#this is about people feeling bad. they'd rather let animals die than feel bad

[krakensdottir]

The really wild thing is that I hadn't even heard the Netherlands went euthanasia-for-nonreleasables-only, because they HAD a rescue program that kept nonreleasables, for YEARS. You're telling me they closed that down? Fucking insane. They HAD to know that would be a bad decision. I can only guess it had to do with public pressure.

I hate, hate the European anti-cap movement. It's legitimately even worse than the one in the States. Animals are being sent to China so people who visit European aquariums don't have to feel bad about seeing them there. These animals will experience a massive drop in care and are very likely to die in a substandard facility because the facilities that used to care for them are being bombarded with bad press - and caving to it. It's disgusting. It's the opposite of animal welfare. And this is touted as a victory every time another exhibit closes down and sends the animals elsewhere (not to a sea pen, of course. It's never a sea pen. Because sea pens are a fucking nightmare to fund but activists are never going to admit that).

So yeah, good on SOS Dolfijn for being back in action. God knows places that don't have cetacean rescues set up for long-term care (like New Zealand) turn into euthanasia hellholes for stranded animals. All while acting morally superior about it? I'll never, ever understand this emotionally-charged anthropomorphizing shit.

Hi! Given your experience working with marine mammals and intelligent views on cetacean captivity, I wanted to ponder the following. Here in the Netherlands is a cetacean (mostly porpoise) rescue organisation. After years of having no facilities, and having a 100% kill policy unless a porpoise could be returned straight away, they finally have a gorgeous rescue facility again.

Recently they announced the facility would be getting an outdoor expansion, featuring habitats emulating the Wadden Sea ecosystem. Providing both education about its inhabitants, as well as a place for late-stage rehab porpoises to spend their last weeks before release outside, in a larger habitat. And, in case an animal is non-releasable, provide an adequate space to hold them for while while next steps are being assessed.

The response was overwhelmingly negative. Most of their following is cetacean-smitten, but completely anti-cap (of the emotional, uninformed type). They all bristled at the idea that perhaps a few sharks and seals would be kept there "and then you'd be no better than a zoo!" (which is of course the worst thing to be). But mostly: the amount of people saying they would honestly rather see a non-releasable porpoise killed, because death is preferable to spending a single day in captivity ("because that is what I would want"), is frankly staggering. What do you say to these people??? A rescue facility is getting a beautiful outdoor expansion - GREAT! How can someone claim to love the animals so much when they would rather see them dead than in a situation that makes them personally uncomfortable? It just boggles my mind and frustrates me to no end.

Tl;dr: people want rescued porpoises dead because they might end up in captivity, and have you found an appropriate response to this ridiculous line of thinking?

Wow that's really amazing that the Netherlands is stepping up like that! It sounds like a great option for rehab and also to provide much needed education about porpoises to the public.

Honestly my response to those people is pretty much what you said: "Why do you want to see these animals dead just because it makes you personally unhappy to see them in human care?"

I think it's important to call out these comments as what they are: advocating for the death of animals. It's not noble, it's people projecting their own guilt complexes (of something they have no control) over onto animals.

And that is what a lot of anti captivity propaganda relies on - shame and guilt. That's what I remember when I was starting to allow myself to learn more about SeaWorld after being so convinced by Blackfish for a long time. I felt a hollow shame feeling in my chest as if being curious about how killer whales are trained was somehow wrong or bad.

Activist marketing (especially The Dolphin Project and anything from Naomi Rose, Lori Marino and Ingrid Visser) is about making you feel bad for even considering going to marine parks or learning more about cetaceans in human care. As if it would genuinely make a difference on things like Taiji or improve the lives of the animals in any way (it won't and it looks like it's only making things worse at this point)

A lot of these activists have massive egos and savior complexes that are fed by this sort of marketing. As if their snarky comment on Facebook is going to make a difference.

At the end of the day, they're people that have to make zero personal sacrifice (going to a marine park is not a hard thing to do for them) to feel a sense of moral superiority. And that's very reinforcing and feels good.

If you calmly give them the facts about cetacean welfare in human care and tell them exactly what they're advocating for (death or poor welfare)- it may not change their mind (because that's not how our brains work) but it may convince the people reading the comment thread.

[rkart221]

Lyf's metamorphosis

This is an unstructured rant!! TW for lots of gore and unpleasant imagery

I think Lyf goes through a metamorphosis. While he survives the Bifrost and escapes the Yggdrasil system, he's hardly unscathed. Seeing the effects of the great old ones and directly staring into the eyes of Yog-Sothoth changes him in a way I think about often. I think he very much could've died, though due to the nature of his survival and the fact he is now rapidly travelling through the cosmos, with the knowledge of the great old ones, they keep him alive. He's insistently their unknowing vessel, subconsciously spreading their powers further and further into the galaxy. Anyway onto his metamorphosis. It starts off small. Mild headaches and aches of the body as his cells and skin struggle to compute with the sudden environment shift that happened on Midgard. Pains that only grow. I like to think being around him gives people headaches too. A sort of unexplainable crawl of the skin, an itch that doesn't go away. Taking inspiration from the Dunwich horror I like to imagine animals start to resent him, dogs growing aggressive in fear, rats and other urban animals fleeing weeks before he arrives. People start to associate him with the dread inducing call of a Whippoorwill.

After he leaves people tend to feel ill, falling sick, feeling like their insides are melting. Depending on how long they were around him it ranges from a mild headache to multiple organs shutting off as the aroma of his presence melts the body from the inside out. No matter what Lyf does he cannot stop what he causes, instead opting to keep travelling, only continuing the great old one's plan. Now on to his body. The headaches are constant, though sometimes they're weaker than other days, allowing him to think. Other days they're so bad he fears his brain will explode. Cracks start to form, his skin rotting and starting to fall off. Bald patches in his hair grow as the skin grows weaker. There's an unbearable itch beneath his skin that he's never able to get rid of no matter how hard he scratches. His bones ache, body sweats with thickening pale mucus, obviously he's sick, throwing up rather a lot. His sick is black and has the residue of oil, staining whatever surface it touches. Perhaps by occasion, eyes glance back, hidden in the inky black mucus.

Additionally taking inspiration from Wilbur Whatley, he gets the whole tendrils in the stomach thing. I like to think he binds them to still appear somewhat normal.

Whenever he gets cut or hurt by any nature it's healed. Despite his body rapidly trying to die he cannot, the old ones will not let him. The rotting is a reflection of his body unable to keep up with his mind. If he were to get a deep cut black tendrils would morph out of his skin, wrapping it air tight. Over the next few days it'll remain, slowly melting away his skin, bones, veins as it rebuilds whatever is hurt back from square one. If someone were to somehow get it away from his skin then they'd be met with a strong acid and a significant lack of skin underneath.

Anyway I wanna slowly explain all my Lyf lore because theres alot!! I think I'll just do unstructured rant posts like this, doubt anyone will care much but if anything it's useful to have all my information together :)!!!

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

tw // suicide mention

I saw your post about Vox committing suicide, and seeing as you are a fellow angst fan, would you care to elaborate? 👀

I would like to preface all my posts on headcanons related to psychology and mental illness with a disclaimer: diagnosing mental conditions, especially personality disorders, can be extremely challenging. It's a complicated process that relies heavily on a psychologist's interpretation of facts, making it susceptible to biases. Personality disorders cannot be diagnosed based on surface-level observations and are not just labels that we can assign to people like in the case of MBTI. Additionally, I am not a clinician with any expertise in diagnosing people. Therefore, the following post should not be taken as a reliable professional opinion. It's simply my interpretation of the internal mechanisms that may be responsible for the behavior of certain characters in my fan fiction. Furthermore, I want to make it clear that I have no intention of stigmatizing people with personality disorders by associating them with villains. A personality disorder does not determine someone's character or make them a bad person. Some characters may be evil because of the choices they make, not as a result of their mental conditions.

So, you probably know I headcanon Vox as suffering from NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder). People with NPD can experience something called narcissistic collapse. It is not a professional psychiatric term, but it's widely used to describe the situation when a narcissist's weaknesses and flaws are revealed to the outside world, and they can no longer uphold their perfect Self image. It might sound a little silly to someone who's never experienced it or even something fair, simply the truth winning out, the pathological deceiver finally being exposed. But let me tell you, this is genuinely a terrifying feeling. While experiencing it, people may act like wounded animals. They can exhibit anger outbursts, act impulsively, go into depressive episodes, and make various desperate attempts to rebuild their perfect Self that are usually harmful to others.

