#or lack thereof really

[enigmatic-mystery-777]

🙃🙃

It's fine, though.

[maranull]

anyway, Elden Ring is about love and hope

Marika burns everything she has build out of sorrow

Ranni banishes the Outer Gods and also fucks off the Lands, giving agency back to the normal beings of the Lands

Fortissax endlessly fights Death for his friend/lover

Melina burns herself and Erdtree in hopes of a better world in the hands of the Tarnished

Blaidd fights against the very reason he was created out of love for his sister

Ranni and Rykard always keep an eye on their mother, protecting her

Radahn evokes so much love from his troops that they organise a whole festival to give him a honorable death even in his madness

Radahn learns an entire new school of magic in order to still ride his favourite horse

Boc's love for his mother, his mother's love for him

How all but two endings are build on the hope that this new era (whatever it might be) will be good

Miquella attempting to create an whole new world-tree to host the forsaken and the damned

Miquella turning on the faith he was raised and even believed in to an extent, when it was unable to cure his sister's curse

The Cleanrot's loyalty to Malenia and their endurance of the Rot, only to stay in her service

Malenia marching through the entire continent in search of her brother

Finlay traveling all the way back on her own, carrying the incapacitated demigod on her back

Tanith's love for Rya

Dialos' entire questline

Edgar being driven mad after his daughter dies

Vyke embracing, to a point, the Frenzied Flame in order to save his finger maiden

or you know, that's just how I see it

[tsilvy]

"Crowley doesn't have Gabriel. Where would he put him?" says Aziraphale talking to Shax.

Where would he put him?

He knows. HE KNOWS. He knows that Crowley doesn't have a house anymore. That he's living in his car. But he hasn't said anything because he hasn't yet fathomed why Crowley wouldn't say anything. And he's trying to change that, too.

"You like waiting inside." Subtle, subtlest way to tell him that he knows, he understands, has noticed the telling signs. And he's saying it's very much okay for Crowley to keep staying in, whenever he wants, to consider the bookshop his place even when Aziraphale is not around.

The whole "our car", "our bookshop", "we both got plenty of use out of it". Look, I know what the common speculation about the plenty of use is, but realistically? He's heavily implying that Crowley, too, needs the bookshop. Not likes, needs. Let's spell out the analogy: I need your (our) car because I don't have my own car, the same as you need my (our) bookshop, which is my house, because you don't have your own house.

He's been dropping hints right and left that he already knows anyway, and that it's okay to ask, he'd totally say yes. And even if Crowley doesn't ask, it's still okay. He's saying yes already.

And I marvel continuously at the complexity of the character that is Aziraphale, because he can be the most infuriatingly callous bitch in the world, and then in the same breath he can be this sensitive, gentle, emotionally intelligent person who really, really loves Crowley more than he could ever put into words.

[tavtime]

There is something skittering around in my brain tonight about the way that BG3 intends the audience to view mind flayers as individuals vs as a species, and the way that plays out in the player's relationships with Omeluum and the Emperor.

I mean, one of the primary gears upon which the story turns is that when a person becomes illithid, the soul they previously had is destroyed (but not their memories of the person they were). This is presented as an insurmountable wrong - literally socially aberrant - and it certainly is so from both the point of view of the gods concerned with mortal souls, and illithids' mortal prey concerned with keeping their brains in their heads.

The Emperor's storyline takes this to the conclusion that the condition of being soulless is, in and of itself, a complete destruction of the individual; that whatever it was before, the illithid will be invariably manipulative, inherently untrustworthy, and unable to reconcile its needs and desires into peaceful coexistence with non-illithids. It's certainly the conclusion you're intended to draw from Duke Stelmane's story, as well as numerous supporting texts, most notably from the creche.

But then... Omeluum offers the refutation to that. Here he is, leading a peaceful life because he just... wants to. Absent a soul or comprehensible mortal desires to operate as a moral compass, Omeluum still chooses to contribute to the Society of Brilliance. He voluntarily and at personal cost researches alternative food for himself so that he doesn't need to feed on sentient beings. He helps the player character multiple times, despite the fact that doing so carries variable risk with little promise of reward.

