#we have a system that has four parts and how many points you can get in the second and third is determined by how many you get in the first

[richkidcityfriends]

oh also also im trying to figure something out bc i want it to be accurate for something im writing. so. american mutuals. how are yous graded on english essays in high school?

like the specifics of the actual grading process. how are the marks divided, based on what, etc. send help i cant find anything online

[gaykarstaagforever]

YouTube has this thing now called YouTube Playables (great name as usual, guys; it's not a children's snack pack), that are basically in-app "Flash games"-style things that are just enough game to keep you watching ads.

The ones of these that aren't direct ripoffs of owned IP (very specifically Zuma) are barebones exercises in that bog-standard FTP addictive mobile gaming loop we all know and hate but also LOVE, minus the in-app purchases (for the time being). Like, shallow systems that are fun for exactly 30 minutes, then get stupidly hard so you'll pay to win, though you can't do that yet, so...kind of pointless.

...I still spent FOUR HOURS playing these, because they tapped into my primitive lizard brain's desire to try and master an utterly meaningless task and then feel undooly smug about it.

I didn't get any ads, because I'm a stooge that pays real money to Google every month for this, because once you go adless, you CANNOT go back. Which kind of negates the whole point of these, as addictive time-wasters that keep you glued to the platform and its commercials? But I already pay for YouTube and STILL got caught in these, so I suppose everything is going according to YouTube's plan either way, and I need meaningful human relationships.

But THAT isn't going to happen any time soon! So let me waste another evening on these by reviewing some crap garbage games for idiots that no one cares about, on Tumblr dot com!

1. Totemia: Cursed Marbles

It's Zuma. That's it. With a couple minor tweaks that make it harder and more annoying.

Just license Zuma, YouTube. I think you can afford the, what, $25 that would cost atm?

2. Sword Play

An on-rails sword slashing game (you don't control the movement, just the slashing), and you kill plastic doll guys before they kill you.

At some point they get projectiles that move really fast, that you can only destroy via specific directional QTEs that don't register properly half the time, because this is all relative finger smearing across the screen.

It was fun before that. The guys fall apart specific to how you slash them. That's something.

3. Dessert DIY

This one sucks. You're just picking from very limited options, then doing specific motions to trigger animations that create desserts that don't even look much like the promo art. People request different things, but early game all they ask for is "whatever you want to make" and "do one out of poop with bugs on it to make someone I hate throw up."

And then there's an animation of someone accepting what is obviously poop with bugs on it from their sworn enemy, they eat it anyway, then vomit.

The only fun part about this is the shameless inclusion of NPCs that look like celebrities, specifically Billie Eilish, Kanye West, and Donald Trump.

If you want to make a poop ice cream cone with bugs on it and feed it to Trump until he vomits all over his desk, this is the game for you. Otherwise, this is meh even for one of these meh games.

4. Bowmasters

Dueling Angry Birds, but you have no control of the camera and it focuses on you so you have to trial-and-error the degree of angle and throwing force to figure out how to hit and kill your opponent before they hit and kill you.

There are many colorful pop culture-inspired combatants to unlock, with a huge variety of projectiles of different weights, sizes, and behaviors. This is the most "very nearly a real, good game" one of these.

...Except that the level progression forces you to do Bonus Rounds, and one of those is "knock fruit off the head of an opponent without hitting them, and you have to do this like 5 times in a row, and we move you further away from them another 30 yards every round, and you have to use a wildly different unique projectile every round, and you get 3 chances, and that includes if you miss entirely."

It is basically impossible to do this, because your ever-changing location makes calculating arcs and force, with the ever-changing projectiles, impossible, in this limited amount of attempts. It turns into grinding it out until RNG randomly makes you win.

Which is a shame, because otherwise, this is fun. But you WILL get stuck on a stupid fruit round and stop playing this.

5. Mob Control

You have a cannon that launches blue guys. The NPC opponent does red. You both are trying to bumrush the other's base, taking advantage of buttons and switches and bonus gates that speed you up or slow you down and multiply your number of guys. Guys annihilate each-other when they run into each-other, so you need to overwhelm Red before they overwhelm you.

It's fun until it gets so fast that it becomes a chore to manage where precisely to launch guys specifically to annihilate other guys.

6. Merge Master

This goddamn game. This was 3.5 hours of my 4 hour playtime.

You have a grid board, with you at the bottom and an opponent at the top. You both have an army of warriors and dinosaurs, and a team HP bar. You click go, the warriors fire projectiles and the dinosaurs melee the nearest enemy, and last man standing wins.

Before each round, you can arrange the placement of your army, and use money you won from the last rounds to buy more warriors and dinosaurs. But the kicker is, you can combine like warriors and dinosaurs to make more powerful units, which you keep at the end of every round. They don't gain XP or anything, but as you make more money, you can buy more 1st-level units (that's all you can buy), and gradually combine them and then combine the combinations, and on and on and on, making incredibly powerful new units. And you need a mix of low-level and high-level units to have enough melee dinosaurs and projectile-throwers to overwhelm high-level enemy units, or draw fire away from your own, against the ever-changing enemy army each round.

It's a process of slowly adding more units and combining them to make stronger and stronger units, and as many of them as you can get, accounting for the limited board space. Also the price of units rises exponentially each round, so you may have 1 trillion gold, but at this point a new 1st-level dinosaur costs 245 billion.

I couldn't stop with this. It just got me. I wanted to see new exciting high-level warriors and dinosaurs, and see how fast I could take the other army down. There's more than zero strategy at work here, and battles can vary substantially from round to round, depending on what mix of units the enemy brings to the board.

It's still a rudimentary Flash-esque game, and very much akin to those shitty mobile boss rush games that raid our shadow legends. But it's not PTW yet, and the graphics are a charming and distorted replica of early 2000s 3D games, like Age of Mythology or GTA 3. It felt like something, for awhile.

It isn't, and I wasted valuable battery charge on this stupid shit. But I was having fun. And sometimes, that's enough.

...And posting about it here. It's something to talk about that isn't the world eating itself.

And we all need that sometimes.

[thelegend2t]

BFDI Theory: The Unluckiest Number

Or story starts the video "X Finds Out His Value" at 3:27

Four and X have just figured out that X's value is 7, leading them and Seven to have a little dance party sort of thing. But after X proudly proclaims his value, 7, Four adds that "It's lucky too!"

And we get some less than happy faces from the peanut gallery. One and Three standing beside each other to form the infamous unlucky number 13. In fact, 13 is kind of an interesting number when it comes to Algebraliens.

This is the BFDI Wiki's list of every Algebralien (That is a rational number), notice anything? That's right! 13 isn't there! And this list doesn't leave any number out if it can help it. Eleven, Twelve and Sixteen have never had any significant role in any skit or episode. Thirteen is missing from the official roster of numbers.

Also as a "Sans is a near anagram for Ness" level detail: TPOT 13 is when One herself says "Entree over. Now onto the main course." and as the line suggests, is when One picks up the pace in terms of intervening in TPOT.

I believe that the number 13 is not just unlucky in a superstitious sense, but also if any Algebralien were to become Thirteen the result would be catastrophic, bringing bad luck wherever they went. And that's exactly what One and Three did.

In the first episode of TPOT Winner asks, on the topic of prime numbers, "Are those, like, illegal where you're from?". And while they're obviously not this could be foreshadowing that there is a specific prime number that IS illegal, due to, y'know, bad-luck related catastrophe.

I don't just believe this explains why there's no Thirteen, but I also believe this is why One and Three are where they are.

In the video "Thanks for 2,000,000 Subscribers!" we get a good look at the law enforcement system on Algebralien society, mainly that there is none. There are no police, possibly no government. Any sort of jail sentence or punishment for crime is carried out by the community as a whole. We see this with Fourteens punishment, he's not arrested by police, he's apprehended by his neighbors who seem to hold no special status of any kind.

Now, if we put our heads together maybe we can think of any Algebraliens that are locked in a cell, presumably, by other Algebraliens. I think at one point both One and Three were kept in cells, but as of now only Three remains imprisoned.

Many have speculated that Three closing their own cell is telling that they wish to finish their sentence due to the guilt of their actions, and I agree, and I think those actions were them being one half of the duo known as Thirteen. (One half of 13 is 3, you heard it here first folks!.)

But One is a lot more bold. They're not content with being held down or people having more power than them. Being a part of Thirteen came with it this great power which they wish to return to. And besides, as long as someone is staffing their jail cell, that's just one more person to manipulate.

But who did she manipulate? The answer may surprise you, but it also may not, I don't know how many people actually watched the subscriber milestone videos.

In the video "Thanks for 1,000,000 subscribers!" at 7:50, we see Seven say this:

Seven considers One to be their BFF, presumably standing for "Best Friend Forever". Now, Seven as a character has been consistently portrayed as having no friends at all. In the song "Counting on Christmas" sung by the Algebraliens, Seven explicitly states that they "really, really, really want some friends".

Seven is sort of the black sheep of the community, though still, they ARE part of the community. As such, they are also part of the group that decides who is to be in jail, and who is to be free. And if all it takes is the promise of friendship then One escaping that cell was well within her range of capabilities. Who knows, maybe the friendship was in some way genuine, but the end result is the same, Seven let One free and even now sees nothing wrong with their friendship.

So that leaves us with this. One is actively trying to free Three, but Three is still patiently waiting in their cell for their lawful sentence to expire. Which... is kinda what everyone has been saying already, yeah, I'm not exactly the first to theorize that One is trying to free Three. What I am doing however, is laying out how I believe all these puzzle pieces fit together.

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 2

[Link to Part 1]

Post is under a cut due to length.

There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media user’s post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and played the game. nb, this post is more of a ‘info that came out in snippets from articles and social media posts’ collection rather than a 'regurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay reveal’ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this.