But sometimes, the revealed truth is so ugly that the image cannot be rebuilt. It can make people suicidal because they'd rather die than live as someone hated, since love and admiration are what keep them going. So, yeah, Vox did something terrible (can't tell you what for now but here you can get some idea), and the consequences for his reputation were so damaging and irreversible that he decided there's no point in living anymore if it means experiencing his own downfall from grace.

[sunny6677]

Celina Campbell! Artemis' creation, and the only resident of Artemis' Cabin./lh

Full Name: Celina S. Campbell.

Middle Name: Selene.

Age: 16-17. Around 18-19 at the end of the story.

Gender identity: She doesn't exactly know, but they know they don't feel any male aligned identity of any kind.

Sexuality: Aro-ace.

Pronouns: She/they.

They technically aren't a demi-god, but also kind of are at the same time? Artemis made her to have the same capabilities as her, but also made them very human-like, so it's more like they're almost some kind of different branch of a demi-god, or even a replica with a slight difference.

They don't technically have a race, seeing as Artemis made them from a few things she collected in the forest—so no race would apply to them. But Artemis is Greek, so you could count Celina as technically Greek.

They like being alone, having time to think to themself, and she also likes archery. On the other hand though, they tend to dislike men, warm weather, and getting lost while trying to do something (specifically hunting, or just going on a walk).

Likely on her back, there's a pale 'birth-mark' shaped like the moon.

They are very quiet, isolated, and tend to not give out much info about themself. She's very observant, easily confused, and not easily amused. They're more comfortable around people who arent men, but it's not like they'll foam at the mouth and get all pissy when around men. She can also assume things about others very easily, and has a bad habit of misinterpreting different things because they noticed something.

They like to practice archery, take walks or runs around the forest, and like trying to hunt.

I imagine she possibly become a Huntress of Artemis, or just a professional hunter if she lives? Again, I don't know which among the Twenty Heroes will possibly fucking die, but Celina is a likely candidate.

Her strengths are defintely their speed, and skill with their bow. But their weaknesses are their very small size, and letting their bitterness for certain people get the best of them sometimes.

I imagine her voice is very soft, but low, and has a slight Greek accent to it. Everything about her is 'moon-like'. Their hair is always described as having a natural glow, along with their teeth and their eyes, and they always appear to be lit up the most when the moon is out. They like to dress light academia style. And she's also partially deaf. They don't have any allergies, but they specifically don't like going out in severely warm weather because of how unenergized it makes her.

They speak both Greek and English, and a bit of French as well.

When she was 'born', Artemis cradled her in her arms, and decided to raise them, rather than give them to any human. Artemis and the Huntress' would always take care of them, and teach them different things. Though they had a specific part of the forest where she resided, which was basically her space, and Artemis (or the Hunters) would always come to visit her there. So they were used to nature since they were younger, and were always told one day, they'd be like the huntresses.

She tends to say 'It would be best' a lot, and also tends to be very quiet. Their birthday is June 29th. She has a minor fear of staying out for too long, but an absolute phobia of minotaurs due to the time they were attacked by one when they were little—though they can control their fear and fight one if needed. She has a good habit of noticing when somethings up, but a bad habit of refusing to talk about things when upset or assuming things. She usually shushes people too, and holds up her hand when she's going to speak or is asking to speak, and she has a good posture.

They were taught with high education as a child, though specifically on hunting. She's mainly interested in the cycle of the moon, wild animals, and nature. And has little sense of humor with how seriously she takes everything. She noticed emotions, and tries her best to handle them, but is a bit awkward or unhelpful sometimes—her advice when seeing different emotions is usually wise though. She'd very creative with different strategies, and also isolates themself when pissed off a bit too much. They're very introverted. They hate it when people won't take the hint that they wanna be alone, and are usually very calm most of the time. They don't know what a handshake is canonically. And her most prized item is a bow Artemis gave to her when she was younger—for them to practice archery and hunting.

She likes chamomile tea, and honey cakes if they have the opportunity to eat them—they usually eat meat from wild animals or drink water though. She always smells of the forest and even of dirt and water, she always contacts Artemis if a situation is REALLLYYYYY dire, and she has no bucket list whatsoever. They barely sleep at all, so they're usually always up very early in the morning, and somehow energized enough to be walking (they're a bit different from any mortal, and have a longer life span and a longer tolerance to hunger, thirst, and so on—and that applies for sleep deprivation too). She has no sports that they're interested in, and can shoot things with a bow from miles away. And anytime they do sleep, they always snore loudly and get into wild positions since they likely collapsed from exhaustion, but she is also easily woken up and will go into hunter mode if she feels a threat is near (they've almost hurt people when they've been woken up like five times).

She mainly values Artemis, and the hunt above anything else. And believes that life without the company or any connection to a man is better off for her—likely due to how they were raised. They aren't exactly tuned to politics in real life, so they don't know much about it. She perceives herself as one who must fulfill a greater purpose, or become a great hunter. And is more realistic than pessimistic or optimistic.

Her main motivation is to become a huntress, or manage to finally become one since it was promised to them. They believe there is always a way out of things if you strategize enough (due to the minotaur they fought, and while it did attack them, they managed to defeat it on their own due to strategy and having a bow on them—but got close to death many times during the fight). Her deepest dream would be to have a constellation in honor of them up in the stars, though they feel guilty about this for some reason and suppress it. And they have the goal to one day be a good enough hunter without needing any help or more practice.

Her deepest fear would be to somehow lose Artemis, or be abandoned by the hunters & Artemis. They have the inner conflict of not letting themself live the dreams they want because they feel guilt for it, and they have the external conflict of one of the huntresses going missing. She regrets a moment in the past where they let their pride get the best of them after they let a beast get away, and yelled at Artemis—which was met with a scolding, and them regretting it after a few hours and apologizing to her. Their deepest desire would be to make everyone part of the huntresses proud of her, especially Artemis. They deal with the external pressures of one of the Huntresses trying to look after them a bit too much and unintentionally not letting them do things on their own that much.

She's deeply insecure about if Artemis will ever forgive them for all the times their pride got in the way, even though she likely already has and still forgives them. Their greatest joy is the huntresses and being within the wild. And their worst nightmare would be losing the huntresses, or letting one of them get hurt or even somehow die. Celina likely does live on to become an immortal huntress, or she refuses it, and decides they'd like to live among regular mortals instead.

Their best friend would be Sunny surprisingly, and they even see Sunny as their sibling and know them the best. And Celina doesn't have many friends, but likely befriends Amoria at some point? Unsure. She also has a close dynamic with Artemis, but there are some slight issues between them every now and then.

Celina's abilities involve:

Being able to make the moonlight brighter, being very fucking fast and easily sneaking up on people, camouflage, being able to shoot basically anything or anyone no matter where they are, summoning their bow at times, being able to talk to or call to different animals—or even intimidate them into following their orders, knowing the route or areas of any forest they walk into once they step inside, telepathy, etc etc.

[marshmallowprotection]

Rika says that she didn't want Sally to go through the procedure for her eyes because it wasn't natural (which may be worse than being too prideful to get outside help depending on how you feel about it. I personally don't like it.) but she later regrets her decision and claims Sally "must of been so miserable she wanted to end her life". While I knew she projected a lot onto Sally I didn't really realize how much until this line. There are plenty of blind pets living comfortably decent lives. The dog more likely either smelled or heard something on the other side of the road and wanted to chase it but Rika jumped to blaming herself for making the dog miserable. Trust me when I say if an animal doesn't like you *they will let you know*. Sally wouldn't have protected her and stayed with her if she didn't. It makes me sad that she thinks everything hates her so much that they'd rather die :(

It also reminds me of how much Jumin projects onto Elizabeth. Jumin projects Rika onto Elizabeth and then Rika projects onto Sally. It's an interesting parallel.

It's neglectful and sad no matter how we slice it. Sally adored Rika, and that puppy was there for her from day one, barking and growling at her abusers to protect her from harm. I don't think Sally was ever miserable as her eyes continued to deteriorate, but that's my opinion, and that's 100% because Rika wholeheartedly believes by that point in her life that people would rather be gone from this world than stay with her.

The "it's not natural" comment does line up with the fact that she outright said "I'll get some vitamins and herbs for the believers" in those seasonal chats while Ray retorted, "No, I'll get more masks for the believers, my Savior." To be fair, those chats were user-created, but the fact that Cheritz approved it more or less leans into the fact that she'd say something like that.

