#right after the 2024 lore stream

[fatherrats]

EVERYONE SHUT UP IT UPDATED

[riacte]

🥁 Welcome to the first ever "Choose an unhinged Renchanting moment" ✨ALL STARS EDITION✨!!! 🥁

In which winners of the previous nine (!!) polls and the Last Life burning tower scene will battle it out for ULTIMATE UNHINGED RENCHANTING MOMENT!! Deliberately made to cross over from 2023 to 2024 to wish for a new year full of Renchanting <3

If you don't want to read my lengthy and dramatic sports guy commentary you can skip to the poll right at the end.

Now, let's introduce our beloved competitors! With some clips sponsored by @ani-craft, thank you as always <3

Starting from Round 1, the OG, the beginning of this series in Feb 2023— congrats to "Ren calling Maidtyn "very very sexy" completely unprovoked"!. Now, fellow Tumblr users, this is a historical moment because the Maidtyn trend was the Tumblr response to Martyn being active on Tumblr, and it snowballed into the Mint Mistletoes of MCC19 wearing skins of maid dresses (and a butler suit). This is the tangible impact of the Tumblr fan community on MCC. And of course it's about maid dresses.

Round 1 was quickly followed up by Round 2, and narrowly winning by FOUR votes is... [drumroll] "r/place (2022) when Martyn helped place a pixel of blush on RK Ren"!. Truly a chaotic moment that somehow became a highlight even in the overall chaos of those few days.

But the numbers really peaked in Round 3, aka. the Limited Life edition when Martyn's lore stream repeatedly dropped bombs on us. 100% of these moments are from Martyn, by the way. But which unhinged moment was the most unhinged? Which moment will win like Martyn? Unsurprisingly, the most popular option are those two words that basically sum it up— "UNGUIDED HAND". An unhinged moment that won with a whopping 404 out of 1913 votes.

Things did not calm down after Limited Life. Some might say the moments only became more unhinged. 2.5 months after LimLife ended, Round 4 began. Most of these moments are also from Martyn. Most unhinged of all: "Martyn declaring in a low voice: 'Third Life never ended for me'." Yeah it sure didn't, buddy.

Fast forward to September 2023. Treebark Week 2023! Surely the perfect moment for a poll! Also, I need to add that I was so excited about Round 5 that I posted it before TBW ended and... let's say it immediately got worse the day after I posted the poll. My hubris for assuming it was the end... Anyways, Martyn's Tumblr shenanigans kick in once again. Congrats to "Martyn saying nothing about an ask that claims his character is in love with Ren", which also ended up being a significant post to Scurvyblr. For reasons.

Two months after TBW, the pining gets exponentially worse. And I do mean exponentially. Enter Round 6, which has a lot of insane moments, but there was one clear winner, a moment that swept with 32% of the votes— everybody clap and cheer for "Martyn's 50 word 3L AU drabble - "Luck be with ye.... Hand"!! At the time of writing, that post has 4.1k notes. Martyn's just like us. He's writing fanfiction and that's so real of him.

Merely ten days later, fires are crackling, demons are giggling— it's the Decked Out open day! And we got a Renchanting feast! Round 7 emerged from That Iconic Burning Stone Box and was dedicated to moments the stream day. With 39% of the votes, the unhinged moment that swept was "Ren to Martyn: You have very fine lips there and a wonderful neck for kissing". Honorable mentions go to Martyn's Twitch chat (for surviving), Martyn's viewers (for clipping it with varying degrees of "what did he just say??"), and of course, False (for locking them in and kickstarting whatever the improv demon roleplay was).

A few weeks later, the flames have died down— or have they? Round 8 enters with a steel chair and Ren has more unhinged moments now. Martyn's Tumblr takes home another win with "Martyn reblogging a post that calls Ren his “Minecraft boyfriend”!! This is the third win that's from Martyn's Tumblr blog. You love to see it.

Last but not the least, Round 9 from last week! It's finally Ren's turn to dominate. Our winner is.... "Ren mentions going to sleep and dreaming of Martyn’s 'beautiful, beautiful eyes'"!! Appropriately clipped with the caption "Insane".

But that's not all! In Round 1 + 2, I purposefully excluded the altar scene and the burning tower scene because I felt those two would sweep. Now, I think the altar scene is still untouchable but the burning tower seems almost normal now. (As normal as an unhinged moment could be.)

A new unhinged moment has appeared! Challenger approaching! Last Life Ren purposefully sets his tower on fire after knowing Martyn is watching him and Martyn runs to save him while screaming "Ren, what are you doing to yourself! Stop burning yourself!".

Okay, okay, my dramatic commentary is done. Hey, I'm not a Renchanting fan for nothing. Here's the poll. Have fun :D

Much love to all of you <3 here's to another year of unhinged Renchanting moments!

(Also sorry the r/place should be in 2022 not 2021)

[not-actually-a-goddess]

Fable SMP 2024 Predictions

These are my predictions about what's going to happen this year for Fable SMP relating to the most recent lore. I'll check back on this at the end of the main stream of lore or the end of Season 3, and we'll see how many I got right or close to.

In the final battle against Fable (should there be one), Isla is released only to see how much of a monster Fable has really become and it destroys him.

The Sins of Their Sires Prophecy becomes true. Icarus and Rae apologise and rebond after whats happened, Fable and Enderian die.

Fable tries to off multiple people, probably consisting Rae, Momboo, Ocie, Arisanna, probably Athena, he's gonna track down Alerion and Will (maybe), and take anything that has traces of Godly Magic for his conquest.

Fable tries/succeeds to husk Epros.

Centross comes back as a god and beats someone's ass or destroys someone (preferably Fable), either ways, he does something epic.

We meet Quixis finally, face to face.

Everyone's traumatised.

Icarus finally realises how shitty of dad they have.

Haley's evil or the cause of some wack.

Everyone realises that Enderian is not entirely evil (a little bit, you know corrupting Easton and Centross and Sherbert), and was in fact misunderstood.

Something happens with Rae's eye (again). (If Fable rips it out I swear-).

Rae's connection with Enderian almost kills him.

That's all I've got so far, I'll post more possibly.

[maggiemacabre]

SiIvaGunner SmashUp! Behind the scenes and post-mortem

Hello folks and welcome to my new Tumblr blog. I don't know how much I'm going to actually use this thing in the future but I figure if I need it, it's here. As you can probably tell by the title, today's subject will be none other than my most recent "work", the SiIvaGunner SmashUp!

The idea of a SiIvaGunner take on the concept of "Royal Rumble but full of stupid contestants" was in my head for a while, but the motivation to do it wasn't in place until I found Dead Meat's Horror Royal Rumble in August or September of 2023. The Jerma Rumbles and Vinewrestle were definitely also influences on the idea, but the Horror Royal Rumble was the impetus, and played a part in influencing some creative choices featured in the SmashUp (more on that later).

After running the idea by the team and the rest of backroom, I picked up WWE 2K23 (which fortuitously was on sale that weekend) and got to work. Going in, I had next to no idea of the ins and outs of pro wrestling, which meant that I had to do a lot of research into things like the wrestlers themselves, moves, terminology, different match types, general historical stuff, how shows are actually presented, etc. This put me in a very, very deep rabbit hole which I have still not crawled out of. I even went to two house shows!

Making the wrestlers was the first step and by far took the longest amount of time out of anything, since this was the first show of its kind on the channel and required the creation of 34 unique wrestlers. Some of them were easier than others (lookin' at you AMUNO), but others such as Ninomae Ina'nis took days to complete due to the amount of detail they required. This also isn't including wrestlers who were made that got cut; some of these exclusions include Bottom G, who was left out because Andrew Tate sucks, Elly from Touhou Project, who was replaced by Sumireko, and Wood Man, who was left out for lore reasons and replaced with 8-Bit Beast in a somewhat 11th hour decision. Maybe next year?

The decision to make Hot Cross Buns and Raft Ride into women also spawned from this period. Hot Cross Buns was made first and was originally meant to show up in the Grand Rumble, but after some time I ended up deciding to move her to her own match, which became a Women's World Champion match because lol. I had to use mods to make the men and women able to fight each other, so theoretically Raft Ride could have been a man, but women are awesome.

Being an egotistical maniac, I also included some references to things I'd worked on in the past. Totino's Stadium, the arena where the match takes place, was first mentioned in the FUMO JAM ad from the DJ Professor K Day stream, and Nu Grandiose City is the city where Woodyana is from in Woodyana Stones: Raider Made of Lost Bark. Also I guess this is why Elvira was included? LOL. Fun fact: The footage of "Totino's Stadium" is actually of Gazprom Arena in Russia.

Since I was involved with the channel's MAGFest panel in 2024, I was able to announce the show months in advance, although I'm not sure how many people actually paid attention at the time. Getting a logo ready between finishing CCC and MAG was a bit tight, but thankfully it was able to be done on time, and on top of that I was able to make the big card poster thing on my own. I actually designed it to be printed, and I proposed making it a sold item, although that idea was rejected. I also came up with the date during this period, choosing the day right before the WWE Hall of Fame show, and while things got a bit close to the wire, it was luckily able to make the date and time without a hitch in the end.

After all the wrestlers were made, it was time to record and edit. I was a bit worried about my laptop overheating while doing so, but I was able to get good quality 60 FPS 1080p footage recorded without any hitches other than some human error on my end. While the controversial ending of the Grand Rumble wasn't what I had in mind, I ended up leaving it as-is for time reasons and also because it felt like a funny troll ending. Which it was! Editing was not quite as smooth since I had to go through all the footage and edit it together into a cohesive product. WWE games don't allow you to cut to entrances during a Royal Rumble, which meant that I had to record and edit those in myself. The method I ended up using resembled the one from the Dead Meat rumble mentioned earlier with cuts to the audience as the buzzer rings, although I'd like to believe I did a better job than they did with their 2024 entrances where they awkwardly cut around shots of the ring. This is also where the fun facts come from, as they are actually covering up the nameplates that show up as an alternative to cutting to the entrances.

After editing was done I got some other team members to do commentary. Thankfully I was able to get someone with wrestling knowledge, which definitely added a dimension of realism and legitimacy to the project. I don't know if I can say who the announcers are because of leaks, but if you haven't figured it out, Randall Shields is a Smash Bros. reference. Also it was the first contribution to SiIvaGunner that had "Randall" made in about half a decade. What a return!

The premiere of the project was electric. Seeing over 1.3K people tune in and get hype over something I made was incredible and made my week, if not month. I did feel a little bad about the reaction when Dream came in (💀), but other than that it was awesome. And don't worry, he won't return.

In the end, I had a lot of fun with the project and it was awesome seeing everything pay off. I want to thank everyone who helped, including the artists who designed the logos and the people who did commentary. It couldn't have come together without help and assistance from everyone, and I hope that this becomes the first in a series of similar videos.

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Made Marion Development Update, Feb 2024

Hello everyone, and happy belated Valentine's Day! Will took a moment of his time to make everyone a very special Valentine.

Darn it, Will.

The Writing Desk

I am moving into Will Chapter 2!  These first couple months of Will route development have been challenged by some unavoidable IRL issues, but those are all cleared up now and I am devoting the rest of February and March fully to writing Will's route.

Chapter 1, as predicted, will be around 20,000 words. I still have one more Chapter 1 scene to finish, but it's a big action scene, and those tend to take me forever as I figure out all the logistics. I decided that rather than delaying the rest of the adventure, I'll slowly add to that action scene while writing Chapter 2.

Will Preview Video:

In case you missed it, we created a preview stream featuring the beginning of Will's route for the Steam Storyteller's Festival in early February.  Here it is!

Art Roundup

Some backers have been curious as to the completion status of our art, so here's the roundup:

Sprites and CGs (Arrapso)

All main character sprites are complete, save for a ??? variant sprite that will only be seen in the DLC.

We have 3.5 major NPC sprites yet to be completed: Hugh, leader of the Grey Wolves (backer sprite); Issa, Lord Geoffrey's cousin in from Nibiru (backer sprite); Kafeel, leader of Nottingham's Sunjati Merchant association and Will's friend; and the final version of Thomas, a character who is only seen in Alanna's route. I will need Kafeel for Will's EA release and am hoping to have Hugh and Issa for it as well, although they are more important on the Nottingham side.

After those are complete, Arrapso's main job will be CGs. I have ordered 4/5 Will CGs and am still deciding on the design for the final one. We also still need to design the backer wallpapers (which will be available in PC and phone formats).

Backgrounds & Creature Sprites (Sandra)

Backgrounds are almost entirely finished. I have one more major background to commission and then it'll just be the occasional variation as needed or maaaaybe one or two more major backgrounds later on to add more variation to the Nottingham Town exteriors.

