#the possible combinations are permutations are ENDLESS

[holysweetcherryorchardtree]

[clumsydragon28]

Blinding

Shikajin Weekend 2024

Day 1 - "It's okay if it's you"

“'Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open And finally it seemed that the spell was broken”

Florence + the Machine

For those of you who have read Plié-sed to Have Met You or Sway this little teaser takes place within that same universe. It's a scene that I plan to include in my soon(ish) to come Shikajin part 2 of this dance AU. It is not necessary however to read either of the others to understand this addition.

This scene was inspired by beautiful artwork the wonderful @twnj blessed me with ❤️ You can find that beautiful artwork here 🥰

Full story below the cut ✨

One of Inojin’s favourite things about dance is that there is nothing set in stone. People can dance to the same song over and over again and it will never once repeat. A person who had choreographed a routine however many years ago can even now create a completely new story to that same exact song. 

Dance leaves room for you to experiment. It allows for endless permutations and limitless combinations. It is fueled by opportunity and opens you up to possibility. Therefore, it never gets boring because it’s always different. Always shifting. Always changing.

Inojin’s final exam for his contemporary class was the perfect representation of that fact. He and his classmates were each given the same song and told to choreograph a minute and a half solo to it. Inojin had been slotted into the last spot of the lineup, and he eagerly continued to wait his turn as he watched dance after dance to the same piece of music.

The song their teacher had chosen was both haunting and relentless. The groove of drums along with the symphony of wind instruments clashed to create a thrilling tension perfect for storytelling. Inojin had been very pleased the first time he heard it, knowing immediately these dances would be something special.

After a full semester together, Inojin had gotten to know his classmates pretty well. He’d even been able to correctly guess which moves they would include in their solos, like Metal and his switch leap at the top of the routine or Tsubaki with her snake to the floor during the final eight counts. Yet despite Inojin’s penchant for prediction, the beauty of this assignment was that he was able to see his fellow dancers in a different light.

It is one thing to execute someone else’s steps for them, but it is another entirely to execute your own. Something unique happens when one is tasked with choreographing for themself. Those moves are the most raw. The most natural. The most direct. There comes no need for translation between teacher and student when the dancer is their own creator. 

That was what Inojin found most thrilling about this assignment. What better way to see the true feeling of a dancer than watching them express it themself? Who better than Inojin to choreograph for himself when he knows his story better than anyone else?

After waiting and waiting and waiting, it finally came time for Inojin to perform his solo. He could not have been more ready and excited. He took up his starting position in the center of the floor, readjusted the silk of the slap-dash costume tied about his waist, and allowed the music to wash over him as his body began to move. 

Though this was just a casual performance in a half-filled classroom, Inojin danced with the same enthusiasm and vigor as if he was on stage in a sold-out theatre. He looked out into his audience, just one teacher and a handful of students, and though he didn’t make eye contact with any single person, he knew everyone seated there could feel his piercing stare. Inojin saw every thought and feeling that went through their bodies as he performed. Not only what he danced, but how he danced seemed to move them so deeply where they became lost in captivation.

Inojin had their utmost attention. He had their very souls locked into his mind and eyes. And he thrived off of it.

The swells of the brass along with the singer’s ethereal voice carried Inojin to heights he hadn’t reached since before his surgery. He swore he leapt higher off the ground and bent deeper into his pliés than he had in months. Whether it was the welcome pressure of an enraptured audience or the buildup in anticipation of waiting to heal, Inojin didn’t know. Either way, he danced his solo to his fullest potential. 

Inojin became blinded by his own movements. He danced without thinking. He danced without fear. Inojin lost himself to the performance in the same way his classmates and teacher had, hypnotized by the power of a story told straight from its source. 

It wasn’t until Inojin fell to his knees on the final chord that the spell broke. The dance escaped his body as the music faded, manifesting itself in the air all around him. All of the pent-up frustration and anger tore through his chest and stormed every wall of the room. His emotions spilled out onto the floor with each laboured puff of air as he tried to catch his breath. He could feel the pull on his scar tissue from the overexertion and strain, but the threat of any reinjury was nowhere to be seen. 

Inojin swore the applause he received for his solo was louder than any of his other classmates’. The reception filled him to the brim with confidence and determination, fanning his hunger to burn brighter and stronger.

He hadn’t thought he needed it. Inojin knew that he could dance incredibly well, and he didn’t need to be told that to believe it. But the simple reassurance of hands clapping together, of people being compelled to react because of something he had created, made Inojin feel secure in his choice of destiny. 

He truly was meant to follow this path. His dream had never died. He’d just had to delay it slightly. 

With his solo done class was over, signifying the end of fall term and the beginning of winter break. His classmates scurried out of the room yelling rushed goodbyes, urgently racing to catch their trains and planes back home for the holidays. But Inojin was in no such hurry. His grandmother’s house would still be just as warm and welcoming as it always was no matter if he took the first bus or the last.

After shoving his sweat-drenched costume into his bag and throwing on his beloved flannel, Inojin exited the classroom to find a surprising but no less warm and welcoming sight waiting for him in the corridor.

“Shikadai?”

The other man sat cross-legged on the tile floor of the hallway. He appeared to have been reading, but was already shoving the book back into his bag before Inojin could catch a glimpse of the title. Shikadai then stood up, adjusting his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose and pulling on his clothes that had become mussed with the movements. A sliver of tan, defined skin peaked out over the top of Shikadai’s blue jeans before his shirt fell back down to sadly hide it from view.

The display distracted Inojin for a few – or rather, many long moments until his brain finally jumped back to the present and he remembered how odd it was to find this display happening here of all places.

“What are you doing here? I thought you avoided the dance corridor like the plague.”

Shikadai made a noise halfway between a chuckle and a snort, and Inojin tried to ignore what that sound did to him.

“I finished my last exam a few hours ago, and my flight back to Mexico isn’t until tomorrow morning. On the phone you mentioned your final was also today so—”

“You remembered that?”

Shikadai looked just as caught off guard as Inojin felt. He had rambled about so many things during that conversation, a majority of which Inojin couldn’t recall if he tried. When he was in the zone like that, he just yapped away about whatever popped into his head in the moment without giving it a second thought.

“Well, yeah. You sounded really excited about it, so it had to be important, no?”

The fact that Shikadai had paid more attention to the words coming out of his mouth than he himself had made a pleasant yet dangerous heat tingle in the depths of Inojin’s core.

“Anyway, since I had the time free, I figured I’d wait for you here to finish.”

Inojin scoffed.

“Really? You chose to spend your free time in the wing of the school you complained was too loud and too noisy and too distracting and—”

“It actually wasn’t that bad.”

Shikadai shrugged, trying to seem unphased by the accusations tossed his way. But the faint flush of pink hiding behind the rim of his glasses said otherwise.

“Well…Today, at least, I didn’t hate it. It was okay.”

Inojin was so confused. Why did he willingly come and wait in the corridor that he couldn’t stand? And why today? What made this day different from any other?

The blush on Shikadai’s cheeks grew even darker as he cleared his throat before continuing to explain.

“Usually, I don’t know why the noise is happening. That’s what makes it so troublesome. But today, I knew you were on the other side of that door. That made it more…bearable? No, that’s not the right word.”

Shikadai brought his hand up to his chin and scratched at his stubble, looking off to the side as he fell deep into thought.

“¿Como se dice en inglés?”

Inojin was entranced by the way Shikadai’s Adam’s apple danced in his throat as he continued talking to himself in Spanish. He had no idea how long he stood there staring until Shikadai removed his hand away from his mouth. He mumbled once again, but Inojin couldn’t make out what he said. Whatever it was, Shikadai seemed a bit disappointed. He gave a defeated shrug in Inojin’s direction. 

“Tranquilo. That’s what we would call it back home.”

Inojin had heard that word used before. It meant tranquil. Relaxed. Peaceful. 

He had brought peace to Shikadai’s day?

Inojin suddenly felt like he needed to collapse onto his knees once more. 

“It was comforting, in a way. Knowing the source of the ‘noise’. Made it no longer feel like noise. Made it feel…tranquilo.”

Shikadai gave one more shrug of his shoulders, but this time accompanied by a smirk on his lips.

“So, yeah. The ‘noise’? Está bien. Está bien si eres tú.”

That dangerous heat in Inojin’s stomach grew from a manageable simmer to a raging boil.

“It’s okay if it’s you.”

[hetafluidtexan]

How Many Ships & Trios exist within Hetalia?

Howdy everyone!

As we all know as Hetalians, shipping is a key part of fandom space, with many of the most famed writers and artists in the fandom being known for their ships!

And as we know, there are many many ships, sometimes it seems like an endless number of them! However, there are a very finite amount of characters in Hetalia, and only so many ways you can arrange any set of characters in a duo or trio.

This of course naturally raises the question, how many ships can possibly exist within the fandom? 50? 100? 250?

That there, my guys gals and enby pals is what this post hopes to answer!

The key to answering this equation without manually listing every possible ship is a little known thing called the Combination Equation. What is the Combination Equation?

It is this beauty! Now, for those of yall who aren't familiar with Combinations and Permutations, this may seem like some complex abomination. But in reality, it is a very simple equation!

To explain it, imagine you have 6 fruits - an apple, orange, pear, grapes, kiwi, and banana - in total but can only fit 2 into you lunch bag. How many Combinations of fruit can you have? Rather than manually calculating it by counting every single combination, you can just use the equation!

You have 4 fruits, so you put n = 6, as n is just how many of whatever you have, be that fruits or Hetalia Nendoroids. Next, because you only have enough room for 2 fruits, you put r = 2, as r just means the size of your combination groups, be it space for fruits or how many Nendoroid stands you have. Then you just put it in a calculator and hurrah! You have 15 possible combinations of fruit! It is also very important to note that the difference between Combinations and Permutations is if order is important; Combinations view ABC, ACB, and BCA as all the same, while Permutations view all three as seprate.

Now we understand the basic math, we can move onto the core question: How can we use this to find how many possible Hetalia ships are there?

Well to begin with, we need to figure out our n value, which in this case is just how many characters are in all of Hetalia! Well, almost. In Hetalia, if we include only canonical characters and only those that are 1pHetalia ones, we have a total of 71 Characters. However, 8 of those character, meaning we really end up with 63 characters! So our n = 63!

Now for the r value, to start, we will just say r = 2 to represent ever 1x1 ship!

But before we can put it all in, we need to add one thing: - s. Why? Well, because at the moment we have one issue, that being this equation has ALL possible ships, which also means it includes less savory ones. However, we don't want to remove one character and their dozens of ships over just a single unsavory one, so we can set s to equal however many ships we wish to disregard. In this case, I will set it to s = 6, meaning 6 will be removed from the final total.

So what number do we get from this?

DRUM ROLL PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE

ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE!

Meaning, if we set ourselves to 1pHeta and 1x1 ships, there are 1,885 ships! That's a lot You have to admit, but l can't help feel that's a bit small, and that's largely because we put on very strict restrictions; So how about we try some more generous ones?

To start with, how about we double our n value so instead n = 62, we set it to n = 124! Afterall, Nyotalia or 2ptalia are very common in the fandom, so how about we account for them in our ships as well? Doing so, and setting s = 12 to account for the doubling, we wind up with this equation

And from this we get...

7,614! Now that's a hell of a jump I'd say! Certainly, our 1x1 shippers out there will have no shortage of ships for a long long time!

But what about our polyamorous and trio loving friends? Fear not, you have not been forgotten, as by changing r from r = 2 to r = 3, even with just the original n = 62, while leaving s = 12 just to be safe, this will undoubtably make a difference as our equation now looks like such

And how many lovely polyamorous loves and bff trios are we rewarded with?

Even more than before at 37,808 trios! It really goes to show there will never be any shortage of ships or trios for a long long time, and that if you pick any three characters at random, chances are you'll have a trio no one has ever made before, that's crazy!

Now, how about we break this?

If we multiply 62 by four, we get n = 248, accounting for every single 1pHetalia, 1pNyotalia, 2pHetalia, and 2pNyoCharacter based off canon ones that exist, a truly massive number. To show some mercy, let is return to r = 2 and double s to s = 24, which seems like a very harsh restriction and gives us the equation of

So what do we get from this equation?

...well that wasn't supposed to happen, lets see if we can figure out what went wrong

248 - 2 = 246, and since its a factorial, lets plug it into another site to see what we get from this

Ah, well them... Perhaps Scientific Notation will be able to clarify this?

Well no wonder Desmos broke, at *10^482, that's a number bigger than the amount of atoms in the universe - quite literally, as its estimated there are 10^80 atoms in the universe, not even a fifth as big as the number we got as the total number of atoms in the universe vs 246! is 16.598%, or in otherwords, if ever atom in the universe was a number from 1 to 246!, you would only get 16.598% of the way there before you ran out of atoms.

Its crazy to think our little fandom can literally create something bigger than the number of atoms in the universe! And, if you want to toy around with possibly universe breaking numbers, or something more mundane just like how many lesbian ships exist in Hetalia or how many European squads there are, I present to you: The Hetalia Fandom Ship Calculator

Entirely free for anyone to use, just follow all the attached note info, and use it as you please to learn as much as your heart desires!

But for now my lovely guys and gals and enby pals, I must go, I promise to return soon, and until then, drink some water, get some food and rest, and have a most lovely of days!

[shortfictionweeklychallenge]

Short Fiction Weekly Challenge

Time for a new prompt from the Short Fiction Weekly Challenge, tumblr edition.  Let it spark your imagination.  Any character, any fandom, any original world.   Reblogs welcome!

