#she recognizes that almost everyone around her is in some way a pawn/victim of people like snow & coin

[enobariasdistrict2]

one of the many things to love about katniss is that she's not spiteful, or revenge minded, no matter how many reasons society and her circumstances give her to be, and always has empathy for others.

and this extends to people she doesn't have much emotional connection to. for as much as she regarded the careers as the capitol's well trained lapdogs, she killed cato out of mercy rather than revenge. she acknowledged that cato and clove could have survived if her and peeta hadn't, that someone like marvel who murdered her ally (a twelve year old, the most innocent and vulnerable person in the arena and who katniss saw as a sister) might have had a life to go back to, a home with family members waiting for his return. she felt guilty during her interactions with gloss and cashmere because she killed children from their district that they might have mentored. katniss explicitly said she did not like enobaria as a person, but didn't want to exclude her from the protection deal with coin.

katniss also has a kind view of people that, as cinna himself said, she should have despised. the capitol citizens are vapid and privileged and watch children like her die for their entertainment every year. yet katniss still forges a relationship with cinna and is able to be vulnerable and share her private stories and treasured memories with him acting as the capitol audience. and while she sees her prep team as ignorant and childish pets, she does have affection for them and objected to them being tortured in district thirteen. even though effie literally comes to her district representing the most evil aspect of the capitol and every year sends two children from her home to die, katniss still sees her redeeming characteristics, bonds with effie, and makes an effort to spare her from the rebels.

no matter who the person is or what they might have done to her/her loved ones, katniss recognizes humanity in everyone and attempts to limit the suffering of others when possible, regardless of her personal opinion about them.

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

The Zodiac Whumper - Gemini Part 1

So you may have already noticed that this is part one. So um. Yeah. This is already really long so I had to split it into two parts. The second one should be up within the week. Continued from here. If you’re new, start here! 

Tag list (ask to be added or removed):  @whumpallday, @stxck-fxck, @thatsthewhump, @unsung-sympathy, @terriblethrillssss​, @insanitywishes​, @woodenhoneybee​, @whale-whumps 

Content warnings: lady whump (there will be guy whump too if that’s not your speed, more next part though), descriptions of a near panic attack, burning with candlewax

Last of the notes: a huge shoutout to @shameless-whumper​ who requested the premise I used for this piece and the next, and @card-games-and-pain​ for this post which I used a slightly modified version of in these pieces. Big creds to you guys for providing my creativity some sustenance. 

She woke up slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes and wincing at a voice above her, gradually floating into her ears. 

“...can’t just skip you; up and at ‘em now, Gemma!” 

“Who th’hell’s Gemma? ‘m I lost? I‘ve never known anyone with th’name Gemma…” she slurs, sleep laden tongue stumbling over the words. Her hands pushed her to sit up, forcing her to look at the person staring into the cage at her.

“There you go, nice and awake. And you’re Gemma, obviously.” Zoran tilted their head in a coy smile as if it had been her name all along.

“Gemma, that’s not even right… aren’t I supposed to be Gemini? I mean, you used the full Zodiac names for everyone else and I think you called me Gemini so I just assumed...” Gemma hung her head slightly. Saying this kind of thing was exactly what would get her on their bad side, but it would be easier to make the best of it later if she knew what they wanted.

“Oh, but I couldn’t very well call you both Gemini, could I?” 

The words took a few seconds to settle in. And then her heart plummeted.

“Wh-what do you mean both?!” There were a million scenarios and theories to panic about in her head, filling it up and drowning her consciousness as her body shut down. Her gut instinct was yelling and trying to warn her, but she couldn’t hear it over the roaring waves.

“Yeah! I split it instead: you’re Gemma and he’s Nye!” They gesture at nothing, face falling for a second, ��� ...oh that’s right, I almost forgot I didn’t reintroduce the two of you. Nye, get in here! Take her out for me, could you?” Short hair and dark skin came walking in, expression blank as he bent down with a ring of keys in his hands and Gemma gasped in a horrible, shaking sob.

“Brice! Oh god, Brice did they… why?! What did you- what are you doing to him?!” Gemma’s heart pounded at the sight of her twin brother--oh fuck they took her brother too what the hell what the helI--and he didn’t even look up to see the tears rolling down Gemma’s face and the hand clamped over her mouth to quiet her pathetic sobs.

“It’s wonderful how a Gemini breaks, isn’t it?” Zoran comments, not caring to address her distress. “That inherent need to learn and improve put to good use, huh? What a pity it would be to see you go the same way.”

“Don’t-” and sobbed silently, horrified that her first thought was ‘don’t do to me whatever you already did to him,’ “Please, just please let us go…”

“Leaving so soon?” they gasped dramatically, and Nye finally got the cage open. He dragged his sister out with a firm grip on her arm and held her still, facing Zoran. “I had to work so hard to find the perfect pair of Gemini twins! You have to stay for the rest of the party at least, watch everyone else’s turns, and, well, I haven’t even decided what to do with you lot after that!” They laughed like it was funny.

“Brice,” Gemma gave up on them, turning back to her brother with teary eyes, “why are you doing this? Please, let me go; whatever they offered or did to you isn’t worth it. I promise.” Nye twitched at that and she swore she saw just a hint of conflict in his expression. Not all was lost.

“Your brother Nye and I have an arrangement and, contrary to your belief, it is very much worth his while to comply with me. It’d be a shame if I had to-”

“No,” It was a husky, haunted whisper that first escaped Nye’s lips. “Please, don’t…”

“Oh, well if you insist,” Zoran sighed, “Nye, fetch the table I had you bring down. I trust you know well enough not to run by this point, Gemma. You’re not as thick skulled as a few other people here.” Pointedly, they glanced over at Taurus whose eyes glimmered dully with hurt at the comment. 

Gemma stood complacently with hands held behind her back, eyes following her brother as he left the room. Nye came back just seconds later, locking the door behind himself, and wheeling in a long metal table that nearly had her passing out at the sight of it. Torture implements of all types and sizes were laid out in neat rows just begging to inflict pain on an unlucky victim. Amidst the knives, bottles, and syringes she recognized were countless mechanisms she didn’t even want to place, as well as everyday household objects strewn about. 

She couldn’t even comprehend why or how all of this would be used on her and she was trembling uncontrollably and unseeingly when a hand clamped on her shoulder, pulling a flinch and coaxing her head up. Zoran stared, a fond smile spread over his lips, and wordlessly pulled her forward towards the table. 

Gemma suppressed the urge to swat the hand away, or run, or crawl back in that awful, degrading cage to get away. She walked at the guidance of Zoran’s hand, and knelt when it pushed her down, holding hands still when a length of rope pulled them behind her back, and then her ankles just a minute later.

When a length of cloth came around her head as a blindfold, she leaned ever so slightly into it. Then the room was silent until she heard something akin to… the shuffling of cards?

“Nye, you and I are going to play a game,” they started, no room in the statement for refusal, “and Gemma is going to be a good pawn for us. The rules are simple, so pay attention because I’m not repeating them.

“We will draw cards one at a time. Whoever pulls the card must first read it aloud and then perform the listed action on Gemma or, because I’m merciful, you may forfeit and I’ll turn the card’s command on you instead. That card will then not count towards your full six cards. When both of us hit that card total of six, the game is over. Clear?”

“C-crystal,” Nye’s voice cracked around the word.

“And one more thing. To be sure this is as fair as possible, I’ve elected to include a mediator. Take Libra from his cage, Nye, and tie him down over there. Just the hands should work fine.”

