#some ppl were like ''i think it's tech'' and everyone's like ''it's obviously NOT tech..of course it's cody?!!'' hgfdfghjkl

[robotsandramblings]

it's also so interesting to me to see reddit vs tumblr takes on Bad Batch stuff

so while 95% of us here on tumblr are certain that Clone "X-2" is Tech, it's the opposite on TBB reddit episode discussions

i'd say about 85% of them are certain it's Cody, and another 10% think it's a clone of Crosshair.

it's just... so interesting to see the differing (and strongly held) views of different fans 😏🤓

((and when i say "certain," i mean both parties are like really, it's-SO-obviously-him, certain about it lol. reddit is just as strongly convinced it's Cody as tumblr is with Tech!)

[sadiecoocoo]

Sooooo I just noticed another difference between morty and evil morty…

Whenever evil morty is in a fight, he seems calm and collected. He acts like he already knows the ult one of every fight he’s been in. He plans ahead, and knows who he’s fighting so he has no need to worry about losing a fight.

Morty, on the other hand, is a fucking psycho. During the purge episode, he purged like no other. When he destroyed that narnia place at the start of season 5, it was in a blind rage. He doesn’t think before he fights. And sure, he worries before hand cuz that’s just who he is. but when he gets into it, everyone who tries to beat him is FUCKED, especially when Morty has some of Rick’s tech.

Another example would be in the episode with the death crystals. Morty found out that he was in danger and that one of his bullies may actually try to kill him, and did he try to resolve the situation peacefully? No, he stole a bunch of Rick’s tech and obliterated the people who tried to hurt him.

Morty’s even shot Rick before because everyone was insulting him and he couldn’t take it anymore. Of course, it was a fake gun, but it was obviously implied that Morty didn’t know that.

Also not to mention the fact that Morty dominated a fight pit in a post apocalyptic world because he was pissed about his dad leaving. Morty even refused to go back with Rick because he didn’t want to leave the only place where he could get his anger out (there were probably better ways but yknow he’s a teenager and this is Rick and morty where the characters healthy versions of themselves are still pretty fucked up in their own way)

So, what I’m getting at here is that Evil Morty is calculating and weighs his options to get the best outcome that will benefit him. Morty, in a fight or flight situation where he’s been pushed to the edge, fights like the everything he’s ever cared about is on the line with little regard for who he has to kill or hurt to protect himself.

Morty is scary as fuck sometimes

Edit: I keep thinking of different scene where Morty goes fucking insane with a blood lust, so another example would be when he fucked up Ethan’s anatomy and shit because he made Summer feel bad. Ppl rlly need to stop messing with Morty, like that mafia boss in the Jerrick Trap had the right idea…

Another thing, in the Jerrick Trap he felt no remorse when shooting down all those guys in the mafia when he had just spent a few hours of getting to know them (he was probably just making them run errands for him but he was still technically hanging out with them, I mean he played ping pong with at least one of them)

Another edit: there r so many clips of morty loosing his shit and being a murderous psychopath I need to stop editing this every time I think of one lol… but remember the vat of acid stuff? Morty was annoyed that Rick wasn’t listening to him even though mouthy was ultimately right. He was sick of having to sit around in a tub of fake acid waiting for guys that he and Rick could easily kill to leave. So when he finally had enough, he just got out and tried to shoot them.

This child needs so much therapy.

[broodingheroine]

tmagp thoughts (this will be pure nonsense I just need to write it down)

alice is so tim coded

obviously there's a connection anyone can make to the multiple statements abt urban exploration/spelunking in tma and the redcanary forum thread.... it invites the horrors (connection to danny?)

gwen is a ✨️bouchard✨️ (implication that while its a parallel universe the same ppl still exist? supports possibility of spelunking forum thread connecting to danny somehow (not actually super sold on that but seen a lot of ppl mention it so))

colin is definitely going to succumb to the horrors :/ (either first to die OR..... this universes version of an avatar?)

CHESTER AND NORRIS!!!

I'm of the firm opinion that they're jmart BUT! but but but! I do believe they're echoes of who they were, this just so happens to be Somewhere Else.

also! yes I understand that we most likely will Not get any tma characters in any meaningful way in tmagp, however I also believe that alex and jonny couldve very easily.... not...... voiced the text to speeches....... like yeah I dont think we're getting jmart as we knew them but..... come on

also also. the text to speeches got less robot sounding the longer they were reading and it really reminded me of how ppl reading statements would slowly get invested as they were reading and emote as if it were happening to them.

sam is on the archivist (or tmagp equivalent) pipeline already yikes

the turpentine line was raw as fuck. so was the canary one obviously. don't want to beat a dead horse by talking abt that bc so many others have already said it. but! the institute is deadly stay away!!

the sound engineering is god tier I love all the bleeps and bloops

colin knows smth is Watching. inadvertently feeding the eye by being paranoid? does the eye even exist the same way it did in tma?

theres definitely smth to be said abt whether or not robert smirke did his thing the way he did in tma and if anyone in the know uses the same classification or if the oiar is the only group categorizing. the fears always kind of blurred together at certain points so maybe without the human interpretation of it being 14 distinct entities it's more of an..... amalgam?

magnus institute is in a different place which is interesting. if it was built for the same reasons (outside of just research) is there another panopticon esque structure underneath? (brings us back to if smirke was doing his thing)

very curious to see if theres gonna be a leitner books equivalent.

I deeply deeply deeply desire a michaela salesa cameo at some point. he's one of my fav side characters.

sam and gwen using classic horror characters to help him try and memorize the classification categories was very cute

another thing I'm sure everyone has talked abt already but the whole world wide WEB thing and possible jmart in the computers and omg they're in the web and the oiar is part of the web and blah blah blah u get the image.

lena is intriguing to me. my guess is she's going to be a gertrude esque character who knows at least the basics of what's really happening and is trying to put a stop to it.

I havent seen anyone talk abt like...... what IS the magnus protocol. like tma was the archives in the magnus institute. the magnus archives. self explanatory from like ep 1. what the hell is the magnus protocol. is it smth fr3-d1 will run? or the text to speeches? is it tmagp's version of a ritual? using protocol to reference the updated tech from tma? is it smth the actual organization has to run in the event of Something Happening? WHAT THE PROTOCOL WHATS IT FORRRRR

I know nothing abt the ARG shit, just to note that

okay I think that's it for now..... feel free to discuss in the notes lol

[synthetic-sonata]

i just consumed so much sparklecare content and made an au of my oc pink . say hi to razzle (b) dazzle(d)! he is now everyone elses problem.

more info under da cut

he's very similar to uni in some ways, and that isn't intentional i've had pink for a WHILE. they would b good friends tho. i gave him mega-sads instead of ultra mega-sads ( normalest sentence ) just to differentiate. Bc i do not want ppl to call him a clone of uni they are very much diff people just with the same sort of outward flavor.

speaking of which he probably has more afflictions i just didnt know how to sparklecare-ify having ADHD and probable BPD. nor did i rlly want to make terms for it. likely has a physical affliction as well before coming to the hospital i just didn't know what to give him

he has two prosthetics! one prosthetic arm, one leg. yes, this obviously means those two limbs were removed from him somehow. most people assume and theorize the staff at sparklecare did this during a surgery, but... pink gets very dodgy about this topic and never answers it in a clear way.

due to him being very sociable and easy to get along with he's friends with most patients . sort of like a Hospital Celebrity. he's known and he's cool and he's chill so ppl like him.

also i'm not sure if it matters but the bro and scatterbrained art is pulled from the official website, which is prob obvious

his favorite holidays are palentines day and kissmas and its obvious. loves anything associated with love and that whole aesthetic.

either has the default rainbow armband or the ITP band ( he's usually pretty compliant .. mostly out of fear. he does and will join or help escape attempts sometimes tho )

sleeps a lot. possibly narcolepsy possibly just not that ( like. napping a lot or depression naps or naps bc hes dissociating and or understimulated. )

more traits that fit him that i couldn't fit in da sheet:

creative

he's often found doodling idly or singing and making music in his spare time. he's expressed a desire to become an idol or an actor in his future. ( referencing how canon pink/razz is an idol robot lol )

sleazy/flirtatious

honestly this one is a give or take but it's a trait he eventually has. he definitely flirts with people often and casually. whether or not he actually sleeps around is a give or take though because i can see it either way, but, probably. he has an Allure to him. and he's. hypersexual so i mean yea.

egotistical/self-absorbed

this one isn't super bad, but he hypes himself up a lot and compliments himself casually. it's mostly to make him feel better about himself... but he does sometimes put other people down in order to put him up. it's always jokingly, at least... mostly, but it can become a problem later down the line. it doesn't feel good to be called lesser to someone!

tech-savvy

he's probably edited videos and audio a lot. and is or wanted to be a streamer/youtuber.

outgoing/extroverted

outgoing and affectionate are sort of hand in hand for pink. although, he has a very high social battery.... somehow, and is always around people or talking to him. he's also pretty impulsive.

affectionate

sometimes overly so. he'll even be affectionate or call people nicknames who he really should be at odds with - this includes staff. he's incredibly chill with most of the staff, or at least seems to be... giving them all nicknames and talking with them as if they were casual friends ( they aren't ). or it's to annoy them. it's not really clear with razz, ever.

presumably, this is a bad way of coping with how shitty people treat him by acting as if they're his friends - or something.

sensitive ( if you told razzy you hated him or smth he'd take it super personally but he'd come off as not offended but he'd think about it way too much. surprisingly he doesn't do this with like threats. he's numb to threats almost entirely )

conflict avoidant ( mostly explained in chill but they prob should be separate things there just wasnt enough space lol )

soda/sweets junkie

juvenile

he casually swears a lot and says a lot of sex jokes or things like that. Very casually, once again.

dissociative

his response to anything traumatic is usually just being really zoned out and dissociative after - due to this people think he doesn't really have a proper response to trauma. he does! people just don't think the zoning out counts as one! he has others, but he tries to hide any other trauma response for when he's alone.

fear of hospitals/medical stuff/etc

surprisingly, this didn't happen after being admitted to sparklecare, but it very much didn't help. goes hand in hand with claustrophobia and a lot of other fears he won't admit to. he's gotten numb over time. it still messes with him badly, but that mostly shows in the form of him dissociating... or in rare cases, having a panic attack. he only really shows emotion when he's in very very bad mental health or alone. at the very least he has people to talk to - if he didn't, he'd likely have completely broken by now.

thats a lot of things and i could probably find more to describe him but yea. He should prob also be more saturated n simplified but ehhhhhh. My oc my funny my silly he gets to slightly bend rules cuz he isnt in the comic its fiiine.

( plus its kinda symbolic of how many people in universe would see pink as surprisingly mentally well-adjusted and fine considering the situation he's in, which reflects in him not being 100% saturated. but he is. it just doesn't show outwardly )

[hellodeez]

hello! Could I request teenage male reader who's new in the bat family? (or basically batman and his adopted kids, if your not familiar with the term)

Possibly who's more on the mechanical side of helping bruce? Making gadgets n stuff?

A/N: this is kinda bad but I think I'm improving 🤔 Thanks for the request!

Also girlies pls DNI! This is a post for masculine identifying ppl!

Warnings: swearing, being anxious, reader has trouble expressing his emotions a bit, terribly written fic

Batfamily x Male reader

*sigh*

Being a part of the batfamily is something you'd never expect to be a part of but here you are now. It's exciting but nerve wracking at the same time. There's so many family members...Even in such a big place it still feels suffocating from how much people there are.

Being new is weird to say the least. A majority of the family looking at you as if they're studying you like an experiment. "Hey, uh, can you stop that...Damian?" You can barely remember all their names. "Hm" is all they say with a stare that can make anyone drop dead right then and there.

Much like what happened with Jason and how he stole the Bat-Mobiles tires, you managed to break into the car and try and smuggle some of it's tech. Unfortunately for you, Batman just had to be there right before you were about to leave.

