#probably just Killing Everyone regardless of alignment

[danauschaewon]

my thoughts on dimension 20: fantasy high junior year ep 19 ragenarok Discourse™

⚠️ spoilers! ⚠️

from a watsonian perspective, the bad kids don't know of any way to cure a rage star. if any of the characters were stressed enough sufficiently to be angry (rage token), porter seems to be able to immediately control you so even not directly being controlled by a rage star seems to put you under ankarna's domain. there's no reasonable watsonian expectation for them to believe the ratgrinders could be redeemed, notwithstanding whether teenagers would show other teenagers who hate them that grace.

additionally, the Discourse™ seems to forget that there's ultimately a choice between following porter or not. lucy frostblade's sacrifice was extremely poignant because she chose to die rather than go against what she believed in. buddy dawn's immediate switch perfectly aligns with how religious fanatics believe/claim to believe whatever is convenient for them without any internal consistency. that doesn't mean that they weren't groomed by porter but there's really no ground for some of the moral absolutism I've been seeing here.

that also leads to something that I haven't seen people discussing; kipperlily and oisin straight up murdered buddy (their own party member, who they secretly treated as a pawn the whole time) by slitting his throat to try and keep the bad kids from being revived??? it's implied they also killed lucy and covered it up for so long that she is almost beyond reviving just so she couldn't snitch on them?? even if you liked the ratgrinders, they're much more ruthless than bad kids are, even if you take riz and fabian's comments into account. also, if the entire school was in fabian's house, they essentially tried to kill all 500 other students in their school + jawbone to beat a magical loophole to ascend porter.

and the obvious being: if you are fighting to end the world (remember they did bring down fig and gorgug, even if they are uncoordinated in pvp), don't be surprised when people fight you to save the world.

from the doyleist perspective, others have already pointed out that dnd is a combat focused game. if you fail a persuasion/intimidation/deception roll, regardless of what makes more sense for the story or the themes or your character, you probably have to fight to the death. this isn't a story written with a single overarching vision from one mind, it's real people being filmed in real time playing a game designed around roleplay AND combat. combat is gonna happen.

secondly, this is a world where powerful individuals have the ability to directly control the universe (magic). "might makes right" is a terrible moral system but that's also how reality works (laws are only (as strong as) their enforcement system, the police are an occupying army, etc).

human beings are social beings and our intelligence/creativity allows us to imagine a world where no individual or socioeconomic group can use might to make right. but our imagination also is limited by our own inconsistencies, ignorance, socialisation, habits, etc. and most importantly, our stories about the world mustn't confuse us from how the world actually is. not everyone can be redeemed, even if you want them to be.

if you want the world to change in a certain way, you have to gather enough strength to change it. the more it deviates from the status quo, the more strength you need. that's not just martial or economic power, there is social power that can be influenced by a collective moral or intellectual sense. however, those with the power to directly eliminate your existence will need to be sufficiently worried about consequences to not use that power (e.g. american police know they face no consequences for executing black people in cold blood, that's why they actually do kill instead of simply want to kill like other non-police racists).

if the ratgrinders want to kill the bad kids and ascend porter to godhood, they have to actually have to develop their skills to do so. that's why they exp levelled, they tried taking advantage of the last stand, one of them sent their grandma to kill the entire school at one kid's 18th birthday party. and correspondingly, if you don't want your 18th birthday party to end with your death + your entire school's deaths + the ascension of your teachers as the new god of rage, you gotta kill some grandmas and poorly coordinated exp levellers.

[sketchehm]

Some mafia au before I got to bed cause this had been on my mind for lil

I was thinking about the "serpias is sapnap's guard dog" thing and while this isn't exactly that, it's aligned with it though! Hope you enjoy my crude 1am writing lmao

Sapnap has always been the one to first defend his family. When no one would step in to defend their Don's name, it would be him.

(He guesses that should've been a clue in)

He knew he was loyal to a fault, but it was just as natural as breathing. Something he never quite noticed in himself how quickly and strongly he loved, especially those in his family. How easy it was for him to defend everyone around him. Regardless of any pain he might endure(he knows he messed up quite a few buisness dealings when the other would bad mouth Dream or George. He just couldn't help it.)

But when it came to defending himself, sure he can put up a few punches, shoot a gun, break some legs when it came to it, but the bad mouthing? He just kinda lets it go through him. He has his anxieties but he's confident enough in himself and trusts the people he loves to always reassure him if it came to it.

That being said though, there are always exceptions. Dealing with snide mafiosos means hearing rumors about yourself. Dealing with criminals means enemies. Enemies who don't wanna fight face to face, and instead let their words travel through the street rats until it's all you hear when just stepping a foot outside.

Sapnap knows George and Dream deal with it way better than himself. Sapnap is always defending Dream and George. He'll shoot anyone, no second thoughts if it wouldn't cause Dream a headache later on. (He's heard more than enough times from Dream and George how they /needed/ that guy. A few words is not a gun, it can't kill him, just let it lie...)

It's probably one of the most annoying aspects that Sapnap can't ever seem to get over.

So when Team Mafia are pleased with his......training.....they finally allow him to go on his first buisness dealing with Serpias. And he isn't suprised the same kind of shit conversations of tip toeing around one another and throwing subtle insults at each other while trying to negotiate better terms are happening here too. Just in Spanish. At least, he thinks its the same thing. He hears a lot of the new curse words the Team have taught him (and is desperately trying to hold back from giggling at the memories). Though the air is way mire tense than the jovial back and forth him and the other Team members would have with him. He wonders if Serpias is doing alright. He feels useless, can't barely understand what's happening besides knowing it's some sort of arms deal. He just stands quietly behind Serpias trying not to fidget and sigh and whine. He's full of energy. (Fuck maybe he is just some sort of anxious dog....)

It isn't until Serpias groans that Sapnap snaps to and tries to pay attention a little more. The yelling between the two is getting louder and Sapnap is ready to jump into action, feeling strung up. He really didn't expect some sort of fight to happen for his first outing, Serpias said this was gonna be quick and easy. Something to practice learning Spanish if anything.

"Sapni, ven aqui."

Sapnap knows that command well. He quickly goes besides Serpias, looking down and seeing all the documents they have spread across the table. It's all in Spanish. Fuck why did Serpias even call him over.....

The guy on the other side huffs in amusement staring down sapnap. He says something to Serpias and all he can understand is "perro". He can see Serpias tense up. The guy is probably calling Sapnap a bitch he assumes. Not anything new for him really. He would justlike to get out of here ASAP.

"Sapni, ah, you said your math is good yes? Can you check?"

Serpias is handing him a couple of papers. Sure enough it's full of numbers. It's different pricing for different kinds of guns, ones he's familiar with too, he's done this kind of trading before.

He takes a minute and realize the numbers are way off after a bit. Was the guy trying to scam Serpias? He's nervous to say something. Fuck what if he pisses this guy off and then the Team get upset at him for losing a dealer? He wanted this to be a good time out....and he'd come back and all of them would be proud (despite him knowing he wouldn't have done anything) he's starting to like the easy praise he's been getting....

"Umm. Uh. Its...the prices are different here and here. I...there's something..." fuck he's nervous. He can barely get his words out.......fuckkkk he's never like this what's wrong with him?

The guy on the other side laughs at his stuttering. He's embarrassed more now...Serpias is probably gonna be upset at him later, who knows....(Serpias has never been upset at him before. In fact he probably coddles Sapnap a bit too much if he says so himself....but he isn't complaining....)

Serpias is glaring at the guy. They're arguing again.

"Sapni." Serpias says it suddenly, sternly, not taking his eyes of the other man, "the numbers wrong?"

"Yes." His voice cracks. He's so uncool what the fuck.

The arguing gets louder. The man on the other side suddenly gets up and Sapnap’s hand goes to rest on his gun. Fuck, maybe this is part of training too....maybe Serpias knew this was gonna happen.

The guy stares at him for a moment then laughs again.