At the mention of his sign, Libra went stock still. Some other captives were arguing, trying to protect him, but he couldn’t hear as he felt every muscle in his body locking up and panic coming on quicker than he could quell its effects. Nye’s tall, lean silhouette loomed over him and he squeezed his eyes shut. He wasn’t prepared for this. He would never have been prepared for this. He knew it was coming, but he thought he had a few days to collect himself--

“Libra, hey, can you look at me?” A hand holding his chin gently and a soft voice talking to him parted the impenetrable fog just for a second. “Where are you right now?”

He tried to think, but around wheezing breaths and shaky limbs it was impossible. Libra muttered something that got another response out of the voice.

“Listen to me, try to breathe. You’re, ah, you’re locked up in the basement where you’ve been for a few days. You know, the grey stone and cage, dim lights, all that. Smells a bit like mildew. Don’t worry, you’re not going to be hurt right now. This won’t be hard if you follow their instructions.”

The descriptions helped a bit, and he drew himself back to reality with them, pushing the fog and panic away to the back of his mind in favor of paying attention and following instructions right now.

“I- yeah, I ca-can, I can breathe I’m oh-okay,” he muttered, short of breath. Inhaling slowly, he counted out measured gasps as Nye pulled him out. Shaking legs carried him unsteadily to the loop in the floor where Libra was tied tightly, hands in front between his knees, so he couldn’t escape. 

“Libra.” Zoran’s voice was sharp enough to cut, and he snapped his gaze up, wobbling with the lasting effects of his near panic attack. “You will be our mediator for obvious reasons. I trust you to have the values of fairness on your side as your sign should, because you know you’ll pay dearly for any deviance or bias. I’ll ask your opinion if I want it, and otherwise you’re to stay as a silent, close observer. Yes?”

“Y-yes.”

“Alright! The boring shit’s out of the way, so let’s get this show on the road!” Zoran’s expression split into a blinding grin, faux professionalism of earlier all driven away by the immediate promise of pure, unadulterated fun. “I’ll take the first turn.”

The room held its breath as they took the first card from the deck, reading it slowly over in their head before revealing it to everyone else.

“Drip hot wax on them.” They enunciated each word with pure ecstasy, “Starting things off with a bang, I see.”

At their feet as they lit a candle furnace, Gemma bit her lip in anticipation. Surely melted wax couldn’t hurt all too badly, she rationalized. She’d burnt herself on a candle before and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. She could handle this. 

Above, Nye watched on as Zoran melted what looked to be pieces of a candle. It melded into liquid in a basin above the flame, turning translucent and nearly sparkling as it stirred under the lights. It was tantalizing and sickening at the same time to know it would be poured over his sister’s skin, burning and burning until… he didn’t even know what would happen.

Zoran slipped a glove on one hand to protect him from the heat and flicked out a knife to slice open the back of her shirt, thankfully leaving her underclothing intact, and reached back for the melted wax. Gemma trembled under their hand that pulled the t-shirt apart, pushing hard on a shoulder to make her bend further over her knees.

When the wax hit, it felt cold for a few lovely seconds before the nerves buzzing under her skin caught on fire. In a blink, it was searing and pulling at her as it dripped and spread further like a parasite. It was melting her skin, starting at her shoulders, the liquid left of it dripping further and further down her stripped bones and muscles and hardening again, bonding like a shell that protected her from the relief she so desperately craved.

Her teeth were clenched with such force that she feared she would break them as she whimpered and moaned at sluggish agony that felt no better even minutes after most of the wax had dried. 

The hand on her shoulder pulled her to sit back up, and at the movement Gemma felt the wax adjusting and cracking, reforming itself and shifting across its own burns. The blindfold was already soaked with tears but that didn’t keep her from crying all over again. 

“Your turn, Nye,” Zoran turned to him and gestured to the stack of cards. Hand shaking, he drew one and flipped it over, breath already caught in his throat.

“Shut… shut them up,” he read, brow furrowing, “and it has a question mark on it.”

“That means you have a choice. You either find some way to ‘shut her up’ using whatever you can find on the table,” they gestured to Gemma, whose harsh breaths were still echoing through the room, “or I find a way to silence you. Your choice.”

“I-I can do it to her,” Nye muttered, walking closer to the table he’d brought in. He could do this painlessly, some way or another. His hand ghosted over a few things on the table, shivering and flinching away from others that he hoped he’d never see used. Or worse, he contemplated breathlessly, have to use himself.

Slowly, carefully, he settled on something. He felt bile rise in his throat at the thought of strapping it on his own sister, but it could be useful to her long term. Something to bite down on for the pain… something to help block screams so it was less humiliating…

Grimacing, Nye picked up the muzzle, all leather facepiece and straps with a metal bit, and carried it carefully over to where his sister was kneeling.

“Wow, didn’t take you for that kind, Nye,” Zoran commented with a giggle, “just don’t forget our deal about talking to her.” The man in question fixed them with a fragile glare before turning back to Gemma, putting a gentle hand on her jaw. Slowly, he coaxed it open and met her lips with the metal bit, sliding it in to the back of her mouth.

It pressed down on her tongue and Gemma nearly gagged on it with how far back it reached. She held still as her brother figured out how to fasten and tighten the straps, pulling them only tight enough to keep the muzzle snugly on her face. She wasn’t upset with him, she reassured herself. He had no choice in what he was doing and there were a million worse avenues that prompt could have taken them down. 

When he stood and walked back away from her, she tested the give on the muzzle, working her jaw and finding she could hardly open it. But the metal gave her something other than her own teeth to bite down on. She just prayed it wouldn’t come that far even though she knew, deep down, that it already had.

Next part

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL recaps [10/13]

Today’s recap: Christmas on Christmas and Pyramid on the Pyramid, or the tale of a fortune-teller and a meta-detective.

[tw: suicide mentions]

--

NINETEEN

21 Dec 1996 — 27 Dec 1996

THE GREAT PYRAMID

--

Christmas had lost so many people already: his old school friend Souya, his brother Pyramid, his beloved Kasumi, and recently Ryuuguu Jounosuke. He was so thankful that he still had Fuumonji Jouka—or rather “Ryuuguu Jouka”, her new D-name she had asked for after the plane accident.

JDC detectives had been treated like celebrities by mass media, so it’s not surprising that news about Jounosuke’s death spread fast and affected many. A wave of suicides among young girls was noted, and every day crowds would gather in front of JDC. Among all the deaths of the Crime Olympics, this one caused so much grief that this phenomenon was dubbed the “Ryuuguu Shock”.

Naturally, the media kept writing anything they could about Ryuuguu, including the fact that he and Jouka had allegedly got engaged before his death. A few days after that article was published, when Jouka was walking to the JDC headquarters on December 15th, the hysterical crowd attacked her and she was stabbed to death. The media were now talking about a “Double Ryuuguu Shock”, considering her D-name.

A lot of critics spoke about how the public searched for heroes. Just like in normal Olympics the sportsmen become idols, the detectives are worshipped during the Crime Olympics. It’s not that detectives before this era were any less capable, but it’s only now that they are recognized and popular to this extent. After Jounosuke’s death, many others like Dokuson or Ushiwaka started getting popular enough to have fanclubs, and it took the incident with Jouka for the fans to cool down with their enthusiasm.