So clearly, being illithid in and of itself is not what makes someone manipulative or untrustworthy: it's not a baked-in species trait. The Emporer isn't Like That solely because he's a mind flayer; he's like that because... he's like that. That's who he is as a person. That's what he has become, in his current incarnation, and yes, some of it is certainly due to his transformation (having your soul shredded and your will broken would screw most people up pretty badly, I imagine), but not all of it! If something about his circumstances had been different, maybe he could've been different as well. Maybe his moral compass would have pointed in a similar direction as Omeluum's.

[ohlexa]

AVA SILVA + her little gay dangling earring

[commandertartarsmoocher]

If anybody is curious who I ship the funny telephone with... Here is my super awesome and long awaited answer:

🎉 Nobody 🎉

[thatonegaybrit]

; the sentences " micro labels are valid and can be helpful and validating to people " and " people don't have to specify every part of their identity to you to be valid, and can use broad terms even if their actual experience is more specific " can and should coexist.

[thevoicefromthestars]

twisters (2024) is a rom com in disaster movie drag the way that the mummy (1999) is a rom com in horror movie drag and you can't change my mind

[contagious-watermelon]

so what is it with people being incapable of talking about, thinking about, raising awareness for aromanticism without bringing up asexuality. why are we acting as if aromanticism is just some special status buff for aces

[aetsiv]

every time i see someone mischaracterize matthias as a dumb, blonde, malewife with no personality except being nina's (dead) boyfriend i want to fistfight god and cause the mass extinction of humanity

[superkitten-poison]

i guess my biggest party pooper opinion on hazbin is that it feels like a bit of an oversight to have sir pentious and cherri bombs big romantic moment be him just pulling her in for a kiss when hes only ever gotten negative indication that shes into him at all. and she still asks if hes out of his mind and protests a bit when he does it. well.

[passive-agrestive]

what is adrien agreste but the rose bride, blonde-man version

[headphonemouse]

redraw (light mode users try clicking it! dark mode users there's a solid version below)

My favorite tags from @borealiszero that gave me the strength to finish this

[finalgirlminamurray]

remember when halloween 2018 (or as i like to call it, halloween h40) came out and people were making those flowchart-style diagrams explaining the various halloween timelines? i like when people try to do that for the texas chainsaw massacre series because it is a fool's errand. you cannot divide that series into distinct specific continuities because there aren't any. there's a good argument to be made that every single film in that series takes place in its own completely separate timeline because it so often does not bother to meaningfully connect them beyond the single recurring character of leatherface.

i've mentioned before that tcm2 is my favorite sequel and the only one i actually like and will accept as a canon sequel to the original film, and part of that is because despite the complete 180 in tone it does, it's the only one that bothers at all to be a sequel. i think it's the only one that makes sense as a continuation of the first movie - the only glaring continuity errors are confined to the opening scroll text, which you can take or leave as part of the films' canon. (by this i mean the first movie's opening implies that the sawyers' crimes were discovered after sally's escape, while the second film explicitly says no evidence was found. also it retcons sally's last name to be "hardesty-enright" instead of just making lefty's last name also hardesty, for whatever reason.) there's one newly introduced member of the family but you can infer why he wasn't there in the first movie, and the one who isn't there this time has a good reason to be absent (he's died.) one of the main characters in this movie is a relative of the first film's final girl and his involvement in the plot is explicitly connected to what happened to his niece and nephew. the events of the first movie clearly happened in this universe. low bar, i know.

this could be attributed to this being the only sequel also directed by tobe hooper, although the original film's screenwriter did not return, and him having more of a vested interest in continuing the story of his own work. most of the original film's cast did not return for this one (can't say i blame them), but they work with that pretty well. i do think the film ends in a way that pretty decisively puts the brakes on any possible continuation from there, which could be attributed to hooper not really wanting to do a sequel in the first place and trying not to get asked back for another one. (i agree this was not a film that should ever have had sequels, much less become a full-on franchise. but you can tell that upon having to do it they were just like fuck it, let's have fun. hence the tone.) not that that stopped the studios from valiantly trying again and again to profit off of this title.