All major creature sprites are complete.  I may commission one of Geoff's beloved hunting hounds during his route, but haven't decided yet. Meissa's bird friend will likely be a cut-in like our messenger doves.

Lore Intro and Cut-Ins (Lawrichai)

Lawri has been having some IRL challenges but should be back with us soon. Her main jobs right now are sexy silhouettes and the lore intro animation. We may be transforming the lore intro graphics into a full .webm animation instead of using Ren'py's built in Animation and Transition Language, as this might actually be easier for Lawri, as well as looking a lot smoother and making me pound my head against my desk less. It's a win/win/win! We'll have more on this next time.

Otherwise, Lawri's work is ongoing depending on budget and how much she is able to complete from route to route (I can always add in more cut-ins, but for now we're focusing on more critical ones as we have time after the sexy sils are complete per route).

So that's where we are with art right now!  We're in pretty good shape overall, there just might need to be some more intense art production while I complete the second half of Will's script.

See you next month!

[x-bee-x]

March 10, 2023. QSMP was announced. I was so so so excited for it to come out and followed along with basically everything between the announcement and the server launch and couldn't wait. And I had every intention to watch it live the day of.

Six days after it was announced and six days before it was revealed, something happened in my life. Don't really wanna get into it right now, but it was pretty major, and it kind of stopped any plans including focus on QSMP in their tracks for a while.

March 22, 2023. QSMP was launched. I tried really hard to watch Quackity's livestream, try to distract myself, because I was still really excited. And I did for a little bit, not for very long, but I wanted to try. There was someone I won't mention that I wanted to watch a handful of vods of before Twitch deleted them, regardless of the amount of knowledge of the server and some lore thus far, which wasn't much. So like two months later, that's what I did. And that's all I watched for a while. I saw the occasional clip or post or caught up on some certain events going on at the time, but those were the only streams I had watched.

Until I decided that I could probably put in the time and energy to focus on watching someone live, that was the elections result stream, in August. Look at what that stream did, look at what all has happened from me. So many fanfic's written, a number I won't even try to ballpark of fanfic's read, an honestly probably crazy amount of liveblogs, languages I probably wouldn't have considered learning before, new creators found, so many friends made later.

May 25, 2024. QSMP had its final event. We said goodbye. Or goodbye for now because there was a 2 at the end? Please let it be a goodbye for now. Anyway. The amount of people who joined yesterday, several of which we hadn't seen in months, was fantastic. And they all had so much fun with each other and were making each other laugh so hard and it was beautiful. And as expected, I cried quite a bit. But I also had a lot of fun. I laughed a ton and squealed because people are ridiculous and my heart was broken then put back together many times.

I'm not leaving the fandom. I'm still going to read and write and make posts and interact with all of you and follow the friends I've made anywhere. See you later QSMP. Thank you for everything. I love you.

[7grandmel]

Rip of the week: 26/08/2024

Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com

Season 5 Featured on: Legends of the Western Sunset ~ The SiIvaGunner All-Star Summer Festival 2021 Collection

Ripped by Memmy (@memmy417)

If you've been keeping up with this blog, you may have noticed that my coverage tends to somewhat slant toward the more emotional, the "deep" and hard-hitting stuff on SiIvaGunner, be it with rips like i love(d) you and Apotheosis to Heaven or with the entirety of my #character archives posts. I can't hide that a lot of my appreciation for the SiIvaGunner channel is emotional, likely in large part because I'm not a ripper myself and thus can't always properly appreciate rips for their craft alone. But I do try to diversify the blog's portfolio from time to time since, well, it would frankly be inaccurate to present the channel as being nothing but feature-length epics and carefully-improvised lore. Many parts of SiIvaGunner's evolution are driven by ambition, yes - yet just a many, if not more, are driven by boredom, messing around, and just flat-out being silly with it. And perhaps no ripper embodies this better than the one responsible for Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com and precisely two hundred and twentythree (223) other siiva rips - Memmy.

Rippers like Memmy, and rips just like the above, represent a hugely important part to SiIvaGunner's core, the one that predates even the channel itself: the spirit of SoundClown. SiIvaGunner as a channel was born through the ongoing antics and fun of a couple of teens on SoundCloud, messing around with mashups and video game music purely to make one another laugh. Despite joining the team four years after the channel's inception, it feels as if Memmy has embraced this original spirit more than anyone else, as should be immediately evident by the name of Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com alone. The titles of her rips are always like this, just a complete stream-of-consciousness bit written without a second though, and no matter how many years pass it stays as such an evergreen reminder of the silliness that persists within SiIvaGunner - a silliness that of course bleeds into the rips themselves! And so, while I've technically covered a chunk of her rips prior back on the Raftmageddon event on April Fools, with classics like lmao and request by raftride7000 pikachu x pachirisu amv- what makes rafts rideable, I think it's high time to actually dig into a proper rip of hers.

When I say "silly" or other such terms in today's context, I'm sure a lot of you immediately start to think along the lines of "brainrot" content or ironic shitposting, along the lines of we are number one but with outdated memes over it, Mad Mew Mew Becoming Uncanny, Corridors of Vine or plenty of the rips being made currently in Season 8. But I believe that's misrepresenting the topic a bit - even things made to be conceptually stupid through their source, can be wielded with finesse and ambition for remixing projects just like high quality rips often are. Beyond the obvious example of the SiIvaGunner channel in its entirety, a more specific example would be Season 5's "Disappearance of Super Mario" event: an event born from a running joke on Twitter, spun into one of the most solid and gripping channel narratives we've seen on the channel through the ambition put into it, like with what I wrote about on Your Worst Nightmario. No, I suppose "silly" isn't quite the right word to describe rips like Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com - but rather, that they have a sense of...playfulness? Its vibes extend all the way to the imagery you get of the ripper themselves sitting with a music file open and just messing around to see what would happen - I couldn't tell you what scenario would lead Memmy to, in 2021, combine music from 2017's Sonic Forces with Maroon 5's hit 2014 single This Summer's Gonna Hurt like a Motherfucker, other than one wherein the ripper in question was just testing things out for the pure fun of creation in of itself.

And that's really what I've been getting at with this post in general, how important that spirit is to the channel, and for the well-being of the internet in general: That spirit of completely unbothered, expectation-less creativity. One of my all-time favorite ripper replies I've gotten on this blog came from the ripper venula on Hella Pummel, wherein they described adding an additional source to the rip out of no reason other than simply because they felt it would be funny and sound good. Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com champions that spirit loudly and proudly - the mashup between Sonic Forces music and the aforementioned hit Maroon 5 single is a complete left-field idea, but Memmy goes all-in to make sure it actually results in a genuinely fun listening experience. It's partially due to the choice of Ghost Town in particular as the backing track, giving the rip a funky, bouncy backing that perfectly complements the sound of post-Overexposed Maroon 5, but This Summer is additionally pitch-shifted (and generally seems to be in a slightly lower key?) to match Ghost Town's slightly moodier tone. The connection with Hella Pummel only grows stronger once Ghost Town reaches its chorus, adding a piece of German pop music that I swear I've heard used in shitposts before yet couldn't even begin telling you a morsel of information about. But, sure enough - it sounds good, and doesn't even override This Summer's presence on the rip, instead just adding one more layer of sound to the backing track's highest point.

As described in the beginning, rips like Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com aren't necessarily the most complicated, most carefully woven masterpieces of our time - but I really don't want that to be construed as demeaning, or in any way negatively slanted. Because it's the rips just like Memmy's that keep the channel afloat, the rips made just out of sheer curiosity and fun at the computer, rips made to entertain the ripper just as much - if not more - than to entertain an audience. The magic at the beating heart of SiIvaGunner is the knowledge that rips come from everywhere, from all kinds of people, with all kinds of intentions - and that any rip has the capability of making someone smile. In truth, I think we all could use a little bit more playfulness in our lives, and Memmy appears all too happy to keep serving us with it for the foreseeable future.

[bleue-flora]

https://www.tumblr.com/tobi-smp/765541010649530368/tobi-ctommy-lore-in-2024?source=share

I can't decide what you want me to say... I mean I think I covered all the points of why this doesn't work already... in fact I’d say half of that roleplay seems like there like literal feelings as ccJack expresses when he first logs on, and the other half seems to be ccTommy trying to retcon stuff to please his fans in with ccJack actually outright disagreeing with him. Mind you I planned on watching it but honestly Tommy’s comment about op pissed me off to the point that I didn’t care, however given that comment and Jack logging on as a joke to begin with that sets the tone for this to take place and that context is important. Also, Jack literally spawns in the prison so let’s say we are retconning shit, what are we retconning? Because the bench was in prison, Jack was in prison with his first statement being basically ‘bet you didn’t expect to see me be here again’ framing things as we’d expect taking place right after the finale for Jack. And if he’s in the prison then that lore took place, meaning Jack set off the nukes like he says so in the messages. So, we can’t retcon the finale it happened and that’s why Jack is where he is, what you are changing is the potential aftermath. However that still doesn’t make sense to me. If the Incident stopped the nukes and the Egg, then if they have their memories and are wandering around as if things never restarted then presumably the Incident didn’t happen, but if that didn’t happen, then the nuke and Egg wouldn’t have been stopped so they’d be dead… right?… unless we gotta recon allll that lore — oops but wait we can’t because Jack literally spawned next to the bench Tubbo placed in the prison so that lore has to be canon to make sense… so then we are back to the Incident Had to happen to stop the nuke and if it did happen then we do some speculation and such and say everyone left and Tommy and Jack stayed, which again more work than accepting the actual lore.

Also - who is Tubbo selling honey to if everyone is gone? - and if people could leave this whole time why didn’t they before? (Unless we just mean leave the area aka the start at their Incident houses?)… which in that case everyone didn’t leave, Tommy left and went back to the dsmp area and presumably not many followed… like I just it doesn’t make sense, I want to be on your side innitors I really do, I want to understand you, in the same way I want to understand why retconning the staged finale makes sense to people, but this finale just doesn’t work. It’s closer to George’s whole stream that turned out to be a dream… like it’s this same thing like staged finale, where people take the part of the lore that aligns with their narrative, not taking all the truth just the bits they like. And that’s just a headcanon/fanfiction at that point. Just because you took lore doesn’t make it true, you took some of the facts but not all of them to use it to fit your idea but that doesn’t mean it actuality fits your idea. And spreading posts with screenshots with no links to videos or clips or full context just - OMG Jack and Tommy did lore and retconned the finale - which is not what happened. Context is important, in the same way reading someone’s posts without the connecting ones or months later can become harmful to people. It’s taking things out of context and then cutting off the edges to make it say what you want. Like it’s a huge part of the political problems right now because people can’t even agree on the damn facts.

Why? Because this right here. This grabbing things that align with your beliefs and ignoring the other facts and logic that contradicts it. It’s the picking and choosing - oh I like this lore so that’s canon but I don’t like this so that’s not canon - It’s shaping the truth to fit your narrative and claiming it’s still truth even when it no longer fits. Tommy burning down Tubbo’s house doesn’t align with how you view Tommy as this golden boy -> oh it’s not canon. Dream pretending to be evil to get put in prison -> yea that’s not canon. The finale where Tommy and Dream see eye to eye for the first time -> yeah that’s not canon. But this short convo a year later after the dsmp has officially ended, where Jack is literally disagreeing with him -> yea of course that’s the real canon.

It’s like taking a book and ripping out pages you don’t like and then glueing pages over the other ones in the end and trying to sell it as an original copy...

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Thursday, May 2, 2024

Holy and Great Thursday

SAINT MATRONA THE BLIND OF MOSCOW ( 1952)

Saint Matrona’s life began not in the bustling streets of Moscow but three hundred kilometers south, in the heart of the Tula province. Here, on the eastern edge of the legendary Kulikovo Field, where the Russian army defeated the Mongol-Tatars in 1380, on the right bank of the River Mokraya lies the quaint village of Sebino. It whispers of even older times, echoing the “Sebinskii Les,” a primeval forest that once belonged to a noble Tatar named Sebin Bibik, according to local lore. The Bibikov family, it is said, traces its lineage back to him. Sebino embraces a beautiful Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, with a chapel dedicated to the revered Prince Alexander Nevsky.

he Assumption Church has a rich history marked by significant events. During World War II, the village faced destruction at the hands of the Nazi Germans. Today, the exact location of the house where the revered Mother Matrona spent her early years remains unknown. According to local elders, Matrona’s parents, Dmitry and Natalia Nikonov, resided near the church at the heart of the village. A monument now stands at the presumed site of her family home. In 2002, a second chapel was consecrated at the Dormition Church in honor of the Blessed Matrona of Moscow.

Matronushka, as she was lovingly called, was a late child. She was born in 1885 and was a late child in a humble peasant family already blessed with three children: Maria, Mikhail, and Ivan. Initially considering placing the unborn child in Prince Golitsyn’s orphanage in a neighbouring village, Natalia had a dream one night. A white bird with a human face and closed eyes landed on her right hand. Interpreting this as a divine sign, Natalia, a God-fearing woman, kept the child when she was born blind.

