#wondering if maybe I was somehow tied to sloth?

[arcadiashaven]

Had a dream about hell. I had my wings, my horns, everything.

I miss it. I miss them. I miss the few friends I had.

on the plus side, I was able to finally curl up in warm blankets and snooze like I used to.

I missed that feeling, too. It was good to get it back, even if for just a short while :)

[astrogone]

* ﹙✧﹚  :    ❝   @godbanes​​   ❞     /      𝑃𝑅𝑂𝑉𝐸𝑅𝐵𝑆 25:28

donovan’s heart warms and he can’t help his smile from forming on his lips,     wide and honest,    perhaps purer than any he’d offered jack before.      this moment is vulnerable and sweet despite jack’s screaming and complaining.     donovan looks at him and he sees the good in the world.     for the first time,    he is thankful that the gods kept him alive.    if everything that happened was meant to lead to this,    then it was worth it.         “  you’re such an idiot,    frost bite.  ”     unlike any other insults,    this one is quiet,    a whisper that almost goes unheard above jack’s frantic explanations.    

“   wonder kisser,   huh?   ”    his head lolls back as he laughs.      “  i’ll take it.  ”     donovan watches every movement jack makes,    from how embarrassment blooms on his face to whatever realisation hit him.     he tilts his head,   raising an eyebrow but before he can say anything jack already clings onto his arms,   eyes teary and body shaking.     “  hey.  ”    for a moment,    he doesn’t do anything and instead just watches as jack’s emotions begin to overflow and he cries while hiding in the warmth of donovan’s body.

one moment he is in the present,   trying to figure out why jack is crying so hard,   then the next he is a child once more.     crying for affection,    for attention to a wound his mother put there.    his nose did not stop bleeding that night until donovan learnt that tilting his head back worked best.    it continued to bleed though,    when he bandaged himself after his mother had tied down his arm and watched his blood drip into a bowl.    he remember crying so hard he fainted,    then woke up only to start crying once more.     it did not happen once or twice.    for 16 years,   donovan went to bed without a soothing touch,    without a reassurance that maybe life will be better.   that maybe life is indeed good and he shouldn’t let himself become hateful and aggressive.     donovan doesn’t know if he’s trembling as well,   or if jack’s trembling is making him shake too.

a knot forms in his own throat as he reaches around jack,   gently withdrawing his arm from his hold only to wrap it around him,    chin rested on jack’s head.    he squeezes him,   one hand tangling into jack’s hair.     he grew up without a loving touch,    without any affection  –  but maybe he can give it to jack.    to comfort him when he needs it.       “  hey.     breathe.  ”      he whispers gently into jack’s hair,    hand running up and down his back while keeping him close.    his heart aches with love,    aches with how many things he wants to say but finds himself unable to.     donovan just hopes jack sees and feels it all.     the demigod waits for a few minutes before he loosens his hold on jack and tilts up his chin,    thumb running gently over the other’s cheek to wipe away any remaining tears.

“  did i do anything to make you upset?  ”      he inquires quietly,    worry etched in his eyes.     though this is not about him, donovan can’t help himself from thinking he’d somehow upset jack.     “  a thought for a thought,   jack.    you tell me what upset you and i’ll tell you anything you want to know.  ”

𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, Jack did not care about anything that would come from Donovan in his sudden fall. To reach out for attention, for comfort, f o r  l o v e . . . Those are simply parts of human nature; what allows mankind to develop with the understanding in the difference between a touch of tenderness and cruelty, to learn that either in light or darkness, there will a l w a y s be someone out there to love them, and they can be that someone too without the fear of judgement. Children have always been known as selfish creatures, and that is okay. It should be when greed is what makes them alive in the first place. Yet greed is known to be one of the greatest sins. It takes, and takes, and takes. ( It is an unholy thing, says the world. It is a terrible thing, says the parents. )

Therefore, the children must be punished.

                                                                                       Including Jack Horner.

So in the end, of course, as all things must come to the end, Jack becomes afraid of what Donovan may do to him. ‘Is he going to be like my moms? Like God? Hurt me?’ Teeth loudly chattering, terror rising in teary eyes, while part of him wants to remain still by Donovan’s arm, the rest of him now wishes to push himself away from him because he does not need those touches. He does not need attention, comfort, or love because he does not deserve them. Because he is not a human, is he not? ( Not anymore. Jack is nothing but a trickster, a liar, a monster. Not anymore. No more. No more. NO MORE. Just cold bones and colder blood. ) Though when Donovan pulled Jack closer to him in an embrace, he cries harder, reminded that he has always been a human after all, wanting nothing but love. Hope.

            AND THAT SHOULD BE O K A Y / SO WHY MUST I BE PUNISHED FOR IT?

Told to breathe not suffer, he tries to follow Donovan’s word through the terrible hiccups and sniffs, but he becomes more lost in the confusion, awed at how he, the destroyer and the damned, has been treating him, the way he finds himself drawing closer to Donovan’s touches as his hand is on his hair, another on his back. Gentleness is all Donovan gives and Jack feels so small, so... unimportant. Million eyes are on him; from the static of old TV in the side of this room, from the window that is speckled in rain kisses— the whole world is watching him as he comes to learn this is how Donovan loves him: With insults and teasings thrown at him with amused snorts and mischief in eyes, the laughers destroying own lungs and throats without a care as they fight against the world by being alive together, the soft acts like these that come from silence, from a heart chewed by everything— everyone.

And yet, it still beats for Jack.

The world then witnesses Jack squeezing him back.

I love you too, Donovan.

“N- no... No, no, ne - never...” he whispers, shaking his head violently in disbelief that Donovan would say such a foolish thing. That was supposed to be his job. Jack realizes he is holding his hand that was wiping his tears away and shakily sighs before he takes it to his cold lips, tenderly kissing each of his knuckle as he says that one word, “Never, never, never... never...” A mantra. A worship. Let me love you. “Jack re - re - replies that Donovan only mm... makes him happy.” Despite how often Donovan would leave him desperate and aching for more of him, but not in the influence of alcohol or drugs. Despite how often he would make him disappointed and wondering at how Donovan would want little from him. Despite everything, in the end, Donovan makes him feel alive.