--

On December 17th, Christmas, Nemu, Ushiwaka, Amagoi, and newly recovered Kirika all gathered in JDC’s meeting room. Kirika should still be resting, but insisted on coming back to work. She seemed much more mature now, perhaps because when she had been hospitalized, her significant other Hazama Kuroo was murdered by the serial Three Monkeys Killer. (Then again, pretty much everyone in the world lost someone at this point, now that 1/12 of humanity has died.)

Trying to avoid a repeat of what happened to Jouka, Dokuson wanted the five gathered detectives to leave the country for now and take part in investigations abroad. He met with some resistance—what if a significant problem showed up in Japan while everyone’s away?—but retorted that with him around, there should be no “what ifs”. He only allowed Kirika to stay in the country to “investigate something”, which he also seemed to have interest in.

At that point it had only been a few days since the Billion Killer had destroyed the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, so Amagoi asked about how BOKU was doing in the hospital. Dokuson answered brashly that he didn’t have time or care for talentless weaklings in the middle of a war.

Once Dokuson was out of earshot, Ushiwaka commented that yeah, sure, except he actually cared about BOKU’s health a whole lot, enough to call him every single morning. After all, if Dokuson let his own assistant die, it would mean that he was helpless and unable to do something and therefore not the most capable person ever, and as a self-proclaimed narcissist, he simply CANNOT HAVE THAT.

In this strange warped way, all the JDC detectives were like highly needed parts that made up Dokuson’s identity, and since Dokuson loved himself so much, this love naturally extended to them too. He would never simply abandon them. If anything, he was probably thinking about how to move them around to efficiently deal with the situation.

Christmas was a bit miffed that they’re regarded as pawns to be moved around, but others like Nemu and Amagoi trusted Dokuson a lot—in the grand scheme of things, they kinda were just single cogs that needed to come together to work against the Crime Olympics.

--

[First person narration from Christmas.]

The one time I visited the Pyramids, I came there with my older brother Pyramid and his assistant Tsuru Himeko. That was a year before my brother was murdered. He had been to Egypt a few times before, seeing as our parents had always had an interest in it—I mean, they even named their firstborn Pyramid.

Ever since joining JDC I’ve been planning to go to Egypt once more. We made awful jokes with Kasumi about how we would spend Christmas looking at the Pyramids.

Now that Dokuson ordered me to go to Egypt in late December, it seems that those plans came true in one way or another. At least I don’t have to care about the cost of the trip this time around. Dokuson insisted to book me a room at the best hotel closest to the Pyramids, because otherwise I wouldn’t focus solely on solving the case, and he can’t have that.

Before I left Japan, Amagoi told me what she and Meiru had figured out about the disappearance of Ryuuguu Otohime, namely that she had run away of her own volition. Amagoi thinks that it had something to do with Otohime’s brother Jounosuke’s death… alleged death, at least, because Amagoi still insists that he’s alive somewhere. She seems so sure of it. To be fair, Jouka also seemed to believe it.

I don’t really understand them, but maybe I don’t really understand people in general, or even myself. Which is one of the reasons I went to Egypt now. Self-discovery.

On the surface, I’m going to investigate a case of tourists frequently falling from the top of the Great Pyramid ever since the start of the Crime Olympics. But actually, Dokuson thinks one of the Billion Killer attacks may happen here in the future and I should be on the lookout for it.

Just like a few years ago, the Pyramids are overwhelming in their size and architectural magnificence. They seem so perfect that they almost don’t feel like something made by human hands. Kinda like if there was hypothetically a completely flawless person in this world, then they wouldn’t really count as a human anymore, no matter if they looked the part.

After some sightseeing, I head back to the hotel—or at least attempt to, because my hopelessness with directions leads me completely astray, and I end up wandering helplessly until I collapse from exhaustion.

I wake up in a shack, next to an old woman and a youth wearing a turban. The latter found me passed out in the desert. By a stroke of luck, the old woman can speak Japanese, which she had learned while taking care of a Japanese person over a decade ago.

I ask about the case of tourists falling off the Pyramids. People have always been secretly climbing them (even though it was illegal), but the number of victims rose lately: thirty-five confirmed deaths in the last four months. Rumour has it the Sphinx somehow kills those who attempt to climb the Pyramids. The old woman says mysteriously that if I really want to investigate this case, I will have to attempt the climb myself, hear the Sphinx talking to me, and test my luck.

Once night arrives, the boy helps me with preparations and soon I climb the Great Pyramid with nothing but rope to keep me from falling. It’s a daunting task. I slowly climb stone after stone, move forward cautiously, aware of the ever-present danger. It’s a bit like life, if you think about it. I have a stray thought about letting myself fall—that if I let go of the rope now, I’ll be at peace. The call of the void. Despite it, I still move forward. Not even for the sake of solving the case; for myself.

As I’m climbing, suddenly I hear a disembodied voice.

“This I ask you… if a new year started just after Christmas, when would the Pyramid be built?”

This line repeats in intervals of ten seconds, the same intonation every time. But why can I understand it? Why is it in Japanese? The only option I can think of is that the mythical Sphinx is speaking to me telepathically somehow, giving me a riddle to solve… and probably waiting to kill me if I answer wrong. Was this what happened to the tourists? This entire hypothesis is nonsense, but…

“The last time I ask you… if a new year started just after Christmas, when would the Pyramid be built?”

I have to come up with an answer, but I can’t figure anything out. As time almost runs out, I yell the first thing that comes to my head.

“Christmas! The Pyramid was built on Christmas!”

After that, there is silence. Nothing else seems to happen. Maybe I just hallucinated it from fear and exhaustion.

I continue climbing until I reach the summit and rest holding onto the pole sticking out of the top, indicating the Pyramid’s former height. Everything else looks so small from here. Various thoughts keep coming to my head—about life, about the case—and I realize that I’ve already heard that mysterious voice before.

--

After climbing back down, I’m so exhausted that I go to sleep in the old woman’s shack, and when I wake up, it’s Saturday afternoon. There’s a crowd gathered by the Great Pyramid. It seems someone has climbed it. As I and the old woman watch, something falls down on the sand: a half-naked body curled into a ball, face hidden under a mask of Anubis. The body is clutching a skull of the Billion Killer.

The victim turns out to be the same boy that helped me. He died of heart failure, so it’s theorized he froze to death on top of the Pyramid last night and only fell down at 1 PM after many hours, but no one is really sure yet.

When a few days later I talk to the old woman about it, she says that it was fate. Me arriving here, me climbing the Pyramid, the death, everything. She says that the boy—no, actually the disguised girl—showed up here only a little before I did so that she could guide me, and that her name was Tierra. Just like the dead sister of Joyeeta, the person I met on Easter Island… wait, was that “Joyeeta” actually Tierra pretending to be her dead sister?

The old woman repeats that everything is fated. She says that her name is Cassandra, like the tragic prophet.

If everything is fated, I ask, was her meeting my brother ten years ago also fated? He must have been the Japanese man she talked about earlier. It was my brother’s voice that I heard while climbing the Great Pyramid, and careful investigation revealed a speaker hidden inside one of the stone blocks.

That let me realize the solution to the case: it’s the old woman Cassandra who’s killing all those tourists. She would wait at the top of the Pyramid, play the recording of my brother’s voice, and cut the rope of anyone who answered incorrectly. This much is clear. I just don’t understand why she would be helped by Tierra and my brother.

Cassandra explains. Tierra asked RISE to help her kill her father, and in turn she let them brainwash her and send her here under a new identity. (Cassandra stresses that she herself isn’t in RISE, they just happen to have a deal.) It seems Tierra’s father had once worked with RISE, but betrayed them and had to die anyway, so RISE figured they could as well make use of Tierra’s hatred for their own purposes.