The mother’s love for her “unfortunate child” only grew when she noticed a cross-shaped protrusion on the infant’s chest, believed to be an uncreated protective cross. During the child’s baptism by Priest Vasily Troitsky, who named her Matrona in honor of the ascetic Matrona of Constantinople from the 5th century, another sign of the girl’s divine election occurred: a pillar of light mist rose over the font, accompanied by a fragrant scent, leaving everyone present in awe. The astonished priest remarked, “I have baptised many children, but this is the first time I see such a thing; this baby will be holy.”....Continue Reading

Source: St Elizabeth convent

HIEROMARTYR PAPNUTHIUS OF JERUSALEM

Hieromartyr Paphnutius of Jerusalem was a bishop. He underwent many sufferings from the pagans and, was tortured by fire wild beasts, and finally, was beheaded by the sword.

Some suggest that the hieromartyr Paphnutius was an Egyptian bishop and suffered together with many other Egyptians, exiled to the Palestinian mines during the persecution by Diocletian (284-305).

The myrrh-streaming relics of the hieromartyr were glorified by miracles. The Canon in his honor was composed during the Iconoclast period (before 842). In the final Ode is a petition for the hieromartyr to put an end to the heresy disrupting the Church.

CORINTHIANS 11:23-32

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

JOHN 13:1-11

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." 8 Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." 9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" 10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, "You are not all clean."

[yuuana]

Music Monday #252: BE:FIRST x ATEEZ - Hush-Hush release: July 2024 genre: Jpop cw: flashing, cyberpunk surrealism

It may or may not even be Monday any more by the time you read this (probably not), it's been one of those days, but I am determined, dammit. XD Or maybe just exhausted. Or both? Could be both...

As is all too common in Jpop, we didn't get a whole lot of lead time on this release, though looking back, it's pretty obvious this was one of the things ATEEZ was working on earlier this year and why they seemed to be spending extra time in Japan during NOT OKAY promotions. I knew it was going to be something special, because ATEEZ always bring innovation to the stage, but I wasn't prepared to be completely blown away.

I feel like I should start with the caveat that a lot of collaborations coming out of Kpop right now tend to feel less like a cooperative project and more like someone doled out lines and even if there is an MV, there's very little interaction between collaborating groups. Combined with the trend starting in late 3rd gen of lines being treated like the sole property of one member at a time, and that ability to interact gets even smaller. It's never zero, there's always the chorus (in theory), and the Japanese idol system has its own expectations ... that I am, admittedly, not as current on for reasons, so I was coming to this with that Kpop experience and expectation.

In hindsight, that was a complete mistake because of course ATEEZ brought Edenary with them to this project to co-produce at every level alongside the BMSG team. From the first line, we get a genuinely collaborative vibe that flows through the whole song where the rapping sections are the majority of the solo lines, traded between the two groups equally. BE:FIRST and ATEEZ share such similar tone and range that until the video came out, other than the raps and Jongho's signature high notes, I spent a lot of time being very unsure who was singing what. And surprised and pleased at how often it was at least two voices blending together. And don't think I didn't catch that line about the underdog who now wears the crown. ;) The lyrics are pretty meta, actually, talking about working hard and not backing down but also not looking to fight about who's the best because they already know the answer and don't feel the need to argue it out with anyone.

Speaking of the music video... look, I stopped counting how many times I've watched this days ago and I'm still stunned and amazed and picking out little things. Obviously this was a whole lot of green screen ... which actually makes it even more impressive in some ways because any time you have to green screen in an element (or two or ten), the artist is acting against a blank. At best, they might have had some early animatics to give the artists some idea of what would be going on around them, but a lot of the video was filled in after the fact. And yet all fifteen of them sell it like they really are in grand sweeping spaces.

For obvious reasons, I'm not ticking this as lore, but if you told me it was, I would believe you. Between Z-team's history of cyberpunk aesthetics and A-team's history of dreaming... I could easily buy this as the start of an alliance - eight men can't save the world all on their own, after all.

2024 is definitely shaping up as the year ATEEZ takes on world domination with a vengeance. BE:FIRST are still relatively new to their career, having only debuted in November of 2021 (plus their youngest is an '06-liner, oh god, the babies are taking over) and are already dominating in Tokyo and see this as a first step onto the world stage. Which is both fair and wise. ;) This one-track single is available now for streaming and/or digital purchase on most of the major platforms, as is a remix by m-flo's Taku Takahashi.

Want to see Music Monday deep dives more often? Sponsor a song selection! For the low, low price of one (1) KoFi, I'll write up the song of your choice. ANY song of your choice. Yes, even that one that's been played to death. Yes, your obscure faves too. With sponsors, I can stop skipping weeks and falling further and further behind in the releases! Sponsor a current CB for the next open Music Monday slot or sponsor a throwback for a Thursday feature! But seriously, if you've been enjoying my selections and analyses, we (me and the foster kittens) would love a KoFi in thanks. DW | Twitter | Mastodon | Bluesky | Ko-fi | Patreon | Discord | Twitch

[redacted-updates]

Welcome To Redacted Updates!

A blog dedicated to giving you updates on Redacted Audios on YouTube & Patreon.

Inactive as of January 13th, 2024.

Redacted Audio

Patreon

YouTube

Hewll Yeah Podcast

Lore Site (Timeline)

Linktree

Weekly Schedule

Patreon early access: Tuesday & Friday at 4PM MST

YouTube release: Wednesday & Saturday at 4PM MST

Monthly BA: On the Wednesday closes to the 15th of every month (I believe?)

Hewll Yeah Podcast: They used to do like 3PM MST on Sundays/Mondays. But there hasn't been a schedule since early summer of 2023

*Erik's timezone is MST

Tags

redacted youtube updates - Updates of the youtube channel

redacted patreon updates - Updates of the patreon (please see FAQ below)

HYP updates - Updates of the Hewll Yeah Podcast

redacted erik updates - Updates of Erik, Mr Redacted himself

queue - posts from the queue

reblog - reblogged posts

Character Tags

gavin update - updates on our favorite incubus Gavin

lasko update - updates on the bestest sub- i mean nervous air elemental

asher update - updates on beta of the shaw pack, asher!!!

hush update - updates on hush...the mysterious entity...shhh...

sam update - updates on the sweet cowboy vampire

james update - updates on the guy who has a point

vincent update - updates on a vampiric prince

david update - updates on our alpha werewolf fiancée

porter update - updates on the mysterious vamp back in town

regulus update

ivan update

(this will be "real time" updated as characters get updates!)

Mods

Mod Dany - all pronouns, EST (unavailable after 8pm-ish), does transcrips/image descs when i have the time, will sometimes post meme/shitpost, tag: mod dany

FAQ

What is this?

An update account dedicated to Redacted Audio on YouTube (& Patreon).

What do you update?

Everything! Sometimes, Erik related activity. But mostly, video uploads, character lore, etc...

Who operates this?

I'm Dany. I run other Update Account blogs on tumblr and I've been watching Redacted since late 2021, and I've been involved with the fandom since summer of 2022.

Do you update stuff related to the Patreon?

Yes and no. This will be a situation to situation thing. However, I will not, ever update about anything that is posted behind a paywall for a reason. I will not disrespect Erik's wishes, so I won't post about BA's, certain upcoming content, links to private streams, etc... (if you have any specific questions about this feel free to ask!)

Do you post updates about the characters?

Yes! That is more or less the point of this blog!

How do I start watching Redacted?

The answer to this will defiantly be different from person to person, but personally I started with the "Everything" Playlist, it's all of the videos in a playlist in the order of release. But if you don't want to start with that, you can start with character/story playlists. Starting with either Freelancer Season One (Gavin, Lasko, Damien, & Huxley), Vincent, or David and explore from there! There really isn't a "right" way to watch Redacted, so whichever way you choose will probably be best for you :)

Who is [insert character here]?

Character Guide

Will updates be put in the main tag?

Yes and no. Again, this is a situation to situation thing! If you wish for me to further elaborate please feel free to ask!

Where did the pfp come from?

It's a screenshot I took of Erik from the podcast, it's from episode 47!

There's a podcast?

Yeah, Erik has a podcast with his friend Odie. The podcast is not about Redacted, they are totally separate things, but sometimes Erik will talk about Redacted related things.

Can I tell Erik about your blog?

I mean, technically yeah you can and I really don't think Erik would care...however, getting an Erik notice or his attention would honestly really freak me out lol so I'd rather no one bring it to his attention for the sake of my anxiety

If you have a question that wasn't answered please feel free ask it in the ask box!

Please Be Aware: Redacted Audio is widely regarded as 18+ however, I am not responsible for who interacts with my blog or Redacted Audio content. I will not ever under any circumstances put time or effort into policing others online, it is a fruitless effort and quite frankly, not my problem. If you do not feel comfortable interacting with 18+ content, that is your responsibility and if you are not comfortable with certain people within the fandom/or interacting with the fandom, the block button exists. You are responsible for no one but yourself when it comes to the internet.

[this blog also functions as an archive]

[goodtoseeyouhen]

Tommy has been hearing about Eddie all night. It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last time - he knew exactly what he was signing up for when he kissed Evan - but it’s not usually this stressful.

“I don’t know what to say, Evan. I can’t help you strategize if I don’t know the full story.”

“It’s not mine to tell,” Evan says, again. “And I - I don’t think even I know the whole story.”

Tommy sighs, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “And I respect that, I do. I just - I don’t know how to help.” Tommy’s like most firefighters he knows - give him something actionable, like say flying into a hurricane, and he’s on it. Something more abstract, like Chris is gone and Eddie is sad please help, and he has no idea what to do. There is nothing to do, not when Eddie all but kicked Evan out of his house because he apparently needed space (bullshit) and Evan insists Chris needs time to settle before anyone tries to get in touch.

“I know,” Evan says. “It’s killing me that I can’t just fix it. I don’t like Chris being out in Texas with his grandparents. They tried to make Eddie give him up after Shannon died and now they’re just gonna be right in his ear twenty-four seven.”

“That might solve itself. Sounds to me like a great way to annoy a teenager into wanting to cut his visit short.”

“Maybe,” Evan says, visibly unconvinced. Which probably has something to do with the reason why Christopher is in Texas, which is the key piece of information Evan won’t share, and Tommy really does respect his protecting the kid’s privacy like that, but Evan got here an hour ago and they’re still standing in the kitchen with the beers Tommy got for them just going in circles. Tommy is exhausted.

“Okay,” he says briskly, because he needs to be done circling, “we can’t fix anything right now, but we can order dinner and watch a movie.” He takes out his phone, opens up DoorDash, and tosses it to Evan. “You order us something. I personally could use some fucking whimsy and I’ve got Mary Poppins somewhere around here, so I’m gonna go dig that up.”

‘Someday,” Evan says, already flipping through the app, “you’re going to join the rest of us in 2024 and subscribe to a few streaming services.” He still looks unhappy, but he’s relaxing a little around the edges. Accepting the blatant attempt at distraction. Tommy’ll take it.

“And someday you’ll realize you only have to pay for a physical copy once, Evan.” They do this routine every now and then, a little different every time.

“You’re just mad about your old man collection going obsolete.”

“Mm, I seem to remember somebody being pretty happy I had that Dogma DVD.”

“What was that? Extra pineapple on your pizza?”

“For that, we’re watching it on VHS.”

*

Evan doesn’t order extra pineapple, or even order pizza at all, and they do not watch the movie on tape, because it would look like dogshit on Tommy’s TV. They settle in with something from a little Brit-Indi place that’s pretty good, and Tommy cues up the Blu-Ray.

He had hoped that a Disney film, especially one with literal decades of lore, would serve as further distraction by unlocking the extensive store of Disney trivia he knows for a fact Evan carries around in that bewildering brain of his, but that plan is DOA. Evan’s watching the movie, but his mind is clearly somewhere in Texas. When Mary Poppins describes herself as “practically perfect in every way,” Evan points his fork at the screen and says, “She’d have fixed it by now,” and that’s about all Tommy gets.

Honestly, he’s relieved when his phone starts buzzing frantically in his pocket.

are you working tomorrow

this is an important question

no one else can do this for me

HELP ME TOMMY-WAN KINARDI YOU ARE MY ONLY HOPE

“What - ? Oh, absolutely not.”

“What’s up, is everything okay?” Evan, who slid in closer the moment they were done eating, leans further into his space to look at the screen. Tommy turns it away, because if Evan gets hold of Tommy-Wan Kinardi it will spread like wildfire and his life as he knows it will be over. Chimney, at the very least, will never call him anything else ever again.

“Marisol,” he explains. Evan freezes.

