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[skullzy20]

new fixation unlocked

[peremadeleine]

The Empathetic Dog Thief, Episode 1

Alternative titles: “Will: Deer Hunter and Dog Dad,” “Crimes Against Costuming,” “What Year Is It: A Crime Drama”

Armed with a gin & tonic and one sleepy cat, I finally gave the NBC show another shot.

I didn’t know Will had a superpower. Cool...?

How come he’s play-acting the murderer, though? Just because he can think like a killer doesn’t mean he needs to be reenacting it himself. That’s just confusing for the audience?? The way they did it in the Red Dragon movie was still effective without coming off as “aw, Will’s playing serial killer”

“This is my design” what

Plaid shirt and striped tie, truly a costuming sin. I didn’t love Will’s “modern wild west” costume vibes in Red Dragon, but it was better than this.

Don’t pretend that Jack and Will don’t know each other. Hate that.

Do look forward to hearing how many different ways people can pronounce “Graham” though.

Oh boy, why does Crawford push Will’s glasses up on his face while murmuring “hey” softly like a lover?? They’re strangers. That was mighty uncomfortable.

is he just assuming Will is on the spectrum? Right after they met???

and then Will confirms, but wait, he just has an “active imagination”?

STAY IN YOUR LANE

at least in canon Crawford doesn’t take advantage of people on the gd spectrum, and he spins it as being for the good of the victims. jfc.

“based on the characters by Thomas Harris”

Of course all the victims in the first episode are going to be women

“it’s not about all of these girls, it’s about one of them”--seven minutes in and they’re already ripping off Silence.

“he’s like Willy Wonka. every girl he takes is a candy bar.” no. nO.

“I mean, I would. Wouldn’t you?” no Will, Crawford’s a douchebag, not a murderous psychopath.

8 minutes in, me: WHERE’S THE TITLE CHARACTER THIS IS B O R I N G

“Why is it now a crime scene?” Because Will says so and he’s his own forensic team, apparently. Next question.

Also apparently he only owns red plaid-print shirts. Huh.

Lol Will has empathy for everyone but a grieving father confronted with his daughter’s dead body???

I don’t like the way Crawford is speaking to Will one bit. It’s supposed to be sensitive, but it comes off as condescending and mollycoddling. Ew. That is SO not Jack Crawford.

"You wrote the standard monograph on time of death by insect activity"?!?

so Will IS his own forensic team. Weird flex, but okay.

Antler velvet. Christ, HERE WE GO.

“You not real FBI?” Rip-off of Silence #2!

“You unstable?” Stop coming at Will, Jesus!

Will is a serial dognapper. SIX DOGS. Maybe, maybe, people in this neighborhood are missing their gd dogs, you monster.

none of them are even UGLY dogs

Will’s also drinking tho. One point for Gryffindor.

Oh, another plaid shirt. At least this one’s got a nice pattern. And isn’t red.

The bathroom is painted red, tho. What is it with Fuller and red walls?

Hugh Dancy’s American accent slips when he tries to like...emote. Yikes.

Strangulation is neither quick nor merciful.

A forensic specialist who wears her long-ass dark hair loose down her back and shoulders in the lab should be FIRED.

Implied “we covet what we see every day” scene: Silence Rip-Off #3

nineteen minutes in, me: W H E R E  I S  H A N N I B A L this is false marketing

Okay, I actually kind of like the “okay, I can cover him 80%” scene. Crawford’s real good at fucking up people’s lives in order to save lives.

twenty-one minutes in, me: HANNIBAL’S HERE THANK CHRIST

will probably regret this thought later

it’s okay, Hans. I, too, hate the career choices that have led me to this point.

the fact that he has tissues by HIS chair in his office is fuckin’ hilarious, what a douche, I love him

same, tho

The costumes and sets and cars are all screaming 70s/80s. But smartphones!

I’m watching this pretty late so my volume is a bit low and I cannot understand 70% of Hannibal’s dialogue, uh oh

Hannibal is supposed to be short so I don’t think this little “oh Crawford confused the short weepy patient with Hannibal” bit is that cute...I’ve always felt like Mads was poorly cast for that reason, among others. Oh well.

I take it all back:

HIS FACE

“No secretary?” “She was predisposed to romantic whims.” Not sure whether I like this line because Hannibal’s the one acting on whimsy or if it makes me cringe because of the way they’re dismissing Hannibal’s former secretary. Hmm.

“Are these yours, doctor?” a) Duh and b) Silence Rip-Off #4

Why the fuck does Crawford think he can just examine Hannibal’s papers? Like?????????

no wonder he hates your rude ass, Jack

HANNIBAL WHY IS WOUND MAN LYING ON YOUR DESK YOU PRECIOUS IDIOT

“Very interesting, even for a layman” Wow, unexpected Red Dragon rip-off (by the Red Dragon adaptation) #1

this whole scene is made of cringe HELP

why is Hannibal dressed in his Easter Sunday suit

Tattlecrimes.com. I’M SPEECHLESS at the stupidity of that.

tabloids are, in fact, still a thing in the Year of Our Lord 2013

No way is Hannibal fucking Lecter going to drink the swill that probably is Jack Crawford’s coffee, as if.

“Not fond of eye contact, are you?” Yes, Hannibal is the only character who should be canonically coming at anyone like this. (But also poor Will.)

But Will, at least look in his direction while he’s talking to you? I also don’t love eye contact...it’s rude not to even look at a person, though.

Hannibal finally used a contraction! He’s human after all. (This is a common Fanfic-Writing-of-Hannibal problem. I used to have it, too. You think to emulate him you have to write lofty, staid dialogue. But we’re talking about Hannibal the Punmaster General here.)

“This cannibal you have him getting to know” I’m sorry, who said anything about cannibals???

Stop incriminating yourself Hannibal honestly

Wait, is the implication that the victim whose lungs were taken is Hannibal’s? I hope not, because what would he be doing in Minnesota, and since when did Hannibal cut people up alive (Krendler notwithstanding--he’s a special case), especially women????? He’s a Monster(TM), but not a fucking sadist.

Will’s wardrobe also contains gingham!

no really, when did they determine that the serial killer was a cannibal?? did I sleep through that part?

“have Dr. Lecter draw up a psychological profile” bitch, please. Dr. Lecter doesn’t work for Crawford.

I don’t like hearing/watching people eat, especially in quiet moments. That’s going to become a problem in this show, isn’t it?

Will’s dream dear is fucking awful CGI. Wow.

That brown blazer--Hannibal would never.

EVERYTHING about Hannibal that should be black--his clothes and his hair--is brown here. It’s...weird.

to quote @random-emerald-thoughts​, “my homocidal boy aint about that tawny bullshit”

Hannibal Lecter: food snob--that’s canon. 

Don’t like this dialogue, though. And Hannibal bringing anyone he just met food in glorified Tupperware rings very false.

“Uncle Jack” what the fuck

Wow, Fuller jumped directly into the teacup thing right from the start. Yikes. He clearly didn’t understand it. (Clarice isn’t the teacup, bro. The teacup represents time, and disorder, and will it ever be reversed?)

Lots of weird metaphors in this episode overall, though none as bad as the Willy Wonka thing.

Why is Hannibal in Minnesota? Is he a crime-scene investigator now? Is he on the FBI payroll? Doesn’t he have patients with appointments to keep? Social obligations? I HAVE QUESTIONS.

He’s not a priss or a germaphobe. DISLIKE.

Do like the phone call. Just fuckin’ carelessly with people’s lives for the fun of it, that’s our Hannibal.

FBI? Are you FBI, Will?

He shouldn’t have been issued that sidearm if he can’t hold it steady.

One shot would have been plenty. Maybe two. Jfc, the reason Clarice shot Gumb so many times was because he was going to shoot her. Hobbs had a knife, which he dropped, and he was incapacitated by the first/second shot. Silence Rip-Off #5

How the fuck is he still alive and talking?! Will plugged him about eight times!

Call the police, Hannibal, or the ambulance, or take off your jacket and provide first aid to this girl. You’re a doctor!

It really is like he wants to be arrested or something.

And then he gets to ride in the ambulance?? Just Because?

Overall, it was...not very good, imo, poorly paced, very poorly written, with acting that jumped wildly from “very good” to “awful,” sometimes from the same actors. Intense cringe throughout a lot of the script. Ripped off Silence of the Lambs, a superior movie about many of the same characters, way too many times. Will is boring and I don’t care about him, but then I also don’t care about canon Will. And I still think Mads Mikkelsen was poorly cast as Hannibal...the costumes aren’t doing him any favors, either. We’ll see if he can bring me around.

Some moments of genuine humor that I appreciated, though, and some nods to the canon that I grudgingly appreciated, too, including Hannibal being a dick and Jack Crawford fucking up people’s lives.

Hopefully if you made it this far into my observations you got a kick out of them. I probably won’t go into this much detail for every episode, but I do intend to try to watch at least all of Season 1.

Painful as it might be.

[sserpente]

A/N: Request from anon. Oh yes, I had so much fun writing this. 3:)

Words: 3066 Warnings: smut, bondage, sub!Loki/dom!Loki

Loki breathed in the cold winter air as he strolled through one of the countless Christmas markets, inhaling the scent of mulled wine, eggnog, cookies and cinnamon. Disguised as a ginger man with beard, glasses and a black coat, he eyed the many little trinkets the mortals tried to sell. Some of them, handcrafted, he had to admit, were rather impressive.

It had been months since his grandiose escape from SHIELD and the Avengers—and he had been hiding on the planet ever since, among the very people he had once attempted to rule. Perhaps Midgard was not so bad after all. During the festive season, so he had learned, people tended to at least try and be kinder to one another, the delicious meals and Christmas treats, however, were what intrigued him the most about the merriest time of the year.

“Oh, so sorry!” The woman who bumped into him giggled, never taking her eyes off of her lover whom she was clutching like a child would a soft plush toy. Loki sighed when her partner leaned down to kiss her passionately and they disappeared around the corner of the Christmas market. This was the third couple he had run into today… and he could not help but feel… lonely. If Christmas was a time for love, friendship and family, then why was he still alone? He almost snorted. It was not much different from home, now was it? Thor got all the attention and ever since Frigga’s death, who was left for him to love him dearly without any judgement and grudges? There was no one.

Besides, it had been a while since he had had the warm body of a young woman all to himself, appreciating her curves and her sex… He should make this his next priority. It could not be too hard to find a willing woman, after all.

Mumbling an apology, you pushed past an elderly man wearing a red and gold Christmas jumper, eyes fixed on the ginger man a few feet away from you. His disguise was downright impressive, you had to focus hard to see through the illusion he had cast on himself—but it was him, without a doubt.

When they had asked you to find Loki and return with his head on a silver platter, how could you have declined? The Asgardian was wanted on several planets, not just Midgard and the amount of money they had promised you… it would be enough to buy yourself a fancy little house in Central London and live in clover. There was no space for qualm in your life.

Moving quickly, you followed Loki through the crowd, determined to catch him today. You had been watching him for a whole week already, studying his behaviour and motives to not be caught off guard when attacking. You had it all planned out; and you were confident that you would succeed.

Loki’s superhuman reflexes got the better of him when the woman before him suddenly slipped on her ridiculously high heels, a lame excuse for winter boots. He caught her before she could collide with the frozen ground, wrapping an arm around her waist firmly. You breathed out triumphantly. Sometimes the simplest of strategies worked best.

“T-thank you,” you breathed out, looking up at your saviour with widened eyes. Damn. Up close, he was even more handsome. The illusion around him flickered, switching between his mortal disguise and his usual self—raven hair, glasses, blue eyes, ginger beard… you blinked. Focus.

“Perhaps you should pay closer attention to where you are going.”

Suppressing a smile when he released you again, you nodded as if you agreed. Oh, I was watching where I was going, Loki. Don’t you worry.

“Sorry about that. I am new in town, I decided it might be a good idea to try a change of scenery before Christmas. I guess I got a little carried away with… exploring the area.”

“You came alone?” He dug. There he went and took the bait.

“I am… I was hoping to meet some people, make new friends, new… acquaintances.”

Loki smirked. Could it be? Was the first woman who practically fell into his arms the one he would take sexual pleasure and satisfaction from tonight? Something… did not quite feel right; and his gut feeling was usually right. Still, just this once, he elected to ignore it. It was only sex, after all. One passionate night full of lust, desire and countless orgasms. Tomorrow morning, he would be gone again already and never see this innocent mortal again.

“You know… my hotel is not far from here. I would love to… get to know you a little better, Mr…”

“Hiddleston.”

“Mr Hiddleston. Would you like to accompany me on my way back?” You asked, playing with your hair innocently. It was almost too easy.

“This is a rather luxurious hotel room. You must be among the wealthy.”

Raising an eyebrow, you slid off your winter coat. If you didn’t know who he was already, now would be the time to get suspicious.

“That is a very odd thing to say, you know.”

Loki glared.

“Is it?”

He barely let you take off your boots before he had approached you, pressing his muscly chest against your back. His arms sneaked around your waist, pulling you close all the while his lips began planting soft kisses to the sensitive skin of your neck.

“Take your clothes off,” he whispered demandingly, earning him a low chuckle on your behalf.

“I will. But you go first. I think you will like what I would like to try.”

Loki tilted his head. He did not want to admit it but he was intrigued, his member clearly excited about the prosperity of sheathing himself inside a tight woman so soon… so he did you the favour. Resisting the urge to simply snap his fingers and remove his clothing by magic, he began to strip for you, slowly tearing off each and every piece of fabric until he revealed a tall, rather pale and well-defined body… and a rock-hard, aching length screaming for attention. Combined with his raven hair—you could see through his illusion clearly now—and those stinging blue eyes… he was gorgeous. It was almost a shame you had not come here to actually fuck him.

“Lie down on the bed.” You commanded softly, licking your lips as you eyed him up and down. Loki smirked and obliged, never taking his gaze off of you.

You smiled. You had him right where you wanted him. You had to act quickly now. Quickly, seductively and convincingly. Approaching the bed yourself, you opened one of the drawers of the nightstand and pulled out a velvety red rope. No regular bondage rope, of course. This kind of rope would block most of Loki’s magic and weaken his strength. It would give you enough time to prepare your dagger and kill him before he found a way to break free again.

“I want to tie you up… is that alright? I promise you will like it.” You teased, wiggling your eyebrows in the process. Loki only threw his head back and laughed heartily. Naturally, he did not expect the rope to be of magical heritage as well.

“By all means…” He replied sneakily.

Grinning, you got to work, wrapping it around his wrists firmly before attaching the loose ends to the bedposts. Loki’s hungry glance up to your still clothed form sent pleasant shivers up and down your spine. Oh, under different circumstances, you definitely wouldn’t say no to him…

“And now what, little minx?” He purred darkly.