         -------flashback--------

"Hell yeah...What does bats have in here?" you say searching through most of his things. You managed to fit some smoke bombs and some spare batarangs in your arms.

You turned your face ready to leave but, you were hit with someone's chest. "Fuck" was all you could say as you felt cold sweat form on your forehead. "How did you get in here?" The one and only Batman asked. "Pfft your security is ass I thought you and your minions were smarter than this." You said trying your best to be intimidating, obviously failing.

That led to the man and his many children interrogating you. "Well what do we do with him? We got what we wanted but we can't just let him leave." Spoiler said. "How 'bout adopt me? I could help you guys y'know" you said somewhat joking and somewhat hoping the man would actually adopt you. "I'll think about it" was all he said.

You worked a lot with the Batman after that almost never with the rest of that batfamily as you were more comfortable with Batman since you met him first. Not being a people person made it difficult to work with the rest of them so you stuck with Batman. After a while, you gained Batman's full trust and eventually he decided to actually take you in as a part of the family.

        -------end of flashback-------

It wasn't that long ago that you got adopted but you'd think everyone would stop making jokes like "looks like Bruce found another stray" or "wonder how long till he becomes the next Robin". You had no interest in becoming a vigilante and would prefer to be the guy in the chair and making gadgets for them. That's why you would stick by Barbara when Bruce wasn't there.

It happened to be Tim's birthday and you didn't know what to get him so as a "surprise" you got him a better utility belt. "Here." You said. "Ah, God! Please don't come up to me like that Y/n. Oh? What's this?" He said. "it's your birthday. Open it." You felt so nervous you didn't know how to communicate whenever you where with the rest of the family. So far you where only friends with Bruce Barbara and Alfred.

You could see Tim open it and reveal the utility belt. "Woah what're all these buttons for.?" Tim was about to press a button that sprays smoke that makes anyone who inhales it uncomious before you smacked his hand away. "Don't press that!" "Um, ow?! What was that for?" You explained to him how the new belt worked and by every world you could his expression sadden more and more. "I'm starting to think you're smarter than me". "Maybe 'causs I am" you sneered and you could Tim smile a bit, probably because he'd never actually seen you smile since you got there.

After that, you stuck around Tim more. You usually hang around Alfred Barbara Bruce and Tim. You and Tim like to discuss topics that revolve around books and ideas for his suit to look better than everyone else's. You usually like to chill with Barbra and take turns being oracle sometimes. Alfred likes to have tea with you when you both have time. You and Bruce usually play chess or discuss ways on how to improve his tech. Sometimes, he'll even try to tell a dad joke because he's heard that dad's make jokes like that so he tell them to you because he wants you to feel like he's your dad.

Being new isn't gonna be easy, especially with Damian, they can be terrifying sometimes. But so far you're having fun, and you're happy being able to call them your family and to call the manor your home.

[mod2amaryllis]

saur..... I've been thinking about becoming a veterinarian technician and is it worth it? I'm so lost and confused but for some reason I look to you for advice. Please help

PHEWWWW boy ok well. listen. here's the- listen

when i meet ppl curious about vetmed, i try to be completely honest, wanna give you the info you won't get from school or a job interview. specifically in small animal general practice (dogs/cats, some exotics) since that's all i've ever done.

first let me outline the negatives because you should really be aware of them: it is one of the hardest jobs. like just in general. i say that after comparing a variety of careers w/ the many working ppl in my life. it is maybe THE hardest, and not for the stereotypical reasons.

the physical labor is very very intense. 10-12 hour shifts on your feet, often zipping around, and if not that you're standing in one place doing mentally strenuous shit (like monitoring anesthesia, charting, drug calculations). you're always bent over something. you're often on the floor. repeatedly lifting 20, 40, 60, 150 pound dogs, or restraining them. i CANNOT overstate how demanding it is. this was the thing that i was least prepared for coming out of school.

it's scary, which sucks because it's vital to be brave lmao. reactive cats/dogs are STRAIGHT UP SCARy but if you're VISIBLY SCARED, they'll be worse. this is the thing i have the hardest time training into new techs.

it's emotionally grueling. most new ppl assume i'm referring to euthanasia--i am absolutely not. euthanasia is something you'll come to your own terms with. (for me, i consider it an honor to be part of something so difficult and personal. i take it very seriously and feel what i feel. some ARE very hard but most are peaceful.) no no no man I'm talking about the often low pay, the endless work load that's seeing a constant rise in demand with a national lack of staff to handle it, the lack of understanding from the general public about what your job is ("i'd love to work with puppies and kittens all day! 🥰"), the bad owners over whom you have very little power, the smell of infection, the rare Truly Traumatizing Case, the fact that you're doing everything dude! everything! you're a nurse of every specialty now and all your patients have sharp teeth and can't talk, congratulations

...............ok

now i will outline the positives

here is the thing. the good news. i'm actually in a cool place w/ my job right now. almost 7 years and a significant cut to my hours later, i'm smiling at work. i'm humming and shit. i'm seeing the reasons i'm still in it, and that's kinda nice.

it's important work. for me this is huge. you're making a positive difference in the world and, more importantly, in your community. i'm lucky enough to work at a vet-owned established practice that has a strong foothold in the area. i greet clients by name and ask them how they've been, and then maybe they ask your name so they can say "well thank you for everything [name] ^^" and that's always cool. it's good work, objectively.

this isn't true for everyone, but for me covid helped me realize that the physicality does have a plus side. while other people were dealing with the horrors of isolation and being sedentary, i was active, i had a routine and constant stimulation. YES this also destroyed my body and mind to some degree, but without it i would've sunk in the other direction. basically: you will be at the very least be stimulated, don't even sweat about that lol.

EMPLOYEE DISCOUNTS BABEY!

and...siiigh Ok Yes There Are A Certain Amount Of Puppies And Kittens.

we're all here cuz we love animals, like no need to mention that as motivation, because yeah man obviously water is wet. for a long time i was jaded about this part of it, the work was just SO stressful that it was hard to focus on anything besides the ways some patients make it harder. but looking back at the grand scope, the MAJORITY of patients are compliant. all of them are there because they have a person who loves them. they are all animals and baby, we love animals. yesterday we did 4 rabbit spay/neuters and they were all so fucking soft dude! i know a mastiff named Olivia who we've done way too many medical procedures on and still, every time she comes in, she's a 100lb bundle of joy and kisses. there's a pair of chihuahuas who come in every 2 weeks for nail trims named Princess and Pumpkin, one is skinny (Pumpkin) and one is fat (Princess). sometimes cats meow in a disgruntled way like they're leaving a bad review after waking up from anesthesia. sometimes there are rats <3333333 !!! i've purred while restraining an angry cat and it's calmed them down. i've said goodbye to patients i loved so much their owners gave me photographs to remember them (i still think about u grumpy Bunnie).

like!!! take heart, there are animals

there you go shit ton of words. i like typing words sorry. just, idk man it's complicated and very fucking hard. it's been a constant up and down, i've almost quit more than once, but ultimately i'm happy i'm still here, because along with some of the hardest times in my life work has provided me many of the BEST things about my life. feeling accomplished and skillful in my career, lasting friendships, healthcare for my animals, straight up most OF my animals (frisk and goose were clinic surrenders, joanie just happened to be the first puppy on petfinder the same day of a very difficult euth that made me go "i have to get a fucking dog")

it's up to you dude. i don't want this to scare you, just equip you for the tubular highs and bogus lows, good luck out there either way

[dianaburnwood]

HITMAN 3: First Impressions

This post is full of SPOILERS. Also, it is LONG, so.... yeah. Be prepared lol 

HITMAN 3. Also known as: Diana’s Game. 

Dear GOD I am in love. 

I’m going to do my best to make this coherent. But. I am still freaking out. And I have SO much more to explore!!!! This won’t be very in-depth because I played each map exactly once so far. There’s so much left to see, conversations to overhear, opportunities to exploit - but, I DO have some first impressions, oh hell yes. 

Menu: 

That menu music!!! I was not expecting that at all. It was a mix of choral and classical with previous themes intertwined, and it reminded me of Blood Money. Speaking of Blood Money, this game is Blood Money. 

Dubai: 

Very, very beautiful. Kinda thought Grey made it all about himself lol of course he wanted to say “in your face” to the partners, but it was like 47 was just there to pull the trigger, like he’d not been hurt by them too. But, I really liked it. Trapping them in a room and watching them freak while Grey watched me kill them?? Helloo??? Popping off HARD from the start and I love it.

So - here’s the thing. I don’t get the timing. Diana tells them then that Edwards escaped. Did he escape just before the boys got to Dubai? Or were they unavailable to reach until then? It seems that the message Grey got at the end of HAVEN was after Olivia hacked the HAVEN servers, and then the boys were out of reach so after Diana discovered Edwards was gone, she couldn’t tell them until Dubai? And it was shown to us in a different order to leave us hanging? I dunno. Maybe? It seems weird. 

THE CUTSCENE here omg - once again establishing that 47 and Diana are ride or die. “Diana will make it right, she always does” - BABE. BABE. SWEET BOY. His little face when Grey doesn’t trust Diana. OMGGG.

Dartmoor: 

I went the murder mystery route, of course. I figured it was Emma from her conversation with her husband, but I got all the clues after just to be sure. Can’t believe Carlisle just handed 47 the file on Edwards and then went out alone on the balcony like I wasn’t gonna kill her??? Bitch????? do you forget who i am?????? Anyway, the murder mystery was SO much fun, but I can’t wait to infiltrate this manor in other ways. Lots of Beldingford vibes here.

THE CUTSCENE bdsfgafhlsjfah WAHT????? Ok so HOW did Edwards know where they were? And - ok, so it made for an amazing scene, but Grey is a badass. He is a mercenary genius that duped the ICA and brought Providence to its knees. How did he get himself surrounded in the woods by CICADA? But he did, and it was beautiful, and he literally only shot himself to save 47, and the LOOK in 47′s eyes on his balaclava face - I just bfjKSFasad. I can’t believe he died so early tho. I was very sure he’d die somehow, but SO early. WOW. 

Berlin:

fucking hell. Berlin. fuck. fucckkkk. 

I wanna shout out to Mini (not gonna tag you in case you’re avoiding spoilers) but hot damn girl if you’re reading you were BANG ON about 47 wearing Grey’s coat. I really didn’t think it was his. It was. It is such a beautiful way for 47 to express his emotions about this death without actually saying anything. Omg. It was perfection. I’m crying thinking about it.

BERLIN was where this game really upped its... game. Like WOW. 5 targets, and it’s the ICA. Clearly Edwards went to the ICA board at this stage and was like uhhhh so you need to take these ppl out. HOWEVER I am amazed that the ICA is like “oh, ok”. DO you not remember what happened in SOUTH DAKOTA. 

But going after the ICA is a fucking trip and I love it. I love how 47 says each agent’s name to himself. I love how he listens in and the team handler realises it. I love how she pulls the rest of her team out once you get 5. I love that the ICA agents use disguises too!!! This is truly APEX PREDATOR and I love that they named it that. Y’all think you have the balls to go up against 47??? bitch?????

But the fact that you have to find the targets and none of them are marked is so fantastic. I found 6, but I have no idea how many are actually available - but I’m gonna find out!!! The club is HUGE as well, and lots of throwbacks to Contracts, especially with the biker gang. Amazing. Amazing level. I’m so excited to replay it. 

Also they really addressed the elephant in the room with the ICA agents describing 47 as a caucasian male, bald, average height and ppl being like uh that’s every man here, and then he said yeah but he’s got this big tattoo lmao 

Chongqing

ok this is where I started to think this game was my fanfiction. Inside the ICA? Showing off how truly international it is, and high tech. Hidden in plain sight. Ready to dismantle in 12 hours if needed. SO perfect. This lore builds on Absolution and Blood Money ICA lore in wonderful ways. 