which might explain why the later sequels are so particularly weird. they don't really have a lot to go off of, i guess. i think part of the problem is that this is one of the few slasher films where the villain is actually a group of people, not a single recurring killer or identity various killers take up. they do have a silent, masked slasher who can be played by whichever new stunt guy you get for each film, but what about the rest of the family? it's always felt important to me that there isn't anyone outside of this isolated little unit in the first movie, but sequels keep inventing totally new characters out of nowhere with no explanation as to where they've been in previous installments. doesn't matter - we're in a new continuity now. tcm3 does not logically follow in any real way from tcm2 or tcm1. it's not a sequel despite the number in the title. it's a reboot.

(i've kind of come around on tcm4 aka tcm: the next generation. i used to think it was the worst sequel but now i think i get what it's trying to do a little better, although it is a pretty stupid movie in a lot of ways. some people have described tcm2 as a deliberate parody of the first film but i think that applies way better to the next generation, seeing how it follows a lot of the same plot beats but done in a more outlandish and parodic way. also, hey: same screenwriter as the original, returning this time as director.)

then the remake made a shit ton of money and kickstarted a new direction for 2000s horror (great. thanks for that.) and got a prequel that also actually made sense as existing in the same continuity as the film it was a prequel to. (again it probably really helped that they were able to get most of the cast back. no need to invent new family members when you still have all the same people playing them.) then in 2013 we got a sequel that promised to Finally be a Direct sequel to the original movie and...it made no sense as one. they try to pick up right where the original left off but right away there are once again a whole bunch of new characters who definitely weren't there in the first movie suddenly appearing in the house, including a baby whose existence is crucial to the plot.

(i'm sure everyone knows about the bizarre timeline decisions of this one, namely the main character ostensibly having been born in the same year as the events of tcm1 but only being about 18 years old during the main events of texas chainsaw 3d, despite it seeming to take place in the modern day. however there is an explanation for that! originally the film was supposed to take place in the early 90s when a character born in 1973 would have been that age, but studio meddling forced them to reshoot it to be 2013. you might notice that any mention or depiction of the exact year the opening scene takes place seems conveniently obscured in this film, implying that it is yet another alternate timeline where the events of tcm1 occurred sometime in the 1990s. this also serves as further demonstration that 1. studio executives are the dumbest people alive, and 2. people really don't care that much about the first movie. more on that later.)

leatherface 2017 is an attempt at a prequel that also makes little to no sense as a backstory for its titular character; i wouldn't be surprised if it started out as an original screenplay that got retrofitted into a tcm movie. there are no new sawyer relatives invented for this film (i don't think), but it does seem strangely insistent on keeping its leatherface away from the family for as much of the film as possible, making it feel especially like it didn't actually want to be a tcm movie. (the twist of the titular character's identity is clearly meant primarily to be surprising and not to make sense, but i can only say: there's no way that the original film's leatherface grew up apart from his birth family for that long and also used to be a "normal"-by-neurotypical-standards, verbal kid. different continuity.)

then in 2022 we get yet another attempt at No Guys Seriously For Real, This is a Direct Sequel to the First Movie, and i should have known things weren't looking good when it was announced this was actually getting dumped on netflix in february but my expectations plummeted to rock bottom when that teaser came out that thought the most relevant part of the movie to sell to people was a "canceled" joke. jesus. tcm:tng i'm sorry, this is the clear worst sequel. (if it was just that one dumb joke it might not be, but there's so much more that's awful in this movie - whatever.) anyway continuity-wise i guess this isn't completely disconnected, there is clear acknowledgement that the events of the first movie happened, but it's really not relevant to the main plot at all, when you get right down to it. pro tip: if a slasher sequel advertises the return of the original film's final girl, she will most likely not be in the film for more than five minutes. there's some implied backstory about leatherface running away to this neighboring town and being taken in by the lady who runs the orphanage, but honestly this could easily be yet another different continuity where leatherface is the adopted son of a kindly old lady (who still has a confederate flag in her window, jfc, i think this is the first time that imagery has ever been used in this series and it's associated with a character who's supposed to be sympathetic??) who was keeping a lid on his murderous tendencies before she died. points for effort i guess but i don't think it deserves much.