Post your story to your blog and send the link to Short Fiction Weekly Challenge!  We’ll send the link out to all our followers to enjoy.

This week’s SFWC prompt:

Week of February 9, 2024

My Treat: If your character decided to plan something special for a friend or loved one, what would they do? Go beyond gifts or basic favors--this is something extra-special. Would it be elaborate or simple? Celebrating something or just because? An entire day or one thing? Does your character take the recipient’s feelings and desires into account, or do they do what they themselves would want? Is it a heartfelt gesture or a chance to showoff? It’s common to think about how supporting characters would treat your character--consider this week your character being the giver.

Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust.  Submit it anyway and Short Fiction Weekly Challenge will publish it.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are: 

Listen: More important than being able to act, perhaps, is the ability to listen. To hear someone voice their concerns or point of view without filtering through their own experience or opinion. When has your character really listened to another one in your story? They need not be converted, but they ought to gain understanding. Some characters don’t care; that’s fine and valid. This week, let your character be the quiet one and really listen to someone else in the story, then show what they do with their new perspective.

Love Triangle: Two men vying for the affections of one woman, the oldest trope around. But there are endless permutations possible: Three men, three women, any combination of two genders and one of the opposite, nonbinary, aliens.  Consider, too, nonsexual/aromantic triangles, where "affection” is "deep and abiding friendship" and the point of contention has nothing to do with physical attraction, but social status, physical distance, or something else. This week, write some version of a love triangle.

Got an idea for a prompt?  Submit it here.

[ghostlytidalwavephantom]

It gets even more freakish when you start accounting for psychic phenomena. I can, and in many dreams already have, look into the future and see thousands of permutations where someone—prompted by little more than activity on this site—went exploring and found something interesting to make a post for. Millions of possible futures where different combinations of users went searching and found random bits, and the futures whereby whatever chaos led them to slightly larger fragments of the same information, written and rewritten in septillions of different places, and then large events of freakish accuracy like you mention, and I find these moments specifically because they fuck you up so bad you have to post about it.

And I have to look upon this ocean of Chaos, and see millions of hours where nothing really happened, pouring over seemingly endless boredom for those singular gems of what any scientist would claim completely violates probability once I'm ready to make my own post (which causes the entire system of futures to enter recursive affectation mode) and watch the recombinant stuttering of near-hits where if I'd timed things just infinitesimally differently...

Volumes of impossibility, the thinnest cracks in time, accessible solely by virtue of the sheer scale of effort we can muster.

The fact that there's an actually functional website for the library of Babel is one of those things that fucks me up more and more the more I think about the implications.

[cubeleloin]

Why Solving a Rubik's Cube Is Easier Than You Think

The Rubik's Cube, with its colorful, twisting squares and seemingly infinite combinations, has long been seen as one of the ultimate challenges in the world of puzzles. For many, the sight of a scrambled Rubik's Cube brings to mind hours of frustration and the belief that solving it is a task reserved for geniuses or those with endless patience. However, the truth is that learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube is much easier than you might think. With a bit of guidance, a systematic approach, and some practice, you can unlock the secrets of this iconic puzzle and impress yourself and others with your newfound skill.

The Myth of Complexity

The first thing to understand about the Rubik's Cube is that its complexity is often exaggerated. While it’s true that there are over 43 quintillion possible combinations, there is only one correct solution, and that solution can be reached through a series of simple, repeatable steps. The idea that solving the cube requires advanced mathematical skills or a photographic memory is a myth. In reality, solving the Rubik's Cube is about following a set of algorithms—specific sequences of moves—that systematically bring the puzzle closer to its solved state.

The Power of Algorithms

Algorithms are the key to solving the Rubik's Cube. These are not complicated mathematical formulas but rather step-by-step instructions that tell you how to move certain pieces into the correct positions without disrupting the rest of the cube. Most beginner methods for solving the Rubik's Cube involve memorizing just a few algorithms. For example, the most popular method, known as the CFOP method, breaks the solution down into four main stages: Cross, First Two Layers (F2L), Orientation of the Last Layer (OLL), and Permutation of the Last Layer (PLL).

By learning and practicing these algorithms, you can solve each stage of the cube methodically, reducing the puzzle from an overwhelming challenge to a manageable task. With just a little practice, these algorithms become second nature, and solving the Rubik's Cube starts to feel more like a fun exercise than an impossible feat.

The Role of Practice

As with any skill, practice is crucial when learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube. The good news is that you don’t need to dedicate hours each day to become proficient. Even practicing for just a few minutes a day can lead to significant progress. The more you practice, the more familiar you become with the cube’s movements and the algorithms required to solve it. Over time, you’ll notice that your speed and accuracy improve, and what once seemed impossible becomes second nature.

The Satisfaction of Success

One of the most rewarding aspects of solving a Rubik's Cube is the sense of accomplishment that comes with it. Each time you solve the puzzle, you reinforce your problem-solving skills and build confidence in your ability to tackle complex challenges. The cube’s reputation as a difficult puzzle makes solving it an impressive achievement, and knowing how to solve a Rubik's Cube is a skill that never fails to amaze others.

Conclusion

Solving a Rubik's Cube is easier than you might think. With a basic understanding of algorithms, a systematic approach, and some practice, anyone can learn how to solve this iconic puzzle. So, if you’ve ever been intimidated by the Rubik's Cube, now is the perfect time to pick one up and give it a try. You might just surprise yourself with how quickly you can master it.

[luxuriesofkashmiir]

Buy Trendy Co-ord Sets for Women Online in India

It’s 2024 and the world is slowly yet steadily embracing the concept of sustainability. Consumers are now more aware about the impact their choices have on the environment and sustainable fashion is one such choice in alignment with this awareness. Achieving sustainability in your wardrobe does not have to be a daunting task; you can start by investing in timeless classics that never go out of style. This ensures maximum wearability, minimum wastage, and therefore, a better environment. Among the various fashion influences around the world, Kashmiri fashion stands out as an epitome of elegance and timelessness. So let’s dive into some timeless classics that you can get started with.

Co-ord Sets

Co-ord sets have made quite the comeback and how! The fashion staple of yesteryears has made quite the splash with various renditions being crafted under its name. Traditionally consisting of two pieces of clothing - a tunic/blouse and a pant, or a three piece set with a tunic, pant and an overcoat, co-ord sets are the epitome of style and comfort. They are versatile and can be worn anywhere, anytime given that they are styled right!

 Let’s dive into the finer details of building a sustainable wardrobe with co-ord sets. We know that one co-ord set comes with two to three pieces of clothing, each of which can be worn separately as individual pieces or in combinations and permutations with other wardrobe staples.

 Our co-ord sets from the A La Mode collection for example feature unique pieces that can be worn as a set, as individual pieces and in combination with a pair of jeans, culottes, shorts or pieces from other co-ord sets as well.

 1. Effortless Casual Day Out

For a laid-back and comfortable look, style your co-ord set with a pair of trendy sneakers. This piece for example features a tunic and pants in light, breathable fabrics for a relaxed feel. The colors are harmonious, creating a cohesive ensemble with unique patterns and detailing. Tousled hair and oversized sunglasses should complete this chic daytime look, perfect for casual outings, brunches, or a leisurely stroll through the park.

 LOK Tip: You can pair the tunic with a pair of well fitted jeans and the pants with a tank top to create more looks.

 2. Sophisticated Attire

Transform your co-ord set into a polished and professional outfit with vibrant tones and patterns for a timeless appeal. Pair it with elegant heels and minimalistic jewelry to maintain a refined aesthetic. This co-ord set includes an overcoat you can drape over your shoulders for an extra layer of sophistication while sporting a tank top or a chic shirt. This styling option strikes the perfect balance between comfort and style, making it an ideal choice for days when you want to make a lasting impression.

LOK Tip: You can team the blazer with a bodycon dress, a pair of jeans and white tank top; and you can team your pants with a classic shirt for more styling options.

 3. Elegant Evening Ensemble

Elevate your co-ord set for an evening affair with a touch of glamor. Crafted from rich, luxurious fabrics this set is a dreamy attire to make heads turn. Pair the set with stylish heels, and accessorize with statement jewelry. This ensemble is perfect for cocktail parties, dinner dates, or any evening event where you want to exude sophistication and charm.

LOK Tip: You can sport the blouse with a saree and the skirt with a cute top for more styling options.

The key to mastering the art of styling co-ord sets and crafting a sustainable wardrobe lies in understanding the versatility of each piece. Experiment with different combinations, mix and match with other wardrobe staples, and let your creativity shine. Whether you're aiming for a casual daytime look, a polished office attire, or an elegant evening ensemble, co-ord sets from Luxuries of Kashmir offer endless possibilities for a sustainable and stylish wardrobe.

[hockeyboysiguess]

two turtle doves -> two hockey skates | t. seguin

a/n: thank you for all your sweet comments on the first fic of this little holiday series :) here’s fic number two in my 12 days of christmas series! full list linked here.

word count: 3,643

warnings: alcohol, terrible skating, some questionable choices, cheesiness. 

Christmas in Toronto, well outside of Toronto, with the Seguin family was going better than you had let yourself hope it would. Meeting Tyler’s family happened ages ago, but the decision to split holidays, Thanksgiving with yours and Christmas his, was a much bigger one that had brought nerves in never ending supply. Spending Christmas away from your own family, where you had always spent it, also had you worrying, on top of endless time with your boyfriend’s family where you felt like you always had to be on, you worried it wouldn’t feel like Christmas. But now, with the gifts opened and cherished, the fire roaring, dinner served and enjoyed, and with everyone drinking Tyler’s mom’s incredible spiked hot chocolate, your nerves had given way to warmth and love, and as cliché as it was, the Christmas spirit. 

“How you doing, Ty?” 

You smiled as you wrapped an arm around his waist from the side. His arm extended out, giving you space to tuck under it and into his side. He pulled you in tighter for a moment and dropped a kiss to your temple, other hand setting his fourth, possibly fifth, mug of spiked hot chocolate on the counter. The marshmallows in his mug floating on the surface were dissolving into the cocoa, a situation you knew Tyler was hoping to create, the candy cane used to stir discarded on the counter. It was the little things that made the holidays, not the big ones, like disintegrating marshmallows and his younger sister’s obsession with your family gingerbread recipe she swore was the best she ever had and the noise of the fire crackling in the background on top of a rare snowy Christmas in Tyler’s hometown. 

“When are we going to get you to use your Christmas present?” Tyler asked you, words slurring a little together from a combination of alcohol, exhaustion, and the holidays. 

“Oh, at some point, I guess,” you shrugged, then realized that might sound like you didn’t appreciate them before quickly adding,  “I really appreciate them, Ty. Thank you.” 

Tyler shook his head softly, “No, no, we need a plan to get you on the ice finally. None of this ‘at some point’ or ‘later, Ty’ bull. You’ve told me later for two years now and you know what? Now is later. Come on, get your coat.”

“Wait, you wanna go skating right now?” you squeaked out. 

“You mean,” he snagged a Stars beanie off the counter and tugged it down over your head quickly, pulling it back by the pom pom to adjust it, “we’re going now. Full stop.”

You were sputtering out words as Tyler headed for the front coat rack. Your inability to skate, and your even stronger will not to learn at this point in your life, were a regular sticking point with Tyler, a person whose job required him to skate well. He offered to teach you way back on your second date, and back when you’d been trying your hardest to impress him, you’d agreed to take lessons from him but only because the teacher was cute. Tyler hadn’t actually scheduled any lessons back then, when he was trying even harder to impress you, so you quietly let the offer fade to black, hopefully never to be resurrected. But here Tyler was, bringing it back from the dead, when you least expected it, on Christmas Day, a day you never expected to spend with him, but now we’re pretty sure you never wanted to spend the day without him. However, you didn’t want to spend part of it falling flat on your face attempting to do the thing your boyfriend did for a living. 

“Come on,” Tyler encouraged, as he laced his boots up tighter. “Get your coat. I’ll grab the skates.”

“Tyler, it’s after nine-”

“Stop giving me crap,” he teased you. “Coat, gloves, come on.”

You sighed and wanted to push back. It was dark. It was cold. It was snowy. It was Christmas, and yet, Tyler wanted to cash in on a promise from your second date. You pulled your coat on and wrapped a green scarf around your neck, Dallas Stars green, a reminder of just how much Tyler had permuted every aspect of your life, how important you made him, how central you made him. You never would be spending Christmas outside of Toronto, holding a brand new pair of ice hockey skates in one hand, walking down the Seguin’s neighborhood street, if you hadn’t made Tyler completely central to your future. Sometimes the thought of that, changing as much as you had for him, was terrifying, the kind of terrifying that made your hands shake and your chest tighten and your mind race down paths you barely knew excited because they were so rarely tracked. But then, like he did in that moment, Tyler turned to you and gave you his widest smile, smiling so hard to do it that his nose scrunched up and his eyes squeezed shut, and you remembered exactly why it wasn’t terrifying at all. He loved you with a pureness that reminded you of a child’s love of Christmas morning, but with the depth to grow and change with you the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the year. 

Maybe for him, you would try to learn to skate afterall. 

Tyler turned at the house at the end of the block, heading straight to the side gate. He noticed your puzzled expression and offered an explanation, “Neighbors built a little ODR they didn’t mind sharing when I asked.” 

“Tyler Seguin, how long have you been planning this?” you huffed, pausing in the open gate to give him a look that signalled you knew Tyler needed to come clean. 