It's possible that this view of hers could be tangled with her being too prideful, meaning that not only is she making a poor decision, but it's a decision that could be changed if she simply looked around and did the right thing as opposed to sticking her head in the sand. Rika, you could do better but you always choose to do worse.

Sally, Jihyun, and Mika were the only ones to get a view full of who Rika is as a person, and they all had a piece of a puzzle that couldn't come together because Rika was afraid of being genuine. She was so afraid of being herself that she felt like she had to split her innermost thoughts filled with intrusive thoughts and paranoia away from what she projected to the public to get them to like her as an angel instead of the devil she feared she was.

The fact that she convinced herself that Sally was miserable and wanted to get away from her is a reflection of just how bad her view of herself was at the time and how far she'd fallen into anguish. The only thing she could imagine about her life was that the people who knew the truth about her "devil" would do anything to get away from her, even disappear from this world.

When, that was never the case, Sally would've stayed with her until she died of old age and I've got no doubt about that. That dog was there for her through the most traumatic moments of her life and then some, and that dog wouldn't have left her until her body said it was time to cross the bridge and rest.

I do think Jumin projecting onto Elizabeth is also something of note, because his feelings of isolation and misery only come through when he speaks about Elizabeth. I want to rattle Jumin Han because he is a man aware of his privilege but at the same time, he denies himself all the right to say his life isn't perfect. He's the one trapped in a cage of societal and family standing, forced to keep a steady head and never complain once about what's been done to him by greedy, disgusting people.

"I was kidnapped a few times. It is of no concern, however, it merely happens. This clearly isn't normal but it happens to people such as myself all the time. I will not proceed to shrug and pretend it wasn't traumatic because what place do I have to complain as a wealthy man?"

"Women have harassed me my entire time, not just women who want to get into my pockets as an adult man, but women who had impure and disgusting thoughts about me as a young, helpless child. These experiences have made me wary of most people, but still, nevertheless, I march on. So, I will now proceed never to unpack this unless you play my route or Zen's Route."

"Yeah, my father and mother think of me as a robot without feelings, merely a cog in a machine. This upsets me deeply and while it is one of the FEW things I ask people not to do, I don't complain as much as I should to stop my friends from saying so."

He's able to face these demons in his route, but Elizabeth was only miserable because of his suffocation at the height of his mistakes. She adores Jumin and the love he gives her, and she is treated with the utmost care. But, in his route, he projected that onto her and it led to her being overwhelmed, stressed out, and desperate enough to run away. Not because she didn't care for her human, but because he caged her happiness, just as he caged himself in a box he never should've been in.

[riderofblackdragons]

A Threat No Longer

Day 5: Sunburn | healing salve | heatstroke | "if my pain will stretch that far"

Once again, posting rather late in my timezone, but this time, I bring more An Original Mother AU! I didn't really know what I was going to do for this day, but then I realised it was a great prompt for AOM, so here it is!

Hope you enjoy!

It was after they'd settled with the De Martels that Elijah finally let herself feel again. The pain and anger that had come with her Turning, with her parents being the ones to give her this extreme craving to eat and to kill. To feel the guilt that had come after she'd killed Tatia, the love of her life, when Elijah's wife had only tried to help her.

All the hurt that Elijah was feeling, knowing that her baby, her little girl that she'd been so excited for, that she and Garmr and Tatia had spent so long planning for… That she was dead. Her little girl hadn't even breathed before she was dead, had died before leaving Elijah's body.

Elijah's parents had made her like this, a monster, who'd managed to kill both her wife and her child, one before she was even born. And then Elijah had fled, unable to face her husband or child in the eyes, unable to tell them the truth of what had happened.

Yet still, she couldn't stop craving blood. The sweet taste of Tatia's lifeforce stayed with Elijah, lingered on her tongue, even though it had almost been a year since she'd had it. Every other drop was lacking in comparison, and still Elijah kept drinking it anyways.

Her siblings didn't seem to have that problem, she begrudgingly noted. Kol and Klaus enjoyed draining other people of their blood, and Rebekah was only tempered by the way she wanted to steal the pretty clothes off their victims.

Finn didn't, but he was almost worse. Elijah heard his rants on how they were monsters, and she'd think of her deceased child. He spat about how they should feel bad about killing people, and Elijah's mind would flash back to how she'd sunk her teeth into her wife's neck.

Elijah's older brother never seemed to notice how the only person his words affected was his dark haired sister, or how she visibly drew into herself whenever she'd hear his words of condemnation. All he saw was the way his other siblings didn't listen, and how they blatantly disregarded him.

At least, Elijah had found a friend in the De Martels. Tristan, barely a year older than her, and they may require a chaperone to be around each other, but Elijah found herself not minding as much. Any attempts from him to court her were rebuffed by her new status as widow, yet he kept an open view on her opinions, even teaching her to read from time to time.

Of course, it helped that their chaperone was usually Finn, who was also not quite the best at reading. Their cover required that he not reveal it, but it felt nice to read together in the evenings, Elijah helping Finn with his books.

It was on one of many outings with Tristan De Martel that he broached the subject, Finn trailing after them as always. How did her partner die?

"It was an animal attack," Elijah told him softly, her mind wandering back.

It wasn't a lie, yet also wasn't the truth. She'd been nothing but an animal when she'd killed Tatia, slave to her new instincts. And Tatia had certainly looked like she'd been mauled, once Elijah had regained her senses afterwards.

Tristan gave his apologies for her loss, but they rung hollow. He was her friend, but Elijah wasn't blind. She knew that he still wanted to court, was only waiting for Elijah's mourning period to end. His sister Aurora had revealed it slyly, when she'd been teaching Elijah more elaborate hairstyles than the plain ones Elijah could fix her hair into.

Finn had promised that he wouldn't make any decisions without her input, however. He was the head of their family now, with their father far away from them. He would be the one to arrange and broker any marriage of Elijah's or Rebekah's, especially in this high society the De Martels lived in.

"Would you ever plan on marrying again?" Tristan's voice was teasing, but underneath it ran a current of fear.

He didn't want her to answer in the negative. He was scared that Elijah would say no, that her grief for her wife was too strong to ever consider marrying again. Even if he wasn't aware that she was only mourning for a wife, Elijah wasn't going to reveal it.

She'd heard of her father going after the wolfpack of Klaus' father, and Garmr was their leader's nephew. Mikael had done it after his children had ran, but Elijah knew how to connect the dots. She knew she was more than likely a true widow, with no survivng spouses or children, given that the abilities her father had given her made her far faster than any of the wolves had been.

"If my pain will stretch that far, I may not," Elijah responded honestly.

She wasn't planning on ever marrying him, however. With how Klaus and Kol were draining the servants, they'd have to move on soon, lest people come after them for it, or their father found them through it. It wouldn't be enough time to let her get over her grief in time for a wedding ceremony.

And, in what remained of her monsterous heart, Elijah felt pity for her friend. He didn't deserve the hell that being hers would bring him, and she felt he didn't deserve the false hope.

A few hundred years later, staring at the arrogant expression of her once friend as he revealed himself as the new leader of the Strix, Elijah wished she'd killed him when she'd learned he was the one to summon her father to his castle. Clearly letting him live, giving him her blood, had been a mistake.

Tag List: @captain-effy @what-the-fuckis-happening

If anyone wants to be added lmk!

[thessalian]

Thess vs TLOVM S3, Ep 7

Okay. I have a vague idea of what happens, if not when. (And honestly, I think a few of my guesses have been confirmed, judging by some of the ... opinions I may have tripped over.) And I'm not in as bad a state as I was last week - I'm tired and in a lot of pain, but at least less relentlessly depressed. So I think I can handle this. Not looking forward to it, though. Well, I am, but also I'm not. It'll come up in the liveblog.

Wait. Where is this? This isn't Emon or points surrounding...

BABY RIPLEY?!?

You are not about to make me feel bad for Ripley. Not after what I've been avoiding all week. You. Are. NOT.

The Assembly. As in the Cerberus Assembly? They're in Wildemount?

Aaaaaaaand they've always been dicks. Great.

Kimiko Glenn... Who she? Hazbin Hotel, Star Trek: Lower Decks ... Peni Parker, the D.Va of the Spiderverse?!? ...Okay, okay, I'm getting off IMDB.

Whaaaaaat the fuuuuuuuuck?

Wait - is that young Trent Ikithon?!? And voiced by ... yeah, that is Mark Strong. Well, when they put up the cast listings for the Mighty Nein animated series, I will be looking for his name beside Trent Ikithon, not just "Assembly Mage".