“But... he says that the world - the world makes him upset. For hurting him and Donovan. It’s... It’s not...” He flinches when the familiar burns return to his eyes. He sits up in case he falls back to having trouble breathing again, though his fingers is still linked with Donovan’s. Don’t let him go. Don’t let him go. Dontlethimgodontlethimdontletmego— “IT’S NOT FAIR!” A white, violent light flashes from the window as a roar tears across the reality. Something snaps in Jack and he lets Donovan go. He quickly gets off of the mattress and stomps his way out of the garage, losing his care about everything. Losing his control in himself. When he finally steps outside and feels the rage of nature hitting his skin, Jack dies, and what stands there in the rain is nothing but rage.

“SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP, GOD! JACK DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANY OF GOD’S BULLSHIT!” Jack shouts toward the sky, his feet pressing deeper into the ground while sheet of ice forms beneath him, his madness. He points angrily at the clouds, the stars, EVERYTHING in what He had created that are too much of a COWARD to reach out and protect the world— the poor, the abused, the damned, the lost— everyone who did not ask to be alive in the first place like Jack. “HIS MOTHERS AND THE GOD CAN’T HURT HIM ANYMORE! JACK ALEZ IS IN DAMN LOVE WITH A WONDERFUL MAN NAMED DONOVAN DOBROSHTAN AND HE IS FREE—” Out of breath, he collapses to the ground, his fingers tearing across the grasses, hoping that God would weep at his destruction. Jack spits and screams. There is nothing human about him now.

                                        “JACK IS FINALLY FUCKING FREE!”

(  DEAR GOD, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU ANYMORE. SO WATCH ME AS I AM THE LUST WHEN I WAS TOLD I WAS NOT WORTH OF ANYTHING FROM ANYONE. I AM THE GLUTTONY WHEN I WOULD BE FORCED TO DRINK MUDDY WATER AND CONSUME SPOILED FRUITS AND MEAT. I AM THE GREED WHEN I WAS GIVEN NOTHING BUT PAINFUL MEMORIES. I AM THE SLOTH WHEN I WAS NOT NEEDED AND WANTED FROM THIS WORLD. I AM THE ENVY WHEN I WOULD GET ONLY PUNISHMENTS AND NO REWARDS. ESPECIALLY, I AM THE PRIDE BECAUSE NO ONE FUCKING LOVED ME. I AM THE TERRIBLE SINNER WITH GOOD INTENTIONS, BUT BRING ME TO HELL AND I WILL ONLY MAKE IT MY HOME, SO WATCH ME CLOSE AND PRAY THAT I DON’T END UP CONSUMING THE DEVIL’S CROWN. A M E N.  )

[hello-vampire-kitty]

Servamp Chapter 81 “His tale about XX”

Gear is a tsundere geek, but, the big question of this chapter is: could it be that he is sensei? I made a few notes based on my observations in chapter that I hope you will read afterwards.

READ ONLINE

Hoo boy, so finally get to know a little about the mysterious creator of the vampires that we know as ‘sensei’. We also got to know that besides the once briefly mentioned werewolves, there are other supernatural beings out there and maybe they will make an appearance at some point, although I wonder where are? Doesn’t C3 handle with them as well, not just the vampires?  Oh, and since it mentioned mermaids, I wonder if they have to ability to transform on land and have legs. Anywho moving on, ‘the man’, which we can assume is sensei, has made immortal beings, but even so, considered imperfect, but it appears that he first performed this on himself since he was able to live hundreds of years and there’s the part that says he went ‘in various places of various ages’, which somehow kinda gave the impression that he could time travel, because there must be a meaning as to why it was phrased like that, instead of just saying something like ‘throughout his travels’ or ‘he searched for many years’, because those kinds of phrases would have just allude to the normal passage of time. This makes me wonder, if it’s true, could it be possible that the Servamps are from different time periods? That would be quite something! This possibility of time travelling can be related to our new character, Gear. On the 3rd page we get to see huge gears in the room that display numbers up to 30, which I think those are supposed to be the days of the month (but why not 31 though?...), then we have runes, months and zodiacs. There’s another small gear in the upper right that might represent day/night, on the bottom left we have a gear with roman numerals and the second largest gear there, I’m not sure, but those could be cardinal points, so that gear could represent a compass. It looks like a complex clock, having numerous hands as well and what is the most noteworthy about these hands is that they have the name of the sins written, such as the small one above the large hand in the pic, which has ‘sloth’ written on it. The words on the other hands are not distinguishable, but I did also see ‘pride’ written on another one.

Now why would the name of the sins be there? I thought of something...If perhaps Gear is sensei or in some way has a relation with the Servamps, I thought that this huge clock thing could be some sort of tracking device and acts as a medium upon his creations. Only based on the pic above, it would seem that Gear has to move the hands of the clock? I have a theory that this whole thing is like a magical item of sorts, that could be tied to the Servamps and Gear in a way monitors them. I had this idea because (even though we still have yet to discover more about the methods), the creator of vampires, the one who wanted immortality must have used some dark arts, perhaps made some rituals, made contracts with other beings (something Faustian like perhaps), so that he can grant life or extend it and other abilities, which may include time travel perhaps? I mean, we have Gear, his name, and the fact that we also have a huge clock with other gears, to me it suggests ‘the gears of time’, don’t you guys think so? That’s what I can speculate, if Gear is really sensei. (oh and if he is indeed, then y’all remember that Kuro supposedly killed him long ago and we believe that because we saw how in pain Kuro was when we saw his memories, but what if Kuro believed that he actually killed him, but sensei came back to life somehow, and Kuro didn’t know just what sensei was capable) Probably all of us believed that Gear could be sensei when we saw at the end that Gear held a photo of Kuro dressed in the clothes of the time when the Servamps held the meeting to decide whether to kill him or not.

Before I move on, I want to mention something about this panel

The three elements that Gear mentions are: ‘vessel’, ‘blood’ and ‘spirit’, and I want to say something about the latter. You see the word in Japanese ‘seishin’「精神」 can mean  mind; spirit; soul; heart; I thought the whole thing would be like what I usually hear ‘mind, body and soul’, but in this case it’s different. I was debating whether to use ‘mind’ instead of spirit, but then the word ‘tamashii’「魂」was used which directly translates as soul and also spirit, but more commonly is the former. Had I written ‘the mind is the soul’ instead, I’m not sure if it would have been better. It was quite tough to choose the words here, so if you have any opinion on this part, I would like to hear it!