Also, I don’t know why the IOI and DK of the logo looked different in the trailer, they must have been just hard to make out. Cos in the game, the ICA logo is the same as all previous games. 

Also, analysts do client vetting? Intrigue. Always assumed that was part of the handlers’ job. I take it all back Diana, you have never done anything wrong in your life, ever 

I killed Royce by firing the ppl she recommended so she’d get trapped in the data core cleaning. I killed Hush (what a name I love it) as his patient. 

Working with Olivia is really fun. I missed Diana, but Olivia brought a whole fresh perspective. I also really like how neither Grey nor Olivia are as good as Diana - they both fucked up while guiding 47 at least once. 

47 saying “...I will leave you to prepare” to Olivia, I yelled fdagsfa

Also I love how 47 decided to expose the ICA exactly like Diana did in Absolution. Those two. One of a kind. My heart. And his desire to protect her. I love that the files showed their start together. Olivia saying “I can see why you...” and then she stopped herself. We all KNOW what she was gonna say. 

AND AND AND AND 

the cutscene - I screamed

“47 has one weakness. Me.” 

I swear to fucking GOD, IO has seen into my soul. I’ve said all along that Diana is 47′s weakness, and he is hers. But to hear it said, aloud, by my girl? WHAT???!!!!!

Mendoza

Ok. OK. OKKKKKK. OK. I can’t even write about this one. This was where I was pretty sure I was hallucinating the entire level. This is my Diana and 47 dreams come true. This is insane. This is EVERYTHING.

So we have OUR MOMENT IN THE SUN. She puts her HAND on HIS HAND and he looks in fucking wonderment at it. ahugarhiewEG;FEJGHEFlejlhsgfes;gjrsgt. I can’t. I can barely get through writing about this. 

Diana - the dress, the Jolie thigh slit, the jewellery, the hair (they finally fixed her fucking hair), SASS. “I have tango fever” omg. 

How do these ppl not have a pic of 47 by now lol 

I followed Diana and Vidal around cos I was entranced by my girl. Diana was fucking amazing each time. So much sass. Little did I know I interrupted them enough times for Vidal to say “ok son let’s talk”. I saw the tango and I was like omg imagine if I could dance with Diana. 

well.

WELL. 

Anyway, got to kill Vidal via her own setup for me, and that was amazing. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I snuck into the house to kill Yates, and overheard him calling Edwards’ voicemail. Also, it is April 2021?? So, yeah. My previous dates were way wrong lol. 

And then, ALL MY DREAMS CAME TRUE. Diana and 47 fucking dancing the tango? I was pissed that I was in a security guard outfit, next time I play he will be in his tuxedo baby. 

Diana’s comments to 47 when he’s in disguise tho, I was freaking. As security “you look like a true professional. I feel so much safer with you gentlemen around” aaahhhh

UH HE FELL TO THE GROUND COS OF POISON fngjfagfljgnsdfa

I am so glad I was right about my baby girl tho. She even told him “you didn’t have a choice” about her parents. Good. I’m so glad I was right about that. But omg it broke my heart to have 47 so, SO, SOOO sure of Diana all along, defending her to Grey and Olivia, knowing, KNOWING that she was on his side, and then, he eventually started to doubt it. 

I was screaming at my screen - this is BLOOD MONEY! SHe is doing what she did in BLOOD MONEY!!!!

But, for a second, 47 wasn’t sure anymore. And Diana played her part well. 

Carpathian Mountains

Ok, what I love most about Contracts was how it gave us an insight into 47′s psyche, and this game upped that tenfold. Him seeing all his targets surround him? Him imagining Diana and the Constant dancing together? Him imagining her say terrible things about him, things he’s thought about himself deep down, always, omg, but he finally snapped out of it. Ironic that thinking about Grey snapped him out of it, when in life Grey had not trusted Diana. But 47 came to the realisation on his own. Diana would never betray him. 

opening that door and finding out you’re on a fucking train?????? I screamed. 

I am a bit disappointed that it turned out Romania wasn’t significant, they just happened to be passing through. But omg the fact that you are “subject 47″ again. I freaked. This is 47′s worst nightmare. 

I love that you have a free pass to kill everyone in this level. I did it in stealth anyway, cos it felt wonderfully tense to sneak through that train. But wow. This is another BIG risk that IO took. The train was straight out of Uncharted, and crafting a silencer for your pistol??? Hello The Last of Us????? But I don’t care. They used those elements super well. 

I think some people will be angry at this game because parts of it (especially the last level) were a departure from how HITMAN and HITMAN 2 worked. But I love it. I love that they took risks to tell the story they wanted to tell, and those risks paid off. 

47′s undying loyalty to Diana, omg. Telling Edwards bye bitch, I’ll never forget who I am again, and Diana thinks you suck. <3<3<3<3<3

ENDING

OH MY GOD. ONE YEAR LATER????? 47 obviously took some time off cos he fucking needed a break. But he’s back, baby. Ending on “it’s good to be back” was wonderful. The game ended where the 2015 trailer for HITMAN started, and I’m crying. He’s ready to continue with Diana, and not because it’s what he was made to do, not because he doesn’t know what else to do, but finally, because he CHOOSES to do that. 

But one year later? What does that mean? Has Diana rebuilt the ICA like in Blood Money, or will she and 47 work together without anyone else? They’ll need the infrastructure that an organisation like the ICA has though. Diana said she would dismantle Providence from the top down once Edwards was gone, but how? Does that mean dismantling what’s left of the ICA? They were one and the same by the end of the game. All that didn’t just disappear. I’m left with so many questions. 

I was disappointed Diana wasn’t in the cabin when 47 got there. And I wonder why she wasn’t. She knew he was coming, but they are clearly still on good terms. Maybe she wasn’t sure what to expect. But does that mean they hadn’t spoken in a year since??? But she didn’t sound surprised to hear him, and he had coordinates that he was following, so I think they arranged to meet. But her phone was in there when he arrived, and she wasn’t. Maybe he was tracking her phone? Did she come back there to him after????? 

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT 

the game 

ended

with 47

smiling 

And for that I will be forever grateful. 

Ok bye, I need to play it again. RIP work tomorrow lol 

[tropinano]

for your hc post- gimme the good 1010 content! identities, ships, hobbies, whatever! (within moral reason ofc)

HAHA i havent talked about nsr in awhile! here are the boys ✌️

I agree with the names that ppl figured out like rin eloni etc. but i also like the ones that ppl came up with too tbh but the 'official' ones are the bestest.

in a group, id say rin = leader, but like in a cool fun big bro way. you know, like me 😎

he comes up with choreography and signs the most autographs. i think he'd also love figure skating!!! i drew him in a clown outfit once, so lets say he loves modelling too (i think they all do hehe)

i think zimelu actually wouldnt b the rapper of the group if we're talking groups here, he'd be like 🧍‍♀️ one of the main vocals but hes a lil rapsy you know. maybe he also breakdances. also that punk haircut isnt for show i rlly think hes 🥰🥰PUNK BUT LIKE A TOTAL SOFTIE YOU KNOW🥰🥰

try beat him in just dance i dare you

purlhew is actually the rapper ^^ spit some bars boy!!!!!!! hes very like, smooth if you can say that as a personality and cool as a cucumber. he enjoys the ocean (while not swimming in it) and silently causing chaos thru pranks in the group (nobody would suspect the most stoic and quiet guy putting fake bugs in the groups shoes) also he probably does audiobooks cus hes got a ✨nice voice✨.

Speaking of the ocean, i believe 1010 could definitely stay in the water for atleast a little bit since they ARE repurposed navy bots you know? i loved figuring out the tech/evolution of the navy bots the most (even basing 2 ocs off of it) and OH MAYBE maybe the attacks the big bot uses in the last phase of the 1010 fight not only are based off the members but also the same kinda patterns they used in the border wars...im not sure ill think about it lol

id describe haym using a pokemon: jolteon! hes very energetic and loves gymnastics :] but he also loves chilling in cafes and people watching cus he finds it fun. id say hes also secretly smart too, but is too busy seeing how long he can keep his hand on a hot pan to use his brain.

eloni is so sweet 🥺 i think everyone agrees on that lmao!! since i think all younger siblings are evil i think he is one to cause mischief along with haym (and notice purlhew do some needed adjustments later on, mostly to catch zimelu or neon j off guard) but also wear big clothes and collect stuffed animals. maybe also do some journalling!

neon j is very proud of them all

tbh i aint ship them with anyone that much??? i see rin x zuke but im not a huge fan lol. so OBVIOUSLY the only REAL one true pairing is to ship them with me 👍 sorry its the truth guys!!!! /j

haha i hope that was what you were looking for!!! just my thoughts on the boys since ive sorta forgotten what ive said about them before lol

[plantwalkingamongstmeremortals]

Hi :) for the ask challenge : 1, 4, 7, 11, 15, 21

Obviously you don't have to answer all of them unless you want to :)

1. How long do you hc the travel time between Divinity’s Reach and Lion’s Arch?

I am VERY BAD at time and distances to be honest, something like a couple weeks by foot sounds like a decent distance between two major cities (esp considering how much of kryta is western europe and that doesnt seem completely incompatible with real life western europe) but i have a lot of trouble picturing how much that is, and tbh i'd need to add hundreds of villages and quite a few minor towns in between anyway to get something that feels like RealityTM.

Funny answer is the game is 100% of the reality of tyria. You CAN do the one-hour walk between LA and DR. the whole world is smaller than france. Not what i believe but really funny to think about.

4. How much smarter than everyone else are Asura actually? Is it all just hubris and in the end they just have a better education system?

YES IT'S JUST HUBRIS. The "some species just are Better at x" fantasy trope definitely is rooted in real life racism and i hate it so i really believe that all differences are cultural (because the implications otherwise feel kinda gross). And considering how high and mighty they are about it, them not sharing the education and science cuz "nah you humans/sylvari/charr/norn definitely are too stupid to understand" makes sense, but hopefully with everything that's been happening, asura seeing others make super cool tech and stuff, they'll realize that everyone will profit if they share their knowledge on a deeper level >:3

7. How does an average Sylvari’s average day look like?

im bad at average help. more seriously they don't feel like they have a structured work day like we do (and i assume most other races do too bc that's the vibe they give. gotta work in the fields or make tech or idk what). Maybe the Socialist Utopia where they come give a hand at the Necessary Jobs for a bit (just thinking about how the dream might mean everyone Knows how most of those work?) and then just chill out doing the hobby they feel called to. Overall i think they have a lot of ~empathy~ and respect of other individuals' liberties so theres not much being forced on others and people can just vibe however they want without having to stress about paying rent or shit like that.

11. Are magic abilities learned or are people born with them? A combination of both?

Mostly learned i think! There might be some biological stuff that might help somehow, like how some people learn how to draw way faster than others, and some others struggle A LOT but if the world has magic, i'd let anyone learn to channel it! And I think the way gw1 works might support it, with all the profession trainers who teach us skills..... The captured elites might be some form of "i saw magic used this way, so i am learning from seeing my magic used against me"? I really feel like i'm making shit up on the spot im sorry but also what did u expect from this idiot /lh

15. A headcanon about a minor race, like Quaggan or Dredge.

theyre all perfect. thats it. (more seriously i don't have that many thoughts about any of them i just think we should Learn More). Oh and considering the prev question: yes a necromancer quaggan is a posibility. Baby quaggan walk, followed by corpses, i love ♥

21. Mallyck. Other Trees. Mordremoth’s blighting trees… Are the Sylvari not unique?

hhhh so i was a bit no when i saw the question at first but ive been Thinking so. LETS RECAP THE DATA WE HAVE.

Apparently a dev confirmed malyck did Not Come from a blighting tree during a live or on reddit or whatever i can't check ever gw2wiki source okay, which confirms that whatever the most complicated answer to the question i come up with is most likely true.