“Now?” Calmly, you reached for your dagger hidden in the other drawer. “Now it’s time to say goodbye, Loki.”

Within the fraction of a second, his face fell.

“What?” He breathed. Then, he began struggling against the restraints.

“Don’t bother. They block your strength. I wish I could be sorry. But have you got any idea how much money your head is worth? I would be rich.”

“Hmm, well I can ensure you, I am much more of use alive.” He spat. “Who are you?” He was going to die anytime now. You might as well tell him who was going to murder him.

“My name is (Y/N). I am a professional bounty hunter and I work with SHIELD and other secret organisations all over the world. I’ve been watching you for a whole week already.”

Loki scoffed.

“I knew there was something wrong with you… you should feel honoured, my dear. I decided you were alluring enough for me to join you despite the warning signs.”

“Curiosity kills the cat.” You shrugged.

“Cats have nine lives.” He retorted smugly. Then, he paused, seemingly interested. “Just answer me one question… how? How did you know?”

Oddly enough, Loki did not seem anxious about his fate at all, almost as if he expected you to change your mind and not kill him after all. Arrogant bastard. Arrogant and attractive bastard.

“I can see through illusions and magic.” You replied. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know how. I just… can. Ever since I was a child.”

“I see… do you usually seduce your victims before you slice their throats or am I receiving a special treatment?”

“I seduce the handsome ones.” You confessed with a sly smile, testing the sharpness of your dagger as you spoke.

Loki smirked. You did find him attractive then. This was vital knowledge you had just provided him with. Perhaps… perhaps the situation wasn’t entirely hopeless. Nothing he couldn’t talk himself out of. After all, he was the God of Mischief…

“Well then, how about a… proposal?”

“I don’t negotiate with my victims.”

Loki’s smirk widened. “Am I? Am I one of your victims? Surely, you did not have to strip me naked first and tie me up to end my life.”

“No. Having you on display like this is a nice bonus to look at though.”

“Oh, that I believe you. Are you not tempted? I could bring you pleasure you can only dream of. By the end of this night, you would be screaming my name and praise me as your god.” He growled seductively. His member twitched upon his own words, begging to be attended to. Of course you were tempted. Loki was massive, much longer than average and… was he leaking pre-cum already? How breath-taking would it feel to have him deep inside you, you wondered?

Swallowing thickly, you tore your gaze away from his cock, meeting the outright mocking expression on his face again.

“If I can make you cum for me… you let me go.”

Your jaw dropped. He was bold.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Dead-serious, my dear…”

Were you… mental for considering this? Wasn’t the point of using him for your own pleasure to have an earth-shaking orgasm? But then again… Loki’s arrogance was nerve-wrecking. He was either too confident and might not manage to make you climax in the first place or he was lying and wanted to have sex himself before dying. You had nothing to lose… not really.

Sighing, you put your dagger away.

“Fine. You can try.” You challenged him.

“Well then… untie me.”

“Do you think I’m crazy?”

“Oh, you will be, little minx.”

You snorted.

“No. The restraints stay on.”

Once again, the God of Mischief smirked.

“Very well... I will not need my hands. Bare yourself for me.” He commanded with a stern voice and you, smitten by this sudden change of priorities, obeyed. Your hands were shaking when you got rid of your trousers and knickers, followed suit by your pullover and lastly, your bra.

You had to admit… you rather enjoyed Loki’s greedy blue eyes resting on every inch of your exposed skin.

“Sit on my face.” He ordered.

“What?!”

“I do not like to repeat myself. Sit on my face, little minx.”

Biting your lower lip to hold back another attempt to protest, you did as you were told. This… this was way too intimate. Never before had you presented yourself like this to a man, let alone a god you were supposed to kill and collect your bounty for; and yet, when you lowered your pussy onto his luscious lips slowly, arousal rippled through you like electricity. You swallowed. If he were to get dangerously close to making you cum… you would simply pull away, right?

A moan escaped your lips when Loki’s tongue darted out to taste you, immediately attacking your clit with firm and teasing strokes. Growling triumphantly, he dipped it into your opening, collecting the slick juices pouring out of you uncontrollably. Your body was enjoying this way too much. You forced your eyes shut to focus when you started bucking your hips, panting loudly when he wrapped his lips around your sensitive bundle of nerves and started to suck on it so fiercely you tumbled towards climax at light speed. He had to stop. He had to stop right now.

Panicking, you attempted to climb off of him—only your thighs and feet would not budge an inch. Loki chuckled darkly, the vibrations of his voice against your petals making you tremble.

“The quality of your restraints is highly questionable, little minx.” He purred against your glistening pussy lips. His cool breath brushed against them as he spoke, making you shiver. Shit. How was this even possible? The rope was supposed to block his magic, not enhance it! You had thought this through! You had to… get away… from him…

A scream escaped your lips when you came all over his face, gushing and contracting around his tongue when he buried it in your core as deep as he possibly could to leap up all you had to offer. Your orgasm cursed through you like liquid gold. You were helpless—helpless against the numbing bliss relaxing your entire body until you had come down from your high, your clit now too sensitive for any more stimulation.

But Loki didn’t stop. He kept going, eating you so ferociously you whimpered. Again and again, his silvertongue flicked over your slit and tortured nub until he had turned you into a whining and sweating mess on top of him and only when he had coaxed two more orgasms from you did he finally lift his magic so you collapsed on the bed.

Unbeknownst to you, he had long freed himself from the rope and now gently but demandingly wrapped his strong arms around your waist, caressing your skin and creating goose bumps all over your body. His hard cock poked against your thighs as he pressed you close against him, promising endless pleasure you would never want to end.

Even if you did not keep your word now and attempted to harm him, regardless of your current, dishevelled and weakened state, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Loki would overpower you within a mere second. As of now, you knew exactly what he wanted from you and strangely, or perhaps it was not surprising at all, you were not going to deny him. He smirked against your neck.

“Now… let us make proper use of those restraints, shall we?”

Ignoring your widening eyes, he snatched your wrists to tie them together, securing them to the bedpost tightly. You wriggled around when his long fingers ghosted over your breasts and sides, breathing in sharply.

“Hmm… it has been so long.” He murmured, licking his lips in joyful anticipation. He could still taste you—you were downright delicious.

“L-Loki…” You mumbled desperately. “Be gentle with me…” Gone were your confidence and quick-wittedness. Loki had not lied to you. You were crazy for him already, utterly at his mercy. How, for Heaven’s sake, could you have assumed you would be strong and skilled enough to take down an actual Norse god?

Chuckling once more, the Trickster lightly stroked your cheek with the back of his hand. His tender touches soothed you.

“Can I make any promises after what you intended to do to me, my dear?” He breathed, causing your heartbeat to quicken. He growled lowly as he forced himself between your legs, spreading you to his liking. Your pussy clenched when your eyes fell on his leaking erection. You wanted this as much as he did—and right now, you didn’t even know what scared you more: the fact that he would most likely take revenge and kill you instead after this dangerous game you were playing or the fact you did not even try to resist. You did not want to.

You wanted to feel him inside of you, you wanted him to fill you—

“Ah!” You gasped when Loki aligned his cock with your dripping entrance and pushed into you, sliding in effortlessly thanks to your own arousal and the amazing orgasms he had given you.

The God of Mischief groaned as you tightened around him, unwilling to let him go again. Frantically and mad from lust, he began to move, pulling out almost completely only to plunge himself back inside of you hard; and without a doubt, he fucked you like you had never been fucked before.

“That’s right, little minx… surrender to me… surrender to the pleasure I am giving you…”

Thrusting into you repeatedly, he seemed to know exactly how to move to drive you crazy, hitting all of your hidden pleasure spots as he toyed with your breasts hungrily, pinching and rolling your hard nipples between his fingers until you came another time, clenching and pulsating around his cock.

An animalistic growl escaped Loki’s lips when he felt your orgasm. It did not take him long to follow you. You felt too good…

He moaned loudly, spilling himself inside you and rocking into you a few more times before he stilled, not bothering to pull out. You would feel him seeping out of you soon enough—and he was certain you could already feel how he had filled you up and marked you as his. Still, your words surprised him.

“That was… amazing.” You whispered out of breath, eyes falling shut. Smiling smugly, Loki got rid of the dagger next to you both, pulling you into his arms. You were going to be so much fun.

Yes… Midgard wasn’t so bad after all. He would make sure you spent Christmas with him.

A/N: Guys, YOU can help me publish my first novel! It’s easy, it’s anonymous, you can do it from all over the world and it’s just 3€! Your help counts too, I’d appreciate it so much if you helped me fulfil my dream! ♥ ko-fi.com/sserpente

[starryviolentine]

Brody’s Diary (Revised Edition): Chapter 7

Part one of the “Pre-Apocalypse Adventures” Series

Chapter 1 ( here ) Chapter 2 ( here ) Chapter 3 ( here ) Chapter 4 ( here ) Chapter 5 ( here ) Chapter 6 ( here )

“We’ve been informed by Ms. Gideon’s teachers that she hasn’t attended any of today’s lessons after her first class,” continues the woman, who has since introduced herself as Mrs. Anderson, assistant director of campus security. “We were wondering if she mentioned anything to either of you about her intent to spend the day elsewhere, perhaps?”

“Uh, no,” answers Therissa, glancing to the side to see that Brody has started to cry. “We saw her this morning and that’s it. She didn’t tell us anything.”

“Have you noticed any sudden changes in her behavior? Anything out of the ordinary?” asks Mr. Miller, campus security director. “Any signs that Ms. Gideon has been upset or out of sorts recently?”

Brody wails.

“Are you all right, dear?” Mrs. Anderson turns to Brody. “We’re sorry, we don’t mean to scare you. We’re currently working on locating Ms. Gideon, so don’t you worry. We’re just trying to get some more information.”

“Actually, yeah,” says Therissa. “These two,” she nods towards Brody slightly, “got in a fight yesterday. Haven’t made up yet.” The teen purposely omits some of the finer details, like Violet getting upset to the point of tears, because she doesn’t want Brody to feel worse.

“I see. Do you know where she might have gone?”

Therissa shrugs. “No idea. Brody?”

Sniveling, Brody shakes her head.

“Thank you, girls,” Mrs. Anderson says, jotting something down onto her clipboard. “We’ll have her back soon. If she ends up coming back on her own before then, could you please let the office know?”

“Yeah,” Therissa promises, starting to feel a tad worried about her blonde roommate herself. The adults bid farewell and then take their leave, shutting the door behind them. Therissa runs a hand through her hair, needing a moment to take everything in. Where did that little idiot go?

“She hates me!” Brody blurts out tearily. “I made her mad and now she hates me!”

Yesterday’s events are still fresh in Therissa’s mind. “Trust me, that girl does not hate you.”

“What if she got outside the gates and ran away? She could be lost, or… or she could be hurt! She might never come back and it’s all my fault!”

“Brody, please.” Therissa closes her eyes and rubs her temples. It’s taking all of her mental strength to stop herself from shaking Brody and telling her to snap out of it. She needs a minute to think and her roommate’s rambling is making it difficult to concentrate.

“Now she’s gone and I never even got to say sorry!”

Moving so that she’s facing Brody, Therissa grabs her roommate firmly by the shoulders. “All right, listen up. I’m gonna need you to pull yourself together.”

Brody is confused but looks up. “What...?”

“You can either sit here and cry for the rest of the day, or you can come with me.”

The girl sniffles and uses the edge of her shirt to dry her eyes. “Where are you going?”

“To look for Violet.”

This catches Brody’s attention. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Therissa goes to put on her hoodie and beanie. “Adults are useless. They’re not gonna know where to look.”

“Do you even know where she went?”

“Nope,” the older girl answers truthfully, “but you will.”

Today has left Brody feeling rather low and her usual positivity is nowhere to be found. “But Vi didn’t tell me anything. How should I know?”

“Uhh, gee, I wonder,” says Therissa, voice laced with sarcasm. “One, you’re her best friend. Two, you’re the only person in this entire school that she cares about. Three, you know her better than anyone else here. Do you need more reasons?”

There are a lot of doubts running through Brody’s head. “I dunno. What if—”

“Come on, Brody. Who knows Violet better than you do?” Therissa has her boots on and has grabbed a flashlight from the closet. She flicks the switch and points it at Brody, causing the girl to squint and hold her hands in front of her eyes.

“Hey!”

“Let’s move it,” Therissa persists, tossing Brody her jacket. The younger girl listens and puts on the garment, but her face still looks hesitant. Tapping her foot impatiently, Therissa switches the flashlight on and off, on and off, on and off into Brody’s face. “You want her to come back, don’t you?”

“I do, but—”

“Then let’s go get her.”

For the rest of the afternoon, Therissa and Brody walk the entire campus looking for their missing roommate. They circle through the school buildings first, checking in every classroom, searching behind every bookshelf, and even stopping by the daycare center in search of any clues as to where Violet might be. Brody runs up to everyone they pass on the way to ask if they’ve seen a girl—about her same height but with long, blonde hair down to the middle of her back—but it doesn’t seem like anyone has caught even a glimpse of Violet anywhere. Although Ericson Academy isn’t an enormous school, it is decently sized in order to comfortably accommodate all of its students, so Brody and Therissa are both feeling a little worn out by the time they finish the first stage of their search. They sit on the steps of the administrative building to take a short breather.

As it gets closer to dinner time, fewer and fewer students are still outside. Most have returned to their bedrooms or have gone to hang around in the student lounges, not only because curfew is slowly approaching, but because the sky has started to grow dark due to the blanket of grey clouds now looming overhead. The wise thing to do would be to seek shelter before the weather takes a turn for the worse, but Brody and Therissa both know that this is out of the question.

“It’s not supposed to rain tonight, is it?” Brody asks, frowning up at the sky. Although she can see the answer for herself, she’s half hoping that Therissa will tell her that she’s wrong.

Therissa curses and stands back up, extending a hand to Brody and pulling the girl to her feet. “We’d better grab an umbrella or something.”

Only returning to their dorm room briefly to gear up for what looks like inevitable showers, Therissa and Brody resume their search. They stand outside the residence hall, trying to decide where to go next.

“Maybe we should just circle around that way,” says Therissa, pointing to the left with her black umbrella. “Unless you know of any specific places Violet might have gone. That would be nice.”

Brody, now clad in a full-body rain poncho, kicks at the brick path with the toe of her rain boots. “Maybe we could check that little flower patch in the back corner of the school. She brought me there before.”

“Yeah, I have no clue what you’re talking about. Lead the way.”

The younger girl walks about half a stride in front of Therissa and points somewhere in the distance. “It’s just over yonder. Did you know that Vi knows a lot about flowers?”

Therissa sniggers slightly. “Flowers?”

“Well, you know how my family comes here on visiting days? Sometimes, after they go home, I feel kinda sad.”