He gave you a sheepish smile before saying, “Since you said you would come for Christmas?” 

“Tyler, that was in October!” you cried out, a laugh edging at your voice. 

“The lessons are part of your Christmas present,” he replied, pushing aside your whining tone. “Can’t give you a gift you can’t use and not teach you how to use it, right?” 

You sighed as you rounded the corner of the yard to reveal a small, but serviceable outdoor rink his neighbors created on a pond in their back garden. Tyler ushered you out with a wave towards the pond and your brows furrowed, but he just waved his hands to usher you along. It was dark, far too dark for you to possibly learn to skate in this, with just the faint lighting from his neighbor’s back patio showing the outline of the pond and a small bench beside it. You dropped down onto the bench and began to unlace your boots. 

Just as you pulled the second boot off, suddenly, the pond was flooded with light, making you jump a little in surprise. There were lights all around, spotlights, string lights, lanterns, everything it seemed the family could find to make the backyard as bright as possible. You shook your head softly as a smile came over your face. Of course. 

“Tada!” he shouted as he trudged through the snow to cross the yard to you. “The family that lives here is out of town for the holidays, but they were super nice and told me how to set it all up so I could teach you. Do you like it?” 

The skates in your lap and the ice in front of you that would soon be combined in a way sure to cause you physical pain made you want to say you didn’t love it, but the look on Tyler’s face, the obvious meticulous planning, and the thoughtfulness of the gesture made you feel otherwise. Plus, it was a Christmas gift and you couldn’t tell Tyler you didn’t like his Christmas gift because you were embarrassed you got this far into life, this far into a relationship with a professional hockey player, never learning how to skate. 

“It’s great,” you smiled at him as he plopped down onto the bench next to you. “Thank you, Ty.” 

“Merry Christmas, baby,” he told you before dropping a kiss to your temple in reply. 

You slid your skates on at the same time Tyler did, and you did your best to copy his motions, looping the laces on your skates to pull them tight. Tyler tried not to laugh, but you definitely weren’t pulling hard enough or loosening them at the right points or something else wrong because Tyler was done and laced up before you’d even gotten part of the way through one of your two hockey skates. Tyler laughed, more at your struggle compared to his practiced ease than actually at you, before sliding onto the ground in front of you, one knee dropping into the snow. 

“Let me do it,” he said as he pushed your hands away softly. 

He looked up at you with curious eyes for a moment. There was that familiar glint of a patented Tyler Seguin idea in them, which made you cock your head and furrow your brows at him. He just smiled wide, shook his head softly, and turned his attention back to your skates. 

“What?” you pressed him softly. “What did you just think of, Ty?”

He pulled the top of your laces on one boot tight to finish tying them as he spoke to you, “Just thinking about kneeling in front of you is all. Feels like it’s good practice, eh?” 

You sighed, “Ty, you can’t make jokes like that.” 

He barked out a laugh as he tightened the laces on your other skate, “Who said I was joking?” 

Before you could form a response, Tyler was up on his skates and pulling you up too. He led you to the edge of the pond, then took a confident step onto the ice when he reached in. Effortlessly, he spun on his skates to face you, reaching two hands out, ready to take yours and help you take your first steps onto the ice.  He made it look so easy, as easy as walking, but you knew if you tried to do what he just did without you, you were going to look like a very short baby giraffe, legs splayed out, flat on the ice. You huffed and Tyler gave you an encouraging smile as you gave the ice a disapproving look. 

“I’m not going to let you fall, baby,” Tyler said lazily. He outstretched hands opened and closed in front of you to encourage you to grab onto them. “Come on, it’s just skating.” 

“You’re tipsy and a professional,” you pointed out. “I’m tipsy and a complete novice.”

“I’ll have you know I’m one of the best in my field,” and the cheeky smile to accompany his words drew an eye roll from you. “Tipsy or not, I can still make sure you don’t fall.” 

“Pretty sure I’m going to make you eat your words, Seguin.” 

Without a second thought, another second to rethink the moment, you slapped your gloved hands into Tyler’s and put one foot on the ice. Your foot immediately started to slide forward, toward Tyler, and you panicked. Tyler was ready for your panic and pulled your hands, forcing you to put your other foot on the ice. You let out a small scream and Tyler laughed. 

“Baby, you’re so stinking cute,” he whined as you managed to, with as much force as you could muster using his hands as an anchor, stand up mostly straight in front of him. 

“I hate you, Tyler Seguin,” was all you could come up with in response. 

Your response made Tyler tip his head back and let out a long, full bellied laugh, bending his back into it as he laughed. Tyler seemed to forget your balance was incredibly precarious and entirely dependent on him. The three inches he shifted back on the ice as he laughed completely unbalanced you, sending your feet sliding forward too quickly and making you release his hands in favor of his forearms in a desperate grab for balance. 

“Whoa, whoa!” Tyler was still laughing as he spoke. “Easy there. I’ve got you.” 

“Does not feel like you do,” you grumbled, trying to focus on your feet in order to keep them steady now. 

“Okay, okay,” Tyler sighed. “First, don’t look at your feet. Look where you trying to go.” 

“What direction is home?” you quipped back without missing a beat. 

“Ha, ha,” Tyler replied dryly. “Look at me. You want to go toward me.” 

You let out a quick, irritated breath. You knew a large part of the reason you were irritated is because you were being asked to do something you were terrible at, in front of someone who was amazing at it, who just so also happened to be your boyfriend. No one liked to do things they knew they would be terrible at, let alone in front of someone who was so practiced in it that they probably couldn’t explain it well. In fact, that was your problem that developed after about two minutes with Tyler trying to teach you how to skate. Tyler couldn’t explain how to skate in the slightest. 

“Just push off on one foot, let your other one slide. Put the foot you just pushed off with on the ice again, and push with the one that was sliding. Go back and forth and then tada, you’re skating.” 

That was his best explanation of the lesson and you could confidently surmise that Tyler Seguin was an absolutely horrendous skating coach. And he was a drunk skating coach. Maybe, if you were throwing your boyfriend a bone he didn’t deserve, you could say if he was sober, he might be doing better, but deep in your heart you knew that wasn’t true. Tyler Seguin was definitely a terrible teacher, trying to teach something he could do forwards, backwards, diagonally, with his eyes closed, and made millions of dollars doing, while drunk. You were the one suffering. Tyler was having incredible time watching you flail and grip onto his arms to avoid falling flat on your face. 

“Tyler, help me!” you pressed. 

“It’s so funny. You’re like a baby penguin,” he managed to get out through his laughter. “So cute. So clumsy.” 

“Tyler!”

He cleared his throat and sucked in a deep, centering breath before saying, “I think part of your problem is that you’re afraid to fall. If you aren’t afraid to fall, you’re going to be too focused on doing exactly what’s keeping you from falling and not actually skating.” 

“Well, I don’t exactly want to fall, Ty. That’s not really the goal,” you said pointedly, your hands digging into his forearms when he shifted suddenly. 

“Falling is part of skating,” he told you. “I fall all the time. Get too on an edge or try to turn too tight or get rammed into by some wrecking ball on skates. But I just hop right back up and go again. You have got to get over this fear of falling and learn how to fall and get back up. Otherwise, you’re not going to learn.” 

Whether or not tipsy Tyler meant that statement to have merit and weight outside of the context of skating, you doubted, but it did. That’s the attitude you carried with you when you were at school, at work, everywhere. “It’s better to have tried and failed than to live life wondering what would've happened if I had tried,” by Alred Lord Tennyson popped into your head. Just maybe Tyler was right about something. Maybe your biggest hurdle was just the one in your head and you needed to, on the most magical of all holidays where miracles came true and the world was a little brighter, take a deep breath and fail spectacularly under the hazy eyes of the boy you loved. 

It didn’t even cross your mind that you were definitely still feeling the affects of that infamous spiked hot chocolate, not even for a second. 

You nodded and took in a deep breath as you did. Tyler raised his eyebrow to check in with you and you nodded again. You released your choking grip on his forearms and Tyler slowly backed up, giving you space to try on your own for a moment. You took a second to pause, your feet shuffling a little out of the natural movement of your body, making your arms flail to steady yourself. It wasn’t pretty, but you managed to stay upright after moving an accidental inch unassisted and for you, that was progress.

“Okay, okay,” you mumbled to yourself. 

You mentalled tossed out every single lesson Tyler had tried to impart on you on the ice that evening, knowing all of it was absolute drunken nonsense and wasn’t going to help you skate. You were better off going with your nonexistent skating instincts, which were just a series of mental clips from probably inaccurate ice skating scenes from terrible Hallmark and Netflix Christmas movies. The actors were never the ones skating, but someone had to for the shot, so you figured it had to be at least partially accurate. You knew if you looked down, you would definitely topple over, you looked out onto the snow covered lawn ahead and hesitantly pushed forward with one foot. Before you started to lose your balance, you took a chance and pushed off on your other foot, letting yourself glide just a little in between. 

“Your first successful skate!” Tyler gasped from somewhere beside you. “I feel like a proud mom at the preschool Christmas pageant.” 

Normally, you would’ve told him exactly where he could stick that comment, but you were focused on trying to make it as far as you could before the precarious house of cards that was you on your skates fell. You had a messy, incredibly atrocious rhythm going now. You knew you had to look ridiculous, partially bent over, arms out wide, tongue stuck out between your teeth in concentration, but you were skating and no one said it had to be pretty to count. You realized one thing too late though, far too late to even begin to do anything about it. Tyler was too far behind you, filming your first skate like the proud soccer mom he was, and far too tipsy to clue into what was about to happen. There was nothing you could do. You just had to accept that this was how your journey would end. 

You hit the edge of the pond roughly, the front half of your skate blades hitting the snow and you unceremoniously face planted into the snow surrounding the edge of the pond. You tried to twist as you fell to make it anything other than a complete face plant, but much like the end result of your first solo skating attempt, you failed spectacularly. Tyler was behind you in a second, dropping down onto his knees in the snow next to you and brushing your hair back to try and get a view of your face. 

“Baby, are you hurt? Oh my god,” Tyler started rambling. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I should’ve kept closer to you so I could’ve done something. I should’ve-”

“Maybe you should’ve taught me how to stop, you idiot,” you grumbled out after lifting your face from the snow. “Stopping might have been a good first lesson, you know, like how dads teach you to drive. They make sure you know where the brake is first.” 

“You know,” Tyler mused as you pushed yourself up onto your knees, “that probably would’ve been a good idea.” 

“Oh, ya think?” You glared at him before beginning to brush off snow from your body.

“So next lesson-”

“No way,” you cut him off. “I’m asking Jamie to teach me. You’re fired, coach.” 

Tyler gave a whine that could only be described as like a petulant child who was just told they couldn’t open their Christmas presents two weeks early. He pouted at you, Dallas Stars pom pom beanie on his head flopping forward as he tilted his head to go with his jutted out lower lip. 

“Come on,” he begged softly. “Let me try again. Give me one more shot as your teacher. I’ll even be sober for the next lesson. I promise.” 

“If you aren’t, I’m suing you for damages,” you teased him, a smile coming across your face slowly. 

While you hadn’t succeeded, in fact your fall had been far worse than anything you had pictured it would be, you couldn’t deny you had a good time and it was really only because of the boy whose pout was slowly changing to a smile because of your own. You still couldn’t skate. In fact, you thought you might be a worse skater now than your previous baseline of zero. Tyler hadn’t taught you a single thing this Christmas about skating, but Tyler taught you a lot about Tyler. He liked way too many marshmallows in his spiked hot chocolate, he ripped wrapping paper to absolute shreds, and he relished in matching Christmas sweaters even though he pretended to hate them. You also learned that Tyler Seguin, who sometimes acted before he spoke, and was just a little too over eager for you occasionally, cared more deeply about you than you could possibly understand. Being loved like he loved you was rarer than the perfect Christmas day, which today had been, faceplant included. 

Most of all, you learned Tyler wanted to spend every Christmas for the rest of his life with you too, and that was the best gift you’d ever received on Christmas, the knowledge that he too wanted to spend the rest of his life sharing Christmases with you.

[disgruntledexplainer]

@pmkn2-0 well i hope i don't disappoint you, here i go.

DC, Marvel, and Image Comics each have veru different approaches to writing superheroes, by the very nature of their origin and structure. DC tends to produce very idealized heroes, representing some archetype or another as closely as possible. this could have something to do with the fact that they were the ones who really pioneered the genre in the first place with Superman and Batman. Lets take a look as these two characters, shall we?

Superman is the quintessential superhero. I would say that he is the essence of the archetype boiled down to it's most fundamental level, but that would be misleading. It would be more accurate to say that all, or at least most, other superheroes are permutations of or additions to his basic concept.

Superman is a product of his time. I don't mean that in a negative way at all; i mean that in order to understand his character, one needs to understand what his writers were thinking when they wrote him.

first, superman's theme. "Truth, justice and the American Way." what does the american way mean? well, keep in mind that superman was originally written in 1938, during the FDR administration (one year before the outbreak of world war 2), and the concept of his character dates back to 1933. This is around the time when the New Deal was in full swing. During this time, the concept of what America represented must be understood in the context of the new deal, and the government's role in people's lives. when the comics said the "american way", what people heard was "a powerful person stooping down to help those less fortunate than him". it brought to mind the various government jobs that the administration provided, as well as anti-trust laws and the encouragement people would feel listening to FDR's fireside chats, knowing that someone powerful was looking out for the little guy. this is opposed to now where the "american way" is often associated with the government propping up banks, corporations, and hedge funds, or engaging in endless undeclared wars. keep this in mind: the american way was all about the big guy helping the little guy.

second, superman's name. The fact that superman translates to german as ubermensch is not a coincidence at all. it was meant as a deconstruction of nietzschean philosophy (and by extention the nazi ideology which twisted the already questionable logic of that philosophy).