Cassandra says that even if I know the truth now, it’s not like I can harm RISE. In fact, it’s RISE who’s explicitly letting me live for now, just like it was with my brother. Everything is a part of the plan. Everything is fated.

Cassandra then tells me the story of my brother.

--

[Second person narration from Pyramid Mizuno.]

You visit the Pyramids at the age of sixteen, in 1982. It’s your seventh time here, and every time you dream of climbing to the summit, no matter the danger or law. Considering your name, it almost seems like your fate.

You make friends with a local old woman. One day, she asks what you think about people who climb the Pyramids. You say that it’s a horrible, sacrilegious thing to do, and would probably end in disappointment—but despite that knowledge, your longing won’t settle down. It’s like your name is a curse. The old woman understands and helps you finally realize your dream.

But once you make it to the top of the Great Pyramid, she’s already there, wearing a mask of Anubis and threatening you into compliance. The woman just like her family before her murders everyone who profanes the Pyramids. But not you; she can sense that you two are similar and wants your help.

Following her instructions, you go back to Japan, arrive at the organization called JDC and tell them about how you think there’s a murderer behind people’s deaths at the Pyramids. JDC investigates it, but discovers no proof for that claim, and it’s unlikely that they’ll ever pay attention to it again—which is what the old woman wanted. You take the JDC entrance exam and completely flunk it, but their boss Ajiro Souji seems to spot something in you and employs you anyway.

Even as a detective you keep in contact with the old woman. She often speaks about how a tragic fate awaits humanity, so you jokingly call her Cassandra, a name she seems to like. Before that, she was known under a codename RISE gave her, Silva (or maybe Siva; the pronunciation in the middle wasn’t clear).

Cassandra reveals that your little brother Christmas will one day try to climb the Great Pyramid too. You can’t possibly change that fate, but if you comply with what she asks for, she will give him a chance to escape death. And so you come up with a riddle that only a member of the Mizuno family can solve: “If a new year started just after Christmas, when would the Pyramid be built?”

The true meaning of the riddle is that Christmas Mizuno was born on New Year’s Eve, just before the new year started, and you, Pyramid Mizuno, was born on Christmas Day. Therefore the answer is “Christmas”.

As someone who helped a criminal, you don’t feel worthy of being a detective. You decide how to solve this moral dilemma by thinking of your uncle Mamoru, who seems to always without a fail bet on the wrong horse at the derby.

You become a pitiful detective who always, without fail, guesses everything wrong.

The truth is, you are able to uncover the solution to any crime faster than anyone else around you. You just always say the opposite thing on purpose. It’s a wonder nobody notices the truth, really. Nobody knows that you are the single best detective around, just wearing the mask of a loser to atone for your sins.

--

When you visit the Pyramids together, Christmas says that he wants to join JDC too, like he once promised his friend Souya. You tell him to work on his problem with directions first, and he laughs that at least he doesn’t get lost on his way to solutions like you do. He says that he’d like to try climbing the Great Pyramid one day.

“Keep on living, Christmas,” you say. “You are different than me. Don’t get lost on the way of life. Never give up! I will always be praying for your safety, and for your heart to still shine brightly among the dark world.”

Whenever he will look at the Pyramids, he will remember you, and you will be revived inside his heart—and whenever he wanders lost, he shall never give up and reach his goal, protected by your undying love.

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[linkspooky]

An answer to this ask sent to me by desmondneedshisscalpel.  Okay, so keeping spoilers up to chapter 40 because I don’t want to spoil the whole series for some people. Basically, thematically both Krone and Mama are examples of failed adults in a narrative that is primarily about children growing up in a world where they’re not allowed to grow up on their own terms or even live.

SPOILERS UP TO CHAPTER 40 FOR THOSE WHO JUST WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE ANIME. 

Before I get into the thematic ramifications of this let’s analyze their names. Mama Isabella and sister Krone! We’re introduced to Mama as the perfect loving mother figure. Somebody who is a mother figure to everybody in the orphanage out of selfless devotion and executes perfect maternal care. 

See, the mother, the matron and the crone. (Man almost like Sister Krone’s name is referrring to something specific) is an idea in Jungian psychology. Jung in analyzing common themes of mythology noticed a pattern on how female goddesses tended to present themselves. An archetype, or archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective subconscious. Characters we’re all meant to recgnize that show up in stories agian and again. Right now in the panel above, Mama Isabella is acting as a “Mother FIgure” or a “Mother and Child” motife of interaction that most people will recognize on sight because they’re trained to recognize that archetype. 

So we get to the triple goddess archetype, the mother, the matron, and the crone. 

n 1949 Jung and Kerényi theorized that groups of three goddesses found in Greece become quaternities only by association with a male god. They give the example of Diana only becoming three (Daughter, Wife, Mother) through her relationship to Zeus, the male deity. They go on to state that different cultures and groups associate different numbers and cosmological bodies with gender.  "The threefold division [of the year] is inextricably bound up with the primitive form of the goddess Demeter, who was also Hecate, and Hecate could claim to be mistress of the three realms. In addition, her relations to the moon, the corn, and the realm of the dead are three fundamental traits in her nature. The goddess's sacred number is the special number of the underworld: '3' dominates the chthonic cults of antiquity.

So obviously we see in relationship to the children around them, we have one person presnting themselves as the perfect mother figure, and the other presents herself as the dangerous, suspect woman, the crone in sister Krone. This entirely has to do with the fact that these women are not acting as themselves, they’re playing a role assigned to them by the system they are in. It present even in their naming (Isa Bella) the beautiful mother, and Sister Krone the suspicious crone who is not a mother quite yet and therefore a crone sly and conniving trying to prove herself. It’s literally referred to in cover art, that both of these women were only playing a role assigned to them in a tragedy. Pick a role, be faced with doing something you do not want to do, and then cry. 

So now that that is out of the way onto thematic talk. So, the heart of the entire series is Emma, and we’re supposed to believe Emma’s beliefs are the right one and Emma’s primary belief is that no matter what you should fight against the cirucmstance you’re in, and not only that you shouldn’t only fight to save yourself but you should fight to save everyone around you. Realism, survival, that comes seconds to the ideal of saving everyone. If the situation is weihted against you you should fight to overcome it. In the very first chapter, Emma sees that she’s alone in the world, that no adults are going to help them and they’re up against monsters they can’t possibly understand and her first insinct is not to escape for herself, or just herself, norman and ray her two most precious people but instead they all have to survive and they all have to escape on their own and rise to ovecome the system. Of course Emma possesses and extraordinary and naive amount of optimism, but Emma is the heart of the series she’s the one who carries the message we’re supposed to read and the ideals the protaognists are fighting for. 

Those ideals are: You can’t give up. You can’t give up on yourself, or others, and even if the entire world is fighting against you you still have to fight back with everything you have not only for your sake but the sake of others around you.

In a truly shonen sense of the word, The Promised Neverland is about not giving up. 

The children with little to no help from adults are fighting against an unkind world, that is rigged against them, and encourages at every aspect for not only for them to not be seen as human but for others around them to not be seen as human. Every single character is present in a dehumanizing system.

The adults are those who have given up and simply decided to play as a cog in the system. They’re playing their roles without challenging it, because they’ve given up and only started to care about their own survival. The most important part to remember is that every single adult that is currently a part of the plantation system like Mama and Krone started out as kids in the plantation. 

