she guess his size perfectly??? He is, after all, still short, even at eighteen years old. Poor boy.

Anyway. This doesn't even give me angst potential. They aren't even together long enough to talk, chat, let any feeling resurface. The whole Amestris sequence feels like a fever dream or a badly paced fanfic. I don't drop fics just because they're badly paced, even if I have to fill events in on my own. But a movie? Uhhhh. Yeah. Difficult.

They're just kind of accepting the fact the other exists as if they were benches in a park. "Oh cool. A new bench next to the monument. I'll come back tomorrow. Oh no, no more bench? Weird, but okay."

Edward came back? Cool. Let me give him new automail and skim over the fact he hasn't had any attached in years, so at least some of the nerves shouldn't be working quite right. Definitely not combat ready. Besides, I'm fairly sure Edward is out of practice. Who was he to spar with? Hohenheim's prosthetics were also definitely inferior to automail, meaning his fighting wasn't as good as it had been back home. The weight difference too. So that just felt weird. Even if I personally can't fight. Probably. Haven't tried. Aren't very fit though.

4. The knowledge that we will never know. It's been what, almost 20 years since this movie aired? We're never getting a canon sequel and I can't find a good fic that I can just confidently go "Yeah. That's what happened." to. That's not to say there aren't any that I've enjoyed, just none that feel close enough to canon to work.

Also the fact this has so much crossover potential that's, essentially, ignored. You have both Ed and Al here now. There's so many stories that happen or at least start in our world, having important events around the 1920s. And even if not, it's FANFICTION! You can give the most random excuses such as "Their ashes and dust cannot be laid to rest here, for this is not the earth that birthed them" and you'll have yourself immortal Elrics! Just phrase it poetic enough. Or go with the fact energy cannot be created or destroyed. By all means, there's too much energy here and too little there because of the boys crossing over. Idk. I should've failed physics years ago.

Anyway I wish we could get a redo. Either the three movies idea or the 13 episodes. I just wanna know.

5. Positives

I've been mainly going on about what I dislike in this movie, so let's go on what I did like!

Al. The little thing. Copying your older brother like that? Peak sibling energy. I wonder if you ever did it later just to mess with Ed. You're so much like your brother. Especially the BH au of him. You two would get along like a house on fire. Worse than Ed and Mustang. Al, you're adorable. Just a little critter. Also, memory problem buddy! Yay! I am glad you got them back though. You deserve it. Even if I do wonder how it changed your perspective on the past few years, remembering both your solo travels and the ones with Ed. Your voice was also really silly.

Noah. I liked Noah. I just did. Most of the time. Gave me Rose vibes. I also liked the music her appearance brought in.

Gracia. I liked the fact Gracia was there. I hope she and Maes made it work, maybe even had their own Elysia. Maybe even siblings for her :]

Edward's mental health. Although a heavy topic, I liked the fact the repercussions of being so far from home were shown.

The jokes. Although I haven't actually watched the whole thing in English, I quote this movie at my friends, much to the annoyance of the ones who aren't interested in Fullmetal. Even if I do translate them for conversation purposes.

THE WAY THE COLOURS ARE DIFFERENT IN OUR WORLD AND AMESTRIS. Our world having dark, faded colours. And then Al's bright cloak flashbangs you! Yay! Even when he moves worlds, the colours are a bit dulled.

I liked how Ed looked out of place in Amestris. That his hair wasn't as golden as it had been in the series, at least to my memory.

And yeah, I could go on, but I risk repeating and becoming illegible. I've also been writing this over the course of an entire day after I lost the first draft :')

I did my best to make it coherent, but I definitely forgot some stuff.

[fullscoreshenanigans]

I appreciate that Shirai didn’t think this was a satisfactory conclusion to a conflict that had been simmering in the background for twenty-five chapters, but this was still one of the most disappointing moments of the back half of the series for me, especially when he notes Ayshe contributed to saving Norman in chapter 6 of the mystic code book.