Well, that explains a lot about why she wants a bunch of people to have guns... Though clearly she's never got the idea of Heat Metal as a spell. ...Oooh. That gives me an evil idea for the one gun-using member of my current party. Because heat plus black powder equals... Yeah.

I ... guess we know where all the coin she stole from Umbrasyl's hoard went... What the fuck is that?

Man. Those hatchlings fucked Whitestone up.

Aaaaaaaah so we're looking at a whole bunch of meanings for cloak and dagger. Look at the cloak moving, don't see where the dagger lands. So I guess whatever Ripley built uses a lot of residuum. ...Maybe she's needing that as a power source, the way the Briarwoods were using it, since she doesn't have the Plate and never did?

Can we all say, "Trap", ladies and gentlemen? Can we also say that our hearts damn well hurt at the name Glintshore? (Though apparently it's going to end up worse this time...)

The things those two say without words...

Yeah, Scanlan, the thing about Dr Dranzel's travelling troupe is that they ... you know ... travel? Maybe ask the barman if they said anything about where they'd go next? Rather than ... like ... giving up?

THIS IS GOING TO BE EVEN MORE PAINFUL LATER.

They what?!? ...Yeah, Pike, you have been spending too much time with Scanlan.

Isn't it nice that Vax's wings don't have that one-hour limit? (I mean, speaking as someone who plays a character who kind of got gifted permanent wings, now I have the envy that Vax can put the fucking things away when necessary, but y'know. My girl's not endebted to a death-god.)

I am not going to consider the speed of flight or look up a map of how far Glintshore is from any nearby coast from Whitestone. I am not. I am not. I am not. WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF...

"I'll ancient ruin your--" Grog, what does that even mean?

Percy, I know you really want to have this out, but ... yeah. You're in the middle of a mission. How much do you actually expect to die? Or is this just the narrative trying to make sure we understand what's about to happen?

"Why don't you explode your own breakfast?!?"

Pike, let the man have his moment.

...Okay, that shot was fire. And so was that. They did some art in the animation.

YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET THAT, VEX.

Pike, please... We don't need another Scanlan.

Oooooh boy.

This is going to be made of flashback. I-- OH SHIT.

Okay, that gas has got to be some kind of hallucinogen.

Please blow this place up later. Please? I HATE IT.

Ah. Delirium gas-- THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO TELL HIM, RIPLEY.

Because he wanted to be a clockmaker, bitch.

Ripley, you really haven't learned not to trust that man, have you. So much 'insight' from Orthax and you haven't learned he's got something up his sleeve at all times? Or on his hand, which you are now shaking?!?

Oh gods, this is so much worse than Glintshore in the campaign...

Wait. Is she okay now?!? What the fuck? What is Pike, exactly, in this series?

Yeah, dude's a better shot than you, Random Guy.

What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck...?

Okay, what is up with Pike's blood?

...Oh, come oooooooon, Grog has more than that as a fear. Really?!?

"Did I hurt you again?" LIKE THAT, YEAH. That's got to be worth more as a delirium focus than a fucking library.

Okay, the new take on Orthax is like Venom and I am fucking here for it. Except where I'm not because Orthax is an asshole.

OOF. Please let that have at least destroyed the fucking guns. Even most of the fucking guns.

Oh. He prepped for that. Buuuut ... maybe you shouldn't have taken that out yet.

...I hate to say this, because I believe in mercy, but I preferred "I forgive you, but I cannot let you leave"...

Echoing her father is not going to help you here and she's using your own playbook...

...Fuck.

Okay, I need the soundtrack now because as awful as the circumstances are, the song is beautiful. And that last line is very poignant given that this is one of the really big deviations from the campaign.

Okay, who wrote this? Eugene Son, who's been on the team before, and ... Marisha?!? MARISHA writes too?!?

EDIT: The S3 OST is now on Spotify and I knew that voice was familiar, but a lot of times a singing voice is different. That's Matt Mercer. World-building, DMing, acting, and the man sings? This whole bunch is full of people who fall into the @seananmcguire category of "I would envy them for their many, many talents if they weren't such lovely people".

Yeah. Yeah, no, not dealing with a fucking funeral for my favourite character tonight. Because Percy is. While I loved them all, Percy resonated with me in a lot of ways. His arc was a thing I needed, I guess. In the end, it was about getting better. It was about healing. And I'd done a lot of healing myself by the time I started watching Critical Role, so watching it happen to someone who had it so much worse... Percy reminded me that however dark things get, you can find joy ... if you look for it. And if you don't have the strength to look for it ... let those who love you bring it to you. So ... yeah. I couldn't watch until I knew that the character who reminded me that going through so much doesn't mean you can never come back to happiness was going to get his happily-ever-after, somehow.

Great. Now I hurt, and can't sleep.

[hugintheraven]

Just saw Last Voyage of the Demeter

(spoilers below a cut, TW list below the cut as well)

Ugh. I was not a fan. For context, I absolutely love the Demeter chapter of Dracula and consider it a highlight of the book, so I had high expectations.

But this was basically not even the same story. The Demeter section of the novel is very much about the mystery and the inevitability, sailors vanishing into the night. And while we know what's happening, the crew has no idea, so their actions are basically random flailing, for good or ill. And we know, the ship arrives empty, crew dead, captain a corpse tied to the wheel. So the question is how, how did we get to that point?

In this, the monster is much more present and visible, which makes for a fast-paced action-horror movie that's entirely a different tone. And that would be fine(maybe not for me), except they set things up so the inevitability is still a thing. It's like they had no clue how to make things scary, so they applied modern rules about protagonists to the existing story, with no idea why that doesn't work. And I agree they needed to expand the cast(the chapter has all of 3 characters), but they didn't think about what sort of characters would let them preserve the tone.

It's just bad. The pacing isn't there, the monster design was clever but not scary, I expected most things that happened...not worth seeing.

First off, TW: Animal death(including a dog), child death, blood and gore(not as bad as many horror films, but lots of close-ups of open wounds), period-typical racism and sexism(it's over fast but it's a thing), suicide.

Spoilery complaints:

The point of the original is that the entire crew dies over the journey. There was no chance for them, Dracula needed almost every one of his MREs. The captain ties himself to the wheel so that he can be sure his ship will make it, because he doesn't know that his cargo is dangerous. In the book(not Daily), it opens with the ship empty, so we know they're all doomed, and the sailors realizing that is the fulfillment of that promise

This movie, they only lose 5 people out of 10 before the climax. No one is ever alone on the boat with no hope left. The whole "tied to the wheel" scene is completely wrong. But they still open with the empty ship for some reason.

And maybe that just sounds like a book fanboy ranting, but...it's not really replaced with any horror. They plan a violent last stand against Dracula and we KNOW they all die and don't sink the ship, because that's how the movie opens, but it's not paced like they're all dead from the beginning. They're treated like they have a chance.

Early on, while people are vanishing, we regularly see Dracula, while people have no clue. Which would be good(we all know it's a Dracula movie, after all), but it's not really used for anything. We get to see that this is more Nosferatu than Lestat, but...it's not used to heighten tension, really. We can't get invested in the characters saying "what happened" because we know what happened, but we also can't lord our knowledge over them since we aren't given enough knowledge to know "oh, that's the wrong call buddy" during particularly bad sequences.

And then the doctor survives. (if they'd had Anna attack him in the end before dying rather than suicide, without us seeing the resolution, maybe there'd have been some tension before the ending scene, but nope.) Which is both a major change and completely pointless, since he's clearly dead 10 seconds after the credits roll anyways. And don't get me started on his little "you feel fear" speech.

Actually, do get me started, since I think it's the core of the problem. That's a speech a modern protagonist gives. It's cool, it's correct, it's completely wrong for the tone. If he'd died right after, sure, then it's a cool moment. But he lives. Because audiences need a hero, right?

IDK, I get that they would have to make some changes. But it felt like house flippers, coming in and deleting anything interesting in favor of whatever is the current standard. And that's just not worth watching IMO.

[whereistheonepiece]

I keep thinking about some anti fandom OC person I saw. Luckily I don't see this sentiment often, but I do know this person had a lot of people who agree with them, and their argument reminds me of an opinion a high school friend had.

So their argument was you shouldn't make an OC for the fandom you like. You should make your own series with its own characters. It reminds me of a high school friend who was against fanfiction for the very same reason... Until he ended up changing his mind and writing a fanfic of his favorite character from his favorite cartoon getting buff and getting together with a character he shipped him with. Funny how that works.

Anyway, I've been turning this thought around in my head. A lot of people in fandom will say the fanfic argument is stupid and unreasonable, but will agree with the fandom OC thing.