Character Creation

It is the best CC BioWare has ever made in a game [source]

The faction we choose will determine who we as protagonist Rook were before they were recruited to put a stop to Solas [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

Faction choice affects a lot of things [source]

There aren't unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

"body customization and morphing. From more muscular characters, to curvier builds, and just about any shape you want to give your character, there are all sorts of toggles to adjust so you can give them any figure you want". "There's even features that let you choose proportions, so you can alter their height, give them wider shoulders, and much more" [source]

There are makeup options [source]

There are tattoo options [source]

The hair uses a "Strand system" to "make them behave and move in a believable way for the different races" [source]. (Fel note/speculation: I think "race" here refers to irl, as opposed to like human vs qunari or something, as the language they are using for human/elf/dwarf/qunari is "Lineage")

There are 4 voices to choose from for Rook: two feminine and tow masculine (one American, one British for each) [source]

In CC, 'Lineage' is the game's parlance for race i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari [source]

We can pick Rook's name, but the dialogue calls them 'Rook' [source]

In CC we can "make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins" [source]

"I really do think its our most feature-ful character creator ever." [source]

Story and lore

In the opening segment of the game (see more on the story's opening moments here), we're too late and Solas' ritual worsens, so Rook and the companions go to stop him. When travelling to the next location (Arlathan Forest) in the chase after Solas, the characters travel through an eluvian [source]. The Forest is where his ritual is taking place. Varric then asks the player if he should confront Solas, and players then work to take down the surrounding statues in order to stop the ritual. "I won’t spoil what happens next, but I’ll just say the player and Veilguard have a tall task ahead of them if they want to save Thedas." [source]

Four of the 6 faction options for Rook (Mourn Watch, Lords of Fortune, Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragons) are "rooted in northern Thedas" [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

There aren't unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

A line of dialogue Dorian had at the Winter Palace in DA:I about what Tevinter is like informed the devs' approach to bringing to life the setting of Tevinter: ""There's a line in Dragon Age Inquisition that we always like to call back to," Epler says. "Dorian goes to the Winter Palace, which, up to that point, is probably the most impressive thing you've seen [as the Inquisitor], and [he] says something like, 'Oh, this is cute.' And we had to ask, what does it look like? What is Tevinter if Dorian sees that [the Winter Palace] and thinks that?"" [source]

The fact that Minrathous used to be the land of the elves was factored into the location's design. John Epler: "You can see the architecture has changed. It's become a lot more elven focused. And something that we've kind of hinted at, but we've never really shown explicitly, is the idea that Tevinter is built on the bones of the ancient elven empire. Tevinter itself, Minrathous itself, all the magic you see, that's just a pale imitation of what the elves are capable of. So you'll start to see as you get deeper into the game, the elves, for example, worked Lyrium into their building materials. Tevinter can't quite figure out how to do that. So instead, you'll see more gold and gems, kind of imitating it, but not ever quite approaching what the elves are able to do, and really creating that continuity of the space. Obviously, Solas isn't too thrilled that this world is the way it is, because he lived in a time of miracles and magic, and even the most magical place in Thedas isn't magic like the elven people used to be able to do" [source]

At the end of the opening portion of the game there is a "jaw-dropping title card cliffhanger" [source]

On the opening sequence: ""One of the things we wanted to do with this game is make the prolog feel like the final mission of a different game," John Epler says. "We really needed to get the stakes, the spectacle, right off the bat. Obviously, players who had been waiting to confront Solas have been waiting for just this moment."" [source]

Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story [source]

You cannot succeed without the companions. Each of them has a reason why they need to be part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world [source]

All 7 companions are recruited in the game's first act [source]

The firey demon looking guys shown near the start of the Gameplay Reveal are Rage Demons. Demons in general got a revamp in this game "to more closely align their look", this can be seen with the shades and the Pride demons as well. "they’re creatures of emotion so they have a spectral nervous system look" [source]

The Pride demon the group fight at the Solas face-off in the Gameplay Reveal video "was more a direct tie to Solas than anything else, but it didn't escape us how much it echoed the beginning of DA:I". they wanted to show the stakes and the scale of Solas' power [source]

Characters, companions, romance

Harding was one of the earliest characters that the devs wanted to bring into DA4, because she was such a fan favorite. She is this game's 'traditional returning' character [source]

Each character's romance flavor or style is different. They don't want every character for the romance to feel the same. They want everyone to have their own flavor that's appropriate to them as a character [source] [two]

"We found as we were building a story, more than ever before, it's a story about the people around you; a story about building this team, and working with them." [source]

Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story [source]

You cannot succeed without the companions. Each of them has a reason why they need to be part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world [source]

All companions are pansexual (specifically pansexual, not playersexual) [source]

Their pansexuality may come through in what we learn about their backstories [source]

No companion romance is race-locked [source]

Companions reference their past experiences or partners, and they reference who they'll become romantic with. [source]

If you don't romance a character, they may find a different partner for themselves. This could be within the companion roster itself or outside of it in the broader world. [source] For example, if the player does not romance Harding, she may get together with Taash [source]

The game is rated M [source]

The game contains nudity [source]

We can start flirting with the companions pretty early [source]

All 7 companions are recruited in the game's first act [source]

It is not until later parts of the game that you really commit to romance and things get pretty spicy [source]

The nudity, spicy things etc is more towards the end of the game [source]

The devs want the companions to be relatable and fully realized. So things get spicy, but in a more relatable way for people than e.g. some of the more shocking and comical scenes of this nature in Baldur's Gate 3 [source]

How sexually explicit the scenes are varies between characters. Some are more spicy than others. They have diverse personalities like in real life. "Some of them are more physical, more aggressive, and some of them are more... we have a gentleman necromancer [Emmrich], for instance, that is more intimate and sensual." [source] "some characters may be a little more steamy while some characters maybe a little bit more innocent" [source]

The romance and relationship system is more fleshed out than in previous BioWare games. A character's romance will be better woven into their personal story arc and into their involvement in the core questline of the game [source]

"BioWare has also worked to ensure that getting to know your characters as friends feels just as satisfying - and that just because you're not banging your buddy, their (platonic) relationship with you will still continue." ""One of the things we tried to do with The Veilguard is it's not just romantic relationship building," Epler continued. "You need to get to know a person before you can really build that kind of relationship with them, and if you choose not to build a [romantic] relationship, we never want to feel like you're being cut off. There's no 'okay, well, their arc isn't progressing, I'm done'." We want to make sure the non-romantic relationships are deep as well, with friendships not just for companions and yourself, but also between companions across the party."" [source]

GDL reprises his role as Solas [source]

Gameplay, presentation, performance etc

The game has a photo mode [source]

Combat is fast-paced [source]

If you pause the game using the ability wheel you can scan enemies to learn more information about them [source]

Each of the 3 main classes is distinguished by how it generates and spends energy for abilities [source]

Each of the 3 subclasses for each 3 main class promise to offer some meaningful distinctions from each other [source]

for this, rogues have momentum. You build momentum by attacking, by dodging, by parrying, and you lose it by being hit, so there's really a focus with rogues on avoiding damage, avoiding attacks. They build momentum quickly, but they lose it quickly. Warriors have rage, which they build a little bit more slowly, but they don't lose [source]

Attacks can be cancelled [source]

Regarding enemy weaknesses, some of these are elemental. In other cases their defenses are more vulnerable to specific types of abilities [source]

Combat seems to be a matter of managing our abilities as best we can to whittle down enemy defenses and take advantage of their weaknesses [source]

Over the course of the game we get access to three abilities per companion as well as an additional two abilities we can slot, and an additional ability that coms off of items that the devs will not talk about for now [source]

Fully offline single player, no EA account linking, no micro-transactions [source]

The game uses advanced rendering tech in Frostbite, nice subsurface scattering, high quality meshes, while having a striking pseudo-painterly look [source]

There are blood spatters in the game [source]

Production values on the game have gone through the roof. It looks like a big improvement on what came before [source]

On the music: "lots of foreboding tunes mixed with epic flair" [source]

Good voice acting, great facial animations, good hair tech, busy-looking environments and worlds [source]

It's not open world. "There are open areas you can explore around in, but it's mostly structured/mission based, sort of like Mass Effect." [source]

There are difficulty options [source]

They will talk about PC spec stuff at a later time [source]

There is probably an option to see damage numbers [source]

There are many reasons why the game is M-rated [source]

There are lots of abilities, with 3 swapped in on the wheel at any one time [source]

There are a bunch of accessibility options and they will talk about these soon [source]

The ability wheel gives you flexibility to enhance your playstyle. If you don't want to use it at all, you don't have to and that's no issue as shortcuts are available [source]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

[skydaemon]

Okay I’m awake again and something that really stood out to me with TSC was how different jean and neil are as protagonists. I expected they would be, but the thing I really noticed was how distinct their reactions were.

So, these books are HEAVY. There are many many traumatic events and the characters spend a lot of time in high-stress situations. Even when they’re not being attacked or threatened or XYZ, they’re often in a state of heightened physiological arousal (their sympathetic nervous system is going haywire). As a psychologist, the thing I find really interesting is that we see very different reactions that are all aligned with different adrenal responses, and I wanted to talk about it.

As a baseline, when your sympathetic nervous system is activated, you typically experience what some psychologists call the four Fs. Fight, flight, freeze, and/or fawn (some people use another word here but I don’t like it and think it’s less accurate to the situation). These can occur simultaneously or alone. And of the four characters who are most showing this response are the ones who are consistently in the highest stress situations, but who are also traumatised in such a way that even when they’re not actively in danger their sympathetic nervous system is overreactive and heightened.

So first off, we have Neil. He’s pretty clearly shown to have two responses: flight and fight. For his entire childhood, he’s been fleeing from danger and in the earlier parts of AFTG, we see this response - he tries to run as far as he can possibly get from anything that might be a risk. As a side point, this is pretty clearly a learned response from his mother. As Neil begins to feel more secure and his flight response is impeded (he can’t run away) we see the emergence of his other primary adrenal response - fight. I don’t feel like I need to explain this one, tbh, we’ve all seen how he runs his mouth. Fight is also typically shown when you believe you can defeat whatever’s threatening you, so I love what this says about how his confidence develops across the trilogy.

Then you have Andrew. He’s not a POV protagonist but I feel like his response might be the most obvious. His primary responses are fight and freeze (Andrew Minyard runs from/fawns for no man). Fight is pretty obvious - he’s a very violent person - but I feel like the most clear example of this is stopping Riko from attacking Neil. Andrew is obviously wired and his instinctive response is to protect. I love that for him. His other primary response, unfortunately, is freeze. Based on the most obvious time we see it (during Drake's attack), this is probably a response he developed as a child, before he felt strong/safe enough to fight back. God, these books make me sad sometimes.

Next is Kevin. He has a slightly more varied response - i can see the argument for him freezing, although i wouldnt say it's a primary response - but his main two responses are fight and fawn. Fight isn't necessarily literal, btw - the most obvious example is covering his tattoo. His fawn response is slightly more expanded on in TSC (mild spoilers if you haven't read that yet) when we see him responding to Riko's attack by begging first Riko and then Jean to intercede and stop the violence. he's trying to appeal to their affection for him, which is absolutely heartbreaking. Kevin i love you.

And finally, we have Jean, whose primary responses are only really made clear in TSC, although they are backed up by his appearances in the trilogy - freeze and fawn. We see freezing in Jean's response to sympathetic nervous system arousal, often from hearing about or recalling upsetting events/information. He closes in on himself and becomes unresponsive. Fawn is slightly more complicated, as we see it somewhat throughout AFTG. when he's loyal to riko and doing things he thinks riko will like in hopes of reducing any potential pain/threat he will experience, i'd call that fawning. an example at usc is him getting on his knees and handing coach rhemann his racket - he's not just submitting to punishment, he's trying to be helpful and well-behaved in hopes of lessening it. it's honestly a really strong response from him and it absolutely breaks my heart. jean in tsc is really struggling and i hope the last book brings him some peace. i also find it really painful that he's the only one of these boys without a fight response - he's never felt capable of winning against his abusers. i really hope the trojans and bee are able to help change that.

[haunted-obsidian-of-asgard]

I want to take a minute to talk about the books that are in the therapist's office in 'The Gang Gets Analyzed'. Now, I've watched this episode at least ten times, and I never once paid much attention to them, but upon viewing it today, they finally stood out.

The first one that caught my attention was the Child Sexual Abuse book sitting atop the Lesbian Subjects one. I had to pause and rewind, and immediately I couldn't help but think they were referring to Dennis, Charlie and Dee (I've read speculation about her sexuality and it's a definite possibility as we know Glenn stated that all the characters are a little gay).

