#what IS their job? is it basically negotiating contracts to others?

[emmavakarian-theirin]

soooooo i accidentally got lucanis killed trying to trigger new dialogue but i guess you could say i got a bunch of new dialogue anyway :')

[the epilogue slide]

[racefortheironthrone]

Hi- er, this is my first-ever writer's strike, how does one not cross a picket line in this context? I know how not to do it with things like Amazon and IRL strikes, but how does it apply to media/streaming?

Hi, this is a great question, because it allows me to write about the difference between honoring a picket line and a boycott. (This is reminding me of the labor history podcast project that's lain fallow in my drafts folder for some time now...) In its simplest formulation, the difference between a picket line and a boycott is that a picket line targets an employer at the point of production (which involves us as workers), whereas a boycott targets an employer at the point of consumption (which involves us as consumers).

So in the case of the WGA strike, this means that at any company that is being struck by the WGA - I've seen Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Brothers Discovery, NBC, Paramount, and Sony mentioned, but there may be more (check the WGA website and social media for a comprehensive list) - you do not cross a picket line, whether physical or virtual. This means you do not take a meeting with them, even if its a pre-existing project, you do not take phone calls or texts or emails or Slacks from their executives, you do not pitch them on a spec script you've written, and most of all you do not answer any job application.

Because if this strike is like any strike since the dawn of time, you will see the employers put out ads for short-term contracts that will be very lucrative, generally above union scale - because what they're paying for in addition to your labor is you breaking the picket line and damaging the strike - to anyone willing to scab against their fellow workers. GIven that one of the main issues of the WGA are the proliferation of short-term "mini rooms" whereby employers are hiring teams of writers to work overtime for a very short period, to the point where they can only really do the basics (a series outline, some "broken stories," and some scripts) and then have the showrunner redo everything on their lonesome, while not paying writers long-term pay and benefits, I would imagine we're going to see a lot of scab contracts being offered for these mini rooms.

But for most of us, unless we're actively working as writers in Hollywood, most of that isn't going to be particularly relevant to our day-to-day working lives. If you're not a professional or aspiring Hollywood writer, the important thing to remember honoring the picket line doesn't mean the same thing as a boycott. WGA West hasn't called on anyone to stop going to the movies or watching tv/streaming or to cancel their streaming subscriptions or anything like that. If and when that happens, WGA will go to some lengths to publicize that ask - and you should absolutely honor it if you can - so there will be little in the way of ambiguity as to what's going on.

That being said, one of the things that has happened in the past in other strikes is that well-intentioned people get it into their heads to essentially declare wildcat (i.e, unofficial and unsanctioned) boycotts. This kind of stuff comes from a good place, someone wanting to do more to support the cause and wanting to avoid morally contaminating themselves by associating with a struck company, but it can have negative effects on the workers and their unions. Wildcat boycotts can harm workers by reducing back-end pay and benefits they get from shows if that stuff is tied to the show's performance, and wildcat boycotts can hurt unions by damaging negotiations with employers that may or may not be going on.

The important thing to remember with all of this is that the strike is about them, not us. Part of being a good ally is remembering to let the workers' voices be heard first and prioritizing being a good listener and following their lead, rather than prioritizing our feelings.

[brokenpieces-72]

Hi, I was thinking how cool it would be for the team to have a 3-4 foot nothing mouse as an infiltrator and informant. who can sneak in by squishing themselves flat like real mice through the smallest cracks, steal information and not get caught. Thanks, and I love your work ^^.

Omg I adore this idea it is adorable! Yes! I'm just imagining the reader, squishing themselves against the ground but their legs are just kicking up the dirt behind them as they wedge themselves under a door that should not even fit their skull, lol. Also, this takes place before Spirit's time or a different time all together. I couldn't think of a way to include her in it.

Click

TW: past trauma, mentions of prison, mentions of ruining people's lives, shitty bosses, criminal history, let me know if any changes are needed.

"Is this contract negotiable?" You asked, sitting across from Laswell. She'd slid the contract over to you for a job, promising you the basic amenities and a hefty cash reward for your participation in an infiltration mission. You would be a key player in an infiltration mission to collect data from a cartel, something you were very good at. The information was pretty basic stuff like bio-chemical research files, shipping manifests, buyer lists, etc.

"What are you asking for?" Kate asked.

"Reduced sentence." You said, sliding the contract back to her. Kate took it back, glancing at you. "I've served 10 years already, for following orders. I want to walk around freely after this."

Laswell didn't show it but she was surprised by your statement. You'd plead guilty during your trial, and chose your words carefully when you spoke. If you wanted your freedom she could arrange it. You would be tracked for a while, but you knew that already. In a place like this, your size was weakness, something plenty of other inmates could take advantage of.

"I'll see to it personally." Kate told you, gathering her things. You gave her a curt nod.

You didn't need basic training, but the overgrown lizard with the missing wing wanted to give you an assessment. You didn't argue, you could give him attitude once you'd warmed up to the others. Your contract required compliance on your end. While you didn't have to like it, you weren't about to start drama. Just get your work done, complete the contract, and get your tracking bracelet. Thankfully you passed the assessment with little issues. You returned to Price for your orders and then you see Alejandro. Fuck.

You have to dig your nails into your palms when you see the spots on his arms. You know those spots, and try to avoid them. And of course the colonel noticed your discomfort with his presence. Didn't comment on it though. Price dismissed you to shower, and settle in. A laptop had been put in your room for you to look over what information they had so far for the mission. You knew what you were going to do with the laptop right away.

Holy shit, you forgot how much you missed warm water and privacy like this. It felt so good to get all of your dirt and sweat off, scratching at your scalp to get out all the grime and grease that had built up. You had to brush your hair out in the shower because of how knotted it was, but it was worth it. If anyone had an opinion on how long your shower was, they kept it to themselves. Coming back to your room in a warm hoodie and wet hair was marvellous feeling. You felt much more refreshed. When you saw the laptop, you put your date with your bed on hold. The sooner the job was done, the sooner you could shower as much as you want.

The cartel location was pretty simple set up. There were blueprints of the building along with edits for renovations. Everything you'd requested for the mission was available, including any reciepts they could get a hold of for the renovations. Tech was higher end but not exactly the most secure, it would take time to make an attack plan for it. You'd want to get a drone out so you could see how many guards were on security at a time, especially if there is an event going on, because security would be tighter. There were some aerial photos that you could get closer looks at, eyeing the vehicles that weren't military make. Odds were mods had been added, like bullet-proof glass or compartments for weapons.

Everything you could find or didn't find was scratched into a notebook. The advantage with writing things down instead of typing, was how easy it was to keep it to yourself and destroy it if you needed to. You probably spent a better portion of the day working on your notes and plans. By the time you had most of your wrok done, your lip was a little numb from chewing at it. Your eyes watered from staring at the screen, realizing just how dark it had gotten in your room. What time was it? Evening at least. Shit, you hoped there was still some food for you at the messhall.

You left your room, yawning, wishing you had taken a nap before getting to work. After poking your head into the hall, you quietly slipped out of your room to find the mess hall. When you turned the first corner though you nearly had a heart attack. Kyle unintantionally scared the shit out of you. You had to cover your mouth so you didn't yell in surprise. Did you hear someone coming? Yes. But not someone with big wings.

"You good?" He askeed. You nodded needing a minute for your heart to settle.

"Yeah... sorry." You said. "Was looking for the mess hall."

"I'm on my way there, I can show you." Kyle told you, waiting for you to give him the okay to show you. You nodded and gestured for him to lead on.

"So what do we call you? The Cap'n gave us your name but I figured you had a nickname or something." Kyle said, walking with you. Great, he likely knew you had a record as well. Certainly didn't seem bothered by it though.

"Mouse. Or Click." You answered. "Super original I know."

Kyle told you about the other nicknames of the team. You couldn't help but notice he seemed fairly casual with you, while keeping to himself. As soon as you figured out what he was doing you cracked a small smile. Kyle noticed.

"Did I say something?" He asked. Oh shit, he saw that. Awkward.

"No no, just... old training kicking in." You admitted.

"How so?" Kyle asked. You were hoping "old training" wouldn't come with follow ups. You didn't want to make him uncomfortable, if you wanted any mission to go right you needed trust from both sides. Kyle was taking the first steps, and you wanted to catch up. If you kept it to yourself it could make him uneasy, or dig into your file deeper. If you told him it could make him more cautious.

"I learned speech patterns to go with my informant training." You explained.

"Figured." Kyle said. "So what have I given away?"

The question is phrased in a way that sounds lighthearted, but you get the feeling he's both testing you and wishing he'd been more careful about talking to you. The more open and forward you are the better it would be later on. "How much of a dressing down do you want?"

Kyle shrugged. May as well give him the fullset. "You told me everyone's name and nickname, while giving me one thing to focus on for each of them in terms of appearance. Instead of telling me what hybrid they are you described their more human aspects. You're attempting to make me feel comfortable with them by providing me with friendlier terms to refer to them. Instead of focusing on what makes them different you mention the things they have the most in common which is their humanity. In summary you're sizing me up - no pun intended - while wanting me to be more relaxed and comfortable with the rest of you."

"Yep." Kyle said simply. You gave him a double take. Was that a test?! Kyle just shook his head smirking. Not the usual response but you appreciated how he took it.

"Can I be informal about this meeting?" You asked Price.

"You have the floor use it as you see fit." Price said. Oh boy, this would be a trip.

"Okay, first and foremost, there is more than one target. You have a server room that I'm not even sure could be called that, and there's a main office holding both written files and a computer. Second, this place has gone through more renovations than I can count. There are plenty of ways in, but each one has something either blocking it or guarding it, which will take more than a smile to get in."

"More than lockpicking as well?" Rudy asked.

"Or breaking down the door, not saying brute force and ignorance isn't an option, but I don't recommend the latter." You added. Simon was looking over the map you had spread out.

"Where are the targets?" He requested. You marked them and they were some distance apart. The server room was in the general center, with the main office being further from the entrance. "You have a main one?"

"I was going to ask about that." You said. "How much data do you want?"

"All of it." Price answered simply. You thought so.

"Server would get you plenty of files but they'll likely be encrypted, office would get you their main computer which could also be locked pretty tight, and the option of hard copies, but that's if they have hard copies." You explained quickly. Getting everything would be an option it was more how much they wanted to break stuff.

"All of it." Price repeated.

"Okay," You sighed. "If you look at the papers there's maps and times for the guard's rotations, which aren't the most consistent, but are close enough, during events and meetings they put in the effort to cover up a bit more. Their vehicles are no exception, those illegal tints are probably hiding radios, and hidden compartments."

"The van is modded too?" Kyle asked, looking at the photos you'd gotten from the drone. Sketchy white van parked out front.

"Spoilers." You told him. "But yes... and no. The cartel gets businesses to come in and work on their stuff under the table, all of it is done in cash and off record, but it's not always the same person. Before Kyle said anything that would be the first way in but that would get civilians involved."

The team didn't want to get innocent people involved, even if they were doing sketchy business. The team examined the work you'd put together. There were plenty of scribbled notes, photos, and maps to go over but Price could see through all your work.

"Do you have any other suggestions?" He asked you.

"Sadly, no. I wasn't exactly the planner when it came to these things. One thing I can tell you that is close to a suggestion, is that the place's security system is like a smart home. System sends a signal anytime someone interacts with it. If someone is taken off or put on the system, ping. Door unlocked or locked, ping. Car leaves the premises, ping."

"Windows?" Soap asked.

"It's a way in, but a way to be seen as well. I get most of your guys are bulletproof to a degree, but I'm not." You explained. They could cover you, that wasn't a massive issue.

"Could we take out the guards, replace them?" Alejandro asked.

"Theoretically yes, it would require them to leave the premises and a car jacking." You explained. Less violence required, and you were starting to map some more things out in your head.

"That will work, but then how do we reach the targets?" Price asked. Ghsot and Rodolfo could get through easily enough and unlock the doors from the other side. Price and Gaz would be able to hide among the guards as easily with their wings, so they could provide recon and a distraction while the rest broke in. Meanwhile you would get into the computer and servers directly, retrieving the target. There was one problem though. How would you get in? Your ears could be stuffed into a ski mask with some discomfort and your tail could go around your midsection under your clothes, but...

"One problem... I'm a little short for stormtrooper." You mentioned. You didn't like it, but they found a way.

Night before the mission you were curled up in the rec room with your notebook. You were journaling. It was the one thing you could do when you were incarcerated, and your therapist recommended it. One mission and you would be able to walk outside again. Felt good to write about it. Your ears twitched hearing someone walk in.

