#this might also be about what i just logged in to because whatever happened seemed very not okay

[impandgnomes]

I'm gonna be real with you:

I don't ship Kyman in any way. Like a grown adult, I can filter it and move on. People tag it very well. I would block a user I had an issue with.

Unfortunately, It also seems like other people who also don't like the ship act more foul than that fat bastard can sometimes.

If you think it's okay to say people should die by suicide over it, the fucking door is over there. Don't even joke. I've been suicidal too many times to count at this point. I've stayed up until 4AM talking people out of it before now. Keep those issues out of this. I thought we'd left the whole "hope you die of cancer" thing in like 2008 - outside of maybe the average LOL game for a while.

This also goes for the people who make other derogatory claims about mental health regarding such a thing, or any similar ships.

This also - once again - goes for people who block others only to bully them behind their backs.

Last statement; sick of dancing around this like a coward just because you people share ships and favorite characters with me. Peace out.

[sigynpenniman]

DID YOU WAKE UP THIS MORNING TO FIND AO3 BLOCKED ON YOUR WORK OR SCHOOL WIFI?

So, something has happened overnight.

Many major companies and institutions use a tech called Cisco Umbrella to block “potentially objectionable” domains - porn, violent content, etc. Cisco Umbrella primarily works using categories, which, while changable by users, are pre-set by Cisco. So Cisco builds a list of websites which are, for example, "adult," and then makes that a category that a company can block all at once from its network. When you, as a network admin, choose to block "adult" websites in cisco umbrella, if you don't make changes to that list yourself, everything in that list is blocked on the domain.

There's another system called OpenDNS. OpenDNS allows you to block websites on your *home* network. If you have an OpenDNS account you can also participate in what's called "community tagging." community tagging allows people to tag certain websites, and I guess if you use OpenDNS you can block things with those tags...idk, I don't use it.

Here's the bit that matters: OpenDNS and Cisco Umbrella are owned by the same company. It appears that Cisco Umbrella, to some extent, uses OpenDNS community tags to sort websites.

Someone on OpenDNS has community tagged Ao3 as a "tasteless" website. Community tags can be proposed by anyone, but they have to be approved by a moderator. It seems a moderator has approved this tag. Because of the moderator approved tag, it looks like Ao3 has been bundled into *Cisco Umbrella's* blocked sites list for "adult" content. So now, any library, school, business, etc which is blocking Cisco Umbrella’s “adult” category is now blocking Ao3.

Here’s how you can help.

Go here (https://signup.opendns.com/homefree/) to create an OpenDNS account. This is free. Don’t do any of the steps to create or configure a network, JUST make an account. Be sure to uncheck any promotional checkboxes. Once your account is made, be sure to confirm your email, and the confirmation may go into spam - mind did, just be aware. Once you have an account made, go to https://login.opendns.com/ and log in with the account you've made.

It should take you here.

From here, click the small "community" button at the top.

It will bring you here. You will be likely prompted to create a display name. Pick something random, you won't need it again.

Click on “domain tagging." It will bring you here.

There's a small searchbox in the top right labeled "check a domain." enter archiveofourown.org in this field and hit go. You should be brought here.

What you want to do now is hit the "Flag for Review" button under "Tagged: Tasteless." Don't worry about the other tags. They are candidate tags, not approved/applied and aren't doing anything. The "tasteless" one that's been mod approved is the only one we're worried about. "Flag for review" will open a small text box.

Type in whatever you like here, but PLEASE be academic and respectful. Focus on how "tasteless" is an inaccurate and offensive description for the content. Hit submit.

That's it, you're done.

I do want to be clear about one thing - I am not 100% sure this is going to remove this domain from the cisco adult list, but I'm hoping. The “tasteless” tag that is present on OpenDNS was submitted in 2015. Now, it is not clear when the moderator approved this tag. They may have approved it last night, or in 2015. That date does not appear to be visible. I’m not sure what happened overnight that caused Ao3 to slip into the Cisco umbrella adult category. My best guess is that either the tag was approved last night, or Cisco suddenly started grouping the “tasteless” community tag under adult. It is interesting to me that previous tags such as pornography have been actively mod rejected, so it looks like this one being approved might have been one person with a vendetta. Either way, right now, this seems to be the root of the issue. Domains can be individually allowed on networks by network admins, so if you have to petition your school or place of work it's possible, but I think if we can fix the OpenDNS tag, we can fix it everywhere at once. Hopefully, if we can get enough flags for review in a short enough period of time, it will force them to review it.

Come, help me out here. Let's try and get Ao3 unblocked on the country's schools and libraries.

[cordysys]

.are you interested in a timeline of everything* that happens in 17776 and 20020? you're getting a timeline of everything* that happens in 17776 and 20020.

.if you just want the sheet and don't care about the rambling, here ya go: [bam there's the link]. if you DO want to hear more check out the bits under the cut

.ALRIGHT i see you're still here. so let's talk about the deal with this sheet. first off, the asterisk on everything. that's because obviously i will not be tracking literally every single event ever. some other fanatic can figure out how many times that guy ran 50k yards in a year or whatever, but my sheet is mainly just for stuff that could be genuinely useful to know if you need a refresher on like... plot?

.if the "found" section is confusing: A refers to series A (17776), B refers to series B (20020). B has no intermissions and i wasn't keeping track of which part of intermission had what info so i just wrote INT down. that's all in series A though.

.A04 notes: Ten and Juice are mentioned to have been awake before the nanos were good enough to stop people from getting hurt by rakes. Juice in particular mentions having watched this for about 200 years. theres literally no other details so do whatever you want forever i guess [- note cleaned up by Pye]

.A05 notes: The "Garbage Football" podcast, which seems to update weekly, is on its 400th episode. Whether this does or doesn't include the premium episodes is unclear. If that number is only free episodes, the podcast could have begun early October of 17768. If that number includes premium episodes, it might be early September 17772? It's not very clear. I'll leave this one up in the air. [- note cleaned up by Pye]

.A10 notes: Juice states that precise tracking on the Game 27 ball was disabled "thousands of years ago." It is unclear when, exactly. [- note cleaned up by Pye]

.NOW THE DOUBLE ASTERISKS. man i had a time figuring this out. B starts off just stating that it's... 20020. which is very nondescript. yeah i knew from the title, thanks (/silly). HOWEVER, taking my notes from as i rambled on discord:

- B01 obviously revealed the year, but nothing else. - B05 has Ten's console logs, which reveal it has to be after May20 and before Nov8. [juice and ten's bdays passed, nine's hasnt] - Lastly, B12 reveals that the current date is Oct23. - In 17776, Nine was up for 2, MAYBE 3, days.

. ...so i'm pretty darn sure that, when nine wakes up in 20020, the date is either Oct21 or Oct22.

.i do also have a note i took when i was tired commenting on how juice says "after 17000 years i finally spoke to someone..." at the time i took this to mean juice had to have been up before 3020 but the evidence is kind of flimsy. do whatever you want man have fun

.THANK YOU FOR READING THIS. if you have any events you want added, speculation on the parts i'm unsure about, etc etc, let me know. this was neat but also i don't doubt i missed something. chip out, enjoy your day ^^

[oetscop]

okay so im making a new post abt this since its a little different from my last analysis post. but @petscopping brought up a very interesting point in the tags! that being "nobody is innocent" and he is so fucking right abt that

that was in regards to the objectification of care, and how paul also contributes to that. but like, even characters that aren't explicitly on screen are culpable. specifically belle.

i always get this impression that shes hiding something. she knows far more than she lets on, and i almost have to wonder if its in a way to protect paul? which is interesting since we know how in denial he is about Literally Everything, which is actively harming himself in some way.

she knows. a LOT about this game. like, paul is only recording gameplay to prove that hes "not lying" about the weird game he found. then later down the line after paul gets to the other side of the quitters room and tells her tiara is gone and her reply is "of course." the way paul replies to that too is telling since hes confused as to why she knows somethings up. even earlier than that paul mentions how he was shocked to find "his room" but isnt anymore since it makes sense that the game would be connected to him through belle. not to mention she knows an older version of the game that had the passageway to the caskets. she had played it as recently as 2004. why lie at first?

a little tangential, but i really gotta wonder about her connection to rainer. obviously they were close enough for him to be doing...whatever the fuck happens during a rebirthing event. or whatever he thinks is supposed to happen, i should say. shes heavily connected to tiara in some way, and has a stupid amount of play time on the damn game. if you ascribe to the theory that tiara and in game marvin are based entirely off in game behaviors of real people playing the game, its no wonder tiara seems to be almost...sentient? all marvin does is run around and say shit and like be weird and the game was literally made for him. tiara like. can edit texture maps, and use that to also speak directly to paul thru tool. and because of that, she can speak more directly, and isnt hindered by the p2 to talk mechanic like marvin is.

point is, belle has logged a crazy amount of time into the game. sure you could probably say the hours played is inaccurate, maybe she just had the game left open on a console for what. 17 years was it? even rainer admits its dubious. but imo, it feels more...symbolic? like sure maybe she wasnt playing it for that long. but she had some kind of passive connection to the game in that time. she is/was in contact with rainer. she HAD to be. (this also might imply the game was still being worked on after 2000. but thats a whole nother can of worms)

i cant think of any other motive for her lying about that other than to protect paul in some way. which, in a way, ties back to cares objectification. paul is absolutely denying any humanity to his child self. its ingrained in the very code of the game.

and in some way, belle is also participating. maybe im reading too far into that, but with how much the series is able to tell us abt characters who dont even fucking talk is really impressive so its not completely unrealistic.