“Marisol,” he repeats. “I forgot about Marisol!” His stricken tone makes Tommy himself forget what he’s typing, looking up to see Evan’s equally distraught expression.

“What - ?” he starts, but Evan just shakes his head.

“Why is she - ? What does she want?”

Tommy reads through the next rapid succession of texts. “Someone to vent to, about something only I seem to qualify for.” He lets Evan watch him reply, pausing only to drop a kiss near the corner of his eye when he grumbles I haven’t said it that many times.

Marisol asserts that yes, it is hers to tell, and Tommy lowers his phone and turns to look at Evan directly.

“Is it?”

“I - oh, man.” Evan frowns, taking a moment to think. “I don’t know if that’s my call to make? But,” he adds quickly, perhaps because Tommy’s exasperation with that is visible from fucking space, “I do know that - she deserves to have someone to talk to about it. And if you’re the one she’s comfortable talking to, then, uh. Yeah, I don’t really get a say in that.”

“So I’m good to go?” Tommy confirms.

“If you want to.”

“I wanna help her out.” He checks the screen again. “At brunch tomorrow.” A brunch date is an easy ask, it’s something he can do, and he does actually like Marisol. It’s too damn bad she got the short end of whatever the hell stick this is. “And then of course, conveniently, I’ll know what’s going on without you having to tell me.”

Evan flushes guiltily, which is adorable enough to wipe out the last of that burst of exasperation. “I meant all of that! It’s like the least we can do. But, okay. Yeah. Maybe a little that too.”

Tommy kisses him for that, and as he finishes making plans with Marisol, Evan is smiling his first real smile of the night.

*

After brunch, Tommy just sits in his car for a while, resisting the urge to beat the shit out of his steering wheel or whatever other stupid macho bullshit might occur to him. Say what you like about the kinds of person he’s been in the past - letting his anger get the best of him has never really been his thing.

Though it was probably just as well that he put his knife down long before Marisol said he thought she was Shannon.

Jesus.

Yeah, he gets exactly why Evan was so fucking neurotic last night, even if ninety percent of what came out of his mouth was about Eddie. Tommy’s gonna go ahead and let him do that heavy lifting. He’s not feeling very charitable toward Eddie fucking Diaz right now.

Christopher, though . . .

Well, he and Marisol are in similar boats, aren’t they? Obviously Chris knows plenty of people who know Eddie, but, judging by how he’d reacted to Marisol, he probably doesn’t want to talk to most of them right now. The association with Eddie will be too tight and run too deep.

But Tommy hasn’t been around all that long, and his visits to the Diaz household - first solo, then mostly with Evan - have revolved just as much around Chris as Eddie, if not sometimes more.

(He remembers that first visit with Chris home, the look in Eddie’s eyes as he’d introduced them promising that if Tommy failed this test, their burgeoning friendship would be over. He’d actually been a little nervous.

But it turned out that he and Chris have the same sense of humor, and that thirteen is still young enough to be a little overawed by the whole firefighter pilot thing, so it had gone just fine.)

Yeah. He pulls his phone out to send a text. There are a few messages in their text chain, mostly Chris asking him to pick up something Eddie had told him not to ask Tommy to pick up or just outright said no to, and Tommy (after surreptitiously checking in with either Eddie or Evan, he’s not an idiot) nonchalantly agreeing.

. . . there are more of those than he’d realized, actually. It became kind of a running joke at some point, at around the time Tommy had stopped bothering to check with any relevant parental figures. Stopped bothering, because it had become clear that Chris knew exactly how far he could push.

There are also exchanges resuming movie discussions they’d had with Eddie fondly looking on, several of which, Tommy remembers now, had resulted in a spontaneous FaceTime when Chris was feeling too passionate about a topic for his hands to keep up with his thoughts.

And memes, memes too, examples of Gen Z/Gen Alpha humor Tommy had found borderline incomprehensible more often than not and had retaliated against with classics like all your base and dragostea din tei.

Christopher Diaz has taken up space in his life, and he’d hardly noticed.

“I’m friends with a thirteen-year-old,” he says to his phone, baffled. “What the hell?”

Okay, then. He probably is the adult in Christopher’s life that he’s most likely to talk to.

Heard what happened. If you need someone back home who’s not your dad or Buck to talk to, I’m around.

That will at least get Chris’s attention - it’s the first time Tommy has ever used that stupid nickname without Chris scolding him into it. He’d call it another running joke, but it’s also about twenty percent stubbornness on both their parts. Tommy gives in long before anyone can get genuinely frustrated, of course, but.

If Evan had a problem with Tommy not using that nickname, he’d have said something by now. He’s a big boy. Tommy thinks he can be trusted to use his words.

He figures it’ll be a while before he hears back. It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet, so Chris is probably busy settling in and resting after the flight. But even as he’s moving to start the car so he can quit wasting battery on A/C and get on the road, his phone plays the little video game fanfare he let Chris program into it for his contact notifications.

who told u

He’s tempted for a second to claim it was Evan, but the many ways that could backfire come to him before the thought has finished forming. For this? He’s going to have to be completely, scrupulously honest with Chris for this.

Marisol. She needed someone to talk to.

The screen lights up to inform him that Chris is FaceTiming him. I accept the charges, he thinks.

“Hey, kid.”

Christopher looks exhausted and miserable in a way that makes Tommy’s stomach twist.

“Why her? I would have thought it would be Buck.”

“Well, Buck was trying to respect yours and your dad’s privacy, and Marisol doesn’t have anyone else to talk to about it.” Tommy briefly imagines trying to explain the situation to someone well outside the 118 sphere of chaos. Yeah, not a chance. He wouldn’t even try it with Lucy and he knows she knows how they are.

Chris sighs. “I knew you two would make good friends,” he says, then, “How pissed at me is she?”

Any other time, Tommy would feel a bit of fond amusement at that - experimenting with off-color language outside of Eddie’s hearing - but as it is, he’s taken aback.

“How p - Chris, nobody’s mad at you.”

He can feel the flatly unimpressed look Chris gives him right through the screen.

“I mean it. She understands that you were upset. We all do.” He winces at the alarm that immediately threads through Chris’s expression. “By which I mean, Marisol, me, Ev - Buck, and your dad.” He knows Evan’s not telling, and he’d bet twenty bucks that Eddie isn’t exactly screaming his idiocy from the rooftops either. “It’s nobody else’s business.”

Smooth, Kinard. Great work there. The alarm has passed in favor of a more general no shit, Sherlock kind of look, though, so. It’s probably fine.

“None of us is angry with you,” he reiterates, because it can’t possibly hurt to say it again, and because it happens to be true. Okay, he hasn’t talked to Eddie yet, but the guy’s an idiot, not a monster; Tommy can’t imagine him being angry with anyone but himself.

And hopefully not-Shannon, because what the fuck even was that.

“Not even -“ Chris cuts himself off as Tommy hears a door open. He doesn’t think he heard a knock.

“Christopher, I thought we agreed you were resting,” says a voice that must belong to Grandma Diaz.

“I am resting.” There’s a defiant edge to Chris’s tone. “But Tommy texted and I wanted to talk to him.”

“I told you you could keep your phone as long as it wasn’t a distraction. Clearly, it is.”

“Abuela,” Chris protests, “he’s still -“

“I’m sure your friend will understand. Phone.”

Chris lowered the phone when he started talking to his grandmother, which gives Tommy a clear look at the way his jaw tightens for a long moment before the blurred rush of handing the phone over.

Then he hears, in sugary tones, “Sweetheart, could y - oh,” and he finds himself looking at the confounded face of a woman who did not expect “Tommy” to be a grown man.

Well, it’s not the first time. It’s just usually funnier. Lower stakes.

“I could go get my mom,” he says, “but that would involve a little light graverobbing.”

She doesn’t smile, or really even acknowledge him except in the way she keeps her eyes on him as she says,

“Christopher, who is this?”

“Tommy,” is the unhelpful, sulky reply. She does look at Chris then, with an expression that makes Tommy’s spine straighten and results in, “Buck’s boyfriend.”

Right, great, there’s gonna need to be a conversation about when and how to deploy strategic information and when you maybe don’t out someone to someone else, even if they’re not in the closet, especially when you’re in fucking Texas, because Mrs Diaz looks back at him and he knows exactly what math she’s doing in her head.

He tries a friendly smile.

“Tommy Kinard, ma’am. It’s nice to more or less meet you. I’m glad Chris had somewhere he could go to get some breathing room.”

She considers this, then nods once, decisive. “Helena Diaz. You and I should talk.”

*

“I expected someone who wasn’t Eddie to reach out to Christopher sooner rather than later,” Helena says once she’s settled into what appears to be a tidy living room, “but I thought it would be Buck, not his - ?“

“Partner,” Tommy supplies, because he is fucking forty-five years old and the window on going around saying he had a boyfriend closed twenty years ago. “I was friends with Eddie first, actually.”

She doesn’t need to know it was only by two weeks.

“And I assume you’re aware of the” - she pauses delicately - “situation?”

“With the doppelganger? Yeah. Just found out, wanted to let Chris know I was around if he wanted to talk.”

She also does not need to know that he found out from Eddie’s ex.

“We were hoping to minimize Christopher’s contact with anyone in LA until we feel he’s ready.”

Until they feel. Okay. Tommy can work with this. He keeps his expression relaxed and sincere.

“He is thirteen. Seems old enough for him to have a say.” Being as how he had clearly, in fact, wanted to talk.

“Oh, of course. But there is a reason thirteen-year-olds aren’t left to raise themselves, even the ones without his particular limitations.”

Tommy knows he himself isn’t exactly on the cutting edge of progression when it comes to disability, even if he is miles better than he used to be. But it’s been so easy to fall in line with Eddie’s approach to Christopher’s condition - treating it as an incidental fact of life in the Diaz household, as just one part of who Christopher is and far from the most important part at that. It’s easy to forget in that house that many, if not most, people will look at Chris and see his CP first.

It’s a shock to hear Chris’s own fucking grandmother do it.

He wants to say as much, so badly, but he cannot start an argument with this woman if he wants any kind of contact with Chris while he’s out there.

Later, he tells himself. Once Chris is home. Then he’ll give Helena Diaz a call and tell her exactly what he thinks of her shit.

Instead, for now, he says,

“I understand your concerns. Protecting him from anything to do with Eddie right now - I’m not exactly thrilled with your son myself.”

He’s going to owe Eddie an apology by the end of this conversation, he just knows it.

“Then you realize that, as much as it breaks my heart to consider Christopher’s own father someone he needs protecting from, it’s still necessary. He is in no fit state to act as a parent and I won’t have any attempts at contact facilitated behind my back.”

“I have no intention of trying that. Like I said, Chris needs the space you’re giving him, and he’s the only one who can really know how much for how long. I just want to - to be someone he can talk to, about whatever he wants, who doesn’t have anything to do with this whole mess.”

“And what, Mr Kinard, do you even talk about with a thirteen-year-old boy?”

There it is. For all he knew it was coming, for all he knows that it is in fact her responsibility to make sure he isn’t some random guy preying on Chris’s vulnerability, it still stings like hell, because that’s not the only reason she’s asking.

Fine. He still remembers how to eat shit with a smile.

“Anything. Star Wars. Girls he likes, because he says I’m the only adult he knows who doesn’t get all mushy about how fast he’s growing up. 9/11, once, from our respective generational standpoints. That was an interesting one.”

“. . . I see,” Helena says, clearly not having expected any kind of comprehensive response. Tommy smirks inwardly.

“Treat kids like people you like being around and they can be pretty cool,” he says, and nevermind that he learned that himself with Chris. “I like Chris, Mrs Diaz. Not just as my friend’s son, but as a person. Look, when it comes down to it, you and I both just want what’s best for him. And right now, what’s best for him is having support while he deals with this” - storm of bullshit probably won’t go down well - “. . . Hitchcockian nonsense.”

Well, that’s not better.

Helena blinks, then, to Tommy’s considerable surprise, a flicker of humor crosses her face. “This is all giving you vertigo too, hm?”

Tommy laughs, as much from relief as anything else, and wonders exactly when he passed her test. “It was not how I was expecting my morning to start.”

She’s looking at him more thoughtfully now, more like he’s a person and not just a potential threat. “All right,” she says. “You can keep in touch with Christopher. But if I get even the slightest hint that it’s affecting him negatively . . .”

“Understood,” Tommy says quickly. “Thank you, Mrs Diaz.”

“Helena is fine. Christopher won’t be needing his phone today, but he’ll have it back tomorrow, along with an understanding that it’s a privilege in this home, not a right.”

*

Tommy had intended to at least text Evan right after brunch, but after those conversations - he needs a minute.