"Looks like there's a creature stirring." Soap said, joining you. You rolled your eyes, but gave him a friendly enough smile. You sat in silence for a moment before Soap decided now was a perfect time to get personal with you. "What were you in for?"

"It's in my file." You answered.

"Didn't bother reading it. I prefer the source, more accurate." He replied. You looked over your journal and tucked up knees at him. It wasn't to catch you off guard, or anything, he wanted to hear your side.

"Hacked into National Security." You said, finishing the sentence you were on before closing your journal.

"That all?" He asked.

"I was... ordered to. I broke in, obtained files on suspoected war criminals, my commanding officer gave me the okay, said he'd gotten a warrant and everything. Tried arguing with him, and... he convinced me it was for the best. We were catching criminals, terrorists. Well he never got the warrant, and the next thing I know I'm on trial, hearing how many people I hurt through my actions." You said.

"What about your superior?" Soap asked. You felt something boiling inside of you. The night he'd come to see you to warn you about the trial, you thought he would defend you. You retold your side to him, despite him knowing it. His final words to you stung. In the end it was your hand on the trigger.

"Haven't seen him." You said, shrugging. "Got plenty of tats in prison though."

"Really?" Soap asked, giving in to the subject change. He'd only seen the one star on your neck. YOu set you journal aside, and pulled up your hoodie and shirt to show your ribs and some beautiful inked works. "Is that recent?"

"The snake is yeah." You said. You're pretty sure the reason the hybrids were more comfortable around you was because of your small size. As a mouse you're less of a threat, but you have a criminal record. Soap wasn't put off by it, none of them were. You'd heard things about the 141, some of the skeletons they might have in their closet. You assumed there was little room to throw stones in the glass house. "Tomorrow is gonna suck."

"Why? The plan is solid." Soap said. Yeah for him maybe, not for you. Maybe that was why he was being friendly, so you wouldn't get back at him for roughing you up. You gave him a look, and he failed to hide his grin. "It's a solid plan."

Oh yeah yeah, solid FUCKing plan Soap. Laugh it up. He was snickering about it when everything was being planned out too. Were you laughing about it too? Yes, but it was a bit of reluctant laugh, like when you know you've lost a bet and have to get drenched by a water balloon.

"Permission to speak freely?" You asked Alejandro who was ziptying your hands behind your back. Something about him having to kneel down to do so was forcing Soap to hide his face. God he was a fucking child sometimes. Kyle was doing the same, but it was more towards Soap and his childish humour.

"Always." Alejandro said.

"Thanks." You said. "Hey Soap? Fuck off."

"Aye. Remember who's dragging in you in there." Soap said.

"Aye, remember who can make you sketchy dating profiles." You reminded him. Soap put his hands up in surrender. Alejandro was nice enough to help you get on the edge of the open truck before applying zipties to legs. "The leg ones necessary?"

"Yep." Alejandro said simply. He finished up and stood up straight. Rudy put the bag over your head, as you got yourself to awkwardly roll into the trunk. Before shutting the door you heard Ghost.

"Comfortable?" He asked. Not really, you were stuck laying on your arms but being on your stomach wouldn't be any better. You were able to nod under the hood, and give out a muffled, good. Then the trunk closed.

Didn't take long for you to figure out why they put leg ties on you. As soon as they arrived, and pulled you out of the trunk, you got hoisted on to a shoulder. You don't know who it was but they maintained the cover, with no signs of laughter.

You kept quiet, letting them carry you inside. You heard Alejandro talking to someone. You couldn't make out the words, he was speaking Spanish. There was some back and forth and you think you hear the word ninos. Other guy probably thought you were a kid. You started moving again, and held back a sigh of relief.

A door was opened, and two things were put in your hands as you were laid on the floor. You were given a pat down, the equipment under your hoodie was ignored. The door was closed and locked. Your shoulder was starting to feel sore again, only having short relief from the car ride. You continued to wait patiently. You've waited ten years to see the world again, what was a few more minutes? You felt something nudge you and you knew it was go time.

You sat up, and carefully opened the blade. You got the zipties on your wrists cut and then moved to your leg-SHIT! That fucking smarts... okay legs ties were off. Should've shaken the bag off first. You checked the damage real quick. You'd cut your hand, enough to cause bleeding but not deep enough to warrant stitches. You looked at the thing that nudged you, a cadejo, who showed some concern for your injury.

"Go, I'll be fine." You ordered quietly. then you put the ear piece in. Immediately Rudy asked if you were okay, and if you needed anything. You assured them you were okay but would need an extra minute. The hood was the best option, so you cut some pieces of it of with the knife. They were tucked against the wound, and then you got your gloves on. It was going to hurt as you looked up at the vent shaft above you. They'd put you in a storage closet, classy. Thankfully the vent grate wasn't bolted. You could hear the team going over other parts of the plan while you focused on your own.

One hop up, and you were able to get the ve-dang it. Okay come on. Come on! Get the right gri-there you go! You got the grate off and set it aside. For anyone else your size, the shaft would be tight. You were a mouse hybrid. You could squeeze into plenty of small places. The vent was no exception. You got low to ground, shifting your feet for the right stance, and then sprung upwards.

You got your hands into the shaft and on to the edge of the tunnel. With some small swinging of your legs, you hoisted yourself further inside, getting the rest of your body in. As you shuffled along, poking your head around to check for any risks you continued to listen to the team. They were making their way to finding the security cameras, intending to watch over you so no one would suspect anything. Ghost was making his way to the server room where you were headed while Rudy was lingering by the main office.

Thankfully there weren't many issues, once you got to the server room, but your hand was starting to sting. Shit, you could feel the blood sticking to your glove. Once you reached the server room you tried testing your hand, applying some pressure. Yeah you were going to need some help getting down, otherwise you might just hurt yourself more. You touched your earpiece.

"Ghost I'm at the server room, what's your location?" You asked, keeping your voice down.

"On my way still. Security cams have been secured, you're clear to engage." Ghost informed you.

"I'm gonna need you inside." You admitted.

"Need medical?" He asked.

"I might." You said. Ghost picked up his pace a little, keeping an eye out for anyone else. Once he reached the server room, he stood, doing a scan of the hall and ensuring he wouldn't be noticed befor slipping inside, through his own shadow. You were still waiting above the room, carefully removing the grate and pulling it up into the shaft with you.

"Where are you?" Ghost asked. You saw a figure moving below you.

"Still in the shaft." You admitted. The figure looked up and saw you.

"Stop fucking around and get down." Ghost hissed at you.

"Needed a spotter." You told him, cautious slipping down and dangling by your good hand. Something wrapped around your leg, and you realize Ghost is keeping a grip on you with some shadow manipulation. Once your feet were on the ground, you got to work while Ghost got a first aid kit that was thankfully hanging on the wall. You started typing away on your laptop, after retrieving it from the bag under your hoodie. You had a program put together already that would duplicate items, making identical replicas of the files as if they were never accessed or touched.

Once you got the right cords hooked up to your laptop, you let the program play out. Thankfully you could get quite a few files from the servers alone. It meant some impatient waiting, but Ghost had a way to pass the time. Cleaning your wound properly and getting some proper bandages. You set your laptop aside while Ghost set himself on the floor. You held out your hand for him and hissed at the stinging of the alcohol.

"Do me a favour when you get back." Ghost said, wrapping the guaze around your hand. Simon was surprisingly gentle when it came to patch ups. "The coward that put you in jail, make sure he pays up."

"Laswell told me she was looking into it. Don't worry." You assured him. Ghost had his commanding officer fuck him over too, but he'd had it a lot worse. You flexed your hand a bit to test the wrappings before Ghost applied tape.

"Soap to Ghost." Soap was heard in both your ear pieces. Ghost packed the kit up quickly, getting Soap to continue. "There's a guard approaching, west side."

"Company?" He asked.

"Find cover." Soap said confirming. You looked at the program still running. Unplugging it would mess up the files, you know that. Ghost could hide no problems there, but you were a different story. Seeing your panic, Ghost ordered you to get on top of the server towers. You looked at your laptop, but he hissed for you to leave it. Yep you weren't going to argue with him. Ghost instead hid beside the tower closest to the door, while you waited on the tower. You kept glancing down to see if the program had finished yet. Almost. Come on, come on, come o-the door opened and you pressed yourself against the top of the tower as much as you could.

The guard walked in casually, likely a routine check-up, make sure no one was fucking around on duty, literally and figuratively. The door slowly closed behind the guard while you held your breath. You know Ghost isn't gonna kill em, if he does it will raise alarms if anyone finds him. Knocked out, it could be from anything. Ghost readies himself, shifting his weight to go in for a headlock. Then the guard stops and starts patting his pockets. Holy shit there was no fucking way. The guard turned and freaking left?!

"Click, where are we at with the files." Ghost asked as soon as the door shut behind the guard. You glanced down again.

"Done." You whispered with excitement. Okay, one down, one more to go.

"The guard is leaving, you need to move." You heard Alejandro say. Didn't need to tell you twice. You hopped down from the tower, and unplugged your laptop, stashing it away quickly. Ghost left the room the same way he came in. Once you had you gloves back on you got back to vent. You moved quickly knowing it the guard could return again, even with Ghost out there lingering. The office was a much longer way to go, with plenty more vents along the way. You overheard some muffled conversations, casual stuff from guards and other cartel members.

"Click hold up." You heard over the comms. You stopped, looking through the vent grate. You had a tracker pinging your location through the shafts, so the team knew where you were for each room. You noticed a group of people chatting, all masked. Your small size, meant less weight so no issue with making too much noise. You could hear Soap's irritation over comms.

"Soap, status?" Ghost requested.

"There's someone else in the office, talking to the leader. They're chatting and friendly by the looks of it."

"You need a distraction?" Gaz offered. He and Price had been pretty quiet throughout the mission thus far.

"Alejandro?" Soap asked.

"In position." He said. After a confirmation from Price you start to hear a loud ruckus. The men below look around confused, unsure of what they were hearing. Then you hear Alejandro barking orders at them in Spanish and they start moving. You needed to move to. Rudy would have to make himself scarce, so you would only have Soap as your eyes through the walls. You're a little ways from the main office when you hear a noise in your earpiece followed by Soap cursing again.

"Soap status?" Ghost asked, more concern in his voice.

"Shift change." He said quietly. Okay now you had to move faster and you scurried through to office, overhearing a commotion from Soap, likely dealing with his shift change. Get in and get out, the commotion will pull the leader away. Rudy confirmed it. Except the leader's guest was still in there, with Rudy guarding the door. You saw them once you reached the office, and saw him sitting casually at the desk, as if he were just waiting for his boss to return so they could keep up their friendly chat.

You kept an eye on him, waiting for the commotion on Soap's end to finish. The extra occupant was an unplanned variable. There was no back-up plan aside from the distraction. Damn it this made things more complicated. "We have a John Smith in the office."

Soap stopped whatever he was doing with the guard and returned to cameras. He saw the extra variable. You had to wait for orders, and heard him talking to Simon about what they could do to get rid of the guy. Killing him would be the easiest but it's harder to cover up as opposed to a quiet infiltration. Your ears flattened, as you let yourself relax in the tight space for a moment. You arms were getting sore from holding yourself up. Mad props to the soldiers who could do it under long stretches of dirt and mud.

John Smith got up from his chair and started to walk around the room. You reported it, and heard Soap, Ghost and now Alejandro debating what they could do. Then the stranger turned, letting you get a good look at his face. Your ees widen, and you cover your mouth to keep yourself from gasping. No, there was.... no. That fucking bastard.

"I don't recognize him." Alejandro said.

"I... I do." You said, trying to control your emotions. The soft white noise of the comms was deafening as you remembered the night at your apartment, when he came to see you. You thought he came to be friendly, but you were naive. Thinking you were doing the right thing.

"Click, we need a name." Ghost said, having to repeat himself. You gave his name and his rank. The team realized your connection to him immediately.

"Permission to engage?" You asked. Price needed a moment to think about it.

"Can you keep control?" He asked.

"Affirm."

"Engage, you do not have execute authority." Price ordered.

That's all you needed, as you got the vent grate off. You waited for him to come into view, being sure he could hear the noise. As soon as he was in view, the grate was angled and aimed. You forced it down as hard as you could and hit him in the head, making him stumble back and fall against the desk. You didn't know it but the noise form outside the office caused Rudy whip around. He'd heard the order but didn't know what you'd done.

You dropped down with ease, landing in a crouch while your old boss groaned. When you stand you keep an eye on him, pulling up your face mask. You heard Rudy ask if you wanted help. No you could handle this. Once again you plugged in your laptop to the main computer and ran the program. While that was running, you went back to your boss, who was slowly getting back up, and hit him in the stomach, getting him keel over. That was a mistake.