[nitewcat]

Mapicc killing derap with chief and then derap immediately after saying that he wants revenge on chief just because chief got the kill credit. I wonder why he's not as angry at mapicc??? I wonder how much longer derap can keep adhering to zams goals before he gets sick of it all???

And mapicc after that conversation with Zam where he got that arrow back. Where they basically officially became teammates. What did mapicc gain from that conversation? From zams perspective it seemed as though everything between them had, to a degree, began to heal but mapicc doesn't even include it in the video, never brings it up and acts as though it hadn't even happened in the first place? It's so random it kind of feels orchestrated. Like they're all working together behind the scenes and killing derap was some move in a bigger game or something because what??

The only other explanation I can think of is that Mapicc really wants enemies. He's been pushing the narrative in his head that zam has been rebelling against him since he created mawn. Everything with the wardens, teaming with flame, it's expected at this point for zam to have put his differences with kab aside and joined the resistance or something. Narratively, that's what should be happening. But zam keeps trying to remain on mapiccs side. Does mapicc even want that at this point? Mawn was created for the sake of conflict anyway. Maybe at this point in time, it would just be beneficial to have zam as an enemy instead of an ally. Even during his conversation with bacon during his livestream, he talked about how he hadn't had a competent teamate in a while. Maybe he doesn't want zam as a temate at all. He keeps talking about how much zam hates him. He might just want zam to hate him.

I wonder if killing derap will be the turning point. All those conversations with mapicc only to have none of it really matter at all. That's also if zam logs on at all because this could just end up as deraps own issue to deal with. Something that, by the time zam logs back on, would have been forgotten about. Forgotten but leaving cracks in whatever partnership they have if there's even a partnership at all. Or derap might add this to the list of things he's hiding from zam.

But the thing is, why did mapic agree to have those conversations at all? Why did he keep coming back whenever zam asked him to. Why did he keep responding positively during the conversations towards being on good terms with zam only to continuously attempt to ruin the relationship. Does he actually want zam hating him? Is it something he expects? Is it what he wants but can't bring himself to do? Especially with zam constantly forgiving him for everything??? Can zam go live???????????

[sophieinwonderland]

Found this post from Problemaddtic on the Sophiecourse tag and just need to say... this didn't happen...

I've had a look back to my DMs to Problemaddtic. I never once called them traumatized in the DMs! Just so everyone can see, I'm posting my full DM log to Problemaddtic.

This is it!

This is the full extent of our interactions in DMs.

I never once said Problemaddtic was traumatized. I said syscourse can be stressful. That they might have issues to work out. But I didn't say they were traumatized in that conversation.

This seems to be another instance of Probelmaddtic living in their own alternate reality.

Although, frankly, if I had known what they were going through, I admit that I probably would have acted the same exact way.

Whatever you've suffered, it doesn't justify acting like THAT.

It doesn't justify telling a group made up of a high number of CSA survivors that they're only good for sucking cock. It doesn't justify mocking people for their dissociative symptoms. It doesn't justify posting all of that horrible stuff in "endo safe" tags.

If I had said they were traumatized, which I've already shown I didn't, it probably wouldn't have deterred me from calling them out.

While I'm correcting the record... I also didn't call them a "man-child." I probably wouldn't because I generally don't like gendered insults. I did, however, compare them to a toddler.

I will also admit I was very wrong about that last part. I deeply underestimated their ability to hold onto a grudge and somehow keep the energy up to have a tantrum that lasts for months and years on end without tiring.

[sonkitty]

Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel

Introduction

Alright, I'm going to talk about Crowley and Muriel.

My starting theory was that these two knew each other as at least acquaintances, not necessarily friends, in the first draft of the story. This first draft would have resolved the matter of the cardboard box Gabriel brought much sooner. Then a second draft, or even more drafts, act as the cover for whatever happened the first time around.

After looking over Crowley and Muriel scenes, something like that could indeed be true, but certain other messages from the story emerged that seem to make that idea secondary when looking at the pair specifically together.

Trust

For one, a far understated thing about their relationship is that these two trust each other, even if they don't seem to know each other very well. It hits really hard once you get the level of trust Crowley has to have in Muriel for their assistance in the Triple of The Bigger Thresholds Trick. Their part together is for the Heaven elevator, and pockets are involved.

Pocket usage combined with threshold usage in Good Omens 2 amounts to a nightmarish puzzle that I will never truly solve. I have solved just enough to know what to look for, and I see it all over their entry into Heaven. Pockets require precise framing, and they both have it.

This trust level would put their relationship as much more likely to be actual friends despite Crowley's intense claim to the contrary in episode 5 when he tells Gabriel that Aziraphale is the only friend he has.

Bookends

The other weird message was something I found in looking for a small pattern I noticed. That pattern was that Crowley scenes tend to bookend Muriel scenes. I started to log and verify that pattern. It's not on both ends every time, and I could find only one Muriel scene where there's no bookend of a scene with him on either side.

When they both get back from Heaven in episode 6, this pattern goes into hyper-drive. It becomes a game in and of itself to see how Crowley can bookend or share Muriel scenes all the way up to the end of the episode and overall season.

Along the way, Muriel likely assists Crowley in the Single of The Pocket Trick. Muriel then ends up having bookend scenes to all 6 of Crowley's own Threshold Tricks.

Memory

I don't know how both their memories were edited or altered, but I'm left to guess that it happened and was partly voluntary with making sure they remembered just enough to maintain their trust in each other or have a way for that trust to quietly activate, as if it has a switch.

Boxes

Boxes are a theme with these two, so I'm going to discuss the boxes among the other stuff below.

...

Episode 1: The Arrival

There are 3 Matchbox Muriel scenes. Two of them happen in episode 1.

Before Muriel is shown on screen, there is a cut of Gabriel with the fly that's implied to be an extension of the scene where Aziraphale called Crowley to invite Crowley to the coffee shop.

Then Muriel finds the matchbox. I'm not going to get too much into the quote and stuff, but one could easily link it to Crowley if what I've read of its relation to "leviathan" is true since leviathans can be associated with snakes. There's also the fire-breathing Crowley pretending to be Aziraphale in season 1. Then of course that hopping and shouting with the lightning forcing the power outage on the coffee shop that comes later. The matchbox itself might be evil or borderline evil.

Muriel's hand is just as deliberate as Crowley's can be when it comes to managing the touch because part of a thumb is shown with the thumb tip itself hidden and the thumb obscured specifically by the end of the touch.

After this scene, the immediate next scene is Crowley's arrival at the coffee shop, which is also The Perfect Entrance Trick.

So, that's one Muriel scene book-ended with Crowley scenes. One could find the first part debatable, and indeed, that will happen again. Still, almost every time, there will be a Crowley scene at least before or after a Muriel scene.

That's also the first scene for Muriel to bookend one of the Threshold Tricks.

Take note.

These things add up.

We're going to take a quick break from Muriel because of the cardboard box.

In episode 1, there is an extremely important sequence of at least one Likely Fake Crowley, possibly two, storming out of the bookshop. In that sequence, the fake who looks most likely to be Aziraphale passes by a prominently displayed cardboard box and does not touch it.

Actual Crowley is a top tier player in Earthly Objects who is incredibly deliberate in what he touches, especially with his hands. He's also someone who tends to ask questions.

Remember the cardboard box and that the fake did not touch that box and did not question it. Both Crowley and Muriel are going to follow this pattern with the exception of Crowley retrieving the box during episode 6 of course.

Let's get back to Muriel.

The next debatable front bookend Crowley scene to a Muriel scene is that after Crowley shoots out lightning, his torso is shown and does not include his head. The scene cuts to Nina and Maggie realizing they are locked in. For some reason, a blurry red-headed figure wearing black is ensured to be shown in the background as if it could be Crowley. This figure is a possible fake because we later find out that Crowley lost so much of his red in his hair. Plus, there's some general confusion about the car being parked in front of the coffee shop. The car itself seems more bluish. He doesn't enter or leave and is shown to be with the car later on a different street. This possible fake allows for a stronger bookend connection to the incoming Muriel scene nonetheless.

The next cut is of Michael and Uriel for a bit before Muriel enters, but it is the same scene. Now we are at Matchbox Muriel Scene #2.

When the matchbox is set down, it does not make the sound that an empty matchbox makes. In fact, it sounds like a disguised magical book. The music gives more of a mystery vibe than a stronger intensity and possibly evil vibe it will give later in episode 5.

