#there was also an incident where he got so mad he pointed a gun into the face of the man he suspected to be Batman without thinking

[mrmanbat]

I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again- Jack Drake was a shit dude.

Not in the way fandom acts like he was but he still had anger issues.

The reason people tell you he was a good guy in the comics was bc those incidents got played off as jokes. it was the 90’s what would you expect?

Like yeah he loved and supported Tim but if a fan wants to interpret those comics in a new light maybe don’t be an ass?

It’s the nature of comics. They retroactively change meaning as time passes and the characters continue to the modern age.

[clownsuu]

Just a lil doodles smhhhh

cw: mentions of violence and distress. Also weapons-

This is probably a good time to mention everyone’s jobs since I keep forgetting to mention it JDHDGDH

Wally: Da Boss (yeah no shid) he isn’t that merciful of a boss- can be very brutal with how relentless he can be and is a bit of a (non sus) sadistic a s s sometimes. Usually is playfully humorous initially, but can quickly go sour if he feels ever so slightly ticked. Preferred weapon: his eyes and his arms.

Barnaby: Body guard, boss’s left hand man, usually the one who talks for the boss. Sometimes he’s even seen as the “unofficial” boss of the whole group (which he likes to humor sometimes) but in the end he is possibly the most loyal out of everyone to Wally (man’s best friend after all). Preferred weapon is “da biggest gun we got!!!”

Howdy: Butler, bartender, boss’s right hand man. Will do basically everything anyone says (who’s part of the family) without question, however he will always take the Boss’s requests as main priority over the others. This will often keep him awake and exhausted, and a few new stitches to add to his collection. He has the lowest ability to think freely. Preferred weapon: Ice pick

Julie: Hitman A, interrogator, mad scientist really. Killing isn’t really too much of her thing, she prefers methodical planning and slow suffering with the use of chemicals and even random substances she can get her lil paws on. She’s not afraid to use anyone as a test subject, even if it’s her own members. preferred weapon: tranquilizers

Sally: Hitman B, intimidator, c h a o s. Almost the complete opposite to Julie. Absolutely chaotic and adores violent bloodshed to a point it’s theatrical. Usually is called if they don’t really need a clean kill. Can often be seen dancing and listening to music while on the job, often says it helps her focus (nobody really argues with it). Preferred weapon: anything blunt and/or violently loud (tasers, rocket launchers, fireworks) (sally is banned from using rocket launchers)

Poppy: Medic, crime scene cleanup, voice of reason, sometimes chef. She does ok when it comes to clean ups and stuff, however she has panic attacks and gets terrified when ever she hears screams of pain/torture, and freezes. Typically Howdy is there to help her snap out of it and help her complete her work, if not do her work for her. Everyone, even including the boss, is there to support her when she’s distressed (everyone would hug her except Wally. He does not like being touched unless it’s Howdy or Barnaby). Preferred weapon: n/a

Eddie: Messenger, delivery pick up/drop off, handler of the goods. He usually goes by himself, however after an incident where he lost his arm from a deal gone wrong, he is now required to leave with at least one of the hitmen (typically Sally). Very often does he get hurt in these trips and is usually always saved by Sally. Absolutely adores Frank for always trying to find the safest routes for him and wishes they had time together alone. Preferred weapon: a simple revolver

Frank: In charge of ordering goods, making contacts, being a voice of reason, basically just a manager. The most stressed member of the group. Rarely is he seen outside of the headquarters unless it’s to talk to well known individuals. He doesn’t usually talk to anyone besides Howdy (ranting at the bar about people), Eddie (telling him what he needs to get next), and Julie (normal convos and her asking him to order new chemicals for her next project). Every time Frank thinks he has an intimate moment together alone with Eddie, out of the blue Eddie would just randomly talk about how much he loves the family and how Wally is so amazing. The next day Frank asks him about it, it seems Eddie doesn’t remember what happened yesterday. Frank has the highest ability to think freely. Preferred weapon: a simple glock.

Home: Voice of reason. Preferred weapon: Wally

[biancadoes1]

FAVORITE ANON IS BACK

I didn't expect to be back so soon and to have to jump to the other side of the supporting character spectrum butttt here we are...

As we all know by now, A has made her return to the Insta grid and it was a doozy. 48 days after Luke posted his Spain photo dump, A pops out with the "Last bit of summer" which of course includes a picture of her "sunbathing and reading" on what appears to be the same balcony as Luke's from Spain. The 6 photo carousel also includes 2 photos from Cyprus. To many on the internet, this was another "launch" just like the recent London pap pictures.

This is the point where I would like to remind everyone to TAKE A MOMENT AND BREATHE BEFORE YOU REACT.

Now that you've done that, please remember the individual we are talking about. It is important to study patterns and this girl be patterning. Whenever the spotlight turns up on Nic and Luke, she always seems to jump in and tear things down and she is living up to her reputation. Let's add to the fact that Nic is getting torn down from this recent pap and press article incident so why not throw some gasoline on the flames. This is her time to SHINE.

Now I have a couple thoughts on the Spain of it all:

I think it's highly possible this trip happened in mid-late July (when the resort posted the Bridgerton themed post) and right before the birthday trip to Sorrento. It is highly likely that it was also a group trip and I'm not even saying these two were romantic on this trip (similar to my thoughts on Italy). She honestly could've just gotten into his room to take a couple pictures.

Her and her friends on a separate trip and maneuvered their way into the same (or similar) room and recreated the scene. It sounds wild and crazy and wayyyy out of the realm of reality but to be honest, I wouldn't put it past this individual.

My big question is where were any pictures that alluded to Luke being on the trip? The only picture is the balcony picture with her lying on the lounger and it doesn't even include a lot of possible items that would match the photo to being an identical match (the table settings or his underwear on the chair). If you went on a trip with your boyfriend - WHERE IS THE BOYFRIEND? Many are saying she got permission from Luke to post now but if he gave her permission and they are still together then why isn't he in the pictures?

Also, I find it convenient that she has C & S coming out of the woodwork to like and hype her up in the comments almost immediately (her and S have been almost radio silent to each other since Italy). As someone pointed out to me, the comments look like something planned in a group chat.

And to anyone who wants to say it - no I do not believe Luke is mad about Nic and Jake and is lashing out by telling A to post. If you even believe that about him, why are you in this fandom?

What do I believe? I believe we are seeing one of the final acts of a very desperate woman. She has been holding on to these pictures as her "smoking gun" to use one day when the timing is right. Nicola mentioned "Luke" and "marriage" in a Time article and she posted a picture with Luke publicly on her instagram. Once the pap photo controversy went down, A grabbed her chance and ran with it. (The irony of it all is that I think Nic's team may have let the article situation yesterday play out the way it did because they were expecting a grenade from A and she took the bait.)

In the end I will tell you the same thing about Luke that I told you about Nicola - ONLY LISTEN TO THE STORY LUKE IS TELLING YOU. The story Luke told you in his Spain post was that he was a man who was there alone and not on a romantic getaway. Don't listen to the story that psychotic side characters are trying to paint. The reason she's still around and creating this drama is because you all encouraged her all summer. Listen to Nic and listen to Luke and the rest is just noise you need to tune out.

My favorite anon is back so soon.

But I think we needed you, so much appreciated ☺️

[rorywritesjunk]

I can’t tell where the journey will end But I know where to start

Prequel to my Kid Buggy fic, set about 11-ish years before that story.

Buggy meets you by chance when he needs his buttons sewn back onto his jacket. He’s young, up and coming, and he thinks everyone should cower before him wherever he goes, but all you do is smile at him.

Rating: PG-13ish just for some swearing. Warning: Buggy’s in his early 20s. He’s an asshole. He just is because I wanted to write him loud, demanding, everything. There’s 3 new characters thrown in because why not? Future Wife gets a name as well! A/N: I have no idea when Buggy became a Captain, so he’s a fresh faced captain in this. No clue how long this fic will be. I just started on the 4th chapter but I’m excited to write it out! I had fun with the original fic and decided to write the prequel to how they met. Enjoy!

Title comes from “Wake Me Up” by Avicii.

TAGLIST: @lostfirefly @ane5e @kingofthemfingpirates @the-angriest-angel @tiredemomama @valen-yamyam16 @i-reblog-fics-i-like @plethora-of-fickleness

Chapter 1 + Chapter 2 + Chapter 3 + Chapter 4 + Chapter 5 + Chapter 6 + Chapter 7 + Chapter 8 + Chapter 9 + Chapter 10 + Chapter 11 + Chapter 12 + Chapter 13 + Chapter 14 + Chapter 15 + Chapter 16 + Chapter 17 + Chapter 18 + Epilogue

Chapter 4

The girls refused to speak to you because of how you defended Buggy. They still thought he was rude and didn’t like him, and they didn’t understand why you’d defend him. They were also mad because not only did they have to clean the kitchen twice that night, but Miss Pins had them sort fabric scraps by color before organizing all the threads the same way over the last few weeks. The final act of punishment was organizing all the pins and needles by length and gauge. 

They didn’t think it was fair. 

Had you been in charge you would have dismissed them from their apprenticeships entirely. 

Yes, Buggy was loud, had been rude each visit to you and Miss Pins but he was a pirate and all the shop’s customers were pirates. A lot of them were rude to you and Miss Pins, some even threatening, but he was also becoming a repeat customer and overpaid you each time, and when you brought it to the attention of Miss Pins, she let you keep the extra amount because you took on helping him. 

Honestly, and you didn’t want to admit it to your boss just yet, but you liked Buggy. So far he hadn’t tried to flirt with you, act inappropriately, or threaten you. Countless others had since the day you started as an apprentice. Miss Pins was protective of her girls, having no problem pointing a gun at any pirate creeps should they make her apprentices uncomfortable. Buggy was loud, demanding, but he wasn’t a creep.

It had been a month since you last saw Buggy and you figured that you weren’t going to see him again. Why would he return to the shop after what the girls had said? You felt bad about it and wished you could have talked with him a bit more, but he took off so fast that you didn’t get a chance to. 

You still had his socks that you fixed for him and even secured him an extra pair. Maybe he’d stop by to pick them up? You weren’t going to hold out a lot of hope. No doubt he would be on his ship, sailing for treasure or adventure, forgetting about the incident a month ago. 

Hopefully.

The shop was closed for the evening but you were still working when you saw him again. You wanted to get extra work done before taking a few days for yourself to celebrate your birthday. The girls originally wanted to do something with you but now that they weren’t talking to you, you got to do whatever you wanted. 

