#the futile by say anything

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

god. god. soulfire is trying to tie. they never hit an egg. if they can’t tie then theyre going to throw. green team are the ones who attacked blue’s egg. watching bad desperately try to get roier away from it again and again was one of the most harrowing things ive watched. etoiles stopped attacking when he realized how outnumbered blue was. blue killed fit and left his stuff behind because green killed tubbo and left his stuff behind. blue is going to save them both or die trying. how am i supposed to be normal about this team

[time-is-restored]

btw not to make everything about My Fucking Guy but i honestly think one of the things that seperates q!phil out from the other islanders is the approach he takes to dealing with the lack of agency + control all the islanders have over whatever the fuck the federation's doing.

it shows up most prominently whenever tubbo is excitedly telling him about the 'progress' he's made with cucurucho or various investigations (ie: trapping him into a corner with the 'do you have free will' questions), and phil always shoots it down w an immediate 'that doesn't mean anything. curucuho will say anything to mess with you. you can't take anything he says as true.'

and it's not that phil is... a paticularly pessimistic character? he's just EXTREMELY practical. like, he's yet to give up on anyone EVER finding ANY answers (he was the one who initially gave the federation that one week ultimatum w the cage for a cage stream), he just doesn't trust the idea that curucuho is ever going to voluntarily give them. they're uncontrollable + senseless - you might as well argue with the weather.

and like, if that's how he sees the one (1) and only point of contact the islanders HAD with the federation for months, it explains a lot abt his characters lifestyle! ofc he sits on the wall all day, talking to his kids, and keeping his head down. he believes that the federation wants nothing more than to drag the islanders into sick games + tasks just so they can fuck with their head (ie: curucuho revealing he was the one cellbit gathered all that information for). and while he can't totally PREVENT any of that from ever impacting him, he can make sure his kids are well fed, well protected, and as happy + comfortable as he can manage. this is objectively not a perfect situation, there is a guaranteed amount of suffering + fear that he can't mitigate, but he can at least account for it.

like, he REFUSES to engage. whenever curucho shows up, he treats them with total ambivalence. he's not going to get riled up by anything they do, he's not going to get super attached to the guy, he's just gonna laugh it off and irish goodbye it when things drag on. the ONLY time he's strayed from that general guiding principle has been since he's lost his eggs, and can no longer afford to let the federation's fuckery go: those are his fucking kids.

hence the completely unprecedented levels of outward rage and sadness and terror he shows throughout the birdcage streams - almost all directed directly to cucurucho. it's all a completely fair + proportional response to the horror the islanders are being subjected to, but it feels so different bc until now, q!phil has been so dedicated to not reacting, and not giving the federation any sign that they're actually getting to him.

[thebirdandhersong]

the miserable angry person I become when I haven't eaten is, in a word, atrocious. it is 9pm I have not had my dinner murder is about to be on the menu if I don't fix this soon

[edwinisms]

I really don’t wanna be that guy but completely honestly why does anyone think that a petition is going to do anything

[so-called-quail]

'Trapped in the end!' said Sam bitterly, his anger rising again above weariness and despair. 'Gnats in a net. May the curse of Faramir bite that Gollum and bite him quick!' 'That would not help us now,' said Frodo.

Sword in hand Sam went after him. For the moment he had forgotten everything else but the red fury in his brain and the desire to kill Gollum. But before he could overtake him, Gollum was gone. Then as the dark hole stood before him and the stench came out to meet him, like a clap of thunder the thought of Frodo and the monster smote upon Sam's mind.

Now he tried to find strength to tear himself away and go on a lonely journey – for vengeance. If once he could go, his anger would bear him down all the roads of the world, pursuing, until he had him at last: Gollum. Then Gollum would die in a corner. But that was not what he had set out to do. It would not be worth while to leave his master for that. It would not bring him back. Nothing would.

Sam and vengeance in today's entry

[gideonisms]

almost nothing is worth losing sleep over, I decided this after being 22. academic failure is better than losing a single night's sleep over something so silly. but at the same time, this proposal was due a, week and a half ago,

[wildgeese98]

I realize this plea is probably in vain but I'm going to make it anyways.

Can we all please try to be chill and not get too heated about Protocol shipping stuff? I've seen a few posts and tags now where people are getting a bit more aggressive than seems necessary.

Protocol is focusing on relationships and specifically romantic relationships a lot more than Archives so obviously there are going to be Takes and Opinions. But I'm begging people to try and be cool keep some perspective.

I haven't actually seen that much of this kind of thing but I still just want to put it out there.