“Recover from the stigma of slaughter” is an interesting way of phrasing it because as @hylialeia​ concisely phrases it in this post, Norman and the Lambda kids do deserve the chance to do this:

#this is why I feel he's so similar to scar from fmab #like I love the demon characters in tpn but it would have been extremely iffy if the writing had decided they were all suddenly innocent #overall the narrative does a good job of balancing that complexity #without veering off into that self-righteous bs so many stories try to pull #like. the demons commit genocide. actively farmed humans.experimented on them. brainwashed and enslaved a good portion of them.and that happened when there were alternatives! #even the more sympathetic demons are guilty of complacency in the face of this #and the reason I'm still able to root for them is because that sympathy #doesn't require norman or the other lambda kids to be demonized (pun not intended) #so yeah I'm not onboard with the idea that norman didn't ~suffer enough~ for his actions #the kid was raised as food and turned into a human experiment and tortured #the idea that like. musica or sonju should have been meaner to him or whatever leaves such a bad taste in my mouth #(ayshe is valid tho.)

But Ayshe is only given one impassioned sentence in response to her father being slaughtered that’s enough to make her fist clench in anger before the narrative pushes onward.

(Chapter 139 & Mystic Code Book Chapter 6 Q&A)

And it’s made even more tragic because Ayshe’s father was largely reclusive already after a lifetime of being made fun of for his misshapen face

Adopting Ayshe pushed him further to demon society’s outskirts, potentially not speaking to any other demons after quitting his job except possibly at the rare market exchange for goods he might need for her. There was no one he was going to tell about the Lambda escapees.

(Shirai does state he was part of the aristocracy at some point to explain why he knew the demon language:)

(So between that and working at the farm, he did implicitly uphold the system without questioning it, but by the time he leaves his job we can assume he’s only eating humans to maintain his sanity, or he’s somehow related to the group of aristocrats who drank Mujika’s blood 700 years prior so he has no need for it. He wasn’t actively fighting against it, but he wasn’t contributing to it in the last twelve years of his life.)

But while most of the Lambda crew doesn’t know any of this backstory, Shirai also notes that Norman knew the demon language by the point they meet Ayshe thanks to Smee:

So he knows exactly what she’s saying as he stands before her in the wake of her father’s murder. He doesn’t make any attempts to correct the others’ inferences based on their own experiences with the demons at Lambda. Ayshe either quickly composes herself and goes along with them without a fight or another word, or Norman plays her reaction off as her not being in the right mind after being her held captive by a demon for however long as they carry her off to the paradise hideout (I’m assuming it’s the former though because her dogs would likely attack in the latter scenario). And he lets all of this simmer for potentially months (the timeline’s not exactly clear on how long Ayshe has been with them)

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 7)

instead of talking to her about any of this despite knowing they made a mistake. Upon meeting with her again after the events at the imperial capital, he takes a few panels to collect himself before deciding on a single sentence to say to her, and then moves on. Ayshe contributed to saving him per Shirai, but we’re not privy to any attempts at him repaying her or trying to make amends. It’s a shame such a promising, nuanced conflict that should not have an easy, immediate answer was sidestepped to save on page space and expedite the series finale.

I do think it’s interesting that despite whatever he said being infuriating to her, Ayshe is willing to be in physical proximity to him during the timeskip, and her and her dogs allow him to hold a puppy.

(Chapter 181; fucking rip Vincent getting a new scar on his head)

Like many people I’m defaulting to him providing her with some form of a short apology in that chapter 160 exchange. He’s accepted that Ayshe might kill him one day, though after everything he’s gone through in his arc about the flawed thinking of sacrificing your life in pursuit of a cause, I don’t believe he offered her his life in exchange as part of any honor customs, or at least not while he’s still able to do some good in the world. Ayshe has accepted this, albeit not happily by any means.

Finally, all that said,

(TPN Exhibition Booklet: Tracks to the Neverland (Dec. 2020) Interview)

Really fucking glad these didn’t happen ldskfslk

[lilyvalleygames]

Sorry for any mistakes in advance, english isn't my native language. OuO

I played “Crystalline Cage” yesterday and while I'm writing this, im replaying your game because i love reading in between the lines and gather as much MORE info as I can, im just thirsty for more since I really loved your game. 💜 I found it through my endless searching of looking for games like this one, it's really interesting how you can find a variation of games like these! And every single one of them is unique on it's own way and carefully crafted, I just love that.