i really don't know why this series in particular is like this. most horror franchises will have their movies clearly follow each other and exist within the same continuity, sometimes with a reboot or two if they've gone on long enough (see: halloween having at least three different timelines, but all clearly branching from the same source.) if it's supposed to be an anthology series, they'll just...say that. i've heard it said that this series works best when viewed as variations on a theme, like the original film's events are an urban legend of sorts being told and retold around the campfire and every version is different because everyone remembers it differently or makes up their own. i do like that and think it makes the franchise make more sense but i know most people watching these movies aren't thinking about it like that, they're thinking of them all as sequels to the same movie, with the remake and its prequel being the only ones clearly existing in their own separate continuity.

it's a little sad to see how no one making official movies in the series seems to really care that much about the ostensible source material. maybe i'm biased because it's the film my brain latched onto the hardest when i started really getting into horror, but i think this movie is so interesting and there's so much there to explore with the little we're given about these characters and their dynamics and what they do and why they do it, and even if you can't really dive into all that in a movie you could at least use what's already there for your sequel and most of them just...don't. like they don't seem to have watched the original movie even before writing a sequel to it, just going off their own vague memories about that one scary movie about a guy with a human skin mask and a chainsaw. i know i shouldn't be expecting any more from a slasher franchise on its 9th installment but...whatever. it is what it is. this was never supposed to be a franchise in the first place. at least i can shout into the void about my thoughts and feelings on here.

(i think i read somewhere that the filmmakers were actually forbidden from referencing cannibalism in the script for texas chainsaw 3d and if that's true...oh boy. talk about missing the point. if you feel like something significant is missing in the later films in this series that's probably part of it.)

[trekscribbles]

The Bushwhack Job: Chapter Eleven

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten

(Disclaimer: This is a relatively rough draft and subject to change when I post to AO3. I'm just overly excited and want to share what I have.)

Spencer’s—Eliot’s—head ached. Actually, “ached” was an understatement—it felt like his skull was trying to crack itself in half, and Lancaster’s stupid fake cowboy elevator music wasn’t helping. Beside him, Ford cleared his throat.

“This isn’t the right time to ask,” he said. “But I need to know what you remember.”

He hesitated. His instincts were still to hide his weakness, but Ford was... well, he wasn’t sure what Ford was, except that he was someone Spencer trusted. He could feel that clearly enough, a certainty that settled into the pit of his stomach, whispering assurances that he was safe.

He didn’t really know what to do with that.

“Start with the LanCast explosion,” Ford suggested.

Spencer frowned at him, wondering how much of his mind Ford could read, and counted the floors as they descended. “As far as I can figure, I went inside the building looking for Parker, and met a handful of Lancaster’s men. The explosion blew through a window, and I woke up in the parking garage with Lancaster’s men trying to find me. And I ran.”

He tried to say the last part causally, but Ford shot him a curious look. “Of course you ran. What else were you supposed to do?”

Spencer shook his head. He couldn’t say the rest out loud—not to Ford. He couldn’t risk disappointing him before his memory came back. If Ford knew what he’d done… if he told him to leave…

“Eliot,” Ford said. “You did the right thing. You got away. You found us again.”

Spencer cleared his throat. “When we find Sophie,” he said, turning to face the elevator doors. “Leave Janish to me. He’s dangerous, but I’ve fought him before. I can handle him.”

“You know him?” Ford asked.

“He knows me,” Spencer admitted. “I don’t remember.”

Ford nodded. “At least we know how Lancaster found out about us. Hardison builds a good alias, but there’s nothing he can do if someone recognizes one of us.”

