#murder drones has genuinely shaped me so much
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3 years of this godforsaken show
#murder drones has genuinely shaped me so much#drawing stuff from it has been one of my greatest motivators to learn more art stuff#i've been able to iron out my interests and sense of humor due to it#i've corrupted the sekaiju discord with it#much to half the servers dismay#ive grown so attached to these characters. it was heartbreaking to see them go those months ago#who knows where i would have been without this show entering my life#wouldn't have obtained this audience without it. i owe you all that#i messed up the perspective in that one spot im posting this before i can get more upset about it#art#murder drones#murder drones uzi#murder drones v#murder drones n#serial designation v#serial designation n#murder drones j#serial designation j#a little bonus i thought of while sketching out the og poses#Tessa would've loved this.
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25 ASKS! WAHOO! :DD đđđ
Oooo what would DJMM be? A full sized birthday cake perhaps? XD
(Post in question)
:0 It was?? Thank you! :DD I'm glad you got some use out of it! <XD
(Post in question)
XDD She probably has, and no doubt she'll do it again!
@scally-wiggles716
:DD Thank you so much!! I'm glad you like the way I made him!! :}}} đđđ
@badlyblurry
I mean.. sending me a drawing of your character that has nothing to do with any of my stuff? None of my characters are in it or anything? I don't see anything wrong with that..
But still, comments/asks are the easiest, safest and absolute best way to show your appreciation for my artwork. Genuinely, it is.
Oh its a horrible place. Its a kingdom ruled by a corrupt and evil king. The royal guard is corrupt and full of mostly evil snobs that abuse their power. There's plenty of food but none of it is given to the people.
Everyone is overworked, everyone is starving, there's murders in the streets. Its awful..
@khoiazo
@elegysonnet
<XD I've heard of Murder Drones but I never got around to watching it for a shallow reason. That reason being- now don't kill me!-... I don't like the art style đ specifically the way the characters look/are shaped. I know that's not a great reason to not watch something but its why I didn't want to watch it- đđđ
Yes yes! Its the two golden kids. Although they aren't a reference to the missing children-
Its a bit hard to tell, but its supposed to be little Stanley and Stanford pines from Gravity falls! <XDD
(Also thank you!! :DD )
@shaziztrazh
All I can say is those smiles are creepy! Put some teeth in there and close that mouth! XDD
I actually have yet to draw him. I should do that sometime-
Just imagine the Spade King but much bigger and more.. grotesque..
(Post in question)
@couchwow
@beryl-shade
Oh yeah its very likely :00
@null-hydrangea (Post in question)
OOOO THAT'S REALLY MORBID AND ANGSTY-- But sadly no <XDD Its just an artificial separation anxiety of sorts.
@the-faketiccit0by
XD I'm glad! :}}
@syntaxgardenstudios
Woah, that sounds like a cool character! :D
Also thank you!! I'm glad you like my Octonauts stuff! :}} I'm sure I'll come back to it sometime XDD
@skeletormasterofevil (Post in question)
The buddy system is an A.I. programming that I created solely as a tool to make angst
The buddy system is a connected A.I. program that Glamrock Fredbear and Spring Bonnie both have. Its a program that tells the animatronics to always be in the same room. The further away from each other they go, the more distressed they become :(
@just-a-human-lad
:DD Thank you! And thank you for the littol frog guy! đđžđ
I imagined the whole group is sitting around a camp fire and they're all talking a bit about where they came from and what their AUs were like. Jevil talks about how he and Seam were under rule of this horrible King. And how Seam was the court magician and he was the court Jester..
River makes a comment; "Oh.. You must just despise anything Jester related then, yes..?"
Jevil nods "Oh yeah, cant stand the stuff."
Then Grillby says, "..Then why do you still wear your jester hat?"
There was immediate tension between Seam and Jevil. But Jevil thought of something quick. "...You really wanna know why I don't take off my hat?"
Grillby: "uh.. yes..?"
Jevil creates all this suspense around it and then he goes. "Its becuase I'm bald under there, and you all would probably go blind from the reflection if I took my hat off." Cue giggling from Goner kid and a couple snickers from the group. The tension dissolves and the subject is changed. No one really thinks to bring up the hat thing again after that.. they all somewhat just accepted that as the answer.
Thank you!! :DD I love drawing them, so I'm glad you love how they look!! :}}}
If that worlds Seam is anything like mine, he wouldn't have been able to follow through with it.. Imprisoning him is one thing, executing him is just not something he has the guts to do..
And if their Spade King is anything like mine? As punishment for not obeying his orders, he would have just killed them both. :(
Hypothetically though.. if he DID kill Jevil.. and then later on saw my groups Jevil? I feel like he'd freak out. Thinking he's some kind of vengeful spirit or something. "I killed you, I saw you die- you've been dead for years- there's no way that you're really here-" He'd push him away out of fear and maybe even run away..
He probably did.. :( đ
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Do you like juzi or vuzi more
i'm gonna ramble hella hard about this, sorry, but that's the bargain you strike when you shoot an ask my way
but there's a fun story to my answer. you see, V/Uzi was actually my first interest, and in fact when i started kicking around the idea of writing Murder Drones fanfics, the first idea i seriously tried to work out was a V/Uzi fic
(for the curious, general shape of the idea was that Uzi encounters V first, railgun wipes her memory, fails to befriend her like she did with N and has to run away. Uzi then sneaks out again and again, exploiting the railgun-induced amnesia and errors to try and get through to V, leading to a kind of mutual rivalry as V tries to figure out why she keeps having gaps in her memory.
pretty sure it was going to escalate to Uzi hacking into V and potentially going dubious places. the working title for that fic was "Somnabulation". which means sleep-walking, so it would have been kind of ironic for Somnabulation to be the mind control fic and Hostile Takeover the one that spends half its wordcount in memory simulations)
but i'm rambling.
i never ultimately figured out how to make the V/Uzi fic come together into something i liked. and i didn't have that much motivation to do so, as there are good V/Uzi fics out there, like This World Couldn't See Us or Hold On Tight To This Time, This Place
but, as you'll quickly discover if you search the tag now, J/Uzi fics are a lot less numerous. i did like some of what i saw there, so i didn't have a full on "if i don't do this, nobody will" kind of motivation driving me
but then one day, out of the blue, a single thought occurred to me, an observation, comparison, an answer to the question of "what could a relationship between these two possibly be based on?"
and then the whole fic just crystallized around that thought.
(what was thought? i'll leave that as an exercise for the reader, or perhaps i'll save it for a minor reveal later on in Hostile Takeover. it's not very profound, but when it occurred to me i did have the distinct feeling that i'm not sure anyone had thought of the connection i just made.)
and i want to emphasize, when i say it crystallized, i mean it seriously came together, all at once. on October 31 last year, i jotted down the outline, initially as something to post in a discord brainstorming channel, but then i spent all evening writing more and more, and came out the other end with ten thousand words of notes and scene sketches
but anyway, all of that yapping is a long way to say
at the start i preferred V/Uzi (V was my favorite character, and J barely registered as anything but a joke to me), and i began writing Hostile Takeover essentially as a writing challenge or puzzle to prove something, or even just as a practice run for the fic i really wanted to write.
but i think my phrasing here gives the game away, doesn't it? i think very few people would write nearly 160k words in four months out of mere intellectual curiosity
so to finally, finally answer your question, my favorite is J/Uzi and by a long shot. the relationship absolutely grew on me as i wrote it. i'd genuinely go as far as to say my hot take is that it's actually easier to have J/Uzi make sense than V/Uzi, if you're being truly faithful to both characters. is this because J has less character to be faithful toward? shut up.
i think the biggest factor here is that in the course of writing HT, V stopped being my favorite character. i still find her a lot of fun when i'm reading her in other fics, but writing her has just brought a lot of her flaws to the forefront, and it's hard not to be increasingly frustrated with her character. (is this self-inflicted on my part for writing a plot where V causing problems is the central driver? maybe)
but yeah, i've found myself so much less interested in V/Uzi as time goes on. one of my mutuals has describe vuzi as something to the effect of the blander, safer alternative to juzi, and don't look at me i'm just misquoting him.
#hostile takeover#i'd tag the ships i'm talking about but i dont want vuzi fans out for my blood#love yall#my answers#my squiggles
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Naturally we ended up watching a bunch more! It was a great night, thanks to everyone who came by (and especially to thegrungler for maintaining an incredible degree of enthusiasm the entire night). So here's a roundup~
Julie Zheng brings us Play With Me!, bringing an incredibly charming Yuasa-like animation style to portray the most shaped cat you've ever seen. For how laid back it feels, it doesn't seem possible that so much can happen in two minutes.
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We watched a fair few videos by Hoolopee, who's doing incredible things with both lofi PSX style and uncanny valley hyperrealism. Most of his videos riff on games, but his recent film Two Pipes takes the style to an original story to great effect!
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We revisited some of the older films by some of the creators above! Old Animation Night-heads might know these ones...
Paul Robertson originally landed on the scene some eight years ago with the utterly relentless Kings of Power 4 Billion %. [If you have photosensitive epilepsy don't watch this one, there's a lot of strobe effects.]
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We rewatched the absolutely brilliant How and Why Don Jose Dissipated by Animoshe, a film to genuinely warrant use of the word psychedelic. A tourist with two faces has a strangely intimate interaction with a fly before going on a mad chase after a duck that leads to him becoming one with the universe or something like that. This film is really something special, a perfect combination of visuals and music.
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We also checked a couple of the films I saw at Annecy last year from the WTF2023 block! Sadly there is still no web release of A Kind of Testament, but we could check out the absolute earworm Du vélo à St-Malo, du kayak à St-Briac by the band Astéréotypie, animated by Fabian Dores Pais.
And of course I had to show everyone Uncle Babysitter 2 by Chinese animator tungwood, because one crazy baby film was not enough! I actually got to chat with tungwood at Annecy, he was an incredibly sweet and quiet guy, you would never guess he'd be the one to make this...
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Since we were gonna check out Digital Circus to finish, it seemed only right to make sure all are up to speed on Gooseworx's earlier work, in this case the Elain the Bounty Hunter series! Definitely check out the elaborate sequel Elain Gets Adopted, and Gooseworx's other fantastic short Little Runmo.
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Speaking of Digital Circus! Gooseworx now has the backing of Glitch Productions, the studio behind Murder Drones, and is riding out a somewhat mindbreaking wave of attention - hundreds of millions of views. I do miss the wild energy and abstract reality breakdowns of her earlier works, though Digital Circus Ep 2 was definitely very strong - stronger than the pilot imo, with the story of Pomni and the NPC bandit a highlight. I did appreciate the nods to the history of 3DCG in there, the Utah teapots and Perlin noise.
The more Digital Circus can move away from roots of 'zany thing happens, characters quip', the better it will be. Regardless, the animation is an absolute treat - 3D with the super snappy timing, squishiness and bounciness of 2D.
Did you know the whole thing is rendered in Unreal? It's crazy how a realtime engine can handle bright scenes full of indirect lighting like this.
As a coda, we watched this super slick chuuni piece BELTZ BLADEZ by tumblr's own @streetdevil96 (Ziplok)...
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I love the chunky angular proportions and bright reds of this OC, sick work.
Huge thanks everyone who came by tonight! Web/indie animation nights are some of my favourites, and I love getting to share all a this with everyone~ I can't wait to bring you more animation from Glasgow in a couple weeks time!
Animation Night 182: Web/Indie IV [Amazing Digital Circus Edition]
Hey everyone! It's animation night! I was going to run this one much earlier, but I got sidetracked arguing about the future of humanity, which is something that happens more often than I care to admit.
To make up for that, I have a really tasty slate of short films for you tonight!
We have long time fave Gooseworx getting a studio, blasting through the popularity records with her new web series! The second episode dropped just days ago!
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We have the long-awaited return of Paul Robertson with a suitably deranged story of pixel babies on an adventure in hell! Rivals Looney Tunes for density of sight gags!
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We have extraordinarily detailed renditions of Metal Gear by one Mitchell Hammond, seamlessly blending 2D animation and 3D-rotoscoping! The madman's trying to animate the whole game and he might just pull it off!
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We have the gorgeously intricate transhuman visions of MelÀnovis! Hard scifi spaceships blending with cathedrals, machine lifeforms bowling asteroids, and more! I sure hope they can finish this one some day!
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We have freaky music videos channeling the ghost of the 2000s for the band A.G. Cook!
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We have a loving tribute to Animusic by Lasers, Lights and Music! If you know Animusic you know what's up - if not they were this wonderful series of short CG films in which elaborate Rube Goldberg machines play music from around the 2000s. LL&M have created software to make this kinda thing with MIDI.
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Even There She Is! came back! For real! Who the fuck saw that coming? As it turns out, this short was crowdfunded way back in 2016, and saw a DVD release in 2021, but now it's finally returned to the web, the original home of There She Is! This one features cat-bunny hybrids.
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And I'm sure I'm gonna come across more cool shit before the night is out, tell me your fave cool shit you saw on the web~
Tonight at twitch.tv/canmom, the final Animation Night of London! Starting now!! See ya there!
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Chromeskull Has Entered the Chat
Embrace different ways of working across your organization to best utilize your resources.
Mature content, gore, murder, torture
Chapter Three: "Interesting Discoveries"
Written by my beloved: @general-nerdy
Jesse soon found his thoughts and plans rotating around Miss Morbidâs stream schedule, not that he was complaining; it was the most fun he could have without hitting the streets himself. He did return to her Monday and Wednesday streams, but her main events on Saturday were when Jesse felt the most compelled to interact.Â
When Miss Morbid was so bubbly and cheerful, waving to the camera as unfathomable suffering happened in the background, Jesse couldnât stop his fingers before they entered his username.Â
|Chromeskull has entered the chat
|
|Chromeskull has donated $150.00
The harsh whine of a heart monitor flat-lining would ring through the air, and Miss Morbid would cease whatever she was doing to check her computer. Hands soaked in blood, her LED eyes turned to hearts as she bounced on her heels.Â
âChromeskull! Welcome back! I was hoping you would come!â Â
Her crimson drenched fingers formed a heart shape over her breast as she bent towards the camera.Â
âThank you so much for supporting my practice!âÂ
Jesse smirked. She wasnât as nervous as the last time, but he still noticed her fingertips twitch as she spoke slightly breathlessly. Miss Morbid was trying to hide her nerves; he could tell.Â
|<Chromeskull> Youâre doing well.Â
She momentarily froze on camera, her breath hitching. That he had such an effect only with words made Jesseâs ego soar higher than it already was, and he was eager to keep that ball rolling.Â
Most streams he wouldnât say anything at all, merely dropping increasing donations as time went on. Miss Morbid would stop everything when she heard that loud, droning tone, checking any device she could get her hands on to greet him.Â
|Chromeskull has donated $250.00Â
Miss Morbid immediately left the sap sheâd been dancing with to retreat to a quieter corner of the club, murmuring just loud enough for the stream to hear as she checked her phone. Â
â...Chromeskull, you shouldnât have. If you were here, I wouldnât mind a dance or two. I promise Iâd only poke and prod you a little.âÂ
|<Chromeskull> Too busy there.Â
She chuckled lowly. âWant me all to yourself? I could be your on-call physician.âÂ
In his line of work Jesse was used to hearing women sing his praises, when he entered a room with them consensually, before he knocked them unconscious nonconsensually. But it didnât mean anything to him then. They did it in the hopes heâd be flattered enough to pay for something extra, so they could use the cash to buy whatever fix they needed afterward.Â
This woman though, Miss Morbid, was providing a service so much more magical than just getting his dick sucked. She was providing art in its most raw form, live for everyone to see. It was a demanding job, and she did it with a smile. Her thanks were genuine. And her flirtatious words scratched an itch with an energy that his wife just couldnât match.Â
It came to be a back and forth that Jesse looked forward to. With each appearance of his in the chat, Miss Morbid got more and more forward.Â
|Chromeskull has donated $500.00
The chat went wild whenever he donated, eager to see and hear her reaction.Â
She stopped mid-vasectomy on a man whoâd tried to spike her drink the previous consultation day and skipped over to her computer monitor when she heard the familiar droning tone.Â
âOoh, now who could that be...âÂ
She gasped, placing a hand over her collarbone as she read the chat.Â
âChromeskull!â
Her LED eyes turned half-lidded as she pressed her arms to her sides in such a way to push her chest front and center to the camera.Â
âIâm feeling very⊠appreciated⊠as a surgeon, thanks to you. If thereâs anything youâd like to see, just let me knowâŠâ Â
Though it would have been incredibly easy to get what he wanted, Jesse ignored the suggestions the chat bombarded him with.Â
|<Chromeskull> Iâll think about it.Â
Miss Morbid clapped her hands.Â
âOf course, think real good and hard about it⊠but donât tease me and make me wait too long. In the meantime, since youâve been such an avid supporter of mine, Iâve given you a special tag on your name in the chat. Give it a try.âÂ
When he entered text into the bar again, a small icon showed next to his username.Â
|đ<Chromeskull> Not bad.Â
He could hear the smile behind her mask.
âIâm glad you like it, I thought it suited you. Now! Back to the task at hand.âÂ
The extra attention made Jesse puff out his chest. He was the only one she addressed by name, and now he had a special identifier. She was actively looking out for him every time, and it was beginning to feel like his own personal show rather than a live stream.Â
However, Spann was becoming more insistent in tracking the company funds he was spending.Â
[RE: Unusual Purchases]
âSir,
Iâve tracked increasing amounts leaving the company account. Could you confirm these as your own purchases?