Too vastly oversimplify (and admittedly strawman a little) Nietzsche's philosophy, Nietzsche was essentially trying to create a system of morality which could survive in the face of what he perceived to be the collapse of existing religious and moral institutions, and he based it off of a concept of the "will to power". essentially, the idea was that a superior man (an ubermensch if you will) is one who seeks and gains power for himself. this is not necessarily just wealth or political power; power over others through acts of kindness and bonds of friendship were also considered valid. the original concept had very little to do with race, though the terminology was... poorly chosen, and personally i consider it to be far from a good way of producing a moral society. it's more like a society of psychopaths all manipulating each-other to gain more power over each-other. or worse, in the case of the nazis, a bunch of lunitics who think they are superior to everyone taking it as a cue to kill everyone who isn't superior. and apparently, the writers of superman agreed with me.

combine these two ideas, and you have the concept of the superior man, one who has all the power in the world, deliberately choosing to use his power to help those less fortunate than him. it's a rejection of the idea that the superior man can, should, and must only seek power for himself, or subjugate, manipulate, or destroy those with less power. it is the concept of the American Way overcoming the selfishness that nietzsche represented. all because Superman was raised by the Kents, the archetypal representation of home-grown traditional values of hospitality and empathy. contrast this with superman's enemies, like Lex Luthor, a powerful man who uses his power to crush others under his heal because he can, or Brainiac who uses his technology to shrink and capture entire cities.

we can see this concept carried over to other characters including, surprisingly, batman. in fact, i think batman manages to capture this concept even better by making it concrete. batman was a rich kid who, because of the deaths of his parents, came to understand the kind of hardship the people in his city were actually undergoing, and decided that he should use his wealth, and his power, to help the people in his city, like a knight defending his fiefdom. rather than using Wayne Enterprises purely to enrich himself at the expense of others, Bruce began directing his resources and skills in order to help him solve crimes and fight people who were making the lives of the poor of gotham miserable. some versions have him personally employing the homeless to help them get back on their feet (animated series comes to mind). Bruce isn't a representation of how the rich and powerful actually act, but rather how they SHOULD act. He, and superman, are the ideal archetypes of how the powerful should act towards others.

Marvel is a bit different. They still have the concept of the powerful standing up for the less powerful, but the focus is shifted from the pure archetype to character drama. DC says "this is how the powerful should act", Marvel says "what would it be like to BE these powerful people helping others?" Spiderman is the best example. He is the everyman, in that anyone can be behind the mask.

Marvel reads a lot more like a drama or soap opera built upon a backdrop of the superhero archetype. Marvel characters are written so that the reader can imagine themselves in the place of the character, empowering them to help people and save people. It is written for those times when the reader feels powerless to change his circumstances or those of people he knows. Not nearly as philosophical as DC, but more complex and character driven.

And now we get to my favorite comic studio, Image Comics. Goodness gracious, these guys are great.

For those who don't know, image comics is the number-three running superhero comic company, who have a special little twist to how their company runs that changes everything. They allow their authors to keep the rights to their own characters. While this does make crossovers next to impossible (since the various comic worlds will often feature aspects that directly contradict each-other), it DOES mean that the writers are free to write whatever bat-shit insane story they want, and don't need to worry about any kind of status quo. World-changing events can occur without the writer having to worry about warning all the other writers what he's about to do, and creativity can flourish.

Naturally, this means that a lot of the comics release by image comics are deconstructions of the superhero genre, though they tend to be respectful of it. Perhaps the most famous Image Comics hero is Invincible, which in many ways kinda merges the approaches of DC and Marvel a bit. (if you don't see it, think of Invincible himself as Superman, and Debbie as Martha Kent, with Omniman more taking the place as an evil version of Jor-El, while at the same time think of Invincible as Spiderman as well).

now here we get to the part my followers have been waiting for. Where does Ben 10 and Generator Rex fit into this? Well, if you are still there reading this agonizingly long post, allow me to show you.

BAM M REX

Avalon Comics is (or was?) a subsidiary of Image comics back in the day. That's right, Rex was an image comics superhero in 1999, a full 6 years before Ben 10 first aired. The thing went on for only two issues, which is... reasonable. even as a hardcore Rex fanatic I have to admit that the character designs were off, the plot was kinda all over the place, and Mia Moore was a VERY poorly written character. But there was a lot of potential, which thankfully was not wasted, since many of the concepts were recycled and refined in the animated series. (they should have kept the blender and toaster tho. best characters. And Simon Babbage had a lot of potential.)

point being that the series, such as it was, was extremely experimental, and deeply philisophical (even if the philosophical parts were a bit over the top and unsubtle). We'll get back to how this translated into the series in a bit, but lets go to Ben 10 first.

Ben 10 was Man of Action's Big Break, and boy was it successful. On the spectrum, Ben 10 was definitely a lot closer to a spiderman than a superman, though with much simpler motivations like "I want to protect people from space bullies". It's actually rather fitting, since Ben is an actual 10 year old. I think this approach serves the show well, given it's initial target demographic. imagine you're a 10 year old kid, and you're getting bullied all the time, or seeing your friends get bullied, and you feel powerless. Ben 10 allows such a kid to imagine if he didn't just have the power to protect himself, but also to protect others. In many ways, he's more spiderman than spiderman, in that his powers come from a device attached to his hand rather than genetic splicing, so it's literally a case of "what if I stumbled onto this power?

now lets go back to Rex. Generator Rex is much more refined than M Rex in just about every way. The character designs are vastly superior, they got rid of the two most flat characters (Mia Moore and Spilken), and they went WAY more subtle with the philosophy while still making it a major part of the series. How?

they made each character a representation of an idea, concept, organization, or archetype. or most of them anyway. It's these characters that drive the story, and so by extension it's also their PHILOSOPHIES that drive the story. (now as i have mentioned before in another post, I have NO IDEA is the authors intended for these characters to represent these concepts, but they seem so obvious to me that i'm going to assume they did).

Now i've said these before, but just to reiterate and expand:

Rex represents all (or most) of what is good in humanity. His empathy, his desire to help, his cleverness, but also in the very nature of his powers. His powers represent all of the positive aspects of technology, all the good it can do. He builds, and heals, he protects. he also represents a new generation, one that will fix the mistakes of the generation before him.

Van Kleiss represents transhumanism (or post-humanism), the belief that humanity should evolve beyond himself, and abandon it's humanity entirely. In a sense, he is the embodiment of the entire concept the two issues of M Rex were trying to get across, despite the fact that he never shows up in it. He is the embodiment a new world in which humanity has no part. he is also a kind of nietzchean "Will to Power" character, constantly grasping for the power of God, manipulating people at every opportunity and crushing those who get in his way. He is one who embraces the new order and seeks to accelerate it as far as it will go, ESPECIALLY at the expense of everyone around him.

Zag-RS is the technology with unintended consequences. automation and ai especially. i mean, just look at all the problems automation has caused. the loss of jobs because of it is jaw-dropping. AI is proving to be very similar. They weren't invented to do evil, but rather to make people's lives easier, yet the damage they do is very real.

Alpha is more direct. he is the genie in the bottle that refuses to go back in. He is the gatling gun, the mustard gas, the napalm, the atomic bomb, the cyber weapon, the bio weapon. he is any device that, once invented, hangs like the sword of Damocles over the head of mankind.

White Knight is a reactionary, a representation of the old order doing is darnedest to halt or slow the changes occurring in the world. He is harsh, heavy-handed, cold, and calculating. He is detached from the problems he is attempting to solve. or he was until season 3 when he got the mother of all character development. he is the symbol of an oppressive authority which the youth rebel against. He is one who will resist any kind of change, good or bad.

Black Knight is the aspect of the old order which caused the problems in the first place. she is the government kissing up to billionaires and covering for criminals, she is the wars for oil, she is the politicians lying through their teeth for votes while squandering their tax money on vanity projects. she is "progress" for the sake of appearing progressive, with no concern for if it is moral or even helps anyone. She represents the order that, in a certain sense, creating that which Van Kleiss represents.

Caesar Salazar represents Science, or perhaps more accurately the scientific community. constantly striving for greater knowledge, constantly inventing new things. he is a morally grey character because science is in many ways amoral; that is to say it has no moral component, for good or ill. He is constantly inventing things that will make peoples lives easier or save the day, and then he turns around and invents something that nearly ends the world or gives ultimate power to the people who ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT HAVE IT. He is brilliant, but short-sighted and not all there.

and more besides.

you get the idea. in a certain sense, Generator Rex is what DC was at the very beginning, experimenting with turning ideas into characters. It is more true to the original spirit of DC comics that DC currently is.

anyways, im tired and i have things to do, so that's it for now. bye!

for those of you still waiting for me to make another "Philosophy of Generator Rex" post, don't worry there's a couple of ideas brewing in my head at the moment. namely about how DC, Marvel, and Image Comics write their heroes (Idealization, Relateability, and Deconstruction respectively) and where Ben 10 and Generator Rex fall on the resulting triangle and why.

i'll try to get it out some time this week. i'm on summer break after all, for the first time in years.

until then you're just gonna have to put up with my rants on religion and class warfare. apologies.

[prthrive2022]

MasterChef BBA

If there’s one thing that connects people across cultures, societies, civilizations and timelines - it’s got to be FOOD! Ever since humans mastered the use of fire and hunting to suit their needs, the ingenious food options that have bubbled across centuries are endless. From the best of Michelin Star restaurants to the tiniest corners of scrumptious street food carts in every nook and cranny of the world, the infinite number of permutations and combinations with our worldly ingredients are possibly limitless.

Participants, welcome to your first task! Today (as you enter the room), you will be assigned one extravagant dish each and you will have to convince the MasterChef judges as to why this dish must sell in the best Michelin Star Restaurants in the world.

PS - The age of pineapple pizzas is long gone. Be prepared for some WILD food combos!

Preparation Time - 30 seconds

Pitch Time - 1 minute

Bon Appétit!

[actualbird]

this or that fanfic tag game!!!! thank u so so much for the tag @nxx-watson :DDDD

blank template found here

i very obviously had a hard time with the instructions of this game kJBJSDFKSKD. either im like WHY NOT BOTH??? or I DONT LIKE EITHER OF THESE ACTUALLY!!!

lemme explain myself bout 3 things

i do not like soulmates, be it an au where soulmates are universal rule or even like the vague notion of it in a regular universe. my ideal love is to love somebody on purpose. love as My Choice. maybe i didnt choose to fall, but once i knew, every day after that, ive made the choice to love you, and i will make that same choice for the rest of my life, come what may. but i ALSO DO NOT LIKE UNREQUITED LMAOOOO listen im a grumpy romantic who wants love to be DELIBERATE but also i close my eyes to stories that delve into possibility of that deliberate choice only happening on one end. and if u see me juggling the above stuff into endless vacuum story dimensions bc i am now in the tot fandom and tot has 5 MAIN CHARACTERS who i now honestly see can be IN LOVE WITH ALL OF EACH OTHER IN VARIOUS COMBINATIONS AND PERMUTATIONS, well, just know that im having fun doing my clown shit, HAHA.

when i say i like crack i do wanna say that i like taking crack "Seriously", if i decide to write it out as a full fic. like yes i will turn the nxx boys into cats but you bet your ass that in between all the hilarity im gonna dump a metric fuckton of real ass emotions in there. yes the premise makes no sense, but the underlying feelings? those can totally still make sense.

for the shops, it aint deep. i just dont like shop aus KJBKSJDKFDS. callout post for zak actualbird, He Doesnt Like Shops :/

i opt.....to not tag anybody bc im shy hhh. feel free to yoink the template tho and take it for a spin!!!

[soveryanon]

Reviewing time for MAG165! X_X

- I really wasn’t expecting to hear the calliope music again one day! That took me back to the end of season 3 – it felt like another (successful) Unknowing, a glimpse of what would have happened if the Circus had pulled through in MAG118/MAG119?

Also, confirmation that Tim definitely got his revenge and blew up the Circus to pieces, including Grimaldi/Nikola:

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: [LOW] I’m hoping if we’re quick, we can avoid her notice. MARTIN: “Her”? [SILENCE] J–Jon, please, don’t tell me there’s an evil clown doll down there– ARCHIVIST: No– MARTIN: –because… ARCHIVIST: N–no, Nikola died with The Unknowing; it’s, uh… [INHALE] An old friend.

At least, Tim got that T__T

- The pattern of beginning the statement with “There is…” already got broken with this one:

(MAG162) ARCHIVIST: … Wha…? [STATIC REACHING A PEAK] … “There is a place, deep in the heart of Fear, where you trap yourself and claim that it is safety. [STATIC DECREASES] It was once a cabin, and professes still to be such, but as with all in this new world that promises respite… it is a trap.”

(MAG163) ARCHIVIST: … Alright, then. [INHALE] [SIGH] [STATIC RISES] “There is a wound in the earth. [STATIC DECREASES] A bayonet gouge, scored through the soft and sodden mud for uncounted miles. A trench that marks the front line of a war that has no name. It has always been raging, deep in the hearts of the powerful and those that thirst to see bodies piled high in their name.”