Let's look a little closer at the other titles - (I can't make out the very first one on the left, no matter how close I zoomed in), but from there we have Soul, Mind, Body, Medicine : A Complete Soul Healing SYSTEM for Optimum Health and Vitality (again, Dennis, anyone?), Psychological Research in Prisons (Mac and his daddy issues?), Power vs. Force (a book that explains how anyone can tap into their inner power to change their lives and the lives of those around them) (Again, this cries Dennis to me), Identity and Anxiety (Mac again), and finally, Listening Perspectives in Psychotherapy, a book that illustrates four distinctly different styles of listening that have emerged in psychoanalysis (Dennis and how he analyzes the other four).

I just found the titles not only interesting, but quite specific to the characters' traits.

Moving on...

Next up, on the top shelf, the first book Medicine Without Menopause felt like a dig at Dee, followed by Adult Children of Alcoholics (Dee, Dennis and Charlie), (And I Can only partially make the next one out) The Handbook of Psychiatric x (I can't make out the part in white but it sounds like something Dennis would've ingested at some point), Sex After Sixty (Frank, no doubt), and lastly Collective Behavior which the very definition of describes the gang to a t - {Excerpt from the book} Collective behavior takes many forms but generally violates societal norms. Collective behavior can be tremendously destructive, as with riots or mob violence, silly, as with fads, or anywhere in between. Collective behavior is always driven by group dynamics, encouraging people to engage in acts they might consider unthinkable under typical social circumstances.

Then we have the other books that are standing - The Human Animal (Charlie and possibly Frank), Adult Bipolar Disorders (Dennis, Mac?), When Life Becomes Precious (a book about taking care of a loved one with a terminal illness i.e. in reference to Charlie's Mom Has Cancer?), Woman Heal Thyself (another dig at Dee), and lastly, How to Live Well on a Shoestring Budget (Frank and Charlie).

This screenshot was taken in the last few minutes of the ep, and look! A new book has been added to the pile - Childhood Socialization. I don't know why I found that one to feel like it was calling out Charlie specifically, but could quite possibly refer to them all as well.

I feel like all of these titles weren't just mere happenstance and that someone picked these out to represent the gang as a whole or individually.

Either way, just thought there were a lot of interesting choices in the mold. Thank you for listening to my ted talk regarding the Gang Gets Analyzed.

[luimagines]

Modern Dance (1800 Follower Raffle)

Our second place winner was @mickleloaf!!

They asked for a somewhat continuation of The Chain Hanging out in Modern! Reader's House, in which they find the music/Just Dance. Which you can read the "first part" right here.

You don't have to read it to get this one though.

Masterlist

Content under the cut!

“Alright boys.” You called their attention when the sun had already set and the movies had run their courses. After the Lion King, you had put on Pirates of the Caribbean and Kung Fu Panda- which probably wasn’t the best idea because now the boys were taking turns punching and kicking each other in an effort to replicate the movie. “We’re going to change the pace a bit.”

“By doing what?” Wind held a pillow threateningly over Sky’s head. The poor boy had fallen asleep a while ago and was dead to the world for all anyone knew. You had no idea how he managed to sleep through the chaos but everybody has a skill.

“We’re going to dance.” You grinned and turned on the video game console. “I’ve been meaning to introduce you to all our music, but there’s too many genres to choose from and you all have way too much energy for this time of night. We’re going to burn it all off.”

Many of the boys had settled down, watching in fascination as you turned on the systems and switched the controls. They all sat up a little straighter when the colors of the game turned on. It took a controlled effort to get them to step away form the screen instead of shoving their faces up to the characters.

You scrolled through aimlessly and picked an easy level to begin with.

“Rancher, Captain?” You asked sweetly. “Can you help move some of the furniture out of the way? I’m going to put multiplayer mode. We can have up to four at a time.”

“Meaning?” Wild chipped in, helping the other boys push the couch and the tables out of the way.

“Whoever dances the best or most like the person on the screen, wins.” You say gleefully. And maybe just a tad hint of evil.

These boys were competitive. You were to see them at each other's throats… metaphorically. …Mostly.

After giving a few more orders to clear the space, you stepped aside and  selected the song. With a gleam in your eyes, you pointed at Wind, Wild and Hyrule. “You three versus me. Come on.”

Wind jumped front and center without hesitation, Hyrule walking forward with a curious tilt to his head. Wild was the only one who was hesitant to step up to the “platform”, so to speak. It made you calm down a little bit and smile softly. “Relax. It’s not magic. Everything you see will stay there. Just like the stories I put on earlier.”

“Do we even get an example?” Hyrule tilts his head.

“What do you think you are?” You giggle and start the song.

At once the lights flashed and the music started. Having already played this song a number of times, you knew the beats by heart and continued the routine without missing a strike or a pause. The other boys… were less coordinated. …But that’s you being generous.

You think Wind might have smacked Warrior by accident at some point in the attempt to do the moves, but you blame the Captain. He shouldn’t have been that close then.

You win the round. Perfect score. 100%, unsurprisingly.

“I want to go again.” Wild growls. “That’s not fair. You didn’t explain what we were supposed to do properly.”

“I’m next.” Legend raised his hand. “I actually did a dance battle before.”

“No. That means you wait.” Four shoved him playfully. “Give the rest of us a chance to make a fool out of ourselves before you dominate.

You laugh and turn to Time. “Do you want to try, Old Man?”

He grins before shaking his head. “These old bones of mine aren’t as spry as they used to be. I’m content to watch.”

“If you say so.” You shrug, already thinking of ways to wear him down just so he could dance to at least one song.

You step out so that other boys can step in and have a turn. Warrior, Four, Wild and Twilight take the next round. You tried to find another easy song that they would be able to follow without much difficulty, but here is where their competitiveness came through.

Wild tried to trip up Warrior. Twilight pulled on Wild’s hair. Warrior ‘nudged’ Twilight straight into the couch and Four won the round by blaming the hits that he dealt straight onto the other boys.

In an effort to save your house from burning down prematurely, you switched them all out and danced the next round with Wind, Legend and Hyrule.

No one wanted to wake up Sky.

You picked a harder song, if only to trip up Legend. But you should have known better. Not only did he already admit to doing a dance battle before, he already had two rounds to watch and observe what not to do and what to do to get points.

He would have almost won if you didn’t know about the bonus points for hitting the striking pose on the right beat.

“WHAT!!” He screamed. “How did you get double the points!?!?”

“You have to hit it with enough passion.” You teased and kept dancing.

It was the needed points for you to win the round, but goodness, did he give you a run for your money.

Switching out again, you began to work and tease and wear down Time to get him to dance.

It didn’t work.

Within the hour the boys started to fall asleep one by one. The others with the energy to do so helped move them to a bed roll and away from the dance floor so they wouldn’t be trampled on once the wrestling started. Because wrestling would start. That was not an if, but a when.

Time actually went down after Twilight did. Between those two and Sky, the other boys were way more hyped and loaded with sugar that they still needed to work off.

You played for three hours.

The only one that lasted the longest was Four and even then, you were willing to bet he could have kept going if you weren’t ready to fall over and pass out yourself. You groaned and turned off your console. “I’m going to pay tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“I haven’t moved like that in a long time.” You steal the couch and throw your legs over Sky. You’d doubt he’d mind. “I moved muscles that hadn't been moved since I was last home… I can feel them yelling at me.”

Four chuckled and also got down to take the lounge chair. You envied him. He was small enough to sleep comfortably there. “You won most of the matches. I’ve never seen you swing your arms around with such reckless abandon.”

“This is my house.” You grumble. “I had to defend my title and my territory… Besides, you’re all just as, if not, more competitive than I am. There was no way any of you were going to go easy on me.”

“Fair enough.”

“Good night, Link.” You smile, allowing your guard to fall for the first time in months and finally get some needed rest.

“Good night.”

[physicallyimprobable]

what's the 3-dimensional number thing?

Well I'm glad you asked! For those confused, this is referring to my claim that "my favorite multiplication equation is 3 × 5 = 15 because it's the reason you can't make a three-dimensional number system" from back in this post. Now, this is gonna be a bit of a journey, so buckle up.

Part One: Numbers in Space

First of all, what do I mean by a three-dimensional number system? We say that the complex numbers are two-dimensional, and that the quaternions are four-dimensional, but what do we mean by these things? There's a few potential answers to this question, but for our purposes we'll take the following narrative:

Complex numbers can be written in the form (a+bi), where a and b are real numbers. For the variable-averse, this just means we have things like (3+6i) and (5-2i) and (-8+3i). Some amount of "units" (that is, ones), and some amount of i's.

Most people are happy to stop here and say "well, there's two numbers that you're using, so that's two dimensions, ho hum". I think that's underselling it, though, since there's something nontrivial and super cool happening here. See, each complex number has an "absolute value", which is its distance from zero. If you imagine "3+6i" to mean "three meters East and six meters North", then the distance to that point will be 6.708 meters. We say the absolute value of (3+6i), which is written like |3+6i|, is equal to 6.708. Similarly, interpreting "5-2i" to mean "five meters East and two meters South" we get that |5-2i| = 5.385.

The neat thing about this is that absolute values multiply really nicely. For example, the two numbers above multiply to give (3+6i) × (5-2i) = (27+24i) which has a length of 36.124. What's impressive is that this length is the product of our original lengths: 36.124 = 6.708 × 5.385. (Okay technically this is not true due to rounding but for the full values it is true.)

This is what we're going to say is necessary to for a number system to accurately represent a space. You need the numbers to have lengths corresponding to actual lengths in space, and you need those lengths to be "multiplicative", which just means it does the thing we just saw. (That is, when you multiply two numbers, their lengths are multiplied as well.)

There's still of course the question of what "actual lengths in space" means, but we can just use the usual Euclidean method of measurement. So, |3+6i| = √(3²+6²) and |5-2i| = √(5²+2²). This extends directly to the quaternions, which are written as (a+bi+cj+dk) for real numbers a, b, c, d. (Don't worry about what j and k mean if you don't know; it turns out not to really matter here.) The length of the quaternion 4+3i-7j+4k can be calculated like |4+3i-7j+4k| = √(4²+3²+7²+4²) = 9.486 and similarly for other points in "four-dimensional space". These are the kinds of number systems we're looking for.

[To be explicit, for those who know the words: What we are looking for is a vector algebra over the real numbers with a prescribed basis under which the Euclidean norm is multiplicative and the integer lattice forms a subring.]

Part Two: Sums of Squares

Now for something completely different. Have you ever thought about which numbers are the sum of two perfect squares? Thirteen works, for example, since 13 = 3² + 2². So does thirty-two, since 32 = 4² + 4². The squares themselves also work, since zero exists: 49 = 7² + 0². But there are some numbers, like three and six, which can't be written as a sum of two squares no matter how hard you try. (It's pretty easy to check this yourself; there aren't too many possibilities.)

Are there any patterns to which numbers are a sum of two squares and which are not? Yeah, loads. We're going to look at a particularly interesting one: Let's say a number is "S2" if it's a sum of two squares. (This thing where you just kinda invent new terminology for your situation is common in math. "S2" should be thought of as an adjective, like "orange" or "alphabetical".) Then here's the neat thing: If two numbers are S2 then their product is S2 as well.