“Hardison is the hacker?” Spencer asked.

The doors slid open, finally, and Ford led the way into the hall. “Yes,” he said. “Hardison is the hacker. He took your loss hard… we all did.”

“Sorry.”

“Eliot.” Ford stopped, holding out a hand to catch Spencer when he tried to edge past. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. Lancaster did this to you—to us—and we’re going to make sure he pays for it. You are not to blame. Not for believing Lancaster, or for working with him, or for setting the bait to bring us here. If you hadn’t, we never would have known you were still alive.”

Spencer looked away, and Ford’s grip on his arm tightened. “Is there something else?”

He might have answered—the words were there on the tip of his tongue, ready to condemn himself at Ford’s order—but the crackle of a walkie-talkie sounded down the hall, and Spencer reached out to pull Ford back against the wall.

“Fourth floor clear,” said a security guard, standing out of sight around a corner. “Moving on to the fifth.”

Spencer tugged Ford’s sleeve, and he moved with him without question, easing into a conference room on silent feet as the guard headed for the elevator. Spencer watched through a window in the door until the hallway was clear again, aware of Ford at his back, of the opportunity he was presenting if Ford turned out to be an enemy.

“He’s gone,” Spencer said.

Ford nodded. “Lead the way.”

There was no more conversation then. Spencer moved down the hall on the balls of his feet, keeping his boots quiet on the carpeted floor. Janish would be in the office at the end of the hall, where he’d told the grifter to meet him to go over Lancaster’s afternoon schedule. 

A flutter of nerves twisted Spencer’s stomach at the thought of meeting someone else who knew him, someone who had apparently mourned him. He hadn’t recognized this Sophie on the security tapes, and a large part of him felt discouraged by that.

She won’t mind, said the voice in his head. She’ll just be happy to see you.

Happy to see him. Would she be? What about the other woman—Parker, not dead, not abandoned to burn in the building Spencer had escaped from—would she be happy to see him? He couldn’t imagine she would be. Regardless of what had happened at LanCast, he’d forgotten her. She would be hurt, disappointed, and he couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t blame any of them.

A murmur of voices drifted out from under the office door, and Spencer glanced over his shoulder to make sure Ford was ready.

“I’ll go in first,” Ford offered. “Maybe we can bluff our way out. Stay here—there’s no need for you to get any more bruises if you don’t need to.”

Spencer drew back, deferring to Ford’s command without argument or hesitation. It felt good to be following an order, he realized—an order he trusted. He watched as Ford opened the door, pressing against the wall to stay out of Janish’s sight.

“Ah,” Ford said, overly loud in the small space. “Here you are, Mr. Janish! My name is Kevin Reilly, and I’ve just come from a meeting with Mr. Lancaster. He asked for Miss Cullane here to set up the details of our new arrangement. Miss Cullane, if you please...”

“Why, of course,” said the grifter—and her voice cut through the fog in Spencer’s brain, filling the gaps with the sound of her laughter, her advice, her friendship. Her accent was southern, but subtly so, and he could hear the lilt of a British accent in its echoes.

Sophie. God, how had he forgotten Sophie?

“Come along, Miss Cullane,” Ford said, but a heavier step sounded near the door, and Spencer shifted toward it reflexively.

“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Janish said. “My orders are to keep you here.”

Ford chuckled. “Orders? Lancaster asked for Miss Cullane personally. I think that trumps any of your orders.”

“He would have checked in with me,” Janish said.

“Oh, I’m sure he’s—”

“Back up,” Janish growled. “And sit down. You’re not going anywhere.”

The door started to close, and Spencer kicked it open before Janish could shut him out. Sophie let out a cry of surprise, but Spencer didn’t look at her—he kept his attention on Janish, who had caught himself on a table and was pushing himself upright.

“Spencer,” he snarled. He had a new black eye and bruised cheek, and Miguel’s words flitted back through his mind: You went into a trance or something, man. You wouldn’t stop hitting Janish, and when I got close, you hit me, too. He couldn’t let that happen again. He needed to stay in control.