Phew, talked a lot about Gear, but I wanna talk a bit about Youtarou as well! First of all he is so cute! Secondly, it seems that he has been with Gear for a while, judging by the few times that Gear marked his height on the door and he’s like 6-7 years old in the beginning, if Gear mentioned that Youtarou will start school. How did these two meet, and how come Gear let him come over so many times, when the guy is hiding underneath a church, along with other stuff that probably should be kept secret... Youtarou seemed very interested in that book and it’s possible that by now he knows about the vampires and he might make an appearance, because spending that much time with Gear, I think he would have found out a lot of stuff eventually. Oh yeah, I mentioned in another post about the timeline of this chapter, and I think it’s the year 1999, because I figured out what it says on the game that Youtarou had with him and it says  Armored Core: Master of Arena, released on the PS1 in that year, and since Gear said that it was a new release, we can assume that it’s that year. And if the story started in 2011, then we can expect to see an older Youtarou :D

That’s about it for this chapter!

[neopixiesims]

When Amice lived in Oasis Springs she dreaded the coming of Love Day. Watching people go on dates and express their love to their partners was inspiring but somehow depressing. She couldn’t hide her surprise when she got a call from Back-flipping Suddenly Charming Great Chest Evil Supervillian. 

Brendon: I know you’re wondering how I got your number? Priya gave it to me. I hope that is okay...

Amice: It’s fine... Did you want to invite me to see sloths today?

Brendon: Well... I was hoping something a little fancier...

Amice: Oh fancy sloths? Sloths in ties? Sloths in suits?!

Brendon: I was thinking dinner... and maybe... we can see sloths. It’s Love Day, after all.

Amice: Are you... trying to say you like me, Supervillian? 

Brendon: I think you’re pretty cool. Besides, you may get some inspiration out of it tonight... and you can stare at my chest all you want. 

Amice thought of his well defined chest, sticking out proud and muscular. She’d noticed the defined ridges lower down in his stomach and the way it clenched when he took a deep breath. She was practically hyperventilating when she responded. 

Amice: I’m in...

She’d do it for the chest. Yes, for the chest.

[pricechecktranslations]

So like, this is something that a lot of my EC friends and I keep circling around and getting into arguments over, but what do you think is the best order for someone to go through Evillious in, especially if they're a complete newbie? A lot of the arguing tends to boil down to release VS chronological order, and while I tend to prefer release order for newbies, I'm wondering what your thoughts on the matter are.

Typically, I favor release order most strongly, however I am willing to admit that it’s a complicated issue–primarily in that, while I think release order is the best for keeping confusion levels low, mothy has written and created the series with the expectation that some people are coming in halfway, or may not have access to other materials.

I��had a lot to say and I may have rambled so it’s all under the cut.

The basic argument for release order that I stand by is simple. You lose out on a LOT when you go out of order, particularly in terms of emotional impact for twists, payoff on foreshadowing, understanding of callbacks, etc. Certain things are supposed to be a mystery for a while and some tidbits are a wink and a nudge towards earlier story installments. It’s also easier to really get the themes of the overall story if you go in order as well–Like I’ve said in the past, the themes of the Daughter of Evil series in particular are reflected in the broad scale of everything mothy does with Evillious.

I also think it’s easier to connect with the characters if you go in release order too–Elluka, for example, is much harder to sympathize with in the Venomania and Conchita novels, as she does very little and is very callous and lazy about it (overall she tends to be a bit of a Failure Hero out of her own lack of initiative). But if you’re already familiar with the more heroic person she is in the DoE series, then her appearances later on in these two novels is more a fun callback and an interesting comparison to who she was before she developed any close friendships. Initial impressions are important, and they stick with fans (or at least, people like me) for a very long time in media consumption. This also stands for subversions of a character, such as with Gallerian–if you put all of his content together, then you miss out on all the slow development that establishes “this is a pretty evil scummy guy”, which gets upended when you read the novel later on, which focuses more on his heroic youth.

And then, there’s the little thing I was talking about a while back, where a lot of content is set up to ease you into the more complex “lore” of the series without giving you information overload. Daughter of Evil primes you for the Vessels of Deadly Sin while still keeping a plot of political intrigue as its focus, SCaP introduces the endgame premise of the world being destroyed before the Deadly Sins of Evil series gets to it in Muzzle of Nemesis, etc. Skipping around a lot can be jarring and sudden, especially chronological order with OSS considering all of the red herrings, reveals, and mystery that still surrounds it.

As a note, I’m sure my bias is showing–I haven’t listened to a lot of the songs in a long time, but I dearly love the novels. So a lot of my opinions are sharply colored by that. Hence why I’m using the novels as examples a lot. I really dislike the mindset that the novels are more like “bonus content”, unnecessary, or are somehow a separate and independent series from the songs. And some songs are better if you consume them at a certain point between the novels (ex, DOG is better after the Conchita novel, Handbeat is better after Praeludium as a teaser to Praefacio).

I also don’t like the concept of “arcs”, incidentally. I myself have used it as a way to neatly group together certain events and characters, but I feel like it provides an expectation that Evillious can be easily cut into distinct, equal parts, and it can’t. Daughter of Evil (the “Pride Arc”) is four novels while each other “sin arc” excepting Sloth is one (leading to a lot of accusations that DoE is overbloated despite having initially been an independent novel series that came before anything else). Only some of the novels have a demon contractor as their protagonist. It also gives the idea that all the parts of the songs and albums are going to inevitably be made into novel form, and that’s not necessarily the case. The “Theater Arc”, as many fans call it, is only briefly touched on in the novels (leading to a lot of disappointment that it wasn’t explored more in depth in Master of the Heavenly Yard despite for all intents and purposes only existing as a framing device for the albums and songs).

But, again, those are very subjective opinions, and mothy is still making content even now so my views might change as he continues to develop on the story.