After a long day of fun with her mom, dad and brothers on a special off-campus excursion, the time comes for Brody to say goodbye. This is the part she hates the most. She gets lots of hugs and kisses from Mom and Dad, and she even manages to steal a few hugs from Dawson and Hunter this time, too. They walk Brody to the front of the residence hall and reassure her, as always, that they will be back to visit again soon. They wave goodbye, and Brody waves back, watching their figures become smaller and smaller until they disappear out the front gates and out of sight.

Brody returns to her bedroom in a gloomy sort of mood, which often happens when her family leaves after a visit. She just needs to take her mind off of it. Luckily, Violet is there, reading the book that she lent her last week. Maybe they can watch a movie together. Grabbing her portable DVD player from her bottom desk drawer, Brody climbs up into her friend’s bunk.

“Vi, wanna watch a movie with me?”

Violet only now notices that Brody is back. She was so absorbed in the book she was reading that she didn’t hear her come in. “Oh, you’re back! You know, this book is actually really interesting. I can’t believe —”

“I have a new one we can watch. It’s really good,” Brody continues, not appearing to have heard Violet at all. “Wanna watch it?”

Violet wonders why Brody sounds kind of strange, but she agrees anyway, sticking the corner of her blanket in between the pages as a makeshift bookmark. “Okay.”

The blonde scoots to the side to make room for Brody, who fiddles with the DVD player and silently sets up the movie for them. Violet observes right away that her friend seems a little off. She’s not looking at her. She’s not talking. Brody places the device in between them and settles in, moving so that she’s lying on her stomach, and Violet follows suit. The movie starts playing, but Violet can’t help but sneak an occasional glance at Brody. The girl’s eyes are on the screen but Violet can tell that she’s not really watching.

“Are you okay?” Violet asks.

Brody blinks and turns towards Violet. “Huh?”

“You’re acting weird.”

In a matter of seconds, Brody’s face crumbles and she bursts into tears.

Violet mildly panics, as she usually does whenever people she cares about are upset. She awkwardly reaches out, with the intent of patting her friend on the arm, but then decides against it, feeling a little too embarrassed. “What’s wrong?”

Brody explains that she misses her family, and Violet feels bad because there’s nothing she can do to fix it. If Brody was crying because someone was mean to her, she could confront them and make them apologize. If it was because she lost something, Violet could help her find it. But Violet knows that she can’t change this and she feels useless.

“It’s okay,” Violet says gently. “You’ll see them again soon.”

There’s nothing else she can say. She can’t tell Brody that she understands how she feels because she doesn’t. Her family never visits. She doesn’t miss them. Violet doesn’t want to see her mom… and she definitely doesn’t want to see her dad. But that’s not important right now. Brody is upset, and the only thing Violet can do is stay with her until she feels better.  

Unless…

Violet climbs over Brody and reaches under her mattress, pulling out a small book.

“Um, Brody?”

Brody sniffles. “What?”

“I wanna show you something,” Violet tells her, “but you have to come outside with me.”

Curious, Brody sits up and nods, tears coming to a stop. She follows Violet downstairs and out of the dormitory. “Where are we going?”

“Over there,” Violet replies, pointing towards the far end of the campus.

Brody tries to get a better look at the book her friend’s carrying in her left hand, but she can’t tell what the cover says while they’re moving. “What’s that book?”

“You’ll see.”

The girls keep walking through the school grounds until they reach the back wall. In the very corner by some weeds and overgrown grass is a colorful selection of wildflowers. Most of the greenery at Ericson Academy is neatly groomed and regularly maintained by the school staff, but this particular area is so isolated and rarely visited that even the gardeners have left it untouched. Brody has never been to this part of the school before. She looks around in awe at all of the beautiful flowers.

Violet walks over to some pale magenta flowers blooming in clusters. “These are rhododendrons.”

“They’re pretty,” Brody comments, moving closer to her friend, who is now flipping through her book. Violet finds the page she’s looking for and holds it out for Brody to see.

It’s a botany book, more specifically a guide on wildflowers of the Southeastern United States. Violet lets Brody look at the rhododendron page for a moment, but then skips forward a bit and shows her a different page. There’s a picture of a red and yellow flower shaped like a pair of dragonflies.

“Columbines,” says Violet, pointing to the flowers behind Brody that match the photo in the book, “and those purple ones are geraniums.”

Brody crouches near the flowers to get a closer look. “Wow, I really like these. Ger…ger-nari—”

“Geraniums,” Violet repeats with a small smile. “They were Grandma’s favorite, too.”

Kneeling beside her friend, Violet plucks a simple white flower with a yellow center and hands it to Brody. “Do you know what this one is?”

“A daisy?”

Violet’s smile turns into a cheeky grin. “Nope. It looks like a daisy, but it’s not. It’s actually chamomile. You can tell by the shape of the leaves.” The girl flips through her book until she finds the page on the chamomile flower, then shows it to Brody. “They don’t look special or anything, but I kinda like them the most.”

No longer hung up on missing her family, Brody is starting to feel better. She looks up at her friend and giggles. “Maybe I should call you ‘Daisy’ instead of Violet.”

“Please don’t,” groans Violet, face twisting into a grimace. “And they’re chamomiles, remember?”

“Are there any violets here?” Brody picks up a few strands of Violet’s hair, holding them between her thumb and forefinger as though she’s holding a flower stem, and pretends to sniff them. “Or are you the only one?”

Turning slightly pink, Violet puffs up her cheeks and pouts. But as much as she hates being teased about her name, Violet can see that Brody looks a lot happier now compared to earlier. She figures she can let it slide just this once. Violet tucks the stem of the chamomile flower behind Brody’s ear and turns to the last type of flower in the patch.

“What’s that one?”

Without even needing to refer to her flower guide, Violet reaches out and touches a pink and orange petal with the tip of her finger. “Honeysuckle. It can come in lots of other colors, like white, yellow or red.” Her hand moves down a few inches and snaps a small sprig of flowers and leaves from the plant. Violet fiddles with the flowers for a while before offering them to Brody. She doesn’t make eye contact, and there’s a tinge of embarrassment in her voice when she speaks again. “Grandma told me that honeysuckle brings happiness to people who are feeling sad.”

Touched by the sweet gesture, Brody accepts the flowers with a soft smile. “Thanks, Vi.”

Therissa listens in genuine, albeit amused fascination as Brody tells her story. It’s hard to imagine the Violet she knows having any interest in something as cutesy and girly as flowers. Flowers. Never in a million years would she have expected her youngest roomie to be a little flower expert. At least she’s living up to her name. “You know, it would actually be kind of hilarious if we found Violet in a flower patch.”  

Brody hears the laughter in the teenager’s voice, but she’s still too worried about her friend to find the remark funny. She shakes her head and speeds up slightly, wanting to reach the back wall as soon as possible. “Let’s just go and check if she’s there.”

Praying that this won’t be just another dead end, Brody crosses her fingers on both hands because one doesn’t seem like enough. She hopes Therissa’s doing the same. At this point, they need all the luck they can get.

[eclecticpatrolsweets]

Fog strange talk Season 3 ——Jinjiang City 2020 Top7

(Language: English;Shooting: American group;Released in: USA, worldwide)

preface

The city was swept by high temperature, and there were two pairs of mandarin ducks, who migrated for a long time to build their nests and settle down in a warm place. One was unable to bear the high temperature and fell, dying on the concrete floor. One opened its wings to block the hot sun for his partner. The male struggled and died soon. It was a long way and a spare dream. The mandarin ducks did not eat or drink, and rested beside their husband.

Mandarin ducks are amorous, not to mention people in the city.

Top7

It was another beautiful morning, and Sheng continued sleeping in bed. He had not worked for a long time.

I interviewed with several companies before, but they were not optimistic about my previous work experience. Even though he had operated projects with tens of millions of assets, the working technology of higher enterprises was not acceptable in small cities in this backward city near the river.

Sheng was not discouraged. He needed sleep more than ever, like a hibernating frog.

Reluctantly, he got up, dressed and went downstairs to Suming's coffee shop.

"It's been a long time since I had my coffee." Su Ming saw or came to the store, very happy to meet him.

"Quite a long time. I don't have a job, so I can spend more when I work."

'A good young man who cares for his family!

"Praise makes me feel excited and happy!"

Su Ming made the coffee and handed it to Sheng, who asked, "How is your business here?"

"There are definitely fewer people consuming these days."

"Yes, all idle so long, did you go to the injection?" The coffee is steaming up.

"Yes, you don't want to tell me you have a problem with the injection, do you?"

"Return true be such, not be to inform me to give an injection, go for the first time, did not have a needle, changed other hospital for the second time, the trouble of the bosom after finishing is more, beard hard grow, resemble wild grass same."

"How was the traditional Chinese medicine hospital?"

"It was like witchcraft. My stomach stopped hurting for the first two days and MY body gained strength. Then I burned my face with the medicine I was prescribed.

"If you go to bed earlier, your endocrine system is good and you don't get as many breakouts."

"You introduced a man, Wei Dongshuai, who suffers from severe insomnia."

"He thinks you're mysterious, and he doesn't believe in all this nonsense about curses and vampires."

'And yet he believed in God!

"People always have some sustenance, such as you save every ticket, no one in Jinjiang City will save every ticket for going out in the past ten years."

"There are habits, or hobbies, for a reason. For him, in a car is a kind of luxury, so he keep the good in every each ticket, we get together, together to do the plane, arrive together, each process is pleasant, so I would like him keep each ticket, rather than from direct throw away a long time ago. Many years later, when I look at the tickets again, I feel a little bit of memories and feelings. It's nice."

"Wei Dongshuai is more realistic."

"Does he still come into your shop often?"

"Recently, he delivered goods to the mountain. He got up early to buy vegetables in the morning market, and delivered vegetables up the mountain. He ran around in the morning and afternoon to provide more ingredients and goods to the mountain. I haven't seen him for months."

"He's got a lot of nerve serving on the mountain. I think you need to tell him that vampires in the mountains are no better than people."

"He won't listen."

"Also! Man's destiny depends on his ability to see reality clearly. What is reality? What can be touched, what can be felt, what can be recorded by scientific instruments is reality, which is simply how it exists in the environment -- why don't you think about going up the hill to deliver coffee?"

"I want to live to be old! How are things going?"

"Suddenly want to have a person to accompany in the side, miss a person, carefully think about it, not miss anyone. I don't know what it's like to be alone and frustrated after suddenly leaving. I'm used to being alone."

"Stop relying on unworthy people and figure out how to improve yourself in the future. You're coming out of your bad heart."

"Sounds like you know a lot. Your parents taught you that?"

"Vested interests are still vested interests! It's important to find the right person!"

"So do I! Nobody talks to zombies, and I'm suddenly silent, because I don't talk to dead people

. I think I should be careful wei Dongshuai, strong body will make demons and ghosts appetite big open, really become a living dead, it has no human nature."

"He was totally focused on the good life ahead of him, and people on the hill never gave credit."

"I feel privileged and lucky to have known such a clever friend!" Sheng sipped his delicious coffee.

At night, Xiao Yang stood at the door of the white bar. When he saw Sheng coming, he smiled and said, "I knew you would come soon, but I didn't expect how soon. Impressive!"

"I am kind and do not want to use the life of others to continue my youth, nor do I want to use the clever blood of others to make my thinking clear and write great works. I prefer the living to the ghosts, as long as they do what I say. In the field, for a long time I eulogized life. Life doesn't come easily. Why did I kill so much?" He pressed the ocean against the wall and said softly.

"I don't like the way you smell, but the way you act! Enjoy your food." Xiao Yang gently stroked Sheng's cheek. He could feel sheng's skin improving.

"The more I want you to hunt with me."

"I'm sure it will. There aren't too many special guests tonight. Would you like me to have dinner with you?"

"My pleasure!

Xiao Yang and rise sitting at the bar, rise can't wait to pick up a big cup of "drink" purr drink.

The corners of his mouth were stained with bright red water. Xiao Yang wiped her lips with her forefinger, sucked the stained fingers, and closed her eyes to enjoy the sweetness.

"You're like a guy who hasn't eaten in years. Xiao Yang laughed.

"When I was a kid, I was weird. Once I started eating, I would forget everything. Food has a very powerful attraction for me."

"Believe me, when the thing you need most is no longer scarce, you don't have a strong urge to acquire it, and you savor the pleasure of things more slowly and carefully!"

"That, of course, is the point of hunting." Sheng is very happy.

"Your body is not suitable for outdoor sports, a strong body is the prerequisite for hunting, I smell a smell of antibiotics on your body, what's wrong with you?" Xiao Yang wondered.

"Well, I shouldn't have kept it from you, but I was kidnapped some time ago. I was tied up and had jars of blood drawn. The needle wasn't clean and I had some symptoms.

"I used to work in a hospital, and the antibiotic smell was really bad, and I was worried about what that stuff would do to you when it got into your body. How is it now?"

"Many of the symptoms subsided, but strange things kept coming up in his neck and chest."

"They're knots, and your collar can't hide them. You are not supposed to come back so quickly. You are supposed to recover so well that when the bad men see your vigorous body, no one will dare to lay a hand on you."

"I have come back to do some business that I must leave at once, and it must be done beforehand to avoid future accidents."

"You are a very cautious man! Did you ever think that something unusual was done to make you think that Jingang City was not a trap?"

"I didn't expect it. I trusted Jingangseong too much."

"Then keep trusting. How soon will you leave?"

"Vinyl was my manager, and they killed him right after I got back, so I didn't have to go back. I was there."

"Vinyl is your reserve food?"

"I can't wait to taste him," he said with a smile as he leaned close to xiao Yang.

Xiao Yang pursed his lips, making him look more boyish. "I'll give you mine," he said.

Sheng was puzzled. "You don't? Or have I offended you?"

"You are a gentleman, giving to those who need it most." Xiao Yang said, embrace Sheng's neck, put the mouth of the cup to Sheng's lips, poured milk to Sheng. Drop by drop, the red "drink" slides down the side of the glass into the deep mouth full of hunger and thirst, full of male hormone confusion.

Xiao Yang sniffed the aroma remaining on her lips, her face acting very erratic.

"Even Vinyl doesn't do that."

"This is the kind of skill we should have. Skilled skills build character. I wonder how you can live with Vinyl. It's always weird when you get older, or when you don't, or when you're suddenly young."

"It wasn't that I had the skills, it was that he wanted to be with me, and I was so grateful to him that he was there when I needed him most, and he was gone when I forgot him."

"You're lucky! Vinyl saw you change your youth?"

"He is very dear to me, and he likes me very much when I am young."

"There was a big event before, a writer was killed, there was a young man pretending to be a middle-aged writer flute, alerted the officials, you are flute?"

"Yes! I'm standing in front of you alive."

"The officials want your blood, and the hunters will do their bidding."

"I've found out why the kidnapper took my blood."