I'm aware that you recently dropped your demo but... I'm really interested on knowing more of what's to come or any new characters that are going to appear on the “Day 2”? It's okay if you don't want to share anything too “spoiler-y” but i don't mind.

Will we learn how this fantasy world works? Asking since Vesta/MC seems so... Detached? Uninformed? Ignorant? Towards things like that but it makes sense since they are a servant who doesn't really go out.

Is the Countess Dantalion aware of her son's attachment or... interest towards Vesta/MC? She acts rather odd towards them and i don't know if it is only me but... It seemed like she wanted to imply something when going to see her...? [“I see. I supposed it's only to be expected that he'd come earlier than necessary...” “ (...) Johann does enjoy his little surprises, doesn't he?” 👀]

Are you thinking of adding more good or bad endings to the games? There's so many possibilities and outcomes... Since this is your first game and you working on it as much as you can, please do not overwork yourself, your game is beautiful as it is, mistakes can always be fixed, if you think is okay as it is, that's fine and that is what totally should matter!

I laughed a lot when Vesta/MC said that they ONLY every considered being the... NANNY??? of the new heir and Johann is just like.... “😧” BAHAHHAHAHAHA

Also, I would recommend you to add your Tumblr account to your itchio profile, you really need more reach and im telling you, people will LOVE your blog since a lot of individuals want to ask questions and just look around to find more about this game while it's still in development. 👻

There's so many questions I want to ask... But i think most of them will be answered on the next update or so . 💜 I'll be patiently waiting for it!

Stunning visuals, really interesting and captivating storytelling. I love it!

No need whatsoever to apologize for your English, you're doing great! :D

Ahhhh I'm so glad that you liked my game!!! And even more that you're replaying it! I wrote it out specifically so that different choices would provide different bits of information, and for a more cohesive picture to be built out through multiple play-throughs!

As for Day 2, there will be several new characters introduced! They're largely people Johann knows and personally invited to the upcoming inauguration, and they all have their own interesting relationship dynamics with each other! I won't go too deep into them and their backgrounds, but 3 of the new characters will be old school chums of Johann's, and the 4th new character will be an unanticipated guest :D

As for Countess Dantalion, good catch! She's been aware of Johann's... infatuation for some time, and isn't exactly a fan of her darling boy marrying so far below his station. She would prefer that he get into a political marriage that cements House Dantalion into a more elevated position--currently House Dantalion is considered in the capital to be frontier-adjacent, and not as 'cultured' as one might consider the capital to be.

Regarding endings, I certainly intend for there to be more good and bad endings! There are a lot of directions that I can take this in, and I intend for there to be a loooooooooot of different ways to end the game, depending on your relationship with Johann and others. There will even be romance-able routes for Roy and Bridgette, which I'm excited about! That said, I appreciate your comment about not overworking myself! I love to do a large variety of creative projects, so while I take a little break from game development I've been doing some painting and reorganizing my apartment and even doing fun little kitchen experiments! Currently I'm trying to ferment ginger with sugar and make it into a nice bubbly beverage! But I digress.

As for the fantasy world, I'm glad that you caught that! Vesta was intentionally made to be unaware of much of the world around her. This is because 1) players can benefit from having things explained to them via Vesta and 2) Vesta is indeed incredibly sheltered! Even her name was carefully chosen: Vesta is the Roman goddess of the hearth, the personification of home and comfort and family. And she's very much... at home. Especially as far as Johann is concerned haha. He really enjoys Vesta's lack of awareness-- he considers it to be a kind of "purity" that makes Vesta special to him.

That said, I'll still definitely be doing some fleshing out of CC's world! A lot of the new guests are more well-traveled, and will provide whole heaps of world building and fictional politics.

And I'm so glad you enjoyed the funny bits in CC! I just adore pairing humor with horror-- the contrast just makes the scarier parts so much scarier! At least, that's my opinion lol.