Thank you. -Sâ
It was his company and his money; Jesse had plenty of it so he wasnât concerned. But to cease her nagging, he would oblige Spannâs curiosity. She was just doing what he paid her for, after all. He sighed with a huff as his deft fingers traveled across his keyboard.
[RE: RE: Unusual Purchases]Â
âTheyâre approved. -CSâÂ
[RE: RE: RE: Unusual Purchases]
âVery good, Sir. Theyâre off the radar. I hope youâre enjoying your vacation. -SâÂ
He certainly was doing something like that. Â
Upping the ante each time was giving Jesse a rush; lavishing gifts was as good for him as it was for the recipient. They got something nice, and he got the satisfaction of knowing only he could provide such a gift. Being able to drop cash gifts at the drop of a hat reinforced his place at the top of the food chain; trickle-down economics and all that.
Another Saturday meant another kill stream, and Miss Morbid was particularly excited. She doted on a man strapped upright in a metal chair, the top of his skull gone as she prodded at his brain. Her good cheer was infectious; even the chat was more enthused than usual. That she could be so skilled yet so bubbly made Jesse grin, and he pulled his laptop into his lap.Â
|Chromeskull has entered the chat
Miss Morbid already had her eyes on her screen, so when his name appeared she was ready to greet him.Â
âChromeskull! Good morning!â Â
She leaned forward, the mob of red curly hair piled atop her head bouncing as she rocked back and forth on her heels excitedly. Her LED eyes turned to two pixelated skulls that quickly transformed into hearts.Â
âIâm really happy to see you⊠Enjoying everything so far? I think I missed my calling as a brain surgeon.âÂ
|đ Chromeskull has donated $100.00
|
|đ<Chromeskull> Looks like youâre having fun.Â
Miss Morbid laughed and nodded.Â
âI am. I just have such a passion for helping people-âÂ
|đ Chromeskull has donated $1000.00
|
|đ<Chromeskull> Oops, finger slipped. Missed a zero.Â
The chat exploded, with Miss Morbid frozen like a deer in the headlights. She had to steady herself with a hand braced on the table holding her tools. The other hovered over her masked mouth, which must have been hanging open based on the slackness of her jaw.Â
|đ<Chromeskull> Get some new tools.Â
While she took meticulous care of her assortment of surgical utensils, Jesse could see their age. The metal had lost its luster, dulled with grooves worn in where she had held them when in use. A new set could invigorate her, or she could buy something she didnât already have for her operations.Â
Her voice came out in a whisper.Â
âT-Thatâs⊠are you sureâŠ?âÂ
From confident to demure, Jesse was eating it up. He was grinning more than he had in ages. What was it called when you found something so cute, so endearing that you wanted to tear it to pieces? Cute aggression. Jesse wondered what it would be like to see her unmasked face, brought to the point of tears.Â
He wanted to find out. He needed to find out.Â
|đ<Chromeskull> Yes. Itâs a drop in the bucket.Â
Her free hand ran up through her hair, ignoring the gore on her glove.Â
âI⊠t-thank you,â Miss Morbid croaked. âI⊠the practice will make good use of it⊠donât you worryâŠâÂ
Her chest rose and fell quickly, with shallower breaths; if only he could see her expression. She gazed at her handiwork for a long moment before her head snapped upward with a renewed energy. Bringing a scalpel with a longer edge to her victim's jaw, Miss Morbidâs tone was bright.Â
âIn honor of your generous donation, weâll carve this one for your namesake!â
Tilting her blade at an angle, she traced a shallow cut around the entirety of her patient's face. Either he was too dazed from the effects of his brain surgery or heâd completely given up, because the man only offered a low whine as Miss Morbid began to cut away his skin. Using her free hand to guide the solid mask of flesh away, she hooted when the last of it was released and she tossed it to the side. His facial muscles and bone were exposed, the haunting visage of a bleeding skull.Â
 âA skull for my Chromeskull.â
That afternoon, Jesse resolved to find Miss Morbid. Spannâs business sense served her well; this mystery womanâs talents could be used in the organization in any number of ways⊠including in his pants. Â
But in order to make her an offer Jesse needed to find her, and he had no place to start. Searching the name âMiss Morbidâ brought up nothing but trash results, so heâd need another way to track her down. Narrowing down an area with concentrations of missing men could have been a viable option. Or maybe there was something he overlooked in her streams?Â
Luckily for him, Jesse had started to record her sessions in his obsession. Heâd kept the footage and audio from the past few weeks. After getting properly washed and dressed Jesse planted himself in his home office, ready to work at analyzing every second of her footage for anything he could use.Â
Just as his fingers hovered over the touchpad of his laptop, a pop-up for a video call began to ring.Â
Spann.Â
Jesseâs shoulders fell with a heavy sigh, and he clicked to answer the call a bit more forcefully than he intended. The video feed shared to the larger screen on the wall opposite him, and his secretary smiled pleasantly from behind her desk, her hands folded in front of her.Â
âGood morning Sir,â she greeted him. âHow has your vacation been treating you?âÂ
Jesse typed deftly at his keyboard. Pleasantries were a waste of his time. His response appeared in the text log next to the video feed. Â
[What is it?]
Spann shifted slightly in her seat, though her expression remained steady.Â
âWell⊠a transaction totalling $1,100.00 was just made from the company account. I wanted to bring it to your attention-âÂ
His keyboard strokes clacked through the call.Â
[I made the transaction.]
She smiled wider, but the energy didnât meet her eyes at all. They were dark and shrewd.Â
â...I see! Well, it would be helpful if, in the future, you could alert us beforehand. Or, I could even help you purchase whatever you needed-âÂ
He cut her off.Â
[Whose accounts are these?]
Spannâs lips drew into a thin line.Â
â...Yours, Sir. My apologies.âÂ
Jesse didnât skip a beat.Â
[Correct. You have eyes. Use them next time.]
He hung up before Spann could respond.Â
Jesse was engrossed in his element, examining the footage for any tidbit of information he could leverage. Plus, he enjoyed rewatching Miss Morbid work using all of her abilities to their finest. She was a refined predator, and that made her all the more alluring.Â
Her surgeries probably wouldnât provide much, so Jesse decided to focus on her consultation days and burglary streams. Jesse started with the club footage. Seeing her flaunt her outfits in the mirror, her plush lips moving with her words grabbed a different kind of attention from him, but he had to focus. He had a mission to accomplish.Â
Nothing inside the bar caught his ear or eye; the drinks and music were both common, and no signage gave away the name of the establishment. If Jesse didnât know better, he would have thought Miss Morbid was purposely not looking in certain directions, or cutting her footage when there was no other option.Â
What a sly little minx.Â
As the recorded night dragged on, Jesse sunk lower and lower in his chair at the lack of anything concrete. Watching idiots flirt with her all night wouldnât get him anywhere, no matter how much the sound of her low and sensual voice distracted him. As the evening came to an end Miss Morbid stared down at the chat on her phone as she strutted out of the club; the only other thing in her periphery was a dirty, cracked sidewalk.Â
Her end of stream address was as it always was, done in the reflection of a shop window, closed for the evening. Peering inside the store itself Jesse saw what appeared to be a small restaurant, the only thing illuminating the interior the glow from a display case. Cheap chairs were stacked atop tables in the interior, the checkered floor weathered with age. He could spy the simple menu, but couldnât make out a name, address or phone number, and hundreds of thousands of places in the States served burgers and fries.Â
âI think weâve got an amazing candidate for surgery this weekend,â Miss Morbid wound down, running a hand through her hair as her LED goggles turned off. The bright red glare from them ceased, and with that newfound clarity, Jesse noticed something else.Â
There was still a glare on the window pane, reflections from across the street behind her. Jesse paused the footage, zooming in on the partial image that wasnât blocked by her body. Being a reflection it was backwards, so he took a screenshot and then opened it in a photo editor to flip the orientation.Â
Jesseâs eyes scanned the text as he read the neon sign in his mind.Â
Dry County Liquor.Â
That wasnât any store heâd ever heard of. If he was lucky, it wasnât a chain. A quick Google search let him down only slightly; it was a chain, but it was regional to the Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio tri-state area.Â
He brought up his video call software again, dialing up his favorite, insecure little minion.Â
It rang for a few moments before the call connected. Preston scrambled to sit up straight at his desk on the other end, running a hand over his hair and smoothing his shirt as he spoke.Â
âHey, boss,â he began. âI, uh, thought you were supposed to be on vacation. Yâknow, after that big mess in Birmingham, the one I cleaned up, and that big deal with the cops and everything-âÂ
If he let Preston continue heâd never shut up. Jesse couldnât type fast enough.Â
[I need you for something.]
Preston sat taller, drumming his fingers on the glass top of his desk as he nodded. âUh, sure, sure! Whatever you need. Thatâs why you pay me, after all-â
[Concentrations of missing men in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Close to hospital thefts and a chain called Dry County Liquor. Find hotspots.]
His employee raised a brow. â...Men, boss? I, uh, didnât think you were into that kinda thing.âÂ
Jesseâs fist clenched. He typed with his other hand.Â
[Rave clubs too. Forward your findings. Donât fail me.]
Preston nodded quickly, beginning to tap away at his own keyboard. âYou got it, but, uh, is there somethinâ we should know about or-âÂ
Jesse ended the call and leaned back in his executive chair, folding his hands in his lap. Hopefully that wasnât too much of a task for Preston; the man had to earn his keep somehow, after all. He also made a mental note to not send all of Preston's emails to the âBitch Boyâ folder, at least until he found what he was looking for. Indiana, Michigan, or Ohio huhâŠÂ
The Florida man in him shivered at the thought. He wasnât suited to the cold.Â
âŠ
A few days passed. Jesse checked his email frequently, and surprisingly keeping Preston busy seemed to be the best way to shut him up; the spam from him had stopped completely. Though the wait made him ansty. Miss Morbidâs streams only made the itch Jesse felt grow. Heâd much rather experience her excitement in person rather than through his screen, but donating helped tide him over.Â
Finally, his inbox showed a new result.Â
[Interesting Discoveries]
âHey Boss,
About all that stuff you asked about⊠Turns out thereâs a big hotspot right where the tri-state border is. Bunch of guys have gone missing, and the parts of them they did find were all cut up. That wasnât you, was it?
That liquor store showed up near a lot of those thefts, and something interesting popped up when I was looking at hospitals.â
A link was included in the body of the email, and in his curiosity Jesse clicked it. It led him to an article in The Detroit News, dated over a year ago.Â
DETROIT SURGEON: MALPRACTICE OR MURDER?Â
{Several malpractice suits have been filed against a local surgeon , but the families of the deceased claim they were murders, not mistakes. Under investigation is Maeve Macrae, MDâŠ}
Maeve⊠MacraeâŠ
Prestonâs email continued.Â
âWas one of the top hits. Never got convicted, but got the boot and moved. Dug around and found she went right between the hotspots; a little shit town called Montpelier in Ohio. Got her address, car make and model, license plate, and more. Sent it all in a nice attachment for you.â Â
Jesse eagerly opened the .pdf, his eyes scanning it over.Â
The first image that met him was of an Ohio state drivers license. The woman that stared back at him had pale skin, green eyes, and a mane of wild, red, curly hair.Â
Maeve MacraeâŠÂ
Miss MorbidâŠÂ
Bingo.Â
âDunno what you want with her, but if you need me to take her somewhere, just let me know. -Pâ
Preston would be getting his paycheck in a timely manner that week. Jesse couldnât have been more pleased with the results of his search. He sent the entirety of the email to his phone, links and attachments included, then shot up from his desk to start getting his things together. His GPS told him that the drive was only ten hours; just a day's worth of travel, made easier with cruise control. Spann and Preston wouldnât even know he was gone.Â
Jesse packed his briefcase with care, his medical equipment, thumb drive, laptop, and mask tucked neatly away with his combat knives. He wouldnât use them⊠maybe. Well, maybe he would. After all, how could he introduce himself to Miss Morbid as anyone other than Chromeskull? His destination programmed into his cellphone, Jesse locked the house behind him and climbed into his car. His fingers thrummed against the steering wheel as he peeled out of his driveway, headed north. He had someone very special to meet.Â
âŠ
He made it to the address specified a little after 1 am that Saturday morning after a continuous bout of furious driving. Sure enough it was a run-down looking apartment building on the rougher side of the little hick town towards the edge of the state. The old brick structure had long lost its red luster, now a sickly ashy brown with age. Most of the windows were boarded up, others cracked and filled with junk and cords. One window on the upper floor appeared tidier than the others, however no dim light from the interior bled through.Â
The streets were as dead as they sounded on her streams, and dirty; broken bottles, plastic bags, and other refuse littered the gutters. Only the very occasional clunker teetered on the poorly lit and maintained roads. Jesseâs shiny Chrysler stood out like a sore thumb, but would anyone really be paying that much attention?Â
Jesse parked himself around the corner from the entrance to the building, just far enough to be out of immediate eyesight, but close enough he could easily see people stumbling in and out. Out of habit he labeled a fresh tape with a sharpie and loaded it into his video camera with brand new batteries, setting it on top of his dashboard until he was ready to record. Now, it was a waiting game.Â
Saturdays were her kill streams, and Jesse knew she couldnât have done such a thing in her own living space just by looking at it. She must have taken her patients somewhere else, but where he didnât know. So, heâd wait until she appeared, and note her movements until he learned more.Â
It didnât take too long. Maybe an hour or so after he arrived, Jesse watched as a slender form dressed in black exited the main entrance, stuffing a stray lock of curly red hair underneath a black wool cap. A long, black gloved finger pressed the record button on his camera and zoomed in. Yes, it was the woman from Preston's email alright, walking briskly to the parking lot behind the building. He saw her piece of shit red Ford Aspire slowly pull out and down the road, its mismatched body panels and cracked windshield easy enough to spot. Its license plate matched the one given to him, and it was indeed registered to the woman driving.
His own vehicle rumbled to life, and he maintained a good distance as he followed the woman with his headlights out. She was certainly acting abnormally, and the information appeared accurate, but Jesse would need solid proof she was indeed Miss Morbid. Â
Miss Macrae headed far out of the town proper, passing endless fields of corn in pitch darkness only barely fought back by her dim headlights. Jesse didnât keep track of exactly how long theyâd been traveling, but she finally ended up slowing by an overgrown drive almost unseen by the side of the old road. Jesse pulled off to the side and waited, her old car crawling down the way through a small outcropping of trees.Â
Jesse watched the clock, giving her ten minutes before following after with his lights still extinguished. The path was well worn once he found it, leading to an abandoned looking workshop that must have at one time belonged to one of the local farms. The windows were boarded over, but a sickly yellow light emanated from the cracks between the plywood. He parked well away from the building and the womanâs car, opening his briefcase to press his mask to his face with his trusty medical adhesive. Shutting his door silently with his one hand as he clutched his briefcase with the other, his camera was on and recording on his shoulder. If this turned out not to be Miss Morbid, at least heâd have a new piggy to play with. Jesse made his way to the closest door without a sound, his height easily allowing him to peer into the dirt encrusted window.Â
Miss Macrae was inside, hauling an unconscious man over her shoulders as she dropped him onto an operation table with a loud thud. She huffed as she positioned him the right way up, pulling a knife from her pocket to begin cutting off his clothes. The man offered no resistance, which made Jesse think that he mustâve been heavily sedated in order for her to manhandle him. Once he was completely nude she began strapping his torso and limbs down, and moved various tables of tools far enough out of his reach that using them to escape wasnât possible. Â
Now he was sure that he had the right woman. This had to have been Miss Morbid.
As she worked Jesse observed the rest of the familiar space. The door in and out was behind her; the same way it was oriented in her main camera angle in her streams. Her computer was on a table off to the right, connected to a small satellite dish aimed out of a hole in the wall. Jesse could have laughed; she stole the internet too? There was a large metal basin sink off to the left wall, and several tripods about the operating room at different angles. All in all it was quite the impressive set up, given the circumstances and her obvious lack of a budget.Â
When she was satisfied with how secure her newest patient was, Miss Macrae stood over the man and gazed down at him. Jesse watched as her hands ran through his hair, her slender fingers scratching over his scalp. Her pretty lashes hung low as her expression seemed far away, lost in her thoughts. It almost reminded Jesse of his love for his coffins.Â
Her strange desire satisfied, her hands left the man's head and she turned towards the door. Jesse quickly ducked around the opposite corner of the building, and watched as she turned the lights out, stepped outside, placed a heavy padlock on the old door, and walked back to her car. She sat inside her vehicle for a long moment as the car sputtered then finally croaked to life, her shoulders falling with a sigh before Miss Macrae turned around and disappeared back down the old worn path.Â
When he heard her dying engine no longer, Jesse emerged and turned his camera off. He went to sit in his Chrysler, and programmed the new navigational data into his GPS for future reference. Checking his watch, it would only be a few more hours until her stream started at 9 am. He figured he could catch a quick nap before she returned, then watch her stream live in person. He set an alarm early for himself, then reclined back in his chair to doze. For once his mind was agreeable, easing him into sleep quickly in eagerness to be rested for the day ahead.Â
âŠ
The shrill beep of his phone woke Jesse just as the sun began to peek over the horizon. Turning it off he sat straight, rolling his neck and shoulders to relieve the stiffness that had set in from sleeping in such a confined space. Usually heâd go for a cold shower and a cup of coffee to energize himself, but the knowledge Miss Morbid would be performing soon made Jesse as alert as ever.Â
Reapplying a fresh coat of medical adhesive, Jesse made sure his mask was secured before he relaxed again. The padlock on the workshop door was still in place, and he didnât see any sign of Miss Macraeâs car. His own vehicle was out of line of sight, so all he had to do was be patient.Â
Sure enough, the now familiar rumble of her Ford came from down the path, pulling up alongside the building. Miss Macrae stepped out in her expected attire; her white shirt, black skirt, and black heels. In her hands she carried her goggles, and the keys she needed to unlock her workspace before slipping inside.Â
Even for that brief moment, Jesse was enthralled with watching her. She was beautiful, curved in all the right places; his eyes roamed from her gorgeous tits down to her delightfully perky ass. Her movements were graceful, her long, pale legs begging for someone between them. A thrill went up his spine... but he resisted the urge to fuck her in front of her audience.
