#which means that life and being alive kinda comes with the theme territory

[effervescentha]

The Amazing Digital Circus Spoilers

I thought this on even my first watch of The Amazing Digital Circus, but even moreso on rewatches, that there feels like a pretty deliberate parallel of "abstraction" with suicide. Part of that comes from what abstraction equates to in the story, but another part comes from how the characters experience and talk about it.

Ragatha talks about abstraction without naming it, later explaining that what she was talking about was referring to it. Her exact wording immediately makes the clear tie in of abstraction and sanity, playing back to the jokes earlier around "going insane."

There's obviously the mentioning of a breaking point and losing sight of why you're even alive, but there's also a very clear distinction of losing sight of who you are. Identity plays a piece into how it works, and that shows up again later.

In the intro, it says "Disclaimer: Kaufmo did not show up today." When they go to find him in his room, they have to break in to enter, and they find him in the form of a (seemingly) mindless monster. The walls are scrawled with the word "EXIT," over and over and over, with a few exceptions.

Besides the exit scrawlings and the drawing of Caine, there's two other lines: one being a message saying "WHAT DID THE EXIT SAY TO THE CLOWN?", and the other being a couple separate scrawlings of a response- potentially the punchline- saying "NO WAY OUT."

All we really know so far about Kaufmo is that he was a clown that was obsessed with making the others laugh at his jokes, and getting upset when someone would fake it. We don't really know much else about how he thought or acted besides it, and yet even here it shows that his obsession with the exit bled into everything he thought about- even his jokes began to revolve around the exit. We only know about one thing he actually valued, and that thing was overtaken by the obsession to leave. There's an implication there that Kaufmo might've already found the fake exit- or one like it- and what it "told" him was that there was "no way out." It's possible that that was the straw that broke the camel's back, but we don't really know yet.

The last thing of note- and the thing that prompted the thought in the first place upon my first watch- was what Zooble said after Kaufmo's abstraction was dealt with (...by throwing his body into a pit of various other abstracted bodies),

The choice of the phrase, "give up." It's a very deliberate turn of phrase to not only imply a choice, but is also often used interchangeably with "quitting" or "lost" when discussing suicide. Obviously, not a healthy way to view the concept in the first place, but it's sadly a relatively common practice.

The X's on the doors in the living quarters and the other abstracted bodies imply he is not the first, nor will be the last, and it's something the cast is already well acquainted with- which, makes sense, seeing as they have a name for it. But the specific implication of showing it as a loss of both body and self is something I definitely want to keep an eye on. Due to the genre being a psychological horror, I'm already VERY invested in how they'll use this for storytelling in the future.

[itsclydebitches]

Vine’s death/sacrifice really kinda messes with the “themes” of this volume, the idea of not sacrificing anyone to save others. I guess self-sacrifice is considered ok because of Hazel and Penny, but I just think about their conversation with JRY, with their talk of doing everything possible to save a beloved teammate.

Yeah, self-sacrifices are a whole different ballgame in RWBY. It’s framed as heroic to do everything possible to save an individual, or for an individual to sacrifice themselves for everyone else. However, it’s not framed as heroic for others to sacrifice an individual to save the whole. So the idea of saving Oscar at any cost is presented as the unambiguously good thing to do... with the show largely ignoring the reverse question of, “So it’s okay to sacrifice hundreds or thousands of people--and the safety of an entire city housing the majority of the city below--for one?” 

There are admittedly differences in terms of the presumed fatality of each situation. Meaning, Hazel, Vine, and Penny are framed as having to die or lots more people will definitely die: Salem will get JRYOE, the Ace Ops + Qrow will perish, Cinder will get the power and do horrific things with it (even if this supposed inevitability isn’t executed well. Example: there apparently just isn’t time to heal Penny). In contrast, Oscar is presented as a case where they can still save him and keep others alive. Obviously it all turned out the best it could--because these are the heroes and the plot ensures things go well--but the show doesn’t grapple with that risk, despite RWBY naming an episode after it. We don’t engage with the fact that JYR were 100% willing to let an entire city perish to save their teammate. It’s a heartwarming characterization from one perspective, absolutely, but the flipside is that they’re licensed huntsmen in a position of authority and their willingness to abandon the vast majority of a nation for one guy is... arguably horrifying. These issue is only exacerbated by this decision not being a one-off thing. Ruby’s desire for a perfect solution led her to trapping most of the Atlas/Mantle citizens there and then prioritizing two other teammates--Nora and Penny--over helping the people, despite her inability to do anything to assist those teammates. She isn’t defending them from anything (prior to the Hound’s arrival), doesn’t have the skills to heal them, they’re not even conscious to ask her to stay with them... she just decided that sitting at her friends’ bedside, doing nothing, was more important than helping the people who were currently in life threatening danger. Oscar was in life threatening danger too, but JYR were still in the same position of being official protectors of the people who said, “No. Our friend is more important than the whole nation. We’ll let it burn for the chance to save him.” 

Since I just started Voyager (side note: I WOULD DIE FOR JANEWAY) I’m reminded of how often Star Trek as a franchise emphasizes these moral questions. Not just in the classic “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” but also when it comes to any position of authority. Captains and Commanders have to grapple with whether they’re able to send an individual--likely a friend--into a deadly situation to help the rest of the ship, like ordering your Chief Engineer into dangerous territory to fix something. They also have to grapple with whether they’re able to leave people behind for the sake of the ship and how much danger it’s ethical to put the whole crew in to continue trying to save the few (something that takes center stage in numerous episodes). Star Trek, though far from perfect as a franchise, largely achieves a great balance between having characters be hopeful, pushing the odds, upholding the importance of every life... but also recognizing that, as the authority here, they cannot put the life of one individual over the entirety of the ship (not unless the entire ship agrees to take that risk. Hence, The Search for Spock). They cannot prioritize their personal desires and needs over that of their crew... but that’s precisely where the RWBY group has ended up. Frankly, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the show had just made them into rogue entities, rather than licensed huntsmen who are very much using their authority to gain power over the people they’re not prioritizing (Ruby starts her video by telling the world she’s a huntress, Jaune uses his credentials to get people to follow him). It’s the authority that’s the problem. If a civilian that happens to have a talent for fighting decides to defend their friends instead of helping the people, fine. We may not personally agree with that decision, but it’s theirs to make. The problem is our heroes are huntsmen. They have a duty and they are continually ignoring that duty despite reaping the benefits of their position. Someone with the authority of a huntsmen can sacrifice themselves to save the people, or to save a friend. They cannot, however, willingly sacrifice the people for themselves, or a friend. And yes “sacrifice” includes not just active harm (keeping Atlas trapped), but also increasing the risk of harm (not wanting the whale to be bombed) and passiveness (sitting in a mansion) when it’s their responsibility to protect others. 

What was it Weiss said at Mountain Glenn? 

“It's a job. We all had this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads! But at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people and whatever we want, will have to come second.”

The characters have completely forgotten that... and the writers have too. Now, “whatever we want” is framed as the heroic thing to do. Ruby wants a miracle despite all evidence to the contrary, so all the people they’ve successful evacuated have to remain in danger until she gets one. The JRY group want their teammate back, so the army will just have to keep dying until they get him. (The fact that they eventually agree to the bomb going off whether they’re still in there or not--something I quite like--doesn’t erase that they initially wanted the Ace Ops to not drop the bomb at all.) Ruby doesn’t want to have to choose between Mantle and Atlas, so both cities just have to lose out on three of the very few people who exist to protect them while they’re torn apart by monsters. “Both houses deserve to be saved!” says the firefighter, standing there and refusing to help either. Inevitably, both burn down. 

The willingness to leave behind an individual for the whole--something which, I should point out, exists in the “Are you willing to leave the few in Mantle for all of Atlas + a large number of refugees?” question-- isn’t just the sacrifice of the individual, it’s also a sacrifice of the authority. Are you willing to live with the guilt of this decision? Are you willing to sit with that choice and accept any consequences that might come your way, including others’ hatred of you for failing to achieve perfection? Ironwood was. He knew he was hurting Mantle, knew no one had been able to come up with a perfect solution, and decided that helping the whole world was worth it. Others despising him was worth getting communications back up and (he thought) defeating Salem. That’s a sacrifice, one that makes Winter’s “You sacrificed nothing!” line sound particularly ridiculous. What has the group sacrificed lately? I don’t mean what they’ve lost--what’s been taken from them--but what they’ve willingly given up to help others. I can’t think of much, especially not in Volume 8. Ruby never even made the choice at all, let alone accepted the drawbacks of it. 

RWBY wants to be a complex, morally gray show, but you cannot write that and have heroes who insist on that fairy tale ending. Something has to give and, inevitably, RWBY keeps supplying that ending instead of forcing the characters to grow. If they want a dark, imperfect world then they need protagonists like Ironwood. No, not crazy, murderous, keep-him-away-from-me Ironwood, but the Ironwood of early Volume 7 who was willing to acknowledge that sometimes perfection is impossible. Sometimes it’s your duty to just get the best outcome possible, not the best you’d hoped for. Sometimes you have to make incredibly hard decisions and shoulder the weight of that because you accepted this responsibility when you took on the role of leader. The group hasn’t accepted a thing and Ruby absolutely didn’t accept the responsibility of seizing power and presenting herself as the world’s leader. Instead, they’ve reverted to their characterizations at the beginning of Mountain Glenn. What do you mean I can’t make the world perfect by wishing it was so? Fine, if I can’t have perfection than I won’t accept anything at all. 

[jinjojess]

超高校級の英雄 V3: Danganstuck Classpects V3

Okay, okay. 

Enough waiting around; let’s get this up and ready to go.

These are obviously just my own opinions on things, and as such are very closely tied to my own personal interpretations of both the V3 characters and also of the classpects themselves. For clarity’s sake, I based the aspect rationalizations from the official lore here, and I used the MSPA wiki for direction with the classes.

Just as a quick note, I used some of the FTE info (which is debatable in its veracity) for some of the assignments. Sorry, gotta work with what I have to work with. Also, if anything is expanded on in Homestuck 2, I have no idea, as I haven’t read it (or the epilogues, for that matter).

Akamatsu Kaede Prince(ss) of Time Derse Dreamer The Land of Sharps and Flats

Going off the canon description of Time, it makes perfect sense for Akamatsu. She’s goal-oriented, wants to skip to the credits, and would rather take a leap of faith than wait things out. To say nothing of the strong associations between Time and music. I went with Prince for her as a class since it’s the destroyer class--Akamatsu very literally destroys both Amami and herself (and her goal of getting everyone out alive) thanks to her own impatience in wanting to stop the one responsible for the killing game. I had her sleep on Derse since she’s supposed to be a bit of a protag subversion in that she hatches a literal murder scheme. Her equivalent of the Beat Mesa is a big metronome. 

I also have an alt land name for her in The Land of Ninths and Eighths to reference the time signature of Claire de Lune (which is 9/8). 

Saihara Shuuichi Page of Doom Prospit & Derse Dreamer The Land of Glass and Fingerprints

I considered making Saihara a Rage player at first given how the ultimate conflict is (supposedly going to be) solved in Chapter 6, but the description of Doom players as being commiseraters rather than healers really stuck out to me as appropriate for Saihara. Of all the characters in the game, he’s one of the few that doesn’t actually push anyone to heal, and his ultimate gambit in the 6th trial is to counteract the audience trying to self-medicate with catharsis at their expense. He takes a while to come into his own, which is the signature trait of the Page class, too. As a Doom player, he dreams on both moons, which for reasons I can’t quite articulate just clicks for me. The glass in his land name references not only magnifying glasses but also mirrors, since his is very much a journey of self-reflection.

Amami Rantarou Seer of Breath Prospit Dreamer The Land of Sails and Nail Polish

I really like what I came up with here for Amami. Breath is linked pretty strongly to his FTE reveals about how his desire to explore led his sisters to disappear into the ether (and changed his direction in life), and the angst he feels over wanting to reunite with his sisters hints at his trouble with bonds (the Breath inverse Blood’s territory). I incorporated the boat stuff into the theme with the idea of sailing for his world name, while the nail polish is for his sisters and that extra scene with Akamatsu. I went with Seer as the class since Amami Knows Things, and there’s that bit about Seers “having a strategy guide in their head” that I wanted to be a callback to the special map and the fact that he’s the Shogo Kawada of this operation. Prospit as the dream moon just felt right, so there it is.

Iruma Miu Thief of Space Prospit Dreamer The Land of Caulk and Nuts (and Frogs)

I don’t care if you have to have Frogs somewhere in the Space player’s land name, I will stand by that pun! So Space is all about creation and seeing the bigger picture, and to me that jived with how Iruma is an inventor. While Time is deeply linked to music on a conceptual level, Space is linked to nurturing, including growing plants, raising animals, and parenting. The Space and Motherhood parallels fit well with Iruma’s canon aspirations and goals. I went with Thief because Iruma is very much out for Number One, and wants to hog up all the creation ability for her own ends. Prospit dreamer because she’s the type.

Ouma Kokichi Bard of Heart Derse Dreamer The Land of Kings and Horses

There’s a lot you could do with Ouma, and I’m sure that plenty of people peg him as a Void player because of the lying. For me though, I read Ouma has being primarily concerned with his own identity, and how he’s perceived by others. Fractured senses of self are a Heart concept, after all, and it seems that Ouma likes trying on identities to see which one ultimately fits him best. I made him a Bard because they’re unpredictable and all about helping or hurting a session in random turns, but also because Ouma himself is allowing his own identity to be destroyed thanks to his paranoia and inability to let anyone get close to him. He dreams on Derse with all the other schemers, and I went with a name pun for the planet that can also function as a chess reference (ala his bandana and his 5d chess approach to life).

Kiibo Sylph of Mind Derse Dreamer The Land of Shells and Ghosts

Since Sylphs are healers, I wanted to have Kiibo in that role, since he’s usually trying very hard to smooth things over and fix problems. I went with Mind for him for a few reasons: one is that Kiibo’s self-identity is subsumed by his “inner voice” that later turns out to be audience suggestions, meaning that he’s healing things through the choices of others and doesn’t have as much of a Self as it were. Another reason is because I made Naegi a Mind player and Kiibo is clearly meant to be a bit of a callback to him (up to and including the fact that Naegi very much functions as an audience insert in the first game). I made Kiibo a Derse dreamer because he literally hears the whispers of the audience members telling him what to do. The land name was me having a little fun and poking at his aspect a bit.

Gokuhara Gonta Heir of Light Prospit Dreamer The Land of Pins and Wings

Light is all about knowledge, and Gonta has, while specific, quite a lot of knowledge. He likes learning, and is open to new information to re-evaluate what he knows. I made him an Heir since the speculation is that they are subsumed in their aspect, and Gonta is very passively knowledgable. He often offers helpful suggestions based on things he just happens to know, for instance, and what ultimately undoes him is Ouma showing him the “truth” of things, which Gonta doesn’t even think to question. He’s a Prospit dreamer who’s been awake for awhile, unwittingly watching the clouds for signs, and his land name is a reference to pinning butterflies into a collection.

Shinguuji Korekiyo Mage of Light Derse Dreamer The Land of Scrolls and Masks

Meanwhile, on the other end of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, we have the other scholar, Shinguuji. Unlike Gonta, he’s actively out there seeking knowledge, rather than being drawn to it, and his motives are undeniably selfish in nature, so I wanted him to be an active class (I’m assuming Mage is the active counterpart to Seer, shhh). Shinguuji uses his understanding of his field--humans--to progress his own goals and wants. He’s also smart enough to know what pieces of information to share and which to keep hidden behind a convenient zipper. Made him Derse because shemey as all hell, and I went with some general imagery for folklore for the land name.

Chabashira Tenko Knight of Breath Prospit Dreamer The Land of Sweat and Flipping

I think we can all agree that Chabashira is probably not a Derse dreamer. Meanwhile, I chose her aspect for a couple of reasons: first, because aikido is generally about evading attacks which strikes me as a windy kinda deal, even if Neo Aikido is a bit different; second, because her central conflict in the game is about learning to let go of a bond she desperately wants to forge with Yumeno (which, again, is a Blood-related matter); and third, because flipping somebody would create a gust of air movement and that image made me laugh. I went with Knight for Chabashira, since the most common interpretation of Knight is that it exploits its aspect, and I think that Chabashira is able to exploit the various currents of influence (especially in Chapter 3) to great success. I also think that she exploits The Breeze to nudge Yumeno’s path out of danger by taking her place in the kagonoko ritual. The land name is the sweat of training in martial arts, and the flipping is not just about said martial arts, but also about being flung off a see-saw.

Toujou Kirumi Knight of Life Derse Dreamer The Land of Sticks and Carrots

Life players are generally known to be trying to fix everybody’s problems, whether they want that to happen or not, and if that doesn’t scream Toujou to you, I don’t know what will. I went with Knight again for the exploitation aspect of it, where Toujou uses her position as authority in the group to further what she believes to be the greater good (hedging my bets here since we don’t know if Knight is active or passive). She’s clearly a Derse dreamer, because even if she wasn’t schemey, she’s droll as fuck. Her land references the two main ways to motivate someone: threats and rewards.

Harukawa Maki Knight of Time Prospit Dreamer The Land of Beans and Demons

I know, I know, but really, if you think about it, HaruMaki and Dave do kind of have a lot in common (and not just the fact that they have red eyes). The part about Time that fits well to me is that a Time player’s life is marked by strife and struggle, which HaruMaki has in spades. Like Akamatsu, she’s impatient and often acts rashly, in an attempt to cut out the middle man or advance what she thinks should be happening. She’s the last of our Knight squad, exploiting Time (or more broadly, destruction/entropy) to try and help out, such as trying to off Ouma or attack the Exisals head on. There’s also a bit on the Wiki that’s speculated that Knights often try to conceal their insecurities by acting tough, which is HaruMaki’s M.O. While she doesn’t have the music theme, assassination is very much about timing. I had her dream on Prospit because she’s not really a plans person, deep down, and her land name is a joke about her name/birthday referencing Setsubun.

HaruMaki doesn’t have a Beat Mesa equivalent, but she does have a tool specifically for causing a Scratch: a huge, unwieldy kantana.

Hoshi Ryouma Prince of Blood Prospit Dreamer The Land of Grass and Clay

Here you go, anon, what you were waiting for. I personally peg Hoshi as a Blood player, through and through. He’s stubborn, values bonds with other people, can lead via inspiration rather than direct command, and feels grounded. I think he’s a Prince thanks to the fact that he ended up destroying the very people who meant so much to him, and in the aftermath continued to push people away and pre-emptively destroy any possible future bonds. He’s a Prospit dreamer because he can see flashes of the future, though he often doesn’t read them correctly. His land is a reference to different types of tennis courts.

Momota Kaito Rouge of Hope Prospit Dreamer The Land of Wishes and Stars

The key part of a Hope player is that they can dream up a better world than the one that exists, and that can definitely be said about Momota. Like Jake, he’s a bit in his own head and immersed in his fantasy version of reality, where he plays the hero and is able to save everyone else. He’s somewhat gullible, to a point, and he’s the most superstitious of the bunch, showing how much stock he can put into the thing he believes. The sheer power of Momota’s belief is infectious, hence why I made him a Rogue--he’s out there trying to impart his sense of belief into those around him, for everyone’s benefit. He dreams on Prospit because of course he does, and I made his land name reflect literal space in conjunction with his talent, and to riff on that inspirational poster about shooting for the moon and landing among the stars.