Your former boss is bigger than you, by a couple of feet. Keeling over he was able to grab you, and drag you with him to ground, pinning you down on your stomach. "Hey there mouse. Long time no see."

Of course he recognized you. You had been the shortest on your old team, and the only hybrid. He thought it would disarm you, but you freed your arm and elbowed him in the face, hard. Once he rolled off of you, you were much faster, climbing on top of him. His mistake was not wearing any armour. Jail time taught you some tactics as well. A quick comm to Rudy and you grabbed between your former boss's legs. You grabbed hard, fingers curved in. The look on hos face was so worth it.

Did he try to knock you off? Yep, but any attempts vanished when Rudy sent in the cadejos at your request. Both stood over him growling. When he tried to cry out, you covered his mouth. His pained muffled groans however would have left plenty of questions if there weren't visuals to back it up.

"Anybody have some questions for this guy? He's an informant working with a cartel after all. Not undercover either." You asked. They didn't admit it, but anyone seeing you on the cameras was wincing a little at yur methods.

"Is he a client of the cartel?" Price asked, unable to see what exactly was going on.

"Are you a client?" You asked him, uncovering his mouth.

"You're a rat bitch." He said. You squeezed, and admittedly, enjoyed his pained expression.

"Yeah I am, but that's not the fucking question." You told him. "Are you a client? Yes or no?"

"N-no." He managed. You loosened your grip.

"Why are you here then? Serve them with a warrant to check their liquor cabinet?" You asked, jerking your head towards the glass of alcohol on the desk.

"To keep your ass in check." He said. You squeezed again.

"You never needed to keep my ass in check. Try again!" You said.

"A business deal." He said quickly. You loosened and he sighed with some relief.

"See it'll hurt less if you do answer me nicely. Also keep in mind, we're in the very room containing documents that can easily disprove your statements." You said.

"Information... for product." He said. "Get off of me."

You stayed on top of him, because you wanted to do so much worse to him. In this moment you had the high ground, both physically and morally. You wanted to twist.

"Click, how long until you have the data?" Rudy asked. By now he'd probably seen what was going on. You needed to focus. Besides, now you had proof of his guilt and an extra reason to walk free after. You twisted your body and made out only a few seconds left on the screen. Your former boss tried to take advantage of your vulnerable state, but you were faster, punching him in the throat. Then you put your hands together into a fist and slammed down on his stomach, lifting your legs to bring more momentum with your weight. Yeah he wasn't going to get up any time soon.

Once you got off of him, you got to the other side of the desk, turning your laptop around to face you. Data completed. "Just need some hard copies."

"We're out of time Click, take what you have." Price said. Damn it, you got caught up in your personal drama. The cadejos vanished, returning to their vessel. As you watched them leave, your attention attached itself to some papers on the desk. A contract, with signatures. You took out your phone and started taking photos, as many as you could in between a rushed packing job. You even opened a desk drawer and took photos of the inside before putting the laptop in it's bag. Okay now it was time to go.

"I need an evac." You said.

"Rodolfo." Alejandro said. All he needed to say. Rudy came in and you put your hands up in surrender. The same routine as when it started, except he left your legs alone. Your buff went over your eyes and you were led out of the room. Your old boss was still on the ground groaning. Rudy took one look at him before turning and dragging you out of the room. You didn't see much of what happened after that.

Once you returned to base, you thanked Rudy for his help. Too much longer and Rudy might have passed out, you knew it was a risk. His only request was that on the off chance the two of you worked together, you warn him if you do something like that. You could agree to that.

As for the data you collected, it was enough to get the cartel taken down, and put plenty of people behind bars. You contract could also put your old superior away, and reopen the investigation into the crimes you'd committed. Until then you were permitted to remain on base, working through the intel you'd collected. Your assistance had been a great asset.

One day you get pulled into Price's office where he commends you on a job well done, especially when it had been so personal. Unfortunately, that was your one flaw, in your opinion. You made and took things personally. It was why you put on a sarcastic attitude from time to time.

"Yeah well, I had the motive of a hefty paycheck." You told him, cracking your back oulling your knee to your chest and resting your chin on it. It wasn't the real reason, but Price didn't call your bluff. That smug look you gave him was growing on him, ever so slightly.

"About that..." Price started. Your ears flattened, and your body straightened. What the fuck, you signed a contract! You should be getting paid. Price smirked at your insulted expression. "You're still getting paid, and a substantial amount."

"But?" you asked. Yeah there had to be more. No way there wasn't.

"You have a great skillset, you have a strong mentality, your abilities prove that you're a great asset, and you get along well with the rest of the men. That being said, I can't recruit you because of your criminal record. Laswell was adamant."

You fidgeted in the chair, listening intently to what he had to say. The captain slid a piece of paper across his desk. You took it and looked it over. "I could use someone like you on my team though."

Freelance work. The paper was another contract, for Price to have the ability to call on you should he need your services. It was tempting. The risk involved...

"I think I'd be better off giving you my number." You admitted. "I'm sorry Cap. Military and politics aren't the best for me. Learned that some time ago."

Price could've told you everything that was in that contract, how it ensured your immunity if charges were ever laid, the high prices they were willing to pay, and your freedom to turn down work. You'd already been screwed over hard by the system. Would the contract let you do what you did best? Yep. But it forced you to make judgment calls, ones that went wrong in the past. Price understands your concerns.

"Let me know when it changes." He said. You could agree to that.

You reclined in your chair with your headset and your feet on your desk. A video was playing in your ears, while you were gaming with the controller in your lap. After a long day you deserved some time to yourself. Your lamp was on to keep your eyes from watering, while your laptop ran through some programming and codes. You set the controller aside, to take another bite of your take out. You get two notifications on your phone which you check. The first is from your ankle bracelet having an issue. You contact the officer in charge of you, informing him that you're not doing anything and the bracelet is having problems.

The second is from a familiar name. You smiled, and called him. "Hello new phone, who dis?"

Taglist: @yourlovely-moon @kaoyamamegami @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @sans-chara @0wosugarmommymedic0wo @smitten-haematite-quartz @talia-the-gemini @yuki2129 @whitetiger846 @graystorm444 @chibiduck @reaperxxxxzz @danielle143 @sobbingnshtting @cringeycookies @cryingpages @dcnocap207 @reaper-chan666 @bestbookfriends @thriving-n-jiving @cutiecusp @shikigami-the-paper-spirit @lolyouranelf

[starstruckbyacomet]

The Rookie 7x08: "Wildfire" Review (Part 1 of 2) – Finally! A Valid Reason for Chenford Separation

Spoiler alert! (obviously 🙄).

(Part 2)

After breaking the law, Tim Bradford broke up with Lucy Chen, because he thought he was not worthy. This doesn't make sense. Tim joined a therapy group as a redemption act WHILE he was still a policeman. He didn't quit from being a cop. Why couldn't he also still be in relationship with Lucy, while doing the therapy?

Fans accused Alexi Hawley, the showrunner, for dragging the love story to maintain viewership. What other reason could he have for regressing a solid relationship into a will-they/won't-they shit, when the audience has already known what the result would be? Tim and Lucy are clearly still in love with each other. They will be together again. The question is WHEN, not IF. The longer Alexi takes the time to reunite them, the more impatient we are.

A near death experience in ep. 7x08 "Wildfire" brought a love confessions out of Chenford. We love it. However, more than that, we got a glimpse of an important reason WHY Alexi insisted to break their relationship: Lucy is still under Tim's chain of command.

When Tim and Lucy were together for the first time, Tim had to either take a boring desk job or move to Metro Division to keep their relationship. This brought another problem into the writers room. It was difficult to write Tim working a case with the rest of the main casts. How many cases required the two divisions working together closely? On top of that, the show needed to pay more actors to be the Metro team members and leader. This storyline was not sustainable in the long run.

In the hospital scene of ep. 7x08, Lucy uttered her intention to take the sergeant exam. As Tim said, should Lucy passed, she would not be under his chain of command anymore. This would solve the aforementioned problem. Tim could still be part of the team WHILE being in relationship with Lucy at the same time.

Why didn't Alexi simply use the 'chain of command' reason to break Chenford apart? It more makes sense than Tim's 'I'm not worthy' excuse. It's probably beacuse Tim loves Lucy so much, more than he loves his career. Tim was willing to move to another division, and basically to regress his career, for Lucy (awww 🥰💞😍). Thus, Alexi should come up with another reason to break them up until Lucy passed her sergeant exam.

There's a risk in dragging a will-they/won't-they storyline for too long. Viewers could lose their patience and abandon the show altogether. It happened in Grey's Anatomy. Like Chenford in the Rookie, Jackson Avery and April Kepner in Grey's Anatomy have already had a proper built-up before being a couple. However, after marrying them, Krista Vernoff, its then-showrunner, decided to break the couple apart, then paired them with other people. Jackson and April clearly still had feelings for each other. Still, Krista insisted to drag Japril's separation longer, probably to keep the audience watching. The effect was the opposite. The prolonged dragging of their love story made some viewers, including me, lost patience and abandoned the show altogether. Even worse, before Krista could reunite Japril, Sarah Drew (who played April Kepner)'s contract re-negotiation reached a dead-end, so the character had to be written-off in a very disappointing way.

A contract re-negotiation between an actor and the producer sometimes reaches a dead-end, typically because the actor would ask for a raise, while the show have to cut cost due to decreasing rating/viewership. The Rookie is in its seventh season already, and the recent ratings are not as high as its earlier seasons. I hope Chenford would be reunited before Eric Winter and/or Melissa O'Neil's contracts expire. Based on the progress in ep. 7x08, the showrunner seems to think the same.

Go to: (Part 2)

[fiannans]

8 for the Rook and their partner ask game maybe?

8. What does their ideal date look like? Do they go on much?

Going to stick with what Mary Kirby said about Lucanis' idea of a perfect date (assassinating somebody and getting coffee, not necessarily in that order) because when I read it I thought "Great, that’s basically Arden's idea of a perfect date too." Except it would be cioccolata calda or some other sweet treat for her, not coffee.

Lucanis and Arden both live busy lives (being First Talon is a time-consuming job and Arden's skills as House de Riva's top-ranking assassin are more in demand than ever after taking down a god - a detail Viago uses to negotiate eye-wateringly high prices for all her contracts going forward), but Lucanis is a romantic, so he tries to make time to take her out as often as can. With the occupation in Treviso finally over, they're regular attendees at the theatre and the opera (where the Dellamorte's have a private box of course, which suits both of them fine for the times when they're more interested in each other than what's happening on stage). They visit restaurants and cafes all across Treviso, but their favourite is Café Pietra, where they always sit at the same table. They go on jobs together all the time too as well, even though only one of them is usually getting paid for it (only Crows would consider assassinating somebody as spending quality time together).

Send me questions from this Rook and their partner list if you want!

[goddesspharo]

Three sentence fic prompt: Jake/Natasha, anchor and producer in the newsroom

[hit me up with an AU prompt!]

Ah, using my own obsessions against me! One day, this might turn into an actual fic but who knows?