"You aren't going to kill me."

The guys English is clear. Barely any hint of an accent and it startles him. It's nothing like what he's been surrounded by recently. Fuck now he actually has to speak to this fucker.

Serpias stands up and starts yelling at the guy again, but the guy is focused on Sapnap.

"I know you. You're from the Dream family. You bring borrowed or something now? The fuck you messing with my deals, this isn't your territory."

Serpias has quited down and is watching him. Man this probably /is/ training....

Sapnap looks at Serpias and he nods, allowing him to speak.

The guy snorts, "Ah, so you are the new dog. What Dream kick ya out or something?"

"I've joined Team Mafia on my own will. Dream has nothing to do with this deal." His voice is firmer now. Serious. He's done plenty of deals and trades, this is coming back to him naturally.

"Ohh fucked right off like I heard the others doing too, yea? Probably left them a mess like the rest of them. You'll probably try and steal from these guys too heh? Good luck with that, they'll snap you head right off!" The guy ending with a chuckle. Sapnap does NOT miss dealing with these people. His words are uncomfortable for Sapnap. He hasn't had to think about the betrayals for a while now. Fuck this guy, honestly.

Serpias is still watching, waiting.

"My loyalty is with Team Mafia. Can we get back on track with this? I know the pricing you have listed for required taxing is wrong. You have it multiplied by triple the amount than what you have written." He may have been a bit too snappy with that... and Sapnap knows he pushed it when he sees the guys face fill with anger.

"You have no fucking right to speak like that to me, /perro/. So don't fucking telling me what is or isn't right or wrong on my deals. You have no /say/. Especially not as a /traitor/." The guy has walk around the table and is now face to face with Sapnap. His breathe reeks.

"So let your /handler/ and I talk and you be a good dog and just wait by his side."

The guy yanks him by his coat and pulls Sapnap even closer to him, "/Got it/?"

Sapnap is about to push the guy off before he hears a click.

"No toques a mi Sapni."

Serpias is growling.

The guy barely turns his head towards Serpias, before there's a hole in it.

Sapnap's ears are ringing and he's on the ground, covered in blood that isn't his own.

Serpias is by him in a second. He sits next to Sapnap and pulls him close, hugging him and has Sapnap's face rest on his shoulder, basically tucked im his neck. He waits for the ringing to subside. Serpias is petting his hair. Sapnap thinks about the blood he's staining on Serpias. (Though Serpias is covered in blood as well.)

He can hear Serpias talking to him. His voice is soft as he continues to pet his hair. Sapnap is so confused.

It only takes a couple of minutes before the ringing has subsided, but Sapnap refuses to move away from Serpias. It's....Nice. He thinks about what the /fuck/ just happened. It isn't until the blood on him starts to get uncomfortable that he finally pushes away.

"Casa?" Sapnap wants to shower.

Serpias will laugh and helps him up.

Sapnap wonders if he failed training today.....

[whitherwander1595]

The Plague in Romeo and Juliet

The Plague ruins everything in Romeo and Juliet. Like, it's always understated how important the Plague is to the plot. A BIT OF HISTORY Shakespeare was alive during the second wave of the Bubonic plague in England (in the mid 1590s). Theaters had to be closed so people didn't, you know, die and stuff, so it ended up impacting his livelihood quite significantly. Romeo and Juliet was written around the time of the Plague, so it is safe to say that it was on Shakespeare's mind. Plus, it's set in Italy in the mid 1300s, during (you guessed it!) the first wave of the Bubonic Plague. So if we're looking for historical accuracy, Romeo and Juliet is going to be set during the Plague.

FAIR VERONA The Montagues and Capulets hate each other's guts. That much is clear from the first scene. And a common criticism of the play is "why don't they just get out of Verona?" It seems like kind of a weird plot hole, until you take their current situation into account. The Montagues and the Capulets can't leave Verona. Not unless they want to have long and painful deaths. - Verona is a walled city (safe from the outside world) - It is surrounded by a river - The city outside (Mantua, and we'll get to it later) was a hotspot for the Plague Verona was highly insular, and that was its benefit. It was also its major flaw, because the two major families of the area hated each other's guts. The tensions caused by the Plague and not being able to leave only went to exacerbate this hatred.

"A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES" RIP Mercutio. You would've loved drag brunch. Also vaccines, since the Plague (indirectly) is probably the reason he died. Yes, I realize he dies because Tybalt stabs him. But why did Tybalt stab him in the first place? Let's roll back the clock a little. - Tybalt killed Mercutio because he was aligned with the Montagues, who are the enemies of the Capulets - The Capulets and Montagues can't just avoid each other because they're stuck in the same city - They're stuck in the same city because of the Plague There's also something to be said for the desperation felt by the people in Verona. Either they can die from sores and diarrhea, or they can die in a fight. And I dunno about y'all, but one of those things sounds a lot cooler. With the Plague closing in, of course people are gonna start picking fights. It's the perfect storm of stressed and reckless. If we contextualize the quote "a plague on both your houses" with the era, it's not just Mercutio cursing everyone out because he's angry he's gonna die (though that's definitely part of it). It's a warning. The Plague is the great equalizer, and it's going after everyone, regardless of whether they're a Montague or a Capulet.

ROMEO'S BANISHMENT Another compelling bit of evidence for the Plague's importance in Romeo and Juliet is Romeo's reaction to being exiled. Romeo is a lovesick puddle of soup. He fell in love with a girl at a party and then died because he couldn't live without her. He's overdramatic. But his reaction to being banished from Verona is pretty dramatic, even for him. Like, come on, dude. But what if it wasn't the fact that he would be separated from Juliet that he was the most worried about? Remember when I said we'd circle back around to Mantua? We're circling back around. Because Mantua (right outside of Verona) was a playground for the Plague. A Plague-ground, if you will. It was a place where a lot of people came and went, and it was blocked off by bridges. So, if an outbreak happened, Mantua (and those in it) would be cut off from the world and left for dead. Suddenly, Romeo's complaints about leaving Verona don't sound quite so unreasonable. Juliet's worry about Romeo going away doesn't seem quite so silly. And the Nurse's advice to Juliet, saying "he's basically dead now, so don't worry about him anymore" actually seems pretty reasonable. In fact, the biggest reason why Romeo and Juliet don't survive in the end is because the correspondence Friar Lawrence meant to send didn't go through fast enough, because Friar Peter (the guy he gave the letter to) was being quarantined.

ADULTS OF VERONA The Plague helps explain the actions of the adults, too. Juliet's parents are trying to get her to marry, even though she's really young (even by the standards of the era). This can be interpreted in a couple different ways. Either they want Juliet to hurry on with her life and get out of their hair, or they know that something might happen to them (or Juliet, for that matter) and they want to do their best to put Juliet in a good situation. The choice of Paris is, given what Juliet is facing, a pretty good one. He's good-looking, generally depicted as being close enough to Juliet's age, courteous, filthy rich, and not affiliated with either the Montagues or the Capulets. Juliet might not be in love with him, but she would at least be taken care of. Was Lord Capulet a perfect man? No. But can his actions be boiled down into just a desire for control? Not if you account for the Plague, at which point he (and his fellow adults) become much more nuanced and much more reasonable.

Romeo and Juliet, on its own, is plausible. It is possible to accept the story of the star-crossed lovers (I mean, the adaptations speak for themselves). But the introduction of the Plague creates a perfect storm of storytelling, cementing it as a tragedy. Not only could it happen, but this was the way it was always going to happen.

[dracoxmalereader]

Draco x Male Reader Headcanons Pt. 3

Summary: After you and Draco's rocky fifth year, this last part is centered around how your relationship evolves around him being a death eater and all that entails. Including the aftermath because I simply cannot contain myself. <3

The cover looks so much angstier than these are I promise.

Part 1 | Part 2

Word Count: 847

When Lucius starts dragging Draco down the death eater path he starts distancing himself from you.

He quits quidditch, too.