Yumeno Himiko Heir of Doom Prospit & Derse Dreamer The Land of Death and Magic

While most people who played V3 picked up on Saihara being depressed, not everyone has noticed that Yumeno also suffers from the same bleak view of the world. Similarly to Saihara, Yumeno is not a healer, or a doer. She’s here to sigh and complain and tell you that’s rough, buddy. Because of that, I can definitely see her as a Doom player. I made her an Heir, as one who is consumed by their aspect, since Yumeno is very much doom and gloom a lot of the time. She’s also subconsciously drawn to death, as she gets close to both Angie and Chabashira before their untimely demises. It’s through their deaths that she comes more into her own, hence why it’s also part of her land title (I don’t think I have to explain the other part). She dreams on both moons because Doom players are implied to do so.

Yonaga Angie Witch of Hope Derse Dreamer The Land of Prayer and Idols

Like Momota, Angie has intense faith on her side; if Angie thinks it’s true, it’s true. She’s also similarly not looking at the same world as everyone else, instead seeing something slightly different and colored by her own beliefs. However, unlike Momota, Angie is not interested in helping others find their own faith, and would rather use the power of her belief for her own gain. Hence why I made her a Witch, an active class that manipulates its aspect. The other characters may not believe in Angie’s religion, but they sure do believe her when she tells them to sacrifice their autonomy for safety. I put her on Derse since her god could very easily just be a specific horrorterror, and the land name is connected to religion. 

Shirogane Tsumugi Maid of Void Derse Dreamer The Land of Scripts and Swatches

I went through a lot of possible Classpects for Shirogane, including Light, Space, Seer, Heart, etc., but I think that this is what I’m going to settle on. Derse Dreamer because not only is she schemey, she’s listening to whispers of her bosses and the ratings, albeit in a less direct sense than Kiibo (what’s more horrorterror-y than a focus group!). Void as an aspect works well to me, since Shirogane is always going on and on about being plain and forgettable, about how she hides in plain sight, and even her talent is about becoming somebody else rather than herself. She’s also the one who in the end throws the “truth” into question, instead concealing it in favor of ambiguity. I went with Maid since one of the speculated interpretations is one who creates or creates through their aspect: she not only (arguably) erases the casts’ identities and memories, she does this in order to have “blank pages” on which to write the killing game’s drama. Whether Maid is an active or passive class is unknown, but if it’s active it makes sense since she’s using other people for her own gain, and if it’s passive, it could be argued that she’s doing it in service of Team DR or the audience.

Speaking of...

Bonus!

The V3 audience Muse of Space The Land Beyond the 4th Wall

I don’t like assigning Master Classes unless I have a really good reason, and here I think it works. The fans are the epitome of the “wait-and-see” model, and their crime as it were is their general apathy toward the very real subjects of the killing game. They’re all big picture and no important details or nuance. You can’t get much more passive than being an audience member, hence Muse class, yet it’s their desire to recycle the series over and over that leads to the killing game’s very existence (they’re also not too upset about letting the kids’ past lives be sacrificed for this act of creation). The V3 audience is collectively in the real world as opposed to the Medium, hence the “planet” title for them. In the context of an actual Sburb game, they’d likely be Exiles.

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

Yeah, no Rage players in V3. I couldn’t find my notes the other night when I got home, so I just went ahead and reworked all of the classpects from there.

The Aspects were fairly easy to assign, but the Classes really had me scratching my head for a good long while. Maybe it’s because it can recontextualize the Aspect elements depending on what it is, or maybe it’s because we don’t have as much information about how Classes work. 

Anyway, whew, that’s it! Hope you enjoyed!

[semper-legens]

26. Death’s Shadow, by Darren Shan

Owned: Yes Page count: 237 My summary: Bec is back from the dead, but all is not well in Carcery Vale. A grieving Dervish is neglecting her as she struggles to understand this new world which she inhabits. But they won’t have time to rest long. The demons are coming, and they have a new ally... My rating: 3/5   My commentary:

Back to the Demonata, and I’m making my way through the end of the series now. As I’ve said previously, this is my favourite of Shan’s work, but the earlier books are the ones that I remember best, because they were the ones I had more access to at the time they were coming out. We’re now in the territory where I kiiiiiiinda remember them, but not very well. That said, let’s jump into it!

Bec is the focal character for this one, and how she deals with being alive again. She’s got a new power, thanks to her resurrection - she can absorb the memories of anyone she touches, and notably she’s absorbed Bill-E’s memories thanks to being in his body. She’s out of place, trying to adjust both to being alive and being in the modern age. Bec comes across pretty well in this one - her struggle to be seen by a grieving Dervish is heartbreaking, and their developing relationship is engaging. I’ve complained before that Dervish tends to come across badly in all books past the first, but here he has a good reason for being a dick, and him getting over that is a major theme of the novel, as well as his mortality after he has a heart attack at the end of the first act.

This is also where we get some backstory and context on Beranabus, thanks to Bec’s absorbed memories of him. He’s half-demon, brought up by the Minotaur of Greek legend. His backstory is compelling, though I don’t like the fact that his love for Bec is what gave him more humanity in those early days. Yay, implicitly romantic love being used to humanise a character, because romantic love is sure what makes us human and stuff. (Kiss my aromantic ass.) This backstory as a whole works well though, in previous appearances Beranabus has a tendency to come off as cold or heartless, and this goes a long way to explaining why he is the way he is, in what turns out to be his last outting. He dies in this one, is what I mean by that. Bye bye Bran.

What else? Juni and Lord Loss are here, the former mutated into a demonic thing and chasing after our heroes with murder on her mind. I...Juni’s gotten kinda boring by this point, she’s sort of one-note, so I don’t really care about her. Lord Loss has way less of an impact in the series as a whole than I remember. I remember him as this sinister figure lurking behind most of the demon activity in Grubbs’ life, but he doesn’t really show up much? Still, I think that’s for the best, his whole thing might have gotten a bit too played-out if he was on-page too often.

The big things in this book are the Shadow and the Kah-Gash. Grubbs, Bec, and Kernel are three parts of the Kah-Gash, a powerful superweapon with a mind of its own that can destroy universes. Beranabus fears it, which is why Bec is in Carcery Vale, not with the others. The Shadow is a new foe that Kernel, Grubbs, and Beranabus are fighting - and at the end of this book, it’s revealed to be Death, which has manifested a body and is seemingly working with the demons. It’s a cool idea, but I don’t think we really see enough of the Shadow for it to come across as too threatening, and the big thing in the final act that it’s creating zombies against the laws of magic is kind of undercut by the fact that we didn’t know that was a magical law before. It’s not bad, it just coulda been better, in my opinion.

That’s all for this one - join me next time for some classic ghost stories.

[dailyaudiobible]

12/14/2020 DAB Transcript

Jonah 1:1-4:11, Revelation 5:1-14, Psalm 133:1-3, Proverbs 29:26-27

Today is the 14th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey and take the next step forward through the Scriptures. We’re moving at a rapid pace. We move at a rapid pace during December because we’re moving through so many different pieces of…well…different texts in the Scriptures. And, so, we began the book…we began the week yesterday by reading in its entirety the book of Obadiah, which is the shortest book in the Old Testament just 21 verses and we spoke about that. Obviously, we read the whole book of Obadiah. So, we've got new territory to enter into today and we will read in its entirety the book of Jonah, which is another one of the minor prophets.

Introduction to the book of Jonah:

Jonah obviously, Jonah and the whale, this is a Sunday school story, a very, very famous story but the story in its full context is pretty unique. So, Jonah is a prophet who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel and where he came is just due west of the southern bit of the Sea of Galilee. And he lived during the reign of King Jeroboam the second. Here’s something that makes Jonah really unique in the Bible. Most of the prophets that…that come along, they are calling their own people to repentance. Jonah's mission wasn't to talk to his own people. He was to travel to the city of Nineveh, which at the time was one of the largest cities in the world. So, you know, like in modern times like he’s commanded to go to Mexico City or he’s commanded to go to New York City or Los Angeles or London or Cape Town or, you, know, name of a large city. Actually, the archaeological ruins of Nineveh still exist. There near the city of Mosul and Iraq. Many, many of these ancient ruins have been destroyed or at minimum damaged in the recent decade by Isis. So, the long and short of the story is that Jonah has no desire to obey this assignment whatsoever. God wanted him to go to a people who were considered the enemies of Israel, and not just the enemies of Israel but the enemies of God. So, Jonah doesn't obey. In fact, he goes in the other direction like he doesn't…it…it's really interesting…you gotta get out a map to see what we’re talking about because this is a tremendous journey from where Jonah lives all the way to Nineveh, a journey that would've taken months. There was, you know, no jumpin’ on a plane. So, Jonah actually goes in the other direction. So, if we had a map of Israel and we’re lookin’ at the sea of Galilee and we’re like, “okay, so Jonah lived somewhere to the west of this we would see that for him to go to Joppa to get on a ship would mean for him to go to…essentially we’re modern-day Tel Aviv is on the West Coast of Israel. He was going in the wrong direction. He was truly running from God. So, as we probably all know Jonah ends up in the belly of a great fish and…and he’s there for three days repenting and then he eventually gets spewed out on the shore alive - a fantastic story. And we look at it through different lenses. Like as Christian people, following Jesus there’s this foreshadowing, right, of Jesus in the story. Jonah is the belly of the whale for three days and then he’s spewed out and it's like a resurrection type story. But like the Bible does most of the time, it's also a mirror. And, so, when we look at our own lives and see how fear and pride get in, we realize that they lead us into disobedience. I mean once we’ve got fear, pride, and disobedience going on we will notice probably very quickly that we are running from God. And we should realize that running from God is not…it's not an option because it's not really a possibility, right? So, if we go to the Psalms and say, “where can I run, where can I flee from your spirit? If I go to the other side of the Sea you are there. If I go into the grave you are there. If I go up to the heavens you are there”, what we are realizing is that running from God is not a possibility. He's everywhere. And Jonah’s story is a story of a man on the run from God who gets thrown into the open sea to drown. He gets swallowed by a fish. We think what a dramatic thing. And indeed yes, but that fish that swallowed Jonah while he's on the run from God became his salvation. He would have drowned in that storm. So, yeah, probably riding around in some kind of whale submarine for a few days wouldn't have been comfortable and…at all…like I can’t…I don't even know where…I don't even…I don't even know where to go with that. It would've been terrifying. But it was what God used to save Jonah's life to get him back onto dry land and get him to complete the mission. So, what we see is that Jonah does indeed go on the run from God and gets swallowed by a whale but that never had that happen. Jonah could've obeyed. He could’ve just gone on his mission, saved a lot of time and a lot of grief. Do you see the mirror? Do you see when we get pride and arrogance and all of this stuff going on and fear and disobedience and rebellion and we are on the run from God we are only wasting time. We’re going in the wrong direction. We’re gonna have to come back. We could just obey. And we might also find that we are on the run from God how life can feel like it is swallowing us. And we can be so mad. We can be mad at God that we are on the run from Him and life is swallowing us, or we could throw up our hands in surrender and repentance and realize maybe this thing that has got us swallowed right now is taking us back to safety so that we get another chance to obey. So, let's hold onto that as we dive in here. We will read Jonah in its entirety, four chapters. We’re reading from the Good News Translation. The book of Jonah.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the story of Jonah and we've talked about it and now we've read the whole thing and we look at the way that the whole story ends. Jonah does obey You and then he is so upset that You are kind and gracious. And we confess, that's inside of us too. Maybe it doesn't see the light of day a lot but that's inside of us too. And, so, we repent of that. Between the book of Obadiah yesterday and the book of Jonah today and the theme of Your care and long-suffering, kindness for people and Your distaste, and that's a lightweight word, Your complete dissatisfaction with the way that we can behave toward one another, the way we can stand back, and watch family get hurt, the way that we can stand back and watch brothers and sisters in Christ get hurt. We see in the Psalm today how wonderful it is, how pleasant for God's people to live together in harmony, O Lord God this is our desire going forward going into a new year. This year has indeed revealed many of the places that we are divided. Now we need to come together as one following Your Holy Spirit's guidance, not following a person or anything else, being led by Your spirit to a higher calling, one that models for the world what it is supposed to look like to be a redeemed son and daughter of the most-high God. And we just blend the culture and behave the same way that we see be…being demonstrated, being modeled. You've called us to something new, a new way of doing this, a way in which we can become like the Savior, we can become Christ like in this world. And, so, help us Holy Spirit to take all that we are learning, even as things speed up here in these last days of the year, all that we are learning and plant it in the soil of our lives so that it creates change in us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. All of this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, that is the website, that is…well…that's the home of the Global Campfire. That’s where you find out what's going on around here and, of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can find all these things within the app as well. But this is home base. So, check it out and stay familiar and stay connected.

It’s Christmas time so we got a couple of Christmas things going on. We are inviting you to get involved in our annual Christmas party, which is a virtual Christmas party, and you participate by adding your voice. You can call in a Christmas greeting to the community that you’ve been sharing all year as we’ve moved through the Scriptures. You can do that by using the prayer line. So, the Hotline button in the app, the little red button up at the top or the phone number 877-942-4253. So, yup, call in your holiday greetings now to be included in the…in the Christmas party that we have. Each year Jill and I, we get together and have a conversation, just kinda look back over the year and talking about life for us and where we feel like the Lord's leading things in this community. Maybe the next word for the next year, not maybe, the word for the next year. And, yeah, we spend some time together like that and then we…then we listen to each other talking about Christmas and get some hot coffee. I love it. It makes…it makes me cry every year. I love it. It's like one of the most beautiful…I look forward to it. I love it. So, if you want to participate you can call in now. Here’s the rule. That's the prayer line and normally that’s like a one call thing. Right now, if you have a prayer request or a holiday greeting just make sure they’re separate. Call in your holiday greeting and if you have a prayer request or encouragement call that in separate so that we can keep them separate or they'll have no home, they’ll have no place to go. So, just observe that. And I would say we are down to our last couple of days. Wednesday will be the last day that we will be able to do these calls. So, yeah, don't procrastinate.

And then the other thing that’s going on is the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Normally we have a Christmas box each year. Due to, you know, the circumstances that pandemics bring to the world we just…we’ve have had to juggle. And, so, we’re just inviting you to check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of fantastic gift ideas in there, things that you may want to gift to yourself and definitely things you may want to gift to others. So, check that out. If you spend $40 or more in the Shop, we will send you the 2020 Christmas ornament that we normally include exclusively in our Christmas boxes. But this year…yeah…it's a little different. You can make up your own Christmas box and we will be happy to include that as long as supplies last. So, check that out as well.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. And I cannot thank you enough. I cannot…I cannot thank you enough. It’s so shocking that every day we’re here and we’re in this together. And, so, thank you. If what we’re doing as a community bringing God's spoken word read fresh every day and offered freely to the world to anyone who will listen to it wherever they may be whatever time it might be and to build community around this rhythm of showing up every day, just showing up every day. If that has made a difference then thank you for your partnership, especially this time of the year. So, there is a link on the homepage. If you're using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement or holiday greeting you can it the Hotline button in the app, which is the red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello greetings Christopher who started listening when he was nine and called first and called again when he was 19. Thank you for returning to us with a message of gladness for the family that follows Jesus in the Bible here. I’ve been here for around I think eight years now and Father is so good. I can’t help but to be returning because this is…it’s like the walking staff I hold onto when I walk through the day. And I begin with it and I thank the Lord for the word He speaks. His word is continual. It doesn’t change. I praise the Lord for your…for being with you in your study, for blessing you as you continue and find a job and to make your plans for life and I pray that He will inspire you and bring good people into your life as you continue your family and your faith and joy in the Lord. Amen.

Hello, my name is Carolyn and I’m in North Carolina and I’m requesting prayer for myself and for my husband. We just passed our first year of marriage and we’re experiencing some…some difficulties. I believe there’s…there’s some mental illness going on and we just need some prayer for our marriage. Just that God will open eyes and open our years and our hearts and help us to treat each other better, to get some help for the mental illness issues and just to overcome this spirit or whatever it is that is causing problems within our marriage. I lost my best friend this year and it’s just been a really difficult year. So, other than my Lord I have no one else to talk to. And I am prayerful that He will see us through this. Thank you.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is The Openhearted Overcomer. I’m calling in this morning because my heart is heavy for those who are experiencing mental health conditions or have family members or friends who are. This is a difficult time of year for people with brain disorders. And, so, I’d just like to lift up a prayer now for all of you who are experiencing this in your life in some way shape or form. Dear heavenly Father I just thank You for life. I thank You for our complex brains that You’ve given us so that we can love and learn and give and grow together. I pray for those people who are experiencing chemical imbalances in their brain and they don’t feel the joy that Christmas spirit should have. And Father God I just pray that You will lift depression and You will cause all of these brain chemicals to come into balance, especially at this time of year so that we can experience the joy and the gift of Jesus Christ. I pray for all of those who are discouraged by brain disorders. Father, we know that a brain disorder is similar to any other disorder, it’s chemical, it’s biological and we’re just asking for healing Father God. We just ask that Your Holy Spirit descend upon all of those who are listening. We thank You that Your healing brains and that You are bringing joy in the midst of pain and sorrow. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning DAB family this is Donna from Cleveland Ohio. This is my second call in seven years that I’ve been listening. I want you to know that I love you all and that I pray along with each and every one of you. I have a son 23 years old, Max, who left home in February to travel across the country. He’s been traveling as a homeless person living out of his car. On November 23rd he called to inform me that he would be leaving the next day for Somalia. I pleaded with him not to go. So, I prayed for his safety and the next day I got a message that his vehicle had been stolen along with his passport and everything he owned. I know that God saved him from who knows what. But I ask for your prayers for his salvation. I thank you all for listening.

Hey, DABbers this is BFG, a first-time caller from Great Britain with a praise report. A quick background is that my wife and I have a heart to create a healing and retreat space for people affected by complex PTSD. So, in the summer we found a beautiful quiet and light space in Scotland close to the sea and next to the mountains with some buildings we could develop. It does mean a relocation. So, we put our home on the market and I expected God to send us a buyer immediately but when that didn’t happen, I began to wrestle with God and question him every time we had a viewing. My incredible wife though stayed quiet be faithful to the word that you heard at the start of the year, go from your country your people and your father’s house out to the land that I’ll show you. Genesis 12. There is something awesome about the faith and prayers of a mother, a mother knows what it is to carry something inside of her and simply trust. And my wife is no different. So, my praise point. On Tuesday we got an offer on our house. It’s all suddenly become very real and scary but that evening through a devotional knowing what we needed God in faithfulness brought the same word again, go from your country your people and your father’s house out to the land that I’ll show you. And this has so encouraged and strengthened us despite all the unknowns to continue to trust that God’s in control, that He will bring the resources to create a healing space, that we just need to stay in step with Him. So, Father God we give You the honor praise and glory and declare that You alone are sovereign. We praise Your name and ask that You continue to increase our faith and thank You that You’re patient with us. Thank You for the faith of my wife, for Brian and the DAB family and that they are faithful to Your calling. Lord this community truly is Your word made flesh. I love you all.