You were going to go to a nearby lake and feed the ducks while enjoying a packed lunch. 

The pounding at the door startled you. You grabbed a broom to protect yourself as you approached it and looked through the peephole. You saw the bright red nose and immediately relaxed as you opened the door, smiling at him as he stood on the doorstep.

“We’re closed, you know.” You told him teasingly. “We’re not a clinic where you can stop by whenever you need me to fix something.”

He looked flustered as he tried to think of a response, but you grabbed his hand and pulled him into the shop, closing the door behind him as you headed back to your work. He followed after you, looking around at the different bolts of fabric on shelves, the trays of thread, and several dresses that hung on a rack behind the counter. You took a seat and gestured to the other chair as you picked your sewing back up.

“You left your socks, you know.” You said as you passed the needle through the fabric. You were finishing up another dress for a customer, attaching the bodice and skirt together with piping along where the two pieces met. “I was worried you wouldn’t come back for them.”

Buggy sat down and crossed his arms, turning his attention to what you were doing. Your fingers were careful as you worked, your fingernails guiding along the piping to keep it in place as you sewed. He didn’t think you actually made things, just repaired them, so he watched you for a moment before responding.

“I had other socks.” He mumbled as you removed a pin and stuck it into your little pin cushion. “I… was going to come back.” He glanced up at your face, seeing the look of concentration, and looked back down at your work. “Why are you up so late?”

“Why are you at the shop late?” You countered as you stuck a pin in your mouth before repositioning the fabric. He hesitated and looked away. “Surely not for your socks, Buggy.”

“I… was out on a walk.” He replied as he clenched his jaw. “And I saw the light on and thought maybe you were being robbed.”

You took the pin out of your mouth and stuck it back through the layers of fabric. “And you knocked so kindly.”

“I don’t have-”

He stopped himself and took a deep breath, trying not to overreact. You were just teasing him, trying to rile him up, but there was no malice in your voice. He looked back at you and saw you were smiling at him and his heart skipped a beat and his face was warm. He cleared his throat and tried again.

“I just wanted to stop by and… say hi. I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“Well, hello and good evening then.” You chuckled. “What would you have done if Miss Pins answered the door with her shotgun?”

“I’m not scared of her!” Buggy shot back. You looked over his shoulder and grinned.

“Good evening, boss.” 

Buggy spun around, eyes wide, but you laughed. There was no one there. Oh, you were cruel. He turned back around and glared at you. You were still laughing as you set your sewing down. Buggy huffed and looked away from you with a glare on his face. 

“Sorry, sorry.” You giggled as you wiped the tears from your eyes. “As for your question about why I’m up so late… My birthday is in two days so I want to get as much work done as possible so I can relax.”

“Oh, birthday?” He repeated. Girls liked getting gifts. Should he get you a gift? Why would he get you one? He looked back at you as you picked your sewing back up now that you had calmed down from laughing. What kind of gift would he get you if he was to get you something? He was a pirate, he could go find some treasure and give half to you, but would that be weird? Why was he even considering that?

“Mhm.” You nodded. “I’m going to go feed and watch the ducks and have lunch.”

“Ducks?” Buggy laughed. Ducks were not exciting, but if you liked them, he would take you all around to show you all the ducks in the world if you wanted. “Just duck watching, that’s it?”

“Yea.” You frowned when he laughed. It wasn’t really anything to laugh about. You didn’t need to do something exciting to enjoy yourself, just sitting and taking it easy was enough. “It’s something I like to do, Buggy.”

“It’s your birthday, though! You should be going out and doing something fun!” He said. “Drinking, having a party, something like that! Go on a raid or something!”

“I’m not a pirate, Buggy.” You reminded him as you looked back at your sewing. “I’d rather do something quiet.”

He leaned back in his seat and watched you with a frown. You lived in a town frequented by pirates, you had to be used to what they got up to, so why would you want to do something as boring as watching ducks? Maybe you were just never given the opportunity to do something fun. Buggy would change that.

“How about we-”

He didn’t get to finish that sentence because he saw you look up, eyes widening at something behind him. He wasn’t going to fall for that again so he rolled his eyes. “The old hag’s not there, so don’t try and trick me again.”

THWACK

“Get the hell out of my shop!” Miss Pins barked as she raised the broom up again. “Do you realize how late it is?!” 

Buggy fell out of the chair and dodged the blows from her broom. He almost made it to the door before she threw it at his feet, tripping him up as he scrambled. She stormed over to him and grabbed the door, pulling it open before pointing out. 

“It’s too late for you to be coming around!” She snapped as he hurried out the door, but not before he looked back at you for a split second. You were still in your chair, looking rather amused by the whole exchange. At least you weren’t frowning at him anymore. Maybe he could sneak back around for your birthday. He just needed to find out where the ducks would be.

Miss Pins slammed the door behind him before rounding on you. “Stop encouraging him!” 

“I haven’t done anything!” You exclaimed. “I’m just being nice to him!”

“That’s encouraging him! I don’t need another lovesick pirate after you, Sunny! He’s as bad as the last one!” Miss Pins snapped. “I can’t keep chasing these pirates off!”

“He’s not like the last one!” You shot back. “And he’s not lovesick, he just needs a friend, Miss Pins. It’s not like he’s asking me to marry him every time he sees me!”

Your boss glared at you as she locked the door and picked up the broom. The last one wasn’t like that until the fifth visit, where he had demanded you to marry him while you were fixing his coat. You were only 19, the man was almost ten years your senior and if your boss hadn’t been there, who knows where you would have ended up. She wasn’t going to lose you then to that man and she wasn’t about to lose you to some nobody pirate. 

“He’s not welcome here anymore.” Miss Pins told you. “And next time you see him you tell him that.”

She left after that, returning upstairs without another word, leaving you alone to think about what she said.

[pimento-playing-hopscotch]

hi there my darling. <3 i'm sorry it's rough lately. i come with questions about some fictional dudes you love.

🔪 What character are you defending with your life?  (I think I know!!! 🤭) 

🐠Give us a headcanon about (tk and Owen’s relationship)!

❤️ Favorite part of your favorite ship?

Hello lovely 🥰🥰 Thank you for putting up with me ♥️♥️

🔪- most likely yes it’s the one you think it is- I am the head of the Owen Strand defense squad.

Which it is an interesting time in the rewatch to be making this point (this is too big to put in parentheses yet here I go- season three did Owen so dirty- I know they were going for the therapy angle but we went from Owen attacked someone because he is spiraling from finding out he has cancer and- which I know this is dicey because people on here love them some Billy Tyson- but he’s just such a cartoonish mustache twirling villain- like he only got the job because Owen turned it down and the first thing he does is close the 126? That punch was more justified than Owen just punches everyone he has a disagreement with).

Oh bestie why would you do this to me lol- I can’t be normal about this topic 🫣🫣

But there is so much good in Owen and he sees so much good in other people; he sees someone who has never gotten approval from his father and whose job is telling him he screwed up big and tells him “no there should be more people in your profession like you, to hell with anyone who doesn’t agree your old man included” He finds the youngest member of his firehouse sleeping in the gym and says I have an extra room, it’s yours, you can live here forever and that would be fine - he looks the lone survivor of a tragedy in the eye and says you deserve to be here but if you don’t get a handle on the guilt you feel because you’re here and they aren’t well it will consume you alive, I know this better than anyone”

Which is another thing- Owen definitely has chronic hero syndrome but Owen has also been the sole survivor so many times in his life and he fucking hates that- he couldn’t save his brother and ended his parents marriage; there were 14 guys who didn’t get to go home to their families when he did. And when guilt and grief and shame tried to swallow him up he let those feelings win for a while but I refuse to believe that he missed TK’s entire childhood because then, TK wouldn’t have wanted to go to work with that person-

Which is to say, he isn’t a perfect parent but damn he is a good one- and one thing for sure he never made his son feel like he couldn’t be who he was (or that he was such a disappointment that forcing himself to be straight was the answer). But Owen loves his kid and they are so close that TK is as fiercely protective of his dad as his dad is of him, which I feel you really don’t see too much of especially between a grown father and son (the closest I can come up with is Stiles and his father from Teen Wolf - even though Stiles is technically a teenager)

I’m sorry that was so unhinged- but I’ve written a quarter million words on this topic for a reason lol

🐠- (not gonna rant about how it’s that Owen was not completely absent from TK’s life after he turned seven, not gonna do it)

But in light of where the rewatch is, I will say that I HC that Owen and TK talked about TK’s sobriety after the Sadie incident (I’m sorry, I have had so many people try to nicely explain this choice to me but I can’t accept this; there is no reason this should count as a relapse because it was not a choice. If the choice was made for you, then it’s not relapsing). Which I headcanon- I have to believe this because season 3 took every time TK should have talked with his dad and then purposely refused to show it (literally, a man fired a gun into an ambulance TK was in and we didn’t even get a hug from that) so I have to believe that TK and Owen talked about it. Because Owen has seen TK relapse before and could have pointed out, “you didn’t do this. This wasn’t your fault. If you need to be mad at someone then be mad at me, but I don’t want you blaming yourself for this”. And TK pointing out that if not for Owen, he would’ve taken the drugs from the ambulance after Gwyn’s death, so even if what happened with Sadie wasn’t his fault those two incidents make him feel like he lost something and needs to get his feet on solid ground.

❤️ - (this will sound so stupid; which so has the rest of this lol) but I love that you really see Carlos and TK’s relationship develop and change. Like they were so bad at communicating things to each other (that break up was on both sides, you can never convince me that was all TK’s fault) but season four might be my favorite season because things come up and they work through them together (like 98% of the time, granted) and this may be too broad of an answer but it’s what I came up with.

Thank you for the asks- sorry for the rambles 🫣🫶♥️

[mask131]

I have been looking into a book called "The Great Adventure of the Roleplaying Game", in French La Grande Aventure du Jeu de Rôle. Written by Julien Pirou and published in 2020, so far it is THE reference book for anyone interested in the history of roleplaying games if you live in France. And while two thirds of the book are dedicated, obviously, to the American world of the roleplay-games, where the whole genre was born and bloomed - you've got everything, from the origins of Dungeons and Dragons to the history of Call of Cthulhu, concluding with the big rise of Critical Role - it also has a lot of informations about the French history of roleplaying games. I am not going to copy paste everything down there, but I wanted to share a few key points and funny trivia...