Jesse exited his car silently, camera on and knives in hand as he hovered outside of the door in the same vantage point as the night before. Miss Morbid flitted back and forth between her equipment as she prepared for the main event. Her mask, goggles, and gloves were now on, and she stepped away from her computer to turn on her cameras one by one. The man on the table wriggled weakly due to his newfound company, but ultimately was unable to do much.Â
She was such a busy little bee; she had a good work ethic. Hopefully heâd be able to keep his hands to himself long enough to let her work. He watched as she gathered her hair as best she could in a messy pile atop her head, the milky skin of her neck and collarbone exposed. And finally, she undid an extra button on her shirt before tapping at her keyboard. The red record lights on her cameras came flickering on, and the show had begun.Â
âGood morning everyone!â
Her tone was of the cheerful Miss Morbid, eyeing her display, and more notably the chat.Â
âHow are we all doing today?âÂ
Jesse couldnât quite make out the text as it sped by on her screen, but he could imagine the average greetings she received.Â
âIâm happy to hear it! Weâve got a lot in store for our patient todayâŠâÂ
Miss Morbid pranced to the head of the operation table, her back to the door, and Jesse, as her hands roamed over her victim. At that angle, bent forward like that, Jesse could vividly picture her bent over his desk, taking him so well-
âHeâs got quite a few digestive issues, so weâll see what we can do to help this poor thingâŠâÂ
She moved to the left side of the table, focused on the main camera and the man's lower torso as she pulled a small tray of instruments into her reach. With her not blocking the view of the camera any longer, Jesse felt emboldened. The shine of her camera lens beckoned him, asking for a show. He could certainly give her one she would never forget.Â
The object of his fascination was completely unaware as he pressed the tip of his knife against the old metal door, the only barrier between them. As Jesse pushed against the rusted hinges, the wretch on the operation table began to cry out as Miss Morbid sliced into his soft belly. Conveniently, his shrieks covered the scratchy squeaks of the door swinging open just enough. Jesse couldnât suppress the grin behind his mask as he partially slid his frame into view, all while she was completely oblivious. Raising one gloved hand, encased by the knuckles of his knife, Jesse undulated his fingers in a little wave, directly at her camera farther in the room. Â
~
This guy really didnât know how to take care of himself, his wrinkled, distended beer-belly making Maeve grimace behind her mask. Why was it always these ones that tried the hardest at the club? Why couldnât it be a strapping young man with a hefty bank account? But no one like that lived in fucking Montpelier. Sheâd be stuck in this shit place in her shit apartment with her shit car until she could save up enough to-
A heart monitor flat-line rang through the air, and her heart leaped into her throat. That sound could only mean one person was in the chat.Â
Maeve skipped over to her computer, her lips changing to an eager smile of anticipation as she read through the chat log. It was much longer than usual.Â
|<Mommy_Milkers> NO
|
|<Mommy_Milkers> NONONONONONONONONONONONONOOONONONONONONONONO
|
|<XxXDeathNinjaXxX> đ
|
|Anal_repentive has donated $100.00
|
|<Anal_repentive> GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE
|
|<Big~Wiggly> Who the fuck is that?!
|
|<A suspicious egg> turn around turn around turn arounf
|
|<lesbianushunny>đđđ
|
|<NonSexualUrges> Well we had a good run. Shows over đ
|
|<VEINSSS> GOD DAMMIT I LIKED THIS SHOW FUCK
She didnât understand.Â
â...What the hell are you talking about, chat?âÂ
|<Oddnmsor76> Youâre not alone!
|
|<Uoutio> CHECK THE FOOTAGE AJSDHDJFJF
|
|<4365733567> đ The door!!! đ
Maeve hesitated, her blood running cold as she glanced briefly at the only entrance and exit to the building. She looked back to her screen, tapping her fingers against her desk in agitation.Â
â...Youâd better not be fucking with me, chat,â her voice fell as she quickly brought up a window to replay her previously captured footage.Â
She watched herself greet the stream, taunt her victim, ready her tools and begin the operation. Everything was normal.Â
And then it wasnât.Â
Her eyes were fixed on the center of the back of the room, on the door, as it ever so slowly eased its way open. Long slender fingers, smooth and black, curled around the edge of the rusted metal. Inching its way after was a hulking, dark mass, blocking out the morning sunlight as it filled the doorframe. A glimmering visage of death, a chrome skull, stared into her camera, with a serrated knife as large as her forearm in its other hand. The thing observed her for moments that felt like years, then taunted her with a friendly wave, before disappearing from view. The door shut once again, but it was not the same.Â
Oh no.Â
Maeve couldnât breathe. She ripped the cords from the back of her computer, sending her stream to a crashing end. Rushing to the operation table she stabbed her scalpel into the man's jugular, twisting and pulling the blade erratically in her haste. There was no time. Shoving her bloodied equipment into a large black duffel bag, she kicked the door of the workshop open and bolted to her car, tossing it into the backseat. One last item, her computer tower, was thrown into the passenger's seat.Â
One twist of her keys, then two, then three, and the old piece of shit finally cooperated as Maeve peeled down the old dirt path, leaving nothing but a dust cloud in her wake. She tore off her goggles, searching her surroundings frantically for anyone or anything watching.Â
There was nothing.Â
But she wasnât alone.Â
Oh FUCK.Â
Tag list:
@naughtyslashersshers @nightmareinthelibrary
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Escaping Expulsion!
      LUMITY! LUMITY DEVELOPMENT! LUZ REALIZING HER CRUSH!!!!
      Amity calling her MY Luz⊠Amity and Luz back-to-back! Playing tricks together thatâs so ADORABLE!
      Thereâs so much to this episode, I⊠IâŠ!
      Gus! His growth spurt will take a lot getting used to, itâs like watching your favorite kids grow up⊠At this point he may as well go back to Augustus! And Perry, I love seeing more of him!
      WILLOWâS DADS! Theyâre GOOD parents I tell you, they talk a lot about grounding or whatever, but then IMMEDIATELY drop their jobs for Willowâs sake!? To home-school her, to have fun! GOOD PARENTS! And the Glasses Dad, heâs a really chill dude, sees Willow going behind the back and is like âI wonât tell!â Nice. VERY niceâŠ!
      BUMP! Not only do we get confirmation that heâs in the Abomination Coven, BUT HEâS A SWEETIE! Heâs an utter sweetheart! This really all adds to my headcanon that he felt bad about what happened with Eda, and I bet he was being reminded a LOT of that when he had to get rid of Luz, Willow, and Gus⊠At least with Eda she more or less left of her own volition, but these kids WANT to come back! I love this principal and his layers⊠Also Frewinâs tail moving?
      I agree with Alador, and I find it hilarious that he doesnât seem to understand Frewin that much either⊠Or he does but heâs still curious! Al IS interesting like Odalia said⊠Not exactly a good parent, but he is a man of his word! Also WOW he looks like an utter mess, nothing like the prim and proper noble we all expected! I guess Alador from Amityâs flashback was in dress clothes for Amityâs birthday and all that⊠But yeah he IS fascinating as Dana said! I guess he is the inventor as some people suspectedâŠ
      His whole demeanor matches his brief depiction in YBOS pretty well; Looking like heâs mostly just kind of THERE, just kind of chilling for the ride. Has his head in the clouds and focuses on the inventions, on the technical know-how, on carrying out the orders and seeing them through, while Odalia is the leader who instructs things- Just as we suspected! I can already see the neurodivergent Alador headcanons⊠If Amity is autistic, does she get it from him?
      ODALIA⊠Ugh. I mean, sheâs about as rancid as we all expected, but itâs interesting that she DOES listen to Alador, so there is still that respect there! But JEEZ, sheâs an attempted child murderer?! Goes back on her word!? I have to wonder if Alador was the original Blight actually, and Odalia was the one who married in; That, or Alador just has actual integrity and acts as like⊠The second voice who helps rein in Odalia and remind her of things every now and then. Interesting⊠But yeah, I loathe her!
      Of course, back to Al- He may not necessarily be so great himself. He does seem to prefer the easy path, the path of least resistance; He adapts to Amity standing up to him and Odalia by instead considering how she could replace the current Abomination Head one day⊠Which makes sense, thatâs HIS expertise, and daughter takes after father! And Odalia really is an Oracle as we thought⊠Oracle magic for spying, makes sense, but that necklaceâŠ
      UGH⊠Remember when we all liked that necklace! How we thought it was SO CUTE? How Amity wore it at first in Adventures in the Elements⊠But then she rarely wore her casual outfit? WELL NOW WE KNOW⊠Hereâs hoping the intro changes to remove the necklace, but WOW I was genuinely feeling sick in my stomach when I saw that!
      And Odalia and Alador are even WORSE, because theyâre literally arms-manufacturers! Do I even need to explain why thatâs awful? But Iâm really having a lot of fun with the idea of Abominations as robotics; Iâd considered the idea of Abominations melding with Automatons, and the show just confirms and validates that! I love this show⊠I have to wonder if weâll see Amity and the Abomination Head interact more? And I like how Abominations is basically shape-shifting and form-changing, but applied to a magical goop that Abomination Witches can controlâŠ
      Belos and the Golden Guard! More worldbuilding- Of course Belos is monopolizing and taking things into his own control, heâs expanding his influence! And of course, as Golden Guard pointed out- Not only does he want soldiers âglad weâll see more of these Abomination things in practice- but also⊠He doesnât want anyone raising a private army against him; Which again fits with how Belos operates!Â
      But the way Odalia and Alador look at one another⊠WERE they intending to raise a private army? Or were they always open to selling out to the highest bidder- With their desire to install Amity as the new Abomination Head, we might see them ally with a rebellion, but for their OWN purposes⊠With how their audience and customer base was cloaked, they may have been unknowingly selling to people with a vested interest and stake in taking down Belos!
      EDA AND LILITH! This show once again confirms my read on glyphs; Not containing magic, but more commanding the magic around them! Lilith is SO smart, figuring out how it works⊠And YES, I love delving into the mechanics! How glyphs are about COMMUNICATION with the Isles, that calls back to Adventures in the Elements! I wonder then if Belos can communicate with the isles too, possibly through glyphsâŠ
      But we get more insight into their dynamic! Eda was always that talented kid, so she could always breeze the basics and get right into experimentation! It was good for critical thinking, but as we see, she can be really hyperactive and impatient⊠And of course, this frustrates Lilith, who is very stoic and rule-bound! God she was adorable this episode, how she clearly wants validation⊠She really is the embodiment of âMy child is fine!â âYour child was a pleasure to have in class.â Couldnât get validation from Gwen, so Lilith went to teachersâŠ
      AND JEEZ, no wonder Belosâ approval meant so much to her! Maybe like Marcy and Andrias from Amphibia, Lilith kind of latched onto Belos as a potential found family figure for her⊠But as we know, she still had her own desires and wants because she IS a person and not a mindless drone.
      BUT YES, I love the show delving into how Lilith and Eda work as different people! Lilith is by-the-book, and Eda recognizing that Lilithâs methods have value, because Eda is really out of her own element here. I love seeing Eda experiment with glyphs, just the way they experiment with glyphs- Iâm glad itâs not just Luz! Also itâs interesting⊠The show seems to imply that there really are only four glyphs in existence; Light, Ice, Fire, and Plant! Thatâs a shame because Iâd have liked to see more glyphs in the future, just a few moreâŠ
      BUT YEAH, this hearkens back to that shot of Luz combining Glyphs in the trailer, and Iâve always hoped that mashing Glyphs can unlock more complex spells! I love this kind of worldbuilding where basic elements are combined in certain ways to yield more specific things, itâs making my worldbuilding brain buzz happily! And I love Luz just freely giving out stars⊠Lilith is SUCH an Elsa, and her friendship with Hooty is adorable! And hereâs hoping that Eda uses that messed-up spell anyway, against enemiesâŠ
      Overall this was an AMAZING EPISODE, so strong! Luz isnât dense, like Alador sheâs just distracted⊠Oh dang, maybe my Luz and Alador parallels idea wasnât so far off? BUT YES this show promises and delivers through on these characters! I do wish we got to see more of Willowâs thought process about Odalia and Alador interrupting her life again, but with how the episode is already jam-packed with glyph lore AND Luzâs own thing, and I can see why they had to leave it out-Â
      But give her some more spotlight, please! I wouldnât be surprised if some things had to be cut out thanks to Disney downsizing the show⊠Also again, itâs interesting that based on what this episode implied; The Plant Coven is the ONLY Coven to have such a close basis in nature. If there are only four glyphs in nature, theoretically there should only be four main covensâŠ
      Belos, your system is beginning to look even MORE sketchy now! And dang, the revelations, the lore, the reveals⊠Not much of Emira and Edric alas, but what we got was short and sweet, and I love how they felt the need to be nice but also sneak in a prank, but Amity just sees them! And also CAT ABOMINATION, the fanart came through!Â
      And Amity just immediately recognizing her girlfriendâs work to figure out Luz was there, I love it so much! Overall, an AMAZING episode that blew my expectations out of the water! Now after this we have Echoes of the Past, which promises even MORE in regards to King! I love that these characters are getting a lot of focus now.
      Also it just occurred to me, but yeah- Edricâs occasional air-headed moments, Emira being a bit more bossy and strict⊠As we all speculated, they get it from their respective parents!
      (Also Hop Pop cameo I see you TOH crew.)
#the owl house#the owl house luz#luz noceda#lumity#the owl house amity#amity blight#the owl house odalia#odalia blight#the owl house alador#alador blight#the owl house eda#edalyn clawthorne#the owl house lilith#lilith clawthorne#the owl house gus#augustus porter
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; Â --- Â SHATTERED HILT Â / Â 01
summary: ruâkali survives order 66. cal kestis does, too. while cal spends his days on bracca, stripping starships for parts, ru spends her days earning her protection from the empire in the fighting pits on ordo eris; both do what it takes to survive. but, when a wayward quest and a plethora of owed debts lead cal kestis straight back to his fellow padawan -- a once shy girl turned raging fire -- the pit fighter is left with a choice: leave, or spend the rest of her life a pawn in a game much bigger than her. pairing: cal kestis / original female character, ruâkali lof word count: 2k a/n: i cannot remember the last time i wrote something that wasnât a reader-insert, and iâm not sure how this will do -- feedback is genuinely appreciated on this, since i know iâm mostly a reader writer! everyone loved ru from her intro to my clone trooper squad, which you can read here!Â
Ruâkali Lof startles awake to the sound of three loud, rough bangs on the door to her quarters.Â
She wonders bitterly, as she blinks up at the ceiling, if she can just ignore the sound. With any luck, theyâll leave her alone and Ru can go back to bed --
Then, the knocks come again. Louder and faster.Â
âRise ânâ shine, sweetheart!â
Ru snarls.
Beneath the durasteel door, she can see the long shadow of someone shifting back and forth in their boots -- immediately, the Mirialan, as she stands and throws herself to the door, knows itâs Atticus. The sheer bombastic chaos that follows the bounty hunter swims through the force to greet her before she even opens the door.
When she does, heâs got an arm on the doorframe and heâs leering.Â
Atticus Rex isnât much to look at, nor is he kind nor smart, but heâs muscle -- his head is shaved in a tight buzz, littered with scars, and his muzzled grin is picked clean with a toothpick that hangs from his lips.Â
He smells like day-old ale and sweat.
âWhere yâ been, Ru?â
It leaks out of him like a jab. She has to restrain the snarl that threatens to leap across her face. Her attitude is sharp and wants to go straight for the Haxion Brood Lieutenantâs throat.Â
âAsleep,â she bites, crossing her arms and cocking a hip as she goes to hit the switch and shut the door, âDo you mind?â
Atticus snorts, hand planted on the frame and forcing the door to stay open.Â
Ru leans back, peering into her room, to eye the chronometer hanging on the wall. The digits read 1038 -- itâs late, and sheâd finally fallen asleep after sheâd managed to quiet down the usual roaring river in her mind. Not an easy task.Â
"Get dressed,â the Bounty Hunter chirps, âSâ fight night, sunshine.â
--
Fight nights were common.
But, fight nights were Ru fought? Those were rare -- and though sheâs sure Sorc Tormo would put her in the ring every night if he could, sheâs also aware that to the Umbaran crime-lord sheâs an asset. A big asset. A big, money-making asset that draws a big crowd and big bets.