(MAG164) ARCHIVIST: “There is a sickness in this village. Perhaps you would not see it from a distance and the faint sting of rot on the breeze is easy enough to dismiss; but as you get closer, that infectious feeling of wrongness is harder and harder to shake. The grass is not the green of nature, the buildings are warped by more than age, and the voices that come from behind the inhabitants’ masks… are hoarse, and wet. They move with exaggerated casualness, a parody of idyllic village life.”

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: [INHALE] … Right. [STATIC RISES] “Your face is not your face is not your face [STATIC DECREASES AND FADES] around the curling carousel, it twists in place to take from you and all the tattered stolen souls whose sense of ‘me’ is swollen and distended into nothing.

Could be because The Stranger (/the Circus/identity thieves/I-Do-Not-Know-You) is Like That and can’t conform to little boxes, or could be because there isn’t really a “pattern” to begin with, we’ll see with the next nightmare pockets.

Consistency-wise: the use of “you” (as a way to include/pull the listeners in?) went through the roof, but was understandable – “you” is “something/someone who isn’t me, in front of me”, and doesn’t need to be as personified as third person. Jon once again used “End recording” at the end of the ~statement~, which is… a reminder that 1°) these aren’t really statements as we knew them (Jon has never labelled them as such; actually, the only times characters have mentioned “statement(s)” this season were dead people mentioning them in the tapes Jon was listening to in the first two episodes); 2°) there is still that recording/pouring-into-the-tapes thing going on, that Jon is aware of, even if the tapes weren’t relevant in this episode for themselves. Unclear whether Jon had any influence on the tape recorder clicking on both times in the episode, or whether it autonomously reacted to stuff (Jon&Martin approaching the Merry-Go-Round, Jon&Martin walking along the edge of it while the Not!Them was coming close… or just because Jon&Martin were chatting about personal things?).

Still *squint* at what the heck is happening thanks to/through the tape recorders at the moment – it still reminds me of Albrecht von Closen pouring out his stories to Jonathan Fanshawe, there is still the possibility that Jon is feeding the tapes themselves to create something even worse, and mmmmm… (New kinds of Leitner books?)

- I’ve already forgotten almost everything I used to know about English poetry, but lots of iambic constructions (up and down) combined with lots of ternary syntactic structures (round, circularity)? My references are mostly French, but the work on sounds really reminded me of Antonin Artaud’s – though way faster, fittingly, since it was also a relentless chase in which selves kept getting stolen and lost (and so was my attention). Beautiful piece, but ooft did it keep losing me before I was picked back up and forced to run with the words again.

Lots of themes that we had seen with the Circus in previous manifestations:

(MAG119) ARCHIVIST: Yes… Yes, I s… I see the sad clown, b–bitter and hateful. I see him finding his way into a ci–circus where nobody knew him. I see him torn apart, becoming the mask, remade by a… a cruel ringmaster. Sometimes a doll, sometimes a mannequin, always hiding in somebody else’s skin. Somebody else’s name. NIKOLA: Not always, and it’s far too late for any of that. Nothing you see can help you. […] Tim… TIM: … Grimaldi. NIKOLA: Once, a long time ago, before Orsinov made me. And sometimes, even now, on special occasions. Like your brother!

(MAG128, Breekon) “When we left our destination, the mule whining at the new weight behind it, he would reach behind us and find a face, sagging, sloughing off its skull, and would pull it to him. He’d place it over the one he wore already, and he would laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Sometimes it fell off. Sometimes it stayed for weeks. I kept the face we chose, but I loved him for our levity, and the corpses piled ever higher. […] But with the Circus we were amongst our own kind at last. They all had names, true enough, but none would dare pretend that names were real. Faces changed more often than clothes, and nobody truly knew who anybody was, save for their function within the show. […] We didn’t like the puppet, when Orsinov began to carve it. It seemed wrong to us to try and bring one like us about; to create or remake it in such a solid, static shape. We were wrong, of course. When Orsinov carved into the thing that had once called itself Grimaldi, and fed the pieces they didn’t need to the shuddering organist, even we found ourselves impressed. And when the faceless puppet peeled its creator and moved itself with their tendon strings, he looked at me… and laughed… and laughed…”

Identity loss, the loss of self, permutability. But it’s interesting that it fit so well to the other Circus members we had encountered and… still was incredibly Hunt-y, with the premise of an ongoing chase where the victims become the new mob of predators (who may become victims once again if they are successful, etc.), taking place in a circular space, where things can never truly end. Really reminiscent of the concept of The Everchase, I feel? Fears bleeding into each other, etc.

(There could be something about a “(word) chain” of Fears, since MAG163 was mostly Slaughter/War and had bits of Corruption with the medical malpractices, then MAG164 was Corruption with what was identified as “strangers” being targeted more heavily, then MAG165 being Stranger with very a Hunt logic, which would lead to MAG166 going for Hunt… But I’m not really feeling it.)

- It wasn’t clear in MAG164, but this one also made explicit that people in the nightmares can’t really die-die – either they seem to respawn (or get stuck in a nightmare inside of a nightmare inside of a nightmare etc.?), either they just… can’t:

(MAG163) ARCHIVIST: “There is a rumbling in the earth around him, as a tank speeds along its unstoppable path, and Charlie is immediately pulled under its tread. He has a moment of shocked horror, before being reduced to a smear in the mud. […] Next to his bleeding corpse, Charlie wakes from what passes for sleep in this place. A sergeant is yelling at him, screaming for him to take his gun and get into the waiting transport.”

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: “And so they fall to frantic terror and conflict, just as vicious as it was when it was bearing down on you. You lie there in the fugue of vivid pain and feel that gentle rain from violence overhead, as some fall dead or close as this place lets you lie, for truly thus to die would be too eager an escape; and listen to the ebb and swell of slow, melodic wail that well you know conducts the flowing rhythm laced into this endless, faceless dance.”

Does The End feel cheated, or is the fear of dying (or the fear of not being allowed to die) enough to feed it? Will we meet a pocket mostly dominated by a facet of The End…?

- I wonder if we’ll meet people not yet taken by a “place” since we got a couple mentions of an outside/inside and people still coming in…

(MAG164) ARCHIVIST: “And people do still come to the village, for however thick the paranoia, however terrible the disease, there are worse things beyond.”

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: “But no, for all the dreams of bounding, leaping off into the great Unknown, you see the ring of broken mewling wretches who have shown the sting that comes with such rejection of the truth, so seldom spoken yet inside you all, that there is no – way – off the merry-go-round. […] It’s not the same as what you had when first you climbed the brightly painted stairs, but not the worst “who” you have been.”

Are the places making people feel like they could leave/that there are newcomers, when they’ve actually been stuck here forever? Or are there people who are still “free” until they’re taken by one of the places? (I mean, outside of main characters: we already know that Daisy is tearing through these places, and that Basira is following her (though that… sounds like a Hunt nightmare in itself), and Jon was unable to tell where Melanie&Georgie were – so unless they’ve been taken by a Dark nightmare, they’re probably outside of the boxes somehow.)

- I’m still trying to narrow down what is making me feel uneasy this season so far, and it’s sadly not something that will be warned for in the content warnings: it’s… about the whole ideology regarding free-will, agency, guilt and responsibility.

So far, all the “nightmares” we have encountered made it clear that it was, yes, people prisoners of a nightmare tailored to make them suffer, but also in which… most of the violence was committed by people against people:

(MAG162) ARCHIVIST: “Something moves outside, struggling to crawl upon a hundred reaching grasping hands. It shudders, and grips the earth, pulling itself along as nails rip free and skin scrapes loose. It is afraid of what it has become, and where it might be going. […] Outside, it is raining. Heavy drops fall, ice-cold and laced with salt; tears of voyeuristic delight from The Eyes that see and drink in all – it sinks into the dry cracked ground, and from the mud faces struggle to push themselves free and breathe. [WOODEN CREAKING SOUND] They cannot breach the surface, as the slick soil flows down their throats.

(MAG163) ARCHIVIST: “Ishaan had been afraid, terrified that they were going to strap him to it, pin him to the Goliath’s hull like all the other flayed flags of war, striking fear into the hearts of the enemy. But instead they fed him to it, tossed him into its burning innards and sealed the hatch behind him. Now, his body has contorted itself to fit, his fingers clutched around the firing lever; pulling it frantically is the only thing that will reduce the impossible heat even for a moment. From the tiny slit in the metal, he can see other soldiers: baby-faced friends and the monstrous, pig-faced enemy, both falling beneath his iron coffin’s advance. He tries to cry, but his tears turn to steam. […] Hasanna’s eyes fall on the entrance to the tent, and she sees the line of civilians, stretching away into the distance. They are no less maimed, their agonies no more bearable; but there is simply no room. She tries to apologise – but instead, she closes the tent. […] Far in the distance, she sees Alexei look out over the battlefield, and her stomach turns at the detestable wrongness of his face. Alexei in turn looks out from deep in the trench. He catches sight of the enemy, their shrivelled rat-like heads causing the bile to rise in his throat.”

(MAG164) ARCHIVIST: “It is, alas, those who are unblemished that suffer worst. So incomprehensible is it that any from outside could be clean, that there might be another source or vector, the inspectors devise another theory: an invisible infection. A hundred Typhoid Marys spreading mildew and decay. […] For no one would speak up if Gillian Smith were to mark you infected, or declare you foreign. No one would lift a finger as they dragged you to the green. […] What Mrs Kim is… is scared. Scared of her neighbours, scared of her friends, scared of the moment when someone will smell the spreading patch of darkness on her back and decide she is infected, or remember she has only been in the village since her grandfather’s day, and judge her to be an outsider. Should she accuse someone else? Send them to the village green? Perhaps she might petition to join the council, though that would invite their attention as much as anything might. Even through the masks, Mrs Kim knows the looks she gets in the pub; but what can she do? When she hears the shouts outside and sees the smoke pouring from the thatched roof, she knows it is too late.”

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: “The world in which the carousel will twirl is not the hollow hell you fear; it is the world. Just the world. A world where if you’d wish to have a name, it must be stolen, carved and pulled full-bloody from the frame of others who would wish in vain to hold their selfness close. You want a face? Take it. There are so many here; and those who cannot hold them, well, whoever chose to give them such a gift must take the blame, knowing they could never keep it in a world of so much thieving strangeness. […] You feel the last of names and “who” you might have been be torn away and borne towards new bodies. New pages, blank; determined to be people. […] then comes the briefest flash that surely now it’s done, so much, perhaps… the pain will be somewhat lessened. There’s no way it could hurt as much as you remember. But it does. And so of course, you scream, and scream; and curses, foul, obscene will tumble garbled over where there once sat other people’s lips or yours now gone, and teeth that once shone yellowed ivory a crimson in the flowing sanguine flood. And as you lie in agonies and fading dreams of personhood, of knowing who you were and what that might have meant, you hear the bitter whisper of recriminating seekers, who have found the treasure of their eager dreams, but see, it seems there’s not enough… for all. And so they fall to frantic terror and conflict, just as vicious as it was when it was bearing down on you. […] You are, of course, a faceless thing as well, and so should quickly match the pace of those who chase the self-same prey. But now, it is too late, they’ve gone. Their chase will not abate until their former friend is ripped apart in turn. And you have learned to wait. For there are many faces out upon the carousel, and many names that you might be. So bide your time a while and wait the coming of another one whose fate and face might sit upon your grinning carmine skull.

And I feel like there has been a shift compared to statements in previous seasons: it used to be monsters or eldritch things going after people, but we also got people trapped in these oppressive systems, who could have chosen their survival over others’… and still said “no”. Is that even possible in the nightmares? Are we assuming that people are constantly remade in order to keep the circles of violence going (in order to serve them) and that it’s going past a mere influence, that it’s erasing any responsibility in their actions? Or is it still an individual choice and are we heading towards the idea that anyone (or 99.99% of people) would choose to inflict direct violence against others if it means lessening their own pain? (I’m honestly super uncomfy about the latter idea, because it feels bleak and edgy to me, because it’s hard to forget that in this reasoning, marginalised people would always have it worse, and because it narratively feels like “cheating” to have Jon&Martin on the frontline, who are super fluffy and obviously wouldn’t push the other under a bus for their survival… while other people would just be eh, people. ;;) In summary: can people currently be held accountable for their actions, in the same way Daisy took responsibility for her Hunt-influenced actions, or are they deprived of any choice?

Interesting, though, is that in these nightmares, we… have never seen families or groups of friends, so far (Charlie had one, who seemed to exist just to get killed? The fungus village had neighbours who didn’t seem to know much about each other?). It feels like in rewriting reality, the Fears have also isolated people, fractured their previous social links to impose new “societies” with their own rules and mechanisms? Jon, at least, still labels them as “victims” even when aware of what is happening:

(MAG165) MARTIN: Because, uh… [LOWER] I really don’t like the look of those riders. ARCHIVIST: Would you believe me if I said they were the victims? MARTIN: … At this point, I’m not even surprised.

But I’m kind of wary and expecting an argument to be made about how Human Nature Is Fundamentally Selfish or something like this, precisely when The Web is lurking around and had such a knack for the theme of free will… ;;

- What does Jon know that he’s not sharing with Martin? He confirmed that they needed to “experience” these places to reach the Panopticon:

(MAG162) ARCHIVIST: Martin… It’s going to be a hard journey. MARTIN: [RELIEVED EXHALE] ARCHIVIST: One– MARTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah– ARCHIVIST: –in which we… MARTIN: –so, I’ve actually had a couple of bags packed for a while, now! [HEAVY ITEM DROPPED] ARCHIVIST: Oh! MARTIN: And, I found some rope in the attic, and I packed that with the maps.