Dungeons & Dragons got translated in French as "Donjons & dragons". Which could fine... if "Dungeons" and "Donjons" didn't mean the most opposite things. Yes they sound identical and are etymological parents, but their meaning is incompatible. A "dungeon" is, if I go by Wiktionnary's definition "a strong underground prison cell, especally in a castle". This is why the idea of a dungeon in the English-speaking culture is this tunnel, cave or grotto you must "crawl" into, why the dungeons are imagined as buried temples and underground mazes and all that... But in French a "donjon" is actually the main tower of a castle, the strongest and highest one - unlike the "dungeon" which was usually where prisoners were sent (in French we call it "cachot"), the "donjon" was usually the place where the lord of the castle dwelled, and the last safe place if someone breached into the building.

There is an entire chapter in this book dedicated to the mass-panic and crazy accusations roleplaying games received. You know, the whole "D&D is the tool of Satan and causes suicides, prostitutions and murders" kind of thing. And you might be surprises to learn France also had its share of the "roleplay panic". While there were hints here and there in the 80s (newspapers on the right of the political spectrum had published articles translating the ideas of the BADD - Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons ) it never really took off. The actual "Satanic panic" began in the 90s in France, with an incident eerily similar to what caused the American "Satanic panic" earlier: the suicide of a young man.

In 1994, Christophe Maltese killed himself with a shot gun. However his parents defended the idea that Christophe hadn't just killed himself: they accused the roleplaying games he regularly partook in, claiming they had caused a "split personality" disorder that ultimately led to his death. The official investigation concluded the roleplay games had nothing to do with his death, but the couple was still invited by the TV show Témoin numéro un to share their story, and the same episode invited a so called "expert of mental manipulations" called Jean-Marie Abgrall. And this psychiatrist claimed that the regular practice of roleplaying game could cause madness - he described the game of a roleplayer who ended up believing he was hunted down by a three-headed dog.

This TV episode was doubled by an episode of the show Zone interdite, also in 1994, which accused roleplaying games with the same arguments the BADD had created: they caused drug use, they were covers for cults, they encouraged murders - ultimately the gamemaster was depicted as a guru that gained complete power over his players. The episode was so badly done that they presented as "Didier Guiserix", the chief redactor of Casus Belli (see a few points below, but know Casus Belli was THE roleplaying magazine of the time)... a random man who had nothing to do with Casus Belli whatsoever.

The third step in this diabolization of the roleplaying game was the "affaire de Carpentras". In 1990, 34 graves were desecrated in the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras, causing a national outcry. At first, antisemitic groups and the far-right were accused of this crime, but since years went by without any criminal being caught, French media started creating new theories... Some completely crazy. And in 1995, due to the testimony of a woman named Jessie Foulon, the idea appeared of it being related to black masses and secret orgies, organized by the children of several notables of the town, for a "roleplaying game". The newspaper L'Express wrote a completely unresearched article describing roleplaying games as "nspired by Satanism, medieval legends, and a ideological mess mixing Celtic crosses and Nazi delirium ; ultimately creating a horror culture that can explode at any moment". Paris Match published an interview with Jessie Foulon during which roleplaying games were explicitely compared and equating with drug use and rapes. But do you want to know how this all ended? It was discovered that Jessie Foulon was actually a frequent "guest" at psychiatric hospitals due to... a severe case of mythomania. The case was ultimately solved in 1996, and turns out it was four Neo-Nazi grown men that did it...

But the fourth and most traumatizing event for roleplaying gamers was however the Bas les masques show of the 11th of october 1995, an episode called "Attention, jeux dangereux!" (Beware, dangerous games). During one hour and the half, the show listed in a big confusion suicide, occultism and madness, linked to roleplaying games, paintball, and the military training of the USA. In fact, if we watch the episode today, we can see that none of the journalists actually knew what a roleplaying game was about or even how it worked - in fact no clear definition is ever given of it. One key moment was when a former roleplayer recalled an event from one of her games, and the animator suddenly realized out loud: "Wait... you mean all of that happened in your heard?". Because clearly no one understood the games were supposed to be mostly imagination cames. And the dear doctor Abgrall was invited, again, to the show, claiming once more that roleplaying game was a certified cause of "mental disease" and that it encouraged "the manipulation of information"...

This might all seem laughable toda, but these four incidents, among other, had a real impact on the roleplaying in France. Parents had a general mistrust of the games and refused it to their kids. Schools and city halls also had worries and doubts that led them to close several game-clubs and gaming circles. Several years will be needed for the panic to die down - the first step of the calm being the creation in 1996 of the Federation Française du Jeu de Rôle (French Federation of Roleplaying Game, FFJDR) followed in 1997 by the publication by Didier Guiserix of the Livre des jeux de rôles, "Book of roleplaying games": the first French book on the subject, that explained the rules of the games, compiled its full history and worked to demystify what it was all about.

I talked before of Casus Belli, which is THE reference in France (or rather was) when it came to roleplaying magazines. The history of this publication is given in the book but I'll try to summarize some key points: it was founded in 1980 by François Marcela-Froideval. Marcela-Froideval was the founder of the Federation Française des Jeux de Simulation Stratégique et Tactique (FFJSST ; French Federation of Strategical and Tactical Simulation Games). Originally Casus Belli was just a black-and-white fanzine (illustrated by Didier Guiserix) acting as the newsletter of the FFJSST. More precisely the first issue described itself as "Filling the gap needed in France when it comes to information about simulation games of strategy and tactics". The same first issue explained the publication would be entirely dedicated to wargames (because before the roleplaying game specalized itself in the fantasy genre, in France it was mostly wargames, and by extension fantasy rpgs were seen as just one variation of wargames).

In the first issue of Casus Belli, six pages were given to a certain François Bienvenu (pseudonym: Finael) to explain and describe D&D. François Bienvenue was actually the first to create a club or circle in France dedicated to roleplaying - as his parents' living room had grown too small for the growing number of players that gathered around him for D&D sessions, so he had to locate a room every week-end at the local Entertainment and Culture House. It was the "Roleplaying Club of Saint-Rémy". However, by the second issue, three quarters of the fanzine were dedicated to D&D, which would become THE main subject and topic of Casus Belli: it published tips for plaing the game, scenarios prepared for adventures, invented monsters, new playable species...

Casus Belli was then greatly helped by the publication house Excelsior, which had hired Marcela-Froideval as a "ludologue" (aka expert in games) for other publication of theirs, such as the famous and still ongoing magazine Science & Vie. Marcela-Froideval even met Gary Gygax thanks to them! Excelsior sent him to the Gen Con of 1981, where he and Gygax became great friends. To the point Gygax officially trusted Marcela-Froideval with the job of founding TSR's French branch. Unfortunately this did not work, due to TSR internal politics... But Marcela-Froideval was still hired by Gygax: he sold Casus Belli to Excelsior, Guiserix becoming the chief-redactor, and then moved to the USA and became a writer for AD&D.

In the fourth issue of Cassus Belli, Marcela-Froideval published a creation of his, one of the first "French RPGs", called Le Château des Sortilèges (The Castle of Spells) - though it was actually more of an hybrid between a roleplaying game a la D&D and a regular, tabletop boardgame.

Due to the success of Casus Belli, numerous other roleplaying magazines and newspapers appeared in the 80s and 90s in France. Runes, Dragon radieux, Chroniques d'outre-monde, Graal, Role mag' ; Backstab, Black Box, Di6dent, Jeu de Rôle Magazine... All knowing unfortunately short lives. Only Casus Belli survived: but at the cost of numerous incarnations and reinventions. You see, when the roleplaying market started declining, Excelsior decided to end the magazine: it stopped in 1999, at its 122nd issue. However, the brand was bought by Arkana Press, who in 2000 started again the magazine: it lasted for 39 more issues before being stopped in 2006. But then it was resurrected in 2010 by two big fans of the magazine, Tristan Blind and Stéphane Gallot. They even created a new society for it: Casus Belli Press. Unfortunately this was kind of a failure, and it only created five more issues between 2010 and 2011. However, a publisher of the city of Lyon, Black Book Editions, bought back the magazine immediately, and started publishing a fourth line of magazines - still going on today, though only sold by correspondance or within gamestores.

A mention that is quite needed to understand the context of it all: D&D was only first officially translated in French in 1982... The first official publication was the "Red Box", a 1981 revision by Tom Moldvay of the Basic Set). Meaning before this year, the French players had to only use a few French pages of text that were inserted in the American versions of the game by Avalon Hill... Or translated everything themselves. Interestingly, right after this publication, there was in 1984 the first official French translation of the Call of Cthulhu (which was a translation of the second edition, the first not being disponible) - and in between, in 1983, the first French RPGs were created, more specifically L'Ultime Epreuve et Légendes. This "boom" in RPGs in France was coupled with a series of informative and positive articles being published around.

But the real proof that the RPGs were included in the French culture was the very first D&D parody in France. Because when France includes something, you can be sure the first sign of acceptance will be a parody or mockery. In 1984, in the 464th issue of the Tintin magazine (one of the big name of of youth newspaper), started a comic strip parodying D&D. Called Donjons & Dragons (yeah, no, they were not very inventive), created by Bosse and Christian Darasse, it was an humoristic BD (bande-dessinée, that's how comics are called in French, like "manga" in Japan) depicting a useless party of exaggerated characters (Fringant the paladin, Hémoglobine the assassin and Castrogne the dwarf) undergoing the worst possible ways a game-session could undergo. This was all 17 years before the next famous French RPG parody-series would be published: Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk. And it was the very first French comic book dedicated to RPGs as a whole... Unfortunately the series was stopped in 1987 due to Darasse getting into fights with the publisher, Le Lombar.

In French, there is a specific term to designate a player archetype that was popularized by Casus Belli. "Le Gros Bill" (Big Bill), shortened as "grosbill". (With adjectives and derivatives sch as "grosbillite" or "grosbillisme"). Le Gros Bill was originally a caricature by François Marcela-Froideval of a specific player that frequented one of his roleplaying clubs (the Ulm street club), and who was famous for cheating during sessions to boost his characters' traits and attributes. The "grosbill" soon became the archetype of all the players who were obsessed with gaining power and strength in-game to the point of ruining the fun and experience of the other players. François Bienvenu, however, had stuff to say about the origin of the "Gros Bill", because he dislikes how the term was popularized: he claims that the real-life "Big Bill" was in fact a nice butcher-apprentice, and that he was notably kind enough to bring pieces of meat every time he came so that people could eat during the game. According to Bienvenu, his bad reputation only came to frictions he had with some players who disliked his way of playing...