"I'm sorry you didn't give Vinyl a chance."

"He has a mind of his own, and as someone who loves him, I should respect that. When I got back, the Vinyl items mailed to me were missing a lot of winter clothes, and they needed more care."

"It's cold here in the winter, and you don't see anybody in the next spring."

[lucianhuntress]

FFXV Characters playing World of Warcraft Part 1/3 Headcanons

I know I was supposed to start posting my writings next week, buuuuut.... World of Warcraft is a dear game to me even though I don’t play it anymore, still this was a blast to write! This will be posted in three parts, first one containing the chocobros! And it couldn’t have been possible without @glaive-eve‘s help! Gotta love our story brainstorming :3 Also this is my first-ever-published writing. I’m slightly nervous.

Second Part Third Part

Hopefully you enjoy <3

Noctis Lucis Caelum Havoc | Demon Hunter

Noctis enjoys double jumping, gliding and dashing.

Oh and he will dash. A lot.

He is eager about getting the best loot possible for his demon hunter. He might even be slightly aggressive over loot, shouting: “You don’t need that!”

He has min-maxed stats and his gear is perfectly enchanted and gemmed.

Noctis wants to be the loot master and probably whispers about it to Ignis at the start of every raid.

He still hasn’t made any progress towards being the loot master.

He won’t be the first in his guild to get a legendary item. Nor the second, nor the third.

Noctis will be acting salty towards those who get legendaries before him.

He still sits at the top of the damage meter — Despite the lack of legendaries.

He won’t move out of boss mechanics, unless it’s a sure oneshot. He is just tunnel visioning the damage and there is no arguing about it. He won’t take orders if they include moving around.

Because he needs to be on the top of those DPS meters. He won’t accept the second or the third place. It has to be the first.

And he will literally drain all the heals and cooldowns.

If the group he is in keeps wiping at same boss over and over again, he is ready to ragequit.

But he won’t.

Noctis really wants to unleash the hatred of ten thousand years. Illidan is so proud of him.

His favourite spot to go AFK is the Stormwind Keep, if he is playing on the Alliance and Grommash Hold, if playing on the Horde.

Makes him feel like a boss.

His fishing skill is maxed out.

And he has all sorts of cool fishing hats.

He won’t be sharing any of the fish he has caught though, and Ignis has to literally bribe him to share some of them with the guild.

Sometimes he pet battles against Prompto, if he is ultimately bored.

His in game title is Salty.

He will be playing a male night elf or a male blood elf, depending on the faction he is playing at the moment. 

Prompto Argentum Beast Master | Hunter

Prompto chose his class just for the pets.

Cute pets.

He even takes S.E.L.F.I.E.s with his pets.

Prompto has his S.E.L.F.I.E. -camera bound on his keyboard.

He is the definition of a hunter, which means he spends a lot of time being dead and waiting for resurrection.

Why walk, when you can get a resurrection?

And he dies often.

Maybe because he barrage pulled the whole room?

Barrage is his thing and it’ll take a lot of persuasion skills to get him change out of it.

He is almost as greedy about loot as Noctis, but he doesn’t really care about the secondary stats.

If it has agility on it and a bigger item level than his previous one, he wants it.

Everything is hunter loot.

It annoys the shit out of Noctis, when he is trying to tell Prompto what he should be equipping.

His profession is engineering and he likes crafting all those mechanical squirrels for his own, personal amusement.

He also greatly enjoys pet battles!

And his pet battle team is well trained.

He even beats Noctis in the pet battles.

When he is playing World of Warcraft, he is barely ever AFK. Prompto will keep on jumping around the town, while waiting for something to happen.

And maybe spam the guild chat for company.

He is eagerly asking people to join him on battlegrounds, looking for raids and dungeons, when he is bored.

The guild chat will fall silent instantly.

Not that he is a bad player. He knows how to do damage.

He can be quite heavy company from time to time.

Prompto was once given a special task —  Fit for a hunter. He needed to soak some damage during a boss fight.

Never again.

He likes leveling up alts, but gets tired with them easily and his character selection is full of low level characters he won’t touch again.

Maybe because someone camped him while he was leveling up.

Prompto changes his character’s hairstyle at least once a day.

His title would be the Zookeeper or the Field Photographer.

And his character would be a female. Night elf, if Alliance and blood elf, if Horde.

Gladiolus Amicitia Arms | Warrior

Gladio has an off spec for tanking, incase one tank is missing from the raid.

Tanking isn’t his favorite job to do, but he’ll do it without complaints and handles the role well.

He is usually charging right into the battle, when the pull timer is somewhere between one and zero.

Whirlwind is his thing.

He is slightly annoyed at the fact that he doesn’t really get healed.

Somehow he still survives and is usually the last man standing, if the encounter ends up being a wipefest.

And he’ll make sure everyone knows that he survived, again.

He’ll definitely twit Noctis or Prompto, if either of them died earlier during the fight.

“Noct will pay everyone’s repairs!”

Because Gladio does actually handle the game mechanics.

He’ll cheer everyone up with his motivational speeches.

“We can do this! Just 10% more!”

Occasionally he does arena, but he isn’t as passionate about it as Ardyn though they team up from time to time to get some honor points.

Gladio also loves the Brawler’s Guild.

He spends his free time there.

Or practicing his rotation on dummies while waiting for queue to pop.

Iris really hates it, when he smashes his keyboard while doing his warrior rotation. She can hear it all the way to her room.

It must be a warrior thing.

Inscription is his character’s profession and he eagerly volunteers to mill all the herbs in the guild bank for free.

He also loves crafting those Steamy Romance Novels.

He will often transmog his characters in silly non matching outfits, but he also has transmog sets if he needs to get more serious about it.

Badass warrior tiers sets look cool.

Battlelord is a cool title for him.

Gladio will be playing male dwarf, if on the Alliance side and male tauren, if on the Horde side.

Because dwarves are badass.

Ignis Scientia Subtlety | Rogue

At first, he wasn’t interested in gaming, but Noctis had him change his opinion of World of Warcraft.

He actually started playing, he began reading all the possible tips and guides online.

Now he knows everything.

Ignis could do his rotation in his sleep and he still practices it.

He was voted to be the Guild Master, when Noctis, Prompto and Gladio decided to form a guild of their own.

He secretly enjoys being the Guild Master.

He also became the raid leader due to his knowledge of raids and tactics. He knows exactly what classes to use in a boss fight and will instruct anyone if needed.

Ignis has to reassure Noctis and others that the key to beating a boss isn’t a DPS race.

He is often so immersed in his raid leading role, that he has his Cheat Death on cooldown constantly.

And he is also dead quite often.

If he happens to be the cause of a raid wipe, he’ll literally send an apology letter to everyone participating in the raid.

He is the loot master despite Noctis’s protests. He is also naturally a member of the loot council as his knowledge is invaluable.

But Ignis will gladly pass the loot for Noctis if he’s whining that he hasn’t gotten any loot again.

Ignis can often be found standing in the Auction House with a campfire placed next to him.

He knows his business and makes sure that the guild bank has enough money.

He has cooking skill maxed out.

And he is always looking out for new recipes!

Will desperately beg Noctis to share some of the fish he has caught.

He will be the one crafting all the buff foods and feasts for the raids.

Ignis loves to earn all the raid and dungeon achievements. He’ll make sure there is an event in the calendar for the guild to attempt the most hardcore ones.

So he does have all sorts of fancy titles and mounts from those achievements.

But he still uses the title he worked the hardest for: The Insane.

He also has the Loremaster, because he needed to know everything.

His characters would be a male worgen, if on the Alliance side and a male troll, if on the Horde side.

[books-on-the-brain]

So I used to read a whole bunch, but then I took a small break so that I could have an actual social life. Now I'm trying to get back into it but I've tried to... I just can't get into it. Do you have any suggestions of what I could do to get back into wanting to read more?

bI relate to this SO. MUCH. It’s always hard to find a good reading/life balance, since reading can often be a very isolating activity. It’s also really difficult around this time of year for younger readers, too, since a lot of us are getting back into the swing of it with school and such and find that we have much less time to be reading what we want. So without further ado…

How I cure “reader’s block”/being in a book rut!!!

1) First of all, there’s literally no shame in reading something because it’s short and you know you can get through it, or reading something you might consider a “beach read.” If it’s less daunting for you to pick up a 70-page romance novella than Tolstoy that is perfectly!!! okay!!! What matters is that you’re still reading and it’s making you happy, not that you have gained all the answers to the universe by reading a dry and endless classic.

2) Another good option is to reread something you know you really love/want to revisit. I find it’s typically easier to read something for the second or third time and if it’s been a while, then you’ll still be surprised by little things here and there and get the warm nostalgia fuzzies. For me, one of my old favorites to revisit is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I always read it at the beginning of the summer when I’m switching from all academic reading to personal reading (f i n a l l y) because I’m familiar enough with the story that it goes pretty quickly, but I still really love it.

3) In a similar vein, I find it really fun when I don’t want to sit down and read seriously to go back to some of my old favorites from childhood! For example, I loved the Deltora books by Emily Rodda when I was a kid and had some fun the other day going back through some of them and reminiscing. It has the potential to remind you of your love for stories and also in my case, it reminded my why I fell in love with fantasy at a young age and why I’m still so passionate about it! Reading children’s/middle grade/YA books is always acceptable and so much fun at any age.

4) This Barnes and Noble Reader article also suggests reading about books if you can’t actually read a book. As they explain it, find book blogs (like those on tumblr!) that speak to your interests and get you excited about picking up books. Other people’s enthusiasm goes a long way in encouraging you to also pick up a book to read!

5) If you can, find other avid readers and friends who you feel comfortable sitting in silence with! One of my favorite memories ever is sitting on my friend’s back porch and trading the books of the KARE First Love manga series back and forth. We played peaceful music in the background and so we were spending time as friends AND getting reading done. This lead us to discuss our favorite scenes and how we felt about certain translations (literally just because we like how to guy asked the main girl out in the online scantalation better than the printed book rip). But we ended up really getting into this series that in all honesty is kind of silly (despite the soft spot I have in my heart for it) and we joke about it all the time. Reading and socializing in one!

6) And speaking of manga…it’s always a great bridge for getting back into reading when it’s been a while, as are graphic novels! If you haven’t ever tried manga or graphic novels and don’t think it’s your rap at least give them a chance! I thought I hated them until I read Fullmetal Alchemist and fell in l o v e! You’re getting a story and doing some reading, but the pictures really help to ease you in so that you’re not necessarily devoting the same attention that you would be with a novel that’s just pages of text. As such, each volume is pretty quick depending on how long you linger on the drawings. If you already do love manga/graphic novels, then try picking up a new series you’ve been interesting in or rereading a series you already know you like!

Here are some graphic novel recommendations!

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (a story that does a fun take on the idea of the “bad guy” - it actually gave me way more feels than expected, and I loved the art style)

The new Ms. Marvel series written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Adrian Alphona (so do not confuse this with the old Ms. Marvel, this one is better in my opinion because our hero is your average teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City and it’s refreshing, amazing, adds diversity to the typically white/male dominated world of superheroes, and I am unabashedly in love with one of the main characters, Bruno)

Umbrella Academy written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Ba (this does another more twisted/dark take on the idea of the superhero story, if that’s something more up your alley. It’s the first book of a series I’ve really been loving lately, plus I trust Gerard Way’s taste in comics unequivocally and he wrote it so that’s a yes in my book!)

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (the intertwining stories of an American-Chinese boy trying to figure out his place in the world and the Monkey King of Chinese fable)

I did not include a special section for manga recommendations because most of what I read is probably not the sort of stuff to dive into after having reader’s block. Overall, the realm of shoujo might be a good place to look (things like Skip Beat!, Blue Spring Ride, Fruits Basket, and Kimi ni Todoke. Ouran High School Host Club and Dengeki Daisy were ones I really enjoyed too.)I also recently read Orange which is a fairly short series and easy to read - I loved it but major depression/suicide/mental illness tws there.In terms of shonen, Hunter x Hunter would be a good one because not only is it amazing, but it’s broken up into shorter yet very distinct story arcs which I feel would be easier if you’re trying to get back into reading. If someone has some more recs tho, please add!

7) Another variation of manga/graphic novels is online webtoons, which are basically digitized comics. I have recently discovered them and think they’re the best. things. ever. If you’re like me and you have a horrible habit of lying in bed scrolling absently through your phone before going to bed and after waking up, this might be good for you. I have slowly been replacing my mindless Facebook scrolling with scrolling through webtoons, which has been so amazing for my mental health! My favorite app is literally just called Webtoon or maybe Line Webtoon (the icon in the app store is a green speech bubble that says “Webtoon”).

For most webtoons, chapters are generally pretty short so it doesn’t take a lot of focus but once again, you’re still reading, and you’re still getting a good story, all while laying fetal position like you might while scrolling through Facebook or texting people before bed. Not to mention you’re supporting amazingly talented artists/individuals who are oftentimes not published and doing this for fun or with the hopes of eventually being published, so you can say you followed them from the start! Also since they update only a few times a week, it gives you something to look forward to on random days.

Here are my favorite story-oriented webtoons currently:

Assassin Roommate by Monica Gallagher. Super cute and quirky romance with a great female lead, also really great in terms of body diversity, and LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON I LOOK FORWARD TO TUESDAYS, THE DREADFUL DAY AFTER MONDAY

My Dear Cold-Blooded King by limelight. Just started this but it seems pretty cool??? The author has paired up with a musician so all the chapters have music which is lit af if I do say so myself

Silk and Briar by paragoing-paragon. I think this is on hiatus but it’s shaping up to be a brilliantly-constructed fantasy story with some crazy twists and turns

instantmiso’s stuff is also really popular (Where Tangents Meet and Siren’s Lament). It’s not as much up my alley as it is pretty fluffy romance and I’m not crazy about the writing, but she is an incredibly talented artist and has great music with her chapters. Her stuff is super good for an easy read without a ton of brain power/commitment, but I say that with immense respect for her talent and abilities! 

Cheese in the Trap by soonkki. This was also made into a K-Drama so I read the series and threw a little watch-party with some of my friends from my Korean class! Super good series and another great way to enjoy reading AND be social!

Here are the webtoons that are more “Sunday newspaper funnies”               style, where each chapter is a mini story:

Bluechair by Shen (this is WILDLY popular and I totally see why!!! These are hilarious and have cheered me up on many a rough night!!!)

Sapphie: The One-Eyed Cat by joho (feel-good, cute comic about cats that’s also pretty funny. I shamelessly read like a hundred chapters in one sitting.)

If none of this is appealing to you, there is always the audio option! If the actual act of your eyes scanning the page is difficult because you can’t focus on anything, there are a lot of options in this realm!