We learn the name of the game, Earthly Objects, and are shown an extensive touching sequence. I don't know if it's a tutorial. If it is, I can't tell you what it teaches. I can mainly tell you it makes sure to show most of Michael's digits during the sequence. Thumbs are shown, but the thumbs don't actually touch the matchbox itself. Thumbs are a big deal in Earthly Objects. A thumb tip can even set certain things into Door Mode. If that matchbox is an evil book hiding in disguise, a thumb tip could be like a password that would have accessed it. Muriel avoided doing that or avoided it in just the right way.

As this Muriel scene wraps up, Uriel says, "I think he's gone to Earth."

We're supposed to guess and assume they mean Gabriel, yet the story cuts to Crowley entering his car before he is summoned to Hell. So, this Muriel scene is given a clear back bookend Crowley scene.

Muriel does not show up again in episode 1.

But...let's get back to the cardboard box.

When Crowley returns to the bookshop, the prominently displayed cardboard box is no longer prominently displayed where it was. In fact, for a good long while, I thought it had disappeared as much as the plate of Eccles cakes, but no, it was just moved out of the way in a less obvious spot.

Now, here's something I found interesting while drafting this post. My own question to myself was, "Was the box moved out of Crowley's line of sight?" for the scene.

I was quite surprised to find out that in almost the entire scene, the box is not in his line of sight. There is only one tiny part of the scene where it is.

The box is in Crowley's line of sight briefly during the apology dance.

So, the dance might have been a clue to Crowley to know where the box was but still not visibly touch it or question it. Remember, later in episode 6, it's going to be weird when he acts like he knows about the cardboard box he never acknowledged in the whole story up to that point.

...

Episode 2: The Clue

Not that it's hard being one of the two main characters of the story, but Crowley has another front bookend scene before a Muriel scene in the minisode that starts off the episode. He is at least prevented from having a back bookend scene this time.

The episode opens with the scene of the big giant scroll and pretending to kill off the goats while actually turning them into crows instead, as Crawley.

Muriel is later shown reading a big giant scroll. I don't know if it's the exact same scroll, but it's at least supposed to be about the same thing.

Muriel does not appear again for the rest of the episode.

...

Episode 3: I Know Where I'm Going

At long last, Muriel arrives on Earth. They have a scene without Crowley scenes book-ending either side of it.

The front bookend is Gabriel drinking hot chocolate. Soon after, Muriel is the subject being seen through the window for Mrs. Sandwich. Then they start their scene with Aziraphale. One could probably estimate this scene's end as Aziraphale closing the door. So, finally, no Crowley though Crowley himself will be part of the scene immediately after.

It's possible that Muriel has had a memory wipe though how recent is hard to guess. My own guess would be that it's actually relatively recent because as stated, I think they and Crowley knew each other in the first draft of the story.

Aziraphale seems to have a moment of quiet recognition, that could be either from the recent Job minisode or if he knew Muriel in the first draft as well. I would guess that he did, but this bookend thing Crowley and Muriel have is not quite the same as what can be found between Aziraphale and Muriel. Aziraphale moves the story along without any further acknowledgment.

After Muriel enters, the cardboard box is given more focus from its designated place than usual with a blurred Muriel in the foreground. The camera work forces a shift such that Muriel receives focus, and the cardboard box is blurred. While I'm sure many people have picked up on this thing happening, I'm going to add that that particular type of blur was used in the first shared complex window scene Maggie and Nina had looking at Crowley through a window in episode 1. The blur type share was also done with Crowley and Gabriel in episode 1 when Crowley finds out Gabriel is in the bookshop. So, Muriel is given a notable share with a cardboard box instead of an actual full other character in the story. It's also a box that keeps having no touching or questioning from Crowley. Muriel doesn't touch it or question it either.

When Crowley arrives, he does sound grumpy as he complains about Aziraphale not taking the train. He soon stops, realizes Muriel is there, and says, "Who's this now?"

Take note of the "now" because this story is both deceptive and deliberate in its methods. These are the types of little clues it scatters around compared to the bigger ones. The "now" hints he knows of a "who" Muriel was from some other time.

Just as Muriel glows, Crowley is actually more cast in shadow than he already often is upon stopping to find them there. His body makes sure to stop with the shadow covering much of his upper body area in a diagonal manner.

Crowley has short sideburns despite Muriel being an angel because the bookshop literally took their claim as human. Interestingly, Crowley is also lacking his more saturated streak of red hair that is often found over the center of his left eye during the present day story.

Crowley himself quickly warms up to Muriel in a more friendly manner.

Muriel's body blocks the cardboard box from our line of sight for a good amount of the scene but not the entire time. In turn, Crowley is bound to have it in his own line of sight much more easily than in episode 1 when he returned to the bookshop. So, by now, Crowley probably knows it's there and is still just generally ignoring it while being near its presence.

There's some kind of light near Muriel that keeps flickering. While neither Crowley nor Muriel use pockets here, they both do at other times. Pockets use lighting as clues. So, I'm not going to log every single line and every single flicker, but I did notice the flicker when Muriel said "200 years". That number could mean something like when these two actually met or became friends.

Another noteworthy thing about this scene involving both characters is that it is one of the few times the story shows a person reflected in Crowley's sunglasses before The Window Trick at the end of episode 6. Muriel's reflection can actually be found, quite likely because they were intentionally showing off their cup of tea.

Crowley exits first, allowing for a scene between Muriel and Aziraphale. After Aziraphale leaves, Muriel is left alone momentarily. While they do not get the same blurred share from earlier, they are still shown specifically with the cardboard box while not touching it or questioning it.

Later, Muriel intrudes on Crowley and Aziraphale. I've actually written about the scene in my "Rule Following" section for Earthly Objects.

So, I'll mainly say that this scene does not really have a hint of them having known each other. Instead, it has Crowley manipulating the scene and Muriel to do what he wants so he can give Aziraphale a proper pass of the car keys. The toss is incredibly precise because he waits until Muriel's eyes move to the notepad, not just for them to get out their notepad. The only possible hint is if Muriel actually looked at Crowley before their notepad intentionally as a cue for when he should be ready for the toss. Then the toss isn't as impressive, so my bias prefers to think that was not the case. Head canon as you please.

Even though the two had an actual scene together, the story makes that scene a front bookend Crowley scene of yet another Muriel scene with Muriel's stop at the coffee shop.

Muriel is not seen again for the rest of the episode.

...

Episode 4 does not have Muriel. It does have Crowley touching the cardboard box of the plants. Sorry, I couldn't help notice that cardboard boxes are a thing because of the matchbox and the mainly featured cardboard box, so we may as well take note since Muriel was given that shared blur with such an important cardboard box.

...

Episode 5: The Ball

During episode 5, there are two important scenes shared between Crowley and Gabriel. The first scene is where Crowley ultimately tells Gabriel to jump out a window, then stops Gabriel from doing so. He offers to make hot chocolate. This scene is a front bookend of the last Matchbox Muriel scene. It also includes mention of an actual matchbox.

Finally, we are back to our ominous borderline evil matchbox itself with Matchbox Muriel Scene #3. This scene further manages to act as a back bookend to a touch of The Sunglasses Trick. In this matchbox scene, the subtitles say "intense music" and it is intense. The matchbox is given immediate focus to introduce the scene.

The intensity settles. Muriel is giving their report to Michael and Uriel with no Saraqael around.

In this report, Muriel says Crowley's name, including calling him, "Mr. Crowley," and describes Crowley as Aziraphale's "grumpy friend." Well, Crowley was grumpy when Muriel first saw him yes, but most of the time we saw them together, he was not grumpy. In fact, he was rather friendly. Muriel is also shown to be unaware that Crowley is a demon. When they say Aziraphale's "Mr. Fell" name, Uriel gives Muriel a look that makes Muriel definitely not say Crowley's name—not even partially.

Aside from Aziraphale, Shax, and any character involved in the 1941 minisode, the story itself seems to have some rather strict rules on who can say Crowley's name and when. If I remember right, Muriel never says Crowley's name again.

We, the audience, were never shown anyone giving Muriel Crowley's name before that point either. In addition to that, mysterious music plays while the angels stop in confusion as they grasp at the assistant bookseller they can't quite remember. The matchbox is not easily seen during all of this time, but we know we saw it first with the intense music.

We never saw Muriel see or speak to an assistant bookseller, Gabriel going by Jim, in the scenes given. Muriel's memory and the story's memory do not match with what we have been told is happening. And some possibly evil matchbox is making that happen...maybe. That thing gives off "trying to get back to its master" evil ring vibes towards Crowley. It's creepy. No, I'm not venturing too far down that road. I'm admitting it's just vibes.

The back bookend scene here is Crowley actually giving Gabriel hot chocolate.

After this point, Crowley's sideburns stay a medium-to-long length until right before the credits at the end. Part of my sideburns scheme theory is that Aziraphale and Crowley borrowed each other's homes to form a special connection that affected an invisible supernatural border that existed between the car and the bookshop. They then made their preparations for the ball through the invitations, and Crowley had his scenes with Gabriel to force this sideburn status into place.

That means a lot of pieces were moved around so that the next time Crowley encountered Muriel, his sideburns were longer despite Muriel's earlier claim of being "human" and the bookshop's reading from that.