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 23

"Heads up, NERV, becuase the 16th Angel is going to bring you down! That's right, you may have defeated all those other Angels, but I'm even stronger than all of them put together! I'm like a laser rope or something, and I've got creepy powers that let me burrow under people's skin or whatever. Oh, and those big guns your Evas use? Big deal! Those don't work on me! Now, take your best shot, humans, because it's the only chance you're gonna... wait."

"Kid, are you okay? Uh... don't you want to shoot at me or something?"

"Ma'am, I think the red one's having some kind of problem, maybe you could send out... Ma'am? Hello?"

"Uh... maybe I should come back tomorrow? Is that okay? Yeah, we'll pick this up some other time. Uh... sorry about... whatever just happened. Yeesh."

So Asuka is doing... well, I wouldn't call it "okay", but she's playing video games all day and spending every night at her friends' house. I mean, there's probably worse ways to cope with everything she's been through.

The SEELE group is mad at Gendo Ikari for several reasons, but most recently he lost the Lance of Longius during the most recent Angel battle, and they seem to think it's extremely important to their future plans. Gendo argues that the top priority of NERV is to destroy the Angels, and the Lance was the only way to do that. But they don't see it that way. During this little conference, another Angel is sighted over Tokyo-3, so Gendo excuses himself to deal with that. Meanwhile, SEELE openly worries that Gendo will betray them soon.

Let me try to summarize what I know about these guys. They seem to have something called the "Dead Sea Scrolls", which apparently allows them to predict certain future events. It occurred to me today that the name "Dead Sea Scrolls" may be a reference to the site of Second Impact, since Admiral Clownshoes once compared the waters of post-Impact Antarcica as a literal "dead sea".

Anyway, the SEELE plan apparently is their agenda to guide humanity beyond the dangers predicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The NERV Agency is charged with executing that plan, and SEELE also seems to believe that the Lance of Longius is critical to their success. They also think there should be at least eight Eva Units active.

But Gendo Ikari can barely keep three Evas in the field at the same time, and he seems to think that the only one he absolutely needs is Unit 01. So SEELE is mad about the destruction of Units 03 and 04, and the Lance being chucked into outer space, but Gendo Ikari considers this acceptable losses.

SEELE's dilemma is that they don't like or trust Gendo, but they have no alternative but to let him run the show. He's the only one who can, and yet they seem adamant that they understand the situation better than he does. Recently, they tried to turn Admiral Clownshoes against Gendo, but nothing came of it, so now they need another pawn to use against him. This turns out to be Ritsuko Akagi, so seems to be a better choice, since she actually knows more about what's going on.

So with the 16th Angel headed their way, the only one ready to fight it is Rei in Unit 00. Shinji is set up in Unit 01, but Gendo doesn't want to use him because no one is sure what might happen after that latest incident where Unit 01 went berserk and ate an Angel. As for Unit 02, Asuka suits up one more time to pilot it, but her sync rating has declined to the point where she literally can't operate the Eva anymore. Gendo orders it launched for use as a decoy, but it can't even step off the elevator when it reaches the surface. This doesn't help Asuka's morale at all.

Anyway, I think that's a really cool screenshot of Rei up there. I don't know, she just looks really sharp.

The Angel goes right for Rei, who grab it, but her gun is ineffective, and the Angel sends some sort of creepy veins into her Eva, and then into her own body.

Like Shinji from before, she experiences some sort of vision of another being, which appears in her form. Once again, I can't tell if this is the Angel or her own Eva. It offers to merge with her, and she refuses.

She snaps out of it and realizes that she was the one crying over her loneliness, and not the other she encountered in her mind. I think the Angel's effect on her is supposed to be intensely painful, but Rei's so stoic and unexpressive that she just isn't letting on.

With no other options, Gendo deploys Shinji to assist, but Rei doesn't want to put him at risk, so she activates some sort of self-destruct on her Eva. She refuses to abandon the Eva, because she needs to stay with it to maintain its AT field. I'm not sure why the self-destruct would work, since Rei already shot the Angel at point-blank range with no effect, but it does destroy the target, so I guess she knows what she's doing.

Ritsuko leads a recovery mission and they find the entry plug from Unit 00, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence of survivors.

Afterward, Misato tries to comfort Shinji but he refuses any affection from her, as it his wont. Then Misato gets a phone call...

And Rei's alive! Suspiciously, she has all the same injuries she had when she debuted in Episode 1, but I don't know if that's supposed to mean anything. Shinji thanks Rei for sacrificing Unit 00 to save him from the Angel's powers, but she has no memory of doing that.

Shinji doesn't understand, and she replies that it's "probably because I'm the third one." Hoo-boy.

At her home, Rei... well, a Rei, I suppose... she finds that broken pair of glasses from the time Gendo rescued her from the entry plug. She had kept them as a momento of that day, but now Rei... this Rei... grips them tightly, as though trying to crush them. Then she stops, and starts crying, and she doesn't know why.

Rei's apparent survival does raise some awkward questions. Admiral Clownshoes warns that this might cause problems with SEELE, and Gendo says he's bypassed this by sending them "an alternative."

That is, apparently, Ritsuko, who has been brought before SEELE to answer their questions in Rei's place. This is sort of like when SEELE questioned Misato a while back, because they wanted to talk to Shinji, and Misato refused to allow it because of his poor mental state. Well, this time Ritsuko is standing in for Rei, probably because Gendo didn't want SEELE to learn more about Rei.

And for some reason, Ritsuko appears to be nude for this interview? I mean, she could be wearing some strapless dress or something. I don't know what the point of this is. Anyway, she acts cool about it until SEELE informs her that Gendo was the one who put her here on the hot seat in Rei's place.

Meanwhile, Misato finally opens that little capsule Kaji gave her the last time they had sex, and it contains a little microchip. His voice mail to her said that he had sent her the same information at least thirty-six ways, but he knew most of them wouldn't make it. Presumably, this was the one that got through. I had wondered why Misato hadn't bothered to follow up on Kaji's investigation of NERV's secrets, and it looks like she's been too busy grieving over him to get to this point. So it looks like she's finally ready. Maybe Rei's miraculous survival was what tipped the scales.

Later, Ritsuko calls Shinji and takes him down to the bowels of NERV headquarters, but Misato shows up to meet them and pulls a gun on Ritsuko. Misato wants to see the secret for herself, and Ritsuko agrees, if Shinji can come along. Misato's fine with that, so off they go.

She takes them to a room that looks a lot like Rei's apartment, and Ritsuko explains that Rei grew up in that room. Then she shows them a chamber full of failed Eva models, including the one Shinji's mom was working on when she died. Apparently Shinji doesn't remember that he saw her die, but Ritsuko tells him he was there when it happened.

Then she takes them to the room where Rei would soak in that tube full of Tang. As I thought, this is how they made the Dummy Plug, but it's more than just recording Rei's brain patterns.

All around the room is a big tank full of Reis. I kind of saw this coming, but still, this is pretty creepy.

What's extra creepy is how they all open their eyes and smile at Shinji when he says their name. Ritsuko explain what they are and what they're for, but I don't really get it. Let me just transcribe the subtitles:

"Right, this is the production factory. These are all dummies. They are also replacement parts for Rei. Man found God, and they tried to pick him up. For that Man was punished! That was fifteen years ago, and the God they found disappeared. Then Man tried to resurrect God with his own hands, and created Adam. From Adam, Man created what resembles God, Himself. That is Eva! We put supposedly mindless human souls in Eva. All the souls were salvaged souls. Rei is the only container that can hold the souls. The souls are born only in Rei. The Room of Guaf is empty. These are empty containers. They have no souls. So, I want to destroy them because I hate them."

Ritsuko triggers some sort of destruct mechanism that causes the Rei bodies to disintegrate. As they die (?), Ritsuko explains that she was willing to endure any humiliation for Gendo Ikari, but in the end, he would always prefer "these dolls" over her.

And she knew it would be this way, because she was there when her mother tried to win Gendo's heart, and ended up destroying herself because she couldn't win over Rei. I guess Ritsuko also had the hots for Gendo? She might be speaking in a more platonic sense, I don't know. The point is that all her years of loyal service to Gendo are meaningless, and he'll sell her out to protect Rei in a heartbeat.

That's what she realized in the SEELE conference, so I'm not clear on what exactly went on there. Did they punish her for the loss of Unit 00? Was that why Gendo sent her in Rei's place? Is that why Ritsuko was nude? In any event, Ritsuko's finally decided she's had enough, so she's turning on Gendo, at least as far as destroying all the spare Reis and showing Misato and Shinji all the super secret stuff.

The thing is, does that even matter? I mean, Gendo's no dummy. He probably betrayed Ritsuko this way knowing she would turn on him like this. For all we know, this is part of his plan. Maybe that's why Ritsuko starts crying, and why she pleads for Misato to kill her.

Misato declines to shoot Ritsuko, and considers that the tragedy of this whole project lies in its people, including herself.

So... yeah. NERV has been mass-producing Rei for years, and I think it's reasonable to assume Rei is at least partially based on Yui Ikari. I'm not sure that Gendo is like, in love with the clones or something. The Akagis may have been frustrated that he likes Rei more than them, but I think it's more of a situation where Gendo is too fixated on his work to love any woman, even a woman who helps him with his work. And the work is embodied by Rei so that's why he gets along so well with Rei. I guess.

The next episode looks forward to the final battle against the 17th Angel, which is supposed to be the last one, but apparently they still haven't finished Episode 24, since the preview is all rough sketches and animation layouts. I guess we'll see what we see...