Why? Probably because OCs are "cringe" and inaccessible. Some people haven't gotten past the Mary Sue/Gary Stu/Marty Stu discourse (although let's be real here - it's mostly Mary Sue discourse) that somehow refuses to die. They see an OC and think they're all Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way. But you know, I think we need to let go of the fear of overpowered and super special unique OCs in certain fandoms, like cartoons and anime and certain genres. We are not dealing with realism in these instances, where overpowered and super special unique characters abound. Also I think, for the most part (unless the OC creator invites it), it's kind of frowned upon to treat a smaller creator's OC as your own character, with headcanons and projecting yourself onto them. It's not good form to treat a smaller creator's OC like your doll, like we all do with our blorbos. (Where the limit is, I don't know. It's something I've been turning around in my head for years.) I have seen several people say they'd rather read a self insert OC fic than a fic with a regular fandom OC. Why get to know a new character you assume is going to be poorly written when you can project your qualities and interests onto a barely there avatar?

And like. If we're going to argue we should make our own characters, because the series we create fic and art for are not our intellectual property, I think we should take this argument to its logical conclusion. Why are we creating art for our fandoms at all, be it fanfic or fanart. After all, it's not our series that we created. And all of us have ideas and interpretations for characters that are odds with the creator's original vision by virtue of us being completely separate people, never mind headcanons and AUs that are often completely at odds with canon portrayal. We all do it, don't lie. And even if you can argue a piece of fanfic or fanart, aka transformative art, is completely in line with canon and the creator's vision, why don't you just create your own world and characters, hm?

And on the "official" side of things, why do we have so many reboots and reimaginings and spinoffs of legacy properties? Think Scooby Doo, TMNT, comic books, sequels to movies that came out decades ago, anything with Star in the title. If it's not being helmed by the original creator (or maybe with their input and blessing, but I'm not feeling very generous because the original argument isn't), that's just someone playing with characters and a world they didn't create. Is it okay because it's done by professionals for profit?

Probably.

Anyway. People create fanart and fanfic because the original work has moved them in some way, good or bad. I just think we should extend that level of understanding to people who want to create OCs for their favorite fandoms.

[leviathans-watching]

Hiiii yaahh!!!

May I request an HC for the demon bros with a MC coming home broken hearted. I would like this to be platonic and as much as possible if the bois don't overreact to the point that they hunt down the person who did that to MC.

Thank youuu<3

the brothers' comforting a heartbroken mc

includes: the brothers & gn!reader

wc: .7k | rated t | m.list

warnings: cursing, mentions of tears, implied breakup/rejection/heartbreak

a/n: hello! i hope you enjoy!! this req was sweet & sad to write and i think they'd all be really good at comforting mc. my reqs are open, so feel free to drop in my inbox for that, to leave feedback, or just to talk with me :3

please please please reblog

➳ lucifer looks up from his work when he hears the door to his study open. “oh, mc,” he says, “how’d it g-” the words die on his lips when he sees the crestfallen look on your face, the way you’re biting your lip. something bad has happened, and it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, especially since you had told him you were going to be with the person you liked. “i’m sorry,” he says after a moment, sincere. he knows you had liked them a lot. “do you wish to talk about it? if not, that’s totally fine too.”

➳ mammon swoops you into a big hug when he sees your glassy eyes. “’m sorry,” he says, doing his best to infuse you with warmth. “heartbreak is never easy, and believe me, i know.” he can’t count the times he’s come home and wished someone was there to console him, which is why he hadn’t hesitated when seeing you. “yer amazin’ and anyone who can’t see that is a royal idiot.” you wrap your arms around him and hold mammon there, and he’s more than happy to stay for as long as you need.

➳ levi had had high hopes for you, thinking about how similar the love story could be to one of his mangas or games, but when you come home sad, instead of elated, he knows it hadn’t gone well. “hey,” he says, a little unsurely. he’s not really used to comforting people. “want to go to my room and watch a horror movie or something? i have lots of snacks to share. i’ll even let you pick the game we play afterward,” he tacks on hopefully. you take his outstretched hand, gratitude clear on your face, and levi resolves to do the best he can to make you feel better.

➳ satan brings out his special tea blend, sitting you down on one of the plush couches in his room. he has to clear away a few books to do so, but he had you comfortable within a few minutes. “do you want to tell me what happened?” he asks gently. it was times like this he really wished he had a cat! they were great comfort animals! “i’m always willing to lend a listening ear, you know that. but if you’d rather not, i can read you some of this book i’m reading. it’s about a scorned lover who gets revenge.” he pauses. “maybe i’ll choose a different book, actually.”

➳ asmo can’t believe someone would ever dare to break your heart! you’re the most awesome person he knows, besides himself, that is. “you were too good for them anyway,” he says, settling you into his styling chair. this calls for some facemasks and ice cream, and he has both of those, thanks to the minifridge he’d recently bought. “seriously,” he insists with a scowl. “the nerve of people these days! you’re a total catch.” you don’t seem all that consoled by his words, but he knows things like this just take time to recover from.

➳ beel usually isn’t angry, but right now he is. how could someone put this expression on your face? what could they have done to make you feel like this? “oh, mc,” he says, catching you by the elbow. you press your lips together to stop the tears and beel’s heart wrenches. “c’mon,” he says, carefully leading you to the kitchen. “i’m pretty sure we have some cookie dough left, and that always helps when i’m feeling low.” his mind is already set to thinking about other comfort foods he can make to help cheer you up.

➳ belphie widens his eyes upon seeing you, quickly jumping up. “mc, are you okay?” he asks. you had been in such good spirits earlier, setting off on a date with- oh, that asshole. “come here,” he says, pulling you back to his bed. “what’s wrong? did they do something to you?” you shake your head quickly, and some of his panic eases, but he’s still really concerned. you usually bounce back quickly, so you must be really upset. he’s never been the best at making people feel better but he’s going to try his hardest for you.

leviathans-watching's work - please do not copy, repost, or claim as your own

[trashyslashers]

Hello! Could I get a match-up? My name is Salem, and I would prefer a slasher if I could! I'm a She/Her bisexual (i have no preference on gender). I'm very tall (6'1) and I have fluffy dark brown curly hair that is usually a longer style pixie cut. Basically physically i am the big tiddy goth gf stereotype. I dress very alternative, mostly black with graphic movie tees. And obviously you have to have the eyeliner haha.

My personality is very reserved with people I don't know, but I try to be friendly with everyone I meet although many times i am suspicious of people as well. I am very sarcastic (and I dare say dirty minded) at times, and I love making jokes and seeing people laugh. I am somewhat people motivated, so whenever I find someone I like I will become very involved with said person. I also can be a bit protective over those I love. I can be a bit cold because I dont see things the same way as others. And I have a logical view of the world and those around me. My MBTI is also INTP

I'm a bit of a fanatic about movies (and really only become animated when talking about them) and I also adore animals of any kind. I love to draw digitally and irl, and plan on making a graphic novel someday. My love language is giving gifts and cuddling.

Thank you so much!!

I think you would capture the heart of Bubba Sawyer!

For starters, while it's not exactly the same as yours, Bubba also has curly, fluffy hair! He loves that your hair is almost like his own, and I can see him being a very tactile person when it comes to his partner, so he'll often play with your curls if you let him (and he's very gentle with you).

Bubba is very similar to you in the sense that when he finds someone he likes, he wants to become very involved with them. He grew up with his brothers and is used to a tight-knit, close, family dynamic, so that absolutely extends to his significant other. The fact that this is mutual makes him feel so giddy!

Because Bubba unfortunately does much, if not most, of the heavy lifting and "messy" work around the Sawyer residence, there are days where the two of you won't see each other as much as you'd like to. One of his favorite things to do when returning to you after a long day is to pull you into his arms (he's still taller than you! He can, and will, tuck you right against him) so the two of you can cuddle the stress and aches of the day away.

Bubba tends to get extremely anxious and sometimes downright afraid on his bad days, and unfortunately none of his brothers really help him calm down. Your logical approach to situations, as well as him and his brothers, actually helps a lot as you can reassure him in a way his brothers either can't, or won't.

Speaking of his brothers, I think Nubbins and Chop Top would like you quite a bit! While Drayton may not exactly love your sarcastic sense of humor, Chop Top and Nubbins sure as hell love your sarcastic and dirty-minded jokes. The fact that you're protective of those you love means that you'll fit in well with them, as the Sawyers tend to be protective of their own (though Bubba would rather die than have you put in any sort of dangerous situation where you have to protect him, and/or his brothers!).