To get back on track, another strong argument in favor of release order is a practical one–mothy has changed his story over the years. He’s made retcons, changed some ideas, tweaked a few things, etc. This is just fact. I think he’s often very good at smoothing things over, but there are definitely points early on that don’t fit now. It’s, to be brief, very confusing for a fan to read recent content with what’s currently canon and then after that read older content coming from a different conception of the series. So, to reduce that kind of thing, it’s best to read the older content first.

All that being said, mothy clearly didn’t make the entire series with a roadmap of where every single installment fits. He explores content based on what he’s interested in making, with certain ideas falling by the wayside or others being brought up later on. Sometimes he releases something to establish backstory that he maybe should have brought up sooner (like Trinity and the thing about Arth being a mud golem). Sometimes he takes an old song and revises it or adds things to it in subsequent releases. So, it’s not like you’re breaking some authorial code if you listen to a few songs out of order, especially considering that most of them are consumable by the nonlinear, confused mess that is the internet.

Not to mention, as I said up front, mothy writes Evillious with the expectation that some people will miss certain installments or come in halfway–I was one such person, I only started to get invested after the release of the Gift novel. Most of his work maintains twists for other series (such as, for example, SCaP going to great pains to keep most of the Deadly Sins of Evil series’ twists secret, like Margarita being Eve and Venomania being Cherubim). Most of his novels will exposit key information in case the reader didn’t have access to anywhere else that it’s explained, most notably Gift and Pierrot going over OSS album backstory as it ties so directly into the plot twists therein. …Etc.

In conclusion: Release order is best. But, it’s a large and complicated series and it’s been worked on for over a decade, so it’s not unexpected or out of the question that sometimes you get your hands on certain things out of release order. And a lot of people like different parts of it, so maybe they might not be interested in some content but hone in on others. That’s their prerogative.

It is, also, impossible to consume the series the way it was made. A new fan isn’t waiting for releases like the rest of us. And most untranslated content is inaccessible to English fans (a problem I’m working to solve albeit).

Just. Please, please don’t go in chronological order, I’m begging you. Evillious is NOT the kind of series where that works. Mothy is still actively making the story as we speak with the chronological end already finished, so really it’s impossible to do.

[docholligay]

For haunted prompt: a place that's haunted, not by things that happened in the past, but things that will happen in the future. A tragedy that echoes not just forwards, but backwards as well.

I hope I did okay with this–I really liked the concept, and I tried to make ti work. I haven’t decided if I’m putting this in HON HON HON proper, but if I do, it takes place after Lena comes back the first time. 1600 ish words

Tracer’s mind had never lay quiet, not for as long as she could remember having had a mind at all. It was always flipping from thought to thought, moment to moment, whirring around a fitting and refitting ideas until they clicked, in ways people had never thought to have them click before. This was part of her gift, what made her good at flanking, the way things constantly moved in her mind like a kaleidoscope, new possibilities popping up all the time.

So it wasn’t the business of her mind that bothered her, since her return. That was hardly new.

It wasn’t even that the base, her life, might be haunted. Tracer had some experience, in a way, with being a ghost herself, and so she was naturally given to extend the ghosts of the world a little more kindness and empathy than might the average human being.

And yet.

Tracer was alive, and Tracer was more or less well, now, though the idea of those things seemed strange and frightening to her. Her little room in the Overwatch base, where she tried to get back together some semblance of the person she had used to be, was cheerfully decorated with little models of airplanes she had put together during her convalescence.

Six months. She had been back six months, and it was really only now she began to feel human. Her bed was warm and soft and comforting, she liked to watch TV while she drifted off to sleep, and eat prawn cocktail potato chips, and all of these things that had been so hard for her months previous were falling back into place. She was becoming Lena again. Occasionally a noise or a touch hit her just wrong, and sometimes she was tired, the way she remembered from being a child and not as good at shutting out the furious buzz of the world, but slowly these things were lessening.

She looked at the soft stuffed sloth on her bed, Biscuit, her companion in all things, and took a bite of her pudding cup.  

Life was pretty alright, considering she’d nearly been lost into time forever. Wasn’t too much to complain about.

There were some things that still weighed heavy on her, and she thought of them as she stirred the rich chocolate mousse. Her dad, and how she missed him. The chronal accelerator on her chest, and how it still felt so uncomfortable, how she was afraid she’d never be used to it, no matter how hard Winston tried to make it easier to live in. How no one was quite sure what to do with her, now.

And the strangeness of the nights in her room.

Tracer reminded herself yet again that her mind had always been quick, had always burst flashes across it like bolts of lightning, and yet she knew this was different. This wasn’t a flash. This wasn’t her imagining one of the many hypothetical situations she did. This was somehow real.

“Overwatch is disbanded. Dissolved. It is gone.” Her voice was soft and Swiss, and in the flicker Tracer could see a version of herself, legs crossed on the edge of a sofa, tired, the way she looked now.

Am I always going to be this way? Am I never going to get better? A chill went down her back. She tried to study the figure speaking to the her that might be, a voice she knew and could not place at the moment.

Night after night, these images came to her, clips of what was going to be, running and dancing around her, filling her mind with questions.

They had said the place was haunted by her, and it had just been her reaching out. And now Tracer was the only one who still saw…Tracer. Haunted by her own self. Haunted by her future.

Her eyelids fluttered as she laid back on the bed, putting the cup of pudding on her nightstand. She tucked Biscuit into the crook of her elbow and took a deep breath. There were good things happening for her. The world was getting more comfortable. She had what might turn to be a great friend in Winston.

She opened her eyes, and there in the corner was an imposing woman, her bangs blunt across her brow, a tattoo under her eye.

“Does this story have a point or do you just like the sound of your own voice?” the woman scoffed, and smirked at the small flash of light next to her that was undeniably Tracer

“I mean maybe both of our mums are along for the ride with us, you know?” She looked over at her.

The woman tugged at her body armor. “I think one of us would find that distinctly more comforting than the other.”

It left as soon as it came, brushed away by the winds of the present, erasing the lines of the future and reforming them. Tracer’s body jolted, the incredible discomfort of all the things she felt she should know and did not know rolling through her.

“Oh, come on!” She pulled a blanket over her body, move grumpy than scared, anymore.

It wasn’t like when she had first seen herself, the fear pricking over her as she watched herself go through a line in a mess hall, words written everywhere in Arabic. Something she felt she should know, but shouldn’t be seeing.