[thegeminisage]

THE FINAL FRONTIER breakdown

as always my first impressions were typed hastily and in shorthand w typos on my phone and i am translating them to proper readable language

opening scene was very reminiscent of mad max and the sound effects made me think of sybok as darth vader, lol. when i realized he was vulcan i knew exactly who he had to be

the first mind meld scene was like. weirdly sexual. that share your pain thing also reminded me so much of sound of my voice lol

cathy's reaction to the names in the credits: sighing heavily on seeing william shatner's name. no reaction to leonard nimoy's name. delight at seeing deforest kelley.

second scene of the movie i watched while blinded by tears because spock was there. to be fair to me i had been primed by the world's longest rock climbing scene ever in which i glorified in the sheer fact that i was NOT watching tng. i needed this so much. my reward for finishing most of the first two seasons which is some of the worst tv i have ever watched in my entire life.

cat lady with three tits. bill shatner is a fucking freak

every time there's a woman catherine and i have a bit where we gasp and go, in shock, a woman! but when it's a romunlan woman we really are shocked every single time. just like in the enterprise incident, so true

uhura is still super mega fucking hot in these movies btw. she's so beautiful. it's very cute that she's with scotty i guess (and i was really surprised!! i guess this explains why i see them as a side pairing in fics so often) but she could be marrying ME instead

thrilled to learn that bones can cook and that spock is. willing to sample his beans, as it were

i loved the whole camping scene. i understand the Plot of this movie is bad but the character scenes were some of the best in all 5 movies and indeed the entire tos series. like this is the most married those 3 old men have EVER been. "we don't have families but we have each other" THEY WERE LITERALLY DOING THE GAY FOUND FAMILY ON ACCIDENT. HOW DID WILLIAM SHATNER WRITE THIS???

"i've always known i'll die alone" is maybe the worst thing kirk has ever said or will ever say and i don't want to talk about it.

my one point of complaint is "marsh melon" or whatever spock said. it was cute but i know his ass read and pronounced it alone in his quarters like 700 times first. it's like when you make castiel not know what an egg is. maybe he was being silly on purpose to amuse kirk and bones <3

LOVED their singing. i didn't think they'd actually do it but they did. times were different back then

bones was in fine form in this movie. he had a lot to complain about but he also jumped to spock's defense at least once that i remember right off hand. i swear he just gets progressively better with each season/movie the way uhura just keeps getting hotter. some things truly do get better with age ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i loved how when spock had some distress re: potentially recognizing sybok they all had to go in their little longue and have a heart to heart together with him. i don't think this movie ever left anyone out - even in the voyage home, which i LOVE, bones was left out of the kirk-and-spock duo. but almost every single scene they had involved all three of them. truly a win for the throuple enjoyers <3

really mixed feelings about naked uhurua. i'm glad she got to sing her little song. and she is, again, extremely hot. AND i love when she gets to surprprise people even though nothing will ever beat her telling that little ensign to get in the fucking closet. but how could they DOOO that to her william shatner IS going to hell

"hold your horse captain" made me chuckle. also, can you vulcan nerve pinch a fucking HORSE?? i guess you can now. i bet they had to train those horses so well. how often do you see a fucking HORSE play dead

when sybok was like "well spock what do you have to say" and spock, outnumbered 100 to 1, guns pointed at him, obviously in deep turmoil, was silent and expressionless for 5000 years and then replied with "you are are under arrest." KING shit

sorry to be like this but spock with a gun was fucking awesome. i'm glad he didn't shoot his bro but still.

the three of them truly bickered like an old married throuple in the brig. bones coming to spock's defense was so funny he's like fine to gang up on spock until he realizes kirk is genuinely upset and then he switches sides because they're only supposed to gang up on him for fun

"STAND BACK" i knew those idiots weren't going to get the morse code in time and it was still funny. same with scotty like "i know this ship like the back of my hand! [BONK]" anyway he totally came in clutch i love him sm

i don't remember why i wrote "bones is so frail and waiflike" because we said it about 7000 times during this film but it's true

spock's rocket shoes saving the day nearly made me cry again except i got jerked out of it by my SHEER ECSTATIC GLEE that he got to take both kirk and bones ently in his arms while carrying them around. wow <3 love wins <3

"the people of your world once believed it was flat but columbus proved it was round" bitch the fuck he did. i'm blaming william shatner for that one. who knew that in 2023 they would still fucking think the earth was flat

the whole thing with bones's dad was fucking brutal. normally we talk through everything but we were dead silent for that bit. even though i knew what was gonna happen my jaw was on the fucking ground

spock's little baby vulcan ears...wait hold on

LOOK AT HIM!!!

that birth looked brutal. for once i'm giving aos some credit whatever they had going on looked much nicer. sarek seemed less disgusted too. maybe this was just spock's imagination he was like yeah my dad took one look at me when i popped out of the womb and diagnosed me with human cuz i was crying lmao

the second half of this movie was where the plot started getting dicey for me. i didn't really care what was going on before now bc i was having fun but when they started talking about the great barrier i got confused. i thought that was on the outside of the galaxy? and i thought at the center of the galaxy was some fucking anomaly and the devil lived there. cuz that was in the animated series. i know. i watched the whole thing.

like we get there and everyones like wow its so beautiful! like no offense cool rocks bro but ??? there's literally nothing there

the big ribcage rocks popping up out of the ground gave us a laugh. at first were like: hopeful: tentacles? no. just spikes. this place is not a place of honor etc

god as a giant inverted face over white light who shot lasers out of his eyes was the stupidest fucking thing i have ever seen in my life. i laughed so hard. i do love though that kirk is apparently an atheist who enjoys backtalking god. he talked to god the way he talks to computers when he's trying to suicide-bait them

i wish we had gotten some explanation of what that actually was? and why everyone thought it was god? but whatever. apparently this movie was also trying to say something about cults but it didn't. again, whatever, i was mostly having fun with whatever was going on so i didn't care but the plot was really very very bad

at one point in my hysterics i typed "LMAO GOD'S GONNA FUCK THE SHIP" as in "and make jim jealous because that's what he wants to do" but i don't remember why so i'll just leave it as the mystery that it is.

spock's little "get ahold of yourself" when bones started being frantic about jim being al;one down there after the two of them got beamed up. lol.

spock's little "damn you, sir" 🥰

metal as hell and also anime as hell that they killed god. what a ride that was. first i thought kirk was gonna do it. then i thought the klingons did it. then it was SPOCK that did it. i could not have asked for a better outcome

"not in front of the klingons" i finally have context for this. i had seen snatches of it in gifs and videos but it was even gayer than i imagined. WILLIAM SHATNER WROTE THIS???

genuinely in SHOCK they ended it with them camping again. i was like if they start singing i am Going to scream. and you know what they did?? yes. yes. yes.

i don't understand why everyone hates this movie. like, yes, the plot was bad near the end. the villain was bad. the stuff about god being In Your Heart was lame af. but the character moments were PERFECT and the movie was extremely funny and everyone was very charming. it boggles the mind that it almost meant there was no sixth movie. like it wasn't perfect but it had so many redeeming qualities!!

that said. i did watch it after some of the worst tng i have Ever seen AND on the same day i watched into darkness so maybe that has something to do with it lmao

[waru-chan8]

hey! i read your post about pecco's (and other riders) red flags and i wanted you ask if jorge martin has done some controversial stuff also

i swear i'm not trying to start shit, you can just tell me no he has not done anything wrong :)

and also espargaro, they said he has had many "angry" moments before that with morbidelli i just wondered if you remember any

Hi again anon 👋👋👋👋

I didn't put them on the list because I didn't know their 'red flag' and to be honest I still don't know them that well. I only started following MotoGP in 2020 and there's still a bunch of lore that I don't know about a lot of riders.

What can I tell you about Martín is the following, he likes to drag people in the media either riders or teams (or Michelin yesterday). He is on the believe os 'I'm the best qualified for everything and I deserve the world'. He had been a bit shady with Ducati in the past, but apparently Ducati failed him. Overall is just his actitud (and living in Andorra). After that he is pretty green flag. He is supportive of other riders and I remember someone in the fandom said that they have seen him display support towards victims of homophobia in Madrid back in 2020 or 2019. He also doesn't forget who has helped him and he was so appreciative of Aleix and the help he gave him over the years.

Edit: I fucking forgot the flag! The fucking flag! Okay so every time Jorge is in the podium/wins, he carries a Spanish flag with a bull in it. It's a iffy symbol. It's know as the 'Toro de Osborne' and it's associated with a Spanish nationalism. It doesn't sit well in all Spain (lets say I seen it associated with the extrem right in politics although it not exclusive of them).

With Espargaró I'm going to assume it's only Aleix and not Pol (who is one of the greenest flags in the paddock with Rins (and maybe Joan pending the black face incident and him liking hunting and guns)). So Aleix is knows for his temper outburst. Like it's not the first time you see him screaming to a rider, marshal or even his mechanics, and before anyone attack him, he knows he is not the best and it's already working to solve it (we love a self-aware man). He used to be the rider that followed everyone and their mother in track to the a toe/slipstream, but now he gets mad when other people do that. There's a 'funny' incident with Petrux, where he got in between him and another rider and Petrux went to Twitter/X to show his displeasure, and Aleix pulled the data of the incident to prove that he actually was helpful and that helped Petrux to get a better lap time even if he didn't get directly to Q2 or passed from Q1 to Q2. He used to get in lot of troubles in social media due to comments and the way he speaks, no filter, with the truth upfront and not sugar coating things, but he is the same with the media. You either like him for that or you hate him, unfortunately, Pol usually gets dragged to that because people get confused with the brothers. He also was 'accused' of being pro-catalan independence, but he cleared that up. Out side the track, he is very vocal for the riders safety, takes care of a lot of riders and is friend of his friends.

As far as I know (again, I've been around only since 2020), it's the first time he got violent with another rider, and got to that extrem, Said that, apparently is not the first time that Morbidelli had been sitting on the racing line ans it's not the first time Aleix has encountered him. It's not an excuse for what he did, I'm just pointing out that both are wrong.

As always, anyone who has more info can jump and add stuff. I encourage to reblog and add to this, not just add in the comments or in the tags.

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

For the WIP asks, I've gotta go for the BSD fics! You know I love that show. I saw you had at least 3 of them on your list so tell me as much or as little as you'd like about them.