(MAG163) ARCHIVIST: And if you walk towards it, eventually you’ll get there. But you have to go through everything in-between. […] Nightmares. [BANG IN THE DISTANCE] Come on – that trench is our first. […] MARTIN: Jon… I’m scared. ARCHIVIST: … Yes… That’s the idea…!

(MAG164) ARCHIVIST: We’re fine. MARTIN: A–are we? I mean, that place is– … I don’t, I don’t feel fine, okay, and you were there a long time doing your… y–you–your guidebook, which, you know, I get it, but that place is… I–it’s–it’s infectious, and, I don’t– ARCHIVIST: We’re not infected, Martin, that place, it– … It isn’t for us.

(MAG165) MARTIN: But. You said we needed to go through these places. … Is that even going to work here? ARCHIVIST: Uh… [EXHALE] We need to go through them… metaphorically. MARTIN: Mm… ! ARCHIVIST: Psychologically, we need to… “experience” them. MARTIN: Hm! [SILENCE] D’you think we could get that experience just… walking along the edge?

And his explanation of what they need to do is getting a bit more precise every time.

* It’s not only about Jon experiencing the places, it’s about them experiencing the places. Makes sense since they’re on a journey to the Panopticon, but still interesting: Jon gets overwhelmed by the places to the point of needing to do his “guidebook”; Martin doesn’t, past his discomfort/casual fears, but it’s working anyway. What is happening with Jon…?

* Fear.jpg because “experiencing” them had been mentioned by Elias/Jonah as a way to prepare Jon towards his goals:

(MAG092) ELIAS: [SIGH] What are you? ARCHIVIST: I… The Archivist. ELIAS: Precisely. It is your job to chronicle these things, to experience them, whether first-hand or through the eyes of others. To simply be told, well… ARCHIVIST: It doesn’t please your master? ELIAS: Our master, Jon.

(MAG160, Jonah Magnus) “Because the thing about the Archivist is that… well: it’s a bit of a misnomer. It might, perhaps, be better named “the Archive”. Because you do not administer and preserve the records of fear, Jon – you are a record of fear. Both in mind, as you walk the shuddering dread of each statement; and in body, as the Powers each leave their mark upon you. You are a living chronicle of terror.”

So what is happening exactly…? Is it because Jon simply needs to “experience” the various layers of the new world before reaching the centre of the storm? Are these steps actually “undoing” — or furthering — something…?

- Also confirmation that Martin&Jon seem immune to what is happening, as long as they don’t push their luck:

(MAG161) MARTIN: … Are we still safe? ARCHIVIST: Y–yes, it… it doesn’t want to harm me. MARTIN: And me? ARCHIVIST: I won’t let it.

(MAG163) MARTIN: Good. Good. [SILENCE PUNCTUATED BY PANTING] … J–J–Jon, Jon, w–we’re not alone. ARCHIVIST: I–ignore them, they’re not… Just ignore them. MARTIN: … They’re not… real? [VOICES SHOUTING IN THE DISTANCE] ARCHIVIST: [MIRTHLESS CHUCKLING] No…! They’re real; they were… normal people before the– … Before me. But now they’re here, meat for the grinder. I just mean there’s no point… talking to them. MARTIN: Don’t be a prick, Jon. Hey! I’m, I’m sorry about him. He’s–he’s going through a lot – well… we all are, I suppose, but well… “Hi”, I guess. [SILENCE] Hello? ARCHIVIST: They won’t hear you, Martin, they’re all… too busy waiting to die.

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: Either way, best not to actually climb onto the thing, if we could help it. […] MARTIN: You, you sure? [CHUCKLING] I could speak to an attendant! ARCHIVIST: [CAUTIOUS] I would advise against doing that. […] MARTIN: Jon, do we– do we need to run? NOT!SASHA: Oh, yes, Martin, you very much do. I’ll even give you a head start! ARCHIVIST: [CHUCKLE] MARTIN: … Jon? ARCHIVIST: You’re bold! [FOOTSTEPS] I’ll give you that. NOT!SASHA: [HISSING] Last chance…! ARCHIVIST: Desperate for one last morsel of terror from us? NOT!SASHA: [HISSES] ARCHIVIST: [CHUCKLE] A final sip, and then we’re gone! Somehow we manage to keep just ahead of you and get away. NOT!SASHA: [SNARLS] ARCHIVIST: God forbid you actually catch us. NOT!SASHA: [FURIOUS SNARLS] ARCHIVIST: Doesn’t bear thinking about…! MARTIN: Jon, what are you talking about? NOT!SASHA: [FURIOUS SNARLS] ARCHIVIST: She can’t touch us. We’re so far beyond her now. NOT!SASHA: [FURIOUS SNARLS] ARCHIVIST: She’s just like everything else here, ruled by The Eye. [CHUCKLING] And she hates it…!

Is it only because Jon is the Archivist, is it thanks to their connection to the Institute/the Eye (… after all, Basira apparently wasn’t taken)? What would happen to Martin if he were to be separated from Jon?

Also curious that both the Not!Them and The Distortion are what I would label “monsters” (as Martin&Simon did in MAG151), and yet the Not!Them was shown trapped… and Helen is roaming free. Did The Distortion lie about its own contentment in the new world? Did it get a better seat thanks to its connection to the Institute, since its Door had often appeared in the tunnels? (Helen had told Jon that this is how she knew a bit more about the tunnels, back in season 4.)

- Martin’s poetry is back as a theme! (Not included: Tim recording over one of Martin’s poems in MAG079.)

(MAG042) ARCHIVIST: I’m glad [Martin]’s moved out of the Archives, as it gives me a chance to work here without his constant presence. Also because he managed to leave some of his possessions behind. For the most part it’s just a few books of… relatively awful poetry… There are a few pieces I feel could almost have been affecting if his style wasn’t so obviously enamoured with Keats […].

(MAG124) MARTIN: Uh, yeah. Yeah, no, I’m… I’m alright, uh… Everything’s… fine. ARCHIVIST: … Right. Hum. … H–how’s… How–how’s the poetry? MARTIN: Oh, uh– Well, I haven’t… exactly had a lot of time recently, so… ARCHIVIST: Yes, uh… Of course… MARTIN: Hm. ARCHIVIST: You’ve been busy. MARTIN: Yeah. ARCHIVIST: …

(MAG165) MARTIN: So was it any good? ARCHIVIST: U–uh… What do you mean? MARTIN: Was it a good poem? ARCHIVIST: I don’t know! “No”? You’re the poetry expert, Martin, not me…! MARTIN: Well, did it stir any feeling in you? ARCHIVIST: Yes! “Nausea”. Because of the horrible things in it! MARTIN: That’s not quite what I meant. ARCHIVIST: Then I don’t know what you mean, Martin, I’m not a poetry person, I don’t… “get it”. I never have. MARTIN: That’s… That’s fine, I understand…! ARCHIVIST: Look. I’m better than I was; I used to think all poetry was bad. MARTIN: Sorry, what?! ARCHIVIST: I mean, I just thought of… [SIGH] I sort of thought it was pointless! Just… write some prose and stop… wasting everyone’s time! MARTIN: Hm! What changed? ARCHIVIST: I don’t know, I just… mellowed on it, I suppose. MARTIN: That’s… kind of weird. ARCHIVIST: In my defence, there is a lot of bad poetry out there.

* With this new information: it’s actually BIG from Jon that he had qualified Martin’s poetry as “almost affecting” given his personal feelings about poetry in general.

* Obviously, I want to tease Jon mercilessly about the idea that he began to mellow down on poetry since someone he was developing a crush on liked it so much… But also, just simply, people’s tastes change.

* … Okay, so if Jon managed to survive uni without getting poetry at all, either he did really well besides that, either it rules out that his degree might have been in literature. (History could fit him well?)

* … I find it interesting how Martin somehow managed to… not say anything about himself in this episode? We learned a few things about Jon – that he had fond memories of the London Zoo carousel, that he was in a bad mental space at a point before the Institute (break-up with Georgie? Being thrown in a new city for his academic studies, leaving Bournemouth? “Regular” student stress?), that he doesn’t get poetry but that his opinion has changed on it a bit.

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: Either way, best not to actually climb onto the thing, if we could help it. MARTIN: Fine – by – me, eh! Never really liked merry-go-rounds anyway. ARCHIVIST: No? You… gone on any recently? MARTIN: What? Uh– No, I don’t think so, not since I was a kid. ARCHIVIST: Hm! I actually, uh… There’s one at London Zoo – uh, was one at London Zoo. Big old thing. Went quite fast, actually, su–… [CHUCKLE] Surprisingly thrilling. MARTIN: [BURSTS OUT LAUGHING] ARCHIVIST: What? MARTIN: Seriously? ARCHIVIST: It was years back, before the Institute, I… I was in a weird place. Had a good time, though! MARTIN: [CHUCKLES] Well! ARCHIVIST: I mean, obviously I wouldn’t want to ride this one, we’ve got… quite enough thrills already. MARTIN: You, you sure? [CHUCKLING] I could speak to an attendant! ARCHIVIST: [CAUTIOUS] I would advise against doing that. [SILENCE]

But Martin? Asked questions for Jon to answer, but managed to avoid having to tell anything about his own past. It’s not really surprising, it’s kinda fitting – Martin has probably got into the habit of not telling much about himself because of his fake credentials and his fake age? But still, I wonder if he will talk about himself at some point… (I still feel like we’re missing his own perspective on his mother or Tim, for example, since these subjects were mostly mentioned by other people and Martin only even mentioned his mother’s death when he poured his heart out at Peter&Elias in MAG158).

- I randomly really really love Martin’s nasal “Fine by me”:

(MAG102) ARCHIVIST: What about Daisy? MARTIN: Don’t see her much. Which is fine by me. [UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE]

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: Either way, best not to actually climb onto the thing, if we could help it. MARTIN: Fine – by – me, eh! Never really liked merry-go-rounds anyway.

Martin…

- … So, hearing Not!Sasha like this confirms that she didn’t “take” Julia or Trevor! (I guess that one of them could have died from her attack or Daisy’s, but… at the very least, the Not!Them didn’t take on a new identity through them.)

- There are various ways of interpreting what the Not!Them said about Martin:

(MAG165) NOT!SASHA: And what if I let you choose this time, which one of you would I wear next? Martin looks very comfortable, positively roomy; oh, wouldn’t you agree, Archivist~?

… and my favourites are either that Martin indeed big, either she was making a tease about them (aND THEY’VE BEEN ROOMMATES).

- Jon Has Upgraded – the Not!Them used to call him “Jon” as a taunt, and now…

(MAG078) NOT!SASHA (HEAVILY DISTORTED, DISTANT): Jooooonnnn… ARCHIVIST: Er… I… [SOUND OF A CREAKY DOOR OPENING] MICHAEL: You – need – a door.

(MAG079) NOT!SASHA (DISTANT): Jooooonnnn… ARCHIVIST: Oh Christ. […] NOT!SASHA (DISTANT): Jooooon… Jooooon… Come out, come out, wherever you are. ARCHIVIST: [SCARED BREATHING] NOT!SASHA (DISTANT): It’s okay Jon; it’s Sasha. Reliable old Sasha. Nothing to be afraid of. … You seem stressed, Jon. You’ve been under a lot of pressure. You should talk about it. Have a real good chat. You like talking, don’t you, Jon? … I’m going to wear you, Jon. […] I’m glad we got a chance to run, Jon. It makes it so much more satisfying.

(MAG158) NOT!SASHA: [MUFFLED, HEAVILY DISTORTED] Jooo–ooon~! [SOUND OF STONE AND BRICK SHIFTING, LOUDER, THEN GRADUALLY STOPPING] NOT!SASHA: [HEAVILY DISTORTED] [PANTS] So you finally decided to let me out, Jon! Joooo–oooon~! … Who’s there? MARTIN: [PANICKED BREATHING] NOT!SASHA: Who let me out? [SILENCE] Don’t be shy. I just want to say thank you. [SILENCE] All right, have it your way. Now, if you’ll excuse me: I have some unfinished business. [MENACING SATISFIED LAUGHTER] […] [CRASHING SOUND] NOT!SASHA: Hello, Jon. DAISY: Oh, shit! ARCHIVIST: You gotta be fucking kidding m–

(MAG165) NOT!SASHA: Eh! My dearest colleagues…! MARTIN: Just get back! [THUMP] NOT!SASHA: I can’t believe you’d decide to pass through my neighbourhood and not say hello, to – dear – old – Sasha. ARCHIVIST: Just ignore it, Martin. NOT!SASHA: Oh, you wound me, Archivist. And we used to be so close! […] And what if I let you choose this time, which one of you would I wear next? Martin looks very comfortable, positively roomy; oh, wouldn’t you agree, Archivist~?

… it’s “Archivist”. He’s really had a special status/power-up, uh?

- So, The Distortion is having a blast in the new world (MAG164), or so it says… but it’s not fundamentally the case for all monsters/avatars out there. It makes sense for The Stranger since it had been presented as opposed to The Eye:

(MAG079) NOT!SASHA: So the monster got its friends to carry the table all around, and it still got to take faces and scare people. Then one day it was sent to the house of its enemy, which had the biggest eyes you ever did see. The monster was sent there to steal all its secrets, but it was sad because it couldn't scare anyone any more.

(MAG092) ELIAS: The Stranger is antithetical to us. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH HEAVILY] ELIAS: We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown. If you are to stop them, you need to get better at seeing. And my explaining things is simply not enough.