Let's skip ahead to that Crowley and Muriel encounter.

Crowley finds Muriel near the pub. In fact, he finds Muriel at, I believe, where he parked the car in episode 2. That's quite the coincidence.

After he convinces Muriel to "arrest" him, for some reason, Crowley makes sure to enter the elevator first. Ever since I realized Crowley's sideburns respond to thresholds, I have taken note of Crowley's deliberate decisions in so much of what he does, especially in season 2. He is rather strategic overall. Him entering first sets off alarms in my head. That is not the typical way he does things. He goes alone or Aziraphale leads. In the Edinburgh minisode, Elspeth entered first, followed by Crowley, then Aziraphale. Not long before this Muriel encounter and probably not a coincidence, Crowley left with Mrs. Sandwich first. They went together. He still did not go first as only himself.

But for some reason, at this particular threshold, it is a priority that he be first. I wish I knew why instead of just constantly sensing it.

This entry into Heaven is the first part of the Triple in The Bigger Thresholds Trick. It is also the only one that expands over two episodes.

When looking at Crowley and Muriel together, here are some things I think are worth noting.

First of all, Muriel was convinced to begin with. Why would they trust him? He's a demon, and they were even given a specific look of not even saying his name. Yet still, they find Crowley convincing enough to do this arrest. Crowley told Shax in episode 2 that he was a "former demon," but when it comes to Muriel, he actually drops the "former" part of his own self-description.

Now, I do have this theory that when it comes to the longer sideburns, they are like a mark of rank on Crowley when he is around angels. I usually associate that theory more with their longest length and specifically when in the bookshop. If that theory has any merit even outside the bookshop, then latent memory in Muriel could actually be recognizing Crowley's rank from before his fall and why they ultimately abide. If I'm wrong, then Muriel still finds a way to put their trust in him, such as a latent memory of whatever they did together in the first draft of the story or past friendship they had. If there is no latent memory, Muriel just trusts him anyway.

Crowley himself is having to trust Muriel here. It is no small amount of trust either. This segment is incredibly important to performing the Trick. He trusted Aziraphale for the other two, and with Aziraphale not here, Muriel is the one he turns to for help.

Unfortunately, I do not have a desired simplified explanation of how this threshold is being tricked, but I can at least tell you I know what to look for and the deliberate methods both characters use for entering. The more simplified ways are that Crowley manages to not touch the buttons and not touch the pub doors before going up. Muriel is the one who both summons the elevator and closes the pub doors for him. When he is later seen going down, he maintains touch with his back at where the edges of the elevator doors meet.

Well, that's the easier stuff. There is something far more complicated happening with shadows, lighting, and pockets. I don't know what it is. I'm just going to tell you I see it, and I know it when I see it because I at least know what to look for. With pockets involved, that also means framing.

I won't bore you with too many of the details. It was hard to write in my initial draft. Muriel is deliberate in how they get themselves framed alongside Crowley. Probably about the most noteworthy things of such framing are a look down as if to check they are positioning themself properly and getting their right arm so close to being over the middle edge of where the elevator doors meet and still not doing that. That part might have to do with whatever was necessary a to align with a reflection in a window pane, and that reflection being over a lock.

Speaking of windows, they are both deliberately framed through the window panes. I'm not going to describe it. If you're interested and can see, I advise you just go take a look. It is assuredly intentional. Their heads and upper bodies are in a grid or something. "Gridlock" might be the simplified word I'm looking for, but I'm not fully convinced and couldn't explain it to anyone.

Here, I have at least made a GIF because the glance down helps show it's intentional:

Pockets of light were involved. Muriel used a pocket. Crowley made touches on his clothing suspiciously like when he uses pockets. His tied hands might have been tied. His belt head might have activated. It's ridiculous. I can't believe this Earthly Objects game.

Before Muriel entered, they looked at Crowley and asked, "You aren't trying to trick me, are you?"

Now a lot of people would see that question and be, like, yes, of course he is.

It definitely looks that way.

But...these two are actually tricking a threshold together. It is likely a clue to the audience to look for the Threshold Trick that's happening right in front of their eyes instead of Crowley tricking Muriel.

Even though we saw Muriel close the doors, we did not see any miracle touch to activate a button. We just see the elevator go up.

...

Episode 6: Every Day

As the two arrive in Heaven, Crowley makes sure to exit the elevator first. His foot decidedly makes sure to not touch the lower threshold of where the doors slid open. His shadow can be seen to his left side. When Muriel follows, they don't have a shadow to their left side at all.

Now on they go where probably a million important things happen since pockets were involved on the way up, but let's focus on three things.

Crowley quickly refers to Muriel's rank when asking about records. We've already seen Muriel know Crowley's name without us knowing how they got it. Now we see Crowley know Muriel's rank without us knowing how he got it. We're even going to see both of them receive each of these pieces of information later on this trip in Heaven.

Not long after the rank reference, one of the lines Crowley says is, "You're forgetting about the bees."

Crowley, how many times has Muriel helped you break into Heaven by this point?

I hope it's not more than one, but it's going to be awhile to get such an answer.

Muriel's "forgetting" are they? Does he know that Muriel knew about the bees before? Did they talk about it? Did they work together?

As the conversation continues, it leads to Crowley changing his appearance. Of note in this appearance, his newly manifested gold tie is...pocketed into his newly manifested gray jacket. If his "tied hands" activated at the entry, he's putting those hands in a pocket here and now. And he's doing that because Muriel led him to that decision.

Neither one seems to truly remember the other, but both are guiding each other to certain ends.

At some point, Crowley asks Muriel a question about if they knew why Gabriel would not want another Armageddon. They shake their head and answer "not yet". We were never actually shown Muriel's assignment for why they were on Earth. We were just led to believe it was to confirm the miracle that Aziraphale performed since all actions shown by the characters said so. Muriel has no problem admitting this "yet" part of their answer to Crowley.

Saraqael arrives and shows us one way Muriel could have gotten Crowley's name by addressing Crowley by name.

Later on is when Muriel actually gives the rank. Crowley gives them a friendly fist bump to the shoulder. They smile. Both of them are shown to be on friendly terms in what might be an earlier draft of the story. Even if it's not an earlier draft, I'm glad to see Crowley be on friendly terms with an angel who is not Aziraphale. He reached somewhat friendly terms with Gabriel, but the story made sure that Crowley and Gabriel had zero direct interaction on Gabriel's side once Gabriel recovered his memories. The same could be said of Muriel, now that I think about it.

There's footage of the cardboard box they both watch. Muriel's memory of the matchbox is shown in focus as an assumption it was whatever Gabriel really dropped.

On the exit to Heaven, I've long theorized that Crowley is invisible and Muriel looks scared and amazed by such a thing at the same time. I haven't really changed my mind. If Muriel is doing something to help because Muriel is in the middle on one side, and Crowley is in the middle on the other, I don't know what it is. I can just tell you that a pattern is indeed found between the two if one looks for such a thing.

I can also bring back the pockets.

When the light goes up and Crowley's appearance changes, something about his re-manifested clothes is decidedly different than usual. His tie strands are pocketed into his vest, which then means his thumbs and thumb joints are hidden. I don't know exactly what that means, but it's deliberate on the story's part. Thumbs do things to doors, and these thumbs are hiding themselves while Crowley has his back to a door. That's somehow doing whatever needs to be done for this Threshold Trick and Muriel convincing Crowley to change his appearance earlier contributed.

Also, there was a rainbow when the light went up.

We missed whatever led to Michael and Uriel joining Muriel, Saraqael, and Crowley in the elevator.

When Crowley and the angels arrive at the bookshop, Muriel quietly closes the doors without anyone asking. I'm left with the impression that those doors being opened when they were and while Crowley was in Heaven is supposed to be important. So, the timing of this closure and who is doing it is also important.

Muriel stays out of the way and on their own quite a bit throughout their time in the bookshop as they turn their attention to a book.

In turn, that means their attention is not on the cardboard box when it is retrieved to help Gabriel recover his memories.

When Gabriel recovers his memories, something strange happens. If Crowley is where the story told us he was—next to Aziraphale, Gabriel is acting like Crowley isn't there. Aziraphale glances where we were told Crowley was. Gabriel briefly follows this gaze, then changes course. In the next cut, he blinks as he passes over where Crowley would be. He names more characters, including Michael and Uriel. While he doesn't remember Saraqael's name, they are given an interaction. With Muriel on their own further back—just like Crowley—they, too, are ignored during this sequence. They are at least shown on screen. Eventually, Gabriel reacts to seeing Beelzebub, and we are informed that Crowley is still there by Aziraphale. Of course, with the scene cut the way it is, maybe he wasn't there, and all of these drafts are blending together but still telling us Crowley was ignored, possibly invisible, cloaked, or forgotten.

Even with Crowley visibly on screen as Beelzebub refers to Aziraphale by name, neither Gabriel nor Beelzebub acknowledge Crowley as having played any part in helping to look after Gabriel—or anything else for that matter.