He gets almost a whole hour before Evan takes matters into his own hands.

u will not fucking believe what’s happening here

i don’t wanna text about this

ur probably still driving anyway

call me when u can

please

Tommy glances briefly at the screen with each message. He’s seen the aftermath of texting and driving too many times to do it himself, but with Evan’s tendency to send half a dozen short texts at a time in a sort of stream of consciousness style of communication, he’d compromised by purchasing a bracket to post his phone on his dashboard so he can keep up without being distracted by text notifications every three to five seconds. This particular stream is capped off by a string of emojis that he doesn’t even try to parse individually, but which give off a general sense of fury.

Oh, good.

Tommy doesn’t talk and drive either, when he can avoid it, but if he remembers correctly, that new little wine shop he’s been wanting to check out is more or less in the area, and this feels like a conversation he’d rather have sooner than later. Maybe he’ll find a good pairing for whatever new bullshit Evan is about to drop on him.

He calls about half an hour later, half-heartedly perusing the Malbecs, and is greeted with,

“Bobby retired, except he says he never filed the paperwork and it was really just something he talked about with Chief Simpson. At the ceremony.” Contrary to the emoji storm, there’s more hurt in those last few words than anything else.

“Retired?” Tommy repeats, giving himself a second to catch up. “No warning?”

As if he would have been hearing about anything else, even Eddie, if there had been.

“No.” Definitely hurt. Tommy eyes an especially cheap-looking bottle, wondering if dumping it over Bobby’s head would count as breaking the man’s sobriety. “He said he’d get it taken care of but it might take some time, and . . . Tommy, guess who the new captain is?”

In retrospect, Tommy will realize that he should have paid more attention to the mix of anxiety and indignation creeping into Evan’s tone.

“They got the new guy in already? We used to have to wait weeks between captains sometimes.”

“They - yeah, they . . . it’s Gerrard.”

If Tommy had been holding the bottle he was glaring at, he’d have dropped it. He almost feels a phantom bottle slip through his fingers.

“. . . Tommy?”

“Does he know?”

“Know what?”

“About you, Evan, does he know that you’re not straight?” Maybe -

“He does now,” Evan says scornfully. “I told him.”

Told him. Of course he did.

Because Evan isn’t a coward.

“He called me into his office,” Evan is saying, “and tried to . . .” he trails off, audibly searching for words, because yeah, when Gerrard isn’t being blatantly racist he can be surprisingly subtle.

“To draw you into a white boys’ alliance against the big scary minorities without actually using any of those words?”

“Yeah. That. I didn’t even know what he was doing at first, just that he was being friendly and it was kind of giving me the creeps.”

“I’m assuming you didn’t tell him to go fuck himself -“

“- not that I wasn’t tempted -“

“- so what did you do?”

“Uh. I asked him who his favorite Mary Poppins character is.”

The laughter this surprises out of Tommy is loud, loud enough to turn the heads of the few other browsers and the annoyed-looking woman at the counter. Okay, now he has to buy something. Worth it. “You what? No, wait, of course you did, god, Evan.”

“It was the first thing I thought of!” Evan protests, also laughing. “He stared at me like I’d lost my mind, so I told him my boyfriend and I watched it last night for date night.” The cheer fades out of his voice as he continues, “He, uh. Suddenly didn’t want much to do with me after that.”

Tommy sighs, the warmth that had been spreading in his chest vanishing.

“What did he say.” It isn’t a question, not really.

Evan hesitates, clearing his throat awkwardly. “He, um. Uh, something, something about you getting to me. How you can’t trust anyone’s influence these days.”

Tommy wonders if Evan, too young to remember the AIDS crisis, hears the hidden word there.

Got to Evan. Infected him.

It doesn’t seen to have tripped anything for Evan, or if it did then he is, like Tommy, choosing not to say it, because he keeps going. “Yeah, the Mary Poppins thing was kind of the highlight. It’s been - kind of awful. No one’s really talking, I can’t tell if Hen and Chim are in shock or just still taking it in, and he’s making them do a bunch of cleaning anyway. Like the stuff we save for the new probies kind of cleaning. I wasn’t allowed to help earlier but I don’t think he’d care now.”

“I wouldn’t try it,” Tommy advises, hating how easy it is to slip into Gerrard’s mindset. “They’re being punished. You’d just make it worse. Trust me, you and Eddie and Ravi will all get your turns.”

“Eddie,” Evan repeats, voice distant like he doesn’t realize he’s saying anything, then, “Brunch! How did - I, I mean I really shouldn’t be talking about it here, but how did - ?”

“Marisol filled me in. You’re just doing a twelve today, right? Come over after you’re done, we can talk then.”

*

Evan’s twelve turns into more of a fourteen with a last-minute building fire call, so when he arrives, exhausted, Tommy just kisses him and points him to the shower.

“I ordered pizza already, and we’ve each got a bottle of rosé with our name on it.”

Evan brightens a bit. “When you say you ordered pizza . . .”

“Yes, I got you your warm tropical fruit.”

Evan grins and gives him a quick kiss before heading for the bathroom, calling back over his shoulder,

“I keep telling you, the acidity cuts the fat and carbs!”

“And I keep telling you, that’s what the tomato in the sauce is for!” Tommy calls back, grinning. Evan closes the bathroom door on a laugh.

The pizza arrives while he’s in there, and by the time he’s out, Tommy has everything set up. Two pizza boxes, which he opens when he hears the door, with accompanying plates even though Evan won’t use his, and two open bottles of wine with glasses that they will both be using because they are not animals.

Evan, of course, shoots him a wicked look as he immediately grabs his bottle and swigs directly from it.

“What?” he asks off the look Tommy gives him, which he suspects is not nearly as annoyed as it should be. “Why dirty a glass if I don’t have to?” He taps his temple. “One less dish to wash.”

“Is that why you never use your plate with pizza?”

“I use my plate with pizza,” Evan lies, in that way he does when he is convinced he is telling the truth despite the evidence of reality. It shouldn’t charm Tommy, but it does a little. Maybe because Tommy’s pretty sure that’s what was happening when Evan said so abruptly that he’d been trying to get Tommy’s attention.

“Okay,” he says, because file that under arguments not worth having, and picks up his own wine bottle.

He slides a glance at Evan, then takes a long swallow. He feels a bit ridiculous doing it, but Evan’s triumphant laughter erases that almost instantly.

“See?” he says. “No one even died.”

“You” - Tommy tilts the neck of the bottle at him, carefully - “are very lucky I like you.”

Evan’s smile softens. “Yeah, I am.” He sweeps an arm toward the set-up on Tommy’s living room table. “I come home - well, here - after a really bad day and I don’t have to do anything because you’ve got it all taken care of.” He looks at Tommy, blue eyes dangerously earnest. “You’ve got me taken care of. You even ordered me pineapple.”

“And I might not even make you brush your teeth before you kiss me after,” Tommy says lightly, leaning forward to set down his wine and grab a slice of his normal human pepperoni pizza. There’s a brief beat of silence, then Evan snorts.

“Thinks he can say that and still get kissed.”

“Yeah.” Tommy smirks at him. “I do.”

The movie he picked for the evening is some inconsequential nothing, a supernatural cop drama made for about five bucks that they can talk over as necessary without missing much, and, aside from a brief interlude with Evan protesting that polygraph tests don’t work like that Tommy what are they even doing, it serves its purpose.

Not that they need the full runtime for that - the conversation about Chris and Eddie, now that they can finally have it, is simple, brief, and brings Evan’s mood down considerably.

“At least you got to talk to Chris a little,” he says. He’s put aside his half-full wine bottle for his phone and is somehow managing to compose a text to Chris as he talks. “And you’ll get to talk to him again. I don’t know if he’ll be ready to talk to me right away, so at least with you he’s got some kind of lifeline.”

“Hey.” Tommy shifts a little on the couch, wraps his arm tight around Evan’s shoulders. “That kid loves you, plus you’re not the one who brought not-his-mom home. I’m gonna be old news in no time.”

“I dunno, I think I’m on the shit list. I did try to talk to him for Eddie, and, okay, yeah, he is starting to do that teenager thing where he’s too old and too cool to hug us, but.” Evan shrugs the shoulder Tommy’s hand is wrapped around. “He just walked right past me when he left. A-a-and look, I’m not trying to make it about me, I know he didn’t mean anything by it and it wasn’t personal -“

“Like you said, teenager,” Tommy says. “He might have meant something by it.” Something about his conversation with Chris drops into place even as he winces a little at the half-hurt, half-indignant look he’s put on Evan’s face. “You know, before Helena cut him off, I think he was trying to ask if you were mad at him.”

It makes the most sense. He’d already asked about Marisol, Tommy himself has no reason to be angry, and Tommy doubts very much that Chris would be asking anything about Eddie so soon.

“Mad at him? Why would I - ? Oh.”

“Yeah. So if he did mean it, I don’t think he does anymore.”

Evan chews this over for all of a second before he picks up his phone, types i am NOT mad at you and decisively hits send.

“It’s weird,” he says, “this is usually the kind of thing I would talk about with Eddie. A-and listen, I know you said you were pissed at Eddie yourself and I get it, but maybe you could, you know, be cool about that?” Evan sits up straighter and turns to face Tommy, eyes serious this time. “I know what it looks like when he’s beating himself up. There’s nothing you can say to him that he’s not already telling himself. He just kept his head down all day today, didn’t say a word that wasn’t about work. He isolates himself when things are bad and this is the worst it’s been since Shannon. And that - really got out of hand. I can’t try to pull him back from the edge if you . . .” Evan trails off, uncomfortable.

“I can be civil.” He can, too, with his initial fury having settled into a manageable level of steady anger over the course of the day. “Not exactly going to be going out of my way to talk to him anyway.”

“Oh,” Evan says, air of melancholy fading in favor of realization, “I haven’t asked you yet. Ravi’s got us all coming in an hour before shift tomorrow for a Taylor Swift dance party.”

Tommy - pauses, for a moment, to absorb the conversational whiplash. “What.”

“Yeah, they’re really popular right now? And he says it would be good for morale to do something fun together before work, and serve as a clear message to a guy like Gerrard that we’re not gonna just lie down and take it. He said you should come. Hen’s gonna bring Karen, Maddie said she wouldn’t miss it, and he invited Bobby and Athena too. Uh, and Chim said to tell you he’s gonna give you exactly as much shit as you think he is, whatever that means.”

Probably shouldn’t have included that in your sales pitch, Tommy almost says. Almost, but doesn’t, because Evan looks so hopeful and there’s only one real answer to the implied question anyway.

“Yeah. Of course I’ll come. Wouldn’t miss the look on that asshole’s face for the world.”

Or the one on Evan’s face right now, almost as happy as he’d been about the damn pizza. Totally worth an hour of Taylor Swift and Howie rubbing it in Tommy’s face about how he’d been right about her unparalleled genius all along.

“Great! And, y’know, we’re using the employee parking lot and we’ll need all the space we can get, so if you could drive and we could pick up Eddie on the way, that’d be one less car to worry about. Your shift’s at noon, right, you’ll have plenty of time to get there after.” He pauses. “And, maybe you could take a minute to talk to Eddie, if you wanted.”

Tommy sighs. “I should, shouldn’t I.” Another question with only one answer.

Evan is nodding a little as he says, “Yeah. You should. Chris needs us, but Eddie does too, even if he thinks he doesn’t deserve to.”

“Okay. Yeah, I’ll talk to him. I’ll be nice. Hell, maybe I’ll even dance with him.”

“Oh, like I’m gonna let you go anywhere.” Evan kneels up on the couch, bracing himself on the back of it, and leans down for a kiss.

The movie finishes playing on its own.

*

Even with the detour to pick up Eddie, they’re a little early. Evan, who has been sharing Taylor Swift facts from Wikipedia for much of the drive, puts his phone away and catches Tommy’s eye to glance pointedly at Eddie and back to him, saying,

“I’m gonna go help Ravi finish setting up.”

Tommy gives him a slight nod. He smiles and all but bounces out of the car.

Other than a thanks for the ride, Eddie has been quiet in the back, eyes hidden behind sunglasses. The only sign that he didn’t just fall asleep is the way his head has been tilted toward Evan through his monologue, faint smile playing around his mouth.

Jesus.

Eddie takes his sunglasses off, meeting Tommy’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Thank you for reaching out to Chris.”

With the sunglasses on, he’d looked tired, a little pale. Without them, he looks exhausted. Breakable.

A substantial portion of Tommy’s anger just kind of - dissolves.

“Not exactly a hardship. Though I did have to talk a little shit about you to your mother to maintain access.”

“Hey, if it helps Chris, throw me under the bus as many times as you need to.” His tone isn’t quite as light as his words, but, well. Those words themselves aren’t very light in this context, are they?