The wiki says the seed for the pale tree was a blighting tree seed stolen by Ronan but the source seems to be an artbook i don't have so idk if it's the wiki people extrapolating because i can't check. so first let's assume it's the case: NOTHING is stopping anyone else from having stolen a seed too and planted a tree and theyre all kind of cousins (sylvari/mordrem/other tree ppl) which is very cute and that feels like the most canon-compliant explanation of malyck bUT it's not fucked up enough to my taste so i'm gonna say (for the sake of argument at least idk which option is alex-canon yet) the pale tree came from just something else. Ronan and Ventari planted a lil gay tree and some sleeping mordremoth magic made it Alive (because we need plant dragon connection anyway (we couuld fuck that up but that sounds like too much work for now)) but there were too many good gay vibes so the tree ended up making overall nice and very gay plants. WHICH MEANS. there's nothing preventing sleeping mordremoth power to just vibe with trees that are supposed to be significant in other ways and awaken them to make lil plant beings.

Downside to all this is why haven't we seen them in HoT, BUT maybe they were too far away. Maybe a chaotic neutral quaggan planted a cactus in elona and mordremoth made choya because of that. Idk man.

[mouthfacedickrat]

I’m tired of discussions abt paganism/Punk rock/witchcraft/history/insert other hobbies “poisoned” by the far right. Every time someone tries to say “those guys are assholes, they’re not my friends, and they aren’t representative of this subculture/interest” they get accused of using the no true Scotsman fallacy. That’s... not how that works.... Obvi someone who talks abt what “real” witches or whatever do is in fact employing a logical fallacy, but ppl who just want to say “I’m not a nazi, and in fact I hate nazis and don’t associate with them” have not done anything deserving of snide replies about how obviously this is the real character of their subculture and they’re just in denial.

I am so tired of everyone bitching about how “we” haven’t done enough to keep right-wingers out of “our spaces.” This is such a weird take. One cannot control the actions of other people unless one 1) knows who they are and 2) has the power to persuade them by either words or force. We usually cannot prevent random violent white people from doing internet research on punk music or WWII. We can beat up and shun shitty people when we encounter them co-opting our interests irl, but you are in fact unlikely to casually run into these shitty people because oh, idk, they probably actively avoid you and vice versa, since aside from your one interest or subculture or whatever, y’all have n o t h i n g in common.

And when you do encounter these ppl in real life? From each according to their ability, my dude. Why are we yelling at sickly teens on the internet about their failure to regularly beat nazi ass??? These dickheads run in groups, and are usually armed. Fuck them up when you can! Absolutely! I’m just tired of the mindset that we all seemingly have a superpower that allows us to instantly push nazis out of our spaces. That one story abt a bartender kicking out a nazi skinhead is inspirational, but can we please use critical thinking? That story is about a person who situationally HAS the power to kick that guy out, and it’s JUST one guy. Yeah you have to kick out the first nazi to make sure their friends don’t start coming around, but you have to 1) know they’re even there 2) recognize they’re a nazi and 3) have the ability to deny them access! How does this lesson translate to the internet??? Ban them from your forum? (assuming you even fucking run one or have mod powers anywhere online) Oh, you mean the way everyone worth a damn is already doing?? They’ll just fucking make their own, and tech giants have shown time and again that they’re not interested in shutting right-wing extremists down. And irl? What do you think will happen to you if you walk your happy ass up to a tent full of odinists at a ren faire? That battle is the organizers’ to fight, and if they’re not willing to fight it, they’re not “us” and you’re not in “our space!” You’re just accidentally in a nazi space! Woops, don’t do it again, I guess (at least not without some friends backing you up). 

The truth is, people who aren’t nazis already do not tolerate nazis in their spaces. That doesn’t stop the shitheads from running away to their own turf and continuing to loudly and publicly misappropriate others’ symbols and activities. I think the real problem is that when they do this, people consistently give up their subcultures, interests, and religions. It’s not when fash take an interest that the thing dies, it’s when you give it up out of cynicism and fash are the ONLY ONES still talking about it! That’s when you’ve actually lost your shit for good. And getting mad at ppl for not magically reaching in the heads of extremists and yoinking all the cool interests out of there is facilitating this. Y’all are the very problem you’re bitching about. You’re mad at people for “failing” in some nebulous way at a task that a) doesn’t exist and b) shouldn’t even be anyone’s primary focus. Keep being a witch or a history nerd or whatever. Do it loudly, and publicly, and set a good example for others who are interested. Otherwise, I guess you can keep letting nazis chase you from your own culture while self castigating bc you didn’t somehow prevent a white supremacist from googling “cottagecore aesthetics” in the comfort of their own home.

This post is not for sophists and petty discourse-jockeys to clown on. This is an argument on which you must be --> this nuanced to ride. Don’t fucking send me messages or comments about how I’m saying it’s ok to use swastikas bc they were appropriated. I’m not saying you should use hate symbols that will cause other people to fear for their life in your presence! I’m saying stop giving up your normal-ass interests and activities to shitty people. And for fuck’s sake stop harassing people who are obviously not far-right, just because they like My Little Pony or Greco-Roman architecture or something. Stop it. Get some help.

[ko-eko-ev-go-ms]

TW CW Body Horror (I think that’s what this is but unsure)

Had one of those nightmares that has (mostly) obvious meanings last night & I can’t stop thinking about how the way my brain decided to convey the message(s) was by being as gross as possible. Like warning this parts absolutely gross & I hate my brain for doing this. It’s a bit hazy now since I’ve woken up & there was several parts to the dream that mixed together & separate dreams that overlapped & w/ probably slightly different messages I have yet to analyze. But like, so I got sick right? Except it was like the most disgusting possible thing where I had like, a few lumps & holes in my body, & one specific one as I messed w/ it since I discovered it & was like what the actual fuck is this so it started like emitting/spitting out?? Like the lumps started coming out as weird white goop & the hole got bigger it was probably the most disgusting dream I’ve ever had. But so anyway I go to my mom talking about this obviously very concerning symptom. & she blows it off as oh that’s fine, it’s just like that sometimes. It’s probably nothing. You’re being over dramatic. & I think iirc I was thinking it was something specific? Can’t quite recall but I think she tried to say it was either a symptom of covid or I was saying it was & she was using it as a way to write it off I think? & then online there was ppl talking abt the exact thing I had & going hey this is really dangerous actually & smth about “it’s a disease!!” & no matter how much I was like hey this is obviously a concern & I need to something about this, I need help etc. my mom just continued w/ the “it’s fine. It’s nothing. That’s how it is for everyone.” Etc etc to where I just had like an entire meltdown screaming abt “why won’t you just listen to me?” & her reaction was basically just the :/ face it was weird. Meanwhile I was having to deal w/ dnd stuff, namely I woke up late I think? Or I was having tech issues? & I was talking to the dm about random fun stuff right before game & as it went on they were like “ok now I’m just encouraging your messaging habits lol” since they were also having fun talking & therefore contributing to me talking about infinite things lmfao. Except I wasn’t procrastinating/avoiding the game I think? Or I just prepped late on accident idk. Anyway I replied “no it won’t open” (the dnd site we use) bc of that. & I think there was also something about campaign issues but that part hazed out. There was also some other dreams like one where me & my dad went out to like this tiny mall shopping, & I kept seeing random jigglypuff things & then couldn’t decide between drinks to get so I got both & then while still at checkout I saw a silly lil sonic thingy as a real hedgehog that was knitted, & I wanted it except I was starting to realize “oh no I’m playing into my impulsiveness. I need to have more self control. But also...” & thinking abt how checkouts are literally built on last minute impulse purchases like candy but ya. Still fucked up about that gross part.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

i was gonna send an ask like "have you considered: 'anger is a type of geography' + 4x11" and then i checked and you actually had! but if you feel like considering it More then here's a free space

oh thanks for these Layers of Allyship re: humoring my repeated [anger geography sign tapping] and checking for things and then sending me asks about it all to invite yet more Consideration.........yeah i feel like i mentioned it at least once in tags or smthing lol??? but here comes yet more consideration / giving it an In The Text post if that doesn’t exist already yet either

the Anger Is A Type Of Geography Quote From Hanif Abdurraqib in question for everyone’s reference:

anger is a type of geography. the ways out of it expand the more you love a person. the more forgiveness you might be willing to afford each other opens up new and unexpected roads. and so, for some, staying angry at someone you love is a reasonable option. to stay angry at someone you know will forgive your anger is a type of love, or at least it is a type of familiarity that can feel like love.

like, yeah sure what with winston originally talking to lauren and mafee about this and taylor Happening to walk in on it, he probably wasn’t necessarily planning to go off on his Indignant Monologue to taylor right then and there, but the fact remains that he was willing to do so, and i definitely think that that wouldn’t be the case if he didn’t have this Respect for them and think that they have respect for him in turn, and if he didn’t also think that that mutual respect is holding hands with mutually valuing each other. like, he wouldn’t say it if he didn’t think taylor might actually listen / consider what he says, and he wouldn’t even Want to say it if he didn’t give a shit about them, because he’s not just complaining about “um i simply ask for more money,” it’s about the fact he Feels Disrespected by the implied deprioritization of tmc employees and that the way this (false lol) choice is presented to them being Unfair and disingenuous. like, you could (and im sure most viewers do) interpret the other stuff he says as just him backing up his “Pay Me” argument when all he really cares about is the Pay Me part, but a) that’s not how We roll and b) doesn’t make sense with winston being just as happy as anyone else in 4x12with taylor Apologizing re: many of these 4x11 points, despite them not saying they were gonna change the Bonus situation lol, and c) it Does make sense to think that the Mutual Respect between taylor and winston matters to him due to [see: the rest of this post]

well wait lol first of all yeah sure the money Must matter to him b/c nobody could possibly be in the world of High Finance as a passion project (except for taylor apparently lmao cuz i mean we know that the Real reason they are determined to stick with hedge fundery (and involved in the first place) is b/c they are the best part of the show and elevate all the other Lesser Elements of it as well) and also we can figure that this was probably winston’s first year working a Big Time Official Job and he doesn’t have the savings that other ppl might when they’ve been in the business multiple years, and this seems to be backed up by lauren referring to him as they guy who’d be the First One Smothered by either taking a bonus cut by 40% or not getting that bonus at all until a whole other year, which, like he seems to also imply, is also Unhelpful in that surely these investment finance people turn around and invest their own finances, and Bonus Now is better than Bonus Then b/c.....interest....Long Shares.......and also just like tfw you want your job to pay you.......but anyways Seriously [next paragraph]

cuz winston *must* be working at Taylor Mason Capital b/c he really values working with taylor more than, say, wanting a job that will make him the most money, or will necessarily look the best on a resumé if he’s just looking to up his stats, b/c yeah, this is sure an unlikely opportunity for him where this is what we’re assuming is his First Fancy Job and he’s getting to be the Top Quant right out of the gate, but he must also know that like, it’s still like “oh so you were head quant at a brand new fund :/” and also he must know that there’s a Risk with said fund and he might even end up having been head quant at a new fund that burned out really quick, super impressive........and, we Know that winston *knows* how good he is at what he does, even though he keeps getting dunked on for that like he’s sooo conceited lol like. he IS that good, sorry!!!! why should he downplay it, we don’t actually see him being one of these shitheads with a fragile ego trying to prove themselves Superior or whatever.....ANYWAYS yeah the point being that, winston claiming to have a lot of offers already in the interview might very well Not be any kind of bluff, and he’d surely know that he could rise through the Quant Ranks quickly enough at some other fund even if he started out as anything but Our Main Quant at those places.......and if Getting Tf Paid Top Dollar was really his primary concern, “go with the brand new hedge fund which doesn’t have Established History / Experience / Clout and has the one big investor but who knows what’ll come next and any business that Just opened is not your safest bet even if you trust in your own skill and in that of your ceo and you Know that even if you’re not immediately destroyed, funds will be tighter / of a Lesser Amount than at a bigger established fund”.........the now-dramatic-irony of him talking about how those Tech Firms Out West pay guarantees, not bonuses.........like, when he was trying to get onboard with axe cap, he was obvs interested in trying to leverage to get Paid more, which is like, not necessarily winston wanting to be a trillionaire but also just how stupidly everyone’s supposed to like Play The Game of negotiating / leveraging / calling your employer’s bluff to get a certain starting salary / get a raise or whatever, dumb as hell baked-in Requirement........discuss your wages with coworkers gang!!! anyways. and but Also winston makes it clear when interviewing for axe cap that Working With Taylor Mason has appeal, even if he’s flippant about it, cuz he’s flippant about all of it cuz that’s his shtick here.....