"She won a Peabody, Seresin!" "So did I!" "On a piece that I produced," Natasha chimes in from the chair in front of Pete's imposing oak desk. "You were basically my charismatic talking monkey." Jake holds his middle finger up in the air. He doesn't have to turn back to know that she's flashing that shark toothed smile now that there's blood in the water. Jake hopes that if he keeps staring at the network president in disbelief, all that attention will make his unflappable boss uncomfortable. Instead, what he gets is Pete's slightly apologetic, "This is not a negotiation, Jake." "Like hell it's not!" Jake snaps his fingers at the overpriced Yale-educated lawyer who has been leaning against Pete's bookshelves this whole time. "I've got that clause, right? Tell him I'll walk." "Um…" Jake's eyes snap to Logan, who shuffles from one foot to the other. "Well…we had to make some concessions during the last contract negotiation to get you the 'beaucoup bucks' you wanted." "What concessions?" Logan scrambles over with an iPad, presumably to show Jake the fine print on his contract that he should've known about before he was in the middle of a Mexican standoff, but Pete beats him to the punch by informing Jake that he's locked in for another year. Before Jake can shout at Logan to get him out of it, Javy tells him that there is no way he can afford a breach of contract even with the beaucoup bucks ("Told you not to buy the house in the Hamptons, buddy!") like his best friend's sudden need to "spread his wings and take on a new challenge" isn't the reason that they're discussing bringing Natasha Trace on as his new producer. How can Jake be the face of the network's most celebrated news broadcast and still feel as powerless as he did when he was a cub reporter for a local affiliate? "I'll do a very bad job then," Jake counters desperately. "Like Wolf Blitzer when he's called back early from vacation for breaking news." He catches Natasha rolling her eyes before she reminds everyone, but mostly him, that he's too Type A to do something like that. Her voice doesn't give away what they're both thinking— Jake, on a sat phone from the edge of hell, accusing Natasha of phoning it in with an all too definitive, "Not the story, Nat. Christ, you'd never sacrifice the story. But us. If you don't want to do this anymore—" And then: "I don't." —but Natasha is as much of a coward as he is because she suddenly becomes very interested in her cuticles so, as a last-ditch effort, Jake proclaims, "It is a well-known fact that you can't have a professional relationship with someone you've seen naked, okay?" Anyone else would take the words of The Most Trusted Voice in News as gospel, but the problem with being surrounded by a group of people who shaped him is that their memory of him is frozen back to when he was Just Jake and his superb capacity for bullshit meant hosing many an authority figure into giving him access to places his credentials would not let him enter. As such, the scoffs heard around the room now are nearly unanimous. "That's not even remotely true," Natasha replies with a groan. "And has never stopped you before," Javy traitorously reminds him. "Besides, if that was the line in the sand," Pete draws out with a grin, "then Machado should've left to produce Bradshaw's show years ago." At this, Natasha's research guy's eyebrows jump to his hairline. "I'm not talking about hazing rituals in college, Pete!" Javy nudges Bob with his shoulder and stage-whispers, "Don't believe him. He's been in love with me ever since we had to do naked keg stands in front of the Block Museum of Art."

[itsnotablogsblog]

GOSSIP AND RUMORS LEAD FANS BAFFLED ; KNOCKED LOOSE AUDIENCE WANTS FORMAL APOLOGY?

Rumors about Bryan and Poppy. Jimmy Kimmel Apology, and the theory on music

This is solely for entertainment purposes only, if you have any theories and or questions about whats happening, feel free to comment down below

Hello! Welcome back to another tea rant.

Good morning! Good afternoon, and good evening!

Today it’s gonna be a little different than my usual routine.

We’re going to deep dive into this music industry, and how many artists today have marketing teams into getting fans to buy their music, albums, and much more.

And the tea about what’s been revolving around Jimmy Kimmel and the audience wanting a formal apology.

THE POPPY AND NOAH SITUATION

Of course, this long rant about people saying they’re “dating” or they’re not “dating” has been for a long while.

Ever since Noah asked Poppy about being in a collaboration, many fans speculate this duo is actually a thing.

Sounds like fans are getting confused.

What more grabbed my attention is the third user who had a very interesting theory.

PLANNED IN SECRECY? A Theory

In their post, they state that Noah and the band disappear for awhile, and when they come back either to drop a new photograph of Noah, or him showing off new merch, it seems to be all planned out.

I don’t know where to start, so let’s start out with the basics, how does the business actually work?

This theory led me to think and process what companies really want. Which is money. I think I’m going to break it down bit by bit into categories. Since this user is being specific.

CATEGORY 1 : LABELS

This is label marketing. The term used for music label industries, in which they want to sell items and sell products for bands

Such as Linkin Park, BabyMetal, Metallica, Knocked Loose, Bad Omens, BTS, anyone that has some type of contract with different music industries.

Now labels, they get you anything in the business. It’s their way to market off of your money for them to sell you what you want.

It’s not a bad thing actually, it’s been happening for decades. So it’s pretty normal for companies to do this.

Category 2: ADVERTISING

In this category, once they have a good understanding and both parties agree to run an advertising strategy or product they usually put it out on social media.

They can advertise a band, making collaborations with a person to help them out and find new audiences.

It’s their own way to market off and get money from their consumers.

Like for example how they did with Poppy and Bad Omens.

Poppy signed the contract with Sumerian for her new album “Negative Spaces”

This led Sumerian find different ways to advertise her in many articles, being photographed with Noah, and being photographed with the group to promote one of their songs.

I’m telling you now, please do not come after Sumerian Records, this is just how they do things and business. It’s normal for companies to do things like this. It’s their job.

With advertising, since each label manager has an employee their financing from, it’s a lot more easy to have them produce songs.

Category 3 : MANAGERS AND PR TEAMS

So as you might have guessed, each front person, has an individual label manager or management and what they call assistants PR teams.

So what do they do?

In short terms, they are responsible for everything, just like the band is responsible for gaining profits.

1. Booking Gigs

2. Negotiate contracts

3. Promote

4. Arrange schedules

5. Broker deals

6. Financial management

7. Advising bands on career decisions

8. Band scheduling

9. Booking and scheduling

10. Securing record deals

11. Attending a bands performance

12. Artist development

13. Branding

14. Career Development

15. Encouraging and supporting their bands

16. Network with other band managers

17. Record label representation

18. Working as hard as the band

If you haven’t seen the movie “American Satan”

In terms it’s like that movie, where a band is wanting a career path into the music business.

So why have managers?

That’s easy to say.

A band can’t do it alone. They need an anchor to support them. In this case management. Management can bring a band together to promote them.

For example, since Bad Omens is the new band and the most popular, my guess is that they signed with Sumerian Records for their talent.

See each label looks for talent or in terms “make the scene”

There’s a lot to explain here, from what I mean by this statement is that record labels look for talented musicians who in their eyes can become very successful in the long run.

As for PR management, their job is to solely focus on making sure they get their band visibility on various platforms. Like social media.

They are also responsible for scheduling interviews, make sure the frontman or lead singer gets a highlight of their performance, make sure they advertise their music. They’re responsible for scheduling tours.

Category 4 : MONEY INCOME

So this leads us to this theory this user mentioned.

Bands just don’t announce a new album or new merchandise until they have or have been set on how much they’re going to sell.

If it’s behind the scenes then i say it sure is dealt with secretly.

Money is a distribution. A lot of it comes from on how many people want to become rich. It’s a huge product among the United States.

In this case we could think of it as the higher ups.

This distribution is normal. It’s used for marketing, it’s used in jobs, it’s used in your day to day lives.

Money nowadays gets us everywhere. It gets us our groceries, it gets us monthly or weekly payments due to working regular jobs and eight hour shifts.

Well in huge companies, like music industries money is a huge deal. It’s a way of making money from advertising and selling products.

But that’s all I know so far.

This brings the theory into if it is actually all planned out

PLANNED OUT IN SECRECY

The user above mentioned that it could potentially be planned out.

I mean planning out every little thing that the band agrees on doing could be possibly the next big thing.

If they want to profit off anything, they have the power to do so.

If Bad Omens doesn’t post for many days or weeks at a time, maybe they’re planning out something big.

But this also revolves around how many tour dates and schedules they have to attend. Now this is where it gets interesting because whether or not we know how this music industry works, it makes a good theory.

THEORY #1: The Band Profits off of what fans buy.

Bad Omens is a good example on this subject. It brought me back to what I delve down into the rabbit hole.

For instance, concerts.

In this particular case, from what I’ve heard from many people that surprised me was the way they profit money from selling tickets.

This can be a good tactic, especially if they want to get fans to buy tickets. It’s their way to make the fans happy by giving them the option to buy merch, buy vinyls, albums, and many more.

THEORY 2: THEY LURK

For instance, this is just an FYI we know that Noah doesn’t have socials, and deleted everything off the web.

Just like Matt Dierkes, Bryan, and Ryder, they have socials. But what do they use them for?

I think if Noah was aware of what is happening around social media, he might be the one behind the Bad Omens official social media.

Maybe, he sees everyone’s comments and posts. To where they might have seen every beef and every rant that each fan posted.

This leads to the theory they might be lurkers and peep at every little detail that comes right out of the social platform.

Maybe Ryder and Matt keep tabs on everything and monitor what fans want.

Could it just be coincidence or is it real?

In the past, we know Noah talked to fans and kept them in the loop for new music and new albums back in 2019.

But after he disappeared from social media, this leads to the theory that he is still on socials.

But we can’t know for sure.

This has lead to many deep fakes and fake Noah Sebastian accounts that led many people to believe they are talking to the real Noah.

If people say to you he’s a real person talking behind the screen, then it’s probably not the real Noah Sebastian. A lot of fans joke about it, but I think it’s just dumb trying to troll other fans that he’s real.

I think it’s highly annoying that this shit keeps happening.

So why do they lurk?

This brings back to the tea blogs on this app, that many people have conversations about. But since they’re just speculations, it’s not something to deeply worry about.

It’s completely normal for people who work with bands have social media. This is another way to get fans and get followers to interact with the band and their assistance.

Whether they lurk on social media, they have known about situations.

They look out for the good comments and bad ones.

This theory also applies to them planning things out for the long run and possibly plan ahead for the fans to enjoy.

This includes their merchandise on their official website, their albums, and more likely their music.

What the fans look for and what they want in specific items, etc.

A band isn’t just people playing drums, guitar, bass, and backing vocals and having a lead singer.

It is a business.

If we understand that what they look for is good then they’ll find a way to advertise it. Planning it out in secret.

I’m not against anyone but it sounds fairly smart for companies to do this.

MORE BUYS = MORE BUSINESS

quality over quantity.

MORE BUSINESS = MORE MONEY

So when it comes to their merchandise, they look for the best quality of products to sell. This includes them making them in a factory where they work with several artists and producers.

Since Bad Omens have been doing this for years, they’re the ones buying the most to get what the fans want.

This is where when they put out their merchandise, fans buy the items and Bad Omens profit from them.

Now that’s a good way to make business.

And no, they’re not using AI to produce these results.

People tend to manipulate others into thinking it is AI, just because they want to start drama.

In this case, they are definitely not using anything related to AI.

That’s why they have the best tattoo artist and comic book writer Davis Ryder.

I think a lot of people tend to forget that they have a tattoo artist in their band which is Nicholas Ruffilo and Davis Ryder, who is responsible for making these designs stand out than most.

I’m not too sure about Jolly. But he does play a role

This leads to Jolly being the second person to help Noah produce and co-write songs.

Jolly and Noah have been doing this for years. They wrote Dethrone together and the past two albums of their launching careers.

Nicholas has been with them since they first met.

Folio came afterwards after finding a good person to play drums.

So for anyone thinking it is AI, it’s not. These men have been doing business since the very beginning of their careers.

Noah knows a lot about this business, since he was a teen.

He grew up knowing his way around bands.

From starting out to play guitar in one of the bands he used to be a part of in Washington, to moving to Los Angeles.

THEORY 3: SUMERIAN RECORDS

So, this leads to theory 3 being Sumerian Records and how they navigate through the music business.

Like I said, Sumerian records is a huge company. They are responsible for everything and everyone.

This leads them to the list of supporting the band.

They navigate their way through social media and putting out what profits them.

I’m not saying it’s bad for them to advertise their band. It’s actually good for them.

This has the best opportunity for the band to get money from the fans and tours for them to entertain. After all it’s an entertainment industry.

If you have seen American Satan, then it plays a role into this theory.

Bands look for what they want for fans to enjoy music.

This led to Bad Omens to support Linkin Park on them starting a new tour. With them bringing Erra, for Anything > Human.

Sumerian Records does support Bad Omens. They’re not putting them aside. If they were putting them aside for not showing them support then it would be the complete opposite.

If you guys remember they are working on a new album and new merch. Just like they did the past few years. Starting from 2019 to current 2024.

CONFUSION ON FANS

So if there is a theory that Sumerian is just doing this for marketing reasons there’s no need to worry.

It’s all part of the process for bands to do this.

There’s been a lot of speculation about it.

But since this is all just rumors and people gossiping that they’re definitely doing this for marketing purposes, it’s basically normal.

It’s not illegal to do.

The good news on this is that they’re gaining more money just by selling items that the band produces and makes.

Making fans happy and making the metal industry entertaining.

But a lot of fans are simply confused if Poppy is actually a stunt artist, that Sumerian put in order for her album to sell.

I think it’s a way to say

CONSUMER BEFORE THE BUYER

By this I mean the company that profits most from a band is that the band themselves is a consumer for the company.

They work with bands, make music and if they hit a million streams on this specific song it goes out to the public before they start buying vinyls and merchandise.

This makes a lot of industries take action and gain money.

THIS BRINGS ME BACK POPPY

If fans think that Noah and Poppy are dating then why isn’t there more publicity on them hanging out together?

From what we’ve seen and heard is that yes Noah likes to keep everything private.

Since we haven’t seen a lot of photos of them together, the rumors on them being involved romantically is a very low chance.

This brings the fact that maybe paparazzi are being paid to catch Noah in photos, with Poppy like going to Jimmy Kimmel.