So there's no real way to know for sure when/where you'll be able to catch him.

I just KNOW this boy was doing everything he could to try and worm his way out of becoming a death eater.

Especially if you're not pureblood.

But, alas, he's made one regardless, tasked with killing Dumbledore.

At that point he'd try and do everything in his power to convince you to become a death eater with him.

He's just so afraid of losing you,

and he wants to keep you safe ❗

Even if you're not pureblood, he vows to find a way to fake it.

Offering to forge documents, vouch for you in trial, swear on his life that you and your family are pureblood to anybody that asks.

He doesn't want you or any of said family to end up being casualties in the war, but he can't stomach breaking up with you or having you not in his life.

You refuse to align yourself with Voldemort, and break up with him yourself to keep you and your family safe instead.

Even then you're still so reassuring,

Because you know he has no choice,

But you can't do what he's asking you to, even if you know it might be easier.

Many "I'll always love you no matter what"s before you part ways.

Probably one of the first times Draco lets himself cry in front of someone.

You go with your family to hide out through the duration of the war.

You keep your eyes all over the news as it's all going down though,

Just like Ron while they were finding the Horcruxes.

24/7 sat by the radio hoping everyone will be okay.

When the war is done and Voldemort is gone,

Draco shows up to your new place that you and your family moved to to get away from Voldemort's reign,

With Narcissa and everything.

Begs for forgiveness.

And how could you not take him back?

Much hugs and affection right there and then,

Right in front of his mom and he doesn't even care.

She wasn't even shocked when Draco told her you two were together,

Because lets be real, you two were so obvious you may as well have plastered it on the front page of the Daily Prophet.

She been knew.

They have your family move into the manor with them,

Narcissa loves having the company.

Makes the place so much more lively.

No Lucius obviously he's rotting in Azkaban as he should

Time skip any amount of time it probably isn't a very hard choice to make,

You both need to get away from magic for a while if you're gonna do any getting over the war.

So you end up getting a place together in the muggle world for a much needed break.

And you guys go visit the manor for holidays to see your folks.

Cue many fish-out-of-water scenario's of Draco adjusting to the very unfamiliar lifestyle of a working-class muggle citizen.

Because I imagine you already know the ropes, especially so if you're not pureblood.

He definitely tries to make grilled cheese in a toaster but doesn't put foil on it and just gets cheese all in your toaster.

Not because he thought it'd be cool, but because he genuinely didn't know how grilled cheeses are supposed to be made.

You talk him into going to all kinds of therapy to deal with his issues after the war,

It takes him a long time to let go of the guilt he feels for all of it,

some of it he never will let go of,

But your guys' quality of life skyrockets regardless.

You're both way happier.

The less impact the war has over him, the more you can see his personality shine through, too.

He starts teasing you again albeit lovingly.

He probably gets lippy with his manager at work and loses at least one job because of it.

Fast forward a bunch of years,

You two are definitely married and have a dog and cat together.

The wedding was full of tears from both sides of the family.

Narcissa cried enough for every Malfoy that didn't attend combined.

"How's it feel to officially be a Malfoy, hm?" he says, fully aware that he cried while planning the wedding because he didn't know whether he wanted to take your last name or for you to take his.

"How's it feel to officially be a L/N?" you say, because you guys hyphenated your last names.

He turns bright red every time he's reminded that he is, in fact, a L/N.

He's just so happy to be sharing a name with you, honestly.

You guys live happily ever after <3

Whether that means eventually becoming homeowners in the muggle world or going back to the wizarding world, getting more pets or acquiring children.

Whatever happens you two are just happy to be doing it together.

Can you guys tell I want to explode Lucius with my mind? He's like my second least favorite character after Umbridge.

As always lmk if there's typos I missed while proofreading pls <3 I have a silly goofy little wedding planning drabble planned for later today. Unless I fall asleep, then I'll post it tomorrow.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

Genuine question for you. What is your opinion on abortion when the parent's life is in danger if they proceed with the pregnancy? Do you think they should be able to have an abortion then? Or do you still think abortion is wrong in that case, and that both the child and parent dying is God's will? Or maybe you have a more nuanced answer. I sincerely would like to hear your thoughts on this matter. I want to understand your point of view, regardless of whether it aligns with my own.

Sorry for not seeing this earlier, especially as you're anonymous and therefore won't be notified about it. (And thank you, sincerely, for your politeness here! It's an emotive topic for a lot of people, and really hard to remain calm in writing about it, including for myself.)

That's... complicated. It's a difficult and complicated situation for everyone involved. But really there are far fewer cases of genuine life in danger before the age of viability than people seem to talk about, assuming proper healthcare. (Which means, for some, inpatient hospital care for weeks and weeks.) The treatment for pre-eclampsia, for instance, could be emergent delivery of the child. It could die because it was delivered too early, say if it had a 50/50 chance of surviving at such an early gestation, but that's not an abortion, because it's not killing the child, even though the child ended up dead - if that makes sense?

Women die in pregnancy and childbirth sometimes, that's just a deeply unfortunate reality of life. I'm not trying to say it's in any way good or that we shouldn't do our absolute best to avoid it. But abortion also comes with risks.

One of the ones that's killed women in the recent past since the overturning of roe v wade is miscarriage mismanagement. That's something that I have seethed over as a midwife-in-training. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by killing a living child. Miscarriage care is ensuring that there's no residual tissue when a child has already died in the womb. They may have the same procedures, but in intent, it's entirely different, and a woman who's miscarrying should be given all the care she needs without hesitation.

For what it's worth, I myself was born at 26 weeks, extremely unwell and with a mother who almost died because of the issues in the pregnancy. I almost died many, many, many times during the next year. Some women would have aborted, because the issues really began at 12 weeks for mum. But she didn't, and thus I survived. So I probably have an emotional connection to it as well as my dislike of babies, even pre viability, being killed.

I hope this makes sense! Please ask me more questions if you're interested in doing so.

[archangeldyke-all]

So I have a crack-pot theory and I apologize for the random ask/ ridiculous length of the post. It might be totally unrealistic but it's in my brain... What if Sevika joins Noxus/ Ambessa?

Hear me out: as much of a loyal follower of Zaun as she is, there's a consistent something that is preventing her from getting that extra nudge to be a leader - whether that's people's distrust, fear or even just lack of interest of the idea her as a leader (like at Vander's statue where they more or less ignored her points and asked for Jinx instead). She's been fighting for what she believes is the right thing to do for her people for YEARS with not a lot of gratification being given back. She fought with Vander and Silco when they lost focus and they didn't seem to take her seriously (until the Finn incident). She's been fighting to keep the chem-barons in check since Silco died and they're not interested in listening. People quickly turned to a "Machine Herald" that just popped up out of nowhere and eagerly started following him (granted they were all husks of people in a hive mind cult but she doesn't know that).

In her eyes, she's trying to hold the whole ship together by bringing anybody to the table that will give a shit, yet constantly taking on water despite her labors. In her poster, she looks exhausted or resigned, she's turned away from the light or the goal that everyone else is looking towards with determination. We know this season is to push the characters to be the opposite of what they were in Season 1, what if for Sevika, it's not about going from follower to leader, but going from staunch believer in a cause to bowing out because the goal is in sight, but it's just not gonna happen? What if she hits another low with the death of Isha, the people not listening to her, and with Vi and (presumably) Ekko (two true fighters who could make a real difference in Zaun) working alongside Topside... what if she's just had enough?