Let's see a few small examples. We have 2 = 1² + 1², so we say that 2 is S2. Similarly 4 = 2² + 0² is S2. Then 2 × 4, that is to say, 8, should be S2 as well. Indeed, 8 = 2² + 2².

Another, slightly less trivial example. We've seen that 13 and 32 are both S2. Then their product, 416, should also be S2. Lo and behold, 416 = 20² + 4², so indeed it is S2.

How do we know this will always work? The simplest way, as long as you've already internalized the bit from Part 1 about absolute values, is to think about the norms of complex numbers. A norm is, quite simply, the square of the corresponding distance. (Okay yes it can also mean different things in other contexts, but for our purposes that's what a norm is.) The norm is written with double bars, so ‖3+6i‖ = 45 and ‖5-2i‖ = 29 and ‖4+3i-7j+4k‖ = 90.

One thing to notice is that if your starting numbers are whole numbers then the norm will also be a whole number. In fact, because of how we've defined lengths, the norm is just the sum of the squares of the real-number bits. So, any S2 number can be turned into a norm of a complex number: 13 can be written as ‖3+2i‖, 32 can be written as ‖4+4i‖, and 49 can be written as ‖7+0i‖.

The other thing to notice is that, since the absolute value is multiplicative, the norm is also multiplicative. That is to say, for example, ‖(3+6i) × (5-2i)‖ = ‖3+6i‖ × ‖5-2i‖. It's pretty simple to prove that this will work with any numbers you choose.

But lo, gaze upon what happens when we combine these two facts together! Consider the two S2 values 13 and 32 from before. Because of the first fact, we can write the product 13 × 32 in terms of norms: 13 × 32 = ‖3+2i‖ × ‖4+4i‖. So far so good. Then, using the second fact, we can pull the product into the norms: ‖3+2i‖ × ‖4+4i‖ = ‖(3+2i) × (4+4i)‖. Huzzah! Now, if we write out the multiplication as (3+2i) × (4+4i) = (4+20i), we can get a more natural looking norm equation: ‖3+2i‖ × ‖4+4i‖ = ‖4+20i‖ and finally, all we need to do is evaluate the norms to get our product! (3² + 2²) × (4² + 4²) = (4² + 20²)

The cool thing is that this works no matter what your starting numbers are. 218 = 13² + 7² and 292 = 16² + 6², so we can follow the chain to get 218 × 292 = ‖13+7i‖ × ‖16+6i‖ = ‖(13+7i) × (16+6i)‖ = ‖166+190i‖ = 166² + 190² and indeed you can check that both extremes are equal to 63,656. No matter which two S2 numbers you start with, if you know the squares that make them up, you can use this process to find squares that add to their product. That is to say, the product of two S2 numbers is S2.

Part Four: Why do we skip three?

Now we have all the ingredients we need for our cute little proof soup! First, let's hop to the quaternions and their norm. As you should hopefully remember, quaternions have four terms (some number of units, some number of i's, some number of j's, and some number of k's), so a quaternion norm will be a sum of four squares. For example, ‖4+3i-7j+4k‖ = 90 means 90 = 4² + 3² + 7² + 4².

Since we referred to sums of two squares as S2, let's say the sums of four squares are S4. 90 is S4 because it can be written as we did above. Similarly, 7 is S4 because 7 = 2² + 1² + 1² + 1², and 22 is S4 because 22 = 4² + 2² + 1² + 1². We are of course still allowed to use zeros; 6 = 2² + 1² + 1² + 0² is S4, as is our friend 13 = 3² + 2² + 0² + 0².

The same fact from the S2 numbers still applies here: since 7 is S4 and 6 is S4, we know that 42 (the product of 7 and 6) is S4. Indeed, after a bit of fiddling I've found that 42 = 6² + 4² + 1² + 1². I don't need to do that fiddling, however, if I happen to be able to calculate quaternions! All I need to do is follow the chain, just like before: 7 × 6 = ‖2+i+j+k‖ × ‖2+i+j‖ = ‖(2+i+j+k) × (2+i+j)‖ = ‖2+3i+5j+2k‖ = 2² + 3² + 5² + 2². This is a different solution than the one I found earlier, but that's fine! As long as there's even one solution, 42 will be S4. Using the same logic, it should be clear that the product of any two S4 numbers is an S4 number.

Now, what goes wrong with three dimensions? Well, as you might have guessed, it has to do with S3 numbers, that is, numbers which can be written as a sum of three squares. If we had any three-dimensional number system, we'd be able to use the strategy we're now familiar with to prove that any product of S3 numbers is an S3 number. This would be fine, except, well…

3 × 5 = 15.

Why is this bad? See, 3 = 1² + 1² + 1² and 5 = 2² + 1² + 0², so both 3 and 5 are S3. However, you can check without too much trouble that 15 is not S3; no matter how hard you try, you can't write 15 as a sum of three squares.

And, well, that's it. The bucket has been kicked, the nails are in the coffin. You cannot make a three-dimensional number system with the kind of nice norm that the complex numbers and quaternions have. Even if someone comes to you excitedly, claiming to have figured it out, you can just toss them through these steps: • First, ask what the basis is. Complex numbers use 1 and i; quaternions use 1, i, j, and k. Let's say they answer with p, q, and r. • Second, ask them to multiply (p+q+r) by (2p+q). • Finally, well. If their system works, the resulting number should give you three numbers whose squares add to 15. Since that can't happen, you've shown that the norm is not actually multiplicative; their system doesn't capture the geometry of three dimensions.

[aethersea]

still thinking about the trump voter I talked to the other day who was like "well the democrats have had four years to fix things," as proof that clearly they weren't doing that so they weren't worth voting for. and I just. do you think the democrats are our friends? do you think they're a bunch of saints? they're politicians! where did your cynicism go, man, the whole system is corrupt and dishonest and we've always known this. the difference is in degree. the difference is in what they do BESIDES and DESPITE the corruption.

god I just. idk I think this next complaint is old as dirt but people have GOT to stop thinking about politicians as friendly folks who are on your side. miss me with that. you can get that on a local level sometimes, but on a state or federal level, you will have a few radical outliers if you're lucky. a politician is not a buddy. a politician is a person who has power over your life, and a politician is a person doing a job, and it does not and has never fucking mattered if they're someone you could hang out and shoot the shit with! that is not part of their job! that is not the part of your life they have power over! they are not your friends!

the democrats have not fixed the country bc a) there are too many forces working against that, b) fixing a country is a convoluted goddamn problem and it'd take decades, not years, and c) they don't necessarily care all that much! they're just people doing a job! they care mostly about keeping their jobs!

look, there are probably a lot of politicians who do care deeply about helping people. there are also lots of politicians who don't give a fuck, but do a great job pretending they care deeply about helping people because they know that's how they'll get votes. I fundamentally do not care which one of these two people is in power so long as they pass and enforce laws that help people. yeah it'd be nice to have the first person, but so long as shit gets done we'll call it a win.

because there's a third, way more common type of politician, who not only doesn't give a fuck, but knows how to get ahead without actually following through on a single campaign promise. that politician is saying all the right things, just like the other two, but they don't pass a single helpful law and instead will pass a bunch of, like, food safety deregulations in exchange for cash from large companies that don't want to worry about health inspectors.

you know what keeps us safe from that? it's when 'doing some useful things for society sometimes' is a good way for a politician to keep their job. otherwise we will end up with no politicians who do useful things for society, out of sheer natural selection.

I'm just venting at this point but god. since when do we believe politicians are good people. obama was a godsend for this country and this world, he achieved so much good, and also he never so much as shut down guantanamo bay. the bar is in hell. the bar is in hell, and every single politician running for office will tell you otherwise, and we have got to stop listening to that and look at what they do. and keep demanding they do better, instead of replacing them with people who will do worse just because at least it's a brand new grifter.

[russellsppttemplates]

Hi inês, hope you are well, could a request a blurb where the reader struggles with her mental health and the driver of you choice helps her through that, if you want you can include their children, thank you kisses

Note: I hope you're well, too!

Cw: mental health struggles related to parenting, immunity concerns regarding premature babies

"We're okay, baby boy, we're okay", you cooed as you bounced Fraser, walking along the nursery to hopefully soothe him to sleep. It had been like that for the past two weeks and it was getting to you. Matilda caught some bug in school and the minute it entered your home, Fraser was the second victim and he was struggling with it too, barely being able to sleep for long before he coughed and needed his nose unblocked.

Because he was a premature baby, you had to be even more careful with these things, and even though you knew they happened and it was all part of life, you weren't sure you could go another day without telling this to someone. Lando had been incredible at making sure you were all taken care of, and Matilda was dropped off and picked up from school so you could stay home for your maternity leave.

"Love, are you on the nursery?", Lando called as he climbed up the stairs, following the small noise from your footsteps and Fraser's whimpers, "there you are, hey gorgeous", he smiled, kissing your cheek before rubbing Fraser's cheek as he laid on your chest, "look at you so comfy, little man, mummy's chest us the best spot for a nap, isn't it? Mummy is the best", he nipped a few kissed on the top of his head until he heard your sniffles.

"Love, lovie, hey", he cooed back at you, cupping your face in his hands, "what's the matter? Hey - breathe with me", he encouraged, taking a few long, deep breaths with you, "it's okay, everything is okay", he checked over.

"He's so little, Lando, and he needs to be kept safe and sound, but it's not like we can get Tilly out of school just for that, and he's bound to have to build an immune system, might as well be now that my boobs gave the good antibodies stuff but still", you babbled.

Lando took Fraser away from your arms with your consent, setting him on his cot for a little bit when the little boy was settled, "now tell me all of that without being so worried, okay?", he encouraged again.

"I can't stop worrying about him, thinking he has a deficient immune system to begin with and I can't seem to keep him healthy and happy enough - it all goes through my head so many times a day and I can't think about anything else. It's the same thing, all the time", you admitted.

"How long have you been feeling like this? You could've told me, darling", he soothed softly, "you're doing such a good job with him, I'm in awe of you every day, Y/N. Sure, he's been a bit cough-y and his nose his stuffy, but you're doing your best - we're doing our best! He's got a sister who adores him so much and plays with him - she's even helping with his immune system", Lando tried to bring a smile to your face, achieving it, "He's got me, who will physically shove you into bed no matter how many times you say that you'll get him from now on, and he's got a wonderful, superwoman like mummy who needs some rest and reassurance, and that's okay", he kissed your lips softly, "we're in this together, darling", he confided.

"I feel alone and like I'm a failure, but then he's such a happy little one, look at that!", you pointed to the smiling boy, happily biting in his stuffed koala toy as he looked at both of you, "it's such a rush of things and I'm already thinking of what I need to do in case he does come down with something else - fever, tummy bug, stuffy nose - anything really", you rubbed your forehead, letting your husband pull you to his embrace.

"How about we have a cosy night in just the four of us? Movie night with Tilly, and I can e the one keeping an eye on that little dude and you can just relax - I don't like seeing you this worried, beautiful", he brushed some hairs behind your ear, "sounds nice".

After dinner, Matilda sat with you on the sofa and as per Lando's request, she kept showering you with "extra love", meaning she was more attentive than usual, "you also always make me my favourite breakfast everytime I ask for it", she said as she kissed your cheek again.