[doves-wing]

Warriors Song Post

what up here’s a bunch of songs that i connect to warriors in some fuckin way. this took way too long and i’ll add more later because i couldn’t everyone in the tags lol

People in my Head by Oceans on Mars: Goosefeather - If the title wasn’t obvious enough as to why it fits him, the song is about hearing voices and going mad because of it. If that doesn’t fit Goosefeather, what does?

Twisted by MISSIO: Darktail - The whole song is about a bad guy with fucked up thoughts and how his dad was a shit but had a good mom. 

Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea by MISSIO: Bluestar - The song is about addiction and depression. And well, Bluestar has depression so there we go already but it uses the specific metaphor of drowining which is strongly connected to Bluestar’s character, so it fits even better! 

Everybody Gets High by MISSIO: Sol - It’s his tragic backstory. I mean if this was a human AU this would just be his backstory. Sol is an evil gay, makes sense if he had a homophobic upbringing which led him to drugs and eventually running away. Makes sense to me at least.

Kamikazee by MISSIO: Sol - This is a song about greed, desire, and dark hearts. Who has all three? That’s right, it’s Sol baby! The boy desires all the nice things in life and will not stop at anything to get them.

Best Friends by Grandson: The Kin - So I’m kinda cheating with this one as it isn’t a singular characer but my post, my rules. I feel as if this fits best when Needletail and the other apprentices joined The Kin. Thinking they’re so cool and shit.

Kiss Bang by Grandson: Leafpool/Crowfeather/Nightcloud - Okay again not a singular character but my post, my rules. Basically this song represents Crowfeather’s relationship with the two of them. In short: a fucking mess

Things Change by Grandson: Crowfeather - I’d say this is specifically about Leafpool soon after the badger attack, but could still work for him and Feathertail. Either way, this guy is dumb angst monster lmao

Saint Bernard by Lincoln: Mapleshade - This is a song about one-sided love and how the singer won’t be going to heaven. Also it’s fucking scary so Mapleshade :)

Hellbent by Mystery Skulls: Ashfur - It’s him about Squirrelflight. He does not care that she is in a relationship. All he cares is that the relationship she’s in, isn’t with him. All he wants is her and he truly won’t stop at anything to have her.

The Wolf by SIAMES: Tigerclaw - This is another song that’s about addiction but it has a strong theme about being out of your mind, and well, if you kill people I don’t think your sane. And in a way, Tigerclaw could’ve been addicted to killing. Either way many of this song’s lyrics (and especially the chorus) remind me of him so he gets this masterpiece of a song to himself.

Same Old Forest by Nathan Sharp: Firestar - This fits Firepaw/Rusty specifically but hey I prefer using the most recent names of a character in the title. Anyway though, this song is all about beginnings and wanting to be something (while also being a protaganist) and who could fit better than Firepaw? I mean one of the lyrics is literally: “Because compared to every child you know, you’re something else”. Tell me it isn’t about Firepaw.

Far Away by Nathan Sharp: Spottedleaf - This is a song sung by a female about the character from the previous song on this list, who knows that the character is destined for greatness. Tell me it isn’t sung by Spottedleaf. 

Time to Go by Nathan Sharp: Yellowfang - Yellowfang is the grumpy grandma we all know and love. If you know her and then listen to this song and say she didn’t sing it you’re so wrong it’s unbelievable. Did her savior just wake up? Yes. Is she going to push him out and force him to save the world now? Yes.

Drowning by Nathan Sharp: Bluestar - Look at the title. Okay but the song is about losing everything in your life and well, the water metaphors :}

Shell by Nathan Sharp: Bluestar (w/ Firestar) - I think this fits really well for Bluestar and Firestar’s relationship. Bluestar after having been almost murdered by her trusted deputy, Tigerclaw, has lost faith in everything. Fireheart is desperately trying to keep her what remains of her, alive. The chorus speaks for itself, she is a shell, almost entirely withered away. Just, it’s mostly Bluestar but the way the lyrics go it sounds as if someone is speaking to another character about Bluestar, which in this case is probably Tigerclaw and Firestar.

The Evil King by Nathan Sharp: Tigerclaw & Firestar - This is their final battle in song form. At the end it becomes a duet, but for the majority it’s Tigerclaw monologuing about why he should and deserves to win. How Firestar should’ve never come to the forest, as he was meant to rule the forest as his father did before him, unfortuneately this is a YA novel which means that evil can never win. 

Unaligned by Nathan Sharp: Ivypool - I imagine this is when she’s starting to realize that the Dark Forest isn’t good. That it’s full of evil cats, but because she’s only started to realize this their abusive teachings are still in her head, thus “You took me in, showed me love when I had nowhere to run” is a lyric. She’s done bad things by joining them, she doesn’t know if she can be good but she knows she doesn’t want to be bad.

Dead Silence by Nathan Sharp: Mothwing - Mothwing can’t get it out of her head that she is the daughter of Tigerclaw. The worst cat in the history of the Clans yet she chose to be a medicine cat, a peaceful cat who does no harm. Her intrusive thoughts won’t stop reminding her of how brutal her family as been. Her father first and then her brother, Hawkfrost, second. Maybe she is destined to be a violent monster, she knows it isn’t true but those evil thoughts say otherwise, and she can’t ignore them any longer.

Epcoh (TLT Remix) by Salvonic: Hollyleaf - After she ran away from the gathering, she had a lot of time to think about everything. She had time to regret her actions and came back to apologize, and hope that she would be accepeted. Just about everything in this song fits her and someone needs to make a map for her with this song because it fits her so fucking well it’s insane.

Terrible Things by Brick + Mortar: Ivypool - She sees no difference between her and her sister, Dovewing, yet her sister is consistently praised more than her and gets more attention. Ivypool then joins the Dark Forest as they claimed to have seen in her, what her Clanmates saw in Dovewing. Instead of dreaming, she fought hard to get the attention and mild praise of a few dead cats. She murdered cats for them and all she got in return was a free t-shirt.

Burn The House Down by AJR: Squirrelflight - Honestly this just gives me some lighthearted Squirrelflight vibes. More so when she was still an apprentice and wanted to be treated with the same amount as respect as a warrior but she tried to gain their respect in ridiculous ways, such as joining Brambleclaw on the journey to the Sundrown place, for instance.

G-G-Ghost by Steven Universe: Fallen Leaves - He’s just a ghost boy who wants someone to notice him!

Noticed by MandoPony: Sol - This theatre gay just wants someone to pay attention to him! And if you do look away, he might have to kill you. M i g h t

Nothing Personal by Night Riots: Darktail - He came to erase the Clans. He will wash away their history, he will make himself the leader of his own group and lead them with an iron fist, his ideology is correct. To the members of his group he is a shining star, a beacon of light and truth.

Contagious by Night Riots: Shadowpaw - This is more speculative but it seems to me that he could definitely start to think that he is bad, wrong. Because of the voice in his head. He is plagued with lies, just by existing he has broken the code. He has to remind himself, it isn’t his fault that he is shunned, looked down upon. But everything is wearing him down. Reminding yourself that it isn’t wrong to exist is tiring.

On the Line by Night Riots: Tawnypelt - Tawnypelt is the type to give all she has for her Clan. Sometimes she gets nervous but she fights through it because her Clan is what matters most. 

She Wants Me Dead by CAZZETTE: Crowfeather - This is just every female in Crowfeather’s life at him.

Bet on You by The Man Who: Mistystar - Back when Mistystar was known as Mistyfoot, she crtiticized her leader, Leaopardstar harshly. The latter did let her brother be murdered. Though Leopardstar would’ve risked her own life, among everyone in her clan’s life, had she tried to stop it from happening. Leopardstar made many mistakes throughout her life but Mistyfoot always came back to her, in the end she knew Leopardstar was only doing the best she could. 

Choke by I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME: Darktail - Only he would say the most fucked up things while having a genuine smile on his face and making it sound nice. He only cares for himself, and a distorted love for his mother, painting her as this perfect being who was ruined by his father. I have no doubt that he would do all the things in this songs, given he were able to of course.

Crossing a Line by Mike Shinoda: Leafpool & Squirrelflight - This is all about the truth of Holly/Jay/Lion and how they want to tell them, but don’t know how, and just that whole mess is this song. 

Play with Fire by Sam Tinnesz: Brokenstar - He is one of the most evil characters in the series, using child soldiers will do that though. He takes pleasure from seeing cats die, especially kits. He enjoys watching others suffer, especially if he can gain something by it. He forced WindClan out of the Clan territories because he wanted the extra hunting land.

Monster (Under my Bed) by Call Me Karizma: Tigerclaw - After his father left, Tigerkit felt alone. His sisters were dead, and his mother was heartbroken. He looked for friends in the shadows, hoping that they’d take form and want to play. It took some time but they took form in the shape of a cat. She was a transparent tortoiseshell, claiming to be of ThunderClan’s past. It didn’t matter to Tigerkit though, she promised to make him the strongest cat in the forest, in all of the Clan’s history even. That’s what mattered to Tigerkit. He wanted to be strong enough to take down any of his enemies and most importantly, his father.

Wolves (You Got Me) by DREAMERS: Fire/Raven - Firepaw is the new apprentice and oh no there’s a cute anxious boy. “Guess we’ll fall in love” they said, and then they did. Firepaw learned how to hunt, and fight. Though it was a bit harder because he was absolutely smitten with Ravenpaw.

Our Song by Vinyl Theatre: Sandstar (w/ Clan) -  (Med-Cat!Fire AU) This happens before the battle with BloodClan, when they’re still preparing. 

High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco: Hollyleaf - (Wind!Holly AU) - This is her coming home after leaving the tunnels and rescuing Dovewing, and Ivypool. She is welcomed back warmly by her mother, brother, and best friend (Heathertail)

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 4

Heyo! Sorry for the radio silence, I got moved to a longer morning shift at work this week, kept on getting home and falling asleep straight away. Now where did we leave off? ...oh. Right. Mami. *deep breath* Alright, PMMM. Do your worst.

Someone’s running? Wait, is this Kamijo’s (fancy) hospital room? Why is the bed empty? Oh, Sayaka! How are you… yeah, not even going to bother asking how you feel after seeing Mami get eaten, jesus christ. Anyways, Kamijo’s in Physical Therapy, so she can’t see him. So Sayaka just walks away as the strings start, we see Kamijo actually in Physical Therapy struggling to walk (so the accident not only messed up his ability to play music, but even to walk), and the nurses confirm that even if he is able to walk again he’ll probably never be able to play the violin. *checks time* and we’re only one minute into this damn episode. Where the hell is the cheery magical girl slice of life show I was promised?! And Sayaka’s in the elevator, wondering why it was Kamijo that got hurt. Her fingers are fine… “Why couldn’t it have been me instead of Kyosuke?” Well. Looks like someone’s got some survivor’s guilt from the Mami incident bleeding over to another injured person. Sayaka? Sayaka, listen to me. Are you listening? Ok, look. YOU ARE A MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRL. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE HAVING THESE THOUGHTS. THESE ARE NOT HEALTHY THOUGHTS FOR ANYONE TO HAVE. YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW. But of course she can’t hear me, and continues to beat herself up, wondering what Kamijo’s reaction to her healing him would be. (I assume she’s not in the right frame of mind to consider that it would likely be along the lines of “Holy crap what the hell just happened.”) No! Sayaka, no, stop that! You are not ‘a horrible person’! Stop feeling guilty about things that are absolutely not your fault! Whoa, what the hell? It’s still the original intro? … How dare you. How dare you, PMMM?! You spring that last episode on me, and then you just pull up this poppy little sequence of lies and act like nothing has changed? You still show the three on top of the damn radio tower! Episode 4: Miracles and Magic Are Real Ok, nope. Sorry, but I am too angry at PMMM to continue tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow, but damn it show, you can’t just have all of the sadness and then bring up a bright cheery intro and title like that, and pretend you’re still cute and not secretly enjoying my crushed innocence.

*one angry sleep later*

*Watches Intro Sequence of Lies* Ok, I think I’m back into the requisite ‘wanting to hug and shield these precious babies from the horrible writers’ mindset. Lets get to it! The Kaname house! Still as Modern Art-esque as ever, I see. The family is all in the kitchen and… oh. While Father is cooking in his apron and Mother in her business attire is cleaning the little boy’s face, Madoka is… just sitting there. Not talking, not touching her food just… slightly hunched over, looking down. Looking at the egg yolk. Yellow like Mami’s improbable hair- no don’t show that scene again she’s twitching uniform poof GUH. Madoka just got snapped out of it when Mother tells her to hurry and eat, otherwise she’ll be late for school. Guh. I know that there’s no way for the family to know, but school probably isn’t Madoka’s biggest concern right now. And Madoka can’t even take a bite of her breakfast without breaking into tears. Father can only ask if it tastes bad, or something. … I know that on some level I think that’s funny, but it’s kinda far down under the weight of this middle-school girl having flashbacks about seeing her friend get eaten alive. Who can only barely talk about how it tastes good and she’s alive to eat it. Cut to the road to school, Sayaka is being surprisingly talkative today, mostly at Hitomi while Madoka is being very quiet. Well, not verbally, but she does shoot a mind message to Sayaka who asks if they can talk about it later. In class the teacher is talking about marriage and relative ages for some reason, I suspect this isn’t part of the intended lesson. And Homura is glancing back at the girls. I honestly can’t tell what she’s thinking. “Good, looks like they were scared off?” “It’s sad that their friend died, but now there’s no-one in my way?” “Mwahaha, my evil plan is going perfectly?” Up on the wide open rooftop again, the girls are talking about how different things are now. “It feels like we’re in a foreign country or something.” The non-magical girl parts of their world are still the same, but it feels so… distant now. And that’s because no-one else knows about the witches. Or Mami. (Wait, sudden thought. Mami lived on her own in the apartment. And it was implied that she was an orphan from the car crash. Who’s going to notice that she’s gone? Her landlord, if she was renting the apartment? Maybe the school when she doesn’t show up? Are there no other friends or family who would notice?) Oof, loaded question now. “Do you still want to be a magical girl, even now?” They don’t have an answer. I don’t think I have one either. And now Madoka’s crying (nooo, don’t do that) and saying she know’s it’s “selfish” to back out now, but she can’t go forward. She’s scared. Middle-school girls, remember. Mami really was kind to make them understand the risks. Would have been better if she hadn’t died as an object lesson, but maybe it can still help them. Yeah, what is going to happen to Anime City now, show mascot? I mean, the Protagonist and Sidekick are pretty set on Refusing the Call, but that still leaves witches running around. Kyubey says that with Mami gone, other magical girls are likely to move in and hunt the witches. I’m torn between curious at seeing outside magical girls moving in and jockeying for the territory, and thinking that Homura isn’t likely to let that happen. Maybe there are a few more conveniently-placed Grief Seeds in the future… Whoever ends up here, at least they should deal with the witch probl- WHOA WHAT “But I think the only ones who have a right to judge their actions are their fellow magical girls, who bear the same destiny as they do.” What the hell, Kyubey? You may be right, but that’s a rather hefty statement to use against two girls grieving over a friend. Well. It seems that Kyubey is leaving to search for other girls to contract. That’s… rather mercenary of you, Kyubey. You’re just going to leave what I can only assume is a day after Mami’s death to find another magical girl? I understand the witches need to be fought, but that’s colder than I thought you’d be. I’m not sure what to think right now. Well, at least he’s apologizing for getting them involved to this point. Goodbye, Rabbit-Thing. I’d say goodbye, but I honestly have no idea if we’re going to see you later. Seriously, I have no idea. I mean, we’re four episodes into a twelve episode show, and I don’t think the other two-thirds are going to just be about our two characters walking around school while having PSTD flashbacks. But then again, I didn’t call the last episode, so who the hell knows.