Huge bets.
(The exact kind of bets that got Greez Dritus into this mess in the first place, and by proxy his new-found friend.)
Ordo Eris, on fight nights, becomes more like a city than the cold, lonely, terrible astroid colony it really is. The space station fills with scoundrels and thugs from all across the galaxy who traverse the rocky space around the arenaâs hub to get a spot around the ring -- Ru eyes the growing crowd, nearly every attendee with credits in hand, as the lift carries her upwards to the top level of the arenaâs loge.
Beside her Atticus flicks the smoldering bud of his deathstick down the shaft.
Speaking of Sorc Tormo, the sleaze ball greets Ruâkali with wide open arms and a devious grin.Â
âAh! My prized warrior princess!â
Ru cross her arms and swaggers forward -- the small rope of lucky beads tied to her sash tinkers as she does, knocking against the chromium smelted hilt of one of her two sabers. One is hers from when she was a Padawan. The other is a recent build and itâs temperamental. Using a stolen, mined kyber crystal is to blame, no doubt.
Master Yoda was right -- the crystals are supposed to pick the Jedi.Â
Atticus meanders along behind you. Skulking as per usual.
Ru looks out past the arena to the screens bolted up along the pit. Pale blue eyes narrow tightly, the deep scar over her right eye warping slightly as she does. The broadcast is in the lower levels. Some idiot running around on the walls. Plugging wires in.Â
A show, for sure.
Ru raise a brow.
âWhatâs all this about?â she asks, turning to eye Sorc Tormo.
The Umbaran man is eccentric, to say the least. His facial hair runs right down his chin in one fine line, green in color. That same green, punchy and vomit-reminiscent, echoes in his Canto Bight-esque outfit. Large, pompous sleeves and pants that are three sizes too tight. All green.Â
He looks like seventy kliks of bad road, honestly.Â
Hell, everyone on Ordo Eris does.Â
Ruâkali is no exception -- sheâs rougher than she was when she first arrived here. Littered in scars and bitter. The years of pit fighting have settled in her stance and though sheâs athletic, sheâs a rogue brawler with enough crackling, dangerous rage to power an entire Star Destroyer.
Fighting takes the edge off. Makes her feel less afraid.Â
âWell,â the lone, pale fingers of the Umbaran curl around Ruâkaliâs pale pink shoulders, nails drumming against the diamond shaped markings there, âI am glad you asked, my dear. We have a special contender for you --â
âCut to the chase, Tormo.â
The egg shaped head of the Umbaran rolls as he steps away, waving off Ruâs evident irritation; the crime-lord gestures to the screen. âHeâs friends with someone who owes me a lotta money. He was carrying this around --â
His fingers snap twice.
âAtticus --â
Ruâkali was not expecting Atticus Rex to procure, from the back of his belt, a lightsaber.
And she certainly wasnât expecting him to hand it to Tormo and for the Umbaran to ignite it, presenting a glimmering yellow blade.Â
The Mirialanâs face falls -- anger bubbles up there, warping the navy tattooed features of her face as she steps forward and yanks the hilt from the hands of the crime-lord.
Her lips twitches.
âWhat?â she sneers vengefully, âDid he pull this from a corpse, then?â
She has seen another Jediâs saber three times now in this station. Once on the belt of a traveler whoâd laughed in her face and waved the blue thing around, proudly proclaiming theyâd bought it off clone trooper for drinking money. The second time, on a bounty hunter -- heâd murdered a Jedi Knight for Imperial credits, kept the blade though. The third, was now.Â
Ru could only assume the weapon to be another stolen relic, a ground-in-the-dirt memory of her life before Ordo Eris. This contender probably had no idea how to use it, let alone the life this saber had before now.
A laxidasical wave. âMaybe. Donât care. But! My sweet, sweet, Jedi -- I want you to kill him. Seeing two saber swordsmen dueling... Goodness, me oh my, that will certainly bring in the money, wonât it, Atticus?â
âSure will.â
And it does.
--
Cal Kestis is having a pretty shit day.
Not that heâd ever say so -- no, because, sure, it might be terrible and he might be navigating some wild underground dungeon maze, but Cal has BD-1 back on his shoulder and thatâs all that matters.Â
Heâs got a mission, heâs got BD-1, and despite being a little sore, heâs good. All good. Everythingâs good. Totally good.Â
As he rides the lift to the upper levels of this... place... Cal wonders if heâs gonna eat that sentiment.
The first thing he hears is the chants -- raucous roars of a large crowd. Before him lays a large square space, illuminated by stark spotlights and swarmed with drone droids, each with blinking red lights on their helms to show their recording status.Â
It becomes abundantly clear to Cal that heâs suddenly in the spotlight. And, that the itching feeling that he was being watched was correct.Â
The redheaded Jedi steps out from under the bay, suddenly exposed to the bright light of the arena.Â
Around him on the upper decks are hundreds of people, all clamoring to get a view of him -- the large screens on the sides of the loge show him squinting, raising a hand and grimacing into the light.Â
BD-1 gives a worried boowoop.Â
âI got a bad feeling about this too, lilâ buddy.â
Suddenly, a holo-projection fizzles in before Cal -- large and tall and to the excitement of the crowd. The manâs appearance is met with a rise in cheers, rolling off the voices of the spectators with thirst for action.Â
Sorc Tormo laughs.
âAh, finally he arrives!âÂ
The projection waves wildly, spinning about, and Cal watches carefully as this eccentric ego-maniac waves his hand with a grandiose flourishes as he speaks.Â
âWe had action on how long it would take for you to get here!â
Yeah, well, BD-1 was kinda his priority.
Irritation bites at Calâs features. The Jedi scowls. His stance is tense.
âAnd who are you?â Cal calls out, voice rising over the roar of the crowd.
âHa ha ha! Who am I? Iâm Sorc Tormo, baby! Iâm the boss of this operation!â
The crowd goes wild at that, whoops and hollers serenading the arena to the tune of the crimelordâs name. A television drone swoops close to Calâs head and the Jedi side-steps it with a disgusted look on his face.Â
âRight,â Cal snarks, âIs that supposed to mean something to me?â
âMaybe not you, but to your friend Greezy Four-arms it does! Youâve got him to thank for gettinâ you into this pickle!â
Of course.Â
Cere had made a comment off-hand about the pilotâs penchant for gambling -- not that Cal was any stranger to the concept. Back on Bracca, Prauf had muscled Cal into tagging along to a few card games here and there. And though the redhead never partook in wagering his entire weekâs pay on precious metals, Prauf had once or twice. On those nights that Prauf lost -- because he always lost -- there was nothing that could lift the Abednedoâs mood.Â
Not even a signature Cal Kestis smile 'nâ pat on the back.Â
Cal could use one of those right about now.Â
âYeah, well, once Iâm finished with you, I will thank Greez,â it comes out just as cocky as it feels -- and maybe Cal shouldnât had tried the attitude.Â
Either way, when this Sorc Tormo guy laughs and waves his hand, proclaiming, âNo, no, my friend, you wonât be fighting me...â
Suddenly, the air becomes electric.
âLadies and gentlemen,â the crime-lord turns on a heel, gesturing to the crowd with the all the practiced cool of an entertainer, âOur lovely little guest will be going head to head with our favorite...â
Thereâs a crescendo of excitement. Cal notices an uptick on the counter on the broadcast screens -- he realize, quickly, that theyâre bets and currently, someone named Fropoloâf is betting the most money against him. Real confidence booster that is.Â
âSomeone get baby his toy! Heâs gonna need it!â
His lightsaber is launched from the loge, and the Jedi catches it quickly, igniting it on instinct as his skin crawls in anticipation. The redhead looks around, eyes cast on the crowds of smugglers and thugs lining the balcony.
The wide angle shot of fear on his face is painted across the rumbling arenaâs screens.
Before Cal can bite in a retort, the echo of boots on durasteel begins -- coordinated and rhythmic. Boom... boom... boom... boom, boom, boom.
âYou know her well -- a pure whirlwind of rage! Sheâs pink, sheâs tatted, sheâs daaaaaaaangerous!âÂ
Boom-boom-boom. Boom-boom-boom.
BD makes a nervous boo-weeeeeeeep as the pace picks up. Cal swallows, gloved fist tightening nervously around the hilt of his glowing, golden blade. Green eyes dart around the square expanse of the arena, trying to get a gauge on where this opponent might appear from --
âGive it up for our girl...â
Boomboomboom, boomboomboom.Â
âRUUUUUUUUâKALLLLI!â
The roar is deafening.Â
Suddenly, the paneling in the floor separates, and from it emerges --
â...Ru?â
Ruâkali Lof is suddenly staring face-to-face with a ghost.
Her stance, wide-set with double blades humming in a hot white, seems to crack when she finally sees the face of her opponent.
Sheâs a handful of meters away but sheâd know that flash of red hair anywhere.
Cal Kestis.
Cal fucking Kestis.
Oh, this is bad.Â
This is really bad.Â
#cal kestis x oc#cal kestis x reader#cal kestis x original character#cal x oc#cal kestis fanfic#this feels so weird to be writing in a diff POV tbh#let me know what you think#genuinely bc this is a dif take from what i usually do!#shattered hilt
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HS^2 blogginâ mainline 2020-04-02
Alright Iâll fix the broken images later right now lets goooooo read the updaaaate Iâve been only spoiled on the chapter title
I donât even wanna guess. Jake? This makes me think of Jake for some reason, even though that doesnât make much se-- oh right the Vriskas are locked in a school closet with a dead clown.
> CHAPTER 7. Distress Call From the Closet
Yep.
Also, this is how a car design looks when it was invented to have its first appearance be it flying with a human named Tavros looking out from an open side door.
(Iâm not ENTIRELY against designing something for its immediate-art-use-purpose first and functional or historical-origination thought later, but usually when you make it that obvious that thatâs what your doing itâs best to make that fact funny. Like the Conveniently Shaped Lamp.)
Also I appreciate this using of Candy as kind of more lighthearted breaks in the action?
> (==>)
I thoguht that protruding fang (?) was drool for a second and wondered what the fuck they were up to in this closet all of a sudden.
Vriska, thriving on it, has not felt so decadently alive in a very long time. Tavros has never in his tragic existence felt so close to death, which is surprising to him.
Vrissy is trying her best not to grapple with any cosmic truths at the moment, since sheâs getting a phone call in the middle of hiding for her life.
Vrissyâs implied to be somewhere in-between all that by this joke. I bet sheâll be comparing herself to Vriska and Tavros alike throughout this mess, wondering where on the spectrum she lands and being ashamed of it AND both of them regardless. Vriska Original had a ghost version who went on a fair bit of a Page dress-up thing and personality shift, so maybe we could expect Vrissy to struggle with being caught in the middle of the scales... or does that qualify as overthinking it classpectways?
VRISSY: Yeah Harry I would say we are Extremely Aware of the Situ8ion. VRISSY: As it Unfolded the fuck all around us.
Good Christ, Vrissyâs selectively-capitalized Kanaya-isms continue to be cute.
Oh, heâs on speakerphone.
> (==>)
Yep, telling Rose and Kanaya would be the smart thing to do, but it isnât the Them thing to do.
--ROXYâS PLACE?!?? Hoo boy. On the other hand, though, we get more Roxy, so it evens out.
Also, I like how Harry Anderson has to spell out Harry Andersonâs entire name for his Harry Anderson chat tag every single time. Harry Anderson.
> (==>)
Part of the reason, Tavros thinks, that heâs been so game to continue on with the worst plan anyone has ever concocted, is that the more bullshit they endure, the longer they can put off actually doing anything that matters.
If heâs getting sprayed with a sprinkler and getting clown feet in his face, itâs a farce. It canât hurt him. But if they get to the part where heâs shoving the uncooperative weight of his uncleâs corpse in an incinerator, he will stop floating in protective semi-consciousness above his body and it will all be real.
Ouch.
Canât one of you assholes just captchalogue him? Or did you leave all the appropriate-strength moduses at home? Even you Vriska??
Oh, right. Everyone knows and you can just leave him here. Good call. I mean you donât really have to worry about forensic evidence with the pictures circulating.
> (==>)
VRISKA: 8ye 8itch.
Oooh! That feels satisfying! Yeah, tell off Gamzeeâs corpse!
...Wait.
If they just leave Gamzee there, Jane can revive him, canât she.
Fuck. Maybe itâs up to Jake to try and stop that.
> (==>)
Karkat and Meenah resistance-time, then, with them presumably hearing about this development on the internet. Wow, Meenahâs horns are getting long fast. Plus a hint more of her grown-up selfâs height. I didnât think sheâd keep maturing so fast with her absurd lifespan ahead of her.
Oh shit, I didnât see at first--
Right, Candy might still be lighthearted compared to the broader plot just due to lowered stakes, but itâs still the Carpet-Bombing-and-War-Filled Shituniverse.
Trolls are made for the battlefield.
From the moment a troll oozes out of the mother grubâs pulsating sphincter, through the trials of the brooding caverns, across the brutal day to day slog of Alternian society, all the way to their Ordeals, to the sucking void of space. They are bred for nothing but endless war.
But Commander Vantas...Commander Vantas is different.
Is... is Meenah narrating right now? Because fuck.
Or so all the pamphlets say.
The actual Commander Vantas has blisters on his heel and has been taking pot-shots at scouting drones for the last six hours. He could use a bath, honestly.
Or is this one of the trolls on the side narrating whoâs kind of internalized the stories of trollsâ prior warlike nature?
> (==>)
MEENAH: yo nubs is that u MEENAH: pretty rank KARKAT: OH MY GOD. KARKAT: I FLATLY REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN SMELL MY NATURAL MUSK OVER THE STENCH OF BLOOD AND BURNING FLESH.
I guess it probably was Meenah narrating, then. Unless itâs a really biased alt!Callie doing the talking.
MEENAH: didnt i warn u bout thinking tho? KARKAT: GOD DAMMIT MEENAH, DONâT MEME AT ME.
I donât know what meme this is and I really donât want to know.
They have had this argument more than once. In fact, both of them could play either side of it. Karkat has done his time in the field, of course, leading small guerilla operations to free prisoners and sabotage Crockerâs supply chains, but Meenah and the rest of the council is right. Which is why heâs here, instead of at the front lines with his rebels, where he belongs.
His true value is his face. His symbology. At the end of the day, he is a fucking ad campaign.
...is KARKAT narrating here???
SWIFER: boss check the news!
Oh shit, right, Swifer is in the resistance in Candy instead of just a breeding assistant in Meat as the bonuses remind us.
KARKAT: OH FUCK. MEENAH: what KARKAT: JESUS CHRIST. MEENAH: nubs i swear 2 god KARKAT: ITâS GAMZEE. KARKAT: HEâS DEAD. MEENAH: oh MEENAH: well shit KARKAT: I CANâT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS. MEENAH: u okay KARKAT: NO!
Huh. Themâs some complicated feelings that could fall in basically all directions at once.
Also, I canât believe Karkat has hung around humans enough to fully internalize the full-throated exclamation âJESUS CHRISTâ, which wouldnât even really be a thing on Earth C with people who arenât from Earths B or A.
MEENAH: u outlawed fishpuns i gotta make my own fun
How could you, Karkat.
KARKAT: AND I GUESS IF YOU CALL AN OBSCENELY PUBLIC PALE ACT, PERFORMED IN A FUGUE OF DESPERATE PANIC INTENDED TO PREVENT HIM FROM MURDERING ALL OF MY FRIENDS INSTEAD OF JUST HALF OF THEM âA THINGâ. KARKAT: THEN YES, I GUESS WE HAD A THING. KARKAT: BUT IF YOUâRE ASKING ME IF IâM SAD THAT HEâS DEAD? KARKAT: ABSOLUTELY THE FUCK NOT.
Okay, Iâd hoped not, good...
KARKAT: THATâS NOT WHY IâM SAYING FUCK A BUNCH OF TIMES. MEENAH: u need a reason to say fuck a buncha times KARKAT: SHUT UP. KARKAT: LOOK AT THE PICTURE.
--Right! Thatâs a good reason to not be okay.
KARKAT: I DONâT THINK SO? I CANâT SEE HER EYES IN THIS PICTURE, BUT SHEâS COVERED IN BLOOD, AND SHEâS CARRYING GAMZEE, SO SHEâS CORPOREAL AT LEAST.
I love this form of analysis somehow.
KARKAT: OKAY...HERE. OH. OF COURSE. CROCKER IS CLAIMING HER SON WAS KIDNAPPED AND FORCED TO PARTICIPATE. KARKAT: AND THEYâVE NAMED ME AS THE MASTERMIND. MEENAH: well we woulda taken credit for it anyway so this saves us the time MEENAH: thanks jane owe u one
Meenah isnât the âconcernedâ type. Lemonade out of lemons.
> (==>)
That middle tweet is my favorite.
Oh dear, â#GamzeeAnonâ...
KARKAT: SHIT. OF COURSE THIS WOULD HAVE TO DO WITH FUCKING SERKET. KARKAT: LITERAL MONTHS OF PLANNING, HOURS AND HOURS OF LOGISTICS, AND ALL OF IT GOES UP IN SMOKE BECAUSE OF ONE SPIDERY ASSHOLE. KARKAT: SHE *WOULD* FIND SOME WAY TO WRECK MY SHIT FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE.
indisputable
KARKAT: NOW? KARKAT: NOW WE PIVOT FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS.