"Thank you, Tilly", you smiled, "I'm not done yet, mummy! I love you because you always take care of me, because you let me stay up late to watch daddy's races when they're at night or wake up really early to see him race when it's very far away, how you always let me know you love me, daddy and Fraser", she continued as you felt happy tears brimming your eyes from all the love she was showering you with.

"Little man is down, was absolutely milk drunk and went out like a light", Lando said as he walked inside the living room with Fraser on his arms, showing you his pout and chubby cheeks before he put him in the small basket you had in the living room, still able to keep an eye on him.

"Did you tell her to tell me all the things she loved about me?", you whispered on Lando's ear once Tilly was focusing on the movie cuddled up to your side, "I have no idea what you're talking about", Lando shrugged his shoulders even though the smile was on his lips.

"Sure, you have no idea what I'm talking about", you kissed his jaw, "thank you for this".

"We're in this together, no one gets left behind and no one feels like a failure in this house, ever!", he whispered back, his hand happily playing with your fingers while Matilda giggled sweetly as she watched the squirrel trying to get the acorn.

(Thank you for sending this in ✨️)

[system-of-a-feather]

So this is adding onto this post, but the statement I'm expanding on is "I think people see fusion as parts melting into each other but honestly, I think its more like your concept of self widening over multiple parts"

Context; skip to Context Clear if you don't care

For context, this is something I was thinking about because yesterday, at work, we found it really funny that since we were working with a client that reminded us a lot of our younger selves for better or worse, that we were inevitably going to utilize more of our Ray brain and energy to give them the best care and we were going "haha the amount of times we did the signature Ray 'No.'" because Ray specifically just has such a signature "no" and it made us snicker mentally everytime we did it

But today we were thinking back on it since we were choosing to listen to some of Ray's music, and really, we spent almost ALL of the day primarily in Ray mental space, but we really didn't notice it at all until the day after and THAT is incredibly odd for our system because Ray is a part that is EXTREMELY internally obvious. He's not a part we'd ever be "blurry with" in the past, and hes not a part we wouldn't realize is out. So it was really interesting that we were almost exclusively operating in Ray brain and DIDNT notice it

But the reason we didn't really notice it, is because while we - in hindsight - were obviously operating as Ray (including the iconic chronic passive singing of Frank Sinatra and similar songs), it was NOT unique or different to the concept of just what we as Feathers are like and do and that's because everything Ray does is basically completely normal and within the concept of what Feathers is. And that made me think; Ray didn't "fuse" or "meld" with any parts when we fused, the concept of Feathers expanded so that Ray is just an obvious and normal part of the "I" which Feathers is.

Context Clear

When it comes to fusion, its not really as though parts disappear or stop interacting or existing in any way or form. Sometimes they might not be super obvious or outwardly identify as themselves with fusion, but that's largely a matter of perspective and focus.

I'd like to think of it kind of like how I've heard similar things explained in some Buddhist literature; Think about table. A table is made up of many parts that we can look at individually; four different legs, the table top, maybe theres some center piece; some might even include the chairs around the table to be part of "the table".

Now imagine you stubbed your toe against one of the legs. Clearly, you can look exactly where your toe hit, and you can say that it was OBVIOUSLY the left most leg. However, you could ALSO be 100% accurate in saying "I stubbed my toe against the table". When you say "table" the legs are not suddenly melting into the table top and the decorations and the chairs; the legs are still there and they can be individually referenced and looked at, but at the same time, the table exists as a seperate concept that CONTAINS the legs.

The legs of the table can exist and be separate from the concept of the table while still being a specific part of the table that can be referenced, acknowledged, expressed, and focused on. At no point does anyone ever stop seeing or being able to discuss or interact with the legs of the table when they start talking about the table. At any point, anyone could look back at the legs, but sometimes its easier or more realistic / appropriate to just talk about the table as a table.

Similarly, if you put a plate on the tabletop, you could say "I put the plate on the tabletop" and have that be accurate, you could discuss the table top specifically, but it probably just sounds more reasonable to just say "I put the plate on the table."

With that analogy in mind, not being fused it kind of like getting an Ikea table in the box. All the parts are disjointed, unconnected, and seperate from one another. You can't really discuss these parts as "a table" because they're not together, they aren't really able to work like a table, and the parts can be taken miles apart - you could even loose parts; what happens to one part does not necessarily echo throughout the non-unified whole. If you stub your toe on the leg, you probably didn't impact the table top and every other part of the would-be table. If you place your "plate on the non-unified table", its hard to imagine where exactly you would have put the plate down. The concept of each part operates really only independent of one another.

Fusion, on the other hand, is like putting that Ikea table together. Once everything is all together, you can easily refer to the whole as a "table" but you can ALSO refer to the legs, the table top, the screws, etc.

Its not so much parts melting together to make a new whole, its more about parts connecting and unifying to create a solid whole concept. Pre-fusion, the concept of "I" is limited to the individual parts that don't really exist in a unified form - you are either interacting with the leg, the screw, the table top.

Fusion, the concept of "I" is expanded to the unified whole, meaning you are always interacting with "the table" but you can also specifically be interacting with the leg, the table top, the screw, etc.

[beauty-and-passion]

TBOB PART 2: OF FLATLAND, EXWHYLIA AND EUCLYDIA (1/4)

Oooooh, this is going to be fun!~

Welcome everyone, to part 2 of my trilogy of posts regarding Bill Cipher, The Book of Bill, all the lore we got, my obsession from 8 years ago rising from the ashes and my other, older obsessions for Flatland, dimensions and backstories in general. Maybe now you get why this part is gonna be long.

Here we will talk about three second-dimensional worlds and what they have in common, starting with Flatland and Exwhylia.

For all disclaimers and bla bla bla, refer to the first post HERE. In addition to them, I would like to add that:

There will be quotes from Flatland because I love this book (there’s a reason if I read it way before knowing Gravity Falls)

Everyone should read Flatland because it’s great (you can find it online HERE)

Everyone should watch the 2017 movie about Flatland on the official YouTube channel HERE. It perfectly portrays how 2D shapes work & how the world works. Also, it’s hilarious, it’s incredibly well made and A Sphere is my spirit animal. I bet he and Bill would’ve been good pals.

<- Previous part - Masterlist

_______________________________

PART 1: OF FLATLAND

“EDWIN ABBOTT ABBOTT HAS A DECENT IDEA” - Bill Cipher AMA

_____________________

A flat world

I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space. Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows - only hard and with luminous edges - and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen.

This is how Flatland starts and we immediately learn that this world is like a vast sheet of paper in which the shapes move around.

And there is no concept of above or below:

You are living on a Plane. What you style Flatland is the vast level surface of what I may call a fluid, on, or in, the top of which you and your countrymen move about, without rising above it or falling below it. (...) for you have no power to raise your eye out of the plane of Flatland; but you can at least see that, as I rise in Space, so my sections become smaller. See now, I will rise; and the effect upon your eye will be that my Circle will become smaller and smaller till it dwindles to a point and finally vanishes.

_____________________

A world based on regularity

Soon we will also learn through the words of A Square, that:

our whole social system is based upon Regularity, or Equality of Angles.

So we have a flat world, dominated by Euclidean shapes (yes, Euclidean geometry doesn’t include just regular shapes, but lines too), based on regularity. Your angles should be regular and your sides equal.

_____________________

Social classes for regular shapes 

Our Women are Straight Lines. Our Soldiers and Lowest Classes of Workmen are Triangles (...) Isosceles. Our Middle Class consists of Equilateral or Equal-Sided Triangles. Our Professional Men and Gentlemen are Squares (to which class I myself belong) and Five-Sided Figures or Pentagons. Next above these come the Nobility, of whom there are several degrees, beginning at Six-Sided Figures, or Hexagons, and from thence rising in the number of their sides till they receive the honorable title of Polygonal, or many-sided. Finally when the number of the sides becomes so numerous, and the sides themselves so small, that the figure cannot be distinguished from a circle, he is included in the Circular or Priestly order; and this is the highest class of all.

Flatland has a very precise, clear, schematic vision of society: you have six sides? You’re a noble. You have four sides? You’re a gentleman. You have five sides? You’re a doctor (a “physician” in the book). You have three sides? You’re a tradesman. You’re a straight line? You’re a woman. Yes, women are females only.

But what if you are an Irregular?

_____________________

About Irregulars

Since Flatland is dominated by Regularity and the idea of being regular, then you can imagine how all irregular/weird/divergent things are treated:

``Irregularity of Figure'' means with us the same as, or more than, a combination of moral obliquity and criminality with you, and is treated accordingly. (...) ``The Irregular,'' they say, ``is from his birth scouted by his own parents, derided by his brothers and sisters, neglected by the domestics, scorned and suspected by society, and excluded from all posts of responsibility, trust, and useful activity. His every movement is jealously watched by the police till he comes of age and presents himself for inspection; then he is either destroyed, if he is found to exceed the fixed margin of deviation, or else immured in a Government Office as a clerk of the seventh class; prevented from marriage; forced to drudge at an uninteresting occupation for a miserable stipend; obliged to live and board at the office, and to take even his vacation under close supervision (...)

So, well, the Irregulars are basically considered criminals and if not instantly killed or confined in a hospital, they live at the margins of society. Yay.

So irregulars (and, in general, deformities) are not accepted. But, like, not at all.

_____________________

About color

There is a huge portion of the book about color and it’s extremely cool - but also, too long to quote it entirely here. Long story short: color existed in Flatland, but it was suppressed and now they live in a black and white world. Because I suppose that society wasn’t shitty enough as it was, so why not making it even worse.

(Actually there is an explanation and for their kind of society it makes sense. Still, shitty world)

_____________________

About Recognition by Sight

The book vastly explains how these creatures can see and it’s a very clever to see, considering they live in a goddamn 2D world and all they see are fucking lines. And not even colored lines, that could’ve at least helped a bit. Nope, just gray lines. Yay.

Still, they developed a way to see and yes, all they can see are lines, with the edges that fade in the distance. The more blurred they are, the more angles they can find out - thus recognizing if they’re approaching a Square, a Pentagon or a Circle.

All of this works except for women, who are basically deadly spears with a pointy end, so they’re almost invisible. And that’s why they should wag their end all the time, otherwise other shapes might not see them and get pierced through.

Yep, this is fucking hardcore and I love it.

_______________________________

PART 2: OF EXWHYLIA

“I believe Bill came from a similar world that was mysteriously destroyed” - Ford Pines, Journal 3

_____________________

A flat world

Ford drew a perfect image of Exwhylia and we can see that yep, it’s a flat surface, with no above or below. It’s just a plane, exactly like Flatland.

_____________________

A world based on regularity

All we know from Exwhylia can be inferred through Ford’s pages. However, two pages are enough to make it clear that this world is based on regularity.

How can I be so sure?

_____________________

Social classes for regular shapes 

Ford describes two of these beings as “an upper-class circle” and “a lowly triangle”. So yes, Exwhylia shares the exact same social structure of Flatland: according to your shape, you will get your social class.