Bubba would give you any gifts he could that he thought you'd like: jewelry from victims, little trinkets he either made himself or found (tooth bracelet, anyone? Though if you preferred something less morbid, how about one of buttons?), and so on. If any art supplies were found in the belongings of a trespasser, they'd most definitely go to you! But anything photography related goes to Nubbins, though. Sorry.

You and Bubba huddled up on the furniture with static-y movies on the old television set would quickly become an incredibly common sight in the house. Bubba doesn't mind you talking about the films while watching them, either - you could talk his ear off about random trivia related to the movie you were watching for its entirety and he wouldn't care one bit!

Thank you for the request, Salem - I hope it's to your liking!

[rphelperblog]

Jessica Jones Rp Meme

Part one- randomly chosen-Inspired by @brutalpunch - feel free to change pronouns or edit for rp purposes

"Would you put day drinking under experience or special abilities?"

"I don't flirt. I just say what I want."

"If you even touch me, I'll tell the world about you. There'll be nowhere to hide."

"Am I the only one left who doesn't know karate?"

"If you grab me like that again, I'll punch you so hard, you'll see."

"Well you can't let him live, he's too dangerous."

"Can you punch through a wall? Can you stop a moving car?"

"A slow moving car."

"You are a hard-drinking, short-fused, mess of a woman, but you are not a piece of shit."

"You look like an asshole."

"It's your scarf."

"Are those pork?"

"No, they're shrimp. Oh, this guy's got pork."

"God, your weird."

"Okay, you are the most full of shit lawyer I've ever met, and I think we should stop and appreciate the magnitude of that statement."

"Pain is always a surprise. I try to avoid landmines. Avoid caring. I can even see it coming. But until it hits, you have no idea what pain is."

"That quack that had me reciting street names from back home?"

"A proven method for managing PTSD."

"I could kill you right here and right now."

"But you won't, because you don't know what will happen when I die."

"Two hundred bucks for "Birch Street, Cobalt Lane, Bullshit Drive.""

"You look bad."

"I need money."

"You can have my TV."

"Thanks, Malcolm. You keep it."

"I stole it."

"Yeah and I'm gonna... gonna kill him but she just keeps getting in the way."

"Any other day you would have won this, it's your ribs isn't it?"

"You're on something, you're messed up."

"You could have killed him a dozen times, I'm just doing what has to be done, someone has to."

"I figured."

"You became a private eye."

"You've been keeping tabs on me?"

"Making sure you weren't dead, since you never called."

"In my line of work, you gotta know when to walk away. But some cases just won't let you go."

"It's people like you that give people like you a bad name."

"You're coming across as paranoid."

She's either an idiot in love, or she's being conned. Which amount to pretty much the same thing."

 "Everyone keeps saying that, it's like a conspiracy."

"I am not going to beg you for a case...I will ask you, though, VERY strongly."

"What are you doing in my apartment?"

"This is my apartment."

"Hard day at the office?"

"They're all hard."

"You're still the person who tried to do something."

"Tried and failed. That's what started this. I was never the hero that you wanted me to be."

"Pops always said, if you don't feel good going to work, you should find new work."

"God didn't do this. The Devil did. And I'm going to find him."

"They say everyone's born a hero. But if you let it, life will push you over the line until you're the villain. Problem is, you don't always know that you've crossed that line. Maybe it's enough that the world thinks I'm a hero."

"The big part of the job is looking for the worst in people. Turns out I excel at that. Clients hire me to find dirt. And I find it, which shouldn't surprise them, but it does."

"Looks like you stripped your screws."

"Knowing it's real means you gotta make a decision. One, keep denying it... "

"I just meant if...If he was on our side."

"What side would that be? The side that uses people? Treats them like animals? Just to throw them away like they're garbage? The side that rips your life apart and destroys you from the inside out? Whose side exactly would that be?"

"Do I look like I'm hiding? No. You wanna know why? Because no one wants to know. They want to feel safe. They'd rather call you crazy than admit that I can lift this car, or that I can melt your insides with my laser eyes... which won't leave a trace."

 "Wouldn't be the first time.”

"I don't give a bag of d*cks what kinky sh*t you're into. Just be into it quietly."

"I don't want to shoot you. He said it's not your time."

"You use sarcasm to distance people."

"You know somebody else like us?" "No. Not like us."

 "And yet you're still here."

"Knowing it's real means you gotta make a decision. One, keep denying it. Or two... do something about it."

"Rumors among my new partners? She has her sights on the mayor's office."

"Track, track, more track. Jesus, more track."

"A hero would have you locked up for soliciting murder. A vigilante would beat the shit out of you. Now which one am I?"

"This is my shocked face."

"You think you're the only ones who've lost people? You think you're the only ones with pain? You think you can take your sh*t and dump it on me? You don't get to do that! So you take your God damned pain and you live with it, assholes!"

"You should kill yourself."

"Probably. But I'm the only one that knows you're innocent."

"I know. It's yours. He said you left him there to die. You should have stayed to make sure."

"I hired a private investigator a while ago to start digging. She was worth every penny when she was sober."

"So he's mad. He wants to make me suffer."

"Mmm-hmm. Like he suffered."

"Got anything for me?"

"Thought you didn't like, or trust, me."

"Oh come on, I meant lawyers in general."

"Scumbag henchmen for corporate America."

"We just hired a full-time investigator."

"Whoever he is, he's not as good as me."

"Hence me having offered you the job, which you rejected."

"Wasn't personal, I just prefer a freelance; no ties."

"So you said - with an impressive string of expletives."

"Okay, is being drunk an excuse?"

"You know, it's really about professionalism. You are erratic and you are volatile..." "Effective."

"Every corner I turn, I don't know what's on the other side. I don't know who's on the other side. It could be the cabbie who's gonna drive me into the East River, okay? It could be the FedEx woman. It could be a talk show host who was my best friend."

"Are you a good jumper?"

"Why?"

"He made me jump... for hours, as high as I could. That was one of my events at school. Long jump. I was number two in the state. He said I was never as good as you."

"That accident didn't kill him, but he took a hit. I find his weakness, I find him."

"So you find him. Then what?"

"I don't know. I find him, I prove that girl's innocent, he goes away."

"Or he controls you again."

"I'll die before I let that happen."

"I've never done it with someone else who has, you know..."

"Gifts?"

"Yes, well, you are very gifted."

"Likewise."

"So just how unbreakable are you?"

"On a scale of "I don't know" to... "I'd rather not find out"?"

"So if I were to bite your finger with all of my considerable strength..."

"Depends on how considerable. So don't go getting any ideas about my extremities."

"Jewel is a stripper's name. A really slutty stripper, and if I wear that thing you're going to have to call me Camel Toe."

"Dart gun is accurate up to twenty feet."

"He'll always keep back to a wall, he'll see you coming."

"He won't see me."

"I'll take you out."

"I was going to say dartgun me but sure, shoot me in the head."

"Same here."

"You have often needed protection from your vagina."

"It's insane that that deranged murderer is teaching little kids."

"Insane. Sickening. Rage-inducing. [...] But we found what we needed upstate. We got him."

"All right. Been waiting to hear some good news. When they bringing him in?"

"Not soon enough." "We just keep eyes on him until then." "'We'? Dont you have a job?" "There is what I have to do to maintain a life, and what I want to do, and I need both to stay sane."

"You said your rebound chick took a shotgun at point-blank range pointed it under your chin, and pulled the trigger."

"I still get the occasional headache."

"You probably don't remember me, do you? Your girlfriend had me take care of you when you were brought into the hospital? In Hell's Kitchen?"

"That woman over in Hell's Kitchen snapped a man's neck because he was mind-controlling her."

"Oh my God, this is the dumbest."

"Let's go, Ironclad."

"It's Iron Fist."

"I know."

[princeescaluswords]

When Peter gets arrested, the agents or council inform Scott and Lydia they can both press charges (or however it might work in the werewolf society equivalent) and it gives Lydia in particular a bit of a surprise. They explain patiently that what he did to her was a disgusting violation.

I love this idea simply because it should remind your readers of a very salient fact: Peter Hale's (and Derek Hale's) behavior wasn't just damaging to Scott and Lydia (and his other victims), it was dangerous to all werewolves, everywhere.

The fandom makes an entire production of how terrible Scott was for even attempting to play lacrosse after he was bit, as if he should have been content to give up everything in his life to serve as a pawn in the drama of the Hale family. (It's always weird when I think of fandom's condemnation of Scott being stupid not to give up Allison and lacrosse the way the Hales want him to, when both Derek and Peter wanted him to give up Stiles as well.)