She hadn’t told Winston. She was afraid he would report her, that she’d never get in the air again if they knew she was cracked now, that she saw things that hadn’t happened and yet were already true, already felt real in her heart.

Maybe it would stop. Maybe there was some hope in that. Maybe it was a side effect of all the things Winston was trying. Maybe she would wind freedom from it.

But maybe she was just tired of it all, too.

She sat up and scowled, looking at the metal walls that surrounded her.

“Well what are you trying to tell me, then? Trying to make me afraid? Either get with it or leave me the bloody ‘ell alone!” She clutched Biscuit to her chest, unthinking about how childish and small it made her look. She barked at the silence. “What’s going to ‘appen to me?”

The room glowed a shimmering blue, and Tracer instantly regretted her bravado. Always getting ahead of meself, that’s what Dad would say.

There were scenes, all overlapping, and yet Tracer, with her horrible quick treacherous mind, saw them all.

The shots rang through the still air, one, two, three, and Tracer gasped in pain, throwing her body against a wall with the shock of it, and looked down at her hand, covered in blood.

“That’s unfortunate….”

The woman with the blunt bang and the tattoo, her eyes burning with anger, grabbing Tracer by the caller and throwing her out of the room, her back bruning as she hit.

“You TRAITOR!” Her voice was breaking in rage as Tracer scrambled to her feet…

Doomfist, she recognized from the posters, in horrible slow motion, grabbing the back of her chronal accelerator and pulling it, shattering across the streets of Numbani, and Tracer reaching helplessly toward Winston…

And there she was again, struggling for air on the metal floor of a van, as a blonde woman–the doctor from when she first returned, Dr. Ziegler, that’s who she was–pushed down on the the wound in her stomach.

“Daddy, ‘elp me.” She heard herself sob…

“Fuck off, Pharah!” Tracer saw herself jump nimbly out of the way of a thrown punch and bounce off the wall, catching the woman off guard for a moment and throwing her back against the door, cracking it.

“Stop this!!” Dr. Ziegler again.

But Tracer saw herself try to jump over the woman, and Tracer did something, she disappeared in a flash and reappeared–the Tracer sitting on the bed touched her chronal accelerator in surprise–but somehow the dark-haired woman called Pharah knew where she would be, and grabbed her by the foot, throwing her into the marble floor…

Another lab, Winston tenderly whispering to her as she shook and cried…

The scenes came together and they left together, and her heart sank, the knowledge of what would almost certainly be and every painful thing she had coming weighing on her.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and dug deep down inside herself.

“Is that it, then?” She looked over at the picture of her family, at Christmastime. “Bit of shoddy editing I think. I ‘ave a lot of wonderful things coming, so I do.” She nodded to herself.

The room did not answer, just stayed silent.

“Right. Enough of all that, then.” She got up out of bed, but did not leave her sloth. “I’m not afraid of you. Getting another pudding.”

She shut the door behind her, and future images flickered on the screen of the present day.

Pharah holding a magazine with her picture on it.

“Why do you think I take you to–you have skills that–” She huffs, frustrated with her own inability to speak her own mind. “I cannot run Overwatch without you. I do not wish to.”

Tracer draped across Winston’s back, stealing an eggroll from the tray on his lap.

“Lena!” He scowls, but doesn’t stop her. “Get your own!” And Lena giggles.

Mercy bent over her, scalpel in hand, paying no attention to her own exhaustion, just the work of the moment.

A portrait of Tracer, standing next to a beautiful red-haired girl in a wedding dress, surrounded by friends and beaming.

Tracer’s mind had never laid quiet, not since she could remember having a mind at all, but sometimes, she saw things for what they really were.

[comicteaparty]

March 14th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on March 14th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PDT.  The chat focused on Sketch Dump by Aleks Stock.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing Sketch Dump by Aleks Stock~! (https://sketchdump.org/)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

one scene i particularly enjoyed was the scene where its revealed clear as day, no holds bar that Iladyl is a slave. https://sketchdump.org/post/179755402309/sketch-dump-c02p06-i-wanna-hug-iladyl-qaq the way its revealed is so straight forward but so simple really works i think. cause its just treated as a fact of life and that is indeed how it would be for the world.

i also loved the animated shattered screen effect because its both grounded in familiarity yet the way its illustrated kind of gives it that scifi fantasy tech feel that lets you know that nope, definitely not from earth

i also find the scene where Brogod meets Jen to be kind of fascinating. mostly cause i think Brogod is an interesting character since his first inclination is to make contact and help. meanwhile in the "real" world, cause i get the impression of simulation, his brain seems to be kind of exploding. but mostly i like it for the interactions cause its not the first reaction you really expect when meeting some crazy alien entity in a weirdo simulation world of sorts.

khkddn

im not done reading through the archive but i really like the scene in the beginning where the lights are flickering, it looks so cool

RebelVampire

yes i think the lighting effects are pretty cool. especially cause of how its animated because the animation kind of feels like the world is glitching. which fits with the whole world we see jenna in later

ezzy

i also like the beginning scene with the séance. just nice to see the characters fucking around. it really gives you the sense that they've known each other for a while

khkddn

it's a great artstyle overall, love it

ezzy

same!

khkddn

yeah i liked seeing the characters interacting too during the seance, some good moments there(edited)

ezzy

i love any sort of multimedia webcomic but the use of animations is rly good

it makes the world a little more vibrant

RebelVampire

yeah i agree it is really great to see the characters kind of just being them. no life threatening quest. no world to save. just a silly seance thing as an excuse to get together, hang out, maybe get some food later. i think it was a good way to introduce them since it gave more breather time to get to know them.

ezzy

i like the little hints that there's more to the characters, like that dudes scar

RebelVampire

yes or some of the subtle looks passed between certain individuals. it was interesting to see a little back history at play that we dont get to know about yet

ezzy

it really makes you want to read more

khkddn

all caught up now! definitely agree w @RebelVampire about the scene revealing Iladyl is a slave. a few pages prior to that i think lyral says something to the effect of "i stole you" which i didn't understand at first but once it got to that page i was like ohhhh