I mean paparazzi, there’s a reason why celebrities hate people who take pictures. They can stalk you, they can come out of nowhere, they have things organized.

It’s all due to their own management and bosses that tell them what to do and when to be there.

Also journalists and media outlets.

The acting and music industry is big, bigger than any other business out here in the United States alone.

This keeps the fans and the audience guessing if they’re actually dating.

If this was all organized and planned out then the theory of being a secret to the audience might be correct.

Maybe it is planned out secretly.

Poppy alone, wouldn’t be doing this on her own. Sumerian always has something up their sleeve for their contract employees to gain popularity.

Anyways on the good side of things I have more tea to spill out

BRYAN AND POPPY

It sounds like this particular fan is suggesting that Bryan and Poppy are having a thing right after they looked at each other on Jimmy Kimmel.

Also blaming the bad omens fans for being weird?? How does that correlate to them having an idea if the Noah situation with poppy is real?

I mean would you rather get controversial and have the fans come after you?

Also who is this Andrew Davis??

Obviously he was replying to the OG Poster.

I think they’re just rage bait, but I don’t think Poppy would have sex with anyone just because she’s famous right? I mean she was engaged in 2021 I think.

But what about Jordan and Poppy?

Like heck forget Noah and Poppy, like if Jordan was to date Poppy, what would happen to his kids? Is he divorcing his wife? Is he no longer happy in his marriage?

Also this leads to my question if Jordan and Noah are friends.

Also did anyone see Bad Omens on Jimmy Kimmel? Or was it just Knocked Loose?

There’s a lot of speculations, and a lot of rumors.

What do you think?

PUBLICITY AND FAME

So where I left off on paparazzi, there’s always going to be a publicity being made.

In this case we see it a lot more when bands are out in the public eye, and where they are being seen.

If Noah and Poppy aren’t being photographed everywhere they go, then it’s probably because the media organized the whole event. Not just to promote them but promote their work and their brand.

But don’t let that stop you from buying from Bad Omens or Poppy.

In all honesty Bad Omens is a great contributor for letting their fans enjoy music.

Whatever tea blog you have read that said Noah doesn’t care about fans, then they’re probably in the wrong.

Noah wouldn’t create a band, he wanted to create a band, but he wasn’t expecting to get big. Now that he has grabbed attention and fame, this gives him the chance to make more music and more money to his expenses.

Bad Omens makes sure that what you buy from them are good quality. They have a great support system and merch support team that allows the seller to communicate with the buyer if some of their merchandise arrives damaged.

They make sure each fan gets what that they enjoy the most.

JIMMY KIMMEL FORMAL APOLOGY

This leads to my last rant that I recently seen which is that various audiences that saw Knocked Loose on Jimmy Kimmel want a formal apology.

It sounds like Jimmy Kimmel is getting bashed over how many audience viewers complained about Knocked Loose performance on “SUFFOCATE”

Let’s be real for a second, in the music industry there’s always going to be a lot of hate.

But this is tea where some audience viewers just didn’t like the performance.

So I watched part of the clip on YouTube since I don’t really watch television. The performance of Knocked Loose I mean if I was being absolutely honest, it wasn’t good.

Poppy’s moaning and screaming felt like a kid trying to get ice cream from a parlor.

It didn’t really sound so good at all. Also Bryan, could’ve done more to his part in my opinion.

But since this was at Jimmy Kimmel, the audience didn’t like it. So they decided to get a formal apology from either Knocked Loose or Jimmy himself.

I mean if you hated the performance, I think there must have been better ways rather than asking someone for an apology that they brought a good band out there to perform, but if that’s what you think then I’m not gonna question anything more about it.

To me frankly when they came out and sang the song, I could not even understand a word they were saying.

It was like they didn’t even try to sing the lyrics.

Here are what other people have said:

Facebook user recounted the show’s impact on their teenage son, writing, “I was sitting on the couch with my son who is an ADOLESCENT waiting to see the musical guest because we like the nice music the show usually books. By the third or fourth ‘JUNT’ from the guitars my son was in tears. He doesn’t like scary things and quite frankly I think the Kimmel show and its staff should make a formal apology.”

Another “keyboard-warrior” detractor echoed the age-old metal critique: the lyrics were unintelligible, and the screaming was unbearable. “If I have to read the lyrics I’ll just read them and not listen to someone yell them”. Another frustrated commenter expressed disdain for the chaotic energy, saying, “This what not enjoyable. And you can’t understand more than 5% of the lyrics. Moshing doesn’t not equal dancing.” The confusion in their typos only seemed to amplify the melodrama.

A “music expert” went on to say it wasn’t even music: "How do I sing along with this??? Lol sounds just like a screaming frenzy to me!! Actually starting to hurt my ears!! People who listen to this have no room to complain about crying babies or screaming two-year-olds taking a tantrum!! Ha ha unreal!!! They call this music Jimmy??"

That’s a lot of hate.

I think having them collab with Poppy was a bad idea.

Other people can think otherwise. I don’t get why Poppy is so popular when they ask to collaborate with her in particular.

Why do bands like her?

This might seem like a big jump but I feel like they just want Poppy’s attention and time to make a good impression on their album. But with what’s been happening with Bad Omens and them having new bands or new starting artists as fans and audiences, the newer generation of new bands want to be just like them.

They’re taking a big interest on Bad Omens, more to where they are inspired to do what Bad Omens is doing.

All of this is very weird to me.

[kivaember]

there's a startling lack of allmind/iguazu fics out there... anyway this is the start of an allmind/iguazu oneshot im writing, so... enjoy!

It started with an innocuous mission request.

"Rb19 Iguazu: as per your standing search query, one job meets your parametres. Location, Grid 086. Client, Junker Coyotes. Target, RaD. Payment: 100'000 COAM. Do you wish to accept this job as an independent contractor?"

It didn't stand out as anything unusual. Iguazu abused the 'independent contractor services' that ALLMIND offered to all mercenaries on Rubicon - be they corporate or independent - trying his best to build up some personal scratch that wasn't directly tied to the Redgun's operational budget.

Every single sortie he did under the Balam banner he basically did for free. After deducting ammunition, repairs, fuel and a bunch of other bullshit auxiliary costs, Iguazu was left with barely two coins to rub together. The Reguns existed in perpetual poverty, indentured servants despite most of them being in denial over it, and Iguazu refused to let himself be content with that.

So he accepted ALLMIND's offered missions on the sly, pocketing a considerable chunk of the pay after she deducted a 5% 'facilitation cost'. ALLMIND even paid for the ammunition and repairs! It was suspiciously generous, but no matter how much Iguazu wracked his brains, he didn't know what ALLMIND was getting out of this. She was an AI, she didn't really have ambitions. It was likely she was just programmed by a complete dumbass.

Well, her deficiencies were his gain. After a few more months, Iguazu might actually have enough money to negotiate for an early release from his Redgun contract, and finally leave this whole life behind him. So, when that innocuous mission request rolled round, no different to any other job he'd taken before through ALLMIND, he'd accepted it without question and departed.

It ended up being the biggest mistake of his life.

-

"DAMN IT!"

Iguazu slammed his fists against the arms of his cockpit seat, his vision half-dazzled by the blinking red emergency lights. There was a faint stench of burning, but he didn't move to evacuate his wreck of an AC, stewing quietly as EN ANAMOLY flashed across his mostly inert console.

Fucker had somehow hit his generator after they got jumped by those random mechs... and just left him here?! Through HEAD BRINGER's thick chassis he could hear the sounds of combat, muffled staccato fire and the telltale 'pff-THWMP' of a piledriver engaging and driving its spike into solid, military grade steel. It galled him to know that Raven didn't need back up at all, that Iguazu had been viewed as an annoyance to be swept aside quickly to focus on the real threat.

How dare he... how dare he...?!

"Rb19 Iguazu."

He froze at the familiar voice, ALLMIND's detachedly polite voice crackly through his fucked console. The emergency power only really focused on powering the important things: life support and comms.

"I see that HEAD BRINGER has suffered from a catastrophic failure. Do you require extraction and repairs?"

Iguazu didn't immediately answer. His chest felt tight and his stomach churned, as he abruptly realised the predicament he was in. Iguazu never told the other Redguns about him taking sly jobs through ALLMIND, because he'd always finished them with only a few dents and scratches on HEAD BRINGER's paintjob, and ALLMIND usually buffed those out. He'd never full on wrecked before. Michigan might get pissed...

...which was whatever! Guy was always riding Iguazu's ass! This would just be one another thing he'd nag him about, and Nile will complain about the fact that this was done off company time so Iguazu would-

Oh.

Oh shit.

He'd have to... pay for repairs out of pocket.

His savings... all that COAM he'd managed to scrape together and save by taking these jobs, that'll be consumed and thensome to fix up HEAD BRINGER. Generators weren't cheap! Not at all! He would've preferred Raven shooting off a leg at this rate! Oh fucking shit cunt asshole fuck-

"Rb19 Iguazu."

"Will you fuck off!?" he half-shrieked. "I'm busy- fucking- argh, I'm so screwed! Why did you give me this job?! Why didn't you tell me the fucking freelancer was here?! I got caught totally off guard because of you!"

"I was unaware that Rb23 Raven was contracted by RaD at this time. His handler had submitted a stay in mission requests for the next two days."

What? Wait, Iguazu didn't give a shit about that.

"Well he's here! Kicking ass and being a fucking cunt as usual!" Iguazu seethed, and flung himself back in his cockpit chair, grunting when it jarred his Cerebral Control Spite. Irritably, he reached up, easing out the cerebral spike with an experienced and gentle care, closing his eyes against the brief moment of vertigo the disconnect brought him.

ALLMIND obliviously kept talking.

"I've initiated emergency extraction protocols. Please hold your position for the next ten minutes. You will be brought to an ALLMIND sponsored foundry for repair and recuperation. Do you wish to send a message to Rb09 Michigan-"

"NO!" Iguazu snapped. "No, don't tell that old man anything. He can't know I was out here!"

"I understand. Then I assume you wish for your bill of repairs to be discretionary?"

Bill of...? "You're gonna bill me?!"

"Yes. If you recall, part of the policy for the Independent Contractors System is that upon mission success, all repair and ammunition costs are absorbed by ALLMIND. Upon failure, the pilot takes full responsibility-"

Iguazu did not recall reading that at all, but... well, he just skimmed all the legal jargon and fine print when ALLMIND had first introduced this system to him, so it was likey he'd missed it. Crap. Well, there was the fish hook he had been marvelling the absence of.

"...how much will it cost," he asked stonily.

"If you don't wish to pay using COAM, an alternative means of payment can be arranged," ALLMIND said, and though she was an AI and thus lacking in emotion or human ambition, there was something... unnervingly sly in her tone. Smug, almost.

That fish hook now had a hundred cruel barbs on it. Iguazu swallowed, viscerally remembering the last time he heard those words - if you can't pay with money, then there's an alternative means of payment... - and how it ended up with him here: augmented against his will and fighting on a backwater planet for a company he despised from the very bottom of his soul.

"Depends on what those 'alternative means' are," Iguazu said warily.

"In pursuit of offering better services to the mercenaries I serve, and gaining better understanding of their wants and needs, it would be beneficial to have several mercenary subjects on hand to gather vital data from."

What? "You want me to be some guinea pig?"

"There will be nothing invasive. Not to the extent of your augmentation surgery. All data shall be harvested via simulations or logs you willingly submit from live combat. You will not be harmed or physically discomforted in any way."

This sounded way too lenient.

"That's it...?" Iguazu probed. "You just want... some fucking data from me? You can get that whenever you want as is! You definitely want something else."

"Of course. The data I automatically obtain is superficial at most. What I require is your biometrics."

"What, like my... fingerprints?"

"The biological performance of your body in combat, both real and simulated, its responses to actions taken by your AC whilst you are under high-levels of stress and synchronisation, its default state post-combat. Gathering this data will allow me to develop AC hardware that encourages perfect synergy between pilot and machine, the likes which Arquebus and Balam have not yet achieved."

Okay... okay, this was... Iguazu could not put his finger on it, but having grown up in the slums of Earth, where he'd met almost every single degenerate under the sun, an instinctive part of him was screaming this is a fetish thing the AI is making you participate in a fetish thing THIS IS TOTALLY A FETISH THING.

"..."

But even if it was a fetish thing, it was still a good deal. Iguazu's used to being horrifically violated, and this was the most gentle way of having it done. He could record this data and send it, and exist in blissful denial over whatever ALLMIND would do with it. She's an AI, she didn't have a physical body to masturbate with. She'd do... whatever it was AI did to get off. Have a power surge? Bluescreen? Whatever. Not his problem. Not thinking about it. Biometric data for possibly fetishtic purposes in exchange for HEAD BRINGER getting repaired and Michigan not knowing about his illegal moonlighting? Brilliant deal if you had no pride, and boy, Iguazu was used to tossing his aside when it was convenient.