Enter Ambessa who has a clear vision, the strength and force to accomplish it, and has shown to the audience that despite her deception, she values loyalty greatly. Add onto that, she's got a serious bone to pick with Piltover right now given that she's after their tech, and is now likely on a little tiny revenge quest after Caitlin's betrayal. Would Sevika really turn down a chance to attack Piltover on a scale like the one Noxus is sure to provide? There's also the idea of Noxus society not discriminating where you come from, and being able to achieve greatness regardless of origin that can be appealing. As another over-analytical point, Sevika does wear Noxus colors throughout the show (Red in her cape and gold on her arm/ clothes), so whether that's just a design choice, red-herring, or foreshadowing idk. I know there's probably some holes in logic and whatnot, but like I said, it's a strange theory that I ended up going down. Again sorry about the random ask and length of the rant!

this is so interesting!! ambessa will be needing a new rictus or whatever his name was since vander killed him... maybe sevika will fill that role?

what really convinced me about ur theory is when you pointed out that aligning with noxus could give sevika the opportunity to attack piltover in a way sevika's only dreamt of before. ultimately, though, i think her fight isn't against piltover, but rather for zaun, so i think she'll stick with the undercity 'til the end. plus, with her at the top of the season still refusing to turn in jinx, i think her loyalties to zaun are stronger than ever. (isha's death could change this, tho)

we'll have to see! her red cape, and her and ambessa's little moment of eye contact could all be pointing toward this!!

[3416]

i genuinely believe if the leafs don't make it deep in playoffs in am34's remaining contract years, he definitely will follow mitch's step lol. that is his guy since day 1, why do you think am34's extension is short? despite leafs promised him a C (and he did get it) doesn't mean it will make the leafs immune from its main star players leaving them for another team. especially him being not canadian, he doesn't have any fond childhood memory to stay in toronto (although i believe leafs is a special team for him because that's the team that drafted him first ovie) alas auston leaving toronto for an american team is so likely. it doesn't have to be vegas sure but it doesn't make vegas is out of the possibility too in the next 2 or 3 years lol. it'd be so funny and i'd like it to happen VERY much. let's jeffmike 1634 but instead of winning cup in LA, do it in vegas.

it's so funny bc i never believed am34 would leave for arizona or anything like i was never worried about his contract extension at all, but i was curious why it was shorter (or why that was seen as a good thing by leafs fans lmfaooo). in business terms, it's a big bet on himself with the cap going up and a risk a little bit in general knowing he's injury prone, but now... idk, lol. he's captain, and i'm sure he feels a level of responsibility about that, but it doesn't mean you're glued to the team when you're a captain. and people already were questioning his abilities as one not even a year in, so lol. let him be the next scapegoat. like i said, i think elite players want to win and it's not always necessarily with the place that drafted you. if you look at mcdavid's press from the end of the year and can't see the clear frustration from a guy who has actually made it all the way to the final multiple times....... like you have to imagine how elite players who haven't even managed to make a dent in the playoffs feel. you have to think losing a player like mitch isn't just a huge hole in the roster but honestly a gaping hope at the center of the belief in what this group has been for this entire era. maybe that's overstating his impact bc i love him and his bonds with the guys and his role on the team as much as we could see of it, but it's hard not to feel that it will impact SOMETHING. i don't think mitch was some outsider in the room like some people will try to write revisionism about now. i think he thought they could win and wanted to win with them, and his contract fell at this really terrible time where he was facing undue scrutiny AND massive change in his personal life, and i have no doubt the decision to leave was extremely difficult for him on top of another painful playoff loss. maybe the locker room will grow closer bc of the ~everyone wants to be there~ blah, we'll see, but it'll be an adjustment to fill the role he played up and down the line up and interpersonally.

i don't know what to think honestly.. i don't live in auston's head or know him. i know i've said this, but i do think just logically the leafs are in a weaker position now, maybe than ever before, lol. i don't think brad's a great or thrifty gm. i don't think the leafs as an org have huge incentive to really win or be aggressive, they make so much money regardless of the playoff results. i thought the absurdity of their combined talent and some luck could (and probably should) get them deeper into the playoffs at some point than their past results would indicate, but i don't feel that moving forward. they aren't as stacked. but who knows, maybe luck could align for them finally with no injuries to anyone and an early exit by a powerhouse like fla and some extremely crafty find who works perfectly in the leafs system and they get players who don't care about one side of the puck to buy in finally and they'll win. nothing's impossible in sports. every team in this league has fans who hope every year, toronto won't be different. this kind of did kill my belief in the core idea though, and if nothing happens for the leafs in the next couple years, i could see am34 gone. not necessarily to play with mitch but to win.

[gwyns]

Elain: “I’m not a child to be fought over.”

And E/riel’s really think that Elain would be impressed with Azriel hurting or Lucien, regardless if she wants the mating bond or not. She doesn’t like violence. Even if she doesn’t like Lucien she wouldn’t wish death or malicious intent upon him. She would probably roll her eyes and mutter “pathetic males” and even be a little uncomfortable.

Elain: “You do not decide what I can and cannot do.”

And Azriel was against Elain helping with the Dread Trove. A real mate would be supportive and encouraging. Sure, they can be a little worried and cautious, but they always support their mate. Good example would be Feysand when Feyre went to get the ring from the Weaver, Nessian when Cassian let Nesta continue with the Blood Rite, and Rowaelin for multiple reasons.

this is what i don't get, many readers claim we know nothing about elain when that is very untrue? we know less than other characters, sure, but we can get a pretty good grasp on her as a person and in acosf she told us what she wants to do and how not to treat her. that's huge and yet almost everyone ignores it, azriel, antis, even her "stans". the last ones are the worst, they claim they want her to have a choice but when she explicitly tells us what she wants and is shot down by their favorite bat, it's somehow romantic and he knows best. like no! she knows what's best for her, just because it doesn't align with your fantasies doesn't mean you can gaslight me into thinking they'd ever be right for each other

that too! rhys straight up threw feyre to the weaver and that bitch is crazy!!! we know how she killed ianthe and you know what rhys was doing when feyre got out? lounging in a tree. yes, he cares for feyre but he also knew the importance of her being able to defend herself or get herself out of situations like that. same with cassian, he even acknowledged that if he were to interfere with the rite, nesta would be pissed at him and no matter how worried he was, he wouldn't take that from her. this is "mate-like" behavior, not what azriel is doing with elain

[lilyofporcelain]

For any who want to answer: What are your love languages?

I have sat on this question for so long finding it shockingly difficult to answer for really any of my characters and that is more a player issue than anything else. The very notion of 'love language' was something I had to go look up and research because I wasn't sure how many there were or really where even to begin.

If we're consolidating these to what appear to be the five 'standard' groups of love language—Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts—Laeynna actively exhibits all of these. She's a special case, however, because I doubt very much she would exhibit even any of these unless the right person happened to be the recipient. She isn't, by default, open to really demonstrating this kind of behaviour intentionally, and it's really only a special set of circumstances in which the stars would magically align for any such thing to happen to begin with. And a lot of these come across as very organic, naturally occurring things that prior to my research, I wasn't even aware that there were labels for this sort of thing.

This feels like it's going to end up being an extremely generic answer as a result, but really any of my characters have the potential to put any of these into practise provided that they determine the partner (or partners, as the case could be) is a worthy recipient of that.

I was really kind of hoping I could swing this response into the notion of murder being a love language, because Soryk would be the sort to kill for someone that he loved, but somehow I get the impression that doesn't exactly fit into whatever 'love language' is defined by.

If excluding romance from the equation, Belidrae probably demonstrates all of these things with just about everyone she knows, regardless of how well she knows them or how close she might to someone. She is very open of heart and sort of freely loves everyone in that kind of platonic 'everyone deserves love' sort of way.

I don't have a satisfying answer for this, but some damn brownie points to you for giving me something incredibly challenging to dissect and analyse.

Thank you, @cythion!

[simplegenius042]

Character Alignment

From left to right going top to bottom.

Archangel Metatron (Wings And Horns) -> The Archangel of Life who had been tasked with preserving the Soulmate System and bringing Xiang & Jezebel Ba'al in for disrupting the system.

Leviticus (The UnTitledverse) - A lawyer of the Time Court, had a disdain towards Timekeeper but ultimately upholds honor and goodwill above all else.

Joaquin Cobalt (The UnTitledverse) - A young adolescent who got lost in the Multiverse before rising up to become a leading and respected member of the Omniscient Rule.