RebelVampire

haha i kind of suspected from that line but it was one of those lines that makes you go "hmm maybe not"

and then the story said nope, it was the worst thing you could expect

khkddn

harsh, harsh reality

RebelVampire

although im really curious about what gave it away. like i assume the horns or something, but im not sure what about them announced "slave over here everybody"

khkddn

i think it was the horns, since there is a panel focusing on them when those people say to leave the slave alone

maybe the hair color too but idk

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. At the start of the comic, we’re introduced to a slew of colorful characters. Which of the characters shown so far caught your eye the most? What about that character in particular interests you? Further, which of the character dynamics intrigued you the most? From what has been shown so far, especially of the human cast, what do you make of everyone’s relationship with each other? How do you think this devil summoning ritual began, and why is everyone simultaneously showing up and being grumpy about showing up? What do you make of every character’s choice of sins, and in what ways do you think that might come into play later?

ezzy

i like jake and jen a lot, mostly based off their designs

RebelVampire

while brogod definitely interests me, i think the character who caught my eye the most was Jake. Of all the humans he seemed the most down to earth and cool. that and of all the characters jack couldve called at the beginning, he calls jake. and that really makes me want to know their past relationship history cause who you choose ot call first is pretty revealing.

ezzy

i think there's a lot of things being set up for the future and i'm rly interested in seeing where it's going

obviously these are characters who've known each other for a good while and have their own rituals and inter-relationships

the devil summoning is being done for the sake of ritual rather than anyone (besides jackson) caring about the results

so i guess it will be interesting to see why it worked this time and how it will shake up their relationships now that its worked

RebelVampire

yes, definitely. cause if this doesnt test their friendships, nothing will XD

there definitely is a lot of character stuff being set up though

i think from the opening scene the character im most worried about sin wise is allen. cause allen chose sloth and life and while jake played it off as him just being a millenial, umm, yeah. i mean you dont pick life as a sin for nothing

which since allen is the one with the scar

maybe hes got a serious case of survivors guilt

and survived something horrific

khkddn

im really curious about that scar, since it seems like he makes a bigger deal of it than anyone else

RebelVampire

yeah especially when it really isnt that bad of a scar

so theres gotta be emotional ties to it

and not just vanity

since vanity is a sin and was not the one he picked

ezzy

oooh i didn't make the connection between the scar and the sin he picked

khkddn

if there is a connection, it could go multiple ways. maybe it was a situation where he got the scar through inaction, or maybe something happened to him that made him a more passive person

RebelVampire

that could be too

that would combine it well with sloth

the character dynamic i think i want to know most about is blake and ana. cause of this page https://sketchdump.org/tagged/comic/chrono/page/13

there are so many ways to read that conversation and that look

khkddn

oh that's true, i didn't notice that the first time reading through

ezzy

(can i just say i really like the composition of that page)

RebelVampire

yes, i love the visual flow on this page, the slight animation, and all the shot choices. it was a really good build up for that look

ill also point out blake wrote love as his sin

so that is a blush

khkddn

the was blake is in the second panel vs the last panel are super different. if it's related to why he picked love, then i wonder why he and ana haven't haven't seen each other in a while (based on the "long time no see")

RebelVampire

ok wait. im rereading this and the papers are sin and sacrifice. so love isnt the implied sin but what blake wants to sacrifice

so is it like...ana is his ex hes still in love with but he wants to move on?

khkddn

hm that would explain them not seeing each other

RebelVampire

yes and the awkward response from blake

ezzy

oooh

RebelVampire

if life is allen's sacrifice, then thats even worse tho and stands to reason that hes probably guilty of inaction

QUESTION 3. Within the comic, an “innocent” devil summoning seems to go horrifically wrong. What do you think exactly happened to everyone involved? Why did this summoning go so awry, and why did none of the other attempts before have the same results? How does all this tie into what Brogod was doing regarding summoning and translating? Did Brogod somehow cause what happened to the human gang, or were both sides victims? Also, why was Brogod found unconscious and barely breathing after making contact with Jen? What’s even going on with Jen? Lastly, do you think Brogod is okay and, if so, will Brogod try to make contact again?

I do think Brogod was responsible for why everything went awry. Cause its like he was trying to summon the summoner which probably created an extreme magical paradox

ezzy

my guess is that the two "summonings" happening at the same time is what caused everything to go all whoopsy-fucky

khkddn

i think the previous seances never worked because each time, there wasn't someone like brogod on the other end doing their own seance

it's weird that brogod got all messed up but the humans didn't. maybe it's because there was one of him and seven of them?

RebelVampire

i assume brogod got messed up more from making contact with jen

rather than the seance itself causing it

like had he bailed and said "no lets not talk to this person" he mightve been fine?

ezzy

i think the thing with jen is like... either happenning in his head or he's like projecting his conscious to another plane and thats why he's fountaining blood

RebelVampire

yeah

i got the simulation impression

like brogod was tapping into another world

another world i would not be surprised was purgatory or something

whereas the humans got physically transported

simulation world also cause last i checked human eyes dont glow blue like that

unless jen was secretly a cyborg all along

khkddn

im trying to figure out what jen is saying in the non-translated parts.... too hard >_>

RebelVampire

by process of elimination i believe jen was the one who chose to sacrifice limb, so i hope that thing brogod put on her doesnt have long term consequences

khkddn

sacrificing limb sounds pretty straightforward in terms of making it literal, wouldn't want to pick that one

the only non-translated part i think i understand is the one on this page https://sketchdump.org/tagged/comic/chrono/page/32

p sure she's saying something about his tail

RebelVampire

makes sense

i can read "That's a

but the rest i cant figure out

im really curious why brogod seemed to have all those translation bug things as the thematic colors we keep seeing to represent each character

khkddn

they also flew away into the void (i think they did, he tried to catch them) so im wondering where those lil things went

RebelVampire

i mean the most likely conclusion is to the other characters

considering in the latest page we can confirm emily made contact

and clearly the language barrier would still apply without help

ezzy

yeah, it would be silly to have the characters run around without being able to speak the language

so thats a neat solution

RebelVampire

also interesting. cause magic shenanigans must be at work

i do think brogod is gonna be fine and be back again to figure out wtf is going on. cause i think after he wakes up he might realize he had something to do with it. or hell make contact with jen and gleam info about their situation and go "whoops"

ezzy

im really curious about what's gonna happen lmao

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. As the comic has only gotten so far, there’s a lot of speculation to be had about the future. Do you think the human gang will ultimately get back to their homes? At the very least, do you think they’ll at least be able to find each other given they all seem to be quite separated? How do you think Iladyl will be involved with the plot considering his friend seemed to have located Emily? Why is the friend interested in involving Iladyl in the first place? Do you think everyone else has made contact with someone like Emily and Jen? On a different note, what about the world interests you the most right now? Finally, in general, what sorts of conflicts, events, or anything else are you hoping to see or think might happen?