like, when it’s Taylor Alone who calls him back eventually, he’s fine with meeting up with Just Them, and later on meeting up with Just Them (and the other quants, rip) again, and agrees to work in this lil basement evidently Not on axe cap premises b/c he’d been at axe cap’s offices and this is Not That Place......and yeah him talking about taylor selling axe on using his algorithm in kompenso sure implies that winston has this whole time Assumed that all of this was still ultimately in the service of axe cap.......and he was apparently fine with reporting to Taylor Alone and not getting to rub elbows with any other higher-ups, and he’s obviously pleased well enough with a “good work :)” from taylor and isn’t like “hey be sure to tell axe & co i did this singlehandedly etc” or anything, and he’s not really complaining about the whole “work in this lil basement Not at axe cap hq with taylor mason dropping in at least once to check on you and that’s about it” situation, which obviously is hardly that “You’re A Valued Axe Cap Employee” treatment one might expect if they wanted that.....winston’s glad that taylor called him, he’s trying to appeal to them and what *they* want to see rather than how he tried to go for what he thinks [a place like axe cap] would wanna see like he did in the interview, he’s showing up at this weird basement rendezvous to be on a 3 person quant team of taylor’s, he’s fine to not only do this on his own but also accept those increased demands that make it a [fifty(? or 15, either way) phds would work on this]-Level task, and then he’s glad just to have taylor’s approval at the end of the day.......they Wouldn’t have been able to promise him any leverage of “please do your best work on this” with like, promotions / clout within axe cap or axe-cap-levels of Lots Of Payment b/c like, well taylor wouldn’t outright lie anyways but also Especially wouldn’t if they wanted to keep this quant around for tmc, so winston must never have been asking about that kind of thing

and then, bless your Missing Scene fic but there’s zero canon content re: “uh how/when did taylor break it to winston that this algorithm was for their own fund actually and btw do you want to work for that fund instead,” but presumably it went smoothly enough, he was already happy to Effectively work for them alone apparently even if he still thought that yeah, he was working for taylor who was working for axe........just Yeah altogether it’s evident that “Working With Taylor Mason” must matter more to him than “working with any Other big name financiers” or “getting paid as much as he can get” or “raking in that clout asap to leverage with Other jobs or just like, in general.”

and then of course you have the fact that taylor is Recognizing his ability by calling him back and offering him this job, going “despite your demeanor your skills are superior” and “those other two were sweet, but you’re more talented, i need you,” [praying hands emoji], and giving him this Second Chance and entrusting him with this Solo re: building this algorithm which, unbeknownst at the time to him, is really this linchpin of their hopes & dreams of launching their own secret fund here, and really they must’ve been planning from the start to keep him around if he succeeded b/c it’s not like the algorithm and their whole planned Quant Department wouldn’t continue to be integral to the fund’s success, it wouldn’t really be ideal to have this guy be the one to build an algorithm to reel in an investor who’s working in.....wait for it......billions of dollars here, and then be like, okay bye dude. they must Know how good he is same as winston knows how good he is, and him being Head Quant from the very start was surely never just about mase cap having precious few employees at the very start of things....they could’ve like given him that Lead Position temporarily or whatever, they’re ceo. but they really do value him as like, maybe he doesn’t have the ideal ~personality~ for what fucking ever, either for being Properly Assertive and Impressively Flashy like axe cap might want, or just easy to work with, which taylor would care more about than axe cap would lol, but yknow, they value his Abilities and surely they must also value his efforts re: I Promise To Try and re: his really singlehandedly making that brilliant amazing algorithm which evidently did the trick as they hoped it would

and then......dare i get to the Emotional part of things, the Interpersonal....the anger and the love...............

i mean already when winnie n tay are having their post-math-meetup meetup, aka the first time they’re meeting After their disastrous really-first meeting aka the Interview, you have winston taking a way more grounded approach to this “yeah i want to work for you please accept me” process which is obviously in response to what he thinks Taylor wants from him based on the mess of the interview, evident thanks to winston telling them that he’s been thinking about all of that.......and i mean, part of taylor’s whole thing is they have that grounded approach pretty much always lol, (or try to....Want to...), but they sure seem to Also be bringing this effort to Accommodate him based on the hot mess of the interview, wherein yeah they wouldn’t’ve expected to have to ever interact again with this person they were dunking into the trash (and of course from that Meta Perspective, the scene when originally written was meant to be winston’s only appearance ever), but they really seem to also be bringing a more dialed down approach, letting him talk first and going along with his “you ever done math meetup” intro until he’s the one who changes the subject, and i really see that Head Tilt as a sympathetic one lol, not necessarily like “awww :’0″ levels lmao but still like. they Know he’s likely to have some [emotional vulnerability] re: what last went down between them since they weren’t especially gentle with him then, and they like, demonstrably give a shit about that fact lol. they’re also not just wholly swinging in the other direction to make up for it or anything lol but they’re Also making it clear that, yknow, they’re willing to work with him For Real, not just in this “are you willing to work for me, y/n, okay great” way, but in this way of [winston making an effort to make things easier on taylor] and [taylor making an effort to make things easier on winston] which is already playing out here between them.

and the whole matter of winston’s seemingly genuine Dismay at messing up even part of this exchange, i.e. the “[wince-ston] damn it, sorry,” like, sure maybe he just really wants the job, but [see: everything above about how he Must primarily want to work with taylor re: wanting any of these jobs lol] and, after all, he “oh shit, sorry”s @ them when he’s well-established as their Head Quant in ep 4x08 and generally shows this directed-at-self displeasure at thinking he’s messed something up even without some clear “your (potential) job is on the line” element......he just Doesn’t Want To Disappoint Taylor Themself, doesn’t need some particular fear of further repercussion behind that.

and speaking of Lack Of Fear, you Know we love to point out how kompenso (and really winston’s :/ + “sure, why not :\”ness at the end of 3x09 lol) demonstrates that winston isn’t afraid of taylor either as an [intense and unusually-demeanor'd person who Does apparently strike people as Scary(tm) sometimes lol] or as this Esteemed Rising Star Axe Cap Higher-Up or simply as his de facto boss.........he’s not raring to tell them that the other quants bailed b/c of his own disapproval lol, but he’s honest as soon as they deduce as much, the tone of “fine, yes, big time” + his standing up to get even closer to them instead of just shaking in his desk chair like :c pls forgive me obviously does Not convey that he’s terrified of them, and then the rest of that interaction jsut being like, ugh god so fucking essential, they’re both able to stand face to face and be like I Am Looking Directly At It / I Do See It re: each other, both of them just continuing to be Honest and Direct with each other, God.....taylor might’ve swatted his metaphor away but he was not all that put out, and then they’re Using His Own Language by bringing it back three seconds later, like, yeah sure at this point they have a vested interest in this individual quant (the only one left lol) accepting this Demanding Task, but a) they’re not exactly playing it cool on that front, they Just said “i need You,” it’s unlikely that this is just some all manipulative tactic here by encouraging his metaphor after all lol and that’s hardly their style anyways even if they Can be strategic(tm) about things, and b) they’ve Just Previously adopted his own words lol with winston having said “as for not being a dick” and taylor saying “you backslid into being a dick” (combining His Phrasing with Theirs aka “if you promise not to backslide”....god!!!!!!)

and so then yeah to top it all off winston even ~pushes his luck~ lol by being a lil deliberately rude re: his ex-coworkers lmaoo, and you get taylor’s Reaction to being sort of tested here to be Closing Off Their Expression (speaking of....their tiny lil Eyebrow Twitch when winston infers that he’s making something to pitch to an investor.....god!!!!!! a) winnie n tay and b) emmy) and making it clear that their interest in him acting Easy To Work With was a practical matter......winston watching them go up the stairs, taylor looking back at him as they Ascend and he gets back to his desk.....jesus

the point being!!! they vibe with each other so well by Kompenso already and just *get* how the other operates and communicates and Neither Of Them are offput by the other, Neither Of Them are unwilling or uninterested in meeting each other where they’re at, and each exerting this effort to really work with each other........and how winston is Not intimidated by taylor as either someone who’s so ~weird~ and can be so Intense, or as someone who is his boss lol........which yknow we always also point out as Important re: tayston developing from this point, where taylor would be careful in how they approach winston about fwbship but would feel like it was even reasonable to consider it in the first place thanks to not having to feel like oh he definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable being honest if he wanted to say no / wasn’t sure

also Yeah It’s Billions but winston freely swearing with the F-word when they’re assessing the completed algorithm, which taylor has no reaction to lol.......the both of them being Hyped about this algorithm lol, like, Of Course they’d both be, but it’s fun :)

and then 4x03, with winston not acting terrified about there being potential Algorithm Problems, and taylor making sure to be like “don’t you dare blame latency” lol like which obv he May Have been planning to mention lol since he’s intending to give this technical answer rather than throwing out his Front Running / Interference Theory like mafee then does.....fun little moment too anyways.......taylor Allowing winston’s tangent about being cassandra and emails and “it’s pronounced owned,” like, they’re not raring to Interrupt / cut him off even if it’s Not obvious what he has to say is absolutely crucial and considered relevant by everyone else, and they’re not telling him he’s a stupid idiot and wasting their time or anything else before sending him away.......imagine. and just think about the beauty of winston very intently / earnestly saying his “i’m cassandra: Always Seeing The Future” right to taylor. 