Ezekiel (The Silver Chronicles) - A surviving Tumultite member, decades later (especially after the nukes drop in 2019) becomes Thomas Rush's Captain of Security.

Benny the Révolutionnaire (The UnTitledverse) - The seventh-borne Eldritch, was made to assist Zachariah at Fate's Table, however was exiled to the Void. Not that it stopped him.

Silva Omar (The Silver Chronicles) - The Junior Deputy of Hope County, Silva has fought to protect plenty of loved ones from the likes of the Congregation of Adam's Guard, the Apostles of Zachariah, the Project at Eden's Gate and 17 years after the bombs drop in Montana, the Highwaymen.

Ortega "Ore" Brantley (A Radioactive Calamity Of Love, Bombs & Gore) - A human-Displacement hybrid (a result of a tryst between Responder Tiffany Brantley and a Displacement called Arcane Urias in 2105), Ore has lived through the Wasteland for a long while and is on a mission to kill his father Urias after the latter killed his friends. He's also Ress' older brother.

Gavin Turquoise (The Silver Chronicles) - A vigilante-turned-lawyer, after he took down the organization behind the Dark Web, he adopted a child named Schrödinger and began a feud with Eden's Gate because he didn't like their vibe (the murder and kidnapping were a bonus he could use against them in court).

Timekeeper (The UnTitledverse) - A Time Lord droid created to overlook Time and utilize the Time Watch. Wishes to change the corruption he's noticed bleed inside the Time Bureau Authority.

Haoyu Anabuki (Life, Despair & Monsters) - A human-Displacement hybrid and the half-sibling of Monika, wishes to just hang out with their sister but gets dragged into being a good person.

H.O.S.T (The Time Guard volumes) - The warden of the Time Prism (a prison sub-dimension in Time), he joined the Time Guard on their adventures. He is unprepared for their unorthodox illegalities.

Icarus Galatos & Hatsukami Hinode & Xavier Tulip & Hatter (Life, Despair & Monsters) - Hatter and his human Avatars, while not feeling beholden to the law, do their best to help it any way they can.

Kamski Neon (The Silver Chronicles) - While he does care for Silva, he doesn't not care for everyone else, and believes anything is fair game when dealing with Prophets and their cults, regardless of right or wrong and even if Silva is hurt in the process (however he will not live with himself if she died).

Mordecai Callaghan (The UnTitledverse) - Also known as "The Huntsman", Mordecai only commits amoral acts (like bounty hunting) and immoral acts (like child trafficking) to survive and to earn his freedom from Madame Callaghan and C.Y.P.R.U.S.

Maddilyn Darling (The UnTitledverse) - An outlaw apart of the Van Der Linde Gang, Maddilyn follows Dutch closely. However this does change later in 1899.

Ernesto Stallone (The Silver Chronicles) - An Enforcer Courser Guard (pretty much a senior Enforcer who has Adam's permission to leave the Archipiélagos and scout out other lands... or hunt down escapees and deserters) of the Congregation of Adam's Guard, Ernesto is not beholden to the darker aspects of Adam's laws but does believe Adam's word that the world outside the Archipiélagos are nothing but sinful. Probably the most amoral Enforcer but the least immoral one.

Jeremiah (The UnTitledverse) - A Time Agent who honestly doesn't give a fuck about the law, and just most fucks around and finds out. Jeremiah is apart of Khronos' corruption though.

Father Adam Omar (The Silver Chronicles) - Adam is delusional and fucking horrible. He is the worst part of this hedonist.

Jester (The UnTitledverse) - This guy is a scamming dealmaker who will screw over whoever is not the winning side.

Grimes the Cruel (The Silver Chronicles) - Leader of the Deserters of the Holy Triad, Grimes is nothing more than a bloodthirsty and warmongering killer who follows a twisted version of what was an honorable code.

Zachariah the Orchestrator (The UnTitledverse) - The second-borne Eldritch and the Hand at Fate's Table, Zachariah has a disdainful view on humanity and wishes to control and punish them for their existence.

Edward Carmine (The UnTitledverse) - A petty industrialist and robotics expert, he craves power over everyone and believes himself to be the superior human. Edward also cannot let go of a grudge, going to insane lengths to settle the score (even if it puts his own life in danger).

Arcane Urias (A Radioactive Calamity Of Love, Bombs & Gore) - Urias is a Displacement and the founder of the Occult, he has no desire to understand morality and only pursues his own goals to satisfy his power hunger.

Crawford Klaus (The UnTitledverse & The Silver Chronicles) - Klaus is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that has drugged an entire town in England and sells multiple overpriced medication and drugs to less than moral people. He also fucks over anyone he doesn't like... such as the ICA.

The Paragon of Extinction (Original Works) - A first-generation Old Kin, who was around during the Extermination Purge Wars. It is the ultimate act of evil and is constantly reborn and reincarnated in many worlds and once it manifests consciousness in the reincarnated body, it gains its power back and proceeds to do everything in its power to cause total extinction in the world. Killing it does nothing... it will simply reincarnate in another world and do it again because that is what its purpose is.

[toaarcan]

I think the term 'squabbles' has somewhat diminished the weight of the conflict between the Primes and the Betrayers. It makes it seem like they're just slapping each other around a bit, but at the end of the day, actually forcing the Betrayers- all of the Betrayers- to do what the Primes want is not an easy task.

The Solars that turned against the gods regard it as a war for them and a squabble for the gods, but they were nonetheless causing each other significant damage and injury. By the time Downfall starts, Lolth's divine form has already banished to the Abyss by Kord, and Corellon has already ripped out Gruumsh's eye. It's not like the Primes were pulling their punches any more than they did after their realisation at the end of Downfall.

The Primes actually defeating the Betrayers was never a certain thing. Pelor and Sarenrae had to trick Torog into trapping himself, Avandra had to trick Asmodeus' armies into fighting each other to weaken him, Kord made the Stormlord's Heart as a contingency plan in case the Primes were defeated. The Raven Queen was nearly killed by Tharizdun, and it took the combined efforts of Pelor, Avandra, Moradin, and Ioun to imprison the Chained Oblivion, and nearly cost Ioun her life.

The deciding factor of the Primes winning the war (because it was a war, even for them) wasn't that the Primes were stronger, it was that the Betrayers ultimately didn't work well together as a unit, and the Primes were able to overcome them with unity and teamwork.

Additionally, the Primes couldn't just kill the Betrayers (even setting aside that they're just as unable to move on from where they were during the traumatic flight to Exandria as the Betrayers are, and thus will never be able to fully despise their siblings), because they need them as insurance against whatever it was that was chasing them when their fled their own world, probably Predathos. They need the "Release the Betrayers against our common foe" panic button, which has currently essentially been pressed already, with followers of both sides of the divide working together against the Ruby Vanguard. Despite that, the Betrayers evidently possessed no such compunctions during the Calamity, and Asmodeus at least was fully willing to use the Factorum Malleus to kill the Primes.

They were essentially fighting a war against an equally-powerful enemy that wanted to kill them, when their own victory state was the much harder task of defeating them non-lethally and then sealing them away.

In order to force the Betrayers to leave with them, they would've had to do what they ended up doing anyway: Defeat them through means of divide and conquer. The only difference is that they would've been sealing them in some kind of vessel and then flying off (Assuming that it's even possible to seal them inside a ship, and that they can recreate the ship that brought them from Tengar to Exandria at all), rather than what they did in the end- put up the Divine Gate to seal everyone off from the Prime Material.

The idea that they could've simply "done that sooner" is a non-starter.

Even still, even taking the worst possible interpretation, ultimately the gods did seal away themselves and their Betrayer siblings to protect mortals from themselves. They did, in the end, leave.

Killing them won't fix anything, and doing so by releasing Predathos is an immensely bad idea. The looming threat of Predathos has already caused the gods to align their followers against the Ruby Vanguard, regardless of old feuds. Unleashing the one thing that will absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt force the Primes and the Betrayers to align together again is a really, supremely bad idea.