"Fine. It's a deal," Iguazu gritted out. "I'll send you all the data you want after you repair HEAD BRINGER."

"Understood. Thank you for your cooperation, Rb19 Iguazu. This will serve to benefit ALLMIND, and in turn, benefit all mercenaries."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

-

Actually, accepting that mission hadn't been the biggest mistake of his life.

Agreeing to ALLMIND's deal had been.

[kinzig81]

COMMISSION INFO / PRICES

Please Help

Hello,

Sorry for my lack of posts and slowness to getting back to peeps on AF.

There is currently a fatal health scare in my family, and I am scrambling to do what I can to help. Medical bills are stacking up and getting ugly and I have to assume the worst. I want to do anything I can to make money to help, my family means the world to me and has helped me through so much. My heart is breaking.

I am scared and lost, the world is at a stand still.

Although nothing is confirmed yet, we are preparing for the worst because sadly, the disease is genetic in my family. So there is a more likely chance of it being passed down. We won’t know until the end of the week. These hours of not knowing and uneasiness are killing me and I know this week will be rough and long.

I don’t want to get too much into detail, sharing info like this is not my usual and is way out of my comfort zone. I just don’t know what else to do other than desperately applying for jobs and doing one-off/temporary contracting work/assistance.

So please, if you can commission me, it would help my family in trying to avoid a huge, painful loss. It would mean the world to me.

If an art commission doesn’t interest you, I’m currently working on a canine head base. I’d be willing to make another for $75 (Price is negotiable). It would take about 4-5 days to make.

I can only ship within US, if someone is interested I will list it on Mercari (it’s just easier for me to list it there and makes sure everything goes smoothly and quickly). Shipping would be $4.99 I believe.

Check out the base on my TikTok, same handle @Kinzig81 to see my base example. Ofc, small changes I can do, like bigger ears or somethin.

This month, and this month ONLY I’m willing to negotiate prices if your a bit short on one of my listed items.

Going along with that.. all money I earn during this month-July 2024-will be put towards my family’s medical situation.

If you can’t commission me, reblogging, sharing, and liking would help me greatly.

If you have any questions about commissioning me, please don’t be scared to DM me. I’d be happy to answer and questions you have.

Commision Info:

Headshot/Bust: $3-$29

Sketch: $3

Flat: $6

Flat shade: $14

Fully Shaded: $19

Rendering: $25

Additional Character: $3

Complicated character fee: $1

HEADSHOT/BUST EXAMPLES

Half body: $5-$41

Sketch: $5

Flat Color: $8

Flat Shade: $18

Fully Shaded: $22

Rendering: $33

Additional Character: $5

Complicated character fee: $3

HALF BODY EXAMPLE

Full Body: $6-$66

Sketch: $6

Flat: $16

Flat Shade: $21

Fully Shaded: $29

Rendering: $36

Additional Character: $6

Complicated character fee: $4

Solid Color BG: Free Simple: Free

Scenery: $20 (I am new to drawing detailed backgrounds but I will do my best)

FULL BODY EXAMPLES

Simplistic Animated Pixel Icon: $30-$58

Simple Blink/Idle: $30

Additional Animation (Props, expression change, ect.): $12+

(Please let me know what you have in mind to give you a solid price) ^^

Complicated designs have an additional $6 dollar fee

(If you're not sure about your oc being complicated please feel free to ask!)

Additional character: $10

SIMPLISTIC ANIMATION ICON EXAMPLE

Sona Speech bubble/Yapper: $6

All sona speech bubbles must be a half body or headshot, if it were any bigger you wouldn’t be able to make out any details. This will be done in a more simplistic, chibi style compared to the rest of my work to make it look even better from far away or when shrunken down.

Please keep in mind it may look cruddy close up because it’s a small file, when it’s actually posted it will look fine.

(If you have an idea for something else other than a speech bubble lmk!)

SONA SPEECH BUBBLE EXAMPLE

PAGE BANNER: $45-$100

Basic banner with one to three characters and simple/solid color background: $45-$55

Four or more characters with a simple/solid color background: $55-$75

One to three characters in a scenery: $75-$85

Four or more characters in a scenery: $85-$100

This is all just an estimate so please DM me for a proper quote <3

WANT SOMETHING ELSE FROM ME?

Want something else from me but don’t see it on this price sheet? No worries, DM me for a Quote!

( Ref sheets, Fursuit badge, etc )

WHAT I CAN AND CAN NOT DO

I have the right to refuse a commission if I am not comfortable or feel like I won’t be able to complete what you are asking.

I CAN DO:

☆ Suggestive

☆ Ponies

☆ Furries / Anthro or Feral / Digi or Planigrade

☆ Monsters

I CANT DO:

☆ NSFW

☆ Mecha

☆ Humans

Payment Info:

I take Venmo or Cash App, You will have to pay me in full before I start to work on your piece. I will send progress shots and will not move further with the work until I get a confirmation to keep going.

DM me here on tumblr or over on Instagram to get your quote <3

No refunds.

( I’m so sorry for any sort of typos or errors, this is just a placeholder commissions sheet and will be replaced with a nicer one at some point )

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Alissa Wilkinson at Vox:

For the first time in 63 years, Hollywood has a double strike on its hands. The contract between SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, two guilds that merged in 2012) and AMPTP (American Motion Picture and Television Producers), which represents Hollywood’s studios and production companies, expired at midnight on Wednesday, July 12. SAG-AFTRA’s national board unanimously voted today to order a strike; membership had previously authorized the strike, with nearly 98 percent of voters in favor. Meanwhile, the WGA (Writers Guild of America) has been on strike since May 2. Like the WGA strike, a SAG-AFTRA strike comes with profound economic consequences. The WGA’s picket lines have already managed to shut down most productions in New York and Los Angeles and across the country as crew members refuse to cross. Since SAG-AFTRA represents 160,000 members — “actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals,” as their website puts it — a strike would have profound effects on many industries. (By contrast, the WGA, which has just entered day 73 of its strike, has around 20,000 members.) To be clear, a strike doesn’t mean people can’t act at all; it means they cannot perform work for struck companies (which is to say, members of the AMPTP, like Disney and Netflix). Unless specific concessions are made, they can’t promote work for struck companies either. (Yes, their publicists are reportedly panicking.)

Major studios, for instance, have been dropping out of Comic-Con rather than have a poor showing with the few actors who might cross the picket line. You likely wouldn’t see actors promoting new movies (like Barbie or Oppenheimer) or walking the red carpet at film festivals; WGA members have already stayed away. And of course, they won’t be on set.

What does SAG-AFTRA want?

In many ways, what SAG-AFTRA wants is similar to what the WGA wants, all of which is driven by technology.

In a streaming-forward world, the typical TV season length has shrunk drastically, from the traditional broadcast model (up to 26 episodes per season) down to maybe eight or 10 episodes. That means actors are working far less on each job and tend to have larger gaps between jobs, which means it’s harder to make a steady living. But compensation hasn’t kept pace with the shift, and SAG-AFTRA is asking for a raise. (The specific terms are still scarce as negotiations continue.) Additionally, residuals — which are sort of like royalties, paid to actors when their work continues to earn money for the studio in the form of reruns or streaming content libraries — are at a level that the guild sees as unsustainable for its members.

Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA is also enormously concerned about the potential for rapidly developing AI to replace its members. And it should be: AI can be trained on actors’ likenesses or voices, which can then be used to generate new performances both on-screen and in voice-over or other capacities.

In a bulletin to members addressing their concerns, SAG-AFTRA leadership cited creating guidelines around acceptable uses of AI, bargain protections against misuse, and consent and fair compensation when members’ work (such as their likeness or voice) is used to train AI systems and create new performances. “In their public statements and policy work, the companies have not shown a desire to take our members’ basic rights to our own voices and likenesses seriously,” SAG-AFTRA leadership noted.

[...]

Why isn’t AMPTP budging?

When asked, the studios tend to cite tough economics as the reason they can’t raise minimums or residuals. (They don’t talk a lot about AI, which in itself is probably worth noting.) Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA takes issue with that math. In their bulletin, they note that “in sharp contrast to the diminishing compensation paid to our members, the studios are posting immense profits with a bullish outlook as demonstrated by lavish corporate executive compensation.” The reality is that studios and production companies are increasingly embedded in larger corporations and tech companies that are beholden to shareholders, and the way they think and talk about profit and revenue is different from the way the people who take home a paycheck do. It’s hard to argue with some staggering statistics about CEO pay at entertainment companies; average pay for a top Hollywood executive was $28 million in 2021, a hike of 53 percent from 2018. Disney CEO Bob Iger, who called the actors’ demands “not realistic” on TV on the morning the strike was called, recently signed a contract to run the company through 2026 and makes about $27 million a year.

On top of that, the AMPTP didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory in a recent Deadline article, published the day before SAG-AFTRA’s contract was set to expire, in which an anonymous studio executive told the reporter that with the writers strike, “the endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” An “insider” quoted in the article called it “a cruel but necessary evil,” and the article suggested the AMPTP had no intention of returning to the bargaining table with the striking writers until October. WGA members reacted with scorn on Twitter, noting that AMPTP members will be hurt by these same tactics and that the economics of being a writer in Hollywood have prepared them well for this moment. “‘Let writers go broke’ would be a more effective tactic for an endgame if it hadn’t been their pre-game, too,” noted Fleishman Is in Trouble writer and showrunner Taffy Brodesser-Akner. The AMPTP soon backtracked the statement.

Yet, given its timing, some speculated the article had the hallmarks of being planted by the studio as a negotiation (or maybe non-negotiation) tactic aimed at scaring SAG-AFTRA out of going on strike. Furthermore, on Tuesday, reports surfaced that AMPTP had requested the aid of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) in mediating the contract with SAG-AFTRA. The actors’ union agreed to work with the FMCS, but issued a blistering statement aimed at the AMPTP. “We condemn the tactic outlined in today’s inaccurate Variety piece naming the CEOs of several entertainment conglomerates as the force behind the request for mediation, information that was leaked to the press by the CEOs and their ‘anonymous sources’ before our negotiators were even told of the request for mediation,” the statement reads. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” it continues. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

All of this suggests that AMPTP’s members believe that the unions will crack if divided and conquered. Others dispute that, framing this crisis as existential and noting the extraordinary solidarity from other unions in Hollywood, remarkable in contrast to the last strike in 2007. On Wednesday, the WGA, Teamsters, IATSE (which covers on-set tradespeople, such as electricians and greens people), and the Directors Guild (which ratified its own contract in June) issued a statement expressing solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. Whether the AMPTP’s tactics will ultimately prove to be effective remains to be seen.

[...]

Why is this strike so historically meaningful?

This is the first double strike since 1960, which alone is significant, but one of the stranger factoids is who led that strike. The main issue on the table was once again residuals, once again driven by a relatively new technology — this time, television. Both guilds were pushing for a similar demand: When they wrote or acted in a movie, and that movie was sold to a TV network and broadcast, the network would earn money from ads. The guilds wanted their members to be paid residuals, just as they would for a TV show. The studios, of course, didn’t.

SAG-AFTRA joins the WGA heading to the picket lines to conduct a strike, meaning that there is a double strike in Hollywood.

Concerns about AI and residuals are the driving force for the strike.

[ghostopossumlives]

elaborating on my theory.

I don't think that the upcoming court episode is going to be as simple as Mammon suing Fizz for quitting.

I think that he is going to go after Asmodeus.

As per my previous post I think that IMP is an illegal operation and are basically impersonating Satanic Imps that legally drag down people who bounce on Faustian bargains. I think that the "what overdue paperwork" might be one of those "jokes but actually subtle forshadowing" things like Moxxie's mafia reference.

IMP is going to get a contract that pits them against that spooky man. He's going to turn out to be an undead sorcerer evading damnation. Satanic Imps are going to show up and IMP is going to get busted.

Because IMP is now legally under Asmodeus's authority, he is going to be potentially liable for the fraud.

Mammon is going to use this to try to leverage Satan against Asmodeus and probably is going to act as a Prosecuting attorney.

Because of the way the imps talk about Satan, and the comparatively "nice" state of the Wrath Ring and the fact that most of the organized Imp criminal activity appears to be im other rings, I think that Satan is actually going to be a pretty neutral and lawful figure, rather than a clear ally or enemy like Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Mammon. Satan is going to be the gruff judge of a court battle between Asmodeus and Mammon. In which he looks down on both of them.