and in 4x08 they build on his metaphor Again after having just Validated him despite everyone else really wanting to do the opposite lol......i “lol” but would everyone else lay off a little Lol......his self-reproach upon Registering that disapproval / oh-no-i’ve-messed-upness again.......then despite winston Standing Right Beside and then Sitting Right Behind taylor they don’t really interact l o l .....we have taylor being all “why is He so happy” and silently observing his Solo “i won” moment, rip, but also congrats.....and then i suppose that covers the Prior To 4x11 stuff lol

just......even re: the relative little we’ve Seen between them up to that point, winston might not have intended to talk to taylor right then, and he might or might not have intended to eventually talk to them in front of anyone else, but You Know He Knows that taylor listens to him, and that he doesn’t have to like, say things in what other people think is The Right And Effective Way to talk (even by billions’s fucking off the shits standards on that front lol), because taylor Does care about what he actually means and what his actual intentions are, not just “oh that very direct/honest thing you said Seemed rude whether you intended it or not”.......the “sad” after his yngwie malmsteen metaphor was the only time they’ve critiqued something like that lol and they then used that metaphor, So, and they’ve copied him calling himself a dick lol, and they built on his Sword metaphor, and they’ve just always been interested in Understanding him and communicating effectively with him, not in trying to get him to communicate differently or just making sure he knows He Should Feel Bad about how he Does communicate, though god knows the latter is something that everyone else seems to be somewhat #about. god knows some axe capper would have that “are you finished?” simply be the Purely Rhetorical intro to their barrage of Dunking-Upon insults, although it sure seems possible that that could’ve been sort of gently dismissive enough anyways to Encourage winston to not be finished even if maybe he would’ve stopped there otherwise.....but everyone else follows taylor’s lead in Not Actually Interrupting Him at any point, despite all the 9_9 and >:| as it were, and like, even though taylor then lets this whole thing end just with mafee going tf off on winston and bullying him into deferring and would-be deference, b/c winston might have this amount of moxie and he might be honest and he might not be scared of taylor (or anyone else here really) but he’s obviously not that assertive and definitely not that aggressive, he’s self-loathing, he’s easily put out, and all of this just bolsters how much it means that he communicates so well with taylor, b/c they’re Not interested in anything that would be counterproductive to actual effective communication but which might be “productive” if they had a goal of wanting to twist his arm about anything or pressure him into acting a certain way or just fueling their own ego or sense of superiority, axe cap style. they Value all his actual input and they have this respect for him where they don’t Want to bully him even if it’s not that difficult, like, yeah mafee was being mean to him for sure and trying to insult him into simply shutting tf up rather than like, actually responding to any of his points or doing anything but reinforcing them, but also winston has been Put Out by milder [negative responses] too, it’s of course more than just “i respect you too much to like, yell at you and try to diminish you”

and Frankly Winston Was Right and he may have been Indignant and he may not have been ~polite~ about it (though like, relative to how he is generally this Direct And Honest, there’s also not all that much evidence he’s deliberately trying to add some extra servings of Rudeness or anything) but once again like with the “as for not being a dick, i can’t absolute guarantee it” moment and the “fine, yes, big time” moment, and the “im sure it’ll go faster without the dead weight; Whoops ;)” moment, and the [talking about the algorithm problems] moment, and him freely jumping in with the “this plan might get us killed (not literally)” and “it’s b/c it sucks that they had to decapitate their dad, also not literally lol....although...” remarks, he’s just like, never afraid to tell taylor something that sure might not be the most pleasant for them to hear, and sure might not be something they Want to hear. and what’s Honest is that he’s Angry about this, and they won’t want to hear that and that they will even less want to hear his Honest Thoughts about why this is unfair, but he’s willing to say that to them, and even though we were like “haha boy winston if this isn’t fixed big time you might wanna quit :/” it’s also like, he must’ve trusted them to not wanna just fire him for lack of reverence to his ceo, and we can Juxtapose this with a) the scene that we’re set up to juxtapose it with, wherein a group of axe cappers carefully tell axe he’s being dumb as hell and might fuck all of them over, and axe tells them all to shut the fuck up b/c He Is Their Sun and he can do what he wants and get the fuck out of here, and we can also juxtapose it with b) winston being jumped on immediately in The Interview for ~lack of reverence~ to the potential employer, putting on this cocksure hotshot act (trying to..) and daring to express confidence in himself and be like “i should be interviewing you” / you should be selling to Me lol......jump to 4x11 and winston is caught off guard, he’s not putting on any kind of act, he’s not trying to appeal to anyone, sure mafee might turn it around on his [last we checked, the quant hates himself]ness, but this wasn’t about Winston Lashing Out b/c he’s angry at himself, he’s angry at Them for not valuing him, for what he perceives as them not even *really* giving them the option of the 60% Now approach, which sure seems to be justified seeing as apparently nobody but lauren goes for it and after winston invokes the Peer Pressure / pressure to seem Loyal / Committed by deferring, mafee immediately uses that [social pressure] to crush his dissent........where was i. right like. winston’s truly just Mad At Someone Else this time, he wouldn’t be here if his self-esteem was so low that he was immediately ready to just accept and absorb this treatment, and he Knows that taylor will actually listen to him which is their fuckin Mutual Respect thing and who tf else does that for him all the time, and he knows that taylor doesn’t value their own ego above everything else Unlike Some People, and he knows that he can be honest and get an honest reaction and that their honest reaction to his honesty is not “ugh you’re stupid / annoying / rude / etc,” b/c he’s Not, and that might be everyone else’s idea of him to some degree, but taylor Gets him better than that

and then you don’t quite have taylor being obviously Angry back, but they’re not exactly thrilled, and letting mafee go off on winston / effectively telling him they expect him to consider That the response and in turn respond back to that, can sure be interpreted as an expression of something a little short of pure goodwill and best intentions towards him here lol......again, i lol through the pain.......winston only has further reason to be angry, his Complaints weren’t resolved in the least and he came in all “i feel disrespected” and surely that’s only been doubled down on, b/c this isn’t Just “pay me goddamnit,” it’s really also just about the fundamental respect itself, which he figured that taylor cares about too, and so this would be something he could appeal to / expect them to earnestly.....he feels like none of them are being valued more than this feud with axe cap, he (maybe) feels like said feud is causing the quants’ work to be deprioritized in favor of more elaborate schemes based on “what will screw axe over specifically,” he feels like he’s not being valued as a Very Important Employee, he feels like this False Choice thanks to Social Pressure is insult to injury, like they’re not supposed to get a real chance to question this. boy i’m really just going off talking about any and all aspects of this huh, where’s the Anger Geography core here

well here it is: winston doesn’t ever talk to taylor in any more Filtered way due to them being his boss / him feeling a need to be more careful around them, if anything, they’re the one person he can be Least filtered around, b/c they care about What He Actually Means and aren’t all hung up on whether his communication style seems gratingly weird / wrong / offputting. winston isn’t bringing any particular leverage to this situation, yeah sure he pointed out He’s Valuable but he also did that in the interview with even less leverage and in the basement when he thought he was just working on some weird side project for axe cap in this remote quant dungeon - he’s counting on them to just Listen To Him and care about what he means, same as he always does and like they’ve done thus far. and he’s Temporarily Burned by this, which is tragic, but then 4x12 happens, and who knows if taylor and winston talked between these scenes at all cuz billions sure won’t say at all, but either way winston sure seems to pick up on the fact that taylor is responding to his Complaints here, the implication they were taking a too-axe-esque approach to them now answered by taylor deliberately differentiating themself from axe, and asserting that they Do value their employees and their contributions, and that taylor has this responsibility to them, and maybe Had gone astray there with the revenge jag but aren’t actually interested in that being the core of everything.........winston is Validated and we realize it and he seems to realize it lol, he definitely Was listened to, and he sure wasn’t like fired or anything, he Could Be Angry with them and that wasn’t going to lead to taylor wanting to sever even the Professional relationship or anything like that. sure seems to be no grudge held between them during the “q is for quantitative, babey” scene there lol and yeah it’s billions and shit moves fast / people will roll with A Lot of mistreatment apparently (see: winston also does not seem to harbor any grudge against mafee here lol but who knows) but the Fact Is, here they are, having found A Way Out Of [Anger], after having had this altercation which wouldn’t even have been possible if Winston hadn’t felt it was possible for them to interact like this, for him to be mad and be honest about that anger and the hows and whys of it and for that Not to be a dead end between them or something that could shatter the relationship entirely. and he was Validated!!!!

and guess who i also love to quote and paraphrase lol i also think of mariame kaba talking about interpersonal Conflict being possible Opportunities in a relationship, because working through said conflict can allow the relationship to grow / deepen / strengthen. which sure seems to Hold Hands with this idea: that you can Be Angry with someone because you already know that won’t break the relationship, and that even if you don’t already know that, going through that experience / process of Being Angry with someone and coming out the other side together will show that the relationship can handle that / will have involved gaining tools to be able to handle that going forward. and really like, we’ve seen winston Forgive taylor’s anger at him right off, and that may not be the sweeping heights of love but it came from Understanding (and....low self-es steam probably lol) but no really, he Shows that he understands why they reacted like that by behaving in this way that he figures is more in line with what they actually want, just talking and being direct with no boxes or [wags] or standard boring interview questions or posturing, showing he’s willing to work with them in the “please hire me” and “i’ll try to Behave” ways lol........and taylor is offering their own patience and sympathy and restraint and Understanding and willingness to bend.......things are happening on an emotional plane between them here.

and then after winston chooses to be on board with mase cap, and after he’s worked for them so long that it’s comp time baby, and after these few Sample Interactions we’ve seen in which taylor doesn’t cut winston down or show contempt for him and they continue to directly or indirectly validate him, winston can be Angry with them and taylor can (definitely Sorta) be Angry back, and winston surely even Stayed Angry after that scene in 4x11, and he didn’t quit, and was that [terrible self-esteem actually lol] or was it him believing that there could be a way out of this state of anger between him and taylor? both?? we get to decide!! b/c he’s sure not Validated and Vindicated until later lol.....what does he sit there on that couch alone in that room and Think in those moments...........and then once things Are better resolved, they have this whole [episode of conflict] in their history, and like is the whole Point of all of this, that’s hardly necessarily just some awful and unfortunate thing.......their relationship can survive something like that, and the conflict sure sparked this kind of Genuine Interaction between them which couldn’t have happened if winston just shied away from all this / kept it to himself because he didn’t think taylor would Listen or Care or Understand. 

and it’s Not Just About The Money, and even when he expresses that he’s upset about this perceived disrespect / not being valued as an employee, we Know that he’s not someone who’s got this need to feel superior to everybody else / like he’s always Winning, and we know he’s not after Maximum Clout, but he does want to Work With taylor and he evidently wants to feel valued By Them, who does happen to be his boss and does have this avenue to potentially treat any employees unfairly. and we know that winston *knows* in this objective way how good his work is, and both winston and taylor have acknowledged that yeah, His Work / professional quantly ablities have value, so winston Knows he should expect for that to be valued in the form of “your quantributions are important and you’re getting paid to reflect that”........and that he feels like he’s for once not being Allowed Honesty re: everyone supposedly being pressured into deferring is like..........what do he and taylor have if not earnest, open communication b/c they both value and respect what the other Really Has To Say!!!!!! that’s winnie n tay and it’s also tayston.

which, speaking of which, Sidenote: when it comes to tayston hcs we generally have this as a “they’re not currently doing Their Thing at this point anyways, and maybe the fact that that’s been ended (and they Haven’t been talking through this particular conflict yet) is adding to the tension / anger / feeling of not being valued hahaha rip” deal lol, but also if they Were still currently in their fwb/[???]ship like obviously this would spill over and probably require an at-least-temporary halt to give everyone some space seeing as it’d be a little impossible to truly completely Set That Aside in the recent aftermath l o l ......but despite the lingering tension / awkwardness that would be present whenever they Do next meetup [imagine: an I Was On The Phone With You, Sweetheart phonecall prior to 4x12′s scene?? wrow] the layers to that ensuing sex lol......reunion sex? makeup sex? not-hate-sex-but-maybe-still-needing-to-vent-a-lil-Emotional-frustration-maybe sex? maybe all of the above and more

ANYWAYS even i don’t know why this is so long, and also it’s 7am. i definitely think that winston trusted taylor and the Relationship between them to be able to handle Anger (his, for once, lol) and for that Anger to even potentially be something Constructive. and he was right. and in 4x12 he’s there with them at the very end, wearing the tmc logo, standing behind them in the hellhole which is axe cap hq, knowing that taylor is the one person (here, certainly) who definitely Gets and who’s Got him, who’s asserted this loyalty and commitment to him after he’s certainly done that re: them, and once again winston definitely has this Choice to be here with them just like he must’ve had that choice to join up with their fund in the first place, he’s never been trapped with them or forced into alliance with them, and we just Know that he’s not choosing to be here just for Linkedin reasons / what’s best for career advancement and/or for raking it in as best as he can manage and/or for gaining clout and status or whatever, and we sure never see him reaping some kind of deluxe treatment/benefits just for being closely associated with taylor / having their approval. everything we see points to winston caring most about what happens between him and taylor and that he gets to work with them and that he’s here because of that mutual respect and value for each other. 

and really, the show also repeatedly tells us that winston Does basically have these world-class abilities and *is* that valuable, and we know that winston Knows how good he is, and he must’ve legitimately had all those offers and known that he’s really good enough that these places Should compete for him. he must’ve known that he has this Potential here and all of these options laid out in front of him, and he takes taylor’s call and shows up in a basement for them and singlehandedly writes an algorithm good enough to found their fund upon and he follows them there when now he’s got this Proof of just how incredible his work is and could’ve leveraged that anywhere else. but his relationship with taylor has always had this personal aspect to it and the fact is that, even with his choice of Paths laid out in front of him, he chose and keeps choosing the geography of winnie n tay. Love. thank you and goodnight

[quiviktories]

               ( demigirl ) haven’t seen QUINN-VIKTORIA “QUIVI” NIKOLAYEVNA around in a while. the ADELINE RUDOLPH lookalike has been known to be (+) DILIGENT & (+) GENTLE, but SHE can also be (-) INTIMIDATING & (-) STONE-FACED. The 23 year old is a JUNIOR majoring in AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE. I believe they’re living in FIDELIS but I popped by earlier and no one answered the door. 