‘Will do.” Tommy turns in his seat to face Eddie head-on. “So, how this is gonna go is, if Chris tells me anything that you should know about as his parent, I will tell you. But that’s it. You don’t get anything else unless he says it’s okay, and I’m gonna tell him the same.” He’d been thinking about it last night, awake long after Evan, and it’s the best thing he’s come up with to have Chris both feeling safe and actually safe.

Eddie is nodding. “I, yeah, that’s along the lines of what I was thinking. It might kill me a little, but he needs to know he can trust you. Thank you, Tommy.”

“I was fucking furious when Marisol told me what happened,” Tommy says abruptly. “I’ve had time to calm down and I’m still not happy with you, but.” He blows out a breath. “We’re all on the same side here and I’m not gonna lose sight of that - no, Diaz, thank me again and I’m gonna find a bridge to throw you off.”

Eddie shrugs, unapologetic. “I’m just grateful he has so many people who care about him.” He slides his sunglasses back on and pops the car door open, leaving Tommy feeling vaguely like an asshole.

*

Ravi’s put together a nice little set-up, with a pretty generous amount of dance space and even a table with pastries and some to-go boxes of coffee. Tommy has just enough time to make a mental note about finding out what he should chip in for expenses before:

“Tommy,” Chimney calls, gleeful. “Just in time for your favorite.”

Tommy knows what he’s going to hear before the first note even plays.

You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset

The new vocals are an improvement, at least.

Obediently, he groans on cue. Evan looks up from where he’s fussing over Jee - for all that they were early, they seem to have been the last to arrive - and asks,

“Okay, what’s the deal, because if you’re one of those guys who hates Taylor Swift just for being Taylor Swift, then I’m gonna have to reevaluate some things. Right, Jee?”

“Right,” she agrees, nodding in that firm way that only little kids can really pull off.

“Oh, I come by it legitimately,” Tommy says.

“Eh,” Howie chimes in, having stationed himself right next to Tommy, rocking his hand in a so-so gesture.

“In 2008, 2009, I spent a year in this shi - this lousy cheap apartment so I could put a little extra away while I was house hunting. It was pretty close to Howie, so we started carpooling. Guess who he was obsessed with?”

“A shining new talent who, even as we were listening, was already singlehandedly rescuing the country music genre from the likes of Toby Keith and would go on to revolutionize the music industry as we know it.”

Hen clears her throat.

“Right alongside Beyoncé,” Howie concludes without missing a beat.

“Or, in other words,” Tommy says, just barely keeping his poker face, “a teenage girl who was sad her BFF didn’t love her back. Not once on his weeks to drive did he ever play anything else, Evan. Not once. I don’t hate Taylor Swift. I have a Howard Han-induced allergy to Taylor Swift!”

“That’s a real tragedy, Tommy,” Evan says, laughter in his voice and all over his face. “I’m gonna dance with my niece about it and then you’re next.” He’s been bouncing to the music with Jee in his arms this whole time; now he takes her out onto the dance floor, such as it is, sets her down, and they start dancing in earnest.

“Tommy.”

“Chimney.”

“I may have been tormenting you on purpose. Just a little bit.”

“I may have noticed,” Tommy says, and looks over at Chim to see his own repressed humor mirrored in Chimney’s eyes. They both break and start laughing, and Tommy feels the tension of the last couple of days ease off his shoulders.

Fuck it, he decides. “Hey Maddie, mind if I borrow your husband?”

“I told you,” Maddie says immediately, pointing at said husband. “That’s dishes for a week.”

“Why do you know this guy better than me,” Chimney complains half-heartedly, accepting the hand Tommy extends.

“Because I listen to my brother when he talks about his boyfriend. Now get out there while there’s still some song left.”

Their joining Evan and Jee on the dance floor seems to be an unspoken signal. Bobby and Athena follow close behind, striking up some kind of ballroom-style dance that has nothing to do with the tone of the song but works perfectly for them; Karen throws back the last of her coffee before she and Hen descend. Maddie and Eddie stay on the sidelines, gravitating toward the refreshments, and Ravi alternates between monitoring his phone and watching them all, looking quietly satisfied.

“I’m letting him handle the timing on the playlist,” Chim says. “He knows his cues.”

“Generous of you.”

(— driving to my house in the middle of the night)

Howie rests his free hand unself-consciously on Tommy’s shoulder, so Tommy places his lightly above Howie’s hip

(know your favorite songs and you tell me bout your dreams)

and imagines, fleetingly, going back in time, maybe in some other universe where he sacked up and got his shit together sooner -

“Red. The rerecording, not the original,” Chimney says, yanking Tommy back to the present, to this universe where everything played out better in the long run anyway.

“What?” he asks, blank.

“For when you decide you owe Taylor a second chance.”

He could point out that Taylor has half the planet under her thrall and will survive without his joining their numbers, but.

“Thanks,” he says instead. Chimney gives him a curious look.

“Any time.”

“Chimney?”

“Tommy?”

“It’s great to see you so happy, man. You deserve it.”

“. . . thanks.” Chim looks over to Jee, his entire face going soft with wonder. “I got really lucky.”

Tommy follows his gaze to watch Evan carefully “twirl” Jee, who’s giggling almost too hard to manage much more than a sort of stomping turn.

“Good job!” Evan exclaims, scooping her back up as the song winds to an end.

“Not doing too bad myself, I guess,” Tommy says, knowing that, if he cared to turn around, he’d see Eddie watching them too.

Chimney snorts and claps his hand on Tommy’s shoulder, then goes to claim his daughter as the next song starts.

“Papa song!” Jee shouts. Chimney laughs and says,

“That’s right, Papa song!”

Evan lingers for a moment to watch them before he turns toward Tommy. Before he can do much more than that, though, there is the distinct sound of a throat clearing behind Tommy. He himself turns to find Athena there, looking at him with an air of arch expectation.

Sorry, Evan. Tommy does not hesitate, holding out his hand in what he hopes is a debonair contrast to can’t stop won’t stop cruisin.

“May I have this dance?”

“Oh, since you asked.”

He hasn’t seen much of Athena since the cruise ship, where his one attempt at a Sergeant Grant had been met with people who help save my husband’s life call me Athena. So they’re on good terms in general, he knows, and Evan told him all about Bobby giving their relationship his blessing, so it’s not unreasonable to assume he’s in good with Athena there, too.

Still, somehow, he’s suddenly got the feeling he’s - if not on trial per se, then at least under investigation.

“I’m afraid my dancing isn’t quite on your level,” he confesses.

“I’ll take care of that,” Athena tells him. “You just keep up.”

She goes easy enough on him that he picks up her rhythm quickly. He may not be a dedicated dancer, but he is well in tune with his body and knows how to make it do what he wants. He has to, to do half the things he does.

“My first time meeting Bobby isn’t the only first meeting of mine you’ve been there for,” she says. “I met Hen the night of that mudslide.”

Getting right to the point, then. He maintains easy eye contact with her, much as part of him doesn’t want to. Sure, that was the call that got the ball rolling, that had Sal dragging him and O’Connell and a couple others out after shift to talk about how to deal with Gerrard for real, but. It shouldn’t have been. That should have happened sooner. Tommy should have - “I’m afraid I didn’t quite witness that historical moment.”

She studies him for a long moment, then:

“I don’t bring it up to have anything out with you. That’s Hen’s business, if she even decides there’s anything left to bring up.”

“You just wanted to see how I’d react,” Tommy says, because it’s obvious enough.

“Bobby trusts you, and I trust his judgment,” Athena answers. “But now it’s looking like you might be around awhile, I needed to see a little something for myself.”

Helena is fine flashes across his mind and he asks,

“Do I pass?”

“It’s not about passing. It’s about never stopping. And you don’t intend to. It’ll do for now.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” he admits.

“You’ll get there.”

She smiles, and that sense of being investigated evaporates. He realizes a new song has started just seconds before Evan is at their side. Athena steps away from Tommy and turns toward Evan immediately with that same expectation, though tempered now with amusement.

“Athena,” Evan complains, even as he also wastes no time accepting the unspoken request.

“You dragged your man out here, the least you can do is let him get a coffee,” she says.

“Next one,” Tommy tells him, then takes his cue and retreats to the refreshments.

Maddie and Eddie have gone off to dance, but Ravi is still there, now with a coffee cup in one hand and his phone in the other. Tommy sets about pouring and doctoring his own coffee, saying,

“I can probably handle that if you want to get out there for a minute.”

“Chimney specifically said not to let you anywhere near the playlist. I’m fine here, anyway. It’s not really about the dancing.”

“No,” Tommy says, “I suppose not. Evan said something about sending a message to Gerrard?”

“To Gerrard, but to them too.” Ravi nods toward his teammates. “Especially Hen and Chimney. It’s not the early 2000s, or even the ‘10s. It’s 2024. Even with someone backing him up, he can only get away with his crap for so long. He’s not gonna win.”

Tommy takes a swig of his coffee. It tastes like it’s pretty good when it’s fresh. “I’m not sure winning is the point for him.”

Ravi shrugs. “It’s not about him. He doesn’t matter. It’s about us. And we’re gonna leave him in the dust.”

Tommy smiles a little against the rim of his coffee cup. He’d already known, just from listening to Evan, that he’d like Ravi. He had failed to guess how much.

It occurs to him, for the first time since Evan dropped this little bomb, that Gerrard has no idea what he’s up against.

“Damn right,” he says.

They have a moment or two of companionable silence to what sounds to Tommy a lot like a more somber take on “Goodbye, Earl” and which he is absolutely fine with having left for Evan to dance with Athena to. For all his protests, Evan is smiling as he and Athena talk, looking happy and relaxed.

He also lets go of her the millisecond the song fades out, with an unapologetic grin that makes her laugh and swat him on the shoulder, saying, “Go on.”

Tommy sets his half-empty coffee on the table as Evan all but stalks toward him. He’s slightly flushed, eyes on Tommy like he’s the only thing Evan can see, and Tommy is all too glad to be dragged out onto the dance floor.

I never trust a narcissist but they love me So I play ‘em like a violin -

“Wait, this is Taylor Swift?” Tommy asks. “I haven’t heard this in years.”Evan blinks at him, thrown; Tommy smirks, drapes his arms over Evan’s shoulders. “It was playing in every club I went to for a while after I came out,” he says, and drops his voice just for Evan to hear. “I did a lot of grinding to this song.”

Evan, to his delight, smirks right back. “We should probably keep it PG,” he says lowly, “but.” He grabs Tommy’s hips, yanking him closer. “That doesn’t mean we have to leave room for Jesus.”

Fuck. Tommy doesn’t kiss him, because if he did then he might not stop, but he does let his gaze drop to Evan’s mouth, makes sure he knows exactly what Tommy’s thinking.

They say I did something bad Then why’s it feel so good?

It’s a long, breathless, suspended moment, heat rising in the little bit of space between them -

A wadded-up napkin bounces off the side of Evan’s head and Maddie shouts,

“Hey, you two! Nothing you wouldn’t do in front of Jee, because you are actually doing it in front of Jee!”

Evan tries to look huffily annoyed, but he can’t hold it, falling into giggles instead. He leans his forehead against Tommy’s, shifting his hold up and around to Tommy’s back, almost respectable. “Sorry, Maddie!”

“Sorry!” Tommy echoes, not in any way giggling a little himself. “Raincheck?” he asks Evan.

“Holding you to it. Also I’m keeping you to myself now.”

“Not going anywhere,” Tommy promises. He came to support Evan, to have that talk with Eddie, and with both of those taken care of, and his fair share of socializing done (complete with shit to unpack later, or maybe not), he just wants to stay with Evan, keep his mood up for the rest of the allotted hour, help him start his shift in a good mood.

The next few songs wash over them; they don’t bother keeping up with changes in tempo, instead swaying together, breathing each other in. He’s going to take Evan dancing, he thinks distantly. To a club at least once, for some of that grinding, but he’s also gonna ask Bobby and Athena where they go. They’ll know some nice places he won’t have heard of.

He and Evan get about three and a half songs together before another one abruptly cuts in. This is one Tommy knows from his clubbing days, too. He realizes belatedly that he heard a car pull up a few seconds ago.

I don’t like your twisted games Don’t like your tilted stage The role you made me play, of the fool No I don’t like you

Evan snorts, looking over Tommy’s shoulder. “Subtle.”

Tommy reluctantly lets go of him (Evan’s hand slides immediately into his), saying, “A little on the nose,” as he turns, knowing exactly who he’s going to see.

It helps, being braced for it this time instead of blindsided.

Gerrard is staring at their little group with distinct displeasure.

“What,” he says, “is this.”

The questions that aren’t questions and never have a right answer. God, Tommy hated those.

Eddie takes off his sunglasses and hooks them into the front of his shirt, looking at Gerrard like he’s the least interesting thing in the world. It is, somehow, mildly terrifying.