8) Local libraries usually have an audiobook section that is deeply neglected, but holds some secret treasures! Whenever I go on roadtrips, I always pick up two or three before I head out. They’re also perfect for when you do mindless tasks like sorting/folding laundry, walking a dog if you have one, waiting in long lines, or on your commute to and from school or work or any other similar activities. 

What’s cool is you can search for audiobooks based both on books you actually want to read, and whoever is narrating it. I know Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz had a super popular audiobook because Lin Manuel Miranda narrated it. If you want to pay, Audible is one of the most popular paid platforms for audiobooks. I haven’t personally used it, but it seems to be quite successful. One way or another, audiobooks are a good way to get back into reading without having to budget extra time to sit down with a book.

9) Podcasts can also help if you haven’t already explored those and are open to! Not all podcasts are TED talks, or political debates, or generally academic, or whatever they are stereotyped as. There are a ton that feel just like audiobooks, or at the very least like a play without any visuals. There’s a script and there’s a story and I know it’s helped me ease back into a mindset that preps me for reading because much like audiobooks you can listen to them all the time (I do so while cooking dinner and walking to classes) and it helps your mind switch from reality to the world of a story with relative ease if that makes sense. I’m pretty new to podcasts myself so don’t have a ton to recommend, but here’s what I’ve been enjoying….

Podcasts to look into:

Anything written by Mac Rogers. That includes The Message, Afterlife, and Steal the Stars. Personally, I like Steal the Stars and The Message more that Afterlife. They’re all sci-fi stories that are generally told from one perspective but you get to know amazing characters and I was not expecting the twists and turns. And Steal the Stars is still coming out so jump on the bandwagon now lol

The Adventure Zone from Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy at My Brother, My Brother and Me (another podcast which I have not listened to). The Adventure Zone is actually them playing Dungeons and Dragons, but they’re funny as all get out (the last place I lived had a communal kitchen for dozens of people and I was always laughing like and idiot while listening to this and making dinner and I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was nuts). Eventually the Dungeon Master gets super into the story telling and they script some of it with cool music. It’s really amazing and has a nice balance between story/characters but also the element of “real people” as they’re a bunch of brothers and they’re dad all just having fun. It’s a good bridge to getting back into reading.

Welcome to Nightvale is always a classic. It’s a bit trippy for me but tons of people enjoy it. The same team also produced a podcast called Alice Isn’t Dead. I honestly know nothing about it but one of my friends always raves about it, so it has his vote!

10) And okay so here’s my last suggestion. It might feel like a bit of a cop-out because I guess it kind of is, but it often works for me. So here it is. Sometimes it just helps to sit down and remember why you like to read in the first place. The fact that you’re actively trying to get back into it isn’t meaningless. It’s a very willful decision. So what is driving you? Maybe it’s because…

reading is an escape or a way for you to cope with difficult things in your life. This can be anything from mental illness, to school/work stress, to relationship dissatisfaction, difficult family or economic situations. Maybe you just are bored of our planet earth. Sometimes you might just need to be transported into another world for whatever reason and that is totally okay.

or reading inspires you to live your best life. Maybe there’s some character in a book you love that you look up to and aspire to be. Remember that passion you had when you were first getting to know that character, and that sense of being understood or finding a role model. Maybe you want to go on an adventure as wild as that character went on and that’s your idea of living your best life. Whatever the reason is, this sort of inspiration is a powerful emotion that books make us feel and sometimes that’s also a good reason to reread a book that’s inspired you.

and I don’t know, maybe you’re a writer yourself and you draw inspiration from reading in that sense. The more you read, the more you learn about what sort of writing you like and don’t like, and you grow stronger in your craft. Good readers help make good writers (but also don’t take that to mean that if you happen to be a writer and you’ve been in a book rut for a long time that you own skills are waning. we all get in book ruts and that’s okay. maybe it’s time to seek out a new source of inspiration in a different genre or new writer)

or perhaps you simply love stories. Maybe you breathe stories like other people breathe air and you can’t imagine that side of you not existing. If you’re one of these people, that makes reader’s block twice as hard. But that doesn’t mean that if you’re not turning pages that you’re not absorbing stories. Take it slowly and ease back into it with things I already mentioned like podcasts and webtoons.

One way or another, you’ll find your way back. Maybe this post will spark something. Maybe it won’t, and it will take another few months for you to really feel gungho about reading again. That’s all okay. Take your time. Enjoy being with friends and other activities. Do what’s healthiest and what works best for you. And eventually you’ll get back to reading a ton. However it happens, I wish you the best of luck!

[liaragaming]

I just want to clear some things up about Solas

I’ve seen a lot of comments like, “Why can’t Solas just let the past go?”

And “If Lavellan isn’t enough of a reason to not destroy this world, then what’s the point?”

The short answer is it’s not about the lost empire of the elves, and it’s not about Lavellan.

Put yourself in Solas’ shoes for a second.

We know Arlathan was just about as bad a Tevinter, and the elven gods were a very power hungry (and in some cases blood thirsty) group. Solas seeks to free his people from them by freeing the salves and leading a rebellion against them.

Now, something happened to that rebellion. Something didn’t work out. I have a theory that Mythal played a part in it (and that’s why she and Fen’Harel are depicted together in places), and that’s why the evanuris killed her. Whatever the case, something fell through, and Solas needed a new plan.

(Or they killed Mythal for some other reason and Solas got so pissed he said, “Screw this! New plan!” That works too, I guess.)

So he decides to create the veil and trap the evanuris behind it. Can you imagine the amount of power that required? Solas sleeps for ages after creating the veil and tells the Inquisitor he awoke still weak a year before the events at Haven. He’s so weak he can’t even unlock his own foci.

Holy hell. What kind of magic knocks you out for thousands of years?

And then Solas wakes up, and not only is everything he had hoped to save utterly destroyed but the world is completely changed. He admits to the Inquisitor that the people of Thedas weren’t even people to him at first. It was like walking through a world of tranquil.

Now, we as players have spent years in the world of Thedas. And our natural response is, “Psh, Solas. Get over yourself.” But put yourself in Solas’ shoes and consider that this world of Thedas that we know and love to Solas is more akin to a post-apocalyptic world.

Solas caused the freaking apocalypse.

I would encourage you to imagine the worst post-apocalyptic world you can think of where human beings are still alive but barely making due to the point that you wouldn’t recognize them as people at first. That’s how Solas sees Thedas.

But then Solas spends some time in that world, and gets to meet and know the people, even falls in love with one of them.

That’s the moment that changes everything, and then changes nothing.

Solas realizes he was misguided in his initial judgement of the people of this new world. But it doesn’t change his goal. Because his goal was never about making this world stable to support genuine life again. He just believed it wasn’t stable at all, and that made his goal a lot easier thinking the loss of these strange people wouldn’t amount to anything.

But now he knows it will. He knows ripping down the veil will cause the end of countless lives, and their blood will be on his hands. And it will likely include the blood of the people he cares about, maybe even loves.

It changes everything, but it can’t.

You’d think this would be enough for Solas to revise his plans. But he doesn’t because he can’t. This is stressed over and over again in game.

When you think about it, Solas’ plan really doesn’t make that much sense. How is killing everyone and effectively resetting the world restoring the elves? Because it’s not. Yes, magic will come back, but at worse everyone will be reset to hunter/gatherer status and he’s just hoping after so many eons, the elves will eventually regain the empire.

Which sounds like quite the stretch, to be honest.

On top of that, this extremely thin chance to “restore” the elves will likely end in his death (possibly because tearing down the veil will also require an enormous amount of power and he’s not as strong as he was). He says this in Trespasser to a Lavellan who asks to join him.

That’s a hell of risk for such a slim chance, and then consider that Solas doesn’t even really want to do this. The whole game, he’s all about helping people and approves when you as a player do it. Even in Trespasser, banter from Cole reveals that Solas doesn’t want to hurt anyone (this coming from the spirit who has no qualms killing people who want to kill other people and yet still holds Solas dear).

Why continue down this path if (a) he’ll likely die doing it, (b) it doesn’t really restore what was lost, and ( c) he’s really not that into it?

Because he can’t.

Solas carries a lot of guilt and self-loathing.

This can be easy to overlook if you’re not paying attention and you don’t choose the right dialogue options.

I strongly suggest revisiting Trespasser and listening to the weight of his voice as he talks. Even for a low-approval Inquisitor, you can hear how hard it is for him to explain he’s Fen’Harel. He’s not happy or proud to be back in this role. He liked being just Solas. It was much simpler.

If you choose the “You fought for freedom / I know you’re not evil / My people were wrong” thumbs up option, he’ll reject the notion, saying that he doesn’t deserve the credit.

It’s also worth listening to his explanation of what happened to the elves (as he walks with the Inquisitor over to the ruins). He’s particularly weighty during that part (before you have the chance to ask questions). And he specifically tells you, he destroyed the elves.

After he explains his plan to tear down the veil and destroy the world, if you choose the “truly?” option, the Inquisitor will say that they never thought of Solas as someone who would do such a thing. His composure breaks for a moment and he says a soft, “Thank you.”

He knows what he’s done and what he’s capable of, and he doesn’t like that part of himself. And he doesn’t forgive himself for it either.

Saving Solas from himself

At the end of Trespasser, an Inquisitor set on redeeming Solas vows to “save our friend from himself.” That hit me as odd the first time because I’d gotten so caught up in the revelations and hadn’t explored the “correct” dialogue options to realize what was going on.

“Solas is determined to help the elves, right? Sounds like a pretty solid plan. What’s this save him from himself about?”

tl;dr Solas’ ultimate plan isn’t to restore the elves, but to fix his mistake. Everything Solas fought to save by creating the veil was effectively destroyed by it. The guilt of that weighs on him to the point that he can’t let it go. He will rectify his mistake by tearing the veil down, even if it means his death, even if it doesn’t actually restore the elves, even if everyone he cares about dies along with countless innocents. He is the reason the elves fell, and he cannot live with that on his conscience. He has to try.

Resorting Arlathan isn’t the point.

Finding value in this world isn’t the point.

Falling in love with Lavellan isn’t the point.

His guilt is. And it’s strong enough to take him and the rest of the world down with him.

And that’s why he needs saving from himself.

Bonus - More Guilt!

Didn’t fit above, but worth pointing out:

(1) Solas put up the veil, which took magic from everyone. And then traveling with you, he gets to see first hand the after effects of the Mage Templar War - people driven from their homes, cold and starving; families torn apart; people killing each other over fear and hatred.

I have no doubt the irony isn’t lost on Solas that this war never would have happened if the veil hadn’t been created and made magic scarce enough for people to fear it.

(2) Lavellan romance. Solas states repeatedly that his interest in the relationship is “selfish.” He says he’s “furious” with himself after breaking the relationship off. And at least once he tells her she deserves better (special mention goes to the “I’m not giving up on you” break up option where his response is “you truly should”). And even though he refuses to discuss it, that’s still weighing on him to the point that he feels he has to give her some kind of an explanation at the end game before he disappears. I’m not even going to get into how it’s still weighing on him in Trespasser.

(3) Mythal. He killed his best friend. I mean, damn. Not to mention, it’s the very act he doomed the evanuris to an eternity of punishment for and believed they - and now himself - deserve. Double damn.

(4) Solas’ biggest fear is of dying alone. He knows the path he walks is hard, that his choices create enemies. He expects to be alone at the end, with no one to mourn him.

(5) Let’s face it, there’s probably lots more, including stuff we don’t know about.

Do people realize the amount of guilt this guy is carrying around? Is this starting to make sense now? AM I SCREAMING INTO THE ABYSS?!?!

Believe it or not, I told myself this morning I was NOT going to write an essay on what’s going on inside Solas’ head.

EDITS:

(6) Thanks to @bearlytolerable​ for pointing this out, but freaking spirits! They used to exist in conjunction with reality. And now, with the creation of the veil, the shock of passing into reality is enough to turn many of them into demons. Solas’ responsibility for this isn’t lost on him.

[nonsubstantial]

EVERY ALBUM I LOVED FROM 2016

alright. long list, but if you’re looking for music recommendations, save this somewhere. and fyi, these aren’t just albums I simply liked. every album on this list I loved, meaning that I probably listened to it at least 5 times, and that it had some special significance to me as a listener. I’ll start with the best first, and go roughly in order of importance. Lastly, the best way to know what you’ll like is just to listen, so I linked one song from each.

1. Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition

10 out of 10. My favorite album of 2016, and all time. Danny Brown became a pretty prolific name amongst people discussing experimental hip hop following his 2012 album, XXX, which focused on themes drug abuse, poverty, and the music industry... but with a uniquely personal and self reflective take. What interested me most was that his commentary on working with music could be abstracted into analysis of all forms of art, and I feel like that refreshingly analytical perspective, interspersing crude humour and bleak narratives, was what cemented the album as the classic it is today. His new album though, surpassed even that. The narrative depth here is on another fucking level. Everything I just praised XXX for is also true of Atrocity Exhibition, but instead of being drawn to certain standout moments on the album (like I was with XXX), literally the entire album feels like a standout moment. Every song carries a unique tone and a deep story worthy of intense investigation, and each is different and memorable, even compared to the other songs on the album. That variety means that no matter what mood I’m in, I can usually find some emotional payoff in at least one track. However, the album as a whole is not without a narrative thread. And that thread is Danny Brown himself. XXX invited us the see the humanity behind his music, and even if one couldn’t agree with or appreciate every set of bars, it still allowed for appreciation of Danny Brown as a fellow human being; to find value in learning from his flaws, which he was never shy about. He went as far as to ask in a chorus “what the fuck I got to lie for?”. His personality is explored to an even greater, and even more authentic extent on Atrocity Exhibition. Not to mention that if you appreciate experimental and meticulous production, this album delivers what feels like the contemporary payoff of the entire music industry’s sound refinement efforts over the past few decades. Every song is a fucking treat, genre blending ear candy for people who seek a wide variety of sound and style. A type of detail in its creation that still pays off even on my (presumably) 100th listen. Barring the specifics of what makes each individual song so great, in my honest opinion, it doesn’t get any better than this.

2. The Drones - Feelin Kinda Free

This album goes hard as hell. In the way that Danny Brown’s album reflects upon the self, this album reflects upon society, and easily delivers more intelligent and elegiac political commentary than I could ever imagine writing into music. Taman Shud (linked) has got to be my favorite song of the entire year, addressing sensationalism in politics and media by using a notably Australian example to show how generalizing nuanced issues for the sake of appealing to the greatest audience of laypeople surrenders authenticity and impedes efforts of finding suitably nuanced solutions to those problems... and the rest of the album isn’t subdued either. I need also to mention the song Shut Down SETI, because not only does it reflect exactly why my massive childhood interest in extraterrestrials eventually tapered out, but I think that many things can be explained as the product of subtle egotism, and it’s important to try to analyze our behavior through that lens. The instrumentation is nice change of pace for this band, since their iconic blues guitar lead really met its apex on their 2013 album, I See Seaweed, and fortunately, the band was diligent enough to make it sound like they’ve always been producing this kind of eccentric noise rock.