“I’m sorry.” Aw no. We’re at Mami’s door. And Madoka’s ringing the bell. I don’t think anyone’s going to answer, honey. Inside the theme’s picked up by bells as Madoka’s silhouette puts her notebook of magical girl costumes on the table, before she starts to cry again and apologize for being so weak. She leaves Homura. Now is not the time. Stay away from my babies. Wait. What’s going on? “You’re blaming yourself too much for this, Madoka Kaname. No one could criticize you for anything you’ve done. And even if they did I wouldn’t permit it.” Um. What? Where did this come from? With Mami and Kyubey gone, do you not see Madoka as a threat anymore? Where did this ‘permit’ stuff come from? Ah, ok. Homura knows that Madoka’s realized the danger now, doesn’t need to make heavy-handed “back off or your family gets it” threats anymore. Huh. I… did not see this coming. Homura and Madoka are talking, and instead of Homura being all spooky and mysterious she’s… actually being calm. Mami didn’t heed her warning, but Madoka’s safe from the danger now. “I was able to change yours (fate).” This is actually a really impressive twist. Sure, Homura may still be focused on her own power, but it seems she can tolerate others if they don’t interfere in her plans. If Madoka’s not going to make a contract, then she really isn’t a threat to her ambitions. It’s one thing to deal with people who mess up your plans, it’s another to target innocents. And Homura seems to not want to cross that line. ...maybe I was a little too quick to put Homura on the List? But then again, Madoka’s the protagonist. If Homura’s up to what I think she is (summon the Flying Thing from the vision to increase her power), then I doubt Madoka’s going to just stand by even if she’s scared now. Which would interfere with Homura. Welp, whatever will come later, at least now Homura’s being less overtly evil. Let’s enjoy it for now. Now that the two are talking, Madoka’s taking the chance to ask Homura about her time as a magical girl. Has she seen death like yesterday? “Yes.” “How many?” “Too many to try keeping count of anymore.” Aaand creepy music’s back. Madoka’s wondering about Mami’s apartment, and wow that’s rather blunt, Homura. Mami had no close relations (orphan confirmed). It’ll be a long time before anyone other than our characters notice she’s missing and file a report on her. ...wait, wasn’t she a student at the school? I’d think the attendance officer might have something to say about that. Aw, and since Mami died in a labyrinth her body stayed there. So even when a report is filed there will be no one to find. “In this world, she will simply remain a missing person forever.” I get that she was your rival and thus in your way, Homura, but could you show a little tact? Madoka just lost a new friend in a gruesome way. “That is the end that all magical girls meet.” And we’re back to the Philosophy of Homura that I’m gathering: Magical girls are rivals for power and thus obstacles to be removed. Non-MGs are to be warned away from the path, if they contract then they are obstacles, but if they do not then they are no threat and can be tolerated. And now I’m remembering that it was Homura placing the Grief Seed at the hospital that resulted in Mami’s death. Not sure if she thought she could deal with the resulting Witch before any bystanders got hurt or just didn’t care in order to ‘remove’ Mami. Back on the List you go. Madoka’s crying again at Homura’s frank descriptions. Mami fought to protect the city, not just gather Grief Seeds. And to have her ‘reward’ be obscurity… Homura’s talking about that being the cost of the Wish, that it can’t be helped. “I won’t forget… I’ll never forget about Mami!” Yes. YES. You tell her, Madoka! Screw Homura’s bleak outlook, you’re the Protagonist! So what if Homura is an experienced Magical Girl who defeated the Witch that killed your friend. Homura backs down in the face of Madoka’s optimism, saying something placating about how that will make Mami happy. “I envy her.” Wow. Ok, this episode is making me rethink my opinion of Homura. I mean, I still hold her earlier threats against her and that she caused Mami’s death, but we’ve seen that being a magical girl is no cakewalk. Without anyone to talk to like Mami had Kyubey, she “You too, Homura!” What. “I swear I’ll never forget you either!” Homura. Homura, the all-loving Protagonist Madoka is offering you friendship. This is your chance to not go and summon the Flying Thing. Please, pull a Viral, you can still join the good girls. Homura has a very blank face. I don’t think she can process this thing humans call “friendship”. Aw. She just clenched her fist. She isn’t going to go for it, is she? “You’re too kind for your own good.” Yup, she’s back to being the mysterious lone magical girl. Hairflip, warning that being kind in this Urobuchi world may lead to greater tragedy, and away she walks. Madoka’s left standing on the bridge. Back at the hospital! Sayaka’s visiting Kamijo again, who’s listening to “The Girl With the Flaxen Hair.” Good taste! We’re getting some character development as Sayaka talks about her listening to classical music, how she was taught by Kamijo. Daw, that’s cute and explains how they met. Wait. “Are you torturing me?” What are you ta- Oh. Oh no. We know that Kamijo’s injured and can’t play, and probably will never play again. We saw him crying the last time Sayaka visited him when he listened to music. Sayaka’s been trying to cheer him up, but instead it’s just highlighting that he can’t perform what he’s listening to. Ouch. Kamijo’s freaking out now as he’s yelling about he can’t stand listening to things the accident has barred him from following again, he smashes the CD player and there’s blood on the sheets, Sayaka’s grabbed his arm and he can’t even feel the pain of the cuts. Sayaka’s trying to calm him down, saying that someday they’ll find a treatment. “They said that I had no chance of ever performing again.” Whoa. Ok, whichever doctor said that to a patient is in dire need of remedial training, and secondly this is a super high-tech and advanced city compared to our own, you can’t just say “Oh, there’s no way that technology could ever solve this current problem.” Science doesn’t work like that, it keeps going until somebody finds a solution. “He said that with current medicine, it just wasn’t possible.” Right, that’s exactly my point! Current medicine sucks, it’s the medicine of tomorrow that is awesome! Hold up. “Not until the day miracles or magic start existing in this world.” Ah. AH. She’s going to do it, calling it now. Sayaka’s going to Wish for a treatment for Kamijo’s hand and become a Magical Girl. And then Sayaka becoming a MG will prompt Madoka to help her friend, and the two will become the new protectors of Anime City. And then Homura will get ticked, and the show will continue. Oh boy. “Miracles… and magic… are real!” Title drop! And Kamijo’s probably thinking that Sayaka’s trying too hard right now. If you only knew, boy… Kyubey! You’re back! I guess I underestimated you, good to see you again. Let’s get to Wishing! Later that night, it seems Madoka’s walking around bummed that Homura didn’t want to make friendship bracelets. Hey, it’s Hitomi, the NPC friend of the trio! How are you doing? Wait, what’s with the blank look and sudden gong? And the tattoo on her neck AAAAAAH IT’S A WITCH’S KISS NO NO NO Hitomi’s speaking in an airy voice, going somewhere “far better than here”. Yeah, she is totally mind-controlled. Damn it, we need Sayaka to make that contract and help out Hitomi now. Wait, now she’s telling Madoka to follow along. Madoka, no. You have no powers and a Witch is clearly involved. Flag down a cop, and tell them that you think your friend is high on something, get them to detain her. But whatever you do do not follow! Great, you’re following the the prancing hypnotized girl to “somewhere better”. Isn’t the whole point of Witch Kisses to drive people to their labyrinth’s for suicides and murders? Madoka, you following along is less than useless, you’re only putting yourself in danger. Leave and get someone else! Call Sayaka, there’s no way you don’t have her phone-number, tell her to call the cops while you follow from a safe distance. Hell, yell for Homura! “Hey Mysterious Transfer Student, my friend is being controlled by a Witch! Follow us if you want another Grief Seed! And, you know, don’t let innocents die?” Ooooh crapbaskets. There are more people, a lot of Shufflers around them now. And now Madoka’s beating herself up for not having Homura’s number. Ok, maybe I’m being a bit unfair, you only just realized she wasn’t planning to kill now that you’ve renounced the power. Now they’re inside some sort of warehouse, as a man mutters about how he couldn't keep a factory running. CRAP the gate just shut. Madoka’s trapped in a building full of Shufflers and presumably nearby a Witch’s labyrinth. I believe the technical term for this is FUBAR. Why is a lady carrying a bucket? And setting the bucket down? What is she pouring into the bucket, and why does it look like this other man has a container of gas? Flashback! (colors are a big contrast to the green of Creepy Factory) Mother is teaching Madoka to differentiate between two sorts of bottles, “or the results could be fatal.” Aw crud, whatever these chemicals are causes a fire or toxic gas or something, right? The entire factory of Shufflers is going to die. (Homura, Sayaka, pretending-to-be-dead-for-some-reason-but-really-alive Mami, anyone?) Madoka rushes forward OUCH she just got struck in the midriff by psycho Hitomi, preventing her from getting closer. She tries to warn that the chemicals are dangerous, and Hitomi’s all “Uh, yeah? That’s the point, we’ll die and go to a new world.” Heaven’s nice and all, Hitomi, but you aren’t supposed to take shortcuts! The Shufflers’ are applauding Hitomi’s witch-induced speech, Madoka breaks free and grabs the Death Bucket, throwing it out the window. Yes! Wait, no! The Shufflers’ are pissed, and going full-on zombie as they chase her. Window’s locked, got to find another way door! Get in get in get in lock it whew. Ok, she’s stuck in some sort of closet, but at least the Shufflers can’t get her. Wait, NO! Art’s going trippy, weird sounds and music, WITCH! Madoka’s in the Labyrinth! Sayaka, Homura, ANYONE! Trippy TVs in the background, monochrome angle-fairies grabbing her, she’s screaming and her artwork’s going all wobbly JEBUS she just got ripped apart! … What the hell is wrong with this show? Mami the Awesome dies in Episode 3, and the title character dies in Episode 4?! Wait, it’s still going. Flickering lights, MADOKA! She’s not dead, I don’t think, she’s just drawn without borders now and part of me is impressed with this art style even as the rest of me is screaming in horror that Madoka is trapped in the Labyrinth. She’s stuck spinning around as the angel-fairies shows televisions with Mami’s final battle, their conversation, and her death. This is hell. That’s the only way to describe it. Madoka’s stuck on her own, floating around helplessly as she’s tormented by Mami’s fate. She’s calling herself a coward and liar, thinks that this is a fitting punishment, NO. NO NO NO. Screw you, Witch, you let Madoka go right now. The angel-fairies are pulling her again, she’s screaming again, I can’t Blue light? Lasers? Madoka’s free and the Witch Computer With Wings got smashed, Madoka glitched back to her standard art form and is looking around in confusion. Sayaka?! Sayaka in a cape, moving incredibly fast smashing up the larger angel-fairies, guess that answers the question “did she become a Magical Girl”, I think she’s using a sword as she slams the Witch into the ground and suddenly Homura and she looks pissed. Aw crap. It’s like I thought. If the girls didn’t contract then she would tolerate them, but now Sayaka’s become a Magical Girl. Homura’s new territory is being competed for again. Hitomi’s on the ground as are all the other Shufflers, Sayaka’s apologizing for taking so long to get there. Hey, that’s the outfit from the poster! Madoka is understandably worried about Sayaka becoming a Magical Girl, but Sayaka’s brushing it off and saying she did pretty good for a first Witch battle. Aw crap. Homura’s here, back in the shadows. Sayaka calls her out for being late to the party. Cut to Kamijo, I’m guessing the doctor’s about to come in and apologize for doubting the scientific method. Or Kamijo will just raise his hand and curl his fingers. Oh. Um. So. Sayaka just wished for his hand to be healed. Aw crap. Ok, look, I know it sounds bad when I say that, that I’m making light of a musician regaining the ability to play. But. This wish was shown to heal fatal injuries in Mami’s case, so we can assume that it would be powerful enough to heal a ‘lesser’ injury like Kamijo’s, where his life wasn’t at risk. My question is this: would the wish have worked for a general cure to be discovered, instead of just instant inexplicable healing? That way it could have a reasonable explanation for the doctors and could be applied to other people. This case has just one person benefit, it can’t be replicated (unless another girl makes a contract), and now the doctors are going to be trying to figure out what the hell happened. I know I’ve got the privilege of an outside view, but to me this seems a shortsighted use of a Wish. But of course, it makes sense if we think about Mami’s warning, about using a Wish for another person. Sayaka may not really mean for it to heal the argument between her and Kamijo, but I don’t think he’s going to make the leap in logic that the girl who was talking about miracles and magic earlier was the one who healed him. I… don’t see this ending well. Wait, new person? Eating a burrito or something. Kyubey, hey! Wait, why are you talking to the Food Person? Aparently she heard that “Mami had bought it”, that indicates an outside Magical Girl moving in on the territory. Great, another competitor, I’m sure Homura will love that. Hey, red hair! (I’m sure Tephi liked seeing that) And sharp teeth for some reason. Yup, confirmed for magical girl. Who is now chewing out Kyubey for telling her that the territory is now taken. Oh, so that’s what he was up to between leaving the girls and going back to Sayaka. Aaawkward. Well, Food Girl is annoyed that the territory has been claimed. (Name of Kyoko). And oh shit she’s going to “put the new girl out of commission.” Aw crap, now Sayaka’s got two MG’s going after her between Homura and Kyoko. Wait, sudden flash of smile and word “permanently”. Well, I guess I can’t fault you for confidence. I mean, I’m pissed that you’re targeting my babies, but I’ll give you that. End of episode and driving credits music! Ok, now that my emotions are slightly better than last time, let’s take a closer look. Driving music, glitchy silhouette of Madoka walks past one of a short-haired girl who I think is Sayaka, then a long-haired girl (Kyoko?), Mami sitting down (I miss you, shortest ship ever), another silhouette who- turns and reaches out to Madoka? Wait, is that Homura? She’s the only other MG we’ve seen, so I guess so, but why is she the only one to move? Cut and now Madoka’s form is running then disappears into the distance, an eye opens with a curled up Madoka as the pupil, then fades into a facelike thing before it all fizzled out. Illustration of Madoka in her MG outfit, voice-over of Sayaka getting excited about being a magical girl, taking up Mami’s role as protector of Mitakihara City. Argh, but that title! “There’s No Way I’ll Ever Regret It” Argh no why. Well. I have thoughts on episode, need to really think about Homura’s character development and the impact of this new girl (who Kyubey brought here, I’m not sure what to think about that), but there’s one thing I need to say before I end this section. I WAS RIGHT! Yes, being a magical girl has its risks, and now Sayaka has to deal with an annoyed Homura and this Kyoko girl. BUT. I said it before, the Witches are still out there, and not being a magical girl means that you have no defenses, as we saw with Hitomi. And being a potential contractee like Madoka may be even worse, she could see what was going on but was still trapped in the labyrinth and would have died if Sayaka hadn’t become a Magical Girl and saved her. If last episode was “Why Not to Become A Magical Girl”, then this episode was “Why You Really Do Have To Become A Magical Girl”. Do I have my problems with Sayaka’s Wish? Yes, and unless we get some information next episode to explain that my interpretation is completely wrong about not being for general use then I don’t see that changing. But becoming a Magical Girl in and of itself, getting the power to defend herself, Madoka, Hitomi, and other innocents? That I can wholeheartedly approve of. 

[meny-sempai]

MO DAO ZU SHI IS A MASTERPIECE – part 04

Hey guys!

First of all:

How is it possible that there are only 19 votes for this? Jeez…

This week’s newsflash!

Quote from the novel:

“Every day when Wei Wuxian was free, he played with the toddler Wen Yuan, son of Wen Qing’s cousin. He either let him hang on trees or buried him in the ground, fooling him that he’d grow faster if he was watered and bathed in sunlight… Turning around, though, he realized that Wen Yuan was gone. He almost turned pale, searching for the toddler all along the streets. Suddenly, he heard the wails of a child, and he immediately rushed over…

…

Wei WuXian, “Do you want one?”

Wen Yuan thought that he was going to buy one for him. He spoke embarrassedly, “Yeah.”

Yet, Wei WuXian walked in the opposite direction, “Haha, let’s go.”” (ch74)

Wei Wuxian, my son, you are so adorably horrible at parenting. Do keep it up. AND. If you think I’m not gonna use this in my favour, you’re wrong:

“Wei WuXian laughed madly, “Hahahahaha! Lan Zhan, congratulations! He’s taken a liking to you! He hugs the leg of whoever he likes, and he never lets go.”” (ch74)

“Jiang Cheng didn’t know when, but a child about one or two years old crept over and hugged his leg. Raising his chubby chin, he looked up at him with his dark, round eyes.” (ch73)

My boy JC = instant like. The children know.

Aaand that’s a wrap, see you guys next time!

… You wish. Let’s get started!

Before I begin I’ll just repeat this for the new readers:

I’m not a native English speaker so please bear with the mistakes I’m bound to make. I did read the novel, but only as far as the Exiled Rebels Scanlations translated it (thank you Rebels, you’re gods). I know a lot of spoilers, but I can’t say I know the whole story – If I start theorising be aware that I’m just theorising, I’m not actually telling the plot, but, just to be sure: SPOILERS ahead, I will use the facts I know for my analysis.

In this short series I’ll talk about the episodes, but I’ll also have long monologs about a certain topic.

EPISODE 07 – or, man I hate the Wens but I LOVE that theme music of theirs

… Has anyone ever told you the story about the boy who cried wolf?

And half of the fandom just died in the most satisfying death. I love how he just took a glance at the tables and was like: Nope, I’m not having any of this shit. And I’ll be theatrical and dramatic about it for all to see.

Remember what I said in one of my posts about the clans - how they don’t seem to be willing to play as a team and mostly watch their own? I think there’s a lot of truth in this and I suppose this is one of the reasons why the Wens grew so much in power. Nie sect obviously has a grudge against the Wens and wants to act on it. Now that Nie Mingjue is old enough he could do it. In theory. But without the assistance of other sects it would be suicidal. Was that why the Wens left Nie Mingjue and his brother alive after they killed their father? Did they know the other sects wouldn’t be willing to lift their fingers for the Nie? We can assume they didn’t react to the murder of Nie Mingjue’s father, so why would they help the Nie in revenge?

From my POV and understanding this advice of Lan Qiren should be pissing the hell out of Nie Mingjue. He is telling him to suck it up. Yes, for the sake of his clan, but also, because any kind of mess like this is endangering the other sects. Other sects chose to keep to themselves, so the advice is also: You do this, man - you’re alone.

On the other hand, this sentence can be also seen as how Lan Qiren himself feels. We saw him being enraged by the Wen clan because they let the Waterbound Abyss in their territory. But he can’t voice out his dissatisfaction, because he himself is sucking it up for his sect. If we see it that way, he’s basically saying: Even if we both riot it would be a suicide (Because, you see that yellow prick behind you? He’s not gonna help us and he’s the richest of us all. Jiangs are playing friends with them, they want to be family. We can’t count on any other help.)

And Lan Qiren is right. Nothing happened after Cloud Recesses was vandalized.

I don’t think the four big sects trust each other very much. The Wen sect actually brought them all together with all the shit they did. But teaming up happened mostly because the young ones took over.

I don’t even think they like each other. Which is kinda expected – they are all very different - their origin, mentality, temper, code, cultivation method. It’s actually funny how the Gusu Lan and the Nie are showing the first signs of teaming up since they are completely different in everything.

Instant confirmation to both Nie Mingjue and Lan Qiren. If you are understanding the scene like I described it, this guy laughing after what Lan Qiren said gets a whole new meaning. UGH. I don’t know why, but I really like the sound of his voice. Ugh…

And now we get the Jiang’s POV. The leader of the Jiang doesn’t care about the sitting arrangements (about the current situation of the sects). For him, the way things are, everything is already settled and can’t be changed in the present situation. What he cares about is THE FUTURE. Who will come after Wen Ruohan? Considering we know how deeply Jiangs value their family we can assume Jiang Fengmian is only thinking of how all of this will affect his children. Especially the future leader of Jiang.

What if? Jiang Fengmian always talks about the clan’s moto, he cherishes the “attempt the impossible”. But he himself is a very mild mannered man who doesn’t seem to have accomplished anything “amazing” in his years. And the way he acts could be seen as “weak” – he “accepts” the Wen sect, he “accepts” the wife’s anger, he “accepts” the marriage, he “accepts” the betrayal of his servant and friend. He is actually… very similar to Jiang Cheng.

What if the reason he’s being so strict and emotionless towards his son is because, in his way, he’s trying to make his son a better man than himself. Attempt the impossible/be like Wei Wuxian – don’t be like me. The future is bleak, and as a leader, you, my son, my heir, you can’t be like me.

Once again, MDZS makes a fabulous scene out of nothing.

Not at all.

My god, I love the dialog in this. Also, remember what I rambled about Wen Xu? Could this also be a hint? Did the sect leaders maybe hope to see him there? Instead, they got an untalented punk – worse than his father.

I’m sorry, for some reason I always laugh like an idiot during this exchange. I don’t know what it is that makes this scene so hilarious to me. Please, someone explain it to me.

He’s so precious!

Ah… JC, we meet again. I’ll talk about this moment down below. Just, remember it.

*squealing from love and insufferable pain*

JC: “Let’s split into two groups, then gather at the exit later.”

WWX: “Hey, where the hell are you leading me to?” (smiling)

JC: “Stop complaining! Just follow me.” BAM

WWX: “How about we go back the way we came? Rest assured. I definitely won’t tell anyone.” (teasing)

JC: “Just shut up, will you!” BAM

WWX: “Ahahahaha! Jiang Cheng.”

JC: “What now?”

WWX: “Look.”

I laughed my ass off the first two times I watched this. The third time… I noticed something.

Jiang Cheng takes the lead the moment the archery tournament starts, as an heir should. He gives out orders and goes into “follow me” mode. He has a path in mind, this strange and hard path looks right to him. He has a gut feeling he’s right in his decisions and he follows his gut. Wei Wuxian questions the plan like any of us would if someone started to drag us through “tight spots” for no reason. He questions him but he follows him nevertheless. I don’t think he even questions him for real, I think he’s just having fun watching his brother plays leader. And that’s one of the problems. Jiang Cheng is not playing. He’s trying to prove himself. This is his chance. So, when Wei Wuxian pokes fun at him he snaps like he usually does, but this time there is also an injury. Their conversation and Wei Wuxian’s comments hurt. Hence the head bumps. You can clearly see the change in Jiang Cheng’s expression after the first bump. He’s not so decisive anymore. He actually looks sad as if he’s starting to question his decisions too. But he can’t back down now so he just keeps going. And the smart-ass Wei Wuxian knows his brother too well. From his next comment we can see that he figured out what is bothering Jiang Cheng and as any decent sibling he pokes at it. Of course, Wei Wuxian doesn’t mean any harm, he’s just playing like the brothers always do. JC says some harsh things to Wei Wuxian too, it’s all part of being siblings. Sure, Wei Wuxian makes comments, but he still follows. He’s not even truly questioning anything, he’s annoying, but he completely trusts JC’s lead. He never thought of leaving his side, not even during “tight spots”.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t get hurt because of what Wei Wuxian says, he knows Wei Wuxian is probably the only one who doesn’t and won’t ever mean any of it. And that’s the biggest problem. Jiang Cheng believes in Wei Wuxian, he believes in WWX’s love for him, he trusts Wei Wuxian, but he doesn’t trust others. When someone says similar things that Wei Wuxian would jokingly say to him, Jiang Cheng can’t ignore it. Why? Because the same things have been said to him by the people who should love you the most. When your mother is always attacking your brother and saying you’re a fool to love him, when she is constantly dissatisfied with you and even says things like:

“You really are an idiot. I’ve told you long ago that you’ll never in your whole life be able to surpass the one sitting beside you. Not over cultivation, not over night-hunting, even over shooting kites, you can’t surpass him! … Your mom tells you countless times not to fool around with him, yet you’re still defending him. Just how did I give birth to a son like you?!” (ch51)

When your father never acknowledges you, when your parents are fighting because you’re not good enough, how do you feel? Wouldn’t any kind of comment affect you? Wouldn’t hearing that you’re worse at archery than some guy who missed the whole target hurt you? (But, they’re fighting because of Wei Wuxian and his mom, not because of JC.) Sure. But, would that be such a big problem if Jiang Cheng was as good as Wei Wuxian? If he was as good, wouldn’t that make his mother as good as the other woman? Wouldn’t that make his father love them equally? Besides, what child doesn’t think it’s his fault their parents “don’t love each other”?

“Jiang Cheng told him from inside, “Go sleep somewhere else! This is my room! You’re even gonna steal my room?!”

At that time, Wei WuXian didn’t know what Jiang Cheng was mad about at all. After a pause, he replied, “I didn’t steal anything. It’s Uncle Jiang who told me to sleep with you.”

Hearing that he was still bringing up his father, almost as if he was purposely showing off, Jiang Cheng’s eyes reddened as he yelled, “Go away! If I see you again, I’ll call a bunch of dogs to bite you!””(ch71)

This scene ripped my heart to shreds. Poor WWX, so confused and scared. Poor JC. Yes, this, THIS is jealousy. A full blown toxic jealousy attack, but there is also a lot to be read between the lines. Why is he exploding like this out of the blue? He was ready to forgive the fact that they’ve taken his only friends away from him. He was ready to share the room with the person for whom he had to give up his dogs. So why? He’s a child and he’s jealous, but is that really it? You know, seeing your father hugging someone should not be a trigger. It’s not normal to compare yourself just because of that. There has to be more, more unspoken reasons why someone would instantly compare oneself with someone. JC is someone who puts up with a lot of shit without saying anything – such people tend to explode for “no reason”. Realizing he’s been hugged only five times is the last straw.

When a very young child is unsure of whether his father loves him – you, as a parent, are doing something wrong. When a child is so afraid that his mistakes will make his father not like him even more – you have a very insecure child. An insecure child/person has a very low opinion of himself.

“Looking at Wei WuXian’s legs, Jiang Cheng’s face was full of nervousness. If any other disciple or servant learned about this and told Jiang FengMian, after Jiang FengMian knew how he threw Wei WuXian’s sheets out and made him hurt his leg, Jiang FengMian would definitely dislike him even more. This was also why he only dared chase after them alone and didn’t get anyone else.

Seeing how worried he seemed, Wei WuXian took the initiative, “Relax. I won’t tell Uncle Jiang. I only hurt myself because I suddenly wanted to climb a tree last night.”

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng sighed in relief. He swore, “You can relax as well. Anytime I see a dog, I’ll chase it away for you!”” (ch71)

I do believe this was the beginning of the ultimate trust. Also, after his jealousy attack, JC immediately realized what he did and felt bad. Yes, he was afraid of his father, but I do not believe for a second that that has any significance in his love for Wei Wuxian.

“Jiang YanLi put Wei Wuxian onto her back and began to walk back, wobbling in her steps as she spoke, “A-Ying, no matter what A-Cheng said to you, don’t bother about him. He doesn’t have a good temper, so he’s always home playing with himself. Those puppies were his favorites. Dad sent them away, and so he’s feeling upset. He’s actually really happy that somebody’s here to be with him. You ran out here and didn’t go back for a long time. I came to find you only because he’s worried that something happened to you and went to wake me up.””(ch71)

I love A Li, I’ll talk about her more later. She’s a great sister, but she does sometimes unintentionally do things that are unfair to Jiang Cheng (don’t attack me, wait for the next post for the elaboration). In this particular scene she was amazing. She didn’t get mad at JC (out of all the people he trusted her to bring back Wei Wuxian and don’t tell father about his mistake – that’s love). She carried them both (which is a nice contrast to Jiang Fengmian who carried only Wei Wuxian in the scene before). She tended to JC’s wounds from falling into the pit and encouraged him to say sorry. She. Was. Great.

But, let’s address one more thing. What does she mean by JC not having a good temper? What kind of a bad temper can a child have to not be able to have friends? Older JC is stiff and grumpy, but he does have friends in his sect and other people want to be his friends (Nie Huaisang for example).When you doubt your own worth, you can’t trust people to like you. Being around people can be hard. Being around dogs that have unconditional love for you can be very easy. It’s pleasant. I think Princess, Jasmine, and Love were healing his soul (like dogs often do) and taking them away was way more tragic from JC’s POV than it seems. No wonder he was wailing.

It’s funny how Wei Wuxian is afraid of dogs, but has so much unconditional love in him for his family.

I’ll talk about Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng more – the juicy episodes are coming. I’ll just say this: I really admire both of them. It would have been so damn easy for those two to hate each other’s guts, but they just don’t. And, yes, I don’t know the whole story, but right now, I believe JC never truly hated WWX, not even after everything.

Anyway.

Back to the scene from the donghua.

So, JC bumps his head and we laugh because it’s funny. If you are overthinking, like I am whenever JC appears on the screen, then you might see the head bumps as a metaphor for the comments JC has to live with. There’s one more way we can take this scene. Let’s say this is some form of foreshadowing. JC becomes the leader. Through thick and thin he leads and WWX follows him. JC’s decisions are not always the best, but the one who gets hurt by those decisions is him. Let’s go further and say the first bump is Shijie’s death.

Wei Wuxian: “How about we go back the way we came?”

I don’t know how it happens, but JC most certainly refuses to go back to how things were, he can’t go back. Even if you see honest hurt on his face, he continues and his leadership and decisions hurt him again. The death of Wei Wuxian. Even after this, JC continues on and in the end he reaches his destination. He was right all along, the path did lead to their goal (feral ghosts in this particular scene), but when he’s finally reached his goal he doesn’t see it. Not until Wei Wuxian points it out. When JC lost all of his family (Wei Wuxian in particular) he lost his focus. The goal became invisible because it had no worth anymore.

The two heroes of Yunmeng Jiang – Jiang Cheng needs Wei Wuxian in order to be himself and show his best.

I can’t wait for more chapters of the novel to analyse all of this and have a full picture of their relationship.

I know, ladies… Aahh… I know.

Well, you are extremely striking, Wei Wuxian, I’ll give you that. You’re so damn pretty here, my son.

One starts, the other one finishes. Both in their own ways. I just remembered this quote from the novel while re-watching:

“The two knew how to continue each other’s words ever since they were young. Now, one sentence after another, the argument flowed seamlessly…” (ch62)

I TOLD YOU NOT TO CRY WOLF! LOOK WHAT YOU DID! Calm down, Lan Zhan, breathe, my child brea-

HOLY FUCK! Down, Lan Zhan, stay down, remember the code! Remember, you’re a good boy, the best bo-

OK. OK, yeah, let it out. That’s healthy. Just… yeah. O.O (You better not piss off this dude. Fear the quiet ones, FEAR THEM.)

How can you be so smart, yet so stupid? XD Seriously, did you or did you not copy the damn rules for a month??? But, yeah, poor Lan Zhan, and poor Wei Wuxian – he is honestly confused. He wasn’t given a moment to properly apologize and he clearly wanted to. These two… they’ll be the death of me. Btw, the whole ribbon thing is so interesting, such a nice detail to the world building. But! I do admit that you most likely wouldn’t know about it if you follow only the animation. They should have made it more obvious. Unless. They did it like this on purpose, only to reveal it in the next season, which is also cool.

He feels so bad. TT_TT Don’t make that face at him, Lan Zhan, he’s a gentle soul. He doesn’t look like it, but he is.

Exactly. We won. Love is strong in JC. And look at those dorks. Precious. These moments are truly the blessing that we got from the animation. For me at least, it made me care about those guys even though I can’t remember their names. Those two nameless purple boys were the ones who made me drop my first tear in ep 11. These small things are so important. This is how you write a scene. 

Envious much? I get you, though.

EPISODE 08 – or, where have all these bitches come from???

Diminutive - used to express the fact that something is small, often either to show affection or to suggest that something or someone is not important: Adding diminutive suffixes is often a disparaging tactic. MDZS has this fascinating ability to tell and show without actually spending too much time to tell and show.

Once again, such an imaginative way to progress the scenes.

“The cultivation clans kept silent in indignation (after the fall of many clans), only to share their resentments secretly. In the same year Wen Ruohan commanded his eldest son, Wen Xu, to aggressively intrude and burn down the Cloud Recesses.”

Ah, Wen Xu, I had so much faith in you. But, at least you didn’t burn everything and killed everyone like Wen Chao did. And defying your father/leader is a no-no. Eh, dunno, I wish we had more on him.

Don’t touch my baby! *animalistic growling*

That was really… cruel. But, I already talked about it. I want to say another thing here. I think the main reason why Wei Wuxian immediately jumped to the chance to go with Jiang Cheng is because Jiang Cheng will be safer with him than alone (I think Jiang Fengmian knows this too). Wei Wuxian is very protective of his shidi, he always saves him from (physical) danger. Man, I really love the Jiang siblings.

This is a nice parallel to that one moment when Wei Wuxain absorbed resentful energy in the earlier episode. The core melting must hurt as hell. Since I know almost all of the Jiang family lost their cores in similar fashion I get so pissed whenever I see The core melting hand (I don’t care for his name, he doesn’t deserve to have a name, I actually hate him more than any other Wen. He knows what he’s doing is wrong, he knows his lords are evil and he does nothing and his excuse is some favor. I totally get why Wei Wuxain was so furious with him.)

SCREENSHOT!

Don’t do something that will kill you.

Also, I like how the moment Wen Chao said “Who else dares to defy my orders?” Wei Wuxian immediately showed up in the frame. It’s such a nice touch to his personality and it’s a nice “invisible way” of foreshadowing.

He’s such a good child… *ugly sobbing*

The world doesn’t deserve Wei Wuxian. The world punishes people like Wei Wuxian and everyone knows this fact. The world is just not ready for someone as good and righteous. It probably never will be and that’s sad. But being “good and righteous” is complicated and debatable. The world will never agree on “good and righteous”, the agreement can never be pure and open-minded – someone like Wei Wuxian will never be accepted in the real society. We can all say we admire him and we truly do, but we also call him a fool.

He is so creepy. I love the VA for this guy. The way he laughs and yells Yahoo adds to the craziness.

All of them are so cute here. Lan Zhan too, with his childish jealousy. They just look like kids playing around. Also, Nie Huaisang, I can’t wait to see more of your shady ass in the future.

… I just think this shot is beautiful.

Jin Zixuan: Did you just touch my shoulder with your filthy finger?

Me: Fret not, babe, I’ll have Wei Wuxian make him eat that finger.

Lan Zhan and Jin Zixuan started it, Wei Wuxian brings a whole new level to “Fuck you”. I mentioned this before, I’ll say it again: I really like how our MC fights first with his smarts and even when he’s physical you can see that he’s using wits and tricks to win. That’s not usually the case with MCs. In this particular case, because he used his wit to disgrace Wen Chao and the Wen sect, he got remembered and became the main target to Wens’ revenge. JC must be eating himself up over this. He tried so hard, yet at the end he let his brother do something that will kill him. Honestly, though, I would have done the same as Wei Wuxian… and then I’d be feeling guilty for the rest of my life… just like him.

… Um… Wei Wuxian sweety, your Yiling Patriarch is showing.

“Attempt the impossible” sequence is a go. Also, this is such a cool shot.

Can’t you see a giant killer turtle behind you??? Good to know what your priorities are. You dumb bitch. Also, that scream… That was a really good scream of Wei Wuxian. Well… not good. You know what I mean.

And that’s all for today. I always say to myself I’ll make it shorter next time and I always fail to do so. Well, hope you enjoy my rambling. See you!

[theinsanecrayonbox]

Current Packverse setting and players ramblings and art under a cut to avoid dash spam

now fair warning, this has Omegaverse connotations BUT only with those who have the feral genes. other humans, nope; other mutants, nope. only ferals. and ferals come in male presenting Alpha and Omegas; female ferals are actually a mutation within the feral mutation itself, brought about by intermixing with non-ferals. this is also why most female ferals are much more animal presenting too. Alphas are like the standard human male; Omegas are more hyena-like with a pseudo penis, but they don’t give birth via that, they have female genitalia, but a masculine urinary tract; that helps with territory marking after all. gender presents in pups when they’re about a week old, as swelling around the gentalia goes down enough to either reveal testicles or the lack there of. Omegas have a period cycle that’s 30-40 days long, but they go into heat every 3-4 months (so either every other, or every third period). heats can be suppressed (as in the pheromones dampened) with herbal/medicinal supplements, but aside from that is a regular cycle. Alphas do go into rut upon catching the heat pheromones, and anyone familiar with Omegaverse themes knows what that means.

so, still with me after that info dump? want the art and characters now?

Romulus and Remus

yup these guys are in here, some of the oldest ferals still around. Romulus is an Alpha, while Remus is an Omega; as gender transitioning became more a thing, she made herself far more female presenting, but that leads to in like ancient Rome how she was thought of as male, thus the myths about the “brothers”. but since Rom knows how ferals should work, when he discovers that Victor is an Omega, he’s quite interested since those are rare these days (again, that trait is recessive unless the other parent is also a feral), thus also explaining why he made so many clones, to try to increase his potential breeding stock.

Zebadiah and Victoria Creed

Victor’s parents. We’ll get more into the family life after the the next image, but to note is that Victoria here is actually a generation or two away from a native “white wolf” feral Omega. so as Victor was growing up, she’s the one that recognized what he was. whereas with Zeb, he was a bit of a drunk, and would go on religious fueled zealot rants (which makes you winder why he’d marry a woman with “savage roots” huh?)

Luther, Victor, Saul, and Clara Creed

this comes in 2 parts, despite me showing all 4 siblings together, because actually there’s about a 14 year difference between Victor and Saul 

Luther is the eldest child, and is male (and most likely an Alpha), while Victor is the second born and an Omega. as i said above, Victoria recognized what he was, and tried to make sure he could pass for male (as in warning him about period and heats, supplying him with the correct herbs to take to suppress the heats), but when that happened...yeah...Luther being an Alpha was kinda shown, since he was affected by the heat pheromones and that was actually the trigger to Victor killing his brother (pie metaphor...yeah...). 

when that was discovered, Zeb locked him in the basement and tortured him right; that included him calling him a demon, a monster, in the skin of a man but deceiving with forbidden fruit sorta deal...he also went “you took my son from me so you will replace it yourself” because in his mind, Victor was not his son at all, so there was nothing wrong with this and so...Saul was born. Saul is Victor’s son, raised by his mother as his brother, because his father made her.

Clara is at most a year younger than Saul; Victoria tried to distract Zeb from doing things to Victor with herself as bait, so yeah she fell pregnant too.

Victor broke out by the time he was 16 and he ran away, but a couple years later he went back home and killed his father. he then steppe din to take care of his family, but he couldn’t really deal with Saul’s presence due to what he meant to him; the only reasons he didn’t kill him was because his mother begged him not to. thus the years of abuse he inflicted upon him, yet not on Clara.

Victor/Sabretooth, Saul, Clara Creed

after Victor forced Saul to disfigure Clara, she convinced him to run away. Victoria kinda lost it, so Victor set her up somewhere safe, and he went off to try to track down his siblings. Meanwhile, they went to the circus and had the adventure with Logan, which ended with Logan killing Saul. so when Victor finally found his sister and learned what happened, he started his hunt of Logan, because even though he hated what Saul was, he was still his pup.

Clara learned the truth between Victor and Saul from Victoria on her death bed (maybe even unintentionally, she might’ve had dementia at this point), many years after the death of her brother. She’s still around, and though she understands a bit now, she still won’t forgive him for what he did.

Victor went about his life normally, maintaining a regiment to keep his heats in control for the most part, and using birth control and also typically not taking male sexual partners. When he joined Weapon X with Logan though, they discovered his Omega status, and thought that breeding tehir own feral fighters was a great idea (probably Rom’s idea honestly). so they attempted to force a breeding between the two, but Victor escaped and gave birth to a still born son. this is why they all thought that Laura and Kyle were related to him, because they were both created by Weapon X. this would also explain why, to create Weapon H, they went and took samples from OML and Victor, despite the two being so similar, because Victor’s feral mutation is actually slightly better due to him being an Omega.

Graydon, Clarice (Ferguson)/Blink, Kyle (Gibney)/Wild Child, Hudson Creed

Victor’s kids!

Graydon was actually carried by Victor; when he was starting to get serious with Leni Zauber/Mystique, before they actually had sex he told her the truth about him being an Omega. Mystique, realizing she hadn’t yet proven her own gender identity as Leni, decided to say she was a transwoman. so Mystique impregnated Victor, and the pregnancy went unrealized until the last leg of it so at the birth, when Mystique claimed the child was stillborn, Victor didn’t question it; in reality she stole Graydon away, but when he didn’t display any powers, abandoned him as usual. so the years later when Victor meets Graydon he’s honestly shocked to know he was alive, and actually didn’t believe his claims of being his kid, since you know, he can’t sire children, but Mystique confirmed it, so yeah.

not pictured, but to note; while Victor was working with Frank Payne/Constrictor the two of them slipped up a few times while drunk and did sleep together. Victor did fall pregnant, but he miscarries, and never told Frank.

Clarice is his adopted daughter, rescued from Sinister’s clutches when he was with Birdy; her family gave her to Sinister to “cure her mutations” when she was young, and he refused to give her back to her family. this also led to the three living at the X-Mansion for a coupe years while Victor raised his kids and Birdy’s death is what made him leave.

Kyle was part of the Weapon X shenanigans (more of that below with Laura). it turns out that while with Weapon X, they harvested eggs from Victor, and Kyle seems to be one of the children born from that. it was assumed that Logan was his father, but there’s been questions of that now. Kyle is an Alpha.

Kyle and Clarice end up working for X-Factor when their both adults as a couple.

Hudson is Victor’s youngest (and he’s still unborn/a baby, not the adult shown here whoops lol) and his biological father is Old Man Logan. Victor went into heat while with Weapon X-force (over usage of healing factor neutralized his suppressants and birth control) and OML, either not remembering that Victor was an Omega OR his Victor wasn’t one, went after him, and succumbed to the heat pheromones. OML wanted Victor not to have Hudson, so Victor left the team for a time and started training Belle instead, before eventually going back and bringing her with him. pretty sure Hudson’s an Alpha, but i’m not settled on that yet since as i said, he’s still either unborn or a baby right now.

Laura Kinney/Wolverine, Bellona (Kinney) Creed/Talon, Gabby Kinney/Honey Badger, Kylie Kinney/Sabretooth

as stated above, when Laura and Kyle first showed up, it was thought that they were both created using Victor and Logan’s DNA from their “breeding project”. it was kinda disproved though that Laura was...at least in a large enough sense. HOWEVER, Alchemax seemed to actually do that; with each new clone iteration they created of Laura, they changed the genes ever so slightly, hoping to encourage a healing factor (since this was post T-mist). so while Laura has maybe 5% Victor in her, Belle and gabby both have more from a combination of them using Victor’s eggs as a base, as well as modifying for the healing factor. this led to Belle’s eventual mutation being the Creed claws, rather than the Howlett ones.

After SHIELD takes custody of Belle, and her mutation triggers and she “sheds” her old skin, Victor is offered the opportunity to take custody of her to help acclimate her to her powers and what not, which he does. she then goes back to Weapon X-Force with him and is part of the team.

Kylie is from an alternate reality where Victor and Logan’s roles were reversed (good/evil at the least) so she’s in essence the Sabretooth version of X-23.

all 4 of them are female. in Laura’s case, the didn’t use the Omega genes from Victor so she doesn’t have any of those. Gabby and Belle might have some of those, but not enough for them to affect them. also, Belle might be sterile due to her albinism.

Logan Howlett/Wolverine, Old Man Logan, Daken, Jimmy Hudson

yeah, the Wolverines are included because they are important.

Logan did not raise Laura here, Victor did; he refused to because he thought she was part Victor, and since Victor was kind of living with the Xmen for the time, he just ran away from his responsibilities like usual. after a couple years he did get over himself and try to reconnect with Laura before his death, but he never reached out to Kyle in the same way.

OML’s from the dystopian future, but whether it’s this settings’ future or another is now debated, since in his past he raised Laura, while here he didn’t; could it be age mixing up his memories or just reality shenanigans? in any case, as stated above, he’s Hudson’s biological father, but wants nothing to do with him. he’s...trying to push victor to be better sure, but having a kid...he is afraid that because Hudson is Victor’s child, that means he will go bad. he also was not fully in favor for Victor training belle, since you know, he kinda has a thing against Gabby.

oh and both Logans are Alphas duh

Daken’s pretty much unchanged. he’s an Alpha, and thanks to Rom’s upbringing, knows about Omegas and all that stuff. he’s accepted Laura and Gabby as his sisters, debated whether he’ll do the same for Belle (since she identifies as a Creed), and he does not claim Kyle as his brother but he doesn’t hate him or anything.

Jimmy’s from the Ultimateverse where they didn’t have the Alpha/Omega dynamics, so i’m still in debate if that just automatically makes him an Alpha, or if he’ll have a transition period as he fully adjusts to this reality and might present as an Omega. he doesn’t really interact with the others much...i just like Jimmy

Arkady Rossovitch/Omega Red, Lazar Engel

included despite not being a feral, because Arkady is Hudson’s adoptive father, and Belle’s adoptive father/best friend

Omega Red is pretty much the same save for this specific point; he’s always been gay. when they did the super solider treatment (which they were more willing to do to him, because his orientation meant he was more expendable) they made him a eunic because 1) gay people are bad in their minds and 2) it’d mean less distractions for their weapon (you know, no emotions = perfect weapon). also with the radiation in his body, it was just less body parts to worry about i guess. when he was resurrected, he was brought back intact (yay new body) but when SICKLE got him, his brother Vassily probably made sure to repeat the process...because he hates his brother...but then again, with better medical stuff now, maybe he was just given a vasectomy instead of a full genitalia removal.

Arkady and Victor start a relationship when he joins Weapon X-Force, and oddly kinda falls in love with the idea of being Hudson’s father, since he never thought of having kids (because evil weapon, and also was unable to). he also connects with Belle, and the two become bffs real quick too, which leads to him and Vic hooking up even more i think.

Lazar is one of Red’s clones...or a clone of one of his clones. Belle finds him when trying to hunt down Red after Victor’s death, so the two of them wind up teaming up and bonding over the whole “clone of a clone” thing. when the whole family finally gets back together, Arkady and Lazar are a bit apprehensive around one another, and the debate of “are you my son or brother” comes up, but Lazar follows Belle’s lead and just calls Arkady his father.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Cockadoodledoo, (M//M)

Hey! I’m Jonesy! I’ve posted on here before a few months ago, and I spoke with a number of people about starting RPs, and then some shit happened where I was literally unable to get to the computer, thus vanished for a while. For… four months. Yeah. (Anyone want to know what it’s like to wake up from a coma and get in a fist fight with a nurse because you have no idea what’s going on? Just ask.) Anyhoo, if I had something started with you, or even if we were just talking about starting something, and you want to hit me up again, please do! For time’s sake, I’m just gonna copy/paste part of my last advert, because… coughlazycough.

 I’m in my late 20’s and am looking for M// literate (advanced) rp partners, ages 25+ please. I do not fade to black or avoid mature themes. My writing style has a casual feel to it, but I use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and I prefer that you have a good grasp on this, as well. I write third person paragraph style, and am looking for someone who likes world building and writing three dimensional characters. You know what I mean. If our characters walk into a town, I want to know who else is there, how the buildings are painted, what the air smells like. Take me to it. Paint me a worrrrrrddd pictuuuuureeee. If your character has a Maserati, I want to know how he treats it, how he drives it, and if he has that kind of money, why on EARTH would a Maserati be his car of choice?

 Absolute No’s: ….Well crap, I can never think of these until someone asks.

 Things I don’t like so much:

-Winey characters

-Super young characters

-Unrealistically serious characters

-Too much drama

-Posts that don’t move the story along (sometimes this is ok but not EVERY post…)

-Short posts.

-Spanish dudes (HA just kidding I LOVE spanish dudes.)

 Things I like:

-Spanish dudes

-All dudes

-Size differences

-Humor (Didn’t see that coming, did you?)

-Realistic dialogue*

-Open communication

 Genres I like:

-Sci fi

-Urban

-Steampunk

-Apocalyptical

-Dystopian

-Adventure

-Space stuff (This is its own genre, don’t argue with me.)

-Mild horror

 What I’m really craving right now is to use my character Ashby, and to find him a partner. I do have some other plots I’d like to write, or if you got something completely different and you want to run it by me, let me know! Worse that can happen is I’d say no. And then hunt you down and put sugar in your gas tank. (But mostly just say no.)

 So, Ashby. He’s a very complex character, thus kind of hard to explain while keeping it brief. Ashby Thornton Foster is a real strange creature. Not just because he’s very proper and likes to keep a position as the head butler in a household even though he probably has enough resources to never have to work ever. He’s tall, painfully handsome, with round antique glasses, and auburn hair. Sharp tongue, but can be a little daffy if you catch him off guard. He collects frightening tea pots, has been learning how to cook for 9 billion years but his chicken stew will probably send you to the can for the rest of the night, is excellent with mechanics and spends a lot of his free time tinkering, and has read almost every book ever written but can’t remember what happened in the last chapter of the one he’s currently working on. I should mention that this character is not human. He is a specific species of being that I created myself. I’ll go into it if you’re interested, but the basics are that he has handsomely jagged teeth, large amber eyes, and claw like nails that often lead him to be mistaken as a vampire, however when he shifts out of his human form, he looks more like a sphynx cat and a lady got together. That sounds awful, but he’s actually quite exquisite. (NOT a furry. He just looks a tad strange and has interesting legs.) Ashby is very sweet natured but runs a strict household. He is well respected and well loved.

 Ashby has a dark side to him that’s very calculated, very… intentional, if you know what I mean. He has the ability to make you the happiest person alive, but can turn around and cause you a lot of pain and suffering if you give him reason to. Battling with his darker side is a constant struggle. As far as a romantic interest for him, I usually play him as a switch, however he likes pretty masculine men (or beasties) who have the ability to dominate HIM because he doesn’t often run across many who can do so. (And I don’t just mean with sex. He can physically f*ck you up.) I would love to find him someone who can both talk him out of those times when shit gets a little too dark, but can also overpower him if need be.

 Usually, I play Ashby in a steampunk setting, and he’s the head butler of a household he runs pretty tightly, but I can also play him in other settings. He translates well. So if you’d like to Rp him in another setting, let me know! This character comes with an identical twin (Molocai, who prob won’t appear) and a Soul Eater character, who sets up camp in whatever town he settles in due to being promised his soul whenever he shuffles off his mortal coil. They’re best friends. (It’s a long story.)

 Here were some of the other stories I had ideas for, but if none of them tickle your pickle and you think we’d be a good RP match, let me know, anyway and we can do something else!

Made for one another:

Could fall under sci fi, apocalyptical, dystopian, adventure, hell it could fall under all of them. I have a really loose idea for this one. Two characters are genetically made for one another. Not romantically, but as in two parts that make up a whole. Both are genetically engineered to do something different, but both of their abilities need to be combined for whatever final outcome to happen. (The outcome being what they were created for.) Reasoning behind this was that maybe one person having both abilities, or the one ability that the both of them make up, would overload their system and kill them. Or significantly harm them in some way. Thus, two genetically engineered people were created.

The loose plot I had for this was that maybe one character has escaped the facility that created them. (Escaped a long time ago, perhaps.) This facility has some major unethical and downright inhumane practices (like lab growing people.) Character A. we’ll call him, decides to destroy the place, maybe from the inside out. (Perhaps he’s some kind of mercenary or rogue whatnot, living his life in secrecy so no one from said facility finds him, blah blah.) Ever see Alien Resurrection? With that scene where Ripley goes into the lab and finds all the failed experiments?.... No? Just me? Okay. Anyway, so while Character A. is torching the place, he finds Character B, who is the only experiment alive. He can’t just leave him there to die, so he takes him with him. That’s how they meet, but I don’t have much else for a plot for this story, other than that I see Character A as being kind of an asshole so they struggle a lot and much later they discover they’re literally made for one another.

 Mad Max:

This would be sort of based on the Mad Max world (as in the 2015 movie, even though I do so love the originals) though not using any of the characters, places, or… you know, anything. The world is a wasteland, but it’s not oil/gasoline that’s the hot commodity, it’s water. The wasteland is filled with different tribes, none of them very nice unless you belong to one of them. This pairing would be a character that’s kind of like Max, a lone wolf who belongs to no tribe and wanders, and…. I dunno, I guess he would be a POW? He’s a warrior from another tribe that was captured. Character A stops (cautiously) in one of the territories to trade for water and supplies. Character B is pretty roughed up and knows he’ll eventually end up dying if he doesn’t get away somehow, so his main objective is to get Character A to trade for him. Obviously, this eventually happens. Character A discovers that Character B has something that would be useful to him (maybe it’s just knowledge of mechanics and whatnot) so he ends up trading for him. Plot twist! They end up HATING one another. And maybe Character A finds out that Character B was lying all along and can’t really do the thing Character A traded him for, however now they’re stuck together, because they’re crossing the wasteland.

 Space Pirates (Totally not nerdy AT ALL.)

I have a space captain. He’s an alien. He has a super cool space ship and a super cool crew. His species is rarely seen in this part of the galaxy, usually they are a very secretive race living in deep, deep space, that remain secluded, however Janka has been exiled, and now creates a lot of havoc and headaches for anyone he encounters. I have a real old descrip of him from… jesus, like 2010 that I haven’t updated, but I’ll send it if he sounds interesting! Anyway, he’s a sarcastic, lazy sh*tface, kinda pretty gross without meaning to be, but he’s a real loveable character. Likes blowing things up. Kind of clumsy, which isn’t the best thing for someone who’s built like he is. He’s well known in space ports all over, so he sticks to the real shady ones, where he’s somewhat popular. This character comes with an entire crew, and bonus interesting genitalia. He really needs someone to take care of him (emotionally.) Very hard headed when it comes to relationships (“What? No, I didn’t get you anything for your birthday. You said not to get you anything.”) but when he falls for someone, he falls hard.

 *Please note that all of my characters are usually in their late twenties or older with VERY few that are mid-twenties. I also do not play with younger characters, and prefer them to be around the same age category.

 *Let me explain about the realistic dialogue. Two OC’s walk into a bar. My OC walks up to the bartender and says “Ay, Sugartits, I’ll have the usual.” Your OC says “I will have a beer.” Unless your OC is either a.) An android or b.) Two 12 year olds in a big coat, or c.) Horribly constipated, he’d better say something an actual human being would say. “I’ll have a beer.” “Gimme a beer.” “Just whatever you got on tap.” “Uh… Beer’s fine.” Don’t make your character sound like they’re reading a bad script.

 If I haven’t scared you off, shoot me an email at Geisterkommandant@hotmail.com

My RP mediums are usually Skype, Email, and I can be persuaded into Discord.

 And just to clarify. Gay RP. Plot before Porn. Thank you

[eirenare]

FFXV: Episode Ignis — My experience (hint: a lot of feels)

Okay, so between me needing time to get out of my happy shock for Episode Ignis (gods, it’s been hard to find the will to write because I couldn’t even arrange my thoughts well enough), certain movie coming out, and the fact that I usually need to wait for nighttime’s peace to write (and often inspiration and/or will are quite picky, not to mention when your brain gets blocked when it comes to writing), I took my time to finally write this, but... 

Here I go!

[22/12/2017: EDITED THIS POST TO HIGHLIGHT NAMES, CHECK PUNCTUATION AND TAGS, AND EDIT MISTAKES.]

I would like to start by saying that Episode Ignis gave me way more than I would have EVER expected. Like, really. I expected for it to be a great DLC, but the experience exceeded that word easily: it was EVERYTHING. And it was everything because it HAD everything.

I’m still not over it, days later. Damn, I’ve even dreamt with it two times (and I remember almost nothing, but I think Ravus was in both lol).

I was sooo hyped for Episode Ignis that I started playing it a little after midnight and I ended up... AT 6 AM. And I had to wake up in theory at, like, 9 AM. But that night, nothing else mattered outside this DLC and, DAMN, what a night. Totally, absolutely worth it to spend so much hours playing it and losing sleep. I had a great time, and oh gods, some parts had me so excited.

I mentioned this already in my non-spoiler comment about Episode Ignis, but... I expected to cry more than I did in the end. For years, I’ve been a person that cried way too easily when watching movies, playing videogames, reading... Like, really, I tended to cry so much. I often was an emotional mess, I would sob a lot and my chest would literally hurt (if you had seen me with FFXV’s ending, oh dear...). But lately I’ve noticed that, in that regards, I’ve become... a bit “numb”. I enjoy the stories, oh gods if I do, and I still get feels (a lot), but it’s like the intensity has lowered some, and that’s something I don’t like. I miss being a crybaby about these things, damn.

During Episode Ignis, if I recall well there was only one time in which I cried, and that was at the end of the original route of the DLC, when Ignis tells Noctis about “sharing the load”. My goodness, Iggy, you’re such a good, great man...

But well, the thing is, I may have not cried much when I played Episode Ignis, BUT the excitement, the feels, the emotion were there. 

I would sometimes jump a bit on the sofa out of excitement, for example when the last scene of that amazing alternative ending was starting... A moment which also had me frantically gesticulating with my hands in the air, much like when I saw Noctis alive and sitting in the throne (I thought Ignis was just like, going to bow before an empty throne and then say something like “thank you” and cry, but OH GODS, I��m happy I was so wrong in that assumption).

I was smiling while fighting with Ignis all around Altissia and collecting items, and damn, my smile went from ear to ear during the alternative ending, ever since I saw Ravus alive in the stairs (and SMILING, Ravus ACTUALLY SMILING, that’s something beautiful and precious — although I have to admit that seeing his beard almost made me laugh a bit, it was between weird and adorable), and up until the very end of it. And what an ending, oh my goodness... That ending was EVERYTHING, and I can’t stop thinking about it. And oh gods, the addition of that camp scene at the official ending, THE FEELS...!

Oh, and I can’t stress enough how much of a “FUCK YES” it was to see Caligo die and, the best thing, by Ravus’ hand. I don’t know if anyone reading this has seen my post about Caligo, but a past trailer had a VERY creepy moment of Caligo cornering Luna when she was a child while a storm raged on outside the building they were in, and ever since I noticed that the man was Caligo I’ve been wanting so badly to see him actually die. 

On the other hand, some moments really made me frown, or be SO sad. Seeing Ravus so broken about Luna, and then lashing out at a protective and understanding Ignis... Man. MAN. And Ignis. Oh dear gods, Ignis. It was sad to see him sacrifice himself to save Noctis (Ignis is such an AMAZING character), and I worried so much that he was going to die in that alternative ending... 

Still, if there’s something that would make you picture just how much excited I was, it’s this: NON-STOP TREMBLING. 

And it was that kind of trembling that shakes all your body and that you can’t stop (it simply couldn’t be because of the low temperature though because I was warm, wrapped in a blanket like a burrito and with the heating on). I don’t know when it started but it just happened, and it didn’t end until some time after I finished the DLC at 6 AM. Basically I spent hours trembling because of my excitement, so... yeah, that was the biggest sign that I was excited, haha

Damn, my legs even were WEAK, although I didn’t notice that until I got up from the sofa. Also, I still trembled as well when I watched a livestream that same day.

But well, continuing on~

Having Ignis and Ravus as teammates was SO AMAZING. They had such synchrony when they executed movements, that was BADASS. 

And the gameplay was SO good, so smooth, so strategic while at the same time being fast! Seeing Ravus execute “Last Rites” (here in Spain the name is a reference to the boat to the othe world, though) is espectacular, and Ignis jumping like that? HELL YEAH. I didn’t use much the “Overclock” in all honesty because I loved to spam the jump, lol. The dagger system felt really amazing, and probably my favourite element for them was ice. The lightning element was exhilarating, and fire did so much damage... But I just loved the ice daggers too much, not only because of how they felt, but because it was kinda beautiful, like seeing Ignis dance lol. 

And oh my goodness, Ravus and Ignis fight together almost feel like a choreography, and I DIED at how perfectly they combine their moves.

Oh oh, and I went absolutely scavenger mode, looking out for items all around the map, haha. Going to cross the bridge to help Noctis? ... Nah, the loot man, THE LOOT. 

And Altissia... Oh my god, Altissia was amazing (although it hurt to see a place that had been so beautiful now destroyed), such a good open place to explore~ I had INSANE FUN with the hook (oh gods when I discovered that as you fall you can still use I went full Spiderman mode hahaha), and taking back territory from Niflheim. As of now, though, I haven’t picked up all the collectibles and average items, or bought these awesome glasses, or fought Noctis in the Friendly Match, but... SoonTM.

I have to say I accidentally discovered that, if you’re out ot combat and press triangle, Ignis removes and puts on his glasses, or checks them, and so on, lol. That was a cute detail. Oh, and I liked that Weskham did that little appearence! Camelia is just... well... it’s... her. I don’t like how Camelia acted, to be honest... 

Buuut well, onwards.

The music was just PERFECTION. Every theme was AMAZING. That’s an aspect I’ve loved about this DLC, it’s so very well executed! Every piece fits to perfection, and... I just have to mention this: Ardyn getting another version of his theme. One that is just SO scary... Damn, the music of this DLC was perfection.

And now, the time has come... The time to talk about characters and story. The time for DEM FEELS.

The story was just SO WELL EXECUTED. It wasn’t very long, but I felt it SO satisfactory.

Seeing Ignis so worried about Noctis really does something to your heart, like... Just how much this man cares about him? It’s overwhelming, in the good sense.

I’m glad that Ignis got to show in this DLC just how amazing of a character he is, because he deserved it. I mean, he’s shown during the game itself that he cares deeply, but in this DLC you can see just how far he’s willing to go to protect Noctis, and it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, albeit tragic. It’s not that he’s so dedicated because it’s his role to take care of the King of Light, no, but because it’s NOCTIS. He does it for the person, simply. This DLC just shows to what extent, and oh dear... The word is DEVOTION. 

Seeing Ignis not harbouring any doubt before putting the Ring of the Lucii to fight Ardyn later on is just... Wow. He goes through so much pain, through such of a sacrifice, risking his life, to protect Noctis. It’s A LOT. And, you’re going to pardon me for breaking the epic of his act, but... Ignis looks so gorgeous with his hair down and so disheveled. Not to mention that aura around him... I think the world would be “feral”.

Ignis is amazing, in every sense. He’s got a fierce, protecting soul. I don’t doubt that he was scared about what he was doing, but he cared so much for Noctis he just did it. It’s sad when he just falls to the ground besides Noctis after fighting with Ardyn, when he asks Ravus if Noctis is alright, with that tone, because he has no way of knowing by himself. I loved that Ravus talked to him like he did (being all understanding, reassuring), you can tell there’s respect after seeing what he just did. Man, I love their dynamic, even if the time they spent as comrades was short. 

And I just can NOT talk about what happened after they landed on the altar.

Pryna... Oh gods, Pryna. I wasn’t expecting that, to see the poor thing dying just before Ignis’ eyes... And sure as heck I wasn’t expecting for Pryna to show Ignis the future. That left me agape and added yet another layer of pain to Ignis... 

Gods, Ignis and Ravus deserved such a hug.

It was moving seeing Ravus so broken at Luna’s death. One sees earlier he wants to protect her badly, but this... Gods, how much of a pain must be to see a dear sibling lying dead before your eyes? I can totally understand why he lashed out like that, thoughts totally clouded by anger and grief that it’s way too heavy because not only is he grieving Luna right there, but also re-opening the wound of losing his mother. Good thing that Ignis was there to avoid another tragedy...

The fight was... pretty intense. I loved that moment in which Ignis pushed Ravus twice to avoid getting closer, it was a nice touch to the scene. And damn, Ravus really was resilient, it took a bit of time to defeat him, although I liked that fight. 

And, gods, the scene of Ravus embracing his sister, begging for her not to leave him... That was truly heartbreaking. It was his dear sister, but it’s not only that, no... With her death, he was totally and absolutely alone, and since the goal of his life seemed to be protect her, that’s gone as well. He had nothing. The poor man looked so lost and pained... 

Oh, and Ardyn. Ardyn, as always, quite the showman (and a scary one, all the more in the alternative ending, when he tells Ignis the truth and they fight). I have to admit that, for a moment, he had fooled me. I’m impressed that Ravus saw right through the disguise so easily. That means he either knows Ardyn a lot, or that Ardyn might have changed his appearence earlier before him. Or it could be he thought that Gladiolus was being way too much of an asshole and suspected of Ardyn... But, regardless of what it is, it just implies that Ravus knew back then there was something off about Ardyn. I really hope he hadn’t used his appearence change for anything fucked up related to Ravus...

I liked that you could swap point of view and move the camera during that scene with Ardyn, it was interesting. He wouldn’t have, however, killed Noctis. He needed him alive, after all... and for Ignis to get blinded. He just had to push some buttons. I can’t help but think of Ardyn’s expressions when Ignis was hellbent on putting on the ring, before it happened... It happens briefly, but the look doesn’t seem fake, just like in the train, when he talks about Noctis hurting his feelings. I would have loved to know what was going on Ardyn’s mind in these moments when his performance cracks. 

I have to admit I thought we would have the option to choose the alternative path from the start, but well, better like this, being forced to choose the original option on the first time. It would have been weird to start with the alternative universe.

Oh, and before I forget it... The soldier with Ardyn’s fedora. Gods, I automatically smiled then, it had been a funny gesture that almost made me laugh. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

The confrontation with Ardyn... Ah, yet another hard fight, but I achieved to defeat him (and, omg, that moment when he just teleports in front of Ignis, that was between awesome and scary). As I said, I loved the scene with Ravus back then. Also, Gladio almost reaching for Ignis’ hair when he’s on the ground... Bury me with feels. Bury me even more when the credits, too. Seeing Ignis so vulnerable, with Prompto and Gladio so nervous and breaking... Not to mention the scene of Ignis’ talk to Noctis. Oh, dear... I get that he wanted to protect Noctis from death (what a heavy knowledge to bear, knowing of the future...), but it wasn’t a very logical thing, to suggest Noctis to stop. Uuunless he wanted to cause Noctis to move forward.

Chapter 3 Verse 2 is... ANDLFNGLFNLDNASDAS. Or, translated to English, straightaway my death because it was SO-A-MA-ZING. Tragic. Beautiful. With a happy ending (YESSS I mean I love tragedy in fiction but this alternative ending made me soar and now I can’t stop thinking about it).

I almost forgot to say this, but... That “Mysterious Voice”...? In the credits you can see that the voice actress in every language is Luna’s voice actress, but it’s weird that they would process the voice like that AND not say it’s Luna... Not to mention that the way that voice talks isn’t very much “Luna-like”.Regardless of who it is that is talking, the only thing we know is that it’s a voice coming from the Crystal.

A thing that I haven’t mentioned earlier, and it’s very much noticeable now, is that Ardyn has been VERY hard with Ignis, and it may sound crazy but it looks as if he’s just taking it out on him. He said about speeding the process of Noctis becoming the King of Light, but isn’t Ardyn reaching important levels of aggresivity? And it’s not like his mood is the same as always, no, you can see that sometimes his perfomance craks here too, as it does when he fights Noctis in Insomnia. He reveals to Ignis who he is, though (and gods YES at least we get him explicitly saying it was his brother, something that’s good because a lot of people was still thinking who Izunia was), before attacking Ignis... And, in fact, it’s not just that he goes hard on Ignis, is that Ardyn becomes VICIOUS to unsuspected points.

The music of his 4th theme helps make him look scarier, too, and not to mention the fact that he seems to own every weapon of every descendant of his brother Izunia... The fight against Ardyn was VERY hard and tiring.

An interesting thing: while in English the options are named “sacrifice your life”, “risk your life” and “give up”, in Spanish we have that, instead of “risk your life”, the option’s named “sacrifice your senses” > “sacrifice your body” > “sacrifice your soul”, depending on if you choose that option repeatedly until only “sacrific your life” / “give up” remain.

it was sad and worrying seeing Ignis doing such sacrifices, and I seriously thought he was going to die... But, somehow, Noctis made the Crystal answer to his call in such a way that it would heal Ignis, and that was sooo much a relief. This scene was so tragic, it gave me so much feels... Gods, hearing the brothers voice their grief... And Gladiolus specially reached me. 

When I saw the group going around in the credits scene, talking to other characters everywhere, it was SO nice. I loved it, it was very nostalgic, and I love so much FFXV’s NPCs.

But the best thing was the alternative ending... *internal screaming noises of happiness*

“We walk tall — together”. YES. I loved that new version of the phrase.

Ravus being happy, and with that weird, funny yet adorable beard~ ... And SMILING. After all that shit in his whole life. Give me TEN. PLEASE.

And oh my goodness Ignis nodding to Ravus like “you’re one of us, come”, and Ravus going with them with ANOTHER SMILE. Omg. You can blame this DLC that now I headcanon that in this alternative ending Ravus is friends with the bros but specially with Ignis (I mean, Ravus was totally ALONE, he needed someone around him that could understand his pain, and who better than Ignis, that saw him at his worst). 

And in fact, I’ve started to ship both Ravus x Ignis (both one-sided and loved back), and Ignis x Noctis, apart from liking a lot BROTP Ravus/Ignis... HELP hahah. Nah, I’m kidding, don’t help me, I’m comfortable in shipping/BROTP hell lol.

The last scene... Ah, dammit. I wasn’t expecting for Noctis to be alive AT ALL, yet there he was, all majestic and amazing, with that smile on his lips. As I said, at first I thought Ignis was going to enter the throne room to do something symbolic, like saying “thank you” while crying or something, but... NOPE! And I’m so glad I was wrong.

Pfff... This DLC is PURE BEAUTY. 

It has amazing music, a good scenario, smooth gameplay, it answers some questions while it makes you question other things, but most importantly... it portrays the characters very well and gives them more deepness, and the story is solid. 

I don’t know if I’ve forgotten something, and I think I could have written this way better, or express more feeling, but well, this is what I’ve written for now, haha.

To anyone that might be reading this: thank you for checking the post, and have a nice day!

[dailyaudiobible]

08/03/2019 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 33:14-34:33, Romans 16:10-27, Palms 26:1-12, Proverbs 20:19

Today is the 3rd day of the month of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward and get ourselves fully moved into this new month that we have before us. And we need to start preparing for some new territory in the Scriptures. Today when we read from the New Testament, we will be concluding Paul's letter to the Romans and then tomorrow when we read from the Old Testament, we’ll be concluding the book of second Chronicles. So, as we move into this new month we’ll also be moving into new territory in the Bible but were not quite there yet. So, from the Old Testament second Chronicles chapter 33 verse 14 through 34 verse 33 and we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week.

Commentary:

Alright. So, we gotta talk about the Proverb today. And it's a buckle up moment, it’s like a brace yourself and take it like a man or take it like a woman kind of moment. “Gossip goes around telling secrets.” That’s what the proverb says. So, if you're the kind of person that here's a secret, like a little juicy morsel of something, a little private information that you can't wait to share and if you take that hot little juicy morsel and you share it to make yourself look concerned and in the know and connected, here's where you need to brace yourself - then you're a gossip. Yeah…I know…I mean…I know that's harsh, but I'm not the…I didn't make this up, I just read it. You might even take offense to the idea that you might be a gossip but believe me, your offense is not as offensive as gossip is. I've been in ministry long time. I hate gossip because I have watched gossip gain the power to destroy people's relationships. And when that begins to happen then erosion begins to happen and communities can be profoundly affected. And this is why it's a regular theme, it’s why we’re counseled to completely avoid it in the Scriptures. We’re just reading this proverb again. “Gossip’s reveal secrets; don't associate with those who talk too much.” So, what we realize in this just very, very brief proverb, a lot is being said because it's not only about the gossip-per. It's also about the one who’d willing to listen to the gossip that carries the burden in this proverb. We’re not supposed to be in that environment according to the Bible, but let's just take a step back from the Bible, and I would rarely say something like that, but let’s just take a step back from the Bible and look at our lives because we have all probably experienced the effects of gossip. And, so, we just have to ask, like has anything ever good happened because you gossiped or because you consumed gossip? Like in what way you enriched? How did you fall deeper in love with Jesus and find clarity from the Holy Spirit through gossip? Actually, it's gossip that is driving us underground because we do not think we can confess our sins to each other, that we can pray for each other so we can be healed, which is what the book of James tells us. So, if we’re people that gossip a lot or we’re participating by listening to it than we’re part of the problem. And that's it's hard to take sometimes, but it's stifling growth in our communities. It's stifling our own growth in our hearts because it's forcing us to make all kinds of assumptions that may or may not be true, but false realities are created and then when it's turned back on us were driven underground and isolated. So, we may not realize it in the moment because it's juicy, but the voice of wisdom found in the Proverbs invites us to be part of a healing rather than part of a problem. And, so…and, so, yeah, I don't know what else to say.

Prayer:

Jesus, come. We’ve all participated. We've all been on the receiving end. And yet, as painful as that has been, we still do it and it's so unhealthy and it's so unhelpful. Forgive us. Forgive us for the ways that we use our words and why we use our words the way that we do. We’re only revealing our own shortcomings. And, so, Holy Spirit come. May this be the beginning day that we stopped carrying around these little pieces of information that we just have to share with each other and have long conversations about people who are not even present making all kinds of assumptions that we cannot know creating all kinds of false realities that we live in as true, and then we crash and burn and shake our fist at the sky and ask You why You let this happen to us. We need to see things as they are. And things are as they are because they begin with our words. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey DAB family it’s Albanita from Kentucky, now in Maryland. I am so far behind in the DAB. I think I just listened to June 13th and I’ve been trying to catch up before calling in but today is the day __ to call in. So, we are, my husband David and I are, 8 ½ months pregnant with our baby girl. It is intense. It’s our first baby and I don’t feel ready at all. I know you can never feel really ready, but I’m just asking that you all please pray for us. Pray that we are the parents that God is calling us to be, that we can keep her alive, that I’m sure…I’m sure we can…and that we remain strong as a couple. My husband is also a pastor and so there are many stressors that he is currently dealing with on top of being a first-time father. For those of you that called in June, just know that you still have someone that is praying for you as I pray as I hear your requests. So, I love you all. I will keep you posted on her arrival. It’s supposed to be September 4th. We’ll see how it goes. Love you much. Bye.

Hello this is Jackie from __ Colorado. I’ve listened for years but this is the first time I’ve called. I’ve recently been diagnosed with cancer – liver, ovary and possibly colon. So, I would like prayers on that for healing and strength to take whatever is coming. Also, I have a sin in my life that I don’t seem to be able to get past no matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try. So, if you could pray for me to have victory on this, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

He Demetrius, how you doing? It’s the Prodigal. I heard your call. I heard a bunch of people call in to support you. I just wanted to add my two cents brother. I was where you are and am still. I’ve __ lost everything except my faith in Jesus. That’s the only reason that I keep going. And all I can do is encourage you brother because I’ll tell you, the bottom is an interesting place. You’re gonna find out who your friends are or more importantly who your friends aren’t. You also get a look over and see that when you’re at the bottom you look over and there’s another shovel there if you choose to pick it up and keep digging. So, I’d encourage you my friend stand up stand strong stand in the light of the Lord and let Him give you strength. I was gonna…I’ve been here six months beyond where I was planning to be here dude. So, he’s gotta give Him every day and He will give you…He will give you grace, He will give you love, He will give you __. Nobody said it was going to be perfect brother, but just want to tell you  I’ve been there man. __ in my lap, the whole 9 yards, pills that would choke a horse. But just keep plowing, keepo plugging, that’s what he’s got you here for brother. He just wants you to have an impact on somebody else’s life. I think I was here because I was supposed to have an impact on your life but I don’t know. I won’t presume. Anyway, love you brother. Stay strong. God bless and take care.

Hi, good morning Daily Audio Bible, my name is Kay I’m calling from Los Angeles California. I’m a new listener and I’ve been meaning to call in but today my spirit was just feeling very very vext. I am experiencing trials on every side. My seven-year-old was just recently diagnosed with colitis and during that time in May when he was admitted into the hospital, I was also arrested in the emergency room and charged with battery due to a false claim made by one of the staff members. So, now I have a criminal case that I’m fighting. I am…I don’t have the resources to pay for an attorney but I do need legal representation to prove my innocence and for the attorneys to subpoena the hospital to get the surveillance so they can see that I never touched this staff member. The devil is a lie. I’m also dealing with a 16-year-old daughter who is not necessarily rebelling, but I just feel like our relationship is kind of going south. You know, she blames me for a lot of things. She kinda does what she wants. She’s not been very honest, and I just want my little girl back. Needless to say, I’m walking in this alone and sometimes it feels like God has forgotten about me. I know He is able, I know that He is a restorer. He’s a lawyer, He’s a father to the fatherless…

Well hello family, I sure love you all. This is Robert Learning to Serve, and I’d like to add something to that name - in Love with Love and through Love. I’m still having a hard time with that but since there’s Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I think it kind of fits together. I really am so proud of this program. I’ve been able to be with y’all for 12 years and was so sick before with rheumatoid arthritis and being so sick I was able to listen about 40 times and maybe a little more now but it’s something I’ve been with y’all every day and I’ve heard all your prayer requests and I just so humbled by what Brian and China and the rest of the family have done here and all the people behind the scene. I found out two days ago that I have cancer real bad in my liver and my adrenal glands and I’ve been through a lot. This last year’s been a real trial for me to deal with all the things I’ve been dealing with. And, you know, I would like all the honor and glory to go to God in what happens, but I am, you know, I’m dealing with this new thing and I’m…I’m positive that it’s all gonna, you know, be okay. I’m not worried about it, but my sister’s been on hospice. I’ve requested help for my sister Jeannie. And, you know, it’s getting hard with her…her organs are failing too and, she’s been on hospice now for about six months and continues to go and we’ve always been so close. I just love you all and I…

[thebigcitynightsband]

ALMOST AWAKE

We knew from day one that we’d never see fame or anything remotely like it with this endeavor, but in the words of Robert Pollard, “we began making records anyway, just to have them.” That’s right. Just to have them. Lord knows we have nothing else. Doomed to obscurity. Born to bar band.

That’s our old MySpace bio, written in 2007 and remaining unchanged for our entire tenure on MySpace, from Tom to Murdoch.

I’ve talked about how much I miss MySpace on this blog before ( “Her Geography” was originally called “MySpace Memories”), but I suspect that I miss that particular time in my life, not MySpace itself.

I’ve also written about internet nostalgia before and how strange it feels. The architecture of the internet makes the experience of being online feel seamless from day to day because the changes are small and rarely jarring. A feature added here, another feature deleted there. A new interface, a new button. Small novelties are revealed in comfortable increments. But small changes add up to big ones over time, and although the pace of this accumulation might seem glacial, often I glance up at my computer screen and think about how fucking different the internet was ten years ago.

But, as you know if you’ve followed this band for any length of time, my tendency to look back with wistful longing is not reserved for the internet. Nostalgia is the defining condition of my life.

Back in 2011 me and my friend Russell released an album called Brampton Comes Alive under the moniker The Flower City 3, a band we’d been trying to start since I emailed about it in 2006. We tried to enlist Ryan Hacker and make an album about Brampton, but Hacker was less enthusiastic about the idea. Russell and I saw it as a challenge, writing song about Brampton, but Hacker saw it as a constraint. So we told people that Brampton was the third member of the group and made an album. I’m really happy with the finished product, even if the second half gets a little depressing, care of a tune called “Never Gonna Be Back Home” that I wrote. We did the vocals in a room I stayed in briefly on Cecil with a testy roommate who hated noise, so we only had one take to do the song before he came home and told us to stop recording, and I was happy that I got the screams right in the chorus. You can hear the song here: https://theflowercity3.bandcamp.com/track/never-gonna-be-back-home-2 For the packaging, we got Russell’s brother Luke to drive around Brampton and take photos. We chose one of Shopper’s World for the front cover, but the physical record had a booklet with five or six other photographs. The lone review we got for the record, by a blog called iheartmusic, was savage. He said it was the worst record he’d ever heard, which hurt a little, but I was glad that we made it. It was a nostalgic collection of song, to be sure, our mission statement being: this album is dedicated to Brampton, not as it is, or even as it was, but as we remember it, echoing the old maxim that what happens isn’t as significant as how you remember it. 

I thought that finishing and releasing that Flower City 3 record would finally cure me of my nostalgia, but it didn’t. I became more and more introspective, to the point where most of BCN songs are about the loss of friendship or the loss of youth. I don’t just want the band to be a self-therapy vehicle for me, but it’s hard to fight what comes naturally. Metal bands write about ancient medieval battles or zombies climbing mountains. Punk bands write about pizza and girls. And The Big City Nights Band writes songs about nostalgia and friendship. So here we are, with a new record that serves as a callback to the past.

We have an old song on Deep Space Bistro called “Almost Awake,” an off-kilter, shoegazey kind of thing, with a lot of delay on the guitar. The song was recorded in late spring 2008 around the same time I was finishing up the final mixes for A Steamroller Named Desire. I was with Jessica at the time, and I remember meeting her somewhere in Chinatown to grab food. She'd taken the bus down from Brampton while I'd spent the day recording the song. We brought the food back to my attic bedroom and ate while I played her the mix. I tried to get her to sing on it, but she wasn't comfortable with it. Previously she'd been excited to sing on songs, and we did a lot of recording together. Her voice can be found on "Be Mine This Xmas," "Hockey Night In Canada," "Greensong," "Canadian Baseball," "I'm A Skymaker," "Until They Smile," "Between Important Syllables," "Jawbreakers," "Summer Sports," "Carry Me Ontario," "Happy Man," and probably a few more I'm forgetting. But she wasn't down with singing on this one, and it was a turning point in our relationship. After that afternoon, it was much harder to get her to sing on my songs. She was struggling with depression and malaise at the time. She dropped out of school and spent most days in bed watching The Office. We moved in together in September 2009 in an attempt to salvage the relationship but it didn't last long. We broke the lease and went our separate ways in June 2010, a few days before the band released Might Minutes.

Almost Awake is our twenty-first album, meaning our discography could now legally drink at a bar in the States if it were a sentient being. The idea sparks one's imagination. If our discography were a person, it’d be an older man, NOT a gentleman but a bellowing boor lurching down the sidewalk, trying to make friends with people who have their headphones on. Friendly enough, and not a bully, but a guy who has a surplus of things he wants to say and a deficit of sympathetic ears. Enthusiastic, to be sure, yet caustic and poorly dressed to boot. He stands upwind while smoking at the bus stop. He's maddeningly inconsistent to employer and friend alike: no one knows which version of him will show up, the slick professional or the shambling, drug-addicted hustler. Always interesting though not always inviting interest. Loving but not loved. Fetid, not feted. Musical garbage. Gasoline rainbows. Yesterday's slice of pizza. Tomorrow's heartburn. A pile of newspapers in a language lost to the world. Twenty one albums of shambolic, mono, sometimes beautiful, sometimes acerbic, rock 'n roll from the metaphorical garage.

Almost Awake has some rock n roll on it, especially the first half, but it’s got plenty of balladry too. As an album it can stand on its own, but it might need assistance walking. It's helper and brother is High Hopes, our other record that came out in 2016. The two records are bookends that mine similar sonic and lyrical territory. I've been battling a drug problem for a few years now and finally starting to get the upper hand, though there have been falterings here and there. I write a lot of songs regardless, on drugs or off them, drunk or sober. A recurring lyrical themes of the early albums was friendship. I wrote a lot of songs about my friends. 

"Born to Bar Band" is about my friends who were in bands, working all day and week so they could play music at night and on weekends, hence the line "days seem long waiting to sing our songs." "Murray Street" is about Emon. We had a fight summer 2006, so I wrote a song about it. It's not Shakespeare, obviously. I preferred to put it bluntly back then: "Please don't not call me your friend." "Wedding Day" is about a friend of mine who had gotten engaged to another friend of mine. They started acted differently, didn't come out as much, which was fine and understandable, except that when they DID come out, they were awkward and kinda rude to us. It was as if they thought we were all immature losers and they were better than us because they had decided to do something adult while we were still playing in bands and drinking in bars. So I wrote a song about how I was mad about it."Why I Didn't Hate Summer 2003" is another friendship one. "Tell your friends this summer I'm just stuck working.""She Dreams Of Airports" was about my friend M___. Any song on Born to Bar Band that isn't about friendship or hanging out with friends is about love and/or relationship problems. "Bicycle Man," "Waiting," "Mathematics," "Don't Tell Me" and "Don't Fuck With Me," written about my ex-gf D____, "Run Home" and "Big Ears" about my gf at the time, N_____. "Leave Your Man" was directed toward a girl I really liked at the time. "Soda Song" is also about her. 

Later on, starting with Might Minutes I'd say, and in FULL swing by the time we got to Under the Overpass and Gimme Gardens, our songs were about nostalgia, and this nostalgia was brought on by the dissolution of many of my friendships. I'm not saying my friendships had ALL crumbled by 2010, but there had been a fundamental change to each one of them, I still don't know why, that started to drive wedges between me and my friends. These wedges were creating distance between us, inches that grew to canyons, until eventually some people disappeared altogether from each other's lives. Me coming to terms with this has not yet happened. I'm still upset over it, and I still think about it all the time, which is pathetic because I'm 31 years old. I should be married with children by now, instead of living with my parent and yearning for my lost youth.

Ember Nights

Taken from a collection of demos written last summer. The title was "Memba Thenz" for a while but I changed it to something less silly. An ember night could be any night in September, November, or December, take your pick, or a night that burns and glows, which is more poetic I guess. The song, lyrically, is about coming to the end of a long period of debauchery, and your brain is dead and your nerves are shot. The lyric is deliberately dumb, “mind like a DOA,” to match the brain deadness of the subject or something. I dunno. I like the line so I kept it. I like the lead guitar lines too and Kuehn drummed the song well. Love that tapping on the top of the bass drum, which James does sometimes too, often to great effect, as in "In The Street."

Two Packs A Day Also from last summer. This one turned out a LOT faster and punkier than I expected. The vocal is not strong at all, but it has a charm to it. There's a friendship vibe to this one, a territorial one, as in things are like this “round our way."

Summers End Wrote this one last April. Again, turned out way different during the tracking of the drums, so we went with it. There is a vocal melody but, as with "1985," I really liked how punchy and strong it sounds without any singing, so I left it alone. I still might get Ryan to sing on it and put a version with vocals on the next record. We'll see. More & More Mortified Recorded this one with Courtney on vocals. A sad song about dashed expectations and getting older. I love the blend of our voices. My mother loves this song and made me play it for my sister and her boyfriend on Christmas Eve, which was awkward, but my Mom said she still had the song in her head three days later, which is a good sign. When your Mom, who has previously not expressed much interest in your band, has a hook in her head three days after hearing a song, it gives you more confidence in said song. There’s a bit of Twin Peaks vibe.

No Window My first bedroom in Toronto was in a basement and it was windowless. I felt trapped and encumbered. No window = no escape, obviously, but also nothing to look at. Some Glum Alumni

Another song about days gone by. Before Instagram, nobody had photos of the truly good times, because everyone was having too much fun to take photos. In The Dark This is a really old cover of a Paddington song, recorded in Orangeville in 2005 in my Dad's basement. That was the first iteration of Little Ghost Recording Co and I was just learning how to record. I could barely play the drums but I got through this song okay. If it were any longer I surely would have faltered and made mistakes. The drumming as it is, is really tight-fisted on the hi-hat, which was how I played back then. I'm a much better drummer now than I was then, but still not very good. The Paddington album this song is on is called These Monsters That You've Been Chasing, which is a fantastic title. You can hear the (superior) Paddington version, which is a prom date waltz, at the following ancient MySpace page: https://myspace.com/paddingtonband/music/songs Paddington was a cool band I played in for four or five months back in 2004. The bass player Jordan hated me. A year later, frustrated at the glacial pace with which Andrew preferred to rehearse, record, and organize live dates, he organized a coup. Although he claimed that he left the band, along with Lindsay Gibb, the singer/keyboard player and the drummer whose name I forgot, what they really did was kick Andrew out of his own band and reform under the name Bedtime, Sleepyhead, which is BS if you ask me. Lindsay never cared for me much either. I didn't speak much at Paddington practices because the other members had known each other for years and had all the accrued inside jokes and experiences that come with close contact, but anytime I did try to speak or contribute to a conversation, Lindsay would wait a beat and then go: "...well, anyway..." then continue speaking as if I'd never said anything. After a while I stopped speaking entirely. I left the band unceremoniously in July or August 2004. Like The Beekeeper’s Society, another coed indie band with a polite approach to songcraft that I once played in, I never played on any recordings, so my time in those bands is lost to the ages. High Hopes A full band, electric version of the title track of our last record. I prefer the other version, but this one has its moments, particularly the break down when the bass goes for a walk and the whole band smashes back in on the A chord, those three hits, then back in. The harmonies are off kilter, but I didn't have much time to do them, so I just hoped for the best. People & Places I was digging through old demos last year, demos I'd done in autumn 2013 while living at my Dad's in Guelph and attending the University of Waterloo. I found so many forgotten gems in that pile of songs. and this was one of them. Others include "Cocations," which has already been recorded sans vocals and will be on our upcoming double album, and "Throwing Copper," which will also be on Keep It Beautiful. Sad Shitty Supermarket Holds Senior Citizen Day Again, in keeping with the theme of the album, a song about getting older and having one's expectations dashed. One & Only A love song to drugs. Western Sweepstakes This was going to be a demo, part of the collection of songs I did in autumn 2013, but I liked the song enough to dress it up with synth strings and harmonies, the usual BCN fare. I tried to record this one with Ryan Mills when James and Ryan had taken a short break during the Chords for the Bored sessions, but it didn't come out very good, so I kept that song off that album. I knew I was going to use this version on an album eventually, it was just a matter of finding the right fit.

Make It Mine A reviewer of our first album described "She Dreams of Airports" as a "hobo strum" which has "enough brio about it to win you over." He also said the song had a great title. "She Dreams of Airports" was written in a feverish afternoon during a Neutral Milk Hotel phase, so I was trying to ape Jeff Mangum by strumming loudly on an acoustic and trying to jam as many words into the song as I could, using the specific topic of travel. But the whole “hobo strum” thing wasn’t true...I wrote the song in the comfort of the basement of my Dad’s house in Orangeville. “Make it Mine,” however, was written while I was busking at the northwest corner of Queen and University last April, a transient month spent mostly on the street, trying to get enough money to get by. I’d usually make at least $20 if I played for three or four hours. I’d get bored doing CCR and Oasis though, and write my own stuff. I wrote this one on the spot, which is probably why the lyrics are so repetitive. I couldn’t write them down so they had to be basic. There’s another version on High Hopes but it’s not much better. Both version fail to get the essence of the song, which is an authentic “hobo strum,” not an ersatz one like “She Dreams of Airports.” I’d like to try it out with the full band someday soon. One Last Rodeo A song about doing drugs one last time. And doing them again the next day, just one last time. And the next day, one last time, the cycle continuing for months until you're barely alive. Drug users call the last night the "last rodeo," depressingly enough. Big City Nights Radio Report #1 A bunch of demos sewn together and presented as a radio station. A radio station I'd put on my presets, indubitably. Look for more BCN Radio Reports in the future, $2 and #3 and so on. Why not, eh? Some of these songs will be on our upcoming double album, Keep It Beautiful.

[fyrapartnersearch]

M// OC RP (Read my dumb gay post)

Hi! I’m Jonesy (or JJ) and I’m on break from uni so I have a lot of time on my hands to-- lel jk, I’m grown. Anyhoo. I’m in my late 20’s and am looking for M// literate (advanced) rp partners, ages 25+ please. I do not fade to black or avoid mature themes. My writing style has a casual feel to it, but I use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and I prefer that you have a good grasp on this, as well. I write third person paragraph style, and am looking for someone who likes world building and writing three dimensional characters. You know what I mean. If our characters walk into a town, I want to know who else is there, how the buildings are painted, what the air smells like. Take me to it. Paint me a worrrrrrddd pictuuuuureeee. If your character has a Maserati, I want to know how he treats it, how he drives it, and if he has that kind of money, why on EARTH would a Maserati be his car of choice?

  Absolute No’s: ….Well crap, I can never think of these until someone asks.

  Things I don’t like so much:

-Winey characters

-Super young characters

-Unrealistically serious characters

-Too much drama

-Posts that don’t move the story along (sometimes this is ok but not EVERY post…)

-Short posts.

-Spanish dudes (HA just kidding I LOVE spanish dudes.)

  Things I like:

-Spanish dudes

-All dudes

-Size differences

-Humor (Didn’t see that coming, did you?)

-Realistic dialogue*

-Open communication

  Genres I like:

-Sci fi

-Urban

-Steampunk

-Apocalyptical

-Dystopian

-Adventure

-Space stuff (This is its own genre, don’t argue with me.)

-Mild horror

  So what I have is a bunch of ideas for weird couples, some with loose plots, others with none at all. I’m looking for someone to plot with. Even if none of these characters take your fancy, or the stories, but it looks like we think along the same lines and might get a whole new story with new characters together, contact me anyway. I only bite if you have dumb ideas. (Hard.)

  Characters/Plots:

  Made for one another:

Could fall under sci fi, apocalyptical, dystopian, adventure, hell it could fall under all of them. I have a really loose idea for this one. Two characters are genetically made for one another. Not romantically, but as in two parts that make up a whole. Both are genetically engineered to do something different, but both of their abilities need to be combined for whatever final outcome to happen. (The outcome being what they were created for.) Reasoning behind this was that maybe one person having both abilities, or the one ability that the both of them make up, would overload their system and kill them. Or significantly harm them in some way. Thus, two genetically engineered people were created.

The loose plot I had for this was that maybe one character has escaped the facility that created them. (Escaped a long time ago, perhaps.) This facility has some major unethical and downright inhumane practices (like lab growing people.) Character A. we’ll call him, decides to destroy the place, maybe from the inside out. (Perhaps he’s some kind of mercenary or rogue whatnot, living his life in secrecy so no one from said facility finds him, blah blah.) Ever see Alien Resurrection? With that scene where Ripley goes into the lab and finds all the failed experiments?.... No? Just me? Okay. Anyway, so while Character A. is torching the place, he finds Character B, who is the only experiment alive. He can’t just leave him there to die, so he takes him with him. That’s how they meet, but I don’t have much else for a plot for this story, other than that I see Character A as being kind of an asshole so they struggle a lot and much later they discover they’re literally made for one another.

  Mad Max:

This would be sort of based on the Mad Max world (as in the 2015 movie, even though I do so love the originals) though not using any of the characters, places, or… you know, anything. The world is a wasteland, but it’s not oil/gasoline that’s the hot commodity, it’s water. The wasteland is filled with different tribes, none of them very nice unless you belong to one of them. This pairing would be a character that’s kind of like Max, a lone wolf who belongs to no tribe and wanders, and…. I dunno, I guess he would be a POW? He’s a warrior from another tribe that was captured. Character A stops (cautiously) in one of the territories to trade for water and supplies. Character B is pretty roughed up and knows he’ll eventually end up dying if he doesn’t get away somehow, so his main objective is to get Character A to trade for him. Obviously, this eventually happens. Character A discovers that Character B has something that would be useful to him (maybe it’s just knowledge of mechanics and whatnot) so he ends up trading for him. Plot twist! They end up HATING one another. And maybe Character A finds out that Character B was lying all along and can’t really do the thing Character A traded him for, however now they’re stuck together, because they’re crossing the wasteland.

  Space Pirates (Totally not nerdy AT ALL.)

I have a space captain. He’s an alien. He has a super cool space ship and a super cool crew. His species is rarely seen in this part of the galaxy, usually they are a very secretive race living in deep, deep space, that remain secluded, however Janka has been exiled, and now creates a lot of havoc and headaches for anyone he encounters. I have a real old descrip of him from… jesus, like 2010 that I haven’t updated, but I’ll send it if he sounds interesting! Anyway, he’s a sarcastic, lazy sh*tface, kinda pretty gross without meaning to be, but he’s a real loveable character. Likes blowing things up. Kind of clumsy, which isn’t the best thing for someone who’s built like he is. He’s well known in space ports all over, so he sticks to the real shady ones, where he’s somewhat popular. This character comes with an entire crew, and bonus interesting genitalia. He really needs someone to take care of him (emotionally.) Very hard headed when it comes to relationships (“What? No, I didn’t get you anything for your birthday. You said not to get you anything.”) but when he falls for someone, he falls hard.

  Steampunk Whathaveyou:

Ashby Thornton Foster is a real strange creature. Not just because he’s very proper and likes to keep a position as the head butler in a household even though he probably has enough resources to never have to work ever. He’s tall, painfully handsome, with round antique glasses, and auburn hair. Sharp tongue, but can be a little daffy if you catch him off guard. He collects frightening tea pots, has been learning how to cook for 9 billion years but his chicken stew will probably send you to the can for the rest of the night, is excellent with mechanics and spends a lot of his free time tinkering, and has read almost every book ever written but can’t remember what happened in the last chapter of the one he’s currently working on. I should mention that this character is not human. He is a specific species of being that I created myself. I’ll go into it if you’re interested, but the basics are that he has handsomely jagged teeth, large amber eyes, and claw like nails that often lead him to be mistaken as a vampire, however when he shifts out of his human form, he looks more like a sphynx cat and a lady got together. That sounds awful, but he’s actually quite exquisite. (NOT a furry. He just looks a tad strange and has interesting legs.) Ashby is very sweet natured but runs a strict household. He is well respected and well loved. This character comes with an identical twin (Molocai, who prob won’t appear) and a Soul Eater character, who sets up camp in whatever town he settles in due to being promised his soul whenever he shuffles off his mortal coil. They’re best friends. (It’s a long story.)

  *Please note that all of my characters are usually in their late twenties or older with VERY few that are mid-twenties. I also do not play with younger characters, and prefer them to be around the same age category.

  *Let me explain about the realistic dialogue. Two OC’s walk into a bar. My OC walks up to the bartender and says “Ay, Sugartits, I’ll have the usual.” Your OC says “I will have a beer.” Unless your OC is either a.) An android or b.) Two 12 year olds in a big coat, or c.) Horribly constipated, he’d better say something an actual human being would say. “I’ll have a beer.” “Gimme a beer.” “Just whatever you got on tap.” “Uh… Beer’s fine.” Don’t make your character sound like they’re reading a bad script.

  If I haven’t scared you off, shoot me an email at Geisterkommandant@hotmail.com

My RP mediums are usually Skype, Email, and I can be persuaded into Discord.

  And just to clarify. Gay RP. Plot before Porn. Thank you.