There is no confirmed good outcome to releasing it. Ludinus and co. seem to think that either Predathos will simply not start eating mortals once its primary food source is gone, or that they can force it not to. We have just watched 14 hours or so of some of the greatest wizards to ever live getting fucking obliterated by the gods in their diminished forms, let alone something powerful enough to devour a god in totality.

For Ludinus, the memories of Aeor should be a giant indicator that, even if he still believes himself to be right, he is out of his depth. Every time we've seen a powerful mortal caster declare themselves equal or superior to the gods, they've been harshly proven wrong, and normally swiftly killed. And if Predathos is even more powerful than the gods... he is messing with something far beyond his ability to control, and I think that's why Matt says he's at a crossroads at the moment. He's seen people in his own weight class be swept off the board by a sliver of the amount of power he's trying to unleash. I don't think the memories of Aeor challenged his beliefs, I think they challenged his confidence in his ability to achieve his goal.

And that's assuming that Predathos wins. Remember, Predathos has already lost that fight once before. Yeah, it ate two gods in the process but ultimately the score card is currently Gods 1, Predathos 0. True, they don't have the support of the Primordial Titans anymore, but they now have a lot more very powerful followers than they did at the time.

Predathos being unleashed could also result in the Divine Gate being destroyed and all of the gods, Prime and Betrayer alike, being released back onto the Prime Material, essentially resulting in Calamity 2, as any alliance between the two sides of the schism will only last as long as it takes for Predathos to be rendered a non-threat.

As the dust settles on Downfall, I think I remain pretty much where I was before in terms of Ludinus' plan and whether it's justified.

(It's not)

Aeor pointed a gun at the gods, and the Prime Deities' overall first goal was not to retaliate with equal force, but to disarm them. They tried to protect themselves without killing everyone on Aeor, even as every step they took through the city's streets showed it to be a hellscape that killed the faithful for no other reason than said faith. Because they saw the bright side of it, the innocents that lived there. They looked at a city that hanged their followers for believing in them, built an ornate fucking gallows to do it with, and still wanted to spare it.

They did their level best to save everyone they could. Only three people in the whole city knew how to make the Factorum Malleus. Remove those three and destroy the weapon and all knowledge of it, and the problem is solved.

And then a human wizard beamed the knowledge of the Malleus into the brain of every other wizard in the city.

It was Selena that doomed Aeor, turning a defeat into devastation. They had already lost, the gods breached their defences, revealed the location of the city to Kord and Bahamut, easily made their way to the Genesis Ward, destroyed all of the major divine wards and most of the minor ones, and killed most of the defenders.

In that one moment, it looked like the Primes would get what they wanted: Safety for themselves, while still managing to spare Aeor.

And then that one last Wish spell destroyed the hope the Primes had, and forced their hand. The only way they could ever be safe was to smash Aeor into the ground before anyone with fresh knowledge of how to build a second Factorum Malleus could get off it.

As for Aeor's side of things... look, if you build an Instant Genocide Gun, and put it in the core of a flying population centre, you don't get to complain if the people you want to wipe from existence turn up to swat you out of the sky in self-defence.

Like bruh, what were the gods supposed to do? Sit there and let the Malleus go off?

[skxrbrand]

I wonder what he was doing during the end times....

[qcomicsy]

Things about Peter Parker that warms my heart:

- He wakes up at Mary Jane's side everyday.

- He probably took many naps with Torch when they lived together.

- He definitely had/has a portifolio fill with photos of Spider-Man and random moments in new york, specially with the citizens;

- He canonically keeps photos of Gwen, the coffee bean gang and MJ with him;

- He's low profile and has to constantly update his knowledge about cyber security;

- He really enjoys the moments he gets to just sit and talk with the random team-up of the month;

- He used to wake up to the smell of aunt May's coffee;

- He's constantly under the effect of caffeine;

- He has a tired baby face. Meaning he always had a babyface, but the older he gets the more tired he looks and he hates it because the babyface it's still there. It's the John Mulaney effect of "Oh that tall child look terrible!";

- He looks like your random STEM nerdy guy, it gets him bitches and he has no idea of that;

- His best friend (torch) is pan so theres a huge probability that he attended pride as Peter Parker once or twice;

- He and others superheros always keep an eye at pride and others protests to make sure everyone it's safe;

- He doesn't trust cops, but tries to believe it must be good people out there (sweet poor summer child);

- His nature and nurture is kind and he fucking hates it. He's always like "Can't I let it go just this time? And no. He can't;

- Everyone loves him, he's just that guy. A lot people hate his guts because he's also that guy.

- Big brown doe eyes *sight*;

- Has no idea about how pretty he is, has a certa idea about how hot he is;

- "Yes my wife is hotter than me, yes I'm aware about how much cooler she is too but *I* got the funny bone in this relationship";

- Is unsufferable;

- cries at queer weddings;

- cries a lot how much a middle age man can cry, fuck he was supposed to stop that at highschool goddamit-

- Hate's men with passion will get annoying about how much he hates men;

- Easily makes friendship with woman, is the "I'll awkwardly wait them in front of the woman's bathroom" type of guy vibes;

- Bad dad jokes since he was fourteen;

- Was hated in highschool, slighted less hated in college, very well liked by his work colleges;

- "I don't have anxiety I don't have money to afford have anxiety I am currently undiagnosing myself as we speak";

- Hating men will not stopping him from flirting with them what? what are you homophobic or something???

- "Wdym my hair is a mess I just- *checks mirror* oh FOR FUCK SAKE-"

- He is that guy:

- That's him and Johnny and he is SO MAD about it;

- And he and johnny are that tiktok meme where those two friends are always on eachother instagram because they always take photos together.

- That's him and Deadpool when they finally got better at being friends with eachother:

Deadpool does takes pictures of him but they always end up being like that (hehateshimsomuch):

- That's how he knows deadpool is in new york because he sends him aligned with "this u" meme

- He also does that when they're text arguing "wade i WILL fuckig kill you";

- misspell when angry, misspell when sad, misspell regardless.

[brandwhorestarscream]

Please info dump about this new au I'm curious

EEEEEEEEEE ok!! 🥰🥰

Uhhhh some CWs before we start, tho. This is gonna delve into some hella unethical shit. Vast moral crimes against cybertronian kind. This coild probably be labeled as DD. Read at your own volition, my apologies to the traumatized 😊

So, first and foremost, I'm picturing this in like. A mash up of Aligned and IDW. A much darker feel right off the bat

The war is over and the autobots were victorious. They've got decepticon high command is custody, currently held in stasis for everyone's safety. Optimus is already stretched thin governing his armies and making important decisions about resettling Cybertron. Buildongs will have to be torn down and rebuilt, temporary residence for anyone returning, locating energon wells, getting the senate back up and running, etc. He doesn't have time to properly think about what to do with the cons. Their people are so few, less than 10% of the original population still lives. Execution is not something he wants to entertain. Wasting even a single spark after they've just grasped their peace will not set a good precedent for the future they're building.

But his autobots are anxious. Yeah, even the really dangerous ones like Megatron and Starscream and even Soundwave aren't a threat while they're frozen in cryosleep, but there's the worry that rebel decepticons will try to break them out. That the war will resume when their enemies cannot accept defeat. He needs to make a decision on what to do with them, if not killing them, and the solution presents itself in the form of a brand new project dreamed up by the bots:

The Repopulation Project

There are so few of them, and many frame types are teetering on the edge of extinction. Seekers, for example, lost an estimsted 95% of their total population in the famous bombing of Vos. Now there's less than a thousand of them left. They're critically endangered, and will go extinct if something isn't done.

The Repop Project is proposed in a very sweet, flowery way: the decepticons can be rehabilitated into polite society, and they'll be helping bolster the numbers of Cybertron's citizens. The new generation of war frames will be born in an autobot controlled world, and raised correctly so they don't turn into bloodthirsty monsters like their parents. Up against the wall and with no other options, Optimus offers the captive cons an ultimatum: agree to be absorbed into the repop, or execution

In order to evade being put to death, Megatron agrees, of course planning to start another uprising as soon as physically possible.