They come from the same background as Emma, they thought they were living happy lives only to find out that they were just cattle being raised and the adults that loved them were actually manipulating them. They all reacted to this revelation and realized that the entire world was going to try to kill them and had already dehumanized them and seen them as cattle. 

So every adult is also in a sense, trying to survive the same way Emma is. The difference being that Emma’s ideals are transcendent, she wants to fight back against the system and also provide a better life for the others around her. The adults have stopped thinking about others surviving the system, they’ve given up fighting in any significant way and instead care only for their self survival and therefore they condemn others to the same cruel fate they once went through themselves.

So Isabella and Krone are just performing in roles, they’ve been utterly dehumanized by the system to fit that role but they also had a choice in this thought a weighted choice in that and they only chose to fight back in ways beneficial to their own survival. They were broken by the system and gave up. They’re adults in age and name only, they never truly grew up and tried to trasncend their situation in any way. They’re still cattle in a way, they’re just sheep dogs instead of sheep themselves. 

The story argues again and again that while Emma’s ideal is highly idealistic, it’s the ideal people should be striving for. 

That they should start by thinking they want everyone to escape and work their way from their, even if it’s insane, even if it’s risky. if the world is rigged against them then they have to change the world.

That’s how the trio has always functioned, it’s Emma’s ideals that drive them, Norman tries to get Emma and Ray’s different ideals to get along and make Ema’s ideals a reality, and Ray is the cyncial one who will sacrifice himself and do the dirty work.

The manga argues that this is the right way to think, the views of every antagonist is challenged against Emma’s view that if the world is wrong they should chane it, and you should start by doing everything in your power to save everyone around you and work from there. 

So we see what is revealed in Krone and Isabella’s flashbacks. They were raised in the same system, but they chose instead of trying to escape the system or reform it, to just thrive inside the system by stepping on those around them. Krone and Isabella’s reactions even then are different. Krone sees this as a compettition and that she has to directly destroy Isabella in order to take her place, she doesn’t really even factor in the children she’s taking care of except as pawns. 

Even these adults who have given up fight back against the system in their own way, but the adults are self absorbed and really only care about making their own stand. Their own survival becomes their top priority. For Krone, she absorbed the lessons of the system around her to “compete” “Compete” she gave up on the idea of escape and instead chose to fight with Isabella for the more comfy position of Mama. Even though in the end she’d still be a victim of the same system, just a victim with slightly more power over other victims. In the end her way of fighting back only thinks about her own survival, and she’s also given up on the idea of escape a long time ago instead taking the lesson that she could not escape to heart. Krone genuinely viewed the only thing she could do was struggle until death, that it was the only thing she could accomplish with her meager life born into this terrible system.

Then we get the second failed adult Isabella and she’s actually given a lot more depth to her character in the final moments of her arc. First once again the mention that they’re acting and putting on roles, and what Isabella considers the performance she’s given to the children as a separate entity from the real Isabella.

However, the lens that she’s just acting, the lens that this is a tragedy where she has to perform a role that’s all just a narrative that she’s imposed herslef on reality to distance herself form her own actions. The truth is you become the mask, both of those things are the real Isabella. The kind motherly figure that tended to the children, the cold woman who manipulated the children, those are both actions that she took, those are choices she made. You are in the end the summary of all your actions and choices. However, Isabella was so good at becoming a part of this system she was able to compartmentalize herself like that, and assume that all of those different parts of her was just different roles she was assuming.

The thing is Isabella isn’t lying here, and that’s what makes her actions all the more horrifying and also all the more human. What Isabella advocates is the opposite of the themes of the manga, and the opposite of the ideals Emma gives. That they should be complacent and accept their ignorant, happy lives, because that’s the only way they can be happy. They should just try to hoard that small amount of happiness instead of fighting a battle that they would lose.Once again what Isabella advocates for is giving up and only focusing on your own personal happiness for as long as it can last because the world is too tough to fight against. 

And Norman advocates the opposite of that. That they have a right to live, that it’s wrong for them to be born to die as cattle.

As we go further on we see more and more of Isabella’s intentions. Her love for the children isn’t a lie, she actually did care for Emma, and she showed that care by wanting Emma to survive in the only way she knew how to survive. She’s advocating they give up like she did, because she genuinely has given up to the point where she doesn’t think there is escape or survival. Her attempts to groom them into cattle are really just her believing that them making the same mistakes she did and giving up as she did is the only way to move forward. 

Again and again, the adults encourage the children to stop struggling against their situation, to instead care for their own feelings, their own survival, to stop thinking and let their minds be at ease because there’s nothing to gain from that struggle. But that’s not the truth, that’s just the path the adults chose to take. That’s just them projecting their failures onto the children. 

Why does Isabella so perfectly switch between being a caring mother figure and a ruthless manipulator, it’s because she’s given up and stopped thinking about it entirely. She doesn’t feel her emotions, she doesn’t think about what she wants, she just acts as a cog in the system, without hesitaiton, without faltering, because those are what a human does and she’s stopped seeing herself as human a long time ago.

In this manga giving up is the ultimate evil. It’s what leads the victims to become victimizers and we finally see that in Isabella’s reveal.Isabella was Ema, not only that but she had a Norman, she realized the truth of this world early and gave up.

Isabella and Emma are presented with the exact same situation, not only that but they’re a heart very similiar people. They’re geniuses who despite being smart tend to only think about things with their emotino and at their heart are driven by the loe they have for life and the people around them. Isabella genuinely loves the children and thinks this is all that she can do for them, and that’s what makes her all the more monstrous. Because isabella and Emma were both shown the wall, shown escape was impossible  and given a choice on how to react, and Isabella chose to give up and Emma didn’t.

And here we see it the ultimate challenge to Isabella’s quiant little ideology, that this was all she could do, that there was nothing to fix this world and nothing she could have done to make the situation better.

If that was so. If that was so. Then why did she give birth to Ray?  She’s Ray’s biological momther which means she made him into a victim of this system, and she chose to have him born into the exact same world that she sees no escape from its fundamental evil. 

At that moment Isabella’s act falls apart and we see true emotions on her face, the ones she was suppressing all along for the first time in the series. Just like the rest of them no matter how much she dehumanizes herself to play a role in this system was undeniably human as well. 

And the answer of course is that as much as Isabella does genuinely love others, in the end she was only thinking about herself and her own survival. 

And the resolution of Isabella’s character is that she admits she was wrong, that she lost. Her deepest desire really was to love those children normally, but if she had thought of something other than her own survival then she could have aided in their escape. She could have been a proper adult to those children as we see later on in the series, real adults who do learn that exact lesson and learn to put children and others first before themselves. 

Isabella is a victim in the same sense as Emma, but she chose to give up and create more victims rather than fight for others, because in the end she was only concerned about herself. And because of that she admits. 

That her love was twisted. That she did nothing for those children in the end. She was denied her most fundamental wish that she could not love them normally because she did not choose to fight for those children but rather herself. 

If she had not given up, if she had been convinced not to give up even now, then imagine what a great ally she could have made for their escape. However that’s not the woman we see at the end of this arc. 

Just a woman whose thoroughly given up and lamenting the fact that she could not be any better than the system that made her in the end. 

[noxus-the-venomous-blog]

Part 1.02 Fix Them

“I recognize this neighborhood,” Tranquil remarked as she stared out the passenger window. She was tired and each passing light post contributed to her delirium.