I WOULD LOVE TO TALK ABOUT THEM *cue me being annoying as fuck*

Ask me about any WIPs I might have!!

note: kat info dumping about her bsd WIPs under the cut ja;ldkf also not proofread so sorry for typos/weird wording

So I'm typically a Dazai simp (but i'm currently mad at him for the shit he did in meursault so we're on a break >:( ) so both "current" and "mafia days" are dazai x oc fics. "mafia days" is pretty self-explanatory lmao. it's stuff during the dark age!

but it details OC being a pretty powerful ability user that Mori personally sought out and then she ends up being a pretty lethal assassin for the organization and takes Dazai's place as leader of the Black Lizard. During the Mimic incident, she "brutally murders" the one Mimic soldier that had the gun pointed at Dazai's head and Dazai begins chastising her about needing to keep him alive for interrogation or that she overdid it and they get into a fight! She continues her investigation of Mimic without him BUT eventually gets captured by Gide because the way she murdered the other soldier with her abilities caught their attention. Dazai does NOT come to rescue her until last minute because he wasn't even aware that she wasn't just further ignoring him. He thinks she dies in his arms, but of some unknown facet of her abilities (think Atsushi's healing BUT STRONGER). She wakes up in the infirmary a few days later and is under the impression that Dazai sold her out to Mimic and left her for dead. END SCENE

SKIP TO 4 YEARS LATER

This basically just follows canon. OC is a pretty high-ranking executive now and is pretty much always taking kill jobs, primarily to channel her rage into it because she's still pissed about Dazai. Some of the important character deaths, I have her involved in because I can (sue me), like Sasaki's. She comes along with that meeting between Fukuzawa and Mori to negotiate and when Fukuzawa attacks (instead of Tanizaki coming in with Light Snow), she comes him to stop his sword and then Dazai is all like D: because it turns out she's alive but he didn't know. She gets assigned to assassinate Fitzgerald and they have like a big confrontation where she's pissed at Dazai for abandoning her and he's trying to convince her that he thought she was dead all along. I have her involved as the show progresses but it's not as impactful as s2 i think.

"mafia!husband au" is basically the same except she gets with chuuya. the drama in the dark days still happens, but she's always had a close bond with chuuya because they're both stupidly powerful ability users that didn't really know where they came from. in the normal story (stuff i described above), they're just really close like a brother/sister bond thing. in this AU, they get together at some point. the confrontation with her and dazai still happens, but she's not able to forgive him and overlook the pain that he caused right before she got captured.

and that's it! i think. they're pretty well fleshed out because these WIPs are like...around 6 years old at this point? started it in 2017 alkdfjklsdf

i also have a separate writing blog for bsd if you're ever interested! it's permanent hiatus tho because the bsd fandom chased me away for reasons i can tell u in dm's lol :p

[ritualoftheancients]

Ritual of the Ancients Chapter 22: Epilogue

by Roan Rosser

This is a chapter of a complete vampire novel with a trans-masc main character and a gay romance subplot. New Chapters are posted every Sunday. If you like the novel and want to support the author, ebook and paperback copies can be purchased here.

*****

Three weeks later…

I’d been staying with some mages while recovering from the silver-laced gunshots. They had examined me and the amulet, and also questioned me, Kevin, and Jack about the ceremony. They were trying to piece together what her ceremony had been meant to accomplish. I’d told the vampires about the ancient book I’d seen in Kevin’s memory, the one that Lady Ann had been consulting, but they hadn’t been able to locate it.

The conclusion so far was that the amulet had been what turned me, although they weren’t sure how yet. One thing that they had been able to determine was that the amulet was tied to my life force. So for now it stayed with me, hanging from a chain around my neck under my shirt.

There was a knock at the front door. I answered it, and found Jack standing on the front porch. He grinned as I stepped outside and pulled him into a hug. His arms tightened around me, pressing me against his chest. My backpack straps dug into my chest.

After a moment he loosened his arms and looked down at me. “Where’s your binder? I didn’t feel it.”

I grinned and let go of him to step back. “So it turns out that being a vampire does have a few perks after all.” I grabbed the bottom of my T-shirt and lifted it up to show Jack my perfect, scarless chest. “The vampire doctor that treated me for the gunshot wounds gave me top surgery.”

Apparently vampires healed quickly and without scaring, but they couldn’t regrow much tissue. If your arm got cut off and the severed arm was reunited with the stump it could be reattached, but if the arm got lost, you’d be spending the rest of eternity with only one hand. The good news for me was that it meant that after the doctor took out my breast tissue, it wouldn’t regrow. And vampire healing left me without any visible scars.

“Wow, I’ll say.” Jack put a palm flat on my chest, running it down my bare skin before pulling his hand away with a sigh. “Wish we had time to properly enjoy it. Looks like you’re ready to go?”

I nodded and dropped my shirt front to heft my backpack. “Let’s roll.”

“That really everything you own?” Jack asked as we went down the steps.

“Yeah. Since I was declared dead, I couldn’t exactly go back home and pack up my things.”

The vampires had used the incident at the park to fake my death. The official story was that I’d broken into the park to kill myself. I’d gotten cold feet and pulled the gun from my head at the last second. The gun had still gone off and the bullet struck a propane tank that had subsequently exploded, killing me.

Such a stupid way to go. It didn’t make me feel any better that it was a lie.

We got to the street, and I stopped short at the sight of Emily’s white sedan. The bullet holes had been badly patched, making it obvious he was still driving the same car.

I pointed to the car as Jack unlocked the car with the key fob. “Why are you still driving Emily’s car?”

Jack got in without answering and I threw my bag in the backseat, then got in the front passenger seat. The cloth of the front seats still had red stains from our blood. I gave him another questioning look as I buckled my seatbelt.

Jack put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb before answering. “As you can imagine, she was a little pissed when I showed back up with her brand-new car shot up. I ended up agreeing to buy it from her so she could get another new car.”

“I’m sorry.” I winced. “At least it’s still drivable.”

“You mean unlike my other car that got shot up?” Jack let out an amused laugh, letting me know he wasn’t mad.

I gave him a small smile. “I hope you blamed me for everything.”

“Totally.” Jack barked out another laugh.

I laughed with him for a moment before sobering. “Stacy said you went to my funeral.”

Jack’s expression hardened. “Yeah. Your parents are both alive and well. The rest… Are you sure you want to hear the rest?” We stopped at a red light and he turned to look at me. The red lit his face up eerily in the dark, and I shivered at the ominous look in his eyes.

“Yes. What was it like?”

Jack sighed, but the light turned green and he had to turn away from me to watch the road. “All the pictures they put out of you were pre-transition, and they only called you by your dead name with ‘she’ pronouns. Your mom recognized me from the Ren Faire when I tried to talk to her about getting your legal name on the tombstone, and she refused to talk to me. I’m sorry.”

I’d been expecting something like that. I thought I’d be angry at having my worst fears confirmed, but instead I only felt resigned. I’d done my best to make up with them before my death and they’d pushed me away. It didn’t matter now, anyway. That was now literally a different life.

Jack seemed to sense my conflicting thoughts and kept quiet, for which I was grateful. I watched the dark streets flash by out the window for the rest of the long drive to my home for the next little while.

The vampires’ house for new blood, as it were, was out in the middle of nowhere southeast of Portland. PCA owned ten acres of land that the house sat in the middle of. A safe place for new vampires to learn to control themselves and their abilities.

Stacy had explained to me that new vampires lived together here for their first decade as a sort of probationary period, under the supervision of an elder mentor vampire. There were two other new ones living here at the moment, in addition to the mentor. The oldest was coming up on the end of her time here, and was in the process of moving out.

In the meantime, since there were only supposed to be two at any given time and all the current residents had refused to share a room with me even temporarily, I was going to be relegated to sleeping in a light-proofed box in the corner of the living room. A coffin. I was not looking forward to it.

I’d argued with Stacy that since I’d already proved I could control myself, I shouldn’t be subject to the same restrictions as other new vampires. I’d lost. Stacy made it clear that I’d already been given enough exceptions to the rules by being allowed to live. Going through the introductory time out of society was mandatory for every new vampire, and that if I didn’t submit I’d be destroyed, control or not.

Just my bad luck that Lin was the current house mentor. She’d applied for the position on the basis of her boyfriend being the next vampire turned, but now was stuck with me—which at least explained her antagonism to me when I’d met her at the safe house.

Jack turned off the highway, and we rolled down a very long driveway that wound its way through the woods. At the end we came to a stop in front of a big old two-story farmhouse, remarkable only in the fact that all the upper story windows were blacked out. The only light came from a flickering porchlight that only served to make the house even creepier looking.

“Last stop.” Jack turned the car off and got out with me. While I stared up at the dark house, Jack got my backpack out and handed it to me.

“Don’t go!” I dropped my bag onto the pavement and flung my arms around Jack’s waist, bursting into tears. “Did Stacy tell you?”

Jack hugged be tightly. “That it’ll be a year before you’re allowed a phone? Yes. I’ll miss you a lot, but you’ll be fine. You’re my fierce tiger, remember?”

I pulled away and stuck my tongue out at him. “I’m never going to live down that nickname, am I?”

“Not ever, Tiger.” Jack laughed and ruffled my hair. I laughed with him, wiping away my tears.

The door to the house creaked open, spilling a square of brighter light out onto the porch. I recognized Lin’s profile outlined in the doorway. She had her hands on her hips.

“Time to go,” I said, leaning over to grab my bag.

“One last thing,” Jack said, stepping between me and the house. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

“Yes.” I grinned widely and got up on my tiptoes to give Jack a kiss.

“I’ll be waiting for you!” Jack called after me as I made my way toward the house.

I sighed deeply, stopping as I got to the porch and turned to wave goodbye to him one last time.

This was going to be a long year.

[possessionisamyth]

internet arguement mode partially kicked in so responded to one of the many shitty comments on RE3R gaming wins video the moment i got a response from the person brain kicked in and went nope (blocked. on second reread of original comment and response i got the distinct vibe that this person wanted the story beat of Jill "well trained and has seen people have moments of stress works well in a team" Valentine would slap Carlos as he was having a moment of panic at the situation they are in- my most hated moment of the original glad to never see it unless i watch that playthrough again glad it wasn't in the remake because people are dumb enough about it as is... people thought Jill was being too mean to Carlos and Nemesis in the remake)

they mentioned the mercenaries Mad Jakal for Nemesis (continued on with dlc should have been released alongside the game blah blah and how the clock tower was important) and checking it (can't find gameplay as yet with no commentary so just reading) out you can play as Carlos, Nicholai and Mikhail. Nicholai is a interesting choice for a playable character. my current conclusion is it probably would have been released after getting worked on after the base game because it has a good concept and potential story beats (you encounter hostages that you can save but that in itself is a bit irritating as its Brad, Dario the guy we meet at the start locking himself in that safe, Marvin, poster girl and 2 UBCS guys which is yeah how rewarding is it to save this group) but its not a story dlc its run and gun mode (which is fine and there is some strategy involved) they're just fun (sometimes frustrating) but repitive even with different load outs (re7 dlc spoiled us honeslty because they're all so different you have to shift gears when going through them)

I got this when you sent it but I kept forgetting to reply! I've learned the hard way one too many times that the internet argument is never worth it. I think it's a lesson I will have to keep relearning here and there, but eventually!!! I'll just keep to my damn self all the time!