...unfortunately for him, the autobots (without going through Prime. Looking at you, Prowl >.>) have him mnemosurgeried and shadowplayed. Same with Starscream and Soundwave, regardless of what they want or chose. Seekers, as we discussed, are critically endangered, and Starscream is the last remaining member of the Vosian royal family. He still has a lot of sway over the entire seeker population, and they'll assumably follow his lead and sign themselves over the program. Soundwave is capable of hosting symbiotes and he's even rarer than Starscream--there's only one other left in Blaster. The two of them are the last of their kind, they need to reproduce asap.

On official documents the repopulation project encampments are called Rehab Facilities and Nurseries, because that sounds way better from a legal perspective than a baby mill populated by prisoners of war.

Decepticons are divided up into their frame types and shipped off to different locations, each either installed with coding so they can't fight back, or having their memories and negative feelings removed to make them more complicit. Regardless, thanks to them, there's a baby boom and the population peaks sharply. The high quality sparklings are taken from their parents (kiddos that are born with blue optics and civilian frames) to be raised by autobot families that want to adopt them. Poor quality bitties (i.e. infrared optics and ones with their carrier's warframe type) are sent to specific nursery facilities meant to raise them

Now, Cybertron's society is basically being built up from scratch, but there is a solid foundation. There's a lot of old culture, and a lot of the autobots came from priveleged places and want their home to look comfortably similar to how it was before the decepticon uprising. So, the senate is reinstated. The original 13 seats are filled by anyone who could run a convincing campaign and win enough votes. Optimus oversees the council as the Prime, but leaves any and all decisions left up to a majority vote. That's fair, he thinks. This is democracy, he thinks. He doesn't want to be a monarch. Whatever the people widely decide on is how it should be.

That opens up the door to a lot of fuckery. In the original proposal it was written that after X amount of time, the cons in the repop project could be placed on probation and eventually be reacclimated intk society. That's one of the first things to go: the new senate stacks up a bunch of requirements, like having to pass a psych eval, taking citizenship tests, publicly declaring their separation from their faction, and even having to undergo mnemosurgery, just to make sure they aren't harboring any thoughts of revolution. It's borderline impossible for anyone to meet all of the requirements, and even if they did, they just keep pushing the time requirements back more and more. The hope is that, eventually, their bodies will start to wear down from being forced to pop out sparkling after sparkling, and they'll die in hospice before they can be released.

It only gets worse from there. More and more restrictions are put into place, until eventually all of the undesirables of Cybertron are held in these facilities, out of sight, out of mind, while the vast majority of autobots start regaining the lives they lived before the war

Now... this isn't ideal at all, but Optimus only sees what they choose to show him. The facilities he visits are glistening and clean, all of the carriers held within them seem happy looking after their shared groups of bitties, and the sparklings are healthy. Running around and playing, laughing and drinking good fuel. He can accept this

Unfortunately, feeding and caring for them isn't cheap. Energon is still being rationed because, surprise surprise, mining is backbreaking work that most civilian frames aren't capable of doing very efficiently.

They can't just kill all of them, so the senate decides why not outsource the war frame sparklings? Using the adults is out of the question, they're wicked decepticons, we can't have them wandering outside of their facilities! So it falls to the repopulation project's first generation of children to pick up the slack. Once they hit the youngling stage they're already bigger than most civilians, and they're only war frames. What's the harm in a little child labor? Look, see, the kids are happy to do it, serving their community that wouldn’t even need serving if their evil parents had just stayed in their place and hadn't ripped Cybertron apart

So, war frame sparklings are now being dragged out of their facilities to be put to work in the mines beneath the charred remnants of the southern cities, under what used to be the decepticon capital and strongholds. All of it is scheduled to be torn down and razed to make room for new living quarters for the returning autobots.

It just gets slowly worse from there. As the years tick by, Optimus loses more and more power, and by the time several generations have past and the senate is just as corrupt as it was before, it's too late. All of the original decepticons have died out, leaving behind children that were forbidden from being educated about the war. They're kept in the dark, kept away from society, in their isolated encampments so no one has to see them. No one on the senate will hear their Prime's words, as they have no need to obey him. After all, he declared at the very beginning that he was not to be a soverign ruler. That no Prime could be a monarch. That the senate's decisions were what mattered, as they were chosen representatives of the people. He can't do anything.

The matrix is demanding to be released; it has chosen a new host, evidently, though if it's because he's just too old to fight anymore or if it's because it has deemed him a failure, he can't decide. The new Prime is a young mech barely into his adult body, a fiery red and yellow kid that matches neither of his parents, and at the ceremony to pass on the torch OP mournfully wonders where he was born. Who he was born to. Who he could have become.

When Rodimus comes to power the repopulation project is way past the point of necessity. There's plenty of war frames, plenty of all frames, on Cybertron. What were originally rehab facilities have twisted over millions of years, and have been completely reformatted into an entirely new, sinister system.

War frames are so very, very rarely seen in public. There are no war frame cities anymore. 90% of their population lives specifically within the specialized facilites that have warped into farms. Farms that mass produce and cultivate heavy duty workers for mining, to be bodyguards for the elite, to become gladiator pit fighters, and as cheap, tradable slave labor to be used wherever they are needed until they die. There are other, high quality farms that use warframes to produce a number of commodities that have become necessities in this new society: there are some that raise and harvest sparklings for their vital and non-vital organs when they become of age, some that are meant to be living bloodbags so their robust internal defense systems can be bestowed upon the general public, and to later have their bodies melted down and used in a number of projects. They use the living metal and special polymers to make high quality replacement limbs and to build hyper-useful drones, primarily. There's even farms that specifically breed and raise particularly pretty frame types as, essentially, mail-order brides for the wealthy and powerful to purchase.

It's become a horrible, miserable dystopian nightmare. Half of their people have become nothing but livestock, and Optimus doesn't even recognize his home anymore

...

And there's the basic backstory! The actual plot takes places on future Cybertron, and I would love to talk about it if any of ya'll are curious ^-^

[milfstalin]

@commiearabgirll

ok so about the kirov assassination: yale university did an archive crawl and concluded that the assassination was initially investigated as a foreign-sponsored attack rather than a domestic oppositionist conspiracy (yagoda in particular insisted on this angle, yagoda also tried to improve kirov's (very lax) security by moving people around, but kirov liked his current staff and vetoed it (kirov was not alone in having really bad security. stalin kept taking walks alone on the streets and had to be obliged by a politburo decree to stop doing that) two months prior which is why stalin initially defended yagoda/the nkvd from other politburo members. this ended up interpreted by others as stalin and yagoda having a conspiracy to kill kirov), but from all indications it seems like nikolaev was extremely jealous of kirov and also was able to slip by the very bad security practices of the leningrad nkvd (they didn't take away his party card when he was kicked out for some reason, they caught him sneaking around and just let him go??)

and we know that stalin waited for 1-1.5 years to re-open the case (i believe on yezhov's prompting, could be wrong though) so it wasn't exactly planned to use it as a political weapon from the onset. there is also the fact that kirov had run into nikolaev by complete accident on the day of the actual assassination since he had gone to retrieve a letter from the post office (it was a letter about reuniting with a childhood friend of his but he didn't get to read it :( )

and obviously we know that stalin didnt kill kirov because kirov followed the party line and he had no chops for theory (his main skills, according to molotov, were oration and generally pleasing a crowd, but he was self-admittedly weak in theory and would not have been top leadership/strategic material even though he enjoyed popularity in the leningrad region- but that's hardily enough support to challenge the centre).

anyways that nikolaev could have been encouraged by oppositionists is not out of the question regardless- we know that zinoviev had a bone to pick with kirov specifically because zinoviev used to have a political machine in leningrad that was thrown out by molotov & kirov & other members of the stalinist majority when he started bitching about the NEP/trotskyfying. we also know that rumors of kirov's womanizing habits were also spread by the opposition, which could have inflamed nikolaev's jealousy (i believe his wife was a coworker of kirov too).

however, the oppositionists (left and right) ended up having it coming anyways. like, bukharin straight-up told one of his supporters that they might have to kill stalin, trotsky encouraged acts of terrorism within the ussr by discontent youth, and even yagoda was named as part of a "non-aligned" opposition group (which probably means that yagoda was waiting for everyone else to finish fighting each other and then side with the winner) by an anti-communist (caucasian nationalist-type?) oppositionist named tokaev (who defected to britain during/after wwii) in a book he wrote called comrade x.