You're absolutely right, I should update my game page to include my Tumblr-- I'll do that just after answering this ask! Thank you again for reaching out! These asks are so incredibly satisfying to me-- it's such a great feeling when your creative work resonates with someone!!!

[ebisul]

Star Wars Rewatch: Phantom Menace

Keep in mind this is intended to help me analyze where they are politically at this given point in time as well as my own commentary here and there. A lot of it is just what is happening at the given time. I havent been able to watch TCW in the past few days so i thought i’d finally post this instead. TLDR at the end.

* Right off the bat, the trade federation is blockading trade to Naboo due to taxation of trade routes

* Chancellor sends two jedi to deal with the conflict without informing the Congress of the Republic because the debates were taking too long(?)

* The jedi are defined here as guardians of peace and justice

* The blockade is legal and receptive to ambassadors (definitely a trick)

* Not politics but i hate qui gon just dismissing obi wans concerns when he was also told by yoda to be mindful of the future

* Trade federation turns wary specifically bc the ambassadors are jedi

* Palpatine bends law to his whim for trade federation

* “I will make it legal” he is just a senator at the moment so idk how exactly he did it

* Attempted assassination of the jedi

* Chancellor sending jedi was meant to force an end to the trade boycott

* This was mentioned earlier but i didnt write it down

* Trade federation invades naboo to further palps plot but what does that do for them?

* Was it out of fear of palps? Do they just want to own naboo? What does the Trade Federation gain from any of this?

* Palps uses procedures to distract and force the senate to allow trade federation to take control of naboo

* Successfully

* Land on tatooine due to lack of federation control, but it is controlled by the Hutts

* Palps wants a treaty signed. What does the treaty entail?

* Anakin introduction

* “Youre a slave” “im a person and my name is anakin” get her ass

* Watto says government currency is not real money

* Interesting business decision?

* Naboo citizens in danger and potentially dying

* Told not to contact naboo bc it may be a trap

* Padme mentions Republic antislavery laws are only effective to republic worlds

* Ineffective for worlds outside of that jurisdiction so the maintaining justice only applies to republic worlds?

* Force sensitive children are only identified as potential jedi under the republic

* Qui Gon thinks anakin is the chosen one and takes his blood without permission from him or his mother

* Bets to win a small boy and when it was left up to chance he used the force to ensure he won anakin and not his mother and then proceeds to not tell anakin about the bet

* Decided to make anakin a jedi without talking to anakin or shmi about it beforehand

* Palps tries to manipulate sabe(acting as padme) into overthrowing chancellor valorum and place himself in power

* Queen amidala goes with palps plan to question valorums ability to assist naboo and move for a vote of no confidence

* Palps gets nominated and acts as though he has already won based on sympathy alone

* Presumably the manipulation of the trade federation was a tool to win him the role of chancellor

* Queen amidala believes the senate can no longer function because of the amount of procedures involved in fixing known problems and their inability to make decisions fast enough to help anyone

* Qui Gon states anakin is the chosen one as if its a fact whereas Yoda says his future is clouded

* This usually means its dark

* Qui Gon immediately throws Obi wan aside when he has the opportunity to take on anakin as a padawan wothout discussing with obi wan if he even feels he is ready for the trials despite telling him repeatedly that he has much to learn

* Says obi wan is ready and then immediately back tracks and says he still has much to learn in the same sentence. That Bitch.

* Padme allying with the gungans on naboo

* Gungans left to deal with the droid army

* Gungans are a diversion in order to sneak into the capital and capture enemy leadership and take out the droid control ship

* Why the fuck did qui gon bring a child to infiltrate occupied territory???

* God I hate Qui Gon

* “We will watch your career with great interest” he wants to groom him

* The council still don’t want to train anakin as a jedi but qui gon insisted he was the chosen one to his dying breath despite the known fact that prophecies aren’t always cut and dry

* Reemergence of the Sith

* Peace on Naboo between humans and gungans

This is basically the beginning of the end for the Republic, the set up for the clone wars, Palpatines first rise in power and the actions taken that led up to it. Its the demonstration of how far back Palpatine’s manipulations go, from Padme Amidala to the Jedi Order, the Senate, and the Separatists even the roots of his manipulation of Anakin as a small child.