I will be controversial and say I did like the slap moment in the original RE3. I understand that Jill is supposed to be well-trained and put together, but she is like Chris where she'll let her emotions get ahead of her. Not to mention, the Racoon City incident was her experience in the Arklay Mansion on steroids. Jill and Carlos were in an extremely high stress situation over the span of several days and both were running on less than 8 hours of actual sleep the entire time.

To me this wasn't showing Jill as hysterical or mean but was a moment to show how they're both reaching a breaking point. Jill is acting as the older adult using the cliche "slap some sense into them" method, while Carlos is made to realize his own mental lapse isn't helpful, and they both take a moment away from each other after so they can to get their shit together. I like to think that Jill apologized to him in the helicopter ride and explains that she didn't know what else to do to get him back on track in the heat of the moment. I like to think Carlos meets her in the middle saying he understands, and he agrees that suggesting they off themselves was A LotTM, but he also gets her with the firm boundary of asking her not to do that again in the future with the hope they wouldn't come to that point a second time. But that's just me! I get it if other people don't see it that way.

Nikolai doesn't seem like a strange choice. My understanding of the Mercenaries content is having the ability to play main story line characters in melee rushes, so him being there makes sense in that context. And I know about all the RE7 DLC, but the only one I cared about was End of Zoe cause I did want to know if she was okay or not. The rest was meh in my opinion, but that also because I hate Lucas lol.

[hardynwa]

Mohbad’s widow testifies before coroner, recalls singer’s last moments

Omowunmi Aloba, the widow of 27-year-old deceased singer IleriOluwa Aloba alias Mohbad, told the Coroner Inquest sitting at Ikorodu on Tuesday that Mohbad had died long before he was declared dead due to past incidents of bullying, psychological trauma, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency arrest. Mohbad’s widow testified that he died in his room on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, in the afternoon. She said before his death, he had showered and wasn’t feeling okay, so he asked that they switch on the air conditioner in his room, but the AC wasn’t working, so they rushed him to the son’s room. Omowunmi stated that she was in the kitchen while this was happening, adding that when she came out, she saw the nurse injecting him, and she heard Mohbad telling the nurse to remove the syringe. She further told the coroner that it was at that point that they had to rush him to the hospital. According to her, he was in the back seat of the car when the driver said his hands were already cold. “Immediately I called a bike (motorcycle), OG, his friend, and Mohbad entered the bike, then I took another bike and went straight to the hospital. “It was the doctor, nurses, the Disc Jokey, and Mohbad ‘s brother that were inside the room while I was outside, when they told me that he was dead, I said it was not possible because I still spoke to him 20 minutes ago and he said after his injection, he would take his son for five months photo shoot,” he said. She also explained that before his death they went for a show on Monday, September 11, 2023, and they were about 10 people. The widow of the singer added that she and their baby were inside the car waiting for Mohbad while he was performing and after his performance, Mohbad complained that he was tired and needed to go home, but that he was asked to wait for other artists to finish with their own performance and they waited for an hour. Speaking on the fight that broke out in the car, she stated that Mohbad had an argument with his younger brother inside the car when Mohbad’s friend, Owodunni Ibrahim, also known as Prime Boy, said his younger brother couldn’t be the one who would disrespect him. She added, “Prime Boy said he knew what he would have done, but Mohbad told Prime Boy that it was because they were outside and that if they were at home, he would have fought his brother. “During the fight, Mohbad sustained a minor injury at his elbow when he hit the window of the car. The nurse who injected Mohbad has been treating him for two years. “The nurse injected Mohbad on his shoulder. After the February 22, 2022, NDLEA incident, Mohbad became fearful and refused to go to the hospital because his head was hit with a gun, by NDLEA. “I was beaten and pushed inside the gutter because I confronted and questioned the NDLEA why they harassed my husband. He was given substance by the NDLEA ever since then he has not been himself.” She also told the coroner that after the NDLEA attack, he got paranoid he lost his memory up to the extent of forgetting his phone password. The witness told Magistrate Sotobi Adedayo that people started saying that he was mad and became depressed. According to her, after Mohbad’s death, she was not aware of where he was buried or even the mortuary and didn’t know anything after. She further stated that they planned to kidnap Mohbad’s son. Omowunmi said that she has been getting threats and has always been going out with a face mask because of the threat. She said, “Mohbad wanted to fly his son to Canada, that was why he got a visa because he didn’t want his son Liam to clock one in Nigeria.” Mohbad’s wife said he had always wanted his child to be given birth in Canada, but because they were not financially buoyant, he begged her to allow him to fly the child, to which she agreed. Read the full article

[ozma914]

That Winter Driving Thing Again

(It's possible I was a little irate when I wrote this. Also, I'm hopeful the snowy weather is over for the season, but not convinced.)

 I contend that DWS (Driving While Stupid) should be a death penalty offense.

Of course, DWS isn't illegal to begin with, but we have to start somewhere.

Look, I’ve done foolish things while driving. I once backed an ambulance into a mailbox--and yeah, it was snowing, but it wasn't the snow's fault. I slid over a stop sign with a police office standing ten feet away. Snow was an accomplice in that case. I took a 1976 Pontiac Ventura off-road four wheeling – and no, Venturas were not FWD.

My youth may have been a reason, but not an excuse. I’ve slowed down, but others haven’t. Worse, the people who cause the mayhem often walk away uninjured, whining about how traumatized they are from the experience.

“It was horrible, all the kids in the back of my pickup flying through the air, and the nun’s body knocked out my tire alignment -- *sob* -- I almost lost my grip on my beer. Luckily I had my cell phone in my other hand, so I was able to call 911.”

"What? It looks fine."

 Sometimes–not always – drivers of big vehicles are most reckless. Why? Well, drivers of small cars are scared stiff. You think I’m going to tailgate a truck that has a spring loaded bumper aimed at my nose, and a “Honk if You Love Guns” bumper sticker? I don’t think so.

Second, many drivers of large vehicles thumb their noses at Mother Nature. “What’s a little freezing rain? I’ve got four wheel drive!” It’s fun to play the game where you’re passed by an SUV, then get to point and laugh at him when he lands in the ditch two miles on.

It’s the definition of False Sense of Security. Yes, maybe you and your truck will get through your 65 mph trip in blinding snow without incident. Angels watch over the foolish. Or maybe the next time will be the one when you’ll end up parked in somebody’s living room, with a Toyota under you that can now qualify as a throw rug.

Here’s a wild idea: Slow your ass down. A five thousand pound block of metal, at a speed that would terrify an Indy 500 racer of 75 years ago, is not under your control, even in the best weather conditions. Add to that rain, deer, and other idiot drivers, and you’ve got a recipe for bloody mayhem.

“That won’t happen to me,” you say. You’re a moron. Nobody’s last words were, “I have a feeling I’m going to get into a bad accident today.”

"Did you see that idiot?"

 Let’s break it down.

There are excellent drivers capable of maintaining control at warp 5, but they don’t live around here. If they did, they’d have died with a deer in their laps a long time ago. If you’re running late during a snowstorm and get behind a silver haired lady driving 35 mph, you have nobody to blame but yourself for not leaving on time.

Seat belts. They keep you from getting your head run over when you’re thrown out of your rolling SUV because you tried to pass that silver haired lady in a snow storm. Living is cool.

Carry a set of scales, and weigh yourself before getting into the car. If you’re not on the edge of starvation, wait until you get home to eat.

A lot of people try to excuse their accidents by saying they were “blinded by –“ fill in the blank. The sun, oncoming headlights, a brilliant idea, whatever.

We don’t let blind people drive. It’s what used to be called common sense, before attorneys had it banned. So if you’re behind the wheel and something blinds you – STOP DRIVING. Are you worried somebody behind you will be mad because you hit the brakes and pulled over? Fine – let them be mad at your very alive self.

They’re probably driving a four wheel drive, anyway.

Why do I take so many pictures from my porch? Because then I don't have to be in a car.

  (Remember, whenever you buy one of our books I can get gloves, and keep my fingers warm enough to write another one.)

http://markrhunter.com/ https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

[downtroddendeity]

None of you asked, but here it is anyway.

And for the record, yes, I did eventually eat lunch.

Starting assumptions:

I'm putting the start of the game contemporaneous with its release date, so 2018.

The single definite point of timeline divergence I have decided on between the US in our universe and what I have taken to calling "The United Union of Eagleland" is that Reagan didn't exist. Therefore, the Republican Party is still evil but it doesn't have rabies yet, and all major political events in the last 40 years are up in the air.

I overshot my guesses about Roland's age in my first few posts because it was funnier; with full-game and DLC context, he's probably meant to be in the Obama age bracket and is just going gray early. He is absolutely still significantly older than Batu, though.

Even before the DLC validated me I had Roland pegged as a "my role model is FDR"-style infrastructure Democrat, because canon-wise his skillset is in the nuts and bolts of making a government that functions and he doesn't get heated enough about Broadleaf's corporatocracy to be a social justice or labor guy- he can keep his mouth shut when the other rulers are evil, but slips up when the way they run things is just dumb.

Since our guy is the Jungian Archetype of The President of the United States, when in doubt, assume the most Generically Presidential option.

I said in one of my jokes that he's from Illinois solely because a midwestern swing state is the most Generically Presidential and Illinois is the one with the funniest-sounding name. This reasoning is clearly foolproof.

Roland is born in 1966 (making him 52 at the start of the game), and growing up has zero intention of going into politics. The incident with the bullies is when he's 10. He gets into gun sports as a hobby as a teen because he's good at it and into 14th-century German longsword combat because he's a fucking nerd, unwittingly creating both an extensive paper trail of pictures of him at firing ranges that will become very convenient for countering NRA PR and an equally extensive paper trail of pictures of him at Renaissance Fairs that will become the greatest gift Eagleland political memes have ever received. He graduates law school somewhere respectable but not elite and goes into civil litigation. He marries his theoretical mystery wife at 31, but they keep putting off having kids because This Just Isn't A Good Time For Us. Then in like 1999, he's representing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit where some Regional Business Asshole who basically owns a couple of small towns has been doing a bunch of blatantly illegal stuff to harass people in a specific area because Business Asshole has a huge deal pending with some giant petrochemical company for fracking but can't move forward with it because a handful of people smack in the middle refuse to sign over the mineral rights for their property. Being a lawyer is frequently depressing, so now that Roland has one of the relatively rare chances in the job to be categorically The Good Guy he is getting into it. Giant petrochemical companies are evil but impersonal, but Regional Business Assholes are just some shitty guy and thus prone to getting mad and doing things that are evil but also very stupid, and that is why one day when Roland Crane, Esq. is walking out of his office on his way to a deposition some guy he's never seen before in his life walks up to him and fucking shoots him.