so in line with the topic of sin and sacrifice earlier, im really concerned ana is gonna die. cause thats one way to sacrifice love

ezzy

i feel like they'll be separated for a long time and will have to deal with their relationships while being apart and thrust into a new and foreign situation

you know, like college

RebelVampire

yeah i dont think theyll find each other anytime soon. although the characters who know them may find them. like maybe brogod will find Iladyl's friend and they can chat about their alien friends. but i assume the humans are kind of like in pockets where they cant make contact with each other until theyre out in the actual physical world where there isnt a white void everywhere.

ezzy

they'll probably have to reevaluate their relationships under duress and will be different people by the time they see each other again

RebelVampire

yes, definitely. i mean not even their relationships. theyre gonna have to evaluate themselves cause they all seem to be early 20s or younger with exception to jake who seems to be working at a hospital

tho exception in the sense that im not sure what his job is there

ezzy

the description does say 2 teens and a number of young adults

i wanna say five but i cant fucking count

RebelVampire

i assume most of them are around jack's age

again minus jake

cause it really depends on what jake does

cause if hes a nurse or doctor or something hed be a lot older cause med school takes a long ass time

ezzy

if hes a nurse he might be younger i think(edited)

because nursing school doesnt take as long

RebelVampire

true. but tbf jake could also be some sort of genius and did the whole college thing at 10. hes mostly just the wildcard i wont put eggs into the basket

on a different topic, i bet the others are not having as great as time as jenna or emily. cause i will be surprised if they all manage to meet someone who legitimately wants to help them

ezzy

my guess is that theyre all within 4 years of each other

it will be interesting to see if they all have like... a demon counterpart to play off of

RebelVampire

i think thats plausible, just all their demon counterparts might not be the best of ppl. like knowing slaves are a thing in this world makes me think one of them is kind of destined for it

ezzy

yep

RebelVampire

the bit of world im most intrigued by is from this page https://sketchdump.org/post/174655505354/sketch-dump-c01p24-minor-seizure where brogod gets mad about almost damaging the most priceless artifact in the palace. cause i cant decide what hes talking about, although i assume its the lighter. and if so, wtf happened in the world that its the most priceless artifact

alternative could be talking about the computer, but considering technology seems rampant idk

khkddn

it does look like an ordinary lighter, but who knows

(ordinary lighter w blue fire, that is)

ezzy

hmm the computer says something about a gift and lyddal(?) also mentioned a soul gift

maybe its a soul lighter

lladyl lmao

RebelVampire

hmm that could be

but now that tells me why the friend probably wanted to get Iladyl involved

maybe Iladyl's soul gift is something that will help

with emily

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Aleks Stock, as well, for making Sketch Dump. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Aleks Stock’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://sketchdump.org/

Aleks Stock’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sketchdump

Sketch Dump’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sketchdumpcomic

[caretaker158]

Servamp Speculations: Thoughts and Theories - Creator of the Servamps

Very little is revealed is revealed about this frighteningly gifted man, but he is an integral to the story’s overall plot. This man had skills that concerned even his own creations: Not only is he responsible for the existence of Servamps, but he has also managed to live long past the lifespan of average human beings. He also shared a close connection to the Servamp of Sloth Sleepy Ash/Kuro, in the anime those two have similar features though the details of their relationship remain unclear. While the series has yet to reveal the true identity of this mystery of a man I have some ideas about who he was and his plans for his creations.

The series suggest that out of all the Servamps, Sloth was particularly close to this man and in the episode 12 of the anime the two seem to bear a striking resemblance. This suggests that they must have been related before Kuro was turned into a Servamp, I think they might have been twins although it’s too early to say. If I had to guess, Kuro must have died in his youth, when he was a human and his creator went through an existential crisis as he attempted to revive him as a vampire. That crisis turned into an obsession over time, which led him to create more vampires for reasons yet to be explained. I think that the creator of the Servamps was one of those mad scientist characters who strove to gain eternal life, which is why he was able to live so long past the human lifespan. He created more Servamps as part of his immortality experiment, in order to prolong his own lifespan. The problem being that all of his test subjects were most likely already dead, so he had to continue his experiments while he was still alive.   

One of his biggest secrets revealed so far is Tsubaki, the eighth Servamp whom no one else knew about. While the purpose of his creation is uncertain, it is revealed that the Servamp of Melancholy was once in C3′s custody. And though this may be stretching it, I don’t think it was an accident that Tsubaki ended up in C3. When the other seven Servamps were debating about what to do about their creator, they were arguing over a request given to them by the mysterious organization. I don’t think this was a coincidence, I would surmise that the creator ensured that the request was sent as part of another experiment concerning Tsubaki, and C3 is somehow a part of the process. He might have allowed the Servamp of Sloth to kill him on purpose, in order to further his research. I am sure everyone is wondering how he could conduct such experiments after his death, but keep in mind how little is known about the creator of the Servamps, he did live centuries longer than the average human being and who knows if he has any more vampire creations running amok? My earlier theory mentions that this entire conspiracy might center around Mahiru, seeing as Tsubaki once thought that he was the “key” he had bee searching for and that some things about his family remain to be revealed. Maybe Mahiru has an unknowing link to this mysterious stranger. 

While this man remains a mystery to us, he has tied the fates of so many together. Whether or not that was his intentions is yet to discovered, but even in death he may very well become a pivotal character in this series. I am happy to hear that the creator of the series have made a full recovery and will be continuing her work very soon, I look forward to exploring more of the the series’ mysteries.

If you have any thoughts to share or think that I should cover anything else please let me know.

If you like this post consider buying me a coffee.