“You should, you lived here at some point,” Noxious commented while glancing over at her. She saw his face briefly as a rushing streetlight spread a quick flicker of light into the enlarged van windows. She smiled, she doesn't get to see his face often anymore.

“I worked all day, what do you expect?”

“Don't remind me...” he said with a stale gaze in his eyes, pretending to be extra focused and unable to face her again while speaking. “I hate that you have to go do that.”

“It’s a paper pushing job, you’re talking like I’m selling my body for scratcher tickets.” She smiled and looked back to the street, small memories of the neighborhood starting to come back to her.

“No it's a good job I just hate that you have to work. Each day that you have to go work is a result of me not doing what I need to do. After The Conduit robbed that rickety bank him and his boyfriend went into the work full time. They were both making fun of me outside that shady pawn shop that makes my wrist launcher…”

“Awh what did they say?” Tranquill was balancing on the teetering point between compassion and a violent mother hen.

“His boyfriend said you’re made up and that my only girlfriend is a can of bug spray,” Noxious mumbled, glancing down at the shifter. His hand was resting on the top but covering it on the side with his thumb. His last car had a button there to engage shifting but this older van did not. He corrected it quickly, relaxing his grip in a shape more fitting to the round chrome ball then focused again on the road.

Tranquill huffed and waved a hand, “screw short circuit, that ratty little dork has no idea what he’s doing half the time. He has a power and can barely pull off an unguarded bank job.”

Noxious’ eyes darted between her and the road. “I just… Once I'm ready to pull in more cash grab jobs you can quit then we can work together on this. I’m getting closer there’s just a lot of testing and a big learning curve.” He readjusted in his seat “That’s why i brought you out here. Remember that uncle you’re always complaining about?”

“Yeah,” she said as her eyes glazed over slightly, she forgot to breathe for a moment, “yeah what about him?”

“That's who were going to see.”

“Why?” she asked sharply with a grit to her voice, “that guy’s an ass. He used to scare the hell outta me as a kid and we never really met a lot as adults.”

“Yeah well, why did he scare you?”

“Just his temper. He was always yelling at his wife and us kids and he always seemed like he was about to throw a punch. He’d back us into corners just screaming ‘till the tears kicked in.”

“Well sure but why do people do that? No one just becomes a raging lunatic overnight. Sometimes hatred and aggression is passed down through years of abuse. Did you know he used to hit his wife? I dug up some police reports,” Noxious stated proudly.

Her stomach sank. “I guess I always figured.”

“But what you didn't figure was his dad used to hit his mom. And him. His dad dislocated his arm yanking him off a bike in the seventies. You know how hard you have to hit a kid to get a police report filed in the seventies?” Noxious explained with more glee and pride in the investigation he had done, oblivious to how uncomfortable it was making Tranquill feel, “so he was raised in a violent household as the victim and now he victimizes others. I did some recon 6 months ago and caught him in the act of hitting the woman he’s staying with. I think his wife, anyways, were almost here.”

“What did you do…?” Tranquill asked, her voice cracking, knowing no good answer could come from that question.

“I fixed him.” he said as he pulled the car over into the sickeningly familiar driveway. He took a moment placing his hood and gasmask on, securing each strap slowly and then loosening it to attempt to secure it again at a better position. Tranquil watched in shock, wondering if all of this was a dream or some nightmare she had conjured out of catharsis. She stepped out of the car and made her way for the door, him catching up by the time she reached it. She wanted to turn around and leave this horrible place, this menacing feeling, but before she could run off he knocked on the door. There was a silent moment until he broke it unceremoniously. “Heh… Knock this. Noxious. Nox….ious…..knock….this…”

The door opened.

“Hello welcome to the…. Wait a moment”

The uncle spoke then paused. His eyes were clouded and unable to focus on Noxious or Tranquill. He lost himself deep in thought as he stared at her. “You look really familiar. Did you used to live in this neighborhood?”

“I… No. No i didn't...” she was lost in the moment of the false face and words he was giving. His voice was different, his tone different. Softer, more aloof, more distant… calmer? But also stupider.

“You look like Cindy,” the older man stated, incorrectly digging through his broken memory for a relatable name.

“Can we come in? It’s cold out here” Noxious said trying not to ugly smile despite his face being completely covered.

“Yeah no problem. Who did you say you were again?”

“We’re Cindy’s friends. She wanted us to see how you’re doing.” He walked past the man and drug tranquil by the hand into the man's house and towards the bedrooms.

“Cindy was a nice girl.” The uncle deadpanned and waited by the door for them.

Once they had arrived at the bedroom Noxious pulled open a few drawers then eagerly turned to Tranquill “Ok so the top left one here? Used to be filled with whiskey. Like always. The top right one is where he hid the bottles. Just like his dad, he found the fuel of his rage in alcoholism. Now look in there.”

She moved to the dresser and stared into the drawers. Nothing but stacks of papers.

“He has a full time job now. He’s been off the sauce for weeks and he hasn’t missed a single day. Come this way.” He dragged her onward through the small house and into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator “Look at that. All good foods and ingredients. Him and her have been cooking together.”

Her? Tranquill’s hair began to stand as she glanced over to the corner where she saw her aunt sitting. She was so still and so quiet she had gone unnoticed until now. The sight of her gave Tranquill a jump-scare. Noxious then grabbed the gallon of milk from the fridge and walked over to the aunt. Tranquill stared at him “What did you do?” she said softly “What is wrong with her?”

“Besides kidney stones? Nothing. Nothing now anyway. Before i intervened she was struggling with depression and trauma.” He kneeled down and placed a hand on the aunt’s shoulder. “How are you feeling today Barbra?” Her name was not in fact Barbra.

“It’s Terry sweetie, we've been over this. I'm doing ok i was just sitting here thinking about my childhood.”

“Are you happy Terry? How have you been feeling today?” Noxious said holding the older woman’s hand

“I feel wonderful. Summer is around the corner and i'm going to plant sunflowers. I used to love sunflowers so much as a child...” she prattled on.

The uncle had joined the room and thus the conversation “They’re friends of Cindy the old neighbor girl. They’ve come here to see how we’re doing. “

Terry raised an eyebrow. “No silly Cindy wasn't the neighbor girl she was your brothers’ child. Remember they would stay with us in the summertime”

Tranquill’s curiosity and fear walked hand and hand as she watched them fumble with thoughts and half truths. The name was wrong but the rest was starting to add up.

“Well we best be going. Want us to send Cindy your love?”

The uncles eyes became sad. “I wonder if she ever forgave me.”

“What?” Tranquill blurted, not intending for it to be out loud.

The uncle continued, “I don't think she ever forgave me. She lived at the neighbor’s house with this mean old sun of a bitch. The guy used to drink heavily and just scream all the time. She would sit outside with the sunflowers and pick their petals off one by one. She didn't think i saw her. She was always crying and i never did anything about it. I watched this mean old brute just brow beat her with cruel words day and night and i never did a damn thing. All i did was watch as it got worse and worse. She knew it was my fault too. I never meant to yell and never meant to hurt anyway i just didn't know how to treat people. Every day my life would get worse and all i did was keep digging my pit deeper and deeper so i could drag everyone down with me.”

“No use dwelling on it honey,” his wife said as she placed his hand on hers, “it's in the past now.”

“You’re right. What was i talking about?”

“Cindy”, noxious chimed in.

“Oh yeah. I just hope she knows i cared. I remember she was the girl across the street but she lived with this mean old man who always yelled at her… Hey ya know you look just like her. Doesn't she terry? I've never seen her without tears in her eyes but i'll be damned if you don't have her nose,” he looped on.