Again, the cardboard box was notably ignored by Muriel. They were given a specific shared blur with the box. Why give the focus if nothing of fruition was to come from such a thing? That was a shared blur that Earthly Objects uses in its game, and that box went untouched.

Things move on with Crowley escorting Maggie and Nina out.

Now it really gets hard to track how Crowley is book-ending Muriel in the scenes at the end, but he is. I think he is doing it every time. He is shown to approach a window and look inside while several angels and demons are arguing. Aziraphale rings his bell, which is enough to grab Muriel's attention as well. Soon after, Crowley is shown looking through the window again and smiles.

Then they actually have a scene together where neither one of them talks. It is the Single in The Pocket Trick. The Pocket Trick is a difficult, confusing collection of puzzles that uses word play. Because Muriel wears all white and The Pocket Trick has a Rainbow Connection mechanic that uses non-rainbow shades, there is a very strong chance Muriel is helping Crowley with yet another Threshold Trick. Whatever it is, it probably has to do with the alignment of Crowley's sleeve and jacket through a window frame since that's when Muriel's white can be seen and then when Crowley's sunglasses appear in one of the window panes at a certain point since that's the exact frame where all-white-wearing Muriel is no longer on screen. Muriel's white probably held onto something the Trick needed during that part.

Muriel ends up bookend-ing both sides of the Single of the The Pocket Trick while also being in it. That means Muriel is pocketed into the last touch of The Pocket Trick.

From this point, I consider them both part of a much bigger scene between several characters that ends with the demons leaving. I also consider it the back bookend to that Pocket Trick Single.

The story cuts away to the Metatron and then back to another scene that Crowley and Muriel share with other characters. By the way, the angels and Crowley seem to have generally changed positions overall.

Eventually, everyone leaves, giving Crowley and Muriel a chance to have their own scene together.

Now Crowley is more grumpy. Even so, near the end of their scene, he throws a book at Muriel and says, "Go for it. Here, you'll like this one." How does Crowley know Muriel would like the book? Has he known that book to be liked by a past version of Muriel? Does he just generally know Muriel because they are either friends or decently acquainted even before this scene ever took place? Even if both answers are no, he is probably guiding Muriel to read that book. I have never read that book, The Crow Road, but I have read what other people analyzing Good Omens 2 have had to say about it. That book has characters who communicate in non-verbal code with each other.

That's something both Crowley and Aziraphale do frequently during Good Omens 2. Crowley is actually giving away how he and Aziraphale communicate to Muriel by choosing that book. That could be dangerous with someone he doesn't trust...but he trusts Muriel. He trusts Muriel so much he is trying to tell them something about himself without saying it out loud—or is reminding them.

The story moves on.

In the next Muriel scene, at first glance, it looks like Crowley does not get a front bookend scene with it. Instead, that's given to a mix of the Metatron and Aziraphale as Aziraphale walks away and enters the bookshop. Blended with that scene, Maggie and Nina leave the bookshop with Nina shown to be passing by the Metatron. If one goes back and looks very closely—and I definitely would have missed this part were it not for a Tumblr post I'm happening to remember, a small bit of Crowley can be found in the background when Maggie and Nina were leaving the bookshop.

Muriel has their scene with the Metatron about reading a book. This part allows Muriel's scene to be a front bookend to the last two touches of The Sunglasses Trick, which take place while Crowley and Aziraphale have their argument.

At the same time, Crowley's scene of those touches becomes the back bookend of another Muriel scene. This stuff is happening on purpose as a game from the story.

Crowley leaves. Sometime after, Muriel can be seen looking through the window with a big question of how much they saw of the argument. They saw enough to look sad—like someone who cares about Crowley as a friend would.

Muriel is barely part of the scene with the Metatron and Aziraphale yet still gets book-ended between Crowley scenes.

After that scene, Crowley is shown standing alone as he starts The Door Trick. So, again, we have Muriel acting as a front bookend to a Threshold Trick, and Crowley acting as a back bookend to a Muriel scene.

Muriel is not on screen during the entirety of The Door Trick, The Door Catch, and The Window Trick. They manage to stay out of the way during these important moments in the story even though, as best we can tell, they are somewhere nearby.

In Muriel's last scene, they still get book-ended by Crowley scenes. The Window Trick finishes. Muriel opens the door and enters the bookshop. That makes their scene a back bookend to the last Threshold Trick. Crowley's car is seen driving away. Before the credits start, Crowley is shown driving with short sideburns as the last scene of the season before the credits truly start to roll.

If I understand yet another pattern from this little game, starting from when I said this bookend thing went into hyper-drive, Crowley's supposed to be a front-and-back bookend to Muriel scenes whereas Muriel doesn't do that for as many of Crowley's scenes. They have a special pocket version for The Pocket Trick and a front-and-back bookend to the argument, which was the conclusion of The Sunglasses Trick. One could find Aziraphale's moment alone before the Metatron arrives as debatably its own scene, then Crowley just doesn't front-and-back bookend Muriel at that point. Otherwise, Muriel's supposed to bookend one side or the other of Crowley's scenes but not both.

I wasn't even looking for yet another game, but I found one.

Anyway, I think they're friends—good friends even. It's hard to say how long the friendship existed before season 2. This trust they share would also explain Muriel's last scene with Crowley trusting them to look after the bookshop as he leaves.

...

More here:

Bookend Buddies Part 2 - Crowley and Muriel

[woodsfae]

B5 s04e02 Whatever Happened To Mr Garibaldi?  previous episode - table of contents

Hm, I don't remember Dr Franklin getting a voiceover episode before. He sounds so detatched. Nine days since Sheridan was presumed dead and Garibaldi disappeared, and the League has dissolved as everyone split back to their homeworlds. 

Lennier being a real g, coming to get help for Delenn. She isn't handling Sheridan's presumed death well, I imagine.

Sheridan is also not handling his presumed death well. Trapped in a tunnel with a member of a mystery species who constantly discourages one from escaping would be a major downer. 

"If I tell you my name is Lorien...." says the person who also projects on Sheridan that he's upset the alien (Lorien?) won't tell Sheridan his name. 

He will tell Sheridan that Sheridan's dead, though. And he doesn't have a pulse, so Lorien must be correct about that. It would be very irritating to be dead, feel alive, and then also be trapped in some kind of purgatory with Lorien. Tells you what you think, what you question, refuses to answer those questions, makes some more annoying statements. 

Lorien seems like...some sort of entity that lives in/is Z'Ha'Dum? But doesn't really seem to be a Shadow or aligned with them. Definitely not a plot point I saw coming.  

G'Kar is seeking some information from a salvage reseller on Garibaldi. The reseller found his Starfury, but all G'Kar got out of him before the ruckus was that he got a tip. 

So Garibaldi doesn't have a mode of transportation, wherever he is being held. 

Delenn thinks it's her fault that Sheridan died and the alliance fell apart. She's really beating herself up for never mentioning to Sheridan that theoretically, his wife could be alive. But really, he was told. He knew that no one would survive unless they turned to the Shadows, and that Anna would never help destroy the galaxy. Ergo, Anna's dead. 

"I should have loved him less and trusted him more," sadder words never spoke. 

Marcus and G'Kar seem to be somewhere else than B5. I did wonder if G'Kar was actually leaving on his search. I thought Franklin was leaving on his walk but he was just doing laps on the space station. 

G'Kar and Marcus have a sad little heart-to-heart while they're hiding out from the officials.

G'Kar: I came because Garibaldi is the only friend I've got who isn't Narnuan. Marcus: Ouch, well, I came because you're my only Narnuan friend and btw most of my friends are dead. 

The bartender's only question when informed that G'Kar has a bounty for alive or dead is to ask which one is higher. But before he can do anything about it, Marcus has kidnapped him for an interrogation! da da dum. 

Dr Franklin is much better at being reassuring when he isn't hitting on his patient. Unfortunate that was a plotline for him more than once, lol. 

Awww. Delenn gets a moment of happiness, watching one of Sheridan's personal logs where he talks about how much he loves her. 

G'Kar sent Marcus away to find out who Montagne is - the information he learned from the bartender - and immediately gets shot and captured by the officials...wherever G'Kar is. 

Delenn has been reinvigorated and is planning a new initiative with some hardy volunteers who aren't put-off by her extremely suicidal plan to attack Z'Ha'Dum. 

"As a dear friend said to me: "If you're falling off a mountain, you might as well try to fly...""

Ma'am you got that from Sheridan's diary personal log.

Londo is an excellent suck-up. 

ahaha, that's such a tiny bell th Emperor keeps around. 

G'Kar has been delivered to the Emperor, who is gifting him (gag) to Londo. 

Huh. G'Kar is dedicated to his task of find Garibaldi...he asks the Emperor if he knows where Garibaldi is! 

Flash to Garibaldi - imprisoned and being interrogated. What happened after he was removed From Babylon 5? He refuses to answer and also wrecks his cell before being gassed out. That tracks for him. 

Londo, somewhat compassionately, lays out the situation for G'Kar. He says he would have killed G'Kar with dignity if he was tired of living, but since he left B5, made himself vulnerable, and was captured, he'll be tortured for days or months, then surgically disassembled while being kept alive and conscious as long as possible. 