[gplewis]

waking from a dream in San Francisco years later; I write about the past

Hike to Guillaume Appolinaire's mansion by way of catacombs, christenings of humility at the hands of janitors and crawlspaces, emerging on sprawling villas of seashell pink brick spread with gazebos of fine wood, trimmed bushes but no fountains. I stumbled my way in through chats over fences in Atherton around curled hoses and gardeners' quarters when I approached, again in humility, with flattened bike tires and rotted rubber that only's got one more ride left in it. I was leaving school - I don't know why I was at school, I had no reason to be, I'm too old to bow down before a curriculum for know-nothings, a crowd eager to be hand-held and be worthy of safe employment while I'm old enough to know you can learn chemistry, physics, Latin and religion anytime, you just need the real motivation, some desperation for survival these Sacred Heart kids haven't had to summon (they summer instead, in Tuscany and Marseille sipping Muscadet grown by the beaches of Avalon on the esplanade on the terraces of Rinconada Hills overlooking the babbling lake of squawking geese and ducks and muses beckoning to sit with them and tell stories over a box of Ritz Bits sandwiches both peanut butter and cheese variations with Capri Sun and tuna sandwiches with the ends cut off and perfect buttered banana roasted on a fire and preserved in a reverse Arctic Zone canvas lunch-bag that keeps the fire burning instead of tamping it out; a bellows for the fire within and out so when you sit beneath the tree with a Whole Foods Feast of cranberry tuna and baguette and overpriced mixed berries and hummus and wine with a girl who's just a friend while your girlfriend languishes in waiting in a shoebox apartment on the day before graduation and you'll both leave Westwood for good to go get jobs and apartments in nourishing, marketable cities that provide hundreds of men in striped shirts and dark jeans who do impressive, exclusive business in high towers of glass in traffic-logged financial districts in towns with newspapers and international stock exchanges with medicine men distributing hot dogs and latex condoms and French fry flavored tic tac tacos with the cheese that melts and the sauce that aches - wasn't this screed of post-dream nothing doused in hot sauce and sunscreen meant to come screaming out of the sunburst that is me like blood rushing out of a penis if men had periods and had to endure the hardship and humiliation of being a woman in 2017 or 1017 or 3017, can you imagine how horrible it could be for our great-great-granddaughter with itty bitty Trumpensteins carrying torches and chanting what's really a crying out for mommy to do their laundry, show them how their penis works, cook meatloaf and grilled cheese with green beans caked against the pan like a chocolate lava cake at Roy's Kahana Outrigger restaurant your aunt, uncle and cousins show up to for your birthday dinner in the city - but this time fire, career disappointment and grandma's health have hampered and delayed all fun, there's no swishing a second Manhattan against the martini glass in sight - as ever and for what unfortunately feels permanent, there is no warm sigh available on the menu of life anymore, not without love, a girlfriend to build a home with, something besides work (as if this 1:46am typing could ever be the source of a paycheck for me or you; maybe Bitcoin or Wokecoin or Logecoin) nestled in the breast of hope and wonder as YouTube hip-hop plays in my veins rushing like the Mississippi River with blue wine because I'm an alien, an animal, a hunter-gatherer sloth-whale hybrid flopping down from the tangled vines of yesteryear splaying my set of Phoenix wings and baby bubbles laughing with Johnson & Johnson, no tears, and the wings brush the ashes like a bellows from the fire pit sending ash upward and out to the cities to settle on the surface of glass coffee table, writer's desk and in-unit washer and dryer near the pantry with the frozen grapes and ripped bag of rice with the note on it the roommate scribbled his first week here insisting he'd replace what he took from a stranger, he swore he'd walk to Safeway by himself in the dark foregoing a trip to the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio near the guns mounted toward the ocean to defend against oncoming pirates from Europe and Asia, Russia and North Korea bombing our children and coworkers with Facebook posts, Sheryl Sandberg on a spit while 3D cartoon Mark Zuckerberg high-fives a garden gnome zookeeper singing chorus lines as she guides a whitewater rafting trip down disheveled aisles of toxic water of Hurricane Maria-torn Puerto Rico for the VR-headset wearing octogenarians at Oak Creek doing water aerobics on Thursdays and Saturdays while their husbands sit in the sauna with cigars naked with cherry filled donuts talking about World War II having what Bernie Bergman calls The Eisenhower Discussion. Old men are the best and they're neglected in America every day. Eye contact is neglected. You can always make someone's day by acknowledging them, giving them a place to speak and be heard, to land in the tender field greens of the heard and the real. You can make them real just by listening to what they have to say. You conduct the orchestra that lets humanity go on at all - we have to listen to each other. Social media are just ads applications you install/installed on your phone - "your friends" are the ploy to get you there but the app is just an ad app on your phone we've been staring in for the last 10 years. There went our human experience, reading ads when we could have been fucking, but no, we let ourselves be shamed into submissive silence - now we only want to go back to how it used to be which we never experienced in the first place. And we can't go back because we can’t invent it, even when we’re peacefully gathered in a safe space, we are so far away from each other and so much must be said and said again and again, exasperating fashion. There's nowhere else to go but in - to eye contact, to talking, to really actually listening; to remembering, abandoning the computer as an external memory and learning our own equipment - God, let's throw away computers, make them a cautionary tale of a species that spent so long in retreat from itself. God! Cure me of my sins! I’m a mess and our world is fallen and we need to be rescued and won’t do it until it’s all over. Bathe me in holy bath water of community and let me never long again for all that news that's fit to print according to institutional editorial boards, shareholder representations splayed on tables of walnut and cherry with cold embroidered placards bearing family names and crests, crestfallen. God! Let my neighborhood and city be enough; let me find a job and a woman and a dog and the warm living room and cream-colored Pottery Barn couch of four years ago’s dreams, dreams and our names embroidered on Christmas stockings hung from a soft nail and a Le Creuset ceramic pot of leftover chicken with the legs tied on with string - let me suck the juicy, salty string from end to end and spit it into the garbage on top of the condom box and empty 6oz blueberry clamshell from the fruit guy near our office. It's 2013 in New York and we’re in love, woman I admired through glass in a calico dress. I made strides toward at happy hour as if I were high on edibles. I had no short-term memory. Thank God it somehow didn’t result in death. Somehow I might say it went well for me. But if that’s how I end this post, I have failed (her).