“We really do have to go now. Remember to live well,” noxious said as he guided tranquill out of the home and back into the van, “So… What do you think?”

She immediately began to cry. A flood of emotions and memories caused her nose to clog, her eyes to water and her shoulders to rattle slightly. She then took his hand and removed the glove to hold her skin against his “Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what you did but thank you.”

“I fixed them. Just a few small doses over a long period of time. Best part is i haven't dosed them in 2 weeks and they’re still making more and more progress. I think they just understand how to be happy now.”

“I just… His memory was so shot but… He seemed so happy. I've never seen him happy before, i've never seen my aunt smile i've never felt good in their house until now.”

Noxious smiled wide as he slowly took the mask off and pulled out of the driveway

She continued, “will there memories come back? They seemed so loopy.”

“Not sure if that’s a side effect or result of age. I need more testing.”

Her eyes widened. “Yes. I know others. We have to fix them all” she placed his hand on his atop the shifter. “Let's fix the world.”

                                       super secret ending

the conduit stepped out of the the small car and approached the super market. he was interrupted by the loud harsh voice of tranquil from across the parking structure . she held up a bat “HEY SHORT CIRCUT YOU FAT F*** GET OVER HERE!!!”

[acsversace-news]

For the second episode of American Crime Story season 2, we're going back two months to see what Andrew was doing in Miami before killing Gianni Versace, as well as what the FBI WASN'T doing. There are payoffs to things that were set-up in the first episode (the pawn shop and Max Greenfield's Ronnie) and a lot of set-up for future episodes. While Cunanan's disturbing psychology is interesting and gives this episode a fantastic ending, the other storylines seem a little too trite. Gianni Versace continues to be portrayed as a saintly, flawless human being while the show emphasizes how many times his murder could've been prevented if not for bad FBI work, gay shame and loud club music. Gianni's Health Scare The episode begins in March 1994 when Gianni visits a hospital and though it's not made explicit, the implication is that he's HIV positive and getting treatment. This leads to more details on the rift between Gianni's sister Donatella and his partner Antonio. She blames him for Gianni's illness because he sleeps around, but they agree to be civil for Gianni's sake. Antonio challenges Donatella by insisting that he's not a villain and Gianni isn't a saint. That's almost laughable, because throughout these first two episodes Gianni Versace is depicted as being quite saintly, a flawless genius who is friendly to everyone and even complains about the models for his runway show being too thin. The show's portrayal of Gianni Versace is more like the idealistic, romanticized version of him that exists in Andrew Cunanan's mind. After the murder in 1997, Gianni's body is cremated and Donatella flies his remains back to Italy, lamenting the fact that he died like this after what he survived. The whole opening sequence is a little too on-the-nose, a bit sterile and forced as the show takes us through every little detail of the remains being boxed up. Andrew Comes to Miami In the episode's third time jump, we're in May of 1997, two months before the assassination. Andrew drives south in the red pick-up truck the cops found in the first episode. He hears a news report about how he's the prime suspect in the murder of Lee Miglin (a tease for next week's episode). 

Andrew goes to a hotel to get a room and turns on the charm and the lies, using a fake French passport and rambling on about being a fashion student hoping to talk to Gianni Versace. He gets his seedy room and goes right to Versace's mansion, but the door is locked, naturally. He buys a camera and takes a ton of photos of the mansion, stalking his victim and obsession. Andrew Makes a Friend Andrew befriends another guest at the hotel, Ronnie (New Girl's Max Greenfield), the guy we saw at the end of the premiere who denied knowing Andrew. Ronnie is an HIV positive drug addict who has lived a hard life and is just trying to enjoy his final years. Andrew continues his habit of being whoever he needs to be with whoever he's with, claiming he worked for an AIDS charity in California. He also reveals that both his best friend and the love of his life died earlier this year (again, a tease for future episodes). While taking an outdoor shower after stripping down to skimpy pink briefs, Andrew waxes poetic about how Versace proposed to him, but he declined and they're still friends. Andrew goes on and on about what a brilliant creator Versace is and how he's the man that Andrew could've been. This is turning into Amadeus, if Salieri wasn't a rival composer, but just some delusional nut job. Andrew Makes Some Money Andrew needs money, so he spies an old man looking at him on the beach and approaches him. They go back to the man's hotel room and things get very disturbing. The man wants to be submissive, so Andrew wraps his entire head with duct tape, even his eyes and his mouth so the man can't breathe. Andrew dances around in his skimpy underwear, ordering the man to accept his helplessness as he struggles to tear off the tape to try and breathe. Once the man finally stops struggling, Andrew jams a pair of scissors into his mouth to make a hole in the tape so he can finally breathe. In the aftermath, Andrew enjoys some room service as the man seems absolutely terrified for his life. When Andrew leaves the man locks the door and calls 911, but he looks at his wedding ring and doesn't say anything. The shame of being a closeted homosexual prevents him from reporting Andrew's clearly psychotic behavior. With the money he earned, Andrew and Ronnie buy some drugs and get high. Ronnie fantasizes about starting a flower shop together while Andrew wraps his own head in duct tape, an obvious metaphor for his desire to completely obscure who he truly is. The Manhunt The show offers even more evidence that the FBI really dropped the ball on this investigation. Two months before the murder the FBI comes to Miami under the theory that Andrew , who has already killed four people and is on the 10 Most Wanted List, is heading there. The local detective (Orange Is the New Black's Dascha Polanco, who we met last week) wants to canvas the gay bars and hand out flyers, but the FBI insists that the flyers aren't ready and that Andrew's M.O. is going after older, closeted gay men, so they shouldn't waste their time on gay clubs. The detective decides to photocopy the FBI's flyer herself and hangs one up, but it's mostly covered by the end of the episode. We also see Andrew going to the pawn shop from the first episode and cashing in a gold coin. The woman is suspicious of him and looks at her bulletin board of wanted posters, but those flyers are still in the FBI dude's trunk. These scenes really hammer home the idea that the local detective was a brilliant heroine who probably could've prevented Versace's death if not for the FBI's total incompetence. This season may be a lot of things, but subtle isn't one of them. "Life Is Precious" A little over a week before the assassination, Versace has a runway show and he complains about how the models are too thin. Donatella criticizes him for not being cutting edge and modern, which is costing them magazine covers. Gianni, however, is simply happy to still be alive. He doesn't want to make dark and morbid clothes like Donatella wants, he wants to celebrate the joy of life because it's special. At night Gianni sketches some new designs while Antonio has sex with another man in their bed right next to him. Antonio asks Gianni to join, but he just tells Antonio to have fun. The next morning Antonio says he doesn't want to sleep with other guys anymore, he wants to marry Gianni. But Gianni thinks he only says this in the morning, not at night. The Night Before On the night before the assassination, Andrew is walking past the Versace mansion and sees Gianni. With proof that he's there, Andrew rushes back to his hotel to grab his gun and all of his stuff, ready to commit the murder. Andrew runs off, but first he gives Ronnie some money and tells him that if anyone ever asks if they were friends, Ronnie will say "No." Andrew grabs some dinner, but the server recognizes him from America's Most Wanted and calls the cops. In the funniest scene of the episode, this heroic bystander, who is black, describes Andrew as "the white guy who killed four other white guys." Andrew flees just before the cops arrive. Also that night, Gianni and Antonio go out to a gay club and Andrew shows up too once he sees that the lights are off in the Versace mansion. However, they don't cross paths and when the couple leaves, Antonio still insists that he doesn't want this anymore, he just wants to marry Gianni. Back at the club, Andrew dances with a guy who asks what he does. "I'm a serial killer," Andrew says, borrowing a line from American Psycho. The music is too loud so the guy doesn't hear him. "I said I'm a banker," Andrew adds, the start of an epic delusional monologue. "I'm a stockbroker, I'm a shareholder, I'm a paperback writer, I'm a cop, I'm a Naval officer, sometimes I'm a spy. I build movie sets in Mexico and skyscrapers in Chicago. I sell propane in Minneapolis, I import pineapples from the Philippines. I'm the person least likely to be forgotten. I'm Andrew Cunanan." For all of its flaws, that's a brilliant way to end an episode.