And then he says that G'Kar may be the means he has been waiting for to remove the Emperor. But G'Kar will certainly suffer greatly before it can be manuevered. That's not much comfort thanks, Londo. 

Does G'Kar get to go down in history as the Narn who killed two consecutive Centauri Emperors?! That's badass if so, unfortunate about the past and upcoming torture. 

G'Kar says he'll do it if Londo makes the Centauri withdraw from Narn afterwards. And Londo gives his word. 

Something tells me the Shadows are going to possess him and not let him do it? 

Back to Sheridan - back to where he started by his fire in the cave where he woke up. Lorien tells him to give up, but Sheridan' won't give up. Lorien, who claims to be not one of the first ones, but the first one of the elder beings that disappeared. He says he's been waiting for someone to talk to but that Sheridan is the first one to make it that far. 

He also says the Shadows come to Z'Ha'Dum because of him, and they think they're paying respect. That's so funny, tho. 

Lore drop from Lorien continues. Vorlons can break off pieces of their consciousnesses and attach them to other beings and thereby travel in multiple places throughout the galaxy. Lorien says he and Kosh both need to give up and die. 

Sheridan says he won't, because people depend on him. Lorien insists that he isn't pursuing life, he's fleeing death, so he has to give up and accept death so he can live. 

It's. Alright as a plotline I guess. But the paradoxical life/death thing is mostly just funny. He's reassuring Sheridan into accepting death by promising he'll try to keep Sheridan alive. Which...seems to contradict the requirement that he accept death. How can he give in, if he's clinging to hope? 

Eh, I guess I'll find out.

the legend continues...

[tadpoles-and-daydreams]

First meditation with Khaos, the vast void of space

Quick warnings: this is a pretty long post, but I'm using it as a way to record everything I remember happening during this meditation so it has things other than just what happened with Khaos! This is also actually originally written weeks ago, I just left it in my drafts for ages whoops.

Another note: I won't be using only she/her pronouns for Khaos in the future, although I don't think they give a singular fuck either way, I just am tired today and wanted to get this posted without having to edit it.

UPG disclaimer. Even the title is UPG, my personal associations with Khaos.

So, I had things to do and decided I wanted to have a proper chat with Loki about it. I started up my meditation music, grabbed whatever crystals felt right, and laid down.

One of the first things they did was hug me. I am someone who has issues with receiving love, and this caught me entirely off guard. Of course I go "wtf bitch you can't do that???" And he basically told me something along the lines of "fuck you I do what I want." (Note: Loki is deeply salty that I cannot remember their actual wording, as it did not have the boundary breaking "I hug you if I want no matter your thoughts on it" implications this wording does. Loki is big on boundaries being respected with me. I feel the need to write that down.)

But we chatted about a spell I was planning, and Loki- who promptly draped himself across a couple logs all dramatically- was very enthusiastic about helping. We went back and forth, I also brought up Apollo to say hello, and then I felt... someone on the edge of things. Apollo was pretty abruptly gone, which makes sense for reasons I'll explain in a moment.

Loki stepped beside me, and sort of had their arm over my shoulders in a distinctly protective manner. Thing is, nothing felt malicious, and I asked them why the hell they seemed so protective when I felt perfectly safe. They explained that I was safe, but "she's pretty fucking intimidating so you might need someone to keep you steady."

Enter Khaos. I realized it was her because instead of a humanoid, or even recognizable form, suddenly within the protected astral space I go when I meditate (I'll just call it "homespace" from now on) is this massive fucking orb of void.

Except this is much bigger, and the orb I was met with was only... "half" of one. Like it'd been sliced, a few solid chunks cut out, like when a video game renders wrong and certain chunks won't load. I actively tried to imagine it as whole, to change it- it wouldn't budge. When I took the above screenshot as a reference, seeing how tiny my character was compared to the in-game thing that I compared Khaos to, it brought a whole new meaning to Loki's explanation as to why it was only half of an orb.

"She's trying not to scare you."

Loki assured me that they would be with me the whole time, that we were not leaving homespace and the orb was completely within the protection of homespace, and we walked in. It was pitch black, void all around, and I could see Loki as if he was lit up in the middle of day but that was it. Khaos came out of the void, sort of appearing out of the "wall" of darkness- being formed from it herself as if it were liquid. I asked her what she had to say.

She looked at me, just smiled, and said "good luck."

I admit, I laughed. I pointed out that THAT sounded ominous as hell. I knew what she meant- she was genuinely wishing me luck, since I have a lot of growth ahead of me and working with her is going to be a pretty big deal for me. But at the time, I couldn't help but laugh. Later, when I was recounting this to my mom, I got a very clear image of hands of darkness holding a bright orb of light. Offering it to me. It wasn't just wishing me luck. It was a gift.

Not long after that, I was suddenly made more aware of my physical body in the form of an ant crawling across me. I got the ant off of me, and went back- only to find that I couldn't just go back to the void we were standing in. Loki met me where we originally had started, and confirmed that I wasn't able to go into her space uninvited. I told them I couldn't go through the process of getting further into a meditative state and walking back into the void, and they said it was okay.

And I swear to you, I'm not fucking with you when I say this is exactly what was said next.

Me: "So... It's so interesting- Is the only way to talk to her to go into the void, be consumed by her energy entirely?"

Khaos, suddenly behind me: "Sort of, but not entirely no."

Me, finding out that my startle reflex is just as bad in the astral: "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST-"

Khaos: "No." (As in no, she's not Jesus. /Lh I just feel like it might not be clear!)

You guys. She wasn't even trying to be funny. I adore Khaos already I'm gonna have a fucking great time.

[qqchurch]

Series where I can do whatever to my heart's contents in it's setting will always stick by me because of the sheer potential of what you can do

Log Horizon's plot is probably locked in at this point, even if the publishers will likely never release another volume, but the things you can write about what's happening anywhere else is practically endless.

Theldesia has the entirety of Elder Tales' online population at the moment of the May Incident/Catastrophe/World Fraction, we're talking maybe millions of players now stranded in another world in bodies not their own and reality itself trying to find a middle ground between the rules of the game and that of Earth.

You could have stories about homesickness or settling in a new life. Dysphoria or euphoria over becoming their player characters. Shifting moralities when the concept of permanent death is trivialized. Collective trauma and the community that forms to alleviate that.

Take, for instance, that one small blurb about someone in the American server discovering the Real World Preparation Method for food and the ensuing chaos in the city that leads to the formation of mafia-like organizations duking it out in Not!New York. The focus could be on the toxic relationship between two hitwomen that just can't help killing each other and finding the way their swords lock with another electrifying.

Or maybe, looking elsewhere, how a literal farming bot that gained sapience could develop a close relationship with her programmer, the examination between her intended programming and emerging behavior leaving mixed but uplifting feelings that could bloom into more.

A closeted trans woman, early into her transition but not coming out yet, suddenly finding herself at her end goal by pure happenstance and rekindling a relationship with her roommate who was patiently waiting for her to feel like herself to be together again.

A heavy roleplayer that's a little bit too into a certain NPC, suddenly finding out that she's alive and could return her affections, only to realize the yawning gap between their perception of reality.

An avid solo player doing her best bloodknight impression and slaughtering her way through a mob village to vent, only to stop short once she sees the fear in a survivor's eyes. Does she go further? Does she take the survivor in to repent?

A knight finding herself between the political machinations of the NPC royalty and her ties to Earth and the Adventurers, only that she's being seduced really hard by the princess that caught a fancy to her.

... I'm just making up most of these on the spot because Theldesia seems to be a fun place to explore, Apocalypse notwithstanding, and a lot of it is intentionally left unsaid because the main plot understandably focuses on Shiroe and Co.

That said, I guess one huge downside is that most of your possible acquaintances are going to be fellow gamers so common stereotypes might be present, even if you take into account that Elder Tale was likely as popular as FFXIV and would be more diverse in personality as a result.

(also all the prompts were yuri plots on purpose (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠))

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Tsukikage Souji Story 2

re: star trek picard episode 9 reveal. i called it. i fucking called it.

Anyway, CN translations of the longest of Okita-hen's extras on showed up on bilibili... and honestly, part of me is saying that I should do something with that as someone who wants translations of the hakumyu extras, but I still haven't watched Okita-hen... and I have no idea how accurate said translations are (the same group also did translations of LIVE's extras, but I really, really, really, really do not want to compare them to the file available now to check for accuracy).... Also, I already hate translating videos and am already working on something else that is longer...

Meh. whatever. today's translation was originally published in B’s Log 2019年9月.

enjoy!

Hakuoki Tsukikage B’s Log 2019年9月 Okita Short Story “Fumidzuki (文月)” [meaning the 7th month]

Translation by KumoriYami

"....What are you doing?"

"!? Ah, Okita-san..."

I turned around and saw Okita-san standing there, looking stunned. I quickly got up and bowed my head to apologise.

"It's fine. I'm just wondering so many books have been gathered here."

Okita-san glanced at the books spread over the streets and sat down in a gap between some.

Since I had time, I explained to Okita-san.