Um...
What does that mean?
Iâm having a lot of trouble not only understanding the basic meaning of what heâs saying, here, but understanding why KARKAT of all people would employ it.
......itâs a meme, isnât it. Gotta be.
> (==>)
(Ooh, an eyepatch designed to invoke a Strider-shade. Nice.)
KARKAT: I NEED TO TALK TO EGBERT.
But....... why??
> (==>)
Oh right, cause his sonâs girlfriend is involved.
> (==>)
Oh my goooood what a pair of John and Roxy caaaars! :D
He is too busy with these mental gymnastics to notice his fatherâs car parked outside.
Ah right. Johnâs... not on the best terms with him, I recall that.
> (==>)
Ohhhh myyyy goooood what an image!!!
John, Roxy, and Harry Anderson proceed to have the tail end of a conversation they had before, in another medium.
What the fuck!? Harry had that conversation WHILE this dead body situation was going on?! Let me reread that linked bit...
(And she has such a somber smile on her face, but given the conversation content itâs not surprising.)
Harry Anderson looks at the two of them all teary and laughing and hikes his bag higher on his shoulder, shifting his weight. Roxy sees a muscle tighten in his jaw. Her beautiful, smart boy. She wants to run over and hug him, to protect him from the possibility of pain at talking to his father, but she doesnât. She knows how much heâs wanted this, no matter how much he jokes about it.
She looks back at John, and sees her own awe mirrored in his face. She wills him not to cry, not to fall back on his self-imposed suffering and blame loop. Something about the last hour must have done the trick, though. John stands up, brushes his hands on his jeans, and walks, back straight, toward his son.
JOHN: hey harry anderson. JOHN: itâs really, really good to see you. JOHN: do you wanna go for a drive?
The muscle in Harry Andersonâs jaw clenches a few more times, but when he smiles, it is genuine.
HARRY ANDERSON: yeah, dad. HARRY ANDERSON: that could be cool.
Oh son of a bitch. Well isnât that entertaining. Harry youâre just going to ditch your friends for Iâm kidding, this is life fulfillment youâre aiming for, of COURSE youâre going to agree. (Too bad bringing the current situation in is gonna throw a wrench in things.)
> (==>)
Oh right, that means more of THIS Vriska and THIS John. Theyâve had a good start talking already, I wonder what more they can learn from each other.
HARRY ANDERSON: but no worries, i asked my mom to pick me up some snacks so sheâll leave to go to the store in a sec. HARRY ANDERSON: just sneak in after she leaves and hide in my room, and iâll be back in a bit.
Harry you enormous shortsighted asshole. And Johnâs about to learn all this from Karkat over the phone to blow his cover.
> (==>)
aaaaa roxy art i cannot :D
Wonder if her stealthiness attunement is gonna catch them in the act?
> (==>)
From this jealousy bit, I wonder to what degree Earth C humans are used to Troll quadrants and their various interplay mores.
> (Room: Examine yourself.)
Oh, a proper room introduction for Harry Anderson! Very fashion-focused, very liking the spotlight--
Oh wait, shit. This is traditionally where classpect associations are hinted more obviously than anywhere else. Time to stop holding back on the classpect stuff and take in every fucking word with capital-C Classpect fully in mind.
A bedroom stands empty. There is no boy standing in this bedroom, or indeed anyone else. However, if the boy whose bedroom it was were here, one might remark that his name was HARRY ANDERSON.
And FUCK, one might say, does he like MUSICAL THEATER.
Spotlight, definitely. But is it for the attention? The possibilities? The acting?
He has been in his fair share of school plays, but he has LOFTY ASPIRATIONS to STAR in bigger and better productions. He especially appreciates modern MUSICAL REMAKES of classic OLD EARTH MOVIES. It's a craze that not everyone is happy about, but in the absent boy they have found a DEVOTED FAN. There is also just enough overlap between his taste and his fatherâs to allow for SOMEWHAT STILTED CONVERSATIONAL BONDING from time to time.
Hmmmm. Is it about the majesty of important works of media (I see âPokĂ©monâ and âAlien vs Predatorâ up there...), or is it about the fact that theyâre remakes of past works? Those are a lot of awards and stage lights now that I zoom in to look... and hats... hats could be important......
The boy who is not yet here has also been known to dabble in ACCESSORIZATION. He could be described as a COBBLER ASPIRANT, a NEOPHYTE MILLINER, or even a BIT OF A WHIZZ WITH A NEEDLE AND THREAD.
Oh, interesting! Not just putting out different outfits, but making them? And Milliner is hat-specific creation...
His mother got him his first SEWING MACHINE when he was 10, to keep him from using hers all the time. His looks are HAND-CRAFTED, often IMITATED, but never DUPLICATED.
Space is obviously possible from sewing, but-- A focus on uniqueness!!! The broader theme is getting VERY specific. You might feel where Iâm leaning already.
His COSTUMES appear in various AMATEUR PRODUCTIONS, the devising of which takes up most of his FREE TIME. His friends are usually LESS APPRECIATIVE of his attempts to dress them up than he would like, though.
Holy fucking shit. He dresses up and makes unique HATS for his friends and others. Specifically so they can use them as COSTUMES to act parts!!!!
And the other unique thing mentioned about him here took the time aside to note how he appreciated the intersection in personal interests between him and his father for it.
So you all know what Iâm thinking, right? HATS??? Itâs got to be Heart, isnât it. Maybe even a Page of Heart, with his long-off aspirations and talent for arming others with it. Any other additive/giving class might do the trick, too, like Sylph or possibly Maid. Knight could technically still fit pretty well, but I feel Page is better given what little we know so far, what with so much outward focus bleeding out.
(You can comb through the saga on my infamous hats tag or the summary on the Aspect Duality post, but the gist is that hats (and othersâ clothes, but especially the hats. even shoes -- SO many shoes in that picture!) represent the gist of an expressed identity, personal uniqueness whether innate or affected ala a costume. Nepeta, Dirk, Terezi, and even Stitch have given us examples, some of them deeper than we realized, MOST of them probably overthought bullshit like I thought when I first created the hats tag and started tracking the wonderful importance of hats. ÂŹ_ÂŹ)
Iâd like to see anyone elseâs interpretation. (EDIT: One more potential Nep-allusion in this room.)
> (==>)
Oh nooooooo!!!! Tavrosâs sprite is the saddest looking thing Iâve ever seen!! D: Like a mix of Jane and Jake that thoroughly regrets his entire existence! Which he practically does! D: Why the Caliborn-like clothes though?
(Some hint at âhow different alt!Callieâs Caliborn must have beenâ like the commentary suggested exploring in fanfiction? Was the suggestion meant to divert attention from the idea that itâd be addressed in the plot? Andrew pulled that trick a time or two, why not these authors?)
Also:
Pffff. Vriska just accessorizing immediately-- Oh, wait. That might just be a bandana she had at some point coated in Gamzeeâs blood.Â
Tavros is looking at the news on a borrowed phone -- nice call on disabling the tracking on yours, Tavros.
> (==>)
TAVROS: Itâs getting a bit surreal to see my, uh,, frozen mask of horror on every news site,, TAVROS: Itâs a good shot of you,,, though, Vrissy, VRISSY: It really is Shockingly well composed.
Heheheh. Itâs fun that Tavros knows exactly what Vrissy/ka would care about.
And yes, Vriska is over there trying out ALL the bandanas.
> (==>)
VRISSY: Oh, is trying on all my 8oyfriendâs accessories not passing the time well enough for you? VRISKA: Desper8 times call for desper8 measures, Vrissy. VRISKA: And this is some dire shit.
They stare each other down. Did she mean the fugitive situation, or Harry Andersonâs fashion choices? Vrissy feels silly wondering this, but despite the situation theyâre in, she canât help but feel more acutely anxious about Vriskaâs presence.
She likes her life, and she trusts her own choices. But now, looking at everything from Vriskaâs vantage point, it all feels silly. Unimportant. Childish.
She canât tell if she wants Vriska to rip in to Harry Anderson or if she wants her to stay silent. To put off the moment where she has to defend him or join in.
Real interesting. Like sheâs caught between these worlds after all.
> (==>)
They say it was a long drive, but...?
...WOW. What a chill, disinterested-looking affect his sprite makes for. Huh.
He kisses Vrissyâs temple and she leans in to the warmth of him.
HARRY ANDERSON: arenât you a sight for sore eyes. HARRY ANDERSON: so sorry it took so long. HARRY ANDERSON: canât rush a heart to heart, you know how it is.
Stop making me deliberate whether youâre trying to drop teasing Heart-aspect hints. You already know Iâm going to be obsessively scrutinizing every word of dialogue around Harry to see if it fits, story. No need to rub it in.
VRISSY: You actually had a Heart to Heart with your dad? How many times did he Cry?
I DIDNâT EVEN READ THE NEXT LINE QUIT SAYING HEART TO HEART YOU EVEN GAVE IT PROPER CAPS THAT TIME
HARRY ANDERSON: but god, it was a mess. i had to keep talking to keep him from looking at his phone or turning on the radio. HARRY ANDERSON: i may have told him more about my deep passions and emotions in the last hour than the whole rest of my life combined, just to keep him from hearing the fucking news.
Holy shit. You exploited conversation about your deep passions and interests for a separate goal???
Aaargh! Classpect everywhere! Iâve relapsed!!! D:
> (==>)
JOHN IS SO HAPPY
John Egbert has not had a day like this in a very long time. He can barely keep track of this series of epiphanies heâs having. He stretches out on his couch to relax and process the gifts of advice and connection his friends and family and ex-family have just given him.
OH RIGHT TIME TO RUIN IT WITH MAXIMUM SHENANIGANS
JOHN: hey karkat! great timing! JOHN: so much just happened and im kind of reeling about it. KARKAT: YEAH NO SHIT.
Ohhhh. Much of the time I hate dramatic irony, but those moments before someone is about to be let in on the discrepancy... oh man I love that.
JOHN: is something going on? i just spent the afternoon with my son, and i think he would have told me if something was up with his friends? KARKAT: OH MY LUSCIOUS SHITTING CHRIST JOHN LISTEN TO ME. JOHN: listening!
"Lusciousâ?? Did they try to type âLususâ and get autocorrected?
Whoâs writing Homestuck on their phone???
> (==>)
J...John?? Are you okay?? XD
This picture. These two paragraphs. I fucking love them.
(Wow, being closer to the âcanonâ story due to ridiculous shenanigans right after his back-to-back self-insights and outlook changes have really been healthy for him huh. He can probably sense HS^2 reaching him out here. And you can see the helpless comedian his probably-still-depressed ass became on Earth B in his reaction here. EDIT: Also, how appropriate that even by DYING, the Bard of Rage managed to fulfill his role and shatter the last vestiges of John's narrow-outlooked despair?)
John canât answer. He canât speak. His body has given itself over to the long-lost feeling of manic euphoria. It had felt like Harry Anderson was holding something back on the drive earlier, but he had already told John so much. He hadnât wanted to press for more.
Yeah... after what Johnâs gone through across his life and session, finding out Harry managed to hide THIS for a whole car-ride is the best sort of punch-line for him.
John canât breathe. Something is happening. Something is finally fucking happening, and heâs finally awake enough to appreciate it.
--yep. I was just guessing earlier, but this kind of confirms itâs in part a closer-to-relevance, closer-to-canon feeling bleeding in. Something is happening thatâs important enough to SHOW onscreen and not skip over. I guess he really does like being anchored in Light after all.
> (==>)
John wheezes himself into relative calm. He has to get Karkat to understand. He clears his throat and breathes.
JOHN: karkat, this can be how we win. JOHN: i know what we need to do.
...holy SHIT.
Karkat, how did you know calling JOHN about this would work out this well??
John actually taking confident action to solve a problem, in a way that isnât going to end up depressing like his attempt to provide Tavros escape in the Epilogues... this should be interesting.
See you next time. (I had to image-fix some stupid linked hat posts for this blogpost and Iâm out of energy, so Iâll fix the other old post I promised that asker to fix in like, a day or two; Iâll post when I do.)
#Homestuck#hs2#Homestuck Liveblog#upd8#Homestuck^2#bladekindeyewear#blastyoboots#hats#Heart and Mind#Harry Anderson
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imagine saying that kind of anti-privacy bullshit to a gay man in the 1940s. or russia. or china. bring blackmailable isn't great, but the solution is opsec not turning yourself into a mindless conformist drone.
[context]
Imagine telling a gay man "let the blackmailer have their way with you forever, any time they want and however they want, each time possibly getting more material to add to the blackmail".
But if we can stop this thing where we misrepresent what the other person is saying:
Obviously opsec is a good preventative measure to blackmail.
But it's a pre-solution. It's not a solution to being blackmailed, it's a solution to being blackmailable. Once someone has blackmail on you, that advice is useless - you can't do better opsec retroactively across time.
When you are already being blackmailed, you gotta figure out what to do. And it's very important to realize that doing what the blackmailer says is the most reliable way to empower the blackmailer to get even more leverage on you.
I think it's pretty clear that this is what my post was primarily about - that's what I opened with, and later words in a small piece of text should generally have their interpretation shaped by the earlier words.
You're right that In the extreme cases you gesture at, if your fear is on the level of "the government or the mob will kill me or worse if this is sent to them", then you can't very well preemptively reveal it to that same government or potential mob members. So a couple of my later sentences are wrong for those cases at face value (though I think they still contribute the right gist to the bigger point of the post as a whole).
In those situations I think your options are just genuinely very limited if your opsec has failed you. But do you really trust that the blackmailer will leave you alone after you do their bidding? Why would they? You've just proven yourself an obedient resource. Better hope they value having a reputation of honesty in their line of work, and don't realize that they can just also try to blackmail you to not reveal their double-dipping.
The three viable options I can think of in those dead-end situations are try to flee the country, go into hiding, or murder if you want to bet on them not having a deadman switch in place for releasing your blackmail. And those are all much more feasible if you built up that network of accepting people I was recommending.
But yeah, sure, opsec. Of course, again, opsec is easier if you've built a network that has more people who are acceptingly on your side.
And in the broadest sense, that thing I said?
"Proactively build a life that doesn't have connections who will reject you for anything true about you and that you can't comfortably lose."
That includes connections to countries - what country you live in for example. I realize it's not a very accessible option for most people, but if I was a gay man in a too-harmfully anti-gay country, I think I'd be constantly planning and investing years ahead into opportunities to move to a more accepting country. Learning another language, biasing myself towards a career that is in demand abroad, saving money, applying for literally any VISA type that I can use to jump, maybe even prioritizing forming relationships with people in those countries over the internet, and if necessary figuring out what the illegal workarounds might be both for exit and overstay restrictions.
God knows I probably wouldn't have the self-control and iron will to do something like that, not with all the pressures of adult life on me, not if I was in bad socioeconomic circumstances, not if fate would have it that I get entangled in a relationship that won't or can't follow and that my heart wouldn't let me leave behind... I know that relatively few will be so lucky as to be able to pull it off. But in so far as it is viable, I do think it should be one of the top priorities. Because the alternative is remaining in a situation where blackmailers can make "offers" that you cannot refuse -again, I cannot emphasize this enough- forever and escalating without bound.
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Having now read Mistborn, I have to say that it only strengthens my above assessment. This is a deeply, tyrannically horrific empire where casual rape and murder of the skaa by the nobility is commonplace, where theyâre treated worse than animals and worked to death, where a decent lift isnât even imaginable for them. And itâs been that way for a thousand years.
And the book emphasizes that despite this, we shouldât think all nobles are bad people. And concludes that not skaa revolution, but gradual reformism, is the answer to this dystopia of utter tyranny. And decides that best ending is to put one of the nobles in charge on the basis that heâs not quite as bad as the others!
The underlying assumption described and analyzed in my above post - that the problem witn oppressive systems in evil individuals, not the systems themselves, and it is only those induviduals and not the systems that need to be deconstructed - is even more strongly apparent in Mistborn than Warbreaker or The Stormlight Archive precisely because the Final Empire is so much more horrific than Hallandren or Alethkar.
And the pitfalls of Mistbornâs resolution feel, to me, quite apparent. Elend Venture is superficially well-meaning, yes, but he has none of the knowledge and skill that would be necessary to rapidly systematically deconstruct the Final Empire. Itâs not as if the nobility would simply consent to be stripped of their wealth. Itâs not as if theyâd be willing for their estates to be given over to the skaa! (For reference: there are historical examples of land reform working, if you give the land to farmers and not to your political cronies.) Itâs not as if theyâd be willing to be put on trial! (Iâm not advocating a Terror, but donât the skaa have a right to some form of justice? Should they be expected to be content with seeing someone who casually had their son, or daughter, or husband, or wife, or friend casually murdered walking around in silk and velvets while they themselves wear rags?) At best Elend is being set up to be a Louis-Philippe, hated by the aristocracy as a traitor and by the skaa for failing to give them even the rudiments of what they need and merit (both materially and in terms of justice).