                         okie dokes y’all I’m rly sad my muse for Link n Eden just lightning mcdied but as an apology ( to myself ) I’m bringing perhaps my OLDEST OC to Lockwood !! ( I’ve had Cyrus for three years , Quivi’s existed for five. ) But she’s actually a more fantasy-oriented OC so it was fun modernizing her up for Lockwood !! So more abt my battle princess under the cut. // like to plot after reading the intro

              TWs: Violence, death, emotional abuse, mentions of mental illness ( ocd ), ptsd

BASICS / HISTORY

Most important facts abt Quivi are she’s 6′3, has a six-pack, and can drive. Also bi bc I can’t write straight OCs with my bisexual ass.

OKAY OKAY ALSO RLY IMPORTANT FACT : She’s selectively mute , so Quivi will either be communicating through written words or sign 90% of the time. There’s two reasons for this :

Quivi’s first language is not English ; if you can’t tell already , she’s Russian , and she’s still learning English. She’s more of a visual than auditory person so writing English is easier for her than speaking , and she’s honestly very insecure about it , so she chooses not to speak partially because of that. She learned sign very easily and is more comfortable with it than speaking.

The other reason . . . is bc of her past but I’ll b getting to that. 

So she was adopted. Quivi doesn’t know where her biological parents are from , but as a baby , she was taken in by a Russian businessman named Nikolay Andreyevich and . . . she had the same birthday as his biological child , Lukas. Exactly. Birthday was April 8th 1996 ( tech as of rn Quivi’s 22 but I just put 23 bc it’s easy ) , so even though Quivi and her brother weren’t blood , they were always referred to as twins.

Now their father was a bit of an asshole , to say the least. You know how sometimes parents often pit children against each other ?? Well , you might expect me to say he did that to the kids to try and see who could run the company.

He didn’t !!

No instead he decided which one was going to lead ahead of time and treated the other one like dirt 

So yeah Quivi was the one who was treated like dirt

This was because Lukas was going to be the heir, and Quivi was going to be his bodyguard. So Lukas was spoiled rotten and Quivi was trained extensively and given brutal criticism so she’d come out tough as nails and only focus on being the perfect soldier / bodyguard.

She was taught to keep her emotions inside , never to express herself , and to always be silent. And she’d be verbally berated and chastised if she failed to comply with either - she had to be a stealthy , emotionless machine. And . . . yeah. That’s the second reason for her selective mutism. 

So yeah , that was her life up until she turned eighteen. Because at that age, their father died, and now it was just her and Lukas.

And he treated her exactly like their father did. He was a spoiled brat and believed Quivi was there to simply act as his bodyguard. And yeah , she obeyed him. But Lukas didn’t have his heart set on being a businessman , no - he wanted to be famous. And he ended up climbing his way to become an Instagram influencer and even bought his way into getting a record deal so he could put out bad Youtuber music.

...Quivi hates his stuff. To this day

Quivi was eventually cast to the side to the point where her brother wouldn’t even acknowledge her as his bodyguard. He acted like she wasn’t even there. And Quivi hated the way he treated other people - when they turned twenty , he got a woman pregnant and never bothered to see her again. And Quivi ended up finding her and helping her take care of the child when she was born.

And that was around the point Quivi decided her brother was a fucking dickhead and stood up to him , cutting him out of her life. And she focused on making a life for herself , and used what she got of their father’s inheritance ( because their mother insisted both twins get something ) and paid to go to Lockwood. 

PERSONALITY / CHARACTER

Quivi is the epitome of someone who looks rly scary and intimidating but oh my god is she not. She’s very gentle , very polite - always uses formalities and puts others before herself. Holds the door for twelve people before going inside herself.

But also , she can fucking fight like there’s no tomorrow. She was trained for years , and she probably knows a few ways to kill a man. Was trained with a few weapons just in case , and definitely is a master of self-defense.

She has OCD and as well PTSD from her childhood. I will very rarely mention this in threads , but it’s important to note. ( I have both , as well. )

She never really had nice / fun things as a kid , so she has a lot of catching up to do. The little things make her so happy , like McFlurries , bad pop music , the cliche Shakespeare stories everyone reads , etc. 

But , again - she was never encouraged to show emotion. So she comes off as very neutral because of this reason - but trust me she feels a whole lot and when she does smile it’s a sight from Heaven.

She’s a sporty person !! She’s into fencing , but that sport’s not offered at Lockwood , so she’s also on the gymastics team. Even has a varsity jacket for it.

Also in Theatre ( the club ) !! Not as an actress , however. She’s on the set crew. But she wants to be an actress in it someday , or even do some sign translations for the audience.

Tatiana was a stranger to her. But the stranger you know everything and nothing about , because you hear about her all the time from everyone else. So yes , in a curious manner did Quivi pick her name - but you know that feeling you get when you wonder if you were the deciding vote in that shit ?? Quivi wonders that ( obviously , she wasn’t , but she gets that feeling every time someone brings up Tatiana and the Watershed )

God I love her she’s my gentle giant bby and again I’ve had her for . . . five years n tbh like Cyrus a good portion of her character was originally made to Vent my own stuff out so. She means a lot 2 me.

Hope y’all love her.

WANTED PLOTS / CONNECTIONS

sb in Theatre who wants to get Quivi onto the stage tbh that was the First thing I thought of 

sb who Quivi can teach Russian or ASL !! Also others who know ASL would b great bc that’s Quivi’s preferred method of communication

Someone who Quivi can trust with actually talking to ?? They’d have to be really close , though , because Quivi only speaks to the people that she trusts

A nerd who Quivi befriends and just. Listens to them talk about the stuff they’re interested in. Bc honestly learning and listening is what she likes to do - not like Ami who fuckin CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP with the studying but. Quivi’s literally been deprived of so much. She likes to learn what she doesn’t know.

Sb who sorta thinks Quivi is all SUPER FUCKIN SCARY AND PROBABLY A BITCH bc of the RBF but when they actually meet her,,, they think she’s so sweet

Lowkey a fuckboi or sb who could flirt w/ her n she just. Turns em down. Stone-faced. Might kick them and make ‘em fall or smth idk Quivi’s that person who tells u to go chop a guy’s dick off when he says one rude thing 2 u

Literally okay in my personal headworld / lores it’s a part of Quivi’s culture to settle things like minor disagreements with a duel to the death and it was a running gag on earth that Quivi would see ppl get in2 like. Twitter fights. N comment “challenge them to a duel to the death” n everyone else was like QUIVI NO

she’s... kinda like Diana. like, Wonder Woman Diana.

I call her Wonder Woman a lot

Bt this is Watershed so it’s very different from that!! Lowkey tho I’m proud of the world I created for her like I literally made a whole language + alphabet for her world 

[ragingstillness]

Questions I have for Marvel part six

Iron Man 3:

1. Does Pepper have Extremis still?

2. How on Earth did Tony solve Extremis so easily?

3. How did Tony survive the surgery? Is he on Extremis? Why are the properties of Extremis suddenly so malleable when they have been very strict the whole movie? Do they heal the pieces of Tony’s body he’s been missing in the hole in his chest?

4. How did Killian get to Pepper? Is Happy the only security guy employed by Stark Industries?

5. How is no one damaged by the entire plant exploding in Maya’s hotel room when Extremis on people has a disturbingly large range?

6. Judging by the positioning of the doohickeys that Tony injects himself with, how did he avoid the major veins and arteries in his arms? Where is he injecting himself for the head, back, and crotch piece? Why does he not bandage the injection sites at all?

7. Why is Happy instantly suspicious of Killian? And why does he tell Tony about it first instead of Pepper?

8. Does Tony have magic powers?

-One of the phones the reporters shove at him after Happy gets put in the hospital changes to a more advanced phone between shots!

9. Where is the footage of Tony’s Malibu mansion coming from that they can see the missile incoming?

10. When Tony crashes he appears to rebound off a moving car? Are the people in the car ok? Did they not want to stick around and find out what the oddly colored screaming thing they hit was?

11. How does Tony make it to Harley’s without any frostbite or other cold related problems when he is in summer clothing?

12. Why does Tony get so rude with Harley and say “dads leave no need to be a pussy about it? Is it an ingenious choice to represent Tony acting like his father when he gets put in a father role and then consciously correcting himself? Or is it just a movie that was written by a man and thinks pussy is an insult?

13. Where is Harley’s mother during all this?

14. How on Earth did Killian find Maya and Pepper? There were tons of people at the destroyed house and Killian didn’t obviously plant any of them so did he just follow every single car that departed from the area? Did Pepper and Maya not use fake names when they registered at the hotel?

15. Why does Tony get away with using a flannel shirt and a baseball cap in a crowded bar as a disguise?

16. Why does Tony make that wild U-turn while talking on the phone? Was he going the wrong way the whole time? Without JARVIS does he know where he’s going now?

17. If Extremis activates on anger or heightened emotion why doesn’t Killian fall to self sabotage if he’s so set on taking revenge on Tony?

18. How does Harley miss being hit really hard by the suit pieces flying out of his garage?

19. Why does the suit Tony is remotely piloting fall to pieces upon being hit by a truck? It’s still an Iron Man suit, it should be stronger than that. Also, is Tony just no longer concerned about people bastardizing his tech? He just leaves it all over the place?

20. Why stop Rhodey from getting a suit at the final battle? Is it really worth it to have a petty disagreement now?

21. Can Tony or can he not take manual control over all of his suits? You’d think he’d have fixed this after IM2 and that he could just make the suit with the president carry him away?

22. Why bother writing Tony making this big awesome gesture to Pepper about abandoning the bad that the suits do to him mentally and have him right back in them with no complaint from her until like Infinity War?

23. Why does the fandom crucify Pepper for wanting to not be in bed with Tony after getting attacked by a suit? She’s reacting to the danger she feels for herself, not hating on him?

-She’s scared and probably panicking quite a bit, it’s not fair for her to be forced to prioritize his panic over hers. Is it because ppl need a reason to hate Pepper and ship Tony with dudes? I think it’s because of that. (plz no one come after me as if I am a pepperony shipper, I mean, I am, but I’m a proud multishipper and I ship Tony with everyone, sometimes at the same time)

24. Also, why does the fandom work Pepper’s disapproval over the suits into some misunderstanding of Tony’s coping mechanisms?

-She’s disapproving because he’s becoming dangerously obsessive to the point where he doesn’t eat or sleep and only getting more paranoid. She doesn’t hate the suits, she hates that he’s using them as an unhealthy coping mechanism.

25. Why does no one think to call the other Avengers when they’re having their own little single movies?

-I could put this question for practically every stand alone but I’m just gonna put it here and leave it at that.

26. Not that I’m complaining that the ppl with Extremis don’t lose their clothing when they fire up but logistically, why? Do their clothes get classified as part of their bodies and become equally fire resistant?

27. How to the repulsors work? Pepper fires one with no connection to any arc reactor and without simply melting the glove from the inside because of the heat?