[dyedmaxiian]

So I’ve just finished doing ‘Open Season’ again for Nuka World ( I can’t bring myself to do the bad ending bc I suck don’t @ me ), and I’ve come to the realization that WHILE Nuka World is full of raiders, Jamie has varying opinions on them that can determine why Jamie reacts the way he does:

First, lets talk about the gangs as a whole:

THE OPERATORS: Ultimately, the Operators are probably the gang Jamie can tolerate THE MOST. Yes, he still cannot stand them, but Mags is the most clearly level headed of the Gang leaders. She tempers William with her collected demeanor and in his mind, should there EVER be an instance where the Nuka World Raiders have to survive, Mags to him would likely be the easiest one to negotiate with. On the whole their entire vibe does kinda rub him the wrong way, and Lizzie & William don’t exactly sit well with him, so he wouldn’t shed a tear if they ended up wiped out, but from a tactical stand point he figures they’d be the EASIEST to deal with because their motives are telegraphed rather obviously and so Jamie doesn’t really have a problem exploiting those telegraphed desires to keep them from misbehaving. 

THE PACK: He’s not a huge fan of them either, but he figures with the right amount of pressure they’ll behave. To him they’re really just like any other raiders, granted he’s not a fan of the animal cruelty and the slavery is 100% a problem, but in the way of strong personalities, Mason is STRONG, but Jamie has confidence that the leadership in the Minutemen are far stronger and as a result he wouldn’t be above a little aggressive behavior to make sure the Pack continues to follow the rules, otherwise they’re effectively going to be put down. Essentially they’re just in need of a VERY tight leash, which Jamie would have no problem exercising. Ultimately, the Pack is the weakest of the three gangs in his mind and while the Operators would be the easiest to STEER, the Pack would be the easiest to actively control because they seem to answer to STRENGTH. Which isn’t really unlike the Brotherhood in a couple of ways.

THE DISCIPLES: This is the gang that will NEVER be able to survive so long as Jamie lives. If they’re alive, Jamie actively plots to wipe them out. They’re subhuman to him, they don’t have the rights of people, and in a lot of ways Jamie views them as little more than wild animals that need to be euthanized as quickly as humanly possible. They’re basically hungry predators and to Jamie, there’s no worse sin than active craving for cruelty, and so Jamie makes wanton efforts to have them wiped off the face of Nuka World. Canonically if it were up to him, he openly talks about wanting to hog tie them all, douse their entire base in kerosine, and barricade them inside while the whole place burns to the ground. Jamie has no sympathy, care, or really any semblance of empathy for his ‘fellow man’ when it comes to the Disciples, and he RELISHES watching them limp away while they get chased and hunted down like the parasites they are.

Now for the Gang’s LEADERS:

MAGS BLACK: As ironic as it may sound, Mags Black might actually be Jamie’s favorite raider. It’s not necessarily a high bar to set, but she’s the most civilized and collected of all the raider gang leaders, and while he doesn’t condone her actions, when the truth about who she is is investigated by the Sole Survivor, he DOES hint that he at least has some understanding of why she does what she does. It doesn’t mean he agrees with her actions, but of all the gang leaders, she is the ONLY one he can actually understand and to some very small extent relate to. He also admires, though he wouldn’t admit it, how she leads with a calm & civilized demeanor. Raider or not she can to some extent be negotiated with which means in terms of a tactical setting she can be reasoned with and perhaps even manipulated into acting in accordance with the greater interest of the Commonwealth.

WILLIAM BLACK: While some very small shred of dignity is given to Mags from Jamie, the same cannot be said for her brother. To Jamie, William is little more than a trigger happy pawn. He doesn’t think for himself, he doesn’t act for himself. He listens to his sister and that’s ultimately the end of it, and for Jamie there’s little worse than someone who is a blind follower. In fact, Jamie rather enjoys reminding William that he ISN’T anything more than a pawn in Mags’s game of control, and to him the Operators would be fine whether William was or WAS NOT there. In Jamie’s mind, William is little more than an errand boy kept in line by his sister.

LIZZIE WYATH: While Jamie can recognize that Lizzie is a talented chemist, she is despicable to him. She is a PRIME example of everything that’s wrong with the Institute, and most scientists who now inhabit the Commonwealth. She’s using science for gross personal gain, and one that would otherwise violate human rights at their core. Her work is disgraceful to science as a field in his mind and she is the kind of person who should be ‘crucified’ for her actions as a scientist for the sole reason that she’s trying to make hollow headed servants out of everyone around her that isn’t in her gang.

MASON: Mason is honestly viewed as VERY LITTLE of a threat by Jamie. He is the head of a very fragile gang that relies solely on strength and in Jamie’s eyes, as long as Mason is kept in line by someone “stronger and meaner” than him, the Pack won’t ever become a problem. Jamie thinks it’s almost ENDEARING that Mason acts rough and tough to maintain his position, and upon first meeting him if the Sole Survivor doesn’t perform the ‘dominance’ speech check, Jamie will in turn do so. He doesn’t really view Mason as a threat, and ultimately Jamie does believe that so long as SOMEONE is capable of asserting dominance over Mason, then he really isn’t an issue.

NISHA: Unlike most of the Gang leaders, Jamie finds LITTLE TO NO redeeming qualities in Nisha beyond the fact that she’s the one who keeps the disciples in line. Outside of that Nisha is a COCKROACH just like the rest of the raiders to Jamie. She needs to be snuffed out and really her intense desire for blood and death causes Jamie to utterly disdain her, especially because of the fact that she is so fervent on ensuring that the Disciples continue to seek out blood and killing as a means of keeping the gang happy. She’s little more than a rabid animal to Jamie and he has an intense desire to see her die painfully.

DIXIE: Similarly to Nisha, Jamie views Dixie as beyond having any value. She’s psychotic, clearly and Jamie notes that Dixie is the kind of person who reminds him of an animal who is beyond aid and instead must be euthanized. He even at one point muses that should the Sole Survivor decide to kill Dixie that it should be extremely painful as the only way for someone like her to truly die righteously is to have to endure copious amounts of pain so she can truly grasp what her victims have dealt with. If the Disciples are killed, Jamie personally searches for and hunts down Dixie before he ‘handles her’ himself. He doesn’t go into detail about what he actually does, all he states is that he made sure she was BEGGING before she died.

SAVOY: Similarly to how Jamie views William, Savoy to Jamie is little more than an errand boy for Nisha. He doesn’t really care about him one way or another and he’d see him die screaming just like the rest of the Disciples. Ultimately it’s Savoy’s ridiculous loyalty to Nisha that kinda is the nail in the coffin for him in Jamie’s eyes, and Jamie suspects that ultimately being so fiercely loyal to Nisha will end up in his DEATH one day.