And there are even deeper problems. Until Vin revealed herself, Elend genuinely did not know if the skaa were people intellectually equal to himself, or if they were unthinking drones or dimly sapient. By putting a noble in power, the revolution reinforces those assumptions! It tells everyone, nobles and skaa alike: even the skaa donât think theyâre fit to rule themselves; even they recognize that weâre superior. Whereas if you put someone like Dockson in charge - born as a regular plantation skaa, and now learned and thoughtful and talented - it shows everyone that the skaa are fully as capable as the nobility. And Dockson would be far more committed to the well-being of the skaa, and far more wisely wary of the nobility (yet without Kelsierâs vengefulness) than Elend. Sure, Docks is more of a bureaucrat than a politician, but he has vastly more relevant knowledge and experience than Elend, who is (and I say this affectionately) a professional dilletante.
And there is one point of the book where the â93 Terror is almost explicitly invoked as the reason to avoid a real social revolution (basically saying: revolutions eat themselves, and go from destroying tyrants to destroying any of their own proponents who disagree with them). Which is, yes, something be to wary of and to avoid, but that doesnât require acting like replacing the Lord Ruler with a less terrible noble is the extent of change that you need! It doesnât have to mean maintaining 90% of the existing tyrannical dystopian system!
So for the present Iâm retaining my initial assessment of Brandonâs writings as powerfully Burkean in character, and shaped by a belief that the goodness of a society is determine by the personal goodness of individuals, with the establishment of good/just institutions and social structures being of far less significance. In them, reform is accomplished by improving bad or weak people (Elhokar), or at most by replacing bad people with good ones (Sadeasâ> Dalinar, Lord Ruler â>Elend), not removing oppressive systems, even when injustice and inequality are an intrinsic quality of those systems.
Conservatism in Brandon Sandersonâs Writings; or, Reflections on Revolution in the Cosmere
Iâve only read The Stormlight Archive and Warbreaker, so this is based on an incomplete picture, but the combination of those two have given me an impression of Sandersonâs ideas on social structures, appropriate and inappropriate responses to institutional injustice, and revolution. These ideas strike me as being essentially conservative; Iâm tempted to say Burkean (hence my alternate title), but I donât know Burkeâs writings well enough to be sure if thatâs correct.
To be clear: this is not a âcall-outâ post. I personally disagree with some of Sandersonâs themes, but Iâm trying to understand, engage with, and debate them, not flatly condemn them.
My interpretations here are primarily based on two storylines: Warbreaker, and Kaladin and Moashâs arcs in Words of Radiance. Both of these two storylines, and their resolutions, seem grounded in the following political ideas:
1) Injustice and cruelty are the result of bad, or flawed, people; not of bad systems. And people can change. The solution to a system that seems unjust is to improve the people within it, not to tear it down.
2) Those who seek revolution are basically self-serving and vengeful, not interested in the good of others or that of society.
3) Radicals and those who seek revolution have a blinkered political perspective, flattening societies and people into stereotypes rather than acknowledging their complexity.
1. People, not systems
For the first point: both Alethkar and the world of Warbreaker have systems that are fundamentally founded on entrenched and institutionalized inequality. In Alethkar it is the division between lighteyes and darkeyes (and the different ranks thereof). In Warbreaker it is the position of Returned, who can only exist by daily taking life-force/spirit from others - typically from the poor. Nonetheless, the narrative justifies the maintenance of both systems, primarily on the basis that the ruling classes contain good people (e.g. Dalinar, Adolin; Siri, Susebron, Lightsong); one of the major themes in TWOK and WOR revolves around forcing Kaladin to recognize that some lighteyes are good, and others, like Elhokar, have the desire and capacity to improve.
The basic political conflict is, to me, expressed by two lines following Kaladinâs (second) defeat of a Shardbearer. The first is Dalinarâs, when he states what Kaladin should do about institutionalized discrimination against darkeyes: âYou want to change that?...Be the kind of man that others admire, whether they be lighteyed or dark...That will change the world.â This fundamentally rubs me the wrong way - itâs the Booker T. Washington theory of how to address racial inequality, and history has proven time and time and time again that it doesnât work. If Kaladin did that, people would say, âWow, that Kaladin, what an unusually exceptional darkeyes!â and continue to treat the rest of darkeyes just the same.
The second line is Kaladinâs when he refuses the shardblade that would make him lighteyed: âI donât want my life to change because Iâve become a lighteyes. I want the lives of people like me...like I am now...to change.â This, I completely agree with - but later events would suggest the narrative may not. (And the fact that Kaladin doesnât used his increased status in later books to push for change on this front frustrates me.)
To give another example: when Sadeas treats bridgemen as cannon fodder and their lives as utterly disposable, the problem is treated as being that Sadeas is a bad person (and facing certai. tactical constraints) - not the fact that Sadeas and the other brightlords has the power to treat darkeyesâ lives as disposable in the first place. When Kaladin is imprisoned for challenging Amaram to a duel - in effect, imprisoned for being darkeyed, since a high-nahn lighteyes would not have been punished for issuing such a challenge - this is treated as Kaladinâs fault, not the fault of a system that treats him as having fundamentally less worth than Amaram.
Thereâs no focus in the books on getting rid of the unjust system - by any means, violent or non-violent, bottom-up or top-down - just on having the ruling class become better people, which is expected to alleviate some problems without fundamentally altering the social structure.
2. Revolutionaries are selfish
The most open expression of this idea is in TWOK, where Moash says outright that heâd like to keep the same system but flipped, with darkeyes on the top and lighteyes on the bottom. Vivennaâs endeavours towards revolution are also portrayed as driven by bigotry against Hallandran culture. And Kalladinâs desire to remove Elhokar is shown as driven by a desire for revenge, with any larger goals or motives being mere rationalization. Likewise, the main antagonist of Warbreaker is shown as having destructive, not constructive goals.
While this is ceratinly true of some revolutionary movements, in Sandersonâs works it is shown as invariably true, with no revolutionary characters being driven by genuine justice or the desire to improve peopleâs lives. This provides a stark contrast with the number of virtuous characters who are shown depicting or upholding the existing social systems.
3. Radicals see society in shallow and stereotypical terms
This is a big part of the characterization of both Vivenna and Kaladin. For Vivenna, the main example is that she initially sees her people - from a largely rural nation - as fundamentally virtuous, and is horrified by the âcriminalsâ they have to live among in the slum. When sheâs made to see that those âcriminalsâ are in fact members of her people, she sees them as victims tragically corrupted by the terrible (urban) culture theyâve immigrated to. She generalizes; she doesnât want to recognize the fact that some of her people prefer life in the city - despite marginalization and poverty - to life in their country of birth, and wouldnât want to return. She spends most of the book being gradually forced to break down her stereotypes of her culture as good and Hallandran society as corrupt.
Kaladin, for his part, continually stereotypes lighteyes. In his youth, itâs a kind of internalized caste-ism - heâs constantly disappointed and mistreated by the lighteyes around him, and he keeps on thinking that the people doing it arenât ârealâ lighteyes, ârealâ lighteyes are noble and honorable and heâll get to fight for one someday. After being betrayed one too many times, he switches to thinking that all lighteyes, invariably, are corrupt, exploitative and evil; it takes a lot to get him to trust Dalinar, and for well after that he continues stereotyping every lighteyes he meets (Adolin, Renarin, Shallan) as spoiled and uncaring even after evidence to the contrary. Even in Oathbringer stereotypes are his default reaction to lighteyes he doesnât know. He also tends to ignore the fact of major differences in variations in status and life with the two main castes, by nahn and dahn. Itâs treated as one of his more persistent character flaws, and contrasted with the more open and merit-based attitudes of the main lighteyed characters.
Iâm not really comfortable with this portrayal. Kaladinâs entire life, and everything heâs suffered, have been defined and determined by being lighteyes. He doesnât have the luxury of being âeye-colour-blindâ . Does he make invalid assumptions? Yes, especially about Shallan. But Kaladin thinking of Adolin as a spoiled brat and Adolin calling Kaladin âbridgeboyâ are not the same kind of thing; calling someone from a discriminated-against group (who is an adult of about your age) âboyâ has implications that both the author and reader are aware of; it is, intentionally or not, an expression of power and superiority, and it is quite justified that it would guve Kaladin a negative impression of Adolin! More broadly, mistrusting lighteyes is basically a trauma-induced defense mechanism for Kaladin, and understandable given what heâs been through. Adolinâs thinking, early in Words of Radiance, that âhe was all for treating men with respect and honor regardless of eye shade, but the Almighty had put some men in command and others beneath them; it was simply the natural order of thingsâ is to my mind far more offensive than Kaladinâs personality hostility to lighteyes, but the only main character who the narrative treats/criticizes as being bigoted on the basis of eye color is Kaladin. Adolinâs treated by the narrative as a great person who Kaladin needs to be nicer to, and the aforementioned attitude is never addressed again; itâs not part of his character arc like Kaladinâs view of lighteyes is.
In short, Sandersonâs works are strongly grounded in the idea that the quality of a society is grounded in the personal goodness of its people (including the goodness of its ruling class) more than in the creation of just and equal social structures; and that attributting a societyâs problems to structures that create and perpetuate injustice rather than to the choices of individuals is basically wrongheaded. I agree with him on the importance of individual goodness and choices; I disagree with his minimization of the need to dismantle unjust social structures.
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Hey do you wanna know what I thought of Batman: The Telltale Series? No? Well here it is.
Season 1
Not a huge fan of this Bat symbol. Itâs not awful though. And Batmanâs ears are a liiiiiiiiiiittle too short.
Iâve heard some people say they donât like Troy Baker as Batman, but I think he does a perfectly fine job.
Itâs neat that the game lets you choose the color of Batmanâs equipment, though I think blue is really the only color that works for it. Also it seems a little weird that everything Batman owns glows. Thereâs a moment where he grapples up a stairwell and the levels of the building light up as he passes through them. Doesnât seem very stealthy for whatâs supposed to be a method of escape.
The visuals in this game are good. The animation can be a little stiff at times, but nothing too bad. The cell shadingâs cool.
Batman calling Alfred âAlâ is weird. Why does he do this? I do not like this.
Catwoman is really good in this. I like her involvement in the story. I like her and Batman. I like her voice. I like her costume, though the material seems kinda bland; I like it when Catwomanâs costume is a bit shinier. That gadget she has that lets her slide up walls is cool, Iâll be damned if I know how it works though.
Not a huge fan of Batman scrambling his voice. Itâs not huge, and I get why it makes sense for him to do it, but I just donât like it. There are a lot of times Batman has more personal conversations with people and having him talk through a machine in situations like that makes it feel kind of distant, like heâs hiding behind it. I prefer it when Batman just speaks in two different voices as Bruce and as Batman. Hell, Troy Bakerâs surely got the vocal range for that; Heâs Troy Baker.
It took me forever to realize what it was I didnât like about Gordonâs design, and thatâs that his mustache is too thin.
Harvey Dent is good in this. Would have preferred his hair be black though. And why is he so tall? Bruce looks like a dwarf standing next to him. I do really like how they build up Harvey and Bruceâs friendship in this. Seeing him try to fight his own transformation, and regret what he does as âTwo-Faceâ immediately after he does it, is genuinely saddening.
Vicki Vale could have been a good character if they hadnât wasted her on a twist. Having to choose between giving the evidence on Falcone to her or to Gordon was interesting. It would have been nice to see that carry out through the whole game. Also when are we gonna get redhead Vicki Vale?
The design for Oswald Cobblepot is... different. I guess itâs fine since heâs supposed to be him when heâs younger. Still, heâs pretty much gonna have to change every single thing about his appearance in order to actually end up looking like his old self. The bird-beak gas mask is clever. I kind of like that the âPenguinâ persona starting off as a way for Oswald to commit crimes while keeping his own name clean. Personality-wise heâs good. By the end of the game heâs an absolute bastard and all you want to do is beat the shit out of him, which is about what the Penguin should be. Him being childhood friends with Bruce Wayne seemed a little weird and didnât really add much to his character or the story. Itâs a little Roman Sionis-y.
Actually hold on a second here the Penguin in this game is actually just Black Mask  - childhood friend of Bruce Wayneâs  - hates the Waynes because of what they stand for  - âlegitimate businessmanâ who creates a masked alter-ego to commit crimes Iâm not even complaining about that itâs just kind of weird.
Batman having white lenses in his cowl is interesting and it makes sense. I donât really like it or dislike it.
The Waynes murder twist is what really kills this thing. Itâs such a huge change to Batmanâs origin just for the sake of a twist. The whole time through I was hoping theyâd reveal that all of the evidence was fabricated, and when they introduced Falconeâs drugs I was holding out on the hope that they were somehow influencing Bruceâs memory, as contrived as that would be. Bruce revisiting his parentsâ murder seems forced. I get that people block out memories sometimes, but apparently all Bruce had to do to remember the entire conversation that happened while his parents were being repeatedly shot was to think real hard about it. Has he never thought real hard about it before? Didnât Bruce try to investigate his parentsâ murder after it happened?
Bruceâs car turning into the Batmobile is dope. Wouldnât work for most versions of the Batmobile, but since this is early in Batmanâs career and the Batmobile is pretty close to a regular car, it works. The color-changing is great too. 10/10 Batmobile would like to see again.
Iâm not really fond of Batman using such advanced technology like drones, a forensic scanner built into his glove, and lenses that let him plan out his moves in advance, so early on in his career. Like I get that Bruce is gonna have a lot of technology at his disposal, and itâd be stupid of him not to use it, but when itâs early in his career I prefer seeing him not have everything built up so much and having to rely more on what he can make on his own. Like itâd be one thing if he were just occasionally re-purposing some Waynetech inventions but these things look like theyâve been specifically made for Batman. The damned things are even shaped like bats.
I like the idea of Martha Wayne organizing special screenings of The Mark of Zorro whenever Bruce wanted to see it. Thatâs sweet.
The choice of whether or not to save Harvey is a pretty obvious one to include, but having it be a choice brings up some weird questions. If you save Harvey, he still ends up becoming âTwo-Face,â so itâs not like youâre actually saving him from a life of crime. It seems like he was doomed from the start. Does Harveyâs face ever become disfigured in that timeline then? Does he just go on to have a lengthy criminal career as Two-Face, without actually having two faces?
Hey Blockbuster sure is a character who is in this and sure does look the way he does in this and thatâs just about all that can be said about him
So if you save Selina, sheâll show up to the hospital with flowers, then change her mind, give you the flowers, and you walk into the hospital with flowers for Harvey. If you save Harvey, Selina doesnât show up at the hospital at all, and you visit Harvey... with the flowers. Where did you get the flowers from, if not Selina? If Bruce bought the flowers himself, then why didnât he also buy them in the timeline where he saved Selina? He didnât know Selina was going to be there to give him flowers, so why did he show up without flowers? I feel like this would have been a good opportunity for the game to go, âhey look at that, your choices really do change things!â by having him not have the flowers if you save Harvey.
Where did Selina get that tank top from? She wasnât wearing it when she took off her suit. Itâs not like theyâre opposed to showing partial nudity in this game; we saw Selina without a shirt earlier on, and we got a whole walking simulator of a half-naked Bruce. If they really wanted to have Selina be more covered up they could have had her put on the tank top after she woke up. Did she have sex with Bruce, put the tank top on when they were done, then fall asleep?
Meeting Joker in Arkham and seeing a glimpse of who he would become was cool.
I donât really like Zsaszâs voice.
Batman comforting the Vale kid was a good moment.
Penguinâs monocle looks kind of silly. Itâs a nice nod to his regular monocle, I guess.
Harveyâs arm catching on fire when you jam his gun is kind of overkill. The flames really burned through that much clothing and did that much damage to his arm and leg in that short an amount of time? Like give it a rest he already has two faces.
Why do grapple guns need to be connected to a computer?
The flashback to Bruce and Oz as kids is kind of weird. Didnât really tell us anything we didnât already know. Didnât make me feel anything for Bruce and Ozâs friendship since I didnât really care in the first place.
Oh no Commissioner Grogan doesnât like me I wonder if this is gonna cause any tension going forward oh wait heâs dead now and we made up how sad
Yâknow, Harveyâs âTwo-Faceâ voice sounds real silly when his face isnât disfigured.
âCobblepotâ slapped over the âWayneâ in Wayne Enterprises in Comic Sans is golden.
heheh, Fal-Coney Island
I had forgotten Selina was in the game until that last part with her. It was a good sendoff though.
Using the reflection in Alfredâs glasses to find clues about the room heâs being kept in is clever. I like it.
The armored Batsuit is dope. The classic Batsuit is also dope.
âBlue... the same color as my tech. It canât be a coincidence.â Yes Bruce it absolutely goddamn could.
Vicki already had a perfectly sound motivation for doing what she did, did we really have to learn her adoptive parents were abusive too?
I keep forgetting Vicki can levitate. Probably because she only does it twice in the whole game. Youâd think sheâd do it a little bit more given how useful it is. Itâs kind of over-powered honestly. How does it work? Is it the same technology as her staff? Where did she get that from? What does it have to do with her character? Why doesnât Batman start using stuff like this?
So if you choose the option that gets Alfredâs eye blown out of his head, he has an eyepatch. So throughout the rest of Batmanâs career Alfredâs gonna be a guy with an eyepatch. Having an eyepatch is now Alfredâs thing in this world. Either that or Bruce gets a little bit of his ear blown off, which is less egregious but still kind of weird... still that shitâs gonna heal up the second he meets Raâs al Ghul.
So if you go as Bruce Wayne, Bruce makes a speech, and if you go as Batman, Batman talks to Jim for a hot minute before the speech happens... so Bruce could have still made his speech. You didnât have to choose between going as Bruce and going as Batman. Sure, Batman swoops in to save Jim once Random Attacker with No Motivation #389 drives a truck into Jim, but Batman had no idea that was going to happen, and he would have saved the day even if he went as Bruce.