It says nothing about women, but considering Ford spent something like 20 seconds inside it, it’s understandable. However, we know for sure that the Exwhylians’ bodies are razor-sharp, because Ford specified it. Pretty cool - and also another reference to Flatland.

_____________________

About Irregulars

Ford says that the inhabitants of this world “considered me to be an “Irregular” shape, which is vulgar in their society”.

Sooo… yes, I imagine that this world ostracized Irregulars too, just like Flatland does.

_____________________

About color

Ford says nothing specific about it, so we have no idea if the world is black, white and gray or if there are any colors. We just know that there is no sky and no sun.

However, when he talks about what the Exwhylians can see, Ford draws several lines, says that his eyes can’t help him distinguish these objects, but the Exwhylians can and will interpret the lines differently. This implies there is no color, because if there was, Ford would’ve been able to interpret the lines too, by referring to how they were colored.

So yes, there may be no color in Exwhylia.

_____________________

About Recognition by Sight

Judging from how Ford describes what the Exwhylians can see, we can safely assume these shapes also use Recognition by Sight, just like Flatlanders  do.

_______________________________

And with that, we close the premise of what I want to tell about Euclydia. Keep this stuff in mind, it will be useful to understand the topic of tomorrow's post: Euclydia.

Next post ->

(How about a coffee? ☕)

_______________________________

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[tobiasdrake]

Still thinking about Brave New World. I should note that the film had five writers and extensive reshoots after test screenings. It even changed titles at one point during the re-re-rewriting process, originally being Captain America: New World Order. So that explains why there is some jankiness where things it sets up suddenly go nowhere or certain things seem... oddly handled.

Ross is the biggest victim of this, sometimes feeling like he's flipping back and forth between different creative intents for his character from scene to scene.

That being said, I've seen some criticism that the film repeats TFATWS's problem of having Sam take a position of obnoxious centrism, and I don't think that's true. I think Sam takes a very clear and unambiguous position.

It's just that it's not necessarily about what the fandom might be more interested in talking about. Here we go with spoilers.

Sam doesn't engage much with the adamantium treaty in the film. He does briefly engage with it. He takes the position that going to war with Japan over resources would be bad and Ross should not do that.

But Ross is positioned as being in the right about the treaty from the start. He wants to enact a global agreement between nations to share adamantium with the world rather than any one country hoarding it to themselves. It's a startlingly progressive position both for Ross and for the United States, and makes up the bulk of the film's attempts to make us sympathize with what is otherwise a complete fucking monster of a human being.

Sam, for his part, only really engages with the treaty insofar as trying to hold Ross to what few principles the man has and keep him from being provoked into ruining it.

But Sam Wilson's deal in this movie isn't about international treaties for natural resource allocation.

Sam's deal is about a criminal justice system that is disinterested in justice. It weirdly dances around the topic of race; Isaiah Bradley and also four white guys, it's not about race, there were four white guys too gets arrested for a crime he didn't commit and then the four white guys are immediately killed by the villain so we don't have to ever talk about them again. Uh. Okay.

No reason is ever given why they didn't kill Isaiah too. It's like those guys were literally just there to downplay the optics of a black man being arrested and scapegoated for a crime he didn't commit. Arrested, I should note, by a white authority figure who then tells Sam he's not good enough to wear Steve Rogers's mantle and calls him "son".

You can feel one creative intent trying to talk about a thing and another creative intent going "Oh no but this isn't actually THAT. We don't need to talk about THAT, right?" But we kinda do because that is what the movie's about, for Sam.

That is the unambiguous position that Sam takes. From the moment a bunch of cops surround Isaiah with guns drawn and it's really tense because we know just how bad this can go, that is the political space that Sam occupies.

This man has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and even when the truth comes to light, the government is going to let him be put to death for it because it's more politically convenient than the truth. That is what the film wants to talk about. You can even see the throughline between what is being done to Bradley and what was done to Sterns.

Sam tries one time to talk to Ross and say, "Hey man, let's actually investigate this thing properly and find the truth." And when Ross responds by throwing a racist tantrum and telling him to go fuck himself, Sam responds in kind and breaks into government facilities to find out what they're going to kill Isaiah to keep hidden.

Sam takes a very clear position. Isaiah is innocent and Sam's getting him out of there whether the government likes it or not. He is determined to expose the truth and hold power accountable.

It's just that it gets lost in the five-scripts-frenzy of Ross's many conflicting interpretations. Ross's racist tirade? Never comes up again. In fact, at one point, one of the writers has Sam stand there and sympathize with him, saying in a moment of pathos that he knows what it's like to be prejudged by people.

Which is a wild position to write into your script. Like. Yeah, being a black man in America, that's the same as people hating you for the many awful crimes you've committed in your rise to political power. Weird thing to have a character say in an awkward bid for sympathy towards Ross's misguided redemption arc.

But Isaiah's innocence? That the government is about to do something abominable to him, and Sam needs to get him out of there no matter what it takes? The film never wavers on that point.

The movie is basically Captain America: Civil War if the fandom got what they wanted and the Accords were presented front and center above the Bucky story.

[joys-of-everyday]

SJ and the Pitfalls of Toxic Masculinity

Liking women wasn’t shameful in the least, but treating a woman as your savior, shrinking into her embrace in search of self-confidence—Shen Qingqiu needed no one to tell him how incredibly shameful that was. So he would rather die than tell anyone, particularly not Yue Qingyuan.

- Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu Extra

Hot take: og!SQQ had toxic ideas about masculinity, and it ruined him.

SVSSS is all about the ✨Toxic Masculinity✨ but this seems to be more associated with SY than SJ??? So yeah, lets talk about SJ (my poor meow meow).

There’s actually some subtlety here, because talking about SJ and masculinity naturally involves an interplay between historical and modern views on masculinity in China, which is something that has developed over time and has influences from other cultures (e.g. the west and our views on masculinity). (Interesting thing if you haven't already come across it) I am… not qualified to read the subtleties here.

To note, SJ is coded as masculine… sort of. He’s the head of the scholarly peak, a master of the Four Arts, which is one facet of ideal masculinity in traditional Chinese values. (Fluttering a fan around was very gentleman-like. Although also, expressing your emotions through poetry and copious amounts of tears was very masculine back in the day. 'Traditional masculinity' has and always will be an elusive ideal.) But I get the feeling nowadays ‘scholarly’ has more feminine connotations than ‘martial’, albeit a slightly weaker one than in the west. Also, on the topic of toxic masculinity, certain groups of people Who Shall Not Be Named would like you to believe that Real Chinese Men are stoic warriors and ‘gayness is a western thing’ (my rage is unreal but we will not talk about that).

Anyway, broad strokes, broad strokes.

Arrogance and Insecurity

A big part of toxic masculinity is a need for social recognition, to be the ‘alpha male’ (not an ABO pun and on a side note I literally cannot take anyone talking about alpha males seriously now, for many reasons, but this is the funniest).

SJ is obsessed with his cultivation, but more pertinently, he is obsessed with his reputation. He demonstrates this in a few ways. Firstly, he works his ass off, which is not bad in itself, but he does this to the extent it is detrimental to his health (that grindset lol). Secondly, he projects a certain image with his actions and mannerisms: reading in order to seem intelligent, looking down at people to seem superior etc. Thirdly, he responds to any perceived slights of his ability with violence. (Fighting with LQG is an example, but also drawing a sword on SQH when he pointed out that he was reading an upside-down book.)

Now interestingly, the unanimous vibe that Cang Qiong seem to get from SQQ is that he is ‘arrogant’. When in truth, all of this is compensating for his insecurity.

Shen Qingqiu was overly suspicious, always feeling as if everyone was talking behind his back about how he was still incapable of forming a core, didn’t accept his position, wanted to sabotage him in secret, and so on and so forth.

- Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu Extra

Sadly, SJ is justified in being afraid of other people’s opinion. His comfort and security rely entirely on his status, which in turn rely on other people’s opinion of his competence. Of course he wants to get to the top – he’s been under other people’s power before, and suffered terribly as a result. Why should he not desperately defend what he has worked so hard for? Yet ultimately it works against him, because when he’s in serious trouble, he hasn’t been able to build the human connections he needs to get help.

The problem is with the system. The idea that having strength allows you to do whatever you want hurts not only the people regarded as inferior, but also creates a collective sense of anxiety for those who find themselves ‘at the top’. Anyone can be kicked down and treated like scum. Everyone is afraid.

Dominance and Bullying

The phrase ‘toxic masculinity is fragile’ quite often, but to elaborate, these kinds of rigid ideas of masculinity are by nature constantly under threat. Because any crack in the perfect shell is regarded as failure, it requires constant, aggressive maintenance, which takes the form of bullying the weak in order to elevate oneself.

SJ’s treatment of LBH is complicated, but here I want to draw attention to a different character – Ming Fan.

SQQ (SY) would have you know that MF is not a bad kid, other than the fact he’s a huge bully to LBH. And in part that comes from jealousy of NYY’s crush on him, but what allows it to happen is the way SJ runs the peak. It's interesting to note that so much of SJ's bullying of LBH happens through MF, whether it be giving him the faulty cultivation manual, giving him chores or physically assaulting him. In doing this, SJ creates a system that firmly establishes himself at the top, likely in order to give himself some semblance of security.

But ironically, this is the very system that SJ has suffered under his entire life, recreated to it's extreme on the peak that he controls. When he was completely under the power of others (QJL, LBH) he suffered. When other people were under his power, he inflicted suffering. He encouraged other people to do the same. Again, the whole thing is a scam! He is putting all of his energy into things that aren't helping him, things that ultimately bring him down.

Real Men Don’t Cry – the Dangers of Emotional Repression

SJ has many, very justifiable reasons in life to be upset and angry. The things he went through are both terrible and extremely unfair. Being angry at everything is not a healthy outlet for these feelings, but he hasn’t exactly been taught an alternative either. On the streets, tears would have gotten him absolutely nothing. Anger at least gave him energy to fight back.

And this destroys him. He is angry at the fact he had no one in his life who loved him, his talents were wasted because of QJL/WYZ, nobody takes his abilities seriously… and with no healthy way of expressing this, he goes onto bully LBH. LBH then returns to destroy him, literally. More subtly, he is unable to express his fear and anxiety in healthy ways, so acts standoff-ish and aggressive to his those around him. As his relationship with them deteriorates, his fear and anxiety increases. Feedback loops.

SJ puts on a mask of anger and stoicism to the point that everyone around him (including himself) is convinced that he is unrepentant and evil. Suppresses and suppresses until it breaks him, until he has nothing – not his comfort, nor status, nor the one that he truly cared for:

He had single-handedly facilitated Luo Binghe’s today, and now who had single-handedly created this outcome for him? Yue Qingyuan was never supposed to have an end like this. In order to come to a decades-late appointment, to fulfill a completely useless promise. A broken sword and a dead man. It shouldn’t be like this.

A Note on Ambivalent Sexism

It’s funny because I think there’s a fandom vibe that SJ was the secret feminist of SVSSS. Don’t get me wrong, I love this in fanfics. Badass feminist SJ all the way. But my honest opinion is that I don’t think that was the case.

More explicitly, I don’t think SJ took women seriously. NYY, for example. Certainly, SJ valued NYY. But the expression of this care involved doting on her, hiding his treatment of LBH from her, and not particularly pushing her to grow. And PIDW!NYY wasn’t implied to be the most mature of the lot. Okay, while we don’t know a lot about PIDW!NYY (narrator unreliable), it’s probably safe to say some distance from SJ helped her a lot.

Another point – the Qiu massacre. SJ killed the men, but not the women. And while this says more about his distaste for men, it also indicates (possibly - I will float this idea but I won't die on this hill) that he straight up doesn’t see any woman as an enemy, or capable of being a threat. Which is possibly a natural conclusion he’s drawn from his experiences (QHT was not very perceptive, or very threatening) but also inaccurate as a worldview.

And his attitude towards the women he sees as saviours? Has the same vibe as ‘it’s so embarrassing to be protected by a girl’.

Okay, so being doted on and not being killed are positives compared to being abused or murdered, but this kind of attitude is the opposite side of the same coin to ‘women are incompetent and inferior’. And when it comes to raising kids, not allowing them to grow can be extremely harmful as well. See e.g. Ambivalent sexism.

Although I do want to mention that I do not think SJ was like… actively misogynistic. I think he genuinely liked women more than men. The point is you can be sexist without realising it.

Conclusions

To conclude, SJ had ideas of success and self-worth associated with toxic masculinity which were instrumental in his downfall.

Masculinity doesn’t have to be toxic. While the Cang Qiong family aren’t exactly the healthiest bunch, YQY’s calm and patient leadership, LQG’s steadfast loyalty, LBH’s ability to cry like a maiden and still be the strongest… these are all traditionally masculine traits that can be very positive. These are also people who can have feminine traits and explore their gender identity without being prissy or weak.

It's the great tragedy of SJ that he had many positive characteristics. He was talented, intelligent, articulate, perceptive, loyal, and caring… under the right circumstances, he could have grown into a great person.

And maybe he still had that chance, right until the end.

[on-my-vigilante-sht]

Capitol Punishment XII

Haymitch x Reader

Summary: The Capitol continues to torture it’s victors no matter how long ago they won through punishment, exploitation, and worst of all; their relationships.

A story in which Haymitch’s lover is a plaything for the Capitol.

Warnings: Canon level violence, rape, alcohol, murder, systemic poverty, exploitation, rebellion (?), more reliance on movie than book, suicidal thoughts, swearing, illness, pregnancy, miscarriage, torture, sexual torture, medical stuff

Word Count: 3.4K

Part XI | Masterlist | Part XIII

It had been six weeks since they escaped the arena, five since Haymitch had seen that godforsaken video of you and that man. According to Beetee more have come in but he destroyed them immediately. Haymitch wasn’t sure how many had come in but he suspected Snow was making a lot of money from you.

But despite his constant worry for you he continued to do is duties in 13. Mostly because he didn’t want to be sent back to rehab. So he sat in on meetings to help with battle and propaganda plans. But when he was called into a secret meeting with only Coin, Plutarch, Boggs, Gale, and a few other special forces he was elated.

“We’re here to discuss the rescue of the victors,” Coin began. Haymitch was the most excited he had been since he arrived in this cultish hell hole. Not every soldier held the same feelings though.

“Why?” one asked, silencing the others. “Are you actually suggesting we put soldiers’ lives on the line so some people can get their girlfriend or boyfriend back?” he scoffed. As much as Haymitch wanted to punch the guy, he had a point.

“It’s more than that. The Mockingjay has demanded Peeta’s and the other victors’ rescue and the Mockingjay is necessary for this rebellion,” Coin explained. “However, this is a volunteer only mission. I won’t forcefully send any of you into the heart of the Capitol.”

“I’ll do it,” Gale immediately volunteered.

“So will I,” Haymitch spoke.

“That’s very generous, Haymitch,” Plutarch began, “but according to our medical files you’re not fit for combat.”

“And I won’t send civilians in on a special forces mission,” Coin added.

“But this is volunteer based,” Haymitch pressed, “and I don’t see any other volunteers.”

“I’ll go,” Boggs volunteered. Four more soldiers followed suit.

“Thank you for your sacrifice and bravery,” Coin said, not unlike a robot.

“We ship out first thing in the morning, the plan will be relayed to those going tonight. Not a word of this to anyone else, especially Katniss, got it?” Boggs ordered. Everyone in the room uttered agreements as they filed out.

As Haymitch began to shuffle out, Gale caught up with him. “Thanks for volunteering,” he said. “Katniss was telling me how you struggle being sober.” Haymitch took slight offense to that comment but didn’t let it show. Everyone treated him as some sickly old man, hell he was only 41. Granted he had drank most of his liver away and going cold turkey had been hard on his body at first but he was getting better.

Haymitch took a deep sigh. Being sober had somehow lowered his inhibitions and he found himself being more honest more often with people even if he didn’t really want to. Besides, Katniss hated him for letting Peeta be taken, Finnick was a mess, and he wasn’t remotely close with anyone else in 12, Gale was the closest thing he had to a friend aside from Effie who was stewing in her dorm, angry she couldn’t wear Capitol luxuries anymore. “I just— after seeing her in the interviews and what the Capitol’s doing to her— I just wanted to be the one to save her. I wasn’t able to save her from Snow for the past 8 years but I wanted to pull her from his clutches for the final time.”

Gale nodded, sighing deeply. “I’ll get her out. I’ll tell her you volunteered for the mission and that you’re waiting here for her, right at the hangar doors.”

“Thanks,” Haymitch smiled. “Can I ask, how come you’re going? Thought you were in love with Katniss and hated Peeta’s guts.”

Gale’s sigh turned exasperated. “She’s not happy. Not with Peeta in the Capitol. I just wanna make her happy.”

“Well good luck.”

~

Haymitch stood in the control room anxiously along with Katniss, Finnick, Beetee, and Plutarch. District 5 had just brought down the dam, cutting power in the Capitol, shutting down their defenses. Allowing Beetee to go in and wreak all kinds of havoc to keep them unaware of the airship about to enter the Capitol’s airspace. As they approached, Cressida entered the room. “Finnick? Haymitch? Can you come with me?”

“What for?” Haymitch immediately asked, not wanting to miss your rescue.

“I asked her to film some propo,” Beetee filled in, “keep their broadcasts clogged.”

Haymitch hesitated but Finnick seized the opportunity to help. “Okay,” he agreed, stepping out with Cressida. Wanting to not feel useless anymore, Haymitch followed the pair outside. Haymitch reveled in being above ground for the first time in six weeks. It was nice to breathe fresh air despite being surrounded by rubble and sinister white roses. Cressida directed them to the center of the rubble, lights pointed at them. “Okay, just take your time and don’t stop talking,” she instructed.

She held up her fingers, counting down from three before pointing one at the two victors, directing them to begin. Haymitch was admittedly not super comfortable in front of a camera so he let Finnick take the lead. “This is Finnick Odair, winner of the 65th Hunger Games.” He then paused.

“And I’m Haymitch Abernathy, winner of the 50th Hunger Games.”

“And we’re coming to you from District 13, alive and well. We’ve survived an assault from the Capitol but we’re not here to give you recent news. We’re here to tell the truth. Not the myths about winning the life of luxury or about gaining glory for your homeland.”

“The moment you leave that arena, you’re a slave,” Haymitch explained. “I won my games in a way I wasn’t supposed to and Snow slaughtered my family for it. But some punishments, whether earned or not, can last for years. It’s what happened to Finnick here, and my wife, Y/N L/N-Abernathy.”

“President Snow used to sell me and Y/N, or our bodies at least. We weren’t the only ones. If a Victor is considered desirable, the President gives them as a reward or allows people to buy them. If you refuse, he kills someone you love.”

“For seven years Y/N was ripped out of our bed in the middle of the night. Whether we were in the Capitol or in 12 they always came looking for her, never gave her a second to herself. And when she did return, I’d always find her battered and bruised. Usually in the same clothing she left in torn up into rags.”

“Now, to make themselves feel better, my patrons would make presents of money or jewelry. But I found a much more valuable form of payment. Secrets. See, I know all the depravity, the deceit and the cruelty of the Capitol's pampered elite. But the biggest secrets are about our good President, Coriolanus Snow. Such a young man when he rose to power. Such a clever one to keep it. How, you may ask, did he do it? One word. Poison. He stopped every mutiny before it even started. There are so many mysterious deaths to adversaries. Even to allies who were threats. Snow would drink from the same cup, to deflect suspicion. But antidotes don't always work, which is why he wears roses that reek of perfume. Help cover the scent of blood from sores in his mouth that will never heal. But he can't hide the scent of who he really is. He kills without mercy. He rules with deception and fear. His weapon of choice is the only thing suited to such a man. Poison. The perfect weapon for a snake.” Just as Finnick was about to continued Cressida stopped him.

“Wait,” she held a hand to her ear piece. “Beetee said they lost connection. The Capitol’s defenses are rebooting.”

Haymitch’s heart dropped. No, they had to get you out. They couldn’t be detected yet, he had to uphold his promise to protect you.

Probably thinking similar, if not the same, thing, he and Finnick both ran inside. They raced down into the control room just in time to hear Snow’s final words over the video. “Don’t you think I know your friends are in the Tributes Centre?” and with that all the screens in the room went dark.

There were various yells. Both from people trying to get in contact with the team and Katniss losing her mind. “We have to get them out, he knows,” she cried, turning to her mentor.

“There’s no signal, we can’t contact them,” Plutarch explained bluntly.

“No. Haymitch, he knew the whole time. He was taunting me.” Haymitch wrapped his arms around her in a fatherly embrace. “Did I lose them both tonight?” she cried into his chest, repeating the words over and over.

As much as Haymitch felt for the girl, he was grieving too. Grieving the loss of his wife as well as the broken promise he had made so long ago.

~

You had just been curled in a fetal position on your bed when Peeta’s broken voice called out. “Guys,” he caught everyone’s attention. You rolled over, spotting gas creeping along the floor. It was slowly crawling up the walls, climbing into the vents that led to each cell. You began to worry that it was a Capitol gas designed to torture you , similar to the fog Haymitch had talked about in the arena. But curiosity got the better of you as you pulled the thin blanket around your body tighter. Your hospital clothes had been destroyed so many times they had stopped bothering to give them to you. But you stepped off the bed, heading for the glass barrier where gas was just beginning to accumulate on your side. But just before you could reach it the chain around your ankle held, tripping you a little. Still defiant after weeks of torture you opted to get on your knees to stretch to try to reach the fog. But what you hadn’t noticed, as you carefully lowered yourself, was that the gas had really begun to fill the room. As you settled on the ground you caught a whiff of the gas, immediately making you lightheaded. Your limbs became heavy as it quickly lulled you to sleep, your last thoughts being of what the Capitol’s torture would be that required you to be asleep.

~

When you finally managed to pry your eyes open the first time you were blinded and hazy. You faintly heard someone yell, “Can we get her some clothes?”

You managed to turn your head to the side, realizing you were moving. Judging by the whiteness all around you, you were still in the hospital-torture place. But you soon lost consciousness again, not finding it until you were on the aircraft.

When you managed to open your eyes for good you were staring up at a black, dome like ceiling. Looking around just a little you could see the heads and shoulders of soldiers, judging by the all black gear. One face you spotted was Gale’s. His gaze, however, looked miles away as he stared at his feet.

You could hear the thrum of the aircraft, only ever hearing that when the Capitol transported you to the worst times of your life.

Adjusting yourself more you could now see your fellow prisoners also lying on the floor of the aircraft although you seemed to be the only conscious one. By now the soldier who’s feet you had been laying at noticed your movement. “Hey, my name is Commander Boggs, we rescued you from the Capitol. We’re taking you to District 13.”

District 13? The military man had told you that’s where the rebellion was operating out of. He said that’s where Haymitch was. You could cry you were so relieved. For the first time in your life you may know peace. Even if it’s just for a second before you have to finish this war.

Recognizing what you no doubt wanted to ask, the man spoke. “Yes, Haymitch is there. He’s waiting for you in 13.” Tears of joy slipped from your eyes for the first time in god knows how long. As you tried to sit up, Boggs gently pushed you back onto the collapsed gurney you were laying on again. “I need you to lie still. We suspect you have some internal injuries that need to be assessed before you really start moving.” You agreed, settling further on the hard cushion. You suspected that you had injuries that the Capitol wouldn’t bother to heal because they couldn’t see them. Largely from the harsh treatment of the men that had bought access to your body through Snow. Many of them had pulled out of you with blood coating them but it was always dismissed and you were left there, something clearly wrong but you were powerless to do anything.

“How long?” you managed to ask, your voice hoarse.

“About 15 minutes out. We’re gonna have to roll you in on the gurney though.” You didn’t really like the idea of being treated like you were mortally wounded but you nodded nonetheless.

Around you the others were starting to stir. The soldiers sitting above them murmuring comforts and explanations. No one really made a move until Johanna started screaming. She sat up, two soldiers immediately jumping on her to push her back to the ground. “Do you want us to sedate you again?!” One of the soldiers yelled. That finally got her to stop fighting. Once they released her she huffed, scooting over to another wall to lean against, sending everyone glares.

The next person to be fully conscious was Annie. You turned your head to find her already looking at you. “Annie,” you cried. You hadn’t caught more than a glimpse of her in weeks but you were all too familiar with her screams.

“Y/N!” she cried. She scrambled up from her spot on the floor, one of the soldiers moving to stop her but a signal from Boggs made them stop. She kneeled over you, pulling you into a hug. Despite the awkward positioning you began to cry at the first compassionate human contact you had had in weeks.

“You’re okay,” you said, observing her relatively untouched appearance. Her long red hair still flowed down her shoulders unlike Johanna’s shaved head. Her skin looked unmarred unlike you and the two other victors’ skin. The one thing that matched the three of you was how malnourished and tired she looked. You guessed that since she knew absolutely nothing about the rebellion and her fragile mental state protected her from Peeta and Johanna’s punishments.

“Annie,” Boggs caught her attention, “Finnick is waiting for you in 13.”

Tears filled her eyes. “He’s- he’s alive? Finnick’s alive?” she cried joyfully.

“Yes, he is,” Boggs smiled.

Your conversation was then interrupted by a man also dressed in all black gear walking into the cabin. “We’re landing pretty soon and are beginning to descend. Everyone should buckle in.”

With some gentle coaxing Annie went to sit on a proper seat beside the soldier whose feet she had been laid by previously. Johanna refused to move so they just let her hold onto something in her corner. Peeta was fine because he had stayed strapped to his gurney unlike Annie or Johanna because they didn’t require them. Meanwhile Boggs was reaching over you to strap you in. You gave him a startled, questioning look as he reached down. “It’s just to make sure you don’t slip out,” he explained. “Trust me you can get out of it anytime. See?” He unclipped the belt easily before fastening it again.

Relaxing a little you looked up at the ceiling, taking a deep breath as you felt the aircraft descend. When you felt the landing gear hit the ground you had a weird sense of feeling at home. You knew Haymitch was near.

~

Haymitch sat waiting with Katniss and Finnick for when you and the others would be back. The three victors sat in tense silence until the door slid open. Gale’s head peaked in. He didn’t need to speak, his presence said enough. The other victors were back.

Immediately he, Finnick, and Katniss were scrambling into the medical wing. There they found a scene of doctors and nurses running around trying to figure out how to help victims of torture. The first person Haymitch saw was Johanna. She looked so different, the only recognizable thing about her was her sneer as she fought the doctors.

“Finnick!” Annie’s desperate voice pierced the air.

The doctors then parted for a second, revealing you lying on a hospital bed, neck straining to find your husband. “Y/N,” Haymitch tried to call but it came out as more of a sob. The fact that you were confined to your bed wasn’t promising considering Annie had ripped an IV from her arm, leaping into Finnick’s.

As he got closer (he was in such a hypnotic-like state he was pretty sure he knocked a nurse over) he took in your appearance more. It actually broke him to see his wife look so frail, the Capitol clearly having starved you and men having abused you.

Once he reached your bedside he leaned over the rail, pulling you into a hug as best as he could. He could feel your nails dig into his back, trying to claw him closer as each of you began to cry into the crook of each others’ necks. “I love you,” he heard you whimper out.

“I love you too,” he cried. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never should’ve left your side.”

“No no. It’s not your fault.” Before you could say anything else a doctor interrupted you.

“Mr. Abernathy? We need to take her into surgery.” At the mention of surgery Haymitch reluctantly pulled away. He turned, finding a few medical staff standing behind the doctor ready to take you.

“Wh- why?” he stuttered out as the staff were already beginning to roll you away.

“No,” you cried, “don’t take me from him!” He faintly heard one of them trying to calm you down.

“We’re sorry but testing done in the field shows she has severe injuries to her reproductive organs. Most likely due to…” he hesitated with the next words, “repetitive rape. We’re going in to stop internal bleeding but we’re unsure of other things we’ll find. We’ll update you as soon as we can.” And with that the doctor rushed off.

Haymitch stood there helpless, unsure of what to do. He knew that you were safe and under the care of actual doctors who wanted to heal you but people died in surgery all the time, especially outside of the Capitol. He felt like you had been ripped from him all over again.

He looked around again, realizing he had yet to see one person. Peeta. He got his answer as to where the boy was when he heard a loud crash in another room. Rushing over he found Peeta with his hands wrapped around Katniss’ throat. Without thinking he ran at the boy, trying to pry him off the girl who he had once been madly in love with.

“Peeta let go!” Haymitch heard himself yell. He managed to get him off Katniss for a second before the boy managed to knock his former mentor off. Haymitch went stumbling backwards into some shelves as Peeta brought Katniss to the ground again. By now Gale and Boggs had entered the room, finding the same scene Haymitch had.

Gale immediately began trying to pry Peeta off of Katniss but even he was no match for the very determined Peeta despite his malnourishment. It took Boggs knocking Peeta in the head with an iron tray to get the boy off of Katniss.

Everyone took a second to breathe a breath of relief before they started aiding the two unconscious victors from 12.

Part XI | Masterlist | Part XIII

[saphronethaleph]

Horses For Days (And Weeks, And Months)

“We’ll want to get the whole army across the Narrow Sea, before the onset of winter,” Varys noted. “My Queen, that is our primary concern, or should be – landing your army in Westeros.”

“One hundred thousand Dothraki riders will certainly be enough to destroy any army Westeros can muster,” Tyrion said. “With the Unsullied as a base, they would be unstoppable… however.”

“However?” Daenerys inquired.

“We have to face that we may not be able to get the whole army across the Narrow Sea,” Tyrion replied. “The problem is ships.”

He chuckled, self-effacingly. “Of course, I realize that this means I’m about to bore everyone with numbers, and I do apologize… however, it has to be done.”

“All right,” Daenerys said, hiding a smile. “How bad is it, then?”

“Well,” Tyrion began. “We can start with the fact that it’s around four thousand miles by sea from Mereen to the closest point of Westeros – that’s in Dorne, as it happens. That’s a journey of around… hmm, so at an average speed of five knots and a direct journey, it would be a month, but that would be a touchy thing to do. I believe the standard time is more like two months, but expect delays.”

“That’s enough time, though,” Daenerys said. “Isn’t it?”

“Well, that’s why I say the problem is ships,” Tyrion noted. “To take the whole army of one hundred thousand Dothraki riders, it would take… well, every man has six horses and we also need to take their sheep since that’s part of how the whole logistics system works, and I will warn you now that landing the army in Dorne would be a potential disaster – sheep need grass, as do horses. Landing somewhere such as the Reach or in the Stormlands would do better. But that’s only a comparatively minor increment to the amount of time involved… because, put simply, we need more ships.”

“How many would we need?” Daenerys asked.

Varys, who had more of a head for numbers, winced.

“A dedicated horse transport takes thirty horses,” Tyrion replied. “We can’t do much more, not and also take the tons of food that those horses will require… and, as I have said, every man has six horses. Even before counting either the men or the sheep, the horses alone will require twenty thousand ships.”

Daenerys blinked.

“...twenty thousand,” she repeated. “That’s… I…”

Her gaze turned to the harbour.

“I don’t think we have enough ships,” she admitted.

“I don’t think we have enough wood to make them,” Tyrion said. “Or shipwrights. Or sailors… my numbers here are very rough, but I would say that a one-hundred-ton ship such as that kind of horse transport would require about ten sailors, and of course it also requires the cutting of around one hundred tons of wood… were we to clearcut completely, that would require us to take around a hundred thousand acres of forest. I do not think there is a forest that big around Meereen.”

“Or anywhere on Dragon’s Bay, except the Isle of Cedars,” Daenerys said. “And we don’t want to risk clearcutting the Isle of Cedars. Ten sailors would be… two hundred thousand? Meereen doesn’t have that large a population.”

“I assume we can’t make multiple trips,” Varys sighed.

“Not really, no,” Tyrion replied. “That’s the time problem – if it takes two months for ships to get there, it takes six months to get there, get back for the second load, and return, if nothing goes wrong. And remember, I’m already assuming that nothing goes wrong!”

He tapped his chin. “I do have an idea, though… perhaps it would be better if your armada transported some of the Unsullied and as many Dothraki riders as it can manage, to operate in central Westeros, while the rest of your army moves by land back across the Dothraki Sea and takes all of those Free Cities which are in truth slave cities?”

“You think that would work?” Daenerys asked.

“It’s certainly a good place to find fleets,” Tyrion answered. “And with the resources of the Free Cities under your control, it might be possible to transport more of the Dothraki across the Narrow Sea… though it will probably mean waiting until next spring.”

Varys was muttering under his breath.

“Perhaps,” Daenerys said, eventually. “You’re sure there isn’t a way to move the whole army?”

“I don’t think your dragons are quite that strong,” Tyrion replied.

Daenerys blinked.

“...pardon?” she asked.

“Oh, just thinking about the idea of towing the continents closer together,” Tyrion said. “If you got them close enough together then, well, the whole force could just ride across the gap. But there’s not many other options.”

“I suppose all the Dothraki is a lot of Dothraki,” Daenerys conceded. “As it turns out.”

“Actually, about that,” Tyrion added. “I assume you’re going to move most of them back into the Sea of Grass at some point? Because if you don’t, within a week or two they’ll eat out all the grass in the area and their horses and sheep will starve…”