Been spamming your inbox as of late, sorry about that. But I in that post abt Beria and ASPD, you mentioned his poisoning of Lakoba and an alleged attempt on Ordzhonikidze too. What's all that about?

from amy knight's book about beria, she cites khrushchev but i think this is believable (for political reasons):

also important is that stalin initially wanted lakoba to come up to moscow to lead the ogpu/nkvd, which probably contributed to the decision to bump him off as a rival (as well as for georgian nationalism reasons, since lakoba engaged in reformist, class-collaborationist tactics to run abkhazia and generally preserve it as a distinct minority region within georgia)

also. sergo getting an inexplicable boo boo and possible poisoning. knight ties it to the kirov assassination but since we now know that it was literally just that one guy by himself who was hella jealous of kirov, the timing was a coincidence. beria and sergo were already on bad terms by this time because of beria's attempts to get rid of rivals in the georgian party leadership.

[rarepears]

Lanbari ask. What if Kyouya 'Created' a new cultivation method? So now in xianxia land, there's also Flames now. I once read a fic where the mystery mom of LWJ and LXC was a Wen. We could use that here, having that fire connection with the Wens be "connected" to this nifty new power Lanbari made. Which makes everyone lose their minds. Lanbari, as ever, is a Cloud. LXC could be a Sky, a Rain or a Rainy Sky. LWJ could be a Lightning. WWX is definitely a Sun. 'Activating' the dead that he controls gives them a huge boost. MY is probably a Mist. Lanbari let's that slide since Chrome showed that not all Mists are bad. NHS is probably a Mist, too. NMJ could be a Sun or a Lightning. JWY as a Storm, JYL as a Rain.

Lanbari, having learned from his previous life that just because someone is a Sky doesn't mean they're the best person to lead. (Timoteo, Iemitsu, (sorry) Tsuna) So he'll make it so his brother doesn't have to worry too much about his people. He'll lead with gentle suggestions on how somethings would be beneficial to the Sect (I HC all Skies have Intuition) from LXC for optimum efficiency. Actually, LXC probably tells MY who gets the stamp of approval from Lanbari. Either way, his Sky brother doesn't have to deal with too much Empathy like Tsuna did while in a leadership position and won't kill off his Empathy like Nono and Iemitsu just to try and lead well.

Although being a Lan probably makes it difficult to make bonds, with all the strictly enforced social rules, so Lanbari is hunting for prospective Gaurdians for his omnivorous twin. Which was another reason for MY being handed off to LXC at first. Lanbari wanted to see if there was potential there. (There definitely was and now Lanbari has a future in law.) NMJ was a fight friend and was introduced to LXC (Little brother is introducing me to his friends! How sweet!) and bonds him, too. At this point, Lanbari worries that any other intros might lead to a harem for his brother so he tries to find others that are already spoken for. I can't think of any off the top of my head since I've never actually read the source and only fanfic of MDZS. Anyways!

You could also add some Humor to it. After introducing LXC, MY and NMJ, other Lans might think hes a good matchmaker so they try to ask Lanbari with help finding their soulmate, too. In response, Lanbari throws them at someone to get their idiotic babble away from him. It turns out, they're soulmates. Way to go, Lanbari! Now he's harassed by (idiots) people determined to go through a beating from Lanbari to get a soulmate.

You could link the future leaders of the cultivation world together early, leading to a solid foundation for them all to fall back on when/if the Wens attack. Also, imagine the Wens trying to storm the Lan Sect. For Angst, Lanbari could be on a nighthunt far away so it still happens, maybe with less casualties since he'd probably beef up the defenses. For Fix-It, he'd be present and kick the Wens asses.

 Personally, my headcanon is that mafia heads are all skies because of tradition. Skies don't make good heads and they don't have to be the head; it's just that skies are so charismatic that it ended up becoming tradition.

So... MDZS doesn't have that tradition. No one can protest about a cloud becoming sect leader instead of a sky. In fact, MDZS values talent more than necessarily firstborn becoming sect leader - otherwise Jiang Yanli could have been sect leader... probably. (Didn't the Gusu Lan had a female leader at one point? That means it's not impossible for the great sects to have female leaders. Add in the the maternal tradition of Madam Yu, it's possible! But Jiang Yanli was sickly and weak in cultivation talent.)

Anyways, Hibari as the head. I don't feel like he even listened to Tsuna - their goals just happened to align, so it's good that he's official head as he would go do his own thing regardless. Lan Xichen would have no hope of controlling Hibari's actions, just hope to mitigate the damage, if he were head instead.

Lan Xichen would serve as the Hibari-translator, softening Hibari's words into something more gentle, more politically correct. It helps that Hibari is very abrupt with his words and doesn't provide clarifying details, so Lan Xichen can twist Hibari's words a bit. You know, from "clean this mess up" to Lan Xichen now instructing the disciples to clear the debris, to contact the craftsmen, to arrange for the shop keepers to be compensated for their damaged goods, and so forth.

So that particular command is all fine and well. But when Hibari points at Jin Guangshan and says "trash"... time for Lan Xichen to sing a song about how Hibari TOTALLY meant something else. Like how Jin Guangshan should do something about the trash in his sect like all the immoral cultivators who have been disobeying rules - oh did you know that I had to stop so and so from stealing goods from a merchant's shop?

I do love the thought of Hibari hunting for good guardians for his brother. He's obviously his twin's cloud. Lan Wangji feels like a rain; plus rain can sound like music.

This frees up the lightning spot for Nie Mingjue - he willing to absorb the Wen's damage to protect his sect. He doesn't seem very... nurturing; he's more sturdy like an anchor for a ship.

Hibari doesn't exactly have to look very hard for guardians; he just lets the guardian candidates come to Gusu Lan for Lan Qiren's lessons and inspects each individual one by one. The first test is Hibari beating the potential candidates up. The guardians should be very sturdy and skilled at fighting of course!

(Meng Yao is the exception because he's the pencil pusher.)

Hibari the matchmaker! That's a hilarious thought!

Just imagine him beating up two cultivators and having them thrown into the same jail cell.. and then three years later, Hibari receives a wedding invitation to the two's wedding. He's being invited as the "matchmaker" of the couple. I guess that makes Hibari a more violent cupid?

As a cloud who's terribly possessive of his territory, Hibari would not allow himself to travel so far that he would not be at Gusu Lan for years - the Sunshot Campaign took years. If anything, Hibari hears rumors about what a strong fighting Wen Ruohan is, so he goes to Qishen Wen for a fight...

Wen Ruohan loses. Badly. Hibari is disappointed and he leaves the city, Wen Ruohan knocked out for the count.

Wen Qing uses this amazing opportunity to poison Wen Ruohan with no one the wiser; Wen Ruohan slips into a coma and never wakes up. Wen Qing blames Hibari for using poison or something something nefarious that resulted in none of her healing techniques working.

Considering that Hibari used his cloud flames in this fight and it was visible, people believe Wen Qing's claims. Hibari's fearsome reputation just went up by ten million points, but as someone who doesn't pay attention to rumors, he doesn't know about Wen Qing's claims.

Even Gusu Lan believes in Wen Qing's claims that it was Hibari's attacks that slowly killed Wen Ruohan to death.