Under better circumstances, it would also be kind of hot, which is not a thought Tommy appreciates having right now.

“Taylor Swift dance party, sir,” Eddie says, with no inflection.

- look what you made me do Look what you made me do

Gerrard stares at him just long enough to make it clear that he will not be dignifying that, or Eddie, with a response.

“Anyone who is not with the 118,” he raises his voice to say, “is free to leave.”

“C’mon, Captain,” Evan says suddenly. Tommy grips his hand a little harder as Gerrard’s attention snaps right to them. “Bobby and Athena brought coffee and pastries. There’s still time if you want to grab yourself something, maybe join us?”

It sounds like he’s sucking up; the sarcastic way Gerrard’s mouth tilts says that’s what he’s hearing. But he doesn’t know Evan. He doesn’t know that what it really is is an olive branch, because of course it is, of course Evan is offering him a chance to change his mind even as he knows it’s just going to get smacked away, because who would Evan be if he didn’t try?

Tommy -

Tommy looks at him, his profile and his birthmark and his sincerity, and loves him.

Loves him, loves Evan, and what a moment to realize that.

He doesn’t hear whatever Gerrard has to say in response, just sees Evan’s expression fall, and eases his hold on Evan’s hand so he can give it a gentle squeeze.

Evan squeezes back, and Tommy can’t look away from him.

“- nard. Kinard.”

“Tommy!” Bobby’s voice from across the lot cuts through the pink static, allowing Tommy to wrench his gaze from Evan. He blinks. He’d forgotten, just for a second or two, that Gerrard was here.

Gerrard does not look pleased to have been forgotten.

“Besides,” he says, glancing briefly at their joined hands, “Pawed-over leftovers, when I have a pretty good idea of where some of your hands have been?”

I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now Why? Oh - ‘cause she’s dead

“Think about that much?” Tommy didn’t mean to say that, didn’t even know he was going to speak. He shouldn’t have, not when he’s not the one who’s going to pay for it.

He’s having a hard time caring right now (look what you made me do).

Gerrard’s glare narrows in on him.

“Unless you’re here to ask me to talk to your captain about a transfer, Kinard, you don’t belong here anymore.”

“Tommy.” Bobby again, behind him this time, hand delivering a warning squeeze to his shoulder. “Got time for breakfast before your shift? ‘Thena and I would love you to join us.”

Tommy gives himself a mental shake.

“Yeah. Thanks, Cap, that sounds great.” He turns to Evan. “Thanks for inviting me,” he says, sounding mostly normal. Probably. “I had a great time.”

Evan smiles. Tommy doesn’t want to go to breakfast or to Harbor. Tommy wants to bundle Evan back into his car and take him home.

“Me too.” Evan leans in and kisses his temple. It’s not enough, but fine; they don’t really need Gerrard expiring of a heart attack on the spot. “I’ll text you after my shift.”

“Okay,” Tommy says. Even closer to normal this time. Reluctantly letting go of Evan’s hand. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Evan looks a little like he did after Tommy kissed him that first time. Less poleaxed, but shining with -

God, Tommy’s screwed.

[bmpmp3]

NND will apparently be down for the foreseeable future so my weekly coverposting will have to focus on newer songs for a bit, but that's not bad LOL forces me to stop being such a like, vsynth oldhead with these HJKSDFJKKDfsdfds I LIKE NEW SONGS!!! I just end up finding so many covers I like with new songs that I get overwhelmed orz

SO this week I'll highlight a few covers of the 7th track off Nilfruit's NOMAN album, Wozwald (ヲズワルド)!

I haven't been up on the content warning game for these in the past but this song makes me realize i need to step it up better so CONTENT WARNING: for suicide, both ideation in the lyrics and depiction in the video.

oh and just as important, MAJOR FLASHING WARNING for the video, right at the beginning, and also around the bridge at the 3:30-ish mark to the 4:30-ish mark is pretty intense.

Wozwald!!! By Nilfruits/Niru Kajitsu (煮ル果実). One of the like, weirdest songs I've ever heard instrumentally to be this popular now that I think about it... I really adore that fucking... slow, emerging, swingset-creaking-like sound that plays throughout under all the groovy bass, it rules.

Flower's voice is also a fun choice, Nilfruits seems to use her a lot but she was also king of vocal synth originals from like, 2015-2020ish, and to be honest her popularity hasn't even waned that much. But she has this voice that's simultaneously boyish while still working well up high, and the husky engine noise is a feature not a bug in this case, so it's understandable her lasting reign. Although, while this song mostly uses her very high, that little bit at the end of the first chorus "nukedashitai" where her voice drops down is an absolutely fantastic switchup! And in a way her friction-y gravely high voice mirrors that creaking sound in the background as well.

The video's also really great, although I will warn you, I unfortunately can't keep track of music video story lore super well because I get too distracted by the music LOL so I don't totally remember the plot, something loosely inspired by like, Disney and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and like I dunno. The horrors of copyright? It's not about that, sorry, that's just my own disdain about IP laws... But it Could be About That... If You Believe............. ANYWAY I can at least get the gist from the video without getting too deep, and the animation by wooma is fantastic and so so so so SO stylish.

A SECOND CONTENT WARNING is needed for the album art for this version if ur looking to buy or stream: suicide again, specifically the last shot from the video.

If you know this song already, then you know this cover LOL at nearly 7 times the amount of views on Youtube as that original (5m to 34m... holy shit) I wouldn't be surprised if some people only know the song for this version! SO I guess I don't really Need to talk about it... but I will anyway <3

A take on Wozwald by Miyashita Yuu (宮下遊) which is another case of a cover getting big enough it gets distributed for streaming and buying, we all know it, we all love it, it's like ABSURDLY good. Miyashita Yuu gets wild on this one, altering vocalizations, adding all kinds of harmonies and other layers, switching up his tone and the mix itself, it's crazy.

There's like something to talk about every few seconds: the upward squeaks on "junkie" and "monkey", matching sound effects to the video like exhales and laughs, the high high HIGH note on "bouzuniku...", the soft nasal tone in the "pioneer" line, and we haven't even gotten to the chorus yet. The breathy rolling in the prechorus "light off..." bit with more breathing and vocalizations matching the creaking sound layered over.

AND the "nukedashitai" oooh baby, lemme tell you I ADORE the original's effect of lowering Flower's voice, but I also understand why after this cover came out a lot of coverists also changed that bit to a whisper instead. Miyashita Yuu here whispers in such a hushed, tense way that it's nearly just hints of plosives, such a wild effect.

And of course the second verse has a great part around "megasamenai..." where he uses a deeper tone with a bit more power before slipping into his higher tone again, then layering both styles together in the chorus. AND I can't forget the echoing yell of "kanshisarerya" in the background, awesome.

He matches the instrumental a lot in this cover along with playing off the video's animation, deepening his tone on the end of "...kirenaino" with the winding down of the background music, that's another fun bit.

And I PROMISE I'm almost done BUT I NEEEEEED to talk about that bridge. I said earlier people were inspired by his whisper at the end of the first chorus to use in their own covers: that wasn't the only thing he inspired. He's almost like, a tastemaker in cover-vocalization-adlibs LOL this has happened when he's covered other songs too, dude is very good at finding fun and interesting adlibs! And the way he sings the bridge is a big one: changing that vocalization after the "oide"'s and "oideyo"'s into just a straight up scream... hell yes brother. Inspired many a coverist to just start yelling, I love it. I love a good yell. You might have noticed this about me already. I am unsure how obvious it is.

Sorry for writing like a million paragraphs about this one cover. I've been sitting on this shit for five years you see. I had to finally get it OUT.

Anyway, let's talk about some other covers I really love!

Ken Kamikita, who goes by KK in his cover work, his cover is a favourite:

Honestly possibly the cover I listen to the most now that I think about it, it's addicting to me. His smooth, very "singerly" (making up that word now if it doesn't already exist LOL) and kind of, soulful? voice and singing style might seem a bit unusual for such a depressing song but that's one of the things that makes it so good for me, I love a little tasteful hint of dissonance. Some people's emotional breakdowns sound like whispering, snarling, seething, choking, etc... my emotional breakdowns have BEAUTIFUL VIBRATOS!!!! Do you understand what I mean... do you understand...

I also love the falsetto backing vocals to add more texture, so so so good, and his "nukedashitai", instead of dropping deeper like Flower or whispering like Yuu, he goes into a very soft, slightly vocal fried little tone of his normal singing, and that hits me in the same way I was talking about before: my emotional breakdowns have beautiful vibratos.

But that's not even getting to the best part of this cover. The adlibs. Holy shit.

FIRSTLY that instrumental part after the first chorus, where you hear a really emphasized bit of that creaking, groaning sound I'm so obsessed with: KK like, groans into it and loosens out into a smooth little vocalization... what the hell. It's the greatest thing I've ever heard in my life. When you first hear it, he matched the groan so well that it almost catches you off guard when he switches into the soulful little tune I love it so much.

AND THE BRIDGE, the loud, distorted high tone layer drowning out his deeper singing in the "oide" portion and then instead of Flower's vocalization or Yuu's scream, all kinds of groans and these odd, chaotic vocalizations layer up into this beautiful Mariah Carey-ass belt BY GOD HE DID IT AGAIN!!! HE DID IT AGAIN!!!! It's so good you guys, it's so good. Really adore this cover.

NOW let's talk about a couple human covers I only heard recently, but liked quite a bit!

Ue (うえ)'s cover:

I've been really enjoying this singer a lot, a lot of passion, if that makes sense? He always sounds like he's enjoying singing. This cover plays with a lot of emotive bits, vocal fries, tensing and softening his voice, lots of power here and there too. Very nice cover!

A singer named Otatsu (おたつ。) has another one I like a lot:

This is a more obscure cover in the sense that it's under 1k, but I think it's a really nice one!! Otatsu has this soft, clear tone with just the tiniest hint of nasal which I think sounds quite beautiful! He leans into a breathier, sort of husky sound in the last verse before the end too which I think adds a lot.

AND I gotta talk about a vocal synth cover made by 犬神様 featuring the UTAUloid Mine Laru:

I was not familiar with Laru until I heard this cover, it appears he is a. shark. I love furry utaus. You know, for someone who likes to play with vocal synthesizer software as a hobby, good covers are great advertisement for specific voicebanks for me LOL because of the way the producer jumped up and down the octaves like this, into those deeper tones and the higher pitches, you KNOW I immediately went to check out the voicebanks. I wanna see how many pitches are in that bad boy djkfdsjhlkfdsdgkfds

But I really love this cover, I think the switches between the different tones and appends and pitches sound so cool and interesting, and I love how they went for a really quite whisper at the end of the first chorus!! Awesome cover.

AND ONE MORE one final one. This one's a bit of a wildcard, but I love a good instrumental arrangement: this chiptune cover by mita!

I really love this person's chiptune covers of Nilfruits songs, they always sound so good. This one has a really nice, deep, full tone, and the bridge sounds great with the like, chiptune drum-y snare-y sound, awesome.

AND that is all for the night my friends, I've been ignoring my homework and writing this instead. so. well. (morphs into a marketable plushie of oswald the lucky rabbit before your very eyes and never turns back)

[deangirlnotagirl]

Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

Ok so I have probably watched this episode more recently than others but it’s still been years and I only remember some things about it so I’m very excited to get started. I also cannot believe I’m getting back into Supernatural in the year of our lord 2024 but let’s do this. Literally just a stream of my thoughts while watching.

- LAWRENCE KANSAS 22 YEARS AGO

- Mary!! This family before it all went wrong 😭

- I forgot the show started with the fire scene and not Sam at Stanford this is so intense!!

- Oh my god Jared is so young

- The opening title but isn’t there usually a noise along with the title? Maybe they add that later

- Of course Jess is dressed up as a sexy nurse for her first scene 🙄

- Don’t get me wrong she’s still really cute I love Jess just forgot how sexy all the women on supernatural had to be all the time

- Oh wow that is a good LSAT score you go Sam

- Oh my god Jensen is so young

- Ugh Dean thinking the best way to greet Sam on a surprise visit after who knows how long is to break into Sam’s house. Is this a game/training exercise they used to do before Sam left? is this just Dean avoiding emotion by being obnoxious? Is it both? Perfect character introduction no notes

- Oh right the rampant misogyny from Dean he was so sleazy when we first met him

- “Dads on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been home in a few days” the words that started it all I’m so nostalgic right now aaaaaahhh

- This convo bw Sam and Dean being the way the writers drop all the key family lore I love it lmao

- Dean doesn’t want to do it alone!!!

- Sam immediately caving

- Jumping into case solving mode!!! We have a ghost!

- In almost two years!! Have they not seen each other in two years or has Dean just not asked him to go hunting in two years??