[daveyfvckingjacobs]

exactly one person asked so now I am going to Ramble about my silly little pirate crew adhd got me so this is very delayed but here we go

in all honest theyre a pirate crew only by technicality. their current ship, dogma, is a little trading vessel kolvar intends to fix up and sell when she feels its time to move on, and that she acquired through less than illicit means. thats the basics of her deal: join a ship, work up, dispatch of the crew (either breathing or not) and then move on with the ship

the scheme is all her idea, a once solo endeavour, and aleksandr is generally happy to help. viktor thinks its a ridiculous thing and too reckless to be worth it, but he has no choice in what the three of them do for ✨reasons✨

the three of them (eventually will be four, their navigator is the newest character and as of right now unnamed but shes an icon) are my favourite group to create and write about. an elf, a wolf and a daemon walk into a bar kinda thing: it shouldnt work, but it does. theyre all very much outcasts in their own ways

kolvar alvara is the captain and ringleader. shes an elf from javelina, hailing from elven territory relatively close to the capital city of relia that has left its workings very familiar to her (namely the king, guards, trading etc). even though she appears to be, shes not blind and her white eyes are a mark of what is most simply explained as a ‘curse’, believed to have been set upon her by the elven deity who hasnt been seen to his people for decades. it has left her unwanted, shunned and that lore would make this too long and is too unpolished as of right now for me to share properly. kolvar is searching for an explanation for her mark, a way to set it right or demand answers, hence her inability to stay in one place. shes flighty, almost mad, reckless and wickedly smart and its left her highly wanted, throughout javelina and darin in particular

aleksandr gaillot is a well meaning boy from darin, who joined kolvar and viktor relatively recently. somewhat naive compared to them, but just as bold, hes travelling as a way to almost discover himself, and where he belongs. as a davanrian, he has always been a wanderer (their people have no set lands, spread throughout various countries) and that suits him just fine, or so he pretends, but hes always desperate for more. hes fascinated by kolvar and viktor both, and determined to understand the strange pair that they make, even if its slightly from the outside

viktor is the most confusing of the three. no surname, no roots (even he isnt sure where hes from, although the country would eventually become the germany of our/ashs world). born an elf, he was a meddling, reckless, bold young man who tangled with dark magic and it left him, for lack of a better word, damned. it was killed, years ago, and doesn’t know why hes still around as a daemon (although hes not quite that, but its the best word to describe it). all he knows is that his continued existence relies on being shackled/bound to a mortal being, a life force tying him down in a sense. that mortal, currently, is kolvar and he is less than happy about it. hes learned to up with her, but has no choice but to follow along with, listen to and protect her. if kolvar dies he moves to a new mortal, and shes actually the most pleasant hes hand in a few hundred years. viktor is a bitter, broken sort of creature, caught between real life and death and hes less than pleasant for it. always the one to make threats, no qualms with violence, it acts largely as a guard dog

theyre all seeking something, and those somethings are left unspoken between them. they conduct their business, run from the law and from themselves and maybe theyll find something or maybe then wont but itll certainly be an adventure

[altschmerzes]

First Sentences Game!

tagged by @disappearinginq (thank youuuu!!!)

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

putting the rest of this under a cut so it’s not a huge long post! decided to take a leaf out of disappearinginq’s book and use only WIPs that haven’t been posted yet so >:) enjoy. we got 4 ted lasso fics, 2 9-1-1 fics, 2 locked tomb fics, 1 now you see me fic, 1 flashpoint fic, and 1 ffxv fic. yes that adds up to 11. it’s a surprise.

i have included the opening...... Couple Of Paragraphs. Or for these lmao because as always with me, i cannot help it and it is longer than intended.

tagging some folks up front no pressure but if you want an excuse to share your stories or brag on yourself this is your cue. i dont think it matters if it’s posted fics or wips - @heavensenthale @appalachianapologies @bold-and-nosy @nativestarwrites @impossiblepluto @roguelibrarian (and anyone compelled to do this who can go ahead and take this as a sign to say i tagged you and Do It)

1. Love Stuck - ted lasso

the aromantic jamie tartt fic. jamie realizes he’s aro, and this becomes a study of his and keeley’s post-breakup friendship and how aromanticism can open doors and allow for more freedom and personal choice in relationships for non-aro people too.