(Also, every character we've seen who hails from the Wrath Ring has been significantly more well-adjusted than non-Wrath counterparts. Even Striker is more mentally well than half of the protagonists.)

I also think that Stella and Andrelphus are going to get involved to try to pile blame on Stolas.

I actually don't think that Stolas or Asmodeus's crimes are all that serious. I think if the book was really that big of a deal than Stella and Andrelphus would have gone after that before trying to have Stolas assassinated. The crimes that they can actually be convicted of are probably quite minor as far as Big Guy crimes go. I think that Blitzø is going to be the biggest criminal in terms of severity of their crime and direct involvement, but because of his friends' love for him, they are all going to be dragged into it.

Viv has said that Satan and Leviathan are going to be the most traditional depictions of Sins, which if that means Inferno lore, then Satan hates Heaven only half as much as he hates sinners, and Leviathan is the Sin most obsessed with fighting Heaven.

Striker clearly has a passionate hatred of the powerful. A trait very reminiscent of Leviathan. I think that Striker is working for Leviathan. I think that Leviathan is attempting to get Stella in charge of prophecies because she is an idiot who wouldn't do the job or pay attention to the prophecied failure of Armageddon. Leviathan refuses to believe that they could fail, and without someone to bring up the prophecy, they can start it.

I think that the Sinsmas episode is going to be less of a typical Christmas Episode and more of a Diehard homage. I think that Leviathan is going to try to time it so that Striker and Crimson take over the building and kill Stolas (to hide the prophecy), Satan (to destabilize hell and consolidate power), Asmodeus (to spark outrage in the common demons and consolidate power), and Mammon (because fuck him and to consolidate power) while the Cherubs and Dorks attack. That way Leviathan can point to the murder of the Sins by the (obviously all dead) cherubs and humans as Casus Belli for Armageddon. "Angels and Humans attacked us and killed our respected Satan, keeper of the peace, our beloved Asmodeus, whose love for Fizzarolli was guiding a new age of demonic progress, and Mammon! Join me and we will strike back against this angelic treachery!"

In the spirit of Diehard: Mammon is going to try to negotiate and get shot. Blitzø is going to be barefoot. Striker is going to fall off the building in slow motion.

[sepublic]

Megarus

         Meet Megarus! He wields the Orange Magestone, which boosts strength, speed, durability; Basically any physical attribute. He is a boisterous, casual, and friendly individual; VERY friendly, in fact! While others may talk like supervillains, he often addresses and handles situations like a regular, good-natured guy who’d rather talk things out, assumes the best of people, etc. It’s a very down-to-earth approach, though his general optimism and positive attitude can come across as a bit uncanny, and even out of touch at times. Don’t be fooled, after all; Meg may be genuinely polite and good-mannered, but he still chooses to support and work alongside Majikus as a Warlock.

         Being a dwarf, Megarus has an affinity for gold and treasure. And like many dwarves, this made him cross path with dragons; Specifically, the Westerns and their obsession with hoards. He fell under the employment of one of the richest, most powerful dragons in all of the Monster Realm, working multiple positions for his boss; Treasure hunter, enforcer, debt collector, financial and legal advisor to other clients, etc. In essence, he did a lot of customer service, which might explain a lot about his personality. Megarus often used his charisma to negotiate customers and debtors into remaining with his boss, working them through complicated contracts, and helping them find ways to pay off what they owed.

         Still, he wished for more; Megarus was very pleasant about his wants. But he still had them. His exploits drew the attention of Majikus, who saw how he’d fit one of the Magestones perfectly; For this, she called upon Megarus and offered him a promotion as a member of her council.

         Megarus was quite impressed, but he was also stuck; See, his employer quite liked him. His employer valued Megarus’ talent and skill, and saw him as property, essentially; And dragons are notoriously possessive, associating their hoards with their pride. To steal from them is a deeper insult than any other, and some will turn down the best deals imaginable, for they know that whoever is offering is attempting to seize something they refused to hand over; And that was an insult. So while Westerns typically prioritize their greed, their pride and possessiveness over what they already own can also win out in the end.

         Thus, Megarus had job security; But a less nice term he preferred not to use was indentured servitude. And an even less nice term was slavery. But all of these were true, and he was well aware of it. So him and Majikus made it work, using a little bit of force as well. Megarus’ boss held a grudge over it, but Meg had won his freedom and joined the Warlocks in gratitude; Even if he owed nothing to Majikus, he genuinely believed in the cause and would’ve been compelled to go along anyway.

         When Majikus handed out the Magestones to her fellow Warlocks, each came with a silver staff to channel its power. Megarus decided this was not quite his style, and asked to instead incorporate the Orange Magestone into the chained hammer he always used; Majikus didn’t mind and obliged his request.

         Megarus is a swift, powerful fighter; He is fast and capable of rapid-flurry strikes and attacks, much quicker and more agile than one might expect. He can roll up into a ball and fire off sharp hairs like quills from his back. His magic uses the power of force, being able to generate things like tornados, and he’ll sometimes show off by summoning a couple of crystalline spikes to punch at foes, or a bejeweled football to hurl at them.

         Megarus is a big fan of nice, fancy things; He has a taste for luxury, but he’s also a good tipper and quite generous. He can attach a scope to his right eye to examine artifacts and gauge their value, being well trained in the art of prospecting. He acts as an economic and legal advisor to the Council of Warlocks, keeping track of stocks, funds, budget, etc. His experience in customer service makes him vital to negotiating deals and contracts, as well as explaining them in layman’s terms.

         Meg can somehow be both a showboat and humble, infuriatingly so. His upbeat attitude is in a way, a commentary; That one can be nice and polite, but this isn’t necessarily the same as kindness. Because while he’s a good sport with a sense of honor when it comes to combat, he’s still supporting a dictatorship wholeheartedly and attacking, even killing, innocents. Such demeanors can ultimately be superficial, as genuine as they are.

[frothlad]

As I wrote before, today's cases show clearly how this is a 3-3-3 court, with a radical right-wing trio willing to blow up precedent at any turn; a right-wing trio that is more traditionally conservative most of the time; and a left-of-center (but definitely not left wing) trio. In today's two cases, the right-wing trio joins with the radical right wing for one 6-3 case and joins with the leftish trio for a different 6-3 case.

Snyder v. United States, bribery

Let me begin by saying that this case is not an aberration. The Court has been engaged for some time in comprehensive narrowing of the federal statutes against bribery, led by the right wing, and it is flatly incomprehensible what their motive could be outside of bribery itself, or, worse, empathy for the bribee that they absolutely do not extend to any other kind of defendant.

Snyder, mayor of a small town in Indiana near my alma mater, where the city bought five trash trucks from a Peterbilt dealer for $1.1M. Snyder subsequently (the order of events is important for terrible reasons) walked into the Peterbilt dealership and said "I need $15K", and the dealer negotiated him down to $13K. Snyder later claimed this was for consulting services, but the dealership employees testified that no services were provided.

You will not believe the Court's opinion (Kavanaugh for six).

The Court draws a line between "bribery" and "gratuity", where bribery has to be paid in advance of the corrupt act, and gratuity gets paid after the corrupt act. Note: The statute does not use the term "bribery" or "gratuity". The Court concludes that the statute applies only to bribery. Note that the statute refers to engaging in corrupt acts in the expectation of a "reward", which absolutely sounds retrospective and hence a "gratuity" than prospective and a "bribe" but fuck textualism when it suits us, I guess.

Since Snyder got a gratuity rather than a bribe, his conviction is overturned.

Kavanaugh characterizes "gratuities" as things like gift cards, lunches, plaques, and books. Snyder got a check for thirteen thousand dollars. But that's definitely the same as your alumni association giving you a book on the history of the university when you give a speech at the reunion.

Kavanaugh claims this is a federalism issue, because somehow the feds can regulate bribery but leave it to the states to prohibit corrupt gratuities. Note: I am absolutely not agreeing with his category difference between bribes and tips; I am reporting his frame.

NONE OF THIS IS REMOTELY CONVINCING. This is a defense lawyer shooting the moon for his client when there's pictures of him accepting a fat envelope of cash from the union president.

But that's the Supreme Court's project: bribery isn't a federal crime unless you're basically on tape saying "if you give me big wads of cash, I will get you that building contract". The same moron who takes notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy could escape a bribery conviction under those conditions.

Gorsuch has a short concurrence where he -- this is hilarious -- invoked the rule of lenity to justify Snyder's innocence. How could Snyder possibly know that demanding a fifteen thousand dollar "gratuity" was corrupt and criminal?

Jackson for the left three. She is unkind to the majority opinion, because it deserves it. She mocks its theory of the case as being absurd, she jams "textualism" down their throats (since it's one of the tools that many in the majority claim to value most for statutory analysis), and flenses them over their crocodile tears for all the other government employees who'd have to worry about accepting a plaque while a man who delivered a million dollars of government money to a dealership then walked in and said "give me money" walks away fat and happy.

What a goddamn joke.

Again, this is the sort of thing that Congress could fix with a trivial update to the law. But Congress doesn't do its job.

-------------------------------------------------

Surgeon General v. Missouri, jawboning

Jawboning is the venerable practice of the government going to reporters, newspapers, and other media people and telling them to write stories favoring their interests and yelling at them when they write stories that expose their weaknesses or cast facts in an unfavorable light.

Cast your minds back to the long distant time of 2021, when government agencies like the CDC were trying to get entities like Facebook and Twitter (!X) to, y'know, not promote false stories about horse dewormer and vaccine dangers.

Now, the list of plaintiffs/appellees in this case is instructive. It's not Facebook, Twitter, et al. It's a couple of states and a handful of yahoos.

The claim is that the government coerced the social media sites into censorship and they were harmed by this (the states are exerting the "right to hear" of their citizens). They're advocating for the right to be told clearly false bullshit. And they're making shit up.

Naturally, they brought suit in a small town in Louisiana so that they could get a specific crazy-ass judge. The judge found for them, and in extensive "fact-finding" found many false things, like misquoting a CDC official to make it sound like he was issuing orders to Facebook. (Mike Masonic at Techdirt documents a lot of the falsehoods in the lower court opinion.) The lower court crazy-ass judge issued a breathtakingly broad injunction, basically preventing hundreds of officials across dozens of agencies from jawboning the media. Not compelling the media from doing anything, because the government cannot in fact compel the media; just jawboning them.

The Fifth Circuit narrowed the injunction to only the agencies that were actually sued. But they upheld the injunction for them. The Court stayed the injunction almost immediately.

Today, they throw the case out altogether. On standing grounds, of course, because this case should never have been allowed in the first place. To bring a federal lawsuit, you must show a) that you were harmed in a particular way b) that the harm can be traced to the defendant's particular act c) that the court can do something specific about. This case fails comprehensively and obviously on the first two -- the plaintiffs were not harmed by social media deciding what to show them and deciding not to promote their posts, and the social media corporations' moderation decisions are not traceable to the government actors. (In fact, if you look into details, the reason for much of the government jawboning is how often the social media operators are not in fact suppressing stories that the government doesn't like.)

This is exactly the same as the mifepristone case from last week: No harm, no case, get this shit out of here, Fifth Circuit smackdown.

Barrett for six, Alito for the BTA in dissent.

Barrett comprehensively dismantles the lower court (and calls out its fictive "facts") and the Fifth Circuit. It's nicely done. It stands as a pendant to Kavanaugh's opinion in the mifepristone case. I would suggest that there is, in fact, a very easy compare-and-contrast paper between the two (and that Kavanaugh would come off the worse in terms of style and originality).

Alito, who will swallow any horseshit the radical right-wing legal cabal gins up, clutches his pearls and falls onto the nearest fainting couch, he's so shocked and appalled and dismayed about how awful the government is, and hyperbolically calls this case "one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years".

Sidebar: Of the three BTA justices: Gorsuch is the most like Scalia, with some principles and only mostly in agreement with the radical right-wing legal cabal, not in the tank for them; Thomas has taken his wins and used them to only move further out his SO UNIQUE YOU GUYS axis (e.g. his insistence on exactly historical models in rights cases). And Alito has gone into his dotage, unable to think any thought that did not ultimately originate in a Federalist Society model argument.

Again, this case is not a victory; it is only a refusal to cede ground. One hopes that the Fifth Circuit's judges learn from their zero-wins term at the Supreme Court. But realistically, no, they won't. They are true believers over there, unbothered by legal reality.