âOh boy, itâs gonna be tough to top that!â John he pushed someone out of the way of a truck itâs the least impressive thing thatâs happened in this entire game.
The real shame about this game is that it didnât need to have all of these twists to be ânewâ and âdifferent.â There have been plenty of stories that focus on Batmanâs early days, but this one was different in that it was a video game that had you go through his early days step-by-step, instead of just having it be the backdrop for a regular Batman adventure. Splitting things up pretty much 50/50 between your life as Batman and your life as Bruce Wayne is also pretty rare for a video game. Hell, the simple fact that this is a Batman game done in the Telltale style sets it apart from other Batman games in and of itself. They didnât need to make Thomas Wayne a criminal, make Vicki Vale a terrorist whoâs actually an Arkham, or even make Penguin Bruceâs childhood friend. This game was good enough without those, and would have been better off if they werenât there.
Season 2 Episode 1
Haha what the fuck they made a sequel?
The Riddler in this looks baaaad. The hood just doesnât work. I feel like itâs an attempt to make him look more ârealistic,â but isnât it more realistic for someone to wear a bowler hat with a suit than to have a suit where the jacket has a hood? When he first shows up at the casino he looks so out of place with his hood up. Bowler hats may be kind of flashy, but real people do wear them. Itâs not like itâs to hide his identity, since he doesnât seem concerned with hiding who he is, and the game goes out of its way to have his hood get knocked off in every encounter anyway. The hook on his cane is clever, but hacking and slashing at people doesnât seem very Riddler. Him being a villain from back in Thomas Wayneâs days bothers me too. It means his career reached its peak before Batman was even around. Heâs hardly a Batman villain then, just a Gotham City villain whose last fight happened to be against Batman. And then he dies.
New Batsuit looks good. I didnât dislike the old one but I like this one a lot more.
Riddler tells Batman âyouâre supposed to be the worldâs greatest detective.â Would Batman really have already gained that reputation at this point?
Gordonâs mustache is bigger. I like it.
Seeing Bruce doing Batman work at rich people events is fun, though the âIâm looking for new thrillsâ excuse can only work so many times.
Hey, Amanda Wallerâs in this.
Interested to see where Alfredâs condition is gonna go. I hope heâs okay. I hope they donât kill him for shock value like everyone else in this series
Tiffany is annoying. Sheâs every âyoung geniusâ character.
Killing Lucius was stupid and needless.
âPlease tell me you didnât put him in danger.â âWe didnât know there was any danger.â âHow dare you!â Well fine then Tiffany Iâll choose the Lie option then. The fact that you can do everything else right but telling Tiffany the truth will cause her to hate you is dumb.
So does no one else notices that Joke- John Doeâs skin is white and hair is green?
All of Riddlerâs puzzles and the way Batman solves them are pretty clever.
Seems weird that the game gives you the option to let the other three agents die to save Avesta. Even if Avesta were to die, tiâd still be one death as opposed to three, and if you want to save Avesta itâd still be objectively better to let her take the first two sonic blasts, then choose her over the other agent for the third riddle since either way one person would die (not that the third riddle matters in the end, since Batman ends up breaking out before that). Yeah that causes Avesta to go deaf, but going deaf is still better than dying. It seems like an obvious choice given Batmanâs morals.
So we get to fuck Agent Avesta, right?
Season 2 Episode 2
Baneâs tattoos look bad. And when his veins turn green they overlap with the tattoos, so it looks even worse. His goatee sticking out of his mask looks stupid too. The rest of himâs fine. I like his voice.
iâm getting tired of every introduction to Bane having him do the back-break pose, then not breaking Batmanâs back. I get that you canât do the whole Knightfall arc when youâve got your own story to tell, but if Baneâs not gonna break Batmanâs back then donât bother teasing it.
That one purple button on John Doeâs vest is annoying and out of place. i hate it.
Theyâre kind of pushing this whole âJohn is obsessed with Bruceâ thing a little too hard. It was fine having them interact in Arkham but now it seems like theyâre using Johnâs fixation on Bruce as a stand-in for Jokerâs fixation on Batman, instead of just having him be fixated on Batman in the first place. Really Bruceâs involvement with the villains in general is getting to be a little too much. Bruce interacting with white collar criminals in a sort of shady-business setting is one thing, but now heâs hanging around with full-on supervillains.
The âLOL WOULDNâT IT BE CRAZY IF BRUCE AND JOHN WERE GAAAAYâ jokes are cringey please stop forever.
It seems like in this Joker is the one trying to impress Harley and Harley is the one whoâs pushing Joker around. And instead of Joker turning Harley into what she is, she just decided to dress up like the biker version of a court jester and commit crimes using a sledgehammer because her dad died... as you do. So why then am I supposed to feel bad for Harley? Normally itâs because she was in an abusive relationship, but now sheâs the abuser. If anything I should feel bad for Joker... who apparently is becoming the Joker... because of Harley? God this is like a fanfiction. And if Joker ever does end up being the one who manipulates Harley, why the hell should I care? If anything she deserves it since she was the one who started manipulating him. There are plenty of stories where Harley manages to pull one over on Joker, and they work because Harleyâs getting payback for what Joker did to her. In this, sheâs the one who started this whole thing. All of this is her fault. Honestly, fuck her.
Outside of that, Harleyâs kind of annoying but sheâs not awful. Sheâs got a few âWouldnât it be just QUIRKY if I did something really inconveniencing right now?â moments.
Bruce letting John and Harley into Wayne Enterprises is just reckless. Itâs bad enough on its own, but when Harley starts physically threatening and putting her hands on his employees then good god he shouldnât be letting this happen anymore. The whole thing is just irritating to watch.
Yâknow, Bruce really oughta change up all of the secrets in his office if Penguin knows about them and is telling other criminals.
At this point Tiffany is just here to be an inconvenience.
I feel like they could have worked Matches Malone into this story, instead of having Bruce pretty much become a criminal.
Friesâ suit is pretty good. Itâs missing the dome though, you canât have Fries without his dome. His glove that can freeze things by touching them is neat, but I still prefer the gun. I also donât really like his voice. His characterizationâs good though.
Fries sounds like heâs voiced by the guy who voices Skullface. He isnât.
I like Harley a lot more when sheâs being more sincere instead of trying to be the most annoying person in the room.
Do... do we get to fuck Harley? I donât know if I wanna fuck Harley. Or rather, I donât know if I want Bruce to fuck Harley.
I donât really like all the villains already being in full-on âvillain modeâ already. It seems like they just popped up out of nowhere, already established and organized. I wanna see how these people become supervillains, not just have them pop onto the scene in full costume, ready to start their life of crime. The only one who seems like heâs still in a sort of early stage is Joker, the one who would make the most sense to already be a full-on villain.
Whatâs the point in Bruce hiding his face during the heist if theyâre going to call him by his name anyway?
Seeing Bruce try to reduce the deaths by beating up agents himself was cool.
Bruce seeing the Batsignal go up as he drives away with the villains, not able to do anything about it, is a good scene.
Interested to see what they do with Riddlerâs dead body.
Hey look, Catwomanâs back.
Might add more when future episodes come out
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Literally everyone: AAHH MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA!!!! Me, seven years late with starbucks: so, I just finished ME2 and yowza, guys
.
Okay, so some of you might remember that a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (oh shit wrong fandom), I was liveblogging Mass Effect 2. For various personal reasons, I stopped the liveblog some time ago--I jumped ship and liveblogged all three Dragon Age games, and then, when I was meant to pick the ME2 blog back up, some personal shit happened and it was easier for me to just finish the game without the liveblog. Iâm sorry if you were looking forward to live Suicide Mission reactions, but I can provide, in bullet point form, a summary of what would have been the end of the liveblog if Iâd been able to finish it properly!
(Having now written it up, I guarantee, youâre not missing anything by this not being an immediate liveblog--it is JUST as funny this way, I promise!!)
It did get quite long, so here it is, under the cut:
I successfully scanned/probed every. planet. in the galaxy. Iâm not joking. Every single one.
This made for a lot of boring scanning time, but it also revealed a lot of sidequests--all of which I completed.Â
This included taking out the entirety of the Blue Suns mercenary operation via fucking up their fake-distress-signal trap and stealing their stolen cargo after killing off several of their captains.
Also I stopped some missiles from crashing into a small colony? I think?
I successfully completed every sidequest that had anything to do with quarians.
Samaraâs loyalty mission!
I flirted with her daughter so badly it was embarrassing, but hey, thatâs the way to bait serial killers into getting KOâd by their moms, so...
Thaneâs loyalty mission:
Iâm still genuinely surprised that that security guard honestly believed I was a health inspector are you kidding me Iâm fully armed and armored how does this outfit say âhealth inspectorâ to you pls I fear for the security of the Citadel
But hey, we stopped the kid from killing anyone, so thatâs good.
Also, what is up with my squadies having kids who want to murder people who we have to prevent from murdering people? Guys. This is bad parenting. Pls.Â
I scanned some more planets and did a few more sidequests.
Mirandaâs loyalty mission:
there was some hinky shit with this whole situation, but itâs Miranda: of course there was hinky shit. But Iâm glad her sister was WAY Chiller about the situation than I thought she was going to be.
I AM SAD I MISSED THE PARAGON QUICK-TIME-BUTTON AND MIRANDA MURDERED HER CHILDHOOD BESTIE THAT WAS VERY UPSETTING AND IâM NOT ABOUT THAT LIFE
Jacobâs loyalty mission:
TALK ABOUT HINKY SHIT WITH THE WHOLE SITUATION
tbqh, Iâm still not 100% sure what the fuck happened on that mission. I got the toxic food made people wacky, but Iâm unclear on the ten-year wait before activating the distress beacon. You cannot have just been chilling like a king while the crew got slowly more poisoned for ten years and been having a good time. Bro, pls.
Iâm v glad Jacob was chill with me throwing his dad in jail.
I did some more sidequests. I cannot stress enough how many fuckin sidequests I completed.
LEGION: hoooo boy.Â
1. I fucking hate husks and fighting husks and getting swarmed by husks and dying a lot but itâs fine, Iâm fine
2. Geth still make me nervous. I understand that there are good geth and bad geth, but I spent waaayyy too long fighting that Colossus on Therum in game 1 to fully be okay with them.
3. Taliâs non-reaction was the most ridiculous and out of character anything in the Bioware universe. There was NO REACTION AT ALL to us activating a geth on board a ship that has an AI installed on it. And no reaction to us recruiting that geth. The only reaction we got--finally, AFTER FINISHING Legionâs mission--was her anger over Legion trying to send info on the Flotilla to the geth. Which, yes, warranted a reaction, but sO DID A LOT OF OTHER STUFF. And the fact that Bioware was too lazy to write Tali some reactions to this geth just chillinâ in our AI Core offends me deeply.
4. Legionâs mission: I really, really didnât want to do either option, tbh. One felt like genocide and one felt like mind control and I was 100% not there for either of those versions of events. (I eventually decided to blow up the station: see point 2 above.)
The second EDI was like âu should take everyone on the shuttle; the ship will be fine!â I was like, âOH JESUS FUCK NOTHING WILL EVER BE âFINEâ AGAINâ
There is nothing--nothing--more #relateable than Joker running through the ship as itâs getting attacked by Collectors and just repeating âshitshitshitshitshitâ for the entire time.Â
It was about this time that I realized the next THING was the Omega-4 Relay and I had to do some googling. Did you know that the Mass Effect Wikia is 100% Useless when it comes to figuring out how to get through the Suicide Mission without getting anyone killed?
I spent a lot of time being TERRIFIED that Iâd somehow missed a ship upgrade, even though there was no possible way for me to have missed a ship upgrade.
GARRUS AND I FINALLY DID THE DO. THERE WERE CANON FOREHEAD TOUCHES. HE WAS A NERD. IT WAS SO FUCKIN CUTE I DIED. IT WAS SO CUTE.
The fight with the Oracle in the basement was waaayy chiller than I thought it was going to be, and my sister, from across the room, just laughed and reminded me that I was playing on Casual mode.
The briefing room scene:Â
Miranda: âWeâre going to have to split up into several groups.â
Me: âWorst. Idea. Ever.â
Miranda: âYou have to pick someone to go in the vents. I volunteer!â
Jacob: âI also volunteer!âÂ
Me: âAhh, thanks, but Iâma send Legion, âcause Legion is the best tech guy we could possibly ever have? Considering it IS...tech?â
Miranda: âUgh, fine. Pick someone to lead the second squad. Again, I volunteer.â
Me: âThatâs nice. Hey Garrus, darling--meet me at that fucking door, and you better be alive, babe.â
Garrus: âSure thing, babe.â
Miranda: âUuughhh, at least we know he knows what heâs doing. Fine.â
SO WE SET OFF INTO THE COLLECTOR BASE, SPLIT UP INTO SEVERAL GROUPS, AND I ALMOST HYPERVENTILATED OUT OF NERVES AND MADE MYSELF COUGH.
I got Legion through the vents without it melting.
I spent a lot of time reminding myself that if you murder all the collector drones before you kill Harbinger, then you only have to kill Harbinger once, as opposed to once for every drone in the room.
There was a terrifying moment at the first locked door, when I was very certain we were all going to die.
No one died.
I WAS REALLY WORRIED THE CREW HAD BEEN LIQUEFIED BUT THEY WERENâT, I SAVED THEM ALL! IT WAS AMAZING!
Also, the liquefying was suuppper gross and unnecessary, thanks Bioware.
The First Regrouping scene:
EDI: âSorry, guys, but you need to go through that hallway full of seeker swarms, good fucking luck.â
Samara: âI could probably make a biotic barrier and keep them off us? Itâll be slow, but I can do it.â Miranda: âSO COULD I. Any biotic could do it! I VOLUNTEER!â
Me: âUh, it was Samaraâs idea, soooo...sheâs gonna do it.â
Miranda: âFIIIINNE. Someone has to be a distraction and go the other way, though. I fucking volunteer, goddamit, Shep, just let me do my fucking job.âÂ
Me: âGarrus. Darling. Babe. Be safe.â
Garrus: âSure thing, babe.â
Miranda: âIâm. going. to. stab. you.â Doctor Chakwas: âCan someone get us back to the ship? Weâre all in really bad shape.â Miranda: âWe do not have people to spare, sorry.â Me: âHey, Mordin, I love you, but you are not extra great in combat. Want to escort mission this shit?â Mordin: âGood idea. Joker: need coordinates for pick up.â Miranda: âGOOD. LETâS GO. WEâVE GOT SHIT TO KILL. COME ON.â
At this point, I did feel a little bad for Miranda, but listen: I googled who was best for what, okay. Everyone had to live, okay.
We hiked it through the seeker swarm hallway and it was actually a really cool mechanic! I was impressed!
Thane kept getting into cover outside the protective bubble though, âcause heâs a doofus, and Tali and I were just like âpls, son, get inside and stay alive, we canât take all these collectors just the two of us. I mean, we can, but itâll go much faster with you helping. get inside the bubble. pls.â
I legitimately thought Samara was going to die of exhaustion before we reached the door. I assume that if sheâs not Loyal, she might die there? But everyone was super loyal so it was fine, but I WAS WORRIED.
I had a heart attack when Garrus called for help and we had to bust down the door and save him and the other squad and I WAS SO WOORRRIIEEDD
AND THEN IT LOOKED LIKE HE GOT SHOT IN THE STOMACH AND I LITERALLY SCREAMED I WAS SO TERRIFIED BUT HE WAS FINE AND IT WAS FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE
It didnât happen, because the game doesnât support public displays of affection, but if you think that Gen didnât grab Garrusâ face and kiss the fuck out of him once sheâd decided he was alive and not shot, then you and I are not watching the same show.
So, after the traumatized, mid-battle kiss:Â
The amount to which I wanted a v small, v scared scene in which Shep got to say a non-goodbye to the LI she is leaving to cover the door as she goes on ahead is astronomical, but the game did not provide, so Iâm just going to have to fanfic the shit out of this.
The fucking human-reaper-larva was NASTY AF and I took half a look at it and went âNOPE, IâMA TAKE MY GLASSES OFF AND DO THIS FIGHT BLINDâ
my sister laughed at me
I realized after two seconds that that wasnât going to work âcause I couldnât see the adds, and I had to murder them, too, sooo I put my glasses back on, and it was AWFUL
The âshoot the canistersâ part of the fight was SOOOO easy, I was v concerned that Iâd messed something up because it was so simple? Just waves of collectors? and then it just FALLS? I was Suspicious.
The Illusive Man chimed in with a âhavenât you people ever heard of working toward goddamned human supremacyâ and wanted me to SAVE??? the collector base???? for âââRESEARCHâââ???
So I said, âyeah, thatâs fucking dumb, weâre not going to do thatâ and set the place to blow the fuck up
AND THEN I HAD TO FIGHT THE FUCKING TERRIFYING HUMAN REAPER THING AND IT WAS GROSS AND DIFFICULT BUT I WON IT WAS GR9 I DIDNâT EVEN DIE ONCE!!! OR RUN OUT OF AMMO!! IT WAS AMAZING! A MIRACLE!