(MAG119) SARAH: You… idiot! Do you really think the world will fare any better under the Watcher? You think you’re saving anyone?

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: She’s just like everything else here, ruled by The Eye. [CHUCKLING] And she hates it…! NOT!SASHA: Well, of course you want to wallow in my shame like your voyeur master! Do you know how it feels? To be… anonymous, and yet known? To have all the sweetest dread I can create tainted by the relentless gaze of that damned Eye! I’ve suffered enough!

So people from the (survivors of the) cult of the Divine Host probably won’t be extremely happy about it either – we know that some were still roaming around, Jon had mentioned seeing people with the pendant at the beginning of season 4. Martin mentioned their lack of allies in MAG164, are we heading towards them getting some “help” from unsatisfied avatars…?

- ;; I said I would put the Not!Them amongst the “monsters”, but technically… the victims in the carousel felt like proto-Not!Them themselves? And Not!Sasha had enough reasoning to try to go into denial – pretending that it could still catch and hurt Jon&Martin, while it knew that it couldn’t anyway, but ready to create the illusion that it could. That’s some very human mental structure…

- Sob, but also:

(MAG165) ARCHIVIST: Pathetic. [SHRILL SCREAMS] Martin, let’s go. NOT!SASHA: Not as pathetic as your little friend when I ate her life…!

… I really like the description of what she did as “eating Sasha’s life”: it was not only that it killed her; it’s that it erased and reshaped her whole life as a memory and a possible influence on others…

- ;; I’m even happier that we got Sasha’s tapes at the beginning of season 5, because it brought her back as a presence, as an existence, and not only as the concept of “the friend we lost but can’t really remember”. The Not!Them getting killed closes a very long chapter: Sasha’s murder at the end of season 1, which was a wound that kept being reopened (Jon realising that she had died long ago, then Martin&Tim having to learn about it; Nikola teasing Jon about her during The Unknowing; the Not!Them getting freed during the season 4 climax), the fact that the Not!Them had been spotted and described as soon as in MAG003, and also… the first time we heard of Adelard Dekker was when he imprisoned it within the Web table?

I’m especially ;; that The Stranger regularly used Sasha’s murder against Jon, and that it has always been a sore spot… until he snapped:

(MAG079) NOT!SASHA (DISTANT): … I’m going to wear you, Jon. I’m going to wear everything you are. Like you never existed. Noone will even know. And it will hurt. Oh, yes, it will hurt. It hurt Sasha. ARCHIVIST: Shut up! NOT!SASHA (CLOSE AND DISTORTED): There you are. […] ARCHIVIST: [WHISPERING] I’m sorry. Martin, Tim… Sasha. I’m so sorry. I should have… I didn’t… I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.

(MAG096) ARCHIVIST: He was a–a tax inspector. He came here, and Daniel Rawlings, or his replacement, showed him something he claimed to be the oldest piece of taxidermy in the world. Gorilla skin from Carthage. SARAH: Heh, was this when you sent your “Sasha” to interrogate us? ARCHIVIST: Don’t you dare talk about– DAISY: Sims. Sims. Shut up and focus.

(MAG119) ARCHIVIST: Who are you?! NIKOLA: Who am I? Tim, of course! Who else would I be! ARCHIVIST: You’re not– you’re not… Tim. NIKOLA: Oh, you caught me~ I’m… Sasha! ARCHIVIST: Shut up! NIKOLA: No~! Really, it’s me! Sasha– whatever her name was! Back from the dead, just like you wanted~! ARCHIVIST: Get away from me, or, or I swear I’ll… I’ll…

I mean. Yes, if Jon had to lose his temper and go terrifying due to feelings, it would be about Sasha’s murder ;;

- It’s also jarring how Jon used to be terrorised and victimised by monsters, and took the upper hand this time: the dynamic between him and the Not!Them in this episode was an extreme reversal of what had happened at the end of season 2. I’m also curious about how “Jon using his powers against other monsters” has felt more and more threatening over time:

(MAG091) ARCHIVIST: What, I? I–I didn’t– [RUSTLING NOISES] Plea– Please don’t shoot me… [SOUNDS OF PANIC] [STATIC] W–why are you doing this? Tell me! [GURGLES MORE AS DAISY GRABS HIM ROUND THE THROAT] DAISY: Stop – asking – questions.

(MAG101) MICHAEL: I had hoped that you would stop the Unknowing first, destroy the workings of I-Do-Not-Know-You. But instead you are here, and may bring it about faster. So better your death happens now…! ARCHIVIST: I… [STATIC] Is there anything I can do to stop you from killing me? MICHAEL: [LAUGHS] If you scream loud enough the Circus may take notice of me, but… I promise you will die far more pleasantly with me than with them. [MORE LAUGHTER]

(MAG119) NIKOLA&GERTRUDE: A terrible new world and it’s all your fault. GERTRUDE&LEITNER: Though I suppose you never really had a chance ARCHIVIST: … I see you. NIKOLA: Do you, now? ARCHIVIST: Yes… Yes, I s… I see the sad clown, b–bitter and hateful. I see him finding his way into a ci–circus where nobody knew him. I see him torn apart, becoming the mask, remade by a… a cruel ringmaster. Sometimes a doll, sometimes a mannequin, always hiding in somebody else’s skin. Somebody else’s name. NIKOLA: Not always, and it’s far too late for any of that. Nothing you see can help you.

(MAG128) BASIRA: Get. Out. [STATIC RISES] BREEKON: Make. Me. [RATTLING SOUND] ARCHIVIST: Stop. [HIGH-PITCHED BUZZING SOUND OVER STATIC] BREEKON: What’re you doing? BASIRA: … Jon…? What are you doing? BREEKON: What’re you– Stop it… Stop it! ARCHIVIST: [ECHOING] No. BREEKON: [STRUGGLING, BUZZING INCREASES] Enough! Stop… looking at me! [SCREAMS] [DOOR SLAMMED OPEN, FLEEING FOOTSTEPS WHILE BREEKON IS STILL SCREAMING, DOOR SLAMMING SHUT] ARCHIVIST: [PANTS] [HIGH-PITCHED BUZZING SOUND FADES] BASIRA: Jon…? ARCHIVIST: It’s fine…!

(MAG159) ARCHIVIST: … I, I don’t understand. PETER: And you won’t. Not from me. I’m done. ARCHIVIST: Tell me. [STATIC RISES] PETER: I’m. Not saying. Another. Word. [STATIC INCREASES] ARCHIVIST: Tell me, or I will rip it out of you! [STATIC INCREASES] PETER: [STRUGGLING] No…! ARCHIVIST: Answer. My question! PETER: NO! Leave – me – ALONE! [STATIC INCREASES] ARCHIVIST: TELL ME! PETER: [GROANING SCREAM] [RIPPING, EXPLODING SOUND] [STATIC FADES] ARCHIVIST: … Stubborn fool…

(MAG162) ARCHIVIST: “This place wishes to be our tomb. But The Eye does not wish that. No. [STATIC INCREASES] The Eye wishes instead that it be my chrysalis. [WOODEN CREAKING SOUND] It is time that I emerge…” [STATIC REACHING A PEAK] […] I, I–I was listening, and I–I was filled with this… hatred. This anger; I–I wanted to leave, and hunt down Elias, a–and…! MARTIN: W–wow, okay… ARCHIVIST: But, when I thought it… the–there was… [WOODEN CREAKING SOUND] There was something else. Th–this place, it… it didn’t want me, it… [WOODEN CREAKING SOUND] didn’t want us to go.

(MAG165) NOT!SASHA: Not as pathetic as your little friend when I ate her life…! [RUMBLING SOUND] [THE CALLIOPE MUSIC DERAILS, TAKES A HIGHER PITCH] ARCHIVIST: … What did you say? [STATIC RISING: LOW AND SPIRALLING, PRESSURING] NOT!SASHA: [SHAKY BREATHES] I’m–I’m sorry… MARTIN: Jon? ARCHIVIST: You were wrong, you know. NOT!SASHA: [GASPS] [STATIC INCREASES] ARCHIVIST: There is more suffering than you can ever experience, so much more. The horror of your victims… NOT!SASHA: [CRIES OF PAIN] ARCHIVIST: Their constant, senseless agony… NOT!SASHA: [CRIES OF PAIN] [STATIC INCREASES] ARCHIVIST: Feel it now. Understand it. You have drawn out so much despair, and now finally, it’s your turn. [STATIC INCREASES] [DIGITAL GLITCHING SOUNDS] Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched thing! [STATIC INCREASES, WITH MORE PRESSURE] NOT!SASHA: No! No, please, no…! [DIGITAL BURSTING, RIPPING SOUNDS] NOT!SASHA: [FADING] No…! [STATIC DECREASES AND FADES] ARCHIVIST: [PANTS]

Jon used to rely on compulsion to try to struggle his way out (when it was his only weapon), in a panic. But since MAG119, it has begun to feel as if something was coming out from it, as if he were possessed? It really feels like something is trying to come out (and we precisely began the season with The Eye wanting the cabin to be his “chrysalis” and Jon announcing that “he” would emerge…). There also had been a clear escalation in his use of his powers: from giving Tim the tools to prevent Nikola from achieving The Unknowing, to stopping Breekon when he was ready to fight Basira, to compelling Peter to death while Peter was resisting, to… an execution, triggered by his anger. Jon had made a point to tell Martin that the Not!Them couldn’t harm them; it was a murder purely motivated by anger. The Not!Them had it coming, and it’s really interesting that Jon weaponised the suffering of the Not!Them’s victims to force it to feel pain (so, a case of… forcing empathy on it?), but… still a murder, still scary, still concerning that Jon did that when Martin and him weren’t threatened, and that it happened when Jon’s feelings got out of hand.

(Jon, you’re just a shounen anime protagonist gdi.)

- And Jon did nooooooot feel fine with it:

(MAG165) MARTIN: … Whoa–oh–oh! ARCHIVIST: I, uh… MARTIN: What was that?! ARCHIVIST: … I–I destroyed it. [ECHOING CREAKING SOUNDS] Ki–killed her. MARTIN: Are you kidding me, you–you obliterated her! You… you smote her! [ECHOING CREAKING SOUNDS] ARCHIVIST: We, we should go. MARTIN: What about the merry-go-round? With her gone, is it, is it still th– ARCHIVIST: I–I don’t know! MARTIN: [CHUCKLING] Yes you do! ARCHIVIST: I–I don’t… want to know, plea– We need to go. [SHUFFLING] Please. MARTIN: Oh, oh, okay. A–alright. Alright. Lead on. [CREAKING SOUNDS]

* Martin sounded… kinda very very into it (mARTIN), not surprised – Martin was already ready to use whatever he can even if it means compromising himself. Jon sounded more upset, so I’m half-expecting them to discuss this at some point?

* It had already felt a bit like it with Peter (when Jon mentioned the powers of The Eye in relation to The Lonely), but it was way worse here: … Jon really felt like an actual priest of Beholding when he obliterated the Not!Them. As if he was accepting it as a god, and himself as its agent, able to channel its powers.

* It was also SO CLOSE to what Elias did to Melanie and Martin, with the whole implanting memories/truths in someone’s head to make them suffer… oofffft ;;

* ;; I’m. Also very concerned about the fact that the end of the episode seems to imply that Jon made it worse for the victims in the carousel, since we can hear it creaking. Has he just condemned these people to an actual death, or to worse doom? If it turns out that Jon has powers allowing him to have an effect on these nightmares, the fact he chooses to remain an observer and only “uses” the place to experience them will feel iffier and iffier… ;;

- Welp, it does clear up right away why The Web hasn’t tried to contact Jon directly. On a scale from calling his partner while Jon himself is further away to directly taunting him, how much self-preservation instinct do you have?

  MAG166’s title is… interesting, because?? Corruption?? But it also feels too easy?? (And would be the biggest Middle Finger at something Smirke mentioned in MAG138.) I see a way in which it could potentially be Hunt, or Flesh, or Vast, or Buried, or End, or Web (well… it’s more like there’s an existing connection for that one + RQ’s teasing about Web stuff this week), but, wow. Bold move.

[eddycurrents]

When they said that the event calendar for the release dates of House of X and Powers of X would feature major events that recontextualize and change how you think about the entire event, they weren’t lying. If anything, based on House of X #2, it was an understatement. As much as the first issues of both series have already changed the landscape of Marvel’s merry mutants, changing the characters, and changing the rules, House of X #2 makes you wonder about everything that you’ve seen previously.

This issue also sets in stone that House of X and Powers of X are inseparable. You need to read both, not one or the other, in order to get the full story. They play off of one another more like one continuous narrative, with notes flitting back and forth between the two books, than two discrete stories. The differences are really just a matter of perspective and scope. One book looks at the story from one particular angle, and the other zooms out, looking at a different composite. The way the two play off one another, even this early into the event, is very impressive.

Jonathan Hickman and his collaborators already set a new standard with the first issues of HoX and PoX, House of X #2 takes it a step further and fundamentally changes the rules of the Marvel Universe even. It takes an already existing high water mark and raises it further. 

Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia continue to be a shining light in this story, especially when it comes to permutations. And this issue may well have one of the most pored over and inspected infographics yet.

It is truly astonishing what Hickman, Larraz, Gracia, Cowles, and Muller are doing here.

There will be spoilers below this image. If you do not want to be spoiled on House of X #2, do not read further.