[literaticat]

What are the confidentiality standards for agents? I've looked at the AALA ethics page and I only see financials mentioned in that regard. Personally, I would expect much more than that to be kept confidential, or at least within the agency, but I've had some contrary experiences with agents. I'm thinking of things like, editorial feedback for a book under contract, or a PB writer disliking illustrations for their book and negotiating around that, etc.

Agents are considered "fiduciaries" for their clients, and there are certain legal/ethical standards for fiduciaries. Basically, we have to keep your financial info (contract terms, etc) and other personal stuff we're privy to confidential and can't use it to benefit ourselves, we have to act in your best interest, we can't "double dip" (ie, get some secret money/kickbacks from the publisher for a transaction), we must disclose if there's a conflict of interest or anything like that, etc.

And just generally, you know, your business is your business, we're your business partner, so obviously we shouldn't be spreading your business around.

That being said, I'm not 100% sure what you mean with your examples? If you're having some kind of editorial conflict, or you're a PB writer and you have a big problem with the illustrations, it would be part of our job to help you handle those conversations as needed, or have them on your behalf. (The publisher might or might not agree to DO anything about that, but the convo could not exactly be "confidential" if you want to do something to potentially fix it!)

[mashmaiden]

About Last Week...

So I debated for a while whether or not I was going to actually make this post, but I feel like my disappointment and annoyance needed to be a little explained.

Yes, I realize it was supposed to be a Callen-heavy episode, and knowing that the topic needed to be resolved I was not against that.

The thing that upset me more about the episode is the way it was executed, mostly writing-wise. And to be honest, I don't even know anymore how much that is the fault of our writers, and how much their hands are actually tied with scheduling and the episode appearance limitations.

A lot of my thoughts are similar to the ones I had post-Down the Rabbit Hole. The first thing I learned in my TV writing class, is your main cast should always be at the forefront, don't use guest stars to do the job of your mains. (I am STILL angry at DTRH for how anti-climactic that entire multi-season arc ended cuz Joelle just shot Katya with zero tension when no one was around)

It feels like it was written a bit generically like they weren't sure which actors would be there for the episode. Like, change the sniping analysis to the aftermath of a bomb, and most all of Kensi's role in the ep could have been Sam. When they have done this, I feel we lose the voice that has made each character special to us over the years. (Granted, this has been an issue all season, not just this last episode)

Back to The Reckoning. I loved the scenes in the mission with Fatima and Kilbride and our awesome office team (I loved them, but why are our main peeps not saving the day?!), but even when our baddie was holding guns on them, there was a lack of tension in the situation. Too much talking/explaining versus actually making me worry something might go awry! I guess I just miss the higher-stakes episodes of seasons past?! 🤷‍♀️

And on the topic of too-much-explaining, which again, has been a bit of an issue all season, onto the last scene. I was not a fan of Pembrook explaining Hetty's actions as he's just this third party who we really have no reason to trust. Obviously, a better way to end this plotline would have been an actual conversation with Hetty, so since Linda has not been able/available, I understand they had to figure out another way to do it. But I feel like in this case, even a letter from Hetty would have been a better choice for explaining her own reasonings. Or, they could have had Callen open that "only open when I'm dead" packet from Season 3... I'm sure there's plenty of newer stuff added to it by now.

Basically, I'm just frustrated at the effect the reduced episode counts for actors has had on the show as a whole. I think I'd have rather had only 18 episodes with everyone vs what we've got. It also worries me GREATLY for network television going forward, because it seems like at least CBS seems to be pushing this model on a lot of other shows as well. And that's after we hopefully push through this writer's strike (and whatever happens with the next two negotiation sessions too (actors/directors also have contracts up this summer).

Sorry this got long, feel free to ignore it.

[mlynar-nearl]

So... since IS3 is on global now... How about a "fun" last stand scenario with the Nearls and co. Mlynar really getting into roleplaying the Last Knight type of shenanigans.

I've actually thought about doing this for a while since IS3 released at all since they did give us a canonical doomed timeline, and specifically mention that the knights of Kazimierz are one of the forces devastated by the seaborn and Ishar-mla along with the armies of Yan and Ursus. Mlynar is pretty powerful in lore, but you can't stand for long against something that is a concern for even feranmuts. I think, right now in Arknights, Sui awakening and Ishar-Mla being reborn are the two biggest existential threats to the entirety of Terra.

Good thing that timeline isn't the main canon one.

Obvious CWs ahead in this flash fiction for seaborn and major character death. This is, after all, the doomed timeline where basically everyone dies.

Required listening, actually: The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

--

When he was young, he remembers floating down a river into a lake on the back of a discarded housing piece from a small nomadic city with Toland Cash, who had insisted that when they break for the day they learn how to swim, because they don't need to come out of another job looking like drowned vermin.

It's been too many years since then, but Młynar remembers having rolled his eyes even as he agreed- after all, they were of Kazimierz, and would never even conceive of something bigger than a lake.

Hindsight begs to differ.

Młynar Nearl is not, and has never been, a knight of Kazimierz. Nor does he ever wish to be one. Nor, now, does he think he will die as one.

That's alright- it suits him just fine. It took too many months for Kazimierz and its neighboring nations- always suspicious of each other- to agree to terms negotiated by Rhodes Island in advance of Iberia's borders breaking. By the time that Kazimierz, Leithanien, and Ursus were sharing their armories and men, it was already too late- if it was ever not too late in the first place.

Margaret returned to Rhodes Island when the first news of the blockade at the Iberian border crumbling came through. As one of their most capable fighters, she went to the front without hesitation to help with evacuation of civilians to Rhodes Island.

Now, more than ever, he knows this will be the last time he sees her alive. She knows it, too.

That hadn't stopped her from putting her hand on his shoulder and saying, "You know what I have to say, uncle."

He does. "...yes, yes. Fear neither hardship nor darkness."

"...thank you," Margaret had said, quieter, squeezing his shoulder. "For everything."

"Margaret."

"Hm?"

"Come home."

"I will."

She doesn't. But they both knew that was probably going to happen.

Maria doesn't wail as much as she had the first time Margaret didn't come home. Instead, she sits in a corner of her workshop and cries in silence, and, like the first time, Młynar holds her.

"Maria," he says quietly as the day starts to break after they were informed that Rhodes Island has lost contact with Margaret. "Make me a promise."

"What do you mean?"

"Stay with Rhodes Island. No matter what. Do not put yourself in danger."

Maria is silent for a while. He knows she's just like her sister- just like him- in that she wants to say no because she can help people.

"I know you want to help. You will be the most help here, with your machines."

"You're right," she finally says, throwing her arms around him. "I promise, uncle."

"Good girl," he says quietly, holding her close. "You know you are the best of us."

Maria just sniffles.

It's three days later that Rhodes Island receives the call from the bounty hunters.

The seaborn have reached the borders of Kazimierz, and as per their contract with Rhodes Island, the guild is engaging.

Młynar is not torn about what he does next, only guilty that he does it to Maria so soon after Margaret had left for good.

"Uncle, you can't," Maria says as he packs his things. Her eyes are watery, and she hiccups with a held-back round of tears. "You'll probably be gone too."

"I know that."

"But why-"

Mlynar interrupts her by standing up to his full height and putting his hands on her shoulders. "Remember what I said, Maria."

"Stay with Rhodes Island."

"Exactly. Be the engineer they need."

"What about you?"

"As long as I'm alive, I will always find my way back to you, kochanie."

"Please don't do this."

"I have to."

"I don't get it. Why-"

"Why did Margaret go?"

Maria falls silent, sniffing a bit. They both know it was because there's no other choice. Everyone will be called upon to give what they can, and in place of having Maria's prodigious supportive skills, they are only fighters.

"I love you, Maria. Margaret loves you too. Don't forget that."

He picks up his bag and leaves, and again, he feels no urge to stay instead, only guilt that it had to be like this. But what can he do, in times like these?

--

It's raining.

It's always a problem on the front when it starts raining, because the seaborn will be energized, and the ground will turn to mud, hard to walk through, difficult to fight in. Młynar picks his way through to the Kazimierzan fort a few hundred meters down the road ahead, patchwork barricades set. He can hear the sound of crossbows and arts firing towards the enemy.

When he reaches the back wall, he lifts his hands to his mouth and whistles a bounty hunter's sign.

A familiar face leans over the parapet, looking down at him.

"Well, well," Toland Cash says, and though he's playing at being lighthearted it's clear he's exhausted too, "If it isn't Kazimierz's last knight."

"Do you have room for one more, Toland?"

"When it's you? Always. I'll get the barricades."

Toland disappears. After some minutes, there's the sound of furniture being moved behind the door, and Toland cracks the door open. "Come on, come on, hurry. Before one of them follows you in."

Młynar obliges, shaking off his jacket as Toland arduously re-blocks the door.

"Tell me, did you only come here for me?"

"Would it raise your spirits to tell you so?"

"It would raise my spirits just to hear your voice even more," Toland says, his voice bearing a tired edge to it. "Even if you were calling me every slur we've ever heard."

Młynar glances towards the stairs, where he can hear the shouts of battle.

"They don't need the likes of us up there yet," Toland says in response to the unspoken question. "You and I are too good at close combat, and we need to keep them at an arm's length right now. For now, what we do here is run food, water, originium arts focuses. Anything we have."

"Toland," Młynar says quietly.

"Hm?"

"It's good to see you."

"You too." Toland sighs, running a hand through his wet hair. "We don't have long left here. Are you sure you want to stay?"

"My place is with you."

Toland's ears twitch. "Would it have killed you to say that twenty years ago?"

"It'll kill both of us to say it now."

Toland snorts humorlessly. "No kidding."

"Do you have an evacuation plan?"

Toland pauses, frowning in thought. "I've been working on one the last few days. It ends about how you'd expect."

"Fight to the last man?"

"Mmm. Only, there's the problem of that. If anyone gets eaten alive...they told you about these things at Rhodes Island, didn't they?"

"Yes."

"They don't think like us, but we can't have them knowing what one of us knows," Toland says frankly. "On the first night of the siege, one of my guys got eaten. One of those things started mimicking his voice out in the forest. It killed whatever morale we might have had."

Młynar almost shudders at that. "So. It's a suicide mission."

"Right. I want to evacuate some of our best casters and snipers, and any civilians or anyone with decent medical backgrounds to Rhodes Island. Do you think they can do that?"

"A joint detachment from the remainder of the Adeptus and Rhodes Island will be sweeping the area in five days."

"Good," Toland says with a sigh. "There's a chance. I've told everyone since day one, die on your own terms, not theirs."

"Do you think we have five days?"

"Probably not. But now that you're here, I think our odds have improved significantly."

Młynar can't help but crack a smile at that. "So. You and me?"

Toland nods decisively. "You and me. Just like the old days."

"You and I remember the old days very differently."

Perhaps, in their youth, they could have doubled their final score for how many seaborn they held off during the evacuation of the fortress. But they're much older men, with many more regrets, and they stay fighting back to back, close enough to defend from being taken over.

Młynar is holding a barrier of light around them, assaulted by thousands of seaborn, when Toland's radio crackles.

"They got everyone!"

Młynar breathes a sigh of relief, pushing his barrier back against the seaborn.

"That's all we needed to do."

"I know we've beaten similar forty-to-ones before," Toland says, staring up at the writhing swarm of seaborn flesh trying to close in on them, stopped by a barrier of rain and light. "But I tell you what, master Nearl, as impressive as our work today was...I think this is the one where we lose."

Młynar cracks a sad smile. "I've never heard you be such a pessimist."

"Call it what this latest war has done to me," Toland says. One of the seaborn hisses at him. "It was good, huh? You and me."

"It was."

"It was an honor to get to fight with you one more time," Toland says quietly.

"You too."

Toland grabs Młynar's sword from his belt. "You remember what we talked about."

Młynar nods, holding the barrier with one hand, holding out his other for Toland's sword. "Better to die as yourself, was it?"

"Yeah." Toland hands Młynar one of his swords. "Here. I know it's going to be hard to hold the barrier while we do this."

"It'll probably collapse once you stab me," Młynar warns. "So make your own death quick."

"Yes, sir," Toland says. He lines up their swords, next to each other, pointed in opposite directions. He holds Młynar's blade up to his chest, and his own blade in Młynar's hand to his own chest. "Hey, if there's a next world, I wanna see you again."

"It's me who is never getting rid of you," Młynar says dryly.

They're silent for a few moments while rain hammers the top of the barrier of light, and the seaborn writhe outside.

"Toland."

"Hm?"

"...I'll see you soon."

Toland smiles sadly, shifting his grip on Młynar's blade. "I know."

He shoves the blade- and himself- forward, and the seaborn screech and tumble forwards as the barrier goes down.

They find they are successfully denied their prize.