[lordgroose]

Say Anything - The Futile

[jam-packed]

i watched aliens (1986) and tbh where are the adrift in space aus for motogp. trap those guys in some situations

[ribbonknot]

need a main kpop girlie to leave their company and succeed in a massive way that is also consistent

[surebabyholdback]

I'm eating rat poison for dinner

Pull the cord from the phone

I am dining alone

Tonight

Rat poison for dinner

Pull the cord from the phone

I am dining alone

So goodnight

[dangerous-advantage]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

number one: HI HELLO I LOVE YOU FOR THIS /platonic

number two: i.... have not written five fics that would be applicable for this (oops)

that said:

[it was futile]

"This isn't real. It... it was just a nightmare. A lucid dream of a doomed timeline, crafted of guilt and subconcious. To wake up, perhaps he needed to give in, let the creeping fog wash over him... After all, there was no point in fighting the inevitable." Several months after the invasion in New York, Leo wakes up surrounded by a nightmare he thought he had escaped -- and he's not alone. Delirious, scared, and confused, the only thing he wants is to find his way home. But things are never that simple. aka: a (reverse?) future crossover fic that features angst, hurt/comfort, my fucked up reimagining of the apocalypse timeline, and a lot of details that might become plot-relevant later (ahahaha... dw abt it)

this fic is very much a slow-burn. i have a lot planned, so i spend a lot of time weaving in details/foreshadowing that won't pay off for a while. as it stands, we're around 50,000 words in and i'm just about to get into the main plot. so.... yeah haha (really want to get the next chapter out this sunday/monday, but we shall see haha.)

(i am so bad at hyping up my own writing, so i hope my commenters do not mind me using some of their reviews):

frequent commenters my beloved <3

(this is not the entirety of this review btw -- if you want to read the entire comment, you can do so here. mild spoilers (nothing that would matter), but it goes very in-depth about what you can expect from my style haha.

credit to @shadowbends, you are so cool, and every time i need motivation, i just reread this comment.)

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

alright I have to say it--s3e3 of Miss Scarlet and the Duke was one of my favourite episodes so far. bringing in another character to play off Eliza and fill the position William would usually have in the narrative was really fun, because instead of once again sticking us in the endless cycle of their snark and tension, we actually got to see Eliza learning more about a new person and reacting accordingly. and also, I find Mr. Nash a genuinely fun character to watch, and I love the development of his... slightly-antagonistic-yet-hopeful semi-partnership semi-competition with Eliza?? I'm intrigued by his backstory and motivations now, too, and how they tie into why he's so captivated by Eliza. he sees something of a mirror in her, I think, but at the same time, she pushes him towards growth--both out of competition, to be better than her, and out of motivation, because she expects him to be better than he is and that makes him want to change.

anyway! I expected to be a bit disappointed at the absence of the Duke, but I actually enjoyed this chance for an entirely different dynamic. and I think a lot more character development for everyone can happen with those two separated, too. especially at this specific point in the series. (if I'm being fully honest, part of me wishes there would be more episodes with them separated, so they can have a chance to truly grow on their own. I think that would have a lot more benefit for them as individuals and on their relationship together than constantly being around one another and doing the equivalent of raking their nails across each other's freshly-scabbed-over wounds every. single. day. does)

[lith-myathar]

(sry this is a Post now but i utterly failed to be concise)

@lazysatyr I think it is a little bit. I'm not mad about individuals getting it wrong so much as I'm irritated with how and why that piece of misinformation became so prevalent in the first place. People liked the tragedy of it, they liked the idea that he was a "child" by elf standards when it happened. Makes him seem more sympathetic when everything we know about him pre-vamp says he was pretty terrible, actually. A fully realized adult making decisions that ruined lives and not caring. I think that's a pretty important piece of context for everything that comes after in his story. The way people just uncritically took that idea and ran with it, how it's been disseminated into fanworks and the internet in general to the point that it is very difficult for anyone to tell it's not actually canon is.... bad, imo. It's a misrepresentation. And while I totally get why it happened - it's very hard to read the dates on the grave and they fucked up by using DR - it still bothers me that so many people accepted it so quickly.

[crossbackpoke-check]

I TOTALLY KNOW THE SID STORY ABT THE BIG MACS YOURE TALKING ABOUT AND I ALSO HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I SAW IT??? godspeed in your quest to find this bit of Lore i thought you'd want to know someone else knew what you were thinking about <3

😭😭 it’s me and you against the vast expanses of the internet but i’m so glad someone knows what i’m talking about!!

[barkingbarghest]

The thing with growing up in Maryland is that I'm southern enough to say "bless his heart" but northern enough to mean it earnestly.