3. Street Sects - End Position

Contender for the most fucked up album on this list. It’s a roller coaster of horror and industrial noise, but it’s not without something deep to say. I think it ends up being profound in the way that it combines horror at the implicit ideological failings of society with horror at the explicit violence committed by people in society who feel forsaken. I don’t think I’ve ever started listening to this album and not felt compelled to keep listening for as long as possible. The wide variety of samples and noises keep it constantly interesting, and the tone of both those samples and the vocal performances flow as water from one idea to the next. In fact, every song bleeds into the next, and the album’s tension never slows down completely until about halfway through the last song, where its roller coaster finally screeches to a halt.

4. Kero Kero Bonito - Bonito Generation

The most personally uplifting album on this list. One of Kero Kero Bonito’s previous songs, Sick Beat, is notable for being the greatest video gamer anthem ever produced, but unfortunately I felt like the rest of that first album lacked the kind of depth that the single had. All of the songs on their newest album, however, are memorable and thought provoking in the same way that Sick Beat was. Their oldest song that made it onto this project, Picture This, is about how the ability to take photos and selfies has become fundamental to our understandings of ourselves and others. Every word of that song is massively important, and manages to do justice to both the intimacy of creating art and the delight in being able to share it. One other song, Graduation, is literally about graduating from college, and holy shit if it didn’t perfectly encapsulate my experience of receiving my undergrad degree, the very same semester that the song came out, complete with both my enthusiasm and disillusionment towards the college experience!! I also can’t stop gaily repeating the line from Break, where the singer, Sarah Midori Perry, casually croons “I’ve got a smile on my face. cause now I’m taking a break” ... every time I, you know, take a break. I honestly can’t recommend this enough. Every song is deeply memorable, motivating, and motivated in its own intent: to portray life as beautiful and vibrant.

while 1-4 are masterpieces that have affected me on a deeply personal level, 5-11 I would still consider artistic successes that excel in almost every way. I loved every song on these albums and highly encourage everyone to listen:

5. Death Grips - Bottomless Pit

6. Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone

7. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3

8. Weezer - The White Album

9. Vektor - Terminal Redux

10. Ştiu Nu Ştiu - Fake End

11. Fire! - She Sleeps, She Sleeps

the rest of this list I still highly enjoyed and would still highly recommend. while I don’t think they’re as profound as 1-11, I have consistently enjoyed them and I hope to relisten to them many more times:

12. Deerhoof - The Magic

13. G.L.O.S.S. - TRANS DAY OF REVENGE

14. case/lang/viers - case/lang/viers

15. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

16. Uyama Hiroto - freeform jazz

17. Show Me The Body - Body War

18. Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas - Mariner

19. Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing

20. Crying - Beyond the Fleeting Gales

21. Young Thug - Slime Season 3

22. The Body - No One Deserves Happiness

23. Childish Gambino - “Awaken, My Love!”

24. Blank Banshee - MEGA

25. Princess nokia - 1992

26. Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events

27. Katie Dey - Flood Network

28. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation

29. A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

30. The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns With The Devil In Confessional

31. Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered.

32. Beyoncé - Lemonade

33. Jerry Paper - Toon Time Raw!

34. The Avalanches - Wildflower

35. KRIMEWATCH - demo

36. Xenia Rubinos - Black Terry Cat

37. Ulcerate - Shrines of Paralysis

38. The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time

[carishio-blog]

Let's Talk About Ships in the RWBY Fandom!

I've been involved in the RWBY Fandom now for almost a year. I hopped on after the end of Volume 3, and it admittedly took me a long time to get into the show and give it the fair shake it deserved. When I finally did, I finished the entire show in a day and fell in love with the adventures of Team RWBY as well as the amazing side characters. There are way too many for me to even possibly list, so I won't get into names in specifics. After watching it, I decided I wanted to get involved with others who loved the show like me, and that served as my introduction to the fandom as a whole. I liked Facebook pages and joined groups, as well as even got into the art of role playing which has become a staple in my life. It's lead to me making great friends that will last a lifetime, and I can't thank the show enough for it. However, as I delved deeper into the fandom as a whole, I began learning about something that I didn't realize was so popular: shipping. When I first heard the term, I was very confused about what it meant and what its purpose was, but I quickly learned thanks to a few people. At first, I only shipped Arkos because it was canon for those three beautiful seconds, and I thought that was the criteria for a ship. I soon learned so much more about it and moved away from Arkos in favor of other stuff that piqued my interest, most notably Snowbird thanks to a very special someone in my life. I loved seeing the art of all these different couples and characters together, since some were just adorable beyond belief for me. I had a blast talking about just about any ship with anyone since everyone seemed so relaxed and calm about it. Then I encounter something that I should've been prepared for, yet young, naive me didn't see coming: toxicity. I soon discovered the ongoing war between Bumblebee (I know it's also Bumbleby, but I prefer the former) and Black Sun. This was when I weighed in with my honest opinions on the characters as a whole and discussed what I liked better. I talked about how I didn't like Yang and found her pretty uninteresting, and how I felt Sun was the better option. Those comments led to a lot of people being very unhappy with me, calling me a homophobe for not liking Bumblebee and a hater because I don't like Yang. Hearing hateful comments like that really discouraged me, especially since I believed this fandom was so much different from other ones I heard about. I was proven wrong and since have tried to limit my opinion on Ships (which hasn't proven very helpful... I can flip flop a lot of the time). However, recently I have read a lot of posts about why Bumblebee will be canon, why it's been foreshadowed along with many other ships, and I wanted to discuss my opinion on something important. Disclaimer: This is NOT a Bumblebee hate post or rant. Just because I do not like the ship doesn't mean I will hate someone for liking it. If you can find something you enjoy about it where I can't, more power to you. I love having reasonable discussions about things like this with friends, but I cannot stand when people try to force their opinions on me by throwing their beliefs at me without even wanting to listen to my reasons. So, with that being said let me get to my main point. When we discuss something that we hold near and dear to our hearts, we get biased about it. I know most likely all of you who read this don't follow professional sports, but for those who do they'll get where I'm coming from. When I talk about my favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, I will get biased about my team and talk about how great they are, even when they are horrible. However, I also understand that my team has flaws, ones that I cannot fix and hope that the people who are in charge of the team will. Ships and sports teams from this standpoint are one in the same. When we talk about our love for Bumblebee, Snowbird, or whatever we want to ship, we will get biased and defend our opinions on why our couple is the best one. There's nothing wrong with liking a ship and wanting to defend it, but at the same time it does become time to face facts and understand that your world does not revolve around it. The show itself does not revolve around it. Even though we all talk about how we want the writers to do something to make our ship happen, most of us understand that that's impossible because it takes away from the show and ruins the vision of the creators. However, the vocal minority doesn't want this. I say Bumblebee is the biggest offender of this only because that's the ship I've seen it the most with. That doesn't mean other ships aren't guilty of this, because we all are. I'm simply going on experiences I've had. I've seen people basically get to the point where they make it out to seem that Blake and Yang's entire lives revolve around each other and their actions are all because of the other person, and that is something I simply cannot stand. Romantic subplots are fine, but they do need to be done right under good circumstances. Let me describe it with one of my favorite pieces of animation: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (Which I will refer to as FMA or Brotherhood from here on out). The love between Ed and Winry is very apparent throughout the entire show, and is even blatantly mentioned by Winry multiple times: once when she's leaving Amestris to go back to Rush Valley and again while at Fort Briggs repairing Ed's automail. The romantic subplot is there clearly, but never does it overshadow the plot. Ed's mission stays the same throughout the show, and only a few minor detours are made because of these feelings. However, never do his motives and character completely change because of his love for Winry. He still wants to get Al his body back and stop the Homonculi after uncovering their schemes. The same can be said for the RWBY Fandom, and it's something we need to understand as shippers. The plot does not and should not revolve around your OTP. We all have different reasons for starting to watch RWBY in the first place, but I think one fact we can all agree on is that the plot is damn good most of the time. The show has an engaging story that is pretty simple to follow (even though there are some plot holes revolving around the science of the world), and the characters mesh into the story nicely. I know I enjoyed Weiss' arc in Volume 4 a great deal because of how much we learned about her as a person as well as her family. We can tell that the rest of the Schnee's will play a major role in the plot for the rest of the series after that, whether it be through Weiss' personal story or even something bigger down the line. We simply do not know yet, and that excites me. I love being left to wonder what people are really up to and trying to understand them by studying their actions. I also very much enjoyed learning more about Salem and her men, as Tyrian, Watts and Hazel all seem like very promising and great additions to the show and their actions. I'm truly excited about learning about Lionheart to see what Watts has planned with him. With that being said, they're the main focus. Team RWBY are the main characters (with Ruby really being protag kun even if she doesn't act like it), and Salem and her team are the antagonistic force. Anything else, including Weiss' family and Adam vs Blake is secondary and side stuff for each of those characters to face. To say that a romantic development between two characters should be front and center or that their actions are all happening because of the other is not fair. Characters have their own goals and aspirations that do not revolve around their "lover". This is a problem that I see a a majority of the time. People make it look like their ship is taking the spotlight of the character, and it should clearly be seen that a romantic relationship is growing because of it. That is not the case at all. That should never be the case, because then you are left with a very weak character with nothing remotely relatable about them or even likable in most cases. Personal feelings aside for Yang and Blake (since I prefer one a lot more than the other), both do have goals that drive them: Yang wants to find her mother and be a good sister for Ruby, while Blake wants to stop Adam and take back the White Fang. These goals are what these characters stand for and want to accomplish, and anything else is really secondary. Love is not in their foreseeable futures in my opinion, just like basically the entire rest of the cast. A show that revolves around romance (unless it is a romance genre theme) is not interesting unless there is good plot behind it. Shows like FMA, Samurai Jack, Hunter X Hunter and Avatar represent this very well. While there are some romantic themes if any at all that show up in it, they never overshadow the plot and character growth, and never does the romance cause a character to change completely and help them grow. That should never be the case in shows like this, since at least for me that's a cop out and a weak excuse for character development. We watch RWBY for great story telling and interesting characters, not romance. A ship is nice, but it shouldn't be your main focus. Your life will not end because your OTP didn't become canon. The show will not be ruined for you either, and if it is I can say you weren't truly a fan of the show. A real fan wouldn't let something so meaningless ruin something so great for them. No matter what you ship, I will respect your opinion and not discourage you from liking it. I want everyone to have an enjoyable and fun experience in the fandom like I have had for almost a year now. However, I also want people to be educated and understand that we cannot let a ship ruin a show for someone or let it dictate how we view characters. We as a whole need to understand that our OTPs aren't what dictate the show. Don't let your personal bias cloud your mind and make you think irrationally. Understand that everyone has different views, and just because you throw up a chart or long passage about why your OTP makes the most sense and while it will be canon no matter what you say, it doesn't mean everyone will agree with you. We as humans do not accept definitive answers, and what I am saying here is not a definitive answer to shipping wars in the fandom. I simply just want people to see that we need to be educated and appreciate the show instead of fighting over a ship or making people see how your way is best. For those that took the time to read this post, thank you. I hope you learned something from this and can move on more knowledgeable than when you started. I love you guys as a fandom and hate seeing people ruining it for others as well as trying to ruin it for me because they want to make their opinion the only right one. I understand this is the internet and nobody can agree on it, but I just wanted to voice my opinion on the matter and make us all view Ships in a different light. They're fun to think about, but don't let it dictate your love for the show. I love you RWBY Fandom, and let's keep moving forward and always strive to improve and help each other out. -Carishio

[queen-of-deans-booty]

Coffee and Love Notes

Characters: Sam x Reader, Dean (only mentioned a couple of times)

Word Count: 3,344

Warning: None

Summary: You work at the local cafe and one particular customer grabs your attention. 

All your life you strived for something more, something better than what you already had. All your life, you took in each moment and made the best of it. All your life, you opened new doors to better experiences and lived your life to the fullest.

Working as a barista in the local coffee shop wasn’t seizing the day. You had a problem; you had all these plans and no money to actually complete them so you worked at the coffee shop in town. Usually, you would work somewhere where they made better money but a family friend owned the place and they paid you more than what the other workers did.

You never told anyone how much you made because to others, it wouldn’t seem fair and you sometimes didn’t think so. But so far, you are filling up jars and jars of money to afford to take a couple weeks off to go to Europe.

It’s been a dream of yours to travel outside of the country and you’re slowly making your way there. In the meantime, you were stuck making coffee for other people. You were lucky to be behind the counter because every single one of your customers gets a little note written on their cup to make their day brighter.

There were some times where you tried to get a guy interested in you but it never worked; yet, you always tried.

You were working, one morning, when you heard the bell ring, signaling that someone had entered the store. Usually, if it’s before 9, you got the elderly people who lived right across the street and it was peaceful and quiet before the rush came.

So you weren’t expecting a 6’4”, giant, handsome man to walk to the counter. You stared into the most beautiful eyes you’ve ever seen. They were a swirl of green and brown, making them a gorgeous hazel color. His hair was chestnut brown, coming to his shoulders but he made it work. He had a bit of a scruff but that only added to his attractiveness. He was built and you could tell. Even if he was wearing three layers of clothing.

“Hi?” He asked. You hadn’t said anything to him since he walked up and you blushed hard. His light pink, thin lips was what brought you back to reality.

“I’m so sorry, what can I get for you?” You put on your best smile and stood next to the computer.

“Yeah, can I get a large coffee with 3 pumps of sugar and two creams?” You could tell a lot about a person by the coffee they wanted and you could tell that this man was pretty laid back. He liked to keep to himself but was sociable when applicable.

“Sure, anything else?” You typed his order on the screen.

“No, that’s all.” He got out his wallet and you looked at his hands. You couldn’t believe how big they were compared to your tiny ones. Well they were tiny compared to his but big compared to your friends.

“That will be $5.50,” You grabbed the cash he handed to you and gave him his change quickly. “What’s your name?” You grabbed the coffee cup and a sharpie, ready to write his beautiful name down.

“Sam.” He smiled and you nodded, watching him walk off and take a seat by the window. You happened to notice that he was carrying a laptop and decided to do some work on it. You bit your lip and got ready to work on his order.

A few minutes later, you had his steamy cup of coffee ready and you took out your sharpie and began to write on his cup.

“Sam!” You called out when you were finished. You saw the tall man get up at the mention of his name and walk over to you. He gave you a warm smile as he took his drink.

“Thank you.” You nodded and went back to cleaning the machines; it was something you did when you had no customers. You watched Sam out of the corner of your eyes as he took his seat.