- Dean’s reaction to hearing Sam is applying for law school and realizing college wasn’t just a phase, he might just never be coming back. And also that he has so much less chance of finding their dad without Sam.

- God poor Jess she didn’t deserve any of this

- Oh this ghost is legitimately creepy I’m feeling creeped out I forgot supernatural was more of an actual horror show in earlier seasons and I love it

- Sam and Dean’s passive aggressive arguing in the impala ❤️

- The cassette tape collection!!

- “I can’t hear you the MUSICS TOO LOUD”

- All of the things we get introduced to about the way the Winchesters operate like the credit card scams and fake IDs it’s just delightful

- Love this goth teen revealing the town ghost story

- “What do they talk about”

- The way Sam takes over the research and it immediately becomes clear that Dean actually does need him. Sam is indispensable to the operation. Honestly I’d like to think if he thought he could do it on his own he would. Despite what he says I don’t think he think he actually wants to ruin Sam’s attempt to escape. Or maybe not maybe he is using this as an excuse to try just one more time to get Sammy back before it’s too late. I’ll have to think about this as the show goes on!

- Why did John solve the case but then not finish dealing with the ghost? I’m guessing this is addressed in later episodes?

- “Jerk” “bitch” 😭

- I had such intense gender envy towards Dean and I did not realize it at all

- Ted Nugent!!

- Sam is so good at getting information from people I love him telling the ghost story I love when he shows that he knows the business as well as anyone

- Dean picking the lock on his handcuffs with a paperclip is something that can be so personal actually

- Sam getting back into it!! A part of this kid just loves hunting so much

- The special effects are fantastic

- “I’m taking you home!!”

- Why don’t they have any salt they know they’re dealing with a ghost Sam and Dean do you not know about salt? Is that not for ghosts? There was literally salt on the floor in their dad’s motel room

- God this ghost story is very sad if you think about it too much

- I’m one episode in and these brothers are already killing me as they discuss how Sam needs to go back for his interview and he was never going to stay longer than two days both of them just break my heart

- “We made a hell of a team back there” 😭

- Also Dean you gotta try being a little less manipulative buddy but I forgive you bc I know your damage

- THE BLOOD DRIPPING ONTO SAM’S HEAD IN A CALL BACK TO THE INTRO!!, NO!!! JESSS!!!, DEAN COMING TO SAVE HIM AGAIN!!!! OH GOD STOP!!!!!!!!

- “We got work to do” 😫

I forgot how genuinely I enjoy this show wow it’s ridiculous and has so many problems but it’s so much fun

[tacticalhimbo]

XBOX DIRECT THOUGHTS

more of the same. more unedited, stream of consciousness reactions to the showcase

Fable

- Vegetable Enthusiast. He cute honestly.

- GIANT. PUMPKIN.

- The graphics are pretty and I love the idea of normal guy in fantasy world sm.

- is this thumbalina???? or whateva her name is????

- FABLE??? remake??? new game???

- I AM LOOKING

South of Midnight

- ooo swamp

- oooo stop motiony animation! i like the style

- baby possum baby possum baby!!

- i love the protagonist's style. she looks cool as fuck

- very interesting concept!

Star Wars: Outlaws

- massive and ubisoft?

- STAR WARSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! WOOO BABEYYYYY

- oh the protag seems cool! i love her little pet

- HEIST PLOT???

- AN EXCLUSIVE??? OH BABEYYYY

- already wanna rp her fr she's gonna be my babygirl who i defend to the death IDC!!!

33 Immortals

- ooh thunder lotus making another game! didnt play their other big one but it looked so nice

- pretty visuals as always tho!

- the death animation slapped honestly

- not my cup of tea gameplay wise buuut looks good

- 33 PLAYER CO-OP???!?!?!? WHAT DA FUCK

PAYDAY 3

- HUH

- do these games have a story?? i've only ever seen multiplayer maps and stuff.

- it looks fun honestly. like siege if it was cops and robbers

- dubstep gameplay edit holy shit

Persona 3 Reload

- ooh anime in unreal engine- PERSONA!

- i played a bit of 5 and i liked it honestly

- idk shit abt it but cool!

Avowed

- oo pirate game

- obsidian?? oh it's gonna be good

- it looks cool honestly. i love their style.

- battlemage combat fr

- i wanna play it

Sea of Thieves: Legend of the Monkey Island

- rare and lucas film???

- sea of thieves and star wars?????

- i mean get it ig!

- i didn't mind sea of thieves but it seemed repetitive

- m o n k e

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

- FLIGHT SIM SKFJFKDJD

- okay but the added mechanics and mission type approach seems fun

- it looks visually stunning as always

Microsoft Flight Simulator • Dune Expansion

- desert

- oh. it's dune

- is it bad i haven't seen that or read it? probably

- i mean cool tho! y'all have fun

- theatre experience too??? aight

Senua's Saga; Hellblade 2

- cave! scary. but pretty

- it looks pretty,, i like the character rendering

- the whispering is throwing me off i cant understand shit (and there's no subtitles)

- ohhhh that was trippy

- it's got my curiosity; i support women's wrongs fr (joking)

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

- ooh another look at like a dragon?

- OH HE IS NAKED OKAY 😳

- ong wait is he in MIAMI?? IT LOOKS LIKE MIAMI

- HELP HIM!!!!

- oh new game

Fallout 76

- I GOT SO EXCITED THEN JUST "CALL OF 76"

- MY BRO AND I CHANTED "VAULT TEC VAULT TEC VAULT TEC-";#[#*$*$*$*

- Another DLC? Probably

- I don't hate 76 but I am very >_> toward the direction

- Atlantic City??? WE GET A NEW LOCATION IN AN ONLINE GAME????

- 😫😫😫😫😫😫😫😫😡

Path of the Goddess

- ooh capcom. i s2g if it's more final fantasy.

- nothing against the series but man after sgf i'm salty

- okay it looks different. and pretty! love the mythos elements

Forza

- Oh my godddd fucking cars

- i mean cool! i just don't get the racing games 🤷‍♂️

- it looks nice tho? i can't tell what's real footage and what's game tbh

- the cadillac does look snazzy i cant even lie

- ALL THIS FOR 2 CARS?? shit's wild

ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: Necrom (Shadow Over Morrowind)

- oh shit bethesda

- GOR FAMN IT ANOTHER ONLINE DLC

- eso was boring to me... then again i didnt play much bc paying for live is so tedious

- i am always a slut for this daedra tho. i dont remember his name

- tentacles yum yum

OVERWATCH 2

- overwatch??? fuck that game

- fuck the studio but also just fuck the game. it's not even any different from ov1 they didnt even do pve

- i mean cool heroes and design and lore but man. 😐

- story missions??? yeah right lmao

Persona 5 Tactica P5T

- chibi perdona

- cute style! see my last persona notes tho

- no new thoughts, looks aight

Starfield

- bethesda 3!

- the music is giving outer worlds.... tell me y'all hate that obsidian did better without telling me LSJDKDKD

- i mean. okay! it looks decent tho i can't be too mad

- it's got me curious about the story and lore if anything. i love space games 😌

- even the gameplay looks good... hm.

Jusant(?) // Font was hard to read

- ooo this style is nice. reminds me a bit of road 96

- i love the little blob. feeling very much cuteness aggression

- gameplay looks nice too! dunno about the lack of ui but maybe that's trailer purposes

Still Wakes the Deep

- ooh the water looks pretty

- so does the interior

- IS THIS A HORROR!!!

- im curious!

Dungeons of Hinterburg

- i thought this was the postal worker game honestly the style was similar

- it looks cute! again not my cup of tea but yea!

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

- KEANU!!!!

- YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

- SHOW US. SHOW US!! SHOW US KEANU

- 👁👄👁

- Still mad I won't be able to play it but I'll write my V's canon

- "Johnny, I'm dying. Nothing can stop that" OUGH

- wait... "i can save your life" DLC BASED ENDING???? NEW ENDING????

- Oh this district fucks

- BIG MILITARY MECH!!!!!!! AWOOGA

- NCUSA FEDS!!!!

- SCREAMING AND THROWING UP AND OUGHHHHH

- wait is it not coming to other consoles or?? they only showed an xbox release 🤨

Cities Skylines 2

- oh another cities skylines thing.

- this management system confused me honestly

- but i like watching ppl play it so! huge win

- it looks visually appealing

- curious about 2 because??? what are they changin

Metaphor

- atlus again okay

- is this another personal thing? i really am confused abt this aeries

- doesn't seem like it tho they said it was a new story

- it looks cool tho!

Towerborne

- creator of the who?

- this conematic style is interesting

- looks like a cute fantasy rpg

- nice that it's co-op and such

Clockwork Revolution

- oou bioshock infinite core

- the guy with the mechanical red carpet... iconic

- wait no stop this is looking more like bioshock with the gameplay i'm scared

- oh god oh fuck oh god oh fuck

- bioshock infinite if it was good

- bioshock infinite if it didn't demonize bipoc revolutions against the white upper class

- bioshock infinite if ken levine was dead 😌💕

BONUS

- ooh-be soft??? is it not you-be soft??? i've never heard it said like that

- okay "we made it easier to find new gen consoles" but why stop supporting current gen entirely????

- also the "new" series s... i hate the fully digitalized concept

Then Starfield direct started and I couldn't be assed to write notes

[dockaiju]

Aggregation of What is Known, Rumored and Speculated About the New Godzilla Series

(Feel free to offer corrections, changes or updates)

Most official information comes so far from the Apple TV+ Press synopsis and Deadline articles.

They state the series takes place following Godzilla 2014 before KoTM when Godzilla has largely gone back into hiding, minus the battle with Muto Prime in the Dominion comics. Nothing confirms the time period for the majority of episodes though, just that it begins after the events of Godzilla 2014.

Many expect it to focus on the human characters and drama aspects, and have a tone more like Godzilla 2014. May involve a lot of retconing.

Will likely show some of the other Titans previously mentioned or glimpsed in the Monsterverse so far.

Chris Black is making it alongside Matt Fraction, Safehouse Pictures' Joby Harold and Tony Tunnell. Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita will execute produce for Toho.

Chris Black: Star Trek Enterprise, Madmen and Desperate Housewives.

Matt Fraction: Marvel Comics comic book writer. Wrote successful Hawkeye comic series which was adapted to a tepidly recieved TV show.

Hiro Matsuoka: Worked on Godzilla KotM.

Takemasu Arita: help maintain Godzilla character consistency.

Toho has licensed the rights for Godzilla to Legendary for this series.

The Godzilla series will be a separate series from the Netflix Monarch series.

Netflix Skull Island Netflix animated series comes out this year.

Toho plans to release a new Godzilla film before giving Legendary releases another. The new series does not halt the Toho film production.

Toho and Legendary have a friendly relationship.

Monsterverse has already begun building a large mythos and amount of lore.

Will likely release 2023 or 2024 (but possibly as late as 2025) along with the new Toho Godzilla film around similar time.

Reasons for Legendary choosing Apple TV+:

Apple TV+ is available internationally. HBO Max is not internationally available. Currently $5 a month. Some scifi effects series on the service includes Wheel of Time.

Dangerville: Thinks Apple will provide a large budget.

Omni Viewer: Thinks WB and AT&T merger might be related to Legendary not going with HBO Max. Agrees that HBO Max isn't as accessible since it isn't international. Toho might want it to be internationally accessible. HBO Max might not be long-lived and successful.

Deadline: Apple TV+ was chosen because it offered the best financial incentive.

Aggregation of notable commentary:

Kaijuologist: The series may have some similarities to the show Surface with the focus on the human characters and using its limited giant monster scenes effectively.

D Man1954: Will probably just be Godzilla and Mutos. Most episodes probably won't show monsters, saving them mostly for the premiere and finale. Could bring about outsiders digging into the conspiracies and shadowy organization known as Monarch before the public was really aware of the organization.

D Man1954 doesn't think it will have a large budget. Thinks Apple may provide a lower budget than other streaming services. That it went to Apple because of the quarrel between Legendary and Warner Bros/HBO over GvK being released on streaming rather than exclusive to theatrical release. [Which PingPongFlix agrees] He thinks the show may return Muto Prime and some of the comic material. Doubts Toho will put out another G film before Legendary. Monsterverse is Legendary's big franchise right now. They are all in for Monsterverse, especially after the success of Godzilla vs Kong. Films will probably still be Legendary with WB distribution and eventually going on HBO Max, but the shows will be spread out among various streaming services so Legendary can make more from it.

Omni Viewer: Series will likely not feature other major Toho kaiju it might want to premiere in films, but may have some D-listers like Gezora or Varan.

Dangerville: Could possibly visit Skull Island, but not likely since there's already a series set there. Maybe a few scenes there, but probably not a major location for the show.

MurphysMultiverse claims the show is being tentatively called Hourglass.

More Rumors:

1/25/22: