#this whole thing has catastrophic vibes

[collapsedsquid]

A US plan to deliver aid to Gaza from a floating pier at sea will be fraught with potential logistical and security challenges. More than 1,000 US troops are expected to participate in the operation although the Pentagon says there will be no "boots on the ground". To help achieve that, the US has partnered with a little-known private firm, Fogbow, which is run by former military and intelligence officials.

[affableramen]

when they try to woo you

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

tags: early stage of relationship ; suggestive ; minors dni

Wriothesley

Lots of, I’m telling you, lots of cuddling and hugging. Wrio is very touchy

He tries very hard to be a real gentleman with you however it results in funny, awkward situations (which is so endearing of him)

Will talk a lot about his piercing telling you a story of each

Lets you touch his hair because you want to touch it

Can’t choose the proper colour pallette for his formal suit and ends up wearing the most laughable socks ever

Wants to show off with his bike and will certainly give you a night ride

Will come to your date half-sleeping after late night shift but still see you

Neuvillette

Would pull the chair for you at the restaurant 100%

Chooses the suit for your first date for a whole week in advance

Wants everyone to know that you’re his so will hold your hand at every possibility

He puts a lot of effort to be a perfect boyfriend so he’ll even offer to pick you up from work

Neuvi has a closed personality so he generally won’t be the first to kiss but if you do, he will certainly be the one to deepen it

Chooses the date place really attentively, remembering all your needs, food choices, allergies and the general vibe you give off

Is the person to spend the night with you completely without doing anything naughty besides sleeping

Pantalone

Would certainly wear a cologne with pheromones on your first date in order to woo you. Not that he’s insecure but he’d definitely like to add up to his charm

Very nice hair styling in gel and possibly perfumed shampoo with a sweet-spicy scent like amber

Neatly manicured nails (lol always in gloves)

Expensive gifts are must-have for him but sometimes he’s afraid he will scare you off with that so does that in moderation

Helps you do shopping, choosing the highest quality goods and balance your spending

Is actually a horny catastrophe but will never push you past kissing and cuddling if you are not ready. When you ask if he is ok with being patient, he nonchalantly responds that he is a grown man and can control his needs

Dottore

Different mask on every date

Gifts you his vial earring as a token of his affection

He’s not very touchy and it is exactly the problem! He doesn’t want you to slip off his fingers because of his personality, that’s why he offers you lots of phone calls in order to compensate some other aspects…

Will help you make choices in absolutely different aspects of life because he’s older and also has a unique perspective on things

Can definitely answer your message in the late night if you feel upset

Buys you concert tickets before you do it

Capitano

FLOWERS is a must have on every date with you. The bouquets he gives you are rich and radiant

He’s like a rose with sharp thorns and can demand lots of privacy in the early stages. If he doesn’t feel like it, he won’t go past hand holding and kissing

Asks you a lot about your previous relationships (if you have ones) because he genuinely want to learn more about you. Capi desperately needs to gather every single detail abt you in order to make his company as comfortable as possible for you

Will let you examine his helmet and will certainly let you braid his hair

Tells you epic stories about each one of his scars

Even exhausted from work and with tight schedule will agree to see you at least 3 times a week because he wants to stay close to you so much

Alhaitham

Hardly talks, prefers listening to you

Lets you wear his headphones, but worried you might not like his choice in music (mostly lo fi)

Loves hand holding with you. Does that on every date

Will make sure to finish your dates with kisses even if brief, he just needs your lips on his

Provides you with fast access to Akademiya library if you ever need that

Sits never in front of you, but next to you

Will take you for a late night date only to gaze at the stars afterwards. He finds it romantic and dreamy

Chews mint gum and wears fresh-smelling cologne in order to attract you

[corseque]

I wanted to make a last-minute prediction post based on what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t looked at new Dragon Age news for the past couple (3? 4?) weeks, and I know I’m (on purpose to avoid spoilers) missing some (probably a lot of) details that other people already know. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. So if I’m already right or wrong about something,

PLEASE please DON’T TELL ME.

You can come back in a month and tell me THEN. It’s just one more month to wait.

Also, this is just for fun, and it’s not serious. It’s based on vibes and also based on what I would write myself. I have developed a surprisingly specific image of what might happen to Solas and I’m just want to write it down.

I’m thinking “there is no possible way this is right………” but then I’m like “unless…..?” so a vague chance of potential spoilers

First, I’ve been suspicious about the elven gods getting free and Solas being trapped. If you think about what Solas says in Trespasser, it’s very

Part of Solas’ aim that has so far been revealed to us is he likely wants the Veil torn down, and one of the only things that is keeping him from that is the reality of the elven gods trapped in there, who would be released.

Inquisitor: “If you destroyed the Veil, wouldn’t the false gods be freed?”

Solas: “I had plans.”

But that is no longer a concern from that moment in the gameplay trailer where they are released. 

“I intend to restore them. Doing so will most likely destroy your world.”

Two elven gods rampaging across Thedas sounds like the kind of “the world is being destroyed” situation Solas was talking about. It is his incision that breached their prison, and it isn’t impossible that Rook may have been almost manipulated into completing it. I wonder if Solas is playing his two sets of enemies against each other yet again?

In the old tales, Solas uses his enemies to fight each other while he is tied to a tree, trapped. He gives both sides equal advice until they are both defeated, at which point he frees himself and finishes what he set out to do. 

Honestly, even though he’s “trapped,” it sounds exactly like the sort of thing that needs to happen for his work to continue.

(All of this is speculation that I think I’ll have a better idea about once I hear the full first conversation with him, and exactly how he words his point of view of what happened. If he’s very squirrelly in his wording, I’ll know he may have caused it on purpose.)

“I seek regeneration,” he said in Vows & Vengeance. The devs had said that Solas has been bringing back magic for centuries before the series even started. Perhaps it explains why the dragons have returned. It seems that his reshaping the world, regenerating it, will be successful because it seems to be moving steadily without him. So maybe this is a last and, once in motion, inevitable step in “healing” the injured world.

I think that the elven gods are very scary and world-ending, but Solas is the only one of them that reshaped the world successfully. He will be the one to do it again, not Ghilan’nain or Elgar’nan or any other god. He is a trickster his, and Tricksters are the Gods of Inevitable (otherwise catastrophic) Change.

One of the greatest criticisms of Inquisition was the lack of screen time Corypheus had. And how the climax fell flat at the end because he didn’t have enough screen time. This leads me to believe that Solas may be the “Last Boss” of DA4. Because we definitely HAVE a complicated satisfying personal relationship with him that has been set up for two whole games.

So the ending for Solas needs to do a lot of things:

“These are the times in which legends are born or slain” Solas as the Dread Wolf will die

It needs to work for both people who love and hate Solas

In order to defeat the Elven Gods, Rook has to find their weakness, which is Solas’ weakness too (maybe a fatal flaw, or how they can be truly killed) so it can be used on Solas too. Perhaps this will involve Solas trying to obscure this from Rook as best as he can

Solas fully is on Rook’s side against the evanuris, but when they’re taken care of, he doesn’t need to team up anymore

I don’t believe that you will be able to stop Solas’ plans, and I hope that they will change Thgedas’ world no matter what. I hope it’s just a fact of life that the Veil comes down

The story basically needs to involve Solas betraying Rook again, because new players need to experience that feeling in order to be in the same place with him as they were in DA3

It needs to give players a torn situation about him, one that makes you feel he’s reasonable but at the same time make it satisfying to fight him. So I believe this is why he will betray the player again, even if he is getting along with them.

I believe there needs to be a boss fight against Solas because he does have a cool big monster form and people have been promised to be able to kill him

It needs to be satisfying for those who romanced him too, but it also needs to be beautifully sad because part of the draw of the romance compared to all the others in the series is that it’s beautifully sad

For that reason, I suspect (not because I particularly want this to happen, I’m just saying what I see most likely) is that fighting and killing Solas may not actually be optional, and he is killed in every worldstate. This way, everyone gets a last boss fight and everyone experiences pretty much the same story without much branching 

I think the difference between friendly and unfriendly version may be whether he is brought back to life by the efforts of those who care about him after he is killed

So basically:

Veil comes down/magic comes back

Solas helps Rook take down evanuris

Solas betrays Rook when it seems the story should be over

Boss fight with Solas as the Dread Wolf (see: my Tulpa Theory)

Solas is defeated and killed

Story ends there if Solas is hated, (story about Rook getting revenge)

If Solas is loved, Solas is brought back and rebirthed in another freer form through a spirit ritual, perhaps as Wisdom, but some part of it is bittersweet like Rose and Doctor 10 (story about regret).

But basically, no matter how Solas and Lavellan’s story ends, their love enduring will be the path to joy, or them being together. Rook can kill Solas and Lavellan can bring him back. Even if it has to just happen off-screen or in fanfic.

I think it is very likely that Solas kills Varric or another character as a way to transition from passive threat to active threat. Or maybe Rook is responsible because of the theme of regret, idk. But I think we’ll get a great cathartic end for Varric probably.

I think we may have to choose between Varric and the Inquisitor, because it’s similar to the Hawke-Alistair choice

I would be very surprised if the story ended with Solas and Lavellan went off into the sunset together in a perfectly happy ending with nothing bittersweet. But sadly, I don’t really see this happening and I think bittersweet may be the name of the game.

Other things I predict:

We can assume that the Inquisitor will have an optional death scenario when they reappear, where we choose either to let them sacrifice themselves in some way, or save them. So perhaps there is an ending where Solas and Lavellan die together and can be free as spirits, which would also be bittersweet.

I don’t really have predictions for anything but Solas, so the big lore reveals might change the situation so much that none of this applies or makes sense anymore. In which case I will probably be HAVING FUN.

I am not EXPECTING any of this to happen, I am just writing it down and posting it in case I’m right. Anyway please wait until I’m done playing to tell me if I’m right or wrong, and this is just for fun, I wouldn’t mind if the whole game was completely different.

[punkpandapatrixk]

💫Current aenergy Check-In ♦︎ Timeless Pick A Card

You’re done learning, right? Where are you going? What are you getting? Your wish fulfilment, your karmic/cosmic rewards, your Life Purpose and self-actualisation, your raison d'être; everything becomes ever clearer from here.

Just a reminder, the term ‘Life Purpose’ may seem heavy and serious and all, but the truth of the matter is, everybody’s purpose for being born here is to remember to have a good time! Time you stopped being a slave to the pigs of capitalism XD

In you lies the power to cause a miracle to stir🍻

Miracles for all begin when a bunch of individuals believe in their innate magick. As the percentage goes up the whole world gets lifted. If this reading has appeared in your Interface of Reality, know that you’re well on your way to manifesting your Highest Intended Good.

The peeps who are going to resonate most with this PAC are probably those that have been walking a thorny path of spiritual awakening. You’ve sacrificed so much just for Humanity; damn, this world doesn’t even deserve a Soul like yours. But your happiness is just about to burst like crazy.

And even in your living your happy life you’re serving this Matrix. When you’re happy and spiritually fulfilled, the sounds, the cheers that you make, will echo throughout the world. This Matrix becomes a happier place with more happy people in it.

Where are you going? What are you getting? I didn’t put a year on this reading, so that whenever you find this in the future, that’s the timeline you’re on~

SONG: この星のどこかで (kono hoshi no dokoka de; Somewhere in This Star) from DORAEMON Nobita’s Legend of the Sun King

MOVIES: The Lord of the Rings trilogy LMAO

deck-bottom: Page of Pentacles Rx, Gold Physician (Hippocrates), Priestess of Wishes

[PAC Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings] [buymeaboba]

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – It’s Perfectly Safe to Follow the Love in Your Heart

VIBE: Merry & Pippin, Arwen

how you’re doing so far – Knight of Cups

Of all the Piles, you seem to have been on a strict path of following your heart. It’s like, you’ve been being showered by so many signs and synchronicities by your Higher Self and team of Spirit Guides. I’m not sure if this is because you came from a rather lax background or if you’ve had to fight for your freedom, but you’ve definitely been following your heart towards a sense of autonomy.

The thing is, that adventurer spirit of yours might have caused you to come face to face with some dangerous situations or perhaps you’ve been met with some catastrophic failures along the way. I think you became somewhat scared of following your heart now due to such past experiences. You know there’s that quote that says: ‘I’m not following my heart anymore. That bitch gives bad directions.’

Up until fairly recently you could’ve thought like that, for a bit maybe. But I think you know deep down that such a statement is not entirely correct. I think you know that following your heart, although it’s met you with some crazy adventures, has shown you the path to total liberation. Aren’t you glad you’ve been able to carve out an existence of your own~?

rest of the year – Ace of Pentacles Rx

This card being in reverse, one might think… ‘What? I won’t have money until the rest of the year?!’ It’s not like that. This is saying you’ve paid everything forward. For a number of years now you’ve been working so hard on all planes of your existence. It’s unimaginable to most people just how much ‘work’ you’ve worked to make things work! They’ll never understand it because in their eyes, there hasn’t been much, if at all, result that you’ve managed to produce.

It kinda didn’t make sense just how little the Universe was giving you for all the spiritual and inner work you’ve done on yourself. I think you could’ve felt cursed or something. Abandoned by all the forces of Light or something. So, I don’t know why it’s had to be like that, maybe some spiritual challenge or another, but you’ve paid all of that hard work in advance. Your good will didn’t go unnoticed, OK? All that you’ve prayed for and dreamt of, the Universe has a record of all of that.

The rest of this year? Please don’t work hard anymore. Don’t be afraid of the other shoe dropping. You’ve paid it all forward. The rest of this year is where your story takes a turn. Your riches are coming effortlessly. You can eat all you want when you want. You can sleep as much as you want to recover from prolonged stress. You can simply blink and your money bags are still going to refill faster than you can spend. Rejoice, baby~!

where you’re going from here – King of Swords Rx

It seems to me that your ‘previous Life’ was one where you had to live with the utmost logic. You thought and analysed everything so hard. You played by the book. You followed all the rules. You were a law-abiding citizen. But logic…I think now you know that logic only gets in the way of magic. That’s what your Higher Self and team of Spirit Guides wanted you to unlearn.

I know it’s been so hard, but it all ends here. You’ve graduated all of those hard lessons of unlearning and relearning what it means to be a Divine Human on Gaia. You’ve learnt to trust yourself! You’ve learnt to distinguish between your ego misleading you and your heart guiding you. There is so much that you can teach other people, you know. Teach them how to navigate their fears. And you’re an example of how that can be done, because you’ve crawled through hell and back again triumphant.

From here, your Life will be nothing short of magical events and encounters back-to-back again. You’re back on your natural high-frequency again. Welcome back. In fact, it’s already playing out serendipitously in recent weeks, hasn’t it? Do not fear the other shoe dropping; you’re floating now! It’s safe for you to glide where your heart is guiding you~ This is exactly where your story takes a turn. Congratulations, Champion!

CURRENTS🔻🧡

fare thee well – Silver Astronomer (Galileo Galilei)

Life’s grand adventures – Priestess of Inspiration

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – Don’t You See the Sun Already Peeking from Your Window?

VIBE: Sam & Frodo, Galadriel

how you’re doing so far – XIX The Sun Rx

‘Bad things only happen to me because I’m the main character, so it’s only part of the plot.’ This is the first thing that comes to mind as I tap into your aenergy. My gosh, this card here is telling me you haven’t had a single day of sunshine for a stupidly long time. You’ve had to go through a Sam & Frodo arc, it seems. Walking barefoot to Mordor to destroy some evil old paradigm that you’ve likely inherited from a stupid part of your bloodline.

An ancestor some lines back, some time, some when, some where, fucked up big time and you’re fixing shit for everybody. Just like those little Hobbits who totally ain’t got any relation to some war 3000 years prior but they’re the ones suffering the MOST the entire story! XD It’s kinda been like that for you for some time now. My god, I feel for you! But, the fact that this card has appeared here only means that things are turning around for you :D Your eternal sunshine is rising!

Well, haven’t you noticed that its ray can already be seen from your window? Hasn’t it got warmer even the slightest bit now? Things have gotten significantly easier even if they’re only small improvements, right? You’re currently travelling back to Rivendell on the backs of the Great Eagles. It’s easy-peasy from now. You can relax. Take a deep breath. Breathe in that chlorophyll from the Nature around you~! XD

rest of the year – 5 of Pentacles

What a strange card to appear here, but this is essentially saying that you’re rebuilding what’s been broken and reclaiming what’s been stolen. Your whole world—your ‘normal’—was destroyed by some forces and you had to unlearn what you took for granted as ‘reality’, and again, relearn what it means to be a Divine You whilst existing in society. All that was destroyed, stolen from you…none of it was the real you anyway. So it’s okay that it all disappeared.

You were able to discover the pure gem that is the real you that was hidden beneath those ‘identities’, habits, customs, norms, and everything else you were told you should be, when in reality, you were always somewhat different somewhere deep in your psyche. You weren’t like everybody else and you didn’t even want the things they wanted. But you conformed because it was a matter of survival.

Rest of this year, you’re still going to heal from all of that bullshit. More like, healing from the aftermath of fighting for your true Divine Identity as your I AM essence. The rest of the year, you’re healing more than doing or jumping to the next adventure. All good Souls deserve a good rest after a good battle! You’ve won against the Matrix; you’ve won against society and/or tradition. For now, celebrate this huge win~

where you’re going from here – Ace of Cups Rx

After this healing period, I see that you’re only beginning to find your bearing again in the world. It’s OK that these things take time. All good things take time to rebuild. If you want to speed up your manifestation with subliminals, try those that contain perfect self-concept affirmations to solidify your sense of self-worth ;P The Sun is rising and it’s getting brighter and bigger in your world.

Soon, you won’t even remember being this gloomy creature that you’ve been for a while. I see that in time, you’ll find yourself being creative again, being motivated, and clear about what you want and can do in this world. So many of your natural talents are going to burst out of you, making you work endlessly for a goal that truly matters. So as you can see, cherish this healing phase.

The solitude you’re in now is serving your highest good. This time is making space for you to heal, rehab, grow (or grow back), and release even more remnants of your old self, old world. This isn’t going to last forever and if you can heal in quiet, isn’t that ideal? Nobody’s gonna know you in this healing phase that sometimes can get a little awkward, cringe, or downright ugly XD

CURRENTS🔻💙

fare thee well – Silver Astrologer (John Dee)

Life’s grand adventures – Priestess of Healing

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – In the Full Embrace of Your Higher Self, Spirit Guides and Cosmic Ancestors, Go Forward!

VIBE: Aragorn & Legolas, Gandalf the White

how you’re doing so far – 4 of Swords Rx

Of all the Piles, yours carries the strongest feeling of ‘action’. You’re being carried somewhere more suitable for your frequency. In many ways, you’re also being carried where you’re needed. This can differ for everybody but the majority of you will still feel a sense of calm and belonging though. So it isn’t like you’re being thrown into a war zone just because you have the capacity to fend off enemies or heal wounded soldiers XD

Not like that. Not really. This aenergy is a bit convoluted… But basically, up until now you’ve been a fighter of sort, just like Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf. Fighting for something important, defending causes that matter. Up until then, you were Gandalf the Grey, and then at some point you died, and now you’ve been reborn as Gandalf the White. That’s about the gist of how you’ve been doing.

Sooner than later, the forces of the Universe are going to make you move places or jobs. There’s a strong sense of being moved to a different location. But if that doesn’t resonate, you could be improving your house or like there’s this sense of a change of scenery, one way or another. It’s deeply needed. You’ve been breathing in muddy waters, you know.

rest of the year – XX The Last Judgement Rx

The fact that your cards are all in reverse is indicating a waiting period until you’re thrown into your next mission. Yeah, like Gandalf the Grey in waiting to become Gandalf the White. Rest of the year you’re gaining momentum. I think you could be hearing some good news from something you’ve applied for? Or this could signify the advent of a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity suddenly presenting itself to you.

The clarion call is clarioning LOL This is why I think you’re being called to a different place, but if not, then a higher plane of existence. So this could also mean a job promotion or a new, improved way to earn your keep. There is a sense of finally serving your highest purpose with a talent or spiritual gift you’ve been refining, polishing in recent years. You could be healing people in ways that don’t necessarily look like ‘healing’.

You know? You could be elevating other people’s spirits and helping them transmute their own bullshit by just allowing them to connect or work with you. If this is your main pile, you’re definitely an aenergy worker. A spirit worker. Maybe even a miracle worker. All thanks to your insanely high-frequency. Babe, you ain’t even in this realm anymore XD

where you’re going from here – Page of Cups

I feel very strongly that you’re someone who possesses wisdom beyond the mundane. You’re practical, you’re sensible, but you’re so Universal that all your wisdom is timeless. You’re someone who has the ability to connect with all peoples; young and old, female and male, rich and poor, famous and regular, what have you. Your words reverberate through the ages.

I feel that you’re somebody who holds timeless wisdom and not just ancient or occult. Your highest religion, so to speak, is Love and Respect for all people. So, no matter what you have to say and share with the world, most people will be able to see that you come from the highest place of Love. That you possess the desire to heal and empower all people.

That said, you’re going to be put in a place where you can connect with all kinds of people, all for you to inspire Love in them. Yes, Love, and it comes in all kinds of different ways, right? First and foremost, I see that you’re someone who can teach people how to love themselves first. How they can expect more, better, for themselves. And only true Love can provide that sense of fulfilment.

Old people are going to be rejuvenated by you. Young people are going to be inspired by you. That’s your superpower that needs to be witnessed by the world <3

CURRENTS🔻💚

fare thee well – Red Astronomer (Johannes Kepler)

Life’s grand adventures – Priestess of Contemplation

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

[PAC Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings] [buymeaboba]

[spooklies]

# Invincible - Platonic Yandere Mark Grayson (PROFILE)

Type of Yandere: Mark as a platonic yandere would be clingy and overprotective over his sibling. You wanted to go hang out with some friends? Fine, but only if he could tag along. You insist he doesn't come? Then expect a pair of eyes watching you at all times. He'll need to know where you're at, what you're doing, and who you're with. If he doesn't approve of your friend(s) then he'll insist you cut them off. And if you don't? Then your friends will be forced to distance themselves from you after a “talk” with your brother.

Love Language: As a brother, Mark's love language would consist of hugs, ruffling of your hair, and quality time spent with each other. Your his favorite person in the whole world, so he'll want to spend as much time with you as possible!

Their Biggest Fear: Much like the other yandere profile I did for Mark his biggest fear when it came to you would be losing you completely. But the difference here would be losing you because of something he did or failed to prevent. He wouldn't go out of his way to harm you but he may set something up (like a traumatic catastrophic event) to prove to you why you need to keep him close by at all times.

Kidnapping: He wouldn't need to. If you were born into the family then there'd be no point in kidnapping. But if this was a found family situation then he would with some help from the other Grayson's no doubt since they’re also obsessed with you. But again much like the other yandere profile I did for Mark, he wouldn't see it as kidnapping. Just something he had to do out of necessity.

How Easy is it to Escape?: Impossible. Platonic yandere Mark would know your whereabouts at all times which means he's keeping tabs on everything. Who you're talking to, your favorite places to go to, and even information on your friends.

Punishment(s): Mark wouldn't be against locking you in your room no matter how old you were. If you were simply misbehaving and speaking out then he'd be the one to take your phone away, and if things continued to escalate then he'd ban you from seeing your friends and basically keep you isolated until you've apologized and learned what you did wrong.

Difference to Other Yanderes: Mark not only has his overpowered abilities but an even stronger father to help keep you in line if his tactics somehow didn't work. Mark is just a piece of the puzzle with the other Grayson's making the entire picture.

Additional Notes: As an older brother, Mark would take on that paternal vibe with how overprotective he'd get. As a younger brother he'd be overbearing (not to say he isn't if he were older just more so). Platonic Yandere Mark wouldn't want to hurt his younger sibling and if he ever did then he'd do everything he can to make up for it.

[kandelia-mangrove]

Wishlist/Predictions for season 3 of interview with the vampire (add your wishes in the tags!) 

Lestat's perspective on the trial 

So much is different in the show and the motives for everyone involved in the trial are still SO unclear, I need more!

Lestat's version of what went down in Paris with Nicky and the start of the Theatre de Vampire (like I do think he and Armand fucked, but also way more stuff also happened for sure)

It would be really funny to get some Armand interjections in this portion of the tale

Lestat being haunted by Claudia's ghost in the present!! Also the Past!! He can never know peace!

Daniel and Lestat beefing

Lestat getting canceled (or truly any other social media reference) 

Louis Cameo in the present day (curious to see how they are going to keep him involved since I doubt they will spend a ton of time rehashing their relationship in New Orleans) 

I really need them to have very intense getting back together but also still kinda divorced energy

I’ll also accept cutaways from Lestat doing insane shit to Louis just chilling in Dubai, like reading a book or smth

But also I feel like Louis definitely funded the tour like no way Lestat was up to date on his finances, so Louis popping in as a producer/manager could be fun and cool too

Everyones reactions to the reveal that Marius is alive 

Like I NEED to see Armand fucking finding out Marius is alive because he is crashing set that day and has a catastrophic meltdown about the whole situation

Because the show implied he doesn’t know about it, with the whole “I have the blood of Akasha in me, he doesn’t know who that is” line. 

Also Need Daniel reacting to this information 

Also really want Louis’ reaction, because I genuinely think even during his Hating Armand Hours TM he would still hate Marius for what he did to him

Also, very unlikely, but I think should be explored: the Marius golden child Lestat racism/imperialism dynamics of it all especially with the AMC cast. Like… We gotta talk about it. 

Explicitly GNC, Nonbinary, or otherwise Trans Gabrielle

On that note, very intrigued to see if they will leave in all the incesty bits or just lean into the abandonment vibes 

Daniel has to clown on Lestat for this if they leave it in

Confirmation or Denial of 70s/80s devil’s minion (I just need to know if it happened or not!!)

Also if it did happen: I want some flashes to that era - setting up the night island of it all (just since I think that could be relevant going forward)

I think it makes sense plot and show production wise to have a little reference confirming it did or didn’t happen, but I doubt we’d see any of it if it did happen tbh. 

Great Conversion stuff just happening in the background 

Daniel Vampire phones Louis, and Louis the least curious vampire to ever exist genuinely tells him to just ignore it. Like that bitch is NOT going to help solve any mystery

Lestat telling the story of him fighting and killing a bunch of wolves as a human and Daniel just not believing him (because its genuinely wild)

Loumand Divorce Era

Lestat actually exploring the trauma of his turning (sexual assault)

Vampire Daniel being a vampire and doing vampire things!! 

The in universe reception to the book Interview with the vampire by Daniel Molloy 

Like do people believe it’s real? How has the impacted the great conversion stuff? 

Do other vamps know he is a vampire?? 

Do people think the popstar thing is an elaborate RPF/industry plant thing related to the book? 

I Gotta see some fake tweets about this please

[butterabrod]

Old Michelle's Q&A, pt.5

I guess I've been loitering about this for too long

I've always thought of Nevy as of one of the smartest and cuning demons in the cast. Instead of terrorising her vessel or beign their doormat, she formed a strong bond with Gil. And I was thinking it is genuine somewhat mother (or like older sister) love from Nevy to our lil salty blue boy.

But... from this panel, I've started to doubt her.

Most of the fandom at that time was worring that the pink lady is becoming weaker and/or growing sick. But even then I was thinking that being the ghost of one of the strongest creatures in the universe, how is it possible for her to be that weak for such a short period of time as like ~13ish years?

Gil is the only person she has met who can interact with her. I can't really blame her for beign pushy: he and his promise to help are the only thing she's got, and she as practically immortal being has seen how weak he is, and his life is short. Nevy really is on a timer with him.

But what seemed to me as her caring about Gil, now feels like Nevy thinking only about herself.

Gil, as a victim of terrible catastrophe decided to become a doctor to help others like him. It was natural for him to go and help those who were in need.

Now this moment doesn't feel like her genuine sadness and guilt. I think, she just needed a reassurrence, that she is still the most important thing for him in the whole universe.

Still, I've thought that Nevy has developed a new more honest and loving personality while being amnisiac. And she changed that much because she remembered a lot of her past.

But did she?

Did she, thought?

I think Gil will never get out of toxic cult. Yes, he does have someone who is more important than TITAN as Michelle said.

It's Nevy, who's not only a politician.

She IS priestess

And she's not ashamed at all to use religious imagery to influence Gil even more.

She's not ashamed to show a very lonely orphan boy that she, his only friend with mother figure vibes could 'die painfully' because of his disobedience

When one of the most assholic couples in the universe says that someone is not trustworthy - it is says volumes

Talking about couples. I think that Gil has no chances to not to fall for Odin

Also I find it sus that Nevy remembered the feeling of beign in love not near Ava, Wrathia's vessel, but near Pedri's vessel, Odin.

I'm sure she sees herself as the God of love, Venus, Aphrodite or even Eros. People of Antiquity era believed that love and passion were forms of madness. In a bad way, even gods feared Eros.

And I think she's forcing Gil to fall in love with Odin just to make him even more despirate and lonely, to save her status as the only reliable thing for him in the whole Universe.

At that point Gil was trying to become the best follower, just to have a chance to learn somethig about Nevy's past. Maggie was the first person in 8 years to remind him, that he might have his own questions.

And I think Nevy has already failed her vibe check to Odin

Here is a list of much-much-much better theories and their authors

@biofluxitecovetess https://www.tumblr.com/biofluxitecovetess/182904787000/hello-everyone-i-have-another-theory-so-before?source=share

@crazyangrycupcake https://www.tumblr.com/crazyangrycupcake/183163318965/nevy-makes-this-face-when-she-tells-ava-shes?source=share

@doublethetheories https://www.tumblr.com/doublethetheories/184836709578/gils-dream-dissection?source=share

And another thing to think about

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

honestly critical role has never been more relatable than Caduceus/Taliesin in the Rumblecusp arc

being put in an environment where you SHOULD thrive, only to fail comically at literally any given opportunity and discovering for the first time that you have some surprising capacity for resentment for something you love that you've built your whole identity on

also I know Caduceus is dumb as rocks in an education sense but those investigation checks they kept having to make felt like they SHOULD be wisdom checks at this point (because common fucking sense would tell you to just hand your shit to someone else once you notice you lose possessions every night) so watching him spectacularly fail every single one of those felt exactly like my life feels right now. Like I should know all the ways to prevent this and yet every day I fail again at the same task right out the gate

the absolute resignation this is all met with. like even for Caduceus that was a level of nonreaction I never thought possible. not a zen unbotheredness, just complete defeat. there is so much frustration underneath the surface and yet such a complete lack of energy to try and fight it, truly only going through a pandemic and/or a real weird mental health funk can breed the vibe of "help. it's again."

also, as someone who doesn't really give a shit about sex, like Caduceus, and prides themselves on their eloquence, like Taliesin, I've never seen myself so clearly represented as i have in the character and the player's combined struggle against the horny-twelve-year-olds energy of this cast

I too have experienced the "i see you giggling over something i said that wasn't even that much of an innuendo but i'm just gonna keep talk- oh no yeah no what i've said now is just a much bigger innuendo" so many times

and then you try and choose your words more carefully. because that's like, the one thing you're good at. and discover that a) once the giggles get going, it doesn't fucking matter and b) there's now not one synonym left in your brain that's not an open invitation

and now you're somehow the least invested in the joke but the most embarrassed by it

"how much of your brain is just innuendo???" the number of times i've wanted to ask people that

the deep disappointment when Travis joined into the madness

living vicariously through the mumbled asides of "all of you. it's all of you" "it's nonstop!"

also watching your group make a TERRIBLE plan but being unable to come up with a better one, so instead of poking holes in it until all your friends hate you you just quietly watch the catastrophe happen, and pray you'll have enough restraint left by the end of it to not say "i could've told you so" out loud

[a-silent-symphony]

"Things have always been ****ed up." How death, cancer and a whole pandemic helped make Yesterwynde the most optimistic Nightwish album yet

Tuomas Holopainen was a teenage misanthrope. Growing up in the small Finnish town of Kitee, he had the regulation all-black wardrobe and the soundtrack to match. “I did not use to be an optimistic person when I was younger,” he says. “I loved black metal and all that. But I started to come to the realisation that things have always been fucked up, but we’re still going for the better despite the horrible things that are going on in the world.”

We’re sitting in a suite in an upscale Berlin hotel, as mid-morning traffic flows along Potsdamer Platz several storeys below us. Literally as we talk, unthinkable things are happening all around the world: war, abuse, torture, murder, wilful destruction of the climate. The grim realities of humanity in 2024, basically.

But right here, right now, all that seems a long way away. Not because Nightwish’s keyboard player and band leader is in epic denial mode, but because his band’s 10th album, Yesterwynde, is charged with emotion: hope, beauty, positivity and, yes, optimism.

It’s an unexpected choice on more than one level. Aside from the rolling catastrophe that is the 21st century, Nightwish themselves have been battered by turmoil over the past few years. Their last album, 2020’s Human. :II: Nature., was released during the first, intense throes of the pandemic, scuppering their plans to tour it. When they did return to the road in May 2021, it was without longtime bassist Marko Hietala, who cited a mixture of long-standing depression and disillusion with the music industry for his decision to leave the band.

On a personal level, things have been no less turbulent. In 2022, singer Floor Jansen revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer (she was given the all-clear following surgery). In June 2023, the singer – pregnant with her second child – collapsed with exhaustion following a Nightwish show in Finland, prompting the cancellation of two subsequent solo gigs. Amid all this, Tuomas’s father, Pentti Holopainen, passed away in 2021.

Other bands may have buckled under the battering of the last few years, but Nightwish – and specifically Tuomas as their chief songwriter – have taken a different path. Rather than wallowing in trauma, Yesterwynde pushes back against it. The 12-track album covers a lot of emotional ground across its 69 minutes, but the overwhelming sense is that, honestly, everything is going to be OK. “Yesterwynde has a very optimistic vibe to it,” says Tuomas. “It celebrates life and humanity and mortality. The important things.” 

Yesterwynde begins and ends with the sound of an old film projector starting up and winding down. It suggests a movie is playing out in between. What exactly that movie is, Tuomas Holopainen isn’t letting on. “It’s something different for everybody,” he says, smiling but evasive. Musically, Yesterwynde is everything we have come to expect from Nightwish, only more. One song, the hyper- dramatic An Ocean Of Strange Islands, features over 600 studio tracks and sounds like it. Another, The Children Of ’Ata, was inspired by the real-life story of a group of teens from Tonga stranded for 15 months on a remote island in the Pacific, and features five indigenous Tongan singers. Elsewhere, Yesterwynde features two separate choirs – one classical, one kids – and three different orchestras, all recorded in London’s prestigious Abbey Road Studios, naturally. There are no side-long epics – only two tracks, An Ocean Of Strange Islands and first single Perfume Of The Timeless, stretch beyond eight minutes – but it still feels bigger, bolder and more grandiose than anything else out there right now.

But amid the dramatic power and intricacy, there’s the emotional core that sets Nightwish apart from every corset-clad knock-off that has followed in their wake. That emotion is conveyed by both the music and Floor Jansen’s career-best vocal performance (as on the two other Nightwish albums she’s been involved in, the Dutch native is joined on singing duties by multi-instrumentalist/resident Brit Troy Donockley). Loss, grief, the existential fragility of humanity and the hope it inspires: it’s all there.

There’s one problem. Literally seconds before we step into the lift to go up to meet Tuomas, a rep for Nightwish’s label makes it clear that he will not talk about the death of his father. On the one hand, this is understandable, even admirable – privacy is a scarce commodity these days, and there’s something to be said for not laying everything out for public consumption. On the other, it’s frustrating – death and birth both play into the big, interlocking themes of Yesterwynde, namely the passage of time and the unfolding of history, and how both make us aware of our own mortality.

This is clearest of all on the album’s closing track, Lanternlight, a moving yet celebratory lament for those who are no longer with us. ‘Gone is the hurt, the wait / Gone is the warmth of day,’ Floor sings. And later: ‘To the meadows I go / I’ll be waiting for you.’ Tuomas won’t say whether it was inspired by the death of his father – “I lost something very dear to me a few years ago, and this song was born out of that emotion,” he offers opaquely – but it’s hard not to join the dots.

“The major theme of the album is time – going back in time, recognising your own mortality,” he says. “Connecting to the past.” The past seems appealing, given how shitty the world is at the moment. “Yeah, it is,” he concedes. “But it’s also incredibly good in many ways. And in many ways it’s better – the innovations of science and medicine, the child death rate... A small example: would you rather go to the dentist today or a hundred years ago? “I want to emphasise that I’m not immune to the bad stuff that’s going on in the world. I’m aware of it and I do everything I can to help. But I think it’s good for our mental state to recognise the good stuff. And I think that we have the chance as a species to survive and get together. That’s the core message, the essence, of Yesterwynde.”

Like so many things, Yesterwynde was born out of the pandemic. The seeds for the album were sown after the tour in support of Human. :II: Nature. was postponed due to Covid. “Suddenly I had nothing to do,” says Tuomas. “So I thought I’d better start writing songs for the next Nightwish album.”

For Floor, the experience of making her third Nightwish album was unlike that of making Human. :II: Nature. or its predecessor, 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful. “It was different for me,” she says. “Not bad, not at all, but different.” It’s a few weeks after we met Tuomas in Berlin. We’re sitting backstage at Muziekgebouw, a concrete concert hall in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where Floor is due to play a show in support of her 2023 solo album, Paragon, later this evening. She’s not alone: her eight-month-old baby daughter, Lucy, is here too, unknowingly sitting in on the interview and letting her mum know when she’s hungry.

Just like many things that emerged from the pandemic, Yesterwynde began in isolation. Tuomas began writing the songs at home in Finland while his bandmates were busy dealing with their own lives. The rest of Nightwish knew he was writing something, but they didn’t know what. “He didn’t email us saying, ‘This is what I’ve written today,’” says Floor. “He doesn’t like sharing snippets, he likes to share the whole thing. But we knew he was inspired.”

The first time Floor heard the new songs Tuomas had written was during Nightwish’s festival run in the summer of 2022, after touring had properly resumed. “Imagine us all gathered in a hotel room, everybody has brought a drink or two, or three, sometimes the minibar is emptied,” says Floor. “Tuomas would play us the music – we didn’t listen to all the songs at once, that would’ve been too much. He’d explain what the songs were about – he’d start off by telling us very little, letting the music speak for itself, but he’d start to go into the depths of what inspired him.”

At this stage, there were no vocals on the record, just piano melodies in their place. But Tuomas would sometimes sing along as the demo played. Floor made voice recordings on her phone to help her understand what the songs were about and ensure she could connect with the emotions in them. “I’m sure he hopes I never put them on the internet,” she says playfully.

Floor’s personal circumstances meant the recording process was different too. Her pregnancy meant she was unable to join the rest of the band at the campsite in Kitee they’ve used for several albums now to rehearse the songs for Yesterwynde. It also meant she recorded her vocals at home in Sweden, where she lives with her husband, Sabaton drummer Hannes Van Dahl (Tuomas was there for the sessions).

“I was pregnant, and before that there was the cancer, and then I had my baby and I was just really, really fucking tired, so I wasn’t there like I had been in the past,” she says. “The connection to the album is much less than it was before, because we haven’t been spending as much crazy time together as we usually would. That doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit – quite the opposite – but I’m still growing into what it means, and what it means to me.”

What song hit you the hardest the first time you heard it? “The last song on the album [Lanternlight] hit me the most,” she says. “When I heard that the first time – he explained what it was about, this song he wrote for his father – it went straight to my heart. It was so beautiful, even in demo form. I sat there crying.”

Even without the pandemic, the last few years have been a rollercoaster for Floor. There was her well-documented diagnosis with and subsequent recovery from breast cancer, followed by her pregnancy. It culminated in her collapse from exhaustion following a Nightwish show in June 2023, while pregnant (thankfully, both Floor and her unborn daughter were fine). Two solo shows were cancelled in the wake of the latter, though no one would have blamed her if she’d walked away from it all for good.

“No, no, I just had to quit for a couple of months,” she says, meaning the heavy workload. “Did I ever think of quitting for good? No, never.” Hearing her talk, it sounds like Floor is in a unique position: a key part of Yesterwynde, undoubtedly, but also someone with a little distance, who is still learning its deeper meanings. What does the album mean to her right now?

“To me, it’s a continuous awareness about the beauty of the planet we’re on and the positivity of us as a species. We get all this negative feedback about killing the planet and hurting each other, and all of that is unfortunately true. But there’s also a lot of beauty to it – humanity has achieved amazing things throughout history, and we should remind ourselves of that. That is sometimes forgotten in the speed of the life we live today.”

For all Yesterwynde’s against-the-grain optimism, Tuomas Holopainen is as aware as anyone of the grim realities of the world in 2024. That was brought home in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when there were fears that Russia’s neighbour, Finland, could be next.

“Not fear, but an awareness,” he counters. “I haven’t felt afraid, not once, even though I live less than 10 kilometres from the Russian border. But we have such a good defence that he is not going to come after us.”

He seems equally unflappable when it comes to matters closer to his band. Earlier this year, original Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen – who was acrimoniously and very publicly fired from the band in 2005 – and former bassist Marko Hietala reunited to tour together and release a joint single, Left On Mars. If it feels like a slap in the face for Tuomas, he hides it well.

“Honestly, I don’t care at all,” he says. “It doesn’t move me in any direction that they have found each other. They can play and perform as many Nightwish songs as they want, it doesn’t bother me one bit.” Have you spoken to Marko since he left? ‘A couple of times.” Are you on good terms? "Yes. There’s no bad blood between us. His leaving was his decision. I was actually quite taken by the fact that in the first interview he gave after he left the band, he said, ‘Don’t anybody dare to put this on Tuomas. This was my decision.’”

You’ve talked about the passage of time. Do you miss the friendships you once had with Tarja and Marko? “I remember the best of times we had, with Tarja and Marko. I’m filled with nostalgia and warmth when I think about the latter half of 2004, for example, which was one of the best times Nightwish ever had, right after the release of the Once album and the European tour. It was just wonderful. But my life is in such a good place at the moment that it’s no more than a whiff of nostalgia.”

That sense of nostalgia is threaded through Yesterwynde, linking the past to the present. But what about the future? For Nightwish, that future seems to be tinged with a degree of uncertainty. In April 2023, they announced in a statement that the band would not be touring their next album – a huge deal for a band whose epic live shows match the grandeur of their music. That decision still stands today. Tuomas is insistent that there will be no live shows in support of Yesterwynde, though he politely but firmly refuses to reveal why.

“The reasons are personal, we’re not going to go into it, but it was something that had to be done for this band to continue,” he says, cryptically. “There’s no bad blood between the members, nothing like that. We just have to take a long breather.” Are there any plans to do anything around the album? A live stream? “We will have something planned, which is not playing music but something else.” Which is? “I can’t say, because we don’t know right now,” he says, unconvincingly. “But there are still things happening.”

Backstage in Eindhoven a few weeks later, Floor is equally unwilling to divulge the reasons behind the decision, though she seems to have a slightly different view of it. “The whole idea of not touring... it’s not mine,” she says. “I wish we could continue, but it’s a mutual decision. Everything with Nightwish, we’ve done with 120%, but if you don’t have the energy to do that, it’s better to take a break.”

Not having to tour for months on end does have its upsides. Tuomas says he’ll spend the time working on a new record from Auri, the side-project featuring his wife Johanna and Nightwish’s Troy Donockley. Floor will likewise use the opportunity to spend time with her family and work on her second solo album.

Both insist that the lack of a tour in support of Yesterwynde doesn’t mean that Nightwish are coming to the end of the road. Tuomas points to the fact that they’ve just signed a new deal with their label, Nuclear Blast, as “evidence there are going to be more albums in future”.

“I’ve seen a lot of reactions, people drawing conclusions,” says Floor. “Making an elephant out of a mosquito, as the Dutch say – making something much bigger than it actually is. It’s not the end of the band, I’m not going to leave, nobody’s angry at each other. There’s a lot of drama been added to this – it’s bad enough that we’re not playing, but there’s nothing more to it.”

In many ways, making such a monumental album as Yesterwynde, and then opting not to tour it, is a very Nightwish thing to do. This is a band who have always followed their own path, even – especially – when it’s flown in the face of popular trends. They’ve watched nu metal, the NWOAHM and the mid-00s emo scene rise, fall and rise again while their own career has followed an unbroken upwards trajectory.

But Nightwish exist entirely in a universe of Tuomas’s own creation. Ask him if he listens to Sleep Token or any of the crop of modern bands currently taking metal in interesting new directions, and he shakes his head.

“No. I don’t listen to music at all anymore, practically. I haven’t for 10 years. I enjoy silence much more these days. Maybe I had an overdose of it for the first 35 years of my life. I’ve heard of the bands you mentioned, but I don’t actively listen to music at all. Though I just heard that My Dying Bride are coming out with a new album. I’ll definitely check that out,” he adds wryly.

Earlier, he’d talked a little more about the imaginary movie that starts and finishes at either end of Yesterwynde. Or, more specifically, the one that runs in his head.

“It’s a very unique one,” he says after a moment’s pause. “I’ve come to realise how incredibly lucky we are to be alive. It’s ridiculous, the odds that we are all here. We should celebrate it.”

[maxwell-grant]

Thoughts on The Penguin trailer?

This one has a more generic mob show vibe out of the ones we've seen so far, and I'm not gonna lie a part of me is still skeptical regarding it, but the emphasis on post-flood broken Gotham besieged by a crime family fighting for the scraps of the kingdom kept me piqued, and then the words "Post-Apocalyptic Sopranos" crossed my mind in the elevator and oh Yes, Ha Ha Yes

It's one thing for a show about mob power struggles and troubled dynamics to happen in a regular society where they exert power and there are structures in place to abide to, it's another thing entirely for said mob power struggles and troubled dynamics to be happening in the wrecked ruins of a city in the process of rebuilding all of it's structures and for said mob to be simultaneously on free-fall and poised for new beginnings as the world itself is changing (if anything Tony Soprano wishes he could be living like this, with more carte blanche to cut through his stresses with a machine gun every now and then)

It's a decent shake-up on a crime show formula even on it's own, without factoring that oh yeah this is Gotham City and said destruction was caused by a nerd obsessed with riddles and all of these mobsters will have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives in case the freak in power armor decides to show up and suplex them into the pavement, and things are only going to get worse and weirder from here on out.

Clancy Brown once again showing up to play the Final Boss / All-Father / Divine Judge of organized villainy, we love to see it, it's what he does and he does it better than anyone. Here breathing a whole new life and power and significance into the other major throwaway Gotham gangster.

What I'm interested in regarding Sofia and the Falcones in general is that they've said several times in the past that Oz is modeled after Fredo Corleone, and this trailer goes out of it's way to paint Sofia as the Michael with direct references. For the contrast between Penguin and the actual gangsters to exist, for this to explore the divide and collapse on regular crime vs super crime that the movie kicked off, this thing needs a standard Prestige TV Crime Show protagonist to work, and that seems to be Sofia, the protagonist of a story, just not this one.

The trailer's placing a big emphasis on Oswald as a guy who's still a long way from the top, contrasting with Sofia holding what's left of the reigns of power. Sofia stares at political protestors behind windows and attends fancy dinner conversations and dwells on the scars of her past and makes threats on how she's been pushed aside too long and it's her turn now, and Oz is out there in the ruins hauling corpses and mentoring an understudy and getting into machine gun fights and doing all the grunt work himself.

She gets the dramatic close-door boss shot, and the trailer ends with her cornering Oswald and leaning in real close to tell him she was always onto him and threaten him, because again, she is entirely convinced he is just the Fredo, and that she is in her girlboss Michael Corleone era. She does that, and then it hard cuts to all the violent destructive cool shit Oz is gonna be doing instead, because she is catastrophically wrong about how this thing is gonna work.

Sequel this, Reevesverse that, Trilogy whatever, none of that is gonna cut anymore. I will no longer accept any way of referring to this that isn't The Batman Epic Crime Saga. I'd say the crimelords of Gotham are asking Oswald if he has it in him to make it epic but he's already giving his answer.

The Falcones are right, Oswald IS just a goon who'd never hack it in the old system. It's just that there isn't an old system anymore, and the future looks a lot more like him than it looks like them. She and Alberto think of themselves as troubled scarred underdogs next in line for succession poised to get what is owed to them, while Penguin opens this by walking up to the former ruler of the entire city and telling him, hey head's up, I'm calling the shots now, as he laughs and snorts and plots to burn down the empire and shank them at their weakest and machine gun battle for what he's decided is his. Even if his name wasn't in the title, it wouldn't even be up to debate who's going to win this fight.

Really what is Batman as a whole about, if not Epic Crime?

[niko-jpeg]

First of MANY Camp Green Hill Doodles. Camp Green Hill is my silly summer camp AU, and since I've been on a 06 kick lately, lots of silliness with that case running through my brian. Context and explanations under the cut <3

Alright! Camp Green Hill takes place at its namesake. It’s a pretty nice, isolated place in the middle of nowhere, and a safe haven for Mobians with or without ‘supernatural abilities’. Sonic is a permanent resident and under the care of Ranger (“Uncle”) Chuck, who is currently in charge of the camp. Onto the doodle explanations:

“Sonic the Hedgehog”: Just a little doodle of our resident hedgehog. He’s well known both around camp and around town for being bright, full of energy, and very competitive. He possesses a super speed ability and loves to let it show.

Sonic and Tails: Sonic and his little brother, Tails were found in the woods around the camp around 10 years ago. Their origins are pretty much unknown, and neither of them say anything about their old homes. It came to light that Sonic kidnapped Tails after keeping an eye on the toddler and noticing he was severely neglected by his community. Sonic’s origins remain unknown. Uncle Chuck speculates he also came from a neglectful family, which is why he took Tails and ran. 

Drowning: Sonic cannot swim. Despite this, he hangs around water frequently, especially when pissed off or upset. This has resulted in many near drownings. 

Uncle Chuck: Artists rendition of how Uncle Chuck became an uncle. Sonic just kind of wandered into the camp, decided he liked it and its weird owner (Chuck), and declared him their uncle.

Sonic Enjoys Rock Climbing: It's one of his favorite camp sports! He’s gotten pretty damn good, but for the sake of setting a good example, will make use of the safety equipment.

A Completely Normal Cat: A completely normal cat with a completely normal vibe who cannot talk, I promise. Just kidding, that's resident half god Mephiles! They prefer to take on the form of a cat most of the time, mostly to not throw other campers off. And yes, they are in fact, a camper. It's a long story. If you want to know more. My ask box is open ;) 

Friendship Bracelets: Silver is buddies with Mephiles, but neither of them have been properly socialized. He and Blaze have matching friendship bracelets, so he made Mephiles one too. They wear it as a collar, since cat wrists aren’t the best for jewelry. 

Lawn Chair: There's a little filler ‘episode’ where Silver, Sonic, Blaze, and Shadow all go to a waterpark outside of town, and Silver enlists the help of Meph to get them in, since they know a certain illusionist jackal who could help them out. They pretend to be Shadow’s older sibling to get them in, and hang out with Blaze far away from the splash zone. 

They/Them Icon: Just a doodle of Meph I did to fill space lol.

Blaze and Silver: They have a long, complicated friendship. She appeared to him when he was younger shortly after losing his whole family to a catastrophic apartment fire. She’s a secret friend from another dimension, and his only real friend. Little does he know, Blaze was the one who accidentally started the flame, and now feels bad for orphaning him. She grapples with the guilt a lot. Meph was messing around in the future during the off season and accidentally befriended the two, which was their ticket to the past at the camp.

Also, Silver visits Blaze’s dimension frequently! Once he’s comfortable around people, he’s full of spunk, and loves a good adventure. He’s not as innocent and shy as he paints himself to be, not even by a lot. He’s still nervous around Mephiles though, given the whole ‘god’ thing.

[copepods]

holy SHIT the dsmp real world example i. sorry idk if you like people reblogging your posts with massive additions so this is an ask.

l'manburg realistically would be a city-state since it's not big enough to be a full city, with the populace in about something the size of the Vatican (~5000-10000 people) supplied by fields and the river, which is the main source of their trade. like the new england colonies, they would have relied on water to send exports to other countries and traded with greater DSMP citizens. additionally, hewing to the new england 1770 vibe (which is p funny because of the hamilton jokes) they'd be shipmakers and craftspeople.

this also means that the dteam burning the redwood fields would have devastated their economy for at least a few years; additionally, as it's a walled city, siege tactics would have been very effective and probably devastating in terms of famine and disease if the l'manburgians could not keep river access open.

on politics - ik cc!wilbur talked about c!wilbur running the whole government but that is. impractical and also poor governance, since concentrating all power in one executive leads to a lack of accountability and transparency. ofc we didn't get to see this but i imagine c!wilbur had a cabinet of actual people running things but probably took on a Lot of engagements. if we're working with "the dteam caused an ecological catastrophe", newly independent l'manburg would have needed to import food until its reserves stabilized again. this, combined with its newness and very aggressive neighbor next door, would mean local prices skyrocket and food is. fairly expensive. if the l'manburgians had their own currency it would trade at rock bottom prices against the DSMP coin, even if c!wilbur pegged it to gold/silver. he'd probably make it fiat to stimulate the economy (assuming he Knows about the economy) which would skyrocket inflation. tl;dr l'manburg is in pretty shit shape and would be a Lot of work to get up and running.

on manburg - the coalition is unconstitutional but we're playing fast and loose with constitutionality anyway; i feel like c!quackity's candidacy would have appealed to the subset of l'manburg business interests who may have wanted freer borders and freer trade + lowering interest rates that protect domestic industry but raise prices. (early american economic policies were heavily protectionist and had high tariffs to protect the young industries as well). c!wilbur could have hit against this by calling c!quackity out of touch with the common citizen (which he was) and a carpetbagger (which he was). however, there are some legit claims of corruption that c!quackity could've made and framed himself as the young upstart clean changemaker - after all, c!wilbur was not open about the presidency.

however, c!schlatt's presidency would have been marred by suspicion and protests early on; if there were civil servants working in the white house, i can picture a bunch of them resigning in protest and writing Very Angry Op-Eds in l'manburg new york times about it. income inequality prob spikes as industrialists can trade but the cost of living jumps due to mismanagement and the manburg cabinet needs to deal with threats of terrorism (pogtopia). what's super interesting to explore is the journalism of l'manburg?

like l'manburg def had a very busy and thriving political commentary and journalism culture; c!wilbur is a wordsmith, etc. there's definitely some scathing cartoons and 'anonymous' pieces attacking all sides during the election, with increasingly bitter skits written about the manburg cabinet - schlatt, the insensate and alcoholic tyrant, and quackity, his airheaded and venal henchman. if schlatt and quackity's marriage leaked, there's a Lot of slut-shaming jokes directed at quackity, which p follow him into new l'manburg. slept his way to the top, has more experiencing bending over the resolute desk than sitting behind it.

ANYWAY that's all i have for now? this is such an interesting idea i would kill to talk about it more holy shit. l'manburg politics win

YEAHH YEAAAAAAAHH all of this i love it so much. politics and socioeconomics and how it intersects with the actions of wilbur schlatt quackity dteam everyone.... aaaaah

[kuijoon]

LEAK WARNING/SPOILER FOR HANABI STORY QUEST

Ok so after getting to read the english tranlation of the story on reddit, here are my assumptions/thoughts of sampos role (note: i didnt read everything through properly since its a pain on phone maybe I’ll come back later):

Ok so basically Sampo helped blackswan with the whole murder case bc he made a deal with Hanabi. if he plays the assistant for blackswan, he gets his mask back. we do not know why he wants it back- maybe it gives him some sort of powers?? is it just a metaphorical kinda thing for him stepping on stage??? idk.

“But, Sampo... why did you suddenly remember to get the mask back after such a long time? This doesn't look like the you I know...”

“Let me guess - the Jarilo-VI catastrophe is coming, right?”

“Occasionally, I, old Sampo, also want to go on stage and make a fool of myself.”

This is sooo weird. First of all Jarilo catastrophe??!!! sigh let them rest for once. Second of all, we always see sampo putting up a show and shit, so for him to go get his special mask in order to prepare for the ‘catastrophe’… it really makes me feel like we’re going back to Belobog later and Sampo will play a major part in the story. It also gives me the vibes of him adopting a sort of more prominent role because he mentions going on stage. Like this is all you do. You’re always on stage. For him to consider this its own special thing HAS to mean something right.

Oh and it makes me feel like he’s kind of returning to his ‘old ways’ (whatever they may be). Not only because the getting his mask back after so long, but also because of the colorful past thing, maybe implying that he took on a background role over time and used to play larger roles in his ‘plays’.

Also this isn’t important but he tells Hanabi to stay away from Belobog and say hi to Giovanni??? I love him 😭

TLDR;

Sampo went to Jarilo-VI in order to prepare the people there for an incoming catastrophe and is now getting himself ready for it. This likely means we’re going back to Belobog and help sampo with stopping the disaster. also his mask probably has some special power

Edit: since this is a memory bubble it could’ve happened before we arrived on Belobog, meaning sampo isn’t retuning to Belobog. makes sense tbh but I low-key fear this means we’ll get his whole reveal in penacony. that would be messed up tbh

Edit 2: however it also says it’s a fresh memory AND mentions an ‘incoming’ catastrophe when the eternal freeze happened like 800 years ago. It could’ve hinted to our arrival, but I doubt that would be referred to as a catastrophe. Also why do sampo and Hanabi know about some catastrophe that hasn’t even happened yet? Is that just like common knowledge???

[quendiviner]

what's the universe of cynosure like?? the involved corporations etc, what do they do / what are they famous for, what's the level of technology like, how would you describe the universe's aesthetics? 👀

OUGHHH THANK U FOR ASKING HEHE <3

Cynosure happens in late 2200's and obviously the world has. well. changed a lot! But not that much and they even still have like, actual phones and some even still use wire headphones.

I think I said something about it being a soft scifi story with cyberpunk-ish vibes which kinda explains it? Well. The technology isn't that much different than ours due to some big problems Earth had to deal with first before getting back to making consumers suffer fulfilling individuals' needs. They have more cleaner energy now, and space travel, and stuff like that, yay! But the state of society has also started to go in a not-that-good direction, causing inequality to rise again little by little, while the power struggles have also caused the corporations to gain more control over what's happening in society and politics, which also makes them (maybe a bit too violent) rivals.

This turned out very...um...long. So I divided it into parts that are

Technology (+ side tracking to societal reasons)

What to expect if you were to live there

State of society in late 2200's

State of society in late 2200's but this time it's about corporations

Happy reading 🤍

Technology

Since I mentioned phones and all, I should probably start with technology JFBNGBFBFJFN UM. It has developed a lot, but the technical development (especially during mid 2000's - late 2100's period) have largely been concentrating on things that are more community/society related than on individual consumer items like phones and shit like that. One of the biggest breakthroughs was finding a specific mineral in space that functions like an extremely big solar panel and has thus advanced the clean energy sector. No one wants another climate catastrophe hahaha. ough.

The phone network is now everywhere, so there won't be a "oh no there's no signal in these woods" moments. or will there. and why is it so necessary anyway, hm 🤨 Public transport is thriving but so are the cars and bikes for some reason. Bikes and electric scooters have obligatory sound they make so people will get less driven over by them and vehicles will be less prone to not notice them and drive over them. No flying cars for consumers but ppl like paramedics and firefighters have helicopter-car combos that are 1) quick and 2) capable of carrying tons of stuff.

Another thing they've learned is quick space travel. Earth has many colonies in different parts of space, though some are actually ex-colonies (like Mars). This doesn't really show back on Earth in any way other than "hey my friend's friend's uncle's cousin's etc moved to x planet". Many people seem to want to move away bc there's this idea on Earth that the colonies are doing much better (they're not in most cases). People moving back to Earth is very rare and is viewed as, well, very weird.

Now, you may wonder why did I phrase the network part like that. Well! Like I kinda mentioned, there was a climate catastrophe. While people did manage to get to safety (some also just moved to the first colonies on other planets, either bc they wanted to or. well. bc they were chosen to 😬) and survive, what followed was chaos because of all the danger and new things that everything started bubbling over. Tons of crises at different parts of the world, and the inequality going sky high. A united planetary board was created, which then managed to allocate resources in a way that would calm the population and solve the problems. They made sure that from now on the budgets corporations and institutions get for their research will be based on how important their idea/innovation could be for the people, which then led to actually rebuilding the whole Earth society into something more united and more healthy.

One of the other things said board decided on, though, is the surveillance. Every person has a little device in a wrist (of non-dominant hand), containing their personal information, ability to pay, and also working as a small data disk. Peiple can choose what info they want to make public (for example, name and pronouns and stuff line that), and also share files with each other. While most opt to use their phones/tablets/laptops etc to confirm payment or see the data they have, later on people developed a modification that allows a small hologram of "screen view" to appear after a specific finger tap sequence. A small minority even manages to do their work stuff somehow... ANYWAY where was I. Right. That sounds somewhat easy, right? Yeah, well. The thing is, whenever you walk into some public building, the scanners at the door scan the device to identify who's inside or who left. It can also, in some situations (legally) be used to pinpoint a person's location when they, say, break a leg on a forest walk. I say legally bc while that was originally the idea, by the time Cynosure happens things are a bit different. :))

As for individual, consumer use related tech, companies started to pay attention to developing it again starting mid 2100's when things got much better again. Personal devices like computers and phones were made more durable due to the directives the Board had set, and also started to have even more powerful processors/graphics and larger amount pf data storage. Of course, most of these upgrades hit the markets much later after the institutions & corporations had them for years, partly bc solving world problems requires devices more stronger and powerful...

Cybernetics are not popular, but aren't rare either. They're expensive as hell and are mostly available through needs based programs (in which situation the government pays for the most of it). Most are health related, and other popular ones are more like devices that monitor person's health and medicine use etc. Health influencers are also big fans of these.

Later on (~early 2200's) some big corporations started to offer some special cybernetic implants for their workers, like hormone and medicine controllers to be more productive. Or things that will give advantages in *looks at notes* violent work encounters. Those are mostly offered to people who work a lot with other corporations or who have a higher risk of getting assasinated.

Unlike cybernetics, what actually are popular are new solutions to change certain parts of one's looks, like hair color, eye color and height (this one requires expensive cybernetic implants though :/). You can now have pink hair without going to the hairdresser every month.

Other things still seem almost same as nowadays, though there is more "smart" tech available. As in, the "your fridge knows you're running out of eggs and you planned to make an omelet for dinner. it has taken its liberty to order new pack of eggs. the grocery shop bot will be there in a moment."

OH THAT REMINDED ME! there are in fact robots and androids in there, most of them also used as some kind of employees. They're usually used at places with possible danger to humans, but some places have also started to use them as waitresses/baristas/customer service, alongside actual human workers. AI is highly regulated and it is illegal to make an actual, human-like intelligence paired with a very human-like body. G*ner*tive AI (censoring simply bc i don't want this to show up in search 🤪) is mostly forbidden, not counting occassional smarter chatbots.

There's also fun plasma guns and specific non-lethal weapons. People find a way how to make them lethal though.

What to expect if you were to live there

There are some things that are better! All education is now free (unless you want to/your parents make you go to some fancy university that thinks it's hotter than others) to make sure that people will have a lot of knowledge to have better chances at getting by in their life. The Earth Board has also made a directive of universal social security, additionally with some special needs based benefits. Cities/towns are walkable and mostly connected by public transport. Cities also tend to sprawl into big areas to make sure there aren't too many people living in the same area. There's also lots of parks and many trees and plants planted in the middle of the streets.

Despite the social security and knowledge, there's still inequality, and it started growing even more since early 2200's due to the local political power slowly sliding to big corporations. :/ They tend to pay more but also tend to choose people from more prestigious universities and schools, often also having preference on people's earlier careers. That leaves most people to work in smaller corporations or public institutions. While robots or androids do many blue collar jobs, some people also choose to work there, and their salary is very good due to the nature of such jobs.

Farming and overall agriculture has become popular, too, due to tech that makes it even more easier :)

While most of the climate catastrophe problems have been solved, there's no denying that weather has changed and became more extreme. Where Cynosure happens, it is a normal thing to have rainstorms at least twice a month, some very severe and often resulting in people having to stay at home. Summers are hot but quite humid, making them not so bearable. There's no "snowy winter" anymore, and many of those who's lived there since their birth have never seen snow in their life.

Pets are still allowed! But, well. You need to take a course of pet care practices to get a license to do that, mostly to prevent pet abuse, illegal/unethical pet adopting practices and easy spread of animal-borne illnesses.

Schools tend to have additional classes that teach children and teenagers about adult life (to make sure no one ends up not knowing how to do x bc their parents didn't/couldn't teach them etc). Many hobbies are made more accessible, though some parents still find a way to get their children into more expensive ones that require a lot of time and tend to be more professional...

Dealing with officials and bureaucracy has never been easier. Is it the fact that your personal info is always with you or is because customer experience is a number one priority for them? I don't know, man.

Health care is more accessible and doesn't cost a lot, but the "downside" is high progressive taxes. There's still enough money to live well though, most of the times. Big corporations tend to have better health insurances and thus their workers are able to get more higher quality med care than others. Some even have their in-house doctors. Some non-big corporate entities try to fix this by having their union give discounts on those for their members.

People tend to be more liberal about sexual & gender identities, partly because Earth doesn't want people to mass move to Mars bc of its more progressive views. HRT and surgeries are available, some corporate headhunters even try to get some young people come work for them by promising full coverage of those + paid leave for gettting better.

Alcohol and weed are available for sale to people over 18. Nightclubs and bars are popular, some streets being just full of them. Working for a corporation in a stressful environment? They might also prescribe you some other stuff if they think it would help productivity/worker's wellbeing. Public sector workers don't get that due to strong regulations.

Media is a big part of how people spend free time. There's tons of tv shows and movies, comics, books and video games. People also love talking about them. Fast food is also still a thing and all. The food is almost the same too hehe

um nothing more comes to my mind rn so. well. maybe i'll come back or y'all can ask abt something u want to know :]

State of society in late 2200's

Before I go into actual state I need to explain how government works probably? Like I already mentioned there's this United Planetary Board (aka the Board) that's made up of different specialists from different scientific fields who represent their own field for 2 years (chosen by scientists in their field and brings whatever said field comes up with on their own meetings). The Board's idea is to decide on the main points & directions for Earth's development and sometimes make up law directives which is probably the only practical thing they do that ppl should care about.

Then we have national governments that basically function in a night-watchmen state-like way to see that the laws work etc etc. They also make some specific laws sometimes that overrule local governments' decisions.

Local governments are more, well, local, and decide about things of a specific area. Due to their importance and heavy effect on basically whatever is going on in the territory, some big corporations have started getting their own representatives there, and also mayhaps pay the other representatives to support their ideas as well.

Like I mentioned before, despite all the social security/nordic welfare state stuff, inequality is starting to rise again bc some people just want more for themselves and manage to charismatically get into local governments., making social security services poorer and lowering taxes etc etc.

This then shows a bit in the crime rate. Crimes haven't been that visible for a century, but are now resurfacing back to the streets. Gangs and organized crime is also getting more and more foothold and starts to be visible. Some big corporations also tend to (unofficially) support some of them bc they help each other. Homicide rate is still a bit lower, but a somewhat big part of it happens between corporations or in corporations...........

Corporations in 2200's

Remember when in the beginning I said that the Board decided to fund those institutions and corporations that pay attention to Earth problems that need to be solved? Yeah, well. Bad idea in the long run.

This decision led to certain corporations becoming awfully big and power hungry, allowing them to throw their competitors off the market and also become incredible lobbyists.

Most of the big ones specialize in biotechnology, defense, pharma and energy, or a mix of those. There are smaller ones that hang out in such fields, too, but they're not that important. Public institutions also still do research but they're not as popular and often looked down upon as "less important".

Obviously back in mid 2000's the Board also made rules that help people see how exactly does a corporation spend money, but century and a half later most of the transparency has been lost and corporations are back on their secretive path. This also means that things like anonymous whistleblower channels are also often forgotten or not paid attention to in big corporations, or they're just not that anonymous. Lucky ones who manage to contact media to bring something up are often left with ruined career and barely any safety. Corporates have their own "investigations" for a few months if not years, and they mostly end in favor of the corporate or the worker who has more friends there.

I gotta admit I need to work more on corporations bc I only have one (1) planned out a bit. Will probably do some kind of intro for them later hehehe <3

[paperstorm]

I am surprised that so many people think Mateo is gonna be the new Lieutenant. I mean a lot of people say it more jokingly but there is also many who are serious. For me - and watch me be catastrophically wrong because it's still Lone Star we're talking about and logic is out of the window most of the time - it's not even an option that it's gonna be Mateo. Mainly because he literally said last episode that he doesn't want to do it but also I feel like they have been so lacking in developing this character in the past few seasons that I really would have a hard time taking him seriously in an authority position. And yes Paul and Marjan definitely have their flaws but at least to me they execute the confidence and authority that is needed in that position.

Idk we'll see but I just keep thinking like .. how is this whole competition thing going to have a happy ending if one of them "wins"? Like are either of them capable, at this point, of losing gracefully and then taking orders from the other? Of having their best friend, who they have been competing against with increasing levels of bitterness, suddenly be their boss? Or would that just build so much tension and resentment that it would be untenable and create a completely awful vibe at the firehouse. I feel like it has to be someone who isn't Paul or Marjan because of that, and I don't think it's going to be Judd because as Owen (rightly, imo) said to Wyatt, that wouldn't be fair to the people who stepped up to cover for his absence to just have him swoop back in without having to earn it. My guess for now is Mateo, both because he impressed everyone last week by saving that guy in the car but also because in his lack of vying for the position he's showing that he's putting what's best for the 126 above his own ego, which neither Paul or Marjan are doing right now.

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

having started watching Wild Life, my autistic ass is now trying to assign the wildcards to tma entities

the snails are easy, they're obviously hunt, but i'm not so sure about the others. the changing sizes in the first episode is kinda giving spiral? possibly flesh. and i think the food switching in the second one could be corruption? mainly based on the hunger/starvation/various poisoning effects

you're the only other person i've seen talk about both so uh. d'you have any thoughts?

- 🦴

(I have so many thoughts, this post is about to spiral so far out of control 'cus I love musing on stuff—)

I was actually thinking about this exactly while watching the latest episodes! The snails had initially struck me as corruption, being slimy little bug-adjacent creatures, but that's so purely aesthetic that the moment you see them in action it's just incredibly clear that they're just straight up The Hunt, as clear cut as it could possibly be tbh.

Maybe a bit of The End with the whole instant kill thing, the invincibility/immortality of the snails, and the kind of inevitability of the snails getting you eventually

The other two are definitely a lot harder

Session 2's gimmick of not being able to eat food / having to eat blocks, with it's themes of eating, kinda reminds me of a lot of Flesh statements in first thought tbh, but without any actual meat (and in fact, meat being the one thing they solidly can't eat) it just doesn't seem to follow through on more than a shallow level. Though maybe from the more fandom angle with the gore-ish-ness of teeth cracking on stone, and how bloody swallowing your own sword incorrectly would be, that kinda fits Flesh

Thinking on the actual energy of that gimmick as it played out in the videos, with the huge change and upset to normalcy that leads to catastrophic results and mass panic, I almost want to say it has some Extinction vibes, but without the "man made"/"we brought this upon ourselves" aspect I'm not sure it quite works out

The Corruption idea I don't think I would have thought of on my own, but it makes some sense too. The whole idea of food making you sick, or of all the other ill affects from just trying not to starve/die, the variety of ways you're almost guaranteed to get poisoned and hurt before you figure out something actually edible..

Corruption and Buried are also both fun to consider with the imagery of having to eat dirt and the like. Buried doesn't have any other relevance tho as far as I can think

Rhyme's suggested The Stranger, as it's solidly an example of the familiar being made unfamiliar, but most manifestations of The Stranger play very heavily on it being other people that are strange and weird, in my observations, so I'm not sure if it's quite right

Spiral also works well with the familiar being bad incomprehensible tho I think. The gimmick doesn't make them doubt reality, but it does rely a lot on them being confused and no longer being able to understand and rely on what should be such a basic backbone to reality (eating food makes you less hungry). A lot of the fear and panic on that session comes from that I think, the logic of world not working the way it should, which fits Spiral fairly well

Session 1 I honestly don't know about. The size changing mechanic didn't strike as much fear into everyone as the other two, which makes it a bit harder to categorize what fear it does cause

Maybe The Buried at times, because there were concerns about getting too big in spaces that were too small

Or The Vast, because of the whole "too big" idea in and of itself, and how getting too big could theoretically play into fear of heights (though it didn't much actually do so in the videos). It also had several incidents of falling to deaths, which is pretty fitting for The Vast. Vast feels like the most aesthetically fitting tho, with heights and sizes being pretty big things with it

Spiral and Flesh definitely make sense too though, playing off of the idea of your very self changing. Constantly shrinking and growing with only a certain level of control to it does kinda feel body-horror-ish, and the whole questioning if what even was changing and if their sizes were changing at the begining could also play into spiral ideas. The whole thing was a bit dream-like

Thinking about how the different fears can play into stuff is fun :]