Sam sat back down and went back to researching for another case. Dean was bugging on his ass all morning and he couldn’t handle it anymore so he grabbed what he needed and decided to do research at the local coffee shop.

When he walked inside, his eyes landed on the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen after Jess. Of course, he didn’t act on these feelings since anyone who knows him ends up dead and he didn’t want to take your life from you.

He was about to take a sip of his drink when he spotted dainty handwriting on his cup.

You make it kind of hard not to stare. ;)

Sam sho0t his head up to the counter but didn’t see anyone looking at him. He shifted his gaze to you, watching you as you cleaned the machines but thought that you couldn’t have put this note on here. For one, there were other people besides you back there. He caught the eyes of a few girls who blushed and looked away but he always seemed to be watching you at the end.

What Sam didn’t know was that you were staring at him; you just were really good at hiding it from him. You saw his reaction and couldn’t help but blush but had to pretend like it wasn’t you that sent him that message.

You didn’t know why you were acting like this; if you saw someone you wanted, you made it known that you were interested but it was like you wanted to tease him a little and to keep him guessing. You only know this guy’s name but you hoped to know more as time went on.

--

The next morning, you were at the same place behind the counter as you made one of the elderly customer’s her regular coffee. You heard the bell ring and you looked to see who it was. Your heart sped up a little as you saw it was Sam.

Sam had been on your mind all night; so much so that you could barely sleep. You bet that he had that effect on most girls. You shook those thoughts out of your head as you tried to concentrate the task at hand.

You handed the woman her drink and smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mrs. Barker.”

“Of course dear, don’t work too hard.” She put her change in the tip jar that was titled: Y/N’s trip to Europe!

“Thank you, I’ll try not to.” She walked away just as Sam walked up to the counter.

“She seems nice.” He commented.

“Yeah, she’s one of the best costumers here. She doesn’t really like to cause too much trouble.” You saw his gaze go to the tip jar and back to you.

“You want to go to Europe?”

“Oh yeah, I am almost to my goal and hopefully, in a couple of months, I will have enough money. I won’t probably take the trip until summer but still, it’s more for me, really. I need to venture out more and explore what earth has to offer.” You said with a smile.

“Well then, consider this me helping you.” He took out a hundred and dropped it in the jar.

“No, Sam, I can’t let you do that.” You started to protest; you didn’t want to take his money from him.

“I want to; you need it way more than I do.” He gave you a wide, dimpled smile and you fell harder than yesterday.

“Don’t worry about your coffee, it’s on the house.” You knew just what he liked but you didn’t want him to think you were some creep so you waited for him to order.

“I can pay, seriously, it’s fine. I want you to pursue this. Live life to the fullest.” He told you what he wanted and you put it in the computer.

“It’s $5.50.” You took the cash he gave you and was about to give him the change when he shook his head.

“Keep it.”

“No, Sam, you take it, you’ve done enough for me already.” You took his impossibly large hand and placed the money in his hand.

“Okay, fine,” He was about to walk away when he turned back to you. “You remembered my name.”

“What?” your head shot up and your eyes locked with his.

“My name; you remembered my name. I would think with all the customers you have, you would forget someone like me.” He gave you a wink and walked back to his spot he sat at yesterday. Your shoulders slumped a bit as you watched him walk away but you were sad; if you could have heart eyes, you would have them right now.

Before he caught you staring, you decided it would be best to make his drink for him. When you were done, you got out your Sharpie and went to work to write yet another note for him.

“Sam!” You said with a smile. He got up from his spot and walked over to you, taking the cup in his hand.

“Thank you, Y/N.” You watched him walk away with surprise. How did he know your name? You blushed hard when you remembered you had a name tag on your apron. You didn’t know how he could read your name tag; it was written in chalk. Your boss thought it was a good idea to have everyone wear mini black boards as a name tag and have you write your names in chalk. It seemed cool at first but then every week, sometimes two times a week, you had to rewrite your name since it rubbed off.  

Sam took a sip of his coffee, thinking this one was better than the last. He really thought you were cute. In all honesty, the first time he came in was because he wanted to get away from Dean. However, this time, he wanted to see you.

He knew he shouldn’t get involved with you but he couldn’t help it. There was something about you that sparked his interests. Once again, some black ink caught his eyes and he looked at his cup.

I like it when you smile; it’s cute. 

A small blush came about his face and he looked up towards the counter but frowned when he didn’t see anyone looking at him. All he saw were workers doing their thing and you, standing on a ladder to write the specials on the specials board.

He looked down in confusion at his cup. He kept his last cup, thinking that the messages could be from you but you made no indication that it was. He wanted to know who was sending him messages and with being such a skilled hunter, he would.

--

The next morning, you heard the bell ring and in walked Sam. You smiled brightly as you walked to the register and looked at him.

“Large coffee with 3 sugars and 2 creams?” You asked as you typed it into the computer. He let out one of the most beautiful laughs you’ve ever heard and nodded.

“That’s right. $5.50, correct?” You blushed softly and nodded. He handed you a $20 and quickly got his change. You did notice Sam put his change in your tip bar as you got out the large cup, writing his name on it.

“You know, you always sit in the same place and order the same drink. Granted, it’s only been three days but still.” You looked up at him.

“Glad you’re observant.” He chuckled and walked to his usual seat. He didn’t have his laptop but he did have a book. You leaned against the counter, content with watching Sam read or be on his laptop for hours but you had a job to do. Sighing, you got straight to work.

This time, you decided to walk Sam his drink instead of having him come up to you. He looked like he didn’t want to be disturbed so you quietly set the drink in front of him and began to walk away. A hand on your wrist stopped you though.

“Thank you.” He smiled with his dimples very prominent and you blushed, nodding. He let you go and you quickly walked into the back to get more boxes full of supplies you needed to stock up on.

Sam took a sip but remembered of the notes he has been given but frowned when he didn’t see one immediately. He turned the cup around, smiling when he found it.

I was actually attracted to your personality, but I like that you look good too.

Sam laughed out loud at that one, looking up at the counter. Once again, no one was looking at him. He directed his gaze to you coming out of the supply closet with three boxes that looked to be heavy. He immediately got up, abandoning his book and coffee to go help you.

“Hey, let me help you.” He took two boxes out of your arms with ease.

“Oh Sam, thank you.” You blushed hard and looked at him. You let him walk behind the counter as you set them on the floor and looked at him. He realized that he shouldn’t be back there and quickly made his way to the front of the counter.

“Hey can I ask you a question?” You looked up at him and nodded. “Do you know who is writing these letters to me?” You feigned confusion and tilted your head.

“What letters?” With a couple of strides, he grabbed his coffee and made it back to you. He showed you the cup and you immediately recognized your own handwriting. But you decided to keep up this façade a little longer.

“Maybe someone has a crush on you.” You teased him a little.

“Yeah but who? Do you know who makes the drinks?” You bit your lip and stared at him.

“All of us do; there could be a number of girls who write stuff like that.” He furrowed hi brow in concentration and nodded.

“Okay, thanks.” He walked away and you tried to hide the smile that crept up on your face. Men, no matter how gorgeous they were, could be so clueless sometimes.

--

Yet another day has gone by and Sam still was having trouble finding his secret admirer. The writing on the cup was the same on all three so it was the same person so it made it a little easier. He walked into the shop and a small smile found its way to his face.

You were at the counter, cleaning one of the machines. You looked very concentrated and he couldn’t help but notice how your tongue poked out between your lips. He chuckled and walked up to the counter.

“Hey Y/N.” Your head popped up at the sound of your name and saw Sam standing there.

“Oh, Sam, hey. The usual?” He nodded and you stopped what you were doing to punch in his order. You didn’t have to say his total because he was shoving a twenty in your hand. This was clockwork now; you get the money, make his change, and in 5 minutes, his drink was ready to serve. You handed him back his change to which he dropped in the tip jar.

You gave up on trying to protest because that only made him more generous. You were glad he was wealthy enough to keep doing this but you also felt bad because you felt like you were taking his money.

“So how close are you to reaching your goal?” Sam asked as you made his drink.

“Very close. Sam, I’m so excited because this is the first real thing I get to do on my own. Everyone always told me that I couldn’t do it but I’m showing them. I’m so proud of myself.” You said with a smile.

“I’m proud of you. I’m glad you’re doing something exciting.” He smiled.

“Speaking of doing things, you must have a life outside of this. What do you do?” You asked innocently. Sam couldn’t tell you what he did. He couldn’t put your life at risk like that; just talking to him is putting you at risk.

“I save lives.” He put it vaguely. He hoped that it would satisfy you enough to not ask more questions.

“What, you’re like a doctor or something?” You chuckled to yourself.

“Or something.” Sam said softly. You could tell that he didn’t want to talk about it and frankly, you weren’t going to make him.

“Right, well, here is your coffee.” You couldn’t write him a little note because he was staring at you the whole time. He grabbed it and walked back to his normal seat. You watched as he took a sip.

Sm immediately checked for a note but frowned when he didn’t see one. The cogs in his brain started turning as he tried to figure out who was writing him these notes. He frowned and looked up, his gaze zeroing in on your name tag. He studied your handwriting on the nametag. Tomorrow, he would definitely find out what was going on.

--

The next morning, Sam was excited to come in. He had a really good idea on who it was but he needed to know for sure. There you were, behind the counter, making the customer’s their drinks.

“Hey, Y/N.” Sam said as he strolled up.

“Sam! Hi!” You handed another worker the order you were making, telling them what to do so you could be the one to take his order. When you walked up to the counter, you saw Sam had already placed a $10 bill on the counter.

You chuckled and typed in his order, taking the money from him and giving him his change. This time, he didn’t put it in the jar, but pocketed it; not that you minded. You watched him walk back to his seat and you thought this was your chance to write him a note this time.

This time, you were going to tell him out you feel and if he can figure it out, then more power to him. You got straight to work on this one.

“Sam!” You called out his name. He shot up out of his seat by the window and grabbed the coffee cup. He smiled at you and took a sip. You waited for him to walk away but he didn’t; he looked at the note you left him instead.

I’ve fallen for you and I kind of don’t know what to do now.

His eyes snapped up to meet yours but you were looking down, blushing. You weren’t normally like this around guys but Sam wasn’t just your typical guy. He was way more gorgeous than anyone you’ve ever met and he probably had a girlfriend and or someone clinging to him all the time.

He reached over and fitted two fingers under your chin and lifted your head to make you look at him.

“Would you let me take you out?” He gave you a dimpled smile and you nodded.

“Yeah, I would, I get off at 3 today and I’m free after that.” Sam knew what a risk it was, trying to take you out but in this moment, seeing you smile at him like that, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he takes you out and spend as much time as he could, with you, without you getting hurt.

Flash forward to a few years in the future and you and Sam were happily together. You met Dean, found out about the supernatural world, went on a few hunts, and lived in the Bunker. You quit your job and yes, you went on your Europe trip with Sam for your one year anniversary, the year you knew you loved Samuel Winchester.  

[bountyofbeads]

We’ve been very weak’: House Democrats decry their oversight of Trump, push Pelosi on impeachment

By Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey | Published September 22 at 3:14 PM ET |

Washington Post | Posted September 22, 2019 6:05 PM ET |

Democrats’ frustration with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unwillingness to impeach President Trump is reaching a fever pitch following reports that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival — a step the California Democrat declined to endorse Sunday.

An increasingly vocal group of House Democrats are starting to dismiss their own oversight of Trump as feckless, even accusing their colleagues of emboldening the president by refusing to stand up to what they see as lawless behavior.

At the very least, these Democrats say, the House should be taking more aggressive action to break the unprecedented White House stonewalling, possibly even fining defiant Trump officials, an idea Pelosi dismissed this year.

“At this point, the bigger national scandal isn’t the president’s lawbreaking behavior — it is the Democratic Party’s refusal to impeach him for it,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a longtime impeachment backer, tweeted late Saturday night. “It is one thing for a sitting president to break the law. It’s another to let him. . . . The GOP’s silence & refusal to act shouldn’t be a surprise. Ours is.”

Even House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), an impeachment skeptic and Pelosi ally, suggested impeachment might be inevitable and called reports of Trump requesting that a Ukrainian leader investigate a business connected to former vice president Joe Biden’s son “the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office.”

Trump suggested Sunday that he mentioned Biden and his son Hunter in a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump has denied that he did anything wrong amid questions about whether he used his power to seek help from a foreign country for his reelection bid.

“I have been very reluctant to go down the path of impeachment . . . this would be an extraordinary remedy of last resort, not first resort,” Schiff said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But if the president is essentially withholding military aid at the same time that he is trying to browbeat a foreign leader into doing something illicit that is providing dirt on his opponent during a presidential campaign, then that may be the only remedy that is coequal to the evil that that conduct represents.”

Pelosi clearly is feeling the pressure. In a rare Sunday afternoon “Dear Colleague” letter — sent to Republicans and Democrats — the speaker called for the director of national intelligence to turn over the whistleblower complaint detailing Trump’s interactions with Ukraine. Pelosi threatened an unspecified escalation in House action if they refuse — but notably stopped short of impeachment.

“If the administration persists in blocking this whistleblower from disclosing to Congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the president, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation,” she wrote.

The growing calls to impeach Trump — or do something bold to confront the White House — follows an embarrassing week for House Democrats. Many feel increasingly helpless in fighting the White House’s obstruction as Pelosi looks to the courts to uphold congressional subpoenas, a process that has taken months and could drag out for years.

On Tuesday, Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, infuriated Democrats with his behavior at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, mocking lawmakers on the panel, talking over them and promoting his own potential Senate campaign. 

Several Democrats on the panel privately pressed House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to hold Lewandowski in contempt on the spot, an idea Pelosi later endorsed — spurring their sense of urgency. But Nadler���s staff, which wanted to keep the focus on Trump, said the logistics of doing so immediately were too complicated, if not impossible — a decision that upset members so much that the committee held an “emergency meeting” to allow members to vent on Friday, according to multiple lawmakers.

“To clear up a technical point: House rules do not permit us to hold anyone in contempt on the spot,” wrote one Judiciary staffer in an email to placate committee aides. “Which is not to say we do not understand the strong impulse to punch this guy in the mouth.”

The Washington Post obtained a copy of the email.

The sense of powerlessness only compounded later in the week following reports that an intelligence community inspector general determined that a whistleblower complaint against Trump constituted an “urgent concern,” which would typically be provided to Congress under law. But The Post reported White House counsel Pat Cipollone was involved in helping block the complaint from Congress — as he has blocked numerous former White House aides from complying with congressional subpoenas in their investigations of Trump. 

“The total disregard that this administration has for the separation of powers, the failure to recognize Congress as a coequal branch of government, and the inability for them to follow the law is stunning,” said Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.). 