Spencer spared a second to glance at Ford, who had his arms wrapped around Sophie. She stared at him with her hands over her mouth, her eyes full of tears.

Then Janish leaped at him, and he forced himself to focus on the fight. 

He came at Spencer hard, aiming for his face—Spencer blocked and ducked, stepping back, and Janish drove forward to separate him from Ford and Sophie. It put Janish’s back to them, and Ford was already casting about for something to use as a weapon. But that wasn’t his job, it was Spencer’s, and Spencer couldn’t risk Janish retaliating.

He pretended to stumble, fell back, caught Janish’s hook high on his arm, and swung—

Janish went down, and stayed there.

For a moment, Spencer stood where he was, afraid to look at the others, afraid to see their reaction to his violence. But then a shift of movement pulled his head up, and he had just enough time to lower his fists before Sophie was throwing herself into his arms.

“You’re okay?” she sobbed, burying her face in the side of his neck. One hand came up to cup the back of his head, gently, her fingers resting on his hair while her other hand grasped a fistful of his shirt. She leaned back long enough to examine his face, her eyes running over every scrape and bruise, before she hugged him again. Soft words tumbled out of her in a rhythmic blend of questions and reassurances— “You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.”

He’d lifted one hand to catch her, and he rested it on the small of her back, holding her to him as the sound of her voice settled his heartbeat.

You’re okay. You’re okay.

“Sophie,” Nate said, reaching out and adding his hand to her back. She withdrew slightly, her palms still resting on Eliot’s neck and shoulder, and turned teary eyes to him. Nate glanced at Eliot, searching for something in his expression, and said, “He doesn’t remember.”

Sophie frowned. “What do you mean?”

Spencer cleared his throat and dropped his hands to his side. “Um... amnesia. Sorry.”

Her eyes filled again, and she blinked at Nate before pulling Spencer in for one more hug. “I don’t care what you remember,” she whispered. “I’ll fill you in on anything you’ve forgotten, and whatever I don’t know, we’ll make up. I’m just glad you’re back.”

She let him go then, and he stepped back to give her space as she wiped her eyes. “Do Parker and Hardison know?” she asked.

Nate shook his head. “We came to find you first. Parker’s still looking for the safe, and Hardison’s...”

He looked at Spencer, who forced himself not to look away. “He’s trapped in the server room.”

“Good,” Nate said. “Then we don’t have to waste time chasing him down. Eliot, lead the way.”

Spencer shot an uncertain glance at Sophie, looking for and failing to find any hints of unease in her expression. Apparently she and Nate both trusted him to take the lead on this, which meant it was time to make a tactical decision.

He cleared his throat. “I should go on my own. Lancaster has a guard scheduled to walk past his office in a little while, and as soon as they realize I’m working with you, they’ll lock the building down. You two should leave while you can.”

“We can’t,” Sophie said. “Parker’s still here somewhere, right? It’d be faster to split up to find her.”

Spencer shook his head. “It’s too risky. If any of Lancaster’s men find you in the halls, they’ll know something’s up. They don’t suspect me yet. The smarter move is to get the two of you out now, and I’ll go after the others.”

“How long until the guards find Lancaster?” Nate asked.

“Maybe ten minutes. Maybe less.”

Nate frowned, searching Spencer’s face, and he tried his best to keep his expression open and honest. He couldn’t afford to be distrusted now. If Nate didn’t believe him…

But whatever Nate was looking for, he’d apparently found it. He exhaled and gripped Spencer’s arm.

“You have twenty minutes, and then I’m coming back in.”

Spencer nodded.

Sophie gave him another hug, holding on a few moments longer than necessary. “Be careful,” she whispered.

He caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. “You too. Stick to the stairs—there’s a side exit on the first floor. I’ll meet you outside.”

She rewarded him with a teary smile, and then she and Nate were hurrying through the door.

Spencer swallowed, stepped over Janish’s body, and made his way down the hallway to find the hacker.

[cmgirlie]

teef.