So then everything blew up and THE PLATFORM STARTED FALLING AND I 100% FOR SURE THOUGHT TALI WAS DEAD
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW TERRIFIED I WAS
I STARTED CRYING IMMEDIATELY AND THEN SHEP GRABBED HER HAND AND THEN LOST HER GRIP AND THEN THEY LANDED AND THERE WAS A GIANT BEAM ON TOP OF TALI AND I LEGIT STOPPED BREATHING
I STARTED COUGHING BECAUSE I WAS SO UPSET I STRESSED MYSELF INTO A COUGHING FIT IT WAS AWFUL I WAS CRYING AND MY SISTER WAS JUST LIKE âsheâs Loyal, youâre fine, sheâs fineâ and I continued to freak out until she stood up and it was terrifying.
I then told the Illusive Man to fuck right off, stole the Normandy, and got my peeps together to murder some Reapers.
and BOY HOWDY THAT WAS A LOT OF REAPERS LIKE #YIKES???
SO That was the end of ME2!
A brief review: I liked bits of it, and viscerally hated other bits, tbh. Iâm still not a fan of the mechanics, but once I figured out which guns to use against which enemies, things did get slightly better. I still hate the very idea of the Collectors--no one needs bug aliens who kidnap and liquefy people, I mean COME ON--but there was some cool stuff with that plotline as a whole. Also, I hate Cerberus, and I wish the game had let me more explicitly publicly pronounce myself as working WITH them out of desperation as opposed to FOR them because we believed in the same things.
Listen, Evil Martin Sheen, you underestimate how much I LOVE ALIENS and how little I care for the human race. So,
anyway
overall: not bad. Looking forward to the third one much more than I expected, tbqh, and that should be starting soon! I do plan to get back into the liveblogging swing of things, but that one WILL be over on the liveblog blog, found here. Iâm hoping to start sometime next week, if not before then, as Iâd really like to get to Andromeda before I have to fight the internet over spoilers. So, yeah! Thanks for putting up with this liveblog dying and being resurrected in this truncated form. I hope to see you on the liveblog blog for #Megan plays ME3 SOON! :D
#op#Megan plays ME2#ladyknightliveblogs#Mass Effect#PHEW that's done then!!#I really did enjoy the end#getting to the end was a TRIAL but the end was rEALLY FUN#STRESSFUL AS FUCK but fun
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BEST OF 2016: TOP 10 SONGS
HONORABLE MENTIONS: (in no order) âI Hope My Lifeâ by James Blake, âThose Were the Daysâ by Angel Olsen, âThe Vapoursâ by Anna Meredith, âI Canât Give Everything Awayâ by David Bowie, âLandcruisinââ by A.K. Paul, âN****sâ by Kamaiyah, âJosieâs Pastâ by Xiu Xiu, âGeneration Whyâ by Weyes Blood, âKeep Your Nameâ by Dirty Projectors
10. âNO WOMANâ by WHITNEY
âI might never be sureâ
It isnât just those falsetto vocals that convey such loneliness, or its effortless orchestration that evokes an early 70âČs folk vibe that is inescapably Californian, that moves me every time I listen to this song. I think it has much more to do with its themes of relocation as a kind of rebirth, or even escape- specifically, to Los Angeles. I moved myself across the country- to L.A.- this year, and it has continually felt at once tremendously exciting and kind of selfish. Like our speaker, I might never be sure of whether or not it was the best move. To be quite honest, Iâm not at all sure what Julian Ehrlich means when he croons the titular phrase âno woman,â but whatever it is, I feel it.
9. âYOUR BEST AMERICAN GIRLâ by MITSKI
âYour mother wouldnât approve of how my mother raised me, but I do- I think I do.â
Mitski crafts a remarkably succinct expression of the frustration of not feeling American enough, or participating in a relationship with someone you really like without compromising your identity or agency, exemplified by her gorgeous, soft alto voice that works in perfect harmony with the charged distortion of her guitar, evoking a mid 90âČs alternative vibe that transcends that genreâs thematic simplicity. A marvel.Â
8. âBEST TO YOUâ by BLOOD ORANGE
âI canât be the girl you want, but I can be the thing you throw away.â
Dev Hynesâ music is intensely personal- a reflection of his thoughts, beliefs, and experiences that make more sense to him than it ever could to a listener. At the same time, this specificity often makes the music more universal, inviting the listener to see themselves in it. When I listen to âBest to You,â I think of the straight boy that I was madly in love with in high school, who I knew could never reciprocate that to me. âI canât be the girl you want, but I can be the thing you throw awayâ was a genuine sentiment of mine. Hynes is so gifted at exemplifying these raw emotions with grooves and rhythms that suggest this sadness or inadequateness is universal.  Â
7. âIT MEANS I LOVE YOUâ by JESSY LANZA
âIf you want it, come and find my love.â
âIt Means I Love Youâ is nothing short of hypnotic, experimenting with genre and rhythm in fascinating ways that feel like the purest example of what Lanza set out to do with this fabulous record. Kaleidoscopic and disorienting, just like its accompanying video, the collision of beats and Lanzaâs almost childlike vocals transcend genre to create something truly exciting; a jubilant dance track thatâs downright bizarre.Â
6. â30 HOURSâ by KANYE WEST
âYou wasnât mine though- but I still drove 30 hours to you.â
â30 Hoursâ is full of contradictions. It sees Kanye at his most reflective, looking back to his long distance relationship with Sumeke Rainey just after he moved to L.A. for his career when he would regularly drive across the country to visit her. Itâs almost shocking to hear West speak so candidly about his much more modest beginnings when his recent work, even other parts of this same song, seem to be a celebration of financial excess and a fundamental misunderstanding of the real world. It reassures the listener that Kanye is still Kanye, aware of his humble past and his persona of late, speaking almost fondly of simpler times. But at the same time, â30 Hoursâ sees Kanye at his most outlandish- taking phone calls mid-song, rambling about Mos Def, and referencing the Madison Square Garden listening party that was meant to have been the albumâs premiere, only to have the track listing drastically change at least twice before the album would officially drop. Itâs indicative of the many fascinating inconstancies of The Life of Pablo, and the duality of Kanye West; talented, perceptive Chicago kid and crazy, out of touch mega celebrity.Â
5. "WORKâ by RIHANNA
âIf you had a twin, I would still choose youâ
I think one of my favorite things about âWorkâ is that I donât really know what sheâs talking about. A close reading of the lyrics reveal a story of creative and professional ambition hindering a romantic relationship, and a rich utilization of Jamaican patois. Rihanna has always embraced the dancehall sounds that shaped her, but here she modernizes it and makes it entirely her own with shocking ease. âWorkâ is a meticulously constructed master class in pop that feels effortless. Thereâs a reason we lived our lives to it this past spring and well into the summer (or all year and for the rest of our lives) ; itâs sultry, captivating and joyous.Â
4. âEXECUTIONâ by ANOHNI
âItâs an American dream.â
I always dance to âExecutionâ and wonder if itâs appropriate. Its stellar, infectious beat, underscored by dissonant, droning chords compliment its slyly scathing critique of capital punishment perfectly, but also make for an almost perfect pop dance anthem in its own right. At times, Anohni even sounds like Cher, further contributing to the songâs pop conventionality, at times sounding radio-ready. But then she coos âlike the Chinese,â and its immensely clear that this is something decidedly more subversive. Itâs a song that you can get entirely swept away with on the dance floor while never forgetting the anger in Anohniâs voice as she pleads for mercy.Â
3. âCRANES IN THE SKYâ by SOLANGE
âI traveled 70 statesâŠâ
The beauty of âCranes in the Skyâ is how simultaneously specific and universal it is. I listened to it the weekend my grandmother died. I listened to it again the morning after the election. It speaks to the pervasiveness of sadness, loneliness, grief, or anything else one foolishly tries to chase away before weâre ready to part with it. At the same time, Iâm sure Solange had something more specific in mind when writing it. And Iâm sure it evokes other feelings in other people who listen to it. Those melancholy strings understand something intrinsic to sadness, but somehow, the song remains jubilant in its promise of self-discovery for both Solange as an artist, and the listener in their everyday life.
2. âFORMATIONâ by BEYONCĂ
âWhen he fuck me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster.â
BeyoncĂ© is more committed than ever to formal experimentation, to honoring her identity as a black woman, to being serious, to being funny, and to changing the game. When the video for âFormationâ dropped and she hit that chord on âTexas Bama!â I literally gasped, and by the time she got around to âwhen he fuck me good I take his ass to Red Lobster,â I had to pick myself up off the floor. BeyoncĂ© changes the definition of what a pop song can be with unorthodox chords and song structure, fun, loving and honest lyrics that celebrate the black experience in America and Black Panther imagery. While Lemonade didnât become quite the straightforward Womanist opus âFormationâ suggested it might be (the film is closer to it,) it remains a truly iconic love letter to Blackness.Â
1. âFUTURA FREEâ by FRANK OCEAN
âHow far is a lightyear?â
A one of a kind stunner in two acts. Absurd imagery and phrases have never been so moving or slyly funny, and the way that Ocean utilizes them to craft a singular statement on fame and success that sounds something like his version of Janis Ianâs âStarsâ is, for lack of a better word, genius. Those gentle piano chords make a stunning contrast to the lyrics (âmurder me like Selena,â or âdonât let emâ find Tupaaaaaac!â) and that meticulous distortion (is that âBeyonceâ that he keeps repeating?) By the time the first act gives way to an equally bizarre interview conducted by his younger brother Ryan, calling back to the albumâs recurring theme of nostalgia, itâs clear there isnât a better way to close out this wildly ambitious and strange opus of a song and album.Â
#best of 2016 music#frank ocean#futura free#beyonce#formation#solange#cranes in the sky#anohni#execution#Rihanna#work#Kanye west#30 hours#jessy lanza#it means i love you#blood orange#best to you#mitski#your best american girl#Whitney#no woman
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Ok then here we go! I am going to put this into categories- Why he has PTSD in the first place, Why his responses to said PTSD are believable, The figurative levels of his PTSD, and Why itâs better than a lot of mediaâs handling of PTSD
Disclaimer: I do not support abuse in any way, shape, or form, and I do not think that trauma is an excuse to hurt or demean others.
So, without further ado, here is Riverâs analysis of Khan Doorman (kinda) (TWâs for mentions of death, abuse, mental health, and murder)
Also Iâm not a Khan apologist ok thanks
Why Khan Doorman has PTSD and generally bad mental health in the first place (or, more accurately, why we can assume he does)
This one is fairly self explanatory. Khan killed his wife. This would give pretty much anyone trauma, guilt issues, etc., considering they donât have any issues with empathy. (Which Khan doesnât seem to have! He may be an asshole, sure, but he seems like a generally normal person in the empathy field.)
But hey, what even is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? (Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, I speak from Google and experience)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, to put it simply, is a response of anxiety or stress caused by a mentally or physically traumatic event. This anxiety or stress is usually caused by what are known as âtriggers,â and can last months, years, or a lifetime, depending on the severity of the situation and the individualâs support system. The anxiety and/or stress caused by PTSD can come in many different forms, such as flashbacks, and have varying severity. Triggers can be sounds, smells, objects, people, certain topics or pieces of media, pretty much anything can be a trigger depending on the trauma.
Now, moving onto our next topic:
Why Khanâs triggers, responses, etc to said PTSD are believable
Khan only has one noticeable PTSD trigger in what weâve seen of the show so far, but itâs very well executed in my opinion.
Itâs the scene where Uzi tells him to âpoint and shoot.â
As someone whoâs had a PTSD-induced panic attack before, this scene hit so close to home. Iâve seen a few panic attacks happen in animated and live action series/movies over the years, but few and far between have felt so genuinely real. It feels like youâre actually watching a person, not just a screen, and weirdly enough it makes me happy to see trauma and anxiety being handled in a way that actually feels real.
But, now onto what we were talking about: Why does this count as a PTSD related incident caused by a trigger?
(This next part is is going to be mostly based on theory, but theory that isnât headcanon, mostly just actual inferences we can make to connect this event and the death of Uziâs mom.)
The most traumatic experience we as an audience know of in Khan Doormanâs life is him having to murder his own wife. And based off of this, we can infer that this is his reasoning for refusing to actually fight, even to defend his own daughter. Heâs so traumatized from that one act of violence that happened years ago, even just to put his own wife out of her misery, that he has (even subconsciously) promised himself that he wouldnât hurt anyone ever again, no matter the circumstances.
This is why he reacts so negatively, even going so far as to act like a coward in his own daughterâs time of need. Heâs traumatized. And thereâs no way to instantly reverse that trauma.
And honestly? He didnât look proud to fucking abandon his daughter.
Look at his face. Does that look like a man who is proud of letting the only family member he had left die to yet another murder drone? No. Heâs upset that he canât help. I know exactly what it feels like to be in the sort of situation where you want to help but canât because your brain physically will not let you. It also feels like the reason he doesnât want Uzi going out of Outpost 9 is because he doesnât want the same thing to happen to her to be what happened to her mom. Yep Itâs not an excuse for what he did, though.
And even then, itâs so tiring to hear people say âIf he really cared, why didnât he just shoot the gun?â Because it Isnât. That. Simple. PTSD doesn't just magically go away. A bad mental state doesnât cooperate with dire circumstances. Unless itâs pure, raw instinct in a time where death is certain, itâs not going to make way for morals. And death wasnât certain in this situation, because Khan could close the door, and he did. (Again, not an excuse!)
Speaking of doors, hereâs our next segment:
The figurative levels of Khanâs PTSD
The doors. Oh my god the doors. They have so much meaning.
I donât know if it was intentional or not but the doors are SUCH A GOOD METAPHOR FOR HIS MENTAL STATE LIAM VICKERS YOU ARE A GENIUS.
Ahem. Excuse me there. Letâs get serious again.
As I said, the doors are such a good way to look into Khanâs mental state. Theyâre literal walls, showing the figurative ones heâs built up in his mind to try and block out what happened. Heâs built up this fake fantasy that the doors fixed everything by blocking out what caused most of his trauma, which mirrors his mental fake fantasy where he represses his trauma in order to give the allusion that everythingâs fine.
Thatâs right, I said the word, repression is such a reoccuring theme(?) throughout the pilot that itâs impressive. But I digress.
The doors are also literal walls in place of where heâs made fake ones, and where he only really lets people into his fragile life if they want to think like he does. Ergo;
YeahâŠ. Doesnât excuse putting inanimate objects in front of your kid, but it does provide some sort of explanation. Iâm not gonna go into any further detail because I donât want to come off as someone who supports abuse.
And now, onto our final segment:
Why the whole thing is better than a lot of mediaâs handling of PTSD
Listen. I think a lot of shows are good. I think theyâre great! But holy fuck is it hard to come across mental health thatâs handled well.
Murder Drones absolutely knocked it out of the park. From the literal to the figurative, Khan is a believable character, despite being a literal asshole robot father from the future.
A lot of other shows, unfortunately, donât do the same. Whether it be poor writing or acting, there seems to be a lack of good representation for people who suffer from mental health conditions like I do. Sometimes the argument âbut they arenât human!â Or âbut why do you care?â Are used, and to that I say: I care about misinformation because a lot of dumbfucks out there love to believe everything they see on their TV screens, for some godawful reason.
But I digress. Hereâs an example of how not to handle mental health:
Thatâs right, Iâm talking about Steven Universe: Future (spoilers, obviously)
SU:F did a horrible job combining the literal with the figurative. The showâs first mistake was⊠making Steven so violent.
I understand some people have violent tendencies as a result of underlying anger issues (that arenât even related to PTSD??), but Steven fucking MURDERS JASPER. AND HE RECEIVES NO CONSEQUENCES. FOR MURDERING SOMEONE.
And besides murder being very fucked up, it also promotes a stereotype of people with mental health issues being emotionless, violent assholes who should be locked up and never let into society ever again.
Honestly the scenes with Steven and Greg in the car also couldâve been toned down, honestly all of the anger issues couldâve been toned down, seriously now it doesnât seem like PTSD anymore it seems like something more serious.
But one of the worst parts, in my opinion, was the group hug.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
This hurt to watch. In a bad way. If I see a show pull the same shit this show pulled with this âA hug can fix anything! :)â mentality one more time, I will fucking lose it. Steven was in a state which honestly made a lot of sense, it was the physical manifestation of his lowest point, which would take a lot of talking, therapy, etc. to come down from. And then the show fixed all of it with a hug.
âOh but in the next episode which is like half a year later he has a therapist!â Yeah, but he seems perfectly fucking fine then! It would take him multiple years at least to fully get over his multiple extreme anger issues, even start to pick apart his major PTSD, and to get his life and relationships back on track.
SU:F was paced and written horribly. This is how you donât write PTSD. Murder Drones did a better job with Khan, a side character, in one episode where he gets a maximum of 5-7 minutes of screen time, than SU:F did with their main character over about 15 episodes.
Conclusion
And there you have it folks! I wrote this in one night. Holy crap. I am so tired. That angry rant about SU:F mightâve made no sense but who gives a damn. Thanks for coming to whatever this was. Donât mind that idk how to do a âread moreâ on Tumblr.
If anyone wants me to make a word dump on why I think Khan is actually a well-written character in terms of him having PTSD then just let me know because I have so many thoughts about it
#long post#murder drones#khan doorman#mental health tw#death mention tw#violence mention tw#abuse mention tw#murder mention tw#death tw#violence tw#abuse tw#murder tw#steven universe: future
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