The only warning that Keeley gets before Jamie shows up at her house is a text message that she knows he sent by voice-to-text because of its use of capital letters and the complete lack of emojis. It announces his imminent arrival and apologizes for the lack of warning, explaining that he forgot to do that until he was almost there, all in one long, run-on sentence without punctuation. She has just enough time to grab a cardigan, because she’d been getting kind of chilly anyway, and pause the episode of Sex and the City she had been watching before he’s ringing the doorbell.

When Keeley opens the door, Jamie bypasses any kind of perhaps typically-expected greeting. While this isn’t exactly unusual for him, what he says is.

“I’ve got great news,” he tells her, smiling like he really does have great news, which helps to somewhat offset the sense of foreboding she’d been starting to feel. “I am not in love with you. Can I come in?”

2. Wriggle Up On Dry Land - ted lasso

au where everything is pretty much the same except for the part where jamie is the fifteen year old groundskeeper’s assistant who works part-time at nelson road. proceeds approximately through the timelines/events of seasons 1 and 2 (and maybe 3 depending on how that goes).

At this point, Ted has been in England for less than forty-eight hours, he’s slept for somehow both too many and not enough of those hours, and people keep saying things to him that are ostensibly in English but have no coherent meaning he can wring from his exhausted, jet lagged brain. This, he thinks, is a reasonable explanation for why it takes him several moments to process what he’s seeing when he reaches the coaching office.

One hand loosely gripping the strap of his backpack, the other holding out his keys in preparation to unlock the office, Ted stands there for a long time and blinks. The office does not need unlocking, it turns out, because the door is already open. The door is already open, and there’s what appears to be a kid crouching next to it, doing… something to the lowest hinge with a screwdriver. The boy glances up when Ted approaches, but makes no direct acknowledgement of him and goes immediately back to whatever he’s doing with the tool.

Now. On the one hand, this is a teenager Ted has never seen before and he is messing with the door of the head coaching office. That feels like bad news. On the other hand, he is wearing a grey zippered jacket with the Richmond logo on one lapel and STAFF embroidered underneath it in cursive. That, and his non-reaction to Ted catching him mid-potential-mischief, seems to indicate maybe this whole situation is above board after all.

“Uh,” Ted says after the silent pause has gone on long enough that he officially feels like he’s being rude. “Good morning?”

3. the bus curse 5+1 - ted lasso

Five Times The Curse Of The AFC Richmond Away Game Post-Game Bus Ride Home (Mostly Referred To Simply As 'The Bus Curse' For Conservation Of Time) Ruined The Night And One Time It Tried To But Couldn’t. tl;dr bus is haunted (roy voice It Is Not) (for fun and profit the chapter titles for this are ‘twitter’ ‘illness’ ‘the heavy existential burden of captaincy’ ‘nightmare’ ‘injury’ and ‘double birthday’)

The most important thing to understand about The Curse Of The AFC Richmond Away Game Post-Game Bus Ride Home (mostly referred to as ‘the bus curse’ for conservation of time) is that it doesn’t fucking exist.

Roy is fully ready and willing to die on this hill and go to his grave still swearing up and down that the ‘curse’ is superstitious bullshit, just like the one on the training room. Sure, he’s experienced two flat tires and a radiator overheating on the way home with Richmond, which never happened with any previous team, but that’s probably because management always hired the cheapest charter possible. Sure, the driver once stopped off for petrol and simply never came back from inside the station, but that’s because the bloke apparently had some kind of epiphany and decided to radically change his life, not because of the bus itself. Sure, there have been some dozen-odd other assortment of events ranging from inconveniences to calamities that have disrupted specifically the return bus journey from away matches, but there are explanations for all of them, none of which involve any kind of curse.