SPOILER WARNING: Below I’ll be discussing the events, themes, and possibility of what’s going on in House of X #2 and beyond. There are HEAVY SPOILERS beyond this point. If you haven’t read the issue yet and don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading now. You’ve been warned.

PREAMBLE | First Impressions

All I can really say is holy crap. I’ve been highly impressed so far with what House of X and Powers of X have been doing so far, but this one blows all expectations out of the water.

House of X #2 is a truly incredible story that completely reinvents the character of Moira MacTaggert, retcons decades of X-Men continuity in the process, but does so in a way that opens up endless possibilities, new stories, and more, rather than being any kind of forced insert. It’s brilliant. And it makes you wonder about all of the X-Men stories in the past, especially reading interactions with Destiny and Magneto in new contexts, and those that we’re currently reading.

Basically, Moira’s a mutant with the power of reincarnation. She keeps coming back and attempting new solutions and experiments to solve the human-mutant problem like a mutant take on Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon’s Daytripper.

It also makes a lot of the speculation that many of us, myself included, about what’s going on in the first couple issues possibly entirely wrong. Because it changes the rules. I love it. It’s amazing and ballsy for a series as potentially dissected and analysed as this to just outright break the standard framework entirely.

Also, in regards to Pepe Larraz’s art this issue, it shifts depending on the life that’s being discussed. While Moira and the people around her are mostly the same, the panels shift and take on different shapes and angles per period. It’s a very nice and easy way to show visually that we’re seeing a different life being lived with minimal confusion or reliance on the text.

Marte Gracia continues to deliver exquisite colour art. Like Larraz’s layouts, the colours shift and change, in some ways subtle, in other ways explosively, across the different lives. It’s also impressive whenever a colourist can make an apocalyptic landscape feel dark without it looking like mud.

And Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller remain the cherries on top with letters and design respectively. 

ONE | Time After Time

Throwing that spanner in the works of every theory, assumption, and possibility of the first two issues is Moira’s reincarnation abilities. It is a huge retcon that makes you question everything.

It starts out unassumingly enough with an ordinary life, lived to an ordinary span. in an ordinary way. Life One is an interesting way to lead us into this radical change to Moira’s character because it’s ordinary. It’s brilliant to present such a huge shock to the system through such a simple, unexpected life story.

And it spirals out from there as we’re taken back to Moira’s discussion with Charles in Powers of X #1, given more details and explanations of here different lives. From simple destruction chance of Life Two being cut horrifically short to the far flung length of joining with Apocalypse in Life Nine. Some lives an elements are familiar, others radically different from what we know, each apparently giving Moira a different piece of the puzzle in order to figure out the solution to the extreme division between humans and mutants.

I find it somewhat funny, given the text piece in Powers of X that sending mutants into space isn’t one of the primary proposed ideas through any of these lives, but maybe that’s something we’ll see when and if she finally gets things right.

I also find it interesting that one of the lives that gets the most attention is when she picks man over mutant in Life Three. It’s one of the ones that goes horrifically wrong as she decides that mutants are a disease needed to be stamped out, coming up with a cure to eradicate them. It establishes Destiny as an arbiter of justice to temper if Moira decides a similarly destructive path.

The various differently lives briefly shown throughout the story are also fascinating. They beg to be expanded upon through a series of specials and mini-series mining the different possibilities of these alternate existences. They feel rich and well-realized with interesting events informing on Moira’s decisions through her lifespans. 

Although they can be left as throwaway ideas within the larger framework of the House of X/Powers of X event, there’s fertile ground here to expand upon in time. Moira VII Assassin could be an interesting, dark, and cynical thriller, especially as compromises to morals and ethics become hollow as the machines manifest anyway. A new Age of Apocalypse in Life Nine practically screams to be explored. It’s fascinating how all of these lives combine, recombine, and mix different common elements and themes across X-Men history and spin out something new.

It also makes you wonder about those time periods in Powers of X #1. We think that X0 through X3 are the same timeline. This issue opens up the possibility that that may not be the case. The futures might be from one of Moira’s previous lives. We don’t know yet what exactly we’re seeing and that uncertainty adds a fair amount of excitement to see what’s coming next.

What we’re seeing in House of X and Powers of X could be Life Eleven, since there are already some radical departures in how Krakoa seems to work, and all of the people who are now alive that were dead. I’ve gone through thoughts as to how it could be messing with time, but Moira’s reincarnations seems to eliminate that theory entirely. It’s also easy in story terms since it would essentially give a blank slate to establish the rules of this new reality, but I think that’s too simple.

I think, however, that we’re currently witnessing Life Ten. For one, we’re referring to Moira often in these series as Moira X, which would seem to infer more that this is her tenth life, rather than necessarily X as in Xavier or X-Men or even as a placeholder X for her multiple possible surnames (Kinross, Cowan, MacTaggert, Xavier). It also potentially rewrites the meaning of the title Powers of X as being more personal, not just referring to the time periods, but these being the “Powers of [Moira] Ten”. It takes all of the huge, reality and time-spanning ideas and humanizes it, making it a personal tale of one woman’s struggles.

I think Life Eleven is triggered at the end of House of X/Powers of X and is the seed for the “Dawn of X” titles spinning out of this story.

TWO | Entanglements

The wider implications of Moira’s powers are felt in how long you’ve been reading X-Men comics and whether or not you want to do a deep dive into the past. It could be fun, it could be maddening, and ultimately the story in House of X and Powers of X doesn’t necessitate it. You can read this still without having ever read a single X-Men comic and enjoy it.

But over-complicating things is a pastime of longtime X-Men readers. These books were written for a long period of time by Chris Claremont, after all.

One of the major things that this shows in various permutations throughout the story is redefining Moira as one of the primary movers throughout history. She serves now as a catalyst for events and direct causes for divergence points creating alternate timelines. In some ways subtle, in others profound.

I’ve stated and speculated previously that Xavier seems different through the first issues of both series, in terms of the X1 Xavier potentially exhibiting telekinetic powers he never had and his kind of creepy character affectations (that could have been continuing on with X’s behaviour from Astonishing X-Men) and the seeming oddity of not knowing who Moira was in X0, which I thought could have been put down to time travel shenanigans, but that seems moot with House of X #2. It’s probably just a new reality that we’re dealing with.

It raises questions as to whether or not Xavier is really a puppet master as previously believed, or just another cog in the Moira Machine, figuring out that possibly the only way to answer the Man-Mutant conundrum is to get Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse (and possibly the machines) all working together.

And then there’s Moira’s run during the ‘80s. The Muir Island X-Men. Magneto’s rehabilitation. Working with the New Mutants. Aiding Xavier throughout. It takes on an entirely different element knowing that she was knowledgeable of various events beforehand. It takes working with Freedom Force in an entirely different light. There’s undoubtedly a lot you could dive deeper into in order to figure out how things stack up in this new light.

THREE | Number Six

Curiously missing from the infographic giving Moira’s timeline is Life Six. There’s a gap between Life Five and Life Seven that remains unaccounted for. Nor does it come up when she’s talking to Charles Xavier explaining to him who he is.

For a story that is built on detail and complexity, the omission has to have a reason. And because it’s missing, we can potentially get endless speculation as to why it’s missing. 

Personally, I think it could be because it’s actually the baseline Marvel Universe that we knew. Life Ten would appear to be that, being consistent with what we know, but there’s doubt. We’ve been told through Moira’s conversation with Destiny that she has a limited amount of reincarnations, ten, with possibly an eleventh if she got things right.

Or I could be completely wrong and it’s something else entirely.

CONCLUSION | I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

It’s taken me a while to put fingers to keyboard on this one for a number of reasons, one of the primary ones being that this story just left me gobsmacked. It presents so many different possibilities and reinterpretations that you’ve practically got to tear up the script as to what you thought was going on. It makes you question whether or not anything at all that you’ve read before is in a particular frame or even relevant to a particular frame.

It’s incredible.

Hickman, Larraz, Gracia, Cowles, and Muller have managed to take an already impressive new approach to the X-Men and elevated it further beyond imagining. It’s very exciting. House of X #2 represents an even greater sea change than we were led to believe.

d. emerson eddy is fairly certain he doesn’t reincarnate into the same life if you kill him, so please don’t try.

[cubeclassesonline]

Know The Logic behind Rubik’s cube

Rubik’s cube is a three dimensional puzzle that was invented by a Hungarian sculptor and an architect named Erno Rubik in 1974. Originally called as the magic puzzle. There are multiple approaches to solving the puzzle but the logic behind remains the same you have to get all the six faces to have the same colour. The colours are red, white, yellow, green, blue and orange.

It is a combination of mathematical and spatial intelligence that is required to solve the puzzle along with the finger dexterity.

It is a mathematical puzzle at its core and has geometrical symmetry behind its active solution. There are 43 quintillion permutations possible and the problem solving effort requires a combination of various concepts of algebra and geometry. There is no set rule of steps that lead to the solution it is the method of solution that has to be mastered to achieve the goal. 

Another part of the puzzle requires to know the concepts of observation and visualisation, basically the manipulation of three dimensional objects in the surroundings, we must remember and recognize the various patterns to guide ourself to the next step every time leading to the final solution.

Rubik’s cubes logic also requires us to read patterns, configure them and predict the next ones.

There are three layers and the centre layer does not move so we must focus on the middle and the corner pieces, to aim for the solution.

There are many approaches to solving the puzzle all of which have some sort of cognitive logic involved mostly mathematical as well as stuff related to reading and remembering patterns. There are many interesting theories towards solving the puzzle, but it is actually the approach that is important. To learn how to solve it is to learn how to develop problem solving ability. It is more than just a mathematical solution. It is a way to train your brain to learn how to learn better that is why in todays world of smart phones and endless gadgets Rubik’s cube is still so popular. 

[shortfictionweeklychallenge]

Searching…

So many prompts to choose from. What can we find in the archive today?

Love Triangle: Two men vying for the affections of one woman, the oldest trope around. But there are endless permutations possible: Three men, three women, any combination of two genders and one of the opposite, nonbinary, aliens.  Consider, too, nonsexual/aromantic triangles, where "affection” is "deep and abiding friendship" and the point of contention has nothing to do with physical attraction, but social status, physical distance, or something else. This week, write some version of a love triangle.

[72dpiskillz-world]

Easy Ways to Improve Your Website Traffic Count

Are you confused about how to improve your website traffic? Which options can drive more traffic to your website? What is the best way to get more web traffic? Well, this blog solves all your queries. The blog is curated by a digital marketing expert and is backed up by intense research on the topic. 

The infinite options and means that can be used to trigger the audience to visit your website often, confuse the professionals and businesses. There is a lot of ambiguity concerning the outcome and results of the activity.  However, a professional digital marketing company can help you to shortlist the best possible alternatives to improve website traffic.

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To leverage the thriving digital marketing opportunities, follow the below mentioned trend result-oriented ways that can improve your website traffic count

Search Traffic Potential:

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The topics are picked by our team to captivate your target audience to visit your website and let your product trend on the major digital platforms.  Picking the best topics with great SEO potential is key to increase website traffic.

Guest Posts:

guest blogging is a tactic that involves writing blogs and posts for a third party. The editor of the guest pots allows one to link back to your site. One of the major benefits of guest posts is that you get more referral traffic, increased brand awareness and more backlinks. The whole idea of gust posts is to get maximum links. However, guest posts are critical to writing. Every guest post site has some rules and protocols to follow.  If not followed, the guest post website may reject your article or blog. 72DPI Skillz is the finest digital marketing company. We draft expert guest posts and blogs that can increase your web presence and provide your brand/business with the desired exposure.

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Quora Ans:

Digital marketing is not just about promoting your brand or business virtually; it is also about establishing rapport and connect with your audience. Providing credible information and explanation to your audience can help them to entice their interest. It can help one to provide them with a great understanding of your products, business and forte. Search on Quora questions that are directly or indirectly related to your product/service. Write meaningful explanations and answers for them. Make sure to use high volume search words and keywords to get more links. Quora Answer can generate more traffic to your website. Provide value to your readers, tell a story, share your experiences to engage with the reader.

Podcasts:

Podcasts are becoming extremely popular due to their high interaction value. Planning weekly podcasts on various topics can get more traffic to your website. Creating a podcast is tedious and technical work. It involves attention to detail and knowledge of the field. One requires editing equipment, content planning, guests and much more. A specialists digital marketing agency like 72DPI Skillz can plan and execute attractive and attention-grabbing podcasts. Podcasts have a humungous potential. Try searching for the topics that are trending in your niche and host/pitch your guest accordingly.

Influencer marketing:

The most trending digital marketing tactic that is widely used today is influencer marketing. This digital marketing technique involves collaborating with celebrities and influencers to promote a brand. Mass awareness and reliability are some of the greatest advantages of influencer marketing. It allows one to interact with the audience and share more information about a product or service. Influencer marketing, however, must be well-planned and strategic. The selection of personality, message and influencer marketing campaign must be concise, attractive, and immersive. 72DPI Skills is a 360-degree digital marketing company. We plan various marketing initiatives to increase web traffic satisfy search intent. 

Wrapping up!

A website is a powerhouse. It conveys a lot of things about your brand, business, products as well as services. Your website should be carefully designed and developed., It should reflect the essence of your business and lure your audience to try your product/service. An optimized website provides an elating experience to your visitor. It can motivate and encourage them to make a purchase decision. Associating with an expert digital marketing company can be valuable, it can not only help you to improve the web traffic but also increase sales conversions too. Invest in simple yet creative and defined digital marketing strategies to recoup considerable return on your investments.