Since the rainy season seems to be almost over, I'm airing them out to dissipating the moisture like this…"

"Oh.... ah, these are Kondou-san's, right?"

"？Indeed they are..."

Okita-san, who now had a book in his hand, had a troubled expression on his face for some reason.

"Kondou-san is fond of books about heroes. He's lent me some before."

"I see. Were they very interesting?"

"Not really. Compared ot the heroes that everyone knows about, I think Kondou-san is much more amazing. Furthermore, I didn't finish reading (those)."

"Huh?"

"I don't want to read about such trivialities. I only asked Heisuke about them, and he said their contents would be interesting to Kondou-san."

It was difficult for me to react to Okita-san, who was speaking calmly. Even if I wanted to say something, I couldn't say it.

"....They don't suit me."

That's when Okita-san sighed and (was about to) speak/spoke [the sentence I have just says "...sighed and spoke". alternatively, i guess this could be interpreted as "Okita-san spoke then sighed" or that he spoke with a sigh.... i don't feel like checking the raw].

"Ah, it's Yukimura, and also Souji! Haha, today's weather is great for airing things out!"

"Eh, Kondou-san...!"

I was in a panic because of the topic just now. But Okita-san smiled as if nothing had happened.

"Because these books are so memorable, I read them. Look, I've read this before…"

"Ah, I remember. This book is quite rare and Souji also thought it was quite interesting. How about reading it again since you have such a rare opportunity?"

"Yes. If Kondou-san choose (it/something), I'll read it."

After Okita-san said that, Kondou-san smiled, and happily searched for a/some rare book/s.

Since I was unable to accept what was going on [I guess 'process' might make more sense than 'accept' given the context...], I could only shift my gaze away from the two of them.

(I don't know anything, I don't know anything...)

"After you finish it, please be sure to tell me what you think of it. Then, I'll be looking forward to that."

After giving the book recommendation to Okita-san, Kondou-san happily left.

Then, there was a moment of silence—

"...Chizuru-chan...."

I didn't want to hear those words—

"After you read this, tell me the details."

"HUH?! Um, Kondou-san's recommendation, it'd really be better if you carefully read—"

"As I mentioned earlier. People have things they are and aren't suited for."

As he said that, he pushed the book aside before Okita-san then stood and stretched.

"Then, I'll leave it to you."

I stared blankly at Okita-san who cheerfully walked away…

Is this okay, Okita-san…?

---end---

[negrowhat]

City Boy Log Thoughts Pt. 2

For the ep that dropped today...I wrote notes.

I found it interesting that we saw Jaejun only apologize to Yunje. I found it even more interesting that he did it over the phone vs. in person. I think Jaejun felt it was better to do it over the phone so Yunje wouldn't have the opportunity to "overwhelm" him again. It was his safest option to draw that line in the sand over the phone. Almost like addressing whatever chemistry they had going on wasn't worth an in-person conversation because in the long run it wasn't that important to Jaejun.

After the bike riding and the boys were standing by the fence, Jaejun put the tiniest bit of distance between himself and Jihan and Jihan noticed it immediately. He is very attentive to Jaejun's body language. I didn't have any thoughts on it, just something I noticed.

I like that Dongseop didn't push his feelings onto Jihan after being firmly rejected. When Yunje asked him who he would choose to teach him how to ride a bike it was clear he wanted to say Jihan but instead he said Yunje or Jeonggyu. He's not going to step over that boundary again because Jihan is still his friend and he respects him even though he doesn't like Jaejun.

From this ep I see that following men who wander off alone seems to be something Yunje does often. He followed Dongseop the same way he was following Jaejun every time Jaejun wandered off alone. In that same scene we also got to see Dongseop deploy his oh-so-effective damsel in distress routine. He did it with Jihan (pretending to hurt himself when they were cooking and also pretending to be too drunk to walk so he could sneak in a kiss under the radar) and now he's pretending to fall and hurt his ankle to grab Yunje's attention.

I enjoyed watching them flirt but it was clear that they were not ready to even try to approach the idea of possibly dating each other. Yunje pulled himself back and mentioned something about when Dongseop found the right person that person would be lucky and Dongseop agreed.

I also enjoyed watching Jeonggyu shoot his shot with Dongseop. We don't really know what they did the night they slept in bed together. Dongseop doesn't seem to remember and Jeonggyu seemed to be a little touchy that morning. Jeonggyu knows Dongseop is still a little brokenhearted about Jihan but he uses the opportunity to kiss the boy anyway. At the very least to show Dongseop that he is very much interested in him. It seems Dongseop has prospects and there might be a lil love triangle on the rise between him, Jeonggyu, and Yunje. I look forward to that.

I found 2J's make up interesting. Not because of the actual dialogue but because of the descriptive text on the screen. The parts that are written on the screen to kinda fill in the gaps of what's happening between the unclear dialogue. One of them said "Jihan always takes the initiative" when Jihan is about to apologize. And then after Jihan says he's sorry the text next to Jaejun says "I'm more sorry."

It makes me wonder if Jaejun confessed and apologized to Jihan off camera. Because why else wouldn't he verbally apologize unless he either A) didn't tell Jihan about kissing that dude because he didn't feel he needed to or B) told him off screen after it happened.

But I feel like if Jihan had known about it prior to his apology he would've been wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more upset than how he appeared in this most recent ep. Jihan is a jealous boy and we've seen how angry he gets when another man approaches Jaejun and we've also seen him warning Jaejun to not be so inviting towards other men who clearly have intentions. So it's a strong possibility that Jihan doesn't know about the kiss.

BUT at the same time I just feel like it really could've been a creative decision to not include that confrontation on camera like they didn't address whatever was going on between Jihan and Hyosang in the shower because much like real life, some conversations just don't happen in front of an audience. I fear that could be another situation we won't get anymore context on.

Also unpopular opinion about these messy boys, Jaejun specifically. I think Jihan and Jaejun's relationship is just green enough to forgive the things that Jaejun has done BUT only if Jaejun actually talks about, owns up to, and genuinely apologizes for how he handled this whole situation with Yunje, Dongseop, and Jihan.

Also for the love of gawd I hope 2J learns how to communicate beter. I think Jihan should've told Jaejun about Dongseop's advances even if he didn't view it that way he still found some of Dongseop's actions weird. The kiss and the conversation he had with Dongseop about Jaejun should've definitely come up.

I think part of the reason Jaejun was acting so stupidly with Yunje is because he was picking up on Dongseop's attraction to Jihan and it might have come off to Jaejun that Jihan was aware of Dongseops advances and was just not doing anything to stop it.

[jess-moloney]

But if she has his password, why he doesn't change it? About the x acount, i don't have either and i read what jamie wrote. I think that is about preferences. I am so confused about human behavior anyway jaja by the way, are you better?

But if she has his password, why he doesn't change it?

There could be so many answers to this. One of them could be that she knows him well enough that even if he does change it she can guess it, or she has access to his email to get a recovery link to change the password back to whatever she wants. We know how many times his Twitter has been hacked which indicates he's not super motivated to change passwords or login information (like the email account he's using to log in). If she knows all of his email accounts and how to get into those then she always has a way to recover the password to get back into his account.

Of course then you could ask why wouldn't he just make a new email and not tell her or something? Well, if she is as abusive, manipulative, and controlling as she is, he may just feel it's easier not to do that. He may fear what she could do if he doesn't allow her to have her way. I've been in a relationship with a controlling, abusive partner. I wasn't comfortable with them having access to my accounts and passwords but I was more afraid of what they'd do to me and how they may react if I did anything to change that. I've also been in situations where blackmail was at play where a person is always holding something over my head saying if you do X thing I will tell everyone about Y thing.

If she has something on him that he doesn't want out there and the easiest way to appease her is to allow her to have access to his Instagram account because he's afraid of how bad it might be otherwise then that's what he's going to do. That's what anyone in this situation would do because that's a fairly normal reaction. In fact, she may not really be threatening anything specific, but he may be so scared of what he anticipates she might do based on past behaviour that he doesn't do anything instead of doing something about it.

It's extremely easy to get stuck in this position after you've been with an abusive narcissist for an extended period of time. They have a way of boxing you into such an insane amount of control you just find it easier to let them have their way and avoid confrontation altogether than do something that might bring their wrath down on you.

About the x acount, i don't have either and i read what jamie wrote.

Jess seems to be so chronically online that it wouldn't surprise me if she's reading his twitter account without engaging with him. We all know that even if she's not actively posting on Instagram she's still on there doom scrolling. I remember at the beginning of 2024 she had posted something about a "social media detox" and that she was going to take a week off of Social Media but the very same day she was liking posts on IG and checking stories she had been tagged in. She didn't leave for one second. I think she's attached to her phone, or multiple phones because there's more than a few pictures of her carrying more than one phone around.

by the way, are you better?