Remember what Derek said when he broke into Scott's house and assaulted him?

Derek: You shifted in front of them! If they find out what you are, they find out about me. About all of us. And then it's not just the hunters after us, it's everyone.

So, if there was a Werewolf Authority, what would they think of Peter Hale's murder spree? How many animal attacks happen in the middle of a video rental store? A school bus? At a high school during the Winter Formal? If Scott is to be punished for foolishly drawing attention to werewolves, what about Peter getting caught on camera?

The Werewolf Authority would wipe their brows and feel absolutely lucky that Lydia placed her own reputation first and didn't identify Peter Hale as her attacker to the police or that Stiles didn't tell his father everything after getting pissed off at Scott. They should be praising whichever wolf spirit they revere that Sheriff Stilinski holds his oaths in such contempt that he didn't think to expose the private war between werewolves and werewolf hunters to the national media!

How it went down would also depends on when the Werewolf Authority shows up. If they arrived in March rather than February, they'd have to deal with a second murder spree, as Derek Hale, Lord of Bad Decisions, bit a teenager he had pegged as an unstable narcissist and then abandoned him when he thought he was going to die, and his Beta killed nearly a dozen people. (You ever notice that Derek Apologists often fail to list Jackson the Murder Lizard among Derek's betas? I do.)

They would probably throw Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, and Stiles Stilinski a party for not going to the goddamn press. Especially Scott who could have picked up the phone and called Special Agent McCall and said "Dad, want to make it up to me that you abandoned me and mom? A stranger attacked me in the woods and is trying to make me join his murder cult!" How would the Werewolf Authority have handled that? Rafael might have been a shit dad, but he was a very good FBI agent.

Or Lydia might have realized she had an actionable case and sued Peter "Profoundly Disturbing Nightmares" Hale for $117 million dollars.

I would love to see a story where the Hales defend their behavior to the Werewolf Authority.

WA: You bit a teenager and just let him wander off?

Peter: I was out of my mind!

WA: Yet you were able to lure your sister across the entire United States and ambush an alpha werewolf without her being any wiser. That's pretty clever for someone who was out of his mind. You were also stable enough to teach a human nurse exactly what she needed to help you.

Derek: It was an accident. It happens.

WA: Oh, does it, Derek? So if it was an accident and Peter was simply a poor trauma victim, how come your eyes went freaking red? Are you confessing to murdering a helpless burn victim in order to gain power to attain your own vengeance by manipulating children.

Derek: I can if they're willing!

WA: I need a drink.

Some people may claim this as 'bad writing,' but we who have experienced the real world know that it is not. The world is filled with privileged white men who will take advantage of those weaker than themselves to get what they want. Derek and Peter used fear of exposure, shame, and raw power to force children into their service and then acted all hurt when those teenagers (and one teenager in particular) stood up and said: "No. I'm not going to play by your rules. You don't have the right to use us for your own wants."

The Hales are the Harvey Weinsteins of Werewolves. Yet there will always be defenders of predatory white men, always reasons why men like Peter and Derek get a free pass in order to hurt and damage others.

There wasn't a Werewolf authority in Teen Wolf. But there needed to be.

[mevekagvain]

Chapter 121 - I hope none of the birds affected by the sleeping gas died from falling from a height, especially if they fell on concrete. I don't think the gas itself would affect the birds but it also very well might since they can't handle as much due to being much smaller animals or from not being able to handle the chemicals used.

Chapter 122 - Shark's expressions are so hideous 🤢

- At least Raizel knows how to be nice by sharing food lmao. Frankenstein beaming like a proud father of a 2-year-old who's doing that is definitely not praxis though.

Chapter 124 - Shark being astounded that nobles care about innocents is amusing. I suppose that aside from the Elders, the Union members think nobles consider other species to be inferior or like cockroaches or toys.

- Although I do find Frankenstein plotting to teach Seira cooking so she can cook for Raizel when he can't extremely funny, I do also find it somewhat disturbing. He's essentially making a teen girl do child labour. Yes she and Regis are imposing on him and I do think they should be doing some manner of chores, but making her cook lavish meals? I also know she's doing it willingly but it still makes me cringe since something being one's choice doesn't negate it being bad. And yes technically she's 'of age' since she's 217, whatever that means since she's still obviously a teen compared to Raizel who actually is an adult going to school with children (which is a whole other can of worms), but aside from her position as clan leader she's very obviously not viewed as an adult by most.

Chapter 125 - On one hand I'd love to get a front row seat to the internal drama within the DA-5 lile M-21 but otoh I don't want to die a painful death or get beaten up.

- So like obviously Seira knows that Raizel and Frankenstein aren't ordinary humans unlike Regis but it is hilarious to think she just told the truth to two men she thinks are frail innocent humans.

Chapter 127 - You'd really think that the Union would be investing more into memory altering drugs but nah. The only ones they have will also fuck your brain up. Really not a good idea when most of your agents/experiments obviously have been administered aforementioned drugs. If it was only used sparingly on civilians I'd get it but it's quite widespread so...

Chapter 128 - As much as Frankenstein complains about the mess the kids make, he enjoys having them over as much as Raizel does. Soft hearted bastard.

Chapter 130 - The girls bandaging M-21 up even as Regis fights has them being smarter than like 90% of other characters in media. They're the real reason he didn't hit the dust immediately smh.

Chapter 132 - I still think the coming of age ceremony has a 50% chance of actually being them ingesting drugs that are the equivalent of stat boosting items in games but also ya know, real world drugs that fuck you up. The other 50% is just them getting much stronger after they turn 200 because their bodies are just like that and it truly is purely ceremonial and a fun tradition like children's day or girl's day or birthdays rather than something that actually affects them.

- Lol Kranz, Regis won't be leaving a corpse if he dies. Purebloods are just special like that. Can you imagine if they did see a pureblood dying? They'd regret killing them so bad.

Chapter 133 - Raizel commanding Frankenstein to stop his experiments is definitely something, like bro maybe he was figuring out electrolysis, not like you know what he was doing. Plus it's not like Frankenstein listened completely. Man has a lab under his house and it wasn't built after Raizel woke. I guess he only stopped modification experiements on others and only did checkups on himself but didn't stop experimenting for other stuff like idk, better fertiliser.

- Kinda amazing Takeo didn't get stabbed in the heart.

Chapter 137 - I know it's just because Gejutel likely explained the lord's powers to him but the idea that Regis knows what a blood field is because Raskreia does demonstrations to entertain little kids is making me giggle.

Chapter 140 - So the Union only came upon Frankenstein's research 540 years ago... that's only 40 years before Raskreia became lord. Interesting.

- Ah yes... the classic joke of Tao not teaching Takeo korean properly. It's also very amusing envisioning Tao teaching the DA-5 members korean.

- ARIS ARIS ARIS. God she looks adorbs. Also I love her referring to DA-5 as 'my children' and 'my babies'. Aris >>> all other scientists. Amd hi Yuri :)

Chapter 141 - Yuri listening to Aris insulting Crombel repeatedly,,, he probably enjoys every aspect of it from knowing she's not aware he's his underling to being able to hear someone insult Crombel.

- Once again union members don't know jack shit. They think werewolves are extinct while Maduke and Lunark are literally Elders 😭🤡😭

- Werewolves having a small population never made sense to me even with the whole thing about them not having mind control and thus keeping away from humans secretly since even civilians are stronger than humans on average but like why tf would wolves have such a low reproduction rate? And that's why I hc that 90% of them are just homosexual.

Chapter 142 - D doesn't consume your lifeforce bro. That's just the drugs causing heavy strain on the body, etc etc. The rest of your explanation was fine but talking about lifeforce or vitality makes no sense.

- We all know Yuri's smart but the fact that he tries to get Frankenstein as a subject by scouting him first is very clever. It's believable too since Frankenstein is supposed to be quite handsome.

Chapter 144 - Well we don't know of Crombel microchips his Assassination Squad but Aris canonically microchips her experiments 🤣

Chapter 147 - Okay but this panel... she's hot. I'd let her dissect me <3

- If this was some other media I'd talk about the symbolism of the attack looking like a rapier and go on for a paragraph but this is Noblesse so it's obviously just a coincidence lmao.

- "A living robot" so like... a cyborg.

Chapter 148 - Yuri getting pissed at being attacked and retaliating but pretending it was him being loyal to Aris... Love it. Also he must be really confused as to who tf Frankenstein is since as one of Crombel's most important lackeys he'd definitely know about such a powerful experiment under him if they existed and thus unlike Aris knows that he's not been sent by Crombel.