28. Did the suit Pepper took down and now has a piece of on her arm also receive the self destruct order?

29. Why is Bruce so callously ignoring Tony while he tells him the entire movie?

-It’s out of character and it’s mean instead of funny.

[directoravasharpe]

If you wanna get away from that clone talk you could do a lil headcanon on the first time Sara takes Ava to meet her friends/family (ignoring that theyre dead) in Star City

okay so for the purposes of this thought experiment i am going to assume everyone is still alive, but i’ll start with the ppl who ACTUALLY are. let’s imagine we’re at some event where everyone is there idk

oliver: okay so here’s the thing. ava’s been in star city since 2013. (or some version of her but this is not the ask for clone stuff) so she’s been around for all his shenanigans, but she hasn’t been able to interact at all. anyway she definitely has Opinions about the arrow and his time as mayor and everything and then it’s compounded by him being sara’s ex anyway she just reverts to like. business ava and is super formal and she shakes his hand so firmly that he’s a little shook afterwards. oliver is suspicious and not entirely sure she’s right for sara and then away from him she is talking just to sara and she’s like. smiling and giggling and he sees how soft she is and how soft sara is around her and he talks to sara and is like. okay yeah i approve and sara is like do you think i care if you approve and oliver is like. no. and sara’s like. but thank you

felicity: my beautiful long lost ship she is probably as flustered around ava as she is around any accomplished woman and she probably accidentally mentions the clone thing and then she’s just like. fuck i’m terrible at this and ava recognises a kindred spirit and manages to let down the business ava wall a bit and be nice and maybe they talk about bureau tech or something. felicity tells sara that ava is cute

who else is even alive??? was sara even really friends with diggle? he just approves of the fact she found someone who can also fight but also kinda look after her and be a grounding influence

i guess her mom is still alive but i cannot remember literally anything about her personality but ava would be the Picture Perfect Girlfriend You Take Home To Your Parents and would avoid any topics that could be potentially controversial and then idk sara starts making vague innuendos just to try to ruffle her feathers but it doesn’t work because today ava is completely composed and nothing can stop her from making a good impression on the one member of her family that is still alive

nyssa: ava is 100% intimidated bc from everything she’s read she seems terrifying but she ends up just being very formal and polite and still kinda cold and after ava is like. she hates me and sara is like. that was nyssa being nice she approves.

bonus: sin is there bc she is a person who exists and she relentlessly teases sara

OKAY NOW THE PEOPLE WHO ARE DEAD AKA THE IMPORTANT PPL GOD I HATE ARROW

laurel: okay so laurel and ava would be such good friends honestly. like it would annoy sara bc she wants ava all for herself but secretly she would be. so happy that they’re getting along. laurel loves her because literally all she ever wanted for sara was for her to be happy and she so obviously is. they exchange phone numbers and ava promises to call to update her on what sara is doing because sara never does that. ava had seen everything laurel had gone through and so is obviously impressed and it makes her feel better about her insecurities bc laurel obviously has them too but she kicks ass.

(in the real timeline, ava kinda.... grieved when laurel died even though she didn’t even know sara and even though she kinda hates her and even though she knows it’s coming)

quentin: god. we were robbed. we were robbed so hard. i’d like to think that. sara told him about ava maybe once like sometime between 3.12 and 3.15 when they were happy. maybe she didn’t even tlak to him maybe she just left him a message like. dad i think i actually. found someone. and she tells him about her and he’s just in shock when he listens to the message bc he kinda assumed she’d be alone as long as she was on the waverider but now she’s found someone and she’s good for her and she’s looking after her and just. gah.

anyway if they actually got to meet, they’d bond over both kinda being in law enforcement. they’d joke about how they’re stuck with a rule breaker like ava. he tells her embarassing kid stories about sara that ava literally never forgets and still brings up 10 years into the relationship. ava would be the same Perfect Girlfriend but maybe more relaxed than with her mom because sara had a better relationship with her dad. when ava walks away he just looks at sara and is like.... i’ve never seen you this happy since the gambit and sara just shrugs and is like. she gets me.

[joemuggs]

Old is the New New

Not really. But the question of how and whether innovation happens in the digital age is a perennial one. I remember a drunken New Year’s Eve conversation a decade or more ago with a friend complaining that there was never going to be another summer of love or punk or acid house revolution, and me saying we’re too ready to pre-empt that in the UK now, but subcultural things like that could very well happen in places like Kinshasa or Kuala Lumpur or Kiev... and indeed music is a part of major cultural shifts around the world. 

Listening to the We Out Here compilation really got me going this year though. It’s so vivid and of the now, without having any of the high-tech signifiers that we of the post-rave generations have come to recognise as representing newness. But in the bodily movements of the players are encoded London life 2018, just as much as they are in drill MCs’ voices or whatever deconstructed club beat patterns are working for people right now. Though that perhaps only makes sense if you understand the soul-jazz continuum as it is woven through London music. Not that you NEED to, mind, because the music operates on an instant, pleasure-principle level too. My full review I wrote for the Wire is above... 

We Out Here by We Out Here

...but that review in turn then set off a few tangents, which became a Twitter thread, which I have tidied up as follows:

A short rant on people who use "innovation" as their primary yardstick for judging music. 

If you do this, you are judging music first of all as A Cultural Phenomenon - an abstraction - and sidelining both the sound itself and what it is doing for the real people who love it. If people still love to dance to / make drum'n'bass 20 years on, or deep house 30 years on, or jazz-funk 40 years on, or garage rock 50 years on, or R&B 60 years on, or whatever, and your first response is to accuse them of lack of inspiration, you've gone wrong somewhere. We can't always be in a Cambrian Explosion period like 70s NYC or 90s UK where globally important musical species are created seemingly willy-nilly. Comparing the normal pace of innovation to those explosive times is foolishness. And worse, it denies lasting value to music.

I've been thinking of this wrt the current buzz of what you might call "post-Plastic People jazz" - music which doesn't sound overtly new, but is still vivid with value in the here and now. Thing is, there's always been top parties where you could dance to jazz if you looked. And whether it was 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, that music had the same instant value in the heat of a club, both for its direct effect on the body and from the fact that it tended to attract some of the most diverse crowds: something that always leads to a better party. Does it lose value over the decades, just because it's not the first time it's being played in that style? Christ no. Does sex become less good because you've done it a few times?

The motives of ppl who insist that newer ≡ better are highly suspect & usually proprietorial.

This doesn't mean things don't change. The concept of "timelessness" is metaphysical and equally suspect. OBVIOUSLY dancing to drum'n'bass at 4am in 2018 is different to 1998. But when the beat drops there's real continuity of physical/emotional/social experience. All of this is no shade on innovation, either! Indeed it's rly the "innovation is dead" argument that diminishes real & amazing developments. From Chino Amobi and Elysia Crampton to mainstream hip hop over the last decade to any number of 'developing world' sounds, it's rife. Innovation is vital, we celebrate it, we seek it out. But to use it as your main measure of social and aesthetic value is bullshit.

"Oh nice house you designed and built with your own hands there... BUT DID YOU INVENT THE CONCEPT OF HOUSES, HMMM??"

Aside from sidelining the value of craft, folk art etc in favour of a vision of "inventiveness" that is always tied up in a tangle of sketchy ideas about cultural superiority, it just suggests you're more wrapped up in your own valuations than in the thing you're evaluating. And with huge irony it's often nostalgia-based: people want to see the same kind of innovation that blew them away when they were first launching out on their own voyage of discovery. It's quite egotistical in these cases, it's centring ideas of progress around your own tastes. Tangentially, there’s probably a whole PhD thesis on compering the theory bro’s modernism with the tech bro’s disruption. But more generally, this desperation to repeat a particular type of innovation v often seems like attempt to isolate "modernism" or "innovation" as an essential quality divorced from historical context. And essentialism and ahistoricalism are bad.

NONE of this is to say that retroism, revival, tradition etc etc are worthwhile qualities in and of them selves, of course. You still have to make aesthetic and cultural judgements yourself about what you're hearing and how it's consumed! Being familiar or traditional in itself doesn't make anything good, any more than it makes it bad.

Here’s another thing. Old things can still smash preconceptions. If you’re so jaded you think Sun Ra or Kate Bush or The Butthole Surfers or Coki don’t have something new to say to you, let alone a 15 yr old hearing them for the first time, I feel for you. These things, heard in the right light, can be as modernist as they ever were.

A tangent, on the job of music critics, and how we value the music of the past:

I think we all to one degree or another internalise the notion that popular music is aesthetically "cheap" because of the illusion of infinite availability, as compared to art or "art music". If you watch art/history on BBC4 you see Andrew Graham Dixon or Janina Ramirez waxing lyrical about the qualities of the pieces of art themselves, as expressions of their time. In BBC4 pop music history – unless it's one of those very specialist musicological things with Howard Goodall – it very much tends to be biographical and social history above all else. Can't help feeling that's because there's a reverence for the artworks, that comes from not everyone being able to go to Florence or New York or whatever and see them in the flesh - but everyone can hear "Purple Haze" or "Strings of Life" any time they want, right?

And to my original point about modernism vs retro, I suspect that adds to a cultural forgetting of how radical, say, "Purple Haze" not only was, but STILL IS. Isn't there a value in talking about it not in a Classic Rock way, not in a cultural history way, but in the way we'd talk about a Picasso? "Purple Haze"/"Strings of Life" perhaps are not good examples actually, because they DO at least get the historical reverence treatment on occasion (though this, too, is more based on historical context than aesthetic antalysis). There's thousands upon thousands more records that - if criticism is going to have any purpose - deserve to be looked at, over and over, AS ARTWORKS.

Especially DJing for Big Fish Little Fish parties I listen to & play a lot of what might be called cheesy dance classics, and I continually listen to them closely as a result. The diff between listening hard to Music Sounds Better With You or the Hardfloor mix of Yeke Yeke and just HEARING them as background in a bar or on the radio is like the difference between seeing a Miró or Warhol full sized and up close, and seeing a postcard of one. And actually those records are as great as works of human intellect and instinct as most Great Gallery Art. When you are up close to - in fact INSIDE - those records as they were built to be heard, their sense of balance, scale contrast, movement, balanced chaos/control, etc etc etc is up there with a Kandinsky or Braque. Obviously Capitalism doesn't value it as such, mind... And I think we (critics) unconsciously undervalue that too. So we talk about the past as movements, moments of cultural significance, but all too rarely about how the patterns and tics and structures of X record embody that and what power they still have now. People often talk of the job of critics as just being either explainers, enthusers, conceptualists or a glorified recommendation algorithm. But if the WRITING part of writing about music is ever to have any value, then what about just discussing and bearing witness?

All of which brings us back to the thing about fetishising innovation. We live in a world where thousands or more of people globally are hearing Nu Groove reissues, or rediscovered tapes from Benin, or some twisted Catalan synthpop record from 1981, FOR THE FIRST TIME. While at the same time, in mainstream and underground, soundcloud rapper and Elysia Crampton records are startling and scaring with newness. And elsewhere people – let's take the 100% Silk label or Dekmantel in Amsterdam as prime examples – are maintaining past sounds as living folk traditions. When you hear a set of Robert Hood type minimal techno, even if you don't share his spiritual beliefs and sense of the eternal, you can certainly feel it as being several steps away from the microhistorical cycles of hype. Because of course devotional or ecstatic music is consistently resistant to - or doesn't need - innovation. A shaman chanting in Uruguay, Sufi dancers in Pashtun country, a choir in Hereford Cathedral, Niyabinghi drummers - what do THEY care for the Shock of the New? But from the global 'old' music forms to the crate diggers' early house compilations to the super innovative post-Arca electronicisits, all of these things ARE our present. It's an extraordinary musical-historical moment to be part of. Scary, unpredictable, best of times / worst of times, etc but fucking extraordinary - including the presence of the past, whether unearthed or transmitted through living tradition. We should bear witness to that!