I'm not better, not really, I am going to have to go through a lot of treatments and physical therapy as well as a whole insurance settlement thing. It's going to be a long and annoying process. Currently due to one of the few injuries I sustained in the accident I have a cervicogenic headache. Simply put it's a headache that's constant and can last weeks or months until the injury is healed and will require a few weeks of physical therapy. It's hard for me to look at screens for an extended period of time which is why I'm slower to answering asks and only get around to them when I feel like I can stand looking at a screen to type. I will eventually be better but it's not going to happen overnight. Thanks for asking though.

[spidermanbutawkward]

TICKET RANT </3

Okay- this'll be weird, not used to posting on Tumblr yet lol. But can we talk abt how little time we're given to save money for concerts recently ??? I might just be in the wrong tax(?) bracket for this stuff but I've been noticing that we've had about... three seconds to save money for concerts- and I get there's a lot of time for reseller tickets n whatever but those are never.. really guaranteed to be normally / reasonably priced (nor good seats). Like I would like a week- atleast to get my shit together or be able to save atleast a bit for tickets. Mainly with MCR, we had less than a week- at most and that really sucked for the younger / less well off fans. (EHEM, ME.) I remember being just- confused as major holidays were coming up (thanksgiving / christmas- don't ask my family shops early for it) and not having any time to even really think. Also another bug to pick with MCR, what the fuck were those reseller prices. They should've put a cap on those cuz wdym 800$ for the worst nosebleeds ever. Anyway, MCR tangent aside, I've just been seeing this happen a lot recently and it sucks. Especially with the emo resurgence this year it seems around two days before the tickets go on sale it gets teased and they hype it up so much that practically half the queue are scalpers. I don't wanna be whiny but it just sucks that a lot of people are missing out on all of these opportunities mainly because, a) Ticketmaster fucking sucks and logs people out instead of the bots b) They weren't given much time at all to even start to save money for it / don't have the money for tickets. Back on MCR... I've seen ppl using their college fund, going into literal debt, etc. I really just wish for big tours like these we got teasers weeks in advance. For an example; green day saviors tour, Im pretty sure they handled it well and teased it a few weeks before the tickets dropped- they were also decently priced, atleast where I was. But again, it is what it is ig. Alright tangent over ive expressed everything I wanted too andd I'm bored with this :p

[blackjackkent]

Well. Hector feels fucking awful now, but you know what will make him feel better? Beating the hell out of the area boss.

"Wait. Elevated gyroscopes. Triple-set quadropecs. No... it can't be..."

Karlach got this conversation because it was an autotrigger as we got close to the door; normally this annoys me a smidge but it kind of makes sense here since Hector is still super rattled by the events of the previous post.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I hear it through the floor. Powerful. Indestructible. The ultimate Watcher - the Titan."

"The Watcher tightens what? Whatever it be, Minsc will knock it loose!"

I love Minsc. XD

"It shames me to admit this, but you must face this beast of Gondian folly alone. I would be crushed in an instant. When it raises its shields, strike it with every scrap of magic and might you possess... and pray to Gond that it does not fire upon you. Good luck, my friend."

...uh oh.

-----

There are three things in the next room, all labeled "Hellfire Watcher." I'm not sure if these are what Toobin was talking about.

The room is also lined with a great deal of the same pulsating flesh material that marked the oubliette at Moonrise.

In the back of the room is a large steel sphere that I suspect is our target, as its lined with both mechanical cabling and fleshy nerve lines, and is connected to something labeled "Neural Switchboard". I'm guessing this is the control mechanism for all of the Watchers in the city.

Quite scared of this fight but there's no way out but through. XD

Aaaaaand as soon as the fight started, the platform in the center of the area lifted up and revealed...

Selune's moonlit ass, THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE HP? Fuck me, you know what, I give up, let the Absolute have me.

Kidding, of course. (Mostly.)

Combat log number whatever the hell:

My opening strategy was the brute force that Team Juggernaut is very good at, and our team are such forces of nature at this point that we got the titan below half health before it was able to get a shot off.

I also opened with putting having Jaheira toss both Freedom of Movement and Shield of Faith on Hector before going owlbear, since the most scary thing about the Watchers is not actually their damage but their crowd control and Hector is the squishiest of the group.

At this point the fight's Exciting Gimmicks kicked in:

OK, that all seems... fine. O.O;

Investigating the various status effects, we learn that Hellfire Curse has given everyone disadvantage on STR/DEX/CON saves, and Defensive Protocol: Bulwark makes the Titan "Unyielding" (ignores attacks under 15 damage) and gives it access to "Repair Matrix" (a self-heal), "Repelling Protocol" (a damaging knockback), and "Hellfire Missiles", which it just used, which is an AOE attack that does...

...ahem...

96-576 DAMAGE.

OK, let's get everyone out of that fucking red circle RIGHT NOW. The bright side here is that while bulwarked it doesn't seem to take opportunity attacks, meaning we can all scatter like the terrified rabbits that we are.

I had Jaheira summon a dryad to get some more bodies on the field and it was IMMEDIATELY, like literally instantly, completely obliterated by one of the Hellfire Watchers. So that's a fourth level spell slot wasted.

Interestingly, the hellfire missiles never actually went off; I had Hector do a full round of attacks on it with the intention of booking it after he was out of actions/bonus actions - but it just stopped and came out of Bulwark during his last hit. I'm actually not at all clear what happened here, even looking at the combat log; it seems like Hector might have staggered it, but also maybe it just dropped it after taking a certain amount of damage? Unclear.

Regardless, it meant that Minsc was able to finish it off before it could make another attack! Jaheira (whose background is Soldier! I hadn't realized!) got an inspiration for this:

This is hardly the first one we've destroyed so I'm not sure why she only got this now. :P

It didn't explode when it died, either, which was a nice change.

It's carrying, for some reason, a legendary level bow which looks dope as shit:

That's actually fucking wild. This one goes to Jaheira.

The fight unfortunately did not stop being scary at this point because there were still three Steel Watchers on the field. But we're starting to get fairly practiced at dealing with them and are also bolstered by the fact that these are probably the last ones we'll have to fight, thank the gods. Tossed Jaheira into owlbear form and let her smack the shit out of one of them which was very satisfying.

In the end, I managed to time it out so all three were in detonation phase at the same time and went off one right after the other. Let's fucking goooooooo!

[ivoryminitower]

FFXIV Write 2024 prompt 28: Deleterious

I wish Husband had told me when I went out to gather maple logs yesterday that we would need more than usual.  But I suppose he did not yet know.  Still, it was not how I had planned to spend this morning.

We had come to the bar after dinner and had not yet found stools when Sam gave us some news.  "Deputy Frank came by.  Seems he's gonna be inspectin' the workshop on a reg'lar basis."

Husband peered at Sam.  "He can get warrants on a regular basis?"

"He claims he don't need 'em.  That the shed's just part o' the bar."

"What happened to all that landlord-tenant stuff we talked about?"

"He says that only counts if there's a lease.  Which, per whatever issues you got, you 'n I don't have."

"Okay, but that means it's your shed, right?  So you can require a warrant?"

Sam sighed.  "Establishments that serve alcohol are subject to inspection on a reg'lar basis to ensure there are no activities bein' conducted that are threatenin' or deleterious to the community."

Husband simply stared at him.

"He can inspect the bar, shed's part o' the bar…" Sam shrugged.  "He can inspect the shed."

"So he can just walk in at any time?  I can't even, like, put a sock on the doorknob or something?"

I did not know what this meant.  Sam apparently did.  He smirked. "This establishment does not provide facilities fer adult entertainment."

"I mean…can I at least lock the door?  Make him knock?"

"S'pose so.  Though I dunno if he watches bad cop shows…he might try to kick the door down if he hears sounds o' distress."

Deputy Frank has seemed to make a hobby of watching us, sometimes as we work at the diner, and only rarely as we work at the bar.  Sam thinks it is because we are new in town, and there is very little else happening in the county to distract him.  It may also be because sometimes strange things happen around us, and those who might have seen them have nothing to say to Frank if he asks them.

Husband and I do sometimes spend casual time in the workshop, but it is not very comfortable for what I think Sam meant by "adult entertainment."  But we do our Eorzean crafting there, which Husband has said we should not do in front of others.  So we would not want Frank walking in on us unexpectedly.

Husband was not happy about the news.  I was not either, but he seemed to be taking it hard.  He leaned against the back of a chair, his eyes not focused on anything in particular.

Then he lifted the chair and slammed it into the floor, smashing it.

He punched the table that was next to the chair, splitting it in two.  He grabbed two chairs and crushed them together.  He stomped to another table and continued his rampage, as if the room's furniture was his solo duty.

Sam and I watched silently from the bar.  When Husband at last seemed to run out of rage, he stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by debris.  His head and shoulders drooped.

Sam quietly said, "Y'know…yer just makin' more work fer yerself…"

"Something for Frank to walk in on," Husband muttered.  After a moment he made himself straighten.  "Guess I'll get started on the replacements."  He headed through the back to the workshop.

I turned to Sam and smiled.  "I will pick up the pieces."

"Don't ferget yer shift.  Yer husband get like this a lot?"

"When we were…on deployment, there was usually a good target for anger."

"Remind him he ain't on deployment now?"

"I will."

(Based on Echoes of Home, hosted on Wattpad.)