4. Never Been In Love - 9-1-1

the aromantic evan buckley fic. buck has a very rocky time coming to terms with being aro, and then telling everyone about it. ft internalized arophobia, romance repulsion, found family, the power of queer friendship, and the way the episode with red the retired firefighter was the perfect set-up for an aro character realization but of course they’d never go there.

The thing about dates is that, theoretically, at some point they are supposed to go well. And it’s not like Buck’s never been on dates that he has fun on. He has! A lot of them, actually! He’s a people person, he always has been, he likes spending time around others and spending time one-on-one is extra nice - it feels nice to bask in the attention and to focus his attention solely on someone else for a while. However, there always comes a point where the woman Buck is out with starts blatantly flirting and he knows he needs to flirt back, or he just… remembers that he’s out on a date and not just hanging out with a cool person he wants to get to know better, and it all goes sour.

The end of it is, even when Buck’s dates go well, they don’t. The mere fact that they’re dates is enough to thoroughly ruin the experience, either in the moment or in hindsight, particularly once there’s an expectation that there are going to be more dates and, at some point, a relationship. And that… Buck really just doesn’t know what to do with that.

5. One-Way Mirror - now you see me

oneshot set between movies 1 and 2 that gets at explaining some of the shifts in character dynamics and digs into what it would be like for dylan to mesh with the team when they were already a team and he was on the outside. lot of focus on what happened to create such a faith in him from jack specifically.

The nice thing about setting yourself up to look like the lawman who got duped by a team of criminals just a little too smart for him is that, when you announce your intention to take a sabbatical, nobody really asks too many questions. Dylan must have played his role effectively, because not an eyelid is bat when the Agent who got too invested in fugitives that ultimately eluded him decides to take off for a while. He has the leave accrued, it’s a matter of putting in the paperwork. Fuller is a little concerned but Evans waves it through with barely a thought. Cowan swans around the office dripping smug satisfaction, and Dylan keeps his head down and swallows it.

He goes to France to visit Alma first. While things are still white-hot in the fallout of the case, the Horsemen are laying low in the area. They’ll take off for a house the Eye has arranged soon enough, but in the handful of days intervening Dylan gets on a plane to Paris. Alma deserves some answers after everything she went through on this case with him, and if it means he’s going to get arrested after all, well, so be it. The others are set up, they’ll be okay.

6. untitled fic about mercymorn and augustine in a doc labeled ‘rotates them’ - the locked tomb series

this is simply me losing my mind about this dynamic, getting somewhat at how they came up with the plan they attempted to enact in ht9.

“Do you love your brother?”

Augustine stops in his tracks, facing away from her. His body twitches in a horrid, disarticulated little spasm, like a marionette that’s been electrocuted. The question has hurt him, and she can tell.

Good, Mercymorn thinks. Pain sharpens the senses.

“How dare you ask me that.”

Mercymorn does not back down. For one thing, she does not, as a rule, back down. Ever. For another, she’d caught up to him here and brought up the subject for a reason, and it isn’t just to torment him with it.

7. One Right Move - flashpoint

time loop of the episode one wrong move where lou young died. spike relives his best friend’s death over and over and over until he can figure out how to make it stop.

This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the worst day of Michaelangelo Scarlatti’s life ends - not with a bang, but with the echo of one.

Explosions have not been an unusual occurrence in Spike’s world to date. Moments of ground-shaking thunder and fire have come and gone for him the way a lawyer conducts depositions or a surgeon draws a dotted line indicating where they plan to cut - something that is an incomprehensible oddity to those outside the profession, but as familiar as the tree on the corner of the street you drive down every day to those inside it. While the detonation of a bomb may be the worst or most shocking thing to happen in the life of just about any random person you grabbed off the street, it’s Tuesday for Spike. Even when they go bad, they still ultimately go. He doesn’t spend hours reliving them after the smoke has cleared.

This time, he does. Laying on his side on the couch in Greg’s living room, the moment that mine went off replays again and again. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if he’s imagining it or if something is still actually exploding, because Spike can still feel himself shaking from the percussive force. Or maybe shaking from something else. It’s hard to tell, now, in this diluted, slipping evening that doesn’t feel remotely real.