Except, unfortunately for the guy who got handed twenty grand in unmarked bills by the brother of the buddy of this guy the associate director of operations to the Business Asshole knows, being something you only study if you're a fucking nerd does not change the fact that historical European martial arts is, in fact, a form of close combat training, and Roland kicks the shit out of him. The security camera footage is pretty grainy, but the photos are incredible. It makes the news. It makes so much news, and of course it gets picked up nationally because they've got time to fill and this is fucking wild, and since it's 1999 and even though fracking is starting to really take off almost nobody has heard of it yet, this also kicks off a bunch of people going "oh my god I can't believe we didn't know about this sinister corporate scheme in MAYBE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD that they sent CORPORATE NINJA ASSASSINS over!!!" (Roland always corrects people that it wasn't a corporate ninja assassin, it was some guy who wanted beer money, and also the giant corporate conglomerate didn't actually do anything, it was some dumb asshole, but he knows that just makes him sound modest and while he’d be forced to admit that isn’t exactly a downside he would occasionally like it if people believed him.)

(Roland Crane, Master of Repression, subsequently started doing very normal things like, oh, say, wearing a loaded gun in a concealed carry holster on a thirty-minute drive from the airport to his hotel, which are certainly not indicative of any sort of trauma at all, and he finds it quite strange when anyone suggests that this is anything but a completely reasonable and sensible precaution to begin taking. Worked out for Evan, at least.)

Roland realizes his five minutes of fame are a golden opportunity, because he never really thought about going into government before but right now everyone knows his name and face and thinks of him as a badass crusader for justice standing up to The Man. He announces a run for House of Reps in like March and crushes the incumbent in the primary and that’s why I keep getting my difficulty gauge hiked up in the bonus dungeon. He wins in the general election and stays there for four terms while racking up a record of bills and amendments and cosponsorships on the kind of legislation that nobody gets really excited about, but if you list a few of them pretty much everyone will react to at least one of them as something that they just kinda noticed made their life get easier and more pleasant one day and didn’t realize was something their personal Congress Guy had a hand in. "Your income tax paperwork is slightly easier now," "you don't get 12 scam robocalls a day anymore," "you can buy diapers with food stamps," that kind of stuff.

Will is born in 2005. This was not planned, but Roland and his unnamed mystery wife kinda went, “Well, it’s still not a great time, but the time’s not going to be getting better any time soon, so…”

In 2008, Roland runs for Senate and wins.

Roland’s wife dies of terminal Being A Mom In The Ni No Kuni Franchise in 2013. The fact that he literally never alludes to her in any way in the entire game even on the single occasion she is directly mentioned is proof of how totally healthily he has processed his grief and certainly not indicative of any emotional baggage at all. Will is eight at the time, and totally definitely having healthy grief processing modeled for him and receiving the emotional support he needs.

He keeps his Senate seat in 2014. I have no idea what the overall 2016 Presidential election lineup looked like in Eagleland because the one in our universe was such a nightmare clownshow, but somebody notices that hey, they’ve got this guy who a) is charismatic and good-looking, b) has a reasonable amount of government experience without being a Washington Insider™, c) has a legislative record so deeply boring that it’s surprisingly hard to attack despite being extensive, but, d) simultaneously has a handful of details of his personal life and history so absolutely buck-fucking-wild that they instantly make him the most interesting person in basically any room.

And that’s how the United Union of Eagleland got universal health care, thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

I accidentally headcanoned 1200 words of Roland Crane backstory instead of eating lunch. Happy Presidents' Day, everyone.

[caleiiiii]

mcytbers as subway workers because i work at subway and i said so

i wrote this all at like 1 am im sorry

subway terminology (at least where i work)

waste out -means an item cant, or isnt, being sold, like overbaked cookies or expired milk. gets written down on a list for tax returns or smth

freezer pulls -pulling items from the freezer to the walk in fridge so they can thaw for the upcoming days

POS system -the software used for ringing up food, has a bunch of options per type of sandwich

generally 2 shift rotations , each one has a shift lead which is ur main opener or closer

characters

dream 

makes sandwiches so fast. 

how ??? 

he wraps the sandwiches immaculately as well

definitely a main closer

george 

just. disappears during a rush 

only to be found two hours later STILL doing dishes

dream and sapnap are not pleased.

sapnap 

convinces dream to waste out bread for him so he can eat it

gives ppl he likes free cookies 

terrible at wrapping sandwiches

tommy 

always works with wilbur and tubbo. always. 

he HATES freezer pulls but if he has to he can be seen SPRINTING between the freezer and the fridge

also bad at wrapping sandwiches

does all the online orders for tubbo because he cant read them well

tubbo 

loves to bake the bread and cookies

got a complaint once because he read an online order wrong so tommy always does them

hates ringing people up but loves to make the sandwhiches

technoblade

only works like 1 shift a week but its the most goddamn productive shift of anyone.

always makes sure they are selling potato soup when hes working

another main closer

wilbur

always controls the radio in the store

always works with tubbo and tommy, drives them to work

bribes others so he doesnt have to do the dishes

main opener

philza

the manager

super chill about scheduling

turns a blind eye to people “accidently” dropping cookies and wasting them out

niki

a goddess at baking the bread and cookies

never burns anything ever

everybody wants to work with her shes so nice

fundy

is really good at ringing those ppl up with 28372 coupons

horrible at making sandwiches tho

the only one that knows how to fix the soda machine when it breaks

quackity

always gets asked to translate the writing on the boxes since its in spanish 95% of the time

loves stocking the milk cooler so he can take home the expired sodas n shit

always forgets to remind customers when stuff costs extra

schlatt

that one transfer from another store that does everything

slightly wrong.

its been long enough now that he should know better but nobody wants to correct him.

eret

has tons of pins on his hat, 10/10

really good at making the wraps

always says hello when customers enter

karl

the new hire

immediately taken under sapnaps wing, much to the chagrin of dream

much more bread is now wasted out.

bbh and skeppy

regulars that are just. always there

they know all the employee gossip and get discounts on food

phil is .5 seconds away from asking them if they want a job

normal shift schedules

wilbur, tommy, tubbo (day shift)

dream, george, sapnap (night shift)

eret, niki, fundy (day shift)

technoblade, quackity, schlatt (night shift)

karl mainly works with the dteam, but jumps around

random things

the cookie incident

once tubbo accidently overbaked like 2 dozen cookies

so he and tommy ate all of them during their shift

they did not come into work the next day.

dream and techno rivalry

dream and technoblade have a rivaly about who can close and leave the store the quickest

eventually they decide to time themselves and race eachother on their respective shifts

techno wins with a time of 3 minutes before theyre officially allowed to close.

they both get yelled at by phil

technoblade’s only mistake

the only mistake technoblade has made ever was accidently leaving the bread cabinet open overnight

wilbur, tubbo, and tommy find it in the morning and have to throw all the bread out

tommy and tubbo split the bread and each leave with a garbage bag full of subway bread

wilbur still wont let techno live it down.

hacker things

once fundy hacked the POS system to give him a 100% discount

used it for about a month before someone (quackity) accidently pressed the option and snitched to phil

luckily, he just sighed and reset the system

cookie dough

wilbur comes up with the idea to pop raw cookie dough in the microwave and eat it half baked

phil comes in one day only to make -direct eye contact- with tommy as he and tubbo lick cookie dough off of some deli paper

allows it to happen as long as they pay for the dough

subway garlic bread

on a really slow day niki and eret are goofing off and create

~subway garlic bread~

it instantly becomes a secret menu favourite among employees and regulars

the bet

once skeppy bet quackity and schlatt that they wouldnt start a fake argument during rush hour

skeppy recorded the whole thing

technoblade can be seen in the backround silently making sandwiches as quackity and schlatt scream at eachother about if quackity has a “flatty patty”

phil tries to be mad but sees all the tips they made and lets is slide

sacrifices

george is the one always sacrificed to deal with the crabby middle aged moms

its his punishment for not helping during the rush.

torture

sometimes for fun wilbur takes his meal break right before the dinner rush

tommy stares at him in fury the whole time.

betting pool

none of the employees can tell if bbh and skeppy are dating

its to the point that they keep a betting chart on a white board next to the “top failure of the week” spot

subway ghost

after a few freak instances wilbur is positive that the subway is haunted and convinces phil to let him do a séance after hours

he manages to convince half the staff that the store is haunted

(the ghost is drista or smth idk aksjdhajk)

top failure of the week

a tally on the white board in the back room of who dropped/wasted out thw most items

sapnap has the record top failure of the week, dropping a total of 42 loaves of bread in a week

schlatt got put on the board once. never again.

enamel pins

tubbo finds a enamel pin of a bee that he puts on his visor

its not technically allowed but phil lets him do it anyway :)

bandanas

tommy and tubbo take subway bandanas from the back room and initial them before trading with eachother

nobody comments that theyre not technically allowed to have a hat and a bandana

the war

at some point a rivalry breaks out between the day staff

wilbur, tommy, tubbo, niki, eret, and fundy

and the night staff

dream, sapnap, george (techno, karl, schlatt, and quackity stay out of it)

what starts out tame eventually leads to workers purposely messing up stuff for the next shift to deal with, like not stocking the fridge or mopping the floor 

at some point eret switches to the night shift

the day shift does not take it well.

 after about 2 weeks phil is forced to step in as the store quality starts to go downhill

he closes the store for a day and makes everyone clean it u

 techno watches from outside the windows with a bag of popcorn

pogway

tommy starts placing the stickers they use to wrap sandwiches everywhere with the words “pogway” on them

everyone can tell its his handwriting but no one can catch him placing the stickers

phil even checked the cameras, still no trace of him

subway gun

sometimes tommy goes around spraying others with a spray bottle full of water used on the bread

he calls it the “subway gun”

wilbur gets fed up hides it in the freezer overnight

thats all for now! if i come up with anything else i might add it lol

EDIT PART 2 IS NOW OUT