Chapter 149 - Yup def confused, especially when he realises Frankenstein's power is like Crombel's.

Chapter 150 - Girlboss,,, also it's been years and I'm still wondering... why is her outfit like that? Neon genesis evangelion girlboss does have a ring to it though.

- Ah yes, Taivra time.

Chapter 151 - Okay yeah I feel so bad for Takeo but also Aris is so good at manipulating him and and and iwi. The fact that she can cry on command though... impressive.

- "From the beginning you were an only child. That's why I got you to experiment on." Okay cool time to ignore that again for my own amusement of having all of noblesse's named modified human women be related to Takeo.

- Okay I'm obsessed with strawberry milk myself but strawberries do not taste anywhere near that good. Not even the sweet ones.

Chapter 153 - Yeah no I don't agree that Takeo losing his will to live is an insult to your comrades M-21. You could have said all that in a gentler way. Just because Takeo was luckier than you experiment wise doesn't mean you get to be so rude.

Chapter 154 - M-21 misleading Tao and Takeo to thinking he's being experimented on and then turning around to laugh at them when they find out it's just ramyeon... mood.

- I really do wonder what 12th Elder's military medals are for.

Sidenotes - Hammer being smart <3 I honestly didn't remember that part of him and I'm glad he's not given purely negative traits. He's the only reason Shark lived past 2 chapters tbh.

- Truly, D is one of the worst letters of the alphabet to have named the drugs DA-5 uses. The other bad choice would be P. On the opposite end of the spectrum, T would have been a great choice for the irony. Not that it matters since the inspiration for the drug from name to physical transformation is obviously 🍆

- Nobles being so nonchalant about murder is kinda fucked up like yeah they suck but you can't just kill them??? Lukedonia my beloved your justice system sucks. I do hc they can't just do this in Lukedonia though or to other nobles even if outside of Lukedonia, it's just that the jurisdiction of nobles doesn't apply outside of Lukedonia and they do on some level think of themselves as a superior species so they're fine with just... killing people.

- Aris obsessing over handsome men as experiments and treating them like toys but ignoring women altogether? Not experimenting on women? Gaslight gatekeep girlboss,,, a feministe of our own,,, perhaps even a... lesbienne. But yeah I just love how she acts and I love her and how she interacts with Yuri. And yeah he's cool too.

- Tbh aside from how short the skirts are and the white blazers, the Ye Ran uniform really reminds me of my own school's uniform. The colours are exactly the same. We just didn't have blazers since it was a forever summer tropical country, only jumpers for if it got too cold in the air conditioned rooms. And for some people who grow up in tropical countries... 25°C can be too cold.

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

"The truth is we're both frauds. Your ancestors didn't send me, they don't even like me. But you risked your life to save the people you love. I risked your life to help myself. At least you had good intentions.

What? What do you mean you're not lucky? You lied to me?

And what are you a sheep?

That's it! Dishonor, dishonor on your whole family! Make a note of this; dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow!

Of course. I'm travel sized for your connivence. If I was my real size your cow here would die of fright." (Mushu, Mulan.)

I feel like everybody has that one Disney side character that they'd fight for and for a lot of people that character is Mushu from Mulan. He became easily one of Disney's most popular side characters. Throughout much of my childhood spent in front of the television the ridiculous tiny dragon was there for me making me laugh and feel better. He became a hug part of who I am andI feel like I owe a lot to my favorite goofball on Disney history.

Only one other Disney side character I know their dialogue and every line that they have. Only one other one I quote regularly with my dad as well. We're saving that comfort character for next month though, so be on the lookout for that! (I'll give you a hint that hint is August 11th.) But anyways back to Mushu. Mushu to me is about light and humor in every bad situation. He's about making light jokes and having fun with Mulan. He's also about being genuinely kind in my personal opinion and has one of my favorite vulnerable moments out of any Disney character. That moment of him talking with Mulan on the rock about what they messed up with doing in life became one of my most memorable Disney moments.

Only one other Disney character manages to be both funny and vulnerable. Mushu manages to both make me laugh and feel bad for what he goes through regularly with the ancestors that he works for. Even though he messes up and makes mistake that's why he's perfect for Mulan. Two very imperfect people who have both struggled to find their place in the world found each other and learned from each other that being perfect isn't feasibly possible. They'd rather be screwups together than be apart from each other (we don't count the sequel. We don't speak of that in this house.) The emotional core of Mushu is what carries his character and my love for him is mostly built upon that emotional core.

Even though he's vulnerable though that doesn't decrease the funny. I can't tell you how many times I've quoted him with one of my best friends or with my parents it's something that has stuck with me because right when I started getting into Mushu was when I started laughing at word jokes rather than people getting their head hit with a mallet (thank you for that Pinky~). The most common one has been with my dad "Did I hear someone ask for a miracle? Let me hear you say I? AHH! That's close enough." Mushu to me is days spent referencing his lines for every situation. It's learning lines that I found hilarious to make myself laugh on my bad days. He brought me peace and reprieve when I was being bullied and put down right after I moved during school.

I'm about to give my followers a controversial hot take. You guys ready for it? Eddie Murphy as Mushu >>>>>>>>>>> Eddie Murphy as Donkey in Shrek. I actually hate Shrek. I never found it funny and his voice always felt low key out of place there. But I love him for Mushu. I think that voice fits his personality. Mushu's personality has to be fast talking, snarky, sometimes a bit dry, loud and brash, but have that sensitivity to him that makes his relatability to Mulan seem plausible. Eddie Murphy is one of my favorite actors and comedians. I think that comedians lend themselves better to animation than your traditional Hollywood dramatic actor. They led themselves to bigger reactions which can make the character more dynamic than the others.

To me Mushu is about laughter in terms of growing up. It's turning on the movie when all everyone around me did that day was put me down and tell me that I was just some weirdo who wouldn't make it anywhere. I related to that feeling of worthlessness and not being happy with that person that you are. But he still finds peace with the fact that he isn't like everyone else around him. He learns that he'd rather be himself than what the ancestors want him to be. For years I've wanted to get a tattoo of Mushu on my arm that says "I'm travel sized for your connivence." I grew up loving his character and through that I was able to accept that I was different but still be able to be happy with that weirdness and that different sense of humor.

[learning-to-think]

*comes back with cats pics to be forgiven*

Hi! My first week of internship was... something. It's amazing and the cat on the left lives there so there's that ahah. Now. I'll just post the last questions of @myhoneststudyblr's 2020 Quarantine Challenge, because I've done 15 weeks of it so might as well do the last one and a day lol.

✨ 2020 Quarantine Challenge ✨

Week 15: Questions

Sun - When was the last time you climbed a tree for fun?

At some point during the quarantine. I took my bike, went to the woods, and climbed in a tree to study up there instead of at home :')

Week 16: What Would You Rather

Mon - WYR lose the ability to read or the ability to speak?

The ability to speak. There would still be audio books, screen readers and all to help, I guess, but audio processoring is... hard. I understand way better with my eyes. And while talking is easier, writing isn't bad either.

Tue: WYR be in jail for one year or lose a year off your life?

Lose a year? What do I care if I die one year earlier? Or would that mean like being in a coma for a year and then coming back? Hmmm. That would be awful, but still better than going to jail. Jail doesn't have the best reputation...

Wed: WYR know the history of every object you touched or talk to animals?

Me: but what if the animals were mean and insulted me?

Also me: omg my cats could tell me they love me and they'd understand when I say it!!!

Knowing the history of objects could be cool actually. I'd rather have that.

Thur: WYR have all traffic lights you approach be green or never stand in a line again?

I would rather never stand in a line again. Guessing the time of the traffic lights is a little game, even though I get very frustrated when I get the two red lights in a row xD

Fri: WYR be the first person to explore a planet or be the inventor of a drug that cures a deadly disease?

Drug that Cures a Deadly Disease 100%!!! Exploring is nice, I guess, but actually being useful and saving lives? Way better. Plus people never remember who invents a drug, I can live with that.

Sat: Would you rather be able to control animals (but not humans) with your mind or control electronics with your mind?

Electronics. Controlling animals feels wrong.

Sun: Would you rather have unlimited international first-class tickets or never have to pay for food at restaurants?

Never having to pay for food at restaurants. I'd invite so many people to eat. I'd be like "Yeah let the poor people eat at your place, they're on me" and then idk who pays for me. That'd be great. Not having to worry about what I eat, one thing less in the budget. Perfect.

Thank you so much for these 16 weeks Sophie ❤️