By the end of the week, lawmakers involved in the investigations of Trump were for the first time openly saying they looked ineffective and worried that their inquiries — and unwillingness to impeach or push back in a timely manner — were undermining Congress’s role as a third branch of government. 

Since voters put Democrats in power in 2018 — a move many interpreted as the public’s desire for a check on the president — a special counsel identified possible instances of obstruction of justice by Trump; federal prosecutors have all but named him as being involved in a campaign finance violation that sent his former lawyer Michael Cohen to prison; his business has openly accepted money from foreign officials staying at his hotels; and he has allegedly pushed Ukraine to go after the 2020 Democratic candidate leading in national polls. 

“We have said the president must be held accountable, and ‘no one is above the law,’ including the president of the United States,” said Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.). “We have to not only say that; our actions have to reflect that.”

White House lawyers have sought ways at every turn to block documents or witnesses from congressional investigators under the direction from the president, who decries the probe as unfair and mocks Nadler, according to current and former administration officials. The calculation, according to White House officials, is that there will not be much of a price to pay for obstinance from the general public. Democrats, after all, have been unable to move public sentiment in favor of impeaching Trump.

Two White House officials said they are also not worried about defying or mocking Nadler because Pelosi has made it clear she is not interested in impeachment and the House Democratic Caucus is split about what to do to counter Trump.

In the 235-member Democratic caucus, a majority of 138 favor impeachment, according to a Post analysis.

“Why would we help them try to embarrass the president?” one person familiar with the effort said.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly.

With Pelosi unwilling to impeach Trump, Democratic rank-and-file members are frantically looking for something to fortify their investigations. On Friday, Judiciary members pressed Nadler to invoke Congress’s long-dormant inherent contempt authority that would allow Congress to jail or fine people for defying subpoenas. 

The power hasn’t been used in more than 100 years. Pelosi, leadership and other House lawyers were dismissive of the idea when investigators first floated it last spring. But Judiciary members are once again trying to force the issue. 

“Our side says it's ‘legally questionable,’ ‘it hasn't been used in forever,’ and ‘blah, blah, blah,’ ” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a member of the panel, who argues Trump’s legal team frequently has used last-ditch efforts and bogus explanations to block testimony — and the House should do the same.

“I say do it,” he continued. “Let them argue in court that they take the position that it's legally questionable. We back off of everything! We’ve been very weak.”

The frustration with the Democratic approach extends to members of Pelosi’s leadership team.

“We need to develop other tools because our tools are not working,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a Judiciary panel member who is co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. “We cannot allow the administration to simply continuously stonewall Congress with no consequences.”

Lieu is pushing for the use of inherent contempt.

Even Schiff, who came to Congress in part by defeating a Republican who voted for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, said on Sunday that relying on the courts may not work for Trump, Ukraine and the undisclosed whistleblower complaint.

“We cannot afford to play rope-a-dope in the court for weeks or months on end,” Schiff said. “We need an answer if there’s a fire burning it needs to be put out, and that's why we're going to have to look at every remedy . . . we're going to have to consider impeachment, as well, as a remedy here.”

The whistleblower complaint has Congress and Trump at an impasse. Here’s what the law says.

By Deanna Paul | Published September 22 at 2:10 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted September 22, 2019 6:10 PM ET|

The Trump administration, Congress and the media are consumed by a whistleblower complaint lodged last month with the inspector general of the intelligence community.

Although the whistleblower’s identity and substantive details of the complaint remain unknown, some specifics have begun taking shape. As The Washington Post reported last week, the report centered on several conversations involving President Trump and Ukraine, and a promise to a foreign leader so concerning that it drove a U.S. intelligence official to file the complaint.

In an unprecedented move, acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire refused to share the complaint with congressional intelligence committees, even after receiving a subpoena, claiming that the law did not require him to do so. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) accused Maguire of violating the law.

As tensions between Congress and the Trump administration mount, intelligence whistleblower laws are under a national spotlight.

Are intelligence whistleblowers protected by law?

A whistleblower is a person who exposes information or activities that are unlawful, unethical or in violation of a company’s policy. Federal whistleblower protection laws and most states’ laws make it illegal to retaliate against an employee who reports employer violations or misconduct.

Intelligence whistleblowers face additional hurdles and more severe consequences — not only termination of employment but also the threat of criminal prosecution — because of the confidential nature of information that their concerns could include.

The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1998 and incorporated at the creation of the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General in 2010, fashioned a special set of procedures for employees to report misconduct that guarantee classified information remains classified.

Under the statute, an intelligence whistleblower is protected from retaliation so long as he or she follows the protocol when filing a complaint.

How does an intelligence whistleblower file a complaint?

The employee submits the complaint to the inspector general of the intelligence community. The inspector general is required to review it within 14 days and then determines whether the complaint is of “urgent concern,” which is defined as involving conduct “relating to” the “administration or operation of an intelligence activity within the authority of the Director of National Intelligence involving classified information.”

If the complaint appears credible, the inspector general is required to forward it to the director of national intelligence, who then has seven days to send the complaint and any accompanying information to congressional intelligence oversight committees. If the inspector general decides it’s not credible, or if he or she does not act on the complaint, the whistleblower can contact the congressional intelligence committees directly but must tell the inspector general and seek guidance from the director of national intelligence to contact the committees securely.

What happened here?

On Aug. 12, an intelligence community employee submitted a complaint to acting inspector general Michael Atkinson, who concluded the report was urgent and credible and forwarded it to Maguire.

Maguire, however, did not send it to the intelligence committees within seven days, as the statute requires, and failed to give the whistleblower guidance on how to securely contact the committees directly. Since then, Maguire has also refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee, compelling him to produce an unredacted copy of the whistleblower complaint.

In a Sept. 17 letter to Schiff, Maguire’s general counsel, Jason Klitenic, said the whistleblower complaint was determined not to be an “urgent concern.”

The law did not require the director of national intelligence to forward it to Congress because it involved “conduct by someone outside the Intelligence Community and did not relate to any ‘intelligence activity within the responsibility and authority of the DNI,’ ” he claimed.

Klitenic also said the complaint involved “confidential and potentially privileged communications.” Disclosure would violate the president’s authority to control classified information and the whistleblower and inspector general were barred from sending the information directly to Congress, he said.

Can he do that?

The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act has no provision for what should happen if the inspector general determines something is of urgent concern but the director of national intelligence refuses to forward it to Congress. The scenario has never come up before.

But some legal experts say that, because the law doesn’t directly address this issue, it means the inspector general has the final say.

“The DNI cannot countermand the inspector general’s determination,” Jesselyn Radack, a national security lawyer known for her defense of whistleblowers, told The Post.

Here, though, there’s an additional wrinkle: The director of national intelligence also consulted the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel

Robert Litt, former general counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, explained in a piece published by Lawfare: “[Office of Legal Counsel] opinions are considered to be binding and authoritative interpretations of law within the executive branch. So if OLC in fact formally opined that this complaint was not an ‘urgent concern’ as defined in the statute, the DNI could take the position that the IG must follow that interpretation.”

What about the Trump administration?

Thus far, The Post reports, the White House has stopped short of asserting privilege over the complaint, though Klitenic suggested in his letter that it would try to prevent Maguire from complying with committee subpoenas.

A hallmark of past administrations has been vast presidential power to control disclosure of classified information; Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both championed whistleblower protections yet reiterated that the Whistleblower Protection Act did not undercut the president’s authority.

“The executive branch has always asserted the right to withhold deliberative material or presidential communications from Congress,” Litt wrote, concluding that it’s possible the privilege could protect the president’s communications with foreign leaders.

“The extent of such a privilege — and in particular whether it would protect communications that might constitute bribery — is untested,” he said. “But if the White House asserted such a privilege, the ODNI would be bound to honor it.”

In a Twitter thread Thursday, Jack Goldsmith, a former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, similarly said that this was the “standard executive branch position” of many administrations and “should control here.”

“The president’s power to act in confidence is at its absolute height when he has a classified conversation with a foreign leader,” Goldsmith wrote. “This isn’t a defense of Trump; it’s a defense of the presidency.”

Can the whistleblower or inspector general disclose the complaint to Congress anyway?

Employees of the executive branch aren’t required to follow the White House’s guidance.

Still, legal experts are divided on whether the whistleblower and/or the inspector general could be prosecuted for sharing the complaint with congressional oversight committees, which are qualified to receive classified information.

Goldsmith said criminality depended on what was in the complaint, calling the decision to disclose “political and personally risky.”

“If the IG or the [U.S. government] employee believes the president has engaged in an act of national treachery, they can leak the information, which is a crime, and suffer the consequences,” he wrote, adding that unless Trump’s conduct rose to the level of objective betrayal — where leaking information would be warranted, justifiable and forgivable — then it should remain within the executive branch.

Susan Hennessey, a Brookings Institution fellow in national security law and general counsel of the Lawfare Institute, wrote Thursday that it would “almost certainly not be a crime” if it was done in a secured space.

“They wouldn’t be prosecuted; they’d just be fired,” she added.

Marty Lederman, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, agreed, saying“it probably wouldn’t be criminal for the whistleblower or IG to leak.”

The real risk, he said, is being fired for breaching terms of employment.

The disagreement between respected members of the legal community highlights the unprecedented challenges posed by this complaint. What’s clear, though, is that the whistleblower would assume some risk. When facing possible retaliation or criminal prosecution, “almost certainly not” and “probably wouldn’t be” are less-than-adequate reassurances.

What happens now?

In his letter, Klitenic said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was willing to work with Congress in the accommodation process. Still, it’s unclear whether he and Schiff will be able to reach an acceptable resolution.

Many have surmised that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into the Bidens by threatening to withhold U.S. military and financial aid.

If the complaint contained that information, a former intelligence official told The Post, “it’s hard to imagine this White House agreeing to its release in any form.”

[creldest]

Neph’s Backstory

Rolled Basics Warlock Specific Patron Attitude: Rolled 1 Your Patron has guided and helped your family for generations and is kindly towards you. Special Terms: Rolled 2 Your pact tests your willpower; you are required to abstain from alcohol and other intoxicants. Binding Mark: Rolled 1 One of your eyes looks the same as one of your patron's eyes. (Missed this one at character creation, added now) Became a Warlock Because: Rolled 2 I was examining a strange tome I found in an abandoned library when the entity that would become my patron appeared before me.

Backround Specific - Inheritor Personality Trait: Rolled 2 If someone is in trouble, I'm always ready to lend help (for a price?). Ideal: Rolled 4 - MIGHT If I become strong, I can take what I want- what I deserve. Bond: Rolled 1 I have a family but I have no idea where they are. One day, I hope to see them again. Flaw: Rolled 6 I have trouble trusting my allies (which is totally understandable with a half orc and a murderous hobo monk XD )

General Background (Page 62-63 XGE) Parents: Rolled 7 - You know who your parents are or were. Birthplace: Rolled 12 - Born at home. Family: Rolled 72 - Single Mother. Number of Siblings: Rolled 1 - No siblings. Absent Parent: Rolled 3 - The parent abandoned you. Family Lifestyle: Rolled 14 - Comfortable Childhood Home: Rolled 27+10 from family lifestyle - Village in the wilderness Childhood Memories: Rolled 14+3 charisma - I always found it easy to make friends, and I loved being around people. Life Events: 2 - 1 tragedy, spent time working as a hunter and earned 5g. Tragedies: Rolled 6 War ravaged your home community reducing everything to rubble and ruin. In the aftermath, you moved somewhere else.

Family - Mother Name: Nephia Alignment: Rolled 8 - Neutral Evil Class: Rolled 28 - Cleric Occupation: Rolled 83 - Politician or bureaucrat Race: Rolled 99 - DM's Choice (Interesting...) Relationship: Rolled 8 - Friendly Father Name: Unknown Alignment: Rolled 14 - Neutral Good Class: Rolled 45 - Fighter Race: Rolled 91 - Tiefling (More interesting) Relationship: Rolled 4 - Hostile Status: Rolled 11 - Alive and Well

Patron: Beshaba (Lady Doom, The Maid of Misfortune) Alignment: Chaotic Evil Symbol:  A rack of sharp-pointed black antlers on a red triangular field Areas of Interest: Bad Luck Portfolio: Accidents, Bad Luck, Misfortune, and Random mischief Worshippers: Assassins, Auspicians, Capricious individuals, Gamblers, Rogues, Sadists Home Plane: The Barrens of Doom and Despair Favoured Weapon: Ill Fortune (barbed scourged) Favored colors: Black, mauve, purple Attitude: A deity who is feared far more than she is venerated, for she is spiteful, petty, and malicious. The Maid of Misfortune is given to random behavior and bouts of extreme jealousy with regards to her sister, demanding equal veneration (or at least lip service) to that given to Tymora (Goddess of Luck). Although the thought of Beshaba actually appearing is enough to make most folk tremble, she is always invited and welcomed formally in speeches or ceremonies of formal functions (such as marriages and coronations), contests of sport or martial prowess, or at the naming of children. If not invited, she may take offense and wreak endless misfortune upon those involved.

Character Description: Neph Height: 5'9" Weight: 201 lbs Eyes: Originally both green, now one green and one white from Patron Hair: Black, medium length (4-5 inches), unkempt but fairly straight Skin: Medium tan (Fitzpatrick Scale Type 3) Build: Average? (I have no idea how to describe builds)

Nephia Height: 6'1" Weight: 186 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: White, long, straight Skin: Medium tan (Fitzpatrick Scale Type 3) Build: Thin

Written backstory: Neph was born to Nephia in Shadowspear Village, a rural village where Nephia acted as the village leader and lead priest. The villagers of Shadowspear worshipped Beshaba as a matter of course (no other options), though not in front of outsiders. When Neph show little aptitude for arcane or religious study, his mother had him learn polearms, mostly to burn off childish energy. He never met his father, but didn't really care. He was told of his father's identity, but not his name. Ultimately, he decided someone who would leave his mother wasn't worth seeking. He got along well with the other children of the village and enjoyed his childhood greatly. Once he reached adulthood, his mother began sending him with the villagers to trade with the nearest city, so that he could see a bit more of the world and gain experience with people. It was during one of these trips that his village was attacked, leaving nothing behind of it but ashes and questions. Searching the village, he found no sign of his mother or most of the villagers, but did discover a hidden library under their house. Within the library, he found his mother's sacred tome and met with an Avatar of Beshaba. For reasons unknown to him, she offered a pact that would allow him to use a small portion of her power in exchange for his unending service. Neph agreed to the pact and began his journey to find his mother and murder whoever attacked the village.

Character questions / motivations: 1) Where is Nephia? 2) Where are the other villagers? 3) Why would Beshaba form a pact with Neph? 4) Who destroyed the village? 5) Why did they destroy the village? 6) How can Neph become stronger to get revenge? 7) What has dear old dad been up to? (Low priority) 8) Magical equipment is high priority for Neph to acquire.