8. Can’t Grow A Proper Branch - 9-1-1

5+1 of five times someone got one of the pieces indicating that buck’s childhood and family were Really Fucking Bad and one time he just straight out told someone.

Man plans and God laughs.

When Bobby was growing up, the Nash family’s next door neighbor had been a Rabbi and his wife whose older daughter had been his age. Often, when his parents were working late, Bobby would end up at the Rose house, playing with Sarah Rose or doing homework with her at the kitchen table under Rabbi Rose’s quiet supervision. Man plans and God laughs. A Yiddish proverb Rabbi Rose had been fond of. Even though it’s been decades since he’d lived in the house in St. Paul next door to the Roses, decades since he’d last spoken to the man at all, the phrase he’d used so often still pops into Bobby’s head sometimes. It even makes its way out of his mouth now and then.

From the moment they meet, it feels to Bobby like Evan Buckley is God laughing at his plans.

9. Game Over. Try Again? - final fantasy xv

the first time noctis had to use a phoenix down on each of his friends. exploring game resurrection mechanics from a narrative standpoint.

Gladio has been twenty years old for all of nine days when he dies in an assassination attempt that leaves Noctis without a scratch. It all happens so quickly that there’s no time to feel the energy in the air change before the shooting starts.

A second before the first bullet shatters what had been a perfectly fine, unremarkable afternoon, Gladio’s hand closes around Noctis’s arm, the other plants in the square centre of his back, and he’s being shoved so hard it propels him several feet forward. He’s all ready to be pissed, to whirl around and demand that the big dumb bastard explain what, precisely, his issue is when a chunk of concrete explodes from the waist-high wall he’s landed behind. Noctis isn’t really sure what he thinks is happening at first, but ‘someone is shooting bullets at me because they are trying very hard to kill me’ is not it.

10. baby heist au - ted lasso

the one where bex decides to leave rupert, rebecca decides to help her, an extremely unlikely friendship forms, and i cast spell of ‘hold a baby’ on the entire richmond greyhounds roster.

The first thing that enters Rebecca’s mind when she gets the initial message is suspicion. She stares at her mobile, squinting at the text from the number - unattached to anyone in her address book - and trying to piece together who it could possibly be from.

Hello Rebecca. I was wondering if you might have time for a coffee and a chat soon. I have something I’d really like to discuss with you.

It came through just as she was walking to her desk upon first arriving at the office, and caught her so off-guard that she’s still standing there in the middle of the room looking at the screen when the second message arrives.

Oh, this is Bex by the way. Bex Harper.

A third, not a moment later.

Well. Bex Mannion I guess.

bonus 11. baby heist au 2: 2 heist, 2 baby - the locked tomb series

modern au (i know, but bear with me) where it’s like pov. you are ortus nigenad. you are in your very early twenties. you have come to the unfortunate realization that you are in a cult and you have Fucking Snapped and you cannot be here one more moment longer. on your way out, you decided to take a pair of toddlers with you. pov. you are abigail pent. you are a professor and you live with your husband in the top floor of a duplex. a young man with a pair of little girls just moved in downstairs, and you’ve got the feeling there’s something Going On with them.

The bottom unit of the building has been empty since before Abigail moved into the upstairs of the duplex on Primis Street. She’s never met the person who owns it, and so there has never been an opportunity to ask after this curiosity, despite her desire to know if there was a reason for it. Magnus tells her that it’s probably just not a keenly desired neighbourhood, especially for the university demographic comprising most of their area, but still she has always wondered.

When someone does move into it, Abigail doesn’t notice at first. It’s such a shock the first time she hears a sound and looks out of her unit just in time to see the downstairs door close behind someone that she nearly calls after him on the spot. She manages to repress the instinct, but she calls Magnus immediately upon going back inside.

“What? Since when?” he asks when Abigail tells him they’ve finally got neighbours.

“I haven’t the faintest idea! I just saw him coming home. Didn’t see much, just the door closing behind him, but I think he’s young. There’s not even a car out front! It’s all quite mysterious.”

Things do not clear up from there, especially not once Abigail catches her first glimpse of the children.